I thought it was time for another one of these, since i'm guessing most peoples edc items changed after the Holidays.

Here is mine:


At the top is my money belt which holds;
1. Two feet of paracord
2. An alchohol pad
3. Spare house key
4. P-38
5. Handcuff pick

Then there is:
1. My Samsung SCH-A670 camera phone
2. Surefire E1E-HA with KL1 LED head (excellent flashlight)
3. Leatherman Charge Ti
4. Leather belt case with Charge Ti bits
5. Keychain with Photon II, Dougs Flat Fox 40, and a Permanant match
6. Keys with T&co Silver whistle and BSA Hotspark
7. Tissot Titanium T-Touch watch
8. My high school ring (nice and heavy)
9. pocket shove-it style tool (door bypass tool)
10. Bright yellow bandana
11. Wallet with Swisscard Lite
12. Badge wallet with tinder card (also holds the shove-it)

If I plan on going out into the woods I also carry:
1. A Benchmade fixed blade (210 Activator or Nim Cub)
2. A bright orange bandana (with the yellow)
3. A Nalgene bottle hung off a climbing carabiner
4. A BSA compass case that holds:
-my altoids size survival kit
-a large size plastic bag
-a signal mirror
-3 small pieces of fatwood
-2 batteries for the Surefire (123 size)

-Cell Phone
-Wallet
-Benchmade Griptilian (modified sheepsfoot)
-Mini Zippo
-Ketchain with car, house, work keys and two Princeton Tec Pulsars.
-Keychain with Princeton Tec Blast, Silva Companion Compass, ACR Whistle, Bison Designs Capsule with 15 potable aqua tabs.

Day to Day

Belt (inside)
Space blanket
Trash bag
30 feet 100lb test braided nylon
Handcuff key

Belt (outside)
Leatherman in horizontal pouch
Pepper spray attached to pouch (ASP key Defender)

Pockets
3” sheath knife
Surefire flashlight
SAK
Two Bandanas sewn together
Rugged Steel Pen

Other
PSK in hollow Kobuton attached to keys
Boot Laces replaced with 550 cord
Cane (I don’t really need it, but it’s very comforting sometimes.)

Jan Itor: I think the forum rules prohibit such entries as "3 inch sheath knife." I think you're obligated to give the make (or maker) and model of the knife. ;-}

My EDC for the past few months has been:

Left wrist
- Timex Expedition
- Suunto Clipper

Waistband
- Leatherman Sideclip

Left pocket
- Modified and augmented AMK Pocket Medic in a sewing pouch
- Victorinox Trailmaster (standard, not one-hand opening) on a lanyard

Right pocket
- Modified and augmented Ritter PSP in a sewing pouch
- bandanna
- Benchmade Griptilian, large
- Streamlight Keymate with BSA Hot Spark on the clip

Shoes
- 6 feet of black paracord (each) for laces

Keyring
- car and house keys
- BSA Hot Spark
- Bison Spy Capsule, small, with cotton tinder
- Photon II, red
- Jet Scream whistle
- CMG Sonic AAA LED flashlight, white

In my shoulder bag, I also carry:

- wallet (with bandaids and triple antibiotic cream)
- checkbook
- cellphone
- digital recorder
- Palm M105 PDA
- spare eyeglasses
- spare personal meds
- plastic toothpick
- small comb
- 2 Purell sanitizing hand towels
- Cricket miniature butane ligher
- round mirror
- bullet space pen
- 6 3 x 5 in index cards
- small Case lockback
- Spyderco 6 in ceramic hone
- Photon II, green
- Victorinox Trailmaster (yes, this is the second one)
- Moore Medical Fast Aid booklet
- PSK in an Altoids tin
- 50 ft OD paracord
- heavy-duty carabiner
- 25 ft mason's twine, white, braided
- Kel Tec P3AT with extra clip

That's the stuff on my person or real handy throughout the day. It's senselessly redundant in places, but I don't mind it too much. The weight doesn't bother me, and I like having all my toys with me.

Though it wasn't a survival emergency, the power was out at work yesterday. Guess who had enough flashlights to lend out so people didn't have to use the bathrooms in the dark? Guess who had an alcohol burner and pot to make coffee? Guess who had gaffers tape to hold open the locks on several key doorways?

Bear

Forgot I do that with my boots and shoes too.

Here's mine:

• Wallet with paper money, credit cards, photo ID.
• Victorinox Rambler knife.
• Smartphone: SE P900.
• Comb.
• Handchief.
• House & car keys. (The following items are on the same key ring...)
• LED torch Photon Freedom.
• Parachord 550, 2x1m, plaited down to 10cm.
• Whistle, modified Fox 40 extreme.
• Capsule with sparklight tinder and lighter flint sub-assembly.
• Compass, Silva.
• Safety pins, 2 small, 1 large.

That is much less than many other people here carry, but I am pretty happy with it. Here are some further notes on my choices, including frequency of use.

The photo ID in the wallet is a relatively new EDC. It's much less important here in the UK than in America. I don't carry coinage - that's in my waist-pack. I probably use my wallet a few times a week. I generally have between £0 and £100 for casual spending, and a £100 reserve which I keep separate and try not to spend.

The Rambler is very small, but it has both blade and scissors, both flat and philips screwdriver. It has all my core every-day needs covered, and has nothing I don't need. No cutical pushers or orange peelers. It's the only Victorinox I really like. You can't improve on it without getting much bigger and heavier. I've read of people using the RSK for opening packages, but that seems like over-kill to me. My Rambler gets used several times a week, usually as knife or scissors, occasionally for swapping a card on a PC.

I love my phone. It can connect to WAP or WEB, download maps or other information. I keep a score or so of eBooks on it for entertainment. It keeps references and todo lists. A few games. Daily use.

The handchief is for blowing my nose. The comb is for taming my unruly hair. Neither is carried as a survival tool.

The Photon LED is the one with all the modes. It's new; previously I carried a Photon II but the switch on that became unreliable and the battery died. I keep the Photon in "flash" mode, hoping that will prevent it sticking in on. If I knew how to return it to its factory time-out mode, I would. It gets used several times a week.

I plaited the parachord myself, using a knot I found referenced a while back in this forum. I am pleased with the result. It acts as a fob for the entire key ring. It is cut in 2 lengths because that is what the knot requires. I read here that 1m is about the most useful length if it has to be cut. I've never actually used the chord, though.

I bought a bunch of Fox 40 whistles and the Extreme was the loudest. It's also a bright orange, which makes the whole key chain easier to find. I've never had to use it.

For fire-starting I have extracted the wheel and flint sub-assembly from a cheap cigarette lighter. The result is like a Sparklite, but it is only about half an inch long and metal. And not as good - not so many sparks and I can't use it one-handed. It struggles with cotton wool. I keep it in a capsule with a (genuine) Sparklite tinder tab, and it can light that OK. If I need more than one fire (maybe 2, if I cut the tinder in half), I'm stuffed. This reflects my priorities. I don't smoke and my everyday life is urban. I'm never more than half a mile from a house. I've never had to start a fire with my EDC. My PSK and waist packs have more fire options for when I stray out of my every day range.

The compass was designed for a watch strap, but I found it too obtrusive there. I've organised the rest of the gear to minimise magnetic influences on it. I've never used it in anger, but it's occasionally handy for, eg, checking the alignment of churches. Usually when I am outside I have a much better compass in my waist pack. The small one is better than nothing.

I was worried the safety pins would open and stab me in the leg. It's never happened - maybe that's why they are called "safety" pins. I've never had to use them, but they take up so little room I am surprised so few other people include them in EDC.

It's all a compromise between utility, survival and convenience. I could not justify carrying the big EDCs some people here write about. Personally I figure that the survival essentials are knife, torch and whistle and anything above that is a bonus. Your mileage may vary, depending on where you live and work.

I have various PSKs which I sometimes carry in addition. I find these tend to either duplicate or improve on what is already in my EDC, without actually providing anything new. For example, my waist pack includes a Zipka+ head torch instead of the Photo LED, a Leatherman Juice instead of the Rambler SAK, 4m of parachord (uncut) instead of 2m (cut), and a whole cigarette lighter instead of the flint wheel. Just better solutions to the same problems. A lot of stuff, such as space-bags, gets left out because of the bulk, and it's hard to resist making the kit more or less self-contained.

I've noticed two things when looking through peoples edc items.

1. It is very common to have atleast 2 methods of light, blade, and fire.
2. EDC items are usually tailored to: where one lives, where one works, the amount of money one has available.

It is very interesting to see what other people carry, it tells a lot about the person.

I've done the same thing, the knot is called a "box braid". I picked about the same length, mostly because that makes about the right size key fob. Actually, it's possible to braid it with 1 piece of paracord, but it takes a lot of untangling every couple plaits, and it will take the same amount of untangling when un-braiding it. It was a fun exercise, but I won't do it again.

My wife didn't want one made out of olive paracord, and didn't like the blaze orange one either. But she really liked the one made out of both! Obviously, there's no way to do THAT with one piece.

My EDC doesn't have much redundancy. Although the phone's backlight does put out enough general illumination to be useful as a second light. Probably there is a way to start a fire using its battery, but I am not going to experiment on my own phone to see what's needed. (Some thin wire or steel wool, I'd guess.) Maybe I could slip a scalpel blade into the battery compartment, too. Build a basic kit around the phone.

The lack of redundancy doesn't bother me too much, partly because I figure anything which wipes out one piece is likely to wipe out anything else I'm carrying. I am more concerned about what I don't have at all. For example, no writing paper or implements. That's partly through not having a pen I'd trust to work after long neglect. No duct tape. That's partly because I am not sure how useful it would be after being unwound from its original spool, rewound onto some EDC former, then unwound and applied. Also because I've never thought to myself, "If only I had some duct tape".

Money isn't a limiting factor for me. It's more down to weight and bulk. I have a traditional tobacco tin PSK, the smaller tin, but it's too big for my trouser pocket. It lives in my jacket pocket, but I don't wear the jacket in summer, or indoors in winter. Availability is a factor, too. I don't like to buy stuff off the internet, because it's not convenient to have it delivered, so I tend to go with whatever local shops stock. Which is often inferior. Once or twice a year I have an internet binge.

Why is the writing instrument of such importance? For survival reasons or more for convenience reasons? Not trying to start the great debate of 2005 on writing instruments... just honestly curious since I have been pondering lately whether or not to ditch my EDC mini space pen (which was only $6 at REI incase you're looking for such a thing).