Occasional œ Essentials

I receive a few classics in woodcraft and camping a few weeks ago, and while they provide some really good reading about living outdoors in general, there’s quite frankly nothing that even comes close to Yngve Ryd’s book “Eld” about making fire.

The author spent about ten years interviewing the Sami people of the north of Sweden (we’re talking way up north here) about making fire, different types of fire as well as the cultural and historical importance fire has in the Sami way of life.

I love the way one of the interviewees lectures the reader in the proper way to make a fire is to place the wood parallel contrary to stacking it in the untidy way most “tourists” do. This neat and tidy fire burns calmly and provides warmth and comfort instead of heat in your face and a cold draft on your back.

There’s also a whole chapter about making smokeless fire for those times you don’t want to give your position away… Stuff that might come in handy some day.

As a side note, these oldtimers continuously speak of “tourists”, throughout the book, in the sense of being a “clueless amateur” that is just so amusing.

I really hope they’d publish this book in English.

I just made myself this leather bracelet, as an alternative to all the paracord bracelets out there. I think it turned out pretty good. I have enough materials left to make a few more, in tan (as shown) or medium brown, both 4mm leather cord. If you want to purchase one, email me at markus@burmandesign.com

I found this old workhorse (again) yesterday in a crate of my grandfather’s old tools. I had forgotten all about it. It looks to be in pretty good shape with just some pitting and no edge damage to speak of. I guess we’ll find out after a thorough cleaning and a good honing.

I never really liked the idea of coating the knife in the first place. Especially not with the semi glossy kind of paint they use. I really don’t see the point of coating it at all unless it’s a dull coating.

So I went right ahead and stripped it all off. What I used was a paint stripper of the kind you buy from your local hardware store. It was in a really user-friendly gel form. I dabbed it on and let it sit for a while. About half an hour later I just kind of rolled it off using my thumbs.

I wanted the ESEE logo to be black so before I scraped the paint off I gun blued that area.

Still some fine tuning left to do, but I think it looks alright for now.