Unlike a lot of my posts, where I just assume that if a reader manages to find MY writings on a subject they already know something about it, at the least what it is (MGTOW), this neglected, comparatively little-known tool probably requires some up-front explanation.
What it is, is a steel x-shaped tool a few inches across that is, in effect, four very deep-well sockets, designed for turning on water spigots, used and carried by maintenance men everywhere. They need water constantly for cleaning and working around the outside of the building,for everything from watering flowers through hosing down the sidewalks to mixing up wheelbarrows of concrete or mortar.
As I’ve recently written here, water is the highest-priority survival item after stabilizing your body temperature. As much as we take it for granted, water is crucial, and lack of it becomes an issue VERY fast in various emergency situations.
The outsides of buildings have various layers of security protecting their water spigots, and this tool is key to most of them. In most cases the security, of whatever level, isn’t really there to protect the water, it’s there to keep kids and other vandals from turning it on and probably leaving it on, creating a constant flow of potentially hundreds of gallons wasted, and in the winter creating a huge headache and liability situation when it freezes into ponds of ice on sidewalks and in parking lots. Compared to that, very few building owners are going to care about a few quarts here and there.. or ever know, especially during an emergency.
So let’s talk about the issue of theft. I’m not going to advocate stealing in any way, but we’re talking about emergencies and survival situations here, it’s not at all hard to envision circumstances where it would be the lesser of two evils, or of however many bad choices remain. If you’re conscientious and courteous, don’t damage anything, take only the small amounts that you actually need, turn the water OFF when you’re through and return everything to the way you found it, I really doubt any building management would care- or know, barring monitored cameras on the outside of the building.
Out in the ‘burbs, of course, residences don’t often bother with any security at all, the outside spigots are most often exposed and have handles attached. Of course, they ARE residences, so there are generally folks home, and anyone interested in the water would have to traverse private property to get to it.
Other buildings in the suburbs may follow suit, but many may just use a standard spigot and take the handle off, again, just to keep kids and vandals from leaving it on. A silcock key will turn these spigots on and off.
Further in, as things urbanize and get more commercial, right into the urban areas of most cities,, more and more buildings will have professional-looking water access panels that sit more or less flush with the outside wall. They have a little threaded tube you can screw a garden hose onto and a cryptic-looking control disk- the silcock key will turn the vast majority of these on and off.
As things get even more urbanized you may see just steel panels, square doors mounted flush into a wall. The majority of these panels can be opened by a silcock key, it’s not often worth the effort to deal with keys for all the contractors and service personnel that need outside water.
In real downtown/urban environments, you may find metal panels in the wall that need an actual key to open. The silcock key will not open these… and as of this writing, if they’re that security conscious, you’re probably on camera anyway. More than once, though, I’ve seen these left ajar exactly because dealing with keys is such a constant nuisance, and the spigot control inside works with a silcock key.
The various flush-panel types are really designed to be used with a hose. It may be worth having a short length (only a few inches really required) of garden hose with a female-threaded end attached, or even better a short length of clear vinyl tubing and a removable end, both available at hardware stores, to fill up your containers without spillage, thus avoiding creating ice hazard AND, hopefully, detection.
Keep in mind that even if the water goes out, there is typically a LOT of water still in the pipes of tall buildings for a long time. If you find yourself trapped in an urban environment in bad situations, you may well be able to “milk” one or two buildings for your needed water for weeks or even months, so long as you remain undetected, doing it at night, being careful to leave no trace of what you’ve been up to and answering no questions about where the water comes from.
Believe it or not, the silcock key may even have applications in supposedly “wilderness” environments. I’ve been standing next to a maintenance shed in the middle of what looked like a featureless blob of green on the maps for many, many miles in any direction. Traveling in many areas supposedly away from civilization these days you may well come across those, or developments of vacation homes, or empty cabins of various degrees of sophistication. Everyone needs water, and where there are people there are ways to get it. Clean water is a lot of hassle and work out in parks, game lands and wilderness areas, a silcock key might even be worth its weight out there to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves.
So, given how crucial water is to staying alive, why is this tool not better-known, especially among those who talk about urban/suburban survival? I’m not sure, but it was a long time before I ran across the info, and that was in connection to the “stealth van” covert vehicle-living crowd. It is spreading faster now, but I’m still amazed at how few lists of ukrban or suburban survival equipment include one. I make it a point to have one in each vehicle, usually in the glove compartments, and in most of my packs, kits and commuting bags.
They’re very accessible and pretty cheap, you can get them from Lowes or Home Depot or many (but seemingly not most) smaller hardware stores, or on Amazon, and I’m sure many other places. Prices as of this writing seem to range from $6-$8. All of the ones that I’ve seen seem very similar, except for the finish on the metal- Lowes has Stealth Ninja black, Home Depot has chrome, some others I’ve seen look like they have some sort of zinc plating.
If there’s a real downside to the silcock key, it’s weight. For such a small tool it’s amazingly heavy, as they are all thickly constructed and steel. Eventually I guess there might be enough interest to create market for a lighter version, who knows, maybe aluminum or even polymer sleeved with steel, or some titanium folding version might be ideal, if horribly expensive.
That’s the biggest drawback I know… but for a tool that stands a good chance of getting you water in bad conditions in the great majority of human environments, it’s a trade-off I’ll take. Be safe, careful and discreet out there.
– Robert the Wombat