My Budget Possibles Bag, by Liber T.Y.

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I have a couple of provisos before beginning. First off, I have a different definition of a “budget” that most people because I’m 13 years old and I don’t yet have a job. Due to that, not everything contained herein is of the highest quality or fits in with the “Two is one, one is none, and three is just enough.” philosophy. One of the things that I believe is that it’s better to have something rather than nothing.

I am compelled to note that my inspiration for this bag was the chapter The Escape Bag Blueprint written by Jason Hanson in The Election Year Survival Guide Laissez Faire’s 2016 Guide to Happiness. However I only actually have five of the things he suggests in my bag so it’s more of useful information in my case (by the way his suggestions are excellent, just too expensive for me).

Some of these items I don’t know the price of because they were gifts or I made them but if I know the price I paid for it I’ll mention it.

Also please note that I receive no compensation for recommending any items contained in this article.

My Bag

As you can see from the photos my bag is not a backpack like most bug-out bags, but is instead a satchel. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One reason is that my gear fits perfectly into this. Another would be that it fits (somewhat) easily under a car’s seat as it looks something like a purse and I don’t want it to be stolen (though this is something like starting with a solution and finding a problem).

The bag is advertised as a “Polish Military Surplus Shoulder Pack Gear Bag Satchel w/Strap 2 Cell” on eBay and is only $9.99. It is very durable. I say this from experience as I’ve had it since May and it has showed no signs of breaking yet. It also has two loops to put a belt through and when one uses this feature it bumps around a good deal less. It only comes with one clip instead of the two pictured (I added one because the original is very hard to open).Continue reading“My Budget Possibles Bag, by Liber T.Y.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 the significant drop in bird populations.

Study Finds Hand Sanitizers Fail Against Flu

Reader DSV sent us this: Study finds hand sanitizers fail against flu, CDC completely wrong.

U.S., Canada Have Lost 3 Billion Birds Since 1970

NBC reports: U.S., Canada have lost 3 billion birds since 1970. Scientists say ‘nature is unraveling.’ A quote:

“For a study published Sep. 19 in the journal Science, Marra joined with other scientists and conservationists to analyze nearly five decades of population data on 529 species of North American birds. The results were staggering: Since 1970, the continental U.S. and Canada have lost more than 1 in 4 birds. The total bird population in the two countries has fallen by almost 3 billion, with grassland birds such as western meadowlarks and American sparrows and shorebirds such as green herons taking the biggest hits.

The population of birds at the start of breeding season in the U.S. and Canada has fallen from just over 10 billion to a little more than 7 billion in the last 50 years, the research showed.”

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 25, 2019

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Today is the birthday of Will Smith (born 1968), best known for his roles in I Am Legend and Enemy Of The State.

On September 25th, 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, 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.

Wood Cutting Made Slightly Less Dangerous – Part 2, by The Novice

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

Incident 3

It was a warm, slightly breezy August day. My son-in-law had asked if I would remove a dead pine tree from the corner of his back yard. The tree was 45 feet tall. The neighbor’s garage was 27 feet away.

Observation: You can determine the height of a tree quite accurately by using a stick-like object about three feet long. In this case, I used an old pool cue that I found in my son-in-law’s trash can. First, I placed the pool cue in my right hand so that the cue lay along my outstretched arm until its tip almost touched my glasses. Then I held my arm level with the ground, and raised the pool cue so that it stood vertically in my outstretched fist. Finally, I moved to the place where the part of the cue that met the top of my fist appeared to be even with the base of the tree while at the same time the tip of the cue appeared to be even with the top of the tree. At that point, my distance from the base of the tree was approximately equal to the height of the tree. I counted off 15 paces of approximately three feet each to the base of the tree. This indicated that the tree was approximately 45 feet tall. I then counted off nine paces from the base of the tree to the neighbor’s garage. This indicated that the tree was approximately 27 feet from that garage.

The tree seemed to lean very slightly toward the neighbor’s garage. I decided that I could notch the tree so that it would fall into my son-in-law’s back yard on a trajectory that was perpendicular to the trajectory that would take it toward the neighbor’s garage. As a bit of insurance, I decided to run a rope from the tree to my vehicle.

My daughter and son-in-law reside in a different state. My equipment was at home. The rope I would have preferred to use is rated at 5,900 pounds and is 150 feet long. The rope I was able to find at a local hardware store was rated in hundreds rather than thousands of pounds, and was 100 feet long. I tied one end of the rope to the back of my belt and free climbed about 30 feet into the tree to attach it.

Observation: Falls present a serious hazard to wood cutters. In 2017, there were 36,388 Americans who died in falls. Although I have enjoyed free climbing trees ever since I was a child, there are safer ways of ascending trees. These methods are well described in Jeff Jepson’s excellent book, The Tree Climber’s Companion.

Observation: The most important rule of tree work is “Never operate a chainsaw while standing on a ladder.” You will be sorely tempted to break this rule. You must withstand that temptation. When you cut something with a chainsaw while standing on a ladder, the object you cut may strike the ladder. If the ladder is disturbed, you may fall. If you fall, you will be accompanied on your downward journey by a running chainsaw. If the fall doesn’t kill you, the chainsaw just might.

After I attached one end of the rope to the tree, I climbed back down to the ground. Then I attached the other end of the rope to the front tow hook on my vehicle, which was parked about 75 feet away in the direction in which I wanted the tree to fall. Next I backed the vehicle up in order to take up the slack. I put just enough tension on the rope to gently nudge the tree in the right direction.

I then notched the tree about 1/3 of the way through the trunk on the side toward which I wanted it to fall. Next, I began cutting on the opposite side from the notch in order to create a hinge.

Up to this point, the wind had blown gently but steadily from the direction of the neighbor’s garage. I hoped that the force the wind might help direct the tree away from the garage.

Just as I got to the point where the tree could begin to move on the hinge, the wind shifted, and began gusting from the direction in which I wanted the tree to fall. The tree suddenly rocked back upon the kerf, binding the saw. Then just as suddenly, the wind died. I yanked the saw out of the kerf and hastened away from the tree.

Now I was in a bad situation. If the tree rocked back hard enough on the kerf, it might crack the hinge. If the hinge broke, the tree might follow its natural inclination, and fall toward the neighbor’s garage.

I walked over to my vehicle, mumbling to myself, “This is bad. This is bad. This is bad.” I walked rather than ran in an attempt to keep my growing panic at bay. I desperately sought for a solution that did not involve putting additional pressure on the rope. I was afraid that if I pulled the rope too hard, it would snap, slinging the tree back on the kerf with disastrous consequences. I wondered if the neighbor was a nice guy. I hoped that his temper wasn’t too bad, and that his insurance was very good.

I could not come up with any reasonable alternative to pulling on the rope. I certainly did not want to do anything that involved coming within 45 feet of the precariously balanced tree. With a sense of impending doom, I got into the vehicle and gently eased it back a foot or so. I got out, checked the tension on the rope, then climbed in again and eased back a few more inches. And then, just as I prepared to check the tension one more time, there was a crack. The tree fell exactly where I had wished it to fall.

Observation: I am thankful for the ministry of guardian angels. I have never known a boy who would have survived into adulthood without the ministry of guardian angels. Sometimes we do downright foolish things, and God in His grace protects us from ourselves. But we should take warning from the words of Jesus during His temptation in the wilderness. He said that we shall not tempt the Lord our God (Matthew 4:7). God is not our good luck charm. If we sow foolishness, He may in His wisdom allow us to reap what we sow.

Observation: When danger is great, do everything you can to increase your chances of success. I am really happy that I took the time to rig that rope. I would be even happier if I had used a better rope. I should have waited to do the job until I had the right equipment on hand to do the job right.

Conclusion

Cutting wood will always be dangerous. We use powerful tools to cause massive objects to fall from lofty heights right into our general vicinity. What could possibly go wrong?

Safety Tips (Reiterated)

Here are a few tips to make wood cutting slightly less dangerous (also included in Part 1):

Always wear appropriate, well maintained protective equipment.

Have a spotter nearby while you are working. They can summon help or perform first aid if necessary.

Your chainsaw’s manual almost certainly includes a well written and practical section on safe cutting techniques. Read it.

Inspect the work area for hazards before beginning a job. This would include things like overhanging dead branches, obstacles blocking escape routes, power lines in the vicinity, and stinging insects or other dangerous creatures.

Make sure that spectators are clear of the work area.

“Listen to your body” (I am indebted to Lee for this helpful turn of phrase from his August 31, 2019 comment at Survivalblog). If you become fatigued, find something less dangerous to do until you are properly rested. Fatigue can inhibit your thought processes, and interfere with your physical ability to respond to danger.

Don’t use anything that can interfere with your reaction time and judgment.

Make sure that your tools are properly maintained and appropriate to the task.

Minimize distractions.

Never operate a chainsaw while standing on a ladder.

Be aware of the influence weather conditions may have on your task. Terminate work on a task if the weather becomes unfavorable to its safe completion.

If there is an element of risk involved in a project, then do everything you can to minimize that element of risk.

Know your limits. Based upon your training, experience, equipment, the weather, and other factors, are you able to safely take on this project? When in doubt, don’t do it.

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food as and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on the soon-to-be-banned Baofentg UV-5R handie-talkie transceivers. (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

Edward Snowden’s latest: Permanent Record

o  o  o

Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values

o  o  o

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

o  o  o

Hunting For Food: Guide to Harvesting, Field Dressing and Cooking Wild Game

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — September 24, 2019

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On this date in 1775, Ethan Allen was captured by the British.

And in 1493, Columbus set sail with 17 ships on his second voyage to the Americas.

—

Through a friend who has an FFL, I’ve started another two-week GunBroker.com auction for one of the original pre-ban HK91 rifles from my personal collection.

To explain why I’m selling this: We still have some family medical expenses to cover.

Here is a description of this rifle, which has some unusual features:

“This rifle has a few modifications done to it that set it apart from a standard HK91. First off, the hardest and most expensive to do, the original IB date coded bolt carrier has been modified for full auto use, so if you have a sear pack, this is a great rifle for you! The stock has been replaced with a G3 military stock that has the uncommon third pin hole in it, and a recoil buffer has also been installed, along with a wide buttpad, making it much nicer to shoot. Another plus to this rifle is the original pre-ban HK commercial IC date coded magazine–not your standard G3 surplus magazine. The rifle also has a correct IB date coded wide forearm. Put this whole package together, and you have a nice rifle in your hands. These things just don’t quit!”

The opening bid is just $2,200, and there is no reserve price set!  It is noteworthy the last HK91 that I auctioned sold right at its opening bid price. (There was just one bid!) This might be another “sleeper” auction, so get your bid in early!

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, 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.

Wood Cutting Made Slightly Less Dangerous – Part 1, by The Novice

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Editor’s Introductory Note: The following are some recounted experiences, observations, and advice, earned through experience. I hope that you benefit from this, and thereby avoid repeating the author’s mistakes. – JWR

—

Incident 1

It was an unremarkable autumn day: pleasantly cool, and a trifle overcast. I had thrown some logs on top of the last load of wood that I had hauled. Those logs now needed to be bucked for splitting.

All of the proper protective equipment was in place: eye protection, hard hat with attached hearing protection and face screen, gloves, Kevlar chainsaw chaps, and sturdy footwear. As I prepared to start the chainsaw, I noticed a hole in the thumb of my right glove. I commented to my wife, “The next time we go to the hardware store, I need to pick up a new pair of gloves.” Then I started the saw.

After the first log had been bucked, I turned the saw to set it down. Something tweaked my right thumb. I looked down and saw a surprising amount of blood.

Observation: Wood cutting can be dangerous: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, logging workers have the most dangerous occupation in the United States, with a fatal injury rate of 135.9 per 100,000 workers per year and a non-fatal injury rate of 2,449 per 100,000 workers per year. A task that is so dangerous for trained and experienced professionals poses significant risks to less experienced amateurs like me.

Observation: Damaged or worn out protective equipment may not protect: Murphy’s Law says that if something can go wrong, it will. I am still not sure how the chain managed to seek out the one hole in my gloves. In a dangerous environment, being truly prepared means being prepared even for unlikely occurrences.

I put pressure on the wound with my other glove, and asked my wife to get something with which to control the bleeding. She ran into the house and grabbed one of her best dish towels. After applying direct pressure with the dish towel for a couple of minutes, I removed it to assess the wound. I saw a large flap of white, dead-looking skin. It was rapidly inundated by a rising tide of blood. I said, “I think I need stitches. We should probably go to the emergency room.”

Observation: When you or a loved one is bleeding, it may be difficult to make good decisions: Based upon an objective assessment of the injury, urgent care would have been a more cost effective solution than the emergency room. But the words “chainsaw injury” and “emergency room” somehow seemed to go together at the time.

Observation: Telling emergency room personnel that you have been injured with a chainsaw is a good way to get prompt attention.

In the treatment room, the doctor put an o-ring around the base of my thumb to stop the bleeding. He then cut away the dead skin, cleaned the wound, and glued it together with super glue. Finally he removed the o-ring and applied a dressing. With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, I realized that I could have provided similar treatment at home. I have since used this knowledge after reaching into a tool box and grabbing the wrong end of a cutting implement.Continue reading“Wood Cutting Made Slightly Less Dangerous – Part 1, by The Novice”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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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 some more  grizzly bear attacks. (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

Idaho Dept. of Insurance releases Post-Disaster Claims Guide.

o o o

Readers T.Z. and M.C. both sent this: Idaho Legislator: State Considering Defunding Leftist Agenda on Boise State Campus. JWR’s Comment: Gender inclusive restrooms and Muslim prayer rooms? What has happened to academia in Idaho?

o o o

Police release name of man killed in officer-involved shooting in Coeur d’Alene. And here is the original news report. JWR’s Comment: I suspect that the “Al” part of his name was not a truncated honorific to an ancestor named Alfred.

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

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 Instagram banning photos of people at gun ranges.

Some Libertarians Moving to Fort Galt, Chile

H.L. mentioned this at Zero Hedge: Neighbors Suck? Try These Ones Instead!

Pandemic Risk Rising

The Irish Times reports: World faces increasing risk of pandemics that could kill millions, panel says. Here is a pericope:

“The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-convened by the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that epidemic-prone viral diseases like Ebola, flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) are increasingly tough to manage in a world dominated by lengthy conflicts, fragile states and forced migration.

“The threat of a pandemic spreading around the globe is a real one,” the group said in a report released on Wednesday. “A quick-moving pathogen has the potential to kill tens of millions of people, disrupt economies and destabilise national security.””

Instagram Banning Photos of People at Gun Ranges

A hat tip to reader G.P. for sending this: Instagram Now Banning Photos Of People At Gun Ranges, Claiming They Promote “Violence”Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

4

“A businessman cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. If bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you.” – Ayn Rand

Preparedness Notes for Monday — September 23, 2019

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There are just eight days remaining in the current round of our non-fiction writing contest. I’d like to make a special appeal to some of the subject matter experts who have been chiming in with lengthy comments, in our comments section. Many of you are clearly great writers, and really know your stuff. I encourage you to write just a bit longer pieces and submit them to the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. You can even use one of your posted comments as a starting point, and simply expand it.  The minimum word count is just 1,500 words. Take note that some of your comments have already been in excess of 1,200 words. So you might as well send in an article. You may be pleasantly surprised to win one of the top three prizes, which together have a more than $12,000 value, awarded once every two months.  Many Thanks! – JWR

—

September 23, 1800 was the birthday of William McGuffey, a college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, the first widely-used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary.

—

Today we present another review by the tireless Pat Cascio, our Field Gear Editor.

Kershaw Flythrough, by Pat Cascio

2

Once again, Kershaw Knives is on a roll, with yet another innovation in a folder. There appears to be no end to new knife designs these days. Some are mere gimmicks. However some have some real down to earth applications. I’m a sucker for folding knives – there are so many different designs these days, its hard to pick one for the next purchase a person is going to make. Today I’m reviewing the “Flythrough” by Kershaw, and it’s a bit different, in that, you can see how it operates, without taking it apart.

Speaking of taking knives apart, I used to do that quite often when I first started writing about knives  back in 1992  – I had to know how some of those folders worked. First off, don’t ever take an automatic folder apart. You’ll find its easy to take apart but hard to put back together. I’ve heard from several Oregon knife companies that produce automatic folders, that people have taken them apart, and couldn’t put back together again – and those knives were sent back to the company for reassembly. Luckily, I’ve never had to return a knife. I always managed to get them put back together.

I’ve observed folks who work for various knife companies, and Kershaw is one of them, who can just breeze through the assembly process on folding knives. Each person sits at their station, and the partially assembled knife is passed to them, for their portion of the assembly process. However, keep in mind that, these people rotate from one station to another, so they don’t get bored with screwing down the same screws, day in and day out. And, along the way, if something isn’t quite “right” when a partially assembled knife reaches a certain station, it is returned to the previous station. Still, in the end, some knives end up assembled, and upon final inspection, the keen-eyed inspectors pull those knives and they don’t get shipped out as perfect. Some knife companies hold annual “factory seconds” sale days, where the consumer can go and buy some factory seconds with big discounts. Some just have a minor cosmetic flaw and some might have a scratch on the blade or handle. In the end, the consumer is the big winner.

The Kershaw Flythrough was designed by custom maker, R.J. Martin, and he’s been around for quite a while, and I’ve seen some of his other designs – outstanding, in every respect. What we have with the Flythrough design is a see-through pivot. This oversized pivot is hollow in the center, letting you see through it. There is also a handle cut-out behind the pivot and this lets you see the blade’s tang with it open. Really cool stuff if you’ve interested in how some folding knives work. There is a “wow” factor there, when you see how things operate on this folder.Continue reading“Kershaw Flythrough, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Newell’s Skillet-Baked Apple Crisp

1

Looking for a use for some of your baskets of recently-harvested apples? Reader Newell in Northern California kindly sent us his recipe for skillet-baked apple crisp. Yum!

Filling Ingredients
  • 6 large (or 8-to-10 small) baking apples, cored and sliced
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar (either light or dark)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
Topping Ingredients
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar (either light or dark)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons (1 full stick) unsalted butter
Directions
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the topping:  flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Set that aside.
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and corn starch. Add the sliced apples and mix until they are fully coated. Set that aside.
  4. Place a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and let it melt until it begins to foam. Swirl the melted butter around the pan and watch it closely for it to turn golden brown. Do not to let the butter burn!
  5. Remove it from the heat and immediately pour the browned butter into the flour/oat topping mixture.
  6. Mix together until the butter is fully mixed in and starts to form clumps. Sprinkle over the apples and spread it out until evenly coated.
  7. Bake in the skillet for about 30 minutes, or until the top has browned and filling is bubbling.
Serving

Serve warm.

This is always good paired with a glass of cold milk or a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

—

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!