I’ve put a few things up for sale in a new shop tab on the blog. Take a look around.

There have been a several folks that have asked how I split my fatwood matchsticks. I put together this little video that takes you through the process. If you’re not up to making your own matchsticks or are having a hard time finding you can hope over to my new Shop and order some up.

I’m excited because I filmed this video from my newly built overhead camera rig and there was no tripod in my way.

There are tons and tons of fire starters out there that you can use but none quite as good as fatwood. It’s long burn time, natural waterproofing and easy availability (at least in the southeastern US) make it the ideal fire starter. Put together a simple tinder box and you are set.

By the way, this is my first video if you hadn’t noticed.

Fatwood, also known as “lightwood,” “lighter wood” or “maya wood,” is derived from the heartwood of pine trees. This resin-impregnated heartwood is hard and rot-resistant; the stumps or heartwood centers of fallen pines that last for decades after the rest of the tree has rotted away. Although most resinous pines can produce fatwood, in the southeastern United States the wood is commonly associated with Longleaf pine, which historically was highly valued for its high pitch production.

Because of the flammability of the pine resin, fatwood is prized for use as kindling in starting fires. It lights quickly, even when wet, and burns hot enough to light larger pieces of wood. The pitch-soaked wood produces an oily, sooty smoke, and it is recommended that one should not cook on a fire until all the fatwood has completely burned out.

Taken from Wikipedia – slightly modified.

I have collected fatwood many, many times over the years to be used as kindling for fire starting: mostly in fireplaces. My grandfather preferred it over all other materials for starting domestic fires. A bit of nostalgia struck me recently, so off to the plot of woods behind the house I went with a few select tools. I scouted about until I found a pine stump that seemed the perfect candidate to yield some wealth. This was not a difficult task since the woods had been selectively logged a number of years back.

I decided that I wanted to do minimal visual damage so as not to detract from the beauty of the area. I set to work while carefully preserving the sides and surroundings of the stump. The series of photos below shows the progression of the harvesting process.

The pillar that is sticking up in the center is the Fatwood. I will harvest a portion of this section.

Using a Kukri as both a shovel, chopping, and prying tool I exposed the fatwood pillar and started to split off sections.

I removed portions from both sides. Here you can see how resin-laden the wood is.

Once I had collected all the fatwood I wanted, I restored the stump to as close to its original condition as I could.

This is the wealth I collected. It’s not much, but you will be surprised at just how long it will last and the amount of uses it has.

There are quite a few things that fatwood can be used for beyond my Grandfather’s preference. This post is just the beginning of a series of posts on using it to its greatest potential. Stay tuned…

Meet “Cooper” my new companion. He was adopted from a vet’s office just around the corner on Friday.

Cooper is a 7-month-old, short-haired collie mix. My wife’s dog has decided that he is alright, though the cat’s have gone into hiding.  I’m hoping that he will become my bushcraft and outdoor partner. I seem to suffer from the same problem that Pablo used to suffer from: my lovely wife is just not into being in the woods.

Today while I was out running a few errands my wife (Tara) took the kids out in the woods behind the house. They had to use the partially completed foot bridge that my 3-1/2 year old son and I have been building to get there. Here a few pics from the excursion.

Last year I experienced something in North Carolina that, while not new, truly irked me. While on a trip to Watauga County to get a little fishing in, I saw something that I’ve never seen before to this extent. Well, I actually didn’t see anything and that was the problem. Normally when walking along the shores of our hatchery supports streams you will see the trout in pools and eddies, but over the course of 2 days we didn’t see anything, we didn’t catch anything and neither did any of the other fishermen with whom we spoke. Even in some of the pools that normally teem with trout, we saw nothing.

Off we went on the hunt for a stream that was less  traveled. We found a couple very nice small streams, but they showed signs of heavy traffic upon a better look, so the hunt continued. We eventually found a stream that had promise. It was a hatchery supported stream, but since it ran perpendicular to the road instead of parallel to it, we had hope. We parked, grabbed our three weights, and minimum gear for a bit of wet wade fishing. Not four minutes into the creek I landed a beautiful 6″ Brookie and my partner hooked a nice little Rainbow. Long story short, we worked our way upstream and both caught several nice trout in the process. At one point I stopped to change flies when may partner caught up to me. I told him to go on ahead and I would fish is wake. As he when around me he managed to catch the end of the St Croix I was using under his boot. It didn’t survive the step so I was out of the game until I could get back to the car and retrieve my five weight.

The next day I fished with the 5wt but the 7-1/2″ length was just too much for these tiny streams and the NC overhang. I eventually gave up after umpteen zillion snags and decided that on my next trip, I would have redundant small stream rods. When I returned home, I sent the 3wt off for repair and started searching for an even tinier rod. I was looking for a backup rod, so I spent a good bit of time looking at the features of lower cost line of the manufacturers I have already owned or used in the past.

I settled on the Lefty Kreh Signature Series from Temple Fork Outfitters. I’d always wanted to own a 1wt just because it was a 1wt. I figured it would offset the 15′ Spey I own and have not used since 1999. Well, TFO didn’t offer one so I got the next best thing, a beautiful little 6foot 2wt two piece for a mere $109. I figured it would be the perfect backup for my St Croix 3wt and in a pinch it was small enough to use as a backpack rod.

The following trip to the aforementioned stream found me giving it a try just to see how it behaved. Three days later and the St Croix 3wt never left the car. In fact, now I almost always go to this TFO first on streams smaller than 10 or 12 feet wide and the 3wt is now my backup rod. This diminutive 6′ long rod seems like it was just made of North Carolina’s small, heavily overhung streams that rarely product a fish longer that 9 or 10 inches.

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In my last post, Happy Holidays!, I said that I would be posting my first video review about now. Well, it’s not happening. I’ve been messing with and re-recording the video since before the holidays and I keep hitting two snags. First, while the camera I have is a 720p HD camera and does take nice video, the microphone built into it is severely lacking in quality. I guess that is to be expected considering that it is a sub $100 camera that I got for free. Second, the camera outputs video as a MOV. This is really not a problem but it does add that extra step to the process, which is the conversion of the file to another format that is better suited for editing. MOV is crap and should the format should be eliminated all together.

I’m not giving up on video though. I will get my hands on a decent camera in the next month or so and get started with them then. In the meantime, I have a large list of items to review and will pick back up with the good ol’ written review, which should actually go easier now that I have gotten Dragon Naturally Speaking up and running on my system again.

Beannachtaí na Féile!

I just wanted to drop in a wish everyone Happy Holidays!

I’m currently sitting in a beach house on the coast of North Carolina with my wife’s family and I’ve been having a great time. Not much bushcraft going on though. Before we left for the coast, I was working on my first video review and I will post it soon.

Before you go check out the Old Town Canoe website and come back to me saying there is no such boat, let me clarify a little bit. The Guide 119 is a custom version of the Discovery 119 that is made in the camouflage color pattern and available for in the Guide series of canoes exclusively for Dick’s Sporting Goods.

My Story: A number of years back, I purchased a blemished Old Town Canoe 119k from a local canoe and kayak shop for $600. It was the first canoe that I had ever purchased myself and I fell in love with it. Being the avid fly fisherman that I am, I found it to be the perfect boat for getting to the warm water fishes we have in central North Carolina. I had several kayaks at the time and they quickly started to accumulate dust from disuse. I ended up selling all my kayak along the way.  I eventually met my future wife and after we got married, it got used a bit less, but still a fair amount. However, with the arrival of my first child, the boat became neglected to the point that I felt I would rather someone else use it than it not get used at all. That is where I made my mistake. I sold it to a good friend and semi-regular fishing buddy knowing that I would be able to use it when I wanted. He was in possession of it for a year or two when it was stolen from his backyard. It’s out there somewhere, and if I ever find it, rest assured the twit that swiped it will get his due.

All that said, I sorely missed that little red 119k. I even tried replacing it with a recreational kayak of similar length but it’s just wasn’t the same. One day I was in Dick’s Sporting Good’s when I looked up and saw a little Old Town Canoe sitting on the top of the camping accessories shelf. I thought to myself that it was a Discovery 119 despite the fact that it was in camouflage colors, had a molded plastic seat, and said Guide 119 on the side. What amazed me most about it was the $399 price tag hanging on it.

When I got home, I hopped in the web and straight to the Dick’s sit to get more info but it wasn’t there. I next went to the Old Town site only to find it missing there, too. I did find the Discovery and it was exactly the same boat as the one in the store, but the camo color was not listed as an option. So I called Johnson Outdoors (OTC’s parent company) and started asking questions. The canoe on the shelf at Dick’s was indeed a Discovery that was molded in the Guide Camo exclusively for Dick’s and was only available there. Part of the agreement between OTC and Dick’s prevents it from being listed on either website so it is only available in the actual stores.

At this point, I had decided that I had to replace my old Discovery and I might actually be able to afford to do so if I sold my kayak. So I talked the wife into holding a yard sale that Saturday and I listed the kayak as an item that would be available during the sale in the ad on Craigslist. Sure enough it sold, along with a crap load of other items that made it the the best yard sale we have ever had. That afternoon I drove over to Dick’s with the money from the kayak sale and a ScoreCard rewards voucher for $50. I walked in and there was a sign on the boat I wanted that said it was on sale for $350. Woo Hoo… sold.

Now I have my new OTC Discovery/Guide that I will never let go even if it does not get used. I’ve rigged it the way I feel works for the way I currently fish and I take it out regularly.

Review: I’m not sure that I need to tell you that I love this boat after the story above, so here is some info on it’s capabilities and such. I have found that this is a very stable boat, especially with the currently installed seat. It paddles with little effort and tracks well for an experienced paddler. A less experienced paddler would find the use of a long (240-250cm) double bladed paddle easier. It is very agile and sits high in the water which allows for getting into those places a lot of other boats just can’t reach. I’ve done several long paddles (in my old Discovery 119) that required overnight gear to be brought along and it handled great with the extra weight.

Specs:
Length: 11′ 9″ / 3.6 m
Width: 32.5″ / 82.6 cm Width at 4″ Waterline
Bow Height: 19″ / 48.3 cm
Depth: 13.5″ / 34.3 cm
Weight: 43 lbs / 19.5 kg
Max Load Range: 450 – 500 lbs /204.1 – 226.8 kg
Material: Three Layer Superliner

Modifications: I mentioned above that I had made several modifications to my Guide. Here’s the rundown:

• Seat Pad – My seat pad is a simple piece of 1/2″ minicell foam from the local paddle shop that I cut into the shape and fastened with panel retainers from the auto parts shop.
• Tackle and cup holders – I installed a Seachoice Cockpit Organizer and Cruisin’ Caddy to provide a bit of close to hand storage and a place to hold the beer. I was able to find these items in gray directly from the manufacturer but can’t seem to find the link right now.
• GPS holder – I fabricated a flip out arm that holds the handlebar mount for my Garmin Venture HC GPS. I use it when doing long paddles or when marking fishing spots.
• Anchor Trolley – I mounted small two deck mount pulleys to to one the bow and stern on one side. With a length of line looped through them with a carabiner attached in the middle to run the anchor line through I can adjust where on the boat the anchor line is and how it sits in the current.
• Bungees – As with any boat, bungees get added to fasten things down. I’ve added several including one to hold the paddle on the front thwart and another the keeps the seat closed when on the roof rack.

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