UKC

REVIEW: Adventure Medical Kits SOL Origin Survival Tool

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 UKC Gear 16 Aug 2011
Survival in the palm of your hand, 5 kbDan Bailey regresses to childhood with a palm-sized kit for every wilderness eventuality, billed as the first product to distill the functionality of a survival kit into the usability and compactness of a single, pocket-sized tool. Survival equipment such as a Rescue Flash™ Signal Mirror, an AUS-8 folding-blade knife, a button compass and a Fire Lite sparker get a thorough testing in a Fife back garden.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=3769
 archiecb 16 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear:

Top Review - no doubt I will get one for Christmas and be forced to smile sweetly while I think of all that has been said right here.
 rlines 17 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear: Great article, really enjoyed reading it and can echo all of those childhood preparations for the survival apocalypse! Finally an article on UKC by someone who can actually write. Keep it up!
 TobyA 17 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear: Fantastic review Dan! We must be same age because I also had a tobacco tin (which were very tricky to come by in family of non-smokers, and perhaps more generally due to high demand from 9 year old Lofty Wiseman fans) for the apocalypse.

It's a shame this kit is pretty pricey because otherwise I think your review nails it - the target audience is 9 yr old boys who will suddenly want to go to the woods all the time.

A cheaper option is a flint and steel like I found in Sports Direct. I think it was three quid and now my 7 year old son likes going on walks so we can try and find things "from nature" that the spark will set fire to!
 chiz 17 Aug 2011
In reply to TobyA: Yep, great review, and yes the market must surely be ten year old boys (and girls)? If it was for middle aged fantasists surely it would come in matt-black and gunmetal?

My own tobacco tin had a no.2 Opinel, a ration-pack can opener, a lens, rabbit snares, a couple of budgie feathers, fish-hooks and line, needle and thread, some fragments of St Alfred's buns, bulrush fluff tinder in waxed paper, a flint flake I made and some matches that lit under water. I still have the same matches nearly 30 years later, it's just never been quite the right time to use them!

Most of the fun was trying to get hold of the various items Lofty declared would save your bacon when your plane crashed, or the four minute warning sounded, I never managed to get a wire saw

40 quid though? Blimey. A triumph of style over content? And I don't think I'd give a kid that knife, there's nothing to stop your fingers sliding along the blade. A kukri would be far better.
 petestack 17 Aug 2011
In reply to TobyA:
> Fantastic review Dan!

Absolutely agreed, Toby (loved the bit about Windermere)!

> It's a shame this kit is pretty pricey because otherwise I think your review nails it - the target audience is 9 yr old boys who will suddenly want to go to the woods all the time.

Yep... strong whiff of Greenbank's 'Survival for Young People' (all the rage at one time) there!
In reply to UKC Gear: Thanks all.

I didn't mean to be sexist. It's obvously great for girls too and I've a couple of nieces who'd love it...
 Monk 18 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear:

I'm glad people commented on this thread - I saw the review was published and ignored it as I didn't think I needed a survival kit. If only I'd known what I was missing. A great article (and sounds like my childhood too!).
 Ramblin dave 18 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear:
Great review!

But was noone else bothered by what SOL usually abbreviates, and what it means for you in a 'survival situation'?
Mots d'Invers 18 Aug 2011
In reply to rlines:
> (In reply to UKC Gear) Finally an article on UKC by someone who can actually write.

Agreed, and enjoyable read and a little trip down memory lane to boot! Although at £40 it's way too pricey for what's essentially a toy, and somewhat defeats the object - I'd give my nephews a tobacco tin and a list, and set them the challenge of finding all the kit in small enough versions to fit in the tin!

ice.solo 18 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear:

best review ive read in ages. funny shit. well done

funny everyone else is mentioning their childhoods in the 80s messing with survival kits. same here.
anyone else recall those expensive 'SEAL' knives that converted into grappling hooks?
ridiculous but fun.

and those silly knives with the stuff packed in the handle? long banned everywhere except the states where its in the constitution.

dont think i will be getting one of these, but their medical kits look ok.
In reply to UKC Gear: Great article. Amusing, wittily sarcastic but still informative. I wish I had had one when I was 14 years old.

Al
 Yanis Nayu 18 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear: Great article!
 petestack 18 Aug 2011
In reply to ice.solo:
> funny everyone else is mentioning their childhoods in the 80s messing with survival kits.

Nah, I'm talking about the 70s!
 7W18b6eG5h 18 Aug 2011
Looks like a gimmick
ice.solo 19 Aug 2011
In reply to petestack:
> (In reply to ice.solo)
> [...]
>
> Nah, I'm talking about the 70s!

interesting. tho i suppose kids have always played with knives and booby traps, id always imagined the craze was a by-product of rambo films and the SAS sensation after the iranian embassy effort.

you learn something new every day.

i was too young for sharp things in the 70s. more beads and coloured wool.
 TobyA 19 Aug 2011
In reply to ice.solo: For my generation the Lofty Wiseman SAS Survival Handbook was a religious text. Published in 86 according to Wikipedia.
ice.solo 19 Aug 2011
In reply to TobyA:

i remember that book. coincided with mcgyver.

on top of it all we had reagan gambling with nuclear weapons, so i suppose wanting to survive was fairly inate.
 petestack 19 Aug 2011
In reply to TobyA:

But the Tony Greenbank book I remember came out in 1975...
http://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_for_young_people.html?id=XACvA...
nikkormat 19 Aug 2011
In reply to TobyA:

This thread has made me feel far more normal about my childhood pursuits. I still have the Lofty Wiseman book, yellowing and well-thumbed, on my book shelf. I'm sure I even have my tobacco tin somewhere, though the contents have long since dispersed.
 Sarah Stirling 19 Aug 2011
In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com: This is probably my favourite of all the articles you've written for UKH/UKC, so far Dan! You can read more of Dan's work (destination articles etc) over at http://www.ukhillwalking.com ...

Sarah
ice.solo 19 Aug 2011
In reply to UKC Gear:

'alumin(i)um'.

best laugh ive had in ages.

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