Steve2md

Tarps are super cheap. I live in insanely sunny and hot AZ, and a tarp lasts me about 2 years

Sorry, I got distracted by a real world damascus jewelry project / orders. I'll likely have to be eaten by a bear or something since this project is going to be at least a week of full days..

A few of us cobble together a raft large enough for five of us (2 rowers and a navigator, who can rotate duties, with room for 2 rescues if needed) and begin rowing out near the end of high tide toward the fires we saw last night. As the tide withdraws, it pulls us farther out, saving valuable energy. It is our intent to see who these other people are and what their resources are. We can also determine if better living conditions or rescue visibility are available. We will signal the rest of the group that evening. 2 bonfires=Stay, we will start back in the morning, 3 fires=Come to us.

Reality bleeds into the game...: I slept terribly last night due to my spinal injury and woke up in extreme pain this morning... Hoping prevenge shares some of those mushrooms to help ease the pain and get me functional

All critters have patterns. We can get by on foraged goods and a lucky hit on a deer, but the bear seems interesting. Large figure 4 deadfall would probably just injure it and make it change its pattern. Spear vs bear is too high risk as far as a hunt goes. I'm thinking pitfall with spikes or leg hold (hole in the ground, down facing spikes). tires in the debris maybe? if so, light one up andfeed it a new tire every so often. Plenty of black smoke during the day, visible fire at night

The general rule for plants is that 80% of the world's plants will either kill you or make you very uncomfortable. You are beter off with protein sources for the short term. 80% of the plants are out to get you, but 90% of the insects are safe to eat (some even taste good when roasted or fried). Although I have done the "test a little bit and wait" method with plants, I prefer to stick to species that I can positively identify. If it comes down to it, you can get your vegetable needs from grasses at the least. Vitamin c can be the hard one, but any pine needles can be boiled to make a seriously vitamin c rich tea. Latitude is about right for fiddleheads, nettles, and a few others though...yum. As for shelter type, a lean to against a large low hanging tree is fast and easy. Shelters should be as small as possible, since your body will try to heat the area around it. If the situation drags out for more than a week or so without rescue, I'd begin making a more permanant shelter. 4 sticks stuck in the ground with branches woven in makes for some pretty solid walls. debris/duff is great insulation. Layer the roof until it doesn't leak and add a hole for smoke to escape and you can have a tiny warming fire inside (cooking should be done away from the shelter when bears exist in the area. If I got lucky with debris (porta pot/plywood/etc) the shelter gets even better.

Might've been through SERE school while enlisted, plus growing up in the woods and taking some civilian courses after getting out don't hurt. Water and body temp regulation are key. Food is secondary, but still important. If you're not running from someone/something, you should be a "lazy survivalist". Minimum effort for maximum results. You have limited calories and water, so traps over hunting, natural shelter with a few modifications are preferred overcreating a shelter from scratch. Springs are better than streams (usually springs have clean water). Tidal traps are just insurance. Cordage can be found washed up on about every beach in the world, as can the ever present plastic bottle. Luck will get you a pot/lid/can/etc for boiling, but water can be boiled in a plastic water bottle if you are careful. If not, a hot coal can be placed on a chunk of wood and the charcoal scraped out to make a dish/bowl. Rocks heated in the fire can be placed in a bowl of water to bring it to a boil...

First tool is a blade. Simple mild steel from debris is fine in a survival situation. If steel isn't available, break a few rocks until you get a sharp shard. With a blade, you can cut/make cordage for snares and other stuffs. You can dress game captured in said snares. Laying rocks into small 3' diametter x 6-12" deep circular walls when the tide is out will trap tidal critters like small crabs/fish/mollusks/etc for food. Those traps are tools too. A shovel would be handy, could be made from just about anything. Need to bury your waste for health reasons, might need to dig at the head of a spring or stream to get clean water. If you could find some wire (springs from mattresses/etc) you can use your rocks to cold form fishing hooks and fishing spears. Fire from friction is relatively easy with practice, and now you have all the time in the world to practice... Willow is excellent for fire by friction. The flowered Catkins of male alders are edible and relatively high in protein. The inner bark of willows and their catkins can be ground into a flour and mixed with water to make a quasi "bread". But consumption of willow should be limited, as it thins the blood (like aspirin) and too much can drop your blood pressure enough to cause a problem.

Fireplace tongs are a surprisingly easy project to start with. Take 2 pieces of 1/4" x 1" bar stock, pick how long your jaws need to be and make a mark. Heat and twist both pieces clockwise 90 degrees at that mark. Then 2" back from the twist, heat and twist clockwise again. now drill and set your rivet.... quick tongs. adjust jaws as needed

See, My forge is to my left, anvil a quarter turn to the right, horn to the right.

I'm right handed. When I ran a hand crank blower, I cranked with my right hand so I wouldn't have to swap hands with my tongs. The first time I used an anvil, the horn was to the right, so the habit stuck. I really don't have the issue of bashing my hip on the horn, so it's not a big deal to me

Probably correct. I've never really gotten in to smoothbores, so I've never researched it. Sure do love my smoke poles though, especially the 1851 "Josey Wales" gun and the 1860 Army.

For black powder muzzle loaders, pure leasd is best. You want it as close to dead soft as possible. Linotype was outstanding for alloying cartridge bullets. I haven't been able to source any cheaply for quite a while now...

I'll take a whack at it... Hold your hammer just tightly enough that it doesn't fly out of your hand. A person should be able to snatch it from you mid swing.

you should be able to build one for around $150 or so. Not sure I'd buy one for 1k

Starbits...I saw that ad the other day and nearly jumped on it. Glad it went to a member here

Hammers: Get a range from 1.5#-3# to start (my personal favorite is my 2.5# cross peen that I got from sears of all places...). Start with the light end of the hammer. You may be big, but you'll need to develop muscles you aren't used to using. Start small and work your way up. I can swing an 8# hammer 1 handed for an hour or two, but then I can't forge for a week or so while the tendons in my wrist heal. Let the heat do most of the work for you. Anvil: Get the heaviest anvil you can afford. Take a ball bearing and a ball pein hammer to look at them. It should have a nice ring (louder at the horn and heel) with the hammer and the ball bearing should have 60% rebound or better when dropped on the face. More rebound is better. Restrictive California forges... I'd build a propane forge if coal is out of the question, though having a coal forge and a gas forge is super nice. Either way, there are a plethora of designs online for forges. I would never actually buy one when it costs next to nothing to build one (and building things is why we are here) Quench: Get a metal container (ammo boxes are nice) and put veggie oil in it. That should be fine for most quenching. As for water, I have a metal bucket that holds my water for quenching and coal management. Keep them both. Start with an oil quench, if it doesn't get hard enough, use hot oil. Still doesn't work, move to water. Clay: Cool for building coal and charcoal forges, and for putting a hamon on differentially quenched blades, but that's pretty advanced. Just get a tub of play dough. You can use it instead of metal to figure out what you want to do and how to do it before ever lighting the forge. Acid: Muriatic/ferric chloride/etc are for etching. You can use them to etch designs on your blades or to show the layers of pattern welded "damascus" steel. Don't bother with that when you are just starting, you have a lot to learn before you do your first forge weld, let alone a successful damascus billet. Crawl, Walk, Run. PPE: Quality safety glasses are a MUST. You only have 1 set of eyeballs, and eye transplants only have a 10% success rate that I know of. A set of sun glasses or #3 welding goggles are nice when you get to doing damascus, since you have to watch the steel in the forge. I wear denim pants, boots, a long sleeve cotton shirt (loose and billowy is nice here in the 112+ degree AZ summers) and a Harbor Freight leather welding apron (under $10 with coupon). I wear a glove on my tong hand (leather) but no glove on my hammer hand because I find I grip my hammer too tightly if I have a glove on. I wear gloves on both hands plus add a face shield to my glasses when running a wire wheel. Lastly, I know you don't want to hear it, but DON'T start with knives/edged weapons. Learn to make a taper. Learn to make hooks. Learn to make bottle openers. Learn to make a leaf. You need to develop hammer control and muscle memory. When you get to the point that you can enter "zombie mode" and knock out a few hooks relatively quickly without having to think about it, then start considering blades. If you jump right into knives, you'll dissapoint yourself quickly. Also, buy some mild steel from your local home improvement store. It moves easily, and works well for the projects I mentioned. For drawing/tapering remember...Go from round to square to octaginal to round. You'll fight too hard trying to keep round stock round the whole time, and square draws faster and easier.

I'm a little surprised Page Steel doesn't have small quantities available.. Try giving Mayorgas welding or Buddy's Welding in Flagstaff a call. You might even be able to bribe a page steel driver to bring back your chunks for you on his return trip.....

Anybody friends with a butcher?? Quench a blade Point North in a vat of 98.6 degree(f) pig blood and see what happens? Should smell tasty....

I noticed an awful lot of pitting on that finished blade as well. IMO, totally unacceptable for a blade (unledd it's "as forged") and especially unacceptable for a comission piece

Mine is a 1901 Soderfors 225#. Paid $800 for it. Loud as can be and fantastic rebound. Best anvil I've ever had the pleasure of using. A previous owner mangled the far edge a bit by using it as a torch cutting table, but that hasn't caused any issues. I may or may not repair it. So far though, I like it how it is

Does that make us "Hipsters" since we were doing it before it was cool? God I hope not. I hate skinny jeans and nose rings....

No such critter. All endeavors are worthwhile persuits when you are learning. It's for your joy and knowledge, so I say roll with it. If it was for production/sales, I'd suggest searching for a different method