How to Make and Use Primitive Weapons

tINTRODUCTION

MODERN TOOLS FOR MAKING PRIMITIVE WEAPONS

WEAPON TYPES

AND USES

MAKING SIMPLE

WEAPONS FROM

MODIFIABLE

WEAPONS

MAKING ADVANCED

WEAPONS FROM

MODIFIABLE

WEAPONS

Inside This Report

2

3

4

9

11

HOW TO MAKE AND USE PRIMITIVE WEAPONS

2Survival Life Special Report How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons

INTRODUCTION

What to do Without Guns

Guns are fun. Holding one brings an incredible

sense of power and security. A day at the firing range

is a pure joy. If you own a gun, its easy to feel like

you have all your personal security needs in one neat,

technologically advanced package.

However, a lot of states

dont allow concealed carry

licenses. Your gun is useless

for self defense if its safely,

responsibly locked away at

home while youre across

town. If you stumble across

an illegal pot farm while out

camping or your ultralight plane hits some rough

turbulence and goes down, the contents of your home

gun cabinet wont help you survive.

Luckily for you, humans were experts at self defense

for thousands of years before guns were invented.

With a little know-how, you can look at a rock, a bike

helmet, or even toothpaste with the same sense of

security you feel looking at a gun.

Be warned, one of the biggest advantages guns have

over primitive weapons is their range and stopping

power. Most primitive weapons are meant for

close-range fighting. You need to be psychologically

comfortable with the idea of being able to smell your

attackers breath. It can be disconcerting at first. One

of the best ways to prepare yourself is by taking a self


you can use the blade of your Bowie knife to

strip small limbs from trees and the curved

point to create punctures and indentations.

German Army Knife

The German Army knife has a serrated edge

and a file surface. These allow you to do

some light sawing. After youve chopped a

small branch down with the Bowie Knife,

the German Army Knife is useful for cutting

your wood to precise sizes.

Swedish Army Puuko

The Pukko is a great utility knife. One side

has a razor sharp edge. The other widens

out to a flat surface. You can press your

thumb hard along the flat edge, adding

plenty of pressure when cutting. This makes

it great for whittling, stripping the bark off

tree branches, and shaping precise areas,

such as the hole in an atlatl.

Wire Saw

A Wire Saw is exactly what you think. Its a

loop of strong, dangerous, flexible wire with

a handle on each end. The size and shape of

cutting teeth varies.

In this case, dont

be seduced by size.

Youre best off picking

a smaller saw with a

sharper blade. If you

cant carry it in a small

defense class in Israeli Krav Maga or Russian

Sambo, both available in cities across the

United States. Between those lessons in

unarmed self defense and knowledge of how

to make and use primitive weapons, you can

rest assured of your safety regardless of your

circumstances.

Modern Tools for Making Primitive Weapons

You dont have to use primitive tools to make

your primitive weapons. Sure, it can be

fun to try and make a bola using the same

techniques as the ancient Celts, but if you

need a weapon in a pinch, youll be glad you

have a modern toolbox at your disposal.

You can make most primitive weapons with

nothing more than your bare hands. After

all, if you had a bowie knife, you probably

wouldnt need a spear. However, if you

have some time and want to make some

high quality primitive weapons, you can

do surprisingly good work with these five

modern tools.

Bowie Knife

A Bowie Knife is both strong and versatile. If

you want to make a spear, javelin, atlatl, or

anything else that requires a little carving,


when anyone can buy a beautifully crafted gun,

a precision crossbow, or a razor edged knife, its

easy for forget the basic simplicity of a rock.

Unless youre standing in a fighting pose

while clenching a rock in your fist, modern

people dont think of someone holding a rock

as being armed. Ask your grandfather,

though. A rock dropped into a sock suddenly

transforms from two random objects into a

flexible, potentially lethal way to beat off an

attacker without damaging your own hands.

If you expect to be in a dangerous situation,

tuck a pair of old, worn out dress socks in

one pocket and a sturdy rock in the other

and you are quite innocently armed in a way

that will take any attacker by surprise.

In a city, theres usually plenty of rubble

around which can substitute for a rock;

half a brick, a bit of crumbled sidewalk, the

pouch pocket, its probably too big. Smaller

ones are typically easier to transport and

more efficient at cutting.

Leatherman

A pocket Leatherman will do you a lot more

good than a Swiss Army Knife. Instead of

a toothpick and nail file, a Leatherman

multipurpose tool comes equipped with useful

things like needle nose pliers, wire cutters,

and an awl. Theyre perfect for performing

impromptu repair work on your primitive

weapons.

Weapon Types and Uses

Rocks

Rocks are one of the most deceptively

dangerous weapons you can find. In an era


Most modern clubs are deceptively civilized

objects with some clear other use. However,

nothing says get off my lawn like a polished

piece of oak with a dozen nails hammered at

odd angles through the end.

If youre in the wild, you can make

improvements to a basic stick by splitting the

top 1/3 of it with a knife or sharp rock and

shoving a palm sized rock into the wedge.

Tightly tie the rock in place. If you dont have

any rope or twine, rip strips off the hem of your

shirt. Now your basic backwoods club has some

real heft to it.

Theres no gentle way to use a club. Theyre

used to take someone down, break some

bones, and make sure they dont get back

up again. You cant use it from a distance. If

youre going to make a club, be sure youre

the kind of person who doesnt mind doing

serious damage to another human being.

Bolas

Rocks and clubs are most useful against

other humans. If

you need to feed

yourself in the wild,

youll want some

distance weapons.

Any hunter will

tell you animals are a lot sturdier than

they look.

In its most simple form, a bola is nothing but

residue of never-ending road construction.

Defending yourself using a rock can also help

keep you out of legal trouble. After all, you

werent technically armed. You just found

something in your environment to defend

yourself with and flailed about in self defense.

A carefully used rock looks like nothing more

than a combination of desperation and luck.

If you know how to use your rock, you can

cause blunt force trauma to vulnerable

parts of your attackers body. A sturdy rock

is most useful in close quarters. Brace it

against the meaty base of your palm in order

to give yourself greater striking force and to

protect your fingers. Try to smash it against

their temple, use it to crush their nose, or

slam it into their mouth. If youve had time

to drop your rock in a sock, swing hard at

the same areas. The goal is to take your

attacker down as fast as possible.

Clubs

If a rock is an extension of your fist, a club

is an extension of your entire arm. The

advantage of a club over a rock is it keeps

your attacker arms length away while also

giving you leverage.

Any long, narrow, strong object can be used

as a club. Baseball bats and crowbars make

excellent clubs. They channel all the power

of your arms and upper body into a narrow,

focused blunt trauma impact zone which

can do some serious damage.


entangle something human sized and only 3

or 4 to trip up a deer.

Of all the primitive weapons, these are both the

most fun and the most frustrating to play with.

Slingshots

The story of David and Goliath is a good

demonstration of just how dangerous a person

can be with nothing more than a rock and a

few scraps of leather. A slingshot uses the same

principle as a rock in a sock, only instead of

close quarters the slingshot is a used from a

good distance.

Slingshots arent easy to master, but theyre

cheap and easy to make as well as pretty

harmless to practice. The simplest slingshots

can be made from a one inch wide, one foot

long strip of leather. Take a second, egg shaped

piece of leather around 3 inches across, cut

two slits in it, and slide it to the middle of your

long leather strip. Thats it. All you need now

is a rock small enough to comfortably fit in

the leather circle. In a pinch, you can easily

some rocks tied up in string. Rocks and clubs

may be the oldest weapons known to man,

but with over 50,000 years of anthropological

evidence, the bola is a close third. A bola is

essentially a weighted rope net which can

be thrown at animals to tangle them up. You

throw it at a distance, trip the animal up,

then run in and stab the animal before it can

disentangle itself. This is a lot safer than just

running up and trying to spear a deer.

The bola is hard to master, but also

incredibly effective at making sure your

prey goes down without doing you a

serious injury.

To make a bola, tie leather or rope around

an egg shaped rock, wooden egg, or any solid

object that feels comfortable in your hand.

Weave your rope out, making a net. About 1/3

of the way out, add a few smaller rocks to give it

some weight. Anchor the edge of your net with

even smaller rocks. You now have something

you can hold centered in one hand, spin

overhead, and set flying to entangle an animal.

Or, on your first dozen throws, something that

may well end up deeply embedded in a nearby

bush. But keep trying, youll get it.

Most bolas are made from anywhere

between 3 10 rocks. The smaller the prey,

the more rocks you want to use. Remember,

the rocks arent there to knock out an animal

they exist to direct the net and make it hard

to pull off. Youd want something with 10

small rocks to entangle a duck, 5 or 6 rocks to


be just the right size to fit comfortably in the

tube without getting lodged inside. If theyre

too small, theyll rattle around in the tubes

interior and lose valuable momentum. If

theyre too large, theyll get stuck, leaving

you with a useless stick full of poison.

For obvious reasons, blowguns are best used

when you have higher ground. Pointing a

hollow tube up in the air and blowing in it

is a good way to end up swallowing a dart.

Instead, make sure youre pointing straight

or slightly downwards. Since darts are

mostly useless without some form of poison,

youll also want to both wear gloves and be

extra careful handling the darts themselves.

Spears and Atlatls

Spears are a great simple weapon. You take

the advantage of a pointy rock (or some

other tip) and combine it with the physical

distance of a club. Unlike knives, spears dont

have a cutting edge. Theyre used to create

giant puncture wounds that will cause the

person or animal attacking you to bleed out.

To make a really primitive spear, all you

really need to do is lash something small,

sharp, strong and pointed to the end of a

something thin, light and long. Most healthy

people can chuck a spear at least two to three

improvise a leather belt into several slingshots.

To use your slingshot, hold one end of the strap

clenched in your fist and the other end snug

under your first two fingers. Spin the rock over

your head to gain some momentum and let

go of the end of the strap under your fingers

(while keeping hold of the end in your fist.)

The first few times you try this youre

probably going to hit yourself in the face

with the leather, send the rock flying off into

the distance, and lose your balance enough

to make you fall. Theres a reason slings were

historically given to boys to use as toys. They

take a long time to master, so it kept the boys

occupied. However, within a year of messing

around with a sling for fun, a lot of boys

ended up bringing home small birds, rabbits,

and other fast moving prey for the family

dinner table. They could just as effectively

climb up in a tree and rain rocky destruction

on anyone attacking their family. So can you.

Blowguns

Blowguns are subtle, guerilla weapons. Youre

not going to build up enough force in your

lungs to take down a bunny, much less an

angry man. However, if you know how to

make poison darts, you dont have to take your

attacker down. You just have to nick them.

A blow gun can be as simple as a hollow

piece of bamboo. Any long, narrow tube with

a smooth interior will work just fine. The

real magic here is in the darts. They need to


thus more penetrating power.

A javelin is both heavier and more

complicated than a spear. You can literally

throw together a spear out of a rock, a

stick and some twine. A javelin takes those

primitive principles and builds on them with

careful attention to weight and balance. The

end result is a thrown weapon that stayed so

useful people kept using it in battle all the way

from ancient Greece to Medieval England.

To make one, youll need something wickedly

sharp but lightweight for the penetrating end.

That should be 1/3 the length and no more than

the weight of your javelin. Strap that to a

longer, heavier throwing base. Try to keep it as

sleek as possible to improve the aerodynamics.

Javelins are frankly useless against most

animals, but theyre historically tested and

proven effective against humans. Since

theyre thrown by hand, they dont have

the range of a spear thrown with an atlatl,

but the longer penetrating end and heavier

weight can do some serious damage.

Throwing Arrows

Its amazing how, given enough time, weapons

can turn into toys. Once, throwing arrows

were popular small game hunting tools for the

ancient Celts. Today, throwing arrows are still

popular among British school boys. Basically,

you take an eighteen inch dowel rod, garden

cane, or something equally lightweight and

times their body length. If you want to make

your spear into a real distance powerhouse,

you need to add on a simple spear thrower,

or atlatl. Spear throwers have been

reinvented all over the world by nearly every

culture. The Aztecs called theirs an atlatl.

The Spanish mistook the name of the weapon

for the people. Youll be just as amazed as

the Spaniards by the power leverage and

gravity put behind your throw by using an

atlatl.

All you need for a basic spear thrower is a

piece of wood about two inches thick and two

to three feet long. Flatten it out, and then carve

one end until you have something that looks

like a giant crochet hook. Make a little recess in

the hook end where you can rest the blunt end

of your spear. The hook should curl around it.

Stand with your spear thrower over your

shoulder. Tuck the spear into the crochet

hook end and hold onto the smooth end.

Your thrower should be at an angle over your

shoulder while the spear itself is pointing

forward. Now give it a good overhand throw.

A trained user can fling a spear up to 150

miles per hour. If you compare a bow and

arrow to a gun, think of a trained spear

thrower wielding an atlatl as a cannon.

Javelins

Think of a javelin as an evil lawn dart on

steroids. You have a long, tapered pointy

part attached to heavier, weighted base. The

weight gives the javelin more thrust and


Making Simple Weapons from Modifiable Household Items

Its easy to joke about pitchfork wielding

villagers chasing an incompetent army

out of town, but have you ever seen a real

pitchfork? It has three sharp spikes at the

end of a pole. If that goes in your gut, youre

not getting up again. Sometimes, being

armed is entirely a matter of perspective.

The modern world is full of just as many

stealthily dangerous objects. Look around

your house. As long as you play dirty, you

have a veritable arsenal at your disposal.

Bats

Every house should have at least one

aluminum baseball bat for self defense. Keep it

near your door or near your bed. When going

up against a physically stronger or heavier

opponent, a baseball bat is the great equalizer.

Bike Helmets

If youre going to head-butt someone, you

might as well make your head as dangerous

as possible. Bike helmets have a nice pointy

end at the front and are designed to take a

ramrod straight. Sharpen one end and put a

notch near the back of the opposite end. Add

some fletching to the notched end to help it

fly straight. School boys often use cardboard

from cereal boxes. Then tie a string around the

notch and knot it tight. The string should be

about 2-3 times as long as the arrow.

You throw the arrow from the front, holding

it close to the tip. Wrap the string around

your hand and keep it taut. It should stretch

the length of the arrow from the notch up to

your hand. When you pull your arm back and

throw, the taut string gives the arrow a little

extra thrust while the trailing string from

your hand helps keep it steady and balanced.

Part of the trick here is learning to both

keep the string taut when throwing ad let

it unwind quickly and naturally after the

arrow leaves your hand. Expect to have a few

strings get mangled in your fingers.

This is still a good weapon for hunting small

game such as rabbits and squirrels. Since its

lightweight and hand thrown, itll do limited

damage to something as large as a human

unless you have exceptionally good aim and

throw it into the eye or throat. Like slingshots,

throwing arrows are great toys for boys.

Theyll burn off energy while learning valuable

skills which can be easily translated to more

dangerous weapons should the need arise.


weapons. You have a

comfortable handle

built in at one end. At

the other, you have one

side which can inflict

small, focused blunt

force trauma and the

other side which can dig in and rip up flesh.

Hammers are great for attacking someones

joints. Its surprisingly easy to shatter a

persons knee with a hammer. A good blow

to the elbow can turn the arm into a useless,

limp source of searing pain. Hammers are

also notoriously good for cracking skulls.

The prying end of a hammer can dig in

between ribs. Use the same leverage youd

use to remove a nail to break the rib up and

outwards. A person armed with a hammer

is a person well equipped to survive any

close-range attack.

Paintball Gun

Paintball pellets hurt. Theres no question

about that. Go for the face in the hopes of

temporarily blinding your attacker. You

heck of a beating. In dire straits, strap one on

and charge at their gut or groin.

Dumbells

If you have Russian Kettlebells, youre

golden. The handle at one end and heavy

weight at the other make them easy to wield

at arms length. Dont ignore your standard

dumbbells, though. Grab a weight youre

comfortable holding as little as five pounds

will do and use it to add power and force to

your punches. Holding a small dumbbell can

give a roundhouse or uppercut lethal force.

Bottles

This is important. Dont try to break a full

glass bottle over someones head. Youll

most likely shatter the narrower end in your

hand and do yourself a severe injury while

your opponent stands and laughs. Instead,

grab an empty bottle and smash that on

something hard like your sink or the edge of

a table. You now have a multi bladed knife

with a convenient handle. Its a fragile knife,

though, so go for soft, vulnerable places

where you can do a lot of damage. If they

raise their arms, stab for the armpit. If youre

on the ground, go for the back of the thigh

and try to hamstring them or the back of the

ankle and attack the Achilles tendon.

Hammers

A hammer is another one of those deceptive


A brick in hand is also a great tool for

attacking joints. Try to smash your attackers

knee in order to bring them to the ground. If

you can get behind them, a hard blow to the

base of the neck can debilitate or even kill.

Making Advanced Weapons From Modifiable Household Items

Basic primitive weapons are good for hunting

and outdoor survival. Simple weapons made

from household items are meant to give you

an advantage when youre caught at home by

surprise. Advanced household weapons are

for when something has gone really wrong.

You have time on your hands, youre in

danger, and youre unarmed. You can get out

of situations like that if youre clever.

can also go for the gut and groin. Shoot

early, shoot often. Youd be surprised how

many people will end up genuinely upset

over you messing up their clothes. Use

this disorientation and confusion to your

advantage. Getting paint all over them also

makes them slippery. If they get in close

enough to grapple you, covering them in paint

gives you better odds of wriggling away in

search of your dumbbells.

Padlocks

The same padlock you

take to the gym can be

a versatile weapon. You

can grasp the base and

slip your middle finger

into the hole to make an

improvised brass knuckle. You can tie some

rope or even a pair of ladies tights through

the hole and suddenly you have a swingable

weapon to keep someone at bay. Like the rock

or the brick, you can also drop it in the bottom

of a sock and swing it at your attacker.

Bricks

Those bricks or paving stones left over from

a home construction project are all weapons.

If you have some broken bricks, dump half of

one in a long sock or tights. You now have a

distance weapon with a heck of a punch.


plastic comb. You now have a vicious slicing

weapon that can do some real damage.

Tiny exacto blades can be pushed through a

comb or toothbrush and held in place with

duct tape, glue or wire, depending on whats

on hand. These give you some piercing

power as well as slicing power, though they

dont penetrate as deep as the razor blades.

Ventilator Metals

If youre trapped in a room where the air

conditioning or heating vent is protected

by an accordion style metal plate (typical

in most apartments and houses) youre in

luck. Most of them are screwed down. As

you work it off, keep the screws. They can be

surprisingly useful.

Youll need patience and strength, but if you

brace one end of the grill plate on something

steady you can kick it repeatedly, stand on

it, sit on it, and otherwise bend and damage

it until the grill plate snaps. Now you have

a row of long, thin metal strips. Each one of

those is immeasurably easier to remove. The

pointy end of the screws can be helpful in

Toothbrushes

A toothbrush and some

rough concrete (or any

abrasive surface) is

all it takes to make an

incredibly primitive

knife. First, do your best

to pull out most of the bristles. Next, file the

sides down using any hard, coarse surface.

Since toothbrushes are made of softish

plastic, all you need is patience to eventually

wear one down. Be careful. You cant get

a super sharp tip on a plastic toothbrush.

Trying will just make the end snap. Youre

best off only filing down one side to use as a

blade and letting it slope up to the point.

Disposable Razors

If you have disposable razors or Exacto

knives around youre halfway to a dangerous

weapon already. Its hard to use a razor as

is without slicing up your own hand, so the

real goal is to attach it to something sturdy

in order to give yourself a safe handle. If

youve been sharpening a toothbrush, adding

a razor blade to give it a cutting edge can be

very effective. Youll still want to sharpen

your toothbrush to a point for stabbing

purposes, but now that you have a razor

blade attached, you can stab or slice.

You can likewise use some kind of sturdy

metal wire to attach razor blades to a plain


go ahead and break your toothpaste dried

paper in several places. Youll have some

rough, serrated edges which can do minimal

damage. Slowly sharpen those edges against

something gritty like an unpolished concrete

or brick wall or floor. Youll be surprised to

see a real edge come through.

This works because toothpaste, much like

dishwashing detergent, is actually made

from a suspension of grit intended for

scouring. That grit gives it strength while the

paste part creates a slow-but-effective glue.

The paper gives it structural integrity.

Your knife can be easily defeated by

anyone wielding metal or ceramics. Its also

incredibly vulnerable to water. However, if

toothpaste and paper are all you have, you

can still create a primitive blade.

The bottom line to defending yourself

with primitive weapons is creativity.

Everything we have talked about is simply

the repurposing of a commonplace item

into a defensive or offensive weapon.

Dont be too surprised if you find yourself

seeing potential weapons everywhere you

go. Dont feel bad about it; its a survival

mechanism that mankind has been using

since the beginning of time, so youre in

good company.

cutting grooves where you can weaken the

metal. Mostly, you should be able to slowly,

methodically, bend the metal strips back and

forth until they break or rip off.

If youre lucky some of them will break off

with a nice serrated edge. Most will be blunt.

If youre in a room with a concrete wall or

floor, you can begin the slow, methodical

process of sharpening the metal strips into

an assortment of knives.

If you dont have time for that, you can still

rip up your shirt and use it to carefully wrap

the strips in between your fingers, Wolverine-

style. You wont have mutant slicing power,

but you will be able to do more damage than

punching alone. Its best to wrap your left

hand. Save your right for precision work,

such as gouging eyes or unlocking doors.

Toothpaste-hardened, Sharpened Paper

This is a straight up MacGyver move. Evenly

spread a thin layer of toothpaste over a sheet

of paper. Press a second sheet of paper on

top of it and smooth it down to remove all

bubbles. Each night, let your toothpaste

completely dry. The next day, add another

layer to your ongoing toothpaste and paper

sandwich, smoothing out the bubbles and

letting it dry.

After 10 days youll have a thin, rock solid,

but slightly fragile surface. At this point,

Copyright 2014 by Survival Life, LLC

Published by:

Survival Life, LLC

P.O. Box 91074

Austin, Texas 78709

Website: http://www.survivallife.com

Mail: [email protected]

How to Make and Use Primitive Weapons

Documents

Transcript of How to Make and Use Primitive Weapons