Rough Camping & Survival Tips

[Dinosaur]

Whip & Rope Making Aussie Style

Regards
Rob

 

[observe]

Chris survived for 114 days ALONE in this [hunting cabin] bus in the Alaskan wilderness before he died...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53106441

 

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FIRE.!!!

This method uses a plastic wrap material suspended in an embroidery frame with water poured onto it.

The weight of the water causes the plastic wrap to stretch in a shallow parabola that creates a water lens.

As with any lens there is a focal point where you would focus the sunbeam to a small point that when focused onto some tinder is hot enough to ignite it.

Elevate the lens high enough to focus the sunlight by using various items to support the frame, in this case two plastic buckets, two boards, and two bricks.

Water lenses need to be undisturbed by wind or by its support system so a windless day with a steady support system is crucial.

 

[observe]

The itching of just sitting still the whole day in the hotel room during day 7/14 quarantine has resulted in a bit 'creative' thorn arrow point fastened with a fire-hardened plastic bottle rope and some red nylon string using only my SAK pocket knife
---just for because!
I think this type of set-up with these mostly picked-up materials could maybe have some real-life applications as well?

Monster Acacia Thorns!

Help me out, of what creative uses can they possibly be in a primitive hunting/survival camping situation...?

1] Gorge Fishing Hook ?

2]Bird/Rabbit hunting arrow tips ?
3]Fishing/Frog hunting spear barbs ?
4]Light 'nails' in a shelter/tree to hang something on ?
5]Crude emergency needle ?
6]Boma' with lots of thorn branches protecting your camp ?
7] Tooth-pick ?
8] Blow-darts ?

 

[observe]

D.I.Y. Reed Knife

My reed knife is finished using my SAK pocket knife,just for because....

I am really surprised at how sharp this primitive piece of 'nothing' is !

It definitely has multi-purpose uses in survival or hunting etc.!

On youtube I even saw a guy in a survival simulation slaughtering a whole crocodile with only a piece of reed!
These off -cut handles are covered with a piece of plastic bottle 'rope' and then just hardened with a BIC flame.
The main blade is still attached to a round reed handle.
My reed knives are surprisingly sharp and cut an apple and even a soft pear with ease!
Bamboo is even better!
Careful, it's NOT a toy!

 

[observe]

And this cheap and flimsy takeaway plastic knife and fork is not really working for me, so what other choice do I have, but to replace it with D.I.Y. crafted reed replacements....??

 

[nztimb]

This is not a down on the post but a serious question.
So you have a perfectly functioning knife and use it to make a knife to do stuff with. Why wouldnt you just use the perfectly functioning knife to do the stuff with and in a survival situation can the reed knife be made without a functioning knife to make it?? I understand the making of it for the pure fact of making it but in a survival situation can it be done without the functioning knife to do so and if not what can be used to make it that wouldn't otherwise be used to do the job you want the reed knife for.

 

[observe]

Von Gruff, valid questions
Reed "points" got many uses after you made them with your pocket knife in this case eg spear/,arrow points and even some traps.
So, reed products can be used with your steel knife, depending on your situation, location and intended use.
Secondly, without a steel blade its more difficult to work with a hard reed for sure, but by rubbing the reed against a suitable stone or rock, it can be shaped into a cutting blade as well.
Thirdly, without a steel blade or rock availabe, it become increasingly more difficult to use reed ,but still not impossible.
For a reed knife to skin and butcher an animal, you actually need omly very thin strips of labout finger breath lenghwise broken reed. The reed can be beaten on the ground till it split, or broken in the fork of a tree etc.
Palm lenght splinters on avarage is ideal. Care must be taken though, as the splinters will mostly be double edged and very sharp. So the "handle" part had to be made blunt to hold on to.
Also, as the trigger finger will be used to push down on the blade for better control during skinning and cutting, ,tthat part of the reed must also be dulled.
So one of the biggest problems with a reed blade is NOT so much to sharpen it, but to blunt part of it so you dont cut/hurt yourself while using it!
Reed and even more so bamboo are excellent resources to learn and utelize in nature for blade related purposes apart from their many other uses.
I used my pocket knife in these small projects , just to tinker a bit.
On youtube a guy used a single reed/bamboo stem and after crushing it, on the ground got enough "blades" out of that single stem to process a thick skinned 5 ft crocodile!
The blades are sharp enough and when they became dull, some fiber /hair can also be pulled lenghthwise from the cutting edge to sharpen it again, or it can just be swapped for a fresh piece of reed slinter .
So to answer your question, yes, reed can be utelized without a steel blade, though it will be difficult, thats why it pays to "play" with one from time to time just to get the hang of it.
I am sure there are many more knowledgable friends here that can give more advice.

 

[nztimb]

Thank you. Appreciate the full answer.

 

[Red Leg]

Some years ago while hunting the Caprivi, we had a day to kill before heading back south for plains game. We decided to go fishing and our tracker quickly put together a "gig" made of cane and acacia thorns for catching frogs for bait. He said they also used them to take small birds. As you can tell by the thorn tips, it worked very well on amphibians.

 

[observe]

These reed blades are sharp enough to do the job, and when they became dull, some fiber/hair can just be pulled lengthwise from the cutting edge to sharpen it again, or it could be swapped for a fresh piece of sharp reed splinter!

 

[Dinosaur]

This is not a down on the post but a serious question.
So you have a perfectly functioning knife and use it to make a knife to do stuff with. Why wouldnt you just use the perfectly functioning knife to do the stuff with and in a survival situation can the reed knife be made without a functioning knife to make it?? I understand the making of it for the pure fact of making it but in a survival situation can it be done without the functioning knife to do so and if not what can be used to make it that wouldn't otherwise be used to do the job you want the reed knife for.

G'day Von Gruff

Definitely a good question there, but sometimes it pays to make a back up knife if for some unknown reason your good knife is lost (eg: falling into the river, or an old concealed mine, or even a curious monkey may take a liking to the shiny blade.

I have watched a TV Series 'Naked & Afraid) when a couple of naked people get thrown out in the wild for a few weeks, they only get given a video camera each, and one item of their choice. The item usually being a fire lighter, or a knife. In this case, if you have a treasured blade and your partner decides to use it, well, some people are just so careless with other peoples items. On one episode a lady cracked it and threw her colleagues stuff into the river. This is a time when you really need to make other tools.

Observe has some great stuff, even if I may thankfully never will have the opportunity to put the ideas to use, but you just never know ???

Regards

Rob

 

[nztimb]

G'day Von Gruff

Definitely a good question there, but sometimes it pays to make a back up knife if for some unknown reason your good knife is lost (eg: falling into the river, or an old concealed mine, or even a curious monkey may take a liking to the shiny blade.

I have watched a TV Series 'Naked & Afraid) when a couple of naked people get thrown out in the wild for a few weeks, they only get given a video camera each, and one item of their choice. The item usually being a fire lighter, or a knife. In this case, if you have a treasured blade and your partner decides to use it, well, some people are just so careless with other peoples items. On one episode a lady cracked it and threw her colleagues stuff into the river. This is a time when you really need to make other tools.

Observe has some great stuff, even if I may thankfully never will have the opportunity to put the ideas to use, but you just never know ???

Regards

Rob

I have always been very interested in making stuff and relying on myself when it come to life so all the posts Observe has put up are of real value for those of us who regard these things as important to know.