SAFETY PIN IMPROVISATION *

1) Replaces broken zippers or buttons on clothing, tents, and sleeping bags
2) Pin gloves to jacket
3) Pop blisters
4) Fishhook
5) Fix ski binding
6) Unclog stove
7) Neurosensory exam
8) Remove splinter
9) Replaces lost screw in glasses
10) Clean rusty cables
11) Pin arm across the jacket (through pinning of clothing) to fashion a shoulder immobilizer
12) Poke holes in cardboard to fashion sunglasses or watch the solar eclipse
13) Leather punch
14) Emergency sewing device
15) Holds dressing in place when you run out of tape
16) Punch holes in plastic bag to make irrigating device or shower

* FROM A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine, by Eric A. Weiss, M.D.

toothpick

Keeping the tongue from blocking the airway of an unconscious victim. (ouch!)

cotter pin
hinge or hinge pin
cut off pin to make compass
frog gig / fish spear tines
fid
blow dart tip
watchband pin
keyring
burnishing pen
mini drawing compass
mini map dividers
mini gear carabiner
when sanitized, pierce abcess for draining
hook gaiter bottoms to bootlaces
lockpick
low-voltage through-insulation electrical connector
body of fishing lure
mini chain link
pine nut extraction-from-cone tool

WW

I always carry a few safety pins on the inside waistband at the front of my pants. They are pinned in place ... easily accessible.

Add this to your list:

Safety pins used to close your front pockets (esp. of your pants). Useful in third world cities. Stops street kids from reaching into your pockets and stealing your money or stuff.

other Pete

I have two safety pins dividing a large internal section of my EDC bag into two smaller ones by pinning it together down the middle.

My Palm fits comfortably into one subsection, the rest of the stuff in that section stays put, and that's two more safety pins available if I want them for something else.

I don't know if "fid" encompasses this meaning, but I'd like to add "bodkin" to the safety-pin's uses.

Pin it to a bit of cord and use it to wriggle the cord through a fabric tube.

Bear

The humble safety pin ... who knew it would become such a valuable piece of survival gear.
Not trying to hi-jack, but any comments on quality of the pins. You can buy hundreds at a time for a buck at the dollar store. Some are silver while others appear to be made from brass. You can also buy the ones made by victorinox (a dollar only gets you about ten or twenty but they appear to be very well made). Like I said not trying to hi-jack, but is there that much of a difference in the quality and how important is it?

I am not sure that varying quality is all that important, but I definitely prefer the larger sizes for my FAK.....

Same here

More uses?

• spring for mechanical devices improvisation;
• fire starter (over the battery terminals);
• phone (PDA, PC, etc) electrical connector pin;
• tiny screwdriver (grind the tip);
• bigger screwdriver (use side or coil);
• detector radio (use the tip over a rusty razor blade);
• can opener (poke enough holes to break the tin by hands), but a big sewing needle is far better for that;
• straight cutter for plastics;
• zipper puller replacement;

But in fact, I prefer to carry a roll of steel wire braided in clean plastic. Longer piece have even more uses, including a safety pin improvisation. To make it stiff I can always harden it over the flame, and the sharping file is always with me too.

Say what???? Can you explain that one please.

Mark--it's a Fox Hole Radio..Google that and buy a kit!..i got one as a rainy day project for canoe trips..good weather last year so it's not put together yet--

glass etcher . snap line creator
when bent & sharpened, mini barbed gig / arrow head
elecrical jumper
with "ink" a pen
when heated create holes or pirece plexiglass / plastic
egg end holer
insect stringer and cooking skewer
hook to hang stuff over cooking or heating fire
mini cauterizer / brand / burning tool
snare loop slider
pithing tool for small critters
tuber / root vegetable "done-ness" tester
one-tined "fork"
seam ripper
nail
large wound closing "clamp" [ouch!]
peck holes / lines in stuff weaker than safety pin
sundial/ sun-compass post
O ring
fishing rod "eye"

Thanks canoedogs. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Now I'll never get on DWs good side after spending more money on one of those.

EDIT: That looks like an awesome project for DSs cub scout troop. The kits look pretty expensive for that ($16 + $4.25 shipping is not bad for one but I can't afford to buy 10 -15 of them even at that price and popcorn sales were too low this year to get the troop to buy them). Any suggestions to improvise items or equipment. I am thinking along the lines of cutting my own tubes, say from plastic pipe, or using empty TP rolls for the coil tube (actually one kit uses the board itself for the coil wrap instead of an additional tube. That will save a little); buying electrical clips in bulk or simply using nails (it looks like a metal contact is all that is needed); buying the wire in bulk rolls if possible; cut boards from scrap lumber or from a large sheet of plywood; wire hangar for the tuning slide (actually the foxhole kits don't look like they need a tuning slide); #2 pencils shouldn't be a problem (buy a package and cut into shorter pieces). The earpieces and blued razor blades could be a problem. Any suggestions?

super cheap..you have stuff around the house--safety pin,razor blade pencil lead,wire and screws..a real DTY bit of survival gear.it's only a receiver of course and i get the impression they worked in the fox holes of WW2 in Europe because the GI's were close to powerful stations.

Thanks again canoedogs. You answered my edit before I even posted it. Still wondering about the earpiece though. EDIT: Found them here:

http://www.xtalman.com/headsets.html

for 3.49 each, designed for use with these radios. Also you mention rusty razor blade, I assume this is comparable to the blued razor blade mentioned for the kits (makes sense since IIRC bluing is actually just a layer of oxidation - rust - on the metal surface)?

That earpiece works best (a cheaper deal is here) , but you can do pretty well using an old style telephone tube (or just an earpiece from it) - http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/radio/radio.html . You can harvest enough enamel wire from any transformer or electrical motor. The coil core could be anything round of any diameter, but not conductive. The razor blades can be blued in bulk with propane torch. Electrical contacts - nails or paper clips. The most important thing is to provide a very long (high) antenna wire and a massive grounding point. Also you may want to make the pilot version of the radio with your particular components in order to tune it up beforehand (primarily - the amount of wire on the coil to catch the closest, or most powerful radio station in your region).

Many alternative ideas here: http://bizarrelabs.com/foxhole.htm

If I would teach scouts, I'd provide them with a big enough broken AC/DC adapter and a telephone tube (the last component can be hard to find these days, though). No razor blade. You can find a diode or transistor almost in any electronics (the AC rectifier and LED works as an ordinary diode too).

In all honesty I never expected this thread to take off like it has. As a self improvement project while in Southwest Asia I’ve also been studying for my FCC Technician and General tickets. One of the more interesting aspects of Ham radio is the use of high performance crystal radios for DXing (long distance). The following site http://www.midnightscience.com is one of the best I’ve come across for anything crystal radio, along with plans/kits for a fox whole radio, yes that use a safely pin for a cat’s wicker.

Merry Christmas,
W-W

fox hole radios seem to be a hot subject right now.over at "antiqueradios.com" in the Antique Radio Forum you will find for 12-13 a post about Superboys Foxhole Radio.it's a very good old comic page in color with some good details and links..the link to comic book front pages will kill an hour or so--