Good Morning Hugh,
Thank you for your hard work; keep fighting the good fight. Greetings from the great state of Tennessee! I’ve written you for years but from my address in NY. We’ve finally broken free and are speaking w/ our feet. It feels great. We’re renting at the moment, homestead-shopping. Why yes, I have been to the realty-blog, as well!
Regarding the recent post on fishing pliers, I had a great experience with pliers in my trials in the Saltwater Reef-keeping aquarium hobby. Growers of hard coral species (Acropora, Montipora) who propagate frequently use various shapes/sizes of pliers to break fragments off the mother colonies in the tank. Being in saltwater, this naturally presents problems for most metal implements. The fine folks at Sears have solved the expense of this problem with their lifetime warranty on Craftsman tools. One of my fellow hobby enthusiasts had returned scores of them! The manager asked what he used them for on one trip. He explained, and the manager laughed and told him they were in Aisle 12 and to have a nice day! While not ideal in a survival situation, it is one company that stands by the no-hassle lifetime guarantee. So feel free to purchase a fancy-shaped/size/type of pliers or selection of pliers from your local Sears store, and when they get old and rusted and beat up, take them back and get a shiny new one!
Also I wanted to comment regarding the tin-foil safe idea. Foresight protected me from such a mistake, however. The Sentry Corporation has a 1 cu. ft. model that is entirely mechanical, costs a couple hundred bucks, and has served me well. They recently shut down (or are winding down) operations outside Rochester, NY, and are moving the work to Mexico. (Thank you, NAFTA!) I purchased the product when it was U.S.-made, but I have owned it for years, and it’s worth the price of admission. – K.