I see, and I do admit that I do have a somewhat combative personality. It's just in my nature. I can't change any more than you can. But just because someone makes "you" feel uneasy doesn't mean that someone doesn't care.

I think your lens example is a bit flawed. Yes putting steel wool in your kit because you plan on using it and a battery is stretching; kind of like carrying a bow drill set up. You should practice building a bowdrill set so that you can make one in the field. Not carry one around unless that is the type of "outing" you are planning on.
But the lense is something that cannot get wet or run out of fuel.
The community at large agrees on the need to have multiple ways to make fire; usually 3. The lens is a no-weight, no-bulk way of starting a fire. Why would you not make it one of your 3 or 4 ways? Even if you never need it it takes no space.
Having such a small back-up seems to be logical.

I would only take a magnifying glass if I was planning on living primitive in the desert for an extended period of time. I would even take it thinking that it would be my primary fire starter. Like you said, it won't run out of fuel, and in the desert it works nearly everyday.

I travel with the Ritter PSK all the time; no airport trouble with it so far.
The only issue would be the scalpel which I left in anyway.

Good reply, you'll fit in here nicely. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Some how I replied to the wrong post. This is a reply to the next post.

Maybe, maybe not. I think most people are open-minded enough to realize that different personalities can get along just fine, if they decide to. Mine doesn't depend on yours and yours doesn't depend on mine. We're just different that's all!

I was such a firebug as a kid I could rely on this as my only way to start fire unless it is really cloudy. But yes for me it backs up a lighter, sparklite and firesteel plus I have been able to get an ember from a bow drill I just need to practice making an expedient one.

Just a side note. I am reading a book about the war in Afghanistan and one of the Green Berets talked about ditching their "survival kits" in favor of more ammo. He said since it wasn't survival training they would not need them. This gives you the idea that the really well trained guys can "make do" with very little when it comes to weiging it against more ammo. Here is where "advanced survival skills" really come into play.

I prefer the hand drill to the bow drill. It doesn't require string, and is just as easy, if not easier, in my opinion.
Proficiency with the basic survival skills are all the advanced survival skills you need, according to one school of thought. All else is wilderness living, not surviving.

You can use them to locate little bitty splinters too. You know, those that hurt like blazes but you can't see...

Again, your applying your personal mental template to the world. I fly often. My carrier however is a Morane-Saunier MS.502 Criquet.I've even been known to brandish a P1 Walther at ultralights and seagulls. I am by avocation and part time employ an archaeologist. I often fly into some pretty rough areas in our Los Padres wilderness. Torn clothing? If you've ever bushwacked hard chaparrel you should know about torn clothing. I have never differentiated survival from daily living, not in the Coast Guard where I spent time with the Inuit and pushing lifeboats, not on a hundred and six field excavations from Alaska to Wyoming, not on dozens of horsepacking trips. My world view, based on experience and that of others is that a PSK is a last ditch assembly of tools to replicate in a minimal kit those same tools and supplies we may lose in a larger kit.