Off to Ross Lake in the North Cascades this weekend.

My dad and myself are off once again on our yearly mountain trout fishing trip up @ Ross Lake in the North Cascades of WA state. It's gorgeous up there. In one of SB&T's earliest posts, I have some great pix I took up there 2 years ago, see them HERE

I'll be giving the plain-edge Benchmade 15000-1 Bone Collector fixed blade skinner its day in court. I mentioned earlier that the little D2 fixed blade wasn't impressing me. There are weird anomalies to the finish, almost like little beads of liquid steel got splattered on the blank they used for my knife. Also, my main complaint is that the sheath is leather, and ridiculously large. The knife rattles around in the sheath. Again, not a huge deal for trout fishing, but if you're after a buck, he could very well smell that leather (I dunno) and hear that shit rattling as you stalk. Anyhow, it's a handsome knife, mine is plain edged, and I love D2 tool steel. It holds an edge forever! Anything D2 I have in my possession hardly ever needs touchup, and when it does, a diamond rod does the trick. The tradeoff is that it's not stainless, but I've given mine 5 or 6 coats of tuff-glide, the Sentry solutions oil that can be used as pivot or gun lube and also comes saturated into their Tuff Cloth product. I've gotta say, I've been using Sentry products since I was an 18 year old kid, and they do the job, as promised. Check out Sentry Solutions.

Due to inherited body chemistry (my maternal grandfather) and a combination of meds I take daily, I sweat like a sum'bitch. If I carry gray bead blast finished knives in the summer months, or at work, they get pre-rust spotting within mere hours. I coat pretty much everything I own with Tuff Glide. It sounds bizarre, but I find the smell comforting, probably because I have so many peaceful memories of cleaning knives (and guns) by myself in a sort of zen state. Anyhow, Tuff Cloth is cool, but can dry out, so you can use Tuff Glide to replenish it, or as I do, soak eyeglass cleaning cloths in Tuff Glide and wipe down knives with those.

Anyhow, I didn't mean for this to turn into an ad for Tuff Glide, I just use the stuff all the time, and find it works great to prevent rust and spotting. So early (fuck) EARLY Friday morning, pops and I will load up his truck, tackle boxes, rods and reels all packed, along with a host of cutting tools and head for Ross. I'll bring back some beautiful shots I'm sure, I just got a new 2 gig SD card for my camera, so, sky's the limit. I'm going to bring along my new Leatherman Freestyle, the BM15000-1 Bone Collector mentioned above, and probably a Triple Eight knife, just to have a sharp little extra blade. I'll be back with more feedback on that Benchmade fixed knife, after I see how it performs on trout bellies, hell I might even take a hike and see how it copes as a camp blade.

Anyhow, I'll be around for a few more days, and put up a couple new posts before I leave. I f anybody wants to talk about THEIR summer plans, leave a comment.