If anyone is interested...

[PhoenixPrepping]

I am pretty great working with metal and when I was in the Army part of what I did was coming up with ways to make people's lives interesting if they came into an area I had secured. Basically booby traps. I was thinking of putting the two together and making most of them out of metal. Has a lot of benefits cause they are resuable and most of them are fairly lightweight and can be made from lightweight materials. I have a bunch of items I can make, and can list them if you guys want, but if anyone had an idea of something they would like for me to make for them, or to run past me and see if it is doable let me know.

I can get materials fairly cheap and building them isn't very difficult or take a long time to make so, just saying, if anyone is interested...

 

[old_anorak]

Can you do smithie work?

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

Some VERY basic stuff, nothing fancy. I've been learning but with work it's been slow going. I can do very basic farm implements and repairs

 

[old_anorak]

Can you do horse shoes? I think that will be a sought after trade in the aftermath of SHTF

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

Thats where I am at now. It's not that difficult, but like everything with metal it just takes practive and paitience and doing it until you can do it in your sleep.

 

[old_anorak]

Very true. I was just thinking that people in some areas are going to end up going back to using horses and not everyone knows how to trim and shoe a horse, so I would think that if added to metal working would give you a good trade item for almost anything. Just like tires, got to keep good tread on your hoss or you're going to be walking.

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

Oh yeah. That one of the reasons I'm trying to get up to par with blacksmithing. Blacksmiths are worth their weight in gold. I'm thinking about maybe starting a thread to mention things like that to people thinking of starting communities. I mean, how many people are farriers? Small farms are the backbone of most post-SHTF events imho. And how many people know how to do everything on a farm? Without tractors or other farm vehicles? Just something I was thinking of today.

 

[old_anorak]

I've given that a lot of thought as well Phoenix. We can do almost everything we need here on our place, but we aren't one of those huge mechanized farms. We don't even own a tractor, everything is horse power here.

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

I do kind of wonder if people realize how much work is involved in scenarios post-shtf. Everybody depends on everyone else. Farmers have the food, and so are damn important. But they need metal tools to work their farms so they better give the blacksmiths some. And I would need iron so I better have a miner/smelter around to keep me supplied. Not to mention coopers to store the food and other items in, and loggers for wood to build homes and charcoal with. But you'll also need wood workers who can build furniture and wheels. It all goes on and on. Hell, unless everyone wants to go naked you need someone who can shear a sheep and spin the wool and make clothes, which means sheapherds. It is staggering how much work goes into even a relatively small community. And how many people have those skills?

 

[old_anorak]

Very few people have the old skills anymore. It's sad to see them die out. I consider myself so lucky to have been brought up the way I was and that's how I'm raising my girls. Believe it or not, my 12 year old was working on my spinning wheel earlier today while she watched Doctor Who.

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

Damn, thats classic!! You want to see if we can get Clyds to start a new section for that specific purpose? I think that it is a very important part of prepping and I'm not sure if people have taken that into consideration. Everything we have in life today won't last very long post-shtf and once it's gone it's gone. There will be a huge dying time, and people will start turning bandit real quick if they don't have the skills to provide for themselves. The good deep inside every human being is only there as long as life is easy. Once it gets hard that inherant goodness tends to go away in the face of survival. And many thugs only know take what you want and make people suffer. Hell amunition will run out too so how many people know how to make a bow? A spear, sword? What about armour to protect their hides?

 

[old_anorak]

You have extremely valid points and that's how I look at things as well. Living through whatever is coming is one thing, but people have to remember that they will still need to live afterwards. Knowing how to do things for oneself is imperative.

 

[Clyde]

Very true. I was just thinking that people in some areas are going to end up going back to using horses and not everyone knows how to trim and shoe a horse, so I would think that if added to metal working would give you a good trade item for almost anything. Just like tires, got to keep good tread on your hoss or you're going to be walking.

I am one of those poor bastards that knows nothing about caring for horse and making sure it is properly cared for where horseshoes are concerned.

 

[Kriptic]

I am one of those poor bastards that knows nothing about caring for horse and making sure it is properly cared for where horseshoes are concerned.

You and me both. Most of my skills are computer related and unfortunately post SHTF those wont be particularly useful more then likely. I'd really like to gain some more practical hands-on skills, just really not sure where to begin or where to go.

 

[old_anorak]

I have seen people on other boards and even in person tell others that they'd go to a farm and take a horse to ride across the country to get to their bol or whatever. I just lmao at this. Can you imagine how many people are going to end up dead or seriously injured from actually trying this?

I am more than willing to share what I know with others, but believe it or not, I am a bit shy to just start threads on things because I don't want to piss anyone off. Here on our place, many of the things we do daily, we do as they were done years ago before technology reared it's head to make things easier. I've found that doing things the old way tends to result in things that last a lot longer. It's big stress reliever for me as well, I can just let my hands do what's needed while I think about life at a slower pace.

If someone want to know about critter care or something, I'm happy to tell them if they ask.

And Phoenix, you may not need a miner, just use scrap pipe and other things to melt down, there's going to be a bunch of it.

 

[PhoenixPrepping]

Oh yeah, there will definately plenty at the beggining but after a while it will all be gone.

 

[old_anorak]

True, but depending on where you are, it might take awhile to run out.