I'm far from a survival expert but I do spend a hell of a lot of time outdoors trying the stuff that gets bought up on this and other forums...
What is a "survival expert," anyway? I have been on forums for a long, long time. I have seen the experts come and go. I have seen absolute, horrific, bullshit posted by "experts" for years. The "folding knife lock experts," the "steel experts," the "knife fighting experts," the "survival experts," the this, that and the other "experts." Oh, the "knife testing experts." There's a hoot for ya, too.
A computer costs a few hundred bucks. Software, a few hundred more. A website about $150.00 for a half decent one. A hockey mask and a digital camera and an area where you can beat on stuff and take pictures of it doesn't make someone a "knife testing expert."
Also, for years, people have entered threads and in an attempt to take a wack at me, refer to me as a, "self-proclaimed expert" in whatever I was talking about! WTF? I have never done that, referred to myself as an "expert" which, to me, simply means you have nothing left to learn. That is my opinion and I hope it doesn't offend anyone, especially the ones who really get off on being an "expert." Because they are out in the world as well. People are just dying inside to be an expert at something.
When people see me posting on some surgeon's forum about performing appendectomies, they can finally and truly claim I have went over the edge. When I post about something I don't know about, I am usually asking a question. Right in here, I have not created a troll account to ask questions about stuff I didn't know about. I have always used my real name and let the chips fall where they may.
YOU, Pitdog, always post interesting stuff. You are operating on an expert level when it comes to this stuff. A lot of us are operating on that level but to be a "survival expert," one would first have to ascertain what sub-genre we're talking about.
There have been times in my life where the only thing I could do to test something was put it in a BBQ grill in the backyard because I couldn't get away to someplace much nicer. A rainstorm in the backyard is still a rainstorm. Three feet of snow is three feet of snow. Wind is wind.
Other times, I get to sit by a nice fire for hours and drink my coffee, listen to the woods and go crawl in a tent. Great times!
The one thing I am is a campfire maniac, I mean that in a good way. Some people, that means they grab the lighter fluid and go to the burn center, I'm not talking about that.
I have really struggled in cold weather making fine tinder as my dexterity was severly affected, not only can this be hard with a knife but it can also be dangerous.If ya have an easy safer option then why not use it ?
Here are two pics I took last week( and I didn't shape that piece with a knife it was a bit I broke off with my hands)...
That's
intelligent. Common sense isn't very common.
Sometimes, people interested in survival seem to be in a race to see how much stuff they can get rid of. There is something to be said for not carrying around the kitchen sink in a backpack but, like many extremes, it's generally a bad idea to go about life that way. The guy paring away stuff until he has "X number of esentials" is probably handicapping himself as much as the guy that cannot move for all of the stuff he has weighing him down.
That's not a crack at Kevin, that's a crack at all of the minimalist philosophy going on in "survival" and other areas of interest as well.
