Category Archives: Equipment

A hand juicer as a survival tool

Many people are familiar with the practice of juicing fruits and vegetables, to make nutritious and tasty drinks. Everyone is probably aware that increasing your intake of fruit and vegetable matter (and this includes fresh juice) is very healthy, and can improve the quality of your life. But how can a juicer machine save your life?

I recently read an interesting discussion claiming that grass – not wheat grass, but plain old lawn grass – is an overlooked source of food in times of famine, war, and other times of need. Now before the scientifically minded amongst you jump up and down and say “no no grass can’t be eaten – you need a rumen, or the enzyme cellulase to break it down”, this is how it works:

Although grass fibre ( mainly cellulose, and it’s true you DO specifically need the enzyme cellulase to break it down to a simpler form) is of very little use to humans, it is still possible to crush the juice out of the grass and drink this. What does it taste like? It tastes like wheat grass apparently, and although it is not the best flavour in the world, it still contains a mixture of simple sugars that are sustaining enough to potentially get you through an emergency.

So, you need some way to crush lawn grass. Of course an electric juicer is a great way to juice, but an electric machine isn’t going do much good to as if electricity grid is down! In this case, the best option is a hand juicer. A hand juicer is any juicer which is powered manually, and the most common types are those which you clamp to a surface like a kitchen bench, and then turn a crank handle while feeding in ingredients. Hand juicers are generally used to juice wheat grass, so they aren’t really going to struggle when juicing lawn grass.

This information probably sounds quite wacky, and you should probably be careful when applying it! However, whichever way you look at it a compact hand juicer does sound like a useful survival tool. There are many things that you could find that you could juice if you had to,  which would not be very palatable to eat. Think of edible native plants such as thistles, which are edible but very stringy and difficult to chew. A hand juicer can be purchased for as little as $50, and could be an excellent investment one day.

Cold climate survival: How and why thermal underwear can save your life

When people think of outdoor survival situations under adverse conditions they tend to think of survival knives, maybe guns, and other iconic tools of the action-hero survivalist. But the fact is that one of the greatest dangers you will face in the wild will not be from wild animals or head hunters…cold will kill you faster than anything else.

Experienced outdoors men and women like to talk about the rule of 3’s: A person can go for 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, and 3 hours without warmth.

There is a lot of truth in this old rule, and you need to prepare carefully if you are setting out on any expedition. It might just be a camping trip, it might be a white water rafting trip, or you may be going searching for fossil bones. In any case, it’s better to be prepared than to face a situation without the necessary survival equipment.

Thermal underwear is a fantastic invention which seriously can save your life. Many professional athletes and adventurers wear thermal underwear not just to stay comfortable, but also to avoid injury. If you’ve never worn thermal underwear before you may suspect that it is itchy or uncomfortable, but modern thermals are smooth and in fact barely noticeable once you have them on. There are three main types of thermal underwear that you can obtain:

The cheapest kind of thermal underwear is usually of the acrylic fiber type, which is a synthetic fiber. Acrylic fibers  are relatively inexpensive, and also quite hard wearing. The downside can be that synthetic fibers absorb body odor, and can be difficult to refresh.

Also fairly affordable, is cotton thermal underwear. You need to be careful with cotton underwear though, as cotton has a distinct disadvantage in the field. When it gets wet, it completely loses its ability to insulate you, and is in fact worse than useless. Cotton thermal underwear is only appropriate for fairly light duty applications, and should not be worn into serious survival situations.

By far the best type of thermal underwear is pure wool. It might surprise some people to learn this, but wool has been used by civilizations all around the world for countless thousands of years for a good reason – it has amazing natural insulating properties, and it is also naturally antibacterial. Even when wet, wool maintains the ability to insulate your body, and as such is the best choice when you are embarking on a quest into the unknown.

What Makes A Good Hunting Knife?

The best hunting knife is the one that you have on you at the time you need to use it. If you are an outdoorsman or a hunter then you should know that there are many kinds of hunting knives that have been made for a variety of chores. In fact there is no one knife that is the best knife for “everything.” The main focus is to determine what you need your knife to do for you in order to decide what is the best knife to fit your needs.

So what is your hunting knife going to be used for? Will it be mostly for skinning? Is your hunting knife going to be used for wood craft and survival. Do you want your knife to be stainless or carbon steel? These are all major considerations.

Once you have laid out what it is that you want then you can choose a knife that will meet the standards that you have set for it.

Here are some things to consider when looking for a hunting knife:

Folder or fixed blade? The fixed blade version is the most popular with hunters and outdoorsman. Fixed blades are stronger than folders and are easier to clean, sharpen and maintain.

The shape of the blade is important. The best hunting knife for you is in direct relation to the blade shape. The standard blade shapes are drop point, clip point, and skinner. There are also modifications of these blade shapes in between. Skinners are for skinning. Drop point and clip points are for skinning and general woodcraft chores.

What type of steel do you want? There is no such thing as “the best steel.” All steels have their own inherent advantages/disadvantages. Stainless stays sharper longer than carbon, but is harder to re-sharpen in the field. Carbon is easier to sharpen but won’t stay sharp as long as stainless.

Other things to consider will be hand ergonomics, material construction and sheath types. If you use a checklist like this then you will be able to choose the best hunting knife for your needs.

If you already own one or two knives that you now realize aren’t perfect there is no need for anxiety you can just buy more!

See also a related post, what you should look for in a hunting knife.

Hunt with Only the Best Fixed Handle Hunting Knives

Hunting is one of life’s greatest challenges for the avid hunter who looks at his knife as a necessity that he cannot live without. For the more serious ones who use their knives exclusively for hunting, the fixed blade knife is the perfect choice. Some brands use both full and partial tangs in their blades.  Good quality brands use high-carbon stainless steel. Some knives have coated carbon steel blades which are easy to sharpen and stay sharp for a longer time than stainless steel. The handles used for these hunting knives are usually wood, stag or soft grip rubberized or composite handles.

These types of knives are permanently in an open position. They are considered as the strongest, most secure and most reliable among the hunting knives as they do not have any moving parts. The only downside is that the knives are always open and therefore would need to be carried in their sheath.  Even with the same blade, the fixed blade hunting knives are definitely bulkier than folding hunting knives.

Some of the best brands in the market today are the 50-year old Gerber Hunting Knives, century old Buck Hunting Knives and Ka-Bar Knives which have been field and battle tested by the military since World War I.

When buying hunting knives, there are criteria that you should look out for.  Dependable fixed blade hunting knives should be strong and reliable. Its handle should provide a good grip to make it easy to work with, whatever the weather or hunting conditions may be. A metal handle would be too hot to hold in the desert while it would stick to your fingers in extreme cold.  Find knives that have changeable blades so you can carry different types of blades for different uses.

Whatever your choice may be, the best thing to do is buy the brand that you are most comfortable with or do some research over the internet for those that come highly recommended.

Related Posts:
What should you look for in a hunting knife?
Pocket knife introduction
Pocket knife safety

Camping Chairs That Move

Most everyone knows that foldable camping chairs have the ability to be moved from one place to another, but what many people may not be aware of is that the chairs, themselves, can actually move. Similar to traditional-looking folding chairs is the outdoor folding rocking chair. These chairs feature a director’s style chair with metal rockers on the bottom. Whereas traditional wooden rocking chairs have pointed rockers at their bottom, a folding rocking chair has a rocker on each side that connects from the chair frames front to its back eliminating the need for sharp points. This makes the rocking chair ideal for children, the elderly, handicapped and those with low vision. Even better, by having no sharp edges, the chairs cannot cut or poke their users when packing or carrying them.

While they may be somewhat plain in color, as the popularity of these camping chairs increase, more and more designers will implement more colorful fabrics or patterns. Currently, some of the most widely available shades for camping rocking chairs include black, brown and navy blue. They may be the most basic colors however, these hues do a great job of camouflaging stains, should any ever occur.

Price wise, rocking chairs tend to cost slightly more that traditional folding outdoor chairs. Expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $60 or more depending on the chair’s size, quality and thickness of metal, manufacturer, and type of fabric used. Sometimes online bargains can be found that include free shipping and no sales tax. A great way for those who enjoy rocking chairs to relax on-the-go, folding rocking chairs also store in backpack sacks for easily portability. Consider purchasing a foldable rocking chair, and as an outdoor enthusiast you will get a highly-functional, easy-to-use item that is a great investment for present and future use.