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If you were in the woods( pick a spot) and had whatever food/medicines you needed could you build pottery from scratch. Electricity is fine and all, but I imag

If you were in the woods( pick a spot) and had whatever food/medicines you needed could you build pottery from scratch. Electricity is fine and all, but I imagine the basics of civilization could be replicated by a few good craftsmen(people)

hinkley 1y ago
Primitive Technology on YouTube does this repeatedly. You make a hole or find a piece of slate for processing, you mine clay from a stream bed, and then you make your first pot as a tool for moving water, the second pot for making food, and before or after the second pot you make clay bricks to build a kiln to high fire other things more efficiently - less fuel and more multitasking of other tasks.
- WalterBright 1y ago
  Why don't contestants on "Alone" do this?
  - hinkley 1y ago
    This question is substantially why I stopped watching that show. I think at least a few of them may have trouble locating pure clay where they are dropped but not all of them, every season, for years.
    - bruce511 1y ago
      I seem to recall one or two doing this. But i suspect the reason they don't is cause they don't need to. They all have a pot already. The benefits of more pots seems low. Conversely the calorie cost seems high (if only just collecting clay and cutting wood to fire it.) On Alone thd priorities are shelter and food. Clay pots seems like a luxury in terms of utility use and energy cost.
      - WalterBright 1y ago
        Most of them did a simply terrible job of building a fireplace, from poisoning themselves with the smoke to literally burning their shelter down. Some built a bed up off the ground, which is smart, but never seemed to consider heating up rocks in the fireplace during the day and slipping them under the bed at night. Anyhow, some mud and clay skills would help make a decent fireplace. Staying warm is a crucial skill, not a luxury. Some of them got frostbite. Also, most of them had food storage problems where their meat would get robbed. Some went to great effort to make their meat inaccessible, to no avail. I imagine that would make a storage pot useful.
        WalterBright 1y ago
        P.S. I've learned to spot the losers early on. They always try to build a monumental log cabin, which drains away their energy and they cannot replace it and tap out. Others spend their time carving toys for their kids instead of looking for food. To win you need to make a minimal cabin and spend all your time looking for food.
        xeromal 1y ago
        I haven't watched the show but I watched the first season and loved when the guy from my homestate (GA) did the right thing and just wallered in a mud pit for the whole thing to win. One random dude was trying to build a kayak or some shit. lol
      - vanattab 1y ago
        This is the correct answer. Alone is not really a how to live in the woods show, it's a managed starvation show. The contestants are limited to about a 1 sq mile area which may or may not have a good source of clay. They purposely set them out just a few weeks before winter so they do not have a long time to prep. Conserving and replenishing calories is the name of the game.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
    - mapt 1y ago
      Digging in arctic climates is just difficult. Soils freeze and gel. Digging in semi-degraded postglacial till filled in with a few conifers (the Great Slave Lake site is largely talus/scree) is not especially productive in terms of clay. I would love to see them invite Primitive Technology's John Plant on the show. I do understand if North Queensland is more his climate though.
      - hinkley 1y ago
        They did a season in Vancouver Island before they started making the show super weird.

hinkley 1y ago

Primitive Technology on YouTube does this repeatedly. You make a hole or find a piece of slate for processing, you mine clay from a stream bed, and then you make your first pot as a tool for moving water, the second pot for making food, and before or after the second pot you make clay bricks to build a kiln to high fire other things more efficiently - less fuel and more multitasking of other tasks.

WalterBright 1y ago
Why don't contestants on "Alone" do this?
- hinkley 1y ago
  This question is substantially why I stopped watching that show. I think at least a few of them may have trouble locating pure clay where they are dropped but not all of them, every season, for years.
  - bruce511 1y ago
    I seem to recall one or two doing this. But i suspect the reason they don't is cause they don't need to. They all have a pot already. The benefits of more pots seems low. Conversely the calorie cost seems high (if only just collecting clay and cutting wood to fire it.) On Alone thd priorities are shelter and food. Clay pots seems like a luxury in terms of utility use and energy cost.
    - WalterBright 1y ago
      Most of them did a simply terrible job of building a fireplace, from poisoning themselves with the smoke to literally burning their shelter down. Some built a bed up off the ground, which is smart, but never seemed to consider heating up rocks in the fireplace during the day and slipping them under the bed at night. Anyhow, some mud and clay skills would help make a decent fireplace. Staying warm is a crucial skill, not a luxury. Some of them got frostbite. Also, most of them had food storage problems where their meat would get robbed. Some went to great effort to make their meat inaccessible, to no avail. I imagine that would make a storage pot useful.
      - WalterBright 1y ago
        P.S. I've learned to spot the losers early on. They always try to build a monumental log cabin, which drains away their energy and they cannot replace it and tap out. Others spend their time carving toys for their kids instead of looking for food. To win you need to make a minimal cabin and spend all your time looking for food.
        xeromal 1y ago
        I haven't watched the show but I watched the first season and loved when the guy from my homestate (GA) did the right thing and just wallered in a mud pit for the whole thing to win. One random dude was trying to build a kayak or some shit. lol
    - vanattab 1y ago
      This is the correct answer. Alone is not really a how to live in the woods show, it's a managed starvation show. The contestants are limited to about a 1 sq mile area which may or may not have a good source of clay. They purposely set them out just a few weeks before winter so they do not have a long time to prep. Conserving and replenishing calories is the name of the game.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
  - mapt 1y ago
    Digging in arctic climates is just difficult. Soils freeze and gel. Digging in semi-degraded postglacial till filled in with a few conifers (the Great Slave Lake site is largely talus/scree) is not especially productive in terms of clay. I would love to see them invite Primitive Technology's John Plant on the show. I do understand if North Queensland is more his climate though.
    - hinkley 1y ago
      They did a season in Vancouver Island before they started making the show super weird.