The Cheap Haversack Kit

By Caleb Steck

This kit is designed to be carried in a belt pouch and a haversack. Consequently, it must be quite light. Everything must be absolutely necessary. You are not going to be carrying things like a draw shave, or even a tarp. 

That said, let’s start with cutting tools. First is a quality belt knife. (Click HERE to see an article on that issue) The 4 basics of a good belt knife are: full tang, good grind and temper, and a comfortable handle. My bush knife is homemade, which cost me about $7, some charcoal, and about 2 hours of work, but I already had the forge. (Click HERE to see how make a very basic knife) If you were to buy a bushcraft knife new, it would cost about anywhere from $10 to upwards of $150. But, if you went to a few flea markets, you could find an Old Hickory butcher knife for around $3. 

Next is a belt hatchet. My favorite is the Gerber pack hatchet, but that is rather expensive. The other option is to search flea markets. Look for an old carpenter’s hatchet that’s suits you, and re-furbish it. This is my preference, for if you can find an old hatchet, it was usually made really well. I also carry a “hobo tool” that was my grandpa’s which has a large 4” blade, a smaller blade, spoon, fork, 2 awls, wood saw, scissors, file, cork screw, can opener and a bottle opener. Almost all of these tools I would carry anyway, so having them all in one folding tool is a big bonus. 

Moving on to containers, I have a wooden kuska that is great as a traditional water cup, and I even made the gouge I used to carve it. Next I use a tin can cookset I made, consisting of the following: 1) 18 oz soup can with the sharp inside rim crimped down, 1) 14 oz soup can that nests inside of the other can upside down creating a container, a soda can with the top cut off and the edge crimped down (which nests inside of the smaller can), and my sugar, salt and ‘Ol bay seasoning inside it all. 

Note: if you are planning to stay for longer periods of time, or there is more than one person camping, add a larger pail that can carry gear, but will be used to make soups in. 

Next I have a water bottle, as large as possible, a few plastic bags and a supply of tin foil. For food, I use a bag of rice, a bag of oatmeal, cooking oil, jerky, and a fishing kit.  

During squirrel season I also take along a good gun and a gun care kit, which is paper towels, hex wrench set, plastic bags, a length of bankline with loops on each end for a gambrel string, and a pocket knife (which everybody should already have). 

My main fire source is cotton balls and Carmex, which burns even better than petroleum. Carmex has petroleum, bee’s wax AND certain kinds of oil, all of which are fuel sources. Besides that, I have a lighter and ferro rod in my pocket, and my fire kit. It contains char cloth, a piece of flint, waterproofed strike-anywhere matches, and extra Carmex.

 Another thing I have is a leather belt pouch that I made, which contains my fishing kit, electrical tape, compass, and is a place for my fire kit. 

That concludes the contents if the scrounged belt kit, and I put mine all together almost free. Just scrounging and blacksmithing alone will knock a lot off the cost of this kit. So, while you can go buy $200 worth of brand new gear at Academy, if you keep your eyes open and learn a little blacksmithing, well you can have a $20 worth of gear and you even know how it was built!!

The Ultamate Bush Knife

The Ultimate Bush knife

 

Ok, right out of the gate I am going to tell you this; there is no one-size-fits-all ultimate bush knife, it doesn’t exist.  But I can describe one the most useful knives for bushcrafting in the south. First you must have a full tang. A Mora type knife would be great for carving, but not batoning and chopping. You want enough stability to know that that handle is not going any where. Second, you need a good grind and shape. I like a little lower grinds, where they maybe come halfway op the blade. My preferred handle material is micarta; it is pretty much indestructible, and is also water resistant. As long as it is good carbon steel, most any steel will work. 1095 is mostly what I work with; it provides good hardness and you can strike sparks off the blade in an emergency. And the last of these specs is size. I prefer larger handles, like 4 ½ inches. The blade length should be in between 4 and 6 inches. Now I am going to build the knife we just described, and then show you how well it works.

Ok, two days later here is what I have:

So, the above is a great example, and I would, without a second’s hesitation, trust my life to this knife. But, going back to my previous point, there is no perfect knife. In my opinion an old hickory butcher knife from Amazon or a flea market is a fantastic bush tool, although it is not as sturdy as a thicker knife. Any knife that fits in the categories listed at the top of this article is a good bush knife.

Well, I hope this little tidbit helped you,

and keep on bushcrafting,

-Caleb