Slide Stick

Saw this contest for Survival Ready things. Thought about it for a couple of days and woke up one morning thinking of this. I have always liked walking sticks, but here is a new twist. I started out with a 6' piece of 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe. Would have loved to use carbon fiber for the strength, but the cost of something like that is pretty out there.

I took that 6' piece of PVC and cut it in half.

I would have liked to use a planer blade as there is much more surface area making the blade almost twice as long and a lot stronger, but would have had to drill holes through some pretty hardened steel, so I used a joiner blade that already had holes pre-made.

I took 1 piece and drilled holes in a straight line to get my slot for the slide. I then used a Leatherman to make a slot for the holding bolt to be able to slide.(Sorry forgot that photo). The slot was cut but it did not go clear to the end. The slot came to about 1/4" from the end. There is also a slot that goes opposite of the bolt holes for the blade to be able to be put in position.(Sorry about that photo also, maybe it can be seen in the other pictures.)

I then drilled a hole in the coupler that would accept a small bolt. Then used a Dremel tool to cut slots that would allow the joiner blade to move freely. Could have used my Leatherman, but the power was there so I used it. The slots and bolt holes are pretty much a + sign, with each in their respective placements.

The blade is attached inside the slotted piece and to the coupler. By pulling the two pieces apart, the blade will be exposed.

When you slide the 2 pieces apart and bend at a 90 degree angle you now have a blade that can be either pushed or pulled to do a cutting task. I used this on a small limb that was over my head and it sliced it right off. I tried a little larger limb, and it bent my (small) bolts that I had used. There is room for improvement.

Like I said previously, I wish I could have used carbon fiber, or something of similar strength. My thoughts came from watching The Walking Dead, and really liked the guy with the fighting staff. This is not strong enough to fight with, but with some improvements it could be. Then when the going gets tough, you pull the two pieces apart and it can be used to push through one of those zombie necks and move on to the next. It could even be used to cut small firewood. I did not get into the possibility of using all the hollow space inside. Anything hollow can be used to store a lot of gear also. I have thought that if you did it right, you could use a coupler setup on one end and use it as a spear, or a multitude of other implements.