Fishing & Camping weekend in small island.

I found myself heading to see my buddy who i meet only 2-3 times a year but now we both had no plans for 2 days. When i arrived we just loaded our packs, water and fishing stuff etc in to his boat and drove some...maybe an hour till we were at rocky shore if this 30 x 150 m sized island,with plenty of moss and trees,at top of its cliffs.

Sorry for lack of actual fishing pics,but i dont have a waterproof camera nor phone, and i kept my cellphone with camera,turned off for most of the time, to save the battery for emergeanzy situations.

 Optimus Terra Kettle, Crux lite gas stove,Kupilka 21 "kuksa",and a hobo utensil, that has spoon,folding knife,and fork that come apart, stamped as SIGG. But im its not made by SIGG,just stamped to have the trademark on it. Anyways, its a cool and uselful addition to my cookware that seems to get smaller and lighter.

We didnt do anything cool or interesting. For most of the time we were fishing from shore or from boat, night and day, and then eating in somewhere between. Lots of swimmimg, too.

We collected pieces of old fallen trees,branches from shore and then had good warm fires at nights. Way nice, just to lay in the ground,  drink few beers, fry fish and talk some BS.

                                                    Coffee in the morning.

 At saturday morning i was checking the pole i left on the shore,it had a piece of bass as a bait in its hook and it was just on the lakes floor,all nigh long. Well Well, look what we got here:

                                            This creature was delicious after a good smoking !

I´ve really liking my "super" rare Finnish army special unit pack,from earlier 80´s. I had way too much stuff with me, in it, since i didnt know would we sleep in cabin,house, existing lean-to or where and would i be using open campfire, or gascooker, etc, so at home i just stuffed everything but the kitchen sink to it. This thing is bulletproof i suspect. My bed was combined from Savotta army sleeping mattress,thats rolled under packs flap there,and on top of flap theres Vi-He Ransu shelter. Aside those, i had an old army surplus felt blabket and Savotta space blanket that we used as shelters floor.

The good old, trusty almost ultralight Ransu shelter. Awesome and spacious,without its removable insect mesh / floor part. Without floor piece you 3 peoples can sleep in it and still theres space for essentials in the lower end.

                                              No stress.

                                             Good times. Screw the television,we had much better time at night around fire. Hunting stories,fishing lies,all kinds of thoughts and bit of booze. Two of our buddies arrived there too, but they had forgotten to bring any shelter with em but luckily i had a surplus tarp, with me and paracord, so in short time i made a quick lean-to for them to sleep in. It wasnt raining at all, nor cold. Actually it was hot as hell all the weekend so there wasnt even need for any sleeping bag,but as the island was in biiig lake,and it had rocky shore and we were on top ridge of it, the occasional wind was pretty hard. So the lean-to was made to protect guys mostly from the rain and it also worked as a windscreen for fire.

                                                        Some stuff that i seem to use the most nowadays. Vic German Army OH folding knife with home made plain edge,and some filework on the spine, and Kupilka 21 "kuksa" that i had to costomize a bit afer its handle cracked a bit, last winter. So i smoothed the broken handle, drilled a hole for lanyard with Vic´s awl, heated the handle and bent it a bit. So its ok to use again.

 This 3.5 meter long (?) cheap BlueFox 15 piece telescope fishing rod has lasted for some 3 years now and prooven itself with loads of fish that ive got with it. Cost like 18 euros or similar. Its only some 12 inches short when its on its shortest, and with its tiny sheath, it fits nicely on sidepocket of  my packs. This weekend i got 1,8kg pike with it. Its not the finest fish there is but after filleting it, with some lemonpepper and salt scrubbed in it,and frying it above campfire,it sure was nice meal. Coupled with a Karhu beer offcourse :).

                                                    No need for rare restored axes :). Axe never left anywhere in my life. So axe is not "back" :).

Well thats about all the pics i had and i cant come up with anything that i think you might be interested to read.

At morning, in few hours, ill be heading somewhere again. See ya !

Leuku fever resulting , pt.1

Ive been wanting a more traditional lookingcustom made leuku for ages. I have ended up on various knives far away from the original leuku-idea but Now, it seems theres something in these lines coming righ up. Actually two!

 Heres a smutty :) picture i took after i had drawn like 15 knives,and thinking it again and again,measuring and trying other leukus. I talked for few hours at a time about it to Kotavuopio,and i sent one "final" drawing and listed some specs to him,but we agreed that he still can do it very freely, as he sure knows more about those northern knives than i do.

I wanted it to LOOK like leuku at first look. Meaning that it wont turn into machete or any brutal chopping knife this time,heh. But, it will be,in sake of trustworthy durability, made in full tang construction. Some whittling bevel next to handle,slightly curved handle,and lanyard hole in between the two handle bolts,thats about it, other than that,its up to Teros hands and eyes,what will the final leuku look like. I dont want it to be any "hidden full tang" so there wont be nonsense fake bolsters,nor any needless several materials in handles. Just some hard wood and leather liners. Blade will be something like 23 cm long,and 6 to 7 mm thick,and width will be from 35 to 40mm. Tero went far with it, with the blade thing. I would been more than ok,to have a one-material blade but he ended up making it with two forge welded steels, that are treated to be so called "bainite" steel !

After a short while i got a picture from master Kotavuopio :

                                              Way good looking aint it ?!?!?!

I would have been more than happy with the leuku in that project picture. Its not nearly finished in it
but already looking tasty indeed. BUT, this maker is that much of a professional and picky, that he wanted to make a "new" one as theres a minor cosmetic flaw in the forge welding joint and the handle aint curved. So, ill be waiting for this "failed" leuku to arrive to me,and ill finish it by adding the handles and finishing it overall,making a sheath to it and such.

Now all i can do is to wait for the second one that TK wanted to do,and allready im going nuts :).

Ive been using Kotavuopios blades and services quite a good time and never have i felt disapponted in anyway. All i can do is keep on recommending his products.

Chisel time

Ive been wanting a GOOD wood chisel to make wooden sheath liners and all sorts of small crafts,ut i was blown by the prices of thin accuracy chisels and in cheaper shops specializing in wood working,theyre still mostly for construction workers. And in artsy fartsy shops.....well like 120 euros for set of 2 or 4 chisels. An di dont need various, just one or two. One with just slightly curved blade and one with more like half round shape. Tero Kotavuopio interested,or got bored to my chisel whining and offered to make a custom made chisel.

When it arrived i was amazed about to see it. Its laminated,using basic steel and Sten & Co´s Leuku steel. I havent ever even seen laminated chisels,not factory made,and not hand made ones. There might be those,but i havent sen or heard,as i am not any wood carver,atleast yet.

I am whittling a simple juniper handle to it, it will have a brass bolster to reinforce the joint too.

Its all good.