Don’t Forget the Duct Tape

Over 200,000 copies sold—fully updated! Dye your own wool, raise chickens, make your own cheddar cheese, build a log cabin, and much much more.

Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills—the kind employed by our forefathers—and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide.

Countless readers have turned to Back to Basics for inspiration and instruction, escaping to an era before power saws and fast-food restaurants and rediscovering the pleasures and challenges of a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Now newly updated, the hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations in Back to Basics will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead.

More than just practical advice, this is also a book for dreamers—even if you live in a city apartment, you will find your imagination sparked, and there’s no reason why you can’t, for example, make a loom and weave a rag rug. Complete with tips for old-fashioned fun (square dancing calls, homemade toys, and kayaking tips), this may be the most thorough book on voluntary simplicity available.

In the chaos of a survival situation, firearms will be important tools for protecting yourself, your family, and your supplies as well as for hunting animals for food. In A Prepper’s Guide to Shotguns, Robert K. Campbell discusses the best shotguns to have with you in any confrontation—including the end of the world as we know it. Shotguns that are easy to carry and lightweight and that shoot accurately and reliably at close ranges are ideal candidates for personal protection. In A Prepper’s Guide to Shotguns, Campbell explores specific shotguns that are appropriate for urban, rural, and suburban environments, with tips on how to use them in each context. Whether at home or in a survival scenario, these shotguns are the best for defense. A Prepper’s Guide to Shotguns not only reviews the specific features of defensive shotguns but how to use them—whether on the move, in a defensive situation, while retreating, or in other circumstances. Campbell also offers expert tips on how to improve your marksmanship, how to maintain your firearms, crucial gun safety rules, what ammo and optics to purchase, and more.

This is a full-color edition of the very first Boy Scouts Handbook, complete with the wonderful vintage advertisements that accompanied the original1911 edition, Over 40 million copies in print!

The original Boy Scouts Handbook standardized American scouting and emphasized the virtues and qualifications for scouting, delineating what the American Boy Scouts declared was needed to be a “well-developed, well-informed boy.” The book includes information on:

• The organization of scouting
• Signs and signaling
• Camping
• Scouting games
• Description of scouting honors.

Scouts past and present will be fascinated to see how scouting has changed, as well as what has stayed the same over the years.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to throw knives or tomahawks, look no further than The Ultimate Guide to Knife Throwing. This comprehensive guide is perfect for everyone from novices who have never picked up a knife to seasoned knife and tomahawk throwers looking to compete in their first tournament.

Bobby Branton has been a foremost expert in the field of knife throwing and handcrafting custom throwing knives for over thirty years and shares his expertise here with easy step-by-step directions. Branton shows readers two methods of throwing knives that are most popular with knife throwers today. He will also share his extensive knife-making experience by showing readers how to make a quality throwing knife on a budget.

In addition to improving technical skills, this guide will also give readers a brief history of the sport—covering everyone from the pioneers of the sport to today’s modern impalement artists. This book will give you the tools needed to learn everything from the basics of knife and tomahawk throwing to how to start your own knife and tomahawk throwing club. Readers will learn how to construct targets, learn the basic stance, basic knife and tomahawk grips, and the mechanics of throwing knives and tomahawks. Branton’s guide gives an in-depth look at this fast-growing sport, with a strong emphasis placed on safety.

The Ultimate Guide to Knife Throwing is a must for anyone interested in the sport of knife throwing.

 

Learn How to Start a Fire, Even When It Seems Impossible!

Since the dawn of mankind, fire has been a staple of survival. Whether it is used to keep warm, cook food, or scare away predators, fire is an essential element, one that is almost impossible for humans to live without. But with society's current dependence on modern tools and technology, many persons would have no idea how to start a fire without matches or a lighter. In an emergency situation, a lack of knowledge about it could easily prove fatal.

In Guide to Making Fire without Matches, survival expert Christopher Nyerges provides readers with all the skills that they may need to start a fire without modern tools. The book begins by covering the history and lore surrounding fire, and then moves on to describe, in detail, the four main methods through which fire is made: friction, the sun, electricity, and chemistry. Additional topics include:

How to make a fire in the rain
The best locations to build a fire
Safety precautions to take when around fire
How to tend your fire
How to make a signal fire
Different ways to cook with fire
And much more!

With helpful diagrams, illustrations, and sidebars, Guide to Making Fire without Matches is the ultimate reference book for learning about an essential element.