Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Every Day Carry - Altoids Survival Tin



It's been awhile since I posted.  Got a job at a cool place to work and kind of threw myself into it.  Today I'd like to post something about another passion of mine, Every Day Carry - EDC.  What EDC means is these are the items you carry everyday, to survive.  Survival takes many forms - a forest ranger or farmer has very different EDC needs than someone living in the city.  And if the proverbial shit hits the fan, SHTF, then your EDC will be extra important.

Couple years ago I did an Altoids EDC kit for friends and family as a Christmas gift.  A photo of it can be found on Instagram courtesy of my friend and ex co-worker, Ben Ellis.  The podcast can be listened to here and a photo of me is here.  Ben is a fantastic photographer and he can make anyone look good!

The kit was a lot of fun to make.  It was personalized by person as my sister has way different EDC needs than my brother.  For example, her kit included a cork screw.  His kit included a fishing kit.  I'll have to look and see if I have any photos of the kit in general.  I've started making a public list on Amazon with most of the items in the Altoids EDC kit as well as many other items I love for the inevitable Apocalypse.  

I wanted to include some pictures.   
The first one shows the Gerber SLT 2.5 in the Altoids tin.  You'll notice that the thin, compact design makes it fit nicely into the Altoids Tin at 3 3/8" long, 3/16" thick and not very wide.  
Choose your fire starters - You can have flint with striker, mini bic, you must have some fluff to start the fire, water and wind proof matches and of course, the obligatory fire starter paracord.  That red twist is the flammable component, but you can purchase 50' of it and have great climbing cord.


The knife with packaging as well as the awesome strong lumes little flashlight

Similar to the other pictures, medication is another item where options abound.  You can get a small metal container and fit all your normal OTC in it, get some pre-packaged items like shown here. Don't forget the Benadryl and Imodium as seen in photo in upper left hand corner.  I trim the bubble packaging to minimize space.  another alternative is wrapping your OTC in tinfoil and labeling with a sharpie for what it is, e.g. A for aspirin, Nap for Aleve, T for Tylenol, etc.