Weekend Open Thread: Free Speech Freakout Edition

H. Clay Aalders
Weekend Open Thread
·43 Comments·

Greetings and Salutations. Figured I’d be a little more formal this evening for no reason whatsoever.

If only.

So how is everyone doing? I spent the day chaperoning a day trip to the woods with my son’s 5th grade class. Not the worst way to spend the day. But I am running behind on getting this out.

Obviously, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is the memeworthy news.

BuILd Ur oWn InTerNeT..

 

 

Endorsed…

Related…

If you live on one coast or the other, you have a knife show in your vicinity this weekend.

NCCA Extravaganza Knife Show

Spring California Custom Knife Show

Didn’t really find anything else topical, but this about covers it all…

I also have a rare knife meme that is new to me…

Horrifying.

Instead of Pakimascus, someone is going to win the Swedish made Dicerox Kalina.

Knife Review: Dicerox Lagertha and Kalina (Updated)

David McCarty takes the early lead with the first “token” towards winning the Kalina.

Usual rules apply…

Up to 5 comments or replies on this post are your entries. If you are drawn once you become a “token holder”. Then a second draw wins the knife.

If you are new to the blog your comments will be held in moderation until I can approve them. After I do, your comments will post at will.

I have a decent assortment of more random memes tonight.

80’s kids will understand…

Could be for dad-bods who like to grill.

Second Lunch is the 4th most important meal of the day.

I am not too sure about this next one…

This is doubly true if you are shopping at ACME…

This is more true than Europeans would acknowledge…

Random, but funny.

This is never a good thing…

Nor is being Rickrolled…

Wasted too much time trying to come up with a caption for this one. I am open to suggestions.

Someone captioned this perfectly already.

Smartest Boi…

I need to call it quits and hit the rack. I wouldn’t want to make my therapist angry…

 

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H. Clay Aalders

H. Clay Aalders is a lifelong edged tool user. He spent the past 20 years as a woodworker and fishing guide in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Tennessee. While guiding in Idaho, Clay worked part-time writing for a local newspaper, and upon moving to Tennessee began writing for the blog The Truth About Knives - spending his last 5 years there as Managing Editor. His background is in fixed-blade hunting and bushcraft knives, but has jumped into the world of vintage slipjoint collecting with both feet since coming to work at Knife Magazine. Clay’s primary role is as Digital Editor, curating and creating new content for our website and blog, as well as maintaining the Knife Magazine social media accounts (FB/IG: @theknifemag, Twitter: @knifemagazine). He is also a contributor and Associate Editor of the print magazine.

43 Responses

  1. “Purine” . . . that’s the stuff for getting the “red out”, Correct? It makes my “stream” smell funny.

    Tonight is fun night at the “Western Maryland Blacksmith Guild” on Mousetown Road in Boonsboro, Maryland. I will be grinding on my 2014 “Intro to Bladesmithing” knives forged at Haywood Community College, Clyde, NC. I reckon eight years is enough time to produce something useful!

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    1. benchmade tech informed me that all of their folders besides the bali songs use a t10 for the pivot, making my bud’s auto spear point a $30 clone. truly remarkable, down to the maintenance and warranty sheet and the box printing. the blade says 154cm, suspect it to be d2. it will be returned.

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    2. You are taking WIP to the next level Hocky, can’t wait to see the finished knife, as long as the “stream” isn’t green you should be fine!

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  2. Asparagus is an acquired taste, I think. I did not like it as a kid . . . probably because Mom cooked it to mush. (Love you, Mom, RIP). Later in life, I found asparagus “done right” with some firmness was pretty good with a juicy steak and some quartered potatoes fried in a cast iron skillet.

    A “T6” pivot? That can’t be right. Good advice on the “springs”, CMEAT.

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    1. I know Hocky, I never “acquired” a taste until some was done just right, exactly like mentioned with some “firmness”, and a juicy grilled steak or my signature barbecue ribs and grilled corn on the cob!

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      1. lightly grilled or pan fried is perfect, but one of the highest purine contents of any food. coupled with that flat iron steak (have your butcher process some, if you don’t know) the combo will light up a gout sufferers joints. wash it all down with an unfiltered beer and limp for weeks!
        we have wild asparagus nearby; right now you can pluck the tender shoots and eat them raw… kind of waxy al dente- delicious.

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        1. I will check out the iron steak CMEAT, and the highest purine content????? Is that why my big toe hurts so much? We have lots of wild blackberries and rhubarb in our area. Love the fresh berries when my wife uses some to make a syrup for cheesecake!

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          1. i’ve got the pseudo version, basically degenerative arthritis. this abused protoplasm sack was bound to complain eventually. as my other buddy clay says, “drink ~all~ the water.” anti- inflammatories help, cherry juice, turmeric… celebrex.
            flat irons are from the shoulder blade so not exercised much. most go home with the butchers. a nice in compromise between the flavor of diaphragm cuts (flank, skirt) and tenderness (insert your fave whack here).

        2. I was on cyclosporine for many years-until it started poisoning me-it kept me alive, but planted little gout seeds just waiting to grow into full bloomed gout..Duck would blow my right knee up almost immediately! Asparagus has ne’er been a gut trigger for me, but a brother in law can’t take a bite without his big tow blowing up.

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          1. Duck, man I used to love that. Every return trip from Vancouver necessitated a stop for a couple barbecued quackers! Man, I would eat before we even left the city, grease dripping all over everything, steering wheel was coated. It was all my wife could to keep from puking. Time for a road trip! The first crop of asparagus is expensive, about $5.00 U.S. for a pound, over seven bucks in our paper.

    2. yeah, that’s the one that fit. it’s the re- released stimulus model and i fear his is actually a chicom clone. the sliding safety lock feels too crunchy to be genuine. sheesh, all the marking on the blade and clip are spot on, even “benchmade.com/pat” is perfect. the printing on the box looks correct. i suspect that pivot screw size will be the giveaway.
      careful out there.

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  3. if you have any speedsafes ask for extra “springs.” those little “educated paper clips” fatigue quickly.
    for torx i buy the tamper proofs (bondhus) on the thought that being thinner walled, they must be hard. i don’t really know this to be the case.
    like pozi- drive, new designs for automated tooling assembly come and go.
    my friend’s pardue 3551 has t6 for the pivot screw. too small for that application.

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  4. Too funny Hocky! You kind of helped Clay out with our Weekend Thread Theme – “Hee Haw” & the custom EDC! Or maybe you started the theme last week with more of a “Copperhead Road” road for the weekend, anyone remember the lyrics; “Buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line”………, going to try some copper san mai steel for a kitchen knife. The 13C26 steel is unfamiliar, used to use a lot of 12C27, it came in a huge coil. Nothing more fun that working with coiled steel! Will check out the “PSK” line. Have a great weekend everyone!

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    1. “You better stay away from Copperhead Road”
      Forgive my ignorance, but there’s zucchini a thing as copper San mai? Will the knife turn green? (That’s a serious question.)
      Guess I’m off to find a copper steel rabbit hole!

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      1. The serious answer; Yes! The knife will certainly turn green Mark, although some axe wax or other protective coating may delay the process. The rabbit hole is a very crowded place right now! 🙂

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        1. I found that was the case. There are some gorgeous knife photos I’ve found researching this. None of them had turned green though!
          Thank you sir.

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        2. I found that was the case. There are some gorgeous knife photos I’ve found researching this. None of them had turned green though!
          Thank you sir.

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    2. “Spring Winter” is present in Hagerstown this morning. After two days of rain, the wind is blowing in from the northeast and brisk is the weather-term. Earth continues to rotate and revolve. Sunny days are coming this week . . . Re “coiled steel”, during my look at Sandvik steels, there was a reference to “strip steels” . . . same animal. Not being a custom knife maker, I imagine that a ‘huge coil’ of any steel is impressive! Curious, what is the thickness and width of 12C27 on the coil?

      To my never ending quest for more understanding of the “nuts, bolts and screws” that hold scales, clips & other things to knife frames . . . Why “Torx”? Recently, I was replacing the clip on a Kershaw and the No. 6 Torx heads were “rounded out”. . . %%!!@*$! ‘SOB’, and other eleven-letter phrases. I am sure that most of us knife enthusiasts have our cache of teeny-weenie screws of all flavors as-well-as pins, wires and whatever to keep our knives functional. Did I have some No. 6 Torx? Nope, nada nil, zilch,zero . . . My Kershaw (Made in America) is clip-minus.

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      1. Snow on the hillside just above us today, as gas prices soar I planned to use the Harley as my “EDR”, don’t mind the cold on a long ride, even rain is a great time on two wheels. That is, except for when it doesn’t rain for weeks in the summer, thundershowers raise this frothy white oil and rich foam which is summer ice to bikers. This happened one time in Vancouver, had my wife on the back. A lady in an SUV was right on our fender, I had zero control and was all I could do to stay upright. Going through yellow lights she was still right on us, if I touched the back brake we would have been down, I tried with on hand to take my helmet of to throw behind and smash her window. Couldn’t do it, eventually she turned off. The problem with the “TORX” are the cheap screws, but I hear you, my Harley has lots of these, but my tool kit has the right ones. I have sharpened a flathead screwdriver to bite into a piece of those screws and hammered them to get some movement. Sorry about the loss of the clip!

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        1. I may ask KAI/Kershaw to send me a new clip and some screws. I don’t EDC this knife. Mostly, it rides in a tool bag or lands in the shed. It seems to “turn up” at those times when I am looking for “something” to cut “something” . . . Know what I mean? Often, I will find it in the garden shed laying on a header . . . Tomatoes are going in the dirt soon!

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          1. Kershaw will certainly send you the new parts, I use the blue locktite to keep them snug. Tomato planting time is almost here too, we wait until after the May full moon. What is ready here now is asparagus, we buy pounds and pounds of the fresh product. It only lasts a few weeks, always want to jar some up, but by the time we are ready for this I have eaten it all! 🙂 Grilled steak and asparagus…………

          2. My tomatoes have been in the ground since the beginning of March. Have little fruits on all of them. Heck, we’re mid to high 90’s for the next couple of weeks!
            Had asparagus at our old house. Also had a beagle that loved the white salts at about 3 inches. There were times I hated that dog!

  6. Donner Party meme FTW. I’m back in Blighty visiting family. SAK walker EDC and a Mora I can leave here after hiking with a tarp. The warm beer in the pub is helping with any adjustment

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    2. “back in blighty, there was you
      there were milkmen every morning
      but these endless shiny trees
      never used to be that way”

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  7. Today, I bought a Frost Cutlery “Sunfish” (fat slip joint . . . sounds like a doobie!) with pretty, mesmerizing blue scales at a yard sale for $5. Never used, mirror finished blades, tight “walk and talk” . . . I got in my truck and left the sale with a smile on my face.Later on closer inspection, I saw a faint bronze etch, all CAPS, on the main blade near the nail nick: PAKISTAN . Gasp!! Not as bad as “CHINA”, but a blunder by me. Trying to justify my “buy” to myself, I blamed Jim Frost. Why would he stamp “GERMAN Steel” on the tang? I bit on that, I admit. Some “Frost Cutlery” is worth a few bucks. I liked the blue scales . . . not a bad looking knife in all honesty. I reckon I was just hungry to buy a knife this morning. Would it be unethical to use my “ACME Scratch an Etch” ( . . . homage to the red “X” and Wiley) to fade that country name, just a bit? No, I can not do that-Integrity means a whole lot to me. Lesson learned – Look Closer! I think I can peddle it for $10.

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    1. Hocky, would be interesting to see the “mirror finish” on such a knife, those blue scales will always get you, especially after a “doobie.”

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      1. Del: I apologize for the “mirror finish” attribute on this pocket knife. Let me correct this to “shiny”. Back in the daze, I enjoyed the occasional mellowness given by homegrown. My younger brother grew it on the banks of the Potomac near some pines. Those buds had long, red “hairs” and were chunky. I could slice off a knob and the waft of pungent resin would radiate all around. One or two puffs . . . “Don’t bogart that joint my friend; Pass it over to me.”

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        1. The fit and finish on some of those knives is very good, so was wondering if this was another step added to the finish? Back in the “Daze” brings a flood of memories, although somewhat cloudy ones! A friend pilfered a huge plant, hidden deep in the woods, everyone knew the location. Half the town was after us,. It was given back, though a touch lighter in weight.

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          1. Hey Del: I have no idea how the Pakistani’s manufacturer knives. The blades are shiny and the main blade has a functional width; that is, I like a broad blade vs. a skinny one. Anyways, this knife is in the peddler bag as I will never use it. Sinsenmilla . . . “without seeds”. Broad buds. Very little shake . . . Cannabis Moranis, legacy weed.

          2. my one high school pal noticed a sprout in his yard. we were really surprised when his mom adopted it for cultivation, just because gardening. we had seen images of a wildly colored bug that subsists with certain plants in high times… sure as esmerelda one day there is this crazy patterned red banded leaf hopper on there. we lost our minds thinking that it was day- glo due to feeding on certain flora.
            she got pretty huge, had neighborhood notoriety which led, of course, to it being liberated by donny olsen and mike schmidt, fringe associates who regretted their actions.

          3. CMEAT, that’s crazy, – “red banded leaf hopper”, man could we post some memes! Like those “fringe associates”, we regretted having the plant, so gave it back. The fact that half the town was after us just made for some fun times.

        2. I will show you these new and improved “Swinger” models I’m working on. Gifts for my brother-in-law and his fiance, wedding present. They live to camp, so fitting little EDC for hiking or camping.

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          1. “Swinger” models? Is that like Barbie Benton, Grunella Hutton, Lulu Roman and other cuties from “Hee Haw”? I am always interested in a “little EDC”. Regarding a little knife, “Bark River” got back to me on that “PSK” handled in “Antique Stag Bone” with a “13C26” blade. (Acquired at the “Mason-Dixon Knife Club” show in April). It was made circa 2008. The “PSK’ line remains a popular choice with Elmax, CPM154 and other steels used today. My research on “13C26” (Sandvik/Sweden) shows it comparable to AEB-L and a precursor to 14C28N. It’s a tough steel; holds a keen edge and sharpens easily. I am making a leather sheath for it . . . It’s a stout ‘lil knife . . . . a “Lulu” and I like it.

          2. CMEAT-“because gardening “….what makes you think your friend’s mom didn’t know EXACTLY what she was cultivating?

          3. markr, she knew, just took an interest in something her kid showed interest in, grasping at relevance. lord knows there weren’t many clues for our p’s. she had a deviated septum and so could not detect the smell in the basement and they had pool table so, destination. she and her husband just sort of shuffled around in robes and slippers, ice cubes tinkling in rocks glasses.

  8. Awesome work Clay, keep them coming. I saw that Musk sold Four Billion Dollars worth of Tesla stock, after buying Twitter he likely needed some walking around money! Congrats to David on the token drawn for the “Kalina”. Thought I was missing something after seeing the pricing, went back and read Clay’s review again, impressive little knives. Hope everyone is having a great weekend, gotta run, time for lunch, – Again! 🙂

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    1. Thanks
      I missed this weekend. I was out of town all weekend for a bowling tournament.

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  9. Good stuff, Clay. I’ve already shared the Pakistani knife meme this morning. Teddy Ruxpin made me laugh out loud because I remember doing that. Been a week of walkin’ in the woods here. Morels are calling and I must go. Congrats on the draw, Mark.

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  10. “Everything you need to know to major in music composition”.

    I’ve seen that red X before at a local sporting goods store; just before the lockdowns began. At I asked the clerk if it was a coyote trap. Guy behind me in line busted up. He said something like,”And you’re going to stand on it?” I replied,”Nothin’ to worry about, I’m not a coyote!” The 16 year old checkout clerk had this very puzzled look….Obviously serious gaps in his upbringing…

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