OLDEST TOOL
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon graphics above and to the right of each article. Or, visit
http://bisonpress.com/affiliatebooks.html
You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
*
So, here I was minding my own business reading what has turned into a surprisingly delightful read, The World Without Us, when something tripped a long ago buried memory of a movie I’d seen as a kid. I guess it was the visual of an empty savanna or what have you that the book imparted, but I remember a movie from the late 70’s or early eighties about a bunch of ape dudes running around grunting and getting a burning branch from a tree struck by lightning. Behold! Man’s earliest tool, fire! Now, being the type of chap that likes to assume the worse, I’m immediately starting to get all worked up about running out of fire making tools. The idea of sitting around twirling a stick with a bow to get a friction spark generated struck me as a good way to burn more calories in exercise than what you got from your cooked gruel. Sure, I have packs and packs of lighters, and I’ve stashed quite a few boxes of book matches in ziplock bags, but I only have so much room to store that kind of stuff. And that is a short term solution at best. I don’t know if this area has any flint, and if it did I’d probably be unable to identify it if a slab fell on my head. So steel and flint is out. Living in this area, I’ll also be faced with the shortage of cooking fuel so I can’t just keep a fire burning constantly to make sure I don’t need to regenerate a spark. Which, as an aside, might be where the term “fire watch” came from. You know that delightful military custom? You are generously awarded six hours of sleep by the military. But because the military would prefer all robots below the upper echelon brass ranks unmindful of obeying idiotic orders, they feel the need to constantly punish the mere mortals and assign “fire watch”. This is supposedly to always have someone awake in case of a fire but I always had my sneaking suspicion that it was to deny everybody adequate sleep ( my shift always seemed to be right in the middle of the night ). I wonder if it started because someone had to constantly feed a small fire so it never went out. If you always have a fire you never have to mess about with trying to start one.
*
By all means, have a camping fire starter, that bar you hit with your knife to get sparks. But I think a great solution might be the Fire Piston. You can get one at www.wildersol.com
The cheapest was about $40. Not the cheapest tool in the shed, but it seems like it would be invaluable come ten years after the collapse. Hoping that matches will still be made seems as foolish as thinking ammunition will still be manufactured somewhere you can trade with close by. The only thing I see as a problem, and I don’t actually know if it is, is the tool was an O ring. I don’t know if this would be an item liable to wear out or not. And if you are thinking of having a candle lit at all times in your cave, using that to start fires, are you sure there will be enough candles out there? If most of the bees are dying off and if beef fat is too valuable as a food to waste on candles, what are you going to use? And, I’m not trying to present the only solution. More like, I’m asking you to add “fire starting” to your list of soon difficult tasks you need to plan ahead on.
*
Well, that was a bit of a short subject. I could have bulked it up a bit but I’ll just fluff up this article with something else. Pepper spray girl! I want to meet this gal. Did anyone get a look at her in the video? Is she decent looking? I’ll accept a lot of junk in the trunk as long as the front is proportionately large. But no Pear Persons and no nasty end of fat. I wonder if she would like to be a Sugar Momma? You have to admire both the chutzpah and the calm demeanor of someone that sprays her way into a Black Friday sale, calmly picks her choices, pays at the register and them calmly exits the building. I can just see this gal wading into a crowd of zombies, coolly shooting them all and then returning to the Bison Lair to cook dinner. Sure, Black Friday is an idiotic tradition and I would never subject myself to the hysterical retards who frequent the sales. I don’t see a $300 game consol for $50, I see a crush of people stomping on my bruised and bleeding corpse. I see a replay of The Who in concert in the 70’s. I see naked reptilian hunting instinct being awakened after a few million ( or at least a few hundred thousand ) years. Of course, just because I won’t partake doesn’t mean this isn’t a great vetting process for desirable mates. Sure, you have to be careful you aren’t attracted to a compulsive mall shopper, a material girl. But if she works and makes her own crazy consumer cash, the combative drive might come in handy throwing her into a melee during the Apocalypse. Just make sure she can survive in a rural area. If online shopping can sustain her, you might have a winner. So, perhaps the newest prepper partner hunting grounds, Black Friday? Just something to think about, that’s all I’m saying.
*
Has anyone heard anything else on the web shut-downs by the gubberment? Monday, Nov. 18th, Glen was babbling something about ten sites shut down over the weekend. I’m wondering if I should stop using links. I just don’t know enough to know if I should be worried. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
*
Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
WOW
Only one little Item about survival??
you are losing your grip on survival.
You should start talking about rifles (specially the brit .303)...Trailer living....Desert locations (junk land)....wife # 2...etc. etc.
"I don’t know if this area has any flint, and if it did I’d probably be unable to identify it if a slab fell on my head. So steel and flint is out."
Hi Jim,
I am currently practicing this technique and would like to clear up a common misconception. First off, in case this isn't known to most, the ferrorods purchased at the store are not flint, even though they are often times refered to as "flint strikers." This is a man made rod of a componnent called misch metal. They are a good item to have on hand and will readily throw showers of hot sparks that will easily combust a variety of dry tinders; they also last for a long time.
Secondly, the traditional flint and steel method above is worth learning when resources are scarce. First off, flint is not required for this process. Any stone that is 7 or harder on the Mohs scale of hardness will work. This includes quartzites, jasper, agate, and many other rocks. It is the hardened High carbon steel that is producing the spark, not the actual stone, most do not know this? If you know nothing of geology, you can simply experiment on a variety of different stones to see which will produce desired results. Where I live quartz is plentiful and so this is what I use. You can purchase or look up online what the steel strikers look like, and then make your own by using an old file, or metal number punchers. You do this by heating the steel and then shaping it. After it is in the desired shape, you then heat it cherry red and then dowse it it brine water to harden it. Now this method does not throw sparks in the quantity and intensity as the above ferrorod, and so you will need to learn to make a tinder that will easily catch the small, less intense sparks that you will generate from this method, such as charcloth; it's easy, look it up.
"I can’t just keep a fire burning constantly to make sure I don’t need to regenerate a spark."
Look up an "apache cigar" it's a tinder bundle that will hold a coal and burn for many hours, if not days.
Keep a magnifying lens on hand, these are good for forever on sunny days, or until you drop them?
One tip that I would like to add, is to add some of those trick birthday candles to your firekit; the kind that do not blow out. These will make starting a fire when everything is damp a whole lot easier.
Jim some blogs have said over 150 sites have been blocked in the last few weeks.Rawles and others have post a numerical ip adress.what i have read says its the domain name that is blocked not the site. one post says goverment computers have even more blocks on them. You mite need to post your ip address {you could have offended a few officials }just incase.
Jim, I was wrong once before so it is possible it could happen again but I believe the movie you’re referring to is 2001 A Space Odyssey. As far as picking a mate; if you want a survivor just wait till after TSHTF aka The Big Vetting.
Does the little woman know that you are considering a replacement for her?
As far as a life time of fire goes, buy a torch striker, the small metal item used to light welding torches and a set of replacement flint tips. Total cost maybe 4 bucks and it will outlast you. One tip should be all you need for your entire life, but for an extra buck you get 5 replacement tips. Sold in any box hardware store, waterproof, simple, cheap, what more could you ask for?
SemperFido
I've got one of those fire pistons, you gotta be quick picking out the spark or it dies on you. It does require some lubricant (now now don't get all excited, lol) or the action is even less useful. Mine is brass piston and chamber, took in with a knife deal I purchased. I thought it gimmicky and my few experiments seem to bear this out - some internet sources with tips are recommended.
I prefer the fire steel myself. You need very fine tinder for both methods. Practice makes perfect, which is fortunately inexpensive and good skills practice.
That gal with pepper spray has chutzpah alright, try that in the hood and dat girl would be cut!
Daymm, forgot to add - did you see that tire solar cooker idea over at POSSUM LIVING? Man, for us desert dwellers, that would be the shit - check it out, only need an empty tire, blackened pot, and plywood panel and clear glazing sized to cover both top and bottom rim openings. I'm gonna give this one a try.
Ok. You got me. I'll state the obvious. You live in a mostly sunny desert... I hope you have a few magnifying lenses around to light tinder with. I've been doing that since grade school. You can also fry bugs with them, if you run out of other sources of entertainment.
The fire pistons look pretty neat- the sun does not always shine brightly.
I can add one more suggestion to your pile of nonsense. For those good days when you have sunshine...and may they be many...use the tool that does not wear out from use and overuse.
I am speaking of a magnifying glass to focus ole sol into an efficient fire starter. I have several, including one about two inches across with its own leather case. That puppy has been with me for so many years I have no clue where to find another. But go look.
Winston
My understanding of the Gummint shutdown thing is that they're going after sites that sell "counterfeit" stuff. Of course, being Headline Whores, they've shut some sites down by mistake to pad their stats.
AND, what they've blocked is the site by its' name: if you know the URL (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) by number, you can access it just fine. Which simply proves that the Gummint assumes you're just as stupid and technically inept as they are.
Uhhhhhhh...
sir, do you think you could sort write something about survival?
huh huh huh
today really sucked
huh huh huh
Anon: Why would you want Our Bisonic Overlord to remind folks about the Queen's Own Calibre? And the Final Rifle of Empire, the No4?
Don't you understand that people who realize the limitation of the Plastic RIfle and turn to the Enfield menas that both the Enfield and its' ammo will become more expensive? There's a reason I mention Remington brass here, and not the stuff that I actually use, you know...
yeah,you sucked dude!
write about something useful
what do you do with your turds?
how do you haul your poop to town without a truck?
stop being a butt burgler and write about survival. this professer dankin shit is getting old.
Damn I suck. Forgot all about a magnifying glass ( which I have, use to sort my copper pennies out by looking at dates ). The welding stricker sounds like a cheaper and better way. Thanks!
The magnifying glass is good and welding strikers are great, but nothing beats the coolness factor of the fire piston.
Bought one for DH a year ago. It works quite well and never ceases to amaze the city folks.
Idaho Homesteader
Just read "Mysterious Island," by Jules Verne. Got glass? Make fire.
wow. Peoples pounding Master for not covering only survival matters.Let's see...one paragraph covering an amusing incident. Horrors! Bad Master! Whiners! On 'lean' post days at Bison there are plenty of other humorless automaton survival sites for your witless perusal. Come back when the yuppies bore you or make you sick. S.D.
OK, off topic, but I finally finished Lights Out, by D. Crawford. I was really impressed with this book, definitely one of the best I've read--hands down. Is this book in your top 3? I can't understand how you like Hammer, more than this book, I still think it must be nostalgia from reading it when you weren't a greybeard.
As far as fire starting goes, how bout a couple of Zippo lighters and some spare flints. A Zippo will work with damn near any petroleum fuel such as stale gas, kerosene, paint thinner, WD-40 and Coleman fuel. A friend used JP4 aviation fuel in his and lit his cigarettes in an open chopper going 100 miles per hour. We used to use leaded gasoline in our Zippos, which may explain my current mental state :-) One gallon of Coleman fuel or paint thinner will last the rest of your life. Hail Darwin
"As far as fire starting goes, how bout a couple of Zippo lighters and some spare flints."
Here's another great alternative to the Zippo lighter and they use the same type of fluid. What's nice about these is that the striker which unscrews from the body of the unit and is struck against a built in ferrod to ignite, has an 0-ring that seals the fluid and prevents it from evaporating. My Zippo would have to have fluid added every few days, but I picked one of these up a few years after sitting in my dresser and it still had fluid and lit right up. And they're cheap as well at $2.99. I bought a bunch of them. If the fluid ever dries up you still have a ferrod to strike tinder, neat little invention, and well made for the price.
http://budk.com/Gifts-and-Gadgets/Permanent-Match-Lighter
The movie you were referring to was "Quest For Fire", which starred a bunch of unknown actors and was actually quite well done for a low budget film.
Cheers.
Another vote for magnifying glasses. They never wear out, they can be used even if you have one broken arm, they're also handy for reading the fine print, identifying mushrooms, removing splinters, etc.
Thank you, Anon 11:32am. Indeed, the film was Quest For Fire. A very good one.
Though then unknown, it did star Ron Perlman (he is in Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy, etc). It was also directed by this French dude that directed "The Bear" (which is also a neat little film that follows the story of a bear in the wild).
His Hairness - you continue to have the best written blog in the survivalist scene. Day in, and day out, you produce your own content. If there is any justice in Stewpot-ville, the residents will quickly elect you as their mayor and swear allegiance to your scalp.
Post a Comment