A knife is our oldest tool. A fixed blade knife is most rugged, and when we pick a knife for rugged chores such as camping, cutting food, and opening packages a fixed blade is best. Introducing a mechanism into the edge tool makes things complicated. A spring was used in some folding knives. All folding knives have some type of bearing surface. A back lock, mid lock, liner lock or other type of lock is used. Knives are assembled with rivets screws and dovetailed fit. Modern knives are designed for easy maintenance, disassembly, and tightening when needed. If cared for they will last generations. That is the key. Lets look at some of the best ways to maintain the edged tool.

A failure would be a serious calamity when you really need a knife far from home.  A flea market knife used for opening boxes and cutting tape is easily discarded and replaced. I engage in periodic maintenance of all my better class of knives. If a blade edge is neglected it is difficult to restore. Once corrosion sets in a blade may pit. Stainless is just that stain-less not stain proof. Keep the edge clean and wipe away bits of material from cutting chores. Keep a light coat of oil on the knife during storage. Tighten the folder’s handles or scales and keep the pivot points lubricated. But don’t lubricate the lock!

There are many methods and tools for sharpening. I use the Work Sharp guided field sharpener. As a result my sharpening skills are much better. While my uncle Heyward was a master of the stone I am not. My knives are just as sharp as his. A caution- you would never wax your vehicle without first cleaning. By the same token never sharpen a blade without first carefully cleaning. Otherwise you are simply rubbing material into the blade and perhaps gouging the steel. Sharpening restores a dull or even damaged edge. Knives make poor crowbars. A broken point may be reshaped but best not to break it in the first place. Sharpening removes a bit of metal from the blade producing a bevel. The Work Sharp sharpening tool offers a 20 degree sharpening surface and a 25 degree honing surface. Manual sharpening should be a few steps removed from the stone but I seldom use an electric sharpener. You may be surprised how seldom a knife needs sharpening. A home steak knife or kitchen tool may be sharpened perhaps twice a year, a camp knife after a camping trip and some use. Honing is maintaining the edge and is a less difficult process used more often. I would not like to count the times some of my camp knives have been sharpened. They are still useful but blade geometry eventually changes. When a blade has been neglected clean first then begin sharpening with the coarsest surface and proceed to the finest surface. The Work Sharp device features a fine and coarse diamond plate, ceramic rod and a leather strop. This will fit all types of sharpening styles. More injuries are the result of a dull knife stubbing and stopping short causing the hand to run forward on the blade than are caused by a sharp knife!

In survival gear I have no room for nostalgia deploying the most modern proven gear. Just the same a hobby is collecting used quality folders from flea markets and yard sales. Some such as the Solingen folder were good finds. Be wary, however, as there are Pakistani and Chinese copies that look real but the metal quality isn’t good. It isn’t a pursuit I recommend unless you have good steel to rely on and use the chaff for a hobby. That said I have learned a great deal about knife maintenance cleaning and restoration. Folding knives much be serviced occasionally whether you use them or not. This means the pocket folder you rely for defense or emergency must be cleaned. Debris in the mechanism could impede folding. It is possible a tangle of thread could prevent the knife from opening. This is why I recommend a robust design such as the CRKT M16 as a folder. As a camp knife a fixed blade is the best choice. As I was writing I opened my CRKT M16 and checked the un-sharpened blade surface. Sure enough there was plenty of grainy grit present.

The folding knife much open close and lock correctly. A simple wipe down occasionally is recommended. Some use gun cleaner of the penetrating aerosol type, a friend uses a computer air duster. At some point you may need to partially disassemble the knife. Most knives have hex screws that allow disassembly. Search for grit and debris that may affect function. Since the lock works  by friction don’t lubricated the lock mating surfaces. Pivot pins should be lubricated. Detritus affects function. Usually the scales don’t pick up much debris but it is a good idea to wipe them down and remove accumulated dust. This is all that is needed in the normal course of use. Depending on how much you use the knife torx screws eventually work loose. These should be tightened. I check my primary carry knives every month or so. Most of these knives use Torx screws either #6 or #8 so tools are not difficult to locate. This is simple enough hardware store gear. Take care of the edged tool and our oldest tool will serve well with little attention.

CNN and several others are carrying the the story that the United States has breached a crucial and terrifying milestone early this year, 400 ‘mass shootings‘ in only 203 days.

Is that bad?

It sounds bad.

That’s bad, right?

Yes, it is. But like most headlines, it doesn’t communicate much (any) nuance. It just bludgeons you in the face with the item the writer wants you to ruminate on and none of the surrounding data, especially contextual data. We’re not that far ahead from the three prior years at this point in time, and 2020’s violence ramped up late compared to the violent curves we saw in 2021 and 2022. 2020 was a notable anomaly while 21 and 22 followed 20’s ‘new normal’ numbers in a less compressed way.

Context

If we look at trends and compare them to recent years we see that 2023 is continuing the “new normal” summer violence curve volume set by the lockdown and the riots. People continue to be discontent and certain segments of the population for various reasons are expressing that very violently. However if we look at more data from more than just the wildly overbroad definition of ‘mass shooting’ we do see some signs of progress back.

Will we likely still have a 600+ mass shooting year? Probably. Could we crest 2021’s peak of 690? Maybe, but we also might trend out in the fall.

But if we look at localized barometers, like Chicago, we see more promise than the doom of the headlines suggests.

2023 is looking slightly but notably better than the previous three years with homicides in July, a bad month historically, down by 5% from 2022 and drifting closer to the average of 360. July is only projected to be roughly 7.5% over average where it was 32.7% above in 2021.

This, baring another negative global scale impact on good order (like shutting down massive portions of the legitimate economy and rage baiting social pain points), hopefully signals a continued cooling off that those tensions. Other cities and states are reporting better than last year violent crime numbers while certain segments are still seeing spikes.

Realities Collide

The question is: Does the number of ‘mass shootings’ going up matter if injuries and homicides are coming back down?

Yes, but not from the banner waving gun control idiots. It matters in how we see and track both triggering pressure break and retaliatory action. The various socio-economic segments have wildly variable trigger points that do result in a similar retaliation, violence.

We are seeing several rather painful realities clashing in 2023 and if you compare things like violent criminal events against economics and socio-political diatribes, we see patterns emerge. In a macabre way it’s like weather prediction, you can see the pre-violence indicators flare up but that doesn’t give you the tools to fix the conditions or influence them in a timely manner. It doesn’t even predict an actual event, just the conditions that might trigger one.

We have any number of social pressure points that are creating hot spots in todays climate. It is overwhelmingly socially triggered large scale violence we are talking about. Whether criminal retribution, insult retribution, family stress, or radicalized retributive violence, it is overwhelmingly a social event and not a monetary one.

‘Mass shootings’ spiked 46.2% in 2020, and reaching 400 events in 239 days instead of barely passing 400 on the 356 day mark in 2019. 2019 was also the worst year of the previous 4, with 2016, 2017, and 2018 under 400 incidents. Both 2017 and 2018 didn’t reach 350 incidents. 2018’s 336 incidents to 2021’s 690 represented a 105% swing upwards in just three years.

We are, if indicators remain as they are, looking at a small decrease in overall deaths for the year over year. What we are fighting this year more than the previous two is people are back outside in spades and the ones that have been pissed off over X, Y, or Z motive are mobile with the rest while the world at large is chilling a little bit.

Pressures and tolerances are also continuing to shift, new hot spots are forming as old ones cool which may offset the tempers that are cooling. The burn out from previous years is fighting the heightened mobility of people and grudges are still being settled as new ones are formed. Example: The drive-by shooting is at an all time favorite position, in recent memory, as a method for dealing with problem individuals or groups for [insert reason]. Many of the ‘mass shootings’ listed in the elevated total are drive by attacks for criminal or social retaliation.

Mass murders look to be tracking the same, or unfortunately higher in occurrences than last year, but with only one incident so far in excess of 10 dead (11) in California and only 4 incidents with 10 or more dead and injured combined, casualties may end up tracking in the same direction as mass shootings with a lower number and some progress made back towards the 2010’s rates.

The long way home

But the reality is… we are in a new normal, we are hotter tempered and shorter fused with a dimmer outlook than ten years ago. It is a time of many discontent points and those are going to take some big socio-economic wins and realityto settle into the collective consciousness to offset and cool peoples’ heels. The points of contention are hot, misunderstanding the other side is leveraged for political capitol, and in many instances the people in charge are so catastrophically ignorant or couldn’t care less as long as their pet project gets its paycheck.

Law enforcement is a down profession right now and civility towards one another is treated as a polite joke many instances with the giving or taking of offense. Behaviors are excused or comically over reviled, punishments vary wildly, speed and consistency in justice is seen as absent, plenty of stupid events are still crimes that arguably should not be. None of these circumstances or prevailing attitudes supports the general welfare of the nation. The millennial adult outlook is a bleak one.

Leaders are not inspiring confidence, they are seen either as grifters or incompetent. They aren’t taking the public attitudes and concerns and then finding responsible solutions in logical policy, they are using the shortcuts that sound best to the vague opinions from the public that will earn them their sweet sweet electability points for the next popularity contest we call elections.

The whole of the 20’s is likely to be a rough one, but the later half may bring us back to some 2010’s levels if we can tame back our wilder societal impulses of incivility, campy rhetoric, and overly inflammatory hyperbole because it fits our pet narrative about the more complex realities.

The year marches onward.

This past May, I took a weekend carbine class hosted by Templar Defense and taught by Bill Blowers. The venue was one stormy-ass shooting range in southeastern Texas. This was actually my first ever carbine class and my first time meeting and training with Bill. If you haven’t heard of Bill, you’ve probably seen his NRA B8 Targets pasted all over the Internet. Every target bears the name of his training company, Tap Rack Tactical. B8s make great targets for many reasons, and not surprisingly, that’s what we shot at the entire class. The 5.5 inch bull not only represents a good sized natural targeting area, but the rings are easy to score too. And that’s another thing, Bill makes you keep track of times and scores when shooting the various drills and tests.

Now, this post isn’t an AAR with a play by play of everything we did. My intention is to share my overall experiences, especially because I’d never been to a carbine class, much less one led by Bill. I’ll say this now, carbines aren’t exactly difficult to shoot. You get three points of contact to stabilize the weapon and minimal recoil. For many years this was part of my reasoning for putting off carbine training. That said, Bill was going to be in the area and if I was going to pay good money for such a class, I might as well go to the left-handed professional shooter’s course and get that sinister nuance out of him.

The Philosophy Of Blowers

Given my own experience taking other open enrollment courses, Mr. Blowers emphasizes scores and time standards a little more stringently than most. I appreciated the crystal clear reasoning for everything he did, as he took ample time to explain himself. He made many of his point to back his arguments through his myriad of personal stories relating to his former career as a SWAT cop in the Sea-Tac metro area. He is a hell of a storyteller which is a key skill for anyone in an education role. It’s probably because I’m from a declasé working-class background and have never had a salaried job, but I found his sense of humor entertaining. That said as a man of reason, I respect that he justifies his way of thinking in accordance to his real-life experience. Anytime an instructor explains the why something is always better than acting like they’re all that or they just “know better.”

My favorite thing about his instructorship was his lack of dogmatism. Oftentimes in class, he’d show us several ways to do things and encourage the group to play around with them and see what worked best. Bill repeatedly told us this throughout the entire weekend. The only expectation was meeting the time and accuracy standards for a given exercise or to keep doing the work towards meeting them. Ultimately, I deduced that Mr. Blowers is a first-principles shooter. In other words, no dogma, just do precisely what you need to in order to make good, accurate hits on target quickly. 

Stuff I Learned

A nasty storm with plenty of heavy rain unfortunately befell us during that training weekend. And the lot of us got muddy, wet and nasty shooting in various positions, especially on TD-1. But that builds character, right? We spent a good portion of TD-1 checking zeros at various distances (10,25,50,75 and 100 yards). All of us got plenty of exercise walking up and down the rifle range with our carbines and gear. Mr. Blowers heavily emphasized having a no-bullshit zero on the carbine. Everything related to defensive carbine shooting builds off of this zero, especially the concept of height over bore. HOB is so critical that it merit its own article with more details and examples, frankly. Because iron sights, dots, scopes, etc sit fairly high from the centerline of the bore on ARs, shots do not align correctly at closer distances. Naturally one has to aim higher to offset the impact and hit the intended target. We spent a lot of time in class going over these impacts at various distances, because Mr. Blowers’ goal was for his students to deeply understand where and how their rifles need to be aimed. After all, everyone is accountable for every projectile they fire–regular Joe or SWAT cop.

We practiced common shooting positions and were able to see how they affected  accuracy first-hand. We spent a lot of time burning reps on things like low-ready, high-ready, emergency reloads from different positions, etc. It was a great chance to finally put my LSA carbine with the ARIC through its paces. And the inclement weather which produced even more mud and dirt only made it more fun! We shot and had the chance to burn so many reps that even though the class ended on Sunday evening, my firing grip was sore until the following Wednesday. Practically speaking, I understand that shooting carbines isn’t that hard. But I was able to walk away with more nuanced understandings of their employment.

Guns And Gear

Because I had never been to a carbine class, much less a “high end” one, I was actually very interested in what other guns and gear students brought. For context, Tap Rack Tactical classes are on the more expensive side. As a consequence, I couldn’t help but notice that most students were serious, and so was their gear. One of the things that surprised me the most was that 80% of carbines on the line were suppressed. SOLGW was also well-represented. Except for one student in particular who had an alternative weapon system, everyone had an AR. The student body as a whole had their AR carbines set up quite smartly. Tactical lights, modern M-LOK rails, Unity mounts, etc. Unfortunately, a gentleman who was shooting to my left had a 16″ carbine with a compensator. I’ll be honest that was not the most fun for me. Out of courtesy to others, maybe don’t bring an AR with a compensator to a class next time? 90% of the guns had red-dot sights. I didn’t see as many LPVOs as I would have expected. On the first day there were two more shooters besides me with an LPVO equipped rifle. By day-two, they both switched to ARs with red-dots and I was the only nerd with an LPVO on the line. (In fairness, I wanted to make the most of this class and have a chance to actually “use” the ATACR LPVO I have. And for what it’s worth, my backup rifle was topped with a zeroed Trijicon Accupower to boot. LPVO Gang!) I don’t regret sticking to an LPVO during this class. One of my goals as a “gun writer” is to increase my awareness and practical knowledge of these kinds of riflescopes.

I also learned some subtleties about running an AR with the ARIC. For example, low pressure .223 Remington spec rounds like PMC Bronze didn’t cycle reliably. You also want a bolt catch that gives you as much leverage as possible on your reloads. And for the love of God, make sure your mags are fully seated. Ammo-wise, stick to cartridges you have vetted or 5.56mm NATO pressure cartridges in general. I was shooting IMI 62-grain M855 Green-Tip with no problems.

In all, it was nice to shoot something else besides pistols for a change. I have a better appreciation for the nuances of carbines and what I can do with my own AR.

I think I’ve written this before. I’ve certainly commented it before. But the best modern AK offering in the US comes out of IWI. A non-AK company making what is, technically, not an AK anymore.

The original Galil was named after Yisreal Galili who led its design. Galili was born Yisreal Balashnikov. That was a little too close to parody since the Galil is an adapted Finnish RK 62, which is itself an adapted AKM.

Calling a 2 degrees of separation service rifle from the Kalashnikov the Balashnikov could have undermined the good work the team did to bring a quality service weapon to IDF. Might have irritated the Soviet Union too, and despite that being his name sometimes that doesn’t matter.

Like the AR, the Galil hasn’t been left stagnant. The Galil ACE brought a 21st Century standard to the rifle and the ACE Gen II pushes that right to the limits again with a floated barrel and longer M-LOK handguard.

The ACE was, at one time, on the expensive end of AKs. The market has gone weird recently though and now its sitting solidly middle ground. Simply by virtue of its price remaining rather steady its value in the space has skyrocketed.

Markets are weird.

The modern ACE, especially in 5.56 NATO, is what you should look at if A.) You want a NATO caliber. B.) You, like all of us, are swimming in STANAG magazines. It still holds splendidly up in the comm-bloc calibers too, although the lack of bolt catch/release ergonomically slows it a small amount.

The ACE (I & II) is one of those first choice ‘alternative’ rifles that should actually be playing more in the first choice category. What’s an ‘alt’ rifle? One you buy when you don’t want another AR but you want the gun to be at that high performance envelope.

It’s ergonomics, especially on the two NATO variants, are nearly what modern day ambidextrous AR-15/18 and AR10/SR25 types are sporting.

Digging further, they’re reliable, accurate, thoughtfully designed muzzle to stock, and the 7.62 NATO variant weighs in only 6oz heavier than the FN SCAR 17s. Funny enough on that point, the 7.62 NATO is the lightest listed of the 4 ACE Gen II line.

They hold an ergonomic and ancillary edge over their AK progenitors too, able to be run a little faster thanks to improved controls and take and hold zero with optics. AK-12 we have at home is actually best AK-12.

Anyway, the video is Micah, who you probably recognize from Garand Thumbs channel as he works with Mike Jones there. Enjoy his shenanigans, give him a like and follow, and I’ll see you all tomorrow for Gunday Brunch.