Small Survival Kit (pictures)

DOC,

Ok, here is what i found today with the magnifier in the SAK.
Not too good, sorry to say.

I held it to the palm of my hand, 'dialed it in" waited 30 seconds, and didn't feel any heat to speak of, that wasn't a good sign.

Used a piece of news print. It burned it, a little, barely, but again, not enough for actual combustion or even any orange glow.
It was approx. 50°, maybe 5 mph breeze, no more. I protected from the wind, still no dice.
Got out the placebo, my 3" diameter magnifying glass. POOF less than 10 seconds newprint was ablaze.

Before reaching any conclusion, I'll nee to try some charcloth, which I'll have to make. So far, not promising, at least in November with the lower sun angle. Perhaps in the summer, maybe.

As far as raking leaves....more like grind them up with the riding tractor.
If they are left alone, they will kill the lawn. Once they've been rained on, they are like wet plastic glued to the ground, the wind won't lift them.
We don't get that same dry cold air up there as you do. We still have humidty , rain and such. Our leaves turn color and drop, but instead of being dry and brittle, they can be rubbery and flexible. We have had barely any frost thus far.
 
Again, the idea is to have your main pack/day pack and all your goodies with you, but, should it get swept downriver, or when your canoe overturns, or you get sepearted/lost from base camp, you want at least the basics to fallback upon.
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I see, now I more fully understand the purpose for this kit, having something in case your separated from your gear is always a good idea. In that case I might just go for a better folding knife (mostly a stronger lock), something that could take a pounding if you needed it to, like a benchmade Stryker or if money isn’t as much of an issue a Bradley Alias I (Titanium Monolock, doesn’t get tougher) it may be better to have a longer blade folding knife for versatility rather than a smaller blade fixed knife, if carrying length is an issue.

a small saw is handy, but whittling / breaking does work well with a smaller knife and I do it more than chopping (I usually use a Nimravous M2 in the woods) and a knife with better edge holding / better blade geometry and a more comfortable handle will make all tasks easier. Also in my experience its essential to be able to split some size of wood by battoning, mostly for making bow drills, getting to dry wood, etc. and I think one of these knives (benchmade or bradley) would hold up to pounding whereas a typical lock back wouldn’t.

I guess all I'm really saying is that the knife in any kit, as its most essential part, whether it is folding or fixed, should be the best it can be. first and foremost it should be strong, comfortable, have a utilitarian shape, and able to take and hold a good edge. Might I also suggest a small sharpener (like a Spyderco double stuff or a small hard Arkansas) as a knife that’s not sharp isn’t much good either.

For the light I too agree with Doc, something with a longer burn time is preferable. I like the Inova LED lights, you can get them at target. The multi-led one that takes the 3v lithium battery is great, the battery’s shelf life is like 10 years, so you wont be stuck with a dead battery when you need it most because you forgot to replace it, it runs a long time on one battery too. I might omit the other lights you have, for survival all you should need is that light, no need for high candlepower, useful light so you can see what your doing and maybe some signaling, but mostly long burn time is important. P.S. good choice on the lacquer dipped matches, I love those. Happy wheelin'
 
oh i forgot to mention, looks like you have a good fire kit, but just for your consideration (possibly for bigger kits) the Strike Force flint / steel with there tinder that stores in the handle is a great combo, lasts much longer than a comparable size container of matches, and it does a really amazing job of lighting stuff thats mostly dry (even small curly wood shavings)
 
For my medium kit I use a very large Mischmetal/fero (flint) rod.
1/2" cylinder x 4 inches long.
Probably good for 50,000 strikes. or more. I match a piece of chainsaw file to it for striking. Makes tons of meaty sparks. This combo won't ever wear down in my lifetime. The file also serves to grind off magnesium flakes, which will light and burn even when wet.

The thing they could improve on the strike force and other fero-rods is decent length to develop as much hi-temp spark as possible. Then with length, it's got to be stout enough to not break.

I'm not just starting off, and hoping that I don't have to spend much, if at all adding equipment. I have most of my equipment, just re-organizing and rearranging it into proper kits.

If anything, I am more guilty of having too much redundant equipment.

Thanks for the thought and info.
 
ninjajoe said:
cool flint systm, do you have a source for those rods?
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NinjaJoe. I am a big dummy. why?
A while back, I searched the net, for "Flint" , "rods" , "sparkers" and all that sort of stuff.
Finally found the large 1/2" diameter x 4" fero rods. ordered one.

Now, here is why I am a dummy. I can't find the place anymore.
I think it had "Expedition" in it's name. hiking and adventure supplies.
It was in Northern California, if memory serves.

I saw similar rods at HoodsWoods for like $30.
I think i got mine for $16 or so at this place i speak of.

I will keep looking. But, I apologize to everyone for losing the source.
They were good to do business with too, shipped right out, item had a good picture, and it arrive even better than i expected.

It was by no means one of the larger more recognized places, smaller and a little more obscure. Not stocked to the gills, had more of the basics, but onyl seemed to carry high quality.

What a dummy.

If i find it I'll save it and tell everyone.

here it is:
BK1andBigFero.jpg
 
YOU DA MAN!!!!!

Give NinjaJoe a Cigar!!!

$16, thats it. You can see in the pic how big and stout it is,
truly a fero-rod that could last decades.

Also ,to emphasize, using a metal file, with all of it's texture makes an impressive spark shower each pass.
I use a round chainsaw file, cut down to length. just put it in a vice and "snap it" where you want.

thank NinjaJoe!
 
I know you're not planning on having to use the kit for long periods of time but I would like to suggust something to help deal with the mental factor; if space isn't a concern then a small puzzle book would help take your mind off the situation. Otherwise just something random like maybe a mini-rubix cube or... i don't know.. but I think that no matter how physically prepared or well equipped you might be, too many people overlook the mental challenge of severe isolation. Just something to think about :-)

EDIT: also, I don't think anyone's mentioned
  • a compact mirror yet; for signalling, checking your hair, etc.
  • whistle
  • "second-skin" - if you're mainly using the kit as a backup for camping trips etc, this stuff will help greatly with blisters. I've used it in the past and it really does make small to medium blisters walkable on. yup.

but all-in-all the kit you've got looks good to me.
 
I love these kind of threads! Like most of you, my survival kit(s) are in a constant state of flux.

SkunkWerX said:
If anything, I am more guilty of having too much redundant equipment.
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This is not necessarily a bad thing; every kit I have has at least the basics: something sharp, something to tie stuff together, a compass, a few bandaids and something to start a fire with. The idea is, if I lose my pack, I still have those things on my belt, in my pocket, in a jacket pocket, etc.

DOC-CANADA said:
It also creates a positive mental incentive to survive - it was a gift from my daughter and it serves to remind me why I need to.Doc :)
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:thumbup: Commercial kits obviously don't address this, but even the Army manuals place high priority on "The Will To Survive". This can include personal faith, pics of your family, a sentimental object, even gold-dang righteous pissed-offedness.

It may sound stupid to some, but my earring serves this purpose for me. It's one of a pair, my woman wears the other one. All I have to do is touch my earlobe, know it's there, and I think of my girlfriend and our kids. Don't need anything more than that to keep my spirit going... even if I'm just having a crappy shift at work :)

P.S. a coworker and I were talking about the "Survivorman" show where he tries out a magnesium firestarter. I've used them before, my only complaint was, it's such a pain to scrape the shavings. My buddy said, "The guy has a multi-tool, wouldn't the file work better to scrape off some shavings?" Talk about a "Doh!" moment. Brought my Coughlan's mag bar into work, he brought his Leatherman, we tested it, sure enough, it works great. Main thing is, you don't have to worry about dulling your knife... magnesium is pretty tuff stuff. (mag wheels, helicopter frames, etc.) Pretty much convinced me to get a Leatherman, lol.

If you don't want to carry a Leatherman, but you have a knife with serrations, use the "notch" closest to the handle, right on the corner of the magnesium block, that works pretty good too, and still saves the main edge.
 
Which is why I use a file!!

-The round file makes much better sparks, lots of little nubs hitting the fero rod.
-The file makes better texture shavings to ignite.
-The file saves your blade.
-The file is another tool, can be used to file a notch in wood, like if you are making a fig.4 trap or snare trigger.

However, if the sales job on files hasn't swayed you, or you don't want another thing to carry, cut some grooves/serrations in the spine of a knife, like little saw teeth, and use them to shave off magnesium, and also for striking. You can do so with a dremel tool and those little abrasive cutting wheels.

I never gave it any thought, but you are right, suriviorman NOT using the file is a case of "old knowledge" engrainment. Years ago they said, "shave off magnesium with your knife" , but that was well before the leatherman era.
 
yup yup yup :) Like you said about grooves on the spine... I used to have a USAF pilot's knife, the "sawteeth" on the back were a bit too coarse to use as you suggest, but I get your point. If a person were to make a blade out of a file and leave the teeth on the spine as I've seen a couple times, presto! They would be more a lot more useful than the usual sawteeth you see, like you said about cutting nice notches etc.
 
I find that the striker on the strike force does a great job of shaving off magnesium. It’s sort of got a burr on the edge (a little bit like a cabinet scraper) that is sharp but durable. I tried the chainsaw file technique (with the strike force's 2" by 1/2" rod instead of skunkwerx's 4 by 1/2) anyway, impressive amount of sparks indeed, but the striker on the strike force seemed to put out larger and longer lasting sparks, albeit fewer, but this seemed to catch the tinder better, as the individual sparks would sit in the bundle longer
 
I think the bottom line is that it's good quality equipment and gets the job done, for each of us. The first thing I do when I get a peice of gear is test and use it. Just in the backyard. Then, the next level of testing is controlled, planned camping event. After that, it gets the SkunkWerX seal-of-approval and then enters into the "circle of confidence". That truly good, tested gear that you would bring with you to a deserted island.

As far as light goes, the little shaker light is "forever" will never run out of batteries. It may not be the brightest, and you might have to shake it, but it's always going to yield light. No remembering to change batteries, ever.

For the PSK, or Minimalist kit in the beginning of this thread, the BeckerNecker will fit in there, for the fixed blade requirement. Again, I would rather have the Rat-7, but, the assumption is that the Rat-7, Day Pack, and other goodies are lost, or you are far enough separated that it may be overnight until you are re-united with your real stuff.

In reality....I would always try have this PSK on my surplus military equipment belt, along with a Fixed blade.

It's evolving.
Still working on the mini-first aid kit, and the food procurement part. (some metal wire for snares and fish-hooks, etc).

Space is getting tight, so, might have to re-organize, re-prioritize, and continue consolidating.
 
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