Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anthonio Akkermans tells us that he teaches people how to live naturally and in harmony with nature, 15 April 2008
Anthonio Akkermans tells us that he "teaches people how to live naturally and in harmony with nature". A Dutchman in Ireland with big ambitions! He has set out in this, his first, book to make life easier for people wishing to learn more about bushcraft skills at all levels of ability.
His book is well-presented and free of jargon. It is not however the place to research the best blade or tang on a knife or the use of maps to navigate. This guy likes working with primitive gear. Biographical details include instructing experimental archaeology in a university and creating replicas of collections of museum artefacts. Credit has been given to teaching he received at Tom Brown's Tracker School in New Jersey.
The theme of a positive attitude is commenced with an introduction by Debra Serle whose recent expeditions have included sailing around Antarctica. The book then kicks off how to organize yourself, and others if not alone, if suddenly landed in a survival situation. Short chapters on how to communicate to the outside world, navigate and use primitive first aid follow. We even learn how to make soap and mouthwash. The theme of the book then follows a skills-based approach and safety in the wilderness is kept in mind.
The expected shelter-building chapter is beautifully presented with photographs and is easy to follow in the real situation. Anthonio's main area of expertise would appear to be within temperate climates. However the section on desert survival seems well-grounded. The sections on jungle survival and life in the arctic are very informative but seem, after the excellent descriptions of building leaf shelters, more based on second hand knowledge. The short chapter on building a long-term shelter was a little vague and the photographs did not follow the excellent sequences of other chapters.
He moves onto fire. This is a lively chapter and is full of hot tips. He describes teaching this age-old skill to many and "seeing the look on their face when they first manage to get an ember". Personally, hours and hours have been spent reading and figuring out how to make and use a bow drill from other books and the television. A lot of sweat and only random wisps of smoke had been all to show for this. Anthonio describes body posture, angles of the knee in relation to the foot and how to wrap your left arm, holding the handle, around the outside of your thigh and across your shin followed by a statement that you should be spending "25% of energy holding the wrist tightly against the left leg, 50% pushing down and 25% moving the bow back and forth". Whilst here this may resemble a game of "Twister" with the kids, when accompanied by a sequence of 20 photographs it actually does make sense and is enormously conserving of energy. I eventually am able to move on to the 3 photos which explain how to use the puff left (not much!) to breathe that beautiful little ember into a tinder ball of flames. Fantastic. It's true. My face does light up and not just from the light of the flame.
A section on water follows chapters on cookery (including pottery, wooden bowls and baskets as well as utensils), stalking, camouflage, tracking, trapping, primitive fishing, making bows and arrows and how to work stone and bone. The hunting chapter uses primitive techniques only. There is a section on processing an animal for meat, clothing (which includes a pattern for making buckskin jackets and moccasins), glue and sinew.
An entertaining read, this is a highly informative book which is difficult to set down without wanting to get out there and give it a go! On a personal note it has resulted in the boiling of pine resin and powdered rabbit droppings on the kitchen stove to make primitive glue (of course) and in the creation of distinctive scorch marks on the good oak floor. Not everyone in the family would recommend this book as a gift! Overall, an excellent read for bushcrafters and would-be bushcrafters of all abilities.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended addition to the library of any outdoors enthusiast, 13 Aug 2008
No need for repetition and the previous reviewer has done a sterling job of summarising the content of the book, so I won't bother with that. What I will bother with is to say how useful I have found the book, both for general background information on primitive living and for identifying principles and techniques that I can then build on to take each project to the next stage.
This book acts as a great reference resource to refer back to and without a doubt one of the most useful attributes of the book is the excellent sequential photography that illustartes each stage of the skills. You could almost in some instances carry out the skill or project without reading the text!
So why didn't it get 5 stars?
Well it could just be me, and with fear of contradicting my last point, but in some of the projects/skills I found that often there were large jumps from one stage to the next and as a complete novice the bits in between were a mystery. Having since practised some of these skills and with hindsight anything that is missing can be filled in using common sense or trial and error, which all adds to the challenge and the fun and after all without common sense you won't progress too far in these pursuits.
Also I have no doubt there was a great deal of editing and word limits to contend with not to mention a finite amount of pages into which to include a lot of information and photography, so all in all I think the balance is perfect.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
not particulary good, 10 Nov 2009
upon receiving this book i opened it. but was disappointed in the lay out and such it had nothing that i already knew in it. as for someone wanting to learn the art of bush craft i can think of two better books, one by Mors kochanski and the other by Ray Mears, there is nothing on no trace camping and nothing on feather sticks. The fuzz stick is useless for fire lighting and is to my mind a waste of energy.
and there was nothing on making and using cordage for in a self reliance situation if you cannot make cordage you cannot snare. i suppose i am a doer rather than an armchair enthusiast as this is what the book seems to be geared at. also in the trapping section there should be a disclaimer about the hunting methods as they are for the most part illegal around the world excepting in the most dire of situations.
and well as for eating Rowan berries i defy any one to eat them i make Rowan jelly every year and it has to be tempered with sugar for it is so very , very sharp and the seeds are mildly toxic.
all i can say if you want to learn Bushcraft look else where as a book for the coffee table it is not to bad
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by Mors Kochanski
by Ray Mears
by Richard L. Jamison
by Ray Mears
