Tag Archives: knife

ZT

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I mentioned back in December that I commissioned Zombie Tools to do a couple knives for me. As with anything that is custom, there’s a bit of a wait. It was rewarded today. One of the things that added to the wait time was that I wanted (and paid for) different grips and finish than what they usually offer.

Years ago, when I was a teen, I used to stay up late and watch the rather bad “War Of The Worlds” television series. A mostly forgettable show but something that stood out for me was one of the characters (played by future ‘Predator’ trophy Richard Chaves) had a very distinctive knife that I thought was very cool.

Once Al Gore invented the internet,  I was able to research it and see it was a Crain-designed knife that was called the “Battle Baton”. Licensed copies were made and they’re out there for sale.

Battle Baton by Crain for “War Of The Worlds”

Not sure what I liked about it. Probably its Roman legionnaire vibe it gave off. I never thought about really getting one, bit I liked the look of it. And then Zombie Tools, a local business, came out with their Centurion dagger:

Zombie Tools Centurion dagger

You can see the similarities, yes? Because I am an evil yuppie survivalist (Translation: someone who has a real job and doesn’t live in a van down by the river desert), I could ask for, and pay for, a few personal touches. Not a fan of the acid washed look, so satin finish please. Not caring for the aluminum-n-leather grip, so some green laminate please. And, while we’re spending money, perhaps a little personal touch of engraving. Mkay, thx.

Thus, we get this:

Glock 17 for scaleI am pleased. I don’t mind paying a lot of money if I get exactly what I want. This pretty much is exactly what I wanted. Practicality? Well, when the stores stop selling 9mm, or the zombies finally arrive, then this thing might prove its worth. But, for now, it’s like my BBQ gun…its something I have for no other reason except that I wanted it.

And..uhm…I may have put in an order while I was there for it’s big brother.

I have to hand it to the ZT guys… I know that custom stuff can be a pain to do. That’s why I expect to pay more. But they did a lovely job and I like my rather two-of-a-kind purchase. (The other one is a gift to someone I know.)

I expect the next order to be ready around May. We shall see. (And I really want them to make me a mek’leth.)

 

 

OKC arrival

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A little while back, I mentioned that Ontario Knife Co. was no longer a going concern. It appears that it was sold, without its manufacturing equipment, to another knife distributor. Not maker, but distributor. I suspect that soon we will see the marketplace full of Made In China knives sporting the OKC brand on it. This is pretty much what happened to Schrade. Sad, but thats how things go in the real world.

Although my personal prefs run towards the KaBar and BKT products, I did order a couple knives while they were still available. They arrived today:

And. fortuitously, I still have a bunch of the very recommended SpecOps Brand knife sheaths that were on closeout a while back. Fit like a glove.

Really can’t have too many well-made, quality knives on hand.

Article – Ontario Knife Co. in Franklinville sold, 56 employees to lose jobs

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FRANKLINVILLE — The Ontario Knife Co. has been sold to an out-of-state interest and is expected to close by the end of the month, the Olean Times Herald learned Thursday.

The move would put 56 employees of the Franklinville cutlery out of work effective July 27. Ontario Knife makes tactical, outdoor and home edged products. Before moving to Franklinville, the company had its roots in Naples, N.Y., where it was founded 134 years ago.

The parent company, Elma-based Servotronics, which is primarily involved in manufacturing aerospace components, announced plans to sell Ontario Knife on March 30.

Its always sad when a long-running American company finally succumbs. I have no experience with Ontario knives but everything I read says their RAT series of knives were quite good. Being a sentimentalist, I ordered some of their knives right after having this news brought to my attention.

For knives, I use Spyderco folders, Glock field knives, and Becker designs from KaBar. And, lately, the Mora knives for less tactical uses like fishing and hunting (good knives at a great value, by the way.)

H/T to the person who told me the news in email.

Article – How Did the Swiss Army Knife Become the Original Multitool?

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It has been 125 years since Karl Elsener had the Officers’ and Sports Knife patented, and although the main manufacturer, Victorinox Société Anonyme, has expanded its line of cutlery and tools to about 400, the original has not changed much — and is still a bestseller.

One of the best gifts I got as a kid was a Swiss Army knife, often abbreviated as SAK. And, until the advent of the Leatherman, and subsequent ‘multitools’, the SAK was the constant companion of savvy survivalists. I doubt MacGuyver could have pulled off half the shenanigans he did without one.

But, times change. The SAK is still a classy and elegant pocket tool that is not out of place in todays world. However, it has been eclipsed in funtionality, in m opinion, by the recent crop of multitools.

When I carry a multitool, its usually a Leatherman Wave that was gifted to me years ago. What can I say, I’m a sentimentalist. But since then there have been advancements in design that make todays multitools even more useful.

Just because there’s some new and gadget-ier multitool on the market doesn’t mean your old ones are useless. I have a first gen Leatherman that I relegate to backup status for vehicle use.

They make awesome gifts, and they are genuinely handy objects for everyday use…no need to wait for an apocalypse to get your moneys worth outta one of these things. I prefer the Leatherman brand, but there are other brands that seem to have some good features too.

For me, the only drawback is that i prefer to carry mine in my pocket and that chews up pants pretty quick. I don’t like crowding my belt like I’m Batman or something, so I prefer not to use a belt-mounted pouch. I just try to rotate from pocket to pocket to delay the inevitable.

But..as I said, great gift items those SAK’s and multitools. If you’re ever unsure what to get me for Paratus…there’s your clue.

Mora

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It’s a not-a-secret in the preparedness community that the ‘Mora’ knives are, it seems, quite the bang-for-the-buck. They’re a no-frills sheath knife of simple materials, simple construction, and they apparently do knife-tasks pretty well.

I was curious to examine one and form my own opinion since a) I had never gotten to handle one and b) I’m always looking for an excuse to buy gear (which, really, is pretty much why this blog exists). So, I trundled off to Amazon and ordered a couple. Specifically, these::

I mean, for eighteen bucks, why not? As an aside, the Glock knives that I like for their affordability and ruggedness are twice the price.

So whaddya get for eighteen bucks? Well, I wouldn’t call it a survival knife, although like any edged instrument it can certainly be pressed into that service…whatever service that may be. It’s not something for breaking windows, prying open door jambs, hacking through doors, or that sort of thing like my BK&T stuff. But 99% of the time, my knife needs are…cut stuff, slice things, poke holes in things. And this knife looks like a good choice for that. I’d call it a ‘sportsmans knife’. It’s quite well suited for cleaning out fish and deer, campsite chores, and that sort of thing.

The internet will show people ‘testing’ knives by ‘batoning’ them…where they put a knife on the edge of a log and then hammer it down through the log to split it for kindling. I suppose that’s a test of durability or something. I think the best test is to simply use it and abuse if for a season or two and see what shakes loose. I’ll take it out this hunting season and see if I can disassmble Bambi with it. If it turns out to be a good piece of gear I’ll pick up a half dozen for keeping in storage. And if not…hey, its only eighteen bucks.

 

America Stone knife sharpener

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Several weeks back I got an email from a fella asking me if I’d be interested in trying out a sharpening tool he was promoting. I love free stuff, so, ‘Sure!’.

Thus far, my hands down favorite knife sharpener has been from these guys. The one that I highly recommend has been this one. And while it’s been awesome for sharpening my pointy stuff, it doesn’t quite fit in the pouch on my knife sheath.

So, I received this stone and pouch in the mail the other week. It’s a pretty unassuming stone…a ceramic-ish looking stone that is rounded on one edge and beveled to a point on the other. Here’s the website, and there is a video on YouTube to explain it’s use:


Yes, its a pretty DIY video but production values don’t really have much to do with whether information is  accurate or useful. It would have been nice to have some good close ups, but you get the gist if you watch it all the way through.

Anyway, I watched the video and decided I’d try it out on one of my hard-used knives…specifically my Glock knife that I use for hunting. Here’s what it looks like these days:

It had a small nick in the edge about 3/4 of the way down the blade and the video said that using the wedge/pointed shape of the stone would take care of that so….off we went. Three strokes each side using medium force, and repeated this a dozen or so times. Then, as the video says, I used the rounded side to sharpen things up. And…it worked. How sharp? Well, there’s always the ‘will it cut paper’ or ‘will it shave the hairs on your arm’ sort of tests which are kinda unquantifiable. Like everyone else, I test the edge with my thumb and pull the blade across my thumbnail. If the edge bites into the thumbnail , I know its really sharp and will cut. My unofficial test is to slice up some cardboard boxes…I try doing that, gauge the effort required, then sharpen and try cutting again. The subjective difference in effort required tells me what I want.

I did find that this stone did not work as effectively on thin, flexible blades. I suspect this is because as you move down the length of the blade, the force you exert cause the blade to bend away from you..throwing off the whole process. So, for a long thin-bladed slicing or fillet knife it might require you to do something to hold the blade in a rigid, unflexing manner. For my Glock knife, which has absolutely zero flex in it, not a problem. For pretty much any knife that isn’t a fillet knife, there shouldn’t be any issues.

Did an outstanding job on my Glock knife, and, interestingly, a prety admirable performance on my good kitchen Henckel knives.

What I’m most interested in is whether the stone would fit in the knife sheath I like to use. (The SpecOps sheath) As it turns out, the stone is about the size of a couple sticks of chewing gum…so not only does it fit in the pouch, you could actually fit more than one in there. So if you have a knife like the USAF ‘survival knife’ or a Randall with those pouches on the sheath, this thing should fit in it just fine.

So, what’s the final word? It seemed to do what was promised and it did something the Worksharp did not do, which is fit into the pouch on the sheath. I think, for me, the greatest use for this is for an in-the-field sharpener. Gut your elk, break a few joints, touch it up on the stone, cut some more, break it up some more, touch it up on the stone…that sort of thing. It also did a really nice job taking a nick out of the blade, which kinda surprised me

Durability? Can’t say. I did drop it once on my kitchen floor and it didnt break or shatte, but that’s strictly anecdotal. However, it’s small size and mass means that it probably would survive being dropped more than a larger, heavier stone would. .

I’d like to get a couple more of these for my other knives and kits. I can see where I might, when at the house, do my sharpening on something larger like a Lansky sharpener system or a series of Smith stones, but as a field sharpener this thing has some nice merit – it works, seems to not require much attention to angles, and fits in a tiny space – all big pluses when you don’t want to carry more weight than you have too.

 

 

Pocket machete

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Well, I guess since the cat is outta the bag, I can quickly mention a cool toy I was gifted.

20150731_151835The knife is done by Cold Steel with input from SurvivalBlog’s own ,Rawles. (Yup, thats his name on the blade. Yes, they included the comma.) Proceeds from the sale of the knife go to charity.

This monster of a pocket knife was gifted to me at the Missoula gun show a couple weeks ago. It’s an interesting knife and a far departure from what I normally carry around. While calling it a ‘pocket’ knife may stretch the definition of ‘pocket’, it definitely doesn’t depart from the definition of knife. This thing is a big folder with a half-serrated blade, beefy, rough-textured handles, and everyones favorite black/olive tacticool finish. It’s a litte big for my personal EDC, but it will definitely go in my bag when I’m out tromping around the woods or E&E’ing ahead of the zombie hordes. Personally, I like half-serrated blades. Sometimes stuff needs to be cut that is just too challenging to a straight blade….nylon/plastic strapping comes to mind…and the serrations make short work of that sort of thing.

From Cold Steels website:

The RAWLES VOYAGER was made to James’s unique specifications, with an O.D Green Griv-Ex™ handle, heat treated 6061 Aluminum liners and our famous Tri-Ad® locking mechanism, offering unparalleled shock and impact resistance and durability in the field.

The Rawles Voyager has also been equipped with a high performance American CTS XHP steel Tanto point blade and a durable black DLC (Diamond Like) coating, making it an excellent choice for the modern day survivalist!

This limited edition knife is the only version of our highly popular Voyager that features an American CTS XHP blade, giving it even greater edge retention properties!

Cold Steel, Lynn C Thompson, Andrew Demko and James Wesley, Rawles have all chosen to donate all proceeds from the RAWLES VOYAGER to charity.

Cool knife with cool backstory. My thanks to the person who generously gifted it to me.

Sharp pointy cutty things

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I hate knife sharpening. I mean, I hate it with a passion. You have to remove material (which you can never put back) from your favorite  knife and keep the right angles on the blade and still produce a good edge. I swear, every time I sharpen my own stuff I cringe when I have to go cut something because all I can think is ‘geez, now I’m going to have to sharpen this thing again’.

Obviously, some metals are better for knives than others. Stainless steel has the edge, so to speak, for maintenance but carbon steels win for holding an edge. Unfortunately, given the nature of the world that you and I are preparing against,. stainless blades tend to dominate. Sure it would be nice to have everything made out of that nice blend of carbon steels so that they cut wonderfully and sharpen easily…but the future is going to be full of days where being able to wipe down your metal tools with an oily rage at the end of the day is just not gonna be in the cards.

Lansky makes one of those sharpening tools that keeps the blade at the same angle every time and I know quite a few folks who love that setup. I’ve only fiddled with them and for a guy who grew up using the old-timey methods it was a bit…difficult. What I use nowadays is one of those three-stone deals. Lansky and Smith both make them, I use the Smith simply because thats the brand of stone I’ve used since I was old enough to start accidentally slicing myself with dull knives.

See, it’s the dull knives that cut you. You use a dull knife, you start to use more effort than normal to make the cut, something slips or gives way and -whammo- QuickClot and a trip to the ER for some mattress stitches. If something is supposed to be sharp, keep it sharp…it’s actually safer than using a dull tool.

YouTube is full of knife sharpening how-to videos and if any three of them agree on the technique and materials…well..I haven’t seen ’em. I put some oil on the softest stone, spread it around, and start like Im trying to slice off long strips of the stone…one side, then the other, repeated a buncha times….then switch to the next hardness of stone and lather, rinse, repeat. Some folks like to finish up with ceramic sticks or a strop…I don’t usually go that far. The test that I’ve read about to determine if the edge is good is to pull the blade across a fingernail..if it just slides across, thats bad. If it bites and drags into the nail, thats good…means you’ve got the microscopic little ‘teeth’ just the way you want ’em.

Someday they’re going to have adamantium knives that will never need sharpening but until then…ugh…shhhhhhk, shhhhhhk,shhhhhhk,shhhhhhk, over and over, as you slide the blade across the stone.