by David E. Petzal

Some time ago I introduced you to the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener, a small belt sharpener that has had roughly the same impact on Western civilization as the printing press, penicillin, and the Hula Hoop, and all because it is the first device that will let even the most fumble-fingered put a razor edge on nearly anything that cuts. (I have put a paper-slicing edge on a Cold Steel Spetsnaz shovel with it.)
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by David E. Petzal

I’ll spare you the usual litany of reasons why the world as we know it is coming unglued. Needless to say, you should be shopping for the occasion, and if you’re looking for a good fixed-blade knife, here are two that are so similar in purpose and construction that I decided to review them together.

The Ranger Puuko is made in Finland, where it was designed as a survival knife by a Finnish officer named J.P. Peltonen. The original Ranger has a 6-inch blade, but people noticed that if you lopped an inch off that, it would make a dandy hunting knife. And so the Ranger Puuko you see here has a 5-inch drop-point blade made of forged tool steel hardened to Rc 58 and coated with Teflon, a 5-inch handle of hardened rubber, and a totally cool leather sheath with a safety liner and an internal rubber keeper that snaps down on the handle and holds it firmly in place.

It’s not a pretty knife, or a finely finished one. It’s meant to be used very hard. The blade is thick and strong, sharpens very easily to a blood-curdling edge, and holds that edge reasonably well. The price for the either the 5-inch-blade Ranger or the 6-inch is $169.50 from kellamknives.com.

The second knife is a brand new one from Cold Steel, and can best be described as a Ka-Bar on steroids (pictured below). It’s called the Leatherneck SF (for “Semper Fi”) and follows the general lines of the Ka-Bar, but with improvements. The 6 ¾-inch blade is made of a steel called SK-5, which is the Japanese equivalent of American 1080, a high-carbon tool steel. It’s hardened to Rc57-58 and came to me with an appallingly sharp edge and kept it extremely well. As with the Ranger, this blade will rust, and so it, too, is coated.
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by Slaton L. White

Ten years ago I went on a week-long salmon safari in Alaska, living out of a slide-in camper in a Silverado equipped with a Duramax 6.6-liter V8 turbo diesel. It was an epic adventure, and looking at my old notes I see I raved about the truck’s performance. “Moved well from a dead stop. Quiet, even at full throttle. MPG: averaged between 11 to 14 mpg.”

A lot has happened to GM since then. After teetering on the brink of insolvency for years, it finally plunged into bankruptcy two years ago. What many people don’t know was that the company came perilously close to Chapter 11 in the 1990s. But they got a stay of execution. Know why? The Silverado. It was just about the only GM product people wanted to buy...and they bought enough of them to help keep the company afloat.

The Silverado was good then...and it’s good now.

I can say that after logging 900 miles in one recently. The 2500 4WD Crew Cab is a stout build, and boasts a maximum towing rating of 17,000 pounds. That means that when you drive it without a trailer or with an empty bed, it’s a bit rough. But when you get some weight on those rear wheels, it tames down nicely.
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by David E. Petzal

The world is positively awash in survival knives these days, and some of them, I’m sad to say, appear to have been cooked up by people who never got farther outdoors than the parking lot at industrial arts school. The SK-5 does not come under this heading. It’s designed by a fellow named Paul Scheiter, and while I’m not familiar with his credentials, he knows his s**t.

This is a knife that is not too big while being big enough, made of 154-CM steel, has a terrific and more or less indestructible canvas micarta handle held in place by three stainless-steel bolts, and an excellent MOLLE-compatible sheath that’s made of coyote-colored Cordura nylon. The blade is 5” long, spear-pointed, and tempered to Rc58-60. Mine came just short of razor-edged, and once I put a shaving edge on it (30 seconds on the Crock Stick) it held that edge like Grim Death.

A more useful, simple, and well-designed all-around knife you will not find. If I were taking one to the Sand Box, I might want to have the blade bead-blasted to kill the shine, but aside from that, it’s perfect.

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By Jim Baird

What They Are: Pressure ridges are places in frozen bodies of water where the ice has cracked and been forced upward.

How They Form: The ridges are formed by expanding and contracting ice. When the temperature drops, the ice contracts and cracks form. These cracks fill with water and refreeze. When it warms up the ice expands and it is forced upward along the cracks. The motion that forms the ridges is similar to how tectonic plates create mountain ranges.

How To Spot Them: You can usually see the ridges from miles away. They are long serpentine-like strings of ice sticking up vertically from a frozen lake or ocean, often 15 to 20 feet high in places.

Why They’re Dangerous: With the power of millions of pounds of ice cracking and being forced upward, water often leaks to the surface creating large slushy areas that can weaken the ice. Avoid the slushy areas or you could get your machine... [ Read Full Post ]

by David E. Petzal

I can’t tell you who makes the most accurate rifles, or which big-game bullet is the best or whose scope is the brightest, but I can stand here on my two flat feet which did not keep me from getting an Infantry MOS and tell you that DiamondBlade knives will keep a sharp edge longer than anything else you can buy. DiamondBlades have been around for 5 years more or less; I’ve used them a ton and talked with others who have, and there is no doubt about it. Any man who would deny this would teach his grandmother to suck eggs.

Now and then, DiamondBlade makes a special model; last year I saw one produced exclusively for the Powder Horn in Bozeman, MT. This year, there’s a new one made for McMillan, and it is a thing of rare beauty in addition to all its other virtues. It’s a drop-point with a 4” blade, a slender, slightly curved blue-black micarta handle, mosaic handle pins, and a black Kydex-lined sheath. It’s the only DiamondBlade model with a hilt (made of 440C steel).
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