Spoon carving visitors...

I have recently had a spate of visitors here at my home.

Some visitors came to learn the odd bit about carving, others came because they just like it here.

My great friend Tas (Driving) has recently returned home from a spot of serious mountaineering

 down New-Zealand way.

Sarah and I are so happy she had a great time and she is home safe and sound.

Mr Blackbird.

He has set up home next to our kitchen window and has given me some spring time inspiration.

One of our visitors we have not seen for a while is Brock.

Grown a bit since the last visit.

And Sarah spent three quarters of an hour watching our local hunter go about its' business.

Our colony of house and hedge sparrows go very quiet when the Sparrow Hawk puts in an appearance.

Our good friend Matt stayed with us for a few days.

He is an expert Chiropterologist.

He stayed with us for two seasons a few years ago whilst he was undertaking his field study work with the University of Bristol.

I helped him out with his work, which we mainly carried out at night, up in the higher forests of Dartmoor.

We like to call him Matt the Bat.

We spent a couple of quiet days carving and he made his first Kuksa.

A couple of years ago I taught him the rudiments of spoon carving.

Here is a photo of his first spoon.

At the time he carved this spoon Matt was setting light traps up in the bottom field so he could ascertain the species of moth likely to be on the bat menu.

Matt could then collect bat droppings from his capture and release program, and use DNA sequencing techniques back at the Bat Lab to detect what the local bats ate.

Here's Matt using an adze for the first time hollowing out the bowl of the Kuksa.

He didn't manage to completely finish the Kuksa, but the main work is done.

The bowl side walls are nice and thin and even.

Matt took it home and can carve the head at his leisure.

He's a clever and talented chap who finds carving a peaceful and relaxing pastime.

In-between sunbathing and hunting worms, Dolly has been helping me with a spoon design.

I spent the winter re-learning some carving techniques and made many spoons.

I have a 'Two Day Test' whereby I will revisit a carving after two days and critique it.

My Kuksa I like.

I love to carve them.

And I think they look good.

My spoons however seem to me to be lacking that little spark.

I came up with this design which passes my test.

A little Celtic....

A little Nordic...

And good fun to make.

To celebrate I opened one of the bottles of scrumpy the students from Embercombe had traded for tuition.

Splendid.... !

Cheers !

Think I'm going to have to hide the other bottle from Sarah though...

 

Well... Hopefully the sun will return and we can get back to carving and worm hunting under the Magnolia...

Enjoy...

J;-)

Endicotts Army Surplus...The Endicott Norwegian Strip av lerret. (or the Zeltbahn justification) ...

 Endicotts army surplus. 

ENDICOTTS

EST. 1937

 

 Sarah and I travelled to Exeter during the spring vacation and visited our friend Kevin in his shop.

This has to be the best little shop of it's type I have ever known.

Kevin sells all manor of equipment for use in the great outdoors.

I have been a customer at his shop for twenty years or so and used to buy equipment for heavy use when I was a S.A.R. Team member.

In the past I have spent many months at a time abroad,  living under the stars using equipment from Endy's.

This guy has been hanging around for a long time now.

Probably related to this chap...

 Kevin and his assistant Paul are always busy serving customers or packing up kit for mail order.

On this visit I bought some O.G Lightweight trousers and placed an order for some good quality summer boots. Which means I'll have to make another visit...J;-)

I also found an interesting roll of canvas marked (tent).

I had a look at it in the shop and decided to buy it.

It's a Norwegian ' Strip av lerret'.

It's better known using the German word for it. 

 Zeltbahn.

It's a shelter sheet, poncho and an individual part of a bigger tent.

The idea being that you can button two, four, eight, twelve or sixteen of these sheets together to make larger group shelters.

A bit odd looking I must admit,  I bought mine to wear in the evenings by an open fire, I figured it would keep a breeze at bay and not melt at the first hint of a spark.

It can be folded and worn in many different arrangements.

It is also long enough to use with my very long hammock.

You can just make out the instructions printed on the Zelt for constructing larger tents.

I figured that if I were to use this sheet other than a windcheater I had better improve its waterproof qualities.

I hung it up in the garage and gave it a liberal coating of 

Thompsons water seal.

It does what it says on the tin.

This treatment can darken the colour of the canvas, on this occasion there was little change.

Whatever you do...

Do not use this treatment on modern carbon based material.

It will dissolve  !!!

Well, if these clouds are anything to go by, it looks like I'm going to need my new bit of kit to keep the weather off.

You can call Kevin on 01392 433331

Or visit his site at...

www.endicotts.co.uk

Endicotts Military Surplus and Outdoor Survival Equipment.

2 West Street

Exeter

Devon

EX1 1BA

Shales...

I have been having a great time recently with my carving, I have also been out and about with some good friends.

Mark gave me a call and suggested we took a day out and had a rummage round one of the forests here a bouts. He wanted to practice a little tracking and he also had an interesting geological anomaly that he thought would interest me.

The early morning was crisp with frost as we moved through the landscape.
We found a woodpecker's larder...

And some Red Deer droppings...

 And a place where a small rodent had consumed his stash of haws next to it's tiny home.

We stopped for a brew using one of Marks fangled folding fire boxes.

I used a flint and steel to light it...

Mark produced from his Bergen a couple of packets of wet meals, I chose chilli, it was very good. I'll post some information about them later.

Well eventually we found the anomaly...
I selected a few pieces and took them home.
I have tried to find out exactly what type of stone this is, I think it's a fine clay shale.
I dressed the shale on a flat brick using plenty of water and then finished the job with my King dressing stone.

It is good to know that with a bit of knowledge and a keen eye I can find a suitable stone for sharpening my carving knives. This clay shale is about 10000 grit, nice and fine.

Polishing up one of my MaChris bushcraft knives.

Well, with all this sharpening I guess I had better carve something.

Job done.

Enjoy...J