5 SURVIVAL WOODEN TOOLS AND SIMPLE MACHINES
The following are five simple wooden tools that you may make for yourself to use while on a long-term camping excursion: The option you choose will be determined by the sort of vacation you are planning as well as the food and meat procurement supplies you will be bringing with you.
Because you are making most of your tools as you go, this list takes into account the fact that you are trying to minimize the weight of your kit to a bare minimum. If you are going without transportation, this is particularly true.
STICK FOR THROWING OR DIGGING
Making a throwing stick, which may also be used for digging, is generally the first thing I do while establishing my camp. Despite the fact that this sort of tool is one of the simplest to construct, it offers a great deal of diversity to your toolbox.
If at all feasible, the throwing stick should be made of green hardwood (oak, maple, magnolia), and it should be about the length of your armpit to the cupped palm of your hand, or what I refer to as “axe-handle length.”
On one end, I cut a 45-degree wedge, and on the other, I cut a dull point. This little tool may be tucked away in the back of your belt or bedroll until it is required again. In addition to throwing it at ground-level wildlife such as rabbits and squirrels, you may use it to dig fire-pit holes and uproot plants and tubers, among other things.
A ready baton may be used for processing firewood or even collecting hanging deadwood by attaching a rope to it, tossing it over a limb, and bringing it back to the ground. Most impressive about this versatile tool is that it can be assembled in less than 2 minutes and is thus simple to replace when it wears out.
DON’T GET INTO IT WITH ANVIL.
If you can, find a huge stump to use as a seat, or just cut a piece of wood large enough to serve as a seat. You will be shocked at how many applications it will provide in a short period of time.
Because it is elevated above the ground, this stump may be used as a workstation and an area to process fire tinder and kindling without getting wet. In addition to being used as a sawhorse, the anvil stump may also be used as a workbench if you carve V slots into the side of it to accommodate pieces of wood that need to be cut. Simply turn the stump on its side and insert the piece of wood that you want to cut into the V slot on the stump.
The wider the notch, the larger the piece of wood that may be inserted into it. This will assist you in avoiding accidentally driving your axe or knife into the ground by mistake. In addition, the anvil stump serves as an elevated platform for holding a candle at night.
It is possible to further process the anvil stump in order to create a grinding bowl on the surface and, on the other side, a series of cutouts that can be used to store sharpening stones as well as flats of wood that may be used as cutting boards.
GIG OR SPEAR?
In addition to being incredibly handy for a wide range of duties when travelling, the spear is extremely portable. It should be made of a hardwood sapling such as maple, and it should be at least 12″ in height “When done, the end product will be higher than eye height.
4″ fork with a robust handle is ideal “One end has a number of tines. Depending on the surroundings, the opposite end may be constructed in one of two ways. Having a gigging device on the other end will be necessary if you are near a nice water supply, such as a rushing steam or pond.
You may make this gig by cutting one end of a sapling in half crosswise, resulting in four identical tines that are about 6”–8” in length. Then sharpen the stick as if it were still a single piece of solid wood. Following that, two short green sticks will be inserted into the crosscuts in order to drive the tines apart. Before honing the individual tines, you may lashing the stick to prevent it from splitting any more.
As soon as you’ve finished, you’ll have a tool that can be used to hunt creatures like frogs, tiny animals in dens, and fish in ponds. Also useful for retrieving nuts or nests from high spots in trees, this gadget will allow you to reach farther.
When crossing streams, use your spear to provide stability by acting as a third leg. As an added bonus, you can use it to support a pot when cooking over an open flame. As you travel and seek, you will discover many applications for this basic instrument.
Spear
MAUL OR MALLET
Using a chopped green hardwood branch, you may simply manufacture a maul. I would start with a branch that is around 16″ long and 4″ in diameter. Mauls come in a variety of sizes.
Make a head out of the first six stolons “of the branch and decrease the other end of the chopped wood so that it comfortably fits in the hand, shifting the weight forward as if it were a huge, spherical hammer When it comes to hitting the rear of a metal instrument such as a knife or an axe, this tool may be used for many different things.
Using this instrument, you can turn your axe into a wedge, a chisel, or a sheer cutting device while maintaining more control than if you were simply swinging it randomly. If the situation calls for it, you may use the maul to baton wood with your knife.
To finish off, this tool makes it simple to open or break acorns, nuts, and clamshells. It’s also a good tool for driving wooden stakes and wedges into the ground since it has a wider surface area than the hammer pole of your axe.
Maul
WEDGES
The creation of wedges will become necessary as soon as you need to split wood. Using a wedge while splitting wood may be quite beneficial if you are obliged to use a knife for wood processing. A wedge can help you securely remove a knife that becomes stuck during the splitting process.
As with the majority of these tools, wedges should be produced from green hardwood material and should be created in a variety of sizes and angles to accommodate different users. It is also possible to employ wedges to split larger logs in order to produce items such as bow staves or dimensional lumber.
Also helpful for separating bark from sapwood in order to manufacture containers or bark shingles for use as roofing material. wedges may be used as tent stakes when they are not in use.
That alone is a good reason to make six independent wedges that are around one-to-two inches wide and a minimum of 12 inches long “the length of a sentence As a result, these instruments are elevated to the status of one of the five basic machines that you use the most often in the woods.
SMALL WOODLAND MACHINES WITHOUT COMPLICATIONS
As an alternative to wedges, there are four additional basic machines that you may make out of wood that you can find in the wilderness to assist you with duties around camp and in the field.
WINDLASS
A windlass is a device that is used to lift big weights or to tighten cables. Windlasses are typically comprised of a horizontal cylinder that is turned by the turn of a crank or the tension of a belt. A winch is linked to one or both ends of the cable or rope, and a cable or rope is coiled around the winch, drawing a weight attached to the other end of the cable.
Alternatively, a windlass may be constructed even more simply by anchoring a loop of cord or rope to a fixed item and then looping it around another object that has to be moved. After that, a lever of appropriate size is inserted inside the loop and moved from end to end to tighten the line until it ultimately pushes the item.
Operation number one of the windlass
Larger posts may also be used as levers, either at ground level or when standing, with a rope wound around them to move an item. A windlass may be as basic as a tensioning mechanism for a bucksaw made of natural materials, or as complex as a hydraulic system.
A simple vise may be fashioned from a green stump by using a windlass to strain the work piece against the stump. In this instance, a windlass performs functions that are remarkably similar to those of a tourniquet. It makes use of a few wraps of rope tensioned by a stick, which is then secured in place by tying it off to the bottom portion of the stump. It serves as a holdfast as well as a means of constricting the work piece.
A windlass mechanism is sometimes included in the design of killing-type traps.