Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

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  • Guns And Such For Small Game

    Guns and Practices for Small Game

    Folks who are, like me, of the outdoorsy persuasion, like to talk about big game hunting.  Why?  Because it’s exciting.  Big stuff with horns, hooves and pointy teeth are more exciting to hunt, and to talk about.

    But when it comes to hunting opportunities, you can’t beat small game.  The amount of time you can spend afield in pursuit of small game far outweighs limited big-game seasons, and anything from squirrels to pheasants produces some of the best eating you’ve ever laid teeth on.  And, for the prepper/TEOTOWAKI set, small game hunting for food is far more likely to be a problem you need to solve than fighting off Mad-Maxian bands of raiders.

    So, let’s look at arms and equipment for small stuff.

    Rifles

    Rimfire rifles kind of rule the roost for small game hunting nowadays, but it was not always thus.  One of the best small-game cartridges around back in the day is the old .25-20, still available in old Winchester 92s if you’re willing to shell out the bucks for and shoot a collectible.  The Winchester 43 bolt gun was also available in this fine old round, and likewise commands a high price.  The .25-20 is a great small game round when loaded moderately with a hard-cast lead bullet, killing game up to woodchuck-size very nicely without tearing up as much meat as a .22 high-velocity hollow point.  But centerfire rifles for this and similar old small game rounds aren’t made today, with one exception:  The .22 Hornet.

    Factory loads in the .22 Hornet aren’t too useful for small game.  It’s a good 125-yard varmint round as factory-loaded, useful up to coyote-sized critters at those ranges, but factory loads do too much damage on small game.  But loaded with (again) a hard-cast lead bullet at moderate velocities, it becomes a great round for rabbits, hares, squirrels and marmots.  I keep one, a Ruger #3, as a fall turkey rifle; with the same kind of loads it will put down a big turkey inside of 100 yards right now.  And here’s the fun part:  If you have a good .22 Hornet rifle but would really, really like a .25-20 for the tad extra bullet diameter or just because you want one, you could have a barrel made; the two cartridges share a case head.  But that sounds like an expensive proposition.

    Let’s face it; in today’s small-game rifle world, rimfires are where it’s at, and there’s no sign of that changing any time soon.

    Accurate but heavy. Oops.

    I won’t discuss the various .17 rimfires, as I’ve never owned or shot one.  I’ll leave the well-informed readers to discuss those in the comments.  There are at present several .22LR rifles kicking around the gun rack at the Casa de Animal, but the one I set up for just such precision shooting, I kind of ended up outsmarting myself; I did the full-blown Ruger 10-22 conversion, with a .920” target barrel, a laminated Fajen thumbhole stock and a big target scope; the rifle shoots like a dream but weighs as much as many a big-game rifle.  A .22 should be light and handy.

    But while the .22 Long Rifle and the .22 WMR are both well-suited for most small-game work, the .22 WMR is more versatile.  Why?  Because the .22WMR will handle game up to the size of big marmots, foxes and at close ranges, coyotes.  The .22LR would not be advisable for larger animals like those, even with precise shot placement.

    That doesn’t mean the .22LR rifle isn’t great for most small game.  Back in the day my friends and I killed a whole bunch of rabbits and squirrels with .22LR rifles; ammo was cheap and plentiful, and so were the guns.  But even out of a rifle, it runs a tad on the weak side for the big hares, marmots and foxes, even with the high-velocity hollow-point rounds.  That’s where the .22WMR shines, as the 40-grain jacketed hollow-point will easily kill big hares, foxes and marmots out to about a hundred yards, and with the full-jacket solid loads available, it won’t mess up too much meat on smaller game.  Find you a rifle for either cartridge that’s light, easy to carry and accurate.  The Ruger 10-22 is available everywhere and they’re great shooters.  The famous old Marlin 60 is cheaper, and millions have been made.  There are far too many options to talk about here.  Look around!

    But it’s not always easy or convenient to tote around a rifle, even a .22, so let’s talk about…

    Handguns

    Something that seems to have fallen out of the shooting world is the “kit gun,” usually a small-frame .22 revolver intended for taking small game at short range.  The Smith & Wesson .22-32 Kit Gun was one such.  There are many good examples; I keep a Colt Officer’s Target in .22LR for such things, and it’s seen a fair amount of use on early-season mountain grouse here in Colorado, where we routinely plink dumb young birds out of trees with .22 handguns.  The old Colt is fussy about ammo, preferring CCI Green Tags above anything else, but with those it puts down grouse and rabbits handily without destroying too much meat if head shots aren’t possible.

    Colt Officer’s Target and Colorado Dusky Grouse

    But here’s the cool thing about handguns:  Most of them up to the .357 Mag will do great on even small stuff like rabbits, with the right load.  A .44/45 will work if you go for head shots, but the smaller guns are even good for body shots on rabbits and grouse with FMJ or hard lead pills.  A .357 loaded with .38 wadcutters is great for rabbit-sized game; a 9mm with FMJ bullets will kill quickly without messing up too much meat.  Find a moderate load with a non-expanding bullet and you’re set for opportunity shots at small game.  The .32 centerfires are great, too, and happily there has been something of a renaissance in .32 revolvers lately.

    As with anything handgun-related, the gun that’s most useful is the one you can shoot well.

    But the most versatile small game gun has yet to be discussed, so let’s move on to…

    Shotguns

    Short answer:  You can’t go wrong with a 12-gauge pump shotgun.  With that said, there are always other options, but let’s talk about the good old 12-gauge pump first.

    You might ask: “Why a 12-gauge, and why a pump gun?”  Well, I’ll tell you; there are two main reasons.

    1. Availability of ammo. 12-gauge shells are ubiquitous.  You can get ammo from 2 ¾” light trap loads to 3 ½” Roman candles, in every shot size known to man.  You can get mil-spec or 3” mag buckshot, slugs, and oddball shells like Dragon’s Breath.  The versatility of available 12-gauge factory ammo makes it the obvious choice.
    2. Ruggedness, reliability and versatility. Pump-guns are tough, easy to operate, and not prone to the fussiness about ammo that affects some semi-autos.  If you’re a southpaw, you can find an Ithaca 37 or a Browning BPS that features bottom ejection, so you don’t have spent shells flying across your field of vision.  There are literally millions of new and used pump shotguns available, which makes them something of an obvious choice.

    I’m something of a fan of the 16 gauge, and the 20 is still widely available and a good choice for kids or the small-framed, but if you can only own one shotgun, buy a 12.  If you can only own one gun, buy a 12-gauge pump-gun.

    Citori and Mountain Quail

    No matter what the gauge, the key to various types of small game is selecting the right choke, load and shot size.  Look here:

    • Quail/grouse/doves: Low-base loads, 7 ½ or 8 shot (AA trap loads are great here.)  An improved-cylinder choke is enough for what is normally close shooting on quail and grouse, but open-country doves require an Improved-Modified or Full choke.
    • Pheasant/rabbit/partridge: 2 ¾” field loads, 5 or 6 shot.  Modified, Improved-Modified chokes are best.
    • Hares/late season pheasant/sage grouse: 3” magnums, 4 or 5 shot.  Choke as above.
    • Spring turkey: 3 or 3 ½” magnums, buffered 4 or 6 shot.  Most spring turkey hunters favor tight chokes, and there are quite a few full and extra-full specialty turkey choke tubes floating around the market.

    There are special cases for waterfowl, but that’s probably a discussion for another day.

    Now, there are other guns than pump guns, of course.  Lots of folks prefer semi-autos, and the newer guns are more versatile than, say, the old Browning Auto-5 with its bearing bands that had to be reversed when moving from light to heavy loads.  Doubles are still popular, and few shotguns handle as sweetly as a well-balanced side-by-side or over-under; and almost no guns are as beautiful as a well-made, engraved side-by-side stocked with a nice piece of walnut.  And if your budget is tight, single-shots can be had for under a hundred bucks.

    Now, if you are in a place where you must be quiet…

    Air Guns

    Air guns have come a long way since the Crosman pump-up BB gun I toted around when my age was still in single digits.  In fact, if you read up on the Lewis & Clark expedition, they had come a long way before that, but let’s focus on today.

    Air guns have a few things going for them.  Ammo Is cheap; they can be purchased in most civilized places without all the Imperial foo-fraw about background checks and associated paperwork; they are quiet, which can be advantageous for discreetly disposing of pests in a built-up area.  A good air gun for small game should be able to deliver 600fps or better with either a .177 or .22 lead pellet; I prefer the .22 but either will work OK on squirrel/rabbit sized game at short range.  A good pump-up pellet pistol can be handy for discreet things as well, say if you have some bedraggled, exhausted house finches dragging baby cowbirds twice their size to your feeder.  Now, it’s illegal to shoot the nest-bandit cowbirds and their freeloading offspring.  I’m not saying I would use an inaudible, discreet pellet pistol to quietly dispose of such a pest.  But if I were to do so, a pump-up .22 caliber pellet pistol would sure get the job done.

    Trapping

    Big Game seasons can result in freezing your ass off.

    This is just a tad off-topic, but trapping can be fun and even somewhat profitable, although not as profitable as it was back in the Seventies when I trapped every winter; the decline in popularity of fur garments and the rise of farmed furs, which are more consistent in color and quality, has led to a crash in wild fur prices.  But trapping can be a good way to get small game in a survival situation.  A steel trap or coil of snare wire has a big advantage over, say, a .22LR or 12-gauge shotgun cartridge; you can catch an edible critter in a trap, clean and re-set the trap and use it again.  Once a round of ammo is expended, it’s expended.

    When I was a little tad back in Allamakee County, Iowa, shortly after the Earth’s crust finished hardening, I kept myself in .22 shells and pizzas by running a trapline in the winter.  Mostly muskrats and raccoons but the occasional fox or mink; I never focused much on trapping edible game (although raccoon ain’t bad stewed), but the principles involved in trapping, say, rabbits, are pretty much the same.

    Maybe I’ll write up an article on trapping sometime.

    Conclusions

    Small game hunting is loads of fun.  Seasons are measured in months instead of days or weeks, which means you can be a little choosier about the weather you want to deal with.  Bag limits are often generous, you can bring in some healthy, free range, additive-free, low-fat protein, and spend plenty of time out in the great wide open.  Licenses are cheaper.  And these days, in our increasingly shut-in, urbanized population, competition for game isn’t all that tough.

    Find you a good shotgun and bring in some bunnies or birds.  You won’t regret it.

  • Friday Morning Links

    The Eagles won the NFL season opener in a snoozer. Serena and Osaka head to the US Open finals, Tiger and Rory tear it up at the BMW on day 1.  The new (soccer) Nations League got underway in Europe with Germany tying France. And the baseball winners were: San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland and Atlanta.

    Apropos of nothing, this made me laugh.

    Famous birthdays for today are: Queen Elizabeth I, painter Grandma Moses, NFL hall of fame coach Paul Brown, moviemaker Elia Kazan, actor Peter Lawford, singer and flight-booker Buddy Holly, singer Chrissie Hynde, actor Corbin Bernsen, rapper Eazy-E, sexy Shannon Elizabeth, and “comedienne” Leslie Jones.

    Its also the date on which the following occurred: The Battle at Borodino, the first baby was placed in an incubator, the Boxer Rebellion officially ended, the first ever Miss America pageant was held, Interpol was formed, Hoover Dam began operations, the last thylacine died in captivity, Whitey Ford threw his second no-hitter…in a row, the Bell X-2 set the altitude record of 126,000 ft, the pro football hall of fame opened, Jackie Stewart became F1 world champion, Jimmy Carter signs away American control of the Panama Canal (22 years later), G Gordon Liddy got out of jail, assassination attempt on Pinochet killed five people, and Bob Packwood resigned from the Senate.

    Slim pickings today, for the most part.  Oh well, on to…the links!

    So did this.

    Twitter permanently bans Alex Jones and Infowars for life because of “abuse”.  They even suspended a lot of people for lamenting the fact.  Trust me, I read about it on twitter. It was all over the Hamas feed as well as Louis Farrakahn’s You know, because they are still working just fine.

    Elizabeth Warren openly calls for a coup in the United States. I don’t know how else to put it. I mean, its a procedural coup, but she wants unelected bureaucrats to eject a sitting President and install a replacement. Because that’s how to preserve a democracy or something.

    But this one is the best.

    Yeah, it might be time for somebody at Tesla to step in and take control from Elon Musk. He’s cracking under the pressure. Well done, Joe Rogan.

    We’ve all had some shitty flights, but I’m sure these people were more pissed off than any of us have ever been while on a plane. Alternate headline: Urine Trouble, Passengers!

    (At least) Two things are really fucked up in this story. First, trying a person for six counts of murder for one killing because each count is “based on a different legal theory”. And more importantly, the fact that police are held to a much lower standard that a normal person when it comes to killing people in Illinois. Expect a guilty verdict on maybe one minor charge and for the cop to walk…and Chicago to burn.

    Looks like there was a lot of shit-lordery going on at the New York City Ballet. Nude photos, recordings of sex with ballerinas, degrading language. I, for one, am shocked to find this kind of thing happening in the entertainment industry.

    OK, maybe I spoke too soon on that last one…

    Colin Kaepernick watched the controversial Nike commercial debut from Nike’s headquarters. Good for him that he didn’t have a practice or film session to participate in ahead of a season-opener. You know, because nobody will hire him because he sucks as a player.

    Nice trigger discipline, dumbass.  I just hope they contain this rogue gun. Here’s the first paragraph (emphasis mine):

    An AR-15 rifle wielded by a Houston police officer mistakenly fired into the floor at the baggage area of Hobby Airport on Thursday night, according to authorities.

    No, it didn’t fire. The cop carrying it fired it into the floor. Guns don’t fire themselves. People handling firearms do…sometimes negligently.

    I don’t know what to do.  I am sure everybody was expecting a song by these guys. So I have to play it.  But I really want to hear this as well. (NSFW without headphones, by the way) Too bad they didn’t do a video for this version. And in my opinion, its one of the top 10 songs all-time of the genre.

    And on that note, I’m out.  Have a good day and a great weekend, friends.

     

  • Bob Boberson Ruminates on Voting


    Recently I got into an interesting OT discussion here at Glibs regarding voting. The subject in question was, as best I can capture it, what is the best demographic criteria for voting to assure libertarian outcomes? This is a subject that could easily turn into a treatise which I am neither qualified or inclined to write (I’m lazy). Instead I’d rather quote some other people and allow you fine people to weigh in and/or get on with your OT links.

    According to Wikipedia:

    “Voting is a method for a group, such as, a meeting or an electorate to make a collective decision or express an opinion, usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a place represented by an elected official are called “constituents”, and those constituents who cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called “voters”. There are different systems for collecting votes.”

    If you accept the proposed definition one must concede that voting by its very nature is a collectivist pursuit. Lysander Spooner, as most of you well know, makes a pretty solid argument that voting is bullshit.

    “As we can have no legal knowledge as to who votes from choice, and who from the necessity thus forced upon him, we can have no legal knowledge, as to any particular individual, that he voted from choice; or, consequently, that by voting, he consented, or pledged himself, to support the government. Legally speaking, therefore, the act of voting utterly fails to pledge any one to support the government. It utterly fails to prove that the government rests upon the voluntary support of anybody. On general principles of law and reason, it cannot be said that the government has any voluntary supporters at all, until it can be distinctly shown who its voluntary supporters are.”

    He later concludes:

    “The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in
    the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes – a large class, no doubt – each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,”2 and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change.”

    I am reasonably confident that I (and probably the lion’s share of you fine people) fall into the third category. I’d love to do the work of “making a change” but lack the imagination to put forward a better system and cannot in good faith promote an alternative that is much more than wild speculation.

    So, for lack of a better system than a constitutional republic, I believe we for the foreseeable future stuck with electing slimy sociopaths to ostensibly represent our interests in the body politic. Most, I dare say, if not all of us agree with Alexander de tocqueville’s prophetic observation:

    “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

    We see this play out year after year, election after election. I’ll go out on another limb and dare suppose that many of us agree that the appeal of “free shit” will be popular in any race and among all demographics. That being said if Bernie and She Guevera of have shown us anything it’s that young people and recent immigrants are, at least at present, very susceptible to the politics envy and the appeal of hand-outs. Eager to capitalize on this phenomena, the political left seems to be eager to expand voting rights to non-citizens and 16 year olds. I’ll again speculate that if they got their way it would only be a few years until they were making appeals that it is a great injustice non-resident/non-citizens and 14 year- olds are being denied their right to vote. The question I’d like to have answered is; is there a just rationale for limiting voting to certain demographics? Many of our founding fathers favored restricting the vote to not only property owners but specifically white property owners. While my intent is not to disparage our founding fathers one doesn’t have to think very hard as to why this criteria is ‘problematic,’ if I may borrow a common phrase from our left-leaning friends. Setting aside the racial overtones it still was a less than perfect protection against the appeal of legal plunder. In the discussion Suthenboy astutely pointed out:

    “With that rule the wealthier property owners jack up taxes to price everyone out of ownership, then buy up everything. As I said, around the last turn of the century only timber companies, railroads and insurance companies would have been able to vote. It is a disaster.”

    So we see that limiting voting rights to property owners has it’s own pitfalls. Heroic Mulatto proposed:

    “The pre-frontal cortex doesn’t finish development until around 32 years of age. If we define adulthood as the completion of maturation, then it should start at 30 (to give it a nice round number). Likewise, voting and other adult rights and responsibilities should be delayed until then. I am serious.”

    While upping the age limit for voters would appear to have it’s merits, I think it would also have it’s unintended consequences. What of young property owners and their interests? What gives a middle-aged failure more right to a ballot box that a young and successful entrepreneur? If the issue of social security has shown us anything it is that the old are not immune to voting themselves plunder from the public treasury either.

    I have no proposed solutions and this article has already run on longer than I intended and touched on more freshmen-level civics topics than I meant to. I earnestly look forward to the lesson I’m about to receive from the Glibertariat.

  • Thursday Afternoon (((Links)))

    Brett fell victim to the old practical joke of Krazy Glue on the toilet seat, so I’ve been pressed into links service. My mission is to make him regret asking.

     

    The Kavanaugh Kabuki kontinues.

    “I am going to release the e-mail about racial profiling and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate,” said Booker, a possible 2020 Democratic candidate for president. At another point, Booker said, “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an, ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

    But it turns out, Booker didn’t actually break any rules. The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee said they worked with the George W. Bush library and the Justice Department overnight to clear the emails. The restrictions were waived early Thursday morning.

    How brave! Let’s be honest, the only remaining purpose for these hearings is to get soundbite clips for campaign ads.

     

    Who says that baseball isn’t a contact sport?

    Multiple sources told The Athletic that neither Impemba nor Allen were part of Wednesday’s broadcast due to a physical altercation between the two television personalities following Tuesday’s game in Chicago against the White Sox. It is not immediately clear what prompted the incident.

    According to the accounts of those sources, there has been simmering tension between both Impemba and Allen and the clash of personalities ultimately boiled over on Tuesday night. “They’re like an odd couple,” said one person familiar with the dynamics of the broadcast’s production.

    I’m guessing Rod Allen came off better in this one.

     

    My buddy Warty has been heavily involved in robotics. He’s usually pretty mum about what he’s working on, but I think you’ll all agree that this is something he should be proud of.

    “Being in the adult entertainment industry and at the forefront of sex tech innovation, we wanted to put our XXX spin on robotics, which is why Cardi-Bot can not only mimic human-like behavior, but also get down and dirty, all with the quick click of a button.

    “We’re very excited to make Cardi-Bot, the world first sex robot people can control over the Internet, available to the world and let people live out their wildest fantasies.”

    I’d guess that a lap dance could be pretty hazardous.

     

    One of the pioneers of pyramid schemes multilevel marketing has died.

    DeVos had been president of Amway from its 1959 founding until he retired in 1993. His son Doug DeVos has served as president of Amway since 2002. He was also the father-in-law of Betsy DeVos, the US education secretary. His family still co-owns Amway with the family of co-founder Jay Van Andel. DeVos and his family has a combined fortune worth $5.5 billion, according to Forbes’ list of richest people.
    Amway is still successful: It reported sales of $8.6 billion last year. It uses a network of 3 million sales people worldwide. The multi-level marketing industry as a whole posted global sales of about $190 billion, according to its industry trade group.

    And here’s the great thing: if you can convince just three of your friends to die, and each of them can convince three of their friends to die…

     

    The latest entry into the “When you don’t succeed, prog harder!” sweepstakes is a senate candidate from the beautiful state of New Jersey.

    Harris is among a wave of young activist Democrats, emboldened by the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. They have sent shock waves through the party establishment around the U.S., starting in June with a New York primary victory by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, 39, riding an insurgent wave, scored a stunning victory last week in Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. And on Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley beat longtime Rep. Mike Capuano in a closely watched Democratic primary.

    Now, it’s the 38-year-old Harris’ turn in the spotlight, a place she never expected to be.

    This is clearly unkind of me, but the first thing that came to mind when I saw the photo was, “Here’s Pat!”

     
    SP addition, at OMWC’s request, since he is working or driving or in a meeting or….

    Sad to hear that Burt Reynolds has died. We recently saw him in a gem of a film, The Last Movie Star. We were both surprised by how much we liked this movie.

    A good friend was his neighbor in Jupiter and had nothing but very nice things to say about him. RIP Burt.

     

     

     

    Nope, you’re not escaping Old Guy Music just because it’s a weekday. A common topic of musical discussion is, “What covers were better than the originals?” My answer is always, “Anything by Dylan.” So on that theme, here’s The Nice doing a nice version of Country Pie.

  • Knifemaking with Leap

    The knife is likely humanity’s second or third oldest tool, with the pointy stick probably being developed from the not-pointy-stick prototype.  I’ve always been in love with knives.  Every one has its own feel.  Its own personality.  Its own special purpose.  Some of them almost leap out of your hand, ready to do their job.  Some are big and burly without being clumsy.   Some of them will slice a warm tomato paper thin, if you treat them right.  Youtube must have known about my love, and it knew I like to watch productive people make stuff on Youtube, because it kept suggesting I watch this video.  And it was right.  I wanted to learn how to make knives.

    Long story short, its really hard to do it from scratch without expensive equipment.  Its possible, but hard and tedious.  However, there are a few short cuts you can take to jump right in with minimal equipment.  Err, and minimal skill.  Like what I have.

    Mora is a maker of some really great, low-cost knives.  And they’ll sell you just the blade.  In this post, I’ll walk you through the steps I took to put my own custom handle on this 6 inch blade.  The end result is a large bushcraft knife suitable for all manor of outdoor misadventure.  Mora make a simple, bullet proof item.  Carbon steel, nothing fancy there.  A scandi blade is really basic, but that’s where the magic is.  Most blades have a primary bevel then a secondary bevel where its sharpened.  The scandi blade just has a single bevel, like a razor.  This is particularly well suited to digging under the grain of wood or other fibers.  At the cost of a bit more difficulty sharpening, this means the scandi is particularly well suited to camp tasks like preparing kindling, slicing rope, etc.

    The first step in this project is to lay out your plan.  Instead of going for a traditional scandinavian handle, as you’d expect on a scandinavian style blade like a puukko, I went for a more shaped handle.  I much, much prefer more options for bracing my fingers on forward strokes or when poking, and this design provides that.  Also, I tend to hold my knives in a saber grip.  That’s the nice thing about DIY.  You can D whatever the F U want.

    I traced the blade on paper, and then sketched out the outline of the handle I want.  The front finger groove comes a little close to the tang, so that’s something I had to keep an eye on.

    Then I laid out a few bits of material that I want to use for the handle.  I had a bit of cheap red oak from the hardware store, some green leather bits, and a block of leopardwood I grabbed on a lark when I got some exotic hardwood one time.  At this point, I also have a spacer made of black micarta scrap, but this didn’t make it into the final design since I fucked this piece up made a thoughtful decision to not include this material.  The goal here is purely design.  I’m looking for a nice balance of colors, contrasting textures, etc.  Most rules for aesthetic designs are domain independent.  That means that rules for putting together a proper suit and tie apply here as well.  High frequency next to low frequency next to no frequency next to high frequency.  Pick two colors, and add in one highlight.  Avoid symmetry and follow the rule of three or the golden ratio.

    Now that we have the general design down, its time to actually get to work.  If not done already, make sure all your stock is square and flat.  Like, really flat.  And if you aren’t sure you can pull that off… use leather spacers.  Making a knife is more like fitting jewelry than it is like carpentry.  You need everything to fit perfectly and you need to fret every detail.  Because this shit is HARD.  The bolster, that’s the part of the handle that interfaces with the knife, the bolster needs to fit the tang like a glove.  I find the center of the block, drill a row of holes smaller than the diameter of the tang, and then use needle files to connect them.  This should make a slot that is dead-on square and normal in the center of the bolster.  If you take your time, it will be perfectly square.  Just put on an audiobook and zen out, and you’ll have it perfect in no time.  Like this.

    FUCK!  Ok, not great, but not a disaster.  Anyway, the knife blade isn’t perfectly square on all surfaces, so you’ll need to fit, file, fit, file, fit, file, fit, file until your eyes are ready to fall out of your head.  Eventually, you’ll get it to seat correctly.

    Perfectly, within some margin of error.  If you look close, well, you’ll see its seated pretty well, but not perfect.  Like I said, this is jewelry, not carpentry.  I said its an easy job to pick up.  Mastering it will take a lifetime.  For my skill level, I’m looking to get a good enough seat that the finish will fill that gap.  More on that later.  Note the blue painters tape around the blade.  That’s to prevent premature hematological baptism.

    Once the bolster is fit, the rest of the handle is easy.  Using a drill bit just slightly wider than the tang, dill a hole straight and through the center of the rest of the wood blocks.  I also used a table saw to split the bolster since I ruined my spacer decided not to use the micarta spacer.  If you do this, this cut is super, super critical and you really, really need to make sure it is square and straight.  Also, mark your piece before you cut it so that you can assemble it later with proper grain orientation.

    At this point, all the material is in shape and ready for glue up.  Up till this point, its been a fidgety project but you can go nice and slow.  Well, that ends here.  Its now a fidgety project that is also gloopy and you will also be on a the clock.  So spend ten minutes dry fitting your knife so that you could assemble it blindfold, because once you mix your epoxy, shit gets real.  This is also your last chance to change the design.  Here I am out in the sunlight making sure I still like the way it looks under natural light.

    Epoxy is a hell of a material.  Its going to fill all the space in the handle and hold this knife together.  A modern epoxy, properly mixed and applied, will be harder than the wood and last longer than I will.  The task here is to fill the bolster with epoxy, slide it on, cover the spacer with epoxy, slide it on, cover the next spacer, slide it on, cover the next spacer, slide it on, fill up the last handle, slide it on, and then clamp it all together.  And make sure you use enough to fill all gaps.  But not so much it squeezes out the top of the bolster.  And don’t epoxy your knife to your clamps.  And don’t get epoxy in your hair.  And don’t tighten your clamp so much it all explodes like you just lost at Perfection.  And don’t use five minute epoxy because you will need more than 5 minutes.  Because I’ve done all that before and each one of those things sucks.

    But if, if you do it all correctly, you will be rewarded with a very stinky garage as you let this cure under a little bit of compression for at least twenty four hours.  PS make sure you orient it so that the squeeze out goes on the handle, not the blade.  Because if it cures on the blade, there’s no fixing that.  You are stuck with an ugly knife forever.

    But the next day, after your garage airs out and doesn’t smell like an old tire is fermenting in Satan’s asshole, you get to see if you’ve fucked up all your hard work.  Lets take a look.

    Success!  That squeeze out is not problem.  It’s all coming off.  What matters is the handle is one solid, rock hard piece.  No wiggle.  No wobble.  Now you just need to turn that big, blocky knob into a smooth, sleek handle like you drew on the paper.  I used a band saw to get it roughly square, then I use a belt sander to rough out the shape.  A rasp works really well here, too.  Then, once you have the shape, just sand.  And sand.  And sand.  And sand.  You really want to take it to the finest grit your wood can stand, and then maybe one more.  Oak and leopardwood are both fairly hard, so I took this to 2,000 grit.  You’ll need to get automotive sandpaper for this, but if you skimp here your knife won’t ever feel as good as it should.

    The last step is to apply a finish.  In theory, any wood finish is possible here, but poly or lacquer are not good finishes.  Superglue is actually pretty great, but I’m partial to a paste made of mineral oil and beeswax.  Its food safe, and you can oil the blade with the same oily rag as you use for the handle.  Its not as permanent as some other finishes, so it will need touched up every year or so.  But meh, if I didn’t want to put a little work into my tools, I wouldn’t be making them myself.  Also, wax is a good enough gap filler to fill the tiny gap around the base of the blade.

    This is my first time using leopardwood, and I really like the way it turned out. I also really like the way the shape turned out.  Its made to fit my hand, and I kept checking it as I roughed out the shape.  Its asymmetrical and maybe it looks a little sloppy if you look from the top down, but it fits my hand like it was made for it.  Because it was.  My thumb fits on the top of the bolster just right, and I have good purchase with my pointer and pinky.

    But most of all, every time I pick up this knife, I’m going to remember the work that I put into it.  It was my mind and my hands that brought this humble tool into the world.  It has visual and utility elements of a scandi knife, but it also has a few other particulars that I really like.  I didn’t mine the ore or smelt it.  I didn’t forge and grind the blade.  I didn’t even generate one unique feature on this knife – I copied the best from a couple different place.  But I made that knife.  And I’ll know it in my bones every time I pick it up.

  • Thursday Morning Links

    Well tennis went a little more to form last night. Especially for those who had tickets for the evening, or should we say overnight, session?  Djoker and Nishikori advanced on the mans side, as did Osaka and Keys on the ladies. And in baseball’s small slate of games, the results were: Cleveland over KC, Boston ripped the heart out of Atlanta, St Louis squeaked by Washington, Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati, Team Canada topped Tampa Bay, Miami beat Philadelphia, The New York Metropolitans beat the Dodgers, the Cubs were two better than the Brewers, the Angels pounded the Rangers, the Tigers beat the White Sox, the Rockies topped San Francisco, the Mariners beat the Orioles, the Athletics took down the Yankees and the world champion Astros demolished the MINNESOOOOOODA TWIIIIIIINS! There wasn’t really much else going on in the sports world. The NFL season starts tonight though. So these sports updates will get a little longer on Monday for the next couple months.

    Image may be enhanced for effect

    Today we remember the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette, pacifist Jane Addams, rum runner Joseph Kennedy, singer/Texan David Allen Coe, dumbass anti-semite but brilliant musician Roger Waters, comedic actress Jane Curtin, redneck-exploiter Jeff Foxworthy, human sound effects machine Michael Winslow, fat man Chris Christie, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, woman with an annoying voice Rosie Perez, actor Idris Elba, and musician Scott Travis.

    Its also the date on which the following happened: Magellan’s ship returned to Spain from the first global circumnavigation. Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” opened. Oberlin College went co-ed (in 1837, that was a big deal), San Francisco began cable car service, William McKinley was shot, the first Battle of the Marne began, the first Piggly Wiggly (and first supermarket, really) opened, the Indo-Pakistani war began, Martina Navratilova asked for political asylum during the US Open, Princess Diana’s funeral was held, and Cal Ripken Jr broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played.

    And now…the links!

    The New York Times prints an un-named Op-Ed allegedly from a “resister” inside the Trump administration. I’m shocked the person was able to write it. I assumed he/she had a broken arm from patting him/herself on the back so hard.  Well, either that or this is another elaborate hoax carried out by Trump insiders against the media. I’m genuinely not sure what to think anymore, seeing as posting anonymous first-person tell-all Op-Eds is new territory from what I can tell.

    What a weird lady

    Looks like Asia Argento’s accuser is going to file a criminal complaint against the actress after all. So either he wants some more money or he genuinely believes he was assaulted. Anyway…the plot thickens.

    Congratulations, India. Welcome to the 21st Century. We’re glad you finally made it.  Now let’s see if your neighbors will start tolerating peoples’ personal choices that have no effect on others.

    Shit. I know I should have patented “HoboTracker 2000” when I had the chance. I won’t post much info, but I will quote the story:

    San Francisco’s new tracking system could soon identify the history and future needs of every homeless man, woman, and child in the city.

    The platform is a much-needed solution to the city’s outdated and inconsistent databases.

    I can’t imagine what could possibly go wrong with entering all of the personal information and physical needs/history into a central database that the government controls.  Hell, they might want to consider giving them something to wear on their person or even a tattoo of their number to cross-reference when they need it.

    I hope all you Jap-glibs (or Nip-glibs?) are safe. There was a large earthquake there while we in America were sleeping. Let’s hope that wasn’t a precursor of more to come.

    Only in Chicago would it be news that a judge convicted for fraud had decided not to run again.

    Ride the lightning, asshole

    Are tendencies towards greatness/malevolence hereditary or based on environment?  That’s the age-old question Randolph and Mortimer Duke found out the answer to the hard way.  Well, here is some evidence that shows shitheads may be passing their shithead psychopath genes down. Jesus, can we get this trial done and roll out Ol Sparky please? That fucker needs to die already.

    In today’s “Nothing to see here. Move along” news… I have no problem with the research being done, although I would rather it be done by private companies. But why the fuck all the secrecy?

    Well today’s easy. And yes, you get three songs (from three different albums!) again! Let me know your favorite in the comments. Here is the first one.  And here is the second. Finally comes the third song of the set. And it is without a doubt their greatest song, in my humble opinion.

    Now go out there and live your day well, friends!

     

  • A Path To Wellness: part 12

    EXT/INT—CABIN HIDEAWAY/SUPER MARKET—MONTAGE

    FRED BEAR BY TED NUGENT PLAYS

    We see TED lying in bed and HARVEY nursing him back to health.

    We see Ted chopping firewood, while Harvey cheers him on, and turns away to masturbate on a sapling, Ted notices and gives a WTF look.

    TIM takes the grocery list from Harvey.

    Ted pulls a stump from the ground and celebrates, Harvey is off on the tree line masturbating onto a sapling.

    Tim is in the grocery store, he notices he is being tailed.

    Ted takes aim with his bow at a deer.

    Tim exits the store, followed by men in black type figures.

    Ted squares his bow for the kill.

    Tim drops the groceries and starts running through the parking lot.

    Ted pulls back and draws the bow.

    Tim jumps a fence and evades his captors.

    Ted releases the arrow and the deer drops dead.

    Tim tries to cross a small creek, his pursuers take aim.

    Ted approaches the dying deer and kneels down beside it.

    Tim is shot in the back and falls into the creek in slow motion.

    FADE TO BLACK

  • Wednesday Afternoon Mailing it In Links

    Hey guys, what’s up. Trying to get some work out the door and I have a date with my wife (no kids! Thank mom-n-dad!) tonight. So here’s the links, have fun. Bye now.

    The Florida Woman story with the little kid turned out just the way everyone knew it would. But here’s Texas Woman, hitting 100+ in her car, and then remembering to grab the baby when she flees on foot.

    Bernie Sanders gets a hard-on thinking about confiscating Amazon’s money.

    Superflu at Kennedy airport?

    I think chipping homeless people like dogs probably violates their rights.

     

    I dug on Axl Rose a little in the Morning Links for getting fat, but he’s trimmed down some since going on tour.

  • The Hat and The Hair: Episode 95

     

    That was no white-power hand signal at the Kavanaugh hearing, Zina Bash’s husband says

    Donald lay across this desk, tracing the cracks in the Oval Office ceiling with his finger.

    “Look at that one,” he said to the hat. “See, it looks like a wheel barrel.”

    “A wheel barrel?” asked the hair. “What’s a wheel barrel?”

    “Zina,” Donald crooned softly. “Zina.”

    “A wheel barrel,” the hat said. “You know, a wheel barrel. It’s got a wheel and you put things in the barrel to carry them around.”

    “Did you see the signals she was sending me?” Donald asked. “They were secret signals, just for me.”

    “She was just scratching her arm, Donald,” the hat said.

    “A barrel with wheels? What the fuck are you talking about?” the hair asked.

    “No, it was a signal,” Donald insisted. “She also tucked her hair back over her ear. Classic flirting.”

    “A wheel barrel,” the hat said. “Look it up, idiot. Google it. You’ll see.”

    “That crack in the ceiling looks nothing like a barrel with wheels,” the hair said excitedly.

    “When women touch their hair that means they want The Donald,” Donald said, still tracing cracks in the ceiling. “Or when they blink. And women blink around me, like, all the time, I tell you.”

    “It looks like a cart,” the hair said framing out the series of cracks with his tendrils. “A little cart.”

    “Blinking is winking with both eyes,” Donald whispered.

    “Wait… It’s a wheelbarrow,” the hair said scornfully. “Barrow. Not ‘wheel barrel.’”

    “Wheelbarrow‽” the hat exclaimed. “That’s not a real thing.”

    “Zina…” Donald said. “I hope she gives me a thumbs-up today…”

    The hat grumbled and the hair fumed and Donald hummed to himself. In the quiet Oval Office, they could hear the West Lawn being mowed.

    “So, like, we’re just not going to talk about Woodward at all?” the hat asked.

  • Wednesday Morning Links

    Simply an amazing match

    Ooh look, the Nadal match finally ended.  At 2 in the morning or something like that.  In a fifth set tiebreaker, which is just stupid in my opinion.  And he somehow got it together and won.  Good for him. Especially with Federer being bounced the night before.  John Isner failed to advance, by the way. And on the ladies side, Serena kept cruising while Sloane Stephens was sent packing.

    Elsewhere Trump chimed in on Nike’s latest (terrible) decision. Phil, Tiger and DeChambeau were picked for the Ryder Cup team (I would not have chosen Phil at this unpredictable point in his career), the Mariners are in freewill, and the NHL is not too fond of keg stands.

    Meanwhile, your MLB winners were: St Louis, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, Texas, Detroit, Milwaukee, red-hot Colorado, Arizona, New York (AL), Baltimore, Los Angeles and the world champion Houston Astros.  If your team was not mentioned, they lost. Get over it.

    Rest in peace, you magnificent bastard

    Louis XIV was born on this date. As were the outlaw Jesse James, baseball player Nap Lajoie, economist Paul Volcker, dry comedian BobNewhart, actor and silver pitchman William Devane, almost-forgotten Bond actor George Lazenby, hot actress Raquel Welch, one of the five greatest musicians of all time Freddie Mercury, rocker Clem Clempson, acting genius Micheal Keaton, offspring-of-greatness Dweezil Zappa, and off her meds-actress and activist Rose McGowan.

    Its also the day the following happened: Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards (molon labe, fucker!), Sam Houston was elected President of the Republic of Texas, the first legal forward pass in a football game was made, “On The Road” was first published, “Dr Zhivago” was as well, “The Huckleberry Hound Show” hit the small screen, Cassius Clay won a gold medal, AJ Foyt won his first Indy Car race, Jerry Lewis hosted his first ever Labor Day Telethon for MDA, the first ever cricket ODI took place (and made the game fun to watch), the Camp David Talks began, and Voyager 1 was launched into outer space.

    And now I present…the links!

    The (half-Jewish, half-hispanic) hand of white supremacy emerges.

    Retard Amy Siskand and other morons accuse woman behind Brett Kavanaugh of flashing white power symbol during confirmation hearing. Oh shit, she works for Trump too.  Oh my God, it must be true!!!! Only, she’s a Mexican immigrant and the granddaughter of people who escaped a Nazi death camp.  LOL, way to go you bunch of dumb bastards.

    But they still found their social-justicey bullshit to glom onto, because Kavanaugh didn’t shake hands with a complete stranger who rapidly approached him and stuck his hand in his face.  Because with a room full of nut jobs who are being ejected one-after-the-other all day long, you should only expect the strangers who approach you to have the best off intentions.  Also, fuck that guy for climbing on his own kid’s dead body to grandstand.

    The war of words between Trump and Bob Woodward escalates as Trump says he never called his Attorney General retarded while Woodward stands by his work.  The media goes bananas while 99% of the rest of the country couldn’t give a flying fuck.

    Now that Elon Musk has said he’s on ambien, I suppose he figures he can say whatever he wants and just apologize later.  I’ll grab some popcorn and let you know what happens next.

    You dirty boy.

    The Nutty Ninth does it again. Because, you know, a public pedestrian right of way amounts to a bed (and place to shoot up and take a shit) even if it impedes on those using it for its intended purpose.  This will not end well as the hordes of homeless swamp cities and overwhelm their services and push out tourist dollars.

    A cop that shot two people under questionable (at best) circumstances a few years ago and who was just acquitted on battery charges was once again caught on video getting into a drunken fight. But don’t worry…even though the taxpayers are still paying him a salary, he’s been resigned to desk duty…until he qualifies for that sweet pension.  Way to go, Chicago!

    Get a room, you two.  No seriously, go get a room. You’re in public. Have some decency.  Also, who the hell rents a VW Beetle?

    Boy, talk about a bit of bad luck. I mean, what are the odds that these two things would happen at the same time at the same place with the same color truck?

    You will get a quadruple-play today. Starting off smooth. Then we move on to something with a little pace (that’s also NSFW), then I’ll regale you with a song that’s actually made me cry before, and finish with one of the ten best songs of all-time.  Enjoy greatness this world will sadly never see again.

    Now go out there and have a great day. I know I will.