How to Make a Bowl in the Wilderness

Make a good primitive bowl for eating and cooking in the wilderness out of a piece of wood. Your buddies will be blown away and you'll have something in which to eat your corn flakes.

Things You'll Need

  • 14-function Pocketknives
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Instructions

    • 1

      Make a fire and get some nice, hot coals going.

    • 2

      Select a branch or small log of dead wood to make your bowl. Imagine the final product when selecting your piece. The wood should be dead and dry, but not rotten.

    • 3

      Flatten your wood by removing the bark of one side and pounding a rock against that side. A split log works well, or any piece of wood that already has a flattened side.

    • 4

      Pound a rock against the flat side to create a small indention on that side.

    • 5

      Use a stick to remove a coal from the fire and place it in the indentation on your wood.

    • 6

      Let the coal smolder in the indention of the wood. Aid it by blowing on it or setting it in the wind.

    • 7

      Remove the coal when it burns itself out and carefully scrape away the char and ash from the hole with a small rock.

    • 8

      Put a new coal inside your bowl indentation and repeat the process. Burn and scrape, burn and scrape, until an adequate bowl has been burned into your piece of wood.

    • 9

      Do a really thorough scrape your final time, to get all the char and ash out. You may even want to carve it out with your pocketknife.

    • 10

      Realize that it may take several hours to burn out your bowl, but it takes very little effort, so other things can be done at the same time.