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Knife skills

First suggested by Bushscout
Learn how to safely use and take care of a knife, then put your skills to the test by creating a simple peg.

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You’ll need

  • Knives
  • Scrap card
  • Scissors
  • Sharpening stones
  • Leather/canvas straps
  • Soft wooden sticks
Peg making guide
PDF – 2.1MB
Download Peg making guide

Join the practical skills alliance

Bushscout are a national community of Leaders who have a passion for teaching traditional and practical Scouting skills to other Leaders. Subjects covered on days include:
  • knife, axe and saw safety and skills
  • backwoods cooking
  • tarpology and tents
  • fire
  • kelly kettles and water purification
  • pioneering
  • crafts
  • game preparation
Learn more about Bushscout

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • You must be aware of UK knife law before buying, using, or carrying a knife.
  • Take the time to read and understand the Scout knife safety guidance.
  • Knives are an important tool for a survival situation and can be versatile if you know how to use them safely and properly.
  • A small folding knife that has a blade fewer than three inches long is suitable for a lot of different survival uses. You may need to use a knife with a larger (or fixed) blade for some activities – you should follow the law, only use them when needed, never carry them in a public place, and always store them securely and out of view.
  • Young people must be supervised by adults when knives are used.
  • Don’t feel pressured to jump straight into making a peg. You could get some clear pine from a timber merchant and make shavings for fuel to get people practising for the first time. If you want to make a peg, you’ll need a soft wood like green hazel, ash, or willow. It’s best to practise before you show young people to make sure you understand.

To watch in full screen, double click the video

  1. The person leading the activity should explain that it’s important to keep the people around you safe when you’re using a knife. Part of doing this is creating a ‘safe zone’ around the person using the knife. A safe zone is free from people and obstacles.
  2. Everyone should cut out a knife shape from stiff card. They should aim to make it roughly the same shape and size as the knives they’ll be using.
  3. Everyone should spread out until they can hold their card knife out in any direction without reaching anyone else.
  4. The person leading the activity should explain that this is how far apart everyone should stay to make sure they can’t accidentally hurt anyone else.
  5. Everyone should keep hold of their card knives – they’re a useful way to check that people understand how to hold and use a knife before they try it for real (and are useful for practising if you don’t have enough knives for everyone).

The person leading the activity should remind everyone of the basics of using a knife safely:

  • Learn how to safely remove a knife from its sheath without cutting yourself.
  • You should hold a knife firmly but not too tightly.
  • Your hand shouldn’t be too far back or too far forward.
  • You should grip the knife so that you can see some of the handle where it meets the blade.
  • If you’re making smaller cuts or carving, you can place your thumb on the back of the blade to give you more control.
  • It’s best to cut down towards the ground with a wooden block or base to make it more stable.
  1. The person leading the activity should explain that keeping a knife sharp is an important part of keeping safe: a sharp knife cuts where you want it to and is less likely to jam up or slip off your work surface.
  2. The person leading the activity should explain that knives are sharpened by grinding away at the blade to reshape it into a sharp edge.
  3. It’s easiest to do this before you take the knife out with you, but if you need to do it on the go, use smaller sharpening stones.
  4. The person leading the activity should show everyone the different stones, ranging from coarse to fine.
  5. You’ll only need the coarsest stone if the knife’s very blunt or damaged. Some stones need to be soaked in water or oil, but most can be used dry.
  6. The person leading the activity should show everyone how to lay the blade of their knife on the first stone and lift the back so the bevel (the bit that has been ground away to form the edge) is flat on the stone.
  7. The person leading the activity should show everyone how to push the blade away from them along the stone, applying firm even pressure along the blade. They should push the blade away from them between 8 and 10 times, then turn the knife over and do the same on the other side.
  8. The person leading the activity should keep sharpening their knife until the stone has scratched even marks across the whole surface of the blade. They should keep the stone wet with splashes of water. A paste of water, metal, and stone will form on the stone – they should leave this as it helps to sharpen the knife.
  9. Explain that the even marks show that you’ve evenly flattened the entire blade – doing this on both sides will form a good cutting edge.
  10. The person leading the activity should show everyone how to repeat the process on a higher grit stone.
  11. Once the person leading the activity has finished using all of the stones, they should show everyone the strap they’ll use to strop their knife. They should explain that this will remove any small imperfections.
  12. The person leading the activity should show everyone how to lay the blade of their knife on a strap and pull it backwards, away from the cutting edge, before turning it over and doing the same on the other side. They should repeat this up to 50 times.
  13. The person leading the activity should explain that some knives (such as ones made from high carbon steel) need to be protected by rust by being rubbed with a small amount of oil.

Try a whittling project, you can choose the project based on the ability level of your group:

Make your own marshmallow stick

Try to whittle a tent peg

Try to carve a spoon

or

Have some fun with your new knife skills and make a creative project using cork prints.

Reflection

This activity helped everyone to develop skills. How could their safe knife skills be helpful in a survival situation? Some people may never find themselves in a survival situation. Knowing how to use a knife can be useful on any camp; did people learn other skills too? Perhaps they learned how to take a deep breath and keep focussed or face their fears and try something new.

This activity also needed people to be responsible. Why is it important that people know about the law and how to use a knife safely before they pick one up? Why is it important to take care of tools like knives? How can people remind themselves to be responsible when they use knives in the future?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Sharp objects

Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

People should only do what they’re confident and comfortable with – some people may want to just try a few techniques, while others will be ready to take on a project.

There are different types and designs of knives, including those with larger or easier to hold handles. Find the right tools for your group; always stay within UK knife law.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Scouts Survival Skills Activity Badge

Young people should be able to choose which methods suit them best as long as they’re safe. The more comfortable people are, the easier they’ll find it to learn and use their new skills.