Archive for the ‘Knives’ Category

It isn’t just steel…

Monday, January 23rd, 2023

…it is battleship steel.

And it isn’t just battleship steel, it is (I’m pretty sure) low background steel.

Sadly, though, low background steel ain’t what it used to be.

You know, I wonder if you could forge a knife out of Battleship Texas steel…probably, if you could get enough of it from the Foundation. That’d be a cool gift shop item.

On a semi-related note, I find this slightly weird. No shade on Drachinifel: I’ve watched a few of his shorter videos, but don’t have time for his longer stuff. I guess it just seems odd that they’re using him as a draw. Even more so at $100 a head (drinks and “light snacks” extra).

NRA Annual Meeting day 2: short quick impressions.

Saturday, May 28th, 2022

On second impression, while I still like the bag from SAR USA, the Brownells bag was a little more comfortable to use. It has more of a shoulder strap, and proved to be fully capable of carrying the weight.

Best swag of the day: the grips side of Hogue (not to be confused with the knife side, which was across the aisle) was giving away thick heavy rubber gun mats. You know, the kind of thing that your local gunshop puts on top of the glass display case before they get out that vintage Smith and Wesson. Or the kind of thing you put down on the kitchen table at home before you start tinkering with your own gun.

Still haven’t found anything that grabs me, but the Cimarron people let me handle one of their Wyatt Earp Buntline Specials: it is a nice looking gun. Sadly, they did not have a Billy Dixon Sharps reproduction, for reasons related to being unable to secure them at night. However, they are up in Fredericksburg, and have a storefront there…

Something else that makes me go “Hmmmmmm…”: Walther has a new line of auto pistols, the WMP, chambered in .22 Magnum, which has not been a very common auto pistol caliber. And the price does not break the bank.

Guns are not sold at the show. But other items are (or can be) and I have picked up a few things.

Wilson Combat Zippo and Gun Guy from Wilson Combat. CEO from Columbia River Knife and Tool. Coffee mug from Eley.

I also picked up a t-shirt that should make Robert Francis O’Rourke cry.

There seems to be a little less swag this time around, and what there is, is of somewhat lower quality. But I have picked up lots of free hats and bags, some pins, lots of stickers and key chains, a few screwdrivers, and even some lens cleaning cloths. (One vendor was even giving away lens pens, which I thought was nice. Unfortunately, I can’t lay my hands on that item right now, but when I do dig it out, I’ll update.) Eley also let me have several sets of foam earplugs when I bought my mug from them. And, of course, more morale patches than Carter had liver pills.

(Once I sort through everything and take out the stuff I want, the rest of it is going to my brother’s children. Generally, if it’s something I like, and a fairly small and inexpensive give-away item, I try to get at least three of them: one for myself, and two for the nephews and nieces.)

Mike the Musicologist and I actually bailed on the show early today. By 3 PM, we’d seen the entire exhibit floor, and we’d revisited specific vendors we wanted to come back to. The plan for tomorrow is still to use it as a targets of opportunity day. (Speer had something else I want, but didn’t want to try to lug back to the hotel today.) Also, folks may be more willing to make deals if it means not having to lug stuff back with them…

It does seem like a smaller show than the last one we went to. And there were some vendors we would have expected to see that didn’t come: SIG and Crimson Trace being two that we specifically noticed.

We also noticed a very strong law enforcement presence, including a lot of folks running around the exhibit hall in full battle rattle. But I can’t tell if they were supposed to be between us and the protestors, or if they were attending the show on their own time (in full uniform, complete with tactical gear), or if they were there in case we all spontaneously rose up and started a mass insurrection against Brandon.

I report, you decide.

Edited to add: Walking distance today: 4.9 miles.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 409

Friday, May 14th, 2021

Today, a handful of random.

Skallagrim” discusses “End Him Rightly”, a fighting technique from the Gladiatoria.

Bonus #1: Here’s another video from the good folks at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC): “Integrity in the Workplace”. Or, things you shouldn’t do as a Federal employee.

Bonus #2: A little something for FotB RoadRich again. Guy picks up a 1973 Piper Cherokee Cruiser for $9,000 (it needs an overhaul and the owner couldn’t afford it) and does a restoration and rebuild.

Besides putting this up as RoadRich bait, I’m posting this because that’s a really nice looking airplane. I could see myself flying something like that.

Bonus #3: And speaking of the Cherokee, “50th Anniversary of the Piper Cherokee” from the good folks at Piper.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 386

Wednesday, April 21st, 2021

You know, I could almost do a day of great TV theme songs from the ‘Tube. I don’t think I’m going to, but I could…

But today: “Pattern For Progress”, “…which shows how machines increase the power of farming operations, therefore increasing production and revenue.” This is a product of the Ethyl Corporation and Esso.

Bonus #1: I’ve never heard of “Combat Dealers” before. It might be on Quest TV. It might also need subtitles.

I’ve noted before that I think an old VW Thing would be fun to hack around in, if I could afford one. Someone a while back recommended a used Jeep Cherokee as another fun hacking around car.

So: “American Jeep Vs German Kubelwagen”. Neither of these is exactly a Cherokee or a Thing, but they’re kind of within shouting distance.

Bonus #2: I’m actually going to link to an entire playlist here, for bookmarking purposes and because I can’t pick just one.

There’s a guy named Felix Immler who has a channel devoted to pocket knives. Of special interest to me: his “Victorinox customize & maintenance Workshop” and “Victorinox uses and techniques“.

These are fairly short, but there are a bunch of them. Just to give you a taste: “4 Special Tricks with the Victorinox Toothpick” that don’t involve picking your teeth with it.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 305

Saturday, January 30th, 2021

I don’t want to keep going back to the AvE well, but this one grabbed me by the socks for reasons:

“Stone Age Radio Voice Based Interwebs for Frozen Third World Sit-Holes.”

Bonus #1: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have crossbows.

“960lbs crossbow vs 150lbs crossbow – TESTED!”

Bonus #2: “Sergeant Stan W Scott, No. 3 Army Commando, demonstrates the use of the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife.”

Bonus #3: This is actually one McThag turned me on to: I enjoyed it, and I don’t think everyone reads McThag’s blog (unfortunately). So:

“I bought The Cheapest Orange County Chopper in America for only 8k.”

Since I am unwilling to pay for television, I have never seen an episode of either one of the bike shows (though I am familiar with the meme). I know there’s a lot of manufactured drama on all of those shows, but I have to say: I was surprised by this guy’s comments on the OCC bike.

(Chopper style bikes aren’t really my style anyway. If I was going to ride, it would either be something in more of a cafe racer style, or else a full-up BMW touring bike.)

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 295

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021

There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to post this because it feels like unpaid advertising for Blade HQ.

But there’s a larger part of me that likes the idea of going around asking people who know, and deal with knives, what they are carrying. It is sort of like asking a professional photographer “What’s in your camera bag?”. At least for me.

So this is a compromise: I’m posting the video, but I’m not linking to Blade HQ or any other online knife shop. If they want promotion, they can buy some advertising. My rates are surprisingly reasonable.

(What do I carry? The knife in my pocket right now is one of the smaller Victorinox Swiss Army knives. I prefer to carry a Swiss Champ, but I’ve set mine aside for the moment: I need to send it in and get it serviced.)

Here’s another one of those in the “what’s in your (x)?” vein: “Racing Team Tool Box Tour – With Specialty Tools”.

I found this mildly interesting: “Knives you don’t hand to people”.

For some reason, “Matt’s Off Road Recovery” has been popping up a lot in my recommendations. I’ve always had kind of a vague general curiosity about how you get your off-road vehicle back if you have a mechanical breakdown or some other problem, so I guess Matt’s answers that question. Although I’m not sure these people really want it back, but it seems like one of those “can’t leave it here, unless you want a major fine” situations.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 232

Tuesday, November 17th, 2020

There’s a British gent named Guy Martin who has a YouTube channel. He used to race motorcycles, but more recently he’s become a television personality who seems to specialize in engineering and technical stuff.

I thought I’d do two videos today, one short, one longer. The short one: Mr. Martin goes to Japan and forges a sword with a master sword maker. As you know, Bob, I love hot metal and knives, so this is right in my wheelhouse.

The long: this is the first part of a series, “How Britain Worked”.

…getting stuck into six of the country’s biggest restoration projects, bringing some of the 19th century’s most impressive engineering achievements back to life.

This one covers “The Railway”. The other parts are available on his channel.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 109

Friday, July 17th, 2020

Today, I wanted to combine two themes: hot metal and knives.

This is not actually random. I ran across this while looking at some posts on the Knife Steel Nerds blog.

Our feature: “The Secrets of Wootz Damascus Steel”. Back in the old days, sword blades were made out of a steel known as “Wootz steel“.

Before this technique disappeared, sometime in the 1800s, blades made with wootz were some of the most lethal in the world. Wootz swords, in fact, were the primary weapons that Muslim warriors used in the 11th and 12th centuries to defeat the Crusaders. (According to legends from that time, Muslim soldiers not only sliced up their European opponents but their swords as well.)

A lot of work has been put in to rediscovering how they were made. Among the people involved were Al Pendray, a knifemaker and farrier from Florida, and John Verhoeven, a metallurgist and emeritus engineering professor from Iowa State.

This is a documentary about Mr. Pendray and Mr. Verhoven and two swordsmiths from Jordan working to make Wootz steel from ore mined in Jordan: “a mine that is known to have produced weapons for Saladin himself.” I know this is longer than usual, but the next two are coffee break size.

Bonus video: Al Pendray passed away in 2017. This is a 15 minute tribute to him from The Craftsmanship Initiative.

Related blog post from The Craftsmanship Initiative’s website.

John Verhoeven has also written a book: Damascus Steel Swords: Solving the Mystery of How to Make Them (affiliate link). He also has another book, Steel Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist (affiliate link) which is highly recommended by Knife Steel Nerds. (I’d actually like to have both of these books, but they are kind of expensive.)

Bonus video #2: Holy cow! I did not know this, but apparently the late Anthony Bourdain was doing some sort of tie-in with The Balvenie called “Raw Craft”. In this one (only about 12 minutes) he went up to Washington state “to see firsthand how master bladesmith, Bob Kramer crafts the perfect kitchen knife from melted meteorite”.

The Craftsmanship Initiative also did a long profile of Mr. Kramer, which I’m bookmarking to read later.

The “Raw Craft” playlist from YouTube.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 93

Wednesday, July 1st, 2020

I’ve done gun stuff. But I haven’t done any knife stuff. Until now.

“The KA-BAR Story”. I know, this is a little on the long side. Perhaps bookmark it for later.

I don’t actually own any KA-BARs, though I’ve thought about getting one: all my sheath knives are Buck or Gerber. (And one Benchmade, though that’s really more of a karambit.)

Bonus #1: “KA-BAR Knife Tips and Mods”, from Blackie Thomas.

Bonus #2: “Making Knives, the History of the Bowie Knife, and the Rambo Knives”, from A.G. Russell Knives.

Bonus #3: I wouldn’t ordinarily do four videos in one post, but this one is short and relevant to Lawrence‘s interests: David Morrell talks about the Rambo knife, from the audio commentary on the DVD.

As I understand it (and based in part on this article) the knives for the first two movies were made by Jimmy Lile, a legendary Arkansas knife maker. He passed away in 1991, but his successors are still making knives under his name. You can still buy a version of the Rambo knife from them if you have $2,000 and up to spend.

The knives for the third and fourth movies were made by Gil Hibben. It looks like you can still get a version of the knife from the third movie…if you have $2,000 to spend.

Or you can purchase replicas of varying quality, as anybody who goes to a gun show knows.

I have mixed feelings about the fandom.com wikis, but this is a good entry.

At the time of First Blood’s release, very crude knock-off knives were produced for children to play with. They were rather inexpensive, only around five dollars, and the handles came in a variety of colors, including camouflage. The knives were real blades, featuring survival kits, which stirred some controversy, as real knives were being sold to children as toys.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

“You can’t give her that!’ she screamed. ‘It’s not safe!’
IT’S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY’RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
‘She’s a child!’ shouted Crumley.
IT’S EDUCATIONAL.
‘What if she cuts herself?’
THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”

–Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Noted.

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

I don’t usually link to Reason unless it is backup for a blog entry, or to make a larger point.

But I do rather like this J.D. Tuccille piece, “In Praise of Pointy Things“, and commend it to your attention.

Story: when I was going through the citizen’s police academy in !Austin, the chief of police showed up pretty regularly. There’s an entire class block devoted to his presentation on officer related stress and the physiology of critical encounters.

He likes to tell a story about asking his officers, “Why do you carry a knife?” and then mocking their responses. “In case I need to cut a seat belt.” “When was the last time you had to cut somebody out of a seat belt?” And so on, and so on. I kind of like the guy in general, but this is one aspect of his style I don’t get.

His answer: “In case I need to stab you.”

My answer: “Because I am a tool using animal. I have evolved over millions of years to be able to use tools. A knife is a tool.

Random notes: March 28, 2019.

Thursday, March 28th, 2019

Chron Eye For The Killer Guy:

Raised by a single mother who avoided taking care of him, [Patrick] Murphy was beaten and abused as a child, according to court records. His grandmother taught him to shoplift at a young age, and by 17 he’d run away and moved into a homeless shelter.

What did Mr. Murphy do? He’s one of the Texas 7, who broke out of prison in December of 2000, went on the run, and killed Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins while stealing guns from an Oshman’s.

When it was over, Hawkins lay dead in the parking lot, shot 11 times and run over by an SUV as the men fled.

Part of the argument is that Mr. Murphy didn’t actually pull a trigger: he was just a lookout, and it was five other guys who shot Officer Hawkins. But he was still convicted and sentenced to death based on…yes, the law of parties. (Still want to do that podcast some day.)

Even though Murphy went along the day of the killing, his lawyers say he didn’t want to take part in the crime, pointing out that he left as soon as he told the others of the officer’s arrival. Now, they say, executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Pull the other one, guys: it has bells.

(The execution is currently delayed while the Supreme Court evaluates Mr. Murphy’s claim that he’s entitled to a Buddhist spiritual advisor in the death chamber.)

On a much happier note: up yours, Andrew Cuomo. Up yours, Bill de Blasio.

A federal judge ruled today that New York’s notoriously nonsensical law criminalizing “gravity knives”—which groups have said for years is used by New York City to selectively prosecute people, especially the working class and minorities, for carrying common folding knives—is unconstitutionally vague.

That’s not a knife…

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

World’s largest Bowie knife, Bowie, Texas.