Letter Re: Easy to Carry Fixed Blade Knives

Dear Jim:
Following up on the discussion a few months back on the folders vs. fixed blade knives for defense: To recap – folders are easier to carry and legal in more places, but fixed blades easier and faster and safer to get in to action. Ever tried opening a folder while wrestling or being hit? I’ve taken a class where you do a low intensity simulation with blunt training knives, and, put it this way, opening a folder under attack is not something I ever want to bet my life – or my fingers on!
If you live in a state that does not prohibit fixed blades, there is now a much easier to carry fixed blade, introduced by Ka-Bar – their TDI Law Enforcement:
The handle comes off the blade at an angle so it is much easier to carry and conceal – see the photos. A big improvement over straight knife concealability. I like the ergonomics as well – very hard for your hand to slip onto the blade.
To check on your state’s edged weapons laws, see this site. Regards, – OSOM

Letter Re: Recommended Versatile Dog Breeds for Retreat Security

Mr. Rawles:
I have owned many types of dogs over the years, from coonhounds when I lived in Idaho, to a horrible little dachshund we currently have, but who may be the best watchdog I’ve ever owned. Were it not for his addiction to killing chickens and rabbits (which we also raise), he might make a great retreat dog! My current choice is the Komondor. Extremely independent, but in the right hands an absolutely devoted and fearless defender of livestock, home, barn, children. My big male is the constant companion of my daughters as they roam our property, putting himself between them and any threat, real or perceived. Never vicious or prone to attack, but very willing to stand off a stranger until he has been thoroughly investigated and cleared by me as being okay. These are not dogs for everyone; but with proper handling they are great dogs even with children. They do not share the Great Pyrenees penchant for roaming, and have a well-developed sense of property and territory. Their drawback as well as part of their uniqueness is their unusual corded coat, which we shear here in Texas due to the heat and the fact that nearly everything here has burrs or thorns. Even though it is a large breed, their dietary requirements are surprisingly small. Such giant breeds often have slow metabolisms and don’t need as much food as you’d think. My big male gets about 4 cups of high protein food a day. And being of rather peasant, Hungarian ancestry, he is happy with the occasional baked potato to supplement his regular diet. He also will consume goat feed if he thinks I am not watching, but seems to suffer no ill effects from it.

So I’ll end here, but thanks for your hard work, and we look forward to reading more and learning more. Best wishes to you and your family, – Ginger B

Letter Re: Pre-1899 Mauser Rifles

Dear Jim,
I noticed that The Pre-1899 Specialist has some Chilean Mausers in stock. I have one of these that I acquired some time back, in the original 7 x 57 Mauser chambering.
These are a very smooth, reliable, strong bolt action rifle, accurate and easy to handle. They’re a reasonably modern style. In either 7mm or 7.62mm they are definitely a good addition to a preparedness arsenal. They will take most North American or European large game, and in extremis will accurately defeat human threats at several hundred yards. You can also get a more modern drop-in stock for the 1895 Mauser. Regards, Michael Z. Williamson

Letter Re: Oilfield Production Decline Rates are Worse than Expected

Dear Jim and Family,
I wish I could say Happy New Year, but i just learned some terrible news in the oil business. The big fields where most of the USA and world get their oil are declining at much faster rates than expected, and the companies are willing to admit to high numbers.

In summary: Burgan field in Kuwait dropping at 11% per year.
Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia (biggest in the world) dropping at 8%, which is 5.5% higher than expected.
Cantarell field in Mexico (source of most US oil) is dropping at 14% rather than the 6% they thought was a worst case scenario back in September. That’s an 8% increase in decline in only 3 months. That’s very bad. Cantarell could collapse and abruptly stop producing oil. It almost certainly will later this year.
Venezuela is declining at an unknown rate.
Nigeria is suffering a civil war which reduces its oil production. “Youths?” Call them rebels; its more honest.

And to make matters worse, there’s some kind of infighting going on in Saudi Arabia. If this rises to the point of even interrupting production in the oil terminals controlled by Saudi Arabia, a conservative 16% of world oil production will suddenly be shut off. This would immediately result in a bidding war for oil tanker deliveries and drive the price of a barrel past $100, probably a lot more, like $170 or so. Maybe higher in the panic buying stage. Gasoline can be expected to pass $8 per gallon and probably go higher. The entire 3rd world, except oil producers themselves, won’t have gasoline or diesel anymore. Expect severe collapse and famine to begin almost immediately.

And the really bad news? Even without a collapse in Saudi Arabia, the decline in production from those big fields will cause this to happen over the duration of 2007. It may be a more “slow motion” collapse than a fast one, but the price of oil will rise to destroy consumption, which will hurt the poorest nations most, those least able to afford modern conveniences. Full expect civil wars to break out there over this collapse. I am sad about this prospect. My medication comes from New Jersey. I really hope they keep shipping it through the coming troubles. Sincerely, – InyoKern

Letter Re: Night Sights for Pistols

Dear Jim:
After doing some night shooting courses with no night sights on my long gun – ( bad idea 🙁 ) I found XS Sights for long gun tritium retrofits. Fortunately, I was also introduced to their pistol sights for faster day and night sight shooting – 24/7 Express Sights.
You really need to see the photo to appreciate the design, but basically it make the rear notch a very shallow V with a tritium “I” bar in the low center. The front sight is tritium surrounded by a big white dot – so you get the tritium at night, but also a big white dot for faster day and low light shooting (when [the glow of] tritium is not as noticeable). Typical pistol combat distances of 1 to 15 yards you just put the dot on and shoot. Over 15 yards you focus on the top of the dot for a more precise aiming point, and to avoid shooting slightly high.
Having done some Force on Force courses, I realized how valuable making a “flash” sight picture even quicker could be, so I got a set of the Big Dots to test. (Standard size is a compromise – not worth it, go for the Big Dot.)
Bottom line they are significantly faster for combat shooting. These are not precision target sights, but my IDPA accuracy stayed the same in practice and competition. The big improvement was that sight alignment came I’d say roughly 20% faster. Finally won my division in the area match after putting on the XS Express Sights!
I’m taking off my 3-dot tritium sights and retrofitting all my carry pistols with the Big Dot. Regards, – OSOM

Letter Re: Can I Burn Off Road Diesel Fuel in a Modern Diesel Engine?

Jim
I have experience with both off and on road diesels mechanical and electronic control. Normally off road fuel is ok to run in all mechanically fuel injected engines from a performance standpoint. (But legality is another matter.) However, both Stanidyne and Delphi produce an electromechanical pump for some on road applications that use an electric eye to read timing. These types of fuel systems cannot be run on dyed fuel. I repeat cannot be run on off road fuel.
Second and of primary importance is fuel quality all electronic fuel injection systems are very sensitive to fuel contamination and electromagnetic pulse (EMP). a near miss by lightning could put one out of action for good. Power transfer stations or “transformer farms” can also produce a local EMP[-like waveform] if they are taken off-line suddenly. As far as long term survival use or even in a short term SHTF situation, [traditional mechanical [diesel] engines [without microprocessors] are your best be. Unfortunately this limits you to pre 1989-on road engines and pre-2004 off road/marine engines but if you are good with a wrench most can be rebuilt to like new and run almost forever with proper care and maintenance. I would also recommend filter upgrades to all diesel engines to keep them running. I have a lot of experience with RACOR products. Look them up on the web. I would be willing to help out with any questions you may have on the care and feeding of the diesel engine. “Aim small miss small”, – Mike the Mechanic

JWR Replies: Many thanks for making that correction! I will revise my original post with the information that you provided on the Stanidyne and Delphi fuel pumps with optical sensors

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy." – John Quincy Adams

Note From JWR:

The high bid is still at $260 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.) The auction ends on January 15th, so get your bid in soon!

Letter Re: Advice on Underground Retreat Construction

Sir:
I have 40+ acres, all wooded. I want to build a shelter. There are plenty of hills that I can dig in to, build the shelter and then cover it up. but I don’t know a thing about building a shelter. I need to know everything. From making it water tight to air venting. Where can I go. I do not want to buy a shelter. I want to build it my self. Thank you, – Buddy

JWR Replies: Building an underground house, a retreat, or just a simple below ground cache that doesn’t become an underground cistern is not a simple task. In general, I do not recommend underground construction for first time do-it-yourself home builders. The nation’s experts on underground residential construction is the firm Davis Caves. They been at it for nearly 30 years and they really have underground construction down to a science. To be done right, even in a dry climate, an underground house needs to be situated in a well-drained area. An unconnected (“freed standing”) small hill with southern exposure is ideal. Simply digging into an existing hill without creating a drainage system is an invitation to disaster, especially if you live where there is any significant precipitation. A proper underground house needs to have an extensive drainage system and excellent water barriers. If you are on a very tight budget and you definitely want to do it yourself, then I’d recommend that you look for an unpaid or low wage summer internship with a company like Davis Caves. Working with experts for a few weeks will teach you what you need to know to build an underground house that will be dry and tight and that will last for generations.

Letter Re: Sno-Seal for Boots and Gaiters

Mr R.:
I finished reading “Patriots” and have begun passing it off to others with the admonition to buy it, link to SurvivalBlog, and pay attention. There are hard-info gems throughout. I can certainly tell that you were in communication in your other life. Info noted. Your passage [in Patriots] on the “book code” is superior to the [Vernam] one-time pad generation, sans a book. If security is rigorously maintained, a book code is “break-proof.”
We got hit twice on successive weekends with big snowfalls. We went out slogging in the storms and got a chance to check just how waterproof the gear really is.
After treating boots and other gear with silicone sprays, I went back to Sno-Seal for all of our boots ( and would do so for leather gaiters too.) Their recommended application method is actually not the best, if I may humbly disagree. Order cans, place one in a saucepan surrounded by water and gently heat on the stovetop. Then carefully apply with a small 1/2″ brush and work it in by hand as you paint it into seams and the entire surface – no better way to feel the process. Split/suede leathers are of course more absorbent – and will darken – so be aware of that cosmetic aspect. I take special care with the tongues and their seams. Finish by letting them bask in the sun for an afternoon.
I shoveled snow off our flat roof yesterday and was working in snow-melt for a few hours – feet dry !
Between that product and SealSkinz [waterproof socks], the feet can be reasonably secured. In a devolved world, that could mean the difference between life and death
Regards for the New Year – MurrDoc. P.S.: I’ll be sending in my 10 Cent Challenge contribution again this year, gladly.

JWR Replies: Thanks for the positive feedback on my novel “Patriots”. I’m glad that you find it useful. On the topic of Sno-Seal: I also use it on my boots. It is a great product. OBTW, back in 1980, when I attended the U.S. Army’s Northern Warfare School at Fort Greeley, Alaska, they were still using Neat’s Foot Oil on their mountain climbing boots. To treat the boots, they warmed up a 30 gallon drum of Neat’s Foot Oil and the members of our entire training class rapidly “passed in review” and dunked the exterior of the boots, doing our best to avoid getting any inside the boots. This was boot waterproofing in the “expeditious, crude, but effective” mode. I have heard that the Army has since switched to some sort of silicone spray. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some large spray rig to treat large numbers of pairs of boots in rapid succession. (The U.S. Army always seem to tend toward expeditious en masse operations for everything from inductee physical examinations to policing litter at a kasserne.) Like you, I prefer Sno-Seal over Silicone sprays. Just be careful not to get any on the upper portions of cloth boot laces. (The portion that you tie.)

Letter Re: Alternatives for Water Pumping, Sans Grid Power

JWR:
T his is the first time that I have put forth any input to your blog. I love the site, and it’s a daily read! I heard on the radio news that the cattle ranchers in Colorado and Kansas are panicking because they have no power, and thus they cannot pump water to water their cattle. I had just finished reading this article, when I heard that on the radio. I think the cattle ranchers would have been very happy to have this information as would any of the survival-minded among us that may have to pump water for home, livestock, or both. – P.G. in Utah

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"…[W]e live in a great and free country only because our forefathers were willing to wage war rather than accept the peace that spells destruction." – Theodore Roosevelt

The Insidious Nature of Inflation–The Debasement of the U.S. Dollar Continues

I recently helped some elderly cousins move from their two story home of many years into a smaller one story apartment in a retirement community. (They are having “mobility” problems.) Part of this move involved cleaning out a storage space that hadn’t been touched in more than 40 years. The accumulation of household goods–mainly books–was not unusual or noteworthy. However, what was indeed notable was that many of the boxes had newspapers used as padding in the top. Pulling out these papers, which were mostly from 1958 was a real eye-opener for our kids. Here are some examples of the advertisement prices that our kids were reading aloud, with much laughter:

Beauty Salon: Ladies stylized haircut $1; Revlon manicure 75 cents; Shampoo and Set $1
Flooring store: Rubber tiles 12 cents each, Inlaid linoleum tile 5-1/2 cents, Vinyl tile 7-1/2 cents
Grocery Store: Leg of Lamb 65 cents/lb., Breast of Lamb 15 cents/lb., Picnic hams 29 cents/lb., Johnnie Walker Scotch $6.38/fifth, Hills Bros. Coffee 49 cents per lb.
Another grocery store: Ice cream 69 cents/half gallon, fresh peaches, 5 pounds for 49 cents; choice tomatoes 2 pounds for 29 cents; Ghirardelli chocolate 53 cents/lb.
Car Dealerships: Current model year Cadillac Convertible $4,395, 1957 Chevy (one year old) $2,195, 1950 Buick Sedan “Real Nice” $165, 1954 Ford Victoria V-8 $875
Classified Ads: 1951 Studebaker V-8 Coupe, new paint $245, 1951 Chevy sedan $145, Olds 1950 “Rocket 88” $140, German Shepard Pups, $25 to $35, Clerk -Typist “Ages 21 to 35” $295 per week, Colt Service .45 Auto [Model 1911] “good cond., with holster” $12.

The prices in these ads illustrate the slow but relentless debasement of our currency. Before 1965, our coinage was 90% silver, and paper money was still redeemable in silver. Granted, wages were proportionately smaller, but any savings held in dollars get relentlessly eaten away by inflation, year after year. It is no wonder that the savings rate in the U.S. recently went below zero. (Americans presently spend $1.06 for each dollar that they earn, piling up debt instead of savings.) The inflation of the money supply is gradual enough that it insidiously goes without raising public alarm. Because inflation is so relentless, I recommend investing in tangibles–things like productive farm land, gold, silver, guns, and common caliber ammunition. The dollar will surely continue to go down and down in value, but for the most part tangibles will hold their value.

Writing recently in The Daily Reckoning (a free e-mail newsletter) editor Bill Bonner (also the co-author of the book “Empire of Debt”) summed up the current situation nicely: “We simplify for the benefit of readers with tight schedules or short attention spans: The United States puts out dollars – trillions of them. U.S. consumers use the dollars to overspend, by buying products from overseas, approximately $1.06 worth of buying for every dollar actually earned. Foreign governments want the spending to continue. Instead of sending the dollars back where they came from by buying American goods, they issue local currencies to buy them and put them in their central bank vaults. All this extra money is then magnified…2…3…10 times…as it is lent, re-lent and used as reserves for various financial instruments.
Meanwhile a whole new industry has risen up to help with the lending, mortgaging, gambling that goes along with this explosion of money. Derivatives now equal seven times world GDP and are growing five times as fast. The new ‘liquidity’ is floating up financial assets all over the world.
Traditionally, more money in the system caused consumer price inflation – which was seen as a threat to the well being of the rich as well as the masses. Central bankers knew they had to get it under control or they would be swamped by it. But this new liquidity is different. People love it. The lumps never get a chance to use it to buy toilet paper. Instead, it sloshes around the hedge funds, banks, financial houses and rich financiers’…in a ‘wave of liquidity’ upon which so many super-wealthy are now riding. In 1980, the ratio of financial assets to GDP stood at about 1.5 to 1. Now, it is about 4 to 1. Yes, dear reader, upon this ocean of liquidity rides a great Titanic of asset price inflation. It is why Picasso, Klimt and Pollack paintings sell for such absurd prices. It is why houses in Aspen, Greenwich and Kensington have reached such breathtaking prices. It is why Chinese stocks have doubled in the last year. And it is why the Dow is at an all-time high…and why Manhattan real estate is selling for such high prices that even the rats are having to pack up and move to New Jersey.”

The debt merry-go-round that Bill Bonner described cannot go on forever. When the average consumer runs out of credit, when the U.S. Treasury itself is no longer considered credit worthy, and when the U.S. dollar itself is recognized for what it really is (nicely printed toilet paper), then things will get ugly. “The Piper must be paid.” In this case the Pipers are foreign lending institutions. If you stop making the payments on your car, the banks send a repo man to tow your car away. And when entire nations go into default, it usually signals cataclysmic events. Be prepared.