Rogue Elite

Here’s the scoop about which knife, tactical knife, folding knife or lightsaber.   It’s all about how much you want to spend.   Sure there are some knives that are better than others, but what good is it to spend a boat load of money on something that you are going to lose or break.   I have gone through cell phones and flashlights in the past because at first they were small and easy to carry, but then they were even easier to lose.   Not to mention that after working the Gatco Sharpener booth at the NRA Convention last Summer I noticed that no matter what knife people were carrying around with them, 80% of people didn’t even have a sharp knife.

The Gatco Sharpening System that we sell the most of are the 10003 and 10005 because they aren’t that pricey and they are easy to understand.   The 10005 sharpening system has a sharpening stone for doing serations and that’s a pretty big deal for tactical knives.   Being able to get in there and get the hard to sharpen parts of the blade is a big deal even for a small blade.  The serations should work like a saw and for small blades, the job of cutting through rope or re-enforced packaging tape ect should be easy if the blade is sharp, how much you spend on a knife can make it a better blade, but only if you sharpen it right.

That may sound funny, but this is actually one of the biggest selling items we have in the tactical knives and edged weapons categories.   It’s funny to know that hundreds of years after people ran around fighting battles with battle axes ect, that people are still finding the need to keep an axe in the car.  There are plenty of times that LEO have to show up on the scene of an accident and break somebody out of a car or cut down trees or branches to search and rescue someone.     The SOG Fusion Tactical Tomahawk gives you something to chip with and on the flip side of it, you can use it to break glass.

I would highly recommend keeping something like this is your car because it’s a great thing to keep around for camping and for emergency situations.   There should always be something in your car for breaking open glass or cutting a seat belt.   SOG Knives has a broad spectrum of edged knives and weapons as well as utility knives that rival Swiss Army Knives.   Some of these are hard to shop for online, but stop in to the new Rogue Elite tactical store this fall and you will get an eye full of tactical knives for CCW, utility and Emergency applications.

We are now a stocking dealer for the Timberline tactical knives.  Not only have our customers asked us to carry them, but we are having fun showing people how to use them and doing demonstrations on using the Gatco Sharpening Systems.   One of the best things about the sharpening systems is the ability to sharpen serrations.   The type of knife you choose will be all up to you, but I’ve found the knives that are partially serated to be the best.  There are times when cutting isn’t going to get the job done, something more like a saw is needed. This tends to be the case when cutting down rope.

A few years ago a friend held a shooting competition and people must have spent hundreds of rounds trying to cut rope with a bullet.  It was amazing the number of times we saw the rope get shot, but it would hardly tear.   Cutting through seat belts is even harder and the 18 Delta full serration is probable the most recommended for EMS.   Timberline Knives also release the Timberline Tactical SOC folder, we are giving them away for anyone that orders $200 or more of tactical or CCW clothing this month while supplies last.

I had the fortunate experience to work the Gatco Sharpener booth at the NRA Convention last Spring and it was a very insightful experience.   When I first showed up most of the knives looked the same to me, but after about 2 days of handling them, I was able to distinguish between all of the knives and how they were different.   There are numerous sharpeners from Gatco that are options in sharpening your knife, but some of them are pocket sizes and others are kits.   The Military Carbide sharpener is probable the most straight forward, but since not all knives are straight edge or plain edge.   You may have a hard time getting to partially serated knives.  That’s where the the sharpening kits come in.

We ran a giveaway at the Gatco sharpener booth where we gave away an SOC knife with every kit that was purchased.  Probable the biggest seller for those that purchased the Timberline knives, was the Edgemate Professional Knife Sharpening system.  There is a stone that can be used to get to the serations and it only took a few strokes to notice the difference.  Once you get the hang of using the sharpening system, you can sharpen knifes even faster.   One thing we didn’t see at the show was any blood flow, but I was informed that almost every year somebody cuts themselves there.   Safe handling of knives is something you’ll be practicing whenever you use a sharpening system.

I think those about sum up your options for fighting and maybe if you are in good shape a good kicking foot will do.   I primarily count on firearms for self defense because there are levels of threats and levels of criminal intent and showing a gun is enough to deter most crimes when a knife or flashlight really might just make a bad guy laugh at you especially if he’s bigger.  I’ve seen first hand that a untrained person with a knife isn’t going to inflict much damage and unless you actually know how to move with a knife, don’t even try and wield it.   A tactical knife is a good accessory to concealed carry, but not something for the amateur to fight with.

Something to consider which is showing up more and more in CCW flashlight courses I have sat in on are the strobe flashlights.   Now, first of all, I’m not going to tell you that it’s something that is going to stop a threat, I’m just saying that it is something else to consider especially when Streamlight Flashlights only cost you about $50+ dollars and might give you something else to use on a dumb drunk that is really just an annoyance rather than a threat.  An unsuspecting drunk isn’t going to like having a 180 Lumen flashlight and a ” Hi, how are you” from a friendly CCW that flashes him in the eyes and then gets into a car and drives off.

I remember that is now only about 12yrs since the era of my life when I walked around without a cell phone on me.   I remember when people carried pagers and had to walk away from a Thanskgiving dinner to answer an emergency.   Much has changed in recent years in communications, but not much has changed as far as self defense and emergency preparedness.   I’m still looking for the right size flashlight that I can carry 7 days a week, but I’m either bothered by the size of the ones that I do like to use or the smaller ones are too expensive and I’m afraid I’m just going to loose one of the darn things.

The cell  phone is probable now your #1 tool, but flashlights and knives are extremely useful in emergencies.   If you or someone in the road is trapped in a vehicle, a small tactical knives could mean saving a life and trying to tear a seat belt is impossible with bare hands.   I have carried gas can and fixa flat in my car because I’ve done so many road trips where stupid nail would have meant waiting 4hrs for a tow truck or walking 10 miles to a gas station.   Flashlights are also something that should aways be in a car because there is nothing worse than a dead battery or dangerous environment without being able to see your surroundings or flag someone down.

There is a mindset that goes with the responsible Citizen and it’s not all about firearms and self defense.   I’m a big proponent of getting First Aid or emergency response training if you are a concealed carry holder or if you have taken defensive firearm training.  Not only are you preparing yourself for defending  yourself, you may be involved in a situation where others besides the BG may have been shot or injured.  I’ve witnessed enough violent crime in my life to know that some old guy or an old lady may have a heart attack in a crisis situation and knowing  how to deal with that is important.

I keep a spare magazine in my car for the nightmare scenario of needing it, but I also carry jumper cables, fix a flat and tire pressure gauges.   Another thing to consider having is small fire extinguisher and something you can use to cut a seat belt or smash out a car window.   Breaking car windows can be difficult if you don’t have the proper tools, but  many tactical knives and something like the SOG Fusion tactical tomahawk will make it easier to smash open a window to free someone from a burning car.   I witnessed several car accidents that turned into car fires and sometimes people will become unconscious after an impact. There are many ways to save peoples lives.  Having the tools to do so

I always try to sit in on training courses whenever I can although I wish I had the time to actually take more classes.   I’ve written on several occassions that one of my greatest joys of watching classes is watching all of the gear fall off or fail a student and watching their slow evolution of losing gear along the way.   Theirs nothing wrong with being a tactical accessory junky, but if you have to carry an M4 all day like i’ve had to, you’ll quickly learn that lightweight, means a happy person.  There seems to be a big craze getting tactical gear with the quad rails even though most people don’t need them, and then having to go out and get rail covers, when a simple stock would have lightend the gun by a few pounds.

Although I am a big fan of battle rifles and prefer to carry a gun bigger than an M4, if I gotta carry ammo on my person and it’s not being carried in the trunk of my car, I’ll gladly take the smaller caliber.    The M1 Garand is a great and powerful weapon, but combat is at a much faster pace and being able to suppress a target with small arms is as important as neutralizing it.  If you are a weekend warrior and are considering taking a Carbine Class, even though your training will take place in the Course, you should do research on gear and accessories before you walk in the door.

There are a lot of words that get thrown around in the firearm industry that are fairly broad.    Tactical clothing these days may sound like BDUs to one person and 5.11 tactical clothing to another.    Tactical gear can mean anything from a folding stock to a knife, or a $1500 rifle scope.    The word “tactical” doesn’t really tell you what something is going to be used for in the field.    I have some pretty dressed down AR15 rifles that to some people, just look like violent weapons and scare them, while most of us that are familiar with the accessorized M4 Carbine, will find a A2 style AR15 to be  pretty bland.

The so called tactical clothing and concealed carry markets seem to be new markets and these terms get thrown around a lot but don’t really tell us much.  To the trained individual, they can spot a knife in the pocket and 5.11 style pants from a mile away and loads of pockets full of tactical gear and usually that’s a dead giveaway that someone is carrying a firearm.   Think about what purpose your clothing is to serve and adapt to it.   There are more than a few good clothing companies that are making concealed carry friendly apparel.

I am not one to promote the fact that I am carrying a knife.   I notice that many in the tactical community that carry firearms are also carrying folding knives and they usually clip them on to their front pocket.   I’m not being paranoid when making the claim that this is usually a dead giveaway that the person is also a CCW holder and is packing a 9mm somewhere.   Not only is the knife a weapon that a BG knows can be used against him, it’s a hint that is not covert.    People are going to do whatever they feel comfortable doing, but try to think about being discreet when carrying anything of the sort.     There are plenty of places where carrying guns is so common, that everyone knows there is a 75% chance that somebody in the building has a gun, so some crimes just don’t really happen that often.

Knives come in all lengths and durability.   I’ve still got knives I had when I was 8yrs old and they are still sharp even though they were neglected.   I’ve had previous jobs where keeping a box cutter in my back pocket was so common that I usually had a pile of them on my dresser because I always brought them home from work and forgot to take them out.   I think a good 2 inch blade is a good average size blade that is long enough for defensive purpose, but very practical tactical knives for the working man.   Since we deal with a lot of UPS boxes every day, it’s nice to know that my everyday carry knife is my box cutter, screwdriver and defensive weapon.    If you’ve got the job that carrying a fixed blade Cold Steel knife, then so be it, but like many of the firearms I have had to carry on the job, I always ended up working my way towards something smaller and more comfortable.