Building a DIY Morale Patch Board

After getting into GORUCK a few years ago my collection of patches started growing and ended up just being stored in a box.  I wanted a way to see and display them.

There are a lot of options out there now to buy a pre made patch board but it is really inexpensive and easy to just make your own from a frame.  Mine ended up pretty large at 2' x 4' because I just used a frame I already had but any frame will work as long as it has a cardboard piece inside. 
Here is the final result with some of my collection:

 

Ka Bar Becker 16 Custom

The Ka Bar Becker 16 is a great camp/survival knife out of the box.  But as I've noted before, I like to personalize and upgrade things myself and after a few tweaks, this knife may be one of the best out there.   

Inspired by the customization project outlined on the YouTube channel of Gideon's Tactical as I began to search for a survival/camp knife, I decided to go with the Ka Bar Becker BK 16 based on many things including its lower price point and ability to upgrade parts of the knife when you are able to and not have such a large investment up front. 

First the final results after stripping the stock coating and upgrading the handles and sheath:

 

DIY Machete Handle Upgrade

One way to save money and still have quality gear is to upgrade less expensive items yourself so they look and perform better.

I have a couple knife blanks I have been wanting to put handles on so I decided to test out technique on an old machete I have but never really used. 

I've had this machete for years but never really done anything with it. It has a two part plastic handle and the cutting edge came with a dull edge covered with paint, maybe for safety during shipping.