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BY JASON HATHAWAY
PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY JAMIE CANTERBURY
INTO THE
A southside self-reliance store
is a father-and-son(s) affair
WILD
F
FOR JAMIE CANTERBURY, co-owner
and CFO of Self Reliance Outfitters on
South Emerson Avenue, and his older
brother, Dave Canterbury, the great out-
doors has long been the setting of many
favorite pastimes and happy memories.
And that, in part, was thanks to their dear
old dad.
The Canterbury family often spent
summer vacations on the banks of Dale
Hollow Reservoir in western Kentucky.
The brothers’ dad, Jim Canterbury,
enjoyed taking his family on camping
trips, complete with plenty of boating and
fishing. These trips built a foundation for a
lifelong love of the outdoors, and the Can-
terbury brothers continued as avid hunters
Brothers Jamie and Dave
Canterbury bowfishing
for alligator gar with
traditional recurve bows.

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Community
and fishermen well into their adult years.
In fact, being out in nature appealed to
Dave Canterbury so much that he eventu-
ally made a career of it.
During a six-year stint in the Army,
Dave became well-trained in wilderness
survival skills,
otherwise known
as bushcraft. After
his discharge,
he worked in a
series of wilder-
ness-themed occupations before devel-
oping a fascination with the simple, yet
practical ways of life practiced by early
Native American tribes and European fur
traders and settlers.
“I realized that the skills that worked
back then for the tasks of daily life work
just as well today if people are willing to
learn them,” Dave said. “I guess I’m one
of those guys that was born 200 years
too late.”
Not only did Dave want to preserve
these historical ways of life for posterity,
but he also saw a use for them in mod-
ern times. He began teaching primitive
wilderness skills to others with a goal of
helping the average person become more
self-reliant and resilient during leaner
economic times, natural disasters or
other dangerous situations. In 2008, Dave
opened the Pathfinder School in Jackson,
Ohio, where he now lives.
The Pathfinder School is a large
outdoor classroom that teaches basic to
advanced wilderness survival skills, as
well as other historic skills, such as black-
smithing and knife-making. To reach a
wider audience, he also began writing
instructional books and pamphlets on
various survival skills and filming videos
for YouTube.com demonstrating these
skills. These pursuits, along with his New
York Times best-seller “Bushcraft 101: A
Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Sur-
vival,” earned him national recognition.
Around the same time, he began selling
the supplies his students needed to take
his classes; many of the items he made
himself or found through other regional
craftsmen. After two years of operating
the Pathfinder School, Dave found he had
little time to keep his retail business going.
Knowing the exact people who could get
the job done, he called his brother and
dad and asked if they would take over and
expand his retail sales in Indianapolis.
They agreed.
In 2010, Jamie left a 20-year career in
supply chain management and Jim came
out of retirement to open Self Reliance
Outfitters. They started as an Internet
retailer, using Jim’s garage to house inven-
tory, but as demand and sales increased,
they began looking for larger warehouse
space and a showroom. Three years ago,
they moved into a building on South Em-
erson Avenue. Jamie and Dave’s mother,
Sonja, joined them as office manager, and
several friends and cousins began working
for the store.
With the store’s proximity to the in-
terstate, it has become a regular destina-
tion for out-of-state travelers and truck
drivers from as far away as New York and
Massachusetts. Some customers, from
closer states, such as Michigan, visit every
weekend, in search of “something different
that they can’t get at the big box stores,”
Jamie said. “A lot of them are looking
for handmade and hand-forged gear and
guidance on how to do things the way
they were done a long time ago before all
of the technology we have today.”
The store offers traditional, handmade
knives and axes, custom leather sheaths,
as well as wooden long bows and recurve
bows, unlike the compound bows that
are most common today. It also offers
its own line of rugged stainless steel
camp cookware that features a best-
selling 32-ounce wide-mouth stainless
steel bottle. Dave developed the bottle
in response to water purification tablet
packets calling for 32 ounces of water —
when no manufacturer made a canteen
that size. The store’s “Cold Room”
features a well-organized display of tents,
blankets, tarps, fire-starting equipment
and anything else a camper needs.
Buying quality, innovative equipment is
only part of the equation, however. Know-
ing how to properly use that equipment
and how to react to different wilderness
situations is crucial. Fortunately, that’s
where customer service offered by the Self
Reliance Outfitters sales staff comes in.
“Another thing
that sets us apart
is the expertise of
our sales staff,” Ja-
mie said. “We’ve got guys here who know
what it’s like to be out in the wilderness,
and they don’t push people away. If you
need advice for any wilderness trips you
are planning or instruction on how to
use a certain piece of equipment, they are
going to provide that.”
Making sure customers have fail-safe
equipment and know how to use it before
they leave is crucial, said Jamie Burleigh,
Dave, Jamie
and Dave’s wife,
Iris Canterbury
From left, Jamie and Dave with
their father, Jim Canterbury
Self Reliance Outfitters

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Community
Self Reliance sales associate and lead in-
structor for the Pathfinder School.
“We give our customers the full offering
— guidance toward the best gear for their
trip and any instruction they need,” he
added. “You don’t want to buy a product
and walk out of the store wondering ‘How
do I use this thing?’ Good gear is just
icing on the cake to enhance what you
have learned and what you know you can
handle in a wilderness setting.”
Though most of the Pathfinder
School-designed survival skills classes are
taught in Ohio, Self Reliance Outfitters
offers its own classes a few times each
year. The second floor of the building is an
indoor archery range, where Jamie teaches
traditional archery for beginners, and the
store also hosts the Pathfinder School’s
Wilderness First Aid course. In addition
to the classes, the store offers several free
demonstrations and workshops through-
out the year, often teaching bushcraft
skills, such as how to make long bows,
making charred cloth for fire starting and
flint knapping — the process of chipping
flint to make arrowheads or blades.
The first six years of Self Reliance
Outfitters has been a success. Internet
sales and out-of-state business continue to
grow. Even the local walk-in traffic, which
began slowly, is increasing, said Jamie,
who is happy to see his family’s business
grow. “We took it from a garage to what
it is today,” he said. “And it’s blown up
beyond my wildest dreams.”
For more information, visit selfreliance
outfitters.com.
CUTTING TOOL: Ultimately,
this means a sturdy, full-
tang survival knife — some-
thing that should always be
on your person if you’re in
the wilderness. Well-made
survival knives can be used
for anything, from cleaning
fish to splitting kindling.
COMBUSTION: In inclement
weather, building a fire is
the first order of business.
Carry spark-catching mate-
rial, such as the Pathfinder
Mini Inferno tinder or Go-
rilla Tape, alongside a ferro
rod and a good lighter.
COVER: A common mistake
committed by plenty of out-
doors people is neglecting to
include an emergency shelter
in their go-to hiking packs.
Even if you’re simply setting
out for an afternoon trail
hike, you need the ability to
quickly erect a precipitation
and cold-resistant cover-
ing to keep you dry and
warm. A poncho, wool
blanket, tarp or even a
plastic garbage bag are
good to have on hand.
CONTAINER: An ideal con-
tainer for wilderness use is
a 32-ounce stainless-steel
water bottle. Staying hydrat-
ed is fundamental, and you
will want a durable vessel for
storing and carrying wa-
ter. The high-quality metal
additionally allows you to
boil water — or melt snow
— to render it safe to drink.
CANDLE: It’s all too easy to
forget about a light source
when preparing for a day
on the trail. If you’re strand-
ed for whatever reason,
the onset of night is a real
threat. A headlamp is par-
ticularly convenient, but
bring candles along as well.
CORDAGE: Sure, you can
fashion rope from plant ma-
terials in the backcountry, but
why expend that time and
effort if you don’t need
to? Carry a good 100
feet of cord, which
can assist in a
dizzying array
of tasks.
COTTON: It’s no weight or
space burden to stuff a few
cotton cloths or bandan-
nas in your pack — a level
of convenience that belies
the versatility they display
in the backwoods. From
bandages to signaling flags,
from fire-starters to head
coverings, cotton bandannas
are deceptively multiuse.
COMPASS: There are plen-
ty of methods for orienting
yourself in the wilderness,
from keying into the wheel
of constellations to track-
ing the sun’s shadow. But
bringing along a durable
compass with a sighting
mirror gives you an unfailing
tool for precise navigation,
one that readily doubles
as a signaling mirror.
CARGO TAPE: From injuries
to pack malfunctions, a roll
of duct tape serves as many
functions in the backcountry
as it does in the garage.
CANVAS NEEDLE: Also called
a sail needle, this little tool
can be employed to repair
clothing or shelters, act as a
makeshift compass, dislodge
nasty splinters and more.
Self Reliance Outfitters
Self Reliance Outiftters
Dad’s planning a long hiking or primitive camping trip
to celebrate Father’s Day? Ample research, as well as the
proper clothing, tools and shelter equipment for protection
against the elements, are in order. The staff of wilderness
survival equipment store Self Reliance Outfitters offers some
tips on what to buy with a list it calls: “The 10 C’s.”
Send Him Packing …
With Great Gear