Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

2o6CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTtree: the wood should be not only separable butspringy. The woodsman will tell you that he "senses"this; and he does, to the extent that his choiceis guided by no rule nor process of reasoning. Twiceout of three times he is right when he says **That'tree '11 do ;" nine times out of ten he is right whenhe says "That tree *s no good." Experience hastaught me that a tree with a certain "look" is likelytimber, but I can't,for the life of me, describe thatlook. You may have to split a big block out of atree, test its cleavage, and try several other treesbefore you find a good one. This is bad practice,but not so bad as felling, sawing off a cut, and thenleaving the tree to waste utterly.Clapboards.—^To rive clapboards or shinglesfiom the green tree is now a lost art, outside of thebackwoods. Not one carpenter in fifty, nowadays,can show you how. Yet it is an art well worthknowing for hunters and others who may want togo, season after season, to the same locality, andwish a snug shack on the place for regular quarters.Since good hunting seldom is found in the neighborhoodof a sawmill, a lumber yard, or a wagon road,the crux of the cabin scheme is how to get roofingmaterial. Bark is flimsy and will scarce outlast theseason. Tarred paper—^what is more hideously incongruousthan tarred paper over honest log walls?Anyway, paper requires boards underneath.The thing to do is to rive clapboards from treesthat grow on the spot. A clapboard is simply a thinboard, from two to four feet long, split or workedwith a froe from straight-grained timber. It is alittle thicker along one edge than the other, beingsplit from bolts, as shown in Fig. 47. A clapboardroof is dependable. It harmonizes better than anyother with the general woodsy effect. V/hen prop-An axe or two, a cross-erly laid, it is storm-proof, and will not cup.last a generation.The tools required are few :cut saw, a pair of steel wedges, and a froe.It willA maulfor the wedges and gluts, and a mallet of similar