Last time I snowblowed (snowblew??) the driveway, I accidentally sucked in our rubber outdoor mat. Talk about a mess.  It was completely lodged behind the auger, and into the impeller. I went and bought a hawk-billed carpet knife, hoping that would help dig it out. Nope, not really. Then I grabbed my Paramilitary II hoping that would help.  A bit better.  Then I grabbed my BK-10.  Game over for the mat.  Like butter.  Why I didn't grab the BK-10 to begin with, I'm not sure, but it sure ended the struggle.  I will raise a glass to Ethan tonight for the design of such a beautiful tool, and for helping me get out of a sticky situation!!

My BK10 arrived today!  I’m shocked that it arrived so soon!  After unboxing it, I simply can’t believe what I’m holding. I have never held anything like it before.  Prior to this, the best knife I have held was my cousin’s Buck hunting knife, but this BK10 is in a world all its own.  Everything about it oozes quality.  The finish is perfect. I can’t find a blemish anywhere on the finish, steel, handle, or edge.  The geometry is awesome. I love the clip point.  It’s clear that this blade will hold up to hard woodcraft use, but could easily fill the tactical role if the need arose. I love the feel of it.  Wow.  I need to compose my thoughts before I write any more.  Thanks for your advice everyone, I couldn’t be happier with my purchase! (I’ll post more of my thoughts over the Becker sub-forum. I need to work my way towards being a Beckerhead!)

Leek vs Dragonfly2

Perspective is everything.

First thing you need to realize when you read a review is the point of view from the person writing it.  Many reviews are written by those who have handled hundreds to thousands of knives.  This, on the other hand, is written by a knife-newb, and a guy who probably uses his knives for light-duty only.

I recently got into the world of knife collecting (watch collecting was my first love), and I find it a fascinating world that combines chemistry, aesthetics, engineering, and awesomeness.  I came to it via knife sharpening, as I have always tried to get the most out of my kitchen knifes, and the desire to figure out why some knifes are able to sharpen up better than others.  You can read how I got here through this post .  Now that I have both the Dragonfly2 and the Leek, I can begin to contrast them from my perspective.

Most of the duties performed by these knifes are clamshell box opening, cardboard breakdown, and the like.  For me, most of the review weight is given to aesthetics, comfort, build quality, and sharpness.  Both these knifes are more than enough to handle the tasks I will hand to them.  In addition, I also realize that I’m comparing two samples of very high run knife models.  Someone may have gotten a knife that is better or worse than the ones I have.  However, as I said earlier, my perspective is entirely based on my experience with these two knifes.

From the get-go, I have found that the Kershaw is a slightly higher build quality.  The blade is absolutely dead centre when closed, and there is no blade play up-down or side to side.  The Spiderco has a little up-down, as well as being off centre when closed.  It is barely perceptible, but it is definitely there.  I can also feel a little rub on the handle materiel when I deploy via the Spyderhole left handed.  The Kershaw also came slightly sharper out of the box, but honestly, this is a complete non-issue for me.  I have a Sharpmaker (and extra-fine stones), and I really enjoy the act of sharpening a knife.  The Leek was sharp enough that I didn’t want to mess with the blade (yet), but I felt the Spiderco could use a touch-up.  Don’t get me wrong, they both were sharp, but I like to bring things to hair-popping razor sharpness.  The VG10 steel delivered.  After some careful sharpening, it is undoubtably the sharpest blade I have yet handled.  Extremely impressed, enough that I plan on working on the Leek when I get a chance to bring them back to even levels of sharpness.

I can tell that the Dragonfly2 could probably take more of a beating than the Leek.  If I were to go hiking, I would probably bring the Spiderco with me, as the leaf-shaped blade would probably perform better for heavier tasks.  In addition, I would be less concerned with denting or scraping the handle material.  I also really like the D2’s wire clip and extreme light-weight. That said, I love the extremely fine point of the Leek.  It passes through plastic like it wasn’t there.  Great for opening boxes or packing material.  In addition, the thing that seals the deal for the Leek being my EDC of choice is the Speedsafe assisted opening.  It feels great to move the flipper and have the blade snap open.  Extremely satisfying. Everytime.  Which brings me to my next point: if I were travelling (I live right on the Canada-US border), I would bring the Dragonfly.  I don’t want to have to explain to a customs officer why a Speedsafe knife is not considered a switchblade.  The letter of the law would be on my side, but that still wouldn’t help me if it was to come under scrutiny.  The Dragonfly2 wouldn’t put me in that situation and is still by all accounts an awesome EDC knife.  I actually bought two of them, and am going to give my cousin one for Christmas.  I will be interested to see if his has the same blade play as mine.  Before I boxed it up, I gave it the Sharpmaker magic, but I didn’t check the blade play and I don’t want to open it back up again now I have it cleaned and ready to wrap.

So there you go, my perspective one two great EDC knives.  It may sound like I’m down on the Dragonfly2, but I’m really not.  It’s a fine blade, I just love the Leek a bit more.  And Speedsafe is pretty dang fun.  Now that I’ve entered the knife world, the hard part is not going out and immediately buying something else.  The Cryo II Blackwash is the current front runner, but I need to let the pocketbook cool a bit before my next purchase.

Thanks for reading!

This is my first post to Blade Forums, but I wanted to announce the arrival of my first “real knife”.  Before I get to that, allow me to provide some background.  Normally, you’ll find me hanging out over on WatchUSeek, but I have taken a recent interest in knives.  I have always enjoyed having reasonable quality kitchen knives around and I have always liked to keep them sharp.  Back in my university days, when people would come over and use my knives they would exclaim that they are the sharpest they’ve ever used.  This summer, I decided to take them to the next level and bought a Spyderco Sharpmaker.  My definition of sharp definitely changed, and now I could shave with them.

The next piece of the puzzle happened when I impulse purchased a Gerber Paraframe II one Saturday at Canadian Tire (Saturday shopping at a CT is a Canadian tradition), and I found it really handy to have a knife on hand.  I didn’t necessarily carry it every day, but for carrying out random tasks, it was great.  The only problem, is I was somewhat disappointed with how sharp I could get it. No matter how careful I was, I could only get the blade to a certain level and no further.  I then began to look into knives more carefully, and I began to learn a lot about steels, quality and was introduced to the concept of the EDC knife.

What’s funny is the very first knife on my short-list was the Leek.  I then delved heavily into Spyderco (hey, they make a great sharpener, so let’s look at their knives!) and began picking through their lines.  I wanted something smallish, but functional, so I began to decide between the Ambitious, Cat, and Dragonfly2.  After much debate, I settled on the Dragonfly (it has a legion of loyal followers and VG10 seems like a great steel).  I actually ordered it first but had it delivered to the US (US prices on Spyderco are MUCH cheaper - $58.69 vs $90.73) and won’t be able to get it next week at the earliest.  After looking at dozen upon dozen EDC knives, youtube videos, I returned to the Leek.  I decided to treat myself and order it.  Now, I did order it delivered to me in Canada, as I didn’t want to have to explain to a customs officer why a Speedsafe knife is not a switchblade.  It arrived today, and I love it.  Immediately, it screams quality and it comes very sharp straight out of the box.  I think I may be able to tweak the edge a little bit, but it is very sharp from the get-go.

So, like watch collecting, I can see the madness beginning.  I am already looking at the ‘next’ knife.  The Kershaw Blackwash Cryo II is already whispering to me.  I need to slow down a bit, but the world of knives and sharpening is really interesting.  I have my eye on an Edge Pro Apex sharpener.

 
So, there it is, my first post here!

Watch Pic

WRUW

Mass Effect 2 Day

I can't believe the day is almost here. Back in 1st year pharmacy school, I remember reading about the new RPG that Bioware was producing called Mass Effect. At the time, the only console I owned was a Wii and my aging PC would not being able to play the new title. Fast forward a couple more years and I had pledged my allegiance to the PS3 and with Mass Effect 1 being a PC & XBox exclusive and ME2 appearing to be the same, it looked I was being left out in the dark on one of the greatest games of this generation. But lo, rumours began to surface that Mass Effect would make an appearance on the PS3 and now, here we are. Mass Effect 2 is launching tomorrow and I'm going to be there with my pre-order in hand. I don't think I've been this excited for a video game in years. The last 2 games I bought on launch were Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Heavy Rain. Both were excellent titles, but I think this one takes my excitement level to a whole new realm. One of my favorite genres is RPG and from what I can hear, this is one of the greatest of all time. I have been extremely careful and have kept myself virtually spoiler free. I have ripped my earbuds from my ears many times while listening to podcasts as soon as they start talking about Mass Effect. I know nothing about the plot, characters, or even how the game plays. I have played the ME2 demo, but that's it.

So, as luck would have it, I have a day off on Wednesday. I have officially declared it Mass Effect 2 Day. I'm going to move my new La-Z-Boy front and centre in the living room, set up a side bar next to me for snacks & sustenance, dig out my HD 595's and chill out in front of my 52" Bravia Z-Series. I'm going to order in my favorite foods. This is literally going to be a "video game resort" experience. I can't wait.

A History of Reading

(Or the story of Superfudge)

The history of my personal reading habits can be traced back to the Judy Blume classic, “Superfudge”. It is the first novel that I ever read and it was the start of my love affair with books. Actually, to be entirely truthful, it probably started earlier than that. My parents are both enthusiasts of the written word, and they instilled that in me from a very early age. My earliest memories include those of my Mom reading, “The Wizard of Oz” and my Dad reading to me, “Cars and Trucks and Things that Go”. Every day had reading time, and after I while I would “read” books to my parents because I had memorized the words and the page turns.

My parents encouraged me to read, and the first novel that I ever read entirely myself was, “Superfudge” back when I was 7 years old. I can remember being so proud of having read a novel and I probably was one of the first in my class to do so. After whetting my appetite, I read several more Judy Blume books, including, “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and several others. I moved on to many of Beverly Cleary's books, from the Henry Series (they were awesome!) to the Romona series. From there, I read everything that I could put my hands on. From light reads like the Hardy Boys to better material such as, “Island of the Blue Dolphins”. I read dozens and dozens of books, but the one that stands out in sharp relief from all the others was, “A Wrinkle in Time”. That is hands down the best book that I read as a child. I think that I was 10 because I remember reading the sequel on the plane we took back from our Florida family vacation when I was in grade 5. Wrinkle was a book that I would recommend to any advanced reader of that age. It was a book about children, but didn't write condescendingly down towards them. It dealt with heavy topics and was very cleverly written. I re-read the book years later when doing my undergraduate degree, and equally enjoyed it then, and perhaps I'll give it another read soon.

As I got older, I still read some of the young adult books like Gordon Korman's, “Bruno and Boots” series but also included classics like, “The Hobbit”. I can also remember early forays into fantasy like The Magic Kingdom series. I also began to read more sci-fi, especially Asimov (I, Robot, the Robot Detective novels, etc) This continued until I was probably in my mid-teens when the demands of studying began to wear into my reading time. Soon, books took a back seat to other time-sinks of a teenager. Surely, they were never forgotten, but I didn't read as much as I did when I was younger. During my undergraduate degree, I still took the time to read novels. I began to get into the Star Wars books, (If you're at all a Star Wars fan and haven't read the Timothy Zahn novels, shame on you!). I also continued into fantasy reading with many out of the Shanarra series. A few standout novels of that time include, “1984”, “The Positronic Man”, “Catcher in the Rye”. In the last year of that degree I began to read more when I read a whole bunch of Dragonlance books (guilty pleasure, don't judge!) as well as the first four Harry Potter books. The next true flood in reading came a bit later, just after I graduated from my Computer Science Degree. Most of my friends had moved away and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, so I turned back to reading. In six months I probably read 20 or 30 books, most notably the Belgaried, The Melorian, and a huge swath of Star Wars books. I also began reading more biographies, which was a genre I hadn't touched before. Perhaps the most fun of these was, “I am Spock” by Leonard Nimoy. He is a very funny man and I would highly recommend that book. Another fantastic book I read about that time was, “Universe on a T-Shirt”. Physics was always my favorite science, and this does a great job at explaining the theories that govern our universe at a understandable level.

After about six months of reading at that pace, I found myself much busier and unfortunately reading again took a back seat to other demands in my life. Oh sure, I would go through spurts where I read a few books here and there, but it was never the same as that 6-month period after my undergrad. After a couple of years in IT, I left the industry and went back to school to study to be a pharmacist and whatever free time I had was now most definitely gone. In those 5 years of studying for that degree, I may have read 4 or 5 novels. I simply just didn't have the time, and after pouring through the books studying, I just didn't have it in me to read anything else.

This brings us to the present day. I've been out as a practicing pharmacist for a little more than a year, and back in May I purchased my Kobo eReader. If you read my posts from that time, I wanted the Kobo to be a catalyst for re-igniting my love (and habit) of reading. I have to say that it has been mostly successful. I simply don't think I'll ever have the time like I used to, especially now with a busier career and being a husband and homeowner. My priorities have changed and I can't stay up half the night reading any more. That being said, in the four months I've had my Kobo, I've read six novels, and while that doesn't sound like a lot, that's pretty much the same output that I had during my entire pharmacy degree compressed into 4 months. Reading is now something that I turn to when looking for something to do. I reach for my Kobo just as often as I reach from my PSP or PS3 controller. That is why I think the Kobo has helped me to return to reading.