Horace sense, revisited

"...The right to own and bear arms is a natural right of man, guaranteed by our Bill of Rights, but superior to all laws and constitutions. It is our only defence against tyranny, and, as such, will never be relinquished by Americans who respect their birthright."

(Horace Kephart, from "The Gun: A Fool I' the Forest," published in the February 1901 issue of Outing magazine)

Flagg Day

James Montgomery Flagg's iconic image of Uncle Sam turned 96 years old yesterday.

Although most of us know the stern, finger-pointing Uncle Sam from the 1917 U.S. Army recruiting poster, he first appeared on the cover of Leslie's Weekly magazine over the caption, "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?"

Among the artist's other patriotic characters was the distaff Columbia. Flagg's Uncle Sam personified American power, authority and resolve, both at home and abroad, while his Columbia evoked Liberty, industry, unity, complacency -- human qualities, human aspirations, human failings.


In short, Uncle Sam embodied the U.S. government and everything it represents. Columbia stood for the People.

Of Flagg's many propaganda illustrations, perhaps my favorite is a menacing-looking Uncle Sam holding a pistol, from a 1917 Leslie's cover. It was captioned, "Get Off That Throne!"


I'll close with one more American propaganda image from the World War I years. This one was created not by James Montgomery Flagg but by renowned illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, a poster promoting the Boy Scouts of America's 1917 Liberty Loan Campaign.

'The thrill is still the same -- and boys don't change much, either...'

(That ad, which featured the Model 67 just a few years before  Winchester pulled the plug on its 26-year production run, appeared in the April 1956 issue of Field & Stream magazine.)

'That old Winchester...'

"If sales figures mean anything, the faster a .22 can shoot and the more rounds its magazine can hold, the more popular it is with American hunters. Just why that's so is kind of puzzling, considering the animals hunted, the ranges involved and types of shots normally offered. Most targets are relatively small; more are taken under 50 yards than over; and the majority are standing or sitting rather than moving.

"Admittedly, when a cottontail dashes hellbent for the nearest cover, a repeating rifle makes it possible to correct an improper lead or make up for poor range estimation and put a quick second or third shot where it counts. At least, that's so theoretically. From my own experience, and from what I have observed in the field, follow-up shots, especially those rapped out in short order, seldom put meat in the pot. My second .22 sporter taught me that many decades ago.

"My first was a Model 67 Winchester, a single-shot bolt action with a 27-inch barrel and open sights. If the first shot missed, the bolt had to be opened (ejecting the spent hull), a new cartridge pushed into the chamber manually, the bolt closed again -- and then the striker knob had to be pulled back to cock the action.

"Slow that action might have been, but memory says the rifle was deadly accurate. Of course, boyhood memories tend to mellow with time, but I remember quite clearly that whenever some serious shooting was in the offing, my buddies preferred to borrow my rifle instead of depending on their own.

"That old Winchester also taught me that if I took a few extra seconds aligning sights and target, there usually wasn't any need for a second shot."

(From Al Miller's "Rimfires" column in the September-October 1994 issue of Rifle magazine)

A sign for these times

(Adapted from the now-iconic "Keep Calm and Carry On" propaganda poster, produced during World War II by Great Britain's Ministry of Information. For some entertaining background on the poster, click here and here. To create your own parody, click here.)

'.22's for Survival?'

While casting about the 'Web over the last 20 years, I've noticed that finding what I'm looking for doesn't stop me -- often it only spurs me to search for something else. That's what happened last week, when I unearthed that January-February 2009 issue of Rifle magazine.

Thus encouraged, I began stalking an even older rag that's eluded me.

I posted "Back fifty-two to 'Fifty-nine" about 18 months ago, talking about the preparedness mindset and providing links to pdf versions of two issues of Guns magazine from 1959.

I also linked to a fascinating article from a 1958 issue of Guns. At the time I couldn't offer a pdf of the piece.

Now I can -- click here to download the August 1958 issue of Guns magazine. The article ".22's for Survival?" begins on pages 34 and 35, continuing on page 58. Even though 54 years have passed since its publication, I believe it's as useful now as it was provocative then.

'Winchester Model 67: A Product of Another Era'

Last year I lamented that Gil Sengel's excellent article on the history and development of the Winchester Model 67 had vanished from Google Books. Months of occasional (but persistent) cyber-sleuthing finally paid off -- I found the January-February 2009 issue of Rifle, which includes the article, on an ftp site.

To download the magazine in pdf format, right-click here and select "Save target as" or "Save link as." Open the file, flip to page 64 and start enjoying "Winchester Model 67: A Product of Another Era."

Still more from Iver Johnson

"Could you answer a call for help, meet a criminal, handle him without danger to yourself? Unarmed, you'd be helpless. Armed, you could uphold law and order."

(From a 1922 issue of The Outlook magazine -- and no, buying a gun to "uphold law and order" isn't particularly sound advice.)


"The whole truth of this preparedness idea just hit me. For years I have carried insurance on my life, health, house and household goods. I have tucked away a comfortable nest egg in the bank to forestall a rainy day and financial reverses. And all this while I have kidded myself into thinking that this was all the protection that any husband and father could throw around his family.

"Defending the lives of my loved ones against the felonious attacks of prowling burglars -- this never occurred to me.

"There isn't a streak of yellow in me. I've never been called a coward in all my life. I just didn't give it a thought. I've been so busy with -- "

(From a 1917 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Now, as then, we can be sure that most Americans won't have this conversation with themselves and will not be prepared.)

Sharps: 'The Woodsman's Tools' (1948)

On this rainy Sunday morning I'm compelled to return to that 1948 Handbook for Boys (1953 printing) and what it has to say about edged tools. Chapter 15 opens with this paragraph:

"Pioneers who settled America and built homes, and cut farms and roads out of a wilderness, depended more on their axes and knives than on any other equipment except their guns. A knife and axe still are a woodsman's most useful tools."

I'm not suggesting that these eight pages, crafted over 60 years ago as a primer for young Scouts, are either comprehensive or conclusive. The information is, however, fundamentally sound and has aged well.

Looking back: 'The preparedness mindset'

This post, admittedly a re-hash, follows naturally from yesterday's nod to the Scout Motto. It's also timely, I think, in light of today's news out of Cleveland, and the May Day push by Occupy, and the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's demise, and much more that percolates beneath the surface of our fractured society.

Over the last four years I've invoked the term "preparedness mindset" a number of times. I humbly offer these posts for further reading:

Cold, cold water (June 16, 2008)

Been there? Done that? (June 22, 2009)

Back fifty-two to 'Fifty-nine (February 11, 2011)

EDC vs. EWC (August 19, 2011)

On channeling Glenn (November 1, 2011)

The Scout Motto: 'Be Prepared' (April 30, 2012)

I hope that my thoughts provoke yours. Better yet, maybe my words will kick-start a dinner-table conversation or two.

The Scout Motto: 'Be Prepared'

On our way home from work the other day, Mrs. KintlaLake and I stopped for a traffic light a few miles from our house. Rather than staring mindlessly at the signal I took purposeful note of the surroundings -- vehicles, occupants, pedestrians and businesses.

As I often do, I posed a hypothetical to my wife: "Suppose one of us needed immediate medical attention -- right here, right now. What are our options?"

We discussed the relative merits of calling 911 and waiting for the EMS squad to arrive, versus driving hell-bent to the closest emergency room (4.5 miles away). Our other alternatives included driving to the police station (1 mile), the sheriff's substation (2.5 miles) and two firehouses (1.5 and 2.5 miles).

Determining the "best" option wasn't the goal of our mental exercise. The point of my question was to practice a preparedness mindset -- observing surroundings, identifying potential threats, considering resources and tactics.

That's the way my brain works, the way it's worked for a very long time. For a clue as to why, take another look at pages 40 and 41 of the Boy Scout Handbook that I blogged about yesterday morning:

"The Scout Motto means that a Scout is prepared at any moment to do his duty, and to face danger if necessary, to help others."

"Accidents or emergencies are continually happening and Boy Scouts are prepared to help. Learn what to do in all kinds of emergencies, and how to do it. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, think through in advance what you ought to do. It will be too late if you wait until the emergency happens."

"As a Scout it is your duty to Be Prepared."

The duty to be capable -- at truly useful things, not life's frivolous pursuits -- was drummed into me as a boy growing up in the Heartland. As an adolescent I adopted Scouting's formal doctrine of preparedness, exemplified by the Scout Motto, which simply reinforced what I was raised to do.

It's a mindset that serves me well to this day.

'Handbook for Boys' (1948)

Presented with a cold and rainy Saturday, yesterday Mrs. KintlaLake and I spent a half-dozen hours visiting local garage sales and second-hand shops in search of treasures and odd bargains.

Her prize was a whimsical electric chandelier destined to hang over our patio. I was rewarded with a tattered-but-intact copy of the 1948 Boy Scout Handbook.

The cover price of this edition of Handbook for Boys was 65¢ (equivalent to $5.58 today). I fished it out of a pile of books at the Olde Shoe Factory Antique Mall in Lancaster and paid four bucks for it.

This particular copy is from the 1948 edition's sixth printing in 1953. A handwritten inscription on the first page records that a Scout leader presented it to the young owner in November of 1953 -- that's fifteen years before I earned the rank of Tenderfoot myself.

Thumbing through the Handbook's 570 pages transports me back to my own days in Scouting. All the elements of Scoutcraft are there -- it's chock-full of primers on essential skills.

In the back of the Handbook, among pages devoted to "Books to Read" and the Index, are advertisements aimed at boys of Scouting age. To me, these are just as interesting (and perhaps more significant, culturally) as the rest of the book.

There are ads for woodcraft tools, naturally, from Marble's and Plumb, along with a page promoting Eveready flashlights and batteries. Other ads pitch shoes (Keds, Buster Brown), bicycles (Schwinn, Raleigh), photography (Kodak, Sylvania) and sports equipment (Spalding, Louisville Slugger, Bike jockstraps).

A few of the others: Lionel Trains, Evinrude and Johnson outboard motors, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Coca-Cola, Baby Ruth and Tootsie Roll.

During these post-World War II years, mastering marksmanship (with actual firearms, I mean) still was considered Scoutcraft. That's why this printing included ads for Winchester, Marlin and Iver Johnson rifles. Remington went so far as to invest in a two-page spread, the only such ad in this Handbook.

Air guns do make one appearance in the Handbook's advertising section. According to the Crosman ad, a "bolt-action, single shot, gas-powered pellet rifle" -- complete with refillable CO2 cylinder -- could be had for $21.95.

That's $188.58 in today's dollars. At the time, an honest-to-goodness Winchester Model 69 cost just $28.65 (or $244.32 now).

Re-visions: Winchester Model 67

(This ad for the Winchester Model 67 appeared in Popular Mechanics in April of 1950.)

Winchester Junior Rifle Corps, revisited

A year ago, as part of a series of posts on "A Nation of Riflemen," I highlighted the Winchester Junior Rifle Corps. Here are two more vintage ads for the W.J.R.C. -- "How to draw a bead on a mark" from 1918 and "Tracing the flight of a bullet" from 1919, both published in Popular Science magazine.

Yellowed pages IV

Here are two more vintage Marble's advertisements, both from 1922.

"For Campers" (right) comes from the pages of Outing magazine. It was aimed squarely at families and young couples caught up in the out-of-doors movement sweeping the U.S. during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The products featured in the ad are familiar: Marble's Safety Axe and Woodcraft fixed-blade knife; compass, match case and fishing rod. And the company's longtime tag-line, "For every hour in the open," shows up at the end of the piece.

The second ad (below) touts "Marble's Outing Equipment, Preferred by Outdoor Men." It's a more straightforward pitch, appearing in a more narrowly focused publication (Hunter-Trader-Trapper). Again we see the Woodcraft and the Safety Axe, joined by a mechanical gaff and a gun sight.

Yellowed pages III

Until this morning I hadn't browsed Google Books' collection of vintage out-of-doors magazines in quite some time, and it's been a couple of years since I last posted an old Marble's ad here on KintlaLake Blog.

Marble's Safety Axe Co. placed an ominous pitch (right) in a 1908 issue of Recreation. It tells of a misfortunate whose broken knife (not a Marble's, presumably) kept him from repelling an attacking bear.

Oh, if only he'd had a Marble's Safety Pocket Knife!

More believable, I think, and certainly more conventional for the time, is an ad (below) for Marble Arms & Mfg. Co., found in a 1918 issue of Hunter-Trader-Trapper. It features the classic Safety Axe, along with two of "Marble's Famous Hunting Knives" -- the Ideal and the Expert.
It's worth noting that in 1918 a Marble's Ideal cost between $2.25 (stacked-leather handle, five-inch blade) and $3.50 (stag handle, eight-inch blade). The cocobolo-handled Expert, offered only with a five-inch blade, was priced at $2.25.

Ten years earlier, a budding bear-slayer would've spent $4.00 to land a Marble's Safety Pocket Knife.

Sharps: Spyderco Para-Military2

Spyderco's unusual designs first caught my eye back in the mid-'80s, and I've owned various patterns over the years. These days I have an Endura4, a Delica4 and a LadyBug3, as well as an Endura II that I bought used. I deploy a second-gen Chicago at work every day.

Each of those Spydies is a keeper; all, as it turns out, were minted offshore, in either Japan or Taiwan. It wasn't until late last year that I picked up my first US-made model -- the Spyderco Para-Military2.
Right out of the box the Para-Military2 is impressive. It doesn't inspire the same wow as, say, a Reeve or a Hinderer -- rather a nicely done, especially in light of its price (MSRP $175, street $100).

The knife's fit and finish are excellent, with no evidence of shortcuts or sloppiness. The pivot is smooth and precise, best of the Spydies I've owned and rivaling my Benchmade 755 MPR. The compression lock -- a type of liner lock, this one featuring a release tab on the spine -- is solid and easy to use. The CPM S30V stainless-steel blade, sporting a full flat grind, came shaving-sharp and has stayed that way through three weeks of warehouse duty.

The Para-Military2 falls between the Endura4 and the Delica4, size-wise -- not too big, not too small. Its textured G-10 scales feel just right and the handle shape allows for a variety of grips.

I'm especially fond of Spyderco's choice to employ jimping both on the thumb ramp and on the integral choil. Together they aid in no-look indexing and make the grip that much more secure.

Honestly, I've found nothing to dislike about this knife. And while that may sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Spyderco Para-Military2 isn't flashy, nor does it possess the cachet of more expensive überfolders. But like certain other all-business/no-drama knives -- Benchmade's Griptilians come to mind -- it's easy to like a solidly built tool that just flat works.

To boot, the made-in-USA Para-Military2 can be had for a hundred bucks. If someone were to call this Spyderco the ideal EDC folder, I'd be hard-pressed to argue the point.

Windfall

It's been the strangest of winters 'round here -- no snow to speak of, lots of rain and temps climbing past 50°F once or twice a week. A cold front came through yesterday, bringing only a trace of the white stuff but steady 30mph winds gusting to (reportedly) 60mph.

Last night one of those gusts took down a long-dead 35-foot pine just east of our property. I've no idea what killed the tree or when, but it was dead and bare of needles when we moved in two years ago.
I strolled out back this morning to survey this casualty of the wind, snapped off a foot or so above the ground. As I approached it I noticed the glow of heartwood at the center of the bug-eaten pine.

I suspected that this golden core, which measures about four inches in diameter, might be what I described in an early installment of "Urban Resources" -- fatwood.

Sure enough, I now have a resiny reservoir of natural firestarter, aromatic and hard as a rock, within a hundred feet of my back door. I expect I'll harvest as much of it as I can, practically speaking, if only to hone the skills required to do so. Stay tuned.

Sharps: Zero Tolerance 0350

I believe it was Holiday Inn that coined the advertising slogan, "The best surprise is no surprise." Myself, I'm a fan of pleasant surprises.

I'd put off sampling Zero Tolerance Knives for years, judging them (from afar) shamelessly "tacticool." Then, on something of a whim, I decided to take ZT's 0350 folder for a spin.

Color me pleasantly surprised.

The Zero Tolerance 0350 (MSRP $175, street $100) is a downsized-and-detuned version of the 0300 (MSRP $340, street $220), which is a higher-end folder designed in collaboration with Strider. The made-in-USA 0350 features a 3.25-inch recurve blade of coated CPM S30V, thick stainless-steel liners incorporating a beefy liner lock, textured G-10 scales and a four-position pocket clip.

The 0350 is equipped with Kai-Kershaw's SpeedSafe assisted-opening system. Pulling back with an index fingertip on the "flipper" protruding from the spine snaps the blade open with authority. Ingeniously, the flipper becomes a guard when the blade is deployed.

Now, if you read the maker's description of SpeedSafe, you'll see that the blade also can be opened "with a manual push on the blade's thumb stud." Problem is, when the blade is closed the ambidextrous stud nests very close to the frame. It's virtually useless as a natural and reliable means of opening the knife.

The stud functions primarily as a stop-pin, it appears. And since the flipper works so well, not having the thumb-opening option is no loss.

It took a week or so of EDC (and a few drops of Benchmade BlueLube) for the 0350's pivot to get over its initial stickiness. Since then it's been smooth and precise -- no wiggle whatsoever.

This ZT's handle fits my large paws perfectly, and the G-10 slabs are wonderfully grippy. The CPM S30V blade takes and holds a scary-sharp edge; quick touchups, rarely necessary, have been easy. That's a good thing, since it's trickier to hone a recurve than a straight edge.

After carrying and using the Zero Tolerance 0350 for several weeks, I'm not just pleasantly surprised -- I'm damned impressed. It's a hell-for-stout tool and, with the exception of that vestigial thumb stud, very well designed. Best of all, considering the street price, it's a whole lot of knife for the money.

On channeling Glenn

Back in the warehouse at work, I keep my desktop radio tuned to a local all-talk station. I'm no one's disciple, mind you, nor have I changed my opinion that conservative talk radio is an intellectual desert. Still, since I'm armed with independent critical thought, what I hear often serves as a useful starting point.

Glenn Beck -- still crazy after all these years -- fills the 9am-to-noon slot each day. And while he's more apocalyptic and decidedly Goddier than I am, the truth is that we share many of the same views.

The difference, simply put, is that I get there without melodrama, precious metals, right-wing social ideology or reliance on prophecy.

One morning last month, Beck devoted an hour of his radio show to personal and family preparedness, recapping a webcast he'd done the night before. I present his stream-of consciousness notes here, unabridged -- I'll come back with my observations on the other side.

BUY FARMLAND
Grow your own food.
Live near people & Begin to make alliances-of-skill. (barter)
Live near farmland.

ELECTRONICS-FREE
Paper copies of important documents.
Know where your deeds are. Take them in an emergency.
Russian gangs in trouble.

COLLEGE/SCHOOL
Apprenticeships are the future.
Discuss the value of school for what you can earn.
Do not look for labels -- they will become meaningless. (Yale)
Find other forms of school. (online)
Teach young children now that college is not a given.
Demand merit for school & student or pull your time/$.
Educate yourself at all times. Always read.
Have a hardcopy of all important books/documents.
Learn old and/or lost practices.
Mending/canning/farming.
Learn to fix an engine.
Re-learn reading a map.
Know the news. Life can change quickly.
Be able to defend your positions by knowing the other side.

TRADITIONS
Preserve what is important. Shed all others.
Conserve & preserve. Reclaim & restore.

MONEY
Gold, food, cigarettes, liquor, sugar, ammunition, guns, seeds, skills. (barter)
Knowledge.
Have 30 days' cash-on-hand.
Buy a house.
Stop all excess spending. Buy quality only. Forget fashion-only.
Measure twice, cut once. Do not waste.
Consider a fuel-efficient SUV/truck.
Consider something prior to 1979. Fix yourself.

LOCATION
Live near like-minded people. Texas, mountains or where God still plays a role in real life.
If you cannot move (no place will be untouched), create network.

BUSINESS/WORK
Be the best you can be. Be the one employee no one can fire.
Small biz -- be the product or service no one can cancel.
Conserve & preserve.
Learn from the Depression.
Advertise when no one else is: Chevrolet.
Stay in business, but downsize & preserve. (arch)
Honesty, integrity & charity.

BE GEORGE BAILEY
Spit yourself out of the system. Turn upside-down now.
Put your money where your heart is.
Do business in symbiotic ways -- we need each other.
Do not try to put others out of business -- let them do it.
Gimbles & Macy's.
Never be the smartest man in the room.
Take care of your employees the best you can.
Take less & give more.
Read Franklin & Washington.

LIFE
Do not plan your life & then move. Plan, listen & obey.
Practice at least Franklin's American religion.
Serve.
Honor all of your obligations.
Preserve -- food, time, money, energy.
Teach your children the basics. Values/principles.

Do with less now. Less of a shock if it comes later.
Serve/share.
Join a 9.12 group. Link online. Phone & locations.
Have a meeting place established for family.
Read the Bible.
Have a gun & know how to shoot it.
Resolve those issues that are holding you back.
Stop all behavior that does not expand you or others into good.
Make amends for what you have done.
Find peace & get to work.
Teach children work ethic.
Tolerate nothing that you feel is wrong by remaining silent.
Let your children see you stand.
Be honorable in all of your dealings.
Understand that anger is a part of life but never feed it.
The first look is not a problem. It is the second look.
Never be the best man/woman in the room.
Be happy & optimistic. Life will go on. Make plans for the future. Get married. Have children.

Does any of that (minus the obvious) sound the least bit familiar?

Flip back through KintlaLake Blog, especially my posts on urban resources and preparedness, gardening and canning, frugality and keepers and more. Notice the striking similarity between Beck's mindset and my own.

I'll admit that appearing to channel a talk-radio klaxon bugs me a bit. The point, though, is that Glenn Beck and I are, at least in this regard, on the same preparedness page -- and that's a good thing.