(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
At one auction, I found some very odd tools for some type of woodwork. Upon research they were used by wheelwrights to make wooden wagon wheels. I have an interest in several old trades but wheel making is not one of them. On a trip to Holmes County, Ohio (in Amish country) I took those old wheelwright tools and traded them for some other tools (blacksmithing and chisels) that I did want at the Colonial Homestead Store, in Millersburg [1]. This store offers old but usable tools from many old trades. Just walking through the store was like being in a museum but you are able to pick up the items, touch them, and examine them. This was a fantastic way to learn about tools for various trades. Now, when I am out at sales, I am able to better identify older tools for several forgotten trades.
Hardware and Supplies
So, once you have the knowledge, skills, and tooling, having a good stock of hardware and supplies will be needed. I dabble around in leather crafting. I have mostly made my own knife sheaths, axe covers, and hatchet covers. There are some specialized hardware that are not found in many of your local stores. Trying to barter after the collapse for these items may be difficult to impossible. This applies to many items for other specialized trades/crafts not just those for leather crafting. Using leather crafting as an example, I keep a medium-sized Plano tackle box (roughly 14”L x 14”H x 10”W) with many divided drawers stocked with copper, steel and aluminum split rivets, solid copper rivets and burrs and various semi-tubular rivets. Then I have various types (brass, chrome) and lengths of Chicago screws (aka sex bolts/barrel bolts). Then there are the “D” rings, and various snaps.
I also keep various sizes and types of leather on hand for projects. A good supply of needles and various types of threads round out the stockpile. Besides leather, three other materials to use for improvisation projects are wood, metal (think sheet metal) and cloth. Again, each of those materials requires knowledge, skills, tooling, and on-hand stocks of material and supplies, to be ready to tackle your post-TEOTWAWKI improvised survival projects.
Games Preppers Play
First, I have a problem. As hard as I try I cannot go into a hardware store and buy just the items I went there for. Depending upon the store, I will look at the clearance section or the seasonal items left at the end of a season. I also look for new products the store might be stocking. As I walk up and down the aisles looking at galvanized pipe hanger, stainless steel cable, to plumbing fitting, I ask myself “what can I use this for in a survival situation?” The better educated you are in different survival subjects, the better this “game” is. Two-inch galvanized pipe fittings in the clearance rack can be used to attach a rotary hand pump to a fuel tank or to cobble together a wood gasifier, roller chain can be used in an improvised windmill. This “game” can also be played at the “Army Surplus” store, thrift shop, and hobby store.
Make Do or Do Without
After TEOTWAWKI, driving down to the local hardware store or ordering on-line will be a distant memory. Being ready to improvise will be vital to our survival. Understanding the low-tech materials our forefathers used will help us pivot to a life without global supply chains and high tech manufacturing processes.
Before the advent of synthetic materials, like nylon and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), leather was one of the go-to materials for straps, pouches, footwear and pump leathers. Leather was was even used as hinges. Who knows what you might be required to fashion in a world without supply lines. Anticipating that you will have to be your own hardware store allows you to time now, to prepare by acquiring any tools and supplies, whether that be for leather, wood, cloth or even bone and rock. If we cannot improvise post TEOTWAWKI, we are going to have to do without.
Jerry Rigging
The good news is, Americans have lots of stuff (compared to our European cousins). All that “stuff” may have the potential to be “Jerry rigged” into something needed in the reversion back to 18th or 19th Centuries. Having grandparents who lived through or grew up during the Great Depression and rationing of World War Two, I saw how everything was saved. Clothing was repaired until it could not be and then it was used in quilts or patch material to repair other clothes. Tin cans were saved, if for nothing else the metal that could be used to make something else. We need to adopt that same mentality. When you start emptying 5-gallon buckets of rice and beans what can you use the empty buckets for? What can you use all those empty number ten cans, that once held your freeze-dried foods, for?
Guilty as Charged
I have been accused, more than once, of being a “redneck engineer.” To me, that should be worn like a merit badge. It takes little effort these days to fix problems. Why? Cause it seems like there is an App, website, support group, not to mention Google that negates our need to think. My generation grew up with toys like erector sets, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys and if you were lucky your parents might have even bought you some Legos. As we grew older, we were introduced to new “toys” like shovels, hammers, and screwdrivers. These shovels, hammers and screwdrivers were real too, not “virtual”. I believe our ability to “play” and imagine fostered our ability to improvise when needed as adults.
Cobbling together an improvised project post-TEOTWAWKI does not need to win any prizes at the county fair but it should solve the basic problem at hand. I cannot tell you how many projects I have tinkered around with where the original finished project was improved. Sometimes, the tweaks are made to make the final project actually work (if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again). Sometimes the tweaks are to improve performance, such as stopping a leak or reducing vibration. Sometimes tweaks are made to improve the longevity of the project itself. Perhaps you add bracing or use a different type of material. The key to successful improvised projects is just trying.
Safety First
I would be remiss if I did not mention safety. Tinkering can be fun, but it can also be dangerous. Always wear eye protection, and as needed: hearing protection, gloves, boots, a bump helmet, et cetera. Keep a fire extinguisher close at hand. One of my entrepreneurial nephews made a homemade dirt bike with an old lawn mower engine and a “bunch of junk”. What he did not fashion was a chain guard. The chain came off and cut him across his leg. Safety needs to be a forethought, not an afterthought when we make improvised projects.
Some Final Thoughts
When you start stockpiling equipment and supplies for post-TEOTWAWKI projects it is good to keep an inventory of what you have and where you have it. See my two-part September, 2024 SurvivalBlog article on Preparedness Logistics [2].
Having a five-gallon bucket full of 10d 3” hot dipped galvanized nails might seem excessive but when you consider how many nails you might use in a repair project or a new building like a chicken coop, you will quickly realize a 5 gallon bucket is not excessive at all but rather a start. My Amish neighbor builds pole barns. I asked him how many hex head self-tapping roofing/siding screws he uses on a job and it was thousands. The point is, do not think your 5-pound box of nails will get you through the apocalypse.
I do not have any issues with storing nails and other hardware for TEOTWAWKI, but I do find myself having issues with storing things like paint, aerosol cans of lubricant, or solvents, and glues and epoxies. These all have shelf-lives. Trying to balance what your store and what you can use/rotate through before these types of products go bad is more challenging. I do find that storing these products inside of a climate-controlled environment helps extend their shelf-life. When I buy paint, glues, epoxies and the like, I use a fine-tip black felt marker to write down the date I purchased the product. This helps with first-in, first-out (FIFO) rotation and establishing how long you can store certain products before they dry up/harden or otherwise become useless.