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Welcome...
Welcome to my Bushcraft website! I hope you have a great time exploring my website and maybe even making some of the items in my articles section. The articles section is ever growing and gives you a chance to see what I have been up to lately. I'm only 18 years old but have a great deal of knowledge to share which is growing by the day. I hope this website can inspire you to join the fun of Bushcraft and primitive living!
Latest bushcraft... 
 
The last couple of days I have been making a Nettle fishing line about 1.5mm thick. I have found that I can comb out weaker material from the Nettle strands with my thumb nail. About half the material is lost but in the process you can refine the nettle fibres and only make your cordage from the very best fibres. I tested the string and it is extremely strong and suitable for catching small fish with.

To go with my fishing line I wanted to make some primitive hooks, thorn hooks can be very effective if used correctly and in the right situations. I have made four different types of hook. the hook on the bottom right comprises of a section of feather, a Dog Rose thorn, Nettle fibres and Spruce resin where as the other more simple hooks are just made from Hawthorns.

To the average person the thorn hook in the top right photo may not look practical at all but this hook is designed to toggle in the fishes mouth. This type of hook is called the 'Thames Hook' because it was used to catch fish on the River Thames.
I also made this larger Trolling hook. materials used are: Piece of Ash wood, Black Thorn thorn, Lime bark cordage, and the bindings were waterproofed with Birch tar.

I have taken a series of photos showing how this hook was made so I may compile them into another tutorial in the near future.

Now that I have a good bow to shoot I needed a good set of arrows to practice with. It can get quite annoying if only practicing with only a couple of arrows because you have to retrieve them so often.

I made the arrows up myself but bought the materials this time as I was in short supply of materials such as feathers.

I also made this quiver from a Goats hide. I have taken photos to do a tutorial on this but I just need the time to compile it together.

After making a couple of bows and a quiver I just needed some more arrows to shoot....
I have finished making two Ash flat bows since I last updated the website. I am very pleased with the tiller but I can never seem to get it to perfection but at least I'm learning...

I added a leather handle and arrow rest on this bow. The leather is stitched with Lime bark.
 

These are my three bows, My latest is the one in the middle, it shoots fast and strong with a  60lb draw weight. The draw weight was about 45lb and then I heat treated it by toasting the belly over the fire. This added a LOT of draw weight! I just held the bow over the hot coals of a burnt down fire until the belly was very lightly browned from the heat. Before toasting the bow I strung the bow the opposite way only a little so that it had some reflex. The whole process added about 40lb of draw weight! After doing some more tillering and finishing off the bow ended up at 60lb

 

Contact me via email: jon@jonsbushcraft.com