Sadly, even in what should be a tightly knit community like ours, there are still divisions. There’s one side that thinks that there is nothing wrong with spending big bucks on purpose-built or purpose-designed items versus those who believe that the cheapest alternative is ‘just as good’ and the other side is a buncha ‘yuppie survivalists’. A good example would be water containers. One person will say that anyone who uses anything other than recycled 2-liter pop bottles is not a ‘working man’ and is a fool who is throwing their money away, whereas the the other side will say that anyone who compromises on quality/engineering in order to save a few bucks is cutting their own throat with false economies. Both sides can get pretty vocal and, honestly, both sides kind of annoy me. It’s like two people standing on the deck of the Titanic arguing about rearranging deck chairs while the ship lists.
There won’t be any award given out for people who made it through the apocalypse using the cheapest gear or spending the least resources. If you can afford an advantage, take it. If you can’t, do what you can.
Which brings us to todays soon-to-be-beaten-to-a-lingering-death topic……….
Two things I keep in my gear: writing paper and writing utensils. Why? Because when things go bad, either on a personal small-level SHTF moment or the big epic one, you’re going to need to make notes…of gate combinations, mile markers, GPS coordinates, radio freqs, coded notes for meetup points, phone numbers, addresses, rendezvous times, and a zillion other things that are too important to commit to your already overburdened memory.
My line of reasoning is that in a crisis, if something is worth writing down its worth staying legible and intact until it is no longer needed. Now, I could just grab a ninety-nine cent pocket notebook, a plastic bag, and a ballpoint pen, and throw them in my bag. Or, I could spend the money and buy the paper that lets you write on it even when wet, the pen that lets you write upside down and with ink that won’t smear, and package it all in a handy cordura case that holds the paper and writing instruments together until such time as they’re needed. When that dark and stormy night comes and you need to leave a note tacked to your door telling your separated loved ones where to find you, the last thing you want it for that note to have become a spongy, pulpy mess with unreadable, streaked, and smeared ink.
Look, you do you. But I don’t mind spending money on the purpose-built, purpose-designed materials (or materiels) that fit my needs. Which leads me to these:
What youre looking at is a bunch of ‘Rite In The Rain’ products. These are the guys who are most noted (get it?) for their paper that…well…lets you write in the rain. But paper is only half the equation, the other half is something that will let you write in those circumstances. Remember thos Fisher ‘Space Pens’? Really, all they are are pens that use a pressurized ink cartridge. The RITR guys sell those too. Since I’m a suspenders-and-a-belt kinda guy I include a pen, pencil, Sharpie, and maybe an extra pen or two. Here’s what I’ve found that works for me.
I use the 3×5 notepads. I find them to be the best combination of utility and compactness. Additionally, 3×5 seems to be the most common size for accessories like covers and cases for the pad. RITR sells them, sometimes as a package, but other companies make similar products. I like one-stop-shopping whenever possible, so I just get it all from RITR. I used the grid paper rather than the usual lined paper because…well..its seems more useful if I have to draw a map or other graphic representation of something.
For actual writing instruments, it’s pretty much a no-brainer – go with a pen (or two) that use a pressurized cartridge containing a good waterproof ink. Again, I just get the RITR ones but there are some ‘tactical pens’ out there that also used pressurized cartridges. Might wanna get a spare cartridge or two as well.
In my line of work, we use a lot of mechanical pencils and I’ve come to eschew regular yellow No.2 pencils for any serious use. You can go down a major rabbit hole when it comes to mechanical pencils, leads, etc. For instance, I prefer a .5 lead, and I have a lovely .2 Japanese-made model, but in a tough world I want something less delicate. RITR has a 1.3mm that is really nice. It gives a thick easy to read line with a lead that is thick enough to not break easily. And the pencils themselves are pretty slick too. For scrawling a note to leave on a windshield, on the side of a box of ammo, or on the doorjamb of a house..I really like these. (And the three-pack comes in Black, OD, and FDE…nice.)
An interesting take on the pressurized space pen are these little things from Pokka. Their claim to fame is that they are two-piece compact pocket pens. One half acts as a sheath for the other half, take it apart and click them together to get a full size writing instrument. Handy for keeping a pen in your pants pocket without stabbing yourself in the thigh or painting your clothes with ink. Drawback is that the ink cartridge is necessarily half the capacity. But when you want a compact package to save space but still need the performance, its a good compromise. Other drawback is that it appears they are disposable, without replacement cartridges available. Assess for your needs accordingly.
And, of course, a Sharpie is never a bad idea to keep on hand.
As you think about it, there’s probably a couple additional things to keep handy in that same vein. The one that springs to mind first, for me, is a big chunk of sidewalk chalk and an equally as big crayon. I haven’t seen anything a crayon won’t write on.
Tucked away into a cordura pouch to keep everything collected and protected, it takes up about as much space as a cellphone. Nine times out of ten, I just use them for taking notes at gun shows. However, I also use this stuff for leaving notes on my truck when I go hunting in case something goes wrong, jotting down GPS coords in the field, and that sort of thing.
Can you achieve the same results with a ziploc baggie, a dollar notepad, and a cheap Bic? Yeah, probably. But I could also probably get the same results in New Orleans after Katrina using a Mosin Nagant and a HiPoint…but I’d probably rather have every advantage, real or imagined, on my side that is afforded by the stuff mentioned here.
As I said, it’s a subjective thing…what we determine is or is not worth dropping our hard-earned coin on. For me, since I don’t drink, smoke, or have expensive non-survivalist-related hobbies, I can spend a little money on stuff that someone else might think is an extravagant or unnecessary purchase. To each their own.
