There are many things we can do to mentally and physically prepare for a SHTF moment, whether it is a situation where you need to get out of dodge ASAP or if you get lost in the wilds. I'm busy working on improving my practical skills that could be used if I ended up in that type of scenario. I thought I'd share my experiences as they may be useful to someone else too.
Most of these are simple things that you wouldn't normally think about, but in a bad situation could potentially save your life or could just make your outdoors experience better.
Having knot tying as a skill is exceptionally useful in every day life as well as in a survival situation. The two knots I've decided to outline today are the Bowline Knot and the Double Uni Knot which have different use cases.
The Bowline
The Bowline Knot is one of the most well known and probably most frequently used. If consists of making a fixed loop at one end of the line which you can then double up and use as a cinch tightening cord. The uses include mooring boats, hauling things, fastening one rope to another, making a taught line between two anchors (trees for example) when you want to put up a washing line or a shelter line on which to hang a tarp and even for hauling someone up out of a ravine. It is used by fire fighter, mountaineers and water incidents. It is named after it's use in sailing to moor boats.
The knot is made by making a loop on the one side, then pulling the tag end through that loop, up and back around behind the anchor end and back through the knot loop you just made. Once pulled tight, you can then pull the long end through that loop to have an adjustable knot. This knot can also easily be untied again easily and can handle exceptionally large loads (like towing a car).
The Double Uni Knot
The Double Uni Knot is used to join two lengths of cord together of similar diameter. It is exceptionally useful in fishing as you can use it to join main line gut to a flourocarbon leader and using one of these on it's own (single uni knot) can be used for tying your line to your hook securely, attaching your line to a spool or attaching lures and swivels. It is considered to be one of the most secure fishing knots.
It can also be used to make an adjustable loop or necklace to hang survival gear from.
The knot is made by laying two cords overlapping with tag ends on opposite sides, then weaving the tag ends over the two cords, back underneath the two cords and then under and over the two cords multiple times (at least 3, the more you weave, the stronger it will be) and then through the loop again. Each end is then pulled tight to secure the knot and then pulled towards each other. When the two knots meet, they cannot go any further making it a very strong knot.
So there you have two of my favourite knots, have you used either of these before? What did you use them for? Let me know in the comments.
Images, designs and illustrations are mine