Survival Tip of the Week - KNIVES FROM STONE

A knife has three basic functions. It can puncture, slash or chop, and cut. A knife is also an invaluable tool used to construct other survival items. You may find yourself without a knife or you may need another type knife or a spear. To improvise you can use stone, bone, wood, or metal to make a knife or spear blade.

To make a stone knife, you will need a sharp-edged piece of stone, a chipping tool, and a flaking tool. A chipping tool is a light, blunt-edged tool used to break off small pieces of stone. A flaking tool is a pointed tool used to break off thin, flattened pieces of stone. You can make a chipping tool from wood, bone, or metal, and a flaking tool from bone, antler tines, or soft iron (Figure 12-3).

Figure 12-3. Making a Stone Knife

Start making the knife by roughing out the desired shape on your sharp piece of stone, using the chipping tool. Try to make the knife fairly thin. Then, press the flaking tool against the edges. This action will cause flakes to come off the opposite side of the edge, leaving a razor-sharp edge. Use the flaking tool along the entire length of the edge you need to sharpen. Eventually, you will have a very, sharp cutting edge that you can use as a knife.

Lash the blade to some type of hilt (Figure 12-3).

From - U.S Army Field Manual 3-05.70 - Survival

Surviving the End Times with only One Clip

Ok, so I never intended this to be a blog about how guns are used in movies. MadOgre does that on his site and does a great job. However, being a movie dude and also a lifelong student of the martial arts - I just have to notice these things from time to time.

I didn't intend this to be a movie review blog either, but movies - for better or worse - are a big part of the Orion culture. Although it's great to come up with good paintball combat scenarios from real-life military action (i.e. the now infamous Civil War game), it's a helluva lot more fun to base things on movies (i.e. the OK Corral scenario - someone is required to wink).



Besides, both of the people who probably actually reading this are most likely folks that were with me at the movie. So unfortunately, they're having to hear this twice.


I am a huge fan of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. And yes, I read it before the movie came out and even read it before I realized that Heston's Omega Man was based on the same source material. In fact, I had a moment in reading the book where I realized that Heston's character and the protagonist of the book had the same name - Neville. This is a pretty big revelation coming from the guy who spent a most of Les Misérables thinking thinking that Father Madeleine and Jean Valjean were different characters . . . but I digress.


In either case, the moral of the story is that I Am Legend is something near and dear to my heart, but I am straying from the point.

I don't want to give the whole farm away, but to me the story of I Am Legend is first a psychological work about what someone goes through mentally being the sole survivor of a major disaster - in this instance a massive biological outbreak. It is secondly a story of someone "staying alive" by going out and hunting those who would attempt to stop him.

I knew that the Will Smith version of the story would be highly Hollywood-ized, but the whole idea that Hollywood as a general collective knows better how to reimagine literature is trying at times. I understand having to cut things down for time - no one wants to spend 5 hours in a theater - but this can't be at the expense of plot and character development.

Don't get me wrong - the movie wasn't all bad. I have come to appreciate movies per their parts - rather than the sum of those parts. Give it a shot, it'll make you feel better about spending $1-2 on good 30-minute chunks, instead of $9 on a crappy movie.

Here's my major flaws with this film:

Hunting scene
Ok - if you are that hungry you either (a) run down the deer with the Mustang (I am sure Ford had something in their contract specifically against this) or (b) open fire like a mad fool at the herd of deer. I saw the scene with the "gun closet" - I think he has more than a few rounds of ammo. Though he never actually fired at any of the deer . . . or the lions for that matter. If that would have been a Raider, the next scene would have had Will Smith wearing a giant lion mane coat (ala James Earl Jones in Coming to America) and would have had both of those lion cubs made into a pair of very stylish and comfortable slippers.

NYC
Are there even any guns in NYC? I think this would have been a much more entertaining film if it took place in Texas, Arizona, or the Deep South.

Blowing up the place to save himself
Wasn't this dude in the Army? Surely he had access to some claymores . . .

Arms
So we all know that M4s are the rage, but . . . . well see above.

Ok, ok . . . it's Hollywood.

We know we can't have a scene with the protagonist out at some ex-Mil desert installation, sitting on the roof of the hooch with a Barrett M82, waiting about 10 minutes or so for the hoard to get into AP range.

That would just make too much sense.

Miller Ranch Redux

We knew it was coming for awhile, but this past weekend Miller Ranch transfered hands to the new owners. Here is a shot of us taking down the old LJM Ranch sign.


I never thought it would really happen, but we certainly had our share of good times at the place - even hosting a rendezvous out there last spring.

The good news is that the new landowners say we are welcome to play in the back acreage until they decide what they want to do with it.

However, I think we'll still be calling it Miller Ranch.

At least for nostalgia's sake.

A Day Late, A Shuriken Short

Apparently it's not just Viking Festivals and Primitive Skills events that I hear about days after the event, but also opportunities to dress-up like Storm Shadow and harass my co-workers with origami throwing stars.

Day of the Ninja was last Tuesday, December 5th.

Here's some info from Wikipedia:

In 2003, the creators of Ninja Burger declared that December 5 would be celebrated as Day of the Ninja. On this day, people are encouraged to dress as ninja, engage in ninja-related activities, and spread information on ninja online. December 5 was originally chosen because December 5, 2003 marked the release of Tom Cruise's film The Last Samurai (which featured a scene where samurai battled ninja).

I guess on the positive side, by coincidence - or ninja mind control - we did eat at a sushi restaurant that day for lunch . . .

And what ninja post would be complete without a throwing star link.

The Predator Mad Minute

Last night I put Predator on in the background while I was working on some projects. I have probably seen the movie a good fifty or so times and I still notice little cool things about it.

I looked up from the work table at the scene where Bill Duke's character Eliot rushes up on the recently slain Blain (Jesse Ventura) and sees the eyes of the Predator. He picks up "Ol' Painless" the minigun and starts to ventilate the jungle. He is soon joined by the team in a massive shoot-out at the unseen Predator. I always thought this was a great scene for all of the different weapons the team took out on the mission.


I had no idea these kind of shenanigans could serve a tactical purpose.

My first clue came from the Predator entry in font of all true knowledge in the universe, Wikipedia:

Eliot starts screaming and immediately opens fire and is joined by the remaining members of the unit. In what is known as a "mad minute", all members of the team saturate the jungle with bullets. They stop firing and to their shock, are unable to find any bodies.

So learning more, I found out that a 'mad minute' is a real military term, having come from the British:

Originally, "Mad Minute" was a pre-WWI term used by British riflemen for the act of getting 15 aimed bullets into a target at 300yds within one minute using a bolt-action rifle (usually a Lee-Enfield or Lee-Metford rifle).

Now for someone that grew up shooting all of the weapons of the pre-WW2 British Army, I have to say I am pretty ashamed at having never heard of this before.

But wait - there's more!

Mad Minute is a military tactic used to surprise enemy snipers when their location is unknown. If there are too many possible positions to determine where the enemy fire is coming from, each likely enemy position is assigned to one or more soldiers. Upon receiving the signal, all simultaneously fire a specific number of rounds. The tactic has a long history of effective use; it also has strong secondary value as a morale booster.

The name "Mad Minute" comes from the experience of "madness" during the time of heavy firing upon various targets without knowing the exact location of the enemy, leading to heavy use of ammunition.

Hell, I even found a video on YouTube showing a 'mad minute' with a surplus British SMLE rifle (WW1 vintage). Too cool!

I had no idea our post-paintball-game antics had a real tactical purpose.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

Paintball this weekend - Former Miller Ranch

It looks like the lease isn't up on Miller Ranch until the end of the month, so we'll be having paintball there this Saturday, December 8th at 10am.

This is our first game out there under "new management," so I'd like to see how that all works out. We'll play a few games in the lower field and then spend the rest of the time up around the campsite and then maybe make our way to the back side of the ranch.

If you are playing as a guest, please let me know ASAP, so we can put aside some loaner kit. Plan on bringing out your ruck and plenty of water. The weather looks great and it should a good time to get out into the woods.

Let's get outside and enjoy this cool weather.