Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Whats been around for a few years now and how has it held up?
Tactical Tailor 3-day bag – This is the bag I carry around almost daily. I had to replace one fastex buckle when I slammed it in the truck door and shattered it. Other than that incident, it has held up with virtually no signs of wear. Theres plenty of dirt and grime on the straps but other than that it has held up as well as you could want. I’ve had it for about five or six years now and it shows no sign of needing replacement. (ETA: Received it 3/19/2004) Its gone hunting, on airline trips, tossed around in the back of trucks, thrown onto concrete, dragged over rough ground, fallen on, sat on, shot off of, and given some typical usage in the field. It gets a thumbs up and high marks from me. Would I buy another one? Sure, although I think Im going to start leaning towards Kifaru for most of my pack needs since their products seem to have more versatility with the additional attachment points and molle webbing. The drawback, of course, is that the Kifaru stuff is pricier than the Tactical Tailor stuff by a good margin. If I couldn’t get the Kifaru bag, I’d get the TT bag with no reservations at all.
Leatherman Wave – Something like four or five years I’ve been carrying this thing around every day and I have had no problems with it. Blades lock up tight, everything unfolds smoothly, and the selection of tools seem to fit my needs. I’ve had it wear holes through two sets of jeans, but that’s to be expected. The Leatherman multitiool has been utterly ignored and neglected except for the occasional sharpening and it shows no signs of wear or failure. A couple of the newer models of Leatherman interest me. I’d like to try playing with the Skeletool…it has a built in carabiner-style clip for attaching it to gear and that seems rather handy.
Wilderness instructor belt – been wearing this for about two or three years now and the non-buckle end of it is starting to fray and split. Not a big deal, but there are high-quality copies of this belt out there that feature polymerized ends to prevent that sort of thing. Otherwise the belt and its Velcro have held up fine….hardware is perfect and everything works as it should. I need to get another one or two to keep as spares. I used to prefer leather belts but the heavy-duty stiff nylon belts like this one don’t seem to develop the stretch and ‘memory’ that the leather ones do. Plus, they don’t ‘creak’ and are a bit quiter.
Glock field knife – I’ve at least eight years on this thing and its starting to show. The dark non-reflective coating on the blade has given way to a plum-colored finish on the metal but otherwise the knife has held up quite well despite the abuses I sometimes subject it to. It has cut steel banding, paracord, dug holes, been hammered through deer pelvises, submerged and left wet, and just generally subjected to the kinds of things you do with a working knife. Oh…and I’ve run it through the dishwasher a couple times to get the deer fat and blood off of it after a successful hunting trip. The scabbard is exactly as it was when I got it out of the box years ago…no wear whatsoever. The blade has been sharpened several times, and theres a nick or two, a gouge here and there on the false edge but other than what is essentially cosmetic wear this thing is ready for another ten years or so of use…at least. I don’t think you can damage this knife without doing something exceptionally stupid. And for $25 it’s a bargain for the abuse it’ll take. Buy a bunch of ‘em.
Some of these items were pretty expensive to buy in terms of upfront cost, but over time they’ve proven to be inexpensive in that they never needed to be replaced. This is a good example of the old saying about “Pay for quality once”. Im normally a very…oh lets say “thrifty”…kind of guy so when you put two items on the counter in front of me and one is four times the cost of the other I am, naturally, going to be drawn towards the cheaper one. But sometimes you gotta bite the bullet
