by Tim Wilhelm, Prof. of Kankakee Community College
November 15, 2008
Stelle, Illinois
❖ Fundamentals of Primitive Survival Arts as taught by the Midwest Native Skills Institute,
www.survivalschool.com.
❖Practice is important - a couple of times a year at least.
❖ These are short-term emergency survival techniques to be able to sustain oneself for 2-3 weeks. They will also help one survive at home for 7-10 days until FEMA arrives.
Primary Survival Skills
A. Survival Skill #1 - Spiritual Rectitude:
1. “Good Karma”
2. A Blessed Life
3. A Charmed Life
4. Good Fortune
A. Survival Skill #2 - Constructive Cognition
1. Broad and practical skills
2. Solid understanding of cause and effect
3. Learn, learn, learn in order to be creative and adaptable in survival situations
4. Knowledge allows us to remain calm and mentally alert in a crisis and to respond with skills we have rehearsed extensively beforehand.
C. Survival Skill #3 - Physical Health and Stamina
1. Regular exercise and weight training will do the following:
a. Cultivate a robust constitution
b. Increase physical strength
c. Boost immunity
d. Develop endurance
e. Enhance emotional well-being, especially in a crisis
II. Survival Kit Contents
❖ You need to carry it, so keep it light.
❖ Only include the things you think you’ll really need.
❖ Think through your priorities and design your kit accordingly.
❖ Specify what you will use for your kit’s container (trekking back pack, grab ‘n go bag, bug-out bag, etc., or even a coffee can).
A. Essential Survival Tools
1. Knife
a. Fixed (full tang) or folding blade
✓ Folding blades should have a lock and an open assist to avoid injury during use.
✓ Fixed blades last longer and are stronger.
b. Blade material
✓ 4/40 Stainless Steel vs. Carbon steel
✴ Carbon steel is easiest to sharpen
✴ Don’t use a knife with a stainless steel blade
✓ Aus -8
✓ Silver Steel - best of both carbon steel and stainless steel
c. Some good brands of knives: Buck, CRKT, Gerber and Frost
d. Recommended Survival Knife:
✓ Frost Mora knife from Frost Knife Works, $11.00. (Note: I could not find this knife on the website, but the Swedish Military Mora Knife looks to be the same thing.)
✓ Available mail order from Sportsman’s Guide catalog.
✓ Full tang carbon steel knife with molded rubber handle.
2. Knife Use and Care
a. Be adaptable.
b. Use it for its intended purpose, not as a screw driver, pry bar, etc.
c. Use it safely
✓ Always cut away from body parts to avoid injury.
✓ Keep it folded or sheathed when not using it.
✓ Dry it off when wet.
✓ Oil it regularly with vegetable oil or oil from the skin on your face.
d. Purposes: cutting branches to create shelter, cutting rope and twine to make stays for materials to create shelter and fishing lines, gouging holes and notches in wood to create friction fire implements, hunting, fishing.
3. Knife Sharpening
a. Dull knives are more dangerous and sharp knives.
b. Use carbide sharpener or Gatco kit (sharpening stones).
✓ Maintain a constant angle of 15-25* when using sharpening stones. Survival knives use 20*.
✓ Use at least 40 strokes per side per stone.
✓ Take the burr off with a steel at 30* holding the steel vertically; stroke very gently until the burr is gone.
c. Midwest Native Skills Institute
www.survivalschool.com sells a diamond stone kit with steel for about $20.00.
III. Rule of Threes
❖ Takes 3 seconds to have common sense
❖ You can live 3 minutes without air
❖ You can live 3 hours in the cold or environmental extremes before developing hypothermia
❖ You can live 3 days without water
❖ You can live 3 weeks without food
❖ Can’t live 3 months without hope. Self-confidence and skill increase chances of survival.
IV. Sacred Order of Survival
1. Shelter
2. Fire
3. Water
4. Food
A. Primitive Shelters
✓ Prevents hypothermia in winter and heat stroke in hot temperatures
✓ Includes clothing and protective coverings
✓ Must keep your body dry; wet body can go into hypothermia at 65 degrees
✓ Thermal protection is the requirement for shelter, not space requirement. A sleeping bag or space blanket can act as shelter.
✓ Must be able to help maintain the body’s core temperature
✓ hypothermia can happen in 3 hours
✓ Provides psychological security
a. Find a leaning tree or large branch and lean against tree
b. Add sticks leaning perpendicular to branch or tree
c. Pile leaves, sticks, mud, cat tails or whatever you can find at least 2 feet thick and 2 feet on ground surface inside to lie on
2. Lean-to Shelter using Tarp/Poncho/Space blanket
a. Need some kind of cordage to tie tarp to trees
b. Provide sun protection and warmth in warmer weather
c. Add a wall or mound made of packs, logs, space blanket, etc., opposite the lean-to with the fire in between to radiate heat back into the lean-to
d. If no grommet in tarp, place small rock in corner of tarp and fold tarp around rock and tie off with twine or string
3. Cordage for making shelters
a. Use 550 paracord or 7-strand parachute cord
b. To make a 210-foot fishing line, take apart 10 feet of cord into finer and finer substrands until you have a thin line that is as strong as fishing line
c. Need 25 feet of 550 paracord in survival kit.
d. Caution: not all 550 cord is true 7-strand paracord. Only the 7-strand paracord can be separated into substrands.
f. Knots: Learn some basic knots to use with cord such as “sheet bend” and “bowline.”
B. Fire Making
❖ Need suitable fuel, heat, and oxygen
❖ Law of energy conservation: Can only change energy from one form to another
1. Three ways of making fire:
(1) Mechanical: various friction devices to create first heat and then fire
a. Fire by wood on wood friction
• fire saw, fire plow, hand drill, bow drill
• very difficult to use and very physical
• best woods to use are red cedar and cotton wood. Oak, maple, and ash are too hard. Pine and fir are too soft.
b. Fires by flint andsteel friction
c. Fire by ferrocerium friction
• Most reliable products to create fire
✴ Strikeforce by Gerber
✴ Magnesium fire block
d. Fire by solar lens made from flashlight - Remove reflector from flashlight, stick fluffy tinder in hole where bulb would be and aim at the sun until tinder ignites. Need bright point of light on tip of fluffy tinder material.
(2) Chemical: fire starter pellets and others
(3) Electrical: thin copper wire from one end of battery to the other will get hot enough to ignite tinder
2. Laying a Fire to start with one match
a. Materials required:
• Tinder: Carry jute garden twine in survival kit, and separate into fluffy fibers to use as tinder. Wrap twine around knife sheath for storage. You won’t need matches or lighter as the jute tinder ignites easily, and the embers then ignite small kindling. Other possible materials for tinder include dried grass, dead leaves, bark shavings.
• Small kindling ignites larger kindling
• Larger kindling ignites fuel wood.
• Fuel Wood provides major heat.
b. Trench Lay
• Use a stick to dig a 6-12” long trench 3” deep and 2” wide in dry ground parallel to direction of wind. Push a stick into the ground at angle facing the wind and build a tent of smaller sticks leaning on either side against the main stick. Place tinder in trench to ignite kindling. Light tinder. As fire flares up and burns the tent, add larger kindling and eventually fuel wood, being careful not to smother the fire early in the process. The trench helps create a draft to stoke the flame.
c. Vented-pit Lay and Cross-ditch Lay
C. Potable Water
❖ Need 2 qts per day min. and more if working hard and/or sweating
1. Sources of water
a. Surface Water (lakes and streams)
• Surface water is teeming with microbial life. Need to avoid infection from bacteria, viruses, cryptosporidium, flukes and other parasites.
b. Rain Water
• Tie poncho or other plastic material to trees (as if creating a flat shelter) to capture rain water.
c. Condensation from trees
• Put garbage bag over leafy shrub at night to capture water from plant’s respiration.
d. Indian Well
• Select a spot a few yards from a water body and dig down to get water.
• The soil between water body and holes will filter out bugs and flukes.
• Filter the water through a sock or t-shirt to remove the mud and microbes. Even better is to fill a sock with sand and then run the water through it.
1. Purification
a. Boil water
• 5 minutes minimum for clear water
• 20 minutes minimum for cloudy water
b. Chlorine bleach
• Mix 1 part bleach to 100 parts water
c. Calcium Hypochlorite
• Purchase at a swimming pool supply store
• Use 1 tsp. in 2 gallons of water
d. Iodine (carry small vial of liquid or crystals)
• 5 drops per quart of clear water. Wait 30 minutes.
• 10 drops per quart of cloudy water. Wait 30 minutes.
• Drawback: iodine puts an unpleasant taste in the water.
e. Water purification tablets (chemical) - camping equipment stores
f. Water filters (hand pump water through a filter)
• Katadyne - can clean filter when clogged
• Numerous other brands available at camping equipment stores
g. UV light
• Steripen - works well but requires batteries
D. Food - Wild Edibles
1. Plants
a. Dandelions, purslane, plantain and others unique to each region
b. Source: Peterson Field Guide: Edible Wild Plants
3. Fish
a. Catch by spearing or trapping
b. If you have a fish hook, use paracord described in section IV.A.3. to make fishing line
3. Small Animals
a. Carry 16-inch piece of thin steel wire to use for snares along with paracord fishing line
V. Survival Kit
❖ Keep it light and small
B. Contents
1. Knife
2. Knife sharpener
3. Compass
4. Space blanket and/or tarp
5. Water purifier
6. Flashlight
7. Aspirin
8. Fire-making kit or Blastmatch
9. Soup can for water and cooking
10. Jute twine for tinder (6-8 feet)
11. Lightweight, waterproof poncho
12. 25 fee of 550 paracord
B. Resources
7. Google: survival supplies
9. Peterson Field Guide: Edible Wild Plants or similar books