98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

by Cody Lundin

  Extra carbon-steel knife with sheath:

  Cutting-edge technology from

  the Stone Age to the space age.

  It’s interesting to note that in current American culture cutting edges and fire have become synonymous with criminal activity. Both tools are deemed troublesome, and are used simply to help unsavory characters destroy, rob, pillage, and rape. Today, knives are largely misunderstood, thanks to a combination of Hollywood, tool modernization, and irresponsible, blade-wielding thugs. Decades ago, they were an accepted part of our society, even in elementary schools. Every so often, an old-timer attending one of my lectures pipes in with the fact that when he was young, he was supposed to have a knife at school. Years back, young boys were expected to have a blade in order to whittle during recess. My, how things have changed! A knife at school now will earn your expulsion for harboring a dangerous weapon. While I’m not advocating kids at school have knives, I am bringing to light how recently our nation’s mindset has changed regarding one of the greatest tools of all time.

  Paleoanthropologists have proven that early hominids have been diddling around with rocks to create cutting edges for more than 2.6 million years. These edges, whether primitive or modern, have built every civilization on Earth, including the very structure you live in. Face it, a tool that’s been around this long deserves your full attention. Cutting edges can be improvised or found in a multitude of forms. Broken glass, sharpened bone or antler, can lids, and a plethora of stones used by ancient peoples around the globe are just a few examples waiting to be exploited by the attentive survivor. If you’re prepared and have a survival kit, your cutting tool of choice, at least for most of North America, will be the metal knife.

  Perhaps no other piece of survival gear is as hotly debated as the knife. I can already smell the testosterone wafting off the pages. Not unlike matches, it shows up on every survival kit list. However, most survival books rarely get into detail about the knife itself, offering little information other than to carry a “good pocketknife.” On the other hand, some instructors have a vested interest as they sell or endorse blades for a particular knife maker.

  It’s no secret that knives are phallic symbols. Some guys think the bigger the better ... whatever works. The Rambo movies pretty much sum it up. In each sequel (unfortunately there were two), Stallone’s knife gets bigger, harder, and more ridiculous looking, the final blade resembling a futuristic sword more than a knife. Maybe bigger is better for some, but no matter how big your tool, it means little if you don’t know how to use it. (She doesn’t have the heart to tell you, so I will.) On my field courses, I’ve seen everything from butter knives to full-blown, John Holmes-sized survival knives. It would seem that picking a winning style of knife has as many variables as there are maggots in a road kill.

  So what is the best knife to carry in the bush? My answer is whatever you’re most proficient in using that accomplishes the greatest number of tasks for your bioregion. As with the survival kit, there is no one knife suitable for every situation. There are, however, certain guidelines you can follow that will minimize the amount of fecal matter you’ll have to wade through. As I’ve said over and over again, simplicity is the key. The more bells and whistles you have protruding from your knife, the more specialized (or useless) it becomes. A simple design is the easiest to use, allowing you to complete the most basic and diverse of tasks while adapting to the greatest number of terrain features. In short, it gives you the most bang for your buck. Survival situations demand you are the jack-of-all-trades; there’s no room for specialization. Pack a knife you feel comfortable carrying and using that allows you to accomplish the most. Don’t succumb to your or anyone else’s inflated ego. There is a time and a place for machetes, but in most of North America, there’s not the time nor the place to use them.

  My knife choice looks rather boring: no saw back, blood grooves, serrated edges, chrome, or other attachments. The qualities I look for in a general-purpose bush knife that’s great for the majority of the planet are as follows:

  8- to 9-inch overall length

  This means the blade itself is about 4 inches long, or the width of your palm. The same is true for the handle. A knife blade of this size lets me skin everything from an elk to a pack rat while performing the majority of backcountry chores. It’s comfortable to hold and isn’t a drag to carry because it’s small and lightweight.

  Fixed, full-tang blade

  This eliminates folding knives, which are held together by the mercy of a small metal pin that anchors the blade to the handle. This pin is the Achilles heel of all folders, and I’ve watched more than one blow up in the field when subjected to heavy use. Fixed-blade knives allow you to achieve the power of a small hatchet through the skill of batoning. Although a 4-inch blade has nowhere near the chopping mass of a hatchet, batoning allows you to limb small trees or split wood several inches in diameter by hitting the back of the knife blade itself with a heavy wooden mallet or baton. Simply place your knife upon the appropriately sized material and strike the back of the blade with the baton. This improvised wooden mallet adds the mass missing from a smaller knife and propels the blade through amazingly large chunks of material. Refrain from making the mistake of tackling a piece of wood that’s too big, thereby losing the tip of the blade in the material itself as you’ll have nothing to hit upon. Attempting to baton with a folding knife is flirting with disaster, as it’s simply a matter of time before the pin shears and leaves you SOL. Full tang means the metal of the blade runs clear up into the handle, imparting great strength and control. Hold a knife of this design, and you’re actually holding the cutting edge within the handle itself.

  Comfortable, easy-to-hold, oval handle

  Avoid knife handles with squarish sides or weird protrusions. Even casual knife use with an unforgiving handle can manifest serious blisters. Although, truth be told, prolonged use can create hot spots, regardless of the handle type. Many knives on the market are bogus in this respect alone, sporting hopelessly sharp edges. The phenomenon is extremely common, causing one to wonder if some knife makers bother using their product for more than five minutes. A person’s knife handle can tell you a lot about them. If it features sharp edges and their hands are as smooth as a baby’s butt, you know they don’t use their blade very often, nor could they if they wanted to. A comfortable handle design plays an important role in your ability to safely grip and control your tool, so keep it simple.

  Wide sharpening bevel

  The bevel of a knife blade is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, or, in this case, where the metal comes in contact with the sharpening surface. Many knives have pathetic bevels of only a few millimeters in width, making it that much harder to sharpen. Puny bevels force you to gamble with the “one dime, two dime” theory for maintaining the correct blade angle or become a slave to modern sharpening crutches that litter the market. Bowie-knife replicas have huge bevels but feature a tiny functional bevel underneath and are case in point to the fact that we’ve lost the meaning behind a large bevel.

  A friend of mine eats, sleeps, and drinks knives. He can tell you an astronomical quantum about all sharp things and their history—so much so that one beckons the question “Why?” He sharpened a wide-beveled knife I gave to another friend of mine years ago. The end result spoke for itself. While it could shave the hair off a gnat’s ass, he totally ignored the true bevel, instead creating his own millimeter-wide one on top of the former. A knife with a wide bevel is a joy to sharpen as you can actually feel the bevel “lock in” to the proper angle on the sharpening surface. Even Stevie Wonder could sharpen this knife with confidence.

  Straight-pointed tip

  Some knife tips turn up, some down. I prefer a tip that’s in alignment with the handle, allowing me to effortlessly drive the point into a piece of wood. With the knife firmly anchored, my hands are free to use the blade to cut buckskin lace or whatever. The aligned tip allows the user to pound the knife blade most of th
e way into a small green tree or shrub. He or she then hits the handle with a wooden baton, going with the cutting edge around the tree, repeating the process as necessary, thereby cutting it down in can-opener fashion if needed.

  Carbon-steel blade

  Carbon steel is much softer than stainless-steel alloys, making knife sharpening almost pleasant, especially on homemade sharpening boards constructed of wet and dry sandpaper. Because the metal is softer, you’ll have to sharpen it more frequently, but at least you’ll be able to do so. Treat your knife blade like the scalpel it is! Don’t dig with it or, for God’s sake, lash it to a pole and try to spear fish as suggested in some survival literature. Instead, use the knife to create a digging stick or sharpen a fish spear.

  Carbon steel has another extremely important virtue. As the back of my knife blade has no saw teeth or other protusions, I can use it to light fire by the flint-and-steel method by quickly striking it along the sharp edge of a hard stone. I’m blessed with the opportunity to make fire from my cutting edge—two tools with which civilizations were built combined into one! Carbon steel discolors with age or when in contact with acids, such as cutting an orange, although I know one instructor who feels this actually improves blade strength. Don’t fall into the trap of wanting a shiny toy instead of a tried-and-true, field workhorse. Having a gleaming, stainless-steel blade with metal so hard it must be taken to a shop to sharpen is totally unacceptable. Carbon steel stored wet will seem to rust overnight. While light surface rust is no big deal, as it will be removed with the next sharpening, get into the habit of drying your blade before storing it in its sheath.

  Practice, practice, practice

  The cutting edge is truly a master creation and will repay you handsomely over and over again, provided you know how to use it. Any tool possessing such power can be a lifesaver in the hands of a knowledgeable person, or a life taker in the hands of the inexperienced. Becoming proficient at using your knife, along with the ability to create fire, are two of the most important skills you’ll need. Failure to do so might cause injuries that plunge you into a compromising dilemma in the first place. Take what you want from my opinions and trash the rest. What’s important is that you have a knife you like, you know how to use and sharpen it, it gets the job done for your particular geography, and you have it with you in your time of need. As with the other components, make your knife handle and sheath brightly colored by whatever means are convenient.

  Clear plastic drinking tube (3 feet long):

  The more you suck, the better things seem.

  The drinking tube is mandatory desert survival gear, as it’s basically a super-long straw, allowing you to harvest water in places where the baggie method won’t work. It’s common after desert rains to find water trapped deep within the cracks and crevices of rock formations and other hard-to-extract environments. Natural north-facing holding pockets or those shaded by vegetation can contain water for long periods of time, even in blazing temperatures. The drinking tube makes harvesting these natural water caches a breeze. The hardware store has several types and sizes of plastic tubing. Don’t purchase a diameter that’s too big around or you’ll pass out trying to get enough “suck power” to draw liquid up its length. The ones I buy are usually no bigger around than the diameter of a pencil. Three feet seems to be an adequate length for most purposes, and keep in mind that the longer the tubing, the more sucking power is required. Clear tubing allows you to see the action coming up its length, eliminating potential surprises in your mouth, but at this point, who gives a damn. If you have interest, investing in a piece of stretchy, surgical tubing could give you the option of making slingshots and other gizmos.

  Collapsible, 1- to 2-Gallon water container:

  Properly picking premium plastics

  and other water-worthy wares.

  There are many heavy-duty plastic, collapsible water containers available at decent outdoor stores, but not all are created equal. I have taken at least one well-known brand, filled it with liquid, thrown it, and watched it explode as it skipped across the ground. Obviously, this is not typical behavior in a survival situation. I was simply curious, as the literature the manufacturer provided kept bragging about how tough its product was. It behooves you to purchase a container that’s as rugged as possible. Freezer bags are great but don’t hold a candle to a well-made, factory-collapsible model. Scout for one that can hold at least a gallon. If you are using halogens for water disinfection, clear containers allow you to see the action and spy unusual substances bobbing about, which can compromise a halogen’s ability to kill pathogens. Plastics age with time and become brittle; keep a watch on yours so you can buy a new one when necessary.

  In wetter parts of the country, collapsible water containers can be considered optional gear. However, don’t forget how sacred water is to regulating body temperature and how handy an extra container can become.

  Many possibilities exist for emergency water containers, including oven-cooking bags, balloons, animal parts, gourds, tarps, garbage bags, rain flys, and a host of other nonpermeable barriers. Collapsible containers have the obvious advantage of collapsing, thereby becoming a minimal nuisance in regard to space and weight considerations when not in use. Don’t take unnecessary chances locating water in the backcountry. Know water sources in advance, be able to disinfect the goods, stay hydrated, and Party On!

  Two 55-gallon barrel liners or three

  large-capacity leaf bags (store rolled

  up in a 1-gallon freezer bag):

  Having a bash while you crash

  in your shelter made for trash.

  As I said before, the biggest cause of dying in the outdoors is failure to regulate body temperature. In hot, cold, or wet climates, shelter is of prime importance. Barrel liners are truly amazing. Cutting the seam at the bottom of at least one and duct-taping it together makes an extremely roomy tube tent that reaches several feet in length. Barrel liners are typically constructed from a heavier plastic (up to 2.2 millimeters) and are a good choice for your kit. Try the discount and hardware stores for availability. Three large-capacity leaf bags (39-gallon size) will suffice if you can’t find barrel liners. You may even prefer carrying leaf bags. I carried them for years. They’re not quite as strong but still provide good protection.

  Plastic was created on the eighth day. Many, many creations can be made with plastic, a cutting edge, duct tape, and ingenuity. Potential candidates include, but are in no way limited to, rain suits, water collectors, moisture-proof ground tarps, shade and rain shelters, cordage, signal panels (if brightly colored), containers, glue, pack straps, belts, and a countless variety of other goods. Any material that is wafer-thin, cheap, lightweight, portable, durable, simple to obtain, holds water, and easily sheds rain, snow, and wind at whatever pitch you desire is truly an amazing substance. Wow, talk about a multiuse product! Making a shelter using natural materials in North America requires a lot of work for it to shed rain. I lived in a pine forest for two years in a brush shelter. Due to the poor thatching materials available, I had to be very careful about the pitch of my shelter so it would shed precipitation. This is not a factor with plastic. Building with plastic saves a ton of time, calories, and body water; it’s a smart choice for the survivor.

  All plastics are vapor barriers, meaning they will not let water vapor escape. Instead, water molecules become trapped and collect on the surface, looking much like dew. This fact could be compromising in certain outdoor situations, as it may cause clothing to become wet with perspiration if not properly vented. As cool as the stuff is, plastic has its drawbacks, so experiment in the backyard before the backwoods. As stated above, if you can latch onto those big, brightly colored bags used for highway clean-up programs, your shelter or rain suit will double nicely as a highly visible signal panel. Most all plastics become brittle with age, so remember to rotate your liners every year or so. Storing them rolled up within a gallon-sized freezer bag keeps the liners clean and free from scratches caus
ed by sand, twigs, and other abrasive grit settled at the bottom of your kit.

  Heavy-duty space blanket

  (brightly colored):

  More fun with physics through reflected radiation.

  While not as reflective as its smaller cousin, the heavy-duty space blanket is much more durable. These blankets are constructed of a tougher woven material and have grommets in the corners. For a few bucks more than the original design, you could proudly own the model with the built-in hood, thereby protecting the all-important head and neck area. The hooded model also features hand pockets sewn into two of the corners, allowing you to easily wrap the blanket around your body. Although smaller than a tarp, they’re useful for shelters, ground cloths, windbreaks, or a simple body wrap. On summer desert-survival courses, they’re the only shelter I carry; they work great for escaping sudden monsoon thunderstorms, and provide just enough reflected warmth for reasonable comfort despite plummeting nighttime temperatures.

  Heavy-duty space blankets possess only one reflective side. The flip side comes in a choice of colors. Purchase the blaze-orange model for dual use as a signal panel. If orange is hard to come by, red makes a good second choice. Heavy-duty space blankets feature many of the same properties as the smaller model, so I won’t waste space repeating these virtues.

  Wool or synthetic

  stocking cap (brightly colored):