Modern Natural

primitive tattoo

2010-06-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

as part of this skills course students were asked to develop a term project consisting of researching, learning and putting to use a primitive skill or technique not covered in the curriculum

of course i picked tattooing. but credit is due to my friend mark for suggesting the idea. as obvious an idea as it may be i consistently failed to come up with it on my own even after many hours wracking my brain trying to think of a good idea for a project.
i fake it good but im really not very smart.

here is my presentation of the process followed by a copy of my formal paper. since the focus of the earthwalk primitive skills program most directly concerns the skills and technology of the pacific northwest my focus would be the tattoo practice of the dominant indigenous cultures of the region, the haida and tlingit peoples.

this is a replication of a traditional haida tattoo baton. my materials are very close if not exact to the archeological record. it is constructed of a carved cedar stick with steel needles lashed to a carved cedar stick. the lashing is deer sinew and it is bonded with pine resin glue. the earliest known tattoo implements of the haida found in the smithsonian museum of natural history show use of steel needles but this of course would have only happened after contact with european traders. prior to this the implements where probably of bone but no record of this is found.

mark also volunteered to be the guinea pig for this experiment.

aside from the needle baton all my other methods were more modern than not. i chose to do it this way for the sake of the outcome of the tattoo. having never done anything like this before i wanted to be able to have as many familiar resources available to me as possible. i used modern pigments and here i am applying a stencil of the design to be tattooed.

the design itself is not found in the archeological record either but i think it is very a very appropriate motif for capturing the spirit of the northwest on a person not descended from a native culture.

today, just for fun, ryan the apprentice at artcore decided he wanted to have a primtive tattoo done as well. as part of the term project i had carved a bone needle from a deer leg loosely interpreting an ancient implement described in the essay to follow. i had not intended to use it in practice but hey, why not. its just skin.

i was very surprised to find that the bone needle performed the job faster, cleaner and with less pain than a modern tattoo machine.

no sorry, thats a lie. it was actually a huge pain in the ass and we stopped the attempt half way through and i finished the tattoo with a modern machine. yet, as i type this i am realising the design of the modern tattoo machine has not really changed much in the history of its existence which dates back to roughly the same time as the cedar batons used by the northwest peoples.

take that haida.

here is the formal paper for anyone interested in reading:

In this essay i will walk through a quick overview of the history of tattooing from ancient pre-history until the modern era were my focus will turn to the peoples of the North American arctic region and finally the early peoples of my own region, the Pacific North West.

It is hard to say exactly when humans started tattooing their own skin. The archeological record is greatly lacking in evidence of tattoos from pre-history. The earliest known evidence, found by archeologists in a cave in the Pyrenees of France dates to about 12,000 years and indicate use for the practice of tattooing. In a bundle was a lump of ochre, a crushing implement polished from being ground against something hard, a socket bone stained in black and red, a spatula like piece of bone stained with ochre. Also found were thin bone needles with a groove on one side down to the point. The groove is thought to be a channel for ink to flow down the needle into the punctures. Lastly there was an ochre paste that had been mixed with clay and some sort of binder to make it pliable. Theoretically small amounts of the paste would be removed with the needle and applied to the skin.

There were other tools found in the cave which were firmly decided to be used for hide painting, wall painting and other decorative jobs increasing the likelihood that the above listed items were used for tattooing.

The next big step in the history of tattooing was found in the Alps between Austria and Italy. A body of a man found in the ice which dates to be around 5300 years old. Named Otzi after the region where the body was found, he is the oldest known mummy as well as the oldest known tattooed human. Otzi has 59 tattoos mostly lines and dots ranging down his spine, on the back of his knee and in areas around his left ankle. Interestingly 83% of Otzis tattoos are located in spots which correspond to classical acupuncture points, associated with the treatment of back and leg pain. After a thorough autopsy it was discovered that Otzi had been suffering from arthritis in his lower back and knees.

Next on the time line is a mummy from Thebes in Egypt. This is the earliest evidence of tattooing in Egypt but tattooing is known to be prevalent among the Egyptians and it is likely they had practiced tattooing for many generations prior to when the Thebes mummy had lived. considering the far ranging influence of Egypt and the potential for tattooing to reach far back into Egyptian history it is likely that the Egyptians were one of the main influences spreading tattoo practice to the rest of the world.

This may have been the means for tattooing to find its way across the continents to the indigenous peoples of the New World although it may be just as likely that the ancestors of New World inhabitants brought tattooing with them when they crossed the land bridge during the most recent ice age.

in the arctic of region of North America a 3500 year old mask was found depicting tattoo marks. This artifact is the oldest known portrait of a human from the arctic and was probably carved by ancestors of the peoples that would become the Ovik, Punuk Yupiget and the Inuit

For these people tattooing was most common amongst women, being performed by highly respected elder women, usually on the face and using a process by which a needle was passed under the skin and followed by an ink carrier of some sort such as a pine needle, sinew or natural fiber. These tattoos were seen as protective and as having the power to transform the wearer. The protective powers of these tattoos were mirrored in the materials used for making pigment. materials such as lampblack, graphite and urine were all highly regarded as having powers of protection against evil and used to mix the tattoo pigments. Tattooing was also used in funeral ceremonies to protect pall bearers. Tattoos were placed at locations on or near joints since these were thought to be points were the soul could escape or for the body to be invaded by an evil spirit.

Tattoos were also used to depict the connection to the spirit world and the animal world. The belief that man and animal are interchangeable and that the borders of the two worlds are permeable is a common thread through many indigenous tribes of the Americas and the people of the arctic thought tattoos had the power to facilitate travel and communication between these two worlds. Tattoos where applied to aid in the hunt, connecting the hunter to the prey and playing the role as protective aids. Hunters would tattoo themselves to honor the animal they were hunting or as signs of prestige for taking animals. One of the most important hunting related tattoo was the "First Kill" tattoo. This served as honor to the hunter and as protection from spiritual invasion by appeasing the spirits of the taken animal.

As a spiritual practice early arctic peoples used tattooing as a shamanic practice to connect themselves to the spiritual world, travel to higher levels of consciousness and to commune with ancestral spirits or other spirit beings in an effort to gain knowledge and protection.

For the women of these cultures tattoos served many cultural functions. A woman would receive tattoos when she had reached child bearing age and was marriage ready. The tattoos indicated strength, the ability to endure suffering and would also be applied to ease the strain of child birth. During enemy raids tattoos on the faces of women could save their lives if the raid occurred during dim early morning hours when poor lighting, heavy clothing and appearance would make it hard to distinguish between men and women.

There was also a high medicinal value for tattoos as a preventative and curative. Early arctic peoples shared with the Chinese a knowledge of specific points on or just below the skin surface which were used to treat various ailments. Many areas of the body that arctic peoples would tattoo match closely the locations of classical acupuncture points. This use of tattoos as acupuncture tool may even pre-date the Chinese when the location of tattoos on Otzi the 5300 year old ice man are considered.

Evidence of tattooing in the rest of North America is practically non-existent save for a few implements used by the Haida and Tlingit of the North West coast. These tools where found at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History early in this decade and were brought there near the beginning of the 20th century by J.G. Swan an ethnologist studying the people of the North West region in the late 1800's.

The set of tools include steel needles lashed to carved cedar sticks, cedar brushes and some small stone bowls used for mixing pigments made of magnetite for black and hematite for red. the Haida where once one of the most heavily tattooed peoples in the world and along with regional Indians in South America are the only indigenous peoples known to create tribal tattoos with any pigment other than black. The steel needles where used only after contact with European traders. Prior to this there is almost no evidence of what tools where used though the Tlingit oral traditions support the view that the Tlingit "sewed" in their tattoos with needle and thread. A method similar to their relatives in the arctic regions.

The art with which the Haida are synonymous today, the totem poles, carvings and prints are largely derived from ancient tattoo designs that the Haida used to depict Clan Crests. for the Haida tattooing was most strongly tied to the family crest and to the potlatch.

The Crest and its possession was derived from events within the Haida oral tradition which account for their identity as a group. Stories related to these events were told and retold, in turn setting the specific family or clan apart from others while defining their social position among Haida society. Crests explain the reasons for Haida existence creating a real and inseparable link to creatures, objects and spirits in the natural world. Crests intertwined the Haida clans while simultaneously distinguishing the identity of a specific family and its members as unique and individual. This made crests and the right to use them as an identifying emblem more valuable than any physical object.

The two major Haida Clans were Raven and Eagle, with numerous sub-septs, symbolized by Bear, Frog, Hummingbird, Beaver, Otter, Wolf and many others. The powerful animal totems and spirits that surrounded the Haida were also well represented, Orca (Killer Whale), Salmon, Thunderbird and many, many more. Over 70 in total.

Each occupant of a family house would would have some part of their body tattooed with a representation or part of one of the families crests. The chief or head of the house would have all the images of all family crests tattooed.

The potlatch was a large gathering, celebration and feast often performed in conjunction with the completion of a cedar plank dwelling. The potlatch served as a platform for a wide range of cultural events. During a potlatch the dead would be honored, the living celebrated and ceremonial tattoos performed. A potlatch was usually the function of a large, powerful and very wealthy family. The cost of such a gathering would be very great whereas thousands of people would attend and the host of the gathering would serve to increase their standing and prestige in the community by distributing their wealth and possessions amongst all people in attendance. This was also a time for poorer families to settle debts and contracts by contributing whatever small amounts of goods as they could spare to the bounty provided.

One of the most important ceremonies to take place during a potlatch where the tattoos. Most often it was the children of wealthy chiefs who were to be tattooed and the chiefs of opposite clans in attendance who would do the tattooing. One of the last Haida potlatches that featured tattooing occurred in the winter of 1900 in the village of Skidegate. it was witnessed and described by anthropologist J.R. Swanton as fallows:

"On the second day they called them to put the tattoo-marks on. at once they painted their faces. Those in the house shouted to the people to come in and look on. When the spectators were all in, they began dancing and sang party songs. Those who were to be tattooed began dancoing. The wife (of the house chief) stood at the end of the line, wearing a crest painted hat. When they had sung four songs, They put eagle feathers on the dancers (for purification). The house was filled with eagle feathers. Then they stopped. Those who put feathers in them where given cotton cloth. When that was over, they had those who where to be tattooed sit down in front of the chiefs. Sometimes two took a fancy to be tattooed by the same artist. Now they beat the ground with a baton, mentioned the cheifs name and said, "so and so sits in front of you to be tattooed." Then they began to put the tattoo-marks...all that day they spent in tattooing, and finished it...the nose, lower lip and ears were also pierced by member sof the opposite clan. They were paid a blanket apiece for it."

Haida tattooing now is all but dead however there has been a resurgence in traditional Haida arts which may lead to new life for the tattooing traditions. Arrangements are now being made by Haida artists for a temporary loan of the Haida tattoo kit from the Smithsonian National Museum to the Haida people. Duplicates could be made by interested artists, leading to a reconnection to an integral part of the Haida peoples' indelible past.

The following are drawings of traditional Haida tattoos made in the early 1900's by the anthropologist J.G. Swan

the turkey. and hunting

2010-06-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

there were one or two moments from the trek that deserve special mention. this is one.

on one of the last days of the season, when turkeys are feeling the most pressure from hunters and are at their most wary eric from the class was offered a bird, and he accepted.
he shared his gift with us during the first days of the plant intensive portion of the trek. we roasted it on the open fire and it was an altogether different kind of delicious. ill just say it was way better than the butterballs you get in the super market.

so the story goes, this turkey practically walked right up to him. almost no effort in trying to coax it into range.

which is something considering the efforts some will make trying to do just that.

earlier in may the class went turkey hunting. going in to it i had somehow gotten it in my head that it would be easier than it was. i had made a concerted effort to avoid basing my definitions of success on the harvesting of a bird. im comfortable and happy with the last thing on my list of priorities being the taking of an animal. there is so much preparation going in to a hunt, that it would be self defeating and disrespectful to the animal to think that killing an animal should even be a consideration until its come up right in front of you. in my humble opinion thats the only way to be sure youve done it right. otherwise youre just a killer.

that being said it is almost impossible not to feel a slight twinge of disappointment when no animal offers itself to you. theres a feeling like the powers deciding who is worthy and who is not have decided that you are not. then, guilt over maybe having done something wrong.

i know my big mistake was believing that it would be as easy as it looked in the books i was reading and the videos i was watching. i got it in my head that if i just followed their advice i would have it in the bag. the problem is that for any given potential scenario everyone has their idea of what the best thing to do would be. the joy in this is that as a novice its hard to be sure that you are really seeing what you think you are seeing.

"is this the spot to set the decoy?"
"should i use a decoy?"
"which call am i supposed to use here?"
"what are these tracks telling me?"
"is this right?"
"is that wrong?"
"am i going crazy?"

so there i am walking through the woods not really knowing what to look for, trying to pick the right piece of advice for what to do when i find some indication of the thing i dont know im looking for.

right.

this is the perfect sport for a person with a none-too-small nuerosis for over-thinking things.

so, rather than going in as an empty cup to be filled by the reward of my own experience i went in a cup runningeth over. there was so much advice and suggested tactics going through my head that when confronted with a given scenario it was that much harder to decide what to do. had i gone in a little more ignorant i think i would have at least had a bit more fun.

thats not to say i didnt have fun but the true value and reward in the experience was the reminder that i had no idea what i was doing and that experience doesnt come from books.

the turkeys themselves are the best teachers. my fondest memory of the experience is from the walk back to camp after having spent several hours in an area i thought would be a good spot to set up and wait. i had been following some tracks made the day before along an old logging road. i knew they were from the day before because it had snowed that night and as the snow melted from the road in the sun the tracks where being revealed. actually, before seeing a lump of snow partially covering some of the tracks i was following i thad been thinking i was following fresh tracks.

nature: 1, mighty hunter: 0

but i was still sure i was still on good ground since there had been many tracks from multiple birds using this same route. there was a stream off into the woods a bit, running along side the road and i assumed they would be using this road as a highway to get from nesting areas to water sources, feeding along the way. what i was not clear on was where to set up my waiting position.

turkey hunting is all about waiting. you find a good location ,in an area where birds are known to be, hopefully along a route they are known to follow within that area, set up your position and then wait. my best option was to make an educated guess. and by educated i mean trying to do calculus when all you know is 2+2=4.

i had been schooled on the waiting game earlier in the trip when i flushed a group of birds after convincing myself that if a bird was going to show up it would have done so already. i was thinking my calling had scared them off, my set up position was wrong, something was off. a piece of advice you run across regularly is that if you think you are done waiting for the bird, wait another 20 minutes. i had been waiting for 3 hours. i got up to leave, walked 50 yards, came around a large shrub and by the time my lifted foot hit the ground three birds that had been walking toward me where flying away. one of them a tom. i cant promise they would have made their way to me and toms that are hened up are very hard to call away. but they were close enough that my odds where good. just another 20 minutes might have............

nature: 2

so this time, armed with tracks and a water source, i was ready to wait all day. well, i waited most of the day. started getting hungry and anxious and was realizing my set up was bad, sitting in direct sunlight, too close to my decoy and probably a dozen other things i couldnt even see. it was quickly going to not be fun anymore and i had almost an hours walk back to csamp. time to leave. walking the road back i came upon bird sign i knew was fresh. they had definitely not been there on my walk in and one of them, seemingly there to mock me, was planted firmly in one of the boot prints i had left behind as i walked the road. to add insult to injury there was a big bright, shiny green turd about 4 feet from that track which couldnt have been more than 20 minutes old.

nature: 3

that score would win a hockey game.

im making a prediction. while out looking forturkeys and not finding any i saw LOADS of deer and deer sign. the path of the hunter course is kicked off with a deer hunt in september and the hunting grounds will be the same place we where looking for turkies. my prediction is that i will see no deer but the turkeys will be following me around like puppies.

thanks again to eric and not just for the delicious meal. after seeing how hard it can be, its inspiring to see the wilds offer themselves to a person in such an elegant fashion.

the trek and sun rise

2010-06-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

we are nearing the end of this class.

ive been looking through a pin hole at small pieces of a picture that is cloudy, dim and unfocused. occasionally ive caught glimpses of things i thought i could understand but couldnt quite connect to the rest. everything ive seen has been new and with no frame of reference with which to make associations ive had only the loosest idea of how these small fragments might fit together.

now i feel like ive taken a small step back. i can see a larger section and though the edges are still quite blurry im starting to get a sense for the orientation of things.

last week i returned from the earthwalk survival trek. almost 10 days living in primitive/semi-survival mode. one final set of lessons and about as close to the edge of technological life support as the uninitiated might get before things become dangerous. all necessities of shelter, food and water where gathered and prepared by our own hands. with few exceptions the only tools for the work being a knife, a cooking pot and a wool blanket.

as extreme as that might sound, no one was at risk of starving or freezing or dying of thirst. there were enough safety nets in place to ensure that we would enjoy ourselves and take knowledge from the experience while still pushing the edge and testing personal limits.

i feel like the entire telling of the tale would be weeks in the doing, going all the way back to the beginning of the earthwalk apprenticeship. as it is these things get pretty long....

i present here, the highlights:

there were a few days of preliminary preparation before the heart of the trip was to be approached. our initial camp was by the side of an alfalfa farm, owned by a friend of the instructors and a perfect landscape for harvesting our wild foods and material goods.

the beginning of the trip was a 3 day wild edible plant intensive. some plants we had been introduced to earlier in the year were revisited, and some new friends where introduced.

a few samples...

hookers onion

burdock roots

brodia

willow buds

willow is not a particularly fantastic food source, its inner bark being a last ditch survival food at best. it is however highly prized medicine containing asprin pre-cursors and providing pain relief when wrapped around a wound or taken as a tea infusion.

camas

camas bulbs are incredibly delicious. sort of like sweet potato. the starches in them though are incredibly dense and need to be steamed for a great deal of time to break down the carbohydrates so that they can be eaten without debilitating bouts of gas.

a word of caution when harvesting camas and to a degree wild onions as well: the bulbs of the death camas plant are very very similar to both. a wild onion will always have an onion smell which is your sure tip to distinguish it from its deadly twin however the only way to safely seperate the death from the safe camas is to harvest them WITH THE FLOWER HEAD ATTACHED. the flowers of death camas are white and those of common camas are violet like HOWEVER if it is not flowering or the stalk breaks off during the harvesting process leave it be. its not worth the risk considering a very small amount of death camas will drop a human adult within hours

for cooking the cammas bulbs we made a steam pit for them to simmer in over night but part of the pit was used to cook trout, eaten that night.

a steam pit is a brilliant piece of technology since your basically just using a big hole in the ground to cook your food. it takes some work but the pay off is a practically fool proof method of cooking. its hard to over cook the food and you can prepare a great quantity at once, digging up different sections as different foods finish cooking. hypothetically several people could pull all their meals for one day and possibly some of the next from one pit.

after the hole is dug, a giant bed of coals is burned down into the gaps between large rocks, lining the bottom of the hole. over the coals, wet grass is laid and, in this case, some cat tail leaves as well. the food is laid on this bed, then covered with more leaves and grasses and finally the pit is back filled with all the dirt that was taken out.

the center of a cat tail stalk is a beautiful piece of art, reflecting the many gifts within the plant. from top to bottom the plant offers something edible, medicinal and/or utilitarian. the flowering head and the pollen head occur on the same stalk, both are valuable resources. the immature flowering head can be roasted and eaten like corn on the cob. pollen harvested is high in nutritional content, good for mixing in with flour for baked goods. cat tail fluff is good fire tinder or bedding material, the leaves will make cordage, the cores of the stalk near the root are a tender delicacy and finally the root stalk is a great wealth of delicious starch. since it is a water dwelling plant it should always be cooked or blanched to eliminate the risk of microbial diseases.

after the plant intensive the true work of gathering and preparing our food supply began.

willow was harvested to make tripod racks for drying meat.

the meat, buffulo, was sliced as thin as possible and drapped over cross beams to dry in the sun. it took about a day of dry, sunny, breazy weather to dry the meat hard as a rock so that it could be pounded into a fine, powdery meal

dried meat, dried berries and a large amount of rendered fat is the simplest recipe for a substantially powerful food energy source called pemmican. with all the water content removed and the fat creating a solid moisture barrier this high calorie food is the perfect power bar. having an indefinite shelf life, samples of pemmican one thousand years old have been discovered which are still edible!

wrapped in a burdock leaf with clean burdock root this would be the base for my stews over the course of the trip.

i also collect sheperds purse and field penny cress. both are mustards with penny cress having a distinct and strong mustard flavor good for adding spice to a stew.

my favorite wild green, nettle was found in large patches and wrapped in a to-go leaf

with a yarrow collection many first aid needs would be covered as well. yarrow is a styptic herb, stopping bleeding and possessing strong antiseptic properties. it can be used as a tea to stop internal bleeding, fight infections and to lessen fevers by promoting sweating. it can be inhaled in a steam bath to fight lung infection or crushed and rubbed into the skin it serves as an effective insect repellent.

more wild edibles would be found at the camp site we were heading out to so, wrapped in thick, velvety burdock leaves along with some acorns harvested months earlier and a bit of corn meal, the majority of my food supply was stocked for the next several days.

to help prepare and to eat this food we made our own spoon and then...

time to hike in

the pre-determined importance of survival priorities is dictated by the rule of 3's

death comes in 3 minutes without air, 3 hours of exposure to the elements, 3 days without water and about 3 weeks without food.

since suffocation is relatively easy to prevent in calm conditions, the first priority for life on this trip was building a shelter

made from fallen limbs, a fair amount of dirt and pile after pile after pile after pile after pile after pile of gathered pine needles, this would be my home for the next 4 days.

this is to date the most important thing i have ever constructed for myself and i made it with nothing but my own 2 hands. ok, there was a small folding saw involved but it could be done without! its just that ive never been responsible for my own life in such a direct way, with no outside power to help me.

the effect that mental attitude will have on a situation is something i have been aware of and its something you hear a lot about when learning primitive skills and survival techniques but i cant think of an experience that focused those effects as sharply as sleeping in a giant pile of dirt.

i went in to the situation with a great deal of apprehension. with the exception of clothing, im miles away from anything that is going to keep me warm and im relying on piles of dirt and tree branches to form a structure safe to sleep in. i had convinced myself that i would be very cold and damp, a tiny bit worried i would be buried under the debris and i was trying not to be too upset about all this. i woke up after the first night with this feeling that i had not slept well and had been cold. i had distinct memories of shivering and being uncomfortable and being dirty and uncomfortable. the second night 2 interesting things happened. first, i got myself comfortable with sleeping in the dirt. i gave up trying to brush debris and filth off my blanket and out of my shirt collar and just tried to own the fact that i was sleeping in the dirt....whats so bad about that? social programming is no match for necessity and dirt don't hurt

the second thing that happened was that i woke up and immediately started shaking and shivering and trying to huddle into my blanket for warmth. there was some fear that i was maybe too cold. isn't intense shivering the first sign of hypothermia?? i was really beginning to worry. then i realized that my feet were sweating. was this another sign of doom? no... wait...i wasnt cold at all. i was actually quite warm. and once i made myself relax i became very comfortable. the preconception that i was going to be cold and uncomfortable was so strong that i had convinced myself that i was freezing even though i was in truth warm and safe. light switch: on.

i slept the rest of that night content, satisfied and confident that i would not die in the woods. not that night, not the next, not ever. at least not for lack of shelter. although a bear would peel that thing like a banana...

anyway,

as a precaution against the obvious risk involved in having 14 or so individual fires going, all cooking and water sterilizing was done around a group fire. it was extinguished each night and started again the next day using any choice of a number of primitive fire starting methods learned in the class

over the next few days this fire would also be the common area to work on several wilderness survival aids. such as a spear...

a throwing stick

a sling

a paiute deadfall

and stone flakes from flint and obsidian for cleaning and butchering animals.

im sure i dont have to mention that all these implements will take some getting used to. most especially the sling. after trying to get a rock to fire straight from one of those im amazed that it ever got off the ground as a practical tool but i am gripped with the challenge of sharpening my aim to a real level of accuracy. just give me a few years? im a bit better at the throwing stick but woodland creatures are very small and fast. not that any woodland creatures were targets on this trip....i can neither confirm nor deny....

the bird pictured above was one of many small starlings packed in by frank and brought out on the final night so everyone would have the experience of butchering a small animal with a sharp rock. having animals already killed, on hand for a teaching exercise has of course been used throughout this course as a solution the the problem of relying on inept students trying to chase down game. this way we learn, ethical hunting is upheld, the animal is honored and everyone gets fed.

he also brought in 3 ducks

my friend eric and i teamed up for the mallard

im proud to say that the first time i ever cooked duck was on a flat stone in a campfire. and it came out delicious.

and so the evening and the morning of the last day.

it took a couple days after returning for the weight to sink in. a few days of savoring a new appreciation for burning hot showers rich food and things with sugar. a few days reflecting on the memory of seeing the sun rise that last morning, feeling that clumsy cliche of new dawns become very real and very relevant.

plant knowledge, hunting techniques, cleaning animals, survival, primitive living. as this primitive skills class comes to a close i can see many things that were once dark, abstract and conceptual become illuminated and manifest into hard physical realities and by coming into being, point the way toward new avenues and new ways to deepen and expand these skills.

me and another friend from the class came up with the analogy of mining the side of a mountain. the adding up of various elements, culminating in a large chunk of rock being moved away in a blast of dynamite, revealing a vein of something precious.
its depth and breadth is unknown and much of it still obscured by a cortex of rock but we know its going to be big and we know its going to be good.

balms and salves

2010-03-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

when im explaining this class to people, some are surprised when i explain how much it has to offer in the way of direct, daily, real world application. i admit that befor the class started i couldnt have told you what to expect in terms of what we would learn that would be transferable to a life lived in an industrial civilization. so, i can forgive people for needing to have it explained that this isnt all learning how to live without cotton/poly blends, forks and gasoline.

i would say that actually more of the class has centered around things that can easily find a place in day to day life and less dealing with more extreme ends of primitive living. which makes a lot of sense as ive come to think of it. it would not be feasible to take 8 people and in 9 months change them from petroleum babies into full on cedar bark wearing children of the wild. best to start slow and with practicality.

in truth wearing cedar bark pants and living in the woods is not really something you can teach someone anyway. you can only take someone so far with the baseline skills before they have to start putting them in to application for themselves. from that point on, with that base line under their belt, its really up to them to decide how far they want to go down the road to full wilderness compliance.

i was recently asked if all this was some sort of new hobby. i think my immediate reaction was to say no, and to explain that it is more than a hobby and that i was hoping to see it develop into a fundamental shift in how i lead my life.

after thinking about it i would now say there is a lot of both.

my hobbies and interests are now turning to reflect the application of new skills into a lifestyle.
when im discussing this lifestyle to people i sometimes feel like im explaining something veiled and esoteric.

but as much as people seem to misconstrue the implications of the word primitive, or what a class of primitive skills may entail they are more and more being surrounded by reflections of primitive living in industrial society. the difference is that it is presented in a commercially digestible format. think about naturopathy. think about the phrase "sustainable living". herbalists, local farming, whole foods, green living. there are even restaurants now offering a fare of wild harvest

these movements are perceived as something novel, revolutionary or profound. but really they are just aspects of pre-agriculture lifestyle being unintentionally re-discovered and incorporated into modern industrial civilization. they are all worthy investments but more and more they seem to be turning into things that can be bought and sold as another commercialized commodity and i cant help but think that something is lost as peoples' participation takes on the role of passive consumer. one of the greatest things about primitive skills is that there is an implicit foundation for community. the jobs are shared as well as the production of the effort. there is no distinction between producer and consumer.

i think thats what throws some people off when im telling them about this. it doesnt have a package so its hard to understand how it can have "real life" application. i think people are so used to things, both knowledge and goods, being presented in a context of industrial living that its easy to see why someone might mistake this kind of modification in lifestyle as a hobby.

so allow me to present a package we are all familiar with:

bottles with labels!

when all is said and done im the last person to say anything bad about making a living doing something you love and after seeing how easy this balm and salve making thing can be its a strong temptation to try my hand at some larger production. farmers market here i come. thats DOCTOR dorr to you.

starting on the bottom left with the doug fir salve, the most complicated to process.

collect pitch from fir trees and/or pine trees and melt in a pot. this can be done by tapping the tree or less invasively just by looking for trees with weeping sap usually around areas where the tree has been wounded by falling limbs, trees, passing trucks etc. lots can be found in logging areas.

strain the melted sap through a sieve to remove all foreign matter, bits of tree, pine needles etc. the resulting substance is like melted candy and smells about as good so watch it. after youve huffed enough of it the room starts spinning and its not so much fun anymore. over a low heat this is mixed with ratios of olive oil and beeswax. when using olive oil in balms and salves its best to keep it below 130 degrees F. if it gets too hot it can break down, creating free radicals and leading to spoilage.

pour from the pan through a final, fine straining. here we strained through a small bag of cheese cloth, right into the small jars. ideally the faster the mixture gets into the jars the better since it will soon be cooling into a waxy balm.

when using medicinal herbs to make ointments the herbs are soaked for a period no less than 6 weeks in olive oil. even as much as a year when using something thats very resiny like cotton wood buds. olive oil is recommended first, because the cold press variety is very stable and will keep for a long time. second it has itself some very soothing medicinal properties. if the herbs are picked fresh and are very moist they should be dried before being added to the oil. a good guideline is a half and half mixture of herb to oil. this will vary on how the herb behaves in the oil while soaking. if it compresses and stays low, more of the herb can be put in the mix. if the herb expands as it soaks, less herb and more oil should be put in to the container.

next to the fir pitch is the healing salve made with calendula, comfrey and plantain. a note on these plants: each of them has the genus name 'officianale'. when a plant has officianale in its scientific name it can be inferred that there is a long history of this plant as a prime medicinal herb. calendula is very soothing, acting as a mild anesthetic, it is also anti-viral, anti inflammatory. comfrey contains what is called cell proliferants. these compounds enable skin cells to multiply much faster, repairing wounds. it has been shown to work so effectively that if used on wounds too deep the compounds will enable the wound to close over at the surface faster than from the bottom, which will sometimes cause an abscess. in the case of deep wounds a thinner infusion of comfrey is best to use as a wash rather than in an ointment. plantain has a powerful ability to draw out of wounds contaminants, infections and poisons. in the absence of a salve, with plantain available, the plants are unbeatable when used as a poultice to treat wounds, bites, stings.

next to that is the lip balm. i wish i had gotten more pictures of this process only because it was funny to watch the effort of trying to pour the hot mixture of beeswax and oil into those tiny tubes. but i was the one doing the pouring, trying not to laugh.

on top is balm of gilead made from cotton wood buds

the resin of cotton wood buds is strong with anti-microbial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties. it also acts like a natural aspirin, easing the pain of bad burns, scrapes and abrasions. it also happens to smell......well, its hard to just say it smells very good and leave it at that. thats not quite enough. but all the descriptors i think of to try and get closer dont seem adequate either. soothing, peaceful... almost

as hard as it may be to believe, i dont really have words for it. some of it may be something nostalgic, something from some pre-memory childhood emotion that was particularly pleasant. i would not be surprised if my reaction is a bit more melodramatic than others but everyone agrees that it is incredibly pleasant. i think there is something in it that is like a reassurance. its this feeling that you are being looked out for. that while nature is cold, indifferent and violent it is also, everywhere placing within your grasp the means to survive and be raised up in health and in comfort.

prepackaged or otherwise.

some finished projects and some ongoing

2010-03-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

a lot of class time in the last couple months has been designated to workshop, time set aside for working toward finishing up those pieces, of which there are many, that can not be finished in one day of class or within the schedule constraints of our personal lives.

this is the final product from the blacksmithing weekend. ive actually had the knife and sheath finished for a while but forsome reason failed to mention it until now. thank you for your patience. i realize many children went hungry because of this. but better late than never.

this is the wing bone yelper, also a project finished a while ago which i mentioned in an earlier blog but never put up a good picture of. since making them, about 15 minutes to half an hour of every class session is spent practicing the basic hen yelp. we will rotate around the class giving each student the floor to give their best yelps, then the whole class will practice belting them out. its hard to explain how loud and surreal this noise can become as the cacophony is pulled through the body parts of a once living bird. it is a great way to start the day. and believe it or not, there is more sincerity in that statement than sarcasm.

the yelp is attempting to break the natural order of the mating ritual. usually the jake(male) will draw in the hen by doing a puffed up, feather shaking, gobblygook dance. when hunting you are basically pretending to be stuck up hen who is too lazy to make the effort to see the show. maybe this hard to get attitude is what lures the jake to you. considering the relative savvy bird brain on a turkey i think there is testament to human ingenuity that this works at all. or perhaps a testament to the power of lust.

a couple of fun projects here. at the top is a net shuttle, hand carved from a piece of cherry wood. wrapping it is cordage made from the dog bane plant. using our shuttles, the entire class is contributing some of their cordage to a communal dip net. hopefully it will be finished in time to be used on some upcoming primitive style fishing trips. the folded envelope was crafted during a day of working with rawhide. a few small items were made as an introduction to the material but the where about of my thimble and needle are currently unknown. sad face.

the bow has come a long way. as of now i am ready to cut in the knocks and begin the process of tillering. this is the process where the bow aquires its flex, draw length and draw weight. in some ways i am almost done. in some ways im just getting started. either way its starting to look like something other than a chunk of a log and i can now die happy.

that is if arrow straightening doesnt drive me insane

so a primitive arrow shaft starts as the straightest, pinky thick piece of green wood you can find. shave off the outer bark and then start straightening any major kinks. the best method, the only method to my knowledge, for getting pieces of wood to straighten is to heat them to the point of being too hot to touch but not hot enough to scorch. this may sound relatively straightforward but let me assure you it is not. its like being lied to. the arrow shaft mocks you with its failure to heat in the appropriate areas. you think you are heating one area but come to find out a spot further down the wood is getting hotter than the part over the flame! now watch it go from bone cold to scorched in .0000006 seconds! i swear i can hear someone laughing.

steaming is supposed to be a good way to get the job done. supposedly an open pot should develop enough steam and heat to bend make the arrow shaft flexible. well, anyone who thinks they have gotten that to work for them is either crazy or magic. in the first picture you can see my creative solution to the problem of an open boil in a pan failing to heat the stick properly. the hole in the tin foil was intended to focus the steam to one spot. this did not work. next you see a strange contraption of various kitchen aids layered on each other with the arrow shaft sandwiched in between. my hopes was that this tent like structure would concentrate the steam and heat around the shaft, making it hot enough to bend. this did not work either.

finally i was only left with the option of holding the shaft over the direct open flame of my gas range. this worked. sort of. the arrow shaft was not the only thing getting hot. i ended the night with chapped lips, dry eyes, red fingers but only a couple of light scorches on the shaft. im sure practice will result in a more refined technique and im told that a steaming kettle does the job for sure.

fletching the arrow is much more fun

we used some of the feathers from a bird we had butchered in another class, split them down the middle, scraped the central vein flat and then lashed them to the shaft

once i had the feathers secured with some deer sinew it instantly transformed from an implement of mental anguish into a piece of art. thats not tooting my own horn, its just that its hard to make it look ugly.

in the coming weeks we will be learning percussion flaking and flint knapping. stay tuned for arrow heads coming up....

pizza and ale

2010-02-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

this is stinging nettle.

Urtica dioica

if you have never been stung by nettle before i recommend it. as strange as that sounds its one of the most interesting sensations ive ever felt. the initial shock of it is the worst. once the first bite is over you are left with the sensation that the area of skin where you were hit has fallen asleep. its that feeling of pins and needles as when a limb is coming back to life from being slept on. this sensastion will last for a couple of days. its sort of fun. cheap thrills.

if you are not so in to the sting you can usually find plantain growing near nettle

aside from being a highly edible, highly nutritious plant in its own right, juices from the pulverized leaves of the Plantago genus will negate the stinging effects of the nettle's acids

speaking of thrills:

nettle ale.

like some sort of high school delinquent, nature is practically begging you to get high. it seems like every time i turn around there is some green or moldy thing trying to push its chemicals on me. JUST SAY NO.

OR add a lot of sugar, small amount of yeast and cream of tartar to a pot of nettle infusion, bottle, let sit for 4 days, then get SMASHED.

of course no party would be complete without some pizza

there will be a lot of boiled greens left over from making the infusion. once heated the formic acid that gives stinging nettle its sting will be neutralized. pizza is one of about a thousand options for using nettle. the cooked greens can also be frozen in the event that it is not practical to use all that has been collected. and in the right spot there can be a LOT of nettle collected.

the best picking for nettle is when it has first started to poke out in the spring. after it has grown to a couple of feet its nutritional value has diminished and after it has gone to flower it is not really any good for eating anymore outside of a survival situation. although, late season growth is the ideal time to harvest the stalks for trimming, drying and using for making cordage the seeds themselves are a good food source, ground into powder, added to tea or to flour.

the nutritional value of this plant can not be understated. in fact they are so healthy it can be DANGEROUS. if you have kidney stones it would be best to not eat very much nettle if at all. for healthy kidneys nettle is incredibly purifying, for the bladder as well but again, not after the plant is too old and drink lots of water when consuming and dont over do it. high in protein, vitamins and minerals so potent that in the early stages of growth the concentrations in the leaves will give the undersides a beautiful purple tinge. a little bit goes a long way. its worth reading up on the medicinal value and contraindications.

if alchohol is not your thing a faster, sweeter alternative can be found in ginger ale from wild ginger

infusion of the root, bit of sugar, add seltzer water, done.

wild ginger is pretty delicate and not widespread. relatively slow growing and humble its nice to not pick too much of it in any given area, if you find it. this is fine because wild ginger is another potent individual that doesnt need very much to get you going. good for digestion, circulation and treating nausea, the roots from 2 or 3 plants is all you need to make a batch of ginger ale or to dry and use for seasoning.

another spring addition to the spice rack is western hemlock

the youngest spring leaves shoots can be picked, dried and ground. even still, the leaves of ANY evergreen can be used year round for teas very high in vitamin C.

miners lettuce can be found growing in along with all the plants mentioned above.

this stuff is the vegetation equivalent of potato chips. but healthier. a strong flavor, earthy and fresh. just dont stuff too many in at once or it might be overwhelming. same goes for your dorritos.

stay tuned for more edibles coming up. spring is in full swing and things are just getting started.

foraging and butchering.

2010-01-31T12:29:00.000-08:00

i decided to acually take a day off during the week. since october i have not had a day off and at first i loved being that busy but i am not built for that kind of pace. im definitely more efficient if i give myself at least one day where i have free choice to do whatever the hell i want.

anyway, day off: went out with a friend from the class to try some wild edible gathering. this was the first time i had gone out to pick things with the intent of including them in meals and it was incredibly exciting to actually be putting into application the cumulative study of the past few months. study which, with no days off or time for exploring, has been relegated to books and classrooms. it felt like hatching. like ive been developing inside an egg, and now the shell has opened and i can actually experience the world. albeit, feebly and with much apprehension. i saw a documentary on eagles a couple weeks ago and there was a lot of close up footage of the young eaglets learning to use their wings. there is lots of hopping up and down, disorganized flapping and comical flopping around befor they actually catch a wind current and figure out forward momentum. i feel sort of like that. maybe not quite so majestic. but pretty majestic.

the northwest has been experiencing an unseasonably warm stretch of weather so even though its only january there are lots of new green things breaking ground. much i did not recognize and some we were on the fence about but there was a modest collection to be had none-the-less. for all my uncoordinated hopping and flopping around it looked like a banquet feast. we harvested large batches of young dandelion greens, nettle and cotton wood buds. also we marked spots for salal berry and rose hips which will come in later on in the season as well as some developing patches of field mustard, plantain and what may or may not have been chickweed. and of course any open area in seattle is riddled with blackberry bushes.

so the next adventure is learning to cook with the things i collect. i need to start a collection of recipes. i made an omlette with the dandelion greens which was actually not horrible although i did learn the importance of cutting the dandelion greens into smaller pieces. otherwise you end up with a solid mass of tangled stems wrapped in egg. the nettled faired a bit better. they went well with some sausage and garlic over noodles with a white wine sauce.

i can feel the potential for some really good things happening as my confidence increases but i think we are going to see a lot of pasta dishes as well. its an easy default position which is hard to mess up.
as mild as my cooking skills are i feel completely lost in trying to figure out how to approach all these new flavors and preparation requirements. but its a great, great feeling to see the beginnings of a whole new line of skills starting to come into play. there arnt too many feelings better than experiencing the power of new abilities.

class itself has been pretty intense. this quarter is focusing more on the animal and preparing for hunting, where as last quarter focused on plant uses. as an introduction to cleaning and harvesting food and tools from an animal there have been several sessions involving cleaning and butchering, followed by the making of some pretty awesome crafts. my favorite has been the wing bone caller. its a turkey call made from the wing bones of...wait for it...a turkey.

ironic that inside this animal is the makings of a mechanism that will help you catch more of this animal. there was also a deer leg, then some fish and this past week, a canadian goose. more birds are on the agenda. this class wont get into big game as thats reserved for the hunting specific course which ill be taking in the fall this year.

so, just about every week this month ive come home to clean blood off my clothing. never thought i would find reward in that. i also feel a small bit of guilt. like its in some way disrespectful to remove from my clothes the blood of an animal that gave its life for the sake of my education and nourishment. part of me thinks this is not just some grass stain i should be so eager to rid myself of. maybe i should leave them there and just tell people "yes these dark spots are blood. dont worry its from an animal"

no, that wouldnt work either. oh well. hopefully i will be forgiven for my callous laundry detergent.

im still waiting on pictures a classmate took of the deer leg dissection but if you arnt squeemish about animals being cleaned and would like to see more of the canadian goose process, more of the turkey wing caller as well as some other recent activities you can check them out on my flickr page.

the clam. and murder.

2009-12-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

it can be hard to question the arguments of vegetarians and vegans without sounding like i am becoming defensive or trying to rationalize my meat consumption and assuage my guilt. maybe subconsciously there is some of that? there is a lot about the arguments of the animal rights crowd that i agree with. i think that factory farms are gross ecological disasters and the processed meat industry has not done much in the way of keeping us healthy. i also think that animals have been poorly treated in fur trade, science, as human companions and a number of other ways. i do not argue against any of that.

where i take issue with the animals rights activists is in their claim that meat is murder. period. not if's and's or but's.

my question is this: at what point in the course of human evolution did it become murderous to take the life of an animal?

the whole of human progression has been made with the use of animals whether used for war, transportation, beast of burden or food so there can only be two options for making the argument that meat is unethical: either there was some turning point where taking the life of an animal became immoral OR it must have always been immoral.

i think the later premise is impossible to defend simply because it requires the moralizing of the survival instinct. ancient humans, in a bid for survival, hunted animals. i see no way in which you can justify claiming that this was wrong.

as for the former premise, what was the event to cause such a turning point?

what i have heard most often is that we do not need to eat meat to survive which makes the grotesqueness of modern farming that much more appalling. this is true. however, i would argue that we would never have gotten to a point where modern farming makes meat unnecessary where it not for slaughtering animals.

before the development of agriculture humans where hunter-gatherers. our sustenance came from wild edible plants and the wild animals we were able to kill. the domestication of wild plants and animals changed the profile of our relationship with the environment such that we gradually made a transition from migratory foragers to sedentary villagers. in hindsight, the inevitability and/or the wisdom of such a transition may be debatable, however one unavoidable fact is that the stationary societies growing up around agriculture allowed for developments that were not possible within a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. namely, a higher birthrate, the development of complex political hierarchies and specialist craftsmen. the large population and the technologies resulting from these developments is what leads to factory farming.

lets say we all became vegans tomorrow. a civilization with the technology and resources needed in order to provide food for everyone could only be made possible as a result of millennium of using animals as food and tools. a strange predicament. to say that the modern meat eater is wrong for eating meat is to say that all of human progress has been wrong.

to make this argument tenable one would have to completely abandon all modern progress and live without any modern convenience whatsoever much as our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived. which would then require you to hunt for food.

this is not to say that being vegetarian or vegan is a waste of time in any way. there is definitely some accountability involved in obtaining food humanely and responsibly and vegetarians and vegans are doing what they think is necessary to hold themselves accountable. however, i think that saying meat is murder regardless of how it was produced is an argument that can not stand up within a logical reality.

the question then becomes: "if you choose to eat meat, how to do so in a humane and responsible way?"

im sure i dont need to bore you with the numerous ways in which people are attempting to raise animals humanely and responsibly. we are all familiar.

for me an important piece of the answer to that question is participation. in the civilization following the development of agriculture everyone but those working on a farm were separated from the process of food production and thus the ways and means of that process where utterly forgotten or ignored by the majority of people. i think this separation and the disconnect which follows is directly responsible for the degradation of our food supply. it leads to corner cutting for the sake of the bottom line. it also creates a mass of people who eat meat and yet are incredibly squeamish about the taking of an animals life. humane and responsible animal treatment is only possible when the consumer holds themselves accountable for where their food comes from, demanding ethical and healthy treatment.

i only speak for myself but i think the best way to ensure this happens is to learn proper hunting technique from an experienced and ethical hunter and learn to do it myself

of course i could stop eating meat. but as i have already argued i do not think killing an animal for meat is wrong. i would also feel as though i were being inconsistent with a meat free diet unless i were to eliminate animal products entirely from my life. this is what the vegans attempt to do but is something i believe to be impossible unless you are living in an environment completely removed from all modern convenience. which as i have already argued would most likely require you to hunt anyway.

my first hands on experience in this learning curve was harvesting the humble razor clam.

it might not look like much of a beast but it will put up a significant fight. they sense the vibrations caused by you looking for their resting place and they begin to dig and they can dig very fast and they are very strong. more than once i had to dig my own arm out of the sand after chasing a clam into its hole, the waves washing sand in over my arm as i dug, the whole time gripping the wriggling, digging animal with just the tips of my fingers.

with a lot of luck and a little skill you get your limit and bring the bunch home in a bucket of salt water to gut and clean them

i think cleaning an animal is where you really earn your meal. for anyone that isnt completely desensitized or sadistic it can be a pretty powerful experience to hold something in your hand and feel the struggle of it resisting your attempts to kill it.

if you are like me and the only experience youve ever had in gathering food comes from the aisle of a super market then taking the guts out of something that is still moving will really make you feel the gulf that exists between your mouth and where your food comes from. for my part i wont ever think about the process the same way.

chopped onion and garlic, a small bit of chopped mild jalapeño, white wine, olive oil, noodles, fresh basil. cook the clam just long enough for it to color from translucent to opaque, about 50 seconds.

deliciousness.

if you get the chance and you have any interest in the meat debate i recommend reading this website for the opposing end of the argument

http://www.hedweb.com/arfaq/arpage.htm

bow and basket

2009-12-12T17:28:00.000-08:00

bows and baskets are 2 good examples of how primitive does NOT mean crappy. easy examples. but good.

im sure youve found yourself sitting there, contemplating your ham sandwich and found yourself thinking something like, "gee i wonder who was the first person to put a piece of meat between two pieces of bread". well, now try imagining "primitive" man running around with bears and giant cats chasing him, trying to figure out how to turn a tree into a hunting weapon. or a woven vessel for carrying home the harvested meat.

right. mind: blown.

i mean, it seems so incredibly simple. weave some branches together. done.

rip a branch off a tree and throw some deer gut on there. problem solved.

but really think about the mechanics of it. weaving the simplest of baskets takes a leap of mechanical logic that i think most, myself included, would under-estimate. think about it this way:

baskets are the only hand made craft that can not be automated. you can not build a machine that can make a basket. and yet here we are making them. thats something really interesting about the notion of "simple". sometimes the things we think are simple or easy actually involve brain tricks that are incredibly complex. they are only made possible as a result of a compiling of a lifetime of learned motor skills and we just take for granted the ability to pull off these tricks because we've slowly built up to them. even still our first attempts will be of questionable value. the only reason we dont pop a fuse when we sit down to make a basket for the first time is because the brain is able to asses, improvise and create new learning pathways so fast we dont even know its happening.

but when did this first happen? who was the human that woke up one day and realized they could weave a basket? and what was their inspiration? how would you conceptualize a basket if you had never seen one before? what is your frame of reference? what enticed them to that particular solution? i realize all this is mental masturbation but its these dark, long lost points in time that there is no memory nor history of, where strokes of immense genius happened that for me, are a BIG part of the fascination in learning these skills.

the bow has been automated. there are machines that turn space age plastics into pieces of hunting machinery which are beautiful in their own right. but for all their displays of engineering innovation they seem a bit like gilding on the lilly, products more of marketing than practical innovation. but this is a novice speaking so dont take that to heart.

what i can say is that as far as the wooden bow goes not much has changed. the engineering developed thousands of years ago for constructing a hunting weapon out of wood is largely the same engineering used today. like a shark, perfected by evolution, needing no improvement. creative artistry being the dominant influence for evolving design.

in comparison to some of the amazing peices of deadly art that are being produced i feel like a palsy victim being asked to paint the roof of the sistine chapel on the head of a pin

this is a stave cut from an ash tree. awaiting my ineptitude.

practically just getting started and the bow is already drawing blood.

i had a disagreement with my draw knife. draw knife won. bob ross would say "there are no mistakes, only happy accidents". well...i guess the happy part of this is that i got a sweet blood stain on my bow. unfortunately it didnt stick around too long because i ended up having to take a *#$!-load more wood off then i would have liked

to make the bow back the outer bark must be stripped away and the wood shaved until one continuous growth ring, which follows the entire longitude of the stave has been exposed. the back of a bow undergoes enormous stress when the bow is pulled so the growth ring on the back must be continuous and unbroken. there can be no split fibers, cuts, dings or chips. any corruption of the growth ring will cause a stress point which will eventually fail and the bow will snap.

with a white wood like ash this should be a relatively easy task. with some types of wood a bow must be made from the heart wood where the fiber in the rings are dense and strong. white wood is all sap wood and in the late wood or "summer wood" the fibers are very strong so you can pretty much start the back of your bow on the ring directly under the outer bark.

everything was going well until i nicked a very small, unseen knot and a big rip opened up in the wood ring, right where the bow shape would lay. so, i have to shave down another ring. which wouldnt have been so bad except the outer growth rings on this stave are paper thin. so of course i shaved too deep and before i know it one extra ring turned into like, 10

but i think i finally nailed it. it is tricky to say the least especially when the rings are so thin. it can be mind boggling to keep track of what ring you are on and not go too deep due to confusing a given ring for the ring below it. or above it. or something...anyway, all those esoteric markings on the stave are me trying to learn how to not mess up.

and now for the bad news:

the splits you see on the corner of the stave are called checks. checking is something you do not want. it means your stave has not dried completely or has somehow been humidified after being dried and then re-dried too fast. my mistake was not re-applying a sealant to the ends of the stave after i started working it. of, course there was no way for me to know this until after it had happened and i whined "WWHHHYY MEEE??" on just about every bow making forum on the internet.

i have since been reassured that all is not lost. there is still the shaping of the bow itself left to do and i think i can work around the splits.

stay tuned

you payed for the whole seat...

BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE EDGE

primitive does not mean crappy

2009-11-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

"primitive does not mean crappy." frank sherwood drops a lot of gold nuggets while instructing classes but i think thats my favorite so far.

since starting a primitive skills apprenticeship the word "primitive" has taken on new qualities. im not sure i even know what it means anymore. what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word primitive? if you would have asked me this question a year ago i would have come up with something similar to what you find in part of the miriam webster definition: "crude, rudimentary"

the more i learn about primitive skills the harder it is for me to see any of it as being crude or rudimentary. certainly not in the way of something that is inferior.

i thought a lot about how i could describe how elegant and highly refined in design primitive tech can be, how perfectly it melds form and function, how very much it is NOT crappy

but that is all very obvious to anyone who choses to look closely with an open mind. the examples are many and varied and i think there is something more subtle behind the statement "primitive does not mean crappy"

there are three necessities that all life needs in order to continue: shelter(as in any form of protection from the elements be it a coat of fur or a condo), food and reproduction. all technological achievements since the dawn of man have stemmed from the desire to make the acquisition of those three things easier and more efficient. there have been some pretty amazing achievements in that regard and we tend to think of ourselves as pretty advanced as a result of all the flashy whiz bang we find ourselves surrounded by. but there is a word in all of that which bothers me to no end: "we"

first of all how many of us are actually benefiting from these amazing achievements? there are a great many people on this planet living in conditions that push the lowest examples of the definition of inferior, who would answer that question by saying: not too many. there is another, comparably large group of people who are not living in squalor but for whatever reason have not embraced or been over-run by modern technological advances and are living much closer to their primitive roots than they are to any sort of technological utopia. that leaves a very small number of people who are living in the whiz bang techno dream.

now heres the kicker.

most of them, most of "we", myself included, have no idea how any of it works. take the simplest piece of technology in your own house and ask yourself if you know how it works. me, i thought of my toilet. i have a very vague idea of how it works and i know how to make the tank stop releasing water into the bowl. anything beyond that, i have to call a plumber. there may be a few other examples of other things i could fix around the house but they are all equally...wait for it...rudimentary. the minute we hit the kitchen and start talking about things like microwaves and blenders, forget about it. even people that are good at fixing microwaves and blenders have people they call to fix things. even a rocket scientist probably has to call a plumber and the whole field of people who work in some "fix it" capacity is a tiny fraction of us here in the modern whiz bang techno world. an even smaller group of people are those who actually create something truly innovative. some idea or some trick of engineering which pushes the whole whiz bang ride a little further forward. if there where only 100 people alive in the world how many of them would be this type of person? one? if we are lucky. more likely we have to go through a few generations to get a really good one.

luckily those bright and shiny few have figured out a way to make the fruits of their labor accessible to the rest of us. a few others, sharing another type of genius whos merits are debatable, figure out how to turn it into a buck. you see where i am going with this? the rest of us are operating with the most crude, the most rudimentary knowledge of how anything works.

we are primitive.

we have no real understanding of the technologies that support and drive our societies. we really are like monkeys in a rocket. weve been strapped in, taught a few simple commands for button pushing and then launched into space. the complexities and inner workings of the machine that carries us are so far beyond our scope of understanding they are not even remote considerations. we do nothing more than gaze at the flashing lights in front of us, watery eyed and dazed. every so often muscle memory causes us to push a button when we hear the voice of our trainers prodding us on.

but then when it comes to talking about how great all of this whiz bang is suddenly "we" are all due credit. the human race is instantly united in this glorious awards ceremony and we are all winners. then, suddenly our bic lighter stops working and the whole f-ing world comes unglued because we cant light our cigarette.

wait, thats just me.

there is a very good book by kurt vonnegut called player piano where all technology is destroyed because everyone gets this idea that technology and capitalism is evil and has corrupted humanity. without giving too much away, one of the final scenes is a group of people standing around an automatic juice dispenser, kicking and punching it, trying to make the juice come out.

"we" are not due any credit and i think we would be well off to remember that the word "we" is very often riddled with false pride. being proud of something infers some personal achievement. but what have i achieved that has elevated the human race to such admirable heights? stripped of modern convenience most of us would, very simply, die.

there is another part to the definition of primitive: "not derived. assumed as a basis". to me this speaks to that which is most fundamental. all of this "we" aside, what am I when i am stripped of everything but my own two hands?

recently during earthwalks survival techniques weekend course i learned one of the most primitive of primitive skills, making friction fire using the bow drill method. i wont go into the mechanics of it, there are a truck load of you tube videos dedicated to the subject but i will say this: the thrill you will experience from making fire with no modern technology never gets old. no drug will get you that high, that consistently. everytime you do it you tap in directly to what exactly is so great about being human and you feel immense pride.

but for now im just happy i can light my cigarette even if my lighter stops working.

elderberry: the mountain man's soft side.

2009-11-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Elederberry

Sambucus caerulea

Adoxaceae (honeysuckle) family

shrub to small tree to 6m tall with soft pithy twigs. the bark is dark reddish brown and warty. yes, warty. the foliage has a strong, characteristic odor. the flowers, blooming in creamy white, rounded pyramidal parasol-like clusters are downright stinky. however, the smell is banished with drying or cooking. the flowers, battered and fried are said to be delicious.

the flowers can also be steeped in oil which is used for soothing, therapeutic, massage. mmm survival is sexy!

there are a few different types of elderberry in washington. red, blue and black (S. caerulea , S. racemosa. black elder is a sub species of red).

which type of elderberry you will be picking will depend on which region of washington you are in. west of the cascades grows red elder, in the rich moist soils of open meadows, swampy thickets and stream banks. on the interior, east of the cascades where it dries out a little you will find more blue and black elder. there is hardly any difference other than the color of their fruit and all of them are highly medicinal. flower infusions and berry extracts have been proven to fight influenza very effectively. infusions and tinctures can also be applied externally to treat swelling, rashes, chilblains, conjunctivitis, and for eye washes.

there are many food uses for the berries. from juice to pie filling. oh and lets not forget elderberry wine, because nature loves to get you drunk. the plant in the picture is blue elder and it is the bush we used for making jelly.

probably my favorite thing about this class is the drastic transitions in the curriculum. one day we are learning how to make knives and the next day we are making jelly. right when im getting in touch with my inner mountain man he takes a seat for my inner grandmother. if you cant have fun making jam then i feel bad for you. in any case making jelly is best way to preserve your elderberries for long term storage.

seperate the berries as best you can from as much of the fine, tiny stems as possible and put into a large pot with just enough water to moisten the berries. bring to a full boil. elderberries have levels of cyanide in them that can make you sick if eaten raw but cooking neutralizes cyanide. cyanide is also destroyed on contact with air so if you must eat elderberries raw (which are still very tastey) they can be crushed to split the seeds and dried for a short while which will destroy the cyanide.

start the berries on medium heat and begin mashing them. if need be a little more water can be added. mash the berries until they are boiling and let boil for about 3-4 minutes then add some lemon juice.

when the berries are done boiling pour them through a strainer to seperate the juice. press and mash the berries into the strainer to extract as much juice as you can. if you are not in a hurry a jelly bag can be used to let the berries sit and strain. a good trick for fast juicing is to put the strained berries into a ziplock bag and gently mash and squeeze. pour the berries back into the strainer or poke a hole in the bag and squeeze through the juice.

when you have as much juice as will satisfy your given level of OCD the juice goes back in to the pot with an equal amount of sugar. a little less can be used just dont use MORE sugar than juice. with the sugar add one 4 0z. packet of pectin. pectin is what makes a jelly or jam set and firm into something spreadable. all berries contain pectin but some are higher than others. apples and pears are very high in pectin along with choke cherry, crab apple and hawthorn berries. these fruits may not even need extra pectin to set and and some of their juice can be added to jelly recipes using fruits with lower pectin.

next bring the mixture to a full boil, one that can not be stirred down. if the mixture begins excessive foaming and frothing add a small amount of oil. test for donenes using a sheeting test with a cold spoon. after the mixture has been boiling a few minutes take a cold spoon and dip into the sauce. remoe the spoon and hold sideways. the jelly mix should fall away from the spoon in a sheet with little sticking to the spoon. if it drips and is liquidy it isnt ready yet. some juices like that of elderberry, dont sheet very easily but you can tell they are done if the mixture forms a thick ridge along the bottom edge of the spoon.

right from the stove, begin pouring the mixture into canning jars. befor using the jars make sure you have sanitized them. this should be done by boiling the lids and tops and pouring boiling water into the empty, clean jars. boiling the lids also softens the rubber seals, ensuring a tight fit. later, the jars and screw caps may be re-used but do not reuse the rubber lined lids.

fill the jars to the twist lines and wip the edges clean. it is important that the edges are clean so that there is no residue in the screw top which may go bad and contaminate the jelly.

as the mixture cools the air inside the jar condenses and the pop top on the lid will depress. this is how you know if/when your seal is tight and secure. once the lids are screwed down and seal all you need to do is wait. the jelly will be finished setting and ready to eat in about a week.

enjoy!

oak trees, acorns

2009-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

one of the first plants we were introduced to was oak. in washington the only native oak is the garry oak or oregon white oak.

Quercas garryana of the family Fagaceae. the beech family.

garry oak can be found in dry climates, lower elevation, on rocky bluffs and slopes. a heavy limbed tree up to 25m it may be short and crooked in rocky habitats.

light grey bark with thick, deep furrows and ridges. the trees normally have a dense rounded crown but tops may be narrow and irregular when found in stands.

the flowers are tiny and incospicous appearing in spring with the leaves. both male and female flowers grow on the same plant with males in long hanging catkins , females in small clusters

the leaves are alternate, decidous and lobed, 12 cm long, shiny, leathery, dark green on top, lighter and velvety or hairy on the bottom.

the acorns are ripened and falling early to mid fall but the bark is harvestable year round

there are other oak trees in washington but garry oak is the most wide spread and it is nice to work with as an edible because of its relatively low tannin content. there are three types of oak: white, red and black. all are edible but black and red have high levels of tannin in their acorns. this isnt a bad thing per se it just requires a bit more preparation to be palatable. the tannins have many medicinal properties so generally speaking, if you are harvesting for food white oaks have a slight advantage but if you are harvesting for medicinal use red and black have an upper hand.

there are some easy ways to tell the difference between a white oak and red or black oaks

white oak:

rounded leaf tips

lower tannin

cream colored nut meats

smooth inner shells

red and black oak:

pointed leaf tips

high tannins

yellow or orange nut meats

fuzzy inside the shells

good harvesting etiquette is to pick the acorns that have already fallen. this also ensures you the highest ration of ripe fruit. while collecting or after you have your full harvest, inspect the acorns for any obvious rotting or molding or small holes that are indicative of insect infestation. if the acorns are not going to be processed immediately after collecting they need to be dried or frozen. some options for drying are in the house at room temperature, in the oven with very low temperature, in the sun, next to a fire or with a food dehydrator. there are pros and cons to each method but for long term storage without freezing they must be dried. after drying acorns should be inspected once or twice over the 2 weeks following drying to double check for cracks, holes and molding.

when the acorns are ready to be processed, whether fresh, frozen or dried, remove the knurled crown from the top of the shell and then break open the shell to remove the nut meat. anything hard will crack open the shell of course but i am now biased toward the traditional method of using a stone implement.

not only is stone free but there is a nice practicality to it. the shapes are right and there is a nice elegance to it. the stones feel right and their weight helps you appreciate the reward you are working for. it is not hard work, very meditative and very satisfying.

there will be papery skins over the nut meat which should be peeled away. once the nut meat has been seperated the tannins must be leeched. poor the nuts into boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. the water must be boiling or it will take much much longer for the tannins to leech out. for red and black oak the boilling process may need to be repeated once or twice. it should be repeated with fresh water since within 5 minutes the tannin content in the water has reach equilibrium with the nuts and no more leeching will happen. adding a bit of canning salt to the boiling process will prolong the acorns shelf life.

in a wilderness or survival setting the water might not be saved and boiling may not be an easy option. in such cases the acorns can be leeched by soaking the nuts in running water like a river or stream for several hours. another method is to grind the nut meat and pour boiling water directly over the meal. one brilliant method involves digging a hole in the sand and pouring the ground nuts into the sand. cover the hole with pine boughs and pour boiling water over the grindings. a gelatin film will develop between the acorn meal and the sand and the meal can be carefully scraped up without getting any sand mixed in.

if possible do not pour out the water! while not at all tasty, the tannins have many medicinal and utilitarian uses. tannin is a strong astringent and antiseptic. the tannic water can be reduced and used for mouth rinses, dying, tanning and laundry detergent. tonics can be used to treat burns, diarreah, hemorrhoids, dandruff, boils and a host of other medicinal uses. another element leached out is quercin. quercin will bind with skin proteins to speed the healing process for cuts, burns, lesions and more. the nuts can be eaten raw and un-leeched in small quantities to treat diarrhea but i emphasize SMALL quantities. excesive tannin intake can lead to kidney failure. the bark of the oak tree has the highest tannin and quercin content. infusions of inner bark peelings have been used to treat tuberculosis and small pox. oak wood is also good for making bow staves and baskets.

once leeched the nuts are ready to eat and incredibly nutritious. they are high in protein and vitamins and minerals. a handful of acorns has more nutritional value than a pound of fresh hamburger. they are lower in fat than other nuts and low sugar so they are good for controlling blood sugar. even though they are low in sugar they have a particularly sweet nutty taste so if they are to be used in any recipes calling for sugar the sugar amounts can be lowered slightly.

there is still some tannic taste which may not be palatable alone but they are delicious added to soups and stews. they can be ground down into a flour and used to make muffins and breads or almost anything else that calls for flour in the recipe. if they are going to be ground for flour then it is a good idea to dry the nuts a little befor grinding but they can be ground wet, especially if they are being used in a bread recipe and dried out after grinding. acorn flour is very low gluten content so when making baked goods it should be mixed with wheat or corn flour. if the recipe includes eggs this will also aid in the binding.

im trying to find out where the oak trees are in the area in and around seattle so if you know a location or come across one please dont hesitate to share and i wont hesitate to share a muffin. fair trade?

wild edible plants

2009-10-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

at some point in our lives we reach a point where we realize, whether consciously or unconsciously that there is a lot to learn and we cant learn it all at once. i realize this is perhaps an obvious truth but it is something that frustrates me incredibly and makes me wish i could be smart enough to still learn new things but dumb enough to forget that it isnt all going to happen tomorrow.

in learning the taxonomy of plants i have come to appreciate this handicap in new ways.

we all know taxonomy as that latin gibberish used in text books to classify plants and animals. those latin names are comprised of 2 parts. the first word, always capitalized refers to the genus. the second word, always lower case, refers to the specific species. as frustrating as it may be, learning the scientific name offers one clear advantage. any given plant may have several different common names like in the case of the white water lilly which has over 240 common names. sometimes completely unrelated species of plants will have the same common name as in iron weed. the frustration of learning the scientific names greatly outweighs the confusion of relying only on common names. but, my god, what a chore.

the good news is that plants are also grouped into families and the common name of the family is not as fallible as the common names of individual species. getting to know the identifying characteristics of plant families can allow you to recognize other plants of the same family without having to know the exact name of the plant. this can narrow things down greatly and point you in the exact direction of where to look for the specific name and attributes of the plant. when trying to figure out if a plant is usable as food or medicine the reference material used is important.

some sources are biased against wild plants and will list a certain plant as toxic and dangerous when there could be many qualifying factors involved. some reference will state that pokeweed is poisons and should be avoided. it does contain poisonous compounds however these can be reduced to edible levels by repeated boiling. the plant has also been used through-out history in various medicinal ways. some plants are toxic in different stages of growth. some plants have toxic parts to them and some parts which are safe. some plants have toxic elements which can be eliminated with proper treatment. elderberry has dangerous levels of cyanide but this can be nuetralized through cooking and elderberry can be used to make delicous drinks, fruit preserves and sauces. to be completely fair potatoes can be dangerous if their sprouts where eaten as they contain the same dangerous chemicals found in a relative of the potato, deadly night shade. but we all know how to eat potatoes safely and take this information for granted. it is important to know the difference between plants that are dangerous in all parts and uses and plants that contain dangerous elements but may be edible or medicinal with proper usage.

there are many characteristics unique to each plant which is useful for identification but the sure fire way to know a plant is the structure of its flowers. a flower is divided into a few major parts. ascending from the stem up and from the outside in, they are the sepals, petals, stamen, pistil. with some exceptions, these elements are always in place. some flowers have leafy growths from the base which are called bracts and from above these leaf structures will come the sepals. if there is no distinct separation between a line of sepals and a line of petals then the flower only has sepals and no petals. there are also composite flowers which are actually a large grouping of very small flowers into a flower shaped head.

the structure of the flower is what groups plants into families. so, the plants in the mustard family will always have 4 petals and 6 stamen (4 long and 2 short) and if you find a plant with a flower that has 4 petals, 6 stamen of 4 long and 2 short, then you know it is a member of the mustard family. the joy of this is that there are 3200 species in the mustard family. all of them are edible.

also very important in identifying a plant is recognizing leaf morphology. there are only a few types of leaves but they are categorized into different shapes, arrangement on the stalks, vein patterns and margin serration. together the leaf and flower structures of a plant give you an overall image of identity.

however, over a plants lifetime its over all image may change drastically, depending on season and what stage of the plants growth cycle you find it in. leaf arrangements and flower structures will always be the same. but some plants are shaped so differently at different parts of their lives they almost can be mistaken for 2 different plants.

there are 3 types of life cycles for all plants.

annuals are plants that will sprout from seed, flower, drop their seed and then die within one yearly growing season.

biennial plants devide their growth cycle into a 2 year development. in the first years season they will sprout, grow a leaf formation which is usually small and shrubby, then the plant goes dormant in the colder months. in the second year, the plant grows tall and fast before it flowers, goes to seed and then dies.

finally there are the perennials. these plants will grow and bloom over multiple years. each yeart, in the spring, they re-sprout from the same root stock and then go dormant again in the fall and winter.

when it comes to gathering plants for food or medicinal use seasonality is very important. by mid summer a plant stalk that was edible in the spring may have become tough, woody and/or bitter to the point of being inedible. however, it may be the case that mid summer is the part of the season where they are producing edible flowers or fruit. in fall that same plant my now be dropping seeds and nuts which are usefull. or the plant may reach a point in the season where it is completely past the point of edibility but still has medicinal and utilitarian uses. the most fascinating aspect of learning wild plants is that there are no blanket statements. it is a constantly shifting map of usage. in later posts i will review what i am learning about the uses of specific plants from various sources. not the least of which being hands on experience in the wild.

the beauty of it is that taken piece by piece the process can look overwhelming but seen as a synthesis, where all these elements of use and identification meld together there emerges a single whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. i am told that in the end what develops is a sixth sense. ultimately experiencing plants in the wild can become the same as experiencing them in the produce isle. we dont think about the names or defining features of items in a store. we dont think about the process of elimination required to determine if it is edible or not and we dont think about all the time it took to learn what they were. all the elements have long ago fused together so that we recognize a tomato without even thinking about it.

it becomes intuition.

backyard blacksmithing

2009-10-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

with this post im bouncing around a little chronologically but its too exciting to resist sharing with you the backyard blacksmithing course

enjoy

this is a home made blacksmithing forge. its basic components are a galvanized washtub, a steel pipe, a bellows and a whole crap load of charcoal. in the set up you see in the picture the bellows is a hand turned air blower which gives the set up a nice rustic look which i am a big fan of but you can also use a hair dryer. if you play your cards right everything seen you can put together for about 60 bucks. all the other tools and equipment for operation will bring you up to about 100 plus or minus 20 bucks. in the next few weeks i think you may see a posting on my attempt at duct tapping one of these together...

so.

blacksmith party at my house. on the outside chance that anyone comes across one of those old hand cranked air blowers please let me know. im also taking donations of any worn down wood or metal files you have. more on that in a bit.

these are some examples from the personal collection of our instructor, earthwalks outside expert Howard Schwartz. from sheaths to handles, all these knives and tools were hand made by Howard using the forge pictured above.

thats just sweet. that thing will take out small trees.

in case you are interested in a class next year, Howard does yearly courses through earthwalk northwest. for those enrolled in earthwalk's primitive skills class the backyard blacksmithing course is included.

the project: turn one old, rusty file into one elk horn handled bush knife.

the forge is filled with charcoal and the charcoal fired. here Mark cranks the blower while Howard uses a propane torch to start the coals burning. i suppose one of these would work to and would save the cost of a new propane torch when the old ones run out.

the forge is ready!

the very first step is to break the end of the file off to size the blade. as a general rule a good blade length for an all purpose bush knife is something about as long as your palm is wide.

"but my palm is so narrow"

well, if you have small hands, something proportionate is best.

hold the file up next to your hand and mark the length. sink the file into a vise and cinch it right up along that mark and then WHAM. a solid whack from the forge hammer and you have your knife blank.

after breaking the end off the file, the metal needs to be annealed. as is, the metal is too hard to be worked into shape and it needs to be softened.

cherry red is the magic color for annealing. the metal has reached the correct temperature when it is glowing this beautiful color. when the metal gets this hot it also loses magnetic attraction so as a final test a magnet is held to the metal while hot to make sure that it isnt sticking to any part of the metal. there should be an even heating so when the metal is reheated later on there wont be any weak points.

when the metal has reached the right temperature it needs to cool. after annealing the blade is kept in an insulating medium to allow it to cool very slowly so it retains the right softness. we used vermiculite in a 5 gallon bucket. after the metal had cooled over night it was time to file the metal in shape. i will say this is definitely the hardest part of the process. if you want the process to go a bit faster you can use a belt sander and a bench grinder but in keeping with the electricity free motif we did this part by hand. as hard as the work was its incredibly satisfying to chip away, by hand all the excess and watch the blade hidden in the file, starting to emerge.

after a while i had something i felt looked vaguely like a knife blade. or at least close enough to rationalize not doing anymore filing and giving my back and arm a break.

the grind of a knife blade is the point where the flat of the blade slopes into the edge. there are few different kinds of grinds:hollow, flat, sabre, convex, compound bevel and chisel grind. since this was going to be a small knife, probably for delicate work and because i love to over-challenge myself i decided to try and put a full flat grind on my blade. when you are doing this type of grind you are taking off a lot more metal than with the other types and the transition has to be very smooth from the spine of the blade to the edge. all things considered, for my first time i think i got a pretty nice finish on mine.

this is some examples of the other students' work:

almost as hard and time consuming as the filing is the sanding but also it is twice as rewarding to see the blade start to shine into mirror finish.

when the blade is as smooth it is going to get (or as smooth as you feel like getting it after your fingers start feeling like they're falling off) it is heated again for the hardening phase.

the blade edge should be the hardest part of the knife with the metal getting gradually softer toward the spine. to do this the metal is re heated to cherry red/non-magnetic tempurature and then squelched in an oil bath. it is not submerged all at once. first the blade is held in the oil from the tip to the back of the blade about halfway up the width of the metal. after a few seconds the rest of the blade is then submerged entirely for a complete cooling. make sure your oil pan is aligned north to south and when squelching, the blade point should point north. thats just good juju.

the oil is washed off and the blade is almost done!!! the black finish you see is called scalling. this is oil that has bonded to the metal and is nice for rust resistance or it can be polished off.

at this point the metal is once again hard and brittle and must be tempered. this is a slow heating to a relatively low temperature to soften the metal just enough so that it is functional as a tool but not soft enough to bend of dent easily. for these blades that meant about an hour in the oven at 425.

the handle for these blades were cut sections of elk horn. the horn sections are boiled for about half an hour to soften the inner pith. directly from boiling the bone is shoved on to the end of the blade and left to sit. or, in the case of my knife, a hammer may be called in for particularly stubborn pieces of bone.

rough draft.

this is my blade with elk handle. it still isnt quite finished though. it needs to be sharpened of course but i also want to do some work on the handle. the handle was shaped by cutting points off the horn and this has left some hard angles and lumps that i want to sand down. after a varnishing this will leave a very nice, smooth finish on the handle. the only bummer is that i have to wait at least a month for the bone to fully set and seal around the blade end befor i can fuss with it.

the count down begins.

you cant have a knife without a sheath. here sections of leather have been cut from a large piece and left to soak and soften

when the leather is soft and maleable it is formed around the knife(wrapped in cellophane to protect it. and dried out. as the leather dries it molds into shape around the knife. this makes for a snug fit that the knife will not slip out of.

when fully dry the seem of the sheath is glued and drilled for sewing.

unfortunately, as of this writting none of the sheaths have been finished yet but as that process continues and more knives get the finishing touches we should see some really beautiful pieces of functional art.

Howard says he gets asked "whats so primitive about blacksmithing?"

to which he replies "blacksmithing is more than 4000 years old. how primitive do you want?"

indeed.

the first day, feast

2009-10-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

the first day of the earth walk primitive skills apprenticeship was relatively uneventful.

most of the day was spent with introductions. instructors Karen and Frank told us about their history, experience, areas of expertise and a general overview of what to expect from the course. we were each asked to introduce ourselves to everyone else and tell a little bit about ourselves and what had brought us to the earthwalk apprenticeship.

for me, in day to day encounters, explaining the motives for wanting to be involved in something like the earthwalk apprenticeship seems to take a lot of long conversations. with people who dont know me very well i often feel like i am being humored. soft smiles and nods. the occasional "right on man". some people can be downright condescending. among my friends i endure a lot of jokes about loin cloths and killing animals with my bare hands. all in good humor of course and nothing taken personally. i mean, what are friends good for if not busting your chops. but, it is refreshing to be in a room full of people who are interested in the same things you are and dont need to have it explained to them. they get it and they are just as excited as you are to learn how to make fire rubbing sticks together. or killing an animal with bare hands.....

but what made the first day remarkable and worth discussing was that it wrapped up with a meal of such quality and proportion that calling it a feast would be an understatement. it fed 11 people to bursting and was constructed almost entirely of food caught or harvested by the instructors in the wild. a few fish dishes, a stew, salads, acorn muffins, pickled bull kelp, wait pickled what?!

unless you have eaten a meal of wild edibles you can not imagine the flavors. this was a meal of ingredients that you cant get in the super market and even if you could there was a degree of "freshness" that i have only experience in a few very small farmers markets. i would say it was exotic if it werent for the fact that all these ingredients, as unique and delicious as they were, are found for the most part, within driving distance of the instructors house. these types of ingredients are found within driving distance of MOST peoples houses. throw in a small garden and, im sorry, why do i need to go to the grocery store?

besides being a function of Karen's giving, benevolent nature, this meal was intended to drive home a critical point: the fact that this is what is possible with wild edibles and primitive crafting. sure, if you are lost in the woods wild edibles might not be so gourmet but that is beside the point. with the application of some culinary skill the wilds offer food that is far from any sacrifices of palatability.

(apologies for the poor quality of the photo. it was taken with my phone and i wont make that mistake again.)

an introduction by way of a small rant

2009-10-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

in my young adult life i have done a fair amount of bitching about people's dependency on modern industrial convenience and the social ills and failures this dependency propagates. yet for all the complaining i really have no alternative and in the end i am just as dependent and lost without modern industry as anyone else. now dont get me wrong; i love modern industry and the convenience it provides and i dont think that the world would necessarily be better off without the industrial apparatus. i dont plan on running off to live in a cave or a hut somewhere in the woods. listen, i will get down on some greasy fast food after a night at the bar. i have also shopped at the gap. i love having a warm house. im using a computer for god's sake. im not unfamiliar or even uncomfortable taking advantage of the comforts of modern western civilization.

what i dont like is the complete and utter dependence on this system. it makes me very uncomfortable that without the grocery store and the utilities company i am totally helpless.

i think we take for granted the stability of our modern convenience and we take for granted this notion that the industrial machine will provide for us, uninterrupted and indefinitely as long as we play by the rules. history shows this is not at all the case.

so what are the alternatives?

i mean i recycle and all that. i try to be a responsible consumer for the most part. but that doesnt seem to allow for true independence. and often i see these positive ideas becoming marketing campaigns and buzz words for the very things they were designed to provide alternatives to. they become dependencies in themselves. in the worst case they become excuses.

so how do i go from simply complaining to actually, truly alleviating some of this dependency? or what if, on the outside chance, it all comes crashing down around us?

or hell, what if i DID decide i wanted to go live in a hut in the woods?

about a year ago i became interested in "wilderness survival training". i have come to not like this term very much as it seems to conjure up images of chronically lost campers, radical militias, rambo movies, crazy british men drinking their own urine and a host of other extreme situations i dont necessarily want to find myself in. surviving in the wilderness is very much a by-product of the skill sets i hope to familiarize myself with. however, ive come to see that it can be surviving not because im in a desperate or extreme situation but because there are amazing gifts to be had when not tied to the nipple of modern convenience. incidentally ive also come to realize that the "wilderness" is not the only place to find these amazing gifts. sometimes its literally as close as your own backyard.

i prefer terms like "wilderness self reliance","primitive skills" or even better,"bushcraft". these terms define a more cooperative relationship with the wild. they describe a set of skills which turn the wilderness into something that can provide, nurture and sustain as good as, if not better than, the modern industrial mechanisms.

now, there are a few extremes you run into within the world of wilderness training.

there are the types who want to learn how to run into the woods wearing nothing but their underwear and a bowie knife to see how long they can "make it". you will often hear these people setting arbitrary goals for themselves like, "i want to spend a year in the woods living off the land with nothing but what i can fit in this little backpack. what should i do to prepare?" as if there are a few pieces of advice which will miraculously give someone who is completely inexperienced the ability to take on such a task.

then there is the bunker dweller. this is the person who has a remote "bug out" location stockpiled with provisions not the least of which is a significant amount of weapons and ammunition. in a modified form a lot of camping and backpacking enthusiasts take on this same mentality. they want to enjoy the woods and carry their apartment with them simultaneously. i can relate to this mind frame a bit better than the first but it is still a bit extreme for my tastes.

then there are the tree dwellers. dogmatic liberals trying to save the world one tree at a time. that is not meant to sound derogatory. some of my best friends are dogmatic liberals. these are generally really nice people i just think some of them are a little...doe eyed. in this world view man is a cancerous invasion that threatens the natural world with poison and destruction. capitalism is viewed as this disembodied external threat "out there" somewhere visiting its evil upon us. there is a significant amount of guilt in this outlook and these people spend an unhealthy amount of time pre-occupied with how they can make up for all the vile and disgusting things done by other people. and its always other people.

the common thread amongst all these is that mans relationship with nature is adversarial. "man-vs.-wild".

while seeking a road between total dependency and a degree of self sufficiency i navigated through a fair amount of wilderness training programs in the US of which there are many (hundreds if you include the small, one man operations.) but many seem to be large and impersonal, set up for high turn over and often catering to one or more of the mindsets described above. finally i came across Earthwalk Northwest. this one seemed to offer the most of what i was looking for. a good mix of practical survival skills as well as a means to lift some of the burden created by modern industrial dependency all delivered with the view that humans should be responsible stewards as well as recipients of bounty.

i was offered the chance to sit in on a class and was immediately won over by the instructors. there are only 2, Frank and Karen and they take at most 12 students every year to maximize the hands on experience and the personal relationship with the curriculum and the students. they seem to create a perfect symmetry. she is very much the gatherer and he the hunter. the course is provided in a kind of classroom environment. classes are held 2 days a week. on their property in western washington where skill sets are learned and practiced. class time is punctuated by many field trips for practical, real world application of classroom teachings.

after sitting in on a class i knew this is what i was looking for.

the following will be a journal of my experience in this class. a lot of it will be photos i take and a place to re-type and catalogue the notes i take. or, if im feeling particularly intelligent there may be a rant on various political or philosophical topics. in the case of re-typing notes i apologize in advance for the poorly structured quality those posts may have. the first few entries will be fast and dirty to get the blog up to date from the start of the class which was 3 weeks ago. then if all goes well there should be an update about once a week or so.

i realize the road i have chosen is not the only way and im not promoting it as the solution. i dont think im better than anyone(well...). this is just what i like. and its fun.

fair warning: if you are uptight about grammar and spelling this is going to really get on your nerves.

enjoy.