Hey everyone David C Andersen here coming at you from the woods behind the
KnifeCenter and just recently a few of us attended the annual gathering that
was put on by mister L.T. Wright and he's one of the premier names in the
bushcraft knife and outdoor knife community.
Now the bushcraft and survival communities certainly have a lot of
overlap and things in comm on but bushcraft especially is a skills based
approach to not just surviving but thriving off of the wilderness.
oftentimes Bushcrafters will look towards skills used by aboriginal and
primitive man before the modern era really reshaped our way of life. But
there's a bit more to it than that bush crafters are not only passionate about
what we do we're passionate about our knives as well. If you want to know what
to look for in a good bushcraft knife you can check out the link to our video
with LT Wright himself who gave us a few pointers on the subject but to find out
what makes bushcraft truly special we talked to a bunch of our friends at this
event to get their take and here's what they had to say. You know basically it's
you know a group of guys and girls and kids who are interested in the outdoors
interested in outdoor skills that come together to share knowledge and you know
we're all kind of gear addicts too and stuff so we get together everybody gets
to see the latest gear people have the latest knives the custom work. You know
particularly this setting custom stuff is big but it's a chance to essentially
you know meet with like-minded people that you might not see every day. I think
my favorite part about coming events like this is seeing people who I've
known for over 15 years and then just meeting people for the first time and
really you know like hitting off with all of them. Just meeting people who are
really into almost everything you're into as far as the knife world goes to
because that's rare. If you're just like walking around outside and some guy
wants to talk to you about stocks or football or something like that and
you're just like man I'm just trying to figure out if I want to play with A-EBL
or not or something like that. So all these people weather you've known them
forever or known them you know just right away there's still like someone
that you can just pick up a conversation with. So here you have a chance to really
be one-on-one with people and talk with for a while and it's it's a little bit
cooler because you have the ambience of the campfire you have the chance to just
go out there and and carve something up with the machete just to do it and then
you also have you know a chance to hang out with your friends. Hanging out with
bushcraft guys are great and one of my biggest fun things to do is to go around
and watch how someone does a feather stick or a bow-drill board or unit
making a pot hook. You know different things. How quick can they start a fire I
love that stuff. Just everybody is so eager to to give you whatever you need
to help out to show you things to just get to know you and and it's just such a
welcoming environment and the skills learned or participating in the
activities that's just that's all bonus just being here Enduring the crappy
weather it's all worth it. The fellowship if you will to come camaraderie just
people talking and sharing stories about their life and about how they got
interested in the bushcraft or survival or whatever it is even just camping and
different styles of camping and the sharing of knowledge because I'm from
Minnesota there's a lot of people. We're in Pennsylvania right now. I have a lot
of friends from down south there are certain methods and tips and tricks and
materials down south that I don't have access to up north and vice-versa. So
when you get together with a nice group like this you can share camping
experiences. How to take your kids camping the best way things that you
learned about taking your kids camping when they were in diapers or things
about different tips and tricks with birch parks that they may not have here
in Pennsylvania that I know how to work with up in Minnesota. So just the
camaraderie and the absolute willingness and openness to share all of the
knowledge that folks have gained throughout their lifetimes. And
everybody's willing to share the knowledge you know the information is
like yeah man come over here sit down I'll show you how to do this and sit
down and all of a sudden you have you make a tri stic it's
great fun. For the person just getting into the scene of bushcraft don't be
inundated by all this expensive gear that all these bushcrafters use all
over the the internet and they don't have a picture of a burn mark on them.
Just getting out there and doing stuff I've met people out in the jungle who
are way better carvers of me with a broken butcher knife and can out carve
everything with me just because that's a tool that they use and the trash bag that
they have tied to sticks is their backpack and they can out hike all of
all of these bushcrafters because they're out there doing stuff so
experience has a huge replacement over your gear set. So relax and figure out oh
man I've got five different cheap cups now I'm gonna go for that expensive cup
that expensive knife that tent that it's exactly the tent style that I want that
makes me comfortable so don't worry about having to spend too much money
right off the bat. You know typically these events we get people from all over
the place you know East Coast all the way out to Arizona for this trip some of
the past ones we've done in the years we've had guys from Australia guys from
England come and it's a really unique experience to be able to just share that
kind of knowledge and just share the time and the stories and talking to
people that have similar interests in learning outdoor survival skills.
learning bushcraft skills learning knife skills and that type of stuff and that
you know that's really the key. I think that's a soul foundation of the group
here is we like to buy knives we like getting ourselves muddy we like just to
hang out with other people and big groups around the campfire and have a
central passion which is you know the blade and I mean that's why you're
watching this on on YouTube or wherever right now is probably because you have
an interest in knives and when you couple that with some of the other
things you're passionate about it all just kind of comes together and then you
meet people who are as interested and as you are. The bushcraft community as a whole
number one we all love our knives we love our gear so there's a lot of
different checking out Hey look at your wool jacket versus my wool
get in your hat and your and your knife and and what can you do with your your
bushcraft tools so that is a fantastic thing I met a lot of people who had more
knives than me on there who like to go out camping even more than I did and it
really bloomed to figure out when we'd all get together and hang out in the
woods everybody would bring their knives to show off everybody would teach other
people new skills everybody would just camp around a campfire and have a good
time and that's where all the comradery of I think bushcraft comes from. As
far as going on like actual bushcraft expeditions there's a whole other set
of comradery that goes on with that as a writer I get a lot of material and a
lot of inspiration out of these trips but even when I wasn't writing and even
if I wasn't writing now I'd still do these trips just for the experience of
the people in some ways it's easier when you're not doing writing because you
really can spend the time just talking to people learning stuff every trip I go
on I learn something new sometimes it's a class that I'm actually sitting
through you know deliberately thinking you know I'll pick something up but a
lot of times it's just the interaction you know just talking to somebody or
just you're doing something around the campsite and somebody will come over
help you out and they have a different way of doing things so it's that
personal interaction you know I've made it a ton of close friends through these
events you know Spense Selser tells her from JRE industries leather I was spens best
man in his wedding we met through the outdoor survival forum years ago we've
become very close friends you know and I've got dozens of people over the years
that I've met like that. L.T Wright who host this event mean lt go
back further than that so whenever he was just an individual knifemaker
setting up at the old gun shows in Monroeville which is outside of
Pittsburgh you know that's where we first met and 20 years later you know
we're still very close friends so yeah absolutely if it's anything that brings
me here it's the people