Forest and Stream

The definition of Bushcraft seem a bit elusive, especially since the term has gained marketing connotation. As soon as the marketing Departments get involved, all bets are off relating to accuracy of term and definition.

Everyone makes a Bushcraft Knife along with a fledgling industry of “Bushcraft” equipment. If it pertains to the wilderness, it seems as though you find either “Bushcraft” or “Survival” in the marketing.

This isn’t mincing words, but rather an effort to attain some sort of clearity so people can understand what they’re looking at and for.

Bushcraft is now lumped in with what I refer to as Wilderness Survival along with Military Survival/ Escape and Evade techniques.

These three disciplines while somewhat related are as different as Morning, Afternoon and Night.

All three are done in the outdoors and share the concepts of fire, food and shelter. BUT as we all know not all food or shelter is alike. You can eat hot dogs or Prime Rib while sitting in a cardboard box or at the Ritz.

While alike, they’re NOT interchangeable.  Someone sitting on the floor at the Ritz roasting a pigeon over a cardboard box fire isn’t likely to be allowed unless the “chef” happens to be wealthy enough to have bought his way into eccentricity.

Let’s start by discussing the purpose for each so we can begin to discern how they differ.

Wilderness Survival seems like the hottest of the three as I write this; multiple television programs exist demonstrating the skills of the sexy host have brought a ton of attention to our interest in the wilderness.

Wilderness Survival is obviously Survival in the wilderness, whatever that is. The skill set would entail the ability to survive being stranded in the wilderness.

I remember as a kid memorizing “The Field and Stream Guide to Survival.” The book was intended for the hunter becoming lost in the field on a hunt. I believe this defines Wilderness Survival perfectly; the lost hunter or fisher, 4 wheel enthusiast, backpacker, cyclist and so on who find themselves stranded.

The number one goal in Wilderness Survival is BEING FOUND as soon as possible. Being found by just about anyone is a good thing in this case. You will build big smokey fires, put out reflective signals, make large and very obvious tracks if you need to move at all.
If a hunter is lost and he NEEDS a fire often he needs it VERY quickly to beat the onset of hypothermia. In this case, a warm fire isn’t friendly, it’s the difference between surviving and dying.

Nice fuzz sticks and cute piles of tinder make way for whatever you have at hand, the less than elegant Kochanski twig bundle being my usual choice. Batoning to get to the middle of a wet stick isn’t really high on the list if there is a better way. A gallon of gas and a match will do just fine to ignite a pile of damp sticks and branches.

When I was hunting, I used to carry a couple of cutoff railroad flares in my pack. I sawed off the bottom leaving the striker end and dipped the cut end in paraffin so the fuel inside wouldn’t leak out. At 3000 degrees, there is little the burning flare won’t ignite. Not much for style, but there are no style points awarded if you die.

I remember once commenting when lost in a situation where it was a matter of immediate rescue or death, were I to come across an oil pipeline I would find a way to chop a hole in it, go off a couple of hundred yards and wait for the repair crew; then walk up comment on how terrible the leak was and ask for a ride into town when they were done.

Environmentally irresponsible, YOU BET!  Borderline criminal damage to property, YEP. Likely to result in some serious discussions with the Homeland Security folks, sure.  But in the survival game, as Vince Lombardi is oft quoted “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”  Lombardi didn’t originate the phrase, but he would certainly agree  to it’s application here.

By nature, Wilderness Survival is focused toward the short term and most lost hunters and such are usually found the next day. Granted, there are occurrences of hunters lost for weeks but those stories are newsworthy because of their rarity.

When you’re lost, there are no rules other than GET FOUND FAST! Wilderness Survival is a matter of YOU against whatever nature throws at you and both of you are playing for keeps.

The technology of modern warfare pretty much precludes a military wilderness survival situation. Satellites, Radar and GPS Technology can pretty much locate any military vehicle or aircraft within feet at any given moment, in short Soldiers don’t get lost like hunters.

However were a military plane to crash, the pilot and crew might be faced with some time before being rescued. Their need of food, water and shelter of a sort would be provided by the onboard survival kit but most likely they would be rescued before they had time to figure out how most of the stuff in the kit works.

At first glance, this military situation would be much like Wilderness Survival; but is it?
Being found by the wrong “people” would mean capture or even death, so fires and large easily seen signals are pretty much precluded.

Depending on where the troops are in relation to battle lines, they may need to simply beat feet and get some space between themselves and the site to avoid capture.

Movement would need to be careful and stealthy to make it difficult to be followed and found.

A Soldier in this case is using Escape and Evade skills, escaping the site of the incident and evading the enemy.

E&E skills may well include killing enemy troops, try that as a lost hiker and your goals might quickly change from wilderness survival to playing E&E with the authorities.

Fire draws fire on the battlefield; with modern electronics the heat signature of a campfire can easily compromise the security of the downed pilot.

The image of a group of soldiers sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows and singing marching songs is ludicrous. Modern rations come with chemical heaters so a fire is unnecessary for hot chow.

Military Survival is pretty much a misnomer, it’s really more about Escape and Evade.
So why are Military Survival Books and gear so popular?

In my opinion it’s because many people who weren’t in the military place an inordinately high value on all things military, “If it’s good enough for our boys, it must be the best.”
This Compass pretty much kills off that line of reason.

It’s from a U.S. Air Force survival kit in the 1950s. It still works, but the method of use makes quite clear the low level of expertise expected of the user. He may be the best pilot, engineer, gunner or bombardier in the world, but obviously he’s not expected to be able to properly use a compass on the ground.

Note the line across the top and the legend above the slot in the side “You are looking…”

This would eliminate the possibility of misunderstanding the compass and incorrectly reading the near side as the direction he is looking.  A very elementary mistake but one someone with minimal training or under high stress could make.

A reflection on the guy? Absolutely not, much more a reflection of the reality that military survival training necessarily only hits the high points. Given a choice of ten weeks teaching them to live off the land or ten weeks teaching them how to eliminate the enemy, which would you pick?

It’s likely even more so now considering how easily a downed craft can be found.
What about survival skills for ground troops? Consider the assigned task and how it’s to be accomplished. Ground Troops are involved in something called COMBAT, very different than survival. Their key to “survival” is far more concerned with closing on and eliminating the enemy than building a nice shelter or campfire.

In combat obtaining food from local sources is called foraging which commonly entails taking food from people that were either scared or killed off.  Shelter may well be the house or barn you just took from the enemy.  Hardly the same as wilderness survival.

So what is Bushcraft?

Much as many people will hate to admit it, I have come to the conclusion that Bushcraft is a sport.

Unlike Wilderness Survival which is a no holds barred death match against nature and Military E&E which simply is WAR; Bushcraft comes with rules.

Bushcrafters are encouraged to “Leave No Trace” and to see their activities as interacting in harmony with, rather than engaging nature in mortal combat.

A Bushcrafter will head into the wilderness carrying minimal gear for his planned activities. Minimal because part of the “game” is “the more you carry in your head, the less you carry on your back.”

Bushcrafters head into the wilds with a plan, to spend a specific amount of time in the wilds with specific tasks they wish to accomplish. Bushcrafters carve spoons and bowls, make cordage and weave it into baskets and make shelters.

They don’t need or want to be found nor do they NEED to evade anyone.

What makes it a Sport is that in Bushcraft you create a handicap for yourself as part of the process.

Let’s start with fire as an example; since we all seem to have retained a bit of the closet pyromania.

Bushcrafters are probably the most skilled firemakers as they usually strive to master several different firemaking skills.

Once you learn, there’s not much of a challenge to building a fire with a lighter or match. It’s a very simple matter of having sufficient tinder, kindling and fuel in increasing sizes, then using them in the correct order.

Using a BIC or Zippo goes against what the Bushcrafter believes. For him or her, making the fire is as important as the fire itself.  The goal isn’t necessarily making a fire, but instead creating and catching a tiny spark and nurturing it into a flame.

Ferro Rods, Flint and Steel, fire plows, fire bows and fire pistons are all more challenging methods of making fire, playing right into the interest of the Bushcrafter. Getting together with his friends he can impress and teach his latest method.

Knowledge of alternate firemaking techniques can be quite useful in a wilderness survival situation, the question is, why would a hunter carry a firepiston and it’s accouterments in lieu of more matches,  another lighter or my cutdown flare?

Interestingly, often after the fire is made, the Bushcrafter often finds himself challenged to come up with something he NEEDS to do with it. Often he’ll boil some water and make tea or cocoa just to not have wasted the fire but it’s usually NOT a critical element of his venture.

Bushcraft is the new name for something that’s been around for a very long time. Ray Mears didn’t invent it, nor did Mors Kochanski.  Wilderness Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger was published in 1945, two years later John Rowlands published Cache Lake Country.
Calvin Rutstrum wrote Way of the Wilderness in 1952, Kephart’s Camping and Woodcraft was published in 1906 and Nessmuk’s Woodcraft and Camping dates back to 1920.

Add to this list numerous editions of the Boy Scout Handbook and the fine Boy Scout Fieldbook.   All of these cover what we now consider to be “Bushcraft,” in them you find many projects to build in the woods along with lists of tools to use.

Rutstrum, Kephart and Nessmuk were quite specific regarding their recommendation of knives and axes; today’s concept of a “big chopper” is quite foreign to their writings. The knife and axe serve very specific purposes and the techniques go with it.

A “Big Chopper” or fighting knife could certainly serve in the Bushcraft role but it’s really not the “proper” tool for the job.

The three above write about the rest of their gear as well, not so much as a mandatory list but more as a guide for the tool necessary to the Bushcrafter.  One isn’t likely to find himself in a Survival situation with the correct tools on hand; survival situations happen and you don’t usually have time to take pictures of what you’re doing.

Bushcrafters make cordage and baskets from birch bark, they carve spoons and make tables; not because they NEED spoons, tables and baskets, but because making these items is itself a goal.

You can become as fanatical a Bushcrafter as you choose.  Just as you will find the baseball fan fully decked out in the uniform of his favorite player, some Bushcrafters go so far as to worry about wearing the “correct” shirt or pants and take the “leave no trace” doctrine to the extreme of never building a fire and carrying a “Butt Rag.”  Like the paunchy middle aged guy in the stands dressed up like the third baseman on the Cubs, that’s a bit extreme for my taste.

Boxing is adding a handicap to fighting: ½ pound padded gloves and specific rules regarding where punches may land, a ring to assure equal even footing and rounds to control and allow rest for the fighters.

Baseball has specific rules regarding the size, shape and construction of the ball, bat, gloves and field.

Football’s rules go so far as to regulate how players hit each other.

None of these lessen the sport, they limit and control the circumstances.

Some Bushcraft skills will apply to wilderness survival; one cannot know too many ways to start a fire or to use a knife but wilderness survival is NOT Bushcraft.

Wilderness Survival is to Bushcraft what a street fight is to boxing; you simply remove all the rules and limitations.

In a survival situation, environmental impact becomes secondary to accomplishing the mission. Limiting environmental impact is responsible Bushcrafting.

Bushcraft is a Sport that entails interacting with nature, leaving minimal trace behind and having a terrific time in the woods.  It really can’t get much better than that.

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