HOW TO SURVIVE WITH NOTHING BUT A KNIFE

 By Lexi from Ready Store |  7 Comments

As humans, we want to be prepared as much as we can and have the necessary equipment to do so. Learning how to survive with a knife is an important factor for survival. Successfully surviving on our own takes both knowledge and experience, and if you know how to effectively use a knife, surviving with nothing else is very possible.

1. Collect Wood
You can use your knife to collect firewood in order to start a fire. Your knife will be most useful when collecting tinder and kindling. You can cut bark and smaller branches off of dead trees or carve out wood shavings to help you feed a spark. You can also cut sticks into kindling-friendly sizes for your fire.

2. Start a Fire
Knives can work as a great flint. By striking the blade on the sharp edge of a rock, you can create sparks to catch on your tinder and start a fire. When doing this, you will want to use a hard rock that will be strong enough to shave off the necessary amount of steel to create a spark. Flint is the ideal rock for starting a fire, but you can also use other hard rocks like granite, obsidian, and quartz.

3. Build a Shelter
A knife can help you fashion each component of a sturdy shelter, including stakes, cordage, or notches. You can also use your knife to cut the branches that will create the frame of your shelter. You can sharpen the ends of these sticks and drive them into the ground for increased stability. Then you can cut thin strips of wood to use as cordage, carve notches into your framing, and lash the sticks together. And finally, you can use your knife to cut and gather underbrush and leaves to use as the roofing of your shelter.

4. Go Hunting
While knife throwing might not be a feasible hunting skill for you, you can create various different hunting methods using a knife. You can carve sharp sticks or bones into fishing hooks and catch your dinner that night. You can also fashion different components of animal traps to set. Carving arrowheads for a bow is also something that a survival knife can do to help you hunt.

5. Preparing Food
Once you have gone hunting, you’ll need to prepare your food. Use your knife to clean a fish or skin an animal. Smaller knives usually work best for skinning an animal, but in a survival situation, any knife will work just fine. Once your food is cleaned, your knife can help you carve the meat of the animal that you’ve just caught and get you ready for cooking. You can clean out bones, organs, and other parts that you don’t want to eat or would use for another purpose.

6. Find Water
Water is essential for survival and finding it in the wild is one of the first things you’ll want to do if you become lost or stranded. If there are no obvious water sources available, you may have to dig. Water usually collects downhill at the base of trees and in the bottom or gullies or dried riverbeds. Use your knife to dig a two foot hole into the dirt and wait 5 minutes to see if water begins to seep into the hole. You can also carve into different plants or trees that may contain water.

7. Defense
A knife is not an ideal weapon and won’t kill an attacker instantly, but it is better than nothing at all. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to protect yourself against an animal or otherwise, you can use your knife to make stabs and slashes at your attacker to ward them off and defend yourself.

8. Carving Tools
A knife is a great tool in and of itself, but you can use it to make more specialized tools for whatever task you need. For example, instead of tying your knife onto the end of a stick and calling it a spear, you can carve yourself an actual spear. Make notches in the end of a stick in the shape of a cross and insert other sticks to hold them apart. You can sharpen each of the four points that you now have on the end of your spear. You can also carve an arrowhead and fit it into the notches. By using your knife to make the tools that you need, you will reduce the risk of damaging or losing your knife.

9. Use as Hammer
Along with making tools, your knife can be used in place of many tools. The butt of your knife can be an effective hammer when needed. If you need to pound stakes into the ground, use the butt of your knife for a solid hit on your stake to make a sturdy shelter. You can also use your knife to split wood. Pound the blade of your knife into a piece of wood and hammer it all the way through until the log is split. You can cut larger logs into perfect sizes for burning on your fire.

10. Sending an SOS
The reflective blade of a knife can be used as a signaling mirror if you are stranded or lost and are trying to call for rescue. Hold the blade in front of your face and move the blade to catch and reflect the light of the sun in the direction of your rescue. You can judge the necessary angle by spotting your rescue on the other side of the blade and adjusting the angle as needed.

A knife can be used for much more than its basic purpose and if you know how to use it, you’ll be able to survive in any situation.

Now we want to hear from you. If you could only have one tool in the wilderness, what would it be and how would you use it?

Source: https://www.thereadystore.com/diy/11650/how-to-survive-with-nothing-but-a-knife/

Focus on These 10 Areas to Start Learning Bushcraft Skills

Bushcraft is the name we give a collection of skills that all involve thriving in the wilderness.  From knowing how to build a fire in various conditions to finding food by hunting and foraging, to carving and building necessary items from wood and other natural materials; bushcraft is all about surviving long term without the need for grocery stores, sporting goods stores, or the corner market.

You can break bushcraft down into 10 basic categories to start with, and add more in as you gain more and more skills. Check out the 10 areas of bushcraft skill below and start learning how to survive one bushcraft skill at a time.

Fire Craft

Anyone car start a fire with a lighter, some matches, and a can of lighter fluid, but what happens when all you have is a striking rock and the organic materials laying around in the wilderness?

Fire craft is all about starting and maintaining fires in any condition. This includes multiple techniques for building a fire like flint, the sun, and smoldering plants. It also covers how to use fire for survival and how to transport the fire you built form one location to another to avoid having to rebuild.

Tracking

There are a lot of reasons why it’s a good idea to get good at tracking. First, it’s a pretty great way to catch your dinner but past that it’s a very important part of OpSec.

By being able to track people and animals you can see if your proposed campsite is frequented by any specific animals or if people have been through it before. You can also see if anyone has been around your campsite or homestead recently.

Animals and people tend to follow the same paths over and over again, so being able to recognize these and track where they go can show you where to set snares, get water, and where to avoid when the footprints are bigger than you’d like.

Hunting

This one is pretty obvious, but you need to know how to hunt effectively with a variety of tools. Sure, using a high-powered rifle makes hunting a lot easier, but in the bush you may only have basic supplies and a rifle might not be one of them.

The most common way to hunt in the wild is by trapping. Setting a snare to catch small game is a great way to learn how to survive off the land. Beyond the knowledge of trapping you need to learn how to handle what you trap and hunt once you’ve gotten it.

Learn simple butchering and skinning techniques to make sure you can actually eat what you catch.

Fishing

Similar to hunting and trapping, learning to fish with a variety of tools will make sure you have a good high-protein and fat source of food. The two basic ways of fishing are with a line and hook and by trapping. You can build a fish trap as seen in this video to collect fish without extra work on your end.

Keeping learning how to make a hook and lures is important as well, but the fish trap is your best way if you have the materials and the ability.

Foraging

You can’t survive solely on animals and fish you’ve caught, especially if you can’t build a fire to cook them on, which means foraging is just as important. You need to learn what plants are OK to eat and which ones aren’t, as well as how to determine this in the wild.

Check out this site for some basics on eating plants and foraging, but make sure you learn what’s available in your area and what is your best bet for the most carbs and protein per ounce to save energy while foraging.

Shelter Building

Building a proper shelter is more important than just keeping dry, it gives you a sense of safety and belonging and keeps you safe from animals. Keeping dry is more important than just comfort too, keeping dry will keep you from getting sick and keep your gear usable.

Learn not only how to build a basic shelter, but how to build one from a variety of resources so you’re never stuck out in the cold.

Knives and Axes

One of the most important tools to bushcraft has to be the bladed implement. Survival knives and axes are vital to survival and knowing how to use and care for them correctly is as important as knowing how to find water.

We’re not talking about heavy-duty knifes here, but instead they are generally smaller and built for durability. Learn how to not only use a knife and axe correctly, but to sharpen, repair, and even make your own. Remember, there may very well be a time that there aren’t stores to buy knives from, so learn while you can!

Wood Carving

You use a lot of wooden implements every day and don’t even think about it. From wooden spoons to handles for knives and other tools, knowing how to make wood into what you need it to be is pretty important.

Learn how to work with wood from start to finish and you can make just about anything. Think back to your woodshop days and replace all the power tools with hand tools.

Container Construction

Being able to make the containers that clothes, food, and tools go into is pretty important to learn. Today we go to the store, find something that fits and use it until it breaks and repeat the process. The bushcraft way is very different and once you build a few containers yourself, you’ll respect them a lot more.

Learn how to work with a variety of materials including leather, metal, wood, and even odd materials like tire rubber, which by the way makes a great sandal. You can make a waterproof tarp or food container by melting and applying wax to canvas and buckets out of hollowed out logs. Whatever you choose to make, remember that once you’re on your own, there’s no more Tupperware lady coming around to sell you containers.

Rope Craft

Anyone who was a Boy Scout knows that rope craft and knot tying is one of the most important survival skills out there. From being able to tie down your tent to tying snares and quick release knots for climbing, rope craft is pretty important stuff.

Beyond tying knots however, knowing how to make rope is pretty important stuff. There are a few ways to make rope yourself, and this site has some great information on how to do it from natural fibers.

Source:http://www.survivalbased.com/survival-blog/4867/focus-on-these-10-areas-to-start-learning-bushcraft-skills/