I prefer simple things. I prefer inexpensive things. I prefer things that work.

This knife, a recent find on Amazon, combines all three things I like. I’ve been using this on the job over the past week, and I like it more and more. Usually, I prefer folding lock knives with a clip. They are very handy. But I saw this fixed-blade and it’s price, and I thought to try it.

I’m a fan of the Ka-Bar series of WW2 fame, but I find them a tad too large. Plus, they are expensive these days- it’s stupid, but I dislike beating expensive stuff, and work knives get beat.

This knife will take a beating. It is a full tang, quality steel knife with a brass riveted handle. This is the best- I’ve found that screws on knives always end up working loose, a real pain. These type knives last for a hundred years. They are simple, and they are good.

The sheath, while not totally awesome thick leather, is pretty good. It also holds the knife securely while you work- no worries about this falling out. Also, I prefer the pocket knife because fixed-blades tend to get in the way, especially when you are sitting down or getting in and out of a vehicle. This one does not. It was barely noticeable, a big plus.

Very functional, worth every cent. If you’re in the market for a fantastic work knife, give it a look.

It’s worth it.

Hey, all. I’m still basking in the glory of having sent the rough draft of Light’s End, my new alien invasion novel, to my editor. It was 112k words of fun, trust me. I think I started writing on it this past late summer, and it took some doing.

So, to celebrate, I’ve been catching up with violin work and manual labor over on the Hell Tree, previously mentioned in the posts below.

Guys, I’ve been really impressed with the 57 fiddles, named “57” because that’s how many dollars each one cost me. Please see the review post below for the full story. I’m still shaking my head at the scandal of it; fifty-seven dollars for a violin body of this quality. It’s ridiculous. Above, you can see the one I’ve decided to keep as a vacation/camping fiddle. It outshines my current camping violin, which I’ll sell to make room for this one.

I added some extras to the one I kept for personal use, including a fancy chinrest and Pirastro Tonica strings. A brief aside about the Tonicas: I’ve used many types of strings over the years, including D’Addarios, Red Labels, Infelds, Dominants, Fiddlerman, etc. For some reason, I’ve never used the Tonicas, but several months back, Fiddlershop.com had a sale; a set of Tonicas plus a good rosin cake for about 25 bucks. I couldn’t pass it up, so I bought the set. The strings sat until I had a good candidate, and I decided to use them on this 57 fiddle.

They are great! I love the feel and the sound; they’re worth every cent of 38 bucks, the going price for a set. One could make the argument that putting a mid-grade string on a low-end violin is like throwing lipstick on a pig, but I disagree. If the strings help this humble fiddle to sound its best, then so be it.

Because working together, they play very well!

I thought to share this project with you, because it’s turned out much better than I anticipated.

Before we get into a discussion about All Things Roxor, I’d like to say for the wider audience that I’ve submitted my latest manuscript to the editor.

Hopefully, I’ll get it back by early May for an anticipated mid-June launch. The book concerns my take on what an actual alien invasion could look like, and it’s ugly. Long story short, we’d be screwed at this point in our civilization’s development.

I wrote approximately 112,000 words, with a two-week sprint at the end during which I did nothing but write. This directly caused a slowdown in another vexing project I’ve been tackling for an elderly neighbor: the violent disassembly of a massive maple that inconveniently fell over on his lawn.

Well, he couldn’t clear it for health reasons, and I needed the wood. Therefore, we made an agreement, and two months ago, I set to work. Did I mention that it was frickin’ huge, sixty inches at its widest point and that my saw only has a sixteen-inch bar? It’s been something, and frankly, without the amazing Roxor, it would have been a crappier job.

No shade on the Maverick, because it would have handled the work, but the Roxor has made it easier. For one, it’s not a daily driver, so I have no need to put my tools away every day. I’ve simply left them in the Roxor’s bed, as seen in the image above. For another, while I believe in working my vehicles, it would have really sucked to hit a brand-new 24 Maverick’s painted sheet metal with a stray log thrown in by exhausted hands.

It happens, trust me. This is not a concern with the Roxor, which will never be traded in.

Finally, I guess you can call me a weenie, but the Roxor doesn’t care if you get in and out of it with muddy shoes or woodchips falling from my clothes into the interior. Woodchips are especially annoying on fabric seats and carpet—they stick to everything. The Roxor has vinyl seats and a dura-coated interior. No one cares about mud or chips.

It’s the perfect work implement for these sorts of jobs.

And did I mention the power of it’s diesel, or unfeeling drivetrain? The Roxor has both, and I’ve used the hitch endlessly on this job. See below.

This is an example of what I call “splitting day.” Because of my relatively small chainsaw bar size, I have to whittle away at the trunk one chunk at a time. The chunks have to be small enough that I can feasibly carry the blocks to the wood splitter, seen behind the trailer. This is no easy task, and it usually takes a few days of “chunking” before I have enough gathered to split and fill a trailer.

By the way, allow me to plug the Harbor Freight heavy-duty utility trailer here. It is the ideal trailer for these kinds of chores, and the Roxor really likes it. For a reasonable fee, anyone in the US can have this great trailer. Add a thick plywood floor and some side stakes, and it’s wonderfully versatile. But I digress.

The Roxor has been the ideal work platform for this enormous chore. A definite force multiplier, and every time I hit the key, it reminds me why I bought it.

If you consider a Roxor, remember it is far more than a “toy.” And I’d advise you to get the factory hitch! It’s an amazing, versatile vehicle.

At some point, I’ll write a piece about more of the mods I’ve done to this beast—slowly but surely, my vision of the Roxor’s end state is being realized.

The end state is that the Roxor is my mobile toolbox.

In this regard, it excels.

Hey, everybody. A riff today on one of my hobbies, some amateur luthier work. I especially like to bring out the performance on low-cost, but upgradeable, instruments. It really is amazing what a bit of TLC and attention to detail can bring out of an otherwise sloppily manufactured, mass-market instrument.

By the way: BLUF, the instrument featured today is a BUY, but I can only vouch for this exact model, in this exact finish. Other violins I’ve encountered from this manufacturer you may want to pass on.

Here’s a bit I wrote earlier, elsewhere, with pics. Here goes, if your eyes haven’t glazed over already.

Important! This is a good instrument- potentially great, but you should know some things to determine if it’s appropriate for you. I purchased the Cecilio 4/4 size MV-300, Antique finish from Amazon for less than sixty dollars. IMO, the normal price, a hundred bucks, is still a steal for what you get.

The bane of music teachers everywhere is the student who shows up with a Violin-Shaped Object, or VSO. While these instruments can be made to play, they usually cost far more effort than they are worth. A hard rule is that a quality instrument must have good materials and acceptable workmanship, period. You will not get an awesome, ready-to-play-from-the-box student-grade violin for under a hundred dollars. In fact, expect to pay at least four hundred dollars as a bare minimum, and I’d advise buying from a knowledgeable and reputable retailer.

Now that I’ve said that let me sing the many praises of this violin, available at an unbelievable price point. I have a minor passion for violins; an outgrowth of this is exploring low-cost options. Not everyone has four hundred dollars, and I think music should be available to everyone. When I saw this violin on sale, I ordered it. Upon examination of the first one, I was so impressed by the base fiddle that I ordered two more, and to my shock, they were better! Very handsome, quality wood and the standard of manufacture was better. I’ll have to do far less work with the other two, as seen below.

See the nice, genuine spruce tops. Not plywood, as so many other fiddles at this price point.

And… the pretty, two-piece maple bottoms! It’s a scandal that these sell for this money, and that many end up in closets for eternity, doomed by poor fitment. It doesn’t have to be this way.

First, I am familiar with Cecilio products. I’ve owned and worked on a number of them. Therefore, I knew this violin was a fairly safe bet, but it would need fitting to perform well. However, I needed to examine the specific model. The description said the violin was made of ebony, spruce and maple. The pictures seemed to confirm this, although I doubted real ebony on a sub-hundred dollar violin. Importantly, Cecilios usually have real purfling- the inlaid wood strip along the edge of the violin’s plates. Very inexpensive violins have painted, decorative purfling. Also, poor-quality violin bodies are made of plywood. You should avoid this- it affects the tone. In addition, I know Cecilios have full-length bass bars, an internal tonal feature. These are essential. The profiles aren’t perfect, but they are adequate.

I mention this because you can’t fix plywood bodies, fake or absent bass bars, and painted purfling. To make an instrument playable, you have to have a firm foundation, and this is non-negotiable to me. 

The instrument arrived, and I unboxed it. As I expected, the case was serviceable, and it protects the instrument well. The factory strings are inferior. They are guaranteed to make the fiddle sound terrible. I discarded them immediately. If you buy one of these violins, order Red Labels with the instrument if you’re on a budget, or D’Addarios for a few dollars more. I’ve had problems with the factory tailpieces, so I installed a new unit that is about nine dollars- a carbon-fiber unit available on Amazon (note: if you get this, be sure to prep the tailpiece by putting a tiny dab of bearing grease on each screw. Yes, you can reuse the nylon gut from the factory tailpiece). The bow is OK. It will work, although you must trim a few stray hairs with fingernail clippers. Be sure to rub the hair down with rosin dust before use. Please ensure your hands are clean when you do this. Also, as expected, the fingerboard is painted, which is a shame because there is some really nice tropical hardwood under the flat black paint. However, it does not affect play, so it doesn’t matter that much. The chinrest is serviceable. It’s painted maple. See below for how it looked when it arrived. This is typical of Chinese factory violins.

Then, I closely examined the essentials—the body, the stuff that dictates whether you have a violin, or a VSO. This includes the top plate, the neck, the bottom, the bass bar, the finish, and the purfling.

I was very impressed with the core instrument at this price point. I’ve seen much more expensive instruments with inferior materials! Before I talk about the many deficiencies in this violin’s fit and finish, let me list the positives. See the images below; one of the pics was made upon project completion after I tuned, adjusted, and cleaned the violin. Wow! It turned out amazing for a sub-100 dollar fiddle! You can see the mildly flamed, two-piece belly, the tight-grained spruce top with yes, real inlaid purfling, and there is a picture of the peg box- excellent maple! I liked the core instrument so much that I ordered two more! The pics of the fitting problems, and there were a few, were of the worst of the three. If you order this instrument, you may get those problems, but it’s not necessarily a given. 

Look at this pretty belly! A sub-$100 fiddle shouldn’t be allowed to have this genuine mildly flamed, two-piece maple prettiness, but it does. YES, it is real maple, not veneered plywood—you can see the grain from the bottom through the F hole on top, as opposed to the White Ply of Death.

Now, check out the wood on this peg box! (You can also see the AWFUL factory work on the nut, which is the worst of the three fiddles I ordered. Yes, I fixed it. I’m getting there.)

Finally, a photo that shows the REAL purfling, although I took it to demonstrate careless handling at the factory.

Long story short, the bones of this model fiddle, the stuff you can’t improve, are solid. All three had vast space for improvement.

So, let me tell you what I did to this little fiddle; if you order one, you may have to do something similar, too. But not necessarily; 2/3 of the violins of this exact model were marginally acceptable. One was not. You’ll see pics.

I think this violin is best for someone who isn’t afraid to tinker or wants to learn how to do violin work for themselves. This is an ideal platform for that; the basis is solid and excellent. 

However, let’s talk about what I had to do to make this runt of the litter sing. One violin had a terrible saddle; it’s the ugliest (new, not worn antique) one I’ve ever seen. However, it’s functional, so I left it alone. See below.

Previously mentioned was a weird crushed point on the upper right; this probably happened at the factory. It’s cosmetic, not a show-stopper. See earlier image. Of course, the sound post was incorrectly placed and crooked; I had to trim and reposition it. While adequate, the bridge profile needed some fine-tuning, and I fit the bridge feet properly, too. A peeve of mine is that all three violins had perfectly good bridges, and most of them were ruined because someone at the factory didn’t know that the long-grain side of the bridge was supposed to face the player. Most of them were cut backward and will have to be discarded. A shame. I mentioned how I ditched the factory tailpiece. You should, too. The (blackened maple) pegs fit all right, although I did slightly ream out the D-hole. I used peg soap on the pegs and reinstalled them. 

Then, there was the nut, the little block of wood by the peg box that holds the strings at a uniform distance from one another, and, importantly, holds the strings very slightly above the fingerboard. Slightly? Yes. The E string is supposed to be .3mm above the fingerboard! That’s really close- see the images for how the nut looked from the factory. 

Yes, this is not good. More like 2mm on the G, as opposed to .4! And what’s with the wood putty boogers? Sigh.

This spacing isn’t good, either. By the way, it’s not nearly as bad as some nut spacings I’ve seen! Still, it’s inadequate.

The nut was terrible, but believe it or not, I’ve seen much worse. I had to work with a string gauge, a file, and sandpaper to get it close to right. You can see the before-and-after images. The nut was the worst part, but it’s OK now. If you do this, be VERY careful with your file. One slip, and you need a new nut, which is a pain. 

Out came the file…

…And, the improved nut profile. Not perfect, but much better.

The long list of adjustments I just discussed should be perfect on the aforementioned four-hundred-plus dollar music store instrument, and it darn well better have good strings. 

However, the total cost of this fiddle, including new strings and tailpiece, was less than a hundred bucks. At the end of the process, it was pretty darn good! 

If you feel like tackling a minor project to save money, or you want to learn how to do basic violin work, then this is hands-down the violin model for you. You can learn to do all the above by watching online videos, and there are only a few special tools required. These can be bought on Amazon.

By the way, it plays very well! This was the best part; this girl can sing! 

This is a good model if you know what you’re getting into. Recommend.

I haven’t listened to this yet because I’m a freak and ordered the CD all the way from Germany. But if it’s like other music in this genre I’ve heard, it should be awesome. I’m a big fan. For those of you who are actually part of the modern age, this album is also available on Apple Music and Spotify. And yes, for Beast customers, you can stream the album using the link above.

To make it sweeter, one of the musicians (who apparently lives in Germany) is a member of my band (i.e. subgroup of a larger tribe). The other fella is Anishinaabe, which is cool as well ’cause my gram’s mom was Anishinaabe/Ojibwe, too. So, I feel a bit of a connection here, and I think it’s important to support artists.

Let me tell you, it’s hard to put your work out there and harder still to get people to buy it. So, I have no problem helping these guys out.

It’ll be awhile before I get the box from Deutschland, but I’m looking forward to it.

Go ahead, give it a whirl. You might expand your horizons.