Gear Review: Adventure Medical Kits "Weekender" First Aid Kit

As a Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, I'm often asked which "off the shelf" first aid kit is best for the field. There are many companies that make first aid kits, but of all the ones I've tried, Adventure Medical Kits seems to be the most well balanced and practical.

The AMK Weekender Kit featured in this review contains nearly everything that I would carry if I were to put the kit together myself, as well as AMK's well written Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine, and a quality, well organized carry case:

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The back of the case has a convenient, easy-to-read list of contents, which makes it a much simpler task to find something when you're under the stress of an emergency situation.

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Both sides of the case also feature reflective lettering, to aid in locating first aid items under low light conditions:

The Weekender Kit, which touts the ability to treat 1-6 people for up to 7 days in the backcountry, has proven itself many times during our field testing trips. Whether treating a burn from an errant campfire ember, or bandaging a cut from the nick of a sharp axe, the Weekender has become a welcome friend in our gear packs.

For folks looking for made in the USA products, I'd note that even though some of the components in this kit are of foreign manufacture, the entire kit is assembled by American workers in Adventure Medical Kit's Littleton, New Hampshire plant.

Conclusion

Highly recommended no matter what outdoor adventure you undertake, the AMK Weekender is a high quality, well thought out product that deserves top priority next time you're shopping for a new first aid kit.

5 out of 5 Stars

(Highly Recommended)

About the author

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Everything You Wanted To Know About Hibernation

Everything You Wanted to Know about Hibernation [Infographic] courtesy of the team at giraffe

Tips & Tricks: An easy way to warm your axe bit during winter

A properly tempered axe bit is both hard and tough, but the frigid temperatures of winter can make it brittle enough to chip or even break if it is not warmed first prior to chopping.

A common suggestion is to warm the blade of your axe underneath your armpit. Obviously, sticking a cold, razor-sharp axe blade inside your coat is not only uncomfortable, but can injure you or cut your clothing.

A simpler and safer way to warm your axe bit is to make a few light chops into the wood before you start chopping at full strength. This warms the blade quickly due to the intense friction of the bit striking the wood fibers.

You can then begin to chop at full power without worrying about damaging your bit.

About the author

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Quick Review: Dave Canterbury's waterproof Pocket Survival Guides

Waterford Press sent us Dave Canterbury's series of pocket survival guides to check out recently. The eight different titles are:

Shelter, Fire, Water

Wilderness First Aid 

Signaling For Rescue

Improvised Trapping

Basic & Primitive Navigation

Improvised Hunting Weapons

Building a Survival Kit

Basic Tracking

The guides are constructed to be lightweight and waterproof. The emphasis is on surviving in the Eastern US, but much of the information is universal. Regardless of Dave's "resume embellishment" saga, I think he did a great job on these guides, as the information is sound, helpful and well written. Definitely worth consideration as something to throw in your pack "just in case."

4 out of 5 Stars 

(Recommended)

The guides are available at: www.thepathfinderstore.com/pathfinder-survival-guides-2/?sort=bestselling

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About the author

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America, interned with the US Forest Service, and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

REVIEW: Marble's Safety Axe No.5 -- Not Recommended

Blue Ridge Knives was nice enough to send us a Marble's Safety Axe No. 5 to try recently. My initial impression was favorable, since the overall quality, head profile and factory sharpness seemed very good for a hatchet in this price range.

SPECS:

Axe Blade Length: 4-1/2″ 

Cutting Edge: 2-3/8″ 

Steel: 1070 HC 

Rockwell Hardness: 50-55 

Handle material: Hickory 

Overall Length: 10-5/8″ 

Weight: 14.9 oz (as measured on a digital postal scale)

Website: http://www.marblesknives.com

Street price: $40.00-$50.00 USD

Even though it's called a "Safety Axe," the Marbles No.5 is actually a very small hatchet:

The diminutive Safety Axe (left) next to a Gransfors Bruks Wildlife Hatchet

What makes the Safety Axe unique is the built-in metal guard that folds out of the handle and functions as a protective sheath for the blade. The metal sheath has a piece of plastic inside to protect the bit when it's folded over the blade.

Profile comparison with a Gransfors Bruks Wildlife Hatchet. Note the Safety Axe's uniquely shaped eye, which Marble's claims holds the handle more securely in the head:

FIELD TEST

Eager to try the Safety Axe, I grabbed it and headed off to a favorite test location. The first three swings seemed very promising, as it cut deep into the wood for a small hatchet.

The fourth swing, however, turned into a nightmare. The head literally went flying up in the air, landing just inches behind me on the ground. Had it landed on me, it would have most likely meant a trip to the emergency room.

Thinking I might have just gotten a defective hatchet, I went online and did some research. I found that fellow blogger Woodtrekker had the same issue with the head coming loose when he reviewed a Marble's Safety Axe #9 back in October of 2010.

I also found that AG Russell was selling this same hatchet under the name "Pocket Safety Axe" for the rather outlandish price of $79.95. That's some serious coin for a mass produced hatchet that's made in Taiwan.

Conclusion

If Marbles fixes the head\handle issue, it could be a nice little backwoods hatchet. The stock cutting profile and sharpness is very good. The attached guard does make the handle a little less comfortable due to the hollowed space and metal liner, but the guard is a really handy feature. It can be used to attach the Safety Axe to your belt as well.

The head/handle junction issue is a real safety hazard. There is just too much potential for serious injury, so this axe is not recommended.

1 out of 5 Stars

For more info, visit www.marblesknives.com

Was this review helpful? If so, please stop by our Facebook page and follow us!

About the author

Jason Schwartz is the founder and senior editor of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. He is a former Red Cross certified Wilderness & Remote First Aid Instructor, and has taught bushcraft and wilderness survival techniques to the Boy Scouts of America and studied wilderness survival, forestry and wildland firefighting at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Colorado. Jason has also written for magazines such as The New Pioneer and Backpacker, including writing the "Tinder Finder" portion of Backpacker's "Complete Guide to Fire," which won a 2015 National Magazine Award (NMA). Email him at rockymountainbushcraft @ hotmail.com (without spaces)

Quick Update- Flood disaster in Rocky Mountain Bushcraft's hometown, etc

As some of you may have noticed, posting has slowed down considerably over the past several weeks. This is because Rocky Mountain Bushcraft's hometown of Estes Park was caught in the middle of the Colorado Flood disaster. As you can imagine, it has been a slow road to recovery.

(A creek flows through the middle of a mountain resident's yard where there once was none)

In spite of all of my preparations for an event like this, I was taken aback by the scale of it. Everyone I know was affected in some way, either physically or emotionally. Life is beginning to return to normal to some extent, but as you can imagine, it's taken time to regroup and start writing again.

I look forward to getting back in the swing of things, so look for a bunch of new posts/articles/reviews in the coming days and weeks, and please stop by the Rocky Mountain Bushcraft Facebook page and hit us up with a "Like", as we will be posting a lot of extra material there.

Cheers,

Jason

PS- During this period, several readers wrote us to ask if we were ok-- thank you--we really appreciated hearing from you!

PSS- This is footage of the flood destruction in the mountain town of Glen Haven. The mountains that surround Glen Haven are where we do some of our axe testing:

2013 Summer Outdoor Retailer Show Report! (w/ Edged Tools Report)

It was a fun and exciting time at this year's Summer Outdoor Retailer Show. Technology just keeps pushing backpacking/camping products farther into the stratosphere, and edged tool manufacturers continue to vie for a piece of the expanding bushcraft and survival/prepper market.

Unlike my last trip to Salt Lake City during the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show, when I had to slip and slide my way to the Salt Palace Convention Center during a nasty, multi-day ice storm, the weather this time was quite beautiful. Warm, sunny days dominated, and the view outside the convention center was vibrant and colorful.

The view outside of the Salt Palace Convention Center

Gerber Gear's cool "Black Boar" 4x4 van:

Inside the show:

An owl handler giving an informational talk at the Clifbar Exhibit. Apparently, his owl spotted a ProBar rep walking by and tried to bite him!

What's new in Edged Tools!

Mora of Sweden to release larger Black Carbon Bushcraft model in December

Come December, Mora of Sweden is planning to release a larger version of its popular Black Carbon Bushcraft Knife called the "Pathfinder." The blade will be 6 5/8" long, and the thickness will be increased to a very robust 3.5mm. This is definitely looking to be the stoutest Mora ever, and it appears that they are taking aim at the large-bladed survival knife market.

Aside from the longer blade, the sheath is a new style cordura nylon sheath with loops to attach extra survival gear, etc. Hopefully Mora will still offer a plastic survival sheath as an option, since the cordura sheath, though seemingly well-made, didn't impress me like the well-executed dangler sheath on the existing Black Carbon.

Here is a sneak preview of the larger Black Carbon Knife and Sheath (second from top):

Sheath:

Mora's new US distributor, Industrial Revolution (Light My Fire, Esbit, UCO, etc) promised to get us a test sample just before consumer release, so keep checking back as December approaches for a full field test!

Steve Lorente of Industrial Revolution/Mora Knives USA:

"Made in the USA" Bear Grylls folding knife

Gerber Gerber is planning to release a US-made Bear Grylls folding knife within the next 4-5 months:

ESEE Knives will release 440C Stainless versions of their popular ESEE-3 and ESEE-4 knives this Fall:

While I was at the Benchmade Knives exhibit, I asked them to laser engrave my Benchmade Bushcrafter with our site name:

Voila!

Me with the Benchmade Knives Team:

Buck Knives' new, made in the USA "Stowaway Kit" all-in-one camp cutting board/knife, "Splizzors" heavy duty fishing pliers, and Clearwater 5" Bait Knife:

The Zippo Outdoors crew demonstrating their new 4-in-1 Woodsman Axe/Saw:

They let me swing it a couple of times, but quickly snatched it away after chips from the notch I was chopping (with my usually vigorous chopping style) went flying right by the Zippo PR director's head!

SOG Knives' new line of hand axes and Spirit Knife survival spear:

Made in the USA Gear!

Woolrich has a limited edition wool poncho that might be of interest to bushcrafters, or for those wanting to fend off banditos ala' Clint Eastwood's "Fist Full of Dollars!"

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that Woolrich still makes their wool blankets in the USA:

Other cool stuff!

Bergan's of Norway breakdown canoe, which packs completely into a backpack (shown in the lower left-hand corner of the photo):

Rocky Mountain Bushcraft edition Liberty Bottles!

Liberty Bottleworks completely surprised me with a set of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft edition Liberty Bottles, complete with tips from our "Tips and Trips" section! Ryan Clark, co-president of Liberty Bottles, is a fan of RMB, and also wanted to thank us for our commitment to reviewing/bringing attention to made in the USA outdoor products.

"Next stop--- SHOT Show 2014 in Las Vegas!!!!