Skills vs. Gear

[Quirt]

"Knowledge & Skills are light in the pack and not easily left behind".

 

[DOC-CANADA]

I totally agree with TFin04. This IS a gear forum first and skills somewhere after that. Need proof? Go back over previous pages. A skills thread is lucky to get more than a dozen responses, but if the question is "What do you think of this piece of gear?" you get 5 pages!

For those of you who would like to see more skills, I have a suggestion. First of all, as much as possible, find a consensus of what survival tools should be included in a comprehensive survival kit and then work on it item by item to come up with an alternative that can be made in the bush, or skills/techniques that could be substituted.

Doc

 

[TFin04]

I totally agree with TFin04. This IS a gear forum first and skills somewhere after that. Need proof? Go back over previous pages. A skills thread is lucky to get more than a dozen responses, but if the question is "What do you think of this piece of gear?" you get 5 pages!

And I'm not saying its necessarily a bad thing, as this is a free country and people can do what they please, it was just an observation I've made.

I've been trying to increase my skills which gives me the ability to reduce my gear. It doesn't mean I still wont carry something, it means that I can survive without it if it breaks, is lost, etc.

I also think a great sub-topic was brought up:

Knowledge vs. Skills

There are many things I know how they are accomplished, but I haven't done them myself. Trap making, certain types of shelters, etc are some of those for me. I need to practice those tasks more.

I posted a similar thread a while back called "The Rules of 3's" which outlined a lot of these same thoughts. It focused on the different types of skills you need, and how to accomplish them three different ways.

I got a few responses from guys who like to better their skills, but quickly died and has not been brought up.

Now a post about my new JK knife will bring pages. Maybe that's because John's work is just simply too cool not to talk about.