“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” – JRR Tolkien

Time is the driver for survival response. You can have too much or too little. The only possible counterpoint is you, what you know and how determined you are to succeed.

In the following example, the survival situation is judged based on the seven pillars of survival (SWIFFTT= ShelterWaterIFireFoodTimeTechnology). Green means imperative, orange means important, black means unimportant. Grey is the timeframe…

You’re hiking in winter and fall into a swift-flowing river. The initial survival situation is getting out of the river (SWIFFT=minutesT). Assuming you manage to get out and if there was a group of you, the timeframe for survival is as long as it takes to get back to your group. (SWIFFT=minutesT). If, however, its just you, the timeframe to counter the results of an impromtu swim stretches significantly. (SWIFFT=hoursT). Unlucky for you, you were alone and the helicopter won’t be back to pick you up for 10 days (SWIFFT=daysT). In this example, time is certainly working against you.

In situations where there is not enough time,  the best decisions are easy – they are the ones that buy you a bit more of this precious commodity. However, if time is in abundance, the more time available for an event to occur, the more likely it will. Optomists will read this as “The longer I stay alive, the more likely I am to be rescued”. Pessimists might tend towards thinking “The longer I hike here, the more likely I am to be disembowled by a large mammal”. Both are correct.

On a much grander scale, civilisations rise and fall on the timing of events. The Norse colonisation of Greenland is probably the best contemporary example. An extended period of warm weather led to the belief that a Scandinavian lifestyle was achievable in Greenland. Nothing if not stubborn, the colonists faded to history sticking to their principles, as the natural weather pattern bore down on the settlements. If, with ~400 years of time up their sleeves to prepare for a cold snap, the population had even remotely adopted the practices of the native inuit, the colonists may have endured. Sure, not as a strictly Scandinavian culture, but their progeny would have survived. Similar snuffings of civilisation can be attributed to prolonged periods of anomalous weather changes. Jared Diamond, in his excellent book ‘Collapse‘ focusses on the actual environmental change associated with the demise of cultures. Some, not all, are overcome by a period of weather that they are already capable of dealing with – just not in that timeframe…

A modern example.

The more time available for an event to occur, the more likely it will. Optomists will read this as “The longer I stay alive, the more likely I am to be rescued”. Pessimists might tend towards thinking “The longer I hike here, the more likely I am to be disembowled by a large mammal”. Both are correct. Nature is a wonderfully impartial judge and provides numerous good examples. Weather is one of the best ones….

If bad weather is possible, factor it into your calculations as per Tolkien above. Time is a multiplier of weather risk – a process known to gamblers as ‘riding the odds’ comes into effect, potentially with life as the ante. Failure to recognise and plan for extreme weather may cause inconvenience, injury, death or worse still – embarrassment!

The fact is with bad weather that its not about bad luck – its just a question of how long between bouts. If you’re intending to make a base somewhere, with the intention that you can gradually increase your standard of living over time, it might be prudent to consider what conditions (winds, floods, snow, storms, droughts, etc) are likely to attempt to unwind all that hard work.

Without going into too many details, lets use the example of a cyclone in the South Pacific. On a day-to-day basis, the chances of being hit by a cyclone are low. So low that the average sane person does not batten down the hatches every day before going to work. If we change our viewpoint to one of intending to live in any one location in the South Pacific for twenty years (which sounds pretty good to me) the odds change significantly. Below is an image of storm paths over a twenty years, 1976-2006, generated from data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.  As you can see, if you live on the coast or on an island, a storm is pretty much guaranteed.

Tropical storm tracks over a 20 year period. Source: Australian BOM

Skill Pre-requisites:

Fire is what separates us from all other animals (except phoenixes – which barely count due to their mythical status). Without fire, most other semi-technical processes are unachievable. Fire can be used for cooking, heating, signaling, purifying (water, not witches), as an insect repellant, as a deterrent to larger animals, as a weapon and even as entertainment. It’s what swiss army knives looked like before knives existed! Not being able to start a fire, with a butane lighter, a magnifying glass, matches or a stick would severely reduce comfort (and  life expectancy ) for short term survival and definitely for the long term survival. To gain a sustainable advantage over flora, fauna and environment, fire must be your servant, not you its.

Of all the methods for making a fire without modern equipment or assistance, the bow drill and the fire plough are the most commonly cited. The bowdrill is discussed here – because all you need is dry wood and a piece of cordage (a shoelace, for example) to introduce a mechanical advantage to spinning a stick (drill) to make an ember.

tools required to make fire with a bowdrill. Source: www.bushcraft.ridgeonnet.com

Strangely enough, I’m not the first person to realise this and to be perfectly honest, there is little that needs to be said here – such is the volume and quality of information online on making bowdrills from ‘raw materials’ and technique for using them successfully. Some of particular note (that I’ve found) include:

Wildwood Survival – Bow Drill Basics
WikiHow – How to start a fire with sticks
Jons bushcraft

However, something that is really hard to establish – particularly from websites or books not written in your state, country or continent – is which woods work and which woods won’t (A good reference for North America is here). A huge amount of time and energy can go into the process of finding out if the wood is too wet, too resinous, too hard, etc. It can be a prodigious amount of research (admittedly time well spent) to establish what works and what doesn’t in your area. Ultimately, its up to the individual, in their particular environment, to establish which woods work. But a comprehensive list of wood combinations would be an excellent resource – feel free to post yours! Some include; australian grass tree, cedar, poplar, fig.

One simple work-around to this is to merge modern tools with a venerable process – purely for establishing workable materials to make fire. This includes all the normal steps – prepping the fireboard, selecting a drill and preparing the tinder nest. The difference is that you then casually insert the drill into a drill gun. To avoid later disappointment when you’re trying to repeat the process with a bow, try to keep the revs of the drillgun within the realms of possibility of your bow drill. The bottom line is this. If you can’t start a fire with the friction generated by the drillgun, a bowdrill stands little chance! Move on to another type of wood, or find out more about the woods that work – where they grow, what other resources they might offer.

Rules of thumb.
Best woods are soft enough to indent with a fingernail, non-resinous and very dry.
Wood found on the ground is more likely to be damp and less likely to create an ember.
The thicker the drill, the slower the revolution (and lesser the mechanical advantage).
When using hardwoods downward pressure on the spindle must be lessened and speed increased.
Its better if the chimney in the fire board is narrower at the top and broader at the bottom (so it clears better).
If smoke persists in the supposed coal for a few seconds after drilling stops, you probably have a real coal.

Other ways to make fire.

Of course, people, their gadgets, and their legacy aren’t going anywhere soon, so we’re literally surrounded by ways to make fire if pressed (an enjoyable summary is found here and a video summary here). These include some standard, and some not-so-standard approaches. Fire is just an oxidation process that makes sausages taste good. With all of the fire starting methodologies to follow, the ‘fire pyramid’  applies – ie, fire needs fuel, heat, and air or it will not be able to sustain itself.

Matches, lighters and vehicle cigarette lighters.
Flint, steel and charcloth
Batteries (sparks)
Magnifying glasses (lenses)
Chemicals – eg. potassium permanganate and glycerin
Food – mars bar, ice, water

Pre-requisite skills: none.

Rope (or cordage if you want to sound professional) is a length of fibers, spun into yarn, twisted into strands and retwisted into rope. The repeat twisting increases strength, which increases usefulness.

History

The earliest evidence for rope is an impression imprinted on pottery some 30000 years ago – 28000B.C. There is little doubt that whole cultures have risen and returned to dust with rope, wood and earth as their sole building materials.

Raw materials

Rope can be made out of any fibrous material that is both pliable and has a tendency to grip. In other words, the material is required to bend, not break, and the fibers need to grip each other when twisted together. Historically, several fibers from plants have been commonly used for mass rope making. These include coir (from coconut), flax, sissal (from agave), hemp, manilla (from banana), cotton and jute.

Any fiber -natural or not- which satisfies two simple tests can be used to make rope.
1) The fibers can be spun together and not fully unravel (ie grip) when released, and
2) The fibers can be wrapped around your finger without breaking.

twines and yarns - clockwise from top left: Hemp, nettle, coir, twine, sissal.

Rope making rules.

1. When adding fibers while making yarn, try to stagger the position of the ‘join’ on each yarn to increase strength.
2. The direction of twisting alternates for each successive step (this will make sense in a few minutes – and is depicted in thediagram below).

s- and z-laid rope, lke good and evil, can't exist without each other.

Some terminology.

Finished rope, can be described as s- or z-laid (see picture, the original was from here). Note that, an s-laid yarn, strand or rope cannot be combined with a z-laid yarn, strand or rope as one will unravel as the other tightens. Like sheep and cattle, s- and z- strands don’t mix.

Unfortunately, s- or z- are not convenient terms to use to describe the initial process. Often, instructions describe the twisting process as clockwise or anticlockwise. Personally, I find that a bit confusing, as it depends on which way you look at the job in hand (literally) and whether you’re right or left handed. Therefore, twisting in these notes will be termed towards and away. Its OK though, when we’re done you’ll be able to use s- and z-laid with abandon!

Starting

1. Find some materials to use. Kitchen string is excellent to practice with. If you’re a purist, pull up grasses, strip off bark, pull up weeds, mash them into a fibrous blob and subject them to the tests outlined above (raw materials). I had a ‘Robinson Crusoe’ moment and found a coconut on a local beach to use here.

2. I’m a right handed  ’away‘ twister – I hold the fibers in my left hand and twist them with my right. All you need to do to start is to have a long enough yarn (twisted fiber) to work with comfortably. Maybe about four inches.

3. About 1/4 to 1/3 of the way along the yarn, keep twisting the yarn until it kinks and folds back on itself – you’ve started!

4. Move your holding hand (the non-twisting one) over the kink with both loose ends hanging out to the same side. One will be longer that the other – this is so that the joins in the fibers don’t line up as the strand develops (see rule 1). Twist the top fibers away to tighten the fibers and then wrap this tight yarn towards you (rule 2), overlapping the other yarn. Inch the holding hand over the overlap and  swap your twisting hand to the other yarn – now at the top. Twist the fibers away to tighten them and then wrap this tight yarn towards you, overlapping the other yarn. Inch the fingers of your holding hand over the overlap of the two strands. Repeat this step until you are the proud owner of a few inches of cordage. If you let go of the whole thing now, it won’t unravel. This is because the away fibers in the towards strands grip each other due to the opposite twist direction and ‘seize up’ – which is why you need grippy fibers to make rope.

Continuing

5. Just keep going. twist away, overlay towards, inch forward…

Thickening – two- and three-ply

You have a choice to make at this point. Do you want a two-ply rope (which is quicker) or a three-ply rope (which is both stronger and neater).

2-ply

6a. To increase the thickness of the developing rope, simply find 1/2 way along your rope from the previous step and twist so that the strands tighten and then kink – the same process as in step 3 holds.  Twist the the top strand so that it tightens, and then overlay in the opposite direction. And repeat…

3-ply.

6b. To do this you need three strands – one twice as long as the other (the long one can be folded in half to become two strands). It’s important that both strands have been laid the same way, or the rope won’t work. Get the long strand and twist a kink into it. Before the kink tightens, thread the third strand through the loop. Then tighten. Place your finger on the overlap. You now have three strands ready to go.

6c. Start withone of the strands that comes off the loop – this will keep the loop tight while you start. Twist so that the strand tightens, and then overlay the other way. If you’re using the strands from the previous example, you’ll notice that the twist and overlay are the opposite to last time – adhereing gracefully to rule 2 above.

7. Each time you twist and overlay, a new strand will be at the top. Keep on choosing the top strand and overlay to make it the bottom strand – an angle of about 45 degrees seems to work well.

8. Just keep going. Twist, overlay, inch along and repeat…

Whipping.

The loose end of the rope will unravel if not tied up. It’s called whipping (again – use the term to sound professional). Presented here is a simple whipping which is both neat and effective.

9. Take a strand, make a loop (any size really) and lie it so that both ends hang off the end of the rope.

10. Using one of the strands – wrap it tightly around and around the rope. When it starts to get a bit short, feed the strand through the loop.

11. Pull the other end of the strand, which will close down the loop and grab the wrapped strand. Don’t stop! Keep pulling and the loose end will get dragged neatly underneath the whipping. Trim the other end.

.

.

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Rules-of -thumb.

1. To make a strand of any length, you’ll need to start with 1.3 times longer yarn. eg. making a three-ply rope 10 meters long, you’ll need three strands of 13m, each made up of 2 or 3 strands of 17m, requiring 22m of yarn per strand. This is why people have spent centuries perfecting knots that untie easily, and why cutting a rope is probably the 8th deadly sin!

2. Apparently, the effective lifting capacity of a rope can be calculated by working out the rope circumference in inches, multiplying this number by itself, then dividing by 5. The answer is in tonnes. eg. for a 1 inch (circumference) rope.
1 x 1 / 5 = 0.2t. The answer for the 3-ply rope made here is ~75kg – strong enough to hold most small animals in a trap or secure most manageable logs in a shelter.

And that’s that. This post has some clear spin-off posts. One is splicing – joining bits of rope together. The other is knots.

References.

Rope with no tools – instructibles
Knots – doit101
History of rope – shurdington.org

Look at the sub-themes of a search for ‘technology’ online. Here’s one  for WordPress (WP). Here’s one for Google (G). It quickly becomes apparent that the topic dwells almost exclusively on the futute, the present, and the immediate past.

By refining the search to ‘ancient technology’ (WP/G) things don’t get a lot better, bubbling up a mixed bag of (particularly on google) alien believers and museum sites (which are often pretty good- but shrouded in a principal focus on history (imagine focussing on history in a museum – go figure)). There is also a large volume of blogs and articles discussing the application of new technology to unravel ancient cultures.

Trying a search on ‘basic skills’ (WP/G) reveals a term overrun (justifiably) by educators attempting to make kids futures brighter.

More relevant hits from these searches is almost inevitably from bush skill sights (eg and links in the sidebar). But the best results are from instructional sites – like wiki how, instructibles and wisegeeks. Kids sites return a vast amount of semi-leads, discussing basic technology, but rarely in sufficient detail.

Searches on ‘homesteading’ (WP/G) – a term I stumbled upon relatively recently – delivers great survival tech resources for simple, sustainable agriculture, food preparation and farming.

Extending the search for survival tech or basic technology beyond the web, bookstores are a nightmare. There is no concensus on where the information should live, spattered around outdoors, hobbies, general and reference…usually. Likewise, libraries are fairly random in their pigeonholing of the topic, again tending towards a general outdoors theme.

The survival tech niche filled by most outdoors publications is the short term (on- or off-line – see books and links in the sidebar).   There is a lot of information in this niche and it’s undeniably very important – it’s difficult to concentrate on the long-term unless you’re capable of making it through the short term!

Any site or volume that contains quality info on simple technology (homesteading, basic skills, bushcraft, wilderness skills, ancient technology) is a good one. Any technique which addresses one of the seven pillars of survival, and is achievable by a person or group using only their knowledge and opposable thumbs with tools, deserves to be united under a single banner.

Therefore, this one little voice in the ether (garnering support from the 13 people who’ve read this site so far) is proposing, as an all-encompassing term…

‘survival technology’ – Technologies and methodologies, which can be made or harnessed using only available resources, that allow people to alter their environment to a survivable and sustainable state.

Whew!

The good news is that it has all been done before (there is a timeline of technological advancements on this blog). Humanity spent thousands of years developing and perfecting techniques to survive (and occasionally thrive) in all parts of the world. The bad news is that we’ve spent the last two generations erasing the most of those skills from our collective memories.

Ask yourself:

Can I make bread or preserve food?
How do you make cement?
Which way is north?
How about making pottery? Rope?

Do you have the skills to be sustainably self-sufficient for a decade – maybe longer? Could you, without modern technology – or as gadgets start to run out or perish – start a fire, make clothes, gather or hunt or preserve food, provide shelter, navigate an area, fix and maintain essentials, or even apply rudimentary medical solutions? It’s daunting to realise just how much knowledge, acquired over thousands of years has been lost to the general population and how much we rely on industry and agriculture  to provide for us.

There are seven broad categories – pillars? – of skills required to survive: shelter, water, you, fire, food, time and technology – which gives us acronym SWIFFTT (which sounds like doppler effect-laden onomatopoeia). These ‘pillars’ are discussed in the about section of this blog). Each is of variable importance depending on the situation and the timeframe of the survival situation. But its the last one, technology, that I’m particularly interested in. For example, there are plenty of sites and blogs that tell you how to use rope, but not so many that tell you how to make it.

Take a look at this list (timeline of technological advancements – on this blog) and rate yourself as a survival technologist. Simply add up how many of these skills (by no means a comprehensive list) you can use. Your score will be out of 96. What might become apparent is that we don’t know how to make things from first principals anymore. This is something I’d like to address here – all in good time – by compiling instructions, and encouraging discussion,  on some of these simple skills.