Some people carry pens or Kleenex or Altoids on their person.
Not me.
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Recent Comments
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Considering where I work, that could come in handy, although my car keys are perfectly legal and can serve close to the same purpose.
OMFG!
DEATH THREATS!!!!!
Where’s the tigger alert?!? I wanna know what happened to the trigger alert!!!!!!!!
“…and I WILL cut a bitch…”
tonight I’m a fight til we see the sunlight!
Sweet! Allow me to put in a plug for Cold Steel, the folks who made that push dagger and a bunch of other very interesting stuff. I’ve been a long-time customer. In fact, sitting on the desk beside me as we speak is one of their Trail Master bowies, an older model in Carbon V steel. Perhaps the ultimate ‘day after TEOTWAWKI’ knife.
Me, I’m going to file a complaint for the death threat made against my person.
Perhaps there’s a DA in L.A. county who could oblige?
You must get some really heavy mail.
That’s one hell of a corkscrew, Jeff…
I’m still gonna carry Altoids. I gotta have onions on my sammiches or I get cranky in the afternoon.
Some people carry pens or Kleenex or Altoids on their person. Not me.
The shiv is great and all, but still… carry the Kleenex and Altoids.
Fake limp, sword cane.
“Me, I’m going to file a complaint for the death threat made against my person.”
Ann Barnhardt Responds to Death Threat
Note to self: don’t sneak up on Jeff.
madea benjamin gets pwned
Link
Ahhhh! Now you need a world-class sharpener. Smith’s 3-1 Pocket Pal is the way to go, to keep a keen edge on that weapon. (Oh, and it’s not sharp now, unless you’ve worked it already. Knives are never as sharp as they could be.)
Oh, OT, but Joel Marks has philosophized away not only God but morality…
…so, again, Bacon. We are but animals, right, Joel ?
I have one of those Smith’s pocket thingers myself, serr8d, and would also recommend it.
Neat-o! A cool picture of Mark Steyn’s tongue!
Ba-dum-dum.
Joe Biden in China: “I’m here to kiss ass and chew bubble gum…and I’m all out of bubble gum. Also, ‘Merica could learn a thing or two from your one child policy.”
No “ba-dum-dum” there. Not a joke. That…that…was basically the whole trip.
And we $$ paid for it (angry facepalm).
If it makes you feel better Lamont, we didn’t pay a thing.
Not yet, anyway.
I have the Smith pocket sharpener.
Oh. And I also have one of these.
Not to mention a nice little neck knife.
In my man bag. Next to non-metallic brass knuckles.
#
Kleenex and Altoids, overt weapons of sociability.
I like flashing this when the neighborhood punks need to be slapped back into line.
The tripod shows that you mean business!
Cold steel is fine, though their distal taper leaves a bit to be desired. But that little piece right there is very handy in a pinch. They make nice beaters.
well, not as fancy, but I carry one of these … perfectly legal, allowed into my work place and can do some nice damage in close quarters
It occurs to me that I haven’t seen Andrew Sullivan linked on Memeorandum in a long time. Did I miss something, or has he finally embarked on his life-long quest to rescue Lemmiwinks?
Jeff, why carry a knife when you could easily kill someone with your bare hands.
Rule #9, Ironpacker; Never go anywhere without a knife.
The knife is to encourage information from the broken and bruised opponent. Imagine that thing hovering in front of your eyeball. You’d even admit that you screwed the neighbor’s dog when you were 12.
Remind me to never mess with OI. Anyone who knows what a “distal taper” is is already familiar enough with edged weapons that…well, just don’t go there.
I’m not sure what the purpose of that kind of mini-fuller in the center of the blade is, though. I’d guess NOT weight reduction, but more like getting the cross-sectional thickness down to fit it in a lower-profile sheath. Maybe.
What I carry has more moving parts and a greater effective range. BUT that is a cool knife.
Thats the wrong caliber.
Sometimes filthy bastards who need them some killing run in packs. And I’ve only got so much energy.
I’m wondering if that’s the firearms equivalent of “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife.”
Ha, nothing nefarious, Slart. However, I have made (forged) a few knives and have held countless others, as well as swords. I’ve always had a liking for sharp pointies. And if I had to guess, I’m thinking the fuller is for aesthetic reasons. A piece that small, there isn’t a need to lighten it. Of course, fullers are sometimes called blood grooves, so maybe Cold Steel decided to get nasty with a nasty little piece.
As a Kendo instructor once noted “Having some guy come at you with three feet of razor-sharp steel, intent on slicing and dicing your ass, tends to focus the mind…”
I think a little groove designed to channel blood back toward the attacker would be considered a design flaw. Who really wants to be up to their elbows in blood, anyway?
Of course, I don’t generally stab anything that hasn’t just come off the grill, so I could be simply showing my ignorance.
That is a real cuthroat britva, m’ droog….
Slartibartfast posted on 8/23 @ 7:50 am
I’m wondering if that’s the firearms equivalent of “That’s not a knife. That’s a knife.”
.45ACP When you absolutely have to knock out the first round. No matter where their hit.
What are those collapsing springy baton thingys called? I think I need a couple of them.
#39
I think its to shave weight without sacrificing strength. The groove actually makes the blade stronger than if it was just flat.
Not to be a smartass, but I think they are just called extensible batons. Perhaps more effective for self defense than a knife in many instances. I have one, but prefer the six D-cell Maglite in the car. Good for illumination and as an improvised club, which is kind of how some law enforcement use them. You really don’t want to get hit with one of those. As for blades, I’ve had good luck with small Gerber and Kershaw knives. Kershaw has a Ken Onion blade that damn near acts like a switchblade, but isn’t. Above pocket knife size, I’ll stick with my USMC Ka-Bar for day to day activities, my bowie knife for larger jobs, and a kukri machete for clearing the brush. Oh, and get yourself some throwing knives and practice. Check out Gil Hibben’s book if you need advice.
Taught myself to wrap paracord effectively on knife and axe handles last year, not a bad skill to have.
I have one of those bracelets made from paracord. Thinking about getting a belt, too.
Looking at a small neck blade with a paracord-wrapped handle. As for the Ken Onion Kershaw — I looked at, but then I went with the Cold Steel Ti-Lite instead, mostly because I wanted more of a kind of stiletto blade.
What? Really?
If you remove material, you will not make the item you removed material from stronger. It might not be any weaker in its intended use (this depends on the loading, etc.), but no way is it stronger. For instance, an I-beam is not made stronger by removing all that material (or never putting it there in the first place), but all the loading takes place on the surface (if it’s laid out horizontally, with the ‘I’ upright), so it isn’t any weaker in the direction it is loaded.
The most you might be able to say is that certain machining of sharp edges to rounder ones will reduce crack formation, but there would also not be a crack formation problem if you had no transitions (steps) from one thickness to another.
Most of the time when you make a knife thinner you are trying to make it easier to cut things, and easier to remove after stabbing things.
Also, aesthetics are important when marketing expensive knives. It has to look good.
Ha! Forebode Barry, you motherfucker.
And sometimes you don’t want easy like this which is in my closet.
The problem with stuff like that, geoffb, is that it can get stuck in someone, leaving you knifeless.
Well it saws on the in-stroke, looking at it now, so I was wrong as it is still easy to remove.
The problem with stuff like that, geoffb, is that it can get stuck in someone, leaving you knifeless.
…and you’d be all like “boy, is my face red!” — what with the spattered blood and all.
If there was someone else nearby who also needed some stabbing, you’d be busy dying.
Cranky I got my engineering degree from the History Channel and thats what the guy who makes swords said.
But it makes sense. Keep in mind the blade is forged and heat treated and an I beam isn’t.
From that Wikki thingie.
A fuller is a rounded or beveled groove or slot in the flat side of a blade (e.g. a sword, knife, or bayonet). A fuller is often used to lighten the blade, much in the way that an H-beam shape allows a given amount of strength to be achieved with less material. Longer knives or bayonets intended as offensive weapons may employ fullers (also known as ‘blood grooves’) to lighten the blade while maintaining its strength. When combined with proper distal tapers, heat treatment and blade tempering, a fullered blade can be 20% to 35% lighter than a non-fullered blade without any sacrifice of strength or blade integrity. This effect lessens as the blade is reduced in length. Short bladed knives may employ fullers simply for their aesthestic effect.
Sometimes I amaze myself.
Which,givin my IQ, isn’t all that difficult.
In the alternate universe in which Miss Manners has a goatee, I’m sure she would point out that the good hostess always brings enough stabby get-stuck-in-the-chest knives for all the assailants! It would be a social faux pas of the greatest order to take a used knife from the chest of one nasty-person and re-use it on another, simply due to a lack of proper planning. Terribly uncouth… and just think of the germs! Ick.
Heat-treatment has likely got little to do with anything. Fullering is there to improve weapon strength-to-weight ratio. Fullering doesn’t necessarily make the blade stronger; it makes it stronger than a nonfullered blade of the same weight.
Mueller, I got my engineering degrees from UCSD and SDSU. We studied a lot of materials science. They guy on the history channel was wrong. Forging aligns the molecules and makes the grains smaller, and heat-treating can cause certain formations to occur in the interstitial between the atoms as well as affecting the grain size. It depends on the alloying. Steel itself forms some interesting varieties (pearlite, for instance, is small spheres embedded in the larger matrix, which help pin the grain boundaries to keep them from sliding past each other). It doesn’t mean you can chop material out and maintain the same strength as if you didn’t chop material out. That is orthogonal to what’s going on.
An I-beam is usually (probably always) heat treated, because that makes it possible to use a lighter part in the same application. In fact, the Twin Towers likely collapsed because the heat treatment was driven from the steel I-beams, weakening them, which resulted in their failure. Long before the melting point, the heat treatment will be gone.
From the Wiki, you have an entry that agrees with what I said, which was that it might not be weaker in its given application. It also agreed that fullers are often for aesthetic effect. The wiki didn’t claim that removing material made it stronger, which is what you claimed.
Removing material will not make the resultant stronger. The best you can hope for is it isn’t any weaker for its given application.
For a blade, here is what could happen. A sword used for slashing will have most of the load being carried by the non-edged part of the blade (the load always goes to the strongest part of a structure). The surface of the non-edged part would bear the most load. One could therefore put a fuller in below that edge and not reduce the strength of the blade when used for slashing (barring the appearance of cracks). One could therefore make a slightly thicker blade and have a fuller in there, which would result in a blade that is stronger than one of the same weight without the fuller.
For a knife, a fuller mostly looks cool.
Or, what slart said.
You guys are so cool. This is fascinating.
What JD said.
The only problem with those saw-back Kraut bayonets is that they’d tend to get you shot if you got caught with one.
I am neither a mechanical engineer nor a swordsmith, so take what I say with a grain of carbon. But I have done a bit of reading, and have some slight understanding of engineering outside of my discipline, so I don’t think I’m way off-base here.
I’d tend to favor one of these, because I know nothing of knife fighting.
I got one of these the other day.
http://www.amazon.com/Winchester-1206-Winchester%C2%AE-Bowie-Knife/dp/B0018VH8SW
Pretty handy. Will split small firewood and kindling in a pinch.
Or, purtier, this.
In any knife fit, and I mean any knife fight, I prefer this …
http://www.remingtoncustom.com/HunterGrade_700APR.aspx
It’s all trade offs. Forging, heat treatment, and material placement all involve trade offs. Forging aligns the grains in one direction, so the material is stronger in that direction, but results in a part that is weaker orthogonal to the grain direction than a non-forged part (all else being equal, as forging also tends to remove internal cracks). Heat treating is always a balance between hardness and ductility, since a hard material will tend to fracture while a less-hard material will tend to yield before fracture. Yield is often better because one can see that damage has occurred without catastrophic failure.
Finally, a fuller in a sword will probably result in a sword that is easier to bend than one without a fuller, but swords aren’t meant to take loads in that direction, so it doesn’t usually matter.
As a woodworker used to the critical sharpening of plane irons for use, I’ve always watched tv or movie “ching ching ching ching” swordfights with some amazement: “Man, they’re just destroying those edges. I pity the poor grinder who has to sharpen ’em again.”
Here’s my favorite knife.
Always be prepared for a tasty dinner, that’s my motto.
That’s a nice knife, B Moe. Does it have a good edge on it?
I can buy either of those knives Slart mentioned. I’m not used to living where I can, having grown up in CA. Hmmm.
Knives don’t need reloading either, though it’s always preferable to be outside stabbing distance. I guess in a potential knife fight, I’d want a 1911 if it’s closer or some short-barreled .30 caliber rifle if further away.
Yes cranky but the steels are different. I beams are low carbon and other than rolling I don’t think they’re heat treated.If so they are pretty soft.Forging a blade would give the steel more carbon and more strength. Requiring a final quench and a drawing sequence to instill toughness and reduce brittleness.
Heat treating,(and tempering) has everything to do with the blade.
OK mr engineer guy. Would a fuller in this instance tend to make the blade stiffer or as stiff as an unfullered blade?
I ask because some rifle barrels are fluted to reduce weight without reducing stiffness.
Its got a decent edge, could probably be better, I am not very good at sharpening them. I have some smaller ones I use for fine stuff, a little Rapala I like a lot. The Bowie is handy for rough cutting and using like a small machete. Great camping, cooking out tool.
That’s a right purty club you got there JD
My club can reach out and touch you from a loooooooooooooooooong ways away. ;-)
JD’s club would be purtiest in .375 remington ultra mag I think. But wtf do I know about boomsticks?
You cannot remove material and make something stronger. It won’t be stiffer either.
The type of material, if it’s forged, if it’s heat treated, whatever, has no bearing on those facts. A fuller would result in a blade that is likely as stiff in the cutting/slashing direction as a blade that doesn’t have a fuller. It would likely be weaker in the other direction, since there would be less material to resist bending.
Fluting a rifle barrel will reduce stiffness in a bending direction if you apply the bending with the fluted area up. Rifle barrels are generally not loaded in that direction, so it doesn’t matter. Fluting can also help with heat dissipation, which is much more of a problem for a rifle barrel. Fluting results in more surface area, so more heat transfer. It can also help with weight, as you stated.
Now, if you construct a sword that you want to weigh 3 lbs, for instance, what you can do is make a sword that would be stronger in the cutting direction if it has a fuller, because you can therefore have more material in the unsharpened side than a sword of the exact same weight and that didn’t have a fuller. The fuller doesn’t make the sword stronger, it allows you do use more material in other parts of the blade and have a blade with the same weight that will be stronger than one without the fuller. This isn’t material removal, this is careful material placement.
I don’t know where you get this idea that removing material can make something stronger or stiffer. It simply isn’t true, and logically it cannot be. If it were, how much material could you remove before the curve turned over and you started losing strength? You know that if you remove enough material it will fail.
You’re right about heat treating I-beams, though, in that they don’t do it. However, rolling does align the grains in the rolling direction, and heating the steel to annealing temperature would cause those grains to grow and a significant loss of strength. The same thing would happen to a forged material.
Slarti is a wise man.
Great knife for a great price. Somebody want to buy it for me and I’ll pay you back in a month or two?
Why is that knife so cheap? Is it a special sale?
Yes. It’s 71% off right now, cranky-d.
How would I get it for you?
I’m here right now, I can do it.
You can send it as a gift through Amazon. I’d send you my address if that’s what you want to do.
And then I’d whittle you a flute.
Just send your address to my yahoo email, and I’ll order it.
Nah, don’t bother, cranky. Appreciate the gesture, but if I can’t afford it now, I probably shouldn’t be ordering it. I just bought the other knives; wish I’d have seen this one first. Very nice survival knife.
Okay. I got one for me, though. I can’t afford it either.
“but if I can’t afford it now”
i was worried you were going all baracky on us;)
bastard.
On a budget?
Got one of these in my garage. Didn’t pay an outrageous $10 for it either. Got it for $7. Works great on vines. Haven’t tested it on zombies or socialists though.
I as does this person in the next to the last comment here, remember a story where someone wonders why paper never tears at the perforations. He then discovers the strongest material in the universe which is what fills the perforations making that part stronger than the solid paper. It is called “Nothing”.
The physics involved in accidentally tearing up a paper check is nothing, then. But if you crumple that paper into a ball, you’ve really stepped into mathematical nastiness.
@78. I think someone has their wires crossed on that San Mai Recon Scout. Notice that the next lowest price in 20 offers is $231.49. But Cold Steel offers the same knife in SK-5 High Carbon steel for around $110 and I suspect that’s what you’ll get. That’s not a bad deal though. It’s a 2-1/2″ shorter version of my Trail Master and I’m sure it’s a dandy knife in either steel. Not sure you’re really gaining that much by forking over another $120 for the San Mai version, but I’m a poor boy, I just buy their carbon steel blades and I’m happy as hell.
I should note that I have no experience with their very spendy San Mai knives, nor have I bought any in SK-5. Most I bought were in their now discontinued “Carbon V” steel which is hellaciously good stuff. I have bought a couple knives in the AUS-8 stainless — yep, it’s stainless — and a couple in VG-1 stainless, which is considerably better but still doesn’t come close to carbon steel.
And now, on the topic of fullered blades, I prefer “quill-backed” or “pipebacked” blades on my long knives, such as my 1870’s Prussian Cavalry sabers. The advantage being that the thickened “quill” extends all the way to the point adding stiffness just where most fullered blades tend to snap. Spent a lot of time down in the southeast and every pawn shop had a barrel full of old sabers, quite often with the last 6 inches of the blade snapped off right beyond the fuller.
Mine are originals, but Cold Steel sells an “1852 Prussian saber” and a “1904 Austrian saber” that have quill-backed blades very similar to mine. Just in case a Bowie knife isn’t big enough :)
Well, if they have their wires crossed, sucks for them. Because I’ll be demanding they send me the knife they have listed at 71% off.
The SK-5 is listed separately.
I don’t get those knives at those prices. Even when they’re marked down.
I have a second hand buck knife I use for all of that and it’s given me twenty years of solid service. Like, it’s cut rope, cardboard, animals, wood, plastic, whatever. Unless they come with a blow job, I’m thinking this is money that should be saved for better speakers.
That Bowie that B. Moe linked up at #63? I bet it takes an edge just fine and will probably last for a hundred years.
What else is a knife gonna do for you?
They’re shiny, is why.
Heh, yeah, true. I’ve paid more for speakers, shotguns and cars before just because I liked the wood.
But those things are clearly investments and not at all overpriced. (What’s the emoticon for winking?)
I’ve paid more for speakers, shotguns and cars before just because I liked the wood.
You have wooden cars in Wisconsin? That’s so cool.
Incidentally, I got my blades here and made my own stirrup hilts from 1/4″ x 1″ brass stock, grips of stacked leather, and threaded on pommels of 1″ diameter brass rod 1″ long. If you’re at all handy you’ll wind up with a very nice blade that’s probably much higher quality steel and temper than new reproductions and way, way cheaper than buying a usable original (it would be a crime to use an original that’s in good enough shape to be used!). Don’t be surprised when they come a little bit bent, that’s a product of the tempering and it’s almost impossible to get a proper temper on a blade that long and have it come out completely straight. If a saber blade is completely straight it’s probably not properly tempered, and these are properly tempered, you could bend one double and it will snap right back. Don’t try to straighten it, you’ll only kink it or break it.
One hint — an old plumber’s trick — heat the brass with a torch until it bends easily. You could bust a gut trying to bend it cold and you get a smoother, more controlled and symmetrical bend by heating just the bit you want to bend more. Oh, and drill the holes for the blade before you bend it, then bend, grind away everything that doesn’t look like a stirrup hilt, install your grip and pommel, and give it a good saber-sharpening (sharpen only the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the blade nearest the point and strike off the very point until you have a 1/4″ flat so it’ll slip between the ribs). I also lined the inside of the bows with thick leather to protect my delicate knuckles. It’ll make you wonder why the Prussians, Germans, et al. managed to lose all those wars. For sure it wasn’t due to inferior equipment.
Hells yeah, Abe Advanced engineering, son.
The combustion engine part was tricky with wood until we realized that you could just use a horse for that.
“we realized that you could just use a horse for that.”
go green screams algore. do you need a windmill for your wheat?
I’ve seen that engineering principle at work in Pennsyltucky, bh, but didn’t know that Wisconsinites were as cutting edge as the Amish. Serial killers always seemed more The Badger State’s bag.
That last comment wasn’t gratuitous at all. Really. Just trying to keep things on topic by returning to sharp knives and Jeff’s implied threat of ultra-violence.
Two hehs.
Shit, if we could actually keep up with Amish — they put their horses in front of their carriages, for instance — I’m sure fewer of our youths would take the easy serial killer path.
What’s so cool about all that, Swen, is I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about, and yet it still sounds totally boss.
I think we’re going to need a sketch. And I might need a cutproof coverall to wear whilst I swing the end product about, so’s I don’t accidentally de-feet myself.
@92. Hey! It’s worth a try, I’m tempted to order one too, just to see what I get. All I’m sayin’ is don’t sell the SK-5 version short and if they mumble and grumble about not being responsible for every little detail in their Amazon blurb don’t be too disappointed, it’s still a great knife. Keep it, you’ll be happy.
And why pay that kind of money for a knife? Because it’s quite literally indestructible. I can’t find the link right off, but one guy tested a Recon Scout by chopping a hole through a cinderblock wall with an SK-5 version. Yes that’s knife abuse, but you couldn’t do it at all with most knives. The blade is 5/16″ thick at the spine, thick as my pickup’s leaf springs. You’re just plain not going to break it no matter what you do to it. Also, the very weight of the thing opens up possibilities. You don’t have to use the edge on someone, you can whop hell out of them with the back of the blade without putting them in the morgue, if that seems advisable. Or whop them in the head and then cut their throat without all that messy struggling and flopping around….
Personally, I’d go straight to the Trail Master in SK-5 for $148.24. Two inches longer and two ounces heavier, but then I like Big Knives and neither one is very concealable. Pair either one with a good 1911 and you’ve got good companions for when things go bump in the night. Carry the knife in your off-hand and if someone decides to go all monster and jump on you in the dark to wrestle for the gun you can give them a very nasty surprise.
The downside, the Trail Master and Recon Scout are awfully heavy to pack around. I usually keep a Cold Steel ODA (in Carbon V steel) on my pack belt when I’m in the hills. With a 7″ blade and only half the weight it will handle most chores short of chopping through concrete blocks! I also really like their Master Hunter, which is probably more generally useful and definitely a best buy, in San Mai it’s $80.99 at Amazon.
@104. If you’re swinging it anywhere near your feet either you’ve got the guy down on his back or you’re doing it wrong :) The whole idea is to keep the point between you and your opponent whilst making quick little choppy motions to remove his extremities and poking him in the ribs on occasion to keep his attention. ‘Course on horseback you hold it out to the side while riding down their infantry, rattling it off their heads like a stick on a picket fence. Not sure that would work from an Amish buggy, but it would be worth a try just to see the look on their faces!
You should consider moonlighting with knife sales, Swen. I’m now half-tempted on that SK-5.
You make it sound so easy.
The hard part, though, was the bit about attaching a guard, grip, pommel, etc to the blank. That could be fun, even to someone like me who’s got limited metalworking experience.
Some of their knife blanks look pretty decent, too.
The Trailmaster with an SK-5 blade, that is.
It occurs to me that I don’t have the stomach to stick a knife in someone under any circumstances. Crush someone’s skull with a baseball bat? In a heartbeat. But knives kind of give me the willies.
Okay. Now I’m not tempted again.
This might be an impulse buy item. They should put these next to the cashier by the candy bars and chewing gum.
you’re not supposed to stab people
That’s right, hf. You’re supposed to hand over your Blackberry and assume the fetal position.
you have to pick and choose what you’re gonna get all excited about especially when people look like they might have the hepatitis
That’s what JD’s knife is for.
It’s when you’re staring death in the face that you find out what kind of man you are, hf. I don’t know what that means exactly, but I can totally picture Sam Elliot saying it while twirling his mustache.
“you’re not supposed to stab people”
use squid™ al baseball bats: london tested.
I need to learn how to farm. And wire electronic devices. And work on an engine. And learn how to clean meat and fish.
Clock’s ticking.
staring death in the face is a rather brash thing to do I would imagine
hah you blinked!
If the clock is still ticking then now’s the time to learn how to fix it for when it breaks. Glad I got the cheesemaking out of the way before they started arresting people for possession of raw milk with intent to curdle.
I suppose that we can always move to Libertarian Island with Peter Thiel and Milton Friedman’s grandson.
I know how to make my own honey mustard dressing
Can you make the mustard from mustard seed yet?
I think I have the general idea of farming, hunting, fishing and cleaning/butchering.
Have no idea on electronics or engine repair. Like, you’d assume I was a child if I tried to explain it to you. Elves, I think. Magic, for sure. Also, some sort of invisible energy I’d call Luck.
I’m hoping there would still be some trade and we could still sell our skills in a much smaller market. At the moment I’m one of the world’s top 20,000,000 analysts. Would it really be a step down for me if I was suddenly the top brewer for 50 square miles?
Upside!
Psst, the answer is no, it wouldn’t be a step down. It’d be an enormous step up and I would bed many local farmer’s daughters until I suddenly died from something that an antibiotic could have cured only a few years earlier.
Still, upside!
Glassmaking is still on my list. But I’m slowing down for some reason, so don’t feel the urgency I used to. Or maybe it’s just a dropoff in enthusiasm in general, I dunno.
@110. Knives give just about everyone the willies, that’s their advantage. As I had it explained to me, very few people have ever been shot, they’ve seen people shot on TV but that’s about it. They can’t really relate to a gunshot wound. On the other hand, just about everyone has cut themselves at some time, they know just how bad it hurts and bleeds, and they don’t want it to happen again, ever. So that great big thug who might laugh and say ‘go ahead and shoot me’ will scream like a little girl when you pull a knife. At least in theory.
Granted I’d still want my 1911, but you can carry a knife a lot of places you can’t carry a gun.
no I stocked up on mustard though
I do grow my own mint though and I have huge empty storage bins for supplies and stuff I just have to get me some supplies
You should probably make sure Dev was safe first off, ‘feets. This could be your unique selling point. Dev here, get your Dev here.
Maybe investigate turtle-monger, too. Sorta sounds cool anyways.
dev is a superstar but you just wait til she wants a tasty mojito
Can’t tell if you’re joking, sdferr. Maybe you’re slowing down because you’d need a big kiln running at the heat of the sun in your garage to continue?
I think you’re totally locked in with cheese-making. That’s a winner.
(No one tell me that it wouldn’t actually be the heat of the sun. Thank you.)
Damn, that girl’s earlobes are in danger of complete transection if she don’t watch out.
Yeah, it’s part the heat bh and part the lack of household nat. gas down here that’s held me back so far. And no, not entirely joking, more like 85% serious and 15% joke.
Knives and knives.
Could propane work in a kiln and burner, sdferr?
Heh, I was thinking the same thing since the first big knife link, Geoff.
Link
Oh yeah, I’d assume so bh, though I don’t have specific knowledge about it. Which only goes to show how lazy I’m getting. Heck, I don’t even like electric stoves, yet I’ve been content to use what’s here without a second thought for six years now. I think this is what happens when one can go outside and cut bananas off a tree.
Indeed!
I agree with most of that, ‘cept I don’t do diapers and I intend to dodge dyin’ long as I can. Then I’ll scream and kick most ingallantly.
Farming is as simple as tilling up a plot in your backyard and poking some seeds in the ground. Then you water and weed and water and weed and water and weed until the bugs eat all your vegetables :( Okay, just kidding, we have three chest freezers and we fill them up with veggies from a little 10′ x 20′ plot. And the veggies are nothing like those horrid things they strip mine down in Florida. It’s well worth the effort just because they taste so much better. Farming on a bigger scale employs the same principles and you get to play with a lot of really cool and extremely dangerous equipment. Until you go broke.
Field-stripping the fish and game is the easy part, catching/shooting them can be harder and takes more practice and is more fun. If you can cut up a whole fryer you already know 90% of the job, you just got to get in there and get the ooky bits out and the hide, feathers, skin off. Just peel away everything that doesn’t look edible. Practice makes perfect and I try to get a lot of practice.
Electricity I’ve learned to leave to the experts. That stuff bites and ’tis a mystery to me but I should learn to do more.
Fixing engines? Why I just fixed Old Green, my ’73 F-250 Highboy. Wouldn’t start, so I checked the carb. No fuel. Hmm.. Pulled the hose off the in-line fuel filter down on the frame below the level of the fuel tank. No fuel. Pulled the fuel filter and blew through it. No obstruction and still no fuel. A horrible suspicion dawned on me and I checked the gas gauge. No fuel. Hiked to gas station with 5 gallon can. Problem solved! Yeah, I really did check the carb and the fuel filter before I looked at the gas gauge. Because I can!! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. [Sigh]
In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t start by checking the plugs and points, or it could have been a long afternoon. But there’s the rub, Old Green was built in 1973. On the engine you’ll find a fuel pump, a carburetor, a distributer with points and condenser and coil. There’s a radiator, a battery, and a reservoir for brake fluid. Then you’ve got a transmission, a transfer case, drive shafts and differentials. That’s about it. Raise the hood on a new car and you’ll be lucky if you can find any of that stuff for all the smog control and fuel economy crap hung on the thing. Then you’ve got electronic fuel injection and electronic ignition, and you’ve got to have a little computer to diagnose the estupido thing. I’m a pretty good mechanic but I won’t even start on a newer vehicle. Or at least I’d probably look at the gas gauge first :D
What I liked best about today’s earthquake? Hearing that seismologist fellow explain that it could have been due in part to deglaciation.
Drunk commenting follows:
I’m glad I know I how to get an engine running, as long as there are no computers in the way. Old school, plugs, points, mechanical fuel pump, carb. I cut my teeth on engine swaps into 60s mustangs and falcons. I used to joke that all you need is a 1/2 and 9/16 wrench and you can take apart a 1965 mustang. I can do it with my eyes closed. Back then they were not classics yet, they were just old cars.
They will never run as well as a computer-controlled engine, but they will run.
That’s one of the few skilz I have that doesn’t involve hitting buttons on a keyboard. Otherwise I am a computer geek to the max, and programming is my calling. If the shit doesn’t hit the fan, I would be there with a laptop programming fuel and ignition curves. If it does, I have something marketable.
BTW, I can also do plumbing, roofs, and concrete if necessary. We redid the whole water supply line in his house. We did the roof. We poured extensions to the driveway. My father taught me, and I’m lucky to have had that happen. He’s one of the guys who at 17 went and served and protected this country. I’ll be there for his 85th on Oct 7th. As if I couldn’t be there. Please.
Like I said, drunk commentary. Please excuse me. Not bragging, just happy he could teach me so I wouldn’t feel helpless. As screwed up as I am sometimes, I know how to fix it.
I’ll raise a glass to that, cranky.
I’m a edged weapons nut and have quite a collection including a fancy damascus Bowie, a nice copy of the Searles Bowie, and a Boulder-made Western Bowie. None of them can hold a candle to the Trailmaster for just plain brutally strong. It’s definitely the knife I’ll be wearing the day after TEOTWAWKI. Until then I keep it handy for repelling boarders but it’s a bit large for most daily activities. There the Recon Scout might have an advantage, it’s essentially the same knife with a 2″ shorter blade, so should be a bit more handy and just as strong. One could argue that you can do most anything with a big knife that you can do with a little knife, but not vice versa. I suppose eye surgery would be the exception that proves that rule!
Whatever. I’ve got a lot of knives and I’m pretty opinionated about them. First, stainless steel is right out. The best grades of stainless come close to taking and holding an edge about as well as the poorest grades of carbon steel, yet high-grade stainless is more expensive than decent carbon steel. I’m intrigued by San Mai steels with their laminated blades sandwiching a thin layer of high carbon between layers of softer stainless, but they’re really spendy and I don’t really mind if a knife blade loses it’s shine and takes on a patina with use so I’ve stuck with carbon steel whenever possible. But it’s getting hard to find knives with carbon steel blades.
Cold Steel is a good source but sadly they no longer offer knives with their proprietary Carbon V steel which was awesome for taking and holding an edge. If you come across a Carbon V blade in a knife shop buy it! You won’t be sorry. I don’t have any experience with their current carbon steels, but the worst carbon steel is pretty good stuff. Queen Cutlery makes knives of D2 tool steel which is wonderful stuff. D2 is highly abrasion resistant which gives it great edge-holding capability, but also makes it tough to sharpen. I like Queen’s traditional-styled folders a lot. KaBar, Boker, and various others make some knives of carbon steel, but most of the big name brands don’t use carbon steel anymore. It’s a shame that shiny won out over sharp.
I think you’re saying that I should use one of my chef’s knives, Swen.
I’m kidding, of course, Swen. I appreciate the advice. I do.
Hear! Hear! Dads who grew up during the Depression are a wonder to have. They knew how to fix things because they had to learn and make do or do without and mine also taught me well. No money to buy new crankshaft bearings for the tractor? No problem. Take some rawhide and cut it in thin strips and boil it. Wrap it tight around the shaft and force it into the old journals. Let it dry, oil it up and drive! No shit.
Most everything on the farm was fixed that way. Sometimes it even worked. Shingle the roof? Shingles cost money, but we’ve got all this material left over from the stuccoing job we did down the road so.. Stuccoed roof! Okay, that one didn’t work so well. Knock a hole in the oil pan of the old Rambler? Pull it off, clean it up, and use some epoxy glue to hold a quarter over the hole. That worked. Bendix gear in the pickup’s starter motor sticky and won’t engage? Raise the hood, give the end of the starter motor a whack with a 2# ballpeen to knock it loose and it’ll start, with a certain panache. Diaphram in the fuel pump sprung a leak? Steal one of Mom’s rubber gloves.
Sadly, I fear we’re about to go through another of those episodes where we make do or do without and the Old Man isn’t around to coach me now. Wish I’d paid more attention when I had the chance.
You could do a lot worse than a good chef’s knife bh. The Searles Bowie I linked earlier looks suspiciously like it might have been found chopping veggies in a kitchen if it hadn’t been on some frontiersman’s belt. Many tons of kitchen cutlery were shipped around the world from Sheffield and Solingen and used in the outdoors and for serious social purposes all over the world.
Green River knives were particularly sought after by trappers and Indians during the fur trade period in the 1830’s and they’re still being made today! Better yet, you can get your Green River knife the way a lot of the natives did, as a blade, ready to add your own handle. I’ve seen quite a few of these as “sets”, with three or four knives in a beaded and highly decorated case, obviously some nice Indian lady’s prized possessions — beat hell out of a sharp rock I’m sure. And they’re darn good carbon steel knives, I’ve made quite a few of them. That 10″ butcher looks wicked, I’ve got one on my wish list.
Wow, that 10″ butcher also costs all of $22. That’s a winner.
Thanks, Swen. Think I’ve found my source for all my sharp and pointy needs.
Swen, you’ve inspired me to try to make some cutlery (which to me includes swords and such) from bare blades. I’m not sure how it’ll work out, but if it does, they’ll be mine. To some extent. I realize the making of the blade itself is a craft just short of magic that requires years to acquire the skill. But I don’t plan to set up a forge in my garage anytime soon, so it’ll have to wait for later and maybe never.
The ag combines do that. There is some truth to the notion that you can’t grow decent vegetables in Florida, but it really goes something like this: you can’t grow the same decent vegetables organically in Florida soil than you can in other places. Most Florida topsoil is sand and has little or nothing in it to hold the moisture in, and little to no nutrients. We have seven raised beds that are filled with spent mushroom compost, so the nutrient and moisture-holding issues are well addressed. But the other thing about Florida is: bugs. The growing season for most crops that people in the midwest are familiar with overlaps heavily with bug season. We can grow turnips and cabbages and mustard and kale and collards here pretty danged well provided we plant at just the right time. Actually, collards will grow pretty much year-round here; my mother-in-law had one that was a few years old growing in front of their store that they still harvested from. But corn is very difficult to grow without spraying; ditto tomatoes. We have grown some really nice broccoli; brussels sprouts we’ve had no success with at all, and cauliflower is somewhere in between. Tomatoes are tough; between the bugs and the fungus, very tough. Summer squashes have similar issues. And cucumbers we’ve had almost no luck with.
What does really well here, without much in the way of any sort of maintenance, are hot-weather crops: field peas, sweet potatoes, okra, etc. Also, crops that people in other climates tend to grow in the summer we grow in winter or at the very end of winter once the freezes are over: lettuce, chard, broccoli, kale, cabbages (we had a surfeit of cabbages this year; more than we could eat), turnips (grown mostly for turnip greens; they tend to start growing nice-sized roots right about the time hungry bugs start coming out), mustard, etc.
One of my best buds has gardened all his life in Florida; he hasn’t bothered with raised beds or any such; he just fertilizes when necessary and sprays for fungus and where possible, picks the bugs off by hand. There are some nice “organic” pesticides like Thuricide and the like that attack specific bugs using bio-vectors that don’t pose a threat to other species. He actually used to earn spare money from raising and selling vegetables, but he didn’t count as a “strip-mine” because he worked it by hand; he was no Duda.
Still, I kind of dream of having a garden far enough North that we don’t have to fight the bugs to see who gets a bigger share of the food. We could grow potatoes in northern Alabama, but here in middle Florida they seem far too susceptible to fungus and other pests. We’ve grown them, but the yields have been rather pathetic.
#135
Yes you can.
http://www.jamesriser.com/Machinery/GasForge/PropaneForge.html
I’ve used this method for heat treating steel alloys, but it can get hot enough to forge iron.
I’m soooo bookmarking this thread.