The Talking Stick

A friend asked me to find a nice stick for him to use as a "Talking Stick" when facilitating meetings for Ecological knowledge gathering and sharing.

A friend at work said she had found an ideal Hazel stick and with a bit of trimming and rubbing with fine wire wool to smooth it, it was just perfect.

The Talking Stick was used by many Native American tribes at council meetings. The chief or leading elder would hold the stick and begin a discussion and when he had finished speaking he would hold out the stick and the person who took the stick had the right to speak while others listened. The stick was often decorated to show its importance and significance.

Using supplies from Waken Tanka Native American Products I decorated the stick.

The rabbit fur on the end of the stick reminds the user that their words must be soft and warm.

I used four different colours of thread in a four-strand round plat and placed four beads onto the thread. The four colours of beads represent the seasons, the main points of the compass and - yellow for sunrise, red for sunset, white for snow and green for the earth.

The shells remind the user that all creation changes - the seasons, people, and the years.

And finally using a thin strip of reindeer hide I attached four feathers also used in traditional decoration.

If anyone knows more about this item any information would be gratefully received.

Pump-drill experiment

While out the other day I decided to try and make a pump-drill with items I could find in the wood and then make fire. Firstly I collected some pieces of dead hazel by breaking them from coppice stools.

Using a piece of flint I cut them to the required lengths


I found a plastic bread bag and filled with soil to use as the weight for the pump-drill and lashed at the top and bottom to secure it in place.


I used Wych Elm bark to lash the parts of the drill together.

Here is the completed pump-drill.

Unfortunately when I started to use the pump-drill to try and make fire, the spinning momentum of the drill shaft split the plastic bag open and the soil fell onto the coal that was starting to form!.....oh well, maybe next time.

A pleasant weekend

I spent Saturday in the woods and cooked a vegetable curry for evening meal.

I was sleeping on a pole-bed and using my US Modular Sleep System.

There was a beer festival with a band playing nearby, so we headed there for the evening.

I went walking with friends today and we found a really large Hazel bur (the first Hazel bur I have ever seen).


An even more impressive find was the largest Blackthorn that we have ever seen (this "Blackthorn" was subsequently identified as a Crab Apple)!

I wouldn't even like to try to guess as to how old it might be.

Bucksaw

My bucksaw featured in a previous picture and is quite simple to make. There a many different designs of bucksaw and this is mine.

I prefer to use an Ash sapling, but Hazel, Wych Elm and many other woods will work just as well.If selected carefully, all the parts for this saw can be cut from one sampling. The two vertical piece have a groove cut in at the bottom using either a knife saw or piece of flint. This is where the saw blade will sit. About 25mm down from the top of the two vertical pieces I cut a small groove around into which the tensioning cord will sit. To secure the horizontal piece in place, I make a mortise and tenon joint.

Finally I make two wooden dowels which fit through the holes at each end of the blade to help hold it in place, put loop of cord around the top and using another piece of wood, twist the cord to tension the saw frame. Now it is ready for use.

Pocket bow-drill-2

The final design of my pocket bow-drill kit is now completed.

It works incredibly well and I am really pleased with the result, both for making fire and drilling holes using a flint tip.

My favourite combinations of wood for the bow-drill are a Hazel drill and Willow hearth.

Primitive vice

In order to work on small pieces of bone, flint and antler I have made a very simple vice which works very well. I split a piece of Hazel a few centimeters along it's length using a flint wedge and pointed the other end to push into the ground. In the picture below I have a flint saw secured and am using it to cut through a piece of bone.

The addition of a piece of Ash wood to rest the vice on adds to its stability, allows more pressure to be applied and by moving the piece of Ash nearer of further away the height can be adjusted.

The vice can be held against the wood using the foot or knee.


John Lord sets small pieces of flint into a split stick to pressure flake them and I used this method to make my drill tips in the post below.

Bow-drill

A friend (Will) of mine was shown how to make fire by friction by Patrick Cave-Brown. He used a system based on the Egyptian Bow-drill. Will had made several different bow-drill sets on his pole-lathe and gave them to me to test. From those tests I designed a set specific for me which we then made and this is it.

The drill is made from Ash and has a tapered hole in the bottom into which a wooden plug is inserted. The plug in this picture is made from Hazel. The other end of the drill has been reduced in diameter and fits into a hole drilled in the bearing block (made from Yew in this case). The base of the bearing block sits on the "shoulder" of the drill and once a polished finish is achieved between the two pieces of wood an almost frictionless joint is achieved! The fastest I have produced an ember with this system so far is 10 seconds and have never failed to achieve an ember while using it. My preferred woods thus far are a Hazel drill tip and Cricket Bat Willow hearth.

I have now pressure flaked some flint "drill bits" and set them into wooden plugs using Lime bark cordage as a lashing and a mix of pine resin and bees wax.

The primitive "drill bit" is then inserted into the end of the bow-drill.

Here I am using it to drill a hole through a piece of antler and it works incredibly well.