Here is a video I have compiled on the wood packs hand made used by the Bidayuhs in Semban near Kuching. This pack consists of common materials, wood, rattan, nails, cordage and sometimes tree bark as straps. What’s more amazing is that the locals carry loads of up to 30kgs at times up the hill to the village. One guy we saw was walking up to the village with two crates (each with 24 cans) of can drinks PLUS some other house essentials. Amazing!
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We finally compiled and edited the video we took while making the wooden spoon using ambers from the fire with the help from the Fiskars Hatchet and my Mora. Enjoy!  An opportunity to try out my newly acquired Fiskars Hatchet With a recently acquired Fiskars hatchet, I decided to try my hands on another wooden spoon. We were out camping overnight with our dog-ther Sox for the very first time when this spoon starts to take shape. Besides the hatchet, I used my trusty Mora and hot amber to make the spoon. Continue reading Making a wooden spoon with a hatchet, a Mora and fire  Wet newspaper is a good alternative to Caplong’s bullets Wet newspaper makes ideal ammunition for my Caplong bamboo pump gun. Shape the papers into small, compacted pallets, they make good Caplong bullets and can really pack a punch. Continue reading Shooting my Chaplong (Caplong) bamboo pump gun; Final  As a kid, I used to make and play my bamboo ‘Caplong’ pump gun all the time. I would say that Caplong is a traditional Malaysia kampong craft made of bamboo and is played as a childhood game. It is especially common in remote villages where there are plenty of jungles with bamboo plants. Caplong is made from a ‘special’ kind of bamboo. The bamboo needed to make this jungle pump gun must have a thick wall. The thick bamboo wall must be able to contain compressed air as it is ‘pumped’, producing a built up pressure that will result in an explosion of ‘bullet’ at the other end of the barrel. Continue reading Caplong – Bamboo pump gun toy from my childhood days; Part I  A kampong boy ready to spin his top This is traditional top spinning at its best. Somewhere in the remote regions in Pahang, I had my first experience with kampong style top spinning competition. The set-up is simple. Open area with dry, dusty crack earth, a few spectators and well built, half naked youths with overly sized hand made tops. The objective is to hit with the purpose of stopping or even splitting the other top and hopefully…your top stays spinning the longest.
 A traditional top ‘split’ after being hit by another I am indeed privileged to see, touch and experience authentic traditional hand carved tops (‘Gasing’ in Malay) in Malaysia. While most common kampong kids these days would opt for the mass factory produced tops, these authentic, 100% ‘original’ tops are rare to come by. Free from the influence of modern short cuts of machines and factory produced materials, these tops from a village in Pahang is the real thing. Continue reading Traditional hand carved tops in Malaysia; Part I  Our Orang Asal guide proudly showing off his Keruing torch It was an amazing experience watching an Orang Asal makes a jungle torch using the resin of a Keruing tree. The Semelais may have relied on this jungle torch for hundreds of years to ensure their safety and comfort during the nights of the rainforest jungle. Watching him take his time making the torch makes me wonder how long this jungle skill will continue to be practice among his people. Continue reading Making a traditional jungle torch from Keruing tree oil Unlike my ‘Birch bark‘ box that I made, completing my carved wooden spoon was not an easy task. The guava wood is really hard. Thank God I have my absolutely sharp carbon steel Mora knife. But then again, with a super sharp knife my internal ‘alarm’ senses becomes extra sensitive each time I slice pieces of shavings from the wood. A sharp knife however is said to be much a much safer tool because a dull knife would require more energy and force hence increasing the risk of accidents.  Guava wood is quite a hard wood This is my first attempt at a hand carved wooden spoon from scratch. I decided to give it a go at after seeing someone doing it on youtube. It did not look easy but I decided to give it a go anyway. I needed a piece of wood to make my wooden spoon. It so happen that we (me, Moon & Sox) were back in my hometown in Kedah when I noticed the big piece of guava tree wood I picked up a couple of months earlier was still sitting at the corner of the yard. Lucky me. The guy on youtube was using a Mora viking (carbon steel) knife to do his carving. The way he handles the knife was like second nature. I have a similar knife but my skills are nowhere near that guy (hobbexp on YouTube). |
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