On this page you’ll find the full transcript of Episode 89 of the #AskPaulKirtley podcast. In this episode, Paul answers listener-submitted questions on topics including ration packs versus bush cooking, memorable wildlife encounters, adapting to unfamiliar environments, primitive projectile weapons, and why he rarely uses a knife dangler.

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Episode 89 Transcript

[ 00:00:00 ]In this episode of Ask Paul Kirtley, we are going to talk about ready-made rations versus cooking in the bush, memorable or meaningful encounters with wildlife, shifting to a completely unfamiliar environment, primitive projectile weapons and knife danglers.

[ 00:00:41 ]Welcome, welcome to episode 89 of Ask Paul Kirtley, and good to be back again with another one of these in the series that I now hope to be making very regularly and very consistently as long as the questions keep coming in. How do you ask a question? Send me a tweet on X on Twitter, hashtag Ask Paul Kirtley with your question or use the voice recorder on my website which you will find linked very easily in the top menu. Click record, record your voice message, and that will come through to me and I can answer your question on a future episode of Ask Paul Kirtley. And this is one such example. I think all but one of these have been voice recorded. It’s really nice to hear from people. Here we go.

Rations vs Bush Cooking

[ 00:01:30 ]“Hello, Paul. This is Paul from Australia. I was wondering if during your outdoor adventures you’ve had a comparison of ready-made foods such as military ration packs or similar and compare that to the stuff that you cook in the bush. Thank you.”

[ 00:01:50 ]Um, quite a broad question that Paul, um yeah so I mean I’ve, I’ve camped, I’ve traveled, I’ve done expeditions and I’ve car camped, I’ve backpacked, I’ve canoed. I live out the in the woods for extended periods of time when I’m teaching courses at Frontier Bushcraft, so yeah, I mean I guess I’ve run the whole gamut um pretty much everything from yes I’ve tried various quality freeze-dried rations that you can get now that are good for expeditions.

[ 00:02:25 ]I’ve used some of the not-so-good pre-prepared camping meals and we cook from first principles a lot when we’re living in the woods and teaching courses, and that’s just That’s just ingredients that we bought from the store, but we bring out to the bush with us in a cooler or what have you. And we’ve also, you know, done a lot of cooking with wild foods, you know, whether it’s wild plant foods or whether it’s wild game. And yeah, lots and lots of different cooking. We need to eat every day typically. And so, yeah, we’re always we’re always cooking when we’re out. Some of the military rations are OK, it’s not my kind of go-to. The Norwegian stuff, the Real Turmat, is probably the best that I’ve tried that is, you know, military and civilian, and the UK expedition foods; they’re good for just taking and of course if it’s freeze-dried um it’s going to be as light as it as possible for the uh the caloric and nutritional content which is great for self-propelled journeys.

[ 00:03:27 ]When we’re in static camps when we’re teaching we tend to just cook from first principles with materials that you know, the ingredients that we bought from the store, know uh chilies and stews and steaks and you know fish over the fire and all sorts of things. And of course sometimes we’re catching fish, sometimes we’re catching rabbits; you know, sometimes we get pheasants from the gamekeeper, sometimes we’ll get a deer uh one way or the other, you know some someone on the team will shoot it or we’ll get one from a gamekeeper. Depending where we’re working, and then we’ll butcher that and we can live off that for you know a week or more as a group for any food, particularly if I’m tired and hungry, but yeah the best stuff is the fresh wild foods for sure.

[ 00:04:14 ]And if you can you know take ingredients from the bush and maybe combine them with some basic ingredients that you’ve taken with you like maybe rice or flour or what have you, and come up with a really good meal that’s always super satisfying, cooking over the fire and whatnot. But yeah, if I’m going to be, if I’m going to be car camping then I might have that stuff with me, I’m going to lend more, you know, lean. More into the lightweight cook sets and maybe some of the dehydrated meals, you know it’s horses for courses, it depends what you’re doing. Um, I don’t think one is necessarily better than another in absolute terms, but certainly one is better than the other in terms of the context of different journeys or static camps or what have you.

[ 00:04:55 ]Um, so yeah, hopefully that answers your question. Next one from Daniel.

Memorable Wildlife Encounters

[ 00:05:04 ]“Hi Paul, Daniel here, living on the west coast of Ireland. First of all, thanks so so much for all the information you’ve given to so many of us. It’s really appreciated; such a cool thing and we’re very lucky. Um, So my question, what are some of the most memorable or educational or meaningful encounters with wildlife you’ve had in your time in the wilderness? Anything particularly significant to you, I guess. And there’s an add-on to that. I know lots of the environments that you’re exploring, working in-bear and moose country, that kind of thing, you’re probably trying to minimize your encounters with wildlife or minimize the chances of having those encounters. But I just wondered alongside that, whether there’s anything do to maximize the chances of having any encounters and what you do to make the most of them. Enjoying that side of the wilderness. Anyway, thanks again so much. Bye for now.”

[ 00:06:17 ]All right. Yeah, nice question, Daniel. Thank you. And thank you for the kind words about the the podcasts and asking for curities etc., I’m glad you appreciate them. Okay, so there’s a few things to unpack there. Memorable encounters with wildlife. Yes, some of those have been close to home. Some of them have been much further afield. Some of the most memorable ones have been relatively close to home in the UK. So I’ve had, I remember one not far from here.

[ 00:06:47 ]So I’m recording this down in East Sussex where we run a lot of our Frontier Bushcraft courses. And over on the other side of the land that we use here, it’s a few kilometers away. In the spring, so it’s about May time, and I had my camera telephoto lens, and I was just wandering around, just again looking you know towards the end of the day, so not quite dusk but you know the last you know nice hour of sunshine, um, sunlight during the day, just looking to see what wildlife was around, seeing you know just moving around quietly. And had some really nice encounters with fallow deer and got some nice photos of them, some in the woods, one out on a field, you know, prancing, jumping along, got nice skylighted photo but then back in the woods as well near to where I’d seen one of the fallow deer.

[ 00:07:41 ]I came out onto a track and I just heard this rustling and out of the bracken that was kind of still growing but enough to sort of stuff that was in it, um, came this juvenile badger and it came trotting down the track, um, that I was on, just a small grass track that I was on, came trotting down the track straight towards me, and I was kneeling down, and I took a few photographs of this badger coming down the track, and it got to the point where it got so close to me that my telephoto lens wouldn’t uh, wouldn’t focus on the badger because it was so close; it was kind of within the close focusing range, and I was. Still kneeling and had one knee down, you know from having taken photographs.

[ 00:08:26 ]But I put my camera down and I was just watching this badger come towards me, closer than the camera is now, coming, coming. And I literally had to stand up because I felt like it was actually going to run up my leg. And as it got quite close to me then, this adult badger just shot out of the bracken just from the side of us um I was with my partner Amanda um and it just shot out. We hadn’t we didn’t know it was there and then started kind of nipping at this juvenile badger and they sort of chased each other around a bit, just right in front of us, completely oblivious. or not caring the fact that we were there and we pretty much had to step out of the way while they kind of tussled and and ran around and then one went one way and one went the other And that was really quite amazing.

[ 00:09:13 ]Even just the juvenile badger coming down the track so close would have made my day. But then just this other, you know, although it was somewhat violent, this interaction between the two right in front of us was quite amazing. On top of these encounters that we’d had with the deer, that was the primary reason for us going out. We were out mainly looking for deer. So, yeah, that was quite amazing. Another one up in the northeast of England, close to where my parents are. I was out for a walk in an area where I often walk, and in fact I’ve recorded some #AskPaulKirtleys there. And it was a bit further along this little river valley than where I record the Asparagus Kirtleys, and I was just sitting under a tree quietly.

[ 00:09:57 ]and I heard this movement and a roe deer came along and then I spotted another one and there were two juveniles and roe deer tend to have twins so there were two twins I don’t know if I can’t remember if it was a male and a female or whether they were both the same sex I think there was one of each I think and then the mum was a little bit further behind and roe deer don’t have great eyesight and particularly if you stay still they’ll pick up movement reasonably well but they don’t have eyesight as good as fallow deer for example Um, and these two juvenile roe deer continued to sort of move along and get quite close to me and I was set up against this big tree, big sycamore tree.

[ 00:10:45 ]A big broad trunk and I had my back up against it and so I guess that was quite difficult to see. And I would have been wearing um fairly drab clothing because I normally do and that’s a really good tip, so maximizing your chances of seeing wildlife: you don’t have to go out in camouflage from head to toe with a balaclava on and and whatnot. But if you’re just wearing naturally, naturally hued clothing-greens and browns and you know things that will blend into the environment that you’re in and make you a little bit harder to see rather than bright oranges and reds and blue, is particularly spotted by deer for example. So if you’re wearing natural hues and shades, that’s generally a good way of maximizing your chances.

[ 00:11:28 ]So I was sitting there dressed, as I say, In relatively natural colors, not wearing anything over my face to hide my face or anything, Debbie’s deer got really very close until the mum got a bit closer, caught up with the kids and she got a sense there was something up. I don’t know if she got a whiff of me with the wind blowing around in this little river valley or whether she actually spotted that was something up-that wasn’t part of the tree. But then they, they, she bolted off and the kids, the kids went with her. But I had plenty of time to observe them really close and they were feeding and quite relaxed until mum sensed there was something up, so that was another really memorable encounter.

[ 00:12:09 ]And that’s you know, 20 years ago, but you know, and I’ve had lots of other encounters with deer, but that was one of my-One of my favorites. In my memory. And then, you know, lots around the world as well. You know, I have seen bears in canoe country in Canada. I always like seeing bears. And they’re typically just on the bank and they see you and they run off. Had a really good encounter with a family of otters once on the Missinaibi River where, you know, otters will be often quite curious. But, you know, they’ll pop up and have a look at you and they’ll dive down. And, you know, they’ll often disappear once they’ve decided that they don’t like the look of you. got up, and there were four of them.

[ 00:12:47 ]They got up on this fallen tree out of the river; they weren’t on the bank, they were over the water, and they were just kind of stood there, kind of hissing at us, looking at us, but they didn’t run off. I got again a such a good view of this family of otters. I did get some nice photographs as well, and maybe I’ll even insert one if I can find them into into the video of this session of Aspelkirtley, and yeah, just again amazing encounter that same trip. We also saw a number of great horned owls which I’ve never seen before or since on that section. I’ve done that section of the Mississippi River

[ 00:13:23 ]four times now, and I’ve never seen that many of those owls or even any on a trip on most trips and then this trip we Saw a number just down this section of river and again one just sat there quite happily in daylight looking at us as we went as we went past and it was almost like a sort of just sort of watching us as we went past and that was quite memorable. Most of my bear encounters have literally just been their bums running off into the bush. I’ve never had a problem with a bear coming into camp, and we’re always very careful with food; that’s again something that we do. You want to make plenty of noise when you’re on portages, when you’re on your own.

[ 00:14:05 ]I don’t want to run into a bear on a portage, particularly not a bear with cubs, when I’m on my own. So I generally make a bit of noise when I’m on my own in those sorts of terrain. Whereas in the UK, or when I want to find wildlife, I’m being quiet. I’m being careful not to snap sticks. I’m using binoculars to look through the bushes to see what’s beyond. I’m going, that’s never good. You’re always going to see less if you can walk into the wind. So, the animals don’t particularly things like deer. Don’t have the benefit of scent giving you away. Then you’re going to get more, more likely get close to them. And so think about what you’re wearing in terms of maximizing chances. Move quietly.

[ 00:14:50 ]Think about where the animals might be. Of course, the more experience you get, the more chances you are of getting that right. And think about wind direction. Think about even simple things like not standing on sticks that are going to crack. Don’t talk and don’t wear blue. Yeah, just go out with an open mind. You’ll see what you can see. And every day is a learning day. You’re always… You also mentioned educational experiences, like every day in the woods is education. Like earlier when I was eating my breakfast, I was watching this little beetle and just seeing what it was up to and how it operated and it trying to turn over something which I think It thought was a pellet of poo, I think it was a type of dung beetle and it was trying to roll this little

[ 00:15:39 ]pebble, it wasn’t a pebble, it was a little clump of soil and we’re trying to roll it over to see what was underneath it and it was going to get in his head under it and moving it around and just you know simple pleasures like that just but again you learn more about behavior just by watching things spending time in the woods experiencing things, you’re always going to experience something that you’ve never seen before, um however much time you spend out because there’s so much granularity and there’s there’s large animals. There’s small animals, nature’s different every year, the seasons are never quite the same. Every day out in the woods out in nature is educational and sometimes those encounters are more memorable than others, but it’s always a always a joy to be out, so hopefully that’s that answers all the different strands of your question as much as I can remember them.

[ 00:16:27 ]I’ll just take a sip of my coffee now, mouth’s getting a bit dry. Remember you can support these sessions with the ‘buy me a coffee’ link that’s below, below every session and I’ll put it in the the main page on my site as well all right shifting to a completely unfamiliar environment that’s the next one let’s have a listen to this one this is from JC

Shifting Your Bushcraft to an Unfamiliar Environment

[ 00:16:55 ]“Hey, Paul. Most of my bushcraft experience has been in boreal forests, like the U . S., Europe, and Scandinavia, where I’ve always felt pretty at home. But now I’m living in coastal Benin, West Africa. And honestly, I’m lost. The heat’s relentless, the ecosystem is unfamiliar, the materials and seasons are completely different from what I’m used to. Where would you suggest I begin? I’m not trying to force my old skill set into this new context. I know I need to reset. But what core framework or mindset shift would help me adapt? In other words, how do you read the land when the land’s speaking a language you don’t even understand? I’m sure would appreciate any guidance. Thanks.”

[ 00:17:40 ]Cool, good to hear from you JC. JC’s done a did an intermediate course with us here a few years ago; um, interesting to hear where you’re at now, so yeah that sounds fascinating, JC. I mean, the first approach I would take is one of curiosity and I think the more curious you are about the natural environments that you come across, the more you’re going to learn about them. But yeah, I also appreciate that feeling of feeling completely lost.

[ 00:18:06 ]I remember when I first went to Australia; um having been quite familiar you know, being very familiar with You know, the northern temperate, which is where I’m from, being very familiar with the boreal forest, by then as well. And, you know, a lot of the northern hemisphere plants and animals, very familiar to me. And then going somewhere very distinct like Australia, where you’ve got very different tree species, very different animal species, very different bird species, different ecosystems, and ecotones. Just, yeah, just felt like a baby again because you just don’t recognize anything. Who makes you realize what a complete beginner in bushcraft is like in your home environment when they can’t tell the difference between a birch tree and a beech tree. They don’t know what an alder is.

[ 00:18:53 ]They don’t know what a hazel is. They don’t know any medicinal plants. They don’t know how to recognize any tracks and sign. They don’t know how to recognize any bird calls or any, you know, what the sound of a fox at night is like or what a badger sounds like at night. You know, everything is unfamiliar and somewhat unsettling and you don’t feel comfortable in the environment. You learn all of those things and you become very familiar and comfortable in the environment, and you feel like you’re surrounded by mostly by friends at least by things that are neutral, a lot of things that you can make use of, a lot of useful resources, some things that you want to avoid.

[ 00:19:27 ]And then you go to another environment, and it’s like I don’t know which of this stuff is friendly, which of this stuff is useful, which of this stuff I don’t want to touch. And it can be hard to break through that without some without some guidance, some locals that are happy to show you just a little bit, take you on a walk, show you a few things. Um, that’s always very useful if you know, if you can find local fishermen that’ll take you out, if you can find um You know, is there a ranger in a local national park? Or are you know i’m just talking generally here, but there are you know other things that you can start to do. Is there a botanical garden you can go to?

[ 00:20:06 ]Are there some local botanical you can go to? Are there any books that you can get about ethnographies of the area that you can pick up that you know when people were traveling through those areas in the past, they made notes about what people were using how people were living. And you can start to just dig out one or two of those things and start to break into it in terms of sort of local life ways and the local uses of things, but I would also say just to go back to your comment about not wanting to kind of force your existing skills into a new environment there are some right, you know one of the One of the tenets of what I teach on the elementary bushcraft course at Frontier, whether that’s the field course that we teach here in the woods in Sussex, or whether that’s the online course that’s available to anybody anywhere in the world, and I’ll put the link below here, up in the cards on YouTube

[ 00:21:07 ]The reason that a lot of the skills are in that course is because they are widely applicable. And you can use a lot of different material types for those skills, so bow drill is a classic example; it’s the most widely applicable friction fire lighting system that you can use. Now, it might be the case that people didn’t traditionally use bow drill in that part of the world where you are in Africa, now. But there are probably species that you can find that will work, and that to an extent, it will be a trial and error, perhaps. But also, if you’ve got some experience, and I know a lot of African woods are very hard and dense, but if you can find woods that seem similar to some of the woods that you are familiar with in terms of consistency, then that might be a good place to start.

[ 00:21:56 ]Similarly with fire lighting, small sticks are small sticks. Fibrous materials that might make a good tinder bundle, you don’t necessarily need to know what the species are, but if it looks like something you’ve used in the past, whether it’s a fibrous inner bark, a fibrous outer bark, whether it’s the husk of a coconut-and those type of fibers tend to lend themselves to to fire lighting. And if there’s something in your environment that looks like that then you could experiment with that. Similarly with fibers from plants now some plant fibers are easy to to locate and recognize, others are you know you need a particular method for removing them from the plant and some of those might need to learn from locals or you might need to learn from get some fibers.

[ 00:22:44 ]That two-ply method of laying up cordage, you see that in many parts of the world. You see it in Australia, you see it in Africa, you see it in North America, you see it in Eurasia. You will be able to find some fibers that you will be able to twist up. And that twist up method that you know, we certainly covered it with the willow bark on the intermediate course. We cover it with nettles or sweet chestnut or whatever we use on the elementary course. In Arizona, it works with spruce roots; it works with various species in Australia; it works with, you know, whether you’re taking even something simple like, I don’t know, a mat rush or something, you can make cordage with those things.

[ 00:23:29 ]Typha species in different parts of the world, you can make cordage with the fibres from the rhizomes as well as from the leaves. The method for making them is the same. So if you can find some fibres, then you can probably make cordage. The hardest bit is probably wild edibles because particularly when you go into the tropics, there’s such biodiversity and there are some species which are poisonous, some species which need processing, some species which are edible. And a lot of them will be very different to edible species that you’re familiar with from the northern temperate and the boreal. And so again, And. if you can find books that are helpful. Maybe I know that can be hard in some parts of Africa and if you can find locals that can show you all all the better and it’s always a combination of just finding out what you can, where you can, chance encounters with people, conversations with people, learning from books, looking online, museums of human culture, botanical gardens, those type of things.

[ 00:24:38 ]Yeah, that’s my best advice and just chip away at it and don’t expect it to come too quickly, and you know you might need to use tools that you’re not familiar with, like you might need to move to more you know machete use or parang use, that type of tool, then you need an axe and small knife that you might be used to using further north, and that’s all part of the learning process as well, but enjoy, enjoy the learning process, enjoy it, and let me know how you get on primitive projectile weapons. Thank you.

Primitive Projectile Weapons

[ 00:25:12 ]“Hey, Paul, Ryan from California here. I’ve been wanting to try bushcrafting some primitive projectile hunting tools. I’ve heard, of course, of bows and arrows and also things like atlatls, slings, throwing sticks, etc. And while I wouldn’t actually use them for hunting, I thought it would be cool to make those tools that have the highest accuracy or that are the easiest to learn, or perhaps those that you feel were the most influential throughout early human history. Would you be able to suggest a top five list to start with? Thanks so much.”

[ 00:25:49 ]That’s a good question, Ryan. And I think that side of things is always, you know, that side, you know, traditional living skills, primitive living skills, the hunting side is interesting to examine. I think it’s almost sort of baked into our DNA to want to experiment with projectile weapons. You know, we see it even in games that we play, right?

[ 00:26:16 ]You know, whether it’s throwing a hoop over a peg, where it’s throwing darts into a dartboard, discus, javelin, shot put, you know, lots of things, you know, and even, you know, basketball, you know, people taking something and being accurate with where they’re throwing it. I think it’s kind of baked into the way that we operate as humans is part of, you know, it gives us a lot of satisfaction to get good at those things and be consistent. So, yeah, it’s fun to and satisfying to explore those areas for sure. You’ve mentioned quite a few of them that I would have mentioned to you if you just asked the question more generally. You mentioned throwing sticks. So, you can everything from a rabbit stick to a boomerang. You see throwing sticks in primitive cultures.

[ 00:27:06 ]the simplest projectile weapons to create and i think for any one that you make you just have to get you just have to then practice because they’re always a slightly different size a slightly different shape a different weight um and then just go out into a field and practice throwing them at something set up a small you know some skittles to knock over or some sticks to knock over or whatever you and that’s something you could do with your kids as well you know you can have a little sticks are easier to make than boomerangs. Boomerangs are a bit more sophisticated, but they’re all forms of throwing sticks, right? So throwing sticks, absolutely. Atlatls,

[ 00:27:48 ]you mentioned lots of information on the net about atlatls; they’re relatively straightforward to make, you can get a lot of distance with them quite easily and I think the difficulty is making the the projectiles consistently so that as once you’ve got you’ve got a thrower you’ve got a spear is is then you want to make the spears as consistent as possible so that if you interchange spears you’re not having to relearn that judgment of distance because they will go quite a long way, so If you can make the same size, shape, diameter spears consistently, then you’re going to have more consistency with your aim as well. And I do wonder if some of those atlatl throwers that are say in the you know spear throwers that are in the British Museum and other collections and they often have a hole in them and I suspect that is for making sure the diameter of the spear is consistent.

[ 00:28:45 ]It might also be for helping with straightening. possibly for both things but if you can make you know it’s like getting the weight of your bullet in a in a in a rifle and the load in the rifle exactly the same as close as you can you know it’s why people get into to reloading or loading their own ammunition because they can be very very consistent and they get a more consistent result same as if you can make your if you can make your projectile more consistent you know whether you’re making arrows for a bow and arrow whether you’re making a spear throw or an atlatl, the more consistent they are from one to the other, every time you throw one of them, they are going to behave very similarly then.

[ 00:29:30 ]So that’s something that you can work towards as well as just practicing throwing them. Slingshots, you know, your kind of David and Goliath type slingshot, they can be absolutely lethal, very, very simple to make. I’ve seen some footage of people getting extreme kind of distance out of those and also real accuracy, much more than I can get, hitting kind of small metal targets with a real potency at significant distance. So there’s a lot of scope there just with a simple slingshot. Catapults, you know, your elasticated catapult type things, they’re fun to play with. Again, you know, good to go out with the kids. You don’t have to be firing. Metal ball bearings. I don’t like the idea of firing plastic pellets into the woods either because you’re just putting plastic into nature.

[ 00:30:28 ]What’s really good is if you can get little mint Imperial sweets, like candies and whatever you call them, like little mint balls that you know or similar, and even M&Ms-something like that. They will break down; something will eat them. And you know, the mint ones in particular, this mainly sugar, a bit of rain. They’ll dissolve and go away. So if you want to, you know, fire loads of those off in the woods, that’s quite a good thing to do. And again, they’re quite consistent so you can set up a few little targets and pang. You know, you know you can have some fun with those and particularly with the kids. I don’t think they go particularly far back in history though because you need a good bit of elastic for that type of thing and I don’t think there’s much evidence that before we had you know rubber, um that there was that type of stretchy material available with that amount of potential energy stored in it. Um, I think the David and Goliath-style slingshots go a lot a lot further back.

[ 00:31:28 ]Goliath and then bows and arrows, I mean some bows are quite sophisticated and you know in their shaping and you know your traditional longbow like your English longbow is probably harder to make and also harder to pull, you know if you make like a reasonable-powered one. But there’s plenty you know in your part of the world and there’s plenty of history of like hickory flat bows for example which are reasonably straightforward to make; they’re certainly easier to make than longbows and um, a fun to make and again you’ll find a reasonable amount of information quite easily on making those. There is a good book on that on those style of bows which I can’t remember off the top of my head. It’s on my shelf. I can’t remember the name of the book.

[ 00:32:18 ]I will put a link in the description on my website below this episode to that book. I’ll put an Amazon link or something. yeah so that’s they’re all worthwhile and those are some further ideas on top of what you already suggested that you might want to play with and I hope you find that interesting and have fun with it. And then last one, and this is from Twitter and this is from André: he says,

Knife Danglers

[ 00:32:46 ]“Good day, Paul! I haven’t seen you wearing a dangler like Castrom Number Three’s dangler with your knife. Any particular reasons? Is it safe? I find it is easy to sit or reach under my coat. I would like your feedback on this”

[ 00:33:01 ]Okay, so yeah, I mean I don’t use danglers a lot. But I do sometimes.

[ 00:33:10 ]So, if I’m running an elementary course, I will use the same knife as my students are using, which is a Mora Companion HD, a heavy duty mora companion they all get given one on a course to keep and um I will use the same knife because I don’t want them to think that what I’m doing is possible because I’m using a you know a PK1 or a Woodlore knife or whatever it’s just like no I can do this with the same knife as you’re using and we’re all on the same playing field and so that’s typically what I do these days and I will show them how to make a dangler for the plastic Mora sheath just using a loop of paracord and I will sometimes use that myself but I generally don’t like a knife flapping around on my side when I’m walking around.

[ 00:34:02 ]You mentioned jackets though, and I think if you’ve got a longer jacket, a dangler can be useful. If you don’t want to wear a belt on the outside of your jacket and you still want to access your knife below your jacket, below your smock, then a dropper or a dangler can be useful for that. But I typically, particularly in the winter when I’m wearing more clothing, say when I wear my boreal winter smock, I made a video about that a while ago; I’ll link it to it on the YouTube cards on YouTube and I’ll link to it in the in the show notes on my page. And I might wear a belt around the outside of that with a knife on the belt and a saw and a possible’s pouch clip so I can hang my you know felt Hestra gloves on it or whatever.

[ 00:34:48 ]But I also sometimes will use a neck knife, and my preference if I don’t want my belt or knife to be in the way, say of a rucksack belt or if I’ve got a long jacket so that I can’t easily get to my trouser belt, I would prefer to have a neck knife than have a dangler that or a dropper that drops the knife lower because I say I don’t like a knife sort of flapping around on my leg particularly when I’m hiking around or snowshoeing or what have you. I don’t think there’s any safety issue, I mean it’s basically the Castrom one is a kind of carabiner, um, and I think they’re pretty well made as far as I can see. I know some people who use them.

[ 00:35:32 ]But once I get to the stage where getting to my trouser belt’s awkward or I want to put a rucksack belt around here and I don’t want this here, rather than dropping the knife, I tend to take it and make it a neck knife. And that can just be with a loop of cordage. So I can easily move it backwards and forwards from trip to trip. And I don’t need another piece of kit really for that. So that’s my preference. Objecting to them, it’s just that I don’t tend to use a dropper very often um for those reasons that I’ve just discussed, hopefully that helps and I think that was the last question, I think there were five and I think we’ve covered them all. Yep.

[ 00:36:11 ]So that brings us to the end of this session. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Remember, you can listen to these on podcast platforms. You can watch these on YouTube. You can watch them on my website at paulkirtley. co. uk. And you can support these sessions by buying me a coffee link that is below this on the platform on my website. And I will put it on the screen on YouTube as well. I think, if I remember rightly, it’s BuyMeACoffee. com. /PaulKirtley but I will put the link on my website as well and I’ll see you on the next one, take care, cheers.