I like messing around with the different types of camping stoves out there. One that I picked up a couple years ago was an alcohol stove called the Gram Weenie Pro (no longer in production). If you pay attention to the ultralight backpacking community, alcohol stoves are pretty popular. If decreasing weight is your primary goal then it is extremely easy to see why these tiny alcohol stoves are popular. My gram weenie weighs 1.2 oz with the windscreen, and 0.5 oz without. Compare that one of my favorites the Pocket Rocket which is 3.0 oz with no windscreen.

There are loads of tutorials out there on how to build a basic alcohol stove out of a pop can. Many of the small time manufacturers of these stoves use other re-purposed items. I believe the guy that used to make the Gram Weenies used those aluminum Budweiser bottles to fabricate the stoves. I haven’t made my own yet, but that does some like a fun Saturday project at some point.

Overall, I would say I am not a huge fan of alcohol stoves for practical use. They are fun to mess around with, and many cost less than $15 to buy. Here are some of issues I ran into with mine:

• Impossible to light in the wind. The stove has to prime itself (heat up) before the liquid gasifies and starts coming out of the jets. If it is windy it will go out before the stove is primed.
• If you add too little fuel in the beginning, there is no way to add more without risking setting your shirt on fire. Even once it runs out of fuel it is still quite dangerous to add new fuel to the hot stove.
• Long water boil times. No worries though, you can borrow some hot water for coffee from your buddy since his stove will likely beat your’s to a boil in a half or a third of the time.
• Fuel bottle leakage. Most of the small plastic bottles people use with these stoves will leak if any pressure is applied to the closed container. The best I’ve found so far is a bottle that used to contain Camp Soap (see photo).
• You cannot see or hear the stove when you are outdoors. Generally, the only way to see if it is still running is to slowly lower the back of your hand above the stove to check for heat.

Was it worth $15? Sure. Do I use one on a regular basis? No.

TL;DR - Initially, the blades were tough to remove, but after several times it becomes pretty easy and safe(-er, it is a scalpel after all).

I’ve changed my original opinion of the Havalon Piranta. I grabbed one of these knives earlier this year because of the amount of praise they were receiving from popular western hunters. Aron Snyder (aka Elkreaper) over at Rokslide loves the things.

My initial opinion was this:

• Are they sharp? Exceedingly.
• Are they lightweight? Yup.
• Are the blades easy to change without leaving your fingertip in the wilderness? Hmmm…

Here’s the issue I had. Out of the box, I was having a heck of time removing the blade without the assistance of a pair of pliers. Which is fine at home, but what is the point of a lightweight knife if you must carry a pair of pliers with you change the blades? Then I saw this video (Obligatory warning - Canadian physics and knife guy ahead. Beware!):

The video is a full 15 minutes long, and goes through a lot of day-to-day uses of the Havalon knife. You do not need to watch the entire thing to see what I found. The part that caught me was right near the beginning where he easily pulls the blade off with his fingers. I pulled out my Piranta and started pulling the blade on and off several times (using pliers). Sure enough after about 10 times, the blade went on easy enough for me to use my fingers alone.

End of story - now I think these little knives are pretty nifty.

The Freedom Ocean podcast is an interesting mix of product creation and marketing tactics. Tim Reid and James Schramko are “Internet Marketers” from Australia. Sometimes the internet marketing scene can be a little shady, but these guys definitely seem like good guys. Some of the topics from the show are aimed at beginners in the web business world, but others can be pretty detailed. James definitely has solid grasp of salesmanship and continues to come up with fascinating new ideas.

I found these guys after hearing James on another podcast I listen to called the Lifestyle Business Podcast (write-up forthcoming), where the hosts kept comment on how they liked the way Schramko says “business.” I’m not sure this show is for everybody, but it is worth giving a shot.

I have to say one of my favorite episodes was the live episode they did a while back at the Fast Web Formula conference.

The shortage of ammo and reloading components in stores has been quite frustrating. The prices people are paying are truly staggering. I’m hoping this current unpleasantness clears up before the end of the summer, but I really have no idea what to expect. This is definitely starting to put a dent in my weekends. Several of my friends have more or less just quit shooting (temporarily), because they are plum out. More importantly, I’m certain the gopher population might be on the verge of taking over the Rocky Mountain states soon with the current lack of 22lr.

This year’s Big Sky Dev Con is coming up quickly. We’ve got a great lineup of speakers for this year. If you haven’t grabbed a ticket yet, make sure you jump on it soon. See you all there!

A couple months back I presented at Montana Programmers on Handlebars.js. Wes has been recording recent meetup presentations and some of them have been great. Check out the MTP vimeo group. The talks on REST and “Big Data” were excellent.

New Piece Of Gear - I’ve made two old school campaign-style buttons. They can be purchased over on the gear page. Get a Gun Nerd button if think ballistic coefficients are interesting, or if you think the DefDist project is epic. Pick up the +1-2A button if you would like to show your support for the Second Amendment. Wear ‘em proudly.

Over the last couple months, I’ve been working on some experimental outdoor gadgetry.

Goal:

I’m working on a electronic pistol and carbine target system. My goal is to create something that helps increase mental awareness, and pushes you out of your comfort zone at the range. Zombie targets can be fun and tannerite has its place, but most of the time I want to go to the range and make it count.

Idea:

I got the idea to build my own target system after watching a video from Rob Pincus. In the video he talked about a specialty steel target system that he was running. He liked the system because it was hard for shooters to game (both consciously and subconsciously). It was a mental exercise as well as a physical one, and that seemed like an interesting concept. I also found that there are a handful of paper target drills out there that encourage the shooter to actively use their brain.

I’m hoping to have the initial project ready in the coming months. I’m working hard to keep the cost low and within the budget of most shooters. This is the first project that I’m working through the entire end-to-end manufacturing process.

Working on this project has been super fun. I like to think that I am improving my marksmanship skills as well, but I’m not entirely sure that isn’t just my imagination. I’ll post some more details about the prototyping process soon.