Blog
Tales from the Field: Alaska Sleeping Bag Stitching by Kevin Esetla
Whenever downtime allows, gear should be assessed for damage and disrepair. Anytime gear shows wear, it makes sense to spend some of your time and repair or replace it. When you are miles from home and far from civilization, the only option you may have is to fix it yourself....
Why Summer Is Actually the Hardest Time to Start a Fire.
When we think about summer, we immediately think of the heat. Especially here in Georgia, it's nothing to play with. What we don't think about are the afternoon showers that bring heavy humidity, wet ground, and damp tinder. That's what makes summer fire-starting harder than most people expect. You can...
Gear Can Be Lost. Skills Can't.
How many times have you gone out on a trip and forgotten what you wanted at home? It could've been your lighter you left on the nightstand or a knife in the drawer. Or on a more serious note, losing something actively to water, a fall, or just plain...
Cold Conditions Removes Options Fast
Recently, we recorded a reel walking through our candleTIN™ lineup, and one comment stood out to us. After researching the article about Brianna L. Mohr in the Adirondack Mountains, we can't make assumptions about how she could have survived. At the same time we want to spread awareness of the...
Exotac’s Most Underrated Firestarter: The nanoSPARK™
Our team agrees this tool is underrated, and for some of us, it’s one of our favorite products. What It IsA one handed firestarter with built in tinder. No fuel. No setup. No guesswork. Pull. Strike. Fire. Why It Stands OutYou don’t fully appreciate this tool until you use it....
How to Get a Zippo to Stop Evaporating Fuel
If you’ve ever carried a lighter for more than a few days without using it, you know the problem. You go to light it, and it’s empty. Not broken.Not used up.Just gone. Evaporation. Zippo lighter fluid usually evaporates in 1 to 2 weeks, even when not in use, because the...
AI Built a Survival Kit… Would You Trust It?
We asked AI a simple question: “If you only had 3 items to survive in the wild, what would you bring?” No overthinking. No 10-item loadout. Just three. And honestly, the answer wasn’t bad. 1. Knife This one’s obvious. A knife isn’t just a tool; it’s a multiplier. With it,...
Most people think a fire is just a fire. It’s not. If you’re in the wild, you usually build a fire for one of two reasons: to cook or to stay warm. These are two completely different setups. You don’t cook over flames. You cook...
This Firestarter Wouldn’t Be Allowed on Alone
This is the Exotac FireROD XL. If you showed up to Alone with it like this, they’d probably stop you before you even got started. Not because it’s a bad tool, but because it does too much. It’s not just a ferro rod. A ferro rod is allowed on Alone,...