manual skills ? (houses, quiet, water, wild)

[Nerys52SoSilver]

Some years ago I used to read online a lot of info on preparedness survival etc homesteading , urban homesteading etc and I used to read as a guest on several forums related to these subjects.
Once I read a question about what manual skills people allready had or were planning to learn to do etc.
I myself found this an interesting question and to read what others posted on this. I thaught myself to cook at age 12.I am from 1960 so in school I learned things like handsewing , crochet etc. In my early adult years I learned about gardening etc. I learned myself handquilting in my late forties.These days with many people sort of spending lots of time with computers electronics social media etc I wonder about manual skills ? Now I know folks on here will have plenty of answers to this.

[qlty]

I go back further than the 60s I left school the day I turned 16 and learned a couple mechanical trades with jobs I had,made up my high school education in the service as well as electrical repair.I was always able to repair most things on a car or house if something broke I made an effort to learn to fix it so I was able to raise a family and live a frugal life style with out having to make lots of money.I don't belive this would be very easy to do in todays world.

[MTSilvertip]

Good question!

I don't go back as far, but I was raised on an isolated ranch where we did everything for ourselves, so we gardened and gathered wild edibles, hunted, trapped and butchered our own stock for food.

We tanned hides and used rawhide for repairs, we trained and handled horses, all aspects of animal husbandry, we logged as our main source of income, (using horses mostly), had a small sawmill we ran, we did all the repair work on all the machinery, (tractors, cars, trucks, swathers, balers, threshing machines, etc). We welded and did sheet metal work to make major repairs and fabricated parts we couldn't buy or afford.

We built our own buildings, ran the wiring and plumbing, worked concrete and stone.

I learned to use a forge and used blacksmithing to make knives and axes and repair chains, shafts and other metal.

When I went to school, I got my degree in Electronics, I can also do that as well.

I can knap stone, reload ammunition, make bows and arrows and other weapons, I can make traps and snares, I am a pretty good hunter for larger game, I can spear or trap fish and smoke or preserve the meat and furs.

Basically, I never had any money, so I had to learn to do what I needed my self.

Now I own a company that produces products such as bio-fuels. I still don't make a lot of money, and do most of the maintenance and repair and work myself in concert with my partner who has a smilar background.

My Grandfather used to tell me, "it never hurts to learn anything, because knowledge is one thing no-one can take away from you".

He was right

[Chimuelojones]

1) making fire.

all others is a luxury.

think of yourself going to a cabin in the woods, take with you a "tool" bag of all the things you would need to live there for a month, 3 months, a year, 5 years...

a] did you take the right tools?
b] do you know how to ues them?

[Nerys52SoSilver]

making fire is a good one I learned this from the survival guy Ray Mears UK who does survival tv programmes I look at his tv show and practise at home in my garden
besides knowing and being able to do this in several ways from the time I used to read lots on this I sort of amassed a big tin full of matches which I have been using up over the last 5 years...
my area is very densely populated but when I travel in Norway I sort of can get the cabin in the woods feel because some areas there have like nothing and I take all that is needed with us

[Chimuelojones]

Originally Posted by Nerys52SoSilver

making fire is a good one I learned this from the survival guy Ray Mears UK who does survival tv programmes I look at his tv show and practise at home in my garden
besides knowing and being able to do this in several ways from the time I used to read lots on this I sort of amassed a big tin full of matches which I have been using up over the last 5 years...
my area is very densely populated but when I travel in Norway I sort of can get the cabin in the woods feel because some areas there have like nothing and I take all that is needed with us

My comment was more to the Urban survivalist. here in the US we have a growing facination with leaving an Uban lifestyle and moving to the woods and living free of the Tyranny of modren local, state, and federal government that some feel is choking "freedom" from them.

To these Urban survivalists, I suggested that at least know the basic manual skills...how to make fire...ect.

im sure you are an adept camper, and I hope I did not convey any other meaning.

[MTSilvertip]

Making fire isn't that difficult, I build my knives out of high carbon steel and can use it with a flint or chert from the ground to get a spark, or a bow drill or fire plow, depending on what you have you can use a parbolic curve reflector (like the polished bottom of a pop can) or a mirror to start a fire just as you can use a lens, or shorting out a battery.
If you pack your own equipment, you can make a fire plunger that works over and over, or magnesium matches, or ferro rods, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have and imagination.

I live in the western United States so it can be 50 or more miles to the nearest house or help, so you have to master basic skills including how to find water and shelter, cold weather survival, lots of things.

I don't live in a real "Urban" environment, so I don't have to "escape", but being self sufficent and able to care for yourself is a basic need no matter where you live.

The OP was simply wondering what manual skills others may have, which is a good question if you are looking for skills that you may need in the future, or just learn for fun! That is how I got started in stone knapping

[Happy in Wyoming]

There are many useful manual skills for the survivalist. First is the ability to craft ammunition. I don't say handload because there's more to it than that. It's necessary to learn to cast and swage bullets, to be able to make at least expedient primers and black powder. Machined cases are practical with black powder pressures so we now need to learn to use drill presses and lathes but a machine shop is critical to the survivalist lifestyle. There are older machine tools that are treadle powered; they make a lot of sense. we need to be able to fix these as well. That requires more than a little study. It will soon be necessary to acquire the basics of chemistry, particularly lab practice, metallurgy, and mechanical engineering as well as any necessary math. Crafting ammunition is a wonderful gateway skill since it leads to so much more. I've spent more than fifty years learning about this area.

Blacksmithing is a very useful skill. The preparation of fabrics with means independent of the grids, both electrical and mercantile, makes a difference before or after TEOTWAWKI. I must admit that my blacksmithing and fabric skills are weak.

Poaching fish with nets, weirs, explosives, and electricity is fun and easy to learn. Fish easily replace the flesh of mammals and are much healthier. Needless to say, free fish beat purchased and they're fresher. When I lived in Colorado I'd buy a license and pick up Coho at the hatchery after spawning season. It was still dirt cheap and even legal. But it requires the knowledge to safely can the fish.

Gunsmithing is a highly skilled trade but we can easily learn to do most of what a 1911 requires.

Just remember that no one can be an expert at everything. We've all heard of and encountered the jack of all trades, master of none.

[countryboy73]

For some strange reason, I became interested in preparedness(in all its forms) at about nine years old. None of my family were into it. Since then, I have learned to make fire under varied conditions and using a variety of methods, learned a bit about wild edibles(and poisonous plants, too), learned to hunt and fish using both traditional and non-traditional methods, learned to tan hides and make rawhide(still not my strongest suit), and learned to sew well enough to repair my own clothes and gear. I have learned to fix my own vehicles, build my own house from the ground up, including all the necessary systems. raise a garden, orchard and livestock, and how to preserve the harvest of all three. I have learned how defend what is mine competently(I am still a mere student of the subject, and always will be, there is much to know, and more all the time). I have learned to maintain and in some cases repair my body. I have learned to keep my dwelling warm with a wood stove, and feed that stove with manual tools. I have learned how to cook a meal using a campfire, solar oven, wood cookstove, and other methods. I am in the process of learning more about snaring and trapping game for meat and hides, there is SO much to learn about this! I can operate most vehicles and equipment from bicycles to small planes to earth movers. I can cut and weld steel(need to learn aluminum and others), braze copper, and have some machining skills.

I still need to learn some blacksmithing skills, more about trapping, snaring and tracking, and there are a host of other things a man needs to know. The day we stop learning is the day we start dying. Unfortunately, much knowledge is, and has been, dying off without being passed on. For a couple of generations, people have left the land, not looking back, seeking an easier life in the cities. and the reams of knowledge their parents held died quietly, in farmhouses and old folks' homes all over America. Now, we have multiple generations of people who mostly could not even feed themselves without modern infrastructure in place. No store, no food. No electricity, no cooking(or heat). No water when the handle is turned, no water at all. I have yet to understand the ability of men to see themselves as masculine when they cannot even survive at the level of the young of most other species, much less provide the necessities for their mate and offspring without massive assistance from modern methodology. That some men think being able to complete a specialized task in a factory and bringing home a paycheck are enough, just amazes me. What will they do if that system fails them? How can they go to bed at night feeling secure about being able to take care of what is theirs? How can their family have any confidence that they will be taken care of? It boggles the mind.

[PrepHappy]

This is a very interesting thread, and I'm a little late to the party with my question.

Since there seems to be a theme here, what would be good skills to take on if, say, you were a woman with limited upper-body strength (not that all women are weaklings!!!), or an older person or a very young person?