File:The American boys' handybook of camp-lore and woodcraft (1920) (14782816715).jpg

Identifier: americanboyshand00bear (find matches)
Title: The American boys' handybook of camp-lore and woodcraft
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Beard, Daniel Carter, 1850-1941
Subjects: Camping Camping -- Equipment and supplies
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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re are few men in this worldwith a larger acquaintance among the boys tlian myself.Not only is this true, but I spend two months of each yearin the field with a camp full of boys, showing them how todo the very things with their knives and their axes describedin this book. How TO Open a EInife riRSTMOVE It is safe to say that when the old-timers were boys themselves, there was not alad among them who couldnot whittle with consider-able skill and many a twelveyear old boy was an adeptat the art. I remember withthe keenest pleasure therings, charms and knick-knacks which I carved witha pocket knife before I hadreached the scout age oftwelve. Today, however, theboys handle their knives soawkwardly as to make thechills run down the back ofan onlooker. In order toproi)erIy opena knife, hold it in your lefthand, and with the thumbnail of your right hand grasp theblade at the nail notch (Fig. 45) in such a manner that the lineof the nail makes a very slight angle; that is, it is as near per-
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49 fOURTTIMOVt now TO BUILD A FIRE 48 pendicular as may be (Fig. 46), otherwise you will bend backyour tliumbnail until it hurts or breaks. Pull the blade awayfrom your body, at tlie same time drawing the handle of theknife towards the body (Figs. 47 and 48). Continue thismovement until the blade is fully open and points directlyfrom your body (Fig. 49). Practise this and make it a habit; you will then neverbe in danger of stabbing yourself during the process of open-ing your knife—you will open a knife properly and quicklyby what is generally termed intuition, but what is reallythe result of training and habit. How TO Whittle The age of whittling began with the invention of thepocket knife and reached its climax about 1840 or 50, dyingout some time after the Civil War, probably about 1870.All the old whittlers of the whittling age whittled away fromthe body. If you practise wliittling that way it will becomea habit. Indians use a crooked knife and whittle towards the body,but the q

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