How To: Purify Urine for Drinking with an Emergency Solar Still
It’s called Urophagia—the art of consuming urine. There could be any number of reasons for having the desire to drink your own urine (or somebody else’s). There’s the so-called term “urine therapy,” which uses human urine as an alternative medicine. In urine therapy, or uropathy, it’s used therapeutically for various health, healing, and cosmetic purposes. There’s also those people who drink urine as sexual stimulation, where they want to share every part of each other. And then there’s the o...
How To: Make Your Own Charcoal
Hello, all. In this article, I will be showing you how to make one of the most useful products known to man. I am talking, of course, about charcoal.
How To: Escape from zip ties tied behind your back
You're being held prisoner, and your hands are tied behind your back with zip ties. You're helpless to escape… Or you would be, if you hadn't watched this tutorial. The helpful folks at ITS Tactical explain how you can quickly escape from zip ties tied behind your back.
How To: Survive a zombie apocalypse
Worried about a zombie apocalypse? Of course you are, we all are! This tongue in cheek video divulges the steps you'll need to take should zombies begin roaming the earth. Using clips from horror movies, this video shows you the right way to hide from zombies and even explains who you can trust. Learn what weapons work on zombies and how to cripple them and most importantly, destroy their brain! Nobody wants to get bitten by a zombie, learn how to escape, travel and even how to recognize if o...
How To: Make a Fire by Rubbing Two Sticks Together!
Here's a survival technique for making a fire with the most basic of resources—assuming you can find two sticks to rub together!
How To: Make a sleeping bag from a wool blanket
This video is about making a mummy type sleeping bag or an over bag for a hammock with a woolen blanket. The first task is to make coat rings and hooks. Take a piece of flexible wire and bend it into a ring of diameter 1 3/4 inch or 2 inches with a overlap of about 1 1/2 inches make 6 or 7 rings. Now take a small straight wire and make a hook of 1 or 1 1/2 inch, make the tips of the wire pointed so that it can penetrate. Overlap the edges of the blanket by 2to3 inches. Fix the rings with the ...
How To: Use water vines to get water in the wild
This video tutorial will show you how to use water vines to get water in the wild, if you fancy yourself the next Bear Grylls. There are different kinds of vines and not all vines are made equally. If you open them up they all contain water. Some vines produce bitter water and some are sweet.
How To: Build & Hide a Campfire from Your Enemies — The Dakota Fire Pit
Fire. It’s everywhere— always has been. From the Ordovician Period where the first fossil record of fire appears to the present day everyday uses of the Holocene. Today, we abundantly create flames (intentionally or unintentionally) in power plants, extractive metallurgy, incendiary bombs, combustion engines, controlled burns, wildfires, fireplaces, campfires, grills, candles, gas stoves and ovens, matches, cigarettes, and the list goes on... Yet with our societies' prodigal use of fire, t...
How To: Make a Slammin' Fire Piston for Under a Buck
Did you know that there's a way to start a fire by squishing air? In this project, I'll show you how to build a tool that does exactly that—and I'll give you a sneak peak into the principals of how a diesel engine operates!
How To: Tie a Great Hangman's Noose (Or Hangman's Knot)
The hangman's noose is infamous for its use in hanging prisoners during executions. It was supposedly invented in Britain but eventually spread throughout the world, going beyond the prisons and even into our own homes. But the hangman's knot isn't all doom and gloom. There are plenty of practical (and non-lethal) applications for the hangman's knot, like a fishing or boating knot. Everyone should know this roped knot; this tutorial will show you the knot-tying process. Just remember, to be a...
How To: Make a coiled basket to carry water in
Making a coiled basket can have be used for a variety or reasons, including the ability to carry much needed water. This four part tutorial teaches you how to make a coiled basket using the wilderness around you.
How To: Eat & extract water from a cactus
John Campbell demonstrates how to eat and extract water from a cactus. You can eat a cactus from the hedgehog plant family. First, cut off the top of the cactus and skin down the sides, cutting off the cactus spines. Cutting the cactus will not hurt it because it can heal itself. The cactus meat will be like a sticky cucumber. Try to avoid the central core because it is stringy but you can eat the cactus meat. Wrap the meat in a bandana, squish it and wring it out to extract the water from th...
How To: Make a survival fire from a battery and staple
Check out this how-to video to start a fire using an AA battery and a staple. You can do this while listening to the classical guitar piece, "Malaguena" if you feel like it. It could save your life! With your battery: start by cutting the plastic away from the negative terminal. Watch the video survival training tutorial for more tips on starting an emergency fire!
How To: Make mosquito repellent
Ray is in the outback making smudge fires out of termite mounds to ward away the creepy crawlies, bugs and mosquitos.
How To: Build a Homemade Portable Water Heater for Your Outdoor Camping Adventures
Warm water is an essential part of life that we sometimes tend to take for granted. Over one billion people, or roughly one-seventh of the world's population, have no access to hot water.
How To: Tie an Arab-style shemagh two different ways
A shemagh, or a keffiyeh, is a traditiona Arab headdress that's worn by Arab men. Made from a square scarf, it protects their heads and face from desert wind and sun. It's also multifunctional - warm at night and lightweight during the day. These scarves have even become adopted by the U.S. Cavalry to protect themselves during long treks outdoors.
How To: Make a simple coyote well water filter
When you're trying to survive in the wild, clean water is an absolute must. This video shows you a simple and easy method to build a basic water's edge, water filter device called a coyote well water filter. Though this filter will NOT remove toxins or pathogens, in an emergency it's an effective way of filtering out the big, nasty stuff.
How To: Tie a single-strand ringbolt hitch
JD of Tying it all together, is the instructor. He has many instructional knot tying videos. This particular video is focused on tying a single strand ringbolt hitch, A.K.A. Coxcombing. This was a common knot used by sailors to decorate items and parts of their ship. However, actually creating this tie is much easier said than done.
How To: Light a match without a matchbook cover
When your matchbook cover is shot, you can still get a light from a match. Learn how to light a match on the bottom of a coffee mug. Fun survival skills when you have a match and no cover - the ceramic of the mug provides the friction necessary to light a match.
How To: Make a milirary bugle cord
Bugle cords are used as elaborate leashes on bugles and trumpets, and make for snazzy ornamentation on military band uniforms. Tying It All Together shows you how to make one. The technique for making one is relatively simple. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to make a military bugle cord.
How To: Make a fire piston from a flashlight
Learn how to make a fire piston or fire syringe from a MagLite flashlight.
How To: How the Headrest in Your Vehicle Can Potentially Save Your Life One Day
If you ever find yourself in a car that's submerged under water, your first instinct should be to try and open either the window or the door in the first few seconds of touching water. Unfortunately, if you wait any longer than that, the lopsided ambient water pressure subjected to the car will make it impossible to open the car door, and the now ubiquitous power windows will likely short out. Sure, you could wait until the pressure has equalized on both sides of the car, but this usually hap...
How To: Heat Your Home in an Emergency Without Gas Using Flower Pots & Candles
Not having power can make everyday tasks really difficult if you're unprepared. You have to find new ways to do things like cook dinner and charge your devices, and if it happens during the winter, you also have to figure out how to heat your home.
How To: Tie a loop in the end of a rope with a bowline knot
This video describes and shows you how to tie a loop in the end of a rope with a bowline knot. A bowline knot is used in rigging by the ground rigger to create a point for the up rigger to have a point to pull up. This is how you create a bowline knot. First you must create a loop in the middle of the knot. With the free end, come up through the loop, then you go around the standing end of the rope and then you move it back through the loop. You pull the knot tight. That is how you create a b...
How To: Read a paper map
Have you ever found yourself lost in the Appalachian Mountains, or stranded in the Mojave Desert? Maybe it was because you couldn't read a map… a real map… a real hands-on, folding paper map. Reading a map is an important skill that may be lost in the internet and GPS era, but it' s a skill that everyone should have.
How To: Get rescued from a deserted island
Whether your plane made a crash landing or your ship got lost on a three-hour tour, now you're stranded on a remote island. Here's how to get help.
News: Make fire with a condom
Condom + Water = Fire Kinda. This is a quick 'survivalist' technique for makeshift solar fire-starting. Harness the power of sun. And at the same time you can make use of all those condoms* laying around.
How To: Use a watch as a compass to navigate when lost
Are you lost? This how to video teaches you a simple way to turn your watch into a compass. An analog watch is even more effective than a compass because it is not influenced by the earth's magnetic fields. You'll never be lost again as long as you have an analog watch with you.
How To: Make Fire-Starting Char Cloth from a T-Shirt Using a Tuna Can
For this project, I sacrificed some of my kids' clothes and a can of tuna to make some high-quality fire starter! Here's how to make a great batch of char cloth to add to your emergency survival kit.
How To: Stay safe during a power or gas outage
There are many different things that could contribute to a power or gas outage or accident in your home. To be properly prepared for an emergency or other situations that endanger you, take a look at this video from SDGE on simple tips to keep safe, including discovering gas leaks and using power generators to maintain eletricity in your home during an outage.
How To: Assemble a compact survival kit to carry on a belt or in a backpack
In a survival situation, the four most important things for you to find are shelter, fire, water, and food, in that order. This video will show you how to pack a compact survival kit that can be carried on your belt or in your backpack and contains everything you need to acquire those four things more easily.
How To: Tie the "Asheley's flower knot" flower knot variation
In this how-to video from the TyingItAllTogether Channel, learn how to tie Clifford W. Ashley's flower knot. Ashley is the author and illustrator of a book he wrote about tying various types knots, including ones that he created himself. In his book, Ashley shows how to tie this knot, but does not show in his illustrations how to actually hold and tie the knot in one's hand. This video tutorial seeks to clarify those steps. You will need to begin with a piece of rope folding it in half to eff...
How To: Tie a perfect double plafond knot
In this handy knot-tying tutorial from JD of Tying It All Together, we learn how to tie a double plafond knot. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started tying double plafond yourself, watch this video guide.
How To: Survive falling into icy waters on seemingly frozen lakes
The normal body temperature in humans is 98.6 degrees. At 95 degrees, hypothermia has already set in. At 86 degrees, you're unconscious. Next, is death. So, when you're on an frozen-over lake, use extreme caution on that seemingly solid ice, because if you fall through, it just might be your last swim.
How To: Make dogbane cordage or Indian hemp
In this tutorial, we learn how to make dogbane cordage. Dogbane is also known as Indian hemp, which is a plant which is used to make cordage. Once you identify the plant outside, you can process it into a raw and finished product. First, you will simply peel the bark off of a branch of the dogbane. After this, you will squeeze along the inside of it and start to peel the layers back. You will then get a bushy type of wood that looks like it's hair. After this, you can tie these together or br...
How To: Make a survival fishing float bobber from a plastic soda straw
Okay, so you're fishing and you forget the basic essentials… you're fishing pole and your bobber. How are you going to catch a fish with just some fishing line? The answer? Plastic straw.
How To: Tie the basket weave knot
In this video, we learn how to tie the basket weave knot. First, place the string on a hook, then cross the two sides and make a loop. Next, make the loop wider and take the right and left strings up, then pull the loops down to make a pretzel shape. Now, twist the bottom loops around and place one on top of the other. After this, push them on either side of each other, then bring the right string around and loop it through the left loop, then bring the left string into the right bottom loop....
How To: Make natural rope from Douglas Iris leaves
This video demonstrates how to make natural fiber rope using Douglas iris, a plant which is found along the Pacific coast from Santa Barbara from to Oregon. Before beginning, you should know that Douglas iris is poisonous when eaten, but it should be safe when you are handling it. The plant blooms every spring and dies every winter and has a brighter green color on top and a duller green towards the stalk, with a dark purple tint near the roots. You should collect plants which have died from ...
How To: Tie the lizard tail sinnet
In this tutorial, you'll be finding out how to tie the lizard tail sinnet. It's basically
How To: Make a Swiss seat rope harness
In this tutorial, learn an important safety tip for the next time you head out camping or hiking. In this video, you will get advice on how to make a Swiss seat rope harness. You will learn to utilize a length of rope to make a field expedient rappelling harness, that is similar to the seat used by the military. With practice, you can tie this Swiss seat in 90 seconds or less. Essentially, this is a high speed, low drag way to make your own harness. This harness is useful for rappelling or ex...