Class Report: Advanced Bushcraft with James Gibson

Last weekend, a small group gathered at Georgia Bushcraft for Advanced Bushcraft with Mr. James Gibson. James is a renowned knife designer, blade smith, and primitive skills expert. You can read about his history and teaching philosophy HERE. The term "bushcraft" covers a wide range of skillsets and knowledge bases, and so did this class with James. Here's a quick rundown of the weekend to give you an idea of what to expect from future courses.

James is a man of many talents, some previously mentioned, and amongst those is his life dedication to training in martial arts. So we started each day with some Tai Chi moves to get our bodies warmed up for the projects ahead. 

Try Stick and Figure Four Trap

The weekend kicked off with some Try Stick notches and sharpening tips, including improving factory edges. These notches are helpful for plenty of bushcraft tasks and help you get familiar and comfortable with your knife. James also walked us through a Figure 4 Trap as a real-world use for the different notches.

Bark Craft

While try sticks and traps may be pretty common, you can always expect James Gibson to push everyone's skills in a class. We cut down a small Poplar tree, and James walked us through the process of slipping the bark. From there, we made bark canteens and other containers that would allow us to carry water or collect foraged food in a survival situation. Bark craft is one of those skills that requires nuance and some tips and tricks or lots of trial and error. James' expert knowledge helped everyone leave with a canteen or basket. In a survival situation bark containers could provide the ability to gather materials and carry water, which could be a huge boost to the situation.

DIY Cooking Pot

Many aspects of bushcraft are all about making your own gear, and James walked us through a DIY Cook Pot. With an old tomato sauce can and some recycled coat hangers, we added a hanging bail, a mug handle, and a pour spout. This project could easily be scaled up to fit the materials available. While this might not seem necessarily "bushcrafty" the legendary Dick Proenneke made dozens of items for his off-grid cabin in the Alaskan wilderness from tin cans and similar repurposed items. Of course, plenty of resourceful folks have made the items they needed from what's on hand, and that's a core principle of self-reliance.

Alcohol Stove

As the weekend progressed, our projects shifted from traditional bushcraft to the hobo-style cook pot and into the lightweight backpacking world. Continuing the theme of repurposing items, we turned a cat food can, a tomato juice can, and a bit of carbon felt into a lightweight and highly functional alcohol stove. These stoves, paired with our DIY cook pots, provided an easy way to boil water on the trail.

Bottle Net

Continuing with the theme of carrying gear and water, we wrapped up the second full day of the class by making bottle nets from heavy-duty jute cordage. While this might seem like a daunting and complicated task, James broke down each step, and before long, everyone had a bottle net bag. In a pinch, these could be made to carry a wide variety of items, and this skill set is transferable to plenty of scenarios.

Fish Trap

We wrapped up the weekend with both the literal and figurative largest project of the weekend, the bamboo fish trap. A fish trap is a great project to help you practice lashing, but it's also the perfect tool to work on gathering food for you while you take care of other tasks. An impending storm kept some of the class from finishing their trap, but they left with the knowledge they needed to harvest vines, split them, and lash to finish up the trap and funnel.

This class was typical of a weekend at Georgia Bushcraft. It saw old friends reunited, new friendships among classmates, and an incredible amount of knowledge shared over the course of three days. As always, we appreciate James coming down and sharing his extensive knowledge with us, and we can't wait to see him again during the Fall Gathering.