“1001 Survival Uses of Safety Pins©”

 

 

No one ever thinks about the lowly safety pin!  It’s a wonderful tool that is all too often taken for granted and, unfortunately, also often forgotten!  Safety pins have been around forever,¹ but they were accidently reinvented in modern times by a U.S. inventor, named Walter Hunt, in 1849.  He was desperate to pay a debt and was nervously twisting a piece of wire when he looked down and saw the design for a safety pin.  He paid off his debt, by selling the rights to the safety pin for just $400.00!² 

 

“So, what does the safety pin have to do with survival”, you ask?  Well, let’s talk about it.

 

One of the best lists, that I have found for improvised wilderness uses of safety pins, was created by Dr. Eric A. Weiss, a wilderness medical expert and professor of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University, for the Second Congress on Wilderness Medicine.

 

Let’s talk about some of these and some others that didn’t make Dr. Weiss’s list.

 

Pinning the tongue out of the way...

First of all, ouch!  But safety pins can be very useful in emergency surgery and keeping the airway open is vitally important.

 

Holding gaping wounds together...

Years ago, when my youngest son was 13 and was going to Boy Scout Camp, I helped him to pack a survival kit so he could take the survival merit badge.  I packed three large safety pins into it and told him about all the different uses for them and how in an emergency you could use them to hold gaping wounds together.  The instructor was a product of nepotism, daddy was a big wig in the local council, and he roundly criticized my son saying that you couldn’t do that.  But you can and here is how you do it.

 

This was a common way of closing gaping wounds until quite recenttimes, and in fact the Masai, and other tribes, in East Africa, routinely used thorns, flame treated to harden and sterilize them, with string to close wounds, much the way we still close turkeys before roasting them.

 

Relieving a subungual hematoma...

 

Subungual hematomas result from injuries to the nail bed that cause bleeding under the finger or toenail.  The blood pools under the nail, and turns a reddish, brownish, blueish, or grey/blackish color.  The pooled blood puts pressure on the nailbed causing throbbing pain which often disappears when the pressure on the nail bed is relieved by drilling and draining.  Subungual hematomas can be treated within 48 hours of injury, by making a hole through the nail into the hematoma with a safety pin that has been sterilized in a flame.  This is a process called trephining and drains the blood and releases the pressure.

 

Fishhooks...

 

Safety pins can be used in a pinch as a fishhook.  Simply bend themuntil they are open and if possible, bend the tip back into a barb.

 

Fixing things...

 

The things that can be fixed with safety pins are limited only by your imagination!  You can fix fishing poles, glasses, broken sipper pulls, ski bindings, ripped buttonholes or clothes, or even unclogging camping stove jets.

 

Organizing and attaching things...

 

You can organize fishhooks, other safety pins, zip ties, and other things by hanging them from a safety pin.

 

Other uses are limited only by your imagination...

 

But where or wear should you keep them...

 

You should always have some with you, kept in your repair or “possible” kit (for more on “possible” kits read So, What’s in Your Possible Kit!? ©, HERE), pinned to the inside of a chest pocket flap, or pinned elsewhere on your shirt, and definitely in your survival kit.  

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “100-MPH Tape ©”, where we will talk about how to camp in the winter wilderness and stay warm and safe.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ Ancient examples of safety pin, or fibula as they are called, from the 11^th to 10^th century BCE, have been found in Crete, per Oscar W. Muscarella, “Ancient Safety Pins”

 

² “Medical Miracles”, by Richard Bauman, reported that the design was sold for $400.00, other sources state $300.00.

 

 

Sources

 

Bauman, Richard; “Medical Miracles”, The Rotarian, Jun 1989, page 16 to 19

https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18&dq=safety+pin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB3cvxy-GAAxWFnokEHYBgDwQ4KBDoAXoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=safety%20pin&f=false, accessed August 23, 2023

 

Erichsen, John Eric; The Science and Art of Surgery, Volume 2, Tenth Edition, [London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1895], page 665-666, https://books.google.com/books?id=HACCp4Q5z-AC&pg=PA666&dq=trussing+pins+suture&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj47cG4utqAAxVOGlkFHa6SDpsQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=trussing%20pins%20suture&f=false, accessed August 13, 2023

 

Friedmann, Lawrence W.; “Amputations and Protheses in Primitive Cultures”, Bulletin of Prosthetics Research, Spring 1972, page 131, https://books.google.com/books?id=ArWmmxfpYB8C&pg=RA1-PA131&dq=thorn+sutures+africa&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBt53-t9qAAxVZD1kFHWEdAxUQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=thorn%20sutures%20africa&f=false, accessed August 13, 2023

 

Muscarella, Oscar W.; “Ancient Safety Pins”, Expedition Magazine 6, no. 2 (January, 1964), https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ancient-safety-pins/, accessed August 18, 2023

 

Wikimedia, “Annual_report_of_the_Board_of_Regents_of_the_Smithsonian_Institution_(1929)_(14596908300)”, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Annual_report_of_the_Board_of_Regents_of_the_Smithsonian_Institution_(1929)_(14596908300).jpg, accessed August 18, 2023

 

Wikimedia, “Patent_6281.jpg”, by William L. Hunt, 1849, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patent_6281.jpg, accessed August 18, 2023

 

Wikimedia; This is a subungual hematoma of the finger”, November 2, 2014, by Callaleo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subungal_hematoma_of_the_finger.jpg, access August 19, 2023