I've acquired a few things over the past few months I really appreciate, that I thought I'd review here. I'm a minimalist by the way - not a technical, everything must be made of titanium by some European company minimalist. I'm the stupid grunt who is tired of humping more than 45# of useless gear kind of minimalist. The following are all presently in my INCH bag, which is always ready to go.
1. EOS ITP A3 R5 upgraded light. Best light ever, period, for the $15-20 you'll spend. You don't need a 200 lumen weapons light that runs on a stack of CR123a batteries ... really. And about the size of a AA.
2. light my fire spork. Yep, best $2 I've spent. Get a bright color, easier to find without a light when digging through your pack.
3. Trangea Stove. Ultralight, burns alcohol, any alcohol, and probably a bunch of other things too. I have a 50 year old one that is like new, and a brand new one that's a wee bit smaller with an ultralite windscreen. Its worth the $27 over a pepsi can stove. I've cooked with pan and pot over it, and it'll simmer for hours. I also got one of the swedish mess kit ones that packs with fuel bottle, pot, pan, windscreen and stove for when the power goes out at home. Buy a USGI flask for a fuel bottle, and some denatured to fill it. Heet works great, as does booze ... just sooty.
4. Sawyer Squeeze water filter. $48 came with 3 collapsible bladders (2l, 32oz, 16oz), all together dry weight 3 oz. Million gallon rating, log 6 filter. If you're dealing with virii, boil the water after filtering. The bladders are tough, and replaced my canteen, nalgene and camelbak bladders. You can buy 3 more for $5 w/shipping.
5. Nalgene Canteen. Its a standard USGI looking canteen made by Nalgene out of BPA free materials, translucent blue. $7. Snuggles inside a canteen cup just fine.
6. J. Falk Wood Gasifier. Built one, works spooky fast and hotter than anything. Perfect for a long term outdoor use with access to dry wood.
Things I've tried that I'm not happy with ...
1. Kleen Kanteen 40oz. big mouth. Dropped it once from a counter top to linoleum floor, lid broke. $8 to replace lid. Leaks with new lid. I like my fluids on the inside of my containers. Same abuse on a nalgene and worse never produced the same problems.
2. GSI SS Cup. Perfect size to slide a Nalgene into, SS works fine. Bottom lost its square after 2 separate cooking times. Its sort of rounded now, and won't set flat on my stove. I had such high hopes.
3. Permanent Match. Got a few of the metal ones from fleabay. Now I know why no one uses them. Leaks unless you torque it down so hard you can't ever open it again without tools. Then I opened it with tools, struck it and lit myself and the housing on fire, dropped it so it spilled all over the floor of my garage ... burned itself out quickly as it hold like an eyedroppers worth of fluid. Not trusting that with my life.
4. SS WP Peanut lighter. I have to caveat this one as I still keep it around. It works, and holds its fluid forever, and has all the great functionality of a zippo except I've not been able to use it in the slightest of breezes. Indoors or no wind, its a champ. Obviously not ideal for a lifesaving firestarting scenario.
5. Waterproof Bible. Oh I had big hopes for this one, as I ruined a Bible in a bad rainstorm on a 10 mile hump. You can in fact scuba dive with this one if you want ($45 btw), and it comes with a neat realtree camo cover. But it weighs more than your Grandma's Schofield big letter edition, slides off of anything you set it on, and is sensitive to heat. I went back to a compact edition and a ziploc bag.
