The reason for the concealment is looking at this from a prisoner's point of view not a tourist's. They'll take away your pocket knife in a snip, but they might not notice the scalpel blade in your wallet. Its similar to the idea of a PSK except you have the added challenge not just of losing or breaking your primary gear but of having someone actively attempting to take it from you.

Plus you're looking at this from an American point of view where you have civil liberties and the LEO's predominately have common sense. In the US, a pocket knife needs little to no explaination, in another country its grounds for summary arrest. Doesn't matter whether you were concealling it from a search or not.

Like steel toe when they hit, but they don't set of security as often and they are non conductive. And at sub-zero, they aren't as chilly.

If asked, my IEEE membership card means that there is no question. :P

Well, I'll be honest AROTC, my list is mostly a mental exercise. If I ever have to take hostages, after the first half hour or so, they are going to be striped, completely, then be either be bound and gagged, stuck in the same holding area together without thier clothes, or stuck in the same holding area together with clothes we provide for them. I would expect the same of most pros.

And if I had to whack a hostage to prove a point, it wouldn't be granma, it would be a kid in his late teens or early 20s, the age of halfwit heroics.

I'm so glad I'm one of the good guys!

ah that makes more sense than the original idea of hiding non- suspicious items in secret compartments in your luggage. concealing equals guilt to the people who look for these things.
I'm actually in england where everything is banned. and one thing to bear in mind is 'attitude is everything' with our police and from what i've found; others.
i was once stopped cos i took a 5 inch locking folder (illegal on both counts) out of my pocket and put it on the x ray for the train to France. When they questioned me, they realised I simply didn't know they had changed the law, so they just confiscated the knife and let me go. If they'd found that in my sock I don't think the result would have been the same.
Course if I had known it was illegal I'd have simply put it in my luggage.
simon

ah that makes more sense than the original idea of hiding non- suspicious items in secret compartments in your luggage. concealing equals guilt to the people who look for these things.
I'm actually in england where everything is banned. and one thing to bear in mind is 'attitude is everything' with our police and from what i've found; others.
I was once stopped cos i took a 4 inch and locking folder (illegal on both counts) out of my pocket and put it on the x ray for the train to France. When they questioned me, they realised I simply didn't know they had changed the law, so they just confiscated the knife and let me go. If they'd found that in my sock I don't think the result would have been the same.
Course it would have become legal by my simply putting it in my luggage.
Which reminds me. At least here in England something becomes a weapon if 'intended' to be used as one. The comments about the walking stick and composite soles are an admission of law breaking.
simon

I don't quite get the scenario. I have a money belt with some items in, and that doesn't make me a spy. If I were somehow caught up in a hostage situation while visiting a bank, it might get overlooked. I like to carry a hacksaw blade in it - I've seen Saw.

For evasion I agree with the comments about using a magnetised bit of metal as a compass, so I know which way to run. Good quality clothes and boots will be important, if you get to keep them. A bandanna has many uses and will likely be ignored.

Something that just occurred to me is getting a cheap watch with a steel wrist-band, and either pre-honing the clasp into a blade or else doing it in the field.

Completely true, although now that I've gone through the fun little exersize, I'm sure some of the concepts and tools can be applied to our everyday carry for more mundane emergencies.

If you magnetize just about anything you could use as a compass, you're never with out one, even if you forget or lose your PSK along with the rest of your kit (as unlikely as that happening might be).

If you travel, lots of people you might want to curry favor with in foriegn (especially third world) countries might be swayed with a simple pack of American cigarettes. Carrying cigarettes when travelling even if you don't smoke might save you a lot of trouble.

Just another way of looking for solutions to the problems we're preparing for.

Depends on where you go. Our smokes generally suck, and you can get them easily enough in the Americas and parts of the PacRim. If you're thinking that tobacco as a trade good, paying extra for some good, slim cigars would probably be better than Marbs or Camels.

I have already worked this one out. Given that there are certain areas of the world in which any British or American citizen stands to be kidnapped, coerced and then murdered, you need a concealable escape kit. In practice that means something like the SAS escape belt. That's basically a webbing belt that has various item sewn to the reverse side under a layer of material.

What I have done is take an Eagle Creek money belt and stash in it:
1. A spark-lite.
2. Tinder.
3. Tin Foil.
4. Wire.
5. BCB Commando Saw.
6. NATO brass compass.
7. Scalpel blade.
8. 4' paracord.
9. 10' braided cord.
10. 4 small cable tidy's.
11. A small fishing kit, including a gaff hook.
12. 20' Dental floss on a spool.
13. 4 MP-1 tablets.
14. 2 needles.

That gives me everything that I need to kill one or more of my guards, set a booby trap or four, escape and make my way to freedom.

As a point: a lot of the bits came out of one of Doug's SK and it's quite heavily modelled on the survival kit belt reviewed in the survival kit's section on the main site.

stripping you of your wallet, watch, belt and shoes or shoelaces would be a likely measure, wouldn't it? It seems to me that as a hostage, the only possible secure stash would he a small capsule,rectally inserted.

Jeff