Puget Sound Knappers

2017 Puget Sound Knappers at Rabbitstick Primitive Skills Gathering
September 10^th - 17^th
Host - Dave Westcott/Rabbitstick LLC
Photos Courtesy of Jim Keffer

PSK - Burned In!

PSK Logo generously donated by Vicki - Wood Burning Artist Extraordinaire!!!

Members of the Puget Sound Knappers have been participating at Rabbitstick (and Wintercount) as instructors and/or students for a very long time, some as long as 24 years. And while flintknapping has been our forte, PSK members also teach other prmitive skills.

The newest PSK member to join Rabbitstick as an instructor, Blain Kuykendall, along with instructor Jim Keffer and students Dave and Eli Walton, conducted a cabin building class at this year's gathering.

Using the "Butt and Pass" building technique developed by the late Skip Elsworth and taught to Master Builder Blain Kuykendall, Blain led a team of fellow builders and students in the building of a 10' x 10' (interior measurement) log cabin which was then converted to a sauna!

In just four day the team of builders laid 14 courses of logs on top of 8' x 12' skids, framed and shingled a the roof, built/installed the floor and 16 feet of benches, and installed a wood-burning stove and chimney.

Blain and his team also added a functioning flagpole including 3'x5' American flag. Some of the other finishing touches included a 3'x3' window with a great view of the Henry's Fork River, an elk antler door handle, elk antler lantern holder and a forged lantern holder by Braun Westcott.

The icing on this cake came from Vicki, an incredible artist who created a replica of the PSK logo patch (2"x3") by burning the logo into a 20" x 30" piece of plywood. Even more remarkable was the fact that she did it in about one hour! The build team was blown away!

All-in-all, the cabin building class was an unprecedented success. More than two dozen students participated and took advantage of the great instruction by Blain and the build team. The success was also evident in the number of people who took the opportunity to try out the sauna. Immediately after the wood stove was fired up at the end of the 4th day, the sauna was filled to capacity - in fact it was standing room only every evening!

Cabin/Sauna Building Class by Blain Kuykendall