The Bushcraft check list

This was an article I wrote for the first issue of Bushcraft U.S.A. magazine. Hope you like it.

                                                 

  Photo by: Xmp. A very cool dude. 

     



      Never heard of the bushcraft checklist? That’s because it’s not really a tangible thing. There’s nothing of it written down anywhere, you can’t send off to Ray Mears and get one to hang on your wall or stick in your pack but it does exist. You've probably seen evidence of it and may unknowingly use it yourself at times. It usually goes something like this:
1. Learn to build a fire. 2. Learn the chest lever knife grip, the hammer grip, the reverse super high energy chest grip and all other conceivable knife grips 3. Learn the bow and drill friction fire method 4. Learn the bow and drill using natural cordage. And on and on up the mythical bushcraft skills ladder.

     It’s the unwritten list that some feel they have to follow in order to be taken seriously, to be respected. You can see this phenomenon displayed in internet posts and youtube videos at times, it’s subtle but it’s there. Every skill that is learned is posted up in still or moving pictures for posterity’s sake and then checked off the list. Once all the skills on the list are learned (not necessarily mastered)  then the person feels like they have arrived at some peak that has eluded them until this point. They’re at the top of the skills and knowledge ladder in the bushcraft community and now all is well, they will be looked at with respect. All this usually happens without the individual even knowing it.

     In my opinion that list is worthless. Plain and simple a waste of time and energy. Not the skills themselves but the perceived or real peer pressure that created the list in the first place. Everyone wants to measure up and be accepted in their chosen hobby or profession and bushcraft is no exception. I don’t look down on anyone who is on the journey of checking off all the skills on the bushcraft list. I do feel bad for them though, I feel bad that they might be missing the entire point of it all. Missing what probably brought them to these skills in the first place; the woods and the love of being there. I’m afraid that they are concentrating so hard on completing the list that they’re missing the trees and the forest all in one smooth pass and that’s a tragedy.

     I’m not a list teetotaler by any means myself, I don’t want you to come away thinking that. I have my own list and it goes something like this:

1. Go to the woods. 2. Have fun. That’s about it. Any skill I practice is for fun or what I consider a requirement for myself because of the area I live in. Not because it‘s on the accepted, official bushcraft list. And when I practice those skills I have fun. I won’t practice something that does me no good or that I see as unnecessary for having a good time in the woods.

 Here’s an example: The hand drill would be a skill that is high on the bushcraft list but near the bottom of mine. Why you ask? First of all because I’m lazy and the hand drill method looks like to much work and secondly because I always have cordage or can make cordage for the bow and drill method. Yeah, yeah, I know there’s always a chance I’ll get dropped buck naked (nobody wants to see that) into a wilderness that has no cordage plants whatsoever but I don't rely on the friction fire method in the first place. Once again it's for fun.

     I guess what I’m saying is this: Don’t let your lack of mastery of the bushcraft list keep you from feeling valuable to the bushcraft community. Don’t let that feeling of not knowing the proper reverse lever, back fist, super duper knife grip make you learn something that is useless to you and worst of all, not fun. Don’t do it for acceptance. Do it for the love of doing it.

     For example, I host a set of challenges called the Hardwoodsman challenges on bushcrafusa.com.
You can check them out here if you're interested in them:
Hardwoodsman challenges
  Those of you who already know about those challenges are probably thinking, "hey Iz, you're a hypocrite because those challenges are nothing but one big list". That's true, they are. But I did those challenges initially for myself because they were fun. That's what I hope those who participate get out of it also, a good time in the woods.
    The last thing I want is for someone to follow that list, complete it, think they've arrived at some bushcraft milestone and look back and realize they had a miserable time doing it. Or worse yet, think they're all that because they did some cool stuff on video.

   That "list" isn't there to encourage people to do what I do or get some sort of qualification or credentials. It's there to encourage others to get involved, much like bushclass on that same site. Don't do it for acceptance (because it won't get you any more or less than if you don't do them), do it for the love of doing it.

 Now it could so happen that you feel that every skill on the bushcraft list is truly essential and fun, if that’s the case then proceed as planned. That's what I'd hope and love to see, so forget all my blithering because it doesn't apply to you.

     On the opposite side of the coin, if your ego is so big that your head can’t fit through the door because you've checked off all the skills on the list then I’m glad for you. I don’t want you coming through my door anyway.

God bless,
Iz