Samovar Tea Kettle Review

See our latest review of the Samovar Tea Kettle here

When working in the outdoors especially at this time of year it is important to keep hydrated and warm. A good cuppa can make all the difference.  Not only does a hot drink warm you from the inside and gives you a morale boost, making a drink forces you to take a longer break.

Forest Knights always like to work smarter not harder.

Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our customers and friends it has been a really busy year for us at Forest Knights.  We have had the pleasure of meeting loads of new customers and making lots of new friends.

This year we have tried to get out and about and  attend a few more events like the Surrey Hills Wood Fair. its great to meet new folk and demonstrate Bushcraft skills to a different audience and enthuse people about the great outdoors showing them that it is possible to be comfortable with little equipment.

As usual we have had a full course program of Bow Making Courses.  There is nothing better for the team than watching a client loose their first arrow from a bow they have hand crafted themselves.

A couple of photos from a course we ran in the New forest.

Its always nice to be asked by your peers to teach a skill that you have been honing for the last 15 or more years.  Like all bushcraft skills we never stop learning and hopefully never will.  every student is different and every piece of wood presents its only challenges.

We have a full program of Bow Making Courses available here. 

Forest Knights continues to focus on small group and bespoke courses. When we founded Forest Knights we were determined to be a totally customer focused organisation.  The clients expectations must be exceeded and I like to think that 2016 has shown that we have maintained that ideal.

The maximum group size for our Bow Making Courses booked through us will never exceed 5 people.  The usual maximum being 4 unless its a group booking.  

We have run courses for higher numbers for other Bushcraft organisations but we feel strongly that this diminished the experience for the client.  

Our maximum number of students on our Bushcraft courses remains between 8-10 people.  

We pride ourselves on the quality of our catering and despite an increase in the costs of food etc er have maintained quality and quantity. We source out foods from local suppliers where possible with animal welfare being a major factor.

You will not leave one of our courses hungry.  

Our new Pizza Oven we installed at Amberley.

Don't worry we cater for all dietary requirements if we are informed in advance of the course commencing.  

Ecu therapy.

Forest Knights has years of experience providing activities in the great outdoors to improve mental and physical well being. 

It's great that our philosophy is being accepted as a standard treatment for those with mental health problems. 

It's not rocket science that taking someone away from their difficult surroundings building their skills and confidence will enable them to better make positive choices and cope with issues like anxiety and depression. 

 

Val our resident therapist is cooking a venison stew over the fire. 

Read more about mindfulness and wilderness therapy here. 

http://flip.it/WZDrL

Bow making

Another great weekend saw 5 people over 3 days craft their own bows, primitive arrows and make a bow string. 

Quite an aceivement in the heat. 

Neanderthals used simple Chemistry.

It's about time that we jettisoned the idea that our ancestors were inferior and that all that went before was simple and lacked sophistication. 

Anyone involved in studying primitive skills and living history knows that life was anything but simple and complex tasks require a lot of attention to detail. 

Here is a link to an interesting article. 

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/neandertals-may-have-used-chemistry-start-fires

Web Site Updates

Some of the more astute followers of Forest Knights over the years may have noticed that I have had a love hate relationship with our web site,  In the early days I was terribly proud of our shop window to the world and lavished time and money on it.

We then had a series of set backs with the site being hacked and our google ranking taking serious hit when I was leading an expedition in Canada.  The software we were using at the time was not as simple to up date as I would have liked.  Each process took a long time to achieve and the results were not always as I would have wished them.  Therefore things didn't get done and our ranking slid further.

This was not a huge concern as SEO is still pretty much a dark art that I do not understand and we have a good reputation within the industry and Forest Knights provides a great product so we get repeat business.

That said I should spend a lot more time and effort on marketing it is no good being a really great instructor if no one knows you exist.  After years of ridicule from my instructor team and my ever patient website guru Chris I have been making an effort to keep the web site up to date and looking fresh.  Also I am trying to keep the blog moving forward.

Small business always has the dilemma of chasing new business or servicing the work they have now to the best of their ability.  Its a challenge when coming home from 7 nights in the woods to fire up the laptop and up load pictures etc.

I have been asked to write more articles and tutorials for publication and my book is still in its infancy.  The Bushcraft Gourmet Guide will eventually be finished but I cannot promise when.  Despite the distractions of the woods calling me and the beauty of the Sussex Downs a stones throw a way I shall endeavour to spend more time working inside writing reviews and keeping the website up to date.  When I was training in Japan I was chatting to one of the Japanese instructors about business and the martial arts, He believes that to be a truly great warrior, Budo should include every sphere of one's life and should not be confined to the dojo or combat and it was not enough to be a great fighter if you could not support your family financially.  To put it into context with the great outdoors there is little point in investing hundreds of hours in a skill such as flint knapping and primitive skills only to discover that you have to work 2 shifts so never the time or the money to enjoy those hard won skills.

Bushcraft and survival practice teaches us that the mastery of time is so important.  The knowledge and wisdom of knowing when to slow down and move with natures cycles and when the move fast and act quickly and decisively are equally important to ones continued survival.

So the next time I hear the canoe calling I will stop and check if I have done all I can to be as balanced as possible.

Bhutanese Bow Making.

Last Sunday we spent the day teaching people how to make beautiful bows out of bamboo.

The adults wanted to craft Bhutanese Bows. Which are two bamboo limbs joined through the handle. The 3 younger guests choose to make more portable mini bows. 

Tom using a draw knife to shape the limbs. 

All the skills required to make a long bow are the same for making a bamboo mini bow. You shape the wood with an axe, drawknife, spokeshave, rasp and scraper. The bow is then tillered to ensure it is bending evenly with  no weaknesses in the limbs that might cause it to fail. 

Each new bowyer left with and shooting bow and a string they had made themselves. Not bad for a day's work. 

For more info on our 1 day courses. 

http://www.forestknights.co.uk/day-courses/product/view/7/1

50 Years of SARDA.

Forest Knights is proud to support SARDA.  We are hopeing that Bramble and Aspen our Bushcraft hounds will one day become search dogs.

They are doing well in their scent class.

  

https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/the-50-th-anniversary-of-sarda-the-search-and-rescue-dog-association-congratulations

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