Unlike many fire starters, the BlastMatch from Ultimate Survival Technologies allows you to start fires using only one hand.  You might not think this is an important feature until you’re alone in the wilderness with an injured hand.

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Wildfires leave destruction in their wake, but you can protect all your hard work with a little insurance — Barricade fire gel.  You mix the gel with water from your garden hose, then spray it on your house and even your lawn to create an encapsulated wet blanket that’ll block fire for up to 24 hours.

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Ever wonder how divers can patch a hole in a ship in the water?  One way is the Hilti UW10.  This gun can seal a 15mm plate to the side of a ship to stop it from taking on too much water, saving both cargo and lives.

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If the regular Fubar is the schoolyard bully, the new Fire/Rescue Stanley Fubar is the guy who beats him up and steals his lunch money — it’s a bruiser, beefier and pumped up in almost every area.  First responders (police/fire/EMT’s) designed this new member of the Fubar fold for forcible entry, vehicle extrication, and extreme demolition.

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Who would’ve thought you could store thousands of gallons of water in a tank that folds up to the size of a tent and can be carried by one guy? That’s just what you get with the Rol-La-Tank from Fol-Da-Tank.

Designed to be a relay storage tank for storing liquids temporarily in remote locations, this portable tank sets up in less than two minutes with no tools. Simply unroll the tank, unfold and insert the four (or six) corners, and snap the liner into the clips — easier than most tents.

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July 4th — the firebug’s holiday — is coming, so I’m bringing up fire safety again. At the Toolmonger shop, we take safety very seriously, and although we’re not the final authority on fire safety, we run into some good information and try to get opinions from experts when we can. Whether you’re following our advice or someone else’s, make sure you’re as prepared for a fire as you can be — it could be your shop, or even a life on the line.

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In 2001 members of the Air Force’s 820th Security Forces commissioned Ryan M. Johnson to revive 18th-century battle axes with the aid of 21st-century technology — the result is the RMJ line of tactical tomahawks. RMJ forged each axe from a single piece of tool steel to provide military personnel with a tough fighting and utility axe that can be counted on.

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Automotive engineers are updating car security every year — and every year locksmiths figure out how to defeat those same security measures, because some of us are prone to locking our keys in our cars.  High Tech Tools has compiled a catalog of security defeat instructions for every make and model of car, and they also design tools to help locksmiths collect their emergency lockout fees.  Of all the interesting specialized tools in their catalog, I thought this one was especially fun: the glow-in-the-dark long-reach tool.

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Safety cones aren’t exactly the most compact objects to carry in your trunk — sure, they stack, but they still take up a lot of space.  But a set of EZ-Stor collapsible road safety cones only take up one cubic foot of space, allowing you to pack more of the tools you need into your vehicle.

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This bad-ass combination rake/hoe, commonly called a McLeod tool, is designed to fight wildfires, but you can also garden with it.  The tines are made for raking fire lines, the sharp hoe edge cuts sod or branches, and the head can also be used to tamp and compact. Whether you’re a firefighter or a weekend gardener, you can appreciate the tool’s versatility.

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When you absolutely positively need to be inside a building two minutes ago, you need a Mini Pro-Bar. Fire and rescue crews commonly reach for this Halligan-type tool as a one-stop multi-tool for forcing entry into a building.

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Recently in Massachusetts, a semi driver was critically burned and later died after the tanker he was driving flipped, igniting over 9,000 gallons of gasoline. Bystanders valiantly tried to rescue him, but the flames and a stuck seatbelt prevented him from being rescued in time. A half-sharpened penknife could have made it possible to release him sooner, and that might have changed the outcome of this tragic story. For whatever reason, no one at the scene carried a knife or rescue tool — and it made me wonder why.

I once received detention for accidentally (I swear) bringing my giant SwissChamp to high school. Upon learning this, my father was surprised — because in his uphill-both-ways school days he was required to bring a knife to school. Pencil sharpeners weren’t available, and everyone carried a knife.

What do you all think? If you carry a knife or pocket tool with a blade, what issues have you come across? If you don’t carry one, why not? Tell us in the comments.

When firemen or other rescue personnel need to get inside a structure, every second counts. The Inforcer rescue training aide provides valuable practice in breaching all kinds of doors and lock configurations. Finding doors that can be cut, pried, or otherwise abused can be tough for your local fire department, so the Inforcer’s replaceable locks, hinges, and padlock loops make multiple training runs a lot easier to perform.

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With their 6-in-1 rescue tool, Channellock has beefed up a pair of linesman pliers to specialize ‘em for rescue work. The extra-coarse texture of the pliers provides a stronger grip, and hardened cutters will cut through almost any wire. A hardened steel point on the tip of one handle will shatter safety glass, and a spanner wrench allows you to tighten or loosen standard hose couplings. The other handle functions as a pry bar and as a wrench that’ll fit over standard gas valves.

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Pure oxygen is awesome stuff — combine it with with a fuel source, and it can produce a brilliant flame capable of burning through nearly anything. The traditional fuel source for Oxy-Metal cutting has been compressed acetylene; but now Petrogen offers a cutting system that uses regular gasoline.

Their gasoline cutting torch outperforms its acetylene cousin in several ways, and especially in fuel cost savings. Two and a half gallons of regular pump gas can do the work of approximately 250 cubic feet of acetylene, offering greater portability as well as significant savings — even with increasing gas prices.

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L.C. Miller’s air-powered hacksaw, the Tigair, offers all the quick-cutting convenience of a reciprocating saw, without some of the recip saw’s shortcomings.  For instance, it won’t get damaged if it bogs down; it makes fine burr-free cuts with a common hacksaw blade; and you can even operate it underwater or in flammable environments.

At about 2″ wide, 6″ tall, and 16″ long, the Tigair packs a lot of power in a small package –  it runs at speeds up to 1,200 spm.  It cuts with standard high-speed hacksaw blades or modified reciprocating saw blades, and it weighs about 5-1/2 lbs, so you can maneuver it easily, even one-handed.  The Tigair requires 6-1/2 cfm at about 90psi, so you can power it with a moderately sized air compressor.  L.C. Miller doesn’t list a price, but if you’re interested you can request a quote.

The Tigair [L.C. Miller]

Spend anytime in your shop and you’re bound to get splinters. A good pair of gloves can reduce the likelihood, but splinters are still an inevitability. If you pick at the splinter with some crappy tweezers and a sewing needle, you’re probably going to do more damage than the splinter would have done if you’d just left it alone. Why not buy the right tools for the job?  For $20 you can add a splinter removal kit to your first aid kit.

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