Commercial survival kits seem like a great idea. You can buy a little kit that has everything you need to survive! Or does it? Since I happen to own an inexpensive survival kit, I figured we should take a close look at its contents. Is this the right stuff to survive an emergency?
This particular kit came with my Crosman Backpacker air rifle. But I found similar kits on Amazon for about $15. You can find much more expensive, and comprehensive kits as well. But most folks don’t want to put much money into an item they never expect to use. So I thought it would be interesting to see what a cheap one was like.
As you can see, it’s pretty small. In a way that’s good, because it’s easily stored and carried, so you’re more likely to actually have it when you need it. But obviously it doesn’t hold much, so the items need to be well-chosen. Let’s open it and see!
The Instruction Sheet
Just under the lid you’ll find the instruction sheet, explaining the various functions of all the tools. On the reverse is the same information with captions in an Asian language, probably Mandarin Chinese. But apart from this, there’s no information about how to survive.
Survival Kit Contents
Everything is neatly packed under the instructions.
Starting at the upper left, and proceeding clockwise, we have:
- The instruction sheet and the lid of the can
- A ferrocerium “fire steel” and striker
- A wire saw
- A “Survival card” with an explanatory card and vinyl holder
- A multitool
- A whistle
- A tiny compass
- The can
The quarter didn’t come with the kit, it’s just there to show scale. Let’s look at these tools and talk about how useful each would be in an emergency.
The Whistle and Compass
A whistle is very useful for signalling for help. It’s a great idea for a survival kit, and this one works just as expected. It’s not amazingly loud but it’s loud enough. Grade: A
Hiking in a straight line toward an unseen goal is surprisingly difficult. A compass is very helpful. Of course, it only helps if you already know which direction to hike. This particular compass is extremely basic, but it does work. And the concept is quite valid. Grade: B
The Fire Starter
The mysterious item that looks like a round key is a fire steel, or more properly a ferrocerium rod. The flat orange thing is a bit of steel to use as a striker. I found a good explanation of what they are and how they work here. But briefly, if you scrape the striker across the rod you get a shower of very hot sparks that you can, with skill, use to light a fire.
I completely approve of including a fire steel in a survival kit. But I will also add that the quality of this one wasn’t terribly impressive. Good quality fire steels produce a huge shower of sparks each time you strike it. This one only produced a few sparks. It would work, but barely. Grade: C
The Multi-tool
This also sounds like a great idea. This one includes pliers, wire cutters, a knife blade, a Phillips screwdriver, a bottle opener, a flat bladed screwdriver, a flashlight and a wood saw.
But the devil is in the details. The pliers are small but still useful. The knife blade is sharp enough to injure you, but not sharp enough to be a good tool. You could sharpen it, of course. The screwdriver bits have rounded edges, and would probably just slip on any tight screw.
The saw blade is also pretty dull. And it’s laughably small – the biggest thing it would cut could be snapped by hand.
Finally, the light seems like a good idea but actually sucks. It’s quite dim, and has a blueish cast to the light like first-generation LED’s. And since it’s attached to your knife, it would be quite difficult to use both at the same time. It doesn’t come with spare batteries, either.
All in all, the multitool promises much and delivers very little. Grade: D
The Wire Saw
You see these in just about every survival kit. And most outdoor writers have some pretty harsh things to say about them. It’s a braided wire that’s supposedly sharp enough to saw wood, with a ring to hold on each end. I found it to be sharp enough to be uncomfortable to handle, but not sharp like a proper saw. So I was curious – would it really cut a log? I decided to test it.
The instruction sheet showed several ways to use it, but the bow saw configuration seemed the most viable for one person. It was harder to find a decent stick for the bow than I expected, but eventually I succeeded.
For a test subject, I chose a well-seasoned pine branch about 1.75″ in diameter, and set to sawing. It was slow going – the bow stick was too flexible to hold good tension on the saw, so the saw would try to bind on the forward stroke. And it felt fragile – I’m pretty sure I could break the wire if I used too much force.
Five minutes of hard work later, I finally cut through the branch. To be fair, the saw didn’t break, and it did cut the wood. But this doesn’t seem like a viable way to cut enough wood to make a shelter and a campfire. Now I see why other writers are so disparaging. Grade: D-
The Eleven-Function Survival Card
Finally we come to this item. I see these in a lot of survival kits too. It has so many flaws I find it hard to decide where to begin. All the edges are sharp, including the parts that aren’t supposed to be, like the lanyard hole. The knife and saw aren’t any sharper than the rest of it, though. So they are sharp enough to injure you, but too dull to make a useful tool.
The wrench slots are a joke. Even if they happen to fit a nut or bolt that you need to tighten or loosen, will you be able to reach it with this tool? The wrench slots are a long way from the edge of the tool. Is there enough clearance to turn the bolt? And can you get enough force on the tool to turn it, without cutting your fingers on its sharp edges?
The “butterfly wrench” seems to be made for wingnuts. Which are specifically intended to not need any wrench. The screwdriver blade is sort of wedge shaped, so if you try to use any force on a screw, the blade will cam out of the slot and damage the screw.
The round hole in the lower right corner is labeled “Direction ancillary indication”. I still have no idea what it’s for.
If the survival kit had come with a fishing kit you might find a use for this tool as a sinker. But alas, there are no fishhooks, and so no good use for this tool. Grade: F (only because I couldn’t give anything lower).
Is This a Good Survival Kit?
I think I’ve made my feelings pretty plain, but if not, here’s the synopsis. This kit is only very slightly better than nothing at all. Most of the items are poor-quality versions of things that could be quite useful if they were better made. And some items are just useless. The kit lacks very basic capabilities like purifying water or keeping you warm. Save your money.
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