The only items I carry around with me almost always are my metallic cigarette case "wallet", Underwater Kinetics 2xAAA flashlight (which I use as a key ring) and my cell phone (Nokia N-Gage). They are all a bit bulky, but I've grown fond of them over time.

Anyway, I was thinking that maybe there is some unused air space in the flashlight that could be used to store some miniaturized survival gear. The flashlight indeed has two empty spaces between the batteries that could probably fit:

• Two stormproof matchsticks and a striking surface or a custom made miniature magnesium flint wand
  
• A needle and some thread would probably fit in as well.
  

It's a watertight case by itself so the matchsticks would stay dry.

I wonder if you could fit a Micropur tablet or two in the bezel part?

N-Gage and many other cell phones have some empty space inside their cases. I opened up the case and noticed that the biggest continuous space is above the memory card. It's about the size of a stamp and perhaps a few millimeters high.

What would be the most useful small item that you could fit in such a minimal space? A Band aid? A Fishing hook?

Interesting idea. I don't have any suggestions yet, but I like the approach... Make containers you're going to be carrying anyway serve more than one purpose.

Someone on here just recently mentioned gluing lighter flints to a key blank for a stealthy, light weight fire steel. Maybe you could glue a slice from a larger fire steel to the outside or something.

Anyone know if you can get firesteel metal in rectangular blanks? I could glue flat plates of the stuff to all kinds of things...

Edit:

About the only other potentially useful items I can think of that might fit in such a small space... information and money. You could write down emergency contact info, calling card numbers, passwords, pins, etc. on small piece of paper and fold it around the batteries. The tender quick tabs for the sparklite fire starter (any tinder, really, I guess) can be squished into some odd spaces. Money and tinder also have the advantage that they probably won't get a second look from an xray person at an airport.

I would stick with matches; since it appears youre carrying no knife or other decent striker a ferrocerium (flint) rod wont do much good unless maybe you can strike a spark off a sharp edge on the cigarette case. You have definately made me look at my blackberry in a new light. If it didnt belong to my employer I would dismantle it right now to look for free space. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well, I do have a credit card size multitool that works well enough with a flint. I only recently added a few other components in a little bag, but I didn't really think it through. I just picked a few items from the lists and tried to fit in as much stuff as possible.

See EDC thread for a list of my current items

I'll probably drop the Stanley blade, safety pin, saw blade and add a compass. I'll experiment with the flashlight bezel part and see how that could be utilized. I'm pretty sure there is a way to fit in both a Micropur pill and a painkiller in that bezel somehow.

I bought some hot laminate pouches today.. I'll convert that anti-static bag with it's contents into a more rigid sealed plastic package that should also be more water proof and perhaps a bit thinner too.

If you are loooking for a miniture flint rod , check
out Ron and Karens place (hoods woods) survival.com
the small flints are a little longer than a AAA battery
you would probably have to cut a little of the end but it should work

HTH Yukon

I just took a look at your EDC in the other thread and I stand corrected. I appears you have a couple items that would probably make a good striker for a ferrocerium rod so I'd say you could absolutely go with that as long as your confident in your abilty to use it with the tinder that is available to you.

I carry a length of hacksaw blade in my phone's bettery compartment. Useful as a striker for the flint, and might be up to cutting through metal if you have plenty of time. At one time I carried a scaple blade there too, but I lost my nerve.

The needle and thread will serve as a compass, if you magnetise the needle.

Is it possible that magnetising the needle could have an ill effect on the phone? Do cell phones use magnetic media for data storage? If not then this is a great idea.

Many thanks for all the suggestions! Here's what I finally managed to fit in that flashlight:

• 2 Micropur pills
• 1 flat match
• 1 needle
• 1 striking surface
  

I'm not sure if the Micropur pills will stay good especially with the occasional extra warmth from the xenon bulb, but perhaps they are still better than nothing.

I also filed down a standard flint rod to make it fit in the cigarette case. The file section of the credit card sized multitool makes an excellent striker.

Be careful with that Micropur tablet, it could react with metals of the bulb assembly and corrode the whole thing.

Pete

'Course you could get a nylon wallet and store:

cash, credit card fresnel lens, 10 m fishing line, 3 hooks,
striking surface, 1 page instructions on water proofpaper,
flint striker/ 10 waterproof matches, 6x micro pur tablets,
needle, 4x band-aids.

TRO

PS I use a bright orange velcro type wallet.

Thanks for the warning about corrosion. I'll keep an eye on it. I'm not sure what kind of metals there are in the bezel, but at least it's a very dry environment.

You better re-read the warning on those MP1 tabs. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH THEM. They have some seriuous warnings written on the inside of the package. Actually I was shocked when I read them.

FWIW,
Adam

It actually just says harmful if tablet is swallowed and irritating to eyes and respiratory system on the instruction sheet I got with the tablets. I bought these here in Helsinki, Finland. What exactly does it say in the warning sheet you got?

It also shouldn't be exposed to air. It will suck the moisture out of the air and lose effectiveness. There's a reason it's stored in a foil pack.

My Katadyn MP-1 tabs also say not to come in contact with skin or expose to air for more than a couple seconds.

Flash memory is used in most small devices, much more EMF-reistant.

The kind of magnetic field put out by a sewing/improvised compass needle is unlikely to effect it. Particularly when you figure the needle will most likely be against the battery, and that is probably throwing a stronger magnetic field around it.

What is more likely is that the field around the battery will screw up the polarity of your compass.

Your biggest danger is that the needle might shift, and short something. Unlikely, but at that point, your phone is probably pooched.

The ones I bought were actually MF-1T or "Micropur Forte".

I searched around Katadyn web site and apparently the plastic bottle container version of the tablets has a shorter shelf life (2-3 years) than the aluminium foil sheet version (5 years)

Micropur fact sheet

As far as I can see, the ingredients of these tablets are just silver ions combined with chlorine dioxide and it's in a pretty stable form. However, chlorine dioxide can cause explosions when mixed with ammonia compounds, so perhaps it's a good idea to remove those tablets from that enclosed air space with those batteries <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Incompatible chemicals

Many thanks for all the additional info and warnings. I would never have thought that there is a safety issue here, but I'm so glad it came up. Perhaps the match in that battery compartment isn't a good idea either. Back to the drawingboard...

I really don't rate matches as emergency fire-starters. Especially if you only have one or two. They blow out, or get wet, and need half-decent tinder in addition.

Given that you have the flint rod and striker, I'd replace the match with some decent tinder. Cotton wool will do (adding vasaline makes it burn longer but could get messy unless you stuff it into a straw and seal the ends - the straw could be useful too). Commercial tinder such as the Tinder-Quik stuff which comes with Spark-Lites is even better. You can probably squeeze it into whatever shaped space is available.

You are right, decent tinder is a better idea. A flint rod and a striker isn't much use without the tinder. I'll start with plain cotton wool and switch to a better solution later. The flashlight makes an excellent water tight container for it though.