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    Woodcraft
    Woodcraft
    Woodcraft
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Woodcraft

    By E. Kreps

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This unusual early work is a fascinating read for camping and survival fans. Chapters deal with every aspect of survival in the wild from building and furnishing a wooden hut to travelling in pathless woods, and from starting fires to making snow shoes, a backpack and hunting weapons. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 9, 2016
    ISBN9781473360662
    Woodcraft

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      Book preview

      Woodcraft - E. Kreps

      1.png

      WOODCRAFT

      By

      E. H. KREPS

      Contents

      Camping and Woodcraft

      PREFACE.

      BUILDING THE HOME CAMP

      FURNISHING THE HOME CAMP

      OUTDOOR FOODS

      FIRES FOR VARIOUS USES

      FIRE

      BLANKETS

      THE WOODSMAN’S AX AND ITS USE

      SNOWSHOES — HOW TO MAKE THEM

      SNOWSHOES — HOW TO USE THEM

      WINTER TRAVEL IN THE WOODS

      TRAVELING IN THE PATHLESS WOODS

      PART I.

      TRAVELING IN THE PATHLESS WOODS

      Part II.

      PACKING

      Camping and Woodcraft

      Camping is an immensely popular outdoor activity, in which participants elect to spend time (at least one night) in rural, and often wilderness areas. It is as such closely tied with survival and conservationist aspects – with a healthy respect for the natural world, and our own place within it.

      Camping as a recreational activity became popular among elites in the early twentieth century. It was (and still is) a key part of many youth organisations around the world, who promote the ideals of woodcraft, teamwork and self sufficiency. It is frequently combined with elements of hiking and backpacking, or other outdoor activities such as canoeing, climbing, fishing or hunting. The term ‘woodcraft’ (or perhaps ‘woodlore’) denotes the skills and experiences specifically relating to living and thriving in the countryside – encompassing a broad range of activities, whether on a long or a short term basis. Such techniques include knowledge of wildlife behaviour, identifying and utilizing wild plants and animals (especially for food), camp cooking, orienteering (including hiking skills and use of a map and compass), fire making (including procurement of firewood), selecting and preparing a campsite, lashing and knot techniques, the use of tents and wilderness first-aid.

      Traditionally, woodcraft pertains to subsistence lifestyles, with implications of hunting / gathering. In more recent times, and in developed countries, it relates more to either outdoor recreationalism or survivalism, a modern form of ‘living off the land.’ The father of recreational camping in the UK was Thomas Hiram Holding (1844 - 1930), a British travelling tailor. He experienced camping out in the wild from his youth, when he spent much time with his parents travelling across the American prairies. Later, he embarked on a cycling and camping tour with some friends across Ireland. His book on his Irish experience, Cycle and Camp in Connemara led to the formation of the first camping group in 1901; the ‘Association of Cycle Campers’. This later became the ‘Camping and Caravanning Club’. Holding also wrote The Camper’s Handbook in 1908 – the first complete guide to the relatively new practice of camping.

      The first commercial camping ground in the world was Cunningham’s camp, near Douglas, Isle of Man, which opened in 1894. In 1906 the Association of Cycle Campers opened its first own camping site, in Weybridge. By that time the organization had several hundred members. Although World War One was responsible for a certain hiatus in camping activity, the association received a new lease of life after the war when Sir Robert Baden-Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts movement) became its president. The scouting movement capitalised on the popularity of such activities, adopting woodcraft techniques as a core skill set known as ‘scoutcraft’. The ‘International Federation of Camping Clubs’ was subsequently founded in 1932 with national clubs all over the world affiliating with it. By the 1960s, camping had become an established family holiday and today camp sites are ubiquitous across Europe and North America.

      For Europeans, Scoutcraft grew out of the woodcraft skills necessary to survive in the expanding frontiers of the New World in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone needed these skills to travel through the uncharted wildernesses and difficult terrains. But Scoutcraft was practiced by the Native Americans long before the arrival of the colonists and it was from Indian scouts that the art of ‘Scoutcraft’, or ‘Woodcraft’ as it was more commonly known in the American Old West, passed to the early European pioneers. As the nineteenth century moved on, Scoutcraft began to be adopted by parts of some military forces, as the way in which wars and battles were fought changed. The American scout Frederick Russell Burnham brought Scoutcraft to Africa and, in the Second Matabele War, he introduced it to Lord Baden-Powell.

      The term ‘Woodcraft’ was used by the influential writer and naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton at the turn of the twentieth century, when setting up the American proto-Scouting organisation, the ‘Woodcraft Indians’. In this context it meant the skill of living in the open air, close to nature. John Hargrave (1894 - 1982) further admired Seton’s work, and aimed to revert it away from Baden-Powell’s influence in founding the ‘Kibbo Kift Kindred’ (1920), an organisation dedicated to pacifism, social responsibility and living in conjunction with nature. Another pro-Seton breakaway Scout group was the ‘Order of Woodcraft Chivalry’, founded slightly earlier in 1916.

      There is no universally held definition of what is and what is not camping. Fundamentally, it reflects a combination of intent and the nature of activities involved. A children’s summer camp with dining hall meals and bunkhouse accommodations may have ‘camp’ in its name but this fails to reflect the spirit and form of ‘camping’ as it is broadly understood. Similarly, a homeless person’s lifestyle may involve many common camping activities, such as sleeping out and preparing meals over a fire, but fails to reflect the elective nature and pursuit of spirit rejuvenation that are integral aspect of camping. Likewise, cultures with itinerant lifestyles or lack of permanent dwellings cannot be said to be ‘camping’, it is just their way of life.

      Survivalist campers generally set off with as little as possible to get by – requiring skills in obtaining food from the wild, emergency medical treatments, orienteering, and pioneering; whereas recreational vehicle travellers (i.e. camper-vans) will arrive equipped with their own electricity, heat and furniture. Adventure camping is practiced by people who race (possibly adventure racing or mountain biking) during the day, and camp in a minimalist way at night. They might use the basic items of camping equipment such as a micro-camping stove, sleeping bag, and bivouac bag, and often incorporate aspects of woodcraft into their activities. Backpacking is also a popular adjunct to camping, affording participants the opportunity to enjoy popular local recreational spots as well as accessing the most remote locations.

      Camping is an activity with a surprisingly short official history, yet despite this, humans have been practicing this mode of living, for thousands of years. It is a recreational activity, sport and for some – way of life – that continues to change and progress in the present day. It is hoped that the current reader enjoys this book on the subject.

      PREFACE.

      Elmer H. Kreps was born in Union county, Pa., in 1880. At that time large and small game of the various species common to Central Pennsylvania was plentiful in the neighborhood of his home. From his early boyhood he took a great interest in hunting and trapping. As he grew older he visited various parts of the United States and Canada, and being a keen observer, picked up a vast amount of information about life in the woods and fields.

      Mr. Kreps has written many articles on various subjects connected with hunting and trapping and this little booklet is a collection of Woodcraft articles from his pen. Mr. Kreps is an accomplished artist as well as writer, and the illustrations in Woodcraft are reproduced from his sketches.

      We feel sure that this collection of articles will prove of value to many men and boys who are interested in living in the woods and no one will be more happy than Mr. Kreps if his work helps brighten the life of trappers and hunters, in whom he is always interested.

      EDITOR FUR NEWS.

      BUILDING THE HOME CAMP

      The first camp I remember making, or remodeling, was an old lumber camp, one side of which I partitioned off and floored. It was clean and neat appearing, being made of boards, and was pleasant in warm weather, but it was cold in winter, so I put up an extra inside wall which I covered with building paper. Then I learned the value of a double wall, with an air space between, a sort of neutral ground where the warmth from the inside could meet the cold from without, and the two fight out their differences. In this camp I had a brick stove with a sheet iron top, and it worked like a charm.

      But that was not really a wilderness camp, and while I realize that in many of the trapping districts where it is necessary to camp, there are often these deserted buildings to be found, those who trap or hunt in such places are not the ones who must solve the real problems of camp building. It is something altogether different when we get far into the deep, silent forest, where the sound of the axe has never yet been heard, and sawed lumber is as foreign as a linen napkin in a trapper’s shack. But the timber is there, and the trapper has an ax and the skill and strength to use it, so nothing more is really needed. Let us suppose we are going to build a log cabin for a winter’s trapping campaign. While an axe is the only tool necessary, when two persons work together, a narrow crosscut saw is a great labor-saver, and if it can be taken conveniently the trappers or camp builders will find that it will more than pay for the trouble. Other things very useful in this work are a hammer, an auger, a pocket measuring tape, and a few nails, large, medium and small sizes. Then to make a really pleasant camp a window of some kind must be provided, and for this purpose there is nothing equal to glass.

      Right here a question pops up before us. We are going on this trip far back into the virgin forest, and the trail is long and rough; how then can we transport an unwieldy crosscut saw and such fragile stuff as glass? We will remove the handles from the saw and bind over the tooth edge a grooved strip of wood. This makes it safe to carry, and while still somewhat unhandy it is the best we can do, for we cannot shorten its length. For the window, we will take only the glass — six sheets of eight by ten or ten by fourteen size. Between each sheet we place a piece of corrugated packing board, and the whole is packed in a case, with more of the same material in top and bottom. This makes a package which may be handled almost the same as any other merchandise, and we can scarcely take into the woods anything that will give greater return in comfort and satisfaction.

      If we are going to have a stove in this cabin we will also require a piece of tin or sheet iron about 18 inches square, to make a safe stovepipe hole, but are we going to have a stove or a fireplace? Let us consider this question now.

      On first thought the fireplace seems the proper thing, for it can be constructed in the woods where the camp is made, but a fireplace so made may or may not be satisfactory. If we know the principles of proper fireplace construction we can make one that will not smoke the camp, will shed the proper amount of heat, and will not consume more fuel than a well-behaved fireplace should, but if one of these principles be violated, trouble is sure to result. Moreover, it is difficult to make a neat and satisfactory fireplace without a hammer for dressing the stones, and a tool of this kind will weigh as much as a sheet iron stove, therefore it is almost as difficult to take into the woods. Then there is one or two days’ work, perhaps more, in

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