After the previous article from Leap regarding putting a handle on a knife blank, and some ongoing discussions in the comments, I wondered if it was within my capacity to do likewise. I asked a lot of questions of the Glibertariat, trying to harvest knowledge for the project. The first big problem I saw was that the example from the original article was a single-edged hidden tang blade. Since I have heaps of utility knives, I am making something for a more artistic goal. Aesthetically, I like the shape of a double-edged blade. Structurally, I prefer a fully tang – which is where the shape of the handle and the shape of the metal within the handle are identical. Unfortunately, the unsharpened knife blank I found had a tang of a shape I didn’t like and would be too small to be comfortable in my oversized mitts.
So, I sank a lot of disposable income into buying tools and parts. In terms of cash outlay, it would have been cheaper to buy a knife. But part of that was because my toolbox was geared towards the problems I’ve had to deal with. But tools are a capital investment, and if I keep doing this as a hobby, the amortized costs would head towards negligable. But, that is neither here nor there. The question is, could I learn enough to make a decent piece?
First off, I discarded the idea of making the blade myself. That was just way too far out of my skill reach at the moment. So I’ll be trying to put a handle on the blank. This process stretched out over a couple of days in the evening after the day job.
Day 1 – The blank is here
While I technically started the project when I ordered the parts, but I couldn’t do anything until the parts arrived. The pieces that showed up in that first box were the blade blank proper, the handle scales and four Corby bolts. The blade blank is hardened high carbon steel, but not sharpened. This is good, because it’s easier to handle while working on it. Plus, without an edge, it’s not a dagger, it’s a letter opener. Thus this is not an elaborate confession to weapons possession. The handle scales are Resin Ivory, basically an imitation Ivory made of synthetic materials. So the only piece of hardware that might need elaboration are the Corboy bolts. Traditionally, handles would be held with solid pins. There are a lot of downsides to that, however. You either don’t have a mechanical lock, or you have to manually peen the ends. Corby bolts are one of several options that use threaded shafts to bridge two thicker ends. These provide a more secure connection, which is good for newbies like me. The trade-off is that the holes need to be coutnersunk. Luckily, I have a standing drill press, and know how to work with it.
So, after excitedly telling the Glibertariat that the parts were here, I set about assembling the remaining materials. Because the tang is smaller than my intended handle, I need to fill in the rest of the space around the tang on the same layer. If I was masochistic, I could try to cut out spaces in the resin ivory to rest the tang in. I’m not. I’ll be adding some spacers in which it is easier to cut the shape. The material I decided to use was leather. I have stores of leather scrap from various crafting projects. I picked some brown oil-tanned scraps and a bright red suede split. The oil-tanned leather I never got around to using before, as it was stiffer than I’d expected. The red pigskin suede I’d used to line my toolbox. Only the harder oil-tanned leathers would be cut to shape around the tang. The suede was too thin and elastic, and is there for decorative purposes.
Parts stacked and trimmed to size, I prepared to drill the holes. Since there were already holes in the tang, I decided to use that as my guide. Taped together to keep them from moving around, I brought the lot to my drill press. Resin ivory has an… interesting aroma when being worked. It wasn’t strong enough to drive me away, but something to note if you decide to use the material in one of your projects. On the plus side, it is easy to work. On the down side, it is easy to work. With one slip while drilling the last countersink, I suddenly had a three-sixteenths inch hole all the way through the scale instead of halfway through as intended. So, I was going to have a pin instead of a bolt holding that spot. Oh well, I’ll still have two bolts.
Holes drilled, it did my first test fit. It was a real pain to work corby bolts with one screwdriver. This is because they’re intended to be driven by two screwdrivers at once. Still, I got it together and it seemed to work. I chose not to do any more work that day, since it was getting late, and the only task I could do was trimming the oil-tanned leather.
Day 2 – The Epoxy
After I ordered the blank, I realized I’d ordered four Corby bolts for a blank with five holes. After some thought, I realized I didn’t want to have two countersinks on the holes by the base of the blade. That would seriously weaken the resin ivory. These holes are there for a bolster to be attached. I decided to pin them. I didn’t have copper pin stock, but that is easily rectified with a visit to the internet. My pin rod and epoxy arrived a day ahead of schedule, and one day after I started the project. So I set about getting ready to assemble. I trimmed the oil-tanned leather to shape with hobby knives I owned for other expensive passtimes *cough*Warhammer*cough*. Once I had these blanks, I did another test fit of the layers and tried to fit the pin rod through. Here I was reminded of the aforementioned elasticity of the suede. The drill bit didn’t punch a full eighth-inch hole through the material. So I got out my leather punch. It is basically a hole punch like those used for paper, only designed to put holes in leather. I punched out a set of larger holes in the suede to stop snagging things.
Despite using the holes in the tang as a guide for drilling, the pins didn’t fit, even without the suede. I am tempted to blame mystery causes, but the truth is, it’s my fault. My countersinks were not perfectly centered on the holes, so the corby bolts shifted the scales ever so slightly off. If you remember yesterday, The resin ivory is easy to work. A round file of small enough diameter shaved off enough resin to fit the pin stock through. There was a lot of grumbling through this stage. But it was better to find out these problems before I started with the epoxy. I was still within my margin of error for never having done this before. It could still be brought together. However, the dry-fitting told be something very important – I wanted to make sure I was in clothing I could afford to lose when I started working with the resin. The lack of a table-mounted vice meant the operation of the Corby bolts was awkward, even with two little screwdrivers. So the odds were, I’d spill on myself.
Having changed, cut two pins off the main pin stock, andassembled my stuff, I decided I hadn’t taken enough precautions. I grabbed a giant trash bag to use as a drop cloth, and a pair of resin-mixing gloves. Okay, they’re disposable nitrile kitchen gloves. Mixing up a quarter ounce each of resin and hardener, I began my assembly, spreading epoxy on before each layer was placed, and coating the pins. Suede is a very porous material, and soaked up epoxy into its structure. After hardening, it should be a composite material akin to fiberglass or carbon fiber rod, only with organic fibers. The oil-tanned leather is less porous, and didn’t soak in as much, but still absorbed enough to have a similar effect. When initially thinking about the process before any of the dry-fits, I wondered if I needed loc-tite, or similar thread glue. But the dry fits told me there was zero chance I wasn’t going to get epoxy in the threads of the Corby bolts. This is not an issue, since I want the handle as solid as I can get it.
Pins set, layers epoxied, I noticed a problem. The countersink that went all the way through resulted in the end separating, as it didn’t have the mechanical pressure of the other two bolts, and the leather is… squishy. Fortunately, I picked half hour epoxy, so I had time to grab some scrap plastic and a set of clamps. Fitting three clamps about the handle, I got everything back to the proper shape. Clamped up, I left it to cure overnight.
Day 3 – Daily Grind
I get home from the day job, decide to remove the clamps and peel off the plastic. Luckily, the plastic didn’t adhere to the epoxy, but the last clamp was stubborn about letting go. At first I thought I’d ripped the plastic and epoxy had seeped through. Nope, once I detatched it, the plastic was intact. But there was this big round dent. I was mortified, thinking I’d overtightened the clamp and crushed my way into the resin ivory. Finishing the plastic removal I inspected the damage. It was not so dire as my fears. I had so much epoxy that had been pressed out of the middle of the handle that it had pooled around the clamp and shaped to the bevel of the pad. This was why it was so difficult to get the clamp off. Relieved, I set about getting ready to drind down the pins and take off the excess epoxy. For this, I definately wanted a face mask. I don’t care whether or not California thinks it causes cancer, I just don’t want to be breathing that stuff in when I reduce it to dust.
And it occurs to me at that moment that while I do own a belt grinder, it was still in the box. So I went and opened the Amazon box. Unsurprisingly, there was another box inside, unbranded. So after disentangling this box from the Amazon box, I open it – and find another box inside. They had sent me a Matroyshka Doll in box form. Eventually, I find not more cardboard, but styrafoam. Prying it off, I unveiled a lovely piece of hardware, which I didn’t have a place for. it ended up on top of my table saw. (Fortunately, the sawblade retracts below the level of the table). Finding a breath mask and ear protection, I set about cleaning up the pins and bolts.
Grinder all set up, I learned a few things, some of which I already knew to some extent. First, when you abraid off material, what is left heats up. Second, copper is an excellent conductor of heat. So, if you were, for example, grinding down a copper Corby bolt and hand your finger on the other end, you’re going to feel it. Third, Resin Ivory grinds easily. Fourth, eoxy-impregnated leather does not. Fifth, a belt grinder is a versitile tool that can do wonders in the hands of a skilled user. Sixth, I am not skilled with a belt grinder. Seventh, grinding produces an epic crapload of dust. I was so glad I put on a respirator mask. My first grind was pretty rough.
I realized that the layout of one of the grinder components was preventing me from doing what I needed to in order to have the shape I was looking for. I needed to adjust the location of a guard behind the belt proper. Removing the operation interlock from the power switch I took the side of the machine off. There’s no one to flick the switch, but I was about to stick my hands inside it. I saw that this white enamelled metal piece was just being held in with a paur of bolts which an allen key could operate. After loosening one and accidentally tighening the other, I got both loose and started to lower the guard. At which point I found that it was not white. It was dark blue. There was just so much resin dust coating the surface that I could no longer tell.
The guard lowered slightly, I got more shape into the handle. I noticed that the composite leather material was by far the harder one to grind. The resin ivory essentially disappeared when subjected to the belt, so all of the resistance preventing me from absolutely wrecking the handle came from that leather/epoxy core. So what had been intended as a decorative element became a key structural one. I’m okay with that. Especially since I’d been expecting the resin ivory to be stronger. After the second grind, it was pretty good. I did have a problem. The respirator mask so essential to not breathing in the particulates also impeded the airflow to my lungs. So, I had to step away from the room and take the mask off.
Part of me went, that is a pretty good shape for a first ever attempt. But there was another opinion rattling around in my head. It said there were things I could fix, even with my skill level. Flaws that I could remove. So, I got back in there and went for a third grind. I cleaned up a lot of the protests I had, making more refined handle than I’d had. It was still clunky and crude, and I did some hand filing and sanding to deal with areas where the grinder would do more harm than good. I even tried to polish it with beeswax. Only to very quickly discover I had no idea what I was doing. I sanded the wax off and went back to refining it with abrasives.
Finally, I had something that felt good in my hand. It wouldn’t win any beauty contests, but the handle is in one piece, there are no massive faults, and it will hold up. There was just one problem. There is no edge on the thing.
It will not cut.
Comments
162 responses to “UnCivil Learns From Glibs”
Holy shit. … And I can’t even be bothered to put together a proper Magic deck, despite having all the cards in the world I could ever want.
Well hopefully you’ve got a dark closet with some Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead bubbling away so you can drink your shame away. 🙂
If only.
Some of our nerdy friends are planning a little getaway in January, and–besides other exceedingly nerdy games–I guess there’s generally a lot of Magic going on. They’re already on a whole other level than I am, using fancy terms like “mana-ramp” and such.
I gotta get my shit together.
My brother is getting into blade smithing (well, kind of stalled now with a new kid) and a guy I had met once won an episode of Forged in Fire. This is probably the only on topic thing I have to say.
I have nowhere I can safely run a forge. So every so often I might buy a blank and make another handle. I have a long plank of walnut that could be chopped down for handle scales rather easily.
https://makezine.com/2016/05/06/making-your-own-tin-can-forge/
Are you sure?
You have a basement, right? Just stop up any air leaks, it’s cold out and you want that thing burning hot as possible.
Well that’s a billion times better than what I’d end up with. Sharp or not.
I didn’t make the blade.
I read that part! That should be fixable.
Nice work, take it to a service and let them sharpen it, saves a lot of time
There’s one teensy tiny issue.
Under NYS Law, possession of a dagger carries a presumption of intent to use which makes it felony weapons possession.
I don’t want to be a test case for the constitutionality of that crap. So I have a letter opener with a homemade handle.
If you do end up in jail, your skills hand-crafting daggers will be very useful. See, every cloud has its silver lining.
Prison shanks FTW!
Sounds like a whole new series of articles from Glibs.
How do people hunt??
“By going to the organic grocery!”
/NY Pol
Jeez. I knew the gun laws got bad over the lake. I didn’t know it was so bad on knives too.
I kinda just assumed there’s be a law on x” long blades and up or something
They were all written by NYC Pols to tackle NYC problems. So if your friction folder is a little loose and can be flicked open by the cop, that’s illegal too.
I assume that when he says dagger, he means a blade with a sharpened edge on both sides, which are generally only found in weapons intended for combat. NYC and NYS have some pretty fucked up knife laws as I understand it. In NYC, almost any folding knife qualifies as an illegal “gravity knife.” You know NYC, home of Broadway, home of a large collection of stage-hands, a profession that basically requires you to carry a knife that can be deployed with one hand. Yeah, if you walk out of work with your knife on your belt you are a felon. Enjoy life, low-income entertainment worker!
Ok. That makes more sense. Still dumb as fuck.
“Dagger” is not defined in statute, so I’m going with the common definition of ‘double-edged blade’. There could be precedent that makes this assessment incorrect, but I am not a lawyer, I merely read the laws.
The fuck is a “gravity knife”?? What does that mean?
a blade with a sharpened edge on both sides, which are generally only found in weapons intended for
combatself-defenseKnives are arms. I’m sure anti-knife laws have been challenged on 2A grounds, but I can’t say I recall any.
The fuck is a “gravity knife”??
An automatic knife (switchblade) has a button that triggers a mechanical system (springs) to open the blade.
A gravity knife will open with a flip of the wrist, but does not have a mechanical system to open the blade.
WWII German Paratrooper knife was probably the first gravity knife.
You could open them one handed with the purpose of cutting yourself out of your parachute rigging.
So a basic Kershaw, which can be flipped open with your thumb, is illegal in NY? Man, fuck that state.
Chip – The real definition of a gravity knife is a knife that opens via the operation of one hand (that could be a button press, arguments go both ways about wrist flick). As Bobarian said, the paratrooper knife used by Nazi paratroopers then Brits (when they took over the plant) was the first example.
The NY law about gravity knife is far more expansive. I hear-tell that every single word in the law has been litigated and lost in state court. Basically, if a skilled cop (and I hear tell they practice this) can get it open with one hand, its a gravity knife. EVEN IF YOU CAN’T do it too.
Dean – Knife Rights is an organization that litigates for.. you know, knife rights. They advance 2nd amendment arguments, and even sometimes win. However, logical formalism requires me to argue that your edit is untrue. Bayonets sent to Europe in WWI were double sided, intended for combat, but not intended for self defense. They were to be used offensively.
In any case, all of the NYC/NYS laws should fall on both 2A grounds, and on discriminatory intent grounds (first it was targeting Italians who everyone knows are criminal and carry knives, then Puerto Ricans for ditto, now Blacks for ditto.)
Chip II – Yes, Blurs and the like are illegal. There are many instances of hardware stores selling them, not knowing they are illegal, to stage hands, who claim not to know that they are illegal.
Fortunately, the NYPD is only interested in enforcing this law on strictly racial and socioeconomic grounds. So if you go in disguise as an upper-class white folk, you are much less likely to get arrested.
Bayonets sent to Europe in WWI were double sided, intended for combat, but not intended for self defense.
Well, I think determining self-defense v. offense in a combat setting is a tricky game, at best, and not something that carries over well into the civilian world.
Every weapon can be used offensively or defensively. We also supplied our troops with rifles and handguns in WWI, but I wouldn’t take that to mean that rifles and handguns cannot be used for self-defense. My presumption is that any weapon owned by a civilian is intended for self-defense until the civilian demonstrates the intent to use it aggressively/offensively.
I have a Marine issue knife. I think its a defensive weapon, in my hands. If I owned a double-edged bayonet (easily acquired), I would say the same thing.
I was going to joke that knife was probably illegal in NY. Sad to hear it would have been accurate.
So don’t bring either of my swords or my dagger to New York. I guess there’s no point in going now.
Sorry to go OT so early, but I never want to hear another goddamned word from John Kasich about how his “Catholic Values” means that the government has an untrammeled right to steal from me to give free things to voters.
I don’t even particularly support this piece of legislation.
But, if you’re going to sit there and insist your religious sensibilities justify your pointing a gun at my back, I sure as hell don’t want to see you pushing Cafeteria Christianity.
Fuck John Kasicch. Fuck that son of a bitch with a rusty chainsaw.
Numerous times.
Its unconstitutional. I can’t work up any heartburn for a governor who vetos a facially unconstitutional bill. Sure, they could try to use it as a vehicle to overturn Roe, but that bill will not go into effect for years.
Unless its got some truly crappy drafting flaws, I think Suthen can apply his rusty chainsaw on that veto.
Great idea for an article. I can’t wait to read about your travels in Asia and your 50 mile foot race. I would suggest against going into the woods to look for STEVE SMITH though.
If I were to do a travel article, it would be no further than the wilds of Soviet Canukistan.
And I am not going to run fifty miles. I’d be dead long before I got there.
I truly admire good craftsmanship whether it is in my field of interests or not, and I always think it’s important to tell the craftsman so.
Good work.
How much time do you think you spent on the whole project?
Time stops in the craft world
Yes. You never want to calculate any non-professional project using conventional metrics.
/slow but enthusiastic carpenter
Or car work. Maybe 125 an hour *is* worth it.
If Ibilled for crafts, Id be retired
Well of course I save money making my own beer. I made a 5 gallon batch for less then ~$20 of ingredients. What do you mean how long did it take, and how much did all of the rest of the equipment cost? $20 of ingredients!
If you enjoy the act of creation, then the investment in time and equipment becomes part of the entertainment budget. So you really get $4/gal beer.
I enjoy the production and the consumption of it. The packaging (and I generally keg) and cleaning, not so much.
There is an interesting blog I read where they’ve been experimenting in what they call “Short and Shoddy” brew days, where they take shortcuts, skip steps, and make the brewday as short and easy as they can. Based on the results, they’re still making solid beer with it.
If it was just about costs, you could get away with probably $100 in equipment amortized over all of your batches. Granted, the effort required to make beer with just the basics is pretty high.
I can’t wait to move away from extract brewing. The cost savings per batch will be large. I’m currently averaging $10/gallon ingredient cost with extract.
you could get away with probably $100 in equipment
I’m a pretty low-tech brewer. And, I probably spent 3 to 4 times that getting set up to do all grain. I can probably dig it up from my Amazon order history.
Please do!!
DOOMco:
I’ve seen some very low cost BIAB [Brew In A Bag] setups (burner, kettle, bag, pulley). I’m using a bag for my false bottom, but I’m also brewing in the kitchen, and can’t mount a pulley very easily. You’ll still need some other basic equipment though.
Note, that I will be following behind Nephilium and writing a series of articles on home brewing. One of those will include the instructions for making a mash tun from a basic cooler. But that will be sometime in the future.
This was my initial set of equipment. I have replaced some of it.
Big Stuff:
Rubbermaid 7 Gallon Water Cooler — $60
Misc Hardware convert cooler to mash tun — $15
Bayou Classic high-pressure propane burner — $60 {you want one that will boil water fast, not heat oil slowly}
5 gallon stock pot — $80
10 gallon stock pot — $130
Stainless Steel Wort Chiller — $45
Thanks guys. I want to get into this.
Just keep in mind you’ll be adding about 90-120 minutes onto the brew day as well. And a quick run through of my hardware and number of batches puts my equipment costs at under $20 a batch at this point. Don’t ask me how many batches I’ve made… 🙂
The keg has inspired my wife and I to reduce the per batch cost of our beer drastically (by quickly increasing the denominator) . This is even with the beer sitting out in the carport instead of a kegerator and with a completely unbalanced system that is super finicky because the fountain is directly attached to the quick connector.
Bottling is the part we hate, and kegging gets rid of that part. It also gives us results in 60 minutes rather than 15 days.
I’ll probably do a few more extract runs to work the kinks out of the kegging process (and to fix up the soon-to-be kegerator), and than I’ll work on migrating to all-grain. The brew day process isn’t half bad at this point. An extra couple hours of brew day isn’t nearly as intimidating as bottling 10g instead of 5g.
You will know when you’ve hit the big time when you buy uncrushed grain in 55 lb bags and get a 200-300 dollar crusher to crush your own grain.
Then your beer will be really cheap. 😉
I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about getting a mill. But with only getting three batches in so far this year, I wouldn’t be using it nearly enough. Now one of the years where I did close to 20 batches, that’s another story.
I have this mill.
mills are fun. i had one but have backed away from homebrewing the past two years so sold it along with about 11lbs of leftover malt.
still have the 50lb sacks though as mementos.
Mom’s house is a hodgepodge of various non-professional projects she’s undertaken, or had her sons and other non-professionals undertake, and it shows it. Sometimes she gets away with it—the herringbone brickwork we did when I was a teenager is fairly competent. Some, like her sunroom composed of non-matching salvage windows, not so much. The faux tin ceiling (painted felt panels) in the library would stand out terribly against the professional bookshelves, if the amateur track lighting weren’t totally inadequate for the room. But my brother’s wood arch doorway is a thing of beauty.
I suppose her gumption is admirable, but dang, she has had a number of lunatic ideas over the years.
I spent three evenings after work. Maybe nine hours at most for the actual work.
This is pretty dang cool UCS.
Pretty tang cool you mean.
Edgy, Doom!
When it’s that easy, you just cut to the chase.
Keep this up and I will be honing in on Swiss’ territory
They’ll get pommeled by the commenters at least.
Coolest tang
I got to play a bit this weekend, put a few pics on mu. I know we aren’t using that as much now.
I’ll check it out! We should revive it – the pics were fun.
i just choiled my undies laughing at that!
Nice work, UCS! Are you going to sharpen it?
Knives are more fun when they can send you running for the suture kit!
UCS articles (and comments, for that matter) generally have this accessible, vulnerable vibe that is rather charming regardless of the topic. I enjoy slice-of-life prose.
OT: Inspirational.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P2nPI6CTlc
I’m not familiar with that guy. Recently one of my teammates, who was born without any legs, climbed to the top of the Sears Tower* on his hands for a fundraiser. There is inspiration out there if you look.
*It will never be the Willis Tower to me.
Is it ironic that he’s so handsome? Or am I just a bad person.
His wife is hot.
That ishin’t the most tasteful joke. I didn’t kneed to say that. I wrist I hadn’t.
Too bad his name isn’t Mat.
Could be Bob…..
it’s Fall with leaves dropping so.. Russell
Art is just hanging around.
He’s got a girlfriend with one leg, you know?
Ilean.
And her chinese sister, Irene.
Art is my middle nana and the Wife is Eileen
(Bad) jokes aside, thank you for this.
+1
Necessary, sometimes.
Nicely done!
How slick is that ivory, and how grippy is that leather?
The ivory is not bad, since I never switched from course grit belts to anything finer. The leather is pretty high friction on the edge, but a small surface area.
OT: This guy is the gift that keeps on giving.
https://news.grabien.com/story-obama-trashes-trump-were-still-confused-blind-shrouded-hate
How terrifying it must be to have such extreme narcissism and feel so empty inside.
I thought it was merely because of his mixed-parentage and large ears.
Spock, remember, was the foil of the show, repeatedly shown to be incapable of solving the problems presented without the human intervention of Kirk’s Lusty Emotional Interventions.
I thought it was because he tried to tell everyone else how to raise their kids.
It ain’t Mars you know
Yusef! Question. I have a gas furnace, manufactured in 91. Works perfectly, but cycles twice for about one second after getting an the way up to temp. It’s not a short cycle. It’s will run for an hour. Then stop at set temp. Then cycle twice. Otherwise is working perfectly. Any idea?
Its busted. Burn the house down and use the insurance payout to buy a new one.
The limit trips after initial zhut doen, Dunn ing the fan to cool the heat cells, it’s working as intended
Wow, running the fan,
There were rumors around his wife running for President – he needed to reassert dominance.
reassert dominance.
I LOLed.
JFC. If you tried to get a neural network trained on narcissism and petulance then told it to deep dream up a loathable bastard, it couldn’t do this good of a job.
They laughed at him, right?
His handpicked audience?
confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism — mommy issues
Sez the guy whose mother basically abandoned him, if memory serves.
I don’t think that word means what the he thinks it does.
He spent about 8 years doing that, so maybe?
Veiled means something else too.
I’m still waiting to see what exactly Trump has done so far that’s so terrible, and that wasn’t made up in some Trump-hater’s imagination.
Didn’t get out of Afghanistan, still dicking around and dropping bombs in about 6 or 7 different countries, failed to end the drug war, is anti-free trade, no efforts at reigning in the budget, no whisper of entitlement reform, and that’s just off the top of my head.
Oh, you mean shit his predecessors didn’t do? Yeah, I got nuthin.
“If you dont agree with me you are a bad person.”
Fuck off prick. You aren’t president and no one gives a shit what you think.
Those who did not laugh were taken out back and shot. Those who looked puzzled for a moment, wondering WTF any of that has to do with each other, but managed to summon a convincing-enough chuckle anyway, were spared.
Well, to be fair, I am still pretty angry at shoveling my tax dollars towards the Obama campaign bundler that ran Solyndra, but I don’t think any of that has to to with my mother.
“Bunch a bitter fucking clingers!”
So… blind AND racist.
Fucker should be paying royalties to Chapelle.
Ouch…
wang bang sweet steel tang!
Nice knife.
I have a dagger like that one. I have had it for 35+ years. I have probably taken it out of the sheath half a dozen times.
My 1-1/2″ non-locking pocket knife on the other hand comes in handy on a near daily basis.
As I said, I have a heap of utility knives, and this was an artistic endeavor. I’m using it every few days… to open mail.
I wasn’t being facetious, it is a very nice knife. The compliment was genuine.
I like mine too, I just find little use for it. I even took training a lifetime ago, but I just haven’t gotten in a knife fight in…uh…ever.
I just haven’t gotten in a knife fight in…uh…ever
If you’d like to, I can let you know when our next round of budget meetings is.
When I had my close combat training in the Marines, we learned techniques for it, but the first rule of knife fighting was, DON”T DO IT.
So good job following the rules.
the first rule of knife fighting was, DON”T DO IT
Exactly what my 10th Dan Aikido instructor said. He was quite enthusiastic about using guns for self-defense, though.
Yep, run away unless you can’t.
Did he have any advice on defending against nuclear weapons?
Eric Swalwell gets an erection.
Put an eye out with that thing?
Nice article UCS!
I watch Forged in Fire religiously and it always looks so easy to grind out a handle.
Not with a belt grinder, but I have definitely had the same revelation with other tools.
Speaking of civil servants… how about a nut-punch?
More hard-hitting journalism from Teen Vogue.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/fascinating-vagina-facts?verso=true
Way to other young females without a vagina, shitlords.
That’s no problem, they just identify as having a vagina and it’s ok.
There’s no such thing as a “normal” vagina.
Uh… I’d consult your doctor on that one.
Unless of course they’re using “normal” in the geometric/vector sense.
EACH ONE IS A UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL SNOWFLAKE.
Do those lips hang low..
Can you tie them in a bow…
As far as body parts go, the vagina is probably the most fascinating and most impressive body part you have
This is what all the boys say. But not out loud.
But it will keel! (impish smile)
The guy was a Navy SEAL so I guess he’s not going to back down from a fight.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/crenshaw-to-three-dems-i-have-literally-been-attacked-so-lets-choose-our-words-carefully/
Good. It’s nice to see that stuff.
Epic takedown, but when you do it to idiots, does it count?
But Trump is destroying democracy with the electoral college, the undemocratic Senate, and demanding decorum from journalists at a press conference. Not to mention he hates illegal immigrants.(racist). He doesn’t believe in Global Warming. He’s just awful.
guys! wouldn’t it be dreamy if Beto won in 2020 and then him and Trudeau could go on a speaking tour of the world and embarrass the shit out of the whole of North America?? wouldn’t it???
See your doctor about your nightmares
Agghhhh!
My vision of hell is watching Rob O’Rourke teetering around awkwardly on a skateboard for eons and eons.
/shudders
Beto, Trudeau, Macron, and probably Corbyn will take turns getting pegged by Merkel at the next G20 summit.
Alternatively, Doug Ford joins parliament and leads his party to victory in 2019 while Trump is reelected in 2020 and those two pal around embarrassing North America in a much more amusing fashion, proving we are still in the best timeline.
Florida man strikes again!
“I was raped and all I got was this stupid reporter’s horse puns.”
/Jackie G
Yeah, they made jokes at this poor animal’s expense, and that should get these virtue signaling people all up in arms… Poor thing can’t even complain.
That horse is a damn liar!
The horse hit him first.
Straight from the horse’s whatever.
Completely missing the most important part: was the horse female?
https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/19/dem-staffer-says-party-leaders-knew-altered-forms/2054721002/
Should this give me hope some prosecutions will take place or is it just for show?
Don’t hold your breath. The powers that be will make sure not to report it (or report it as attempts at voter suppression when someone tries to fix this shit), and the cock blockers will just run down the clock hoping people forget.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/huckabee-sanders-issues-rules-reporters-follow-press-conferences/
physically surrendering the microphone
i’m of the opinion that they should let Acosta talk as much as he wants. let him ask questions for the entire presser and ask questions back to him to keep him talking. then watch as the press pool sours on him for taking up all their time with his me me me routine.
https://twitter.com/SamanthaJPower/status/1064965353049112576
“Oh hey, were you asleep for the past eight years? OK, good. Enjoy my righteous and ahistorical indignation.”
I was foolish enough to believe that those advocating that the US end its support for Saudi Arabia after the Khashoggi murder were sincerely troubled by the conflict in Yemen and wanted the US to reconsider its role in the Middle East. But, now it’s pretty clear that this is all just a dust-up between the pro-Saudi and pro-Iran lobbies.
Grade A Bitch
This is the same Samantha Power who supported the Saudi massacre of the Houthis in Yemen.
She’s just revealing that her principles revolve around her party aspirations.
Oh no, she has an explanation for that. I’m not joking, she argued that the Obama administration tried to end Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, but super secretly. So super secretly it appears that they also increased funding for Saudi Arabia to the highest level ever just before leaving office.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-security-idUSKCN11D2JQ
It’s OK, though. The media was ignoring all that then. In part, because “light bringer”, obviously. But, also because the Saudis were just killing a bunch of poor Arabs. But, how dare the Saudis kill one of the aristocratic class of journalists. Well, that was just too far
The Saudis were on double secret probation?
Oh bullshit, had she had her way (along with a few others), we would have been fully invested with troops in Syria and Libya. I’m so sure she opposed the Saudis in backchannels.
If you can be near Atlanta June 7-9, think about attending the Blade Show. Look for something like “blade show 2019” on any search engine and you’ll find it. It’s everything from commercial makers, to material and tool suppliers, to swap-meet stuff, and art, and everything in between.
I like it, Unciv. Has a certain gladius flavor.