Survival Skills

When SHTF, you will be dealing with multiple threats to your life and the lives of your loved ones. On top of the chaos, you may find yourself in a situation where traditional products and medicines are inaccessible, simply unavailable, or cost-prohibitive even if you could get to them safely. …

This is a quicker-to-tie version of the standard trucker’s hitch, which affords a mechanical advantage for pulling a load (like a pulley or a winch might). It’s really useful for things like tent guylines or cinching down lashings (like for bundles of kit on the back of a truck) really …

The Poldo Tackle is a mechanical advantage system made of rope, specifically for drawing two objects together. In practice, only one object has to actually move, as this is enough for the two to get closer: a load drawn up towards the ceiling, the sides of a backpack being compressed …

The Directional Figure of Eight is a directional loop, meaning that the loop lies naturally along the axis of the rope it is tied in (unlike for example the Alpine Butterfly, which stands perpendicular to the rope). So this knot should be used when the load on the loop is …

The Barrel Hitch is a knot for lifting a bucket, barrel or similar container straight up, as for moving equipment in. You are unlikely to need it often, but will be very glad of it when you do. This knot was often used by sailors for hoisting barrels or buckets …

This is the ultimate gripping hitch, especially made for tying one line to another or to pole or post when the pull is the direction of the first line. It would be the perfect gripping hitch but for it’s complexity: it is very difficult to learn and remember how to …

Just about every doctor will tell you that Q-tips aka cotton swabs are NOT recommend for cleaning your ears but did you know they were invented for exactly that purpose? And, the idea was inspired by a mom. It’s true. In the early 1920’s, Leo Gerstenzang, an immigrant from Poland, …

Foraging for wild berries is definitely a prickly adventure, but the payoff is definitely worth all of the bother. Growing, raising, and hunting for your own groceries are the primary parts of a survival food plan, but foraging may also be essential to staving off starvation during a long-term disaster. …

Look around the gun sphere next time you are out and about on the internet. When you watch all the cool videos of various drills and training evolutions, does anything strike you as strange? When discussing a “what would you do?” scenario with friends or colleagues, does it seem like …

Fire extinguishers are used across the globe on a daily basis to put out fires and save structures from destruction. Since the first extinguisher was patented in England in 1723, extinguishers have allowed bystanders to stop fires before they could get out of control. There have been many different designs, …