One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the number of people who buy a gun "for defense" and then toss their new gun in a drawer and forget all about it. Ask them even the simplest thing about it a couple of months later, and the answers are so predictable you have to wonder how much leaming is in their DNA make up. How many rounds does your magazine hold? I dunno. Does it have an external safety? I dunno. How's it shoot? I dunno, never shot it. Really? Then how do you know if it even will shoot? Leave it that drawer long enough and I can almost guarantee that it won't, and at that point the only thing it will be good for is throwing it at an intruder and hope it hits him! Could have saved yourself a few hundred bucks and just pick a drawer full of rocks from the garden. At least they'll throw well which a gun probably wouldn't! If you're going to have a gun for any reason you need to take to the range on a regular basis and practice with it.
Still just plain target practice is only going to take you so far. Oh sure, it'll do you plenty of good if all you plan on doing is having fun or competing in Bulls eye competitions, but if you plan to carry for self defense then you really need to do something a bit more. Something to help prepare yourself to be something other than a target, which is exactly what you'll be if you just stand there in fight like you were just having another day at the range and your gun is sitting on a bench waiting for you to pick it up. On the other hand, there are some ranges where that's the only thing they'll allow you to do, in which case it's better than not practicing at all. The first thing you really need to practice is drawing and then reholstering your weapon, especially if it has a retaining system of some type. Believe me, you do not want to be fumbling with it when you need your gun right now! But if you don't commit it to muscle memory then that's exactly what you'll find your self doing. In fact you don't even need to be at the range to practice this, just make sure your weapon is unloaded first. I know this sounds ridiculous, but when you first try it you'll find it really isn't as easy as it sounds. For example, if you count on a jacket to conceal your weapon then you'll need to find a quick, easy, and natural movement that will let you flip you jacket back out of the way of your draw and quickly release the restraining system your holster uses all before you can even start your draw, and then when you go to reholster your weapon you need to be sure that your coat tail doesn't end up inside the holster along with your weapon. I can almost guarantee that if you don't make this an automatic reaction then sooner or later your coat tail (or shirt tail) will end up tangled around the trigger and you'll end up shooting yourself in the leg or foot! Don't believe me? Then check out this video. That's exactly what happened to the police chief shown in it. Once you're comfortable with drawing and reholstering your weapon, you'll want to try and find a range that will let you practice firing from the holster. Some will while some won't, and most of the ones that will let you will want you to either take a class first or insist you do so under the supervision of a range master (at least for the first time any way). Once you have, if you've no or little experience drawing from your holster and shooting, just spend a few sessions just drawing and shooting one or two rounds. Don't worry about accuracy at this point, just practice drawing, shooting, and then reholstering until it feel completely natural to you. Speed and accuracy will come with time. Once firing from the holster and reholstering feels as natural and smooth as walking, now it's time to start working on accuracy. There's several ways to do this. The simplest way is to just use the common silhouette targets just the same as if you're doing normal range shooting. Or you can up the ante and cut a hole in your target. The idea here is that when you shoot, you want all your rounds to go through the hole you cut. If a fair number are making their own holes then you need more work. If the majority are going through the hole you cut, then next time cut the hole a little smaller. The trick is that when you're shooting for self defense, you really don't care if all your bullets are making a nice 1 inch group; you just want them to hit something vital that will stop your attacker from hurting you or your loved ones. Another drill you can try will let you work on both speed and accuracy at the same time. With this drill you'll need either a shot timer or a buddy with a stop watch (or at least a second hand on his watch). The idea for this drill is that you take a preselected amount of time on each of your shots so that you can work on muscle memory and technique. So when the shot timer (or your buddy) says go, you draw your weapon to the count of say five, then aim to the count of five, then fire using the best trigger control you possibly can to the count of five, then reholster again to the count of five. All in all, this should take you about a minute. After you've practiced at this rather slow speed a number of times, then you speed things up doing the same thing but at a count of four. Then three, then two, then one. Since technique is the best way to guarantee accuracy, this drills that technique into your muscle memory better than any other drill I know; and when the chips are down, muscle memory is what will keep you on track and hitting what you're aiming at. "But wait!" I hear some of you saying, "I thought you said not to stand still! Yet these drills are doing just that, aren't they?" And you're right of course. So far everything I've rambled on about does involve shooting from a static position. The trick is that if you can't hit what you're shooting at is you're standing still, you probably won't be able to hit the broad side of a barn from the inside when you're trying to move and the adrenaline is pumping through your system like water from a fire hydrant. So work these drills first to get that all important muscle memory going since that is what will allow you to hit your target under pressure. Get to the point where you can do it right every time without thinking about it. Then, and only then, you can change it up just a little bit. When these drills are instinctive, start taking a step to either the right or the left as you draw. That's all. Just a simple step to one side or the other. It sounds absurdly simple, but it's actually much harder than you might think. I can almost guarantee that the first time you try it you'll find your aim is so far off that you'll be wondering what went wrong. Nothing did actually. It's just that unless you have a background in some form of the martial arts or are just naturally gifted, you aren't used to working your upper body and your lower body at the same time that way and it's going to take some practice to get used to it. That's part of why I want you to get to the point where the motions of your upper body as you draw, aim, and fire your weapon are programed into muscle memory; because once it is you'll be able to concentrate more effectively on making your legs do what they're supposed to do. It won't take long, but it is something that needs to be learned, not just done. Then, once you can move to either side easily, start stepping on the diagonal. Forwards and to the right at the same time, or backwards and to the left. Mix it up. Try doing it at home using a squirt gun or even a stick in your hand instead of your handgun. I know, I know. It sounds dumb, and you'll feel even dumber doing it; but it really is worth it in the long run. Hell, every martial arts instructor I've ever had would spend the occasional class just having us do front cross overs and rear cross over forwards and back. Yes, even the advanced belts would be out there with us; and I'm talking the truly advanced belts. Second and Third degree Black Belts would be out there right along with White and Yellow belts looking as stupid as hell, but it works. It teaches you how to move and keep your balance. Even more, it teaches you how to move and keep your concentration on the other guy, the one trying to fill you with holes. And before very long at all, you'll be able to draw, aim, fire, and move towards cover all at the same time without even thinking about what you're doing; and at that point you'll truly be ready to defend yourself. Now don't get me wrong. All of this is hard work, and it sounds as boring as all get out; but it doesn't have to be. Get your friends together and make a game of it. See who can hit the smallest hole. Or maybe see who can work their way to the shortest time on the shot timer with everyone starting with a five count on each step and working your way down almost like a twist on the game of horse. Or maybe you can find a range or club in your area that has IDPA tournaments! There can be a real rush to competing in an IDPA match, and to win you'll have to use everything these drills are designed to teach you. Plus, you'll probably meet some people who can teach you even more drills you can use to train yourself with without getting bored with the same old same old every time. Hell, maybe we'll even meet and you'll have a drill I don't know that you can teach me. I'm always looking for new drills and new tricks. After all, the day I stop learning is the day some one should push me over and burry me where I fall 'cause I failed to notice I'm dead. But for now, as always, I've reached the point where I'm starting to write a chapter in a book instead of just rambling on for a blog. So go out and have some fun this weekend. Fire off a couple of boxes of ammo, and maybe, just maybe, try one of these drills. Either way I hope to see again soon in this little corner of cyberspace I call my own. And as always, remember. If you're going to do something, do it with attitude!
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Half way through another week. Lord time seems to fly, but that makes it Wednesday and timer another ramble about knives. So far we've looked at the steel they're made of and the style of blades you might find, so today I thought I might take a look at the grinds used in blades and how the grind effects a knife's cutting ability. Now if you're fairly new to knives, or even if you're not but always used to assume a knife is a knife is knife; you may not know just what a blade smith means when he talks about the grind. Well no matter how a knife gets it's form, be it forging or removing excess metal until the blade takes shape, sooner or later you have to take it to a grinder of some sort to put the final edge on. That grinder may take the form of an old fashioned bench grinder, a belt grinder, or even an even older fashioned whet stone and a set of sandpaper sheets, but you simply cannot put an edge that will really and truly cut without it; and the type of grind you use can have a huge impact on the finished knife. Probably the oldest, and still most common type of grind is the V-grind, sometimes called a Scandi grind or Scandinavian grind. With this grind, the blade is left the same thickness as the spine until you get close to the cutting edge and then it's ground to the appropriate angle to form the edge; often about 25 degrees. This makes for a great field knife since the bevel is rather obvious, making field sharpening fairly easy. However this also makes for an edge that dulls more easily and can require more work to keep sharp. It's also a great shape for whittling since again the cutting edge is fairly obvious and easy to see. The other drawback is that if your spine is fairly heavy, it can be difficult to cut through some items as the back tends to get hung up once you get too deep. Similar to the V-grind is the Flat Grind. With this one, the grind starts right at the spine and goes straight down to the cutting edge. This produces a knife with the potential for a much sharper edge than commonly found on a V-grind, but at the cost of removing a fair amount of metal from the blade resulting in a weaker, more delicate blade. It's biggest strength is that the single flat grind makes it another easily field sharpened knife. Just lay the side of the blade flat on your stone and you're good to go. This type of grind is most commonly seen on various chef's knives and other professional kitchen knives, though Spyderco and a few others do use a flat grind on several of their pocket knives. The next grind is a Saber grind, also called a High Flat Grind. Somewhere between a V-grind and a Flat grind, a Saber grind starts it's angle closer to the spine but still leaves a fair amount of metal coming down flush from the spine resulting in a edge that's almost as sharp as a true flat grind but still retains the additional strength of the spine similar to that enjoyed by a V-grind. This tends to result in an excellent compromise between strength and sharpness and can be found in many survival knives and hunting knives. One grind that is increasingly popular today is the Hollow grind or Razor grind as it's sometimes known. With this one a concave curve is ground into the blade from near the spine to the edge giving you a edge second to none for sharpness. It is this reason why this ground was used for straight razors back in the day, and it's still popular for hunting and skinning knives. The drawback here is that the sharper you make the edge, the less metal you have supporting it resulting in an edge that needs constant attention in the form of honing and sharpening. Another one that is gaining in popularity among some in the business is the Convex grind. On this one the grind is also curved, but in the opposite direction from the hollow grind. This results in an cutting edge that is extremely durable and holds an edge quite well. The biggest drawback is that it requires speciality equipment to sharpen. Still, if you're willing to pay to have your knife professionally sharpened or to spend the money on the right sharpening equipment, this grind produces a survival knife that can cut and chop almost anything you throw at it. Then there's the Chisel grind. Like it's namesake, a chisel grind only grinds away one side of the blade, leaving the opposing side straight and flush from spine to cutting edge. Although this grind also requires a lot of maintenance, making it something of a specialty blade; it's is fantastic at what it does both for the woodworker and the chef who is most likely to find this edge on his or her cleaver. Finally there's the Complex, or Double grind. As it's name implies, this grind actually uses two grinds or bevels to produce the cutting edge. This is extremely popular with manufacturers since it allows them to use one grind in the initial forming of the blade and a second grind, which may or may not be a different type, to form the actually cutting edge. An excellent example can be seen in this picture of the main blade of a Christmas themed knife I sold this past winter. The main grind or bevel is stone washed as well as engraved and runs from just in front of the spine to the second grind, which is mirror polished making it much easier to see. By producing the edge this way, the manufacturer does not run as much risk of damaging the engraver or the employee running the engraver. And that's it in a nut shell my friend. Well, actually there is one more grind, called the asymmetrical grind; but that's basically using one grind (say a flat grind) on one side of the blade and a different grind (say maybe a convex grind) on the other. Knives and cutting instruments with this style of grind are all specialty units of one type or another and unlikely to be found at your average knife shop. Still I should mention them just for completeness sake if for no other reason. So there you have it. Every type of grind I know about distilled down to their basics for you. If we keep this up, you'll be a knife expert before school starts back up, and be able to amaze your family with the knives you buy them for Christmas. But in the mean time, this should have been published last night and I'm going to be late for work if I ramble on too much longer. So I'll just wish you all the best my friend, May the sky's always be sunny for you and the breeze ever cool. And until we meet again in this little corner of cyberspace I call mine, and remember; if it's worth doing, it's worth doing with attitude! Welcome friend, I'm so glad you made it back. Oh, do I see a new face out there as well? I hope so, and a warm welcome to you as well. If you've been with me for a while then you may remember that last week I started rambling about the next steps we are facing in my son's life as he starts high school in the fall, and how we find ourselves needing to start looking for a group home or alternative for Wills since the waiting lists can be so long. Well I've had a few people ask why he can't just continue to live at home with his mother and I; and while I did touch on this in last week's ramble, I must admit I wasn't as clear as I could have been. The first problem, to be blunt, is simply age. I'm currently 54 while my son is 15. If he gets held back a year or two in high school (and since he's been held back at least twice already I have no reason to believe he won't be held back again), then he will be 21 and I will be 60 when he graduates. Add in various health problems which have caused me troubles over the past two years, and there's a very good chance that I will be starting to have problems giving Wills all the support he will need. Even if those problems don't rear their ugly head again, by the time Wills is in his 30's I will be in my 70's. By the time he's in his 40's and just beginning to hit middle age, I will be in my 80's; and since my grandparents all died in their 80's, well... Either way, unless Wills dies at a very early age, and there's absolutely no reason to think he will absent some terrific accident, he will out live me by at least 30 years. So unless I want to depend on the kindness of the state and strangers, I must see to his living arrangements while I am still able to do so. Add in that those on the autism spectrum do not deal with change very well, and it will be best if I get him into some appropriate housing as soon after graduation as I can so that I will still be able to deal with any unforeseen complications while I still have the facilities to do so. But even leaving that aside, those who are on the spectrum like Wills is are not really that different from their peers once all the folderol is stripped away. They still have the same needs and desires, the same pyramid of needs. They still want friends, even if they have troubles making them. They still need love, and they need even more to know that that love is unconditional. What's more, they still want and need their independence. I mean, think about it. When you finished school, whether that be high school or college, did you want to continue living in your parents house? Or did you have a burning desire to be out on your own, proving that you were an adult with all that that implied? Unless you're extremely different from everyone else I know, you couldn't wait to be out and free of the apron strings! So what in the wide, wide world of sports makes you think for even one minute that Wills wouldn't want the same thing? Of course he will! He's human after all. But no matter how much he might want his independence, unless he makes a miraculous break through in the next 5 years he simply will not be able to live completely on his own. His verbal skills are too weak, not to mention his social skills; and odds are he will always need someone to help him with all those little details that neurotypical people handle on a day to day basis with out even thinking about them. Things like remembering to check his calendar to see what day it is, remembering to wash his clothes before he finds himself literally without a single thing clean enough to wear to what ever job he manages to find. Reminding him of doctor's appointments, and to refill his meds. And so he will need some kind of support structure, most likely in the form of a group home, that will allow him as much independence as possible while making sure he gets what he needs. And so we are back where we were last week more or less. I have in the past week found a group home run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Columbia, SC; a mere hour and a half away, much better than the 3 1/2 hour to 4 hour drive to the one in Charleston so that is looking up. But I'm afraid that the waiting list lengths have not changed at all, so we're still looking at a 6 to 10 year wait even once we find a home to get him a place he can call his own. Nor have any of the other challenges improved (not that I thought they would in just a week). And so dear reader, we come to the close of another ramble with my prospects just as bleak as they were in so many ways. As before, I hope I didn't depress you and I hope for the sake of all our children, both on and off the spectrum, that you will continue to come along for the ride. We need so much more than is currently available in so many states, but for that to happen we need as many supporters as possible. Even more, we need everyone everywhere to understand the needs of our children as they steadily march on towards adulthood. Already I see too many homeless people coming into our hospitals who should be receiving some form of assistance due to one disability or another. It breaks my heart to think that Wills and his classmates could someday find themselves in that same situation. I hope and pray every night and every day that it will not come to that, but unless improvements are made soon it's all too likely that we will start seeing people on the spectrum left homeless simply because there are not enough places to care for them. This is why I started my company. To raise the money I need to make sure that Wills will never find himself in that position; but even if I succeed for my son, there are hundreds, even thousands out there just like him. Will you help? I hope you will, even if that help is only thinking about what I've said. Until next time dear reader. I wish you all the best, and I hope to see you here in my little corner of cyberspace again soon. And remember as always, if it's worth doing then it's worth doing with attitude. As we approach the end of another week since the dreadful shooting in Orlando, I hear more and more talk about gun control and the evils or necessities there of; and I also hear an awful lot of information that's just plain wrong, especially about the AR15 rifle that the main stream media is still claiming was used in that attack. The question on my mind though, is how to get the truth out there without boring my regular readers to tears yet at the same time not insulting those sitting on the fence on the gun control issue.
First off, let me say that I'm not going to get into my personal views on gun control. For those who really want to know, I've talked about enough both here and in other places that you can ferret it out if you absolutely must; but this ramble is aimed simply on educating those who wish to know a little about so called assault weapons, including where the name AR15 came from and just what a MSR is. So let's start with a little history, shall we? As those who have been following me for awhile now know, much of my love of guns has come from my love of history; and so it shouldn't surprise anyone that that's what I choose to start with. Back in 1948, the Army started looking at ground warfare in the new nuclear era and established a group to research the subject called the Operations Research Office, or ORO for short. One of ORO's first projects was a study of how effective body armor was which lead directly to studying how soldiers in WWII and eventually Korea came to be injured or killed. They decided after looking at all the data they could find that a light weight rifle firing a smaller caliber bullet was needed to replace the M14, so they decided to ask Winchester and a small, almost unheard of company called Armalite to submit designs based around a .22 caliber bullet that would weigh in at around 6 pounds and be capable of penetrating a standard issue army helmet at 500 yards. Winchester came up with a rifle very similar to the M14 that fired a .224 round while Armalite developed a rifle based loosely on a series of rifles they had been making that used a large amount of plastics and aluminum to keep the weight down, one of which interestingly enough was the AR-7 that they had produced as a "survival" rifle for the Air Force where the barrel and action could be unscrewed and stowed away inside of the plastic stock. Another was the AR-10 which was built to handle the same 7.62 NATO round that the M-14 and the M-1 before it used. Also interestingly enough, Springfield, who had been the main supplier of rifles for our military since before WWI, was banned from competing by a group who utterly opposed the idea of going to a smaller caliber round. Using research that had lead to the development of the AR10, a rifle designed to shoot the same 7.62mm round used by NATO, Armalite developed a rifle they called the AR15; which stood for Armalite Rifle model number 15. By combining the use of plastics, aluminum, and an inventive buffer system, the AR15 was lighter than the Winchester entry, and at least according to some records, more accurate and easier to shoot as well. However Armalite found itself in something of a bind. They were too small and too underfunded to weather the political infighting over the new rifle system and attempts to sell a civilian legal version of the rifle proved unprofitable, possibly because the AR-15 was too unknown and too odd looking for the time. As a result they ended up selling their design to Colt in 1959, and in the mid 1960's the M-16 was officially adopted as the standard issue battle rifle despite heavy opposition. Colt also tried to sell the AR15 as a civilian model of the M-16 and the M-16A1, but problems with the rifle during action in Vietnam gave it a possibly undeserved reputation for being unreliable. I say possibly undeserved because through out most of the Vietnam conflict the troops were being issued rifles without cleaning kits, and the early models tended to be rather prone to fouling if not properly cleaned. They also had issues with poor ammunition which definitely didn't help matters any. Improvements such as chrome lined barrels and bolt carriers help tremendously however and by the time the M-16A2 and the M-16A3 had seen solid use in the late 1970's and early 1980's the rifle's reputation had made an amazing turn around. Today the AR-15 line of civilian legal rifles provide so many advantages that the disadvantage that still exist are almost over looked, and the ammunition available today is absolutely amazing compared to what was given to those early troops slogging through the rice fields of Vietnam. While still having the outward appearance of the M-16's and M-4's in use by todays military, the internal parts are much different and trying to use the parts made for a M-4 in an AR-15 is out of the question unless you're a good enough gunsmith to basically re-machine the gun from the ground up; but it's still an extremely modular design so anyone with a bit of co-ordination and the proper knowledge can customize an AR-15 just about any way they'd like. Want a carbine with a 16 inch barrel that can be used for home defense? Done. Need a 18 inch for improved accuracy while hunting without getting the rifle too long for quick shots? Reach for the proper barrel wrench to loosen the castle nut and you're good to go in minutes. Want an even longer 21 inch barrel for long range competition? It's no harder to arrange. Unhappy with the trigger that came with your rifle? Palmetto State Armory carries no less than 24 different triggers for the AR-15 platform and Cabelas has at least 19. Then there's scopes, lights, forward hand guards, recoil pads, basically everything except a coffee maker. This explains why the AR-15 is one of the best selling rifles on the American market, and explains why it's referred to as a Modern Sporting Rifle. I don't care what sport you need a rifle for, the AR-15 can be configured to meet any of your needs with ease. "Okay" I hear you saying, "so it's versatile. That's why the military loves it, but there's no place in civilian life for a militarized rifle like most assault weapons. Every one knows that!" Well let's just take a look at that for a minute, shall we? First, there's no legal or technical definition for an "assault weapon" even though pundits from CNN to MSNBC and Rolling Stone use the term frequently. There is a definition for an "Assault Rifle"; but of the 4 requirements for a gun to be considered an Assault Rifle, even if you do argue that it meets the other 3 (and I know plenty in the trade who will only allow that it meets 2), the AR-15 still fails the fourth and final requirement. To be classified as an assault rifle, the rifle in question must be capable of select fire; meaning that you must be able to switch between safe, single shot mode, and some form of burst mode, whether that be 3 rounds fired with each pull of the trigger or full auto where the rifle keeps firing as long as the trigger is pulled and there's ammo in the magazine. And I'm sorry my friend, but no AR-15 ever made for the civilian market has ever met that requirement. Thus, not an assault rifle. Then there's the bit about the military loving the AR-15. Ummm, sorry my friend, but the military wouldn't have the AR-15 if you gave it to them as a gift. Why? Because it is not select fire. Pure and simple, with no ifs, ands, or buts. To perform it's missions in today's world, our military absolutely requires a true assault rifle that can fire either single rounds for carefully aimed fire, or full auto for when the proverbial fecal matter has truly hit the rotary impeller. True, there are times when they need something special; and those are the times when the shotguns, machine guns, and grenade launchers come out. But for everyday use, they need something that can do the work of two rifles, and since the average infantry man is too loaded down to actually carry two different rifles then the one he or she is carrying had better be able to fit both bills; and the AR-15, unlike the M-4, can't. Finally there's the part about it having no place in the civilian world. Excuse me, but didn't I just get through explaining why some many civilians love their AR-15s? When I was a teenager way back in the dark ages, it was the norm for the average hunter to have three or four different guns for different game. Today, while most hunters will still have a couple of choices, if you are really strapped for cash then the AR-15 can replace them all. Maybe not well mind you, which is why most hunters still have at least a couple of rifles, but it will do the job in a pinch. Whether you're hunting varmet, small game, deer, elk, bear, or wild boar, there's a configuration of the AR-15 which will do the job. And since it's modular, you can change out the one you own and reconfigure it for whatever you might need. Or maybe you want it solely for home defense. With all the options available you can take an off the shelf AR-15 and have it set up to fit you perfectly. Hell, you can even reconfigure it as a pistol if you wish; though at a minimum of just under two feet it's way too big to conceal and you'll have to file papers with the BATF to tell them that you've done so. I could go on for days listing all the ways it fits into civilian life in one way or another, but this ramble is already getting way too long. The one item I can't argue away is that what the news media loves to call an assault weapon is the most commonly used gun in most mass shooting in this country. But why is that? The question is the one very few reports answer, and the answer is rather simple. The AR-15, and similar guns, have an image of being bad ass thanks to the way they are portrayed in movies, TV shows, and other popular entertainment media; and the one thing most mass murders want is to be seen as being a bad ass. The fact that they could rack up just as large a body count with other guns doesn't even enter into it in the end. The image is all, and the ones who do their sick thing in the open with no thought of whether they might die in the act think that an "assault weapon" will give them that image. So now the question we must ask is, is making it harder for them to bolster that image worth denying the Modern Sport Rifle to all the people who love it for what it really is? I promised at the beginning of this ramble I wouldn't bring my feeling into this, so I won't tell you how I feel. But I do want you to think very carefully about my question. But in the meantime, I'm a day late and a dollar short with this ramble; and that's at least in part because I tried so hard to keep my opinions out of it. Did I succeed? Probably not as well as I would have liked, but I think I did better than many. So until next time dear reader. My the wind be always at your back, and remember as always; if it's worth doing, it's worth doing with attitude! School's out for the summer and Wills will be advancing to high school next year, something both sweet and sad at the same time. But for us, it also brings an element of fear as well. "Why on earth should him going to high school cause you fear" you ask? Simply because it also brings us a reminder that Wills is growing up. He's already taller than I am, though I doubt he'll ever be as strong; and as sweet and loving a child as anyone could wish. But he's also, as you dear reader know, autistic. The simple truth of the matter is that he will probably never be able to live on his own no matter how much we might wish otherwise, and so his starting high school brings us that much closer to a decision neither my wife nor I really want to have to make. And that, to put it simply, is where will he live when he graduates high school? For years those on the autism spectrum have been institutionalized, but fortunately those days are long past. The very thought of my sweet child being locked away in a facility far from everyone he knows and loves simply cannot be borne. But where do adults on the autism spectrum live? Well, that varies. Some live with their parents until their parents can no longer take care of them, some lucky few who can function in some form or other in society live on their own. Others live in group homes, and unfortunately, some live in nursing homes for there simply is not enough space available in group homes. Nor are all group homes equal, any more than all nursing homes equal; and for those that are among the better homes it's not uncommon to find they have a 6 to 10 year waiting list to get in. "Oh come on, it can't really be that bad" you say. Right. Tell you what. Jump on your favorite search engine and see how many group homes for adults with autism are near you. Of the three closest to me that I know of, one is an hour away in another state, one is an hour and a half away in yet another state, and the third is at the other end of the state from us, just over three and a half hours away. Add in that 2 of the 3 are state supported, and just how likely do you think it is that I'll be able to find someplace close enough to drop in and visit my son for an evening or a weekend? From where I sit, not very. Then again, as I said earlier, not all group homes are created equal. Perhaps the best I've heard of is one in California called Sweetwater Spectrum. This oasis of a home is comprised of 4 4 bedroom houses on just over 3 acres, allowing each resident to have his own bedroom and a private bathroom in addition to various common rooms, a swimming pool, a community center with kitchen for those who cannot cook their own food, a gym, and a full staff to help each resident as is needed. However such amenities cost, and last I heard it cost just over $3,000.00 a month to live there; just a bit less than my wife and I bring home each month, so even if we had a chance in hell of getting Wills accepted there, there's just no way we could afford it. Besides, if I hate the thought of him living 3 and a half hours away; you can imagine how I would feel about him living clear across the country in California. It has been suggested that maybe I should get a similar facility built here in South Carolina, but I'm not rich, I'm not a developer, and I don't have friends in the State House to call upon. I could try to get investors interested in funding such a facility, but it would be a risky investment;and even if I succeeded, how do I assure that people only interested in return on investment would not insist that Wills be evicted to make room for someone who could pay once I've passed on? All in all, it's not a very cheery thought; but it's one I must face in the coming years, and the sooner I start the better for Wills. I would personally love to keep him at home with my wife and I, but there's no way we could care for him properly when we start to get on in years; and so a group home must be considered, and considered carefully. Just one more thing in a string of things we must face, but face it we will; for the alternative is unthinkable. In the meantime, we have come to the end of yet another ramble here in my little corner of cyberspace. I hope I haven't depressed you too badly, but I also hope I've made you think. One out of every 68 children born in the past decade are on the autism spectrum, and the number of children who are fast approaching adulthood is staggering. Yet our leaders do not seem to be considering the possible consequences. Are you willing to face them with me? I hope for the sake of our children you will. Until next time then dear reader. May the road rise up to meet you and may your skies always be sunny; and remember, if it's worth doing then it's worth doing with attitude! So you're looking at buying a new knife, but you can't make heads or tails of all these terms they use to describe the blade. Well don't feel too bad my friend. Even the biggest, baddest knife maker out there had troubles making sense of all these terms when they first started, and once you get the ideas behind the terms down it really isn't as bad as it seems. Let's start with a drop point blade. One of the two most common blade styles in current use, a drop point blade tends to have a gently curved spine (the back of the blade) that leads to a tip slightly lower than the back of the hilt or handle and a reasonably large "belly" (a curved cutting edge). This tends to result in a knife with good slicing characteristics and a strong tip that is less likely to break than many others. Many hunting knives and most chef's knives have this style of blade. The downside to this style is that it won't pierce things as easily or as well as some other styles. A style that just as common as the drop point is the clip point, where the front portion of the blades spine appears to have been clipped off. Most Bowie knives use this style of blade as well as most butchers knives. The big advantage here is a tip that is second to none in piercing power coupled with a large belly giving you great slicing ability. The drawback is that the lack of metal in the spine near the tip causes a loss of strength which may lead to you breaking the tip off, especially if you try twisting or prying with the tip. Another common blade type is the Trailing Point. This style typically has a curving spine that places the tip of the blade above the level of the grip and often a very thin blade. This maximizes the amount of belly available for use resulting in a fantastic slicing knife, which is why many skinning knives and all fillet knives use this style of blade. The downside is that the tip tends to be very weak to the point of being almost useless. The next blade style is the dagger, also commonly called a spear point or needle point depending on the taper used. These are often, but not always sharpened on both edges, and are primarily designed to stab or make very fine adjustments to what every you're cutting. Many famous fighting knives, such as the V-42 used by the infamous Devil's Brigade of WWII, and most throwing knives use this style of blade. Interestingly enough, the original pen knife used a single edged blade of this style. It got it's name because it was designed to sharpen quill pens, and the name has continued to be used to this day, though it often refers to any traditional style folding pocket knife. Of course the main drawback to this style of blade is that it's for all practical purposes tip only, unless the blades got such a short taper at the very end that it looks more like a drop tip. The next blade style is the Straight Back, though I don't often see this style used very often anymore. As it's name implies, this blade type feature a straight back or spine placing the tip in line with the top of the hilt. This style of blade makes for a very good chopper since the straight spine can be easily made as thick as one might wish, yet still has enough of a belly that you can make the type of slices needed to remove a hide or trim the excess fat from a hunk of meat. You see this style of blade on some of the old chef's and butcher knives such as Old Hickory or Chicago Cutlery. The next style that comes to mind is the Sheepsfoot. This one is different from the others is that it features a ruler straight edge and it's the back or spine that curves down to meet the tip. The spine on this style of knife was made to be gripped by the supporting hand when needed, giving the potential for greater control for fine slicing, trimming, and whittling. The name comes from one of this styles earliest uses, trimming the hooves of sheep and horses; but it is best seen today in the kitchen in the form of the very popular santoku chef's knives. The drawback here is the lack of a usable tip. The next style of blade, and one that has continued to grow in popularity is the tanto. With it's origins in ancient Japan, this knife features a chisel like tip, often with a heavy spine. Give it a heavy enough spine, and you've got a knife that will punch through a car door or almost anything else you might want to pierce without breaking. However since most of them have a straight cutting edge from hilt to start of their tip, while they might chop with the best of them, their slicing ability can be rather limited. Then there's the spay point. The spay point is similar to the clip point, except that the curve of the blade and the clip are both so far out near the tip that penetrating anything is difficult at best. Originally developed for spay and neutering farm animals, these knives are a great choice for skinning animals where keeping the hide intact is a real concern. The final style of knife is called the ulu and is based on an Inuit design. This blade is a quarter to two thirds of a circle with the handle in the middle. This produces a blade with no tip whatsoever and a huge belly which makes this style fantastic for scrapping things or cutting long thin strips from something. Perfect for leather working, thin veneers, and believe it or not, making hand rolled cigars. On the other hand, this blade type is as close to a one trick pony as you can get in the knife world, so you might easily go your entire life without ever seeing one outside of pictures. So there you go, a quickly knife blade styles 101. Are there other styles? Well, maybe. I know some will say I should be more precise, and separate spear point blades and needle point blades into two separate categories, or maybe differentiate a Wharncliffe from a Sheepsfoot; but I personally think that's carrying precision to extremes. After all, the strengths and weaknesses of a Wharncliffe blade is so similar to the strengths and weaknesses of a Sheepsfoot blade that I really don't see any point in trying to separate them out. And with what you now know, coupled with the little bit of practical metallurgy I hope you got from last weeks ramble; picking out that new knife should be at least a bit easier. In the meantime my friend, I must run. So take care of your self and I hope to see you in this little corner of cyberspace I call my own soon. And always remember, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing with attitude. I was talking to a new expectant mother over the weekend and when I mentioned that I worked in the hospital she went off on me as if I was Satan's number one man on earth. It seems that this young, misinformed lady has bought into all the hype some people are still spreading about how vaccines cause autism, and of course, being a health care professional, I must be covering for big pharmaceutical companies just so they can make more money. Course just how helping big pharm make obscene amounts of money benefits me was something she "hadn't figured out yet", but obviously I must be benefiting from it somehow. The truly sad part of the whole exchange? While there are numerous legitimate reasons not to get your child vaccinated, she hadn't given thought to even one of them. The idea that vaccines, and the MMR (Measles, Mumps, & Rubela) vaccine in particular, all started in 1998 when a British Doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent study claiming a link between the two. As you can imagine, this hit the medical establishment and parents of autistic children like a load of bricks. Could we have in fact done this to our children? Were we in fact the reason our precious children developed autism? But as time passed, no one else was able to reproduce the results Dr. Wakefield claims in his paper; and so people began taking a closer look at his study to find out what they were doing wrong. So what was found out? Why couldn't we confirm his study? Well for starters, the new researchers didn't lie about their results. When going back over Dr. Wakefield's notes, they found that he was diagnosing some children with problems they did not have and also sending them for unnecessary and often invasive tests performed at facilities he had a finicial interest in. It was also discovered that some of his subjects might not have even existed, though this last item is so murky it could be argued either way. And so the Lancet (the British Medical journal that originally published his study) disavowed it and the British authorities revoked his license. Since then several groups have tried to prove him right, but to date no organization with any reputation worth mentioning has managed to do so. Okay you say, but what about all those dangerous chemicals they add to vaccines! Surely those have some negative effect? Hell, I heard that they even use mercury in them, and another is only one molecule away from being a poison! That has to be bad! Ok, let's touch on the "one molecule away from being a poison" bit first. Whether some want to admit it or not, there are many, many things that kind of sort of fit that description. Water is one. If you add one atom of oxygen to water it goes from H2O to H2O2, aka Hydrogen Peroxide. There's absolutely no way you can stay alive with out consuming a minimum amount of water, but drinking hydrogen peroxide will kill you. Carbon monoxide is another one, albeit in the other direction. Once a molecule of carbon monoxide binds itself to a red blood cell, it's there for the life span of that cell; blocking it from ever being used to transport oxygen to your cell like a red blood cell should. Add anther atom of oxygen though and you get the carbon dioxide that we exhale every day, day in and day out. If I wanted to, I could drag my sister (who is a researcher for DuPont) in one this and she could go on all day giving us a multitude of examples just like the two I just mentioned. That's just the way chemistry works, so sorry but if you truly believe the "one molecule away" argument then I have to assume you slept through your high school chemistry course. But what about that Mercury thing I hear you say. What you're referring to is a substance called thimerosal, and I must admit it take a chemist on the level of my sister to understand the reasons why that shouldn't be a problem; except that I've got an even easier point to counter it with. In 1997 congress passed a law that outlawed the use of mercury containing substances in items ment for human consumption. Thus in 2001 the FDA outlawed the use of thimerosal in the use of any vaccines destined for use in the United States, and I'm given to understand that many European nations (including England) banned it's use long before we did. So no matter what Robert DiNero, or any other big celebrity tells you, your child is NOT going to be exposed to any kind of mercury through any vaccine currently used in America. So, since there IS no link between vaccines and autism, why in the world would anyone in their right mind refuse to allow their child to be vaccinated? Well to be honest, there are a few legitimate reasons. For one thing, much as we hate it, some people are allergic to vaccines. So if you or your child have a reaction to one vaccine, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to avoid them. Nor would it hurt to avoid them for any other children you have as well. Another legitimate reason would be health concerns of family members. We delayed some of my son's vaccinations because his grandmother was having some serious health issues at the time, and the live vaccines he was scheduled for would have ment that she would not have been able to see him for several months. We felt it was more important that he be able to see his grandma during that period of time just in case worse came to worse, and his pediatrician agreed with us so he was a year late in getting that series. There are a host of other legitimate reasons out there, and you pediatrician can tell you about them all. So no Virginia, vaccines do Not cause autism. What they do do is protect your child from an entire dictionary of diseases that did, and in some countries still do kill children by the thousands. Nor do they just protect your child, but also the poor kid down the street who honestly can't be vaccinated for one reason or another; for if your child can't get the disease then he or she can't give it to the other one. Am I going to change everyone's mind with this ramble? Unfortunately no. There's always someone who is convinced that it's all a big lie, and there always will be. But if I can change even one mind, then this will have done all I could ask. So until next time dear reader, may the road rise up to meet you and may the skies always be clear. And remember, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing with attitude! And so here we are at Friday already. Lord but this week just seems to have flown by! But it is indeedy deed Friday which must mean it's time for me to ramble on about self defense. Now my original plans for this day in the wake of my resurrecting my blog from the dust bin was to do a piece on shooting drills, but considering some of the conversations I've been having on Facebook this week I think instead I'll revisit something I take about way back when I first started this site. And that is whether a gun is the right choice for you as a means of self defense.
Now wait a minute you're saying. Of course a gun is the right choice for self defense! What else's there? Quite a lot actually, but even if there wasn't it still doesn't follow that a gun of any type is automatically the right choice for everyone. First off, a gun is not some kind of superior magic wand that will somehow make the bad guys disappear the minute you take it out and wave it around. To be effective, you have to be willing to take that heavy, noisy, greasy, hunk of metal and polymer and use it to put holes in another human being; often at disturbingly short distances. You also have to except the fact that all too often just wounding the bad guy is not going to stop the threat, and even if it were when the adrenalin is pumping fine shooting skills are going to go right out the window unless you practice for a couple of hours every single day, day in and out. This means that to be sure you're going to hit your attacker and stop him as a threat, you're going to have to shoot for the center of mass; aka the torso. And if you do that, then you have to be ready to accept that you might kill him whether you mean to or not! All of which means when you cut to the chase is that before you even start to consider buying that gun you'd better have a long heart to heart with yourself and decide once and for all if you are not only willing to kill if necessary to protect yourself and your family, but if you can kill to protect yourself and your family! No, don't laugh. I'm completely serious here. This is not as easy a question to answer as some would have you think. There are serious mental, emotional, ethical, and legal issues involved here; and if you're not completely honest with yourself right now you will come to regret it should you ever need to use that gun you're dead set on buying. I know that Second Amendment activists the country over are telling you that you must have a gun and stand up for your Second Amendment rights, and I'll agree with standing up for your rights. But some people simply cannot kill, not even to save their loved ones. Hell, back when I first started as a paramedic back in the dark ages I wouldn't have been able to kill someone no matter what was at stake. Admittedly, 30+ years of seeing people routinely do the worst things they can to their fellow human beings changed that for me; but that's me. You might not be there yet, and if you aren't that's okay. That's even more than okay actually. The world would be a much better place if everyone were like that and don't you ever let anyone make you feel bad if you can't kill to protect yourself. But at the same time, if you honestly can't kill to protect yourself and your loved ones then a gun is the absolute worst thing you could ever buy for self defense. Buy a baseball bat, or an axe handle, or a knife, or even a hunk of rock; but don't you ever buy a gun and think you're going to use it to defend yourself. If you can't tell yourself with total honesty that you could kill someone if push came to shove, then the first time you try to defend yourself with that fancy new gun of yours you're going to freeze up. And once you do that, then the bad guy is going to have no trouble taking your fancy new gun away from you and using it to fill you full of holes; nor will he hesitate to do just that. After all, if he really cared he wouldn't be breaking the law in the first place; but he does care enough to know he definitely does NOT want to go to prison, and the easiest way to be sure that he doesn't go is to make sure you are not around to tell the police who he is. Besides, his gun is likely a piece of crap, so why not replace it with a much nicer one like yours? Don't believe me about that last part? Go down to your local police department and get one of the officers to show you the guns they've confiscated from the various criminals they lock up. So take your time. Think long and hard about my question to you. You have time after all. Yes,yes, I know the Democrats have manage to force the Republicans to talk about gun control. But even if they were all on the same page (which they most certainly are not) it couldn't happen over night. It will be a least a couple of weeks before it even gets to the point where the Senate can vote on it, and from there it has to go to the House before Obama gets a chance at signing it. So take your time and think well. Then, if you honestly decide you can take a life to defend your own, and only then should you go and buy that gun you've got your eye on. Heard a college age girl berating her mother yesterday for not coming out and supporting the LGBT community more fully in the wake of the Orlando shooting this past weekend. She apparently felt that the fact that her mother was gay meant that her mother was being a coward for not being more vocal and open. Oh, my poor, poor child. How do I explain to you that rather than being a coward, your mother is one of the bravest ladies I know?
Lass, I know you and your friends feel that being open about who and what you are is the natural and right things to do; and I greatly admire you for it. I'm even more proud and amazed of the fact that you can do so in (relative) safety, but it wasn't always this way. Your mother no doubts remembers just as I do when a gay bar just outside of town was burned to the ground, and it was ruled "an accident". Your mother no doubts remembers just as I do when a "drag queen" was beaten to death outside another gay bar and the cops did nothing. Then there was Matthew Sheppard and Ryan Keith Skipper. Nor was violence the only thing to fear. Your mother no doubt remember just as I do when the hate filled rhetoric of the Westboro Baptist Church was considered normal. Your mother no doubt remembers just as I do when being gay was considered a mental illness and no one blinked when a homosexual was committed. Your mother no doubt remembers even better than I do when "coming out of the closet" was almost certain to result in your family disowning you and denying your very existence. And she no doubt remembers even better than I do when being gay could and would result in your losing your job and being kicked out of the apartment you were renting. And finally, she no doubts wishes she could forget even as I do how many children just a bit older than you were conceived because someone decided that "one night with a real man will cure that" woman, and again the cops would have done nothing. Aye lass, you're right. We do need to stand up for what's right, and we do need to make our voices heard, both LGBT and straight. You're right, we do have a long way to go yet. But oh how far we've come just in my lifetime and your mother's. The thing to keep in mind lass, is that silence is not a natural instinct. We are not born thinking "Hey, I'd better not talk about this". We're born thinking that if we are hurt we should announce it to the heavens at the top of our lungs. No, keeping silent about something is something we are taught by having it beat into us, day after day and year after year. We learn to keep silent by learning that NOT keeping silent is more painful than the original pain. We learn to keep silent by losing everything dear to us if we dare to say anything, including our families. And this my child, is why I believe your mother is one of the bravest people I know. She learned the hard way what speaking out would mean, and yet she did it anyway. She came out of the closet and told her attackers and detractors to go to hell. She stood tall and she stood proud. Maybe you're right. Maybe she does need to be more vocal, more in your face. But when silence is safe, being vocal is hard; and she has been vocal. This is why she is one of my quiet heroes, one of those I look up to and admire. Go forth lass. Roar your defiance at the world. You have the heart of a lion child, and I know you will make this world a better place than I could ever have dreamed; but always remember. Remember your mother and those like her. Remember what they went through to pave the road you're standing on today, and remember their sacrifices. And honor them as I do for the miracles they have already accomplished. So you're looking to buy a knife, but you really don't know what to buy. Don't blame you. I mean, all those confusing numbers that knife makers and manufacturers throw at you can be more than a little daunting, and what exactly do they really mean anyway? Does it really make a difference? Or is it all just another form of hype? Well no, it's not just hype; but when you get right down to it it almost takes a degree in metallurgy to make sense of them all. So how do you decide? What steel do you want. and how do you tell?
For starters, steel is an alloy made up of Iron, Carbon, and up to 10 other elements ranging from Chromium to Manganese in specified amounts; and the various numbers represent specific "recipes" if you will. Each element adds something to the steel, and knowing what each adds tells you how each steel will work when made into a blade, be it a knife, a sword, or an ax. Carbon is probably the most important element, since without carbon steel would be nothing more than wrought or cast iron with a handful of impurities in it; and iron really doesn't make a very useful blade. There's a reason after all why bronze was still used for weapons long after iron was discovered after all. Carbon adds a toughness and hardness to the iron that makes it steel, and the higher the carbon content, the harder you can make the steel. The problem is that the harder a metal is, the more brittle it's likely to become. I mean, look at a diamond! A diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance known to man, and it's basically pure carbon that's been subjected to unimaginable pressure for thousands of years. Yet even though a diamond can cut through anything I know, one sharp blow from a small hammer and all you've got left is dust (which isn't all that useful now, is it). So for all practical purposes, you really can't get too high above 1% carbon or your knife is going to break the first time you stress it too much. Oh yeah, if carbon is all it really has going for it it's also going to rust the first time you look at it cross-eyed. On the other hand, it's hard to beat a high carbon steel for toughness and taking an edge. This is why many "survival" knives and butcher knives are made of high carbon steel (as well as why many are coated). Most of the time these knives will be made of what in the U.S. are referred to as 10 series metals such as 1045, 1080, and 1095. The 10 part of the number tells you it's high carbon while the second set tells you approximately what percentage of carbon is used, with 1095 being close to 1% carbon. Chromium is the second most often used element in steel making, and it's what generally makes a steel "stainless". Don't get me wrong now. Even the most "stainless" of steels are still going to rust and discolor over time; but chromium will stretch that time out to years as opposed to weeks, or even days. It can also help with the hardness, making heat treating the blade more effective; and it can help raise the tensile strength of the steel. Another element that can also help in these endeavor is Magnesium, as well as Molybdenum. Then there are elements added to increase strength, wear resistance, and workability. Each one must be used in precise amounts, and those amounts determine the number, or "name" assigned to each particular steel, whether it's 440C, AUS-8, S30V, or 8Cr13MoV. But that still leaves the question of which steel should you be looking for in your new knife, and how much does it really matter. Well here's where I'm probably going to piss some knife lover's off. In the end, at least in my opinion, the knife maker means more than what steel they use. Why? Well first off, as you've already noticed, it really does take someone with a degree in metallurgy to keep all this straight; and I don't know about you, but if I had a degree in metallurgy I sure wouldn't be working in the field I'm currently in! However the good knife makers all have metallurgists on their payrolls making sure that their knives are made of the right stuff. After all, Spyderco doesn't want a reputation 40 years in the making to go down the drain because of a bad decision on what type of steel to use. Secondly, each type of steel has it's own best uses. I know that if you go on many knife forums you'll hear people loudly decrying one type or steel or another, such as 440C; and yet 440C was the steel of choice for many years, and it's still used for many high end kitchen knives even to this day. The problem isn't 440C, it's low cost knife makers who routinely cut corners (especially in heat treating their knives) that gave 440C such a bad reputation. It also didn't help that since 440C could be heat treated to such a high hardness scale it could be used for knives that were advertised as "never needs sharpening", which basically means "can't be sharpened". If the company making your new knife really cares about it's reputation and the quality of it's knives, then it will make sure the knife is heat treated properly AND that it can be cared for (unlike the old Ginsu knives of yesteryear). Beyond that though, I will admit that I love my Schrade Frontier with it's 1095 high carbon, powder coated blade as well as my Kershaw made with 8CR13MoV. I also can't imagine cooking without my Gunter Wilhelm filet knife with it's X50CrMoV15 German made steel or my 30 year old Chicago Cutlery chef's knife with it's 440C steel blade. But there you have it. 4 very different knives made of 4 very different steels, and I wouldn't trade one of them. But it's getting late, and as usual, I've rambled on almost long enough to have written a book instead of a blog. So until next time we meet here in my little corner of cyberspce, I wish you clear skies and smooth sailing. And as always, remember. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with attitude! |
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