Bushcraft, survival and wilderness skills courses

There used to be a time when all I carved was spoon shaped firewood, but after hundreds of  attempts and fires I am finally getting to a point where I can be proud of my spoons.

To be honest for years I was more concerned with other things and put no effort in trying to improve my preferred method of making an implement that had some semblance of spoonishness. It was all about function and nothing to do with form, but a few things have changed my opinion over the last few years first off having spent time with much more talented carvers and secondly a gift from the other half.

Safe to say I am still by no means a master craftsman, but I have started to make some spoons that have both looks and purpose. My last one was sent to Bangkok as my contribution to the worlds biggest secret Santa. Here's a quick run through should you be inspired to have a go yourself.

I should mention before you start that to do this right you need sharp tools. and you need to know how to use them

safely before you start cutting the wood, yourself or anyone else for that matter

It seems that there is more to schools in the forest than just forest schools.

Having been working recently with small groups of students from Bideford College I am starting to find all sorts of new potential for the wilderness as a true outdoor classroom. I have always felt that forest schools was just a scratch on the surface of all the potential that the wilderness has to offer in learning but kept schtum as with no true experience I had no right to comment.

However with the acceptance that it is only as good as the leader I have found that for certain students there is so much to learn in the woods and wilds. skills and subjects that are not often thought of and sometimes purposefully avoided by many schools.

Having worked closely with the SEN department at the college I am finding a great many ways that WildPath can help staff and pupils alike.