Carrying a Non-Tactical Knife

As I wrote in an earlier post,

I believe the word "tactical" that is so frequently applied to gear, especially self-defense gear, is grossly misused. So, this post is about a knife that does multiple duties, none of which are tactical, but which I hope will be outstanding in all respects.

Like many people, I think a knife is man's most basic and fundamental tool. It's a tool that can be carried in your pocket to do many things including, if needed, make other tools. Besides, I just like well made knives. That said, I should note that I can't afford expensive well made knives, although I like to look at them and research them on the internet.

I've had a number of small to medium knives that suites what is generally referred to as EDC knives, "every day carry". I'm not sure I like that term so much either, but it's pretty well embedded in the language so I'll go along with it. In keeping with my new philosophy to simplify and focus on the essentials and necessaries, I decided to look for an EDC knife that would be suitable for cutting onions, string, cardboard, sticks, fingernails and a bad person if absolutely necessary.

I attempted to avoid "unnecessary" features, like additional locks, odd blade shapes, assisted opening devices, tricky locks, ball bearings, and strange blade shapes. I've had knives with all of some of these features and they have all eventually ended up in a drawer or on eBay.

So what do I expect in a general all-purpose carry knife.

One that I can carry without it being a bother. It should be light enough to keep in my pocket all day without discomfort or distraction. It should be easy to retrieve and open, with one hand if necessary, to do normal knife tasks. The handle should be big enough to fit my hand comfortably yet not bigger than necessary and should be made to resist slipping even when wet. The handle should also be made so that the knife can be used hard and long without discomfort.

The blade should be long enough for most ordinary tasks from cutting string to slicing up food in the kitchen. It should be made of steel that is hard enough to hold an edge through a long work session, yet not so hard or shaped so weirdly that it is difficult to sharpen. For my purposes, the blade configuration should be for a slicer and piercer, not a hacker, chopper or pryer. It doesn't need to be especially coated to resist marks or not reflect the light. I don't plan to be cutting things in the dark. And the blade and handle should be shaped to accommodate different grips for different cutting tasks ranging from heavy force to light, precise slicing. Jimping and finger choil, where appropriate, should be present and well made.

Overall, the knife need not have accessories like assisted opening devices, ball bearing pivots, "safety locks" in addition to the normal locking mechanism.

How does one find candidates for this kind of knife? This is where the internet helps and hinders. It helps to be able to identify a wide variety of knives first from their images on the internet sites, to finding reviews or write-ups posted there. While photographs are pretty much self explanatory, knife reviews are quite another story.

There are sites and blogs that regularly devote their time to obtaining and reviewing knives. Online stores like Amazon and Knife Center, etc., will post customer 'reviews' for their products. I've read many of these regarding knives I have been interested in, but I have also come away with the knowledge that many are basically useless regarding real information, many are there because the writer has an issue or prejudice against or for certain brands, designs or companies. Many unfavorable reviews are based on the country of origin for a knife, not about the knife itself. Customers reviews can be both the most informative, and the worst and you must read carefully before accepting an individual's opinions as fact.

Some non-customer reviewers, knife fans who take the time to review knives of their choosing either on blogs like this one, or with videos posted on You Tube, often have their prejudices as well. Many times these are clustered around the country of origin - Chinese made knives are automatically considered somehow inferior to American made, and while Japanese made knives are better than Chinese made ones, American made is still considered better. This, obviously, is not the

de facto

case.

It's an opinionated review jungle out there.

I decided that I would look at the quantity of reviews over time for knives that fit in my categories, as above, looking for those knives that had been around for a number of years (longevity of design and the manufacturer carries some weight), and the percentage of good vrs bad reviews from both independent reviewers and customers over an extended period. If a knife had been on the market for less than a year, for example, and the reviews were 85% positive, but among those reviews were many 'no content' reviews, i.e., "This is an awesome blade. It's really sharp and my friends think it's way cool." or "I just got this knife yesterday and I really love it." and the overall review numbers were small, like less than twenty after a year for sale on a decent online store, I disregarded the high positive percentage.

I looked for stable designs, usually gradually improved over time, with hundreds of reviews. I also at the content posted by the reviewers - do they have much of substance to say about why they like or don't like a particular knife. These are the important ones.

Appreciating all of the work put in over the years by the owners of Spyderco knives, I looked through their inventory and found a number of models that fit my likes and criteria. All of these had strong reviews, and the designs had been around for years and were continually upgraded by Spyderco.

I made the mistake of buying one of their less expensive models, a 'byrd' Meadowlark 2. Chinese made, but that's not a problem for me. The price was very good, less than half of their standard model that is most similar to the Meadowlark, the Delica which has better steel and is made in Japan. I received the Meadowlark and immediately was sorry for my choice. While I like the overall design, the blade shape, the opening mechanism that is merely a hole, not studs, flippers or torsion bars, the quality of manufacture was substandard. And, the knife came in a package that had already been opened and the inside of the knife was dirty.

Note the open, dirty tape on the package.

The inside flaps were torn, and the poor re-sealing job is evident in this photo.

Spyderco knives come new with the clip mounted on the tip end of the handle over the lanyard hole. This one has been moved. Note the wear marks on the clip screw holes around the lanyard hole.

I think the knife was a returned item, but even so, the blade was stiff and hard to open. Adjusting the tension of the pivot screw had no effect, except to loosen the blade so it dragged on the liners. I immediately returned it.

However, I think the design meets my criteria for what I want in a carry knife, so I ordered the better model, the Delica, which has been around for about twenty years in it's original configuration. Now, Spyderco offers generation four of the Delica with good steel, reportedly outstanding handle material and the blade shape and design that interests me. And, the reviews are almost embarrassingly good.

I am hoping that this will be my last carry knife purchase, at least as far as design, function and company goes, I will have the opportunity to put it to the test beginning next week. I'll report here on what I find.

Spyder Delica 4

FFG handle. Flat ground blade.

Tactical? Please Give Us A Break

Lately, it seems that you can have anything in a "tactical" offering: knives, hats, pants, flashlights, ball point pens for Christ's sake. Probably my iPhone is a tactical unit unbeknownst to me. Some things are actually tactical and some aren't.

The first "tactical" fighter, the Fokker Eindecker

The Eindecker was purposely designed in 1915 to apply tactical operations against an enemy force - to shoot down enemy aircraft using a synchronized machine gun. The other items are just things.

Things actually become "tactical" when used in a tactical way. A ball peen hammer can be a tactical instrument. Or not. Depending.

Tactical, definitions of:

of or relating to combat tactics: as

a. (1) of or occurring at the battlefront, (2) using of being weapons or forces employed at the battlefront, (3) of or relating to small-scale actions serving a larger purpose, (4) made or carried out with only a limited or immediate end in view.

I've been looking at new folding knives for everyday, general use, commonly called "edc" knives by the literati of knives. It's hard to find one that isn't also referred to as "tactical" in some way. I've also seen tactical shirts, pants, jackets, boots, flashlights, walking sticks and can openers. It's become almost silly the way marketeers will slap the word "tactical" on practically anything. And, raise the the price a few points as well.

Take a basic folding knife with a frame lock and a three inch drop point blade. This would be a basic all around knife suitable for slicing potatoes, string, cardboard, deer skin, wood or punching through drywall. Put on some high-grip scales, add some serrations and a black coating, and shazam! you have a tactical knife worth considerably more in purchasing dollars and prestige for the tactically-minded male who buys it.

I think the "tactical" mindset has gone way far over the edge. I see videos instructing what appear to be normal people in three day courses of advanced handgunning, or example, that, at some significant expense to the participants, prepare them for the zombie apocalypse. Why? I would say that in a real zombie apocalypse, a handgun would be the least effective gun I'd want to get my hands on.

So called gear "reviewers" truck themselves and their buddies out into the desert, gear up in all sorts of camo clothing, vests, ammo carriers, helmets, gogggles, gloves, knives, flashlights, carbines, pistols and knives and video themselves blasting the crap out of various targets they've hauled along with them. It is pretty obvious that they are playing at being military "operators" preparing for the apocalypse. Any apocalypse will do as long as it comes pretty soon before they get too old to play.

Tactics, both actions and gear, are best left to the military. Any study of military history shows that tactics tend to get modified and invented in action anyway. Wearing tactical pants and toting a tactical knife won't get you any real advantages other than make you feel like you are someone you aren't.

But, this "tactical" craze won't peak anytime soon I'm afraid. There is too much money to be made with it. We will just have to hunker down and get through it the best we can, separating the acutal useful stuff from the "tactical".

That's my tactic.

Sometimes It Takes A Gun

We live in a small town, a village really, of about 900 people, which grows to three times that number in the summers when the part-timers come back to enjoy the mountains. Today, early December, life is quieter and often remains so for hours. We don’t worry overly much about shootings here, except perhaps for someone getting in a little target practice just outside town, or maybe scaring off a bear in the back yard at night. But that doesn’t mean we are complacent. Colorado Springs is only an hour and a half up the road.

As you already know a Christian fanatic, fueled by images of “baby parts” which were such a big part of Fiorina’s campaign rhetoric (not to get into the fact that the story was completely fabricated, a blatant, and as it turned out, dangerous, lie.) killed innocent people at a Planned Parenthood office there. This was another religiously motivated mass murder, followed shortly thereafter by another religiously motivated mass murder in San Bernardino, planned and executed by a couple with obvious jihadist connections. The fundamental difference was that one was a Christian motivated mass murder and the other was a Moslem motivated mass murder.

What has all of this to do with violence in our small village? It’s put everyone on edge. I’d say the anti-gun folks are stressing and the pro-gun folks are increasingly wary and many of them go about armed. A friend was talking with a Sheriff recently who said that he and his deputies just expect anyone they deal with around here to be armed. To him, this was a good thing. He, and many others believe that we need to be able to defend ourselves and fight back when necessary.

However, it will not have escaped your notice that the press and media have exploded once again with “gun control” issues after the San Bernardino shootings. Someone said that doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result each time was a definition of crazy. Possibly so. Certainly a definition of ineffectiveness. I’d like to explore this a bit.

People who claim to be anti-gun are lying. They aren't really anti guns. They want the police or military to show up with guns when they are called upon to confront violence and evil. Most would almost certainly be glad if, in a dangerous situation like being subject to the attentions of a deranged gunman or gunwoman, you or I showed up with a gun and fought back. A few of them might be glad if they found a gun and were able to fight back themselves. Most anti-gun people would not know what to do with it, but still… Anti-gun people aren’t protesting against the people with guns who came to protect them. They are generally pleased when murderers get shot in the commission of their crimes or soon thereafter.

So, if guns themselves are not actually evil things, just tools created to perform specified tasks, and the evil or bad things done with guns are really the fault of those who wield them, then what is the problem? 

The problem could be that anti-gun people just don’t want to get shot and have gotten into their heads that if no one had a gun, they could not be shot. Never mind that someone bigger, stronger, more trained, more vicious than themselves could just beat them to death or worse, and that by not having a gun, they would be in no position to stop that. That would be OK because there would be no “gun violence”, which is a nonsensical and stupid term to begin with. Let’s try “hammer violence”, “bat violence”, “knife violence”, “fist violence”, “screwdriver violence”, “table lamp violence”, “garrote violence”, “bottle violence”, etc. It’s just violence which can take many forms but needs a bad actor to make it happen. Take away the gun, the knife, the screwdriver and the bad actor remains.

I suspect the anti-gun people have fundamentally not accepted the fact that we are all mortal. Sure, they know this intellectually, but seemingly not personally and emotionally. We are all on the river to death but our actual last port of call is unknown. I don’t think they believe that they will live forever but their actions indicate that if they do the right things, take the right attitudes, eliminate as many dangerous items and situations, they will live a lot longer.  While many pro-gun people may also be of the same mind regarding our actual end on the earth, I would conjecture that they are more concerned with how their life is lived and what it means than the details and date of their leaving of it. 

As I get closer to the eightieth year in my life, I have come to believe that there are no “safe places”, there are no hedges or guarantees and that the quality of one’s life is more important than the duration of it. It is important to love and be loved, be a moral and kind person, and to actively stand up and oppose idiocy and evil whenever they are encountered.

It is a sad comment on our times when ordinary citizens must consider going armed in order to fight such evil if it should appear. But, sometimes it takes a gun.

Bond Arms' Hand Held Shotgun

Bond Arms Patriot Derringer with the 3.5" barrel chambered for .410/.45 Colt

I recently received this beautiful T&E (test and evaluation) gun from Bond Arms. As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be putting this one to the test over the next few months. I will also be getting the ideas and reactions from some of my friends whom I have invited to comment on and shoot the pistol. Some of whom are quite familiar with handguns, and some not. Some young and in their prime, some old and frail, or at least not very athletic and strong and with little handgun experience.

I have also received four holsters for this gun. One from Bond Arms made as a "driving holster". Could also be a "sitting down holster" too. D.M. Bullard kindly sent me one of their full-grain custom made concealment holsters, the Bodyguard, for this gun, a holster design I have experience with and like. Paul G., owner and chief kydex bender of pjholsters made up and sent two IWB concealment holsters. Mine are straight drop since I prefer appendix carry for concealment. I will be giving these all a real world test and reporting here on my findings.

So, for now, some photos of my Bond Arms Derringer "system" for concealed carry and self protection:

Three Bond Arms Derringer barrels - all are interchangeable

Patriot with 3" barrel and Bond Arms Driving Holster

pjholster without the hammer shield

pjholster with the hammer shield

pjholster shot-shell holder

D.M. Bullard's Bodyguard OWB holder