Altoids Survival Tin

RiderOnTheStorm

have seen these tins a few times on american survival / zombie forums. The idea (AFAIK) is to keep the smallest (litterally) amount of bare essentials in a tin, so that in the event of the Apoc you can survive a day or two in order to get your act together.

We dont have Altoids here, but I think they are about the size of a tobacco tin (3"x2"). The usual contents are something like

button compass
small blade
lighter / matches
water purification tablet
string / wire
fishing hook
mirror (for attracting attention - some recommend use the shiny inside of lid)
button torch
etc

You get the idea. I started one recently, and its fun to keep eye out for the smallest most useful tools / equip. To me, its a nice exercise on space management and getting the biggest bang for your buck.

I think one of the ideas is that you keep this on you at all times, so it has to be small enough to fit in a pocket.

What do you think? Could it work? Would minimisation mean that it essentially becomes useless? Would you do this in conjunction with your other plans? Should you have a few of these on the go? (one in each coat and one in the car? a bigger one in the car?)

Discuss ...... :-)

my3cents

I bought a pack of joke birthday cake candles years back and always pop one in any survival tin. The joke is you can't blow them out which as you can imagine comes in handy. Would also make a good fuse if you ever needed one.

Edit> As to size I have some little Altoides Survival Tins and one very large (in comparison) Trangia mess tin (its rectangular not round) that holds a massive amount. Another tactic is to use a wide mouthed waterbottle as a "tin" which of course adds another useful base item to your kit.

my3cents

On the OP's question "Would minimisation mean that it essentially becomes useless?" I think the answer is no provided you understand some basic principles of survival shelter, fire, water, and food (+will to live) with the added complications of zombies.

You can't fit a shelter into an Altoides tin but perhaps a roll of dental floss will give you a head start tying two poles together.

Fire is where the small survival tin should shine because you can always find room for a small fire steel or to make life easy a lighter

Water, you can't fit that in but you can include a condom (unflavoured) which inside a sock can be used to carry water. A couple of water purification tablets wouldn't go amiss.

Again food won't fit in but fish hooks (use the dental floss as line) and a wire snare might help catch some.

Then finding your way and signalling are useful easy to add extras, a whistle might be handy, but probably no with Zeds, but a bit of broken CD or DVD makes an excellent mirror and a little button compass gives you a rough direction. Stuck in the dark my joke candles might come in useful.

A modern addition taking up little room might be a microSD card with copies of local maps and useful books or documents and even a bootable OS. You might not be able to read it but surely you'll find a device that can somewhere in your travels?

Its also down to what you are preparing for, if you can define what you are likely to face then you can slant your kit towards making life easier for yourself.

Anybody else thinking I've given this whole idea way to much thought already?

Tzar Chasm

Dont know about dentalfloss as a fishing line, I'm getting numbers for the tensile strength which are all over the place, varying from 3lbs to 25lbs, Stupid yanks and their non using of SI measurements, so anything from 1 to 10 Kgs is a huge range. Perhaps some empirical data is required.

But the main issue i think is abrasion, it is designed to fail quickly in this situation, so one snag and its gone, fish and hook.

RiderOnTheStorm

my3cents wrote: »

Water, you can't fit that in but you can include a condom (unflavoured) which inside a sock can be used to carry water. A couple of water purification tablets wouldn't go amiss....

A modern addition taking up little room might be a microSD card with copies of local maps and useful books or documents and even a bootable OS. You might not be able to read it but surely you'll find a device that can somewhere in your travels?

I heard of the condom trick, but the sock is a new one .... great idea... I am going to 'borrow' that!

Micro SD is great too.... tons of stuff you can put on that for when you get some civilization going again :-)

my3cents

Tzar Chasm wrote: »

Dont know about dentalfloss as a fishing line, I'm getting numbers for the tensile strength which are all over the place, varying from 3lbs to 25lbs, Stupid yanks and their non using of SI measurements, so anything from 1 to 10 Kgs is a huge range. Perhaps some empirical data is required.

But the main issue i think is abrasion, it is designed to fail quickly in this situation, so one snag and its gone, fish and hook.

You could be right but if you can come up with another cheap way of carrying 50m of relatively strong cordage in a very small space let me know? I can do the same with more expensive kevlar thread but even so I'd have to rewind it because it often comes on a bulky bobbin.

Obviously you throw away the dispenser and store just the roll of dental floss.

RiderOnTheStorm

Loving the candle option (esp the one that wont go out).

For fishing line, I wound some around my cigarette lighter (like in the pic above). Its not 50m long, but I reckon I only need a few metres to catch a fish in a river. I wonder if I can use it to sew up wounds too? Or maybe include a small tube of super-glue.

Tzar Chasm

my3cents wrote: »

You could be right but if you can come up with another cheap way of carrying 50m of relatively strong cordage in a very small space let me know? I can do the same with more expensive kevlar thread but even so I'd have to rewind it because it often comes on a bulky bobbin.

Obviously you throw away the dispenser and store just the roll of dental floss.

Oh its a great solution for cordage, and something i usually have in my pocket. But, i wouldnt use it as a fishing line for the reasons outlined above.

Also i would keep it in its easy to use container.

Tzar Chasm

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Loving the candle option (esp the one that wont go out).

For fishing line, I wound some around my cigarette lighter (like in the pic above). Its not 50m long, but I reckon I only need a few metres to catch a fish in a river. I wonder if I can use it to sew up wounds too? Or maybe include a small tube of super-glue.

Floss would be better for suturing as its more flexible and has anantiseptic coating.

Magic candles are a great idea though

BigDuffman

OP have a look at any of the military forums for some survival tin tips!

If you're talking long term survival vs short term survival you need different things.

Eg. Short term in an urban environment vs Long term in rural you need tools that will enable and sustain you.

Long term and fire making, (ditch the lighter as it will run out) for a fire steel and some waterproof matches (cut them in half to double up)
Wire wool works with any battery to create a spark. You'll get tinder anywhere (tampon covered in vaseline works like a candle).
Clear Condoms can also be used to start fire (like a magnifying glass) when filled with water.


Can't really see what else is in the tin! Cable ties tweezers and straws?

RiderOnTheStorm

BigDuffman wrote: »

Can't really see what else is in the tin! Cable ties tweezers and straws?

That pic is just a generic tin that I saw on Google. Its not mine :-)

BigDuffman wrote: »

If you're talking long term survival vs short term survival you need different things.

Def agree: short v long, and urban v rural , and any combo thereof. It must suit your environment & needs. I was thinking that my tin is for survival for a couple of days, just to get me 'on your feet', so thats why I have very basic food-gathering in mine (fishing line & hook), and fire making (cigarette lighter). But others could / will have a different tin, or a different outlook.

my3cents

I think the Altoids Survival Tin can be taken far to seriously and as a result dismissed as being useful for 100's of reasons.

For example I've done a bit of snaring in the past and with the one snare you might squeeze into an Altoids Tin you aren't likely to catch much and even less unless you have the skills to use one. In an urban environment it may have no use at all. But that isn't a good reason not to make up an Altoids Survival Tin. The point is as flawed as the idea might be it is makes you think about what you actually need, what might be useful, what conditions you might face. Just making up an Altoids Survival Tin is a training exercise in itself. Then there is always the chance it will help you out in some awkward situation.

As I mentioned earlier the one thing an Altoids size survival tin can excel at is being a fire lighting tin. The OP's picture has some white straws in the tin which are firestraws. Firestraws are lengths of straw filled with cotton wool soaked in Vaseline and then sealed at the ends. To make good use of the tin the firestraws can be made up fit the length of the tin. Give them a try they make great fire lighters, and can be used as ready tinder for a fire steel.

For immediate fire there is nothing quicker or more convenient than a lighter. A lighter is relatively waterproof compared with matches. I picked up a BIC lighter washed up on the beach recently and managed to get it to work. If you hunt one down you can find some very small gas lighters, Dealz do a pack of 2 mini BIC lighters that take up less space than almost any other lighter you are likely to find. You can get a firesteel that is not much bigger than a firestraw so there's three items for your Altoids Tin that have short term and longer term fire starting sorted. Fire steel, firestraw and mini gas lighter leaving plenty of room for more stuff.

I often put in a half credit card size flat fresnal screen magnifying glass with the vague idea of using it as another fire lighting method but if you look out the window and think if all you had was a magnifying glass to light a fire then how long would you be waiting before you got it lit? However the magnifying glass is handy for an old git like me for reading so it still has a use.

Again more than one use but a 3ft length of cordage (I use the thinnest stuff that looks a bit like paracord) is an essential fire lighting item if you want to give making a fire bow a try.

Wirewool already mentioned is another ignition source when attached to almost any battery. The small caveat is you might burn your fingers if you use them to directly hold the wire onto the battery terminals.

Other items not mentioned so far that might be included are sewing needles - I found them more useful for bursting blisters while out walking than sewing. Heat one in a flame to sterilize it before sticking it into a blister. If you need thread then the dental floss I mentioned earlier does the job just make sure the needle(s) have a big enough eye.

A pencil - in case you need to take notes or leave a msg.

Lock Picks - effectively illegal I know but useful in the context here.

Small scissors - the Swiss Army Classic SD covers that along with, blade, nail file and tweezers.

Then there are somethings that don't really work that well, imo wire saws aren't that good. You may find a good one but on the whole they tend to fall to bits when you use them however you can get one for a euro you might as well put it in just remember what I said.

my3cents

Another thing thats often included is a list of useful phone numbers but with Zombies "running" around I don't think that would be very useful. I did find this a list of 9 Best Survival Antibiotics which I might print out and use instead.