Hi all,
Thanks for the prayers and all. Yep Alex N, I have chatted with Alex quite abit, He is a pretty darn GOOD O Boy LOL. I think he would be good to have in your corner when the chips are down.
It has been a crazy weekend Friday we had some cattle get out and then we got them back in, but had to get the fence put back up. I went to get my chain saws( I was cutting some trees on the farm) from another part of the farm. and my brother inlaw went to get some fence fixing stuff. so Grampa stayed to make sure that the cattle did not get out and in the 10 minutes that we were gone some cattle started to try and get back out ( they were wanting to get to the Green grass and we did not want them there yet) Well Grampa, went to stoped them and in the process some how got turned over and broke 2 vertabrae in his neck, He died last night at 7 pm. He did not want to be put on a breathing machine and have to go to a nursing home. He said he did not have any regrets going out and helping to get the cattle back in he said that while in the hospital, he was doing what he loved to do. Farm life and riding his ATV was what kept him going in his later years. He got to talk with a lot of family and said his good byes. some of you have seen this pic of Grampa and my self that was taken last summer.
Well on a lighter note, Thanks Kevin, for the kind words about the Final Option knives and You to Alex LOL.
I have the book by George Jasper, called six ways in and twelve ways out. In his book George talks about some survival kits and one of them is what he calls a First Line / Final Option kit . He tells of taking the 7 items that make up the kit and puting them inbetween 2 peaces of card board from a cearal box and then taping the hole kit to gether with duck tape and putting in your wallet or purse. then when all your gear or what ever is lost and you hopefully have your wallet or purse. With these items some training in wild craft you should be able to start a fire and feed your self and get a shelter made up of some kind. Just having this little kit sure would have made Tom Hanks charcters life in Castaway easyer LOL. Well I got to thinking ( LOL
I can see some you right now rolling your eyes )
Well the first item in his kit is a Razor blade as the cutting tool. Well This is where I got to thinking about it and I thought a small thin knife would be better than a Razor blade. Remember any peace of steel is better than no peace of steel. Even if it is nothing but a razor blade. So like alot of makers I have and make little PSK knives for your altiods tin or other Pocket survival type kits. But here is where I made a little change most psk knives are 1/8" thick. That was not keeping with the has to be very light, very THIN, very small theme of the little First Line / Final Option kit. I new I wanted to make up a kit like the one in the book. So I made my little knife out of 1/16" thick steel. Remember a peace of Sharp steel is better than no Peace of sharp steel. I made up a design that I liked and decided to call it the Jasper knife. in honor of the the Author of the book. Then I thought I would see if I could contact George Jasper and tell him I really liked his book and made up a little knife for my First Line / Final Option kit and that if George would not mind I would like to call it the Jasper knife. Well I was able to contact George Jasper. he like my thoughts on the knife ( sent him some pics ) I said to him for writting up such a neat book on survival skills and survival kits I would like to name the little knife after him. and make him one if he wanted. So I made one for him and sent it to him and he wrote on the United States Rescue and Special Operation Group web site forum that he got the knife and had time to take it to the field on a training mission with the Cadre of the US RSOG and really liked the little knife. It did the cutting chores that would be needed in a survival emergency. This is not a big chopper of a knife it is for making shavings from sticks for your fire that you are going to have, Strike your flint rod to start your fire, and to skin and clean fish and game and what fruits and veggies when you get some, cut string, tape,clean your finger nails, nasty ticks that you might find crawling on you or your dog LOL (I have cut in half about 300 ticks that I have taken off kelly Girl and myself. Kelly and I roam around in the timber almost every day here on the farm. ticks are just terrible in the first part of spring. ) Cutting chores, just what a litte knife was ment to do.
Well George Jasper did not want to have the little knife called the Jasper knife. George asked if the knife could be called the Final Option knife instead.
I thought that was a great Idea and that is how the Final Option knife came to be.
Alex was right and I have been making some Final Option knives out of 1095
steel and so far I am really pleased with them too. If I get my times down in making them I can cut the price of them from 0-1 steel down from $22.50 peace to about $16 to $18 a peace. Any little savings is still savings right LOL.
When you talk about doing cutting chores I can not tell the difference from shaving a stick and making a fuzz stick with 0-1 or 1095. Now the 0-1 will hold it edge better I think. So if I have to sharpen my 0-1 blade once in 2 weeks and the 1095 blade Twice in 2 weeks I can live with that.
Well here is a pic of the items that I put together to show the difference in the razor blade and the little Final Option knife.
for myself having a little knife is way better than a razor blade. In this pic I am holding a Final Option knife.
In the back ground you can see I have a couple more F O knives. the top one is 4.5" oal. the one one below that is 3.75" and the one that I am holding it 3.5" and will be about the size of the card like in Kevins Pic, that I sent him.
I have made a few that are 4" oal. and I like them the best they do fit my hand a little better. having a 1/2" longer handle just feels better to me. But the 3.5" will work in shinning game, like with this turkey I did.
or cutting up fruits and veggies too
Thanks again all for the comments on the Final Option knife.
Bryan
PS there is another kit with a knife
that George talks about in his book:thumbup:. The knife for that kit( I am getting the items for that kit put together with the knife LOL) is comming out soon, so stay tunned
The proto type is already made up. Can't show pics yet, ok, well I could, but I am not going to
.
