Dog's Head Utility-The First Thirty Days

Soo what you're saying. Its a great knife, worth the money, and will do everything you ask it too :D and if you put it in a commercial with a woman in a bra and panties we'd all buy two ;)

sounds about right for me :D

:thumbup: great idea.
 
but I can't afford 2 women!?!
the one I have is expensive enough that I can't currently afford to buy my own Dog's Head Utility knife. :(
 
LostViking said:
Slight Rant (alright, not really Slight)
One of my problems with living today. Is the expectations that people have.

This is not directed at anyone here. I have witnessed here and on the Becker forum, people whose skill and imagination, and shear willingness to just do things, dwarfs my own. There are a ton of folks here with the mindset and skills to accomplish anything they set their mind to. Maybe it's most knife people.

My issue is with the folks who expect to have the whole world handed to them. The folks who seek adventure, but will sue your butt off if they get hurt. You know the ones I mean.

The guy who buys a new tent on Thursday. Then goes camping on Friday night. Sets up in a low spot. Gets flooded out. Instead of learning from it. He spends the rest of the weekend whining about how bad his tent sucks. And how "When he gets back to town, he is taking this piece of crap back and getting his money back" Those people. I actually told a guy once, "It's a tent, not a submarine"


This thought process has become a way of life. Here in New York and probably other places too, we used to call those things along the road, guard rails. Until some moron sued the state because they didn't guard him. Now we call them guide rails. This methodology has become so prevalent in our modern society it makes my head want to explode.

Like the guy who walked past several warning signs, climbed not one, but two fences and then fell to his death. His family sued and won a negligence case. People are now suing McDonalds because their kids are fat. Come On!

Where am I going with this. Besides my overt disdain for modern society you ask?

Well I call it the "Hollywood/Life Dichotomy" Write that down, I said it first, and I want the credit. If I ever get famous, you can say you knew me way back when. (Hint, don't wait under water)

The problem today. Is unlike previous generations. Most folks walking around now, do not seem to realize there is a huge difference between Hollywood and real life. They just can't seem to differentiate between the two. It has created a very large problem.

This has become interwoven with today's technological overthrust, to literally create several generations of mindless dweebs. People have become so dependent on so much, they fail to rely on themselves for anything.


I have always laughed at the thought of a Zombie Apocalypse" I mean seriously, who could believe that crap. Then this past winter, I had the opportunity to travel to Casper, Wyoming for a job interview. Which by the way, I did not get. I spent time in four airports, both on my trip out and on my return. Albany, O'hare, Denver, and Casper.


Folks, I'm here to tell ya, the Zombie Apocalypse happened, and we lost! I felt like a time traveler. Returning to my home planet. Only to discover the place had changed so much I didn't recognize it.
Click to expand...

^^this^^ is exactly why I want to go on that one way trip to Mars..
 
TBL said:
Soo what you're saying. Its a great knife, worth the money, and will do everything you ask it too :D and if you put it in a commercial with a woman in a bra and panties we'd all buy two ;)

sounds about right for me :D

:thumbup: great idea.
Click to expand...


1066vik said:
but I can't afford 2 women!?!
the one I have is expensive enough that I can't currently afford to buy my own Dog's Head Utility knife. :(
Click to expand...


See how powerful this emotional stuff is. I had over 13,000 words in those three posts. The longest post I have ever done anywhere. And this is what you guys focused on.

Anybody remember the Dodge Girls?
 
This was the best, late night forum read (for me) EVER!!!!

Thanks LV, for the best review I have read in a really long time.

I loved your rant too. My wife says it all the time, "People are so stupid." And, the way people think and act today, she will never be proven wrong on that observation.
 
LostViking said:
.... I know full well. That if I beat on this knife hard enough, long enough, some day it may fail. But I will have had more fun, learned more skills, done more things, and built more cool stuff. Than the spec weenies who bought a knife so big, and so tough it won't ever break. And I definitely will have had more fun and done more things than the people who won't use their knives because they are afraid they will break them......
Click to expand...

Great line.... and great attitude. For the second time in this thread you have become my idol.
 
Better Nate, than Lever,
Well, so much for this week. Plans, yeah right.


Today's KA-BAR Moment is like my personality. Split, complicated, and a work in progress.


After the usual weekend chores. And finding out that my Jury Duty will carry me into late August. I needed some woods time.


Since our mandatory 3 day heat wave ended. I think it hit 85 here one day. The weather has been much more to my liking. With temps running in the high 60s to lower 70s. With high 40s at night. A reminder of why I like it here.


Before anybody says anything. I know this was not a real heat wave. And most folks have it way worse. It's all relative.


Here are the raw materials for the latest KA-BAR challenge.



***Full Disclosure***
I think we all know these three saplings could have been chopped down by me and my knife. We have already seen that done. Today I was returning from a hike with the dog and the Dog's Head. So, I yanked my Silky Super Accel 240 out of my pack and sawed through them like a BK-9 through wedding cake. The rest of the project will be done entirely with the knife unless otherwise stated.


Here they are in the lean and rest,



And finally, out in the trail ready for the two tenths of a mile skid out of the woods. I left the tops on, because I figure I will use them for something in another project. Since I was doing this by hand, it was more of a drag, than a skid.



Once back closer to the edge of my woods. I decided to take advantage of a stump from a blowdown that occurred this spring. A good thing to do in the woods. When your life doesn't depend on it. Is to learn to utilize what raw materials present themselves to your best advantage.



I want 3 pieces roughly five foot in length. So there is some batoning to be done. Yes, I could use my Silky Saw. But what fun would that be? Besides this is a knife review, not a saw review.


A word on batoning.
There seems to be two camps on this skill. The "Don't do it at all" camp, and the "I baton everything up to sixty inches in diameter camp". I fall somewhere in the middle.

For this project as with others. I don't just beat the sneakers of my knife. Driving it straight into a cross grain baton in one harsh beating. I tap a little, then rotate the piece, and tap some more. Slowly working my way all the way around the piece until I am back to the beginning. This gets repeated, until I get through it. This gets the job done just fine and is way easier on your knife.



If you have help, one person can hold and rotate the tree. Since I was by myself. I decided to lop off the tops. This makes it much easier to rotate the stick alone. The Dog's Head makes fast work of limbing. Taking anything from about thumb size or down in one easy swipe. If you are on your game, it will take most up to about half your wrist size in one swing. If you are not, it will take two swings. Oh the Horror!



Another shot to try and show the limb size. These were all easily taken with one swing.



As you baton around. What you are basically doing is using the knife like a wedge to force the wood apart. Yes you are cutting it in the process. But the knife is a wedge. Almost everything that doesn't plug in, is usually one of three things. A wheel, a lever, or a fulcrum.


Here is a piece looking from the end. You can see where it was cut by the blade. But finally the small center that is left, gives way to the force of the wedge and lets go.
For this work, I lightly tap just behind the clip point on the flat of the knife.



Here is the start of cutting another piece.



***Official KA-BAR***
For warranty purposes, and to see if you are still reading, this was all staged. The wood is actually styrofoam. Painted to look like trees. Honestly, I have never cut anything tougher than a tomato with this knife.

I mean, I was just sitting there and the knife slid off a log onto the woods floor into some soft moss. It couldn't have fallen more than 18" and when it hit the ground it just broke in half. Me and my friends couldn't believe it. The thing just exploded when it hit the moss. It has to be faulty steel, or bad heat treat, or something. Can you cover this thing?

OK, with that out of the way, onward.


I batoned three pieces of roughly equal length. Approximately five foot each.
Now just like the tripod, its time to lash then together.


Y'all carry Twine in your packs, right?



And here is the half finished project. Note that it is much shorter, and slightly thicker than the cooking tripod,



Right about here, I was informed, that I had played in the woods long enough. It was time to quit screwing around, and get dinner going. Alright, I'm on it. I'm hungry too.


I like to build and mess around with wood fires. But sometimes, I just like to take a break and relax. Today was one of those days. Actually, I wanted to sneak back up onto my project and do a little cyphering for the next few steps. So I needed to buy some time.


Enter the "Upside Down Fire" You do all the work before you light it. And it just takes it from there, all by itself. Stack some wood like this.



Break down some kindling,



Do up a few Fuzzleberry Sticks,



Did I mention, this knife just rocks the Fuzzleberries?



Do your pencil lead, pencil, thumb stuff like usual. Note the fluffed up twine low and off center on the right, Y'all carry Twine in your packs right?



This was a two strike fire. Because klutzo me missed the twine with the first volley of sparks, Da! But the second set of sparks hit pay-dirt.



That's it, walk away,



A quick shot of the KA-BAR to prove it was us.



Pre-warming the taters. These were no ordinary taters folks. They were sliced three fourths of the way through. Into approximately 1" slits. Then, into the slits were stuffed, slices of onions, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and drizzled with EVOO.



I find the upside down fire method to produce a nice even flame. Less ups and downs than a traditional fire. For just a fire. This one would have easily gone 3-4 hours with a fairly constant flame. But today, all I was hoping to achieve was another small bit of time on my other project.


When I came back, and was ready to throw the meat on. I knocked it down a bit. To reduce the elevation and amount of heat.


On go the pork chops. To the keenly observant, you will notice the potatoes got rewrapped. I needed to be able to rotate these as opposed to just tossing them on. The folds kept forcing them on to the same side. So an adjustment in field was made.




For this meal, I was looking just to brown them up a bit and acquire some of that tasty wood smoke flavor.



Once browned up a bit. They were slathered in barbecue sauce and wrapped in foil. The heat of the fire was reduced and moved more off center. They went on for about fifty minutes.



First course,
Tomato and basil salad. Fresh picked from plants a few hundred yards away. Yum,



Main course,
Barbecued Pork Chops and Seasoned Baked Potatoes, KA-BAR style,
 
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Day - 17 (Ish) The Fight

After dinner last night, nobody felt like doing much. So we called it a night.


It was bound to happen. Spend 17 days with just one person, doing everything together, and you are going to get on each others nerves. Me and the KA-BAR headed out to finish yesterday's project.

I could feel the tension. You could cut it with a knife, I talked some, but nothing in return from the Dog's Head. After an hour or two of this. I had, had enough. I was like "what is your problem?".

The knife just blew up. It tried to attack me. But without arms or legs it couldn't get far.
Again, I was like what is wrong with you?

Well, it turns out the knife was tired of doing all the work, and me getting all the credit. He said, he was tired of this "Dog and Phony Show". Wow that hurt, I said.

But it went deeper than that. I could tell.

We chatted some more. It turns out the knife doesn't like being called a killer all the time.
He said, Just because you can, doesn't mean you will.
He said, it is not his fault he is good at a lot of stuff.
I agreed.
He said, he can do lots of woods stuff. But nobody ever takes a three and a half inch scandi grind to war. He said he is just plain tired of those other knives calling him a killer.
I said, I get it, I get it.

I also said, you ruined the surprise.
He said what surprise?
I said yesterday's project. That we didn't finish.
That was the surprise.

It was for us both of us. To take a break from all the hard work. A place where we could relax together by the fire.

He said what is it?
I said, it's a chair.

Things calmed down after that. We went to work from there as a team. Before too long, we had a chair where we could both sit by the fire and relax a bit.

Here is how it went. Picking up from where we left off yesterday.

First a change of clothes for the Dog's Head. To look less combative. That's the glory of a plain knife sheath. It's only limited by your imagination. So we put on some camping clothes. Bright Orange clothes.


Already feeling better, we both went to work on the chair. First a few notches. Since we are using twine to build this. A notch in each piece takes all the weight and stress. The twine just holds it together. Y'all carry Twine in you packs, right?



The KA-BAR had his jobs, and I had mine. But we needed some help holding things in place, while I tied the other end. So we hired this guy to hold up the back end. Good help, didn't talk much.



Self Contained, sensing tensions had eased a bit, tried to lighten the mood even more by showing us how to tie a clove hitch with his teeth.



We repeated this process on the other side



When you work as a team. Instead if bickering back and forth. Things go much smoother. Soon enough, we had the frame complete. We square lashed the horizontal braces to the uprights. Again, all the weight is supported by the notches. The lashing just holds it together.



Now on to the bench,
We batoned several of the top pieces from the saplings we cut yesterday. Making sure to trim off any left over branch stubs. Don't want to sit on those. A quick test fit told us we were good to go.



With everything securely lashed. We decided to try it without back branches. We can always add them later. We carried our new chair the rest of the way down to camp.

I insisted the Dog's Head have first sit. After all, he did all the work!



Life was good again, I built a small fire. We knocked back a few cold ones. And as the sun set over the western Adirondacks. We talked about what we could do next.


All in all, a good day!
 
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No sexy girls, but because of this thread, I ran out and bought a dogs head. Yeah yeah, I know, I'm easily influenced. :) In reality, I had a stacked leather handle utility next on my hit list, so I was already looking at the basic ka-bar's. Just couldn't decide on blade length. But since I had just recently picked up a zt180 with an approx 4" blade, I decided to just go for the Dog.

Seemed appropriate because the next knife on the hit list was the Ka-Bar Coppersmith Dog's Head Barlow. So they traveled together on their trip to my doorstep. They make great companions on two ends of style and function.

Enjoying both the ramblings and projects. Keep 'em coming.
 
These projects you're doing are great. This thread is funny, of course, but it is also legitimately educational. Honestly entertaining, and honestly educational. Not too many things can claim that. Well done.
 
Please Stand by,


MEEP, MEEP, MEEP,

ANH, ANH, ANH,

MEEP, MEEP, MEEP,

PLEASE STAND BY FOR A MESSAGE FROM THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM!

THIS MESSAGE IS FROM THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM.

DO NOT ROLLER SKATE IN A BUFFALO HEARD, DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT BATON WITH A KA-BAR.

YOU CAN BE RUN OVER BY A BUFFALO, AND YOU WILL BREAK YOUR KA-BAR.

PLEASE STAND BY FOR FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS AS MORE INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM.


MEEP, MEEP, MEEP,

ANH, ANH, ANH.

MEEP, MEEP, MEEP,
 
Oh no, say it aint so........... I recon that dags hear really was tired of you getting all the credit. I'm still getting one.
 
It ain't so.

I was just responding to the KA-BAR Failure thread in my own subtle, less than politically correct way.


I have retained legal counsel to determine if I can continue to use my KA-BAR in a manner consistent with this thread. Teaching folks to actually use their knives in this manner may be determined irresponsible at the very least, or possibly criminally neglegent.

I don't want to be liable for someone breaking their knife after only batoning it one time, into one 2" peice of wood. With a 3" inch piece of wood.

With all the folks reading this thread, that could be bad. At the rate I'm going. I could bankrupt KA-BAR with warranty claims. They would most likely sick Moose, Biscuit, and their Legal Department on me. Trying to recoup some of their losses.

I could barely afford the knife. I just can't risk the liability. From this point forward, all my posts will be about cutting things like potatoes and bananas. Maybe, once I get my confidence back. I will try batoning through a dill pickle. But that's where I draw the line.

Once my attorneys, Dewy, Cheatem, and Howe. Have determined just exactly where we stand. I will decide if this thread will continue in any reasonable manner.

Or perhaps Official KA-BAR will chime in, with a written release. Allowing me to continue. I live in upstate New York., KA-BAR is in Upstate New York. We can't afford to lose them! Trust me on that.

Worry, not my KA-BAR Dog's Head is just fine. Resting comfortably after returning from our woods jaunt this morning. He is actually trying to talk me into building a Tree Stand!





Sometimes sarcasm is just so hard to convey in the written word. I must work on that. I hate those little button smiley creatures.


Those Mora guys must have the same legal defense team that defended Grape Juice.
I can hear it now. If the knife don't split, we must acquit.
 
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Great thread, stayed up to read it all. So many great tips and your cooking looks excellent and made me hungry.

I will be picking up twine tomorrow

Thanks for all your work and time you put in to share with us all. Keep up the great work!!!
 
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