Primitives | SouthernPaddler.com

Primitives

Tom @ Buzzard Bluff

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
196
0
Ozarks of N. Central Arkansas
Hope this hasn't been posted before but since I just found it here 'tis anyway. Two canoes from natural materials by an 18 year old English lad enamored of primitive crafts. His 1st one http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/building%20a%20canoe.htm is admittedly a bit crude----but it floats!
The 2nd shows that his 1st effort yielded the experience to do better. http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/canoe2.htm
So if the price of marine grade plywood and epoxy has you depressed and on hold sharpen your machete or hatchett and head for the woods.
Where there's a will there's a way! Tom @ Buzzard Bluff
 

jimsong

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2008
247
1
lakside village, texas
These are nice little canoes, and one remakable young man. He won't be found in the pool hall or the video arcade, and probably not in an opium den.
And he writes pretty darn good, as well.
 

jimsong

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2008
247
1
lakside village, texas
Thank you, Bilge, for compelling me to go further into this young man's story.
I actually know a lot of the skills that are present at this time on this website.
Even as a tot, I was interested in do something with nothing. I got very little advice from my father in this endeaver, and a little help from his father , although it was under duress.( My Granny made Grandad teach me how to make a willow whistle.)
Before the Internet, I researched primitive arts, and learned cordage, traps, tanning, etc.
But for some reason, I never considered floating craft. I learned how to poison a stream, and get ALL the fish,(And NO. I won't tell you what plants to use. If you know already, you're probably responsable, if you don't know, I won't take the chance.)
I wanted to teach my children all of the skills that I had to ferret out, and they had absolutely no interest. That saddens me.
I noticed that the website infered that cordage was easy. That is Boat Science!
Making three feet of string is not too hard, but making a usable rope, or a net is damned hard! VERY time consuming! (And your thumb webs will ache for days.)
The bull roarer tickles me. It was one of the first primitve projects I attempted.(At age five or six) I cannot trace it back to it's roots, because it has too many roots. It has been recorded in Ireland, Scotland, and in Native America. And in Australia, and in China. Any place where there warlike people, the bull roarer appeared.
I wish there was more interest in primitive skills today.
I seriously dought we as a people will need these skills, but it's a shame just let then die from disinterest.