I was doing it in 1975 as a child we called it playing.

Survival is NOT living in the woods. It’s getting the hell out!

This is why Alone is my favorite show. It will quickly demonstrate what works and what does not

I thought bushcraft was all about being prepared with the necessary skills to build a fire and make your own wooden spoon and bowl if you find yourself filming out in your backyard and suddenly have an irresistible craving for a bowl of soup…

Finally someone telling it like it is.  One rarely sees a modern bushcrafter catching fish or hunting game and even more rarely processing it. Your message on material choice for effective tools that can be maintained in the field is a true gem of wisdom.

It seems these days most "bushcraft influencers" are just salesmen for outdoor equipment of various qualities.

I agree with you 100%. They have commercialized everything in the name of “bushcraft” unfortunately.

"LARPing on logs with 500-dollar knives..."

greatest line ever!

"Modern hipsters of the woods" -- love it!

"...Unnecessary things to firewood with a small knife." Well said!

As boys we camped with only an olive drab wool G.I. blanket and a few basic items carried inside the rolled up blanket and worn as a horseshoe pack.
   We carried a pocket knife, a bird & trout fixed blade knife, belt hatchet and a walking/self defense staff.
    We carried water in a homemade gourd canteen.
    And we slept on the ground, no tent, wrapped in a wool blanket, like cowboys.
    We built very small fires and didn't eat much.
    We used our pocket knives to carve, bushcraft, wooden  toggles, pot hanging sticks, whatever we needed to fabricate.
    We processed fire wood w/a cheap hickory handle belt hatchet.
    We used our bird & trout fixed blade to clean fish or small game. And to prep food or cut wild onions.
   It was a simpler, more honest, time in American history.
   For hunting, we didn't use deer stands, camo clothing and expensive gear.
   I used a single shot shotgun or recurve bow for deer and turkey. Old hickory butcher knife for field dressing & butchering game. I made a butcher knife sheath from deer raw hide covered with buckskin from deer we killed when I was a boy.
    We wore jeans or Dicky's pants and work shirts w/an old green army field jacket.
   We fished w/cane poles or a hobo short stick reel.
    We put food on the table and never needed all the expensive outdoorsman gear sold today to for the urban weekend warriors & trophy hunters.
    We also roasted peanuts from our garden atop of a wood stove and used coal oil lamps in the evening.
   I'm a bladesmith and 1095 carbon steel makes excellent knives. It's my preferred steel.
   In the Army, during wilderness survival training, I did very well using only a slip joint swiss army camper pocket knife.

Men playing, “fires and forts”, out in the woods…did it from the age of 6-16.  Never used a knife to baton firewood.  Never carved a spoon or a kuksa.  Learned to start a fire with two matches, without a feather stick.  Made lots of different kinds of forts, on e ground and in trees…heh, heh…10 years later came calculators, then computers, then portable phones, then iPads.  After I retired from the army came the, “bushcrafting”, grown men playing, “fires and forts”, in the woods.  Oh, and then came the fine steels, crapamoly!…thanks for an honest opinion

The last deer I helped butcher was a surprise to me. I ended up doing it with my carbon steel opinel folder, worked wonders

I was doing this when i was a kid ..playing in the woods building forts , having fires cooking hotdogs climbing trees ect ect  now its called bushcraft.. Still go out in the woods now , its peaceful ✌️

Some bushcrafting videos make me think of how a bunch of the environment is getting torn up just to make shelter or items they don't actually need to use.

I couldn’t agree more, sir.  It’s become a little ridiculous.  “Playing with firewood” literally sums up the entire bushcraft market.

I know some very old Northwoods trappers and they all universally agree that bringing an axe to the North woods is a necessity for them.

Voiced my thoughts on knife steel exactly. Eventually, every knife goes dull.

I hung out with Mors Kochanski a few times back in the day , and I'm telling you that
he didn't go with 90 % of the Bushcraft BS that is going on.
He showed me his knife collection also...very modest and old school.
Axe proficiency is a must up here in the Canadian north for firewood , winter or summer.
No need to beat the shit out of your knife when the axe works better and generally won't break.
Thanks for the vid. Good perspective.

The obsession with knives in bushcraft always confused me. An axe is far more important but they will die on a hill arguing that an axe is unnecessary. An axe is a force multiplyer.