Provide First Aid

If you have significant injuries, treat these before moving on.  A little bit of blood loss won't kill you, but if you don't stop the bleeding, you may die of shock. 

Build a Fire

Fires keep you warm, dry you out, signal for help, boil your water and keep your spirits up.  

Fire Building is one of the most important and difficult to master skills of Wilderness Survival.  Your ability to survive may very well depend on this vital skill.  Make sure you have 2 different methods of starting a fire and practice using different techniques to start fires. 

Survival Gear

Survival gear should be based on your priorities of survival, environment and skill set.  When possible, select gear that has multiple uses.  Your knife of course is the most versatile tool for survival. 

The Knife show here has multiples uses:

• Knife Blade

  • Split, shave and process wood for fire

  • Process wood and vegetation for shelter

  • Process wood for primitive fire making

  • Make traps and snares for food

  • Processing food

  • Cut up clothing or gear to make dressings, bandages, slings, splints and tourniquets 

  • Turn into a spear tip

  • Improvised uses not ideal for blade longevity

    • Chip away at ice for water or food

    • Digging hole

    • Prying 

• Knife Spine with sharp 90° edges

  • Process wood into tinder fuzz

  • Process vegetation for cordage

  • Strike Ferrorod

  • Flint and steel fire starting if you have high carbon blade

  • Smoothing out wood craft - like spoons

• Ferrorod

  • Start fire for warmth, treating water, signal for help

  • Expedient light signaling 

• Sharpener

  • Keeps blade and spine sharp

  • Striking matches

  • Sharpen stones and metal into edged tools

  • Sharpen fish hooks and needles

• Ranger Bands

  • Cut up innertube rings used for securing gear 

  • Use to silence gear that jingles when you move

  • Use to start fire

• Tinder Cord

  • Small amount of string

  • Fire starting

  • Fishing lure

  • Makes ferrorod easier to find on ground

• Plastic Sheath

  • Holds everything together

  • Plug hole in bottom to create small waterproof container

  • Scrape to make tinder

  • All sorts of accessories can be added to a sheath

Other benefits:

• Worn on body

  • Always have it

• Orange

  • Easy to see if left on ground