# What's the best DIY equipment youve made for outdoor survival?



## thomas_boxler (Jan 19, 2016)

what's the best DIY equipment youve managed to create for an outdoor/wilderness weekend trip?


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Bow drill for fire


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## Prepper News (Jan 17, 2016)

Haven't made one yet, but I'm sure it would come in handy  ...

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## thomas_boxler (Jan 19, 2016)

Thanks for these links. Surely found them useful!


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Bow drill for sure.


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## thomas_boxler (Jan 19, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> Bow drill for fire


That needs a lot of patience though!


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

thomas_boxler said:


> what's the best DIY equipment youve managed to create for an outdoor/wilderness weekend trip?


Combination fishing pole/beer holder.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

thomas_boxler said:


> That needs a lot of patience though!


You need to learn the wood that is local, have a means to make the fireboard/spindle , and handlhold.Then have a string or way to make one.

My first was cottonwood/poplar spindle and fireboard, ash handhold, and a USGI string of 550 paracord/or shoestring.

You need how to make cordage in the woods too


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## keepitsimple (Feb 20, 2016)

*improvised axe*



thomas_boxler said:


> what's the best DIY equipment youve managed to create for an outdoor/wilderness weekend trip?


I was in the hardware store looking at shelves and found my next DIY. I'm sure you've all seen the slotted shelf brackets with the two tabs. i couldn't help but see a light weight light duty axe head waiting to be cut out of the bracket. the shape screamed tomahawk to me, lol. trying to decide if I want to try to form a pick on the other end.






it looks like it would be something that will pack easy and attach with cordage to an improvised handle I would cut in the field making the weight and storage space cost extremely low.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

keepitsimple said:


> I was in the hardware store looking at shelves and found my next DIY. I'm sure you've all seen the slotted shelf brackets with the two tabs. i couldn't help but see a light weight light duty axe head waiting to be cut out of the bracket. the shape screamed tomahawk to me, lol. trying to decide if I want to try to form a pick on the other end.
> View attachment 14978
> it looks like it would be something that will pack easy and attach with cordage to an improvised handle I would cut in the field making the weight and storage space cost extremely low.


Those brackets are soft and will not hold an edge.
You will be able to drill two holes to bolt it to a handle.


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## keepitsimple (Feb 20, 2016)

SOCOM42 said:


> Those brackets are soft and will not hold an edge.
> You will be able to drill two holes to bolt it to a handle.


the one i was eyeing was stainless so i'll probably go with a polished edge. but yes, i agree, the edge will not hold long term. can't be any worse in a bug out bag or small survival kit than some of the cheap Chinese crap they sell online though. I do carry a small honing stone in my kit too.


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## baldman (Apr 5, 2016)

I ve made knives and clever s


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Well, not exactly outdoor survival, but none the less survival.
First major unit, 25 ton log splitter.
Second, a 15 gallon wood, coal or charcoal fired still for potable water that will produce 100 gallons a day.
I don't need anything for field use, I am not going anywhere.
I guess you could classify the 10 inch Bowie I made out of D2 die steel as for field use.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

keepitsimple said:


> the one i was eyeing was stainless so i'll probably go with a polished edge. but yes, i agree, the edge will not hold long term. can't be any worse in a bug out bag or small survival kit than some of the cheap Chinese crap they sell online though. I do carry a small honing stone in my kit too.


Mind you if it is chinese crap, their stainless is in many cases plated low carbon steel.


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## Stick (Sep 29, 2014)

A forked twig lashed to a cleaned out soup can with a boot lace for a coffee cup handle on a particularly memorable canoe trip in 1976. Still have it on a book shelf. Happened at the same island where we lost the keys to the truck. I guess I shouldn't say "we" exactly, as I was not in charge of the keys. In any way. Wasn't my truck. I do remember the wind blowing so hard upstream that we had to drag the canoe downstream against the wind. Flying into the wind it took a flight of geese all day to go three hundred feet, and we knocked one down with a .22 pistol in flight. Dang near lost it in the wind.


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