The Bird Nest and Tinder Bundle

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/

The Only 4 Things You Need to Survive in the Wild

If you want to know how to survive in the woods or wilderness, then the first thing you need to know is this: always be prepared. You don’t want to be caught without supplies. Never go for even a “short walk” in the woods without bringing a fire starter, knife, water, and rain jacket. Even if you don’t plan on going into the wilderness, you still need to be prepared with survival gear. Keep a car emergency kit in your vehicle in case you break down on remote road. Keep a bug out bag packed in case you need to flee.

But you can’t always be prepared for everything. Take the case of Autumn Veatch, the teenager who survived a plane crash and then days in the wilderness – despite having no supplies and being injured.

It isn’t just plane crashes which could leave you stranded in the wilderness with nothing. You could go for a hike, fall into a river, and have all of your gear wash away. Or you might get abducted by a nutcase and have to escape your abductor through the woods (yes, this has happened many times).   The bottom line is that you need to be prepared for anything by knowing how to survive in the wilderness.

You Only Need 4 Things to Survive in the Wild

Unless you are injured or sick, there are just 4 things that you need in order to survive in the wild. Yes, only 4!

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1. Water
2. Shelter
3. Food
4. Warmth

Hopefully you will have survival supplies to help you get these 4 things  – like having emergency food and water rations, a tent for shelter, and matches so you can make a fire to stay warm. But, if not, don’t despair. You’ve got a lot more resources around you than you realize! If you are ever lost in the wild with nothing, just follow these steps.

1. Find Water

The first thing you need to survive in the wild is water. You can only go 3 days without water before dying, but you’ll be extremely dehydrated long before those 3 days are up. Hopefully you can find a stream or creek to drink out of. If you can’t find a ready supply of water, then you can use these tactics to get water:

• Collect Dew: Take your shirt off and press it onto the ground to collect dew. You can then wring the dew into your mouth or into your water bottle.
• Drag a Piece of Cloth Behind You: There is a lot of water in the woods on plants. Drag a piece of cloth behind you (or wrap it around your legs and walk through thick brush). The cloth will collect the moisture and you can wring it out into your mouth.
• Follow Ants: If you see a train of ants going up a tree, it is probably because there is a cache of water in a groove in the tree.
• Travel Parallel to a Mountainside: If on a mountain, cross it by staying parallel. Mountains usually have streams going down them so you are likely to come across one eventually.
• Dig for Water: If you dig, do so at places like dried-up streams and areas with a lot of lush foliage.

Read this post to learn more ways to find water in the wilderness.

And remember that water from lakes, streams, and rivers should always be purified before you drink it, even if it looks clean! Read this post to learn how to purify water in survival situations.

2. Make a Shelter

You will need a shelter to protect you from the elements. A shelter can also help protect you from some wild animals as they are more likely to attack you if you are in the open. Making a survival shelter in the woods is actually fairly easy. Remember to have your shelter made before it gets dark!

My favorite shelter for how to survive in the woods is the “fallen debris shelter.” You just need to find a fallen tree. Then pile some large branches against it to act as a shelter wall. Then you fill in the gaps with smaller branches. There are many other ways to make shelters in the wilderness though. Read this post to see survival shelter designs.

3. Stay Warm

Temperatures can drop really quickly in the woods, so you better prioritize warmth. Staying warm is actually just as important as food for survival. And, if you are cold, then your body is going to require more food.

A well-built survival shelter will help you stay warm by trapping in your body heat. But you do other things to improve your warmth.

One of my favorite stories about how to survive in the woods is that of Susan O’Brien. She survived a night in the woods by burying herself in dirt to stay warm. Dirt is a great insulator for when you don’t have a blanket. You could also use fallen leaves, pine needles, or other debris.

Another way to stay warm is to make a fire. But, if you are lost in the woods without matches or a lighter, then this is going to be problematic. Unless you are some sort of wilderness MacGyver, don’t even bother trying to rub two sticks together. You’ll just end up with 2 warm sticks. Save your energy and snuggle up in your debris bed instead. Or, if you absolutely must make fire, then try these methods of making fire without matches.

4. Find Food

There is actually lots of food in the wild – so long as you know where and how to look for it. In survival situations, these would be your primary options for food:

• Wild animals
• Wild plants
• Insects and bugs

Sorry to break it to you, but catching a wild animal for food is a lot harder than it seems. Even if you have gear, it is really difficult! The one exception to this is if you are stranded near some sort of lake. Then you should try one of these methods for fishing in the wilderness.

The better option for wilderness survival food is to eat bugs. Yes, I know this probably seems gross to you, but most bugs are edible and actually very nutritious.

As for eating wild plants, never eat a plant unless you are 100% sure it is edible. If you eat an inedible plant, you could end up with diarrhea, and that will kill you a lot faster than hunger! In desperate situations, you can use the universal edibility test to tell if a plant is safe to eat.

Source: https://www.primalsurvivor.net/how-to-survive-in-the-wild-without-any-supplies/