Camping Gear

The Best New Knives of 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:04:49 -0500

There were a staggering number of companies, big and small, showing off their newest knives at SHOT Show this year. We waded through the crowds and pulled out these selections as the best new knives of 2012.

Rocky L3 Gloves Let You Use a Touchscreen

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:37:32 -0500

Those long waits in the stand or the blind can be a little easier with these gloves that let you access your spartphones' features, like the Rut Reporter app...or, you know, Fruit Ninja.

Review: New Work Sharp Honing Rod

Online Editors — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:13:48 -0500

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.)

Review: 5 New Flashlights For Anglers

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:41:00 -0400

by John Merwin

Flashlights. Everybody needs at least one and--most often--more than one, each light suited to a particular task. In my case, that includes tying on a fly or lure after dark, finding my way through the alder tangles back to my truck, and illuminating the area around a camp stove so I can have dinner.

I recently had the chance to test five new-for-2012 flashlights, a couple of which are truly outstanding. Fortunately, my neighbors didn’t call the cops despite seeing all the odd-looking activity in my yard after dark. I am thus still free to report the following.

1. The PolyTac 90 LED is a small (4.1 ounces, 5.22 inches high) right-angled light that puts out a whopping 170 lumens at its highest setting with 3 hours and 45 minutes run time. On the lowest-output setting, the two 3-volt lithium batteries are said to last for 30 hours. An attached belt clip plus a hanging carabiner give various attachment options. At $85, it’s nice, but pricey. From streamlight.com.

Two Knives to Get for 12/20/12

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:15:22 -0400

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.

Review: Jeep 2012 Wrangler Rubicon 4x4

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:16:46 -0400

by Slaton L. White

How do you redesign an icon?

Carefully. Very carefully.

Just ask the guy responsible for the Wrangler YJ, which replaced the beloved (but slow-selling) CJ in the late 1980s. All in all, not a bad vehicle, but it was vilified for having square, instead of round, headlights.

Small beer? Not to the hard-core Jeep fan. Jeep engineers learned the lesson, and though the current model desperately needed an upgrade--especially a more powerful but fuel-efficient engine--designers knew they couldn’t change the shape or alter its iconic look in any substantial way. In other words, it had to have round headlamps, as well as the seven-slot grille, to carry on the hallowed Willys tradition.

The Best of The 2010 F&S Pumpkin Carving Contest

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:54:04 -0400

These are the 30 best entries from last year's contest. Take a look before you set off to make your outdoors-themed jack-'o-lantern masterpiece for the 2011 F&S Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Review: Chevrolet Silverado 2500 4WD Crew Cab

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:24:28 -0400

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.

Stuff You Can (Probably) Afford

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:33:53 -0400

by David E. Petzal

It has come to my attention that some of you have not been able to buy a new Aston-Martin this year and have to stick with the 2010 model. This means you’re probably looking for things that are affordable, as opposed to what I usually write about. Here are two such:

The Cold Steel Bolo Machete. This is one of six models that the company offers, and is my favorite. It’s patterned after the bolo knife which is much loved in the Pacific Rim countries. The 16 ½-inch blade is made of 1055 tool steel, and swells at the tip, giving the knife a weight-forward balance. Weighing just an ounce over a pound, the Bolo Machete comes with a decent, but not frightening edge. A dozen passes through a Work Sharp sharpener will change that pretty damned quick, however.

Review: The Ontario Blackbird SK-5 Survival Knife

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:19:35 -0400

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.