The Box of Awesome!

Here it is! The contents of the "Box of Awesome" that came from Mike Billman of Grindstone Cutlery in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has now made me several sheaths for several knives and machetes and I think he's working his way toward King of Synthetics at a breakneck pace.

He designed the rigs, made the sheaths, and did the sharpening/modification of the knives and machete to optimize them for field use.

I added the new Stayglow One-Hand Trekker to the pile because I think it fits right in with the awesomeness of the box's contents. What I've got here is a customized Ontario 12" heavy duty machete and sheath, Stayglow Trekker, Marttiini survival neck rig, and Busse Fat Fusion Battle Mistress (FFBM) rig set up for tossing in the trunk/pack with a webbing loop on the back just in case I need to strap it to my belt.

The edges on all three blades are screaming. The FFBM was a user before I sent it in and the other two are new but Mike sharpened all three before shipping them to me. I've seen him sharpen before so I can tell you the guy knows his way around a DMT bench stone.

He reground the tip on the machete, rounded the spine, and modified the handle to remove the "D" guard and leave me with the important parts. Then he re-blued the blade and edge to give it some corrosion protection before he finished the sharpening leaving his trademark atom-splitting edge. If it's anything like the modded 18" machete he did for me the edge is not only ridiculously sharp but it'll hold up.

The Marttiini rig locks up tight and provides the user with cordage, a firesteel, ranger band (emergency tinder,) and a fantastically useable Carbon Steel blade with a comfortable handle that reminds me of my favorite low-cost knife the Frosts Mora 510.

Combining these two with the new Stayglow Trekker should give me as much blade as I could need in the woods.

The FFBM rig is modeled after one Mike had in the shop when I visited and is designed to be tossed into a pack (that's how he does it) or trunk. It protects the blade, looks good, provides me with some cordage, and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Survival Sheath but has enough to get the job done.

Can you see why the boxes that came since then have all been a bit of a letdown? I'm filling another box to send off to Fort Wayne to see if I can up the ante on the next Box of Awesome.

Thanks for reading,


B