Surviving with just a knife

While The knife wont help you find water in the desert it sure helps to get out the thorn husks from the jumping cactus you blundered into while you were trying to find water. Remember when you follow animal tracks in the desert, they are smaller than you and can go places you can't. Look up once in a while. Also have found that the knife helps to skin snakes, or to dig the bark off of the base of joshua trees to get at the pulp inside, however don't practice that one unless it's an emergency the joshua tree is protected by law. You wont get much in the way of water but the pulp can be kind of juicy and it gives you something to chew on. Making a shelter with a knife is alot easier than without also. Less time wandering around looking for wood just the right size. Do suggest that you try starting a fire with nothing but dry wood and a knife, it's good to practice to find the easiest way for you. Everyone has a different opinion of which way is easiest. Try several different approaches just make sure when you practice you use only dry wood and a knife it doesn't do any good to practice unless you are going to use what you are most likely to have if stuck in a bad situation. just my opinion guys for what it is or is not worth.
 
Jebediah is being practical and realistic, not "defeatist." The wisdom he’s sharing on this thread shows that he’s spent a lot more time studying and living in deserts than most of us. Nor has he said that a knife is useless; rather, that its potential value is more severely limited in a desert than in most other environments. The rules are very different in the U.S. Western interior and Southwest, or other arid regions.

Survival tips on this forum – not always, but usually – enumerate the wondrous uses of a knife, then uncritically imagine a scenario in which those uses are imminently and easily achievable – as if the world existed for that knife. But actual survival situations don’t present themselves as such.

Indeed, any worthwhile "survival approach" encourages one to prepare for the worst. So assume you are in an arid desert with no water in sight. 110F+ in the day, 50F- at night. All you have is your knife. How would you *really* "procure the essentials" listed by CAman?:

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

More than likely, as Jebediah has noted, you’ll be wishing you had more than "just a knife." Good luck surviving –

Glen

[This message has been edited by storyville (edited 07-23-2000).]
 
I don't want to stir up the pot about desert survival any more than it has already been but let me say a few words about desert conditions.

First of all...I am a Border Patrol Agent stationed in Yuma Arizona..for those of you who have never been to Yuma..let me just say that in the summer..it is about 3 degrees cooler than hell. I spend about 9 hours a day....usually six days a week in the extreme desert areas around Yuma. I have seen my share of Mexican illegals trying to make it through the desert to get up to the highways or train tracks...that's about a 25 mile treck through barren desert. Many make it, those that do are usually carrying jugs of water and by the time they make it to a populated area...they are pretty much roasted and suffering from heat exhaustion. Those that don't make it are lucky if we ever find the remains....it's a happy hunting ground for hungry coyotes out there. Most of the time...a group can make the teck in about a day and a half..IF they keep moving...if they stop it's going to be about 2 days. Normally they drink about a gallon of water in about 5 hours assuming about 115 degree temps...and even that is not enough...I have yet to see a group make it to civilization still carrying water. My point in all this is to state that water is the single most important commodity in surviving desert environments...simply stated..you can not carry enough to make it for more than 2 days out there. I have seen men cut their own scrotums to get the fluids out to drink..it gets that desperate out there. I have seen men with there face full of cactus needles because they had no knife and simply bit into the cactus for fluids. A knife MAY help in that regard...I don't know I've never tried it...but I've never seen or heard of anyone living off cactus water in the desert out here.

Having said that...I do recommend having a knife in the desert...I've come across my share of Sidewinder snakes..let me tell you..they are aggressive creatures and will come right after you if they see you...one bite and you better hope you are near a hospital and not alone in the desert or you will probably die...so a knife can help you survive the many inhospitable creatures you are likely to find.

Bottom line....please don't try desert survival unless you really know what you are doing...there is very little help out there...and if you do try it...start with as much water as you can bring.

Rav
 
Quite an interesting thread!
I have to admit that due to Jebediah's and other posts I reached the point (not alone) to question some water procuring methods in survival (see Marion's thread). Credit to Jebediah who made his opinion very sound from the beginning.
wink.gif

I have to agree that in desert situation, either you carry enough water (my choice) or better know where to find it for sure (indigenous method). Best is both.
Still, it would be interesting to hear what people with desert experience suggest to look for when searching for water on the terrain. The L. D. Olsen book confirms my limited experience in the Southwest, that waterpockets on the sandstone rocks might be better than digging for example. Also, indicator plants (cottonwood mentioned by Bill Clancy) and terrain features might give some clue.
However, there might be reasonable technical limitations. Transpiration bags (bag over uncut plant), vegetation bag (bag over cut plant) and solar stills all depend on the concentration of water in the source and on the yield of the 'extraction' method.
If there is no vegetation or it has little water in it, you are left with the solar still. However, this already awkward technical design relies on the water content of the surface layers of the ground. Well, that is exactly the driest, especially if the terrain has not seen rain for months. That is why some desert plants have deep roots (maybe it is better to find one and pull a bag over it using it as a natural 'water pump').
With the vegetation, the problem might be if it has lot of woody tissue (low water content) and/or the leaves are adopted to drought (needle leaves with thick cuticule to minimize water loss by vapour or respiration). By making incisions on the plant, one might shortcut the cuticule barrier and open up more water-containing tissues for access to use a mixed vegetation/transpiration bag.
All techniques -at some extent- are based on the destillation spacial separation theory where you extract vapour and concentrate it at another place by reaching max vapour concentration by cooling. The yield -therefore- depends on some technical aspects:
-water content of starting material and its total mass (the more the better)
-maintenance of good separation (no leaks, high temp difference between source and collector, good spacial separation).

So, what to do?
Heck knows but at least we know that the problem exists.
What da ya think?

Best,

HM

(Sorry if it came out long but I can be quite 'keyboard happy' every now-and-then.)

 
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