How to survive in the woods/jungle

Step 2 The knife

A knife is always important wether it's for sharpening sticks for traps, gutting animals or cutting sticks down to size to make a bivvy. A knife has come in handy to me more times than you could shake a stick at. lol...

You can make a knife but i find this to be a time consuming effort and is nearly pointless compared to some of the knives you can find on the market. i will however put a link in just incase you were curious with this instructable

I personally always carry a swiss army knife that has a lock on it whenever i go camping, you could however use a bog standard swiss army knife without a lock: upside is it does more stuff (you could probably find one out there with and umbrella on it) downside is you have to be careful because it wont lock. on the other hand a simple lock knife without any add ons is good: upside is it's light weight and simple, downside is there is nothing on there like a can opener or a fish scaler etc. If you really want to go over the top and do infact find yourself stuck in a particularly dense part of the woods/jungle you may want to have a machete handy. i got one whilst i was in uganda and i havent regreted it since.

regarding the machete my parents beg to differ....

Comments

[jrsh92]

The Opinel knives, as shown in the picture, are wonderful for just about everything. Easy to sharpen, inexpensive, with a good lock, and long lasting if treated correctly. Make sure to dry them out and then oil them or the wood soaks up water, swells, and the knife becomes VERY hard to open-- it's essential to have the knife dried and well oiled before going out in the woods, you'll never get it dry if it's raining and you might not have oil to treat the handle with while you're out there. Always have stuff like that in good condition, sharp, and otherwise well prepared ahead of time.

[That Inventor Dude]

I think those are the old "school trip to France while the teachers not watching" knife very famous, very good, and you can get them pretty much every where with lanes i.e. Brighton, London, some place in France where the teachers weren't paying attention

[greenwing hero]

yeah, i had heard about them long before i went to get one and it was twice as good as any knife in there that cost twice as much. generally a good all round knife, if looked after like you say

[afridave]

yip ive taken over your instructable im sorry (not really) ,but if i save a life its all good,another serious thing here (south africa is a largly semi to desert country and hot) is sunstroke,heat exhaustion,dehydration,all diffrent but related.A hat is mandatory,moving in temperature of 40c ,45c and above is just not a realistic option,Wake early move in the morning stop under shade from 10 am till 3pm (you can push this envelope depending how hot it is) and move again.always be aware of water,make sure you have it and can get it,dont waste it ,plan your route according to it (manage it).The sun can kill you before you are even aware you have a problem ,heat exhaustion and dehydration can cause irrepairable damage to your body which after it reaches a certain point cannot be treated anyhow and you will die.You can go home and die a week later from damage that was caused while out in the field.

[afridave]

an just by the way ive got that same camo jacket,its really awesome ,actually ive got about 5 camo jackets (im a freak yes i know my girlfriend tells me every day and she loves me so i know shes not lying) but that particular camo is one of my favs. as for knives girlfriend an i both carry 1907 lee enfield bayonets strapped into our rucksacks so they cant be seen an can be easily reached.most usefull knife,axe,spade,weapon,tin opener etc but a little heavy.
if you ever get to south africa go hiking in the cedarberg its like bieng on another beautifull planet

[afridave]

the lesson that i learned i will never ever forget,we were lucky it was a small isolated cloud cluster.had it been an established cold front we could have been in deep poo.DO NOT TAKE NATURE FOR GRANTED EVER.dont play with mountain enviroments,they are beautiful and awesome (best places on earth) but extremely unpredicatable,vicious and unforgiving,needless to say i never go anywhere,even a desert hot place without a good all weather jacket and good boots anymore. you can die of hypothermia in a couple of hours and its all good an well having MRES,knives,fire makers etc etc but they are all useless if you freeze to death in the first six hours.

[afridave]

nice tutorial.ive read a couple of these survival things and ive found one thing that all have missed (3 acutally).As far as im concerned no matter what climate or terrain you are in the single most important item you require is a really good all wheather jacket and almost on par with this comes good socks and the best boots you can afford.
A couple of years back me and some friends went for a short, relaxed gentle day walk (on a marked trail) in the mountains along the coast, near cape town.
It was a beautifull summers day,we left early and about 9.30 am we were getting hot.Some small insignificant clouds appeared far away out to sea an we paid no attention.
The clouds moved real quick an by 11am had reached the coast and pushed up against the mountain and we were now in the clouds.You could literally feel the temperature dropping by the second.I had a m65 style bush jacket which i put on but it was useless,After 10 to 15 min we were wet and it was so cold that my hands and fingers were burning.visibility was down to about 5 to 10 meters.
We walked up through the cloud (about 2 hours) and once we were above it were back in 30degc sunshine.It was an absolutly awesome and unforgetable experience bieng above the clouds and seeing all the mountain peaks sticking out above them,it was also a little scary in the clouds.

[flubs]

 my dad OKed a machete for me. just to cut thorns in our ranch and to chop coconuts and pineapples

[gungecko]

maybe 2'3"

[gungecko]

ive got a machede from vietnam

[greenwing hero]

really. how big is it?