The Woodland Wayer - Oxfordshire

The following is a breakdown of the full itinerary of the course, if you find you cannot make one of the weekends then we simply put you onto the same weekend the following year with the next intake.

Welcome Weekend and Edged Tools Training - This module covers knife law, selection, sharpening, use and safety. Folding saws, bow saws, crook knives. We look at axe selection, maintenance and small axe works including carving. This module includes several carving projects designed to use a range of edged tools.

Spring Forage Day Course - Here we initially consider the safety aspects of foraging, before moving on to plant and tree identification, edible uses, other uses, and preparation.

Tracking and Awareness Weekend - Here we aim to open your eyes (and ears, nose, feet, and hands) to discovering life in the woods. This weekend will give you the confidence to not just understand what animal has left a track, but to interpret the tracks and signs to enable you to get closer to wildlife. With our unique down to earth, practical and realistic approach your instructor will go beyond the classic realms of identifying tracks and signs for food, to give you a deeper understanding of animal behaviour within the UK and provide you with the opportunity to experience nature as close as you can get.

Intermediate Fire Weekend - This includes its importance and use, fire building, fire lays, kindling, man-made and natural tinder collection and preparation. Ignition sources such as matches, lighters, ferrocerium rods, flint and steel, flint and iron pyrites. Also the proper extinguishing of fire and clearing up to leave no trace.

Intermediate Shelter Weekend - This includes the importance of shelter, the pitching of tarps, simple emergency shelters, the correct construction of basic one and two man shelters including lean-to and kennels etc. We also look at thatching options, bedding and cot beds.

Cordage And Bark Work Weekend - Throughout this weekend you will discover the huge variety of available natural cordage, how to select the appropriate material, preparation, plaiting, braiding, and laid cordage. You will also discover rope making. Further to these skills you will learn how to process various barks in order to make containers. We will also look at birch bark usage, birch tar, and plant glues.

Bow Making Weekend - By the end of this weekend you will have the skills and knowledge to enable you to have produced your own bow. We will guide you through the process to discover the joys of fashioning wood, once the stave has been shaped roughly, we then move onto the finer detail of the curve, before cutting the string grooves. It's then down to the fine tuning of the tillering process, where you will finely balance the bow.

Navigation and Natural Navigation - This weekend you join us for an introduction to map and compass. You will learn how to utilise bearings, undertake resections, back bearings, provide grid references, and the use of hand rails. We also assess the reliability of comparative natural navigation techniques including the use of the sun, stars, moon, trees and plants, man-made features and landscapes.

Advanced Fire Weekend - Here we move on from the skills taught in the previous weekend to really develop your skills in Friction Fire Lighting. The focus is on refining your fire bow technique, including making your own fire bow set from the woodlands, the use of natural cordage, fault analysis and alternative fire bow techniques. We also aim to cover other friction fire lighting techniques - these will include the hand drill and fire saw.

Medicinal Wild Plants Day Course - Furthering the knowledge gained on the foraging courses this day looks specifically at the medicinal uses of various plants, including the preparation of items to take away.

Hide Tanning and Using Your Deer (2 weekends) - This section of The Woodland Wayer course is spread over two weekends. Here you have a go at brain tanning and veg tanning ultimately to produce buckskin and leather. We also undertake a variety of leather working projects. This will include elements of bone work, antler work, producing hide glue and rawhide.

Wild Food Weekend - This course covers preparing and cooking a variety of game for consumption and includes small and large mammals, small and large fowl, fish, crustaceans, and insects. In the process we will examine basic animal anatomy and talk about food safety. We will also begin to process and incorporate wild plants into your recipes.

Flint Knapping Weekend - On this course we look at Primitive Technologies. Here we guide you through pre-historic hand axe production, and how to make flakes for butchery and hide scrapers. You will then have the opportunity to use your tools to prepare your meals. We will also work with you on the production of blade cores and basic survival tools. You will also be using the scrapers and blade core tools produced on day one for all of your work, enabling you to come away with the confidence that you could produce useable tools without the use of modern equipment.