Tag: knife

About a month ago I gave my Izula a cosmetic make-over, inspired by Widerstand‘s similar mods to his Becker knives.

Originally the knife had a light tan powder coating on it, which protects the blade from rust and other wear, but didn’t do anything for style. The first step I made in the modification process was to spend a couple hours with a piece of sandpaper, scraping off the coating until I was down to bare metal. That gave the knife a nice, raw look. But it also made it susceptible to rusting. The solution: a patina!

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It’s been about a year since the last one, so today I did another dump of what is currently in my pockets and bag. Everything that I am carrying today is representative of what I carry most every day. Much of it is the same as last year.

Some things occasionally change: I frequently switch between the Emerson Mini-Commander and the Izula (I probably carry the Izula more frequently than the Emerson). If I need more stuff, I might change the bag to my TAD Gear FAST Pack EDC or the Kifaru E&E;.

As usual, you can visit the Flickr photo pages for identification of every item.

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 designed to be mounted either on a button on a pair of coveralls or through a belt. Apparently people wear very small, skinny belts in Sweden. Over here in the United States of Gun Belts, that doesn’t fly. The belt slot on the sheath can be forcefully enlarged by shoving in a piece of wood, such as a ruler, and applying heat to cause the plastic to expand, but I don’t trust that such an act will not over weaken the plastic. I’m not a big fan of carrying a Mora directly on my belt, anyway. Usually, I’ll carry the knife either on a lanyard around my neck or as a dangler off my belt. But both of these setups allow the possibility of the knife and sheath to swing freely, accentuating the problem of an insecure fit.

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My primary EDC knife for the past few years has been a plain-edge Emerson Mini-Commander. It’s a great little knife: an ideal size for EDC and extraordinarily tough for a folder. I’ve used it as a pry-bar a few different times on objects that I would be afraid to pry with some fixed-blade knives. The Mini-Commander is no worse for the wear.

Still, I’ve often thought that I would like to EDC a fixed blade. After all, despite it’s toughness, the Mini-Commander is a folder and that gives it some limitations. I’ve also found that the grind and shape of the blade is not ideal for some wood-working and wilderness survival tasks. Making feather sticks with it isn’t easy.

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If an inner-tube can be used to rubberize a BIC lighter, why not a knife?

One of the pesky traits of the wooden handled Mora knives is their lack of grip when wet. One could acquire a Mora with a rubber handle, but, let’s face it: those are ugly. Instead, I cut a piece of 700x35 bicycle inner-tube about an inch wide and slide this just less than halfway on to the handle. The grip is immediately improved. If you were so inclined, you cut a piece the length of the handle and cover the whole thing, but so far it seems that this small piece is enough.

As with the rubberized BIC, this also provides another way to carry tinder that will work even when wet (though it will require a lighter or candle to start).

Linseed oil is a popular product used to coat and protect wooden handles on knives, axes, and other tools. I’ve tried it a couple times, but I’m not a big fan of the stuff. It takes multiple coatings over a long period of time to get a decent finish, it seems to rub off easily with use, and that whole spontaneous-ignition-of-linseed-oil-soaked-rags thing makes me a little nervous.

My preference is with Howard Citrus-Shield Premium Natural Paste Wax. I first stumbled upon this stuff in a hardware store while I was looking for linseed oil. The store didn’t seem to stock the oil, but the “Citrus Shield” can caught my eye. I remembered reading that Ragnar sometimes used some sort of orange-scented wax on certain wooden knife handles, so I brought the can home to try it out.

It turns out that the stuff works really well. All it consists of is a mixture of natural wax and oil. Initially, there is a very strong citrus scent, but this quickly wears off after application. I use it on all my wooden handled blades now, including the specially processed bamboo handle on the BCNW-O1 (which is supposed to be water resistant, but I found that it would swell some when damp before I treated it with the wax).

The application is very simple. The instructions on the can say to apply a thin coat with a clean rag, but I just use my fingers. After rubbing it into handle, I let it sit for 5 minutes before wiping it off with a clean rag. If this is the first time I’m treating the wood, I’ll apply and wipe off the wax about 3 times. After the final wipe down, I rub the handle with fine 0000 steel wool. I don’t put a whole lot of time or effort into this buffing, though. I’m not seeking a shiny finish, just practical protection.

The Fallkniven DC4 is one of the more popular pocket-sized knife sharpeners, particulary among bushcrafters, due in no small part to patronage by Ray Mears.

The technique that Ray Mears uses to keep his stone from moving around is to create a frame by hammering 4 small nails around the stone into a log. This works, but, over on the Equipped to Survive Forums, I picked up a better idea: simply cut up a bit of non-stick rubber padding.

This padding is sold in rolls and meant to be placed between carpets and hard-wood floors to prevent the carpet from moving around. The stuff that I use is actually meant to line shelves and drawers. The only different between it and the carpet padding is that the shelf and drawer stuff has smaller squares and a tighter mesh.

I find the padding to be much more convenient that the nails. It’s easier to deploy — you don’t have to take the (albeit small amount) of time to hammer in and then remove the nails; the pad works just as well on a rock as it does on a log; and the pad does not get in the way when sharpening, as the nails will sometime do.

For storage and transportation, I simply wrap the pad around the DC4’s sheath and secure it with a rubber band.

I still carry the small nails in the bottom of the sheath just in case, but I think the pad is a better way to go.

High carbon steels have a tendency to rust without proper care. This is especially true of knives made from O1 tool steel, such as my BCNW-O1.

A patina is a thin film that develops on some metals due to oxidation. It is a type of rust, but a good one, that protects the blade rather than corroding and eating away at the metal. Over time, most knives will develop a patina, regardless of the material that they’re made from. Many people are attracted to the distinctive and aged look that a patina imparts onto a knife, and will make an effort to force a patina onto their blades. The easiest way to do so is to use the knife to prepare acidic foods: potatoes, onions, tomatoes, pickles, and the like all work well. Some people will soak a rag in vinegar and wrap it around the blade, or coat the blade with mustard and leave it overnight.

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After a long wait, the end of last week brought with it the arrival of my new BCNW-O1 bushcraft knife.

In late August, I had put aside some money for a new bushcraft knife. For quite some time, I had had my eye on a Skookum Bush Tool. Yet, over the summer I discovered Mike Lummio’s Bushcraft Northwest through his YouTube channel. One of his videos features his knife, the BCNW-O1. It has a very similar design to the slightly larger Skookum, which make it difficult for me to decide which I preferred.

The knife was listed as back-ordered on Mike’s web page, so in the beginning of September I emailed him, asking when the knives would become available. My intention was that I would purchase whichever of the two knives became available first. Mike initially told me 2 weeks. That got delayed to 2 months, due to a batch of special order knives with a sharper grind coming in first and his moving the school to a new location. Still, it was available sooner than the Skookum, so I decided on the BCNW-O1.

It was well worth the wait. I couldn’t be happier with the knife.

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The BBC reports that “Gordon Brown has called for the age that teenagers are prosecuted for carrying knives to be lowered from 18 to 16 in the wake of a rise in attacks.”

I don’t understand. This implies that the way the laws are currently setup, a person can legally carry a knife till they turn 18. At 18 and onward, carrying a knife is illegal. That makes no sense. Shouldn’t it be the inverse?

The whole notion of outlawing knifes seems absurd. It is our species’ first substantial technology. For better or worse, it may be argued, the knife set us down this evolutionary and cultural path. And today, the knife remains a valid tool. It is something that I use regularly in my daily life and is critical to my survival should this hyperreal, simulacra of an existence fall apart.

When I first started carrying a knife, I researched the laws in my area regarding them. The laws, collectively, are so varied and convoluted as to make them irrelevant. Today, I simply ignore them.

Why is that I can earn a license to carry a concealed gun, but cannot, under any circumstance, carry a concealed blade of a certain type or length? I would much rather someone with the intent to kill me be armed with a knife than a gun.

These violent deaths that the PM is attempting to prevent will not be mitigated by prosecuting the youth for carrying a tool. A pre-meditated murderer will not curtail his action because knives are frowned upon. A murder committed without prior thought may be executed with a pen. Or hands! Does Gordon plan to outlaw these? Perhaps his intent is to turn the UK into a population of sedate amputees?

Better they should focus on the cause of this high rate of youth crime. Perhaps it has something to do with the massive surveillance, the elimination of privacy?