 Someone recently posted a link to an aluminium walking staff that had hollow sections that could be used to hold energency kit. It was the sort of thing Trevor would post. But for some reason I can't find it in my browser history (it does that sometimes; fails to keep a full record of my browsing). And it's doing my head in... Now I'm not particularly interested in getting one, but it reminded me of one of the firsdt outdoor links I ever followed, from an issue of TGO in 1998. Wilderness Walking Staff
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 Is this what you mean? For fending off bears? 
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Hmmm... no... 'Trail Defense System' (sic). Yikes. I am at least pleased to see that the 'MetroPole' doesn't have this feature...
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 that was the one i was thinking of mike.
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 I am pretty sure there were some Hollow Walking Staff working in Blacks the last time I ventured in... Alternatively, I suspect such a gadget has been tested in the field of drug smuggling. Most things have... I am a little surprised that you, CP, would be seeking out such an article. Surely it would make for an inefficient staff for various physical reasons (CoG, MoI, strength etc.) as well as practical ones (e.g. the objects would have to conform to the shape of the staff or would rattle about)? Still, you being a person of reason, I shall look forward to hearing them  Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
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That patent is patent nonsense. How on earth was it granted. In 2005? The Wilderness Walking Staff I linked to goes back to 1998 at least; I'm looking at the dated paper copy on my desk. Comparing the list of things on What is the Wilderness Walking Staff with that patent, it's almost a direct lift. I remember seeing the picture; a bloke holding a grey walking staff, with heavily annealed surface. Grrr... where was it...
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As I said, John, "Now I'm not particularly interested in getting one"... It's just doing my head in that I can't find it again. OCD kicking in, I'm afraid...
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| Edited: 04/07/08 17:11 |
No sir, it is I who failed to spot the "not" in "not particularly".... must learn to read more carefully! As for Patent... don't forget that, whereas in the UK (and Europe in general I believe) it is proving that you were 'first to invent' that gives you patent rights; in the States it is 'first to file' who gets to hold the patent. There are, I believe, a whole sector of US entrepreneurs who make money out of filing patents on things invented (and perhaps patented) abroad.
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> in the States it is 'first to file' who gets to hold the patent Ah, yes, that's true. I wonder if anyone's filed a patent for the wheel yet... or the lever... or a pulley...
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 Capt P I saw that aswell yesterday I'm sure.............hold on, searching..........
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 It was a DIY walking staff wih hidden survival kit that I posted about on the forum here not so long ago back I think.  From America...of course! A Ranger Rick project it was, link again as below.
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| Edited: 05/07/08 06:56 |
Sorry cp! It wasn't me sadly that posted it and I haven't seen one of those in about three or more years online anywhere else either. Last time I saw one though it was indeed a US thing of course! It is a US company that makes those and I was myself seriously thinking of getting one a few years ago. In the end though it came down to the same reason for not having one as for not having a hollow hanled survival knife too! Lose one in an accident falling on a high trail, or in a slip into a fast river and you've lost the other item too. So knife plus survival kit, or pole and survival kit both lost together - double disaster! Plus as with the hollow handle survival knife, the hollow pole section is not as strongly robust too, as one without all that emergency gear stuffed into it. Better to spread emergency kit in a few different locations around the body then, so it cannot all just be lost in one accident or incident. Better too to keep some of that spread kit close to the body in pockets/pouchs as well. Or else, if it is all one place in your pack, and you should lose that, then you would be completely stuffed in any given survival situation that followed.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-cclean&p=survival%20walking%20staff&type=The only reason that you couldn't find it by search online is that they like to use the term 'survival staff' instead of pole in the USA. As I too found out, after much prior fruitless searching for it online way back when. http://www.therangerdigest.com/Tips___Tricks/Bamboo_Walkin_Stick/body_bamboo_walkin_stick.htm Actually!!!!!!!!!! It could have been this thing here that you saw me posting as a diy topic! As a back up - ie used with and not replacing a standard last line survival kit - the hollow wooden pole diy type jobs are useful trail items to have for walking along big out of the way wilderness trails abroad, but not so much here in Blighty. But as I say I don't myself think that much of the factory made USA hollowed out survival kit metal jobbies at all. The Ranger digest one is actually said to be based on escape kits made by captured US forces in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Where prisoners were often allowed staffs to walk the heavy mountainous highland terrain, as they were moved from place to place, being as they were often sick and injured. They evolved the hiding of useful escape items, and some saved meagre rice rations, into the poles then to help them survive - if they could just only somehow or another get themselves into that SERE situation - to get away and evade further enemy capture till rescue by friendly forces.
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Above is just my pm to cp repeated here just in case it might well contain information perhaps of interest to anyone else, looking too into getting themselves this type of staff/survival kit item.
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| Edited: 05/07/08 06:55 |
http://www.survival.com/dusk.htmOverall I do really prefer packing items into the more traditional tin type survival kits; as it is possible to just get so very many more useful items into there you see.
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| Edited: 05/07/08 20:01 |
 Would it not be more prudent to carry any survival gear that you might need in some kind of receptacle which could be strapped to your body, so that in any kind of accident, it would stay with you? ...like YOUR RUCKSACK, for example!!! I mean, "HELLOOO!" Sheesh.
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Would it not be more prudent to carry any survival gear that you might need in some kind of receptacle which could be strapped to your body, so that in any kind of accident, it would stay with you? ...like YOUR RUCKSACK, for example!!! I mean, "HELLOOO!" Sheesh.
Or a pocket mebbe? lol
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Exactly as I said above there, before your posts for instance maybe you mean guys? It is a good way meethinks of supplementing that said body and pack secreted survival kit though don't forget. It is likely better then, to have the survival kit for certain in more places about one's person than just in the 'pack' or 'pocket' as you say. One kit source and one accidental loss and it is all gone then, isn't it!
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| Edited: 05/07/08 20:26 |
Not putting all your eggs in one basket, eh Trev
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