Pocket Bushman continued

 This is a short post to show the work I did on the Cold Steel pocket bushman. The first photo shows the knife with the lock removed. When i have to work on a knife with the blade still attached such as this one I double the masking tape on the cutting edge. This makes it fairly safe but caution is still important. I use the little antique soap dish for my parts holder. In it are the stud and screw for the lock along with the spring.

This next photo shows the lock bar after I stoned the edges that were dragging against the inside of the handle. It shows as a mirror polish in the photo. The edges of the long cutout were stoned, too. This removed any wire edge or roughness from the manufacturing process. I ran green rouge on a felt wheel over everything with the Dremel tool after I cleaned off the oil and left over stone material. After I got everything back together (a real chore in itself! That little spring is strong and you have to put it all back together a certain way) the knife opened and closed a bit easier. I had to tighten the screw on the blade as it was a tiny bit wobbly. That took care of it.

 

This last photo shows some of my coarser stones. These are from machinist supply companies. I use them to smooth up and polish knife and gun parts. If you know what you're doing you can make a revolver work so smooth it sings!

An old friend returns

 I bought my first Cold Steel Pocket Bushman in 2008. I think it had just come on the market. I was looking for a good sized folder that would withstand the elements. The pocket bushman has one of the toughest locks known to knifedom (is that a word? it is now) and I wanted something that would not let go and cause a serious accident. Its hard to do firstaid on yourself one handed in the woods when your good hand is bleeding like a stuck pig.  The locking system is called Ram Safe lock and was designed by Andrew Demko. I know of no better lock. The scandi grind of the blade was another selling point with me since I was a Mora fan and built several knives with Finnish Lauri blades. The steel was an unknown when this first appeared. Now you can find good info on the net about it. It is Thyssen-Krupp 4116 stainless which has been cryogenic tempered. This process slowly takes the hot blade blank down to -300 degrees F in liquid nitrogen and keeps it there for a bit. What this does is converts the austinite in the steel to martinsite. This makes for a tougher, longer lasting steel. Do a Wikipedia search of "cryogenic treatment of steel" if you want to learn more.

Anyway, I had this knife for a long time and one day I was closing it and the spring broke inside the handle. The knife became way too dangerous to use because that extremely sharp blade just flopped around. No good! I contacted the good folks at Cold Steel and they sent me a pack of 5 springs. I guess they figured this problem would require a lot of replacements. I sold the knife with the extra 4 springs and told the buyer about the breakage possibility and how to change out the spring. I was very sad because I especially liked this knife. It sharpened up to razor edge and held it for a long time and it was sturdy. I owned and carried it daily for about 5 years before the spring incident and had heard Cold Steel remedied the problem. However, I never got around to getting one of the newer versions.

Well, a few months ago I was watching a You Tube video featuring the pocket bushman.The video showed the old version and why it was breaking springs and how it was remedied. In the old  lock bar there was an indent that the spring could bend down into and weaken it till it snapped. Cold Steel simply did away with this and made it a straight piece of steel. So far there have been no problems and this has been the case for about 10 years or so.

So, I went to my favorite store and low and behold there's a brand new sealed in the box Cold Steel Pocket Bushman with my name on it! All for the princely sum of $21.00! I got it home and took it apart. The first thing I noticed was the straight locking bar. Good. I stoned the bar where it felt like it was rubbing against the inside of the handle. Then I got out the Dremel and some felt wheels and green chromium rouge. This did a fine polish on the places I stoned (I use extra fine Scotch machinist stones down to 1000 grit). I did some minor stoning on the edges of the handle to remove and sharpness. The first thing to be left off was that useless thumb stud. Why? This is a hard opening knife and a thumb stud is just plain useless. I realize some folks like to flick their Bics and knives but save it for the smaller blades, boys. I got everything back together and tightened the star screws down and away we went. The RamSafe lock was a lot easier to pull back. Now, this knife is big. 4 1/2" blade, 10 3/8" overall when open, the 420 stainless handle is one piece construction and is 5 7/8" long. The knife is lite for its size coming in at 6.6 ounces. It has a reversible belt clip and is surprisingly slim and hardly noticeable in the pocket. Noticeable as far as feeling any bulge in your pocket-the top of the knife extends a good inch above the end of the pocket clip and the paracord lock assistant is sure to draw questions. Now I can retire my poor old worn out G-96 folder. It is so loose I'm half afraid to open it.

The joys of online shopping

 Yeah, right. I live about 20 miles or so from the capital of Florida, Tallahassee. It is a dismal place to shop for anything outdoorsy,survival/preps, etc. There is Dicks sporting goods but I don't do business with the dicks at Dicks because they stopped selling guns to appease the progressive political left. Screw them. There are gun stores here and there and a plethora of pawn shops but prices are higher than retail. Oh, and we have the ubiquitous Wally Werld here and they have goods that range from pure garbage to fairly useful. They keep putting the guns away anytime someone gets into the chicken little routine. For example, election day and swear in day for the idiot Joe B. the pervo. They actually put everything in the back and had the nerve to lie to me and say "the manager who sells guns isn't here today". I will NEVER buy a firearm from Wallys. I've had better luck going to off the wall thrift stores. I've scored some very nice gear. For instance an Outdoors Products 13L small hydration pack brand new never opened for $4. Sweet! A brand new oil lamp for $3. Good deals. Now, as for shopping on the net, I do business with sellers on eBay and Amazon. We own a small business so we get some good deals on supplies and I find some new primitive/survival gear to try out or work with. I do a lot of leather work so most of my new tools are from eBay and I get some real good deals on leather. I recently picked up the Micro Sparkwheel from eBay for cheap and the Condor parang from Amazon on sale. There is a good chance to save a few bucks if you shop wisely. Now there are some real turds doing business on the web and the jerks I bought the Kershaw Camp 12 are a perfect example. I told them the tool was defective, the blade curved to the right, and I wanted my money back. They sent me the return authorization and yesterday I got the refund. Minus $15!!! For a restocking fee!!! They restocked a defective piece of crap to sell to some poor slob!! The blade was visibly bent to the right so this tells me that there is a problem with tempering and/or metal quality. And this is brand new out of the package!!! I've forged enough blades and other tools to know when there's a problem. What a bunch of jerks. When I bought one of the first sheath knives Condor made some time back, I noticed the handle was coming loose and it was a defective pin. I emailed them and they sent me a return label, fixed the handle, apologized and sent me back the knife. That's service. So, keep your eyes open for the good deals and watch who you deal with. Like an idiot, I didn't check out the ratings for the dealer who sold me the Kershaw. I learned the hard way.

Downsizing

 Next month I will be 69. When you get as long in the tooth as I am, you start to look at all the stuff you own and say "do I really need all this"? A few years back I had a big clean out and got rid of a lot of knives, hatchets, axes, and camping gear. Now I am down to just a few old reliable knives, 2 hatchets and a 3 pound felling ax that never leaves the farm. I kept my Bahco 7" folding saw and my collapsible buck saw. The military pocket chain saw is in my BOB. I whittled away at all the fire making gizmos and a host of other gear. I figure if its going to weigh me down, I don't need it. Let someone else take care of it. I don't use a tent. I like my nylon tarps. I usually use a bedroll instead of a sleeping bag. My backpack is a medium sized one. As for cooking gear I have a stainless wide mouth thermos of 1 liter capacity and my trusty Zebra kettle. I always traveled light anyway and lighter is better. On my last big adventure I carried my Norlund, my Bahco and my Kukri. I did fine. I see some folks out on the trail with everything but the kitchen sink. All kinds of stuff hanging from their packs and belts. That would take most of the fun of woods running away for me.At one point I owned several very good compass's. Brunton, Silva, you name it. I kept the British Army issue one. A Silva, I believe. I have a little Brunton keychain compass for backup. Thats about all I need. My fire kit contains a big ferro rod I got from Going Gear and a Micro spark wheel from UST. I really like Coughlans emergency fire tinder. It is similar to Spark-lite Tinder Quick and works great. I only need a pea sized piece to get a fire going. I bought about six packages of this stuff 10 years ago and have plenty left. It doesn't get old. I can make fire with a bow drill or hand drill in my sleep and I leave them where I used them. The fire kit is for bad weather or emergencies. I do carry a small flint and steel kit in my back pocket to start fires here on the farm. Its just something I do for fun. The whole outfit weighs maybe 3 ounces. The truth is its easy to accumulate a lot of stuff you think you may need someday. Well, someday is here already for this pilgrim.

Hi-jacked and un-jacked

My blog has been hijacked and come to find out they never posted anything. They did delete a bunch of my stuff but that can be fixed. Weird. It took a lot of work to get the powers that be to believe me when I told them I am who I say I am and I'm the author/owner/creator of Rons Primitive Skills. So finally after a long break I'm back. I've been doing a lot of primitive goodness these past years and will have gobs of goodies to share. I don't do Facebook anymore and I don't hang out at any forums. I've been doing a lot of research and working 12 hour days. Our business takes up most of my time. I have some articles to post soon such as the fire plow, some new and exotic cordage plants,how to get anything useful from low grade coastal chert and some more fire making fun stuff. We're still here in Florida and have been casually looking at some sites in Missouri and Tennessee. I have a lot of work to do to make this place get a good market value. We will try to sell it as a working hobby farm/horticulture business. I've gotten rid of a lot of gear over the last 7 years and I've bought some new things, too.I whittled my library down big time when I was still in California and now I only keep a few very good books. Now that our business is up and running I should be able to carve out some time for frequent posts. Stay tuned.....

Minimalist hiker & prepper

Since my divorce I have had to get rid of almost everything. And I don't plan on replacing most of it! I have realized that I had a lot of box's of stuff that never saw the light of day. Fortunately I had plenty of time to go through things before moving back to Idaho. I took a very close and long look at the gear I owned and decided that it was time for the frills, googaws and froofarras to go live with someone else. The folks from my church made out like bandits. And it makes me happy that those fine folks got first dibs. My friends Pam & Mark just moved to a home in the mountains east of Fresno and they got most of the "back to the country" type books and material. My friends Sheila and Luke got a lot of survival gear and books. My friend Richard got a lot of survival gear and knives. We all came out smiling.

I have kept 3 sheath knives, namely my BK9, Gerber Freeman and my Finnish Lauri. I also kept about a dozen folders of different size but some are old family heirlooms and part of my collection. As far as camping/hiking gear I kept a small tent, two tarps, a wool blanket, my Kelty backpack and air mattress, and a minimal amount of gear, mostly for cooking and water. I am practicing what I have preached and that is carry as much knowledge as you can learn in your head and you'll carry a lot less on your back. Pretty simple concept. Its so easy to fall into the possession "trap" and end up with a lot of things you will never use. Guilty, your honor. It feels good to be traveling lite!

Since my transportation is an old Toyota I really couldn't bring a lot of a stuff with me so I had to check and recheck each and every box I loaded. My priority was my camping gear and my tools. I always spent good money for good tools and bought the best. It paid off in the long run.I have a set of quality tools that will last me the rest of my days. The books really took a beating. I came with one box and that was a small one. I have the knowledge tucked away in my brain. The survival/preparedness books were fun to read but do I really need to keep them? No. I kept a few on wild edible plants and a couple of outdoors medicine books and my old copy of FM 21-76 (1992, Barnes & Noble edition). Of course I kept the book with my article about cordage that Marianne Barnes had published called "New & Different Materials for Weaving & Coiling". Its a great book about basketry that covers a lot of materials that can be used for such. Another is an old favorite I have owned for years called "Handicraft" by Lester Griswold from 1945. Its an old school craft book that covers a lot of different subjects such as leather, archery, metal working, cordage and rope work, etc, etc. Though I've sold almost all of my extensive mineral collection I did keep 3 or 4 good books on the subject. Again, its the priorities we set for what and how much we keep. Now, as for food storage, well, I just have to start over and I will be depending a lot on foraging and stocking up dried veggies and fruits so I don't consider that a big problem. Its only me and things such as a 25 pound bucket of rice will last a long time!

Odds and ends

I have a few new goodies from various dealers in the bushcraft/survival community. Today I received a 4" blade R. Murphy knife from Bens Backwoods. Incredible (for the Post office) considering I ordered it Friday. Its a very nice blade and well made. Cosmetically its a tiny bit rough if that really matters. I buy gear for use so looks rate about 0 on a scale of 1 to 10. It has a nice walnut handle and a very nice leather sheath. I bought this particular knife because it has a somewhat thin blade, not as thin as a parring knife and not as thick as a Mora. This will be a neck knife and used mostly for light weight chores and cooking around camp. Its difficult to cut some food items up nicely even with a Mora as I think the blades are a hair too thick. This little blade will answer. Take a look at this knife at Bens website http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Detail?no=479. Also in today's mail were a dozen fire steels (read ferro-cerium rods) from Going Gear http://goinggear.com/. Again ordered Friday and arriving today! They are the 1/4" X 2 1/2" rods, the "Fox" model, and I needed them for a class I'm teaching at present. If you go to their site you'll see some amazing things like a 12" by 1/2" fire steel called the "Beast"! I ordered a "Pocket Chainsaw"from them back in November and got to try it out over Thanksgiving on some dead standing Mesquite (read very hard and dense). It took about 3 to 31/2 minutes to cut through a 4" limb. Seasoned Mesquite is really tough stuff. It took about a minute to cut through a 4" section of seasoned western Red Cedar. Not shabby as far as a saw goes! It will be a part of my kit in future adventures. I bought the Military model which has paracord handles and comes in a neat little nylon pack with laminated instructons. There are pic's and a review by yours truly at their site (good gear deserves good reviews IMHO). Another piece of gear that will be arriving shortly is the "Pocket Cooker". I've wanted one of these since I first read about them in Charlie Richies Backwoodsman magazine. I'll let you know how it does after I get it. Of course, I think it will be a bit till I'm up to trying it out because of the shoulder. Speaking of which, it hurts like hell! They gave me some very strong pain killers and they help but the Doc says it will be a while before I can quit taking them and I don't want to build a resistance to them. So anyway...........Until next time, keep yer powder dry and watch yer top knot.

Home made camping stoves

I was looking at Mungo's blog and came upon his "Ikea" wood burning camp stove. I've been looking at the "Bush Buddy" but $100+ seems ridiculous! Does anyone else have any plans for their own designs? I'll post them here if you would like. Maybe make an archive of do-it-yourself camp stoves? Who knows..............

Firesteels and antler handles

Here's a project I just finished. This is a pair of ferro cerium firesteels I put into deer antler handles and containers. The first photo shows them in the closed position. I used a file to smooth off the edges on the antler after the epoxy set up.



This photo shows a close up of the steel and handle. The rod is 1/4" X 2 1/2" and were bought from Ben's Backwoods store. These Scout rods are rated at 3000 strikes.


Here's a photo showing the drilled out container portion. I used a drill bit the same diameter as the rod and then widened it a hair with the same bit for a loose fit.


This photo shows them partially open. Note how the string setup works. You basically run the string through the handle hole twice kind of like a figure "8".


This photo shows the firesteels in the ready to use configuration.


This is where I got the inspiration for this project. These beauty's are made by Frenchy in England. Very nice work!!! Here's a link to his site:

http://www.customknivesandsticks.co.uk/firesteels.htm



This is another of Frenchys firesteels. I didn't make the cord on mine as long as his. I prefer to carry mine in my pocket.


These are some firesteels I mounted in antler tines. I use two part epoxy that sets up in 20 minutes. It gives me time to position them better when it reaches the tacky state. As you can see the dry epoxy hasn't been trimmed from the top two. These are the 1/4" X 2 1/2" Scout firesteels that I got from Ben's Backwoods store.

This is a fire kit I made many years ago. this shows the leather case, knife and flint rod.


Here's a photo of the set with the knife open. These old knives have high carbon steel blades and really throw the sparks! These can be picked up for a dollar or so at yard sales and flea markets. Most of them have some kind of advertising on the handle.


Here's a photo showing the above flint rod and another one I made. These rods have a diameter of 3/8" and 3" long.


When I use a firesteel I pull the rod away from the tinder holding the knife steady against the flint. I find this works a lot better than scraping the rod with the knife and accidentally knocking your tinder all over the place.

Modified Speedy Stitcher sewing awl

Here's a modification I did to a speedy stitcher. The first photo shows one as it comes from the store. I cut the handle short and added three more holes under the collet (chuck lock) into the ferrule to hold 5 needles. Being shorter makes it easier to use as it fits in my hand better and it takes up a lot less room in my sewing kit.

Here's the collet (chuck lock) on the left and you can see the top of the ferrule and the extra holes I made for more needles. I used an automatic center punch to mark the holes and then very carefully drilled deep enough to match the depth of the existing needle holes.


I've edited this post with a copy of the instructions that come with the speedy stitcher.

Some new gear

I just opened a package of gear I ordered from my friend Ben. He sells a variety of quality gear for camping and survival. I linked to his store in this post. Ben is a fair and honest man and you can't do better than dealing with him.

First photo shows some blades I bought. The first is a Mora #1 carbon steel blade. The blade length is 3 3/4", .079" thick OAL 7 3/4". Its good Swedish steel! I plan on using deer or elk antler to finish this one. Cost: $6.75

The second blade is a real beauty! Its a Lauri progressive temper carbon steel blade. Blade length 3.7", OAL 8 1/4"and 3MM thick. When you look at the blade from an angle you can easily see the progressive temper line. This blade is scary sharp right out of the box! Its made of good Finnish steel. I'll mount this one in an antler handle, too. Cost: $19.98


Next is the Zebra pot. I bought two of these, one for the wife and one for me. They are the 14CM. Its 5 1/2" diameter, 6 1/4" high with lid and holds 64 oz. Weight 1 pound 10 oz. They are 18-10 grade stainless steel. It has a nesting insert that can be used as a skillet or bowl. This is a very high quality pot and as Ben says "it's pass down to your kids type of gear". Cost: $24.98


Heres another shot from topside.


This photo shows the plastic snaps that hold the lid on when the bail is up. They keep the pot, insert and lid from rattling, too. You remove them before cooking. They are easy to take off and re-attach.

Heres a shot with the bail up lockingthe snaps.


I also ordered two 90' lengths of paracord. This is the real 7 strand stuff and cost $6.99 each.

Have a look at his store and maybe you'll see something you need.

http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/StoreFront

Tools used for wood working

Heres an answer to a question I received. What do you use to make your wood/bone/antler stuff? Here are a few that I use. Besides stone tools, I use these tools, too. The first three photos are some small planes I use. The brass bodied ones are from India and they work great. The blades are good high carbon steel and they hold a good edge. The only thing I had to do to them was hone them when I bought them. The plane in the third photo is a small block plane. I use this for planing larger pieces such as bows, throwing sticks, etc. Its about 3 1/2" long but has a 1" wide blade. The brass ones have a 1/2" wide blade.





This photo shows some of the knives I use. On the right are my Warren blades and chisels. The handle is the brass and wood one. These are really super blades that hold an edge. The blades in the plastic box's are various X-acto brand as is the handle.

In the next photo is a Nicholson combination rasp/chisel. It has a half round fine rasp on top and a flat fine rasp on the bottom. I removed the plastic handle to make it more portable. The golf ball handle fits the hand very well and its a lot easier to control. I simply drilled a hole the appropriate size 1/3 of the way into the golf ball and jammed the tang in.


This photo shows my small chisels. These are high carbon steel and hold a great edge. Again, I use a golf ball handle for ease of control and less fatigue.



For safety I use this cohesive wrap. I buy the big rolls from sporting good stores. Weight lifters use it to protect their hands. My wife saves hers for me when she gives blood. I wrap it around my fingers to protect them from minor cuts and nicks. This stuff works great. Some wood carving stores sell it. Its called "Wimp Wrap".


This should answer your question and give you some ideas for making/improvising your own tools.

Homemade gear

Heres some home made gear. These were all made from natural, untreated materials. The first photo shows some cooking utensils. On the left is a spatula/stirring tool. Its made from a piece of valley oak. Its about 16" long. Next is a pestle made from a piece of beech limb. Next is a spoon made from western red cedar and finally a spoon made from palo verde. All of these were made from seasoned limb sections found on the ground. The only treatment was to soak them in olive oil. This helps protect the wood and keeps it from cracking.




Heres a side view of the spoons.




This next picture shows a cordage/tinder shredder, a fire steel mounted in a piece of antler and a"hoko" knife. The shredder is made from a piece of bird leg bone. I use it to finely shred tinder such as cedar bark and to remove the outer skin when I make cordage from dogbane, nettle, etc. The fire steel is made from a piece of file mounted in a piece of antler. It makes a handy scraper, too. The "Hoko" knife is made from a stick of cedar and a flake of Burlington chert. Its 5 1/2" long. The cordage is dogbane. These knives are really easy to make. I've seen archaeological samples from caves and rock shelters that had the blade in the middle of the handle. I would imagine these were used some what like a spoke shave or draw knife as well. There are some excellent photos at Texas Beyond History such as this one:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/hinds/images/EachWoman.html

Also these sites have excellent tutorials for "Hoko" knives;
Wilderness Way Magazine
www.wwmag.net/hoko.htm

Primitive Ways
www.primitiveways.com/pt-hoko.html

For more Hoko knife info do a google search:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hoko+knife




This photo shows some wood needles made from mesquite. The one on the right is finished. I use these for sewing rush/cattail mats for walls, roofs, sleeping mats, etc.The third one from the left is 3" long. Mesquite is a hard, beautiful wood and takes a fine finish by simply burnishing it with another piece of mesquite as I have done to these.



I hope you've been inspired to create your own tools............enjoy!