One perceives the aluminum or tin foil as a foil that will help preserve the food’s taste for longer and so we rarely use it for anything else.
However, did you know that you can use tin foil in critical situations, as well? Even the US Army recognizes its importance in the official Survival Manual. Make sure you stash around 2 tin foil rolls in your survival kit.
1. Shielding your electronics
It protects your electronics in case of an EMP attack. All you need to do is to wrap your appliances and gadgets in a steel casing, in which you have previously lined up with cardboard; wrap your devices with tin foil and seal the casing.
2. Cooking food
It helps give a better, natural flavour to your food. All you need to do is wrap fish, meat or vegetables in tin foil and place it inside your solar cooker or barbeque.
3. Keeping contaminants away
There is no reason why, in a survival situation, you cannot wrap the leftovers in tinfoil. It will keep the contaminant elements at bay. For instance, if you retreat to a more secluded area, located near water and with plenty of horse flies around, using tin foil to cover your food will keep your food safe from typhoid, cholera or even dysentery.
These diseases are usually carried by horse flies and transmitted over to humans who ingest food that has been contaminated by these bugs. Diseases can spell disaster in a survival situation.
4. Protecting your crop
A good way to survive out in the wild is through hunting and growing your own fruits and vegetables. In order to protect your harvest, you can use tinfoil to scare away the crows or any other birds that may eat your crop. Spread a rope above your garden and secure a few strips of aluminum foil to it.
5. Attracting fish
The tin foil is as useful to hook on the fish as the fishing lures are, as they are attracted by its vibrant, silver colour.
6. Signalling for help
Tin foil can get you out of tough situations, as you can use it as well as you would use a mirror. It can be used as a mirror to signal for help in case any aircraft passes by. This would greatly improve your chances to get noticed by the pilot.
7. Creating a funnel, plates or glasses
Since it’s very easy to bend you can practically mold it into the shape of a funnel, which will enable you to transfer liquids from one container to another (water, fuel, etc.). Tin foil can easily be converted into glasses and plates, as well.
8. Making hats and costumes
Whether it’s the hot or the cold season, you can use tinfoil to make your own hat and even costume, which will protect you during the wintertime, as it will prevent you from losing heat and keep you warm. During the summertime, you can use the same hat to keep you cool.
The tin foil reflective surface will bounce back most of the sun rays. Make sure the shinier part forms the exterior part of your hat.
9. Starting fires
If you are trying really hard to build a fire on a damp soil, then you should know that your problem has a straightforward solution: place a 2 or 3 inches of tinfoil on the ground and place the wood and gasoline on top of it, as it keeps the moisture away.
10. Sharpening knives
You do not necessarily need sharpening stones for your scissors or knives.
You can simply fold a piece of tin foil several times and cut it. This alone will sharpen the cutting tool. When using scissors, make sure you completely close the blades at each stroke to sharpen the entire length.
To what end have you used tin foil so far? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
I love getting your information.
Thanks
Your info is very good. Will be sure and pick up more aluminum foil thanks
Thank you so much for sharing!
meat, potato,vegetable, seasoning & (butter or broth) a whole meal in foil cooked on fire and also ready to save leftover
I love foil!
i have 6 box’s of regular foil and 6 boxs of extra strength foli. onther thing i forgot for my bug out and camp bag. problem is ,no more room. guess i’ll just throw a box in the suv.
Great information, always enjoy the valuable source of survival and life applications. Please continue.
Thank you and Beat Regards,
John Hasley
Years ago we were driving home at night I lived in the country the fuse in the car for the lights stopped working and we had no lights we wrapped the fuse in the foil and it got us home I’m not sure how it would work in newer cars but classic ones foil and wire coat hangers did alot of things I loved that about being able to fix them easier then
If you are operating a vehicle you can wrap food in the foil and place it on the engine block for cooking.
Thank you for the info. I pass it on to my scout troop and have them practice some of the tasks. Keep the tips coming!
Great information keep it up!
Use for thermal shielding to defeat FLIR.
If you have the roll of foil you can put some small things in the cardboard tube, with the foil on the outside to save space. You can possibly use the cutter on the box as an improvised Knife. Great article.
Beware of excessive cooking of food in aluminum foil. Aluminum is incompatible with the human body and builds up in our bodies to the point where it poisons us, especially our brain and nervous system.
This is great information! I love getting all of the good suggestions. Keep up the good work.
Use aluminum foil (used to be tin way back in the day) to start fires by forming it as a reflector oven concentrating suns rays to one central point. Test by placing a melt-able item in center and move around with stick to exact best spot. Then replace with a good combustible material (very dry moss, leaves,etc) to get it to smoldering mode. The rest is same as magnifying glass.
Also, foil makes a great electrical conductor. I used to use it on my old round auto fuses when they’d blow the tiny wire inside. I just wrapped the whole fuse with tin foil and re-insert it to jump the circuit (only a temporary fix). Today’s 2-prong fuses can be done the same way to arc the current across the prongs.
For camping, I always use folded foil pads to level cooking pans on grills, under fry pans for eggs, etc.. Fold them to the thickness you need and they won’t catch fire.
Back in the day of “Rabbit Ear” TV antennas, we’d use aluminum foil to wrap around the antennas to help improve the reception. This principle still applies today with anything that still deals with the same type of signal.
You could also create a make-shift oven, by using one or two cardboard boxes. First, stand the box upright, then cut the top off, poke holes or form grooves on the sides of the box, to hold the shelves. Line the entire box with foil. To make the shelves – cut cardboard shelves to size, and line them with foil, insert into the grooves. You may have to use rocks to help prop up the shelves if the food is too heavy for the shelf(s). If you are in an area with a lot of insects, bring some light netting or tulle and anchor well above the cookstove to prevent insects from landing on the food. You can drape the netting over some sticks, while your food cooks.