Redneck Apocalypse Chemistry!

[Glflegolas]

*Disclaimer: this suggestion is hardly serious. It's really meant more for laughs by science nerds.*

As some of you may know, I'm a chemist by trade. In fact, I hold an MSc in synthetic chemistry, and am a PHd candidate.

Now, you may be asking how chemistry can come in handy in the Quiet Apocalypse? Well, the combustion of wood and coal with oxygen is very important: it's what enables survivors to make more water and not freeze to death! Likewise, the combustion of strontium nitrate and sawdust lights flares which scare off wolves, and mixing sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal makes gunpowder.

What other chemical reactions would be useful in The Long Dark? Well I can think of one in particular.

Thermite: ever wanted to forge arrowheads but there's no nearby forge? How does the idea of white-hot liquid iron on tap sound? Themite to the rescue! All it takes is some rust, aluminum, and a firestriker, and you have a fire that burns at around 2460C! Throw in some charcoal and you can turn the iron into steel. This would scare off any wolves, and, with a clay mould, casting arrowheads or improvised tools shouldn't be any problem.

(Yes, I would love the idea of a triethylborane flame-thrower, but I somehow think that doesn't fit in the game )

[deathbydanish]

It just so happens that I was watching Back to the Future 3 and towards the end, Doc talked about creating specialized logs with compressed sawdust and anthracite. I didn't know what anthracite was and when I looked it up on Wikipedia its apparently a variety of coal that has the highest energy density of all types of coal.

Canada is among the countries that mines it, perhaps it could be a very rare variant of coal that will burn more intensely than conventional coal.