Most useless survival tool

[LittleHairyApe]

^^^one of my favorite quotes i think i've ever seen on this website so far!

Thanks big guy. People tell me I'm funny, but I tell them that looks aren't everything.

 

[LittleHairyApe]

I understand the whole
Need and not want vs. want and not need"

But if you take out the mirror, you can put something more useful in it's place.
Never needed one to "scare away critters" and never needed one to get something out of my eye.

Well, just watch this video, and tell me you don't have anything in your eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnZoDbScGdQ&feature=rec-r2

 

[Marcelo Cantu]

Anything over a pound or longer than my forearm.

You mean like an ax?

 

[LittleHairyApe]

I guess an argument can be made for or against pretty much any one item.
A whistle , for me , is an essential piece in my PSK ... I mean what if you're hurt such as broken fingers or hand could you still fashion a whistle with a bottle cap, a strip of grass, a slice of aluminum can, or an acorn top ?
The whistle is hopefully around your neck and WILL be heard for a distance can you say the same about a "bottle cap" whistle ... would you bet your life on it ?

just my 2 cents

I can see your point about two-handed use, but by the same token you could bang rock on something or hit a stick against a hollow log with one hand. Also a whistle is almost certainly going to be drowned out by the noise of any sort of vehicle the searchers might be using. So unless they start making whistles out of fatwood, I am going to consider it a single use, limited range, replaceable-by-foraging type of item. And I respect your reasons to doing otherwise.

 

[KuRUpTD]

I can see your point about two-handed use, but by the same token you could bang rock on something or hit a stick against a hollow log with one hand. Also a whistle is almost certainly going to be drowned out by the noise of any sort of vehicle the searchers might be using. So unless they start making whistles out of fatwood, I am going to consider it a single use, limited range, replaceable-by-foraging type of item. And I respect your reasons to doing otherwise.

no doubt bro ... just playin devils advocate

 

[LittleHairyApe]

no doubt bro ... just playin devils advocate

It's frosty man. Totally cool. Honorable men can disagree honorably. I think I read that somewhere. :thumbup:

 

[David E]

The worst thing I've ever come across has been mentioned: The wire saws that snap not as you saw with it, but when you UNFOLD it! Snapped at each and every bend.

As far as whistles go, they are light and small enough, it'd be silly not to include one specifically made for the woods.

Mirror? Again, small and light and does things nothing else will. I'd hate to use my reflection at the edge of a lake to see where that chunk of stuff is in my eye.
.

 

[dttomcat]

+1 for the wire saw. Just about everything I've read or heard about it is not good.
I like the idea of a mirror and a whistle in any medium to large kit but an Altoid tin is fairly small and there is a definite need to prioritize. Don't have one in my tin because I haven't found one that fits well. A have a very small whistle in my tin at the moment but that MAY change at some point. As far as the aluminum foil goes, the tin itself could be used so the foil is out. I think an important thing to consider is when and where to take an Altoid sized kit and when to go bigger with a more complete kit or BOB. Even in those I think I could find a better choice than foil though. -DT

 

[TheGame]

As far as a Whistle goes, I find it can have its uses. I have one on my person around a necklace at all times. I have used it a few times as well. Once to find my older brother who fell out of his tree stand, and once to stop a doe running at 100 yards. (It actually stopped, too)

 

[Don Rearic]

To me it is the signal mirror. Really, I know an airplane can spot one for a billion miles on the ocean, but I am unable to come up with a real reason to make it worth displacing another item in a land based kit.

I have no idea how something that is about five times thicker than a credit card and in most cases has the same basic footprint as a signal mirror could possibly displace something.

Of all the things in my kits, The last thing I would probably use in a real emergency is a fire steel. While I love the things and almost always carry one, when the chips are down and conditions are bad I want a much more sure, faster and one hand usable fire starter.

So that leaves the Spark-lite, Blast-Match (that's the one handed large kit, yeah?) or a Bic or some other type of lighter. Which would it be?

I have to say, the go-to tools for fire are ferroceriums for me and this new Misch Metal stuff I am going to be testing in a couple of days is supposed to be really good.

Whistles fit this category for me. It's a single use item, and it's replaceable with a bottle cap, a strip of grass, a slice of aluminum can, or an acorn top.

There is no way in the world that any of that stuff is going to equal a FOX-40, ACR, Storm Whistle or that British Lifeboat Whistle.

As for outlandish things people carry...

I like the K & M Matchsafe and the Silva Matchsafe and even the standard USGI Matchsafe, but I have to say that the whistle/matchsafe/compass/tiny mirror combination things end up doing everything half-assed instead of one or two things well.

 

[Watchful]

 

[dttomcat]

As far as a Whistle goes, I find it can have its uses. I have one on my person around a necklace at all times. I have used it a few times as well. Once to find my older brother who fell out of his tree stand, and once to stop a doe running at 100 yards. (It actually stopped, too)

The one I have in the tin is very small and I wonder about how loud it could get. I've thought about putting another on my keychain with my Vic classic, microlite II, and my peanut lighter but I'm afraid my buddies would be ribbing me about carrying a "rape whistle".. Could be good to get someone's attention from a distance not only in the woods.A Jetscream goes in the larger kit. -DT

 

[Rotte]

I'd agree with Kevin. Almost everything has a use, even those lame wire saws.

Now if weight is an issue, you might consider leaving some items at home. But if you were in a survival situation, would throw away your mirror or whistle?

I thought it was cooler to use an empty .300 shell as a whistle, but switched to a real one when my hunting partner got lost and couldn't hear my .300 'whistle.'

(Please note, for the record, no matter what he says, he was lost, not me.)

 

[Mentor]

After reading Cody Lundin's 98.6 Degrees, I added a large, unlubricated condom to my PSK, for use as an improvised water container. I have yet to use it, and have my suspicions that it might prove more trouble than it's worth. Since I always have a steel canteen (and almost always, a water bladder) on my person when I'm in the woods, I have more reliable water containers on hand. So, I officially dub the "Cody Lundin Condom" the most useless survival tool in my PSK.

Though it has been known to start some interesting conversations during an outing.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[Wandering_About]

For me a fishing kit is pretty much useless. If I'm backpacking in an area with fish, I'll have a pretty full fishing kit anyway. Most places I hike in NE, the most survival I'll be doing is if I get stuck overnight in bad weather conditions or if I'm injured and can't move. When I'm hunting I have plenty of ammo and a gun.

 

[j williams]

Ive read and read this thread, racking my brain, and I cant come up with a single thing that I carry that I think is useless.

To each his own, but I cant imagine goin out w/o a mirror and fox whistle.

 

[j williams]

Well maybe those wire saws. However if I dont have snare wire and need it. But I always have snare wire in my Doc Canda PSK. So. The wire saw.

 

[Don Rearic]

After reading Cody Lundin's 98.6 Degrees, I added a large, unlubricated condom to my PSK, for use as an improvised water container. I have yet to use it, and have my suspicions that it might prove more trouble than it's worth.

...So, I officially dub the "Cody Lundin Condom" the most useless survival tool in my PSK.

Did he mention you are supposed to place the condom in a sock or some type of cloth tube like a shirt sleeve or pant leg, etc.? It's not just Cody Lundin that has offered the condom or sonogram probe cover as a water carrier, it has long been in SAS literature and our own survival kits going back at least to the first part of the Vietnam War. It is fragile without the added support, but with the support, much better and more viable.

I think they are reserved for minimalist kits, however. I have a few folded up plastic water bladders from USGI survival kits. I think I sent one of them to Kevin E. months and months ago.

 

[MBTull]

The Huntsman is my EDC and it has a lot of uses in a survival situation. The saw is great and the back part of the saw throws a great spark on my firesteel. However, I have yet to find a use for the weird hook thing between the corkscrew and awl. I don't think that the toothpick is much use either. I would prefer a straight pin or a tiny pen. The tweezer is pretty much worthless as well.

Off topic for Primitive Man - where in South Jersey? I lived in Pennsauken until I was 10 and then Cinnamminson until 18. My Dad grew up in Camden and my Mom in Merchantville.

 

[Farnsrocket]

but by the same token you could bang rock on something or hit a stick against a hollow log with one hand.

Instead of a whistle? Are you kidding?