The Art of Carving at North Galbraith Trailhead

The winter drizzle and fog provided a chilly landscape for the winter Art of Carving outing.  Mentors Peter and Greg were eager to introduce this important skill with the boys and spend some time in the forest.  One by one the boys arrived clad in warm dry layers eagerly awaiting a chance to learn more about the knives they had brought with them.  Once we had all gathered we walked up the trail leaving the more popular mountain biking trails behind and into the forest.  Winter outings offer the boys a great chance to meet boys outside of their regular groups and get to know boys who are not yet in a regular spring or fall explorers club group.

The mentors gathered the boys in a small circle for the first part of the lesson.  Working with an edged tool requires a lot of focus in order to avoid damaging your project, or injuring yourself.  In this respect Peter and Greg asked the boys to adhere to a few basic safety rules.

1. Take it seriously

2. Know what’s in your blood circle

3. Know where your blade will follow through

4. Treat the knife with respect

These general rules keep our fingers (and legs safe) especially when they are paired with stories of previous explores who have not heeded these rules and ended up with cuts and visits to the doctor!  The mentors were pleased that at the end of the outing only one band-aid was given out for a very minor cut.  The final safety message was a focused on paying particular attention to removing ones knife from its sheath.  This is a time where it is very easy to get a bad cut, especially if you are wearing the knife on your belt where it may be obscured by coats and other layers.

Greg and Peter invited the boys to spread out and find enough space where they carve without anybody in their blood circle.  The mentors handed out small pieces of freshly cut maple sapling.  Each piece was about ½” to ¾” thick and about 12” long.  Greg harvested these saplings from under a powerline where they would never be allowed to grow very tall.  The green maple makes excellent wood for carving.  Dry or seasoned wood is difficult to carve and requires very sharp tools and is less forgiving to beginning carvers.  Seasoned wood is also very uncommon in wild places and green wood is abundant.

After some warm up carving, Greg demonstrated how to make a tent peg.  This is a simple project that uses three basic and important cuts to create.  We tapered the end of the stick to make the point, we chamfered the opposite end of the peg to make it less vulnerable to splitting using small push cuts, where our thumb from our non grip hand helped provide power with excellent control.  The last cut makes the notch for a guy line to grip on the tent peg and it is fashioned with a stop cut.  This is made by batoning the blade about a third of the way through the peg and then carving towards this cut creating a sloping notch.  Batoning should only be done with a non-folding knife and requires a “workbench” like a log or a stump and a stout branch or stick to strike the back of the blade.  At the end of the blog you will find a series of links including one that shows a short video of this project (or a similar version) as demonstrated by famous bushcraft instructor Ray Meares.

The Explorers and their mentors took a break from the project and had knife show and tell.  There were many versions and variations of the Mora knife well as some great locking blade knives.  One Explorer brought in a knife that belonged to his grandfather, which was made in Finland!  Peter showed his amazing collection of small carving tools from Indonesia, and Greg showed some of his favorite knives for carving.

Despite warm clothes and incredible focus, we couldn’t keep the cold at bay so we packed up our gear and went looking for a place to play some games where we could warm up.  After scaling muddy hills and dodging mountain bikes we discovered some old rusting earthmovers.  The boys clambered up and took a look inside the cab, but this wasn’t the spot to play.  So we headed off trail and down towards where we did our carving and played several rounds of Hungry Hungry Martin, and Hide!  Our closing circle included gratitude for the land, the explorers, and for our knives.  There were many questions about the proper care for knives.  We discussed the need to keep them all clean and especially for those boys with carbon steel Mora knives to keep them lightly oiled when they are not in use. 

The boys and mentors headed back down the trail to meet up with their families and head back home to clean up and get warm.  The mentors were reflecting afterwards how incredibly focused the boys were when they were carving, and how seriously they took the responsibility of learning to using these edged tools well.  Peter and Greg would like to thank the boys for their hard work and focus, as well as their parents for supporting them to learn these skills, which gives the mentors an opportunity to share them with others.  Here is a link to the photos from the outing.

Here are a few more resources for the explorers and their families regarding carving.

Books:

Kochanski, Mors.  Bushcraft, Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival.  Auburn, Wa: Lone Pine Publishing, 1988.  This book is a wealth of information on various earth skills.  Chapter 3, Knifecraft, covers all the essential wilderness knife skills and has excellent illustrations.  Highly Recommended, it is considered one of the best books available on wilderness skills and survival.  If the BEC had a "handbook" this might be it.

Video:

Ray Mears, famous bushcraft instructor from the UK demonstrating some basic knife safety.

Another Ray Meares video: how to make a tent peg. This is similar to the technique Greg demonstrated on our outing.