revisiting old concepts - altoids psk's

kgd said:
[...]
So lets see your altoids kits!!!
Anybody else keep a concerted effort of carrying these things in their pockets?
How long have you been carrying it?
How often do you access its contents?
How often do you revisit the contents and consider alternative items?
Click to expand...

As usual, great thread Ken :thumbup:.

I don't carry a tin on me everyday, although when out hiking I do use a belt pouch and canteen w/ cup that cover the essentials. I did the Altoid-tin-in-the-pocket thing for a while, but have settled back on the belt pouch system. I actually had two altoid tins like you; one for fire, and one for other essentials. And each in an aloksak (always check stress points for leaks).

I carried the tins on every hike or outdoor stroll, no matter the distance. I carried em in butt pockets though; I hate rigid relatively massive objects swinging and banging around in cargo pockets. I used that system for at least 6 months.

The tins, like the current belt-pouch psk, were always last resort. I didn't access them regularly, since I use the gear in my pack first. I like knowing that when I need it, nothing is depleted and everything is in fresh condition. I'd say the rate of my revision process has slowed as I've gained more experience in what works for me and what I value most in my environment. Sometimes, I'll swap out a flashlight for the next greatest AAA light, or perhaps swap out matches, ibuprofen and loperamide, or other perishables...but in general, I think I've reached a good point in terms of "what type of items go in".


However, I do not carry a tin kit on my person in my everyday activities, and your thread has caused me to reconsider. I do carry a full kit in my backpack because I commute to work in an city in earthquake country. And on my pockets, I always carry a folder, SAK, BSA hotspark w/ dedicated striker, flashlight, small whistle, lighter, and a little bit of paracord on a keychain laynard. But everything else is in the backpack.

Say I'm taking some samples via shuttle to another campus within the city and decide to leave my bag in lab because "it'll be a quick there-and-back". A 15-20 min shuttle ride through a city = a very long trek back by foot in an emergency. I confess that sometimes I'm just in a rush or don't really want to take my backpack along for such a short trip.... Or say I'm working in another part of the building/floor, and leave my pack in my office...which ends up under tons of rubble and therefore inaccessible after an earthquake.

Same deal with mundane weeknight/weekend activities where there's no reason for me to lug a backpack around (grocery shopping, post office trip, etc.). There's a full kit in the car...but that won't help if I can't get to it.

Now that I think about it, I do have an airplane altoid kit which would probably do fine for EDC with a minimal modification (if any). In that particular case I stuck to a tin because I knew that in an emergency I could not count on getting to, or retaining, my pack. Hmmm...will have to play with it when I get home.

My only issue is carrying the tin. Like I said above, I personally get annoyed with carrying rigid things in cargo pockets. Always banging around. I wouldn't mind carrying it in a belt pouch, if I knew I wouldn't get odd looks. I wonder if an altoid tin would fit in one of those PDA belt carriers; that probably wouldn't get a second look :D.

Perhaps more importantly, I wonder if anything I would carry in the tin would have a significant effect on my outcome in an emergency situation in my urban working environment (beyond what I already carry in my pockets). I guess I come from the SHTF-carry-only perspective, rather than the carry "handy items" perspective. To that end, I would include things like:

-scout firesteel and striker
-water purification tabs, and perhaps a 1qrt ziploc if I could fold it up well enough...maybe wrap in bandana and ranger band to outside of tin.
-fox40 whistle and signal mirror
-button compass
-extra AAA battery or two for flashlight on my keychain
-fishing line and snare wire on small bobbins, maybe a length of paracord if I can fit it in or wrap it around tin.
-bit of duct tape if it would fit
-bit of prepared tinder if I could fit it (pjcbs/char cloth/jute/small piece of fatwood/etc).



Whoa...this post came out way longer than I had intended. Time to stop rambling....:o:)
 
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Hey HikingMano,

Is that you Russel? I'm guessing so, because of your avatar and I checked your profile, and saw that I'm a 'friend'.......... :D

Re: your belt pouch, what would you think about a completely-unravelable (sp? word? :confused: ) jute belt pouch for your Altoids tin as previously seen with the round tin?

It's something that's rolling around in my head. :D

Doc
 
Hey Doc,

Yup, it's me :D Changed my username a little while ago, and while I've sent out a few PMs, I haven't gotten around yet to leaving messages with a few of the folks without PM capability. Figured the unchanged avatar should help, as you've demonstrated :)

I think one of your jute belt pouches would be a great, and very much functional, solution, but it would probably attract more attention than if I were to use a plain black nylon pouch. At least in the typical urban/work environment...I don't foresee an issue outside of work, in california suburbia. Come to think of it though, something horizontal might fit under my shirt and neither be visible nor print noticeably....hmmm :) I'll shoot you an email and we'll talk, Doc :thumbup:.

Hope things are going well with you up there!
 
Great comments HikingMano. Yes, it seems to be a continual compromise between: ease of carry, task-specific carry items (i.e. optimized for different conditions), and how much stuff you need/anticipate will actually help you out. Then there are all those actual times where you catch yourself with nothing at all and hopefully admonish yourself that a better route can be found.

I think I'm pretty happy with my tin-based kits, but do want to embellish bug-out-bag items in my vehicles, office and home. Those are where I spend most of my time and part of the perspective of a smaller kit is that it will take me to one of the bigger BOBs.
 
Yes, the other night, someone was asking around for a lighter...and that was the one day I had left my "tools" keychain (has peanut lighter) at home while rushing and didn't carry a zippo because I wasn't wearing jeans (usually only carry zippo when wearing jeans because I can carry it in that small pocket). I was glad to still have my firesteel though, if it was a real emergency. Definitely a reason to revisit the EDC tin kit :thumbup:

I'll share an Altoid PSK success story :D. A good buddy of mine who also peruses BF from time to time made himself an altoid kit a while ago. Recently, he proposed to his GF in an amusement park. Since he was trying to surprise her, he didn't want to carry the ring box and have it print in his pocket, so he took the ring out of the box and just carried it loose in his pocket. Well, being in an amusement park, they had to go on rides...and he was, needless to say, very concerned about the ring in his pocket. So, altoid tin psk to the rescue: he used safety pins to pin the ring to the inside of his pocket in the men's restroom. And now the ring's on her finger :thumbup: :D


As for BOBs, I need to work on mine as well. My vehicle BOB has been a sort of overflow depository for other kits, it definitely needs some trimming and reorganizing.... And boy does it get a wee bit expensive to stock equally effective BOBs for different locations...
 
I've been trying to carry mine everywhere. Even in contexts where i probably won't need it. Several times I've forgotten my pack or something; late for work, left it in the other car, whatever. But somehow that little tin has always come along since I've made it a habit to always always keep it in the same place as my wallet and keys.

I do find it comforting to know that theres a bit of cash, cutting tool, lighter and a flashlight in there, Those are the thing that it really bugs me not to have, even if it's not a 'survival situation'
Mine hasn't saved the day yet, but so far it's been ready willing and able on several occasions when I had nothing else and something might have gone wrong.
 
hi/i just found this thread.

is the brassknuckle-looking piece of metal in the OP the bowdrill headpiece?
what does it do? how does it work? can someone please refer me to a thread.

thanks.
 
HikingMano said:
I'll share an Altoid PSK success story :D. A good buddy of mine who also peruses BF from time to time made himself an altoid kit a while ago. Recently, he proposed to his GF in an amusement park. Since he was trying to surprise her, he didn't want to carry the ring box and have it print in his pocket, so he took the ring out of the box and just carried it loose in his pocket. Well, being in an amusement park, they had to go on rides...and he was, needless to say, very concerned about the ring in his pocket. So, altoid tin psk to the rescue: he used safety pins to pin the ring to the inside of his pocket in the men's restroom. And now the ring's on her finger :thumbup: :D
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty cool story! :)
 
I found that if you use "Crystal clear" package sealing /label protecting tape you can organize your kit a little more efficiently. I've used it for years to "laminate" ID cards for my wallet. As HikingMano commented, I didn't think I would like the rigid container in my pocket... I broke mine down into 3 separate parts, repackaging key items from my AMK

On my key ring a P38 (nostalgia Okinawa 72), small pill fob (aspirin for heart attack/stroke) Immodium AD, and Gerber AAA Tempo light

I perceived a need for water transportation to get back to my car. In a heavy duty 4x6 zip lock pouch (holds 300ml), reinforced with thin Duck brand automotive tape, signal mirror, hemostatic gauze, 2x3 gauze, 2 cloth knuckle bandaids, 4 Katadyn SO2 tabs, 2 alcohol prep pads (fire start), insect wipe, mini Bic with button compass taped to bottom

in a Gerber multi tool belt pouch, 4 quarters taped in strip, Fox 40, alox Farmer SAK, offset straight/phillips screw driver (straight blade at correct angle for minor pry bar) wrapped with (2) 1 foot strips of duck tape, hacksaw blade with heavy duty needle and 2 large safety pins taped together (working with one of the folding hacksaws) 20' of 14# mono wrapped and taped to a card with a #4hook primarily for sewing and suture, tweezers, mini pencil, taped spare AAA battery, and LMF mini fire steel

my EDC carry is a BM Elishewitz and Leatherman PS4...I would really like to find a more durable water transport bag, but I couldn't get what I wanted into an Altoids size tin.. regards Les
 
kgd said:
You can think about it in two ways: 1) convenience and 2) an exercise in creativity.

1) The altoids tin provides the right dimensions that you can slip it into the front pocket of your pants or a jacket pocket without much inconvenience. The tin in my loose fitting cargo pants does not even print. Might be a different story for the tight jeans wearing youth of today, but I can carry this little thing unnoticed. That gives me an incentive to actually carry this thing daily. I often carry a better kit in my day pack but that day pack doesn't always come to my office and when you are removing things for the sake of bulk and waste often times a PSK comes out when its something like a trip to the office as opposed to a trip from the outdoors. Depending on something for your life means having that stuff with you. A pelican case will provide better protection of its contents but not induce you to take it along while grocery shopping, dropping off the babysitter or getting a haircut.

2) Creativity. The small space requires you put special thought into the contents of your altoids tin. You can't shove in everything you want for every situation. You need to think heavy and hard about what will go in and what can't. You need to consider multiple uses for each and every item. This thought process is useful to survival training in itself. It might stimulate you to apply such thinking to other aspects of gear choice and emergency situations.
Click to expand...

i understand where you are coming from. i do and i agree with the creativity part but common sense tells me that if you are going somewhere where the possibitliy of having to use something to survive off of, a small kit in an altoids can just wont suffice for most of us. however i do like the idea of having multiple cans for fire, fishing or whatnot. it still doenst take up much room. they are light and etc.. so why not carry a BOB or a sachel or small book bag with the things you need? if you are going into deep wilderness and all you take is an aloids can and a knive, good luck (unless you are trained or have experience in that kind of thing)... reality for most folks isnt the fantasy world of others. to me its just not a real world situation unless you have other stuff to go with it.
 
One thing that a friend of mine recently convinced me to add to the survival kit I have is a small tube of medical grade cyanoacrylate (ex. Dermabond). The reasoning was that it could be used for smaller cuts and the wounds so they wouldn't get dirty or infected, and it could be used for utilitarian needs like fixing ripped seams or broken tools in a pinch.

Also, very small. Thoughts?
 
jekostas said:
One thing that a friend of mine recently convinced me to add to the survival kit I have is a small tube of medical grade cyanoacrylate (ex. Dermabond). The reasoning was that it could be used for smaller cuts and the wounds so they wouldn't get dirty or infected, and it could be used for utilitarian needs like fixing ripped seams or broken tools in a pinch.

Also, very small. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

The problem is, you have to make sure that the wound is extremely clean before you close it up or you are basically creating an abscess. A closed infection is probably worse than an open one that is able to drain properly.

For larger kits, First Aid Kits, Dermabond is excellent to have. You can have more stuff in there to make sure you can use the Dermabond properly.

For any type of "tin" kit or similar, it is probably best to stick with, pardon the pun, single-use povidone-iodine prep pads, 3M Steri-Strips and 3M TegaDerm dressings. All are flat and fit in "tins" better.
 
hung-solo said:
if you are going into deep wilderness and all you take is an aloids can and a knive, good luck (unless you are trained or have experience in that kind of thing)... reality for most folks isnt the fantasy world of others. to me its just not a real world situation unless you have other stuff to go with it.
Click to expand...

These aren't meant to replace a multi-day survival kit for the woods. You will have all the survival equipment you need when you pack. This is just a 2nd unit that goes in your shirt pocket or pants pocket. If you do get separated from your pack then you have some items that can make the difference. Others prefer bigger belt kits as their 2nd psk as well.
 
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