Automated AI Podcast Transcript

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.
©2024, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript

[0:00]Coming up, the Nova 2 pre-order is live, I get a new chef's knife for my wife, and 10 really cool knives I should carry more often. 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. Welcome back to the show. Joe, my favorite comment from this past holiday week was from Stuart Rowlings 602. Or is it Stuart Trollings 602? You tell me. No, Stuart says, Howdy, Bob, and belated but still wonderful 4th of July weekend and birthday of our great country, where blades, barbecue, and bourbon may be enjoyed with our guns and our freedom. Five of my favorite seven or eight things right there. So I love this comment. Very uplifting and positive comment I got a bunch of comments this past week About how I mispronounced B-O-W-I-E And I'm like I know that they're late to that argument But now I'm just I'm just letting it come out of my mouth However it does So I love these kind of positive comments Thank you so much, Stuart Alright, that being said, Let us now get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[1:29]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket today, I had the venerable and long loved by me, Emerson Sachs. I remember seeing a short video that Ernest Emerson put up on the Emerson website, not the Emerson website, sorry, the Emerson IG page years ago. And it showed him grinding a mysterious blade. Can anyone identify what this is going to be? And I saw it right away. He said, it's a sax. And lo and behold, it was a sax. I knew it would be because of the shape, A, and B, that he would call it such, and not a wharncliffe.
[2:07]Because, well, he's kind of a Viking, and he has a collection of Viking stuff, and that's where his people come from. So Emerson Sax is right up there in my top three Emersons of all time. This is probably my most consistently carried Emerson, I'd say. But I love this knife. And I had a chance to check out the mini version from Jock. Jock's knife. Sent it to him through me. And that was a cool... They really size down the Emerson knives very well. If you're more into a 3-inch knife than a 4-inch knife, you'll dig it. I should say blade it. This one, of course, carrying the, what is that? It's not a Lynch clip. It's not a DCC clip. What is it, people? What kind of clip do I put on it? MXG gear clip. Works pretty well. The only thing is those giant button screws and all that. But, you know, you can't help but have the clip sitting on top of the scale for an aftermarket clip.
[3:09]All right, next up, speaking of beautiful, I had the Mini Cyborg Jack in my pocket today from Jack Wolf Knives. I've been carrying the Midnight Fixed EDC a lot. I kind of wanted to get back into a slip joint today, so I went back to the one I was enjoying so much before the Fixed Blade showed up. So this little Mini Cyborg is just a great knife, perfectly sized right there in that boy's knife size, and a great blade that great that blade is awesome it's like half tanto half clip point i'm sure ben would uh would take exception to the the the tanto uh but if i look at it and just kind of squint a little that's what it looks like to me and you get a lot of the benefits because of that's that forward portion uh forward to the belly kind of is sort of uh straight you know from the tip to the belly so you can use that in small kind of tasks like that have i know i'm not scraping anything with this knife unless it's uh you know the crust off of a burnt baguette or something like that so uh but i love this knife it lives permanently in its little sheath because i at, first i was like i can't wait to get snail trails on this beautiful blasted titanium and uh i've gone out of my way not to um and i think i will continue to i'm all my jackwolves christine Pretty much.
[4:34]Okay, next up On my belt, no stranger to you Is the Agent 001 From T-Cal Knives This is the purple handled one Purple, pearl handled one That I got Um.
[4:49]You know, especially Tim asked what color handle I wanted. I wanted the purple. He sent me this one and a couple of others. But I love that purple swirl or burl, I should call it. G10 burl they have is really nice because it mixes, blends various colors. But instead of having it striated on different levels, every level has different blended patterns of it. So when you sand it and shape it, you get this beautiful swirly pattern. it. But anyway, the blade itself has just proven to be and I'm not tooting my own horn because I didn't make it. I did co-design it with Tim Tell, but he has just created an awesome knife and part and parcel to an awesome fixed blade knife is an awesome sheath. And this one is a home run. Like all the other sheaths, except I do have a little bit of retention issue with my FLN.
[5:44]I think I'm going to heat it up make it a little more attentive if you will uh but on the whole every besides that fln which is a tricky blade to sheath um but every timkel or t-kel knives sheath i've had has been perfect pops off has this awesome jimping right here for that thumb ramp so just an outstanding standing knife and proud to be a part of it okay uh next up i had this the uh my emotional support knife my esk today was the banjara designed by dirk pinkerton this is an artisan new artisan cutlery release um got 20 cv steel i believe oh no no sorry s90v steel titanium frame um nice milling in the frame really nice ergonomics on this and a beautiful upswept blade but it.
[6:41]The whole blade kind of faces downward so that that upswept tip is not rising above the thumb ramp it's still below where your thumb rests so you get the benefits of that sweep in that belly which are shearing power slicing power etc slashing if you're doing something like that but you also have the benefits of having the point not above the spine of the blade so it's easier to the index and it's easier to find where that tip is without having to do weird you know cantings to your wrist this one i believe is a prototype it's totally unmarked uh sent to me by dirt to check out and i've been really digging it this is one of the few knives on loan i've been carrying um oftentimes knives on loan just end up living on a certain shelf and and being appreciated and taken out for the shows and stuff like that but not carried this one because it's it's really nice and i like it what can i say it's a nice knife to carry it's also a really nice knife to have and i already mentioned the ergonomic but just looking at it i want to mention again very comfortable and this this right here i love the way this problem is uh designed perfect for running pointing the thumb up and then hooking it over the back if you needed to use this to plunge into a 55-gallon oil drum full of boozies at the border.
[8:08]All right, this is what I had on today. What did you have on you? Drop it in the comments below and give me some inspiration. This is the Emerson Sax. Love that knife. The Mini Cyborg Jack. The Agent 001 by TKL Knives and Heroes Truly.
[8:23]And the Banjara by Dirk Pinkerton and Artisan Cutlery. Love these knives. Love them all. I wish I could carry more at once. We have some viewers of Thursday Night Knives who carry, just as a matter of course, 10 knives at a time. I applaud you can't do that myself but i applaud you all right next up you've seen the nova 2 over the past two months but it is now live the pre-order is now live for this night we have made a couple of changes but only to the sheath we are going with a large discrete carry concepts clip that accepts that can loop over a belt that's just been my personal preference lately uh when we put this one together uh we used my preference was this small clip i used to just like to clip it to the pants and then put the belt over it now i like to go over the belt when possible uh so and if you don't like going over the belt and you want to keep it as discreet as possible the long clip works well to go down below that seam that it comes you know that that rests behind your belt um and then also we're just changing the color the sheath is awesome He makes great sheaths. We are changing the color to a dark charcoal gray.
[9:36]Here's the knife itself. Nothing wrong with white, but this is more ivory, so it's kind of an off-white. It sort of looks antique-y in person. It's kind of hard for me to bring across on this camera. Now, you'll be able to see a long-form close-up video of this on my close-up background, and you can see the colors much. Month uh but here you go uh that's 154 cm deeply hollow ground uh and we're we're talking about.
[10:07]Kiridashi blade that runs three and three quarters inches i had to measure it uh three and three quarters inches it's the perfect size knife uh you've got a handle that has full four finger grip not just for me and my what do we want to call it surgeon like hands delicate hands uh but for uh matt chase who's got massive mitts uh this fits him perfectly too so this is just a great size and very comfortable. This is part of why we started the Nova series in the first place. The Nova series started as Hogtooth Knives EDC Tanto, which I bought and loved and carried all the time. Hey, can we put a couple of different blades on here and call it a series? Sure, let's do it. So Nova, number one was the recurve buoy. Here we have this Kiridashi. And why did I start singing? Oh, each one is a unique build in and of itself. The Bowie, of course, has the maroon and the colored, polished micarta handle with the green liner. This has the ivory with the red liner and the dark acid wash blade. And this thing is so incredibly sharp.
[11:26]It's just a great, great knife. I'm so excited about it. Darn it, I should have pulled out the Nova one to show you With it together The Nova one is slightly smaller in blade length.
[11:38]It needed just a little bit more It's about a quarter inch longer, this one It needed a little bit more length to fully express The lines here And that forward angle I wanted this to have that upward sweep of the blade Towards the tip I wanted a center line tip And I wanted a somewhat extreme angle at the tip And I was at first looking at Knives like the, the Yojimbo and the Contact and the.
[12:06]XM Warnie, but I laid it back even a little bit more than the XM Warnie just to have a just a more acute point. I do love an acute point. That point is great for all sorts of utility and detail, work, but that long upward angled straight edge is great for everything else.
[12:28]A great defensive blade, a great utility We call it Utility Blade Nova 2. Very excited. Just go to store.thenifejunkie.com. Store.thenifejunkie.com. And that'll bring you to this and other stuff. Oh, wait, let me show you real quick. He's now doing laser engraving. So we have his own laser engraving, I should say. So the Hogtooth Knives logo on that side. And the Knife Junkie logo there right next to it. Prototype. There it will have your number. because these will all be numbered and they will never come out again the same way so who knows, that's the nova 2 pre-order it is live at store.thenifejunkie.com next up another beautiful custom knife this one by brent smith of bald man knife and tool this is the thickatross a quarter-inch thick fat version of the Albatross. I think his second, I guess it's his second most popular knife. It's a drop-point utility knife. So nice. This thing is robust as hell, and it really comes to a thin behind the edge. It's like a wedge. It really gets really thin back here.
[13:47]It's a quarter-inch thick, but it cuts like a much thinner blade. So you get the benefit of a knife that's definitely not going to break, that you can definitely do a lot of hard work with, but also that slicing and cutting power of a thinner knife. It has this grip-a-trex, or whatever it's called. That's my name, but G10 layered with a very mild rubber, so that when it's milled into, it reveals some of the rubber, and you get a real nice grip. It feels soft, but not in a way like you can compress it. It feels just soft the way kind of my card feels soft, but it's got a grippiness to it. MagnaCut blade steel at 63 to 64, and we're going to be giving this away on July 18th, and hopefully Brent Smith will be here on Thursday Night Knives with us to help us give it away. I know he's keen on the idea, let's just say that. So if you want to become a Gentleman Junkie, that's our Patreon, the highest level of Patreon. You can do that, and this is the kind of thing you can win. This is a special month, I have to say, having a custom giveaway, and very excited about that. So do be sure to, well, take a look into it. All right.
[15:11]Lastly here, I had a hell of a weekend doing cleanup up in the backyard. We've had May-Sember. I've heard it said May is extremely busy, especially with kids in school and stuff like that. And then it bled into June, and there was never a weekend to hunker down. Well, this past weekend was the weekend to hunker down and throw my daughter's 14th birthday party, which is a different story altogether, but also to clean the backyard yard and power wash the patio and do all that kind of stuff. Well, not only was I successful in doing a lot of what I set out to do, not all, but I got attacked, man. Mother Nature was getting used to my backyard and having it all to herself. I got stung on the leg twice by these little bastard yellow jackets who I swear, man, I stepped on one just three days ago because I like to walk barefoot outside, and I stepped on one. So that's three bee stings in a week now that I think about it. They itch like hell. When they're done hurting like hell, they itch like hell. Anyway, I had three knives on me and a power washer in hand, and I was taking care of the bees.
[16:27]Not with a knife, of course. First on me, these are knives that I haven't carried in a long time, but it was great to have on me. On my belt, I had the Buck 110, which I am so good at pulling out, and then when I put it back in, redrawing it just like this and snapping it, it's easier when it's on my hip. But you can just do it all in one motion. I love the beautiful leather sheaths that come with the 110 and the 112.
[16:51]This was just a Walmart purchase years ago, So now they don't really have, in my Walmart, anything worth buying. But this is a really nice one with that diamond wood handle and that heavy construction. That brass and wood construction is just, man, it is a bow to enter. That's why you have to carry it. You have to carry it in one of these. I had, I don't know, maybe five or six years ago, I made a sheath for my Buck 110. Now I have a little G10 knife in there, but this was so I could drop it in the pocket without having it move around. But even though it accomplished that task and it didn't move around, it sure did weigh my pants down. This was fun. It just felt good to pull this out to cut vines or cut whatever I had to cut. There was a lot of tangled crap. I ended up using this for some of it because it's a thin blade and could slip into places. laces. The other ones I'll show you maybe took a little more doing. It was hot and slippery and I can't say I was in 100% in the best frame. But anyway, so you got to choose your tools carefully. 420 is that right? 420? With the Bose Heat Treat. This one does not have the Bose Heat Treat. Who knows what this is? Yeah, this is 440, no, 420.
[18:17]420. We're just going to leave it right there. Very much liked having this on my belt. I do have the 112 that I need to start carrying, too. I mean, I have so many knives to say you need to start carrying. That means carrying it once, like, to be honest. Next, I had the Cold Steel Vaquero Grande. This is one I've definitely carried more than once. This I've had for over 20 years. It has to be. I used to carry this on my person in New York City Which now just scares the hell out of me I could be doing this podcast from Rikers Island If I was ever busted, Carrying this, it's so big And menacing But maybe the fact that it is So unlikely Is what gave me the confidence To carry it, also that and being Young and stupid, But this as it turns out Never was used in a street battle But it's been used many, many a time in a backyard battle against vines and other, we got the great vine, we've got the creeping Virginia, oh, Virginia creeper, we got some other nasty thing, and oh.
[19:25]English ivy, it's just very aggressive. The third knife I had on me, I've been loving this for work, I know it's a tactical knife, but I've been loving this one for work, this is the T-Kell, T-Cal Knives Agent 002. And this is a prototype that Tim gave me at Blade Show. Just take it. Check it out. Use it. And that's what I've been doing. That's not what he sounds like, but I've been using it and using it and we used it, this big pool installation of flooring. I told you about it a couple weeks back. It worked great as a hammer. This back thumb ramp for your thumb pommel. Here is great as an improvised percussive device. We used it to hammer a lot of.
[20:10]Tabs into notches if you will and then that worn plate is just a nasty uh straight edge you know at that point will get you into whatever you need to get into for that long straight edge but that straight edge will really you know just cut beautifully nickel boron coated and we all know why straight edges cut nicely and right now i'm thinking about all the cardboard i've cut up with this so far um and i have to say um the nickel boron coating is not just a a cool thing to do uh to separate his knives t-cal knives from other knives others use it i think uh but he uses on all of his knives and yes it really does improve how how a blade slips through a medium you know i guess that's why they use it on machine gun all right so this is what i had on on this past weekend to battle the, um, to battle the backyard. I didn't even have a fixed blade on me. Uh, usually I have some, a fixed blade so that it's available. Um, this is a fixed blade, but I mean like a long dangling sort of buoy or something. I didn't do that because it was so hot and I didn't want my pants to get pulled down.
[21:25]There you go. All right. Well, as you know, I mentioned the thicket tross. I just want to remind you how you get this. You get this, uh, by becoming a patron. So go to the knife junkie.com slash Patrion to check out how to sign up. You can jump on the QR code here or just go to the knife junkie.com slash Patrion and read it about it.
[21:47]Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash patreon. Among this week's specials at Knives Ship Free, the New Bark River Quakin is a limited run that features durable Mikata scales and a blade of CPM S35VN stainless steel. The SE Izula signature model is perfectly sized for EDC or stowing in a survival pack. It's made in the USA, and this special edition features the signatures of SE's founders. And the RMJ Tactical Weezerker, the little brother to the Berserker, is inspired by a 9th century Viking axe and adapted to a convenient size to use as a camp axe. The Weezerker's curved handle and 5-inch cutting edge make it a powerful, balanced cutting tool, and it's made in Tennessee. Get these deals and other great specials from our friends at Knives Ship Free. Just use our affiliate link, thenifejunkie.com slash kniveshipfree. Support the show and get a great new knife at the same time. TheKnifeJunkie.com slash KnivesShipFree. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. Well, several weeks after Blade Show, pickings are slim for new knives. Obviously, that's when a lot of them drop. And then a couple dribble out afterwards. And here are a few.
[23:05]It's not very appealing, but these are appealing knives, especially this first one for me. The Rosecraft Blades French Broadjack is back. I remember when they canceled it or put it in mothballs, I thought, oh, no, I better get this. And I ended up getting one. A bit of a lemon, I must say, compared to my other Rosecraft Blades, only in terms of fit and finish of the bone. Anyway, the original French Broadjack was in that beautiful cherry bone. They are bringing that beauty back with rosewood. A very fitting wood, rosewood. but it's also a very beautiful wood frequently used on the fretboards of guitars I love rosewood I have one other rosewood knife, I don't remember which one it is now, I think.
[23:50]I think it may be a finch. But anyway, that's a 3-inch long D2 worn clip. This is a really great blade for, you know, if you're really actually carrying your pocket knives to do light work, but consistent, this is a great one.
[24:06]It's got that true worn clip blade, so kind of a continuous curve from the spine to the tip. Nice 3-inch straight edge, or it's like 2.75-inch straight edge. And then that serpentine handle just fits in the hand so nice. This reminds me a lot of the number 38 GBC, which is another great one. Great walk and talk on these, I can say, because I have one. And I was able to check out the new wood French Broadjacks and other. Look at that. Thank you, Jim. That is a beautiful shot of that wood. I was able to check out all these new wood and stag versions of the rosecraft blades at blade show and it's impressive because you know we've talked a lot with ben belkin about the some of the dangers or risks of natural materials using natural cover materials on knives that are manufactured in china or or in places that have vastly different say humidity levels and temperatures and they're going through different pressures and stuff getting here so it can often times lead to or I guess that's the risk it can lead to the wood contracting or expanding and becoming a.
[25:23]You know a debacle but i guess the way they stabilize wood these days it's it's easier to do and here's proof of it it's just beautiful beautiful knife with beautiful handle these are available now next up another uh slip joint this one not for me personally but uh there are a lot of buck collectors out there who love this knife this is the saunter this was from their 2022, legacy collection and then they just announced in 2023 they announced that they would bring this into regular production, which they did. And it's, well, it's called the Saunter, as I mentioned. A traditional style slip joint, but modernized here in its July 2024 Buck of the Month incarnation. So you have a custom red, white, and blue camo carbon. Camo carbon. And I gotta say, camo carbon, by the way, is a company that makes special carbon fiber. And if you look at it, which we are doing right now, if you're watching this on YouTube, it looks like fireworks. So a very patriotic set of covers here on this Buck of the Month saunter. But also you look, it says Buck and then the anvil in USA, red, white, and blue.
[26:34]So they're not hiding the ball here. This is definitely a patriotic model. And I could see people flock into this. It's 154 cm, so same as usual. The only thing they've really changed to make this the Buck of the Month is this custom red, white, and blue camo carbon that they had made and the window dressing, if you will. So there it is, Buck of the Month Saunter slip joint. Next up, Artisan.
[27:05]They came up earlier with the Banjara. I love Artisan Cutlery. I love their collaborations, and I love their in-house designs. Great build, and by that I mean finish. finish they're just great knives that you can afford and then cjrb their sister company makes it even more affordable well this latest one is from artisan uh the artisan prime it's a collaboration with a young knife maker named jonathan shaw and if the name sounds familiar it's because he's the guy who was behind uh last year's um boa remember that the boa it came in four different versions uh and that was a collaboration with his knife company triple star this is just he's just coming out with this as a collaboration with himself jonathan shaw so this thing is definitely a working folder you've got nice big sheep's foot blade with a belly and a little notch on top maybe to put your thumb or finger in and that is s90 s90v i have learned is an awesome blade steel uh thanks to jack wolf not i think those are the only s90v Since getting S90V on these, I've begun to use them harder, quote-unquote.
[28:17]Probably is not that bad, but it takes a lot to dull S90V. And so what a great blade to put on this because, you know, this is a classy work knife, if you will. It is a titanium frame lock and everything is contoured. The micarta side and the titanium side, both milled and contoured. And actually, the titanium side has a ripple pattern milled into it and a pretty nice looking clip, I got to say. That um so definitely one of artisan's top tier productions here 3.25 ounces and this sucker is available now all right last up the knife life news i just want to remind everyone that the knife rights ultimate steel uh donation drive is happening right now and the ultimate steel is pretty damn awesome you gotta say because uh there are different ways to get.
[29:13]Knives From them for donating So you know you don't get You don't just get new knife rights When you donate here you get stuff Like here if you donate a hundred bucks You get this, Rewriting knife law in America Power access deluxe multi pool And then as you scroll down As you give more money you get, Different kind of knives Like this which Is all gone The Spyderco PM3 Here you got the That cool SE And keep going down and you see this For 400 bucks you get this knife So You get the idea but Another really cool aspect about this Is that if Jim if you keep Scrolling down we'll start seeing all Of these custom knives we'll see Firearms we'll see Trips to Africa hunting Like all sorts of crazy stuff Gets donated by makers themselves and you donate to win there you can see the the table there so as you continue down you'll you'll see these spectacular knives you can donate to win any one of these given knives uh they're starting off with those k bars but going straight into the other stuff custom knives so this is cool by that sheriff uh knife donated by a sheriff here's one uh by an author of a crime time book.
[30:36]Here's a big sour rifle with a Hogue. I mean, it's really cool. That last package, that's a $4,300 value for a Sig Sauer rifle, a silencer, and a Hogue knife. And you're not going to have to donate that much to win it. So just go over there and check it out. Obviously, maybe I'm not explaining it as well. I'm just kind of overwhelmed by all the cool stuff you stand to gain. And I got to see a lot of the stuff in person It's cool if you go to Blade Show in Atlanta To have all the stuff out That you can win And you can actually check it out right there So spectacular Organization.
[31:17]Who's really, I mean, we would be nowhere without them. So thank you and thank them by donating. All right, we'll be right back with the state of the collection in one moment. But before we do, I just want to remind you, the best way to help this show, period, is to share it. Send it to a friend. Hey, check this guy out. He speaks wisdom through the medium of knives, and they'll be amazed. And then you can also download it on your favorite podcast app here. Listen on the go. Now, we can't always be tied to a screen, but we can always have an earbud jammed in our ear. So that's what you're going to want to do there. All right, coming up next is the state of the collection. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals.
[32:04]TheKnifeJunkie.com slash BattleBox. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. broadcast. This just came yesterday. That was operator error, by the way. This beautiful knife is the Benny. This is the new Jack Wolf knife. This is the July 2024 release, and it is a stunner. Every once in a while, Ben will reach out to me and kind of give me a preview of what's to come and ask which cover I want it in. I think he's very well. We know he's very generous, But I also think it's very nice that he sometimes asks And I'm sure he has sort of a rotating He must rotate around Because some covers are going to be more popular I saw this and I was knocked out That's called Mars Valley.
[32:55]Carbon fiber how cool is that um ordinarily you know me i i get the more subdued carbon fibers or the macartas or the titaniums but these fancy garish um carbon fibers normally don't get in here i just wanted that it's so beautiful uh but anyway okay what do we have here this is the folding locking bolster lock version of the benny's clip uh ben belkin's version of the The Lanny's Clip, a very famous pattern developed by Tony Bowes.
[33:29]The Lanny's Clip, or I should say the Benny's Clip, features the one non-full-height hollow ground blade in the Jack Wolf Knives lineup. So you see a saber ground, but hollow ground blade here. Downward angled, almost a recurved edge, and still sharp. And then a nice belly there with the upswept tip. That recurve allows you to sharpen through the front portion of this knife and still have a well-shaped clip point blade over time. So that's the Benny's clip. And you can see it's a little bit shorter than the Benny. Now, the Benny has a 3.25-inch blade, so right there in that perfect EDC range. And it's got dreamy action. so a really nice action there and a cool thing about a bolster lock is that you can open it up lefty without worrying about where this thumb hits i'm my left is not so good at spidey flicking or at front flipping but this is also a front flipper um i love the size of this to me this knife the first thing i did when i got this knife out after looking at it with the um.
[34:48]With the Benny's clip here, which, by the way, I dyed that maroon. That was originally a black micarta. First thing I did was pull this out. To me, it looks, it has more of a, I guess, a 112 feel, but it has a classic pocket knife feel that just made me think of the 110, like right away. And it's got a broad handle, and it's big. This one feels big, I've got to say. I love it. This is the same length and size as both the midnight jack and the sharpshooter jack but it feels it feels to me substantially larger than both especially the midnight um i'm sorry the after hours the after hours uh you got a clip there titanium clip and then it also has a filler tab comes with a filler tab just in case you want to put this in a pocket slip does not come with a pocket slip because this does not fit their standard leather slip. Look at that. How beautiful. And then dark blasted titanium bolsters and the machine satin blade.
[35:55]As much as I like, say, the stonewash or the hand rub blades, I am a sucker for these machine satins. Look at how it looks when you move it in the light. The chatoyance across the curve is just beautiful. I'm not sure if I used that word correctly, but I like saying chatoyance, just like I like saying shaboygan. I'm going to close these both up because, well, we're done. But I love this thing, and I'm going to be carrying this a lot this summer. That's a cool thing, by the way, about the folding locking versions of the Jack Wolf knives. At 3.25 inches, they're big enough to front right pocket carry and feel like you've got enough knife on you.
[36:43]We'll just stop that right there. Okay, next up, this one came the same day. So this was cool to get two knives in one day. But this one I ordered for my wife a little while ago, and it just came in. Very excited about this. This is a Steve Collari Customs chef knife for my wife and, by extension, my daughters. And the reason I say that is because they don't like patina. My wife does not like the look of patina on high-carbon steel, and the other Steve Collari custom knives I have, one is a longer chef's knife, the other is a paring knife. It's 8760 high-carbon steel, right? 8760. You get it pops. It's a really, really great steel, but it does patina, and that's part of the charm as far as I'm concerned. Not as far as my wife is concerned. And so I ordered this from Steve in, I believe it's, and I said, you know, I want some, this is an antique micarta. I knew I wanted some sort of nice micarta. But I said, give it a girly flourish. And so you can see the liners here are black and lavender. It's really nice. I love the lavender next to this ochre color. Okay. Of the uh this old micarta i'm not sure where that micarta comes from uh like if it's a uh.
[38:07]Westinghouse or anything like that so he uh he makes the knife that is my daily driver like the knife that i cut use every single day the two knives that i use every single day to cut and prepare food for this family he makes and um i gotta say i love those knives but this just Just looking at it is a real improvement over the blade I got a year and a half ago, which it should be, but it's amazing to see. Like, this is, like, so beautifully ground. You can see the grind lines on the blade there. It's stunning. Very, very thin. That's the thing I love about these Steve Collari Customs is that you can use them when they're dull and they cut like a dream. They're dull. So go check him out SCC or Steve Kalari Customs on Instagram Is probably the best way to reach him And the knives He also sells to a couple of retailers They are.
[39:05]They're not inexpensive But compared to most custom chef's knives I mean they are reasonable He is a man who worked as a chef For many years and knows that a good knife Is essential in a kitchen But also knows that chefs don't make a million bucks a year, at least most of them. So it's a good way to get behind a really, really excellent custom fixed blade. All right, here's a quick rundown of 10 really cool knives, production knives that I should carry more often. I stipulate production knives because I have some custom knives I really should carry more often. This is coming out of a place of guilt. It's coming out of a place of abundance that isn't totally earned. A lot of these have been given to me. Um, and that is appreciated. Believe me, I love that. Uh, but some of them have been purchased like in this list and just not carried as much as I, I should, but they're so damn cool. Uh, I got to change that. Okay. First one is from off-grid knives and, uh, it's the Cayman XL. This was the knife I was clamoring for, uh, for a year after getting the off-grid Cayman, an EDC knife, of this exact profile except just scaled down with a 3.25 inch blade. This is a 4 inch blade.
[40:25]Love that crazy extreme looking, and now that I know, it reminds me of a Confederate style Bowie with the nearly straight edge and then the belly towards the tip, the tip down low, and a long dramatic swedge down. I'm not saying all Confederate Bowies look like that, but in doing research of a knife my brother gave me that looks kind of like this, that's what I discovered. So the benefits of this are that low point. You do all sorts of utility kind of tip work with the point here without having to try and reach it, like you would on an upswept bowie that had a point like over here. So you get kind of some wharncliffe out of this, but with the tip and the thrusting, you get the benefit of a clip-point blade.
[41:17]Nice and big, deep terry pocket clip, And recessed screws, recessed pocket clip, jimping on the pommel, which is cool, and 14C28N. All on this incredibly, oh my gosh, you know, just incredible action. And these things are built by either Bestek. I think this one was built by Bestek when I got this. And now I know that Harry Orifiche of Off Grid Knives does a lot of manufacturing in Taiwan. So i'm not sure which plant that was made in but uh when you get an off-grid knife it's man they are solid they're beautifully designed very solid and very well well made meaning great fit and finish that kind of thing all right next up artisan keeps popping up uh in today's conversation um this one i could not wait to come out and then when i finally did i jumped all over it and then and I barely carried it. This is the Artisan Accelerator, a collaboration with Mike Snowdy, a Florida knife maker. At least he used to be in Florida.
[42:24]I know he had a very popular, when custom knives were first getting popular like 12 years ago or something like that, he had a big, I don't know, he kind of hit real hard and people were really into him. Then I think he went away and started doing other stuff, leather work and religious stuff. Then I think he came back, and he came back swinging with this design. It's just beautiful, and it's big. That's a 4-inch blade, AR RPM 9, the proprietary artisan cutlery steel, and this very nice, almost cold steel-esque handle. And by that, I mean you have this big finger guard that can double as a choil. That's a very cold steel kind of thing. You've got the finger scoops for the forefinger and the pinky. I mean, just the whole thing kind of reminds me of the layout of a cold steel knife. But you've got that beautiful drop point blade with the harpoon you usually don't hear me put those that combination of words together but this is all of that pretty much a continuous belly but you have about an inch and a half here of straight so a very practical design a very tactical design and i mean tactical like i don't see soldiers carrying this but i mean tactical like if you needed a self-defense folder and and everything was working out perfectly and you could use a A self-defense folder. This would be a good one.
[43:51]And it's a looker. To me, it's just a beauty. So I think that's why I got it originally. Beauty and the size. But now that I have it, I need to carry it more. Oh, by the way, sculpted titanium pocket clip. And there's Mr. Snowdy's logo. It's an S, a dollar sign. Very nice. Artisan always uses really nice micarta, too. At least it might be. Next up, I used to say, or I told Andrew Demko when he was on the show last, which was a long time ago. It was when the AD-10 and the AD-15 came out. i said 80 10 to wed 80 15 to bed baby it's such a sexy knife and then i stopped carrying he carried the 80 10 all the time what does that say about me uh but i just think that this is such a cool knife the 80 15 with the scorpion lock and this this this is a demco knife for which um there are very few in existence i'm not talking about the cold steel version i'm talking about the uh the the custom versions, because it wasn't such an old knife when it was picked up by Cold Steel and then made an exclusive design of Cold Steel. So those who have the custom 8015s, I think Alex used to have one. Hopefully he still has that.
[45:13]That's Watch and Cut Channel. Go check him out. He's awesome. Those people have coveted pieces. But I got to say, Andrew was extremely impressed with how cold steel put their 8015s together and now you can get an 8015 in um lesser steel this is s35 uh you can get it in lesser handle materials like the injection mold uh frn and that's an all black version so that's what i'm trying to say it's not lesser in terms of.
[45:46]Honestly in terms of like what quality i mean it is in terms of material cost but if you get one of the scout versions say of the uh of the uh four four max or one of the inexpensive versions of this or the 8010 they are still as stout and sturdy as the luxury models uh but anyway this one is fidgety too i don't know why i don't carry it uh maybe i need to sand down under the i think This texture sometimes makes me feel like I'm going to shred my pants, but I'm kind of over all that. So this is one I definitely have to start carrying more. And wait, let me show you something. If you need it in this grip, great palm. Great palm. Going all around, great working knife. When this came out, it was flat ground, and the 8010 was hollow ground. Now they're both flat ground. I lucked out and got the hollow ground on the 8010, so there I go. All right, next up, this one is, I waited many, many years to have, in a way, 20 years to have this, because I loved the Jim O. Young original design called the Synergy. Well, this is the Synergy 4 by Jim O. Young and Sabibi. The original Synergy was an aluminum-handled knife with some really cool anodizing and a tanto blade like this and also an upswept sort of, not Syrian. What's the word I'm thinking of, guys?
[47:13]Upswept Persian blade. I would only see them on the back of Tactical Knives magazine in the early 2000s.
[47:22]One day, I'd love to get my hands on one of those. Then that knife came and went, and I forgot all about it for many, many years.
[47:30]And then we started making one with the Synergy 3, a titanium version with the 3-inch blade. And then Savivi picked up the design with this long-form version, 4-inch tanto, 4-inch upswept. I love them both, but I'm really glad I got the tanto. This tanto, by the way, has a nice belly, a flat front, and then that tip is centerline. So you never have to search for that tip. however you have the blade indexed you'll know where it is and also you still get the benefit of that, this right here, this sweep the sweep of the main edge very thin.
[48:12]Flat ground blade so a little bit more robust than a hollow but very very thin and slicey like most Civivis and I'm not sure why I'm not carrying it I know option paralysis is probably a part of it But I do need to start carrying this more. Great in hand. I mean, it looks cool with those concentric radiating circles coming from the pivot, but those also give incredible grip. Incredible grip. But not so incredible that it hassles the hand. Beautiful design. So glad they came with this. And reminded me how much I liked it. All right, next up, last of the folding variety here. And I guess it's not a surprise I don't carry it but I really thought I would and that's the Lucha by Kershaw the Kershaw Lucha in this traditional format ballet song and by traditional format I mean it has a 4 3 5ths I'm sorry a 4 3 quarters inch blade nice long slender blade beautiful titanium handles nice and light, Works great, has this awesome spring here, spring tension, I should say, on the lock that works great. Doesn't have a complicated mechanism and it doesn't need one.
[49:37]And for me, I like butterfly knives, not for all the aerobatics and tricks that very talented guys can do all that crazy stuff. That's not what I'm about with the butterfly knife. For me, it's a defensive weapon, and it should be opened quickly and deftly and then used for cutting and maybe fighting or whatever. I get it. I get why people like all the aerobatics, and that's a whole thing. and I appreciate that. But for me, open it quickly and use it. Now, would I? No, I don't think so. I think it would fumble or fall out of my head. I have been opening these things up for 45 years. I should probably be all right at it in a pinch. But, you know, there's a lot of moving parts and defensive situation that might be tricky. I don't go into it. That doesn't happen to me. I don't have to worry about that. But even for everyday cutting, it's just like a little flashy. Plus it doesn't have a clip So it's a big clipless knife That you have in your pocket Sometimes the size has worked to my benefit If it's next to my phone And everything is standing up straight But then that's just too much So it's not a surprise I don't carry it That much But I want to start carrying it Because A it's a USA made Kershaw And I love USA made Kershaw And it's just a beautiful blade Look at that clip point A weird swedge.
[51:05]I don't need much more. I mean, I don't need more than this in a butterfly knife. Next time, what I need is much less than this. I saw Fred Perrin. He had a handmade, homemade ballet song that was about this little. I was talking with him and Zach Wingard. That was a trip. And he just opened it up very, very subtly down with his hands hanging down and then he had a little pick-haul knife in his hand. It was awesome. So yeah, more butterfly knives in my life, I think, is the order. All right, next up, this was the first fixed blade knife that I really carried devotedly for quite some time. And this is after I put my own knives that I made myself, kind of stopped carrying them. And this is the Felony Stop by Pops Knives. Now, I haven't carried this in ages, but just looking at it and reexamining it, it's perfect. And I think maybe this knife helped me dictate my, helped me figure out what is a great fixed blade knife to carry. And we're seeing the short handle and the rounded curved handle. And that short rounded curved handle is great If you carry in the waistband And this knife is pressed up against your body And if you have muffin top You know like 52 year old dads do You might not have just like the.
[52:31]The perfect v shape so you need something that's not going to jam into that extra material and these sort of rounded handles like this or the nova 2 uh really feel good feel good to have on you can see you can see how uh this knife this is with the micarta this is the part that's always in the sheath and then this is the dark part towards the end is against my skin uh this is facing outward uh this i'm definitely going to start carrying again however not such a great summer carry because it is um uh it is 1095 brain steel so the edge definitely does rust you can if you pay attention you just take it out strop it up and get that rust off of there and you're good to go just kind of maintain it on a daily basis but look at this you get a lot of punch out of this little knife next up is from savivi and terzuola bob terzuola this is the tomashi e and uh another another great great savivi i love this one um they've made a lot of cool um, Fixed blade knives, that one from Tough Knives is so cool. But this is the only one, I got to say, that has inspired me to ownership. And you may remember this was actually given to me, but I was about to buy it anyway. This was given to me by Sibivi.
[53:59]Great micarta handle enclosing the full tang of this knife. And it's a perfect handle to cap with the thumb. Beautiful blade of what is this 14c i believe oh no this is nitro v and that beautiful upswept quaken japanese self-defense in the sleeve dial blade i love it i love it the handle everything about this is gorgeous i would love to have a real uh a custom bob terzuola but that's not But that's not in the cards right now, so this will have to do until then. Handle is a little long for my EDC, but I have carried it a couple of times, really only in that 3 o'clock position.
[54:48]But the smoothness and the contouring of the micarta make this easy. Again, great sheath. Wouldn't even consider it without a great sheath. I'm going to swap out this cheesy clip for a discreet carry right quick. All right, next up, here's a knife I don't carry, enough because of the sheath. The sheath is about the size of Connecticut and it's a little too much. But what a great blade. It's such a contrast because this blade is so slim. That slim handle and a perfectly length handle. It's a nice short handle. Allows you to really get your thumb up on the blade and still have most of the handle covered up so in case you're actually in a scrape you don't have extra material here with which to rest your knife.
[55:35]This is a CTS BD1N steel, and it is deeply hollow ground like all the others in the Yojimbo Yojumbo family, except for the Microjimbo, which is full flat ground, a little small for that deep hollow grind.
[55:51]But this is a case of not carrying this, not because of the knife. The knife is perfect for what it is, perfect. But it's this sheet. Oh, my God, what a dog. What a dog. I mean, this is fine with pajamas around the house, or this is fine in running pants around the house, or shorts or whatever, but twice the width, if not more, of the knife itself. It is just huge. So, I'm moaning and complaining, but I've never made myself a sheath, so I do have to make a custom sheath for this, and I know when I do, I will carry this thing.
[56:30]Alright, second to last on this list Is the Koban From Cold Steel A classic, I waited, this is another one I waited a ridiculous 20 some odd years To get, I got one From my sister when she had some creepy dude Hanging around And it made her feel secure So it always made me feel good Knowing she had a Cold Steel Tonto next to the bed, That's what I've had, not this one But the Master for years years.
[56:58]Deep hollow grind on this. Aus-8 blade. Very, very thin. Coke bottle handle with the gription. You know, this is that textured, rubberized grivery. And I love this, though. Cold steel is not cheap or shy about contouring handles. So you look at it from this angle, the regular frontal angle, and it looks like a stick, like a very neutral shape. But then you You turn it this way, you see the palm swell, and it feels so good in hand. It's so light, it's so thin, it's so capable. It even comes in a serrated model. It has a great sheath. Why don't I carry it? I think it's this. I think it's the grippy rubber on the somewhat long handle. Now, again, if you've got a shirt over this and it's in the waistband, all of these factors are going to be an annoyance because your shirt is going to grab on the rubbery material. It's a little long and straight, and it's going to rub. It's going to poke. It's going to grab. So this is better on the outside of the clothes. So I think if I could rig this up in a way where I'm carrying it horizontally on the front, I think this could be a real winner. But in the meantime, it has a valuable position in the stable.
[58:23]All right, this last one here might get more carry as the weather gets cold. And it's because it's on this Bastinelli shoulder rig. Bastinelli knives, awesome. Oh, man, I got a little scratch on my leather. Anyway, awesome knife designer and a great practitioner of the martial arts with knives. And he came up with this really cool rig that, just like a shoulder holster, pretty simple. Goes around both shoulders and then drops down and then here's this plate of leather with all the holes in it and you can attach knives to it i the one that i found makes the most sense for me is this sear model from station nine um beautiful beautiful clip point blade here that's d2 blade steel full uh nearly full height flat grind and then this incredible swedge this knife makes for a great overall survival knife because you could use this in so many different ways. It would make an excellent outdoor field knife. That's really how they're marketing it.
[59:31]But as a thruster, as a stabber, and as a slasher, this thing is amazing. I remember the day I got this. I got it with its brother, the Partizan, the one that looks like a chef's knife, and it looks a lot more stabby, if you will. And I tested them both in the cardboard box that they came on, very informal test. and this sailed through to the hilt. I was so shocked at how easily this knife penetrated. So not just a great survival knife, but it would be a great tactical in a pinch kind of knife. I, of course, put the Ranger bands on there to increase the grip of this somewhat smooth but nicely contoured G10. So as the weather picks up, who knows? I might be walking around with a shoulder holstered sear under my jacket. How dorky but how cool would that be you answer and tell me alright everybody thanks for joining me on this edition of the knife junkie podcast and 10 cool production knives I do need to carry often you want to watch more shows like this go to the knifejunkie.com and watch them there or you can go to youtube where you might be right now and subscribe subscribe to the channel and also your favorite podcast app even if you don't listen.
[1:00:44]There subscribe there it doesn't hurt you and it helps me And if something like that is interesting to you, this is how you can do it. All right, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at ReviewThePodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, TheKnifeJunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at TheKnifeJunkie.com. Slash youtube check out some great knife photos on the knife junkie.com slash instagram and join our facebook group at the knife junkie.com slash facebook and if you have a question or comment email them to bob at the knife junkie.com or call our 24 7 listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the knife junkie podcast.
[1:01:42] Music