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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.
©2024, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
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Transcript

[0:00]Coming up, the Gentleman Junkie giveaway knife for October, I get a baby silverback, and 12 great one-knife options. We're talking fixed blade and folder. 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. Yo, one of my favorite comments from this past week was from The Swingin' Axe. The Swingin' Axe says, Great show, Bob. So many highlights. When your show airs, it reminds me of getting excited when The Simpsons were on public broadcast television. Sounds like we're the same generation, The Swingin' Axe. Remember TV guides? He says. Anyways, Spartan, Harsey, Folder, Warthog Edition, and the all-black Mannix 2XL in pocket today. Cheers, dude. Cheers to you, The Swingin' Axe. I love that comment. It did take me back. I remember Simpsons Season 3. That was my favorite back then when I was in college. So, yep, I remember all that stuff. Oddly enough, I don't remember anything from college. So thank you to Swingin' Axe and everyone else who watched and commented. I really appreciate it. Great to have you here. All right, all that said, let us now get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[1:26]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives in my front right pocket today the knife i kind of refuse to send back to dirk pinkerton i'm doing it this week dirk this is coming back to you this week uh this is a prototype for his standoff model uh that he's going to be releasing uh under his own shingle this will be something that you pre-order and uh that's got s90v blade steel a perfect true wharncliffe blade there. By true wharncliffe, I mean it's a constant descending arc from the thumb rest to the point with no clips, no interruptions, no drops, just one steady arc. Kind of like wharncliffe you see on a swayback. But this one is 3.7 inches titanium frame lock with those giant chamfers that Dirk puts on. On this one, you see two different kinds of jimping. You see the standard jimping going all the way across the spine. And then you see the sort of half scoops that Mr. Pinkerton puts on a lot of his stuff. You hear me talk about him a lot. I love his work. What can I say?
[2:35]It's a great combination of EDC and, you know, historical weaponry all jammed into one knife. So this one will be coming out soon. I got to send this back to Dirk. There are a couple of tweaks he's going to be making, but tweaks indeed, that is it. Because this thing is so incredibly dialed in. I can't wait to have one of my own. Okay, so next in my front right pocket, actually right next to the Pinkerton standoff, is my Benny's clip, which I got to say has such a stout pull, but luckily you can grab that flat right here near the nail neck and pull it out. Now, ordinarily, and if that sounded like a complaint, it's not. It's a whimper because my hand, you know, if you've been listening to me complain, I jacked up my thumb a little while ago. I cut it very close and, well, I know I nicked the nerve even though the doctor said I didn't.
[3:35]And then I woke up and my forefinger's broken somehow. house. So I don't know, weird stuff happening with my hands right now. And so grabbing on to very, very sharp blades and then pulling against a strong spring can make one nervous, but it's worth it with the Jack Wolf knives. You might say, hey, you have the flipping version of that. Why not carry that? Well, I say, mind your own business. I need a slip joint in my pocket. No, this thing I adore. I love the Benny's clip. It's Ben Belkin's version of the Lanny's clip, the famous Tony Bowes model of clip point folder that he created for a friend named Lanny, as you might imagine. This one has hand rub satin going horizontally on that hollow grind and then a nice well it's it's all it's all hand satin i don't know why i was just talking about that it jumps out there you can see it on the flat too a larger bolster than the first run of this with this time three flutes here you have that gorgeous purple curanite and came in some other really nice treatments you You know, every release has a cool new treatment or material with the Jack Wolf knives, and I love them.
[4:57]All right, next up, going back to the one that started it all for me in T-Cal knives, though this was not my first T-Cal knife.
[5:06]That was the Guardian. This is the first one that I carried obsessively and inspired the design of the Agent 001 in terms of the size and carry profile of this. I just love this knife. This is the Night Stalker. I think before the Agent 001, or you know what, I'm just going to say, This is definitely T-Cal Knives' most popular and most selling-est knife over time. I know that the Agent series has popped up as another great knife in his lineup, but this is the classic OG. I love this one. I also have the reverse edge version of this, so just look at this profile and imagine the edge on the top side. It's a nice Pakal called MR-1.
[5:54]This is a perfect knife. I mean, this perfect fixed blade knife, it carries so well.
[5:59]For me, I carry it horizontally on the front right next to my belt for a reverse draw from the right hand. And this sheath just is the same width as my belt. I have that discrete carry clip there. And it just melts right into the belt. And something about this handle curving down around the ring um and the thinness of the ring area so you have a long length you know you have this length handle but um you have a quarter of it that doesn't have the width of the two scales so what i'm trying to say is it really does not print it under a t-shirt you'll never know that this is there uh so it's a great all-around knife of course this one uh is aebl and i say of course This was the first run of AEBL, I think, that Tim ever did over there. It's got the nickel-boron coating. And, man, it's just an incredible, incredible knife. I highly recommend the T-Cal Knives Night Stalker. Another one I highly recommend. This is, I don't want to say it's a surprise. I wasn't surprised at how great it is. I was surprised at how much I love this knife. I got it because Tom Nugent of Knives by Nuge was on my show, and I saw him at Blade Show and I wanted to have something that he made for the sentimental reason that I interviewed him. I like doing that in my collection. So I got this. He didn't have much left on his table. People love his stuff, especially outdoorsmen and campers and such.
[7:27]But he had this primitive wicket and I love, you know me, I love the jute cord wrapping. And I saw this little guy and frankly, I thought, oh, I bet I can afford that. And then I picked it And I was like, oh, my lands. It's just a great little knife. I bought it, put it around my neck, and it's been on there, like, I'd say...
[7:51]30 of the time since i got since i got it which is uh you know way more than any other neck knife at this point i i carry carry this a lot i carry it right next to the skin it's so thin and uh this it's not like sackcloth it's not like putting burlap on your skin this is actually a pretty nice texture um in the handle it doesn't in other words it doesn't rub against the chest and kind of annoy you this feels great i love this thing so it's what i'm trying to say great stash knife great knife that you'll have on you kind of all the time if you're a neck knife guy and uh you could easily drop that in the pocket too this could be depending on what you wear this could be like a fifth pocket carry with a little discreet carry clip on also it uh since i've been doing a lot more like noodling around at the fire pit and cooking over the fire pit i've been using this one a lot just a feather stick and to scrape to use the spine to uh scrape uh fatwood to get little curls because I've been trying to light fires without lighters and I've been successful twice now I know I know but uh I'm learning all right that's it for my pocket check today let me know what you had on you today then check out the knives by Nuge primitive wicket I mean the primitive he doesn't always have uh but he no he's just releasing one as I speak um so he did a drop a couple of days ago if you're listening to this as it comes out so he does regular drops check Check them out on Instagram.
[9:17]Also, Jack Wolf Knives, Benny's Clip, and from Dirk Pinkerton.
[9:22]The forthcoming standoff, which I'm sending back this week.
[9:28]All right, I want to show you what we're going to be giving away for the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway in October. If you don't know what a Gentleman Junkie is, that's our high tier of support on Patreon.
[9:39]Every month, we do a sort of courtesy GAW, and we put up the Wheel of Destiny with all the gentleman junkie names on it. We spin it, and whoever it lands on gets it sent to them. This is courtesy of Off Grid Knives. This is their new Mamba 3, and it's a beautiful full titanium and magna-cut knife.
[10:01]Uh, Warncliffe. This is a full size knife. So that blade is, I'm going to get technical here. That blade is four inches. That is a four inch magnet cut blade, uh, somewhat slender. This is what I love about, uh, off-grid knives. They are incredible slicers. I mean, uh, besides everything else, they always have incredible stout build quality. These are made in either by Best Tech or in Taiwan. They have, they manufacture their stuff in a couple of different places. Their Taiwanese manufacturer does some really incredible stuff. I think that's where this might be from. Not sure, though. He will be on the show shortly to talk about what's been going on lately with off-grid knives. But you've got this titanium handle with that golf ball texture. It's so nice and grippy.
[10:50]And also, it's just a pleasing texture in hand. And as my right thumb comes online, it's still a bit numb. I've been carrying mine. I snagged one of these out of the box. I've been carrying mine a lot, and this texture is great. I can feel it through the numbness of my thumb. But it's not in any way, it's not going to hassle your pocket and fray anything. But the real star of the show here is this Warncliffe blade. It is so awesome. A great point. This is just like the Enforcer blade, except it's got some of that Mamba spine treatment. The last Mamba was a 3-incher. And so the Mamba V2 had a 3.25-inch blade, but it was the same exact setup, same width, same titanium handle.
[11:40]Except just smaller. So this thing is...
[11:44]Fantastic knife and for the size it feels quite thin even though it's a you know sort of standard half inch thick um so this will be we'll be giving this magna cut and titanium uh mamba v3 away and then also this bullet v2 and the bullet v2 is a bit driver from off-grid knives i have the first one and it's a great bit driver uh got incredible action this could be a fidget spinner how long that uh top portion spins but it has three very strong magnets uh three divots with very strong magnets holding in um i think it's a t let's see you got a t6 a t8 and a t10 in there and then And anything else you want, you got to bring yourself. B-Y-O-B, bring your own bit. Okay, so this one also, this is a new thing for them. They have a filler tab on the off side, which is awesome. And by the way, this deep carry pocket clip is great, fully, fully embedded in the handle with flat screws. One thing I can definitely say for Cary Oripiche of Off Grid Knives is that he listens to knife nerds and knife junkies like you and me, and he incorporates those changes in the reiterations of his knives. This is the V3 of the Mamba. Become a Gentleman Junkie, and it could be yours.
[13:12]All right. Before we get to Knife Life news, I just want to say, if you want that knife and you want to become a patron, just go to the knifejunkie.com slash patron. You can also scan the QR code on your screen. Go there, check out. There are three tiers of support there and different ways you can pay for the whole year. You can do it month to month. Some people hop on when they see something that they like a lot, like the recent Demco giveaway.
[13:43]So all are welcome. So go to thenypejunkie.com slash Patreon and check it out. Again, that's thenypejunkie.com slash Patreon. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Theknifejunkie.com slash battlebox. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. I was just waxing poetic about the beauty of true wharncliffs. Well, We Knife just showed off a prototype at Blade Show West, and this is a, pardon me, it's a design collaboration with Rafal Brzezinski, and he has collaborated with We Knife a few times. He did the shoot on, he did the shadow fire and he did that cool little, um.
[14:35]Cool little flipping kiridashi can't remember what that's called but we have had one here and gave it away um but uh this is a very nice looking knife this one is called uh what are they calling this thing oh the brr15 and the funny thing about this uh this just they just showed off this prototype of a production version of a custom knife called the brr15 that just debuted you know eight months ago at blade show i don't know eight months ago it's less than that half a year ago at blade show atlanta so kind of cool to have the custom come out and then several months later have the production come out things are looking up for rafal drzeski and this uh beautiful model the brr 15 this is um gonna be let's see uh 3.25 inches of m390 blade steel uh you've got a nice sort of formal setup here on the one prototype that.
[15:29]We've seen by that i mean titanium bolster lock with a sort of uh dark you know black and white swirly carbon fiber so it's got a real nice sort of formal look to it it's a gent's knife very wicked looking blade i'd love to see this in a larger than 3.25 inch actually come to think of it i wouldn't like to see this in a larger diversion because then uh with that blade shape it would be it would it would near moral imperative and i might have to buy it uh 2.97 ounces is the weight on this prototype pretty nice so it's a less than an ounce an.
[16:07]Inch that used to be an old formula i'm not sure if that's still important people.
[16:11]Um but keep your eyes peeled for the brr 15 from rafal brzeski and i said civivi before i I meant we. I'm sorry.
[16:22]It is a we knife. But speaking of Civivi, they have a new one coming out that, oh my stars, I got to go through all of the different mailboxes, make sure that they haven't asked to see if I want to look at this knife because it looks so cool. It's a fixed blade knife. They've been killing it with their fixed blade knives. Civivi.
[16:41]Man hats off to you this one's called the airy peak and i can't tell if it's an outdoor knife it's if it's a fighting knife what it is but it is so cool uh this is a six inch upswept highly swedged uh it's not persian but it's definitely an upswept uh blade looks like it would be great in a fight looks like it would be great outdoors um i just love it i i i'm i i'm loving the wood -handled one. That's probably their Curebushio wood or whatever they call it. Jeez, sorry. I shouldn't have even bothered, man. But I love the wood and two-tone satin finish there. This one is just debuted at Blade Show West. Kydex. Now, I'm not sure if these are available yet. They've been shown off. I think a good deal of that happens over there, but we'll see. We'll see. I don't know, man. It's beautiful, though. The handle reminds me of an old Treeman knife. Not old, but Treeman blades. If you don't know them, they make really cool fifth blade knives. That sort of reminds me of a Treeman handle. I was actually looking through the article. I was like, this has to be a collaboration knife because that looks like a couple of different designers. But in any case, I think it's in-house, and I also think it's beautiful.
[18:02]It would be especially nice with a leather sheath, but hey, I'm not grumbling. One all right next up uh this one has a kydex sheath as well what a terrible segue uh this next one is also a knight uh it's from tops it's called the lilith which the lilith i i love the.
[18:22]Cognitive dissonance it's like lilith uh is like a beautiful woman from days gone by in a gauzy dress in you know blurry memory uh dancing in the field and yet this knife is uh not that this is a beautiful 14 inch recurve tanto is what i'm calling it uh ben schwartz of uh knife news said it looks like a copus i i disagree um respectfully uh so i'm calling this a giant recurve tanto uh it's got Yes, it's got a four-finger ring, something I used to be obsessed with when I was a teenager, 12-year-old. I think Lou Diamond Phillips in Young Guns had a Bowie with that, and he'd spin it around. I thought that was so cool. Yeah. I don't know why it's cool. I don't think it's very useful, but it looks cool. This is designed by Jason Johnson. He's been on YouTube forever as Pro Knife Thrower. I know I've been watching him for a long time. YouTube knife guy. It's 2015 he started. That's not forever. That's nine years, but still it feels like it.
[19:33]So this thing here is interesting. You look at the handle. It's got that ring, which seems very unlike something you would want on a throwing knife. I don't know, because it's a retention thing. But then you look at the handle, and it tapers at the pommel. And that very definitely comes from his designing implements for throwing. So this big thing, I would imagine, is not only an awesome chopper, an intimidating weapon for sure. It's scary, man, looking. But if you had to throw it, I bet it would throw great. I mean, I'm just imagining, seeing as it's 1095 blade steel, so springy and tough, designed by Jason Johnson, and with that tapered handle like that. Very, very cool. Big Kydex Sheath, this thing is available now. I mean, you know, pull this out on your next camping trip and impress your friends.
[20:26]All right, lastly, in knife life news, this is another collaboration. I love this. All of them except the Civivi Airy Peak were collaborations. I love that. that uh artisan cutlery so the reason i love this i'm just gonna little side note is because uh i believe that it's good for everyone it's good for the designer uh it's it's good for the knife company because they can pull other talent in and a wider audience and but it's also good for people like myself who um for instance when the br r15 comes out from we knife it's probably the only chance I'll ever get to get that Rafal Brzeski knife unless I really, really want to save up and wait and order and figure out how to get a custom version of it. It's great that these companies put these designers in reach. Okay. Lastly here, Artisan Cutlery Clio, name of a girl I had a crush on in college.
[21:22]This is by Johan Jordan. I think that's how we pronounce his name. He's a a south african knife maker and designer and uh the blade immediately uh makes me think of uh the pilar uh from crkt another girl i had a crush on in college she was spanish this is interesting uh yeah so the clio and the pilar i love that blade shape and uh i guess that blade shape is evocative of women that draw my eye somehow uh this one though has a full titanium handle.
[21:55]It's got a button lock S90V blade steel at 2.54 inches, which Ben Schwartz says is a magical number. And I know 3.25 inches is a magical number and four.
[22:07]This is cool. I didn't know. But two and a half. Yeah, that makes sense, especially if you live in a place like Chicago or something like that. So it has a textured faux inlay, which I like, sculpted titanium clip, which is reversible, which is somewhat rare on a production knife so a pretty cool knife available now and uh yeah to clear all right bringing back some memories man i don't remember that time very well okay coming up we're going to go to the state of the collection but first i want to talk quickly about launch card uh if you are a knife maker don't skip over this if you're a knife maker if you have a shop you sell anything online and you have shopify i want to tell you something them. Shopify is Canadian, which is fine. I like our Canadian brothers, but they also will tell you what you can and cannot sell, which is kind of Canadian of them, at least recently. So if you want something a little more American, where you can actually sell what you want, as long as it's legal, and for a few pennies less, I don't think the deal is radically better, but it is a little better than Shopify. And you want to keep that business here in the country without people sniffing in your business, check out LaunchCart. Go to thenifejunkie.com slash launch.
[23:28]Jim has discovered LaunchCart and really, man, he's very enthusiastic about it. Jim and I have a lot of the same opinions about things and he was very, very happy to find this service in the United States that's not going to hassle you, that respects your freedom to sell what you want as long as it's legal, and I do too. So check it out, Launch Cart, thenifejunkie.com slash launch. Coming up, we're going to get into the one new knife I got this past week in the state of the collection. The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super-sharp, crenulated bezel, and a built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch. TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Shockwave. And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
[24:27]So Holtzman Knives reached out to me. Holtzman's Knives, I know I've seen them at Blade Show, and I know I met... One of the individuals there and checked out their knives and it's fortuitous and uh coincidental that they reached out to me and asked if i wanted to see one of their survival knives and i said well yeah of course i do but uh it wasn't just like yes i want a free knife send me a free knife which i must admit in the past i have succumbed to uh but in this case uh well lately I'm not so much like that anymore.
[25:01]I only have so much room and bandwidth. But this really interests me because of these things I've been talking about, trying to get a little bit more use out of my knives outside and while doing so, brush up on some skills that survival skills that I've kind of learned along the way, whether from watching TV or YouTube, but definitely not practice them. So I thought, why not start actually doing that? So yes, Holtzman's, I'd love to check out one of your small survival knives. This one, they sent me a few options, and this one I chose is called the Baby Silverback. And it's definitely smaller than I expected, but I really, I like it, and I'm glad it is, because it's a, this is going to go into a kit I'm putting together right now, a survival kit. it. But it worked last night to start a fire. I'm going to use it again as I record this. Tonight, I'm going to be cooking a pork loin over the fire. I'm going to use this to start that fire.
[26:02]I'll get to that in a second. So this is the knife right here. The sheath is very retentive, but it'll loosen up eventually. It's better to have it retentive than not. All right, you can see some of the farinesium sort of dust on the top from where I struck it, but But this cool little D2 blade is wickedly sharp. It's got that great swedge. That was definitely a draw for me. I thought, like, yes, I want to check out this little survival knife, but I also want something that's going to pierce and thrust well. You know, that's always a consideration for me. That's why I'm not too keen on the cleaver blades and that kind of thing. But nice D2 blade. It's got a beautiful blue-lined G10 contoured handle. Very comfortable. You can see from this perspective looking down on it, it swells out at the palm, rather Coke bottle-ish. And then it's got this very nice finger choil, very comfortable. And then these little thumb notches on the sides of the scale right up at the ricasso are very nice for if you do those sort of chest pull things. Things, where here, I'm going to do this in the main camera, where if you have a piece of wood, like say that this is a piece of wood, and you're carving it, you hold it like this, and then you pull the wood. I've seen Gideon's Tactical do that a bunch of times. Looks cool, and actually you can get a lot of force behind it. That's what I like these little notches for here.
[27:29]By the way, if anyone knows that dude, I'd love to have him on the show. I've reached out to him before. I can't quite get in touch with him. I think he's Aaron from Gideon's Tactical. Anyway, way uh very very very comfortable handle yes it's a three finger handle for sure uh so i put this little lanyard on one one little ding is the lanyard hole this thing requires a lanyard it's so small but the lanyard hole is very stingy i had to gut this 550 cord and then it took some doing just to get the gutted 550 cord through there and the reason i'd rather use full fledged cord is so that these little knots are bigger, and I would do more of a monkey's fist kind of thing. But in any case, it stays in the hand pretty well. It has these 90-degree, not uncomfortable, but 90-degree spine to strike the ferro rod. It comes with a little ferro rod holder. It came with an extra sort of clip, like a boot clip-style clip.
[28:31]We've got this really nice ferro rod here, also with that blue lining. Worked very well on fatwood shavings and dust. I used the back of this to make the dust, you know, just kind of scraping. And then it's got this built-in sharpener here, diamond stone on the side. It's a little spotty, I've got to say. The texture is rather smooth here. Gets a little gritty here. It's not mounted very... It's fine. It's not coming out. but the fit and finish right here is a little not exactly on point but all in all i think this is a pretty excellent knife it comes with this uh i mean so far that's my my impression and i've actually used it and that's uh you know for me it's pretty good i used it on wood and to start a fire uh we're gonna see how it works long term but that d2 steel i love d2 steel and it seems so far as if it's pretty well heat treated because of the carving i've done with it um and and what was the carving it was mostly uh kindling making and feather stick making and little curls and and scraping uh what am i i keep showing you the sheath i really like this clip i'm not a huge fan of the of this kind of clip the um what is it called what are these called you're yelling at your screen now but i like this one it's a little thinner and uh.
[29:57]Keeps it a little closer to the belt. Overall, I really like this knife, and I think it's going to go in my special fire-making and kind of cook kit that I've been working on, and it would be a great addition to any sort of kit like that. Nice and small. You could use this as... They offer a couple of neck knife options, like a loop of paracord and also a chain. For me, it's a little too heavy and it's a little too bulbous, you know, comparing that to the Knives by Nuge Primitive Wicket that I carry all the time. It's like two and a half times the width or let's see. Yeah, you know, it's about twice the width. So much better as a belt knife or drop in the pocket fixed blade knife. And I got to say, I love the accoutrement that it comes with, the different clips and the ferro rod make it a very high-value package. So I'll be doing a video on this one.
[31:00]All right. Well, this knife kind of inspired this next category. So has just been kind of going outside and using my knives a little bit more. I've been thinking about, well, what are the knives that I carry repeatedly? And some of these I haven't carried in a long time, but I carried them for a long time when I had them because of how overall useful they are and how easy they are just to grab and throw in the pocket without thinking, do I really want a tantra today? Do I really want to recurve today? It's just, so you'll see a lot of pretty generic blade shapes here, but hey, that's what it is. All right, so these are 12 great one-knife options, and I'm going to start with folders I split down the middle I'm going to start with folders and offer alternatives for the folders, just size alternatives basically and then for the fixed blades we're just going to show you those because.
[31:53]The world of fixed blades is so vast. Okay, so the first one is the Spyderco Manix. And the one that I have is the one that Shane, Edgy American, gave me. Thank you, Shane. I love this thing. This is S110V, and it's in the lightweight package. So this thing really is very lightweight. It's got that ball lock and a full flat ground leaf-shaped blade that is so slicey. And then in this case, it's got a super steel, like an ultra super steel in the s110v but you can get this from s110v all the way down to bd1 i say all the way down to because that's a budget steel and it's you know it's not a high as much of a high performer as this but if you like this design and you like this knife you can get it in a variety of um steels and handle materials including g10 and all manner all manner of g10 tenon micarta and uh what was i gonna say oh but for me spider cos are very much uh kind of replaceable in in a way what i mean by that is if that's too big for you and the and the manix.
[33:04]2xl is too big for you then maybe you want adelica and the reason i say these are interchangeable is because of the types of blades. The full height, the full flat ground blades offer very, very similar performance in terms of how they cut and how they slice. Of course, the S110V on top is going to have different performance characteristics than the VG10 on bottom, outperform it in most ways, if not all. But get similar and same cutting similar to same cutting performance if you like the profile of the manix 2 a lot but you want something the size of the delica well maybe you can get the um.
[33:50]The native, the small native, which kind of looks a little bit more like this than this. But what I'm getting at is the Spyderco Manix in my book makes for a great one-knife option. And I'll tell you the final reason why I would pick that over, say, a Delica or Endura or Endela is that this has the fidget factor because it's got that ball lock. And uh yeah it's a fun one to flick open and close so the first one i would say is the spider co manix 2 in its many iterations next up is the you probably guessed this the ritter hoag rsk mark one in this case the automatic version uh this is uh this started life as the benchmade ritter Griptilian, Doug Ritter.
[34:44]He's the guy who started knife rights. That's why his name might ring a bell if it doesn't as knife designer, but he's been designing knives for a long time. His entree into the knife design world was as a helicopter pilot and a survival specialist. One of his first ventures was to create a website which acted as a clearinghouse for all sorts of survival information and products. And then he started producing survival kits that were getting sold a lot to helicopter pilots and units because of the effective lightweight aspect. And part of that was the Griptilian model. He went to Benchmade back in the day and said, I want to make a drop point blade that is made of the best steel we can find at the time, but have it in an inexpensive expensive handle. And at the time, Benchmade was making the Griptilian, as they still do now. And so they went with the Griptilian handle, which is famously cheap and.
[35:48]Lightweight and contoured and comfortable and grippy and um but made a blade differently shaped than the griptilian in this drop point uh ritter shape and made it out of at the time i guess it was s30v and and that was their super steel and and then as time went on and super steels advanced you know that kept uh going up but the whole point was that you have a the best possible blade you can in the lightest and least expensive package.
[36:21]So this, you know, now fast forward 20 years and the Ritter RSK Mark I, RSK standing for Ritter Survival Knife Mark I, is being made by Hoag. Benchmade in 2016 stopped doing OEM work and Hoag took up the mantle and started making this legendary knife they.
[36:43]Lengthened the handle a little bit created their own able lock advanced bar lock and ambidextrous bar lock enhanced uh which was their version of the um of the axis lock and started producing rsk mark one never looking back uh everyone's been extremely happy with the hoag uh as have i this is the automatic version came out last year with magna cut blade steel living up to that initial mission so you got a relatively inexpensive g10 handle i don't know about that actually it's nicely contoured beautifully contoured and has a whole bunch of milling uh but in relative terms it's not titanium and uh so you have a relatively inexpensive handle but that incredible magna cut blade living up to the the spirit of the original intent of the knife if that's too big for you you can go to knife works this is a knife works exclusive i didn't mention if you want the the ritter hoag rsk series at all you got to go to knifeworks uh but you can also get a small version the mini so this is just like a mini griptilian this is just like a regular full-size griptilian though the handles are slightly longer on these making the mini i got to say more comfortable than a regular griptilian because it gives you a little bit more on the pinky side and a little bit more weight back there adds to the balance uh this one was sent Sent to me by Doug Ritter, which I'm very proud of.
[38:10]It's a nice keepsake to have. He's such an awesome dude. I did swap out the clip, though. I've never been a huge fan of the Hogue clips.
[38:18]Though it seems like on the automatic, they went with a slightly thicker gauge, which has always been my gripe, the lightness of the gauge. But look at that button screw sticking out.
[38:27]Like that's my one kind of they could have fixed that so that is uh number two that's the ritter hoag rsk mark one next up this list would not be complete it's a this is a the this is an expensive one we got a couple expensive ones on here but you get what you pay for it is true and uh if you were to be and i know someone and i'm coaching them in this direction who who is uh you know has great taste in everything, wants a good pocket knife, but just like a good pocket knife, and wants to be somewhat extravagant. And I think this is the way I'm pushing is a Chris Reeve.
[39:09]I'm going to try and open it with my left hand. Oh, look at that. I was able to open it with my left hand. The Chris Reeve Sebenza, and now there's the Sebenza 31. Oh, God, this was awesome. All right, I got to tell you about this. I was at a party down the street with some close friends, one of whom I will take credit for turning into a knife junkie. And then there are a couple of other people there who have also embraced maybe some dormant knife love. And there was a guy I'd never met. And I'm like, man, this is going to seem like I'm flirting with him. But I go up to him and I say, is that a Chris Reeve knife with a Millet aftermarket clip in your pocket? He's like, yeah. He pulls out an Nsingo, beautiful Nsingo, or yeah, Nsingo, no, Nsingo blade. What was it? Not an Umnumzan. What's the one?
[40:05]He pulls it out and shows it off. And we just started talking. He was one of these guys, actually, who has very few knives, but one of them is a Chris Reeve. and he works in construction, I believe. He's a foreman or something like that. And he loves it. So yes, there are some people who are like that. And there's another dude that I was telling you about. He's a little bit different kind of a guy, but man, he's got a lot of very nice stuff and I'm going to guide him in this direction. But the Chris Reeves, Abenza, or I have the, I have the Omnumzon. There's the incosu what am i getting wrong here write it in the comments what am i getting wrong uh but there are a lot of great models from them the 31 is so cool the 31 the sebenza 31, 31 meaning 31 years of making the sebenza is such a cool one it's got such a beautiful shaped inlay it reminds me of like a an old car like a 1930s car great knife the you know the The tolerances that all others are compared to, just a great, great, great, great knife. I'm going to put this in my pocket when I'm done here. But say it's too big, and say you want some modern amenities like a flipper or something like that, you could go... Though I'm not sure if they're making this in the flipper version anymore. The tactile knives...
[41:28]The Tactile Knives Rockwall, to me, is a great small-type sebenza-like knife. It's got a bank vault sort of feel to it, even though it's a liner lock, and it doesn't have that hydraulic feel. It has more of a drop-shutty feel, but it's got an incredible blade, perfect blade shape that really straddles the line for me personally between a sort of very utilitarian look and a sort of combative look. Look, to me, it reminds me a little bit of an old school combat knife. But that's me. That's the lens I see the world through. But you'll get beautiful flourishes like the milling because Tactile is known for their milling and their incredible surface texture. As well as their all-made-in-Texas build. These things are amazing.
[42:13]These are made in Idaho. So if made in America, it means something to you. Important. These are great options. But I would really say that for a great one-knife option, this is the one I would go with on this expensive titanium front because they've been dialing that knife in for 31 years. Years all right next up is the demco now this is the demco 8020 this is a machine ground blade so this is kind of in the same price range as that sebenza not an inexpensive knife however if you love the shark lock which i do and not only for its incredible strength strength, it sort of reinforces itself.
[42:59]Andrew Demko is a genius with creating folding knife locks, and they all seem to be stronger than the one made before it, and they all seem to reinforce themselves. If you like that, and you like the fidgetiness, which I have to say is an appeal, but you don't want to lay out the money, and this is a rather large knife, and you have to wait for it. For instance, Lavender Pants hooked me up with this one a long time ago. He was at River's Edge Cutlery and saw this and I had just been blabbing about how I wanted one and he made it happen. So, uh, they're not necessarily easy to come by probably easier now than they were. But if you love this, perhaps it's too big. You can always go for the production, Taiwanese production. Uh, and I stress that because Taiwan is known for making outstanding knives, the Taiwanese companies, uh, in general. Uh, this is a first generation 80, 20.5. There, a lot has happened with the 80, 20.5 since this came out, but it is, uh.
[44:02]The um more well the more affordable version of this knife now if you follow the show you know that it comes in titanium it comes in you can get it in all sorts of different versions different treatments this very basic one when it first came out was like 125 i i know it's gone up a little bit um but this had the os 10a i know that they're making them with much better steels and But the fact that you can get this and it's Baby Brother, there's one with a 2.5-inch blade called the Baby Shark, I think, all with the shark lock.
[44:40]And those are even less expensive, sub-$100. So if you want a non-cold steel Demco, and I say it that way only because a vast majority of his catalog is in, or of his design catalog is wrapped up in cold steel so gloriously, I should say, that some of the knives, you know, if you want a Demco, if you want a Shark Lock, you can only get it from Demco. So there are a number of different ways you can do it. You can go the super expensive route and get a full custom and really wait, or you can do something like this. These are great one-knife options. Stout, sturdy, and fidgety. And the fidgety part you might think is frivolous, but it's important. Important it's important like putting a small backgammon board or a small card uh a deck of cards in your survival kit so you don't lose your mind uh in a survival situation or a book or whatever it is that's the fidget factor that's so you don't lose your mind okay next uh this is one i've been carrying a lot and i was just showing off because we're giving away it's uh the all black version of this but this is mine there are many like it but this one is mine this is the the Mamba 3 by Off Grid Knives. And, you know, it was really hard for me to come up with one Off Grid Knife folder that's a great one-knife option.
[46:05]I'm a sucker for the Off Grid Knives, not only because I like the way they look, I love the way they cut. They are...
[46:14]Here's the thing. They look like tactical knives, but they're some of the best utility knives out there. They're some of the best cardboard cutters out there, and I absolutely love them. Nice, thin blade steel, always excellent flat ground geometry, always thin behind the edge, but in very robustly built knives. This one here is titanium and big, four inches of magna cut. So this is going to be an expensive one. I believe this is in the $275 range. Don't quote me. I haven't looked it up. I got to look it up. This was courtesy of Off Grid Knives. And so I thank him for that. Thank Kerry for that. But if that's too much for you, either it's too expensive or it's probably too large, A lot of people don't like 9-inch folders. Well, there are other options from off-grid knives, and this is the same profile in a smaller and much less expensive version. This is the Enforcer.
[47:19]There's the Enforcer XL that I've shown off that's this size with the big glass breaker and the G10 handle. This is the more pocketable 3.25-inch version of that. You've got the deep carry pocket clip with the sunk flat screws. You've got this incredibly textured G10, just silky smooth holding action, drop shut action with that amazing wharncliffe blade. This one is D2. Oftentimes, you'll see 154CM on off-grid knives. And then higher tier, you'll see M390 and now Magnacut. But they're just sturdy as the day is long. I think they're really good looking and they have the fidget factor. Plus, you can go inexpensive here, sub 100, sub 75, I think this one, or you can go expensive and luxurious with the off-grid knives. So, definitely great one-knife options. And such a usable wharncliffe shape.
[48:23]You've got some belly, you've got that point, low slung, so that you can use it for all sorts of utility tasks. But if you're going to thrust with it, it's, you know, right where it kind of needs to be. It's not like you have to make any special accommodations as you would with a cleaver. All right, next up is from Cold Steel. This is the last of the folders. You knew that there had to be a cold steel here And I'm putting this one out here Because it's a nice balance This is the Formax Scout.
[48:53]The Formax, size and build-wise, is a nice balance between, let's say, the Voyager large series, so the 4-inch bladed Voyager series, and the big, you know, 5 1⁄2-inch folders, the giant cold steel folders. This one has a giant feel, but only has a 4-inch blade. I don't know, right? It just looks bigger than 4 inches, but I think it's because it's so wide. Yeah, it's like 4 1⁄8-inch.
[49:20]That's os 8 os 10 yeah this is os 10 and grivery so this is a super inexpensive version of this normally very expensive knife the 4 max was uh now they have a 5 5 max but the 4 max was the flagship for a while and um you know they had versions made in italy they had versions made Made in America with Contour G10 and just super luxurious, expensive, sort of peak Demco cold steel. And a lot of us couldn't afford it or wasn't spending that kind of money on cold steels. And they realized that and came out with the budget version. And it's awesome. This one was a gift from Jimmy Slash. Thank you so much for this, Jimmy. I mean, that's why I put the Jimmy Slash lanyard on it there. But if this is too big, which I totally get, and maybe you want something a little nicer that is slightly nicer materials and fit and finish, well, you might go with the AD-10. The AD-10 also represents a peak Demco design, but this one has Contour G10.
[50:37]This one has gotten a lot of use. Contour G10, this is an early one with a hollow ground blade. Now they're full flat ground just like this, but nearly the same size, but has a way smaller carry feel and profile. But two awesome drop point blades. You notice that drop point plays heavily in this category because it's so, well, they're very, very useful blades. They're also not too threatening, and they're great all-arounders. So great one-knife option, I would say, is this 4-Max Scout because it can really go where some of those bigger blades can go except for spanning. They obviously can't span the same, but it is just stout and sturdy and rough and ready and good to go. How many clichés can I throw into one sentence? Yes. All right, now we're going to get into the fixed blades, and these are one-knife options also, but I'm not giving you any alternatives here. They are plenty. This is the Mora Knife Companion, and I got this in Germany at the PX, at the Rammstein Air Base.
[51:54]We went in there. There were all sorts of knives, and many of them cheap and cheesy, but I saw this, and I had to have it. But I have not had a modern Mora. I have the Mora No. 2 with the wooden handle, and that's a great little knife. But I always wanted a companion, and it is awesome. It's a 4 1⁄2-inch blade of Swedish stainless, so I'm assuming it's 14C or 12C27, one of those. Really ergonomic handle, nice and grippy, and just very comfortable. You can see I've used it quite a bit. It is such a nice carving knife. I used it to carve a spatula when I cooked my, when we were cooking something over the fire. Oh, croque monsieur's. I carved a spatula. And this thing is awesome. I was using this in my boon too, which has an apple seed edge or a convex edge. And I was finding, yeah, that Scandi grind is awesome. Just digs in and you can have so much control. Uh, this knife I think would be a great single fixed blade if you, you're not really into fixed blades, but you want one for utility. And by the way, uh, according to, um, according to Ed Calderon, they make amazing fighting self-defense knives. Um.
[53:12]But if you wanted a one-knife fixed blade option, this is definitely a way to go. Mora, I would go with any Mora, but the Companion comes in a lot of different colors, and I think it's pretty much their flagship model. So they have a lot of different options. By the way, great sheath just drops in there, and you can clip it on your pocket. You can clip it on your belt. It's just good to go and ready to go. Next is a Topps knife, and this has gotten a lot of use over the years because it is just so universally awesome. And I'll start with that great pouch sheath. Much like the Mora knife, it's just there. You just pull it out, drop it in, and you're good to go. So it's great to have on the belt when you're camping or working. You know, when you're using a knife, pulling it out and putting it back in a lot. This is a great sheath for that. This is the Tex Creek. So it is 1095 blade steel from Topps, full tang blade here with nice micarta handles, contoured nicely. You get the Coke bottle, very comfortable.
[54:19]Much bigger hands. This would accommodate much bigger hands than mine. You've got that great jimping up front but you also have a nice swedge so if you have to jam it into something stab it into something thrust it, it would make for a pretty good thruster. I got this because I thought I was going to EDC it I just started making kydex sheaths for myself, and I thought this would be a good one for it I found that the handle is too long for me to EDC this but I did make a great kydex sheath for it, got to dig that out.
[54:53]So that is the Topps Tex Creek. And I will say that all Topps knives that I've ever handled, and I've handled probably all of them because I've spent a lot of time at their giant sprawling table at Blade Show, and I have a couple of them. They're all so well made and just sturdy as hell. And then you add the 1095 with their heat treat. They're tough. They'll go the distance. Another one that's tough and will go the distance is the SRK from Cold Steel. You knew there was going to be a cold steel here. You probably thought it would be the Trailmaster, which I truly, truly adore. It is my most indispensable fixed blade. But this one is probably a better all-arounder just due to its size. It's got a smaller blade and a smaller overall carry package. The blade is six inches. You've got a clip point with a zero ground swedge. So in a pinch, this is a good fighter.
[55:51]But it's also, it's also, I mean, well, I should say it would make for a good fighter because of that zero ground swedge, making it a good stabber and thruster. But also if you used it percussively, you could split or break, you know, so a good fighter in that regard. But also it will gum up your it will destroy your baton after a while but after a long while if you're using this the baton which you easily could it's got that mid-height saber grind so it's gonna pop um pop logs open uh it's got a nice um.
[56:29]Grivery handle with the coke bottle it's grippy but not too grippy you know it's that cold steel uh semi-rubbery feel um this is a great all-around knife i know that the the navy seals that's always a good endorsement i know seals uh in the past have used this and um for what it's worth they use their knives in a lot of different ways than than i do that's for sure and uh you know they They survive by their tools. So that's always a good endorsement. I would also put the SOG Seal Pup in here, but again, I could put a lot of fixed blade knives in here. This one is a classic, and this one helped inspire the K-Bar.
[57:09]And knives like this helped inspire the K-Bar. This is the Buck 119. This is their classic hunting fixed blade clip point. I just think this is such a cool knife. Ever since I was a little kid and would see this in the hardware store case, and man, I want that. I always thought it looked like a pirate knife with this big, curvy swedge and that hollow grind. It's menacing looking in all the right ways, but it also looks like a classic mountain man knife, classic outdoors knife, classic hunting knife. It's got that big Salador. No, it's not Salador. I can't remember what this material is called, But it's got that big fat handle that I used to not like how fat it is. Now I really like how that feels in hand. It probably makes it very handy when you're field dressing game, though I don't know. But I'm guessing that big fat handle adds something when you're skinning an animal.
[58:11]I really love the aluminum pommel. I love the shape of it, the feel, the look. It's totally old school looking. I love the asymmetrical quillions, but also this is, oh, and also zero ground swedge, so nasty if you needed to fight with it, but this is also one of those knives. It's 420 steel, but it's got an awesome heat treat, and it just proves that you don't need the super steel in a great one-knife option.
[58:39]The Buck 119. They also have the 120, which is the longer version of it, featured in the movie Scream as the horror movie knife. And a great sheath, sorry, I'm going to do this one-handed, but a great sheath with this retention scrap here.
[58:55]Second to last, I alluded to it just before, and this is probably not the version you will get or that I'm actually recommending, but this is the K-Bar. In this case, this is a 1991 reissue of the World War II K-Bar. So it's got a really sharp back swedge. It's a little bit more of a fighter than utility knife.
[59:18]But this is the K-Bar Combat Utility Knife. And you can buy it in all sorts of configurations these days, either with that beautiful stacked leather handle or with different kinds of synthetic handles, different colors. You can get it in all black. You can get it in all green. You can get it in gray and blue for Space Force. You know, you can get the knife in all different versions, though now the swedge is not as curved. It's a flatter swedge, and it's definitely not sharp like that. Like this, I definitely sharpened it a little bit, but it came, you know, definitely cutting sharp. So this is, like I said, more weapon than what you would get these days. But the regular K-bars that you get these days Make great outdoors knives If you have any doubt about that You can watch many an outdoor video Say with Nut and Fancy Where he's using K-bars to do all sorts of outdoor stuff This one, if you look at it, has a bit of a wonky grind Not sure what was going on with K-bar in the 90s You know.
[1:00:25]Things were crazy in the 90s. They were, people were playing fast and loose. But yeah, look at that grind. That's hilarious. But still just an incredible knife and a great, great one knife fixed blade option. And I would say that if you're a folder collector and you're going to get one fixed blade, this is a great way to go because not only is it incredibly capable, it's a great tool and a great weapon, but it also is a tip of the hat to our past if you're American. Last up here this is this is the representation of all se fixed blade knives this is not an se this was pre-se this is an ontario knife and tool artak 2 which later became the se hungless but this style of knife and they make you know se makes all different sizes from the three or even the smaller ones the the well they make them real small up to real big and they're full Full, flat ground, full tang, outdoor fixed blade knives. Oftentimes 1095. I think usually almost always 1095 blade steel. And my Carta handle. Great my Carta handle on this. My brother has the Hungless. Like I said, this is the Artec. They look identical. And my brother almost chopped his leg off using his Hungless. Sorry, Vic, if you're listening.
[1:01:50]But he was doing a lot of work outside. And he was doing a particularly hard downward chop and glanced off the material and buried itself deep in his calf.
[1:02:02]Ruining a Father's Day, I think it was, and a barbecue that was imminent and he spent the day in the hospital. So I can attest, as my brother can, to the flesh-cleaving capabilities of these large outdoors knives, but I know that that's not why they became famous. They became famous because they make outstanding one-knife oxy. Alright, thank you for joining me on this 12 Great One Knife Options Fixed and Folder version of the Knife Junkie Podcast. Let me know what your favorite one knife options are. If you had to run out the door and could only take one, what would it be?
[1:02:41]An interesting question. Maybe it's the one that you already have in your car. Alright, be sure to join us tomorrow night. That's Thursday for Thursday Night Knives, 10pm Eastern Standard Time, right here on YouTube. We will probably be giving something away Because we give a lot of stuff away Because we have a lot of generous friends Thank you Dave Join us then and also join us on Sunday For a great interview show With a knife luminaire 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. Check out some great knife photos on TheKnifeJunkie.com. And join our Facebook group at TheKnifeJunkie.com. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at TheKnifeJunkie.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.
[1:03:54]Music.