Non-Power Tools You Can Use During a Blackout
If you’re like me, on those rare occasions when you’re dealing with a temporary power outage, you try to flip on a light switch. When the light doesn’t come on, you say to yourself, “Oh yeah, that’s right. The power is out.”
Not only are we creatures of habit, we’re also incredibly dependent on the electrical grid. That wouldn’t be so bad if the grid were reliable, but as even the government admits, it is vulnerable.
Extreme weather, accidents, and physical and cyber attacks have all proven very capable of knocking out power for varying lengths of time. And it’s just going to keep getting worse. In fact, there is a good chance some of us are eventually going to get hit with a significant blackout that could extend for days, weeks or even months.
One of the ways to prepare for such an occurrence is to have a variety of tools ready for use that do not require power. Here are nine of them:
- Axe. It’s essential for chopping wood so you can heat your home and cook food. And in a pinch, it’s a lethal home-defense option.
- Shovel. If you don’t already have one, get a couple. They’ll help you clear snow or debris, dig an irrigation system and bury waste.
- Washboard. Laundry has to get done somehow, and this old-school tool will be a big help when your washing machine doesn’t work.
- Handsaw. Critical for minor construction projects that come up due to the blackout, as well as for cutting scrap wood.
- Rotary hand drill. Sure, it’s not as easy to use as a power drill, but if you’re building a shelter, boarding up windows or even hanging pictures, you will need one.
- Push reel mower. Remember the days when everybody used them? If nothing else, it’ll make Saturday afternoons quieter in your neighborhood.
- Manual typewriter. You can correspond with long-distance friends/relatives with hand-written notes, but this will help communications look more official.
- Hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, etc. Presumably you already have these non-power tools, but be sure they’re all in good shape or purchase new ones.
- Battery-operated clock. If your clock is plugged into a wall, it won’t be much use. A battery-operated clock will help keep you on track.
I hope this discussion starts you thinking about how you would cope during an extended power outage. Your first step should be to take a look around your home and make a list of every tool you might need during a lengthy blackout. If you only have a power version of that tool, think seriously about acquiring a non-power equivalent.
I still have a Radio Shack Crystal radio.I ran a copper wire thru my attic and a copper wire secured to a cold water pipe under my house.Works very well.
the list is a great start and the comments are great too! but has anyone thought about the disabled? i have.
instead of an axe, go for a hatachet that is the right weight for you
as for a shovel if you must sit down when using one,like myself, use a shovel that has a 2 foot handle.
for the hand saw, there are a lot of saws out there that are light weight and very efficent.
the drill is harder but just try them out to see which is best for your handling abilities.
Hammers etc come in “women” sizes. They are smaller and more light weight but they do work, it might just take a little longer.
clocks, just remember the size and weight even the batteries have weight when you have a bunch of extras. you could get aq small solar clock
for the hand crank radio you might need a crank extenstion for you to crank it, but these also come in solar, no cranking necessary
the lawnmower is the hardest to accomadte. try a brill.
and dont forget to set your garden uop ahead of time later may be too late
I haven’t read all the comments but I’d like to add my 2 bits worth. I have 4 hand operated can openers, 3 manual bottle openers( very useful for opening home canned jars without damaging the lids), a hand crank system for grating, grinding, and mincing (Tupperware), a hand crank mixer, a juicer, 2 old style percolators and 2 non-electric kettles. That’s just my kitchen tools. Husband has 2 sets of mechanical and household(saws, hammers, etc) tools as well.
Just one trip to a good flea market will provide you with all sorts of alternative tools. estate sales and yard sales are an excellent source also.
Don;t forget older family members…they probably have stuff they’ll be happy to give y’all!
Ya need a wind up phonograph and 78rpm records from the ’40’s and earlier so you can party! Takin’ the edge off a bad situation can help. Learn some old time dance steps. Oh yeah, some booze too!
Not only do I have an assortment of hand powered tools, but I also have my mobile off-grid power system I built several years ago for running some portable electrical/electronic devices. One can read all about that on my website. http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com.
AND I have spare parts in a faraday cage. Electronics not being used are also stored in there.
I haven’t heard anyone talk about seeds or gardening tools, only their stockpiles of food. What are you gonna do when the food runs out that you have stashed? I also think the Biggest thing we need first is a place you own,your home,or land etc. Thngs to barter with too like Alcohol and cigarettes. And one should own some gold.
How about kitchen utensils?
pretty much set here, have a massive solar set up, 4 wind turbines, water collection system (500 gallon) and a dehumidifier water collection machine already built. We have the ability to make ice / coffee, etc. Even run a 12oo BTU portable a/c system. don’t get me started on the food. We have 2yrs worth (dried) and 3 gardens (one aquaponics with fish). HERE’S THE KEY….Have a plan, start small & continue to build on it. EBay & other sites are very helpful for getting supplies on the cheap. Plus go to every yard sale possible ! I’ve got probably 5k invested, THATS IT….took 5 yrs & were still building today ! Semper Fi
I have a great non-electric clock. It features sunup, morning, about noon, afternoon, evening, sundown, and dark. No batteries, no winding, very dependable. It’s called the sun.
A battery-powered fan..it get hot without a/c. One recent model has a cord to charge a cell phone if the fan is un-needed.
One question, how do I make the little box go away when I already get emails about posts without allowing. I don’t wish to not allow.
The box is in my way as I am typing, so there may be errors.
And, anything we us that plugs in was most likely made before electricity was available, but not all of those devices are still around for one to buy.
need a bow saw for cutting firewood to length and taking down small trees a hatchet is nice tohave
It seems to me that there should be a couple more items to that list. A level, a square and some assorted nails. Also a compass.
One thing I have noticed most people have failed to mention or think about: flashlights. I have been through many black-outs when people have flashlights stashed in the drawers without fresh batteries. What I have in my vehicle and in one of my stash drawers in my home is a hand-crank flashlight that does not need batteries or electricity. As the light dims, crank it up again.
What is the most reliable hand crank radio?
How about garden tools, the main ones, not mentioned here are a hoe, garden fork, garden rake, pruning shears. others might include a leaf rake, sledge hammer, crowbar, wire cutters, etc.
Don’t forget about tools to sharpen your other tools, be they knives, hatchets, axes, etc. Don’t forget about a good first aid package!
If you don’t reload then learn.the best calibers are the ones the military uses.. I live in N Idaho so we have plenary of deer elk and moose learn to reload and hunt
an ax needs to be sharp to be safe and useful. A manual grinder would be useful. A whit-stone to sharpen the knives.
Fire starter.. mix dryer lint with parifin wax in egg cartoons then light it will burn in a downpour carried them for many years
Had anyone said anything about extra batteries and a flashlight ? Better still. A crank flashlight. Good to have in a crunch.
The most important thing to start out with is always at least a half a dozen rolls of duct tape. The next is the large roll of this queen to cover your roof or make temporary shelter . Then some sub zero sleeping bags and jackets. In the tool department the basics are saw, hammer, chisels, screwdrivers wrenches, pliers, channel lock and a sledge hammer and crowbar . The next critical thing is a good hand crank radio.
If you want to really learn what it’s all about there’s a very simple test. Go to your electrical panel and turn it totally off. Now live that way for a couple days and you’ll discover exactly what you need to survive. This is the best test which everyone can do very easily.
Why not a wind up clock? Or a sundial? Not that having the correct time is going to be terribly important, I suspect.
hand truck & wheel barrow.
The old CB radio, or short wave radio may be your only form of communication with anyone out of your local area. For news or trouble.
These are ALL very good and well-intended ‘manual tools’ to use, the ‘HOWEVER, ONE MOST BASIC ELEMENT. TO ALSO HAVE HERE IS TO ACTUALLY ‘SEE’ THEM, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE DOING ANY KIND OF WORK IN DARK CONDITIONS! Therefore, a Solar powered lantern, flashlight, or ‘illuminating source’ WILL in fact come in handy, regardless of the type of tools you need to have to use in case of an extended power outage or blackout condition. Jonathan
I don’t think anyone mentioned a siphon hose or manual fuel pump for moving fuel.
I forgot small handheld flashlights that I get and hoard from the dollar store and batteries for them. I always have one in my pocket and they last awhile for me. I bought black strap molasses from the dollar store also that I use in my coffee instead of using sugar. I can even drink my coffee that way instead of putting milk in it. If I use sugar I can’t drink my coffee black so that works well for me. Black strap molasses also gives us the benefits of other vitamins and minerals too. Yeah, I use a lot of vitamins and minerals so my stash there is well equipped. I keep oil of oregano on hand and in supply for a natural antibiotic. I have been extremely damaged by pharmaceuticle antibiotics. Namely Levaquin, Cipro, and the ear and eye drop of Floroquinolone antibiotics. So make sure that you have a supply of home health products too. Gasoline, if you do have to rely on a generator for a few days. Stacks of wood for heating our home, if necessary and so many other things. I’d like to stock up on some panels of insulation board where we could use to insulate a small room for extreme weather conditions. There is so much we can do to try to prepare. If it is God’s will, we will survive. If not, we gave it our best.
I Love this article. I am all about being self sufficient and my grandparents certainly were and taught us well. I am trying to pass as much info along to my adult kids and have been as much as possible as they grew. I am not a camper though and have no desire to do so but My kids have annual camping trips and have taught me things as well in that respect. I grew up using an outhouse and I have no desire to return to one of those except in an extreme emergency. Lol. I am older but I am partially disabled so I am acquiring things for family, if needed. We used a woodstove for heating our home from 1980 until two years ago when our health required better, more modern heat. We had a bad experience with our modern heater though in this extreme cold recently so the experience I have of sleeping with two covers and covering up everything, even over my head to keep the body heat in is a valuable lesson for me. I’ve done my own plumbing in my home and fix as much as possible in and around my home, I’ve run electrical wires, I’ve maintained my property and my vehicles over the years but I am very limited now. My daughters and my son’s all have no problem repairing whatever needs to be done on their projects mainly because they do not have the money to have things repaired by others but they also learn a lot from fixing things and I make sure to let them know that knowing how to repair something yourself is priceless! I have a wind up clock that I bought years ago,just to have and show my kids and grandkids, what used to be. I have a (non working) rotary phone to show my grandbabies later. I have two treddle sewing machines. One I used years ago to make new seatcovers for my truck. My sewing kit is available to sew by hand. My home came equipped with a hand operated swing can opener that recently broke so my daughter bought me a new one. She loved our old one. I have a military can opener that my hubby brought back from his tour but my hands are not capable of using that anymore but I also keep a supply of hand operating can openers that we’ve always relied on for every day use as my family was being raised. We used them all the time when we open can goods but lately I am trying to eat healthier so I eat a lot more frozen veggies, rather than can goods. I will be up a creek in an emergency for myself because my health requires natural foods, not processed and I can no longer do gardening, so if my freezer goes down I’m screwed. My Grandparents were vegetable farmers and they canned all of their own veggies and fruits and jellies but I have gotten away from that. I just need to keep a supply of canned goods for emergencies now. We have acquired many hand tools for mechanical stuff, for yard work, etc. What I really would like to have installed is an old fashoned, hand operated water pump like my Grandpop used down by his cow barn. The pump type action with the water trough. To me this is very important for a water supply. We have our own shallow well on our propety so either a battery pack or setting up a hand pump would be necessary. My son bought the property next door to us. It was a blighted property that he and a friend and all of my kids tore down and rebuilt the home that was sitting there. That was a parents true blessing, in the dead of winter to be able to witness your children being capable of taking on and completing a project of that magnitude. My hubby did most of the endless cooking to keep them fed during that project. I picked up a little bit when I was able to but I am very limited now. That made myself and my hubby very proud to witness out kids in action. In an emergency we ain’t going to be eating nothing like mashed potatoes,lol. Even though we do have two hand mashers. More like peanut butter, beans, possibly rice, maybe tuna, (dry) and whatever to stay alive. A few years back I bought smaller jars of peanut butter from a dollar store thinking in a survival mode that each can take a jar and last them a few days maybe instead of having a monster jar and having to stick your hand in the bottom to get to the end. Have to keep in mind that in a bad situation there will be no forks, knives and spoons or at least not in my arsenal. If I am limited I want to stock or carry food, not plastic ware. I bought a jar of instant coffee recently, just to have. That’s my coffee of choice if things got that bad. Water will be extremely limited so that’s something to keep in mind. My hubby stockpiles charcoal because he used to do a lot of family out door cooking and my son has a gas grill and my kids have gas grills at their homes in an emergency. Our home has natural gas but in an emergency, who knows if that will go down, so I’d say, in a natural disaster we’d have to have the guys cook up all the meats, to share. That’s just my input on it. This was a very rough winter with the extreme cold spell that our country was under just recently. My next priority is insulating or having someone insulate our home this year. Building a portable pottie and in the future, learning more about solar panel.
I have all those things mentioned, including a washboard and a butter churn, but I don’t have a cow! Ha!. I have 2 gr.father clocks a s 5 other old clocks, including a cuckoo clock an tons of dry food and a big general generator. All set!!
You can still purchase a wind up watch and a wind up clock at The Vermont Country Store. That is where I found mine.
I have a hand grinder to grind coffee beans, it has a little drawer to catch the grind. A toaster for over the fire or gas stove for my toast. Cast iron skillets and bake Ware are a must, you can cook about anything, anywhere with these. Scissors and a hand can opener too.
Been reading your comments for many months and have not read this : I have 18 solar panels and 6 deep cycle batteries to fall back on when the power is out , have 4 -12 volt dc-120 volt ac inverters . these can and will power most indoor powered units , I can power a electric chain saw ,cell phones , battery powered drills and many other items . I have collected these items over a 10 year period . You could get by with a basic of 3 solar panels [160 watt each] and one 2500 watt inverter { $700 total]. Even when cloudy , they still charge batteries .
I have been thinking about downsizing for a while. When I went thru some stored stuff I was going to rid of I found handicraft radio and a handcrank spotlight I picked up at a thirty store. I found other stuff that will be of use also. Just in case. Camping stove …cast iron skillet and a old coffee pot. Well there went my downsizing lol
Typewriter? Really? Whose getting the mail?
I get-and send-mail. I used my portable typewriter for years when camping. However, the problem is extra typewriter ribbons. They do eventually wear out.
I haven’t read all comments but the one at the top of my list is a coffee maker. I have coffee presses plus a sit on the stove manual percolator. I NEED my morning coffee.
I forgot about the potato masher in the drawer. It makes good mashed potatoes.
For the kitchen or camp, a manual CAN OPENER a must!
Many pocket knives / multi-tools include can openers. With a little practice, they work quite well. At a recent family gathering, the electric can opener wouldn’t open one #10 can, so I whipped out my Swiss Army Knife and had it open in a minute or two. Indispensable. I used to have a regular military-type P-38 can opener, but the multi-tool solution is better.
Any man worth his salt will have various tool in his repertoire that are not depended upon batteries or electricity. You know what I mean, hand saw, screw drivers, wrenches, hand drills and alike. But what about the women. They will need their own special hand tools that don’t require batteries or electricity like a meat grinder, knives, meat thermometer, old fashion hand squeeze juicer, (nothing like fresh squeezed OJ in the morning), and other various cooking tools. I would love to hear what the women have to say about this.
One of my most prized possessions is the green-ware hand squeeze juicer. It is really a hard item to find now-a-days.
So lets see what else is out there, drop a line or two.
I still have one of those hand-turned beaters. They were well made and they work well. I don’t use it because I’m spoiled but I do have it just in case.
I have a meat grinder. Potato masher egg beater can opener..and a few other non electrical kitchen items. I also have my own tool box apart from my husband’s and a folding shovel and still kept our camping stuff. Now I was going to get rid of all that but since things aren’t the best in the world I’m glad I held on to my junk as I was told I had.
Here’s a link to a great place for supplies that don’t use eletricity. Get the catalog – way more stuff in it. http://cumberlandgeneral.com/
A solar charger or a mechanical charger will power a computer. I have one lap top in and old microwave that i have made into a Fariday cage in case of emp. Have also put some memory sticks and a one tigabite hard disk.I have a solar set up with battery back up and have started to think of a Fariday cage for the battery system and solar inverters. This is a learning process. But that old computer will hold a lot more books than I will need. I have a complete collection of old tools and know how to use most. An assortment of hammers would also help. An ax is to big for small task. I have a rock hammer, and other hammers that will come in handy. Would love to have a mule.
I’m old and retired so I’ve been collecting Tools most of my life, I have nearly all of what you listed except the wash board, which I read about making a washer from a 5 gallon bucket and a household plunger new of course, a clock I have but as I said I’m older I get up with the sun and sleep after dark when I’m tired, the old push mower I don’t have anymore, gave it away my yard is small I’ll find a way to keep it under control, I do have instructional books on building and survival I’ve collected over the years for reference if needed, I also have bows and arrows, guns, ammo and knives along with my hoard of things I feel may come in handy
Jerry, I hear you. But let me ask you this one question: have you passed your knowledge on how to use these hand tools to your children, grandchildren and so on? This is where the rubber meets the road, wouldn’t you say?
I have to disagree with the battery clock. Good old spring winding watches/clocks would be better. Recharging solar powered landscape lights could even be useful for inside the house too, but those batteries do not last forever either. Let us not forget something as simple as a hand operated can opener too. :)
I have to agree with you Dan. There is nothing like an old fashion wind up clock. But there are other type of wind up clocks like a cuckoo clock, grandfather or grandmother clock. There are of course other wind up clocks that are just as popular and stylish. My favorite is the good ole wrist watch. It is something that I can carry with me where ever I go.
At least two can openers of different manual styles. They don’t make em to last .Carol? Where do you suppose I could find one of those old egg beaters. My moms got clanky and I threw it away years ago.
I almost forgot the most important thing. I still have a sizable collection of actual books. A number of them are practical application books from the early 20th century when there were no power tools. A Coleman lantern to read by at night would be helpful. Also, I always have a few acoustic instruments around. A good way to fight boredom and depression.
I grew up on a ranch in the mountain west. We didn’t own a tractor until I was 10. Everything was done with HORSE power. I agree wholeheartedly with you T Mike, a collection of good books about the “Way things were” could prove very valuable to our survival. Lessons from our past go a long way to insure our future.
I have not only a Yankee Drill and a couple of rotary hand drills, I also have a breast drill and a brace and bit for heavy duty jobs. Planes are often useful for fitting wood panels, especially if they are hand sawn. I have a 14 day spring wound chime clock at one home and a 31 day spring wound chime clock in the other. My watches are all automatic. (no EMP problem)