Spyderco's Warrior fixed-blade knife is made from tough and highly corrosion-resistant H1 steel. It is a skeletonized full tang knife with a glass-breaking end cap. Its blade guard is pressure fit and secured by a glass-filled nylon handle

What's distinctive about the Warrior is the "S" curvature of the blade. It's designed to give you full cutting power when you flex or straighten the elbow so that the blade "flows." 

The "Spyder" serrations on the reverse of the blade serve a couple of purposes. First, they allow you to use the blade to "trap" an opponent's extremities or to said extremity. Their other use is cutting webbing, harnesses, seat belts, and other hard-to-cut materials such as rope.

You will find the Warrior is tough enough to be used for many other jobs it was not designed for. Because of the mechanical "work hardening" and the full tang, this knife will make a good light duty pry bar, although that's not its suggested use. The pommel is a solid triangle that can be used to break windows, serve as an impact weapon, or in an emergency as a lightweight hammer.

To carry such a fine knife you need a solid sheath. I've been carrying the Warrior in a great one from Spec Ops Brand. It can be mounted on a MOLLE vest, hang on a belt, or can be attached to most thigh rigs. On the sheath is a front pouch that will hold a pocket tool as well as several feet of parachute cord to be used as an emergency cord.

If you need a serious knife to meet the demands of your assignment, check out the Spyderco Warrior.

Safariland: M71 Magazine Pouch and RLS Light

I was interested to test out two new Safariland items I saw at the SHOT Show. The first is the M71 Magazine Pouch. Now you may say, what's the big deal about a magazine pouch? Well, how about the fact that the pouch will fit Glock 21 magazines, pocket tools, and small flashlights? It's not limited to your average duty weapon magazine.

[PAGEBREAK]To say I found this pouch awesome would be an understatement. It fits close to the body, will fit belts up to 1.75 inches wide, and is fast and retentive. It is versatile and cost effective, retailing for $15.

Safariland's other "new" item is more a major improvement than totally new. A couple of years back the company introduced its Rapid Light System (RLS). If you are not familiar with it, the RLS has a rotating lock that quickly mounts to any handgun or long gun with a Picatinny rail simply by clicking it on. While it was a good light, the improved version is even better.

The biggest change in the RLS was to increase the output from 65 to 90 lumens. This is a major improvement, providing useable light out to 50 yards. The RLS also now ships with a belt mount. Yes, it comes with a clip, but it is not secure if you get in a scuffle. The new platform is a Picatinny rail and the RLS locks securely to it. This "new" RLS is truly an improved item, and because it is versatile it falls into the "must have" category.

Mag Instruments: Maglite XL100 LED

Maglites have been used on duty for years. Mag Instruments' sleek, tactical-looking XL100 LED provides a handful of light options in the palm of your hand for today's duty shift.

Durability is a key design element of the XL100. It's machined from high-strength aluminum, and LED lights both ensure ruggedness and a lifetime of use as long as you feed the light three AAA alkaline batteries.

With fresh batteries you will have 83 lumens of output for more than five hours; on its low setting you have more than 200 hours of runtime.

But what make the XL100 distinctive are its light settings: normal mode, strobe, Nite Lite, signal, SOS, and a lock out. The Nite Lite is a low-output setting to give you enough light to see by but if moved the light kicks up to normal output. The SOS mode is just that: a constant SOS for search and rescue.

Another cool light mode feature is the ability to set it to lower than full/normal output. Select the "dim" setting on the control ring, activate the light with the tail cap, and rotate the control ring; once the brightness is set, release the tail cap and this will be your default light setting.

Not only is the light output adjustable, but you can adjust the light beam from flood to focused beam. These features make the XL100 LED one of the most versatile lights on the market for duty use.