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Been looking forever to find a good DIY thread, or even some splicing ideas to improve gear (Something of a talent of mine) and would love to share some of my tricks, as well as possibly learning some of your guys'
KNIVES: Knives are my life, figuratively and literally. As a hiker, I know all the great brands and own a bragging large arsenal (Brace for quick rant) one thing that I see on here that makes me a little sad is that knives are NOT weapons, they are TOOLS and should be labeled so in all context. However they can be used as weapons just like a baseball bat could, so a quick tip (For Indiana at least) if you carry knives and a cop asks you if you have any weapons DO NOT call a knife a weapon say "No, officer, but I do have a knife on/in <Insert location>" I've used this numerously when caught hiking in private lands and most times have had my machete (Which is a vegetation tool). Getting back into topic; fixed knives serve no purpose in UE, imo, so a good spring assist would be the go-to choice for me. Through the years of owning a Tac-Force Army partially serrated spring assist is that the spring and rotary piece wears down after maybe a half a year of vigorous use. (Tac-Force isn't a high-end brand, but all of their knives have universal parts) So simply finding an old one, or buying a new one just for the parts if you're like me and get emotionally attached to your blades can completely renovate the glory and stability of it. (TF knives are $10 at MY local outdoors store) Now, TF's are cheap for a reason, so expect to do this maybe once a year if you simply can't part with the knife (Had mine for four years, as it was my first ever personal knife, so it's my own Frankenstein) But if you want one that'll last, go with one of the bigger brands
STRAPS: I'm a bit of a packrat in the woods, and now that I'm getting into the city, I'm noticing a shift in what I need. And something I have done once or twice is when my backpack straps break off or snap under the weight, pull out your trust knife (or something sharp) and punch wholes just above and below whre the break was had (I always carry extra shoelaces for this occasion, and other) and feed in the lines, and tie them off. This will certainly get you home, and out of the building in a pinch without the agony of handling the broken bag
Another great use is medically as a means to slow bleeding in deep wounds
BUG REPELLENT: If you hate getting really dirty and smelly, might wanna skip this one. But say you live somewhere the mosquito's are just IRRITATING and, oh no! you didn't bring any repellent! Before you shake a fist at your fate and damn the gods,there IS an extreme way to handle this straight from mother Earth. Again, prepare to get dirty. Just walk on over to your local mud-pit and slather that sweet stuff over any exposed skin. as it hardens, it creates some smelly, but thick armor around toy neck, face, or where have you. Perks! This'll be awesome for your complexion, as well as make some decent camouflage! (It's a joke)
That's all I can think of right now, I hope it helps some of you later on in your travels. I'll update on anything else I find out/remember. Lemme know if you guys do anything like this.
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The only DIY thing I've done when it comes to exploring is sew straps with buckles on the side of my backpack for my tripod. Wouldn't fit in my bag and I got tired of carrying a second bag for it. You'd be surprised of the convenient modifications you can make to a backpack with some flat nylon webbing and upholstery thread.
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I was walking along some old tracks and found hundreds of railroad spikes I took as many as I could carry in my bag and built a forge and made knives, also use them to pop certain drains. With my backpack I added to the bottom (like a rain cover pocket) and put rope in it than made a hole for the rope to come out so I can tie my bag to my foot when crawling or can take the rope out for climbing without having to wrap it up.
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I bought some bar stock at home depot and filed a knife out of it a while ago - started with a rotary tool, but the cheap make broke down quickly, and I was thinking it was the end of that idea, but filing turned out far easier than the alternative, and than I expected - I turned a blade out in fifteen or twenty minutes, but have not hardened it (no need for a second and bayonet-like knife!  ) It's aluminum, so I doubt it would be extremely resilient...
Plastic dropcloths are to tarps as plastic is to metal
Duct tape held a belt that split in half so well that I forgot there was tape there for a month...
Not urban or explorational at all, but I once modified a cap gun to use antimony trisulfide/potassium perchlorate matchhead material as propellants for airsoft bbs as a sort of cap and ball gun, cap ring became primers, got it to use an airsoft barrel, and it didn't really impress (100 fps at best, usually bbs sort of roll out.)
There's so much that I've wanted to talk about at some point and can't remember right at this one moment!
[last edit 12/29/2016 6:48 AM by [Olive] - edited 1 times]
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