Essential Gear For The New Bushcrafter Part 1 - Overview

Essential Gear For The New Bushcrafter
Part 1 - Overview

The boreal forest.

So you like to get outdoors and do some bushcraft? That's great but how do you begin and what do you need? I'd would like to try to give my opinion here but it is based among other things on that I live in Sweden where we have something called Allemansrätten (Freedom to roam). It's a unique thing in Swedish law that simplified makes it possible to hike and camp while following some principles on what one can and can't do.

General guidelines when starting out with bushcraft is simply to get out into the outdoors and not start to collect all the gear you think you're gonna need first. While gear mostly will make it possible to do more and stay out for a longer period it isn't necessary to begin with. Simply getting out into the woods for a couple of hours in a area that you know well with a bag containing some food and something to drink is a good start. If you are allowed to make a fire, bringing some stuff for that is a good next step. Before you know it you're of exploring and extending the day hike into an overnighter and then.. Well, lets stop there and first try to break down what you actually need.

David Canterbury summarized what he thought was the essential gear to have as the 10C's of survival or a simplified set called the 5C's of survival. The later 5C's mentions a cutting tool, a combustion device, cover, a container, and cordage. While these are more for survival scenario rather the general bushcraft we can use some of the ideas but adopted and used to identify the gear used to perform tasks we like to do outdoors.

In the following parts in this series I'm going to mention several manufactures and I would like to make it clear that I'm not sponsored by in any way by any of them. The gear mention is, unless stated otherwise, stuff I own and have used. The perspective is also from a beginners standpoint and it is most likely that your skills and knowledge will grow in time. The same goes for the type and amount of gear your will carry. Mors Kochanski, among others, said that the more you know the less you'll carry. To supplement that I'd like to add that gear isn't a substitute for experience or knowledge, it simply lets you get the job done more efficiently in the right hands. Bye for now and hope you'll drop by for the continuation of this series where we'll talk about cutting tools like knifes, saws and axes!