How to:Survival blade

Here’s a quick guide on how to make a survival knife from some easily available items.

You will need

Hacksaw blades (most are carbon steel, flexible and strong)


Bench grinder (or a file if you can’t get to a grinder)



Pliers

Background info

Having made a survival kit that’s as small as possible, I needed a knife to fit in the container, one that was small and thin enough to fit with ease but was strong and flexible at the same time. Also I wanted it to be easily replaceable; if it was possible I also wanted it to double up as a saw. One of my friends recommended trying this and I find that it’s perfect for my survival kit. Anyway, on with the instructions!

First take your pliers and snap the hacksaw blade into 3 rough pieces starting at each end, making them as big or as small as you think you need, if it’s too long it will be easy to break but if it’s too short it will be impractical so use your judgement here.

Now with a pen mark out a rough idea of how you want your knife to look on your hacksaw blade, I picked one of the ends with a hole in because then it can be attached to a string so it isn’t lost or some Para-cord, this would make a grip and you would be able to take it off and use it to tie things if need be. You could use the middle piece too but I don’t use it because I can’t attach it to anything to make a grip.



I’ve chosen a slightly rounded design to make it more stable and less likely to break.

Now you need to go to your grinder and get to work, it shouldn’t take very long at all to make the blade, a few minutes at most, be careful you don’t take off many of the grooves if you want to use it as a saw as well. Sometimes it takes a few tries before you get it how you want, but seeing as the blades are so cheap it shouldn’t matter too much.

If you’re using a file this will be quite a bit harder and more time consuming but it can be done so don’t be put off by not having a grinder, just carefully file around what you’ve marked out on the blade and in no time you’ll have your knife.

This is the knife up-close, it’s getting there but needs some finishing touches, for this I got some sandpaper to sharpen the knife up more. I then sanded up the rest of the blade to take off the blue paint. This is only optional but can improve the quality of your knife by making it sharper, I think it looks better too.

Here is your finished survival knife! Once you get the hang of it you can make quite a few in a short amount of time, obviously they won’t compare to a expensive survival knife but because of its size and different purposes it can be invaluable in a survival kit where you don’t want to be carrying around a lot.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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Exploration:Clay works

For those of you who don’t know Cornwall is in the southwest of England, I live in a relatively small town called St Austell. Cornwall was and to some extent still is renowned for its use in tin mining and providing very large amounts of clay to the rest of the world.

Anyway it all started on the standard Saturday morning (waking up at half 1 by having an annoying friend ring you) The conversation went like this

Me: you woke me up
Him: OMG SORRY IM SO EXCITED I’VE FOUND THIS ABANDONED CLAY WORKS.

After a long conversation about whether or not there were guard dogs I reluctantly agreed to go and explore these buildings.
The Clay works we explored were later found out to of been unmanned since the 1940’s.
Following our long walk to this area we found our first possible entrance.


We both decided seeing this was close to a road that it would be a bad choice to go in this way so we started looking for ways where it was harder to be seen trespassing.

Around the back of the works were some woods, we decided this would be the best place to get to the buildings.



We went through the woods and it led us to this path


At the top of this path there was a door leading into the higher lever of the first building.


We started looking around and we found what seemed to be a foam bell, I don’t understand why or how this would be used so if anyone has any ideas it would be interesting to know.
Before…


After


At the very end of one of the buildings we found a room full of wooden crates that were full of clay balls presumably for easier transportation of the clay.



There were also plastic containers full of a liquid that we think was used to harden clay.
These were all dated pre 1950.



We found this small contraption that you could spin, again like the foam bells it would be interesting to find out if anyone knew what this was used for.



Here is my friend being the general stereotype of a teenager



Luckily the fire extinguisher he threw broke open a door to a very interesting room



It was a locker room that had been left untouched again since the 40’s; there wasn’t much in there apart from some hard hats and coats but it was surreal imagining we may have been the first people in 67 years to enter that room.

After we left the locker room we went into another room that had some kind of machinery.



By this machinery there was a very heavy and very dusty operating manual.



Next we went onto the lower levels of the building where we found two huge lamps



and guess what…


Yep more machinery



Some kind of switchboard, we started flicking switches and enjoyed watching some lights flicker on and off, it got boring after about 4 seconds.

MOAR light switches amazing aren’t they?



After inhaling clay dust for a while we decided to go outside to get some air and I took this photo of one of the old towers



My friend found an office and wanted to look manly kicking in the door (it wasn’t locked)



Inside we found a lot of books and this safety poster



Next was what I thought was very interesting..



This tiny box, it now controls everything at the clay works I was amazed at how many men may have lost their jobs because of the advancement in technology.

We then went into another building and at one end we found a sort of trolley which we slid from one end to the other



On another level more machines



We then found some graffiti from other people





Another shot of one of the buildings




A view from outside



A photo of a settling tank




A longer shot of the tanks

The long walk home

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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Adventure:Zanzibar

Background Info

Here in the UK it never gets very warm, I joined a world development class at my college and got the chance to travel to Zanzibar to work at a school for a week (the thought of a constant 34c was very appealing). I thought it would be a good chance to take lots of photos and document the journey.

Here’s part of wikipedia’s entry on Zanzibar...

Zanzibar is part of the East African republic of Tanzania. It consists of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 km (15–30 mi) off the coast of the mainland. There are numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, informally referred to as "Zanzibar"), and Pemba.

… blah blah blah. Our Island was Pemba.

Before travelling to Zanzibar we had so many warnings about the crime over there, we started to get worried. (turns out everything was fine)

On with the adventure!

I had to travel for three days straight stopping at various airports, going from London to Paris, Paris to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Egypt, Egypt to Nairobi, Nairobi to Tanzania and finally a bus journey to Zanzibar.

Below is a picture from my window on the way there...


After hours on the plane and stopping at lots of different airports we began to see Zanzibar in the distance.


Here we are coming in to land, I was wondering how we would because we were told the airstrip was tiny.


As soon as we got there the first thing I noticed was that they had shopping trolleys, I started to think that Zanzibar wasn’t so different after all.


Until we came to our accommodation, luckily we were staying at one of the better huts by the beach; they are made from straw, clay and mud very carefully placed together whilst they are damp. We saw one being built and it looked like a very hard process.


Here’s a picture of the sea view from our hut, Zanzibar is known for its fishing and is one of the main incomes of the island hence the fishing boats.


Another view of the huts we were staying in.


As the sun began to fall I was amazed at the surrounding area and was reminded of why people say Africa is such an amazing place.


The next morning I awoke to this view from my hut seeing a family in the fishing trade walking to their boat to prepare for the day.


A few metres away in the sand there was also... this dog! (Nickname Woofage) I was thinking of whispering "eat me" into his ear and seeing if I got immediately attacked, but I didn’t really want rabies.


At midday we had to go to work at the school, it was very strange meeting all the pupils who talked fluent English when I could barely talk Swahili. It was very interesting listening to all the different views on politics, religion and the economy. (Sounds boring but it was much better than I thought)


Later in the evening we went for a walk by the beach and I saw the erosion on the beach, we were told that because so much of the shoreline is made of coral it gradually breaks off and wears away at the land.


Here’s another picture of the beach on the walk back.


The next day I went for a look at some of the other huts, you can see more clearly the structure of them here.


After my walk I was sweating like a waterfall and couldn’t wait for a much needed drink.


But no! Not from the sea from a bottle ;)

We then went to a local market, everybody haggles there for anything and everything bits of shark, octopus, and eels. It was very different to back home. I was then reminded that music can really reach all over the world.


Another picture of the sea from my hut as the tide was coming in, at one point I was sure it wasn’t going to stop... I was wrong.


As the sun began to set once more I took this photo of a fishing boat sailing into the darkness as the sun was setting. It was one of the best highlights of the trip.


Nearing the end of our trip we all got a day off and got to go running and jumping into the sea, which was constantly like a warm bath and very refreshing compared to the heat of the midday sun in Zanzibar.


And finally the best reminder that I was never too far away from home.

I hope you enjoyed reading this adventure of mine, or killed some time.

P.S For those of you on RE It's The Aquaduct's blog.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

Want to submit an article? Email it to adventuresandmadness