Primitive Survival Skills Volume 1

This video lecture allows you to meet your course instructor, as well as to gain some understanding of his background, qualifications and experience.

The instructor will also share with you the 'how' and 'why' of his particular approach to 'Primitive Survival Skills' evolved and has solidified throughout his 25 plus years of involvement in the subject.

"There is nothing new under the sun", as the elders say and in this short lecture your instructor acknowledges that simple fact and thanks those upon whose shoulders he himself and you in turn will stand. 

It is important to understand exactly what it is that you are studying and practicing. This lecture clearly outlines what subject areas are included within the scope of the Primitive Survival Skills course and what subjects are outside the scope of the current course design.

After completing this lecture you will understand what you will be covering during the remainder of the course material, why it is included, why other material is excluded; all with the aim of aiding you to manage you personal expectations of the course itself as well as to guide your investment of study time.

This lecture aims to explain the author/presenter's point of view in designing the Primitive Survival Skills course in light of the expanding popularity of bushcraft as a hobbyist pursuit. During the lecture the author hopes to clarify the way in which the numerous related and interdependent subjects that make up the existing survival and primitive skills body of knowledge have been categorised in order to provide the appropriate context for this course. After completing this lecture you will understand the semantic difference that separates 'survival' skills as opposed to 'bushcraft' skills.

During this lecture we will discuss the power of imagination to create tools from what is available in the natural world to aid us in fulfilling our essential life support requirements. After completing this lecture you will understand the vital function imagination has in survival.

The action of survival is achieved via the hands. If you are not comfortable working with your hands then you may be limiting your survival potential. This lecture introduces the concept of engaging your tactile skill through your hands. It links imagination with action. Throughout the course there will be discussions and demonstrations of techniques utilised to make things. This lecture explains the importance of switching on your tactile skills.

While most of living today are so familiar with metal tools and modern conveniences that we often barely notice them let alone appreciate them, our distant elders had no access to such precious items. Consequently, they had to rely upon the use of stone, bone, wood and shell as tools to make the necessary items around camp and to hunt and forage with in order to procure food.

This lecture introduces and discusses the main principles behind these materials and how we may apply that same knowledge today in modern survival situations. After completing this lecture you will have a clear understanding of what materials may be of use in situations where modern steel and iron tools are unavailable.

Prior, planning and preparation, prevents pathetic performance. This is the central theme of this lecture it reinforces the concept of intelligent resource gathering that is deliberately planned and methodically executed with the intention of maximising efficiency. Wasted energy in real survival situations is a serious oversight and one we may not recover from. Every calorie counts and that's how we start to think of it from this point onwards.

After viewing this lecture you will understand why certain subjects are included within the design of this course and why others are not. The importance of survival necessity is reinforced throughout the course and this lecture ensures that you, the student, remain clear about what you are investing study into and why.

Without the use of modern tools, making anything in the survival environment simply takes time. Patience is an attribute that we must necessarily cultivate in preparing effectively for survival situations. By accepting that making the tools we need to make other things, takes time and effort we can manage our inherent stress levels and balance our expectations.

This lecture will discuss the importance of patience in the context of utilising primitive skills in survival.

Many people fail to appreciate the importance of 'Shelter' as a life support priority in survival situations. Doing so can come at a high cost.

During this lecture we will clarify exactly 'why' shelter must be considered and how we manage our body temperature in survival situations where we may not have clothing or modern shelter items such as a tent or tarp.

After completing this lecture you will have a sound understanding of what is involved in managing you core body temperature in adverse environmental conditions with the most minimal level of modern clothing and protection.

This lecture introduces the concept of exploring and investigating the immediate survival environment with vision first, prior to committing energy to the process. When you begin walking and moving around the camp site you have selected for your survival shelter's construction you immediately begin to burn inherent energy from your body's precious fuel tank.

After completing this lecture you will never again act without having thought through the true cost in energy terms of any task as well as having a simple planning tool installed in your survival thinking. Let your eyes do the walking first.

The first 24 hours of a real life survival situation is critical. Your fuel load (energy) is at its highest point, you are needing to manage your fear in a deliberate way by taking positive action, and you must protect your body temperature. If you have no tools and no cordage with you and you need to get yourself warm, out of the elements and protected then you need to know how to do that with out modern equipment.

After completing this lecture you will know how to protect your bodies core temperature by constructing a simple (Stack-it-shelter) while minimising calorie expenditure.

This lecture continues the 'stack-it-shelter' and explains its basic construction inclusive of the use of living trees as posts, and the remainder of the base structure of the shelter when constructed without the use of cordage.

Here we discuss and demonstrate the addition of roofing material to the 'stack-it-shelter'. Rich will explain both the watershed principle that underpins this process as well as demonstrate how the roofing material is actually best applied.

By lecture's end you will know how to construct your survival shelter in a way that will ensure the best chance of keeping you dry and warm. 

This lecture explains how we insulate a survival shelter. The insulation process is key to allowing you to manage you core body temperature in extreme weather conditions.

Rich also demonstrates during the lecture additional measures that you may choose to apply to further develop and strengthen your shelter.

This discussion concludes the 'stack-it-shelter' explanations and demonstrations and should leave you confident in the knowledge that you could easily apply this information to assist you in an emergency.

This video lecture simply introduces to you the concept of utilising stone and rock as cutting tools in the event that you do not have access to metal tools. The lecture will contextualise further the use of stone tools in the survival space with an eventual aim of ensuring that you are never caught out devoid of a cutting tool with which to meet your base survival priority needs.

A working understanding of what types of rock are most suitable as resources for the manufacture of survival stone tools is useful in ensuring that you maximise efficiency in the process of making tools directly.

After completing this lecture you will know what key characteristics you are seeking to identify in any rock resource available to you.

In this lecture we will discuss the relevant terminology of stone tool making as well as explore the theory and principles under pinning the use of stone as a medium for primitive survival tool manufacture.

After completing this lecture you will understand what specifically you are seeking to achieve when working with rock to make useful cutting devices and tools.

During this video lecture we will discuss and demonstrate the manufacture of stone cutting flakes from a core using a anvil to percuss flakes from the core.

After completing this lecture you will be conversant with the anvil technique itself as well as be comfortable to head out into nature and begin making stone flake cutting tools using this method.

During this video lecture we will discuss and demonstrate the manufacture of stone cutting flakes from a core using a hammerstone to percuss flakes from the core.

After completing this lecture you will be conversant with the hammerstone technique itself as well as be comfortable to head out into nature and begin making stone flake cutting tools using this method.

This lecture introduces the 'why' bone was regularly utilised in the manufacture of tools and weapons by our ancient ancestors. That knowledge now allows us to make use of the same techniques in a modern day survival situation were we to experience such thing without modern steel tools and weapons.

Bone is an excellent survival resource and one that is so often overlooked. After completing this section of the package you will forever be on the look out for useful bones from which to manufacture tools, hooks and weapon components.

The discussion takes you through which type of bones to best utilise as a resource for your tools and weapons parts.

During the lecture we will also consider cooked versus raw (uncooked) bones as bone resources and clarify for you any concerns you may possess over the potential use of either.

This lecture and demonstration shows you how to split and fracture bone for use as tools and weapon parts. Direct percussion, smashing and the use of an anvil are all explained in this video.

After completing this lecture you will understand what is involved in the preparation of bone fragments with for immediate use or for further processing via grinding.

As the title indicates this video will walk you through the process of grinding and abrading bone fragments into useful tools and weapons parts. Fish hooks, arrow heads, gorge hooks and more are able to be produced with this technique all of which may directly contribute to the potential for food procurement in a survival event.

This section of the course introduces you to the use of shell as a survival resource base. Ancient humans used shell of many types to produce tools, weapon parts and other more intricate objects.

In remaining aligned to the design of this course package, we will be examining shell for potential use as survival tools and weapon parts.

You instructor will demonstrate for you the use of pressure flaking, normally thought of as a stone tool making technique, to the medium of shell.

After completing this lecture you will understand how to apply this simple technique to shell edges in order to alter them slightly into useful tools.

Building upon your new understanding of shell processing, this lecture/video will explain grinding and abrading shells to form razor edge shell knives, useful for a variety of tasks around the survivors camp.

In order to prove to you the efficacy of shell tools, both the shell saw and the shell razor tools will be demonstrated here being utilised to cut and harvest thatching/insulating material in the form of grass.

This lecture formally closes the course, thanks you for your participation and introduces you to further Primitive Survival Skills training options. Thank you.

Dare to Survive ...

Rich Hungerford.