This woodland classroom weekend course is an immersive learning experience aimed at understanding some basic metal working principles in order to create your own durable and effective cutting tools.
Our focus is to establish a foundation of understanding in how to change metal properties using the camp fire and a selection of basic hand tools away from all the convenience and speed of the modern workshop.
The idea for this course formed some years back after many woodland camps always seemed to have two items left behind; teaspoons and tent pegs!
Useful as these things are in their intended form what else could they be with a little inventiveness?
Our western disposable-convenience culture has items such as these mass produced and from materials only available to our species in the last few hundred years.
At the turn of the century metal was an incredibly valuable commodity and there is a rich history of North American culture where Western industrial materials met the ingenuity of the indigenous inhabitants of the great lakes region giving birth to the ‘Mokotaugan’.
These turn of the century hybrid-culture technologies are rich sites of learning for the modern day bushcraft enthusiast and the Mokotaugan has certainly become an iconic cutting tool.
The Mokotaugan (Cree for what is in essence a one handed draw knife, made from worn out file blades typically) was the multi tool of its time. The incredible utility of the tool is surpassed only by its sleek and efficient form giving in one tool a draw knife, plane and gouge all whilst freeing the opposing hand to steady whatever item is to be shaped.
Canoe paddles, replacement parts for wood framed canoes and kayaks, snow shoe frames, ladels and bowls all were fabricated with little more than an axe and this versatile cutting tool.
So with a handful of old tea spoons and tent pegs I set to experimenting with shaping and heating to see what they could be ‘upcycled’ into. My first camp fire crooked knife was born along with some arrow heads and a few simple awls (basic hand operated drill).
Whilst any cutting edge is preferable than no cutting edge these mass produced metals were not intended to make and hold durable sharp cutting profiles.
The various additives and all important carbon content were just not of a high quality. Perhaps I went about it the wrong way round but after some practical experimentation I got to reading up on metal working.
After locating some great reference materials (see reference recommendations at the end of this article) on how to make a mokotaugan from high carbon metal working files I had a much more clear understanding of the process.
Sourcing the best types of files to work with, how to soften, shape, re harden and temper the metal are the core stages of The Bushcraft Tool Maker Weekend Course and essential to understand for producing durable and effective cutting tools.
