Survival Hacks, Over 200 Ways to Use Everyday Items for Wilderness Survival by Creek Stewart
I’m not going to go into any great depth on this one. It’s light reading. No need to reference Joseph Campbell or look for parallels to Shakespeare’s The Tempest in search of deeper meaning. In fact, each “hack” is pretty much stand-alone, so it’s ideal bathroom reading, or for anytime you might have a few minutes here and there but not long enough to regain continuity each time.
I found it to be worthwhile and fun, with a few minor reservations.
The biggest criticism of this book on-line seems to be that the title is misleading. There’s some validity to that point, while the results of the “hacks” would generally be very useful in true wilderness, the raw materials are definitely not ordinarily found there. This is not the book for you if you’re looking to knap flint and brain-tan moosehide, sorry. That having been conceded, I don’t find that it reduced my estimate of the usefulness of the book at all. Most of us spend zero or near-zero time in true wilderness (away from trails, trash, and signs of human occupation of the planet), and let’s face it, if you find yourself in a real survival situation in true wilderness with nothing, no equipment at all, you probably had to do something pretty spectacularly stupid to arrive in that position.. and people that unprepared for what they encounter don’t read books like this anyway.
In the world of this book a junkyard or even a dumpster constitutes a survival treasure trove. In the 21st Century it is spectacularly difficult to get completely away from trash. If you’re in the suburbs, or rural areas, or even the trails and parks that pass for wilderness in most people’s experience you’re bound to have access to some of the junk that these hacks utilize, and might be very, very grateful for some clues as to how to use it someday. Still, I can see why someone chasing romantic images of returning to the ways of earlier centuries might be disappointed.
At a guess I’d say that I found maybe 5-10 percent of the “hacks” both believably useful and at least somewhat original, which is not bad at all, considering that I’ve been reading and following “survival” stuff for a number of decades.
Two of my favorite bits in the book were right at the beginning. The first is not one of the hacks, it’s the author quoting a wise Scoutmaster saying “Boys, the ability to dress yourselves is the first of all great survival lessons.” As someone near and dear to me used to say (tongue-in-cheek), “Truer words ain’t never been spake.”. Judging just by the people I see in this suburban neighborhood out walking their dogs in bad weather of all kinds dressed in ways that give the impression that any relationship between the weather and what they wear has never occurred to them, apparently a great many among us have never learned that first lesson.
The second, on the very next page, was cutting the tread off of a bicycle tire to make an incredibly durable and weatherproof load-bearing belt, equipment straps or rifle sling. For some reason that really tickles my fancy, I would love to show up at the firing ranges I belong to sporting a rifle sling right out of Mad Max on one of those days when the guys who shoot multi-thousand-dollar rifles to the extent of less than a box of ammo a year are there. I’d just love to see their faces. Haven’t tried it yet, I suspect it might leave very difficult-to-remove black marks on your clothing (not much of a concern in a survival situation) but maybe not.
There were some of the hacks that struck me as unlikely to be very practical, some that seemed as though they might be specific to certain geographic locations, and some seeming omissions (maybe using a cheap plastic shower curtain from a grocery store or even a motel as a groundcloth or even a shelter is too obvious?), but by and large, I found the book both entertaining and useful.
One thing I should note, the author seems unaware of the Rudiger Roll method of fire starting. That’s understandable given the date of publication (word hasn’t spread widely yet), but since it is currently THE easiest way to create fire with “primitive”/found materials by far, and the most versatile, the fact that it is not referenced at all is worth noting.
– Robert the Wombat