[playful jingle music playing]
[sounds of sawing, chopping & cutting alongside music]
If you're starting to practice survival skills
or you're starting to practice Bush Craft
then sooner or later you're going to find
yourself working with a knife. Be it a standard
kind of Swiss army knife or you may decide
to go and get yourself a purpose made kind of
camping or survival knife. Either way
when working with knives there's a couple
of things you've got to remember just to keep
yourself and others safe. Today, I'm going
to go through 4 key things and those key things
are: Cutting with a knife, working with a
knife, moving with a knife and you and a knife
around other people. So, the first of those
we're going to deal with today is cutting
with a knife. And the golden rule of cutting
with a knife is the blade is always working
away from you. And the blade is always working
away from your body parts, from any part of
your body whatsoever. So, you position yourself
if you're crouching, if you're using something
to lean against where the blade is always
moving and working away from you. And you
never break that rule. If you find yourself
in an awkward position and you're tempted
to turn the blade towards you, stop! Readjust
the position. You never put yourself in a
position where a slip of the blade or a jar
of the blade is going to take it in the path
of any part of your body. Golden rule, never
broken. The second rule is working with the
blade, if you find yourself in a position
where you're doing a complicated task whilst
you've got a knife, sheath the knife, fold it,
pop it in your pocket, pop it away. Then
do your complicated task, then once the complication's
over bring the knife out. Don't be tempted
to combine a complicated task while holding
a knife in your hands.
[sound of  branch breaking]
It's tempting, just
pop it away, do whatever you've got to do.
Keep yourself safe all the time. The third
rule involves moving with a knife. You've
got a knife in your hand and you're doing
something with your knife and suddenly you
find yourself in a position where you've got
to go over there, you've got to pick something
up something else you need, something else
you've forgotten. Don't be tempted to move
with the knife.
[Tarzan call]
Even just a step, you're going
to be practicing your survival and eventually
you're going to be doing your survival in
areas that are potentially relatively hostile.
You might have brambles on the ground, you
might have branches on the ground,
you might be on ice.
[Comedy slipping &  falling sounds]
Just a step is all it takes. So, if
you need to move whilst you've got a knife
in your hand just fold your knife. If you've
got a sheath, sheath your knife, make your
move. Do, whatever it is you've got to do,
get yourself stable again, bring your knife
back out. Never ever walk with a knife. Straight
forward. The fourth and final rule in knife
safety is working with a knife around other
people. If you're working with a knife and
you've got other people present all the four
rules apply and just assume they haven't seen
this video and they don't know anything about
knife safety. So, same thing. You don't cut
toward another person. You don't work on a
complicated task with somebody else, with
your knife. If you've got it in your hand
you need to do that, fold the knife, sheath
it, pop it away. You're not going to move
with the knife we've already established that
but they don't know this. So, if you're working
with a knife and others are moving around
you, take responsibility for their movement,
you've got the knife. If they're coming towards you,
you pop the knife away or if they're
moving around you either get them to stop
or you get them to give you a very wide birth.
You basically take responsibility for others
when you're holding a knife. There's an underlying
principle in working with anything dangerous.
With knives, with fire and to be honest any
survival or bush craft situation I tend to
apply this underlying principle: If you're
working, if you're doing something or about
to do something and you find yourself in a
position where you're thinking 'I wonder if
this is safe', 'I wonder if I set that up
right', 'I wonder if I'm comfortable'. The
answer is always the same, stop. Whatever
it is you're doing just stop, readjust, have
a think and the number one reason for getting
in the habit of keeping yourself safe when
working with these kind of tools and environments
is however it is you behave when you practice,
however it is whatever habits you get into
keeping yourself safe when you're practicing
and having fun that is how you'll behave if
ever this sort of thing happens for real.
How you do it in practice is how you'll do
it for real. So just have a lot of fun, really
enjoy it and at all times just keep you and
everyone around you safe. Have fun.
[playful jingle end-credits music]
