Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

AXEMANSHIP 213wood has cooled, it becomes stiff, as if regularly seasoned.One time when some of us were bivouacing in themountains, Bob announced that he was going tocatch a mess of trout in the morning. He had a lineand some flies, but I wondered how he would extemporizea rod stiff and elastic enough for fly fishing.It didn't bother him a bit. The only straight andslender stick he could find right there was a boxelder seedling. He trimmed it, removed the bark,and spent about an hour roasting it over the campfire,drawing it back and forth in his hands, so asnot to overheat and crack it, and to temper theheat just right, according to thickness of the pointWhen the sap was roasted out, he hung thetreated.rod up to cool, and when that was done he had aone-piece trout rod with the necessary whippy actionror fly fishing. Next morning he soon caught allwe could eat.Bending Wood.—Small pieces of green wood canbe bent to a required form by merely soaking theFig. 54.—Spanish Windlass (for bending wood)pieces for two cr three days in water, but if it isdesired that they "should retain their new shape, theyshould be steamed. Small pieces can be immersedin a kettle of hot water. A long, slender one issuppled by laying it over the kettle, mopping it withboiling water, and shifting it along as required.Large pieces may be steamed in a trench partly filledwith water, by throwing red-hot stones into it. Thendrive stout stakes into the ground, in the outlinedesired, and bend the steamed wood over thesestakes, with small sticks underneath to keep the woodfrom contact with the ground, that it may dry more