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...
How To: Light a match without a matchbook cover
When your matchbook cover is shot, you can still get a light from a match. Learn how to light a match on the bottom of a coffee mug. Fun survival skills when you have a match and no cover - the ceramic of the mug provides the friction necessary to light a match.
How To: Eat & extract water from a cactus
John Campbell demonstrates how to eat and extract water from a cactus. You can eat a cactus from the hedgehog plant family. First, cut off the top of the cactus and skin down the sides, cutting off the cactus spines. Cutting the cactus will not hurt it because it can heal itself. The cactus meat will be like a sticky cucumber. Try to avoid the central core because it is stringy but you can eat the cactus meat. Wrap the meat in a bandana, squish it and wring it out to extract the water from th...
How To: Make Your Own Charcoal
Hello, all. In this article, I will be showing you how to make one of the most useful products known to man. I am talking, of course, about charcoal.
How To: Tie the caterpillar sinnet
Learn tot tie the caterpillar sinnet with this video tutorial. 1. To start the sinnet, place rope in hands with one piece in your left hand and the other in your right. 2. With the rope piece in your right hand, create a loop with the top of the loop being the piece from your left hand. 3. Take the piece of rope in your right hand and slip a small piece of rope through the loop. 4. Gently pull the rope in your left hand tight. This will have created a new loop and link below it. 5. To create ...
How To: Tie a right angle knot like Navy SEALS
You're underwater, and you need to tie a knot. (Hey, it could happen!) What do you do? In this tutorial from the folks at ITS Tactical, you'll learn how to tie a right angle knot. This is a knot used by navy SEALs, and if you ever end up needing to tie a knot underwater, you'll be very glad you watched this video.
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: 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: Make a Fire by Rubbing Two Sticks Together!
Here's a survival technique for making a fire with the most basic of resources—assuming you can find two sticks to rub together!
How To: Make a Slammin' Fire Piston for Under a Buck
Did you know that there's a way to start a fire by squishing air? In this project, I'll show you how to build a tool that does exactly that—and I'll give you a sneak peak into the principals of how a diesel engine operates!
How To: Light a fire with a piece of quartz and steel
Come on baby light my fire! If you're going to be a survivalist, the first thing you'll need to know is how to start a fire. This simply video shows how to use a piece of quartz and a piece of steel to build yourself a fire and stay alive! In addition, the video shows how to pack it all together in a nifty little Altoids tin.
How To: Make a primitive wilderness loom
Staying warm is important to making sure that you survive. Whether it be the end of the world or you find yourself lost in the wilderness, keeping dry and warm is key to survival. In this two part tutorial find out how to make a primitive wilderness loom and a mat to sleep on.
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: Build a Homemade Portable Water Heater for Your Outdoor Camping Adventures
Warm water is an essential part of life that we sometimes tend to take for granted. Over one billion people, or roughly one-seventh of the world's population, have no access to hot water.
How To: Make one meter of cordage from 2 leaves of Spiked Aloe plant
In a survival situation making cordage out of plants can enable you to construct apparatus you never would have been able to otherwise and save you life. This video will teach you how to make a meter of cordage out of 2 leaves from a Spiked Aloe plant.
How To: Make a simple coyote well water filter
When you're trying to survive in the wild, clean water is an absolute must. This video shows you a simple and easy method to build a basic water's edge, water filter device called a coyote well water filter. Though this filter will NOT remove toxins or pathogens, in an emergency it's an effective way of filtering out the big, nasty stuff.
How To: Make and set an Asian bird trap snare
All North American birds are edible and therefore a good source of meat if you're trying to survive in the wild. This detailed video shows how to construct and bait an Asian bird trap snare. You'll need some 150lb test bankline, some twigs, an available young sapling and something to bait your trap, such as wild berries.
How To: Build an emergency portable car heater for emergency situations
If you've ever gotten your car stuck in a blizzard or been lost on a wilderness drive in winter, you know that keeping that car warm is vital to your comfort and even survival. Using the heater means keeping the car on though, and that means consuming precious fuel. And what if the car breaks down? Watch this video for instructions on how to make a portable emergency heater for your car that will keep it between 60-70 degrees for about 24 hours burning only rubbing alcohol. It could save your...
How To: Tie a knarr viking merchant ship knot
In this handy knot-tying tutorial from JD of Tying It All Together, we learn how to tie a knarr knot. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started tying perfect knarr knots yourself, watch this video guide.
How To: Make a cheap billy can out of an empty paint can
A billycan can be used as either a water tight container, or as a pot for cooking food or boiling water. You can make a billy can for less than three dollars using an empty and clean paint can, a drill and a few small pieces of hardware.
HowTo: Drink Your Own Pee (Safely)
For my sake, for your sake, for everyone's sake: I hope it never comes to this, but you never know. Dire times call for dire measures.
How To: Start a fire with a "flint on marcasite" method
In this Disaster Preparation video tutorial you will learn how to start a fire with a "flint on marcasite" method. Mal Stephens, head instructor of Maine Primitive Skill School presents this video. Marcasite is a form of iron pyrite and you can get friction fire from fine grained iron pyrites. For the flint, you can use any hard stone. For the burning material, find some tinder fungus. Now hold the marcasite immediately above the tinder fungus and strike it with the flint. The sparks from the...
How To: Make sparks without matches or a lighter
How to make sparks without matches or a lighter
How To: Make a coiled basket to carry water in
Making a coiled basket can have be used for a variety or reasons, including the ability to carry much needed water. This four part tutorial teaches you how to make a coiled basket using the wilderness around you.
How To: Make your own compass
Matt Preye shows you how to make your own emergency compass. Here are two ways of making your own compass: If you have a sewing needle and a magnet you can magnetize the needle by running it down the magnet a few times. Find some stagnant water and set a leaf in it. Now set the pin down on the leaf, and the leaf will swing just like a compass. If you don't have anything other than the sun, you can do the following: Put a stick in the ground and then add more sticks at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm and ...
How To: Make a sun compass in the Southern hemisphere
This video gives you a quick and easy way to create a sun compass and how to use specifically in the southern hemisphere. With just the use of sticks, stones, and a shadow, you'll be able to get an accurate north/south line and determine your principle compass points. With the knowledge of course that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. This is a great alternative if you were to ever loose or break your compass when hiking, camping, or simply being adventurous outdoors.
How To: Tie a transport knot
Professional truck driver, Yesterday Irmani, teaches us how to tie a time honored, weight sustaining knot, for transportation purposes.
How To: Construct an improved figure four deadfall trap
Learn how to construct an improved version of the figure four deadfall trap. Learn how to survive in the wild. You never know when you'll be stranded on a desert island, lost in the deep woods, or be a contender for Survival, the TV show. This series of videos, by Hedgehog Leatherworks, brings you the basics in outdoor survival. Wilderness survival skills include fire starting, deadfall traps, primitive fishing, making jerky, rope & cordage skills, and more. For the outdoor enthusiasts, enjoy...
How To: Do the backpacker rope coil
How to coil a rope and wear it on your back. Learn how to survive in the wild. You never know when you'll be stranded on a desert island, lost in the deep woods, or be a contender for Survival, the TV show. This series of videos, by Hedgehog Leatherworks, brings you the basics in outdoor survival. Wilderness survival skills include fire starting, deadfall traps, primitive fishing, making jerky, rope & cordage skills, and more. For the outdoor enthusiasts, enjoy this video on backpacker rope c...
How To: Build a shelter in the Savannah
Check out this instructional safety video that demonstrates how to build a shelter in the Savannah. Rock walls, leaf roofs, and elephant dung mattresses might not make for the most ideal lodging, but they will protect you from the elements, and that is what really matters in the African Savannah. Check out this safety tutorial video and learn how to build a shelter in the Savannah. Build a shelter in the Savannah.
How To: Finish of the end of a rope with back braiding
Back braiding, as demonstrated in this how-to video, is used instead of a whipping to hold the strands at the end of a rope together. Back braiding is the simple process of braiding the loose strands of a piece of rope. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to back braid a rope.
How To: Tie a slip bowline knot
A bowline knot can tighten up really easily, in such a way that it's a headache to get the rope untied. The slip bowline knot, however, has a pull tab that releases the knot when you're ready. Watch this video knot-tying tutorial and learn how to tie a slip bowline knot.
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: 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: Survive an Icy Walkway Without Falling
The months of constant snowfall and freezing temperatures seems endless once the excitement of the first snowfall fades, and you become weary of traversing black ice and other slippery streets.
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 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: Make a Fire Using the Hand Drill Method
Here's a great video that shows how make make a hand drill fire from scratch using Stone Age tools...
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: Heat Your Home in an Emergency Without Gas Using Flower Pots & Candles
Not having power can make everyday tasks really difficult if you're unprepared. You have to find new ways to do things like cook dinner and charge your devices, and if it happens during the winter, you also have to figure out how to heat your home.
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