Am I the only one that travels? And once again I LIKE MY EQUIPMENT AND LIKE HEARING AND TALKING ABOUT IT but having your toys does not replace knowing what to do. Just for the fun of it what do you do if you are flying and there is an accident and afterwards you have to survive outside the area of the country you live in? I understand the possibility is remote but have ever got on a plane, bus, or other modes of transportation and traveled outside your immediate area and what your familiar with. Remember that on public transportation you won't have you BOB. I'm sorry if this offends anyone but one of the things this forum should do is make you ask WHAT IF. Knowing what to do in your area is great but unless your sure you will never leave that area you should want to know the how to for other places. An emergency may not occur where it is convenient for you and with out knowledge, you’re screwed. Your gear should be a supplement to your one and only true survival tool, your mind.

raydarkhorse, I’m kind of a gear nut to, I came to this site to help me learn as much as possible for worst case scenarios as well as other sites I visit. I agree with the others as to the best thing you can ever have with you at all times is your knowledge. I work all the time and try to get out and camp when I can get time and try to learn as much as I can from everybody. I had went to a Jest (Jungle Environment training School) school in the Philipines while I was in the Marine Corp back in ‘84 many years ago. Although I wish I could have stayed in that school a month, unfortunately it was only for a day due to our mission parameters. But in that day they gave us a Bolo knife and we stayed out in the jungle and was shown food, water, shelter fire, etc..
In the jungle over there was like a supermarket compared to here, over here I’d be in trouble. They showed us how to make fire by bamboo, and they could start a fire faster than I could flick a bic, but I tried an hour that night while sleeping by the fire they built and could not get a fire started by rubbing the two bamboo pieces together with the fibers for tinder . But I did learn that with the knowledge, you can survive in any terrain with just your knowledge. All we had was a bolo (Made out of a leaf spring) at the time and that made things a lot easier. One day, I would like to go to a bush craft school and learn a lot about bow drills, fire plows, fire pistons, trapping, food finding etc.. but in the mean time, I’m trying to build a better BOB for emergencies. We’ve been through several hurricanes a year in Fla. As well as tornados, etc.. But I always like being near a source of water, even salt and the heat hear buys me more time than if I was up north in 0 degree weather. I have desalinizers (Katadyn Survivor 35 off of $250 Ebay new military) and portable distillers for the salt water as well as Steripen adventure for viruses and Katadyn Combi Plus for chemicals. After the hurricane hit us the one year, we were without anything for weeks and we were getting low on water so I told my wife never again, so we are backed up to the extreme. I searched the internet for a long time to buy these things real cheep and was fortunate not to invest a lot for this equipment. We have 55 gallon plastic barrels as back ups, the ocean and lakes. I keep everything in a pack that stays with me. I am a little paranoid on the water I guess, anyway I’m sorry for the book I just wrote but every once in awhile I like to vent. Knowledge is the best tool you could ever had and there are members here who have a very valuable tool, and I’m tryibg to learn as well. You can never learn enough!

I wish someone could tell me how to make a fuzz stick, everytime I try all I get is a lot of little shavings on the ground, but that has worked ofr me. but I would still like to make a fuzz stick, maybe it's the wood I use don't know???

The idea is to leave all the little wood shavings attached to the wood, thereby increasing the surface area. Dunno if that helps.

big_al, Here was a brief article I had found, I've been trying what your probably doing and having no luck either. I had tried to light a fuz stick with the flint steel rod and only got a small amber to light but could not get it to continue in the nest. I had used a ton of sparks before that had happened and haven't been successfully in duplicating it again. If you figure it out, please let me know. Thanks

Fuz Stick

A fuzz stick is really ard to light with a spark, its normally used with a match, or to get a banked fire restarted. it takes a very sharp knife and a light touch getting the shavings as thin as possible. I personally think they take way to much time and don't even fool with them unless every thing else i find is wet. Then whittle into the larger sticks to get at the dry stuff.

I think I am going to say this one more time just to be sure. If you go to the ETS front page, you will find a plethora of basic how to information for a whole host of different situations, including aviation category. Folks like Doug tend to post fairly thoroughly and in enough volume that it is not too difficult to find the how-to information of basic survival skills and techniques. Likewise, you can find several good publications elsewhere covering the subject in even greater depth and detail.

What is often lacking in these publications (Doug's being more the exception to the rule) is review and notification of new and improved gadgets that might make the tasks associated with survival easier and/or more effective. While admittedly there is still the issue of technique and application to be discussed, what seems to be far and away the more important concern is the knowledge of such devices actually being available, and what their new capabilities may be.

Basic survival skills and techniques do not expand and evolve nearly as quickly as do the tools available, so one would naturally expect to see a lot more material being posted in forums such as this relating to the arrival of new gadgetry or material, rather than significant offshoots of basic techniques.

In focusing specifically on how to use the new items, there is a definite distinction between simple manipulation and application. For instance, I do not necessarily need to know how to operate a blast match in order to start a fire, but I certainly need to know how to build a fire in order to make a blast match work properly as intended.

It seems that this forum fills the more immediate need of product identification and situational awareness than actual instruction. I prefer to leave instruction to the professionals, and keep casual conversation on more immediate and perhaps superficial discoveries. That doesn't exclude basic instruction altogether, but such anecdotal discussion does seem to be more interesting in this form of medium.

Maybe this time I did a better job explaining why???

OK I'll try one more time, I was pointing out that people are asking questions about what they can buy when a simpler answer would be to revert to basic techniques. And from the tone of most of the answers I have received it sounds like most people don't want to be reminded of that. AGAIN all the toys in the world won't help if you don't know how to play without them properly.

Very well said benjammin.......
Basic survival skills do not take a lifetime to learn, however the skill and knowledge to successfully deploy them comes from time spent training in the field. As benjammin stated, This is were time spent sitting behind a monitor, asking questions about new gadgetry pays off. Can you start a fire with char cloth, flint and steel? Sure, but is task made easier by using a Blastmatch and Wetfire? Maybe. I know which one I would choose to carry.
My take is this. Learn the basics and become proficient with them, but by all means, take advantage of new technology that may make survival easier. That's why I visit this forum.

smitty

This is the way I do it, your technique may vary...

Knife control in short slow pushes rather than heavy long strokes is the key to making a fuzz stick.

I start at the end of the stick furthest away from myself. I hold the stick close to, but behind the blade with my left hand, hold the knife in my right hand and push the knife forward in a very deliberate and controlled manner with both thumbs. I start at a shallow angle and both push the knife in slightly deeper and twist the blade over to a more perpendicular angle to the stick to curl the wood chip outward. Once a cut is made, I turn the stick and do it again until I've made cuts around the diameter of the stick. Then I move the stick forward (away from myself) and start the next row. Make sure that the cuts aren't so deep that you cut the stick in half. Also make sure that your off hand is always behind and not in front of the blade.

Note: The above would be easy for me to show you, but when I write it out I have no idea if the concept is clear or not. I'm also sure that there is probably terminology out there for the type of cut I described that would perfectly explain what it is. However, I have no idea what that word could be. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

A good sharp knife with something better than the standard factory angle makes the job a lot easier as well.

As raydarkhorse mentioned, a fuzz stick is more of a kindling stage piece of wood rather than something you would want to use as tinder.