#edc

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #41: Pocketknives

Episode #41: Pocketknives, more Knife Throwing, and EDC

https://archive.org/download/13thHrEps16On/Podcast%2041.mp3

Today’s episode is all about gadgets people carry in their pockets (or in bags), though it mostly focuses on pocketknives.  Those of who who’ve watched Angus Macgyver at work know he can do pretty much anything with a Swiss Army knife and a paperclip, so these things are handy to have.

Clicking on the above link will take you to an exhaustive page that showcases all the different Swiss Army knife models he Macgyver used through the series – in case you were wondering.

The Great Brain (Great Brain #1) More Adventures of the Great Brain (Great Brain #2)

Two of the covers of the Great Brain books witten by John D. Fitzgerald.  There are 5 others (plus one published from the author’s notes after his death).  I do believe these books made me interested in carrying a pocketknife when I read them as a child, though I probably would have shredded my hands with one.

My folks wisely had me wait a few years.  My father eventually bought me one like this at a local hardware store:

old timer 34OT middleman knife

A Schrade Old Timer Middleman stockman-style pocketknife.

The box had a little manual that distinctly read “never throw your knife!” (whoops)  The one I had was made with high carbon steel (which is softer than stainless steel- meaning it can be sharpened to a finer edge – but prone to rusting if not kept oiled/dry).  The blades looked darker than those in this picture if I remember right.  I had it through most of adolescence until it eventually slipped out of my pocket somewhere while in college, going to that mysterious place where lost pens, umbrellas, and socks go.  Schrade as a company unfortunately went out of business in the 2000s.  Taylor Knives took over this particular line and continues to manufacture them, through that has been outsourced to China now.

Logan from The Thirteenth Hour loses his knife, too.  In fact, he loses all his gear in the beginning of the quest, though he finds some new pocket swag in the course of this travels, including a new knife that he muses might be good for throwing.  That’s written about elsewhere, but I eventually found some knives made by the same company that wouldn’t get lost so easily – the Schrade Cliphanger line, which has a little detachable carabiner that clips to your pocket but doesn’t interefere with the rest of the knife.  They only have one blade, which was stainless steel, but at least that means less maintenance.  Plus, the blade locks in place.  I’ve had a number over the years.

Unfortunately, they’re not so easy to find these days, either, but I recently found an older one made in the USA on eBay.  It needed some work, but after some minor fixes and resharpening, it was good to go.

2016-05-17 23.28.05

Sharpening the blade took a fair amount of work since one edge came heavily beveled, but I eventually got it sharp enough.  Not going to use it to shave anytime soon, but good enough to cut paper and such.

2016-05-17 23.29.19

For whatever reason, this knife makes a great thrower.  That’s written about elsewhere, so I’ll just let the video clips provide explanation:

10 ft

Overhand no spin throw from 10 feet.

15 ft

Overhand no spin throw from 15 feet.  More than this distance, and I find it difficult to control the rotation of the knife with this small a throwing implement.  This particular blade is especially forgiving.  I think it has something to do with the clip point style blade and the thumb stud, which on this model is metal, and adds some extra weight to the blade, which balances it better (most pocketknives are handle heavy and not very well balanced for throwing).

fppov.gif

Overhand no spin throw from 15 feet in first person point of view.  I tried to keep the camera steady but obviously failed.  The plus side is that you can see the rocking back motion and the follow through, especially the right index finger which imparts some backspin on the thrown knife to retard its rotation.  More about this technique here.

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In other news, The Thirteenth Hour soundtrack has a new track!  “The Imperial Ranger March” was released on the soundtrack’s bandcamp page this past Friday.  You can find more tracks there plus previews and discussion of music and movies that inspired the soundtrack on Instagram @the13thhr.ost.

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  • QR code email signup Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast and a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour!
  • Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and @the13thhr.ost for your daily weekday dose of ninjas, martial arts bits, archery, flips, breakdancing action figures, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and occasional pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
  • Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
  • Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
  • Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #38: Knife Throwing

Episode #38: Knife Throwing

https://archive.org/download/13thHrEps16On/Podcast%2038.mp3

Today’s episode is all about throwing knives and other pointy things, like screwdrivers.  It refers to a few past posts:

–https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/logans-everyday-carry-edc-from-the-thirteenth-hour/

-A section of The The Thirteenth Hour where the main character, Logan, finds a pocketknife and contemplates fleetingly whether it would make a good throwing knife as well as the ending fight, where he lobs a large sword.

–https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2015/11/29/ever-wanted-to-throw-knives-like-chuck-norris/

-A previous post that discusses no-spin knife throwing, inspired by Ralph Thorn’s teachings.  The post step-by-step how to perform the technique.  Includes many links to references as well as a few video clips, like this one, where I’m throwing a screwdriver and a large cut-down nail:

 screwdriver and spike

 

That post also formed the basis for the short how-to article for The Backwoodsman magazine, a bi-monthly outdoor publication (where to get it).  The article came out in the most recent (May/June) issue, and you can see a picture of part of the article on this past Thursday’s instagram posting.  I didn’t realize this when I recorded this episode, but the magazine is also available in digital format as well.  I encourage you to see if you can find the article through the magazine to support the folks that put it together (plus, there are lots of other great DIY articles).  But I know not everyone will be able to find a copy.  So … mailing list subscribers can get a .pdf of the article I originally submitted to the magazine, so check out the link below to join if you haven’t already if you’re interested.

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In other news, The Thirteenth Hour soundtrack has a new song!  “Song of an Unsung Hero” (which takes its name from a poem in the novel, The Thirteenth Hour), has lyrics here and was released on Friday.  You can find more tracks on bandcamp plus previews and discussion of music and movies that inspired the soundtrack on Instagram @the13thhr.ost.

2016-04-28 20.28.44

Thanks for listening!

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  • QR code email signup Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast and a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour!
  • Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and @the13thhr.ost for your daily weekday dose of ninjas, martial arts bits, archery, flips, breakdancing action figures, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and occasional pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
  • Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
  • Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
  • Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

The Birth Control Wallet Survival Kit!

One of the premises behind the hero’s journey is that he often faces incredible odds with little to no chances of success.  He might be traumatized, injured, or abandoned somewhere along the way and must face the most perilous of odds alone and outnumbered.  Of course, in the back of our minds, we have an idea that despite it all, he somehow succeeds, since if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be a story.

But Logan, the main character of The Thirteenth Hour doesn’t know that.   He’s just your average, everyday kind-of-guy who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the right place/time, depending on how you look at it) who is thrown into a situation with incredible odds stacked against him and little chances of success (a quest around the known world to find his narcissist of a King the secret to eternal life probably qualifies as such).  He’s not particularly enthusiastic about the whole quest for eternal life (and privately, would probably admit he doesn’t really understand what the fuss is about), nor is he bound by a code of honor or duty to his country.  He’s just a kid from an orphanage (as he puts it) who hopes to see something of the world and not get himself killed too soon while doing it.  In other words, he’s kind of along for the ride.  But early on, the rest of his crewmates are eaten and his supplies sink to the bottom of the sea.  And he has to make a decision – what the hell do I do now??

We’ve all been there – maybe not abandoned and shipwrecked – but at some crucial nexus of out lives where the decisions we make can alter our lives forever.  In Logan’s case, he decides that despite lacking any and all supplies, weapons, and transport, he’ll press on the best he can and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Imperial Ranger LoadoutWM

But life sure would have been easier if he’d had some of the gear he’d been issued.  If you notice in the picture above, the typical Imperial Ranger was issued with a variety of life sustaining accouterments that were meant to be compact and easy to transport on one’s person.  Of course, they’d only helpful if one actually carried said items.  Logan did what most people would probably do if weighed down by a load of heavy crap – he took it off and left it someplace else – in his case, in the quarters of his ship, which, unfortunately, ended up at the bottom of the ocean.  Isn’t that the way it is … the best equipment isn’t worth a damn if you don’t have it with you.  So without further ado, I progress to the topic of this post.

Lately, I’ve noticed that people have posted videos or pictures of survival tins made out Altoids tins stuffed full of miniature survival gear (like this Altoids survival tin or this old school one with flint and steel)  It’s somewhat of an art and hobby all itself, since the idea, as far as I can tell, is to figure how to cram the most useful gear into the smallest container possible.

So with that in mind, I decided that if Logan woke up in our world and could carry modern things back with him, I’d give him a pocket survival kit – something small enough to fit in his pocket so he would have it with him and weigh down his britches.

Not having any Altoids tins or Tic Tac containers handy, I decided to use a little vinyl wallet that previously housed a month’s worth of birth control pills.  My wife had a bunch of them lyring around, and although we never knew what to do with them, it always seemed like a shame to throw them out.  The nice thing is that they’re small (3″ x 4.5″), light, and can accommodate quite a bit owing to the inherent malleability of vinyl.  I added a few feet of duct tape wrapped around the outer flap and added a Velcro fastener to keep the wallet closed when not in use.

survival wallet (1) survival wallet (4)

As for the contents, I focused on things that 1.) could fit inside, and 2.) more importantly, fit in one of the following categories necessary (or at least nice) for survival: a.) water, b.) food, c.) fire, d.) safety.  The numbers below correspond to the numbers in the pictures.

survival wallet (3)

Water (11, 12)

Ahh, water, possibly the most important and sometimes the most difficult to get (clean, drinkable water, that is).  Of course, water can be filtered or boiled, but filtering requires a water filter or at least a bottle or receptacle to hold the water.  And boiling requires a fire and some kind of pot (none of which fit in the birth control wallet).  I thought about good, old reliable iodine drops, but any kind of container I could think of was too big (and still had the potential for big mess if leakage occured), so I went with a strip of water purification tablets.  Because they need to sit in the dirty water for at least 30 minutes, the smallest collapsible container I could think of was a (nonlubricated) condom, after remembering reading that the US Air Force used to put those in aviator survival kits.  All potential genitalia-related jokes aside, condoms are a feat of engineering – compact yet amazingly strong and stretchy.  There are two in case one gets punctured or needs to be used to hold more water.  You could (in theory) use them for slingshot bands, though to be honest, I’m not sure how powerful they’d be for that purpose.  I’ll have to give it a try and write up my results later.

Food (7, 10)

Since I couldn’t think of food small, thin, or durable enough to fit inside the wallet and last there without rotting, I figured I could at least provide some of the tools needed to catch food.  I added a weighted fish hook with one of those handy swivel chain things that connects to the line, which, in this case, is a length of dental floss, which can also double as strong thread for sewing (which is why there’s a needle at #7 in the pictures).  And, should you find civilization and a can of food but lack the right tool to open in, there’s the civilized option – a GI can opener – saving you trying opening it by bashing it on rocks or something similarly barbaric.  At the very least, the can opener is a piece of metal, and substances as thin, easy to sharpen, and useful as metal are hard to find in nature (useful for a arrow point, for example).

survival wallet (2)

Fire (6, 8)

As someone who has tried to start many a fire with soggy matches and damp wood, I can say that nothing beats a good old lighter (and plenty of patience).  But, too big for the wallet.  So I did my best to waterproof a bunch of strike-anywhere matches by dripping hot candle wax over the striking ends.  And … since it never hurts to have a backup plan, I filed some magnesium to make shavings (the little bag at #8) to add some insurance in case of wetness or poor tinder (which, per Murphy’s law, will probably rain down the minute you’d like a fire).

Safety (every other number)

This broad category is basically everything else.  I added some bandages, antibiotic ointment, alcohol wipes, and basic comfort medications – 1000 mg of acetaminophen (generic Tylenol) for pain and 50 mg of diphenhydramine (generic Benadryl) for sleep and/or allergic reactions) to make a minimalist first aid kit.  There’s a length of duct tape wrapped around one of the wallet flaps that can serve many purposes, not the least of which is taping your feet to prevent hot spots from turning into blisters (given you may be walking a lot).  And since it never hurts to be able to see where you’re going at night, there’s a tiny LED light stuffed in the wallet that, while not as bright or useful as say, a headlamp, is better than nothing.  Lastly, you can’t have a survival kit without having a knife – useful for so many things.  This is a little credit card folding knife I found for a buck or two on ebay.  It’s not the most robust thing out there, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, and it’s better to have one than none at all.

After assembling everything, I carried it around in a cargo pocket of whatever shorts I was wearing for a few weeks to see if it would get in the way.  Thinner and lighter than my real wallet, most of the time I actually forgot I had it, which is, I suppose, the best outcome I could hope for if I were to just keep carrying it with me.

I obviously used modern materials that Logan didn’t have access to in his world, though even just the little knife and the matches in the kit (both of which were available in his world) would have saved him a lot of trouble.  And that, I suppose, gets to the heart of all this.  The preparation you do in life probably goes a long way to ensuring comfort, if not outright survival, in many situations.  I’m not saying this is the time to build a bunker and start caching guns for the zombie apocalypse.  If that’s your thing, then go for it, but I’m talking about much more mundane circumstances.  You hopefully will never need to survive in the wilderness after being shipwrecked like Logan, but there are plenty of mini, non-life threatening disasters that we all experience in daily life where the extra $20 bill, car key, memory card, or battery can make big difference between a good, or at least tolerable experience, and one with repeat facepalms and utterances like Logan’s when he realized his gear was sinking to the bottom of the ocean – “why, today of all days, did I leave that [thing] at home?”

And, if you’re interested in making your own mini survival kit, please post your ideas and experiments below.  I’d love to know if you have suggestions or other ideas!

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Logan’s Everyday Carry (EDC) from The Thirteenth Hour

There are a number of sites out on the internet that show pictures of the stuff people carry in their pockets or in their bags.  If you google the terms “everyday carry” or “EDC” you’ll see what I mean.  At first, I thought this was kind of a joke or a spill-over of military terminology into civilian life, but the more I looked at the pictures, the more fascinating it became.  There really was a Boy Scoutish “prepared for anything” air about the collections of (mostly) knives, pens, wallets, survival gear, and watches.  These were folks who’d devoted a lot of time thinking about what they’d carry on their person, and man, if my family and I were on a plane going down over Siberia or something, I’d sure be hoping there were a few EDCers on board!

It’s probably not surprising I’d find this sort of thing interesting since I’m a guy, and it’s mostly guys posting pictures of their adult toys (knives, guns, pens, cameras, etc).  Occasionally, however, women will post pictures of the stuff they carry in their purses (a so-called “purse dump”), which always seems to draw interest.  And perhaps it should come as no surprise, since women were the original EDCers out there (especially women who happen to be mothers – they really have to prepared for everything.  But something tells me a mother’s diaper bag with pictures of diapers and butt cream may not be quite as interesting to the young-middle adult male demographic these sites seem to cater to.)

However, I digress.

Partly for kicks and partly in the spirit of The Thirteenth Hour, which doesn’t take itself too seriously, I created an EDC picture for Logan, the main character of the book.  He doesn’t actually carry much in the book – he loses all of his gear when his ship goes down, but he gains a few things here and there, and this inventory is from near the end of the book.

Without further ado, here’s Logan’s EDC:

Logan's EDC_edited-2

  1. Lightning (folded up)
  2. Burned wood handle pocket knife (actually an Aitor folding knife)
  3. Playing cards (for throwing)
  4. Apple (for eating)
  5. Tartec currency (useless in other parts of the world, but handy to have in Tartec)
  6. The scroll containing the instructions on how to make the Potion for Eternal Life
  7. Matches (x8)

Here are more details about some of the components:

1.) Lightning – Logan’s trusty talking magic silver hoverboard with an onboard monitor and computer (programmed by wizards) that he is given at the Palace of the Winds to allow him to speed around the world much faster than any sailing ship.

LightningWM

logan on lightningWM

Like George Jetson’s spaceship, it folds up into a compact, though heavy package about the size of an open hand.

lightning folding.gif

I wasn’t sure how to pull of the kind of wizardry needed to make a real-life prop like this for Logan’s EDC, so I wrapped a book in some aluminum foil:


 making lightning (1) making lightning (2) making lightning (3) making lightning (4)

I knew that Spanish verb book would come in handy one of these days!

2.) Burned wood handle pocket knife – Logan finds a pocket knife on his journeys after losing all his gear when his ship goes down.  And that probably saved his bacon, because if there’s one things that’s really handy to have out in the woods, it’s a knife.  Here’s what Logan had to say about the one he found:

… I did, however, find a pocket knife that needed no modifications in what looked like a razed general good store. The hardwood handles had been singed, which didn’t add to its appearance – this was a strictly utilitarian blade – but it was sharp and the folding mechanism was strong and rust–free. It fit well in my hand and was heavy and balanced enough that I could probably throw it if need be, but I doubted I would, as knife throwing had not been a strong suit of mine in the Army, and I didn’t want to throw a knife away now that I had been lucky enough to locate one.

I went through a number of potential candidates to find Logan’s real-life knife.  Like the description, I was looking for something that had wooden handles and had an unadorned, working-man’s knife type of appearance.  There were a number of blades (both traditional and modern), mostly made in Europe, that I considered (pictures link to sites where you can buy the knives or learn more about them):

The Opinel folding knife (made in France)

Svord Peasant Mini Hardwood Fold Knife, Swedish high carbon tool steel blade, Hardwood handle PKM

The Svord peasant knife (made in New Zealand)

The Lierenaar folding knife (from Belgium)

The Baladeo olive wood handle pocket knife (made in France, I think)

Aitor Knives 16514 Castor Mediana Knife with Bubinga Wood Handles

Aitor Castor Mediana pocket knife (made in Spain)

The one in the EDC photo is the last one, made by Aitor.  All the knives in the list above look like fine blades and probably would have fit the bill.  However, I was looking for a knife made of high carbon steel, since I figured there wouldn’t have been stainless steel in the world Logan lived in, which narrowed down the list considerably, as well as something that wasn’t too handle heavy given Logan’s comment about knife throwing.  (Although this is a different topic altogether, yes, you can throw pocket knives, even ones that aren’t balanced evenly – google Ralph Thorn).  Lastly, I was aiming to find something that wasn’t very expensive.  Although there are many wood handled knives made by more expensive brands, I figured a guy like Logan (who was perpetually broke) wouldn’t have gotten his hands on them anyway.

In the end, the Aitor blade had all these requirements and had a bit of flair owing to the leaf shaped blade and bent handle while still carrying with it the feel of a utilitarian working knife.  I found it for about twenty bucks online.  The blade came quite sharp, easily able to shave off hair from the back of a hand and slice off a thin strip from a piece of paper.  There was no thumbnail groove or stud to pull the blade out (which had a remarkably strong spring and needed lubrication to open smoothly), but like the knife Logan found, the folding mechanism was strong and, despite not having a lock, unlikely to close on your hand unless you really mangled it.  The wood handles were exactly what I pictured, and yes, at close ranges (less than ten feet – haven’t tried it further), it threw nicely using a quarter turn throw (a.k.a. “no-spin” throw), though it had a tendency to rotate along its horizontal axis while in the air, maybe because of the bent shape of the handle).  For the picture, I Photoshopped burn marks onto the handle.

3.) Playing cards – speaking of throwing things, in the book, Logan comes across a novel that teaches him how to throw cards.  While this is a post for another time, yes, it’s also possible to throw cards so they fly (relatively) straight.  Magicians have been doing it for ages, but now thanks to the power of the internet, you can also learn how (many examples on youtube or look for Ricky Jay’s tongue-in-cheek “Card as Weapons” book).  Logan, though, learned from a book without pictures, though after months practicing while on his sea voyage, he was able to put the technique to good use later in his journey.

5.) Tartec currency – this collection of coins represents the extent of Logan’s disposable income – coins found here and there on the street of the capital city and through other means, which he hides in his mattress in the Imperial Army barracks (since it’s useless elsewhere in the world) and later retrieves when he returned from his quest.  Like Logan’s coins, the ones in the picture are useless as currency in the USA – two Euro coins, a Swedish Krona, a British pence, and an Ugandan shilling – though they are fun souvenirs from our own travels.

6.) The Potion for Eternal Life scroll – this scroll, given to Logan from the Dreamweaver, contains the ingredients to make a good cup of coffee … which isn’t really the secret to living forever, though it sometimes makes people feel like they could.  There’s a previous post I did about this little scroll, which I printed out on a piece of parchment-style paper.  Here’s one of the pictures of it unrolled:

scrollWM (3)

Interesting is seeing more (real-life, as opposed to fictional) EDC pictures?  Check out http://everydaycarry.com/ for more!

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