Hot Survival Training How-Tos

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: 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: 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 the artillery hitch in the wild

Tying knots and hitches can be an important survival technique. Having the right kind of knots made can make sure you're able to hold on to whatever it is you need. An artillery hitch or loop, is something that is used because it does not bind under tension and can be removed easily afterwards. This is a very complicated knot to perform so pay attention to this tutorial above and good luck!

How To: Tie a snake knot

The snake knot is mostly decorative, not ideal for situations requiring a really strong knot. You can use it to make keychains and do all sorts of other things. In this video the folks at ITS Tactical teach you how to tie a snake knot quickly and easily.

How To: Tie the "Asheley's flower knot" flower knot variation

In this how-to video from the TyingItAllTogether Channel, learn how to tie Clifford W. Ashley's flower knot. Ashley is the author and illustrator of a book he wrote about tying various types knots, including ones that he created himself. In his book, Ashley shows how to tie this knot, but does not show in his illustrations how to actually hold and tie the knot in one's hand. This video tutorial seeks to clarify those steps. You will need to begin with a piece of rope folding it in half to eff...

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 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: Tie a perfect "good luck" knot

In this knot-tying tutorial, we learn how to fasten a perfect "good luck" knot—a knot so named because it is said one requires quite a lot of luck to tie it properly. Not so, says video creator TyingItAllTogether. For all of the relevant details, and to get started tying this knot yourself, take a look.

How To: Tie the basket weave knot

In this video, we learn how to tie the basket weave knot. First, place the string on a hook, then cross the two sides and make a loop. Next, make the loop wider and take the right and left strings up, then pull the loops down to make a pretzel shape. Now, twist the bottom loops around and place one on top of the other. After this, push them on either side of each other, then bring the right string around and loop it through the left loop, then bring the left string into the right bottom loop....

How To: Build an Emergency Rucksack with a Poncho & Rope (The Horseshoe Pack)

There’s a good chance that you’ll be alone in life one day, and no... I’m not talking about a couch-bound, dateless loser with a pocket pussy and a bag of potato chips. I’m talking about alone. In the wilderness. Hungry. Cold. Lost. You can’t stay in one place too long, so it would be nice to have something to carry your belongings in. Maybe it’s post-apocalyptic land where you’re the sole survivor, and all the backpacks and rucksacks in the world are but mere ash. Either way, knowing this si...

How To: Build an igloo in Minnesota

This video tests the idea that an igloo, once left to freeze in the extreme cold, will be strong enough to stand on without collapsing. The experiment takes place in Minnesota where the temperature was fifteen degrees below zero at the start. Begin by shoveling snow into a dome-shaped pile. In the video, the dome is approximately six feet across at the base and three-and-a-half to four feet tall. Let the pile freeze for about two hours. The temperature had warmed up to about eleven degrees be...

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 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: 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...

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