Survival: The Survival Monkey Fist

Some time ago I have seen a very nice survival set: It was a plastic ball filled with equipment and then wrapped in a monkey fist knot.

 

The price turned me off a bit and the badly performed knots (Hey, I AM a Master Mariner...) so I decided to make one myself.

 

The only real problem was to limit myself to stuff I would REALLY need in an emergency, elsewise I would need a HAMSTER BALL to fit all the equipment I wish I could carry with me.

 

But hey, I managed and here is the result:

A well performed 14 strand monkey fist.
Damn, I`m GOOD!

I found this ball made out of acryl plastic in the ship`s box with
Christmas decorations: This will do just fine!

The two halves fit tightly together.

Now I just need to fill it with a whole lot of survival goodness!

I`m adding some of these compressed napkins: They can be useful for capillary filtration , personal hygiene, protecting against heat stroke or as bandage.

What is a compressed napkin? Allow me to demonstrate: Take a napkin pellet...

...and add water. It will absorb all water (which makes it great for getting
 water out of hard-to-get places) and swell to its original size.

A small BIC lighter with ca 5 m of duct tape.

Acrylic glue: Always a winner, especially for treating wounds.

I`m a clean freak: So I got to have toothpaste!

Two Stanley blades will do for improvised knifes and as Improvised Compass.

5 freezer bags for SODIS and water transportation.

SOLAS reflective tape

Napkin pellets

Signal mirror

Alcohol swabs.

A Fresnel Lens for making a fire.

A magnet for the Improvised Compass

Tinfoil is always nice to have!

Sodium Hypchloride tablets for water purification.

And 6 tampons for water filtration.

Voila!

A monkey fist so large and with so thin cord is a challenging task.

I make a frame out of LEGO to avoid the biggest confusion.

And after a short while: Voila! The Survival Monkey Fist!

Survival: The Tinder Rasp & Tinder Cloth

The Ferro (-cerium) rod enjoys a near mythical status in survivalist circles, and allthough I prefer a good old BIC lighter in my pocket instead of the awkward (in packing terms) ferro rod: I do have several.

There are lots of ways to create a good, fast burning tinder you can use with the revered rod, some include pencil sharpeners, but most include knives and some fair share of whitteling.

These methods are great, and mostly used by some huge-knife wielding enthusiasts, but I prefer my more "grandma like" solution: 

The tinder rasp.

The rasp was born when I made my first loaf of Tree Bark Bread somewhere in 1994 during military training: It is just a humble piece of tin, preferably a jar lid but a soda/beer can will do the trick as well.

Much later I used tinder (made with the rasp) on some leftover wax cloth from my DIY Torch exploits: And that was truly a union made in heaven!

Rasp tinder + waxed cloth =
Total Success!

The tinder powder was easily ignited and sat the wax cloth on fire: Giving me a 4-7 minutes to use that stable flame to make a proper fire!

In the picture: DIY tinder rasp, rasp, was cloth and a flint striker (ferro rod).

Here I make tree flour / tinder with the tinder rasp.
The rasp will be collected in the jam jar.

How the lid looks like: Check my article Tree Bark Bread
on how I made it.

That`s a whole bunch of tinder / flour!

Enough talk! Let`s set fire to it!

Works every time!

Survival: The DIY Torch

Personally that`s one of the things I prepare for....not to be a part of an angry mob but to see same gather in front of my door: Bringing lots of rope. 

I just bring the best out in people...

However, I taught myself the high art of making torches quick and cheap..and then to mingle with the angry mob in front of my door.

This will work perfectly because the intelligence of any group is:

IQ of most intelligent person present (pets included) / persons in mob = IQ of mob.

Also we like to make torches for long walks at the North Sea at night (or at winter in a forest),to fight of mummies when I go treasure hunting in pyramids etc etc etc...its a Danish ting...


DIY torch in full blaze mode.

Speaking of mobs...

Melt some candles or paraffin granulate. Do it outside since the smell is
not to pleasant.

Here we go.

Take long strips of cotton, soak them in the melted wax
and roll them up on a stick.
TURN OF YOUR GAST STOVE AT THIS POINT!

This is how its supposed to look like: I used
about 5-6 strips of cloth/cotton, each not longer than 80 cm.

The "head" is pretty heavy, no wonder with 500 ml
of wax.

A tin foil hand guard to protect against dripping wax: GOOD idea!

Kelly Kettle Hack Nr. 3 - Cooking Eggs

Boiling water for tea/coffee and cooking eggs simultaneously with the Kelly Kettle is a little trick I taught myself during our pit stops on our favorite German camping site.

(Mostly during car rides from Poland to Denmark to visit my family. You can not beat 8 Euro tent fee compared to 180 Euro in some shitty highway hotel!)

Anyway, it is extremely easy to do. You just needs eggs and two sticks and wedge the egg in the Kelly Kettle`s spout so that the steam, from the boiling water, will pass it and effectively boil it. 

You`ll get hot water for morning coffee, porridge AND a cooked egg. BONUS!

Two sticks are enough to wedge the egg in the KK`s spout.

Superheated steam shan't go to waste anymore...

Here we go...

Some ten minutes later.

`nuff said!