Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival
List Price: $16.95 Our Price: $11.53 You Save: $5.42 (32%) Availability: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
Bad News for Tree Huggers
|
Comment:
The author of this book seems to think that the solution to every possible problem is to chop down a tree. Trees are used as fuel or as a construction material that is shaped to purpose by axe. His methods are so labor-intensive that the uninitiated would perish before accomplishing anything. And if you can't get what you need by chopping down a tree, you can go out and wrestle the skin off a live elk!
The book is worthless in a survival situation. Those who rely on this book to save them in a true survival situation would be at serious risk of perishing. But there are some good ideas if you are going to build a semi-permanent encampment in a heavily forested area, live there a while, and have plenty of food and shelter to keep you going. Building things by axe craft is very tough physical work! Digging up a spruce root for fiber projects is probably even worse! Axe craft is intermediate between stone chipping and urban disaster preparation, and could be sustainable technology if one knew how to smelt iron to make axe heads and knife blades from earth materials.
Alas, none of this (except the cordage craft) is applicable in our California dry lands and deserts. Nothing here on obtaining food from native plants, trapping small animals, etc.
Unless you live in wet thick woods and you are good with an axe, this book is not very useful.
|
Summary:
THere's a reason this is the basis of all bushcraft books
|
Comment:
It's a terrific book.
Worthy of being in every outdoor book library.
Tom
|
Summary:
Northern Bushcraft
|
Comment:
This book is an excellent survival manual, although it is specifically focused on survival in the north woods of canada, ie. Boreal forest, or Taiga (In fact, the previous edition was titled Northern Bushcraft). The line-drawing illustrations are very good at conveying the concepts. Knife and axe-craft are a large part of this book because knowing how to work wood in these cold northern forests is key to both long and short-term survival there. But, there is also much more that makes the book a comprehensive survival guide.
Many survival manuals go over the generalities of wilderness survival in many different climates, and many others are focused on 'primitive skills' type of wilderness survival. This book is rather unique in its specific focus on the Boreal forest environment and woodcraft, but it is definitely a classic survival manual, and highly recommended.
|
Summary:
Essential
|
Comment:
Picked this up for my husband for Christmas. Even though he is an avid "survival" and camping guy, he learned a lot from this book. Although this is an excellent starting volume for those just beginning in bushcraft, it has enough info that seasoned campers will thoroughly enjoy and learn from it. My husband found the axe craft chapter particularly useful.
|
Summary:
Too specific to Canadian location
|
Comment:
As a general rule I believe there is usually "something" that can be taken from most books and videos on this subject. It may only be a better demonstration or a twist on an old technique. I bought this book because it is supposed to be "a classic". I am somewhat disappointed. The title mentions "Wilderness Survival" but it IS NOT a survival book. Although it does contain some very usefull info, about 1/3 of it is too specific to the authors home in Canada to be of much use to everyone else. The author references many plants and trees specific to HIS area. Most of the pictures are crude line drawings. This is more of a Bushcraft, live in the woods without anything more than a knife, kind of books; NOT A SURVIVAL reference. All-in-all, read the book once to pick up some ideas that may not be covered in other books but do not expect to use it as a reference.
|
|