Tag Archives: survival

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Blackbeard Plasma Lighter

When you hear the words ‘plasma lighter’ the lightsaber or something out of the Aliens universe comes to mind. But they are real and they are sci-fi (at least to old guys like me). Plasma lighters are battery powered devices that generate a high voltage electrical arc which can ignite kindling. They work in the same way as your car’s spark plug or a mini taser.

Blackbeard Fire sent me a Pirates Plunder survival pack which includes their Plasma Lighter along with Firestarter sticks and a Ferro Rod. The device is about the size of an executive Zippo lighter and is incased in a black silicone skin. The top is latched down to keep it water proof. The device is recharged via USB-C and has LED charge indicator lights.

Pressing on the a button next to the igniter, immediately creates a purple spark of plasma. Unlike a plasma lighter that I already owned, Blackbeard’s uses not just a single pair of electrical contacts but four to create an ‘X’ like electrical arc between them.

Like a mini arc welder, the electricity heats the air into a plasma at hot as the surface of the sun. The Plasma Lighter easily ignited the Fire Plugs and FIrestarter fibers that I had soaked in water for an hour. The only thing a Plasma Lighter doesn’t do better than a traditional lighter is provide illumination but I’m sure somebody makes a version with a built-in CREE light so check-mate Bic.

AFFILIATE RETAIL LINK

Amazon https://amzn.to/3xQqPAE

Pirate Plunder Kit: https://amzn.to/3xHAgm6

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Blackbeard Fire Plugs

In a survival situation, without a means to create a fire, can you slowly die of hypothermia. Blackbeard sent me a bag of Fire Plugs; compact fire starters that feel like mini candles and look a bit like white cheddar Cheetos. They claim their completely water proof.

As a torture test, I dropped a plug into a pitcher of water and let it soak for an hour. After 62 minutes I took a wet plug out of the water and gave it a quick shake. I bent it and twisted it and worked it back and fourth until it softened and allowed me to pull it apart into two halves.

Blackbeard’s online demos advise fluffing up the torn half which felt like wax impregnated cotton cigarette filters. Despite floating in water for an hour, the interior of the plug felt relatively dry (though it was hard to tell as my fingers were wet from fishing out the plugs). To my surprise the tinder lit up without too much effort. Despite it also being a gusty day, I was able to get a small fire started.

If you’re a hiker or packing for an extreme bug-out-bag, adding a Blackbeard to your kit is good “fire insurance.”

AFFILIATE RETAIL LINK

Amazon https://amzn.to/4ePPfLr

The lighter and ropes are part of the Pirate Plunder Kit: https://amzn.to/4eW4H8I

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Blackbeard Ferro Rod

Blackbeard is a small company that was founded by Kai and his brother, who are avid hikers and outdoorsmen in Utah. They invented a range of Fire Starters and fire starting tools based on trail and their own experience, setting up camps in rain or after crossing creeks and rivers with wet gear.

Along with Fire Starter rope cord and Fire Plugs, they include in their Pirate’s Pluder kit, possibly the largest ferro rod on the market. Ferro rods are sticks of magnesium metal that when struck by steel or iron produce sparks. This is the metal used to make sparklers and burns with enough intensity to ignite most kindling.

The Blackbeard Ferro rod comes with its own metal striker which has a built-in bottle opener. Both are connected with a paracord lanyard that can unwound for 6ft of emergency rope. If you’re a hiker or packing for an extreme bug-out-bag, adding a Blackbeard to your kit is good “fire insurance.”

AFFILIATE RETAIL LINK

Amazon https://amzn.to/3VKnqwu

The lighter and ropes are part of the Pirate Plunder Kit: https://amzn.to/3VL6XYX

Shooting Sports

Blackbeard Fire Starter Rope

In a survival situation, without a means to create a fire, can you slowly die of hypothermia. Cold is debilitating and demoralizing. Plus its hard to make a decent cup of hot chocolate.

Blackbeard is a small company that was founded by Kai and his brother, who are avid hikers and outdoorsmen in Utah. They invented the Fire Starter based on trail and experiments, setting up camps in rain or after crossing creeks and rivers with wet gear. They invented a special cloth rope impregnated with a secret blend of ingredients that are non-toxic yet easy to light even after getting them wet (by accident).

The braid of black rope is in a plastic wrapper. The ends are open so the wrapper itself is not a weather seal. Cutting and peeling back the wrapper, the rope end felt like soft cotton to the touch and does not have a petroleum smell as I expected.

As a torture test, I dropped a Fire Starter cord into a pitcher of water and let it soak for an hour. During that time, the cord took in water and sank to the bottom of the pitcher. After 62 minutes I took the wet cord out of the water pitcher and gave it a quick shake and cut off about 1/2 an inch of the rope end and captured the cut fibers.

Blackbeard’s online demos advise users to rub the cut fibers together into a loose ball with the palm of your hands to fluff them. Despite the fibers being damp, to my surprise the tinder lit up without too much effort. Despite it also being a gusty day, I was able to get a small fire started.

If you’re a hiker or packing for an extreme bug-out-bag, adding a Blackbeard to your kit is good “fire insurance.”

BUY IT

Amazon affiliate https://amzn.to/3VKnqwu

Pirate Plunder Kit on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VL6XYX

Or it direct from Blackbeard Fire: https://alnk.to/6TAekmO

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Drinking Water Test Kit

Safe drinking water is one of the most important survival resources. You could survive for weeks without food but you can’t last longer than a few days without water. Being able to determine if your water is safe to drink after a natural or man-made disaster (such as Government incompetence and malfeasance as in Flint Michigan) wasn’t easy until now. TESPERT sells a 19-parameter test strip kit which allows you to test for water contamination and quality such as bacteria, ammonia, lead, and chlorine.

This TESPERT kit comes with a variety of sealed packets. Each packet is a type of testing kit containing 2-25 test strips. The whole kit comes with 100+ test strips, a plastic pipette (eye-dropper), and a small test tube.

The majority of the kit seems to be focused toward those testing swimming pools and aquarium water. But a number of tests are also applicable toward my interest, testing for drinking water contamination. While I can not accurately test all of the kits (nor do I have the expertise to test lead or water contamination), I chose to test 2 of the packets. If they could detect contamination of water, it’s likely the other tests are of the same quality.

AMMONIA TEST
I added 10ml from a urine sample (mine) to a beaker containing 100ml of water. I tested this solution using the Ammonia Nitrogen test strip but after 30 seconds, I did not see evidence of a color change. Adding additional ml of urine, I did see a small color shirt in the strip. While the test strips work, and may be helpful for aquarium fish, it is not sensitive enough to detect drinking water contamination for my comfort.

BACTERIA TEST
I added a drop of Yakult, a pro-biotic drink with live bacteria to a 50ml of water and added a drop of this sample to a Bacteria test card. The test requires 48hrs for results to appear on the card, so I stored the sample packet at room temperature. 48hrs later the blue test card showed a white contamination area confirming the presence of bacteria.

CONCLUSIONS
I am no expert, nor do I claim that this kit can guarantee safe drinking water, but what I tested confirmed the potential for these kits to be used to help inform the user. Unfortunately the sensitivity and speed of the tests make them impractical as a replacement for boiling or chemically sanitizing your water after a natural disaster.

TEST PACKETS

Water hardness

Free Chlorine

Iron

Copper

Lead

Nitrate

Nitrite

Total Chlorine

Cyanuric Acid

Alkalinity

Zinc

Nickel

Chloride (Salt)

Sulfate

Amonia Nitrogen

Low Range Chlorine

Low Range Nitrite

Bacteria

Available on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Gn9y3t

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Boruit V1 Micro EDC

I recently reviewed the V3 light from Boruit which claimed to output 900 lumens but fell far short of those numbers in my estimation. So I was surprised when Boruit sent me their V1 to test. Unlike the V3, this box claims a more modest 400 lumens and I discovered it came far closer to keeping that promise.

The V1 has a USB thumb-drive form factor and this model has a glow-in-the dark translucent body. It comes in a similar box to the V3, with a USB-C charging cable, keychain ring, and instruction manual (though it was really more of a spec sheet). The flashlight is activated by 2 quick-presses and turned off with a long press. You can cycle between ECO-LOW-MED-HIGH brightness modes with a quick press and the unit also has a TURBO mode which is activated by a continuous press.

Like the V3, the unit also has side LEDs which can function as a signal light and table top lamp when head-standing it from it’s squared off metallic crown. Modes include: WHITE-BLINKING WHITE-UV-RED-BLINKING RED-RED/BLUE BLINK-WARM WHITE

After charging it over night, I conducted an endurance test at high brightness mode and it stayed on for about 82 minutes, slowly dimming as the battery ran down. Recharging it again I ran a lumen test. I was unable to confirm its 400 lumen TURBO mode due to my testing box must be completely sealed to get a more accurate reading.

Testing in HIGH mode, the unit briefly put out a maximum brightness of about 300 lumens after a 1-minute warm up. This was higher than the 220 lumen specs on the box. But the unit does not stay that brightness but instead drops steadily to about 80 lumens which is somewhere between HIGH and MEDIUM output as stated in the product specs.

Unfortunately inflated lumen numbers is par for the course in how budget EDC lights are marketed today. These brightness numbers are disappointing to anybody who bought this flashlight expecting 400 lumens but actually better than expected from a micro-EDC light no matter its price point.

The V1 easily passed my 6ft drop test and high-pressure water test. Its real world performance was good to above average, fully illuminating an interior hallway with a wide flood pattern. Outdoors this flood limited its throw to about 50ft-60ft. But for a thumb-sized flashlight that could do this for over an hour, this is pretty impressive. Even more so for a thumb-sized EDC that costs less than $17 as of this writing.

The Boruit V1 EDC is available on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3BGIhX7

Gadgets, Product Reviews

V3 Micro EDC Light

The current trend in EDC lights is creating ever smaller flashlights that are ever brighter. I was sent a BORUIT V3 EDC light to test and review. This micro-EDC light is the size of a Car alarm keychain dongle and its packaging promises to output up to 900 lumens.

The device has a smoke colored clear polymer body with two buttons and a covered SUB-C charging port. On one end is a twin-head LED emitters and the other end has a keychain loop and a rare-earth magnet end that allows the light to magnetically mounted and used hands-free.

One button activates the primary twin-lights. The device has high, medium, low, and endurance (candlelight) modes. Double-tap for continuous light, short tap for momentary, and long-press activates the devices Turbo mode which BORUIT claims is 900 lumens. It is very bright but in my testing, I suspect this number is inflated.

The other button double-taps to activate small set of LEDs. There is a high, low, red, blinking-red, and blinking-red/blue modes. This appears to be for specialized low-light work when tail-standing, magnetically mounted, or as an emergency signal.

I drop tested and water-jet tested the unit which passed without issue. The beams from the twin-headed unit cast a wide flood pattern that are still able to illuminate objects from over 100ft away. Unfortunately, in lumen testing the unit fell short.

I fully charged the unit overnight and let left it on high output for over 1-minute to stabilize the battery. The device specs claim the unit is 650 lumens on high mode. I measured 360 lumens. I also tested the unit in low which claims to be 150 lumens but I recorded only 50 lumens (less than half its stated output). Based on these numbers, I doubt it is capable of outputting 900 lumens in turbo.

Despite its over-inflated lumen numbers, the light is perfectly sized as an EDC or emergency light. For those that don’t want to carry in their pocket, it’s form factor makes it easy to clip-on to accessories or keys. And given it’s features is a reasonable purchase for less than $20 (some clones for even less than $15).

Available on Amazon through my Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3yPHlOL