Leatherneck VS KaBar!!

I got the Leatherneck as a gift from my wife, I got the Kabar with a gift card from work. I want to go on the record and say that I love both of these knifes and will gladly put my life on both given what they each are designed for.

Let me start with the Leatherneck and its features. The Cold Steel remake features a flat ground from top to bottom, bowie style blade made from sk-5 High Carbon steel. Almost the exact same as the 1095 used by Ka Bar. A Kraton handle, full tang design that has the looks and comfort of slip tang, and an extra thick double guard. I like the flat grind the way it is, Cold Steel intended this knife for fighting and some utility use. The slender blade makes it lighter, faster, and gives it less resistance going through soft tissue. This makes it very nice for skinning and prepping meat also. Now I watched a video where some guy took this knife and chopped wood to test it, going through the branches seemed easy for this knife, but it saw much more resistance when trying to split wood, this I figured was due to the slender blade, just look at the difference between a log splitter, and a hatchet. The hatched is more slender therefor is sharper and better for chopping branches and such, but the log splitter, splits the wood rapidly making it better for splitting. This is what  saw with the leatherneck in my video as well. The edge held up wonderfully, as expected with all of Cold Steel's products. After the wood chopping and such I did on camera, off camera I prepared a big batch of Jambalaya, and chicken breasts with the knifes. This simulated many skinning and other intricate cutting tasks, and the leatherneck did great. Better than the Kabar.

The Ka-Bar is make from 1095 high carbon steel. the model I have is a kraton handle, and a semi serrated edge. The blade features a flat grind a false edge and a fuller (Blood Groove as I call it.) The tang is a bit of a problem to me, though this knife has proven itself I see no reason why Kabar can't adopt the full tang design for a bit more stability. It would be a very easy improvement. The same goes with the double guard, Cold Steel's is three times as thick and would be very nice to see on the Ka Bar. That being said, when I tested it, the blade geometry made it quite easy to split branches. In fact once the branch started to split the cutting edge pf the blade saw no contact with the wood. That being said, it was considerably hard to chop the branches off to begin with. The Ka Bar blade geometry is clearly more suited for more heavy duty cutting tasks. The edge retention on the was also phenomenal, it clearly would be a better survival knife.

Now the problem is, that Cold Steel has changed their design and blade steel. So the verdict of this experiment is still unknown as I do not have the current model. That being said, I think that with the new leatherneck blade shape, and if the Krupp steel hold up, it could be a superior knife to the kabar. Now I know I will be reading on thin ice with my cousin and all marines everywhere (sorry Sean) but the hollow grind allows for the same level of heavy duty cutting and chopping and still has a good sender edge fore more intricate work as well, call it the best of both worlds. That also being said, I feel that Krupp steel is a bad choice for Cold Steel, but if it could hold up due to some special tempering or heat treating process, then so be it.

Now keep in mind that my opinion is considering the intended design of the knife, the leatherneck was intended as a fighting knife, if you want a Cold steel survival or utility knife, they have plenty other models to choose from.

FLASH FICTION

Here is a little flash fiction that I submitted over to Karen at Bibliophilic Blather.

A WESTERN MAN

His old Ford truck made a dull lull as he pulled into the gravel driveway.  The hard wood floor of the porch enhanced the steady rhythmic sound of his boots.  KNOCK, KNOCK. If she hadn’t known who it was already she could just by those two knocks, he had a certain way about them.

“Come in” she said.

He stepped in as he took the black Bailey hat off, the tall dark and handsome type he was, mixed with a little bit of mountain man.

“I heard what happened Tracy. He aint gona get away with it,” he said while pulling up a chair.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she said.

“Is that so?” he said as he pulled her hair away from her face revealing a bad bruise under her left eye that she had been hiding,  “Can’t just let people do this to ya.”

She looked into his eyes and wondered how big of a mistake she made leaving this man, and how good he was for still being here for her.

“What are you gona do Travis? Arrest him? He’ll be back on the streets in two days as usual,” She said.

“He split us up, tried runnin you off of your own ranch, and he beats you. He’ll be answering to more than just the law, he’ll be answering to me,” Travis said.

“Just like that, mister big lawmen is gona take matters into his own hands and avenge his love, I suppose you’ll be riding into the sunset after this one right?” Tracy was a spit fire of a woman, having successfully taken over her father’s ranch after his passing, She and Travis kept it going for a number of years. That was until she broke it off, she fell in love with a rancher, but was looking at marrying a sheriff, and she guesses it was too much of a change for her at the time.

“Well it would be really ‘cool’ if the sunset thing where to time just right, but it won’t be of any consequence.” Travis found his calling late in life, as good as he was with horses, he found himself to be a better sheriff. It was when that man Fuller came around that she started to doubt things about being the woman of a cop.

He got up from his chair, put his hat back on and she followed him out to the porch. He took off his duty revolver and his badge and left them with her saying, “I am not doin this as a lawman, I’m doin this as me.”

“So you’re commin back?” she said.

“Yes, and I aways will,” He said.

He stepped off that porch, started to truck and drove off, right into the sunset. She thought to herself, “well I’ll be damned, the cowboy rides into the sunset, but this time he’s commin back.”

AMERICA

We live in what has been a grand country, now I see a corrupt, and oppressive government passing laws that fatten their pocket book, and legalizing martial law. Now with the upcoming presidential election we hope to gain a new president that will fix it all for us. I also hope for that, but it isn't going to happen. You see we all want a "Government of the people, by the people and for the people" as long as that means we get to make laws that effect what we are allowed to do. When the sh!t hits the fan economically we call to our politicians to fix it, and of course that is dumb, why would they want to give us tax breaks, and such?

We chose the president we vote for based on what his "plan" is, when we all know that the "plan" is never going to happen, for one reason or another. We should be looking at what kind of person the candidate is, that is why i am voting for Ron Paul, I know he will never be able to implement his plan, four or eight years is not enough time for it to work through his efforts alone. Ron Paul is a man who airs on the side of small government, us being able to vote for our own future.

When i look at the people of my country I am disgusted, I thing about my grandfather who fought and saw so many of his friends die for this country. I think about our forefathers, George Washington who fought, lost men and turned down the crown to allow the people to vote him into presidency. That is the kind of men we need in this country, particularly running it.


The problem with this country is not only our politicians, and the super wealthy (don't get me wrong they are defiantly a great majority of the problem.) It also us, we need to take credit as "the people" of America and realize that we let them get to this power, they have control over 99.9 percent of the wealth in this country because we buy their product, we vote them into power, and we sit back and fail to use the constitution the way it was intended,as a set of rules for "US" to enforce on our government. We want the Constitution to protect us when it is our job to protect it, we want the law makers to let us have our country when it is our job to keep it, We want our president to fix things when that is also up to us as "The People."

 I want to see Americans be better Americans, help people just because, work 110% of your job and take pride in it, not just being a check box employee tossing the blame when something doesn't get done saying "its not my job" we are all on the same team here. We need to demand more out of ourselves if we want to bear title of "Americans." It is up to us to make our country a better place, it is up to us stand up for right an wrong, not to be lazy and "just get by." We need to embrace and help our fellow man, and not be afraid to go against the grain when we do it. We need to be better people, fixing this country is gonna be a long road but we need to do it, it is not going to be easy, nor is it going to happen over night.

 When someone needs help, we need to help them, why? 'Cause that's what Americans do. When there is wrong being done we need to make it right, Why? 'cause that's what Americans do. Although the country is in the hole because of our politicians, we can blame them because this is "A government Of the People, bye the people, and for the people" if we expect to govern our own country, then we need to take responsibility when it goes bad. When the power shifts away from us we need to take it back. Voting for Ron Paul will place a small government supporter into the head seat but it won't fix it, that's our job.

Kip Poe's Die Already!!!

This story is clearly a short, that being said, it is my favorite thing about it. I was able to start and finish this story between my morning coffee and my work commute, which is hard to do. I don't normally read books before work just cause I will get gripped and late for work.

I personally write mostly contemporary westerns, that being said I surely have a dark side and this story fuels it allot, this is why I rated it four and a half stars (five on amazon), I am hell bent on nor giving any five star reviews but this one would surely take the cake. It starts out with flashback about a gruesome discovery of the main characters powers, then goes on into more gruesome descriptions of a character's death that Kip has given you a sort of attachment to, Then the end is well... you will have to read it to figure that out. I have not read the extra content but I will be including reviews on that as comments on this review.

Why I havent posted in a while.

I know I haven't posted in some time, and I apologize. There is a reason however, I have not come across a product that has made me go "WOW!!!." The knives that I have, are extremely capable and do not fail me in any way, therefore I have no need to buy new ones. The guns I have are so reliable and well made that I see no need for replacement of them. As far as movies go, I liked captain America and bridesmaids, I could throw i there Hanna, but they didn't make me go "HOLY CRAP I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!"

I hope that this further validates the total adaptability and effectiveness of the Coldsteel ODA, Recon One, True Flight, Rifleman's Hawk, Regent 1911, FNP 40, and the Mossberg 500. Please take this as food for thought in regards to the fact that I have had no need to buy new gear. P.S. check out my new kindle ebook "The Man With No Past, The entire Series.

Transformers Three.

O.K. I waited a week before I wrote this review. I did this because I wanted to let the movie roll around in my head for a while. The collusion is that the movie was totally awesome!!

So basically, Sam is out of college now, and can't find work for crap, even though he has saved the world twice and received a medal of honor from Osama er I mean Obama, sorry for the political reference, if you look at my blog much you will see that I am very pro gun, weapons, freedom and he isn't so yeah... anyways, Sam can't get a job. until he meets John Malcovitch, then gets a crappy job. His new girlfriend has a great job, sort of, and he doesn't like that. But of course, some sort of huge evil thing happens and the transformers recruit Sam to the battle.

This movie focuses more on the transformers than it does on the people. This is a good thing, the second movie was better than the first one on that note. There is allot more big celeb appearances in this one also, not only the great John Malcovitch, but also Francis McDormand, who plays the government official that everyone hates, Patrick Dempsy as the girlfriends boss.

These movies have a way of making you fall in love with the characters, as fictitious as they are. It was full of action, drama, and plenty of great one liner, some people think that one liners are cheesy, but I like them. I particularly liked when one of the nest guys said, "why do the Desepticons get all the good shit!" because I had just been saying that the day before we watched it.

I don't particularly care for the girl, I know most guys are cursing me right now, I am sure she is a nice girl, but just because Maxim say she is the hottest, doesn't mean she is, hell they put Cameron Diaz as number four, no offence, but she is not number four. At any rate, she fits the bill and her acting wasn't bad, and I like her better than what Megan Fox has turned in to. Not trying to be mean, just saying it the way I see it, plastic surgery sucks, and not every guy likes a girl that looks like a hangar (in the sense that their build only compliments the clothing that is picked out for them.)

Great flick, Optimus Prime rules!!! Go Bumblebee!!!

  Go here and watch the preview, then "like" it, right now!!!!!!!