With such a variety of items we carry on a daily basis, we still ask ourselves if we're missing anything. We try and meet every situation with the preparedness that we're known for. People come to us because they know we've got a tool or gadget tucked away that will come to the rescue. I'm not one of those that carries a bag or something larger that a pocket organizer, but I've entertained the idea. The part of me that wanted to carry everything I own, versus the part that's rational and I can only carry what I really need. So, what I do is I pair down to the essentials and hope it's enough. One such item I keep for situations is the Civivi Tac-N-tweeze. Strange name, is it for ninjas or fending off a would-be adversary? None of the above, but it is effective as it's intended job.

With each new year we watch SHOT and Blade Show with anticipation of what companies have in store for us. Anticipation builds from announcement to launch, absorbing YouTube reviews and other media till it shows up in your mailbox or at your local dealer. One knife that has created such a response is the Kansept Loki. The Loki design is by Steven Dunnuck who's a mechanic by trade, and loves making things that are fast, sharp, or deadly. The Loki was originally designed as a custom fixed blade, the Loki has since evolved to an EDC knife. Let's take a look at this new knife and see how it edges up.

The guys at Vosteed never cease to amaze me. They are a company that's constantly breaking the mold and pushing the envelope. Co-founder and in-house designer Yue Dong is the wizard behind a lot of what the company produces. Having worked at Kizer as a product development director, he knows what it takes to bring something from concept to completion. A very large project that he's been working on has just been released on Kickstarter. Dubbed the Ankylo after the Ankylosaurus dinosaur that lived about 68 million years ago, this knife is the embodiment of of its namesake.

ViperSharp is one of those companies that's born out of trying to solve a problem. It's a story of ingenuity, determination, and building a better mousetrap.... or sharpener. Owner Mike Wood purchased a sharpener based off of a recommendation. The sharpener did a good job but he noticed some design limitations that caused frustration during sharpening. At first, he sought out to fix those problems on his sharpener, not realizing other systems existed or that some of those limitations were solved. As he went down the rabbit hole, he noted more issues that needed solving, why fix a broken system when you really need to do is go back to the drawing board.

Mike spent over a year working on designs and prototyping, learning more about machining than he expected. His end product is a system that fixes those shortcomings he noticed on that sharpener as well as others in the industry. His goal was to create a tool that offered the precision he wanted and was built to last a lifetime. The end result is a system that's American made and will deliver a perfect angle every time. Today we're checking out the ViperSharp diamond sharpening system, will it make the cut?