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How To: Set up a hammock in the bush

There are nearly as many ways to set up a hammock in the bush as there are to skin a cat, to use the old cliche. This video demonstrates one simple way to set up a hammock in the bush. As the presenter explains, this simplicity is a blessing when you are out in the bush and need something to sleep in as quickly as possible. If you don't have a tent and there are trees around, hammocks are the superior choice for your survival and comfort because spiders and other pests that live on the ground...

How To: Tie a Button Knot lanyard

Think you're a knot master? Have you mastered the Button Knot? Simple and elegant, the Button Knot makes for more than just a decorative button; It makes for a wonderful lanyard leash. From Tying It All Together, learn how to tie a Button Knot lanyard in a just a few steps.

How To: Build and understand a rocket stove

Thinking about building a rocket stove? A rocket stove is simply made and accepts small-diameter fuel such as twigs or small branches, yielding high combustion efficiency and directing the resultant heat onto a small area. In this video learn how to make a rocket stove with the help of a few friends and items you can find in your own barn!

How To: Make a Royal Crown Sinnet

A Royal Crown Sinnet is a sinnet created by alternating wall knots and crown knots stacked on top of one another. This creates pretty, thick sinnet that anyone would be thrilled to have adorn their keychain, especially if you use alternating colored chords like they do in this video to create a very cool effect.

How To: Tie a taut line knot

With this free video tutorial, you'll learn how to tie a taut line knot. The taut line is an essential camping knot. Use it to tie your guyline to your rain or dinner fly. The knot is easy to tie provided, of course, you know how to go about making it. For an easy-to-follow, step-by-step overview of how to tie this useful camper's knot in a minute's time or less, watch this free video knot tyer's guide.

How To: Utilize evaporative cooling while camping

Keeping things like food and water refrigerated while you're camping in the bush is nearly impossible. Unless of course you've chosen to camp somewhere freezing cold. But if you haven't, evaporative cooling can be an effective technique to utilize for keeping water cool and food from spoiling as quickly. Obviously this can be crucial in a wilderness survival situation when your food supplies may be limited. This video outlines two ways to utilize evaporative cooling, first to cool a water bot...

How To: Give your knife skills a tune-up

The fine folks at The Pathfinder School present what they call a spring tune-up for for you knife techniques, which have presumable deteriorated during the winter. The host is trying out a new knife he has been asked to test, and uses it to make a trap knotch and drill into a log, among other things.

How To: Make a Doug's Deafall trap

If you're out in the wilderness, need food, and any sophisticated equipment like guns, catching food can be a very difficult proposition. In this video, we learn how to make a trap called Doug's Deadfall, a very simple but effective deadfall trap. It was culled from Les Stroud's book Survive. No word on who Doug is, but we owe him many thanks.

How To: Make an Adjustable Switchback Strap

With only his hands and some sparse text, JD of Tying It All Together teaches us how to make an adjustable switchback strap. This is both an easy way to carry lots of cord or string with you into the wilderness and a stylish fashion accessory. Tis is a very useful item for anyone to carry with them into a survival situation.

How To: Start a fire with a flint and steel

Brush up on your survival skills with help from this video. In this outdoor training tutorial, learn how to correctly start a fire using a flint and steel using paper and tissue. In the wild, without paper and tissue, a leaf and dry grass would most likely be used. Get your fire started with no problem with the skills taught in this video.

How To: Make a candy stripe bar

In this Disaster Preparation video tutorial you will learn how to make a candy stripe bar. The candy stripe bar is a slick way to create a strap of slanted lines. One of the many tying techniques used to create friendship bracelets, the bar can be modified to create stripes meeting at an angle. The line used in the video is a 450 test, 1/8” nylon parachute cord. To attach the cords to the ring, hang the ring on a hook, take two different colored cords and tie the cow hitch. For this, pass a...

How To: Tie double coin and cross knots

Tying it All Together shows how to do double loop knotting in this video tutorial. The tutorial outlines two different types of knots that can be done using two uncommon ways of tying the knots. The double coin know requires you to fold a piece of string in half laying the two sides of the string side by side. With a series of twists, turns, and coils you can create the coin knot. The second type of knot, cross knot, requires double loop knotting to create a squared-looking knot. As an additi...

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 a Swiss seat rope harness

In this tutorial, learn an important safety tip for the next time you head out camping or hiking. In this video, you will get advice on how to make a Swiss seat rope harness. You will learn to utilize a length of rope to make a field expedient rappelling harness, that is similar to the seat used by the military. With practice, you can tie this Swiss seat in 90 seconds or less. Essentially, this is a high speed, low drag way to make your own harness. This harness is useful for rappelling or ex...

How To: Make a "hobo" stove

In this tutorial, learn how to make a lightweight stove for camping and survival. You will learn how to make an ultra lightweight alcohol stove. This stove weighs only one ounce and has no moving parts. It only takes a few short minutes to make and will outlast most conventional stoves. This video will show you everything you need to know to get up and running with this mini stove. The stove boils in under five minutes and the fuel is super cheap. This is the perfect stove for hiking, backpac...

How To: Start a fire with the "fire piston" method

Nick Spadaro shows how to make a fire with a fire piston. This device creates fire by compression, just like a deisel engine. You can find these online. Lubricate the gasket with just about anything, including chapstick or animal fat. Then put it in and make sure you have a nice fit. Pick your tender, preferably birch tender fungus, a nice spongy material. Put it in the piston, and put the piston on your leg. Your going to want to strike the piston sharply, straight down, so as not to break t...

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: Gather & prepare wild edible foods

In this Disaster Preparation video tutorial you will learn how to gather & prepare wild edible foods. Autumn olives have golden dots on a red berry. The leaves have no spikes on the edges, are smooth on the top and are dark on the top and white on the bottom. You can use a basket hung around your neck for berry picking. Use a reaching stick made out of the branch of a tree as shown in the video to pull branches towards you for berry picking. Put all the berries in a bowl, mash them up with a ...

How To: Add fuel to a Zippo lighter

Zippo lighters are the epitome of cool, aren't they? They reek of James Dean and the Fonz and other Hollywood bad boys. In this tutorial, learn what to do when your lighter expires. This video will show you how to refill your lighter with new fuel so that you can keep on using it. So, the next time you see a pretty lady and offer her a light, you can be confident that your Zippo will be ready for action.

How To: Make a fire using flint

Start a fire in any setting for only one dollar! In this video, learn how to start a fire using a flint or magnesium stick, which can be purchased almost anywhere for about a dollar. This process is sure to come quick and easy with just a little practice.

How To: Purify water with portable water tablets

Kev Porter shows how to purify water using tablets. Kev advises that the first thing to do is read the instructions on the back. He uses portable water tablets. You add two tablets to a quart or liter of water. Place the cap loosely on the water bottle, wait five minutes and shake it. After shaking, you have to wait another three minutes making sure you tighten the cap. Once three minutes pass, add the neutralizing tablets. Place cap back on the water bottle tightly and shake it. This takes t...

How To: Make a mini survival kit in an Altoid's tin

WeaponCollector teaches viewers how to make a mini survival kit using an Altoid's tin. You can get an S.A.S. guide for exact instructions and further information on what you will need in an survival kit. First, you should make sure you have rubber bands around your tin to hold it shut. It is easier to get into it and it keeps it closed. You can also wrap the tin with a power cord. Elastic bands work better if you plan on using this everyday. Simply wrap 3 bands around the width and one around...

How To: Start a fire with the hand drill

John Campbell instructs the audience on using the hand drill method of starting a friction fires. First, you can use a piece of cottonwood as your fire-board (in his opinion, cottonwood is the best). You need to carve a small round hole about a quarter of an inch away from the edge on the fire-board. Then, you get the spindle going (take a sturdy stick and rub between your hands, scraping the stick across the board). This helps you create a good indention, where you can carve a deep notch int...

How To: Prepare a survival kit

This video shows you how to make a survival kit: i.e. which things to gather together to make a survival kit. This one fits in the palm of your hand. For this kit, you will need the following: a small cloth bag. It can be used to filter sediment out of water. It can also be used to make a patch in clothing.

How To: Make a Spartan spear from scratch at home

To make your very own Spartan Spear, like in the movie 300, you just have to follow a few short, easy instructions. Start off by taking a broom stick, and cutting off the end. Make sure your broom stick is empty inside. Then take a hammer and flatten the last few inches of it, hammering it into a point or a flat blade at the end. Cut off part of the tip at an angle on either side, then open it back up with pliers. A few inches below the opening, take your pliers and press in on the broom stic...

How To: Make a wooden spear from scratch

Making a wooden spear requires a between medium and small thick stick, a rectangular piece of board, a hatchet and a wood clipper. The branches off the stick is removed and thrown away. The stick is clipped at the smaller end. It is then placed on the board and the larger end is cut off with the hatchet, while the stick rotates in a circular motion on the board to remove the outer skin. Closer attention is paid the shaping and cutting of the point of that larger side to get it in formation. T...

How To: Start a fire using a firestarter

This video demonstrates how to make a fire without any matches using the Swedish Firesteel magnesium fire starter. You need to have some good tinder, such as dryer lint or a cotton ball. To make it burn longer, you can use petroleum jelly. He puts some Vaseline on the cotton ball. He demonstrates the fire starter by putting one metal part on the dryer lint and scraping the other part on it. A spark lights the dryer lint and it burns quickly. He demonstrates again with the cotton ball soaked i...

How To: Use a can to boil water while camping

Two cans are shown to demonstrate how they can be used to boil water. The first can has a hole cut out of the bottom and one for the top. The second can is cut at the top like a cup and the bottom left whole. Its placed on top of the first can. Cotton balls and petroleum jelly are inside of the bottom can, then lit with a match. Several sticks are used as kindling to keep the fire going. After about five minutes the heat of the flame on the bottom of the top cup causes the water up top to boil.

How To: Do a bow drill friction-fire method to start a fire

This video demonstrates how to build a fire with a bow drill. Your bow should be slightly curved. It should be the length of your arm. It can be fashioned from a tree limb and rawhide cord. You can use any number of types of cord. You will need a top rock. You will need a board. The board must be dry and dead. You will need a spindle. It should be the same type of wood as your board. You will also need a tinder bundle.

How To: Prepare snares

This video illustrate us how to prepare snares. Here are the following steps:Step 1:Take a wooden block and drill a hole in the corner of the block.Step 2: Now take a metallic wire and make a loop out of the metallic wire .Step 3: Now bind this loop with a binder and hook the loop to the wooden board.Step 4: Leave out some cable free and this loop gets tighter a the trapped animal tries to move. the more force applied the tighter the loops get.Step 5: Now place the snare along the fence or th...

How To: Make a coal burned container

John Campbell shows you how to make an all natural bowl with spout using hot coals to burn the desired shape into a block of wood. First you'll need to make a straw from a cattail stock by burning through the center with a hot coat hanger. John next demonstrates how to use this straw and some hot coals placed on the wood to burn the shape of a bowl and spout into the block. Finally, John uses a stone to sand the bowl down and remove the charcoal leaving a clean wooden container. The final res...

How To: Make fire without matches using acetone and magnesium

In this how-to video, you will learn how to make fire without using any matches. You will need Manganese heptoxide and acetone to do this experiment. You will also need a rod, pipette, and glass beaker. Please exercise caution before doing this experiment, as it involves fire. Place the Manganese heptoxide in the glass beaker. Using a pipette, place a few drops of acetone around it. Now, place a drop on top. Be careful, as the Manganese heptoxide will ignite as soon as the drop hits the mater...

How To: Start a fire with steel wool & a 9vt battery

This video shows the viewer how to start a fire using a steel wool and a 9 volt battery. This is done by first selecting a charge battery and clean steel wool. The gently rub the battery terminals across the steel wool and blow gently. The wool should glow and become superheated. This happens because the battery is short circuiting and the very thin steel wool is being melted by the high current. Once the steel wool is hot it can be used to ignite small pieces of flammable material such as ki...

How To: Purify muddy river water

In this video, we learn how to purify muddy river water. First, take a bucket of dirty river water straight from the river. This will be in a 2-5 gallon bucket. Now, add 1 packet of water Purifier per every 2 gallons. Stir this in for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Once the powder has been in the water for a full 5 minutes, it will purify the water and the dirt will all go to the bottom of the bucket! This is being used in Haiti where an earthquake destroyed the homes of many people who now ...