Mini Emergency Survival Kit

Fire! Our ancestors have been keeping themselves warm with it for over 400,000 years. Those beautiful ancient monkey men known as homo erectus definitely had some skills. These days all you need to do is find your local store, buy a lighter or matches and bam - instant fire.

What happens though if your out in the wilderness and all you have is a wallet and a dead phone? If your a survivalist, then you just grab a couple of sticks and rub them together. Me? I follow the scouts motto instead... "be prepared'

I've made a survival kits in the past (see this 'ible) and a wax tinder (see this 'Ible), but this time I wanted to make an even smaller one. I don't think you can get any smaller then a fuse! To use the mini emergency kit, you need to break the fuse glass. I have also included some strike paper and a wick from one of those novelty candles that you can't blow out. Take that homo erectus!

You can hang the emergency survival kit around your neck so you won't lose it, and it is water resistant so getting it wet won't damage the matches inside.

Things to Gather

1. Box of matches

2. 60 amp fuse (or a 100 amp one - as long as it is big!) – eBay

3. Novelty candle – eBay

4. Piece of brass rod (about 2 mm thick)

5. 2mm thick Suede thonging - eBay

Tools

1. Scissors

2. Small blow torch

3. Solder

4. Glue

5. Pliers

6. Flux

Steps:

1. First thing to do is to remove the caps from the fuse. Put the fuse into a vice making sure that you don’t tighten too much.

2. Next grab a small blow torch (or even a lighter) and heat-up the end. The cap is held in place with a little glue which goes soft quickly. Also, the cap will have some solder in the end which needs to be heated.

3. Once the cap is hot enough, carefully remove the end with a pair of needle nose pliers.

4. Do this for both ends.

TIP: if you have any solder left in the cap, then hold the cap hole down with a pair of pliers and heat with the blow torch. Lightly tap the cap and it will come out.

Steps:

1. With a pair of pliers, twist a piece brass wire to make a loop.

2. Cut the excess wire off so it makes a loop

3. Next add some flux to the top of one of the caps and with the mini blow torch, attach the brass loop

4. Give it a wipe over to remove any excess flux.

Steps:

1. Cut the ends off on 4 matches so they fit inside the fuse. You will have to remove about 7mm.

2. With a Stanley knife, take some of the excess wood off the ends of the matches. It will help make them fit into the rolled strike paper.

2. Next remove the wax from the candle wick and cut to size.

Steps:

1. Add a strip of the strike paper to the inside of the glass tube.

2. To do this cut a length of the paper, trim off the ends and then roll. To make sure you can’t see the strike strip, cut it length ways and make the height the same as the fuse cap. Place the strip into the glass tube.

3. Once the strip is in place, add the matches and wick. You should be able to fit the matches and wick into the rolled paper. If not, take the paper out and trim a little more.

Steps:

1. If everything fits, the next step is to glue the caps into place.

2. Carefully put some glue on the insides of the cap. Try not to get any on the inside top, only on the sides.

3. Push the cap into place and repeat.

TIP – To clean the glass of any glue that might be still there from when you removed the caps, just heat with a lighter and wipe it away.

Steps:

1. Leave to dry for 24 hours.

2. Thread a piece of leather or suede through the loop and tie the end.

DONE!