Category: Outdoor Skills | Survival

How Blade Thickness Influences Durability and Longevity

Blade thickness might not be the first thing you consider when picking up a knife, but it’s a prime factor that influences the knife’s durability and longevity. For instance, thin blades are ideal for delicate tasks such as slicing food, while thicker ones can stand up to rugged environments. Let’s take a closer look at the effects of blade thickness on various types of knives.

Chef’s Knives and Precision Cutting

Capable of handling tasks such as chopping herbs and slicing meats, chef’s knives are versatile tools for kitchens. Their thin blades, often 2 to 3 millimeters thick, excel in precision. Their reduced drag allows accurate cuts, making them ideal for tasks requiring finesse. However, their slim profiles also make them more susceptible to wear and chipping, particularly if used for heavier tasks such as cutting through bone.

For example, Japanese-style knives such as Santoku are extremely sharp and crafted with very thin metal. Yet, because they use high-carbon steel, their edges requires regular maintenance to remain effective. Thinner chef’s knives are not recommended for heavy-duty chopping; thicker German-style blades might perform better here.

Survival Knives and Heavy Performance

Survival knives with thicker blades, typically 4 to 6 millimeters, are designed for heavy-duty tasks. Unlike thinner blades, they excel in harsh conditions, offering better durability for activities such as batoning or prying wood. Their sturdy construction reduces the risk of bending or breaking, making them ideal for tough environments.

For example, stainless steel is a popular example of a types of metal commonly used to make knives for outdoor settings. Stainless steel is resistant to rust, adding to the longevity of the blade. Although the increased thickness may slightly reduce slicing efficiency, it guarantees the blade won’t easily fail under pressure.

Everyday Carry Knives

Everyday carry (EDC) knives are all about balance. With blade thickness usually ranging between 2.5 and 4 millimeters, these knives are perfect for everyday tasks such as opening boxes or light cutting. This makes them sharp yet sturdy enough to handle minor rugged use when needed.

Take folding knives as an example. Made with thin but sturdy metals such as D2 tool steel, they’re compact and practical. They won’t endure heavy chopping like a survival blade, but their thickness allows them to hold up for repeated daily use. These knives demonstrate the fine line between efficiency and durability by balancing moderate thickness with reliable construction.

Finding the Right Blade for Your Needs

Understanding how blade thickness influences durability and longevity is essential when you’re selecting a knife. Thinner blades are perfect for jobs requiring precision, but they might falter under high stress. Thicker blades will endure the pressures of demanding tasks, but they lose some slicing efficiency.

When you’re considering the best knife for your needs, always weigh the trade-offs. Whether it’s carbon steel for sharpness or stainless steel for strength, choosing the right metal paired with the appropriate thickness could mean the difference between a lasting tool and one that falls short in critical moments.

January 22, 2025
5 Ways to Make a Snare Trap (For Small Game)

Whether you are in a survival situation or catching food while you camp, knowing how to make a snare trap can go a long way in helping you out. Fortunately, there isn’t just one snare trap – there are many different kinds that help in different situations.

having the right tools tools will make buiklding snares easier, but it is really your knowledge on living off the land that drives success, below are 5 ways to make a snare trap that will help you catch small game.

1. Simple Snare Trap

To create this trap, you will need two sticks or a stick in a “Y” shape that you can stick into the ground. You may need to sharpen these sticks a bit so that they sink into the ground easier. If you are using two sticks, stick them into the ground about 2 to 3 inches apart from one another.

Then, you will need 3 smaller sticks. Two of these sticks will go horizontally on each side of the two sticks you placed in the ground. These will be used to keep the third smaller stick, or trigger, in place upright between them. From the trigger, you will have a length of string or wire leading to the engine of your trap. On the end of your string hanging from the trigger, tie this length into a noose.

As a final step, you will want to build a small ramp by leaning two larger sticks against the part of your trap you already built and use smaller sticks horizontally to create a semi-flat surface. Your noose, or snare loop, will go on top of this. Remember to camouflage it for the best results.

2. Trigger Snare

For the trigger snare, you will need two pegs, some wire and/or rope to make a leader line and noose loops, and a bent sapling to use as an engine. The two pegs should be able to hook onto each other so that both stand vertically. If you don’t have pegs, you can create them from a pair of thick sticks. Just like the last snare trap we looked at, one of these pegs or sticks must be sharp enough on the opposite end that it hooks onto the other one to stick into the ground securely.

You should use your rope to attach the top of the hook to your engine – the bent sapling. Then, you will want to attach the noose to the bottom end of the top stick that makes up the hook.

3. Squirrel Pole

This next snare is perfect if you are trying to snare squirrels. After all, squirrels are fast animals and it can take a little extra working to make sure you catch one in your trap. With a little work, though, this snare can be perfect for catching the small animals.

For the main portion of this snare, you will need a straight branch or tree of about 10 to 12 feet that you will lean against a standing tree at about a 45-degree angle. Next, you will need some wire to create the actual snare portion of the trap with. Each section of wire you use will be around 10 to 12 inches long.

When you create each noose, you will want to position it upward, so it would catch each squirrel as it ran down the branch. This is why you must use wire for this trap, any type of rope won’t be able to stick up to catch the squirrels. You can put as many of these as you want on the branch, in theory, but you won’t want any too close to the ends.

To catch a squirrel’s head, you won’t want the nooses to be right against the branch either. Instead, position them about an inch above it.

I have shared squirrel poles before, this is a pretty simple way to get a little extra food.

4. Snare for Fishing

If you are more interested in catching fish with your snare, that can be arranged as well. The easiest way to do this is to simply modify the trigger snare we went over earlier.

Getting started, you will follow all the same basic steps as you did creating the trigger snare. Instead of creating a noose, though, you will use a baited hook in line attached to the snare the same way the noose was. This will, naturally, extend into the water to bait fish.

Once the fish bites the bait, the snare will trigger, pulling the fish out of the water. You should be sure that you clear the area of anything that will accidentally trigger the trap. Since you are catching fish, you don’t need to worry about camouflaging the majority of the trap like other options on this list since your game won’t see it until it’s too late.

5. Drowning Snare

A drowning snare is a rather simple trap that, as the name suggests, kills the game it catches by drowning. This is great because it keeps the game you catch away from other animals and it keeps it out of the sun.

Creating this trap is pretty easy. All you need is a few sticks, a snare line, and a rock. Of course, you will need to do this near water deep enough to drown the game and a steep enough bank for the trap to work.

To start, you will want to tie the snare line to both the rock and the float stick. Make sure to add a noose as part of the actual trap. Then, prop the rock up with your second stick so that it will fall if any game runs through the snare. When the snare is triggered, the rock will plummet into the water, drowning the game. The float that you tied to the rock will signal where in the water your game is when you come back later.

August 8, 2018
Steel Wool Firestarter

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A Steel Wool Firestarter is a cool trick, I have used a battery to light fine steel wool, and a match will light it just as well.

This PDF is like the freezer document. It is really too short to bother downloading so I will just post the content here:

An easy and dramatic way to start a fire is to use two flashlight batteries and a strip of grade 00 or finer steel wool. Cut or stretch a piece to about 8 inches in length.

Align two good flashlight batteries on top of each other in an upright position (as if they were placed inside a flashlight). Hold one end of the steel wool strip against the bottom of the lower battery.

Carefully rub the otherend of the steel wool across the “nub” of the upper battery. As soon as the steel wool sparks, place it on tinder or other burnable material and slowly blow on it. As you blow, the flame will grow more intense.

This method works very well for starting a fire in windy areas. For safety reasons, always pack the steel wool and batteries in separate containers.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.tngun.com/wp-content/uploads/Steel-Wool-Firestarter.pdf” title=”Steel Wool Firestarter”]

July 13, 2018
How to Choose Binoculars

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Here is an info-graphic on how to choose binoculars from Binoculars Today. I hope this is useful to you. I don’t normally post infographics, but this one seems to have some useful information for you.

It talks about what the numbers like 109×50 mean. It also gives some information on lens coatings and prism types.

This info gives some good basic information, but if you want to know more you can visit their website, or look at the book I linked to at the top left of this article.

When I was an older boy scout we organized a large capture the flag event and spent months preparing to win the contest. It was during that time that I learned that a good pair of binoculars gathered light and made it easier to see at night. It wasn’t night vision by any means. When the moon is out providing some ambient light binoculars can help.

I hope this picture will help you better know how to choose binoculars. Good binoculars can make the difference in many outdoor and prepper activities. You should have a decent set in every prepper kit you own.

How to Choose Binoculars

Infographics by http://binocularstoday.com/

March 15, 2018
The More You Know the Less You Carry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxIUI401zuU

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I got my start with bushcraft as a child living on a state park. The man in the video above is Mors Kochanski who is a internationally known bushcrafter.

He popularized the idea of the more you know the less you carry. I am sharing this video to explain a very important concept for preppers.

My conversations with new preppers that talk about their bug out plans and how much ammo they plan on carrying. It is not uncommon for people to tell me that they keep a pistol, a backup pistol, a shotgun and an AR (or SKS or AK) and 200 rounds each in their car in case they have to get out of dodge.

Now that’s not terribly unrealistic in a car, but next they tell me that they plan on EMP and trying to hike home or to their bug out location 15 or twenty miles away.

I doubt those guys have every tried to walk a distance with 800 rounds, but I carry that much around on the range all the time to issue ammo – I don’t like carrying that 10 feet, much less 10 miles.

Let us be realistic in our plans, let’s think about all aspects of preparedness and not just stop at what we think is cool.

January 12, 2018