Why waste space inside the kit on cordage, when you can keep it on the outside, in the form of a pouch? 120+ feet of jute that can be accessed with one snip and then the whole pouch can be unraveled like a daisy chain.
Twenty Dollar Bill -
1. Use to buy beer and burger when you finally stumble out of woods 3 days late and none of your traps/snares/fishing skills really worked.
2. Use to buy more beer when you run out and need an emergency resupply.
3. Use to start fire as a last resort.
50lb test spider (braided) fishing line. I'd keep at least 50 yards spooled in there.
1) Fishing
2) Building shelters
3) Floss (keeps the gums healthy)
4) Building traps (significantly less visible than paracord or rope)
5) Tourniquet
6) Destroy buildings
I use altoids sized tins for sharpening kit for knives ... but for survival the tin is way too small IMO. Not for what you need to hold in it ... but as a cooking recipticle.
One of the hardest things you really miss in the wild is a pot for boiling water... maybe No2 after a knife. Adding hot rocks to carved out bowls etc ... forget it ... you need water much quicker than you can do tasks like that "if you need to boil the water"... so if it must be an altoids tin then two durex/condoms and multiple water purification tablets would come top for me and they don't really have "multiple uses" ... just a single critical one ... infact there are a number of key items I would pick which have'nt got 3 different uses ...
I remember being issued one of these sized tins for an E&E course ... this was in the Welsh mountains so water was abundant ... and pretty much "drinkable" as it was ... so the button compass was the main thing that got used first ... that is another critical item which has'nt got multiple uses ... I know there are other navigation techniques but during the day when in a cloudy part of the world or under jungle canopy ... a compass is a real blessing if you need to "move" in a given direction ...
Magnetising needles and floating them on leaves ... this is another one of those "never get the chance to use it when you need to" if you need to move quickly over terrain which needs you to zig zag to make sensible progress but always in a given direction ...
Fire lighting gear was the next thing we used ( aside from the boiled sweets which were eaten straight off ) ... and this was with a view to trying to get some quick calories in the system ... this was when we all ( there were three of us with these small tins ) agreed that the tins were pretty useless trying to boil up insects/worms as these were the only stuff able to be found quick and easy ... again finding food like this was mainly down to the need to do some big distances in the short time we were out ... but the cooking aspect would be true regardless ...
Personally I think putting a survival kit together in a "mess tin" which can fit into a sensible pouch is a much better prospect ...
Another thing ... one of the best items when you need it but has'nt multiple uses is one of those "wind up" torches you can get for a key ring ... very small but not relying on a battery which can degrade over time ... I would put being able to see in the dark when moving as another critical use ... probably No 3 compared to fishing line etc ... lol ...
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