Wilderness Survival Skills - Joe O'Leary

Bushcraft, survival, wilderness living, self reliance, traditional crafts, home made gear,
ancient technology...

Thursday, 6 March 2014

Primitive Packs – load carrying equipment made from sticks, skins and
string:

This post was originally published in a magazine but after spending the
weekend weaving perfectly useable kit carrying devices using only willow
wands and rushes, I thought it deserved an airing!

When I first started down this route over twenty five years ago, it was with a
view to learning the essential survival skills that might give me the edge in an
unplanned outdoor emergency but I never really devoted a lot of thought to
where I was heading and why. Over the years my direction has seemingly
changed from ‘survival training’ leaning more towards the traditional crafts
and wilderness living skills collectively known today as ‘bushcraft’ although
the effortless merging from one into the other implies that this had been my
intended journey all along. I was just addressing it by the wrong name!
 Bushcraft as a subject is difficult to define having many variables and
countless connotations, meaning different things to different people. An
interest in bushcraft often begins with survival training then delves further,
looking towards becoming able to source everything needed for life from the
natural world around us. We strive to learn how these natural resources
were shaped and processed to benefit our lives in days gone by. With the
development of this knowledge comes an awareness of how resources
should be harvested responsibly so as not to have a lasting impact on the
very environment that provides us with everything we need. One thing’s for
certain…bushcrafters will never be bored!

Those of us who like to trace a skill back to it’s roots in order to understand it
completely, look to the sketchy clues of the past for inspiration. More recent,
well documented hunter gatherer societies help to fill in the gaps but every
now and again a window to the past is unearthed enabling us to see first-
hand, how ancient people, not too different from us today, were able to live
in relative comfort long before we all needed bushcraft knives costing more
than a family car and branded waterproof coats flown into the UK from the
other side of the world.

One such window discovered in the Otztal Alps, September 1991 was Otzi,
the ice mummy found still surrounded by a good amount of his personal
possessions just over 5,000 years after perishing in the snow. Setting aside
the mysterious circumstances of his demise for now, the fact that he was
moving through such treacherous terrain meant that he must’ve had total
confidence in his clothing and gear to even consider it as a realistic option.
No goretex covered, down filled jacket for this chap! Instead, his outfit had
been skilfully made up from grasses, animal hides, bark, stone, sinews and
wood. Everything he carried and wore had been crafted from the woods,
rivers, mountains and meadows he had lived amongst all his life. So based on
this evidence and other similar examples, a motivated and skilled bushcrafter
could theoretically put together a whole outfit, proving that everything a
person needs really can be found in or made entirely from natural resources.
That’s quite a challenge! We’ll need something to carry it all in…

 Otzi’s pack frame:

 Otzi had what most people think was a pack frame lying near him. If so, then
this item alone illustrates perfectly, the combining of skills and knowledge
that a bushcrafter strives for. A two metre bent hoop of hazel rod formed the
frame itself so the maker must have known about hazel as one of the more
flexible woods. Two backboards of larch were lashed securely to this using
plant fibre cordage meaning that the maker knew which species provided
strong cordage and also how to process and construct the cordage needed. A
goatskin kit bag was believed to have been fastened to the frame so a
working knowledge of how to preserve and cure animal hides in order to
make leather and buckskin would have been needed. I don’t believe any
shoulder straps were found but these must’ve been present originally and it
would be fair to assume these were also leather of some sort. The images of
the broken frame, despite being extremely ancient remind me hugely of
some modern day external frame packs I have lugged over hill and dale so it
doesn’t seem beyond comprehension that I might be able to make up a close
copy that might actually be effective and maybe even comfortable to carry.
After all, Otzi did apparently haul his original model most of the way up a
snowy mountain with an arrow head lodged deep in his shoulder! You can’t
really get a better recommendation than that.
Construction:
My first job was to cut and bend a two metre length of hazel wood. Having
had some success with steaming and bending wood in the past I decided to
give it a whirl by suspending the hazel rod over a steaming pot of water,
covering both rod and pot with a damp towel. The rod was quite thick and
the bend in the middle, pretty tight so my first couple of steaming attempts
resulted in splintered hazel. ‘Let’s keep this simple’ I thought so I decided to
gently coax the freshly cut section by hand, around a stump acting as a
former. This worked well so after scraping the bark off, I tied the frame in
position to let it ‘set’ overnight.

 
 Bending a green hazel rod around a former

Leaving the rod to 'set' in position

 
Otzi’s original back boards were larch wood (yet I’ve also read that they were
elm) so just to be different, I made one from yew and the other from field
maple. These back boards were split from round timber then carved into two
thin planks. I drilled two holes in each end to provide secure lashing points,
of course using a flint burin mounted into a hand drill spindle using rawhide
lashing and pitch. This worked very well indeed! As I had every intention of
using the pack frame I wanted to improve on the original by sealing the
wooden parts with birch tar and using deer skin rawhide for really strong,
durable lashings instead of the original plant fibre cordage. The rawhide
lashings would be applied damp, shrinking as they dried gripping the work
even tighter. My birch tar coating gave the wood a nice ‘antique’ effect and
strong creosote smell which appealed to the eye but definitely not the nose
(although it did keep the bugs away).

Using a flint burin to drill lashing points

Sealing the wood with birch tar

 

The shoulder straps were made from two 3” wide lengths of fallow buckskin,
stitched around the frame with buckskin thonging and tied in place around
the horns at the bottom end. I couldn’t help thinking the finished article
looked similar to a snowshoe which, funnily enough is another theory as to
it’s original use.
 Lashing the backboards
 

Finished frame with buckskin straps

 

In use:

With pack frame finished and birch tar dry I got to work loading up the frame
for a test run. In the absence of a goat skin bag I rolled up my standard day
sack kit in a heavily smoked red deer hide and lashed it to the frame with
cordage for a touch of authenticity. The frame felt extremely light and the fit
was good. As the hazel rod still hadn’t seasoned fully, in theory the green
wood frame would conform to the shape of my back during use. The
buckskin straps had plenty of room for adjustment and enough spare end to
take them from the bottom of the frame and around my waist, tying with a
reef knot. This lifted the pack slightly placing it higher over my centre of
gravity and taking some of the strain away from my shoulders and neck. I had
just re-invented the rucksack waist belt and wondered if Otzi and his mates
would have taken advantage of this unplanned bonus too. With the addition
of some padding on the back boards this pack frame would not be too
dissimilar to any of my modern packs for lightness and comfort!

Loaded up with belongings wrapped in a heavily smoked red deer hide

 

The burden basket:

At this point, all I had to compare Otzi’s pack frame with was my plethora of
modern, traditional hiking rucksacks so in the interests of experimentation I
decided to make a completely different load carrying system using sticks,
skins and string, the burden basket.

Burden baskets have been used for centuries and still are the world over for
carrying heavy loads. The conical shape is an extremely strong design and
allows lightweight materials to be used in it’s construction. Typical carrying
methods include shoulder straps or a ‘tump line’ (wide strap around the
forehead or chest). They can even be fitted either side of a mule or similar
beast for hauling a serious amount of gear. Some can be quite decorative,
made up from coiled grasses and plant fibres while others are more rough
and ready. I went for the rough and ready option, a rigid warp and flexible
weft open weave design using green hazel rods and rawhide cordage. This
model is apparently influenced by several different cultures from Mexico to
Africa and with access to suitable materials, can be put together very quickly.

Before bending any hazel rods, I snipped my way through the remaining
supply of fallow deer rawhide, cutting an ever decreasing spiral to create very
long continuous lengths once soaked and stretched. With the rawhide lashing
and weaving material soaking I carefully bent three similar sized green hazel
rods around a former, then another two for spares, plus three hoops for the
rigid wefts and left them to set in position. As with my Otzi pack frame, these
had the bark scraped off and a coating of birch tar to seal the wood. Once
the hazel components were dry and the rawhide had become flexible again,
the three ‘ribs’ were lashed in place to give six equal gaps between warps.

Cutting a spiral of rawhide

 Lashing the three hazel hoops in position
 

The hoops were bound securely in place using rawhide lashings, starting near
the base with the smallest and working up to the largest at the top giving the
framework a natural flared opening. Soaked and stretched rawhide warps
were taken from bottom to top and back again, spiralling around the hoops
to tie each section more firmly in place. Lastly, a rawhide weft was started at
the top and worked down to the base wrapping around rigid and flexible
warps alike, creating a strong mesh. A buckskin tumpline was fitted and my
second (and much prettier) pack frame was ready to trial.

Adding in a strengthening hoop

 Fitting an intermediate hoop and strong rim
 

Rawhide warps

Rawhide wefts close up

 

In use:
Whilst being vastly differing designs, both packs required an additional
weatherproof bag to contain small items of kit although the burden basket
did not need any further lashings to accept the load. Everything sat inside
nicely. The burden basket did exactly what it said on the tin, swallowing up a
vast amount of heavy kit. I was amazed at how much kit it could take and
impressed at the concept. Each of the individual components on their own
were not particularly robust but when woven into a strong but flexible mesh
their different qualities combined made a tough bit of kit. It could probably
even be used as a fish trap with a bit of imagination!

Buckskin tumpline fitted although this is likely to be replaced/reinforced with shoulder

straps
 

However, it’s certainly not that comfortable when you need to be nimble and
light on your feet. This is where Otzi’s pack frame edges into pole position in
my opinion. It’s still robust enough to carry your kit but won’t swing about as
much or attempt to break your neck when ducking under branches and
skipping over logs. My plan now is to oak bark tan a couple of nice thick
fallow deer hides to make a roll top, leather sack for it, probably treated with
a mixture of animal fat and birch tar to make a kind of primitive dry bag. So in
summary, the burden basket is fantastic for lugging heavy loads but my Otzi
pack will always be sitting on the top, holding all my essential kit ready to
grab and go as soon as the heavy kit can be left behind.
All loaded up and taking it out for a spin. The high position is better for load carrying but a
bit unstable with just the tumpline fitted. More traditional models are shaped more like a
cone which seems to dovetail better with the tumpline strap and aid stability
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Posted by wilderness survival skills - Joe O'Leary at 08:35
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8 comments:

1.

Aaron Light5 January 2016 at 11:54

Amazing article and a great work. Well done! It really inspires me to try it by
myself. How long it took to make this?

Reply

Replies

1.

wilderness survival skills - Joe O'Leary6 January 2016 at 06:30

Thanks Aaron! Both frames took the best part of a day to construct including
harvesting the materials. The rawhide and buckskin would obviously
increase that preparation time if self made, and also the birch tar takes extra
time to gather bark and process. I've been working on other types recently
including using rushes, willow and bark. Expect a new article at some
point...

2.

Jon17 February 2017 at 16:08

Unique Outdoor Survival Skills

Don't you find it ironic that even with all this scandalously expensive
education, people today know so little?

If they can't even fix their car, how are they supposed to handle a - let's say -
long term food shortage?

You can't possibly hope they'd know how to garden and produce their own
food, save seeds for next year, and use leaves plowed under to fertilize the
 soil.

Not to mention trapping, catching, skinning and cooking a rabbit...

These may seem advanced outdoor survival skills now, but back in the days,
they were merely called "Living".

Watch this short video now and discover a set of unique and fantastic
survival skills used and perfected by our ancestors.

Don't wait for the next crisis to hit and live to regret you had the chance to
learn these skills but didn't.

Click here to watch video!

Thanks again.

3.

Unknown10 December 2017 at 15:46

Thanks for sharing some knowledge.

4.

SHTF Plan11 March 2018 at 08:40

50 Low-priced Items That Will be Invaluable when SHTF

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Reply
2.

C. J. Flood29 February 2016 at 05:26

This is an amazing feat! What a wonderful way to spend your time, and thanks for
sharing.

Reply

3.

leonardmorpho7 August 2016 at 14:42

Awesome quality article! Learned lots!

Reply

4.

joecoles10 December 2016 at 05:29

Unique Outdoor Survival Skills

Don't you find it ironic that even with all this scandalously expensive education,
people today know so little?

If they can't even fix their car, how are they supposed to handle a - let's say - long
term food shortage?

You can't possibly hope they'd know how to garden and produce their own food,
save seeds for next year, and use leaves plowed under to fertilize the soil.

Not to mention trapping, catching, skinning and cooking a rabbit...

These may seem advanced outdoor survival skills now, but back in the days, they
were merely called "Living".

Watch this short video now and discover a set of unique and fantastic survival skills
used and perfected by our ancestors.

Don't wait for the next crisis to hit and live to regret you had the chance to learn
these skills but didn't.
 Click here to watch video!

Thanks again.

Reply

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The website - what we do, where we do it, how often and who for...
Bit more about me if you're interested

What they're all saying about the Wilderness Survival Guide; "A work of literary genius"
Joe's mum, "Not bad for a truant" Head of English at Chatsmore High School, "The next
Roger Hargreaves" Sam O'Leary age 3, "Glorified toilet paper" The Daily Nugget

Hand made buckskin moccasin boots

Containers made from birch bark

Frame softening a fallow deer buckskin

'Feathering' dry split wood for kindling and tinder

Salmon cooking over the fire on a green wood grill set

Hawthorn berries in autumn

Venison jerky drying in the smoke of a campfire

A selection of baskets and bark containers

Carved bowl, similar to a Swedish dough bowl

The 'Tom Selleck' over the shoulder glance

The bow drill method of fire lighting by friction

Survival hunting - a flat bow and flint tipped arrow

Pheasants hanging in a winter camp

Cuckoo flower, a peppery little minx

Damper bread cooked in a billy over the fire

Hollowing out a hand carved 'kuksa' cup

'shrooms in garlic, butter and parsley - yum!

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