Survival situations can happen when you least expect it, or in places where such a thing doesn’t make sense. Even your regular run or evening walk can turn dangerous, and a simple survival kit can make all the difference.

These items are lightweight, easily-carried and could save your life if you're injured while running. From left: handwarmers, cell phone, flashlight, knife, Boy Scout flint stick, whistle, and firestarter.

by Leon Pantenburg

Maybe you’ve gotten into the habit  of taking a run in the same urban area every evening. Then, one evening, the endorphins kick in, and you decide to double the usual mileage. As darkness approaches, you realize you have to get back to the car before it gets really dark. You slip, twist your ankle and can’t move.

Or you might decide to go for a walk and just take off without thinking to tell someone where you went. You’re strolling along, relaxing and enjoying the iPod, and letting the stress from the office dissipate. Then, as it starts to get dark, you realize you’ve taken a wrong turn and are lost. And pretty soon, it will be pitch dark, and you can’t see the path.

Maybe you have your routine down, and are so set in the pattern that you don’t consider the potential danger. After all, you don’t  go that far from your home, and this isn’t some wilderness area…

A similar situation happened to Bend, Oregon resident Karen Johnson. (Click on highlighted word to read Johnson’s complete story.)  She nearly died of hypothermia after slipping on the ice and  breaking her leg. The area she was running in was a popular, well-used trail. But when Johnson was injured, there was no one around. Only prior preparations, her survival equipment, and being very, very lucky saved her.

Here’s a few tips on what survival equipment to take, and the links to find them,  on a run or an evening walk. These items are lightweight, take up little space and can easily be fitted into a fanny pack or jacket pocket.

• Leave a note or verbal message about where you’re going and when you’ll be back: Even if you’re only expecting to be gone for a little while, nobody will know where to look for you. They might think you went to a movie, the library or some place where you had to shut off your cell phone.
• STOP: Stop, Think, Observe, Plan. This survival mindset exercise applies to every survival situation. Know how to use it.
• Cell phone: You can call for help if you need to. Even if you can’t get coverage, leave your phone on. The pings to your phone from the nearest cell tower can be traced.
• Small flashlight: If you end up out after dark, the flashlight can help you get safety out of the dark places. Not to mention, the psychological boost it can provide if you have to stay in one place and wait for help.
• Whistle:A whistle carries further than your voice, and won’t give out. You
  

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  can signal for help more effectively, and sometimes a whistle works to scare off potential bad guys.

• Flint stick or lighter and firestarter: If you’re injured, you may be able to build a fire for warmth, signaling and as a morale boost. It will help you stay in one place so you can be rescued. Strike It, Matchless Firestarter
• Small knife: I carry a Swiss Army knife Classic everywhere. The blade can be used to strike sparks of a flint stick, whittle kindling,  or cut string. The tweezers, scissors, toothpick and file also have multiple uses. Victorinox Swiss Army Classic Pocket Knife
• Lanyard: Combine everything together on a lanyard so you can wear it around your neck or tie it to your clothing. If the gear is tied to you, it won’t be lost.
• Handwarmers: Even if the weather is warm, a runner will cool rapidly if he can’t move. The handwarmers can be placed on the chest or torso to keep the vital areas warm. HeatMax Hot Hands 2 Handwarmer (40 pairs)
• Water: Hydration is always a good idea. If the water gets too heavy, you can always drink it, or pour it out. Platypus Sport Bottle

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There is more than just meat to harvest from a big game animal. With a little thought and ingenuity, you can find useful projects that will use many of the other parts of the animal!

The best way to show respect for the big game animal you harvest is to use as much of it as possible.

by Leon Pantenburg

Before the foreigners arrived on the American scene, the indigenous people used virtually every part of  a big game animal.

They had no choice! The carcass of a deer, elk, buffalo, antelope or other game animal was their combination grocery/hardware and home store. A large animal provided the raw materials for food, shelter, weapons and virtually everything else needed for wilderness survival.

Today, a harvested big game animal is still a great survival resource. And, IMO, the best way to show respect and appreciation for the animal whose life you took  is to use everything possible.

To start with, every shred of usable meat should be harvested. That means learning butchering and meatcutting skills to most effectively cut, wrap and preserve the meat. (Every prepper and survivalist should know basic butchering as a survival skill!) Get good tools, and practice cutting and wrapping meat whenever you can. The better you are at butchering, the less meat you’ll waste.

Get a meat grinder or grinding attachment for your blender. I have been using the same Osterizer blender with grinder for over 20 years. By now, it has ground up the meat from a small herd of deer and elk and is still going strong.

The ability to make your own hamburger is cost-effective, and assures you save all the tougher and less flavorful cuts to eat.

Don’t neglect the organs. In October, after a successful elk hunt in Oregon, the intact heart was saved from one elk  carcass. It was donated to  Mountainview High School (in Bend, OR) to be used in the anatomy class for dissection.

Dog Food: My office supervisor is Belle, an 11-year-old Labrador (non)Retriever, and there are no wasted scrap meats at my house.

While butchering, meat scraps are placed in gallon Ziploc bags, labeled, and frozen. Later, the scraps will boiled and used to supplement Belle’s  food. The broth is also saved. Belle’s favorite meal is  boiled elk or deer scraps, with broth, poured over her regular dry dog food.

Dog Liver Treats: If boiled deer scraps are Belle’s favorite meal, then baked liver treats are her favorite food on earth! If you don’t personally like liver, don’t leave it in the gutpile! (Take along a 2-gallon Ziploc bag and it will be big enough to carry a bull elk liver!) Give the liver to someone who will eat it, or use it to make dog treats.

Store  the completed liver treats in a plastic sandwich bag in the freezer until ready to use. If you don’t have a dog, give the treats to somebody who does. I imagine other organ meats could be prepared in a similar manner.

In no particular order, here are some suggestions to make the fullest use of that elk, deer or antelope carcass.

Soap: If an animal has fat, that fat can be rendered into lard, and made into soap. I made some soap one year from a fat whitetail doe, and distributed it to the rest of the hunting club members for Christmas presents. I called it “Buck Rub,” but think about it while you’re while out on stand, and you can probably come up with a better name!

Soapmaking expert Karla Moore, owner of Heart of Iowa Soapworks, regularly makes soap with a variety of wild game tallows. Click here to get her recipe for a basic  bar soap.

Hides: I am too lazy to attempt braintanning a hide like the Indians did.  But the hide can still be kept, rolled up in a garbage bag in your freezer,  until it can be donated to a worthy cause. In many areas, barrels are placed at check stations to collect hides, and local civic clubs process the hides as fundraisers.

In my hometown of Bend, OR, the local taxidermist trades hides for leather gloves. The hide has value, even if you don’t personally want to tan it.

Fishing Lures: If you know a fly tier, give the tail to him or her. The hollow hairs of a whitetail make great lures, and flytiers – good ones, anyway – are notorious, constant scroungers of natural materials such as animal hairs, feathers and other stuff. Play your cards right, and you might get some neat flies back.

Buck Tail jig: One of the finest all-around lures I know of  is a simple leadhead jig tied into a
bucktail. Making one is simplicity itself – all you have to do tie some of the long tail hairs to the jig and go fishing.

Tip the jig with a minnow or a nightcrawler and and you have a very effective rig for catching walleye or northern pike. One of the most effective colors for the jig is the hair’s natural brown.

Antlers or Horns: Talk about a useful material! You can make handles for knives, and other tools, and use them for a multitude of pioneer products.

Saw an antler into thin slices, drill two holes in the center, and you have bone buttons. These become prime barter items at historic re-enactments or mountain man rendezvouses.

I used a piece of horn for the handle of my blackpowder rifle’s round ball short starter. It’s easy to make powder measures out of antler tips. Just cut off the desired length, clamp it into a drill press and start drilling. Pour sand or salt into the hole from a powder measure, and keep enlarging the hole  until you get the right sized hole for the desired volume. When you’re done, check the capacity of the horn with a powder measure and gunpowder. These are so easy to make, you can have several.

Elk Ivory: Every elk has two ivory molars in the back of their jaws. Make sure to take a pliers or Leatherman along.

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One reader wondered why hot, tasty food is categorized as a survival item on SurvivalCommonSense.com, and why I claim recipes are a survival tool. Well – that’s a really good question! So here is a story from World War II about food and its affect on morale.

American tank at Bastogne. (US Army photo)

by Leon Pantenburg

I am a history nerd, particularly fascinated by World War II. That  historical aspect is embedded in my psyche: When I was growing up, it seemed as if every adult male I knew was a WWII veteran.

In my immediate family, my Dad was an infantry captain in both the European and Pacific theaters; my Uncle John Lynch, US Coast Guard, drove landing craft on Iwo Jima and Okinawa; Uncle Harold Lindeman was an MP in the European theater; and Uncle Fredrick Wirth served in the Aleutions.

To my frustration, none of these men ever talked about their service!

In 2003, I wrote “Vanishing Heroes,” a special edition tribute to World War II veterans that published in the
Bend, OR, “Bulletin” on Veterans Day. I was privileged to interview a variety of  service members from all branches and who served in every theater.

For me, the Battle of the Bulge has always been particularly fascinating. (To read more about that battle, click here.) On Dec. 16, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes Forest that caught the Allies completely by surprise. One of the keys to the battle was in the town of Bastogne, Belguim. Whoever controlled Bastogne controlled the roads needed for further penetration of Allied lines.

My uncle Fred was in Bastogne during the entire siege, which  lasted from Dec. 20 through Dec. 27. The besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton’s Third Army, which included my dad. Despite my pestering, neither ever talked about that battle.

The World War II memorial at Bastogne today.

So interviewing Corporal Francis C.  Buck, (Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division), was an incredible privilege!

Buck made four combat jumps with the 82nd, which included drops at Sicily, Salerno, D Day and Operation Market Garden.

He had been wounded at the La Fiere Bridge on D-Day (To read more about the La Fiere battle, click here). After he recovered, Buck ended up being one of the reinforcements rushed to Bastogne to prop up the disintegrating American lines. When it came to survival gear, the troops were not prepared at all.

What food they had was cold, canned rations, with no way to heat them. They didn’t dare make a fire, and the soldiers had to tough out the long, frigid nights.

To quote from “Vanishing Heroes”:

“The only jump we made during the Battle of the Bulge was from the back of a truck,” Buck said. “We didn’t have any equipment and very little ammunition. No gloves and no winter clothes, just jump boots. We put up a tent and each of us had a blanket.”

Buck and his comrades set up a defensive line, and Buck periodically would take off his boots and massage his feet to keep them from freezing.

“I used my boots for a pillow,” Buck said. “I woke up to two inches of new snow.”

The Germans attacked at dawn, and Buck went on to describe the intensity of the fighting that day.

“So what was the worst part?” I asked. (Before the words were out, I regretted them. Talk about insensitive!)

Buck thought a few moments.

“It’s tough – really tough – to fight in snow and cold. We didn’t stay warm, and my feet froze. One man shot himself in the foot to get off the line,” Buck said. “But the hardest part is the cold, frozen chow.”

Buck saw my raised eyebrows and  elaborated.

Reinforcements enter Bastogne on Dec. 27, 1944 (US Army photo)

“Sometimes, the only thing you have to look forward to is a hot meal,” he said. “The day may have gone to hell, but if you think there’s  a hot meal coming, that may be the high point. It gives you something familiar in a really bad situation.”

In one instance, during a brutal  artillery barrage, Buck said he was crouched in the bottom of his foxhole, “scared to death and shaking from more than the cold.”

“It was funny, what comes to mind,” he said, chuckling. “I remember thinking how good a cup of hot coffee would taste.”

“Vanishing Heroes”  went on to win the 2004 National Journalism Award from the American Legion and numerous other local and regional awards.

Napoleon said an army “marches on its stomach.” And the interview with Buck re-enforced what I had learned from several other “Vanishing Hero” participants: Hot, tasty food is vital to helping maintain a survival mindset, be it in a battle or a wilderness emergency!

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It doesn’t matter if you’re planning a quick snowshoe trek or an hour-long stroll along a wooded path. Common sense dictates that basic survival tools be taken along. Above all, this gear, or kit, must be lightweight and convenient to carry, or it gets left behind.

by Leon Pantenburg

That said:  BEWARE! If you don’t know how to use the materials in the kit, and don’t practice with them, you may develop a false sense of confidence. This attitude could get you in a lot more trouble!

Keep basic tools with you at all times. On the keyring: LED flashlight, fingernail clippers, whistle, Boy Scout Hot Spark and Classic Swiss Army knife. The other knife rides in a pouch on my belt.

Mention survival kits among recreationists and an argument/discussion will follow.

At one end of the spectrum is the guy who takes the heavily-loaded backpack full of gadgets, doo-dads, knick-knacks and neat stuff. He may not go far, because of the pack’s weight, but he’ll be safe. Unless, one time, he decides to leave all that stuff at the car, since he’s never used anything and it’s damned heavy. And he’s just going a little way…

Then he becomes the optimist, the guy at the other extreme.  Since he’s never been in an emergency situation, then it stands to reason that nothing will ever happen. He denies the need for survival gear, because he’s never been in an emergency.

Somewhere between these extremes is the common sense approach.

Here’s my take (and of course, this opinion may place me squarely in the survivalist wacko camp!): Everyone should have a collection of survival tools with them at all times.

As I type this, I have a butane lighter in my pocket, a whistle, knife, fingernail clippers, LED flashlight, small knife and magnesium stick on my belt clip, and a Swiss Army knife in my belt pouch. My wallet has firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror in it. This gear goes with me everywhere it’s legal.

Suppose I have to run out of my house, right now. Let’s say an earthquake just hit and all the pictures are falling off the walls and it’s in the middle of January. If I have to sprint for the door and can’t grab anything else, I have the minimum tools on me to build a fire for ourselves and the neighbors, stay warm, help others and signal for help.

If I can grab my jacket on the way out the door, there is an Altoids tin mini-survival kit in the pocket. And if I can get to my car there is a full component of survival gear in there, including food, water, a sleeping bag, and several tarps. I won’t waste any time looking for equipment, when the walls may literally be falling down around me.  This will come in very handy for a quick evacuation due to a forest fire, urban natural gas leak, tsunami warning, forced evacuation of the neighborhood or city.

Any personal survival kit will ultimately boil down to opinion, knowledge, skill levels and the season.

Let’s start here: Many experts agree that a MINIMUM KIT should contain the following materials. Here are my suggestions and the links to find them below this article:

Carry survival gear in your wallet. I always have (from left) firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror with me.

• survival knife
• firemaking tool(s) plus the firestarter
• compass
  map and GPS
• mirror (for signaling)
• signal whistle
• flashlight
• Some form of emergency shelter, like a tarp with rope.
• Food and water, plus water filter.
• Layering Clothing (fleece, wool, polypropylene)
• Waterproof packable shell

While commercial survival kits are available, the quality of some items is sometimes reduced to cut costs. Some things, such as fishing hooks, sinkers and line are included because people think they need them. And some items are included in commercial kits because they’re cheap and take up space.

The safest bet is to make your own survival kit. Start with a realistic assessment of your skills and needs, then start researching. One size doesn’t fit all – a survival kit that works in the cold winter of Oregon, will be different than one designed for Florida, and vice versa.

Every town has a survival guru with a website, but that doesn’t mean they know anything. In fact, be leery of any survival website – a lot of people are out to make a fast buck. Start by contacting the people who work with emergencies every day: police, sheriff’s departments, search and rescue, the Red Cross and see if they have recommendations for necessary gear. They will also have a pretty good idea of  who is good teacher and who is a fraud.

If you have certain medical needs or conditions, make sure the kit includes the appropriate medications.

Then, educate yourself. Practice with your survival tools. Don’t take any recommendations at face value, unless the source has been proven to be reliable. Then, make your survival kit, and take it along.

Every time.  Check out the many other articles about personal and wallet sized kits, plus car kits, home kits, etc. by browsing the survival kit category on this site.

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Sometimes it takes a tragedy to focus attention on preparedness and wilderness survival.

Am Altoids tin survival kit is a valuable survival tool, but it does not have everything you need!

by Leon Pantenburg

The idea behind the Survival CommonSense.com Altoids Tin Survival kit started after two fatalities in Central Oregon in late 2006.

In November, veteran snowmobiler Roger Rouse, 53, of Bend, died of hypothermia in Deschutes National Forest, about 10 miles west of Bend. He and his son had intended to only be out for a morning ride when a fierce snowstorm overwhelmed them. (To read the complete story, click here.)

Less than a month later, in December 2006, Californian James Kim, 35, died in the Rogue River Wilderness after leaving his wife and children to get help. The family car was stuck in snow on a remote road. (To see Larry King’s coverage of  the Kim tragedy, click here.)

Shortly after the Kim tragedy, The editors of The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon, asked me to put together a practical winter survival guide.

“Talk to (Deschutes County) Search and Rescue, find out what the trends are, and what gear people need to take with them,” editors said. “Then, come up with a practical survival kit for our readers, based on the experts’ recommendations. This is an investigative assignment. Check out all sources, and test everything.”

The Altoids tin kit is a small piece of that project, and it is by no means all you should carry for survival!!! But you need to have something in your pockets, in the event you are separated from your gear.

This keyring kit is one way to keep some of the basic survival tools with you at all times. On the keyring: LED flashlight, fingernail clippers, whistle, Boy Scout Hot Spark firemaker and Classic Swiss Army knife. The other knife rides in a pouch on my belt, wherever it is legal.

I couldn’t find a pocket-sized commercial survival kit that was worth a damn. In some, the quality of gear was pathetic. In others, unnecessary or cheap filler items were included to flesh out the list of “necessities.”

One kit, I found at the local sporting goods box store is called “The Essentials Survival Can” and retails for $4.99. The components are: one book of “waterproof” matches; three feet of duct tape, four fish hooks, a whistle, and emergency cord.

In January, 2007, I asked the late Dr. Jim Grenfell of Bend to help develop a survival kit that would fit into a standard Altoids mint tin. This pocket kit would be limited in size to an Altoids tin, and weigh about five ounces. (That’s about what an iPod weighs, or my wallet, depending on which side of payday we’re on!)

An incessant tinker, Grenfell was also an Air Force combat veteran and graduate of three Air Force wilderness survival schools. I made an Altoid kit, too, and for the next several months, we added and subtracted gear, and tested, researched and refined the final kits.

Once the kit was completed, two veteran outdoorsmen took the prototype on a backpacking trip for final testing. Their input lead to further refinement. (To read their review, click here.)

The final kit is not cheap to make. It will cost between $50 to $60, depending on the quality of the materials. But I have several, and one rides in my coat or hip pocket at all times.

Carry your Altoids survival kit in a waterproof container for added security.

Here’s the list of what you need:

• Altoids tin

• Five pieces of duct tape, about 2-1/2 to 3 inches long, layered on top and bottom.

• Rubber bands cut out of bicycle tube. They can be used for firestarter, as well as keeping the Altoids tin cover shut.

These items go inside:

1. 12-inch square of aluminum foil

2. Bicycle tube rubber bands on outside of container

3. Two alcohol prep pads

4. Petroleum jelly: use for medical needs, and in conjunction with jute twine and flint stick for fire-making

5. Compass

6. Emergency whistle

7. Boy Scout Hot Spark wrapped in 18 inches of jute twine. Used with petroleum jelly and item 13 for fire-making

8. LED flashlight

9. Glover’s needle and 2 feet of dental floss

10. Signal mirror

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11. 6 feet of seine twine

12. Pills: aspirin, Imodium, Benadryl, water purification

13. Knife — (Swiss Army Classic: contains knife and screwdriver blades, scissors, tweezers and toothpick)

14. Safety pins and nail

15. 12 feet of 19-gauge annealed wire

16. Waxed fire starter

Not intended to be the primary collection of survival gear, the Altoids tin kit is designed to be compact, and easy and convenient to carry. It was never intended to replace a complete survival kit.

For information on making your own survival kits, click here!

 

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Jerky is the original high energy survival/snack food, and maybe you’re thinking about making your own. Here’s some expert advice about a quick, easy method that uses meat from the grocery store, items you already have in your kitchen, and an oven.

Preserving the meat of a big game animal can be a vital survival skill. (Photo by Bob Patterson)

by Leon Pantenburg

Maybe you had a successful hunting season, and ended up with lots of meat to experiment on. Or possibly, the idea is to learn another do-it-yourself skill, so you can make a healthy snack for the kids’ lunches.

Regardless of your motivation, preppers, survivalists and folks looking for a way to preserve meat for long term storage should learn how to make jerky. Like any survival technique, it may be one of those skills that could prove to be vital sometime down the road.

But making jerky can be expensive. First, there is the cost of the meat. (As a hunter, I can attest to this fact: There is no cheap meat!) Then, there is the investment in a smoker or food dehydrator, and the cost of commercial jerky seasonings. When the math is done, it may appear that it’s cheaper to just buy jerky.

This is some very good organic elk meat that has been cut into strips to make jerky. Talk about expensive ingredients!

But you can produce top quality jerky fairly inexpensively, according to one expert, using meat from the local grocery store. All you need to do is watch your grocery store ads for sales, and for equipment, you need  an oven with some sort of wire rack.

“Jerky is just dried meat, and you can make it out of any kind of meat, and many kinds of fish,” says Clem Stechelin, 79, of La Pine, OR. “People have been making jerky forever, and the process isn’t complicated.”

Stechelin is a retired meatcutter, owner of “Clem’s Oregon Trail Seasonings,” and has been making jerky and sausage for decades. He says jerky can be simple to make, inexpensive and doesn’t require an elaborate smoker or dehydrator system. Originally, Stechelin said, primitive hunters who killed a large animal dried meat by solar power.

“They probably hung strips of meat over a bush or on some sort of rack in the sun,” he said. “Some of the different flavorings, like sage, might have started out when they realized meat dried on a sage bush tasted better.”

Later, these hunters figured out they could dry meat faster if they hung it over a smoky fire, Stechelin said, and people acquired a taste for smoked, seasoned meat. Primitive hunters probably smoked and dried whatever meat they had to use, he said, and some of it probably tasted pretty bad.

Today, great-tasting jerky starts with a quality cut of meat.

From start to finish, this jerky took about three hours to make.

“It’s like a computer analogy: Junk in, junk out. If you start with a piece of tough meat with gristle, it will end up as jerky that is tough and hard to chew.” Stechelin said. “You shouldn’t use an inexpensive piece of meat, and expect the jerky to turn out well.”

Some of the cheaper roasts have lots of fat and gristle, he said, which needs to be trimmed off before baking.

“By the time you’re done, there won’t be much usable meat,” he said. “You would have been better buying some London broil to start with.”<

Stechelin recommends watching store ads for meat sales. London broil and top round are on sale for about $1.98 per pound “at least once a month,” he said, and those cuts make excellent jerky. Other, more expensive meat cuts that work well for jerky are top round, bottom round and sirloin tip.

“Probably the best cut for jerky is flank steak, but it is usually pretty expensive,” he said. “When you cut it across the grain and make jerky, it ends up tender, is easy to chew and has great flavor.”

Most of Stechelin’s seasoning customers buy beef to make jerky, and use the oven method. (The jerky seasoning feature all natural ingredients, with no nitrates.) It is the quickest, simplest technique, he claims, and anyone can use it to produce healthy, tasty energy snacks.
Here is what you do:

*Cut the meat, across the grain, into uniform slices between one-quarter and one-half in thick. Rub whatever seasonings you choose into the meat.

* Put the meat on a wire pizza rack or cooling rack for bread. (I tried the polypropylene racks that come with one of Clem’s jerky making kits. You clean them in the dishwasher, and the finished meat, fish or fruit comes right off, with no sticking.)

* Set the oven between 200 and 220 degrees. (Individual ovens vary, so some experimentation may have to be done.) Place the loaded racks in the oven, and put a piece of foil or cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch any drippings.

Clem Stechelin has been making jerky and sausage for more than 50 years.

* Prop open the oven door with a towel, so the moisture escapes. If you forget this step, Stechelin said, the batch of jerky will bake instead of drying, and the result won’t be good.

* Cook the jerky for about two and one-half hours, or until it looks done.

“Take the meat out when you can still bend it. The meat will still dry a little more after it’s out of the oven,” Stechelin said. “Don’t leave it in the oven until it’s crisp, or it will end up being too hard and tough.”

All that’s left to do then, is let the jerky cool completely and store it. If you’re going to put the jerky in plastic bags, put it in the freezer, Stechelin advises. Otherwise, put the finished jerky in a cloth or paper bag so any moisture completely evaporates. Then hide some for outdoor excursions.

Home-made jerky is a great after-school snack, but be careful if there are teenagers in your house. Snacking on jerky is addictive, and the kids and their friends may wipe out the entire supply before you know it!

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The term “Survival knife” starts discussions! A while back, a question was asked about what to carry in the hollow handle of a survival knife. Specifically, what survival items are so important that they should be included as part of the knife?

By Leon Pantenburg

This Jim Grenfell hollow handle survival knife would be a good choice.

This leads to another question: What useful items can you actually put in that handle space? Is having that tiny bit of extra space worth weakening the entire knife? After all, the logical place for the knife to fail is where the blade meets the handle, and some hollow handle knives will break under the stress of hard use.

Then, suppose you do pack the handle with assorted items. Will you be able to get them out under the duress of a survival situation, or will the stuff have shifted and settled into a blob of useless junk? A knife handle is hardly the place to store something fragile!

What Is a Survival Knife?

Any survival knife question should start with yet another question: What do you consider a survival knife, and what do you anticipate using it for?

Rambo, according to the scriptwriters, could carry just about anything he needed in the hollow handle of his survival knife!

There seem to be some extreme views in this topic. The 1980s Rambo movies, starring a steroid-infused, testosterone-exuding Sylvester Stallone, started the whole hollow-handle Bowie-type survival knife cult.

Rambo, according to the “First Blood” scriptwriters, could apparently pack anything he needed for wilderness or urban survival in the hollow handle of his knife/sword. (Remember in the first movie,  when he pulled out that suture from the handle and sewed up his arm? And where’d he get all the stuff to make booby traps? And how about that spear he made with his knife to stab a wild pig?) As the Rambo movies progressed, the knives got bigger.

The Rambo movies spawned a slew of cheap, imitation copies, and some people bought them to include in their survival kit. Don’t mistake the junk for some of the high quality products.

Some excellent hollow handle examples are made by knifemaker Chris Reeve in Boise, Idaho.

Reeve’s hollow handle knives are made of a single piece of steel, so there is small danger of breakage. The workmanship is superb.

Another excellent quality hollow handle survival knife is the Buck-184 Buckmaster. Resembling the Rambo knife, it is a hefty piece of steel and a quality piece of work.

I never bought a Buckmaster, but one of my elk hunting buddies, Phil Walker, did. An incredibly skilled hunter, outdoorsman and great friend, Phil harvested deer and elk every year with monotonous regularity. When Phil sauntered back into camp with that elaborately-casual grin on his face, it meant the rest of us had a meat-hauling job ahead.

Phil’s gear was all top quality, and had been refined over the years so it filled all his elk hunting needs.  Phil’s elk rifle was a Ruger Number 1 in .338 Winchester. The hunting cutlery he carried included an 8-inch Old Hickory butcher, a Wyoming knife
and (Phil being a native Texan) an honest-to-God Bowie knife.

Those wouldn’t have been my equipment choices, but it’s hard to argue with success.

My personal philosophy on survival knives is at the other extreme. I believe that survival knife design isn’t as important as proximity and ease of carrying.

You can’t carry a Rambo knife everywhere, so when (fill in the apocalyptic acronym) happens, that tiny, keychain Swiss Army Classic on your keyring may be all you have to work with.

What design is best?

I was lukewarm, at best, about the hollow handle/storage concept until I was asked to design such a knife. My buddy, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell, of Bend, Or., took up metalworking upon retirement. Jim, a Korean War fighter/bomber pilot, with 43 combat missions, was a graduate of three military wilderness survival schools.

If he thought the idea had merit, I was willing to pay attention. Per my recommendations, the prototype blade ended up being a carbon steel, drop point design, five inches long; 3/16-inch thick, about 1-3/4 inches wide, with a straight taper edge. The handle was taken from a cheaper model and welded to the knife tang.

The completed knife works very well. I gave the prototype to my brother Mike for his 40^th birthday, and it has been used extensively for deer and elk hunting. Jim passed away before he could finish my knife, so I still don’t own a hollow handle survival knife!

Space matters: Suppose you’re considering buying a quality hollow handle, and you want to make the best use of the space. How much actual volume is there?

The knife handle, left, has about as much space as the waterproof match container and Nalgene vial.

A common-sized handle, if such a thing exists, appears to be about one inch in outside diameter. Interior diameter is 7/8-inch and the depth of the cavity is about 3-1/8 inches from the bottom to the start of the threads. The space is big enough to hold about two liquid ounces, or is a little bigger than a waterproof match container.

Based on that formula, ask yourself: What items, along with the knife, would do me the most good? Here’s what I wouldn’t put in the handle:

• Waterproof Matches: I don’t trust matches as a reliable source of firemaking. You can only carry a finite number, and matches deteriorate with time. In addition, the movement and shock associated with being carried in a knife handle would eventually ruin them.
• Fish hooks and sinkers: I tie flies and jigs and make most of my own lures. I probably have too much fishing-related stuff. Even with all that gear, and a genuine enthusiasm for fishing, there are days when a fisherman can’t buy a bite. Don’t waste the handle space on something like hooks or weights you probably won’t use.
• Water Purification Tablets: These are left out because you must have a container to put the water in before it can be purified. Put water purifiers in another kit. Besides, unless properly packed, pills will dissolve, deteriorate or be vibrated into powder.
• A Swiss Army Classic:  Don’t put my beloved dinky, everyday carry, do-it-all knife in the handle! A Classic doesn’t need to be kept dry, and it would take up valuable space. Besides, don’t put all your eggs in the same basket.
• Survival Instructions: If you haven’t learned survival skills by the time you need them, a booklet won’t help. Knowledge is the most important part of your survival kit!

You could include these:

• Drugs, man: If you have special medical needs, this might be one place to properly store the pills. Also, pain or allergy meds or other prescription medications could be literally at hand. (More about storage later.)
• Firemaking tools: Include a Boy Scout Hot Spark or possibly a Spark-It. There should be room for some waxed firestarter, too. Include a few inches of jute twine to stop any rattling around and use that as a firestarter.
• A glover’s needle and dental floss: In an extreme emergency, you could suture a wound with these items. But more likely, the value would be to repair equipment or clothing. . The floss could also be used to clean your teeth, which is an often overlooked sanitation issue.

So, How Do You Pack These Things? Whatever items are in the handle must be accessible. In a survival situation you may be working with cold, numb fingers, or be shaking from fear, injury or shock. You don’t want to fumble with the contents and drop them in the snow or dirt.

This works really well: Get some Nalgene vials.There is a set that chambers in the hollow handle like a shotgun shell into a shotgun. One of the vials is 3-3/8-inch high, so it is a little longer than the handle cavity. Trim the edge of the vial so it fits inside, and leave a small tab you can grab with your fingers. Put all your gear in the vial and carry it that way. The vials also allow you to divide up the space.

Pack your meds, individually in cellophane, in a smaller vial, and pack it tightly with cotton. This will keep the pills from being smashed or powdered. Stack another short vial on top in the space with other meds or necessary items.

The final decision in  the hollow handle debate will end up being if the tiny bit of extra space gained is useful and worth investing in.   In the end, like in most survival-related topics, the gear choice selection will be up to you!

To learn more about choosing survival and hunting knives, check out this SurvivalCommonSense.com blog!

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The earthquake that occurred  off the coast of Japan, the Feb. 22, 2010 quake in New Zealand, the Easter, 2010 earthquake in southern California and the catastrophic quake in Chile later that year should be wake-up calls to anyone who lives in an earthquake zone. You need to make a personal earthquake survival kit that you can carry with you at all times.

Keep basic survival tools with you. On the keyring: LED flashlight, fingernail clippers, whistle, Boy Scout Hot Spark and Classic Swiss Army knife. The other knife rides in a pouch on my belt, wherever it is legal.

by Leon Pantenburg

An earthquake, tsunami or other natural disaster is unlikely to happen? And, of course, not to you? You don’t need to read further!

….Still here?

Then here’s  a fact: In ANY emergency, 80 percent of the people involved will be in denial of the situation and have to be told what to do, according to John Leach, author of Survival Psychology. Of that crowd in the emergency, 10 percent will do the wrong thing, and the other 10 percent will act rationally, based on the training they have acquired.

If you want to be a survivor, of any emergency situation, you have to start with knowledge and training.  And you need the correct survival tools or survival kit and know what to do with it.

HERE’S THE SCENARIO: The earthquake hits while you’re at work. The office walls start to shake and the pictures start to fall. Alarms go off. Head pop up above the cubicles, as people, with no idea of what to do, look around. Some will sit back down and get back to work.

Now what? Stay? Go? Logout, then go? Ignore the situation?

Knowledge is key to survival, and you are prepared. You never thought: “This can’t happen to me.”  You paid attention at the mandatory safety meeting about building evacuation. You read earthquake survival information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Because you prepared before hand, you already have a survival mindset,  a survival kit and a plan. You know where the stairs are, and the quickest way to get out of the building.

So get out immediately. Ignore any jokes or jibes from the 80 percenters. Don’t pay attention to the members of the 10 percent who want to do something stupid. You are intent on survival, and that means getting out of the danger zone.

As I type this, I have a butane lighter in my pocket, a whistle, knife, fingernail clippers, LED flashlight, small knife and magnesium stick on my, and a Swiss Army knife in my belt pouch. My wallet has firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror in it.

This gear goes with me everywhere it’s legal, even though the 80 percenters tend to roll their eyes if they
notice my stuff. I have carried this collection in the pocket of a suitcoat, or in my briefcase, but it’s always on me.

The ladies can carry complete urban survival kits in their purses, and no one will ever be the wiser. After all, the earthquake could  happen when you’re in a meeting or away from your desk.

If  the earthquake happens right now, and I have to sprint for the door and can’t grab anything else, I have the

Carry survival gear in your wallet. I always have (from left) firestarter, charcloth (in a waterproof, plastic bag) and a signal mirror with me.

minimum tools on my person to make a fire and stay warm and signal for help.

In our office earthquake scenario, you may have to start using your survival tools immediately.  Here’s how the evacuation situation may play out: You use your survival mindset and leave your desk as soon as you sense danger and head for the nearest exit. If necessary, push through the people milling aimlessly around.

If the lights go out, then you and your flashlight become the leader. In the darkness, people will look toward the light and wonder what to do next.

Blow your whistle loudly, (this immediately makes you the  perceived authority figure), and in a loud, matter-of-fact voice order everyone to remain calm, and follow you quietly. (The 80 percenters won’t have a clue. They’ll do whatever the authority figure tells them to.)

Your actions to organize an orderly evacuation may later win you an award and plaque. BUT the immediate purpose of this organization is to make sure YOU make it to the exit. If people panic, crowd around or pile up around the door, nobody gets out.

Lead everyone quietly down the stairs and out of the building. Don’t let anyone distract you: Your immediate goal is to get out of the building before it collapses.

A map, compass and possibly a GPS should be part of any survival kit, and may be very useful once you get out of the collapsing building. The whistle may be what gets you out!

Gather everyone at the safe place mentioned in the safety briefing, and then assess the situation. Order everyone to stay out of the building, and if someone insists on going back, order them to stay put.

But they are now responsible for their own safety, and you have accomplished your first goal: that of getting out of the danger zone.

If it is safe to do so, and there is no smell of gas or chemicals, building a campfire  in a safe open area might be the next order of  business. The fire will serve as a rally point, and a gathering place, as you wait for emergency personnel to arrive. Also, gathering firewood from pallets, dumpsters etc. will give people a focus while they wait for rescue.

Depending on the severity of the earthquake, what happens next is hard to determine.

Now, you’ll use the rest of your survival kit and training to make it through the emergency. This might mean you start walking home, or you make a shelter. If someone needs medical attention, let’s hope somebody has taken a first aid course.  You have accomplished your first survival goal and got out of the building. Now, you will need to rely on the rest of your survival training and follow the plan you made.

Survival Kits or Gear

The safest bet is to make your own survival kit. Start with a realistic assessment of your skills and needs, then start researching. One size doesn’t fit all – a survival kit that works in the cold northwest, will be different than one designed for Florida, and vice versa.

While commercial survival kits are available, the quality of some items is sometimes reduced to cut costs. Some things, such as fishing hooks, sinkers and line are included because people think they need them. And some items are included in commercial kits because they’re cheap and take up space.

If you have certain medical needs or conditions, make sure the kit includes the appropriate medications.

Let’s start here: Many experts agree that a minimum kit should contain the following materials:

• survival knife
• firemaking tool(s) and firestarter
• compass, map and GPS
• mirror (for signaling
• signal whistle
• flashlight
• Some form of shelter

Survival Knowledge
Every town has a survival guru with a website, but that doesn’t mean they know anything. In fact, be leery of any survival website – there are a lot of people out to make a fast buck.

Start your survival training by contacting the people who work with emergencies every day: police, sheriff’s departments, search and rescue,  and the Red Cross and see if they have gear recommendations. They will also have a pretty good idea of  who is a good teacher and who is a fraud.

Then, educate yourself. Practice with your survival tools. Don’t take any recommendations at face value, unless the source has been proven to be reliable. Then, make your survival kit, and take it along.

Everywhere.

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Inevitably, at every firemaking seminar I teach, somebody suggests using dryer lint as firestarter. According to some folks, you should carry dryer lint and a flint stick in your survival kit. My response is that I have tested and tried dryer lint, don’t carry it, and recommend you don’t either.

by Leon Pantenburg

You stake your life on your firemaking kit components. Let’s apply the common sense filter to this dryer lint firestarter idea.

This dryer lint ignited, then for no apparent reason, just went out. Dryer lint is unreliable as a firestarter.

Here’s some related information: According to a 1999 report (the last information available) developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 14,500 dryers catch fire every year, killing 10 people. Two years ago, a dryer fire at an Alabama day care center claimed several children. (How many millions of dryers are used every day?)

Experts cite “failure to clean” as the reason for 70% of dryer fire operational contributing factors. And a standard construction practice is to run the exhaust pipe through the drywall with a 90-degree elbow. This can cause the lint to accumulate at that angle, next to the hot dryer.

So the question might be, based on the evidence from the house fires: Is dryer lint really that flammable? Or is it the combination of heat, improper venting and an accumulation of dry lint next to a hot dryer that causes house fires?

Our concern is survival firemaking though, so let’s consider the pros and cons of dryer lint as it could be used as a survival situation firestarter.

Proponents of dryer lint firestarter claim:

• Dryer lint is easily ignited with a match, lighter and/or flint stick.
• Dryer lint is  compact and easy to carry.
• Dryer lint is free for the taking, compact and easy to carry and apparently flammable. There are multiple internet postings showing the material being ignited, along with directions for making lint-based fire starters.

My first concern about dryer lint has to do with reliability. In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person.

We also tested practical firestarters. Dryer lint was one of the initial items tested and it never made the first cut.
The material used for the field trials came from my dryer, and I tested the lint from virtually every load of clothes for week or more. That ended up being a lot of testing! At the time there were three active teenagers and a Lab in the house, along with all the clothes drying associated with skiing, hunting, snowboarding, winter sports and school athletics.

Cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

The testing method was to take whatever handful of lint was in the filter, go out into the garage and ignite it with a flint stick. This is where the reliability issue surfaced. (Dog hair was a constant in all the test samples!)

Some lint, such as that from a load of  cotton jeans, ignited readily. Lighting lint from a mixed load of natural fabrics and wool and microfibers was iffy, and sometimes the flame went out before burning up the lint completely. And several times, the lint from a load of polypropylene, wool and various synthetic microfibers didn’t ignite.

My recommendation is to substitute cotton balls in any application where you might currently be using dryer lint.

Here’s why:

• While dryer lint is free, a jumbo 100 percent cotton ball will cost less than a penny. The cost of filling a 35-mm film container with five cotton balls is less than a nickel!
• Cotton balls start out as a sterile medical item and can also be used for first aid needs, such bandaging or cleaning a wound or abrasion. Among the particles in dryer lint is dirt, dust, allergens and all sorts of airborne spores and microbes.
• Both cotton balls and dryer lint can absorb moisture from the air. The difference is that cotton has long fibers which can be dried easier than lint, which is composed of small particles, pet and human hair, pieces of plastic and other, unknown materials.
• Dryer lint mats and compacts more than cotton, making it harder to light. It’s more difficult  to fluff up to light.
• I carry cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly as one of the firestarters in my survival kit. If I start
  to feel a hot spot or blister rising from a boot chaffing, I rub the area with the cotton ball and petroleum jelly. In a pinch, a petroleum jelly and cotton ball, along with duct tape, has been used to create a makeshift band aide. Never rub any skin abrasion, or try to stop a blood flow, with lint!

Grenfell’s and my conclusion was that there is nothing dryer lint can do that a cotton ball can’t do better. The advantages of cotton balls over lint easily make up the cost difference.
If dryer lint is still in your survival kit, please test before trusting it! Personally, I’ll spend an extra few cents and use cotton balls. My life is worth that to me!

For more info on making survival kits, click here!

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BOOK REVIEW:  Survival Psychology by John Leach

One idea survival book authors may be able to agree upon is that mental attitude is critical to any survival scenario. Countless documented cases  prove  your attitude and reaction to the situation,  not your survival kit or survival knife, is the most important factor is staying alive.

by Leon Pantenburg

Swampy Lakes Trailhead is on the edge of the Deschutes National Forest and thousands of acres of wilderness. But still, many people who go there deny they will ever need emergency gear or training.

Some twenty years before the rash of “reality” or “Survival” shows, or anybody had ever heard of Les Stroud or Bear Grylls,  psychological studies resulted in a book which documented people’s  reactions  in emergency situations.

“Survival Psychology” by John Leach, PhD, of the University of Lancaster, England,  Survival Psychology was a groundbreaking study, that today is a reference source for many wilderness and urban survival bestsellers. If  some of Leach’s writing or thoughts sound familiar, it is because you’ve read or heard them before!

Leach studied survivors’  reactions, including those of Union prisoners at the horrific  Andersonville prison during the Civil War;  to shipwreck survivors; to people who made it through plane crashes and natural disasters. Distilled down to one sentence, here’s what Leach found: Psychological responses to emergencies follow a pattern.

One goal of  SurvivalCommonSense is to help you develop the survival mindset that will keep you alive. So, start with the baseline knowledge of what happens to people, mentally, in a survival situation. Until you know what might happen in your mind, or in the heads of the people around you, there’s no way to come up with a plan to survive.

Survival situations bring out a variety of reactions – including some that make the situation worse. Leach’s studies show that only 10 to 15 percent of any group involved in any emergency will react appropriately. Another 10 to 15 percent will behave totally inappropriately and the remaining 70 to 80 percent will need to be told what to do. The most common reaction at the onset of an emergency is disbelief and denial.Here’s the typical disaster reaction progression, according to “Survival Psychology”:

Denial: The first reaction will probably be: “This can’t be happening to me!” But an emergency, disaster, accident or crash can happen to anyone, and it can result in a situation where your life is at risk. This disbelief can cause people to stand around, doing nothing to save themselves. The 80 percenters in any survival situation will have to be ordered to help themselves.

Panic: Once you get past denial, there is a strong chance you may panic. This is when judgment and reasoning deteriorate to the point where it can result in self-destructive behavior. It can happen to anyone. To avert this problem, realize it may happen, and use the STOP mindset exercise. (See below).

Hypoactivity, defined as a depressed reaction; or hyperactivity, an intense but undirected liveliness: The depressed person will not look after himself or herself, and will probably need to be told what to do. The hyperactive response can be more dangerous because the affected person may give a misleading impression of purposefulness and leadership.

Stereotypical behavior: This is a form of denial in which victims fall back on learned behavior patterns, no matter how inappropriate they are. The Boss may decide to continue in that role, even though he/she has no idea of what to do. Sadly, the underling may also revert to that subordinate role, even though he/she may be better prepared mentally.

Anger: A universal reaction, anger is irrational. Rescue workers frequently come under verbal and physical attack while performing their duties. A few years ago in Central Oregon, the Search and Rescue team rescued a man who had dumped his raft just before going over a waterfall. Miraculously, he saved himself  by clinging to a mid-stream boulder. During the whole rescue effort, the rafter denied he was in trouble. After being plucked from the rapids, he flipped off the rescuers, and walked back to the parking lot. He never thanked anyone for saving his life

Psychological breakdown: This could be the most desperate problem facing a victim, and this stage is characterized by irritability, lack of interest, apprehension, psycho-motor retardation and confusion. Once this point is reached, the ultimate consequence may be death.

So, according to Leach, one key to a “survival state-of-mind” is to be prepared and confident that you can handle an emergency.

This brings up another deadly behavior pattern: lack of preparation.

People don’t prepare for emergencies (see denial), Leach writes, for three reasons: Planning is inconvenient, preparations may be costly and an ingrained folk myth says to prepare for a disaster is to encourage it.

This is all too common in Central Oregon.

Last November, I was at Swampy Lakes snow park near Bend, getting ready for a snowshoe trek. An older couple pulled up next to me, tourists, apparently, from the looks of their inappropriate clothing and rental equipment. They had no survival gear of any kind that I could see. They struggled to put their snowshoes on, then asked if there were any maps around.

I gave them one of mine, and offered to orient it for them with my compass.

They declined.

They also didn’t want the book of matches and a packet of firestarter I tried to give them. And here comes the quote that keeps the Search And Rescue teams busy:

“We’re just going out for quick outing,” the lady said. “We’re not going to do any of that wilderness survival stuff.”

…And she was absolutely right.

“Survival Psychology” is out-of-print, as far as I know. But I’ve had no trouble getting a copy through the local inter-library loan program. Your library probably has a similar program, so check out Leach’s book. The knowledge from it can be one more tool in your survival kit!

(To check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com survival kit blog, click here!)

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