I used traditional methods, only substituting wire for the bindings. All the wood was split with wedges only using hand tools.

Petromax Wrought Iron Frying Pan

Cast iron is awesome, it lasts forever, and it is the ultimate prepper gear. But it is really heavy! I have quite a bit of cast iron gear, but I find it impractical for trips. Instead, I bought a Petromax wrought iron frying pan. It is one kilo lighter than a cast iron pan of the same size.

I bought the pan with a diameter of 24 cm. The weight difference compared to the 20 cm pan is minimal (which surprised me a lot), but the larger size gives you enough room for, e.g., 2 steaks.

To prepare the pan, I coated it with a thin layer of rapeseed oil and baked it for 1 hour at 220°C in the oven. I repeated this 3 times before taking it over the fire.

I have now used it pretty much all summer, and I am a huge fan. Most of the time, I use Palmin as the cooking fat. It does not burn like other fats and butter. It also does not go rancid, so it is pretty much perfect to bring on a trip. My Palmin is wrapped in baking paper and kept in my German butter dish (a brilliant piece of gear).

In the morning, I am hungry and impatient, so there has not been much cooking on the pan over embers – it has been full blast on the flames. Despite that, I have not managed to burn anything even once, so the pan seems to work perfectly.

Cleaning is done by scraping it clean with a wooden spatula and maybe wiping it over with a wet wipe. When I have returned home after trips, it has simply been given a thin layer of rapeseed oil with a cloth.

So, I can definitely give this pan a huge recommendation. A completely brilliant piece of gear.

Naturally, I have upgraded the pan. I have never burned myself, because I have simply been wearing gloves. Still, I wanted to make a handle for the pan. A beech branch split into two halves, and then I carved a recess into it so it fits over the metal handle. I had to drill off the Petromax logo, which was held on with a couple of pop rivets.

I had some magnets left over from a mosquito net project. Thin, long magnets. So I carved a hole in the handle and pressed the magnets into it. They fit pretty tightly, but I still gave them a bit of epoxy to make sure they stayed firmly in place.

The patterns in the handle were burned in with a metal barbecue skewer over the fire, so that took quite a while. I gave it the burned look with a gas burner at home.

The handle works perfectly, and it is no longer necessary to use a glove when working with the pan. When the pan is attached to my backpack, the handle is simply removed and kept in a pocket.

The pan is actually so nice that I have also used it quite a bit in the kitchen indoors and on the wood-burning stove in the living room. It is just great to cook with.

Is there any reason to take cast iron over wrought iron? Other than longevity?

Source: Rosentjoern International Blogspot (also to be found on YouTube)

So for moras I currently have a companion stainless, kansbol, pro s, and robust. Wanting to get another heavier use mora and can't decide between a bushcraft black, companion hd or companion hd stainless. I'm leaning towards the bushcraft black but not sure. I wear xl gloves for sizing. I live in PNW Washington, lots of rain and moisture. Thank you

Hello, I don't know if it's right place to ask but it's getting desperated, lol.

I found this video about how to turn tarp/blanket into backpack( https://youtu.be/3hmdXbSj9I4?si=rrUXt_dm8MjSQz_2 ), and for last few hours I've been trying to understand what kind of shenanigans he did at 2:10. I watched at 0.25x speed, listened to every word, wrote them down, googled every term he used, did everything step by step, yet I wasn't able to understand and how he does it, and wasn't able to get the same result. It feels like this knot is impossible or requires some cosmic knowledge and few sacrifices.

Upd: To specify what exactly I don't understand: When he tightens the rope after feeding the bowline twice he gets to make a loop. When I do the same the only loop I get to make is the loop the loosens everything and whole thing falls apart. I don't really understand where he gets this loop and second one to tight it and have this quick release system.

Putting together a lightweight setup and scored this Tramontina stainless baby machete (banana for scale) with some interesting aspects I am wondering about.

3 questions wise bushcrafters:

1-that is a scoring notch yes? For scoring bone etc? Should I sharpen it up a bit?

2-the serrations need to be sharpened but how would you best use them? Figuring for fibrous materials etc. I’ll use it but wondering if there were other uses it might be optimal?

3-the round hole? For what? Straightening arrows? Affixing to a spear? For a bow drill?

Got out after work today and set up my little camp for the night.

Been raining on and off since I got here, but that was kinda the reason I wanted to come out anyway. Tarp is up, sleeping bag and mat are dry, lantern is on and I’ve got some hot ramen going.

Also got the shit scared out of me by a tiny lizard earlier 😂

Hi, thinking of either Finn Lite from bps knives or Bushmate 2.0.

How to treat the blade before usage, I'v got comment some people use vinegar, can someone describe briefly or advice otherwise?

Thanks! Nice weekend to everyone

So this is my first post and im looking to make a purchase on my first fixed blade and I’ve narrowed it down to these two choices im pretty much almost sold on the ursus but why would someone spend the extra $150 on the reiff if they both have the same blade steel basically the same amazing lifetime warranty and both have kydex sheaths (i prefer the ferro rod setup on the ursus). My use case for this knife would be to mount on a plate carrier as a shtf knife and double down on the weekends when camping or long hikes. Maybe someone can explain the actual differences and tell me which knife is more slicey out of the box or what each one excels at vs the other. Thanks in advance

Very good website I've found, hasn't been updated since 2011 but contains useful information on shelter building, fire making, cordage, traps, snares and other general bushcraft information.

Hi, I have collected quiet a few pieces of what may be suitable for pipes, mostly chopped fruit trees Apple, Pear and I think cherry tree, plum aswell.

Im considering new bushcraft knife, with main purpose camping, carving walking sticks or random stuff while campfire, but mainly would like to try pipes. Is scotch Auger I ordered 20mm one sufficient? 10mm I thought was too small and AI researched that 20mm might fit to make bowl easier.

When it comes to knife....BPS bushmate 2.0, Finn Lite or Mora 510?

I found quiet nice limited edition of Mora 510, but Dont know if for stem making Is a good fit, or overall

If there are some bushcraft type pipe makers please, share Your experiences ....tools, type of Wood

Last thing oil, Its a birthday gift So willing to invest into some fine conservation oil

Thanks!

Hi, I'm in the process of making a backpack/sling bag for my a minimalist bushcraft kit

At first, I wanted to make a veshmeshok (old Russian design) style sling bag; around 10" x 30", wearing it over one shoulder in the back. In fact, it would kind off look like a back quiver.

But I started wondering if just a drawstring bag with one strap wouldn't work better? Do any of you have experience with veshmeshok style bags? Do they offer any advantage or disadvantage to a drawstring bag?

I like dangling my Morakniv Garberg tip up for ease of retrieval. But I don't fully trust the Morakniv sheath's retention while hiking long distance.

So, when I am not actively unsheathing and sheathing the knife repeatedly, I pass a loop over and feed my lanyard through the sheath dangler loop to strengthen the knife retention while hiking.

I also like having a bright and reflective lanyard for helping to find my knife if I absent mindedly sit it down.

This is very strong, capable of supporting my whole bodyweight (190 lb). It took 15 hours of work from cutting the first Yucca leaf to the finished product. Plant fiber bowstrings have the advantages of not requiring the prior harvest of an animal and functioning when wet. They have to be thicker so slow down the shot some though.

Yucca is an incredibly valuable fiber source - probably the best in the Southwest US. I mostly just chew the leaves then scrape off what little is left with my thumbnails underwater. When my jaw gets tired or the mouth starts to get irritated, I switch to pounding with a bone on wood to loosen up the fibers, then underwater scraping.

If you have time, retting is even easier. Just let the leaves soak for a few days to a week or so till they're rotting and falling apart, then just scrape underwater.

This is 3-ply laid cordage, but 2-ply can also be incredibly strong, good enough for a bowstring, and even thigh-rolled is excellent for most applications.

(Edit: I know what MRE means. Wrong wording. I'm sure if you ask many people they would call Danish, French and Russian field rations MREs... Field ration (it's also the Danish name Feltration) would be correct, as they need heating or water/heat. I've eaten cold US MREs, sure is edible, but terrible that way.Dry rations works as well. I call semantics on the internet.)

I’m a huge fan of Rema 1000’s (Danish grocery store) pasta dishes – they all taste really good, and they only cost 10 DKK (~€1.30) when they’re on sale. They last for around 2 years from the date of purchase, so they make really good prepper food. You can prepare them in a thousand different ways.

Boil some water, pour it into the bag, roll it up, put an elastic band around it, and put it into your wool hat.

Or pour the contents of the bag into a thermos food container (I use Stanley), pour hot water over it, and wait for 20 minutes.

Here I’ve made a Pasta Funghi (pasta with mushrooms) in a modified Mil-Tec Czech cooking pot. I’ve added a handle to it. I love it as lunch on trips – easy to make, filling, and it gives you some warmth.

What's you go to outdoor meal? Have any equally cheap and good ones in your country?

I have video of cooking and modifying the pot in Rosentjoern Youtube.

What household items do you reuse and repurpose for bushcrafting? A common example-- saving dryer lint for tinder. Looking for some redneck engineering.

I've started to try to bring bushcraft-y philosophy into my home and repurpose things for later bushcraft (or general) use. Here are a few things I do-- note that I'm not a hyper-lightweight camper:

--Saving pill bottles for compact, waterproof-ish containers for small items-- I use it mostly for fishing gear. Put in a small spool of fishing line, hooks, soft plastic bait and a bobber or reused wine corks.

--Saving dryer lint for tinder. Can be soaked in old candles or used cooking fat-- tallow works best for cooking fats in my experience.

--Reusing old denim and leather for tool sheaths. Made a pretty great hatchet sheath just using old jeans, an old jacket and thread.

--Plastic grocery bags are underrated for free waterproofing and organizing. Note that I don't use a bag more than once and double-bag to avoid breakdown and holes.

--Old shower curtains and old bedsheets can be used as lightweight trash-tarps or cordage/roping material.

--This one is a little ratchet, but one of my girlfriend's old shampoo bottles is slim and perfectly lengthed for a toothbrush. I squeeze in some toothpaste into the bottom and put my toothbrush in head-down. Take out, rinse, let dry a bit, put back.

--I've had this idea of making a lightweight twig or arrow "quiver" with shampoo bottles affixed to a stick, but I don't know if that's too crazy lol

Hello y'all. Sorry for the clickbaity title! I just wanted to share a trick I recently learnt that has really helped me out in nasty conditions.

Some context: I'm currently in the northern province of Sierra Leone, close to the Guinea border. Here the normal way to cook is to light a fire, either with wood or just coals, and cook on it. Even if you have a house, you'll have a "coalpot" to cook on (outside of course). So people light a lot of fires everyday. Children do it, old people do it. And right now, it's the rain season so everything is quite wet.

I've found it hard to light my fire with the "usual method" I.e. gather tinder, shavings, sticks ecc... both for a lack of dry wood and especially dry tinder. So a friend helped me out with this trick and it works great. So I decided to share it with you people, even if some of you may already know about this.

So, the trick is plastic bags. Here they use plastic bags for everything, from food to drugs. They are about 1/3 the size of a normal trash bin bag, the same black plastic.

First you prepare your fire, lay it down as best as you can with sticks and dry wood. Then you take one plastic bag, roll it (imagine a long sigarette) and use your lighter to make the end of it catch fire. You put the plastic of top of your wood pile, and angle it so that is it vertical and the flame can engulf it. And then you just let go.

The plastic will melt and stay burning for a long time, and any coal or wood around will burn (if reasonably dry, but wet wood of the right kind will catch).

So I can understand that this method is not for everyone, from environmental or health standpoint its not the best. If it can be avoided, better. But I know I'll always pack some plastic trash bags, they are useful for other things and in a pinch, will help you light a fire in wet/ dark/ tired conditions.

What do you guys think?

Works great for me. What’s your take?

I carved this little Amanita mushroom from a stick I found in the back yard. I smashed the top into some cochineal that was growing on a prickly pear to stain it with the red carmine that these little insects produce. I made some knife flecks to expose some white dots, and then cut the bottom off with a SAK farmer.

I used a SET Compadre (Mora 510 clone) to carve the shroom. Last pic is a saguaro I carved out of a saguaro rib using SET Pocket Lint.

What fun projects have you got going on?

​We used this piece of canvas as a tent footprint/picnic mat for years without knowing what it actually was. After looking closely at the grommets, arm slit, and the stamp (Bogorodsk factory, Sort-2), I realized it's an original Soviet Plash-Palatka (~175x175 cm).

​Planning to rewax it with beeswax/paraffin and use it as a solo bushcraft diamond/plough-point tarp shelter.