Tuesday 9 November 2010

Sean's Silver Fox Bushcraft.

This weekend was spent in the company of my friend Sean Mulhall.
He came to visit us at home in Devon, and bought along  his video equipment to make a short film of me making a Kuksa. Of course, he would need the help of Polly and her friends.

spoon carving

Sean is a well known bushcrafter. He  spends a lot of time studying the techniques involved in all aspects of the art.

spoon carving

And he also has a great eye for design. I asked him to bring along his famous S.F.Knife. He designed this knife along with Chris Grant as a work tool that he can use in the forest for felling, splitting, skinning and all manner of other uses. I saw this knife when a group of us went to Scotland recently, but I didn't have time to use it, so I was hoping I could have a good old play with it when he came to visit. Here is a schematic of some the holds available to you with this knife. 


After a quick sharpen on the Japanese water stone, I sat down next to my carving block and started to rough out a spoon blank, chatting with Sean as we both happily carved. I found the balance point straight away and with a nice lazy chopping action set too with stop cuts to reveal the bowl position. Amazing......Although I am more used to roughing out with various Axes, this knife was an absolute pleasure to use, beautifully accurate and when it came to the finer work, it was nimble in the hand. The blank I cut was quite fine and I recon if I had a little more time I could have made a very passable spoon....

I didn't manage to find time to test its chopping pedigree, but I have seen Sean cut through quite large pieces of timber for the fire when we camped out a month or so ago, and I can vouch for it's firewood making properties. Here's Sean starting his spoon blank....

I was so involved with talking to Sean about his S.F.K. and carving, that I only took a few photographs. Once Sean has finished editing the film he shot, I will post a link to this blog...

Although Princess.P.P was asleep for most of the afternoon, I'm pretty sure she took most of it in...

spoon carving

Sean bought along with him a van load of Birch and a Cherry burr...

spoon carving

I will have to have a look at it during the week...

I think Sean will visit again soon, and when he does, I will make sure I have the camera clicking away
'pell- mell'.....


ENJOY...



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