If a Survival Knife Is All You Have

A survival knife is a necessary tool for a multitude of reasons. If there is one tool that you must have in the outdoors, it is a knife. Knives are the one tool humans have been using for thousands of years and for good reason. A quality survival knife can help you accomplish a multitude of outdoor tasks from simple to complex. Armed with your knife and adequate self-reliance skills can equate to providing shelter, fire, food and overall survivability.

BUILD A SHELTER

If you’re in the wilderness with only a survival knife and you need to find a shelter, you have a few options. The easiest, most energy-efficient option is to create a debris nest that you can lie in. Gather together leaves, pine needles, and moss, and make a pile. You want to have a layer to lie on and a layer to put over yourself. The purpose of this nest is to trap your body heat and provide you with some shelter. You can use pine branches for the bedding layer. Your survival knife will allow you to gather the needed material to make a mattress and covering.

If it is raining, you will need to build a lean-to. Find a low crotch in a tree where you can place a ridgepole and then cut or find other branches that can be leaned against the ridgepole. Once you have all the branches up, cover with forest debris so it will block the gaps between the branches. Then build your nest inside the structure.

LIGHT A FIRE

Fire has been mans friend for thousands of years. It has provided warmth, heat for cooking and deterred unwanted nuisances since man’s beginning. Your survival knife can be a means of providing you with the ability to cut limbs, make kindling and gather the beginnings of a necessary fire. A quality knife can also help to carve out a bow drill or help provide some other means of starting a friction fire.

FOOD

Everyone knows you can’t survive very long without food. One reason you need a quality survival knife is its usefulness when gathering food. From making snares and traps to catch your lunch or making a spear by fastening your knife to the end of a pole, a survival knife is a must. Whether it’s cutting pine needles for boiling; to prevent vitamin deficiency, or cutting off a frog leg for dinner, a knife is the one thing you don’t want to be without.

THE RIGHT SURVIVAL KNIFE

Self-reliance is the key to any survival situation. Preplanning and preparation start by having quality survival gear. The Pathfinder Store offers various models of survival knives that can fit your particular need and budget. For more information on self-reliance basics read Dave Canterburys 5 C’s of Survivability.