Knife-making courses ahead

I just signed in for few knifemaking courses,that last 3 to 4 days per course.Ive been already in many and i never get enough.

if youre intrested,there might be places left.All the course info is in finnish but i can help you to sign in etc.It costs 30 euros per day,including materials,good meals,coffee and for extra price( i think it was 10 to 15 per night) theres also accommondation,in one or two person rooms.
They take their place at these dates:
-15-18.3
-16-18.4
-19-22.4
-23-25.4

CRKT / Doug Ritter´s RSK Mk5

Today,i was at home due to this busted hand i have,and postman dropped a letter to me,saying that theres a foreign package for me,in the local post office.The tracking code didnt reveal anything to me,the origins of the package remained a mystery,as well as the contains of it,for a long day,until my gf arrived and drove me to post office to pick up the package.It was big cushioned envelope,with some small item inside,and i as i went to car i just had to open it immediately,to see this carton box,made from recycleble material,bearing letters CRKT on top of it.I was pretty amazed to see that CRKT company had sent me their famous small fixed knife,made in collaboration with Doug Ritter,man known from his various survival kits,gear and knives.In the paper box was actually mor ethan the knife,as there was a lanyard,which you can use as extension of handle,by adjusting the knot on the lanyard,in way that the knot is in the end of your fist,tightly,when you get a hold of the knife.It seems to be funtional trick to add better hold of the knife.Also included was CRKT´s mini catalogue,so i will be drooling their knife line-up more,plus,a sheet with printed instructions for intented use,for knife and tips to make your own personal survival kit,in pocket size,which will fit in the nicely made tin,which also comes with the RSK Mk5 knife.The tin is pretty much the same size as many breath freshening mints,candies,Altoid´s etc,that popular way among many survivalists for that tiny but useful survival kit.I have always loved to gather up all sorts of kits,in tins like these,so im very eager to do one for the box supplied with this knife,as the knife itself,is also,designed and meant to be carried in a small kit,built in small container like the box is.The knife is made from 3Cr13 steel,and hardened to some 52-55 hrc,which is just good,as its easy to sharpen even with limestone found from nature,beach etc,and yet its hard enough for all necessary tasks.The drop-point,flat grind,blade has usable length of 1.75 inches/44 millimeters,and it weights some 27 gr in my scale,and 36 grams with the molded Zytel sheath it has.The sheath also has brass rivet with hole,for small lanyard or ball chain(2.4mm size or smaller),so its also good to go,as neck knife too.This knife brings to my mind that it might be intresting in the eyes of ultralight hiking people too,as it really seems to be skeletonized all the way,by machining everything that doesnt affect reliabilty,away.The hollow handle,and the few holes in the spine of blade,may also allow user to lash it,with paracord or other thin thread / wire,to make the handle bigger,or tie it to longer stick,so it might be used as spear,for catching small game or fish.

By now,i have only spent few hours playing with this knife and i think its very intresting and well made,even if you consider,that its made on purpose,to be affordable to anyone.Theres no flaws,nothing to complain about and im intrested to test this one,as soon as my hand´s condition allows it.


But,at his point,the first thing i really would like to do,is to say Thank you,to that person at CRKT company,that made it possible,for me to test their fine knife,and to do a review about it.

So,thanks a lot,CRKT.



http://www.crkt.com/cgi-bin/crkt.pl?pgm=co_disp&func=displ&strfnbr=81&prrfnbr=64&sesent=0,0&search_id=112676

http://www.dougritter.com/rsk_mk5.htm

Broken bones,damned.

Well,so it happened that being outside is dangerous.Its hard to type anything now so ill keep it short.I broked one bone from my shoulder,almost in to two pieces,and cracked another,so i am one handed now for a while.Really annoying.I am forced to do nothing,almost,and even getting myself in to clothing is harder but ill be doing something still,maybe even write something here.

Editing

I took off the lapland trip writings,i will put those back too,but im just trying to make the whole story as one,and edit it a bit,to make it easier to read.

Sheath i made while watching movie

Last night i was watching some western movie with gy gf,and as i have seen it before i wasnt So interested,and wanted to do something at the same time,something that was quiet and i could do it while sitting in coach.So i went thru my treasure chest ,and my general tool box and found a small piece of leather,rivets and one button,old D-ring i took off from broken pistol harness,and the weird swiss made knife / plier thing,made by Wenger.I have liked it a lot but its quite a problem to found a nice fitting sheath for it,due to its un-common shape.So i dragged the gear to our living room table,which made my gf "happy":).oh well she has used to my interests and hobbies so she wasnt mad at all.After i had accomplished to take some coarse measures and shape,into leather piece i put it under water for while to make it all wet and more easy to shape and stretch.It was quite nasty to to get it even into shape that youll see in the pics because the knife has sharp corners and contours etc,but finally i got it into acceptable form,and started to sew and rivet it into one piece.It was funny to pound the rivets as quiet as i could,so my neighbour wouldnt wake up.this morning i realised there was nobody home even.I added a loop to put the firesteel ( from Varusteleka ) between seams,but before doing that i stitched the loop tight and just added it then,so the seams of sheath wont affect the tightness of firesteel holder any way.I chosed rivets with holes,so i can add some paracord,or keyring,or waht ever in the sheath,for various carrying options,or to attach it more secure into rucksack and such.I like to to all my sheaths with low hanging dangler,they are easy to use,and dont press my waist,plus it looks better,but thats not the main reason.Its always in righ vertical position so the knife wont drop easily,no matter how i am.Even if the button fails,it will fit in if i was to stand on my hands.I dont know why should i but still.the flap under buton hole acts also as reinforcement around the lower end of flap,so the leather wont stretch too loose so easily,when i start to use this sheath.But it also makes the opening of button easier.I was quite happy with this sheath when it was ready to be dyed,it took 2 hrs to make and then i dyed it with reddish brown,one of my favourite leather colours.I stuffed the knife in,wrapped with plastic film,and then just dyed it.i had barely enough paint for this left,so its not even dyed but looks ok by me.Then i went for sleep and this morning it was nice and tight,the knife wont drop from sheath with the flap open and turned and shaked.It sits there with nice,almost "snap" like friction.Almost jump proof id say.So,i added warmed up horse harness wax,its all natural,with some coal to make it bit of a black.Then after it was rubbed in,i polished it just a bit with old wool sock and its ready to go.

This was far better way to spend some night time,than just sit and stare pc screen.

(almost) Traditional Winter Weekend With Friends ahead

Me and few buddies have been talkin´about doing again one trip to forest governments rental cabin.We´ve been able to do it for few years now and its almost as traditional now. So i got to pick up the cabin and found really nice one.I never do pick up a cabin with electrics running in it,as its not nice to see that in the forest cabin,guys would be just sitting inside,watching football,heating pizzas in micro-wave ove etc. I love non electrified cabins,where you have to warm it with logs,that you also must carry it,sometimes chop em. Cabins that have just lanterns and candles for light.cabins that are closer to days gone,and cabins closer to nature.Cabins that you use mostly for sleeping if the weather allows you to spend the day outside,by swimming,ice fishing,hiking,chopping wood,carrying water etc. I think its one delight,when you have carried water in,made the furnace hot,put on the fire in the sauna,and then,then you can just sit down and relax,maybe cook something above fire,in the cabins yard,or during rain,in the cabin. Its whole different atmosphere to talk with your buddies,in lanterns light.Not to mention sleeping in the old hard bunks,or to me,they arent hard at all,but some might think they are.I think i will,on next trip we are now deciding to do,take along kit to make fire with my handmade flint striking steel,if someone is intrested to learn that skill,or just to see how its done in real life.And  knife (offcourse) for whittling spoon etc,as ive notice people like these crude spoons ive made in our trips by whittling and hot coal carving.Also,ice fishing must be done,as i love that,even when the catch aint good,or none.But it would be nice to catch few fishes that i could fry and eat between bannock,as i like to do occasionally.Cooking without electric aids is something everyone should learnmjust in case,i think and cabin trips like this will be,give a nice opprtunity to do it if people want,and i hope they want. A small day hike is always wellcome,you just need some small pack filled with thermos bottle,some snack,or better yet,a real coffee pan to make coffee during break,upon fire. Nothing beats coffee made like that.Well,maybe coffee with some brew in it:).But otherwise,i dont care about drinking during trips.Its ok to take one or two beers after sauna,but thats enough. And in the morning,to make breakfast all together,is one joy too. To share what everyone brings in,in fun.So,between 12-14.3 im doing easy cabin-based winter trip & hike in a small about 100 years oold,very modest log cabin,about 100 kilometers from my home,near national park "Seitseminen".
It has room for ten,about,in two buildings. In the original log cabin and in the room of sauna building,which replaced the old one that burned,sadly.Ive been in many many cabins rented from finnish forest government,"Villi Pohjola",and i really like that system which allows men to rent a cabin,from all over Finland,for fair price. They offer good photos and explanations in their website,about cabins,their locations,as well as directions to get to the cabin. They have rated all cabins,depending on the quality of accommondations,like does it have road to door,fireplace or electrics,good place to swim or not etc.Ive never disappointed to any cabin and i think i wont in future.So im not worried about the cabin i chose today.

Winter

How i love winter,is what i realized once again as i was walking at our backyard,shore,plowing snow and carrying wood from yard to the old wooden building we have,where the sauna is too.Its so nice to hear that sound from your boots and snow contacting,seeing the squirrels jumping from the surrounding pines and birches,dropping snow on my shoulders.Laughing my dogs barking to squirrels that might even laugh back to them.I filled the tiny tipi shaped bird-feeder,and immediately squirrels and birds noticed that and left various small tracks on the snow.Its also kind of frustrating as i have to be inside writing stuff to my school and i cant go out anyway as im expecting one of my buddy to arrive to pick-up one knife from me,and im running from in- to outside,to add some wood to saunas furnace.But things could be worse :)

Guyot Designs Squishy bowls on minus 22 celcius degrees.

Today it was sunny weather,no wind at all so i went for a walk to the shore,and took the new squishy bowls along so i could sip some coffee out of them.Nothing fancy in that action but before i used those,i placed those two cups into snow,about half of their height,and poured in water from lake,after i had hacked my axe thry the ice,so it was pretty cold stuff.I left the cups to freeze for two hours,and after my hike i came back to the place where i had these hidden.The water has iced for bit over one centimeter thick on surface on the bowl,and in the cup the water was fully iced.If i would put these on top of snowpile,the bigger might have iced all the way too but now,as i predicted,snow had acyed as insulation,preventing the water from freezing all the way rock solid.Anyway,i thought the cups would have gone more solid,but i really couldnt see any differense,they were as elastic as they were inside my home.I was positively surprised about this fact as i was afraid these might get more solid and crack.No,they didnt,i only had to squeeze my fingers over the cup and bowl,and roll my fingers for few times and the ice blocks came out just like that.

Now i can rely to these,more,and take these along to my next longer winter hike without a worry.

You can buy these from these finnish shops:

-Varuste.net

-Biwak Outdor

Thanks again,Cara and everyone at Guyot Designs.

Guyot Designs Squishy bowl,cup and MicroBites

Today postman gave me a package from Guyot designs,and there was two of their nice looking Squishy´s,the cup and a bowl,both in nice bright blue. Also included was MicroBites,their answer to hiking & outdoors utensils,which ive been curious about for quite long time,these were in tangerine colour.

My first impression was wow,really. I didnt expect these to be so nicely finished and throughly thought items. The cup and bowl are actually in good size,the bigger takes about half liters and the cup is good for cup full of your favourite brew,with its 2 deciliters capacity.

The bowl and cup are feeling tough enough,so they dont collapse or squeese all by themselfs,but still you can easily grab these and stuu into your pot,pocket or where you want to carry and stash these,theyre amazingly rugged,i thought that these aint tough at all but i was wrong,you wont break these in accident,never with just bare hands. Although i will go out in below zero temsp to try these too,then ill se how they will react in normal camp eating & coking service.

Its not slippery material,it allows a good grip so the cup / bowl wont drop from your hands just like that,but still its slippery inside,or should i say smooth,for easy rinsing and cleaning.

The MicroBites were awesome gadgets to get,i mean these are something ive been drooling after for some time and now i have a set of my own,to test and carry. Ive been pretty disappointed to many non-metallic utensil this far,but as i use teflon coated pans and pots too,i cant just take the risk of ruining the precious coatings with steel/aluminium/titanium utensils. And the plastic ones ive owned. I dont know what i do wrong but they all tend to crack,in two pieces,especially when i do my thing in wintertime. But these,these look different indeed. The shape of the handle aint so flat as in others,so i think it will be stronger too,and wont break easily. Theyre 6" inch long which for me is ok,for most pots and hiking meal pouches,and you can always cut the bag shorter or roll the openings to be able to scrape the bottom of meal pouch clean. And hey,now as i have the Squishy Bowl too,i will be eating out of it :). The MicroBites-utencils offer a nice selection of cooking "tools" ,as it has a spoon,spatula,fork,spreader and a knife. With the design of the knife,you seem to able to scrape your cooking pot pretty clean,as it has nice round corner that fits nicely,atleast to my Primus pot as well as tatonka´s Sherpa kettle. Makes the washing a lot easier this way.

Well,thats all i can say now,after i ate my regular indoor´s meal with these.I havent taken these out yet but i will and then i will tell you more as i then know how these served me.but one thing i can tell you already is that these funny-looking gadgets are made well,better than i thought,i would easily recommed these already to anyone.

In Finland you can buy Guyot Designs products from Varuste.net :

http://www.varuste.net/tuotemerkintuotteet.asp?_id=697

And also,Biwak Outdoor:

http://www.biwak.fi/GuyotDesigns.html

One of my favourite outdoor´s enthusiasts,and YouTube video makers,Mr.Dave Canterbury has a good video including Guyot Designs Squihy Bowl,please check it out,and his shop too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FORSjW8jA_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FORSjW8jA_k

http://www.wildernessoutfittersarchery.com/Catindexpage.html

One last thing.

The Guyot Design is nice company,in my eyes,as theyre green minded,and work to make the process,of making their products,more economical by making stuff from recycled materials,and reducing the production emissions.