In typical fashion, I bring more knives on a hunt that one guy needs but hey, is there such as thing as too much cutlery? Each morning I go out I grab a different knife and take it to the field with me and should I get luckily enough to harvest a deer, that is the knife that gets field dressing duties. Opening day I saw a lot of smaller does, spikes and yearlings - I was covered up in deer most of the day but I didn't want to take a smaller deer early in the season so I held out, we had some nice bucks on camera so I rolled the dice.
Much like a Fiddleback Forge Knife can be appreciated for its beauty, so can a nicely finished 1911. Both Andy’s knives and modern 1911s blend classic styling and modern touches into a very functional tool. For those who like to match their Fiddleback Forge Knives with custom ferro rods, you can add another factor into your coordination game with a properly customized 1911. When you have so many options to upgrade your 1911, remember the advice of this blog and think logically to create a truly personalized piece of American firearms history.
I love sharing my passions with those who want to learn to do what I do. In response to some recent questions on “how do I become a writer?” here are some hints you might find helpful.
He noticed “the little wooden-handled knife I was wearing for a necklace” as he put it, and asked about it. It is a Fiddleback Forge Esquire with an Osage handle that I have carried daily for a couple of years now. I also showed him a larger one I had with me that day, my Woodsman, and told him who had made them. To which he said, “so you prefer handmade knives over store-bought knives now? What's that about?"
Today, roughly 5,300 years later, many innovations in tool making technology and metallurgy have come along, and thankfully so. Those advancements have allowed for many improvements in tool design. Yet with the vastly improved equipment, not all that much has changed in the way of real world needs or how they are accessed. We still venture out into a big uncertain world, and we still prepare for our adventures according to our knowledge of this world and our anticipated needs.
There’s no secret, I love the KE Bushie. I should, it bears my initials and back in the mid to late 2000’s, Andy Roy made me the prototype of the knife that would eventually become one of his best sellers. The KE Bushie was originally designed for performance and Andy Roy was able to make it both functional and attractive for Fiddleback Forge collectors and users.
There is more to the bacon story than meets the eye on television. Yet because we are deemed to have become so wise and enlightened over the years the rest of the bacon story isn't thought to be necessary for us. We are presumed to no longer need the knowledge and wisdom within the story, the powers that be just don't want us to stop buying the bacon that keeps their bank accounts flowing.
At any moment, we can become injured. Accidents happen and there is simply no good time for one to afflict us. Take a fall in the woods and break your wrist breaking your fall. Slip with you knife and cut your leg. Pay too much attention to the ground and that branch your buddy is holding out of the way hits you in your eye. Accidents suck and injuries suck even more. Many survival instructors have recognized the possibility of accidents and have started to teach one-hand fire starting, one-hand this and one-hand that.
We’ve all seen the articles titled “What’s in my Pack”, “What I carry”, or something along the lines of “What’s Inside”. These articles and photos can be straight up “gear porn” for the Instagram crowd but they can also be great for the outdoorsman reader as they offer a glimpse into the contents of someone else’s bag. For someone just starting who throws anything and everything into their bag before a trip, order is probably lacking and reading the logic behind someone else’s careful planning is incredibly beneficial. I’ve written a “What’s in my Pack” article years ago for the now out-of-publication Self-Reliance Illustrated Magazine.
All of the types of ferrocerium rods I've listed initially, the first ones to hit the global survival market (and later the bushcraft market), are of the harder type of ferrocerium rods. Any abrasion on these types of rods begets sparks. Light pressure yields lights sparks, and harder pressure yields hotter sparks, but essentially any scraping of the surface at all produces the pyrophoric result. That would change just after the turn of the century. A new and different style of ferrocerium rods, ones labeled as “mischmetal”, would come along and create havoc for some people. It would be the topic of many discussions on outdoor forums back in 2006, and it even caused more than a few arguments about which was better.
In the past 10 years, I’ve noticed more and more campers taking to the trees. Hammock camping is on the rise and if you doubt me, just take a look at all the places selling hammocks, suspension systems, tarps and hammock hardware. Hammocks have an inherent advantage over tents, bivy sacks, and dropping to the ground with a ground pad and sleeping bag. Your sleep isn’t interrupted or prevented by sharp roots digging into your back, puddles of water marinating your feet while you sleep or uneven terrain certain to roll you into your camping buddies. With all the benefits of hammock camping, it would seem logical to use them over traditional ground shelters whenever possible but there is one condition hammock campers despise; that condition is cold. Hanging in the cold air requires specialized equipment and some “stay warm” hacks and habits.
When we are out and about in the city and wandering the concrete trails along the asphalt rivers that run through our urban wildernesses, under the neon stars of the city skies, most of us tend to look at EDC tooling at least a little differently than we do when compared to a woodland environment. We do this viewing from different perspectives that are based on our own life experiences. Personally I seldom put any thought to self defense when I am out in a wilderness environment. Having grown up in wild places, fishing and trapping commercially in my youth, I am generally pretty relaxed in a secluded forest environment. Yet I definitely think about such things when I am in crowded urban environments.
