TAHAWK

When I was a Scout, the Paul Bunyan award could be followed (at least in our Council) with the more difficult Peter McLaren Axemen award. The former focused more on trimming and bucking, the latter on felling and splitting. I earned both and still have the patches. The environment in the mountains of southern California dictated that the "felling" was of old utilities poles set in holes in the ground. They were a tough proposition to cut with an axe. While our Troop owned one and the camp several, we never used double-bitted axes as they were regarded as unnecessarily risky. Few Scouts c

I find a two-pound knife with a 12" blade "overkill" too. The khukuri, especially, takes some getting use to. But I didn't write the books suggesting such tools, put "Boy Scouts of America" on the covers, and place them on the shelves of our Scout Shop. Is it all that unreasonable to at least teach our youth how to safety use fixed-blade knives of more common proportions? I hoped we were discussing something beyond personal preference, namely "BSA Knife Policy." (This message has been edited by TAHAWK)

A fixed-blade knife is stronger and more useful for it's weight than a folding knife of the same weight. Cooks know that. Wood carvers know that. Those who clean fish and other game know that. Folding knives served the Romans under the Republic - that is, BC. Obviously, and as with the fixed-blade knife, folders have their place. A folding knife is better than no knife. Having said that, no author on wilderness survival, and certainly not the two authors of BSA's monographs on wilderness survival, suggests a folding knife as one's primary knife in the wilderness. (In car camp

I thought you might suggest muzzling the knives = no honking.

I am interested in this topic both because of my outdoor pursuits and as a lens to view Scouting policy and practices on training youth. "I have a KA-Bar knife stamped "USMC." I dote on it for two reasons: . . . 2) It's the best and safest tool to split kindling that I know of." A Mk II Combat Utility Knife is intended as a tool of all work. However, it has a weak tang-blade junction and is not the best choice of a fixed-blade knife for batoning wood. A knife used as a froe IS probably far safer than an axe. So is it useful for Boy Scouts -- or at least some Boy Scouts -- to know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumblety-peg

Scouting.org: "Paul Bunyan Woodsman" Study the Boy Scout Handbook and the Camping merit badge pamphlet, and demonstrate to your Scoutmaster or other qualified person the following: 1. Show that you have earned the Totin' Chip. 2. Help a Scout or patrol earn the Totin' Chip, and demonstrate to him (them) the value of proper woods-tools use on a troop camping trip. 3. With official approval and supervision, do one of the following: * Clear trails or fire lanes for two hours. * Trim a downed tree, cut into four-foot lengths, and stack; make a brush

Officially The right pocket location is for "temporary insignia" which must be BSA branded. (Insignia Guide 2009-2010, B.S.A. 1999 at p. 4) Only very limited, specified items may be worn on "official headgear." (Insignia Guide 2009-2010, B.S.A. 1999 at p. 3). This presents a powerful incentive. It is often better to have fewer rules and enforce them than to have a multiplicity of rules largely ignored. Imagine "The Fifty-Six Pages of Commandments."

I was also taught how to safely hand an open knife to another. However, my SPL who was teaching T'n'C (an Eagle!!!) observed that most of the time the knife could simply be laid down for the recipient to pick up, advice I never saw in official BSA literature but practical nevertheless. Today, as the Supply Division continues to sell fixed-blade knives, there is no advice regarding them in official literature. I suppose ignoring an issue is one way to deal with it. Sorta.

The blade-to-knee fit between standing Scout and hand axe is quite good. 0___0

There is a national BSA policy on knives. It's just that it is vague, ill-informed, and, since subject to a multiplicity of inconsistent local option, largely useless. PC but useless. "MOST Scout camps have restrictions on what kinds of knives and tools are acceptable in camp (for kids or adults both)." Indeed they do, but, to repeat, the ones I have checked on (27) allow "butcher knives" "in camp," and use "filleting knives" in fishing classes and fixed-blade knives in craft classes. Most (19) sell fixed-blade BSA official fixed-blade "cooking knives" (and large lock-blade knives

I think you will find that "large sheath knives" are discouraged - whatever "large" meant or means. (It may sound good if you don't think about it.) Is a 10-oz folding knife in a sheath a "large sheath knife"? Is a 4 oz 6" blade Rapala filleting knife "large"? In certain applications, folding knives are a hazard. Think cleaning fish. Every camp I have looked into than absolutely bans "fixed-blade" knives, does not. Many sell fixed-blade knives. The most common accident involving woods tools? "Closed [folding scout] knife on fingers."

Bitten by a rabid Google when you were young? ^____^ 182,000 hits for "biodegradable balloons" The first is: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=biodegradable+balloons&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=4242422767&ref=pd_sl_2cda9iuhvm_e

Biodegradable balloons? Google is your friend.

"My point exactly: The cutting edge BSA "leadership" theory of the day took away what Baden-Powell called "real responsibility" (unsupervised Patrol Hikes and Overnights), and replaced it with "elected leaders" on a very short leash. " Yes, Rick, there is, and has always been, an adult role in Scouting. How "short" or long the "leash" of adult supervision was supposed to be depended on the situation. On Patrol hikes, the 1913 policy was that an adult be present. HBSM, 1st ed. 1913, at p.p. 142-143. Today, the policy is that two adults should be present. In between, the adult supervisi

First, as a 15-year-old I was to display myself as a reminder that boys (We were not "youth" at that time.) were capable of responsibility and, otherwise, fetch and carry as directed by real Staff - especially the QM. It all went by in a blur. But I have a bin full of syllabii, and I'll check next Tuesday when I'm at the Museum. Next, I thought your comment on your site about BSA not getting with the Patrol Method early on was interesting. We have already discussed in years past how BP didn't see the value of elected PL's for many years. That's not surprising for a Victorian crown loy

1. Kudu posts: " The "Three Purposes of Scouting" are clearly defined by our Congressional Charter, the statute by which the government favors our religious corporation with a monopoly on Scouting: Sec. 30902. Purposes The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, [1.] the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, [2.] to train them in scoutcraft, and [3.] to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916. ht

Hardly a "cult" hereabouts. Not remotely that controlling. More so if you want to serve on Staff. But where you have people, you have politics, egos, cliques, plotting, etc. Scouting is not immune. Adults could keep that in line, but training in general has never been important in my Council. Effectively, there has been no Council-level head of training for about ten years (years of vacancy and years of title-holders). So the training folk do their own "thing" - for better or worse - and sometime it is better. This third version of Wood Badge is a decent course with some very

1. Fairly skilled after fifteen years in Scouting, twelve in a very active outdoor Troop. 2. I learned more about the eleven leadership skills or competencies that I had learned in White Stag as a 17-year-old. Also learned a lot about Dutch Oven cooking and eastern hardwoods. 3. Perhaps 2.5 hours a day - more at dinner than other meals. (I was a youth assist ["Look cheerful and don't say anything."] at a course in 1959, and the time spent on meals was about the same as on the original WB course still being taught at that time as on the second course that I took in 1984. Very r

I have seen the new green jac-shirt. It has a touch of gray and seems of higher quality than the current red jac-shirts made by "CHINA." It is lighter weight than the old jac-shirts.

Our BSA Scout Store says they cannot get an Insignia Guide newer than 1999 book printed in 2009 {"2009-2010").

"Trust should be the basis for all our moral training."

One post and he's singing the praises of Chinese industry. Where did you say you're from and what do you do in Scouting?

It is not.

In order to protect the edges of "cooking knives" -- and the Scouts -- we have made protecting sheaths for them. Does that make them "sheath knives"? When I noticed that camp we attended this Summer banned "all fixed-blade knives anywhere on the camp property," I emailed the Program Director. asking if that ban applied to cooking knives, fishing knives, and the knives used for wood-carving. He promptly replied: 1) that he had no idea why the rule existed; 2) we should bring whatever knives we typically brought to camp; and 3) he requested that the Scouts not "walk around camp with big