The knife is the top outdoor survival tool

While not directly related to learning how to sharpen a knife, I wanted to follow up on an article that appeared on Wired today that listed the Top 10 Outdoor Survival Tools. Being someone who enjoys the outdoors I clicked on the article and wasn't surprised in the least that a good knife was at the top of the list.

Why is a knife at the top of the list? Wired listed a couple-preparing food and helping to build a shelter. There are many more though. Here's some:

1. Starting a fire. You bet. If the knife is razor sharp (as it should be), then it will be easy to shave some small wood chips to aid in starting a fire. If the knife is made of carbon steel, the back edge can be used to strike matches on. Another advantage of the carbon steel blade is that it can be kept very sharp with a river rock.
2. Hunting/Fishing. In addition to preparing food as Wired stated above, you can also use the same knife to hunt for that food. Lash it to the end of a good stick (which you cut and trimmed using...you guessed it...your knife) and it's now either a spear for small game or fish.
3. Make tent pegs. This goes along with building shelter but making a tent peg serves as a good example.
4. Make a cooking spit. Use your knife to make a thin spit that you can hang food on and turn over your fire.

Those are just a few examples of what a knife can be used for outdoors. Here are a couple of examples of good outdoor/hunting knives. Click on either knife for more information.





Now, these knives don't do you any good unless you know how to sharpen a knife. Here are a couple of links to other articles that can help.

5 factors to consider when choosing a knife

A good guide on how to sharpen a knife