Have no fear—I am not launching a gear brand or doing a run of Spyderco sprints (I tried, twice, it didn’t work). I am not about to start an e-tail business (I started a brick and mortar one two years ago and it has occupied enough of my time). I don’t sell things on the website and I am not planning on changing that. I also don’t shill stuff and I am not planning on changing that either.

This is different.

This is about raising money for a good cause. The cause is one near and dear to my heart—veteran care. I am bringing back the Review Sample Giveaway. Before I get to the outline of the details, let me tell you why I do this giveaway and why this is my cause of choice. I have told this story before, but it bears repeating.

Out of law school I got hired by a Public Defender program. I was asked to be on the hiring committee for a rotation and while there we hired an enlisted person who became a great attorney. He and I worked in the same office and he was just a stalwart—he got his work done, he didn’t fuss, and he was genuinely happy to be doing God’s Work. As his family expanded and his workload grew he still remained committed to the military. One year he was deployed overseas. It was his second tour in Iraq. While there the office helped support his family and especially his wife, as she was pregnant. As the time for the baby grew near, my friend flew back to be with his wife and his soon-to-be-born child. Unfortunately the logistics weren’t going to work and he was stuck in Atlanta while the due date loomed a day away. In his uniform, crestfallen as he walked away from an airline counter unable to find a way home, a stranger grabbed him by the shoulder and told him to follow him. The stranger then bought my friend a first class ticket home, handed him the ticket, and left. He never asked for thanks, never told my friend his name, and never accepted the money my friend offered him. It was as if he told my friend: “This is the least I can do for you after what you have done for us.”

That is why this blog has been committed to this cause—veterans’ care. The charity I selected a while ago Fisher House, is exceedingly well credentialed (we initially used Wounded Warrior, but they had some issues). Here is the Charity Navigator page. So, we are going to support Fisher House again.

But it has been a while since the website has done a giveaway. Wife getting cancer, starting my own business, and a global pandemic have all been issues. Additionally, the logistics are daunting and grow more complicated every year. Mailing knives is not easy (side note: please support AKTI and Knife Rights efforts to pass the Interstate Transport Act). Paying for all of the shipping requires a lot of careful management of the space bucks account. But it is time.

The one side benefit of the long delay is that the quality and quantity of the gear that will be available is truly astounding. I am fortunate to have connections in the gear community and those connections mean that I often get stuff for free or at a greatly reduced cost. It also means that I get to jump ahead of the line resulting in me getting stuff that vanishes before most people even get a chance to buy it. Now that will be to your benefit. These giveaways also help make sure that no benefit inures to me that could bias my opinion by running this site. Here is a brief summary of some the gear that will be involved in this year’s giveaway:

Tom Bihn Synpase 25

Tactile Knives Rockwall

Three Rivers Manufacturing Neutron 1 (with alt scales)

Benchmade 555-1

Gerber Reserve Terracraft

Gerber Reserve Sedulo

Berg Blades Iron Pup

CRKT XOC

Noctigon KR4

CRKT Provoke Imperial Edition

SOG Pillar

Tactile Turn Bolt Action Pen

Schon Designs Claasic Pen

and a lot more (Kershaw, Civivi, CRKT, SOG…you name it)

A lot of this stuff has been purchased with proceeds from the website, but some of it is from my own personal collection. There may be more stuff as we get closer.

Because of the logistics involved I need some time to get things squared away, so I am not announcing precisely how the giveaway will work right now. I am planning on getting this up and running for Veteran’s Day. My space bucks account requires a lot of management and planning for big purchases and this is essentially a very large purchase (shipping around 35 items, some very large), so I need the time between now and November to get everything situated. All that said, I know that there is gear on the list that is essentially unobtainium and so I wanted to give everyone a head’s up so that they can manage their own space bucks account ahead of the giveaway.

I plan on changing the format a bit. For big ticket items, I am going to do individual IG posts that will serve as a silent auction. Once the auction ends, I will contact the highest bidder. That person will then make a charitable donation to Fisher House in the amount of the bid and once I have the verification email, I will mail out the winner’s item. For smaller items, I will give them away as weekly raffles in the month before Veteran’s Day. To enter that week’s raffle you have to make a $5 donation to Fisher House and send me proof via the email receipt. You can enter as often as you want, but the donation needs to be at least $5. Strategically it would be better to make 4 $5 donations than one $20. I am doing it this way so I can cut down on the email management and tallying I have to do. In the past, I had a massive spreadsheet that I ended up spending a weekend on to determine winners. The auction/raffle method will cut down on that. I also feel like that is a fairer way to do it, so that if you really want to go bananas and pay what the Neutron should cost, you can do so without fear of donating money that gets you nothing (but good feelings) in return. You can win by donating as little as $5 or as much as you want in an auction to guarantee you get that piece of kit you really want.

If you are a maker or a retailer and want to get some eyeballs on your name or your brand, I am happy to accept donations. All donations will receive a special spotlight article all their own. Also, if you know Berg Blades, have him get in touch with me—one of my Iron Pup’s spacer screws is missing and I want a matching screw. It doesn’t impact the knife at all, but the open hole bothers me and would probably bother the folks that are particular enough to read this blog. Also, if you have a review channel, blog, or IG account, I would appreciate you spreading the word. I am going to use the hashtag #everydaycommentarygiveaway.

I will have rules and procedures more locked down in October, but given how much stuff there is I thought I would give folks a good three month head’s up so they can squirrel away some cash for a good cause. I never handle any of the money and all of the time and costs associated with running the giveaway and mailing the items are donated by me (that’s my donation, so don’t think about donating to me for logistics), so 100% of your dollars go to the charity. I

don’t do a Patreon. I don’t sell merch. I don’t ask for any money from you ever for myself or to support the blog (though I do use affiliate links). If you want to support the blog monetarily, this is how you do it.