Does the future hold prolonged economic collapse? Electric outages? Food shortage? Civil unrest? EMP attacks? Looting and the general descent into madness?
Whatever may come, you and your family will be extremely vulnerable unless you have prepared for continuity and self-reliance without the aid of society. The vast majority have made no attempt to prepare, or decrease their dependence upon government agencies for basic needs. In an emergency, they will have no one else to turn to either.
But you will be ready.
Every American who values his/her independence, and hopes to survive and thrive in an after-math economy that will be very different needs to develop and hone their SHTF skills.
There are too many to list in one article, and most of the basics are well known to this audience, but here is a good resource for starting your prepping, and expanding to cover all important areas.
But it is equally important to tailor your plans around your actual situation in a way that will give you the optimal support in a crisis, and fit around the freedom lifestyle you actually want to lead.
Reallybigmonkey1 is a great example of unique prepping. He has invented devices around his needs – and improvised with what he has one hand.
In this video, he explains a homemade stove that is also designed to store & boil water, as well as cook without the need to use a pot or pan. It might be the best solution in a bug out situation.
His inventions make prepping, camping and surviving a fine art of creativity and style, and prove that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get ready:
“If you do have to leave your house and bug out, this is the kind of things that happen. You need to have the ability to make things… and improvise and make do with what you have.
He also addresses the top items he carries that aren’t in the bug out bag of others.
After the basics, this guy has included a host of homemade and improvised devices that serve his potential SHTF needs and will make his chance of survival better than the average suburbanite.
What do you carry in bag, and what have you figured out on your own to make off grid living even better?
Read more:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Essential Starting Point for Survival Planning
95 Survival Tips For When the SHTF: “Carry These. Do This. And Don’t Ever…”
The Six Laws of Survival: Strategies For Beating the Worst Case Scenario
It Took 22 Years to Get to This Point
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I have had to improvise things my whole life lol. Even my toys as a kid. Now I just improvise bigger toys 😛
I hesr ya, thats half the fun of it all,,,
Hey G,
I grew up running around dumps and junkyards.
When I was a kid I built one of those USS Constitution models, the big model. As an adult I built real boats.
I used to play with radios, taking them apart. As an adult I designed power supplies and computers.
I used to listen to my dad bitch about Hollerith cards for space program stuff. I got a degree in computer science and wrote some really nifty stuff.
Give kids toys – they will build upon it and stand on your shoulders to do stuff you never thought of.
Even us 60-ish kids can be creative.
When I was a kid we where really poor.
I’m glad I was a boy it least I had something to play with.
Red
I desire to learn how to make a necklace out of politicians and their protectors ears. Similar to the necklace Daryl made in an old Walking Dead episode. I suppose their bodies could be burned to produce power. Either way, they will be dead.
SHTFplan has censored itself into a shadow of what it was.
No, JQP, by removing comments that constantly hammer the same thing (in your case, “the jews”) we’ve actually been able to get the conversation going again. That’s fact. It was posts like that and the constant attacks on regular users that caused some to stop commenting. Thus, we implemented a policy of removing said posts and banning users who had nothing better to do than disparage others.
Sorry Mac ? But Jesus himself called them the children of satan . I guess we would have to ban him to keep the powers that be happy?
It is better now.
Agreed. I got very tired of the blanket antisemitism and racism that too many people found necessary to use. It got to the point that I didn’t want to be associated with it and got tired of writing counter arguments so I stopped trying. There are bad people in every group and good people in every large group. I just don’t have the spare energy it takes to hate. I would rather use my time on something productive instead.
Winston
ditto
Bones make great carbon black for black pigments for paints and coatings
My father made us take apart big items that were going in the trash. This was before the companies would haul the old one away for free. We saved every fastener. It showed you how things were constructed.
Being able to repair things will be of incredible value. We have had a disposable society; that I’ll end. Unfortunately most items are crap today except cars.
MY wife and kids just shake their heads when I take something that they’re going to throw away and ‘re-purpose’ the item. Drives them nuts.
K2: I used to tear stuff apart to see how it worked! Mum wasn’t too happy when I ripped open my sister’s talking doll, yikes! It was pretty cool, the mechanism inside was a little mini record player. I was a tech in the Army. They liked that I could troubleshoot stuff and jerry-rig it to make it work. I have taken apart a vacuum and cleaned it to get the smell out of it. Replaced a seal on a dryer for the same reason: to get out the funky smell.
I grew up seeing people work with their hands and make things. All of the women in my family, my grandmother, my mother, and my aunt all did fancy work and sewed, quilted, knitted and crocheted and did crafts in order to make things in the house pretty. Fabric and thread and time were always cheap. I hate to say out of 8 grandchildren, 7 girls and 1 boy, I am the only one that has kept on with those skills.
Philo, you sound like a woman after my own heart. I also used to take things apart as a kid to see how they worked. I used to drive certain other people nuts myself with that. I’ve done a bit of troubleshooting and jerry-rigging in my time. Haven’t done any of it since the 80s but I’m sure I can do so again. Skills like that stay with you no matter what. Anyone with such skills will be well-served by them and do just fine in a post-SHTF scenario. Any preppers who don’t have such skills would be well-advised to start learning those skills if they want to survive. Can be the difference between life and death.
BH: thank you kindly! The day I stop learning is the day I start dying.
My father was not handy. He was just into getting something useful out of his kids every day. He wanted the fasteners, screws, washers recovered. He looked at everything from the perspective, “How can I put the boys to work”. Sometimes it was fun (like this).
I grew up in an industrial town as most fathers worked in the oil and chemical industry’s; lots of tradesmen, learned by watching. Took everything apart too. Kids today are different. Seen a local kid, 18 or so call from across the street, “Can you help we need another hand”. They were changing a tire and had a 4 lug wrench. Two strong kids were on it and couldn’t break it free and they wanted a third. I stopped them, went home, got a “bull pipe”, slid it over the lug and with 2 ft of leverage it broke free. I said, “Give me a large enough level and I’ll move the world”. They were shocked, 18 years old, should have had that skill at 10 or 12. Kids father was an office type. That was two decades ago, its no doubt worse now.
Rich man, poor man. Both made things to solve problems. When Rich man found he had invented a gizmo that was particularly useful, he ran to his local patent attorney and they filed a patent. Poor man, well. He didn’t patent his gizmos, but as soon as knowledge about his gizmos got around to friends and acquaintances, he would find he could buy one at the store. Of course, he never got a dime for the millions of gizmos that were sold. The moral of this story is: making a useful gizmo makes you an inventor. Inventor please, patent your inventions. If you don’t, somebody else will. And you will lose out. End of story.
I dont thing it really matters when SHTF….
Anyhow. A little bit of pottery stain and some DE from the swimming pool and a few pieces of pipe and some drywall and you can make sulfuric acid. A neon light transformer and a few pieces of glass and you can make nitric acid. You can purify the nitric acid with the sulfuric acid and you can make 70% of the chemical products out there. Ill be rich when SHTF 😀
Really Rich Man keeps Inventing, Patents all his inventions and license out the Patents and receive endless percentage residuals on sales. Ideas are a dime a dozen, creating, not doing any manufacturing is the key.
~WWTI…
BfC: some people care more about living and just being creative rather than dealing with lawyers, paperwork, and hustling to sell, sell, sell. People in those fancy offices are annoying and pissy and not worth being around. And you may consider this man poor but based on his life he seemed wealthy to me.
If you are stupid enough to actually live in California that is your problem. No wonder you have such a pissy attitude.
@ Philo….I lived in Ca for about 50 years. I was once a beautiful state. Ronald Reagun ( I know its Reagan) was Governor. I could hunt out the front door. Cops were polite. Then it all Turned To Shit. The libs took over, the beaners invaded, the fags run the government, and Taxalitis became rampant. I retired early and left. Some stay behind because of employment, then others because of family such as children and grandchildren. So its not always because of someone being stupid, for staying in a state that sucks….its circumstances. As a matter of fact, since you don’t live in Idaho, I would assume its because of your circumstances, such as family. Because since you ARE SMART like me…you would be here in the last free state of America. ( I think Brave likes you) (a lot)
@ Philo….laugh, don’t get mad at me. Dave
DII: when I try to visit your page it says: deleted.
What’s the deal?
I am not mad at you. I agree with you most of the time.
what page????
Your name is linked in red. A red-linked name usually means you have a web site. Do you not have a website?
Are there 2 Dave in Idahos? I don’t know. A little weird. One has a red name other has a black name.
Mac, can you help us out on this matter? What is the deal with red names? I thought they linked to a website?
Nope…I used to have red hair…now its more grey (3 kids did it and now grandkids). I probably screwed up and put something in the website line…I don’t like computers and hate the auto fill in shit.
DII: okay. Probably a typo then, thanks for the clarification!
Agreed. California was once the Best state in the Nation.
You do know that the vast number of the population and politicians were Democrat back then too. It just that they were Conservative Democrat.
What makes you think that Idaho is so free? I see that Jack Yantis Got justice. 🙁
@ Ed…because most people and a whole lot of gov workers have libertarian views. “Leave Us Alone”. Examples are in comparison to Ca.. building permits (if you need one for electric hook up) in the rural area is 35 dollars, in Ca it would be over 6000$ depending on square feet. Car registration is about 65$ per year with NO late penalties, Ca is dependent on value, I was paying 668$ for my truck. If you are 90 days late, it is around 900$. People answer the phone and offer to help. I wear a 44 mag in the sheriff office when I go to the license dept, grocery store, gas station, bank, and hiking(lots of Grizz). Population is almost all around the Boise area, the rest is sparse. I think there is less than 2 million people and the land area is about 5/8 the size of Ca, and half of Texas. There are drawbacks living here. You must have a license plate to drive your quad type vehicle on the highway, no snowmobiles on the highway, you can only shoot deer from your car if you have a disability license plate, you are required to get a tag online if you hit a deer,elk,moose bear etc with your vehicle on accident and take home the meat…..if you have a vehicle left.
DII: no place is perfect. But Idaho and western Montana look good to me.
DII: Idaho and Montana are on my list of places to live. Why haven’t I moved yet? Good question. Biding my time. Stacking silver in the mean time.
I live alone and I don’t have any family that matters at this point. Sad to say that but it’s true.
I like BH, too.
Philo, too bad you’re not in my part of the country. My family in GA and you would hit it right off. They’re the only people left in my life that matter to me. I’ve got another trip to the BOL scheduled for July but that could be moved up if circumstances change.
I spent some time in Georgia. At Fort Gordon. Been a long time. Went down to Ft. Stewart to hang out on a long weekend. I had never heard of grits until I was in the Army. Cook them to this day. I like my grits with salt, pepper, butter, and Habanaro Tabasco sauce. Yummy!
It is so danged hot down there! I used to take three showers a day because of the humidity.
I do love the charm of southern men. I could listen to that Alabama guy in the video talk to me all day long!
It sounds like you have a good place and a great family and that makes you beyond wealthy.
Stay safe and stay smart BH.
Ever heard of Arizona
Yep. Spent some time at Lake Havasu as a kid. Too hot. Too dry. Slimy moss-covered rocks in that lake. I love trees. I don’t like cactus, snakes, and scorpions. I prefer cool-to-cold weather and I don’t speak Mexican or Spanish and don’t plan on learning. The sun turns your skin to leather. Not my kind of life. But I know there are plenty of sun worshippers that claim to enjoy it.
I don’t mind the cold or snow at all.
To whom it may concern:
Just saw one of the videos.
My little story was based on two people I know personally. Rich man owns multi-million dollar trucking company and invented many features on trucks presently in use. The other was based on my father, and yes; he was rich in the love and appreciation of his family, but while he was busy making other people rich in Real Estate, it would have been nice if the family could have reaped some of the rewards of the royalties which should have gone to the actual creative genius who had actually conceived them.
Philo, brave may like you, but I don’t like your pissy stupid attitude. Nice one minute and take out the claws the next. You may be bright. But I don’t trust you. Watch out brave. Clever women can be more dangerous than simple ones.
Don’t apologize. I know you thought I was remarking about the man in the video. Even if I had been, there is no need to turn this into a forum of one idiot insulting another. It’s not fair to the people who just want to read constructive input.
BFC, I knew what you were sayin’ and it rings true. I enjoyed both vids and actually can take away some of the info and use it.
BfC: apologize for what? Spare me that whiny BS. I am not here to exploit anyone. If you want to hang around stupid women because you are afraid of a woman that will challenge you and speak her mind, by all means, go ahead and find a little slave that bows to your every whim. Plenty of them out and about in California. A real man isn’t intimidated by a woman that challenges his ideas.
As for my being dangerous, the only thing I have harmed is your ego.
I heard someone say . It’s not rich man poor man anymore.. It’s rich dad poor dad?
I heard someone say . It’s not rich man poor man anymore.. It’s rich dad poor dad?
Prepare to the max, repair/recycle when you can, dismantle before throw away and save what you can to repair with or use for barter. End approach’s fast.
High class pricks can just Kiss My Country Ass!!
People talk about collecting precious metals,,,
What?
Like
440C
1084/1080
1095?
Im collecting materials that just will NOT be available after.
Learning how to do stuff MOST people just dont even think about nor care to know about,
Knife making, blacksmithing, leather work, sewing and canvas work, wood carving,,,,
Its my new business model, a handy man business of sorts.
You can always make primers from both gold and silver.
Vietnam era army tent repair kit. Grommets, eyelets, canvas sewing tool, Insert tools #4 & #5, etc.
Hey kula. There is a lot of good scrap steel that is good for making tools. Many older leaf and coil springs are made from 1095. truck and bus axles are about 1050-1060 and are good for making hammers and whatnot. RR spikes vary in carbon content according to the head stamp. I spent my early smithing years working with ‘mystery metal’ and there are many tests that you can do to take out that mystery so you have a good idea what kind of steel you are working with. Good luck and have fun with your smithing!
Thanks,,, it is quite fun, i was yakking with a farmer buddy of mine this morning,he said he had all sorts of stuff if i wanted to come pick through it, lot of old trucks and plows, going to go on an expedition in his yard with my cutting torch and impact gun. Should be fruitful.
Just a simple test in the field is the ‘ring’ test. Just drop the steel on concrete and listen for a ring. The higher the ring, the higher the carbon content. No ring means low carbon steel. A dead thud may mean you may have found iron. ($$$). Have fun on your steel safari and don’t forget to reward those who reward you. 🙂
I definitely agree on the reward thing,, what goes around comes around. Thanks for the tips, any info helps. The thought of being able to make something useful from stuff that would otherwise go to the scrap ship or get burried feels good.
I’m learning all I can about electronics, and have ordered a large variety of basic components to keep in stock in case I ever need them. I already have a variety of mechanical and fabrication tools/skills, so I figured this adds to my ability to make use of the things that are common in the modern world’s garbage. I also rebuilt a mid 50’s sewing machine. It’s all steel and cast iron and will likely outlast me. Plus, it uses a drive belt, so it could be converted to a treadle machine in a pinch.
For me, tools and skills are real wealth. If some personal financial calamity ever befalls me, no one can take my skills and few bankers would think to take my tools as most of them are old and grungy (or cheap and Chinesy) and only functionally beautiful, with little more than scrap value in the market (much like my cars). However, they mean that if I have no money to pay someone, I can still innovate my way out of most problems. I even challenge myself sometimes by trying to fix things for people I know who have no money to pay by repurposing and trading for materials and time with others. I enjoy the challenge and they get their car/ cell phone/ computer/ lawn mower/ bicycle/ vacuum cleaner/ etc. fixed for free (or cost of materials). I usually tell them to just pass on the kindness to someone else in need the next time they have the chance as payment.
Say, could you take a few minutes and fix the United States of America for us? We can’t afford to pay much because we’re $19,000,000,000,000.oo in debt, but we would sure appreciate it….
Roger that!
With you until the high class pricks. What do you care if they do well or not. Take care of yourself and worry about yourself. Don’t pepper your comments with resentment toward people who spend their lives trying to impress those who don’t care. We all crap from the same hole. We all have problems and are happy or bitter as much as any of us regardless of class.
I am a retired cop and I’ve been in million dollar houses full of unhappy, dysfunctional and stressed out people. The very poor have problems that money could solve to a point. Once you make enough to live with little stress, class and money don’t matter when it comes to happiness.
Give me a hot summer night and a lot of people at a BBQ over the best restaurant in town.
Everything is perception and wealthy people go to great lengths to look like they have good lives. So what if they are snotty. They get to be them.
I enjoy watching my kids start on their own. I tell them to enjoy it and how exciting it is. They are like me. Driven and don’t stop to enjoy life.
I like to say that money can’t bring you happiness, but the lack of money can bring a whole lot of misery.
WOW! A Mossy-Oak Camo Man Purse! I LOVE IT! I want one and I’m a chick!
Enjoyed the video but how many times did he say, O.K.
South Park.
Like Mcgyver,when it falls apart there is nothing Warchild can’t fix with a piece of tin foil/used wad of bubble gum and a used prophylactic!
I watched both videos and they were excellent and made thing about things in a different way. I could listen to this guy talk for hours!
Now if I can figure out how to sew that hoodie / pillow / anti-pot clattering thingy and the man purse, hmmmm. . . .
Gee, I would of thought you’d have noticed my accent by now. But inst it aiamzng you do not hvae to sepll crorcetly (except for the first and last letters), to type intelligibly? (This is because we memorize the ‘overall shape of words and not their individual letters). Another tidbit for your book of worthless knowledges. 🙂
A nearby junkyard will be far more valuable than all the empty stores in the SHTF. Assuming you can recognize raw material and repurpose it into what you need.
ht tp://youtu.be/c3V348NzrvQ
Also look up how to do lost foam aluminum casting to make stuff you need. Like lost wax casting except you make your casting original out of foam.
PTPO: oh cool! Thanks that looks great!
Stick with the Wax. The foam will kill you and is non reusable. Pour a mold and someone will spot you from 10 miles away from all the noxious smoke.
Ed
Heck I took jewelry making in college, did lost wax casting and other techniques. Never thought about that as one of my skills. I am going to set it up.
next week I am going to make a poor man’s water filter. Ordered filters and feel better about water security.
Yup,,,
That be the bug that bit me,,,
Theres more to that as well and no limit to what you can make.
Been cutting blanks with the plasma cutter then annealing on a wood fired forge to soften it all,
As long as you dont get all caught up in the numbers your good, too many guys get carried away and split hairs over the steel type numbers etc, best thing is experiment with groups of materials and know how to change your process ever so slightly to get better results. The toughest part is the heat treating and tempering.
Good video, gets the creative juices flowing
I also like the knives hand forged using a wrench as the raw material. Even cheap wrenches are often made of pretty good steel.
Yea i came across a bunch of those when i did a search, pretty cool, have a couple big Proto wrenches i found laying on the road, will never use a 1-3/4″ open end wrench for anything im doing,,,
Greetings to all,
I’m about to try a hack I just thought of – making a seining net out of plastic mesh body scrubbers.
A family member keeps buying and discarding the silly things. I took one of them apart and found that it consists of a 15-foot-long tube of fine mesh. If you cut the tube open, it will be 20 inches wide. That’s a LOT of material! Fasten each end of two or maybe three of these to a pair of sturdy poles, whipstitch the long edges together with string, and you and a companion should have an excellent chance of catching some fish in a stretch of river that’s a foot or two deep. Me and the other kids in my river study class had a ball doing this, I led the seining myself when I was older, and those nets usually had fish in them when we raised them up.
Also, might need to add a few floats of some kind along the upper edge, and a strip of duct tape folded over the lower edge of the net to help reinforce against ripping.
For several years, I had the opportunity to rummage through fabric scrap that had been discarded at a community facility. Every once in a while, someone would throw away those ‘sheer’ curtains –sometimes, a whole bunch of them– and I would grab them all. I now have a stash of about 30 of these, uniform in size, about 6’x3′ or so. Very fine weave; far closer than screen door mesh — ideal for blocking mosquitoes/minges/no-see-ums in a SHTF situation. Lots of folks think of tents and sleeping bags but forget the bug netting. Every BOB should have plenty of this stuff. It weighs almost nothing and squashes down to a very small size. With skeeters and ticks spreading an increasing number of serious diseases, netting should be considered an absolute necessity.
I save hardware and metals that I know I can use in a project later that’s geared toward my survival. It’s just what I’ve always done. I’ve seen wind turbines built out of alternators hooked up to inverters with an rv battery. You’d be surprised the stuff you can build out of junk scraps. If I need it or it will make my life easier I will take a stab at building it. What do you have to lose really.
I have had old inkjet printers, including some that were given to me. Rather than just throw them away or take them to the electronics recycling center, I completely dismantle them. I save all the screws, springs, nylon gears, the stainless rods that the print head travels on, and any discrete electronic parts that might be useful later.
I like to tinker, either to make new things, or to make existing things do something new. I can repair things that most people would toss. An example from my single days is a hot plate. The element was a long coiled wire wound around channels in a ceramic base. It had burned out near one end. I unscrewed the short piece and threw it away. Then I stretched the remaining wire and screwed the end down. Months later I had to do it again. The next time, the wire was too short, so I had to discard the hot plate. But I had saved the price of two hot plates by fixing it twice.
MacGyver could spend a lifetime making things out of the stuff I have stored. I may never use all of it, but there’s such a variety that whenever I need a screw or some other part, I have it and don’t have to buy new. A lot of times I have needed a board or piece of plywood. I would go to my collection and many times find what I need already cut to the right size.
Say y’all, there is a type of fishing net designed to be hung from the gunwales (gunnels) (top edge of the side of the boat/craft). as it hangs, the holes in the webbing of the net allow fish to enter and chew at the bits of bait. When you pull up, the holes get so small there is no escape. I had one, it got lifted. Never could remember the name of this thang, and never did see another! Time to get REAL good with ka-nots?
Watched the two videos above and then a few more and I stumbled onto this one:
http://youtu.be/tP5bOr0aC58
There is a coupon in the U-tube notes and another free thing once you go to the site. Never saw this before but based on my own experience and interests I bought this package. Why? I was very impressed with the way this guy said he went from growing 90 different items to realizing that 10 of the 90 items were what was making him money and also made customers loyal. I want not only a way to have a small business making money growing food but I wanted to figure out how to be efficient. I think this guy has really nailed a lot of things down in a tidy way that I find appealing. Good to know someone has figured out what works or doesn’t work. Saves me both time and money. The way this guy thinks as far as planning what to grow and why and how appeal to me as well.
There is another site that I found a few months ago: http://www.ripenear.me
I have already found items available in my area using Ripe Near Me. I also think, with the above book, I will be able to create a small market in my area.
Happy planting all all 🙂
Today I watched a goat being born. The mother remained standing while giving birth.
Got a few friends with goats, one guys nannys always throw twins, is pretty cool with a herd of a couple hundred goats of all sizes wanting you to pet them all at once,,,,
My Father lived by these words,
“Use it up and wear it out, make it do or do without!”
Probably the most important thing he ever taught me.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time but now know how right he was.
IMHO gardening, preserving, fixing will be the most important skills. It will take a lot for a total and complete collapse, but not much for a total disruption of food supplies and rolling blackouts similar to Venesuela.
I know everybody thinks zomby epoco lips whenever we talk survival etc, but what we see in Venesuela or other similar places is more likely with pockets that become hell holes. IMHO thats what the FEMA camps are for, hopeless souls who cant cope. But who knows. We already have those sorts now.
In ALL conflicts or collapse situations food and basic goods dry up. So if you can garden, preserve your harvest, unless you live where you can grow year round, and to be able to fix and make everyday items will be the most valueable tools. Unemployment could happen, depends on what you do. Some people will always be working, others will get cut loose at the first sign of trouble.
So the economy and even an underground economy will still be there, maybe not booming, but goods services and a means of paying for them will exist. Just might not be in the familiar style were all used to.
The biggest problem i see is the government coming in to “help” us, government is worthless, they will and do cause more problems than good. Especially when viewed with the knowledge of the EOs on the books that we have all seen. Especially if things grind to a halt, they will still want their pound of flesh off of us. This is where we will all have to grow a pair to stomp that shit out.
Most likely wont happen as we need numbers and we just dont have them because normalcy bias has killed most peoples independent spirit and fight. Sad.
Over a month ago I posted on this blog that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban within a year. On CNN this AM there is news that the Taliban now control more area than they did on Sep.11, 2001. The Afghan government is in disarray. The Afghan army has taken more KIA this last year than all American KIA for the entire conflict. The place where empires go to die. But hey, the defense contractors and politicians made a bundle. Keep preppin’.
I think they made oh,, about 19trillion on it?
Now where have i heard that number before?
Politicians. They are people without shame. They were born without that gene.
Observer
I read that Afghanistan has never been governed by anyone regardless who was supposedly in charge. The “Governments” authority ended at the city limits and it was in a precarious position within the city too.
Kevin. A great part of the third world has no government past the cities. You get into the countryside and it is an entirely different world.
Ed
In much of the third world no long term concerted effort was made. The British tried like hell in Afghanistan. They had a lot of experiment too having “The sun never set over the British Empire”. I think the Afghans are especially tenacious. If they had good offensive skills they could see them like the Gurkas do. I think they’re just savage.
Didn’t watch the video, slow DSL here, but I do see the apparent time of year it was filmed. Now let’s see the guy with 3′ of snow out there in that little lean to tarp shelter.
3′ of snow, 60 mph wind and a hoard of cannibal looters on his trail
The 3″ snow and 60 MPH wind hurts the hunter as well as the hunted. I bet the Chinese casualties in Korea caused by weather far surpassed those in combat and the US possesses firepower. There were probably instances when they welcomed a Naplam strike.
Use to run a salvage yard for almost 10 years – “where old RV’s go to heaven”. It was interesting watching the change in skill sets. We would originally dismantle the rigs and put whole engines or parts on pallets.
The old timers would go through them and reach in and pull out a part and say…I can make this work.
Later, the younger generation would come through and you had to point out what it was and even then they would say… but it doesn’t look just like my part and off they would go to buy brand new.
I applaud this young man and the blue collar generation, but fear for the younger IT generation.
The FEMA camps are set in place for not just the younger generation but for anybody that feels that they cannot live without modern ser-vices. And that is a lot of people! Teach like the Reallybigmonkey1 has if you have any skills that would be helpful to keep people out of the camps. Keep the momentum rolling!
I have my vehicles repaired by an older guy who can make things work.
My van needed a transmission a while back. The vehicle was old enough that the right one was no longer being manufactured. The mechanic got a rebuilt transmission that was similar to mine and made it work. The only problem with it was that I had to push the gear shift lever away from me instead of towards me when shifting from neutral to drive.
The bolt holding the spare tire under my pickup broke off a few years ago. My mechanic made a new one by welding a couple of things together.
I really don’t need those skills. I can’t have a garden where I live. I’m bugging in. I’m stocked up with food and water for a year. Eventually I can go outside and hunt birds and small animals for food if I have to.
Railroad car loadings fall 12.35% year over year. The worst since the Great Recession of 2008. IMF caught on the phone planning financial collapse of Europe for the IMF’s personal benefit. Learn every trade you can. Things are happening faster and faster.
Just made an anvil out of an old section of rail road rail , and a propane fired forge to heat up steel to make just about anything I want
Including weapons
Old timers got wedges cut in machine shop and sharpened very well. They put it in a boiler furnace with tongs and waited until it was so hot it appeared transparent. They then took it out and submerged it in a metal bucket of 500 weight super cylinder oil. It boiled the oil, then it cooled. It had a case hardened finish. The said they never needed sharpening. That oil had a very high percentage of carbon. Instant case hardening.
Hydraulic ram shaft,
2″ shaft,
cut a 10″ section
Make a fire, big hot fire
Heat that shaft stock toll red or more and beat on it with a sledge on a rock, anvil, train trach, bigger piece o steel
Give it a nice taper, heat it to yellow hot again, let it cool slowwwwww
Sharpen it with a file or whatever you got
Heat it to just past red, orange, toward yellow,,,
Dip just the first few inches in oil,
Do it again just for good measure then let it cool slowwww
And like Kevin said, use waste oil, preferrably from a big deisel, some of that black stuff, the black is carbon
Actually that wasn’t waste oil. I worked in an oil refinery that made lube oil and fuels (known as black & white in the industry). 500 Weight Super Cylinder Oil was viscus, black, used in steam engines (yes steam engines are still used). It did have a high percentage of carbon, hence its black color.
Sorry bout that, didnt word it right
I read about a marine engineer (they’re the best) take a steel pipe T, file some notches in it to make it a pipe threader and harden it by heating it red hot and submerging it into a super saturated solution of sugar water, virtually syrup. Sugar has a very high percentage of free carbon. With that he could cut threads and make the subsequent repair. Any of the practical stationary / marine engineering books are really useful because they cut to the chase avoiding unnecessary bullshit.
Not likely. The chemistry required to make it both fluid enough to cast and soft enough to machine makes it very soft and weak. Any alloys that make it stronger also increase the viscosity into that of oatmeal and make it unsuitable for casting. That is why you see steel forgings. A blob of oatmeal can be pounded into shape. But to keep it malleable enough to be pounded into shape it is not suitable for hardening.
You cannot add carbon to steel by simply heating it and quenching it in a carbon source. It takes time. Hours or days for the steel to absorb the required amount of carbon.
The historical way of surface hardening steel or iron was to put the parts in a cast iron box and cover them with coke and put a almost tight lid on the box. Then put this box in a oven and heat it past its transition temp. Today there are many pastes that you apply to the surface of the item and bake it in the oven. The industrial way is with an autoclave and carbon monoxide.
I’m telling you it was done and it worked. The steel used was no doubt boiler plate. That is the way it was done. I seen it. They been doing it for decades before I got there.
Carbon has many forms and thus many colors. Pure carbon is grey to translucent.
However quenching any steel in any oil will do little to the carbon content of the steel. In fact in many cases it will REDUCE the carbon content. What it does is merely effect the Martensite transformation of the steel making it harder. It makes little difference whether you use oil or water.
Ed
Power Magazine had the article too entitled “Practical Solutions In A Pinch” about the sugar water.
Those wedges had the appearance of case hardened steel like a Colt 1873, darker blue, almost black as I remember. Actually quite attractive. They were so hot that they were somewhat transparent in appearance coming out of the furnace.
You can pull a similar trick with a freshly sharpened chain saw ‘chain’ and she’ll stay far sharper for much longer, unless you dive it into the dirt (of course).
I don’t see any comments about this, so here goes… Does anyone else think all his stuff looks new and unused? Has he ever really done any of this stuff? His hands look smoother than mine! His clothes are in such good shape too.
The guy in the video has TWO hands – not one!
To SHTF,
Thank you so much for the article and for featuring this Guy!!!! He is absolutely Amazing. He is Smart, Practical, and very humble about how skillful he really is. THANK YOU DAVID.
Also, his vids makes one feel as if they have been out there and I needed that as a stress reliever. Much love to you David.