I've been remiss, and failed to give you all a review of some really great kit I've just taken for granted! (That's praise and an apology in one).
I backed the
Tough Hook Kickstarter by
Tarik Lazri after browsing across it looking for new cool things. Tarik has used his experiences "in the field" to find and fill a gap in the market, for people who wear a lot of gear.
This is a coathanger ... no, really, a coathanger, but one that can take over 65kg of load (150lbs) of hung gear without even sweating. Who in their right mind has that much gear?
Well, actually a lot of people in a lot of roles might.
I have three of the Tough Hooks, and have swapped them into carry several sets of my own exciting collection, that have till now had makeshift hangers of lumps of wood, and pipe.
First up is my
o-yoroi, the Japanese armour I made from 7mm belt leather, on a 16th century pattern. Its a full body set, (
kabuto-helmet is off-screen) and without a great deal of floor space at my place, (so much gear) I've needed to hang it. This has been problematic! Until now! The broad shoulders of the Tough Hook both accommodated the shoulder straps, but the flying hooks at the edges of the Tough Hook captured the various extra parts, like the waist band, the thigh plates, wrist and shin guards. These were forever slipping and falling off, every time i picked it up to move it (or don it).
You can see that even under a load, the hanger just hangs! No buckling, swaying or listing. It is a rock solid hanger, even under this bulk (if not weight).
You can also see here that there are various accessories sling over the main hanger hook, and again, this has been a problem in past, but the wide and long neck simply carries it, without struggle or tangle.
The awesome folks at ITS Tactical did a great demonstration of just how much of a load you can put these through,
which they posted here: I recommend you check it out for a better idea of how tough these things really are.
How does it manage to take all this load and battle on? Good design and materials.
Starting from a pretty basic 2D design (ignoring the awesome winged hooks at the edges for a moment) Tarik took a leaf from structural engineering books, included an
I-beam philosophy. This massively increases the bending and shearing stresses, with the flanges adding a real buffer to what ever is being stowed on it, as an added side note.
This translates to less compression for those padded shoulders and spreads out the weight over stitches or seams that might be under it.
My second Tough Hook bears up smashingly under my small collection of ring-mail for when I need to
let off some steam but also carries my spurs, and other boot-type accessories. Again, this is a pretty heavy standing load, and again, makes for a great display.
You can see more clearly how the wings snag and retain gear, and are mirrored, such that no matter how the hook is oriented (hook up or handle up) your gear is held fast.
Handle side? oh yes!
As well as a traditional coat-hanger hook, the Tough Hook features
a built in handle grip for easily transporting your gear! This features ergonomic finger grips as well as plenty of clearance for even the meatiest of gloved hands.
Made of a GP22 high impact ABS plastic, the Tough Hook site suggests that whilst designed for a 55kg (120lbs) load, they have had (informal) tests of up to 90 kg (200lbs), that is a whole lot of gear.
So, Samurai and
silly Medieval-esque armour aside .... Who else might use it?
There are loads of people who as part of work or play have heavy, bulky kit.
I've done
S.CU.B.A. diving, and can tell you, BDC, regulators, wetsuit, goggles, and fins are big heavy and bulky.
Firefighters, with their heavy jackets, pants, gloves and other kit, including breathing gear, especially when wet.
Then there is the tactical gear for LEO or Military users (or like me, enthusiasts):
plate carriers, load bearing vests, battle belts, drop legs, slings, all that kit. All fits perfectly on the Tough Hook, as you can see here on my black one.
The last thing I felt I needed to say, is that the hook and handle can be swapped from one to the other, rotating around to go from "hanging" to "carrying" without dropping your items, because of those winks on the edges of the Tough Hook.
If you have heavy loads to hang up, be they work or play related, I really suggest you look these up, they are fully worth the investment, all but indestructible and ready for anything!
Last weekend I participated in my third Tough Mudder challenge. Previously I reported on what I wore on my first and then subsequently, for the Stampede and then earlier this year, my second Tough Mudder. I see the Tough Mudder challenges as more than just an Endurance Sport event, but as a training and testing opportunity for me. Training myself to overcome obstacles, and go the distance, but also in anticipating the hardships my team-mates will face, and either preventing or mitigating them.
My team mates did not feel up to running the length of the course, which is fine, I hate running, but I can, and I have been training to do so. However, the discipline of NOT running, of not leaving a team-mate behind for personal glory, was what it was all about.
There were all the old favourites, as well as some new ones.
Knowing there would be dark tunnels, I fitted my Princeton Tech Switch MPLS light to my MOLLE on my chest, along with my ill-fated SLXtreme case, and a glow stick from UVPaqLite. I also tried out my newly-acquired rejected prototype Platatac hydration carrier that I scored from eBay, filled with Gatorade. I'll cover that separately, but it served its purpose adequately. TAD Amphibian shorts and my x-strapped (this held them on, but rubbed me raw) Blackhawk kneepads rounded off my regular load.
I've been remiss, and failed to give you all a review of some really great kit I've just taken for granted! (That's praise and an apology in one).
This is a coathanger ... no, really, a coathanger, but one that can take over 65kg of load (150lbs) of hung gear without even sweating. Who in their right mind has that much gear?
There are loads of people who as part of work or play have heavy, bulky kit.
The light distribution is quite good, with a room filling "orange-peel"
aluminium reflector, behind the B270 optical glass AR coated on both
sides lens. The entire unit is housed ay 6061 aircraft aluminium, giving
a very sturdy little package. Activation is by tail-cap clicky button, which is inset below the butt-end of the housing, with a lanyard hole built in. Water resistance is achieved with o-rings, but the model is not dive-rated.I like the removable steel pocket clip as well, always good to have that as option.
I was able to take some pictures with my iPhone and was very happy with the intensity and reach of the light, illuminating my rather staggering NERF collection, as well as the "Toxic Green" handles of my KA-BAR Zombie Killer knives . UV lights are also very powerful chargers of glow-in-the-dark items such as Ranger Eyes and my SAR Moon Glow disk. It also picked out the green paracord that shipped with my Fishbones and Piranhas as well as the orange paracord I use as well. 
A little while ago I reported on my pre-release WTF Ti mini-pry bar that I managed to sweet talk Brad of TacticalKeyChains into sending me, as it was a second. Just recently my full order from the Kickstarter campaign arrived, and thought I should show off the pre-production version against the production models.
I had the production WTF anodized to a rose-gold colour, as it was going to be a gift for Omega (which she put straight onto her key chain, along with her NuKo Tool TiGBi Skully ). The only real difference between the the production version of the Ti WTF, and my "seconds" version is the lanyard hole is not quite centered in the second. In theory this might weaken that end, but I can't imagine putting enough force on the lanyard hole to make that an issue.
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. 
Here I've lain the two M48 axes side by side so you can get an idea of the differences between the heads.
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 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.
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.
