Archive for the 'Experiments' Category

Lime bark for cordage

Guy Radford April 16th, 2011

I just bumped into a lime tree where the bark is semi prepared. The tree is dead and still standing. The bark has started to rot and all the fibres and becoming exposed. In just pealed of great length with my hands. What a great find.

Here is a photo from near by of a fallen Lime with suckers growing up.

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Fire Steel and Knife fire

Guy Radford April 12th, 2009

I spent a few nights camped by the sea up on the Isle of Harris and my wandering took me to a beach with some drift wood. Having time I decided to practice lighting a fire with just a fire steel and a knife.  I have done this before but never in a windy environment like a beach or with damp drift wood, I knew the theory so lets put it into practice.
I collected a few bits of drift wood that were as touch dry as I could find and a piece to use as a batten to hit the knife.
I split the wood down into smaller and smaller bits giving me all the sizes I needed to start a fire. I then created 4 feather sticks, one was very fine as it had to light from the spark from the fire steel.
Feather sticks and kindling at the ready.

Feather sticks and kindling at the ready.

I laid everything at hand ready to go. On the second attempt with the fire steel the feather stick lit, I carefully piled on the other three feather sticks and some of the fine kindling and in no time I had a great little fire.
The Fire

The Fire

Bannock Bread

Guy Radford December 15th, 2008

I love Bannock bread, it is a great way to have a sustaining tasty fresh bread whilst out and about. Traditionally bannock is cooked in a frying pan, but I was looking for an alternate way of cooking it, not for any reason other can an experiment. The idea came from a video I found on YouTube, where someone cooked pancake mix in a cup floating on water, which made a tasty little cake.

By doing this you don’t care what temperature the fire is, as you are only boiling water, which can be used to make a cuppa tea or cooled for you water bottle so it is not waisted.

I made the Bannock in the normal way:
3 units of plain flour
2 units of dried milk powder
1 teaspoon of baking power (only a pinch if making a small amount)
or
3 units self raising flour
2 unit dried milk power

Mixed up with water to make a dough, I used flour to stop it sticking,  i patted it into a flat disc and put it in the top of my billy can.

Bannock Cooking in my billy can

I was using a Zebra billy with the bowl that fits into the top, this is great as the steam keeps it really hot but not burning.

You could use any heat proof container that floats or hangs on the side.
For this experiment I was using the aga(I know its cheating). I then put on the lid as walked away. I checked it and turned it a few times until it was light brown and cooked to perfection. It took about one and a half hours, but there was no burnt bits or wastage, it was all soft and fluffy and all edible.

This would only be a useful technique when sitting round the fire in the evening as it dose take a long time. but worth it!