If only a Peanut

ThriftyJoe said:
Not to beat this to death, Pete, but you have a lot of stuff, but still no sleeping bag. My truck has had a sleeping bag in it for over a decade, ever since I moved to the mountains in NM and had a reasonable chance of getting stuck in the snow. Plus jumper cables, tow rope, tools, flashlight etc.

Even if you threw in your crappiest, oldest, flannel Boy Scout sleeping bag that you don't use anymore, it's better than nothing.

Is a compass useful without a map, assuming you can't walk in a straight line back in the general direction to town, having to go around mountains or canyons? I know suggesting a GPS instead sounds like suggesting an "electric toothbrush" to Quint from Jaws, but you know, it points a straight line back to town, right there on your screen. Maybe a small compass as a backup.

Also, if you can't get unstuck or fix whatever the mechanical problem is, don't you need a way to carry your gear once you start walking? Unless you're going to sit in that spot and wait for help?
Click to expand...

Tarps are pretty handy, think bivy sack, also gear can be rolled up in the tarp like a tootsie roll, tied off with my rope, and carried diagonal across chest or back, I've lived three months outdoors with no tent, just a ridge rest and a fleece blanket.
In the northeast if lost, my motto has always been head east, you will run into someone, something a road or the coast, if you hit the coast and nothing pick a direction ( N or S ) you should find civilization.
 
I love your survival tin Pete :thumbup:

I made little kits for each of us in the family that have similar items, they all fit in a nylon 3"x4" zippered pouch. The packs clip to your belt loops or can fit (albeit tightly) in a back jeans pocket, and include a compass, small LED light, signal mirror, whistle, small lockback knife, tick tweezers, P-38 can opener, matchsafe with strike anywhere matches, magnesium block with ferro rod on the side, fishing line, a couple weighted hooks, a rubber worm, disposable rain poncho and silvered mylar survival blanket. I have added a small prybar and an "Eatin' Tool" to mine, the rest of the family have "Sporks" in theirs.

After reading your list I think I need to add a length of tape and some twine, some foil and a couple of first aid items too. Thank you for the ideas!
 
Stich2442 said:
Tarps are pretty handy, think bivy sack, also gear can be rolled up in the tarp like a tootsie roll, tied off with my rope, and carried diagonal across chest or back, I've lived three months outdoors with no tent, just a ridge rest and a fleece blanket.
In the northeast if lost, my motto has always been head east, you will run into someone, something a road or the coast, if you hit the coast and nothing pick a direction ( N or S ) you should find civilization.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup:

The east is a little different than places like Wyoming or Montana. If you're in the mountains, or what passes as mountains in the east, you head downhill and you'll run into a road or farm. Places like the Shenandoah National park, and other parks are geographically narrow places. Most places in the east, you're not ever that far from some sort of civilization. When I lived in Colorado, I had to adjust to the fact that I was a heck of a lot farther from civilization when we went Jeeping. So more geart was carried in winter.

Heck, most places here, if you do get snowed in, if you can get a nice little smoky fire going, you'll have a fire spotting plane overhead before you can finish a pipe. :D

Carl.

edit to add- where I live, all I need is a peanut and a BIC lighter. The BIC to start a fire, and the peanut to whittle with until the fire or park service arrives shortly.
 
I love the patina on that nut! And pen blade for the win!

My favorite bushcraft kit is very similar to yours. I have a small Remington shoulder bag that contains:
Canteen and cup, Mora, Folding Saw, Firesteel, lighter, emergency poncho, emergency blanket, FAK, wet ones, toilet paper, paracord
I might throw a fishing kit or food in there

Along with the contents of my pockets: Pocket knife (Usually a stockman these days), Fenix EO5, lighter, bandana, jute twine
With this kit, I'm pretty confident

But I don't know if i could do it with just a peanut, lighter, and canteen and cup. Spring and Summer wouldn't be too bad, I would be sweating buckets and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. But I would survive. If it were winter it would be very tough. Nothing to harvest enough wood for the night with other than just picking sticks up...As long as im dressed well and maybe have an emergency blanket, I could manage for a while. Food would be scarce however. Ain't gonna catch fish in the winter here. Traps would be one of the very few options but the Peanut is a rather poor carver for me because of the small handle. No good for fuzzsticks either.

I've thought greatly upon the idea of only a pocket knife in the woods. I went on a short day trip today. Brought a 301 and full size trapper along. It had just rained yet i still found plenty of dry, serviceable firewood had i needed it. No chopping or batoning needed for any of it. A fire source and tinder was much more important than a cutting tool at the moment.
 
It's amazing what you can do when you look at a knife as a tool to help you accomplish tasks, instead of "THE" tool to do these tasks.
 
Great pics and story. It's great to get out there and do that kind of thing with a day/evening.
I've been carrying a peanut for a little while now and have no problem using it for fire prep or anything like that. Makes fine feather sticks. Is it easier with a larger knife? Yeah. Just for grip. But I've been using the peanut just to see what all it can handle. A friend carries a medium jack to do all these things and the thing I noticed was the blade of the peanut was pretty much the same length as the medium jack. The major size difference comes in the handle. It's kind of like a "little big knife". Or little medium knife in this case. :)
 
One of the coolest threads I've stumbled upon in quite some time, With that being say I've always admired minimalist and their tools as well as their knowledge and skill set, which some feel (myself included ) kinda makes up in some instances for the simplistic/dated gear or, for the lack of more elaborate gear thereof. All in all this thread gives me the urge to splurge on Peanuts and traditional knives in general . Just when I begin dabbling in the more modern stuff, I'll stumble on to a thread like this and be back to my old school slippies in a heartbeat. As the old cliche' goes "if it aint broke don't fix it".
 
ONLY? a Peanut? What else do we need?
If I have to chop stuff I can always make some kind of stone axe.
The Jute, lighter, toolythingy are gravy.
I would add a BSA Hotspark that I usually have on hand. That, some chordage and that underratred Peanut and I home soon.....Cool Thread.
I once read a cool tale about a man with a Peanut in his suit pocket and a mini compass sewn into his overcoat hem...............
 
Paradiggum said:
Great pics and story. It's great to get out there and do that kind of thing with a day/evening.
I've been carrying a peanut for a little while now and have no problem using it for fire prep or anything like that. Makes fine feather sticks. Is it easier with a larger knife? Yeah. Just for grip. But I've been using the peanut just to see what all it can handle. A friend carries a medium jack to do all these things and the thing I noticed was the blade of the peanut was pretty much the same length as the medium jack. The major size difference comes in the handle. It's kind of like a "little big knife". Or little medium knife in this case. :)
Click to expand...

The peanut also gives you a blade with almost the same length cutting edge as a barlow. If you think about what you're doing, a couple of inches of blade goes a long way.

As far as fire making, a guy I served in the army with was a Navajo from out in New Mexico. He had a way of making a small fire in a hole that just used twigs and small sticks. He called it a hatful of fire. He said the white man makes fires too big to get close to. Jimmy always carried a well used old Kabar barlow. He kept the main blade really sharp, and the pen blade was his rough cut/can punch/awl tool. Oil came in cans back in those days. Jimmy would sharpen a stick, use it to dig a little hole wth a kind of trench leading from it, and make his hatful of fire. He kept stuff in his pockets, and always seemed to now how to get by with his barlow, a Zippo or some matches, and some twine.

On fishing/camping trips, he'd cut a small sapling, lay it in the crook of a tree or tie it with some twine to another small tree and make a kind of 3/4 tepee with his issue pancho. He'd then build his little fire almost right in the opening of his shelter, and curl up in a wool blanket or two and go to sleep on a cold evening. His little fire would be a bed of coals, and once in a while he'd toss in some more small sticks to burn down to more coals. I tried it, and it does work. I really believe Jimmy was one of those guys you could drop off someplace with just what he had in his pockets and he'd be fine. He got a lot of milage out of a barlow with a couple inches of steel. He influenced me to keep a small sharp pocket knife, fire, and twine on hand.
 
I remember reading so many praises of the peanut on here and I wanted to like them so much. I was at a flea market to hand pick one and I literally fumbled with the knife like a moron and handed it back to the man afraid I was going to drop it. For me, I will take the additional mass of the larger handled knives. They are easier for my hands to manipulate by a large margin. I could not even get the blades open without the little thing hopping around in my hand. It was like it had a mind of its own. I should have bought it just to have, but with other knives that work so much better for me, it was pointless and would have been a waste of money.

I admire you guys that can get a good grip on these knives and make them work in your hands. I could not. I could just imagine slowed reflexes and numbed hands out in the woods making the issue amplify ten fold.

My threshold seems to be 3 1/2 inch handle. Aside from that, I like thin and sharp. Its been machete in the woods from me and I never see that changing ever.
 
My small pickup would inventory out like a rescue vehicle in addition to small folders in about every pocket. But the wife's compact car is under her management. I have managed to slide some safety gear in the back packed in a plastic milk crate. But the nifty thing I found was a small 'Spetsnez' shovel. Mine has a serrated edge and a sharpened edge and would be useful as hatchet, shovel, light saw or 'weapon' of authority. I am not in show country so I need something that would break out a car window to get someone out in fire or flash flood. I do need to place a heavy bolstered traditional knife in the glove compartment. Lets see what do I have laying around that won't rattle.......300Bucks
 
richstag said:
I remember reading so many praises of the peanut on here and I wanted to like them so much. [snip]
For me, I will take the additional mass of the larger handled knives. They are easier for my hands to manipulate by a large margin.[snip]

I admire you guys that can get a good grip on these knives and make them work in your hands. I could not. I could just imagine slowed reflexes and numbed hands out in the woods making the issue amplify ten fold.[snip]
Click to expand...

I too admire and am a little envious of you guys that can make these peanuts work for you...I can't...too narrow and slippery in my hand. For me the worst case scenario of having only a peanut makes me cringe. yes, having the peanut would be so much better than having nothing at all, but then again, with cold hands, adrenalin, and fatigue, getting a sliced open finger from a tiny knife that i have trouble with manipulating in the first place would only add insult to injury. This thread has been a fun read nontheless, and keeping a few essentials in your vehicles can't be stressed enough. I keep a few blades, matches, lighters, flashlights, wool blanket,compas,and large garbage bags ( think rain coat), in my vehicle at all times...other things as well...this thread has prodded me to add a few other essentials,
Thanx
 
That's why the texas jack is the perfect pocket knife :P

its all the same stuff as peanut, in a 3 1/2" frame, much better for those of us with big hands
and the principles of the peanut still apply

everyone wins, except maybe those silly mini-copperhead fans :D hehe

001-21.jpg
 
This is a good thread. I know you would be interested in this if you can view it. "Alone Across Australia" Jon Muir.
Sure fresh fish is yummy but what about if your scenario was slighty more inhospitable terrain? This guy slices a fat steak out of a "bloated bovine" .
The dead beast is fully rancid and he eats the meat out of the middle where the maggots haven't been yet.
Truly an amazing journey.
 
Gents,
1) This thread need more pocket knife content and less survival content.
2) No bashing of folks who choose to carry other items than you do.
3) Watch those acronyms.
 
Sadly for me, I fall into the "my hands just can't do it" group. The 'nut is just a bit small for my hands. I have an old CASE, an old Boker, and one from a place far away. Especially when my hands are swollen and sore from work they are maddening for me to operate.

However, for those of us there that have a similar affliction (Kevin! - sitflyer) try out a CASE butterbean or a "small canoe" from another maufacturer. I have had my old Schlieper EYE brand for about 25 - 30 years and can't say enough good about it. Just enough handle, plenty of blade that is wider and flatter main than my CASE peanut main blade making it easier for me to sharpen. With a single spring construction, the knife is thin, but the case is wider to accommodate the wider main blade. This makes it easier for me to hold on to and to manipulate. And the pen blade is thinner than my CASE peanut too, so it will also take a wicked edge. It disappears into your pocket and you never know it is there.

I was inspired after reading Carl's adventures with his CASE nut, but after carrying mine for a while to see if I would change my mind, I had to go back to the butterbean.

Robert
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top