Back to Basics

ToddDubya

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I was watching a Wrangerstar video the other day and he referenced an old Reader's Digest book called "Back to Basics". It shows you how to do just about anything you can think of as far as traditional American skills. He's looking at well drilling, but if you wanted to know about building a house, which trees produce the most heat, how to dye wool, how to make a bellows, how much wheat to grow for your size family, etc this book has it. I ordered it off ebay for $9 shipped and have been reading it this windy weekend. It's obviously not a step-by-step detailed description of everything, but there's certainly enough to do the job or at least get you started. Lots of forgotten skills in there.

I just wanted to share the video and book. If anything it would make a good coffee table book or a fun read to keep at your camp.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8r5tQoQ5T4
 
I was watching a Wrangerstar video the other day and he referenced an old Reader's Digest book called "Back to Basics". It shows you how to do just about anything you can think of as far as traditional American skills. He's looking at well drilling, but if you wanted to know about building a house, which trees produce the most heat, how to dye wool, how to make a bellows, how much wheat to grow for your size family, etc this book has it. I ordered it off ebay for $9 shipped and have been reading it this windy weekend. It's obviously not a step-by-step detailed description of everything, but there's certainly enough to do the job or at least get you started. Lots of forgotten skills in there.

I just wanted to share the video and book. If anything it would make a good coffee table book or a fun read to keep at your camp.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8r5tQoQ5T4


Spoiler alert:
He didn’t drill a well in this video.

This is a video about a video he’s going to do someday.
 
I've got this book too. I'm probably not going to forge my own door-knocker but it's a good overview of a lot of potentially useful tasks. And the cover instantly transports you back to the late 70s/early 80s.

There's a "companion" book called "Complete Do It Yourself" that is a bit more DIY around the house, also good for reference.
 
I love the Wranglerstar vids.

iu


My favorite was his vid on using bacon to rejoin a severed limb...
 
A few weeks ago my jackass friend goes "You should collect a coffee can worth of sap, leave it next to a fire and see if you can make a teaspoon of syrup." So I tapped four trees, because that was how many buckets I had handy, built an evaporator out of a 55 gallon drum, collected the sap, sat by the fire for a day, finished it on the stove, and this morning I poured my own syrup over waffles. It was a ton of work for what amounted to 3.5 cups of syrup, but I learned a ton and it'll be way easier next year.
 

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I had a copy of this, as a kid

https://www.amazon.com/War-Time-Guide-Book-Home/dp/B000IW7KG2

I flipped through it, and some of the stuff stuck. While I don't see a need to use a brazing outfit to replace a tooth on an industrial gear, one thing I did remember was how to repair a water tank with a hole in it, with a bolt, some gasket material, a couple of washers and a nut.

Fast forward a while, and a few Februarys back the glass in my woodstove door cracked - no idea why, but it looked like it had been shot - hole, with radiating cracks. Of course, it was cold, and it would take 2 weeks to get a new window from the manufacturer, so I stabilized the glass with the tank-repair method, using fiberglass as the 'gasket'. Worked.

I agree that most of us will not have to "go back to basics" but reading these things, and socking the methods away, might get you out of a jam.
 
I had a copy of this, as a kid

https://www.amazon.com/War-Time-Guide-Book-Home/dp/B000IW7KG2

I flipped through it, and some of the stuff stuck. While I don't see a need to use a brazing outfit to replace a tooth on an industrial gear, one thing I did remember was how to repair a water tank with a hole in it, with a bolt, some gasket material, a couple of washers and a nut.

Fast forward a while, and a few Februarys back the glass in my woodstove door cracked - no idea why, but it looked like it had been shot - hole, with radiating cracks. Of course, it was cold, and it would take 2 weeks to get a new window from the manufacturer, so I stabilized the glass with the tank-repair method, using fiberglass as the 'gasket'. Worked.

I agree that most of us will not have to "go back to basics" but reading these things, and socking the methods away, might get you out of a jam.

And a lot of times there's a new whizbang method that's great when time is money, but if you don't mind spending a little longer or it's a one-off kind of thing, it's nice to know other ways.
 
Books & DVDs

great stuff. use it for obtaining the author and title of the books you want to read order it from your public libraries "interlibrary book loan system" take notes or scan/print pages that are of value to you.
 
search amazon, alibris, Kurt Saxon, whomever bought out paladin press, Loompanics, towsends. Dont buy the books. It woiuld cost you thousands of $ to do that. Just get the ISBN number, title and author, order it from your local public library's "interlibrary book loan system." you get it for 2 weeks and can extend it another week. write down notes, take picks or make copies of the pages that interest you. put it on thumbdrive. They only let you order like 2 a week, so get all your buddies and relatives to do so, and you convert all of it into storage , repeat, and you'll be the source of info one day soon.
 
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, by John Ross.

Boston T. Party's BOSTON'S GUN BIBLE

Same guy, real name, MOLON LABE.

You can get these books thru your local library's "interlibrary book loan" system. Amazon sells them, but you'll puke at the prices. So just note down author, title and ISBN numbers and order them thru the library.

@bilra also posted this same thing last year.

fantastic books

@wagum posted today
Books & DVDs
 
Hate to say, but authors actually need to sell books. Taking notes is fine, but copying pages from a library book (Like we all did in college) is a no-no. Borrow the book, take all the notes you want. Resist the temptation to use your phone or scanner to make digital or print copies. That's why they call it a copy RIGHT!
 
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