This is what I have been using for a pocket kit for a while now. I found an old WWII army officer's soap dish, and thought it would make a great little box to hold some pocket stuff that I didn't want to have clanking around loosely in my pocket. It's steel, with a baked on finish that's fairly tough. In a pinch, you could probably cook in it. I purchased a dozen of these boxes later, ones from the same era and company, only in a navy blue for the Navy officers. A lot of these went to my scouts, and I'm helping them put together their own little kits, and showing them how to use the stuff inside. If I can get them used to carrying it, that will be the real test.
The box is 2 5/8" x 3 3/4", and it's about an inch and a quarter thick. It's a regular slipcase type box, and it's really well made, back when they knew how things were supposed to be made.
I put the Flag on the top, I suppose in some obscure set of circumstances it might be pertinent to survival, but for my purposes, it's a nice way to provide just a little bit of tension to hold things in place and keep things from shifting around inside. There's a half inch foam bobber you can see inside, and outside the outer edge of the lower portion of the box, I wrapped with 1" teflon tape, to add tension between the top and bottom box.
There's a little bundle of 550, but it's not enough to be a shelter building asset, I keep it as a bowstring. It's a stripped-out section about two feet long, and I threaded one end of it back through itself to make a permanent adjustable loop in one end, and the other end is just straight to be able to make any adjustments on the bow. There's a little photon light, I put some adhesive hook side velcro on one side of it, there's a bunch of jute twine for tinder. I like to use jute, because it's never failed me, and I can use it for other things if I need to, and I don't have to keep it in a special container to keep vas goop from getting on everything. I'm not about to dismiss the fantastic properties of greaseballs, but this kit stays in my pocket, and I don't want vaseline melting all over. My trusty ferro rod is in there, and my little BCM button compass.
The little plastic container there has a Sony microvault USB jumpdrive, 20' of fishing line, and a bunch of hooks. An old CASE pocket knife from way back when is still giving service, the white square looking thing is a little spool of kevlar thread, along the bottom edge is the uncle bill's sliver gripper, on the left side is a modified carbide knife sharpener keychain that I use as a striker for the ferro. behind the pocket knife is a little section of hacksaw, as well. The lighter is obvious, and fits just right, and next to that is a fox 40 mini whistle, made even 'minier' by chopping off the excess plastic and trimming a little here and there.
The steel vial has sewing needles and scalpel blades in it, there are a few paraffin cotton ball tinder thigns stuffed into open spaces here and there, The braided wire saw is coiled in there, a safety pin, maybe to pin on that flag...HMMM. Along the side on the top is a bigger hook, a gig type. Below all that is all the flat stuff, a couple of reynolds oven bags, a wet wipe of sting-eze, a couple of alcohol wipes, a fresnel lens, some moleskin, and at the very bottom is a benjamin. You never know.
It was a good time trying to get everything to fit in there like tetris, and after a million tries or so, I think I have a pretty good setup.
