Anybody heard of S.O.L.?
The SOL stands for Survive Outdoors Longer. I've got a couple of their products in the store but none of us has used them.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has experience with them what you think. I'd like to buy one of their combo kits (link below) but their kinda pricey.
http://www.surviveoutdoorslonger.com/origin.php
I know I can make a comparable kit for alot less but I'd still like to know about the brand and quality.
Last edited by SwissArmyKnife; 12-26-2012 at 08:30 PM.
The sparker is halfway decent. One handed operation is neat.
The compass does its job, but so does the one on my wristwatch, it's identical.
The signal mirror is sheet metal and can distort the light.
The knife/whistle/light is a cheap stainless cutting tool, I rolled tghe edge on mine making curls with River Birch.
The cordage is the cheap 3 strand stuff you see in dollar stores.
Tinder is good, although there isn't much in the kit.
Silicone gasket is nice, but will also trap water inside the case. I wouldn't trust it for submergence.
ABS goes brittle in the cold.
Stailess wire is about 3 ft long. Again, not much there.
Buck's tips for survival are good points, but vaugely relevant to every environment out there.
I have the SOL bivy bag works awesome to keep warm in and /or slip over your sleep system!! Packs very very small.
I picked up a couple of their $15 survival medic pouches for car kits a while back - the components aren't the best, but they're also not the worst and I'd have spent more building something comparable due to the amounts I would have needed to buy on some of the ingredients.
Of course I understand that in their mind SOL means Survive Outdoors Longer -- but when I was younger, it meant something completely different. I occasionally wonder if they did it on purpose.
You could make a much better kit with stuff laying around your house. I'd pass.
the sparker is ok, need to figure out angles for it to be effective though, havent tried it in the cold yet (yes i know shame on me) so cold or numb fingers could be an issue to it, but the one handed operation could be a bonus given circumstances. The tinder is pretty good i do like them, small handy and a half way decent burn time
I think SOL is a new name or owned by AMK. I have the Sparklite and it does work but not much better than my empty modified Bic. The tinder works but if that runs out (you can get more than one fire per piece) you will be working those Band-Aids over to catch the spark. Granted there are natural tinder that will ignite but a larger fire steel will do that job so much better and wouldn’t take up much more room than the Sparklite. Not sayin it is bad and will work one handed but just tossing out my views. The AMK/SOL survival sheets are nice. I have two of the AMK/SOL bivy bags but keep them for ER hiking stuff. Kinda want a "SPORT UTILITY BLANKET".
Last edited by Woods Walker; 12-26-2012 at 11:00 PM.
They pretty much just package things for convenience. I think their bivy sacks are ok for emergency, but I wouldn't bank on them all the time. I do carry an AMK kit myself and I like it. But, I think their SOL line of stuff is kinda cheap. There's better stuff out there beware of commercialized flashy stuff that looks convenient.
I think you are correct, it looks like it's the new name for the survival product side of Adventure Medical Kits.Originally Posted by Woods Walker
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Their emergency blankets and bivvys are good.
I haven't bothered with anything else on that side of the brand.
I just put my own kits together with what I know works and am comfortable with.
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