New ways to fight off rabid squirrels

Are rabid squirrels a pressing concern in your neighborhood?  They terrorize mine, attacking cats and dragging newborns into trees to feed the squirrel rabies babies.  Concerned citizens are arming themselves in an attempt to combat this new menace.

Ugh, that sounded like a really bad movie plot, or maybe just a really bad intro.  Either way, I’ve got a few new knives in the store, including the preorder for the Sparky knives that should be done in a couple of weeks.  Along with their big brothers are some itty bitty baby knives for those of us that believe that no container should be without a way to cut things and a way to start fires.

Sparky Fixed Blade

Breeden Curvy Mini Knife

Breeden PSK Mini Knife

Slash and burn!

OK, I admit, these probably aren’t the best tools to use on your next razed earth campaign, but they will help you get a little fire going to warm you and your significant other on a cold night. Here are a few new toys in the store:

Hardwood Firesteel / Ferro Rod 3/8″ x 4″ - Bird’s Eye Maple

Hardwood Firesteel / Ferro Rod 3/8″ x 4″ - Yellow Heart

Supreme Products Pocket Chainsaw with Handles

Sharp Valentine’s Day Gifts

Looking for a nice gift for the outdoorsy woman in your life?  Try a pink knife and LED light combo, if that’s something that wouldn’t result in said knife ending up handle deep in your forehead.  Yes, pink is stereotypical for women, blah blah blah.  If the lady in your life actually uses pocket knives, the Doug Ritter Mini-RSK Mk1 is an excellent choice, with very high quality materials, a great design, and one of the best locking systems available.  Also, it is pink.

The combo includes a Photon Freedom, one of the better keychain LED lights out there.  If you just want the knife, you can find the non-Doug Ritter version cheaper on ebay or some of the knife sites.  I guess you could get jewelry or chocolate or whatever, but can those help you prepare tinder in the dark?  I think not.

What’s this we have here?

I get e-mails on a regular basis asking when my store will have the Sparky knife back in stock.  The original maker did a great job on the first batch, but got caught up with work at his day job, so I had to go off in search of a new maker.  I started out with Bryan Breeden, a knifemaker with a great reputation on BladeForums, and he was as far as I had to go.

He made me a prototype that was a wonderful interpretation of the design.  The blade and handle are similar to the original, but the firesteel has a threaded cap instead of the original cap with a set screw, which will make it more secure.  We want to try and make another change or two to the design, but I should have them in stock on a more regular basis starting next month.  I will also start offering other handle materials along with small and large versions of the design.

The original Sparky prototype is still the only fixed blade I ever use, which is saying something when I used to buy a new knife every week or two in seasrch of the perfect design.  Bryan’s version of the Sparky is looking to be a worthy successor.

New Orange Sharp Things

Many moons ago, I had a (made in the US) Schrade Old Timer whittling knife that, judging from the ample rust, was made from carbon steel. It held an edge very well, and even my terrible sharpening skills could get it razor sharp with little effort. Sadly, I lost it in the last few years, so I went it search of a replacement recently. I wanted something that I could sit by the fire and whittle with, a skill that is both useful and keeps my multi-tasking hunger satisfied.

I was looking for something tiny and light enough that I wouldn’t notice it in the pack when hiking or backpacking. I started my search in October at SMKW in TN, where I picked up a Rough Rider that cost a whopping $9. Not exactly a premier brand, but it seemed decently made, had good materials, and no blade play. I proceeded to drop it on my driveway as soon as I got it home, and the bone scales cracked in half. Oops.

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7 Swiss Army Knives for $43.59 (for all 7) @ amazon

Add these three sets to your cart:

Tinker with free Classic

Classic 3 pack

One Handed Trekker with free Classic

$10 is automatically subtracted in your cart, making it $44.39. Other combinations can be made, but this one is great if you are looking for small Christmas gifts and maybe a nice knife or two for yourself. Prices usually constantly fluctuate a few cents, so you might get something slightly different.

Discuss in forums

Sparky Video

I made a video for the Sparky and got it up on youtube last night. I wanted to show the knife in better detail and show what it can do, so go listen to me ramble for a few minutes about sharp things.

Discuss in forums

Sparky is here! (the firesteel knife)

I finally received the firesteel knife from the knifemaker, Erik Boese, a couple of days ago. I am giddy with excitement over this thing. It is exactly what I wanted it to be, so hats off to Erik for doing a great job bringing our ideas to reality. I think I am going to go with Sparky as the name for it, since that sounds awfully appropriate for what the knife is. I wanted to wait until I had some nice shots of it before posting too much more about it, so I took care of that today:

More pictures are in the store. I have the preorder up in the store for those of you that are interested.
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My new toys - GITD knives with firesteels built in

I have been talking in the forums about a couple of custom knives I have had a knifemaker working on for me for a while, so I figure it’s about time to show you what I got. I have actually prepared and started several fires with the smaller one, and the larger one has been very capable in my limited testing. They are both a little rough in spots since they are the first prototypes of knives I would eventually like to sell.

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What $3 will get you

I was at Wal*Mart recently and made my obligatory stop in the sporting goods section to see if they had any new goodies. Lo and behold, they had a rack in the middle of the section filled with clearanced crap (not in the general term crap sense, but as in dog crap). I saw “tool” on one of the packages, so I went in for a closer look. It was a Coast Fishing Multi-Toolbox. I like Coast. I like Multi-Tools. Fishing is pretty fun. I really like things that are a combination of all that and are $3 (originally a staggering $7, I think). So, I grabbed all eight that they had to see what kind of multi-tool $3 will get me at Wal*Mart.

It is actually not completely terrible.
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