After reviewing this forum and all the great information contained therein, I revised to a small degree my typical 'pocket gear' -<br><br>Much like the 'Don't leave home without it' gear that Doug has listed here, this stuff is in my pocket at all times, other than the necessity of leaving sharps behind if the destination is a commercial aircraft or courthouse...<br><br>Here's what I've decided on:<br><br>Sharps:<br><br>Master Knives 'Negotiator': a production knife made in Tiawan, I've had it for well over a year, and it's given very good service so far; 3.5" blade, thumb stud, aluminum handles with liner lock, a drop-point blade of 3/32" AUS-8 (so marked on the blade). It has a lanyard hole, textured grip, stainless liners and a teflon bearing. It can be disassembled with a allen wrench for cleaning/lubricating. The blade is a bit soft, but no worse than some buck knives I've owned in the past. The cost was about $20 IIRC. It will be replaced one day with a Sebenza, say when my stock options are cashed in. :)<br><br>Schrade Lightweight: This little gem is not really necessary, as I already carry the bigger one-handed knife, but I like it so dang much that it's always with me. The blade is drop-point configuration, thin and approximately 2" long, of 'Schrade +' steel (whatever that is) and has a zytel handle with lanyard hole. It is of the lockback style, with the lock release in the spine of the handle. This little blade came from the blister pack sharp as a scalpel and weighs next to nothing. I think it could be worn on a neck cord and you could forget it was even there. Cost: about $10 at Wally-world.<br><br>Firestarting:<br><br>In the absence of a good, small sparking stick, I have decided on a clear-sided Bic style lighter. It's not ideal, but has worked well in my tests even after being soaked in water and shaken and blown off; so I'm reasonably confident that it will work when needed.<br><br>I'll add a sparking rod when I get around to ordering one, as a backup.<br><br>Light:<br><br>I was lucky and found a Photon-II on sale - it's now on the keychain. I got the red version, as it's estimated life is so much longer, and it should help save my night vision when called into use.<br><br>Signaling, Compass, backup firestarting:<br><br>I have a combo whistle, compass, magnifying glass and Thermometer from Coghlan's - all in all a nice little package, if it initially seems a bit gimmicky. The whistle is sharp and pretty loud (about the same pitch and loudness as a Fox-40 I have), the Compass calibrates well against a good Silva I have, and the magnifying glass, while small, is quite clear, though I have yet to test it's firestarting capability. The Thermometer is probably useless, unless knowing how hot it is in your pocket is important I like the little gadget, and further testing will prove it's worth or prove it needs to be replaced.<br><br>Other:<br><br>The classic P-38 rounds out my kit. I have seen so many uses described for this little hunk of steel it's amazing. It'll open cans, and many other tricks. I wrap a piece of duct tape around mine to protect my skin and pockets. I have considered sharpening one of the edges to act as a reserve sharp, but haven't gotten around to that, yet.<br><br>So, there you have it - enough tools to hopefully be able to assemble shelter, start fires, signal for help should I ever need it, all of which disappear into my pockets and hopefully are fully 'urban camoflaged'... <br><br>Anything I've missed?<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Tristan

Hi Tristan,<br><br>How about some cordage? It's useful stuff; tricky to manufacture in the wild unless you know what you're doing, not always conveniently available when you need it in an urban environment and easy to carry with you nearly always.<br><br>I like woven belts, because they're an instant one-time source of cord, should I ever have sufficient need of it to destroy the belt. Others on the forum have discussed weaving their own belts out of parachute cord, but I haven't gone that far. I just use woven belts bought like any other clothing.<br><br>I have one belt made of woven cords of brown leather. I have another made of woven cords of some strong elastic that are each covered in a black woven sheath of some sort that stretches with the elastic. The leather belt "stretches" just a bit due to its weave, the elastic belt stretches more due to its composition. Either can have the ends cut off, be unraveled and thus provide several strands of cord, which can be tied and/or rewoven together if longer length is needed. It's not parachute cord, but it's cord.<br><br>Another easy way to carry cord just bloomed in my mind; the product, I believe, of a seed planted during another forum thread in which the idea of scavanging one's shoe or boot laces for cordage was mentioned. I agree with those who suggested that secure footwear was of too great a priority to sacrifice your only laces in that way, but...<br><br>I paused in writing this long enough to run to my closet and relace all of my footwear. I took the laces out of one of each of my pairs of shoes & boots and laced it into the already laced matching shoe or boot. It works. With all of the footwear I own, I can thread the holes or eyelets with two laces of the same kind as I am using in them now. I have casual leather shoes, work boots, hiking boots, combat boots, running shoes and dress shoes... each with a different kind of lace (round or flat, thick or thin, leather strips or spun material of some sort, waxed or not). It's a variety, and they all worked.<br><br>The tightest fit was my running shoes, but even they fit. The speedlaces on my combat boots work fine, though loosening them to take them off isn't as automatic as it used to be. Putting them on and tightening them up is just about as easy and quick as ever, though the last two pairs of final non-speedlace eyelets down nearer my toes don't seem to have enough slack to change tension at all anymore. At least in this pair of boots, it doesn't seem to matter at all. This technique even worked securely and easily in the hooks up at the top of my work and hiking boots.<br><br>Note: I had to learn to grasp the laces differently with my fingers, since I needed to pull securely on four ends now, two in each hand. Sometimes, when the laces didn't tighten up identically, I had to figure out which one lace end to pull on to even up the tensions. This took just a bit more dexterity than usual. It's not familiar enough... yet... to be habitual, but it was no big problem, either.<br><br>Tomorrow, I think I'm going to buy some new and extra shoelaces and bootlaces! From now on, all of my footwear is going to carry a spare pair of laces... one for securing them to my feet and one for use as emergency cordage should I ever need it. If I ever find the fit too tight, I suppose I can look around for some slightly thinner laces to replace any that are too thick to fit so well when doubled.<br><br>Thank you all for stimulating the thought, Tristan and everyone who wrote elsewhere regarding laces.

I agree with jet about cordage. I all ways have some string in my pocet, simple bog standerd string nothing fancie and I don't recon it's up to much but with my budgit, it has to do.<br>I carry a opinel number 7 allmost allways (unless I think I really shouldn't be carying a knife at all) as for fire starters I have a bic lighter as well. and some times a box of matches if I'm going some where I think I'm really going to be lighting a fire. <br>I have a mini solertair mag-lite not the best choice I know but once again budgit has interveend oh and I haven't found any where that sells thos photon things. I have a leatherman micra in my pocet aver since I got it for christmas. wich is replaceing the victorianox champ I had befor. I have mini fox forty wich I have yet to file the wings down on.<br>I think thats about it other than my psk wich I've only just started carying agaion because a had a 2 ounce tobaco tin befor and that kind of got on my nerves in my pocet however Iallways caryed it when actuly going in to the countryside or when I was carying a bag of some type. <br>I naow have a much smaller tin even smaller then the one doug has. I got it at a tobaco shop and it's pritty good buit I think it is a bit too small so I';m going to try and get one of theones like dougs. and thast about it. sorry for ranting on about my kit I kniow it's boring. but I would be glad of coments or sergestiuns as well <br>-james

Jet,<br><br>I'm working on the cord belt, but currently I haven't gotten past the problem of the cord getting twisted as it's woven which leads to a very un-even weave. I think the dual shoelaces is a outstanding idea, as is the commercially available cord belts.<br><br>Another idea I've had is to line the bottom of a outdoors jacket or parka with several loops of paracord, tacked down to the lining with stitches or even going to the trouble of opening the lining (for those talented enough with needle and thread) and sewing it into the base of the jacket. My heavy winter jacket is about 5' wide across the bottom, and so four loops would yeild about 20' of usable paracord, six loops would be even better.<br><br>In general, I think a outdoors jacket is ripe for 'upgrades'... button compass added to a zipper pull or on a stretch cord in the inside; hidden pockets added with all the typical gear discussed here (firestarters, tinder, whistle, mirror, etc. etc.) Pull on your jacket and your kit at the same time... Of course this idea isn't original to me, it's just a great idea. <br><br>Thanks for the shoelaces idea, Jet. How about this: fabricate your own shoelaces out of high-strength braided cord which is much thinner than typical laces; if the cord is 1/4 the diameter, use 4x the length and form into 2 complete loops, and use heat-shrink tubing to form the ends. That way, if it's needed, merely popping the tubing off will yeild a length of cord 4x the typical shoelace, without resorting to tying the sections together... I'll have to test this next time I come across some good cord.<br><br>- Tristan

One thing that I have done to carry survival items in my pockets is assemble a MEGA-KEYCHAIN. If I was going to be stark naked and have to run out the door, this would most likely be what I would grab.... It is a jump cord woven key fob (two 3 ft. lengths of jump cord...ends up being about 3 inches long by 1/2 inch dia) with a key ring on each end. One end has the following attached: Leatherman Micra, Suunto zipper pull type compass, Stainless steel "pill holder" (about 1 5/8 inch long by 3/4 inch dia, picked up through Herrington's...marketed as a keychain vial to hold pills or small bottle of nitro...O-ring sealed....NICE) which contains 25 ft. of Spyderwire, $20 bill, copy of driver's license, half dozen assorted fish hooks, 4 split shot, two Spark-Lite fire tinders; Stainless steel keychain butane lighter (2 1/4 in long by 1/2 in thick), Flint key (take blank house key, get pkg of flints used for a Zippo, superglue them end to end in the large groove of key, put shrink tube around to protect, black tape 2 1/2 inch piece of hacksaw blade to it for striker). The keyring on the OTHER end has: Princeton-Tec Blast 2 AAA light (VERY bright for its size, have had and used Photons, etc. just like the light output of this thing), Omega-Pacific whistle (1 7/8 in long, aluminum, a little larger in dia than .22 shell....LOUD), Sears Craftsman 4 way pocket screwdriver (flat, little larger than a quarter...you see some of the old ones with four leaf clover on them), P38 taped for protection, handcuff key, and then, FINALLY about 8 different keys. The entire MEGA-KEYCHAIN laid out is 11 inches long.....but, it does fold up and, surprisingly, is not TOO bulky in a jeans pocket. If it were possible to post a pic on here, I would.<br>Take care, all!

That's a pretty well done keychain!<br><br>I especially like the zippo flints and blank key idea. How does it hold up?<br><br>If the p-38 works to strike sparks, you could do without the hacksaw blade. That could save a bit of space.<br><br>- Tristan

The flint key holds up pretty well for several strikes. I have never put it through a stress test to see how many that it would endure. It would basically be a few-use type of tool to be replaced if ever really used. I came up with the shrink tubing after having an "unprotected" flint key on the keychain, and, after it tossed and turned in my pocket and got banged against everything else, a couple of the individual flints popped off.

that maga key chain sounds pritty good! I have somthing like that in my pocet but nealy as big or compleat. it is a fox forty wistle victorinix champ(soon to be replaced with my lovely new leatherman micra) solertair mag-lite. And a mini bic lighter held in a home made leather sleave. and a very small a adgustible spaner.<br>I like the flint idear.<br>-james

Hey hthomp,<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The entire MEGA-KEYCHAIN laid out is 11 inches long.....but, it does fold up and, surprisingly, is not TOO bulky in a jeans pocket. If it were possible to post a pic on here, I would.<p><hr></blockquote><p>It is possible. The F.A.Q. at http://www.equipped.org/wwwthreads/faq_english.pl tells how. (Click on the link that says, "Can I use HTML in my posts?") If you can post a digital image anywhere on the web, you can just include the URL to it between "image" tags and the picture will show up in your post.<br><br>If you don't have webspace anywhere, but can email me a digital picture, I can put it up on my website and post the image in this thread for you. If you don't have the means to produce a digital photo or scan, but can snail mail me a dead tree photograph or other hardcopy, I can scan that and post the resulting image.

1/8"X 2" ferrocerium rod. Drill small hole (1/16") near one end (Ti coated drill bit). Insert small split ring through hole to attach rod to key ring. That size rod doesn't cost much more than the Zippo flints and it eliminates the worry of the flints coming loose from the key. And it's smaller since the key itself is eliminated. Just my .02. BTW cool the drill bit and ferrocerium rod with water frequently or it will spark like crazy.