Review: United Cutlery M48 Spear

Here's a fun item that I've had sitting by my front door in the umbrella stand for a while, and thought I should give it screen time. I've had a soft spot for spears for a long time, perhaps not as long as with swords, but still, a good long while. My first spear was a Kenyan Maasai spear, and I've previously shown off my Cold Steel Boar Spear which is as impressive a spear as you're likely to ever wave around and at 208cm (82 1/8"), it's not something you carry around lightly.

This is the M48 Kommando Survival Spear, by United Cutlery. This is another of the M48 family, which I have covered before with the Walking Axe and the very handy Ranger Hawk.
Sharing the same 30% fiberglass haft as the Walking Axe, which measures 92cm (36 1/8”) this is actually quite short for a spear, and reminds me of the Zulu Assegai and Ikiwa spears.

As with the Walking Axe, the haft is about 10-15cm too short for me to use as an effective cane, unless I wanted to grasp the head, never a good idea, really.

With the molded finger grips at the head end, and flared throat to prevent over penetration, the spear itself balances nicely when held here, one handed. Two other grip points, in the form of a series of inset groves about midway and at the butt-end allow for a number of different holds.

 Certainly in the places I'd want to be grasping a spear for close fighting, or in a shield wall, if that were my thing.

With a 20cm (8") head, featuring a rather impressive flat grind bevel on both sides. It manages this by being extremely thick, at almost half an inch at the middle, which features some fluting and holes through the spine, which drops the wight a little.

All up this piece weighs 1kg (2.2lbs), mostly at the head. Given the solid design of the head, I expect that it would take a lot more abuse than the head of the Walking Axe, which as you may have read, experienced some structural failure (but not catastrophically) on my last camping trip, chopping firewood.

I expect the M48 spear to pack a lot more wallop, but a spear is not an axe. I'll have to give some thought to how to demonstrate this effectively. Once again, the length of the spear gave me pause. Longer than a knife, longer than a sword, but not really long enough to keep a foe at more than "arms length". The other option was hunting medium sized game.

I haven't had a chance to go out far enough away from prying eyes to fling it around, but at 1 kg, it makes for a pretty dense package for a thrown weapon. It would make a very substantial club though.

Still, it's size allows it to go a lot of places a full length spear like the Cold Steel Boar Spear just can't. Like across your back whilst scrambling up a ravine, or climbing through a building.

It will fit in a car boot, or even lashed to a bike. That big broad head isn't suited to spear-fishing, but I can imagine that in survival situations it would work nicely for both sea-side wildlife and deterring land predators.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of this spear is its cross section.

I used a pizza box to demonstrate the cross section, and you can see just how solid the M48 blade is. This thing pokes big holes.Perhaps not as wide or deep as the Cold Steel, but certainly broadly.

I've not really had much opportunity to put it thought its paces, the fox that took my last bunch of pet rabbits hasn't been back since I threw the Walking Axe at it (close is NOT a hit, in this case) but I think that local livestock protection and vermin control might well be the best option for this piece, until it comes time to go house-to-house and ventilate a horde.

Review: United Cutlery - M48 Walking Axe

Here's something I've been sitting on for a little while, and wanted to bring into the light, now that we are on the cusp of spring.

Much like Gimli The Dwarf I do enjoy the heft of a good axe in the hand. I've been chopping wood since I was 8 or 9 I think, off and on (our current house doesn't even have a fireplace), but I do have a brazier and the Pot Belly Stove project. I've previously reported on my other axes, including my outstanding FISKARS log splitter and my little United Cutlery M48 Ranger Hawk. In addition, I have at least one other traditional wood-hafted chopping axe, and two hatchets. Lots of axe-action. So when I saw that Global Gear was stocking the big sister of the Ranger Hawk, the "Tactical Axe" I thought I just had to get my hands on it.

The toxic green "zombie apocalypse" version of the axe is called a walking axe, referring to it being walking stick height. You can see here that this is pretty much the case, and for people shorter than me this would probably even be a comfortable option. It's just not quite long enough for me in this role. More on that later. (Check out my new 5.11 Tactical Kilt, too)


Here I've lain the two M48 axes side by side so you can get an idea of the differences between the heads.

They both share the "bearded axe" design that I am very find of, and you can see that the Walking Axe has a more pronounced curve to the head, as well as being longer edged.at around 12cm (5") of blade, and being 20cm (8") long. Wielding it brings out my Viking heritage more than I care to say ...

The other features of the head differ between the tomahawk and the walking axe, which was interesting. It wasn't simply a matter of putting the same head on a different shaft. Instead of three circular holes running backwards from the head, three triangular holed run down the length of it. These sit well past the secondary grind, and add to the liveliness of the blade considerably.

This is probably a good thing, because instead of the sharpened pick at the back of the axe, the Walking Axe features a curved hammer/handle end. With these considerable differences this really is a stand-alone piece. You can also see the differences in the shaft, which I'll cover in a moment.

The 91cm ( 36") super strong, black handle is made of a 30% fiberglass composite and is both light and quite rigid, whilst still having some flex to absorb the shock of impact.

There are two sets of ringed groves set into the haft, one down at the butt, the other about midway, which is a slightly larger set having two sets of 8 groves, the lower set just a single set of eight. As well as these there is the "knuckle" bump at about three quarters of the way up the haft, a features shared by the Ranger Hawk, as well as a set of finger grip lumps behind the beard that the Ranger Hawk does not have.

The cast 7Cr17 stainless steel blade is quite sharp and has considerable bite, good for chopping as well as whittling, if you can manage the long haft. As with the Ranger Hawk, the axe head is attached to the haft with three separate metal hex bolts.

The fittings are exactly the same between the two, and I suspect I could swap them out without any trouble at all.

You can see here the hammer/handle end is actually quite curved, and lacks a flattened striking face, more like a ball-peen hammer.

The fact that the hammer/handle end has a downwards curve lends itself to the idea of using it as a "break and rake" tool for clearing window frames, in the event you need emergency entrance (or exit). It, like the head of the blade, is quite thick, surprisingly so given the over all weight of the axe, which is only 1.4kg (3lbs) or so.

It also gives a nice, ergonomic place to rest your palm whilst hiking with the axe, in its walking-stick aspect.

The slight skeletonisation of the head drops the weight again, and adds a double line of gripping points to add to your ability to retain the tool when holding it.


The axe comes with a synthetic rubber "guard" which in theory pegs itself closed through the top of the cut-aways in the head. In my one, this didn't quite work, and I had to run a twist tie through the loop in order to snag it shut. With drain holes a-plenty, and covering the bitey tops and bottoms the of the beard, this does a good job in protecting the user, the environment and random passer-s by from feeling the bite of the axe.

This is a fun piece, and very lively in the hands. The play from gripping it, swinging it, and the slide of hands along its haft makes it a very quick and light tool, a far cry in feel from my FISKARS log splitter, and felt much more like a sword than a hammer, so to speak.

The lightness of the head will play a part in its usefulness when it comes to chopping and splitting, but for brush clearing, and the lopping of limbs, I suspect it will do just fine.

The fiberglass reinforced handle, as I say, is a tad too short for me to use as a walking stick, personally, but I have a big household, and I'm sure someone will find it useful in our upcoming camping and adventuring summer!

Til Valhall!

Review: Mainstay Emergency Food Rations

I've been feeling really remiss as a prepper without a stock of MRE's and other per-packaged survival food. Like a cowboy without a Stetson, or a fisherman without a line. Military style MRE's are not easy to come by in Australia, but I was lucky enough to spot some silvery packets of goodness in the display window whilst visiting Global Gear (who have supplied me with some fun kit in the past).

I did some research online and it seemed that these were the real deal. These are the Mainstay Emergency Food Rations. These high density food bars come in three varieties, in 1200, 2400 or 3600 Calorie packs. Each of the three varieties consist of a vacuum sealed foil sachet, with extensive nutritional information, and contains a block of very solid food.

The 1200 weighs 228g (1/2lbs)and breaks into three measured blocks.

I grabbed a sample in the "Energy Bar/1200" size from Global Gear and opened it up to see what I got.

It's always a good idea to test out something like this, before you commit to perhaps a box full of something awful, but I was pleased to find that the Mainstay bars were quite palatable. A solid, slightly brittle block that for all the world felt and tasted like a coarse, buttery shortbread, with a light lemon flavour and scent. I ate a block of it, and whilst not filling, was certainly a hunger stopper.

Quite palatable, if crumbly, I can see these being a fast and easy way to keep your energy up in a challenging situation, especially if water was available. I was distinctly aware of the gritty texture, much like a very sweet, hard cornbread.

 I found that I left the uneaten portion in its wrapper and came back to it a couple of weeks later, to no noticeable effect. Properly sealed, they are designed to have a 5 year shelf life, but I expect they would still be edible long after this.
 
This ration is marketed as a "complete food" meaning that no other food intake is needed to meet all nutritional requirements in a survival situation.  Having a look at both the ingredients, and the "percent daily values" listing, it is possible to determine that these bars are indeed jam-packed with nutrition, and trace elements. Certainly not something you'd want to LIVE off, but life FROM, for sure.

Based on USCG and SOLAS standards, two blocks suffice to sustain life in "maritime settings" whilst three (a full packet) are recommended for land survival. Given the insights I made in looking at survival nutrition, and the availability of the 2400 calorie Mainstay ration in bulk from SurvivalStorehouse.com, I opted to buy a number of these from , as "get out of trouble" supplies.

I plan to stash some in my car, in my bug-out-bag, for when we go hiking or camping,  and at work, for those times when I just can't get out because of marauding hordes ...

Review: Global Gear - Zombie Outbreak DeadHeadvest

Here is another fun piece from the Global Gear's Zombie Outbreak "Tactical Response Gear", which I've already covered some items from, the Hydro Bugout Pack and the Grunt Plate Carrier.

This time, it's another chest rig, the Dead Head Tactical Vest, in the same multicam looking pattern as the Grunt Plate Carrier, and in this case, is very similar tot he look of a couple of other vest's I've seen come up recently on Dvor: and OpsGear as well.

However, Global Gear is local, and I'm always keen to cover things that local businesses  stock. No point having to wait 6 weeks shipping when the zombies come, is there?

What can I tell you about this vest?

Firstly, like the Grunt Plate Carrier, the pouches are made of a textured vinyl, finished with nylon webbing. This isn't as big an issue for me on this vest, as the backing is a nylon mesh material, to which the pouches, webbing and other panels are sewn.

The left side front panel of the belly of the vest is covered with loop-field, to which is attached a twin magazine pouch panel, with a retaining loop of webbing. This can be swapped out for the included "fast draw" pistol holster, which for some reason comes attached over the left shoulder. (More on that later). As well as the removable twin-pouches, the left side features a single fixed magazine sized pouch. Above these are a triplet of pistol magazine / flashlight/ utility pockets, and a small radio pocket at the left shoulder.

Over on the right side, over the fairly chunky mid-line zipper, are three more fixed magazine pouches, each with the elasticized sides, hook-and-loop fixed lids and drainage grommets that this line features. Above these lays a wide admin type pocket, that has a panel of four shotgun shell loops of elastic attached to the lid with hook-and-loop. these could be removed to put a nametape or ID to the chest. The right shoulder is fitted with a thinly padded patent-leather panel, as a shooters-rest.




The back of the vest features three sets of three reinforced bands of nylon, like a kind of "super PALS/MOLLE" which is apparently for fixing larger tools to. This is actually a pretty good idea, as I'd like some way of attaching my Stanley FUBAR, my DeadOn Annihilator Superhammer my Fiskars log splitter or the ever needful Deuce by Zombie Tools to my rig, and these loops offer a means.

You can also see the "quick-draw" pistol holster that is currently attached to the back, left shoulder. Why you'd put a pistol holster here is a bit beyond me, unless its there for a buddy to draw, but I made use of it anyways, slotting my RangerHawk axe in it because I'm fond of keeping something handy for close encounters....

The pistol holster includes a small pouch for an extra magazine, or perhaps in this case, a sharpening stone. A hook-and-look lashing secures the holster through one of the d-rings present on top of each shoulder.

 A couple of neat features are that inside each of the front panels is a zipperable pocket, for paperwork, or items you want to keep more secure. The main back panel also features a hydration pouch pocket, behind a hook-and-loop seal, although there are no attachment points to hang one.

The vest comes with a wide belt, adjustable by virtue of being hook-and-loop sandwiched between nylon webbing, with a big fastex style buckle. Each side of the belt features a removable single pistol magazine/flashlight pouch, and is mounted tot he vest by virtue of a set of press-stud and hook-and-loop loops.

You can see here the three size adjustment straps for the the torso, fairly standard, but a great add to be able to adjust to fit yourself comfortably. One issue I had was that the chest piece seemed too tall, in that the front and back sagged a little, although I may need to adjust the shoulder pieces, but this only does so much.

I found that this vest was a  higher quality construction than the Grunt plate Carrier, mostly by virtue of not being mostly all vinyl, other than the pouches, and it certainly would suit a costumer, recreational hunter, weekend adventurer or MilSim player very well.