Lock Security: A Locksmith’s Tips for Protecting Your Valuables

Written by

Photos by Jorge Nuñez

A lot has changed throughout history, but one thing that’s remained constant — and probably always will — is how we protect our valuables. We’re talking about guarding the things you have from the people who want to take them from you. The devices we consistently rely on, but seldom give much consideration to, are locks. When was the last time you evaluated the physical security of your home or your bug-out shelter?

Locks are your first line of defense against theft and burglary. So, what makes one lock better than another? With locks costing anywhere from $10 to thousands, there are a plethora of factors to consider when choosing a lock for your possessions or for the doors to and within your residence. Today’s locks are most often made of bronze, stainless steel, or similar metals, both for strength and corrosion resistance. Good locks are also precisely machined so that the tolerances between the moving parts are very small, making “smart” attacks like picking or bumping more difficult. The more precise a lock is — through machining parts rather than casting pieces, intense scrutiny during quality control, and the use of quality materials — the less room there is for attackers to defeat it.

Even relatively cheap locks typically offer solid construction, and most even have security pins thrown in for good measure. The addition of these special pins, such as spool or serrated pins, is commonly used to thwart more thought-out attacks. A truly strong lock should have some special features, such as restricted keys, specialty pins, or even abstract features, such as warding, making not only brute force but also more well-planned attacks more difficult to carry out.

Warding is the use of wards or barriers that a key must navigate around in order to operate a lock — not a new practice by any means. Warded locks were used throughout Europe as far back as the Middle Ages, but they were notoriously easy to defeat with the use of a so-called skeleton key. Such a key could fit between the wards on these locks and operate them, granting the key holder access without leaving behind any evidence. This led to manufacturers abandoning this security measure in favor of a “pin and tumbler” style lock, still the most common style found today. This requires a key with distinct cuts on the top and milling on the sides that fits perfectly into a two-piece cylinder, thus lifting up on pins of various lengths in order to rotate the inner cylinder, called the “plug,” and to operate the inner workings of the lock. If the pins don’t line up correctly, the plug won’t rotate and won’t grant you access to whatever you’re trying to open.

Common Attacks

A frequent method used to defeat locks is plain old brute force. Smashing, cutting, or drilling into a lock via any number of tools, most of which are available at any hardware store, is often enough to tear through locks of all kinds. These types of attacks are fairly intuitive and don’t require a lot of specialized knowledge or tools. Smart attacks, like lockpicking, bumping, or shimming, require some knowledge of the inner workings of a lock that your average burglar might not have. These types of attacks are less common, but also much harder to prevent. Furthermore, the tools used in these smart attacks are becoming easier to obtain. If you want to be sure your stuff is secure, you’ll want to take these attacks into account as well; the unfortunate reality is that the most popular manufacturers simply aren’t.

Too Much Tech?

Electronic access control is, without a doubt, the future of frontline security. The ability to track who’s entering a facility at any given time, and have a digital record of this to fall back on during any type of investigation, is incredibly valuable, especially to larger sites like schools, hospitals, and prisons. Combine that with the ability to instantly initiate a lockdown situation and the ability to quickly and easily “rekey” an entire facility, and you’d be crazy not to want this stuff.

So, why aren’t people using this on their homes, businesses, or at the very least, their vehicles? You might have already guessed the obvious answer — it’s very expensive. Most of these systems require a dedicated server to manage the whole thing, and you have to pay a premium (usually well into the thousands of dollars) in order to obtain the proper software and licensing to make all of the expensive hardware communicate with your computer. Not to mention, you’ll have to pay somebody to install a myriad of components, ranging from electrified locksets, electrified strikes, gateways for wireless hardware, request to exits, and so forth.

Running wires to power all of this stuff can be incredibly expensive as well, especially on older buildings. Wireless technology is consistently improving and becoming much less cost-prohibitive, but limitations will always be there as well — it’s hard to grab a signal from behind a concrete wall. Standalone options, which are still usually more expensive than a purely mechanical system but much cheaper than a networked one, do exist, but you lose many of the features that make electrified hardware so appealing. Standalone electrified locks need to be programed one by one, and will need to be individually reprogrammed if you ever want to change someone’s access levels. You’d also be losing out on the ability to quickly lock down a site in the event of an emergency — one of the most desirable features of a networked access control system.

Tools of the Trade

These are some of the tools that you’ll commonly find in a locksmith’s bag. You probably still won’t find them at your local hardware store, but the internet has made these implements far more accessible than ever before.

Above: Lock picks (left) and tubular lock picks (right).

Lock picks: Your basic picking set will have at least two items: a tension wrench and a rake. The tension wrench puts rotational tension on the cylinder plug (the part you put the key in), and the rake lifts the pins up to the correct spot (called a shear line) and allows the plug to turn. This takes a lot of time and practice to learn, as the user must feel when there’s too little or too much tension, in addition to when a pin is set. With these two items and a heck of a lot of practice, a skilled locksmith can open nearly every lock they come across, and nobody would know.

Bump keys: These have been around for quite a while, but they really gained notoriety in the early 2000s. Similar to picking, bump keys work by lifting all of the pins in a lock to the shear line while maintaining rotational tension on the lock cylinder. Unlike picking, bump keys don’t require a whole lot of skill or practice to master. One simply has to insert the key most of the way into the lock, put a finger on the bottom of the bow of the key to apply tension, and then tap the back of the key with any small tool. This action sends the pins flying up into their respected chambers, and if you’ve got the correct tension, it will allow the cylinder plug to spin. This rarely happens on the first or even the second attempt, and your bump key must fit into the lock you’re trying to defeat, so this method requires more trial and error compared to picking. It’s noisy, potentially time consuming, and you’ll need different bump keys for different locks, but it’s still something to be aware of when purchasing a lock.

Padlock shims: Padlock shims work by squeezing between the shackle and body of a padlock until it can bypass the latching mechanism and allow the shackle to move freely. This takes time and the shims are often damaged in the process. But they’re cheap and easy to get a hold of, so they should still be considered when picking a padlock.

Quality Door Locks

A good door lock, such as the Bowley deadbolt, is cast from a solid chunk of metal, so it’s very resistant to brute force attacks (hammers, drills, firearms, etc.). YouTube videos showing the inner workings of this lock also confirm the use of security pins, as well as warding, making this particular lock virtually unpickable and unbumpable.

Bowley Grade 2 deadbolt

Materials:
Cylinder and keys are 17-4 ph steel and C36 brass

Construction
Cast out of solid metal

MSRP
$140

URL
www.bowleylockcompany.com

The Bowley lock thoughtfully combines our modern pin and tumbler locks with one large ward that essentially blocks any attempt at defeating the lock via picking. In my opinion, this is the most secure lock on the market right now. However, this security comes with certain caveats. Having to navigate the warding in this lock before even engaging the pin and tumbler portion means you have to insert the key, spin it around, insert it a bit more so that the key can engage the pins, and then turn it around again. This takes time, which could be limited during an emergency or under duress. However, that may be a small price to pay for the level of security you get from this lock.

Medeco/Assa Abloy Maxum High Security Deadbolt

Materials
Solid brass and hardened steel

Construction
One-piece, free-spinning cylinder housing

MSRP
$143.90 (Amazon)

URL
www.medeco.com/en/site/medeco/products/

Another great lock that’s been available for some time, but often overlooked, is the Medeco Maxum High Security Deadbolt. This lock utilizes top-notch materials, like stainless steel, to foil most brute force attacks as well as restricted keyways that seriously limit the threat from unauthorized keys. Unlike the Bowley lock, however, the Medeco lock functions just like any other door lock — insert the key and twist. There’s no fancy warding to navigate on this lock, so Medeco combats picking attacks by using a combination of specialty pins, several of which are cut at different angles, to make picking exponentially more difficult. It’s still possible to pick a Medeco lock, but it’s incredibly difficult, and the time one would have to devote to doing so should deter most would-be lock-pickers.

Less-Than-Ideal Door Locks

When you’re perusing the average hardware store for a lock, there’s a temptation to buy a door lock that’s a household (and deceptively trustworthy) name. Unfortunately, many of these common, inexpensive locks are also the easiest to defeat, since most criminals are already familiar with how they work. An example with some security and quite a bit of convenience, is the Schlage Camelot deadbolt featuring an electronic keypad. This type of lock is available with a standard keypad that’s programmed right at the door, or a “connected” version that’s compatible with a number of smartphone applications and features “Z wave” technology so it can pair with most home security systems. This is especially convenient if you have kids (or spouses, let’s be honest) who consistently misplace their keys and find themselves on the wrong side of a locked door.

As always, this convenience comes at a price, and we’re not just talking about the lock’s price. At the heart of this lock is a very basic Schlage five-pin “C” keyway cylinder. This type of key is ubiquitous, which makes getting duplicate keys made very easy, but it also makes the cylinder much more susceptible to unauthorized keys and bump keys. Only having five pins makes this lock considerably easier to pick over the six-pin variant — an easy target for anyone with basic knowledge of lock picking. Schlage does often add security pins, but that’ll barely slow down an experienced lock-picker.

Kwikset, another popular brand at most hardware stores, makes a similar product, but it’s plagued by the same weaknesses. The Kwikset electronic deadbolt also uses a very common key, and their cylinders also only use five pins. In addition to this, the Kwikset cylinders are also made from cast metal, as opposed to Schlage’s machined cylinders, making the Kwikset version even easier to pick due to the lack of precision one finds on machined pieces. Both of these locks utilize top-notch materials, such as stainless steel, to make brute force attacks more difficult, and they’ll both likely contain security pins that’ll make picking slightly more difficult, but they’ll still be no match for an experienced picker.

Biometrics

Fingerprint and retina scanners fall into a field of access control referred to as biometrics. Aside from feeling like James Bond and winning the admiration of the neighborhood children, biometric locks do provide some useful advantages. For starters, it’s much harder for someone to hand over an eye or a finger than a key or a card. This all but eliminates the possibility of someone gaining access by stealing someone else’s credentials … when it works.

The major pitfall with biometric locks is dirt. These locks have to be incredibly precise in order to grant access to one person’s fingerprint or eyeball and not another, but this precision can also make biometrics very finicky. How many times have you repeatedly tried to unlock your phone with a fingerprint only to be continually denied access, to the point you gave up and entered your security code manually? A small amount of dirt on the glass where someone is supposed to place their finger usually results in curse words and frustration when the scanner doesn’t recognize them.

This can be negated to some extent if the lock is indoors and the facility is clean, but a small cut on someone’s finger could still pose some problems.

Quality Padlocks

You should also consider a good padlock if you have the need to lock up anything that doesn’t live behind a door. Trailers, storage containers, and firearm cases all warrant a quality padlock to protect them from burglary. Besides the regular brute force attack, or a smart attack like picking, padlocks can fall victim to shimming. This technique involves a thin piece of metal that’s manipulated and inserted between the body of the padlock and the shackle until it passes the latching mechanism and allows the shackle to be freed.

Abus 20/80 Diskus stainless steel padlock

Materials
Stainless steel inside and out

Construction
Diskus Deep-Welding Technology

MSRP
$50.25 (Amazon)

URL
www.abus.com/us

Commercial-grade padlock shims are, like lock picks, becoming easier to buy, and it’s no secret that they can be easily made from some common household items. There are plenty of videos floating around the internet showing how to chop up a soda can and open a simple padlock with it. A disc padlock design, such as the Abus Diskus, negates the threat of shimming by using a shackle that rotates when the key is turned, rather than popping up and out of the padlock body. This means there’s no latch to bypass with a shim, and its fully stainless steel construction makes a brute force attack a tall order as well. However, keep in mind this extra security has its drawbacks. Having a shackle that rotates into the body of the lock and no spring-driven latch means you can’t lock this padlock without using the key, and its unconventional shape might not fit a wide variety of applications.

Medeco/Assa Abloy Protector II Padlock (Model #50047320)

Materials
Solid stainless steel with hardened steel inserts

Construction
One-piece, free-spinning cylinder housing

MSRP
Approx. $135

URL
www.medeco.com/en/site/medeco/products

The Medeco Protector II padlock has a much larger shackle and will therefore fit a larger variety of applications. It’s also made of case-hardened steel so it’s incredibly strong. Unfortunately, this increase in capability comes at a price. This lock, like most padlocks, uses spring-loaded ball bearings in order to lock the shackle down when it’s pushed into the lock body. This makes it lockable without having to use the key, which is convenient, but also makes it susceptible to a shim attack. Shimming padlocks isn’t all that easy, even on simple padlocks, and this particular lock uses multiple bearings to make shimming even more difficult — but the possibility still exists.

In addition to the incredibly strong materials and the multiple-bearing latch mechanism, this Medeco padlock uses a heavily restricted keyway, similar to their door locks, and abnormal pins that make picking and bumping highly unlikely. They’ve even added hardened steel inserts throughout the inner workings of the lock to make drilling into it more difficult as well. You’d be hard-pressed to find a stronger padlock, but this additional security costs three to four times as much as your run-of-the-mill Master padlock (more on that below).

A Less-Than-Ideal Padlock

An inferior padlock offers a fair amount of convenience, but at the expense of security. The four-digit combination padlock by Master, for example, allows the user to change the combination as often as they’d like with the included key. This key doesn’t open the lock; it only allows the user to change the combination on the lock. And the lock must already be opened in order to even insert the key. This makes this lock literally unpickable and unbumpable. You may be thinking, “If it can’t be picked, and I can change the combination often, why’s this padlock not secure?” That’s because the dials used to set the combination on the lock open up an entirely new means of attacking it.

By sticking a thin piece of metal between the dials, you can lift up the bar that keeps the shackle latched down, bypassing the dials completely and opening the lock in mere seconds. I’ve personally done this with a paper clip just to prove a point. It’s not difficult, and there are tons of videos exploiting this massive security deficiency on the internet. Yes, it has a hardened metal shackle and multiple bearings holding the shackle down, but a lock is only as strong as its weakest point.

The Master Magnum padlock is a little better, but it has flaws, too. It has an even stronger boron-carbide shackle, and it’s octagonal in shape which makes cutting or prying it open very difficult. Shimming would also be difficult, due both to the multiple bearing latch system and the octagonal shape of the shackle. However, at its core, it uses a regular pin-and-tumbler cylinder, just as easily picked as any other lock out there.

Locking Mechanism Diagrams

Here’s a useful site with a ton of diagrams showing how pin and tumbler locks function, how security pins work, how picking locks works, and more: toool.us/deviant/

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, there’s no perfect lock. But like anything else, some are better than others. One of the best ways to defeat criminals is to think like one. Training in SERE and lock-picking courses helps you practice the fundamentals of defeating common locks, so you’ll know what to look for and be better informed on how to outfit your home and belongings with locks that are more secure than the average ones you see at big box stores.

Everyone remembers the Master Lock commercial in the 1970s where a padlock was shot with a .30-caliber rifle and remained fastened:

This sort of hype makes good marketing, but any experienced locksmith or lock-picker knows these are some of the easiest locks to defeat, even for a novice. It certainly takes a lot less effort than a gunshot. Don’t fall victim to believing common brand names are common because they’re the best. Do your research and speak with the pros to become better informed on how to secure your belongings.

About the Author

Travis Dionne is a locksmith at a prominent university in Los Angeles, and has been there for the better part of a decade. He was lucky enough to learn the trade early on in life, and has been pinning up cylinders and cutting keys since he was a young teen.

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Jeff Franklin Spotlight – The Commando Whisperer

Written by

Photos by Mark Saint

Even though man’s relationship with dogs has existed since hunter/gatherer days, it’s baffling that so many still don’t fully understand or appreciate what these animals are capable of. They’re born with senses far superior to our own, and their courage during situations that’d make most people wilt with fear is nothing short of awe-inspiring. From search-and-rescue to bomb detection to emotional support to serving alongside top-tier troops in austere conditions, these remarkable creatures have a combination of qualities found in no other species.

Jeff Franklin is one of those rare individuals who not only understands a dog’s potential, but also has the skills to unlock it — a talent that’s difficult to learn and even harder to teach. After spending years honing his craft as a K9 officer and esteemed trainer, by 2003 his skills and reputation led to his being tapped by the U.S. military to oversee the selection and instruction of dogs assigned to Special Operations Forces — the first man to have ever held such a position. Matthew Duffy’s biography of his life, Franklin: The Man Behind the United States Commando Dogs is worthy of a silver-screen adaptation. Today, as one of the most sought-after trainers in the world, Jeff’s dogs and expertise are utilized by organizations around the globe.

Statistics indicate that dog ownership continues to climb. And whether you’re an urbanite looking for a four-legged member to protect your family and home, or you live remotely and depend on a dog to guard your crops, livestock, or property, the dog’s role as dependable companion shows no signs of diminishing. So who better to answer the question of how best to understand your pup than a man who has spent decades teaching K9 teams how to carry out their mission in unfamiliar places, amid stress factors like gunfire, extreme weather, hostile terrain, and darkness? We spoke with Jeff about how he reached this echelon of knowledge and what the average dog owner needs to know to be fully invested in the relationship they have with their dog.

Our Interview with Jeff Franklin

RECOIL OFFGRID: We read in your book that you fell in love with dogs when your teacher, a retired K9 officer, brought one to class. Do you consider that the flashpoint for your interest in dogs?

Jeff Franklin: I’d say that was the crossroads into working-type dogs. I’ve been an animal person since I can remember and was always the kid who had to go find something alive when I was out playing, so animals have always been a huge part of my life. But the turning point was definitely that guy with that German Shepherd, who was my schoolteacher. I thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I knew then I wanted to do something with police dogs.

Tell me a little about your company, Cobra Canine, and how that started.

JF: So, when I got out of the Marines I needed a job. I didn’t want a normal job and work 9 to 5. Since I’d been training dogs as a hobby before I entered the military, I knew that there was a way to make at least some money doing pet dog training, teaching dogs how to behave, and doing a little bit of sport training. I got a couple people who offered me a part-time job training pet dogs for people, and I really got started doing it as a profession because part of my dog life was for fun and the other part was something I was getting paid for.

As that went on, I quickly learned that the best way for me to do it was to do it on my own. Even back then in my early 20s, I had bigger dreams than the people I was working for and had a passion for the real working dogs, whether it was some sort of Schützhund dog, police dog, or search-and-rescue dog. Eventually, it became detection dogs, so I started training on my own in my backyard, and it grew from there.

How did you get involved with training dogs for the military?

JF: I progressed from a little kennel in my backyard to joining the police department myself. I had this thing in my mind where if I was going to teach people how to go out and do real-world stuff, then I needed some hands-on experience. I did that for several years and was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time on the SWAT team, and I convinced my sergeant to let me have a SWAT dog. There’s quite a bit of difference between a regular police dog and a SWAT dog that’s specifically trained for that task.

After Sept. 11, the military, in particular the Special Forces groups, wanted dogs that operated much like SWAT dogs, and I just happened to be one of the few people in the country who had a particular background in training this type of dog. I was also willing and able to jump out of the profession I had and go the places they wanted me to go. So my background and word of mouth led to that.

Jeff and Cobra 2002 — post Sept. 11 photo shoot for Fox News

Are you still training dogs for the military?

JF: Yes. It has grown way past just being me, but we’ve been doing it since 2003.

When you were training dogs for the military full-time, what was your position called?

JF: Canine trainer is probably the best title for it. It’s sort of hard to explain. The elite groups in the military are the only ones I’ve been involved in. The DOD-wide military in general has a completely different type of dog and training, and I wasn’t affiliated with that.

What type of preparation do the dogs you train for the military and certain international organizations have to go through?

JF: We go through a rigorous selection test. It’s sort of like for a human being who wants to be a Special Forces operator. These dogs need to be healthy, happy, and social, believe it or not. We’re not looking for dogs that are just nasty. We’re looking for certain traits in a dog that we can use to teach them how to do things like explosives detection. So we see if the dogs have play drive, ball drive, or hunt drive — things that we can utilize in their explosives training. Also, is the dog environmentally sound to different surfaces, vehicles, and loud noises? In addition, we’re going to check and see, if necessary, if the dog has the right bite drive to do the bite work if needed.

Catching some shade next to a helicopter working in Mexico, 2008

Can you tell us about the military units or other organizations your dogs have worked with?

JF: No. I could do that and probably make movies if I wanted to do those kinds of things, but I’d also be breaking my word that I wouldn’t be like all the other turds out there doing that.

Have your dogs been used in any well-known missions you can mention?

JF: I’d say our dogs have been used in plenty of well-known missions.

Who were your biggest mentors?

JF: Certainly in the dog training field, Matthew Duffy, who wrote my book. Also Ken Licklider, who owns Vohne Liche Kennels in Indiana.

What would your advice be to someone looking to get into your line of work?

JF: The dog training business has become really popular in the last 10 years or so. People see movies, stories, and video games with military/commando-type dogs doing impressive things, and a lot of people get into this with that type of mindset. My advice to everyone is if you want to do dog training as a career, then you need to like training dogs and working with people. Those dogs you’re seeing in movies, video games, or reading about in books are less than 1 percent of the dog world, as far as a trainer’s job.

As a trainer, especially for me personally, the dog training part is easy. The majority of the time it’s just work like anything else; however, I don’t get to handle, work, and own all the dogs. Something I learned the hard way through experience as a young dog trainer is that every dog has an owner or handler. If I can’t do a good job working with the people, then I’m not going to make much of a dog trainer. I think most people get into dogs and don’t realize that most of your work is actually training a human.

Jeff and his dog Lady, who’s also mentioned in his book, first day home from Desert Storm

What qualities do you think people need to effectively handle dogs in high-stress situations like police, military, and search-and-rescue work?

JF: I think they need to be athletic, but they also need to be mentally calm. Dogs need calm. Whether you’re putting a dog into a search-and-rescue or a military operation, the dog needs to think it’s a game. The dogs don’t look at it and go, Oh no, we have to go get some bad guy tonight, or we have to go up this crazy cliff to go rescue somebody. They don’t have those thoughts, so the best handlers and trainers are pushing the information down to the dog like: This is cool, we’re just here doing our job and it’s something we’ve done a million times. If you could tell an athlete, “Hey, you’re shooting a free throw to win the national championship,” but could convince them it’s just like everyday practice, they’d probably make it every time.

People often protest the practice of pure-breeding dogs. Set the record straight about that practice and whether it’s a problem.

JF: Anything in life can be done wrong; it doesn’t matter what it is. The thing to look at with pure-breeding, the big advantage of it is, if I want a dog to go out and be really good at doing agility, I’d probably breed Border Collies because they win most of the time. I’m not going to try and make a Whippet into a national champion when I know that Border Collies are made for it. If I want to go out and compete in Schützhund, I’m probably going to have a German Shepherd because they’re bred, raised, and genetically gifted to do that type of sport. For military dogs, I like the Belgian Malinois. If we don’t use those genetics, then we’re not picking the right dog for the job.

I use an analogy that’s easy for people to look at. If you want to compete in the Kentucky Derby, I suggest you get the right bloodlines because if you go out and buy some mixed-breed horse in some farmer’s backyard, then you’re not making it to the Derby. If you use those genetics to your advantage, you can get what you want out of it. Breeding of any animal isn’t perfect, but if you’re doing the genetics the best you can, then you can get healthy, happy dogs that are genetically gifted to do certain jobs.

Let’s say someone asked me to train 10 military dogs to do certain jobs by the end of this year, and I could only use shelter dogs that were mixed breeds. I’d say it’d be great that 10 dogs wouldn’t be in a shelter anymore, but the chances are much greater that I’d be struck by lightning than being able to find quality dogs that haven’t been specifically bred and raised for this type of work. And to add to that point, there wouldn’t be dogs in shelters if people would just take care of their pets, whether they’re mixed breeds or not — we wouldn’t have this problem.

At your company, what types of dogs do you breed and train for the work you do, and what combination of traits do those dog breeds in particular have that others don’t?

JF: All of our dogs are either going to be a Belgian Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, some German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers, and occasionally German Shorthaired Pointers. For the Belgian, Dutch, or German Shepherds, we’re looking for dogs that have some natural protection and fight drive, and we’re also looking for high toy and retrieve drive so we can teach them some sort of detection. With the Labradors and German Shorthaired Pointers, we’re looking again at the same thing we really look for in any dog — we’re trying to produce healthy, happy, social dogs that are environmentally sound and have really high hunt, retrieve, and toy drive so we can teach them some sort of detection skill.

People might ask why you can’t train any dog to carry out those tasks. For instance, why couldn’t you train an Akita to do protection or a Schipperke to do detection work?

JF: When we look at the training of the working dogs — and this pertains to just about anything in working, whether it be search-and-rescue, detection, bite work, or tracking — there has to be a  genetic desire to do those things to get a dog to do it. You can teach any dog to sit or lay down; it doesn’t really matter if they want to or not, but let’s just say they don’t want to — I can make them do it. However, if I want a dog to go out and follow a track for 45 minutes to an hour, or I want a dog to go search cargo containers at UPS for six hours a day to look for explosives or narcotics — all just to get a small paycheck of a toy if they find something, I can’t force these dogs to do it. If you force them to do it, there’s no motivation for them to do it.

You mentioned an Akita. I think with some Akitas you could certainly teach them protection, but it’d be more of a defensive thing. They’re not an offensive dog genetically; they don’t want to go searching through large buildings looking for perpetrators who might be hiding in there. They’re not genetically made to go out and hunt for people, but defensively you probably could in some cases. On a Schipperke, for example, there’s nothing about their genetics that says they’d want to go out and search for things for hours or even for 15 minutes and give me some sort of response on an odor for a reward. There’s nothing in their genetic background that says they’d want to do that.

So you take a Labrador, and that’s what they do — they hunt, retrieve, and get rewarded for doing those things. So what we’ve done as dog trainers is take breeds that actually do these things, and we just turn it into a different type of game. You can imagine watching a Pointer out in the field with its nose down on the ground for hours looking for a bird, right? And when they get to that bird, guess what they do? They stop and wait. So if you ever watch a video of a dog outside looking for an explosive odor, it looks like they’re looking for a bird. And then when they get to it, they stop, and when they’re told, they get some sort of reward out of it.

It’d be nice if we had dogs that did X, Y, and Z, but long before me someone said, if we want a dog to do X, Y, and Z, then this dog would be pretty good for it. For example, a gentleman back in the early 1900s named Max von Stefanitz was genetically breeding the first German Shepherds. He was a police officer and was trying to get a dog that was specifically designed for the type of work he was doing. It’d make my life a lot easier if we could just go down to the shelter, pick any dog up, and get them to do these things. It’s also why the price is so high. These dogs are extremely expensive because you have to get the right genetics. You could compare it to a pro athlete. You might wonder why you can’t just train Jeff Franklin to go guard LeBron James. Genetically, let’s break that down. I’m not tall enough, fast enough, strong enough, and a million other things. It’s the same type of thing with humans. We’re all genetically gifted at certain things, and other things we’re not.

You know, we’re sort of inadvertently making it sound like the breeds you mentioned are the world’s toughest and smartest dogs. What would you say to someone who is tempted to run right out and get one for protection or even as a household companion?

JF: The first thing I tell people — and people do ask me this — is just because I’m telling you what I believe to be the best working dog doesn’t mean that it’s the best family dog for every family. It’s similar to going out and buying a gun for your family. If these dogs are genetically gifted to do protection, they also need to be trained to a higher level where they understand how to turn it off.

We’re saying that naturally they’ve been genetically produced and selected, and know how to protect themself, their family, and their dwelling, but that also comes with a great deal of responsibility that says they need to be able to turn it off. Who’s going to teach them that? Well, the pack leader is. But what if the pack leader doesn’t? Or what if there are too many people in the pack and some of them are consistent, while others are not?

Although they might be one of my favorite types of dogs, it doesn’t mean that I think everyone who wants extra protection and has a family or whatever should run out and get one. There’s nothing wrong with it, but there needs to be a lot of careful thought about why you’re getting it and what the genetics are like. You need to evaluate the puppy as well because you could take two dogs and make eight puppies, but it doesn’t mean all those puppies are the same — they certainly aren’t. I’m also picky about the parents. If I don’t like the parents, I’m definitely not going to like the puppies. The short answer is, don’t just do it because someone like me said these dogs are smart and protective. I like SIG SAUER and Glock, but that doesn’t mean everyone should go out and buy one.

If you had three wishes to address the homeless dog crisis we have in this country, what would they be?

JF: First is accountability for the humans. When people take ownership of a dog they should be a lot more accountable. The other thing is I wish we could find a lot more places to use these dogs. I’ve tried my entire career, and am still open to it, even though the success rate is low. We just went and evaluated a dog six hours away in a shelter because it was a German Shepherd, and the people there thought it might make a good working dog. It’s probably not going to be for us, but it’s still worth looking. I also wish we had a way to educate the people who are adopting these dogs on how to make these dogs behave better so they don’t return them to shelters. I thoroughly believe that if we had dogs in the shelter and rescue system that were better behaved, didn’t pull people down the street, and didn’t bark at other dogs, I don’t think there’d be a lot of dogs left in the shelters.

Do you think dogs really sense fear in humans?

JF: I don’t think dogs necessarily have all the emotions and feelings we think they do. I think they’re much simpler than that, which is probably a reason why I really love them. I’m pretty simple myself. If you take three dogs, you’re going to get three different reactions to the same exact fear coming from a human being. What I do think is that dogs definitely recognize, probably as good as any animal on this planet, different body languages and different demeanors from people very quickly. That’s how they survive as dogs. They’re the world’s best at body language. There are stories about dogs doing things like detecting cancer.

What are some things you’ve learned that dogs can do that really surprised you?

JF: I think one of the most interesting things that I’ve seen a dog do was go into a particular area and find an object of some kind. Once they had this object, they could go to a group of people and identify what person that object belonged to. That’s not just a good nose. That takes a pretty progressive thinking and learning process to put that many things together. We don’t even have machines or robots that can do that. Humans can’t do that, but we teach dogs and they do it just for the fun of it. I haven’t seen many dogs do that, but the ones that can are pretty amazing because it wasn’t something they were genetically bred for.

What do you attribute the country’s rise in dog ownership to?

JF: Society has changed, even from the time I was a child or since my early years of dog training, at how we look at dogs. We put them to work a lot more and they get a lot of good press for that. We do a lot more in trying to make sure there’s no accidental dog bites, and there’s a lot done to prevent dog fighting. There are things out there we can do better to helping dogs out of shelters. You don’t see dogs as much now just tied off to a tree in the backyard, so society, for whatever reason over the last 20 years, has taken them on. There’s even TV shows about dog training — if you’d have told me that when I first started my career I’d have laughed at you.

I think a lot of that also comes from dogs being put to work in combat. People hear these stories and see these great things dogs are doing. I don’t like to say this because I don’t want people to take this wrong — I don’t think they’re humans, but we have humanized them much more. We don’t look at it anymore like, hey, it’s just a dog we’re going to put in the backyard with some food. People spend a crazy amount of money on dog stuff nowadays. If you look at PetSmart or Petco, these places are multi-billion dollar companies and on almost every corner besides Walmart.

How do you distinguish between an owner who spoils a dog or over-humanizes it and someone who is a good responsible owner?

JF: I think the difference is you can be as kind as you want to a dog. Me, for example, I love my dog to pieces. I think she’s amazing, I’ve had her since she was born, I’ve done stuff with her for over 10 years, and I’ll let her get away with things that people say, “Wow, I’m surprised you let her do that.” But it’s my decision when I let her do that. I’m also very, very consistent with her. People sometimes see proper dog handling as being too strict or wrong, but it’s actually wrong to be inconsistent. My dog knows exactly where I’m coming from. It’s always black and white.

Sometimes people don’t make rules black and white, and they think they’re being kind to the dog, but if you’re not consistent or black and white, then being overly nice is actually not being nice at all. It’s confusing the dog, so that’s the biggest way I separate it. If you want your dog to jump all over you, have fun, wrestle, play bite your arm, who cares? But in the next moment you can’t tell the dog to turn it off. If your neighbor walks in the yard and it starts doing the same thing to them and you start yelling at the dog, well, how’s the dog supposed to know? You have to be consistent on what you want the rules to be.

How do you think dogs could be critically valuable for a survival situation?

JF: If there’s civil unrest, my dogs are going to be on my team and hopefully keep us in the fight against the people who are causing the problems. Highly trained protection dogs are just another team member that’d help us win a fight, accomplish a goal, or defend our property, territory, or whatever it’s come to. My dog would become part of our protection team for our pack. If it were an earthquake or natural disaster, I could take my same dog and she could certainly help find people that were injured. Usually when there’s things like a natural disaster, people do stupid things like looting, so in that regard she could be protective as well, but if there’s a natural disaster I’d put her to work helping other people.

Jeff Franklin Bio

Age: 47

Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Service History: United States Marine Corps; police SWAT dog handler and trainer for Louisville Metro PD; K-9 handler and trainer for Bardstown PD; deputy sheriff for Jefferson County Sheriff’s office

Required Reading List:

  • Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain by Malcolm MacPherson
  • Touching the Dragon: And Other Techniques for Surviving Life’s Wars by James Hatch and Christian D’Andrea
  • Brothers Forever: The Enduring Bond between a Marine and a Navy SEAL that Transcended Their Ultimate Sacrifice by Tom Sileo and Col Tom Manion
  • Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan and Nathan Fox
  • Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog by Mike Dowling
  • Top Dog: The Story of Marine Hero Lucca by Maria Goodavage
  • For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice by Howard Schultz and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
  • Craig & Fred: A Marine, A Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other by Craig Grossi

Favorite Quote: “All gave some and some gave all.”

Favorite Band: Linkin Park

Last Meal Request: Turkey

URL: cobracanine.com

Jeff's EDC Gear

  • SIG SAUER P938
  • Galco holster
  • Emerson Commander folding knife
  • Streamlight Stylus Pro flashlight
  • Rite in the Rain notebook, Cordura cover
  • Tactical pen

More From Issue 32

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Read articles from the next issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 33

Read articles from the previous issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 31

Check out our other publications on the web: Recoil | Gun Digest | Blade | RecoilTV | RECOILtv (YouTube)

Editor's Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

New: Bertucci A-1R Ultralight Field Watch

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As much as we appreciate the high-tech navigation and communication capabilities of smart watches, they certainly have their trade-offs. They're large and heavy on the wrist, potentially fragile, dependent on frequent battery charging, and (most notably) very expensive. If all you need is the ability to tell time, a simple analog watch is a great way to go. Specifically, we're fans of field watches. This genre was inspired by classic military designs with easy-to-read markings, slim cases, and replaceable NATO bands.

Bertucci offers a wide range of field watches, such as this A-2TR Vintage GMT.

Bertucci is one watchmaker that specializes in analog field watches — we've written in-depth reviews of a few of the company's models in the past. This week at the Outdoor Retailer show in Denver, a new entry-level model was released: the Bertucci A-1R. At a $55 MSRP, it's certainly not going to break the bank, but it comes with some appealing features for outdoor use.

The new A-1R is based on a 36mm fiber-reinforced polycarbonate Unibody case that weighs just 1.6 ounces. It has integrated solid lug bars, so the watch band runs over the bars and underneath the body without the need for spring bars or pins. This makes swapping out the band extremely simple — a Comfort-Webb nylon-blend band is included, but Bertucci offers a huge variety of interchangeable nylon and leather bands that will fit the watch.

The A-1R features a Japanese quartz movement, hardened mineral crystal, and push-in crown at the 4:00 position. The hands and markers are equipped with a Swiss super-luminous coating for nighttime visibility. Water resistance is 50M, expected battery life is 3 years.

If you'd prefer a steel case instead of lightweight polycarbonate, Bertucci offers the virtually-identical A-1S model for $95.

The A-1R goes on sale in August. For more info on the new Bertucci A-1R once it is released, go to Bertucciwatches.com.

Review: TOPS Knives SXB Survival Knife

Written by

Photos by John Schwartze

Imagine yourself in a no-sh*t survival situation and the knife in your hands is rusted, bent at the hilt, and the edge is chipped to hell. Any experienced blade snob will tell you it’s useless and you may injure yourself trying to use it. But is there any truth to that assumption? Maybe it became that way because you were lost in the woods and found it like that. Maybe you inadvertently damaged it. Or maybe any number of unpredictable scenarios left you with a knife that’d seen better days. Whatever the case, let’s just say this is the only tool you have to depend on in an outdoor survival situation. You need a cutting implement to create firewood, build a shelter, defend yourself, filet fish, and perform other tasks. So the question is, how do you survive with a damaged knife? Will it still perform?

the tops xsb in a tree stump

I was curious about that myself and decided to torture test a knife to see how well it’d perform some of these tasks. What better test subject than a $300 TOPS Knives SXB — EJ Snyder’s Skullcrusher X-Treme Blade. Now, here’s the problem I have with knife reviews — a great many of them seem to be the same and don’t involve any substantial use. The manufacturer sends the reviewer a badass, ultra-sharp, brand-new knife, and guess what? They all work great. Imagine that, a brand-new knife sent by a company to a reviewer who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to afford the knife thinks it works great. It does everything! It slices, dices, chops, feathers, and notches. By golly, nothing negative to say about the knife and the reviewer almost always gets to keep the knife, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s still in pristine condition.

Many of the designs coming out these days are very similar, and the Skullcrusher looks very familiar, like Tom Brown Jr.’s squabble with Beck knives over the movie The Hunted familiar. When I first saw this knife, I thought it was the most bat-sh*t insane-looking knife I’d ever seen. It weighs almost 2 pounds and is massive. This thing looked like it would cut and kill everything! And then I thought, of course it will — it’s heavy, sharp, and brand new. But what if it were jacked up? Rusted, chipped, bent … how well would it work then?

a very used tops knives xsb

Humans have to endure survival situations with the odds stacked against them all the time — and EJ had to do it naked (see our interview in Issue 24 of this magazine). When you go into a tough situation, your gear has to hold up to your pace; otherwise you might be screwed. Of course, a brand-new knife is the best for a survival situation, but since nothing is ideal in real survival, I set out to take this knife and beat the ever-living hell out of it — and then test it out. Oh boy, a guiltless little pleasure, to take a free knife and do whatever you want with it. Have you ever thrown a $300 knife at a target and watched it bounce off a rock?

Torturing the Test Subject

a man throwing a tops knives xsb

Above: We wanted to see how well a damaged knife would perform normal tasks after it was deliberately banged up. We simulated this by throwing it at a tree trunk.

One of the most destructive things you can do to a knife is throw it. Let’s face it, the idea of knife throwing is cool as hell, but it’s also highly impractical. Most knives aren't made for throwing, and those that are are typically intended to be disposable. But it’s lots of fun and a great way to jack your knife up for an unorthodox gear review! Twenty throws in, most stuck to the trunk of a tree with a few bounces. Ultimately, the knife did what one might expect — bent from the hilt.

a tops xsb bent after heavy use

Above: As you can see, it didn't take long for us to significantly bend the blade, because all that energy has to go somewhere. Now let's see if it'll continue to perform the other tasks a survival situation may call for.

Keep in mind, I have yet to see a knife that didn’t bend with this kind of abuse. If you ever watch slow-motion video of a handle of a knife once it’s stuck, the handle wiggles a lot on impact — hence the bending at the hilt. All that energy has to go somewhere, and it completely throws the blade off kilter. The throwing and bouncing also produced a few nice chips in the blade, which came by way of hitting rocks and hard surfaces. Then, I left it outside in the rain for a few days … just because. So after a massive amount of throws, abuse, and complete disrespect, it was time to put
it to the test.

the XSB in a tree stump

Above: No knife is really designed to withstand this kind of punishment and we're by no means recommending you use your own knife this way.

Does it Still Work?

Last summer, I took the family camping in the Sierra mountains, and we collected firewood off the ground. I brought my Gränsfors Bruk hatchet to compare with the Tops Skullcrusher SXB. Typically, I’d choose to carry a hatchet rather than a large knife any day of the week. Generally speaking, a hatchet’s lighter, better at cutting, and with practice can be used like a knife for chopping, feathering, and notching. I use it to clean trout all the time. Finally, a hatchet can break down a tree with less effort than a usual knife. Not the Skullcrusher though!

the Tops SXB chopping wood

Above: Even though the blade was bent and the edge was chipped, the SXB was still able to chop through old logs and remove tree limbs with ease.

Keep in mind, the comparison was between a razor-sharp GB hatchet and a bent, chipped, and dulled SXB. Before I start raving about this knife’s performance, I must say that I began this test with apprehension. After all, my initial impressions were that it was an eccentric tacticool blade and ridiculously impractical. However, it looks like ol’ EJ has some Ranger tricks up his sleeve that this Marine wasn’t prepared for. In fact, when I received the knife, I immediately did a live video in which I called out EJ. Being the good sport that he was, he said, “Challenge accepted, brother.”

The XSB processing wood

Above: The blade's edge remained sharp and feathered with no problem. So far, we're impressed.

During the camping trip, I tested the knife by de-limbing branches of trees, batoning wood to split, hacking away at logs, and overall generally abusing a knife for a standard camping trip and backwoods survival situation. Throughout these tasks, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and feeling. The knife has an industry-standard Micarta handle, and I loved the grip style, called Rocky Mountain Tread. It didn’t cut up my hands, provided a great grip, and really stuck to my gloves well, allowing fantastic control.

Above: The sawback on the spine was able to cut through logs and branches with ease.

The batoning test worked as I figured it would. As many of you know, batoning isn’t just a function of the blade, but the force at which you baton. Some blades that are lightweight have a tougher time making it through. The heaviness of the SXB, regardless of its condition, worked very well, making its way down the grain. While knots are usually detrimental to the blade, it made short work of them too. My preferred technique for batoning is to keep the hilt of the blade close to the edge of the log and to point the handle in a slight downward direction, to maintain control of the blade going down the log as you strike it with a baton. The SXB’s blade is so large that you can attack wider logs that wouldn’t be possible with other knives. A downed pine tree served as the test for de-limbing purposes. It’s easy to clear branches and limbs when you have a sharp knife. With the weight of the beat-up SXB, it only took one to two chops on branches thicker than 2 inches in diameter.

Above: Notching was another task the damaged SXB tackled with no problems. Shucks, we're really starting to admire this knife.

The last test I performed was to cut through a dry tree with both the GB hatchet and SXB. I went at it the usual way — cross strikes to create a V shape in the log and working around the cut for a 180-degree V. The hatchet did a quicker job than the knife, but I feel I put in a similar amount of work, with the hatchet being just slightly more efficient that the SXB, but not by much. In all fairness, the hatchet was designed for this type of work. So it’s impressive that the SXB functioned as well as it did.

Spine of the heavily used Tops Knives XSB

Final Thoughts

My initial assumptions about the knife were both wrong and correct. Correct in that it’s indeed a bat-sh*t crazy knife — but it’s a very useful, durable bat-sh*t crazy knife. I abused the hell out of it, yet the blade stood up. It chipped a little, but not much, and still managed to make short work of tasks. Some may question my methods and techniques, and that’s fine. Although deliberately abused, I have a knife I can still use and knowing its capabilities means more to me than a pristine, free knife. Frankly, I feel this is the best way to test equipment — see how it'd hold up after sh*t hits the fan. I only trust those who go through hell with me and come back standing, so why shouldn’t I think the same with my gear? Great knife, EJ! Your challenger proved to be a worthy opponent.

A heavily used Tops Knives XSB

TOPS Knives SXB Specifications

Blade Steel
1095 RC 56-58

Handle Material
Black linen Micarta

OAL
15.75 inches

Blade Length
9.38 inches

Blade Thickness
0.25 inch

Weight
26 ounces

MSRP
$310

URL
www.topsknives.com

About The Author

 

Brady Pesola is an out-of-the-box style writer and tester when it comes to gear reviews. As a former Marine, he’s frank and to the point but writes with fairness and integrity. Brady teaches outdoor education in San Diego and is working on redefining the way survival is taught and viewed. He also runs a non-profit focused on getting veterans outdoors. sandiegosos.com

More From Issue 32

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Read articles from the next issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 33

Read articles from the previous issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 31

Check out our other publications on the web: Recoil | Gun Digest | Blade | RecoilTV | RECOILtv (YouTube)

Editor's Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Poll: What 10 Items Would Make Your “ALONE” Survival Gear List?

Written by

Like many of you, we've been following the ALONE TV series on History for a few years now. Although no reality show will allow you to feel the stress of a real survival situation, ALONE is certainly one of the better examples we've seen in this genre. Each of the 10 contestants endures isolation, exhaustion, and the onset of starvation in an effort to outlast the others and claim the $500,000 prize. Season 6 takes place in the Canadian Arctic near the shores of Great Slave Lake.

Great Slave Lake is the deepest lake in North America and the tenth largest in the world. (Photo: Google)

We've often discussed the physical and mental challenges associated with survival in adverse conditions, but gear is a critical variable as well. When you have limited resources, you'll be forced to rely more on the items you do have in order to build a shelter, start a fire, purify water, and scavenge or hunt for food. ALONE contestants must choose only 10 items from a pre-approved, highly-specific gear list. These do not include the required camera gear — since each contestant films themselves as they survive — or clothing, personal effects, and safety/rescue equipment (more details on this below).

Today, we'll take a look at the gear options that are available to ALONE contestants, and allow you to choose your own hypothetical 10-item loadout in a poll. Once you've completed the poll, you'll be able to compare your survival gear picks to those of others who read this article. Finally, we'll close with a breakdown of the items that were most popular among the 10 participants on ALONE Season 6. This information may help you re-evaluate which tools and resources are most important, and which might not deserve a place in your pack.

Exempt Items

As we mentioned, contestants on the show were allowed some clothing to withstand the cold Arctic weather, as well as a few personal items, safety items, and camera gear. This gear doesn't count towards the 10-item loadout, but it's fairly limited for a survival scenario that might last for several months. Here's the complete list of “freebie” items received by all contestants:

Items such as a rain shell, brimmed hat, and neck gaiter help contestants stay warm and dry. (Photo: History Channel)

Clothing

  • Hunting boots – 1 pair
  • Waterproof winter boots – 1 pair
  • Gaiters – 1 pair
  • Short-sleeved T-shirt
  • Fleece or wool shirt with optional hood
  • Wool sweaters – 2
  • Wool socks – 6 pairs
  • Wool, fur, or brimmed hats – 2
  • Buffs or neck gaiters – 2
  • Shemagh or scarf
  • Gloves – 4 pairs (1 insulated, 1 leather work-style glove, 1 overmitt, 1 thin glove liner)
  • Underwear/briefs – 2 pairs
  • Insulated parka-style jacket with hood
  • Outdoor pants or bibs – 2 pairs
  • Insulated, waterproof winter pants or bibs – 1 pair
  • Uninsulated, waterproof rain jacket
  • Long thermal underwear – 2 pairs (incl. top and bottom)
  • Leather or synthetic belt

Personal Effects

  • Toothbrush – 1
  • Eyeglasses – 1 pair (proof of prescription required)
  • 4×6 one-sided personal photo – 1

Safety and Camera Gear
Though not explicitly mentioned by producers on the Season 6 web page, it appears that all contestants are supplied with some default items. These are designed to enable them to film their experience safely, call for rescue reliably, and stay alive until rescuers arrive if they're severely injured. Much of this comes down to reducing liability, since the show's producers don't want anyone to actually die during the competition.

Contestants are required to film themselves as they survive. (Photo: History Channel)

In previous years, this category has consisted of the following gear:

  • Camera equipment (cameras, mounts, batteries, etc.) and storage case
  • Backpack
  • Rules and regulations guide
  • Animal attack prevention tools (i.e. bear spray and air horn)
  • Emergency signal flare and small signal mirror (for increased visibility during rescue)
  • Satellite phone and GPS tracking beacon
  • Emergency personal flotation device
  • First aid / trauma kit (tourniquet, gauze, bandages, rubbing alcohol, etc.)
  • 20×20 canvas tarp
  • 10×10 tarp for protecting camera equipment
  • Headlamp
  • Emergency rations pack to include water and food (cannot be used unless tapping out)

All contestants are provided with GPS beacons and sat phones to be used when they tap out.

Approved Survival Items

According to the rules, ALONE contestants get to choose exactly 10 items from the following gear list. There's also a stipulation that only two of these items can be food, so you can't just go into hibernation inside a fort made of beef jerky and wait for everyone else to tap out. No duplicate items are allowed, so you can't take three gill nets to increase your odds of catching some fish.

Here's the list, broken down into the appropriate categories. We omitted some of the more detailed specifications on some items for the sake of brevity, but you can read the extended version on History's web site. Look over these items, and consider which ones you'd pick — keep in mind that this particular scenario occurs in the Arctic, so cold temperatures and harsh weather will be a serious threat.

Shelter

Rope or cord comes in handy for anything from rigging an A-frame shelter to rappelling down a mountainside.

  • 12×12 ground sheet tarp with grommets (Remember that a 20×20 tarp is provided by default, this tarp is for additional ground cover.)
  • 8mm climbing rope – 10 meters
  • Mil-spec 550 paracord (no Fire Cord or other specialty versions) – 80 meters
  • 3mm non-waxed cotton cord – 40 meters

Bedding

Surviving in the Arctic without a way to stay warm and dry at night would be a serious challenge.

  • Multi-season sleeping bag
  • Waterproof bivy bag (sleeping bag cover)
  • Sleeping pad
  • Hammock

Cooking

A pot offers a way to cook food as well as boil water.

  • Large pot with lid (2 quarts max)
  • Steel frying pan
  • Canteen or water bottle
  • Enamel food bowl
  • Spoon

Hygiene

Soap is something we use every day, but would it be one of the 10 items you choose?

  • Bar of soap
  • Small bottle of shower soap
  • Toothpaste – 8 ounces
  • Dental floss – 40 mm roll
  • Shaving razor with blade
  • Comb
  • Face flannel
  • 30 by 60-inch towel

Hunting

Slingshots are not just kids' toys. When powered with modern bands, they're capable of dropping small game quietly with lead rounds, steel shot, or small pebbles.

No hunting rifles or fancy compound bows are allowed, only slingshots and primitive bows.

  • Fishing kit – 300 yards of 25-pound test mono-filament line and 25 barbless hooks (no lures)
  • Gill net – 5-inch mesh openings, 12 feet long by 50 inches wide
  • Primitive recurve or longbow with 9 arrows (broadhead, bodkin head, or blunt tip)
  • Slingshot with 30 ball bearings and one spare band
  • Snare wire – 3.5 pounds of 20/21-gauge wire
  • Salt block – 3 pounds
  • Net foraging bag

Food (2 Items Max)

Hardtack is one of the simple, long-lasting survival foods contestants can choose.

  • Beef jerky – 2 pounds
  • Biltong (dried meat) – 2 pounds
  • Pemmican – 2 pounds
  • Dried pulses/legumes/lentils – 2 pounds
  • Hardtack biscuits – 2 pounds
  • GORP trail mix (raisins, m&m's and peanuts) – 2 pounds
  • Chocolate – 2 pounds
  • Flour – 1 pound
  • 1/3 pound of rice, 1/3 pound of sugar, 1/3 pound of salt

Tools

You won't get far without some sharp tool for breaking down wood — but there are several to choose from.

  • Ferro rod set with striker
  • Hatchet
  • Saw
  • Ax
  • Small shovel
  • Hunting knife (10-inch blade max, no secondary functions)
  • Pocket knife
  • Leatherman multi-tool
  • Sharpening stone
  • Duct tape or electrical tape – 1 roll
  • Sewing kit – 6 needles, 2 bobbins of thread, 3-inch scissors, 5-inch awl, 1-inch beeswax cube, small carrying pouch
  • Carabiner
  • LED flashlight
  • Crampons/ice cleats

Poll: Pick Your Gear

Complete the polls below to let us know what your gear loadout would consist of. We've broken it down into sections as seen above, so select the items (if any) you'd choose in that section and hit the “vote” button at the end of each category. Be sure to select only the 10 items you'd choose if you were actually participating in the Arctic survival scenario as seen on ALONE Season 6.

What the Contestants Picked

Now that you've voted for the 10 items you'd select and seen how other readers voted in our poll, let's take a look at what the actual contestants on ALONE Season 6 took with them into the Arctic. We'll list the gear below in descending order based on the number of people who selected it.

10 of 10

  • Sleeping bag – Unsurprisingly, all contestants chose this item. It'd be difficult to survive in the Arctic without an insulated sleeping bag for one night, much less weeks or months.
  • Fishing kit – Considering the need for a reliable source of calories, and the proximity to a large body of water, all contestants included fishing line and hooks in their loadouts.

9 of 10

  • Large pot – Jordan was the only contestant who didn't pick this item. He chose the frying pan instead.
  • Ferro rod and striker – Every contestant except for Nathan chose this reliable means of starting a fire. His kit didn't include a dedicated fire-starter; instead, he relied on his experience with the bow drill fire-starting method.
  • Saw – Nathan was the only contestant who didn't bring a saw, opting instead for an ax, fixed-blade knife, and pocket knife.

8 of 10

  • Paracord – Ray and Brady didn't choose this item, or any other form of cordage (aside from the line in their fishing kits).
  • Bow and arrows – Brady and Michelle didn't select this method of hunting. Both chose to pursue small game with snare wire instead.
  • Ax – Everyone except Barry and Woniya chose the ax as a means of chopping wood for their fires and shelters.

7 of 10

  • Knife – Jordan, Brady, and Michelle were the only ones who didn't include a fixed-blade hunting knife in their cutting tool arsenal.

Most of the contestants brought a fixed-blade knife, as well as several other cutting tools.

6 of 10

  • Snare wire – Tim, Nathan, Donny, and Woniya skipped this item as a secondary means of hunting.

5 of 10

  • Primary food ration – Half the contestants (Nathan, Donny, Brady, Woniya, Michelle) brought a food item from the approved list. One of them (Brady) also brought a second food item.
  • Multi-tool – Half the contestants (Jordan, Ray, Brady, Woniya, and Michelle) also picked a multi-tool, which can be used for precise cutting, sawing, drilling, and various other tasks.

1 of 10

  • Ground sheet tarp – Only Barry chose this for the base of his shelter. Other contestants relied entirely on the default green tarp and natural materials.
  • Frying pan – Rather than a pot, Jordan chose a frying pan for cooking/boiling.
  • Gill net – In previous years, the gill net was a more popular choice. Surprisingly, only Nathan selected it this year.
  • Secondary food ration – Barry was the only contestant who selected the maximum allowance of two food items. While this offers a considerable stockpile of calories, it also limited him to only eight other pieces of gear.
  • Pocket knife – Nathan brought this tool, while others relied on a multi-tool and/or larger cutting tools.
  • Shovel – Tim was the only contestant to bring a shovel, stating that he wanted it for breaking ice and digging up clay for pottery. He also brought an ax, knife, and saw.

Closing Thoughts

If you're thinking that most of these gear choices were unsurprising, you're probably already on the right track with your emergency gear. Even if you're not an experienced survivalist, you should know why no one chose the comb, 2-pound block of chocolate, or single carabiner as one of their 10 allotted items.

That said, examining this gear list and the choices of the contestants should get you thinking more seriously about the value of your own gear choices. If your picks don't match up to those of other readers or the ALONE contestants, there could easily be a valid reason, but you should be able to articulate it.

Fortunately, in a real survival scenario, you probably won't be restricted to only 10 items. You'll have whatever you had the forethought to bring along. If you prepare the gear you know you'll need, and can support it with the appropriate skills and mindset, you'll have an easier time facing any survival situation that comes your way — whether it's in the Arctic, the desert, or your own home town.

Video: AlfieAesthetics Builds a Pocket Survival Kit

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UK-based survivalist AlfieAesthetics is one of our favorite YouTubers because of the way he integrates humor into his teaching. Let's face it — it's a lot less appealing to watch a dry, boring, technical presentation on any subject than one that's fun. And if you're setting aside free time to learn survival skills, you might as well have a good time while you're doing it. Alfie's uploads are infrequent at best, but we can appreciate his quality-over-quantity approach.

In his latest video, Alfie explains the rationale behind each component in his pocket survival kit. We've seen these built into various plastic cases and metal Altoids tins, but he chose a cylindrical capsule that can fit snugly into a pocket (or some other place where the sun don't shine). Its contents cover the most important bases and also include some secondary resources — a cutting tool, fire-starters, water purification, navigation, cordage, tools for fishing or snaring small game, and even antiseptic.

Above: A baggie of chlorine dioxide tablets is “a very suspicious looking set of gear overall, but a real A-class solution to the issue of dehydration.”

Several of the tips he mentions are surprisingly insightful, like adhering a backup striker surface for the stormproof matches on the inside of the capsule, or finding a spool that fits the exact diameter of the capsule and also holds the knife tang in place. True to form, Alfie intersperses dry humor to make the survival skills more entertaining and memorable.

Check out the video below. Warning: there's some not-safe-for-work language in this one.

Hopefully this provides some food for thought for your own miniature survival kit, whether it's stowed in your pocket, pack, or prison wallet.

The Basics of Hydroponics

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Rarely do we daydream of less-than-perfect soil. We fantasize about our rural retreat — a picturesque cabin equipped with solar panels. We own a well with pure water, a stocked trout stream just a few paces out the backdoor, and a mature woodland with excellent hunting. We have a milk cow and two stands of honeybees, and every plant in the vegetable garden is green and thriving.

In reality, few locations have garden soil that doesn’t need some adjustment. We’d be lucky if the only requirement is 100 pounds of lime to raise the pH or perhaps organic matter applied to the top. But it’s not always so simple. What if the land on our dream acreage has thin (or nonexistent) topsoil? Maybe we’re too far from a quarry to have reliable access to lime. Maybe the only affordable real estate on the market is reclaimed surface mined land. The land could be rocky, heavily compacted, and not likely to be tillable without a few years of prep work.

Hydroponic production may be the best (or only) solution for growing vegetables in scenarios like this.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, global food production will need to increase by 70 percent by 2050 in order to provide for a projected 9.1 billion people. Plus this growth must happen as more and more cropland is lost to urbanization and as tighter regulations are placed on farmers in regards to emissions and environmental impacts.

Hydroponics represents one method by which food production can expand into regions not historically known for their suitability to agriculture. This science can be defined on the most basic level as soilless production. Plant nutrition is delivered via water, and the plants are held in place by inert materials, wire trellising, or other means. Hydroponic growing has a place even if the soil is decent. It can extend the growing season and make protection from severe weather and wildlife more feasible. One of a gardener’s worst enemies is weeds, so an avoidance of weed pressures may be another motivator toward hydroponic production.

What Plants Crave

Above: Lettuce and tomatoes are two crops that do well in hydroponic culture.

No, it's not Brawndo. A plant requires 16 elements for optimal growth, which can be remembered with the jingle, “C. Hopkins Café Mighty Good, Managed by Cousin Como Clark” (C HOPKNS CaFe Mg Mn B CuZn CoMo Cl). Of these, carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) are supplied by air and water. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), sulfur (S), and magnesium (Mg) are macronutrients that the plants require in relatively larger amounts. The remainder — iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), boron (B), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cobalt (Co), molybdenum (Mo), and chlorine (Cl) — are micronutrients, which plants tend to access through naturally occurring organic matter or amended compost in garden soil.

Above: A float system can work well in a home-scale operation.

A conventional grower usually doesn’t have to think about all these elements. How many are represented in a bag of fertilizer? Only three: N, P, and K. Discolored leaves or other reactions will sometimes reveal a need to add some boron or magnesium, or blossom-end rot on tomatoes or peppers will signal a lack of calcium, but for the most part, a traditional gardener manages the pH, the N, P, and K, and lets nature do the rest.

A hydroponic gardener, in contrast, doesn’t enjoy that luxury and must be mindful that every needed component is present in the water. Furthermore, in systems that recycle the nutrient solution, it’s necessary to consistently monitor against salt buildup or drastic changes in pH.

Above: An investment of less than $30 can provide enough premixed fertilizer to create up to 200 gallons of nutrient solution.

The easiest way for beginners to address nutrition is through the purchase of products specifically formulated for hydroponics. These may be either dissolvable granules or liquids. Some are pre-mixed, and others will have components added in stages. Not just any liquid fertilizer will do, because fertilizers formulated for traditional gardening focus primarily on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Of course, those who are preparedness-minded may eventually prefer to wean themselves from commercial nutrients in favor of “homebrewed” options. There are a lot of do-it-yourself resources online discussing the solutions that worked in various circumstances. With these as a starting point, you may want to find your own recipe through trial and error, experimenting with nutrient “teas.” Compost, Epsom salts, and various organic fertilizers are examples of ingredients that can contribute the necessary elements to your hydroponic growing. Again, though, expect to do some close monitoring to fine-tune your formula. Be mindful, too, of sanitation and the possibility of splash on your fruits, and especially if you market your produce, adhere to proper Good Agricultural Practices regarding the use of certain organic fertilizers.

Above: The Kratky non-circulating method doesn’t require a lot of equipment.

Hydroponic Myths

While this style of growing can fill a lot of gaps in home food production, it’s not a magic pill. One of the greatest disadvantages is that it requires an initial investment in time and money to construct your system and then a considerable amount of homework and monitoring to keep it functioning properly.

Some mistakenly believe that yields are greater with hydroponic crops in comparison to their conventional, soil-based counterparts, but that’s simply not true. With all things being equal, the plants in a hydroponic system will bear about the same as those in a traditional garden.

Because light requirements don’t change, it’s also untrue that you can space hydroponic vegetables closer than you can in a garden plot. (Spacing plants too closely in either scenario can be an invitation to not only poor production, but also to spread fungal diseases from plant to plant.)

Above: Net pots are useful in several different hydroponic methods.

Taste and nutrition of the final product will be similar between the two systems as well, provided that each plant has access to the required amounts of light, oxygen, nutrients, and water. For any who have been less than impressed by a hydroponic tomato or other vegetable, that could be blamed on a simple missing nutrient.

Growing hydroponically can be rewarding, but it doesn’t require less work than conventional gardening — just different work. No, you won’t have to hoe, plow, and dig, but you’ll need some basic plumbing knowhow, and you may become more of a chemist than you planned to be.

Furthermore, while the commercial hydroponic operations you may have seen are constructed in greenhouses and under artificial light, this doesn’t have to be the case. It’s possible to have a system on your patio or in a south-facing window, where growing can take advantage of natural light and temperatures, following roughly the same growing season as a conventional garden.

Above: Compost provides many micronutrients to gardens and can contribute to the richness of homemade hydroponic nutrients, too.

You can spend as much money as you want on hydroponic gardening (as with most hobbies), but it doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s possible to buy enough equipment for 25 to 30 plants nutrients included) for under $50, provided you use recycled buckets or containers, and quite a few complete kits can be found online in the $100 range.

Which Crops?

Almost any crop can be grown hydroponically, in theory, although maturity days and plant size can make some more challenging than others. For this reason, crops most often seen in hydroponic production systems include herbs, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, celery, watercress, and leaf lettuce. A brand-new hydroponic grower would do well to start with one or two of these.

Strawberries can also do very well hydroponically. The advantages include removal of the crop from exposure to soil-borne pests and the labor benefits of picking berries that are elevated above the ground. Hydroponic strawberry production has proven to be a viable method in some arid parts of the world, including desert regions of Israel.

Nutrient Deficiencies

Specific symptoms will result from nutrient deficiencies, making it possible to identify which nutrients should be added to correct these problems. Check the chart below for a primer on which nutrients your crops might need:

The Simplest Method

A technique developed by Dr. B.A. Kratky of the University of Hawaii makes hydroponic growing accessible to more people by removing pumps and electricity from the equation. The “Kratky Method” is a non-circulating system that can be housed in a plastic bucket or tote.

“The suspended pot, non-circulating hydroponic method is a convenient way to grow short-term vegetables like lettuce and pak-choi,” Dr. Kratky explains, “because a small tank containing 1 to 2 gallons per plant only needs to be filled with nutrient solution (water plus fertilizer) at transplanting time and no additional effort is needed until harvest.”

With this method, plants are placed in a “net pot” and then suspended above the nutrient solution. As the liquid is used up, the roots reach further. The humid air between the water and the pot provides for oxygen exchange in the roots. For fast-maturing crops, the water and nutrients initially loaded will be sufficient to carry the crop through to harvest.

Above: Crops grown hydroponically are physiologically no different than crops grown in soil.

The first step to employing non-circulating hydroponics is to collect containers with lids — 5-gallon buckets and storage totes are fine. Delis and bakeries often have used plastic buckets they’re willing to part with.

Net pots and some type of sterile medium will be needed to keep the plants upright and suspended in the solution. Clay pellets, gravel, rockwool, vermiculite, perlite, sand, or packing peanuts are some commonly used growing media. I recently ordered 50 2-inch net pots and a bag of clay pellets for just over $20.

Use a hole saw of the same diameter as your net pots to make one to four holes in the lid of your bucket.

Next, add water and nutrient to make a solution for your crop, but take care to leave an air gap between the water level and the bottom of the lid where your pots are placed.

Above: Crops grown in a suspended pot, non-circulating system can be quite portable.

The crop should have a short enough maturity that it’s ready for harvest by the time the solution is 10 percent of its starting level. Lettuce and bok choy, for instance, should do well in 5-gallon containers. Longer-term vegetables should be grown in larger containers, or a secondary tank can keep levels topped off with the use of a float valve.

A Kratky system can also be quite portable, allowing growers to set their buckets into a garage if a late frost is forecast, or to move them into and out of direct sunlight as needed.

Other Methods

Above: The nutrient film technique recirculates the nutrient solution so that roots sit in a constant flow.

Another growing method common in both commercial and home-scale hydroponic production is the nutrient film technique (NFT). Here, a constant flow of nutrient solution is circulated through a plastic-lined trough or enclosed channel via a pump and reservoir. The plant roots remain in the flow. The plants themselves may be supported via an overhead trellising system, or they may be held in place by net pots, rockwool, or other media. PVC pipe or guttering can work in a home system, with an ideal slope of a half inch drop every 15 feet.

Because the nutrient is recirculated, water quality can become a concern, and it’s usually necessary to completely change the solution periodically.

Above: Tobacco transplants begun in float beds.

Float systems are another type of hydroponics that are relatively simple for a home grower to grasp. In these, rafts made of Styrofoam hold the plants and float directly on the nutrient solution. Since there’s no air space between the solution and the raft, some type of bubbler is needed in the reservoir to supply oxygen to the roots.

This system is often used by tobacco farmers to start their transplants, and many of these systems have been adapted over the past decade to start other transplants, such as tomatoes, pepper, and even corn. The transplants that are started hydroponically are then grown in natural soil.

Above: Tomato seedings begun in rockwool cubes quickly extend their feeder roots into the solution when placed in a nutrient film technique system.

In the aeration method, the nutrient solution is misted onto the roots, often from within an A-framed Styrofoam structure into which the plants are placed. Excess solution runs back into a reservoir and is recycled.

Yet another style of hydroponics is bag culture, where plants are grown in polyethylene bags filled with a medium-like vermiculite or peat. Capillary tubes that run from a main nutrient supply line are inserted into each bag, delivering the nutrients. (In one university demonstration, bag culture tomato plants grew so heavy that they damaged the steel frame of the greenhouse to which they were trellised!)

What About Aquaponics?

Above: Aquaponics will require a lot of inputs to keep both plants and fish healthy.

The concept behind aquaponics is that edible tilapia (or other fish species) are grown in large tanks, and their waste water is cycled through the hydroponic vegetables. The nutrient film technique is often used in these systems. In theory, the fish waste supplies the nutrient needs of the plants, while the plants themselves filter the water before it’s recirculated back into the fish tanks. The reality is that both plants and fish will require closer monitoring than in standalone aquaculture or hydroponic systems. Root diseases can be exacerbated due to an overabundance of organic matter in the water, and plants don’t actually “clean” out all elements that can harm the fish.

Above: Aquaponics is an interesting concept, but one that can be very challenging to master.

However, people have merged the two systems, and enterprising homesteaders who want a challenge may consider taking on an aquaponics project as a means to provide both vegetables and protein. Just keep in mind that a lot more management (and patience) will be needed.

Conclusion

Above: Lettuce in an NFT system.

Hydroponic growing isn’t for everyone. It can be tricky to master the chemistry of nutrition and the nuances of plumbing for plants. But for those with poor soil, or who live in places where the deer and rabbits eat better than the people, it can be a viable option. Furthermore, employing both conventional and hydroponic growing can make a lot of sense, with your corn, beans, and potatoes in the earth, but bok choy and celery in Kratky buckets beside the garage, where you can watch them develop beyond the groundhogs’ comfort zones.

If this is a method that captures your imagination, you can start on the most basic level now to add some variety to your gardening. By next season, who knows? Perhaps a full-blown nutrient film technique system will become part of your daydreams.

About the Author

Phillip Meeks is an agriculture and natural resources educator originally from Tennessee, but now based in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. He likes to spend his weekends hiking, gardening, beekeeping, fishing, and mushroom hunting.

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Editor's Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Option Gray: Door Considerations for Home Security

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Nobody wants to become the victim of a burglary, so home security is something we've all considered to some degree. But ask yourself this: have you put more effort into your house's security than a determined criminal would put into gaining entry? If you're unsure, then it's likely that a burglar could break into your home with relative ease — it happens more than a million times every year. This security camera footage shows just how easy it can be:

Even with the large glass panel that's practically begging to be broken, the burglar doesn't bother — he's able to breach the front door effortlessly with a single kick.

Fortunately, there are many simple steps that can be taken to improve your home security. In the following article, Cody Martin of OptionGray.com shares a few options for reinforcing the exterior doors to your house. Consider some of these tips next time you evaluate your vulnerability to home invasion.

When it comes to home security, we can sometimes become bogged down with all the things we can do to improve the security and sanctity of our homes. This can lead to paralysis, which results in nothing being done at all. However, if we take a methodical approach and break up home security into sections which can be tackled one at a time, we are much more likely to make improvements to our current situation.

To get things started we are going to take a look at entrances, more specifically doors. For the sake of this article, we will define an entrance as anything which would allow access into our home. This can include but is not limited to doors, windows, garages, etc. All of these provide interior access and should be treated as such. It’s easy to assign importance, but when that happens, certain entrances get all the attention while others are overlooked. Let’s take a look at the basics of security in relation to entrances and hopefully you can find a few takeaways to improve your home security.

The first thing people think of in terms of entrances are doors. Doors are the most common form of gaining legal access into a dwelling and it makes sense they get the most attention. Unfortunately, very little thought is actually put into the security aspects of doors when compared to their aesthetics or how they look.

Construction
So, what is the first consideration we should look at? I would say it’s the construction of your doors. The simplest way to look at it is whether or not your door is solid wood or solid metal. Simply put, solid-core doors are harder to break and harder to kick in. Avoid hollow core doors at all cost. They are easy to defeat and offer little to no protection against a determined adversary.

Weak hollow-core doors may be a vulnerability, despite the strength of the lock and frame.

Features
You should also try to choose a door with no glass/windows in the design and you should make sure there are no windows within arms reach of the lock. You want to avoid the possibility of someone knocking out a window, reaching through, and unlocking the door. To compensate for not having a window to view visitors, invest in a wide angle peephole. It doesn't do you any good to have a secure door if you have to open it up to see who is ringing the bell.

Reinforcement
Most exterior doors are installed to swing inwards, meaning the hinges are more than likely on the inside of the structure. This prevents easy hinge pin removal. Ideally, you should also be using Grade 1 deadbolts (Grade 2 will also work), 1” long throw bolts, and make sure your strike plates are reinforced with a minimum of 3” long wood screws. I would recommend installing a reinforced strike box and strike plate in addition to the upgraded deadbolt.

A few examples of reinforced strike plates.

For added peace of mind you can always install a complete door reinforcement kit, which reinforces the door jam, hinges, and deadbolt/doorknob areas. I have never used one of these kits, but they have received rave reviews and they look pretty good through testing.

Another area of concern is the rear door. Rear doors oftentimes contain a window which allows easy access for a burglar. One way to mitigate this concern is to use a double cylinder dead bolt which requires a key to lock/unlock on both sides of the door. A downside to this is if you are in a situation where you need to make a hasty escape out the rear door. You may not have time to locate and use a key to get out. This is something to keep in mind.

Door Access Points
Pet doors, mail slots, etc., are also weak points in your home security system. Again, you want to avoid any method of access which would allow someone to reach through, crawl through, or provide access for a burglary tool. Here is a video of a burglar crawling through a dog door to gain access to a home:

Externals
In addition, there are a couple of external features directly related to the security of your doors which you can take advantage of. Make sure you have sufficient lighting covering all of your entrance doors. Lighting can act as a great deterrent in preventing crime or at a minimum displacing crime. If they are determined to commit a burglary you might as well send them on to an easier target. In addition to the lighting, make sure all your vegetation and landscaping is cleared enough to remove any potential hiding places. If your door is easily seen from the street you can benefit from passive surveillance from general traffic passing through the area.

The reality is with very little effort you can greatly reduce the likelihood of someone gaining access through your doors. With that mind, a deliberate burglar may move on to another method of entry if the door proves too difficult. We will discuss those in a future article. In the mean time, get to work on those doors and start chipping away at your home security deficiencies.

Review: Rynoskin Total Insect Protection Clothing

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Harsh environmental conditions such as driving rain, heat, or cold can all sap our strength when working in the outdoors, but few things have the ability to challenge our focus and health quite like stinging and biting insects. Trying to maintain a pace count while dead reckoning a course through the woods and simultaneously slapping your ears every few seconds to ward off mosquitoes is trying at best, and at worst, carries the risk of vector-borne illness transmission.

Photo: DVIDS / Petty Officer 3rd Class William Phillips

When you finally reach your destination, throw your pack down, and start to strip off some sweaty clothing only to find ticks embedded in your skin, that also has a way of immediately reducing the fun factor. Just ask survivalist Megan Hine, who we interviewed in Issue 22, how debilitating it was to battle Lyme disease. The point is that there are items out there, aside from insect repellent, which can serve as a bulwark against these clandestine creatures.

Enter the Rynoskin line of undergarments. Intended to be worn underneath clothing, it’s designed to keep mosquitoes, ticks, and other bugs off of your skin. Utilizing a superfine mesh of blended
nylon/Lycra fabrics, it remains breathable without allowing bugs like ticks, chiggers, no-see-ums, and mosquitoes to bite you through the weave — and without the use of chemicals. Conceptually, it’s similar to this author’s experience swimming or waterskiing in jellyfish-infested waters when we’d wear pantyhose to keep from getting stung. Stop laughing; Navy SEALs in Vietnam would actually sometimes wear pantyhose to prevent leeches from latching onto their skin. It also helped reduce friction and blisters.

Testing the Claims

When we first opened the boxes of Rynoskin and started reading the instructions, we had our doubts. We’re supposed to wear this stuff underneath our clothing? No bother during cooler weather, when you might be wearing insulating layers anyway. But what about in the heat and humidity? “This body suit is so comfortable that the user will forget that they’re wearing it,” claims the marketing brochure. This sounded like just one more load of marketing BS to us, and it wouldn’t be the first or the hundredth time we’ve been let down by similar claims.

With temperatures in the high 80s F and high humidity, we reluctantly stripped down and layered back up with a pair of Rynoskin leggings under our cotton BDU pants, and a Rynoskin top under our T-shirt. Then, we got to work — and that’s when the magic happened. After the first 10 to 15 minutes of feeling hyper-vigilant, trying to figure out if anything was chafing (it wasn’t), and just generally getting used to wearing undergarment layers in hot weather, we literally did forget we had them on. The material is simply as breathable and incredibly effective at wicking sweat as it claimed to be. Hell, it actually felt better with the material underneath. The hype, apparently, is real.

We weren’t in a tick-prone environment, so we can’t comment on the effectiveness of the garment with that particular bug, but we can definitely confirm it kept the mosquitos off our skin in muggy western Florida. As the marketing materials say, with the Rynoskin underneath, you can get by with just a cotton T-shirt on top. Pretty impressive, considering that we’ve had some mosquitoes able to bite us through our blue jeans.

Garments and Fitment

Besides the long-sleeve top and leggings, Rynoskin also offers a face hood, socks, and gloves to ensure nearly 100-percent coverage of your body. If you’re just dealing with mosquitoes or other flying insects, it shouldn’t be a problem to leave the socks at home, but the usefulness for areas with ticks and chiggers is obvious.

The hood, admittedly, looks a bit like a 1970s Russian cosmonaut load-out. However, if it means keeping bugs off of your neck and out of your ears, sometimes you have to sacrifice style for practicality. In a similar manner, the gloves seem a bit much, but after your first time coming back from the woods with tiny lumps and red marks all over your hands from bug bites, you might reconsider just like we did. It can be tough to just smear your hands and face with bug repellent, especially the really powerful and effective sprays. Rubbing your eyes and getting repellent in them can burn and cause you to tear up.

When we used the gloves, they didn’t seem to fit our fingers very well. We had to do a lot of pulling, and sometimes we were afraid of tearing the fabric by trying to pull the finger sleeves down over our fingers to get a tight fit. We could, however, use our smartphones, with a little bit of difficulty. We ended up having to pull the fabric around our “swiping” index finger taught by pulling with our other hand, which isn’t exactly an ideal situation, but still a functional workaround. It also helps to start by pulling the sleeves of the gloves all the way back on your forearm before starting to mess with the fingers.

If you’re going for full protection, plan to “shingle” the products from your feet up to your head. Basically, the lower layers should be lapped on top of the upper layers. In other words, tuck your face hood down into the turtleneck shirt so that the turtleneck is over the hood. Then, tuck the shirt down into the pants so that the waistband of the pants laps on top of the shirt, and so on. This way, for example, if an insect is crawling up your legs it won’t be able to crawl underneath your shirt when it gets to your waist.

Final Thoughts

We like the fact that these fabrics are chemical-free for several reasons. First, there’s nothing that’ll wash out of the clothes after 10 or 20 washes and cause the garments to lose their effectiveness over time. Second, if it means that we can carry less bug repellent and use less chemicals on our skin in the long-term, we’ll take that option all day long.

Wearing a traditional mosquito netting head cover is effective, but has downsides.

For similarly useful alternatives, we’ve also used mosquito-netting covers on our heads as well as mosquito-netting jackets. These products are inexpensive, but they’re also very effective at what they do. The main downside for us was that the head covers made it much more difficult to see what we were doing or where we were walking, especially when trying to stick to a faint trail in low-light conditions. Similarly, the netting jackets always seemed to interfere with gear, such as backpacks or rifle slings, by snagging easily or getting torn by brush.

We like the fact that the Rynoskin goes underneath our clothing, since we’re able to maintain 100-percent functionality with our existing gear and clothing systems we’re already used to wearing. The undergarment will last longer because it’s protected under your clothing, plus it’s machine-washable and dryable without shrinking (we verified this at home).

Long story short? Hot or cold, if you work in buggy environments and haven’t tried this gear yet, there’s just no reason to wait any longer. The price point is affordable for most people, the products are made in the United States, and best of all, the products actually live up to their promises. We’re sold.

Rynoskin Specifications

Colors
Various

MSRP

  • Total shirt: $46
  • Total pants: $46
  • Total hood: $23
  • Total gloves: $23
  • Total socks: $23

URL
www.rynoskin.com

About The Author

Andrew Schrader is a licensed professional engineer and serves on the State of Florida’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Task Force. His company, Recon Response Engineering LLC, educates firefighters and search-and-rescue teams on the subject of urban search and rescue and building collapse. Most recently, he was deployed to the Florida Panhandle to support rescue operations following Hurricane Michael. www.reconresponse.com

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Editor's Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

New: TOPS Knives Fieldcraft 3.5

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We recently returned from Blade Show, an event that serves as a venue for knife manufacturers to show off their newest products. One such item came from TOPS Knives — it's new, but also familiar. The TOPS Fieldcraft 3.5 is a scaled-down version of the popular Brothers of Bushcraft (B.O.B.) Fieldcraft, an outdoor-oriented fixed blade knife we previously reviewed and have used frequently.

Top: the new Fieldcraft 3.5. Bottom: the original Fieldcraft.

The original B.O.B. Fieldcraft has been one of TOPS' best-selling designs, as well as one of our favorites from the company. Its 4.5-inch, 1095 high-carbon steel blade features a modified Scandi grind that's excellent for camping, hunting, bushcraft, or survival tasks. However, some users prefer a smaller and lighter knife, especially if they're also carrying an ax or saw for heavy-duty tasks. TOPS has responded to these users by releasing the Fieldcraft 3.5.

Technically, the Fieldcraft 3.5 has a 3-5/8-inch blade, but “Fieldcraft 3.625” would've been a bit awkward as a name. It still has the same 1095 steel construction, modified Scandi grind, black traction coating, and canvas micarta handle scales as its big brother. The steel is slightly slimmer at 0.16 inches thick (the original was 0.19) and has a flush-ground tang instead of the hammer pommel present on the full-size model. Weight is 5.5 ounces, down from the original's 9.6 ounces.

MSRP for the new TOPS Fieldcraft 3.5 is $145, and this includes a Kydex sheath with rotating spring steel belt clip. Unlike the original Fieldcraft, this smaller knife doesn't come with a sheath-mounted ferro rod, but we can understand the reasoning behind this given the goal of reducing size and weight. For more information on the Fieldcraft 3.5, go to TOPSKnives.com.

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