It was way to nice a day to stay in doors and we have a well mowed lunch area behind the employing parking area that no one uses so I said heck with it and strung my hammock up to take a half hour power nap.
That was a hell of a lot nicer than setting at my desk or the break room 
Thanks to troll moderator over at B&B { Jim@badgerandblade.com } I’ve removed their link as I can no longer recommend them for wet-shaving information.
When I first joined the forum it was without a doubt the best source of wet-shaving knowledge I could find. Unfortunately petty little self-important bureaucrats like Jim have turned it into a walled garden that looks down their nose at low life’s like me who only want to share knowledge on their hole-in-the-wall blog (how dare I link my blog to a forum post I made!) even after following his ‘rule’ that I remove links on my personal blog I guess I didn’t bow and worship enough so I’m booted … my life has ended.
I’ll add a few links this week to far friendlier shaving websites and forums in the mean time Leisureguy’s { shaving } and { food } posts are top-notch!
I recently posted a review on the { Czech Army bread bag } and while I liked it I was really searching for a Finnish Gas Mask bag. I finally broke down and ordered one for my son to take to the upcoming { Pathfinder Gathering } and of course as soon as we got it in the mail a few popped up at a local military surplus store so I snatched two of them for myself.
Here is a glamor shot of the Finbag loaded with my gear:
Finnish Gas Mask Bag
I noticed right away that the Finbag is made of thicker canvas and the stitching is of better quality. It also has D-ring connectors so that you can remove one side of the straps which should help with taking it off and on. It also has a waist strap to keep it from bouncing on your hip which while looks dorky as hell actually works.
The Finnish bag dimensions are:
The Czech bag dimensions are:
The Finnish bag is just a bit bigger and can hold a little more but not enough to really differ. I loaded both up with the nearly the same gear list as before:
Both bags held everything without problems but the Czech bag has its three inner pockets on the side nearest your body while the Finnish bag has it on the outside away from the body with a covering flap.
Finnish Bag interior shot
That makes it easier to get to things like my fire kit, flashlight, notebook or anything else I carry in the pockets without stopping to dig while I tended to remove the Czech bag to rummage around looking for things.
The Czech bag is actually more secure in that it has a buckle strap on the inside to hold the main pocket closed tight and the sides are more rounded so they do not flop outwards under heavy load like the Finnish bag does (hint – one you snap the Finbag closed pull the flap out so that it covers the sides of the bag so it won’t flop open on you).
The best feature to me is the two snaps that hold the Finnish bag closed versus the buckles on the Czech bag it’s so much easier to snap/un-snap them verses pulling the bag over in front of me to up buckle it.
I think both bags would make a fantastic shoulder bag to replace a small to medium backpack on hikes but I am going to pick the Finnish Gas Mask bag as the overall winner as it’s just a bit more polished and easier to use.
~
Up next is a small mod to the ‘Finbag’ to add a tarp carrier to the bottom for use as an overnight or possibly two night backpack replacement.
The one shinning problem any of these military surplus gas mask bags have is that there is no external attachment points on them. My fix for this issue is to sew two sets of 1.25 inch webbing loops with sling buckles to the bottom of the bag to see if it will hold my { tarp } which is just slightly longer than the bag.
I got this on Friday it’s from { DealExtreme.com }
Strike Force Fire steel clone
I’ve seen it a few times on the website and the $9.14 price tag with free shipping finally tempted me into ordering it. Like anything from DealExtreme it takes three to four weeks to receive it but for this particular item it’s well worth the wait.
It comes in the same box you would get from stores like {REI.com } or { ThePathfinderSchoolllc.com } but without the cool logo’s it just has a plain “Survive” printed on the box and stamped on the plastic handle. It has the same hard plastic square case as the others and is very rugged I have no doubt it will stand up to many years of abuse in the field without complaint. It fits up to three Micro Inferno‘s in the hollow rod case for quick lighting in an emergency. It also comes with a larger striker on a key chain along with an emergency whistle.
I’m not a fan of the very small built-in striker but it will work if you have no other means of sparking the rod. What I’ve found works the best is to use a folding knife. I leave them closed and grip the entire handle in my right hand and scrap the rod backwards on the back of the closed blade. That way I can control exactly where the sparks go.
From my “testing” I can’t find a difference in this product compared to the others sold here in the US for $19.95 or more. I suspect that all the Strike Force’s are made in China and these are coming from the same factory but sold locally in China instead of export to a western country. I do know that deal extreme does that with a lot of products and I’ve found a few gems on the website.
But with any of these discount Chinese websites be careful because there is a metric ton of cheap knock-off crap. The nice thing about this particular website is that shipping is ether free or a penny or two at most which makes it a bit easier to swallow a crappy item once in a while. I’ve also never had a problem with getting the products or getting the wrong items. The one thing I haven’t tried is there return process I suspect that will not be fun if/when it happens.
~~~
A comment over in { /r/bushcraft } thought this was just a plug for the Chinese website and wanted to know more about the StrikeForce so I’ll add more to the review:
The sparks given off when striked is more of a “sparkle” effect when using a knife versus one from { Firesteel.com } but it throws a ton more sparks compared to one of the smaller { Light my fire } type rods.
The only down side that I’ve found with this product or a branded StrikeForce is that the rod is very short but that’s as designed to fit in the handle. If you’re looking for something longer I would go with a four or five-inch { firesteel bunker }
I had no problem lighting jute twine, waxed jute twine, pjcb’s, wicked-pjcbs, and a Micro Inferno with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking to save $10+ on a good ferro rod.
On the recommendations of ‘mmmgawa’ over on { reddit.com/r/EDC/ } I’ve added a Leatherman Micra to my keyring:
Leatherman Micra
Surprisingly enough I like it. It’s not as heavy as I thought it would be in my pocket and the scissors are useful. The “sloped-neck body design” really makes the scissors rugged for such a small tool.
I also like the metal tweezers which is a huge step up from the plastic ones you get with most SAK’s.
I stopped by a local KC military surplus store tonight (Raven’s) looking for some odds-&-ends and walked out with a nicely priced ’Mora Bushcraft Survival SS Knife‘ for the kid to take to the Pathfinder Spring Gathering in a couple of weeks and now I’m a tad big jealous ;)
Mora Bushcraft Survival Knife
It has a ferro rod holder with a better than average rod plus a “meh” diamond sharpener built into the sheath. I was pleasantly surprised by the ferro rod it turned out better than any of the add on rods I’ve picked up with cheap equipment. The rod’s handle is a bit lighter in weight than I would like but the rod itself throws a mean spark on every strike. The knife spine has a good 90% angle specifically for sparking a rod and it does a great job as most Mora’s do.
It’s a Sandvik 12c27 stainless steel with there standard scandi grind. The knife length is 9.1/4 inches long with a 4.1/4 inch blade that should do well at the Gathering as the kid will probably be using his SAK folder more than a fixed blade but I’m hoping he has a great time and do not want him going in lacking basic gear..
The most surprising thing about this knife is the handle and grip. I’m used to the standard cheap $8~$13 Mora’s and while I love them to death the handles have always left a lot to be desired in my opinion. This knife on the other hand has a well designed rubberized handle that fits nicely in the hand and is very grippy making it easy to hold on to.
I felt comfortable choking up on the handle while making a feather stick and had no problems with the two pot holders I notched. While I haven’t battened any kindling with it (and probably never will) I would trust it to do the job without any issues.
Overall I would be more than happy caring this blade out into the woods as my main fixed blade along with an axe. It’s not as beefy as my Condor Rodan which I would take without the axe but they are very different knives.
If your looking for an entry level ‘bushcrafty’ knife you won’t go wrong with this model as long as you couple it with a good cheap axe or hand saw.
I have seen a few blogs talk about making soy candles and after reading the one over on { Teowawk Blog } I decided to make some. It only took about 30 minutes to make a dozen with plenty of wax left over and best of all it’s easy enough for anyone to do.
The ingredient list is:
Soy Candle Ingredients
So for $26.03 I made a dozen 8-10 hour burning candles ($2.17 per candle) that can be refilled and reused as many times as you want. I probably could have sourced everything locally but decided to go the lazy route maybe for my next batch I’ll check for local prices to see if it’s cheaper.
Here’s the sordid details: ~
Unlike the teotwawkiblog article I decided to skip the double boiler and just used a $1 Dollar General saucepan I bought to melt paraffin wax in. To keep the wax from scorching I added only enough to fill one jar at a time (1.5′sh handfuls) and constantly swirled the pan just over our gas oven burner.
Soy wax chips in saucepan before melting
Soy wax chips almost melted
That worked extremely well and only took about 3 minutes from adding the chips to total wax melt. Once the wax chips were completely melted I carefully pored it into each jelly jar over the sink then quickly put the jar on the kitchen table. The wax takes about a hour to an hour in a half to solidify so there’s no rush I was able to fill each jar before moving on to the next step:
Here is a shot of the wax in liquid form:
Soy wax pored into the jelly jars
Once all of the jars are full you need to add the wicks. What I did was cut twelve 6 to 7 inch wicks off of the spool and run them through the bottom of the wick tabs until the end was jut inside of the tab that way they could set flat on the bottom of the jar. I then took my leatherman and carefully pinched the end closed so that the wick could not fall out of the tab.
Pinch the wick tab closed over the wick
Now it’s just a matter of dropping the wick into the center of the jar and holding the wick upright while it cools … I didn’t plan for that part and didn’t have any wick holders on hand so I had to improvise:
Redneck wick holders
Not the best method but it was easy and the kid’s pokemon card tournaments nets us a metric ton of pencils. I let them cool overnight and they turn out like this:
The candle will look like this after it cools.
I trimmed the wick down and because I only filled the candle to the first thread line I had enough room to throw in a book of matches into each jar for easy lighting:
I added a book of matches to each candle
Now it’s just a matter of storing them in a place where everyone in the house can find them (on top of a kitchen cabinet and in the garage). I put a lighter with both sets but just in case I know the matchbook will work as you never know what will go wrong with the lights out.
Store the candles where you can early find them in the dark
~
All of that took about 30 minutes of work with a 12 hour cool down, was super easy and best of all much cheaper than buying candles. I also found that unlike paraffin wax these soy candles do not emit smoke. While 100% beeswax is still the king of the candle soy wax is half the price and almost as nice.
The funny part was my wife made allot of fun of me over this project but decided after seeing them in action that her and the kid will make them for cheap christmas presents and wants me to order candle scent oils for her.
Since I decided to change out my camping/hiking shoulder bag it’s probably a good time to take a look at my PSK (personal survival kit). This is by no means a recommendation I do not consider myself an expert at anything it’s just what this knucklehead carries.
My work day EDC (every day carry) is pretty light:
My EDC
The knife is a Spyderco Ambitious it’s light enough to clip to work slacks and has enough blade quality to laugh at the boxes I open and tear down daily. I don’t normally carry my PSK (the black bag in the top right hand corner) as it’s to bulky unless it’s winter when I’m wearing a coat so it normally stays in the car console.
The bag is from Adventure Survival Equipment which I found a review of in one of last years issues of Self Reliance Illustrated (great magizine well worth the money). For $18 I decided to take a chance and for the most part I really like it.
It’s big enough to carry anything you could put in an Altoids tin plus a bit extra and can be carried several different ways (belt loop on back, D ring on the side, and a velcro tab on the back) but when fully loaded it’s a bit to bulky to comfortably carry in a pocket.
That’s not a major shortcoming for me but I’m still trying to perfect what I carry in it as I do put it on my belt when hiking, camping or when the family is away from the car (my go-bag has a full med kit) for a long duration.
The contents from the top left are:
My PSK contents
Here is the fak contents from top left:
My fak
I think the fak is the worst part of the kit and needs to be changed. I probably need to find a small tweezers and nail clipper set to go in it to round out the ‘owie’ fixers but that’s about all I can come up with at the moment.
Any ideas or comments would be welcome
It’s that time of year again so camping will become a priority for me. I decided it was time for a new shoulder bag to replace my old Korean War possibles bag pictured below:
My old Korean War bag
While it’s completely bomb proof it’s a bit on the small size, can’t fit my tarp underneath and I’m not happy with how I have to remove the strap to untie my poncho if it rains. I’ve been looking for a Finnish Gas Maskbag locally for awhile without luck but friday I came across a Czech army bread bag that’s just about the same thing for $14.00.
New Shoulder Bag
The best part is I can sling the poncho on top of the bag using those two little buckles so I can get to it easily and still be able to get into the bag anytime I want. I added two 12″ bits of jute twine temporarily to the buckles with a larks head hitch and a simple overhand knot on the other end that loops into the metal lip so that I can pull them loose very quickly in case of rain. I like that allot and will replace the jute twice later with something more robust when I edge the bag in leather.
Opening the bag up you’ll see the standard three small pocket design inside of the main compartment just like the Finnish bag but this one has a middle tie down strap to keep the sides from bulging out like the ‘Finbag’ tends to do when overloaded.
Shoulder bag open
While I like the strap system better than the ‘Finbag’ it is a bit thinner material so I’ll need to reinforce the main compartment opening with leather later. Here is the bag loaded with everything but my cook set and food:
Shoulder bag loaded
It’s a bit hard to tell but in the top left hand inner pocket I have a compass, hand warmer, and water tablets. The middle inter pocket has a bag with my cheap headlamp and spare batteries. The right inner pocket has my fire kit, lighter, and container of pj-cotten balls.
For reference here is a pick of everything laid out:
Current contents of the bag
Contents from top left:
The only things missing if I was going to do a easy overnighter would be my hammock and tarp rolled inside of a wool blanket (italian army surplus) strapped to my back and my cook kit which consists of a 38oz SS Guyot water bottle + nesting cup with a spork, salt/pepper, and a mini-bic lighter rolled up in a bandana inside the bottle. I sometimes carry a soda can stove or a military folding stove with me as well but I tend to like a real campfire when I’m out overnight.
Even with all of that I still have plenty of room for some snacks or even a full meal set with some creative packing. Overall I’m really happy with this bag and will compare it to the Finnish Gas Mask bag when I get it (I just ordered one for my son). I’ll have to take it out a few times before the kid and I go to the Pathfinder Gathering in June to see if it’s rugged enough to handle my less than graceful woodland antics so I’ll do a follow up in a few months with a final grade.
I stopped by the ‘Cigar Merchant’ in town on Wednesday to pick up a Nub based on a r/cigars/ recommendation and on a whim I asked the clerk for another recommendation. He picked the 1916 above, I was a bit leery of a cameroon stick since I’ve never smoked anything but a connecticut but what the hell I picked up both.
I gave the 1916 a try after dinner tonight. It’s a well make cigar very tight and had a great cedar smell after the cut. It lit very well and never had any problems though with it being only 30 degrees out I drew on it a bit to fast and it burned a tad hot so I doubt I would have any burn issues 
It had a very woody taste from beginning to end and a heavy spice taste end the middle. I’m not sure exactly what spice but it wasn’t bad at all. By the last third the spice taste went away and the woody taste became less pronounced. A nice ending to a surprise performance as I didn’t think I would like this cigar.
I don’t think I’ve ever smoked a stick down to the band in my life but I enjoyed it enough to do just that. I’ll definitely give this cigar another go in the near future.
