Kentucky Armory Club

The Try Stick

You will need your knife
A Stick as long as your arm and as large as your thumb
A wooden Baton

Try sticks are made to develop and hone the knife skill of the maker
To teach the basic cuts used in bushcraft
To evaluate a particular knives function as it relates to bushcraft


All cuts should be clean and not grubby , use the baton , and do not cut yourself. Mors Kochanski A very famous bushman and father of the try stick says this whole thing should be made in under 15 minutes, this feat alludes me.

Cut 1
This is a cut used to cut the stick to length, it should be clean and show the beaver bites used to cut the stick cleanly


Cut 2
This is a round reduction cut , used in pack frame construction and various other tasks
See picture above

Cut 3
This is the pot hook, used to hang items with a handle and in some traps



Cut 4
This a saddle cut, used when lashing sticks together, often in conjunction with a round reduction


Cut 5
Dove tail, any wood worker has seen it used


Cut 6
The 90 notch, Trap triggers


Cut 7
The 45, trap triggers


Cut 8
String loop, used when making bows


Cut 9
Arrow Nock/ spear socket, name says it all This one is hard to get its 4 cuts , then beating the tip in to sever the holding wood, then helping it split down the sides.



Cut 10
Flat reduction


Cut 11
Square Hole, Bow drills, bird snares


Cut 12
Root stripper, used when making cordage and to dig




Post your completed try stick photos below along with any comments you have on this challenge.

Alright, I gave this a try. Pics below. I learned a few things, most importantly was that I need a better knife for this type of work. The knife I used has served me well for 10+ years but this effort has loosened the hilt of it.
In addition, I want to thank sonofliberty for helping us with this. I think we can all learn alot.

Come on. Coach and I weren't the only ones who tried this. Let's see some of them. I think I might video my next attempt for the amusement of the site.lol

I didn't do the try stick, but I'll Post a few pics of some stuff I've made in the past for my rabbit traps..



This is the trigger for one of the traps I use...I just went and got this out of my back yard....even had a rabbit...more pics to come

Not sure this would qualify as "primitive" but I love these traps..enjoy making them as much as I do using them

Marcus wrote:Come on. Coach and I weren't the only ones who tried this. Let's see some of them. I think I might video my next attempt for the amusement of the site.lol

I started one last night but gave up.. got to find a better stick that is not dry rotted like the one I found last night...

For fear of thread jacking, I'll make this my last pic....



If there is interest, maybe I can start a thread with various traps I make and use...

JustShootIt wrote:For fear of thread jacking, I'll make this my last pic....



If there is interest, maybe I can start a thread with various traps I make and use...

I'd be interested in that.

There is still another week before the next challenge is going to be posted. While This thread will remain open and folks can complete this challenge and post pictures of there completed Try stick for as long as they are willing to work on them. A try stick is a self training tool , you should try to perfect your cuts increasing the quality and decreasing the time it takes to make one.

Traps will be something we can cover in great detail down the road, at this point getting people to cut a stick is going to be an up hill battle.

I meant to try it this weekend but forgot to print the instructions to take with me.

I need to find a good stick to try this with. I have plenty of dowel stock but it is mostly hard wood and expensive.

What kind of knife are you using SOL?

In sol's pic is a Mora

Mora #2

I think I'll see what the 511 can do. Seems like the most fitting for bushcraft in my small collection.

Glad to see that your going to give it a try. You will notice through these challenges that gear is the least important, The intent of the challenges are to teach and build skills. All to often the bushcraft community as a whole focuses of Gear, What do I carry, what do I put in my bag, is this the best piece of kit, you get the idea, but what really matters is that you have the skills and knowledge to use what ever may be available , to improvise and build what you dont have.

This challenge should give you some idea of what a suitable knife can do , it should allow you to find out for yourself what knife best suits you. Try all your knives, make a stick and test, find out what tool dose the job well for you.

Yes sir, I'm working on it a little now. I've had no experience with this (other that whittling in Boy Scouts a LONG time ago)... This ain't gunna be pretty!

EDIT: Is the knife supposed to remain sharp the whole time, or do you guys sharpen along the way?

Hunting a stick to try this with my ESEE 3.

After checking the wood pile and coming up with nothing, I did kind of like Coach... Packed up my daughter and went to the park to hunt down some sticks. She had fun and we found a couple. Of course they were soggy, so I put them in the "kiln" for a few minutes. The wife was reeeeeeeal happy about that. LOL



I'm on #5.. dovetail. It's been fairly easy up until now.

OK, here's my attempt at a try stick. I'm sure I didnt do it correctly and for some reason I have a couple hours in it. Looking back, I know one of the problems was that I was not using the baton much in the beginning because my daughter was sleeping and it made too much noise. I ended up carving a lot more than I should have. Then in the end, I was using the baton too much. You'll see..

Started off nicely, the stick was already cut so I just added the beaver bites (whittled). The round reduction cut turned out pretty nicely, I thought.


Pot Hook:


Saddle:


Dovetail: Again, I carved it out rather than using the baton, so the edges arent very crisp


90 notch:


45:


String loop: Got a little sloppy, but I think it would hold a string


Spear Socket: This is when it started going to crap. The one side split nicely, but the other side broke off


Flat reduction: Got one side looking good, then used a little too much baton on the other side, and it broke.


I stopped there because I was getting frustrated. The Mora 511 seems like it was up for all these tasks. I'll keep practicing!

Representin' the Bear Grylls lol. Overall, I'd say its too fat and thick for precise cutting but not bad. Gonna try a mora next.

Oh, and like Mtmetzger said, I didn't baton as much as I could have.

I am going to have to find me some sticks and give this a try. I wont even begin to put a time frame on completing this because of my hands