Large Fierce Mammal

A display of working knives that would have complemented one another in the hands of Fishermen engaged in the East Coast Cod Fishery in the age of sail. Top to bottom: Bait Knife (approx. 11 inch blade for scale) – Used to cut and prepare bait for hook and line fishing; Filleting Knife – Used to process fish, specifically for removing skin and bone; and Splitting Knife – A rectangular bladed knife with the squared off end used to split codfish and remove the backbone. (LFM Photo with thanks to Nova Scotia Fisheries Museum, Lunenburg, NS. Apologies for reflections and shadows due to the subjects being inside a glass case under less than favourable lighting for photography.) CLICK IMAGE TO ENBIGGEN.

The brace of knives laid out in the photo at the top of this piece are representative of those familiar to fishermen who crewed salt bank schooners sailing out of Nova Scotia and other East Coast ports at a time when wind and muscle propelled human endeavour beyond the thin veneer. Much of value can be learned about history, the written and otherwise, by studying the lives lived and tools used by working people. Notwithstanding commonalities and divergence in design and application informed by the specifics of time and place, basic tools devised to solve basic problems common to Human Beings everywhere will bear recognizable similarity no matter the culture that birthed them. Absent the kind of extraneous wealth that permits “fashion” to enter the equation, each will represent an expression of what it is to be a True Tool as I have previous defined it here.

It all comes down, you see, to a melding of Tool design with the technique required to employ it in accomplishing a goal, all with an understanding that the curves defining outcome versus energy expenditure have to find that perfect crossing point, and the more work that can be accomplished by savvy melding of implement design with method of application, the better. ~ ~ A Long Winter’s Night — Ascent to Spring Edition: Of Form and Function

A shining example is the simplicity of the knife in all its wondrous variety. Throughout the world, wherever people have lived or continue to live “close to the bone”, we find the simple, single edged, long bladed knife as constant companion, with or without shorter bladed accompaniment. (more…)

In maintaining life on the other side of the Thin Veneer, only True Tools, both the hard (technology) and the soft (skills), are carried. Which ones will depend on the environment, the job, the doer of it, alone or in company, and what interval of time and space will inform readiness for “self-rescue”, a now commonly misused term meaning, at its root, getting out of an unfavourable situation absent help from outside sources.

I personally dislike the term “self-rescue” in its current usage because it tends to come bundled with an expectation that life beyond the Thin Veneer is an intrinsically unfavourable situation in itself, to be merely ” survived”, if possible, between one inevitable existential crisis and the next. Something not to be indulged in willingly without the impetus of a mandatory evacuation order.

How about treating every step beyond your dwelling space as the potential start of an unexpected camping trip equipped solely with what’s on your body, in your pockets, and in your head?

Nothing in my own lifetime to date has given the lie to what G. K. Chesterton said adventure and inconvenience:

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

Obviously the Best of Yourself, being that “perfect in the moment” expression of you whereupon the proverbial rubber meets the equally proverbial road, will occasionally land in dire straits (not to be confused with the band of the same name) that overtake endeavours more or less unexpectedly because, of a certainty, the Dread Prophet Murphy never sleeps. Also obviously, these adventures must be Tooled up for and dealt with as and when they arise, with those Tools that are ready to hand, mind, spirit; and most importantly, with Commitment because a safety net is no True Tool. (more…)

Still life with khukuri, axe, gloves, and pack.  (LFM photo — Click image to enlarge)

Today we will look exclusively at the birth of my own khukuri, beginning with why I commissioned it to be made in the form that it is, and following it through the process as it was dutifully reported to me at every stage. My overall reasons that drove choosing it for integration into my garniture as an implement of Adventure will await revelation in a further episode.

But first, a bit about nomenclature.

The traditional grip design of the khukuri inspires astonishing security and confidence in the hand that grasps it. Beyond just the handle though, and taken in its entirety, the same cannot be said for the Western mouth attempting in its conceit to take hold of the seeming simplicity of the very name Chitlange.

Notwithstanding my stellar experience with Kailash Blades in their prompt, complete, and kind guidance throughout the procurement phase of the knife under discussion since last we gathered, I must report that my request for pronunciation assistance, selfishly suggesting even an emailed sound clip of a native speaker actually saying it, is the one item yet to receive a response. That being said, and in recognition that they are an extremely busy outfit from which I still fully expect to receive a reply as soon as they stop laughing, I am determined to aid my audience insofar as may be immediately possible in the nomenclature relevant to the subjects upon which I pontificate. As it turns out, relief was found from a Kailash Blades post dated 16 December 2022 in a Sword Forums thread in which a similar question was asked:

“My Nepali is pretty rubbish but the guys pronounce it Chit-lahng-eh. Chit kind of halfway between “ship” and “cheep”. Lang with a very soft a almost like lung. It’s hard to phoneticize with the variety of people’s accents.” ~ Kailash Blades

“The only non-Nepali amongst us is our designer Andrew (Lucas) and even he has a bit of Nepalese under his belt,” says the KB website, suggesting the admission of “rubbish” Nepali just may have come from him. No matter. Take this and run with it say I!

Likewise, Khukuri with its spellings and pronunciations:

“You may well have seen khukuri spelt a few different ways. Within the knife community, the correct way to refer to these blades is a point of some contention. We refer to our knives as khukuris for a few reasons.

“Firstly, it allows for the correct pronunciation of what is a Nepalese word. Khoo-koo-ree.

“The ‘H’ after the (first) K signifies in Nepali that it as an aspirated consonant, so should be pronounced a little bit harder that the second k. The terms khukri and kukri both miss out on the second vowel sound and blend the whole word together. We use this spelling because we are a predominately Nepalese run company.”
(more…)

Me and my Chitlange Khukuri, together in our Natural habitat with a salute to the Fine Craftsmen of Kailash Blades! . (Mrs. LFM photo — Click image to enbiggen)

The blade is but the tooth and claw
That Nature never gave,
So Man no longer hides in trees,
Nor cowers in a cave.

Why scrabble for what lives beneath
The rocks and rotting logs?
Take blade, go forth with Comrades bold,
And Trusty Hunting Dogs!

~ Tooth and Claw ~
(Excerpt)

If you’ve ever spent any time watching a butcher converting parts of an animal into meat for consumption, or a fishmonger doing the same with a denizen of the deep, you’ll immediately realize how little effort is being expended in the undertaking …

So, the power of the blade lies, and has always lain, in the keenness of its point and edge, demanding nothing of its wielder beyond the physicality required to grip its handle, and the mentality to guide its point and edge with skill and sensitivity. This is really as simple as simple gets, and I see many similarities to interactions between a skilled Dog Handler and his or her working Dog. Every generation though, seems hell bent on reinventing the basics as though those old ways couldn’t possibly represent any kind of complete and reality tested methodology that shouldn’t be rebuilt from zero in this age of enlightenment, or even tossed out wholesale as irrelevantly unworthy of study.

In considering such conceit, my mind returns first to the words of David Tresemer, in this case on the subject of hand mowing with that most perfect implement, the scythe: “… for every ‘rule’ or tradition I have for scythe design and technique, somebody someplace else did it a little differently and got the grass cut.” 

It all comes down, you see, to a melding of Tool design with the technique required to employ it in accomplishing a goal, all with an understanding that the curves defining outcome versus energy expenditure have to find that perfect crossing point, and the more work that can be accomplished by savvy melding of implement design with method of application, the better. ~ ~ A Long Winter’s Night — Ascent to Spring Edition: Of Form and Function

Today in this here learned journal o’ mine, we’ll start talking about Tools I choose to cut and pierce the kinds of matter that my personal lifestyle has a propensity to both commonly, and now and again uncommonly, present. (more…)

“Hunters in the Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, oil on wood, 1565.

“Normally I would have asked a policeman or a minister of the Church, but finding no one available, I thought it better to consult a man with some professional qualifications, rather than rely on the possibly confused testimony of a passer-by.” ~ In the wake of a bicycle accident due his tire pump having got stuck in his sock, resulting in his fruit cake being damaged on one side and now having grit all over it, a completely uninjured Mr. Pither explains to a doctor why he has nonetheless consulted him in his office for no other reason than to ask for directions to Iddesleigh — Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Episode Thirty-four: The Cycling Tour

I wish to greet you all upon this second day of the calendar year 2026 of the Common Era with a thought exercise.

1. Are you the Foremost Living Authority on yourself?
2. Do you think and act in certitude of your natural endowments and talents, predispositions both positive and negative, acquired knowledge, skills, and habits for better or worse?
3. Do you have a grasp of how those factors play into your past mistakes, successes, accomplishments, and failures (also known as successful discovery of more ways that don’t work)?
4. What would be the outcome were you faced, knowing what you know at this moment, with a sudden revisiting of past misadventure right now, without warning? How about a year from now?
5. Do you understand the meaning of, and bend every fibre of your being to, bringing the Best of Yourself to any endeavour, of any size, under any conditions and at any time in any place, in any company?
6. Do you accept the Best of Yourself to be a fluid and transitional state measurable only against YOU as a baseline?
7. Are you prone to letting your thoughts and actions be boggled, even fettered, or burdened with hesitancy born of overthinking in the face of real or feared dissenting opinion(s)?
8. Do you accept, think, and act in recognition of the Value of Risk?

Loaded questions all, to be sure, and far from a complete list, but offered as a framework for directing thoughts, efforts, and resources for anyone desiring to less resemble the aforementioned Mr. Pither. No harm done in earnest pursuit of advice, guidance, mentorship, or an observed example (good or bad). The evil lies in naive outsourcing of vital personal executive functions that may easily lead down a path selected for you to a destination unassailably named to be, “For the Greater Good.” (more…)

“Bivouac” by the Incomparable Sieskja.

My Esteemed Friend Jim Keating recently made a profound utterance in the matter of prevailing flaccid, and annually recurring, expressions of what’s branded to be in the “Spirit” of the “Season”, saying in part …

“… How about songs, words, images which convey strength, power, confidence and faith in this time of Yule? Why not a STRONG CHRISTMAS? … To hell with family clusterfuks (sic), to hell with depression. Stand tall – train, eat with your fingers as a sword rests in your lap. Have animals about you if possible. Go somewhere, light a small fire, sit before it, feel the environment. Be Fearless no matter what … Gather power, store power, use power.

If after reading that, you find yourself wondering how Jim really feels, you might be in the wrong place, or at least in need of a Guide.

If you have a Social Insurance Number and a heartbeat you are viewed as grist for someone’s mill. Life for the average bloke is made more complicated than it needs to be by living it tuned into what someone else you barely know, never met, or isn’t actually biological at all, would have you thinking, talking, and worried about. Those same interests would have you believe there is something intrinsically wrong with people who are showing signs of having lost interest in the game, in what “experts” and “influencers” have to say, and what’s “trending” right now. Doing that requires being comfortable keeping you own counsel. Learning and trying on for size the Arts of Critical Thought and Intelligent Discourse. (more…)

A day you can hold in your hand … (At What Cost, RockfrenzyArt)

The Wild Hunt rode early this year, as its constituents bear full title to do, shredding the tops of the Hemlocks in my range throughout Friday night into Saturday afternoon, and joyously reintroducing a significant part of the local population to what “rural” living really means.

The Solstice occurred at 11:03 Atlantic time today, from which point, “… the nights get shorter, the days longer, and you should curb your enthusiasm because most of the parts of Winter that will kill you haven’t happened yet.”

In this season’s iteration of making hay while the sun shines, otherwise known as doing the things that pay the bills around here, the inevitability of Darkness is something never to be lost sight of. Yet we observe people and their ways of being in the world continuing to “prepare” for meeting up with those vagaries in a range between too inconvenient to be contemplated — perpetuated by having always gotten away with it — and expending all efforts and resources in the spirit of misleading vividness. where travails ahead are graded in their likelihood in shades of most awful.

“We live in an age in which fear of what is unlikely to happen has supplanted any willingness to understand, or even acknowledge the existence of, the more risky probabilities. Where proudly self-identified “victims” believe in a fantasy world where signs proclaiming a “gun free” zone are equivalent to unquestionable safety, and prophylactic surveillance of the innocent is justified by the acts of the guilty whose minds and hands were, and forever will be, unaffected by the laws of nations.” ~ Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 12: Tooth and Claw

Winter comes every year, and I would strongly advise against behaving as though Nature cares for your opinion.

“As I’ve previously written, all of Life is integrally bound to cycles. In many cases, one might also refer to them, and quite correctly, as rhythms, but not in all.

“For centuries up to industrialization, society was built on an understanding that it was governed as much by rhythms as the inevitable cycles. Technological developments came at the behest of getting the most out of available energies. Those of thought, muscle, and the avails of Nature.

“Cycles are inevitable and to be ignored at your peril. I would posit that rhythms mimic cycles, and again, for centuries up to the very recent past, could be regarded as smaller components thereof.

“Post industrialization, and as with many other terms, the words ‘cycle’ and ‘rhythm’ have been rebranded, and harnessed to the purpose of manufacturing wealth out of vapid nothingness. So today we have cycles of commerce that take retailers from one Christmas shopping season to the next.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 23: Of Cycles and Rhythms

In a Universe built of time and space where elimination of the former ensures that nothing happens, and the latter that everything happens at once, no mechanism is afforded the denizen to declare an abstention.

Music depends as much upon the space between notes as it does the notes themselves. Learn to enjoy the performance.

“In this age of divided loyalties and unending crisis, some cower. Some assert themselves from the perceived safety of throngs screaming a common slogan understood differently by each throat and hearing ear. Some look to a saviour. Still others understand that if there is a saviour, in the hour of need it’s going to have to be them because the “first responder” in that moment is already there well before any finger dials 911.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 15 — Day 14: Be As The Bay Leaf

This is the second in my meandering series, A Thin Veneer, being a coherent though loosely assembled and non-sequential offering up of experiences, observations, and insights relevant to, as aforesaid, Life outside the veil that is the reality of that term.

In the world of fundamentals through which I move, I carry nothing that is of no use as I routinely ignore, circumvent, pass through, and/or step over a careworn legion laden with useless encumbrance, most particularly those of their number that would have me “step up and share the load, there’s a good chap!”

My Life is not a public resource. I am far too steadfastly selfish for that … (more…)

Father and Sons in a Teachable Moment. (Mrs. LFM photo)

“Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured that skilled parenting is a Tool – but to be True it must help, not hinder, such processes, and must never represent a brilliant answer to a question that was never asked.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Tools

I have previously written on the subject of garniture in which I explained the term as it applies to the topic both then and now:

There’s a very old word that sees little use today, but that I still persist in using – garniture. While it can refer to any item used to embellish or “garnish” something, I exclusively employ it in its other meaning – an assemblage of useful and related equipments, usually connected through common features of design, and representing key elements in accomplishment of goals considered important to the bearer. For example, there was a time when a well heeled gentleman might commission a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that made it obvious to the beholder that each item was part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owned it. In those days this might include arms and armour for the battlefield, items specific to hunting pursuits, clothing, and equestrian equipage. In my own small way, I adhere to these principles today, as do some of the people I know, whether they have a word for it or not.

It should come as no surprise, however, that because a Tool need not be an object you can hold in your hand, likewise a garniture need not be an assemblage of physical artifacts. In fact, the very best and most important garniture one can assemble isn’t made of matter at all. It exists purely in the mind in the form of knowledge, skills, wits, and personality. Properly crafted, honed, and maintained, they will comprise, just as described above, a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that make it obvious to the beholder that each item is part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owns it. I would posit then that the Way of the Wild demands acquisition and diligent maintenance of the Tools that will form your Garniture, Tools that can never be broken, worn out, stolen or legislated away. That are always with you even when standing naked as the day you were born.

Aspects and attributes both supplemental and symbiotic are where the Truth lies. (more…)

Doing nothing which is of no use. (Mrs. LFM photo)

“Musashi quite wisely said, ‘Do nothing which is of no use,’ and with that in mind, I prefer a return to first principles — the safety of an enterprise MUST have no bearing on the worthiness of its pursuit. Only upon the manner of its execution. Even then, this will be governed on a sliding scale running between proceed with caution and damn the torpedoes, depending on the urgency placed upon achieving the objective.

“Any other mindset will see people peeing their pants in front of the door to the washroom labelled as most accommodating their genitalia while the one oppositely labeled stands vacant. Killed in a cross walk because the sign said ‘WALK’, so they did.

“The mantra of ‘safety first’ is the kind of bullshit that, blindly accepted, puts someone else in charge of your safety so you don’t have to own it. So you can be the ‘victim’ who must never be blamed but always believed.

“We teach our children to look both ways before crossing the street, not to avoid crossing streets altogether. Risk management is an industry term that, by its definition, represents a mindset recognizing that even though there are risks to life and limb inherent in an enterprise, they can be identified and if not circumvented, at least limited in scope or effect.” ~ Risk: Nothing of Value Happens Without It

Previously in this series were:

• De Woodz iz Cloze published 10 August 2025; and
• Now is the Summer of Our Discontent published 1 September 2025.

If you haven’t already read those, I encourage you to do so now to infuse more clarity into what follows. (more…)