Updates

Hey everybody! I've kinda been slacking lately here on the blog. I've gotten 8 posts up this month so far, but I still feel like I could be doing a lot better. My main goal was to start posting a ton of reviews. Unfortunately, I have not been able to follow through with that yet. It takes a lot of time to do reviews. You have to test the product and then write the review/take photos of the product/make a video review. This is a lot to handle while I'm here at college. I really want to get a review up on the Olight S10R Baton II. That's been my goal ever since I got it. I don't like it at all and want to be done with it so I can sell it. I've got a ton of gear I want to sell, but can't do so until I get reviews and videos up. I just haven't gotten enough use out of the S10R to give it a fair review yet. For me personally, I like to test products for at least 2 weeks. During these 2 weeks, I need to be getting a decent amount of use out of the piece of gear. While I've been here at college, I really haven't had the opportunity to use my gear much either. I think I'm still afraid of my what fellow peers will think about my gear. It's totally normal to have a knife, multitool, or flashlight, so I don't know why I'm so afraid of what anyone thinks.

Something else you all might have noticed is that I deleted my Instagram. I've always been bored of Instagram as a social media platform, so I decided getting rid of it was best. I definitely miss seeing photos from certain people. Honestly though, all the photos are the same to me. I've deleted my account several times now, and I feel like that's the sign I don't need to make a new one anytime soon.

Going forward, you may or may not see less posts on here. I've run out of ideas at the moment/lack the motivation to put some cool posts together. I'd like to focus on school until I get to go home for Thanksgiving break. It's a lot easier to take photos/videos in the comfort of my room at home. I don't want to disappear completely, so maybe I'll try to find a way to make it work before then. I haven't posted any videos in forever either, which makes me kind of sad. I love making videos, and I feel like lately the ones I've made aren't the best. Hopefully that changes soon. Thank you all for continuing to check out this site! It means a lot to me! Sorry for always posting these update posts. I'll try to get some real posts up soon!

Knife Company Talk: Boker

Boker is a company I buy from very infrequently. They do offer some cool knives that appeal to me. For some reason though, I never seem to pick any up. I've picked up two Bokers recently. I hope that these will help get me more interested in Boker.

These are the DW-1 and DW-2. They're newer offerings from Boker that caught my eye because of how small they are. You all know how much I love my small knives. When I see a company make a new small knife, chances are pretty high that I'll pick it up. I've been really impressed with these two knives. They're actually decent quality wise, which surprised me. Normally, Bokers are terrible quality wise for me. I had a Keycom a couple years ago that completely fell apart. After that, I never got anymore Bokers. Their Boker Plus line is the one I buy from most often because of the low prices. Those low prices usually come at a cost when it comes to quality though. The DWs have been perfectly fine, so maybe Boker is stepping it up. 

I've never really liked Bokers designs. For the most part, they all look the exact same to me. They don't seem to ever introduce new color options to their knives either. Prices can be pretty high for knives that aren't very special. I'll occasionally buy Bokers if they make something interesting, like these DWs. Honestly though, they're not a company I keep a close eye on. I probably buy from them the least of any production company out there. Spyderco, Kershaw, CRKT, and Cold Steel are all companies I'd rather buy from. Who knows though. Maybe you'll eventually see a lot more Bokers on this blog. Thanks for looking!

Knife Company Talk: Kershaw

Kershaw isn't one of my favorite companies. All the knives I've tried from them are either hit or miss. The quality isn't the best, but I guess that's what you can expect for the price. I'm a fan of some of the stuff they do. As a brand though, they're not one I like to buy from that often.

These are the three Kershaws I have in my collection at the moment, the Cinder, Shuffle, and Half Ton. They're all pretty new, so I can't talk about how good or bad they are yet. The Cinder seems to be the real gem out of all these three though. I'll try to get reviews up sometime before the end of the year. The reason I bought these three knives was because of the cheap price and small size. Kershaw does cheap knives very well. They have tons of knives out there in all kinds of different designs. None of these knives look that similar to me. Unlike some companies, Kershaw doesn't just stick to making one type of knife. I think they have the best variety of any company in all the designs they offer. They do tons of cool collaborations with other companies and designers. The Kershaw-Emerson knives were awesome for people that wanted an Emerson experience without dropping a couple hundred dollars. I also love that Kershaw keeps putting out colorful knives. This purple Shuffle looks so cool!

One thing I don't like about Kershaw is the SpeedSafe knives. I won't purchase a lot of their knives, because they're spring assisted. The Leek has always been on my radar, but it's not a manual flipper. I will never again buy any SpeedSafe knives. I think it's obnoxious and is completely unnecessary for my lifestyle. The Groove was one of the best flippers I used. I don't get why Kershaw doesn't do more manual flippers. They obviously have the means to do them well.

I shouldn't write off Kershaw completely as a brand. They do make knives that appeal to me every so often. They're proven in the knife community. I'll try to keep trying some of their knives. I think they're great options for people that want affordable, quality knives. Thanks for looking!

Knife Company Talk: CRKT

I used to do these knife company talk posts about how I feel about certain knife companies. I tried to find some old ones on this blog, but I guess I did all of them on my other blog. It's kind of cool to talk about why or why not I like a company. This knife company talk will be about CRKT. I've recently gotten back into them as a brand, and I've been really impressed by them.

These are the two CRKTs I have with me at the moment, the Squid and the Folts Minimalist. I also have the Jettison, but that's not with me here at college. I didn't used to be into CRKT for some reason. After I tried the Jettison, I knew they had some cool stuff to offer. I love small knives and luckily CRKT is starting to offer more smaller knives. The Jettison and Squid are both newer options from CRKT. I think CRKT is putting out some really sweet and interesting designs. They offer affordable knives, which is a nice change from some companies out there. Their IKBS flippers have such great and smooth action. All the knives I've tried from them have been great quality wise. Quality, price, and size are probably the three most important things I look for in a knife. I'm glad CRKT is able to offer these three things in their knives. I hope that CRKT keeps making some great knives. They're a company that I'll definitely keep buying from. Thanks for looking!

Sennheiser CX300II Earbuds Thoughts

These Sennheisers have been my trusty earbuds for the last few years. They finally sort of died, so I thought I'd briefly talk about them. Sorry this isn't my typical topic for reviews. I'd like to branch out and review different things that I use everyday. Good headphones are something I need every single day.

I believe these earbuds retail for around $30. I think they're a pretty good value for that price. Like I said, they've lasted several years, which I found is a typical lifespan for earbuds. I buy pretty cheap earbuds, because they all die eventually. I don't see a need to spend tons of money on them. 

I'm not much of an audiophile, so I can't exactly talk about how good or bad the sound quality of these earbuds is. As an average user, they've been perfectly fine for me. They sound great to me personally. I've never had any issues with listening to any sort of music through them.

The quality was pretty great. They lasted way longer than I expected. They didn't seem to tangle that easily, which was nice. One of my biggest gripes was the different lengths of the left and right earbud wire. I tried to get a photo of the difference, but it was kind of hard to do. The right earbud wire is about double the length of the left wire. I'm sure there's some reason for it, but I found it mostly annoying. It helped easily seeing which one was which, but that's about it. It's odd to be using them and having the longer wire get all up in your face. I think that was my biggest complaint though.

Overall, they were pretty good earbuds for me. I enjoyed them while I had them, but I probably wouldn't buy them again. I always like to try out different earbuds to see if there are any better ones out there. I do recommend them if you want to try something new. They're probably pretty average when it comes to headphones, but they were perfectly fine for me. Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed this different type of review post!

Boker DW-1 and DW-2 First Impressions

I recently saw these two Bokers in the new section of GP Knives. I normally try not to impulse buy gear, but these looked too cool to pass up. I love that more knife companies are making small knives.

These knives are very small. They're comparable in size to the Ladybug. I was surprised to see how small they actually are. The DW-1 is the one on the bottom, and the DW-2 is on the top. I don't know the specifications at the moment, so just look them up if you're interested. I'm going to try to get up a review on both sometime in the next month or so.

I feel that the DW-1 is sort of like the Spyderco Bug. It is almost too small to actually be useful. It's a fully functioning knife, but it just seems to be too small. It's pretty much impossible for me to open one-handed. I can fit one or two fingers comfortably on the handle. The ergos are surprisingly decent considering how tiny this knife is. I think this one will be more of a novelty piece for my collection.

The DW-2 is definitely something I could see myself carrying. It is like a better quality version of the Keycom to me. It's pretty easy to open one-handed. The ergos are great. I can fit three fingers on the handle. The jimping is actually pretty effective too. It's definitely going to give my Ladybug some competition.

The quality of both is very impressive. I don't usually have the best luck with Bokers qualtiy wise, but both are what you'd expect. Lockup is pretty solid, and there don't seem to be any issues as of now. The steel, AUS-8, isn't anything fancy. Luckily, they both come decently sharp. Both are framelocks and have clips. The handles are just plastic, but they feel pretty nice in the hand. I do wish they weren't black, because it's nice to have colorful knives. 

I'll keep you all updated on how I like both. They seem pretty nice considering they were under $20 each. I believe the DW-2 is around $19 and the DW-1 is around $16. I think these are going to be great options for backup or keychain knives. Expect reviews sometime in the future! Thanks for looking!

Moleskine Volant Extra Small Notebook Thoughts

I have not been too fond of these Volant extra small notebooks or Moleskine as a brand. Moleskine is a very overhyped brand in my opinion. Their products are not made with the greatest quality considering the price you are paying. They are extremely good at marketing and have established quite a name for themselves. I recommend you look elsewhere if you want notebooks with better paper quality. They may seem fine to you, but trust me, there are definitely better notebooks out there for a better value.

My biggest gripe with Moleskine is the quality of the paper. The paper is not nice to write on with any sort of pen, whether that's ballpoint, gel, or fountain pens. No matter what type of pen I've used, I've always had issues with smearing, feathering, and bleedthrough. That is not typical for ballpoint pens at all. Moleskine simply uses crappy paper that can't handle any pens whatsoever. I've been trying notebooks from Rhodia and Clairefontaine, and the difference in quality is extremely obvious. Don't skimp on paper.

Other than the paper, these notebooks are just like any other pocket sized notebooks. The covers are slightly thick cardstock type paper, which I'm not a fan of. I expected a softer cover. They've held up well, but then again, I've never pocket carried them. They always ride in my backpack. The pages are perforated if that's important to you. I have no idea how many pages these have exactly. There are a decent amount, so that's good. I'm struggling to fill both of these up, because I can't stand the paper. I do like that Moleskine offers tons of color options in their notebooks. These purple ones are awesome!

Overall, you aren't getting anything special considering the high price. I paid $6 for these two notebooks, and I'd say that's a ripoff. I would definitely not recommend picking them up at all. Get some nice Rhodia notebooks that actually have decent paper. You're better off buying generic notebooks. Try lots of different notebooks. I promise you, these Moleskine ones will be some of the worst you've ever used. Thanks for looking!

My Sharpening Setup

I sold all my sharpening stuff a while ago. I just now got around to picking up some stones. When I did have a sharpening setup, I freehand sharpened my knives with the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I really like the versatility of the Sharpmaker stones, because you can sharpen on the points or the flats of the stones. I thought it'd be a good idea to simply buy two of the Sharpmaker stones to use as my main sharpening stone setup. That's what I did, and it's working out quite well. As of now, I only have the medium and fine stones. I might pick up an ultrafine stone eventually, but those two are doing fine for now. It cost me about $20 for the two stones, which I think is a pretty fair price. It is really easy to hold one end of the stone in your hand and freehand sharpen your knives. I'll probably make a video of this setup sometime soon. I really like how simple and inexpensive it is. Thanks for looking!

October Updates

Hey everybody! I wanted to do this post to give you all some updates on what to expect on here over the course of the month. The blog is doing really well, and I'd like to continue getting out tons of posts. I appreciate everyone that checks out this site! Thank you so much for supporting it! My monthly views keep increasing, and that's just so awesome!

As far as what posts you can expect to see this month, I'd like to post at least two review posts and some other EDC related stuff. I yet again picked up a couple of new things, but I think I'll wait to post about those until I get around to the other new gear. Overall, I've been very disappointed with the amount of reviews I've posted this year. I'd like to pump out a ton of reviews before the end of the year. It's fun to document what I've tried and tell you all whether I believe a piece of gear is worth it. I've picked up lots of gear in the past month or so, just so I could have stuff to review. I don't normally like to do that, but I figured it'd be a good investment for the blog and YouTube. A lot of the things I picked up are actually surprising me so far. I've been really focused on budget gear lately, and it's always cool to find a gem for a great price. I'll have quite a few gems to show you all in the coming months. That also means I'll be having a pretty big sale/trade towards the end of the year. More info on that probably in November or December.

I'll be filming a couple videos this week, so stay tuned for those over the next few weeks. I've also been disappointed with the lack of videos I've been uploading. It's hard to find times where my room is quiet or when I have free time. I don't want to make excuses, so know that more videos are coming soon.

I guess the last thing I want to say is that I highly encourage any of you to start your own blog. I absolutely love doing this! I can talk about anything I want. It's really cool to look back at my old posts. If you have any questions about starting a blog, I can try to help you as best as I can. The blog I use is completely free, so you might as well try it. If any of you end up making one, please let me know so I can check it out. I'm in desperate need of some new EDC related sites to check out. That about wraps it up! Thanks again to everyone that keeps up with this site! It means a lot to me!