Picked up a “survival” kit at a garage sale, mainly because it included a hatchet that I can use. I also got a folding saw, a folding shovel, a (crappy) knife with a hollow handle with various stuff (matches, etc.) inside, a mylar blanket, plastic water bag, tent stakes, battery powered mini lantern, a marginally-better-than-toy-grade compass, length of braided cord, … and a rock hammer.
Now I spent a bit of time in the Boy Scouts as a kid, but I don’t recall ever hearing exactly what a rock hammer can do for me if I was stranded in the wilderness. Any suggestions?
Are we talking a geopick here, or something else? Because a geopick is good for breaking rocks, and that’s about it. Could make a serviceable ice hammer in a pinch, maybe.
You can do a lot of things with it. It is a good tool for breaking hard things into small pieces. You live in Minnesota. One of the best uses there would be chipping ice to make drinking water or to make a hole in lake ice for ice fishing.
Maybe they were implying you’d use it and the shovel in tandem to dig some sort of fox hole? I’m not sure if the “pull a door covered with dirt over your fox hole” is still recomended for surviving fallout.
Hey, how amd I supposed to know what that kit was trying to help you survive?
You can use it to cut and shape rocks for building shelter and fire pits. Also, if you locate deposits of flint and chert, these rocks are useful in making stone tools, and primitive weapons.
Plus, it probably is versatile enough of a tool to be used for a multitude purposes like cultivating plants and processing food.
If another band of doomsday preppers wanders into your wilderness hideout, you could possibly use it in a trade for something more useful.
Sorry, you don’t sound like a very resourceful survivalist to me. If you want to be a successful doomsday prepper, you need to learn to over exaggerate the importance of every single tool and skill.
A real survivalist would easily be able to give an impromptu 5 minute speech on each tool in their Kit.
Correct, most survivalists aren’t very realistic. They tend to greatly over-emphasize threats like human or animal attacks while being under-equipped for much more pressing concerns like water and fire. A rock hammer could be useful but it would rarely mean the difference between life and death especially if you have similar tools like a hatchet. I personally find my Victorinox Swiss Army knife with many tools a life-saver even in everyday life. I think I could live in the woods indefinitely with just that and some fire starter.