peev2c14part4

PEEv2c14part4

Bare Bones List

#9

Knives

I have never been able to see the validity of expensive knives. You need a metal of a certain composition and the design a certain shape, and ideally coming from the factory ground to the correct angle. How can an individual or specialty boutique produce a superior enough product over robots to justify the price differential? You can own knives custom made and enjoy it as a piece of art, granted, but as a tool I think not. Even if you disagree with me and feel you are so advanced from the rest of the human race that you simply most be pampered with only the very best, you still need to buy knives in bulk.

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Disqualifying the worst manufactures and the worst companies lacking all quality control, more often than not your average knife from China or other low price leader is going to fall under the 90/10 Rule. Yes, normally it is the 80/20 rule. 80% of the performance for 20% of the price. But with factory verses custom knives it seems more like 90/10. You can buy nine adequate knives for the price of one super duper deluxe bragging rights included guaranteed knife. Beware the man with only one gun, or one knife. He is an idiot.

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Now, I WOULD beware the man with one gun ( Because He Knows How To Use It, as the saying goes ), if he owned duplicates of that one gun. If he ONLY had one gun because he was too daft to re-prioritize his life around preparedness ( NOT just a part time hobby. What? You think a weak half assed effort is enough for a civilization collapse? ). Knives are even worse. You only bought ONE knife? Are you insane? Do you think Darwin will allow you to procreate?

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You don't buy a knife. You don't buy knives. You buy dozens of knives. Hopefully a dozen at a time, but a total of smaller purchases will do nice enough I suppose. And notice, if you will, that Amazon didn't take over the knife industry. There are still plenty of vendors out there. They might just be mail order rather than retail, as it is a bit hard to pay the rent with knife purchases ( THE primary death of malls and retail is the bankers financializing the economy, jacking up rents to nose bleed levels, NOT Amazon, you simple hump ).

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You cannot buy dozens of knives if you are hung up on supposed quality of custom knives. After the collapse of the Oil Age and the Industrial Age, you are going to learn first hand how much it sucks to have to trade with craftsmen, each purchase, literally, enough to pay his rent and send his kid to school. There will be no more economics of scale, nor a one off mass energy dump at below production cost ( most oil is purchased below true cost after the military is factored in. WAY below if the cost of all past wars over oil is calculated. This is why your dumb ass buys Industrial Age products NOW, while the true cost isn't passed on to you ).

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I don't have a preference of stainless steel or carbon steel knifes. Carbon steel is better, with a better edge that lasts longer, but the price is higher ( except Mora knives ) and in the future gun and knife oil will be more dear. You can ignore and neglect a stainless steel gun more often. I buy stainless only to get nearly free knives in bulk, and then buy carbon whenever I can as a preference-when-possible. I also buy and store bulk amounts of automotive transmission fluid as gun/knife oil.

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#10

Shelter

Like clothing, shelter is going to be a rather easy item to salvage for a short time after the collapse. Unless everyone dies of Ebola, and most clothing is covered in liquefied internal organs and other contagious fluids. As it is, a lot will be pretty nasty after the water shuts off and people are little retards when it comes to sanitation that requires a small amount of effort. Nowadays, they sit around and sweat on the sofa, their overabundance of body fat making the mere act of breathing so laborious they perspire copiously. They can barely be bothered to bend down, pick up their soiled clothing, add soap to a machine and then push a button.

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You think I'm kidding. How many people let laundry pile up to the point they are smelling everything to find one item not offensive to their fellow beached wales at the cubicle farm? When the grid goes down and the water is shut off, most houses will have 99% dirty laundry, yet have only enough soap for one and a half more loads of laundry. They will start wearing clothes WAY too long. Oh, goodness, it's SOOOoooo cold in here. What's insulation? What's alternate heat? So they wear the same three pairs of socks around the clock until they are black and smell like the first three feet of someone's intestines.

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That doesn't even factor in people liquid tooting into their underwear as dirty water and an unfamiliar irregular diet irritates their bowels which are used to moving regularly only after they visit Taco Bell ( the kings of “33% real meat taco filling” ). I don't think I'm going to be relying on salvaging clothing, as much as possible. And shoes? Shoes are made of recycled PET bottles and faerie feces, any more. They are crap, made to be worn on cubicle warriors feet as they man their computer, not actually used past a few yards travel a day. I sure wouldn't rely on salvaging shoes.

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But shelter? That should be easy enough. I don't mean actually using existing homes as a shelter, but they will contain oodles and gobs of salvageable material that you can use to built proper homes with. In many areas, that is earth sheltered and south facing. Some areas might be elevated from floods and open to the breeze, with a second roof for proper shade. NOT the current crap that needs 24/7 grid power to remain comfortable. And remember, earth sheltered doesn't have to mean below ground. It can be above ground with earthen sides and southern exposure.

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You can salvage a butt ton of insulation and use that on the roof, with just a very small amount of dirt atop that. Just enough to keep the UV rays off of the 6 mil construction plastic. That is $60 a roll, but indispensable for tapping into the earths thermal battery. Plastic sheeting on the roof, then also away from the roof to keep the dirt on the sides dry. A VERY small fire and body heats keeps the place livable. A beaver in a mud and stick shelter in the middle of a pond in a Canadian winter has a constant thirty two degree interior temperature when it is minus twenty Fahrenheit outside.

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My hole in the ground, with only the roof insulated with one layer of fiberglass and two inches of dirt over that, stayed forty degrees overnight with no heat. Waking up and perking a pot of coffee and the temperature rose to fifty. It was minus fifteen every night for three weeks during a polar vortex ( about five above in the day ). Even poorly built and designed underground homes are great for winter with almost no fire. And yes, I tested the dirt prior. It was near rock hard clay. But just in case I built wider than deep. If you don't live in a desert, your construction must differ to account for excess rain. Just throwing that out there.

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Shelter is easy. Luxurious, large and wasteful shelter, not so much. Basic shelter, just think tons of insulation and solar gain. Or, if you live in the south, just shade from the sun or the rain. There is a reason most folks live in the tropics-cold sucks if you don't insulate properly. Plus, in the cold you need a fattier diet. That in itself precludes a lot of population.

( .Y. )

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