My all time favorite primitive technology books

 I have a sizeable library. Physical books- probably around 500. Digital books and other type documents- probably around 100,000.  I have been interested in nature since I was old enough to walk. So, a vast majority of my books are on nature subjects-  rocks, plants, animals, etc. I have a lot of survival books. I have a lot of gardening and self reliance books. My favorite though, are my primitive technology books. My collection of physical PT books are:

Primitive Technology vol 1 & 2 edited by Wescott

Practicing Primitive by Watts

all 3 Woodsmoke books by the Jameson's

Both volumes of Primitive Wilderness Living by the McPherson's

Survival Arts of the Primitive Paiutes by Wheat

Wilderness Survival Handbook by Pewtherer

Can you Survive by Pressley

And the one that started it all......Outdoor Survival Skills by Olsen

In 1976 I picked up a copy of Olsen's book at the ARMY PX bookstore when I was stationed in West Berlin, Germany. I thought  "this is it!  When will there be more work on this subject?" It had just come out in paperback. By the way I still have this book. All I did was put a clear plastic jacket on it. It looks to be in pretty good shape for all the field work it saw. I made a carry case out of hard, thick rawhide to protect it on my ventures. West Berlin was around 100 miles behind the "Iron Curtain" in East Germany, the Communist German Democratic Republic, a Soviet ally at the time. What a lot of folks don't know is there are large areas of forested land in Berlin. The one I roamed was the Grunewald which translates to "green forest". There were some pretty secluded areas and the only threat was the huge European wild pigs. Those things looked like small rhinos when you saw them running through the woods! And they could be downright mean! There were red deer too. And of course rabbits and squirrels. Fires were a no-no but if you were smart and built a small smokeless fire all was good. I had many a good time on my days off out in the 'wald.

Notice that some of these books have "survival" in the title. I would say that they are more geared towards primitive skills than modern. The book by Pewtherer covers some modern necessities such as first aid kits (I always carry a small modern geared kit when I go woods running) and some other modern tools like a compass and survival kit. The rest is surviving from a primitive technology view point. Ben Pressleys book is almost all primitive except he shows how to use a fire steel and there are a few photos of him in a 18th century long hunters outfit. This is all just fine with me. I live in both worlds but I prefer primitive tech and skills. Its more a hobby thing. I use modern tools like saws, axe's, steel knives and such for my primitive projects if it requires serious stock removal. I've done many purist stone, bone  antler & wood bow building and other projects but my joints are showing the damage done to them over many years of this type work let alone all the years doing most of my building construction by hand. It gets to ya quick so if there's an easier way I'll go that route. There are days when I can hardly bend my fingers and my wrists pulse with pain but I keep plugging along. Life is too much fun to give in to pain and discomfort. I just cut a little slower now.

I'm always looking for more stuff to write about and if there is something you would like me to research please let me know. I'm in need of resources such as bone, antler, hides and rock so if you have any extra I would be pleased. I have a few things to trade. Until next time, take care and enjoy life. Make as much of it as you can!

Latest artwork

Here's an owl handled scoop made  for my wife from a piece of white birch. The tree has been dead for two years and the land owner just had it cut down. This wood carves beautifully. I wash I had grabbed a lot more. This is used in the kitchen for scooping out rice, beans, etc from different containers.

6 1/2" long and 1 3/4" at widest

Revamped spoon or crooked knife case for the Mora

I did a little more work on my Mora crooked knife case. Theres a bit of confusion with these knives. Theyre called "crooked", "bent", "curved", and "spoon" knives by different dealers. I'll just call it either crooked or spoon. The old time crooked knife had a funny looking handle and the end of the blade was bent a bit. If you do a web search, you'll see for yourself. One great site that shows lots of photos is called Moctaugan and here's a link: http://www.mocotauganthebook.com/

Here are a few photos of the updated case I made. I just did a little material removal to make it a tiny bit lighter. In fact, it does look more interesting, yes?

link to tutorial: http://ronsprimitiveskills.blogspot.com/2008/09/crooked-knife-case-tutorial.html

Ax sheaths

Here are some shots of my ax sheaths and the "Our Own Hardware" single bit ax after hanging a new handle. The head is a bit worn and dented. I left it mostly as is after using my angle grinder to take off any excess mushrooming from the former owners bad use. I then used carbide paper to sand it down and take off any surface rust. This is one abused ax! I worked on the edge and its sharp enough for use now. It took a long time to even up the edge but its worth it. This head rings like a bell when tapped and is now a great cutter. I split some fire wood and had no trouble. If anyone knows the history of the "Our Own Hardware" company please let me know. They probably outsourced the manufacture of their tools and had companies like Plumb, Collins, True Temper, and other make them.

after scraping off varnish-this wood is quilted like tiger maple-beauty!

new sheath front

new sheath back

showing extra piece I glued inside to keep blade from cutting through

process of gluing extra piece in-this is how I clamp everything together-I just sized and cut the extra piece of leather

process of gluing extra piece in-you can see a bit of it sticking out on right-here the sheath is bent and clamped to let the rubber glue set

shot of the end of the sheath

another end shot-the rubber cement has set and I'm ready to cut to shape and rivet

I Made a similar sheath for my Norlund hatchet. Here's a shot:

No-sew sheath for the Condor Golok

I have always liked to make sheaths this way. No sewing. Just good old copper belt rivets and burrs. Why are they called belt rivets? Back before electric motors were common and even steam was still being used, machine tools were run from a central power station and all the drills, lathes, milling cutters, etc were hooked to it with long leather belts. There is no critter that has a hide big enough to make a 30 foot belt so they were craftily spliced from various lengths with these copper belt rivets. The hide was the top grade, thickest part from the center of the cows back. I remember my grandfather had a huge machine shop back in the 50's and it was all belt driven. He inherited it from his father so it must have dated from the early 1900's. A huge electric motor ran everything. He had a big roll of this belting and when needed he would cut off the appropriate length. This stuff didn't wear out very fast. Every so many months he would take a gallon can of neatsfoot oil and with a paint brush give each belt a good coating. There was an art to adjusting the speed of the main belt bar and each individual machine through different pulleys attached to the machines. I watched him cob a belt together one day and the simplicity of the process has stayed with me all these years. If you look at some of my other knives posted on this blog you'll see this style of sheath is a recurring theme.

I made this sheath to be belt carried and to have some attachment points for carrying it on my back packs. All thats left to do is give it a good coating of beeswax and its all done.

Bullwhip Kelp container

Here's a pair of containers I made from the base of the bullwhip kelp. Its a very common seaweed along the California coast. I found these two washed up after high tide and cut the bulb-like base off. It was a very warm, sunny day and the sand was hot so I kept pouring it into the containers until they resembled damp leather. Before I went to sleep I filled them up with some very hot sand from near my campfire. After I woke up this is what they looked like. They kind of resemble gourds in color and consistency. The one on the left is 6" tall. They make an interesting pair of containers. I thought of using another bulb for a stopper. I'll try this when I go back to the ocean.

I've seen articles about similar projects at other sites. Also, if I remember correctly, there was an article about using the very long stem for rope. I'll have to try this, too.