Survival Gear

5 Reasons You Should Pack a Field Sharpener

Whether you’re planning a camping trip or an expedition to the Amazon Jungle, success is all about preparation. The jobs we ask our blades to do outdoors can really punish an edge. When you’re in a remote area, effective abrasives won’t be available and yet you’re going to need a sharp knife to be productive. The good news is there are affordable solutions available.

Here are 5 reasons a field sharpener should be a mandatory part of your kit:

1. Blades Dull Faster in the Field
When you’re in the field, the jobs at hand are going to wear out your edge faster than when you’re at home. Batoning, whittling, and field-dressing game will challenge even the hardest super steels, let alone softer steels like 1095. When your blade inevitably dulls, a field sharpener is the most effective and easiest way to get that essential edge working again.

2. A Dull Blade Will Slow you Down
Even with a sharp knife, survival experts say that major jobs like building a shelter are going to wear your hands out. But, the extra force it takes to make cuts with a dull knife will slow you down, consume more of your energy, and cause blisters and hand fatigue. What started as a few hours’ work with a sharp knife can turn into a day-long ordeal with a blunter edge.

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LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

The award-winning LifeStraw personal water filter can travel with you anywhere. Weighing just two ounces and measuring only nine inches long, LifeStraw is ideal for hiking, backpacking, camping, travel, and emergency preparedness. The straw-style filter design lets you turn up to 264 gallons of contaminated water into safe drinking water, filtering out protozoa and bacteria.

Size: 9″ long x 1″ in diameter (22.5cm x 2.5cm)

Colors available: Light blue with dark blue end caps

Weight: Roughly two ounces

MSRP: $19.99

Applications: Hunting , camping, emergency-response scenarios, any outdoor-style activity

Pros:

Very affordable
Lightweight
Easy to use, with no moving parts

Cons:

None that are readily apparent

Overall performance:
The LifeStraw is an amazingly simple piece of kit that can save your life. The human body will need clean drinkable water more than it needs food, and the LifeStraw has been proven by the United Nation and the Environmental Protection Agency to provide water that is 99.9 percent free of waterborne bacteria including E. Coli and Salmonella.

It will also remove 99.9 percent of all Giardia and Cryptosporidium while removing turbidity (suspended solids in water). If you camp, hike, hunt, or do any outdoor activity, then you need this. I have had friends who were hunting and almost died due to dehydration. They ended up contracting a mild case of Giardia from drinking out of tainted water sources. These same friends now pack a LifeStraw in their camp packs every time they go out. At a cost of $19.99, they make an attractive stocking stuffer.

The LifeStraw can be purchased here.

Featured image courtesy of Lifestraw

Ogre MFG Fish Attractant | First Impressions

I’m gonna say something that will make you call BS on me. Then I’ll back it up. I’ve killed hundreds of thousands of fish. Maybe close to a million in salmon alone. Lest you think I’m an octopus with 8 fly rods and a mainline of coffee, the majority of that was commercial fishing. I started over twenty years ago. In one good season, a boat might haul in over 1 million lbs of pink salmon alone. Long before that though, my dad had me casting a little spinner rod at the family cabin. Nestled between the trees and a creek laden with cutthroat, steelhead, salmon and rainbow trout, it was there I cut my teeth on sport fishing. Within a few years, I had worked my way into a nice fly rod and kept plucking away, working alongside the black bears to win our dinner.

I’ve spent a decent amount of money looking for that competitive edge. Hunting scents, magical fishing hooks and workout drinks have occasionally sold me on the notion of a easier road to travel. Usually, I end up somewhere between underwhelmed and frustrated, so to say I’m a bit skeptical of such things would be accurate.

Enter “Here Fishy Fishy” fish attractant by Ogre manufacturing of Milwaukee, WI. The website lets me know this has been successful on a few species of fish and is made using all natural ingredients. I was a bit dubious until I popped the lid and took a whiff. I don’t know what the ingredients are, but I can say it smells almost exactly like our trolling bait for coho and king salmon: salted herring.

Illness prevented me from taking this out the last two times I had planned on fishing, but as soon as I get a chance to use this product I’ll let you know exactly how well it worked for me.

Stay tuned…

PACELid | Review

Recently I saw an ad on Facebook for an item called the PACElid. A PACElid is a cap that also functions as a storage container for your wide mouth Nalgene, Kleen Kanteen, and Camelbak water bottles. It looked like an interesting concept so I ordered one. The PACElid is made from a high impact plastic, I found it to strong (I dropped it a time or two during my testing) and did not leak at any time during my use of it on my water bottle.

I usually take a Camelbak water bottle with me when I’m flying so that I can fill it up and not have to buy a bottle of overpriced water at the airport. I thought about what I would want to store in the container section of the cap and decided that since I like to put the bottle in the pocket of the seat in front of me so that I don’t have to dig through my bag that I’d put a few items I’d want within reach at all times. In the cap I put two packets of Tylenol, some stomach medicine, a couple cough drops, and my Ipod and ear buds.

I could have fit something else in there had I wanted but these were the items I decided on. It worked out great when I recently traveled to Croatia for a seminar and used the PACElid. It worked out great as soon as I boarded. I stowed my carry on bag took the water bottle with PACElid on it and had the small items I wanted at hand. The PACElid is offered in a few different colors and different color replacement lids are available. They also have some prepacked as survival and medical kits.

The base model is $19.99 and can be ordered at https://pacelid.com/.

Author – Art Dorst served in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves and eventually retired as an NCO from The Army National Guard. He is also a retired municipal Police Officer, a Certified EMT, NRA Instructor, and is currently a security provider/trainer.

The Wilderness Fire Bag

We have covered several EDC articles in the past covering everything from knives and flashlights to handguns. These items are what you’ll typically find in an urban, or city EDC. When it comes to being out in the woods those items may not be ideally suited. Most units in the Military that deploy will have ‘kit bags’ containing their gear for specific applications/environments. They never have just one kit and use that for every mission. Each mission has specific criteria which requires specific gear. The same goes for your everyday carry loadout. For example, although a knife could always be useful in the woods, the one you carry everyday around the city (or to work) may not be the best knife for the woods, or backcountry. We’ll cover that later in the article.

When I travel into the woods for day hikes, whether it’s a quick few hours or all day, I always have a standard set of gear on my person. I’m somewhat if a minimalist and prefer to travel on the lighter side. The items I discuss in this article are what I have found work for me based upon time out in the woods (you will need to determine what you actually use and need). You’re kit may contain a few more items and that is totally fine. As you spend more time in the woods and practice your skills you’ll become more confident in your abilities, which will translate into a lighter more streamlined loadout.

Let’s dive into the kit that I use:

First off let’s take a look at the knife that I have on my person at all times when going out into the woods. That knife is the Gerber Gator Drop Point Folder. The Gerber Gator line of folding knives have been around since 1991. During my enlistment in the Marine Corps (that started in 1993) I purchased a Gerber Gator and that became my primary knife when out in the field. That knife stood the test of time and survived many field exercises and deployments without ever failing me. Having built that kind of trust in this particular blade is why I continue to carry one today when out in the woods.

The Gerber Gator has a durable edge with corrosion resistance thanks to the bead blasted 154CM blade steel. The knife contains no washers and no bearings, just a piece of steel with an FRN Gator grip handle and a robust lock. You could leave this knife out in the rain for a month, wipe it off, throw some oil on the pivot and you’re good to go. If you’re looking for a knife you can take out into the woods, thrash around, and not care if it gets wet, then this is the knife for you. You could call it an affordable working man’s field knife.

Along with my knife I carry a metal match case full of UCO Strike Anywhere matches. Yes, that’s right I carry matches. Frowned upon by many, but they are easy to use and if kept dry can get you a fire going relatively quickly (if you do your part in gathering the proper material for a tinder bundle). The metal match case I use and prefer is an old school style made by Marbles. It’s compact, water tight, and durable.

Other items I may choose to carry to assist with fire making are; a Bic lighter, my flint & magnesium bar (similar to what I carried in the Marine Corps), and a few pieces of pine fat wood. Again, a lot of people discount the magnesium bars as not being reliable, but with time and practice you can hone your skills and become quite proficient with starting a fire using the magnesium. Having the pine fat wood gives you an advantage in inclement weather to have something dry and combustible to ignite with any of the ignition sources mentioned.

Now that we have covered the individual items carried we need a way to carry those. I personally do not enjoy loading up my pockets with this stuff. It becomes uncomfortable and makes it more difficult to access the items. At times I have put the Marbles match case in my front pocket, but that’s it. Typically to carry these items I use a Fire Bag. The Fire Bag is designed and manufactured by Malcolm Coderre at the Hidden Woodsmen. The bag is made from 1000D Cordura which is highly abrasion resistant and water-resistant.

Although the Fire Bag was designed to carry a fire kit, it was not intentionally designed to be carried as a belt pouch. Due to the the design (strip of Velcro at the top), you can utilize a lightweight climbing carabiner as a way to attach it to your belt. The carabiner is held in place by the aggressiveness of the velcro allowing you to clip it directly onto your belt or belt loops of your pants.

This kit is not much, but as long as I’m dressed appropriately for the weather, the Gerber Gator knife and my belt kit will allow me to endure an unexpected night or two in the woods.

SOFREP Mini Crate Club | Exotac

The two items from Exotac we are taking a look at are the fireSLEEVE and polySTRIKER. Both items serve a critical purpose for any go-bag. Fire starting is a critical survival skill to know if you spend any time in the woods or austere environments. Here at the Loadout Room we have covered fire starting in several articles due to the importance of knowing what kit to have and how-to actually get a fire going.

Typically in my fire kits I prefer to have 3 methods of ignition. My go to piece for ignition is the bic lighter. The bic lighter is compact and easy to use. If you need a fire in emergency conditions you’ll want instant flame. With the bic lighter you get instant gratification of the flame (flick my bic). They are also cheap and available almost anywhere. Even though these are great to have in your kit they do have one downfall. That is if they get wet, more often than not they will not work and you’ll have to wait for them to dry out. Exotac has the perfect solution to that problem and that is the fireSLEEVE. The fireSLEEVE is a rugged waterproof housing that contains your bic lighter. It also has a rubberized cap that is easy on/off. The cap is a friction fit that creates a waterproof seal keeping the lighter itself and flint dry and ready to use.

The second piece of kit I always have in my fire kit is a ferrocerium rod. The benefit to these are they are lightweight and waterproof. They do require some practice to become proficient with. They come in several different diameters and lengths. For a minimalist go-bag I prefer to keep things lightweight. In my personal experience you get what you pay for and that includes the ferro rod. Yes there are cheaper ones, but they do not produce sparks consistently, requiring more strikes which wastes material on the rod. It can be a challenge to find a smaller ferro rod that is both durable and made with quality materials. Exotac makes a ferro rod called the polySTRIKER. The polySTRIKER is an ultra-light, long-lasting, and waterproof ferro rod that produces sparks over 5000 degree F.

If you’re looking to either build a fire kit or bolster an existing kit then take a look at these two items from Exotac.