Active Survival Training Posts

How To: Tie Seven Basic Scout Knots

How good of a scout were you? This how-to video goes over seven different knots that every Boy Scout should know how to tie. 7 knots every scout should know is filmed from the knot-tying point of view. The bowline, clove hitch, sheet bend, taut line, timber hitch, square knot, and two-half hitch are covered. Watch this video knot-tying tutorial and learn how to do seven essential scouting knots.

How To: Tie a Great Hangman's Noose (Or Hangman's Knot)

The hangman's noose is infamous for its use in hanging prisoners during executions. It was supposedly invented in Britain but eventually spread throughout the world, going beyond the prisons and even into our own homes. But the hangman's knot isn't all doom and gloom. There are plenty of practical (and non-lethal) applications for the hangman's knot, like a fishing or boating knot. Everyone should know this roped knot; this tutorial will show you the knot-tying process. Just remember, to be a...

How To: Use dandelion tinder to make a fire

Need to make a survival fire, but don't have any matches and your lighter is out of fluid. Fear not, this how-to video can help. An empty flintwheel lighter can save the day when you need a fire. Dandelion seed puffs can be the perfect tinder for your spark. Watch this video tutorial to see how it works & learn a great survival tip.

How To: Boil Water on a Leaf in the Wilderness

This video shows a tip on how to boil water on a leaf in the wilderness. If you are stuck out in the wilderness and you don't have a plastic bottle for water you can use a leaf to boil water for drinking. Build a fire first. Then, find a large enough leaf you can hold over the fire without burning your hands. Fill the leaf with water and hold it over the fire. Only let the flames lick up against the leaf so it won't burn. The edges will curl up closed but the water will boil in about ninety s...

How To: Tie the Celtic heart knot

In this video, we learn how to tie the Celtic heart knot. Start off with your rope and make a loop in the middle of it. Now, bring the working en on the right side into the loop so you have a circle. Now, bring that end back into the knot and braid it through the other loop. Next, push this through the bottom loop, then braid it through the lines that are on the shape. After this, you will see a heart shape start to form. Pull gently on the heart with both sides of the rope and shape the midd...

How To: Purify Urine for Drinking with an Emergency Solar Still

It’s called Urophagia—the art of consuming urine. There could be any number of reasons for having the desire to drink your own urine (or somebody else’s). There’s the so-called term “urine therapy,” which uses human urine as an alternative medicine. In urine therapy, or uropathy, it’s used therapeutically for various health, healing, and cosmetic purposes. There’s also those people who drink urine as sexual stimulation, where they want to share every part of each other. And then there’s the o...

How To: Make a survival fire from a battery and staple

Check out this how-to video to start a fire using an AA battery and a staple. You can do this while listening to the classical guitar piece, "Malaguena" if you feel like it. It could save your life! With your battery: start by cutting the plastic away from the negative terminal. Watch the video survival training tutorial for more tips on starting an emergency fire!

How To: How the Headrest in Your Vehicle Can Potentially Save Your Life One Day

If you ever find yourself in a car that's submerged under water, your first instinct should be to try and open either the window or the door in the first few seconds of touching water. Unfortunately, if you wait any longer than that, the lopsided ambient water pressure subjected to the car will make it impossible to open the car door, and the now ubiquitous power windows will likely short out. Sure, you could wait until the pressure has equalized on both sides of the car, but this usually hap...

How To: Tie a pegged bowline knot

The pegged bowline, as demonstrated in this how-to video, is similar to a bowline on a bighte knot. Using pegs to construct knots is well documented. Simply tie the bowline as usual in the bight of the rope then peg the running end to the standing part. Watch this video knot-tying tutorial and learn how to tied a pegged bowline knot.

How To: Survive in a Falling Elevator

The tragedy of a falling elevator is not unheard of. This could happen to you at any time, and you will most likely not be expecting it. Who would step into an elevator if they had an idea it might plummet to the ground? The best thing you can do is be prepared. First you want to stay calm. Next you want to lie, belly down, on the elevator floor with your hands behind your head. Make sure you do not panic. This is crucial in times of crisis. When all is over, you'll notice that you're still a...

How To: Build a rocket stove

The rocket stove, invented by Dr. Larry Winiarski, was developed to require much less cooking fuel than a traditional stove. The rocket stove also emits less dangerously, as most of the energy burned turns into heat. To build this rocket stove, you will need sheet metal or a 5 litre metal can, clay, water, sawdust, a wooden mold, a clay brick, vermiculite or perlite, and cement. Learn how to build a rocket stove by watching this video tutorial.

How To: Remove Maggots from Your Eyeball

While maggots living in human eyeballs isn't necessarily a problem in the states, it could happen to you one day if a fly decides your warm eyeball is a suitable place for its larvae. If this rare event should happen, before you start gouging your eyeball out, remember this trick from National Geographic explorer and engineer Albert Lin and everything will be okay.

How To: Use a Light Bulb and the Sun to Make a Fire

Don't throw away your dead light bulbs, they may come in handy one day. This video will show you how to start a fire using a dead lightbulb. And no electricity. The tricky part is emptying out the insides, but this can be done with sticks and stones, assuming you're in a survival situation and just happen to have a light bulb with you for whatever reason.

How To: Make a trapeze spring snare to catch small game

Ryan teaches us how to make a trapeze spring snare to catch small game in this video. You will need: finishing line, a knife, paracord, and natural living wood. the trap will have two snares built into one mechanism. Start off by gathering all your wood and then place a stake down into the ground. Make a notch in your anchor to place a stick through it, then tie paracord down into a "y" shape tied down onto the stick. When you pull the string, there will be a lot of tension. Tie the center so...

How To: MAKE FIRE with a MAGNIFYING GLASS

90 seconds that could save your life. How to actually MAKE A FIRE with a lens, rather than just burning a hole in a leaf. (Or frying ants, which seems to be the other thing that kids like to do with magnifying glasses.) By forming your target material into an efficient ball, you will be able to start a fire even with very small lenses. Like less than an inch across small. The finer the individual fibres, and the more densely they are packed, the more effective is your ball of smigtin (smoulde...

How To: Build & Hide a Campfire from Your Enemies — The Dakota Fire Pit

Fire.  It’s everywhere— always has been.  From the Ordovician Period where the first fossil record of fire appears to the present day everyday uses of the Holocene.  Today, we abundantly create flames (intentionally or unintentionally) in power plants, extractive metallurgy, incendiary bombs, combustion engines, controlled burns, wildfires, fireplaces, campfires, grills, candles, gas stoves and ovens, matches, cigarettes, and the list goes on... Yet with our societies' prodigal use of fire, t...

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