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Here are some recent comments from readers and viewers:

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Video Survival Knife Review: Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife

From: Bug eater:

A few comments in regards to the BG survival knife video
1. Solar stills do work and are very effective if you know what your doing.
2. I would love to see you split wood with a butter knife. (If you can do that you should be able to build an effective solar still)
3. Those shelter can be built with just a knife. I have done it several times without any para cord and only a knife (my SRK).
4. SRK by Cold Steel is a solid knife. By far my favorite. I have used mine for over 15 years and will not replace it as my primary knife anytime soon.

From Leon:

1. Solar stills DO NOT work. Of the four I have been involved with, all of them combined didn’t produce enough water to repay the sweat it took to dig the holes. Survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt has been involved with over 40, in all sorts of terrain, and he affirms solar stills are a waste of time. Even the guys on “Dual Survival” don’t fool around with making solar stills.  IMO, the only thing solar stills do is dehydrate you further.

2. Splitting wood with any sort of wedge is more dependent on the type, dampness, length, grain, density and seasoning of the wood than the quality of the blade. Look for a video soon.

3. Maybe YOU can make such a shelter. But how long did it take you? Isn’t the idea to make a QUICK emergency shelter? My experience is that such shelters take several hours, if not all day, by the time you’ve gathered the correct materials and built the structure. And, anyone who must look at directions to construct such a shelter is going to take a lot longer time. This makes the illustrated example of such shelters unsuitable for emergency survival instructions. As much as I like the SRK, you also need a minimum of a saw and leather gloves to make those shelters.

4. I’ve used my SRK hard since 1991. Mine has dressed out over 50 deer and several elk. Despite all the different knives in my “collection” (actually it is more of “culinary accumulation”), I have no plans to replace the SRK as my primary knife. The SRK is my choice for the “If you could only have one…” category.

How to cope with the precipitation: Ten tips for comfortable camping in the rain

From Mike: Hi Leon, I have a question on rain gear. Will the ecwcs gen III level 6 Gortex work for me in Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, or will this be overkill for hiking?

From Leon: Can you give me a little more info? Elevation, humidity, temperature, level of activity?
Generally speaking, I think you’ll find that humidity and air pressure associated with rain CAN negate the benefits of Goretex.

I have had success in wet weather hiking by wearing knee-high gaiters and a long poncho. (I used a backpacking poncho during nine days of straight rain on the John Muir Trail. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call that choice comfortable, it was OK.) A poncho is not ideal in wind, obviously, but it can keep perspiration from building up underneath as much as a rain jacket might.

During cold, wet hiking, such as when the temps are in the 30s, perspiration won’t be as much of a problem as when there are rainforest temperatures.
Hiking in the rain can be miserable, so let me know if you find a good solution!

Does anyone out there have any experience with this product under these conditions?

What fire ignition system should you carry?

From E.B Young: I live in the mountains in Colorado – at nearly 9,000 feet – and we have very low humidity. That’s good for keeping food crisp, but bad for things like keeping a Zippo lighter fueled. I use small “craft bags” – clear plastic bags with zip lock tops – available at WalMart in the crafts section – to protect my lighters, matches, and other small things that either are allergic to water or suffer from evaporation issues.

The bags are cheap – one or two cents each, depending on size. I normally wrap my lighter and matches in two bags – one sealed inside the other. Evaporation of Zippo fuel has ceased being a problem – I get an easy couple of weeks worth of fire starting out of each fill – making sure to return the lighter to the bags after each use.I squeeze excess air out of the bags before sealing them, and that allows matches, prescription drugs, first aid supplies, etc. to be stored without the space lost by plastic or metal containers that are waterproof but have lots of leftover air inside. The bags are great for soft firestarters such as cotton balls soaked in Vaseline, spare AA or AAA batteries, sewing supplies (protect against the needles penetrating the bag by sticking them into a wine cork.

Their main purpose, however, is keeping my fire starting items dry and ready to use. I carry several with books of matches inside – to have access to a dry striking surface. I carry one bag with pre-cut copy paper – it makes very handy fire starting material.

But it’s the Zippo that has been the most important craft bag item.

From Leon: I tried sealing my Zippo with duct tape, but the fuel still evaporated too soon. I’ll try the plastic bags when it gets hot, and check them out.

Make a Winter Survival Kit For Your Vehicle

FROM: E.B. Young:  I live in the Colorado mountains and I prepare with the assumption that I will stay with the vehicle. I have two types of car bags – one that stays in the car, and one I remove overnight. Items that ought not freeze get removed whenever I will be out of the car long enough to allow them to freeze. Anything with a battery (batteries lose some to most of their capacity when they get cold) and nearly anything with water is in the “take inside” bag.

I keep four foil “freezer bags” – the ones you get at the dollar store for carrying frozen food – so that 2 people can put each foot in one. You get a lot of cold through the floor of a vehicle (and against the leg closest to the door) – especially if the engine isn’t able to run – and the bags both insulate against the floor AND trap your body heat to keep it around your feet. It is hard for your feet to stay warm when you’re sitting – the blood flow is sometimes a problem – so conserving heat in your feet is important. It is typically hard to wrap a blanket around your feet – and make it stay wrapped – and the bags free you of that challenge. I carry at least six blankets and one or two sleeping bags – depending upon the forecast. Minus twenty F is not an unusual temperature where I live – so multiple blankets and sleeping bags are necessary. Most

articles say “keep a blanket!”

I recommend sitting in your car one evening when the outside temperature is about 40 degrees – in your driveway – dressed as you normally dress when driving. Wrap your blanket around yourself and measure how long it is before you are shivering. You’ll understand that one blanket is not nearly enough – and may lead you astray because you thing you are “prepared.” One of the commenters mentioned the Catholic altar candles – I carry eight.

You can get that at WalMart, City Market (Kroger) and most dollar stores wherever there is a reasonably large Hispanic population. They cost about $1.50 apiece, are contained in a thick glass holder, and burn for several days. Two or three of these will warm up a pickup cab – you may need more for a minivan – and you need to be careful to crack a window to get some air. Use of candles is one reason I keep a Carbon Monoxide detector in my car kit – the other reason is idling the engine in a snowstorm when the snow might drift under the car and cause the CO to fill the vehicle. The CO detector is in the “take inside” bag – it has a battery. Most CO detectors are designed for 110v usage and do not run long on batteries. I keep the battery out of the unit except when I need it.

One of the blankets – folded into several thicknesses – goes on the floor under my feet. That helps insulate against the cold being transferred through the floor soaking into my feet. I spend several nights each year in my vehicle – either while traveling or camping – and managing the cold through the floor is a bigger deal than I initially realized. Another blanket – folded into several thicknesses – goes between me and the door. There’s not a lot of mass in a door, and during the night you may move toward the door and find that it gets very cold by the door. Those of you who fly may have noticed getting cold if you are in a window seat on the shady side (either side at night) of the plane. The cold coming through the skin of the aircraft pulls heat from you. The blanket helps reduce that heat loss. You have now – assuming two people in the car – used four blankets. I use a combination of blankets and winter clothing to handle the rest.

Peter Kummerfeldt: Common Sense Emergency Survival Shelters

From Sue S.: I am very impressed with all the insight and information Peter puts into his blog. I live in the Rockies and I thought that I was always prepared when I go hiking, and I have a good survival kit. I take the same kit for short or longer hikes and I have those light weight silver tarps, and also one that is a sleeping bag.

A couple of years ago I was bushwacking with my son and my two dogs and I broke my ankle near the top. My son used my Yak tracks, wood and laces to fashion a splint and he also made me a crutch. I had a knife as well, but not as big as my son’s and it would have taken longer if we used my smaller knife. My son had me splinted and had made the crutch in under 20 minutes. I had to make my way down on my butt, but I wasn’t really concerned as we had our emergency shelter kit, which also has survival items for the dogs.

I am embarrassed to say that I had not opened and inspected the silver tarps, and if I did, I would realize that they were inadequate. Now I will be going out to get some thicker tarps and thicker garbage bags (and a bigger knife) and I will be checking anything new to the kit before I go out hiking. Also, duct tape is your best friend. My son has encouraged me to look at your surroundings and to be aware.

Thanks Peter.

Survival recipe: Squirrel spaghetti

From Pete W.

Leon,

Pleeease stop torturing me! Lol. What, for heavens sake, is step one? How do you skin those little critters (squirrels, rabbits, etc.) Stop the recipe thing and teach us how to trap and skin those little suckers first. Survival 101. Thank you. Your loyal and frustrated fan.

From Leon: Pete – step one is that I must first legally kill a squirrel, and that means  following existing game laws! But I did find this video that shows one good skinning method. I have used the technique shown several times, but tend to use another, where the bone is removed from the tail. I save the tails for making fishing lures, and don’t want them to get too fragrant!

Survive this: Make a Garbage Bag Shelter Part of Your Survival Kit

From: Pete M.

Common sense… For some it is uncommon. If every hiker had enough common sense to take five pounds of survival gear with them we would have a lot fewer dead, lost hikers.
I spent many nights in the field with a similar sleeping set up. We used a poncho and liner, called a ranger roll, and rolled up in it like a burrito. A Willy Pete bag, like a trash bag, over my feet and legs was used for added insulation.
One common sense note: Keep your water near your body or inside your shelter in freezing temperatures otherwise it will freeze, leaving you thirsty with split canteens.

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