i need some help

B

benchmadebob

Joined
May 12, 2008
Messages
756
ive always been into survival but i want to make a kit and i have some questions. firstoff i wood like like to know if a fakniven a-2 would make a good survival/camp knife? And is swedish fire steel the best? and whats a cheap way of cleaning water and whats a good folding saw to go along with my a-2 and im definetly getting some paracord. and any input as to what else i should add would be nice
 
bandanna- there are countless uses but my favourite is wetting it and wrapping it around my neck to cool off
 
Fishing kit, fatwood, signal mirror, small led, whistle, matches, small bic, iodine, benadryl,
bandana, cordage, sak farmer, scalpel blade, razor blade, gallon ziplock, silky saw, first aid kit.
lmf firesteel.
 
I carry:
Iodine tablets for purifying water cheaply.
Fallkniven F-1
Survival blanket
Light my fire fire steel

DSCF0480.jpg
 
Pocket size copy of John Lofty Wiseman's SAS Survival Handbook.
Knowledge is always most important.
 
i have handled, but not used, the fallkniven A2. very popular blade, and based on handling it looked very woods-worthy. a fallkniven blade of the same construction (don't remember which model exactly) did very well in a destruction test by Noss of these forums.

silky saws are always touted here as awesome saws, but i have no personal experience.

the swedish fire steel is very good, but don't overlook a simple Bic lighter. both are good, redundancy is always good. don't forget to mix up some petroleum jelly-cotton balls to go with your firesteel.

get a good small pack, a small daypack from walmart will probably be fine, to keep it all in.

get out in the backyard and practice with all of your new gear! it is useless if you don't know how to use it. don't worry about saving it for later...if you use something up it is easy to replace it...not so easy to learn to use it in a survival situation.
 
I like Polar Pure iodine treatment; 1 bottle can treat 2000 qts. Keep it in ziplock and not next to metal...corrosion. The saw on Swiss Army Rucksack works great for me. Trash bag (42 gal cotractors) is good for many things; mainly for emergency shelter/blanket. Also, transporting water, wild edibles or shelter mat'l/insulation. I carry at least 2. Ditto on carrying twine. I tend to worry about running out of paracord, so the twine is great when strength is not important and yep, jute is great tinder.
 
benchmadebob said:
ive always been into survival but i want to make a kit and i have some questions. firstoff i wood like like to know if a fakniven a-2 would make a good survival/camp knife?
Click to expand...
The Fallkniven A-2 is a high-qauity Japanese Knife. It is made of VG-10 stainless steel laminated between softer/tougher stainless. With an 8" x 1/4" thick blade and a total weight in the sheath of about a pound, it's a BIG knife. Unless you have experience with a knife of this size, you are qoing to need practice to get it to do the little things, like making "fuzz sticks."

And is swedish fire steel the best?
Click to expand...
They work fine - sorta' the standard. But so do others I have tried.

and whats a cheap way of cleaning water[?]
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Assuming you mean disinfecting water, boiling will kill everything alive in the water. If you don't wish to boil, prefilter through your bandanna or a coffee filter, let the water settle, and treat with 1/8 teaspoon of unscented household bleach. Wait 30-60 minutes to drink. Bleach kills MOST nasties.

If you are concerned with chemical contamination, distillation is the best solution, and takes care of the "germs" as well. Google "solar still" for directions.

[whats a good folding saw to go along with my a-2[?][/quote]
Silky is high quality. Gerber Sportsman's saw is about ten bucks, very light, very compact, and works well. It always goes backpacking with me.

and im definetly getting some paracord. and any input as to what else i should add would be nice
Click to expand...

You want something to cover:
1. water (fire/container(s)/chemicals)
2. keeping 98.6 (shelter/fire/clothing)
3. signaling (whistle/fire/mirror/LED flashlight)
4. navigation (compass/map/LED flashlight)
5. first aid and personal medical needs
6. food

And you need to know how to use the "stuff" to meet the needs.
 
Thomas Linton said:
The Fallkniven A-2 is a high-qauity Japanese Knife. It is made of VG-10 stainless steel laminated between softer/tougher stainless. With an 8" x 1/4" thick blade and a total weight in the sheath of about a pound, it's a BIG knife. Unless you have experience with a knife of this size, you are qoing to need practice to get it to do the little things, like making "fuzz sticks."


Hmmmm i thought it was swedish? and im planing on a lot of practice and im also bringing a folder or two
Click to expand...
 
Personal Preference, the A-2 is too big for my tastes. While I have an A1 I prefer smaller blades. Some of mine are : RAT cutlery RC-3 & RC-4, Bark River Northstar, and the Fallkniven F1. There are a number of nice blades out there.

The Swedish Firesteel (can also be found under the name Light My Fire), is good. I like a brightly colored handle so it is easy to locate. As Siguy said, redundancy is good. A brightly colored transparent lighter (so you can easily see how much fluid is left) is good to have as well. The firesteel will work when wet, the bic will not. I mostly carry the tinder that comes with the sparklite fire starters, but you can easily make your own out of cotton balls, dryer lint, etc.

I have used both the Gerber Saw and the Silky saw. The Gerber isn't bad, however, I own a Silky with a bright yellow handle so it is easy to find.

If you carry your water in a Nalgene bottle, then you can find metal cups that will fit on the bottom of the bottle to reduce packed size. You can then boil water, melt snow, etc. A Nalgene full of hot water is nice to have in your sleeping bag or shelter on a cold winter night. If you go a with a military canteen you can find a canteen cup as well as a stove base that all nest together in a canteen pouch.

Thomas Linton has a nice list of areas the you can cover. I also like Cody Lundin's Book 98.6 degrees (http://www.amazon.com/98-6-Degrees-...bs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213238450&sr=8-2

You can also find info at:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=493849

http://www.equipped.org/

Good Luck with your kit
 
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benchmadebob said:
Thomas Linton said:
The Fallkniven A-2 is a high-qauity Japanese Knife. It is made of VG-10 stainless steel laminated between softer/tougher stainless. . . .

Hmmmm i thought it was swedish? and im planing on a lot of practice and im also bringing a folder or two
Click to expand...

I believe you. But all Fallkniven knives are made in Japan, as is true of all but a very few knives (very, very few) made with VG10.
Click to expand...
 
small bottle of superglue.

GREAT for sealing cuts and slices, used by emergency rooms. Clean cut first, of course.
 
Falkniven is a really good blade (although kinda long), but… perhaps a RAT TAK1 D2 would be better, but that is just IMHO (or just buy quality American products, like from one of our fellow brothers on this forum). Sweedish fire steel is AWESOME. I paid for the larger rod, which was around $20. Just for giggles, I would also carry a Bic AND a set of matches in a waterproof container, always just in case. Get in the habit of becoming proficient with the fire steel. As far as a “cheap way” to clean water… boil. All you need is a pot. I have decided on the best way to do this, is to also have a water filtration as well. First, I would filter the water that I got straight from the source (using a folded plastic bowl and pouring it through a bandana) into my pot and boiling it. I would let it cool down for 5 minutes, and pour it into my camelback which has an inline water filter. Boiling it will kill everything, bacteria and ESPECIALLY viruses, which no cheap filter can do… and the filter will help you prevent from ingesting cysts and the microscopic dead critter carcasses. Most importantly, even though they are dead, inside their little bodies are also critters (believe it or not, that even though they are “dead”, they can still make you sick supposedly).

In addition to using paracord, learn how to use vines and natural bark cut in strips after preparing it. That would be fun to learn, and decrease your dependency on artificial tools, such as manmade twine.
 
Like a lot of others here, I tend to think that having a smaller good quality blade might be a better choice. TAK1, RC-4, Ranger RD4 are all excellent choices, or even some of the customs made by folks here.

But you might enjoy reading this or this

And there are many many more sites and opinions on kits/BOBs/GHB which ever you'd like to call it.
 
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I recently got a couple of silky saws and was very impressed. The 170 is in my man bag now getting edc'd.
 
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