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With a friend from Holland, here a small overview of the 3 day, 2 night trip in the west of Czech Republic. After parking the car, we left the path and went straight through the fields to a hill which has a ruin on top of it. In the fields […]

2015/02/15 – 3 day hike with Waidmann

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.

2015/02/03 – Steak Cooker v2.0

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 […]

2015/02/02 – A small spork from metal

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 […]

2015/02/01 – Testing out my DIY bridge hammock & underquilt

Went for a day hike with my dog, in the north of Czech Republic. Wearing my recently cleaned shoe’s, and took my recently made leather axe case + a sitting pad. Package of bacon in my pocked, and ready to go.

2015/01/24 – Winter day hike with dog and bacon on …

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, […]

2015/01/21 – Leather carrying case for my axe and bucksaw

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 […]

2015/01/18 – Sewing several pouches

Maintenance in general is something I like to do, just not with my shoe’s.. My summer hiking shoe’s which I own now for 5 years or so, I cleaned them once properly, and twice put some leather cream on it. The winter ones I own 1.5 year now and never […]

2015/01/17 – Finally cleaning my shoe’s

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 […]

2015/01/04 – Carving a handle for my Cold Steel Trailhawk

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 […]

2015/01/04 – Carving a simple spoon

This morning I took my new “jager rucksack”, Cold Steel Trailhawk, DIY knife, and my dog for a walk in the forest. I parked the car, let the dog out, and off we went. Close to the path I noticed a young birch that had fallen over, most likely in […]

2015/01/03 – Walk in the forest with my dog

Due to receiving several questions lately about axes, which one to choose, which length, weight, etc, I thought I would post the below to give a clear picture on why I chose for this axe, why I modified it, etc. So this below is why it works for ME, and […]

2015/01/02 – My refurbished and modified axe

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 […]

2015/01/02 – Axe head for a friend in the USA

On first christmas day I received a new backpack that I asked for, it’s the “JÄGERRUCKSACK” with about 35 liter capacity. I decided to try it out during a few hours walk in the forest with my dog, while looking for a nice burl for my future kuksa. From that […]

2014/12/28 – 3x a walk in the forest looking for …

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.

2014/12/21 – Forging a rose from metal

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, […]

2014/12/13 – DIY Hexagon Summer Tarp

The plan for this trip was to relax a bit, do some fishing, and perhaps try some trapping. We arrived on Friday night in the dark, made a fire, and had dinner. The weather did not cooperate much, and during most of the saturday we had slight rain. My 2 […]

2014/12/06 – Weekend in the woods

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 […]

2014/11/16 – Blacksmith shop setup & upgrade

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 […]

2014/11/09 – Building a sawbuck

Here’s my review on the Czech Bed Roll. Mine was an un-issued one. Dimensions rolled out: – 195 cm long x 70 cm wide Dimensions packed: – 70 cm long x 30 cm wide x 15 cm high Materials: – Bivy bag, waterproof bottom, water repellent nylon top – Blanket, […]

2014/10/12 – Czech Bed Roll review

Just a walk in the forest with my dog, and took a few pictures of mushrooms.

2014/09/21 – Walk in the forest with lots of mushrooms

I used a Italian bread recipe, but with a few personal adjustments, and made bread in the Dutch oven. Turned out quite well, but the crust was a little thick. Next time I will try to make it thinner. The chicken was also delicious 🙂

2014/09/17 – Making bread in the Dutch oven (and grilling …

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 […]

2014/09/11 – New knife for hiking

For this trip my friend Bart who is also a Dutch guy but living in Switzerland, joined me and my dog Buddy. We did the “Prättigauer Höhenweg”, which is a 72 km hike. Usually people who do the hike stay over in cabins or pensions along the route, but we […]

2014/07/19 – Switzerland hike: Prättigauer Höhenweg

The original plan was to go for a hike with 8 people again, but 2 where not sure from the beginning, and 2 cancelled the day before departure. So here we are, with the remaining 4 participants, for a nice relaxed 3 day hike. We started out on Friday afternoon, […]

2014/06/20 – Summer hike with friends

Once again on a hike where we found previously the grenade. The bomb squad detonated it there, but we found the place again en some souvenirs. and not far from that place, we found another one…. Other then that, we did a lot of skill testing / refreshing. Our camp […]

2014/03/22 – Hike in with Mirek

During the last night of this trip, it started raining and continued till the end of the next day. Next day morning it was only drizzling, so nothing a rain poncho can’t fix. I collected some smaller and bigger branches from the ticker forest next to us, since it was […]

2014/03/22 – Fire in wet conditions

First time making a swedish torch, which worked quite well.

2014/03/22 – Swedish torch

For dinner on this trip I brought some chilli garlic pasta, for which I needed a spoon. So the carving started. A nice test for my carving skills.

2014/03/22 – Carving a spoon for my dinner

First time that I tried the 1 stick fire with my axe it took me about 20 minutes. On this second try my goal was 10 minutes, but it took me 12 minutes and 18 seconds. Very close..

2014/03/22 – 1 stick fire with my axe

First time I did the 1 stick fire test it took me about 20 minutes. On this second try, my goal was now to do it within 10 minutes, and I just made it within the 10 minutes.

2014/03/22 – 1 stick fire with my knife

Trying to light 2 grass species with my ferro rod, and also my new flint & steel.

2014/03/22 – Playing around with ferrorod and flint & steel

With 2 friends on a fishing hike, but we didn’t catch anything. The area is amazing though.

2014/03/14 – Fishing hike

A simple steel striker to use with flint, nothing special, but simple and effective.

2014/03/03 – DIY steel striker from an old file

What started out as a 1 overnighter, turned out to be just a day hike. So only thing you will see in this video is some nice nature here in Czech Republic 🙂 I was not prepared at all for snow, and also was not able to find a dry […]

2014/03/01 – Dayhike with my dog in Jizerske Hory

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, […]

2014/02/03 – DIY winter hammock and tarp finished

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 […]

2014/01/11 – Three canvas bags for my hiking gear

And here the last diy aluminium saw. 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 […]

2014/01/04 – Aluminium collapsible saw

The materials. Put the screws on both ends of the sawblade, with some superglue in between to make sure they will not slowly come loose. The parts of the screw sticking out, I cut off with a hacksaw. The middle part cut to size, to fit in between the 2 […]

2014/01/03 – Aluminium bucksaw

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. […]

2013/12/23 – Renovating and reshaping an old axe for a …

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