Middle Age Ramblings

I braved the local Wal-Mart last night for zippo fluid which they no longer carry and found a new product in the camping section called “Outdoor Wound Care Kit” for about $8.00

Outdoor Wound Care Kit box

Most of the contents are your normal run of the mill FAK items: (4 bandages, 2 hand wipes, 2 2×2 gauze pads, and 1 ibuprofen)

The common items

But the last item is the important one it include two of the small packets of Celox blood clot agent which I think should be in everyone’s pack.

I’ve used both Celox and Quickclot and for me there about the same. The main difference is Quickclot is easy to use just apply the sponge and loosely wrap it in gauze were Celox granules needs to be applied, allowed to clot and then you loosely wrap it in gauze. But now you can get it locally!

UPDATE:

‘SickSalamander’ over on /r/CampingandHiking asked a really good question:

I recently posted a review on the {  Czech Army bread bag } and while I liked it I was really searching for a Finnish Gas Mask bag. I finally broke down and ordered one for my son to take to the upcoming { Pathfinder Gathering } and of course as soon as we got it in the mail a few popped up at a local military surplus store so I snatched two of them for myself.

Here is a glamor shot of the Finbag loaded with my gear:

Finnish Gas Mask Bag

I noticed right away that the Finbag is made of thicker canvas and the stitching is of better quality. It also has D-ring connectors so that you can remove one side of the straps which should help with taking it off and on. It also has a waist strap to keep it from bouncing on your hip which while looks dorky as hell actually works.

The Finnish bag dimensions are:

• Length: 12.5 inches
• Width: 4 inches
• Depth: 10 inches

The Czech bag dimensions are:

• Length: 12 inches
• Width: 3 inches
• Depth: 9 inches

The Finnish bag is just a bit bigger and can hold a little more but not enough to really differ. I loaded both up with the nearly the same gear list as before:

• Pouch holding my { Energizer headlamp } and spare batteries.
• $1.00 hand warmer from Target (left over from the winter).
• Ancient repelling carabiner, compass/temp carabiner, and two Nite-Ize biners.
• Silva Ranger compass in USGI compass bag.
• 3×3 green bandana and red automotive cleaning cloth.
• 1″ roll of gorilla tape with the spool removed and flattened for size.
• 250′ (ish) of { #18 bank line } + 20-25′ hank of green paracord.
• { 32oz SS Guyot } water bottle with water tablets, spork, and spare bandana inside.
• { Flecktarn camo poncho } with ranger bands and paracord bracelet on shoulder strap
• Mechanics gloves.
• Container of pj-cotten balls.
• Container of micro inferno’s
• Backup { Mora 511 knife } for small camp tasks or game cleaning.
• { Cree Trushfire S-A2 } flash light.
• Zippo butane lighter insert.
• Fire kit – flint&steel+full container of char cloth with a ferro rod ranger banded to it.
• { StrikeForce ferro rod } with three micro inferno’s inside.
• Write in the rain notebook.
• Ultra Thin fly fishing box with twenty lures.
• Three Colman light sticks.
• A pouch of spam and tuna fish plus two cliff bars.

Both bags held everything without problems but the Czech bag has its three inner pockets on the side nearest your body while the Finnish bag has it on the outside away from the body with a covering flap.

Finnish Bag interior shot

That makes it easier to get to things like my fire kit, flashlight, notebook or anything else I carry in the pockets without stopping to dig  while I tended to remove the Czech bag to rummage around looking for things.

The Czech bag is actually more secure in that it has a buckle strap on the inside to hold the main pocket closed tight and the sides are more rounded so they do not flop outwards under heavy load like the Finnish bag does (hint – one you snap the Finbag closed pull the flap out so that it covers the sides of the bag so it won’t flop open on you).

The best feature to me is the two snaps that hold the Finnish bag closed versus the buckles on the Czech bag it’s so much easier to snap/un-snap them verses pulling the bag over in front of me to up buckle it.

I think both bags would make a fantastic shoulder bag to replace a small to medium backpack on hikes but I am going to pick the Finnish Gas Mask bag as the overall winner as it’s just a bit more polished and easier to use.

~

Up next is a small mod to the ‘Finbag’ to add a tarp carrier to the bottom for use as an overnight or possibly two night backpack replacement.

The one shinning problem any of these military surplus gas mask bags have is that there is no external attachment points on them. My fix for this issue is to sew two sets of 1.25 inch webbing loops with sling buckles to the bottom of the bag to see if it will hold my     { tarp } which is just slightly longer than the bag.

I got this on Friday it’s from { DealExtreme.com }

Strike Force Fire steel clone

I’ve seen it a few times on the website and the $9.14 price tag with free shipping finally tempted me into ordering it. Like anything from DealExtreme it takes three to four weeks to receive it but for this particular item it’s well worth the wait.

It comes in the same box you would get from stores like {REI.com } or                                 { ThePathfinderSchoolllc.com } but without the cool logo’s it just has a plain “Survive” printed on the box and stamped on the plastic handle. It has the same hard plastic square case as the others and is very rugged I have no doubt it will stand up to many years of abuse in the field without complaint.  It fits up to three Micro Inferno‘s in the hollow rod case for quick lighting in an emergency. It also comes with a larger striker on a key chain along with an emergency whistle.

I’m not a fan of the very small built-in striker but it will work if you have no other means of sparking the rod. What I’ve found works the best is to use a folding knife.  I leave them closed and grip the entire handle in my right hand and scrap the rod backwards on the back of the closed blade. That way I can control exactly where the sparks go.

From my “testing” I can’t find a difference in this product compared to the others sold here in the US for $19.95 or more. I suspect that all the Strike Force’s are made in China and these are coming from the same factory but sold locally in China instead of export to a western country. I do know that deal extreme does that with a lot of products and I’ve found a few gems on the website.

But with any of these discount Chinese websites be careful because there is a metric ton of cheap knock-off crap. The nice thing about this particular website is that shipping is ether free or a penny or two at most which makes it a bit easier to swallow a crappy item once in a while.  I’ve also never had a problem with getting the products or getting the wrong items. The one thing I haven’t tried is there return process I suspect that will not be fun if/when it happens.

~~~

A comment over in { /r/bushcraft } thought this was just a plug for the Chinese website and wanted to know more about the StrikeForce so I’ll add more to the review:

• Length: 5 inches
• Width: 3/4th of an inch
• Depth: 1 1/4th of an inch
• Rod circumference: 3/8ths of an inch
• Rod Length: 1 5/8ths of an inch

The sparks given off when striked is more of a “sparkle” effect when using a knife versus one from { Firesteel.com } but it throws a ton more sparks compared to one of the smaller { Light my fire } type rods.

The only down side that I’ve found with this product or a branded StrikeForce is that the rod is very short but that’s as designed to fit in the handle. If you’re looking for something longer I would go with a four or five-inch { firesteel bunker }

I had no problem lighting jute twine, waxed jute twine, pjcb’s, wicked-pjcbs, and a Micro Inferno with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking to save $10+ on a good ferro rod.

I stopped by a local KC military surplus store tonight (Raven’s) looking for some odds-&-ends and walked out with a nicely priced ’Mora Bushcraft Survival SS Knife‘ for the kid to take to the Pathfinder Spring Gathering in a couple of weeks and now I’m a tad big jealous ;)

Mora Bushcraft Survival Knife

It has a ferro rod holder with a better than average rod plus a “meh” diamond sharpener built into the sheath. I was pleasantly surprised by the ferro rod it turned out better than any of the add on rods I’ve picked up with cheap equipment. The rod’s handle is a bit lighter in weight than I would like but the rod itself throws a mean spark on every strike. The knife spine has a good 90% angle specifically for sparking a rod and it does a great job as most Mora’s do.

It’s a Sandvik 12c27 stainless steel with there standard scandi grind. The knife length is 9.1/4 inches long with a 4.1/4 inch blade that should do well at the Gathering as the kid will probably be using his SAK folder more than a fixed blade but I’m hoping he has a great time and do not want him going in lacking basic gear..

The most surprising thing about this knife is the handle and grip. I’m used to the standard cheap $8~$13 Mora’s and while I love them to death the handles have always left a lot to be desired in my opinion.  This knife on the other hand has a well designed rubberized handle that fits nicely in the hand and is very grippy making it easy to hold on to.

I felt comfortable choking up on the handle while making a feather stick and had no problems with the two pot holders I notched. While I haven’t battened any kindling with it (and probably never will) I would trust it to do the job without any issues.

Overall I would be more than happy caring this blade out into the woods as my main fixed blade along with an axe. It’s not as beefy as my Condor Rodan which I would take without the axe but they are very different knives.

If your looking for an entry level ‘bushcrafty’ knife you won’t go wrong with this model as long as you couple it with a good cheap axe or hand saw.

Since I decided to change out my camping/hiking shoulder bag it’s probably a good time to take a look at my PSK (personal survival kit). This is by no means a recommendation I do not consider myself an expert at anything it’s just what this knucklehead carries.

My work day EDC (every day carry) is pretty light:

My EDC

The knife is a Spyderco Ambitious it’s light enough to clip to work slacks and has enough blade quality to laugh at the boxes I open and tear down daily. I don’t normally carry my PSK (the black bag in the top right hand corner) as it’s to bulky unless it’s winter when I’m wearing a coat so it normally stays in the car console.

The bag is from Adventure Survival Equipment which I found a review of in one of last years issues of Self Reliance Illustrated (great magizine well worth the money). For $18 I decided to take a chance and for the most part I really like it.

It’s big enough to carry anything you could put in an Altoids tin plus a bit extra and can be carried several different ways (belt loop on back, D ring on the side, and a velcro tab on the back) but when fully loaded it’s a bit to bulky to comfortably carry in a pocket.

That’s not a major shortcoming for me but I’m still trying to perfect what I carry in it as I do put it on my belt when hiking, camping or when the family is away from the car (my go-bag has a full med kit) for a long duration.

The contents from the top left are:

My PSK contents

1. Adventure Medical Kits Two Person Sol survival Blanket
2. Aquamira Frontier Emergency Water Filter System
3. Cheap gas station lighter
4. TrustFire S-A2 Cree LED Flashlight
5. 2x wetfire cubes
6. ferro rod+striker
7. fak (first aid kit)
8. chapstick
9. 2x ziplock freezer bags

Here is the fak contents from top left:

My fak

1. 6x plastic band aids
2. 5x waterproof matches with sandpaper striker sealed in plastic
3. x2 triple antibiotic ointment packets
4. x2 itch relief cream packets
5. x2 two tablet ibuprofen packets (200mg)
6. x2 two tablet sinus relief packets

I think the fak is the worst part of the kit and needs to be changed. I probably need to find a small tweezers and nail clipper set to go in it to round out the ‘owie’ fixers but that’s about all I can come up with at the moment.

Any ideas or comments would be welcome

It’s that time of year again so camping will become a priority for me. I decided it was time for a new shoulder bag to replace my old Korean War possibles bag pictured below:

My old Korean War bag

While it’s completely bomb proof it’s a bit on the small size, can’t fit my tarp underneath and I’m not happy with how I have to remove the strap to untie my poncho if it rains. I’ve been looking for a Finnish Gas Maskbag locally for awhile without luck but friday I came across a Czech army bread bag that’s just about the same thing for $14.00.

New Shoulder Bag

The best part is I can sling the poncho on top of the bag using those two little buckles so I can get to it easily and still be able to get into the bag anytime I want.  I added two 12″ bits of jute twine temporarily to the buckles with a larks head hitch and a simple overhand knot on the  other end that loops into the metal lip so that I can pull them loose very quickly in case of rain. I like that allot and will replace the jute twice later with something more robust when I edge the bag in leather.

Opening the bag up you’ll see the standard three small pocket design inside of the main compartment just like the Finnish bag but this one has a middle tie down strap to keep the sides from bulging out like the ‘Finbag’ tends to do when overloaded.

Shoulder bag open

While I like the strap system better than the ‘Finbag’ it is a bit thinner material so I’ll need to reinforce the main compartment opening with leather later. Here is the bag loaded with everything but my cook set and food:

Shoulder bag loaded

It’s a bit hard to tell but in the top left hand inner pocket I have a compass, hand warmer,  and water tablets. The middle inter pocket has a bag with my cheap headlamp and spare batteries. The right inner pocket has my fire kit, lighter, and container of pj-cotten balls.

For reference here is a pick of everything laid out:

Current contents of the bag

Contents from top left:

• Pouch holding my cheap Energizer headlamps (Wal-Mart) and spare batteries.
• Cheap $1.00 hand warmer from Target (left over from the winter).
• Shoulder bag, paracord bracelet, ancient repelling carabiner, and a compass carabiner.
• Silva Ranger compass and USGI compass bag.
• 3×3 green bandana and red automotive cleaning cloth.
• 1″ roll of gorilla tape with the spool removed and flattened for size.
• 250′ (ish) of #18 bank line + 20-25′ green paracord.
• 32oz SS Guyot water bottle.
• Flecktarn camo Poncho (best I’ve ever found – I’ll do a review).
• Cheap mechanics gloves.
• Container of pj-cotten balls.
•  Backup mora knife incase something happens to my belt knife.
• Cheap dealextrame flash light (I’ll do a review).
• ziplock bag with six water purifying tablets.
• $7.00 butane lighter insert.
• Fire kit – flint&steel+full container of char cloth with a ferro rod ranger banded to it.

The only things missing if I was going to do a easy overnighter would be my hammock and tarp rolled inside of a wool blanket (italian army surplus) strapped to my back and my cook kit which consists of a 38oz SS Guyot water bottle + nesting cup with a spork, salt/pepper, and a mini-bic lighter rolled up in a bandana inside the bottle. I sometimes carry a soda can stove or a military folding stove with me as well but I tend to like a real campfire when I’m out overnight.

Even with all of that I still have plenty of room for some snacks or even a full meal set with some creative packing. Overall I’m really happy with this bag and will compare it to the Finnish Gas Mask bag when I get it (I just ordered one for my son). I’ll have to take it out a few times before the kid and I go to the Pathfinder Gathering in June to see if it’s rugged enough to handle my less than graceful woodland antics so I’ll do a follow up in a few months with a final grade.