My attitude to gear is that I'm not simply carrying a bundle of things on my back. Choosing an item of gear and seeing how it relates to what is there already is my concern. That the gear I carry feels like a single unit is important to me. When I have the feeling that an item I'm carrying is somehow a loner in my pack then I reject it, and find something else. Being satisfied that every item has it's place, and every item is a reflection of the whole I think I have assured myself that when a major disaster comes this holistic attitude to gear selection will make all the difference. Of course if I should lose the pack........ :-(

Gear, or if you will tools,equipment or whatever you call constructed artifacts reflect two things; function and culture. A traditional kukri and a cold steel tactical knife both cut. The kukri is not a kukri without the trident notch and Cold Steel would be out of business if the powder epoxy coating was dayglo pink.The kukri would still be a superb chopper and the Cold Steel easier to find if dropped. In the real world a piece of wood, stretched deerhide or rabid squirrel could care less. We can agonise endlessly over "stuff" Just remember that in Nature the generalists usually survive over specialists. We can often be to clever for our own good. My gear is a sickening assembly of contradictions; surplus,cutting edge high tec, mickeymoused and redundant. I go out. It works. I return.

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>My gear is a sickening assembly of contradictions; surplus,cutting edge high tec, mickeymoused and redundant. I go out. It works. I return.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>ROLF - Amen, Brother Kavanaugh! It seems we have similar tastes - or lack thereof. Heheheh...<br><br>Jampot - of course it's art! If it were science, we'd have nothing to talk about here... amazingly enough, what may be completely unsuitable for me may be just wonderful for someone else... there are fundamentals, principles, etc., but it's all about getting the job done well enough for that person in those circumstances. Being prepared for just about any kind of circumstances is probably not so kind to splitting hairs, though. <shrug> Everytime I get fanatic about one thing or another I usually find out that I have more to learn... altho *sometimes* I'm right <grin>.<br><br>Scouter Tom (still laughing from Chris' post...)

I just gotta be King here for odd ball stuff.... I go out and return too! But I take things from 3 different centuries LOL.<br><br>I look on with suspicion at folks that have all BRAND NEW stuff... By Stuff I mean everything I can see..... If it is all brand new I avoid them......I like to see well used clothing, and equipment... A brand new canoe for example with well used paddles is fine..... I think it likely the canoe was replaced, but when I see a brand new canoe, paddles, life jackets, and clothing I look out for fools....<br><br>To be contray I carry a MSR stove, but I also carry a flint and steel with a real flint chip, and a real file steel steel in a tin with tinder and charr.... I use a bic lighter in orange so i hopefully won't loose it.... I don't generaly carry stone tools like a few stone knives stay home mostly, but I can make them if I need to....say I loose the blade of the day while out....<br><br>I have been known to bark up the right tree and create a fishing line from scratch, even when I carry a line of modern materials... that happens when I am fishing and get bored sitting around and the season is right.... I live where the fishing is pretty good, and if I am really hungery I make a weir, as catching 1 fish at a time won't feed me fast enuff. I toss out anything that don't look like trout........ Once while out camping I needed a bit of glue, and made fish glue right there in a few hours..... later at home I needed it again glue that is... and I thought to try it again.... I added a drop of oil to a pryrex dish and gently warmed my home made glue, and worked it in to a few arrows I had made (sinew wraped)..... I forgot about the dish for a few hours, and was very surprised to find the the glue shrunk in the corner of the dish and pulled up a layer of glass!!!! At that point I was banned from the kitchen tools for a rather long time, and was reminded the hair dry was totally off limits too! Mac