People who have taken a course from the prepared, was it worth it?

Liz Klein - January 27, 2021

AdviceSkills

I’ve been eyeing the courses that The Prepared has been putting out and am interested in taking them. But before I do, I want to make sure it is worth the money.

Has anyone taken the knife sharpening or water course?

Did you learn something new that you didn’t know before or was it things that most people know about?

Do you feel like you got your money’s worth?

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I’ve taken the water course and 100% recommend it. I think the knowledge that is taught is so valuable that i’m going to get it for two of my family members for their birthdays.

Water treatment, collection, storage, and conservation aren’t skills or information that is taught in society today, but I think it is vitally critical. After going through the course, I felt so ignorant and uneducated. I’m a grown adult and I don’t even know how to make dirty water safe, how did I get to this point?

I truly believe that skills like knowing about if food is safe to eat or not, how to treat water, how to stay warm if lost in the woods, and things like that should be one of the first things we learn as teenagers in schools. 

So to answer your questions, yes i’ve taken the water course, I learned so much, and felt like I really got my money’s worth. 

Thank you The Prepared for producing this, i’m excited for more to come.

 

I’m glad to see such a happy customer, that is reassuring and hopefully I’ll enjoy it as much as you. 

I agree too that lessons like this should have been taught to us already as we were growing up.

 

Yes. Knife course. Been around knives all my life. Plenty of things I’d never seen before.

 

Did you sharpen knives before this course? If so, do you feel like your sharpening skills increased?

 

I started carrying a pocket knife when I was around 6 yo…later kind of morphed into a Leatherman. Hunted during that same time. So, yes I’ve sharpened knives for 65 years, or thereabouts. The course expanded my horizons on different techniques, equipment. $15 isn’t much for the content.

 

I started carrying a knife in the beginning of high school. I hated to have to leave it at home when I went to school because it was such a great tool. I carried a Gerber Paraframe II. It was a heavy, but cheap and great knife. Backed by Gerber’s lifetime warranty, i’ve gotten a new one three times when mine have had a tip chip off, missing screw, or other issue.

I went to a gun show while also in high school and a booth was selling the Hunter Honer. The rep at the booth took my knife and sharpened it up with the hunter honer and got it sharp enough to cut paper. So that is how I “sharpened” my knives growing up.

Fast forward a few years, I read The Prepared’s articles about knife sharpening and bought some diamond credit card sharpeners and a strop. 

I then took the knife course a year later and realized how little I knew. And that the Hunter Honer wasn’t really a knife sharpener, but just kind of kicked the burs back into place. I prefer the skills I learned in the knife course. 

 

I have taken the knife sharpening course and am part way through the water course. I’m learning quite a bit.

 

What is one of the most interesting things you have learned so far?

 

I didn’t have any background, and though I’m retired, I only recently started to cook. That’s why I never used knives much even in the kitchen. So my first “aha” moment was learning that a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife.

 

I’ve taken both the knife and water course.
For $15 to never have a dull knife again, that’s a no brainer for me. I’ve sharpened every pocket knife, camp knife, machete, kitchen knife, and pair of scissors in my house. I even went over to my parent’s house and sharpened all of their kitchen knives. This was a good course.

The water course was much more entertaining as they talked about many different ways to find water and they actually show walking in the mountains looking for and treating it. They represent many different climates and situations and show it all being done.
I knew a lot about water before, mostly from reading their water articles over the years, but still learned many things in the course that I didn’t know before.

 

You are so right! If someone at the mall offered to me to never have dull knives again for $15, I would buy that in an instant. 

 

I’ve just enrolled in the knife course and will be ready to start practicing this weekend (had to wait for supplies to arrive)! The big test will be to actually practice, but the lessons seem clear and easy enough. I also like that that there is an actual logical curriculum and that care has been clearly put into it, and for that price it can’t be beat.

 

Having a logical curriculum and being organized sure will help me to focus and get the most out of it. That’s how I work, so thanks for letting me know about that.

Hope your supplies arrive soon. Don’t cut your finger off with those sharp knives!

 

Can I offer you some advice before starting on the knife course Haus Monkey? It’s going to be tempting to want to sharpen your favorite knife as soon as you get your gear and learn how to do it (at least for me it was), but I would do your junkiest and cheapest knife first and work your way up to your most expensive, nicest, and favorite knife last.

That way while you are learning and trying to get it down, you won’t mess up your good knives and you’ll be a pro by the time you do get to them.