Coghlan's imitations

Hi everyone,
I've bought a Coghlan's orange match safe with O-ring and tested it as Lundin suggest it: by submerging it with one match in a glass of water for 30 min. The result was a completely damped match. What is the good brand for that quality orange match safe?
I also want to buy a magnesium fire starting tool and I've read that Coghlan's rod is not solid compared to Doan's one. I may buy one just to experiment with magnesium though.
When I visit the "army supplies" in Montréal and the camping sections of the stores here, all I find is Coghlans stuff and false parachute cord. Everything is Coghlan, the matches, the mag. bars, the space blankets, the signaling mirrors. The only brand thing I can find easily is Nalgene bottles.

You may want to order some equipment from the better mail order suppliers in the USA. The exchange rate is in your favour right now also. Coughlans is Canadian, so they have the advantage. Have you tried SIR mailorder? They have lots of gear from the US.

Hi Christ, thank you for the link. Actually I'm planning on mail ordering some gear from TAD gear: Doan magnesium bar; NATO issue lifeboat matches; Spark-Lite orange; SAS survival button compass (but I'm not sure) and finally some Sentry Solution Tuf-Cloth. I'm also planning on ordering one or two Mora knives and I also want to order parachute cord but I'm not sure from which supplier. And I also want to get a Photon microlight. I'm hesitating between the microlight II or the Freedom which seems great.

I get my Moras from www.ragweedforge.com Ragnar has excellent service. If you find a few dealers who are honest with good quality stay with them. I learned you never save enough money to justify price comparisons and multiple merchants. They either make it up in excessive S/H or overcharge for something else. On any major purchase ( and in today's economy, a Starbucks coffee is a major purchase for me,) read all you can. Even classic gear can be suddenly cheapened and sold on name value. The recently revived Marbles knives for example. Marvelous collectors and a decent rebith at first. Now whats on the shelf are horrid.

Frankie:

On that orange match safe, before you give up on it, there may be a cheap fix.

If the "O" ring is at the bottom of the threading so that it seals when the screw on cap butts against it, get a slightly thicker "O" ring with the same inside diameter. This will allow the new "O" ring to fit over the throat of the match safe, and the thicker "O" ring will contact the cap sooner and effect a better seal.

The other method is if the "O" ring fits on a groove on the throat of the match safe. You can buy a bigger inside diameter "O" ring that will seal by the cap butting against it, or you can wrap teflon plumbing tape sealer around the upper part of the "O" ring so that the cap squishs the teflon tape onto the "O" ring as you screw the cap down. With the teflon tape method, you will have to redo the tape every time you open the match case.

Easiest method is to wrap the match safe in plastic sandwich wrap. If you are under water (Assuming you have the match safe on your person.) long enough for the water to work its way through the Saran wrap, you will probably need a priest and not dry matches.

You can buy "O" rings of different thicknesses and diameters in Auto supply houses, hardware stores, and bearing supply houses.

Good luck!

Bountyhunter

I just bought myself a Photon Freedom. Personally, I love it.

Hi Chris, btw I'm curious to know which number of Eriksson's knives do you find the most relevant for survival and all purpose use? I was thinking about the #1 and the #731 (Doug's recommendation). I think I will buy both stainless steel and carbon steel blades.
I also think I'm going to order a survival pak for an extra Spark-Lite, the wire, the button compass, the whistle and the mirror. Is it worth to spend $30 for the SAS button compass?
Frankie

If you were to buy these items seperately $30 wouldn't cover the expense: So yes, it's a smart move. Are you new to knives? The #731 has a far safer handle with the slight guard and stickier handle material. #1s can get real slippery. Still, they are one of the few carbon steel knives with sufficient Rockwell to produce sparks with natural stones; a minor, but relevant skill and firemaking option. If you get one, lightly file the spine. As new, flints tend to skip along the slick surface. The Moras all share a basic design except for size and S/S or carbon steels. I love them for the razor sharp edge, ease of sharpening ( and learning to sharpen) and cheap cost! I don't mind nearly so much losing or abusing these. I have several dispersed in my kits, and one as a constant neck knife. You may want to add a more substantial knife later. Whatever your choice, the Moras will give you a suprising measure to guage that choice by! Canadien Mors Kochanski carries Moras along with an axe. His Bushcraft book is excellent instruction in using both.

Yes Chris, I'm pretty new to knives. I remember I once bought a $10 Rambo style knife with hollow handle and a fishing kit inside with a compass on the screwing butt when I was in my pre-teen. It was in the early 1980s and me and my colleges had just seen the Silvester Stallone movie. I once tried to throw it on a tree trunk and the blade became shaky because it wasn't full-tang (I was also a fan of Sho Kosugi Ninja movies)... I think my parents still have it in their attic. Besides that I don't have much experience and I'm rather new at survival techniques in general.

So thanks for the precious info. When you say "they have sufficient Rockwell" do you mean they are hard enough? And also, I'm wondering what are the "clippers" from the Frosts company, what do they mean by clipper (you know, models with red butt...)? And also, I just found and bought a DMT mini-sharp fine at the Mountain Equipment Co-op here in Montréal. Will it be enough and suitable for these carbon and stainless steel swedish knives? (or do I also need the coarse one or finer...?)

Thank you.

Frankie, Rockwell is the scale used to rate steel hardness. Some knives will be differentialy tempered, with parts of the blade and tang ranging from soft to very hard. The carbon Moras' high R enables natural flint sparking. The flint ignites the carbon molecules from the blade material. Anything softer than 58-60 and the flint merely gouges the material. Moras have this high R in the blade, and a relatively soft tang. You will eventually bend one, or even get one with a few degrees 'prebent.' They bend back easily. Good knives start out very sharp. With care there is no reason to need anything beyond a fine sharpening surface. You may want to pick up a fine ceramic rod and just 'steel' your knives most of the time. This is actually straightening minute warps and not removing material. Again, www.ragweedforge.com has a basic primer on sharpening scandi knives. www.bladeforums.com and www.knifeforums.com are a goldmine of sharpening information. Clipper is just a name frost uses. "Mora" is actually a region in Sweden and the name a generic term for their knives. The red handled knife is actually made by a few companies and are like buying disposable lighters over there. Again, these are so inexpensive you can learn to sharpen and handle them without great investment. Eventually you may want to upgrade to a more robust knife. The Moras are popular with many outdoor/survival schools for basic use and instruction for these same reasons.

Okay, I got it. It's like your chef kitchen knife. You hone it almost every time you use it to "realign" the "tiny teeth" (as it would be seen under high magnification) but you send your knife to a professional sharpener only once in a year.
Thanks.

Frankie,

The SAS compass you spoke of is relatively expensive, but nice.

Hi Chris and everyone,

I just ordered a Mora knife from Frosts. I chose the clipper because it has a blaze orange sheath and it's stainless steel for long term storage in a moderately humid area. (I'm also going to order carbon steel blades from Eriksson and for the flint and steel method of fire making -- I guess it's not possible with stainless steel --; )
My question is is it normal if the point of the blade isn't perfectly pointed? It looks as if they would have slightly unsharpened the point for security or something. Is this a typical thing or is it a flaw?
Thanks

It should be pointed. As inexpensive as these knives are, they are very sharp. Sometimes even the Finnish puukkos may have blunt tips. These have many hand ground operations and sometimes they slip through. It's easy enough to put a point on. Just increase the angle of sharpening at the tip and go very slow. These are great starter knives and at the price well worth learning with.

Do what Chris says.... the Moras with the red wooden (#1)handle are not well suited for field use. The better choice are the ones with the red or blue plastic ones ("Luna" by Eriksson), which are more ergonomic. These are very serious blades that make tough knives, for every use, from slicing ripe tomatoes to splitting wood for your fire.
A superb tool for a mere few $$

Chris, you said "you may want to pick up a fine ceramic rod and just 'steel' your knives most of the time". What grit would you recommend as "fine", probably beyond 600 grit? Ideally 700 grit I guess?
I've found a ceramic rod kit at Lee Valley:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?S...;amp;category=1,43072,43079

But I guess 280 is too coarse to just steel the knife without removing material.

How about the $1-$2 ceramic sticks (4"-8") at Ragweedforge?

http://www.ragweedforge.com/SharpeningCatalog.html

Do you know by any chance if they are fine enough to steel the knives (the grit isn't specified) or should I email them?

Anyhow, let's get to the point. Where do you get your fine ceramic rods and what are their characteristics and do you carry them in a survival kit?

Thank you.

How do you tell real para-cord from the fake stuff?

Buy from a reputable dealer, Brigade QM ( www.actiongear.com), www.countycomm.com. The real stuff has 7 inner strands and a nylon outer covering.

Ahhhh, good, I just bought a LOT from www.countycomm.com a few weeks ago, and I am glad that I did not get cheap stuff.

BTW, what IS the cheep stuff like? No internal strands, or what?

Cut a short piece off the end and look for the seven inner strands, not six, or four, but SEVEN. Chances are, if it's not what you're looking for, the inner part will be the nylon mess shown in the photo earlier in this thread.