I've been doing some testing on quite a few blades recently. Here's a picture of my Paramilitary 2 on a rock ledge hiding out from the storm.

Exotac NanoSTRIKER

The NanoSTRIKER is a small lightweight ferrocerium rod. It features a replaceable ferrocerium bit housed in a 6061 aircraft aluminum body with a 440C striker. Threading on the body allows each of the three pieces of the NanoSTRIKER to be fully open or sealed. When sealed the striker is fully inclosed in the body it is protected from the elements and it's very compact and easy to carry. I've been carrying the Nanostriker everyday since it arrived. It fits great in a pocket (which is how I prefer to carry it) or on a keychain. It weighs almost nothing which makes it so desirable that along with its size. Not to mention the feel and look of it. I never thought I would call a firesteel beautiful but it is. Speaking of appearance it also comes in a variety of colors. In terms of use it performs just like any other ferrocerium rod. A good strike gives you a decent amount of sparks. The only negative I have found thus far is that the size of the striker makes it a little uncomfortable and hard to grip. They do however provide you with a short length of paracord to be used as a lanyard. Overall I am very happy with the NanoSTRIKER and I would surely recommend it to anybody looking for a ferrocerium rod that is light, strong, and has some cool features.

Benchmade Nim Cub II

Introducing the Benchmade Nim Cub II one of my favorite small fixed blades. Even with its small size it still remains very capable. With its flat ground 154CM blade the Nim Cub maintains a strong structure especially towards the tip where the swedge grind and and flat grind meet creating a tip that can take more abuse than other knives without chipping or bending. Which brings me to my next point the steel. 154CM is the American version of ATS-34 a Japanese steel made by Hitachi which was very well regarded in the knife community. Buying a Premium Steel gets you all of the benefits as I experienced. The edge retention and overall sharpness out of the box was good. There is something just beautiful about a really sharp knife. With that being said I should mention that this knife comes with a "Lifesharp" warranty for a small price you can send your knife to Benchmade and they will sharpen the edge with the original bevels and tune it up which is a nice comforting benefit especially for the sharpening impaired. I was also very impressed by the blade's Black DLC coating as it still stayed intact after use. I was expecting it to come off shortly after I purchased the knife. That assumption also came from my impressions on the sheath which brings me to my first negative point on this knife. The knife came in a polymer sheath that retained the knife in two ways the first is a nylon strap with a hefty snap and the second are little protrusions on the inside of the sheath. Personally I think that the double retention  method is kind of overkill because with the strap secured the knife isn't going anywhere. Not to mention the protrusions make marks on the finish not a show stopper as the DLC as I said before stayed pretty well intact after using the knife but the sheath did leave marks on the coating that are visible. A benefit of the sheath is its Belt/MOLLE capabilities. I found the knife easy to mount to Backpacks, Vests, and my favorite method which is simply the belt carry option. The sheath also has a drain hole like most good sheaths do. Except I don't recommend getting wet with this knife because I am fairly certain you would have rust issues not to mention the water that would get underneath the scales. Which is my next point the scales were one of my favorite parts of this knife. Formed from a polymer called Noryl-GTX and secured with torx screws. It's shaped into a grippy handle with a nice feel also if you look at some pictures of the 147 Nim Cub you will notice a portion at the front of the handles which is depressed. This feature as small and useless as it may seem is actually very functional giving you some cool options for gripping the knife, for example, if you pinch the knife using both depressions you get a sort of pencil grip that might be useful for some situations or you can lock your thumb into it for a secure grip like if you're peeling an apple. Anyways I thought it was neat and made the scales look nice. besides the scales the knife is jimped fairly well and has a lanyard hole like most knives. The choil is functional but I noticed that some versions of this knife have the double choil where there is a secondary guard in the grip which sits between your index and middle fingers. I guess that is to provide better grip to prevent your hand from sliding into the blade. My knife doesn't have this feature but I haven't had any problems with that. The Nim Cub is surprisingly light and feels great in hand. Besides the what I have already said you really have to hold one of these to get a good feel for it and for you to see just how attractive this knife is. Go to your local shop and just take a look at the lines. The knife is worth buying just to look at besides its functionality. As a Black Class this knife is gear towards military and law enforcement but this knife would be great as a small outdoors blade, glove box knife or a collection piece. Overall I was very happy with it's performance in the field and would recommend this knife to any of you in the market for a small fixed blade.

Spyderco Persistence: Quality meets value

After a steady six months of hard use I think it's finally time for a review. What you are seeing is my personal Persistence. If you are familiar with Spyderco you will notice several differences between my knife and the stock production model. But for those of you unfamiliar I will begin explaining what is unique about my knife. When I first Bought this knife late last year. I was not too fond of its feel in hand it felt blocky and the outer appearance of the G10 scales were alright but nothing to write home about. The handle is made up of G10 on top of the steel liners which are skeletonized for weight reduction. Upon taking the knife down to deal with an issue I had with the pivot screw(I'll get to that later). I noticed the holes were a perfect size for a nearby drill bit. After 15 minutes of  drilling and the use of a Counter Sink bit I had made the knife noticeably more attractive and also lighter. With some finishing touches such as polishing the G10, applying a convex edge and rounding the corners of the handle to better fit my hand I was finished. Please note when I first purchased this knife and began modding it I had no intention of EDC'ing or using it to perform hard use tasks. It was going to be nothing but an around the house knife. The main thing keeping it out of my pocket was the steel 8Cr13Mov a Chinese steel used by various manufacturers and is known for being a somewhat budget steel. This turned me off of beating on it as I initially thought it would hold all of the negative connotations that come with the word "budget" but boy was I wrong. The first thing I noticed upon taking the knife out of the box was the sharpness. To my dismay it was about as sharp as my brand new Benchmade Nim Cub and also comparable to my Delica 4 FFG. I must say I was expecting a dull knife that even after hours of sharpening and strop time would be only mildly sharper. The knife was impressive for the price I paid of only $27.00. Even though I was impressed with the edge and price I wasn't entirely ready to give it the spotlight and put it to the test. That is until I damaged the pivot screw of my previous and much loved EDC the Delica 4 FFG(to which I still have not repaired due to laziness). With my main blade down I needed a replacement. Something that could perform all the tasks of my normal day to day life. That is where the Persistence came in as winter turned to spring and now summer is here I am still using this knife. Where I'm from in beautiful Central Oregon we are surrounded by lakes, rivers, and mountains. When summer comes around we see ourselves spending almost all of our free time outside and that is where I have been using this blade the most lately. Cutting Wood, Plastics, Cardboard, Rope and also being used for food prep. While using this blade outside it tends to get wet quite frequently and for long periods of time which I was worried about due to the steel possibly developing rust quickly but that was not the case. I still have yet to see any rust on the blade. The only hit I can give the steel would be edge retention which would be expected of 8Cr13Mov. I notice myself having to strop after using the blade for extended periods of time. Although the knife seems to always keep pretty sharp. Now I'll move on to handle and lock: The handle is fine after you round the back a little and the lock is a liner lock, not much more to say about that. The knife feels pretty good in hand and your grip is complemented by the jimping on the thumb ramp. The knife deploys as fast as any other Spyderco with a little lube to get things moving. When I received the knife the pivot was tighter than Kim Kardashians pants and what was supposed to be a torx screw was an allen key. All that aside the knife has had no issues. Loosen it to where you want it, apply a little Blue Loctite and the knife should perform like it was meant to. The clip design is excellent like most of Spyderco's offerings and seats the knife fairly well in pocket with only the top portion of the clip exposed. Overall This in my opinion is one of if not the best knife for the price. Whether you are into knives or are looking to purchase your first blade the Persistence is a must have.