Making and mending

Repair first, then the crafts that only matter if this runs long.

• MC1 Sharpen an edge: knife, axe, chisel, scissorsA blunt tool is more dangerous than a sharp one, because it needs force and force is what slips. Hold one angle, work until a burr forms along the whole edge, then remove the burr. That is the entire skill, and everything else is detail.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC2 Hand-sew: seams, hems and a button that stays onFour stitches cover almost every repair a household needs, and a button sewn with a shank outlasts one sewn flat by years. This is the cheapest skill in the app to learn and the one that keeps clothing in service longest.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC3 Patch, darn and reinforce clothingPatch before it becomes a hole and darn after. Both work far better if you reinforce the places that always go before they go, which on trousers is the knees and the seat and on socks is the heel, every time, without exception.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC4 Mend boots and shoesFootwear is the piece of equipment a household cannot substitute and cannot improvise, and most of it is thrown away for a failure worth an hour. Keep them dry, keep them clean, and re-proof them before they leak rather than after.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC5 Repair a zipA zip that opens behind the slider almost never has anything wrong with the teeth. The slider has worn wider and stopped squeezing them together, and gently closing it with pliers fixes most zips in the house in under a minute.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC6 Adhesives, and what actually holds whatPreparation and clamping decide whether a joint holds, not which tube you bought. Six adhesives cover almost everything a household repairs, and the commonest failure is using a rigid glue on something that flexes.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC7 Repair waterproofs, tarps and tentsMost waterproofs that leak have not failed: the outer fabric has wetted out and stopped breathing, and a wash and reproof fixes them. Deal with that before you patch anything, because a genuinely torn tarp is a ten minute repair and a soaked jacket is a cold night.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC8 Fix a dripping tap and a leaking jointA dripping tap is a washer or a ceramic cartridge and both are a twenty minute job. A weeping compression joint is nearly always undertightened or has a damaged olive, and the answer is rarely more force.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC9 Mend wooden furniture and jointsA wobbly chair is a joint that has come loose, and the one thing that guarantees you will never fix it properly is driving a screw or a nail through it. Take it apart, clean off the old glue, and put it back together.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC10 Look after tools: rust, handles and filesTools fail from rust, loose handles and clogged teeth, and all three are prevented in seconds and cured in an hour. A loose axe head is the only one of the three that can kill somebody, so it is the one to check every time you pick it up.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC11 Salvage: what to strip from broken thingsNothing leaves the house whole. Strip the fasteners, cordage, fabric, wire and hardware first, because those are the parts that stop being buyable soonest. Two categories are worth nothing and can hurt you, and knowing them is most of the skill.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC12 Knots and lashings that earn their placeSeven knots cover almost everything a household needs, and knowing seven properly beats knowing thirty badly. Learn them so you can tie them in the dark, cold and one-handed, because that is when they get used.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC13 Make cordage from plant fibreNettle, lime bast and bramble will all give you usable cord, and the technique is one motion repeated: twist each half away from you, then cross them towards you. Everything else is which plant, and when you cut it.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC14 Make lye from wood ashHardwood ash and rainwater give you potassium hydroxide, which is genuinely caustic and genuinely blinding. The making is easy; the handling is the part that needs your full attention, and eye protection is not a suggestion on this page.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC15 Make soap from lye and fatTwo ingredients and a long stir. With shop-bought caustic soda you can calculate a recipe and get a reliable bar; with ash lye you cannot, so you cook it, test it, and correct it, and nothing touches skin until it has cured and been checked.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC16 Green woodworking: splitting, shaving and shapingFreshly cut wood splits along its own grain and cuts like cheese, and work split rather than sawn is far stronger because the fibres run unbroken through it. Almost everything here is done with an axe, a froe and a knife.Quick actions, 9 steps
• MC17 Rawhide and tanning a skinRawhide is the easy, useful half and needs only scraping and drying. Tanning is weeks of work with a real disease risk attached, so treat the hygiene as the technique rather than as an afterthought.Quick actions, 8 steps
• MC18 Fired clay and a pit kilnClay is under most of Britain and a pit fire will reach the temperature that turns it into pottery. The one rule that matters is that anything not bone dry will explode in the fire, and it takes far longer to dry than anybody expects.Quick actions, 8 steps