Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Training Yourself For Preparedness, by Joe Dolio

So many of the people in the preparedness community build massive stockpiles of supplies, including food, camping gear, backpacks, weapons & ammo, and all that ultra tacti-cool stuff. The problem is, they rarely get off the couch and train, and they rarely get out and use their gear. It does you no good to have a cool backpacking tent, but have no idea how to set it up. Having an ultra-light backpacking stove is great, unless you have no idea how to use it. Your 70 pound “bug out bag” may very well be well-stocked, but unless you’ve trained on …


CRKT Woods Chogan, by Pat Cascio

There are a lot of tools that are very suitable for survival purposes, as well as for just plain fun, and self-defense. In the past, I’ve mentioned that, in a hand-to-hand combat situation, as much as I love a good fighting knife – I designed several myself – I would prefer a well-made and well-balanced tomahawk (“t-hawk”) of some type. First of all, you will have a much longer reach, to get at your attacker, than you would with a knife. Secondly, there is a lot more “umph” behind a tomahawk that is swung at an attacker, And, of course, …


Tangible Investments on the Farm, by Animal House

As many Survival Blog readers remember JWR, and other knowledgeable sources, have been recommending various ‘tangible’ investments for several years. While I am not an expert on anything, I study various reports which I consider applicable to my lifestyle. The Institute for Supply Management issued a report which got my attention: “Things are now out of control. Everything is a mess, and we are seeing wide-scale shortages.” Bank of America’s Chief Investment Officer, Michael Hartnett, said: “Our worldwide supply chain, and ability to provide products and services to you, is being significantly impacted by increased prices resulting from labor and …


Using Different Size Axes, by Steve Acker

Every year that I can make it I go on summer vacation for a week in Colorado in a remote wilderness area, camping, hiking and fishing with old buddies. It is roughly 50 miles off of the nearest paved road. The area we use is a primitive camping area and at 10,000 feet. Temperatures can range from 34 F to 92 F. I use this time partly to keep up my outdoor skills, practice axe skills, evaluate new camping equipment and ideas, practice alternate fire building skills, and sit around the campfire with the guys telling stories about how fast …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 3, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) Can you hear me now? How do you plan on communicating when your cellphone doesn’t work? There are numerous radio options available including FRS/GMRS, MURS, CB, Marine band, and ham bands. Having spare radios and accessories will be important and those spares should be stored in Faraday cages. The problem with radio communications is that they are not secure, meaning others can listen in on your conversations gathering information that might then be used against you. Some of those radios will require batteries too that may give out at some point and …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1.) Where do we Start? Like everything we do in survival we have to look at vulnerability, that is: That which can hurt us the most and quickest. In my opinion safe and plentiful potable water is the highest priority. So, what can we do now to build our own water infrastructure so that when our blue 55-gallon drum is empty we don’t die of dehydration or cholera? Depending upon your living situation (urban/suburban/rural) this may be a simple process or a major challenge. The point however is to ensure that you have the infrastructure ready to …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

Today’s modern society, for the most part, is dependent upon several intertwined and dependent infrastructures. We rely upon these intertwined and dependent systems for our 21st Century Western lives. As we have witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic and the Texas Polar Vortex, these infrastructures can be very easy to interrupt and one disruption can start a domino effect. For many preppers, storing equipment and supplies back is the failsafe method for handling societal infrastructure disruptions. A family of four putting away a 55-gallon blue drum of water seems like a major achievement but in reality, that water will only last …


Springing Into More Prepping — An Update, by 3AD Scout

The snow has melted and temperatures are more often than not above freezing. Spring is right around the corner. We have been preparing for or have started several projects here at the homestead. It was great to see our contractor show up this past week to start to finish our screened-in porch that was started last Fall. This space can be used as a summer kitchen if need be. But more importantly we have started putting fence posts into the ground for our pasture. We designed a stainless steel “box” that will be used for our outdoor pizza/bread oven. The …


Tool Maintenance, by Richard T.

I’m now 73 years old and can’t remember ever not having tools. In my mother’s diary she wrote about little projects I made before I even started kindergarten at the age of four. Some of the tools that I have today were my father’s. These include a hammer and some tinsnips. They outlasted him and those and others will outlast me, if they are maintained properly. This is where most of us fall short, me especially when it comes to tools for tasks that I’m not particularly passionate about. Outdoor yard projects fall into that category. For a tool to …


Reloading for Obsolete Rimfires, by Michael Z. Williamson

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Yes, that’s correct. Reloadable rimfire ammo for your obsolete guns. I can now shoot my original rimfires, most notably my 1863 Colt Pocket Navy conversion. The company HC Collection in France produces these kits for .32 Rimfire, .32 Rimfire Long, .38 Rimfire, and .41 Rimfire, as well as several pinfire calibers. I bought one to try out. The .32 Rimfire kit contains cartridge cases, bullets, swaging tools, dies, and instruction (in English.) It comes in a wooden case. Because it shipped from overseas, it did not contain primers, but those are readily available here in the USA. This kit can be …


TEOTWAWKI Clothes-Washing System, by St. Funogas

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One thing we take for granted in this day and age is the ability to throw our clothes into a machine, forget about ‘em for an hour, then come back have them all nice and clean. When I was born, my military family was so poor my mother washed diapers for two babies in the bathtub. Not only was it hard on her knees but also on her petite hands as she wrung out all those diapers before hanging them on the line. The day my dad made third class he borrowed a crow (third-class insignia) and wore it home. …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready! Jim Reports: I’ve been keeping the home fires …


Keeper of The Fire, by PJGT

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This article is not about cutting wood, nor is it about the best chainsaw or other tools. It is about keeping the fire. About the life and warmth of a fire. If you are thinking about transitioning to wood fire heat, I’m hoping to help avoid some of the frustrations and shorten the learning curve of learning to keep a fire. I’ve lived in many different parts of the world, and there are different types of forests and wood available. Use what you have. Make it work. That’s my best advice. Getting things together and making it work is what …


Simple Heat Treating for a High Carbon Steel Knife Blade – Part 2, by Steve A.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) The blacksmith would heat the steel to a bright cherry red, check it with a magnet, bank the forge fire over the steel, and let it cool in the dying fire overnight, ensuring a very slow cooling rate. A modern heat treat shop would heat the steel to temperature in an atmosphere-controlled furnace and then turn the furnace off until the steel has cooled sufficiently. Another way to do this starts by clamping the file by its tang upright in a metal vise and annealing it with a torch. If you slowly …


Simple Heat Treating for a High Carbon Steel Knife Blade – Part 1, by Steve A.

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Modern civilization owes its existence in part to the early discovery that iron containing small amounts of carbon could be made much harder than other iron compounds. This substance, iron with between about 0.6 and 1.7 percent carbon and no other alloying elements, was the first predictably hardenable steel and can be referred to as “high carbon plain steel”. Such steels can be made as hard as a file and form the most basic group of tool steels, where tool steel is defined as steel that is able to cut softer steel. The range of these steels include the simple …