This past week I read Dominic Reeve’s Smoke in the Lanes. The book is a first-hand account of the lives of Romani in England during the mid-1950s, which marked the end of the era of horse-drawn wagons. It’s an interesting read if you’re at all interested in itinerant lifestyles. Toward the end of the book [...]
This kit is kept in the lid of my rucksack, which also functions as a man-purse for short trips away from camp. It is intended for emergencies only, and so is secondary (or even tertiary) to my normal fire starting equipment: ferro rod(s), rubberized BIC lighter, matches, and a fair amount of cotton balls covered [...]
I don’t like paying for brand-name ferrocerium rods with handles when blanks can be got for much cheaper — usually $5 less than their handled counterparts. But I do like to have a handle on the rod, and I require some sort of lanyard. When it comes to something as important as a ferro rod, [...]
The greatest disappointment about any Mora knife is the sheath: a flimsy, plastic thing that won’t easily fit on a decent sized belt and does not even hold the knife very securely. As they come, I consider them unusable. But a few simple modifications and additions make them quite acceptable. The Mora knife sheaths are [...]
The K & M Industries Match Case has long been considered one of the top waterproof match cases available. Each case is hand made in the Elk River, Idaho garage of Keith and Marge Lunders. The match cases are available in either brass or aluminum and come in two different sizes. The standard length cases [...]
Here’s a neat trick I picked up from Dusty’s YouTube video. In the video, he shows how to use a couple of old bicycle inner-tubes to make a semi-waterproof pouch for a BIC lighter. That didn’t appeal to me too much: I always carry a BIC in my pocket and his idea added to much [...]