The PSK:
When I show people their first reactions are how everything fits in there! But when I explain to them what is it for they wonder whether I carry enough to survive e.g. longer than a week.
Well this is my answer…
You should not see the PSK as a store for heat, food, water or shelter. Merely as a catalyst to speed up your survival preparations without the contents being used up.
For example take a snare wire this will eventually break if over used but catch e.g. a rabbit and you got tendons to make more traps, meat as an energy source to carry on instead of glucose tablets, bone to create a spear in case you would want to hunt.

People always doubt that I carry even near enough matches or tinder. Well in my reply I mention that you can get your first fire going with a match (easy enough but to be used in e.g. a plane downed in a lake) and your tinder. Once you have got a fire going you can dry yourself and wood for shavings which equals new tinder. Now that the need for heat is less emergent you can use your flint in future in mixture with your newly made tinder.

That aluminium foil can be used as a water boiler until Birch bark or similar is found to be improvised.

Paracord is used to build shelter until natural fibres are found (e.g. boiled nettles as a obvious example)

The flint and steel has only to be used until a natural source of sparks is found.

Puritabs used until a distilation set is ready

Of course in some regions of the world one thing is harder to be found that another and that’s of course another reason why we carry our PSKs or similar. But can you see my point? The PSK does not need to be seen as a short term survival tool.

This way we can live forever and ever <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Reinhardt