Prep like a pro

MacGyver would be proud: 10 survival tools you can build yourself

Image: Maciej Karoń

People have survived in the wilderness for millennia, long before modern survival gadgets were mass-produced for convenience. And when it comes to building your own survival kit, there’s no need to head to the store! With some basic supplies lying around, you can create everything from a reliable alcohol stove to a life-saving rope. Stick with us to discover 10 survival tools you can craft yourself!

Image: Joseph Sharp

Did you know you can turn a simple tin can into a portable stove? Adventurers have known this for decades: it’s extremely easy to create a very reliable alcohol stove just by cutting a series of holes near the top of an empty can. If alcohol isn’t your fuel of choice, simply cut an additional hole near the bottom for ventilation, and voilà—you have an efficient mini wood stove for twigs and tinder.

Any type of tin can will work, but soda cans are particularly easy to cut, making them a great option if you’re in a hurry (though they do require a more careful design to ensure sturdiness). Despite their delicate appearance, these stoves can last through years of heavy use. And the best part? If it ever breaks or stops working, you can make a new one in under a minute

Image: Louis Moncouyoux

You’ve got the stove—great. But how are you going to get a fire going in the first place? You’re not truly prepared for survival until you have a reliable way to light a fire. That’s where a fire-starting kit comes in handy. Fortunately, making one is easy, and you don’t need anything out of the ordinary.

By combining cotton balls with petroleum jelly (like Vaseline) and storing the treated cotton in a waterproof container—such as a small metal canister—you create a highly flammable fire starter. It burns much longer than dry tinder and can help you get a fire going even in tough weather conditions. Don’t have petroleum jelly? You can use wax the same way—just melt it first!

Image: Brian Yurasits

You’re not going to get far without access to clean water—that’s for sure. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! With just a clear plastic bottle and sunlight, you can make a simple (and hopefully not too dirty) solar water purifier. Fill the bottle with clear water and leave it in direct sunlight for at least six hours to eliminate most harmful pathogens.

This method, known as the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) technique, uses UV radiation and heat to kill bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It’s recommended by the World Health Organization for regions without access to safe drinking water. If clear water isn’t available—or if you're working with salt water—you can combine two or more bottles to create a solar-powered distiller. It’s a great trick for surviving, even if you’re stranded at sea!

Image: Lucas Dudek

Don’t have rope—but somehow have a ton of duct tape? You’re in luck, because humanity’s most versatile adhesive can save the day. By tightly twisting strips of duct tape together, you can create a surprisingly durable rope capable of supporting a significant amount of weight.

And while we’re probably preaching to the choir here, it’s worth repeating: always carry a roll of this miracle tape. It has countless uses, from sealing packages to repairing tent seams, or even fixing torn clothes.

Image: Waldemar

Compasses often seem more complicated than they really are. If you ever need one, you can quickly make your own using just a magnet and a needle. Start by rubbing the needle against the magnet to magnetize it. Then float the needle on a small piece of cork (or even leaf or paper) in a bowl of water.

The needle will align with Earth’s magnetic field, pointing north. While it won’t be as precise or durable as a professional compass, it’s a handy tool for navigating unfamiliar terrain!

Image: ilgmyzin

Ever wonder why so many outdoor enthusiasts swear by paracord? It’s because it’s incredibly versatile and remarkably durable. Paracord is lightweight yet impressively strong, often rated to hold up to 550 pounds. Plus, it can easily be transformed into a multipurpose survival tool.

By weaving paracord into a belt or bracelet (it also makes a cool watch strap), you’ll always have high-quality rope on hand. In emergencies, it can be quickly unraveled and used for building shelters, making fishing lines, or securing gear.

Image: Kelly Sikkema

A signal mirror is an often overlooked but vital part of a wilderness survival kit. These mirrors can reflect sunlight over long distances, helping you attract attention from rescuers or other hikers, potentially saving lives in an emergency.

You can skip the DIY route if you have an old pocket mirror lying around. But if you’re feeling resourceful, take a small, smooth piece of metal or shiny plastic, clean it, and polish it until it’s as reflective as possible. For extra utility, if the material is malleable, you can even reshape it into a basic parabolic mirror to help start a fire!

Image: Firas Wardhana

Another way to attract rescuers—or anyone nearby—in an emergency is by making noise. But over long distances, yelling often isn’t enough. That’s where an emergency whistle comes in handy. If you forgot to pack one, you can easily make your own using an empty plastic pen.

Start by removing the front section of the pen, including the tapered plastic tip and the ink cartridge, leaving only the main barrel and back cap. Then, use a knife to cut a small angled notch near the back of the pen, trimming off part of the end cap. That’s it! Blow through the open end to produce a loud, attention-grabbing sound.

Image: Thomas Park

You get the idea: fill a small tin can with hooks, fishing line, and sinkers. It’s one of the easiest survival tools to assemble, especially if you already have basic fishing gear. If there’s still room in the container, consider adding bait alternatives like artificial lures or even small strips of aluminum foil to complete your portable fishing kit.

This compact setup is perfect for any survival situation near a water source. Or maybe you just enjoy fishing on the go. Either way, it’s always a smart idea to keep one in your backpack.

Image: Kyler Boone

Who hasn’t escaped an unexpected downpour cloaked in one of these? The classic trash bag poncho is a portable shelter for those who either forgot their rain gear or just prefer not to carry extra weight.

It might not look very stylish, but who’s to say it wouldn’t turn a few heads during Fashion Week? Most importantly, plastic is super effective at repelling water, and its lightweight nature makes it perfect for a survival kit. It can also double as a ground cover or a small tarp in a pinch.

Fun language quirks

English is not normal: 10 incredible eccentricities of our language

Did you know English is one of the few languages where the first-person singular pronoun "I" is always capitalized? Or that it contains words that can mean two completely opposite things? Even something as simple as the days of the week reveals a difference: in many other languages, they are always written in lowercase. English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to explain. In fact, some of its strangest features might surprise even native speakers. From unusual grammar rules to words with surprising pasts, English is filled with quirks that make it unlike any other language. Here are 10 fascinating things that make English unique.

If you’ve ever talked with someone learning English, you’ve probably heard the same question: How can words like "cough," "dough," and "through" all be spelled almost the same but sound completely different? It’s a fair question, and one that even native speakers sometimes struggle to answer.

English is unusual because the same group of letters can be pronounced in several completely different ways. Few spellings illustrate that better than the ending "-ough." Depending on the word, it can be pronounced nine different ways. Linguists even have a famous mnemonic to demonstrate the chaos: "A rough-coated (uff), dough-faced (oh), thoughtful (aw) ploughman (ow) strode through (oo) the streets of Scarborough (uh); after falling into a lough (ock), he coughed (off) and hiccoughed (up)." No wonder English spelling has a reputation for keeping learners on their toes.

Fortunately, there is an explanation for those discrepancies between pronunciation and spelling in English.

Unlike Spanish or Italian, where words are usually spelled the way they sound, English is full of surprises. Through, threw, and thorough all sound different despite looking similar, while words like knife, debt, and receipt contain silent letters. That’s because English borrowed vocabulary from many different languages, and when the printing press helped standardize spelling in the late 1400s, pronunciation was still changing. The Great Vowel Shift (which occurred primarily between the 15th and 17th centuries) transformed the way many words were spoken, but their spellings largely stayed the same. The result is a language where spelling often has to be memorized rather than guessed, making spelling bees a uniquely English challenge.

You may have noticed people using "they" to refer to a single person and assumed it was a modern invention. Surprisingly, it’s anything but new.

The singular "they" has been part of English for more than 600 years. It appears as early as the 14th century in William and the Werewolf, an anonymous Middle English poem from around 1350, and was later used naturally by some of the greatest writers in the language, including Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. In fact, Austen used the singular "they" dozens of times in Pride and Prejudice (1813), writing lines such as, "I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly." The controversy came much later. During the 18th and 19th centuries, grammarians who wanted English to follow the rules of Latin argued that writers should use the generic "he" instead. But everyday speakers never completely abandoned the singular "they," which is why it has survived for centuries and remains part of modern English today.

Many English words have more than one meaning. But two words stand in a league of their own, with so many definitions that they hold a record in the dictionary.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "set" has one of the longest entries, spanning more than 20 pages and containing over 430 distinct senses. Depending on the context, it can be a verb (to set a book on a table), a noun (a chess set or a television set), or an adjective (the plans are set). And as if that weren’t enough, another everyday word is giving it competition. Recent linguistic research suggests that "run" may now have more than 640 distinct meanings and uses, making it one of the most versatile words in the English language. No wonder even native speakers sometimes have to rely on context to figure out exactly what someone means.

Have you ever noticed that some English words seem to contradict themselves? A single word can sometimes mean two opposite things, depending on the context.

Take "dust," which can mean either to remove dust or to sprinkle something with dust. "Cleave" can mean to hold together or to split apart. "Overlook" can mean to watch over something or to fail to notice it. And "sanction" can mean both to approve an action and to impose a penalty for it. These unusual words are called contronyms, terms that have two opposing meanings that somehow coexist in the same word. While other languages have them too, such as the French hôte ("host" or "guest") and the German aufheben ("to preserve" or "to abolish"), English is especially rich in these linguistic contradictions.

What if we told you that English has no future? It sounds a bit dramatic, but from a grammar viewpoint, it’s actually true.

Unlike languages such as Spanish or French, English has no separate future verb tense. Instead of changing the verb itself, English builds the future with helper words like "will," "shall," or "going to." In other words, English verbs only change with the present and past tenses. We say "walk," "walking," and "walked," but for the future we simply add a helper: "will walk." Many other languages work differently. In Spanish, for example, the verb itself changes in all three time frames: camino (I walk), caminé (I walked), and caminaré (I will walk).

Every time you write about yourself, you follow one of English’s most unusual rules: the first-person singular pronoun "I" is always capitalized.

It feels completely natural to us, but it is surprisingly rare among the world’s major languages. Spanish uses yo, French uses je, Italian says io, Portuguese uses eu, and Dutch says ik, all written in lowercase (unless, of course, they start a sentence). English stands out as the only major language that always gives its first-person pronoun a capital letter, and the reason is more practical than symbolic. In medieval handwritten texts, the single letter "i" was easy to miss among surrounding words. To make it easier to read, scribes gradually began writing it larger, and by the late 15th century, the capital "I" had become the standard form we still use today.

"Sit down," "give up," "look into," "take off," "make up," and "run out of" are expressions English speakers use every day naturally. But for people learning the language, it can feel like a never-ending challenge.

That’s because phrasal verbs rarely follow a predictable pattern. The same verb can take on dozens of completely different meanings just by adding a small word like up, out, on, or off. Other languages have similar constructions. German, for example, has separable verbs such as ankommen ("to arrive"), which literally combines an ("at") and kommen ("to come"). In a sentence, the particle separates and moves to the end: Ich komme morgen an ("I arrive tomorrow"). But while many languages use verb-particle combinations, English stands out for having hundreds of phrasal verbs, making them one of the defining features of everyday conversation and one of the biggest troubles for learners.

If you’ve ever written in another language, you’ve probably noticed something that feels almost wrong at first: the words for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lose their capital letters.

In most of the world’s major languages, the days of the week are written like ordinary nouns, with lowercase letters unless they begin a sentence. But English is one of the very few exceptions. We capitalize all seven days every time we write them, and this is surprisingly rare worldwide. In standard German, the days are capitalized too, but only because all nouns are. In English, however, the days are classified as proper nouns (like Tom or New York) rather than common nouns (like house or pencil). That grammatical distinction is why they always begin with a capital letter.

Believe it or not, some of the most common words in English are complete mysteries. We use them every day, but no one knows where they came from.

Most English words can be traced back through older languages, but a handful have no clear ancestry at all. Historical linguists consider them native English words with unknown origins because they have no identifiable roots and no obvious relatives. One example is the word "dog": for centuries, the common Germanic word for a canine was "hound." Then, sometime in the late Old English period, "dog" suddenly appeared and eventually replaced it. "Boy" first showed up in the 13th century as boie, originally meaning a servant, rogue, or rascal, but its origin remains a mystery. The same is true for "bad," which appeared in Middle English in the late 1200s and gradually displaced older words such as "evil," despite having no known linguistic roots.