Artistic Interactions

One of the thing not described in most descriptions of the Blade Show are the interactions with artists.  Yes, artists.

I was so busy looking at knives I didn’t recognize Sandra Brady selecting beautiful warthog ivory-handled knives from Arno Bernard. https://arnobernard.com/

Arno Bernard lives in South Africa and makes amazing knives.  These will become Sandra’s canvas.  Sandra Brady is a fantastic scrimshaw artist.  I have, or rather my wife has, one of her pieces and it is stunning.  https://sandrabradyart.com.

I asked her if the Bernard knives were part of a project, and she said no, she wanted them for future commissions.  Her display held a wide subject range of scrimshaw art.

“What’s your favorite subject to work on?”

After a moment, she told me, “I like doing eagles and hawks, but I love a challenge.”

The Green Man

To demonstrate she showed me a Dozier knife with a Green Man on it.  Drawn only in black on white the intricate man was made of plant leaves.  The Green Man is a legendary being belonging to many cultures worldwide and across time.  He has his roots, in the symbolic rebirth of every spring.  I vaguely remember him associated with the Arthurian legend from college studies.

I asked the price and Sandra told me $1350.  You might think it’s a lot of money for a knife, but I think it’s reasonable for art.

Cambridge Show 2011

I attended the Ohio Classic Knife Show in Cambridge last weekend. The low attendance let me stop and kibitz with the sellers without feeling I was interrupting commerce.

Outside the show a blacksmith demonstrated his skill.

Wide aisles and few people gave you room to have conversations.

Kathy Bone was engraving ivory and we talked about how hard it was getting to buy ivory. She does very nice work on knife handles as well as small jewelry pieces.

Engraving ivory, not for the faint of heart.

She had a money clip with Ulysses S. Grant engraved in ivory. It was very nice, but since I seldom see Grant on any of my pocket money, I passed. You can reach her at WVscrimshander@yahoo.com if you’re looking for a special piece.

I stopped at Bill Johnson’s table (WCJohnsonknives@gmail.com). Like many custom makers he had a lot of fixed blades. I especially liked one of his green bone-handled blades.

With all the wonder materials available to modern knifemakers, isn’t it odd that some of the most ancient materials are prized the most? Perhaps it’s some ancestral memory, some prehistory hand/mind link that draws us to the materials used to make the first tools. And maybe we treasure them because they are so different from ubiquitous modern materials.





I spent all my disposable cash at Joseph’s Designs and Buckeye Custom knives. All I can say is, it’s a good thing I didn’t have more money on me.

Joseph’s Designs specializes in flint knives. (http://www.collectorcabz.com/) No, not the blade but the handle. He gets his flint from Flint Ridge in Ohio, thought to have some of the most colorful flint in the world.

Joe replaces the handles on different knives with an almost semitransparent flint, rich in color and pattern. I found a nice Tree Brand Boker with an etched main blade. The flint handles have a pattern reminiscent of wood. The colors include red, black, white and brown giving it an almost pinkish glow in the translucent stone. I’m not much for friction fit knives, but this one spoke to me.

Flint, in case you’re interested, is a fine grain form of quartz (beach sand). Strictly speaking, it’s classified as a ‘chert’, but it seems to be found only as inclusions, sometimes very large inclusions, in limestone. Flint has two interesting properties. One is hardness. Flint is about 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Quartz, found in almost all dust, is 7. This means flint will scratch from normal use so care needs to be taken. The other is flint will strike a spark from iron even when wet. Despite the relative softness of the stone, flint will take a fine polish.

I also bought a nice fixed blade from Pete Winkler (http://www.buckeyecustomknives.com/) . The handle is a nice slab of wood called Pacific Madrone. The brass pins and green dyed, stabilized wood gives it the look of polished stone. The 4.25-inch blade is A2 steel with a Rockwell “C” scale hardness of 58. This is the first convex or ‘appleseed’ grind I’ve owned. Pete assures me that with normal use it will not need sharpening, just a stropping with a nice piece of leather he provides. This will be interesting. The knife has no bevel to speak of as the steel flows continuously to the edge. As a result it doesn’t look sharp, but don’t make the mistake of testing it with your thumb, unless you want to be called Tommy Split-Thumb.

Man shapes steel and steel shapes the man.

ESEE-3

The UPS man just delivered a box of knives.  I have to wonder what he thinks about all the knives that arrive.  It’s only human nature to try to form a picture of a person based on what little you know or at least what you think you know.  

I remember reading about an OSS (Google it!) training drill in which you searched a room and based on what you found, construct a picture of the unseen occupant.  One trainee found a blond wig and a hypodermic needle and announced the occupant was a transvestite drug-user.  Turned out the drill was a test to see how you use your imagination.

I wonder if the UPS driver thinks of me as a human porcupine brisling with edges?

One of the knives that just arrived was an ESEE-3 from Randall’s Adventure.  It’s a nice knife.  8.25 inches of 1095 carbon steel with a greenish gray micarta handle.  A fine line of green separates the micarta  from the epoxy-coated steel.  Very tastefully done.  The blade is 3.75 long so you have enough handle to use the knife.  I was surprised to find the false edge wasn’t!  About half of the top of the blade was razor sharp.

It's a nice looking knife and felt good in my hand.

  

The green layer adds a touch of color to an otherwise dull gray handle.

I like stainless in guns, but more and more I find I like high carbon steel in knives.  The carbides in the iron make bigger and more sparks with a ferrocium fire starter rod than stainless does.  Of course, carbon steel rusts, so the blades are often coated with epoxy or other finishes, but you still need to take care of them.  I just wish they would leave a little one-inch saddle of uncoated steel on the spine.  It bothers me to have to use the blade to generate sparks.

I really like the sharpened false edge.  More and more of my knives sport a sharpened false edge and a dull spot I can press on for more force.  Of course you really have to think that through.  Slipping onto the edge will injure you and complicate whatever you were attempting to do.

I wanted to compare the look and feel of the ESEE-3 to my DPxGear HEST knife.  The HEST is a little specialized.  The handle is hollow with just enough room for a couple fish hooks and monofilament line, maybe a lead shot sinker or two.  The blade is shorter than the ESEE but thicker.  A reflection of anticipated prying needs.  It too is a single piece of 1095 steel.

Never will be twins separated at birth, but maybe distant cousins.

The HEST is a sweetheart for me.  I met the designer (and author) Robert Pelton.  Read his book “Dangerous Places.”  I found it riveting and not all the places are in third world countries.  Some are just a state over from you.  His goal was to produce a classic “bug-out” knife.  One that could be used to make little cuts in people surrounding you trying to pick your pockets.  Not much more than paper cuts and still pry a lock off a door, pound through a plaster wall, discourage your enemies and still open a beer bottle with your friends.

It’s a lot to ask of a knife.  But if you have the skills, then the HEST has the chops.

I hate both sheaths.  The ESSE has a pukey tan Kydex sheath called coyote.  The HEST has a nice but wide Kydex sheath in black.  Both come with molle adapters.  Both can be lashed onto a strap or other things  and neither has a system for a belt loops.  Yuck!  I belt-carry more then I molle-carry.

Sure you can lash both to a belt.  Who knows?  Maybe there is some advantage to being able to untie a knot and let the knife and sheath slip away quickly and without any fuss.  I guess it’s hard to proclaim that you’re unarmed and peaceful when they find a fixed blade knife sheath on you.

April Showers And All That Jazz

“April showers bring May flowers that bloom in June...” singers croon, but we know they bring grass. Healthy, tall growing, vibrant, green grass that has to be cut on a regular basis.

I popped off the blade on my grass cutter to give it a much needed sharpening. I’m always amazed by rotary mower blades, only the tips are sharp. I always thought they would be more effective if the entire blade was razor sharp.

Not so, grass cutter man. Only the tips of the blade need to be sharpened. More on that later.

I use to take my blade into a mower shop where I envisioned a skilled certified technician (in a white lab coat, of course) who would carefully grind and polish the blade with a set of water cooled stones at some precise angle dictated by the blade manufacture. Careful to take only an equal amount of metal from both blade ends, he would constantly check the blade’s balance so it will spin true.

Not so, grass cutter man. Some guy eyeballs the edge while passing it over the course grind wheel. Sparks shoot out the back of the grinder and maybe he makes a second pass to see more sparks if he missed the fireworks last 4th of July.

I hate it when reality collides with my imagination! So I bought a disk-shaped stone with a plastic collar/guide that fits my cordless drill and now I just clap the blade in a vice and grind it myself. Then when I’m done, I can use a fine carbide stone to polish up the rough spots.

I was thinking while clamping it in the vice, how fast does the edge move? I took a measurement from the blade axle center to the leading and trailing edge. The back of the blade is 4.5 inches from the center while the leading edge is 9.5 inches. Since the blade spins at 3600 rpm that means the blade is spinning at, ahh, let’s see, 3.1415 times 0.375, carry the 7…

Wow, the front of the blade zips along at 101 miles per hour while the back of the blade is loafing along at a measly 48 miles per hour. The blade is only five inches long, so if I’m mowing an inch a second, (as a trivial exercise to the reader I let you calculate how fast I’m walking), a one inch section of the blade spins 60 revolutions over that one inch of grass.

Speaking for myself, cutting grass has a new dimension of fun!

Two to Show

As luck would have it, I had a chance to pick up two new knives. 

The first is the OSS Dagger by WE K’nife.  I've always been interested in the small ‘James Bond secret agent’ knives.   I have heard about a replicate kit of special knives made for the OSS, but I have never seen one.  Perhaps it is just urban legend.  In any case, a small concealable dagger would be part of that kit.

Whenever I think of the OSS, I remember "You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger" by Roger Hall

The WE OSS dagger is a tribute to those days.  The knife is made from CPM 20CV steel.  CPM20CV is considered one of the super steels with amazing edge retention.  The formula is 1.9% carbon, 20% chromium, 4% vanadium, 1% molybdenum, and 0.6% tungsten.  But this only tells part of the story.  Heat treatment and edge geometry can make or break any steel.  In this case, vanadium and chromium help create fine-grain carbides and allow for sufficient chromium for stain resistance.  The downside is that 20CV can be extremely challenging to properly sharpen.

A lot of bulky Kydex for a secret concealed tool

The OSS Dagger has a flat back, making the knife less than 1/8 inch thick.  This allows the knife to sit snuggly in tight places.  The two-inch blade is sharpened on both sides, as fitting a dagger.  The flat grind slopes upward to a groove in the knife's spine.  The edges flow to a thin, sharp point. 

Face it, it's a weapon

A depression for the thumb has ridges of G10 to improve grip.  There isn’t a guard on this knife.  I have to remind myself this is a soft target weapon.  The handle has a lanyard hole, and if it is in use, I'd suggest a short lanyard.  The cord, or leather ribbon, can then be threaded between your fingers for additional grip.  A flexible cord could aid you in drawing the knife, depending on your hiding place.

The OSS Dagger comes with a Kydex sheath.  The sheath has a very nice spring-loaded clip to secure your weapon.  It is removable, and WE provides a ball chain to convert it to a neck knife.  You could also sew the sheath in to a pocket or jacket sleeve.  The knife weighs less than ¾ of an ounce.  The sheath, unfortunately, weighs more.

Let's stop kidding each other.  This isn't wartime.  This knife isn’t being issued to people dropping behind enemy lines.  It’s just a paean to one specific tool used by the OSS during WWII.

But I’d find some thinner Kydex and make a smaller, lighter sheath if I needed this last-resort weapon.

Olight is best known for their flash and weapon lights.  They are a relatively new company, founded in China in 2007.  They are not without their fans and critics, with some justification.  In November 2017, a man was killed by an Olight flashlight that exploded due to improper use after placing it in his mouth.  Late in March 2022, Olight recalled 215,000 flashlights because of a defect that caused the lights to accidentally turn on and sometimes burn the owners.

Not my first zombie knife
https://knifesearch.blogspot.com/2023/12/zombies.html 

Despite this, I snatched up one of their Nettle 2 Zombie knives.  The blood-splattered (really, just red coloration) green handle speaks to me.

The 2.8-inch blackened blade is a high-shoulder flat grind.  It is fashioned from  154CM  steel.  Crucible Industries 154CM is a modification of 440C, a martensitic-type stainless steel to which molybdenum has been added to improve its physical properties.  However, this is not the powder metal form. 

The challenge coin was a suprise!

The handle is an aluminum alloy, which lets the knife weigh in at 2.5 ounces.  The handle is set up with a reversible clip and comes out of the box, right-hand tip-up, my favorite way of carrying a knife.

The knife has a button lock, which allows two ways of opening the knife, actually three.  The first is the blade flipper, which rotates to become part of a finger guard when the blade locks open.  The second is using the lock button and allowing gravity to open the blade.  You can also flick your wrist if you want that tactical click.  The last way is using the tiny opening depression in the blade to pinch the blade open.  That’s the polite society way; it doesn't alarm anyone.  Ask me how I discovered the need to open a knife this way, and I'll tell you about a pizza party at work.

Mettle 2 Zombie

 

I don't think I'll be carrying either knife.  Both knives will become part of my collection.

 

Blade 2024 Day 2

 Day Two started off with a whimper.

We normally park at the Cumberland Mall across two pedestrian bridges.  This morning there were 4 mall cops standing at the bridge.  So, I walked up to the them and politely asked,  “Excuse me, officers.  But is there a problem here I should avoid?”

One said the parking lot was private property and she would hate to see my car towed.  So, we moved the truck, and got one of the last 12 spaces in the paid parking deck at Cobb Galleria.  I hated to do that. But I would have hated it more if I had my vehicle towed.

The mall has huge parking areas.  Seems to me they could sell some sort of window ticket for a few bucks and assure that those cars would not be towed.  Free money, folks.

I stopped at Mickey Yurco’s table.  He has an amazing, inventive mind about knives and I ended up buying a small hatchet.  He informed me he designed it for street fighting, but hikers and campers are buying them as a cutting tool.

Hatchet not what your......

I stopped off to talk with Stephen Fowler of Fowler Blades.  He makes very sophisticated fixed blades and I very much like his approach.  Too much bling turns an elegant knife into junk.  One of his knives has a little simple file work and Stephen told me “…file work should call attention to a feature, not be the feature.”  You can find him on the internet.https://fowlerblades.com/

Back at Vosteed I fell for a Thunderbird and discovered they couldn’t sell it until 3:00 this afternoon, but they promised they would hold it for me and they did.  I also discovered that my wife bought the only green handled one that they had with them the day before.  They proudly pointed her out to the staff at the booth.

I think the blade shape, with what could be called a fuller, is icey.

Later, quite by accident I walked by and found they were giving away knives.  It was a simple system, you took a ticket, turned it over and your prize was listed on the back.  I pulled a ticket at random and found I won a Raccoon, their bestselling knife.

I might name it Rocky Raccoon, but....

I’m seeing more and more button locks on production knives.  I like that, as typically they are an easy way to unlock the knife.  In my opinion, it sets up the manufacturer for a future modification to their production line to install a coil spring and start making autos.  It also set up the possibility of someone starting a cottage industry converting button locks into autos.  We have seen this with some Boker button locks and Buck knives, especial the Buck 110.

Just as an aside, I understand Mission Knife has moved from California to Kentucky.  Oh, my!  Talk about culture shock.

Let me show you a bunch more photos to capture the flavor of the Blade Show.

Another mystery man sighting.  Does he belong on a milk carton?  I assume the large fellow next to him is his security. but I didn't see a gun print.  I went to take a photo and he ducked behind a pillar, so I stepped around on the other side.  Passive-Aggressive secret identity complex?

Fox Knives is introducing some new knives with Damacarbon, which sounds like advertising speak to me!

Interesting idea, design your pocket tool with the functions you need.  I think this is a pitch for stores like Duluth Trading.

This is Tim Rowland.  He started as a high end chef

and honed his ideas about chef knives.  While he was doing this he made very nice handles for Japanese cooking knives. They were well received and  someone handed him a chunk of steel and told him to go make the rest of the knife.  He's been doing this for about 2.5 years and you can feel the difference in balance between a Japanese chef knife and a European chief knife. 

Doug and David from Forged in Fire.  

Name an American Knife

Think of France and the laguiole with its bee shaped locking catch comes to mind. Who would draw an image of the Argentina gaucho without his caronera? Let someone show you classic bone-handled stiletto and you can almost see Naples and fields of ripe olives.

Could there be any other knife associated with the United States other than the Buck 110 hunter?

The man standing in frount of my table wanted an American knife to take home to the Orient. I showed him Spyderco’s Native made in Golden, Colorado, I showed him Kershaw’s Leek also made in the states. Those weren’t American enough for him.



I showed him a Buck 110 hunter and his eye lit up. That was his idea of an American knife.   Mine too!



I bought mine 40 years ago. I’ve used and abused that knife. Carried it daily and faithfully for years, it was a part of who I was. Why? Because my Buck 110 never let me down when I needed it. It cuts, stays sharp, cleaned-ups well and went back in its black leather belt sheath without any trouble. I’ve semi-retired it for thinner, faster opening, clip it in my pocket knives, but I still can’t imagine leaving the sidewalk for the dirt path without it.

It’s not a perfect knife. The brass bolsters react with the fatty acids in sweat and leather to produce a green goop you have to clean. The knife is clunky, but that’s not necessary a bad thing. The steel holds an edge, but it takes time to sharpen it with the double bevel edge that gave it keen sharpness and strong staying power. More an a few hours were spent with an oilstone and strop making the perfect edge, only to miscalculate and have to start over. The lock is reliable only if it was kept clean and all knives need a drop of oil.

Al Buck’s gift to knife world was realizing that big knives, clunky knives would sell, if you didn’t have to put them in your pocket. The safety of the locking blade and oversize handle that gave you something to grab, found a home on the belt. I knew people who wore a belt just to hold up their Buck knife.



It is the American Classic.

Blade Show Day 2

Mark Zalesky, the editor of Knife World has purchased the paper and is now the editor, publisher, and chief bottle washer.  We spoke for a while at the BLADE Show and he’s quite excited.  I think you’re going to see big changes at Knife World.  Good Luck, Mark!

I was visiting at Spyderco and enjoyed some of the inside stories about knives and knife makers.  They have just expanded with a new 17,000 square foot manufacturing area.  That means more knives stamped Golden Colorado, USA Earth on the blade tang.  They are still figuring out the best way to set machines and organize work flow, but do you know what they’re most excited about?  The factory windows can open letting in fresh spring air, that’s what! 

They are reintroducing their line of kitchen knives.  While not as nearly as heavy as many profession knives, they are nicely balanced and sharp.  I love their bread knife and the little paring knife.  The large santoku doesn’t have the little air breaks indentations seen on other santoku.  That might just be an advertising ploy, well have to see how it works.

The Positron.  This knife is so cool both my wife and I want one!

I got to handle their new Positron.  It’s a 3-inch flipper blade made out of S30V in a carbon fiber handle.  It weighs 2.6 ounces.  It’s lovely!!!

Here’s another knife from Phil Wilson and Spyderco.  It’s called the Sprig and sports a 2.23 inch blade made from S90V steel. 

The Sprig

It’s a bird and trout fixed blade.  The sheath is still under development.  While it targets a specific use, it would make an all purpose camp and cooking knife.  S90V has high chromium levels for corrosion resistance and high vanadium and molybdenum.  These last two elements form tiny but incredibly hard carbides which should give great edge retention.

Of course Spyderco and everyone else is still plagued with knock-offs from China.  If you have searched for Spyderco or Benchmade you’ll find that Wal-Mart has them and at incredible prices.  Spyderco tells me Wal-Mart isn’t getting these knives from them, so who’s wholesaling them?  “Lot of counterfeits out there.  You get what you pay for.”  Take that as a quote!

Stopped by Benchmade to look around.  Try and get your hands on the 665 APB Assist.  It’s vey new and quite exciting.

The Benchmade 665APB

Most of us are familiar with the Benchmade Axis lock.  The lock is thought to be one of the strongest and certainly easiest to use on the market.  The APB Assist does away with the axis lock and replaces it with a dual button lock.  The person I spoke to at Benchmade told me it was just about as strong as the Axis lock.  I haven’t used the knife yet, but I can’t help but wonder if my grip would accidently depress both buttons.

The two buttone must be preseed together to unlock the knife.  It's very smaooth and a natural move.

The knife opens normally but to close it you pinch both buttons inward and that unlocks the blade.  Very slick.  The 3.6 inch blade is made from 154CM steel and the blue and black handle is very nice.  Benchmade told me they were trying to introduce a color in to the overwhelmingly black tactical market.  The APB Assist also comes in a full auto version (6800 Auto APB Assist).  The catalog shows it black, but the version I saw was blue and black with the same handle.  I suspect it was a quick production so it was available for the show.

Benchmade is making several other autos aimed at the civilian market with clean powerful lines.  Several don’t even look like autos.  The auto APB Assist an excellent case in point. 

Benchmade also has this cool service at the Blade Show.  They will engrave any Benchmade knife blade with any text.  The laser engraver isn’t much bigger than a couple shoe boxes cabled to a laptop computer.  The text is typed in, moved around and sized.

I remember when engraving lasers were the size
of a small auto!

.  

Spelling is checked and you can see the size and position of your text outlined in red laser light

When everything is set up they close the doors and punch go.  A bright green spot of light burns the text into your blade.

Now you can personalize your Benchmade for the cost of a trip to the Blade Show!

If you are going to Blade, take your Benchmades and get them engraved!

I stopped at Buck and found myself talking with CJ Buck.  At the WRCA knife expo I bought a nice new Buck 110 Hunter with what I was told were stainless steel bolsters.  Having a Buck for years, it soon became apparent the brass bolsters react with the fatty acids in the leather to produce a green corrosion.  I was wondering why Buck stopped make 110’s with the stainless steel.  CJ told me they never made a steel bolster.  That would require machining which would drive the price up.  

What I have is German Silver, a mixture of 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc.  It turns out that brass and German silver have about the same melting point so the same casting equipment can be used for both.

No Blade Show is complete without a stop at Santa Fe Stoneworks.  It only takes one look to be convinced to stop and ooh and ahh.  Truly impressive knives.

A small selection of the knives

I’ve see this knife-making display before.  Knife-making made simple. 

See!  Five Steps!

So what’s stopping us?

I’m walking around and I see a name I thought I recognized from a knife blog I read.  She’s an elderly lady standing behind a counter talking to a customer.  In front of the counter stood a short, silver haired woman talking to a distinguished looking elderly man.  I was waiting for the customer to leave the counter when the silver haired woman turns to me and says:

“How are you?  It’s so nice to see you again!” She throws her arms around me and gives me a hug.  I don’t know this woman.  The conversation goes:

Me: “Thank you but I don’t seem to remember your name?”

Her: “Oh, you were drunk that night.” 

I haven’t been drunk since high school graduation, so if I met her then, she has a remarkable memory.  What am I going to say to her?  Oh, I got it.

Me:  “Perhaps you're right, would you please tell me you name again.”

She does and I’m still not coming up with any connections.

Me:  “I’m afraid I don’t recognize what name.”

Her: Do you know Blackie Collins?”

That when the ants started marching up and down my spine dragging ice cubes.

 

Me: “Well, of course I know of him, but I also met him years ago at the SHOT Show.  He was very kind to my wife and myself.  A gracious man.  He unrolled these large scale drawing of one of his new knives and showed us how it worked and what the interesting design features were.”  I ran out of things to say, so I ended with ”He was very nice to us.”

Her: ‘I’m his widow.”

Oh!  Well what else can you say other than “You have my deepest condolences.”

We yakked a bit and I excused myself only to find out the woman behind the counter wasn’t the blogger I thought she was. 

Here’s a few additional photos from Blade 2015:

Grinding Demo by John Horrigan  Too many people to get a nice shot of the actual grind

The art of Chris Reeve's knives!

Neither Here or There

I’m getting ready for another weekend of knife sales.  The Medina gun show doesn’t run over the summer months, chiefly, I suspect, because attendance in nice weather is too slim to be profitable.  Since I’m not attempting to make a living with it, that’s okay with me.  I like having my summer weekends. 

But the return of crappy weather signals a return to knife sales.  I ordered a few replacement items for things that have sold.  It’s very hard to stock inexpensive quality knives.  Knife prices are zooming upward and the influx of counterfeit knives is ruining the market.  But it isn’t always the counterfeit that’s hurting everyone.

I use to carry Kershaw’s Leek.  It’s a great knife, thin and sleek with an attractive blade.  They always sold too, but for the last couple of years Wal-Mart has been selling them.  Selling them cheap too, perhaps too cheap.  Wal-Mart has a reputation of shaving quality out of products to lower their price point.  Maybe they turned over a new leaf.  Maybe Kershaw only cares about profits today and well, tomorrow might be someone else’s problem.  In any case you can find the Leek at Wal-Mart.

So I don’t carry Leeks anymore.  Between online shoppers and Wal-Mart there is no market I can tap.

I read a number of blogs and people send me links and I’m amazed at what I must call stupid money items.  An everyday carry knife for thousand bucks?  An improved flash hider for an AR in the hundreds?  Flashlights that will light up a stadium for 90 minutes on high for 200 bucks?  Even my beloved Spydercos and Benchmades are beginning to come with a loan application.   It’s no surprise.  Costs are going up faster than disposable income.

The question I, and perhaps you, have is answer is, do I really need those items?  I’m not sure a $400 knife will serve me better than an $85 knife.  I know the wristwatch with build-in calculation for drop correction will not make me a better shooter and I seldom have the need to light up a stadium for even a minute.  I suspect  the answer will be found in careful use if a need/want/anticipated use table.

Last weekend was pretty nice so I escaped to the West Side Market in Cleveland.  That area is known as Ohio City and it’s beginning to thrive.  There are quite a few interesting store and activities there.

I’m a sucker for new and unusual vegetables or fruit so I bought a Pitaya or Dragon Fruit.  They are actually cactus fruit originally native to Mexico but also grown in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia as well as Okinawa, Hawaii, Israel, northern Australia, southern China and in Cyprus.

I noticed too late that none of the vendors had prices listed.  I normally don’t pay silly money for fruit, but ….

Half a Dragon Fruit. It cuts easy.

It’s a strikingly good looking fruit, reddish rind with green tipped fleshy ends.  You eat it like a kiwi, cut it in half and scoop it out.  The flesh is white with little black seeds.  Again very impressive.  Taste is another matter.

Inside Dragon Fruit.  Just use a spoon to scoop it out.

Totally bland.  Well, there was a little resemblance, maybe a hint of something suggestive of kiwi.  But I’d skip it completely if I were you. 

I took my wife to see “Gone Girl.”  The audience was mostly women, but I wasn’t the only man there.  It’s a story about two sociopaths who marry.  The wife, Amy, is a much better sociopath.  Better doesn’t always equate to good.  I found it frightening as Amy exploits the tragic flaws in all of us.

What was more frightening was the responses of the women in the audience to Amy.  Amy’s plots resonated with many them and I found myself scrunching farther and farther down in my seat.  I never heard so many women give out a throaty, deep, almost subvocal “yeah” every time Amy’s well planned scheme digs the hole a little deeper under her husband and his sister.

This is the best image of the hole Amy dug for her husband, but I got to say, he jumped in.

I will say, it’s just coincidence that I’m trying out cold weather sleep gear in the garage this week or maybe for the rest of the year.  I have mentioned my unattached garage locks from the inside, haven’t I?