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HOW TO MAKE AND USE PRIMITIVE WEAPONS

INTRODUCTION
Inside This Report
What to do Without Guns
INTRODUCTION 2
Guns are fun. Holding one brings an incredible
sense of power and security. A day at the firing range
MODERN TOOLS FOR
3 is a pure joy. If you own a gun, it’s easy to feel like
MAKING PRIMITIVE
you have all your personal security needs in one neat,
WEAPONS
technologically advanced package.

WEAPON TYPES However, a lot of states

4
don’t allow concealed carry
AND USES
licenses. Your gun is useless
for self defense if it’s safely,
MAKING SIMPLE
responsibly locked away at
WEAPONS FROM 9
home while you’re across
MODIFIABLE town. If you stumble across
WEAPONS an illegal pot farm while out
camping or your ultralight plane hits some rough
turbulence and goes down, the contents of your home
MAKING ADVANCED
gun cabinet won’t help you survive.
WEAPONS FROM 11
MODIFIABLE Luckily for you, humans were experts at self defense
for thousands of years before guns were invented.
WEAPONS
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
attacker’s breath. It can be disconcerting at first. One
of the best ways to prepare yourself is by taking a self

Survival Life Special Report 2 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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 don’t 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, you’ll 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
wouldn’t 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,
Survival Life Special Report
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 you’ve 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. It’s a
loop of strong, dangerous, flexible wire with
a handle on each end. The size and shape of
cutting teeth varies.
In this case, don’t
be seduced by size.
You’re best off picking
a smaller saw with a
sharper blade. If you
can’t carry it in a small
3 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
pouch pocket, it’s 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. They’re 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
Survival Life Special Report
when anyone can buy a beautifully crafted gun,
a precision crossbow, or a razor edged knife, it’s
easy for forget the basic simplicity of a rock.
Unless you’re standing in a fighting pose
while clenching a rock in your fist, modern
people don’t 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, there’s usually plenty of rubble
around which can substitute for a rock;
half a brick, a bit of crumbled sidewalk, the
4 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
residue of never-ending road construction.
Defending yourself using a rock can also help
keep you out of legal trouble. After all, you
weren’t 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 attacker’s 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 you’ve 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 arm’s 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.
Survival Life Special Report
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 you’re 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 don’t have
any rope or twine, rip strips off the hem of your
shirt. Now your basic backwoods club has some
real heft to it.
There’s no gentle way to use a club. They’re
used to take someone down, break some
bones, and make sure they don’t get back
up again. You can’t use it from a distance. If
you’re going to make a club, be sure you’re
the kind of person who doesn’t 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,
you’ll 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
5 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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
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

disentangle itself. This is a lot safer than just demonstration of just how dangerous a person

running up and trying to spear a deer. can be with nothing more than a rock and a
few scraps of leather. A slingshot uses the same
The bola is hard to master, but also
principle as a rock in a sock, only instead of
incredibly effective at making sure your
close quarters the slingshot is a used from a
prey goes down without doing you a
good distance.
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
Slingshots aren’t easy to master, but they’re
may well end up deeply embedded in a nearby
cheap and easy to make as well as pretty
bush. But keep trying, you’ll get it.
harmless to practice. The simplest slingshots
Most bolas are made from anywhere can be made from a one inch wide, one foot
between 3 – 10 rocks. The smaller the prey, long strip of leather. Take a second, egg shaped
the more rocks you want to use. Remember, piece of leather around 3 inches across, cut
the rocks aren’t there to knock out an animal two slits in it, and slide it to the middle of your
– they exist to direct the net and make it hard long leather strip. That’s it. All you need now
to pull off. You’d want something with 10 is a rock small enough to comfortably fit in
small rocks to entangle a duck, 5 or 6 rocks to the leather circle. In a pinch, you can easily

Survival Life Special Report 6 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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 you’re
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. There’s 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. You’re
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 don’t 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
Survival Life Special Report
be just the right size to fit comfortably in the
tube without getting lodged inside. If they’re
too small, they’ll rattle around in the tube’s
interior and lose valuable momentum. If
they’re too large, they’ll 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 you’re pointing straight
or slightly downwards. Since darts are
mostly useless without some form of poison,
you’ll also want to both wear gloves and be
extra careful handling the darts themselves.
Spears and Atlatl’s
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 don’t
have a cutting edge. They’re 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
7 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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 Aztec’s called theirs an “atlatl.”
The Spanish mistook the name of the weapon
for the people. You’ll 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
Survival Life Special Report
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, you’ll need something wickedly
sharp but lightweight for the penetrating end.
That should be 1/3 the length and no more than
¼ 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 they’re historically tested and
proven effective against humans. Since
they’re thrown by hand, they don’t 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
It’s 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
8 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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
Making Simple Weapons from
Modifiable Household Items
It’s easy to joke about pitchfork wielding
villagers chasing an incompetent army
out of town, but have you ever seen a real

about 2-3 times as long as the arrow. pitchfork? It has three sharp spikes at the
end of a pole. If that goes in your gut, you’re
You throw the arrow from the front, holding not getting up again. Sometimes, being
it close to the tip. Wrap the string around armed is entirely a matter of perspective.
your hand and keep it taut. It should stretch
The modern world is full of just as many
the length of the arrow from the notch up to
stealthily dangerous objects. Look around
your hand. When you pull your arm back and
your house. As long as you play dirty, you
throw, the taut string gives the arrow a little
have a veritable arsenal at your disposal.
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.
Bats
This is still a good weapon for hunting small
Every house should have at least one
game such as rabbits and squirrels. Since it’s
aluminum baseball bat for self defense. Keep it
lightweight and hand thrown, it’ll do limited
near your door or near your bed. When going
damage to something as large as a human
up against a physically stronger or heavier
unless you have exceptionally good aim and
opponent, a baseball bat is the great equalizer.
throw it into the eye or throat. Like slingshots,
throwing arrows are great toys for boys. Bike Helmets
They’ll burn off energy while learning valuable
If you’re going to head-butt someone, you
skills which can be easily translated to more
might as well make your head as dangerous
dangerous weapons should the need arise.
as possible. Bike helmets have a nice pointy
end at the front and are designed to take a

Survival Life Special Report 9 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
heck of a beating. In dire straits, strap one on weapons. You have a
and charge at their gut or groin. comfortable handle
built in at one end. At
Dumbells the other, you have one
side which can inflict
If you have Russian Kettlebells, you’re
small, focused blunt
golden. The handle at one end and heavy
force trauma and the
weight at the other make them easy to wield
other side which can dig in and rip up flesh.
at arm’s length. Don’t ignore your standard
dumbbells, though. Grab a weight you’re Hammers are great for attacking someone’s
comfortable holding – as little as five pounds joints. It’s surprisingly easy to shatter a
will do – and use it to add power and force to person’s knee with a hammer. A good blow
your punches. Holding a small dumbbell can to the elbow can turn the arm into a useless,
give a roundhouse or uppercut lethal force. limp source of searing pain. Hammers are
also notoriously good for cracking skulls.
Bottles
The prying end of a hammer can dig in
This is important. Don’t try to break a full between ribs. Use the same leverage you’d
glass bottle over someone’s head. You’ll use to remove a nail to break the rib up and
most likely shatter the narrower end in your outwards. A person armed with a hammer
hand and do yourself a severe injury while is a person well equipped to survive any
your opponent stands and laughs. Instead, close-range attack.
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. It’s 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 you’re
on the ground, go for the back of the thigh
and try to hamstring them or the back of the
Paintball Gun
ankle and attack the Achilles tendon.
Paintball pellets hurt. There’s no question
Hammers
about that. Go for the face in the hopes of
temporarily blinding your attacker. You
A hammer is another one of those deceptive

Survival Life Special Report 10 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
can also go for the gut and groin. Shoot
early, shoot often. You’d 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 A brick in hand is also a great tool for

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.
attacking joints. Try to smash your attacker’s
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 you’re caught at home by

Bricks surprise. Advanced household weapons are

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.
for when something has gone really wrong.
You have time on your hands, you’re in
danger, and you’re unarmed. You can get out
of situations like that if you’re clever.

Survival Life Special Report 11 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
Toothbrushes plastic comb. You now have a vicious slicing

A toothbrush and some weapon that can do some real damage.

rough concrete (or any Tiny exacto blades can be pushed through a
abrasive surface) is comb or toothbrush and held in place with
all it takes to make an duct tape, glue or wire, depending on what’s
incredibly primitive
on hand. These give you some piercing
knife. First, do your best
power as well as slicing power, though they
to pull out most of the bristles. Next, file the
don’t penetrate as deep as the razor blades.
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 can’t get
a super sharp tip on a plastic toothbrush.
Trying will just make the end snap. You’re
best off only filing down one side to use as a
blade and letting it slope up to the point.

Ventilator Metals
Disposable Razors

If you’re trapped in a room where the air

If you have disposable razors or Exacto
knives around you’re halfway to a dangerous
weapon already. It’s 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
you’ve been sharpening a toothbrush, adding
a razor blade to give it a cutting edge can be
very effective. You’ll 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
conditioning or heating vent is protected
by an accordion style metal plate (typical
in most apartments and houses) you’re in
luck. Most of them are screwed down. As
you work it off, keep the screws. They can be
surprisingly useful.
You’ll 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

Survival Life Special Report 12 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
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 you’re lucky some of them will break off
with a nice serrated edge. Most will be blunt.
If you’re 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 don’t 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 won’t have mutant slicing power,
but you will be able to do more damage than
punching alone. It’s 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 you’ll have a thin, rock solid,
but slightly fragile surface. At this point,
Survival Life Special Report
go ahead and break your toothpaste dried
paper in several places. You’ll 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. You’ll 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. It’s 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.
Don’t be too surprised if you find yourself
seeing potential weapons everywhere you
go. Don’t feel bad about it; it’s a survival
mechanism that mankind has been using
since the beginning of time, so you’re in
good company.
13 How To Make and Use Primitive Weapons
Copyright © 2014 by Survival Life, LLC

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