Woodcraft - Bernard Sterling Mason

Why? –in a world of matches?

Ernest Thompson Seton answered well when a group of ‘practical business men questioned his zest for the rubbing stick fire – said he, pointing to the ground, ‘You are thinking of the fire that is lighted down there,’ and pointing to his breast continued, ‘I am thinking of the fire that is kindled in here!"

Impractical it is only to staid, prosaic oldsters who have forgotten that enchanted world of dreams called childhood!

Struggling for weeks and months, a year before the days when commercial fire-by-friction sets came wrapped up in packages, experimenting and failing with countless woods and tinders, filing my room with a perpetual incense of wood smoke that in itself was reward.

I still recall that fervent, youthful day when tiny coal turned to flame!-and happily the flame it kindled has never died! Must you say it is impractical?

Bernard Sterling Mason, Woodcraft Bernard S.

Mason was a prolific writer on the subjects of woodcraft, Native American lore and handicrafts. One of my most treasured books is Woodcraft - 500+ pages of skill and lore unlike any other. A few of his works remain in print but there were many, many more.

Woodcraft available at Amazon Boomerangs at Amazon (See this article in the October, 1927 edition of Boy’s Life ) Drums, Tom Toms and Rattles at Amazon Woodsmanship in PDF available at Google Books