#AskPaulKirtley Episode 10: Knife Lanyards, Dromedary Bags, Hammocks vs Tarps, Tinder Boxes And NGB Awards For Bushcraft
In Episode 10 of #AskPaulKirtley, I answer questions about knife lanyard holes, dromedary bags for water storage, my preferred method of sleeping – hammock or tarp, making tinder boxes for Explorer Scouts and discuss if there should be an NGB award for bushcraft…
What Is #AskPaulKirtley?
#AskPaulKirtley is my Q&A video and podcast series that aims to answer your questions about bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life.
The idea here is partly to take the strain off my email inbox and get answers out to people in a more timely fashion.
Rather than send an answer to just that one person, I’d like others to benefit from the answers too. So, just in the same way I’d previously write an email answer, here I’m going to speak the answer (which is much quicker than me typing out an answer, so I’ll get more questions answered as well as benefiting more people).
Click here to find out the different ways you can ask me a question.
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Use the following Soundcloud controls to listen to the audio podcast right here or download the .mp3 to your device…
#AskPaulKirtley On Other Platforms
The videos will be uploaded my YouTube channel and embedded in the Facebook Page associated with this blog as well as embedded here on my blog.
The audio-only podcast version is available on here on Soundcloud and will be added to iTunes and other popular podcast directories in due course, as well as available here on this blog.
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Leave me a comment below. Let me know what you think. I read every one.
But remember if you want to ask a question for a future episode, don’t do this in the comments below, do it in one of the ways explained HERE.
29 thoughts on “#AskPaulKirtley Episode 10: Knife Lanyards, Dromedary Bags, Hammocks vs Tarps, Tinder Boxes And NGB Awards For Bushcraft”
Dear Paul,
I have recently started to watch your videos via youtube and I have been enjoying them ever since. I really think that the work and effort that you put in your blog and videos help out a lot of people, It certainly helps out me! I work on a campsite in the Belgian Ardennes which focus lays on the outdoors. I teach the children multiple outdoor and bushcraft skills, as well as guiding them whilst doing different outdoor activities. The information your giving really helps out to stay creative and responsible in the things I share. Please excuse my language, for it’s not my native one. Keep up with the good work, I hope more info and videos will come out soon.
Hi Paul
Thanks for episode number 10. I have found all your ‘Ask Paul Kirtley’ videos to be very informative.
As someone considering the journey to becoming an instructor, I find your observations on qualifications most insightful. I think that you offered some advice in episode 7 to aspirant instructors. Your remarks are helpful in understanding what a new instructor needs to offer a potential employer, in order to set them apart from other candidates and to offer added value to a Bushcraft School..
Not many people seem to be voicing such open and honest views about the business as you. Please keep the videos coming,
Regards
Matt
Hello Paul,
Thanks for episode #10! Liked the point about the time to set up at the end of a day!!
ATB JohnC
Hello from northeast Florida.
I started watching a couple months ago gearing up for a few weeks camping in the smoky mountains. I was in need of a new bushcraft knife and interested in neck carry which you described in a few of your videos. I also purchased a head0ver (called buffs here) to help with the cold evenings in the mountains.
Thanks.
-Ed
Hi Paul,
Congratulations on the Q&A platform. Superb and it is ‘dovetailing’ so very well with your other media platforms. Very easy to access and absorb. Thank you.
The final point on nationally recognised qualifications is very ‘interesting’. It will probably be discussed with no implementation for many years. In wider society there are so many folks out there running businesses or providing services who are quite simply ‘clueless’ as regards customer service , customer expectation , safety , ethical values, skill and general business sense. I am sure ‘Bushcraft’ is just another micro industry effected by the same blight.
Most importantly there are a group of dedicated professional people like yourself who are committed to raising standards. This will organically expose those who profess to be experts and offer nothing more than sitting on logs around a fire. Some of us fall between the two camps and are fully aware of our limitations. But we understand that , ‘trade’ safely and try to exceed customer expectations. As I say the discussion will no doubt carry on throughout every quarter of the commercial sector of ‘Bushcraft’.
Perhaps we need ‘Bush Advisor’ !!
Once again thank you for all of your time and efforts.
Best
Mark
I would like to listen to these podcasts on my Podcast app on the iPhone.
Thank you.
Podcast too!
You also have a lanyard on your Fallkniven pocket knife and a video how to do them 🙂
Last two points:
1. Who takes an hour to set up a hammock?!?
2. What course can teach me how to wear green, smell of woodsmoke and make spoons? 🙂
One of my favourite episodes yet! Brilliant.
Paul,
I am amazed at just how much time you are putting into your podcasts and website. Thanks very much for sharing this information. I appreciate just how much time goes into what you and that you do it for free.
Please keep it up and it’s my intention to get some custom your way in the near future.
You have introduced my to soundcloud and I mostly get my info from your blog and I’m in Ireland.
All the best,
Ciaran.
Hi Paul hope you are well,
I agree that some sort of regulation or qualification of Bushcraft instruction is badly needed, any person that wants to take it upon themselves to teach others bushcraft skills should have the relevant experience and knowledge, also they should be competent to teach those skills and have a means to prove that competency.
My only concern is that through standardising and nationalising bushcraft, it becomes wrapped in red tape and beurocracy.
For me Bushcraft is as much who I am as what I know and when confronted with sneering and ridicule I aim to give the uninitiated a glimps of the true meaning of the beautiful subject that is Bushcraft.
Paul, many thanks for all your hard work, you are a fantastic ambassador for bushcraft and long may you continue.
Ps Paul that’s one hell of a can you got there.
All the very best Adrian.
Hi Paul
Totally agree – a minimal standard can only do the bushcraft scene good, Incidentally I havre just bought a copy of Wild Food by Roger Philips rrp 20 pounds for 7 pounds at the works!
Hello Paul,
I am a lurker here, so on your suggestion I am leaving a comment. Keep up the good work.
And one question.
When are you gonna answer Twitter questions again ?
All the best
Well done Paul love the blog, not lurking just listening. Admiring your insane workload. A question for your “ask paul Kirtley” I’m always out and about in the New forest and see a and hear things that I would like to know more about. Where is the the best place to post this picture/ video to get more details ?
Hamish
Hmmm interesting question. Instagram would probably work beat if you arw capturing images/video on your phone. You could post with the question and the #askpaulkirtley hashtag. Try one and let’s see if it works as a concept…
Many thanks for your effort Paul from another lurker.. Your quality never slips and you certainly set standards for aspiring instructors in terms of quality, training techniques and unflinching mental energy. We all look forward to more…
Thanks Stuart.
Hi Paul, I have watched all of your videos so far, love them, thought I would say hello as asked! I asked you a question via instagram the other day, I look forward to your answe! Regards,
Jack
Hi Jack. Your Instagram question is on the list will definitely be answered ina future episode.
Cheers,
Paul
Hey Paul, always enjoy your videos, keep up the good work. from a Welshman living in Irvine, California.
Hi Paul,
IF there is going to be a bushcraft standard certificate then I think there should be an ethical values component in it, e.g. never take a knife to a living tree, leave no trace, only take what you need, conservation, etc..
Thanks,
Eric
Hi Eric,
I completely agree that there should be ethical standards included.
Warm regards,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Quite enjoy watching & listening here in Texas, USA. Lots of good information you present, and in a professional manner. As an outdoor student of life for over 45 years now, it’s nice to learn something new on each episode – a good teacher is always learning, and I try to learn something new, even after 45 years, every day.
Great job, and please keep up the good work. I look forward to each new episode.
-Kevin
Thanks Kevin,
I appreciate your positive words about this series/format.
I’m of the same view – that I’m always a student and there is always more to learn.
It’s nice to be reaching like-minded people around the globe and, I hope, to learn from them too.
I’ll check out your website.
Warm regards,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Forgot to mention that I’m not seeing the references mentioned in some of your episodes in any show notes. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks again,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Haha, you’ve picked about the only episode that does not have any links in the show notes! 🙂 Select any of the other episode and you’ll see a heading “Links For This Episode…” with hyperlinks underneath to all the articles, resources, etc., mentioned in that episode.
Warm regards,
Paul
Paul,
I just thought I would drop by to say ‘Hi’ and congratulate you on you ‘ASK’ series. Always of interest. For anyone who doesn’t know Paul, this information is very well rooted in extensive experience and is always spot on, in my view.
Regards to the team, and see you soon, hopefully with the Irish contingent and DSD!
Hiya. I’m binge watching your Ask Paul Kirtley episodes on YouTube and this one really struck a chord with me. I’m an SPA or RCI as it is now and I work at outdoor education centers on a freelance basis. I got into the outdoors through a love of bushcraft and would love for it to have a relevant, structured qualifications system. The centers I work at have a great and safe structure to most activities but the bushcraft sessions with the ML and higher qualified mountain instructors are “here’s some marshmallows, lets light a fire” or “this is a cotton ball, here’s a marshmallow” when I showed up and made elderflower pancakes and honey after talking about the fire triangle, showing how to light a chain reaction fire including the relationship between tinder, kindling and fuel they thought I was a bell end for caring about a “non session” or “skive session” as they saw it. So sick of it. Anyhoo loving your videos and your no nonsense style. Sorry for the rant. Best wishes. G
Hi Gordon, good to hear from you and no bother about the rant. There is a general lack of understanding of bushcraft among mainstream outdoor leaders. As you say, bushcraft is somehow reduced in many minds to cotton wool and Vaseline, marshmallows and maybe building some ineffectual shelters. Some sneer about spoon carving. It’s funny though, when I did my ML assessment, a fair few years ago, they were bowled over by my environmental knowledge. Yes, exactly, I explained. Knowledge of nature is at the core of bushcraft. Indeed, many ML’s and paddlesport leaders would do well to improve their knowledge of the nature around them. With some it is at a pitifully low level, consisting of a few plants and birds learned in order to pass an assessment. Anyway, that’s my rant over 😉 Warm regards, Paul.