Resources
I thought it would be helpful to create a resource page that you can always come to for your wilderness bushcraft, survival and outdoor needs. It’ll take a while but I’ll add to it as I go and I recommend bookmarking it for your reference and convenience. Enjoy!
Recommended Books
Recommended Bushcraft and Survival Books: My recommended selection of bushcraft and survival manuals.
Recommended Nature Guides (UK and Europe): My recommended selection of field guides and nature books for trees, plants, fungi, mammals and birds for Britain, Ireland, Northern and Western Europe.
Recommended Nature Guides (USA and Canada) – coming soon!
Recommended Wild Food and Foraging Books: My recommended selection of wild food guides and foraging books to give you a broad knowledge of the edible (and poisonous) plants available in Britain, Europe, Canada and the USA.
Links
Below are links to websites, organisations and manufacturers I like:
Bushcraft Courses and Education
Frontier Bushcraft: Frontier Bushcraft provides high quality bushcraft courses and wilderness expeditions. Frontier Bushcraft was set up by Paul Kirtley with the aim of not only teaching wilderness skills but also taking people to, and guiding people in, wilderness areas where these skills can be fully utilised.
Bushcraft Forums and Discussion Rooms
BushcraftUK: Bushcraft UK’s community forum for all things bushcraft.
Bushcraft Knives
Bushblade: High quality handmade bushcraft knives by Will Adams.
Raven Armoury: Simon Fearnamm and his team at Raven Armoury are some of the finest craftsmen in Britain. Raven Armoury produce the hand-crafted Raven PK1 Knife.
First Aid and Wilderness Medicine
Resuscitation Council (UK): The Resuscitation Council (UK) provides education and reference materials to healthcare professionals and the general public in the most effective methods of resuscitation.
Wilderness Medical Society: Founded in 1983, the Wilderness Medical Society is the world’s leading organisation devoted to wilderness medical challenges.
Knots
Animated Knots: Animated knots by Grog. Clear step-by-step animations for tying knots, handily organised by activity and usage.
Wildlife Sounds
British Library – Listen to Nature: On these pages the British Library has provided online access to 400 sound recordings from the large collection of the British Library Sound Archive. The Wildlife Section holds over 150,000 sounds of every animal group and habitat from all over the world. Unfortunately all of this is not available online but can be listened to by visiting the library. To see which sounds they have, you can search their online catalogue.
Winter Camping
Snowtrekker Tents: Great canvas tents and wood-burning stoves for winter camping.
Black River Sleds: High quality sleds and toboggans.
Downloads
Each significant download will have its own page with useful background information. Click on the downloads below to go their pages:
Aha! A web form! In lieu of your email address I’ll contact you this way!
Firstly, Mister Kirtley, many thanks for sharing your practical wisdom so freely online. I’ve learned (and relearned) a great deal over the past year, hoovering up the hours of YouTube content on your channel and elsewhere. As you said during one of your talks at the Bushcraft Symposia, it serves nobody to keep this stuff to themselves, to be protective of knowledge – especially if the result of sharing knowledge is this kindling of curiosity, and the journey of self-awareness and personal growth that inevitably follows.
So, thanks, heartfelt. I dunno if it’s midlife crisis or what, but it genuinely feels good to be getting back to this stuff.
Fine; with all that said, enough of the fluffy bollocks. You were asking whether to restart AskPaulKirtley on YouTube. The answer is “yes”. Duh. What else are you going to do while nobody is allowed to attend your courses? However, there’s more: I have some suggestions.
You mentioned the original intention for the media was to be podcast-based, i.e. audio, first and foremost; and so the video format is maybe not as exciting or _practical_ as the visual medium demands – although there could be a market for “Paul Kirtley does ASMR”…
Yikes. I literally shudder to think, but I suppose that’s the point of those videos…
I digress. So you were perched on your familiar wind-blown log, talking about the nature of the medium, and how maybe the YouTube side could be seen to be lacking somehow because the AskPaulKirtley series isn’t sufficiently show-and-tell for a visual audience.
And I looked around you at the background and thought: that’s a fern. What’s that good for? How long does that take to dry out? What’s its latin name? How well does it shed water? How thick does it need to be stacked to shed water? Does it have any medicinal value? Does the fractal nature of its structure have interest beyond the mathematical?
And then I thought: the log Kirtley’s sitting on. Seems he was about to try and identify it. What is it? What’s it good for? What happens to wind-blown trees? Why do trees get blown over? What could one do to avoid widowmakers in a bad storm?
And then I thought: that shirt Kirtley wears in these videos. What material is it made of? Why are his sleeves rolled up? Does it even have sleeves? Is it a practical or philosophical choice to wear green? Why? When did he make that choice?
And then I thought: Kirtley’s rubbing his hair. Are there beasties? How long did it take him to get accustomed to them? Does one ever get accustomed to the beasties? Forget salves and fragrant ungents and wood smoke: are there mindfulness techniques to get over beasties? What about newly-hatched frothy-heathers-full of swarming blackflies that threaten one’s very sanity and that of the dog who came on the walkies? Has Kirtley ever completely lost his shit because of the beasties?
Without wanting to sound like a fanboi, one of the aspects of your videos that has struck me from the outset is the clarity of your speech, how you express ideas, the cadence of your voice taking the listener along, always maintaining interest. There’s seldom a “uh” or “um”. I dunno if that’s a practiced skill due to your years as a teacher, but it comes across as natural.
Each of the examples above could be both a visual _and_ audio experience.
What has Kirtley got in his pockets? Why is it there? What’s the story behind how the habit of carrying that stuff developed? True, you run the risk of getting stuck down a rabbithole of kit endorsements, but knowing that risk is there, other firesteels are available. Contact your local reputable seller.
AskPaulKirtley guest edition: Spoons spills the beans on how loud Kirtley snores.
And also that time Kirtley saved his life. I mean, I’m guessing that one has probably happened, surely?
In any case, to answer the question again, yes: make more AskPaulKirtley, if you have the time and inclination. And these few suggestions above show it could be switched up, refreshed, both visual and auditory. And if the audience doesn’t like an episode, that results in more feedback and engagement, further helping to refine your output – and I daresay that also helps _you_ on the journey you’re on.
And finally, unless they’re generating a statistically significant number of leads, please _please_ remove the interstitials from your website. Users come to the website to answer a question they have, and to learn; and if that doesn’t pique their interest, you can sell to them in more subtle ways.
Stay healthy mannie, and lang may yer lum reek!
Cheers,
Allan
Allan,
This is very strange. I just found your comment above in a rarely visited part of my admin panel “pending approval”. Comments are turned on on blog posts but not pages. Maybe that’s why. But I still don’t understand how you have commented on a page and I really don’t understand why I didn’t see it for over three years.
BUT I liked your suggestions and in places your comments made me chuckle 🙂
Cheers,
Paul