Primitive Technology

Artecie reviewed Primitive Technology by John Plant

More of a Guide (Right in the Title); Less of Entertainment

4 stars

I opened this book with the wrong expectations; I was expecting narratives similar to Plant's videos, but found a technical how-to book (NB: it doesn't claim to be anything else).

Plant includes am impressive number of guides for making the tools you would need in a survival situation, particularly, a long-term survival situation. He does not include skills you would need that don't have a direct observable result (stealth, navigation, etc.), but those really require experience and an interactive teacher, rather than a book.

I would suggest that this book should serve mostly like a lab book in high school science courses: steps for replicating an experiment, and a reference for the expected result. Combining this with Plant's videos would produce a wonderful introduction to long-term wilderness survival without modern tools. Just don't rely on the book alone, and don't expect a narrative.

Taylor reviewed Primitive Technology by John Plant

Review of 'Primitive Technology' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

A long-standing Youtube channel writes a book to accompany the videos. We’ve all had that embarrassing moment where we forgot how to boil water out of the side of a log. Now there is a guide.

Like the channel’s videos, projects here build on each other, requiring tools and skills previously learned to complete the more complex tasks. Also like the videos, most tasks will make you want to spend a season in the middle of nowhere trying to build your own remote village.

Basic Tools, Heat, Hunt, Textiles, Advanced Tools, Shelter, and Pyrotechnology are the chapters. The pictures accompanying the instructions are high-quality color photos (usually 3 or 4, possibly screenshots from videos?), which were helpful. But the final results were always an illustration. Why not also show a real photo for the finished product? An illustration on the task's first page would be fine to associate it with …

A long-standing Youtube channel writes a book to accompany the videos. We’ve all had that embarrassing moment where we forgot how to boil water out of the side of a log. Now there is a guide.

Like the channel’s videos, projects here build on each other, requiring tools and skills previously learned to complete the more complex tasks. Also like the videos, most tasks will make you want to spend a season in the middle of nowhere trying to build your own remote village.

Basic Tools, Heat, Hunt, Textiles, Advanced Tools, Shelter, and Pyrotechnology are the chapters. The pictures accompanying the instructions are high-quality color photos (usually 3 or 4, possibly screenshots from videos?), which were helpful. But the final results were always an illustration. Why not also show a real photo for the finished product? An illustration on the task's first page would be fine to associate it with the description. But a real photo of the finished task after the step-by-step would be ideal. Some of the illustrations had transparent parts to see what was going on inside, but in those cases include them alongside the real picture. Adequate pictures and thorough instructions are surprisingly hard to come by in these outdoor guides.

The main drawback for me is that the Youtube videos (with captions on) are far more informative than this book. I’d much rather watch his six minute chimney video than try to build a chimney with the four steps and four pictures provided here. So, personally, the book serves as a collection of all of the channel’s projects, and puts them in a helpful and orderly sequence. For an inexperienced reader like me, the projects typically didn’t come with enough steps, pictures, and information to make this stand on its own. Definitely check out the author's channel, or get the book if you're a fan and want to show support, because he does awesome things.

gabe.

rated it

July 7, 2021