Category Archives: Equipment and Book Reviews

You may remember the post last week where WT and I tried a fire by friction bow for the first time.  Well, my inexperience made me fail, even though I easily got a good strong ember – and while I plan on practicing more, I have a few other items from the same company PSKOOK.  Most of their items relate to paracord and outdoor gear and I wanted to try a few paracord items that contained inner firecord.  In the video I show a paracord winder, a roll of firecord, and a fire starting necklace.

Paracord Winder

The paracord winder came in a 5 pack for $6.80, each one holds up to 100 feet 550 paracord.  The ladder paracord winder is the simplest and most practical way to organize paracord, I consider it a must-have for outdoors organization.

I used a larger set up that was designed for extension cords to keep some electric fence wire organized when I salvaged it from my in-law’s farm.

If you don’t want to spend the money, you could always cut a length of plywood and make your own paracord winder, but frankly, for around a dollar per 100 feet, I think this is the easier way to go.

Parachute Fire Cord

This para cord costs the same as regular paracord, but it contains much more.  Not only does it contain the inner strands like traditional paracord, but it has a strand of fishing line(40lb) and a strand of red waterproof flax fire tinder. 

In the video above you can see how quickly it lights and how stongly it burns with just a touch from a lighter.  The flax tinder is waterproof, in wet weather, rain, or even drop in water, you can make fire with your fire flint

This brand of cord is not stiff, even with the firecord it is flexible as normal paracord.

This is very good for DIY projects. You can make any paracord stuff by our new survival paracord, I’ve made paracord braclets before, and was planning on making a sling for my boy’s cricket rifle – adding fishing line and tinder to his sling really ups the survival value.

This firecord comes in multiple sizes and colors, and the 100 feet roll we got was $12.80 with prime shipping.

PSKOOK Fire Starter Necklace

This paracord necklace has a small ferrocium rod and a metal striker.  Its a good value at $6.68.  Its useful and decorative.

The necklace contains 43 inch Fire Paracord, and the necklace Length can be adjusted, which means you can cut a little Paracord to make fire if necessary, it still a have a wearable necklace.  I think that if I needed to use this in a survival situation, rather than cut the a piece of the entire cord, I would just pull out the needed amount of waerproof tender and cut that alone.

I had been wanting to buy the überleben Leicht Fire Starter Necklace for some time, it is very similar, but when I saw this one at almost half the price I immediately purchased PSKOOK’s Model.

As I said in the video above, I have wanted a angleizer tool for a while now, but I did not have a reason to buy one.  I still don’t have a specific project in mind, but I have been plotting to build a teardrop camping trailer so I can convince the wife to go camping more.  Anyway, lack of proiject aside, I finally decided to buy this tool when I saw it was only $10.99 for a kit that included the angleizer, a protractor, and a tape.

The neat thing about this tool is that it can lock any desired angle as a reusable stencil for endless applications.   Most people use it for hanging tile, laying floors, or cutting stone.  I don’t do much of any of that, but as a DIY’er I think it will help with laying out projects.

It is easy to use, and it even comes with an extra screw.

One thing I did not like is that it did not come with instructions, normally I would just google it, but there is a lack of good videos on the subject.  But basically you just pull on the template tool to what ever shapes or angles you needed, then tighten the screws.

Today I want to show something I have wanted to try for decades – a Fire Bow Kit.  This one comes from Amazon and it only costs $15.80 with prime shipping.

It did not come with instructions, and it is not the typical American survival bow, but that does not mean it is not cool.

This one has an interesting wrap of cord that allows the bow to slide back and forth – like a traditional bow drill fire set, but with more power as the string can’t slip.

I was very quickly able to make smoke – lots of smoke, even some embers, but I was not able to make the embers ignite the jute enough to start a fire.

I would be wrong to say it was the kit’s fault, it worked great – but I just did not practice enough to make it work.

Right now I am wanting to get this post out so you can see this kit – I never thought you could actually buy a bow drill fire set, but rest assured this is something I will practice until I can get it right – and then learn how the cord wrap works.

I think with some cotton balls I could have gotten a fire.  But I am not blaming the kit, I just need to practice – actually, trying different homemade firestarters and maybe some instafire, may be a video series.  What do you think?

I have wanted a wireless phone charging pad for some time, and when I got the chance to review the Ayat Qi Wireless Charger Pad I jumped on it.  Unfortunately, I did not do my homework and my iPhone does not support wireless charging.

Later (after the video) I found a friend with an android phone and they are very satisfied with the charger.

I really can’t say too much about this particular wireless charger, it was inexpensive, came with a cord, and was basically plug and play.

The Wireless Charger pad works with fully Qi-Enabled devices like:

•  iPhone X / iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus
• Samsung Galaxy Note 8, S8, S8 Plus, S8 Edge, S7, S7 Edge, S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, S6 Active, S6 Duos, Note 5
• Sony Xperia Z4V, Xperia Z3V
• Google Nexus 4/ 5/ 6/ 7
• Motorola Droid Turbo, Droid Turbo 2, Droid 5
• Nokia Lumia 920/ 928/ 93/ 950/ 950 XL/ 1020/ 1050/ 822/ 735
• LG Nexus 4/ 5, G Pro, D1L, LTE2
• HTC One Max T6, One Mini 2, Incredible 4G, Droid DNA

They do make wireless Qi charging adapters for older iPhones.  I am thinking about getting one for Genny, and if I do, then I will buy another of these devices.

They work similar to an Electromagnetic Pulse (or a transformer)  it uses a electromagnetic field to induct a current which is used to charge the phone battery.

I think the technology is really neat, and the end result makes it much easier to keep a phone charged.

In my house, with the boy constantly unplugging his mom’s phone to watch videos it is hard to keep one charged.