For soap, you need animal fats, glycerin or some of the few plants that produce a soap-like substance. Where do you intend to get the animal fat?

Toothpaste is unnecessary... it's the toothbrush that does the work. Stock up on them. Or figure out how to make them.

Deodorant: straight baking soda, dry. It's amazing how well it works unless you're dripping sweat. Cheap, too.

Leavening agents: baking soda and baking powder. Keep them dry. Rumsford Baking Powder is, (I believe) the only one made without aluminum, and it comes in a sealed metal can. Sourdough yeast starter is easy to make if you need it.

Five Basic Cleaners that clean everything: White distilled vinegar, Lemon juice, Baking soda, Washing Soda, & Borax.

Have your soil tested and get it up to par. It costs about $8 for a test, ask your local Cooperative Extension Service who does it. If your soil is lacking minerals, major or trace, fix it now. Many parts of the U.S. are low in certain very necessary minerals. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the heavy rainfall leaches away calcium and magnesium. There's more to good soil than Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. It also needs Calcium, Magnesium, Boron, Copper, Selenium, Iron and trace minerals. If you want good nutrition from food, the foods have to have it available to them.

Getting a good herbalist book and starting a few herbs could be a good idea for meds.

Sue

Actually, the saponification of animal fats to make soap releases glycerin as a side product.

-Blast

Well....

You all have really got me thinking now!

While waiting to finish the download of the book I am typing this. I thought the Fox Fire series had some good do-it-yourself type stuff, such as making a type of foot powred woodlathe, while not high tech or even on the same scale of acuracy as a modern percision woodlathe it did serve to make spokes for whagon wheels.


Joe

Blast ... you've been waiting how many years to use that word in a sentence? Thanks for increasing my vocab +1 today!

He's been watching a lot of Fight Club lately. And he's broken the first and second rules. Plus, Blast knows the fun that comes from that byproduct. ;-)

It is nice to contemplate being a deep woods alchemist and manufacturing all sorts of useful products from scratch. There is a certain pride you can get from making your own and coaxing beneficial compounds from raw materials you collected yourself.

But the simple fact is that $4 gets you a 1000 count bottle of generic aspirin. Weeks of dedicated hard work would get you a tenth as much and half as effective.

Bathtub chemistry is labor, material and equipment intensive, time consuming and often hazardous. In a survival situation time, materials and energy are often in short supply so it is often better to just plan ahead and stock up on what you need.

I'm not discouraging anyone from having a go at making your own or being a backyard chemist but you have to keep it in context of what your hoping to gain and how much it costs you.

Agreed Art. In most contexts that any of us would likely encounter, stocking up and keeping a few stashes here and there (cars, planes, boats, &tc.) is the best route. I do stock up on soap and meds like ibuprofen and the like.

Again, even the likelyhood of needing those is probably faint for most of us at least for very long. I think there's certainly satisfaction to be had by doing some of this yourself, and I was mainly trying to stick to easy/simple items that have a low cost/benefit ratio.

But I'll stand by my comment about supplies being vulnerable to loss, theft, or damage. The only way I lose the knowledge to replace them (should the incredibly slim chance arise) is if I lose my marbles. :-)

Even if it's a bit of a one in a million type affair, it's good information to have - maybe even beneficial in today's world where dog food is laced with poison and even every day items get recalled. Maybe in the not too distant future it will be safer making your own soap...

But I'll agree with you - for the most part other than trying out a few things, I'll be loading up on the basics. I don't think that means it's pointless to learn this stuff.

If you have a coal seam near you, you may have native sulfur available. I'm not familiar with the coal seams in Illinois, but the coal on the East coast is high in sulfur and while the coal in Wyoming and Utah is much lower in sulfur. Sulfur is necessary for producing gunpowder (along with hardwood charcoal and potassium nitrate which are both easy to make at home). On the list of books to own, a good book on the local geology should be on the list since it can tell you what types of mineralogical raw materials are readily available. Knowledge of the local geology will also help you understand your risk for floods and other disasters and the soil you have for growing crops along with much more practical knowledge.

Yep, there's a rather large seam of coal and it's one of the reasons that the rail came through here. It's Illinois Coal, so I'm pretty sure it's high in sulfur. The only question is if there's actually sulfur veins in it or if it's embedded in the coal which makes it all the more difficult to extract without pulverizing, etc. Still, it's better than nothing when you aren't near a volcano or other pure source.