Here is a shot of my survival 'necklace'. I don't actually carry it around my neck; it hangs on my belt and is suspended in my pants pocket. Because its suspended and held apart with wooden beads, it hangs flat and there is no weight in the pocket. It complements the items I always carry elsewhere, such as my Wave. I have taken components off, and added components endlessly over the last year, but this is my final result...I think.

-brass Taylor compass

-a mini bic with the gas lever blocked open with a section of plastic zip tie, heat-shrink wrapped together with a piece of rounded hacksaw blade (striker)

-Fox whistle

-heat-shrink wrapped shortened ferro rod

-Columbia LED mini light

-Vic Classic

-two feet of 550 paracord

1. Why did you do whatever you did to the Bic?
2. What's a ferro rod?
3. What's a vic classic?
4. I keep seeing all this paracord.... but can't seem to figure out what exactly it would be used for in an emergency?

Thank you for sharing. I happen to be putting together a pocket kit of my own.

Is the heat shrink on the ferro rod to prevent corrosion? That concept is new to me. Please explain. I would think the heat shrink promotes corrosion.

What do the beads do besides hold the items apart? Is that necessary?

How would you be using the 2 feet of paracord? (EDIT: I see the paracord holds everything together.)

Did you mention tinder of some kind? I personally have a hard time starting a fire using a ferro rod if I don't have pre-planned tinder.

Do you not feel the need for a small signal mirror?

Instead of a mini bic, I prefer either of these:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3734
http://countycomm.com/sslight.htm

The heat shrink keeps the rod from clanking against the compass and whistle as I walk. The material is plastic and I have not seen any evidence of corrosion the way I use it. The beads separate and space the various items so they tend to flatten out as they hang in my pocket instead of clumping into a large mass.

When I venture into remote country, I also carry a larger stand-alone belt PSK where I have a Mora Clipper, Fiscars retractable saw, water filter, first aid, tinder, mirror, metal pot, orange double heat sheet and numerous other important survival items to supplement my standard pocket items (food bars, ammo, compass, whistle, lighter, bandana, belt knife, nylon poncho etc.

Everyones kit will be different based on geographic area, personal activities and their assessment of the associated risks. For example, the California contingent on this forum is constanly amazed that I dont carry water or a stove. As other Minnesotans will attest; I simply don't need to carry either for survival. This 'necklace' kit is the bare basics only and small enough that I always have it with me. On a day hike or hunting day trip, it is essential to dress/pack for 36 hours of expected weather(shelter). This might mean carrying an extra sweatshirt or a poncho in the game pouch to fend off frost or drizzle. I have a Leatherman Wave, and a mini cell phone (75% chance of coverage in my area) with me in less remote forest areas like the big 30,000 acre state parks or long forest trails that I am very familiar with. Because some of these trails are made by loggers and circle around, it is possible to get disoriented late in the day. I always mark the dirt or pile rocks at the beginning of loops, but it is still possible to run out of daylight in the fall, and have to hunker down in the woods overnight. I would not use the cell phone to call for rescue first night out unless I was injured. I would just call my wife to tell her not to worry, I will have my campfire to keep me warm that night.

My kit has two ways to make fire (lighter, ferro rod/carbon-steel striker), two ways to signal (whistle, LED light), one means of direction finding (compass), a little saw, a Vic Classic knife with scissors and tweezers etc, and between two and 16 feet of cordage for multiple uses (the paracord when stripped makes 7 two-foot cords plus the two foot nylon sheath).

Please see my response to ireckon. Most of your questions are answered in that post....

To answer the question about the bic I think it's to.
1. Hold the striker hacksaw blade.
2. To keep the bic from going empty of butane when the button is pressed.

Lee

Right, plus the hole in the hacksaw blade provides an attachment point for the lighter.

The point of paracord is that it has thin inner strands which are still quite strong, so 2 feet of it could be disassembled to make around 16 feet in total. Which is a useful quantity.

It can be useful when building shelters, eg to bind supports together. Other kinds of construction, too, such as building traps if you know how to do that. The thread is thin enough to be used as fishing line. It can help keep a dressing in place over a wound. Cord has any number of uses, basically.

Regarding corrosion, I performed an experiment. I put Vaseline on my Swedish Firesteel rod, and slipped a heat shrink sleeve over it. I dunked the whole thing in a cup of salty water, let it sit there underwater for a few days, and then took it out and let it sit for awhile. I took off the heat shrink and didn't observe any corrosion. In fact, the Vaseline was still in tact. I was able to generate sparks from the rod without wiping the Vaseline off. In fact, the Vaseline seemed to promote longer burning sparks, somewhat like the magnesium in mischmetal promotes longer burning sparks.

If you're like me, you can't motivate yourself to spend $27 plus shipping for one Exotac STRIKER. So, there you have a poor man's solution for protecting your ferro rod if you so desire. A rubber band helps keep the heat shrink in place and can be tinder/fuel.

I'll tell you one that seems to corrode a 'steel pretty fast- the outgassing/vapors from Weber BBQ grill lighters. Those little cubes seem to be the same thing as WetFire tinder but in bulk and much cheaper. I Filled a small Plano flip top tackle box with the Weber cubes with a firesteel and striker in the last compartment and sealed it up. The chemicals in the Weber cubes caused the Plano to warp to the point that the lid popped off and caused major corrosion to the steel and striker, all in the period of a couple weeks! I repeated the experiment with an identical box, making sure there was no moisture, just to verify it was the cubes, and I got the same result. This tells me some chemical or gas is being emitted from them that's strongly corrosive. Heck, maybe it's simply water coming out but nothing seems damp. I think it's probably best to keep the cubes sealed seperately from the steel. FWIW the cubes still worked just fine.

I thank you for that info. I was at Walmart today about to buy some of those cubes. I'm glad I couldn't find any. I'll stick with the cotton balls and Vaseline/wax. According to my testing Vaseline protects against corrosion.

Well, I don't really want to warn you off of the Webers- they really are fantastic tinder! They light easily (if you crumble a bit of one it will light easily with a steel) and burns for a long time. You just have to keep them wrapped seperately. I do this with cotton & PJ anyway to minimize the mess. Not really a big deal.