Hey, returning to this thread to post this amazing author I just found, who's definitely going in my truck bed for any period before 1900 or so (and definitely before 1800): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Gingery
It's cool someone made these exact books I was thinking about writing some day. Well, not exact, it sounds like he's assuming some basic tools and available scraps, while I want to be able to go from sticks and stones. Anyway, if you have to rebuild technology this would be very helpful.