Excellent idea! Thanks for pointing that out. Seems so obvious that I feel I should have thought of it but between this thread and a past thread I put on BCUK, nobody has mentioned that until now so I guess I won't feel too bad for not thinking of it. Youre a genius Chris! Thanks!

A good question, and one that suspected someone would ask eventually. As PC2K mentioned already, it does go a bit beyond just preparedness, (which is why I posted in the Campfire forum) <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> and IMO it is "almost" the ultimate test of skill.

From a survival/preparedness point of view, the motivation is pretty simple:

Firstly it is a great confidence builder in that if I already know I can survive with only a knife, then if/when placed in a true survival situation with my EDC/PSK/BOB/etc I will most likely be that much more confident, calm collected, unafraid and as a result, thinking more clearly. I suppose for some it could generate over confidence and that could be bad but for me overconfidence is not going to happen... I'm just not that arrogant. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Secondly, you certainly don't have to search long in order to find an abundance of true survival stories (both successful and unsuccessful) in which people were separated from most or all of their gear. I know the knee-jerk response to that from the ETS crew would probably be "that's why you must have a PSK/EDC that is small enough to keep on your person all the time," but if you're truthful with yourself you must realize that you could still be separated from it and also (for most of us) it just isn't truely on our person 100% of the time. Just look at the recent story about the poor guys that were not only separated from any gear they may have had but even a good portion of their clothing was destroyed (burned) in the crash.

There is no question in my mind that primitive skills are an extremely important part of survival/preparedness and IMO one-knife camping is a great exercise in learning to become an expert with the one survival tool that is always with you..... your brain! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Of course I would not lie to you and deny that I am very much into bushcraft and primitive living/survival skills as a hobby and I truely enjoy camping with less and less gear each time I go out and that is also a big part of why I do this. Since I started doing this I have found it to be very enjoyable and it's certainly not because of the taste of the Mainstay rations. It's something deeper than that... something I can't really explain.

I have built all of my shelters completely from trees that were already dead and I break them down before I break camp. When I do need something from a live plant for something other than a shelter (food/fiber/seeds/liquid extract/etc) I take it from the plant in a way that will not kill the plant and/or in an area where that plant is quite abundant. When I leave a campsite, the only thing I leave behind are foot prints and my human scent.... sometimes not even footprints. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I've never tried myself to make a container to boil water, but I have heard of people maiking a bowl by slowly burning a depresion in wood until a bowl is formed.

S.

In a real survival situation with a source of fresh water but no purification gear, you'd just drink it and hope to not get sick. Chances of actually getting sick aren't that high. Since you're doing a simulation, I think you can bring some pills along and pretend you were using the water untreated. It's just one variable you're removing.

I knew of a guy in Boston who was jilted by a romantic partner. He was extremely upset and depressed, but he couldn't make up his mind whether to commit suicide or not. So he decided to drink a glass of (disgusting, polluted) water from the Charles River and see what happened. He did so, and waited. Nothing happened, and he is still around. I don't know if he's any smarter than before. Anyway, untreated water isn't necessarily fatal.

Wow. I guess that says a lot about the fear of contaminated water our society has developed. Yes, there's a chance you might get sick by drinking from the Charles, and it's disgusting, and if you drink it every day you'll probably get cancer. But it's not an effective method of suicide!

A decent lean-to or debris hut can be constructed from downed deadwood and grasses or reeds. None of this is destructive or disturbing to the surrounding area. While a shelter made in this fashion might not last for decades, it will definitely do the job for a weekend, and rebuilding on the next trip is good practice (and fun if you enjoy doing it). You don't have to build a two room cabin to get out of the wind and/or rain. Get out, try it, and have some fun with it.

Troy

The knife isn't out of fear, a knife is the MOST useful, versatile, and valuable TOOL you can have in the wilderness.

You can make pretty good containers from birches, supposedly you can even cook with them. Oetzi carried ember in a birch container IIRC.

Yes this will make and effective bowl but it takes a long time. Is a lot of burn, carve, burn, carve, burn, carve and then a little burn, carve added on. I think I might dehydrate before finishing it and getting water boil then cool enough to drink. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Nonetheless I'll give it a try next time.