32bit or 64bit OS?

Ah, for most people, the answer would be a something like "Er, What?". Clearly it shouldn't matter, and I think that is important to keep in mind. Because I think it's getting to the point where this is probably the case.

In the Windows world, we more or less moved over to 32 bit with Windows 95. What is 32 bit anyway? Well, imagine 32 1's or 0's in a row. That's a representation of a number. It's 2 to the power of 32, or 2x2x2x2...x2 (32 times), which = 4 billion or so. Now, there are 8 bits in a byte, and, well, I'll let wiki explain the rest if you are interested. The practical implication of this is that you are limited to 4GB of memory. Which is a lot, right?

Well, no. Not really any more. And certainly not if you want to do anything serious, like a database or virtualization. Even consumer PC's these days, since the hungry-hungry-hippo called Vista was let loose, have come with 2GB ram as a reasonable medium standard. If you have even remotely paid any attention to spec changes over the years you will know that they double every now and then. So we are only one double away from hitting that 4GB limit.

There was a 64 bit version of windows XP. It was very much the bleeding edge. Almost nothing worked on it, and peripherals in particular were the pain point. Getting that printer or scanner, video card etc to work was a real gamble, and most times you got snake-eyes. Vista was actually better, as the 64-bit version was released at launch date, and flagged that hardware vendors had to start producing 64-bit drivers from now on or else. And they have. Of course, the 32/64 bit question was somewhat hidden by the overall horribleness that was Vista. Windows 7 is really just Vista done right, and to be honest, the latest patched version of Vista is actually not too bad. However, it's reputation is permanently tarnished and much like Windows ME will spend it's eternity in History as a dud, a lemon and a turkey.

Well, most sane people, and those cautious in businesses around the world, have largely been hanging on the XP platform waiting to jump over Vista. It has helped that since the Core2 the CPU's have more or less also been "good enough" to keep going for a few years. The GFC has not helped IT budgets much either, so this has also influenced things.

Anywhoo, at my place of work we recently replaced a bunch of XP machines. What did we get? Well, some intel i7 based Dell boxes, with Window 7 and 6GB of RAM. Yours with a 23" LCD and Office for around $1700 Australian - which is a pretty good deal in the current market. Yes, I know Office 2010 is just around the corner. Sometimes these buying opportunity windows open up just briefly and you go for it when you can, even if it's not 100% ideal. I also think of the permanently revolving doors you see at some hotels -- if you wait for it to stop you are waiting forever.

So, perhaps you are wondering, which did we get - the 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7? Well, the clue should be the 6GB RAM. Are you paying attention? Stay with me here!

So, how have i found the 64 bit experience? On the whole, like the rest of Win7, it's almost flawless. Really, the water is fine, jump right on in. With new hardware, you know the PC itself is going to work. The trick then is any legacy software and hardware. In my environment the biggest bugbear was Access 95 databases we were still using. This was the final push for me to upgrade them all to 2000 format, and I'm glad I did. My previous post goes over this in tragic detail if you are interested in that saga.

The other problems I had were --

1. Installing SQL 2000 client tools. The installer recognised the 64 bit environment and didn't like the idea of putting the 32 bit version on the CD there. Fortunately, I found that you can still install it by running an installer buried a bit on the CD. A google search turned up this solution in under 5 minutes. Yes, and caused by trying to continue to use old software note.
2. Printing to our copier at work required downloading a new driver. Printing to an older, less popular and consumer grade printer also provided interesting problems, but I was even able to do this using the Vista driver.

Overall, I have (so far) not had a problem I have not been able to solve. This is as much a testament to Win7 as the 32/64 issue, but I think there has been significant evolution of the software over the years to prepare for this moment.

You may be wondering - will we have to move to a 128bit OS in a few years time? Well, there is that whole "never say never" thing (which is clearly self-contradicting, but that's not what I mean). Remember that each extra bit doubles the number it represents. So a 64 bit number isn't double a 32 bit number, it's 4 billion or so larger. That's a LOT of memory (16 billion GB). Like, probably as much as has been manufactured in the history of mankind, or not even. In one PC. Doesn't seem all that likely, does it? So, I think this is probably safe to say the this is the last of these kinds of changes we will have to make in our lifetimes. I've lived through 8, 16, 32 and now 64 bit OS's. Change is pain, but to be honest, this is the least painful of these transitions I have experienced.

Upgrading from Access 95 to Access 2000 (or greater)

This blog entry will only interest a relatively few people on the planet. If you don't use Microsoft Access 95, then I suggest you stop now. This will not make much sense nor be particularly riveting.

I have used Access 95 at work for about the last decade or so. The main piece of software the company uses was written in it, before I started working there and I have carried on from there. On the whole it is a good piece of software, and I think it speaks well that it can be used for so long. It even has some advantages over more recent versions, primarily the ability to have a single server copy of the front end that everyone uses which can be edited in real-time. It might seem like an afterthought, but it has excellent help that is actually helpful. Contrast this to .NET or Excel help which is generally useless. I think perhaps Access 97 was better than 95, and it shared many of the positives and had some features I like such as intellisense (where it completes the word in code, and also gives you parameters for functions etc). Anyway, it's a moot point as we were stuck with 95.

However, it is also not without it's flaws. The most notable being the limit to a machine with 1GB RAM (usable, which is a point worth noting). It also is quite slow sometimes and has some interesting compatibility issues with SQL server data types and locks. For example, it shows boolean values as 0 or -1, but does not actually work in a query if you compare it to -1, but does if you compare to <>0. It fails to delete data in linked ODBC tables reasonably often, I'm not sure why, but at least it let's you know it didn't work. Mind you, we are using the now-old SQL 2000, so that might have something to do with it.

There are some patches that are mandatory for any Access 95 install, by the way, including a patch to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) VBA232.dll. The right version is just over 1MB, the wrong one is just under.

Anyway, the deal breaker for us is the RAM issue. 1GB seemed like a massive amount of memory back in good old 1995 when this software was "new", and I believe it still is a lot, but todays machines have and need this and more. Vista was a massive memory hog, which is why at work we stuck with XP, but Windows 7 is a lot more reasonable. Recently we have upgraded a number of desktops at work and they have come with 6GB of RAM and Win 7 Pro 64 bit. This blows poor old Access 95's mind, and it perversely gives the error that that it is out of memory when you try and launch it.

Now, recently I discovered it IS possible to run Access 95 on a machine with over 1GB of RAM. Well, sort of. What you do is limit the machine to only use 1GB (actually, just under), no matter how much RAM is installed. It's certainly easier than physically removing the SIM cards, and it means that you don't have to have the exact SIM configurations installed. To do this you use (in Run type) MSCONFIG and then go to the BOOT.INI, and look at the Advanced Options. In there you can set the max RAM to 1023 MB. This is one MB under 1GB, which as we all know is 1024 and not the dubious marketing 1000 MB. A reboot later and Access 95 will indeed work. The downside of this technique is that the rest of your OS will probably suck badly with this limit. There is a possible relief valve you can use to eek out just a little more performance, if you are determined to go this way, and that is to then increase your virtual memory. This is done in the My Computer (right click), Properties, Advanced, Performance, Virtual Memory. If you set the minimum to 2048, max to 4096 (ie 2-4GB of VM) then things will go.. ok.. probably. When I tried the above to the new 6GB machines, they did indeed work ok. Not as quickly as with the full 6GB, but not too badly. I tried multitasking with 5 or 6 applications (eg Outlook, Word, Excel, Paint, IE, etc) and it all ran. But despite getting this working (and it was somewhat of a revelation to me that this was even possible, I was resigned to the fact that it wasn't), I felt this was a "second best" solution. Really, the time has come to move on from Access 95.

Over the years I have tried to "bulk" upgrade from Access 95. That is, to create a blank database and import the objects from the Access 95 database. I have tried it to 97 and 2000 without success. I can't recall now what exactly went wrong, but after importing a number of objects the whole thing just died - mostly with errors about the code being corrupt or something.

However, on Friday I was able, for the first time, to do this. The machine that did this miracle was my recently rebuilt (due to a hard drive failure) XP box, which has just under 1GB of RAM, and Office 2003 installed, patched to the latest of course. The database being imported into was actually in the older Access 2000 format. The trick was to make sure that the Access 95 database I was importing from could compile first (don't even think about importing it if it doesn't). I imported objects also in a fairly specific order, which may or may not matter. First make sure all the linked tables are there, and any references (I have Excel reference because there is some code that manipulates spreadsheets). I imported the code modules and macros first. Then the queries. Then the forms/reports. Why in this order? Well, these things can rely on each other - and it works best if the thing that is being relied upon is already present. It also allows you to try compiling the database between each step to make sure it all still works.

In our case I need to import three databases into one existing one. The issue of good naming conventions of objects becomes apparent. I have a policy of naming forms, for example, with the prefix "Form A01 - ", showing that it is a form in the database "A", and its number is 01. After the dash is some description of the form. If there is a query used in that form, then the query is called "Form A01 -" too. Reports are "Report A01 - ". Where possible queries are saved and named, so recordsources of forms and objects (eg lists and combo boxes) get saved as named queries. It makes for a lot of queries, but it means they are all visible outside of the form editing. Anyway, one advantage of this system is that when 3 databases are combined the objects are all uniquely named. If they are not, the first duplicate gets a "1" added to the end of it's name, or "2" or "3", depending on how many duplicates there are already. For this reason alone it is also a good convention never to END a named object with a number. The duplicates may or may not be the same of course (think : code fork), which will need to be checked, and if there are hundreds of these it may become an insurmountable problem. Either that or work our where each object is used and rename it, which is a big job again. This needs to be sorted out before the first object is even created, so it's either a problem or it isn't at this stage of the game.

So, was the process perfect? Well, no, not quite. I have only tested certain functions, and most things seem to be working correctly, but there are some oddities. For example, some forms have up to 6 copies of the "file" menu, which is definitely abnormal. These are custom menus, and usually there is just one. I'm not sure what that means at this stage.

[Edit - I worked out what this was caused by. The forms with multiple menus all had subforms, and these subforms had menus set. In access 95, only the parents menus were used but in later version all forms menus were drawn. The fix was therefore simple - remove the menus on the subforms. They were not supposed to be there anyway, it was just from sloppy form copying.]

I seem to recall that there might be issues with the DAO versus ADO view of life - that is, how recordsets are handled in code. I need to check into that pronto as a lot of the important code actually uses this. A re-ordering of references might be all I need to ensure it does what I want, and certainly it has compiled the code, so that's encouraging.

What more is there to say?

Oh, I know. I have had to do some slightly tricky things to emulate the development I had with Access 95. I'm used to editing the server copy and everyone uses that. The problem is that Access 2000 and onward seems to delight in corrupting any multi-user front end. You have to really have a local copy for each user. So how to do this? The solution I came up with is to have a local copy of the front end. When it launches it checks a version number in a table versus a version number which is a constant on the main menu form. If these are different it warns the user that there is an upgrade available. They then press an upgrade button on the form which launches a batch file the quits the app. The batch file pauses for a second (waits for the quit) then copies the server version to the local directory, and then re-launches the database. It all works quite well, apart from the issue that I have different versions of Excel installed around the place (2000, 2003, 2007) and this breaks the references. This is something that needs to be fixed each time - the first time it tried to run code it fails, and drops into debug. Stop the code and deselect the missing reference, and select the right one. Compile and off you go. I have thought of perhaps having three different versions of the master, one for each version of excel, but I can't be assed doing this as I don't have enough users to justify the hassle. If I had hundreds of users I would. Mind you, if I had hundreds of users I don't think I'd be using Access. We do also have a web-based front end, but it's oh-so-much-quicker to develop stuff in Access.

I will be slightly sad to see Access 95 go. It's been a solid workhorse. From 2000 format, I suspect it will be relatively easy to go to 2003 or 2007, but these things have a way of making a liar out of me, so take that with a grain of salt. I'll post here if/when we cross that bridge.

Class definitions

For some reason I was thinking about the "middle class", and wondered what a good working definition of this group of people was. I have checked a few places, such as wiki, and it seems to be a bit of a grey area on how you define this. So here is the definition I came up with

Working Class - Need to work (obviously), and if their assets were all converted to cash, would still be in debt, or have so few assets that they are basically living hand to mouth (renting and less than 1 paychech in the bank). It is likely that they will need the full term of any debt to pay it off, causing also the repayment of about twice the initial value of the debt. They are most likely to slip off into bankruptcy as the become unable to replay debt. "Destitute" should probably be a class all of it's own, under working class.

Middle Class - Also need to work, but if their assets were all converted to cash, would not be in debt. This doesn't mean that they don't have loans - they almost all do - but on balance they have more assets than debt. For example, John and Sue might have a mortgage for $200K, and a car load for $30K, but the house is worth $600K, so they are net positive if they had to sell everything. These people are still susceptible to cash flow problems - such as losing a job, but on the whole are more secure financially. They are also likely to have superannuation and possibly other investements which they hope will advance in value so that they can retire or move to Upper class. Possibly the "upper middle" class have no debt, but not enough capital to give up work. The danger for someone in middle class is if they aquire the taste for the upper class lifestyle, and use debt to live it - which they can for a while - then it's back to Working class for them. Similarly, if that house is revalued in a falling market to $150K then John and Sue are redefined as being in the working class (and are "underwater"). This is happening on a grand scale in America at the moment.

Upper Class - do not need to work, but mostly do anyway. These people like money, know how to play various corporate games, and investments and enjoy the status of having wealth. On this basis, they continue to accumulate it. However, they do not have to as they could easily live off their wealth instead, and retire, to a modest lifestyle. These people do sometimes bet "the farm" on various investments and can be sent all the way back to working class if bets go bad, but that's often the "new money" that does this. The old money is more careful, I think. These people go into debt, but only as a tool to make more money - they never let the interest repayments suck the lifeblood out of them like the other classes do (particularly working class). They enter into agreements which can be paraphrased as "heads I win, tails you lose". These people often re-write the rules of the game so that things are very much in their favour.

Well, that was my way of splitting up the classes. I think it works.

Economic Links

Links.. really? How 1990's is a links list? Very, but I feel the need. You see, there are many excellent sites out there explaining what's going on, and you may want to get to know some of them. Also, it's possible I've missed one or two and you could leave a comment letting me know. I'll try to explain a bit about how I use each site.

CNN Money - Pre market I use this simply to see what the open is likely to be like in the US. As I live in Australia, on a Mon - Fri night this is an interesting thing to observe. Also the currencies page shows you how the AUD is faring against the USD. Lastly, this is a "MSM" ("Main Stream Media") and it's interesting to see what they are obsessing about or how they are explaining market action. You may start to feel a bit stupid if you read too much though, so save yourself any in depth exploration, there are better options below.

Kitco Live Gold Chart is somewhere I go fairly often. If you own gold, or gold mining stocks, it's interesting. And you probably should! It gives you 3 days of activity, and you get used to the chart.

Bullionvault Live Gold Ok, another one? Why? Well - this time it does something very useful - it converts it to a live price in Australian dollars. It also can go down to activity in the last 10 minutes, and has some fairly groovy chart options. The only downside is that it uses Java, heavily, so this can take a moment to launch. Fun to watch when the fireworks are happening in the gold market. The gold market is global, so it's open almost all of the working week - there are some hours where it's not though.

Mish. Is a blog with frequent and interesting articles, and just as interesting a comments section and community. Mish is a fairly hard deflationist, who sides on the Austrian school of economics. I don't always agree with him, but I certainly find his perspective interesting, and I give him points for calling the March low in the market almost to the day. I was not a believer at that time.

Denninger / Market Ticker Karl is a bit of an angry man sometimes. Often justifiably so, but sometimes not. He does take the time to really spell stuff out though, and so it's worth enduring the sometimes ranty/condescending tone to get to the heart of the matter. Something he does quite well and often. I've never explored the forum, it's probably good but also probably huge. You might consider Karl on the lunatic fringe at times, or a "true patriot", depending on your point of view.

Zerohedge I have been following this web site since it started. It is more or less a web site for financial industry insiders, it can be very technical, very little is explained, which can make it practically incomprehensible to newcomers. It is worth the effort though, as many of the articles provide highly relevant (to the market) news and discussions. If you want to understand whats driving the market really (not the CNN version), this is the place. They also discuss US treasury auctions, gold and other topics, and like Mish, the comments section is often a better read than the articles themselves. Work your way up to this site.

The Automatic Earth Some of the best articles I read in a while have come from this site. It is well thought out and written, updated relatively infrequently (once per day-ish).

The Market Oracle is a UK based site, which is a compendium of articles syndicated elsewhere. You will see some of Mish's stuff here, for instance. Many of the articles are leaders to try and get you to subscribe, but others are the full deal. After a time you get to know the various contributors and where they stand. Some are full on doomers, while others are not.

Implode / Explode is another list of articles, which again may point you back to Mish or Denninger. However, what I find interesting is the "Bank Failure Friday" coverage, where they go into details of how many and how big each failed bank is.

Jim Kunstler is an author of a book called "the long emergency" which was a big eye opener to me when I read it. He is a perma-bear, who sees the US as a car dependent society in decline. His timing might be wrong, but a lot of his ideas are not. There are a lot of fatalistic survivalist types who follow him, so be prepared for a bit of that action.

The Oil Drum is not actually an economic web site, it's more of a peak-oil web site. However, if you see energy as the driver of economies, this is a great read. Again, the comments are often very thought provoking. I very much believe in peak oil, by the way. I have read quite a lot about it and might do a follow up list of books that are worth reading on the subject.

Urban Survival is a real "lunatic fringe" entry, but one I find weaves in and out reality. He believes in a system he sells which analyses web language content to predict the future. He believes in government conspiracies, predicting things such as earthquakes and is anti-flu vaccines. You may find it all too "out there" but sometimes it is an interesting read.

Soot and Ashes was dormant for ages but seems to have risen...ahhh... from the ashes. Keith runs the show and he has an attitude of sorts. Good comments. Worth a check in for the amusement value, as much as anything. He used to moderate the housingpanic web site, which was huge for a time when the whole sub-prime bomb exploded.

Are there more? Well, yes, but the above list covers a most of the interesting ones. I check the Sydney Morning Herald for my general news, and sometimes read the business section there about local companies and influences. If you are unsure of the value of owning gold, there are a couple of seriously one-sided fan sites of the metal here and here.

2010 - Economic Predictions

Well, it needs to be prefaced that nobody knows the future. So what follows is my guesses at what might happen in 2010 in the world and to a lesser extent the Australian economy. I do this having studied the situation for the last few years in my spare time with a keen interest. So, for what it's worth - what do I think will happen in 2010?

1. Double dip recession by mid year
Sorry guys, but I don't think we are out of the woods and blue sky's upon us. Instead, all major problems have been deferred rather than being faced head on. This has delayed the day of reckoning, but not for long, and it will be a doosy. I believe new lows in the stock markets, new lows in sentiment, new highs in unemployment figures. I expect this to be in March - June timeframe, but of course it could be sooner or later by a few months. This time Australia will not escape the fallout so readily, and will start to get some serious unemployment strain. The problem with this leg down is that all the tricks they pulled to get us out of the last nose dive won't work this time. Volatility will come back too - big up and down days. More people will get scared this time as the realise that the powers that be have lost control. Comparisons the to the 1930's will be everywhere, and people will be talking "Depression".

2. There will be trouble with US treasuries
The US needs to refinance mountains of debt. This is not paying off any principal you understand, just refinancing old debt plus taking on new debt. Obamas plans are fantasy land stuff. The problem is that the world is very suspicious debt, and with low interest rates it's not worth taking the risk. One temporary solution would be a major correction in the stock market to drive scared cash into T bills, but even that might not be enough. It seems the Fed is backed into a corner and is about to lose control. Interest rates will almost certainly rise, in the US, probably by a lot once they get going. This will kill any stability in the housing market, which will start the spiral anew. Watch what happens to California, bank failures and bid-to-cover ratios on auctions (although these are fudged).

3. Geopolitics will become more unstable
There are so many possible black swans here it looks like a black cloud. Take your pick from Iran/Israel, India/Pakistan, Yemen, Eastern Block Country collapse, Russians testing an over-extended US force, Social collapse in China etc, etc. There may even come something right out of left field that nobody is even talking about now. Instability will start to rise, along with tensions, and some things will snap. Genuine terrorism may also come again, as could assassinations. There is a lot of bad mojo out there. Watch the oil/gas, as energy is the key.

4. Gold/Silver will have a rough ride
I like gold, I really do, but I can see some trouble ahead. Firstly, some of the recent rise is due to commodity speculation fueled by near-free money handed out in the US. When (if?) Quantitative Easing ends, in March as stated now, the punch bowl will be taken away. Similarly, if the stock markets become rough people may liquidate gold investments to cover other poorer performing assets. If you need money, you sell what you can. If interest rates go up then money may chase this. The gold market, like all markets, is manipulated these days. Don't think it's trading on fundamentals, if it was then gold would be well over $2K by now. There is no doubt that gold is a good long term investment and it will go up, but in 2010 it may go down a fair bit before heading that way. It may bounce around quite violently too - if you have the stomach for it you can make (or lose) a lot of money along the way. Try and pick the bottom and get into this, if you can, in physical form. Watch to see if there are any obvious games at Comex.

5. The US dollar will have a rough ride too
This is kind of the inverse picture to gold. I expect the long term picture to be a depressed dollar value (to other currencies, or to gold), but the short term picture may surprise many with a strong dollar. I think it will end the year below the current value. There is an outside chance of a full blown dollar crisis this year, but I suspect this will be put off for a 2011 or 2012. If there is, then that will turn all the trends up to "11".

6. Inflation? Deflation?
This is a hard one. I think you can answer this by saying - whatever is worse. Deflation on the things you own or don't need (luxury goods), inflation on the things you need (food, energy). Actually, in some cases there is a third option - shortages. You may not be able to buy things at any price. This may come in unexpected areas as the globalisation story becomes unhinged. If the financial markets fall apart (and despite the happy talk from Ben I believe it can still happen) then international trade will be even slower than it is now. Not many people consider this option, surprisingly.

That is the top 6, let's see how I do in Jan 2011.

Knives - Part 2

I was not exactly intending to make this a multi-part entry, but since writing the first part I have bought more knives. Quite a few more, as I now have 15 of them in total. I think I'm near the end of the knife buying spree, but I'll get back to you on that one.

Partly I have added more because I found a seller on eBay who gets them in cheap and sells a lot of knives second hand for $10 or so - which is a price that's hard to go wrong with. I mean, it's less than a CD. These are sourced from the US, confiscated at airports (let this be a reminder to you!). I have had one fairly major disappointment, but also two or three great surprises, so overall I've been happy doing this.

The other reason I have added more knives to my collection is that I have wanted to continue to own an example from various brands and locking mechanisms. I now have knives with axis locks, lockback, mid-mounted lockback, liner lock and a "levitation" locks. Perhaps amazingly, there are a few lock types I still don't have. As for brands, I have added two Benchmade knives, a Spyderco, a Gerber, a Kershaw and a few other lesser brands. All very nice knives I have to add, and each has it's own personality.

An example of a knife I am interested in, because it has a different lock and it's a brand I don't yet have one of is a CRKT Rollock (The II looks better). The problem with this knife is that I can't imagine every using it, and that's one criteria I have for ownership.

Anyway, on with a mini-review of some of the knives I do have...

Spyderco Tenacious (new)
Spyderco make fairly odd looking knives. At least, that was my first reaction but you do get used to them. They have a blade that sticks out a lot, so that the large circular hole is accommodated. This hole is used instead of a thumbstud to push out the blade, and it means that the blade is very wide (deep?) and has a large thumb-ramp (which is practical). It's also a full ground blade, making it a great cutter. Actually, it's quite a big knife, one of the largest I own, and this somewhat makes it borderline for an Every-Day-Carry (EDC) proposal. It is a very refined knife, with a lot of attention to detail - and the mechanism is very smooth and a pleasure to open and close. The clip can be put in all 4 positions (tip up/down, left/right) and there is a lined lanyard hole. The black G10 handles (or are they Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon? FRN) are flat and lightly textured. The knife can be taken apart for cleaning, has a flow-though design with skeletonlized liners to keep the weight down. The blade is a 8Cr13Mov steel, which is fine by me. I'm not a steel connoisseur - as long as it doesn't rust and can hold an edge I'm ok with it. It's made in China, which again, is fine by me as long as it's well made - and it is. Overall, this is one of my favourite knifes - feels great in the hand, it's sharp and practical design.

Kershaw 2040 "Stag"
I think a picture is in order here..


I wanted to get a Kershaw knife, and this one came up on eBay so I went for it. This is an "old" knife - from the 70's and 80's according to this site, which incidentally has it listed for US $70, whereas I paid AUS $15 for it. The wooden inserts in my knife are fine, but the blade was very dull. I have been learning the ancient art of knife sharpening, and tried my hand at getting this blade in better condition. I was amazed at how quickly and easily I was able to get this up to shaving sharp (ie it can cut the hairs off my arm). It's a thin knife frame, quite heavy and large and solid though. It locks up very tightly, and has a great spring to it when opening/closing. It had some rust-looking buildup inside the knife, and as it is not a take apart model, I had to use some WD40 and tissues wedged in there to remove it - which it did quite easily so it was fairly superficial. This was one of my "great surprises" off eBay - I really like this knife as it oozes quality and is a joy to hold and use. It's not a high tech knife - it has no real tricks - it's just a solid, stylish pocket knife. I love it.

Benchmade Benchmite II (new)
This is a little knife, and I mean little with less than a 2" blade. I bought it because I wanted a Benchamde knife, and this has a new lock type - a "levitator" lock. In practice this means that on one side of the knife you have to press the frame at a certain point to open and close the blade. Yes, this locks closed - which is a safety feature I have been looking for. Why? Well, having a super-sharp knife in your pocket catch on a thread when you pull it out, could have nasty consequences on your future reproductive capability. Some knife designs are more at risk of this than others, but unless you can lock it closed, they all carry some danger. This knife, then, is safe to have in your pocket, or on your keyring, or to even toss to someone (closed). It's an all-metal knife which would make it heavy except that it's tiny so it's not. In the hand you are only going to get two fingers around it, and the thumb on top, so it's not going to be used to cut anything major. It's a "red box" knife (ie not made in the USA, in this case, Taiwan), but the quality is excellent. It has no belt clip (which makes it flat), but does have a lanyard (keyring?) hole. This is in summary then a cheap, small, safe utilitarian knife. I would use a bigger knife in preference if one was handy, but would use it in a pinch to do light tasks.

Benchmade Mini Griptillian 556 (new)
Slightly unsatisfied that I had a "real" Benchmade knife with the Benchmite, I ordered this blue-boxed model. Despite the "mini" in it's name, it's a mid-sized knife (*just* fills the hand) and is significantly bigger than the Benchmite II. It has an axis lock from the people that invented it (I believe), and it's a very nice design. To be honest, I've only had this knife the shortest time, and I don't really have a feel for it yet. My initial reaction though is that I am not disappointed. This is very sharp right out of the box too. One thing I have noticed is that the actual edge of the knife is a tiny ground, which may make sharpening the knife an interesting challenge. Not that it needs it now.

Gerber Torch I
This knife cost me $15 on eBay secondhand. It's in near-new condition really, there is no noticeable wear. It's a medium knife (just get my fourth finger onto the frame when open) with a frame lock. It also has a flip tab on the side to fast-open the knife and despite me being quite timid with the other knives I own, with this I can open it with the flick of my wrist. Once open, the tab also forms a natural barrier for your fingers to slide up to the blade, which I also think is good. Of course, if that same tab is bumped accidentally when closed it will partly open. See above on the Benchmite II for reasons why I am cautious about this. I have sharpened this blade and it's now ok, not great, but ok. It's a great knife to fiddle with though - the opening is fun and the close is smooth and sweet too. It doesn't say where it is made on the blade, or the model or steel. Still, it's a nice knife, and I like it.

Smith & Wesson Baby SWAT SW3300
Well, so far I've liked all the knives, right? Well, not this one. The most immediate problem is that it's almost impossible to open. I've tried loosening the pivot screw, and it just introduced blade wobble. The second problem is that it's almost impossible to close, once you do pry it open. The frame lock locks up so tight, and the gimping in it bites the thumb quite hard. I might be able to solve both problems by bending the framelock back a fraction, but I'm thinking I should not have to do that.
(Pause)
OK, well, I've swallowed my pride and just bent the frame a little with some needle nosed pliers and it's now a lot better. I also re-tightened the pivot screw so the blade wobble has gone. And I oiled it. Even now though, partly due to the location of the thumb studs, it's still hard to open, or at least, harder than it should be. Now it's easy to close, which is a relief. This is about the same size and weight as the Gerber Torch I, and I know that I would grab that instead over this knife any day, despite these fixes. My thumb hurts from playing with this knife for only a few minutes and I'm relieved to put it down and pick up a different one. It gives me little joy.

Winchester 2008
I am not sure of the model number, sorry. This is a liner lock with wooden inserts in the otherwise solid metal handle. This is an odd knife in many ways. I got it mainly because I liked the look of the wood inserts (still do), and it was cheap, of course. It has several good points - it is easy to open, nice blade shape, easy to close, no knife play, good clip, nice gimping. There are a few things I don't like about it though - the primary thing is that the liner in the lock is very thin (compared to the others, like the Tenacious) and it bends out a lot. So, despite being a "super solid" looking knife, the lock is somewhat flimsy (to my eyes anyway). As for the handle, it seems to go somewhat overboard, the knife back is a solid lump of metal which makes it quite a hefty knife. Too hefty really, it's overkill. The buck 110 is heftier, but that is right on that knife, which is hard to explain. Overall it's got a lot of things right but I'm not convinced it's the real-deal.

And the others...
Yes, well, there are three more which I will do quickly. I got a "California Waterfowl Association" branded knife, which may well be a generic Chinese knife re branded. It is a midsized lockback with what looks to be FRN handles. The steel is unknown, but the blade has a nice shape and a hole instead of the more common thumb stud. I have sharpened it and may have introduced the small nick on the blade in just the wrong place. I don't play with this much, although there is nothing particularly wrong with it.

The other two knives looks similar, but I feel strongly that one is better than the other. They are both large wood handle over steel frame lock folders. One is "Sheffield" branded, the other "Ozark Trail". They have a remarkably similar design, but the Sheffield gets it right at almost every turn that they are different. The Sheffield is smoother to open and much nicer to close, and has a bevelled "roundness" to all the edges which makes it a pleasure to handle. I will open and close this blade for a few minutes, but the Ozark gets picked up and put down almost straight away. It's not bad, really, it's just that the Sheffield is better.

I do have a few others, but really, you've had enough, haven't you?

Ok, so my fav is....?
Oh, this is such a hard thing to answer. I like a lot of my knifes for different reasons. However, I do think about which knife I might choose if I could only have one. It's a really hard choice, and it partly comes down to what I think I might use it for. To stop dodging the question for a minute though, I suspect I would go for the Buck 110 (solid, sharp), or possibly the Kershaw 2040 (more style?). They are both very dependable knifes. Of the modern made knifes, the Spyderco Tenacious would be the pick. I know any of these knifes would serve me well, and have good steel. I guess though that if I was 100% satisfied with one knife then I would not have a collection of 15 of them, would I? In practice each knife has it's own personality, strengths, weaknesses and ideal uses. Even one knife can feel different depending on it's maintenance (loose screws, dull blade, grit in the hinge etc). Anyway, for one reason or another, I more or less like them all.

Mad Skillz - Part 1

I was thinking the other day that I had managed, over the last 12-18 months or so, to add a number of somewhat odd abilities to myself. It's not that I am searching for a hobby, I don't feel the need for them per say, more I find that I just suddenly become curious and intensely interested in something. I have no idea where this will take me eventually, or what will be next, but I might just take a guess in another part. So, first off there was ....

Spinning. This was the first real skill I learnt, although perhaps the vegi garden was before that but it's so common an affliction it doesn't really count. No, I get a few raised eyebrows when (or if) I tell people that I know how to spin. I know it is not very Australian-male of me, I should be more interested in football or indy car racing or something. Anyway, we were at the markets at Bundanoon in NSW, which is where my mother lives, and there was a lady there spinning wool. I am reasonably mechanically minded, but at first glance the wheel looked impenetrably complex in it's operation. On the other side of this though, she seemed so relaxed and contented converting a bag of raw fleece to what passed at a thread, which was then spun again into a wool. It seemed like a sort of magic, like a raw egg congealing into scrambled mass on the application of a little stir and heat. I liked the fact that I could be part of a small section of a process which involved the raw ingredient of a fleece to the end product of a useful thing to wear, even if it was a wobbly scarf or something. This was empowering, and learning the wheel was a challenge.

I bought my wheel on eBay, and probably paid a bit too much, but it's a nice one. It is an Ashford brand, in a honey coloured pine. When I first got it, I have nothing to spin with it, so I had to then buy a bag of "slivers", which is precombed and dyed fleece. This seemed like a bit of a cheat, but I was already a bit overwhelmed so I was just trying to make it a little easy on myself and I knew I could ramp it up later to something harder, if indeed I ever made it that far. I read a bit, watched a few youtube videos and when I had something to spin, sat down to tried it myself. My wife, I think, probably expected me to give up early. And based on my first attempts, where I seemed to be all thumbs and be simply fighting the machine, it looked to be the logical thing to do. The twist kept getting past my thumb pinch, and this made drawing really hard. However, I paced myself, and took small victories where I could. I had brief moments where it felt to be getting easier. It is a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time at first, but slowly you get used to the motion and controlling the speed of the wheel. In fact, after a while you stop thinking about it, it just more or less does what you want it to. Getting the sliver to draw out evenly was really the concentration point.

Learning the tension of the wheel, and getting a feel for the right amount of twist, took quite a bit of time, and I realised, is where some personality of the spinner comes into play. My wool is reasonably thick and sturdy, because to me this seems right, but my wife who also was trying it out, produced thin and delicate wool.

Plying was also a stage to master, somewhat separate to the spinning, where the two threads are spun together to make the final strong wool. This is where you see how even your work is, as it rapidly passed through your hands. I had piggy tails all over the shop, and huge "slubs" - which are fat bits. After hours of slaving away I had produced my first "skien", which looked like a hoop of old Rastafarian's locks. It twisted up hopelessly, and was more or less a complete disaster. However, even in this first attempt I had improved visibly from the start to the finish, so I was encouraged.

Knitting. The wool I produced was not going to just sit around in pretty balls. I wanted to actually use it. You may congratulate yourself on how well it looks, but there is nothing like using something to really know it's quality. So, I bought some knitting needles and sat down with an excellent beginners book ("Knitting" by Klutz ISBN-10 1-59174-384-2) and tried to become something other than all thumbs again. My first project was a scarf, for myself, in the most basic of all stitches - garter stitch. Like air travel - casting on and casting off is the most dangerous, but the bit in between is lots of the same. Like the spinning though, consistency of tension was the key. My wife kept telling me to loosen up, but I always fell back to a slightly tense line.

The scarf I produced was too wide, had a wobbly thinner bit in the middle and was very heavy. However, I wore it all through our great family European vacation with pride and to great effect - it was warm and gave me comfort. There is something very pleasing about wearing something you have made from (almost!) scratch. You appreciate the effort that has gone into it, as you know exactly how much that was. You look after it. I guess in a word you cherish it, as there is something of you in it.

From there I decided to knit a scarf for my daughter, and chose to use store bought wool so that I could get some colour and also eliminate the still inconsistent quality of the wool I was producing. I knew she would be less tolerant of mistakes. This turned out to be really quite an OK result, she wore this in Europe too. I made some mistakes, and had to get my wife to help backtrack on those and patch them up. I seem to be like a train when I knit, with only a forward momentum. Going backwards is a real problem, I stare at the needles for ages not knowing what to do next.

After this, and back in Oz, I worked on what is the best scarf so far - one for my Sister. This was using my spun wool, which I now had a good handle on the twist tension and got it fairly consistent. I also designed using graph paper a heart shape which I put into the scarf using a change of stitching to stocking stitch. This meant counting rows and stitches at times, and changing from one stitch to the other. It took a lot more concentration than an all garter stitched affair, but looked really nice and quite subtle. I made the scarf not as wide as mine, but still fairly substantial. I added a fringe too, which made it look quite professional I think. Overall, I was very proud of this effort, and happy to give it as a gift to someone I love.

While in Italy, we found on our travels a little quirky shop in a square which had Italian wool for sale. Laura chose three colors and I knitted her a scarf out of this fine wool. It was a lot softer than the Australian wool, and had a lot of ply. She didn't want a pattern or a fringe, so the effect is quite modest, but it looks good on her and she feels the cold so I hope it brings her a warm neck in the years to come. That was finished only a few days ago, so I'm currently without a knitting project on the go - however, I have one lined up.

As I mentioned earlier, I felt cheated by using the Slivers, so I bought a bag of raw fleece, much like the lady I first met who started it all. I also wanted to get away from the white wool, so this was from a brown sheep. This was like starting all over again in terms of spinning. I didn't want to card the wool, but just learn to spin it right out of the bag. Carding looks to take too much time and besides, the carders are expensive and I don't own a set. This meant stopping often while spinning to pluck out grass seeds and knots and little clumps of fluff. The fleece is greasy with lanolin, and smells quite strongly, not surprisingly, of sheep. I want to keep that lanolin in there as a natural waterproofing, and I intend to make another item for myself - a Beanie. This is apparently not too hard, but does involve a lot of careful stitch counting. We'll see. If it turns out well, I'll make another one perhaps for my father.

I find spinning and knitting really therapeutic. I can, and reasonably often do, drink a beer or glass of wine while doing it. Unlike TV, which is passive and largely a time waster, these pursuits build up to a positive physical object. Something to be proud of, and perhaps, cherish. I might one day find a farmer who shears a sheep and learn how to do that too. Then I suppose I'll have to raise my own sheep somewhere. Then, and perhaps only then, will I feel I really know how to make woolen clothes from start to finish by hand. Each step has been deeply satisfying so far, and I imagine if I were to do this it would continue to be so.