In this episode of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast, Chris dives into the essential gear every outdoorsman should carry for field repairs, from duct tape and zip ties to sail needles and floral wire. Whether you're mending a tarp, patching your boots, or improvising with what’s in your kit, this conversation equips you to handle unexpected breakdowns in the wild with confidence and skill.
When you're deep in the woods and gear breaks down, do you have what you need to patch it up and keep going? In this episode, Chris answers a listener question from the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Facebook Group about field repair kits. From duct tape on a Bic lighter to sail needles and floral wire, he walks through real tools, real fixes, and why preparation isn't just about survival—it's about staying in the game when things go sideways. Plus, a quick look at the Entropy Survival Go Bag and why it's a solid pick for unexpected situations.
Topics Covered:
What should be in every bushcraft repair kit
Creative uses for duct tape, zip ties, and tie wire
How floral wire earns a permanent spot in your gear
First aid crossovers: super glue, needles, dental floss
Real stories of gear failure and on-the-spot repairs
Using the Entropy Survival Go Bag as a foundation
Why spiritual and gear readiness go hand in hand
survival bag https://youtu.be/k7bmtYVoCyY
(upbeat music)
Welcome to the Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Speir.
So here we're gonna talk about gear,
red and the kind of stories
you only get around the fire.
It's all about learning, adapting
and keeping your faith strong.
So whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman
or just looking to unplug and reconnect,
you're in the right place.
So pull up a chair by the
fire and let's get into it.
All right, welcome
back to the podcast today.
Today I'm gonna kick it off.
This episode was inspired by
a simple but solid question
within the Primitive Camping and
Bushcraft group on Facebook.
And I posed the question of
what would you like to hear
on this podcast?
Chris Chappell replied and said,
hey, what about a repair kit?
What kind of repair kit
do you carry in the field?
And it got me to thinking, you know,
his question asked, do you use duct tape?
Do you use zip ties?
Do you use sewing kits or tie wire?
And I was like, huh, I
do carry some duct tape.
And a lot of the
survivalists and stuff like that
that you see these days
carry duct tape on their lighter
with a fishing hook or a sail needle
or some kind of repair needle or
something to that effect.
And yeah, so we're gonna
get that kicked off today
and go ahead and swing by Amazon,
pick up a copy of the
Primitive Camping and Bushcraft book.
And they had a snafu
there for a little while,
it was like 18 bucks and
now it's back down to $14.
So I don't know if that's in time
for the Fourth of
July holiday or whatever,
but go ahead and pick
it up while it's on sale
because obviously it's
fixing to go right back up.
And swing over to Facebook
and join the Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft group
on Facebook.
And so let's get right into it.
Now, let's kick this
off with a basic truth.
If you spend enough time in the woods,
something is going to break.
It could be your pack strap,
it could be a grommet
tearing off of your tarp,
it might be your stove falling apart,
and just before you
start to put your coffee on,
that's typically how things work.
But when that happens,
the last thing you want
is to have to run around
and head for home
because you couldn't fix it.
And that's why you always
carry some kind of a kit,
something with you
that can actually repair
what you need in the woods.
Now, a grommet on the tarp is a non-issue
and that is easily repaired.
And you could do that
with an acorn, a rock,
a piece of dirt or
something to that effect.
Wherever your grommet was
right near it or right above it,
go ahead and on one side of your tarp,
put in a rock or acorn, a piece of dirt,
a clump of dirt or wadded up
leaves, something, a stick.
I've even used sticks.
Put something in there
and then wrap some cordage
around the other side and
sense it down real tight
and it will grab hold of it.
And there you go.
Voila, you fixed your grommet.
And I have a bed
sheet that I waterproofed
three years ago now.
I don't know if you ever heard of him,
but Night Halt and Light
is his name on YouTube.
And he does all kinds
of science experiments
and stuff like that.
He's got millions of
followers, real big dude,
real big following.
And I watched him and I saw this video
and I was like, hey,
I'm going to try that.
And I filmed it and I posted it.
You know, I did an experiment to see
if what he did to make a sheet waterproof
was basically viable.
You know, was it something that would
actually work for me
and I did it.
And lo and behold, I'm
telling you right now,
I still use that sheet to this very day.
And it really, really is waterproof.
And at the time after you let it dry
and you let it do its thing
and you could actually
transport water in it.
I did a pillowcase in it.
And you could fill that
pillowcase up with water
and it becomes a waterproof dry bag.
I mean, you could
actually make a dry storage bag
out of a bed sheet or a pillowcase
and this method that
Night Halt and Light use.
Now, the acorns,
using the acorns on there
is a real simple way of
fixing a grommet problem
on your tarp if it breaks.
But let's talk about some other things.
What would you bring
with you to, you know,
what is something that you
could easily bring with you
that doesn't have any much weight
that you can use to fix clothing,
that you can use to fix your leather.
You've seen people use sail needles.
For straps, it's a larger
needle and you're able to sew.
And you can use the
strands inside paracord
in the sail needle and
use that to actually repair
heavy duty stuff like
straps on a backpack,
like tarps, like leather,
you know, leather straps,
stuff like that to that effect.
Now this, a good needle
set, you can go right down
to Walmart, you can go
into the sewing section
and they have a needle
kit and it has everything
that you need that you
could actually use a needle
for sutures and all the
way up to sail needles
that you can repair larger things with.
And that right there is
easily placed into your first aid
kit and you can bring it with you now.
You know, being a medic in the military,
I have experience with
needles sewing people up
and sewing arms up and putting sutures in
and stuff like that.
So know what you're doing
if you need to do something.
I'm not condoning anybody doing that
unless you are trained
in that method or know what you're doing.
But now with that being
said, there's another repair item
that you can use that
is, that can be used
to sew up wounds as well and
that's super glue, you know.
We're not specifically
talking about medical kits
or anything like that, but
super glue is another item
that has multi uses and
you can bring with you
inside your first aid
kit and you can use it
for multiple things when
you get out into the woods,
you know, if stuff's
gonna break, stuff like that,
then you don't have to depend just on,
just on like sewing stuff, you can
actually use a glue.
So that's just a couple of things.
Now, the big question
about all this is not
if it's gonna be when.
When you get out into the
woods, stuff is gonna break.
It doesn't matter.
So one item that a lot of
people have is duct tape
and I mentioned this at the opener,
that duct tape is something
that people carry with them.
Now, I have seen where people
would take their big lighter
and they will wrap
duct tape, duct duct tape,
not duct, D-U-C-K,
it's D-U-C-T, duct tape
around their big lighter and
then inside that big lighter
and with the tape, they'll
put like a fly, a fishing fly
or fishing hooks or a
needle or something in there
and they know it's there.
And so that lighter
becomes even more important.
But yes, that duct tape has,
it has multifunctions in the woods.
You can use it as a fire extender.
You can use it as a candle, you know,
a tender to start a
fire and by fire extender,
I'm talking about
something that actually extends
the flame, something
that makes it burn longer
and a duct tape will actually act as a
fire wick or a candle
and burn for a very,
very relatively long time.
Now, duct tape is a lifesaver.
You could patch up tarps with it.
You could seal some seams with it.
You can reinforce the
different things with it
and you can even, I've
actually used it to repair a pair
of boots before, you
know, that's no kidding.
And it's just, duct tape is
one of those miracle items
that has like
MythBusters did an entire episode
or several episodes based on duct tape.
And they were on a
deserted island and said,
"Hey, these are all the things
you could do with duct tape."
And so on today, they did it.
They made a canoe out
of duct tape, you know,
I don't know who's gonna
have that much duct tape
to make a canoe, but they
did for the TV show, you know.
So we got the duct tape there,
which you can use to
repair all kinds of things.
Duct tape is, it is very versatile.
It's very handy.
You can actually make a cup out of it.
You can make a drinking, you know,
something, a whole
container that can hold liquids.
You can make so much
stuff out of duct tape.
Duct tape can be used to actually help
patch together wounds.
Here we go back to
the medical stuff again.
You can actually use duct tape.
If you can control the bleeding,
duct tape will hold the wound together.
And, you know, duct
tape is actually used to,
I had a dermatologist one
time tell me for a wart,
and he said, "Just put a
piece of duct tape on it
and leave it alone."
And eventually after several weeks,
the wart died and went away.
Duct tape is an amazing thing.
Now, here's another
one that a lot of people
probably don't use or utilize.
And that's part of the
question, was zip ties.
How would you, I mean,
would you bring zip ties
with you into the woods?
Eh, personally, no, I don't.
But they can be used and they are,
they have kits out there that have
various sizes of zip ties.
And I'm not one that's going
to bring a bunch of zip ties
with me out into the great outdoors.
But I do think that
zip ties could be useful.
You know, they're very
light, they're very strong,
they're extremely versatile,
and you can reattach
the mall gear, molly gear,
and last something to your pack,
or hold together a crack
container, or something.
They have all kinds of different things
that these zip ties could be used for.
They're very quick, they're reliable,
and they're going to work, you know,
they're going to work.
The only time I've
ever seen a zip tie fail
is whenever it set out
into the sun for a long time,
and it became very brittle.
For some reason, all zip
ties, I don't know why,
but if they sit out in sunlight,
the UV will actually
make the plastic brittle.
If somebody knows why,
leave a comment and let me know,
because I don't
understand the science behind that.
But, you know, there is
tons of uses for zip ties.
I mean, you could use
it to fix all kinds of,
I've used zip ties to replace zipper.
So I had a zipper
break on one of my bags,
you know, the actual, the
flag part of the zipper,
not the zipper that puts
the two things together,
but I had to use the zip
tie as the zipper handle.
And, what do I call it, the flag part?
Crazy things in my mind.
But anyway, the zipper
part, the handle part,
I had to use the zip tie on.
That was, you know, zip
ties can be very effective,
and they're very handy.
You know, I keep a
bunch of them in my truck,
because you never know what
you're gonna need one for.
You know, same thing
with a roll of duct tape.
I have a roll of duct tape in my truck.
Thinking about it, my truck is basically
a four-wheeled survival bag, you know.
It has everything in there I need.
I got water filters in there.
I got a bunch of MREs in there.
You know, my truck's ready
to go if anything happens.
(laughs)
And it's not intentional either.
But, you know, moving on from zip ties,
we have tie wire.
That would be one of the
things that I would consider
over the majority of
everything else, besides a needle.
Not necessarily just a tie wire, but a
roll of floral wire.
And I have harped on this
ever since I've started this.
Floral wire is amazing.
Even last week's
episode where I talked about
the smoking fish.
I used floral wire to hang the fish up.
Now floral wire is a 22 gauge wire.
And it's relatively small.
It comes already green.
So it's camouflaged.
So if you want to use
it to trap some squirrels
or something to that effect, you can.
And it has, and each
roll is about 150 feet.
And it's about five bucks a roll.
Now this wire is extremely small
and it's extremely helpful.
And you can get it at like Hobby Lobby
or there is a version
of this 22 gauge wire
at Harbor Freight that you can get,
but you're not gonna get 150 feet of it.
You're gonna get, I forget how many feet,
but it's mechanic wire.
And it's almost the same.
It doesn't have a green coating to it.
Now floral wire is amazing stuff.
And you can use that as your ties.
You can use it like wire ties.
And I have actually used floral wire
with a sail needle to fix a broken,
on my backpack.
I have a 60, 35 liter backpack.
And the end of it where
the zipper stops came off
and the actual zipper
would go all the way through.
And so I had to sew that back together
and it is still holding in.
I have used it many a times
and it is still holding
together the way with that wire.
And so I will always from here on out
use that wire on stuff like that
because it has so many applications.
I mean, you can use it for
so many different things.
And it's not just for floral aspects
or for flowers and that such.
But another aspect would be sewing kits.
And sewing kits are extremely versatile.
And especially if you got
like a heavy duty needle
and you got like wax thread
or something like dental
floss in the sewing kit.
Dental floss is
essentially synthetic sinew.
It is amazing stuff.
You can make bow
strings out of dental floss.
And I'm working on a video
that I'm using dental floss
as trot line to catch catfish.
And I'm wanting to,
I'm gonna be doing
that video here shortly,
hopefully in the next month or so.
Now the rivers have been so flooded
that it's kind of hard to do
anything on the river film wise
but it's starting to go down.
So the sewing kit would be great
because it allows you to
stitch your packs together.
It allows you to stitch tarps together.
You can sew up clothing.
You can put on buttons,
safety pins, sail needles.
And all that stuff
should be in your sewing kit.
Now, if you followed me
for any length of time,
you would know that I carry a bank line
and tarred twisted bank line.
Bank line can be unraveled
and you have three
strands inside of that.
And then that can probably
even be broken down smaller
and you have thread and you can use it
to sew up almost anything.
Now this nylon bank line is great.
It's strong, it's great.
You can cut your five feet off of there
and you can fix
anything that you need to fix.
And you can even make
some fishing string out of it
while you got it.
Now, one aspect of tools
that you can bring with you
in the woods would be like a multi tool.
I have the Leatherman
P4, Free P4 or whatever
and it is a great tool.
It is an awesome tool.
It is not let me down, it has a good.
The only thing I don't
like about the Leatherman P4
is the file.
Other than that, the rest
of it is very functional
and it all works and it
does what it needs to do.
And the, bear with me,
I'm trying to think of
what I'm trying to say,
but the Leatherman or the multi tool
would allow you to drive the cell needle
through thicker and harder to sew items.
And so it would act as a needle driver
like you would use if
you were doing sutures.
And you could probably use it to help do
sutures as a driver.
Now, spare buckles, clips,
pack clips always break,
but I've never carried extra of those.
I haven't and when I
was brainstorming this,
I was thinking of all the little items
that you could throw together.
And I would not
personally carry any extra clips
or buckles for backpacks.
I haven't had stuff break to that extent,
but that's not to say that it won't,
but who knows?
And it could, everything in the future,
we could actually have a backpack break
in the buckle or whatever.
Now I have stepped on a plastic clip
on a backpack before and it cracked,
but it was the waist
strap and it didn't matter
because I didn't really use that.
But moving right along,
we got a new member of
the preparedness stuff.
I just did a video
that I launched yesterday
on survival gear.
It's the Entropy Survival Go Bag.
I mean, this thing is,
this thing's pretty cool.
If you haven't seen that video,
go over to Spare
Outdoors and check it out.
Or I think I posted it in the Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft
group on Facebook as well.
But this bag was pretty cool.
Now, I mean, it has
everything that you need to survive.
It's geared towards a
person that walked out
into the woods that has never been,
practiced bushcraft or survival.
Or it's geared towards people that are,
you get out into hiking or national parks
and stuff like that and something happens
and you can't get back.
You can't get back and
that's what it's geared for.
And I mean, it's got
an emergency tube tent.
It's got an emergency sleeping bag.
It's got an emergency poncho.
It's got fire starters in there.
It's got multi-tools in there.
It's got knives in there.
It's got emergency drinking water.
It's got emergency food
rations and it's got a compass.
I mean, the only thing
this thing don't have
is a GPS and a map.
It's got flashlights.
It's got whistles.
It's got other
flashlights and strobe lights.
It's got a flashlight that blinks SOS.
I mean, this thing is
extremely well thought out
and the guys over at Entropy Survival
have really done a real
good job with this pack.
And it is a tool that
if you have a loved one
that is going hiking
that is not real familiar,
go ahead and get them one.
If they're not real
familiar with survival things,
not necessarily survival things,
but if they get off
trail or they get lost
or something like that, they have this.
I mean, it weighs 6.75
pounds, right at seven pounds.
And it is an awesome
addition to the survival backpack.
I mean, this thing is great.
And you can leave it in
your car and have a go bag.
Just be prepared to go
anywhere in the world.
And whenever you get ready,
you just grab that thing and head on out.
Yeah, I really,
really, really, really like
that Entropy Survival backpack.
I mean, that thing is great.
I highly recommend it to a lot of folks,
but with all the stuff
that we're talking about here
is like gear for repair
kits and stuff like that,
a broken strap might
leave you a little bit sore
after a while for carrying stuff,
but a broken spirit
is far more dangerous.
And Ecclesiastes chapter
four, verses nine through 10
says that two are better than one.
If either of them falls
down, one can help the other up.
Now, think about that for a second.
That's like everything
that we've ever talked about
in on this podcast,
that's called redundancy.
That's not just about
people, that's about preparation.
That's about, like I said, redundancy.
That's about being
equipped before you fall.
That's like packing your gear
before you head out into the woods.
So your gear is going to fail you.
It is going to fail you.
Eventually, any gear that you have,
I don't care how much you pay for it.
I don't care what
company you bought it from.
I don't care if it was
made in the United States
or if it was made in China.
That seems to be the great debate today,
but eventually it's going to fail you.
Eventually it's going to break.
Eventually it's going to tear down.
And that's just part of
being in the great outdoors.
What you carry with you matters.
That's the bottom line.
What you carry with
you really does matter.
It really matters what
kind of gear you have.
It really matters the
knowledge that you have
to use the gear that
you brought with you.
If you brought a pouch of zip ties,
if you brought a roll of duct tape,
if you have a roll of floral wire,
or you left all that at home
and you're just using your willpower,
that's what's keeping you going.
That's what patches the tear.
That resets that strap
and that gets you through.
So here's my challenge to you.
Pull out your bag, go
over your bag this week,
check your repair kit, look
at what you have to repair.
Now, some of you may
have a dedicated repair kit
in your gear, some of you may not.
And I'll be the first
to tell you, I do not.
I carry a needle, that's it.
I carry a needle in my first aid kit.
That's the, you know, well, I guess I do.
I got a first aid kit, I got a needle,
I have some duct tape inside there.
So I do essentially
carry a small repair kit.
But if you don't have one, build one,
put one in your first aid
kit, put a needle in there,
put some super glue in there, you know,
and that is
essentially a small repair kit.
If you have some paracord,
the inner strands of the
paracord, there you go.
You can sew something up, throw some
dental floss in there.
You can get a real
small thing of dental floss
and you got something
to sew with, you know.
You can actually, if you
didn't have the wax kind,
you can use it to sew up
wounds if you had to, you know.
But go through it, put one together
and see what you got for this week.
And let me know what your
thoughts about the repair kit.
Come on into the Prevective
Camp in the Bushcraft Group
and let me know, give me your thoughts,
leave me a comment, talk
with the guys and the gals
and all the people of the great outdoors
and let us see what you
think and tell us about it.
You know, what do you carry with you?
What do you have with you?
Don't wait until something breaks
to wish you had
something that you needed,
you know, go through it now.
And I just want to say
thanks for joining me today.
This was a real quick conversation.
Chris, I appreciate you
throwing this topic out there.
And if anybody else has any other topics
they want to talk about, let me know.
And if you like this,
go ahead and share it.
Go ahead and leave a review
and pick up a copy of the book,
Prevective Camp in
the Bushcraft at Amazon.
Join the group,
Prevective Camp in the Bushcraft
on Facebook and I'll see you next time.
Remember, in all your
ways, acknowledge him.
God bless you.
Thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
If this episode gave you
something to think about,
if it helped you feel a
little bit more prepared
or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit,
go ahead and share it with someone else
who might need it as well.
We don't go camping
to run away from life.
We come out here to
slow down and reach heart.
So grab another log,
throw it on the fire,
and remember this, in all
your ways, acknowledge him
and he will direct your path.
I'll see you next time.
God bless you.