Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sharps: A pocket sheath for the woods

In Tuesday's post I talked about using a small leather pocket sheath to carry an everyday fixed-blade knife and a single-AAA light. Happy with that result (and sensing a bit of momentum), I dug another unused sheath out of my box of orphans and put together a pocketable kit (right) better suited to woodcraft.

The butt of a
Bark River Little Creek (McKnight Grind, Antique Ivory Micarta), borrowed from my EDC rotation, peeks out of one side of the sheath. What's hiding in the other compartment? Take a look:

The sheath easily swallows a quartet of firemaking basics -- firesteel and striker, a chunk of
fatwood and a length of jute twine that serves as both tinder and tether. And yes, I could spark the firesteel with the spine of the knife, but it's no bother to carry a dedicated striker.

Together with the Little Creek -- my favorite small fixed-blade, by the way -- this is quite a functional setup, but
I may add another item. There's plenty of room to stuff some dryer lint into the bottom of the fire-kit compartment.

I've got one more small sheath in my box of orphans, a
leather sleeve like the one that holds my Victorinox Farmer. I'm thinking that it might be a good choice for a neck-carry fire kit -- stay tuned.