Survival gear modifications and some new gear

 Here are a few modifications to gear and some new gear photos. First is a photo of my Ontario Cutlery SP 2-95 Air Force Survival Knife. I made a modification to the handle. It had a guard at the top similar to the bottom one. I cut the guard off about level with the spine of the blade and sanded it down to look nice. This gives me a lot more leverage and grip varieties with this excellent knife. Here's a link to an older article that shows the knife as I bought it.
http://ronsprimitiveskills.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-favorite-knives.html
 I love the sheath that came with this knife. It's very secure and built tough. I may add a small pouch just big enough for a fire steel and a diamond hone to the front of the sheath. That would compliment this blade just right.

 

This next pair of photo's shows a new addition to my knife assortment. I don't call them a collection. To me a collection is a group of articles that set on a shelf for looking at and going "UH AH!" I have two knives that I will call a collection. They are both a Talibon machete and a Talabon knife from WW2 era Philippine Islands. Here's a link that shows some similar blades. They have the same shape, handles, and wooden sheaths but are more fancy than mine. These blades are beveled on one side only. http://arms2armor.com/store/product1318.html

The knife pictured is a Buck Paklite. Its a very well made knife and the edge is razor sharp out of the box. I love the sheath on this one too. This brings something up that makes me wonder. I see in the forums where the first thing people do is complain about the sheaths on their new knives. I think its fine if you want to make or have made a custom sheath, but, I also think that the knife companies have had a lot more experience making knives and sheaths and have thoroughly thought these things through. The only blade I had to make a sheath for was my Gerber Freeman. The sheath that came with it was truly a crapper! I like all the sheaths that came with all my newer knives with one exception and that is the Ontario Kukri sheath. I wish they had made it on par with the sheaths for the SP line. I plan on modifying the Kukri sheath with a little bit of black leather. I'll be sure and post pics when its done.

Next are some photos of my new saw. Well, its new to me. I just found out these were made in the 1980's! So, that means this baby has sat in some warehouse in its original skin since the 80's. Cool. I was wondering why I couldn't find any info on the net.
Its a Granberg Model G530 folding buck saw. I bought it from a guy on eBay for a princely sum of $25. The saw weighs 1 1/2 pounds and is 24 inches long. The blade that came with it is made in Japan and is good quality and has a good temper. It's a seasoned/dry wood blade. I plan on buying a pair of Bahco blades for this saw, a green wood and a seasoned/dry wood blade for spares. The cutting depth from tooth tip to crossbar is 6 1/2inches. I like the way it all slides neatly together for packing. The crossbar and tension rod are aluminum while both side handles are steel. The only modification I did was to put some wood shims in the handles to keep the blade centered and steady. Before I did this the saw would wonder and wobble like crazy. This helped tremendously and now the saw cuts fast and straight. The last picture shows the wooden shims. They also keep the blade centered when I fold it back up thus keeping the teeth from banging into the steel handles if I'm extra careful. The only other mod I plan on doing is to replace the tension rod with steel all-thread of the same diameter or close to it. A couple wing nuts will do the trick if the single wing nut that came with it doesn't fit the new rod.