Day 309: Sharp

This is Day 309 of 15 Day to Flatten the Curve and Day 69 of Ohio’s 21-day WuFlu Curfew.

Deb and I are doin’ just fine.

When I met Deb, she didn’t give a rat’s ass about knives. She was impressed with the set of carbon-steel Henckels in my condo’s kitchen, sure, but beyond that she truly didn’t care. Fifteen-plus years of hanging around with me, however, has turned her around.

These days she’s as much of a knife knut as I am. On any given day you’ll find her carrying at least two folding knives, often three — just because. She’s (now) head-over-heels in love with knives.

As we put together our kit for the bus, we know that edged tools will be essential, as they have been when we’ve escaped in the Bumper Bunker. Yesterday afternoon she sat down with her collection to select two knives, three at the most, that would serve her well when traveling with Ernie.

She settled on nine.

I went through the same process later and arrived at about the same number, give or take a blade or two. Having spent time working in the knife industry I had quite an array from which to choose, but I do have my favorites. Those are the ones that’ll go with me.

One tool that’ll be particularly useful to us around our campfires is a hatchet or small axe. Last summer we made do with a 50-year-old Estwing carpenter’s hatchet I’d picked up at an antique store years ago, but for our travels in the bus I wanted to upgrade.

Yesterday I remembered that I already have the right tool for the job — a Bark River Knives Camp Ax (pictured), a custom offering from the Michigan company back in 2009. I found it in its original box, unused — perfect.

The Bark River Camp Ax isn’t a conventional head-on-a-handle design — it’s a single piece of quarter-inch high-carbon steel, from bit through the full tang, with a pair of contoured Micarta slabs for grip.

In the hand it feels very well balanced. And according to those who have put their own Camp Ax to work over the last 12 years, the thing throws chips like a beast and holds up to abuse.

You can be sure that I’ll report on our experience with this tool. I can’t wait to give it a swing.

On this Tuesday I don’t have much new to say about current events. Another day, another slew of executive orders accompanied by more of Daffy’s slurred mumbling, exhausting and exhausted. The House delivered its kangaroo impeachment to the Senate, the speaker touting not the impeachment managers’ qualifications but their “diversity” — as Mark Steyn observed, “all the fashionable identity groups were represented.”

What I’ve noticed, and this has been true for the last several weeks, is that the incoming regime doesn’t handle challenges well at all. When someone pushes back on their presumptive and largely unlawful authority, the response typically is to bad-mouth Trump and his supporters, then call for “unity.” (Translation: “Surrender and submit.”)

Why the hell do you think Democrats continue to pursue the impeachment of a president who’s left office? They’re desperate for a win, or at least an “A” for their anti-American effort, and they realize that congressional majorities and Daffy in The White House aren’t nearly enough.

Just watch them — they’re not prepared for opposition.

They hate Trump, make no mistake about that, and they most definitely hate us. But when their hatred fails to intimidate, when it doesn’t produce the silence they expect, they don’t handle it well.

Keep the pressure on. We won’t be able to stop them completely, but it’s clear that we can frustrate them and make their lives miserable.

Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.

#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath

(Header image: The “2015 Featured Knife” from South African ‘maker Arno Bernard. The hollow-ground blade is polished CPM S35VN stainless, the handle slabs are sheep horn and the horizontal sheath, not pictured, is cape buffalo hide. Spectacular knife.)