Posts Tagged → tool
Much, much to be thankful for in America
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and there is so much to be thankful for here in America. Let’s start with the “small” things, which we take for granted:
-Surfeit of food, of all tastes, colors, varieties, amounts. At bear hunting camp this week (pictures below), people brought a wide variety and overwhelming amount of snack food, in addition to the high quality main course ingredients. Super rich, high-calorie, high fat, mostly sugar and corn syrup as the first or second ingredient, this “snack” stuff could feed an African village for a week. But it is practically poison here in America. We take it for granted, and often reach for it out of boredom, never out of need. It is killing our health, with way too many Americans obese and diabetic. The good stuff, like amazingly abundant and cheap fresh fruit and vegetables, does not blast our palates with artificial flavor, and is shunted aside.
-Paved roads, which are not common in much of the world. Americans like our paved highways and by-ways, everywhere. They are enjoyable to drive on, and are so smooth that we can eke every possible bit of gas mileage efficiency out of our personal vehicles as we shave minutes off of long distance trips. Importantly, our highways are made from quarried rock and oil pumped out of the ground.
-Personal vehicles are not a get-to-work or manage-the-farm necessity for half of America, but are rather the higher-end personal statement of appearance and perception, of how we want others to see us. Meanwhile, half the world still uses horses, donkeys, and cattle to transport food and goods. The next time our personal car gets a scratch, let’s remember that a vehicle is but a tool, and tools get used and scratched. Let’s not take these super expensive tools for granted.
-Shelter, like a home, has rapidly changed in concept in just a few decades. Our grandparents aspired to own a home of about 900 square feet in size. And while we mocked 1980s tyrant Imelda Marcos for her huge closets and psycho big shoe collections, a lot of car garages are now about 900 square feet, while the homes they are attached to are 3,500 square feet. Meanwhile, our own families have shrunk in size since the 1950s, compared to our grandparents’, but our homes are generally exploding in opulent size and personal service.
While I do not question or judge market forces like supply and demand, we must be thankful for what we have available to us, dammit. The tin shanty favelas surrounding Mexico City were filled with domesticated animals and pobrecitos human beings, all under one small leaky roof made of rusty corrugated metal; the things I saw then still haunt me even now.
I am not trying to be a scold or a downer, but man oh gees, do we as a nation need to be super duper thankful to each other and to the One Above for all the blessings this incredible America enjoys. If we take these myriad blessings for granted, then we will take anything and everything for granted, including each other. And when people take each other for granted, their relationships fail. American citizens need to have a close relationship with each other and with our self-representative government. It all goes together, hand in glove.
Tomorrow, we must all give deep thanks for what we have, and show appreciation for it all. Not the least of which is living in the wealthiest, freest nation ever created by humans.
Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow American citizens!
A 1970s Grohmann “skinner” knife gifted to me by a friend whose dad hunted with me. It was dull as dishwater until Irv worked his magic on it. It now shaves hair and has a heavy dose of home-made cutting board butter on the rosewood handle. It goes deer hunting this weekend.
The bear we caught up in our Monday drive, seen here back in July. Estimated at well over 7′ and 600-700 pounds, he escaped with but a scratch from an excited hunter who did not take his time and aim carefully. Photo by Bob G., thank you.
The Ruger Marlin 1895 45-70 in the mountaintop laurel jungle minutes before our drive made contact with the big bear.
When shot wild and excitedly, twelve gauge copper slugs will kill only trees, and not the bear-of-five-lifetimes
Light blood trail went for 1500 feet, and then disappeared. We determined his left front leg had been nicked, not hard. Lucky bear, sad hunter
Sad hunter makes the universal “I can’t believe I did that” gesture of frustration back at camp. Yeah, you will never see another 700 pound bear on a drive in PA, old friend
Are you into knives?
Are you into knives?
This is more of a question for men, most men, actually the vast majority of men, especially men who still identify as a man, and it is maybe a question for three women on the entire planet. It is not a question for the Western mincing limp wristed urban femboys of both straight and gay orientation, unfortunately.
A high-respect shout-out to the manly men in Africa and the Middle East, where tradition requires men to wear a real dagger at all times in public. That is heart-warming to see, especially in these days of artificially reduced testosterone and unnaturally lilting voices.
I am definitely into knives, and I have been so since I was about six years old. I received my first pocket knife at age six or seven, and I have never stopped enjoying using, carrying, and looking at well made knives on a daily basis.
Since the dawning of our species about a hundred thousand years ago, hand tools have had a particular appeal, especially hand tools with an edged or a good bludgeon at the end. Nothing speaks to a man like a well-made, well designed, purpose-made tool, and especially a knife tool. So much can be done with a good knife, like defending one’s self, acquiring dinner, making other tools, and just feeling prepared for whatever comes into the cave opening at night.
Hand tools are how our ancestors defeated much larger, hairier, and scarier beasts than even my buddy Irv, the stone and then bronze spear points drawing first blood and the following knife edges drawing delicious strips of fresh red meat to be roasted over fire and consumed. Sadly for our ancestors, they did not have cold beer to accompany their manly dinner combat and hand-to-hoof warfare meals, as we do today. But I digress. Maybe. Cold beer and good knives do go together. More on that later.
Point being that today about a zillion high quality knives are made and easily available to the manly men among us, and the adventurous women, too. This overflowing supply of knives exists because there is an unquenchable demand for them. Whatever desire we had ten thousand years ago for a good, well balanced, sharp blade in hand, has only become more and more acute as the knife materials have surpassed stone, bronze, and even anything high tech metal envisioned in Alien vs Predator movies.
Today, you can literally buy any kind of knife made of any kind of steel, iron, stone, copper or bronze, made in a dozen places around the world (Pakistan, Japan, America, Germany, China are leaders), for a decent price, and its quality will range from OK to unbelievably great. Like many knife aficionados, I enjoy watching videos of Pakistani and Indian families hand-make various knives from scrap steel of both poor and high quality. You can buy one of these knives and get a lifetime of service out of it. If you buy such a knife from an American or Canadian maker, you can get ten lifetimes of use out of it.
A quick search on eBay for outdoor, defensive, and recreational knives will yield a literal sh!t ton of variously shaped blades, handled in all kinds of wood, plastic, micarta, Z10, bone, ivory, mammoth ivory, and other creative materials. This surfeit of knives exists because humans the world over want them.
One of the challenges with acquiring as many knives as we want is how high tech is populated by mincing limp wristed femboys, both gay and straight. These sad eunuchs don’t desire a good blade in hand, they desire to put everyone else in their hand and control everyone and everything by way of deceit. Because they are intimidated by manly objects and words. And so neither PayPal nor Stripe will provide real-time banking services to online sellers of knives (or guns). Yes, you can buy some knives on eBay, but most of them appear to be cheap Chinese knockoffs of better quality designs.
Enter a new knives-only website, www.knifeenthusiast.com, that makes everything you like about shopping for and buying knives easier, more streamlined, more informed and informative, and just plain all-around better. The knives they have tend to be higher end, higher quality, custom made, and are for sale by guys like you and me. Disclaimer: I know the crazy guy founder of this website. Disclaimer: Yes, he really is crazy about knives. Despite being a genuine flatlander, he is a very masculine man, has fathered countless children just to prove his manliness, and likes guns n’ knives and hunting and war implements of all sorts, sizes, and historic periods like all other manly men. His house is a small museum or armory ranging from the 17th century until present day, as you might expect.
So go visit https://knifeenthusiast.com/ to satisfy your deep need for yet another edged weapon, and rest comfortably in the knowledge that you are supporting a small business run by people who think and experience life just like you.
ps Neither I nor this blog received or will receive any sort of remuneration for this essay. On this blog I write about what I like to write about because it pleases me. I like knives and I like small business entrepreneurs. I like my buddies. This essay combines these worlds.
Nice to see men wearing a knife, especially as a symbol of public necessity
My buddy Irv definitely has a knife thing