JAB

What always amazes me about Gran Torino's knives is the level of fit and finish.  I mean, he makes knives that look better than knives that come from high-end manufacturers and even a lot of the other custom knife makers that I have seen.  The knife in this post is a great example.

I love it!  Great work.

Some of you may or may not remember that a couple of months ago I posted about a project I did in which I re-purposed a blade from an Old Hickory I had that was losing its wooden scales by giving it a handle made from a deer leg bone. I liked the way it turned out but it mostly 'looks nice' and might not be practical for frequent carry and use. I decided that I want to do a couple of knives that could spend time on my belt. This post is about the first (and only) one, so far. I have a Russell Green River Dadley style knife that I bought at a historical day and was impressed by the carbon steel used so I thought that for my first one I would order a kit that included one of their blades of a different style. I ordered this kit from Track of the Wolf and this is what came with it: One thing that concerned me was the complete and total lack of a finger guard or any, other 'grip assisting' features of the blade. Even the Dadley style blade they make has a little of what I guess you could call 'proto-jimping'. I realize that settlers, trappers, pioneers and mountain men used knives like that for years but I also know me - I'd cut the crap out of my hand if I tried to use such a knife on a regular basis, especially with wet, slick hands or so on. To hopefully help prevent such personal injury, I modded it by adding a finger groove (using the Dremel and grinding stone) and some jimping (with the Dremel and a cut-off wheel): The wood for the scales that came with the kit was, as you can see in the first pic some nice curly maple with lots of figure. So, I marked and drilled holes for the pins, glued the wood to the blade handle and got to work shaping the handle, mostly by hand with just a little help from the Dremel and a sanding wheel. After several hours of work with a pocket knife and sandpaper, I had what I felt was a nice looking handle. It was then time to put the pins in - unfortunately. The first pin went in smoothly. The second one got about halfway in and bent. I couldn't get it to go all the way in and I couldn't get it out. After prying, pulling and a lot of cussing, I decided that my only choice was to cut the head off of the pin with the Dremel and a cut-off wheel. Unfortunately, there was not enough space between the head of the pin and the handle so that meant cutting a gouge out of the side of the handle scale, effectively ruining it. The sad thing was that by that point I had realized that the pins weren't even necessary as the small amount of 527 glue I had used to temporarily hold the scales on had held up through the entire shaping process and would have been enough. Oh, well, at least I learned a valuable lesson. From now on if I order a kit and it comes with those pins I plan to carefully but immediately remove them from the kit, gently open the back door and proceed to sling the damned things just as far as I can. If I feel I need extra support for a future handle I will use Chicago screws. Otherwise, I will go with just the glue or maybe some thin, decorative pins like a lot of folks use. So, it was back to the start. I have a strip of wood that I bought (at Home Depot, iirc) to make knife scales. It is also maple but is much more plain and isn't as nice as the curly maple that came with the kit but it was what I had so I cut a couple of pieces off of it, glued them on to the handle and began, again. This time, however, rather than spending hours whittling away at the scales, I decided to set up and use my 1 inch Harbor Freight belt sander for the first time. That was one of the best ideas I have had as it took about twenty minutes with it to do what it had taken hours to do with my pocket knife - and the end results looked better. Honestly, being a fan of wood grain/pattern I think I prefer the smooth, unblemished look of the scales unbroken by pins, anyhow. Yet another reason not to use them in the future as long as the glue, alone, holds up over time (and I suspect it will.) So, after shaping with the sander, cutting out the finger groove with the Dremel and smoothing with various grits of sandpaper, I rubbed the handle with a little olive oil. This is how it looked at that point: Now it was time to turn a little more attention to the blade, itself. It was pretty sharp out of the box but as you can probably see in the above pic the edge was fairly 'shallow'. I reprofiled it to give it a more 'beveled' edge and now have a couple of bald spots on my arms from testing to see if it was shaving sharp. I also decided that the bright, shiny finish had to go so I forced a patina. I wanted something different than just an even patina, though. I wanted the blade to have kind of a 'mottled' look like some of my older carbon steel knives. I used mustard to force the patina and thought, "I wonder what adding salt would do." So after putting a thin coating of mustard on the blade I then put on a solid layer of salt (table salt, right out of the shaker.) I let that sit for about half an hour and then, just out of curiosity, I passed the flame of a disposable lighter under each side of the blade until all the salt 'charred' and turned black. Not enough to really heat the blade (and mess with the tempering), just enough to char the salt. I let that sit a few, more minutes then rinsed it off with apple cider vinegar. I then washed it with dish soap and water and I am really pleased with the results. When the patina was done, I ran the edge over my whetstone a few times so that it would stand out. I also rubbed a little more olive oil into the handle and, once that was absorbed and pretty much dried, I rubbed it with a little beeswax and buffed it out with a paper towel. Finally, I decided that if it was going to be a belt knife then I really needed a way to carry it on my belt. To that end, I banged out a quick, simple sheath. The sheath isn't perfect and I might end up having to make a new, slightly re-designed one but I did carry the knife in it all weekend and it works okay, for now. I'll just have to see how it works long term. So, here are a few pics showing the reprofiled edge, the patina and the sheath. Some of the dark spots on the blade look like pitting in the pictures but they are not, the surfaces of the sides of the blade are smooth: While this certainly isn't up to the 'professional grade' quality of Gran Torino's work and doesn't have the coolness factor of having forged the blade, myself like Spots and some others do, I am overall very happy with the resutls, especially being this is really my first effort with wood scales. I think I will enjoy carrying and using this knife. I don't think this will be my last, especially as I already have a few, other knife kits that have been languishing away waiting for me to get around to them. There is one thing I am wondering and would like to have some opinions, just for curiosity's sake. I wouldn't really call this a custom knife but as I modded the blade, made the handle and made the sheath do y'all think it would be fair to say that I now have created myself a 'semi-custom' setup or is that going too far?

Well, if I were presented with such an enviable task, my response would also definitely be something with a cylinder, nice grips and some tasteful engraving.  Then, again, as it is for your 50th, maybe something like this would be appropriate:   http://store.samsguns.com/RUGER-50th-ANNIVERSARY-BLACKHAWK-357-MAG-44-MAG-USED-A9008-12-A9009-12.htm   Matched set of 50th anniversary Ruger Blackhawks, one in .357 and the other in .44 Mag.  Serial numbers both have the same last three digits.  Says they are used but that they are unfired.  You could easily rectify the latter part of that statement.

  The actor doesn't have to come out defending the right to bear arms with both barrels (pun intended.)  He or she could simply say, "That isn't something I care to discuss," or "As an actor and entertainer, I prefer to keep my comments within that area and not stray into the political arena."  He might even say, "Well, I am not going to offer an opinion on firearms ownership by others but I will say that many of the movies I and others have made lately would be pretty damned boring without them."

  Well, I kinda agree with him.  I think that if the Founding Fathers knew how the 2nd Amendment is being misinterpreted to give the Federal Government the authority to determine the types of firearms The People can own by claiming so-called 'reasonable restrictions' then they would definitely be turning in their graves.  I do think they would be embarrassed to see how the right of The People to keep and bear arms has been taken (and given) away over the course of the last, couple of centuries.  In that way, I guess it is the 'right to bear arms' that is the problem - in that even as clear a statement as the 2nd Amendment is obviously not written clearly enough to keep antis from attempting to usurp that right regardless of what the Constitution actually says.

I still have yet to see a posting or any other indication that guns are prohibited in any Waffle House at which I have eaten.  I have certainly seen no, such posting at my local Waffle House.  I don't eat at Waffle House all that often because the food they have is extremely easy to make at home and if I go out to eat I'd rather have something that I couldn't make, myself, in the time it takes the server to take my order (although I do like the hash browns at WH and rarely fool with making those at home.)  The fact that I don't stay out late or drink much, anymore, probably has curbed the frequency with which I eat there, as well (although even now it is usually late in the evening if I get a Waffle House craving.)   I have carried at the local Waffle House several times and it has never been a problem.  Of course, I generally carry at least 'casually' concealed so the staff likely never even knew I was carrying.  Being that the place is not posted, meaning I am legal to carry there, I figure that as long as I know I am carrying then that is good enough.   I realize that the story in the OP here was different, though, because it involved an officer in (field) uniform.  I am just saying that I think that a lot of the 'no gun' nonsense depends on where the particular Waffle House is located and how strictly the franchise owner decides to enforce it.

  The real problem occurs, however, when in addition to the small grips not only making it difficult to get a good grip (or impossible - there was no, such thing as a 'functional hand hold' with the original grips in my hands) the exposed backstrap slaps the nerve just below the thumb and makes the entire hand go numb and physically lose the ability to grip tightly.  I'm talking about the same effect as a 'pinched nerve' and even shooting a couple of cylinders full of .38+P would leave my hand and wrist numb for a couple of days.  I have quite happily and comfortably fired full-house .357 loads through other snubbies (including a similarly sized but obviously heavier Ruger SP101) with no ill effects so it isn't that my hands are overly recoil sensitive - it was just that the original 642 grips were terrible..    Everyone's hands are different so, while it might be possible for some people to 'make it work' with the vestigial, grip-like devices that come original on the gun, others simply cannot.  Believe me, I tried for a couple of years.  I tried adjusting my grip, adjusting how tightly I held the gun, adjusting the angles of my wrist and so on - those grips were never going to work.  Besides, I believe that if one has to take an entirely different grip on one gun than on all others that probably shows a deficiency in the gun/grip design not to mention that it negatively impacts the ability to grip other guns correctly if you train your muscle memory for some, oddly held piece.  Of course, the Pach's aren't exactly 'oversized' grips.  They are still compact grips that fit just fine in my pocket.  They are simply real grips, unlike the sick joke posing as grips as perpetrated by the Smith and Wesson factory. :nervous:

Glad to hear he is okay.

  Koresh was also, apparently, a pretty sick puppy.  Even according to some former Branch Davidian members, he declared that every female member of the group was 'his' to have sex with whenever he wanted - including having sex with girls in the group that were as young as 12.  He also believed that he was the Messiah, among other things.  This guy was a real Jim Jones kind of character and, if the things that were reported about him were correct, needed to go down.   I remember so-called 'weapons charges' against him but for some reason I also seem to recall (keeping in mind how long ago this was and that I was in college at the time so I had other things on my mind) that there were tax evasion charges, as well (hey, it was good enough for Capone.)  I honestly never felt like Koresh was just a harmless eccentric that should have been left alone.  I did feel like the Feds make a huge mess and that they should have just arrested him when he was in town rather than opting for the spectacle of laying siege to the compound.   As an aside, I had a class with Dr. Bass the semester after all that happened which was pretty much an intro to forensic anthropology.  On the first day of class, he was talking about how the forensic anthropologist who had been called in to work the aftermath (then the head anthropologist at the Smithsonian one of Dr. Bass' former students) had called Bass to come and assist as he knew that burned remains were a specialty of Bass'.  Dr. Bass went on to say that he had seen several tabloid covers claiming that Koresh was still alive, had escaped and so on.  His comment on that was that he - Bass - had identified Koresh, himself to a degree that he would be willing to testify as to the identity in court.  He then said, "I personally carried what was left of David Koresh out of there in a shoebox.  David Koresh is not still alive."

  So, officials such as arson investigators and medical examiners supported the version of events that was put forth by the officials.  Not surprising, really.   I will say that I saw an interview with one of the surviving Branch Davidians in which he claimed that Koresh and a few of his most trusted followers had, indeed, formulated and carried out a plan to set the fire, themselves.  Who knows, though, if he was telling the truth or if he was fabricating the story for some interest of his own?   Either way, the situation would never have gotten where it did if the feds hadn't botched the whole operation, probably out of a desire to get some press time.

  I thought it was the Ruby Ridge incident that was started by a shotgun that was just under 18 inches (which is the legal length for a shotgun and 16 is for rifles, right?)  Or were both FBI/Fed screw-ups started by similar things?   What always got me is that I think David Koresh probably needed to be arrested, etc.  However, he apparently went jogging outside the complex on a daily basis.  He could have been easily and quietly arrested while on one of those jogs.  I guess, however, that doing so wouldn't have allowed federal authorities to flex their muscles and 'make an example' out of any group that chose to live other than the way the Feds thought they should be living.

Nice!  I inherited an M1 from my maternal grandfather.  I had been wanting one for a few years before that.  I haven't really done any research on it and am not even sure if it is a 'real' military model or a civilian version.  What I do know is that I wish M1 ammo were more available and less expensive because it is a heck of a lot of fun to shoot.

  Yep.  And nearly every time I think of a 'Bond nemesis' he is one of the first to come to mind (right along with Goldfinger and Oddjob.)  Thing is, for some reason I can't completely explain I have the feeling that he was probably a really nice guy in 'real life'.  It seems like I saw him on a couple of shows where he was not 'in character' and that was how he came across.

  The date on the article is September 10, 2014.  I think the June date is just there because that was when the flare of which they are using a picture to illustrate 'solar flares' occurred - sort of a 'stock photo' kind of thing, I guess.  I don't think that is supposed to be a picture of the actual flare that the article discusses.  I can understand the confusion, though - the caption for the picture isn't entirely clear.

  Thanks.  As for the grip, I do think it is a fine line between what feels/works well in an individual's hands and what will fit in that individual's pockets.  Even as well as they fit my hands and as comfortable as they make shooting the 642 if the Pach's didn't work for pocket carry I'd have to go back to the drawing board.  Luckily, they fit my pockets (but might not fit someone else's.)  I might carry the 642 on my belt, sometimes, because it is still very easy to conceal (although I usually go for a larger, higher capacity semi-auto if I am going to belt carry) but if I were constrained to only belt carry by the size of the grips then I had might as well trade the 642 for something bigger - like at least a heavier, medium frame, 6 shot .357 snub or one of the 7 or 8 shot snubs that are out there.

  There are a couple of Pepper Palace locations around here, too - one in Gatlinburg and one in Knoxville (West Town Mall.)  The one in Gatlinburg has been there for years and was the first hot sauce shop I ever visited as well as being the first place I got to try some of the 'extreme' sauces.  Just FYI, there are some things like fresh, hot horseradish that have to be refrigerated and that they keep in a refrigerator behind the counter (at least they do at the one in Gatlinburg.)  That hot horseradish is a different kind of 'burn' - gets you more in your sinuses (like good wasabi.)  It is great on roast beef sandwiches.   Also I wanted to let you guys know that many of the United Grocery Outlet locations in the area currently have some good hot sauce deals.  There is a company called 'Dat'l Do It' (a play on the name of the Datil pepper, I think) that - although not necessarily a 'premium' brand - makes some pretty good hot sauces.  I do a lot of shopping at UGO and visit various locations in the area to see what deals they might have and lately I have been seeing various varieties (different stores have different varieties) of hot sauces made by that company.  The bottles probably hold about the same amount as a standard McIlhenney's Tobasco sauce bottle and they are 3 for $1.00.  I have bought a crapload of them for my stockpile.  I figure that they should be good on tacos and to add to some Frank's Red Hot in a buffalo sauce if nothing else.   I also found at one UGO (the one in Madisonville) some Bufalo chipotle sauce.  I love both the Bufalo red jalapeno sauce and their chipotle sauce as general purpose hot sauces.  Again, not a 'premium' brand and not a 'brutal' but good stuff on tacos and the like with a nice, low burn.   I am also currently working on the first batch of fermented hot sauce I have ever made.  It will be a fermented style, like Tobasco sauce, but is made with a combination of ghost chiles and habaneros (plus a small handful of jalapenos and serranos from my garden.)  I am not making a huge batch - I'm making it in a quart sized jar - but it will hopefully get my buddies and I through the months where fresh ghost chiles aren't available.  I am hoping it will preserve more of just the straight chile flavor than some ghost sauces have.   I haven't tried that barbecue sauce.  Maybe they will have it to sample the next time I am in there.  I usually make my own barbecue sauce and so I don't buy a lot of it but have bought this one (at Pepper Palace) in the past and liked it quite a bit:   http://www.hotsauceworld.com/pamomabasa.html

I am sorry for the loss of your friend, Mr. David.

  Yeah, as I said, I don't see boycotting Panera (or Target, etc.) for such responses.  Of course being that I go to Panera maybe once every 1.5 years and to Target maybe twice a year, I doubt they would miss my business if I did.

  Unfortunately, that is probably true, as well.  Some of the most outspoken 'supporters' of firearms carry are, ironically, hurting the cause as much as or more than its declared enemies.

  More than one set of remains has been found because a dog dug up part of them and carried them somewhere else.  It could easily be that a domestic or wild animal moved the skull.  Also, remember that a skull is, more or less, round.  That means if a body isn't buried then once the connective tissues, etc. holding the skull to the rest of the remains are gone then the skull can roll down a hill, etc. and end up a good distance away from the rest of the remains.  Likewise if the remains are buried in a shallow grave and are later exposed by animals, erosion or so on the skull could roll away from the location of the rest of the remains.  So, even if the skull was found in an area that had been previously searched and even if it wasn't there at the time (rather than simply being overlooked) that doesn't mean any human agent was involved in moving it.

      I think you both have valid points and agree that Panera's response and similar responses may be just an example of them trying to give the best reaction to a bad situation.  Still, while their response and actions don't rise to the level of prompting me to refuse to do business with them,  I don't think that this reaction is entirely innocuous nor is it entirely neutral.  By even giving lip service to the, "We request customers not bring their guns," bullsnot they are - however mildly - endorsing the idea that people who are carrying firearms are 'undesirables'.    A truly neutral stance would have been, "Panera attempts to create a welcoming environment for all customers regardless of religious or political beliefs.  Our focus is on providing the best quality food and beverages, not on taking political stances.  Therefore, on this issue Panera will continue to defer to state and local laws."

  I could crawl on all fours down the sidewalk on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville panting and barking like a dog to protest leash laws and likely wouldn't be doing anything illegal.  Just because it might not be illegal, though, wouldn't make doing so a good idea or make me look like any less of an idiot while doing it.  Such action would also be unlikely to win support for my 'cause'.  The same applies to carrying a rifle into a restaurant - "legal to do" and "you are an idiot for doing it" are not mutually exclusive.

Those banana grips do look like a good option. I was actually kind of trying to find something like that in either rubber or wood, at first, but couldn't find anything I liked at a good price point. Had I come across the Uncle Mikes before finding the Pachmayr's there is a good chance I would have given them a try. I think I am going to be well pleased with the Pachmayrs, though, as they feel just about perfect in my hands. Thanks. I got all of the high tech materials required in the craft section at Walmart. I used a white paint pen to put down a base coat wherever I wanted color. The black in the rear sight notch was done with a black Sharpie (over the white base coat.) The florescent orange was done by first using a neon orange Sharpie (also over the white base coat) and then covering that with a couple of coats of glow-in-the-dark florescent orange paint. I will probably need to do a couple more coats if I want it to glow brightly enough in the dark to make a difference but as it usually rides in my pocket I guess it really wouldn't get exposed to enough light to activate the paint under most circumstances, anyhow. My next plan, if the Pachmayrs didn't work for me, was to go to a gun show and try to pick up a used set of the old style, wooden factory grips and get a Tyler grip to go with them. Thanks fr the warning about potential clinginess. I did have some concern about them 'dragging' while trying to draw from a pocket but - having run through doing that several times with the gun onloaded - I haven't seen it as being a problem. I think my hand mostly covers any part that might drag. In addition to the Pachmayrs I was also considering the Hogue Monogrip but it seemed to be a little bigger and many people who reviewed them said that the 'squishy' material they are made from is really bad to drag. I also read that the Pachmayrs and, even more, the Hogue could sometimes be bad about catching the fabric of a pant leg when carrying in an ankle holster. I'll have to try it out and see but I rarely carry on my ankle and if I do I am more likely to carry my P3AT there as it is more thin and comfortable in that position, for me.

  True in appearances if not in actual practice.  in reality, I guess these responses constitute sort of the handgun carry version of 'don't ask, don't tell.'  Not enough to make me necessarily avoid places like Panera (well, no more than I already do, anyway) and I will 'respectfully ignore' their 'respectful requests' and carry if I do go there.  As I said, though, I think the real problem is that such responses give the appearance of victories for Mindless Dim-witted Aberrations which could give them more momentum in the future.       I believe that is the absolute truth.