It’s becoming harder to ignore the truth: modern society isn’t built to last forever.
The things we rely on, from electricity to food production, require a long and fragile supply chain powered by fossil fuels and rare earth metals. And those resources aren’t infinite. Even so-called “green tech” like solar panels and wind turbines still require oil and rare earth metals to build. As those materials become harder to find and more expensive to extract, the modern world will begin to break down.
At the same time, the world is getting more unstable. Rising populations, global conflicts, political crises, and economic volatility are pushing us closer to the edge. It doesn’t really matter who’s in charge—left or right, east or west—every path seems to lead to the same place: collapse.
If that day comes, whether it’s years or decades from now, the people who thrive won’t be the ones with the newest gadgets. They’ll be the ones who live more like the Amish. People who know how to work the land, fix what they own, and create what they need from scratch.
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In fact, by the 21st century, the world might look a lot like it did in the 19th century. That’s why now is the time to start relearning the forgotten skills that once formed the backbone of daily life. I’m not talking about broad ideas like “gardening” or “homesteading,” but specific, practical tasks that our great-grandparents did without thinking.
Here are some 19th-century skills we’re going to need again, sooner than we think. I broke them down into the following categories:
1. Blacksmithing and Forge Work
Blacksmithing is the art of heating metal in a forge until it’s red‑hot, then hammering, bending, cutting, and shaping it into things you need: tools, hooks, hinges, nails, horseshoes, and so forth. In the 19th century, almost every town had a blacksmith. If a plow broke, you didn’t call a warehouse; you took it to the blacksmith. If you needed something metal, you made it.
When manufacturing breaks down, the ability to make, repair, and adapt metal tools locally will be a very valuable skill. Even small items like nails or simple hardware wear out or break, and you can’t just order new ones if supply chains collapse. A working forge and someone who knows how to use it will be crucial.
If you want to start learning blacksmithing, check out Blacksmithing Forge 101: How To Make Forges At Home.
2. Sharpening Tools with a Whetstone
Sharpening with a whetstone means using finely graded stones to restore the edge on knives, axes, chisels, and other metal tools. In the 19th century, there were no electric sharpeners, so keeping tools sharp by hand was just part of daily life. A dull blade slowed work, wasted energy, and could even be dangerous.
When modern tools stop being replaced cheaply, a blade that won’t cut becomes useless. You’ll need to maintain everything you own. Knowing how to sharpen properly means safer cutting, less effort, and longer life for your tools. If you don’t, you’ll waste time trying to saw with dull tools or work with rusted blades.
To learn this skill, try reading How to Sharpen Knives With a Whetstone.
3. Barrel-Making (Coopering)
Making barrels, also known as coopering, is the skill of shaping wooden boards (called staves), bending them into a tight ring, sealing the ends, and fastening metal or wooden hoops around them so the barrel can hold liquids or dry goods without leaking.
In the 19th century, barrels were everywhere: for storing water, cooking oil, flour, salted meat, shipping goods, fermenting cider or other drinks. So as you can imagine, in a world without industrial supply chains, barrels and casks will be invaluable.
Plastic buckets, steel tanks, and food‑grade drums all depend on factories, shipping, or imports. A locally made barrel can be built, repaired, or reused indefinitely if you have the wood and smelting ability for hoops.
If you want to learn, check out Traditional Coopering from The Woodworker Magazine.
4. Making and Repairing Footwear by Hand (Cobbler Work)
Hand‑making or repairing shoes the old way requires shaping leather, constructing soles, stitching uppers, lasting (pulling upper leather over a form to fit the foot), and doing small repairs like replacing soles or fixing heels.
In the 19th century, shoes were expensive and seldom disposable. Folks either had someone in town who could cobble, or they learned enough themselves to patch and extend what they owned. A well‑built pair of leather boots could last a decade or more if repaired regularly.
Once factories stop producing mass footwear, you’ll have to rely on whatever shoes you have. Without cobbler skills, worn soles, cracked leather, or broken heels mean going barefoot or walking in shoes that hurt your feet. Knowing how to make or repair shoes means comfort, protection, and durability, which is crucial if you’re walking a lot, working hard, or farming.
For a great introduction, check out The Ancient Skill of The Cobbler.
5. Manual Water Pump Repair and Well Management
In the 19th century, people never assumed clean water would just be turned on with a flick of a switch. Maintaining wells, cleaning screens, repairing the pumping mechanism, and protecting the wellhead from contamination was assumed knowledge. Towns depended on reliable, local water, and failure meant serious health problems.
When modern infrastructure fails, those responsibilities come back to us. If your well leaks, or the pump fails, or the screen allows dirt in, you’ll have to fix it yourself. You’ll need to know how to clean and reseal or replace parts like washers, valves, or piston rings; how to keep the wellhead sealed and above ground runoff away; how to maintain a hand pump (lubricate, protect, store); and how to test for basic water quality.
If you want to start learning, check out A Guide to Maintaining Water Well Systems.
Farming, Animal Care & Self-Sufficiency
6. Tanning Hides for Leather
Tanning hides means turning a raw animal skin into leather. It involves removing flesh, hair, and soft tissues, treating it so it won’t rot, and making it flexible, durable, and usable for clothes, shoes, straps, gear, etc. In the 19th century, every rural family used leather for things like gloves, shoes, boots, harnesses, belts, and so forth, which is why people often tanned their own hides, but local tanneries were common.
This skill will matter again when mass-produced leather goods are hard to come by, or when you can’t just order new items. Without good leather, many tools and boots fail, and making replacements will be expensive or impossible. If you can tan hides yourself, you can control the quality, you can make leather that will last longer, and you’ll waste less by using the whole animal.
If you want to learn, check out How to Tan a Hide, Naturally, in 10 Steps from Wild Abundance.
7. Animal Husbandry Without Feed Stores
Raising livestock without depending on feed stores means using what’s around you: kitchen scraps, crop residues, wild plants, and rotational grazing so animals mostly feed themselves. Back in the 19th century, most homesteads didn’t have tractor‑trailers delivering bagged feed. Farmers grew or gathered what livestock needed, and animals were part of the farm ecosystem (eating what wasn’t edible for humans, helping fertlize the soil, etc.).
This will matter again when supply chains fail. If you can’t just buy bags of grain, you’ll need animals that can survive on a mixed diet, and you’ll need to know how to manage pasture, how to recycle nutrients (manure, crop leftovers), how to avoid overgrazing, and how to fence and rotate pastures. Well‑managed livestock reduce your work, reduce costs, and improve resilience.
If you want to start, check out Exploring Sustainable Alternative Feed Sources for Livestock Production from Clemson University.
8. Beekeeping with Traditional Hives
Keeping bees the old‑way means using simple, natural hive designs: skeps, hollow logs, or fixed‑comb boxes, letting the bees build the comb themselves, and harvesting honey and wax in a low‑tech, hands‑on way.
In the 19th century, honey was one of the few natural sweeteners, beeswax was in constant demand for candles, sealants, and waterproofing, and pollination was assumed, not commercial. Beekeepers didn’t have automated treatments or fancy smokers. All they had was observation, timing, and hands that respected the rhythms of the bees.
When agribusiness collapses, traditional beekeeping will be an essential skill. Honey is food, wax is material, and pollination critical for many crops. A hive that you can build, maintain, harvest from, and protect using minimal tools will be a huge asset. Skilled beekeepers multiply yields and protect against pests naturally.
If you want to learn more, check out Beekeeping Basics from the Cornell CALS Pollinator Network, which walks through hive types, seasonal care, and low‑input beekeeping.
9. Using a Scythe for Harvesting
Using a scythe means swinging a long, curved blade fixed to a shaft (snath) in a smooth arc to cut grass, grain, or forage. You adjust it so the blade rides nearly level with the ground, using your body movement instead of brute force. In the 1800s, scythes were uses for harvesting wheat, mowing meadows, cutting hay, and more.
When there are no more gas‑powered mowers or farm equipment, you’ll need to use hand tools for most things. A scythe cuts quietly, cheaply, and can be repaired, sharpened, and maintained easily. It’s a tool that doesn’t need powering, but it does require skill, and that skill makes a big difference in how fast you work and how tired you get.
To learn this skill, check out How To Use A Scythe from Abundant Permaculture.
Food Preparation & Preservation
10. Churning Butter by Hand
Churning butter by hand means agitating cream until the fat separates from the buttermilk, then washing and pressing the fat into a solid butter you can use. In the 19th century, fresh cream was a staple on farms. Every household that milked cows or kept dairy animals made their own butter.
Once modern supply chains fail, butter will be hard to find, especially good butter. Store butter gets processed, transported, and reformulated. But homemade butter gives you control over the salt and flavor, it lasts longer if made properly, and it comes from what you already have.
If you want to learn more, check out Butter Basics 101: How to Make Butter from Lehman’s.
11. Hand-Milling Grains with a Manual Grinder
Grinding your own grain by hand means using a manual grinder, quern stone, or a hand crank mill to turn whole grains like wheat, oats, and barley into flour or meal. Back in the 19th century, using a grain mill was a part of daily life. You needed it for baking bread, feeding animals, thickening soups, and more.
When electricity, trucking, or big flour mills are gone, flour will become a luxury. A manual grinder gives you independence: you control how fine or coarse the flour is, you preserve more nutrition, and you can produce on demand, in small batches. Without it, you’re stuck with whatever’s left in storage or whatever you can barter for, and that’s risky for food security.
If you want to start, read Milling Your Own Flour: Beginner’s Guide from Little House Simple Living.
12. Preserving Meat with Salt or Smoke (No Fridge)
Preserving meat using salt or smoke is about stopping spoilage by slowing or killing the microorganisms that make meat go bad. Back in the 19th century, people used dry‑salting, brining, smoking, or combinations of these to store meat through winters or long journeys. There were no freezers, so these methods were essential for survival.
Without refrigeration, fresh meat spoils fast. If you can salt and/or smoke your meat, you can keep a stash of protein that lasts much longer. I’m talking months instead of days. Salt draws moisture out so bacteria can’t grow, and smoke helps dry meat further, adds flavor, and gives antimicrobial compounds.
If you want to learn, check out How To Cure and Cold Smoke Meat.
13. Making Lye and Soap from Ashes and Fat
Making soap from ashes and animal fat is an old‑school process: collecting hardwood ashes, leaching the ashes with rainwater to create a lye solution, rendering fat, then combining the two and cook until they saponify into soap.
In the 19th century, people used woodstoves and fireplaces daily, so hardwood ash was abundant and free. And they would reuse cooking fats, animal fat scraps, and leftover grease. Soap was so important that most people at least knew how to make it themselves.
If the manufacturing and shipping of hygiene products comes to an end, commercial soap will be almost impossible to find. If you can make soap using ashes and your own fat, you can ensure basic cleanliness in your home, which means better health and a happier nose.
If you want to learn, check out How to Make Soap from Fat and Ashes.
14. Operating a Wood-Burning Cookstove or Hearth
Using a wood-burning cookstove or hearth means more than just building a fire. You need to know how to pick the right wood, how to load and tend the fire so it heats evenly, how to manage dampers and air flow so you can raise or lower the temperature, and how to use the hot stove and oven surfaces wisely.
In the 19th century, that skill wasn’t optional. Cooking, heating, boiling water, even ironing clothes all depended on one fire or hearth, often from sunrise till night. When modern stoves and heaters quit working, that’s how it will be again. A badly managed fire wastes fuel, cooks unevenly, and burns food, but a well-kept hearth becomes your kitchen, your oven, your heater, and your hot water source.
If you want to learn, check out Woodstove Cooking on the Homestead from Homesteading Family.
Clothing & Domestic Life
15. Weaving Fabric on a Manual Loom
Weaving on a manual loom means setting up longitudinal threads (the warp) under tension, then weaving horizontal threads (the weft) over and under the warp to build fabric. In the 1800s, nearly every household or small town had someone who could weave blankets, clothing, rugs, and more. The skill let people make their own fabrics rather than depend on imported cloth or factory-made textiles.
When supply chains are disrupted, imported textiles or synthetic fabrics may become rare or extremely expensive. If you know how to weave, you can turn local fibers like wool, flax, cotton, and even recycled fabric strips into usable cloth. You also have the ability to repair cloth, patch holes, and repurpose worn-out fabric. A piece of homemade fabric could mean clothes, blankets, bags, and more.
If you want to learn, check out Weaving on a Rigid-Heddle Loom from Little Looms.
16. Spinning Yarn from Wool or Flax
Spinning means twisting natural fibers like wool or flax into yarn or thread. You start by preparing the fiber (cleaning, carding or combing), then use a drop spindle or spinning wheel to pull and twist the fibers so they hold together. In the 1800s, spinning was something many household members knew how to do. Weaving, sewing, and clothing repair all depended on being able to make thread from what you raised or grew.
This will matter again because when store-bought yarns or synthetic fibers are rare or gone, you’ll want to make your own. Hand-spun yarn means you control the fiber type, thickness, and durability. Whether you’re making clothes, mending blankets, weaving, or knitting, thread is the building block. Without this skill, you’ll be stuck with what’s left in storage, and eventually, you’ll run out.
If you want to begin, check out A Guide to Spinning Flax: Linen Spun From Flax Fibers from Spin Off Magazine.
17. Sewing and Tailoring Entire Garments by Hand
Making full garments by hand means more than patching a shirt. You need to cut fabric from patterns, sew seams, shape curves (necklines, sleeves), finish hems, add closures (buttons, ties), and tailor the fit to your body. In the 19th century, nearly everyone wore clothes that were either homemade or altered locally.
This skill will matter again when off-the-rack clothes are rare or too expensive. If you can make clothes by hand, you avoid dependency on the fashion supply chain and imports. You can use local fibers or recycled cloth, adjust garments to fit well (which saves material and improves comfort), repair what you have, and adapt clothing to seasonal or weather needs.
If you want to learn, check out Hand Sewing Basics: A Beginner’s Guide from Mood Fabrics.
18. Starting Fires Without Matches (Flint & Steel, Bow Drill)
Starting a fire without matches means using older methods like striking flint against steel to make sparks, or using friction tools like a bow drill to generate enough heat to produce a glowing ember. These techniques were everyday skills in the 19th century. People needed fire for warmth, cooking, boiling water, and light. The tools are simple, but the timing, materials, and technique are everything.
These skills will matter again because when you can’t rely on stores for matches or lighters, starting a fire from scratch will be an essential skill. Without fire you can’t cook safely, purify water, dry clothes, sterilize tools, or keep warm. Flint & steel gives you a spark you can catch with tinder, and a bow drill lets you produce embers from friction. Learning both gives you options in different environments (wet, dry, or windy).
To learn more, check out How to Start a Fire Using Flint and How to Start a Fire with a Bow Drill.
19. Primitive Medicine: Herbal Remedies and Poultices
Using herbal remedies and poultices means knowing which local plants help heal cuts, burns, bruises, inflammation, or infections and how to prepare those plants safely (teas, salves, poultices). In the 19th century, people didn’t have pharmacies, so they turned to what grew around them: comfrey, yarrow, plantain, marshmallow root, and many others. For many ailments, herbal medicine was the only treatment.
When pharmaceuticals are scarce or expensive, knowing herbal basics can prevent serious illnesses. Even simple poultices can draw infection, slow inflammation, soothe pain, or clean wounds. They aren’t always perfect substitutes for modern medicine, but they’re definitely better than nothing. If you have the knowledge of which plants are safe and how to prepare them, you could literally save someone’s life.
To learn more, check out Top 50 Medicinal Plants and How to Use Them.
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