Knives and Emergency Blankets

A couple articles via Dirt Time that the I thought were useful.

First, Dirt Time linked to this review of three knives: the Fallkniven F1, SOG Seal Pup M37, and KJ Eriksson Mora Carbon Knife #711, at Brian's Backpacking Blog. The review was intended to evaluate the knives based on usefulness for camping/backpacking (i.e., not tactical or hunting). Per the article, the author indicated his primary use of a knife was for cutting wood: making feather sticks, carving tent pegs, cutting notches, batoning through thick branches, and sharpening points on sticks.  The author indicated that cutting food and cordage was the next most common uses. He also gave his thoughts on the sheaths. Perhaps not surprising to those that have used Mora knives, he rated the Mora as the best overall, even though it was also the least expensive (you can pick up a basic Mora knife for less than $20 through Amazon).

Second, Dirt Time has a short article on using emergency blankets. The primary lesson from the article is that while an emergency blanket can keep you warm, it doesn't breath, and so condensation can be a significant problem. The author recommends using a layer (a blanket or somesuch) that will absorb the condensation between you and the mylar blanket.