Welcome to my predjudiced and opinionated ideas on survival stuff! Feel free to email me with ideas for improvement - I take constructive criticism well!

I have a directory with copies of all the articles from the now closed Outdoor-Magazine. These are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and so you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read them. This free reader is available at: Adobe Please take the time to make sure that your reader is a current version, if you use a Windows Operating System. Some earlier versions of Acrobat have a potential security problems. The directory with the articles is HERE. My apologies that you have to enable javascript to read the articles via a browser plugin, but that's just the way things work. So: if you left mouse click you should be able to read articles directly in your browser. You can then choose file on the top menu and "save page as..." to save article. Alternately, you can right mouse click and choose "save target as..." in order to save directly.

I just collected together some things that I've tried or learned about. You'll probably want to go over to the survival forums at Knifeforums Bladeforums, or Plainsman's to get more detail..

For a tidier index page in Java - please click HERE.Thanks!

I have some new stuff - which won't bore people so much because I didn't write the articles. Thanks to V- Shrake we have some new articles to read!

First is an article on personal survival kits:

And of course an urban survival kit:

The Survivalist's Travel Pack:

New - A SAK based Fob Kit:

Next an article on building a survival vest for carrying more stuff - and doing it cheaply!

A weapon is just a hunting tool. Here's how to get started with a bow and spear. This is good information which should encourage people to try things with their local wood - and see how they make out.

If a long term breakdown of society occurred - just what would you use for trade and barter? Find out...

Weapon selection for "The end of the world as we know it"... Surprising!

A Deep Woods/Jungle Survival Kit

A Second knife Based Survival Kit

A Better Belt Order

First in a Set of Articles on the .22 Rimfire.

Second in a Set of Articles on the .22 Rimfire. Ammunition Trials

The Springfield Armory M6 Survival rifle

Some humor to show that V isn't the doom and gloom type!

Some more humor - or could the attack of the killer skeet be real? My favorite!

Nature's Bounty

Testing of Goloks - Valiant and martindale #2

Here's an article from Adrian in Romania, on the personal survival kits he carries there.

We're also lucky enough to have some incredible pictues of hatchets and knives - and some wooden sheath making information from Edgewise!

Some incredible hatchet pictures from "edgewise":

information on making wooden sheaths from "edgewise":

information on refurbishing an older marble's Woodcraft knife and making an appropriate wooden sheath from "edgewise":

Here's a review of a knife made by Dale Chudzinski "Racquette", for Chad. This a present day interpretation of the Nessmuk Knife. Read the review and you'll see why I'm anxious to be getting mine!

Here's a review of the Kelly Kettle by Schwert. Now everyone is wondering just what one of these might be and what it might do for them... It's a highly refined stick stove with water boiler built in!

A Budget Survival Kit - by Kurt Hoffman

The Coglin's Survival Whistle, and its Accessories - by Kurt Hoffman

And for the rest for now - well you'll have to put up with my stuff!

Some tests I did on various firestarters are here:

New - Extreme tests with Doan Magnesium Firestarting Tool

Tinders for fire starters.

Making your own cheap fire starters - by Adrien.

New stuff - The Coglan's Tinder Kit test:

New Stuff - The Spark-Lite test:

Spark-Lite

Here are some pictures of starting a fire using natural materials - updated summer, 2005:

Some thoughts on axes with pictures:

An Axe To Grind - Bernie Weisgerber:

Some thoughts on hatchets:

Some more thoughts on hatchets:

Even more thoughts on hatchets:

The hatchet plot thickens:

Some tiny hatchets - "pocket axes":

Some more extreme stuff with tiny hatchets - "wedging and long handles":

Some Pics on Grinding a Vaughan Hatchet:

Axe tests in Colorado - by Steve Acker

Axe tests in Colorado - Part 2 - by Steve Acker

Some thoughts on machetes:

Some more thoughts on machetes:

Some of my thoughts on Valiant goloks - first part of many...:

A Small Golok or a Large Leuko? The Horn Golok:

The Large Horn Golok:

The Horn Golok SX:

Some thought on larger Valiant blades in damascus:

Some thought on a short heavy golok - The Kelapa:

Initial Impressions of the Valiant Large Bolo Camp:

Initial Impressions of the Valiant Golok Mala:

Some safety tips with big blades - from Singularity:

Sharpening and Reprofiling Traditional Blades:

Some of my thoughts on the Cold Steel LTC Kukri :

Some thoughts on can stoves

The Svea 123R Stove

Some thoughts on CHEAP axes with pictures:

A good light axe:

Gransfors Bruks Axe and Hatchet:

More Advanced Axe Selection:

Putting a New Handle on an Axe:

Various Saws for the Outdoors:

The Sawvivor Saw:

Some information on the "Crooked Knife":

Some information on the original long type "Crooked Knife":

A Light Mora Draw Knife:

Cheap knives and sharpening systems:

Singularity's Thoughts on Sharpening Systems:

The care and feeding of a very cheap but great knife

Mora knives with synthetic handles

The Frosts Mora Clipper in Stainless

Mora knives with Laminated Blades

Knife and Baton Comparisons

The Leuko and Bowie style Mora

The Cold Steel Red River Knife:

The Cold Steel Hudson Bay Knife:

The Cold Steel large folder:

The Benchmade 721 and what makes it a great field folder:

The Grohmann Russell Belt Knife Kit from Lee Valley Tools:

Cute Knives for Alyssa and Cala!

Why I'm interested in survival stuff

Signalling whistles

Serious Forest Boots

A lighter look at survival blade design

A Mirror of Hoodoo's Links

That's all for now! I've just thumbnailed the larger graphics to speed up loading a little - this should help during busier times at Geocities. I'm sorry about my monotonous writing - just try to concentrate on the facts. If you have different opinions or detail to add - please email to me and I'll put them up. These pages are more of an initial reference and to fire up controversy so that people will want stuff added.