I see your point guys, and thanks for teaching me what i didnt realize. yeah i would probably go with archery if thats the case.

Lots of great ideas!!!! Here in the old USA we are armed to the teeth so guns, ammo are no problem. Explosives are only as far away as Home Depot. For you slaves over in Europe I would suggest a crossbow over a bow. They are much more easily made and dont require as much practice to actually hit your target.

To defend your home?

Make all entrances 2.5 feet high.

Burn wood, pack ashes in barrel/drum, leach water through ashes.

This is sodium hydroxide - impure - but it's lye just the same.

This material will eat a man alive. Splashed or sprayed on skin, they'll be in agony, and when they finally get to water to wash it off, great chunks of flesh come off.

Let's see. Ashes. Water. Small opening.

May I suggest that you take a close interest in weapons made by crims in prison. They are very ingenious and very resourceful.

I saw an item on the news where the cops had confiscated weapons from crims. They had a heap of them on display. Kinda wished I had taken more note of it at the time.

I wase'nt concerned about SHTF issues at the time but these days I find myself thinking about how to survive these sorts of scenarios that may come about from a veriety of causes.

I myself am more interested in non-leathal but effective temporary disabling weapons. I am also intersted in effective weapons to deal with burglers etc that effectively disable but non leathal so I dont goal.

Sometimes I think a fire extingusiher discharged in someones face would do the trick but thats a 'one go' device. a copper once told me an air rifle is good to get hold off as its quiet and is relaoadable.

Originally posted by bsbray11

(Optional 4) Oil mixed with the gasoline to make it stick to whatever it's burning.

Greek Fire, huh?

Okay ill tell you about my buddy crazy jack and the railroad spike pisttol.

Jackson was a very psychologically shook buddy of mine.he was a few years younger than my wife and myself(though we were barley 20 s when we met him)
Jack had a finely tuned mind, and could be a genius at times, ut it always deteriorated into mental dissarray after a while and he would loose it and have to come stay with us for a while till he was ready to try out there again.
Anyways he had come home mumbling inchoherantly a few days before and we were down at the dump dropping off a load.
Jack finds this railroad spike, a sqare piece of iron about 6 or 8 inches long, and chunky enough to be a gun barrel.
Well, he brought it home, and helped himself to some of my saw files and such and went to work on this spike....
He spent days occupied on it.mumbling away to himself and filing and drillinhg this spike.
One dau he comes and asks me for a twenty two shell.....
so i digs up a 22 lrifle, and he goes away happy...im thinking nothing of it...
five minutes later i hear a bang! thinking the worst i run outside to catch jack with his spike mounted in a wooden handle shooting at a willow grouse....
Well, needless to say, i took it away, and forbid him to have it.Till he was much improved and was leaving for the big wrld a few months hence.He asked for it back, and i gave it to him...with reservations....
Liitle did i know he would end up having an accidental discharge on the street in vancouver, narrowly missing the daughter of the communist party of canadas leader.....
And end up in a psyche ward again.....
you can make a fine little 22 pistol out of a block of steel with a simple drill and a few files.....good enough to get you jailed as an assassin for the cia.

like posters have mentioned, look up guerilla warfare and prison tactics. A big knife and firecrackers would get you the same end result. Your idea would probably get you in a bad way, without a backup.

My advice would be to get fit, stay sober, mentally and physically, and know that everything in reach is a weapon. Your mind and body are the best weapons made if maintained.

What you're getting at will be too much effort to acheive the desired result. Do what the pros do, learn how to take 'their' weapon away and use it against them. Once you learn, teach your friends.

Nobody wins by themself.

For napalm, gasoline mixed with diesel and Styrofoam makes a great mixture. Another interesting weapon would be ammonia and bleach to form chlorine gas. There is also the "chlorine bomb" made with chlorine(available at pool supply stores) and rubbing alcohol. If this stuff really interests you, look for the anarchist's cookbook.

Disclaimer: This information is for the purpose of hypothetical discussion of an academic nature. Do not try this at home.

I know how to make arrows out of sticks you find in the woods and when you fling them into the air, they go out of sight. I am accurate up to 50 yards, anything farther i may miss. It is like a bow and arrow only difference is, you do not have a bow. You only have an arrow, a stick, and a string. The string is tied to the stick and the string has a knot at the other end. The arrow is carved with a knife and a notch is cut in the arrow. One end is thick and pointed, the other end is narrow longer and has a fin in the back. It takes awhile to carve it, but they last a long time. I can hunt deer with this, it is as powerful as a bow and as dangerous as a bow. Silent too. You need to pick a stick that will not break and is fitted for you. Longer, shorter, lighter whatever. The stick you will have to carve at one end about a half inch before the end. slits for the string, so it stays there and will be tight. That is where you tie the string. A string that is not to long but thin and sturdy with a knot at one end. The SLING is what it is, will catapolt the arrow at a high rate of speed. The arrow is tipped and sharp, but not so that it will break when it impacts flesh. Simple, easy and deadly. You will not even hear me comming. I will be the great hunter. I will carry 20 re-useable arrows. I have been practicing so much. One time in the backyard i got myself a rabbit and another time i got a striped gopher. I have jazzed up a new stick, string and arrow i put on the wall for #s and giggles, but it also works great.

If you're clever with welding and brazing and have some decent schedule steel piping, some type of high-flow high-pressure poppet valve, and hydraulic reservoir tanks or scuba tanks... Compressed air could put a good sized piece of metal through something like an engine block. (Never built one, but doing the math with the mass and surface area of a slug, and maintaining PSI for a given barrel length... We're not talking BB's or pressure regulated paint-balls here. Think of things like steel bolts and 400+ PSI.) Of course that's likely a one shot deal per charge (depending on how much reservoir you use) that kicks like a mule, and depending on whether or not your air charge is dry enough you might have an icing problem. Alternately a large CO2 extinguisher or industrial tank of nitrogen may work in place of compressed air. Note that some gasses when released quickly may also build up an electrical charge on the tank, if not grounded it may find another path out. (Also keep in mind that such an air gun may be about as dangerous as making your own explosive based firearm from scratch. High pressures have a way of finding weak points and making things break or go boom.)

Things like (rotary) lawnmower blades can be worked into crude knives or machetes. If those hit a decent stone at 2000RPM without breaking, you know it's going to be durable enough to fashion to another purpose. May not keep an edge very well, but depending on how one would wield it - that might not matter so much. (Not all medieval swords were kept perfectly sharp either.)

If you can figure out the chemistry to make nitric acid, it can lead to things that are stupidly dangerous rather quick. It's probably simpler than most would think. But to be honest, it really is best left to experts. I shouldn't need to say more.