Gerber Mini Fast Draw Pocketknife

I first became aquinted with this knife when a student brought one to a camp I was working at, and was imediately impressed with its quality and easy of handling. It's not a large or intricite knife, and I suppose that's what appeals to me. It's compact, well made, opens quickly and easily with one hand, and stays shut when you want it to. For young campers, it's size makes it easy to handle as well.
I recently found one for sale in an outdoors store in Panama City, and decided that the $35 price tag was worth it (I'm aware I could have bought one cheaper from other places, but it was an impulse purchase at the time).

Only 3 inches when closed, it's an excelent every day pocket knife. It weighs 1.9 Ounces, so it won't weigh down in your pocket or on your belt. The clip holds very well and I've never been concerned about it working loose and being lost. The blade is 2.1 Inches, and I've found it perfectly suited for fine carving of Tagua nuts, opening boxes, carving knotches in fireboards, and I'd venture to say it wouldn't do too bad at butchering. The quality of the steal is of course very good, as Gerber is well known for their use of superior materials and fine workmanship, and this knife is no exception. I found it easy to sharpen, and it holds an edge very well.
The lock system works very well, which did surprise me. I've traditonaly been a fixed blade user, so I approached the small plastic lock button with a skeptical eye. I'm pleased to say it works as well as the day I bought it.
I live in a very caustic environment on the boat, and many of our knives on board will eventually exhibit signs of rust of corrosion. This knife is holding up very well however, most likely oweing to the quality of the steel. I've also made sure to oil the action with T-9 oil to make sure it's kept in perfect working order.
Another aspect of this knife that appeals to me, is its overall appearance. It's simple and elegant. It serves a function, and looks professional doing it. It conveys it's purpose as a serious tool, while remaining subtle.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this knife. You can find this knife for sale in a number of places online, or outdoors stores. The Gerber product number is 22-01526. This style also comes as a partialy serated blade.

Photographs credited to Trish Budd

Australian Military Issue FRED

While cleaning up around my apartment I came across a little device I was given when I was about 8 years old by my dad's friend. It's a thin, about 3 1/2 inch long piece of metal with a small blade attached. It's been floating around for a number of years, and I figured it was a rather gimmicky military can opener with little to no practical application. I decided to research it and find out if it was valuable or what it was exactly.
The only marking on it are a rather lengthy serial number and the year 1985, along with a faded British Board of Ordinance marking (looks like an arrow, it's present on almost all British made military equipment).
Through some quick Google research, I found it to be an Australian version of the P-38 and P-51 can openers. The P-38 and later model P-51 can openers were issued in mess kits in the 40's, and were apparently supposed to be disposable, however the soldiers were keeping them so they made their way into standard issue. The Australian military seems to have capitalized on the concept by improving the design by adding a can opener, and spoon-like depression to the end.
It's very light weight, sturdy and durable, and has a hole so it can be attached to a key ring, making this my new favorite survival tool. I also read they have been used as screw drivers, box openers, and one source even reported them being used by women in the 50's and 60's as weapons against rapists and muggers.
The US versions are no longer issued, but the Australian versions are still in use and are still available from some Australian surplus shops.

*UPDATE*: As of 2005, the Australian Military have determined the F.R.E.D. to be redundant and have removed them from standard issue. Since writing this article I have found them to be rather difficult to get a hold of, though they are available through military contractors by using the NATO Stock Number (NSN) on the back of the F.R.E.D. (7330-66-010-0931)

MAPS January Skils Meet

Last night was the second MAPS (Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills) Skills meet. There was a pretty good turn out, with a few kids and a couple people I hadn't met at a MAPS event before. It's a free event held every second Thursday of each month, and anyone is welcome to walk in and learn more about a skill, or just talk with people about skills. The monthly skills meet is a new thing to MAPS since Kevin Haney handed over the job of coordinator to Andrew Pinger. If you're in the DC, Maryland area, I recommend that you get yourself on the MAPS Email list, and drop by.
Some of the skills practiced were proper fire setup, bow drill, cordage, deer leg bone knives, bird wing identification, as well as talk of debris huts.
Here are some pictures from the meet,

Waiting for an ember

Enjoying a nice fire

Miriam modeling a braintanned hoodie (belonging to Andrew Pinger)

Recently split deer canon bone

Oetzi's Knife sheath

Last night I stripped some basswood (American Linden) fibers from some basswood branches I scavenged, and made a replica of Oetzi's lime bast knife sheath. Its holding up well, and looks nice. I simply made a ring of basswood, then looped vertical strips on the ring, then twined it together and tied off the end. Fairly simple and easy to make.

Snow in Missoula (gathing wood broken by snow)

Last night we got about a foot of snow. This is the first real snow we've had in Missoula this year. This also made for great snowball fights, but when morning came it also brought many broken and downed trees. Some of these trees were Basswood (American Linden). I've been waiting for a sizable branch from one of these trees to come down so I can get some new parts for my bow drill set. There's good trees around here for bow drill, but I like using Basswood for my set, and teaching others.

Here's a juniper that fell completely over from the weight of the snow.

When I got to the center of campus, there were stacks of branches piled up next to their respective trees (some had been but up into convenient pieces).

I cut several branches with my flint knife. The key to cutting with a knife like this is sawing around the stick to form a weak point, then snapping it in half. Continue sawing if the branch doesn't snap.

I'm also working on a pair of snow shoes. I have the frame of one completed, but I'll save picture from that for another post.

UPDATE: Its about 6 months from when I constructed my flint knife (box elder handle with raw Texas chert blade), and I compared it with a picture from when I posted about it in July (here)it is still going strong, with virtually no change, with the exception of a few flakes, but even those are minimal. Its been used extensively for cutting wood, boring holes, and various other tasks, and is still holding strong. I started out hafted with commercial tanned leather, but now sports brain tanned antelope hide bindings.

Elk in Montana

I was invited to Jared's fathers house to help butcher an elk that was shot on the plateau near his house. The area is an amazing play, and I'm told the plateau is a viciously cold place, which makes it all the more interesting. We made a nice handdrill fire (yucca on cottonwood root) and slept by it. It turned out to be very nice night, considering it had been 18 degrees the morning before.
Anyway, the elk was a beautiful cow. It was an all day job, but very interesting. I'd never done any butchering, or skinned something that large. I used a chert blade of course to do all the cutting. We got the hide, many bones, tendons, leg skins, and even made a pouch from the ear (inspired from Torgus' blog post here). We also got some meat of course.

We had a couple of dogs who did their best to take advantage of my generosity with the scraps. Elk meat is very good, so I can't blame them.

Some of the things we wanted were cannon bones, scapulas, ribs (good for bow drill bows and scrapeing tools) as well as an ulna bone. I'll post pictures of that particular bone when we start to work on it. Also the leg skins were saved (much to the dismay of the dogs who happen to like to eat that part). The ear pouch idea was very interesting, so I'll focus on that.

I started by cutting the ear from the head. I didnt cut all the way to the base, though I wish I did. I didnt use any tools, except my fingernails to seperate the skin from the cartilage. The trick, I found, was to use your fingernail to pick at the skin until it seperates. Its very thin on the inside of the ear, so I took my time and tried not to rush, but I accidently tore it slightly (nothing major, I'll sew it up later). I found the edges of the ear to be a bit tricky, but not impossible. One thing I found was that skinning an ear isnt difficult, just requires patience.

Once I got to the end, its a bit tricky to remove the cartilage, but you just pull it away from the skin. I was worried I'd tear open the bottom of the pouch, but it turned out alright.

Finally, you have your ear pouch. You can see the tear, which luckily doesn't go too far down. I left it inside out to dry, and worked it with my hands until it was no long stiff. I suppose you could brain it, but I'm not sure it would actualy penetrate the hide, because there seemed to be some membrane that would be hard to remove without tearing the ear. I agree with Torgus that this is a resource that has been overlooked, and I plan to make many of these pouches (a few friends have already asked for one). I like that I can get more than just a brain from the deer heads we pick up from the butchers.

Stone tools

Today the at the river I hafted the stone blade I made earlier. It looks quite nice, feels secure and sturdy, and can be stored in the handle when not in use. I happened upon this design on accident. I had read in the Society of Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills, an article on making a primitive switch blade knife by George Stewart. This design seems to work rather well, since it means I can turn the blade around and insert it into the handle and put it in my pocket, or in my satchel and not worry about the blade getting blunt or breaking. Its possible that you could even drop it and it would be supported enough from snapping. I haven’t tested this so don’t go around making nice stone knives and dropping them on rocks to find out.

This is what the knife looks like when storied in the handle. The blade is about 3 inchs long, the handle is 3 in. x 1 in., and about 5 inches total. It also has a nice feel to it so its easy to use. I've used a number of stone tools for cutting notches, processing antlers, etc. So I'll go over the various types I regularly use.

The first type is the most basic of blades, the flake (Far left). Its easy to make and its disposable. They’re usually the by-product of knapping larger bifaces. I've used them for cutting notches in hearth boards and butchering game, as well as carving and cutting buckskin. It’s a very versatile tools and rather economic, because if you do any knapping, you’re bound to have tons of these little guys laying around. I carry a few around in a little deer legskin pouch.
The second type are blades removed carefully from a core. The blades I’ve produced tend to be long, very sharp, and could double as very lethal dart points. I generally keep them for butchering game though, since they are razor sharp.

There is a video on YouTube that shows these types of blades being removed from a core (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RBNAUfR-uaw). I've tried this, but havnt gotten the hang of it yet.

The next blade type are unhafted, knapped, leaf shaped blades. I use mine like a saw to very quickly cut notches in my heath boards. I haven’t used it for much else. Its bulky and rather heavy-duty, so its ideal for sawing through wood and tougher materials.
The final type is the Basketmaker II Sand Dune Cave Knife, as learnt from David Holladay's article "A Basketmaker II Knife System". I've seen people in Montana use similar ones, probably learnt from the same article of David Holladay himself. I used Texas Chert, yucca stem for the handle, dogbane string, and pine pitch to haft it. It worked very nicely, it can be looped over my wrist so its always at hand, and the blade can easily be replaced if it breaks or wears down, since it is made from a relatively small flake. However, I would prefer my new "switch blade" knife because it has a long edge and can cut notches better (notice a trend in cutting notches yet?).