Monthly Archives: October 2014

Spyderco Manix 2 G-10 Review

I was looking for a high quality knife to carry while at work. I’ve always carried cheap knives that I wouldn’t care if I lost, and I felt that it was time to step it up to something of better quality. After spending hours reading reviews on knives and what is best for every day carry I decided on the Spyderco Manix 2 for $120. I had very high expectations of this knife after doing my research and after receiving it I have to say that I am very impressed.

This knife definitely lives up to its hype as it is very high quality. The G10 grip has an excellent feel, it’s scalpel sharp right out of the box, and the ball bearing lock is smooth and has a solid lock up. My only gripe about this knife is that you can only carry it tip-up.

I have been carrying this knife over a year now and it is as good as the first day I got it. It requires very little maintenance and I touch up the blade every month or so. The only changes I made to the knife was to add a couple of strips of Talon Grip tape to the sides to make it easier to pull it out of my pocket when my hands are slippery.

Overall the Manix 2 is a substantial upgrade over my other knives in terms of build quality, materials, and overall ergonomics. It was well worth the extra money I spent. I’ll be buying more Spyderco’s in the future.

SAS Survival Handbook: Ultimate guide to surviving

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I’ll probably never be trapped behind enemy lives and dependent upon catching small mammals and selecting local edible plants for survival, but its nice to have a nifty, easy-to-carry guide just in case.

John “Lofty” Wiseman’s SAS Survival handbook is an excellent companion for hikers, campers and into-the-wilderness junkies. This book is extremely well written with easy to understand illustrations and excellent organization. There are color plates for easy identification of plants and animals to eat/avoid/use-as-medicine. This book has it all, or at least all I can think of. There are sections on camping, hiking, supplies, compass skills, shelter making, first aid, transport, catching and preparing animals and locating local edible foods, tool making, fishing, hunting, knot tying, general survival in different climates and environments and more.

The best part of this book is by far its terrific approachability. It is written for the layman and is very easy to understand. Either as an outdoor accomplice or a handy at home preparedness guide, this is a book to get and know.

Knife Sharpening – Leather Strops

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by Woodsbum

One of the many questions I get is about knife sharpening and how I get my knives to hold an edge as long as they do. To help you guys out, I am putting this post together about strops and how to get a great edge without too much work.

Strops have been around for a long, long time. The most common place that people run into them is with straight razors or wall hangings at an old-time barber shop.

Use of a leather strop for sharpening is a bit different that what people are used to, however. In honing or sharpening a blade, little pieces of metal are actually scraped away and thus creating an edge. In stropping, none of the metal is removed. Stropping realigns indentations in the metal instead of removing it. Most commonly a compound is applied to the leather to aid in the polishing. Variations of polishing compound from very fine to course can be applied. Personally, I have 3 that have green, black, and white compound applied.

My strops come from Flexxx at Flexxxstrops.com. You can contact him for current prices. For the compound, I use Bark River Knife and Tool compound. I have linked to their site with their US retailers.

The best way to explain would be through video. I have linked a video that explains the overall concept quite well and even includes some close up video of the knife edge. It truly explains in 13 minutes what would have taken me pages of pictures and arrows.

Happy Stropping!!!!

Washington Initiative 591 – Protect Our Guns Rights Act

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by Woodsbum

Since I did a post last week about Washington State’s I-594 and what the initiative really was about, I figured I would do one this week about the counter-initiative that was proposed and is being voted on. This is the I-591. This proposed legislation is only 5 sections long or a total of 3 pages to include the signature sheet. Although I posted a link I will include the whole initiative so it will be easier for you to catch up.

Sec. 1.

A new section is added to chapter 9.41 RCW to read as follows:

It is unlawful for any government agency to confiscate guns or other firearms from citizens without due process.
Sec. 2.

A new section is added to chapter 9.41 RCW to read as follows:

It is unlawful for any government agency to require background checks on the recipient of a firearm unless a uniform national standard is required.
Sec. 3.

The provisions of this act are to be liberally construed to effectuate the intent, policies,

and purposes of this act.
Sec. 4.

If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.
Sec. 5.

This act is known and may be cited as the “Protect Our Gun Rights Act.”

This is it… The whole initiative. Nothing more and quite simple….. In reading it it only does the following things:

Keeps government agencies from just coming in and taking a person’s guns without having a lawful, legal proceedings to do so.
Makes it unlawful for any government agency to require background checks that the whole country doesn’t adopt as a standard.

There really isn’t much else there. The real question comes down to this:

What does the potential law really do?

In essence, this disallows any political group to push through any personal anti-gun agendas that are outside of what the country considers its standard. If the entire country institutes a 45 day wait on any firearm sale, then WA will adopt those standards. If the entire country writes new laws requiring only a single background check to be conducted and that person has to maintain the validity of that background check or lose gun rights, then that becomes WA standard. Basically, WA will adopt whatever the federal government mandates and nothing more.

The other thing this does is in reference to gun confiscation. WA residents must be allowed due process BEFORE firearms are confiscated. This means that being accused of a domestic disturbance will no longer be enough to have the Sheriff add your weapons to his personal collection. The police can’t just stop by and take your old 12 gauge just because your neighbor got in trouble for something. It would also mean that government officials could not go door to door and take your firearms like was done during Katrina. Ironically, it just reiterates that our rights should not be infringed upon…… Sound familiar?

No matter what side of coin your political views fall on, this initiative does little more than push gun control measures back onto the federal government and ensures that all current gun owners are allowed to use the court system before they have items of substantial value just taken from them. That is it. Makes me wonder why groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have not pushed for this sort of a law in other states. It protects citizens’ rights established in the US Constitution….. Hmmmmm…..

Adventure Sworn Mountaineer

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by Woodsbum

About 11 months ago I was completely floored and blown away by an email that I received from Cody at Adventure Sworn. Somehow I was lucky enough to have won a custom knife from they in a give away from BushcraftUSA. The knife was built to see hard use and be tougher than hobnail boots. So far it has lived up to its purpose.

Let me first give the specifications of this incredible knife.
Model: Mountaineer
Steel: O1 high carbon tool steel, 59 RC hardness
Blade Thickness: 9/64
Grind: Scandi
Overall Length: Roughly 9 inches
Cutting Edge Length: 4-1/4 inches
Handle: Brown canvas micarta, red/cinnamon red liners, brass corby bolts & tubing
Handle Thickness: 4/5
Sheath: Adventure red

Adventure Sworn Mountaineer

Once I got this knife, I immediately started playing with it and using it per its intended use. As beautiful as this knife was, I felt that it was an all out crime to not use the hell out of it. Here it is on its first outing. I was out stalking deer and took a break to harvest some moss to dry out for kindling. At this point I was not too sure if I wanted to actually scuff up the knife. Well after the first fire I made that whole uncertainty disappeared. Not only did it process fire making materials like no other knife I had ever touched to that point, but it felt perfect in my hand. It was an absolute wonder to work with.

Adventure Sworn on its first trip out

I also took it with me during my deer hunt. The next picture is me in my ground blind freezing while I wait for a deer to cross the trail in front of me. Unfortunately, no deer did cross. Playing with my knife was fun, however. It worked quite well for cleaning grouse and rabbit though.

Adventure Sworn out hunting

Fast forward through 11 months of hard use…….. This is what the knife looks like now.

Adventure Sworn Now

As you can see, it has definitely been used quite a bit. I clean it every time I get back from the woods and do an oil soak on the blade each time it gets wet. Unfortunately in the area where I live rust and moss grow on everything. It is very wet and creates a tremendous hardship on people trying to keep their equipment looking pretty. Even with how much I have used and beat this knife up, I have only had to put in on a strop a few times. This knife holds an edge like no other I have ever been around.

When I speak about “using” a knife, I must remind you what that entails. Of course it is used to cut meats and for camp chores. It also does my fire processing. This means that it makes feather/fuzz sticks, batons through wood, whittles spoons and cups, processes game, occasional pry bar, and any other number of required tasks that crop up in the field. I can attest that this knife will take it and ask for more.

If you have ever considered spending money on a custom or high quality bushcraft knife, do it. These knifes are really lifetime tools if you take care of them, even with the hard use. This bad boy will eventually be passed down and will become an heirloom item.

Once I get my GoPro purchased in the next few months, I will post some videos of this guy at work. Until then I will answer any questions I can, but my main point is that spending $400-$500 on a lifetime use item really is not that much different than spending the same on a rifle or pistol. This is really one of the highest quality tools you could ever purchase.

Thanks again to Cody and Adventure Sworn for this incredible tool. I know it will have to go back to their shop sometime next year for a spa treatment, but I am worried as to how I will get along without it while they do their thing……