Improvise 5+ things from an old rusted stove

Greg Davenport

Greg Davenport

Joined
Nov 29, 1999
Messages
632
Note: Try to answer this before reading the responses of others.

(Since I believe improvising is a key component of wilderness survival...I like these kind of exercises.)

You find yourself in a longterm survival situation (reasons unknown). You have limited resources...yet you still have to meet your "five survival needs".

Following my survival step by step process you:

1. Stop and recognize the situation for what it is.

2. Recognize and prioritize your "five survival essentials" (listed below) in order of importance.

3. Improvise to meet your needs ("five essentials").

while going through the steps of improvising you inventory your manmade and natural materials. One of the things in this inventory is an old rusted range/oven (stove). Someone (a long time ago) must have dumped it there.

Question:

List at least five things you can improvise from the various parts of the stove. With each improvised use...list which one of the "five survival essential" category it falls under. You may need to take a detailed look at your stove and its various parts in order to complete this exercise.

Five survival essentials"

1. Personal Protection (clothing, shelter, fire)
2. Siganling (manmade and improvised)
3. Sustenance (water and food)
4. Travel (with and without a map and compass)
5. Health (psychological stress, environmental injuries, traumatic injuries)

------------------
Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
I have a gas stove! I'm sure there will be some components different from gas and electric that one could improvise with!

1) Wire trays could be used for building traps either for animals or fish!
2) Wire trays can be used to hang meat for smoking/drying/jerking.
3) Gas line could be used for a water line.
4) Very little wire for cordage, but there is some.
5) Sheet metal can be cut/pounded into shapes. Could make a flat cooking pan, bowl, tools such as an awl, cutting tools lie crude knife or broadheads.
6) Electronic ignitors on the burners MIGHT be usefull as a fire starter if you have a battery...Not sure.
7) Body/shell could be used as part of a shelter frame.
8) Burner pot holders could be used for that again over a fire.

This object is a tough one to think of improvising things from! Good choice, Greg!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
Assuming it is _not_ a wooden stove, which abound here in the last frontier, I'd work on disassembling it. A wooden stove, especially were it to have a water tank on it, I'd keep as it is for the most part.

Since I have an electric range, I will work on improvising with it.

The reflectors under the elements would make magnificent shovels, and with a wee bit of effort, great Ulu-style cutting tools. Both of these can assist in shelter.

Right off the bat, without even disassembling anything, there are several panels which would hold water on my stove. These could be used for collection or for cooking.

There is little here I could make a fire straight out of, though with the amount of things I've burnt on my stove, the elements would probably be pretty high in carbon content, and thus, might make decent strikers should I find flint, agate, petrified wood, or some other stone good for making sparks. Should I run short on that, I have elements and a grill I can create a bow with, and wire to complete the set, needing only a drill and base to make fire with, should I have a hard time findiing suitable flora.

The reflectors are quite shiny, and could be used as mirrors. Alternatively, being round they work from most directions, and could simply be left in the open for a signal. This would not be a primary device for me, but may work.

This stove has plenty of wires in it for a few snares, or whatever else I need cordage for. The snares can provide me food.

I have various small wires and metal pieces to effect hooks and lures out of for fishing, as well as some grills that could easily be modified to create fish traps. My oven has two, which would make a great V trap, or I could manage some other way to catch the fish, and use the grills to barbeque them on my fire.

Should I find myself short on tinder, I have several plastic knobs which could be shaved down and lit with a metal match.

With the many vast sheet metal panels in my stove, I can make odd and assorted goodies, ranging from cupboards to tables and maybe even (gasp) an oven. Provided I have the tool currently residing on my belt, I can even do a decent job of affecting these goodies, with the plethora of screws holding my stove together.

And last, but certainly not least, my oven is lined with tin foil. And if there is anything quite as useful for it's weight in the woods, it's gotta be toilet paper. But tin foil will do just about anything I need of it, short of let me call up the local CAP with my coordinates and desired dinner.

Stryver, grimacing at the unfortunate remains of past meals baked on said tin foil...
 
1. shelter- i could rip the sheet metal off the outside for a small shelter, or if i could probabally fit inside the oven itself once i removed the heating elements and racks. it would be kinda cramped but it should keep me dry and warm(i think they are insulated?)
if i can find aluminum on the stove, and file it in to dust, i could mix it with ground up rust for thermite, and if i get a significant amount of this, i could use it to cast something(in a clay mold perhaps) this is kinda far fetched, and probabally wouldnt work

2. signalling, i might be able to polish(using sand and mud?) the thingies under the range top elements to signal with. or possibly use a piece of metal(polished)

3. i could use the drawer thingy underneath to catch water(from rain) or as a container to boil water in. remove wiring and use as cordage/snare wire. use racks on inside to make cage/trap type thing, break in half and sharpen for a portcullis-type deadfall.
break off rods from rack and use as spear points, or spikes for traps. maybe make a trap by rolling the rack into a tube, seperating rods, bending inwards and sharpeing, put in a hole with bait, and tye to something-critter pokes nose/limb in, slides past spikes, but the stick when it tries to extract head/limb (dont know how well it would work)
beat pieces of sheet metal into bowls for carrying/cooking water and food.

4. try to use sheet metal/oven rack to make snowshoes for winter travel? fashion sled out of sheetmetal shell for carrying stuff with me(drag behind me, use cord to pull it?)

5. i could use the tray part in the bottom to hold enough water for cleaning/splash bathing? use pieces of sheet metal/brackets as splints? use wires to hold absorbant material(moss, leaves?) for bandages

i think my best use would be to curl up in it and sleep in nasty weather(im pretty sure i could do it, i napped in the tv cabinet in my dorm in college
smile.gif
(they had removed the tv for repairs))

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AKTI member #A000911

 
BTTT.

Just wanted to give new board members a chance to challenge their improvising skills.

Best,

------------------
Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
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