Bushcraft uses for sweet chestnut


Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) is a fairly common tree in Kent and we have a couple of sizable compartments of it in our woodlands, in fact a couple of years ago we coppiced about an acre of it over the winter.

It was introduced by the Romans as a food source but there are other bushcraft uses for sweet chestnut.

I frequently use the inner bark as a tinder, where I find it works particularly well as a tinder bundle.  We also make good use of the inner bark of sweet chestnut to make various bark containers, sometimes folded containers, sometimes woven bark containers.

So take a look at this short video where I talk about some of the bushcraft uses for sweet chestnut.

We teach natural tinders on our 2 Day & 5 Day Bushcraft Courses, the IOL Bushcraft Competency Course and also our 2 Day & 5 Day Survival Courses.  You can see plenty of photos from all of these courses on our Facebook page.


About Gary

Lead Instructor at Jack Raven Bushcraft, teaching bushcraft, wilderness and survival skills to groups and individuals.

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