How to Make a Bowl in the Wilderness
Make a good primitive bowl for eating and cooking in the wilderness out of a piece of wood. Your buddies will be blown away and you'll have something in which to eat your corn flakes.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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1
Make a fire and get some nice, hot coals going.
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2
Select a branch or small log of dead wood to make your bowl. Imagine the final product when selecting your piece. The wood should be dead and dry, but not rotten.
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3
Flatten your wood by removing the bark of one side and pounding a rock against that side. A split log works well, or any piece of wood that already has a flattened side.
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4
Pound a rock against the flat side to create a small indention on that side.
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5
Use a stick to remove a coal from the fire and place it in the indentation on your wood.
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6
Let the coal smolder in the indention of the wood. Aid it by blowing on it or setting it in the wind.
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7
Remove the coal when it burns itself out and carefully scrape away the char and ash from the hole with a small rock.
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8
Put a new coal inside your bowl indentation and repeat the process. Burn and scrape, burn and scrape, until an adequate bowl has been burned into your piece of wood.
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9
Do a really thorough scrape your final time, to get all the char and ash out. You may even want to carve it out with your pocketknife.
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10
Realize that it may take several hours to burn out your bowl, but it takes very little effort, so other things can be done at the same time.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Speed up the burning process by continually blowing on your coal or setting the bowl in a light breeze.
Hot rocks and coals can cause serious burns or forest fires. Be careful always.
Avoid using wood of a poisonous plant. Although the burning process and deadness of the wood usually eradicates most of the poison, it is generally better just to avoid them anyway. Avoid yew, cascara, Osage orange and locust.
