Saturday, June 29, 2013

裏山ブッシュクラフト-#19- 蟻の卵 (Ant Egg)

久しぶりの裏山ブッシュクラフトビデオです。
約2週間ほど前になりますが、ブッシュクラフトフィンランドのメンバーと共に、ワイルドフードの勉強会に参加してきました。

ワイルドフード、つまりはその辺の自然から直接入手できる食材。よく知られた名前で言うと山菜、スパーフード、食える雑草wということになります。

もって言った道具は、通常のデイハイク用のセット+スウェーデン軍飯盒、追加食材用に糒(ホシイイ)。そして勉強会ですのでメモ用ノート・・・
なのですが、前回の勉強会での失敗、『写真とメモでは、後で自然界で見ても自身もってIDできない』事に気がつきました。そこで、ノートに新聞紙を切った物を10枚ほど追加。覚えたい植物を採取し、ここに挟んでサンプルとしました。

乾燥したら、別のノートへ貼り付け、名前やメモを書き込み、実物を観ながら勉強することができます。

そして勉強会の方ですが、天気に恵まれた良い日で、頭もお腹もイッパイにして終わることができました。様子は「裏山ブッシュクラフト-#19- 蟻の卵」ということでビデオアップしましたので、そちらをご覧ください。



Tuesday, June 25, 2013

My new carry has completed.

<< 日本語版はここをクリック。>>


As some of you may know, I will be going to attend the course "International Wilderness Guide" from august. the course takes 10 month and it covers all need to know about guiding clients in the forest. the study is a combination of desk study and practice in the woods and will have several 1-2 weeks trips and many small trips.

If you are interested in this IWG program, youcan check out from following links.
School >http://www.tao.tampere.fi/tao/TAOWWWAIKUISET/era-_ja_luonto-oppaan_at_(international_wilderness_guide).html
and some blog reading on Hiking in Finland > http://hikinginfinland.com/blog/categories/iwg/


So, basically I will be spending most of  days in the forest and it includes solo ski trip in deep snow lapland. I do have most of gears I would need, but still need to add/replace some.

One of it is a knife. I do have a knife which is very useful and I really like. with it, I can confidently say that could get by most of situations. but it is a knife originally designed for wood carving tasks and for the longer trip, I would be comfortable having more powerful knife.

So, here you go. my new knife for IWG trips.



I have been developing the idea of this knife for quite some time, so it is originally not designed for IWG and even have started making it before I decide to apply for the course.
This was the initial mock up. Full tang with Ainu-Makiri type handle.

The original plan mock up. Scaled up a tiny bit and changed to hidden tang.
Sheath  mock up was also made to see if Saami leuku type would work.

But as the work progresses and IWG came up on the way, I realized that if I would make it little larger than the original plan, it would make this knife suited for what I would be needing to do.

Luckily, I was little lazy when forging it and left quite a bit of material on blank. I decided not to grind it down to the original size, but keep the material as much as possible.

After forging.

Completed knife and original plan. see the size difference? the thickness was also added.

Then change in size was not an issue of making this knife, but it came from the makers stamp. again, it did not make deep crisp marking... I was getting tired of this stamp issue, the worst part is that I can not figure out what is wrong with it. is it me hitting wrong? or the stamp?
Any how, I gave up the stamp and chiseled the mark. Not very good one but not bad ether. after all, this knife stays on my hands.
blade set on pitch while chiseling. 
 HT was smooth and nice, but the problem was waiting on unexpected place as always...
When I started to drill the tang hole on the handle, the drill all the sudden start going side. I still do not know what went wrong there, but the drill just did not want to go straight. Since the wood I used was the last one. and howthorn wood of this size is quite difficult come by, I could not risk destroying it. changed the contraction method to 2 pieces handle, I split the wood in half - carve out the tang hole - glue it back. So on this knife, the largest concern is the strength of epoxy in extreme cold weather. it will be a good test of epoxy:)

The blade design of is inspired by Katana, mixed with leuku
Sheath and handle design inspired by Ainu people's Makiri Knife and Saami people's Leuku 
The spine has a up swipe and blade belly to tip has a strong curve. This gives almost 14cm of cutting edge even the blade length is 12cm. also this edge curve gives the knife ability to cut with chisel like motion. this is very handy when making feather stick because it is much easier to control the cutting angle while pushing.
Using tip side to make feathering.

The grind is convex from the ridge line and cross-section of blade is diamond (pentagon) shape. this profile is good for less resistance when cutting in, but I choose this because of to give more agility on blade. Since this one is ling and wide (30mm at bottom), if has flat grind, it will be quite difficult to make good saddle notch like cut. 

Try stick test. I skipped the ones I never have used or do not remember:)
Here are some cutting and usability test I made.
First up task is a try stick.

Tent peg and pot hook. easy ones but had first issue when making the hook... easy way to make this is to baton the X cut, then remove where not needed. As I start to baton as usual.. like tap - tap - tap... the blade blade just cut through. the wood was half dry birch. I know the power needed to do this right, but the blade was just too sharp. <- I did not know there is such thing as "Too sharp" :) 

 Square and round reduction. no issue on these.

Lashing cross, V-notch and saddle notch. Lashing cross, I had easiest time making. Saddle notch was not difficult at all but I know I can do this better with other knife.

Net needle and a spoon. The net needle was fail not because of the size, but again, too sharp. The blade just goes in to wood too easy and I could not control well. The last one is a spoon. I usually end the try stick with flower like feather stick, but  I know this knife can do that comfortably, so took challenge and made tea spoon. Because of the size of the blade, I need to do some uncomfortable hold, but worked well and I have managed to cut decent hollow on the spoon.

for the second part of the test is the chopping and batonning. Picked up a good size birch with knot and blanch. this one, I took video, so here you go!








Sunday, June 16, 2013

ブッシュクラフト流、ヤニ台の自作

頼まれ物と、自分用のナイフ作るのに鏨を使った作業をする必要が出たので脂台作った。

脂台とは、松脂等に混ぜ物して用意した『ヤニ』を重いベースの上に盛り上げ、このヤニへワークを固定して彫り物等の作業をしやすくする道具。刀剣装飾や彫金・銀をやる人が良く使う道具です。

そしてこのヤニはある意味プリミティブホットグルーと呼べる物で、松脂をベースに油、トノ粉、煤や鉄粉などを混ぜて作ります。松脂はとても面白い材料で、混ぜる物の種類や量を変えることで、その硬さや、ねばつき具合を調節することができるのです。

松脂の準備。森から集めてきた松脂はこんな感じで不純物が大量に入っていますので、これを純松脂にする作業。


 加熱して溶かす。この時に焦がしたり、火が入らないように気おつけましょう!油に火が入るより危ないです。
写真中右上に写っているのは布切れ。これで松脂をろ過します。

融けた松脂を布へ包み、搾り出します。手早く行わないと固まってしまいます。手袋などをし、やけどから手を守りつつ、一気に作業します。
これにはまだ多くの松脂が含まれてますので、捨てずにとっておきます。

で、こちらが搾り出した松脂。綺麗な透き通った琥珀色です。


これを冷やして保存しておけば、糊、ワックス、塗料、充填材などを好きなときに必要量だけ使って作ることができます。

今回は脂台ですので、これを全て再加熱し、松脂:トノ粉=1:1の割合で混ぜ、サラダ油を少々加えました。

材料が混ざったところで、ピッチボールなどの台へ流し込み、後は冷えるのを待つだけ。
流し込み完了、盛り上がるようにアルミ箔で壁作ってあります。

冷えた状態、トノ粉だけですので茶色いです。

 ヒートガンで軽く暖め、ナイフを固定。早速トンボマークを彫ってみました。が・・・トノ粉がまだ少なかった様で柔らかすぎます。たたいている内にナイフ全体が沈んでしまいましたw。この問題はトノ粉を追加することで解決!現在は調子良く使ってます。


そして松脂の搾りかすはアルコール漬け。残っていた脂が溶け出して美味しそうな感じになりました。勿論飲めませんが。
これは単純な自家製バルサム、木とレザーに塗ってテストしてみましたが、良さそうな感じです。自分用に作っている一本はこれで仕上げてみようと思います。