Hey everyone...

Well first off let me say that when I saw the new PSK released by Doug I was impressed with a few items in it and hence purchased it with the idea to suplement my altoids tin with some of the items...namely the survival instructions...and the roll of duck tape...etc when the kit arrived I was immediately impressed by the heavy duty plastic ziplock...so i decided it was better than my altoids...the next thing I noticed was with some re packing I could get alot more room in this....so this is what I added, and wondering what you guys have done to customize yours?

Added to the AMK Doug Ritter Kit

1 Ferro Rod
2 more tinder tabs in the tiny zip lock provided.
4 waterproof/windproof matches
3 small safety pins
2 Bandaids
2 buttery fly sutures
1 sterilized surgical suture
Thread wrapped around a heavy piece of paper
1 lg Needle (It's about half the width of Kit) w lg eyelet
A more complete fishing kit

What I mean by that is I removed the 4 larger safety pins...and used the plastic container to stuff in alot of hooks, split shot and tiny trout swivels, and a small sponge (possible bait)

First thing I noticed now in re packing was it was a tight fit mainly due to the extra items now made roll of duck tape too thick to close...the kit would close but there was tension at the top...which meant that it could under pressure open the ziplock closure....

so what i did was unroll some ducktape about 2 sections 6 inches in legth each..I then robbed my daughters sticker drawer...ripped off a sheet of stickers...removed the stickers and used that to mount the duck tape on it...and put it back in the kit as it was now just paper thin...net result- no loss in ducttape amount.

The kit now packed nicely...with no strain on the ziplock.

Wow! I was just commenting off-line that my son's troop will cover Wilderness Survival later this year and I was planning a group purchase of the kits as a starting point for them to make their "own" kit. My intent is to not give too much info right away as it would have less relevence than having them work out their own ideas. I want them to think it through, selecting items that are more creative and may serve multiple uses. So I was commenting how curious I am at seeing what they come up. Then I log in and see this thread! What a coincidence. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Here are the two pocket kits I EDC. Each is in a military surplus sewing kit pouch. The medical one is adapted from an AMK Pocket Medic kit. The PSP is, of course, modified from the AMK PSP by Doug.

MEDICAL POUCH
- 2 Carefree panty liners
- 1 moleskin, 4 x 3 in
- 2 gauze pads, 2 x 2 in
- 1 nonadherant pad, 2 x 3 in
- 6 liquid bandage swabs
- 1 liquid bandage drops
- 2 knuckle bandages, 3 x 1-1/2 in
- 4 bandaids, 1 x 3 in
- 6 bandaids, 3/4 x 3 in
- 12 butterfly bandaids
- 10 steri-strips
- 4 alcohol prep pads
- 2 antiseptic towelettes
- 2 povidone prep pads
- 1 afterbite sting swab
- 2 motrin IB packs, 2 pills each
- 1 burn cream packet
- 2 antibiotic ointment packets
- 1 first aid cream packet
- 2 Protonix tabs
- 2 Benadryl caps
- 2 Sinutab pills
- 2 Imodium tabs
- 1 scalpel blade, no. 22
- 2 ft foam tape, 1 in
- 1 tweezers
- 3 safety pins, 1-3/4 in

PSP POUCH
SHELTER
- None
FIRE
- 1 Mini Bic lighter
- 1 MFS, 1/4 in diam
- 1 hacksaw striker
- 1 Sparklite sparker
- 4 Sparklite tinders
SIGNALS
- 1 STOP brochure
- 1 Photon III, yellow
- 1 Rescue Flash signal mirror, 2 x 3 in
- 1 Fox Howler whistle
- 1 button compass, 1/2 in
- 1 golf pencil
- 2 waterproof paper
WATER
- 10 MP1 tablets
- 1 fish bag, 1 l
FOOD
- 2 ft steel wire
- 1 fishing kit
TOOLS
- 1 knife, Wenger Classic
- 1 Fresnel magnifier
- 15 ft mason's twine
- 1 spool kevlar thread
- 1 sewing needle
- 1 Duct tape, 2 in x 3 yd
- 4 safety pins

The modifications -- from top to bottom of the list -- are as follows.

To the Pocket Medic:
- added panty liners
- added half a pack of liquid bandage swabs and the entire (teeny) bottle of liquid -- replace swabs as used
- added more bandaids in 3/4 inch size
- added more closure strips
- added more prep and antiseptic pads
- added two or three packets of creams
- added personal and OTC medications
- moved scalpel blade from PSP to medical pouch
- added foam tape
- changed plastic-tube tweezers to sliver gripper tweezers to save room

To the PSP:
- added a Mini Bic lighter
- added an MFS and striker (1/4 inch dia. rod)
- added Photon III
- changed foil to MP1 tablets and fish bag
- added SAK
- changed black thread to kevlar thread

I've juggled these goodies through all kinds of packaging. The medical stuff does fine almost any which way. For the PSP stuff I finally settled on keeping the plastic tube and roll of tape, but putting them vertically, like pillars, on either side of the bundle. The mirror and all the other credit-card-sized flat stuff goes between these columns and holds them apart. Tall slender things (sparker, lighter, knife) stand upright between the columns. Everything else sort of falls into the cracks.

Bear

Billvann:

I think introducing your scouts to these ideas and this gear is great. What bogged me down at the beginning was that I had no coherent scheme or frame of reference on which to hang all the information. I discovered the Rule of Threes on Ron Hood's site, and that gave me a solid starting point.

From that, I expanded "air, shelter, water, and food" into my present seven categories: medical, shelter, fire, signals, water, food, and tools.

I think one can use almost any set of categories, provided they're few enough to memorize easily.

On the other hand, you could just plunge them headfirst into the wonderful world of being equipped. That's probably fun, too.

Bear

What is a fish bag? The same as a Ziploc bag? Thanks.

For good reasons we already all know, Doug suggests we add a first aid kit, a key-chain LED flashlight, a pocket-sized personal shelter, a decent knife, at least 1L of water (in a Nalgene bottle for instance) and Katadyn MP1 tabs (the only one that kills cryptosporidium cysts), matches and striker and something in which to store and treat the water like two condoms or your Nalgene bottle for instance.

I compared it to Doug's original PSK and I found that there are two items missing:

1. A survival wire saw. But Chris already pointed out "[...] The classic wire saw and button compass were developed for downed british pilots. The saw was actually meant to be used on seasoned fences and not so much on resin filled living trees. There are surgical wire bone saws available. I played with a few, thinking a saw meant for living tissue would perform better. The result produced no discernable difference. [...]
And I personally don't think it's critical.

2. 11in. Teflon tube for water seeps. This one looks interesting to me and shouldn't take up much space. Where do you find those tubes? In a medical supplies store? And what's the ideal diameter?

Thank you
Frankie

Frankie.

At work, we use a small urethane hose. 1/8" OD, 1/16"ID. Used for low pressure pnuematics. Around $1 a foot.

Is it clear? And it seems a surgical tubing is stretchy and "could give you the option of making slingshots and other gizmos." - Cody Lundin...
Frankie

It comes in tons of colors but it's not stretchy for a slingshot.

I got it Brad. OD means outside diameter and ID means inside diameter. Thanks for your reply.
Frankie

You have it right. Sorry for the US terminology.

If you want to try some, let me know.

Brad

03lab:

By a "fish bag" I mean the bags supplied by pet stores to carry home your new pet goldfish. You can usually get all you need just by asking them nicely.

I researched suppliers and wound up with 1,000 bags that are 5-1/4 x 11-1/2 inches (13.5 x 29 cm) and a pleasing thickness. They hold 1 L and are shaped about like a 1 L pop bottle when full -- helps me gauge volumes etc.

They have no zipper lock, so you'd have to tie them or fold and clip them to prevent spillage.

If you send a SASE I'll send you ten of them just for the asking.

(Offer applies to all... Mail me at dchinell at msn dot com to get the address.)

Bear

Thanks for the offer Bear. I'm in Germany though, so it's probably not very economical to send some over. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />