So you need to arm yourself for the coming Zombie Apocalypse but you have a problem, no cash. Well rejoice my friend because all is not lost. You can still arm yourself with some pretty effective weaponry and not break the bank doing it. Now for the purpose of this discussion I have divided the types of possible weapons into two categories. Hand to hand combat weapons and projectile weapons.
Low cost hand to hand combat weapons
Hand to hand combat weapons are the easiest to either purchase or make do to the simple and obvious fact that any object you can hold in your hand can be used as a weapon. However it’s not advisable to try to defend yourself with a tea cup. But if all you have is a tea cup, then by all means use it. Hand to hand combat weapons also have the advantage of being legal to possess, at least for the most part, in most places. Check the laws ware you live. You don’t want to be in jail when the apocalypse happens.
One of the first things that most survival experts will tell you to have is a good knife. This is good advice as you should never be without a good knife, except perhaps on an airplane, they get all funny about that. You should in fact have two knives, The first a small pocket knife, you can get them for almost nothing at any hardware store or you may already have one laying around at the bottom of a drawer someplace. The second knife should be larger, more of what you might call a combat knife. A good knife will not cost you all that much. In fact one of the best things for this purpose is an old army surplus bayonet. You can get them online or at junk shops or army surplus stores for just a few bucks. In fact I just found a bayonet for a VZ-58 for six dollars at a flea market.
If you are willing to spend a little more you can get the knife that you think will be best for the task at hand. Choosing a knife is a personal decision and no one can tell you what knife is best. I personally recommend the Kukri or Gurkha knife. The Gurkha in my humble opinion is the best all purpose knife ever invented. It can do any job you ask of it from stabbing to slashing. No other knife is as handy.
Now if you want to go for a free knife, an old kitchen knife is better than nothing. You will need to make sure the blade is thick enough. Kitchen knives tend to be thin. This makes them more susceptible to snapping if you use them for stabbing or prying. One way to overcome this is to shorten the blade a bit. You can easily do this on a grinding wheel. If you don’t have a grinding wheel GO OUT AND GET ONE. You can get one for about thirty dollars and you are going to need it later.
You will also have to find or make a sheath for your homemade combat knife so you can carry it safely. It’s not hard to make a sheath but it will take you an hour or two. You can make a good sheath out of leather, wood, plastic or metal. I won’t go into detail as I’m sure you can figure it out. In a nutshell just lay your knife down on whatever material you have selected and draw a line around the knife a little bigger than the knife itself. Do this twice and then cut them out and fasten the two pieces together. Not hard just time consuming. Remember that if you use wood or something that is not flexible you will have to hollow out the two pieces before you fasten them together. So go with leather its much easier. You can get it from an old pair of work boots of a leather purse. However, like I said before a good knife is not expensive, so it hardly seems worth all the time and trouble.
More to come…
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