Improvising: a clipboard... what can you do with it?

Greg Davenport

Greg Davenport

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

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

Following my three step approach to survival, 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 a standard hard plastic clip board (you had been using it to write you wilderness observations... thus it also has notebook paper attached). When you look at the device closer you not that it has:

1. A hard plastic back
2. A silver metal clip (spring loaded)
3. 2 round grommets (sp)
4. The notebook paper

Question:

List as many improvised items you can create for each of the "five survival essentials" and their sub-categories... 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)

Have fun with this and ... Good luck!



------------------
Greg Davenport
Simply Survival's Wilderness Survival Forum
Simply Survival's Web Page
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?
 
I'd use that clipboard as a platter to hold all them juicy banana slugs we all love
biggrin.gif
.
 
Oh Man!!
Life would be most Excellent!!

geeesssshhhh where should I start????

The clip board would be great for digging & cutting snow!!! I'd have a hotel in a short order!

I could dig for water.
I could use it for a trap trigger.
I could make an edge.
I could use it for bow bearing.

ok.... I'm sitting in the Hotel drinking water out of a paper cup eating rabbit next to a warm fire.


 
Paper: signaling, tinder, folded into small containers, paper cup to drink water, rubbed against forehead to obtain waterproof wax-paper, to filter water through (and through charcoal), to fold into sun hat, slit sun glasses, to make notes

Metal clip: improvised fish hook, awl, arrow head, snare trigger

Metal clip with board: ready to use mouse trap

Board: cutting board, cut/break/saw into pieces that are sharpened into knife blade, scraper, arrowheads, blades for snare, spear point. Scrapings might help to start fire.

Grommets: as rings for parts of snares, sinkers for fishing, as socket for bow fire drill.

I assume you might have a pen or pencil with your clipboard. If yes, that might serve also.

HM

 
Board:
splint, cutting board for cutting up things like tinder, use it to stretch skins, add a handle and you have paddle for a canoe or raft, cut up into arrow heads or spear points,
Board with clip:
Use to prop things up by fire, like socks that need to dry etc. , snare? ,
Clip:
scraper, make shift knife,sharpen end into spear point, clamp
Spring: use in snares and traps, might be able to repair other equipment with it, poke small holes for sewing.
Gromets: snare and trap parts, reinforcements for shelter ( ie, if you hang a skin or something across the door on a line), parts for fishing pole.

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I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer... but I've got the sharpest knife in the room.
 
Use it to beat the hell out of a bear, then you would have everything you need, just like in the movies
biggrin.gif
. Okay, Okay, Okay, sorry again. No more stupid jokes to ruin an otherwise enlightening topic. You could use the shiny clip for signaling, or the whole clipboard if it was a shiny aluminium one.
 
A Clipboard. Is it clear plastic or opaque plastic? Is it a color useful for signalling? Is the paper yellow or white?

The paper can easily be used for firestarting, as well as for note-taking. Were I looking at months out here, I might think about saving it to write thoughts on and keep myself occupied. The yellow paper would be very effective for making ground signals, the white would be effective if placed on appropriately contrasting ground.

The plastic back could be used for firestarting also. If it one of the clear, hard plastic clipboards, it is shiny enough to use as a signalling device. Other colours may also be useful as a signalling device. If not of a colour/material useful for any of these, you could probably soften it up in the heat of a fire and mould a bowl out of it.

The metal clip can be turned into any number of useful sheet metal improvisations, from fishing lures to cutting implements. The spring can become a fish-hook. It may be more useful as a clip, though I'm not coming up with anything off hand. Perhaps some way to turn it into a trap?

The grommets could be used, depending on their size, to make a very smooth-pulling snare loop.

Stryver
 
Stryver,

Perhaps it is the clipboard that your instructor pilot is using to rate your performance.... Depending upon the rating, you may be able to file it into a knife to hunt him down and procure some nurishment
smile.gif


Of course if the rating was good, you may want to procure some food for the instructor pilot and keep him alive until your return.
smile.gif


------------------
Greg Davenport
Simply Survival's Wilderness Survival Forum
Simply Survival's Web Page
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?
 
*grin*

I've yet to have any I desired to kill slowly with a sharpened clipboard. Well, maybe one, but I'm convinced he'll manage to do it himself, and there's no need for me to take desperate actions.

On the other hand, if it is the one they are using, it's a flexible, thin, opaque green board with a black plastic slide-on clip. The clip is attached by a three inch piece of heavy nylon line.

Typically, this is attached to a checklist or in-flight guide, and is attached to the leg by a velcro/elastic strap. It has two to four plastic or cable rings holding it all together.

The clipboard itself is too soft to be fashioned into most tools, and is a dull olive green color. It could probably be heated and formed into a sheath, though it's softer than concealex, or it could possibly be moulded into a cup or other container.

The nylon line has small loops in either end, and if removed from the clip and the board without cutting the loops, would make a fantastic snare.

The clip is a hard plastic tube cut straight on one side to slip over the end of the board. You could probably make some pretty effective arrowheads out of it, or fish-spear tips. With a bit of duct tape it would make a nice, though short, straw. Cutting it in half would produce two small troughs you could use for some kind of waterworks. Perhaps useful after damming a small spring to funnel off some water to keep your olive-green clipboard-cup full. They could also be used to harvest tree sap, should you have a local tree with desireable sap.

The cable rings would be fantastic to keep needed things close to you by attaching them to your beltloops or other clothing. They would also function well to hold the pelts you gather for trade at the annual rendesvous, though they wouldn't hold as many as you'd hope to bring.

The checklist is full of very durable, bright yellow pages, and could be used for marking or signalling. The pages are some kind of plastic material, resistant to tearing, and could probably be stitched into a decent rain-garment or used in construction of a shelter roof.

The elastic strap on the leg with my checklist is merely that, a 1.5 inch wide elastic strap with velcro. It would be suitable for short-term bundling, perhaps collecting grasses for your thatch house. The elastic is strong enough to use as a light-duty slingshot as well.

The other leg has an approach plate holder, as well as several pockets that hold a small flashlight, pen and pencil, and another pocket with small knife and firesteel. I'm sure I could think of something to improvise with those, but I can't come up with anything right now. The in-flight guide on that leg has paper pages in bright colors, and could be used for firestarting, signaling, or studying. There is also a map that covers terrain out to 50 miles or so from the home field, and would be fantastic for navigation should I fall within that limited distance.

The downside to all this, is the elastic/velcro probably wouldn't survive the quick trip out into a couple-hundred-mile-an-hour slipstream. On the other hand, there's all sorts of stuff you can improvise with a 'chute...
smile.gif



Stryver
 
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