Izula PSK

Decklin

Decklin

Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
436
The purpose of this kit was to address Food, Water, Fire, and Shelter.

Kit Contents...

- Esee Izula with Red Wood Scales
- Esee Izula Modified Sheath (More on this)
- Esee Izula Kit (Fire Steel, Rings, Plastic Clip)
- 2 Water Purification Tablets (Sealed in Plastic and Tape)
- 1/2 Cottonball w/ Vaseline (Sealed in Plastic and Tape)
- 10' Feet Fish Line + 2 Hooks (Sealed in Tape)
- 5' Para Cord
- 1' Bungee Cord with Cord Lock
- 1 Liter Steel water bottle
- 1 Key Chain Mag Light
- Home Made water bottle harness - Allows many carry options + additional gear attachment. Strap made with 20+ feet paracord.

I made the sheath from a couple old knife sheaths I had laying arround the house. They are attached with heavy nylon thread and chicago screws. The Sheath can easily be attached to the bottle harness, backpack or belt carry.

I plan on adding small compass, ranger beads, Esee Whistle, and Esee Arrowhead to the Paracord bottle strap.

Any time I go hiking I always carry quite a bit of gear, even on short hikes. I plan to carry this kit on my person, seperate from my pack. If I should get seperated from my pack I still have the essentials.

I will admit my trapping / forging skills don't match up to the gear in this kit. I plan to see Mike and Jeff about this as soon as I can. Until then I'll keep a granola bar in my pocket :)

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Cool kit, I always like to see works in progress. For the size, I'd look at ditching that Maglite for a Streamlight Microstream. $16 and I don't know maybe 25x as bright off one AAA cell. TTD turned me on to those with his kits and they are sweet.
 
adaman04 said:
Cool kit, I always like to see works in progress. For the size, I'd look at ditching that Maglite for a Streamlight Microstream. $16 and I don't know maybe 25x as bright off one AAA cell. TTD turned me on to those with his kits and they are sweet.
Click to expand...

I'll second the Microstream. When I bought mine I compared it to my Maglite and couldn't believe the difference. Threw the maglite away and never looked back.

Flashlights sure have come a long way.
 
Nice little setup. :thumbup: I'll third the Microstream. Best bang for your buck for sure. I have converted all my friends to them.
 
Nice little kit. I don't have the Microstream but I got rid of my keychain Maglite for a Fenix E01 and around $12 and it's a great little light.
 
adaman04 said:
Cool kit, I always like to see works in progress. For the size, I'd look at ditching that Maglite for a Streamlight Microstream. $16 and I don't know maybe 25x as bright off one AAA cell. TTD turned me on to those with his kits and they are sweet.
Click to expand...

Yea, this was put together with stuff that was at the house. It is funny though because I was at the store today, holding a micro-stream... This kit can surely be improved upon. Thanks for the ideas..

I am really looking forward to getting the ESEE-4 and building a kit with it.
 
Great little kit you have there.

I just wanted to say that the water tablets really and I mean REALLY need to be sealed better than that if they are iodine based. I was wondering how long iodine based tablets last after they have been opened, so I called POTABLE AQUA and spoke with the lab tech.

Without getting into everything she said, the tablets should NEVER be outside the glass jar for any length of time at all. She said what happens is the iodine atoms start to escape from the tablet as soon as the tablets are actually made. That's why they do have a REAL shelf life and it isn't extended unless the lot number has been tested, and that's what they do for the military when lots are ready to expire. They will take a jar that they keep and store from that lot number the military wants tested and retest the tablets for the military and either extend the shelf life, or tell the military to throw them out.

Once the jar has been opened and exposed to the outside air, they break down fast. She said that's why the tablets turn gray in color because all the iodine is gone and they can no longer treat water.

Not only that, iodine is very corrosive and will break down your other gear like fishing line. I put iodine crystals in a glass jar with a PLASTIC lid and it colored my compass orange and my aspirins as well. The fishing line I could break like rotten thread. The first aid stuff was all orange. The aluminum case was so corroded that I threw it out. Basically after about 6 months the whole thing was a loss.

I learned why iodine or any water treatment tablets come in a glass jar with a steel lid and usually sealed in wax. That crap is nasty and very corrosive. Your two tablets probably won't do that kind of damage, but when you need them, they won't be worth anything either.
 
Mr. Pan... Thanks for the info. I would have never guessed they wouldn't last sealed in a corner of a ziplock bag, and then re-sealed on both sides with a tape that more or less resembles clear duct tape. I'll be looking for an alternate solution for this. Thanks...
 
I just checked my altoids tin psk after reading about the iodine tablets. I heard they could be nasty so I put some in a tiny amber colored glass jar with a plastic lid and paper seal. I thought they would be fine but that is not the case. Every piece of metal in my psk including the tin is corroded to some degree. Even my magnesium bar and the tin itself. That is some really nasty stuff. There must be a better way to store this stuff, otherwise I will have to rely on boiling for water treatment.
 
Decklin said:
Mr. Pan... Thanks for the info. I would have never guessed they wouldn't last sealed in a corner of a ziplock bag, and then re-sealed on both sides with a tape that more or less resembles clear duct tape. I'll be looking for an alternate solution for this. Thanks...
Click to expand...

You could look into chlorine tablets. They are packaged like Aspirin. 1 tablet for 1 liter water. The water does taste like swimmingpool water, but at least it`s clean.
 
MrPan said:
Once the jar has been opened and exposed to the outside air, they break down fast. She said that's why the tablets turn gray in color because all the iodine is gone and they can no longer treat water.

Not only that, iodine is very corrosive and will break down your other gear like fishing line. I put iodine crystals in a glass jar with a PLASTIC lid and it colored my compass orange and my aspirins as well. The fishing line I could break like rotten thread. The first aid stuff was all orange. The aluminum case was so corroded that I threw it out. Basically after about 6 months the whole thing was a loss.

I learned why iodine or any water treatment tablets come in a glass jar with a steel lid and usually sealed in wax. That crap is nasty and very corrosive. Your two tablets probably won't do that kind of damage, but when you need them, they won't be worth anything either.
Click to expand...

Gospel.

choltzapple said:
I just checked my altoids tin psk after reading about the iodine tablets. I heard they could be nasty so I put some in a tiny amber colored glass jar with a plastic lid and paper seal. I thought they would be fine but that is not the case. Every piece of metal in my psk including the tin is corroded to some degree. Even my magnesium bar and the tin itself. That is some really nasty stuff. There must be a better way to store this stuff, otherwise I will have to rely on boiling for water treatment.
Click to expand...

Glass vials, plastic similar to Bakelite with a paper seal. Put the tablets in and then place a cottonball, not nylon, but a cottonball, then put the lid on. They will last for months, the cottonball will absorb Iodine until it turns color. When the pills turn color, discard and refill. These vials are not easy to get nowadays.

Art_Vandeley said:
You could look into chlorine tablets. They are packaged like Aspirin. 1 tablet for 1 liter water. The water does taste like swimmingpool water, but at least it`s clean.
Click to expand...

Katadyn's Micro-Pur, Aquamira or, in Britain, Pur-Tabs. All good. These tablets are highly concentrated and they are corrosive as well but as long as they are in the original packaging, everything will be just fine.
 
choltzapple said:
I just checked my altoids tin psk after reading about the iodine tablets. I heard they could be nasty so I put some in a tiny amber colored glass jar with a plastic lid and paper seal. I thought they would be fine but that is not the case. Every piece of metal in my psk including the tin is corroded to some degree. Even my magnesium bar and the tin itself. That is some really nasty stuff. There must be a better way to store this stuff, otherwise I will have to rely on boiling for water treatment.
Click to expand...

Yes, a paper seal won't do it. If you are going to do anything, melt some wax in the cap, and while the wax is still liquid, screw the cap onto the bottle. That will seal it up pretty good from the inside. Just put a piece of cotton in the bottle to hold anything from falling out when you turn it upside down. Let the wax harden and you have a pretty good seal from the inside out.

They do have the ones with a teflon seal, and that works pretty good. Here are the ones I have bought. I have bought several different sizes, including the 1/3 dram bottle. It is a VERY small bottle. In fact, they will fit in an Altoids Tin standing up. Great for the tins and fit perfectly in the corners standing up.

http://shop.ebay.com/discountvials/m.html?_nkw=amber&_sacat=0&_odkw=&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3911.c0.m270.l1313



Now if you want to get away from those tablets which have such a short shelf life, that in my opinion aren't worth it, you can go with calcium hypochlorite or swimming pool shock.

What I did was I went to a pool store and looked at the bags of pool shock and wrote down the phone number to the company from each different manufacturer, and any info I wanted off the bag. I went home and called them and told them I was going to a third world country and wanted to be able to treat huge amounts of drinking water for myself and the locals. They will tell you if there are any added chemicals that would make their brand of pool shock unable to produce good drinking water. Don't waste your time asking some idiot who works there. Just ask them where their pool shock is, and then tell them to leave you alone so you can write down the info including lot numbers and items codes and call the company directly and ask your questions.

The stuff I picked up is 70%. Basically to cut to the chase, using that brand of pool shock I can treat a GALLON of clear water with a few crystals the size of one grain of salt. Dump some salt in your hand and look at a few crystals and that amount in pool shock will treat ONE GALLON of clear water or half gallon of cloudy water.

The math the company gave me said that 1/8th teaspoon will treat 55 gallons of clear water for drinking.

Now we can go through all the math, but in a nutshell, here's what I have come up with for me to use out in the field, and I have had no problems at all in 20 years and probably over 250 gallons of water drank.

I took a one gallon jug at home and I added 16 drops of regular bleach, that was brand new, to that water and after an hour, I smelled it, and tasted it, to get an idea of what a controlled amount of treated water should smell and taste like. Basically it is just a HINT of chlorine in the water. If it's too strong out in the field, dump out some water and add more untreated water to reduce the clorine content. If you can't smell any chlorine, add in a few more granules and wait an hour and smell it again.

The first time I tried this AT HOME after I got the amount I thought was correct, I took a mouth full and spit it out. I wanted to see if I burned my mouth at all or anything that wasn't normal. Then after a couple hours I drank a small amount and waited a few hours again to see if anything happened. I still do this out in the field even now.

After doing it a few times, it's very easy to do, but it's like anything else, you have to do it a few times to get know what you're doing. Plus, you can do this right at home and don't need to go to the bush to do. I would suggest getting water from local ponds and streams and not the tap.

Don't get too wrapped around the axle about exact amounts here. Remember, small kids drink gallons of water at the local swimming pools everyday all summer long and live to talk about it. You really have to have a STRONG amount of pool shock in your water to hurt you. Use common sense and you will be fine.

For ME, this is the best way to treat EMERGENCY drinking water in a small kit. Applying some common sense, I can treat almost any amount of water just by smell and taste, and basically be able to treat more water than I could drink in a real survival situation. I would starve to death before dieing of thirst or the Hershey Squirts. Plus I know the stuff has a shelf life of 10 years or more when in an air tight vial.

I carry the shock in a small perfume sample vial I bought from the same seller as the small bottles.
 
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