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Post by Black Hand on Mar 21, 2020 15:05:06 GMT -7
Is there a skill at which you excel? Is there a skill you feel is critical?
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 22, 2020 6:14:51 GMT -7
Is there a skill at which you excel? Is there a skill you feel is critical? Surviving! Joking aside, when I attended survivor school I personally believe as I've witnessed, most important aspect is to keep your mind busy, clear and calm and maintain a sense of humor. If you cannot control your mind you've already lost. Outside of that water collection and purification along with adequate work/ rest cycles. I'm reading people are having such a ruff time being "quarantined" at home... Shows what type of mindset the mass modern society has. I truly believe 90% of the population wouldn't last three days in the wilderness.
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 22, 2020 7:18:42 GMT -7
Surviving! Joking aside, when I attended survivor school I personally believe as I've witnessed, most important aspect is to keep your mind busy, clear and calm and maintain a sense of humor. If you cannot control your mind you've already lost. Outside of that water collection and purification along with adequate work/ rest cycles. I'm reading people are having such a ruff time being "quarantined" at home... Shows what type of mindset the mass modern society has. Agreed - it is a matter of expending less calories than you take in. I'm always amused when I see someone actively hunting - walking up and down, left and right looking for the one BIG score. This is wasteful & dangerous. Traps & snares for small game are a better choice - not very complicated or calorie-consuming, yet yield a better return on your investment. Set them and forget them until later or the next day then collect your protein and reset. Collect plants and tinder as you walk to check your traps/snares. Spend your time wisely! Your mind can be your best ally or your worst enemy. I truly believe 90% of the population wouldn't last three days in the wilderness. You are truly generous! Once most no longer have access to a cell-phone network, panic will ensue...
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 22, 2020 16:58:18 GMT -7
I truly believe the wilderness mentality is just so much more special and personal when the forest is your playground growing up. You develop skills, learn from mistakes and press on, resiliency is acquired/ learned as is a deep appreciation and respect for the forest and it's creatures, which becomes deeply rooted and it most certainly has shaped who I am.
Sure I'm safe in saying I may be the only millennial who got their rear lit for not coming out of the forest when darkness set. Had a nice fire built and decided I wasn't coming in for the night!
Time management/ caloric expenditure in a survival situation absolutely is critical. There is no "go big or go home" with survival, yet it's "go big or go home dead". The calories often are not there depending on environmental conditions, so building say a mega shelter when a simple natural shelter provided will suffice is foolish.
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 22, 2020 18:39:59 GMT -7
Fire lighting & building is a skill that is no longer common. Some people couldn't build a fire with a flare and a gallon of gas...
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Keith
City-dweller
Bushfire close but safe now. Getting some good rain.
Posts: 990
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Post by Keith on Mar 22, 2020 18:47:49 GMT -7
I think that the ability to make fire under all weather conditions with flint, steel & tinderbox is a very important skill to learn, & one that I feel I am reasonably good at. But like all survival scenarios, ones ability to survive does not depend on one skill alone, but many skills. I have probably posted this list of skills before, but I guess it will not hurt if I do it again.
Woodsrunner’s Skills.
New England Colonial Living History Group 1680-1760.
This is a list of basic skills in which we expect an 18th century woodsman or woods-woman to have some experience with in our group. There is no time limit set, learn in your own time & if we can help just ask.
Keith.
• Flint & steel fire lighting
• Wet weather fire lighting
• Fire-bow fire lighting
• Flintlock fire lighting
• Flintlock use, service & repair
• Marksmanship with either gun or bow.
• Field dressing & butchering game
• Blade sharpening
• Tomahawk throwing
• Making rawhide
• Brain tanning
• Primitive shelter construction
• How to stay warm in winter with only one blanket
• Cordage manufacture
• Moccasin construction and repair
• Sewing
• Axe and tomahawk helve making
• Fishing
• Hunting
• Evasion
• Tracking
• Reading sign
• Woods lore
• Navigation
• Primitive trap construction & trapping
• Open fire cooking
• Fireplace construction
• Clothing manufacture
• Drying meat & other foods
• Knowledge of plant tinders & preparation
• Knowledge of native foods & preparation
• Knowledge of native plants in the area and their uses for other than tinder and food.
• Scouting/Ranging.
• Basic first aid.
• Finding and treating water.
• General leather work.
Keith.
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 22, 2020 18:53:34 GMT -7
I still need to light a fire with my lock...
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Keith
City-dweller
Bushfire close but safe now. Getting some good rain.
Posts: 990
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Post by Keith on Mar 22, 2020 19:04:51 GMT -7
Fire lighting & building is a skill that is no longer common. Some people couldn't build a fire with a flare and a gallon of gas... At one time I used to be a bodyguard/minder. One client could not light her wood burning stove to save her life! Not only this but she continually left the vent open so that the fire burnt out. This fire lighting chore fell to me, several times a day!!! Like many skills, sometimes we do not realise just how much we know, & just how good we are at performing these skills until we are made aware that many others have not got a clue as to how these skills are performed. I have no doubt what so ever that I am probably ignorant myself of many skills, but I am at least proficient in the ones that are really important to me, & important for the survival of my family & myself. When society collapses, which it will in the near future, the skills that we all share will be the only skills that really matter. Keith.
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Keith
City-dweller
Bushfire close but safe now. Getting some good rain.
Posts: 990
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Post by Keith on Mar 22, 2020 19:08:24 GMT -7
I still need to light a fire with my lock... Always a good one to know, it gives you a back-up just in case. Keith.
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 22, 2020 19:28:53 GMT -7
It will be the back-up to the back-up to the back-up (Flint & steel, burning glass then bow-drill fire). I still remember my first success with a bow-drill, took 2 of us almost an hour to get somewhere. With the set I show in the Survival section, start to coal can be as little as 30-60 seconds if the humidity is cooperative.
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 23, 2020 4:53:43 GMT -7
Perseverance is critical! Making fire in all weather conditions with various methods is something I personally take for granted... I've done it so much I often overlook the process with little thought.
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Post by Sicilianhunter on Mar 23, 2020 7:12:40 GMT -7
I suck at making friction fire (bow and Drill) as it seems all I ever can produce is smoke. Care to give a tutorial on that ?
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 23, 2020 11:23:27 GMT -7
I suck at making friction fire (bow and Drill) as it seems all I ever can produce is smoke. Care to give a tutorial on that ? If you have smoke you "likely" have an ember but just don't realize it. What type of wood are you using for your hearth board?
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Post by Sicilianhunter on Mar 23, 2020 12:31:50 GMT -7
I suck at making friction fire (bow and Drill) as it seems all I ever can produce is smoke. Care to give a tutorial on that ? If you have smoke you "likely" have an ember but just don't realize it. What type of wood are you using for your hearth board? If I recall the drill was a hardwood and the fire board was a softwood I don’t recall exactly what types of wood they were
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Post by Black Hand on Mar 23, 2020 14:41:06 GMT -7
If you have sustainable smoke AFTER you stop drilling, then you probably have a coal. If all you have is smoke WHILE drilling, something else is up.
If you have a coal, you will see a tendril of smoke and the ember should show if you gently blow on the pile of black dust/nascent coal created by the spindle/fire board.
I use cottonwood for spindle and fire board. Works like a charm...
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