Surviving with just a knife

C

CAman

Joined
Jan 5, 2000
Messages
157
People say a knife is all you need to survive. Anyone try it?
How do you procure the essentials:

- Warmth, Clothing & Shelter (without having rope/string)
- Water (without carrying boiling container)
- Food
- Signaling

Time to get creative and see if it can be done. Thanks.

 
Well, I'll try:
Water: in some places you can cut cacti(desert) or vines (jungle) and obtain water. Or you can carve a wooded bowl and fill with rain-water, collected dew, or river-water. Then start a fire by using the back or your knife to strike a flint-rock, then place rocks in the fire. Take the hot rocks and place in the wood or bamboo bowl until the water boils.

Food: carve a spear for fishing, or cut sharp stakes or bamboo and make a tidal-trap if you're near the coast. Or dig up and open clams and mussels.
You can make a knife-tipped spear and drop it on animals from a high tree or cliff.

Warmth, clothing and shelter: Start a fire as mentioned above, use the harvested animal's fur for clothing, cut small saplings or bamboo and make a thatch-hut.

Signaling: Use the knife-blade to reflect the sun or moon and signal planes. Or use the blade to cut out large areas of brush to spell out a messege to planes flying overhead. If you are hiking carve your direction of travel on trees for people who may follow (and so you know when you have walked in a circle).

Just a few thoughts on the subject.
 
Humankind manged to survive for mor than a few hundred years
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with out any kind of manufactured tools. Having a good knife just makes it that much easier. I have gone thru various survival trips where you had as little as the clothes you were wearing to full stocked packs. If you understand the basics of survivial you would see just how little you need to provide yourself with the means to survive. What is most important is the proper mindset the will to survive.
 
In response to the original question, I would find a local and say "Hey if you get me the HELL outa here, I'll give you this really nice knife"
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Hi all this is my first post to the forum.Its a pretty cool place.
Well to answer the question. Yeah it is possible. I have done it a few times. The key to it all you have to have a good foundation of survival skill and in the case of survival with a knife primitive skills too. Any way how do i survive with a knife. I start off with shelter which is a debris hut made from whatever is on the gound. then comes fire I usually use a hand drill for fire.Water is next if there is a creek pond or wash is near by you have water but purifing is sort of a problem ill talk about that in a sec.You can get water by collecting dew in the moring from grass and stuff. just soak it if with a shirt or something. it is safe to drink as lonng as you didnt get it from anything poisonous.You can also follow animals trail and stuff and find where they get water. Then I make some kind of weapon something like a rabbit stick sometime a rock and go hunting for a rabbit. With one rabbit it takes care of food tools water purifing and other little projects. The meat from the rabbit and wild edibles makes a very nice meal.Tools can be made from the bones. Then i scrape and tan the hide. Then hang the hide up on a tirpod and fill it with water i want to purify. Then heat up rocks in the fire and drop then into the water which is in the hide container and let it boil.BTW dont use stream stones. Thats just a breaf overview of it. As i said before you have to have a good foundation of survival skills. Just reading a book and going out dousnt work practice the skills in your "backyard".

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Take care and remember travel light live simple

[This message has been edited by wayfinder15 (edited 07-15-2000).]
 
Jebediah, you are certainly right in that extreme conditions (whether it is extreme cold, heat or absolute lack of water or food) can certainly rule out survival. I assume we all know the "rule of threes": 3 min without air, 3 hr in extreme cold, 3 days without WATER, 3 weeks without food, 3 months without love (that last one I heard from Doc Ron first
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). We all have certain physiological limits that NOONE (human being) can pass. However, there is a gray area where -I think- we can speak about survival. In this area, knowledge and skills -with some luck- can result in almost miraculous survivals. That knowledge is what we are trying to gather here. What looks impossible to one might be within the capabilities of someone else.
Better than any other argument, I would refer to the Introduction (page 1) of L. D. Olsen's book: Outdoor Survival Skills where he tells the story of a student who survived in southern Utah for three days even without a knife. Without the knife bur with the right skills.
Yes, probably he would have died if crossing the Sahara but he certainly stretched his skills to the point where not many did.
In short, with reasonable thinking we can discuss -in my humble opinion- the options if only one knife is available.
Hope it helps rather than confuses,

HM
 
I'd use the knife to cut fiberous bark or plants or leaves, to make cordage. With the cordage and wood that I carved into a fireboard, drill, etc., I'd start a fire.

Whether or not I'd build a shelter before or after the fire, or at all, would depend on the weather and environment. With or without cordage, excellent shelters can be made.

I'd use the knife to carve a rabbit stick, which I'd use to hunt small game with.

I'd cut and then sharpen a point at one end of a hardwood pole, to use as a spear. I would harden the point of the spear in the fire I started. Makes no sense to use a knife as a spear point. That's a good way to lose your knife.

I would signal search planes with a signal fire during the day, with a big stack of green bushes that I'd cut in the morning, and throw on the fire if a aircraft is spotted nearby. Of course the knife would be used to gut and skin the animals I hunted. Their hides would serve as clothing and footwear.

Finding water and shelter would be top priorities. I'd do my best to stalk and follow animals and/or their tracks to water. after getting water and shelter, I'd concentrate on getting food.

In the desert I'd move out at night, before sunrise, and after sunset. During the day I'd rest in the shade - just like the animals.

I believe with the right training and mindset, a person can not only survive, but thrive, in most any environment. However I wouldn't want to do it without a knife, even though that can also be done.
 
Great posts!
As a desert outdoorsman in various western states, I agree with the water priority. A good clue is to look for Cottonwood trees. In the desert flatlands these can be seen from a good distance, and the inner bark makes great tinder.
 
I don't think the thread started out as a desert survival thread. Somehow it just devolved that way. Anyway, having a knife under any survival conditions is better than not having a knife. I'm sure Homo found the blade far superior to the australopithecene chopper. And a knife will last far longer than a gallon of water in the desert. So if your stay in the desert is is a long one (>3days), you better figure out how to procure water. But if I was going into the desert, I wouldn't leave my knife at home. That would be stupid, wouldn't it?


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Hoodoo

And so, to all outdoor folks, the knife is the most important item of equipment.

Ellsworth Jaeger - Wildwood Wisdom
 
When I posted the question, I was not thinking about desert survival, but an interesting turn of discussion.

Has anyone tried getting water by condensation (using a plastic bag, digging a solar still, wrapping leaves in plastic, etc.) I tried and in over 100 degree heat, all I could get out of many covered tree branches was 1/2 cup of water. Is there a trick to this or is it crap?
 
I haven't had much luck with solar stills used in desert country. IMHO they are rarely if ever worth the trouble of excavation, certainly not for production of daily drinking water in dry soil.
 
Kudos to Jebediah for great insight. I too have found that the solar still is pretty much a myth. Yet it is inevitably touted as a basic desert survival skill my most survival "experts." I can't count how many books on survival I've read that go to great lengths describing how to fashion a solar still. It seems people merely repeat what they've heard, read about, or have been told. It makes one wonder what other survival "skills" being taught are also bogus.
 
Originally posted by Jebediah:
I thought we were having an interesting turn of discussion. My opinion being that the answer is No, that no one tool, such as a knife, can serve as a replacement for necessary survival items in all geographic situations.
Click to expand...

Actually I think the topic was completely redefined to fit a very specific situation, i.e., desert survival.

The original question addressed the use of only a knife given any survival situation. Obviously one would always wish for more "stuff" under ANY survival situation. I would like to have a motorhome with a couple of 55 gallon drums filled with water and fuel for instance. But the post wasn't "what would you take into the desert instead of a knife." The question as I understood it was what would you do to survive if you only had a knife. The one person who attempted to answer that question was ridiculed.



------------------
Hoodoo

And so, to all outdoor folks, the knife is the most important item of equipment.

Ellsworth Jaeger - Wildwood Wisdom
 
Jebediah: Okay, we get the idea: it's hard to beat the desert.
I only know you from what you post and it seems like you're somewhat of a defeatist.

The impression I get from your posts is: if you were in a desert with only a knife you would just give up and die (you seem to think it is an certain-death situation).

I have been in the desert too (the Mojave, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq). I would not wish to have only a knife but you play the cards dealt to you. I also would refuse to give up and die no matter what the odds.

People do the seemingly impossible everyday.


[This message has been edited by allenC (edited 07-21-2000).]

[This message has been edited by allenC (edited 07-21-2000).]
 
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