Gearing up for cheap

Words by Ren Alcantara

Putting together a get-home bag or building one for somebody can cost quite a bit. If it’s a less-critical kit, a spare, or maybe a gift to get someone started, you don’t necessarily have to go high-end for everything. There are some options and brands that are great, perform reasonably well, and don’t leave you eating expired MREs for the next month. Here are a few options we’ve tried and love.

Every kit needs a knife. While you certainly aren’t lacking in options for the knife in your kit, we always find ourselves recommending Byrd knives. Designed by Spyderco, these knives have more than a passing resemblance to their mother company’s offerings. While they do have Spyderco design, they’re actually manufactured in China, lowering the price significantly. As such, they’re a little rougher around the edges compared to their equivalent Spyderco models but are of solid quality. I myself have carried one for years, and it has lived through more abuse than it deserved. The brand really does offer some great value-for-money options that are worth checking out. Expect these to be hovering around the PHP 2,000 mark.

If you want more variety, or maybe a fixed blade, CRKT has a great lineup as well. I have carried the Hissatsu folder and SPEW for years, and neither has let me down. These are a little more expensive than Byrd knives, but there is much more variety and there are more than a few fixed blades in the lineup. The Hissatsu comes in at around PHP 6,000, and the SPEW can be had for less than PHP 3,000.

If you want a really superb beater knife that you can just toss in a kit and practically forget until you need it, Morakniv has an almost legendary lineup of knives that has been proven to do the business without bleeding your wallet to death. From neck knives to bushcraft knives, they offer versatile blades that can take a beating and sharpen fairly easily. Best of all, they come fairly inexpensive, with some models coming in at just a bit over PHP 1,000.

Lights are another essential for any kit. While it’s important to give you an idea of what to get, it’s just as important to mention what not to get. A lot of ads on social media push flashlights with tens of thousands of lumens, military-grade toughness, and a number of other claims to get your attention. Chances are good those are scammy products that are looking to take your money in exchange for an inferior product. It can be a little tricky to tell which lights are a scam, but if it’s saying it outputs tens of thousands of lumens, that’s a good sign it’s lying to you. Lights that actually offer output in that range cost upwards of PHP 30,000. In fact, my FW3A, a particularly great, reasonably priced pocket light that puts out 2800 lumens, costs around PHP 2,000.

“Zoomable” flashlights are also usually suspect. It’s not really a feature that more reputable brands include, as it isn’t optimized for output, and will likely have a strange, square-shaped beam pattern and a poor reflector. While we’re at it, multiple LEDs aren’t a guarantee that light is going to be brighter, so saying the device has 12 LEDs or even a thousand won’t necessarily mean anything useful. More important is the brand and model of the LEDs installed, which is something a reputable manufacturer lists (Cree and Nichia are examples). Since the market is rife with options, it’s hard to know which brands of light are good. If you really want to be sure, Budget Light Forum (BudgetLightForum.com) is a great resource for learning more. Brands I’ve tested and can recommend are Olight, Fenix, Nitecore, Imalent, and Lumintop, none of which are overly expensive.

A nice thing to have to round out your kit is a multitool. If you’re old-school, you can go Victorinox, or if you find you need a more specific set of options, perhaps something from Gerber, like the excellent Gerber Dime is more your thing. While not cheap, neither is super expensive and expands your ability to fix things immensely. If you need something a little more stow-and-forget, cheaper brands exist as well. I’ve tried Ganzo multitools, which work well as long as they’re kept securely.

There’s a lot that goes into putting together a kit, and that can cost a good buck. We hope that some of the options we have here help you get started on yours, without the high cost of entry that can often keep people from putting something together themselves. Keep browsing online, check reviews, and pick what’s best for your needs!