A tubby suburban dad watching hunting and adventure shows
on TV and wondering could I do that?
This is the chronicle of my adventures as I learn to learn to Forage,
Hunt and Fish for food that has lived as I would wish to myself -
Wild and Free.
I received an email the other day offering me the a free shirt and as buying stuff to review takes up a large part [a ‘large part’ called ‘all’] of the blog budget and I wear a shirt most days I of course accepted.
The company claims the shirt has innate odour reducing properties, not being currently engaged in any adventure sports, I tested it with a couple of days on a building site carrying sanitary ware and plasterboard (dry lining) up many many flights of stairs. Which amounts to the same thing. Just without the fresh air and photo opportunities.
Did it work?
I really don’t know for sure, but it probably smells less than a cotton shirt
Was it warm?
Yes it was. So much so that I’m wearing it as I write.
Would I buy one?
Only if was available without the hideous promotional message.
What would make buying one a no-brainer?
Being able to choose the hideous promotional message myself.
What can we learn from all this?
The slogans on outdoor-wear are crap.
The ‘add your own slogan’ companies don’t offer base-layer shirts.
SBW loves free stuff even more than he loves cheap stuff.
More soon
Your pal
SBW
PS the lovely Traci has just written in to ask me to tell you that the shirts are currently just to demonstrate the efficacy of the anti odour treatment and will soon be branded with the name of a well-know hunting apparel manufacturer. Go on Traci. Seeing as its you. Normally I'd just have laughed and moved on to the next email but as coincidence would have it - It actually works. Really I've been wearing it for days and it doesn't smell as bad as my other work clothes.
You know how it is: an old friend, been around a long time, starred in more than a few tales, been a faithful companion, I thought we’d roll on forever. But there comes a day when the gap between old's-cool and clapped-out suddenly closes. When even The Northern Monkey laughs at your kit you know you’ve sunk to a new low.
TNM: That’s your rucksack! Sheesh I thought you’d have a better one than that!
SBW: What do you mean? [Indignantly] It was state of the art when I got it
TNM: When exactly was that?
SBW: When I was fourteen
TNM: [begrudgingly] I suppose that’s not bad value
SBW: Hell yes! I’ve dated women younger than my rucksack
A while back during one of my periods of 'research' I found the Slingshot Channel and it's creator Jörg who very kindly agreed to be bombarded with daft questions on your behalf. Enjoy.
SBW: How did you get so interested in catapults?
Well, I loved them as a boy already. My father taught me how make a slingshot with car tyre inner tubing and natural forks, and soon afterwards I started to sell them in school - until the headmaster stopped my little business...
When I grew up, my interests shifted to motorcycles and then cars, so I forgot about slingshots for the most part. A few years ago, I read a few threads about slingshots in a German gun forum, and had the basic idea for my "V" design. I decided to make a prototype, and it worked. People loved it, and although by now I have far more effective models, the "V" is still popular - maybe because it looks so cool.
I made my first videos for youtube, to show my invention to others. Soon my channel became quite popular, and now I think I am totally addicted to slingshots! It is a great hobby, you can make them easily at home and shooting is possible anywhere. Slingshots are one of the few weapon types that aren't heavily regulated, unlike firearms. That is a great advantage, and probably one reason why they have gained so much popularity over the last years.
SBW: Do you hunt with them?
I don't. That would be illegal (= poaching) in Germany. But anyway, I grew too soft for killing cute animals. As a kid, I killed lots of birds, rats and even a rabbit with the puny slingshots I had back then - but now, I just shoot at dead things.
SBW: Do you sell the catapults you make?
No. I have a great job, and my contract prevents me from any sort of side business. That is not so bad, as I have no deadlines, taxes or insurance issues to worry about! Also, I think my credibility in the forums would decrease much if I would have commercial interests. But I have given away many slingshots for free and I traded a few of them against other home made gadgets. Also, I have given a design to a Chinese slingshot manufacturer, and they plan to bring out that model soon. here's the link
SBW: You've made quite a few videos, which is your favourite ?
I like "Slingshot vs. Ballistical Gelatine" the 1200 pictures per second super slomos in the sun are nice and the AC/DC song is very appropriate!
SBW: What is your idea of the perfect catapult?
One that also solves the world starvation problem? No, seriously, there is no such thing as the perfect slingshot. There are just too many trade-offs. Fast, super thin flat bands are incredibly powerful, but they don't last nearly as long as thick, sturdy tubes - which are much slower. It's the same with cars - there is no "best car in the world", there are just good compromises, that's all. Every shooter has to find the best individual compromise. From all my designs, the fourth generation "W" slingshot with the rotating grip, equipped with ball bearings, is my favorite model. Powerful, precise, foolproof - and nice to handle. Beautiful, too!
SBW: What's the perfect size of lead ball?
Depends. I don't like lead balls smaller than .44, because they are too hard to grip through a leather pouch. .44 and .45 lead balls are very good for hunting, they fly fast even when a medium strength band set is used. I personally prefer the .75 musket balls, they deliver an incredible amount of energy (80 Joules), many times the power of a good air rifle.
SBW: I'd like to embed a video in the piece, which do you think are your best?
I like this one: Three interesting slingshots in one video, and I like the snow outside.
This one needs to be read in the voice of Elisabeth Hurley
Well darlings what can I say? Dear SBW has finally seen a glimpse of the error of his ways and sent a long overdue request for some fashion advice from yours truly. The poor foolish man has committed some terrible fashion faux-pas; the silly boy really does have the fashion sense of a cockney builder. That terrible hat, shocking!
I mean culottes! Really! And after dear Hubert pleaded with him to dress in a more appropriate way, one just never knows whom one may meet on Hackney Marshes.
It’s not as though he is without the improving influence of AIR. Here seen stylishly foraging in a charming linen suit. Quite the artist-afield.
But enough of others failed attempts to sartorialise SBW: I thought if I were to spell out the horrible truth in words even a chubby plumber could understand I simply must start with the basics:
BUSHCRAFT is just SO last year, darling!
This year it’s all about Tactical!
Fortunately I do have certain contacts in the world of men’s haberdashery, so my first call was to that complete darling Alber[t], the visionary behind that well-known emporium of manly style Albertus Afganus.
Always the hero of the hour he’s currently embarked on a daring fashion rescue in Afghanistan – wonderfully sense of colour those people, but the women’s wear! Dreadful! Just dreadful, the poor dears look like they’re wearing tents! The men! Dont get me started, Kyber Pass AK47's [tsk] I ask you? Not an accessory rail in sight, dont they read `Vogue or Guns and Ammo?
Being a card carrying sweetie Albert dropped everything and rushed to my aid. We asked poor SBW what size he takes and he replied, “I’m so fat the only thing that still fits me is the sofa”.
Sofa King Tacti-cool
Fortunately he is now in the hands of the professionals and Albert was of course able to size accordingly; kiting SBW out with a technical rain jacket, shirt and pants, all perfectly colour co-ordinated for whatever it is SBW does in that field or by that dreary canal. Now that we've modernised him I must drop a few hints about accessories. This season I suggest accessorising with that perennial classic (the Little Black Dress of Tacticool) an AR15, or if the event is 'dress-to-impress' the Stealth Recon Scout in .308 is this season's 'must have'.
Albert immediately popped an aid parcel in the post, and due to the wonders of a modern international postal service SBW was soon kitted out in the latest trends, and to be fair, looking rather dashing.
Now if only we could only do something about that dreadful hat.........
Old london town, home to the world's oldest continuous city archive, and easily the most cosmopolitan city on earth ( I know many of you believe that title belongs to NYC, but yer just showing yer ignorance). Here in old blighty the national dish is Chicken Tikka Masala, sounds Indian right? Invented for serving to people with a skin-full of 'wife beater' [not the vest a strong Belgian larger] the national drink.
While we are guilty of all the things we happily project on to the French - rude and standoffish, and the stereotypes we hold true about the New Yorkers - pushy, aggressive, greedy are far far truer about us. Every so often a random meeting with a member of the GBP (great british public) reminds me why I still live here despite the many excellent reasons to swim, rat-like, from the sinking ship that is Albion.
I was on the south bank of the Thames the other afternoon visiting what was in Shakespeare's time the theatre district. In those day the theatre was a rowdy, boisterous night out, with plenty of talk of sedition on and off stage. So the theatres were set up on the southern bank of the river where they were outside the jurisdiction of the city fathers, but near enough to draw a crowd.
By chance I happened on a chap fishing, and we spent an enjoyable few minutes shooting the breeze about all things Eel fishing. An education ensued.
I, it turns out, am way way behind the times with my 'bacon bait' strategy, apparently Eels have long been turning their noses up at bacon. But the good news is, much like myself after a skin full, they are unable to turn up a chicken Tikka Massala. Ledgered baits on a hook no bigger than 8 (although 6 has many proponents). Our man recommends ASDA as the best source of such bait, but as so many of you live a long walk from the nearest branch I thought a recipe would help.
1 pint of live natural yogurt
1 Tablespoon Cumin powder
1 Tablespoon Garam Massala
1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
1 Teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 Teaspoon Chilli Powder
Juice 1 lemon
8 cloves garlic - crushed
1 inch grated ginger
Red food colouring
4 Chicken Breasts Cubed
1 Lemon
Marinade long, Cook slow. Eat well, Save scraps for bait.
Just to prove that no good deed (or shared fishing tip) goes un-rewarded. One tourist was so taken with his bonhomie and advice - describing it as 'wikkid awesome', that she gave him a lesson in 'Massachusetts tongue kung-fu'. Lucky lucky boy.
While I was at the Natural History Museum in London I saw this plaque commemorating the buildings use during the war as a training centre for SOE - the Special Operations Executive. Founded on Churchill's order 'to set Europe ablaze'. The organisation of previously unremarkable people who did remarkable things. There many stories of the courage shown by people from all walks of life, many of whom melted back into civilian life after the war, but for me Gabcik and Kubis exemplify the sacrifice made.
SOE operations in occupied Czechoslovakia came to a head in 1942 with the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, deputy to SS leader Heinrich Himmler and the governor of Bohemia and Moravia.
Two Czech SOE agents who had trained in Britain, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik, ambushed Heydrich as he drove through Prague in an open car. When Gabcik’s weapon failed to fire, Kubis threw a grenade which wounded Heydrich who climbed from the car to chase his would-be assassins on foot before collapsing from shock. Heydrich died from scepticemia a week later.
In investigation ordered by Himmler incorrectly linked the SOE mission to the villages of Lidice and Lezaky. All adult male occupants were murdered and the villages burnt to the ground. Around 13,000 Czechoslovakians were imprisoned, deported or murdered as part of the Nazis’ revenge. MORE HERE
This action was later made into the amazing, and heartbreaking film Operation Daybreak
In the face of all that assails us, spare a thought for those who did what they had to, purely because they had to. So that we too could have our chance to mould the world in our image. Today, if you have a moment, have a drink with me, the toast is Gabcik and Kubis.
"May you live in interesting times, and choose to be a part of them"
The day was still warm, but in the wood the canopy keeps the world in shadow. The constant changeable breeze rattled the coppice and the whooshing of the trees hid the elephantine sound of our footsteps. A footpath runs along one boundary of the wood and, being mostly clear, meant we could if not properly creep, it at least reduced the noise of our ‘stalking’.
A flicker of movement ahead and to the right revealed our quarry, munching on a nut at the base of an Oak. I twisted so my body would obscure my hand signal to TNM. The squirrel froze, and did a very good job of disappearing into the leaf litter. I shouldered the air rifle and realized just in time that the scope was set on too higher level of magnification. Finding a grey camouflaged thing against a backdrop of leaf and shadow wasn’t that easy. The cross hairs danced over his shoulder and as I should have been at my stillest my squeeze of the trigger must have pulled the muzzle to the right. The squirrel jumped four of five feet to the left; I worked the bolt back and forward and sent a perfectly aimed puff of air towards him. Sadly the puff of air wasn’t pushing a pellet.
The Air Arms S400 is a single shot rifle; I have an aftermarket ‘pellet feeder’ that must be clicked forward by hand each time. Right hand - Pull bolt back, Left hand - index pellet into place, Right hand - slide bolt forward. Ready to shoot. Supposedly. I’d missed the middle step and worked the bolt over an empty chamber. The squirrel gave me a withering look but stayed still. The next pellet jammed on loading. The squirrel sighed and bounded up a beech tree to wait patently to be shot. Now frantically fiddling I managed to free the now deformed pellet from the feeder. Through gritted teeth I start again. Bolt back, finger on the pellet feeder…No feckin’ pellets!! The Northern Monkey bounded off toward the hut to get more pellets and the squirrel and I kept each other under observation. TNM is back in a flash and I feed a pellet into the chamber. The squirrel was now further up the tree and had disappeared from sight.
As my heart rate slows, the terrible sinking feeling begins: had I shot him? Had I made a clean miss? The only way we could know would be to keep him treed until another shot opportunity presents itself.
I made that sound easy didn’t I? Several glimpses later a Holly bow lashes me across the eye and half blinded I give TNM the rifle. Due to the dense undergrowth and the fence line it’s not possible to get to the far side of the tree that the squirrel is now hiding up, I leave the wood to get a better view from the footpath. Twenty feet up the tree is the classic rotted hole at the intersection of two boughs. A hidey-hole with a bushy tail poking out. Dead, dying or hiding?
Several attempts to climb the tree prove fruitless so we cut a long pole from the coppice and rig up a lasso loop to grab the tail with. By the time we get back to the footpath armed with our retrieval-rig the tail is no longer poking out of the hole.
I’d love it if this blog were a long and triumphant record of hunting success’s and delicious meals, I’d settle for an amusing record of failures and frustrations. This time I’m just gutted, I just don’t know if I hit him, earlier in the day I was putting pellet after pellet through a hole smaller than our smallest coin. Did I fluff the shot completely? Did I allow a wounded squirrel to get away? I’m just not sure and worst of all I doubt I’ll ever know. The following day my eye swells up and I’m sofa-bound for a day feeling very sorry of myself.
Just a quick one to tell you that contrary to appearances I've not disappeared, just been very busy and the camera is knackered (3rd replacement) so none of the posts I've been writing can go up yet.
In the meantime here's the very best in UK air rifles, hand made by Ben Taylor at Milbro - designer of the TheoBen (he's the Ben) Rapid 7 and many of it's later iterations.
This is a bolt action, magazine fed rifle, based on a Theoben. The 500 version relates to the 500cc bottle that is mostly used on the FAC rifle. The action is overhauled for better efficiency but it retains the Buddy bottle supply, with a modified Theoben regulator. This will give about 20% more shots per charge of air with much improved consistency and accuracy. It is fitted with a UK Custom Stock. It is supplied with a London made Milbro Huggett standard moderator. The rifle is only available with a scope sight rail built in. Overall weight will vary from 7.5 lbs to 8.5lbs depending on barrel length and stock density. It is built to sub 12ft/lb specifications. The rifle is available in .177″, .20″, .22″ or .25″ calibres.
Totally awesome, just the thing for hunting "Tree Rabbits' but £1350. AKA $ 2,197.26. Ouch.
In the morning we breakfasted on noodles and eggs before pumping the rifle up and sighting-in. The Northern Monkey is very well practised at laying out ground works and has a pace pretty much bang on a meter. So forgetting the tape measure wasn't a big deal. We used James Marchington's free air gun targets, which are conveniently scaled so one square equals one click of the scopes adjustment at 25 yards. Handy.
Friend of the blog Nick Matthews has designed this neat accuracy accessory that he was kind enough to send me for testing. Like all the cleverest designs he’s taken one thing and got it to do more than one job.
Apart from the obvious role in protecting the lens of your scope from harm, the Acuccover’s big bright markings promote eye-to-scope alignment, first: by starting the process of adjusting your focal length before you’re close enough to see the cross hairs, giving speedier target acquisition. Then the outsized bright markings help to eliminate parallax error by exaggerating your perception of level and plumb so you look dead straight through the scope. Nick explained to me that the Accucover also helps in reducing 'cant error' AKA rifle tilt which is particularly important with lower velocity rifles. A nice bit of kit and available to fit most sizes of scope.
'First thing you learn is you always gotta wait' Lou Reed
I was to be snaring Rabbits with another blogger over the weekend. But as is so often the lot of the self employed, one thing leads to another, a client sets a meeting back and a Friday departure disappears over the horizon.
Seeing as I already had the weekend booked, I roused The Northern Monkey and we resolved to visit the permission in the forest.
Saturday: one thing leads to another and we finally leave at the end of the afternoon. The drive out of town is uneventful, and we're making good pace, too good to be true. We spend an hour or so sitting in the car, gridlocked, with the engine off. By the time we're finally back on the move it's getting dark.
Then follows a hilarious [you had to be there] interlude where we drive round a village trying to find an unmarked turning before we get to the wood. Then, for shits & giggles, we repeated the process on foot in the wood itself.
SBW [on phone]: So we're in the wood, where's the hut?
R [on phone, losing patience with SBW]: If you're in the wood, you're standing next to it
R [talking to E] They're in the wood they can't find the hut
The sound of splashing bath water and laughter
R [on phone, laughing]: Good luck, call me in the morning. CLICK
Now we'd scared off any inhabitants the wood may have had, we spend a relaxing evening in the hut eating our bean stew and bickering.
SBW: the deal was I cook and you pump up the rifle
TNM: I'll do it in the morning
SBW: I bet you if you don't do it they'll be Squirrels outside first thing
TNM: What! After a night of us two snoring like a pair of chain-saws they'll be long gone
I don't remember the highlights of the next argument, which was about who sleeps where on the sleeping platform, but I remember that it revolved around who was more likely to want to go for a piss in the night. TNM's getting on a bit so I let him have the easier route to the door.
Sunday-first light
SBW: Are you awake?
TNM: Yeah man
SBW [fighting his way out of a hooj duvet and now straddling TNM on his way to the door]:
Good, I just wanted you to know I'm not trying to mount you
Of course there was a Squirrel perfectly poised on a tree not ten yards away.
Just got back from a trip to the forest. Where I found this beauty.
Chances are you already know what it is. As usual, the challenge of being the first to comment with a correct identification wins FIVE SOLID GOLD BUSHWACKER POINTS.
Additional points may also be awarded for, style, scientific interest, flair, wit and misanthropy.
More of our adventure as and when I get the time to write them up
On the 13th of January, just seven days after the retreat commenced, one man, bloody and torn, mounted on a miserable pony, and pursued by horsemen, was seen riding furiously across the plains to Jellalabad. That was Dr. Brydon, the sole person to tell the tale of the passage of Khourd Caboul.
More than 16,000 people had set out on the retreat from Kabul, and in the end only one man, Dr. William Brydon, a British Army surgeon, had made it alive to Jalalabad. The garrison there lit signal fires and sounded bugles to guide other British survivors to safety, but after several days they realized that Brydon would be the only one. It was believed the Afghans let him live so he could tell the grisly story.
The English in Afghanistan” from North American Review July 1842
The blogosphere's best armed apiarist, has taken a few moments out from his busy schedule, keeping the world safe for democracy, to share his ponderings with us. This missive takes us from the graveyard of empire via apiary to the potential for permaculture to rebuild damaged lands, and back again.
This one is a MUST READ, Rasch of Kandahar at his best!
Ahh Subcom. I've been a fan of theses ‘discrete folders’ [AKA ‘small penknives’] for what seems like an age now, but due to the ill thought out BS of UK knife law, locking folders tend to stay in the drawer, so there are always other things to spend the money on.
I needed a dry-bag for a forthcoming trip so I was foraging a forum I frequent for bargains when I noticed I was able to pick this one up, in decent condition, for roughly what I'd have paid in the US of A. Before I knew what was happening it was in the post to me. Opps!
Let the Unboxing commence:
First things first, minimum bid: Any locking folder is judged first on the tolerance of its lock-up. Any play in the blade’s locked position is unacceptable. The Subcom’s lock-up is 100%. Flawless.
Chad Los Banos, the Subcom’s designer, has pulled off the difficult trick of making the ‘littlest big knife’; pocket-able and compact whilst feeling full-sized in the hand. He’s not followed much of the orthodoxy of knife design and as is so often the case the ‘clean sheet’ approach has paid off. The blade is comparatively short, but the cutting edge is comparatively long. The handle is slim but deep, giving the feeling of holding a much bigger shape. Clever stuff.
"either too small or too big, too skinny a blade, and not enough handle to fill the hand." The Subcom series of folders and fixed blades were designed to fill the hand, while remaining small enough to "stay out of your way,"
The Subcom’s blade is AUS8; not the best of the best, but some way up the performance curve from the generic tool steels and lower cost than the super steels. For the price you pay, very good value.
Of all the ways to lock a folding knife, frame-lock is my preferred choice, you get a really solid feeling and the absence of moving parts such as rings or pivots means there is little to wear out or fatigue. Part of the frame is sprung so it locks the blade in the open position. The steel is thinned and heat-treated so it’s flexible enough to be bent out the way letting the blade be folded into the handle. As the blade is opened the sprung section snaps back into the locked position. One of the things that attracted me to the Subcom’s design was the moveable element of the frame is full sized. Quite a few of the production folders use a section of thinner steel as the catch and as a result always seem less satisfying in the hand than the customs, and higher priced production offerings.
Where Boker, the manufacturer, has made a production saving is with the use of Fiber Reinforced Nylon for the ‘scale’ side of the handle, less rigid than G10 or Micarta, it’s had to be stiffened with a thin steel plate, from a manufacturing-to-a-price point of view it’s an intelligent choice and probably a lot of the reason the knife can be such a reasonable price.
In summation: you get about 110% of the design, and about 70% of the build and finish you’d get from a custom folder, for about 10% of the price. Highly recommended. Highly pimpable too… TBC
More soon
Your pal
SBW PS There are more knife reviews in the 'kit' tab at the top of the page, or click HERE for my knife buying guide, you might like it.
Time was running wild, ticking by with the exhilarating inevitability of a James Bond style doomsday device; a very special guest is expected imminently. My room looks like what it is – a place for a plumber to keep his tools with a bed shoehorned into the corner. I’ve tidied for hours; the end is almost in sight. So we went foraging. Priorities init?
AIR (Artist In Residence) and your pal the Bushwacker set out to forage the neighbourhood. The apple tree, that was to be the basis for our planned crumble had been stripped so we crossed the bridge onto Hackney Marshes. Where it turned out a bounty had been laid on for us.
Blackberries seemed a bit past their best, but Elderberries had just come on-song.
The Forrest has been out for a while now, so I thought it was about time we compared the new model to the benchmark Clipper. When I posted my 1st review of the Forrest, regular commenter and wise blogger Hodgeman commented that 'Mora is probably the biggest bang for buck outfit in existence' and I make him right. You can spend crazy money on a knife and you get style, fit, finish, and the joy of owning something made by a real craftsman, what you don't get is a knife that's any better at cutting than the £10/$10 Mora Clipper. They take a wicked edge and hold it pretty well too. Several bloggers and You Tubers have repeated Mors Kochanski's demonstration and beaten one into a tree trunk then stood on it. Some of them pretty big fella's too.
As you can see the Clipper is made to a price, a low price. The bade is stamped from sheet steel and then has the cutting edge fairly crudely ground on to it before being set in a plastic handle. In the picture you can see the marks left my the grinding process, not great looking but that's not what you're buying at a 10 spot. All the money is in the steel i.e the bit you cut with.
The Forrest is all together a classier proposition, almost as though Mora realised they'd already cornered the market in the cutting-tool-for-low-price space, and have now set out to teach the vendors of £30/$30 knives how it's done. The blade has benefited from some sculpting, which does add something to the usability of the knife. I'm massively impressed. It's not easy to define the difference ( post a comment if you feel you can put it into words).
The sheath has benefited from a design re-think, with the old clip-on design replaced by a through-the-loop system which not only offers added security, but lets the knife move in relation to the users posture.
So in short the extra cash has gone on the blades grind - much neater, the blades shape - one part for slicing cuts one part for pushing cuts, and the sheath - a vast improvement.
When even The Northern Monkey says it's worth the extra cash, you know it's value for money!
While the last Kuksa I showed you was very nicely made, it was a bit too nicely made, if you know what I mean. I traded for these two with Gary from Bearclaw Bushcraft and Nordmarken Canoe UK, he had picked them up in the Sami winter market, they have a charming unevenness to them gained as they were whittled to shape by the fireside. The Sami tradition is to soak the finished cup in salt water to bring out the grain in the burl wood. As the burl is a mutation of the tree the grain no longer grows in the straight lines we're used to seeing, it tumbles in on itself creating random patterns and becoming far more resilient against splitting. Ideal for a piece of wood that's expected to get wet.
Here you can see the transition between the 'figured' wood of the burl used for the bowl and the handle's strait grain of the trunk of the tree the burl was harvested from.
Readers from back-in-the-day will remember my love of printed ephemera. The little leaflets helpfully provided to the maker by the local tourist board also deserve a mention:
The rites of baptism release elements and lend depth to the pleasure of drinking: Fill your Kuksa with Rum or Cognac. Allow your thoughts to be transferred to the proximity of the Polar Star sip at the noble liquid and listen to the way Nature speaks through the Kuksa. If you detect a salty taste your ritual has been a complete success.
Lets get ready to ruuuuuumble! Two giants of the swedish knife making industry are squaring up to.... Nah it's not really fair, one is a heavy weight survival knife that can happly be used to pry floorboards up and the other is a svelt bushcrafter.
I've never had a survival knife that was so confidence inspiring as the F1, maybe it could be an inch (25mm) longer, but then it wouldn't be quite as wonderfully stow-able as it is. The blade could be a tad thinner, but then it wouldn't be as strong as it is. It could be easier to sharpen, but then it wouldn't hold an edge as long as it does. I've beaten it into a log 'till the mallet disintegrated, I've pried 70+ year old floorboards up with it, I've taken it into the Tuscan hills and used it for everything (food, firewood and green wood) for a week and it would still take hairs off my forearm. It's weaknesses are it's strengths. Hell of a price these days if you buy it in the UK, still very reasonable in the US of A.
How do you take the worlds best value utility knife and make it even better? Well the chaps at the Mora knife worx must be talented because they've made it look easy. I'm hoping to get a few years of use out of mine so I haven't pounded it into any logs, but on past experience of their other products I suspect it would come out, if not unscathed, at least still useable. It's certainly a better food preparation knife than the F1, easier to use, and easier to sharpen, like all Mora knives it takes a wicked edge and holds it well to. As well as the F1? No - but very few steels hold an edge like VG10, all of them a lot more costly than the bargain Mora Forest knife.
But which is best?
To be frank with you I wouldn't be without either of them, the Forest knife is the one I reach for for most tasks, it's an excellent craft knife and butchery tool. But on a canoe trip, or hunting in the Tuscan hills I'd want to know the F1 was there.
