Learning Basketry with Wilderness Living and Survival Expert Mors Kochanski

[@Nancytoday]

I just love hearing about your experiences and your knowledge! I'm learning more listening to you! How wonderful! I'm a sponge!

[@NagualeroArt]

Thank you for sharing your great knowledge Mr Kochanski. You are a true pathfinder and your wisdom is deeply appreciated.

[@journeyman7189]

Excellent tip on using the cereal box board to practice with. Thanks More. Nate

[@highlandtrekker]

Very nice baskets !! Thanks for sharing 👍

[@PhilEvansOnline]

Incredibly philosophical explanation of basket weaving, thank you Mors.

[@71wicker]

Mors would really love to see you make a basket!! Thankyou for your time and all the research you have ingested and now are regurgitating I appreciate it!

[@Waldhandwerk]

Nice work Mr Kochanski! Versatile and no plastic in the oceans back then. Thx for sharing.

[@tomritter493]

need alot of practice as my baskets are well ? a shape of some kind lol beautiful work mors. stay safe brother

[@TheRunereaper]

Happy New Year Mors. There is no easy way is there? Just hard work, application, observation and tenacity. Hope the leg joints don't give you too much gyp this year.

[@theronin365]

Anyone know what his jacket/smock is?

[@survivalapache7331]

I’d like to see the knife he had on his belt and I could listen to him for hours he’s the man hope he lives forever

[@max_fjellstorm]

It’s a pruning shear

[@stinkydroolface]

cool show and tell bro.

[@ScottishWanderer]

Happy new year mors

[@cnawan]

Coincidentally, I just made a "birch bark" knife sheath out of cardboard :) After weaving it is indeed stronger than you might think

[@meyo4158]

Video tutorial please on both methods of those two baskets.

[@Thelonelyscavenger]

my first baskets weren't pretty but they worked.

[@craftychrystal7913]

From my point of view..... I want to know how to make a basket, no matter how unsymmetrical or rough looking with whatever I can find when in a survival situation. You can not look at basketry from a craft point and a survival point at the same time. I am not likely to have an ax or a large hunting knife or a bucket to soak material in if I am caught in the wild. It will be survive or die. So basics... recognize what is useable and how to get it that way. How to start it and some perks on shaping. Most useful would be how to make one that could hold liquid! Or one that could be cooked in by dropping hot rocks in it. These would be what I would think as the important parts of survival basketry. Actually most survival videos I have seen are based on camping equipment, with ropes, tarps, cooking utensils etc. That is camping survival, not survival basics. What is needed is how to find a rock that can be splintered into a cutting tool that can cut wood. How to find a couple close growing plants big enough to weave their top branches into a temp roof that can be added to with other grasses and branches. A way to recognize food that is not on a shelf. How to spin grasses into a cord strong enough to make a trap and how to make that trap. How to make a fire and how to find natural products that can act as a thermal blanket... like a lot of pine needles or woven grasses that are then stuffed with grasses. Heat, water, shelter, food. Very few are the classes that show these basics. If I was going camping, all your excellent tutelage and that of others would be great help. But who packs for a survival situation?

[@Dantick09]

Crafty Chrystal if you are an expert basket maker you can improvise with what you find the woods but not the other way around.

[@craftychrystal7913]

So we can't be taught how to improvise a basket unless we are experts? Or we cannot be shown how to find materials unless we are experts? There has to be a beginners step that will allow some help in a survival situation, doesn't there?

[@Dantick09]

Crafty Chrystal but how can you learn to weave with improvised materials if you don't know how to weave in the first place? is hard to explain what to look for because different parts of the world have different plants. And well, ingenuity to make a sharp shard of rock smash a small rock with a big one and resharpen like a caveman

[@neohubris]

what kind of boots is Mors wearing?

[@kbilsky]

Like w ciemno (y)

[@ernststavroblofeld2109]

What's this outfit Mors is wearing?

[@marjiehyland4194]

Where are you located? Do you teach classes?

[@loribreeuwsma]

Mors used to teach this but doesn't any longer.

[@davidstarr6604]

Again you are only showing completed baskets NOT how they are constructed.

[@pennyghost]

No one will need to craft a basket in a true survival situation. You would first need to: Make and haft a stone axe. To fell the tree. Make wedges to split the wood. Shape stone tools to cut the splits. Know how to find, split, and use tree roots. Have the time, energy, and knowledge to make the basket. Process pitch to waterproof the basket. Build a fire, find rocks, make tongs. Hunt, fish, trap. Making all of your equipment. Process game. There is nothing basic about a basket. People need to stop fantasizing what they think they need, and learn about what they do need. These skills have taken people thousands of years to perfect.

[@whiskeyriver4322]

............and, it usually takes an entire tribe or community to get it all done.

[@tallcedars2310]

pennyghost; We tend to over complicate simple things these days as we are made to believe we have to perfect everything and if it isn't, it's not acceptable, and, well that's simply false of course. Making a basic basket in the woods is easier than you describe. If one is without a knife or saw, bend over small trees, peel them, tear pieces of fresh bark off to weave and you are off and running. No need for perfection, simple function is needed. Finding a rock and breaking pieces to cut the bark off is also do-able. Baskets could come in handy if one is collecting berries for eating/drying. If one has spent time surviving, a basket will help carry "tools" if one has to move for some reason. You are correct that people need to stop fantasizing what they think they need and take Mors course. He gets one thinking about survival and then it's a great learning experience as you practise & expand the knowledge. But the most important tool in a survival situation is your brain. If it is crowded with making perfection only, then yes, one may feel like giving up before trying. Let go of perfection and it's amazing what one can accomplish really. Now, where was that cereal box.......

[@lindamazur4208]

pennyghost ,you are a real party pooper .