Category: Tools

Posted on

EmberLit FireAnt now on Kickstarter

If you’ve missed previous kickstarters for other folding ultralight stoves, you have one more chance now.  Utah local Mikhail has a new Kickstarter for his FireAnt Titanium Stove. Check it out here:

Also, no need to worry about this project funding, as that only took 6 hours. The price is extremely good for titanium, so worth getting in on the early pricing. Ultralight stoves like this and the Folding Firebox are excellent things to keep in your bags, since they can run on scraps compared to a large fire. They help leave far less traces at your campsites, and use much less fuel to get you what you need.

I’ve already kicked for one, and if you don’t already have a folding stove, you really should take the opportunity on this great deal. Continue reading “EmberLit FireAnt now on Kickstarter”

Posted on

Blacksmithing as a prepping skill

AvilI’ve always been interested in Blacksmithing, both as a link to past skills and as a possibly useful prepping skill. Early in 2012 I began looking into how I might be able to start learning this craft.

I quickly found ABANA, the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. As the organization’s name might imply, most people doing blacksmithing today are doing it as an art or for ornamentation purposes. Through ABANA, I was pointed to our local Utah ABANA chapter, the Bonnevile Forge Council.

This local chapter has meetings on odd numbered months for its members and those interested in learning about the club and blacksmithing. These meetings are often centered around demonstrations of hands on projects. The club members try to make it less intimidating for newcomers who have never heated metal to 2000 degrees before.

I was able to attend the March 2012 meeting and meet many of the club members. I haven’t missed a meeting since. The next meeting for the club will be this coming Saturday in Provo and focuses on teaching forge welding. I hope any of you who are interested will be able to make it out. Please see the meetings link above for details.

If you are not able to make it to the meeting this weekend, the club president is hosting a short class on making flint strikers which will teach several basic blacksmithing skills. This three hour class will take place the evening of Wednesday, May 15, 2013. More information is here.

We recently posted about an all day introductory blacksmithing class taught by the club President and Mark Henderson, both accomplished blacksmiths. I was informed that the class filled up quickly, mainly due to interest from those who heard about the class through this site. I’d like to hear any feedback any attendees have on the class as well as gauge interest in additional introductory classes and other courses of instruction.

Posted on

Coast Rapid Response 3.0 Knife Review

Coast Rapid Response 3.0 Knife

Time for another product review. This is the Coast Rapid Response 3.0 knife, built by Coast Products out of Portland Oregon.Coast Rapid Response 3.0 Knife

This knife features:

  • 3 inch blade
  • 400 Series stainless steel (I wish they mentioned which 400 series.  Saying 400 isn’t very helpful).
  • Liner-Lock, with their “Max-Lock” safety on the side of the handle.
  • One hand opener called S.A.T “Smooth Action Technology” with ambidextrous thumb studs

One of the major selling points on this knife is their spring assisted open.  It is quite snappy.  To prevent any accidental openings you can use their “Max-Lock” on the side of the blade.  When engaged it will prevent the blade from either opening or closing.  During vigorous usage I engaged the Max-Lock unintentionally, then spent a little time fighting with the blade to get it closed.

Coast Rapid Response 3.00 Liner-lock view

You can purchase the Rapid Repsonse 3.0 for $40.00

At $40.00 this is a great knife, especially if you consider that it is a one handed spring assisted opener.  I’ve had this knife in my pocket for about a month now and have used it in a variety of cutting jobs.  The last job I threw at it frankly was knife abuse, but it handled it as well as could be expected.  I was helping a friend lay sod, and I used the knife to cut in the sod.  It lasted through about 3 cuts with a good edge, and soldiered on through the rest of the job if I sawed quite a bit at it.

Once I had thoroughly dulled the blade I took it home, cleaned it up and gave it a good sharpen.  Sharpening this knife gave me a little trouble because of the thumb studs.  It wouldn’t fit properly in any of my power sharpeners, so I had to get out some sharpening rods.  The knife sharpened up just fine and cuts like a champ.

If you have larger hands (I usually wear XL sized gloves) the knife feels a little small sometimes.  For a pocket knife this is great, if you are intending to do longer more rigorous cutting jobs you might want to consider their Rapid Response 3.90 which is a little larger.

You can also watch my video review on the Rapid Response.

Posted on

Sniper Training – Hitting 1200 Yards out in 3 days!

Have you ever wanted to get real Military training for Long Range Shooting?  I did!  So I went to Sniper School with DOA Tactical and within 3 days I was hitting targets 1200 yards away – and that was just Level 1 training!  By far, the best $800.00 I’ve spent!  When the long range practice started, I had a hard time hitting 500 yards out – so you can see the rapid improvement I had.  Here’s how it went.

Continue reading “Sniper Training – Hitting 1200 Yards out in 3 days!”

Posted on

What Would You Do? Car Edition!

When disasters, emergencies, or accidents occur to others, they can serve to us as a learning opportunity. When the Herriman fire broke out last fall, we posted information regarding how to prepare for such an emergency. When a couple earthquakes struck just west of Lehi this past January, we posted how to prepare for that event, and what to do in its aftermath.

A family in my congregation just went through a grueling experience of their own. Their story can be read here.

Continue reading “What Would You Do? Car Edition!”

Posted on

Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener

Having a sharp knife is critical.  I’m sort of a knife junkie, and am always looking for new and better ways to keep my tools sharp.  I was at a gun show earlier this year and picked up the “Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener“.

What Is It (and what’s in the box):

This Work Sharp basically amounts to a hand held belt sander.  For the Alton Brown fans among us, this device is definitely a Multi-Tasker.  The package comes with several angle guides and some different grits of sanding belts.  The coarsest grit is for sharpening tools like shovels, axes or lawn mower blades.  The medium grit is for fixing up damaged or really dull blades.  The fine grit is for putting on a razor sharp polish. Continue reading “Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener”

Posted on

Getting the Blues – Dealing with Corrosion


My Blued Hawken

Gun ownership is a long-term investment which requires proper maintenance and cleaning in order to keep your guns working at their peak performance. A primary concern with long term storage of any gun — especially those stored in humid climates — is corrosion. Preventing corrosion is a multi-step process, starting with proper care of your firearm in the field, and followed with proper storage.  However, even if you take all the necessary precautions and care possible with your firearm, and even in the best of situations, if you use it corrosion or wearing will probably happen. How you deal with the results of such wear is the purpose of this article. Continue reading “Getting the Blues – Dealing with Corrosion”

Posted on

Homemade ice-claws

Image from KresimirPregernik

When I moved to college in Idaho as a teenager, I had a really quick introduction into a new world of snow and ice. While the snow I grew up with was wet and heavy, and usually melted away pretty quick in the moderate temperature. Idaho however introduced me to the bitter hard-freeze that left our campus with an amazing array of forms of ice that were completely new to me. I, as with many of my fellow students, became intimately familiar with this ice while performing the splits, or landing on my back when trying to hurry between classes.

In that time, I saw a few people that had some nifty attachments for their shoes allowing them to get traction on the ice.  Along the lines of higher end crampons used in ice-climbing, they strapped on over any shoes and allowed the user to dig into the ice a bit more.  Over on one of my favorite sites (Instructables) there are some instructions for creating a simple version of these yourself.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ice-claws/

Posted on

Prepping for Work Disasters

We had an emergency at work today, involving a critical server that was not properly cared for by its department. Due to the severity of the situation, I was called in to help recover the server. I had to go pick up the server from the data center and bring it back to to office to work on it. It was important enough that my boss offered to let me take his car, a 2006 Cadillac CTS. I think he was a little surprised when I declined, in favor of driving my 1998 Corolla instead.
Continue reading “Prepping for Work Disasters”

Posted on

Building an A.R.K.

Probably the most well known TEOTWAWKI of all time is the story of Noah’s Ark. A devastating flood wiping out everything and everyone you know, and relocating you to some foreign land, is definitely the end of the world as you know it. When thinking about this story, we usually think about the 40 days and nights on the ark, and how Noah and his family had to survive that. But in reality that was not the real survival situation. The real survival situation started when the waters receded and Mr. and Mrs. Noah had to start over. Building, planting, raising animals – all had to be handled from square one. Continue reading “Building an A.R.K.”

Posted on

Product First Look – PolyFarm MonoVault

In a previous post we introduced the concept of burial or sinking to disguise or otherwise hide equipment, weapons or other preps. Today we will take a first look the MonoVault line of products by PolyFarm of Meridian Idaho.

Three MonoVaults, 107, 212 and 152
Three MonoVaults, 107, 212 and 152

Recently, some of the Utah Preppers authors met at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Salt Lake City. This is where we first met PolyFarm. After some discussions to learn about their production, they were kind enough to provide us with sample of one of their smaller MonoVaults to review and to beat up with some tests. I really like the idea of the product so I purchased a couple larger sizes so that we will be able to review several different sizes.
Continue reading “Product First Look – PolyFarm MonoVault”