What does "bushcraft" mean to YOU?

[Maniacal Pete]

Bushcraft is just a nouveau label for the skills that outdoors men have practicing for years or even centuries.

While it's a convenient term to describe what a lot of us do, it seems like it's use is becoming not much more than a slick gear marketing ploy.

I agree, except where bushcrafting is superceded by the zombies in marketing ploys.
I think I need a bright green handled Mora now.

Oh yeah, I've already got one. Doh! :foot:

 

[RescueRiley]

Pretty hard to add anything to what Marcel put so eloquently. I for one like the term bush craft, because and I'll be honest I think it sounds cool.Also it seems to lack the aura of paranoia that say "survivalist" has.
I consider bushcraft in much the same way as Marcelo (probably one of the many reasons we are friends) to me bushcraft encompasses a desire to master a particular skill set for no other reason than the enjoyment of the skillset. the benefits of this are self evident in a practical standpoint as theoretically it allows one to do more with less.. But as we all know that rarely works out..as gear tends to accumulate.
I can only speak from my hobbyist experience, but to me the acquisition of bushcraft skills makes extended outdoor stays a little more comfortable. for example enjoying a piping hot piece of cinnamon raisin bannock on a fire side on a December night trumps a mountain house and ramen. Having knowledge to forage and read signs are its own reward, as they provide hours of entertainment.
Yet also to me and this is where the warm fuzzy part of me comes in.. I believe that the pursuit of bushcraft skills is a direct connection to the past. When considering that for 8/10's of human history people lived in direct contact with the land where there knowledge and skill-set directly correlated to there longevity, it becomes clear that a deep )sometimes hidden) desire to nurture those skills feels natural... because in reality it is natural..it;s in our blood and has been since the whole shebang.
SO call it what you want.. the woods calls to everyone in one way or another.. some here it and go.. some ignore it, some run the otherway, but when it comes down to it you can;t hide from your past.
just my 2 cents fwiw.
Now I'll take my hippie beads off and stop eating granola.

 

[crafty]

I agree with RescueRiley and Marcelo.
For me it's the same skills and techniques as in survival, but it's not the same thing. Bushcraft is; fun, a hobby (and for some a way of living), performed at a chosen location, understanding 'nature' so it can work for you. Survival is not fun, you're forced in a situation on a certain spot and fighting 'nature' to survive.

A bit off topic. but in response to Alvaro Candanedo, do I expect an apocalypse caused by nature.. No, maybe some local problems as you already said. I think nature leaves the apocalypse up to us; there are plenty of nukes around to cause some serious global trouble... luckily I have a tarp and can make fire by friction

 

[baldtaco-II]

I think of Bushcraft proper as a mashup of aptitudes, attitudes and values peculiar to a certain set of people in a particular time period, at a particular place, with a tendency toward a common set of goals that draw upon the technologies they had................. I conceive of bushcraft proper to be just as much about the ignorance and lack of enlightenment of the period as I do about the discoveries and solid foundations upon the shoulders of which so many have stood. No proper bushman would be banging rocks together to make a knife if he had S90V, and no bushman would be making fire from sparks if he had a Zippo. Why, because bushcraft proper concerns solving problems not wilfully contriving them amongst the currently optimal methods or buying a scrotum off ebay and calling it a possibles pouch......................Opinions about what is or what isn't bushcraft have for the most part always struck me a rather silly because they are so arbitrary. That's not bushcraft that's survivalism – no it's not that's paleo primitive – rubbish, Mears has those in his shop so it's bushcraft, and on and on..........................To start with I'm going to offer up that the clue is in the name “the bush”, and who got that ball rolling, the Australians. And I'm not just using that to play word games either. I'm sure some twerp could chime in here about the Blah people that used the name Rup, but it was less catchy so they adopted the Australian term for the same thing. I'd contest that by adding that it's not just the location but who was doing what there and when and what they drew upon.....................The example of Bushmen that I prefer to use comes from when we started shipping folks from England to that vast alien landscape that was Australia. Those people, not always willing, took with them manual skills and tools, but they were frequently insufficient to colonize what must have been a very daunting looking place, so they had to learn and adapt to new practices. What was an excellent manual for living a hand to mouth smallholding existence here [Henry Stevens Book of The Farm 1860 for an excellent later one – download it] would have been inadequate. Stuff like finding water may have had some overlap but many died in the presence of wild foods even though they could live off the hedgerows quite merrily here. Yet it's not all about learning survival, food and protection in a new place, a lot of it ties simply to that fundamental human want, convenience. Folks thrived there as bushmen because by dint of the ability to accommodate and assimilate new skills into existing craft schemata they learned how to make novel stuff convenient, and that differs markedly from mere existing or survival...................I often see it written that the difference between survival and bushcraft is that bushcraft is about living comfortably in the outdoors. And that is usually accompanied by yet another waft of the most idiotic looking photos of a fig 4 trap carved with a Scandi, as if that tells us anything other than the maker is a buffoon that's never caught anything with one. Bushcraft proper was so much more. It was a Bushman in the bush that knew what bits of a boab are good, how to be a crude vet to his horse, how to mend a wheel and use pulleys and wedges as simple machines and so on. He is the consummate handy fella melding together old world knowledge with every new ecological advantage he could lay his hands on, eventually including just as much of the embracing of the power of steam as what he could rape from the indigenous people...............And yep, the old chestnut of the bushcraft knife – looks a lot like a Green River deck knife. Plain simple tool pressed into service. We shipped loads of them over there since the 1700s for would be bushmen to tame the bush by doing bushcraft. Works good on a farm too................I've said stuff tantamount to this here before a few liked it so I shall quit here at 2cents.