HAMLET'S GUIDE TO WILDERNESS SURVIVAL [this is what the kids call a wip]

[hamlet]

[hamlet]

FIRESTARTING METHODS.

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Humans as we currently classify them (homo sapiens) have always had knowledge of fire, as the use of fire in our evolutionary line dates back to our ancestral species. In a survival situation, even the smallest of campfires to huddle beside for warmth can make the difference between life or death. There are a variety of ways to create fires, as well as a variety of ways to set them up.

flint and steel.
Flint is a type of sedimentary rock renowned for its hardness, resistance to weathering, and irregular shapes, mostly found in the form of nodules stuck in other sedimentary rocks like limestone or chalk. Flint is constructed from the silica found in the skeletons of various marine animals, and is thusly found in areas that were formerly ocean, particularly parts that had a chalk sea bed. It's important to note that while flint is practically nonexistent along the east coast, occurring mostly in the southeast and midwest, other forms of chert, such as jasper and agate, can function to replace it, as can any rock that produces sparks when struck.

did you know?

Other than being used to start fires, flint was also common in various tools and weapons used prior to the arrival of the Europeans to North America. Most common were flint arrowheads and spearheads, which were worked into shape through a process known as knapping, or repeatedly shearing away chips and flakes of the stone using material such as wood, antler, or another stone.

However, due to the amount of dust this method generates, many early people who were knappers by profession developed a condition known as silicosis, a chronic respiratory disorder where tiny pieces of flint become lodged in the alveolar sacks of the lungs. This is considered one of the first occupational diseases.

When Europeans first began to colonize America, they introduced nearby native groups to alloyed metal through trading, which was harder to break than what they were currently using. As such, flint and chert fell out of popular use soon after.

Flint itself is easy to locate in places where it does occur; because it's so resistant to weathering, it's likely to appear at the surface along lake beds and riverbanks, emerging when all the rocks around it have eroded away. The color of flint itself is typically black or dark grey, but may be appear dark brown or even white, as its often encased in another rock, usually chalk. Another identifying feature of flint is its glossy luster, while, by no means present in every specimen, is an indication of hardness in rocks.

Chert is much more common and is closely related to flint, though it doesn't have an identifying color; it can range from black, grey to brown in any shade and combination, and, like flint, has a waxy luster. It is also, like flint, is commonly found scattered above ground due to its similar resistance to erosion. Different strains of chert are identified by common features and origin stories; jasper is known for its rich red color due to deposits of iron, agate is known to be translucent and to glow when held to light, and both of these species are formed outside of the sea from mineral deposits. Jasper can be collected in canyons, and agate is often found on east coast beaches.


Iron, on the other hand, can be found in ore form just about anywhere in the ground. The earliest form of iron tools were known to be fashioned from iron in meteorites rather than ore, but by the end of the bronze age smelting iron ore into tools and weapons was a common occurrence. Iron ore itself doesn't actually contain a lot of iron, but is rather mostly a mixture of oxides, sulfides, carbonates, and other impurities. To work these unwanted elements out, you have to hammer heated ore over an anvil to release imperfections until all that remained was the purified iron.

The most primitive station a blacksmith used for smelting was known as a bloomery, which was a large furnace that housed charcoal; the charcoal would mix with the oxygen, producing heat enough to soften the iron, which would then be removed from the bloomery in a dirty form known as slag. When slag is hammered over an anvil, it produces wrought iron, hard but not brittle, best suited for use in tools.

The more advanced station used to create processed iron is known as a blast furnace, which blasts charcoal, limestone, and iron ore with high pressure, oxygen rich air through a series of pipes. Products fall to the bottom of the furnace and can then be removed in the form of slag and pig iron, which is so high in carbon that it's brittle and useless on its own. Pig iron can be worked into wrought iron by mixing it with the slag in a finery forge and hammering, or you can mix pig iron and wrought iron to make a carbon-rich form of iron known as cast iron, a brittle but stronger iron which is used in molds to create manufactured parts.


Steel, made by alloying carbon and pig iron, is even harder than cast iron but not as brittle, making it incredibly useful in tool making. Stainless steel is an alloy of regular steel and chrome, and is known for its resistance to rusting.

One of the first practical machines that could produce steel from pig iron is known as the Bessemer converter, an egg-shaped container suspended on legs that was used for oxidizing unwanted materials such as extra carbon and silicone. Before the emergence of the Bessemer converter, steel was notoriously costly and slow to manufacture. When the pig iron had melted inside at the bottom, air was introduced into the chamber, and the silicone would react with the oxygen, forming gas and slag. The molten steel would then be removed, where it could be worked into just about anything. Bessemer steel mostly displaced cast iron, but wrought iron remained popular in tool-making, as Bessemer steel was brittle from the traces of nitrogen it contained.

The other machine formerly used to make steel operates much slower than the Bessemer converter, and is known as an open-hearth furnace. In an open-hearth furnace, scrap steel and pig iron are melted down, where they are introduced to limestone to form slag, thus burning off extra carbon. Though it produces less steel in less time, there is more opportunity to asses the quality of the product, as it takes at least eight to twelve hours to complete a single batch.

Most modern steel is made in a process called Linz–Donawitz steelmaking, using a basic iron furnace, an improved form of the Bessemer converter.


In order to produce a fire using flint and steel, all you have to do is strike the steel against the flint; the flint chips off small bits of steel, which exposes it to high amounts of friction, causing it to ignite. If you catch a spark over your tinder, you can then provide it oxygen by blowing on it, and it will eventually fully catch fire. Because the process isn't so much dependent on the flint as it is on the exposure of metal to friction, flint simply being preferred because of its hard edge, it's possible to substitute steel for iron pyrite and bypass the process of creating steel entirely.


matches.
Modern matches consist of wooden sticks and qctually my hand hurts brb

how thye made

how use.

availability and practicality (theyre manufactured and single use yall.)

pinewood with sulfur


hand drill.

bow drill.

fire plough.

fire piston.

lighter.
empty lighter as spark thrower

lense.
magnifying glass, mirrors, glass, water bottle, even polished aluminum, etc

miscellaneous.
batteries, electrical sparks, hot chemical reactions like magnesium stuff,

TYPES OF CAMPFIRE.

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blurb

teepee.

log cabin.

that scandinavian shit.

star.

platform.

lean-to.

TINDER.

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blurb

fatwood.
resin

leaves.

moss.

cotton.

fabric.
char cloth

pine needles.

wood and bark shavings.

cattails.

grass.

paper.

steel wool.

lint.

FUELING A FIRE.

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smoke effects food taste etc

hardwood.
ash, birch, hickory, maple, and oak
burns slow

softwood.

FIRE HAZARDS.

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good for LIGHTING SHIT UP AND STARTING FOREST FIRES

alcohol.
bruh

petroleum.
jelly, oill, etc

[hamlet]

DEHYDRATION.

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that shits bad for you!

when to drink MAS AGUA than like 8 cups or w.e

WATER SOURCES.

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blurb about ~INDICATIONS OF WATER~

rain.
we bless them down in africa

puddles.
bDO NOT DRINK THIS SHITTY ASS WATER

lakes.
i

rivers.
w

ponds.
w

streams.
w

wetlands.
w

springs and groundwater.
llllleachate

snow.
w

WATER QUALITY.

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if it only has leeches living there you probably shouldnt drink it

potential hydrogen.
something something solubility

sedimentation.
hgaskdhadksal turbidity

oxygen saturation.
if you plant too much algae everytgieng will die

pollution.
dont DUMP YOUR FECES in the RIVER YOU DRINK FROM!!!!

dissolved nutrients.
too much!!!!! theres too much!!!!!!!!!

bacteria.
efecal coliform & e. coli are BAD!!!!!!!

WATER PURIFICATION.

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WHY DO YOU DO THIS parasites and diseases my brother LIKE CHOLERA AND THOSE FREAKY LEG WORMS!!!!

ugh.
w

in YE OLDEN DAYS.
w

[hamlet]

[align=center]

BUILDING MATERIALS.

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dsadjwkldhasdklqwhdklhdal i feel like im forgetting something

mud, feces and dirt.
if you use non-wet dirt ur kinda silly actually
now youre gonna say hamlet why in gods green earth are people building homes with cow poop and im gonna say listen buddy ........ its warm IM NOT EVEN JOKING

adobe brixxxxxxxx

clay.
w

leaves and grass.
w

wood.
w

stone.
w

steel.
also kind of nutty

brick.
you get this from yugioh fusion summoning
mortar hsdhsalakl

stucco and plaster.
hm

canvas.
j

animal hide.
dhdkadgal

LIFESTYLES.

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bro

nomadicism.
um

sedentary.
aka yesmadic

TYPES OF SHELTERS.

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bro

lean-to.
um

wigwam.
h

wickiup.
f

tipi.
f

tent.
f

dugout.
f

sod house.
f

cabin.
f

treehouse.
d

contemporary housing.
levittown houses, cottages, fhdkfhl etc

industrial buildings.
lets not kid ourselves

medieval structures.
im not going to tell you that you cant buidl your own castle but i highly recommend against it