by Kevin Estela
January 27, 2021
In January of 2021, I embarked on a cross country trip from Connecticut to Utah where I would start a new career with the company Fieldcraft Survival. This marked an incredible life change where I not only left my comfortable teaching career of 14 years in a public high school, but also the townhouse I called home for 7.5 years. It’s one thing to keep your job and switch homes and another thing to keep your home and switch jobs. Switching both places where you live and work is absolutely something that takes careful planning and consideration. My move required transporting most of the contents of my house 2500 miles and some of those contents I would not trust to moving companies. It also meant not getting arrested with more than a couple firearms and plenty of ammo in tow. While it was stressful, the move didn’t break me. Like all moments with pressure and stress in life, this change would definitely make me stronger if it didn’t make me crack in the process.
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by Brian Griffin
January 13, 2021
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Back in November I wrote an article on a small pocket contingency kit. A little something extra to augment the usual items we carry. Our daily carry gear are actually our first line of contingency mitigation, even if we've carried them so long we've quit seeing that aspect of our edc. Because the whole point is be prepared to tackle our day to day life, and whatever comes with it. To be able to overcome any mundane obstacles we might encounter on any Tuesday morning's commute to work, Saturday trip to the zoo with the kiddos, or a Sunday outing with our congregation after church.
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by Kevin Estela
December 16, 2020
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A couple decades ago, discussion forums were THE place for folks in the knife community to share ideas, argue, and discuss blades. Remember those days? Remember having to use photo sharing services that required uploading photos from a digital camera, copying a link, and posting it to a thread? Remember the days of dial-up connections and large files that took forever to download and appear on your screen? Those were the days when only the professional photographers had cameras capable of producing photos that looked print-magazine worthy. The internet has changed dramatically over the years and today modern cell-phone cameras rival professional DSLR counterparts. Today, anyone can produce a quality photo with the right light, contrast, and vignette settings. Today, filters make everyone an Instagram star and everyone feels entitled to opine when an idea is presented that runs counter to theirs. This month’s Fiddleback Forge blog is all about those wonderful engagements with “experts” who have to put in their .02 cents worth. I thought it would be fun to look at common arguments made and explain the logic or lack thereof. If you’ve ever had someone start a “flame war”, “pissing match”, or “D*#k-measuring” competition, please keep reading. You may get a laugh out of this one.
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Andy Roy
Author
Andy is the President of Fiddleback Forge, as well as the head knife-maker. He started making knives in 2007, before going full time in 2009. He still provides all the finish grinds and shaping to every handmade Fiddleback Forge knife made.