In the May/June 2013 Issue...

• Getting to Know Mykel Hawke
• My Experience With a Primitive Tepee
• Making Black Powder from Chicken Manure
• My Tiny House
• The Folding Shotgun
• The Homemade Rake
• Traditional Folding Knives
• A Beginner's Guide to Welding
• more features >>

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A Man Who Never Quits
by Charlie Richie Jr.

What motivates a person to become a survival expert?
I've asked that question to myself over the last couple of years since I've started interviewing different survival experts. Mykel Hawke discovered at an early age in his life the importance of knowing survival skills. Just when he was starting to enter his teenage years, Hawke became homeless and was forced to survive on his own. "One day, when I was 14, I came home after being gone for a week working on a job site and the house was empty, no power or food. I had no family or place to go, so I spent the winter on the streets and that is where I grew a strong interest in all things survival" Mykel said. I asked him how did his rough upbringing affect his view on survival. Mykel replied "I grew up pretty poor in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. My pops was an Army man and Ma was a waitress. They split when I was really young. So we spent most of our time with our mother, my brother and I, except when she couldn't afford us and then we would stay with different relatives for a few months at a time. Usually, we didn't have one or more utilities like water or power, and often food was scarce to none."..   Photo: Hawke working on a bow-drill in Tasmania.