100 skills every man should know-Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics ^ | 9/8/2008 | The Editors

[Dutchgirl]

Brains and charm are fine, but a real guy needs to know how to do real stuff. After months of debate among PM’s expert editors, here’s our lineup of essential skills, broken down in 10 categories for the competent man—plus 20 tools you need to own.

Automotive 1. Handle a blowout 2. Drive in snow 3. Check trouble codes 4. Replace fan belt 5. Wax a car 6. Conquer an off-road obstacle 7. Use a stick welder 8. Hitch up a trailer 9. Jump start a car

Handling Emergencies 10. Perform the Heimlich 11. Reverse hypothermia 12. Perform hands-only CPR 13. Escape a sinking car

Home 14. Carve a turkey 15. Use a sewing machine 16. Put out a fire 17. Home brew beer 18. Remove bloodstains from fabric 19. Move heavy stuff 20. Grow food 21. Read an electric meter 22. Shovel the right way 23. Solder wire 24. Tape drywall 25. Split firewood 26. Replace a faucet washer 27. Mix concrete 28. Paint a straight line 29. Use a French knife 30. Prune bushes and small trees 31. Iron a shirt 32. Fix a toilet tank flapper 33. Change a single-pole switch 34. Fell a tree 35. Replace a broken windowpane 36. Set up a ladder, safely 37. Fix a faucet cartridge 38. Sweat copper tubing 39. Change a diaper 40. Grill with charcoal 41. Sew a button on a shirt 42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths 43. Treat frostbite 44. Treat a burn 45. Help a seizure victim 46. Treat a snakebite 47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How 48. Shine shoes 49. Make a drum-tight bed 50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors 51. Run rapids in a canoe 52. Hang food in the wild 53. Skipper a boat 54. Shoot straight 55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike 56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills 57. Build a fire in the wilderness 58. Build a shelter 59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes 60. Floods 61. Tornados 62. Cold 63. Heat 64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids 65. Cast a line 66. Lend a hand 67. Change a tire 68. Throw a spiral 69. Fly a stunt kite 70. Drive a stick shift 71. Parallel park 72. Tie a bowline 73. Tie a necktie 74. Whittle 75. Ride a bike

Technology 76. Install a graphics card 77. Take the perfect portrait 78. Calibrate HDTV settings 79. Shoot a home movie 80. Ditch your hard drive

Master Key Workshop Tools 81. Drill driver 82. Grease gun 83. Coolant hydrometer 84. Socket wrench 85. Test light 86. Brick trowel 87. Framing hammer 88. Wood chisel 89. Spade bit 90. Circular saw 91. Sledge hammer 92. Hacksaw 93. Torque wrench 94. Air wrench 95. Infrared thermometer 96. Sand blaster 97. Crosscut saw 98. Hand plane 99. Multimeter 100. Feeler gauges

[Condor51]

*** switchblades are not illegal in all states ***

Really? Which ones.
And how do they get around ...

• The Switchblade Act, (public law 85-623, enacted on August 12, 1958, and codified in 15 USC 1241-1245)
• and 18 USC 1716 (G) (2) (1-4)

Now I know there are exceptions to all weapons laws like for LEOs and Active Military (even for half brain jail guards).

My point was John Q Citizen down the block can't *legally* have a switchblade (automatic) knife. If the State or Local Law doesn't get them the Fed Laws do.

[Arrowhead1952]

What did you do with your old hard drive?

Those make great targets at 50 meters for my .308 hunting rifle.

[stevio]

I agree with this list. I believe it’s better to be a jack of all trades type of guy. But that’s just me.

[BRL]

... And the first one hundred are for those that don't know how to do number 101:

#101 Get it up every morning and have a place to put it.

This cancels the first hundred items on the list is you get this one.

[tacticalogic]

refer to #7 Use a stick welder(or better yet, a cutting torch)

Actually, the stick welder works better. AC, max amps, clamp the groud to the case and drop a stick of 6011 through the disks edge-wise. Takes about 3 seconds.

[elfman2]

Okay, okay... I’ve been living too long in the Florida Keys where formal means socks. The last time I needed a bow-tie I was 3. Call me a clip-on guy if it’s ever needed again, and that can be my failure. lol!

[tacticalogic]

Nothing on skills in dealing with the opposite sex?

The one thing they seem to have left off was sharpening skills. I've found that being able to properly sharpen kitchen knives and sewing scissors will get a multitude of sins forgiven among the female members of the family.

[mylife]

Yeah. The arc prolly degauss’s any data that is left in the blob of metal too

[OB1kNOb]

I didn’t see “know gardening, animal husbandry, and how raise your own food”, and what the heck is a French knife?

[Dutchgirl]

72. Tie a bowline 73. Tie a necktie

In the keys? Then you probably know how to tie a bowline- and I can see how the whole necktie thing would not be useful.

What I find sadly missing from this list-although they have "cast a line" is baiting your own hook and cleaning your own fish.

[listenhillary]

feeler gauges

Is that how you tell if she is running too hot? ;?)

[Dutchgirl]

French Blade- Chefs knife. Pick an 8-in. blade for most kitchen cutting. “The thinner and sharper your blade, the better the glide,” says Harold Arimoto, president of MAC Knife. Grasp the rear of the blade between your thumb and forefinger, with your remaining fingers comfortably curled around the handle. First, slice the veggie in half and lay the flat side down, so you'll have a solid base to work on. Then, using your opposite forefinger knuckle as a guide—which also keeps fingertips out of harm's way—cut down and forward with light pressure and a slight rocking motion.

[Skooz]

50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Well I have the drop part down.

[CodeToad]

All but that diaper thing. Yuck.

[Little Pig]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

That list is at least 8 different flavors of awesome.

[daniel1212]

Know how to use Google

[OB1kNOb]

"French Knife? That's not a knife. Now here's a knife for REAL men!"

[woodbutcher1963]

Really? Which ones.

I believe they are legal to purchase in IN and NC.
I bought on of mine out of Indiana.
Just google switchblades and you will find them.

[windcliff]

ping

[js1138]

Screw the single pole light switch. My house has four-way switches with rather arbitrary color coding of the wires.