The Novice Survivalist
A novice outdoorsmen learning camping, fishing, bushcraft and survival. "KNOWLEDGE IS A SURVIVAL SKILL"
Watch “BuckShot Knives – Hand Axe. It’s an Odd one!” on YouTube
Well my bad habit of buying everything shiny and sharp may just have back fired on me. For once I have got one that may just be of no use. Or I am missing the whole point of this. You decide.
Knowledge is a survival tool.
The novice survivalist
I’M REALLY BAD AT SHARPENING BLADES
Although in a pinch I can sharpen (Kinda) a dull blade when in the outdoors, I am in no way good at it. In fact I am terrible at it. Free hand sharpening is something I have never mastered , truth be told not even close to it. I can get it to cut what I need but in the process I totally mess the blade up. Then its off to the local sharpening hero to save the day. This on my budget is not working for me. I needed to figure this out.
I have spent a lot of time online looking at videos and reading up on how to information. Which as a whole has improved my knowledge but not my physical ability to be successful at it. If you are suffering from this same melody as me , HOLD FAST. Help is available. Yep, found me a blade saver. No I did not stop using my knives and axes, although I was at the point of seriously considering this. Along with put your fancy blades on the wall for display, never to use and buy cheap throw aways …., Uh Huh I actually considered that.
But as was usual for me, The budget came into play and even cheap knives would not save me. So I looked for other help that if affordable enough to save me money and agony in the long run is the way to go.
Oh yes ! after long hours scouring the web I came across the perfect solution. What caught my eye was the line “for the NOVICE and PROFESSIONAL. SIMPLE and cost effective.” ……BOOOM!!!. Clicked on that right away. And low and behold there it was. My life (and Budget) saver.
I had discovered the WORK SHARP WEBSITE. The joy! They have a wide range of sharpening tools for everybody and every use. From a basic field sharpener to a bench top full sharpening system. Like I said before the joy. I went straight to the for “for the NOVICE sharpening system”.
And bought it. Yes I considered the price and the long term saving. The Warranty on this is 42 years , Yes not a typo, they say 42 years. How they came up with that I do not know. Do I care , Not really. I doubt I will be concerned about the warranty after 10 years. Even on my budget.
So here it is. Truth be told, This all started with me attempting to clean up my Knives and Axes, in preparation for spring which, fingers crossed is starting to show up. I was simply wiping and oiling the blades and checking the handles and sheaths for damage etc. I was certainly not going to sharpen anything. That’s for sure. To my horror my new COLD STEEL TRAIL BOSS AXE was damaged . Yep. I had chipped the blade, pretty badly to say the least. How this happened I have no Idea. Needless to say this was not just your everyday touch up fix. It would need some serious work
Work which I felt I was not up too. That meant another ding to my budget. Not Good. So I started the whole previous research I talked about and now here I am. spending a little more than I wanted to, but with the idea that this will save me in the long run. So money spent and I waited in antisipation of my new purchase to arrive. Fortunately It arrived sooner than advertised and I immediately sprung into action.
I tore into the package, Quickly went through the contents and was extremely satisfied with the results so far of my long research time. When I decided to purchase this, I downloaded all the info from the website (www.worksharp.com). Greedly read it all and felt semi- prepared to “give it a go”
I was not going to get the AXE out and grind away. I decided to pull out my pocket partner, (EDC) always in my pocket, that is my Folding Buck. A blade I have owned for ^&%$ years. One that I had sharpened. (Well Kinda). It needed fixing after my many abusive attempts to sharpen. well,
The joy, 30 mins later I had a new blade on my Buck. Well an old blade, finally sharpened correctly, as good as new again.
After the success, right out the box, first time at it. I decided I was now qualified to repair my TRAIL BOSS AXE. Ok mostly qualified.
How successful was I, well heres the visual story of my quest to repair my Trail Boss axe blade and the purchase I made to do that.
Happy viewing. Dont forget to leave a “yay or Nay” comment below.
Remember Knowledge and a little bit of research and elbow grease is a survival Skill.
Stay safe out there, and remember to leave no trace
The Novice Survivalist
Watch “THE COTTAGE SERIES – Veggie PLUS Sammich” on YouTube
One of my favorite summer time, weekend backyard relaxing day in the sun lunch snacks. Its even healthy if you to add meat…..
Oh, its a great camping lunch time familly snack….
Remember knowledge is a survival skill….even eating healthy and smart
The Novice Survivalist
Watch “Mossy Oaks Fixed blade Hunting and Pocket Knife Set – Right on Budget” on YouTube
Looking for an inexpensive starter camp/bush knife. I was surprised at this one. $15.00 to start.
Knowledge on a budget is a survival skill
Emergency Bivy for your vehicle
Living in Minnesota winters is challeging enough. Being caught out there on the road in an emergency…this could save you from an uncomfotable ending. You may just want to consider having one in the glove box……..just in case.
Check it out
The Novice Survivalist
I GOT TAGGED ON THE TUBE
This turned out to be quite a challenge. Something I had never thought about.
Basically it was list your 3 Top outdoor brand names.
Here is my answer to them. It was really difficult. I landed up going to the 10 Cc,s list and working from that.
Turned out to be a fun project. You often start to take things for granted. And do thibgs without thunking. Like the stuff I choose. They are automatic when getting ready for a outing.
Who would have thought.
Remember Knowledge is a survival skill
Stay safe out there
NS.
Learning about Axes and things
Over the last month or so I have been looking into axes. Mainly the Cold steel Trail Boss and the CRKT Woods Chogan T Hawk. The main reason was I owned both. The Woods Chogan for About 5 years and the Trail Boss I recently purchased. In the past I have had issues processing wood at state and federal camp sites . Using my camp knife is fine for the less than 4 inch diameter wood, unfortunately the camp sites typically offer bigger than that and it becomes a chore processing it with the knife.
When I purchased the T-hawk, It came “Kind of sharp” and the results were not good . I lost interest in it. Until looking into axes again and doing some research. I discovered the that most manufactures don’t really put a good edge on the axe. So with more reading etc. I figured out how to sharpen my T Hawk. The results were 10 fold better. So I looked at a slightly bigger axe and decided on the Trail Boss from COLD STEEL.
There are many sides to a good camp axe or tomahawk I soon foyund out. So I researched more thaen did some Dirt time on them.
What a joy it is to process wood again.
Click ion the videos below to see the dirt time and information I have since learnt, Axes the joy of having one to camp with.
So there you are . A little knowledge can lead to wonderous things.
Remember Knowledge is a survival skill. Axe use is a survival skill all campers should have.
The Novice survivalist
“T HAWK” WOOD HANDLE UPGRADE
Finally got to work on the wood handle slipping issue. It was worse when wearing gloves.
So scrapped off the coating on the handle that it came with. And added Linseed oil.
What a difference in the grip factor now.
Not just a saftey issue but it looks good too.
Remember saftey first is a survival skill
Novice Survivalist. https://youtu.be/5mH4AcHRNQg
The Novice Survivalist 