One of the most interesting things I’m currently discovering, is how to move back in time. What happens when there is no electricity? What can we do, how can we do it?
One path is to learn how to live off-grid. This is part of where I am. This is why I spent the time learning how to make a steam expansion engine, learning how to run it, and then learned how to build a 2 HP boiler.
That steam engine is intended to run a generator or a lathe, depending. Yes, I have some generators, but water and wood will be easier, in some situations, to get than other fuel.
But there is another entire type of skill set, that of taking a step back in time.
Let me discuss just one part of this, I want to make some items, such as a table-top. That’s easy, just drive to the lumberyard and buy the lumber, do the glue-up, feed it through the plainer, sand it and a bit more. Easy stuff.
Let’s take the lumberyard out of the equation. How do you get a board, much less three or four of them, to make that tabletop? You need to mill your own lumber.
So into the woods I went, I found a tree and fell it. I can do that with my felling axe or a felling saw. I now cut it into long enough lengths to make planks or beams.
The tree is 20 inches in diameter, I want a 10-foot section to turn into boards. At 71% moisture, that is 63 lbs/ft^3.
How do you get a 2.5 TON log out of the forest? The simple answer is “bit wheels”.
A pair of wheels was situated, with a wheel on either side of the log. Tongs were attached to the log and a short tail of the wheel. An animal then pulled the tongue down, which provided enough leverage to lift the log off the ground. The log could then be dragged out of the forest.
Ok. I need to learn how to make wheels.
Once the log arrives at the “mill” it needs to be moved into place. The normal method of moving logs was to float them down a river way or across a lake. Once the log arrived at the mill, it was taken out of the water. Sometimes up skids, sometimes via manually operated cranes.
The log is now cut. This is done by putting the log on a long sled that moves through a saw blade. The saw blade is powered by water. The sled moves forward and a slice is taken off the side of the log. The sled is moved back, the log is repositioned, and another slice is taken.
Before circular saws were used, a reciprocating saw was used. This was a 5 to 6 foot long saw attached at the top and bottom to a frame. Water power was used to turn a crank that moved the saw up and down. Occasionally, there would be multiple blades mounted in a single frame. The log, on a sled, is moved through the saw blades, cutting the log into planks.
If you didn’t have a mill, you would use a saw pit instead. The log would be positioned across the top of the pit, one man would stand on top of the log, another would be below the log. The man on top would pull the saw up at the end of the stroke. The man on the bottom would provide the power for cutting on the down stroke.
This means that I have to learn how to create a safe pit for sawing. I have to learn how to sharpen the two-man saw for ripping. I have to learn how to set the teeth.
Now that I have a blank, I have to plane it. This is done with a combination of planes. The longer the body of the plane, the less likely the final product is to have cupping. The plank is placed on the workbench, the plane is adjusted for a fine cut. You then start planing.
This is not an easy task. It also requires learning to sharpen planes.
Now that I have my boards, they are no longer planks, I have to join them.
To join two boards, you have to joint them. This involves positioning the planks face to face with the grain running in the same direction. The edges are aligned so that they are even with each other. Then a jointing plane is used across both edges at the same time to make them smooth and to have a constant fixed angle.
If the two boards are then placed with the planed edges touching, in one orientation they will have a gap equal to twice the angle off 90 degrees the edges were planed.
If the board is flipped over, the two edges will match perfectly, with no gap.
This means learning to make long planing cuts that maintain a fixed angle, as perpendicular to the edge as possible.
I’ve done this with metal planes. I’m sure I can learn to do it with wood planes.
Oh, the length of these wood planes varies from a few inches long to monsters 5 inches wide and 4 foot long.
Each step of the way has another skill to learn. Each skill tells us more about what we don’t know.
Our world is so interdependent that even one small broken piece can disrupt many things.
Robert Heinlein wrote a short store, The Roads Must Roll. It is the story of a strike by some workers of the roadway. They knew they were critical to the running of the country. Without them, the roads would stop. Without the roads rolling, society would scream to a stop.
The point made in the story, was that everybody has a niche where they think they are critical to the country. Listen to the left screaming that without the cities financial districts, the country would stop. They don’t realize just how little they mean in the grand scheme of things.
We see this in almost every profession. People have an inflated opinion of just how valuable they are to society, to their company, to their community.
A common example is workers vs. sales in the corporate world. A worker can see that their work is translated directly into income for the company. They take a piece of raw material, add their skill and time to that material, and it becomes a widget. The company sells that widget, generating income for the company.
How does a salesman create value for the company? They don’t, directly. They generate value because they bring in customers.
In the “prepping” world, there are raiders. These are the want-to-be criminals that expect to trade their “security” services for your goods and skills. If you don’t want to “buy” their services, they intend to take your goods.
They have a single skill. They are positive their skill will provide them with all they need.
I don’t have nearly enough skills to provide everything our family pod would need. I require the help of my family to provide the missing parts.
Meanwhile, I will continue to make lists of what I need to learn next.
What skills do you have that translate to living, not just surviving, but living in a society without modern transportation and power? What skills do you wish you had?
Comments
8 responses to “What comes first?”
Chris, your last paragraph is crucial to community survival.
We will need to recognize each other’s skills as strengths as well as how we can minimize the weaknesses.
I heartily recommend the ‘Foxfire’ book series which offers fairly specific explanations for how all manner of industries were done in rural Appalachia, written from interviews conducted in the 1970s of persons who were then quite old, describing how they and their parents’ generations lived and worked. As I recall one volume includes a fairly complete design of one man’s water driven sawmill, but the series runs the gamut, with instructions for the making of pickles, liquor and other foods, banjos and children’s toys, gunsmithing and shoemaking, and quite a few amusing anecdotes and interesting stories mixed in. It was mostly put together by highschool students, and some of the crafts I have made from its instructions miss some questions I would like to have answered, but all in all its a great resource.
I have that series from my childhood. I’m sure there are more now. I did read all of the first dozen or so.
Can your lathe be run off a line shaft? Old ones might be set up with a built-in motor but are constructed so you can run them off a line shaft, too. That would make it easier to run them from a steam engine, or a water wheel.
Yes. It would take some work to get a counter shaft in place and to acquire belting, but it can run off a line shaft.
“for want of a nail, the kingdom was lost”…. the biggest skill I need to learn is how to make things work without electricity… i have a few human powered tools.. very few..
Been a reaaaal long time since I’ve seen a saw pit. But they do work.
I was unbelievably fortunate in my younger years – I got pressed into service on my grandmother’s farm at a pretty early age, and that meant “hand tools.” I learned how to saw in a straight, clean, square line the hard way – by completely screwing the job up until I learned. I quickly learned a sharp – and I mean sharp – saw makes a huge difference (actually, sharp everything makes a huge difference, and sometimes “wicked sharp” is the only thing that makes a job possible. I bless my Tormek frequently).
“Grandma, this saw is dull, it just won’t cut right.” “The saw set and files are in the shed, take care with them.” So I taught myself – eventually – how to sharpen and set saw blades. And how to stone auger bits to sharpen them because brace-and-bit was it for holes, and sharper bits cut cleaner holes. And sharpen axes, draw knives, plane knives, brush axes, shears, you name it. I knew power tools, like table saws and circular saws, existed, but we never had any so everything got done manually. Later, when power tools came into reach for consumers, I still wound up using the Old Reliables because there was power at the house and in one of the barns but the work was in the field almost a mile away.
Today, I’ve got nearly every power tool known to man, both corded and cordless, and they speed work to a stunning degree. But I often pull a 70-year-old Disston rip saw off the hook to cut a length down the middle because while it takes longer not only is it more satisfying to do it The Old Way, I’ve got better control over the cut than with a 5000 RPM spinning blade (if you don’t think that’s important, look at the difference in joinery in a 100+-year-old house and today’s construction; strength comes from the tightness of the joint, not the size – or quantity – of the nails holding it together and the carpenters of yesteryear knew that. And back then there were “carpenters” worthy of the title, today we have “framers” who live on the speed power tools and air compressors allow. It’s not an improvement).
I look at furniture made 300 years ago and marvel at the joinery, symmetry and finish, all achieved by hand, eye, and experience. Today we can do that with power equipment, but I’m not convinced being able to produce something comparable in a factory in an hour makes it worth more than what a highly skilled craftsman invested two or three weeks of his life doing. There’s something about investing yourself in a project, whatever it may be, that doesn’t exist when the CNC Gods do it.
So, Chris, learn the old ways, improve on them where improvement is actually that, and know that being able to do it by hand is a skill that you’ll have forever.
And here’s a Pro Tip: If you’re ever the guy in the saw pit, wear goggles and a hat.
Elrod said, “But I often pull a 70-year-old Disston rip saw off the hook to cut a length down the middle because while it takes longer not only is it more satisfying to do it The Old Way, I’ve got better control over the cut than with a 5000 RPM spinning blade…”
I am that way with sewing. For many years (embarrassingly many years), I was terrified of the sewing machine and I was disdainful of the sewing needle. Then I got into reenacting, and realized that garb costs mucho bucks that I didn’t have… so sewing was my only option. And I learned. I learned by doing. My early stuff was awful… like “burn it in the backyard” awful. LOL… But it worked. Even my practice pieces today tend to be wearable (I use practice pieces for scut work that I don’t want to damage to “good” clothes in).
I love to hand sew. It’s my zen moment. I use the machine for speed and sometimes because it can be better for holding persnickety fabrics together, but I always finish by hand. Why? Because I have good control, and because I weave a bit of my heart and soul into the project when I do so. I can easily hand sew a tight corner on a bound edge, but I can’t (and won’t) do it with a sewing machine. Not enough control.