Knowledge Weighs Nothing

8 ‘MUST HAVE’ Items Everyone Should Have In Their Bug-Out-Bag

bugoutbag1

The thought of a natural disaster or some other catastrophic event is not one many enjoy meditating on; however, in our modern society, this is a very real threat. To protect your family, and yourself, it’s essential to begin preparing for the worst. While there are many ways to accomplish this goal, the easiest, and most effective in emergencies, is known as a Bug Out Bag.

Bug Out Bags are filled with essential items to keep you safe and protected during an emergency situation. There are many items that may be used, but the following are necessary for any Bug Out Bag.

(Loads of people have asked what bug out bag we use and recommend. We use and highly recommend the 5.11 3 Day Rush Backpack. It is absolutely amazing and given what it costs it’s a steal. We also like that it comes in a range of colors. We chose the black version as you look a lot less like a prepper/survivalist (with loads of gear worth acquiring!), than you do if you go for the usual military colors.)

Map and Compass

What would happen if your smartphone turned not-so-smart due to a lack of electricity or data signal? Being able to find your way around your immediate area could mean the difference between escaping from harms way or walking directly into it. Therefore, a current map and compass are essential for every Bug Out Bag.

TIP: Enhance your survival skills by learning how to effectively use a compass and read a variety of maps.

Pocket Knife or Multitool

As pocket knives and multitools are so useful for work and day-to-day activities,  it should be obvious how useful they would be in an emergency scenario. My personal preference is for a good quality medium sized Leatherman multitool, as they are well made, durable and have numerous uses in survival scenarios. Many people will argue that a fixed blade knife is preferable over a multitool, but not everyone is comfortable or proficient with fixed blade knives. There are pros and cons to each, but for everyday folk I am going with the multitool. By all means carry both!

LED Flashlights

Flashlights are essential to find your way in darkness as well as flagging for help. Traditional flashlights aren’t acceptable due to their short battery life and dim light beam. Enhance your ability to navigate during the night by storing a fresh LED flashlight in your bag. For maximum benefit, gather a large and small flashlight to illuminate a variety of situations. You should also store a few sets of backup batteries too.

Tarp for Emergency Shelter

If you’ve escaped traditional shelters, such as homes or buildings, tarps offer lightweight protection from the elements. Choose a brightly coloured tarp, which may be used as a location device when you’re lost in heavily wooded areas (unless your goal is not to be found, in which case choose camo). Of course, the tarp must be accompanied by several ropes. Paracord is vital for securing tarp shelters to trees etc, and ait lso has many other survival uses as well.

Various Fire-Making Items

Being able to make fire is among the most important elements of survival. Therefore, all Bug Out Bags should contain at least two methods of starting a fire. While matches are common,
gusts of wind of an unexpected rainfall could render these pieces of wood useless. If you must use matches, waterproof lifeboat matches offer the greatest resilience. Include a fire piston, flint and steel or a magnesium fire starter. Make sure to include an accelerant, such as cotton balls soaked with petroleum jelly.

Water Filtration Items

In cases of emergency, clean water may become scarce. Prevent yourself from drinking water of unknown quality by including a water filtration system of some sort. Personal straw filters and
carbon water purification tablets effectively purifies water in emergency situations. Enhance your survival ability by learning how to purify water using natural methods.

Extra Clothing Items

Being stranded or having to escape a dangerous situation with only the clothes on your back is a recipe for disaster. The amount of clothing you should pack depends on the size of your Bug Out Bag. Regardless, keep several changes of socks, several shirts, some extra pairs of underwear, a lightweight down bodywarmer and a lightweight waterproof jacket.

Excellent Easy To Make DIY Firestarters

fire-starters

You might think it looks easy to start a fire in the wilderness, but it’s not… Everyone, no matter how proficient at starting fires, can benefit from carrying some cheap and easy to make firestarters.

These DIY firestarters are made from candle wax and cotton cosmetic pads, but you could also use cotton-balls too. Simply melt some wax and then put the pads/ball in so they soak up the wax. Then just leave to dry and store ready for use.

When needed – if you have matches or a lighter, just light  an edge and they will start burning like a candle. If you are using sparking method of ignition like a firesteel, first scratch off some of the wax on an edge and fluff up the material so it better takes a spark. Once lit these last for ages and ages and they’ll help you get a fire going even in the most difficult of conditions.

These firestarters are similar to the petroleum jelly cotton-ball firestarters most people know about, but the huge benefit with these wax ones is they are much cleaner to use and store. With the petroleum ones you can’t help but get petroleum jelly everywhere.

(Image from: Jermm’s Outside)

How To Make Survival Rope From Plastic Bottles

The sad fact is that it seems that no matter where I go in the wilderness, be it the woods, mountains, rivers, lakes or the sea, there are always empty discarded plastic bottles. There are especially abundant around rivers, lakes and the ocean, as they tend to wash up and build up in certain areas. Whilst is a sad fact, these bottles can be used for several survival uses. They can obviously carry water, but they can also be made it to effective fish traps  for catching small fish and to make black smoke on a signal fire for rescue.

Another use, as demonstrated in the video above, is that you can make cordage out of the plastic bottle. Now you could make the DIY tool for doing this (in the video) if you want to make this plastic bottle rope at home, but it does demonstrate is that this could easily be done in the wild in a survival scenario with a knife or sharp rock. It would take a little longer to do, but you could still do it. It’s good to think outside the box. Would you have thought of doing this if you needed to make a shelter in a survival situation?

Swiss Army Survival Pantyhose: 12+ Survival Uses

Pantyhose

Ok I’ll be honest – I used the photo of the lady with the nice legs to grab your attention, but only because I actually believe that pantyhose are genuinely useful in survival situations, and I knew that if I just used a boring photo of a pack of pantyhose, no one would notice it on Facebook etc and read the post!

Previously I hope that I managed to get you to add a few tampons to your survival kit? If not see: The Swiss Army Survival Tampon: 7 Survival Uses. Like the tampons, the idea of adding pantyhose to your first aid kit, survival kit or bug-out-bag meets with some resistance from a lot of people (especially men!)  This is crazy really as both items are lightweight, cost very little and both have loads of different uses that can save your life in a pickle. I guess the bottom line is – would you be more embarrassed if a friend found a tampon or some pantyhose in your survival kit, or would you rather die from a gunshot wound (tampon could save your life here and that’s just one use!) or hypothermia (pantyhose could save your life here and that’s just one use too!)?

Swiss Army Survival Pantyhose: 12+ Survival Uses

(Image from: Wikipedia)

Excellent DIY Lightweight Tin Can Stove

tincan stove

Oh man, we’ve featured loads and loads of DIY stoves on K.W.N; everything from tiny soda can alcohol stoves, to larger tin can/brick rocket stoves, right the way through to larger DIY thermal mass stoves to heat your entire home…

Sometimes (in fact often) simplest is best and that is what I love about this stove. It’s easy to make and it costs nothing, in fact it was made entirely from materials Paul had in his apartment! I love its simplicity, I don’t need any more small stoves, but I am tempted to make one of these… I think this stove would be great for camping/hiking and emergency preparedness. It could also be cool to just have in the car, to break out for picnics etc

Excellent DIY Lightweight Tin Can Stove

(Image from: PaulEl via Instructables)

2 Different Ways To Start A Fire With Steel Wool

DIY firesteelwool

You cannot know too many different techniques for starting fire. You just don’t know what dire situation you might find yourself in one day, and you just don’t know what resources you’ll have with you… Matches get wet, lighters get broken, and pretty much every other gadget/device for creating fire can be forgotten and left at home. Sure you could forget some steel wool, but the more methods of starting fire you know, the better the chances are that you will be able to do so in different situations.

I think everyone should pack a handful of steel wool in their camping/hiking and survival bags. It is just so easy to start a fire with steel wool, it seems silly not to carry some. The link below will show you how to start a fire with a flashlight and a battery, so that’s two different ways you can start a fire if you have a flashlight and some steel wool!

2 Different Ways To Start A Fire With Steel Wool

(Image from: Practical Survivor)