Survivalist Tip: Along with your arsenal of firearms, ensure that you have plenty of knives on hand. I don’t mean just steak knives. I mean large carving knives and even machetes. The ancient Mayans cleared the jungles of southern México and Central America with flint versions of machetes and built their massive city-states. If you live in or near a forested area or a jungle, or you have to flee your home, knives can be used to chop through thick vegetation and slice up food items like fish and bananas. They can certainly be used for protection against nosy neighbors and to keep wayward children in line.