DIY

Helle knife before final sanding.

I always wanted a nice knife. Something better than the cheapy knives that are offered for $9.99 in that store that you always shop at. But I never could justify… or convince my wife that $100 for a knife was worth it. So I decided to start up a hobby: knife making.

Well strictly speaking, it isn’t knife making. It is making the handle for the knife. But to me that was the place to start. I did a bunch of research and decided on Helle. I haven’t been disappointed.

Helle is a Norwegian knife making company and they distribute through various companies around the world. I buy mine from Dryad bows.

The concept is fairly simple: Drill a hole down the center of a piece of wood and then slide it over the tang of the knife. Now, to make it fancy you’ll want to alternate woods or add leather, bone, metal or something to make your knife unique.

materials for my first knife: wood, leather, tagua (vegetable ivory), leather, tagua, leather, repeat…

Choose a good epoxy, let it dry and then all you do is carve and sand the handle to your liking. It is a good project and for $25 you have a nice knife that is unique. (Helle also sells premade knives with the same blade for $90+).

I’m in south america and in every country that I’ve been, I’ve picked up a piece of wood or other material that I can use in making a knife. For example, my current knife uses tagua, leather, and peruvian olive wood (the spanish brought olive trees over in the 1600s). In bolivia I picked up some small pieces of quina quina which I will probably work on back home this summer.

Whether you want a one off knife, want to start a hobby, or maybe even a business, its a great project that you can do with only a few tools (I used a hand drill, saw and file for my first one).

I’m always looking for DIY information for making your own gear. There are some great ideas that work as well as (if not better than) their costly name brand counterparts.

One of the sites that gave me the idea for a super light and cheap backpacking tent is backpacking.net’s homemade gear page.

http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html

I’m hoping to use the “Jones tent II” as a base to make my own variation of a 2 persons backpacking tent.

The instructions are generally thorough and include diagrams with measurements.

Enjoy. If you do use the site or have used similar guides to make your own gear, I’d love to hear it.

Alright, for those of you who live in areas where wood heating is common, you know the benefit of a good, efficient wood stove. Well… all those who pay heating bills (be it electric, gas, wood or pellet or ???) appreciate an efficient stove. Even backpacking we appreciate it. That’s what floats our boat.

There is an old saying, “White man builds big fire, stands back. Indian builds little fire, huddles close”.  The point is, you want to get the job done, and while the more pyrotechnical minded like big fires, the less work, the better.

Now if you combine those principles (efficiency, price and purpose) you have the high efficiency wood backpacking stove. Think of it as a wood stove with an afterburner… yes like a jet, but no, not that fast. You add extra air at the top of the fire to burn any left over gasses. With only a handful of twigs you can boil a few cups of water and in the end, there is hardly anything leftover, just a bit of charcoal. And all you need is 2 tin cans!

In reality its purpose is to cook food. at 3200M (10 500 feet) I have boiled 2 cups of water in 8 minutes and 4 (1 liter) in 13.5.

What are the benefits?
For longer trips you don’t have to bring your own fuel, making it lighter than conventional stoves, especially on long trips.
It needs hardly any fuel (1 handful). Much less wood than a conventional fire.

What are the downsides?
Slightly longer to boil water than with an alcohol stove.
Slightly heavier than an alcohol stove.
It relies on finding dry fuel.
Take a look at the video for a how to:

My wife’s Neck Cooler

It isn’t carroted, clotted, or carotted. It’s Carotid. It doesn’t have anything to with bugs bunny or how much your husband saved on that ring, it just carries blood to your head. Well, oxygenated blood, and i guess that makes it important. In fact if you want to prevent your body from overheating, better than pouring water on your head, you should cool down that artery.

Thats why it feels good to put a wet cloth on your neck. It doesn’t just ease sunburn, it cools down the blood that enters your head. And that can save your life.

The worst enemy in summer is heatstroke. That’s when your temperature reaches more than 40.6 degrees. It can kill you. You don’t want to mess around with heatstroke, so always keep your body temperature regulated, keep drinking water and don’t over exercise in the heat.

To help, why not make a neck warmer to keep your neck cool for long periods of time. My mum actually brought this neck cooler to my attention. It uses is silica gel in a small kneck scarf that you soak in water.

Here is the how to:

Things you need:

• Cotton cloth about 1 meter/yard long and 5 inches wide.
• 1/2 tsp of silica gel
• sewing machine or needle and thread

What to do with them.

1. Fold the material in half (inside out) to make it only 2.5″ wide (but still a meter long).
2. Sew one end shut.
3. sew along whole length of the open side.
4. turn the fabrica inside out like a sock so that the pattern is clearly visible.
5. 1/3 of the length in, measuring from the sewn end, sew at least twice along the width of the cloth. This will create the start of the silica pouch.
6. Pour in the 1/2 tsp of silica gel down the open end of the scarf.
7. 1/3 of the length, measuring from the open end, sew at least twice along the width of the cloth. This will close the silica pouch.
8. Sew the open end closed.

Soak in water for 1 – 2 hours or until the silica has filled the pouch. Then tie it around your neck. It will stay moist and cool for hours. Then, when your done, dry it out in the sun and save it for next time.

Beware: Don’t eat the silica gel. While silica gel is not actually toxic, it is sometimes combined with toxic chemicals. Read the wiki.

Here’s a quick video of me making the potstand for the alcohol backpacking stove that I documented earlier.

If you’ve always wanted to build your own log cabin and then appease your more destructive instincts, or maybe are just frustrated at wasting matches, take a look at this video where I start a fire with my favourite method: the Log Cabin.

Disclaimer: As always, be careful and know what you’re doing. Make sure you practice before going into the field.

So I managed to make a video of me putting together my version of the Penny Alcohol Stove.

I’ve used it Backpacking with my wife and daughter and it worked excellently. We managed to boil water in about the same time as some of the other expensive and heavier stoves.

Check out Mark Jurey’s blog for detailed instructions and efficiency tests.
Please post your feedback and/or questions.