I became a knife knutt and a survival kit/gear junkie via the same avenue. I know I am going to hate myself in the morning for admitting this in a public forum: Rambo. As an impressionable 12 year old when I first saw the original First Blood movie I figured all I needed to survive was a hollow handle knife with a few items stashed inside the handle. Of course I had my fair share of camping trips as a kid, but surprisingly no scouting. Not sure how that happened but such is life. Anyway years progressed and as a kid all I could afford to purchase were the cheapo hollow handle knives that were useless junk. And the kits contained in the handles were just as useless. Thus began a journey to find a quality hollow-handled knife with a useful kit in the handle. As a kid the idea of building a kit myself never dawned on me. And since dad didn’t share my fascination with the hollow handled-knives and the kits inside the handle I was basically on my own. I also can't explain why I thought the kit had to be in the knife handle and couldn't go in my pockets instead. I can only attribute it to young and stupid. Just before I started college I was able to spring for a 2 for $30 knife deal. That was a LOT of money for me at the time. The knives were big and awesome looking (again young and stupid) but of course they proved to be as useless as any others I had bought or received as gifts in the past. College life kind of took over and knives and survival kits took a back seat to girls, parties and cramming for exams. In 1991 my college sweatheart and I got married. With more than just myself to think about, my attitude about knives and kits changed a bit. Of course during this time all the knife magazines were dismissing the hollow handles (except for the really good ones of course, some of which are still available today) so this also changed my thinking about knives and survival kits. The knife would be a full tang, non-hollow handled design. So where would my kit items go? My solution at the time was into an old used nato surplus rucksack. And the items I chose to include were only marginally useful as I learned later on. Because we traveled a lot to visit my family back home, with long barren stretches of road, I was also looking at kits for the cars, which ventured away from the basics of personal survival and instead focused on fixing the car and getting it back on the road. Thus the car kit consisted of a basic tool kit, extra battery connector, assorted wire connectors, fuses and hose clamps, fix-a-flat, a gallon of antifreeze, and other vital fluids. Things like shelter, fire, water, and food never entered my mind for some reason. I guess I just assumed that the car would be our shelter. We usually carried food and drinks in the car as well (not enough to last more than a few hours though) and we could run the car to keep warm if needed. Anyway, by this time my knife interests had moved well away from the hollow handled pieces of junk and into solid, full tang knives. My first big knife purchase was a Cold Steel Recon Scout which I purchased for a canoe/camping trip my wife and I took in the early 90s. The trip proved to be less “wild” than I thought it might be but I was still glad to have the knife with me. I have purchased many more similar knives since, and I even bought a Cold Steel hollow handled bushman several years ago (I simply could not resist the urge). So the knife department was covered but I still did not have a good idea of what a good kit consisted of. Over the years I played around with items like I remembered were included in the hollow handled junk knives: fishing gear, needles and thread, matches and so on. I had purchased some of the space blankets early on and added other items to my pack like a folding saw, cordage, matches and candles. These were based on some recommendations on what to carry in your car for winter travel (from my mom no less). More recently my son has become involved in scouting. We had been thinking about taking some impromptu hikes in the woods but I wanted to wait until we could put together a good PSK so I really began thinking more about what each of us might need in a survival situation. I don’t know why I had not thought along these lines before. Or perhaps I had and figured a knife and folding saw and matches was all we would really need (after all that was all Rambo needed, right?). However, I didn’t want these PSKs to be another useless hollow handled knife kit; I wanted them to be really useful in a survival situation AND be items my son or wife could use right out of the kit. Since I was not involved in scouting as a kid, things like the 10 essential items were unknown to me. When we were on a vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN I purchased some additional items I found on clearance: whistles, mag bars, and compasses. However, it wasn’t until a bad snowstorm was predicted for our area that I realized how poorly we were prepared. Since the storm would hit on the way to and from work I needed to split up what survival items we had so there would be one kit in each car. When I did this I realized just how short on personal survival supplies we actually were. Each kit at that time had 2 of those space blankets I mentioned earlier, one of the whistles with an additional space blanket, one of the mag bars, a compass, a folding saw, some candles, matches, cordage, and some other items. I was really thinking about what we might need personally to stay warm, to survive until help arrived should the car run off the road or break down. Fortunately nothing happened but I vowed to myself not to be caught short again. Thus began my search for survival kits online, which led me here. Now each of us has a kit of our own stocked with quality items and that addresses all the basic necessities. They are still works in progress but compared to 3 years ago, we are in much better shape now. This is my first post in a while. Many thanks to everyone on ETS for their help shaping our PSKs and getting me on the right track to being prepared.