Stránka:roll 1916.djvu/238

2X4 Woodcraft Manual for Girls Do noi abuse your knife by usbg it for a hanuner, wedge, screwdriver, or pry. Carry a little whetstone or else a small file to keep your knife in good shape. A pocket or shut-up knife is the only style worth carrymg. The hunting knife or dagger has not enough use to-day to make it worth while. It is a proof of a good whittler if one can make half a dozen firelighters ir^ succession. A firelighter or fuzz-stick (see illus- tration) is a stick of soft wood about an inch thick or six or eight inches through, shaved into thin slivers which are still on the stick; that is, are one solid piece at one end and all thin slivers at the other. This can only be done if you have a sharp, strong knife, a well-selected piece of soft wood without knots in it, and a steady hand. Provided the wood is good, the fire- lighter is perfect if not a sliver is loose or drops off. Use of Hatchet A good camper is known by his hatchet; if it is always diarp, and kept muzzled when travelling, the owner knows his business. Most of the knife rules apply equally to the hatchet. Never try to break a stone with a hatchet or let the hatchet be drivoi into a log by striking its back with another hatchet or anything of metal; use a wooden maul if it is necessary to drive the hatchet, as in splitting a stick. If you are going to hew a piece of timber with a hatchet, always draw a line first to guide you. If you are going to point a stake, make it a four-sided point, cutting sides No. i and No. 3, No. 2 and No. 4; so that finally at any cross-section of the point it will be square. It is a sure sign of inexperience when a camper throws his hatchet at trees, etc., to see if he can make it stick. Broken blades, broken handles, and injured trees are the inevitable re- sult, with the large possibility of serious accident. Use of the Axe The hatchet has long been the emblem of George Washington, in allusion to the incident of the cherr>' tree. So also the axe has become an «nblem of Abraham Lincohi, the back woodsman, the railsplitter, the typical American, who used the axe to carve his home out of the wilderness. I think that the axe might well be the embkm of America, te