Mega Ferro Rods, they have a place

Im sure that we have all seen those huge 6in long by 1/2 ferro rods that all the "masters" of bushcraft have been using for a little over a year now. These rods are huge and contain God knows how many strikes or "fires" as many of the large companies say on their packaging (that is a subject for another post, most fires take more than one strike to get them going). Now if you are looking for a short answer about whether or not these rods are all they are pumped up to be I can offer that now. Yes, they are pretty decent and they have a place in ALMOST everyone's kit. Now with that being said, they may not be for everyone every single time you go into the woods. The reason being, that these huge rods are just that, huge. Which means that they weight a lot. Also these rods come in two totally different forms in my opinion.

WHO ARE THEY FOR?
I will go ahead and say that everyone who spends time in the wilderness should own one of these if for nothing else they work well for starting alcohol stoves and the BBQ. Also anyone who reads this probably knows what a ferro rod is so of course you can practice your little heart out in your back yard with all sorts of materials. Now who would honestly carry one of these? If you day hike and play in the woods while doing it or if you go pout for bushcraft studies then this is perfect for you. If you also enjoy using a conveyance while in the woods such as a 4X4 or a canoe then even better  you don't have to carry the weight. Now that is about how  I spend 50 percent of my time in the woods, the other fifty is spent hiking for distance, lightweight as possible, For those instances I would not carry this rod, I do however ALWAYS have a rod on me but using this instance as an example I would carry a 5/16 or 3/8in rod. That would be around 3in in length for the 5/16 and 4in for the 3/8 depending on how much I plan to use it. The rest of the time I more than likely have the big 1/2 on me.

NOT ALL HUGE RODS ARE THE SAME:

They are not the same in price,makeup, or availability.
Im sure that we have all seen the super soft rods that most instructors preach to their students for the newer students because they are easier to use, Now that is great for teaching someone to use a ferro rod and they do throw huge amounts of sparks that burn for a good long time. However most of them are close to $40 a piece(YIKES). Now if you are learning I would say that spending that much is worth it, However with that being said for myself I personally prefer the harder rods, because they last SO MUCH longer, If you use a rod as much as I do and I think you should so you are proficient with it in case your life depends on it. The hard rods really come in helpful because you get about double the strikes out of one of them compared to the soft rods, A hard rod can be had on ebay for $15, yes $15!! I also prefer the way the hard rods work in colder weather with colder materials, the sparks are finer and seem to work better at covering the material in sparks

HUGE FERRO RODS ARE KING;

So yes you need one of these if you take being outside serious and enjoy fire as much as I do. When I first got this rod I used it a couple of times to make sire that ie worked then I put it in my everything kit that has a multi tool, pen, paper. and compass along with the rest of those things. I let it sit there for a few months while I burned through my 3/8 in rods. Then it hit me if this rod is so cost effective then why not carry it with me the whole time?  So now its almost always with me and IF I had to get a fire started with my rod I would take this one and my MOD old hickory which has the sharpest spine of any knife I have ever used and I would bet I could get flame in almost any environment.

Battle Horse Knives Highlander, the knife you take to hell.

The Battle Horse Knives Highlander is the knife that you take to hell. What exactly does that mean? well for me that means that this knife can withstand everything and still preform every task that you ask of it. Most people would say that you need a huge chopper knife for this, myself I believe that any knife with over 5 inches of blade length is to large and you should take a machete or axe.

Now to the knife its self.

This knife is a testament to the build quality of all BHK, past and present.
Sporting O1 took steel and a full flat grind with a very sharp secondary bevel this knife bites very deep when you are cross batoning into wood.
I do have to mention that this knife can be had in a saber and scandi, any of these would be a fantastic option depending upon what your use would be.

For myself the use I see this knife being put into is a large knife for batoning and felling small saplings for shelter building. I understand that a saber or scandi would be better for batoning however flat does well and it preforms much better when cross batoning into small trees to fell them. Like demonstrated above.

The specs on this knife are quite appealing to me.
*O1 tool steel(takes a patina very well)
*5in blade(  max of my range) this knife can be used for carving but is better suited in my eyes for batoning through wood and for all around use.
* micarta scales with red liners( liners do not come stock with this knife but can be added)
* a very generous lanyard hold( not to be used to choke back on to chop with. If you chop with a knife you are the problem, just kidding...but really don't)

All in all this knife is a boss piece of steel that you can take to hell and back. It may not be the best at carving( like my moras) however it is pretty decent

The knife has just about the perfect jimping on the spine. It also destroys a ferro rod with the jimping.

All in all of you want a very good shelter building knife or just a knife that cant do most things very well this is most definitely the knife for you.

I may also mention that this knife strikes quite the resemblance to the pathfinder scout knife. Just slightly shorter of a blade which is welcomed by me as I found that the scout is to large.

Here is a photo of the knife in some dead wood that I fell.

 

Why Mora knives will always be king.

I would like to start this post with a disclaimer. I own many high end bushcraft knives and love them all, with that being said, Mora knives will always rule all. Why is that you may ask? Because of the exceptional value that they present to the table. 

First of all the mora in my eye is not only great for the fact that they are cheap and easily replaced. That is simply what some think that they are cheap and don't really have a lot of value simply based on the price. However this is not how I see it. The mora in my eyes is single handily reasonable for the foundation and shaping of many great woodsmen and bushcrafter. That is because your not afraid to take risk with the knife. Because they are so cheap, if I baton it trying to make a friction fire hearth and it snaps oh well. They funny thing is, in my experience they have never snapped. I have had full tang knives fail before the mora(because the mora never fail)  in the same wood, these knives cost double if not triple.  It allows the user to take risk to further hone their skills, not only in working wood but in the aspect in the woods life that I see to be the most over looked. That is sharpening your knife. 

  That leads me to my next thought about mora knives. Being able to sharpen a knife is more important than being able to use it, because if you are using a dull knife it can be very unsafe and can lead to poor technique and harm your ability to grow as a woodsman. (I will make a video on sharpening a knife, and for the love of all mighty. Please don't sharpen a scandi in one of those swipe through sharpeners that puts a secondary bevel on the blade that no longer makes it a scandi. Keep the angle the same!!). This knife and its 1095 high carbon steel allows you to hone your skills at sharpening the knife, since the steel is a bit soft it is easily fixed if you he a slip up. 

  The one default of the knife is that it does not come perfect for woods skills straight out of the packaging. However the few downsides that the knife has are easily fixed with minimal tools. The mods that need to be done. 

 1. The first mod that needs to be done is to file the back of the spine to a 90degree angle for the scraping of tinders and ferro rods, which leads me to the next mod

 2. The ferro rod. The mora sheath since it's plastic does not come with much of a way to attach a ferro rod, which in my opinion is a must have for a knife sheath. This can be simply done though. By simply attaching a small piece of rangerband(rubber band) that fits tightly around the sheath. Now you can simply insert a ferro rod between the sheath and rangerband. With the paracord attached to the ferro rod, loop it so that the ferro rod cannot fall off. 

In my option these are the only real mods needed to the knife. (you could do some forced patina on the blade for the fun of it!) 

  CONCLUSION;

So all of these things add up the the fact that the mora is king. It's king not because it's inexpensive but because it allows experimentation which leads to creating the greatest woodsmen

Cheap survival rifle?

A friend and I were talking the other day about survival rifles which prompted the idea what's the best survival rifle for the greatest value. Now by survival rifle I mean a rifle for the woods during a time in which you would be lost or in need. Capsize a canoe or get lost while hiking. This I sent a gun for the zombie apocalypse or civil unrest for that I would recommend the ar15 which I will cover in future posts.  Of course at first we both agreed that an M6 scout would be the ideal rifle. However after a quick online search we found that they are priced quite high. After looking for other over under 410/22 rifles they all seem to cost upwards of three, four, five hundred dollars. Which for most people wouldn't be considered "cheap" price wise of course not build quality. So I went home and looked and I saw a few guns that would work, a single shot 12ga that has gained popularity in recent years due to the sub caliber adapters. The only issue with this is unless you cut the barrel down to 18.5 it's kinda long and even though they are light that means the recoil from even bird shot is not something you wanna shoot for fun, much less 3in mag turkey load or slugs. So yes it would serve the purpose however it is single shot, which would limit follow up shots and the such. I also have a Rossi 410-22lr that has two different barrels. That you interchange in the reciver. This is a youth model I believe due to the very small size. Yet these can be kinda expensive if they are the wood model like mine. Plus it's still a single shot so after all this I looked in the back of my safe and saw the gun that I personally believe is the best cheap survival rifle. The mossberg 702 plinkster. It's a 10rd semiautomatic 22lr. With synthetic stock it comes in around $100 new, $100 NEW?! Yes that's right. The best thing is how dang accurate they are. With irons anything out to 25-30yards can be taken down with a very precise shot. I.E  squirrels and rabbits. Small game mostly. Yet with an optic I have shot rocks at over 150 yards. Holding about 26 feet over it haha! Even though that's not practical at all it shows the accuracy of the rifle. With decent ammo and in a lead sled I was able to hit a soft ball size rock 8 out of ten times. Up close it really is a tack driver with a cheap 4x scope on it. Did I mention that it weighs almost nothing? You could buy a few extra 10rd mags and throw a few hundred rounds in a backpack and you are set. Did I menion that it cost only around $100 new? That's why it's in my opinion the best cheap survival rifle. Keep an eye out for a review of the rifle on my blog and my YouTube channel. highcountryhang

Intro

Hello all, my name is Eli and I live in western North Carolina. This area is commonly known as the "high country" the hang part comes from my love for hammock camping. In this blog I will cover all things that I personally like in my life, from the outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and firearms. I also have a YouTube channel highcountryhang if you would like to see some videos of my outdoor pursuits. For any inquiries, content suggestions, or questions please contact me at highcountryhang@gmail.com