Bushcraft Tips and Tools

I’ve never met the man, but have heard nothing but good things from others about him—Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways, out of Arizona. And although I know he’s written books on survival, admittedly, I’ve never read any; that is until recently.

While cruising the internet, I happened across a book by Tony Nester, “Bushcraft Tips and Tools”. Knowing Tony is in the Southwest, I was intrigued. Knowing the book is only $.99 cents, well, now my interest was really piqued.

I didn’t quite know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Just from the introduction alone I already knew I was going to like the book.

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Introduction

There is a joy to be had working with your hands out in the wilds and shaping what you need with a few reliable tools. Bushcraft is one pathway for connecting you to the land and drawing you into the web of life.   You feel a connection with your surroundings when you have to fashion a shelter, carve your own implements, create fire using traditional methods, interpret animal signs, forage for edibles and hunt wild game. Bushcraft is a way to re-connect with that part of our being that once lived much closer to the earth and, consciously and unconsciously, identified with a much larger world of beings than the one beyond the largely human world we live in today.

The question often arises in my field courses on how bushcraft differs from survival. The latter entails handling a short-term emergency (1-3 days) and staying alive until searchers can get to you.   There’s nothing fun or romantic about survival except, perhaps, in retrospect. You ran into Murphy’s Law or were unprepared and are forced to contend with a potentially life-threatening situation.

Bushcraft goes beyond this and is not so much about surviving but about living well in the wilds. It is about being dependent on your hard earned skills, experience and intimate knowledge of the resources around you. With bushcraft, it is possible to become a part of a place rather than merely a visitor passing through. It is also brings a reverence for the life around you…. the life you ultimately depend on each day.   The outdoor gear shops, with their sea of must-have items, make one forget that there was a time, a few generations ago, when people provided for all their needs with only a few tools and the skill of their hands out on a landscape whose nuances they understood intimately. A world where they weren’t divorced from the countryside through an over-reliance on gadgets. Talk to older woodsmen or read the works of Kephardt, Nessmuk or Miller and you will see that it took little more than an ax, saw, knife, bedroll, rifle and a cooking pot to live long-term in the bush.

Of course, you also need the training, skills and seasoning as a bushman before attempting to undertake such minimalist living. Once you have acquired a basic foundation in bushcraft, then it’s time to take to the wilds and apply your skills for extended periods of time. Ultimately, it will be time on the land that will provide the best feedback on your proficiency level and show you (sometimes unpleasantly) what needs to be honed. The land becomes the ultimate teacher and there are no grades in the wilderness– it’s a pass-fail system. Reality should slap you around a little bit but you should also have a backup system in place and not attempt an Into the Wild experiment.

Books and videos should only be viewed as blueprint material for getting started. Time spent with experienced instructors coupled with extensive personal experimentation in the field is the way to gain proficiency and work on your own skills checklist. Lastly, do some research into the subsistence methods used in your region. Each area of the world is unique. The template for living off the land has already been worked out by the indigenous cultures and early settlers. Scour the museums and archives in your home state or country to learn about the top ten wild plants, primary trapping methods, shelter systems and so on.   I hope you enjoy this short eBook. Later books in this series will cover field application of bushcraft skills stemming from extended personal trips and field courses.

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His writing style, to me at least, is both interesting and easy to read. The ebook itself is not onoy filled with common sense bushcrafting tips, but also imparts personal anecdotes which helps teach the lesson. I often found myself thinking, “wow, we seem to share some of the same thoughts in a community where common sense doesn’t seem to be so common because the audience seems to be captivated by the rhetoric of the flavor of the month.”

Tony takes great care in giving credit and sharing resources for where you can acquire tools and more info

If you’ve not read any of Tony Nester’s stuff, I encourage you to check it out…. For only $.99 you can’t go wrong.