Category: Articles

So you want throw, but not too much throw and you still want to slip it in your pocket? That’s the KR1 and the D1 from Emisar and Noctigon. Here, I grabbed the new D1 with the SFT-40 for a balanced beam shape.

It’s… fine…

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Boldr made a wave in the ’micro brands’ pool when it launched the Venture lineup of watches. A small, titanium cased, field watch with dive watch levels of water resistance — all for a very attractive price — a hard proposition to ignore for any fan of watches. I snagged a Boldr Venture Sandstorm to give a try and see what the watch and brand are all about.

It’s a very compelling watch, but quirky at the same time.

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They call this the “DressKX”, which is admittedly a better name than Seiko gave it, which in this case we have the SRPE61 (there’s so many variants with little rhyme or reason to the labeling).

Before we get going, what you should know, is that there’s no better watch I know of for under $300. Flat out, this is the best sub-$300 being made today. It’s also possibly the best at higher price points too. But it gets so much better than that, because while the MSRP is $275, you can get many of these for right at/around the $200 mark.

I’m basically saving you money already. Just buy it, but I can write more reasons if you would like…

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Discord pal(s) have been pushing me to check out a Karas pen for a while now, and I recently snagged the Karas Kustom INK V2 Rollerball in the tumbled silver finish. This is a beast of a pen, and a really solid offering with a few quirks.

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I was on a mission to see if I could get my hands on something silly, something different — but I wasn’t set on buying. In my mind there was one, maybe two watches, I would snag if came across them: Rolex GMT-Master II ‘Sprite’ (the new left handed one); Tudor’s Pelagos LHD; yeah, ok probably a Polar Explorer II. Those who know watches might be smiling at the thought of walking into an ‘AD’ find one of these watches right now. And that’s where I was coming from: if fate let me find one to buy, buy I shall.

What I didn’t expect was a display of Grand Seiko in the store. I had only seen a few Grand Seiko in person, and after finding out they had none of the watches I assumed they wouldn’t have. I walked over to look at the Grand Seiko, after all: I was there. They had the SBGM221G front and center, a watch I had long looked at, and admired — never seen in person.

It was stunning. I put it on, and it looked even better. My wife said “yeah, get that” and so we did. It might be my favorite watch I own. Let me tell you more about it.

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Man, I love a good fixed blade knife, but a great fixed blade knife — that’s something that always makes me happy. A while back, I decided I needed to revamp my entire fixed blade knife setup. I wanted to simplify it all, and seriously upgrade it.

I don’t use my fixed blades often, but when I do, I use them more as a large pocket knife, not something I am going to beat about to make a survival shelter with. But, I still want them to be able to do that — never can be too sure. My first upgrade was the Winkler SD2, an excellent knife. And I was set to buy another Winkler to round things out, when Benchmade released the Anonimus.

And it’s a really fun knife, and truly great.

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I’ve long had my eye on the Terminus line from SOG — the design looks classic and the prices really solid. What held me back was the flipper design mechanism, as I know I am not a flipper kind of user. Recently, SOG released the ‘SJ’ variant — same knife, but with a Slip Joint design and a nail nick opening.

Stellar price too, and a really nice offering.

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There’s something about a tiny knife that always draws me in. They are very fun to own, carry, and otherwise have around. But they can be tricky to pull off in a manner where they feel worth using over a more traditionally sized pocket knife.

WESN’s Microblade, Spyderco’s Ladybug, and any others I have tried over the years, always failed to ‘stick’ because they didn’t do small tasks well enough, or they couldn’t do big tasks at all. Too much of a compromise given the pricing and such.

That’s not the case with Cold Steel’s Micro Recon — this is a gem of a knife and it’s about $30.

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When GORUCK released the first round of Heritage bags, I was skeptical — what and why do these exist? There’s no denying that they were popular, even at the very high price they were/are. More recently, GORUCK seems to have added the “Heritage” line of bags (GR1, Kit Bag) as a staple products of theirs with easy availability to buy most of the colors. They updated the bags with different looks/attributes since that original run, all of which culminates in a compelling EDC backpack.

I wasn’t interested in buying one at all, though. They looked good, but I was happy with the bags I had. And then I tried that Filson Journeyman — I loved the look and feel, but it wasn’t quite there for use. So when a friend on Discord offered to send me his 21L GR1 Heritage to try out, saying that he knew I would like it, I jumped at that chance.

About 15 seconds after unboxing my loaner Heritage GR1, I knew I was buying one of my own. The look in person, and the excellent tactile aspects, make this an amazing bag to handle and use. And, if what you lament is that the ‘OG’ GR1 Cordura was better, and the new ones aren’t quite that — you’ll like this bag.

Let’s take a look at the excellent GORUCK GR1 Heritage.

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I’ve seen the Pioneer Carry wallets for years now, and while they always look nice (and people seem to love them), I never snagged one. So this Global Pouch from Pioneer Carry is the first of the brand I have snagged. My goal was to find a nice pouch I could move back and forth between my bags — something which carried all my stuff, especially the bulky stuff.

What I ended up finding is a pouch I love, but have dedicated to a single bag.

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I have a few Wurkkos lights now, and they are all really solid offerings, and they become a stellar offering when you take into account their often discounted-already-low prices. The TS10 is the latest offering, and feels like a play on the Lumintop FWAA — but frankly at a much lower price, with a better UI, and better features.

Be aware, this is an Anduril light, so if you don’t want to deal with that UI, then walk away now, because this is a very easy $20 to spend.

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Note: Mystery Ranch provided this backpack for review.

Mystery Ranch has been turning out a ton of new bags this year, and the latest entry is specific to EDC/Office users — the District series. These come in two sizes: 24L and 18L. A couple of months back, Mystery Ranch sent me the District 18 in Hummus to check out and review.

This is a really great little bag, and a lot of people are going to like this. If you like the way something like the Urban Assault feels, but yearn for more organization in your bag, then this is something you should really look into.

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I’m a huge fan of the GA2100 series of GSHOCKS — I am not alone as many people love these. At roughly $99 they offer tremendous value and stellar looks — they are perhaps the most wearable of the GSHOCK models too. So when I found out that Casio was coming out with a GAB2100, which adds a couple extras, I was pumped. At $150 this is still a stellar value, and attainable by many — it’s everything the GA2100 is, but better.

Just get one, or allow me to tell you more reasons to get one…

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