"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Chapter 7: MOAR COOKIN'

 Chapter VII MORE HINTS ON COOKING, WITH SOME SIMPLE RECEIPTS—BREAD, COFFEE, POTATOES, SOUPS, STEWS, BEANS, FISH, MEAT, VENISON

This chapter is Nessmuk's wilderness cookbook. He finds most of the others he's seen better suited for a fancy hotel than camp.

WHO DOESN'T LIKE FLAPJACKS!? "the universal flapjack. I do not like it;" (He prefers cornmeal johnny cakes. Fine.)

He also makes bread on top of a club of wood stuck in a fire, which is either gross or cool. Maybe both. I'd try it.

Cut a club two feet long and three inches thick at the broadest end; peel or shave off the bark smoothly, and sharpen the smaller end neatly. Then stick the sharpened end in the ground near the fire, leaning the broad end toward a bed of live coals, where it will get screeching hot. While it is heating, mix rather more than a half pint of best Minnesota flour with enough warm water to make a dough. Add a half teaspoonful of salt, and a teaspoonful of sugar, and mould and pull the dough until it becomes lively. Now, work it into a ribbon two inches wide and half an inch thick, wind the ribbon spirally around the broad end of the club, stick the latter in front of the fire so that the bread will bake evenly and quickly to a light brown, and turn frequently until done, which will be in about thirty minutes. When done take it from the fire, stand the club firmly upright, and pick the bread off in pieces as you want it to eat. It will keep hot a long time, and one soon becomes fond of it.

He goes into a rather long section of coffee. I think he'd have made a fine coffee hipster in modern times. He's also a big fan of green tea.

And he wants you to cook your beans and potatoes better. You always mess them up. And squirrels. Basically everything.

Porcupine is, "like spring lamb, only better."

Of course, he gets some trout recipes in there.

He's not a big fan of cans (which he's said before). Heavy and uncomfortable to carry. He's not above a few now and then (usually milk and beans). Do bring salt, pepper, and lemon. Grind and mix your own. Don't bother with fancy sauces. (Save it for the hotel. Always with the hotel.)

"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Part/Chapter 6: Cooking and Making Camp

 Chapter VI CAMP COOKERY—HOW IT IS USUALLY DONE, WITH A FEW SIMPLE HINTS ON PLAIN COOKING—COOKING FIRE AND OUT-DOOR RANGE

This is an odd chapter. Nessmuk is in a narrative mode here, telling the story of a party of four youngsters and the "O. W." (Old Woodsman). Much, but not all, of the content is restated from earlier in the book. It's not bad, but I think he's better in his standard expository style. This also might've made more sense later in the book, when he could review all of it instead of just the first half. Maybe there will be another one back there as well.

Pull quote: If there is a spot on earth where trifles make up the sum of human enjoyment, it is to be found in a woodland camp.

Camping is all about the little things. Enjoying the little stuff you don't get in the city, and avoiding the little mistakes that can ruin it.

I did not expect to be out this late and I'm tired.

 I should come up with a plan for when I have nights like this, instead of just posting BS. I need my own filler gimmick. We went to a fair today to meet with the local Lions club, which I'm thinking of joining. That's a nice old fashioned Classics Guy thing to do. And then tomorrow we're going canoeing, which is a very Nessmuk thing to do.

I was considering posting some pictures as a filler, but I'm hesitant to share pictures here that I share other places. I kind of like keeping my online identities separate. I went back and looked, thinking I had done it exactly once, but it doesn't look like it.

There you go, not a bad entry. Some talk about semi-topical things to do, and a bit of paranoia.

"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Part/Chapter 5: Fishin'

 Chapter V FISHING, WITH AND WITHOUT FLIES—SOME TACKLE AND LURES—DISCURSIVE REMARKS ON THE GENTLE ART—THE HEADLIGHT—FROGGING

Nessmuk really likes fly fishing. He's not above live bait, but he prefers the fly. It seems to be the primary way he fed himself when out camping (though he does some hunting as well). I admit to being a poor fisherman, but I wonder if there were more fish, fewer fisherman, etc. back then? He says he caught 50 pounds by 10 AM once!

Notably and preferably with the fly if that might be. If not, then with worms, grubs, minnows, grasshoppers, crickets, or any sort of doodle bug their highnesses might affect. When a plump, two-pound trout refuses to eat a tinseled, feathered fraud, I am not the man to refuse him something more edible.

"We all carry too many flies." Oh boy, here he goes again. "Some of my friends have more than sixty dozen." Okay, maybe he has a point.

"I did as directed, and, making a telescope of my hand, looked intently for the bottom of the spring-hole." I guess this makes sense to block the glare, but really it just makes it sound like Nessmuk and Hobbes.

I had never heard of "frog" fishing, where you put a bunch of hooks in a kind of frog shaped bait. I guess it makes sense. Maybe I'll be better at that.

"festive batrachian" I LEARNED THAT WORD FROM MY STAR WARS BLOGGING!

It may be well, just here and now, to say a word on the importance of the headlight. I know of no more pleasant and satisfactory adjunct of a camp than a good light that can be adjusted to the head, used as a jack in floating, carried in the hand, or fastened up inside the shanty

I have a flashlight that has a magnet built into the base. I didn't realize how useful it would be until I got it. I stick that sucker on something at least once a week. 

"a rope is as strong as its weakest part" Is this ye olde timey version of "a chain is as strong as its weakest link"?

Cooking tomorrow. I think that's a bit more my speed.

"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Chapter/Part 4: Campfires

 Chapter IV CAMP-FIRES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE—THE WASTEFUL WRONG WAY THEY ARE USUALLY MADE, AND THE RIGHT WAY TO MAKE THEM

I cannot stress enough how much Sears hates wall tents. 

"No asthmatic or consumptive patient ever regained health by dwelling in a close, damp tent. [...]  An experience of fifty years convinces me that a large percentage of the benefit obtained by invalids from camp life is attributable to the open camp and well-managed camp-fire."

On children and tourists with campfires: 

The wood was thrown on endwise, crosswise, or any way, so that it would burn, precisely as a crowd of boys make a bonfire on the village green. The object being, apparently, to get rid of the wood in the shortest possible time.

I definitely remember being a 12 year old and seeing how many logs we could burn through in a camp night.

"It was in the "dark days before Christmas" How great would it be to spend the week before Christmas out camping (preferably in the snow, not that we have a ton of white Christmas's in Eastern PA these days) and come home to a big dinner and all your family and friends there?

Nessmuk advocates for something like a lean-to fire, seen here: 

Honestly, he says very little about how to build a light a fire. He spends as much describing one type of camp shelter as on the whole affair. Maybe a "Classics Guy Supplemental" will be needed.

"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Part/Chapter 3

 Chapter III GETTING LOST—CAMPING OUT—ROUGHING IT OR SMOOTHING IT—INSECTS—CAMPS, AND HOW TO MAKE THEM

 "roughing it." The last phrase is very popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores, banks—anywhere that we may be placed—with the necessity always present of being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left. "Alas for the life-long battle, whose bravest slogan is bread."

 I think a little roughing it can be fun now and then. Carrying a pack and chopping wood and what not is its own kind of work, different than "working" but still rough in its own way.

Take it easy, and always keep cool. Nine men out of ten, on finding themselves lost in the woods, fly into a panic, and quarrel with the compass. Never do that. The compass is always right, or nearly so.

Don't panic.

Nessmuk Bug Repellent: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one ounce pennyroyal oil.

The internet informs me that it does work.

Nessmuk: Don't rough it. Also Nessmuk: Don't wash off your bug repellant for weeks at a time. 

"Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks' tour, and never used either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin, it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with soap and water"

 He devotes a lot of time to building shelter in this volume, complaining about the weight and discomfort of tents of the day. I'm glad tents don't suck anymore. He talks about chopping down trees, fashioning shingles, etc., etc. His "easily and quickly" made camp can take a couple hours to fully set up. (Although you could "rough it" with the basics in less time.) I'm glad I can be reasonably comfortable in 5 or 10 minutes with a couple poles, tent, and a fly.

To be fair, this appears to be mostly a winter camp for poor weather. I expect he spent many a summer night under the stars, or strung up a tarp. Still, a good three or four season tent is a modern luxury, and much less stuffy than the heavy old canvas ones he was used to.

"Woodcraft and Camping" by George "Nessmuk" Sears Part/Chapter 2

Chapter II KNAPSACK, HATCHET, KNIVES, TINWARE, RODS, FISHING TACKLE, DITTY-BAG

"Don't be induced to carry a pack basket."

Having never heard of these before I read this, I agree. They look awful. It's like carrying a clothes hamper on your back.

Next is probably the most famous section of Nessmuk's writings, the description of his cutlery. (He actually writes more about the axe than the knives, but no one cares as much. Folding saws have come a long way since then.)

To getting up one limber-go-shiftless pocket-axe:	Dr.
Cost of blade	$3.00
Fare on boat	1.00
Expenses for 3 days	3.00
Three days lost time at $1.25 per day	3.75
Two days making model, handle and sheath, say	2.00
Total	$12.75
Per contra, by actual value of axe	2.00
Balance	$10.75

Nessmuk brings the receipts for his "pocket axe" (which we'd probably just call an hatchet today). It's hard to find an inflation calculator back into the 1800s, but I also learned that up until ~1930 there just wasn't much of it. (I am not an economist/statistician, this is not an econ/stat blog.) One dollar back then comes out to just under thirty-three dollars today (2025). So:

Nessmuk's self reported daily wage: ~$40 (but less on the days where he makes the handle and sheath?)

"Actual Value" of the axe: ~$65 (A nice mass production single blade hatchet seems to run ~$40 today, so that feels reasonable for a two blader.)

Total: ~$420
Net: ~$350

On the one hand, that's a very expensive hand axe. On the other, I guess if I was depending on it for my work, leisure, and day to day survival, I'd probably be willing to pay up. He does say he kept it for over 30 years (it was upset twice, which I'm guessing means damaged? Probably just needed a new handle, which is normal wear and tear for an axe) and only stopped using it because it was lost. Hard to argue with 10-15 bucks a year for a 30+ year piece of gear.

Before we get into the knife, one more note on the axe: "I want one thick, stunt edge for knots, deers' bones, etc., and a fine, keen edge for cutting clear timber."

One clean edge for cutting down trees, and one beater edge for chopping up knots, dressing deer, etc.

Onto the knives:

A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity, and should be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The "bowies" and "hunting knives" usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, with a sort of ridge along the middle of the blade, murderous-looking, but of little use; rather fitted to adorn a dime novel or the belt of "Billy the Kid," than the outfit of the hunter. The one shown in the cut is thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with. The strong double-bladed pocket knife is the best model I have yet found, and, in connection with the sheath knife, is all sufficient for camp use.

That's it, that's the whole thing. The words knife and knives only show up about 20 times in the whole book, including headings, captions, etc. But, unlike a lot of other famous knives from the period (like a Bowie knife or Sears's fellow woodsman Kephart) no examples of his knife survive. Which means people have spent a lot of time, energy, etc. debating what a "real" Nessmuk pattern knife should look like.

A big part of the debate probably comes from the fact that Nessmuk's knife isn't what we think of as a modern field/bushcraft/survival knife (all of which are slightly different, but generally more alike each other than to Nessmuk's). "The one shown in the cut is thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with." It's a skinning knife, that he also uses for food prep. Most modern "camping" knives are beaters. They're thick and heavy and designed to do things like break down wood (if only you had a fine double bit pocket axe) and be abused. Nessmuk prefers a lighter, more precise, instrument. We don't get a size, but that drawing looks to scaleish. A good "strong" pocket knife was probably around 4 inches, and is about the same size as the blade on the fixed blade, again, a reasonable (even a bit long) size for a skinner, but on the short side for a modern bushcraft knife.

Also, no forks and spoons in the woods, gotta whittle and use seashells.

His dishware sounds pretty similar to a modern mess kit. Five pieces (he usually doesn't bring them all, of course) that next and form lids for each other.

On the contents of his "ditty bag": "three darning needles and a few common sewing needles; a dozen buttons; sewing silk; thread, and a small ball of strong yarn for darning socks;"

Nessmuk clearly knows how to sew better than I do. I can just about stitch up the end of a blanket, if you don't mind it looking ugly. Maybe I'll put that on my list of things to learn.