Brad,<br><br>I wholeheartedly agree on your refinement of the approach to this problem. Artificially limiting ourselves monetarily severely compromises the ability to perform satisfactorily. Maybe the compromises are necessary in an emergency like Chris's scenario. But, they are not a good a way to choose good equipment for general & future survival/outdoor needs & planning. Besides, it always feels better to get the kind of good equipment you want to start. :-) Otherwise, you end up getting shoddy equipment that performs poorly, disappoints you (at the very least), & must be replaced eventually by what you wanted in the first place. In short, it's poor budgeting & financially wasteful. A long term approach of planning, budgeting, saving, & deferred purchase may yield more gratifying performance.<br><br>Zoltan,<br><br>I like your decisions. I think you'll be happy with the results. However, you may want to reconsider the compass. You may not have a ship's compass in an emergency in a life raft. Your own could be a lifesaver. You definitely will need your own on land.<br><br>You may want to look at Doug's articles on knives as to why & how to select them. We've actually had quite a debate in this forum on knives recently. Doug addressed the needs for the different kinds of knives very well in his discussion.<br><br>John