Since we're talking about flashlights:
here's a site my friends buy from:
https://www.batteryjunction.com/

$55 bucks gets you this one:
Titanium Innovations IlluminaTi CA1 LED Flashlight with Cree XP-G S2 LED & Titanium Body 1xAAA 125 Lumens!

There is quite a variety of lights out there much better than the old incandescent style.
If you're going to spend why not get the most for your dough?

heres a discount site that deals in electronics/flashlights and accessories
https://www.dealextreme.com
and no I'm not getting any commissions, just helping out.

I'm starting a new project today--a knife for myself.

I have often made the comment, "I'd use this cutting tool for camping at Buffalo Chip." I think it's an insightful statement, and a shorthand idea for the best qualities of this type of tool.

I've chosen the Esee HEST fixed blade knife, and it's all taped up in Blue Painters Tape and ready for a sharpening and polish today. Here's why I've chosen the knife over all others.

First, I always carry a folder, primarily for personal use and mundane daily chores. I've been lugging around knives from Zero Tolerance, both in the 0300 and 0350 series. They cannot be beat by any other brand, perhaps by the Graham Brothers, but that's it. They are a tool only, and never a weapon. If you've ever hung out on knife-related forums you'll know that there are two distinct groups. One group espouses knives as tools, and the other group comprises "the sky is falling" taktikewl chairborne rangers who are usually 35 years of age and live in their mom's basement.

Now, I love the new high carbon, low chromium alloys of modern manufacture, but not in a knife like the Esee HEST. It's made from high quality 1095 steel, and that's not a left-handed compliment. It's tough and useful. In fact, if you're a fixed blade guy, you could live your entire life with this one knife.

It's has about a 3.5 inch cutting edge, a ergo micarta handle (which unscrews for use in lashing it to a pole). The rear pommel has a grinding/prying feature that is good in setting up a camp or making kindling. Even the spine of the knife has a bottle opener. The surface is covered with a very durable black-wrinkle finish, and I dare you to make one rust. The sheath is kydex, replete with an included M.O.L.L.E. belt kit.

Even if I was a tea-slurpin' tree huggin' peace lovin' agin' ol' hippie, it's a great knife for wilderness camping. More to our uses as bikers, it's a light, portable cutting instrument all by itself with no need for redundancy. It will prepare your food, aid in setting up camp, and for that 1* you own if a survival tool is demanded when lost or injured in the woods. I have an old picture of one of these knives I prepared for a client, but later today I'll show new pictures of my own.

I'm still using the stones, but the shaping has been completed. I have one more fine grained stone to use before I switch over to paste, paper and glass for polishing. The knife's bevel had some irregularities on it, but with a little time and worry the bevel is now uniform front to back and then left to right. Hey, at least my computer and camera are working today, so I'm ahead of the game!

Yikes, well, it's done. Yeah, yeah, I know. We now have a 140 dollar knife and a 300 dollar edge. Back to the old "panties on a pig" scenario. Of course, it's mine and I can be as foolish as I want, but a 7000 grit edge on an alloy with the same pedigree as a railroad track might be a bit much.

I think I need a hobby. I hear this "motorcycling thing" looks like a good past-time...

looking sweet, its nice to be able to use your talents for your self!!

And lots of times I feel guilty when I do.

I want to retire--and by that I mean go "totally idle." However, my wife is three years younger than I am, and still works full-time. This past riding season I was more "off" than "on," and I secretly enjoyed it. I have worked for 46 years. As a boy I had three jobs at one time.

The issue here is that I do not consider my sharpening to be a "talent." Rather, I feel it's a gift I did not earn. We have no Japanese relatives in my lineage, my Dad was an engineer, and my Mom drank. I credit Ben Dale for my instruction in polishing tools, and Dwade Hawley for insider knowledge. I have an internal drive to do pro bono work, and lots of times I don't charge some folks--and at my rates of 20 dollars per inch this aggravates my bookkeeper sometimes, who is my wife.

No biker's knife made from a 1095 section of an old railroad track needs to be worked over for about three hours. No HEST knife needs to slice sushi better than a yanagiba. No eleven dollar folder attained on a clearance sale needs a 60 dollar edge. But then, no Dyna needs her belly scrubbed, either.

They say "the heart wants what it wants." And sometimes when I lay under the weights at the gym I envy the slacker playing video games in his mom's basement. Of course, then I find that my personal EDC pocketknife isn't perfectly toasty-stupid sharp, and the cycle begins again...

As for members of this forum, there are numerous tools, procedures, parts and tricks we should be sharing with each other to improve our lives. That's why I started this thread. Maybe a few of us will pick up a Japanese history book and call Ben Dale, and their lifes will improve--mine did. I have no other explanation.

the shoemakers children always go barefooted...
I spent my life from early childhood working with my father all the way to today learning and plying my trades, when I finally get to work on my own stuff, I take my time, do my best work, cause I've got to make ME happy... You aint no different. thats why you're inexpensive folder has the finest edge... cause you can.

As for knowledge and assistance, I'm 100% with you, but we'd have to start the homebuilders thread, or the back yard mechanics thread, how about the software developers thread...

Just redid the roof on my house, love the new shingles, GAF 50 year just real nice stuff.

Oh, I agree 100%. However there should be a time where even the most slavish OCD guys either calmly smell the roses or attain a satisfaction on withdrawing to The Group W Bench. Most people define an "addiction" as a behavior that interfers with the normal discourse of life. I'm there now. Not just about knives and scrubbing my bike, but about re-directing my life and talents. I even know of a kitchen that needs pro bono assistance.



I'm not espousing anything that segmented. A biker might be able to balance a flywheel in his sleep but his EDC knife is very dull. A member here might do air-brush art on a fuel tank make's us cry and might not even know where to buy shingles, let alone install them.

We offer items to buy and sell here. So why can't we tell a fellow member how to install a new garbage disposal? I did it once, and was initially baffled. The job got easier when I realized that the three-point attachment to the drain resembled an old Harley clutch basket. My guess is that if we checked our ranks we'd find numerous craftsmen.

I believe that most of the members here are here because they have those talents. Somebody's always wrenching or trying something, the best part is sharing the results so we don't all have to learn the hard way also.