I’m on a bit of a dubstep kick, and not only is this song awesome, but the video is REALLY good!
Enjoy!
I just figured out the best way to sharpen this knife, so I’ve been dragging it around for a few days. This was my first of many knives from CRKT, its a discontinued unit the CRKT Convergence.
So first up this guy is a little bigger at 3.5″ at the blade. Also the blade offers a very long thin profile making it seems more like a fillet knife than a utility bade. Still it has a nice thick spine and a combo edge so that does indeed make it VERY useful, and also the narrow taper could give added benefits. Also you can see a lock right above the tip. This lock is very simple, and can only be engaged manually. As a rule I flip the blade open, and only engage the lock if I plan to have the knife open for any period of time, or I’m doing some heavy cutting that might put strain on the frame-lock.
The clip is functional, but nothing impressive. It works. And that’s about it.
Now let’s talk about the handle. It has some very generous scales made out of Zytel that have a golf-ball like stippling in them. This not only allows for a positive grip, its also VERY pleasant to the touch and I find myself just handling this knife for the sake of handling it. The frame is of an open design and the two halves of the frame are held apart by three machined spacers and the hinge of the blade. This makes the two halves of the handle wide open when the blade is locked allowing for minimal collection of dirt and pocket lint, as well as easy cleaning.
You’ll notice the knife has no thumb stud, or thumb hole, or a flipper. It opens a bit odd. The shank of the blade extends a small bit above the handle when closed, and this has gimping along the top. I believe you’re supposed to put your thumb on the base of the blade and rock it free of the detente and then flip it open. I personally just push on the very base of the spine that sticks above the handle to quickly pop it free. This operation only partially opens the blade and you either need to flick your wrist or pull the knurled base down with your index finger. Its complicated and a bit odd, but its a VERY positive motion and its very hard to not open this blade when you want to. Also since the blade travels very smoothly between its locked positions, giving me a bit of a ballisong feel as I flip it open. Now here’s a cool part, the knife uses a frame lock, but unlike most frame-lock knives, the frame lock is flush with the scales. It CAN be actuated by the traditional method, but this is a bit difficult. So how does one close this blade?
That little widget under the blade travels in a cut channel at the base of the blade and its machined so as you push it down it impinges on the frame lock, and both unlocks the blade but also pulls the blade down. Thankfully this also only partially closes the blade (as your hand would be in the way) and you must then close the blade with your index finger pushing the base of the blade up, or your thumb pulling the blade into the handle. While one might be nervious pulling the blade down in the direction of your thumb, but by the time the blade is low enough to cut you the nub has retreated into the frame keeping the blade clear of your hand. I’ve actually attempted to cut myself (the point of contact would be my thumbnail so I decided to do some tests in the name of science) and I found that the nub simply doesn’t offer you enough leverage to slam the blade closed, and if you are vigorous enough to get the blade really moving from open to closed your thumb will slide halfway down the handle…well clear of the blade.
So a REALLY cool blade. My one issue is it doesn’t come out of the box very sharp, and the blade is only ground on one side. Still I found that if I sharpen the ground side, then strop both sides with a ceramic bar the edge becomes VERY sharp, and maintains that sharpness VERY well. It took a little work, but this blade also has the CRKT crazy sharpness.
So its a discontinued unit at CRKT but you can still find them around. Give them a look, they’re really odd in a neat way, and VERY functional.
This one is just scary.
A father woke his two children and slit their throats while they desperately tried to fight him off before calling his ex-wife to say: ‘I have killed your children’.
Jean Francis Say, 62, murdered his eight-year-old daughter Regina and son Rolls, 10, to ‘spite’ his estranged wife Adjoua, 44, after he was told he was to be evicted from their three-bedroom flat.
May I note that this brutal set of murders happened in London where guns are essentially banned, and knives are heavily regulated. Also these two had an extensive history of domestic violence.
Of course there also was no “Gun Death” in this case, yet still these two children are dead. Maybe we shouldn’t use a metric like “Gun Death” or think that restricting freedom somehow would have stopped this.
h/t Spike
So I saw this post by Bluesun that made me laugh. Not being familiar with the genre I followed it to this video.
I realized, yeah man, I dig me some dub-step! Found this, and I thought it dovetailed nicely with the last song, and the dancer is king-shit!
Yeah!
Interesting question, and something I’ve been thinking a good deal about with HR822 on the horizon. How many gun permits do you have? Also how often do you use either your resident permit, or another permit out of state?
That second question is because New England is 100% messed up when it comes to Reciprocity. NO state honors any other state around here. I can’t legally carry in Rhode Island or Connecticut, and certainly not New York. Vermont I don’t need a permit for, but Maine and New Hampshire I also have a permit for.
I also got my Florida permit because I have family down there (plus my parents are eying property down there too). So I have 4 permits (But I won’t renew my New Hampshire permit because they honor my Florida, and Governor Lynch jacked the fee up to $100 from $20)
Still most states down South and out west will honor several neighboring states, so most of your travel you can cross state lines without worrying about your carry gun, so maybe others don’t have as many permits as I do.
So my number is 4, and I spend most of my time outside of Mass in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, so I carry out of state a good deal.
How many do you have?
Tam reports that Indiana is attempting to repeal their dumbass laws on Automatic Knives.
I was just talking at how switchblade-like my CRKT Vertex is, and the kershaw Zing beside it opens just as fast without any assistance at all…and of course if I’m carrying a defensive knife, I’m not fucking with a blade that needs to be opened at all, I’m carrying a fixed-blade.
Of course Tam points out that the laws are generally based on Racism, and Hollywood Stereotypes.
It seems when I read knife laws a few other stupid things show up. Of course “Throwing Stars” are there, and I guess that makes sense if you’re afraid of stuff in general. Still frequently I see Gravity Knife which as far as I can tell (correct me if I’m wrong) was an evolutionary dead-end that terminated as a WWII German Paratrooper knife, and usually Ballistic Knives, which is generally just a ball of failure with the occasional Mall Ninja or regular village-grade idiot claiming the combat effectiveness of said cow-flop.
I assume all these laws were drafted with some bizarre congressional circus where a bunch of people who have never had a real job their entire life, and are only partially literate, telling people who have never had a real job and have their assistance read all the words for them how horrible and dangerous these knives are, and they must be BANNNNNED imminently or the human population will drop to Zero in a fortnight!
When really knife people just go “Meh” and get on with their lives. Also with one of my favorite knives being an assisted blade, I still prefer the simpler non-assisted variants, and certainly adding a switch to make the gun a full-fledged “Automatic” ads yet another unit to make so my blade might not deploy when I have stuff that needs cutting.
Kinda sad when its the dumbest people in the world who make the laws that govern the rest of us…
This story comes to us from The Bubblehead Les New Network, BLNN
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A U.S. scientific advisory board Tuesday asked two scientific journals to leave out data from research studies on a lab-made version of bird flu that could spread more easily to humans, fearing it could be used as a potential weapon.
The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has asked the journals Nature and Science to publish redacted versions of the studies by two research groups that reportedly created forms of the H5N1 avian flu that could easily jump between ferrets — typically considered a sign that the virus could spread quickly among humans.
Both journals said in separate statements they are working with the advisory board and taking the matter seriously, but they chafed at the notion of scientific censorship.
The bird flu virus is extremely deadly in people who are directly exposed to infected birds, but so far, it has not mutated into a form that can pass easily from person to person.
According to the journals, two research labs have submitted papers showing how to make the virus more transmissible in humans, and the NSABB, an independent expert committee that advises the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies, wants to keep this information from falling into the wrong hands.
Now Microbiology is WAYYYY outside my wheelhouse, so I don’t know if this research is entirely for military logistics, or if it can be used to help find a treatment, vaccine, or cure for this virus if a hostile entity, or the biggest bitch of them all, Mother Nature, figures this shit out.
That being said with a Predator Drone being stolen by Iran, and the East Anglia Email Cabal was leaked on the web, as Les said to me “Wiki-Leaks will just publish it anyway”. The horses are already out of the barn, no worries about shutting the door or not. Now we just need to make sure to have contingencies for everything.
Here are my two favorite Every Day Carry pocket Knives. Now this is HIGH praise given how many pocket knives I have lying around. These two wind up in my pocket the most.
My two favorite knives from my two favorite knife makers. A Kershaw Zing and a Columbia River Vertex OK let’s have a look at their pocket clips.
Both are currently configured for tip-up carry, but the clips are 3-point adjustable. I generally prefer right-hand tip-down carry….but I also just carry a knife however it comes out of the box, and I find that tip-up or tip-down doesn’t make a bit of difference in my hand.
Now the Vertex clip is unobtrusive and very functional, now the Zing is flamboyant and large. I have two Kershaw knives with goofy clips like this, and frankly I REALLY like them. They look cool and they’re overbuilt. Still this clip would look crap on a knife like the Vertex, so it depends on the package.
Let’s first talk about the Vertex. This is my “executive knife”. Its very striking, subtle, and elegant. I had hoped to get the model with the rosewood inserts, but at the NRA con all they had were the G10 inserts which didn’t floor me at first glance, but boy they really are pretty the more you look at it. And if you go for hillbilly chic like I sometimes do, clipping this to the pocket of your dress suit looks awful cool.
The blade is a sturdy drop-point which is also my preferred blade style (tho again I thought I preferred it more than I do when I carry other blade styles and don’t really care) with a VERY thick spine, which just always enjoy seeing. Also this knife is a CRAZY assisted opener. It has a thumb-stud like a standard knife, but if you push the stud up like a normal knife you’ll just grind a grove in your thumb it with. Instead you need to push the blade DOWN to unlock it from its detent, then a small push out and the heavy leaf spring engages and the blade flips open and locks in alarming speed. I found the best way to open the blade is to hold it in my hand with my thumb on the scale and simply rotate my thumb off the scale onto the stud and push it down. Essentially the blade could pass for a switchblade, but I guess since all the manipulation is done on the blade it doesn’t count. As an assisted its much more complicated than a conventional knife, and I will say one of my nephews managed to get this unit locked up at camp this summer…I think it was just silt in the action as a liberal drenching with WD-40 seemed to get everything working again in short order.
Now on to the Zing. This is more of a simple knife. The scales are made of textured nylon which feel like canvas to the touch. The blade has a pair of thumb studs on them that I’m not a fan of, but its big selling point is its flipper. This knife opens quick, easily, and positively with a push of the flipper. The action is BUTTER smooth. Also for those of you who may consider a pocket knife as a viable defensive weapon, the flipper on the Zing does double as a blade guard, so if you DID happen to use this defensively, you stand a better chance of not ruining your hand in the course of things. Now let’s look at the blade:
The blade has scallops all down the length of it. Kershaw says they did this just to give it a striking look…but I find them VERY functional on two levels. You may notice that my #1 cutting purpose is opening boxes at work and home. The scallops on the blade make for minimum steel touching cardboard when you make a cut so the blade slides through the cardboard with greater ease. Also with that lower surface area I find that adhesive residue doesn’t collect on the blade very well. Also the scallops don’t seem to collect dirt, so overall this knife always looks clean even when its been run hard.
Both knives are locked in place with liner locks. Both knives have GREAT edges and edge retention. The Vertex seems to hold a scary sharp edge, but both are great. I will note when I opened the Vertex it was very sharp…but there were tiny burrs all down the blade. I have about a half-dozen CRKT knives around the armory, and this is the first of this I’ve seen. Also about 3 passes on a ceramic stone cleaned them right out so no harm no foul.
The Zing occasionally spots some stains on it. I can quickly clean that up with a scrubbing pad and some gun oil which keeps the rust away.
Love these knives, and I couldn’t recommend them more!
On Monday, a judge in Jacksonville, Fla., set February 27, 2012, as the trial date for the youngest person ever to be charged as an adult with first-degree murder in that city.
Fernandez is accused of pushing his 2-year-old brother David so violently into a bookshelf that the youngster never woke up and could not be saved by the time he got to the hospital.
He’s 12 and could spend life in prison for the murder. GOOD I say, there are far too many good people in the world for us to get bent out of shape over damaged goods like him.
Fernandez’ mother, who was 12 years old when she became pregnant with Cristian, is also being held in prison without bond. She’s charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, culpable negligence, because an investigation by police of her laptop shows a Google search for “when some (sic) gets knocked out” at 10:54 a.m. Then “concussions on children” at 2:38 p.m.
Those searches were followed by activity checking the family bank account, downloading of music, and then, finally, at 3:07 p.m., the first search for the location of “St. Luke’s Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida.”
A doctor at the time told detectives that had the 2-year-old been rushed to the hospital immediately, he could have been saved.
Mom was apperently aware and concerned about the event…but not concerned enough to…well DO anything.
Hey but no gun death here, so it isn’t THAT bad, is it?
h/t Barron
The latest hit song “Pumped Up Kicks” is like most one-hit-wonder songs. Vapid, shitty…but catchy. This of course pisses me out because I feel compelled to seek out a bad song for the catchy hook.
Thankfully Sophie Madeleine made a cover that blows the doors off the original. Enjoy!
