Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 8, 2021

April 8th is the birthday of the late Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia. (Born, 1919, died November 20, 2007.)

April 8th is also the anniversary of the death of English experimental gunsmith and author Phillip Luty, in 2011. He was hounded by British authorities for many years. He died of cancer before a scheduled criminal trial.

—

We are running low on articles for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. If you have a partially written article, please finish it and e-mail it to us, for posting.  It will be judged on its merits, and may earn you some valuable prizes!

—

If you spot any reasonably-priced ammo that is available by mailorder, then please let us know via e-mail and we wil include that information in either the Snippets column or the Odds ‘n Sods column.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 94 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

 

TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – Part 1, by St. Funogas

This my view of Personal Poop, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Loo.

Did you know you can eat your own poop? Did you know there are poop banks, just like blood banks, where doctors can access pathogen-free poop like yours and feed it to their patients to cure their Clostridium difficile intestinal infection? No? Then read on!

As I begin writing this, I’m reminded of two thoughts. Jonathan Swift said, “You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reason himself into.” And as a way of saving face, “I used to think that way, but now I’m better informed.” I hope you will keep these in mind while reading this article.

A Plea for Reconsideration

If you’ll keep an open mind, I’ll show you by the end of this article that we’ve nothing to fear by using compost in the vegetable garden made from our own personal family humanure. I know I’ve picked a tough row to hoe here but I’ll mention some things you’ve never heard before and probably never considered before so friends, preppers, and countrymen, lend me your ears.

If the most current medical research shows that you can eat your own feces without harm, and even use them to cure your neighbor’s Clostridium difficile (“C. Diff.”) intestinal infection, then why should we worry about the remains of our two-year old pathogen-free composted feces in our gardens?

In a permanent grid-down situation, we’ll face a multitude of challenges including how to handle our raw sewage in a sanitary manner and how to fertilize our gardens for maximum production after grocery stores disappear. This article will cover two options for accomplishing these objectives.

TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options

For most, TEOTWAWKI toilet options will generally fall into one of the following three categories:

• Many families will continue as usual with their own water supply and a way to distribute water to the house via pressure pumps or gravity-fed systems.
• Those hauling water from the creek can flush their toilet from a gravity-fed tank or manually using a bucket. Water can be conserved by flushing feces only and letting liquids “age” before flushing with the next fecal deposit.
• Those on public water systems that will fail when the grid does, and those who need to conserve maximum water, have two reasonable options: an outhouse or a composting toilet. The benefits of composting toilets will be discussed in detail later so let me briefly discuss outhouses.Continue reading“TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – Part 1, by St. Funogas”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at possible restrictions on 80% receiver gun builds.  (So-called Ghost gun” builds.)

West Virginia May Ban Enforcement of Federal Gun Laws

The Tenth Amendment Center has described a growing trend: West Virginia House Passes Bill to Ban Enforcement of Federal Gun Control: Past, Present and Future.

March Border Crossings Jump to 15-Year High

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site is this from The Washington Free Beacon: March Border Crossings Jump to 15-Year High.  An excerpt:

“U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 171,000 migrants at the southern border in March, marking a 15-year high.

The figure includes nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors, which tops the prior all-time monthly high of nearly 12,000 in May 2019. According to the Washington Post, the surge has allowed nearly 1,000 illegal migrants—often cartel smugglers bringing drugs—to enter the United States daily without being captured.”

Calls to Ban “Ghost Guns” Mounting

Reader H.L. sent us this: 18 attorneys general call on Garland to close ghost gun loophole. JWR’s Comments: This reclassification could be accomplished via an Executive Order, that might withstand high court scrutiny. It is noteworthy that these guns are only rarely used in crimes, since most criminals are not industrious. They generally use stolen guns — not ones that they make themselves.

In related news: Ghost-Gun Concerns Prompt Feds to Meet With Firearms Makers.Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.” – John Adams

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 7, 2021

April 7th is the birthday of Colonel Bob Denard (born 1929, died October 13, 2007). He had an amazing life as a mercenary, including four attempted coups in the Comoros.

—

I noticed that there have been just a handful of reviews of my book The Ultimate Prepper’s Survival Guide posted at the Barnes & Noble website.  If you’ve read that book, then I would greatly appreciate it if you’d post a brief review there.  Many Thanks!  – JWR

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 94 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Review: Tortoise Gear Firefly, by The Novice

For decades, I carried a Victorinox MiniChamp in my left front pants pocket. There it shared space with a Maglite Solitaire LED and an ink pen. The ink pens came and went. They could not stand up to the wear and tear of pocket carry. The Solitaire and the MiniChamp endured, battered but unbroken.

Sometime during the course of those decades, I noticed a Victorinox Swiss Army Classic SD at a garage sale. It cost one dollar if I remember right. I bought it as a backup in case I should happen to lose the MiniChamp. I took it home, threw it in a drawer, and more or less forgot about it for many years.

Recently, I began pocket-testing a plasma lighter/flashlight combination. I am carrying it instead of the Solitaire. The plasma lighter is larger than the Solitaire. Since the Swiss Army Classic SD is smaller than the MiniChamp, I decided to start carrying the SD instead of the MiniChamp in order to help compensate for the larger size of the lighter. I am so pleased with the SD that I wonder why I did not start carrying it instead of the MiniChamp many years ago.

The four tools that I use almost exclusively on the MiniChamp are a blade, the scissors, the screwdriver, and the tweezers. The exact same versions of all four tools are present on the SD. But the SD is .35 inches thick, in contrast to the MiniChamp, which is .57 inches thick.Continue reading“Review: Tortoise Gear Firefly, by The Novice”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — April 6, 2021

This is the birthday of famous American newsreel and radio journalist/narrator Lowell Thomas.

—

Gardening season is here!  One of our most loyal advertisers, Seed for Security, LLC is having an exceptional sale. Theirr Colossal Security Pack is now 15% off. This Pack is a total of 4 pounds 11 ounces of vegetable, herb, and grain seeds. All are open-pollinated and non GMO. Included are their three most popular collections: The Super Survival Pack, The 4 Grain Collection, and The Heirloom Herb Collection. Each Colossal Pack comes with a 4-page Seed Saving Guide. This offer is for a limited time.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 94 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Demonetizing Precious Metals, by Serena

What got us here:

In the coinage act of 1792, Congress in the United States declared the definition of our monetary units (The Dollar and the Eagle) and defined the character of each of these units with specified weights, measures, and the number of grains in silver or gold for each of these monetary units. They went on to declare the silver to gold ratio to be 15:1 which at the time was a worldwide standard. Should that balance not be declared and maintained the undervalued units would naturally migrate to other world economies. In the following 80 years, our economy had grown to include $7.55 billion almost equally divided between silver and gold.

In the early 1870s a financial interest from Great Britain used £100,000 to influence the United States Congress to change our economy from a bi-metal monetary system to one backed by gold alone. The citizenry, still engulfed in reconstruction from the Civil War, had become accustomed to the circulation and trade of paper currency representations of money for the preceding decade which made the public unaware, but this act reduced the actual legal tender available in the United States to $4.5 billion and changed the status of silver from “legal tender” to a commodity like wheat, tobacco, or cotton. While the costs of goods and services quickly adjusted to the shortened money supply and were virtually halved in price, the nation’s outstanding debt of $200 billion remained, which in turn caused a series of depressions throughout the 1890s. Silver had been the currency of the population and everyday transactions, while gold was held as a greater store of wealth by the banks, money lenders, and industrialists. After the unconstitutional coin act of 1873, the only people with “legal tender” were those that held gold.

The transfer of wealth from the average citizens of the United States to the debt collectors was unprecedented. Generations of Americans avoided debt at all costs until the 1980s when credit became “king”, and by then even gold had been removed from our monetary system entirely. Today, “commodities” like gold and silver are measured in fiat currencies that are valued only by the judgment and conscience of the politicians of that nation’s government. While these fiat currencies are traded for goods and services, they remain debt instruments with no stores of wealth or tangible value to back them up. The banks, financial institutions, and governments all have a vested interest in devaluing gold and silver to control not only the custody of these wealth instruments, but also to prop up the perceived value of their fiat currencies.

Despite the banks, governments, and financial institutions best efforts to decouple gold and silver from the value of their currencies, the precious metal’s purchasing power remains largely the same. For 50 years the investment markets, banks, financial institutions, and governments have all profited from manipulating the cost of precious metals and forcing commerce to be transacted in their fiat currencies. Worldwide trade in goods and services and the entire economy rely on these manipulations; however, while the fiat currencies of the world have plummeted in real value, the world’s population has awakened to the realization that they can trade these debt instruments for historic wealth, and so begins the 21st-century battle. While the politicians and banks worked to lower the costs of precious metals to prop up the perceived value of their fiat currencies, the people began trading these fiat currencies for the true wealth instruments of gold and silver, the “powers that be” have become outsmarted by their own manipulations.Continue reading“Demonetizing Precious Metals, by Serena”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

—

W.R. sent this missive in resp[onse to my semi-ranty piece about the Biden-Harris team:

“I don’t call them the Biden-Harris Administration. I prefer Regime or Junta.

One thing that is rarely brought up is the fact that Harris is not eligible to be president. She is not a natural born citizen of the US. Her parents were not US citizens when she was born.
I know they don’t care about law or the Constitution, but this needs to be widely circulated.”

o  o  o

Regarding the recent article on Tool Maintenance, Rick wrote:

“He makes a point.  I have recently been introduced to an old-time product called Naval Jelly.  It contains phosphoric acid.  As I understand it, it removes the rust and forms a layer of iron phosphate which negates the need to prime whatever surface you are repairing.  My thought is if it negates the need to prime it must prevent rust from forming.

Started out removing rust on the exterior skin around the ice and water port on my refrigerator.  It worked really well.  Around the screw holes the rust was relatively thicker.  Second efforts required that I first wire brush the coating formed by the first application.  Applying the second time without wire brushing did almost nothing.  The thicker rust was sealed in.

Do I need to mention naval jelly is inexpensive?”

o  o  o

Lily suggested these next five snippets:

Rabbit Ebola: Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus in 13 states.

—

An Ebola Outbreak in America, Now a Very Real Possibility

—

24 world leaders announce international pandemic treaty to implement Great Reset agenda

—

Nuts, just nuts:
CCP says Uyghur Muslims opposing their own genocide are guilty of “hating Asians”

—

Georgian Republican Representative Marjorie Greene:  Fiercely Denounces the Vaccine Passport Initiative as the Mark of the Beast

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on the new book Survival And Resistance In Evangelical America.

New In Print: Survival And Resistance In Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction In The Pacific Northwest. JWR Notes: The American Redoubt movement figures prominently in this scholarly book.

o  o  o

John Jacob Schmidt, on Radio Free Redoubt: The Coming War in America: Introduction, Intel, and Comms

o  o  o

Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act Introduced.

JWR’s Comments: Whenever you hear about  legislation aimed at “saving” or “protecting” a species of wildlife or wildlife habitat, you have to ask “Cui bono?”  It is usually about expanding government power, restricting landowner rights, and increasing the tax base.

Idaho

Reader M.T. sent this: Idaho Churchgoers Sue Police, City Government After Being Arrested For Not Wearing Masks Outside

o  o  o

Custer County property owner defends private airstrip during public meeting

o  o  o

BLM activist arrested in relation to Lincoln statue defacement in Idaho. The article begins:

“A Black Lives Matter activist has been arrested for allegedly participating in the defacement of a statue of former President Lincoln in Idaho during Black History Month.

On Tuesday, the city of Boise said it had charged 37-year-old Terry Wilson with Injuring Monuments, Ornaments, and Public Improvements. Police initially responded on Feb. 1 to a report of vandalism at the bronze statue of Seated Lincoln in Julia Davis Park, which saw paint, feces and signs that were cleaned by parks and recreation crews. The statue was also reportedly wrapped in a ‘Black Lives Matter’ flag.”

o  o  o

Boise family stuck in Mexico for 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19 while vaccinated

o  o  o

The latest from Jeremy and Melissa of Good Simple Living in North Idaho: Too Much For The Two Of Us — Massive DIY Floor Installation | Building Our Home In The Mountains. I’m pleased to see that they now have 231,000 subscribers. I consider their vlog very worthy of a subscription. Help them get to 250,000!

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Being on the frontier, as I’ve said, required doing rather than imagining: clearing land, building shelter, obtaining food supplies. Frontiers test ideologies like nothing else. There is no time for the theoretical. That, ultimately, is why America has not been friendly to communism, fascism, or other, more benign forms of utopianism. Idealized concepts have rarely taken firm root in America, and so intellectuals have had to look to Europe for inspiration. People here are too busy making money – an extension, of course, of the frontier ethos, with its emphasis on practical initiative.” –  Robert D. Kaplan, Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America’s Role in the World

Preparedness Notes for Monday — April 5, 2021

Today is the birthday of Baron Arisaka Nariakira (有坂 成章, April 5, 1852 – January 12, 1915. )  He was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. The inventor of the Arisaka Rifle, he is regarded as one of the leading arms designers in Japanese history, alongside Kijiro Nambu.

—

Orders have been brisk at Elk Creek Company.  This is your chance to add a few pre-1899 guns or replica percussion revolvers to your collection before the Senate votes on the “Universal Background Checks” bill. That draft law would criminalize transferring a modern (post-1898) gun to your neighbor, friend, or even to your cousin. There are just a few exceptions in the law for gifts within your immediate family. Thankfully, it will exempt all pre-1899 guns, blackpowder muzzleloaders, and percussion revolvers.  I anticipate that  “antique” gun prices will skyrocket, once folks realize the significance of Pre-1899 Federal exemption. Get your order in soon. A couple of readers asked to have the length of the sale extended, so it will now end on Friday, April 16th, 2021. – JWR

—

Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is underway. Please e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

—

Today we present a product review written by our redoubtable Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

CRKT M40-03 Knife, by Pat Cascio

I couldn’t tell you, dear readers, just how many knives have passed through my hands in the last 28 years, as a writer. However, I’m sure it has been several thousand knives. And, I can only write about a very few of them. So, I’m very particular about which knives I choose to test and write about – and it is only the best of the best, for the most part. But every now and then, I’ll get a knife that is so poorly made, that I feel the need to let folks know about it – and to steer clear of it. This article is not one of those instances.

I’ve been writing about Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) products since they first got off the ground, with the Apache folder, and I wish they would bring that folder back, with some better materials – I really liked it. I wish that I still owned that one – however, someone stole it off a table I had at a gun show some years back, and I never replaced it, before it was discontinued but CRKT. When working a table at a gun show, all alone, it is impossible to keep your eye on everything, especially when you are discussing a knife or gun potential purchase with another customer. The sad thing is, the Apache sitting on the table wasn’t even for sale – I had been using it, and set it down on a table, instead of putting it back in my pocket.

CRKT is well-known for doing collaborations with knife makers and designers, I should know, they produced my OC-3 fixed blade double-edge fighting knife for several years. I can design knives, but for the life of me, I can’t make them, and that is where custom knife maker, Brian Wagner, came on the scene and he took my rough drawings and produced the OC-3 exactly as I envisioned it – on the first try. I don’t believe any other major knife company is doing nearly as many collaborations as CRKT is doing, and I’ve turned them on to a couple outstanding custom knife makers and their designs, and they did a collaboration together.

A Carson Design

The M40-03 was designed by the late custom knifemaker and designer, Kit Carson. If you don’t know the name, do a Google search. Sad to say, Carson, passed away a few years back. However, CRKT is still producing many of his outstanding designs. The M40-03, and this design was discovered in a knife collection – don’t know who’s collection – but CRKT decided to produce this folder, and it is on outstanding EDC (Every Day Cary) folded. It has the Kit Carson “flair” to it, no mistaking his design talent.Continue reading“CRKT M40-03 Knife, by Pat Cascio”