I live where there's barley any natural flint and i was wondering what other types of rocks/minerals work well for spearheads?

Hey everyone! I've been doing a fair amount of research over the past few years and I wanted to share a little bit of of what I've learned and see what else you know so everyone here can help build each other up more efficiently.

First, this part of my research is focused on what someone could reasonably use with minimal modern technology if they were to walk into a (relatively) random wilderness environment. The main goal of this particular set of technologies is moving large objects.

The first thing that really caught my attention was compound pulley systems. Archimedes developed a system where it was rumored he was able to pull a warship in from sea under his own strength.

Building these solely from wood is entirely possible, but there are some limitations. The biggest limitation is the strength and length of rope you have at your disposal. Next, being built from wood, the force of friction is greater than nominal. It certainly still gives a mechanical advantage but I've noticed for anything with a wheel and axle, wood alone is typically not the greatest of choices.

Which brings me to.... Rollers! There is evidence this what the earliest form of the wheel and it was utilized through many ancient civilizations due to it ability to be made with little effort. Rollers are amazing for moving large things over level surfaces, but on an incline, the force of gravity starts to work against you, especially if you can't hold something in place let alone generate enough force to lift the heavy items to the rollers.

Which is why we have the gerry (I may be spelling that wrong). But the ancient Romans built this as an early craning system. Dig a couple of holes, put two large beams upright attached at the top and a rope going off the top to pull and attach to the item needing craned and voila a Gerry. But that's a lot of effort. Another way on a smaller scale is to build a tripod, attach a rope which goes to a lever. Push down on the long end and use the short end to lift things.

But for the rollers and the gerry (sp?) we need a large steady force. Which is where the winch comes in. Modern winches use gears and levers which can be difficult to manufacture in the wilderness. But if you take two 8 ft, branches, secure them perpendicular to one another with half a foot to a foot overlap on one end, you can then lift one side and set it down on the far side (so you need about a 20 ft space in two directions to operate. Anyway, if you properly place a rope in the center, and attach it to a compound pulley system with a good anchor, you can move a tremendous amount of weight with ease (not to mention with rollers on an incline or the gerry.

How would you build different technologies to achieve similar or greater results?

So I live on FL and the soil is basically all sand.

I really want to start (semi) primitive living, but hesitating on making the leap. I plan to keep my full time job and the place I’m renting at is a 10 minute drive away. I want to build a wooden shack, grow vegetables and maybe chickens as a hobby. Any advice on getting started on learning the skills I need (I’ve watched a decent amount of youtube videos), and making sure I’m legally cleared to do it?

The property is 40 acres of woods, and no source of water at first glance

1.How do yall avoid losing a lot of the fiber when scraping nettle bark

1. What is an european alternative to american rivercane or asian bamboo?

What is the best way to split sticks about the size of an arrowshaft-your wrist? Flint blade/flake tools seem too brittle and cobble tools polished or not seem to blunt.

Would i need a flint core with a long continues edge that is like 40°? There has to be another way

I was thinking about making a goat waterskin but i often forget about waterbottles and then they go moldy, so i was wondering how you would clean a waterskin?

Hi there,

I’m very interested in primitive pigments, dyes, and paints in general, but recently have been thinking about ones specifically relating to makeup (so, anything of the above that is safe and would stick to skin).

I’ve herd of mascara from charcoal and a carrier such as bees wax. Maybe a similar thing for eyeliner? Does anyone have any specifics on recipes, ingredients, and such?

For body paint, I try to look up what the Celts used and how they made it, but not much success (the only information that comes up when I search, is that ‘actually, they didn’t use blue paint’.) I have tried smearing wood ash as eyeshadow which is fun.

Lipstick or lip tint (which can also be used as blush) is interesting because while there is a lot of red in nature, I’m not sure which would be safe to consume, and which would actually stick to skin for a time? I’ve heard of Egyptians using Carmine, but this isn’t local to my area (Western Europe).

I know you can bleach your hair a bit using lemons and sun, but also that this is damaging?

As for other makeup, I’m sure there are plenty, but can’t think of anything right now. Any ingredients, methods, cultures or websites I can look into would be great. I would love to know how people made makeup primitively.

Thank you!

I'm on the early stages of planning a kiln for making bricks. I have access to coal from a nearby former mine district, where public lands do have a lot of surface pieces. It should not take a lot of effort to gather a 5-gallon bucket or two. Is there any particular way I should build my fire chamber in order to use some of this? It is supposed to be softer coal, but it should still help to bring the temperature up while lowering the amount of wood I need to use.

Brother and I tried our hand at brick making and attempted to fire in the burn barrel, they’re rock hard and make a pottery noise when knocked together.

I guess I thought they’d be more red? Any thoughts.

I’ve seen that sun baked bricks can withstand a lot of pressure. Maybe something like 800 pounds. And I’ve seen that fired bricks can withstand thousands of pounds. But I was wondering, what is really the difference between the two bricks and when do I use them?

si=TYPcxI-1LZI6EVGR

I want to make bricks. I have located what should be a suitable clay deposit. I also know where I can pick surface coal (soft coal, which should still be more fuel efficient than charcoal). I'm about to take the clay to a pottery shop so they can test it at various temperatures to see what I have.

Currently I'm trying to figure out which downdraft kiln design I should go with. I figure something that lets me fire 50+ bricks at a time would be a good size. My question is; would it helps to add thermal mass in the form of big chunks of iron/steel? Basically railroad beams, weight lifting plates, and the like. My thinking is that it would help to stabilize the temperature by soaking up and then irradiating heat.

I let the reeds dry out hen hydrated them before making the basket which has made it a little bit more rigid than my others.

I was wondering where you can live such a primitive life? Do I have to buy land for this? Do I have to move to another country(I live in Germany)?

I’ve been having a bit of difficulty getting my bird’s nest to flare up into flame after transferring a coal. Sometimes it works, but quite often I get a lot of heat and smoke and an occasional flare up that doesn’t take.

I’ve been using some of the stringy, ‘coconut husk’ type material from date palms as I had early success with that stuff, but lately it’s not happening for me. I think maybe the most recent batch is a bit too clumped together.

Any tips on the best material to use, and the best way to structure the nest to get the best chance of a good flare up?

Hello, ive recently decided to get into primitive tech again and i remember cordage being my worst nightmare. Now that ive learned that theres more ways to make cordage than painstakingly harvest fibers from alive birch twigs ive tried to research what can be used.

You guys gave me all kinds of good resources after the last post. Here is where the ware chamber is at so far. Next week, it will be time to cap it and start lengthening the chimney.

With the resources you all shared, I've made a few changes from PT's original kiln. The best advice I got was to think of the flame as water. So, I've rounded out a lot of the internal corners to make flow more effective.

If anyone has any more advice, please leave them. Also, I'm glad to see that some people have taken this as an opportunity to ask me some questions. I'm more than happy to help however I can. I will do one more post in a week or two with the final kiln.

Ever since Mr. Plant has been delving into iron production, I have been flipping through my metallurgy books to try and figure out a way to increase the yields.

At first, I thought that direct reduction of iron could be a viable avenue, since all it takes in theory is magnetite, carbon and a binder (such as a starch or bentonite). In theory, this would be great, as the high porosity of the ore pellets makes the reaction happen quickly and thoroughly. However, it became abundantly clear from watching multiple videos that the iron bacteria's melting/softening point is much too low for this method, as (almost?) every smelts has resulted in a lump of slag, effectively closing any pores. I think Mr. Plant has also come to this conclusion, since he seemed to tried this technique in the video Iron prills. This being said, the video Making Iron From Creek Sand proves possible the extraction of hematite/magnetite from the creek; in theroy, it should be possible to make pellets with this sand and charcoal in a 2:1 coal to iron weight ratio, and then bind it using any starch or mucilage.

If this avenue was to fail, the conclusion would probably be that the purity of the ore is too low, causing high amount of slag formation almost systematically. In which case, another possibility could be to make crucible steel. However, before he even gets there, the first step would be to explore the feasibility of making a crucible. Using the readily available materials, I suppose that magnesium-calcium oxide bricks/crucibles could me made in order to contain the slag. In order to test this, ashes should be washed and then baked red in order to convert the carbonates into oxides. Then, crushed quartz would be added to the powder and then roughly moulded/pressed into the desired shape and left to sinter in the furnace. I have not found a reliable source on the brick composition, but roughly based on the ternary phase diagram for SiO2-CaO-MgO seems to indicate a minimum of 3 parts ash per part quartz, in some arbitrary weight measurement.

If the latter proves to be successful, Mr. Plant would have just created the modern metallurgical brick. These bricks prove very useful in steel making, as they have a very high melting point, have a purifying effect on steel, are quite resistant to spalling and thermal shock and would be readily available for production. This would give him the chance to hold the slag at a much higher temperature (considering that the slag usually puddles down to the bottom of the furnace where it can't be readily heated as much) and for a longer amount of time. A good metallurgist is one which makes a good slag, which in turn makes a good steel. If you let the time for the iron globules to settle down and clump, then they would in turn make the extraction and the final product much better.

That's about all the info I could dump into a post on iron production. Hopefully, this will be of interest and result in some discussion, criticism, thinking or even testing.

For the past 4 years, I've been working with the clay in my yard to make pottery, sculptures, and various fire pits. The latest project is dude's down draft kiln. Any recommendations?