RED STEEL KNIVES

 RED STEEL KNIVES Proudly made by Kizlyar Supreme.

Comparison to a size 8.5 hand, the perfect size for a "utility fixed blade".

Basic, but full leather cover for the blade, to keep purchase costs down but nicer looking than plastic.

2.7mm thick spine of quality heat treated AUS8

Tough Russian Knives!

Rustic looking/semi natural blade finish- looks like "a real knife"

How does it cut? very very well, with a hollow grind and quality AUS8 steel, but equally important, a comfortable handle.

Model: General X1

Specifications:

AUS8 2.68/2.7mm thickness, hollow ground, sabre grind, dark walnut scales.

Intended use:

General household fixed blade tasks, picnic, camping/hiking regular trails and day hiking and fishing, carry in tool box, back of rucksack, car or other vehicle, kitchen "top drawer"

Pro's

Lightweight, Good steel (AUS8) good corrosion resistance, comfortable, stylish, inexpensive but quality made.

Solid genuine walnut scales!

Cons: there are none for a knife of this class!

My modification, I put quality bee's wax furniture polish into the walnut scales to add some water resistance to the material.

Red Steel Knives are proudly manufactured by

Kizlyar Supreme.

The philosophy behind the design was bring out a budget knife which had a leather blade cover, not made out of plastic, had genuine walnut scales and made with a quality blade steel, ie the General X1. I knife which could be carried in a pack, tool box, car, workshop etc. A utility blade but many steps up from some garbage kitchen knife. 

Black Fox Knives GOLEM

 

The Black Fox Golem is a design from Denis Simonutti and manufactured by Black Fox (AKA Fox knives).

What about Denis Simonutti?

Denis Simonutti is a young guy born in 86. He comes from Maniago in Italy. He is a passionate climber and has achieved amongst many, a 6000m peak in the Himalaya's. That's a big deal in my book, I've not gone that high yet, only to just below 6000m, about 5600m so I know this is a very big achievement and takes a lot of dedication. This is seen in his knife designs.

Some background on Denis's design prowess:

I asked Denis to tell  me a bit about his work as a knife designer and how he got into this field/career:

-In 2010 he started working at Fox knives as a CNC operator, and became  "knife addicted". After one year, they gave him an  opportunity to work as CAD designer and since then he has never stopped. During his career he attended several technical courses about CAD and others design programs.

I also asked him about his philosophy behind his designs:

"I don't feel like I have a real philosophy. I let myself free to be inspired by the moment: sometimes I design very functional knives, sometimes I go for original and fancy shapes. If I have to summarise, I would I like to experiment (with) different things".

Now to the knife:

The Golem is a medium sized fixed blade made from D2 tool steel. The blade length is approx. 5.5" long and 5mm thick or 0.2" thick.

The scales are made from olive green drab colored G10 composite.

The handle is very comfortable at the same time grippy however, with not hot spots on bare hands.

It is a medium sized blade so the handle is not huge or big, it can accommodate a size 8.5 hand; any bigger and it's possible that this knife will not be for you.

The blade profile is that of a "recurve". This is a recapitulation of the blades of old and can be seen in many weapons from the Ottoman Empire days (obviously in museums). Maybe tis design dates back even further but I have seen many such shaped blades in museums in the northern hemisphere.

As to the D2 (it is not listed as any particular brand and hence I assume it is a generic Chinese made D2 (as long as it works right?) and heat treatment used in the BlackFox Golem BF-757 OD, it held a good sharp edge despite being bashed into a coconut shell several times (this stuff is very hard).

Denis Simonutti's mark.

The gimping and rounded upper spine profile are spot on!

Giving the Black Fox Golem BF-757 OD a "tropical bash" around the camp fire.

Various tough (a bigger blade is better for these items) fruits are seen here: Sugar cane ( a big tough piece), green coconut and bread fruit.

The BF-757 OD has a good lanyard hole. A definite must for working over water or anywhere where an un-tethered knife could be accidentally lost.

Nice comfortable gimping on the spine.

Peeling and cutting up bread fruit, no problems

Performance:

How did this knife perform?

Quite well indeed considering it is not the right knife for cutting open coconuts, and sugar cane stems. The brea fruit is rather soft so this was ok and doesn't per se require a very large blade, although it would be better with a machete.

Now one of the scales moved a small amount after bashing into the coconut and when I tried to see if the nut needed to be tightened it was found that the T8 torx nuts had been loctited/thread locker or similar and it was not possible to loosen the nut nor was it possible to tighten it. The nut was simply turning, not easily but could be turned. Laterally, there was zero slop. 

So what was the problem and why did it occur? I believe it to be related to the fact that the hole in the G10 scale is ever so slightly bigger than the outer diameter of the nut and the shape was slightly off circular. We are talking way less than 1mm and possibly under 0.5mm! 

How to remedy this?

The application of Industrial grade medium viscosity Super glue, so that it will seep into around the very small space between the nut and the G10 .

Problem solved.

However I'm going to assume that this was a one off thing (plus the fact I am only looking at a sample size of n=1) and maybe this particular scale should have failed QC and that the part wasn't sitting securely on the milling platform? Who knows, but a hole should be a hole and not slightly elliptical.

Overall  Impressions

My overall impression is quite good!

I think the BF-757 OD will make a good camping and hunting knife (possible to skin with) and tough enough for some heavy duty camping chores. With the exception of cold weather use, no gloves are necessary with this knife as the handle is very comfortable.

I came across* this design by chance and immediately thought, hey this looks like a great design and I have to say i was right.

See the video field review here:

Many thanks to Mr Denis Samonutti for kindly providing me with some background info.

BCT

* I find stuff for you my readers by trawling the net, eg Google images and then send many hours determining after some thorough research whether to then get the product in question. this is time well spent so i don't end up with reviewing some garbage that ends up in the metal recycling skip.

Kizlyar Supreme Vector

 Kizlyar Supreme Vector Field Knife

About to start the "coconut bash test"

A  stone wash finish is applied to the 420HC blade.

The Kizlyar Supreme Vector in 420HC performed very well cutting the very fibrous coconut tissue and after all, knives are meant to cut aren't they? If a knife has a lousy heat treatment, a coconut will soon blunt it after several cuts; not so here!

Remember too that by it's very nature 420HC is a fairly tough stainless steel. This is a good choice for such a knife and it's intended applications. 420HC at 57-58 HRC is also easily sharpened with a good ceramic stone.

I used  the tip to "drill"into one of the 3 "eyes" of the coconut.

The kraton grip is very comfortable and if the knife is used to chop, the grip effectively blocks all vibration to the palm of the hand. The grip is also very secure and fits well in the hand. 

At the butt end the tang protrudes just enough to whack something without incurring damage to the Kraton. The butt could also be used to "deliver a blow" or "crack some nuts".

The scabbard

The blade is securely housed within an injection molded polypropylene* scabbard (still under review as early feedback thought that the kydex/type Nylon was blunting the blades; personally I have never thought this was the case, nor have I experienced this over the years). 

The scabbard has a slim profile and can be mounted and or fixed in numerous positions within a molle system of webbing etc. For more traditional carry for the civilian there is an effective belt loop with a strong Velcro closure. The knife can be inserted either left or right handed as the scabbard is symmetrical. So "lefties" will have no problems!

The shape of the guard is interesting as well and was not uncomfortable when using the Vector in a reverse grip (ie it did not dig into my hand and it sits a little proud of index and thumb, very important when it comes to guards on such knives.

Guard material is in the 420* series steels heat treated to HRC 44-48.*

 

The design for Vector by Kizlyar Supreme started back in 2019.

Made from 420HC, Kraton and Nylon

This is one functional military knife.

A super thick spine and full tang housed inside of a extremely comfortable Kraton grip.

Perfect for fishing and some fairly heavy tasks, de-boning, vegetables and even chopping up a coconut if you had to!

Make no mistake about the slim lines, at almost 6mm thick (unconventional for such a knife design-however, with some great pros to it.) it has a very beefy spine with a high sabre grind. The geometry will yield itself to the camp kitchen with easy food preparation.

There is a single bolt holding on the handle (Kraton), not dissimilar to how Extrema Ratio, fix some if not most of their fixed blades handles to the tang. Note the steel guard.

Design rationale behind the the VECTOR

This is an in house design from Kizlyar Supreme and is based upon very old traditional Soviet military knives with a reminiscent blade profile also found in Finnish military knives of old.

According to Kizlyar Supreme, the Vector was originally developed for a wide range of users, including but not limited to  law enforcement. The design was brought about by interaction with security forces acting in the role of consultants.

However, the Vector design is based upon old Soviet knives such as the Vacha Trud knife, NR-40 and the NR 43-Cherry. (see images in a Google search of these old Russian knives). The "roots" of the design are domestic in origin.

The Kizlyar Supreme Vector is at the time of writing difficult to get due to a big popularity as it has just been released into the market.

* Please note there is continuous development on the vector to constantly improve it's characteristics.

BCT

Why are people so terrorficationized by mushrooms?

 Why are people so Terrorficationized* by mushrooms?

Warning this is a rant and I'll explain why at the end, or you could just skip reading this but you will miss out on the grunt of the text.

Boletus calopus (not edible but not deadly either)

Highly edible Chanterelle (Cantherellus) desired by many a mushroom hunter .

Ready to cook

Boletus edulis (the prized Cep or Penny bun more commonly known as the Porcini Mushroom, prized by the Italians and many other Europeans).

Is it because we were told all of this BS from our parents who were also told the same BS from theirs etc etc.? That if you even touch them you will die? Is it from fairy tales we were read as children; crazy stories in the press??

First up I want to say GREAT!!!! (in response the above question in the title because that means all the more for our family to pick and enjoy LOL!

For example: in the United Kingdom there is an unwritten code that one should definitely kick over/trample any mushrooms they see whilst out walking the dog etc. EVEN if it is a protected area. I've challenged many a walker over this and the response is always the same and goes a little something like this:

"I don't want my dog eating them as they could kill them". I smile and nod and don't bother to reply as it is useless against such ridiculous logic (well it's not logic to begin with is it?).

The same can be heard from people in Australia and some of my (yes anecdotal of course) American compadres have looked at me like I've lost the plot when I suggested we go mushroom picking.

No, no, this is a strong fear in many and most of those many just reply that they have zero intention of eating any wild mushroom unless it came out of the supermarket and even then they steer clear of the super market ones.

This is as close to a superstition as possible I reckon LOL.

Across Europe where mushroom picking is supposed to be part of the culture; well it is part of the culture but no longer in the most part for the young person who spends their time bogged ten feet deep into a small screen. They will only dare to eat a mushroom if it comes from Lidl!

The only significant "culture' who is picking wild mushrooms are those engaged in the commercial side of things. IMHO.

For example in Bulgaria, a culture steeped in hunting traditions where hunting is and can be enjoyed by all and NOT only for the wealthy; out of doors activities does not extend to mushroom picking amongst the young and is as rare as finding hens teeth.

How do I know this? am I talking out of my....?

Well I've travelled a lot and lived in many places and when in these regions where the mushrooms abound, no one to be seen except commercial pickers (if you even see them as usually they have "secrete' locations" just like fishermen LOL!

Go out into the forests and only pensioners to be seen walking/Hiking. In all of my adventures across Bulgaria I can count on two hands at most the number of young people out walking hiking let alone picking mushrooms and or fishing and only the "older set" shooting.

Maybe you are now saying hey in that little country there is nothing to hunt. Well that's not true, or there is so little forest there are no mushrooms to pick, still not true (for Bulgaria at least). No, my dear friend's this all stems from the fact that most are:

TERRORFICATIONIZED by the diminutive mushroom.

YES YES! There are some which can kill if you (Amanita phalloides- The Death Cap) eat them, no antidote but just learn which ones they are; how much simpler could that be? No need to be afraid of everything, right?

I learnt my trade globally (and believe it or not to begin with in Australia- yes we have edible mushrooms) from Polish, French and Russian friends who are all avid collectors of wild mushrooms. 

I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy these fruits of the forests and can profess that it might be great to be able to build your survival shelter come what may, but without food and water your shelter will contain a skeleton at the end of the day. 

You must know as many things as you can to eat safely if you want to be into "bushcraft" survival (it's not just about how to light a fire or build a shelter, it's about water and food, then a shelter and fire if you can) and also it's great to be able to build a fire from anything but again no good if you are now at a stage where you wished you could have identified those wild mushrooms and you will starve to death in front of a warm camp fire with food growing all around you (ok not just mushrooms of course -all of that "green stuff' you failed to learn which was edible and which will poison you LOL.

How can we profess to want to be in touch with nature but at the same time terrified of her?

Many (young) people (age range 13- 30) could not light a fire even if given a box of matches, dry wood and a cigarette lighter for good measure, let alone a can of petrol just to make sure. They would rather spend away their free time in the shopping malls.

That stupid joke about: "Where does milk come from"? is beginning to sound not that stupid anymore these days. Puntzy schools where the parents pay dearly for their child's education have subjects like "getting in touch with nature" where at best you might find some teachers trying to show certain age groups how to light a fire out of doors. You're paying for this stupidity.

It's all good and well to know that one could probably eat most animals (with few exceptions and or special treatment (such as fish from the puffer family) but another thing to know about what plant and fungal foods are available from the perspective of the survivalist. Then it will become a challenge to all if they can only find mushrooms and abundant plant material but no fish or four legged creatures in sight let alone be carrying a rifle/bow and know how to use it in regards to hunting.

We don't have to be into killing animals if hunting is not your thing but at the same time why kick over mushrooms, they are one of natures most beautiful things (ask any macro photographer engaged in this activity).

Now as to the "why kick over mushrooms and WHY this is a very dumb ass thing to do, especially if you are terrificationized by them;

BECAUSE if you do happen to trample over the Death cap mushroom or the Destroying angel mushrooms and then get all of this stuff all over your shoes, there is a much greater chance that you will end up touching this stuff and or your beloved animal will come unstuck by licking your shoes biting them picking them up and carrying them around the house etc. Just leave the mushrooms alone eh? For similar reasons I'm not shooting anything I don't intend to bring back and eat.  (with the exceptions of feral animal control)

So what does (one of) the most deadly mushroom look like?

click this link

https://www.facebook.com/Bushcampingtools/videos/1952293955043948

*My son made up this great word and I love it!

Wearing glasses and using a rifle scope

 Wearing Glasses and Using a Rifle Scope

BCT Quick Tips:

All sorts has been said about this over the internet.

Here are the starting facts:

Scope in Use is a Vortex Crossfire II 3-9X40,

So this means it has from X3- X9 magnification range and the front optic diameter is 40mm (not a 40mm focal length- just to be clear). 

Using it at over X4 when wearing glasses isn't recommend by me as any slight head movement (hence eye movement) you will not be able to see through the lens quickly as the magnification increases the field of view decreases and this means (in practical terms) the alignment of your eye must be exactly on optical axis. Now this latter aspect is really important if you wear glasses to read* and see stuff at close range.

* I'm only considering glasses for reading here, not for any other kind of optical astigmatism corrections etc.

I got this scope because it isn't too bad in low light so anything like this will help if one wears glasses for reading and or their vision becomes worse in low light cf with strong bright daylight when your iris is stopping down which helps to correct for poor vision due to the age of your eyes but in low light without glasses this can be a problem when the Iris opens up to let more light in.

The importance of a good and repeatable cheek weld is paramount but before this the wearer of glasses can not be as sloppy as someone who doesn't wear glasses when setting up the correct eye relief. 

The reason why this is important is because you want to be able maximise whatever eye relief your scope has for proper vision and of course is all part of shooting skills.

Be sure to correctly focus the reticle and once focused do not change this to see what you are aiming at. Make sure your frames keep your glasses close to your face and are not slopping around because you will be turning your head in a position which is not normal when reading and if your lenses slip.

Depending upon the glasses (eg reading glasses), wearing them will/could give you a slight magnification increase to whatever the scope is set to.

BCT Quick tips.

 A Bad Experience at the Range

(but Not what you expect)

In desperation trying to smoke out the hordes of mosquitos!

Today, I decided to test out how far off the alignment for my scope was after using a VipeRay from Vector optics to perform a pre-alignment indoors.

We got to the range and it was a bit overgrown, set the target up, got camera ready on target, then put my eye to the scope fired off a shot and saw that it looked like it went like 1ft above the target! It was right on line but 1ft too high! 

Well that wasn't expected. Now before the next shot we had to light a small fire and make some smoke, because the mosquitos were beginning to suck all of my blood out and I was losing concentration rapidly trying to zero in the scope. Soon to be losing consciousness from blood loss!

So half drained of blood and slapping the shit out of the mosquitos,  I was asking myself how could this thing (the rifle scope) be so way off?

Well easy, because if the LASER was pointing upwards from within the mount, it doesn't have to be much of an angle (in fact a very, very small angle), you would never see it with the naked eye, and especially indoors at close range, and when I was winding up the elevation to match that LASER dot I was in fact going well overboard with the scope elevation! 

This now, I realise is a problem with cheap LASER alignment tools because in order to do this the LASER must have at least an optical accuracy on par with a good scientific instrument, not some glorified LASER pointer in the guise of a alignment tool for a rifle scope.

So to cut a long story short and because I was getting pretty darn short with the situation, we beat a hasty retreat from that range vowing never to return there because I doubt those blood suckers were going to be put off by some crap mosquito repellents for sure.  

Only by setting fire to half of the bush and hiding within that smoke screen could we survive there but of course with all of that smoke, not being able to even see the front optics of the scope, let along where I was supposed to be aiming LOL.

The photo's don't show it but my legs and arms were covered in blood sucking, heck knows what disease ridden mosquitoes. This is what happens when it has been raining for so long and you're desperate to get to the range! You're going to pay but not with money but blood!

 

What did I learn? Don't bother going to the outdoor range after a week long of heavy rains unless one wants to be dancing around those black swarms of 6 legged vampires!

There's no shortcuts to aligning a rifle scope!

BCT

SOG TERMINUS XR CRYO D2

 SOG TERMINUS XR CRYO D2

Studies and Observations Group 

Just bought this the other day.........

Blade is very securely held within the body of the knife by a strong spring.

MIC (of course for the low price)

But despite MIC it carries a lifetime warranty.

Changeable pocket clip but not without pulling the knife apart.

Axis type lock

Finger gimping on a cryogenically treated d2 blade.

Ok sized stop pin but thick liners. against G10 scales.

Comes in several colors of G10. Reddish, Black, etc.

TERMINUS XR Blade moves against ball bearings.

The SOG TERMINUS XR has Good grippy texture on the scales.

Stay tuned for the field test on BCT.