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
This brought me back to high school. We had to learn some knots for PE class and I remember learning these with a friend to take the test. I think this are some of the easiest but more versatile knots. Others are kinda of tricky to pull off. I remember a lot of people failing because they wanted to get fancy with the knots. It just gets me each time. 😂
I loved to explanation. I think I could go the knots again just by watching these diagrams and reading the explanations. Really cool stuff. I should get to learn more of this outdoors skills. I know some, but knots aren't my forte.
Knots are so useful and once you know a good collection of them, you'd be surprised how often you actually use them in applications. These are two of the easy to remember ones. I wanted to start off with two of the most widely used as they will be the best to remember if you don't know any knots at all.
Lol they wanted to get fancy, well that was their downfall because the fancy knots are the ones you get taught.
Thanks Andres, I hope you practice these and have them under your belt, good skill to have even if you don't use them often.
Thanks you Emma for reminding me of knots. I'll try to practice on some pieces of rope o have throw somewhere between my tools. It might even help me understand how to make a proper knot to secure my rope for adjusting bindings and purflings on instruments. That's usually a problem.
Anyhow, that memory gets me each time. People pretending to get fancy and failing is one of those pleasures of life to watch. 😂
Loved it! Problem with knots is that it requires constant practice. I always forget most of them =/
Hello Arthur
Thank you, I'm glad. Yes, I have the same issue that's why I'm practicing them and trying to get them into muscle memory more than my head (I don't have a great memory either). I think that we'll have to tie these a good few hundred times to get them to stick. I'm willing to put in the effort, I think it's worthwhile, don't you?
It's totally worthwhile, especially for outdoor activities and fishing. I wouldn't rely on my knot abilities for climbing though o\
Interestingly enough, this morning I found myself in a situation where I needed to tie a set of fake flowers to a décor item and I smiled, made a Bowline knot and felt very chuffed with myself. It stayed exactly where I needed it the entire day too.
I think I'm with you on the mountaineering though, I think I'll leave that to professionals. Also, I'm way too scared of heights for it so tying knots is the least of my worries 🤣
AHhaa really? Like how much? Do you get dizzy and all that? Not sure if I'm scared of heights, but not gonna lie that looking down it does make my legs wobble.
Consider yourself lucky that you don't have it. I get quite bad dizzy and wobbly spells when I'm up high somewhere. Sometimes even standing on a balcony will make me woozy, so I have to try the "don't look down" mantra 🤣
Thank you so much @outdoorlife I'm loving doing this series, so many great practical things to share and the community members are awesome.
This sort of content is what this community is made for, so keep it coming. Of course, if you get tied up doing other things we'll understand.
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This is a great refresher course. As luck would have it I was getting frustrated with a canvas-style necklace that my niece wanted me to tie for her and I ended up using the double uni-knot. Works like a charm!