Spyderco Martial Blade Craft: Coming Soon to a Blogger Near You...

Spyderco Ulize   I actually feel giddy. Should be here next week along with a Spyderco Endura Trainer.

Back from SHOT...

Going to be writing up a more elaborate piece later in the week, but off the top of my head some items of interest are:

Colt's RAIL GUN in black Cerakote, I didn't know this at the time but the rail guns have National Match barrels, kind of a nice upgrade for not a whole lot more money. Colt is now using genuine Novak rear sights and a beaver tail that is made in house. All the XSEs, Rail Guns, Gold Cups, Delta Elite, and Combat Elite will have the beaver tails. The when the re-issue of the Colt Mustang goes into production it will have dove-tailed sights to better compete with the Sig P238, if my 238 continues to give me grief, I may just get a new Mustang. No word yet on other Mustang variants.

Colt also has a new rifle coming out, an AR in .308 that will accept 5.56 uppers (MILSPEC of course) and with an adapter kit take 5.56 magazines. The rifle has a monolithic upper and came with a MAGPUL stock...I don't recall which right now, The stock is a VLTOR IMOD if I'm not mistaken.
it's been a long week, I'll scan the flier later on this week.

Galco finally listened to customer demand and is now carrying a dual offset loop IWB called the V-Hawk, it looked like a pretty good holster, reinforeced mouth, body shield and adjustable height which will also allow for switching out loops for clips etc. Should be a good choice for an "off the shelf" rig, the cost may be a little high, but Galco is pretty good stuff.

I'm still torn about the Kimber Solo carry, going to see what kind of reviews the get in the next few months, if I do decide to axe the P238 the Solo may be it's replacement. The running for the replacement is looking like this:

Kahr K9
NAA Guardian (.380)
Colt Mustang
Kimber Solo Carry

I saw lots of interesting knives, SOG has a Spec Elite Micro? that looked very promising and CRKT has a smaller Hissatsu folder that will probably be finding it's way to my door. Spyderco had some nice offerings as well.

More to come later in the week. Need to review some catalogs, finish a course curriculum, and get back to work at my main job, a week off sure was nice but I'm probably going to be behind the 8-ball for the next couple weeks because of it.

Also, if you're ever in Vegas, you need to see the Blue Man Group

Over the Last Year All My "EDC" Has Changed...

Looking over my last few posts, I've come to realize that almost all my carry gear has been replaced / upgraded.

I've replaced my Colt Mustang with the Sig P238, I've replaced my main carry/competition gun, the Les Baer TRS wit my Nighthawk Bob-Rail, my SOG Spec Elite & CRKT Hissatsu have (or rather are going to be) replaced by a Benchmade Griptilian (this reminds me, forget those Kudos to SOG, my replacement belt clip still hasn't shown up) and the KA-BAR TDI ankle knife. The Streamlight PT1L is a new addition and has all ready proved useful both while at work and abroad.

I have not been in the habit of carrying a light for the last couple of years, not for lack of interest, just lack of a nice compact light that had a high output. I wanted a Surefire E1B, but didn't want to pay that kind of money for a light. The PT1L has "better" features and is a fraction of the cost of the E1B. I can honestly say that the PT1L has left the house with me every day since it's arrival from Brownells.

More Chrismas Swag

Along with the pen was a strangely familiar box although at the time I didn't know why it was familiar. As it turns out my wife also bought me the TDI ankle knife, I have no desire to carry this on my ankle and will be contacting Invictus Kydex to have a good sheath made up.

While I was Christmas shopping for the Mrs, I also picked up some swag for me.

One thing that I wanted to get my wife was a compact, but bright light. I'm not going to go into the benefits of carrying a light, only that this was a nice find, I got two Streamlight PT1L lights, one for her and one for me. The light's details can be viewed at the Streamlight website. I also picked up the Benchmade Griptilian while shopping for a replacement Kewshaw Chive for my wife.

As Promised: TDI Defensive Knife After Action Review

As promised in Tactical Defense Institute Review Primer (See link for video) here is my wife's review of the course.

I have wanted to take a knife class for years. Just like I wanted to get quality gun training when I chose to start carrying a firearm for self-defense, it was a natural progression of my training to want quality knife training when I chose to carry a knife.
   
Through a series of force-on-force (FOF) scenarios and some research and careful thought I had chosen the Tactical Defense Institute (TDI) Law Enforcement knife made by Ka-Bar as the edged companion to my firearm for every-day carry. When I brought it home and showed my husband my newest acquisition he informed me that TDI was actually a training facility in Ohio that did defensive knife classes. I immediately became interested. After all, it made sense to take a class from the people who designed the knife I chose to carry.
   
It took another two plus years before I would be in a position, financially and logistically, to take a knife class and after hearing many wonderful things about TDI I finally signed up for their two day Defensive Knife class that took place on December fourth and fifth of this year.
   
The confirmation email I received said to bring any and all knives I wanted to train with but that if I had no knife it was not an issue as TDI would have several knives available for trial and plenty of trainers to work with. Even though I didn’t need to take my TDI trainer I stuck it, my Cold Steel Ti-Lite and my Ka-Bar TDI Law Enforcement knife in my suitcase and drove to southern Ohio for my class.
   
A look at the TDI website gives you a run down of the facility with multiple ranges, classrooms, force-on-force houses and everything else a defensive student could ask for.
   
In anticipation of getting lost (as I usually do) I left my hotel an hour and a half early to make what was reported to me to be only a half-hour long trip. The directions were not hard to follow and even though I arrived to class an hour early there was already instructors there with heaters cranked setting out equipment for the class.
   
The classroom was clean and neat with comfortable chairs, clean tables, a small kitchenette, two bathrooms, a case to display TDI products for sale, a large television and (blessedly) two heaters to combat the Ohio cold that had swept in for the weekend.
   
They weren’t kidding when they said they had plenty of knives and trainers. The table at the front of the class was covered with trainer knives and live knives that could be borrowed by students.
   
As the rest of the students arrived we mingled and got to know each other and it wasn’t a surprised to find that I would be the only woman in the class. I was delighted to find out that John Benner, the designer of the TDI knife, would be an assistant instructor for the class as I was eager to meet him after our wonderful chat on the phone when I had called to sign up for the class. When our head instructor, Greg Ellifritz, arrived with plenty of time to spare we all settled in, some finished paying for their class and it was time to start.
   
There was a ratio of three instructors for twelve students (I believe), which made for a very safe environment. With any kind of class featuring weapons safety is a main concern and when you have twelve people with knives working them and trying things they’ve never tried before it’s nice to know there’s more than one set of eyes making sure everyone is being responsible and safe. Two instructors walked around the perimeter of the class checking for safety and giving tips when needed as Greg taught. Even when we sparred or did our force-on-force there was someone there to check our pockets and waistbands to ensure we didn’t forget to remove any live weapons (which I had forgotten to do after lunch on the second day and the instructor caught it (thank goodness)). That, along with the continued safety reminders, made me feel very comfortable that no one was going to end up with a knife buried in their belly or their fingers chopped off.

Tactical Defense Institute Review Primer

My wife is on her way back from the Tactical Defense Institute (TDI) in Ohio and will be writing up review on their Defensive Knife class. In the meantime we can watch this clip from a force on force (FoF) scenario.

Disclaimer: When you have allowed your brain to be convinced the attack is real (which is the point of these exercises) you will say and do things that will later make you blush. Just saying

Kudos to SOG

So I was killing a little time on Facebook when the guy who does SOG's page sent me a message regarding their upcoming change. Something about how they can't have a personal page, must be a business page etc. etc. Any way I ask the guy if I can get a new pocket clip for my Spec Elite 1 and he's like "Sure they give them away" to which I thought "Yeah right" but as it turns out, they do just give them away.

Just thought that was kind of cool and wanted to share.


...Also, I didn't get to run the Nighthawk over the weekend, only one of us got to go shoot IDPA and I let my wife attend. You can watch some match video below.



Yes, that was a stage where you stake a vampire in it's coffin, my idea.stage design and I didn't even get to shoot it. Sometimes it sucks taking the high road in life.

New Knife Sheaths in the Works.

I have a lot of cool knives that I don't carry because the factory sheaths were/are crap. Everyone raved about a particular brand of after market Kydex sheaths, I tried them and wasn't very impressed.

If you frequent a couple of the firearm related forums, you may see a gent going by the name "Unloved"

A while back he started posting pictures of some of his home grown Kydex gear and my interest got peaked. I finally sent him some of my favorite knives as well as some of the wife's items and am eagerly awaiting the new sheaths.

I've got sheaths coming for my SOG mini tsunamis, my wife's KABAR TDI (Small), and my CRKT ABC Operator. I was going to send in my large TDI, but the basement monster ate it.

Enough about what I'm getting, if you want to check out the gear, you can do so @ Invictus Kydex.

I should have my gear back some time next week and will be sure to review this topic sometime after getting acquainted with the products.

SOG(s) for me!

Prior to moving to Iowa I was searching for a smaller fixed blade tanto for carry while riding out the may issue mess. I never really found anything that did it for me, I managed to find an old Cold Steel Mini Tanto (no longer in production) but the handle was super slim...for me. The wife loves it.

I've kept looking and found what seems to be just what I was looking for. There aren't that many sub-five (5" being the largest thing you can carry in Iowa without a PTCW) inch tantos of reputable make and while I'd rather have a straight edge, the combo edge of the SOG Mini-Tsunami will have to do.

It even appears to come with a usable sheath. Score one for JD....or make that two. I found two of these for sale on the net, and unless they were posted by the same guy, I'll be a proud owner of twins.

I've been using a couple of good folders for the time being but I'd much rather have a fixed blade option.