Does the kit meet your needs? Is it within your budget? Is a homebrew kit or different prefab kit a better solution to your challenges?

Simplicity itself. I'll tell you what beer or champagne to buy for a given situation, but I will never, in any way, tell you what kit to purchase or what to put into a homebrew kit. You know that much better than I.

It's not really a "personal" survival kit. "Personal" being defined as something that you slp in a pocket. DRSK, Altoids tin kit etc.

This kit is more for use with a car/boat/aircraft based kit. As far as it goes, it is an excellent kit. It needs adding to. Shelter items, waterbottle and something to boil water in but I have - and have used- every item in that kit. My only real concern with it is that the saw requires two hands to use.

If I was building a bail out kit for use on a boat, RV etc then I would give this kit very serious consideration.

I certainly wouldn't place this kit as a "personal" survival kit. There are some nice items, but I wouldn't want to be carrying this in my backpack. Maybe for car camping it would provide a "step up" to some basic gear, with a focus on fire starting.

I'm definitely not a fan of the tinder. I could never get it to light in "scenario" conditions. The Blast Match is not bad, but bulky. Would rather carry a Spark-Lite and its tinder.

That being said, Doug's PSP or PSP+ is a far superior kit from a survival aspect. I used one as the basis of building my own kit.

I personally find that by assembly your own kit, you take a bit more pride and caution in what you put in it. Most of all, you should be familiar with the use of everything you place it in. If you don't know how to use it, why are you carrying it?