A little about me
Since a small boy I have been running away to the woods to build dens and rope swings; some may say I've never grown up, but my rope swings have got a lot bigger and my 'dens' have become far more habitable, so certainly something has changed.
I have always had a passion for wild places and spending time in them; bushcraft for me is a way of being comfortable and feeling at home in wild places.
As a child the subject for me and my friends came under the heading of 'survival' and books by the likes of Lofty Wiseman and Eddie McGee were high on my Christmas list. However, survival implied a sense of 'how to get out of this alive', whereas I was in search of 'how can I stay here longer?' When the well respected Mr Mears appeared on TV and brought the term bushcraft to my attention, that word became my 'how can I stay here longer?'
I have used and acquired many knives over the years, from a variety of brand name manufacturers. Without sufficient funds to purchase my ideal knife I decided to try and make my own, and made my first knife in 2001. The first attempts yielded functional success in replicating the now famous Woodlore knives designed by Ray Mears and at the time made by Alan Wood. I still own these knives but the aesthetics of my work have improved somewhat since the early days.
When I'm not making knives or indulging my other pastime of climbing, I can be occasionally found assisting the instructors on Woodsmoke and Bushtruck courses
