Events: Three years. 430 articles, 472,000 views.

Here we are at the end of 2014. Next year we can expect Marty McFly to ride his hoverboard, and the Events of Neon Genesis Evangelion are to begin. Good times.

Where it all started!

Two year review!

400 posts shout-out

This has been a busy year, I've not managed to post as often as I'd like, due to work and home commitment, but I've been delighted with the responses I've had, both in regular readership, new readers and whole new frontiers.



I'm thrilled to have been taken up as a writer for both BreachBangClear and RecoilWeb, as well as keeping in touch with the folks at Zombease and my fellow Z.E.R.T members.


I like to think my writing style has matured, and my skill levels have increased, both in my survival and preparatory skill sets, but also in my reviewing and planning skill sets. I also seem to be almost singlehandedly keeping the Kickstarter community funded, and gladly.

Thanks to all of you; good prepping, be equipped and ready for anything!

Review: Propper - Gen Multipurpose Bag

As first seen on RecoilWeb .....

Here is another part of my Propper haul, and one that I have been getting a whole lot of utility out of.  I took it with me to Fiji for my island get-away, and it rode as my carry-on as well as emergency toddler change station. It's been my day-to-day bag since then, swapping out from my beloved Platatac Bullock Echo as I've needed a more briefcase style option rather than a backpack for my current duties.

This is the Propper Gen Multipurpose Bag and it punches well above its weight.

Filled with storage options, the bag offers a rather large carry-capacity to an otherwise standard briefcase-style design.  I can fit three 2L (2.1qt) milk jugs to the main compartment with no problem.

One of the first things I noticed, and have come to love, about this bag, was the easy-access, dual zipper opening, tapered grab handles. Grab and yank, and the bag opens up. No more fiddly zipper pulls and fine motor skills needed to grab your needfulls. More on that later.

The bag has a wide webbing strap, with a very well made non-slip shoulder-pad, a real boon for a habitual over-packer like myself. The shoulder pad itself has webbing loops that allow you to fix it in place via hook-and-loop tabs, through the pad, to eliminate slippage.  The strap can be adjusted at each end with a broad tri-glide loop, and there is a big-mouth 50mm (2") Fastex buckle at each end of the strap, for quick release. One of my biggest gripes with previous satchels has been the "slung across my chest" trap.

There is also a inset pocket at each end of the bag, between the main compartment and the side-saddle pockets, that very neatly fits my Propper Liberty bottle and even takes my venerable 1L SIGG bottle. 

The "front" panel of the bag is faced with a broad loop field, for patches, and I've made great use of that. Inside that front facing panel is a very spacious document compartment, with three distinct sections, that will fit a number of CD cases, iPads and the like. A hook-and-loop tabbed strap keeps your valuable documents and devices secured, and as with all the zippers on this bag, it features rubber-moulded zipper-pulls as well as "inverted" zipper material to give maximum crud intrusion protection.  

The opposing "inside" facing panel features an even greater selection of pockets, for holding all your needful tools and tricks. 

I have mine loaded up with a variety of goodies; both eating and entry hardware, medical and electronic. Things I don't like to leave home without! 

Again, the double  rubber-molded zipper pulls give good, fast access to my kit, and the panel itself offers a flat clean workspace that is flush to the ground, thanks to the design. 

You can see the main carry handles extend all the way through the pack from the side panels,  they continue all the way under the bag as it happens. They are NOT going to tear off, no matter what you fill it with.

The main compartment has its own surprises as well. Twin storage pockets add further capacity to the narrow ends and the bottom of the compartment is lined with loop-field to facilitate the removable divider, which itself has zippered pockets for business cards, death-cards, whatever. 

It is also loop-faced and includes a 3-channel organizer for all your highlighter pens, or double stacked mags, to go along with the hook-field sided adjustable pistol sleeve that would accommodate most handguns. I don't have any justification to have that in use, but you might. 

Coupled with the grab handle opening strap and you have a quick-access concealed carry option right there.

The side pockets, two on one end, and one bigger one on the other, follow the same pattern. Taped seams, inverted zipper runs to keep crud out, and internal pockets to maximize organization. The single big side pocket also features a clear plastic external ID pocket.

One more cool feature are the twin, adjustable hook-and-loop retention straps for an umbrella or flashlight that sits over the"inside" pocket. It also happens to be a perfect fit for my DeadOn Anihilator Superhammer, because, you never know ...

All in all, this is a pretty awesome bag. It certainly does everything it sets out to do, and had weathered all I've thrown at it, from kicking around trains, planes and hospitals, to being an overnight bag and a day-to-day hauler of my ever changing loadout.

If I had to pick something to gripe about it would be the overall "width" of the bag. When I sling it either across the front of my hips like a paratroopers reserve, I've found that it is  so wide that I bump and brush people with it where normally I wouldn't have, with a backpack. Same goes when I sling it behind me. The addition of the end pockets, whilst adding valuable additional storage, also add to the bulk of the bag.

That said, I'm very pleased with it, and will keep using it until it dies or I find something better.

Review: Rhino Ropework - Tritium fob

I wanted to get my partner Lorin a piece of jewelry for her birthday, but didn't feel that a store-bought piece was really "me" ( as you might imagine), but I was lucky in that I'd been following the exploits of Shane Marks of Rhino Ropework who as well as some really excellent looking marlin spikes and fids for ropework, has also been turning out some really lovely fobs, and better yet, hollowing them out and fitting them with vials of tritium!

You may recall that I had a bead made, with six vials of tritium installed by H3, for my keychain,and I really liked it, though that bead had exposed vials, all but two have since been broken.


The fob I commissioned encompassed the vial, with four sets of three holes drilled, allowing the light to be exposed, but protecting the vial in its sheath of stainless steel. I was very pleased to see that its light, being a much bigger vial, was quite bright, and well exposed by the fob. It is certainly bright enough for me to pinpoint it in a darkened room, tent or in fact, deep underground whilst caving on a recent adventure.

The fob has a hole drilled through at the top, with which a necklace, be it link or a ball-chain to suit the wearer, or even feed a thin split ring through to add it to a keychain. The vial is securely seated and snug within the fob.

It's an elegant piece, rugged and functional in the same moment.
Probably the best part about it was how much Lorin enjoys wearing it, and consequently how much I enjoy seeing it being worn. Much like the SAR GlobalTool MoonGlow disk I wear, it is a great spotting device, without being obtrusive. With tritium, it's glow will last for years, no recharging needed.

Rhino Ropeworks  produces tools in copper, stainless steel, brass and even some in titanium. You should totally check out their Facebook for the most recent tools and designs, and watch this space for when my marlin spike comes in!

Review: Power Practical - PowerPotXL

Another Kickstarted project, another power generating project and addition to my off-grid arsenal.

This is a second generation thermoelectric device, that was launched as a Kickstarter in order to get the new models out there. These are the PowerPot X from Power Practical and I really liked it.

I've covered the charge-indicating power regulator from Power Practical previously, a USB dongle that indicated the wattage being output by power sources, (or conversely, the draw). I've also covered a thermoelectric generator before, in the form of the Tellurex tPod tea-light candle powered light/charger. I also wish-lusted the BioLite camp stove too, but haven't laid hands on one yet.

The PowerPot X is a sleek 10-watt generator that converts heat into electrical power. It works by housing a thermoelectric module between the base of the regular pot, and an aluminium base-plate. The modules are encased in weatherproof high temp silicone casing  Just heat up water in the pot and the PowerPot  will immediately start putting out electricity to power or charge your devices.

The smaller first-generation PowerPot V, only has a 1 amp output, but the X can push up to 2 amps, sufficient to charge larger and more power hungry devices like iPads and SLR batteries. 

The X ships with a standard USB (5V) port, and comes supplies with one of Power Practical's three-headed adapter cables (mini, micro and 30-pin). The detachable cable has a one-way-only connector to the body of the pot for safety, and three-feet of highly durable, flame-resistant cabling.  Built into the USB end of the cable is a solid-state voltage regulator provides safe and stable power at up to 10 Watts charge any number of small high-tech devices.


The PowerPot X comes in two sizes, the X is 2.3L (3 qrt) and the XL (which I selected, because bigger) is 3.8 L (4 qrt), each having the same kind of hard-anodized aluminium pot, with folding handles. The XL measures 19cm x 13cm (7.5" x 5"), and weighs 770g (11.2 oz) . Not bad for an output of 10w, 2amp, 5V as infinate as your water and heat source.

That's one thing to note. You can't run it dry, or the thermocouple will get fried. I've run mine on both an electric hotplate and by gas, both on the home stage, and also a propane BBQ plate, to remarkable success. Whilst out camping recently, we charged a number of iPhones and iPads, in fairly short order.



The size of the pot allowed me to boil 5 cobs of corn at a time as well as charging. This could be used at each meal-time to top up devices, recharge lights and batteries. As long as you have water to act as your thermal mass, and fuel to heat it, the Power Pot is a never-ending source of electricity in a lightweight and dual purpose package.

I almost look forwards to our next power outage, so I can dazzle the neighborhood with my awesome power.

Review: DOSS DMP7 Dynamo radio

For quite some time, I have been missing a key element in my survival kit.

Knives, lights, radios, pouches, oh my. Everything but a radio, as it happens. So when I saw a dynamo powered radio on ZAZZ, I jumped right onto it.

This is the DOSS dmp7 dynamo multifunctional radio / music-player. 

It is more than just a radio though, and it is jam-packed with extra features.

As well as a scanning (no dials or even readouts) AM/FM radio, it also has a SD card slot and USB port to play solid-state media music, and a 3.5mm stereo auxiliary input port.

A push button selector cycles through the input types and similarly, the scanning forwards and backwards is by push-button. I found this a bit difficult to use, or at least awkward, to try to find a station I was specifically after.

Each side cap features a LED lamp, also push button controlled. The left side is white and continuously lit.

The right side features four flashing red LED's and also activates a siren, which is both loud and annoying. Perfect, really. At full charge, the siren will play for 3 hours.

The unit features a 1000mAh 3.7V lithium polymer battery internally, but can also take four AA batteries as well. Power status indicators on the front also show how well the hand-cranking dynamo is working on your manual charge.

It also will charge USB devices with an output of 5VDC /500mA.

The radio will play for 7 hours, the torch will last 15 hours and the SD/aux playback will run for 3-5 hours.

Made of a pretty lightweight ABS plastic, and with exposed seams throughout, this is not really a rugged piece. More suited to sitting in the glove-box or in the box of camping gear than for treks in the Amazon, or salvage runs into Chernobyl, but given the eternal nature of the dynamo as a power source, not only for the radio, lights but also as a charging station, this little multi-purpose device is a welcome addition to my just-in-case collection. You never know when the power will go out, and radio is an excellent source of news and information.

Review: SOG Bladelight

 As first published on RecoilWeb ....

My love for gadgets is well known, and I try to lean towards the useful over the peculiar, the multi-functional over the one-trick-pony,   so when I got the chance to fool around with this new offering from SOG Knives, I jumped at it.

This is the BladeLight, from SOG. From just looking at it, you might be forgiven in thinking that it was a fairly standard dive-knife looking blade.

Its glass reinforced nylon handle, and high-sheen 9Cr18MoV blade don't really stand out, although the clear acrylic hand guard and tail-cap ring do add a certain "future-blade" look, they don't really betray the blades secret arsenal until you look a little closer and see that mounted at the very neck of the blade are six white LED's!

Mounted three to a side, these lights issue a mild 25 Lumen output, from the single AA battery that mounts in the body of the handle but the placement, and clever design of the sheath means that the light is right on target, where you need it.

The hard molded sheath features a button release, but will also allow a hard-pull draw, but most importantly, has six cut-outs, to allow the LED's to be used whilst the blade is sheathed, in "flashlight mode.

With belt loops, as well as a hefty built-in belt clip, the knife as a whole can be used as a flashlight without waving a blade around in peoples faces, be it camp-site, or road-side.
The LED's are activated by a stiff push-button mounted on the tail cap, and via some clever engineering the LED's back-scatter some light through the blade and illuminate the acrylic ring that circles the base. The battery is fitted by unscrewing the tail-cap.

The whole knife is IPX-7 rating for water resistance to full immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. Perhaps not a dive-knife, but certainly fit for water-borne activities and other wet tasks.

My thoughts immediately went to dressing game. I've only needed to field dress game a couple of times in the dark, but it wasn't a lot of fun, and I can imagine that having a light that IS my knife, would have made that messy task just a little easier.
With slight jimping along the back, and the molded grips set into the glass reinforced nylon handle, this blade is a little on the free-and-easy in the hand, I prefer something with a bit more grip to it, especially if I am going to be doing something slick and messy.

The blade also doesn't feature a full tang, and as a result, is both very light (to the point of feeling a bit effete) and also having a weird balance. I don't tend to go for big knives (if you can put aside my KA-BAR Zombie Killer collection), but this knife just doesn't have the heft I wold have expected for its size.  At 28.7cm (11.3") overall, with 14.5cm (5.7") of blade, this piece weighs only 201g (7.10oz).
 
Its an elegant looking piece, well matched to its sheath and well thought out.  The sheath offers a selection of pretty standard mounting options, with rivet holes as well as belt loops top and bottom,

A nice afterthought is the little removable nylon pouch, which came with spare batteries for the LED's, but could easily be re-fitted with a stone, compass or other survival kit.

I used the knife as my fire-side cooking knife a few times, to get a feel for how well the LED's illuminate, not only where I was going, and what I was doing, but also to see how much of a help it was when I was right up in the fire, or in fact, carving.

For both at-the-coals work, where smoke and heat may make it difficult to check how things are going, and back at the camp-table where carving and jointing needs to happen quickly and neatly, I found the LED's to work just fine, in or out of its sheath. The chickens and rabbits I roasted turned out a treat, and having those twin sets of LED's running right down the blade meant I had zero guesswork about how the meat was done, or where fiddly joints sat. I even stabbed the blade into a log for a little area illumination as I moved the coals about.

Its a bit gimicky, but it's certainly well put together and thought out. For the light use I put it through, the SOB BladeLight did exactly what I expected of it, and did so admirably.

Review: Propper ICE Polo

As first seen on BreachBangClear!

As part of the batch of awesome goodies I received from Propper, along with the Liberty Bottle and some other cool items.

I wear polo shirts every day to work, and as I like to say disaster doesn't wait till after hours and weekend.  I like to slot in as much rugged kit into my everyday workwear as I can, whilst still staying within the limits of acceptable dress at work, so having some technical clothing in non-military cuts is quite a boon for me.

The Propper ICE Performance polo does just this, with a classical polo-shirt look that can still be packed full of features.

Made from an "advanced wicking fabric", made of 94% and 6% spandex, it dries 125% faster than cotton, 30% faster than traditional polyester. Pretty awesome. This is apparently fade, shrink and wrinkle resistant. It certainly is wrinkle resistant. I've worn and laundered this a number of times, slept in it and generally treated it shabbily, and it has bounced back every time.

Extended length for tucking into pants means no worries of it coming untucked and unprofessional looking, whether you are in the ceiling, or hopping out of a vehicle.  It has a sleek, smooth finish and is very comfortable to wear. It feels pretty weird for a shirt though, more like a swim-suit. That might be an issue for some people.

Part of that comes down to the 100% polyester gusseted mesh underarm which increases both ventilation and range of motion. These are made from and are colour matched so well I had to go back and check they were there. Hidden button down collar stays provide a clean, professional look, with no risk of an unexpected popped-collar douche effect.

However, not being just another polo shirt is where these come into their own. Hidden-in-the-seams pockets function as mic clips on both shoulders (I attached my 5.11 ATAC A1 flashlight on one, hands free illumination!)  and sunglasses loop under the placket which I attached some ID to, showcase the options here.

Even better, there is a two-channel pen pocket on the left shoulder, handy for us righties, but very useful for anyone who needs to have a pen handy, and not in the depths of a pants pocket.

This is a great shirt. Rugged without being barracks-wear, functional without being too tactical-chic, it lets me have a few tricks up (or on) my sleeves.