How to make a wood whistle

Take my word for it, carving a whistle from elder is an empowering activity, one that traces the handiwork of our ancestors and resounds in you long after the note has disappeared into the autumn air. And it’s dead simple. All you need is a penknife and a pair of eyes.

Elder is extremely common and easy to identify. Look around roadside verges, parks, woods, wastelands and railway lines for a bush-like, shrubby tree. It has oval-shaped, serrated leaves that grow in opposite pairs and a cracked, corky bark that's grey-brown in colour. The telltale squishy removable pith, which makes it such an ideal whistle making material, runs through its core.

Use a straight branch a bit thicker than your index finger and around ten centimetres long. At this width the pith inside should be at its widest, taking up most of the cross-section. The ratio is important; the tube needs to be hollow enough to create a decent whistle, but not so thin that it splits during its creation. Ideally, the wood will be two or three millimetres thick.

With a penknife, shave away the outer bark and use a sharpened stick to push out the pith in the middle to leave a clear, wooden tube. Now cut the ‘voicing mouth’ two centimetres in from one end by slicing vertically down onto the tube at 90º and meeting this line with a 45º cut. Repeat until the hole resembles a smile that exposes the hollow tube within.

Next, find a round stick that is a touch wider than the end of the whistle and strip away the outer bark until it fits in the tube all the way up to edge of the voicing mouth. Then slice it a flat top with one or two decisive strokes and push it snugly into place. Cover the other end and blow. The flat surface allows the air to hit the voicing mouth cleanly, whereupon it splits to produce the whistle noise.

Regardless of where you source your elder, make a patch of woodland your workshop. Carving is one of the most therapeutic pastimes possible. It is psycho- and physiotherapy, pulling us out of our everyday worries and stresses with gentle focus. The level of concentration required also renders the work delightfully silent labour, leaving our ears open to the sounds of nature all around.

Part of the thrill of British woodland is the stark relief it gives us from our everyday existence, imparting a non-human otherness. Watching the industry of animals in autumn, even one so common as the grey squirrel or ground beetle reminds us of the mind-bogglingly varied contemporaries we share our planet with.

The elder tree has long been thought to be the favourite dwelling place of other, more mystical creatures. Faeries were once said to love the music from flutes made of this wood above all others. After some adjustments, the whistle should work wonderfully, sending sylvan notes through the trees. An elder whistle produces an organic, woody note, closer to that of a birdcall than anything else. Far from scaring away the wildlife, it is as if you’ve found the language of the forest itself.

Making and playing a whistle allows us to bottle something of the joy of the wood even when you return home. For a moment at least, when you take the whistle from a shelf and blow it, the walls and furniture of the room fade away you are back in the trees.

"Made in Spain" First Impression Review: Cudeman 298 Kc

I love the Spanish-made Cudeman knives I have had the pleasure of reviewing and using some of the vast range.

Cudeman knives are synonymous of quality using premium steels like Bohler or Mova and non-rotting handles like micarta and G10 and in some occasions a nice exotic wood. Cudeman have been making knives for over 25 years and have produced some of the sharpest blades that exceed the demands of their users. Easy to sharpen, Easy to maintain and best of all easy to sharpen when needed.

the Spanish are one of the world's most experienced edged tool makers with a tradition that goes back to when the Romans invaded Spain in 236BC. They came up against warriors armed with Toledo swords and spears. History tells us that the Romans won and that Spanish Toledo steel weaponry became the standard for the Roman legions.

The SPECS:

• BLADE LENGTH: 11 cm
• HANDLE LENGTH: 12,5 cm
• OVERALL LENGTH: 23,5 cm
• BLADE  THICKNESS: 5,33 mm
• BLADE WIDTH: 3,8 cm
• GRIND: FULL FLAT GRIND
• BLADE FINISH: SATIN FINISH
• BLADE SHAPE: DROP-POINT
• STEEL: N695 BÖHLER
• HARDNESS: 59/61 HRc
• TANG TYPE: FULL-TANG
• HANDLE MATERIAL: COCOBOLO WOOD
• SHEATH: BROWN LEATHER (INCLUDED)
• KNIFE WEIGHT: 254 gr
• SHEATH WEIGHT: 286 gr
• OVERALL WEIGHT: 646 gr

EXTRAS:

• HOLE FOR SAFETY CORD
• MULTI-POSITION SHEATH
• PARACORD 280 cm
• FIRESTEEL
• LEATHER LOOP WITH ACCESSORIES
• SHARPENING STONE + SIGNALLING MIRROR

The 298 KC come with a sturdy multi-position leather sheath, along with a sharpening stone combined with a signalling mirror, a Ferro rod and striker and some paracord.

The knife handle in incredibly ergonomic and very comfortable in the hand, The Back of the blade had a flat grind suitable for striking a Ferro rod if you prefer this to the striker. By personal choice, I prefer the full flat grind on this compared to other knives which have a scandi finish. This will be an excellent knife for game prep in the field along with many other tasks in the field.

Like all Cudeman knives, the 298 Kc shaving sharp right out of the box meaning is ready to use the day you buy one. Overall, this looks one superb all around bush knife.

I am planning to give the 298 Kc a lot of use over the next couple on months and I shall give an in-depth review within a couple of months

"Made in Spain" First Impression Review: Cudeman MT5 120-K Wilderness Survival Knife

Cudeman was kind enough to send me their MT5 120-K  Wilderness Survival Knife to test and review. I thought I would post a quick "First Impression" review ahead of the main review so that readers can get an idea of the looks, dimensions and sheath.

The SPECS:

• Overall length: 22.5 cm 
• Handle length: 11.5 cm 
• Handle Material: Cocobolo wood or Micarta (in various colours)
• Blade length: 11 cm 
• Blade thickness: 5 mm
• Steel Blade: Bohler N695 58-60 HRC
• Weight: 225 g
• Sheath: Leather sheath

The Cudeman MT5 120-K   came packaged inside their a beautifully presented box.

My first impression after pulling it out of the box was that the MT5 120-K   looked more attractive than most of the stock photos I've seen on the internet. The leather sheath's earth-toned "Deep Brown" colour coupled with the satin cocobolo wood  handle offers a pleasing contrast, with a look that says "serious wilderness knife."

The Cudeman MT5 120-K features a 22.5CM  Stainless 11CM long blade with a full flat ground/spear-point design and a small bevel at the edge. The cocobolo handle is secured to the tang of the knife with three stainless steel Allen screws. One feature I particularly like is the wide lanyard hole in the handle. It should make lashing the knife to a pole for use as an improvised spear easier. MT5 120-K   has a full tang and the blade is just over a 5MM thick.

Sheath

The sheath is a high quality, heavy duty leather with multi-position belt fixings. The knife is held in place by a single retention strap with a heavy button snap.

Comparison Shots

MT5 120-K  next to the Mora Bushcraft Forest

First Impression Summary

The MT5 120-K  looks to be a very promising medium-sized bushcraft/wilderness survival blade. It is comfortable in the hand, and the blade is a simple, no-nonsense design that's built for function over style, something I find appealing. The back of the blade is sharp enough to spark a fire steel or to scrape magnesium or natural tinders for fire-making.

The back of the blade is also ground flat all the way to the tip, making it well-suited to batoning. The leather sheath is very attractive and functional.

The knife came shaving sharp right out of the box, something I've only ever seen with mora knives when they're new. It's nice to see this knife rivals the latter.

Overall, this looks to be a great all around bush knife. The Bohler N695 stainless steel blade should hold an edge well, and the full flat grind should lend itself nicely to wood carving, food prep and batoning. I plan to give the MT5 120-K  a good thrashing over the next couple of  months in the field, and I'll report my findings in an in-depth review sometime in April/May

5 Essential Bushcraft Knife Skills to Learn

The best bushcraft knife in the World will not guarantee it's going to be useful for you in the wilderness.  In order for it to be useful when it really counts,  you need to learn and practice some basic bushcraft knife skills.  In this article, I'm going to show you 5 knife skills that you can start working on today.

The great thing about learning to use your bushcraft knife is that you can do this in your backyard.  Thpractisinging is fun and over time you will become proficient with your bush knife.  Then if the need ever arises in the wilderness or a survival situation you will be prepared and know that you have chosen the right knife for the task.

Carving

Carving is probably going to be one main uses for your bushcraft knife.   This will allow you to make useful tools like spoons, bowls, and fire boards.  Carving is also something that is fun to practice at home and will greatly increase your overall control with your bushcraft knife.

You are also going to find out how well your bushcraft knife does at some of the smaller tasks.  Many people want a thick long blade for their main knife but those knives can suffer sometimes when it comes to the finer tasks like carving.

There are many knives made especially for carving like hook knives.  And while I use and suggest you have these knives as well, I also suggest you learn to do carving with your main bushcraft knife.  That way if the situation ever arises where it's the only knife on your person you know what to expect from that knife and your bushcraft knife skill set.

Batoning

Okay, I'm going to start right off by saying that batoning is controversial among bushcrafters.  Many believe that you shouldn't use your bushcraft knife for batoning, myself included.  I prefer to carry an axe, saw or hatchet to perform wood tasks around the camp.

However, I still feel like it's a skill you should learn and practice because you never know when the situation arises that you don't have an axe or hatchet.  It's better to be prepared and know whether or not your knife can handle the task of batoning when you are at home in your backyard than when you really need it.

Most of your batoning will be done in the form of splitting wood.  You will need to select a bushcraft knife that is a few inches longer than the wood you are trying to split. 

Place the wood on a solid surface standing on end.  Then place your knife on top of that.  Strike out towards the exposed tip of the knife with a small hard piece of wood (the baton).  Keep batoning the knife until you split the wood. 

Try not to hit directly on the tip to protect the knife if possible.  A thicker blade will usually give you better results when batoning and is less like to take damage.  Also, it's important to have a full tang knife blade when doing this to avoid breaking the knife from the handle or scales.

Besides splitting wood, you can also baton with your knife when truncating wood.  This is when you are cutting small diameter wood into shorter pieces.  The procedure is basically the same as splitting wood but instead of placing the wood on its end you are placing it on its side.

Finally, you can baton with your knife to make deeper notches in your wood (similar to a wood chisel) or to also cut off small branches.   Even though not everyone agrees on using their knife for batoning I would still recommend learning the skill and to make sure you have a knife that can hold up to this bushcraft knife skill.

Feather Sticks

Making feather sticks is an important bushcraft skill to learn with your knife.   Feather sticks will allow you to start a fire when wood is damp and other methods might fail.  They will provide quick and intense heat for your fire at the beginning.  Another thing is that by making feather sticks you will improve your other bushcraft knife skills.

A good method is using a light touch to make light slices in the wood.  This will give you nice curls in your feather stick.  By practising this skill you will see how well your knife's blade bevel and sharpness does with this common bushcraft tasks.

Practice this skill in conjunction with your carving and fire starting skill below.  In no time you will be able to make some impressive feather sticks and you will be prepared to light a fire in adverse conditions.

Fire Starting

Making a fire is paramount in survival situations or just general bushcrafting.  It's important to know if your knife can handle this task.  It's also easy to practice at home in your backyard.

One technique to practice is whether or not the spine of your bushcraft blade can ignite a ferrocerium rod.   The Ferro rod is an easy way to start a fire and can be used thousands of times over. 

In order to do this, you will need a knife with a good 90-degree spine in order to throw a good amount of sparks.  You may need to file the knife spine down to achieve this but it's definitely worth the effort.  A good shower of sparks could be the difference between getting a fire started and sleeping in the cold.

Another fire starting technique to learn is flint and steel.  This technique will only work with your knife if it has a carbon blade.  A stainless steel knife blade won't throw off a spark when struck with a piece of flint.   For this reason, many bushcrafters only use carbon knives.

As with all bushcraft skills, practising fire starting at home and often will make your proficient for those times when you need to get a fire started in the wild.  I also suggest practising not only with dry material but also wet material.  The same applies to cold and warm weather.  It's much easier to gain confidence on starting a fire in wet cold conditions knowing your house is just a few yards away.

Chopping

As if batoning wasn't' controversial enough, I give you chopping.   Many people like to use their bushcraft knife to chop down small trees to make shelters or tools around the camp.  This can be very hard on a knife blade and can loosen handle scales and damage knives.

I'm going to say the same thing here as I did with batoning in that it's a good bushcraft knife skill that you can learn at home.  You will know right away if your knife is good for this type of task. 

The most common method of chopping with a knife is getting out towards the end of the handle with your grip.  Some people only use 3 fingers to grip the handle which makes it easier to give the knife some swinging momentum when striking wood.  Just be careful that you still have a decent grip on the knife for your own safety and the safety of others.

You might also find after using your knife for batoning and chopping that it will work but isn't great for those tasks so you will instead choose to carry and axe, saw or hatchet into the woods.  Again better to learn that now that in a situation where you really need it.

Summary

You will notice that the theme of this article is to practice these skills at home before you are in a situation where your life may depend on it.  Not only will you find out what your bushcraft knife is capable of but you will also improve your own bushcraft skill set. 

An okay bushcraft knife is better in someone's hands with expert skills than a great bushcraft knife is in someone lacking good bushcraft knife skills.  By working at this you will become the former and it will be less stressful when you need these skills.

I hope this helped and please if you have any tips of your own, comment with your thoughts below

Mora Pro Robust Knife Review

Mora knives have been crafted in Östnor for over a century. Once they were made in every home by local craftsmen who passed down their skills from generation to generation. Today those skills are all under one roof and no matter who you talk to in our factory they can all tell a family story in which knife manufacture plays a central part!

I bought this knife to use as a secondary, smaller knife when I am camping or kicking around the woods. For that purpose, it is extremely handy. The blade is carbon steel and ground to a zero edge scandi. This makes it bite very good into wood as well as almost everything else I have tried it on. Straight from the factory, this knife will shave hair and slice paper without any problem. The blade is under 4" and just seems to be about right for this knife. There is plenty of belly to this blade which is different than some of the Mora blades. It will whittle very good one minute and field dress game the next.

The Mora Pro Robust uses the robust blade thickness of 1/8". For a Mora that is very stout. They have moved the scandi bevel up a bit however so they are able to have a sharp 27-degree edge even with the thicker blade. The normal thickness Mora blades are about 23 or 24 degrees. When I have tested these knives side by side I will admit that the normal 2.2 mm thickness knives do tend to slide a bit easier into wood. Of course, the slightly larger angle will hold up just a bit better to hard use. However, the difference is minimal. This thickness feels very stout and gives you more confidence to use it roughly. I have even pried some bark off of a tree to shave tinder without any ill effects. (Prying is not recommended, though, for ANY knife).

The blade spine is not finished sharp. If you want to have the sharp 90-degree spine that everyone uses for bushcraft you will need to grind it gently. It won't take much to get where it throws sparks from a Ferro rod or scrapes bark from your marshmallow stick.

The handle is extremely comfortable and secure. Someone with very large hands might find it a little too short however. My Medium-large hands fit right in between the guards both in a normal hold and in a reverse grip for chest lever cutting. The rubber over mold is slightly tacky and makes controlling the knife very easy.

The sheath is the basic plastic one you get from Mora. The knife snaps in a little but will come out if inverted and shaken. A little bit of OD green shock cord provides good retention for me. The sheath clips onto a belt easily. It also has a drain hole in case things get really wet for you.

With minimal care, carbon steel would be fine for camp use and is easier to sharpen.  It looks like a good compromise with added strength while keeping with the inexpensive and utilitarian aspects of the Mora knives. This would be excellent for food prep, cleaning fish, general repairs and camp stuff, as well as whittling and bushcraft projects.

I would say that for the price of this knife you absolutely cannot go wrong.

What is Bushcraft?

Bushcraft is a term used to describe skills that allow us to live comfortably in the natural world, using

natural resources in a responsible and sustainable manner. These skills were second nature to our ancestors, although many indigenous tribes and backwoodsmen still use these skills today.

A journey towards a full understanding of Bushcraft is not mere sentimentality; rather it is an empowering tool which allows us to reconnect with our roots and the natural world around us.

Bushcraft is a long-term extension of survival skills; it is about surviving and thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of skills and knowledge to do so. Bushcraft skills includes for example the following:

• Dressing right and the 3-layer principle
• Navigation with map & compass
• Navigation by signs in nature
• Moving with ease in nature
• Identification and behaviour of wildlife, and especially the possibly dangerous ones
• How to choose a camp location
• Different type of camp and shelter construction
• Knots
• Making fire with simple means
• Collecting dfferent tinder & firewood and their characteristics and uses
• Cooking with simple means
• Food and medical sources in nature
• Preparation of food and water found in nature
• How different types of food affect your body
• Handling knife, saw and axe
• Wood carving
• Maintenance of knife, saw and axe
• Laws and local customs concerning living in nature
• First Aid
• Medical knowledge for life in nature and for emergencies
• Field Hygiene

These are the most important areas of knowledge and skill you should strive to learn and improve on, and it is a lifetime of study with endless possibilities. With time you will find that you need fairly little beyond a good knife and a warm sleeping bag. 

The respect gained for our unknown ancestors in the acquisition of these skills can be an important part of Bushcraft. Regarding respect and understanding, one thread of Bushcraft is also concerned with respect and understanding of the natural world, its flora and fauna and the way these elements interact.

In teaching basic Bushcraft to children we are imparting an understanding of, and respect for, our world, the changing environment, other cultures and each other - it's also great fun!

Common Myths

"There’s no such thing as Bushcraft equipment. There’s Bushcraft. And there’s equipment." - Paul Kirtley

You have to be in the woods to practise Bushcraft. What if you live in an area where there are hardly any trees, a good example is the Hebrides, please find me a tree there. As I write this I am sitting here and I am  making more nettle cordage. To me that is Bushcraft.

You have to use a tarp or make shelters in the wild or you are not practising true Bushcraft. No, Bushcraft is a skill set. if you want to use a tent, then use one. equally if you want to make a shelter make one. if you wish to use a tarp then use one.

You have to cook over an open fire. There are places where lighting fires is forbidden. In these locations my preferred method is to use a meths stove.

Knife Safety

After previously writing about UK knife law and axe safety, I thought I should write a post on knife safety.  So, here are a few knife safety tips:

• Ensure that your knife is sharp.

• Make sure that both the handle of the knife and your hands are dry.

• Make sure that you have a firm grip on the knife, using a fist grip.

• Always cut away from you.

• Keep the fingers of your other hand behind the blade.

• Ensure that your knife has full clearance from other people throughout its full range of motion; you might want to consider 2 arms lengths as the minimum distance, sometimes referred to as the blood bubble.

• Never cut with the knife close to your femoral artery (it runs down the inside of the upper leg), so for example, if you are sat down carving, rest your elbows on your knees or cut off to one side.

• Don’t wipe clean a knife across your leg.

• Always put your knife back in its sheath immediately after use (also ensuring that you don’t lose your knife).

• Closely related to the point above, don’t walk around with your knife in your hand.

• Don’t stick a knife into a piece of wood after use; your hand might slip down the blade.

• If you drop your knife, don’t try to catch it; step back and wait for the knife to stop moving.

• If you need to pass a knife to someone, do so handle first with the blade up.

• Don’t use the knife for prying things open.

• Don’t use the knife after dark unless absolutely essential.

Knife safety – passing a knife

Also, bear in mind that you want to have full control of your knife when you are using it.  By that I mean that you should know where the knife will end up when you have finished whatever you are doing.   Often when you are using ‘power strokes’ the knife ends up carrying on moving after it’s left the wood.

If at any time you feel that you are having to use a lot of force, then think whether you are using the right knife stroke or technique, or indeed the right tool.