Indigenous Ability

  [First a Personal Note] Me and the Missus are going to take a celebratory 9 days off [3 rd thru 11 th ] in honor of our Anniversary and clean scans for the year. RAW 216/Black Box 3 will be released on time [tomorrow] and all orders thru Friday will go out the door asap. Any order and/or query during the gone time, well, your patience is much appreciated. ‘Old Hawks Pictured are two recently acquired ‘Hawks/Camp Axes, Woodpile Hatchets [all the same thing.] The handles and eyes are sound, but you can see the axe-heads show wear and neglect. BTW-See here for a little primer on how to choose a ‘Hawk. These two are short-handled [Eastern-use] axes with 1.5 lbs. heads. 1.5 does not sound like much but once we put them through their vicious paces the centrifugal forces will play hell with the unaccustomed wrist, elbow, and shoulder. [Hell, even waist if you’re doing it right and with gusto.] I use a 16-pounder for “Pirate Eights” to warm-up the system and make the...

  The following question, from good man, Ron Casas, prompts what follows… “Do you have a favorite, Old Western Gun fighter ( Pistoleros)?” My child answer [or Brian Regan answer] is I have many favorites. 2-3 dozen come to mind immediately, but I find I am constantly expanding “My Favorite.” I work Western firearms 6-days per week when I’m in town. Just as with our Black Box pugilism, wrestling, rough ‘n’ tumble and vicious weaponry array I have adjusted my firearm method to “historical recreation” or schoolyard “play pretend.” I pick a human-target, so to speak, and for that week of drills/scenarios, seek to emulate what they did right, what they advocated, and in some cases, what to avoid when it finally went toes-up. For Example—This Week’s Target is George W. Flatt. ·         Flatt, a fellow Tennessean, wound up in Caldwell, Kansas. ·         Flatt had worked variously as a saloon keeper, rang...

  There is not a formidable warrior culture on the planet or in all of history that did not hold in adulation Warriors, Hunters, Soldiers, or the “Woods Savvy” that did not include as part of its esteem the value of silent graceful movement. Be they ninja in a midnight breach of a shiro, Green Berets moving as a silent unit through the lush jungles of the Mekong Delta, or a band of Iroquois or frontiersmen in the thickets of the Adirondack—all these warriors cultivated a high degree of stealth, which was known to be part and parcel of moving with facile grace and quiet precision. These attributes do not come naturally, they must be inculcated. They must be trained. They must be drilled. They must be lived. Each of these warrior cultures had their own name for stealth ownership , in my adopted Comanche it is Mahoo’ikat’u. No matter the name the concept remains universal. A premium is placed on quiet and quality movement. They all embrace a middle-of-the-food-chain ...

  First, a little back-story on this offering. So, on the 14 th of September this Old Man made 55 revolutions around the sun. I celebrated the day before that with some river kayaking in the September rain and a little cliff jumping with loved ones. In the process of packing up kayaks and hitting a post-swim parking lot strip my wife snapped a few candids, never fear, not those kinds of candids, just a few shots of a 55-year-old man having a day. [Cash on the barrelhead for the Full Monty.] Those pics wound up spawning a surprising number of messages along these lines, “ Happy Birthday, Mark!” Me- “Thank you, Brother or Sister!” “Um, just wondering, what are you doing for training these days cuz, well, looks like it might be working a little.” Regarding these Messages. ONE-Thank you, everyone likes to be stroked. TWO-Likely a case of low expectations. Hell, I’m 55-years-old, I wager as long as I wasn’t 50% Dadbod I’d still get a pat on the back. But… That sti...

Crew, When it comes to tomahawk or camp-ax there’s two ways to make kindling—the right way and the wrong way. Woodcraft kindling [discussed here] is allowing the power of the wedge to do the job, reduce work, and keep all those precious digits soundly attached to that pretty palm of yours. The combative use with the tomahawk, evocatively called “bone kindlin’” [only inferred in the video] has a “use the wedge/emphasize the weight” component, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Intuitive tacticians will already start seeing down the correct path, but it is the “1/4 to Midnight” pathway on RAW 214 that starts making this CQB frontier mayhem a thing of pragmatic beauty.  For more details see The RAW Black Box Project either here: http://www.extremeselfprotection.com or for even more discussion and a complete sample syllabus see here https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-black-box-project-by-mark-hatmaker.html Or, hell, you could just become a RAW Member and skip al...

  Today’s sermon seeks to define as purely as possible what it means to be a Combination Man/Combination Fighter in the strict old school definition of this historical fighting beast, and not merely a dual sport athlete or cross-trainer or one who mixes a bit o’ this, and a bit o’ that. But first…a little gonads to the wall old school racing history. Barney Oldfield. You know the name? He was America’s first bona fide celebrity driver. How long ago was this? Well, when Henry Ford was wanting to provide PR for his vehicles, he entered one of his cars in a race in 1901 in Grosse Point, Michigan. Mr. Ford himself drove his car against experienced racer, Alexander Winton. Winton owned the first seven laps of the 10-mile race, but Ford pulled ahead in the 8 th and took the victory. The speed of these vehicles on the dirt track? Around 45MPH. Before we guffaw at this speed thinking of our easily besting that in our comfort controlled, performance designed machines, pon...