Theory/Thoughts

The Alaskan Log Cabin Valet Tray.

Posted on January 26, 2023 by akadventurer

This started as an idea for a contest at printables.com;

https://www.printables.com/contest/334-catch-all-trays

Here is also where this model is on that site;

https://www.printables.com/model/380531-the-alaskan-log-cabin-valet-tray

Figured, if Anyone should/could be designing an EDC related item for printing, it would be me, right? 😉

Problem is, I don’t use the things!

I had one idea for this but brushed it off as too… hokey? I dunno, too rediculous in some way.

The more I thought about it, I couldn’t get really entheused about it, because I don’t use the things… I have a specific place I put current carry, its a dump place, but I’ve never done the whole box/tray/ whatever thing, unless I’m house sitting somewhere and need to Create a safe place. Its just not ever been a me thing at home.

But, THEN the more I think about it too, it could be a fun project to model my idea, and who cares if its a little over the top on a theme? So, for the fun of it, Iwent ahead and did it.

I give you, The Alaskan Dump Tray.
Or The Log Cabin Valet tray.
You’re choice.

And the Mini version,

I got a little carried away, I have it as a fully parametarized file(As in it runs in the OpenSCAD customizer pane, there all parameters are easy to edit by Anyone with the software, no 3D or coding experiance needed..Poimt and click without editing the model(s)) Can change; The log height(count), log diameter, inner area length and width, turn on or off 1 or 2 inner walls, and move the two inner divider walls around(although they always cross and make 2 compartments equal length… I’m too lazy so far to cut it up and make it 4 walls if wanted), and the inner wall height and log diameter is settable independantly of the main walls, and each other.

The big one Barely fits on my printer, and actually is barely big enough for what I’d want/need.
The little one was a compromise of print time, and space… I can get my average knife, light, multi and watch into it.. Although ironically todays items don’t fit. lol. I printed the little one to have something to take pics for the contest, and because it was only 4 hours to print. The big one would take 7.5 hours, at my coursest resolution.(I printed the small one course for both time, and I figured the rough layers would look better for logs… it does fit I think!)

For this one I went with 3 courses, 10mm dia on the outer walls, and 8mm on the inner wall, seemsed like a good look, and a nice scale. Fresh off the printer!

Some shop gear “EDC” in it;

And, some of today, the basics.

Overall, I’m rather happy with it! Looks like I wanted, and isn’t anything bad like I’d imagined it might end up. I think it came out just fun and interesting, not over the top on “Alaska” or log cabin woodsie LOL.

Categories: 3D Printing, Boxes, Custom, Daily-cary-log, EDC, EDC/MT use, Engineering & Design, Just Plain Fun, key-chains, knives, Life-Philosophy, New Gear, OpenSCAD, PLA, Plastic Parts, Prototypes, Retro, Theory/Thoughts, Traditional

About that Muskrat.

Posted on July 26, 2020 by akadventurer

Yeah, backup blades of the same type aren’t my thing. I’m more for multiple blades in different styles, for different tasks.
I can see how it would be, as these were originally meant as a skinning blade. Use it till dull, swap blades and keep going without having to change your way of doing things to compensate for a different blade. But I don’t do that kind of repetitive work that warrants a direct replacement blade.
So, yeah.

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Ended up with a nice lambsfoot profile. And just about the same length of edge as is on the sheepsfoot in the stockman.

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Usually I do the back or pile side blade for this, but the curve of the frame leaves more access to the nail nick on the front/mark side blade, than if does the other. So I did the front. The main blade used will be the straight edge anyway… Might as well make it the mark side blade, usually considered the “main” blade side.

Slight swedging and blend of spine edges.

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Might touch the “peak” on the spine a bit to straighten the overall look of the blade. Then again I might forget. It doesn’t really need it.

Categories: Case Knives, Cowboy, Customized, EDC, Field gear, Grail Item, knives, Life-Philosophy, Modifications, Pocket knives, Re-purpose, Theory/Thoughts, tool mods, Traditional

Do I? Or Don’t I?

Posted on July 20, 2020 by akadventurer

“What?” you ask?

Why, Bob the 2nd blade on my new mini Muskrat into a wharnie/sheepsfoot/lambs foot profile, of course!

With the big muskrat I did.

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With the blade I’d want in it if I could build one(no, can’t, I’m not that good).

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So the issues are I’ll either end up with a long pointy wharnie, or sheepsfoot, because the nail knicks are so far forward on these blades…

Unless I crop it into the knick (not ideal) or behind the knick… better but then I’d have to cut a new knick… something I suck at. Been there fraked that up before. Several times…

But I’d really like the shorter stiffer profile blade.

Then again there is the argument tp leave it alone altogether since right now i carry and use the CRKT minimalist all the time anyway. Thats the blade I’d gain by the mod.

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But what do I need two long clip points for, too?

Soooo….

any input?

Ideas?

Categories: Case Knives, Custom, Customized, EDC, knives, Modifications, No-pain-no-gain, Pocket knives, Theory/Thoughts

Summer/New Knife Thoughts.

Posted on July 18, 2020 by akadventurer

An older thought line that didn’t het posted here. From mid May 2020.
Thinking about getting a new knife but unsure… this is the closest I currently have to the form factor of the possible new one… this is 4″closed, slim, single blade, slipjoint.

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The other is 4.125″ closed, slim, single blade, lockback.
Carried this today to see how I might like the other. Not encouraging that this knife rung all the bells in design and concept a couple years ago, but didn’t in application, and I rarely use it.
And rarely do I get along with a lockback.
I find myself strangely drawn to a Case tribal lock.

Late May 2020;
Not really needing nor using a regular folder these days.
At work, and honestly most times not, I carry and use the CRKT Folts Minimalist wharnie. It does 95% of my cutting.
Otherwise I’m carying my Kobalt folding utility knife for really dirty stuff, the disposable blades get that duty. And its use is rare, I’ve actually stopped carrying it every work day.
Then, I have been carrying, (but applicable never using) a traditional folder. Sometimes I might carve up cheese and sausage with it. But I do carry a dedicated knife for that in the truck(Case single blade slim 6148 trapper).
But, like I say, I’m drawn to the tribal lock right now.
Or a bone scaled sodbuster(another pattern that seems perfect but has never really clicked for me).
If i cary just the CRKT, that gets me a durable work blade, a utility straight edge, and i can not carry the Kobalt.
Then I can have a second personal knife on me, for cleaner tasks, and for the option of a curved blade style.
Except the tribal is hardly a curved edge, being that spear drop pount thing case maked that I find useless. Not straight enough, and not curved enough. Get the feeling I wouldn’t have it long with out re-profiling, and raising the tip.
Meh.

Categories: Case Knives, EDC, Funny, knives, Life-Philosophy, Pocket knives, Theory/Thoughts

A Sunday EDC, after 5 years.

Posted on May 19, 2020 by akadventurer

Was looking through some old pics of mine, and realized that May of 2015 and 2020 are identical for dates/day of week.

The 17th was a Sunday in both years.
So, Sunday carry Exactly 5 years apart;

’15;

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This would be one of my last pocket dumps with the flip phone, since within the month, and as I recall not long after my birthday, I went and got the Galaxy S5.

Also one of my last photos taken with a “real” camera, not a phone.

Looks like no watch since I think I had converted that pocket watch to a pill case by then, but maybe not. Nook as E-Bible.

No ring since that fall is when I made my moonglow and acrylic rings.

Didn’t start carrying hanks till the next year I think, or at least winter of 15/16.

IIRC I hadn’t started consistent Sunday CCW then.

Before I started color coordinating.

’20;

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This one is a bit odd, since this last year I had started a distinctively lighter/minimal carry for Sundays… Which this isn’t. Its kinda 1/2 and half.

This sunday was the first church since Convid19/pandemic/shutdown. (Alaska is now on “reopen” orders, with gatherings, events etc allowed again.) I couldnt find my go to church bible, so used my phone. Phone is now an S8 as of this month so these pics skip the S5 entirely, even though it lasted almost the entire 5 years.

No notebook or pen since I stopped them a couple months ago. Haven’t worn my dog tags for a while either since weekdays I have the neck knife.

Metal ring I made before or ironically in 2015(from an AK quarter), since I have recently broke the acrylics.

New watch, and a general blue theme which matched my wardrobe for the day, blue denim, T and Hawaii-ish/islands shirt.

Haven’t used the buffalo money clip for about a year, although I still have it. Got these light weight card case wallets especially for light church carry, and they became every day use.

Same style of knife, traditional. One a stockman, one a muskrat which is a stockman frame.

Same exact flashlight, and the multitool too!

Categories: Alaska-Life, Daily-cary-log, EDC, EDC/MT use, Flashlights, Good Times, Journal, Just Plain Fun, Life-Philosophy, Modifications, Pocket knives, Sentimental, Summertime, Theory/Thoughts

Multiple tools use?

Posted on November 6, 2019 by akadventurer

A friend on an EDC forum asked me an interesting question today;

Hey AK-A, You’ve had that Victorinox Swiss Tool Spirit for quite some time.
Which three of its tools have you used the most? TIA

It’s funny that he should ask me that; A couple nights before when putting things up for the night, I was looking at it and thinking about what I use and don’t use.

My answer is as follows;
Top 2 are easy, pliers, phillips driver, in that order.

But I had to add a footnote, that I’m not sure that #2 counts as Vic specific since I hated the Vic driver. I cut it off and welded a Leatherman flat style 1/4″ bit holder onto it several years ago. 🙂
#3 is hard to tell what I use more, but I *think* its the large flat head driver/bottle opener as leverage/a pry bar.

Honorable mention/#4, #5 goes to the other two that tied with that big driver, the awl and the wire cutters.


Use the awl as a pick, scraper, small pry tool a lot. And the wire cutters get alot of use when I’m running the wire feed welder.
Honestly, out of those last three its really, really, really hard to tell what I use more.
I can tell you what I Never use; the knife blade.

I started out hating the style(which is ironically now my favorite to use on any other knife, a sheepsfoot), and now I just prefer the ergonomics of a dedicated pocket knife.
Rarely, almost never used, is the chisel/scraper. Like maybe 15 times in the ~12 years I’ve had the tool.

That thing I’d probably use more if I remembered it was there… for some reason, maybe because I carried a Leatherman for so long and they don’t have one, I never think of it being there.

I tend to see it when opening another tool and think “dang that woulda been handy 10 minutes ago…”

Categories: Daily-cary-log, EDC, EDC/MT use, Field gear, Improviser, Journal, MacGyver, Modifications, Multitools, Preparedness, Reviews, SAKs, Theory/Thoughts, Usage Reviews

What does 2019 hold for you?

Posted on December 13, 2018 by akadventurer

Someone asked me that recently.

Someone also said the time to set goals is now, not January 1st.

Interestingly, I’ve known for a while that I don’t really care about “new years” stuff, but I don’t think I’ve ever put my thoughts on this topic into a solid form before either…
Here is the outcome, my answer, or as close as I can get, to answering the question above.

Which isn’t really an answer to it at all, really. More of an answer to why I can’t answer it.

They’re right, the time to set goals is now. But its true of Any time, not just now on the calendar.

Just because a number on a paper changes, doesn’t make the way it works any different.

Life is what it is regaurdless of the date.

I’ve never understood the idea of new years resolutions and changes.

Whatever it(the next year) brings is what it brings.

Dates and calendar changes don’t mean a whole hell of a lot to me. If something happens, or I want to do something , change my life or not, etc, a number on a paper doesn’t mean anything, I can make plans any time, and fulfill them any time possible.
All associating it with a year change does is either makes you pressured to rush, or disappointed that you missed… Neither one is encouraging nor helpful.

Dont get me wrong, I’m surely not meaning to criticize the concept for others, not at all. More power to you if it works for you. 🙂

Just doesn’t make sense for me.

Categories: Journal, Life-Philosophy, Theory/Thoughts

If reduced to three folding knives.

Posted on May 2, 2018 by akadventurer

A challenge posted on a forum recently; If you were forcibly reduced, for whatever reason, to only having three of your folding knives, what would they be. And why.

These are mine. I picked based on the ones I’d want as my only three, but also to par that down, based on the ones I’d want if limited to just one knife. Made it easier to choose. Not easy at all, but easier. 😉;)

The peanut, my old and dear friend for 11 years now, and at times(some of them months, or years at a time) my only knife. The little knife that can, and does, do anything, always cutting above and beyond what you’d expect from knives twice it’s size.

The stockman, my favorite of the ones I have now, and a stockman has become my most carried and used pattern. This is a nice size, and would be well suited to be my only knife, if ever reduced to just one.

Both being my favorite traditional brand, Case, in my favorite production steel, TrueSharp(a 420 varient); it just plain works, and is easy to work with.

And last but not least, and this was a hard choice, my Kobalt folding razor knife. I wanted to call this one of my work tools, and not my EDC, to allow another favorite in the 3. ;)

But to be honest, it’s been carried and used a LOT when I have gone months without work.. And it deserves it’s place in the 3 otherwise. This sucker has taken anything I could throw at it, professionally and personally for 7 years now. It’s bomb proof, and I dare say construction proof, even Alaska proof!

Categories: EDC, knives, Life-Philosophy, Sentimental, Theory/Thoughts

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