I am heading into the woods of Alaska for 3 days with no sleeping bag or tent. I am going to sleep in a survival shelter, make a forge, make a charcoal kiln, make charcoal, forge and make a knife and do it all in extreme cold weather alone in the wilderness.
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FunTranscript
00:00Luke here with the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel, and I'm making a knife in the middle of Alaska's
00:06wilderness.
00:07I'm going to be sleeping in my own shelter, building a forge out in the woods, making
00:10my own charcoal kiln, and forging a knife from scratch.
00:30It's been a couple weeks since I've been here at the shelter.
00:46We got quite a bit of ice and snow since I was here last, and it sealed up the shelter
00:51really well.
00:52Well, I think I better bust out my shovel and start digging things out.
01:23Alright, that looks pretty good.
01:25I think it's time to go find some kindling though.
01:29I'll tell you one nice thing about this cold weather, it made the snow so hard you don't
01:34need snowshoes.
01:52Well, I want to get a roaring fire in here pretty quick because I want to figure out
02:05how much of this snow is going to melt.
02:07And I don't want to be underneath here when that happens.
02:10So whatever's going to melt, I want it to melt before it gets dark tonight so that I
02:14can have a nice dry bed to sleep on.
02:19Oh, my firewood is so wet.
02:25It rained really good before it got cold.
02:27I've got to prop it all up and get it to dry out before I can use it.
02:31Alright, we're going to let that fire thaw out in the shelter, get everything warmed
02:35up.
02:36And I'm real excited to build a forge out here and do some blacksmithing projects tomorrow,
02:40but I'm going to need a lot of charcoal.
02:42So I'm going to build a charcoal kiln, and I need a lot of wood.
02:58I think I'm going to go ahead and start cooking some lunch.
03:00I'm getting hungry.
03:04I've got some frozen salami I want to thaw out.
03:07Put that right there.
03:08I've got some cheese wrapped in tin foil.
03:12Let's do it.
03:43Ugh.
03:47Ooh.
03:51Oh, that smells amazing.
03:52I've got a big slab of soft cheese covered in a fig marmalade.
03:55Just warmed it up over the fire.
03:57Got it already pre-cut into little cubes.
04:00Got a nice Italian salami.
04:04There we go.
04:05Warm cheese, a little salami, and some fig sauce.
04:13There we go.
04:25We're going to use this to make our charcoal kiln.
04:42Oh.
05:12Whew.
05:42Whew.
05:58I've got the wood jammed in there about as tight as I can.
06:12There's a lot of snow and moisture in these logs.
06:23I'm going to try to get as much of that moisture out before I put the lid on.
06:27You can already start to see a lot of steam coming out of the barrel.
06:33You can hear the water sizzling in the bottom of the barrel.
06:35Not going to get any charcoal until all that water's gone.
06:39Oh, yeah.
06:40That's really taking good.
06:41A lot of steam and a little bit of smoke.
06:45Still feels pretty cool in the middle, though.
06:47We're just going to let that go for a nice long time.
06:50I'm going to be checking on this fire on and off all night long.
07:02All right.
07:03I think it's time to start making this place comfy.
07:05I'm going to put my animal hides in there.
07:11Got a couple caribou hides as a mat.
07:13A nice buffalo hide as a blanket.
07:17Oh.
07:22It's hard to see on the camera, but every now and then the smoke coming out of the barrel is catching on fire.
07:27You can hear the wood popping and stuff, so I think we're starting to get some charcoal on the bottom.
07:32But most of this smoke coming out of here is actually just steam.
07:37It feels wet.
07:40Pieces like this are still wet.
07:44All right.
07:45I'm going to go ahead and cook a baked potato here.
07:56Let's get this thing surrounded by coals.
07:59Let's get this thing surrounded by coals.
08:03For dinner, I thought I'd cook myself a whole chicken.
08:05I'm going to go ahead and spatchcock this bird, which is basically a way of preparing it so it lays down flat.
08:11Makes it cook a lot faster.
08:14Just cut either side of the spine and take the whole spine out.
08:28Salt and pepper.
08:43Salt and pepper.
08:46Let that roast.
08:59See how we got flames coming out?
09:01Still a lot of steam coming out, but look at that.
09:07Look at the flames coming out.
09:10Once I consistently see flames coming out of the barrel, then I know it's time to put the lid on.
09:18Just keep this fire going all night, and hopefully tomorrow we're going to have a whole bunch of charcoal.
09:23All right, we're going to go fill this up a couple more times.
09:25Make sure we've got plenty of water for tonight.
09:28It's a long tradition that you have to burn at least one thing when winter camping, and I think it was my water bottle.
09:34It's got like a goiter.
09:35I set it near the fire to keep it from freezing and got it a little too close.
09:40Yeah, I better take care of that.
09:42It's my only water bottle on this trip.
09:44I'm going to go ahead and put the lid back on.
09:46It's freezing and got it a little too close.
09:48Yeah, I better take care of that.
09:50It's my only water bottle on this trip.
09:53Now, let's see how the bird's doing.
09:55Looking good.
10:06All right, let's check on the charcoal.
10:16See the bottom of the lid is covered in wood tar.
10:22Starting to come along.
10:33Little jar of gravy here. It's pretty frozen. Get that warmed up. Got some frozen oil.
10:40Got bacon chunks, green onions, yellow onions, and chives frying in a little butter and oil.
10:56Definitely overdid the baked potato but that's okay.
11:03Butter, salt, pepper, chives, onions, bacon, and a little bit of gravy
11:07on a very overdone baked potato. It's a little charred on the outside but the inside's still
11:13good. All right let's take a look at this chicken. Oh that looks pretty good.
11:21You know it's done when you can just pull the leg off and you don't have to cut it.
11:27I'm gonna try some spicy honey barbecue sauce too.
11:30Oh that is a good potato. Oh it's so hot. Oh that gravy is just tangy and good.
11:39I like this spicy honey barbecue sauce. Oh slow roasted chicken over a fire is hard to beat.
11:52That was good.
12:00Got a little dessert coming our way. This is a little Australian cookie called a Tim Tam and
12:13if you bite the ends off then you can use it as a straw. Then all the hot chocolate melts the inside.
12:22But that is a Tim Tam slam right there. It's definitely feeling colder on this trip.
12:29Put a thermometer out in the tree over there. I'm gonna go check it see what it says.
12:35Yeah it looks like it's about three degrees Fahrenheit right now. All right I'm gonna
12:38bring this inside the shelter. We're gonna see how good of a job I did building this thing.
12:44All right I'm gonna go ahead and just stick it right there on my bed.
12:48See we're almost 30 degrees just a little below freezing.
12:52It's kind of fun look at all the icicles it's made.
12:57All right I'm gonna go grab some wood real quick and I'm gonna get ready for bed.
13:11I'm gonna use my jacket and gloves as a pillow.
13:15Oh I'm pretty tired. I think it's time to go to bed. See you guys in the morning.
13:22Oh good morning. Oh I'm pretty warm even though the fire's gone out.
13:27My feet are a little bit cold but I need to get up.
13:33My hide froze to the logs.
13:37There we go.
13:43Oh that burned down pretty good. I can't remember exactly but I think I built the fire under that
13:56barrel around 3 p.m and it's 8 30 a.m right now. So 17 hours it's been burning. I think it's time
14:03we crack it open and see what we got. I expect it's not completely done but we'll see.
14:13Wow the barrel's much lighter.
14:24Look at that.
14:31That is great charcoal.
14:36There's some pieces that aren't done all the way through. This this will work.
14:41That it's so light you can just feel the difference.
14:47You can see that some of it down there is still cooking.
14:54Well that seems to have worked reasonably well. I'm gonna let that sit with the lid on
14:58while I go make some breakfast. Hopefully it'll cool down a little bit more.
15:01All right I'm gonna be making a tinfoil breakfast. It's hash browns, sausage, bacon, and vegetables.
15:10You can hear it sizzling already. Let that sit and cook for about an hour or so.
15:31So
15:41so
15:55and
16:03so
16:09that looks pretty good. I'm gonna add some of this spicy honey barbecue sauce.
16:23Oh that was good.
16:24Oh look at that it's 10 o'clock and it's all sunny.
16:54So
17:07I got my forage and my anvil set up. You work the billows by pumping the handle up and down
17:12and that turns this flywheel which runs a fan and blows air into the coals.
17:17So
17:21unfortunately the grease on the forage is frozen up so it doesn't want to work very
17:25well right now. I'm gonna go ahead and get the fire going and I think that'll solve my problems.
17:47So there's a little tooth right here in this gear and when you spin the hub
17:53the centrifugal force puts the tooth out and it grips the inside of this gear and engages the
17:59flywheel. There's a lot of grease in that hub and that grease is cold and so sometimes the tooth
18:05isn't coming out and engaging properly. I think warming it up is helping it work a little better
18:12but it's still got problems. Let's see if that helped. Yeah that's working. So I got a piece of
18:27leaf spring steel from a broken ATV trailer. We're gonna go ahead and heat that up. I'm gonna try to
18:31turn it into a knife.
19:01There we go.
19:32There we go. I'm almost done using up all the bad charcoal. This stuff still works pretty good.
19:41So
20:01starting to get into some really good charcoal here. Stuff is burning great.
20:11Oh I was thinking how I want to replace this with a metal handle.
20:23All right it'll still work just gonna be a lot more work.
20:42So
21:02we'll let that cook for a couple hours. While I got the forge cleared out I'm gonna go ahead
21:06and empty it. There's a bunch of coals and ash down there and the fan won't turn.
21:42So
22:01I need to sit down. This is gonna be a while.
22:03You know there's a common myth amongst metalworkers that files should only be used
22:11in one direction. Turns out that's not true. Works a whole lot better if you do it in both directions.
22:17So
22:28wall of my structure caught fire.
22:31Yeah I'm gonna go deal with that.
22:36Wouldn't be a winter camp out if I didn't catch my structure on fire at least once.
22:41Let's see how these moose ribs are doing. If you want to know if they're done you squeeze the end
22:47and if the meat's pulled off the end of the bone then you know they're done. And this one is done.
22:57This is from the moose I shot this fall. I like moose ribs.
23:09Oh that was good. So messy though. My hands are so dirty. The only clean spots are where I was
23:15touching my food. I gotta keep working on this knife.
23:24So
23:43like the look of that.
23:54There you go. One hole drawn.
23:58It's time for a little dessert. Oh that little mini pie. Nice and warm.
24:09Oh that was good. All right back to work.
24:19Three holes.
24:24Now it's time to harden it.
24:28So
24:49when you get high carbon steel glowing hot and then cool it down suddenly it becomes harder.
24:54So after you quench the knife in the snow you then you test it with a file to see if it's the
24:58right hardness. I like it. I think it'll work just fine. Well I'm at a good stopping point
25:04for tonight and I am exhausted. It's really late so I'm gonna hurry up and get to bed.
25:12Oh my back.
25:15I'll see you in the morning. We're gonna finish this knife.
25:18Oh I'm tired. My arms are sore.
25:25Oh look how lazy I am. It's 8 40 in the morning and the sun's up.
25:31The days are getting longer finally. All right I got a lot to do today.
25:35We're gonna stoke up this fire and get breakfast going.
25:38All right I got a couple cinnamon rolls I wrapped up in tinfoil.
25:42We're gonna go ahead and warm those suckers up.
25:50Got some very frozen breakfast sausages.
25:58I'm gonna go ahead and get this fire going.
26:07I poured the hot water in my plastic cup. I can feel it crack and do all sorts of weird stuff.
26:17Hope you're okay there cup. You're the only one I got today. I'm hungry cold and thirsty and this
26:22is just hitting the spot. It's a spiced orange herbal tea. Good.
26:32Try to squeeze another round out of those tea bags.
26:34Oh go for some ketchup or some brown sauce right now.
26:43Hopefully I thawed these and not burned them. A little bit of both.
26:48Oh a caramel pecan cinnamon roll.
26:52Burned it a little bit right there but it's still good.
26:57Oh that was good. All right I think it's time to get to work.
27:04The tang's a little bit wonkier than I would like so I'm trying to improve it with the file.
27:12All right that's about as good as I'm gonna get with these tools.
27:14Now we need some wood for the handle.
27:18There's a contender.
27:25There we go.
27:34I put some water on my whetstone and it froze. I think I better warm up my whetstone first.
28:04So
28:27well it's almost noon. I think I'm going to start making some lunch.
28:29Look at all this lovely charcoal.
28:41It's nice having a big thing of charcoal to cook over.
28:54For lunch I've got a Cornish pasty that I'm going to bake in the coals.
28:57It's a handheld version of a meat pie from the southwest of England.
29:20Now we got to set the rivets. This is the sketchiest part.
29:23These are just quarter inch steel rods and they stick out just a little bit further than the wood
29:29and when you smash them with a hammer they'll mushroom on the end and that'll squeeze the
29:33wood to the handle and make everything set. But if you smash the wood instead of the metal
29:39you'll split the wood.
29:45There we go.
29:47Now we sand.
29:58Looking pretty good.
30:03It did reasonably well.
30:06You know I baked pretty well except I missed a spot.
30:09Cornish pasties were a traditional meal for the Cornish miners.
30:13Something they could eat with dirty fingers. I think that's very applicable today.
30:21Got beef, carrot and parsnips. It's good.
30:26Oh that was really good.
30:33I've got a little bit of cooking oil I want to rub into the handle to protect it
30:36but it's frozen so we're going to boil some water here.
30:43So
30:52this dead black spruce is so dry and porous it's just soaking up the oil.
30:57It's not a handle that should be clean. This is a handle that should have ash and soot on it.
31:13So
31:24well it's not exactly razor sharp but I got an edge on it.
31:35Oh oh my back. I think I'm gonna take a little break and make some dinner.
31:44For dinner I got some moose stew that I vacuum sealed and froze.
31:47I'm just gonna throw it in a pot of boiling water it'll heat up easy peasy.
31:51Now about this.
32:00First rivet in the sheath. That's good.
32:04All right we're gonna stretch the leather out a little bit.
32:17There we go the knife and sheath.
32:19It's a sick little piece of equipment there. I like it.
32:35Looks like we're just in time too.
32:39Oh yeah moose stew is done.
32:50Oh that was good.
32:56Ah feels good to have some food in me. This project worked out pretty well.
33:01But you know what I've been out here for three days and it's time for me to go home.
33:05But I'm gonna leave the forge out here. Definitely think I'm gonna be back.
33:08There we go keep my forge out of the snow and ice.
33:21All right we're gonna leave the charcoal here. I'm sure I'll need that when I come back.
33:25Anvil yeah it'll be fine.
33:28All right I think that's it for this trip. I'll see you next video.
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