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The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
©2023, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript

[0:00] Coming up, the new Rosecraft Blades Cane Creek Jack.
I finally get my hands on a Microtech Stitch, even, for just a fleeting moment.
And then 10 great automatic knives. This is an update.
I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.

[0:32] Welcome back to the show uh two favorite comments from this past week the first one from her view 85 lmfao james brand's new barnes 600 recycled material knife reminds me of when mora came out with their ashwood handle knives and uh they put a big head exploding there i didn't i didn't add that but yeah when when mora did that their their knives jumped up by like a factor of what was it they went from like $30 knives to $100 knives and this this is kind of similar you know they're making a $600 knife with recycled handle material it does look cool and it is um it is you know it's a nice material it's a great looking knife and it's a great knife but uh it reminds me a little bit of tyler durden selling women back their own liposuction body fat that by making them so all right next up uh richard mcginnis 5344 says uh if okay now let me let me just preface this next comment by saying i i will never stop commenting about the bowie bowie thing and uh richard mcginnis says here if you're saying bowie it's wrong uh as you wouldn't say as you wouldn't have said david bowie you say it's bowie you wouldn't tell someone you bought bought a new compound boo, would you?

[1:54] And then no one ever called them booey knives when I was young.
It was a thing that began in the early 80s. In the 70s, everyone knew how to say it. So let's, so let it go.
You had it right the first time. I love that. Let it go.
Richard, I can't let it go. This is this is part of my, I mean, this is in genetics, as far as I'm concerned, beating a dead horse runs in the family.
So you're gonna have to put up with it a little little bit longer, but soon I will stop calling attention to it.
And I will be, um, what do you call it? Like multilingual.
And I'll start saying Bowie Bowie, uh, in, in, uh.

[2:32] In turn without uh bringing attention to it i do must say uh i was talking about people talking about this issue with people in the south and they claim in texas and they claim they always say always said it uh so man uh the drama continues and we'll check back in another time all that said, let's get to a pocket check what's in his pocket let's find out here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives in my front right pocket today i had the monterey bay knives turbo designed by peter carey um i haven't carried this one in a little while um but peter carey's been posting a lot of his incredibly beautiful and ornate customs custom tacticals that he's going to be bringing uh to a blade show and uh blade show what is it texas i guess and uh they had me drooling so i I was like, wait, I have a Peter Carey knife. I should carry it more often.
And this one doesn't look like your average Monterey Bay Knives Turbo because it's been customized by the Knife Modders.
You can see there it's got an acid stonewashed blade and a high-voltage green handle.
I wanted it to look a bit like that patina you see on the Statue of Liberty.
And I think they did a beautiful job. I just said go nuts with the backspacer and the pocket clip.
And they did a beautiful sort of nebula thing.

[4:00] Thing here like if i polish that up it starts to get real swirly and colorful and they did the same thing on the clip i don't like it on the clip of a it's sort of worn off and b i should have just said make the clip match the blade because i don't like shiny clips i don't know why i would have agreed to that it was a moment of weakness or something well i said go crazy i didn't know what they were going to come up with basically so i'm going to send that clip back to them and have them do a dark tumble on it and i i know i'll carry this more uh with that but listen i mean just check out the action on this it's it's really you know it's the epitome of that fall shut action now i claim that you don't have to have fall shut action and and great deployment or or whippy deployment to be fidgety i find uh i find that a backlog can be fidgety i find that That slip joint can be fidgety, but I got to say, for that drop shot action, this is one of the best in my collection.
Next up, in my left pocket, just banging around, I had a Victorinox Tinker on me today.
This is that Bigfoot edition I got from Smoky Mountain Knife Works.

[5:13] This is an exclusive knife with them. And, you know, I'm kind of a Sabe, Sasquatch nerd.
I think it's a cool topic. I love hearing people's stories about it.
But I think it ignites something inside that likes to think that there's other stuff out there that we just don't know about.
I'm sure of that. I just don't know what shape it takes.

[5:37] Or what shape they take. One thing I love about the Tinker is the screwdriver.
Of course, it also has the awl. I didn't use this for anything today, but it was my slip joint of choice.
My fixed blade today, I did not carry this fixed blade, but I had it in my bag.
This is the Station 9 Sear, and it has become one of my favorite clip point blades.
This blade, I just, I love it. It's so thin, and it slices really well, and the point is ridiculously stabby.
And then overall, it has a very nice profile.

[6:18] Reminds me a little bit of a MACV SOG, though it does not have those two humps on the top of a MACV SOG.
It has the swedge that goes all the way back to the ricasso, and that's a signature of the MACV SOG buoy, and I think it's really cool uh here we have this contoured g10 handle scales uh they're on slabs and you have the full quillions so this is a true full tang blade with the quillions also the the guards here which i really like and then you have this bit the guys who designed this are french station nine is a french company and they have a lot of uh well they have a collaborative knife with Fred Perrin, but they also take a lot of inspiration from Fred Perrin's designs.
And I feel like you can see this here, even though this has the double guard, something you'll never see on a...

[7:13] On a fred perrin knife you do have the blade that's wider than the pinch point at the finger choil here so that even if you didn't have these guards here you would have a wider blade than handle up at the ricasso and that would act as the guard and i love that feature and i think it uh i think it works great here i mean it's like overkill here which is awesome i put two uh ranger bands on my handles.
And honestly, I'll tell you why. I saw it because Tony Lopez, the guy who designed this knife, I believe, has them on his.
And so I put them on just to see how it would feel. And actually, it draws out of the sheath easier.

[7:57] It's grippier. This, I have a tech lock on the sheath and wear this edge forward on my belt.
But I haven't figured out how to integrate this into to my daily carry it's a little little big for that but popping it in the bag and having it on me is uh makes me feel like i have it with me anyway all right last up for emotional support today my emotional sport knife my esk is the brazen by savivi tanto total random choice i wanted a button lock today and i've had i've been you know playing around a lot with my uh what is it the The Sencut Arc Blast, and I wanted to stay in the Civivi line, or in that Wii umbrella, and I wanted a different shaped blade because I have two bellied blades here, one a drop point, one a clip point, and then, of course, the blade on the Tornox is the same, so I wanted a different shaped blade, like a Wharncliffe or a Tonto, and so I chose the Brazen.
Very, very nice knife. I used to have this in the frame lock.
I gave that away either to my brother or to Ian. I can't remember who.
But this has a nice thickness to it.
It feels like it's a little over...

[9:11] I don't have my measuring instruments here. I think it's got to be 0.6 inches wide.
It's got just a little bit of a chunkier grip and really nice ergonomics.
And look at that pommel. That pommel is ideal for wrapping the thumb around if you need to, you know, jam this into something and back it up with the thumb.
Great deep carry pocket clip, very nice looks, and stupendous action on this knife.
Oh, I didn't even notice this. Look, this is all green. green, unintentional. You got this electric green and these two olive drabs.
This with a little more blue in it, which I like.

[9:47] So that was my carry. It was matchy-matchy, but I did not intend it to be.
What did you have on you? Let me know. Drop it in the comments.
I always like to find out what the fine listeners and viewers of this show carry.
It gives me inspiration.
All right, so next up, let's talk about the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway.
That's coming up on Thursday night, February 15th, the day after today, which is Valentine's Day. You notice I'm wearing a red shirt.
People used to say it's a Hallmark holiday. I say, if there's a holiday that celebrates love, why not go for it? Hallmark or not.
This is what we're giving away in the next Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway.
So this is the Off Grid Knives Grizzly. This is the camp and kitchen knife.
It's got a nice thin blade stock, very wide, full flat ground. So it's like a laser.
It's so thin. It is very much like a chef's knife in terms of its geometry.

[10:53] It is a chef's knife. It's just wearing a tactical coat.
This is the knife, not this one in particular, but this is the knife that we bring when we go up to our mountain place.
Place and uh it that is a timeshare place so we are they have all great kitchen stuff except for the cutlery because it must have been stolen a million times so they have this crappy ginsu i mean it's not even ginsu it doesn't even rise to ginsu so we bring our own cutlery naturally and this is what we've brought the last i don't know three or four years uh first the grizzly one and now this improved grizzly two uh just a great knife super sharp and even though they don't recommend it the manufacturer that is off grid knives you can totally chop down saplings and stuff with this you just don't want to baton it it's a little gets a little thin and it's d2 or oh this is 14c even better i forgot that's part of the improvement the first one was d2 and then you got the taco sheath great sheath uh excellent retention and a drop down with the velcro and the snap so that you don't have to take off your belt to don it.

[12:01] All right, that's what we're giving away. That's for those of you who are Patreon patrons at the Gentleman Junkie level.
We do, once a month, we do this knife giveaway.

[12:12] Go on over to Patreon, thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon, or scan the QR code on the screen, and check out what we have to offer in giving back when you give to us. It's greatly appreciated.
Thank you for helping us keep the lights on. All right, coming up, knife life news. We're going to talk about three new knives out there in the market, and then some exciting news from Washington State.
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These are back in stock with durable Micarta handle scales, and they come with a leather sheath, and the Spyderco Smock is in stock.
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Get these deals and other great specials from our friends at Knives Ship Free.
Just use our affiliate link, TheKnifeJunkie.com slash KnivesShipFree.
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TheKnifeJunkie.com slash KnivesShipFree. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
And now, here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.

[13:39] Coming from Bestek. Brand new from Bestek is a fixed blade.
And you know I love fixed blades, and you know I love Bestek.
So this one's kind of exciting also because it's really cool looking and I think offers an opportunity for customization.
This is the Bestek VK Core, a collaboration with custom knife maker Steven Kempe out of Berlin, Deutschland.
Vulpex Blades, Vulpex Knives is his company.

[14:05] This knife here is, to me, very, very fetching because you have a beautiful worn clip blade on a straight and neutral handle, but you have, right where the pinch point is between the finger and the thumb, you have a slight angle change and level change, which will keep your knuckles out of the way of that cutting path pretty well.
Also, if you're watching, if you can see here, there's a cool little flourish that Stephen Kemper puts on his knives, and it's an inlaid copper stud there.
You can see it right near the Bestek logo.
And by the way, when you stick that in the sheath, there's a hole there that actually showcases that. So this is a production take on his custom model, and it's a 3.2-inch Wharncliffe 14C28N and no scales.
That's where I say you have room for customization.
You've got a number of holes there that you could put some sort of mechanical connection through, like pins or screws, and you could come up with your own scales for this knife.
You would have to probably repress a Kydex sheath to accommodate the new scales, but I love that.
I'm not a huge fan of skeletonized handles like this, but I am a huge fan of blades like this, so I could see this as being a cool project knife.
2.7 ounces Kydex sheath. This will be available the end of February 2024, so coming up here at Reels.

[15:34] All right, next up, the Spyderco Mule Team.
That's SpiderCo's kind of test platform knife It's a scale-free full-tang fixed-blade knife that they put out They've done, I think, 40 so far I believe this most recent one is the 40th one And they test all, not test, it's a test bed for all the different steels they go through So you can find this mule team in all the steels that SpiderCo uses, This is out of high-impact ceramic, which is a brand-new thing for Spyderco, and it's kind of cool and kind of exciting.
Now, we all know that ceramic, which we've seen ceramic blades advertised for kitchen knives, are extremely, extremely sharp.
It gets extremely sharp and has incredible edge retention. But it's ceramic. It's brittle.

[16:32] I mean, you use ceramic to sharpen steel. It's harder than steel, but you can't do all the things that require toughness that you can do with steel.
So to come close to remedying that, they add zirconium to give it higher toughness.
That's where my technical knowledge about high impact ceramic ends.
But the addition of zirconia makes it somewhat tougher.
But if you're someone who buys these mule teams and you like to put handles on them and test them out and use them, you're still going to want to be cautious with this, with any sort of impact or torquing motion.
We talked about this with Mr.

[17:15] Janich, Michael Janich, who's on the show, and he's excited about this material.
But it does warn that you can't do some of the things you can do with regular steel.
To sharpen this blade, you're going to have to use diamond or cubic boron nitrate sharpening tools.
I like saying cubic boron nitrate. I don't know what that is, but it's got to be harder than ceramic, just like diamond.
This is currently available, so if this is up your alley, go for it.

[17:43] All right, last up in terms of new knives, the Civivi Cubit was a huge fan favorite.
I know Jared said that was one of his favorite knives of the year and his favorite Civivi last year.
Same with all of our trusted voices love this knife. Well, we, Knife, heard and said, wouldn't it be great if we made this into a premium edition?
So they have iterated this in premium materials. That's a titanium button lock, a slightly longer blade, 3.2 inches as opposed to 2.89 inches of the Civivi.
This has 20CV blade steel. Oh, so by the way, you won't be able to swap blades.
There will be no chicanery between we and Civivi, the cubits.
But this one is coming soon. I have seen a number of videos on it, and it looks pretty cool. Cool.
Now, one complaint I've heard, well, not a complaint, a nitpick, I would say, is that it uses the same off-the-shelf clip that the Wee Savivi line uses.
Like if you go to Amazon and buy one of their milled titanium pocket clips, first of all, it's not going to fit on every knife. I learned that the hard way.
But also, it's going to look exactly like the clip that's on this expensive premium knife. So I get it.
I get it. you want to think that there's a slight difference or that there's some sort of, uh, you know.

[19:13] Just a slight difference so this is coming soon keep your eyes peeled for that a huge fan favorite as i said okay last up some exciting news from knife rights and in washington state i'm just going to briefly read just these top two paragraphs uh from knife rights washington senate passes spring blade ban repeal house up next uh so here it says your emails help to make The Washington Senate just passed knife rights bill that would repeal Washington's ban on quote unquote spring blade, that's automatic knives, SB 5860 with a bipartisan vote of 45 to 3.
So three buzz kills out there in Washington. We're like, no, that's not in the article. We sincerely appreciate our good friend, Senator Phil Fortunato, for his efforts shepherding the bill through the Senate.
We know from speaking to our sponsor that your hundreds of emails over the course of the last month made a huge difference.
Enjoy this success, but be prepared. It will take similar efforts to get this bill through the House.

[20:23] So very exciting news from Knife Rights. I always love to see these victories.
I got some pretty urgent emails, I'm sure we all did, from Knife Rights, so good on everyone for responding.
The people in Washington now get one step closer to a spring blade ban repeal.

[20:49] That's good stuff. And so is knife rights. So consider going to knife rights and dropping them a dime or two.
All right, coming up here, we're going to get to some state of the collection.
I got six new knives here to show you, and two of them are on loan, and they're sweet little hunts. So let's get to it right after this break.
The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion.
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Okay, so this behemoth here, oh, I don't know if you even heard that open.
It just hurt my ears. years. This is the Olight Century L1.
This giant, beautiful cleaver was gifted to me by good friend Fernando Salome, good friend of the show, and he's always on Thursday Night Knives.
I want to thank you, Fernando, so much for this. This is such an awesome knife.
And what I love about this, this is kind of like my Leatherman tool, the first one I ever got.
It was a bummer when I got it, because I knew my brother got me a knife, but I was hoping it was like a switchblade or something really aggro.

[22:13] And he gave me a Leatherman, and I was like, oh, this is cool, and I've used that thing ever since for 30 years. I love that.
This is also a knife I wouldn't have gotten myself because I tend to think I don't like cleavers, but this sort of goes above and beyond cleaver to me.
I love that blade shape. It reminds me of a bit of a cleaver you would see hanging in a meat market if it had a hole there, but it's beautiful shape and an incredible slicer. Wow.
This is a nearly two-inch broad blade up here at the peak, and it's about an inch and an eighth saber grind here, so it's super, super, super keen and sharp down here on the edge. So very, very nice knife.
Menacing as the day is long, I think. And you know I like that.
I don't find many cleaver blades too menacing. I think the lack of point does it for me on most knives.
But this, to me, is pretty awesome. Fernando and his son both carry this knife.
To me, the handle is for a slightly larger hand than the one I have, unless I hold this in a sort of saber grip like this.
If I have a hammer grip, I can feel these peaks on the finger.

[23:36] No matter. This is D2 and rockets out on bearings.
Awesome knife. Olight slash Oknife, man, they make some just really, really cool knives. Great quality.
I'm not sure who makes them for them, but they are spectacular.
All right, next up, this one, speaking of spectacular, this is the new one from Rosecraft Blades, and I'm so excited about this knife.
I've been carrying it a lot. um this is the first rosecraft blades in their traditional line with g10 and i'm really liking it uh that sort of pattern there with um you see what is it orange red and then a black or dark dark green down the middle it's really nice and it's got a coke bottle shape so you've got this um bulge out here with the pin going through it that allows you more space in the blade well to have a blade sink in there.
And you can see that this clip point blade has a nice big belly and a huge aggressive swedge.
So in order to get this all in there discreetly, it makes sense to have this have that Coke bottle swell in the center.

[24:49] So you have a nice flat blade well in there.
So this knife is inspired by Sheffield knives, knives and uh i think that's interesting because with this one here the lusa hatchie jack is also um inspired by british barlow knives and barlow blades so i'm like in this uh direction rosecraft blades is taking um and and and i say that not as an expert i'm i'm sort of catching up to rosecraft i'm starting to amass a good little sub collection and i'm starting to really get there um.

[25:28] Their design sense and i love it i love it um and as far as the modern style slip joints go that is using a stop pin instead of the kick on the on the back spring i think the rosecraft are my favorites, i do like qsp a lot but this is just these rosecrafts are really uh floating my boat so i love the the uh only marking here is on that back bolster that's a unique flourish you don't see that often.
Usually it's on the front bolster and on the blade or something like that.
But a nice nice nice knife. Love this.

[26:07] And I got to say, from the pictures, I thought it was larger.
I'm glad it's not a huge knife.
Let me put it next to the Lusa Hatch Jack real quick. It makes it real easy to carry, and it's very light. That G10 also makes it pretty light.
All right, next up here, this one is on loan from Tier 1, Justin. You know Justin.
Justin Carvin, and he is one half of DC Blades. This is his scythe.
We've seen the scythe here quite a bit.
But this is the titanium version. This is the premium version made by Shielden with S35VN blade steel and a gorgeously contoured titanium handle.

[26:50] You've got that nice reverse tuxedo look. That's a black blade with a lighter colored handle.
This is a sort of blasted titanium. It's a little darker than a raw, and it is gorgeous to look at.
This is a titanium backspacer, and it's got the whole gear pattern and jimping all the way up around the top so that your thumb really gets great purchase.
Obviously, this is a Pakal-style blade, so the intended purpose of this knife, the main intended purpose of this knife, is for self-defense with that tip down and that edge in.
And having all of that jimping on the back strap and on the pommel especially is key i love that i love that your fingers you don't want your fingers slipping on this knife very very sharp and this uh jared neve had this before me and he i can see he put it through its paces here so i will feel free to do the same maybe i should do it on some meat.

[27:53] He promised and never delivered. I will one of these days.
Look at that. Great action on this. Shield and Knives for a long, long time was strictly OEM and doing a great job and then recently decided, why don't we put our name on it?
We do an awesome job anyway. May as well show the world.
Okay, next up. This is another one on loan. This is from my good friend Jock from Across the Shock.
Jock's Knives. You know him from Instagram. He will sometimes buy stuff and have it shipped to me, so I get to check it out, and then I send it along to him.
This is the Microtech Stitch, a knife I've always wanted to get my hands on, and I finally have.

[28:39] I love the automatic version. I love the MSI version.
Is that what it's called? The FRN version? version, but this one here is the titanium.
So luxurious and built like an absolute proverbial tank. I mean, Microtech is incredible.
I need more Microtech in my life. That sounds ridiculous, but I'd be willing to sacrifice some others for more Microtech.
They're just built so sturdily.
This is what their RAM lock, which is akin to, but kind of different to a crossbar lock. It's more like a cross slab lock.
So when you pull this back...
Against that spring so that's a coil spring there instead of omega springs you pull that back and it releases but you see that's a giant lock here with a notch in it that locks into that back notch so uh sort of uh in in how you use it it's like a bar lock and it's fidgety like a bar lock it's seems like it's incredibly strong and then housed in this really incredibly strong handle.
I mean, you pick this up and you can feel it is substantial.
It's like when you pat someone on the shoulder, you're like, hey, man, how you doing? You're like, oh, wow, he works out.
It's the same thing. You pick this up. It's like, oh, wow, this could do anything.

[30:06] All that said, I got to say, I have a problem with the choil. The choil is so large.
This is a Borca design. design and i think i think uh mr borca makes some absolutely incredible knives uh his designs are and and execution if you look at his custom knives are exquisite and very tactical i've always thought that the blade to handle ratio here was off maybe not the blade to handle ratio but the cutting edge to handle ratio kind of like a strider so if i do this the blade to handle ratio doesn't look that bad if I sort of obscure the cutting edge.
But as soon as I reveal the cutting edge, it seems like a small...
It almost looks like an axe head if you kind of turn your head in a certain way.
All of these make this a unique looking knife and also a great knife to use.
I am talking about looks. I'm being superficial.
I understand that. Because you hold it up here, and it's It's incredible.
It feels really good if you hold it up in the trailer. I just, yeah.
So this is one of my, it's like Seinfeld. You know, she had man hands.
I'm just trying to come up with excuses so that I don't have to buy this knife.
Just like they were always coming up with excuses so they don't have to date people.

[31:29] Alright, oh, one thing I wanted to talk about here is the clip.
A hit and a miss, big time.

[31:35] In the hit department, it's got that really nice Sebenza-style bent clip with the center partition.
I really do like that on my Sebenza. but my gosh it's like they went out of their way to put fu screws in there look at that those screws are so i mean they're they're ridiculously tall they they went to the effort to create a notch to set the the clip in to make it flush they even went to the effort to make a a cover on the other side but then they put those damn screws in there it's almost like they're thumbing their nose at you i gotta say and uh but i'll take it i'll take it from you microtech i'll take that num that thumb nosing because this is such a sweet sweet knife he makes such sweet knives all right i'm gonna put this down oh okay uh let's see next up the new jack wolf knives midnight jack the midnight jack i think i mean this is just anecdotal uh from from what i observed i think that this is is their all-time favorite i think this is their all-time most popular slip joint um and i i also think that led to the raging success of the after hours jack the mid the the flipping front flipper version of this knife um but this is such a great knife with that amazing um drop a sheep's foot foot blade here and that coffin shaped sleeve board handle.

[33:05] Just an awesome knife.
And I know that when it, on the initial run of this, when there was my Carta here, I have my, my first one here.

[33:14] Micarta m390 and a machine ground satin here we have uh g um twill carbon fiber dark blasted titanium bolsters and s90v with a hand rub uh but what i was saying is when this first came out in this version they had the the purple haze carbon fiber that is beautiful i get why people people just go gaga over and that knife sold out in a heartbeat feet and and then the whole rest of the line sold to super quick also at the time he wasn't producing as much um so they were a little a little more rare um but you have your chance again five different handle materials uh this twill carbon fiber is super classy um it's not that basket weave carbon fiber that i don't like it's it's twill and i love the way it looks uh on the canine jack it's the same same kind of material that i have on the canine jack and it has a really nice in hand feel as well um but it's sort of tuxedo like it's sort of uh dressy to me dressy carbon fiber uh but they also are offering this knife with jigged titanium or raw jigged titanium uh a carbon fiber that's black and white i can't remember what they call it but a fat carbon that's It's black and white.
And then this really interesting swirly material that reminds me a little bit of Fordite, but it's not Fordite.

[34:43] So beautiful, beautiful knives. Go over there to Jack Wolf Knives to check out your options.
And there you can find all the dealers that sell these.
And uh ben belkin of jack wolf knives has really expanded the reach and capacity of his company and is able to make more knives and get them out to a lot more places real quick let me show you the artwork on the tube check this out very very nice midnight jack i love that lettering it's so cool it's sort of art deco sort of uh like i guess in way back in the day they'd say like an oriental style art deco uh oriental just being like loosely asian i guess that's not what we say anymore but i would be like an occidental all right uh lastly here we go this was a really nice thing I got this past weekend From my buddy Ian This is the Emerson Tim Kennedy Knife Man it is so cool.

[35:49] So I got this in a trade with Ian. He held a three-hour seminar for the martial arts he teaches, Mastro Defense System.

[35:58] And I got to say, I've been out of martial arts training for the better part of this past year, and three hours really, really took it out of me.
But the shining point is I walked out a stronger individual, if not more bruised, and I walked out with this in my pocket.

[36:17] He wanted to trade. He got in touch with me, hey, I'm doing the seminar, and also, can you bring your Holdout 3 serrated?
I'd love to trade it for, you know, will you trade it for an Emerson King Kennedy?
And I said, hell yes, but you're, you know, I'm way making out on the deal, so I also gave him the Night Horse, the G10 version of the Night Horse by Dirk Pinkerton and Beyond EDC.
So two really combative blades.
He loves the Holdout 3. That's the 6-inch cold steel Holdout with serrations.
The guy that he trains with has used it to great effect in combat.
Bat okay this one right here it is a long nearly three it's a three and 3.8 inch clip point blade but i love how subtle the clip point is this reminds me of a fighting buoy uh like the hell's bells you got a long slender blade with the clip the long clip a place to put your thumb right on on the back and actually I can't even really reach that I guess I can if I do it like this but um.

[37:33] You got this nice thumb ramp as usual, and the 800-pound gorilla in the room, no waves.
This is my only, no, no, no, the Elvia came without a wave also, I was going to say. This is my only Emerson without a wave.
I mean, to me, that's the Emerson USP is that wave, having that wave.
But it's not the only thing I go to Emerson for, and I kind of like not having the wave on this.
Uh however when i pull it out of my pocket so far i've been doing the same thing i do with all of my waved knives if i'm not trying to wave it out is oh pull it out like this so i'm pinching the handle so as not to catch that hook but there's no fear of that in this case obviously actually i tried to wave it off of this uh thumb disc which you can sometimes do with some thumb discs, but this finger guard here got in the way.
The finger guard is what held on.
I like the size of that finger guard. Obviously, an on-purpose move, a deliberate design move. I really like it.

[38:42] Emerson is known for his ergonomics, and finger guards always play into that, but this one is just a little bit deeper, and I love that.
If you don't know who tim kennedy is um very interesting guy he's a green beret he had a career in the ufc um he's a an analyst you know you can see him on numerous episodes of the joe rogan experience and all over the place uh really you know super badass kind of guy and one of those guys he's he was like still an active green beret while he was fighting in mma and all that stuff so one of those kind of of type A Ds.
But he also has a fixed blade of this similar design with a longer blade coming out from Emerson here real soon. So, exciting.
I'm so excited to have a new Emerson. It's been a long time, and you know I was burned when, When Joe, the guy who used to go as the Knife Whisperer, stole two of my Emersons, that was heartbreaking.

[39:43] So I'm building back. All right, let's get to 10 great automatic knives. This is just an update.
You've seen a lot of these, but I realized since the last time we did this, I've gotten rid of a few of them and acquired a few.
So I come in at a nice round 10 automatic knives in my collection.
Uh, which is great for a list. Uh, but also if you want to keep a sub collection in control, I feel like 10 is a great, great number though.
Five is, is even better. All right.
So first up, uh, the pro tech RockEye, this was my first, uh, modern automatic.
Um, I say modern because because I've had a number of tourist automatics from Europe over the years, and I love those for their sentimental value, but they're pretty crappy knives.

[40:37] But when this came out, I was really into Les George. I mean, I still am.
And I was very much into the V-Sep, which was the big knife at the time.
People were calling it the Sebenza Killer.
And to me, I thought it was way better looking and more appealing than a sebenza but i could not like most people get my hands on one and then unless george licensed his rock eye design the vsep was the mid-tech version of the custom rock anyway he licensed the design to protect and that's it's been about 10 years and since then and it's been history.
It's been one of ProTech's most successful lines resulting in infinite different variations of this large size and then of the small size, the SBR.
And.

[41:34] The fixed blade version, the small and the large fixed blade version.
So this has been a very, very successful line for Pro-Tech and for Les George and a great way to get an amazing design in hand if you don't have the time or inclination, the time, money, or inclination to hunt down a VSEP.

[41:57] Actually, hunting them down is not as difficult as it once was.
Uh but there it is the protech rock eye next up we'll see if i can do this with the hack and with my left hand this is the venerable ultra tech microtech ultra tech and the way i saw it when i got this uh and my other out the front or my other microtech is why would you not get a dagger if you're going to get an out the front why would you not get a bag because folding daggers are very very hard to come by and expensive.
And these are not only they're expensive, but they're not hard to come by.
So and it seemed to me to be the most safe and secure way to have a dagger.
One thing I love about the ultra tech and the Troodon and the other microtech out the front is that they make great pain compliance devices when not deployed.
And no, I have not used it as such, except in and just noodling around with friends.
Well, Ian. And it's that right there. It's the...
First of all, it's the shape. This acts as sort of a...

[43:08] A sub hilt almost and then you can cap the top with your thumb and you can use that glass breaker not only for striking but for digging digging into flesh pain compliance so i really like that this is kind of a multi-faceted tool weapon and if you do carry it as a tool you're going to be in good stead just don't just be aware that it's double edged but the the great thing about it is is this M390 has great edge retention. So if you're taking this on the...

[43:40] I can't imagine someone would actually take this on a construction site, for instance.
But you could use this knife hard on the one side, that wonderful, sharp M390 blade, and then when it starts to wear out, flip it over and use the serrations or use the serrations for strap cutting and other stuff and ropes.
This would actually make a really great tool for work.
But you look at it and you think it's also extremely dangerous so maybe maybe not but you go to uh home depot and you can find those uh duct knives that are daggers basically and insulation knives and stuff like that it it's all the same it's just lesser materials and lesser engineering but um you're dealing with double edges so uh that's what you tell the cop when When he says, oh my God, what is this you have in your pocket? It's for work.

[44:33] I use the front edge, and then when it gets dull, I flip it over.
One thing I love about the Ultratech and the Troodon is that when you do flip it over and use that top edge, this is something you'll only get in a dagger.
The ergonomics here are awesome, actually. They're almost better than this because the actuating switch is now on the bottom and acts as a finger guard for that forefinger.
And then this awesome and very sharp um jimping that's milled into the handle is further forward for your thumb and that's a natural posture for the hand grip so i dig it that's why ultratech double f.

[45:14] Next up, this one was on my keychain for a long time, and I loved it.
It might go back there, though. I've decided I'm not doing knives on my keychain right now. It's still a little too much bulk and weight.
But this is the Kershaw Launch 9.
They are up to 18 or 20.
They're up to 20. That new Launch 20 is very handsome.
It looks like he's dressed up to go duck hunting.
The way that but anyway this this one here is starting to sound like biden but anyway uh this one here as you can see is wearing a beautiful anodization that's been worn at the edges uh that was the result of having it on my keys um that was a deliberate move i knew that that was going to happen and i wanted it to happen uh because i love how that looks but i just don't carry knives knives uh enough regularly like i don't carry the same knife regularly enough to have them wear in like that so i just decided pop this one on the keys you'll have at least one that's like that but really nice cpm 154 blade with the fuller it's a very futuristic looking knife comfortable little handle on this and just incredible snappy action.

[46:31] I think kershaw is uh really making a nice little comeback i think it kind of started maybe with the knockout and then and then and then the link and the other a couple other uh american productions and then when they started in with the launch line i think they really won people over like a broad a broader audience and now they're releasing knives with ball bearings and doing some beautiful stuff.
I got to say, this Iridium has been one of the best knives I got in 2023.
It has the best bar lock, bar none, in my collection. I will say it.
Better than my Benchmade's and better than my Hoag's. It's the best.
Okay, next up, this is from Boker. This is a little, little guy. This is the Shamshir.
And interesting thing is a Shamshir is a large curved like sword.
And this is not. This is a cute little automatic.
And Berno designs here. Where is it here? Berno Born. Berno Born.

[47:49] So a collaboration. There's that rocket. That's pretty cool.
Love that swedge drop point blade. Very tiny.
Nice here, but it's a line a lot here. But it has a hell of a kick.
Like you really have to push the pommel into the fat of your thumb when you pull.
And yeah, there you go. Nice little EBC here.
I rarely carry this, to be honest. this um but now that i have it in hand i think i should pop it in the fifth pocket more often i wear jeans a lot and i never never put anything in there uh this would also be a good drop in the pocket uh because it has no clip drop in the pocket knife with a fob on the end of it yep this is a little cutie and if you look at the uh blade shape from here let me flip it upside down i feel like when you look at a knife upside down you can see its contours better but look at the dipping down edge and the recurve this is actually a really good cutter and the overall arc of that blade makes the the diminutive diminutive size of it uh kind of null and void for a small utility knife so that's the shamsher from boker knives next up uh one that i got off the secondary market years ago from a farmer in Texas.

[49:16] This is the Protec TR2.
It came to me all gritty and I was able to clean it out.
It had some really fine sand in the pivot and I was able to get all that out of there.
And it had a little bit of wear, but not much. I've put most of the wear on this knife.
Something about receiving it from someone who had already used it hard made it easy for me to have in my pocket when we were painting my daughter's room or whatever by the way that paint just will not come off it's i would like it to but it's on that really nice knurling as i mentioned with the microtech uh before the these when you mill out jimping in aluminum as microtech and protech do it is so sure it's so sharp not sharp but so grippy, And on this knife, you don't have much of a guard, but you have this widening out towards the blade with all of this cut jimping in the aluminum that this would make a great thruster without having to worry about sliding up.
Plus, you have this big swell for the fingers.
And then you have the same thing up here, jimping that really helps.

[50:35] Keep that sucker in hand. Also, I'm a big fan of the knurling on the sides here.
They just add to that grippiness.
154 cm blade steel and just kicking, kicking action.

[50:51] If I had fat on my arms, which I don't, I'm incredibly lean and muscular.
Herculean, you might say. But if I did, all of that fat, I would feel it shake on my arm.
Uh standard emerson slash um benchmade style uh three screw clip so you can you have a lot a lot lot lot of options for replacement clips when you're dealing with that clip all right next up this one is from hoag and doug ritter uh this one i've been carrying a lot recently recently this is the auto rsk mark one you know i've shown this off quite a bit this is magna cut and now i have three blades i believe in magna cut um and i can't say that i can really tell the difference however i happen to have magna cut on two exquisite blades that i carry somewhat frequently uh the model two from american blade works and this right here and they are both Both really awesome blades, really well ground.
I have no doubt that if they were in 154CM, they would still be incredible, and I probably wouldn't be able to know the difference just due to my own cutting and knife usage.
But again, with the Hogue, you have this really nice contoured G10 handle with the radiating sunburst pattern coming out that's nice and grippy.

[52:20] But on this side, what I do... Okay, so I've complained a lot about the Hogue clips.
I felt like they're too light a gauge metal.
And I think on this, it's a little bit stouter.
So I'm sure I'm not the only one who has mentioned that. they probably okay again we're running into that screw issue though look at that those screws are not only button screws they're like they're square button screws just like that microtech they're not even domed so that you can hope to slip your jeans over that uh so that's the one thing i i feel like at this point you know you can't be doing too much of that guys you're gonna to put that loop over clip on a tactical knife where people have thicker pants or car hearts because you're a working person and you're going to use this knife on the job, like those are going to make it difficult to retract.
As you can see, I actually, this is not even on purpose, but you can see cloth from my jeans stuck on the screw there.
So come on, come on guys.

[53:30] But that's my my one gripe, my one gripe. And I don't want to overdo it.
Here we have a, what do you call it, a lock, which I must admit, I don't like.
I pull it out, it sits more proud than the button, and it's taken me some time to build the muscle memory to go for the button and not the lock.

[53:55] But overall, this is an awesome knife.
And I like it even better than the straight-up Barlock version of this.
Speaking of Barlocks, Hoag's is the Able Glock.
That's the Advanced Barlock Enhance, or Ambidextrous Barlock Enhance.
Okay, four more here. Let's check this one out.
This is the Microtech Pro-A-Don. A wee little knife at three inches, but man, does it pack a deadly punch.
Um i love the shape of this knife and uh i love the serrated and plain edge blade like you have on the ultra tech this is i always thought that this was a particularly beautiful part of the knife uh with that upward slant and even though it's those pain in the ass proprietary screws i have no plans on taking this apart so i love the way they look on this and then that eagle talon I love the Eagle Talon logo.
I actually have a sticker of that on my car.

[54:55] This one, this old girl sometimes has to be blasted out with oil.
It gets sticky, or if my hands, if I'm not real sure with the deployment, it'll stop.
And so so it's a little it's a little finicky we'll say finicky but again another great kubaton style pain compliance device without the blade open the jimping here also excellent you have it on the peak here in the middle and then at the tail end and the front end really nice and then of course that actuation lever there is nicely jimped so that your thumb really catches is on that as a thumb ring.
I also like this jimping on the sides. It looks kind of like gills on a shark. But.

[55:47] It also adds in the grip greatly. All right, next up here is the Protec TR3.
I've talked about this knife a lot here.
I originally wanted it with the fish scales, which I think is really cool.
The fish scale milling on the aluminum handle, I believe, was inspired by its use by Navy SEALs, maybe.

[56:14] Legendary and mythic Navy SEALs. thank god we got them like all the rest of you service members uh but they didn't have that at the time and actually i'm glad they didn't i like this better i've kind of grown away from the fish scales uh maybe you need to earn the fish scales maybe not but the grip on this is awesome these uh the fluting on this handle really uh gives your finger your fingers as they wrap around great Great, great spots to nestle in.
Get that fat nestled into those fullers.
And you have a great handle shape, great ergonomics.
This angle here at the pommel nestles into the palm perfectly.
And I have a feeling, like, the bigger your hands get, it's still going to nestle in there very nicely.
My hands are about medium size, so I get a full four-finger grip. grip.
Most people will. I mean, look, there's an extra whole pinky on there if you hold it in hammer grip.
But just this taper from thinner to wider towards the front, generally, just makes it feel really sure in hand, kind of like a SOCOM or a Yojimbo.
You got the finger groove here and the guard and a 154 CM blade that cuts amazingly.
These These Pro-Techs cut, I haven't even mentioned how well they work.

[57:41] This one has gone through the most work, for sure, but I've carried this and used this quite a bit.
And, man, their blades are awesome. And I love, this is 154CM.
I love 154CM and CPM 154.
And I think that Pro-Tech, who uses it quite a bit, I think they really have nailed that heat treat.
Again, you might say, how would you know, Bob? But some 154CM, you have to sharpen more often than others That I do know from experience.

[58:17] Penultimate knife here This is my celebration of the legality of automatic knives in Virginia knife I got this on January 1st, 2021 And it's this beautiful Manticore X 4 inch recurve, That's LMAX I don't have too much LMAX in the collection, Really great action On this knife, You can feel that there are ball bearings under that actuation there.
It just slides forward pretty easily.

[58:52] And then you have more of a Dirk Pinkerton-style scoop edge jimping here, which I like less than the full.
I kind of wish it to span the entire handle.

[59:04] Not that it's absolutely necessary. It's a big enough handle that you can really get a full four-finger grip all the way behind that switch and have your thumb fully extended and still not, you're not going to go anywhere.
You're not going to be sliding up. So maybe that full groove jimping isn't absolutely necessary, but I like it for feel.
I like the fact that the top of the actuation switch here is knurled instead of jimped.
And it really gives you great grip, those little pyramids.
And I would imagine if you have leather gloves on, they're going to sink right into that knurling and find great purchase one thing i love about this that you almost never see on automatic, blades here is the jimping on out the front so you don't see it and i like it because well i like it because i like to put my thumb on the back of the blade but there's one little gripe about this knife and that is the rattle it's got some rattle you know all the automatic knives all the out the the fronts, unless you're getting a G&G Hawk, have a little bit of rattle.
But this one has a little bit more than a little.
It's got a little bit more rattle than the Ultratech. And it's a strong knife.
I don't think it compromises anything. It's just annoying.
And when I put my thumb on the back, I can feel the blade move.

[1:00:29] Music.

[1:00:34] So it's almost like I wish they didn't put the jimping there because then I wouldn't be tempted to put my thumb there.
But, you know, these are all first-world problems. And I love everything else about this knife.
It's wickedly sharp. It's got an incredible recurve blade that is not difficult to strop.
And I don't think it'll be difficult to sharpen if that day ever comes, which I doubt it will. Kind of an uneven grind at the tip, though.
It's a little fatter on the show side. so you know maybe something you don't expect on a $300 knife all in all pretty awesome all right last up in this list a big and this is the the venerable kalashnikov this is the xl kalashnikov bowie blade and uh yep i love this thing this was a gift from lavender pants i haven't seen lavender pants around in a while but he was a great guy or probably still is a great guy and he just gave me this knife out of the blue because he had it and his wife didn't want it around the little children so he sent it to me to be around my little children and i gladly accepted it girls like it and one day they'll get it themselves uh nice big d2 blade um very very Very sharp.
I love that it's tight as hell in there in the pivot.
There's no play, and yet you get this big walloping slap-out action.

[1:02:03] The Kalashnikovs have really, really great ergonomics. Very neutral.
A little bit of a choil, but I love the clips, the wavy clips.
They echo the handle partitions here and feel really good on the palm.
So, there you go. They have a bunch.
Boker has a bunch of different automatics. Here's one. I didn't feature it here because this was given to me by Dave, and I think he may have taken it apart or something.
Or in the factory, they were missing a washer or something. This is a terrible one.
But on the whole, Boker has a lot of really great automatic knives.

[1:02:44] Do be sure to check your local laws. Make sure that they're legal where you live.
You don't want to get pinched for an automatic knife That would just be sucky, Alright, be sure to join us Thursday Night Knives, 10pm Eastern Standard Time Tomorrow night We're going to be doing that Gentleman's Junkie Knife giveaway We've got that grizzly to give away Coming up on Sunday The great and powerful Michael Janich Designer of the Yojimbo The Yojumbo, the Ronin All those awesome knives But also head of special projects At Spyderco And my god, what an interesting guy I mean, he has done a lot of really cool stuff in his life, and he's a good person to talk to. So join us then.
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:04:14] Music.