Necessity has caused me to assemble a new mini EDC Personal Survival Kit, please review it and feel free to provide comments.

About a year ago my old cell phone packed it in and I acquired a Sanyo 7050 Mil Spec (shock/vibration/dust) flip phone. It is a tough little phone with good range but I find the sound quality only marginal.

I needed a new belt pouch for my phone and bought a Nite-ize Clip-Case, it has a few built-in pockets and a magnetic closure. I was very pleased with the case but the phone sat too far into the pocket, so I figure I had to build up the bottom of the pouch with something?

I also had the problem of where to carry my Altoids Tin Personal Survival Kit, especially when I was not wearing a jacket with pockets. I also did not want to draw attention to the kit, as I would if I carried it in a seperate belt pouch.

So I created a bare minimum mini survival kit in a 35mm black plastic film canister and fitted it into the bottom of the cell phone pouch. All other tools visible on the pouch are also black so it looks like I just have a larger (older) cell phone.

When the pouch is fully loaded with gear it looks like this:



In the pockets of the pouch are found the following items:



Clockwise from left.
- Survival instructions on waterproof paper (Thanks D.R.)
- Thin plastic mirror sheet
- Sanyo 7050 cell phone
- Eze Lap diamond Knife Sharpener
- Gerber STL 2.0 Folding Knife with paracord figure-8 knot to aid removal.
- Mini-PSK in 35mm film canister (contents discribed below)
- Slim Bic lighter
- Safety pin
- P38 Can opener

The mini PSK in the 35mm plastic film canister contains the following items:



1 - Bison aluminum whistle (shortened) with ferrocium rod epoxied on back side
2 - Carbon hacksaw blade with sharpened end
3 - 5 Windproof/waterproof matches with striker strip, in plastic bag
4 - 15mm 4x plastic magnifying glass
5 - 2 Cotton balls impregnated with antibacterial ointment, in plastic drinking straw
6 - Piece of wax fire-starter (Coghlins)
7 - 1 Cotton ball (to stop rattling noise)
8 - Single edged razor blade, wrapped in 4m of upholstery thread
9 - 2 Needles, magnetized with north-end indicated
10- 12 Fish hooks (very small to medium size)
11- Swedish fishing jig
12- 4 Split shot fishing sinkers
13- Inova LED light (2 power levels plus strobe)
14- Compass (1cm dia.)
15- Pen refill for SAK Signature
16- Handcuff Key
17- 35mm plastic film canister wrapped with: 4m of heavy seatbelt thread, 15m of 15lb mono fishing line, 20m of 50lb Spectra line and 8m of 30lb stainless steel wire
18- 35mm plastic film canister lid with plastic mirror glued inside
19- 1m of electrical tape (to wrap around outside of film canister)

These items are packed very tightly in the canister and I expect to open it only when I really must.

This kit is ment to supplement my normal EDC (knife, multitool, lighter, whistle, compass, etc) that is scattered about my person. It is reassuring though to know that this little kit is always there when needed and over the past 6 months of carry, no one has commented on it yet.

Hope this mini EDC personal survival kit has given you some ideas.

Mike

Handcuff key ????

A handcuff key is always good to carry,,,,,,,

Not that I carry mine from my old USCG MLEBO (Maritime Law Enforcement Boarding Officer) days, all of the time!!!!!!

I don't disagree with you as I have a spare one on my personal key ring also ... but why in a PSK ?

I thought that key would raise a question?

In my line of work having a spare pen and handcuff key can prevent very embarassing and potentially career limiting situations.

Mike

I prefer to keep my handcuff keys concealed, not on my key ring, as that is the first place a suspect in custody will look if given the opportunty.

One thing worse than a suspect in cuffs, is a suspect you mistakenly believe is still in cuffs.

Mike

Is that compass reliable? Pretty nice knife BTW, how do you like it?

I have one and it is borderline IMO. Better than nothing.

I'd say very nicely done. I like the way you have modified a lot of this so it fits into your custom case and situation.

I am a little curious about the hacksaw blade. I am apparently too narrow minded to come up with a reason for carrying this. While I can imagine using your saw held in your multi-tool pliers to cut through smaller metal objects, what other ideas have led you to include this?

BTW, your links seem to have "http" in them twice which keeps them from working as easily as they could.

Hi Jim,

I took the compass from a cheap LED/Whistle/Compass combo tool and selected it because of the small size. I checked it and the compass does indicate direction correctly, but it is for only the crudest navigation (e.g. the highway is south of me, which the compass says is that way).

The Gerber STL (stands for Strong, Thin, Light) 2.0 is a handy little knife. It is made of titanium coated 440A stainless steel and locks open reasonably tight although I would not pry hard with it. It has one hand opening and I find I use it a lot because I usually have it with me. The knife is very small at only 3/16th of an inch (5mm) in thickness. It retails for $13.00 to $16.00, but every couple of months they go on sale at Canadian Tire for 50% off. This is the knife I usually use when I am in public instead of my Spyderco "Waved" Endura or Leatherman TTi as the larger tools tend to freak people out.

I first learned of this knife on the ETS Forum when it was mentioned by Billym here for inclusion in a DR/AMK PSK.

Mike