Danger, Grasshopper-you are in perilous waters. IMHO (based upon 30 years in a female dominated profession, 33 years of marriage, and parenting of 3 daughters) women tend to perceive threats to survival in a different context than do men. Women identify threats to survival as the things that are actually likely to kill us: heart attack and stroke. Men tend to perceive threats to survival as the things that are fun to consider: airplane crashes, teotwawki, civil unrest, zombie invasion. This is why dw will tend to encourage expending resources on diet and exercise rather than to encourage the acquisition of more and better edged weapons and firearms. Cognitive dissonance: this will not be resolved by hiding a DRPSK in her luggage. As HerbG has already indicated, the key to this is a frank and open discussion of feelings, perceived threats, and reasonable precautions. It is best to perceive this as a ‘discussion’, rather than as an ‘argument’, ‘cuz you ain’t gonna win it. She needs to carry that which she perceives the need to carry, and probably already does so. Women are probably better at ‘survival’ than men are: on the average, they live longer.

(This material reflects the opinion of the author, and not that of the management of his home or of any member of his family. These are generalizations, and do not apply to any particular person of any gender. Any use of these observations in real-life applications will be solely at the risk of the user).

Lucky me, I have the perfect wife. She believes in having "stuff" stored "just in case," will let me buy any toy I want, likes it when I carry my concealed handgun, has her own little Cold Steel Mini-pal on her keyring, etc etc etc. She does make me watch my salt intake, etc, also, just trying to keep me around for a few more years...

on the subject of carry on items...

can a guy put a knife, like an LMF2 in a 'check in bag'?
Not a carry on.

Best of my knowlege, yes you can. I have flown a few times for work (god knows you can't make me for "leisure", too fustrating) and never had a problem with my multi-tool du jour or pocket knife I want to clip to my pocket when I get there. However I MUST stress be aware of the knife laws of where you are flying to! Here in Florida I have no problem carring a 4" bladed floder, when I went to Chicago according to the research I did I could only carry up to a 3" bladed knife so I had to choose a different one from what I normally carry.

-Bill Liptak

I checked a knife from Ohare through Jackson on my family's Yellowstone/Teton trip, but I didn't have a lot of faith that it wouldn't get snatched by whoever might look through the bag(s), so for that trip my trusty Ritter MK1 & MK3 got replaced by my daughter's lower cost Kabar Folding Spearpoint (still an amazing knife for just $20). It did the trick for what I needed.

I also checked the Vaseline-coated cotton balls, as I didn't want to have to explain what they were for.

Everyone in the family carried on-board daypacks w/:

<>Two 55 gallon orange trash bags
<>signal mirror
<>Storm (adults) or Windstorm (kids) whistle
<>Princeton Tec EOS headlamp w/ fresh batteries
<>Ponchos
<>Fleece jackets

In addition, I carried:

<>ACR TerraFix PLB w/ on-board GPS
<>Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx w/ City Navigator, 100K Topo, & 24K National Park Topo mapsets. I also brought a 12V power cord so that batteries were saved for when really needed.
<>Brunton 15TDCL Compass (the kids didn't bring compasses - I wanted them to stay put if lost).
<>Sparker w/ PJ-coated cotton balls (wasn't sure the sparker would get through checked security, but it did; the cotton balls were sent with checked luggage).

I should have had everyone also carry bandanas, but it didn't happen. Unfortunately the whole matches/lighter thing is so confusing with airline security that we just bought matches after we got there and stored them in a plastic bag.

Ken K.

I ziptie my Leatherman Kick to an interior brace inside my checked bag. It's gone 5-7 trips this way without being stolen. However, I'm not brave enough to try it with my LM Wave.

-Blast

I take my 'wave' with me on all my air trips, but put it inside a spare pair of shoes in my checked bag. It's made it back and forth on more than a dozen trips with no issues to date. I keep my Fenix P1D flashlight on my belt (just take it off to get through security and then it goes back on).

That's because they already carry a survival container with them, a purse. They are "trained, conditioned, whatever..." to always have "those things and these things with them". It just expands over time. Sometimes by default; never emptying the thing or by design.

2 cents

My gal works as a holiday rep in Mallorca & carries quite afew useful odds & sods in her purse/bag (Some Louis Vuitton "monstrosity" costing £700!!).
Apart from all the usually "girly" stuff, she has bottled water, little first aid kit, sewing kit, spare undies, Minidisc player & minidiscs & Im pleased to say that she DOES carry the items I gave her:-
Fauxton, whistle, glowring on keys
LED light (Nuwai clone) in her bag, Swisscard in her bag.
I recently added one of those silk traveller sleeping bags & Im told shes used that quite alot whilst travelling overnight on coaches between resorts & venues.
She thought the idea of EDC was a bit "geeky" at first until I suggested tat she already EDC'd quite a bit of stuff.