Is a psk really needed in the UK?

[Tengu]

PSK life and death, compact,
EDC convenience and comfort and self reliance
Possibles mixture of the two, easy of access, a less compact/compressed form of PSK but one you dip in to

PSK not needed in UK really

But

for urban PSK, would things like fires, accidents, terrorist attacks, be soemthing that might be more of an issue...would self defense items be needed more as street violence increases....

while i carry a tactical pen, its more because its robust, i wont sit on it and break it and get ink on me, and the glass breaker doesnt hurt, ive beem in enough car crashes to like the odea of belt cutter and glass breaker...
tehnically it could be used for self defense, but the best self defense is running.

but an n95 mask, ive used mine several times from my belt kit when there was debris/dust....when i was younger and lived in Bridgwater there was often sirens for chemical hazards and people had to rush indoors and sometimes ducttape windows etc because of chemical hazards....those factories have closed down now,

no harm in having more urban protective items in an edc....

but to go back to OP question, the main reason for me is that making a lofty style PSK is what got me in to survival and then bushcraft in the first place, in 1982 survival was only military, rambo knives etc, the magazine around was i think survival weaponry and tactics or something like that. bushcraft wasnt a well known term untill Ray mears and tracks series appeared. The first main survival book was SAS handbook and in 1985 me and friends first started "playing" in the woods because of this book, and we all made tins.
So one of the best uses of a PSK in the UK is as a hobby, and to encourage interest in bushcraft and survival. the collecting/maintaining of kits is very therapeutic to people on the spectrum as well...

A very valid and thoughtful reply.

 

[neoaliphant]

Not unless UK law changes drastically. Self-defence is a term and concept which needs to be used with a lot of caution, it's been much discussed but many people are wary of carrying anything which could be interpreted as a weapon. Hit an attacker with an old-fashioned Maglite when walking the dog, you will have much better chances in court than if you were carrying a torch with a crenelated bezel which can be argued as designed to inflict injury.

Items designed to deal with the consequences of an attack- different matter, and probably sensible in some postcodes.



This is where it falls apart for me. How can a pen be 'tactical'? What are the tactis of writing something down? Bizarre terminology aside, I carry a biro, it weighs practically nothing, if I sit on it and break it it doesn't leak and I can still write with the inner part in an emergency (how often do transcription-based emergencies really happen anyway?)

I can't break a window with it, but how many owners of tactical pens with built-in glass breakers are actually practiced and proficient in their use? How many would find that in reality they don't work in an emergeny, or fail to protect their hand properly and end up wth worse injuries than if they had sat tight and waited for the emergency services?

But I completely understand wanting to own something of reliability and quality which will last a lifetime. Unfortunately that quality seems to get forgotten in the EDC hobby as next year's version comes out with an extra built in gadget, and the original slips to the back of a drawer. All very consumption heavy.

Good points, reason i carry it is : it was £1 on ali express, it was an xmas pressi, its rugged and i constantly break things, its thick which i like, and most importantly it fits perfectly on my phone pouch which has a pocket for a notepad so makes nice set.....

i dont buy large amounts of kit, unlike some people on some of the youtube channels who seem to have dozens of everything, but normally just emough to have a few different amounts in different kits so i dont get bthe situation of moving things back and forward between kits. ie kit/backpack in car, kit on belt which is for work, and seperate kit in knapsack that is more for days out/shopping/day trips/visiting family which has a lot fo comfort items in, kite, pocket slingshot, cards etc

so if i have 2 of something, i generally spread between the 2....

but biying something slightly better and relegating the previous to a drawer.....that would drive my ADHD absolutely nuts.....often i resell things on to otehr people...

But

buying new kit is sometimes part of teh fun of the hobby.....

 

[Glow_worm]

All good points too @neoaliphant.

We evolve, and learn, and kit changes, so of course there are going to be adaptations and improvements to what we carry. I'm the same as anyone else- having carried a Victorinox Huntsman on me since I joined the Scouts. I finally realised last year that only having one knife was a bit vulnerable, and I never actually used the saw on the Huntsman except for veteran fruit tree restoration, which is never a spur of the moment thing! I bought a Compact which is noticeably lighter and smaller, contains the tools I use the most and less of those I don't, and it is now on my person all the time except when in bed. The Huntsman now lives in the car full time.

I suppose I'm lucky hitting on something which suited me first time, and only tweaking it slightly nearly 25 years later. I can see why others keep buying, trying, and either passing on or adding to the collection, but for me it's not a hobby in itself, it's tools for living and doing other hobbies.

 

[neoaliphant]

I just bought a nitecore nu20 classic this week, first time ive had a head torch because for years i stuck to cylindral hand torches that fit in an old nitehead maglite head strap, and ive been blown away by its tiny size, versatility and brightness for the advertised lumens, which makes me think some of my otehr torches were misrepresented.....

if i didnt upgrade, i wouldnt have discovered how awesome a headtorch is, so it now lives on my belt kit

so what to do with sofirn IF23....probably go in to the car kit....
i delayed for ages because of havig the niteize headstrap..

sometimes a new gadget is just that, and i am guilty of that

and sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and upgrade rather than making do...

got my surge only couple of years ago, glad i didnt get one of the earlier leatherman waves decades ago, as the surge is so much better.....somepeople might say the surge is heavy, but its simply heavy duty and fits well in the hand and i use the saws all the time...


in summary, there isnt one philosophy re kit that coveres everyone....
but what is important is that we dont gatekeep and dictate, denigrate and belittle peoples choices/loadouts/kit selections....

not that it happens here on this forum, but ive seen it on american forums, and experienced myself doing reenactment which made me give it up as it was toxic it ruined the hobby....

 

[GreyCat]

I just bought a nitecore nu20 classic this week, first time ive had a head torch because for years i stuck to cylindral hand torches that fit in an old nitehead maglite head strap, and ive been blown away by its tiny size, versatility and brightness for the advertised lumens, which makes me think some of my otehr torches were misrepresented.....

if i didnt upgrade, i wouldnt have discovered how awesome a headtorch is, so it now lives on my belt kit

so what to do with sofirn IF23....probably go in to the car kit....
i delayed for ages because of havig the niteize headstrap..

sometimes a new gadget is just that, and i am guilty of that

and sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and upgrade rather than making do...

got my surge only couple of years ago, glad i didnt get one of the earlier leatherman waves decades ago, as the surge is so much better.....somepeople might say the surge is heavy, but its simply heavy duty and fits well in the hand and i use the saws all the time...


in summary, there isnt one philosophy re kit that coveres everyone....
but what is important is that we dont gatekeep and dictate, denigrate and belittle peoples choices/loadouts/kit selections....

not that it happens here on this forum, but ive seen it on american forums, and experienced myself doing reenactment which made me give it up as it was toxic it ruined the hobby....

Indeed.

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays
And every single one of them is right."

(Kipling, "In the Neolithic Age": https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_neolithic.htm )

GC

 

[neoaliphant]

Indeed.

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays
And every single one of them is right."

(Kipling, "In the Neolithic Age": https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_neolithic.htm )

GC

Excelelnt use of poetry qutation, very impresed with any poem that features a tomahawk...