Line #62 ImprovisedWeapon/RealLife


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/details_of_an_finger_bar.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The manual says this sickle bar is for agricultural use...but if raiders were marauding and burning your village, it just might have potential as a weapon. ]]
3	As shown in the trope, just about ''anything'' can be used as a weapon.
4
5	* Many military weapons can be roughly categorized and directly traced to early hunting or farming implements. Before standing armies were prevalent, only warrior castes were properly trained or armed, and peasants often had to fight with whatever hatchets, hoes, slings and scythes they had around the homestead.
6	** The standard English infantry polearm, in the late medieval period when pretty much every European army had infantry with some kind of polearm, was the "bill", which was derived from the agricultural billhook but evolved into a formidable weapon. Though for that matter, halberds, poleaxes, and so on -- the common polearm types elsewhere -- presumably started out as woodsmen's axes with longer shafts and added details.
7	** Most of the [[StockNinjaWeaponry weapons traditionally associated]] with {{ninja}} started out as farming implements and underwent little transformation. The reasons for this were twofold: firstly, because ninja were not members of the samurai class and so did not have the legal right to own proper weapons; and secondly, because real ninja were not the [[HighlyVisibleNinja highly visible sort]] and carrying something that could do legitimate work was a lot less conspicuous. Examples include the kunai (originally a trowel), shuriken (the most common form, the bo shuriken, is basically a stake), sai (prying tool), and [[SinisterScythe kusarigama]] (lawnmower).
8	** In the late Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for peasant militias to make their own battle maces: Simply take thick stick and hammer some large nails in it.
9	* Miyamoto Musashi used wielded a bokken carved from the oar he used to row himself to his duel with Sasaki Kojiro. He allegedly lost only once - to an elderly monk wielding a hoe.
10	* The MolotovCocktail, a weapon which has such ordinary components as gasoline/petrol, a glass bottle, and some sort of wick or fuse (often a cloth rag). It was first used in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar by Nationalist troops to repel T-26 tanks under General Franco's orders, as well as variations of petrol bombs and petrol-soaked blankets, and their success led to the Republicans quickly making them from glass jars and baby bottles. Molotov cocktails were also successfully used by the Finnish against intruding Russians in the Winter War of 1939. In fact, it was so effective that it was later mass-produced specifically for tank-killing purposes.
11	* The "sticky bomb" is a sock filled with TNT, rigged with a simple fuse and dipped in Kerosene to make it sticky. Soldiers would run up alongside an enemy tank, attach the bomb to the tread, light the fuse, then run like hell.
12	* Pipebombs. As their name suggests, made from a short length of metal or PVC pipe packed with explosive material. The Unabomber was famous for making ones with nails. One person killed himself with a pipe bomb stuffed with [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/kogut.asp shredded playing cards.]]
13	* A clarinet or soprano saxophone is almost the perfect length to be used as an improvised mace.
14	* Water bottles hold water. Water is heavy. Some people attach their water bottles to lanyards. Such a contraption can be used as a not-so-EpicFlail.
15	* Back when cars had antennas (which was roughly about the early 1950s to the late 1980s) gang members and experienced street fighters who needed a weapon in a hurry would simply rip an antenna off the nearest car. It made for a ''vicious'' slashing weapon, especially when used on an attacker's face, and it gave you room because it made people back up from you in a hurry.
16	* Potato guns.
17	* Most bats and clubs used in sports can be used as improvised clubs, most famously [[BatterUp baseball bats]]. There are a number of jokes about X number of baseball bats being found in some specific, crime-ridden area, but only one baseball.
18	** Similarly, a Tire Thumper is a tool commonly sold at truck stops, a short club used by truck drivers to do a quick test of tire pressure. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hit the tire with the thumper]], and if it doesn't give a satisfying thump, it's flat. If someone should happen to threaten a truck driver while they're on the side of a highway or in a truck stop parking lot in the middle of the night, the driver can expect to have the thumper close at hand.
19	* Beer bottles. Or really any glass bottle, but it's usually a beer bottle thanks to [[BarBrawl overconsumption of the beer inside beer bottles]]. Bottles are great because they're two weapons in one, first you have a small single-use club, and after it breaks you then have a pretty vicious stabbing weapon. There's a reason many bars and most sporting events have phased out glass in favor of plastic or aluminum.
20	* In April 1943, the destroyer USS O'Bannon came across Japanese submarine Ro-34 and nearly rammed it (jerked at the last moment thinking the sub was laying mines). When the destroyer stopped, it was too close to depress its main guns. And the Japanese sailors actually just stared at the reckless Americans, who hadn't any sidearms handy while staring back. By the time the Japanese remembered to use the submarine's 76.2 mm deck gun and scrambled to it, the American sailors lobbed potatoes at them. The Japanese, thinking the potatoes were grenades, panicked and started tossing the spuds overboard or back at the O'Bannon, hitting a few of the O'Bannon's crewmen and escalating the food fight. The fight ended when the O'Bannon backed off a bit and shot Ro-34 with its main guns and then dropped depth charges on the sub when it submerged.
21	* [[SinisterShiv Shivs]], [=MacGyver=]-like knives typically made by prison inmates out of ordinary things such as sharpened toothbrushes, spoons, styrofoam, pieces of paper, and chicken bones.
22	* The Pen Gun, a testament to Norwegian ingenuity, is made from standard office supplies and can launch a pencil through a soda can. More than enough to penetrate the trachea or temple.
23	* Roman senator Tiberius Gracchus was killed with a bench.
24	* The tribune Saturninus and his followers were murdered while being held in the Senate house--some impetuous aristocrats climbed onto the roof and threw clay roof tiles down on them.
25	* Pyrrhus of Epirus (or more likely to be known to people as Pyrrhus of the Pyrrhic Victory) was similarly said to have been killed in the Battle of Argos after an old woman civilian threw a roof tile down onto his head. If that didn't kill him, another soldier proceeding to behead him while he was on the ground definitely did.
26	* In WWI, soldiers in the trenches would sharpen their [[ShovelStrike entrenchment tools]] (small shovels) and use them in hand-to-hand combat. They were often favored over the knives they had been given specifically for hand-to-hand fighting.
27	* The British Army has achieved respectable results when called upon to perform crowd-control duty by issuing its soldiers with pickaxe handles. The practice apparently began when security was needed for the officer detailed to collect the garrison payroll from a bank, as rifles would tend to over-penetrate.
28	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millwall_brick The Millwall Brick]], a testament to human ingenuity in coming up with a way to kill each other with newspapers snuck into football events.
29	* In the late 1960s — in response to football hooliganism at matches in England — police began confiscating any objects that could be used as weapons. These items included steel combs, pens, beermats, Horse Brasses, Polo mints, shoelaces and boots.
30	* Homemade guns, often called zip guns, Chechnyan firecrackers, and other colorful names. If you have something explosive, materials and tools to work with and maybe even bits of actual guns. With the right know-how, any enterprising rebel, terrorist, gang member or ordinary person can build a usable firearm of some sort, though safety is not a guarantee. As the nickname suggested, Chechnyan rebels are well-known for creating and using guides to build these. Website/TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_firearm an article]] about this.
31	* Leon Trotsky was eliminated with the use of an ice ax.
32	* Indian soldier Yogender Singh Yadav used his ice axe to hack down opponents in an assault on an enemy position during one of the Kashmir wars.
33	* Home-made flamethrowers:
34	** There's a Website/YouTube video floating around of a person who filled a Super-Soaker tank with WD-40, attached a flaming rag in front of the nozzle, and made a pretty effective flamethrower.
35	** Somewhere around 2003, a kid built a functional flamethrower out of [=PVC=] pipe (for the tank), hose, copper tube (handle), a gas line tap (valve), able to shoot a 12 yard jet of flame, and a lot of people imitated the design. Subversion: it still needs a (relatively high-tech) tire inflating compressor to load and pressurize it before it fires.
36	** Inverted by a guy who built what he planned as a flamethrower and decided to test it with water. The performance was seriously impressive and he went on to use it to for water fights.
37	* Low-quality softair guns powered by a small gas tank are known for discharging their tank in a few shots if fired upside-down; instead of the small puff of gas that is normally used to propel the pellet, they dump a third or so of the tank, emitting a jet of ice-cold gas. The nozzle for refilling the gas tank has the same size as the one for [[KillItWithFire refilling butane lighters]].
38	* The term "paltik" in the Philippines refers to both improvised firearms created in back-alley workshops and homemade guns. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, the term originated late in the Philippine-American War when guns and ammunition had become scarce. The most common form of the weapon was a gas pipe attached to a rifle stock. Wire was usually wrapped around the barrel to keep the pipe from expanding when the gun is fired. It was muzzle-loaded and fired a medium sized bullet or musket ball. A small hole at the breach end of the barrel accommodated a cigarette or match that was used to ignite the primer, making aiming difficult. This also gave rise to the nickname, "Cigarette Gun". Modern paltik guns can range from crude constructs of pipe and metal to functional copies of real guns. The construction of such weapons was so common in the Danao city area that the government just decided to legalize the clandestine gun-makers rather than go through the headache of trying to clear out all of them.
39	* Irregular Vietnamese forces in the Vietnam war used a vast array of homemade and converted weapons, some as simple as a length of pipe fitted with a crude breech and a rubber band and nail to act as the firing pin, firing shotgun cartridges. They would then set up a trap designed to ensnare or otherwise disable an enemy soldier, lie in wait near the trap, and once the trap is sprung they would just walk up to the poor guy and execute him, "liberating" him of his weapon. They'd then hand off the improvised weapon to the next poor guy who has to make do with it.
40	* Fire extinguishers. Besides being a rather heavy club, the spray is a good way to blind someone if it gets in their eyes. There's a CCTV recording showing a hotel clerk successfully fighting off robbers with a fire extinguisher when they think they have everyone under control, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ULNXPGiy4 this video]] shows a bus driver putting one to good use on another road-raging, knife-wielding driver.
41	* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_%28vehicle%29 Technicals]], which are usually nothing more than civilian pickup trucks with [[ScavengerWorld salvaged guns or rocket tubes]] welded on, have proven to be effective in combat in the Middle East and North Africa whenever proper fighting vehicles are hard to come by. What technicals lack in armor, they make up for with speed and maneuverability, and are much less costly to produce, allowing belligerents to deploy them in large numbers to compensate for their fragility. Although as some such forces have learned from time to time, even a large number of such technicals are no match for proper armored vehicles in a force-on-force battle. Most machine guns will do little more than getting the attention of a tank, and many of the rocket launchers will lack the penetration required if fighting armored vehicles head-on[[note]]For most armored combat vehicles, the bulk of the armor is on the front, with the assumption that they will most often be facing their enemy. There is less armor on the sides and back, and the weakest armor is typically on the top and bottom of the vehicle, which is why the most effective way to kill a tank is often to use an airplane or a helicopter with missiles.[[/note]].
42	* Many of the classic weapons of martial arts were improvised, as their origins dated from a time when swords were forbidden to anyone outside the samurai class. The bo staff was a wooden pole used to carry buckets of water; the sai was a piece of metal that kept wagon carts attached to the wagons. Tonfa were handles taken from wells. Nunchaku were implements used to whip horses (or to thresh grains; history is a little unclear on this one). Kamas and sickles were for cutting crops or grass.
43	* The self defence manual ''Street Ninja'', by one Dirk Skinner, uses the term [[FunWithAcronyms TOYS (Tools Of Your Surroundings)]] to mean a bunch of sand or coins slung in an assailant's face, a bottle snatched from a bar, a key between your knuckles etc.
44	* Tyre irons. The lever-type can be used as a cosh and the cross-type can be used as a giant shuriken (or [[ImprovisedCross vampire repellent]]), in addition to having hand-guards. It's also great to parry with, what with all the angles.
45	* With knowledge in human anatomy and physiology (particularly concerning arteries), any rigid pen or pencil can become a lethal weapon. It is for this reason that the pens issued in prisons are the bendable kind.
46	* Guns themselves become impromptu clubs when they've run out of ammo. Many types of firearms throughout history have been specifically designed to make them better clubs.
47	* During the colonial days, Portuguese soldiers were cooped up in a tower, trying to defend themselves against the enemy, until they ran out of bullets. Out of regular ammo, they used the only thing they had available: their own teeth. The others were so freaked out by the guys who shot their own teeth, they gave up as soon as one of them was [[BoomHeadshot shot in the head with the tooth]].
48	* In September of 2010, Sergeant Dipprasad Pun of the Royal Gurkha Rifles apparently [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-12854492?SThisFB beat a Taliban attacker]] off a rooftop with the tripod of a heavy machinegun. The thing weighs about sixteen pounds and is made of solid steel, so smacking somebody with it is probably a lot like walloping them with a warhammer.
49	* The Dutch were infamous throughout their history for using their own country as a weapon. Because most of the populous west lies below sea level, more than one war has been won by breaching the right dike at the right time and flooding or cutting off enemy troops. Once, they even sailed their own fleet inland to liberate a besieged city.
50	** In a similar vein, the Russians have repeatedly used their merciless winters ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Winter promoted to General]]) against invaders. Both Napoleon's and Hitler's armies have been savaged by them. One of the few nations to use this successfully against Russian troops were the Finns during the Winter War when they would (among other things) systematically destroy field kitchens of Red Army detachments. Having no hot food in -40C conditions is very bad for you.
51	** Inverted by king Karl X Gustav of Sweden in 1658, when he used an unusually cold winter to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_across_the_Belts march the entire Swedish army across the normally open sea]] and invade Denmark. (This had evidently been done before on a smaller scale; an old Danish law says that any Swede who walks across the ice to Denmark may be beaten with sticks.)
52	* OlderThanDirt, unsurprisingly. The oldest unequivocal weapons known to archaeology are the Schöningen spears, approximately 400-375 millennia old. They were simply carved from wooden poles, and don't have any points hafted on them.
53	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV9rFblRHJI This story]] shows a machete-wielding masked thug attempting to raid a shop, and getting fended off by a man in his fifties using a mop, who is joined shortly by his son with a hockey stick. This clip also shows an admirable amount of CombatPragmatism, as he manages to keep the door between him and the machete, rather than letting the thug get an advantage.
54	* The 1933 "Battle of Stockton", a clash between fascist Blackshirts and communists, involved a great deal of improvised weaponry, ranging from sticks, pickaxe handles, and stones, to at least one potato studded with razor blades. The latter actually managed to take one fascist's eye out.
55	* During the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_Regicide assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal,]] Queen Amélie struck back at the assassins with the only object at her reach: a flower bouquet.
56	* ANFO, fertilizer, and diesel, mix and ''voila'', instant bomb. You can also make a gun with a door bolt for the firing mechanism and a bullet with a bamboo section full of match heads and a nail. Put it all in a pipe and add a pebble in front of it, you got a gun now. MacGyvering for all!
57	** If you have a shortage of diesel/gasoline/ other fuel oil; you can make urea nitrate out of nitrate fertilizer and human or animal urine. Humans are very ... creative ... when inventing ways to [[StuffBlowingUp blow things up]].
58	* One of the hazards of being a teacher trying to break up a fight between students in schools (especially those with severe disciplinary problems) is the fact that sometimes said students use school supplies--pens, pencils, scissors, etc.--as weapons.
59	* During his time as Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien once had an intruder get into 24 Sussex, the Official Residence of the Prime Minister, while he and his wife were home. He grabbed a smallish Inuit soapstone carving as an improvised weapon. Doesn't count as any sort of badass, though. He was hiding in the next room while his wife was talking to the intruder, keeping him busy until the security detail was able to get inside and deal with the problem. This doesn't say much about the security detail being all that badass either. (The time he broke away from his security escort, proceeded to wade through a crowd, and started to strangle some poor schmuck who didn't get out of the way fast enough doesn't say much about the quality of the security detail or his suitability as a person at large, either.)
60	* The Browning Automatic Rifle was designed as a light machine gun for the US Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne and was used heavily in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo and UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. It was not unknown for soldiers to cut off the bipod, which both reduced the weight and practically turned it into an assault rifle (which was what it pretty much was anyway).
61	* It is a general rule that any weapon will be used for a mission it is not intended for once it is discovered it is useful for that. Examples are the German 88 which could fulfill both anti-aircraft and anti-tank, the bazooka which was found to be useful for destroying fortifications, and the B-52 which was originally for dropping nukes but turned out to be extremely useful in raining DeathFromAbove on conventional troops.
62	** Another good example: Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Guns. Most of these, such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZSU-23-4 ZSU-23-4]] have [[MoreDakka multiple rapid-firing machine cannons]] or [[GatlingGood rotary cannons]]. While initially designed to defeat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, they have proven themselves equally good at fighting infantry in mountains and urban areas. This is equal parts due to their higher rate of fire compared to conventional tanks and their higher range of elevation on their guns, meaning that they can rake even the tallest buildings or steepest cliffs with high-explosive cannon fire.
63	*** The M45 Quadmount during WWII is perhaps the first example of this. An electrically-powered turret mounting four M2 .50 machine guns, intended to be a highly-portable anti-aircraft weapon (easily mounted on the back of a truck), but it was quickly adapted to anti-infantry use and given the nickname "Krautmower". (Due, in part, to the fact that by the time it was deployed in combat there weren't very many German aircraft ''left'' for it to shoot at, but still lots of ground troops.)
64	* There have been stories of people using a Platform/NintendoGameCube & a controller to defend themselves from knife-wielding muggers...[[MadeOfIndestructium without any permanent damage being done to either object]].
65	** Not surprising, as anyone who has tried to chop open a plastic bottle knows, those plastic bottles are hard to chop apart!
66	* Barrel Bombs are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what they are]]: A 200-litre drum filled with high explosive (and shrapnel, oil, or hazardous chemicals for additional effect) that is air-dropped from a helicopter or transport plane. They're a very dirt-cheap alternative to sending out dedicated combat aircraft with proper bombs but your approval rating will plummet if they cause massive collateral damage.
67	* Students sailing from naval schools aren't always allowed to carry lethal weaponry onboard. Their defense against pirates, however, is a simple one: Souped-up firehoses. Because when you're raiding a big ship with a little boat, water is the last thing you need. The fact that the hose has enough force to push back most people generally helps.
68	* Motorcycle crash helmets are frequently used by Malaysian motorcycle street racers and gangsters in fights due to their easy availability and durability.
69	* One would be justified to postulate this relationship: the brutality of a weapon's usage is inversely proportional to the weapon's retail price.
70	* Fruitcake is largely hated as an inedible dessert that tastes terrible and is hard as bricks. So much so that a popular fact regarding Fruitcake dates back to the American War of Independence where an Officer asked UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington what he was supposed to do with no more ammunition. The reply that he got was "You have plenty of Fruitcakes, don't you? Use those instead!"
71	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxeyiotfOY Microwaves stuffed with tin foil and oil]] [[StuffBlowingUp can potentially become an improvised explosive device]].
72	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglite Maglites]] (big, heavy metal flashlights) are so well-known for their use as improvised truncheons that the "Maglite stance" ([[https://accesscontrolsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/security-guard-with-flashlight3.jpg holding the Maglite overhand at head height]], so that it can easily be used to [[TapOnTheHead put the thump on somebody]]) has almost become a [[StockPoses Stock Pose]] for security guards and policemen.
73	* You're likely sitting in a chair, maybe a bar-stool. Pick it up, you now have a weapon with both power and reach. You probably won't need it but just in case, remember this. It could save your life, or at least a hospital trip.
74	* Man kills his attacker with a [[http://abc7.com/news/man-dies-after-blow-to-head-with-skateboard-during-fight-in-santa-ana/1098183/ skateboard]].
75	* An unopened can of soda. A cylindrical, metallic object that can exert a lot of force on impact. Your opponent will probably be picking up his teeth off the sidewalk after getting hit with one.
76	** Memorably demonstrated in the [[https://nypost.com/2020/12/28/man-beaten-with-iced-tea-after-saying-n-word-to-customer/ "Twisted Tea versus racist" incident]]. Full cans ''hurt'', and Twisted Tea offers a popular 24 ounce (1.5 pounds!) sized can.
77	* A keychain has been used very successfully. Not just any keychain though, but one carried by a cleaning lady who worked for multiple restaurants, and carried ALL of the keys she needed on a single, roughly yard-long mass of keyrings and keys.
78	* One argument for gun control in the United States is that it will force mass murderers to get creative and use this trope. That said, this is just as often cited as an argument against gun control, as that same restriction applies to their potential victims.
79	* General Desaix rarely carried weapons when he was out inspecting his troops, so when a party of Austrian infantrymen ambushed him as he was crossing a vineyard near Mainz, he tore a stake from the ground and "[[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65074763/f189.vertical.r=Desaix kept fighting as if he were wielding Roland's sword]]".
80	* In November 2019, a knife-wielding terrorist who had already killed two people at a prisoner rehabilitation conference in London was stopped and held at bay by a man using a narwhal tusk he grabbed off the wall of a restaurant, and another man squirting a fire extinguisher at him until police arrived.
81	* The military has warned about the use of industrial chemicals as ''ad hoc'' chemical weapons.
82	* The very room you're in can be used as a weapon. Slam your opponent into a doorknob, windowsill, wall-mounted coat hook, table edge - any hard edge or protrusion really - and you can do a fair amount of damage, or at least a lot of pain, reducing their ability to fight[[note]]Michael from ''Series/BurnNotice'' sums it up perfectly - "That's why I love bathrooms. Lots of hard surfaces."[[/note]].
83	* In 1981, Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} were touring to promote their album ''Tattoo You''. In one show, as they were playing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", Music/KeithRichards spotted a LoonyFan suddenly running onstage towards Music/MickJagger. Given that Music/JohnLennon was murdered the previous year, many rock musicians were understandably wary about encountering fans, so Keith turned down the volume on his Fender Telecaster and hit the guy over the head with it, then after security showed up to take them away, strapped his guitar back on, turned up the volume and kept playing without missing a beat. After the show, Keith went down to the police station and bailed the guy out. And that's why guitars are often called "axes".
84	* One man in Chile found himself being mugged while filling his car at the gas station, and decided to fend them off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J074zSXupdg by hosing them down with the gasoline pump on the spot]]. Reportedly he even told them that [[TakingYouWithMe if they shot him, they'd die too]].
85	* An altercation at a Walmart where one customer pulled a knife on others [[https://twitter.com/Wild_Fights/status/1612312920515555328 came to an end]] when another grabbed one of the ubiquitous line rope poles from the checkouts and smashed him over the head with it.
86	* As drone-based aerial infrared technology continues to proliferate, Syrian fighters faced a novel challenge: continue launching projectiles such as grenades or mortars, but without backblast or muzzle flash giving your position away. The solution? [[SufferTheSlings Convert broken pieces of pipes and old ropes into a giant slingshot]] to hurl impact-fused explosives hundreds of meters downrange. The material cost is effectively nil and even the most incompetent welder can assemble the device in 15 minutes.

Context ImprovisedWeapon / RealLife