I think 98.6 is a great book. The "characters" are hokey and silly and frankly detract from coherently presenting the material, but if you're willing separate the wheat from the chaff it's packed full of good info. Cody is pretty passionate about primitive skills and aboriginale living but in his writings he's wise enough to acknowledge that not everyone can spend the next 10 years learning the skills to get thru next months hurricane. I have a lot of respect for him for not telling people to just throw away their shoes and build a bowdrill.

Now me, I'm a gadget guy. I love technology of all sorts- guns, knives, computers, audio gear, cars etc etc. Survival gear is no different. There's nothing I enjoy more than poring over the knife sites looking at the Next Great Thing. And of course I have to consciously remind myself that aquiring gear isn't the same as preparing yourself. That's the thing that I think gets overlooked when people criticize Cody's minimalist mindset. Sure, if you knew you were going to be in a plane crash next week the smart guy would cancel his d@mn flight! And barring that you'd certainly carry the gear you needed. The problem is you can easily be separated from that gearr; what if you can't build a fire without your matches, or firesteel? As long as you have your life and your mind is intact, you'll still have your skills. If you can build fire by friction, your firesteel will be a luxury. If you can build a debris shelter with a sliver of rock and your hands, think how nice it will be to have a knife and some plastic sheeting. It's the same reason you learn to add, subtract and divide before you're taught to use a calculator.

Perhaps if I was going to dropped off deep in the Boundry Waters or a forest in Saskatchewan a Mora wouldn't be my first choice. But neither would I feel all was lost. Used within it's capabilities it's a fine knife.