Here in the North Country snow poses many threats. Not only the cold and wetness, but the increased reflection of UV rays. Not only is one at a perhaps higher risk of sun burn (mostly because one doesn’t expect it) but a high risk of eye damage resulting in what is known as “Snow Blindness”

 

Snow Blindness, or photokeratitis, is a very painful and temporarily debilitating eye condition caused by exposure of one’s eyes to UV rays. Think of it like a sun burn to the cornea… ouch.

 

This is a horrible and possibly life threatening ailment in the bush. The best way to go about fighting it is in prevention. One of the quick and simple ways to fight Snow Blindness (or any UV exposure to the sun) would be to follow the Egyptians and place black ash under one’s eyes as one has most likely seen a football player do. This helps absorb light and direct UV rays away from one’s eyes and is a very simple method.

 

Another method would be to create some sort of “sun glasses”. I modeled mine after the Inuit Snow Goggles. The Inuits often used caribou antlers to carve their goggles. In my case, without much caribou running around any longer in these parts, I used a piece of cedar I had harvest from a dead tree. The goggles are N. White Cedar and the cordage for securing the goggles are made from the same bark off the cedar plank I had cut.

 

Cut a Cedar “Blank” for my goggles.

 

 

Marked where my nose would go on the goggles and began a notch

 

Further notching the nose

 

Beginning the eye slits

 

Finished Eye Slits

 

A little bit more shaping to the mask to better fit my face and then starting to use a Mullein Stalk to hand drill through the edges of the goggles to make a hole for a strap.

 

Hand drilled hole for strap

 

Holes drilled and the bark from the cedar being prepped for cordage.

 

Finished Goggles, Back

 

Finished front

 

I think I will most likely lengthen the slits to go more across the entire set of goggles but use a much thinner slit the rest of the way.

 

An expedient version would be to use a piece of birch bark, cut a similar slit and holes and then tie the birch to one’s head in a similar fashion.

The Friction Fire is a skill that takes practice and tuning in on one’s technique. If you do not get it right the first time, don’t get too frustrated and keep trying! My first attempt ever at a friction fire took me over 45 minutes to get a coal. Now, after plenty of practice and figuring out that “special touch” and being able to get in the groove and get a coal in 30 seconds almost every time just like in this reference video.

 

Reference Video

The bow and drill is a simple mechanical device used to create fire. Two pieces of wood are are used to create friction with one being spun by cordage attached to a bow to create an ember. The bow drill has the highest success rate of any friction fire and was most often used in harsher northern climates. Proficiency is much easier with this method of friction fire.

The bow and drill has been and is still being used by people all over the world. Artifacts of this method have been found all over the world from Russia to Egypt, N. America to Australia. On all continents humans were using this method.

Below, I will try to explain to you the 6 main phyiscal compnents of the bow and drill fire method.

The three components needed to make fire

Friction fire Success Triangle

These are the three keys to success with a friction fire. Often times, two of the three are often enough to produce results. Having all three components results from practice, experience, and prior preparation of materials.

We will be examining the bow and drill friction fire method as it is the friction fire most likely to produce results even in adverse conditions.

Parts of the Bow and Drill

BOW: The bow is one of the simplest parts of the kit. It should be a slightly curved stick with a little bit of spring too it. Too flexible, and there will not be enough tension on the spindle to spin it quickly enough. Too stiff of a stick and the string runs a high risk of breaking or shooting the spindle out at the fire maker and occasionally at any friends watching. The stick should allow for full swing of the arm. The rule of thumb is that the bow should be the length of one’s arm from underarm to finger tips. This will most likely be about 30 inches. This length allows for a full sweep of the bow and a long enough sweep to keep the spindle spinning. Every time the bow stops to change direction the spindle cools down just a little bit. Any shorter than 30 inches tends to stay cooler longer; any longer than 30 inches starts to become cumbersome.


(the ends of the bow are made like this to help keep the string secure)

Fireboard/Hearth:  This is the bottom portion of the apparatus made s flat as possible. It is where the spindle spins into, creating friction, and further creating an ember. It should be made from a medium to soft piece of dry and dead wood. The “finger nail test” may be applied, meaning if you can press your finger nail into the wood and leave a clear dent, then it’s probably a suitable fireboard material. Using dead branches from trees during the growing season are suitable to use as they tend to break with a clean snap and may already not have bark on them. They are more likely to be dry than dead and down wood. Remember the rhyme “Dead and down but not on the ground” for general use of finding dry wood.

If you find that all the wood in the area is wet, you may find success in carving down the wood about an inch to find the drier inner core.  The fireboard should be at least 2”, at least 5 inches long, and an inch to an inch and ½ thick.

The ones that I have had best success with are: cedar, aspens, basswood, and willows. Some other commonly used woods are poplars, alders, box elder, yucca, sagebrush, cottonwood, and a minimal amount of conifers that have very little resin in the wood.
The String: this string has to be strong enough to put up with high amounts of pressure and heat. It can be made from sinew, rawhide, plants fibers, or in this case it is paracord.

SPINDLE: The spindle is the round, dowel like piece of wood that spins against the fireboard creating the ember. Being more particular with the selection of wood types comes into play with the selection and creation of spindle material. A softwood is required for the spindle. It is very important for the spindle material to be dead and dry. The simple method of checking to see if a dead and dry piece of wood is softwood is through the “fingernail test” where one presses the tip of a fingernail to the wood and should be able to leave an indentation without much effort and without crumbling. It may be made from the same wood as the fireboard.  The spindle should be about 1 inch to 1 and ¼ inch wide and 6-10 inches long. A good rule of thumb is that it should be as thick as your thumb and as long as the tip of your thumb to the tip of your pinky in a “Hang loose” gesture. Each end should be carved into dull points with one of them being slightly skinnier and more pointed than that of the other. The skinnier pointed end goes into the hand hold and the duller point held create the ember on the board.

(This is how the spindle started, from a chunk of wood ripped off a piece of cedar)

(Whittled down in a round shape)

(Hand hold portion)

(fireboard portion)

(Hang Loose!)

Hand Hold: This is the piece that holds the spindle in the upright position on the fireboard. The tip of the spindle resting in a depression gouged in the hand hold. You do not want to produce friction with the hand hold with the spindle spinning in it. Dripping pine pitch inside of the socket can help lubricate it. The handhold can be harder species of wood than the spindle and fireboard. Bones, shot glasses, antlers, shells, and certain stones will also make good handholds. If the spindle pops out of the gouge when spinning, it should be dug deeper. Animal fat, chapstick, or even grease from your hair can be used to help lubricate the hand hold portion but do not get lubricant on the fire making end of the spindle.

Or a similar one carved out of cedar

Tinder: This is to be built up in a “bird’s nest” fashion and be comprised of fibrous and soft material that you will place your ember into. After the ember is placed into the ember, air will be blown on the ember until it erupts into flame. It is very important that the tinder be dry and very fine. Increasing the surface area of the tinder will also help in blowing into flame. Using a ball of tinder about the size of your fist is needed to catch and blow the ember into flame. With a bit of practice, less material can be used. What is suitable tinder is near endless. My favorite is cedar bark. Make a slight depression in the bundle for the ember to rest.

(like such)

Putting it all together: To prepare the fireboard you’ll need to take your blade and make a small gauge on the top of your fireboard so that the spindle will stay on the fireboard while drilling while making sure the gouge isn’t too close to the edge of the fireboard as the spindle may slip off of it while drilling.

Proper positioning and technique can truly make or break your chance at creating an ember. These are directions for a right handed person.
Load the spindle into the bow. Hold the bow in your right hand and the spindle in the left. Put the spindle between the bow and the cord. The cord should have some tension and be somewhat difficult to get around the spindle. If it is too loose, it will slip while drilling and reduce the chance of producing a coal.

Before you try and create an ember, a gouge must be burned into the fireboard and the hand hold (if using a new handhold. In this case, I am not). After the initial burn is made, cut a Pie-shaped notch into the board and into just shy of the middle of the burn. This notch is where dust from drilling concentrates and will turn into a glowing ember if it becomes hot enough.

(Gouge)

(Burned in)

(Pie sliced notch)

Load the spindle, get into position, and start moving the bow horizontally. Get used to the motion and start slowly and keep your form solid and keep the spindle completely vertical. As you get comfortable with the motion, increase speed and apply downward pressure on the spindle. When you begin to see smoke and hot dust (usually black) building up in the notch and turns into a glowing ember it has gotten hot enough.

Keep spinning for another 10 or so strokes of the bow and slow down, take the spindle out of the hole, take your foot off the fire board (refer to my video to see proper form) and slowly start to fan the potential ember in the notch. After a few seconds, you should see tiny wisps of smoke coming from the dust. That is when you know you have an ember. Blow gently on it until you see lots of smoke or a glowing coal.

(hot dust)

(After a little blowing on it, there is a glowing coal!)

Gently tap the fireboard to get the coal to not stick to the fireboard. Gently place the ember in your tinder. In these pictures, I used a piece of birch bark under the spindle hole to catch the dust. I then move that out slowly, and scrape the coal into the middle of the tinder bundle.

Place the ember in the middle of the tinder bundle and gently wrap the tinder around it. Lift it above your head to help keep smoke out of your face while you gently begin to blow air onto it. It should start smoking greatly. While holding on to it, it should be fairly easy to tell when it is about to burst into flames. With that, give it a few last strong puffs to erupt it into flame.

There are plenty of fancy restaurants where people pay big money to have food baked in clay. They even have special hammers they give out so the food can be cracked open. I find this amusing that people pay big money to do this where I just dig up the materials from the ground!

First you have to catch a fish, gut and clean it. We didn’t scale it, just the whole fish minus the innards. Place your favorite seasonings inside the cavity.

The “Plate” is made of slap of birch so we could place the initial clay layer on top of it and move it into the coals of a fire.

First, we took the birch bark plate and placed a layer of clay on top of it. Then we took non-poisonous grasses just to help separate the fish from the clay.

Then a second layer of non-poisonous grasses is placed on top of the fish followed by a second layer of clay.

 

The entire thing is then dragged into the coal of a fire and covered with coals. Very similar to a Dutch Oven. Fresh coals will be needed as the old coals die out and lose heat. After the estimated cook time, crack open the clay and enjoy a tasty baked fish!

This method, though primitive, is nearly unbeatable for sealing in flavor and juices! Throw in some herbs and foraged wild veggies and it will be fantastic! You could even cook “hobo dinners” in it, just minus the tinfoil.

 

 

The Horno is made from cob or adobe (an ALMOST interchangeable term. Purist’s will beg to differ) oven. It can be made of entirely mud/cob/adobe or scavenged bricks and rocks can be used to make the basic shape of the Horno. Examples of the Horno are found throughout culture all over the world.

The horno has a beehive shape and uses wood as the only heat source. The basic procedure for cooking in the Horno is to build a fire inside the Horno and, when the proper amount of time has passed, remove the embers and ashes and insert the bread, pie, pizza, whatever desired to be cooked. After the right amount of time, the food can be removed.

The oven works through heating the oven and using the radiant heat of the walls of the Horno and cooking the food. With just one firing of a smaller Horno, depending on what it is, three or four things could be cooked if haste and care is taken.

These ovens, in my opinion, are excellent heating devices for the insides of larger primitive structures as it can be heated and keep the shelter warm, without needing to constantly have a fire going inside of them, making it easier to ventilate and not asphyxiate one’s self.

“In the case of corn, the embers are doused with water and the corn is then inserted into the horno to be “steam”-cooked. When cooking meats, the oven is fired to a “white hot” temperature (approximately 650 degrees Fahrenheit), the coals are moved to the back of the oven, and the meats placed inside. The smoke-hole and door are sealed with mud. A twenty-one-pound turkey will take 2½ to 3 hours to cook. It comes out very succulent. Since the horno is made of adobe, it wicks the moisture into the food in a natural convection.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horno

The horno can be made from entirely scavenged materials. In this tutorial, the bricks and stones were found just laying about. The bricks could be made from cob, too, if one were so inclined to do so.

Start by gathering the materials, rocks/bricks. The cob in this tutorial was made of mud, a little bit of clay, and some grass mixed in. There was no specific formula to it other than a little experimenting.The reason why it is being built on the platform was so that it could be moved to a new site. This oven can be built directly on the ground if desired.

Start by creating the “bee-hive” shaped structure while maintaining a large enough opening in the front for what is expected to fit in and out of the oven.

and build it up, remembering to keep an opening at the top.

Here is a picture of it built up and from behind.

Now take the cob and apply it to the bricks and rocks, making sure to fill in all cracks and cover the outside of the oven.

At the left side of the picture is the door made to close up the oven.

The opening was a bit too tiny to fit pie in comfortable, so it was expanded.

Here, the Horno is being prepped by heating the oven with a good fire for about 30-45 minutes. (As well as making some last minute repairs with fresh cob)

Allowing the fire to die down a bit and scrape some of the ashes and embers out.

After scraping the coals and ashes out, whatever is to be cooked is placed into the oven. The door is placed on and seals the entrance. To be even more efficient, add some mud or left over cob to the edges of the door to further seal in heat and place a flat rock, perhaps a piece of slate, over the top opening to further trap in heat. With just closing the door, it works plenty fine.

The success of primitive people was often set in what they could carry. Creating a container allows one to carry more food, tools, water, whatever essentials needed to be brought along with the people.
Coal burning containers is one of the most basic skills as it requires not much practice to have a functional device. Often times, the argument for how practical it would be in a survival situation as fabricated blanks would be difficult to come by. The suggested answer is to look for wind fallen trees. One can often find a broken or splintered out piece that would be very suitable for coal burning a container.

One can quickly burn these out in an hour and expend little calories to have a nice container. The risk in going fast is if there is any moisture in the wood, one risks cracking the container and possibly preventing it from holding liquids. If the original intent was to hold liquid but that is no longer an option, that’s okay –you’ve now just made a half of a mortar and pestle.
The types of coals used are preferred to be from that of hardwood trees, as they tend to burn longer and hotter. This may help decrease the amount of energy expended in creating a coal burned container.

When selecting the wood to use as the container, one wants to use the driest wood available as coal burning will rapidly heat up the wood and water in it rapidly expand causing cracks. Green wood is also acceptable but requires one to go much slower.
Making the initial pit of the container, one wants to use “chicken nugget” sized coals

After one feels the coals are losing too much heat and are not as effective, throw the coals back in the fire. Take a rock, a knife, even a strong stick will work and scrap out the burned wood so that a divot begins to form.

Repeat the process, shaping the bowl with placement of coals the way that is desired.

It is desirable to keep the walls at about one inch thickness so as not to burn through. What is done when a side is in danger of being burned and it is not desired, is to place cold dirt or some mud on the places one wishes to protect.

After the desired volume is achieved, one may take measures to make the container better and last longer. One method is to rub some vegetable oil or rendered fat into the container and then seal the wood fibers through a process known as “boning”. This is where one takes a smooth round rock, a bone, or even the handle of one’s knife and rubs it around the container to compress the wood fibers, by doing so sealing in the oil and keeping water out.

 

It’s cold, wet, and rainy out so I figured I’d stay inside today and work on some stuff here.

I made an oil lamp. It burned for about 40 minutes before it ran out of fuel.

I used a clam shell as the lamp (I use clam shells to melt pine pitch in) I took a piece of cedar bark and processed it into cordage. I used the cordage as a wick and leftover grease from the kitchen .

The clam shell remained cool enough that I could handle it, although, with much caution as to not spill it on myself.

cedar bark

Processed Cedar bark

Maid into cordage wick

clam shell and wick

After about 15 minutes of allowing the wick to absorb the rendered oil I lit it

This is the lantern after about 35 minutes. The rendered fat had entirely melted.

Even at the very end, the clam shell remained very cool on the far end so that I could move it when needed. It burned for a total of 40 minutes before it was just about out of oil and I blew it out.

The primitive rock sling was most likely one of Man’s first weapons besides a rock or pointy stick. The wielder places a rock into the leather pouch, begins to swing the sling round and round and raises it over their head (maintaining speed and even increasing it) One the, with a little practice, makes a throwing motion and releases one side of the cord, sending the projectile at the target.

The cord is made from dogbane and cattail attached to a piece of leather. The cord is about 2 feet long on each side made by using a reverse wrap cordage technique.