Bushcraft Tools: S1E2 Into the Ozarks Bushcraft Camp Build | Gray Bearded Green Beret

Whenever I get to an area what I like to do is get my shelter set up for whatever configuration I'm going to be using it for. And from there I like to kind of walk around the area and take a look at what resources are available. But I don't necessarily want to carry you know a half-empty pack or a big pack around just to go in the immediate area. I'm never really going too far from where my shelter location is so I don't worry about having a complete 10-seas kit or a complete you know emergency kit. But I do like to have some things available. But typically I like to walk around the general area of my camp with just you know the ability to carry maybe just a water bottle and a haversack and a small amount of kit. So one solution that I use sometimes is what I call the bare minimum belt. It's kind of I want to still have some tools available but I don't want to carry my entire kit. And of course my my shelter is already set up. But when I'm going on a resource walk you know I really want to be able to gather those resources. So the ability to have the majority of my kit elsewhere not stuffed in my haversack taking up room that I could be using for resources is the the bare minimum belt concept. The bushcraft belt concept works really well for me. And this is kind of like the full-blown if I was doing nothing but going out with a haversack you know maybe for extended periods. But you know you can kind of modularly add or take to or add to or take away from this belt. But just to give you an idea of what it is you know I've got my belt and then I've got my fire kit on here that's ready to go if I'm out there and get stranded and it was an emergency at a bare minimum I've got the ability to make a fire. So my fire and technically my belt knife which is on this side which we'll come around to. If I've got that in my water I'm pretty well set. Then as far as tools like cutting tools you know I like to carry a small axe for some applications or a saw. Sometimes I need both especially from felling trees. I like to kind of notch it and get it started with a small axe and then finish that cut with a saw. So I like to have those. Continuing around I like to have a small first aid kit. Anytime you're carrying a cutting tool you need to carry something to stop a bleed because there's a good chance that that could happen. So I've got my Nomad first aid pouch that's got some compressed gauze, some quick clot in here and of course you know that I can use to kind of stop a bleed really quick. So it's just a minimalist first aid kit on the outside. Then of course my puukko, my knife, my belt knife. Definitely want to have that at all times and this is one of my favorite pieces of kit. This is a basically a bushcraft dump pouch. So it folds up nicely but I can open that up when I find a good resource that I want to collect. And that gives me a bag that's hanging right off the side of my belt to be able to collect those resources. So what that allows me to do is pick and choose kind of out of that array of gear what I want to take with me to go look for resources. All that stuff you know the weight's carried on my hips. It's not uncomfortable at all. Really like that belt concept. Throw this over my shoulder and then I've got an empty haversack that I can throw over the other shoulder. So as I find resources I can put them in here. The only thing I would add to that you know it's empty to gather resources but some of those resources are you know tender. That's what I'm looking for for my fires. So I'll keep a little Sammy pouch inside there so that way when I find tender I actually put inside here. That way it doesn't get mixed up with the other resources inside the bag. So that's a really kind of lightweight kit that you can put together and again it's modular. You can take away what you don't need. I don't need an axe all the time. I don't need a saw all the time but at a minimum you know fire kit, belt knife, and because I'm carrying a belt knife a small first aid kit. That's a really good system to have when coupled with that water bottle and a haversack. Really easy to get a lot of resources get them back to camp and it's a really comfortable way to carry it without having to carry a big pack to carry all of your gear. First things first like I do every time I go to set up camp is tie my back saver knot. I'll do my marlin spike hitch here hang my gear up get it off the ground. So I've just got a six foot utility cord which is a piece of paracord with a bowline loop in one end overhand in the other and it's got a number of uses but in this context I'm using it to hang my gear. So I bring that around and then just pull the end through the loop there and that's a running bowline. Tighten that up against the tree. Now I can do a simple marlin spike by making a loop flipping that loop up onto there and then kind of pulling a little bit of a bite through. Take a toggle run it through that bite that you pulled through and then pull down. That gives me a nice secure place to hang my gear. I'm gonna put it up a little higher actually. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you still got a bend over or a back saver knot. Yeah then I can take my loop on my pack and just run it through and it'll hold it right there so I don't have to bend down to get in my pack and get the stuff out of here. I've grabbed some sticks I got to make some tent stakes really quick for this shelter. I think what I'm going to build is a tripod raised bed. Really cool shelter and I think you're going to like it. So I'm going to make some tent stakes real quick. I found some stumps over here so I'm just going to go handle that part real quick. I'll take this one I'll show you how to do these. Maybe take my axe even though it's overkill because it's bushcraft. More bushcraft if you have an axe. So I'm going to need to make some tent stakes in order to get my shelter going. So I've got a hardwood stake kind of I guess a blank for a stake because I haven't made the stake yet. It's probably I'd say 12 to 14 inches long and I'm just going to make a few stakes with that. For my stakes what I like to do is the wider end up here I'll kind of round those and crown that off just by going around using a thumb assist and trimming that right off. Just kind of clean it up and then I'll come down about the width of my knife maybe a little farther and I'll actually put a stop cut in there and you can do this with a saw as well and then I'll carve down towards that stop cut at an angle and that just gives a simple groove for my cordage to actually sit in and you can take this down as far as you want but it doesn't have to be all that deep. It's just a place of recess and that's just a simple stake notch and I actually don't like to on my tent stakes go too far on that because the thinner this gets the more likely this is to shear off whenever you're actually pounding into the ground and one thing that I do know about the Ozarks is there's plenty of rocks and I think instead of dirt they have rocks and a lot of it is chert. It's a really hard rock and it's probably going to do a number on these tent stakes so you may hear me yell and cuss a few times but we'll edit that out fix it in post right make it pop. So just a simple stake notch I don't want to get too crazy. Now one thing I will say is on your tent stakes another thing that will kind of protect them you know crowning the top of it prevents it from mushrooming me out it really does but another thing is I want to try to match this angle up here and I'll tell you why after I do that so just try to match that angle and kind of offset that crown a little bit you can see now this angle up here matches this angle here and the reason I do that is when I hit this with a mallet to drive it into the ground especially in hard ground all the force is going directly down there where there's still material right if I were to hit it off center and this was still here then I take a chance of shearing this off this face basically from this angle all the way up and shear right off and I broke my tent stake so little tip when you're making your stakes to go ahead and do that that'll prevent it from mushrooming it out and you know I could just use my knife and sharpen a point onto this but you know this is bushcraft and I didn't carry it all the way out here not use it so I'll use my axe that's a good chance to be able to show you a few techniques with the axe anytime you're using an axe with a handle that's shorter than 19 inches or so it's best to use it either kneeling or in a seated position and I always use an anvil because you got to think about with an axe this is one of the most dangerous things that you could use in the woods right it's it's a weighted sharp edge and you're putting a lot of momentum a lot of force on that so if you miss your material or slip off your material there's a good chance you're going to hit yourself and the momentum and the weight of this sharp edge versus a knife is is uh pretty substantial so you take a really good chance of taking a really nasty cut when you're using an axe so I like to use an anvil and I like to think about the follow-through I don't want the follow-through I don't want the axe to be hitting back here I like to work way forward on the anvil so that if I miss or every time I finish a cut the axe is towards the front of the actual anvil and that prevents it from going any farther than that and it's nowhere near where I am another thing I would encourage you to do is angle your material so that you can bring your axe straight up and down rather than the other way around don't have this straight up and down and angle your axe into it because if that breaks you don't really have you know positive hits on that anvil you can slip the follow-through is just not good so always put your material in a position to where the angle you're trying to cut corresponds with your axe going straight up and down and it doesn't have to be crazy sharp but I do want it to get started in the ground rather easily I fully expect that once it gets in the ground the chert is going to chew it right up but I want to give it a good chance to get started you see I'm just going straight up and down with the axe it's always landing in the anvil well away from me there's no possible way that it's going to go through this and hit me so be safe with your axe it's the most dangerous tool you can use in the woods and I'm just over carving because I wasn't finished talking now I am oh also speaking of slamming it into there if you're not using it put it back in the mask or the sheath carefully you know an unmasked or unsheathed axe is just as dangerous as the same thing with your knife anytime you're not using it put it away keep people from stepping on it keep it from you know don't lean it on something don't just leave it stuck into the wood you know if you do leave it stuck into the wood make sure there's no sharp edge exposed but don't leave it there for a long period of time you know put it back in the sheath just like you would your knife so I've got my beautiful tent stake sharp point on one end crowned on the other this angle matches the angle of the stake notch nice little stop touch with an angle cut there to make the stake notch hardwood stake we'll see how it does here in the Ozarks with all the rocks but plenty more where this one came from speaking of which I've got to make several more of these for this shelter build na na na na na na na na na na na I'm gonna take my time well I'm a rolling slow these days I'm gonna take my time everybody moving oh so so fast well you can watch them rolling down the the heaven home and they don't know why they in such a hurry and they miss the sky