The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Amigo, hope ya pain eases soon. In the spirit of the holiday season I shall repost this as a gift-............................................................Man, when I first read this I was hot to respond. I didn't because I'm on pain meds (4 kidneys stones lasered and removed) and I'm sure I wouldn't be too coherent, maybe still not, but here goes.I disagree with the above statement wholeheartedly. PSK's can indeed be worthwhile, in fact, even life saving, but let's look at the context. My definition of a PSK is a last ditch, redundant source of equipment, duplicating things that you already carry - the old "two is one, and one is...." In fact, my thought is they should be sealed in some way as to not be used frivolously- they should only be employed when there are no ready alternatives. ROCK6 makes the point that water containers and shelter are impossible to carry in a PSK, and I agree totally, almost. But to me, fire and shelter are not mutually exclusive and a small psk can provide you with a quick source of flame. I can make fire with a bow drill and a hand drill, and I've unraveled the thread from the bottom of a pair of jeans and corded it successfully for the bow string, but it's sure a lot faster with a ferro rod and a fire straw. I know this doesn't solve the bigger fuel issues, but most times that doesn't require a big blade or an ax, at least not where I live. And sometimes, a big fire is all the shelter you need.Also quite often when improvising a shelter, a little cordage (100 plus feet of jute in the pouch), another little bit in the can and the snare wire) can go a long ways - forget about making snares or fishing line for a short term stay as pointed out by pitdog. Would I rather have a tarp or a poncho, sure, but this is a stop gap measure when you don't have those things. Direction finding? We can determine direction by shadow stick, shadowless stick and equal shadow techniques, not to mention, Polaris, Cassiopeia (sp?), Orion etc. at night, but it sure is a lot faster using a very small magnet compass, probably 6 of which you can fit on a dime.So with this little kit (seen here), I can use it to aid in making a shelter, make fire much faster than with friction fire techniques, determine direction, and even the little safety pins could be useful to temporarily repair a necessary article of clothing in cold weather. I even added a few small waterproof cards to remind me of things like ground to air signals, which I can never remember for some reason.What more can you ask for out of a kit, smaller than an Altoids can?DocCoincidentally, my buddy Phil and I are planning a video of disecting a PSK, demonstrating the uses of the article contained within and demonstrating alternative techniques using only natural alternatives (eg. using Hawthorn needles instead of the enclosed steel one).(Hope this is coherent)
Amigo, hope ya pain eases soon. Thank you my friend, it's getting better. In the spirit of the holiday season I shall repost this as a gift- lol, ya bugger......................................................................................................................................................................................................Seriously now for a sec, see that my quote of what you wrote has the paragraphs stripped. I didn't do that it happens quite automatically. I don't know what causes it. It's obviously something client side but it happens irrespective of browser or operating system. Something about how my stuff gets routed out clashes with this forum. I gave up caring a long time ago. No dig at you, but I have said before that I've come to like it because those folks that can't visualize a paragraph break when they see I've put in “...........................” I don't really want responding to me anyway. You can guess as to why I might think like that. 69 74 20 64 6f 65 73 6e 27 74 20 74 61 6b 65 20 73 70 65 63 69 61 6c 69 73 74 20 6b 6e 6f 77 6c 65 64 67 65 20 74 6f 20 63 72 61 63 6b ;-) ….....................................................................To business: My beef with the pocket survival kits is two fold. First and foremost is the ubiquitous Altoids tin as a container. I covered that only recently so unless you specifically want to swap inspirations on that I won't dwell on that here.............................................................................................Here I'm more considering what disadvantage you think my approach to average daily living may have against the typical contents of what we see posted in the Altoids kits they carry day in day out..........................................................When I see the average kit a huge amount of space is given over to fire, typically a lighter and some lumps of wood. Another great chunk of space is given over to a fixed blade “tin knife” that has a tiny blade and a teensy handle. It's probably got a length of paracord in it gobbling space. And the rest is often random stuff that one might find in a handbag....................................................................My no survival kit concept doesn't mean I'm without useful stuff. As a matter of daily living, by which I mean in my scruff and not having to swap out to formal shoes, I've got all sorts of stuff about my person that is useful. I'm not a Gadgets and Gear person but stuff soon piles up............................................................... I carry two phones [phone two has a wafer thin vanity mirror in the bag with it that I've posted pics of before], two torches and two knives just because that's the way I role in 'tacoshire. I always have three lighters on me; one Zippo, one pyromaniac's jet gas thing for the pipe, and a little stumpy peanut on my keyring. I've often got a Clipper as well 'cos like a lot of smokers I have those everywhere and I often trouser one without even realizing I'm doing it.................................................................Then there's the stuff that just accumulates on the keyring; wire for poking up stuff, scissors, snips, that kind of stuff. There's invariably a roll of string in my pocket, probably a couple 'cos what's life without string. I've invariably got a roll of half a dozen bin liners with a rubber band round, not industrial ones just black sacks that when bunched up together only take up the space of a Zippo. I'm in the habit of that for everything from the quick dump of mah electronics to the dog sends on an untimely one............................I've got analgesics about my person amongst the fun stuff and often ranitadine too.........................................................I'm also a big fan of winding duct tape round stuff that can functions as a bobbin, like that jet lighter. …...........................................................................If I go anywhere that stands the remotest chance of being interesting I've usually got a camera. On the strap of that lives an old Leatherman Mirca pouch in which there is enough stuff to light multiple fires, that I'm supremely confident that if something is flammable I can make fire with, again and again. I also wear a watch, plus I know the time from either phone.........................................................................I'm sure there's other stuff too but without going a rooting through the pockets of my coats it will escape listing. The point I'm making is this stuff isn't a kit, it was never designed to be a survival kit, it's just stuff that I find useful in daily living. I think of if more like an adult version of a habit I never grew out of from the short trouser years. Mine doesn't have conkers on a bootlace in it, or magnets, or some other stuff I found entertaining and / or useful when I was small, but conceptually it isn't far estranged from that.....................................................................I'll concede that there are some gaps compared to what I'd have about me if I felt at all at risk. For example I'm now out of the habit of carrying a square of folded up foil in my jackets. I usually have that for the mundane task of knocking up a makeshift dog bowl. I also don't carry water purification tabs in daily living, nor needles, thread, buttons and a bit of beeswax like I have tucked in the back of my FAK. I also don't carry hooks and line in daily living. But just with this everyday clutter that is distributed about my person, and nothing I consider special, I feel hugely advantaged over pretty much every pocket survival kit I've ever seen...............................................................................I don't want to ramble on too much further but some things just seem obvious to me such as those tin knives that have half the blade and half the handle length or the average folder in the name of strength. I think that's terrible swap when it comes to actually using one. And do you remember Spark pinning up a competition not so long back to make something useful from one of those paracord bracelets, I do, crickets! And that's about as much paracord as people manage to squeeze into an Altoids tin............................................Anyway, thoughts on the egg basket vs my whimsical approach?
You have expertise and this topic comes up every so often. Care to expand a bit on why not?
Ha, yeah I saw the vid of you sticking a loop in a line to poke a toggle through in the Becker forum. You're fast. I use a different method that's pretty fast too. 03.blah hrs here so this isn't important but. 1] Rope is vertical. 2] Left hand reaches behind so rope is across wrist. 3] Left hand wax-off across rope above hand. 4] Dive hand down to grab bottom dangling end and pull through...........It's a fairly fluid movement.Despite my affection for my little psk, I would only carry it on a bush trip, not on a day's outing, because, like you, I'm kind of a walking survival kit. I EDC 4 or 5 hanks 0f 550 in approx. 4 and 8 foot lengths (I'm always experimenting with knots, etc), a Spyderco Manix, a Buck Alpha Dorado, a Vic Swiss Spirit, Fenix L2D, Doan fire bar, ferro rod on my keys and other various bits and pieces. Some of this is used in my job as a service technician, but I always carry it with me, working or not. Although it's been almost 60 years since I carried conkers on a bootlace.
If you don't mind, I'd like to hear your opinion on Quick Clot while you're at it.
