Like a lot of folks here, I’m working on my own versions of mini-kits, tobacco tin size and larger. I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from this site and this forum.<br><br>Looking at Doug’s “Mini” kit, one thing that I wasn’t crazy about was the pencil. I had no idea where to get one like it (golf shop?), it seemed unnecessarily bulky (well, compared to the size of the container, anyway), and I’m not crazy about the idea of having to use one of the craft knife blades, with no handle, to sharpen it before writing.<br><br>Some time ago I simplified my life a bit by buying a silver pen designed to live in a wallet fold; I bought mine from the Herrington catalog, but here’s a good picture:<br><br>http://www.styluscentral.com/walletpen.html<br><br>There’s no real mechanism, it’s just telescoping silver tubes with a clip, but it does keep me from wondering whether I should take a pen with me on the weekends, and for that alone it’s been worth it.<br><br>With luck, this might make storing a writing implement in the kit redundant, but you never know.<br><br>When I ordered it, I also ordered a pack of three refills. It turned out that the pen came with a spare anyway, so I have four. The literature calls them “a stock size refill available from your local stationer”. These things are 2 and 5/8 inches long, and perhaps a tenth of an inch in diameter.<br><br>Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t find it uncomfortable to write (briefly) with the refill alone, but if you do, you could increase the diameter for comfort by wrapping it with something useful- thread, fishing line, or tape. Perhaps the tip could be protected with a bit of the Teflon tubing- not sure.<br><br>I suppose it’s possible that a pencil might write under some conditions where the pen won’t, but then I find that a pen has more contrast and is easier to read under more conditions. Eraseability is not a factor, since the pencil doesn’t have one either. All in all, this seems like a satisfactory compromise that frees up a little space, where space is very precious.<br><br><br><br>

I use Space Pen refills in my kits (just the refill).<br><br>

I think the pencil was chosen because you could write on a peice of granite rock or bark or something... its a lil harder to do that with a pen. just take a normal pencil brake most of it off and sharpen both ends so its rather small but not too small. u can shave peices of it off to make it smaller or shave some to make tinder... you never know.<br><br>

I get my pencils from the Putt-Putt courses. They are already sharpened and "free" when you play a round. I usually pick up a few of the dropped pencils along the course at the same time so bring home a couple. Have one in every kit. For larger kits, they make a great place to wrap some duct tape around.<br><br>

The little stubby pencils are easy to find. I've seen them in fast food places (Whataburger, Kentucky Fried Chicken come to mind), among others, to fill in cards. I had to pad the point anyway, so after using a piece of tubing for a while, I stuck a small sharpener on it and held it on with masking tape. It adds a little bulk, but still fits nicely in the kit, and will write on the Nalgene and Rite-in-Rain paper. And the price was right.<br><br>

This wallet pen idea is great. You put something useful in a handy unused space in your wallet (the fold) and it is always with you and it is not jumbling around in your front pocket. It doesn't even increase the bulk of the wallet. Now that's a good idea.<br><br>Even better, a small magnesium firestarter like the Military Match from Done Right Manufacturing like Doug carries on a key ring would also fit in that space. Now you have a firestarter on hand even when you don't have your kit with you.<br><br>I know one of you guys posted about carrying a lighter flint in your wallet, but this seems like a more robust solution. Seal it in some shrink tubing and add a pocket clip from a mechanical pencil and clip it to your wallet.<br><br>

>>This wallet pen idea is great. You put something useful in a handy unused space in your wallet (the fold) and it is always with you and it is not jumbling around in your front pocket. It doesn't even increase the bulk of the wallet. Now that's a good idea.<<<br><br>It is, I wish the execution were a little better. As I said, it's just two telescoping tubes (hard to describe), no mechanism. That's not a big problem, but when you show it to someone, they invariably pull the whole thing apart trying to "retract" it. It's also a fairly expensive solution, in Sterling silver. Still, if I lost it, I'd immediately order another.<br><br>>>Even better, a small magnesium firestarter like the Military Match from Done Right Manufacturing like Doug carries on a key ring would also fit in that space. Now you have a firestarter on hand even when you don't have your kit with you.<<<br><br>As I mentioned in another thread, I carry a P38 can opener in my wallet, and it makes an excellent striker, aside from opening cans.<br><br>I would think that model would be a little thick in most wallets. We know that the ferro-cerium (sp?) rods come as thin as one eighth inch (as in the Permanent Match, yet another thread), and there was a discussion in another forum where someone claimed to have replaced the blade in the Victorinox Swiss Army knife little screwdriver, the one that screws into the corkscrew, with a rod this thin. I find that sort of interesting- now you've got a knife and fire, the first two items on my list, in one package.<br><br><br>

The Military Match is a 1/4" megnesium rod 2-1/2" long with a 1/8" artifical flint rod bonded along side it. I tested something of equal size in my wallet and it fit into the cavity at the fold very nicely without adding bulk. <br><br>I like the fact that it isn't just the flint, but includes the good magnesium tinder. Without the magnesium, you would have to improvise spark-catching tinder which would take precious time, especially in wet weather.<br><br>The pen would probably be far more useful on a daily basis, but the fire could be a life saver.<br><br>I agree, the flint with SAK idea is pretty good. Makes you wonder why SAK doesn't manufacture it that way. They have every other conceivable "tool" including some pretty questionable ones such as the orange peeler.<br><br>

I actually wrote an e-mail to Victorinox a couple of years ago, suggesting that they make a flint strip available as a replacement for the toothpick (which most people lose, and which IMO is useless). They wrote back saying that several other people had suggested this (so we're not alone) and they had considered it but didn't think it was commercially viable, or some such.<br><br>So yes, it's been suggested, and yes, they've considered it, but no, they're not going to do it. :-(<br><br>Does anyone have any idea where I could get a flint rod that would fit in the toothpick slot of a SAK anyway? Or would it be too brittle to be functional? (The toothpick is a metal rod, about 3/32" in diameter and a bit over 2" long.)<br><br>

>>So yes, it's been suggested, and yes, they've considered it, but no, they're not going to do it. :-( <<<br><br>Sounds like the SOS option on the Photon lights... :-(<br><br>You might be interested in this bit of conversation I copied from a survival kit discussion on : http://pub14.ezboard.com/fwildernesssurv...topicID=6.topic<br>___________________<br>"For me it's my SAK Huntsman on a neck sheath from Normark. He made one for everyone who went on the Hood's June trip. I epoxied a button compass on mine. (Remove the knife and take your bearing.) I also modified my corkscrew to accept a 1/8" sparking rod and a spiral handle from one of SAK's 'glasses screw drivers'. This is hanging around my neck from 550 cord, though I should have a break away section so that I don't strangle myself....."<br>_____________<br><br>The toothpicks are actually pretty flat; this might be a better solution. Yes, I would be concerned about the brittleness of a small-diamter ferrocerium rod, even the big ones sometimes break. You could cut a groove into the handle scales with a riffler or Dremel, and glue the rod into the handle for a backing, but then you'd need a striker other than your knife blades.. not good.<br><br>All of my Victorinox knives seem to have too much magnetic attraction for the compass trick, if I'm reading it right (maybe he epoxied the compass to the neck sheath?)- and the smallest half-inch compass I have seems too thick, even if you drilled the handle scale and inlet it.<br><br>There's certainly a temptation to combine the big three- knife, fire and compass- but it's worth noting that the commercial attempts to combine even two tend to be lousy.<br><br><br>