SurvivalBlog.com

I’ve been lurking about SurvivalBlog for about six months now, and have found a lot of useful information hereabouts. There are lots of good tips about securing your retreat and making it less visible. One thing I have noticed though is that there appears to be a blind spot. Why go to all the trouble to screen your retreat location from view and practice nighttime light discipline if you are going to announce your presence far and wide audibly?

One thing I’ve noticed lately is there is a lot of discussion on stocking up on two-cycle and bar oil for chainsaws. For those of you who live in the hinterboonies already: Think back a few months to woodcutting season. I’ll bet if you stop and think about it, you would be able to locate your neighbors for a couple miles around – at least – based on the sounds of their Stihl and Husqvarna–nobody uses Homelite or McCulloch anymore–chainsaws. For those of you not familiar with life in the hinterlands yet: The crisp airs of autumn and early winter carry the sound of chainsaw exhaust for miles. Those things are shrieking banshees that scream “Here I am!” Not only do they announce your location to the world-at-large, they also mask the sound of anyone approaching the woodcutter’s AO. So, even if you post a security detail around your work party, they are going to be relying solely on visual contact to detect approaching hostiles.
To me, the better route would be to leave the chainsaw in the emergency stash, and do your woodcutting with a crosscut saw. Yes, the misery whip “sings,” but its slight ring doesn’t carry nearly as far as the chainsaw’s blare and shriek. (For those who don’t know — The crosscut saw got the nickname “misery whip” because an improperly set and sharpened crosscut saw is exactly that: a miserable implement to spend your days with. Caution: Caring for and using this device requires some skills.)
Side Note: You did notice that I didn’t say “Forget the chainsaws!” didn’t you? I live in ‘quake country and – due to misguided forestry practices over the past century – anyone who lives outside of town these days lives in wildfire country. When I want to get through the roof of a collapsed structure quickly, I’m going to reach for my trusty Stihl, not a crosscut. And, two men with chainsaws can clear a firebreak a lot quicker than two men with a crosscut. Just save the chainsaws for the times that saving time and lives is more important than keeping a low sound profile. There are always trade-offs to be made in survival situations.

You don’t give up all that much in efficiency – if you learn to use and care for your saw properly – by using a crosscut instead of a chainsaw. I’m told that wasn’t until the 1960s that a chainsaw was able to beat a two-man saw in log bucking contests. Those of you who take in logger rodeos know that those bucking saws are the chainsaw hot-rods — they’re anything but stock.
If you have the personnel available, you could send out multiple three-man teams with one two-man saw per team. The “odd man out” would serve as part of the security detail for the wood cutting operation. The cutting team would put their LBE and rifles aside – but close at hand – while the security person would retain his. (Yes, women can hang-to with men on a cross-cut once they learn the pace. I’m saying men for language simplicity.) Every 15 minutes the saw crew could take a 5 minute break and one of them could rotate with the security man. That way, each man spends a maximum of a half-hour on the business end of the saw before getting a 20-minute break. Once everyone is used to the drill, the interval between breaks could be stretched to a half-hour. By sending out multiple teams, you get a larger security detail, and it would be most effective to stagger the breaks so you always have one – or more – security man on point. This reduces the risk of everyone having to rely on sidearms until they can fight their way back to their rifles. (Which is the purpose of a sidearm, in my book: It exists solely to fight your way back to the rifle you shouldn’t have let get out-of-reach in the first place. Or, to acquire another rifle when yours breaks or runs dry. Bad troopie! No cookie!)

Don’t have the personnel? Then use a one-man crosscut saw and have your lovely bride or elder son be your security detail. Whatever you do, don’t get in the habit of sending out work details without a security detail! That’s the easiest way there is to take casualties and leave the door open to deadly infiltration. ([They see someone wearing familiar clothing and say] “It’s Okay! That’s just Bob coming back from cutting wood!”) I am wholeheartedly against “going it alone” post-TEOTWAWKI. If you’re single and alone in the world, you need to build a support group of like-minded individuals that you can rely on. They’re just like finding the perfect bride: They are out there. The problem is finding them. Trust me – I know from experience. I come from a large clan (We’re Celts — the term clan has significant meaning for us.), so I’ll be relying on family. My Dad insured that my brothers and I were all well-familiarized with the crosscut saw as a tool for doing real work. Along with the scythe, the #2 shovel, and a host of other “old school” tools. Once you become familiar with man-powered tools, you will be surprised what you can do in a day.

One way to reduce your exposure is to cut your wood to cord length (4 feet) in the woods, cold deck it, then transport it back to the retreat via horse and sledge once the snows come. (Personally, I’d leave it cold-decked for a year, and then transport it once it’s seasoned — much easier on the people loading the sledge and the horses pulling it. You should have at least two years’ firewood stored at the retreat before TSHTF anyway.) You can buck it to stove length back at the retreat with a one-man saw. Better yet would be to have a water powered buzz saw at the retreat. Quiet, but much less work! Any cord lengths that are too heavy to throw up on your shoulder to tote to the cold deck can be hand split with a maul and wedges. Most hardwoods are much easier to split green than once they’ve seasoned. This brings up another point: Using steel mauls and wedges is just like ringing a bell. So learn how to fabricate a wooden maul and wooden splitting wedges. It’s not all that hard, and the benefit of having your maul and wedges go “thwock” instead of having that high-pitched ping of steel hitting steel is worth it. (The secret is to fashion your wedges from green hardwood rounds, then set them aside to season for at least a year. You can ‘smith up some top rings for your wooden wedges and put them on hot on the seasoned wedges that you’ve soaked in the rain barrel for a couple days. The hot rings will compress the grain on the wedges so they don’t split when hit with the maul. You do the same thing on each end of the maul head, but – of course – the rings are much bigger.)
Here are some sources for crosscut saws and the necessary tools to maintain them:

If you want a good quality new saw at a bargain price, Woodcraft.com carries a five-foot German two-man saw for $74.99:

Lehmans.com carries the saw accessories that will allow you to maintain your saw.

The Federal Highway Administration has a series of articles on using and caring for crosscut saws.

Have you caught on to the fact that when you live in the hinterboonies you operate on a different time scale than the insane pace that city folk try to maintain? You have to learn to think and plan in a completely different manner when you are attempting to be self-reliant for the long term. It’s not an easy adjustment. That’s why I agree with Mr. Rawles: You want to be [long hence] settled in and living at your retreat when this post-modern world comes down around our ears.

One last admonition on “Sound Security:” Buy a [hunting] bow. Learn how to use it. Learn how to stalk and take game with it. Learn to have confidence in it and in your ability to provide for your family with it. Learn how to make a bow from wood from your woodlot, and learn how to make and fletch arrows. Then, when the Schumer goes through the turbines, leave your rifle slung while hunting and take your meat with a well-placed arrow. Rifle reports carry even further than a chainsaw’s banshee shriek. Save your ammo for the hostiles. – Countrytek

JWR Adds: I addressed noise discipline in my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, but you are right that it has been insufficiently addressed in SurvivalBlog. Thanks for sharing your comments on this subject. regarding bow hunting: Keep in mind that most state game regulations prohibit carrying a rifle when bow hunting, so your last comment would only apply to an absolute TEOTWAWKI situation.