New Zealand Earthquake and Mrs BoB

I don't know if you've seen this mornings news but an earthquake has hit New Zealand's south island.
Power is out, sanitation is out, the domestic gas supply is unsafe, water is out, and at least 65 people are reported dead, hundreds are trapped and the city is in turmoil. BoB (Brother of bushwacker) lives pretty close to the epicentre in the south islands capital Christchurch.  BoB, Mrs BoB and the small BoB's are safe.

I just wanted to tell you how proud of Mrs BoB I am, she was right in the middle of the city and being properly trained in First Aid was one of the first people on the scene and rescued several people from one of the crushed buses.

On a lighter note MoB (our mum) called to tell me that BoB was already in the garden setting up a trap to collect rainwater and I quote

"He's like Ray feckin' Mears that brother"

Thanks for reading
SBW
PS If you'd like to leave a message for them in the comments - I'm sure they'd be delighted to hear from you - just sayin' 'sall.

Blogs & Blades

'You Cant Always Get What you Want. You can't always get what you want. And if you try sometime you find You get what you need''

A few weeks ago I was sitting in my hotel room, surfing away, looking at the output of customer knife makers. As yer do.
Trying to resist exposing you dear reader to further outbursts of my avaricious 'I Want One - a not so occasional series' posts, and fighting the urge to bankrupt myself when,it was as though the the kit collecting god smiled upon me. 

 I received an email from Black Rabbit who writes the Obsidian Rabbit blog

....... I'd like to ask you to review one of my knives. In return for your time, I'll happily make you the knife to your specifications and send it to you before you write the review - this way you'll be able to play/work with it first, get a feel for it, and be able to form your own honest opinion. Now don't get me wrong - this knife would not be payment for a favourable review - you can say write whatever you want about it, as long as it's fair (but I wouldn't expect anything else) - and after you've posted, the knife remains with you, for keeps.

Well YE HARRRR!!!! I waited all of .00000001 of a second before biting his hand off - right up to the elbow!!!!

So we've been bouncing a few emails back and forth, chewing a few ideas over and the project is coming along nicely. Very nicely.

We looked at three wildly differant ideas:
The Hunter - my favorite interpretation is the fallkniven TK5 and TK6
The BIG Leuku - The Sammi design that's sort of half way point beteen a camp chopper and a machete
The Bushtool - a relatively new design pioneered by Rod Garcia which he calls the skookum bushtool

I've never been remotely interested in the 'woodlore' style bushcraft knife developed by Ray Mears, I'm sure they're great but they just don't speak to me. The bushtool on the other hand looks like something really genuinely different and i've been keen since the first review i saw.

Here's a few of the reviews I've seen over the last couple of years
Bushcraftuk with a field test in the jungle

Britishblades with a moan about the ordering process
Dirt Times review with a bit of background on how Rod Garcia developed the design

karamat (the bushcraft school that hosts Mors Kochanski's training's which inspired the design)
Old Jimbo now hosting the outdoors magazine review

I've only ever seen one traded 'pre loved' and even that was out of my price range. A maker called Mick Spain does his interpretation of the design and it too is both a stunner and unaffordable at this time.

So I was delighted to seize the chance to get my chubby little hands round one. The best thing about having a knife made for you is that all those little details that no one ever seems to get quite right are suddenly solve-able.

Some thoughts:

Not too thick - a thinner blade offers you a little more finesse 

Not wood - handsome rare woods are certainly amazing to gaze at, but a real 'user' will be subjected to the blood and guts of field butchery and may need to be sterilized many times during it's life. Micarta or G10 are the best options for the small scale maker. Micarta is layers of cloth or paper set in resin, G10 is the same idea with fiberglass.

ORANGE - BoB (Brother of Bushwacker) is more of an outdoorsman than any of the armchair warriors posting on the internet even wish they were and he reckons outdoor kit comes in two colors 'where did i put that green? and So that's where it is ORANGE!' 

Deep Choi - the Scandinavian esthetic (popularized by Mors Kochanski) has it that a finger guard only gets in the way. While i agree that it does limit the options for sheath design it also serves the valuable purpose of limiting the potential for a cut finger. Call me a wuss if you like, but I've seen some nasty accidents and had a few not so nasty ones myself. Limiting the potential for disaster is part of the design brief. So a deep 'cut out' that secures the users grip is essential - this one's coming on an Elk hunt and will cut many sandwiches between here and there.

Innovation - Sorry to say this chaps but most knives are just so [yawn] same-old-same-old, the Skookum is different, Raidops aint to everyones taste but his work is different, fallkniven has super cool laminated steel, Wild Steer knives are literally the ugliest thing I've seen since ex-Mrs SBW's sister in law, but at least WSK are trying to do something clever and innovative.  So I was delighted when BlackRabbit tentatively suggested insetting a southern cross into the handle. The Southern Cross is a constellation only visible in the southern hemisphere and a potent symbol of Australia. Different AND it nicely ties the makers work to his locale. 

More news of the project as it comes in

SBW 

PS get Black Rabbits side of the story here

Come In Mrs BoB - Your Audience Awaits

Exiting news from the south island. Mrs BoB will be writing a guest post in which she'll interview her brother, Outdoorsman, Wildfowler, Pig Hunter, and Spear Fisherman. I've met the man in question, but before he started hunting. So I'm really looking forward to hearing all about how he got started, what the bars to entry are in NZ, how firearms licenses work there, what he's bagged. Of course it wouldn't be The Suburban Bushwacker if we didn't learn what gear he uses and what gear he would use if money were no object. I can't wait. 

If you're curious too, please leave comments telling Mrs BoB 

A: how much you want to hear what she has to say

B: To get on with it!

Hint Hint

SBW

Swagmas Pt2 - Sheepishness From NewZealand

Well played MoB (mother of Bushwacker). Bad form BoB (brother of Bushwacker).

Just when I'd said BoB would never let you down, this happened, or rather didn't happen. 

Bad BoB.

MoB, fearing that it would be cold up north (a fear that has proved well founded) ordered me a

Phoenix Zip Thru by Icebreaker of New Zealand in early December. Think of an old school 70's tracksuit top in Wool. Merino Wool.

Being a practical person by nature, MoB thought it could travel economy in combined shipping. Being nearly crimbo and expecting/hoping for a gift from her far-flung son, she had it delivered to BoBs house on New Zealand's south island, where it stayed. Bad BoB

Finally BoB has gotten his butt in gear and shipped it - half a world in seven days - BoBs sofa to the post office took nearly seven weeks. Baad BoB.

In October 2008, Icebreaker launched its pioneering traceability program in Europe called "Baacode." The system enables customers to follow their garments through every step of the production process, beginning on the New Zealand South Island sheep stations where the merino is grown and extending throughout its entire supply chain. Icebreaker is one of less than a handful of consumer companies now offering product traceability.

Yeah BoB that's TRACEABILITY.

SBW