Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(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.  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.  Continue reading“Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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First up, over at Zero Hedge: The Fix Is in to Defeat Alberta Independence.

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This piece by Paul Joseph Watson if one for the “England Has Fallen” file: He Didn’t See This Coming

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A quite useful video: Installing My Underground Propane Tank.  JWR’s Comments: The crucial item is the connected sacrificial anode. Typically, those are composed of zinc. The anode will corrode before the steel of the tank. The same concept is used on steel-hull ships, with welded-on zincs. If you have fairly dry soil, then it is a good idea to have a vertical pipe of at least 1.5-inch diameter that leads down to the anode. With a semi-annual filling from your garden hose, that will keep the anode wet. Adding a coating of asphalt emulsion over the paint will make an underground tank last even longer.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten—that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side-by-side with the greatest.” – Judge Learned Hand

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 10, 2026

On  March 10, 1831, the French Foreign Legion was established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.

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March 10, 1891: Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patented the Strowger Switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.

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And on March 10, 1910, China officially ended slavery. But unofficially, China now has one of the world’s largest slave populations. These are mostly political prisoners, working in prison factories. Sadly, there is no way of reliably knowing whether or not most of the “Made In China” merchandise that you buy might originate from these prisons.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  2. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

We have all seen the post-apocalyptic movies where improvise armored vehicles with machine guns roam the landscape.  These Hollywood creations make for great entertainment but are such cobbled together machines just fantasy?  The civil war in Somalia introduced the world to “Technicals”, or utilizing civilian vehicles, like decades old Datsun and Totota Hilux pickup trucks, as a platform to mount heavy machine guns, like the Soviet era DShK 12.7mm.  Thirty years later and such vehicles are now being used on the battlefields of Ukraine.  Not only has Ukraine made improvised war wagons out of civilian pickup trucks but they have used off-the-shelf drones to make an impressive improvised air force.  Just as modern warfare has caused the need for improvisation, so will The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI).  How can we be better prepared to improvise when the time comes?Continue reading“Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest.  Today, a public domain photo of the Palouse Hills at sunset in late summer, by Alejandro Rodriguez.  The thumbnail photo below is click-expandable.

Send Your Media Links

Please send your links to media from the American Redoubt region to JWR. Any photos that are posted or re-posted must be uncopyrighted. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“It is my belief that there are ‘absolutes’ in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant, and meant their prohibitions to be ‘absolute.’” – Justice Hugo L. Black

Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 9, 2026

On March 9, 1776, Adam Smith published the influential economics book “The Wealth of Nations”.

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March 9, 1916: Pancho Villa‘s men killed more than a dozen in a raid on Columbus, New Mexico.

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March 9, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces bombed Tokyo with napalm, causing fires that destroyed a quarter of the city and killed some 80,000 civilians.

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Today’s feature is by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.

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We still need entries for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Ontario M3 Fighting Knife, by Thomas Christianson

The M3 Fighting Knife was designed with a single purpose: to kill the enemy. It was designed to penetrate deeply into an opponent during hand-to-hand combat, severing arteries and veins along the way, so that the opponent would quickly lose enough blood to cease to be a threat.

The M3 and the KA-BAR were evaluated together for the US military in 1942 by civilians on the Smaller War Plants Corporation Board. It was adopted by that board based on civilian rather than military criteria. The chairman of that board was eager to select designs that could be quickly and economically produced by small businesses, thus allowing private industry to more smoothly reconvert to peacetime goods production after the war.Continue reading“Ontario M3 Fighting Knife, by Thomas Christianson”

Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Garlic is from SurvivalBlog reader Callie B.

Ingredients
  • 1 large bunch of fresh asparagus, washed and with woody butt ends cut off
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 3 Tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt (to taste)
  • Black pepper, preferably freshly ground. (To taste)
Directions
  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Place the asparagus spears in a large bowl then add the olive oil and garlic and toss to coat them.
  3. Season with salt and pepper (to taste).
  4. Transfer the asparagus spears onto a thick metal baking sheet and arrange in one even layer so that every spear is touching the sheet.
  5. Roast for 15-30 minutes to desired consistency. Cooking times will vary based on the thickness of the asparagus spears and how well roasted you like them.
  6. Remove from oven and transfer the asparagus spears to a serving dish.  If you used too much oil, then blot them with a paper towel before serving.
SERVING

Serve it while it is still hot.

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Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic: U-Haul 2025 Growth Index. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)  It is obvious that the Inland Northwest, the Southeast, and Texas are the winners, while the increasingly socialist California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York are the losers.

The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

 

 

 

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Please send your graphics or graphics links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“Who’s going to trust the British media when we know now for a fact that the Trusted News Initiative is an organization of media partners that recognize that their real enemy is independent media? Their enemy, they’re not competing with one another anymore. They’re competing against independent media. It became very clear in COVID. It wasn’t a revolutionary moment. It was a revelationary moment where a lot of people saw for the first time [that] you can’t trust your government. You can’t trust your media. You can’t trust corporations. They’re there to control you. They require that you are ignorant and docile in order that they can control you. A lot of people woke up.” – Russell Brand, in a March 2026  interview with Tommy  Robinson

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 8, 2026

Richard “Dick” Hyman turns 99 today! (He was born March 8, 1927.) Dick Hyman is a jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, pioneering electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellow in 2017.

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March 8th is also the birthday of famed revolver shooter, big game hunter, and gun writer Elmer Keith, who co-designed the S&W .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges. He authored the book Sixguns, which is still considered a standard reference. His fascinating life story is told in his last book, Hell, I was there!  A Proto-Redoubter, Keith spent the second half of his life on a ranch near Salmon, Idaho. (Keith was born in 1899 and died February 12, 1984.)

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Today’s feature article is by our friend “Kim Kipling”, a retired CIA officer. It is not part of the writing contest judging. JWR recommends his books.

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We still need entries for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

The Fighting Cane, by “Kim Kipling”

The need to be prepared to defend one’s self in an increasingly uncivil, hostile world is apparent. I strongly recommend the daily carriage of a defensive sidearm, backed up by a reliable edged weapon whenever possible, and I strongly encourage regular practice with these essential tools. More important than simply having hardware is cultivating the mindset of awareness and preparedness. But all too often, our increasingly intrusive nanny state governments, both national and local, enact laws and encourage policies designed to disarm us in public places. Some jurisdictions will go out of their way to prosecute any use of armed defensive force with a firearm or blade, as a punitive example to other citizens who might think of disobeying their draconian weapons restrictions. They all too often harness the power of law to prevent us from being armed and to punish those who arm and defend themselves anyway.

Fortunately, there is a loophole in these misguided, unconstitutional and frankly evil efforts to disarm good people. Two federal laws with real teeth provide for the routine, universal, and legally authorized carriage of a potent weapon of self-defense: the Fighting Cane. (Proviso: I am not a lawyer and the information contained in this article is not legal advice. Do your own research on these matters or consult a licensed attorney.)Continue reading“The Fighting Cane, by “Kim Kipling””

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

Meme Text:

The Amazingly Popular New Game:

Ayatollah Whackamollah

News Link:

Who Will Be Iran’s Next Supreme Leader?

Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks!

Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.