Survival Fire with PSK knife

[Dura Mater]

In an effort to be able to live out of my personal survival kit if necessary I will be practicing essential skills with the items contained within. Many people have PSK's put together and carry them often but how many have truly tried to use the items as if it were a survival situation? Well I haven't thus the motivation for this exercise.

The knife is a Turley Silver Creek PSK and will fit inside an altoids tin. This one is 3/16 wide but the standard is 1/8 and I'd probably recommend that smaller size. You can use the knife as is but I much prefer the method demonstrated to me by Terry Barney that involves wrapping 2 slabs of wood to create a working handle.

Silver Creek next to a Soldier River for size comparison

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3245.jpg

Handle wrapped in 2 slabs of Hickory with paracord outer sheath. This is supposed to be in a survival kit so the intention was to remove the inner strands for cordage, lashings, etc. and use the outer sheath for the knife.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3246.jpg

I decided to use cottonwood since it would be easier to work with. The hardest part is batoning with the knife due to the short length. So it required a lot of hand splitting when possible and using the method where you score a a line in the middle of the wood and wedge it between 2 trees, this gives you the leverage to split the wood slowly and develop a crack lengthwise. Next time I am going to fashion a wooden wedge and use that for splitting. Beating with a hickory baton did not affect the knife even though much of the force was directed straight into the tip.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3248.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3249.jpg

Now for the fun part, the prep. this was more difficult than I thought. This wood was difficult to create pencil and pencil lead sized mainly because it was a bit punky, gotta do a better job on wood selection next time. Feathers and scrapings were not a problem so ultimately I did supplement with dry twigs even though I intended to make a one-stick fire. I think this would work if it wasn't raining, things were wet today but not soaked. The scenario was to create a situation where I could not find dry tinder and my kit tinder was either lost or already used up requiring me to create my own. My ignition source was a firesteel reclaimed from one of those magnesium bars (pictured under the knife). It worked very well just like a LMF type firesteel.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3253.jpg

The fire started after only a few strikes with the steel and the feathers were able to sustain long enough to dry the twigs. I didn't get any pics from the early fire because I was busy working! Eventually things got going well with easily found dead wood scavenged from the area.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3254.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3257.jpg

Here is some bush art with the Silver Creek and a skull I found that day.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3259.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3262.jpg

Last but not least I tried some power cuts to see how much force I could put on the knife. Surprisingly I was able to do some serious whittling on fairly hard wood and also did some chest lever grip cuts.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/koabushcraft/IMG_3263.jpg

Overall, it is an excellent PSK knife and does what I think a knife should do especially with the extended handle. It stands up to abuse that would shatter some other PSK knives. If I learned one thing today it's that survival sucks. I would never want to be in a situation where all I had was this type of knife. Everything is harder and takes much longer than you're used to with proper tools. Yes most people carry extensive kits but the idea behind a PSK like it or not is that everything else is gone. The kit is small enough to fit comfortably in a cargo pants pocket and is something you never think about. If you learn anything from this post it's that you really should go out and practice with what you plan on carrying for that "what if situation".

For more info on wrapping the handle watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/user/iawoodsman?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase#p/u/40/hu-w7iA7CYA

Future personal survival kit exercises: water purification, shelter, fishing, and whatever else I have time to do

[SIMBA-LEE]

The lesson to be learned (IMO) is to always carry a proper knife, such as a heavy duty 4" locking folder, like the CRKT M16-14Z.

[ra2bach]

The lesson to be learned (IMO) is to always carry a proper knife, such as a heavy duty 4" fixed blade

fixed it for ya...

[serevince]

The lesson to be learned (IMO) is to always carry a knife.

FIFY for both of you!:D

I've been impressed with what you can accomplish with a sharp rock, but there is no substitute for a blade.

Folder or fixed, does not matter as long as you work within the limitations of the tool.

I like the OP's tools. The wood slabs are a great idea, I'll be stealing.

Cheers

Vince

[SIMBA-LEE]

Yep, always carry a knife! And fixed blades are great, I've got a box full, mostly bowies.

But the 4" double-lock fast opening folder I carry (CRKT M16-14Z) is as hefty and strong as most fixed blade knives, but is much easier to carry concealed so I always have it with me clipped in my pocket, while my bowies stay at home in the safe.

Effective pocket knives, like effective pocket pistols (16oz KAHR 9mm or 16oz Ruger 9mm for example), are going to get carried more often, and are far more likely to be with you when you need them than big & heavy. But there is such a thing as knives (and pistols) that are too small to do the job efficently.

Plus, who carries a "real" survival kit with them on their person 24/7? And I don't consider a tiny tin box "kit" that's about the size of a pack of cigarettes to be "real". I hunted the rockies in late fall and early winter for 20+ years and always carried the minimum survival survival gear to save weight and bulk because I was hiking up and down mountains all day, and that minimalist gear still filled up a pretty big fanny pack, plus a few big pockets.

Practice? I've field dressed 10+ elk and 20+ deer with a 4" folder, started fires in deep snow with fire-starter and strike-anywher matches by digging to ground level and using branches cut off of dead standing timber with my small folding saw, camped out for days in below zero snowy weather with just a lightweight nylon tarp for a "tent", etc. My advice = tiny toy kits are wishful thinking. You need to upgrade to a kit that will actually be capable of getting the survival job done.

[Dura Mater]

I try not to be caught dead without a proper fixed blade knife such as the one picture on the left in the fist pic. The fact is that you may not always have that knife as it could get broken, lost, stolen, whatever. The purpose of this exercise was to get familiar with my last line pocket kit tools, something that will be tucked away in the cargo pocket when all else fails. If your folder breaks maybe you can use this method to salvage the blade.

That being said I have a what if plan for losing that too but it's not pretty. Rocks can be used in the same way with natural cordage and wood scales but I need some work on that. I've only made one and I'm a terrible knapper! I like my PSK knife much better than a folding knife because I can beat on it more, there is no mechanical joint to fail. Heck don't get me wrong I'll take whatever I can get in the field though.

I know people realize that the proper tool is essential for survival but most people simply don't try to practice under adverse conditions when it comes to this stuff. I enjoy being in the comfort zone but survival certainly doesn't resemble anything comfortable. Add that to the fact that I've never been in true survival mode and it makes me want to train harder.

I'm no expert but a good friend of mine is, and he has been a great help to me over the years.

[Irish]

Nice thread. Quick tip: Those lil' plastic pencil sharpeners you used as a kid work really well on small twigs to create easily combustible fire starting shavings, couple that with laundry dryer lint. They weigh nothing, take up no space and work really well for the task.