A little while ago I received a mail call containing a sample of the Accent Series from Delta2Alpha Design. To read my review of the previous generation of tools, go here.
Happiness in a parcel!
The Accent Series is their newest offering of upgraded versions of The MARK, The LOLLY and The MiK.
The MARK, in colours…
The new tools are delivered in three colours (crimson, blaze orange or day-glow green), clad in a robust carbon fibre skin.
Durable polymer clad in carbon fibre.
They are all incredibly versatile and even more durable than their previous versions. I found the carbon fibre skin to be more resistant to scratches and abrasions than the earlier version of polymer tools.
The Lolly – polymer last-ditch tool. Earlier version.Accent version of the Lolly.I have used the Lolly for opening paint cans when I find myself without a screwdriver. It’s handy to carry in my 5th jeans pocket.
On a recent visit to Ottawa, I found myself in a Tim Hortons for a morning coffee. The floor was covered in melt and slushy runoff from the recent snow. Thankfully, I had my Accent Series MARK in my bag (perfect for non-permissive environments like government buildings) and ensured my bag and its contents were well out of he muck.
No dirty, wet Tim Hortons floor for me and my stuff!
The MiK can be used as the MARK can, but with smaller applications. I do like how it can hold up your phone, hang your bag (or purse) or coat – perfect for bathrooms. It can also easily fit into the fifth pocket of your jeans for concealment and easy access.
TheMARK: Offers a convenient way to keep your jacket or bag off of the floor bathrooms when traveling (or everyday life) when there isn’t a hook. It can also be used as a tablet stand.TheMiK: Fits conveniently on your keys, and is used a hands free way to prop up your phone. This comes in handy whether you are trying to do a video chat, or just kill sometime watching cat videos (No Judgement).TheLolly: Can go right next to TheMiK on your keychain. TheLolly is a light duty pocket scraper, and prybar. It has be referred to as a “Fingernail Saver”. It also offers a ¼” bit driver and the key ring slot can be used to drive the Leatherman multi-tool brand bits.*Each package includes one (1) of TheMARK, TheMiK, and TheLolly; They are sold as matched sets*
All things considered, I feel that Delta 2 Alpha scored a big win with improving an already-sturdy and reliable design with their Accent Series of polymer tools. I’m very happy with them and equip myself with at least one on a daily basis as they are lightweight, practical and come in handy in a variety of ways.
On the weekend of 28-29-30 July, 2017, True North Tradecraft hosted the first-ever offering of The CORE Group’s Covert Entry Concepts course in Toronto. We had 9 students, an excellent venue, great food and of course, fantastic training. (To read my review of the course I attended in Maryland, click here.)
Training materials before.Training materials, after.
Friday evening saw the group meet up, make introductions and immerse themselves in Street Thief, a mockumentary based on a thief. Though not “real”, it did accurately illustrate how an actual thief does what they do, ideas for protecting against such things and using the same methodologies in conducting security assessments and Red Team-type attacks. That, coupled with some yummy pizza (no Hawaiian, you’re welcome Rob) made for a good evening.
Mmmm..pizza.
Starting bright and early on Saturday morning, we hit the ground running getting into the principles of physical security, locking mechanisms and the basics of attacking them. This was framed within the construct of proper evaluation and approach vectors for attack and assessment.
The tools.
Thanks to The Lucky Penny for providing scrumptious snacks and endless coffee to get us started and keep us going.
Freshly baked and delivered food and coffee made a huge positive impact on all of us.
The entire day was fast and furious. We hit on a vast breadth of topics and brought it all to practice very quickly. The students were introduced to various locks and their corresponding pick and bypass tools.
Checking out a tubular lock pick.
Wafer locks, pin & tumbler, dead bolts, combination locks, padlocks, warded locks, etc. The pace was fast but students picked-up the skills quickly and began to progress through to more difficult locks. After everyone felt they were getting the hang of it, we moved right into impressioning and key casting.
Key impressioning. Money for nothing and your checks for free.Key casting. Delicate but really interesting if done correctly.
Saturday had some tasty lunch too…
Rob enjoying a fine Canadian poutine. Now he has a standard to measure all others by.
The rest of the day was spent discussing elevators and their uses in Red Team operations and physical security, safes and other miscellaneous related content.
We finished off the evening as a group at a fantastic nearby Mexican restaurant where the food was excellent and the tequila and mojitos flowed.
Mmmm…guac and tequila.So much food. So good. Cheers all!
Sunday, though rough for some more than others, continued the same high tempo. We dove right into more elevator stuff and more impressioning challenges.
One challenge was who could impression a key properly before anyone else.
The second was the T-Rex Challenge. Picking a lock while a electronic muscle stimulator is hooked-up to one’s forearms. It’s a laugh for all.
Those arms are shaking. Doesn’t matter how tough you are, it was crazy.
That winners of each challenge got some stuff from our friends at Delta 2 Alpha Design (The Lolly and The Mark, and stickers, each.)
After we all stopped laughing and got feeling back in our arms, we carried on to lock bypassing, familiarization with various tools and techniques associated with it and giving them a trial run.
One of the students using an Under Door Tool to rescue someone (Rob and another student) from the bathroom.
We then transitioned to removing/replacing tamper-evident seals. A very delicate operation to say the least, this portion of the day was slow-going and painstakingly irritating when impatience wrecked it all. That said, it was very interesting in its method and application. We also discussed security posturing, use, strength and limitations of seals and tamper-evident devices along with best practices.
Making tamper-evident not-so-evident. Steady hands.
To round out the weekend, we finished on a high note with restraint escapes. Dealing in escaping unlawful custody while restrained by handcuffs, nylon zip ties, duct tape and cord. The more you know, the better prepared you will be.
Aftermath of zip tie escape.Tools of the trade.
One of the most important parts of the learning was the manner in which it was delivered. Rob’s easy-going and humorous nature, coupled with his expansive knowledge and professionalism made for a relaxed yet powerful learning environment. He is an exemplary instructor and trainer and is so giving of himself and his knowledge. That and he couldn’t get over how no one carried guns. Yay Canada. It all makes a huge positive difference.
As with all experiences of this kind, there was so much more we covered and were exposed to that it simply wouldn’t do it justice to speak to here. There is only so much you can read about or learn from on YouTube before you hit a wall. Well-delivered, quality, in-person training has no substitute. I recommend this training to anyone interested in these skills. In the end, an excellent group made an excellent class. Congratulations to all.
Certificate. It was all worth it.
We are excited about how everything went that we are already planning our next offering. Keep tuned to the Blog (and Instagram and Facebook) for more details.
Thank you to Rob and to all others who helped make this happen and make it great (See below) and thank you to all who attended.
No matter how good you are, how skilled, how knowledgeable, at some point you will reach an obstacle you will need help with. This applies to survival, escape and evasion, operations and regular day-to-day life. Sure, your skills and know.how can take you far, but to truly excel, you need a TEAM. A community.
Special Forces operators and secret agents are all incredible individuals, trained to exceptional levels of skill and fitness. But what makes them truly formidable is their ability to leverage all of those strengths to super-humal-like heights to seemingly perform the impossible. That level of mutual support, leveraging of skill-sets and strength in numbers can achieve feats that no individual ever could.
Some of the best “team” shows do this very well. One of my favourites, Burn Notice, for instance, has 3 main characters – Michael (the burned ex-spy), Fiona (Michael’s ex-girlfriend and IRA operative) and Sam (ex-Navy SEAL). By themselves, they are all formidable, capable and able. But when one of them finds themselves in a jam, the other two are able to support the operation in ways that the solo member just couldn’t handle themselves. The show The A Team also does a great job of this in using the team members’ individual skills to achieve the team goal with great efficacy.
This translates to life as well. Regardless if you’re trying to learn something, build a business from scratch in your basement, whether a disaster or start a blog, you’ll only get so far by yourself. Sure, you can learn everything about wilderness survival, but if you fall and break your leg, you will have no one to help you.
In building Tactical Beaver and True North Tradecraft, I have learned more and more that although personal skillets, perseverance, drive, sacrifice, dedication and a bit of luck will do wonders for growing a project, it’s the people you meet and connect with – the ones you build a COMMUNITY with – that will ensure your success in the long run. I am thus very humbled and privileged to continue building our community of amazing people who are all “lone wolves” in their specific ventures, but together we all succeed.
Below, I have listed some of those community partners. It is because of them, and many individuals, that we have been able to grow.
That is the power of team. No individual could have gotten Bin Laden, or Hussein on their own. It was a team effort. There are always exceptions to the rule, but by and large, teams can accomplish feats unattainable by an individual.
The best team is one made up of lone wolves working together.
So whatever the task, challenge or obstacle, do your best by yourself, learn and train and be the best you can be, and then find a group of like-people. Then become a team. Then you’ll be unstoppable.
So, here we are. A pretty vast topic with a bazillion opinions on what is right and what isn’t.
For the uninitiated, Every Day Carry, or EDC for short, is a collection of items which you carry on your person at all times (every day) to expand your level of preparedness and resilience in your daily activities and also to provide an edge in unforeseen situations. This doesn’t always have to be a life-or-death catastrophe. It can be something as simple as needing emergency cash, or cut packaging, but if you don’t have simple, quality, accessible tools for such things, you’d be at a disadvantage. In a graver scenario, if catastrophe strikes and you’re unprepared, you’ll be less-likely to weather the storm. Either way, you should always have an escape plan.
In a larger sense, your EDC is only a small part of a larger personal resilience plan, however, I’ll write separate posts for vehicle, office, home and emergency kits later on. Right now, lets start at the most basic.
At the end of the day, I believe in three principles to follow when developing and gearing-up your Every Day Carry (EDC).
FLEXIBILE:Is your kit adaptable to changing conditions? Can it be scaled-up/down as needed?
EFFECTIVE:Are these items useful for multiple scenarios?
APPROPRIATE:Will this be too much to carry, too attention-grabbing, or are the pieces of low quality and will fail you in your time of need? Is it appropriate for your environment (Toronto, ON versus Manatoulin Island, versus Dallas, TX)? Carrying a gun in Toronto is far different than Dallas, or in the woods of Manatoulin versus a courthouse in Toronto.
A publication I recently read listed the appropriate EDC of a security-conscious individual as this:
Cell or Smartphone
Concealed carry handgun (WTF?!)
Extra magazine (again, WTF?!)
Flashlight
Folding knife
Lighter
Pen & Paper
Multi-tool
Money
Watch
That said, you’ll notice that concealed carry handgun(!) is on the list, as well as an extra magazine. Now, that may fly in the US, but anywhere in Canada, you’ll be looking at jail time with that load-out. Most of the rest on the list is pretty good, but again, assessing your daily EDC with the 3 Principles mentioned above should allow you to ensure your one step ahead of a problem. Learn unarmed self-defence, use a steel-barrelled pen and a low-profile impact weapon of you need, but for the love of all that is imagined holy, don’t carry a gun around in Canada unless you want the cops after you.
Here is a picture of some of what I carry on me on a daily basis in Toronto, Canada.
My partial EDC load-out.
The above include:
Fisher Space Pen (writes consistently, small size)
Mini Bic lighter
Tiny USB key
Subway tokens (never know when you might need to abandon your car).
RAT-1 foldint knife (not “tactical” looking, just a simple, sharp, disposable blade).
Band-Aids (because you never know if you or someone else would need one.
Lock picks (several sets, because you just never know).
Diamond wire rod (again, because you never know).
Cash (because cash is king, and you might need a slice of pizza sometime).
Low-pro clip wallet
I also carry a few more things not in the picture, such as:
1-2 steel-barrelled pens (Like Zebra or Parker) *not tactical-looking.
Inside-the-fly of my Triple Aught Design Recon shorts. As if the Lolly isn’t even there.About the size of a house key. Weighs next to nothing.
I do also ALWAYS wear a watch and will have my phone with me 99% of the time. (in a dire emergency, I can always barter or pawn my watch for some cash and still have my phone for comms).
I love my watch. Titanium, lightweight, atomic and solar, compass and barometer and more.
For my daily purposes, there won’t be a gun involved in any way and multi-tools are too bulky for my activities. Canadian laws would make me a SWAT-team call-out for a pistol, so that’s kinda off the table.
As a matter of course, I carry lock picks. I’ve received several shocked and troubled looks from people should they find out about this, thinking I’m a burglar or something nefarious, but the simple fact is that I strictly adhere to lock picking ethics (read more about it here) and have used them to either help others (with permission, opened a car door for a guy who locked himself out in a blizzard with the car running – I saw it happen) or myself (lost the key to my bike lock) and only would use them to save a life in a dire circumstance. Otherwise, they’re just tools used for the sport of Locksport. I feel that, in an emergency, sometimes salvation is behind a locked door. Better to make amends later when you’re safe, than not have the chance.
If you want an opportunity to learn how to pick locks, check out this amazing opportunity in Toronto in July 2017. Details HERE!!!
I feel that this load out works for me, for my lifestyle, in Toronto, most of the time. Thankfully it is scalable, can be augmented with things from my car. (As mentioned above, I’ll be doing a piece on other EDC/kits at a later time) I also like that it is near-zero visibility thanks to the clip wallet and my spread placement across my person.
The great thing about EDC is that it’s a wide-open topic with huge on-going debates. I prefer to focus on adjusting mine to my needs and environment (Toronto, Canada) while adhering to the 3 principles I mentioned and looking for new ways to make it more concealed and admissible into non-permissive environments.
The bottom line is this:
Keep some things on you wherever you go that will help you out of a jam if things get tough.
By following those 3 principles and investing in decent equipment, you’ll be miles ahead of the masses who only have their phone when things go sideways.
In the meantime, keep modifying, keep testing, keep improving.
