Origin's on - top long lasting or SHTF products

LOL In the eighties sexism was cool ha, that chick on the bike was hot, probably somebodies gran now

 

Sorry, bubonic plague is caused by flea bits of infected fleas. The rich survived because they were isolated in the main from the squalor and flea breeding rats below. It would be worth your head if the noble found a rat in the living room.

Cleansing wipes - antibacterial and plain. Double up in an airtight container vacuum sealed so they don't dry out.
A very good jumbo medicine kit.
ditto on Boston's suggestion- and pads not tampons - convenience not worth the potential health risk when the grid goes down.

Actually I think in Australia if you have a month's camping trip put away and two months food you're covered for droughts, flooding rains and oil strikes. If there isn't some semblance of order in that time you'll have been airfreighted out of wherever it is (or herded into a camp!)

 

STACK DICE!
Yes, dice. Be very bullish on dice. Post nuke holocaust/SHTF people will soon feel withdrawal symptoms from a lack of random number generation. In the future there will be a recognised Auie ratio and the little cubes will be very much in demand. Playing cards will fetch a nice price during trades, but dice are the end game's end game.


For trading:
coffee, tea, tobacco, ammo, knives, swiss army knives.

For hammering stuff or cutting very thick rope:
2 sledge hammers, 8 lb'ers oughtta do it. Make sure you got some hard-core pegs and rope. After all, if you've got sledges, you may as well have pegs and rope. Can't tie a hitch? Better learn.

Handy thing:
those recharging torches w/the built in winder that also comes with 6 phone adapters or so... 6 bucks from kmart i think.
don't wind them too fast while the torch is switched on or you burn out the LED lites... ( trust me )

Other stuff flowing off the top of my head:
get a parabolic mic... and then tell me if they're as much fun as I suspect. $35 eBay
brita water filter and many cartridges

Of course this is all useless unless you build a tower worthy of SHTF.
You don't need to go all out Circe or Babel, just out there in the bush, made from good solid stone and mortar, no doorway opening at ground level or more, just go the pulley type elevator thing and a 3rd floor entrance. Get some of them Israeli 3rd generation solar panels (Zennith i think ??) on the roof of the tower, and parapets are a must.

Anyone know if there are any recipie books written for cooking 'barking geckos'? There will be no shortage of em here in QLD, even after food runs out, but you will need light to attract the bugs that attract the geckos! <--- see above pointer re: recharging torch

If you forget everything except for 1 thing, remember to stack the dice.

 

Incase you missed it the 1st time:

 

Matrix, we should start working on the 'Dice Stackers' forums.

 

I reckon board games and card games have been the cause of more deaths over the years than bubonic plague and cholera combined!

Chief Wiggum; "Another Monopoly related homocide, damn those Parker Bros."

 

a nice kg silver dice would be cool! I got a nice marble one' it is sweet but its no Ag

 

as usual got carried away with a long and detailed post, only to see I'm automatically logged out and lost the lot without saving

oh well, I'll do it piecemeal

As others have said, an excellent start point, for a bag of goodies, is the camping mindset

I'll start with the best flashlight for the money that I could find after the hard yards:

Fenix PD30 R5 Cree XP-G LED 257 Lms Flashlight

This little beauty can be bought on ebay for $60.50 and shipped free

late edit in...

here is an alternative, larger, but enormously brighter (740 lms) alternative, with optional upgrade to 1000 lms. If you are interested, you must check the import rules on bright flashing items like this, before buying.

http://shop.gregmcgeeengineering.com/M3-2I-Tactical-740-Lumen-1000-Lumen-option-on-checkout-007.htm

 

next

the knife

bang for buck, after some decent research is consistently:

Fallkniven F1 (pronounced fellneeven I think)

this is used by the swedish military

the blade is not very big, but this is good for fine handwork

a slightly larger knife, well regarded as great, is:

Cold Steel Master Hunter (with Kraton gripped handle) - note there is an el cheapo version, best to avoid unless bought as a general purpose cheap but very high quality knife). Note - this is not the Mini Hunter, which is smaller and cheaper

both of these knives can be had from overseas at half the price of the Aussie shops

I haven't imported yet. Customs are picky about knives, but to the best of my ability these are acceptable for import, as they are straightforward hunting knives. You can email customs for a clarification and this will save heartache.

If you want to be crocodile dundee, then the Navy Seals Pup Elite knife gets a good review

edit - there is also the "Mora" knife - this is also a favourite amongst hunters, though the blade is quite small

a review of the F1 is here:

http://briarpatchoutdoors.educationforthesoul.com/articles/fallkniven_review.html

 

next - navigation

Silva (nice name) is a swedish company which is regarded as top of the line for compasses (many will remember them from orienteering at school)

The Silva Ranger (latest is CL 515) is a very well regarded cheaper compass

The Expedition 54 is military grade & from what I understand is used by the Australian Army - not cheap, but you can get it less than half on ebay if you keep looking.

You'll also want laminated (ie waterproofed) topographical maps of your intended location, streetmaps where appropriate

editing in a link to the ranger from the manufacturer:

http://store.silvacompass.com/products/345156/Ranger_CL__515_Compass

 

next - water

Katadyn produce a range of water filters. The cheaper ones are less durable, but still great

The top of the line is the Micropocket filter, which is very rugged, metal cased and contains a silver impregnanted ceramic filter which lasts absolutely ages and makes brown puddles potable, removing cryptosporidium and the usual range of micro-unpleasantries, except viruses

http://www.katadyn.com/usen/katadyn...endurance-series-products/katadyn-pocket-usa/

Water purification tabs - I got 50pk Aquamira miltary issue tabs cheaply via ebay. I'm yet to try one, but they get a reasonable writeup in terms of palatability and durability

example:
http://www.aquamira.com/emergency/aquamira-water-purifier-tablets-24-pack

An alternative is an iodine based prep - the best one, name gone for now, I could only find in the US and is not importable for some reason. Locally available preps online are invariably hugely overpriced and regarded as very untasty

edit - el cheapo, but very durable, if a little untasty, is simple pool chlorine (calcium hypochlorite), but you'll have to wait for the chlorine to evaporate off

in an emergency, simply hanging water in a transparent bag exposed to sunlight will kill off quite a few bugs

you can always boil - very cheap, but time consuming

finally - a plastic bag placed over a leafy branch, eg certain gum trees, with the neck tied securely can be used to make the leaves "sweat" water into the bag, on a hot day in arid conditions, when there is plenty of time to kill

You'll also need a container. I think simple water containers made of a durable soft compressible plastic will do, maybe a camelbak equipped backpack.

example of a soft bottle:
http://cascadedesigns.com/platypus/water-bottles/plusbottle/product

example of a steel container:
http://www.kleankanteen.com/products/klean-kanteens.php

 

fire

Swedish Firesteel - the bigger model, good for 15000 strikes

It is said you should have three ways of making fire

A high quality compressed butane lighter might be an alternative - I found the dream version online but lost the link, sad to say

Waterproof matches - a third way, but I'm yet to research the best

As for wood - the Sabrecut Saw seems to be all in all the best handsaw, basically a soft two handled chainsaw blade, but there is an art to using it, the tines need occasional sharpening and it won't do for the small stuff, but if you have the Master Hunter or Seals Pup you won't worry about that

You might also want some hexamine blocks

 

Space blanket or space bivvy bag

These are very cheap on ebay and occupy a tiny space

 

100mph tape, otherwise known as duct tape (not the crappy silver stuff)

the story behind the name is interesting, but I can't vouch for the authenticity although it seems to be true enough...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=100 mph tape

edit in...this stuff looks excellent & is on my list now:

http://www.gorillatape.com/tapes.aspx

 

Multitool - Leatherman Wave with Accessory Bit Kit

this seems to be the allrounder and I've bought two for the price of one bought in Australia, direct from the US, inclusive of shipping

http://www.leatherman.com/product/Wave

http://www.leatherman.com/accessories/product/bit_kit

 

Speedhook is a nice, simple way of catching fish. Can be had very cheaply.

http://www.speedhook.com/servlet/StoreFront

 

ever want an absolutely killer whistle?

Storm or Windstorm original all-weather survival safety whistle satisifes the craving. No mucking around here. I only tried this on medium blow and it leaves a decent ring in the ear.

This might double up well in self defense. It is extremely loud.

The model I have is a bit chunky (the Storm version, which is the beast of whistles) - much bigger than the ref's.

The attached site review is not where I got it, but gives the specs for the smaller version (windstorm, fits on a keyring).

http://reviews.duluthtrading.com/pr...-Safety-Whistle-Windstorm-Safety-Whistle.html

 

I used to buy cheapo keychain torches until I was having a beer with a young guy from work whom pulled out an expensive CREE jobbie. I told him he was crazy until he took me outside and pegged it as hard as he could against a brick wall and it didn't break, he then blinded me with it in bright daylight with it to prove how good it was at decamping from BG's if ever needed. That spot on my eyes lasted for at least 30mins!!!

Since then I bought 1 good one and it's lasted for years

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82JLxaRvAAQ[/youtube]

 

not exactly camping material, but for a nuclear SHTF, there are a number of personal dosimeters on the market and the price seems to be falling whilst the quality improving

example: the K8

http://k8community.com/

I have the older Nukalert -

http://www.nukalert.com/

for a cheap and cheerful disposable dosimeter (2 bucks) - peel and stick card that fits in a wallet, there is RadSticker

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4348094.htm