Sometimes, though, you may find yourself in a situation where you're unarmed, unprepared and in unfamiliar territory. Even in those circumstances, though, it's possible to survive as long as you have the knowledge and inner strength required to protect yourself.
Should you end up in the wilderness after a societal collapse, it's possible to build some effective tools of survival that can be used as weapons.
Fashioning a knife out of nature is surprisingly simple, as virtually anything with a sharp edge can be used as a knife. Pieces of metal and glass -- should you be near civilization -- can be used for stabbing, cutting and slicing. But coming across stones and animal bones are perhaps more likely. Using rough stones to sharpen these objects is necessary for them to reach their full potential, but they're surprisingly effective if used properly.
After making a knife, you can then use it to sharpen a piece of wood into a deadly spear. Whether it be a piece of lumber or a large tree limb, wood is almost always readily available and can be turned into a weapon with surprisingly little effort. The larger the spear, the longer it'll take to sharpen, but the more devastating it will be.
If you're looking for more of a blunt object, however, fashioning a club is the way to go. By using vines to tightly tie a stone to a medium-sized tree limb, you can create a durable and effective club that can be used for self-defense. It may not look pretty, but it will certainly pack a punch.
While all of these weapons may sound extremely crude -- because they admittedly are -- they're also valuable tools of survival in uncertain circumstances. Given that times are tumultuous, educating yourself on how to craft valuable, potentially life-saving weapons is an intelligent idea.
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