HUN Chapter 41: Hand Saw and Food Crisis

Lin Yu'an wasted no time and immediately began his "new equipment" construction project.

He first carefully examined the chainsaw chain segment. The chain was about sixty to seventy centimeters long, and except for the break, all the remaining teeth were very sharp with no obvious rust.

Preparing the bow back required more thought. He again entered the forest near his shelter, carefully searching for suitable tree species and branches.

He finally selected a birch rod about four centimeters in diameter for the bow back.

"The wood for making the bow back must have good flexibility to withstand tension when the chain is tightened without breaking."

He cut down this roughly 1.2-meter-long birch pole, returned to camp and carefully stripped the bark, then began fire-roasting it for bending and shaping.

He slowly roasted it, utilizing the softening properties of wood fibers after heating to gradually bend it into a full "C" shaped arc.

Using several segments of collected nylon rope, he bound both ends fixed, then set it aside to naturally cool and set.

After cooling, the birch pole had formed a beautiful "C" shaped bow back. Lin Yu'an untied the fixing ropes and was very satisfied with the bow back's arc and spring tension.

At both ends of the bow back, he carefully carved grooves with his multi-tool blade, each with a width matching the chainsaw chain's thickness.

"These two grooves are crucial, they'll serve as bases for both ends of the chain, ensuring the chain won't easily slip under stress and can form a tighter fit with the bow back."

First, he steadily embedded one end of the chainsaw chain into the pre-carved groove on the bow back, with teeth facing outward.

Then he picked up a processed steel fishing line segment and began securing it.

"I'll use the steel fishing line's strong pulling force and the wood's natural slight elasticity to 'lock' the chain's end onto the bow back."

He threaded one end of the wire from the bow back's outer side through the grooves between the last few chain links.

Immediately after, he pulled the threaded wire tight, making it sink deep into the chain groove, then wound the wire around this end of the bow back wood coil by coil, tightly securing one end of the chain.

The fixing procedure for the other end was slightly different, he first took a nylon rope.

One end was firmly tied to the bow back's end, while the other was threaded through the groove of the chain's terminal link.

"I'm now planning to use the Spanish windlass method to tighten it."

Lin Yu'an used a small wooden stick as a windlass rod, threading it horizontally through the middle of the nylon rope loop and began rotating.

As he forcefully twisted the windlass rod, the nylon rope became increasingly shorter, tightening like a twisted rope. The enormous pulling force further bent the bow back, and the chainsaw chain was stretched taut as a bowstring.

When tension reached optimal level, he wedged the windlass rod against the bow back's inner side to fix it.

Only then did he use steel wire to perform final locking reinforcement of this end's chain to the bow back. A D-shaped hand saw was complete!

"Perfect!"

Lin Yu'an held up this D-shaped hand saw, displaying its construction for the camera.

The bow back's arc was full of power, with the black chainsaw chain taut at the bow back's open end, every sharp tooth gleaming coldly.

"Look at this! A hand saw made from loggers' discarded chainsaw chain! This is definitely one of the most valuable tools I've made since arriving here!"

He couldn't wait to test this new tool's combat ability.

From the firewood pile beside camp, he selected a dry spruce wood segment, propping one end on a higher stone and stepping on the other end to steady it, forming a simple sawing frame.

Lin Yu'an bent down, steadying the wood segment with his left hand while gripping the hand saw's handle tightly with his right. He gently placed the chain's front end on the preset cutting line.

"Come on, let me see your performance!"

He exerted force with his arm and began pulling the saw back and forth evenly.

"Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Scritch!"

Almost the moment the teeth contacted the wood, a series of crisp, rhythmic cutting sounds rang through the forest!

Completely different from the heavy "thump thump" sounds when chopping with the logging axe before, these continuous cutting sounds were so efficient and pleasant to hear.

The sharp chainsaw teeth, like hungry beasts, easily and ruthlessly bit into the hard spruce wood.

As Lin Yu'an's arms moved back and forth, wood chips carrying the fresh scent of pine scattered down like snowflakes from the cut.

He could clearly feel the chain advancing steadily and smoothly through the wood fibers, encountering almost no significant resistance.

The bow back's elasticity and chain tension cooperated perfectly, every pull was full of power!

In less than two minutes, that forearm-thick spruce segment was easily cut in two!

"Excellent! This is true specialization, so much more efficient than the logging axe."

"I had felt some regret about not choosing to bring a saw. Who would have thought I'd unexpectedly obtain key materials for making a saw and successfully create one!"

"The appearance of this saw can be said to completely compensate for a huge shortcoming in my tools! The efficiency for preparing large amounts of firewood for winter will improve geometrically!"

After testing the new saw and briefly planning subsequent wood processing, Lin Yu'an carefully hung this precious saw on an iron nail on the shelter's inner wall.

It was still early, and he had another important matter on his mind, checking the gill net he'd set yesterday.

"Guys, the new tool test was very successful. Now I need to go check the fishing net situation."

"Hope there's some catch today, my smoked fish reserves aren't much."

Lin Yu'an again paddled the "Pioneer" canoe, gliding briskly toward that familiar river bend.

However, when he approached the gill net area, Lin Yu'an's brow furrowed slightly.

The few floats he'd made from light wood were only gently swaying with the weak current, there were no signs of obvious dragging today.

"Hmm? Looks like there's no activity."

He steadied the canoe and grabbed the end of the gill net near shore, beginning to slowly retrieve the net.

The wet net lines were pulled up bit by bit from the cold lake water, except for some water weeds, it was completely empty.

Lin Yu'an quietly sensed for a moment. His acute sixth sense also detected no signs of fish school activity underwater, it seemed this area really had no fish temporarily.

"Well, looks like Lady Luck isn't on my side today."

"The gill net had no catch at all. Maybe because of the recent cooling weather, the fish schools' activity patterns have changed."

He paddled the canoe around the river bend area, carefully searching and trying several new potential fishing spots, using his feather lure for fly fishing, but still came up empty-handed.

Returning to shore at dusk, Lin Yu'an sat on a rock beside the canoe, his expression somewhat grave.

Lin Yu'an opened his food reserve bag, only the last few pieces of smoked fish remained, along with some dried berries from previous gathering.

"This smoked fish, if I ration it carefully, can probably last three days, at most four. That means if I don't get new food in the next few days, the situation will become somewhat troublesome."

The temporary abundance from previously easily gathering sunchokes, catching rainbow trout and pike, trapping beaver and shooting grouse, along with his inexplicable sixth sense, had made him somewhat relaxed about the difficulty of obtaining food.

A long-absent sense of food crisis began quietly spreading in his heart.

"Seems I was too comfortable before and didn't worry much about food. I can't pin all hopes on fishing and small traps anymore."

"I must take initiative and seek more reliable, larger food sources! Hope to find opportunities for hunting large game."

"Fortunately, there's good news today, I now have this hand saw! It can help me process wood and collect fuel more efficiently, saving precious time and energy to invest in hunting."

As night fell and firelight flickered in the shelter, Lin Yu'an's mind was already contemplating his upcoming hunting plans.

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