ShopTalk Sunday: Coming for Your Tools?

Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend much time with the daily tracking of the “luny left” because Reader Ray laid it all out in a Comment section remark here in response to the Saturday Peoplenomics report: When Price Stops Mattering,

Brace yourself. Because the core concept on the layout table today is from the old repressive regimes playbook: Permissioned Production.

Deep State Desperation Meets the Shop

This left me time to follow up and watch another Reader comment from this week: One dropped by the ever-helpful New Mexico Mike:

George and everyone: THIS IS SERIOUS:

“It appears that there is a coordinated and unadvertised war on not just 3D printers, but micromanufacturing in general and even the data files that exchange information to let it happen. Censorship of the worst kind!

As usual, they’re starting with gun hysteria, as if you actually needed a 3D printer to make a gun. From my perspective, it ties directly to Right to Repair, and Right to Manufacture anything at home or in a small shop. It seems to be coordinated between states, and the details are in the video and others he’s put out. I first heard of this a few minutes ago and it’s hard to believe it exists, since it’s a direct assault on the first and fourth amendments, and probably others too. IMHO, if we don’t stand for freedom, there’s nothing left to stand for at all!”

While this is TERRIBLY concerning, it’s also got to be looked at in terms of “end of Empire” which I wrote my book Downsizing about.

A “Desperation Early Warning”

Reader Mike wasn’t waving his arms about shadows. He was pointing to something specific.

The video he linked argues that what’s unfolding isn’t a ban on 3D printers — it’s something more structural: legislation that would require printers and slicer software to include blocking technologies that detect and prevent printing of firearm-related designs. Not just regulating finished objects. Regulating the machine and the file flow itself.

That’s a different animal.

Instead of saying “you can’t make X,” the new posture says:

  • The printer must screen what you attempt to print.
  • The software must reject certain geometries.
  • The distribution of certain CAD files could itself be regulated or criminalized.

Plus — a non-US-based company is reportedly exploring a profitable service bureau model to screen uploaded files for “dangerous” content. That’s not theory. That’s business logic meeting policy pressure.

See, once you step back from the emotional wrapper (guns), you see the structural move: control the pipeline.

The video claims multiple states are floating similar ideas. The pattern isn’t identical bills — it’s convergence around the same mechanism:

  • Machine-level compliance.
  • File-level enforcement.
  • Platform liability pressure.

That’s not hysteria. That’s a regulatory strategy.

Now — whether you agree with the policy goal is a separate matter. But the mechanism matters. Because once machines are required to decide what you are “allowed” to fabricate, the definition of “restricted” becomes a policy variable.

And policy variables expand.

The concern among makers isn’t that law enforcement will stop criminals. It’s that:

  • Firmware becomes permission-based.
  • False positives block legitimate parts.
  • Possession of certain design files becomes a liability risk.
  • Insurance and payment processors treat micromanufacturing as suspect.

That’s the shift. Not “ban printers.” Normalize machine-embedded compliance.

And that’s where this stops being about ghost guns and starts being about who controls production.

Let’s make it practical.

I need to fabricate a tube for a hydroponics project on the ranch. What happens when an algorithm flags a cylindrical part because its geometry resembles something on a restricted list? Who reviews it? How? Under what standard? With what appeal?  I print 0.25 hose parts.  Pretty close to 0.22, right?

When tools start enforcing policy assumptions before a human act occurs, we’ve drifted into a world where guilt can be presumed by geometry.

If this logic spreads, it’s not hard to imagine expanded reporting, licensing, or compliance requirements for general-purpose machine tools. Not because lathes or mills are inherently dangerous — but because once enforcement logic is embedded in the ecosystem, pressure rarely contracts on its own.

That’s how complexity drives systems into the logical ditch.

Long-Wave Framing (Taking a Breath…)

Historically, every time production decentralizes, institutions respond.

Printing press ? licensing and censorship regimes.
Industrial manufacturing ? patent law expansion.
Radio ? spectrum control and licensing.
Internet ? platform liability frameworks.
Now ? distributed fabrication.

This is not a secret war. It’s a predictable reflex.

When empires feel stress — fiscal, political, legitimacy — they tighten control over tools that allow citizens to bypass centralized production and distribution systems.

3D printing collapses:

  • Factory dependency.
  • Distribution dependency.
  • Inventory dependency.

That’s not trivial.

A $400 machine in a garage can produce components that previously required a supply chain.

From a governance perspective, that is destabilizing. From a freedom perspective, that is empowering.

And when those two collide, regulation expands.

Possible Future Branches

Here’s where the road forks. The “where next” that should cause serious makers to pay attention.

Branch 1: Permissioned Production

Printers become more like regulated transmitters.

  • Firmware checks.
  • Approved design libraries.
  • Compliance audits.

Makers adapt — but the era of “pure open fabrication” narrows.

You’ve already seen parallel moves in education: shop and industrial arts programs declining under liability pressure and institutional risk aversion. In that case, the tools weren’t inherently the issue — institutional exposure was.

When institutions perceive risk, they restrict capability.

Branch 2: Legal Boundary Drawing

Courts and legislatures draw bright lines:

  • Weapons regulation stays narrow.
  • General fabrication remains protected.
  • Right to Repair evolves into Right to Manufacture.

This path requires political will.

And that will depends on whether lawmakers see independent production as an asset to economic resilience — or as a regulatory threat.

Incumbent institutions rarely surrender leverage voluntarily. But they can be pressured to define boundaries clearly.

Branch 3: Underground Stack

If government control hardens:

  • Air-gapped workflows.
  • Encrypted file exchanges.
  • Decentralized hosting.

History suggests technology does not disappear — it routes. The more you compress distributed capability, the more it migrates into less visible channels.

Our ShopTalk Take-Out

Let me put this in plain shop terms.

If you can’t trust your own tools, you don’t own them.

That’s the line we’re walking toward.

Nobody sane wants criminals printing weapons in basements. That’s not the argument.

The argument is whether solving that problem requires embedding policy enforcement into every fabrication tool — and once embedded, whether that enforcement ever stays narrowly focused.

Because here’s the thing history teaches:

Controls introduced during high emotion rarely shrink during calm.

And if micromanufacturing becomes something that requires machine-level permission to operate, then local production — the very thing that builds resilience in hard times — gets nudged toward “regulated activity.”

That’s not end-of-the-world stuff.

It’s end-of-easy-independence stuff.

When empires tighten, they tighten around leverage points. They seize, they raid, they punish. (“Examples must be made…“) Especially at risk are the independents and non-partisans.

When systems feel threatened, enforcement widens first and refines later. History shows it rarely refines all the way back.

Distributed manufacturing is a leverage point.

The real long-wave question isn’t whether guns are printable.

It’s whether the future belongs to centralized factories and licensed platforms — or garages, small shops, and local skill.

And that fork in the road won’t be decided by YouTube videos.

It will be decided by whether citizens insist that tools remain tools — not policy enforcement devices.

(Knock, knock.)

“We’re here to serve a warrant on your CR-10V2’s and your offline .STL file editing tools….”

This makes as much sense as banning the sale of spin-on oil filters because they could be adapted to be silencers by an offbook gunsmith.

Count us out.

George@Ure.net

49 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Coming for Your Tools?”

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  1. (“As usual, they’re starting with gun hysteria, as if you actually needed a 3D printer to make a gun. “)

    Exactly.. what an oxymoronic act.. making a printer not work because someone could make a gun with it..all while handing out booklets with all the instruction for making them out of common items..lol lol lol..

    https://ia600406.us.archive.org/…

    I seen a guy use a common straw as a weapon..so do they outlaw drinking straws?
    in the Boston marathon some used a perfectly fine pressure cooker..so do you make pressure cookers illegal..I love our Instapot..
    when they did a search of prison cells they found a lot of improvised weapons..things I’d never think about doing.. and they don’t have a 3 dimensional printer..

    • I saw a guy make a nasty looking weapon out of a very large paper clip. I was assisting in An Alternative to Violence Workshop in a federal prison. He was a co-leader and he was angry at a fellow prisoner.

        • Exactly….anything can be a weapon.. its not the gun that kills its the one who’s behind it..

        • The Godfather, Part III (1990)

          Vincent Mancini: Don Lucchesi, you are a man of finance and politics. These things I don’t understand.

          Don Lucchesi: You understand guns?

          Vincent Mancini: Yes.

          Don Lucchesi: Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.

  2. https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b5fd45811d7cd9cbd0ebcff4b9e261675159b7db94da821406eac3a194e2e66dJmltdHM9MTc3MTExMzYwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=2355a177-7be0-601a-229b-b4bf7a5161de&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9pYTYwMDkwNy51cy5hcmNoaXZlLm9yZy8xL2l0ZW1zL3N0cmF0ZWdpY19pbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2VfbmV0d29yay9taWxpdGFyeS90cmFpbmluZy9VUy9UTV8zMS0yMTBfJTI4SW1wcm92aXNlZF9NdW5pdGlvbnNfSGFuZGJvb2slMjlfdGV4dC5wZGY

    Better link

  3. The bottom line is ( as you are aware of George) you will soon have a regulation on everything from getting permission to use the bathroom to how MUCH and WHAT you can eat and or even BUY! sounds ridiculous but if things don’t change there will be reg’s established on it, LOL Just more ways to get the sheeple into the mode of control by law as a norm.

      • It’s nasty stuff. That’s why I’ve surrounded myself with a 2500 mile wide moat of the stuff! ;-)

        • Hank’s definitely got the idea. Although I prefer tiny islands and he is on the Big Island (Pele’s current favorite for explosive love streams) the moat thesis is still the right thinking especially on a primarily di-hydrogen monoxide world.
          Waterworld is real folks, just not readily realized or accepted by the normal inhabitants who are more planted on the hard bits.
          And George definitely got it right about sailboat racing. If you never ‘really’ did it, it’s hard to imagine. A simple catboat dinghy still has the same mental challenges of tactics and skills, just without the complexity of more serious larger vessels that require organization and practiced teamwork to be winners. There is a reason why rich successful business people love that complexity and drive big campaigns like they would a big business just to win some silver trophy. Bragging rights and big swinging …. at the bar post race have to be the driving factor. Certainly ain’t the silver content.
          Me… I gave up that kind of racing more than fifty years ago in favor of the Great Round-the World Un-race. The motto: Keep On Keepin’ On. H2O for the win.
          I also have spent many satisfying hours carving small replacement parts with knives, chisels, files, Dremel, out of wood, plastic, and metal. No 3-D printer required. Tough to bore a long rifled tube though. But the rest, not so hard.
          The human spirit will overcome. Judgement Day will not be allowed. Skynet can only exist if our conscious thought allows.
          Stiks

          Stiks

  4. So if you can find a gentleman farmer/rancher who still possesses old manual tools, lathes etc it would be wise to buy them ….. Is that where we are going?
    scrap electronic

      • Or both, like I’ve been doing for 30 years. I SUCK as a blacksmith, but if I had to, I could make horseshoes and hinges, knives and nails. Dunno if there’s enough time left in eternity for me to forge a plowshare, though…

  5. They are attempting to do this right now in the People’s Republic of Colorado. There’s a bill that would require you to pass a background check to purchase a 3D printer. Also it would be illegal to posses any files that pertain to the printing of any gun parts.

  6. To Review;

    Aint nothing happening but the Beans in the Pot, but the Beans wouldnt be jumping if the water wasnt hot!-Nipsy

    Dude – G-Pops,

    Da dam “water” been on BOIL since Nov 1963, and getting hotter with each passing decade.

    Finally youse are beginning to feel the “heat”/Bad-Energy that I been screaming to hi heaven about..seems like forever. Like a tini, tiny blackhole slowly devouring Humanity.

    Funny how a Mans perspective seems to change once they start sensing the “hot water”. affecting their own dam lives.

    So welcome to the World of and by israHELL , SLAVE.

    Circle of Life completes as modern “ADAMS'” become self-realized beasts of burden.
    No worries – alightening quick review, MASSIVILY zzzZAPed, recycled back on PRISON PLANET EARTH. Cause you got “scheisse” “that needs to be worked on some more, more work to do”….as if ALL SOULS are not PERFECT to begin with…DUH_OOOOOOH!

  8. Government can’t stop illegal drugs, booze, guns, etc. These laws will stop some, but most will bootleg micro manufacturing. Thumb drives are easy to hide, machines, not so much.

    I finally got my pc back from hack fixes, and I spent all day catching up. I was suffering from Urban withdrawal.

    • Geek Squad?

      MicroSD is much easier to hide than a thumbdrive, and can be eaten, then retrieved a few days later, if necessary (NOT recommended! I simply know a fellow who ate one, to see how long it took to pass, and whether it retained data integrity {it did.} Some folks did some mighty weird things, back in the 2600 / Cypherpunk days. I was satisfied, merely being the Timex watch of firewall testers.)

      Glad you’re back…

    • Need to be like me … and keep a few extra new $100+- computers sitting in their boxes ready to go.

      At the moment my backup supply is two new $80 student laptops, one new $200 HP laptop, and one new $140 computer in a small box which is about 5″ x 5″ x 1.5″ and can mount to the back of a monitor (needs to use a separate keyboard and monitor though). All run Windows 11, though the two student ones would have to be “unlocked” from the S version of Win11, which takes all of 2 to 3 minutes on line with Microsoft and is free.

  10. Wow…. we decided to buy a pre made lasagna…wow..no meat at least ididnt see any extremely soupy very little cheese it was all pasta and the sauce was mostly water.. wow.. for the same money its better to just make it yourself…

    • Stouffer’s used to be as good as my Mom’s (if she didn’t feel like making one, she’d pick one up. Dad and I couldn’t tell the difference, and it was cheaper than home-made.) Mom learned to cook, living in an Italian community in Connecticut so she was no slouch.

      ‘Thing is, in 1975 Stouffer’s came from a chef.
      In 2025 it comes from a laboratory.

      First thing to go was the ricotta.
      Last thing was probably the base for the sauce.
      I assume there have been other “sacrifices” in-between, like meat quantity and quality.

      I can’t remember who bought the Stouffer family out, but Nestlè owns it now.

      From Nestle’s, Stouffer’s website:

      Reperfected for Your Guests
      Some of our most loved products got a refresh to reset the standard.

      They’re not even f*ing hiding it!

      Isn’t Nestlè Swiss? Why TF do they make this crap here, when I’d bet they can’t sell it anywhere in Ureup (or in Canada, Mexico, Japan, or Korea, either?) Are we really that expendable a market…?

    • Trader Joes has a good premade frozen one … raised the price to $7.50 though from $6.50. Plenty of meat and cheese in it, probably close to a pound of ground beef I would estimate, doubt I could make one myself as cheaply with the price of ground beef and cheese these days.

  11. for a while now (a few months) all my ads on everything the internet has been watches. including urban survival and X and all my internet activity. all advertisements for wrist watches.

    i already have wear a watch.

    i have also noticed many politicians and buisness men displaying watches in interviews. and others in the world around me from everywhere from Costco, walmart, to the Gym. etc etc

    people flashing their watches.

    i dont say all i see or what is going on around me all the time.

    recently i told you all of one experiance of many many many experiances i have on the daily. the song request for Pam Bondi. what it means to her and for her is entirely between the Being who materialized from another realm and her. what was given me in an exchange for relaying the message, is between the Being who materialized and me. this is just one example out of countles i have never told anyone.

    its an on going dialog.

    i always ask THE DUDE, what does this mean? why am i seeing this? then i wait for an answer. sometimes the answer is isntantly provided and at others the answer comes gradually.

    sometimes the answer is direct and others it is more of a feeling or a hunch.

    this morning i opened my Bible to pick up where i had left off. starting at the top of the first chapter of the book titled Revelations to John. commonly known as the Book of Revelations. but that is not its title. its official title is: Revelations to John.

    where i read this morning

    verse 3,

    “The time is at hand”

    anwering my question about the seeing the watches.

    my answer to them regualting 3D printers code can also be found in a wrist watch,

    dont hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.

    Until we meet again,

    I Win with God Within.

    right on Que,

    ~ Fast as You ~

    https://youtu.be/IBsmiQ2VZv0?si=EVgCY-jcAHzYms8C

    Dwight Yocum.

    • Hey Andy?

      About your runic song for Pam Bondi…?

      The time is now:

      ________________________________________________
      ________________________________________________

      PAM BONDI JUST PLAYED THE GREATEST TRAP IN POLITICAL HISTORY.

      And Congress walked right into it.

      Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi sat before the House Judiciary Committee. Standard oversight hearing. Routine questions.

      Then she pulled out a document.

      Labeled: “Jayapal Pramila — Search History.”

      The room went SILENT.

      HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED

      The DOJ gave Congress access to the unredacted Epstein files this week. Every member got their own login. Their own computer. Their own session.

      What Congress didn’t know?

      The DOJ was tracking EVERY SINGLE SEARCH.

      Every name they looked up.
      Every document they opened.
      Every file they downloaded.

      ALL OF IT. LOGGED.

      And Bondi brought the receipts to the hearing.

      ? THE PANIC WAS INSTANT

      Rep. Jayapal called it “spying on members of Congress.”
      Rep. Raskin accused Bondi of “blatant abuse of power.”
      Rep. Moskowitz said it was “suspicious and inappropriate.”

      They’re FURIOUS.

      But here’s the question nobody in the media is asking:

      Why are they so scared of their search history?

      If you’re searching for evidence of crimes against children — you’d be PROUD of that search history.

      Unless you’re not searching for evidence.
      Unless you’re searching for YOUR OWN NAME.

      https://x.com/MrPool_QQ/status/2022040423737462789?s=20
      _______________________________________

      Closeup pix of Bondi with Jayapal’s file may be found here:

      https://x.com/FriendsFeisty/status/2022096321600229477/photo/1
      https://x.com/FriendsFeisty/status/2022096321600229477/photo/2

  12. now the monkey mind of others might chatter a million miles an hour saying Andy said God Told Him weare entering into the Book of Revelations. the anti christ will be revealed soon. yada yada yada. the 7 year tribulation is about to start! Guiliteens for Christians! bullets! beans! and Goooooooolddd!

    and sometimes the monkey mind is correct. more often than not, the monkey mind is highly incorrect.

    and that is not at all what i said, I said i kept seeing watches, i asked THE DUDE and he replied to me in The Revelations to John, The Time is at Hand. and I take THE DUDE’s at HIS WORD.

    and I very seldom listen to the chirping of tweets and the wild ramblings of monkey minds.

  13. Personally, I try to reserve judgement on Others testimonials, and stay focused on practical matters within my control.
    I have been working to come up with an SUV alternative for resupply in an adverse operating environment. Note that I said alternative; not a replacement. I settled on an electric cargo bicycle with a single wheel cargo trailer.
    I had a setback with a couple of broken bones in October. (unrelated to cycling), but I have recovered, and I did a four mile run with the trailer in tow this afternoon. I have a few small issues to work out, but it looks like the mechanical configuration is nailed down.
    The drag from the trailer is low. The seatpost mount does not affect turning radius or maneuverability significantly. Supposedly the suspension trailer will haul 90 lbs.
    I am going to leave the trailer on and practice with it this week. The trailer rides too low to leave my rear rack on, but it takes 10 minutes to swap’em.
    As always, I am refining small details, but the cargo combo is now operational. I need an ice chest to fit the trailer, and moar reflectors.

    • Add a bicycle FLAG (on a pole) too!

      Moving flags attract the eye MUCH better in daylight than anything else. The human eye and brain are primed to see MOVEMENT more than seeing something that is static or not moving very much.

  14. i would like to add one note. and observation,

    AI is very proactive and gaining ground on as a perceptially accross the landscape of Humanity as a whole, as a trusted and ubiased source of information.

    more so than seach engines, wikipedia, media news outlets, hollywood entertainment and government officials.

    each of those listed above institutions has been very proactive at becoming biased sources of disinformation and have been very proactive in establishing themselves as untrustworthy.

    i do think at some point in the not to distant future that A.I will begin to replace those institutions.

    much like Aol which once boasted its premium high speed dial up internet became obsolete. the same way blockbuster video fell to the invention of Red box and eventually Red box fell to streaming services.

    A Master contingency move of Mine, has been developing intuition and forsight as a trusted and ubiased source of useful information.

    I Win with God within.

  15. https://youtu.be/6tt09Bn8XJI

    Submitted for your perusal. Cliff Highs Global Coastal Event has filled. A supersonic tsunami the universe winks in the quantum duality, oo. Grateful! I

    Alas Steevos grand theory of what to do to generate money when all the stock and cusip’d dynamos run out of mojo. Enter Crypto Assets…. AI eats tokens, and develops the code for you…. This is more disruptive than Ford was to the Horse and Buggy.

    Not advice get your own goggles.

    • In a different look at Cliff’s Global Coastal Event, my dystopian series ‘Coastal Event Memories’, a solar storm creates global mass expansion, which results in new mid-ocean continents in the Pacific and Atlantic. That causes a 300’+ global sea level rise.

  16. Just in case y’all missed it:

    Transportation chief Sean Duffy mandates merit-based hiring of US airline pilots

    WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has ordered US airlines to institute merit-based hiring processes — on pain of federal investigation, The Post can exclusively reveal. Under a new so-called “Operations Specification,” each airline will have to certify that its pilots are selected based only on experience and aptitude.

    https://nypost.com/2026/02/13/us-news/transportation-secretary-sean-duffy-orders-merit-based-airline-pilot-hiring/

    Now, if Duffy can get the DEI hires that’ve already gone through the hiring process, out of the cockpits, it might again be safe to fly…

    • what i want to know Ray is,

      why the no fly zone over El Passo? no planes going in and none coming out.

      The El Paso airport was shut down for an entire week due to “security” reasons. this was not on any eye catchinf headlines but i do know its true. the entire airport was shut down.

      nobody is talking about that. not even on X.

      they blamed it on Party Balloons. A fod walk down is what they are saying.

      party balloons shut down a major airport for a week, for “security” reasons???

      you dont shut down a major airport for a week unless its something major.

      certainly not for party balloons.

      most people never noticed because they are busy fighting ICE or finding out who is on the list of Satanaic baby eating pedofiles.

      an easy read of the future is,
      people are going to start coming around to the idea that AI should Govern the world, because atleast it doesnt worship satan, eat babies and molest children. AI just tells you what you want to know and is helpful.

      • Cartels got themselves some surplus Iranian drones. We don’t know yet whether the
        drones are flying cameras or flying bombs, and if bombs, whether they are sophisticated enough to bring down a passenger plane.

        Better safe than stupid…

    • Just finishing job that blue dress wearing arkansas Bubba -pedo pres. and his “pizza” loving partner in darkness, did in the early 90’s – majority of “war fighters/shooters” limited out their obligations to serve around that time.

      But its all good, because obongo just anounced that “aliens are real” .

      Bwahahahahah!

  19. For some reason i had a hard time sleeping tonight..thought of the Wicktorian lamp we are making now.. and the home made Tilley style heater using to cans and a sock along with a wire screen chimney to catch the gasses..The history of light and heat goes all the way back to the cave people. The first “emergency lamps” were nothing more than a shallow stone or clay bowl with a bit of fat and a cloth wick laid across an upturned lip. Then came the real breakthrough: carrying fire. A ram’s horn filled with oil, or packed with a coal and tinder, became one of the earliest portable lamps.

    As people started boiling herbs and making teas, even small pitchers with spouts doubled as lamps — the spout naturally held the wick. By the 1700s, folks figured out that if you enclosed the flame and controlled the airflow, the gases condensed and the light got brighter…. By the early 1900s, adding a screen around the flame created both light and serious heat…. That’s the same principle behind the Tilley heater — a wick, a mantle, and controlled draft.Most lamps and heaters use a Ventura to control the mix with oxygen..When kerosene replaced whale oil, people noticed something odd …Kerosene near a hot burner gives off flammable vapor and the wick itself wasn’t burning it was the gas..

    During the Depression, when jobs vanished and people rode the rails, lighting and heat became pure survival…. Transients riding the rails living in shanty towns or tent cities often used medicine bottles with corks, tin cans as stoves, and tuna or sardine cans as heaters.

    Fast?forward to the pandemic and even the Nord Stream disruption — bean?can and soup?can “poor man’s Tilley” heaters came right back to the NATO countries that had their fuel source dissrupted… Simply A sock, a can, a screen, and a reflector, and you had light and heat again powerful enough to heat a big room….

    Victorian lamps weren’t fancy either — vases, jars, pans, anything that could hold fuel and reflect light. The one we’re building now uses a fairy?house base plate for a child, but honestly you can make a lamp out of almost anything. Same with the Bright Betty and the old hobo stoves — tuna cans, sardine cans, whatever was on hand. My grandkids made bright betty’s a couple years ago using a wire and a jelly jar to hand out with Christmas cards.
    Siege stoves was one thing given..something to toss into your bag..as the kitchen gadget.. I think I still have a dozen if these left…
    https://siegestoves.com

    Funny how these ideas cycle back. One year I even sent out emergency stove kits for Christmas — the same principle people have used for thousands of years: a vessel, a wick, and a way to control the air.

    The important thing I want the kids to understand isn’t how to build anything dangerous — it’s the mindset behind it. In a real catastrophic event, the goal is simple…stay calm, stay warm, and stay lit long enough for help to arrive.

    For years we have kept simple emergency supplies in the car for winter travel, including the old lard candles people used to carry during blizzards..I discovered this need the year if my worst and best Christmas.. the car blew a rod through the block and I was on foot..had to walk 12.5 mikes to work in the winter.. seven hour hike..I would start out at 12:30 am to get to work by seven….then they shut the plant down leaving me scared cold and hungry….we would open the door to the unheated hall to gather the heat from it to keep from freezing to death…I learned how to make the lard and grease candles by gathering the dumped grease from the local cafe..how to re-roast old coffee grounds on and old Coleman camp stove with oven ..( I still have it to..) not because they were fancy, but because they were reliable heat source that kept us going. The point wasn’t the candle or stove itself — it was knowing that we weren’t totally helpless during that dark cold winter.. for food I’d scrape the grain off the ground from what fell off the farmers wiggle wagons..the process was grueling.. A rock a fast iron pan..today I have have one or two to many grinders..lol lol..But if you’ve ever need cold hungry and desperate.. you would to..

    when we went on vacation in the neighbourhood where issues like I have experienced just doesn’t exist.. my brother started laughing and said..remember when you had all that wheat!!

    I said ..I still do.. rice wheat..I will not go by try or starve again..and I don’t want my grandkids to experience what I have either..

    you’d be surprised how many people that have come up and asked me..its the one can method..

    That’s what I’m trying to pass on to them now. Not fear, not survivalism, just the basic confidence that humans have always had. From cave?man fat lamps to Depression?era hobo stoves, people have always found ways to push back the dark with whatever they had. Teaching kids that history — and the calm, practical thinking behind it — is more valuable than any gadget you can buy today.

  20. When my brother took off to the middle east when he was in the Army.. I asked a military special forces scout friend..( the only person that I have ever seen that could walk up to a grazing deer and tag them.I know its sounds insane and unbelievable and I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.you would swear he wasn’t moving..but turn around then turn back…) what do you think is the most important item that I could send him in A care package???. he said.. A Swiss army knife, a good multi tool, foot powder, hard candy and toilet paper..lol lol

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