If you end up getting stuck in a survival situation, there are a variety of tools that can help keep you alive. If you are stuck out in the woods or in a similar situation, having a knife on hand can help you survive. The reason for this is because a knife can be used for many different purposes, all of which are going to keep you alive.
There are quite literally dozens of different purposes that a good survival knife can serve you out in the great outdoors. That said, survival situations aren’t always predictable.
Oftentimes, we get thrust into survival situations without any kind of warning. This means that many of us just aren’t going to be prepared. Yes, many of us won’t have our survival knives on hand.
That said, it is possible to make your own survival knife. There are actually a few different types of survival knives that you can make using materials that you can find out in the woods. How to make a knife in a survival situation is exactly what we are going to teach you today.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to make at least one of these knives and stay alive until help can get to you.
How to Make a Knife in a Survival Situation: Various Methods
There are a few different ways in which you can make a knife if you are in a survival situation. Which one of these survival knives that you will make in the wilderness will depend on your skill level and the items that you have at your disposal. Let’s get started and teach you how to make the very simplest knife, a rock blade knife.
Making a Basic Rock Blade Knife
One of the easiest ways to make a knife in a survival situation is by making a basic rock blade knife. Yes, here we are talking about shaping a rock into what is essentially a blade. No, it’s probably not going to look like a knife blade, likely more like a hatchet or axe head. however, the point is that you will have a rock that has a flat edge that is sharp enough to make some cuts with.
First, you will need to find a good location. By this, we mean finding an area that actually has rocks. The bottom of a stream, creek, or river is always a good place to start. Moreover, when you are choosing your rocks, make sure that you choose relatively large rocks because the outer layer will most likely chip off.
You also want to test the rocks to see if they are ideal for making a knife. A good rock should sound like glass or make a ringing sound when you hit them against each other. If the rocks make these sounds, then they are likely ideal for making a knife with.
A good type of rock to use for making a knife blade is flint. Even better is obsidian. You may also use slate, although slate is quite brittle. That said, even though slate is brittle, the benefit is that it easily breaks apart into thin pieces that you can then sharpen. However, if the going gets tough, any rock will do.
You now need to find a larger and round rock, one that looks like a small ball. You want one that is about the size of a very large egg or a small ball. This needs to be a solid rock. You are going to use this rock to strike the other rocks which you are making into the blade.
You want to put the rock onto your thigh, and then use your round hammer rock to hit it. The aim here is to knock away a flat flake of the stone that resembles a knife head. You are trying to break off a flat piece of rock. If you do this right, the flake that breaks off may already be relatively sharp, sharp enough to cut. However, if it’s not, you always have the option of sharpening it.
To sharpen your knife blade, simply rub the edge of it against another rock in such a way as to hone the edge. Going back and forth horizontally along with the blade is generally the best way to do this. Using another rock, a hard piece of wood, or even a leather belt will do the trick in terms of sharpening that rock.
Making a Rock Blade Knife with a Handle
With the above method, you will end up holding the rock in your hand. If you have to do a lot of slicing and cutting, that can be quite uncomfortable. Therefore, you might want to make a rock blade knife that also has a handle. Of course, this is going to be more complicated. The first steps here are the same. Simply make your rock blade knife as directed above.
Now comes the part where you have to make the actual handle, and this is realistically the more difficult aspect. Here, you are going to need to find some kind of suitable stick. You need to find a stick that is still in good condition, so preferably you actually want a live branch from a tree.
If the stick is still green and living, it’s going to be much more durable and offer you better protection. If you use a rotten or soft stick, or any kind of wood that has been dead for too long, the handle is not going to be durable enough. It might actually be dangerous too. Once you have your stick, you want to split the top of it open.
You want to create a split from the top of the stick down far enough to house the entire knife blade. You also want to be able to squeeze the stick closed above the knife blade once you have inserted the blade into the opening. The funny thing is that here, to make that split in the stick, you’re going to use the rock blade knife that you just created.
You can cut into the stick as far as you need. You can also make a small cut in the stick and then use your fingers to pull the stick apart. Just be sure to only go so far as you need. You don’t want to rip the whole stick in half or else you just effectively broke your handle. With the top of the stick split in half, insert your rock blade into it. The trick now is going to be securing the blade to the stick.
If you can find some kind of vine, this is going to be your best bet. You need some kind of a thin rope or string to tie the rock blade to the stick handle. If you can find a live tree, especially a deciduous tree, using the outer layer of bark may be an option.
You want to peel the bark off of the tree in long strips. This could act as a string or rope for this purpose. Anything long, thin, and strong enough to tie that rock blade to the stick handle is a viable option.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you can make a survival knife in the wild out of nothing but a decent rock. If you want to be fancy and upgrade a little bit, attaching it to a stick for a handle is a good idea. Whatever the case may be, a knife is always a great tool to have in any survival situation.
Whether we are talking about self-defense, foraging for food, signaling for health, or anything in between, a good survival knife can make the difference between life and death.