A place for me to review the various rugged, nifty and needful kit that I've accumulated, for every-day preparedness in the event of accident, disaster or world-shifting end-times Apocalypse, be it zombies, triffids or Mayan divide-by-zero errors.
One of my readers came across an item on one of my favorite gadget-sites, and thought I should know about it. Turns out, I already have one, or similar at least, but I thought it apt to tell you all a bit about it too. This is a Wire Saw. For those of you who have never seen one, it is a strand (or strands) of wire with some form of edge cut into it. Mine has a spiraling ridge that is cut into the strand running the length of the high-tensile wire. I have also had one that had circular grooves cut into the entire length of the wire, (confiscated by airport security somewhere...). The way these are used is to drape the wire over the item to be cut (wood, plastic, soft metals, bone, whatever) and by tensioning the wire with the rings, cutting by drawing it back and forth.
Because it's a flexible tool, and includes the split rings at each end, the length of draw can be extended by adding cords, which can even enable you to cut overhanging, out of reach or hard-to reach spots. You can also fit it to a flexible pole to make a bow-saw. The offering from Zazz has a multiple strand wire which is probably more sturdy and lasting, as well as giving a better bite and cut. I've used mine to cut a dangling broken branch as thick as my forearm which was blocking a CFA water-truck whilst at a festival, much to the volunteers delight, to rough-cut 2x4 planks and to put notches into poles for lashing purposes. Never a problem with cutting, no failures. Bear in mind this isn't nearly as bitey as a proper toothed sawblade, or a chain-saw (even the manual kind, thanks to Ken of Modern Survival Blog), but its light, packs to nothing and won't cut your gear even when stored haphazardly.
One of these features in the Bear Grylls' Ultimate Survival Pouch that I reviewed a while back, and I can't recommend them enough to anyone who adventures in the wide and wild outdoors, wants to be ready in case of disasters, or perhaps just wants to look like a bad-ass zombie-decapitating mall-ninja! I keep mine in my messenger bag, I'll let you be the judge of my mall-ninjaness.
I was thinking about my upcoming fact-finding trip to New Zealand for work next week, and the ever present risk of my EDC setting off the metal detectors, potential porno-scanner, eagle-eyed Customs Officers, and PsyCorps Kirlian Photography(just kidding) that we are likely to see at airports these days. I usually have to go through my bags and harness pretty well before visiting airports, better safe than sore-assed, I say. It does bug me that the times when I might just need a bunch of my kit, say, waking up on the side of a smoking mountain after an unscheduled stop.
Two of those items are these little pretties. These credit-card sized metal tools have a lot of analogues, as my fellow blogger Ninja Space Monkey has commented on and I thought I would cover the two that I have in my EDC. The first I've had in my wallet for many years. It features a can-opener, and circular cutting edge, a wide flat-head driver, and a narrow, flathead which can also drive Phillips head screws. On two edges are metric and imperial rulers, and a set of nut drivers, listed as 7-13 and 9/32-1/2 as well as a nail file. I've probably used the file more than anything, although, the occasional loose nut has been tightened.
This one came in a goodie-bag at a festival that someone who loves me went to, and brought back for me. It appears to be a knock-off of a Best Glide ASE tool but could just be re-badged for promotional purposes. Either way, its jam-packed with features, including a knife, a rather wicked saw blade, a can opener, a bottle top opener, a flathead driver, slot for various size wrenches, a butterfly screw driver, a bearing plate for a button compass as well as a ruler and lanyard hole. It's a thicker tool than the wallet-one, and smaller overall. It came with a protective case, which given how bitey the saw is, is warranted. It lives in my messenger bag and hasn't actually been put to use, but was impressive and petite enough to lug around every day.
For the urban prepared, this kind of gadget can be quite a force multiplier and problem solver. Perhaps not life-saving or horde defeating, but there are times when they can be very very useful, especially when no one else has tools on hand. If this kind of thing appeals, and you'd like to add some mass to your wallet, have a look at Touch Of Ginger, who I found via Ninja Space Monkeys' page as well. Fun wallet-toys.
Here is a piece of disaster preparedness hardware that has been serving since the 1940's, and will likely continue to do so for the forseable future. This is the all-steel US Government Issue tri-fold entrenching tool. I picked mine up, as many would, in an army disposal store, and have never regretted it. This folds out to 56cm when fully extended, and collapses down to a mere 23cm when fully folded. This is not a thing of beauty, unless like me you find beauty in sheer utilitarian design. Lets start at the business end.
The heavy steel shovel head is edge-sharpened along all four dirt-hitting sides, with a broad and chunky blade-edge, not fine enough to be bothered by rocks and other dirt-dwelling blade-chippers, and yet bitey enough to cut roots and dig into hard or cloying soil. In fact, I have used the flat-side edge to chop trees, and split logs, and the tip to spike said logs for hauling and shifting one log out of a pile. The length of the unit lends itself to use when kneeling or crouching.
The rolled-back-end makes a good boot purchase point, but its not a full
length shovel, and that changes how it works. The other side of the shovel-head is saw-toothed, giving you a saw-option, for times when hacking at roots or cables isn't working out in whatever ditch you are digging.
I haven't had much use for the saw-side, but it's one of those things I'm glad it has, because I -might- need it some time. One thing I love about this particular model is that the shovel head can be adjusted to sit at 90 degrees, with the locking collar screwed down tightly, and converts a shovel into a hoe, which is a great option for those times when either there isn't much head-space in your trench, or scooping is more important than shoveling. I've found that for pulling cast-iron cookware out of fires, managing coals and flattening the bottom of trenches the hoe-configuration just can't be beaten.
Folded up the shovel packs into this press-stud closure case, which attaches with a pair of ALICE clips. I take this tool with me every time I go camping, and it rides on my belt when I am out doing Stargate lasertag LRP. The added weight of it on my hip is small consequence to the utility of having it on hand, and I would consider it an essential part of my preparedness gear list. I would love to compare its effectiveness with that of the GearUpCentral Crovel in a task-by-task lineup. My all-steel tri-foldup has never given me reason to doubt its efficacy, as a shovel, improv axe, pry bar, or impromptu hammer. Like most of what I carry and collect, its ruggedness, multi-function design and capability makes it a much loved and valued addition to my kit.
Here's some PPE that I wanted to share with you, but had all but forgotten, as it was sitting buried in my gear-bag. I have had a variety of knee-pads over the years, for rollerblading, Fantasy LRP events and costuming. One thing I've always had issues with is the fit, and having my pads slipping around to the side. I'm going to blame my boney knees and skinny calves for that. Whilst the pads I've used in past have never spectacularly failed me (especially in some bigish rollerblading crashes) they've rarely been comfortable, and and have either pinched and rubbed or slipped and slid. One thing that occurred to me that perhaps I was using the wrong equipment for the task I was performing. Running about the bush and up and down hills isn't the same as roller-hockey or speed skating. So I looked to tactical gear. Blackhawk! had these Advanced Tactical Knee Pads v2.0 to offer, and I wanted to tell you what I have found with them.
The body is made from sturdy 600D Cordura, which encloses the closed cell foam interior padding. Closed cell foam doesn't absorb sweat or incidental water, for both comfort and keeping the weight of the pads down. The kop of the knee pad is injection molded plastic, which is articulated below the kneecap, with a soft rubber join. This design allows the knee to be bent, without producing much in the way of either pinching of the padding, or gaps opening up in the pad. I was really impressed with this feature, and have found no troubles with the coverage it's offered me. The strapping also deserves some discussion too. As well as the sturdy plastic furniture on the "outside" edge, and the wide elastic strapping which is fitted with long and well placed strips of hook-and-loop, the straps are affixed to the body of the pad, featuring seamed and padded flaps that wrap the padding and strapping around the wearers knee.
Both the top and bottom straps are well placed and give a good solid attachment, without interfering with mobility overly. A very useful and well thought out additional element of this pad is that inside the kneepad there is a contoured interior ledge of the same closed cell-foam. This sits above the wearers knee-cap, and keeps the pad seated in the right position no matter what I've thrown at it, thus far. Blackhawk! offer this in Black, Coyote Tan, Foliage Green, and Olive Drab. I opted for Coyote in this case, and its worked out nicely for me thus far. I've been happy with the protection these have offered me both whilst out adventuring and my Stargate Lasertag LRP, but also out rollerblading. Rugged, functional and adjustable. A good choice.
I wanted to spread the word about a really cool product I saw online recently, (with thanks to Soldier Systems for the original link), that I haven't managed to put my hands on yet, but would dearly love to. I've yanked some pictures from their site, so you can see how cool these things are. These are the Kit Bags by Hill People Gear. Essentially what they offer is front-packs for runners and back-country trekers who want to have some needfuls high and tight on their fronts, and off their hips and backs. This is a brilliant idea, and I was really impressed. In their front-pack line, Hill People Gear offer three options in design; the Kit Bag, their biggest pouch, shown here in "coyote", the Runner Kit Bag, which is a slimmer version of the Kit Bag, for those running-about types who don't want a load of gear on them, and their Recon Kit Bag, which is essentially the Runner Kit Bag with 8 channels and 3 rows of PALS/MOLLE grid sewn to the front.
The packs are made of 500D Cordura for a tough but light finish, with hefty zippers with plastic nubbed pulls for ease of opening. The packs come with webbing straps and hefty furniture and Fastex buckles that connect at the back as a mesh backed H harness with a Grimlock based docking system that they say will connect with most packs as well as giving a natural hang without those uncomfortable twists than can sometimes occur when mounting different systems together. The Kit Bag measures 11.5 x 7 x 2", and the Runner/Recon version is 1" deep. All versions feature two sets of pockets, with the Kit Bag having 2 slot pockets and 2 matching dummy cord loops in each, and the Runner/Recon just featuring these in the front compartment. Both designs are set up to carry concealed pistols in the inner compartment, which whilst is a cool idea, isn't a selling pint for me in particular. However, I can see the value in it for a lot of people in unpleasant countries. The bottom of the pouches feature attachment points for stabilising loops which they also stock, but are extras, as well as spare "lifters" for ease of attachment your pouch to different packs. They are offered in "coyote", "foliage", "Ranger Green" and MultiCam. They have one stock photo of a pack in "khaki" which is my preferred colour, but I've asked them what they can do for me ...
All in all, the functionality, ruggedness and modularity were big selling points to me, and I would really love to get my paws on one, maybe run it through the Tough Mudder challenge... otherwise, its certainly on my Wish-Lust-list!
Here is a quick one today, of another piece of climbing kit that I recently added to my collection. After reading a thorough review by ITS's Jeff More I was inspired to seek some out for myself. There are the Omega Pacific Rappel Rings. These solid forged aluminium rings are really elegant, and fit in the hand very nicely. Apart from having great aesthetics (and a Particular name emblazoned on their sides), the functionality of these is belied by their subtle design. The rings are rated as having a 20kN minimum breaking strength (around 2000kg or 4400lbs).
The manufacturer goes to lengths to state they are not intended for repeated lowering, not to be used as a rappel or belay device (e.g. ATC, SBGII, Figure-8 or any other friction device). They state that it is intended solely as a hardware alternative to bail-out slings, webbing and cord, and that advice should be headed. That said, I see the utility of the device as a means to reducing rope-on-rope friction, as an ad-hoc pulley or cinching point. I have yet to use mine as Jeff from ITS has, but I'll be keeping a set in my bug-out-bag as well as a set with my regular climbing kit. Having a set of rings to feed rope through for hoisting and binding, through to use as a rappelling station appeals greatly to me. Now to acquire some tubular webbing and fashion a set of slings!
I also have a set I have been keeping in my pocket, if for no other reason that they chime nicely, and have served as a chew-toy for Tactical-Baby up untill this week, when she cut her first tooth. Still, I hope to find a number more uses for these simple, expendable tools.
Stepping off my previous post about "Where will you be when -it- happens" I thought I might take some time to discuss my thoughts on the places I find myself, and perhaps this might give you some insights and starting points to your own disaster preparedness regime. As I mentioned previously, I find myself in several different locations in the course of my everyday life; home, my commutes, work, the foothills where Triceratops Girl lives. Whenever I go somewhere, I tend to assess things like entrances and exits, pinch and bottleneck points. High ground, low ground and secured areas also seem to trickle into my subconscious assessments. So, here we go.
Home: I live in what we call "the shittiest house in the street", in what is easily one of Melbourne's top suburbs. Our house is a fairly dilapidated '50's design with brick walls, and a tiled roof. Wooden picket fencing around the front yard, standard (but decrepit) wooden fence along side and back corner and a brick wall along the other. A large metal rolling gate gives access to the backyard and a wooden gate at the front side runs to an outside corridor between front and back yards. We have a street-side window with wooden shutters off the side bedroom and shutterless sliding sash windows at the front two rooms. All in all I feel our house is really indefensible and disaster-vulnerable in its current state. We live in quite a low-lying suburb, close to the bay, often in a weather-front. We have good relations with our neighbors and I've certainly cased -their- properties for survival options. We have food, water and livestock, not to mention my own supply of kit, and enough steel and steel-competent people to make use of it, and ensure
it stays where we need it to.
There are several properties with high blue-stone walls and metal gates, several with solar power and hot water installed and most have water-tanks. One thing we have plenty of in our street is 4WD options, several may have even seen dirt.In the event of a local or widespread environmental disaster, I'm not sure how well our house would hold up, we could tape up the windows, board up the frames with planks from the fence, and the scrap timber I keep around, but it's certainly not ideal. Images of Japan's 2011 tsunami and the 2010-2011 Queensland Floods strike home the risks rising waters have to homes. I've lived in hurricane regions before, storm damage is something
I'm familiar with, if not experienced in.
Work: I've previously mentioned I work in a health care facility, with a large research capacity. Our facility is heavily regulated and as such is designed to reflect that. It does however suffer from something that many older hospitals do, in that over the years, it has subsumed neighboring buildings, so is a little piecemeal in organization. We have fail-over generators, full steam and compressed gasses facility. Full kitchens and sterilization facilities and fire-fighting, alarming and evacuation processes exist as well as many of the other perks of being a facility of our nature. Being close in to the city we are on the CBD power grid, which has during the peak of summer heatwaves lead to some issues, as has the rare electrical storm, protest and manhunt. The nature of our work also poses its own risks, with radiological treatment being offered, we have those agents to contend with. Our patient cohort are not acute, emergency care, so we are not a point-of-call for outbreak situations, but we do have a fair proportion of immuno-compromised individuals who are very susceptible to infection.We have an animal house for research purposes, and extensive research facilities. There are a lot of resources at hand in the event of catastrophic events, but at the same time, are in the line of fire if they occur. We also boarder with a large hotel, and large government facilities which each presents it own interesting complexity. One thing hospitals are good at though, are operational security. Few entrances, and somewhat regulated movement. Being operationally self-sufficient to some stage mean that in the event of local or regional emergency, they will continue to function at some level longer than most other forms of workplace.
Foothills: I've also previously mentioned the property where my little Triceratops Girl spends most of her time, which is situated in a somewhat mountainous, heavily forested region of the Dangenong ranges, on a dirt road, off a dirt road. Its is still fairly heavily populated, you can see all the neighbors houses, even being over an hour's drive or train from the city it is still very much suburban in nature, even embedded in the trees and mountains such as it is. Torrential rainfall in the wet months and steaming bushland in the dry, the area has its shortfalls, but is otherwise tranquil and doesn't get a lot of non-local traffic. The scenic vintage railway runs through the area, and features both a coal powered and diesel powered means of transport out further from the city, which is independent of local electrical power, which can be spotty in the weather-affected seasons.The risks of bushfires such as the 2009 Black Saturday Fires where there were 173 deaths and 2,030 houses destroyed are an ever-present specter in the hot months. During storms the area is susceptible
to flooding, roads being cut or washed out and the risk of the tall Eucalyptus trees falling, or dropping their large branches on houses, power-lines or roads. I lived up there for a number of years, and it is quite a relief to not be faced with those frequent worries, even though my daughter Triceratops Girl still lives up there, and I commute up to see or or collect her a couple of times a week.
Commute: I take a 30 minute train ride to and from work every weekday, with a change of train just outside the city and a subway ride to get to my destination. On nights when I do kendo, that's a slightly longer subway ride from a different station in the City Loop. I mostly walk around the city, with the occasional tram ride to speed things up. The trains run pretty well, but being an ex-IRA-bombing-era London resident, there is something disconcerting about being in a large metal tube jammed full of my fellow commuters underground. I know it's very very unlikely, but it's always on my mind. Not to mention my favourite scene in Predator 2, "Let's dance...". Again, for what it's worth, I always look to my exits, both on the trains and on their routes. Those pauses when your train is sitting waiting for clearance at the next station are great times to look out the window, and if you're lucky, you will see the network of connecting tunnels, emergency exits and the like that exist. The same goes for elevators and escalators. I'm always left wondering "which of you seemingly normal looking assheads are going to loose it and be part of the problem?" I'm not bothered by crowds on a psychological level, purely a survival and psycho-social one.
On my long weekly drives, I go under two railways, over another, cross a floodway bridge, and over two freeways. Lots of bridges that could conceivably fail and leave be stranded on the wrong side. I have a paper map book and compass in the event my phones GPS isn't up to finding me a way around for whatever reason and try to keep a mental map of refuge, refilling and regrouping points along my way. Traffic pinch points are another concern. Time spent stuck in traffic is time waisted getting where I'm needed, or away from whatever needs avoiding. Peak hour driving takes on an aspect of survival training with the right mindset. "how would this route cope with one less lane, two less? If obscured by smoke or rain?"
What does this all mean? Why is any of this important?
In the event of an emergency, where you are, where you need to be, and where you want to go are all key elements that may well change dramatically, without notice or announcement. What you have on you at the time may be the only resourcing you have at hand, but odds are, simply knowing your environment may well put many more resources at your disposal. Consider your situation, consider the options. Adapt, innovate, overcome.
