Making Your Own Gear Feels Different

A PNWBUSHCRAFT × Nature Reliance Collaboration

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why making your own gear feels so different.  There’s something about sitting on a piece of camp furniture you built yourself that hits differently than pulling something out of a box. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to look store bought. It just has to work. And maybe more importantly, you understand it.

This collaboration actually started a while ago, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.

When Craig Caudill was writing Traditional Bushcraft, he reached out to me about the tripod seat. I remember thinking how cool that was. Here was someone deeply rooted in traditional bushcraft, director of Nature Reliance, writing a book about building camp furniture and tools from natural materials and he wanted to talk about the seat portion.  I couldn't believe something we created in our shop would end up in a published book.

Fast forward to this year. I kept coming back to the idea of collaboration. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to introduce more people to working with waxed canvas in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming because trying to figure it when we started was a lot of work and then it clicked.

What if we brought those two worlds together?

Craig’s book walks readers through traditional bushcraft projects that move from foundational skills to more advanced builds. You start simple. You learn how to use basic tools. You build confidence. Then you move into larger projects like benches, tables, ovens, and camp furniture made from natural materials gathered from the woods.  One of those classic projects is the tripod seat.

Craig teaches how to craft the wooden tripod legs using time tested methods. Selecting the right wood. Shaping it and understanding balance and structure and that’s where our piece fits.

At PNWBUSHCRAFT, waxed canvas is what we know best. It’s durable. It’s forgiving. It ages beautifully. But I also know that sewing waxed canvas for the first time can feel intimidating. So instead of creating something complicated, I wrote a printed guide that uses the tripod seat as the introduction. It walks through working with waxed canvas, cutting it properly, stitching it securely, and caring for it long term. The project becomes the teacher.

You end up with a complete tripod seat — wooden legs built using traditional bushcraft skills from Traditional Bushcraft, and a waxed canvas seat sewn with your own hands.

When I reached back out to Craig about the idea of bundling the book with a waxed canvas guide and material, he was all in. That felt right. It felt natural. Like we were finishing a conversation that started years ago.

We included an 18" by 56" piece of waxed canvas in the bundle so there’s enough to complete the seat and still have a little left over. Because once you make one thing, you usually start looking around, wondering what else you could build.

That’s really what this is about. Not just a tripod seat. Not just a bundle.

It’s about learning traditional bushcraft skills through Nature Reliance. It’s about understanding materials like waxed canvas through PNWBUSHCRAFT. It’s about realizing you’re capable of making useful camp gear with your own two hands. Creating something yourself and honestly, something really fun.

If you’ve ever wanted to try bushcraft projects, or if you’ve been curious about sewing with waxed canvas but weren’t sure where to start, this feels like an approachable place to begin. Not perfect. Not polished.

Just real skills. Real materials. And the satisfaction of building your own gear.

Building Skills Bundle Available Here >>>>>>>