One-stick-fire practice with Redneck Woodlore knife

Hey folks, more skills practice here.  Just tuning up for the season ahead and thought I'd share some pics with ya. 

We had some rain a few days ago and I was surprised that most everything was still fairly damp.  I found a dead hanging pine branch and broke it off.  It was just starting to rot but was solid enough for what I had in mind

This was still damp on the outside so it ended up being some good practice with wood that's not perfect.  Here we are getting it split down

continued splitting it down till eventually getting to the small pencil size stuff and smaller

got the prep done and then got a surprise.  I tore off a piece of bark from the dead tree I was using and this guy was on the underside of the bark.  Tossed him off and took the pic.  He was angry, must have ruined his nap

always gotta be watching for the creepy crawlies when it's warm out.  Well moving on, got the prep done and made a pile of shavings

I decided to try some different shaving this time.  Instead of think super curly curls, I thought that maybe wide thin pieces would be good since the wood was a little bit porous.  Well I'm not gonna lie.  This was a bugger to get to take since it wasn't completely dry.  The idea of a one stick fire, is of course, to use one stick for everything.  So I wasn't going to cheat and use something else for the tinder.  But I was pretty close to giving up and then finally success

I don't know if the shavings helped or hurt the process.  I'll have to experiment again to know for sure and do a pile of each next time.  But regardless it worked.  Well I was our of time for the bigger stuff but the fire was going fine.  Some decent practice and getting more work out of a knife is always fun.  One last shot of the knife we Redneck knife fans have dubbed the "Redlore"

Thanks for looking

Kicking off Fall with a hot cup in the woods

Well with lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's fall is officially on the way. I found myself so excited I started reaching for the wool jacket, but we're not quite there yet so I thought better of it. Well I had some free time to kill so I headed to the woods with my favorite woods roaming buddy. Nothing particular on the agenda except taking in an early evening and a nice hot drink for a welcome Fall toast.

Making our way to the timber

bel was as excited as I was to get back out

We found a good spot in the shade with some old felled trees that made for a nice camp setup

Using some good ol USA steel to clear the camp area and start some wood prep

a good helper

gettin some shavings ready

took some doing but they finally went up

a pot heating up is always a good sight

about a 5 minute boil time give or take, not too bad

reward of hot tea and coco. A good way to welcome fall

after that we packed up. We had dug a small hole to put the fire in so when we were finished we poured some water over the coals and then buried it easily. No trace

All in all a good time. It felt good to be in the woods again. Looking forward to colder temps and more ventures.

thanks for looking 

Featherstick practice with a C3 knife

Hey folks, nothing terribly exciting in this thread.  Just had one of those days where I needed a short break of doing something outdoorsy, if only for a short time.  Decided to get out the new knife, C3 Light Hunter, and practice feathersticks a little since fall is around the corner and I haven't made any in awhile, as sad as that is. 

So here we go, splitting a small dead branch to break down

Now were gettin somewhere

a little more

figured why not make another.  Knife was making excellent curls

Well I got these two made up and then realized I should have brought the ferro-rod.  Would have been fun to light em up.  Maybe next time.

Thanks for lookin