First and foremost, a knife is a cutting tool, but there’s more to it than that. A good knife needs to cut smoothly, but also to be durable and comfortable. And, while we’re not about to bedazzle our blades with rhinestones and glitter, aesthetics also come into play. If all else is equal, most of us tend to gravitate towards knives that look cool and fit our taste.
Most knives play it safe in the looks department, sticking to varying quantities of silver and black. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this — most of my own EDC folders stick to these finishes — but it’s also good to see more colorful options becoming available.
The new Steel Will Gekko 1555 uses an interesting shade of maroon micarta on its handle, paired with a black PVD-coated 3.5-inch blade and satin silver hardware. Steel Will says that this “may not be a typical color combination for folding knives, but it emphasizes the individuality of its owner.” Whether you love it or hate it, it’s not a color you see very often on a knife.
The Gekko 1555 is made in Italy with a D2 steel blade hardened to 59-60 HRC and a sturdy lockback mechanism. This knife is part of the Gekko Mini family, though its 7.87-inch total length isn’t really what we’d consider small. This knife tips the scales at 4.75 ounces, and includes a reversible pocket clip (tip-up only) and lanyard hole.
This knife is currently available for pre-order, but we’re told it will be available soon. MSRP for the Gekko 1555 is $220. For more information, visit SteelWillKnives.com.
Maintaining a positive mental attitude can be difficult during survival situations. So, when things aren’t going your way, it’s important to have some go-to methods of boosting your morale. You might take some down time to read a favorite book, play cards, draw or write, or enjoy a tasty snack. These activities help you stay productive, and take your mind off the harsh realities of your situation.
Chewing gum also falls into this morale-boosting category. It provides a burst of flavor, and keeps your mind and jaw muscles occupied. Scientific studies have even shown that chewing gum can significantly reduce anxiety and fatigue and improve your mood. On top of all this, many varieties of chewing gum can improve oral hygiene and keep your breath smelling fresh.
It may not look appetizing, but this spruce pitch can be turned into tasty chewing gum.
Unfortunately, during a survival scenario, you probably won’t be able to stroll into the local grocery store and pick up a package of your favorite minty gum. Outdoorsmen in the past couldn’t either, so they learned to make their own chewing gum from the sap of coniferous trees, such as pine, spruce, and fir. This natural gum has a refreshing flavor, and its antiseptic properties can also help keep your mouth healthy.
After cleaning, melting, and straining the pitch, it can be poured into a container to harden.
In the video below, Lonnie of Far North Bushcraft and Survival shows a step-by-step process for making spruce pitch chewing gum. It’s a relatively easy process, but you will need some basic tools: two metal cans, a metal strainer, an oven or heat source, foil or parchment paper, and some corn starch (to prevent sticking).
The solidified gum is broken into bite-size pieces, which will be coated with corn starch.
Lonnie also makes an important note: be careful how you chew this gum, as it may stick to your teeth. The last thing you want in a survival situation is to lose a filling or break a crown when no dentist is available. However, with a little caution and an active jaw, this gum can spruce up your breath and keep your spirits high.
Shelter from the elements is a top priority in any survival situation, no matter the time of year. In the summer, staying in the shade helps avoid heat exhaustion and sunburn; in the winter, insulated walls protect you from wind chill, sleet, and snow. You can always improvise a shelter in a pinch, but it’s ideal to have a shelter that has been prepared ahead of time. This structure doesn’t need to be elaborate, but it does need to be affordable, durable, and spacious enough for your family and all your essential gear.
Marcin Padlewski and Anissa Szeto, of Ontario, Canada, have designed a structure that they claim meets all of these needs. It’s based on the yurt, a traditional circular Mongolian tent that has been used for centuries. Marcin and Anissa’s company, Yurta, has been building these pre-made yurt kits in Canada since 2004.
Each Yurta shelter consists of a natural hardwood frame, a wool felt insulation layer, and a water-resistant yet breathable canvas outer shell. These materials can be packed down into a long pickup truck bed or 4’x8′ trailer for easy transport.
Once you choose a suitable location, company says its yurts can be deployed in 2 to 3 hours without turning a screw or hammering a nail. Deck foundation kits are available, or you can build your own insulated floor platform from included plans. If all else fails or you need to set up in a hurry, you can still stake the structure directly to the ground.
Yurta is available in two sizes: 13-foot diameter and 17-foot diameter. The company also offers connectors for multiple units, so you can set up an entire compound with multiple joined rooms. With the addition of a wood-burning stove, the company says these structures can remain comfortably warm even if it’s -25°C (-13°F) outside.
Pricing for the larger 17-foot Yurta is $9,000 to $9,500, depending on wall height option. This includes the framework, roof, walls, solid cedar door, window inserts, storm flaps, awnings, floor building plans, and other components. Wool insulation for colder months is sold separately, and ranges from $2,400 to $3,400. A pre-built stained and insulated floor kit is $2,800. This may seem like it adds up fast, but considering the potential year-round use capabilities of these structures, a Yurta may be an effective option for a long-term bug-out shelter.
For more info on these modern yurts, check out Yurta.ca.
We often feature new knives crafted by giants of the knife industry, from Benchmade to Zero Tolerance. However, we’re also always on the lookout for cool designs from up-and-coming knife-makers — some pretty interesting cutting tools can come out of these small workshops, even if they don’t have access to exotic materials and millions of dollars in CNC machines. So, when a friend recently showed us an angular handmade neck knife called the Angry Frog, we wanted to know more.
The Angry Frog was crafted by Brian Cornett, the man behind Devil Dog Designs (abbreviated as D3). Brian, a Marine veteran now living in McKinney, Texas, tells us that the idea of designing knives has appealed to him since childhood. His grandfather gave him an old Case Sod Buster, and he quickly began taking an interest in cutting tools. Many years later, after learning to customize some knives he already owned, Brian started making knives from scratch in 2012.
Since each Angry Frog is made by hand, Brian often comes up with unique limited-production textures and finishes.
We asked Brian how he came up with the Angry Frog design, and he explained:
“I wanted to design some sort of defense tool that was edged, had a secure grip, was small, and was easy to carry or conceal. So, I started sketching and sketching. I had some ideas of what I wanted to do, and came to a basic design for the first “Angry Frog”. It didn’t look like the current design — see the pictures below with knife maker Darrell Ralph at my first knife show. Successful knife makers like him, Todd Begg, and Ernest Emerson influenced me, and still do to this day.”
Left: Brian with one of his inspirations, knife designer Darrell Ralph of DDR and DGT. Right: Early Angry Frog prototypes.
Brian continued, “After coming up with a design and before hitting the grinder, I wanted to have a proper name for the knife. Bouncing names around in my head, I settled on “Angry Frog”. The origin of the name comes from a shower curtain, of all places. My wife and I had a white shower curtain with Japanese kanji script characters printed on it, and in each corner is the kanji for “love”. She has always said the symbol reminded her of an angry frog — a fitting name for my very first design.”
This unusual name does seem appropriate for Brian’s aggressive design, which blends elements of a knuckle duster and a push dagger. Each D3 Angry Frog is cut from tough 52100 high-carbon steel, and features a deep chisel-ground main bevel finished with a two-sided edge grind. Two large holes accommodate the user’s index and middle fingers, while a smaller hole provides room for a lanyard. There are also contours and jimping along the butt and spine for added comfort and control.
Brian has made the Angry Frog in a variety of different finishes and textures, from simple stonewashed to hammered, milled, anodized, and acid-etched. Each comes with a fitted Kydex sheath, which can be mounted on a belt, or strung from a lanyard or bead chain as a neck knife. Pricing varies depending on finish, but we’ve generally seen them going for $100 to $120.
An assortment of the finishes Brian has come up with for the Angry Frog.
To learn more about the Angry Frog and other Devil Dog Designs blades, or to purchase one of your own, contact Brian on Instagram or visit the D3 Facebook page. You can also email him directly at devildogdesign@tx.rr.com.
Soup is one of the quintessential comfort foods, the sort of thing that can warm your core and cheer you up when all else fails. It’s also easy to prepare, even if cooking isn’t your forte — you can pretty much toss diced ingredients in a pot at various intervals, heat, simmer, and mix or blend thoroughly. Making your own soup may sound intimidating to those who don’t cook often, but it’s an easy way to whip up hearty food from staple ingredients once you get the hang of it.
In survival situations, soups can transform otherwise bland or stale ingredients into a smooth and rich meal, especially when the right spices are applied. While fresh ingredients from the garden or grocery store are ideal, soup also does a great job of utilizing frozen, canned, or dry shelf-stable ingredients.
Soups are a great way to use up the dry beans and lentils you’ve stockpiled.
The following infographic from PoundsToPocket.co.uk outlines recipes for nine simple soups, most of which use 7 ingredients or less. Onions and garlic are common to most recipes, so these items can be grown in your garden or even regrown from kitchen scraps if a grocery store isn’t available. Most proteins and vegetables can be frozen or preserved at room temperature for long-term storage, while most spices should keep almost indefinitely. It’s also easy to substitute or omit ingredients if they’re not in your pantry — that’s the beauty of soups.
If you’re patient and willing to experiment with flavors, simple soups like these can add variety to your survival diet. They’ll provide welcome relief from freeze-dried food or MREs, and can use up leftovers from other meals, too.
In a true survival situation, staying alive becomes a battle against nature, and when you’re fighting for your life, there must be no holds barred. This is why you’ll sometimes hear us discuss survival methods that are discouraged, considered unsportsmanlike, or are even downright illegal under normal circumstances. The gill nets we’ll be discussing here fall into the latter category in many regions — in other words, there’s a good chance they are against the law where you live, so check your local regulations before trying any of the following.
Fish can provide a sustainable source of calories, protein, fats, amino acids, and other nutrients. In a survival situation, actively fishing from the shoreline or a boat with a rod and reel consumes time and effort that could be put towards other critical tasks. This is where passive methods come in. Leaving some form of trap in the water can generate a food source, even when you’re not monitoring it. This is why our ancestors progressed beyond hunting and gathering — it’s not exactly efficient in the long term.
One of the most effective types of passive net is the gill net. These are vertical panels of netting which are set across bodies of water, with floats along the top of the net and weights along the bottom. Once the net has been deployed, fish attempt to swim through it, and become trapped as the net snags behind their gills.
The size of the gill net’s mesh determines the fish it is most effective at capturing. Small fish can pass straight through, while large fish can’t fit their heads through the mesh and are able to swim away. In survival situations, this means you’ll be able to capture a steady supply of fish which are large enough to provide substantial calories, assuming the location you choose for the net is viable. In the past, the high effectiveness of gill nets often led to over-fishing and damage to the ecosystem, and that’s why they are so heavily regulated today — but in a SHTF scenario where you need to find food to avoid starvation, they can be lifesavers.
The following video from Bob Hansler shows how to set up and use a gill net in a river:
Regardless of the scenario you’re in, use this knowledge responsibly. Even if you are in a survival situation, you don’t want to decimate the local fish population with an unsupervised net, leading to more food than you can eat before it spoils. Do what you need to in order to survive, but be cautious with this highly efficient passive fishing method.
“Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” This classic proverb explains the conundrum of being surrounded by seawater — there’s more than enough to drown in, but none of can quench your thirst. The high salt content of seawater can cause the body to go into shock if it’s consumed, so it’s unwise to drink seawater, especially if you’re already dehydrated.
The other problem is that this salt is often extremely difficult to remove from water. Simple filters like the LifeStraw can remove bacteria and other pathogens, but are unable to trap the dissolved salt on a molecular basis. Seawater can be desalinated through distillation or reverse osmosis filtration, but both of these processes are time-consuming and require large amounts of energy input. However, researchers have recently announced the development of a graphene nano-membrane filter which can efficiently remove salt from seawater.
Graphene forms a single-layer hexagonal structure of carbon atoms. Source: University of Manchester
Graphene is a cutting-edge material composed of a flat hexagonal lattice of Carbon atoms. Each layer of graphene is two-dimensional on an atomic scale, meaning it’s only one atom thick. This structure generates some very interesting properties — it exhibits tensile strength higher than steel, it’s nearly transparent, and it’s a highly efficient conductor of heat and electricity. One form of graphene, graphene oxide, has a microscopic structure which enables it to form a filter with extremely small pores.
A depiction of water molecules passing through a graphene filter. Source: University of Manchester
Scientists at the University of Manchester recently announced research which demonstrates the effectiveness of graphene oxide for desalination. These filters can reportedly be produced easily in the lab, and the membrane pore size can be precisely controlled to less than one nanometer in size. Common salt molecules found in seawater are about one nanometer in size, so the membrane efficiently strips salt from water molecules while retaining a high flow rate.
Until now, this level of control over graphene membrane pore size was not possible. Researchers say more work needs to be done to prove these filters work on an industrial scale, and to document the filter cleaning or replacement intervals, but this study still represents a major step forward in seawater desalination. The initial testing shows these graphene oxide filters can reject 97% of common salt (NaCl) in water.
In layman’s terms, this presents the possibility of simple, portable, high-flow molecular filters which can convert seawater into drinkable water. For survivalists, especially those who live near the coast, that’s an exciting prospect. For more info, check out this article from the BBC or read this University of Manchester press release.
When we published our April Fool’s Day post last week, the Survival Fashion Buyer’s Guide, we got a few salty responses on social media because we didn’t actually spend days compiling and photographing 25 of the latest glamorous tacticool outfits. As much we would’ve liked to devote our resources to an in-depth satirical guide, our editorial team simply didn’t have the manpower to divert from our other serious projects. However, after much demand from their customers, the guys at 5.11 Tactical have decided to make their April Fool’s project a reality — and the results are pretty entertaining.
Back in 2012, 5.11 Tactical came up with an April Fool’s Day joke about offering a tactical kilt. Much like our post this year, it was just a joke at the time. But then the company started receiving purchase requests from paying customers. So, they set out to turn this Tactical Duty Kilt (TDK) into a real product. For a limited time each year, the once fictitious 5.11 Tactical Duty Kilt is actually offered for sale through the company’s web store.
“A standard kilt says you’re a man. A 5.11 Tactical Duty Kilt says you’re a bad man.”
The 5.11 Tactical Duty Kilt is designed for the man who’s not afraid to flaunt his undercarriage, free from the stifling constraints of traditional pants. It’s built from TACLITE polyester/cotton ripstop fabric with reinforced triple-stitching and a water-resistant Teflon coating. It features front slant pockets, as well as interchangeable TDU cargo pockets which can accommodate AR magazines.
The belt loops are sized for a 5.11 Tactical 1.75-inch Duty Belt, and they include dual fixed D-rings. The Tactical Duty Kilt is offered in six colors: black, moss green, MultiCam, khaki, stone grey, and burnt brown. Sizes range from 28-inch waist all the way to a 54-inch waist. MSRP starts at $75 for solid colors, or $80 for MultiCam.
“The hiiiills are alive with the sound of gunfire…”
Like previous years, the 5.11 Tactical Duty Kilt will only be available for purchase this year while supplies last. For more information on the 5.11 TDK, go to 511tactical.com/kilt.
April is finally here, although freezing and sub-freezing temperatures persist in many states. This means that as much as we’d like to rock our Sky’s Out Thighs Out t-shirt we’re just not there. Not yet. We still need to consider helpful cold weather products and how to use them. And even if the weather has started to warm up where you live, it’s important to consider these items for the coming fall and winter months — preparation is predictive, not reactive.
As discussed in Part 2 of our Cold Weather Survival series, the U.S. Army cannot officially endorse any aftermarket products. However, through a combination of in-person interviews, reviews of feedback from Army testing, and studying its Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Operations manual, we found some winter gear worth examining. In this article, we take a closer look at these items.
Black Diamond Enforcer Gloves
Gear from Black Diamond Equipment might not be standard issue for the average trooper, but it consistently appears in loadouts of Special Forces and Special Operations members. For example, Black Diamond Equipment’s Enforcer Gloves feature a waterproof shell and 170g PrimaLoft insulation. The gauntlet-style cuffs are long, cinching down past your wrist to maintain a consistent protected layer as they overlap your sleeves. Anyone who’s had a handful of snow shoved down their collar by an older sibling can attest to the benefit of keeping the frozen stuff outside your base layer.
Upon closer inspection, we found that the seam finishing and stitching on these gloves wasn’t perfect. A loose thread was noticeable here and there, even before testing took place. Admittedly, we’re spoiled. We often have the opportunity to look at high-end gear sewn by expert tailors, and sometimes we get used to setting that bar pretty high. In this case, it’s possible that combining the glove’s premium materials with a flawless stitching program would have pushed its price point through the roof. At any rate, the stitching flaws did not appear to affect performance, and did not separate further during testing.
Close-up of one of the stitching defects we spotted on the Black Diamond Enforcer gloves.
Although thick to keep your hands warm, the gloves are pre-curved to accommodate holding a firearm or other tools. This reduced our hand fatigue for better long-term comfort. Gripping a steering wheel was also not a problem—a plus for when it takes half an hour for your diesel engine to warm up, and by that time you’re already at work. We loved the well-thought-out protective padding on the tops of the knuckles and fingers, including coverage for the delicate bones inside the hand.
Overall, the fit and feel of these gloves is among the best we’ve seen. We could tell that this is a product which has gone through more than one iteration, with obvious improvements made after years of customer feedback.
3-in-1 Parka by 5.11 Tactical
Some of our firefighter friends turn up their noses at 5.11 Tactical products, calling it “cop gear” due to its longstanding association with law enforcement. We’re going to chalk that up more to inter-service rivalry than actual hands-on experience, since some of our 5.11 EDC bags have been usedabused every single day for three years and counting without a hiccup. If you let your preconceived notions steer you away from a brand, you may be missing out on some excellent gear.
5.11 Tactical’s 3-in-1 Parka was designed as a patrol jacket, made for someone who has to work or stand outside in all conditions, no matter how cold or miserable the weather gets. It gets its name from the way it’s constructed, consisting of a thick fleece liner stuffed inside of a heavy-duty water-resistant shell. You can detach the fleece to wear on its own, or just use the shell if it’s raining but not cold. Otherwise, both jackets combine to make one substantial weather shield.
The complete system is noticeably heavy — a size large is just under 5 pounds (4 lbs. 13 oz. to be exact). We understand that extreme warmth, weather protection and durability can’t (reasonably) be attained using featherweight materials. But you definitely feel the difference when you’re putting this thing on. It feels sort of like a Snuggie combined with Level IIA body armor — in a good way.
Don’t expect high mobility while wearing this parka. In addition to being heavy it’s also bulky. This is fine as long as you’re mostly just walking or standing. But if you’re planning on extreme cold weather CrossFit or Antarctic 3-gun matches, you should probably re-evaluate your wardrobe.
We liked the dual concealed-carry pockets up front. They were large enough to accommodate a full-size 1911 pistol, and opened fully to let us reach it even with gloved hands. The hook-and-loop closures on these pockets made for fast access—just grab both sides and rip it open. Similar closures on the sleeves were also well received. This allowed us to cinch the sleeves down on our wrists, forming a weather-tight seal that retained our body heat while deflecting wind and light rain.
Extended zipper pulls on the front pockets make them easy to open and stash compact items. The only thing we didn’t like was that we had nowhere to put our hands. We found ourselves wishing for some generously over-sized hand-warmer pockets, like those found on Patagonia’s version of the 3-in-1 parka.
Overall? When we really don’t want to go outside but don’t have a choice in the matter, 5.11 Tactical’s parka is the jacket we’ll reach for.
MSR Expedition Stove
For anyone traveling long distances overland during extreme cold weather, melting snow becomes the primary means of obtaining drinking water. Boiling water to make meals out of dehydrated food is also common.
The XGK-EX stove from MSR (Mountain Safety Research) is a snow melting, water boiling juggernaut. It uses a 35-year-old classic design and is one of the only commercially-available aftermarket products mentioned by name in the Army manual. The stove has made its name by working through the worst possible conditions whether its cold, dirty, or dusty. It’s not finicky and is very dependable, even if you choose to abuse it by not cleaning it or by feeding it low-grade fuels. As just one example of its toughness, back in 2014 on an expedition to the North Pole, professional explorer Eric Larsen used an MSR XGK-EX for multiple hours every day for 53 days straight. If it can handle that scenario, it should be able to handle your backcountry excursions without breaking a sweat.
Using white gas for fuel will keep the stove running at its cleanest and into the lowest sub-freezing temperatures (down to about -50° F) . However, the stove will also happily digest kerosene, unleaded auto fuel, aviation gas, and even diesel. This feature has obvious benefits for use in survival situations, since the XGK-EX will happily consume just about any type of fuel you’re able to scrounge up.
Photography via MSR by Kristian Bogner. Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved.
As with most other products which earn the label bulletproof, this stove is neither light nor overly compact compared to similar models. But it’s not made to be light or compact. It’s made to melt snow and boil water day-in and day-out with unquestionable reliability. As emergency room nurses are fond of saying: it’s there to save your ass, not kiss it!
Although winter is beginning to wind down, we hope you’re lucky enough to procure some great winter gear for your load-outs. This concludes Part 3 of our Cold Weather Survival series, but for more cold weather survival tips and gear check out Part 1 of the series, or past articles on winter sleeping bags or breathable winter insulation.
About the Author
Andrew Schrader is a licensed professional engineer and is certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Structures Specialist. His company, Recon Response Engineering LLC, advises state and federal government organizations on the subject of urban search and rescue and building collapse. He recently assisted the U.S. Department of State’s Italian Consulate in the development of their post-earthquake response and rescue protocol. You can follow him on Instagram at @reconresponse.
The sun is an incredible force of nature — its heat, light, and gravitational pull make life on this planet possible. Without the sun, there’d be no plant life, no animal life, and certainly no human life on Earth. However, the sheer power of this celestial body also has some unfortunate consequences. The sun generates ultraviolet (UV) radiation that has the potential to damage our skin cells, leading to painful redness, peeling, blisters, and even cancer.
A diagram of sunburn’s cause and effect, via the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Those of us with fair or sensitive skin know the excruciating pain of a sunburn all too well. For some, being out in direct sunlight for a mere 30 minutes can lead to a visible sunburn. Other skin tones may be more resilient, but if you’re outdoors for an extended period, it catches up with most of us eventually. Under normal circumstances, a severe sunburn is uncomfortable and annoying; during a survival situation, this condition can be crippling.
Sunscreen is the obvious choice for preventing sunburns, but there are many misconceptions regarding its use. For example, you’re probably not applying as much sunscreen as you should; studies show that it takes the equivalent of a shot glass full of it to protect your entire body. You also might think that the SPF (Sun Protection Factor) scale is simple enough, but it’s actually not as straightforward as it appears. A sunscreen with SPF 30 is not twice as effective as SPF 15 — the former blocks 97% of UVB rays, while the latter blocks 93%.
