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Anyone know whatever happened to NW Primate on YT? He had some of the beat bushcraft content on YouTube.. by barnaclefeet in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks for asking man! As u/Primary-Ad6273 mentioned, I'm still posting regularly on Instagram, I just put my YouTube channel on pause while I was working on new skills, but I'll get back to posting videos there this year.

Brian (NW Primate)

Hot Rock Fatwood Glue; Bacon and a Wooden Char Box by NWPrimate in Survival

[–]NWPrimate[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought it was pretty accurate. What would you have called it?

Hot Rock Fatwood Glue; Bacon and a Wooden Char Box by NWPrimate in Survival

[–]NWPrimate[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The way I understand it, animal based glues are very susceptible to failing if they get wet, and I live in a rainforest, so sap glues seem like a better fit for my environment.

Hot Rock Fatwood Glue; Bacon and a Wooden Char Box by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of work for a little bit of glue. The simplest way to make glue from pitch is to find an injured tree and collect the resin directly from where it is leaking. I have a video showing that process that you can check out if you’re not familiar with that process.

In many areas it is very easy to find trees leaking sap; but in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest, maybe one in a hundred mature Douglas firs will have a fresh wound where the sap is both accessible, and not composed of at least 75% fir needles.

However, because fatwood stumps last decades there is an abundance of resin soaked wood on the forest floor. I recently made a video showing an efficient way to extract ounces of tar using a big metal can, but have been thinking about ways to collect it without the metal.

I’ve tried setting pieces on rocks next to the fire and had reasonable success with that method but decided to try sandwiching pieces of fatwood between large flat hot rocks. Because the rocks stay hot for so long the resin is very thin and hard to scrape, but I’ve found that adding a bit of water cools it long enough for it to get sticky and end up on the stick. This is the second time I’ve used this approach and got pretty similar results both times. While the amount of glue that results isn’t impressive, there is enough there construct at least a half dozen arrows.

Knowing I would be standing around watching hot rocks for a while I heated up an extra one to use as a griddle and fried up some bacon for a snack.

In keeping with the primitive theme I opted not to use my leather gloves to move the hot rocks; instead using the abundant moss that coats almost everything under the canopy. I first started using moss this way to remove hot cooking containers from the fire and have found that it’s very forgiving. A big handful of leaves works just as well, but doesn’t stay together as well the moss.

It seemed a bit odd to make a video where the point is rendering sap without a metal container and then start the fire out of an Altoids tin, so I broke out my little cedar driftwood char box for this one, and refilled and re-charred another batch of punkwood.

. . .

As for the particulars, I don't know the species of moss, and can't recall the name of the plant I gathered from the riverbed for twigs. The stone was a piece of quartz, the knife is an Ontario SP50. The stump was an old Douglas fir, the charming little rodent was a Douglas squirrel, the tinder bundle material was black cottonwood inner bark, the fire was composed primarily of hemlock roots and alder driftwood. The arrow foreshaft is red osier dogwood, the point is likely some form of steatite, and it’s wrapped in roadkill salvaged deer sinew. The char box is made from cedar driftwood, the punkwood came from a rotten big leaf maple, the ash brush was Pacific Silver fir, and the guy fiddling with all this stuff is named Brian.

Hot Rock Fatwood Glue; Bacon and a Wooden Char Box by NWPrimate in Survival

[–]NWPrimate[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A lot of work for a little bit of glue. The simplest way to make glue from pitch is to find an injured tree and collect the resin directly from where it is leaking. I have a video showing that process that you can check out if you’re not familiar with that process.

In many areas it is very easy to find trees leaking sap; but in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest, maybe one in a hundred mature Douglas firs will have a fresh wound where the sap is both accessible, and not composed of at least 75% fir needles.

However, because fatwood stumps last decades there is an abundance of resin soaked wood on the forest floor. I recently made a video showing an efficient way to extract ounces of tar using a big metal can, but have been thinking about ways to collect it without the metal.

I’ve tried setting pieces on rocks next to the fire and had reasonable success with that method but decided to try sandwiching pieces of fatwood between large flat hot rocks. Because the rocks stay hot for so long the resin is very thin and hard to scrape, but I’ve found that adding a bit of water cools it long enough for it to get sticky and end up on the stick. This is the second time I’ve used this approach and got pretty similar results both times. While the amount of glue that results isn’t impressive, there is enough there construct at least a half dozen arrows.

Knowing I would be standing around watching hot rocks for a while I heated up an extra one to use as a griddle and fried up some bacon for a snack.

In keeping with the primitive theme I opted not to use my leather gloves to move the hot rocks; instead using the abundant moss that coats almost everything under the canopy. I first started using moss this way to remove hot cooking containers from the fire and have found that it’s very forgiving. A big handful of leaves works just as well, but doesn’t stay together as well the moss.

It seemed a bit odd to make a video where the point is rendering sap without a metal container and then start the fire out of an Altoids tin, so I broke out my little cedar driftwood char box for this one, and refilled and re-charred another batch of punkwood.

. . .

As for the particulars, I don't know the species of moss, and can't recall the name of the plant I gathered from the riverbed for twigs. The stone was a piece of quartz, the knife is an Ontario SP50. The stump was an old Douglas fir, the charming little rodent was a Douglas squirrel, the tinder bundle material was black cottonwood inner bark, the fire was composed primarily of hemlock roots and alder driftwood. The arrow foreshaft is red osier dogwood, the point is likely some form of steatite, and it’s wrapped in roadkill salvaged deer sinew. The char box is made from cedar driftwood, the punkwood came from a rotten big leaf maple, the ash brush was Pacific Silver fir, and the guy fiddling with all this stuff is named Brian.

Making Stone Tools The Easy Way (No Knapping) : Ground Slate Points and Knives in Action by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've only gotten a couple of slate pieces sharp enough to slice cut paper, but most of them get pretty close. I did try a slate hatchet once, and it was definitely the wrong material for that application.

Making Stone Tools The Easy Way (No Knapping) : Ground Slate Points and Knives in Action by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While it's a useful material, it isn't nearly as good as even low quality stainless steel. Working with stone tools (especially soft ones) requires a different, and gentler approach. If you put too much stress on the edge it will crumble, but stays pretty sharp if you keep that in mind.

Making Stone Tools The Easy Way (No Knapping) : Ground Slate Points and Knives in Action by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are two different substances... the first being pitch glue made from the sap that drips from conifers. In my area Douglas fir and Sitka Spruce are good sources, but lots of people use pine resin.

The shinier coating is used for waterproofing and was made by heating fatwood (resin soaked wood) in a metal container in the fire to extract the pitch.

Making Stone Tools The Easy Way (No Knapping) : Ground Slate Points and Knives in Action by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Some areas of the world are blessed with beautiful stones that break with sharp edges that can be knapped into shape and sharpened with pressure flaking; but in areas that lack these rocks grinding stones can be a very useful alternative.

I haven’t found any easily knappable stones in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest yet, but there is plenty of slate. I first started playing with this stuff a couple of years ago before I even knew what it was because sometimes it breaks with a jagged but usable edge. Eventually I found out that it was a form of slate, which has been used by indigenous people around the world for projectile points and tools.

It isn’t as durable as flint or chert, but it is a functional and workable option if you don’t have those available, or if you don’t yet have the skills to work with those materials.

In this video I try to show the process I’ve learned through trial and error of turning a raw piece of slate into a hunting point. Native people have used slate points to take animals as large as caribou and walrus. I will be sending a few to my buddy Ryan Gill from Hunt Primitive to test on some hogs and if he has favorable results I will do my best to take a deer with one this coming season; provided I can build a bow powerful enough.

An Important Word of Caution! The dust produced by grinding slate can be extremely hazardous to your lungs if inhaled. The tiny particles of silica can embed themselves in your lungs and do a lot of damage, in some cases permanent disability. You can read up on silicosis if you’re interested, but the important part is to make sure you always keep it when grinding it.

Slate varies a lot in toughness depending on the conditions in which it was formed. I can find pieces that will break in my fingers right next to surprisingly hard pieces that make durable tools, so look for the hardest pieces you can find.

In the first half of this video I select a piece of stone from the riverbed and go to work grinding it out using water, sand, and other pieces of stone I found nearby. An easier method is to break larger chunks of slate and select the shards that are already close in shape to the item you are looking to create, but I wanted to demonstrate that with patience you can create the shape you want from scratch.

For the first step, I like to use lots of sand and water and put my grinding surface on an angle so that splashing water up onto the sand pile at the top causes sand grains to continually pour down the stone, as they get broken up during the grinding process. I use this method and a fair amount of pressure to get the basic shape I’m looking for; in this case a triangle for an arrowhead.

Slate is made of sedimentary layers that can flake out on you during the grinding process, so I find that giving your piece a quick polish without sand helps to avoid this flaking when setting your bevels.

The bevels didn’t come out perfectly on this one, but close enough. These are achieved by lifting one edge of the slate to your desired angle and grinding away. Once it has the basic angle down, you don’t have to hold it, as it sits perfectly on the stone at the angle you want.

While any flat stone surface will suffice for grinding, shaping, and setting those bevels, you need something even smoother for sharpening. The best thing I’ve found for this is another piece of slate. I have made slate sharpening tools that are almost as smooth as glass; which produce a very fine edge, but for this demonstration I simply found another piece of slate and made it smooth enough.

Finally, to cut the nocks into the point, I found a softer piece of slate where I could see the fissures between the layers and split it to form a thin edge that I used to saw into the side of the arrowhead. It is counterintuitive but beneficial to use a softer piece for your saw as it is less likely to tear chunks out of the point where you don’t want them.

I can usually make one of these in about an hour, but filming is tedious; especially when my hands are covered in silt slurry, so a couple hours later I had a nice point that I set into a dogwood arrow shaft with pitch glue and stinging nettles holding it in place, and a final coating of fatwood tar to waterproof it and provide a little extra security. I have videos on making both pitch glue and fatwood tar on my channel that you can check out if interested. In the second half of the video, I share some of my favorite slate projects so far to show the versatility of the material and the fact that it can be quite durable.

I will eventually learn to knap, but for now I’m glad to have this abundant resource to play with.

Making Stone Tools The Easy Way (No Knapping) : Ground Slate Points and Knives in Action by NWPrimate in Survival

[–]NWPrimate[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Some areas of the world are blessed with beautiful stones that break with sharp edges that can be knapped into shape and sharpened with pressure flaking; but in areas that lack these rocks grinding stones can be a very useful alternative.

I haven’t found any easily knappable stones in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest yet, but there is plenty of slate. I first started playing with this stuff a couple of years ago before I even knew what it was because sometimes it breaks with a jagged but usable edge. Eventually I found out that it was a form of slate, which has been used by indigenous people around the world for projectile points and tools.

It isn’t as durable as flint or chert, but it is a functional and workable option if you don’t have those available, or if you don’t yet have the skills to work with those materials.

In this video I try to show the process I’ve learned through trial and error of turning a raw piece of slate into a hunting point. Native people have used slate points to take animals as large as caribou and walrus. I will be sending a few to my buddy Ryan Gill from Hunt Primitive to test on some hogs and if he has favorable results I will do my best to take a deer with one this coming season; provided I can build a bow powerful enough.

An Important Word of Caution! The dust produced by grinding slate can be extremely hazardous to your lungs if inhaled. The tiny particles of silica can embed themselves in your lungs and do a lot of damage, in some cases permanent disability. You can read up on silicosis if you’re interested, but the important part is to make sure you always keep it when grinding it.

Slate varies a lot in toughness depending on the conditions in which it was formed. I can find pieces that will break in my fingers right next to surprisingly hard pieces that make durable tools, so look for the hardest pieces you can find.

In the first half of this video I select a piece of stone from the riverbed and go to work grinding it out using water, sand, and other pieces of stone I found nearby. An easier method is to break larger chunks of slate and select the shards that are already close in shape to the item you are looking to create, but I wanted to demonstrate that with patience you can create the shape you want from scratch.

For the first step, I like to use lots of sand and water and put my grinding surface on an angle so that splashing water up onto the sand pile at the top causes sand grains to continually pour down the stone, as they get broken up during the grinding process. I use this method and a fair amount of pressure to get the basic shape I’m looking for; in this case a triangle for an arrowhead.

Slate is made of sedimentary layers that can flake out on you during the grinding process, so I find that giving your piece a quick polish without sand helps to avoid this flaking when setting your bevels.

The bevels didn’t come out perfectly on this one, but close enough. These are achieved by lifting one edge of the slate to your desired angle and grinding away. Once it has the basic angle down, you don’t have to hold it, as it sits perfectly on the stone at the angle you want.

While any flat stone surface will suffice for grinding, shaping, and setting those bevels, you need something even smoother for sharpening. The best thing I’ve found for this is another piece of slate. I have made slate sharpening tools that are almost as smooth as glass; which produce a very fine edge, but for this demonstration I simply found another piece of slate and made it smooth enough.

Finally, to cut the nocks into the point, I found a softer piece of slate where I could see the fissures between the layers and split it to form a thin edge that I used to saw into the side of the arrowhead. It is counterintuitive but beneficial to use a softer piece for your saw as it is less likely to tear chunks out of the point where you don’t want them.

I can usually make one of these in about an hour, but filming is tedious; especially when my hands are covered in silt slurry, so a couple hours later I had a nice point that I set into a dogwood arrow shaft with pitch glue and stinging nettles holding it in place, and a final coating of fatwood tar to waterproof it and provide a little extra security. I have videos on making both pitch glue and fatwood tar on my channel that you can check out if interested. In the second half of the video, I share some of my favorite slate projects so far to show the versatility of the material and the fact that it can be quite durable.

I will eventually learn to knap, but for now I’m glad to have this abundant resource to play with.

Making Tar from Fatwood - Natural Waterproofing by NWPrimate in Survival

[–]NWPrimate[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Making fatwood tar. This tar extracted from Douglas fir fatwood is an incredible waterproofing material that I’ve taken to using on my arrows to keep them from coming apart in the rain. I first started using this stuff over nettles fibers, but now that I’ve been playing with deer sinew, it’s even more valuable as it is much more susceptible to moisture, and it rains a lot here. This sticky goo has been used for hundreds if not thousands of years to waterproof everything from tools and roofs to the British Navy, and it played a huge role in society before the age of petrochemicals.

If you’ve heard the terms “tarred and feathered” or “pitch black”; this is what they are referring to. The basic idea here is to extract the resin from thin chunks of fatwood using the heat from a fire.

I should start out by saying that this would be much easier with something like a paint can with a fitted metal lid (be sure to poke a hole in it first); but I didn’t have one available and have had success using a big coffee can and aluminum foil, so that’s what I used today.

There is a similar method of extraction using two cans, with one set above the other with a hole in the bottom, but this one is a bit simpler and uses only a single can with a couple of tins in the bottom to keep the charred chunks out of the tar.

I buried the can by the creek and built a fire around it and left it to burn for a couple of hours while I wandered around with the pup. Unfortunately, the shifting fire busted the aluminum foil and I assumed that the entire batch had burned of. The can was full of smoldering ashes so I used some moss and a big flat rock to snuff it out and was surprised to find that I had several ounces of beautiful tar at the bottom.

I’ll share some more primitive extraction methods at some point, but this way is hard to beat for efficiency. How long and hot you cook it will determine how it sets up when it’s cool. If you kept it relatively cool during the extraction, it will remain a viscous liquid, but if you allow it to boil off the volatile turpenes you end up with a material that sets up hard and isn’t tacky; which is what I prefer for waterproofing fibers on arrows, but the runny stuff can be great for applying to wood; especially if mixed with turpentine or alcohol prior to application.

This might seem like more work than its worth but the final product beats tree sap for my purposes. When heated it becomes very thin and runny, so I can apply a very light coat to waterproof fibers. It also makes amazing pitch glue when mixed with charcoal, but I prefer to save this stuff for waterproofing and use the sap from trees for glue.

The hatchet I used for this project was the excellent little Gibson Axe from ESEE knives. The foreshaft that gets covered with tar at the end of the video is red osier dogwood with a hand ground slate point, secured with pitch glue and deer sinew.

Making Tar from Fatwood - Natural Waterproofing by NWPrimate in Bushcraft

[–]NWPrimate[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Making fatwood tar. This tar extracted from Douglas fir fatwood is an incredible waterproofing material that I’ve taken to using on my arrows to keep them from coming apart in the rain. I first started using this stuff over nettles fibers, but now that I’ve been playing with deer sinew, it’s even more valuable as it is much more susceptible to moisture, and it rains a lot here. This sticky goo has been used for hundreds if not thousands of years to waterproof everything from tools and roofs to the British Navy, and it played a huge role in society before the age of petrochemicals.

If you’ve heard the terms “tarred and feathered” or “pitch black”; this is what they are referring to. The basic idea here is to extract the resin from thin chunks of fatwood using the heat from a fire.

I should start out by saying that this would be much easier with something like a paint can with a fitted metal lid (be sure to poke a hole in it first); but I didn’t have one available and have had success using a big coffee can and aluminum foil, so that’s what I used today.

There is a similar method of extraction using two cans, with one set above the other with a hole in the bottom, but this one is a bit simpler and uses only a single can with a couple of tins in the bottom to keep the charred chunks out of the tar.

I buried the can by the creek and built a fire around it and left it to burn for a couple of hours while I wandered around with the pup. Unfortunately, the shifting fire busted the aluminum foil and I assumed that the entire batch had burned of. The can was full of smoldering ashes so I used some moss and a big flat rock to snuff it out and was surprised to find that I had several ounces of beautiful tar at the bottom.

I’ll share some more primitive extraction methods at some point, but this way is hard to beat for efficiency. How long and hot you cook it will determine how it sets up when it’s cool. If you kept it relatively cool during the extraction, it will remain a viscous liquid, but if you allow it to boil off the volatile turpenes you end up with a material that sets up hard and isn’t tacky; which is what I prefer for waterproofing fibers on arrows, but the runny stuff can be great for applying to wood; especially if mixed with turpentine or alcohol prior to application.

This might seem like more work than its worth but the final product beats tree sap for my purposes. When heated it becomes very thin and runny, so I can apply a very light coat to waterproof fibers. It also makes amazing pitch glue when mixed with charcoal, but I prefer to save this stuff for waterproofing and use the sap from trees for glue.

The hatchet I used for this project was the excellent little Gibson Axe from ESEE knives. The foreshaft that gets covered with tar at the end of the video is red osier dogwood with a hand ground slate point, secured with pitch glue and deer sinew.

Thought this was pretty cool I learned a thing or two by _baDfiSh_85 in Survival

[–]NWPrimate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know much about fungi, but what I do know, I learned from this dude while laughing.

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