First aid kit for bushcraft

Hi there guys, I have been meaning to take a look at this topic and would love your Input, we talked about this a little before, and I managed to find a list of what to bring. Please have a look when you get time and add your ideas and extra kit to the list, we can use this to create a first aid check list for our own personnel kit.

Let's look at what could be in a bushcraft First Aid Kit:-

• A waterproof container, sturdy and something that can take a bit of abuse. This will be used to store your first aid kit in and to keep the contents in good condition.
• A good compact Backpackers First Aid book.

Over counter medications:Your preferred pain relief tablets or capsules.

• Antibiotic Ointment or powder.
• Antihistamine to control mild allergic reactions.
  
• Antiseptic - like Betadine individually wrapped swabs as you can either wipe a wound over or squeeze the swab so droplets can be applied to a wound and they take up such little space.
  
• Burn gel with Aloe Vera is our preference. Aloe Vera aids in healing, pain relief, has anti-inflammatory properties, helps prevent blistering and scarring.
  
• Hydro-cortisone cream for skin inflammation and rashes.
  
• Stings and Bites cream - I prefer one with a local anaesthetic especially for kids and secretly for myself. My son scratches his bites when he is asleep and ends up with bleeding and weeping sores so reducing the itchiness of bites before he goes to sleep helps to keep the sheets blood free.
  
• Cold sore cream - if you are prone to cold sores sunlight and sunburn can trigger them so take some cold sore cream. Zorvirax is our preference.
  
• Electrolyte replacement powder or dissoluble tablets - for when you are walking in humid temperatures and sweating out your bodies salts and minerals. Or if you suffer from vomiting and diarrhoea.
  
• Diarrhoea tablets for those stomach upsets!
• Antiseptic wipes or gel - for cleaning your hands before touching open wounds.

Other contents to add to a Backpacking First Aid Kit:

• Plastic gloves - couple of pairs. They do not take up much room in the first aid kit
  
• Band Aids - a variety of shapes and sizes for cuts . We find the long strips of fabric tape with the padding already in place is great because you can cut it to any length then seal it down with adhesive tape if needed.
  
• Adhesive Tape - I prefer paper tape as you do not have to have scissors to cut it as it will tear by just using your fingers - Get a good quality tape that will not get brittle with age or lose it's stickiness. It is useless when that occurs.
  
• Steri-strips (Butter-fly sutures, Adhesive Sutures, Adhesive Closures) - used to pull a small gaping cut or wound together.
  I have also used adhesive paper tape for the same purpose if steri-strips are not available as it is clean when it comes off the roll. Do not place your fingers on the sticky side where it will be covering the cut
  
• Gauze and non-stick dressing pads - preferably sterile. They come in all sizes. One option if you are trying to save space is to get a bigger size dressing as you can cut to size as needed. It will save space.
  
• Elastic and crepe bandages - a few different widths.
  
• Triangular Bandage - For stings padding, strapping limbs to splints if a fracture is suspected. Safety pins various.
  
• Two tongue depressors or ice block sticks for finger splints.
  
• Normal saline 10ml vials for the double use as an eye wash or wound cleansing.
  
• Tweezers - A good pair of tweezers has easy-to-grip handles and can be used for splinter removal and other first aid procedures.
  
• Curved Scissors - Scissors come in handy and have many uses. Curved medical ones are great as they don't have sharp points. In an emergency you might need to cut clothes away from an injury site and it is easy to poke through something and cause further injury when you are in a hurry or under stress.
  
• Instant Cold Pack/s - These are so useful with bruising, swelling and sprains. They are single use, so if you have space grab a couple for your kit.
  
• Torch - wind up or the shake type so you do not need to carry batteries.
  
• Knife - A multi purpose must-have tool that serves so many uses.
  
• Insect repellent.
  
• Safety Pins - We use tape to do most of the jobs that safety pins do although tape fails if your pants zipper breaks, tape just does not hold it together. Safety pins win here. So a good idea to pack a few.
  
• Duct tape - this has many uses. The standard roll of duck tape takes up a lot of room in a pack so find something small to re-wrap it onto like a pen but be careful, if the edges roll up and stick to the next layer it will be very difficult to unwrap when you need it.
  
• Moleskin - great for blisters and chaffing skin. Moleskins are artificial skin that you can cut to shape and stick to your own skin. Moleskin can be purchased in most drug stores/pharmacies in a variety of brands and features.
  
• Snake bite kit - This is only necessary if the location to which you are going to has venomous snakes. There are different schools of thought about snake kit contents. So check out where you are going and what snakes are present there. If you take one know how to use it.
  
• Sunscreen - prevention of sunburn and long term skin damage.
  
• Clip-lock bags - I like these as they come in different sizes and take up such little room in your pack. They can be used for carrying so many things from wet swimmers to a few band aids in the outside pocket of your backpack. Then you can grab them easily when you need them.
  
• Mobile phone - charged. You will also need to check whether service will be available in the area you are going to be in.
  
• Be sure to take any personal medication.

Building your own canoe

Here is a link where you can build your own canoe in 4 days in the lake district the video shows what is involved and what you will be building. Would make part of a great 2 weeks holiday in the lakes camping.
Make your own canoe, lake district

Tarp patterns from DD

Thought this might be of use, shows various tarp patterns and pitching variations. There are quite a few of these online, if you find any more, post it and lets see em! www.ddhammocks.com/tips/tarp-tutorial

Corracle - how to make and use one

Just spotted this link on how to make a corracle for fishing and general river, lake crossing ... Looks like fun! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcAzWOBAfo8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Stoves and stove building

Here is a link you must see Just been sent this link for all you stove builders out there, this site is a cracking site if you enjoy making your own stoves for the trail. Big ones small ones simple ones and tech ones .... Knock yourselves out and give em a go" http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm

Choosing the right Bushcraft Knife

A bushcraft knife is a very individual thing, we all have our preferences, but when we look at a bushcraft knife there are a few pointers that I think most people will agree on.. Iit’s important to carefully consider what jobs you’ll need your knife for, and there are knives made specifically for certain jobs, for example skinning and filleting. For Bushmen who rely heavily on their knives as all-purpose tools, there are a few things to look for in an all pourpouse bushcraft knife. A Bushcraft knife is generally suited for light and medium duties, such as skinning game, general food preparation, carving wood, cooking, making feather sticks, shaving tinder and so on. You can choose these in either fixed blade or a folder, but generally a fixed blade is best for endurance and for reliability.as your knife needs to be able to withstand splitting heavy wood, chopping through  branches, prepping material to make a shelter, splitting wood for the fire

KEY FEATURES:

BLADES
Bushcraft knives are generally about 4 to 5 inches long, which is a good compromise between size and dexterity. As we talked about, you’ll want a knivs for finer work so a small or medium sized blade allows you to do finer work than a large blade.  I still refrain from buying anything larger than 6-8 inches, but again this is a personal preference, partially determined by your environment. There are exceptions where you choose a machette or perang over an axe for chopping

ALLOY
There are many types of alloys which are used to make the blades. Most often you’ll have to choose between stainless steel for your blade, or carbon steel. As a rule of thumb, carbon steel is harder than stainless steel and will stay sharp longer. Most people prefer carbon steel for this very reason, as having to resharpen your blades continuously is rather inconvenient to say the least. The downside is once carbon steel is dull, it’s more difficult to resharpen. Stainless steel also tends to cost more, because it’s more complicated to manufacture than other types of steel. A warning to the wise, some people believe stainless steel is impervious to rust. This is not true, so caring for your knife, wether you choose stainless or carbon steel, properly is important regardless.

GRIND
One last thing we need to know about blades is the grind. This is the shape of the sharp edge. The two most common are the Scandinavian grind or scandi grind, and the Flat grind. The scandi grind is used on thinner blades that require a very sharp, keen edge, where the flat grind is usually found on thicker blades. The flat grind will not dull quite as fast, but the tradeoff is it’s not as sharp, but only mildly so. Neither are difficult to resharpen.

HANDLE
The Tang is the part of the blade that sticks into the handle. This is where the handle attaches to the blade. This is one area where you should not compromise because it greatly affects the strength and durability of your knife. Look for what is called a Full Tang. The blade and tang are one solid piece of steel. A full tang is the same size as the handles, and the handle is often visible around the edge of the handle. Generally the handle is two pieces sandwiched around the tang. Some knives have a hidden full tang, so it’s not as apparent, but always check, if you’re not sure.
Stay away from those “survival knives” with the hollow handle full of useless tools. This greatly compromises strength and is not suitable for serious outdoor work.

As far as handles go for your bushcraft knife, you’ll want one that fits comfortably in your hand and offers a grip that will not be slippery, especially when wet. There are hundreds of knives that look stunning with a fancy, designer handle, but in the back country, your outdoors knife needs function over form first. Stag bone, seems to be a popular choice. Ask around for the best bushcraft knife recommendations from someone you trust, try some out, borrow from friends if you can. Your knives will get wet, so you may want to see how it performs under different conditions, you dont want it slipping out of your hands! You will know if the handle is for you after working with it for a few hours.

FURTHER INFORMATION
For more information on Knives and the specialists that make them, there are two great sites/forums where you can learn everything there is to know about knives. You can even purchase custom built knives there too.
They are UK Blades forum and European Blades forum.

Kind regards
Shiver

The 4 Fundamentals of Bushcraft

There are 4 basic fundamentals that you need to follow for survival or bushcraft, they are as follows, in order of importance.

1.Shelter
2.Water
3.Fire
4.Food

1. Shelter, If you believe to be in a survival situation shelter is the most important preparation, without it you are exposed to the elements and things go from bad to worse without one. Protection from sun will help preserve valuable water content in your body, prevent hypothermia in cold climates and keeps spirits up, if you are dry and warm/cool depending on climate you will function better. A shelter will keep you and your gear dry, making fire lighting easier and helping you to plan out your next move. Remember, you can become hypothermic even in summer months, all it takes is for you to get caught in the rain and the temperature to drop and a breeze to pick up and prety soon you will be in difficulty. Always spend the time and make a good shelter first off, hopefully you wont need to make another one for a while, so build it while you have good strength and are fit to carry out the work. If food becomes a problem you dont want to waste valuable food energy rebuilding one later on. Remember choosing your shelters location can be as important as building one. Choose an area thats not prone to flooding or that is in an exposed or dangerous area.

2. Water, hydration is very important, you will need to find and purify your water, by boiling, chemical sterilisation, filtration or all of the fore mentioned. You will find that your body constantly uses water when you eat food and when you work hard, through sweat, building shelters or collect wood etc. Secure a safe area, contamination free, for water collection and a means of collecting it. A condom packed in a survival tin can be used to carry water, plastic bags can be used to get water from plants and for collecting dew, rivers and lakes are the obvious choice, but water will need to be boiled, so secure the items needed for collection and boiling.which leads us on to the next point, which is third in our priority list (fire for sterilisation of water)

3. Fire, creates warmth and the ability to cook food forraged from your surroundings. The ability to steralise your drinking water is of great importance killing off most bugs and bacteria found naturally in water. Don't forget that a fire also creates smoke to reveal your position should you need to be found in a rescue situation, smoke can be easily seen from the air during daytime and it also gives you light. During the night it will  keep away unwanted visitors in the night such as wild animals. Fire is man's friend and has always entertained people giving them a sense of security and a sense of home a base to work from .... believe me, all the little comforts will make the difference when you are in the wild for a long time.

4. Food, once you have the 3 main tasks complete, you can start to forrage or hunt for food, you will be hungry by now and food will be an important task from here on in. Catching fish by line fishing, tickling fish by hand or spearing, netting, are all viable ways to take food from a lake or river. snares for open rabbit runs or bird traps, these can be left and checked every 8-12 hours. if you have time you may wish to make spears or bows to help hunt rather than trap, it will take your mind of things a bit and help you focus on something positive. If you are bushcrafting, rather than surviving out of necessity, you may have a firearm with you for hunting which will greatly increase your chances for killing eddible game.

These are the 4 basic necessities you should secure first and in the correct order, following these guidelines will make life a whole lot easier for you. feel free to share your ideas and pictures of your camps and shelters, we would love to hear from you and how you set up your living areas for survival or bushcraft.

Stay safe and be prepared.
Shiver