Appalachia · Anno MMXXVI Launch promo ends in --:--:-- An Almanac · No. I
Burl SizemoreAn Almanac

He carried six things in his pockets. None of them were keepsakes.

Ninety-three old mountain repairs built around a pocketknife, a sharpening stone, a coil of wire, a length of cord, an awl and a few small tools — the things a man reached for before he spent money on another one. A modeled basket of ordinary household failures runs about $1,500 a year. Most of them cost under twenty dollars to fix from your own pocket.

See the Manual → Read the Math →
93Numbered fixes
$1,500Modeled yearly
7-DayRefund guarantee
“

It was never about being poor. It was about the man with a knife and a stone in his pocket deciding which small failure was going to stay small.

Burl Sizemore · Appalachian Old-Ways Project
I.
The Manual

One book. Ninety-three fixes. Fifteen hundred dollars a year.

Knife, stone, wire, cord, awl, small hardware. Thirteen sections, every one of them built around something a man could carry. Each method carries what it costs to do, what replacing it or calling somebody would have cost instead, and the point where the cheap fix becomes the expensive mistake.

Illustrated PDF · 93 methods · 13 sections

Everything a pocket kit could repair, priced out and written down.

A mountain man did not carry a knife because he collected gear. He carried it because a dull blade meant buying another one. The stone, the wire, the twine, the awl — every one of them existed so that a small failure stayed small, and stayed cheap. This manual is that habit, numbered.

$47 $77 Save $30 Launch price — ends tonight
What you get for $47:
  • The Appalachian Pocket Fix Manual — 93 numbered methods across 13 sections, with costs and step-by-step$47
  • The First-Weekend Pocket Fix Road Map — what to inspect and attack first, so the book does not sit unread$19
  • The 25-System Pocket Savings Ledger — printable: item, repair cost, replacement quote, money kept$19
  • The $25 Appalachian Pocket Repair Kit — what to buy once, with sizes, cheap and traditional alternatives, and which methods each item unlocks$14
  • Lifetime Updates & Cost Revisions — every revision and every new method, no extra charge$21
  • Total value$120
  • You pay today$47
Get the Manual · $47 →
Instant PDF · Pay once · Yours forever
II.
The Math

What a year of small failures costs you.

Twelve ordinary household failures. The left column is what they cost hired out or replaced. The right column is the same twelve, done from the pocket kit, with the method number written down.

Hired out or replaced Per year

A fence section comes down$280
A faucet starts dripping$182
A sink trap clogs$182
A key snaps in the lock$163
A screw hole strips out$100
A door stops latching$100
A window screen tears$100
Work boots split at the seam$65
A mower blade goes dull$50
A hose splits$30
An axe handle works loose$20
Work gloves tear open$10
Annual$1,282

2026 U.S. retail and trade benchmarks — national handyman rates of $60–125/hour, plumbing repairs of $182–500, locksmith average of $163, blade sharpening of $8–20, and current retail on boots, gloves, hose, mesh and hickory handles.

Done from the pocket kit Per year

Wire and pliers, the five-turn splice$5
Washer and ten minutes$5
Auger and a pocket wrench$2
Fragment pulled, lock kept$0
Matchsticks and glue, re-drilled$2
Strike plate reset$1
Screen spline replaced$3
Awl and waxed thread$4
Whetstone, both bevels$2
Barbed splice and two clamps$6
New wedge, head seated$2
Needle and thread$1
Annual$33

Every line here has a numbered method in the Manual, with the materials, the sizes and the steps. Estimated annual savings are a conservative modeled basket, not a measured average.

The same twelve failures: $1,282 hired out, $33 from the pocket. Across the full modeled basket of thirty-seven methods, about $1,500 a year.
III.
What's inside

Exactly what you get for $47.

Ninety-three numbered methods across thirteen sections. Every section is built around something a man could carry. Pick the ones that fit what you own — you do not have to do all of them.

Six worn tools laid in a row on a scrubbed wooden table, seen from above: a bone-handled pocketknife with the blade open, a hollowed grey whetstone, a coil of galvanized baling wire, a ball of waxed twine, a wooden-handled leather awl, and a small pile of hardware with a short screwdriver.
The whole kit. Everything in this book is done with these.
Section I — 8 methods
The Pocketknife — cutting, carving and fitting
  1. 01Trimming a frayed rope so it stops unraveling
  2. 02Carving a wedge that holds under load
  3. 03Cutting a leather patch to size
  4. 04Shaving a handle to fit the hand that holds it
Section II — 8 methods
The Whetstone — bringing dead edges back
  1. 01Bringing a dead knife edge back
  2. 02Axe and hatchet, the two-angle method
  3. 03Pruners, loppers, shears and the machete
  4. 04Removing burrs before they become damage
Section III — 8 methods
Baling Wire & Pocket Pliers — bend, bind and hold
  1. 01Splicing a fence break that holds
  2. 02Rebuilding a gate-latch connection
  3. 03Making a new bucket bail
  4. 04Refastening loose mesh
  5. 05Marking clearly which of these is temporary
Section IV — 7 methods
Cord & Twine — tie, splice and tension
  1. 01Repairing a clothesline that sags
  2. 02Replacing a failed drawcord
  3. 03Closing a torn tarp eye
  4. 04Joining two short lengths instead of buying rope
Section V — 8 methods
The Awl, Needle & Thread — stitch instead of throw away
  1. 01Glove seams and coat pockets
  2. 02Belts, knife sheaths and tool pouches
  3. 03Boot uppers, worked with the saddle stitch
  4. 04Canvas bags and small tarp tears
Section VI — 8 methods
Matchsticks, Nails & Wooden Wedges — saving failed fasteners
  1. 01Recovering a stripped screw hole
  2. 02Tightening a hinge in worn wood
  3. 03Cutting a replacement wedge
  4. 04Knowing when a handle must be replaced instead
Section VII — 8 methods
The Pocket Wrench & Screwdriver — tighten before you replace
  1. 01Doorknobs and strike plates
  2. 02Cabinet hardware and hose fittings
  3. 03The faucet washer, ten minutes
  4. 04An accessible sink trap
  5. 05Where plumbing stops being a pocket fix
Section VIII — 6 methods
Pencil, Coin & Pocket Rule — measure before you ruin it
  1. 01Finding the high spot on a sticking door
  2. 02Marking an exact cut
  3. 03Transferring a hole location
  4. 04Gauging a gap with a coin
Section IX — 8 methods
Boots, Belts & Sheaths — leather repairs from the pocket kit
  1. 01Pulled stitches and loose eyelets
  2. 02Belt seams that let go
  3. 03Sheath repair
  4. 04Stopping a tear before it spreads across the panel
Section X — 7 methods
Rag, Oil & Stone — rust prevention in your pocket
  1. 01Stopping surface rust on a good knife
  2. 02Freeing a stiff joint
  3. 03Cleaning light rust off pliers
  4. 04Telling surface rust from structural damage
Section XI — 7 methods
Knife, Wedge & Cord — saving wooden tool handles
  1. 01Stopping a splinter before it grows
  2. 02Fitting a new axe handle precisely
  3. 03Carving the right wedge
  4. 04Seating a loose head correctly
Section XII — 5 methods
Key, Pliers & Small Hardware — locks, latches and tiny failures
  1. 01Removing an exposed broken-key fragment
  2. 02Tightening loose lock hardware
  3. 03When the locksmith is cheaper than the mistake
Section XIII — 5 methods
The Pocket Rule — fix, replace, or call someone?
  1. 01The five-minute repair test
  2. 02The twenty-dollar-or-less rule
  3. 03The safety stop
  4. 04Replacement cost against repair cost
  5. 05The savings ledger that tracks it
Every method also tells you when to stop.

A cracked axe handle gets replaced, not wedged. A gas line is not a pocket fix. A key buried deep in a cylinder is a locksmith's job, and a $163 locksmith is cheaper than a ruined door. The manual is as clear about the limits as it is about the repairs — that is what separates a method from a shortcut.

IV.
Three pages from the book

This is the shape every method takes.

The figure, the steps, and the ledger — on every single page. Nothing is hidden behind the price, and no method pretends the three kinds of saving are the same thing.

Three pages from The Appalachian Pocket Fix Manual laid out on a workbench: Method 18, a fence section down after a storm; Method 52, a faucet dripping through the night; Method 37, work boots split along the upper seam. Each page carries a technical figure and a cost ledger.
Methods 18, 52 and 37 — the figure, the steps and the ledger.
Method 18 — A fence section comes down after a storm
Wire and pocket pliers$5
Section repair, hired out$280
Money kept$275
Method 52 — A faucet starts dripping through the night
Washer and ten minutes$5
Plumber, common call$182
Money kept$177
Method 37 — Work boots split along the upper seam
Awl, waxed thread, one evening$4
A new pair of work boots$65
Put off a season$61

Each method carries one of three labels — replacement saving, service saving, or life-extension value. They are not the same thing, and the book does not pretend they are.

What using the manual looks like

Three ordinary failures, walked through the way the book walks through them. Illustrative scenarios built from the methods — the manual is not out yet, so these are not customer reviews.

“
“The fence repair pays for the book the first weekend.”
A storm pulls one section of fence loose behind the shed. Most men are ready to call somebody. Method 18 braces it and binds the break with wire and pocket pliers until the damaged section can be replaced properly — about five dollars instead of a service call. The method also says plainly which fixes are temporary and which ones are meant to last.
Method 18 · Baling wire & pocket pliers · $5 against $280
“
“You stop throwing away good boots.”
The upper seam on a pair of work boots opens up and they look finished. The awl-and-waxed-thread method closes it in an evening, worked back through the old holes. They are not new boots, and they do not need to be. The cost ledger beside every repair is what makes the difference — you see exactly what the repair is buying you.
Method 37 · The awl, needle & thread · $4 against $65
“
“The best part is knowing when not to fix something.”
A dripping faucet and a stripped screw hole are both simple, cheap repairs. But when it comes to a cracked axe handle, the book tells you to stop and replace the handle instead. That is the point of Section XIII. This is not a book of clever shortcuts — it is a book about what is worth fixing, what is worth replacing, and what is not worth risking.
Section XIII · The pocket rule · The stop that protects you
Burl Sizemore, an older Appalachian man in a camouflage cap, plaid flannel shirt and denim overalls, standing on the porch of a weathered farmhouse with a mown field and wooded ridge behind him.
V.  ·  About the author

Burl Sizemore.

Burl Sizemore is the voice of the Appalachian Old-Ways Project — a research and storytelling channel about the tools, habits and household knowledge of the southern mountains. The channel documents what people there carried, built, mended and made do with, and why those choices made economic sense long before anyone called it frugal.

This manual came out of that work. Every method was gathered from mountain practice, then written up the way it would actually be used today: what you need, what it costs, what it saves, and the point where a sensible man puts the tool down and pays somebody who knows more.

It was never about being poor, and it was never about the past. It was about understanding that most things break small before they break big — and that the man with a knife and a stone in his pocket got to decide which one it was going to be.
VI.
Order the Manual

$47 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

The manual arrives as an illustrated PDF. Download instructions are emailed the moment your payment clears — usually inside a minute. Read it on any device, or print the pages you want to take out to the shop.

Illustrated PDF · 93 methods · 13 sections

The Appalachian Pocket Fix Manual

Ninety-three old mountain fixes built around what a man could carry in his pockets — with the materials, the current costs, and the step-by-step. Pick the ones that fit what you own. Skip the ones that do not.

$47 $77 Save $30 Launch price — ends tonight
What you get for $47:
  • 93 numbered methods across 13 sections$29
  • Cost to fix vs. cost to replace on every applicable method$12
  • Stop rules — when it is not a pocket fix$6
  • First-Weekend Pocket Fix Road Map$19
  • The 25-System Pocket Savings Ledger$19
  • The $25 Appalachian Pocket Repair Kit$14
  • Lifetime updates and cost revisions$21
  • Total value$120
  • You pay today$47
Get the Manual · $47 →
Instant access · Pay once · Yours forever
Seven days, no questions asked.

Read it. Take one method out to the shop and try it. If you decide within seven days that the manual is not useful to you, ask for a refund and you will get it. You do not have to explain yourself, and you do not have to send anything back.

Secure checkout · Visa · Mastercard · PayPal · Apple Pay · 7-day refund
VII.
FAQ

Questions people ask before they click.

I'm not handy. Is this still for me?
Most of the ninety-three methods are a knife, a stone, a piece of wire or a needle and thread. If you can sharpen a pencil and thread a needle, you can do the majority of this book. The handful of methods that need real skill are marked as such, and Section XIII exists to tell you when to stop and call somebody.
I rent, or I live in town. Does any of this apply?
Boots, belts, gloves, knives, tools, bags, cords, screens, doors, cabinet hardware and locks do not care whether you own the building. Skip the fence and the outbuilding sections; the rest is yours.
Do I need to buy a pile of tools first?
No, and that is the point of the third bonus. The $25 Appalachian Pocket Repair Kit lists what to buy once, with sizes, quantities, a cheap alternative, a traditional alternative, where to find it, and which methods each item unlocks.
How fast does it pay for itself?
One fence section pays for the book six times over. One faucet washer pays for it nearly four times over. The modeled basket of thirty-seven methods runs about $1,500 a year — your own number depends entirely on what you own and what breaks.
What format is it, and can I print it?
An illustrated PDF. Read it on a phone, tablet or computer, and print any page you want to take out to the shop. There is no app, no subscription and no login — the file is yours.
Is this just old stories?
No. Every method is written the way it would be used today, with current materials and current prices. The mountain practice is where it came from; the instructions are for your house this weekend.
What if it turns out not to be for me?
Seven days, no questions asked, no need to send anything back. Email and the $47 comes back the same day.
Last call

Stop replacing what a pocket knife could have saved.

Ninety-three repairs for the things most people replace, hire out, or throw away. Most of them cost less than twenty dollars. Today is the last day at $47 — --:--:-- left. Tomorrow it returns to $77.

Get the Manual · $47 →
$77 tomorrow · 7-day refund · Instant PDF