- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,375
This could go in the 7/7 thread or Backyard Survivin' one I suppose but I'm pretty giddy about the knives that arrived today so I decided to start another. I also had a 4.1 arrive today, both factory 2nds. I like the 4.1 and look forward to getting to know it better but I pretty much knew I was going to like it before it even showed up. I love the old spec 4.1's and I really love the new 4.7's and it seemed like it would be a mix of both and that's pretty much exactly what it feels like.
Barring the Necker models the 7/7 is the only one of the Survive! lineup that I really didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling about. It looked skinny and weird to me, I don't know how to explain it better. It looked like a fighting knife I suppose, and even when I was in the infantry a knife was about the last thing I wanted in a fight. I know there are lots of different opinions about that but that's just mine. I'm too nice of a guy for anyone to want to stick with a knife anyways. And too modest.
I spent the morning cutting up things that didn't really need to be cut just because I could and I liked using the 7/7. I chopped some limbs off an Amur maple that's going wild in the back yard and trimmed up a bunch of apricot branches I cut around the roof yesterday. They're just going to get burnt and didn't need trimmed but what the heck.
Later in the day I was getting hungry so I made a trip to the store to pick up some grub. My grill is kaput and I wanted to mess around with the 7/7 some more so I decided to see how the fire pit would substitute. My experience with cooking with a fire is limited to meals consisting of boiling noodles or cooking potatoes so it would be a bit of a culinary leap for me to do something else.
I brought home a couple long pieces of birch from Michigan last year to do some wood carving and have kept them drying in the garage but one of them had a big knotty piece on one end so I thought that would make a good chunk to get a fire going. The 7/7 would have batoned this piece just fine I imagine but that's a bit silly so the Boreal 21 stepped in and took out the knotty bit of wood.
It split down pretty quick with the 7/7 and I tried it out at some curls, it was pretty effortless getting however thick or thin curls I wanted.
It didn't take long and the birch log was broken down into this.
I picked up a couple of these big firesteels last year and I hadn't used any of them yet, now I wish I remembered where I got them.
There aren't any sharp 90 degree edges on the knife and I was going to just use the edge but I thought I'd see if the choil would make fire happen and yup, no problem. Finally, a use for a choil, joy!
I used the jimping area of the spine to throw more sparks just to see how it worked. I didn't need more fire at this point but if you can have more fire you might as well right? The birch bark was probably cheating, I wish it grew naturally around here.
Slowly tossed on the rest of the chunk of birch.
Then threw on a couple more logs to get some coals off of.
While the fire was burning I went in and cut up two pieces of corn (each cob was divided into thirds then cut in half lengthwise), some yellow potatoes, a pound of andouille, 4 links of chicken sausage, and added a pound of shrimp with a mixture of butter, minced garlic, and Old Bay. The length of the 7/7 blade made it easy to put the tip into the cutting board and rock the blade down. The resulting mess was put onto 5 squares of foil and folded up.
I put 4 foil packs in the fridge and threw one on the coals for about 8 or 9 minutes on one side then maybe 5 on the other.
It turned out amazing, reminded me of a seafood boil on the coast. I cracked a beer and sat fat and happy on the couch for a bit then remembered this 7/7 and the 4.1 were the first 3V knives with the Delta heat treatment I'd gotten from Survive! I hadn't cut any bricks or nails but I'd beaten, chopped, and sliced it through a lot of wood today. I suppose it can hold a bit of an edge.
I know there's a lot of animosity about the delivery time and portents of doom about S!K but I've never felt like I was risking anything with putting money towards one of their knives and for me today just absolutely reinforced that. Thank you Survive! crew!
Barring the Necker models the 7/7 is the only one of the Survive! lineup that I really didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling about. It looked skinny and weird to me, I don't know how to explain it better. It looked like a fighting knife I suppose, and even when I was in the infantry a knife was about the last thing I wanted in a fight. I know there are lots of different opinions about that but that's just mine. I'm too nice of a guy for anyone to want to stick with a knife anyways. And too modest.
I spent the morning cutting up things that didn't really need to be cut just because I could and I liked using the 7/7. I chopped some limbs off an Amur maple that's going wild in the back yard and trimmed up a bunch of apricot branches I cut around the roof yesterday. They're just going to get burnt and didn't need trimmed but what the heck.
Later in the day I was getting hungry so I made a trip to the store to pick up some grub. My grill is kaput and I wanted to mess around with the 7/7 some more so I decided to see how the fire pit would substitute. My experience with cooking with a fire is limited to meals consisting of boiling noodles or cooking potatoes so it would be a bit of a culinary leap for me to do something else.
I brought home a couple long pieces of birch from Michigan last year to do some wood carving and have kept them drying in the garage but one of them had a big knotty piece on one end so I thought that would make a good chunk to get a fire going. The 7/7 would have batoned this piece just fine I imagine but that's a bit silly so the Boreal 21 stepped in and took out the knotty bit of wood.
It split down pretty quick with the 7/7 and I tried it out at some curls, it was pretty effortless getting however thick or thin curls I wanted.
It didn't take long and the birch log was broken down into this.
I picked up a couple of these big firesteels last year and I hadn't used any of them yet, now I wish I remembered where I got them.
There aren't any sharp 90 degree edges on the knife and I was going to just use the edge but I thought I'd see if the choil would make fire happen and yup, no problem. Finally, a use for a choil, joy!
I used the jimping area of the spine to throw more sparks just to see how it worked. I didn't need more fire at this point but if you can have more fire you might as well right? The birch bark was probably cheating, I wish it grew naturally around here.
Slowly tossed on the rest of the chunk of birch.
Then threw on a couple more logs to get some coals off of.
While the fire was burning I went in and cut up two pieces of corn (each cob was divided into thirds then cut in half lengthwise), some yellow potatoes, a pound of andouille, 4 links of chicken sausage, and added a pound of shrimp with a mixture of butter, minced garlic, and Old Bay. The length of the 7/7 blade made it easy to put the tip into the cutting board and rock the blade down. The resulting mess was put onto 5 squares of foil and folded up.
I put 4 foil packs in the fridge and threw one on the coals for about 8 or 9 minutes on one side then maybe 5 on the other.
It turned out amazing, reminded me of a seafood boil on the coast. I cracked a beer and sat fat and happy on the couch for a bit then remembered this 7/7 and the 4.1 were the first 3V knives with the Delta heat treatment I'd gotten from Survive! I hadn't cut any bricks or nails but I'd beaten, chopped, and sliced it through a lot of wood today. I suppose it can hold a bit of an edge.
I know there's a lot of animosity about the delivery time and portents of doom about S!K but I've never felt like I was risking anything with putting money towards one of their knives and for me today just absolutely reinforced that. Thank you Survive! crew!
