James Mandeville's Survival Website:
Free Article on Making a Personal Survival Kit

Main Equipment Recommended by James Mandeville:

Looking for equipment for your survival kit? The following items have been field tested. Please note that Survival-expert.com and James Mandeville have no commercial interest in either the equipment manufacturers or the retailers suggested below. Theses are personal recommendations and links are included for information only:

LED torches:  I always recommend packing three Photon I or Photon II MicroLight® LED torches in a Personal Survival Kit. The Photon I is less bright than the Photon II, but is totally water resistant, however, to use it you have to keep pressure on the switch and this becomes tiring in prolonged use. The Photon II has an on/off switch which means you cannot use it under water but it performs well in adverse weather conditions. The new Photon III MicroLight is water resistant but has an annoying range of microprocessor controlled functions that make it too complicated for use in a survival situation. Depending on the configuration of your kit, choose two white lights and one orange. The white lights have a life of 12-14 hours and the orange light a life of 120 hours. If you are in the military and building a Personal Survival Kit to be used in possible E&E, replace one of the white lights with green for night vision use. The green light has a life of 12-14 hours.

Manufactured by: L.R.I. (Photon), 93890 Pope Rd., Blachly, OR 97512, USA

Means of catching wildlife for food: I cover this in my books on sourcing water and food anywhere in the world at any time of year. Trapping, snaring, hunting and fishing is covered in depth in these books. How to equip a Personal Survival Kit for catching wildlife is also covered in detail in both editions of Disasters Happen.

Survival (Space) Blanket: A survival blanket or bag, sometimes called a Space Blanket because the technology was developed for NASA astronauts, is useful as a survival aid in several ways. I have tried several and there is nothing to choose between them in real terms. Some claim to be "breathable" but if the idea is to keep in body heat, "breathable" is a good way to lose it!

The blanket will reflect body heat, protects from sun, rain and snow, can be a makeshift poncho, is useful for a makeshift shelter,  and is reflective both to light and radar. Buy a blanket that is silvered on both sides, or orange on one side and silver on the other and claims to reflect 80-90% of body heat. There are many makes and many suppliers. These blankets are cheap and available from almost any sports or outdoors shop and can be found easily on the internet. Most are one-use; reusable blankets are bulkier. In the average-sized Personal Survival Kit, a survival blanket will take up 50 per cent of the container, we pack them in the carrying pouch, not in the container itself, so they are readily available and don't take up valuable container space.

A word of warning
These blankets work by reflecting body heat, so if the body is cold the blanket cannot heat up the body. They have no thermal insulation properties so if you wrap up in one and lie down on snow the "blanket" will adapt to the ground temperature and the cold will pass to your body. They are meant only to reflect the heat of the body that is already there. You  must use insulation from ground cold and get into a shelter of some sort to protect yourself from cold air and ground temperatures. Once protected in this way, the space blanket will help to conserve your body heat; cover your nose and mouth with a handkerchief or similar to reduce heat loss by respiration.

Multi-tool: A miniature multi-tool is invaluable in a Personal Survival Kit. I like the MiniBuck 350 best and always have one in my Personal Survival Kit but the Leatherman juice is a close second favourite. Be aware that most multi-tools can throw out a strong magnetic field so keep them away from your compass:

MiniBuck 350
The MiniBuck weighs only 1.5 ounces and is just 6.5cm (2 1/2 inches) long when closed and weighs only 39 grams. Yet it comes complete with 10 implements, including needle nose pliers as the primary tool and scissors as a folding component. The MiniBuck includes a drop-point knife blade, tweezers, a nail file/cleaner, a lanyard ring, metric and inch scales, a small Phillips screwdriver, and a bottle opener/cap lifter that also serves as a small slotted screwdriver. Symbols on the handle help the user to locate each implement (you need terrific eyesight), while a nail-notch system allows easy access to the tools when needed. Each tool snaps into place. Backed by Buck's lifetime guarantee. They can be difficult to find and are not even listed on Buck's website but most Buck suppliers can order one for you - worth having.

Buck Knives: P.O. Box 1267, El Cajon, CA 92022

www.buckknives.com

Leatherman Juice S2
The Leatherman Juice S2 is bigger than the MiniBuck being 10.5cm (3.25 inches) long when closed and weighs 125grams. It has: Needle nose Pliers, Straight Knife, Wire Cutters, Hard-Wire Cutters, Extra-Small Screwdriver, Small Screwdriver, Med/Large Screwdriver, Phillips Screwdriver, Lanyard Attachment, Can/Bottle Opener and Scissors. Made of stainless steel with anodized aluminium scales and is available in different colours. Available in most sports, outdoor and tool shops.

Manufacturer: Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., P.O. Box 20595 , Portland, Oregon, USA

www.leatherman.com

Commando Wire Saw

There are several commando wire saws on the market, illustrated is my choice made by BCB.

Can be used for escape and evasion, will cut wood, nails, plastic and bone. Can be made into a bow saw.

Things to watch out for are:

• The saw must have a breaking strain of around 50 kilos.
  
  
• It should be made from stainless steel.
  
  
• Study the way any handles are fixed to the blade, this is weakest point.
  
  
• Choose a saw with handles made from nylon tape, rather than steel rings as these are painful on the fingers with prolonged use.
  
  
• Take care not to pack the saw in close proximity to your compasses if it gives off a magnetic field.