In the last 2 weeks I have been restoring an old axe head for a starting bushcrafter in The Netherlands. I’ve made a short video of all the steps, hope you like it.
DIY projects
136 posts
For quite a while I had this hewing axe laying around, which needed a big cleanup. So I started with the head, putting it in my electrolysis bath. After 4 hours. After 24 hours. Cleaned it up with a wire brush, and dipped it up side down back in a […]
A couple of years ago, I bought a batch of axes from an old man, who also gave a block of rust in a shape of a big knife. I had it laying aside all the time till last weekend, when I decided to clean it up by using electrolysis. […]
From an old pair of Sony speakers, a simple amplifier (2x 25 watt rms), 16 mm MDF, and a very old suitcase, a new sound system was born.
My first tool roll for my carving set does not suffice anymore, since I have a couple of additional items to add to it. So I made a new one from a leftover piece of NVA tarp.
On the 15th of January my son was born. I’ve been planning to make a time capsule for him which he can open on his 18th birthday. Here is what I have put inside. Global overview, and junior is sleeping in the box. The content: – Bottle of Hennessy given […]
For the mancave, a source of music was still missing. You can’t just chill with a whiskey & cigar or pipe, without listening to your favorite tunes. So through the local ebay variant I bought this old radio / record player from 1961 which did not work anymore, for about […]
Since a couple of months I own a zebra billy can. During the last couple of hikes I have been using it, and made some modifications to make it work better for me. Here they are: Complete set. The metal square holder was removed, and replaced with a 2 mm […]
From one of the birch burls I found earlier this month, which has been drying in the garage, I started carving my kuksa. The previous one cracked when I pored boiling water inside of it.. Won’t do that again. The burl harvesting you can see here. The tools, my carving […]
Every year with some friends we rent a couple of canoe’s and go canoeing, fishing, camping, etc, great fun. Those canoe’s are the heavy thick plastic ones which I don’t like too much. For the same money as renting a canoe 10x, I could also buy a used one, which […]
For a long time I planned to make some birch oil and use it for my axe handle. The method is simple, bigger can which you can close with a hole in the bottom, and a smaller can under it to catch the oil.
Nothing special, just some progress on some knives that I worked on previously and started working on. The big boy is made from a grenade shrapnel, from the kosovo war. And as last making a firesteel and testing it.
Some time ago I bought a Polish lavvu, M size (170-180), and used it a couple of times in the garden to test out some sleeping pads, Czech army bedroll, etc. Problem was the space. Me being 177 cm tall, would barely fit it in. Time passed and I attended […]
During the last few weeks on every day hike and dog walk I collected pine resin to purify it on a later date. Now I collected enough, and decided to go for it. The plan was to melt it in the old big pan, filter it with the filter, and […]
This morning I decided to make a new steak cooker (aka squirrel cooker), with the added value of having a pot hanger on the other side. Nothing too fancy, and all steps visible in the video.
For a friend in Holland, I made this spork from a 8mm thick metal rod, which is used in beton. It took about 40 minutes of heating in the forge and hammering it into the shape. The slices in the fork where done with an angle grinder. Quenched it in […]
For a very long time I wanted to make a bridge hammock. My normal hammocks are fine, but it happened twice that I woke up with a unpleasant feeling from the squeezing on my shoulders. So I wondered if a bridge hammock would be more convenient. On Hammock Forums are […]
Some time ago I made a carrying case for the axe and bucksaw, being inspired on the Ray Mears version of it. I just had it not upside down, and added 3 pouches on it. It was nice, works well, but after a while I preferred something more sturdy, stronger, […]
For quite a while I wanted to make 2 bottle holders for my 0.5 Liter stainless steel water bottle, to attach to the shoulder straps of my backpacks. Also bought a couple of 30 cm zippers to make some “kifaru pullouts”. This is the results: – 3x ripstop nylon, kifaru […]
Besides the spoon in the previous post, I also did a new handle for my Cold Steel Trailhawk. Everything was done with my carving axe. Surprisingly it was easier then expected. This is the piece I brought back from the forest yesterday. Chopping the rough shape. Then the rest was […]
From these pieces of wood, I chose the right one to be my new spoon. This wood I brought back from the forest yesterday while walking my dog there. With my carving axe, I cut out the rough shape of the spoon. Then with the Mora Spoon Knife 164, I […]
Today I had finally some time for modifying a hatchet for a friend Chose the hatchet, and made a rough drawing. Transferred the drawing to the hatchet. Removing the dark parts. After every second cut I cooled it in the snow. It definitely didn’t over heat, cause after the second […]
As a christmas gift I decided to make a rose from metal for a special lady. Did some ‘research’ on youtube on how others did it, and went ahead. Turned out quite good 🙂 And the video how I did it.
Hi, today I send 3 hours on the sewing machine, using the guide lines mentioned in the link below, to make a hexagon summer tarp. It’s easier then it looks, and the result is great 🙂 If you are thinking about making a tarp as well, use the linke below, […]
This winter I want to do a lot of metal works, so my simple forge and anvil needed some work I told myself. Also some protective clothing would be good, since I have holes in all my working clothes. On the local ebay here in Czech Republic I bought a […]
Winter is coming, and I have lots of wood to cut and chop again 🙂 Previously i always cut all the wood to size on the ground, which is far from ideal. At the hardware shops around here (3 different ones) to check on a sawbuck, they had mainly wooden […]
In March 2014 I made this knife, together with the neck knife which is not shown during build. For half a year I tested it on my hiking trips. Splitting, chopping and processing wood, processing food, fish, etc, was no issue. Now I am quite confident that the knife is […]
New winter coming up, so I took some time to make a new tarp with doors and a hammock with integrated underquilt. Tarp design is from www.diygearsupply.com and the hammock is my own design. Tested it last week, in a big windy storm and +1 celcius / 33.8 fahrenheit temperatures, […]
Hi, after being inspired by the canvas bag for the axe and buck saw, by ray mears, I made my own version of it from an old Czech army tarp, which I have for many years now, but during the last few years never got used anymore. While working on […]
And here the last diy aluminium bucksaw. It’s a “browning clone” type. The materials: Everything cut to size with a hacksaw, and filed the sharp edges off. Superglued the side pieces into place, and then drilled the holes. the superglue was used to be sure that the holes and the […]
After I posted the Version 1 on the Dutch bushcraft forum, a man with the nickname “Lampje” showed his version which was successfully working for quite a while, and suggested that I should try his version. So I did, with success 🙂 The materials. Put the screws on both ends […]
A lady asked me if I could make an axe similar shaped like the one shown here for her wood carving / processing hobby. So I went ahead, selected an old axe head from my small collection, and started cleaning it up, re-shaping it, and putting a handle on it. […]
For a while I wanted to make a lightweight bucksaw from aluminium that would be easily taken apart for transport. In this video I am showing how I made mine of 2 t-profile pieces for the side pieces, and 1 square piece for the middle bar. Sadly enough it failed […]
There are so many stories about what the best method is to protect your wood handle of an axe or knife. Therefore I wanted to see it for myself what works and what the consequences are. Small test on 3 pieces of an axe handle. Number 1 without any treatment. […]
Recently I bought another medieval axe head, which had a lot of rust on it. I have restored as well several other medieval axe heads using the vinegar method, but this is very time consuming since the huge layers of rust are hard to penetrate, and it takes sometimes up […]
Previously I made a forge from an old standard bowl shaped bbq, but for longer knives or other longer items this is a bit complicated to heat it up evenly at the same time. So I decided to make a bigger forge from an old gas bbq that we won some […]
Some time ago I started making knifes from various objects like truck leaf springs, coil springs, files, horse shoe’s, etc. With every knife there is progress, and I decided to make my “ultimate super duper awesome perfect sharp as a razor” knife for my outdoor trips. Not so long ago […]
This morning, I decided that it would be a good time to test out the axes and knives that I made previously. – Click here for the knives – Click here for the axes It was during the night around -12 / -11 Celsius, and during the early morning hours […]
Last weekend I decided to try making knifes from a old horse shoe that I had. So I cleaned up the horse shoe which was all rusty, until it looked like this Then I put the horseshoe inside the coal basked together with an old file that I also […]