Improvise five items from what is in your pockets

[Greg Davenport]

For optimal learning outcome, please answer before reading what others have posted...

As you read this... empty your pockets (no using your keyring that has all those cool items on it

) and using the contents, improvise at least five items that in some way meet one or all of the following "five survival needs"

1. Personal Protection (clothing, shelter, fire)
2. Siganling (manmade and natural)
3. Sustenance (water and food)
4. Travel (with and without a map and compass)
5. Health (psych stress, traumatic and invironmental injury)

Improvising.... you are only limited by your imagination... For you readers... come on.... jump in... no one will ridicule your answers... practice the art of improvising now, not when in a survival situation. Kind of like sharpening your knife before you go to the woods

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 

[Plainsman]

What happens when you have EMPTY pockets?

I'll have to answer first thing tomorrow after I've been at school all day!

I'm sure I'll have some useful goodies from the classroom's normal routine. Normally, I have detention slips, paper clips, pencil, rubber bands...we'll just have to see what I end up with tomorrow!

I LOVE these questions!

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Plainsman
primitiveguy@hotmail.com

You use what you have on you, then you improvise!

 

[MichLee]

Hmmmm lets see. What I have on me currently. Lets take inventory.

Pockets. Wallet (little money though)and a small notepad, comb, Myerco Folder, mini bic lighter, SAK Cybertool with attached red photon, orange photon, keys, house keys with turquoise photon, work keys with white photon. 50 foot spool of decoy cord wrapped about a pencil stub. Lol, ok so my pants do not look sleek and svelte like Sean Connery. J

Clothes – Cotton/polyester Waffle weave Henley short, Dockers slacks, leather belt with brass buckle, and shoes with laces.

Miscellaneous – wedding ring – silver, silver chain with Viking Thor's hammer medallion, watch with alarm, Suunto Clipper compass, Gerber Multipliers. Glasses with Poly carbonate lenses and titanium frames. Nextel Motorola Cell Phone/walkie talkie.

I cannot count my jacket since it is hanging across the room, nor my brief/work case because it is under my desk. I will hold strictly to the wording of the problem of it being what is on us right now.

I will break this down into 2 scenarios, one where I am currently being hit by natural or manmade disaster, and 2 being stranded outside in the current weather with my current clothes/gear.

Current location. Office building. Hit by tornado building partially wrecked, no lights, in the basement floor with no windows. My immediate need is to exit the building. In this instance the photons would be of immense value. Also would be my compass. Exits are stairs and elevator. Elevators are out due to power so I need to go north, then east to gain access to the stairwells and we all know how confusing places can be when jumbled and you are under pressure. In my path are several doors and other obstacles that could require partial disassembly to get past. The doors are hollow wood so they could be sawn through with the serrated blade of the multipliers (or simply battered down if I am healthy). Using the lighter or any flame for light could be disastrous if there is a resulting gas leak. Using the Nextel cell phone could be not a good idea either. But if no gas fumes are smelled it could be safe, and very valuable to gather other survivors as most supervisors and many others carry linked units. Also help could be phoned for.

Stranded outdoors: My first need in my current clothing is shelter. I would look for a suitable place to build a shelter, hopefully around the base of a pine with low hanging branches. My knives and Gerber would aid my here, cutting branches to weave into the roof, and for insulation on the ground. If the reason for my stranding is mechanical the Gerber and Cybertool would give me some marginal tools to attempt fixing the problem. The cord could help bend limbs down to form a dome for the roof. A small fire for warmth would be nice if the shelter I can make will allow for it, that is where the bic comes in handy. I could split small kindling with the Myerco folder and a branch to pound it through with. The cord and my silver Thor’s Hammer medallion would make a passable fishing kit. The photons would provide illumination and signaling capabilities. The blade of the SAK is bright and shiny and can be used as a signaling device. Cell phone could be used to call for help. The pencil could be used to write notes to be left behind in the case the I have to move from my location. That is where he compass comes in.

Ok now to see what everyone else wrote.


RATS!! I should have used my glasses to read the challenge again, ok.

5 items.

1. Fishing spoon/hook with SIlver Thors Hammer Medallion.

2. Fire lens with glasses.

3. Snare, or fishing line with cord.

4. Maul with folder and a brach for pounding.

5. Sling for broken arm with leather belt.

There is that better? I left the forst part, BECAUSE I typed it, lol.

------------------
Lee

LIfe is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde

 

[goshawk]

Let's see
space blanket
artificial sinew
two folders
snickers bar
tied flys
a small mirror
metal match
pitch wood and a GPS

Ok now for real
a dime and pocket fuzz
I'm a little short on things.
A credit card in my wallet to buy all the
things I need???????? Woooof.

------------------
http://www.imt.net/~goshawk
Don't walk in tradition just because it feels good!!!!!
Romans 10:9,10
Hebrews 4:12-16
Psalm 91

 

[Granite]

Hmmm...
well, first I'd improvise a knife from my spyderco dragonfly!

Then I have cash and checks to help in fire starting. I could cut a strip off of my jeans to use as a cord for a fire bow (it could also be used as bandage). Oh, one more thing, Has anyone thought of buffing their spyderco knife to a mirror finish and then using the hole as a sight so that is could be used like a signaling mirror????
...it might work!



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An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

 

[Plainsman]

When I got home from school I emptied my pockets in ONE SPOT so I knew everything I collected during the day. NO, I didn't add things to help me in this endeavor, although it could have EASILY been done.

My items:
1) SAK Officer model
2) Hex wrench set-about 7 small hex wrenches altogether-I use this to adjust the temp in my classroom.
3) Two paper clips-one large, one small
4) Photo of a senior
5) Keycase with about 8 keys-made out of leather with a LACE fringe!

6) Car key on my small kobutan
7) Small replica of a bank money bag, used as my wallet, containing a couple of notes, cards with info, ID, drivers license, CCW card, credit card and ATM card.
8) One mechanical pencil
9) One overhead pen

Ok here goes the improvising.

1) FIRE-With the hex wrenches I have carbon steel, then I need a "flint" to create sparks. With the notes I have some tinder.

2) Signaling-One of the information cards is just for that-It has ground to air signals, morse code and TAP code on it. Also, my belt buckle is SILVER with some gold. THis could be used as a reflector.

3) Sustenance-Take FIVE of the plastic cards and CAREFULLY heat the edges and form a PLASTIC BOX. This could be used to hold water. The key case has 6 HOOKS that could be removed, bent open and sharpened for fish hooks. Take the LACE and form fish line. The LARGE paper clip could be used as a hook as well.

4) Travel- either paper clip could be magnetized, maybe on my silk under wear! This could them form a compass using a card and water or a leaf or a piece of paper on the water.

5) I could use the senior's picture to relieve stress!

Either for reminiscing the good times or throwing rocks at it for the annoying times!

How's that?

------------------
Plainsman
primitiveguy@hotmail.com

You use what you have on you, then you improvise!

 

[Stryver]

No keychain? Bummer, I guess I can't use my bottle-opener.... Do I get to use my belt tools?


Stryver empties his pockets, and comes up with a check-book in a plastic cover, a spyderco native, and a wallet. Things of note in the wallet are:

A very shiny fake deputy sheriff badge left over from camp-staff days

A small aluminum cross

a couple bucks

Many assorted plastic and paper cards/reciepts, including one for a free beer in Westminster, CO

Leather in wallet

A metal clip meant to keep the little plastic pockets (Long gone) in place


Things to improvise:

Much paper to be used for tinder, shaved plastic should light well (Hmmm.... idea....)

<Note: shaved plastic (At least the laminated ID cards) did not act as tinder very well. I imagine the card would burn well, but I couldn't get it to light with a metal match, it just melted my shaved pieces into little black globs, with no flame...)>

The checkbook cover could be rolled into a serviceable straw, or folded into a cup for water.

The plastic cards (Particularly the hot-laminated ID type cards) can be cut to size and used to patch a side-wall tear on a bike tire. Useful alternative to hiking ones bike out, even if it'll cost a few buck to replace the ID card...

The money could be used for tinder

The cross could be shaped into a fishook, possible jus by cutting diagonally across the center, and using the two 'L' shapes to start.

The badge is not flat enough to be used for signaling, but could easily be fashioned into a lure and/or fishook

Leather in wallet could be cut up for cord, used for sling, or to patch holes in things.

Credit cards could be heat-shaped into silverware or fishing lures, or too book a flight to Denver, and a cab to Westminster for a free beer.

And I'm running low on ideas,


Stryver



[This message has been edited by Stryver (edited 01-19-2000).]