I've studied Doug's evaluation of personal survival kits enough to have an idea of what is a good or poor survival kit. What I got out of it is, it takes more than just quality items to make a good kit, a good kit must have all the right items. Over the past few years I have seen kits with a lot of stuff but the quality was not there. Just recently I came across the Deluxe Survival Kit and it does not fit with anything I have seen before. All of the items in this kit would probably be rated as "Excellent." However, this kit covers two areas: fire and signaling. It also addresses shelter to a point.

How does one judge a kit with such quality items but lacks so much?

Jeanette Isabelle

Not really a "kit" IMO, they just threw a couple of their own product in a blown mold box.

Pretty big and heavy (1 lb!) too, for only 5 items.

Overblown hype. I have a Blast Match - rarely used because it is so heavy compared to such items as a Mini Bic or plain old matches. At one pound, it is incredibly heavy.

You can do better or just as well going lighter and cheaper. You can even include some first aid, shelter, and water purification items.

Just because there are several "excellent" items does not mean the kit is rated excellent. There are many areas this kit does not address.

At best I would rate it marginal - weight being the first criteria.

I know. I already said that.

Jeanette Isabelle

That kit is all container and no kit . . I've got one, save your money.

JI,
That is a good kit for what it is, they make excellent products.

I look at a kit to address 10 areas, but that number depends on how you categorize things. These are the areas I want covered:
SECURITY - protect you from predators.
MEDICAL - repair/maintain body.
SHELTER - protect you from mother nature.
WATER - obtain/make safe/carry
FIRE - to make fire when desired
TOOL - construct what you need; maintain/repair what you have
REFERENCE - protable memory
COMMUNICATIONS - to communicate with others
NAVIGATION - to help you see where you need to go
FOOD - to maintain nutrition

They are organized, depending on your situation, of what can kill you the quickest. These are the physical parts of the kit, your mindset, experience and behavior complete your kit.

Walking off cliff will kill you as quickly as a bear attack...

You don't always need every item of kit or every kit on an outing, but you don't know til it's over.

hth - ymmv

An area I have discussed with a friend recently is something specifically for barter or bribe, especially when in other countries.

... and yet, another edit: here are some photos of how to mod a $2 mil surp knife to fit that kit or an altoids tin: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44316389@N03/sets/72157623604443459/

They appear to be out of sequence and it looks like you need to cut and paste the address.

It looks like decent products if you like that particular stuff. I prefer to buy items individually so I can use stuff without the consequence of breaking up a pretty kit. Also, can you honestly say each one of these items would be your preference if you bought individually?

It's not that. I was looking at different kits for ideas for a custom kit and I came across this one which is so different from the others.

Jeanette Isabelle

As a survival kit as its self with no adding or changing anything in it I would rate it poor. My Survival kit weights 2 pounds 11 ounces (Im sure many would yell out yikes at that) But it covers every single angle and more with redundancies and spare items for an ideal two person situation. This kit barely covers anything and already weights 1 pound which is not impressive.

A chainsaw style handsaw weights alot more then a folding saw (Coghlans makes a tiny model that is about the size of a leatherman kick =D) and is most likely the bulk weight. Even without a saw I would prefer that dead metal weight in a nice blade. I honestly think even for its quality a cheap folding saw beats it. Which sounds easier? Using one hand with slight pressure in a back and forth motion or two hands with a ton of pressure in a rolling back and forth motion?

The second heaviest item would be the blast match, a gimmick in my opinion, and can easily be replaced with a spark light which in my opinion is a excellent product more worth purchasing. Wetfire isnt impressive to me either. I purchased their titanium triad stove that comes with a piece of it, the foil pouch it was in was worn out and riddled with holes (OUT OF THE PACKAGE!) and the wetfire refused to light with anything including a jetflame lighter.


Overall I think its all gimmickie as with most of their products.