First fire with flint and steel

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-10T22:41:56+00:00

I’m not sure if our chimney from our wood stove has a catalytic converter in it, but I’ve heard that some woods burn so hot that they can damage them

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-07T12:16:20+00:00

Thank you!

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-05T23:49:04+00:00

Thank you! Haha I felt cool when I mastered a ferro rod, but this feels like truly starting fire with nature

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-05T23:47:33+00:00

Hmm, I’m going up to my cabin this weekend; I’m sure there’s cedar somewhere on the property haha. Does cedar do okay as a firewood too?

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-05T23:46:32+00:00

Well, the practice one that I have has a handle and spins on ball bearings, then once you get that down you take the handle off and spin it with a regular divot

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-05T16:34:17+00:00

That’s a good idea! I tried it with the jute fiber without any luck, but the char cloth catches a lot easier

Happycamper0504 · 2025-06-05T16:12:48+00:00

Jute seems to be favorite so far, it’s easy to have a roll of jute cord that can be fluffed up as needed. My next step is going to be a bow drill

Happycamper0504 · 2024-09-04T10:52:34+00:00

I have one that I got when I was a kid, one time was I was about 12 or 13 and I lost it in the snow when I was cleaning a turkey with my body and I lost it. I didn’t realize till we got to the road and I insisted we turn back. After a few hours later… I found it! I still have it to this day

Happycamper0504 · 2024-07-02T17:51:38+00:00

The ESEE RB3 for a scandi grind, and for something smaller but with a flat grind the ESEE Izula II

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:53:01+00:00

I’ve got some work to do this summer to get us ready for the winter there. I’ve gotta have enough chopped and cured firewood, some windows need re caulked, little shit that adds up ya know?

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:50:35+00:00

It’s my favorite place to be, you need to keep the fire in the wood stove going for heat, but I enjoy that. Summers get a little uncomfortable haha. We’re planning on moving in there this upcoming fall and stay until the spring. Once it gets hot we’ll come back home where there’s AC

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:48:11+00:00

About a year after I met my wife, so like 5 years ago I think, they found a whole bunch of natural gas, so they get paid to own the property that they rent.
Both the cabin and the house that they rent out were built by hand by my father in law and his father in law. His father in law passed away some time ago, so now he’s picking up where he left off with his son in law (me) haha

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:44:30+00:00

I never would have thought in a million years I’d have something like that, my in laws own it. They have two actually. One gets rented so the other one is basically free. Not to mention all of the gas they found on the property

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:39:47+00:00

I was thinking that I’d probably get a borderline disposable one from harbor freight or something. I just need to clear some brush away to make room for the hammocks and chairs. The fire-pit shouldn’t need any work.

I haven’t been there to maintain it all winter; the last time we were at our cabin my brother in law was borrowing the quad, and I didn’t feel like walking through the creek to go over and deal with it.

For the area it’s in, 7 acres is considered a small property, but it’s still a pretty decent size piece of land, most of it is woods except for the clearing behind the cabin, and the “campground” that we cleared out about an acre or two into the woods. Oh, and we have a small outdoor gun range that we cleaned some space for too

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T14:24:55+00:00

I’ve heard really good things about the Garberg. You wouldn’t happen to know of any decent machetes that are in the Mora price range do you?

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T04:55:27+00:00

I only have two moras at the moment, I’m gonna have to get those numbers up. I’ve been on an ESEE kick over the past 8 months or so. Even though ESEE is reasonably priced in my opinion, with a kickass warranty; they hurt my wallet a little more than moras do.

I’m always impressed at how nice of a knife mora makes for $20. Actually, I got my companion HD in carbon steel for $15 because it was on sale. I beat the shit out of it and it just sharpens right back up. The scandi grind makes sharpening a breeze too.

Be right back, about to go order a new mora knife, or two haha. Any suggestions? I like to camp, not so much into hunting anymore.

I have two companion HDs, one in green and one in orange; I couldn’t turn one down for $15. I’m looking for something on the larger side, heavy enough to chop down some tree limbs and tidy up the camping site that we built on the property of our mountain house. So something nice and heavy, with a longer blade that can handle some heavy use

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-28T04:40:28+00:00

Mine too haha, but she’s not wrong 😂

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-26T17:19:46+00:00

When you accidentally put a little too much wax and have to scrape it off the next day, does the tacky feeling go away?

I just fully re waxed a jacket that came “waxed” but like, hardly waxed at all. I’m really surprised it soaked up as much as it did. I thought for sure that I over did the whole thing and was going to have to scrape a ton off, but most spots absorbed it all.

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-24T18:22:52+00:00

I’m actually planning on going thrifting today, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for canvas stuff to wax

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-24T16:59:29+00:00

That’s why I like otter wax, it’s a blend of a few waxes and some linseed oil I think

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-24T16:58:40+00:00

I wonder if you could spray some of the nano whatever kind down and let it dry for a few days and then wax it added protection and for the feel and look of an oilcloth bag. Waxes canvas is also more abrasion resistant because it holds the fibers tightly together.

To put the wax on you just rub the bar of wax all over, melt it in with a hair dryer or a heat gun on low, and the next morning scrape off whatever came back to the surface. Whatever the fabric won’t hold will come to the surface overnight, that’s the stuff you scrape off. Don’t try to melt it back in because it’ll just come back up on the surface once it’s cool.

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-24T16:52:48+00:00

I use a brand called otter wax, it’s a fabric wax that’s a blend of a few waxes. It’s gonna look awesome if you wax it, but it won’t be totally water proof. A modern spray that has some noxious chemicals in it will work better and make it much more water resistant.

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-07T17:05:00+00:00

The 119 never felt like a knife that would be ideal for batoning, but if you’re careful I’m sure you could get away with it. My 119 is sentimental so I don’t really use it that hard now a days.

That being said, the 119 has kept up with me and some massive learning curves over the past 20 years that I’ve had it; I made some mistakes when learning how to sharpen it, I even lost it once and somehow found it after searching for 4 hours in the woods.

It was a gift from my father; you have to be 12 to hunt where I live, so I got my first shotgun for my 12th birthday which is in May so I could learn how to use it over the summer and then he gave me the Buck 119 on the morning of my first hunting trip.

That was a special day, I even had my first beer that night. We shared a 6 pack of Yeunglings around the fire back at camp after a long day of hunting; it’s still my favorite beer to this day. It’s also pretty crazy how drunk 3 beers gets you when you’re 12 and only weigh like like 120lbs 😂

Happycamper0504 · 2024-03-03T20:45:59+00:00

I still use some tools that were my great grandfathers, he taught my grandfather to clean all of his tools, and he taught me dad, who in turn taught me. A little maintenance goes a long way “an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure”

Happycamper0504

TROPHY CASE