Posts filed under 'Troop Tech'
The Hobbit Hole’s offering of the SureFire and Pelican high-intensity flashlights has generated more interest in a shorter period of time than almost anything else we’ve offered. I now have more information on these lights, and I hope troops asking for these items read this message, too.
First, it’s risky to try to adapt the SureFire xenon flashlight to a weapons light. As I explain in more detail in the revised article, a real weapons light has more than just a one-inch body diameter. It’s especially designed to manage the heat these lamps generate, and survive the recoil and vibrations from firing the weapon. They’re also far more expensive, on the order of 3 or 4 times more expensive. The SureFire G22 might function flawlessly as a weapons light for your entire tour, or the lamp might fail with the first shot. It’s a risk I’d rather not take.
Second, those wonderful Pelican 3330 LED lights turned out to be too good to be true. The vendor mistakenly sent us the 3330, which costs $15 more, in place of the 3320, which is a xenon model. We just got lucky, and received a bunch of $35 LED lights for $19. That oversight was corrected in the last shipment we just received.
Finally, we’re now discovering that ordering 30 or 40 flashlights at a time is a bit of a challenge for our dealers. To avoid delays, we may substitute some other color flashlight in place of desert tan. Your flashlight may be OD green, or black. We promise not to mail out any flashlights in “high-visibility yellow”.
As it now stands, we have the $36 SureFire xenon, the $35 Pelican LED, and the $19 Pelican xenon lights. The SureFire comes with three sets of batteries, the Pelicans with just one.
Much of what we buy and ship depends on where the deals are, and how fast we can get how many. If we send you a Pelican xenon light in place of the SureFire xenon, we’ll throw in extra batteries. If you want the longer lamp and battery life of the LED, we’ll send you the Pelican 3330 LED. Even at $35, the Pelican LED remains a steal, because a SureFire G22 with a LED lamp assembly costs $20 more than the xenon model.
Please keep this in mind when you request a high-intensity flashlight. Thank you.
July 11th, 2006
Troops need small red lights to perform certain tasks at night without harming their night-adjusted eyes. We’ve donated LED microlights and color-adjustable lights in the past, and will continue to do so, as circumstances allow.
But many Soldiers and Marines, especially those on patrols and checkpoints, also need extremely bright white light. There are now many quality lights out there that can do the job, but most have a high price tag to match the high quality.
The Hobbit Hole continually searches for affordable products that can serve our troops. As nice as they are, we can’t seriously consider the aluminum high-intensity flashlights out there. But American, and Hobbit, ingenuity comes through with a pair of plastic flashlights that should do the job just as well. The lights are made by SureFire and Pelican, famous for their combat lights and other high-performance products.
The SureFire Nitrolon G22 is on the left, and the Pelican PM6 3330 on the right. Both use two CR123A lithium 3 volt batteries, and are in the now-fashionable desert tan color. After that, their differences are substantial.
First, the SureFire uses a xenon halogen bulb. It gives off an intense bright white light of about 65 lumens. Battery life is about one hour, and the lamp has a lifetime of about 100 hours. The tailcap switch is the momentary-contact type. The tailcap is tightened completely to give “constant on”.
The Pelican uses one of the new high-powered white LEDs. Its output is 40 lumens, but has a bettery life of about 40 hours, and a LED life of 10,000 hours. The switch in the tailcap is the momentary/full type of pushbutton.
Second, while both lights are made of similar high-tech plastic that resists dents and scrapes, their construction differs. The SureFire unscrews at both the head and tail cap, while the Pelican just comes apart at the front end. Both are sealed with O-rings, which should be treated with a bit of silicone grease from time to time to help sealing. They’re water and sand-proof, within reason.
Finally, the SureFire has a one-inch body diameter, and can be adapted to mount on a weapon using a one-inch scope ring or flashlight mount. Be aware, a real weapons flashlight is more than just a light with a one-inch diameter body. The lamp assembly is designed to protect the white-hot filament, about the thickness of a human hair, from recoil and vibration. While an M16 doesn’t seem to have much recoil, any weapon has an instantaneous recoil spike of several hundred Gs for a millisecond or two. That is what will break a filament. And when one of these halogen bulbs go, a replacement costs almost as much as the original light, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find one
The Pelican is just a handy light with a convenient pocket clip. Neither one is very roll resistant, so don’t let it roll away from you.
For nighttime use, both are quite brilliant. The SureFire has the edge in the ability to “dazzle” someone when shining it into their eyes, although the LED on the Pelican is plenty bright, too. The LED light is far superior in battery and lamp life. If CR123 lithium batteries are hard to come by in your area, you might want to consider the Pelican LED model.
These lights are less expensive than their aluminum counterparts, but they still represent a significant cost to the Hobbit Hole. The best price we have gotten on the SureFire is $36, but that includes four extra batteries. The best price on the Pelican to date has been $19.
If you need a light, please ask, and specify “SureFire” or “Pelican”. We’ll try to throw in some extra batteries, if we can. If you want a Camillus 904S folding knife, we can include that, too.
However, if you’re requesting a sheath knife, we ask that you refrain from asking for a flashlight at this time. We wish we could give away a little bit of everything in each request, but money is still (and always) tight for us. Thank you for your understanding.
Added note: these lights are turning into instant Hobbit Hole hits. We’re getting more requests for the SureFire xenon than the Pelican LED. However, the Pelican is easier and quicker to obtain. If inventory is tight, and you do not want a SureFire for weapons mounting, we reserve the right to substitute the Pelican. This is to prevent delay in getting your request back to you.
Trust me, I’ve shined both lights into my eyes. Nobody at night is going to notice the difference between being dazzled by 40 lumens or 65 lumens. And you’ll appreciate the much longer battery and lamp lifetimes of the LED.
And again, thank you for your service to America.
July 1st, 2006
This is an interesting piece of field gear that I came across while looking for a lunch bag.
Maxpedtion has a large line of bags, packs, and pouches which can have military use. They’re not cheap, but they are well made and sturdy.
One of their products is the Rollypoly, which is a ingenious pouch that folds up into a small bundle that can be attached by MALICE clips to any MOLLE-equipped piece of gear. Shown is the large size in khaki, and the medium in OD green.
The pouch unrolls into a sturdy bag that can be closed by a drawstring, or the velcro flap. The pouch can also be worn on a belt. The next picture shows the two pouches open, with a water bottle for size comparison. The large pouch comes with a detachable leg strap which is folded in with the bag. [Note: the leg strap is an optional extra. By accident, one pouch came with the leg strap included. Other large pouches have come without the strap. Please let me know if a leg strap is necessary. The medium-sized pouch can hold about seven empty M16 mags, while the large pouch could hold lots of MRE pouches.
I became interested in the Maxpedition Rollypoly after I replaced my old briefcase with the Maxpedition MPB case. Now I have room for my laptop PC, Palm Pilot, cell phone, tools, papers, notepads, USB drives, headphones, chargers, adapters, flashlight, and pens. It’s a great case with lots of compartments, and room for everything.
Everything except my lunch. I discovered that the medium Rollypoly holds my sandwich, a bottle of pop, and a bag of barbecue chips. When not needed, it rolls up into a tiny bundle.
PS: thanks to the generosity of one of our troops, I now have something I can proudly display in the empty ID pocket on the end of my briefcase:
We’ve had tremendous response for these dump pouches, so they’re now part of the Hobbit Hole’s regular “product line”. If you’re interested in one, please let us know if it’s a medium or a large. The only color we will normally carry is khaki, although if you must have a different color, we can order them in black or OD green.
June 18th, 2006
This is a little item we’ve started giving away with sheath knives. It costs 80 cents apiece, but it can become an important safety and convenience item for a Soldier or Marine. A lot of troops use mountaineering-grade carabiners and clips to hang small, light items like flashlights, keys, etc. from their IBA.
This can be a very bad idea when that piece of steel or aluminum, rated at 10 tons of strength, catches on something when you’re trying to get out of a vehicle, or through a doorway, in a hurry. The Grimloc safety carabiner eliminates this problem, and provides other benefits.
Beside the important feature of breaking under a load of less than 100 pounds, it does not have the metal-to-metal clatter of other carabiners. It won’t get hot in the sun, and it’s not a source of ricochets or secondary fragments. The thumb latch acts as a piston to clear out sand or water in the mechanism.
It’s a very handy gadget for keeping stuff close by. One Marine uses it to hang his kevlar helment onto his armor when he’s not wearing it.
We are giving away a pair with each sheath knife, because it seems logical that if you’re wearing a knife, you’re probably out there taking care of business in your IBA. If you want a couple with your Hobbit Hole folding knife, just ask. At 80 cents apiece, this is a bargain in safety and convenience. And while we’re giving them away in tan, the other colors available are black and OD green. If you absolutely must have them in one of the other colors, just ask.
These handy carabiners will be included with our Hobbit Hole sheath knives. If you want a couple along with your folding knife, just ask. And if you want a large quantity for a large number of buddies, ask for that, too. This is probably the most practical, and safe, gadget in our inventory.
May 24th, 2006
Gerber Legendary Blades has developed a new fire/rescue folding knife. The Hinderer is made by knifesmith, and trained fireman, Rick Hinderer. Here is his knife, shown with the Hobbit Hole’s standard, the Camillus Rescue Heat.
The knife is very solid, with sturdy stainless steel liners. The rectangular hole on the clip side is a wrench that fits the standard firefighter’s air tank valve. The heavy “tail” is a lanyard hole, and glass breaker.
With the blades open, we see more details of both knives. The Gerber has a blunt tip, while the Camillus tip is fashioned into a screwdriver. The small button on the side of the Gerber is the release that allows the blade to be closed. The Camillus is assisted-opening, while Gerber has a large thumb stud on each side for opening.
The left side of the knife also has a swing-out seatbelt cutter.
The knife comes in a nylon pouch that attaches easily to MOLLE gear. It also has an extra pocket that holds a L-shaped handle, adapter, and some assorted tool bits.
My review
As with all Gerber products, the quality is first rate, and nothing can be faulted there. I have a minor quibble about the add-on tool set. The tool bits don’t add anything to help rescue people. They’re just small parts that can get lost, and add cost to the knife.
Cost is my biggest concern about this knife. It would cost us considerably more to supply this knife to the troops than what the Camillus Rescue costs. The swing-out seatbelt cutter is nice, but I don’t think it will work well with military harness. The concave curve of the Camillus blade tends to gather the material and keep it in contact with the blade, and seems to work well with a pulling movement.
The Gerber Hinderer is a fine knife, and will do its specialized job well. However, we will continue to supply the Camillus Rescue as our standard emergency knife.
If you do rescue work, or especially if you’re a firefighter who works with air tanks, the Gerber is a great item. Our evaluation model will go to the first person who asks for it. All we request is you be honest, so this knife can go to a trained firefighter who needs something with an air tank wrench. For medics, combat lifesavers, aircrew, and vehicle drivers, the Camillus Rescue is still there to get you out of a tight spot.
May 6th, 2006
Another evaluation knife we just got in is the Columbia Rive Knife and Tool (CRKT) “desert hissatsu”. A hissatsu is a specialized form of Japanese tanto, the all-purpose knife of the samurai. Here it is, next to the Camillus BK2:
The hissatsu is strictly a combat knife, although it looks like it would make a quick job out of opening a stubborn MRE pouch. The blade is long, thin, and pointed, with plenty of sweep. That allows for impressive slashing and penetrating capability. The traditional tanto has a wider, less-swept blade with a chisel point for piercing armor.
As you can see from the picture, the CRKT desert hissatsu comes with a hard plastic sheath, and a belt adapter that can be attached in many different ways, to a belt. It leaves something to be desired when trying to hang it on MOLLE gear.
The Blackwater MOLLE adapter comes to the rescue again, as it did for the CRKT “First Strike”. With the generous amount of velcro tape provided, it allows the sheath to be mounted on MOLLE equipment.
The soft plastic handle provides a secure grip, and the flared front of the handle provides sufficient security for the knife’s intended use.
This is a very specialized combat knife, but if you feel that it’s just what you’ve been looking for, just ask. As with all our evaluation items, it goes to the first troop that asks.
December 27th, 2005
The Hobbit Hole is pleased to announce, due to the generous support from Gerber Legendary Blades, more products from the Gerber lineup. These will be given to any servicemember who requests one.
The first item is another one of those taxpayer-supplied goodies that you can never get through the federal (non)supply system. It’s the very nice, and handy, Gerber 600 Multitool, model 5770. It is available with either standard jaws and tools, or cap-crimper jaws, and C4 punch. A black ballistic nylon belt pouch is included.
The next Gerber Goodie is the military model of their Recon multi-color flashlight. It uses a single AA battery, and features a rotating color filter that provides white light at full illumination, and red, green, and blue lights at reduced levels.
The light is made of aluminum, and is quite solid. Waterproofing on the “M” model has been improved with a second O-ring under the tail cap, and better sealing of the rotating filter ring. It’s now even more water-resistant, but is not a diving light. There’s a pocket clip, and a hole in the tail cap for a lanyard.
This light has several uses. Sometimes, only white light will do, when color recognition at night is needed. The red light preserves night vision the best, while the human eye is most sensitive to the green light. The blue light was included at the request of Navy SEALS. It’s known as a “blood light”, and its purpose is to differentiate between mud and blood at night. We hope nobody will ever need the blue light.
And as a small tidbit of information, current Gerber LMF IIs are coming in a plastic clam pack, rather than the usual cardboard box. This requires me to risk life and limb (I almost had the first knife slide into my lap) while cutting them out of their plastic armored packaging. I have to remove the knives from the packaging so they will fit in our heavy-duty mailing boxes. Everything is there, including the informative cardboard display. Future Gerber LMFs may come in either a box, or the clam pack.
These pocket tools and lights are now part of the regular Hobbit Hole inventory, although we presently have only a small supply until we get a better feel for the demand. As with the rest of the Hobbit Hole “product line”, ask, and we will do our very best to get it to you.
December 9th, 2005
This is an item I just couldn’t pass up for review. It has that mixture of ingenious design, impressive craftsmanship, and just plain weirdness. It’s a pocket knife by Kershaw called the E.T. (External Toggle), shown here with a Camillus 904S for comparison. It won the Blade Magazine award for “most innovative American pocket knife” for 2005.
The knife is opened and closed by pressing down on a small ball at the end of the stainless steel toggle/pocket clip. It actually takes two hands to open or close the knife, since you have to hold on at the grooved area while “snapping” the toggle handle. You can get a better idea of how it works in this picture, which shows the blade at the halfway point.
Even after several dozen attempts, I could open the knife fully on the first try only about 50% of the time. The blade ran out of momentum at the halfway point. I’m sure there’s more of a trick to getting it to work, I just haven’t found it yet.
The craftsmanship is superb, and the ingenuity is amazing. But I have to rate the practicality as low. The knife does make an interesting collectible, and can be quite a conversation piece as you challenge others to figure out how it works. I have a few other pocket knives in my collection that look deceptively simple, but are not easily mastered unless you know the trick.
This knife is not simple in its construction, since I counted over 30 components to the knife, including pivots, rivets, screws, springs, and Nylock nuts, in addition to the blade and toggle mechanism.
As with other gadgets here at the Hobbit Hole, this knife goes to the first Soldier or Marine that expresses an interest in a knife that’s unique and collectible, even if not very practical.
November 26th, 2005
While taking a break from mailing out knives, and reviewing new gadgets, I thought I’d share a deep, dark secret:
The United States government, through the generosity of the American taxpayer, carries in its military supply system some of the very same items we give away. If you’re serving in the military, all you need is the number, an understanding supply NCO, and some (or a lot of) luck.
Here are the NSNs (NATO Stock Numbers) of some of the most popular items we’re giving away. In this case, they’re already bought and paid for by the taxpayer.
Camillus CQB1SG: 1095-01-493-1793
Camillus Bk2SG: 1095-01-493-1798
Camillus Bk3SG: 1095-01-493-1802
ATC LaGana improved Vietnam Tomahawk: 4210-01-518-7244
“Blizzard” survival blanket: 6532-01-524-6932
large “Israeli” one-hand bandage: 6510-01-515-7528
small “Israeli” one-hand bandage: 6510-01-460-0849
In the case of the tomahawk, it’s supposed to be part of the standard breaching kit, too.
Of course, none of the government-supplied items have the Hobbit Hole logo on them. That’s one reason we put the logo on, so someone can tell which were donated by the taxpayer, and which came from the generous folks at the Hobbit Hole. You won’t have to turn in your personal Hobbit Hole blade.
If you can score one of these items through the supply system, more power to ya. Meanwhile, we’ll do the best we can to supply our troops with these important items.
November 26th, 2005
This is actually a double-header gadget. We look at the Conneticut River Knife and Tool “First Strike”, and the Blackwater MOLLE adapter for knives with hard plastic sheaths. First, the CRKT First Strike:
CRKT makes interesting knives (our first Hobbit Hole knife was the CRKT 5700 folding knife), and this large tanto is no exception. It features a cord-wrapped handle that has been coated with resin for a secure grip, and full-tang construction ending in a “skull crusher” point. This is how the First Strike compares to the Camillus BK2 Campanion:
The BK2 Campanion has a more general-purpose blade, while the First Strike is more of a tano-style fighting knife. The BK2 has a full-width tang, and hand-filling plastic grips, which the tang on the First Strike tapers much more towards the pointed pommel, and is cord-wrapped.
The First Strike is held in the sheath by the pressure of an indented triangular area towards the pont, and the extra cord wrappings at the front of the handle. There is no safety strap, as on the Camillus. It’s a secure-enough arrangment, unless you plan to parachute with it, in which case it would not be rated as jump-safe.
The sheath is designed exxclusively for belt wear, with a handy belt loop that attaches with screws at various points around the sheath for carrying point up, down, horizontal, or on an angle.
The Camillus sheaths come with a belt loop, but we add a Patriot Performance Products modular knife loop (MKL) which allows mounting on armor and vests with PALS loops, like MOLLE or IBA equipment. I could not get the MKL to work properly with the First Strike.
That’s where the second gadget comes it. It’s the Blackwater MOLLE compatible modular knife sheath. It consists of a nylon sleeve with PALs straps on the back, and loops on the front, to attach other things to it. Inside it’s lined with the “hook” part of velcro. There is a long strip of “loop” velcro that is applied to the sheath.
After the sheath is placed in the sleeve, and all the velcro stuck together, we get something like this:
With this arrangement, the knife can now be attached to all the MOLLE-compatible vests out there.
My overall opinion of the knife, sheath, and adapter is that it’s quite nice, and you can bet your life on it. CRKT and Blackwater make quality products. But the Hobbit Hole will be sticking with the tried-and-true Camillus BK2 as its utility sheath knife.
That puts the CRKT/Blackwater combo into the category of “gadget”. As with all our one-of-a-kind gadgets, this knife will go to the first Soldier or Marine that requests it.
Please keep checking back here as we evaluate more unique equipment. If you like what you see, it can be yours for the asking.
November 13th, 2005
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