Automated Transcript
Episode 313 - 10 Great Cardboard Destroyers

00:01
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.
The place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go around.
I'm Bob DeMarco.
Coming up another Brad Zinker urban trapper from Boker, the New Jack Wolf knife that's prowling my pocket and to look at some absolute cardboard destroyers.
All that and more right here on the Knife Junkie podcast.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.
Your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.

00:35
Here's your host Bob the knife Junkie DeMarco.
Thanks for joining me again on the Knife Junkie podcast.
My favorite comment from the week was about the Jack Wolf Knives laid back Jack, I did a an unboxing as soon as the knife arrived.
This one is from Greek veteran.
He says I like the full flat grinds on my EDC knives, but the full hollow grind like that is still great.
It would cut and slice like crazy and that edge won't get fat behind the edge through years of sharpening.
That Warren Cliff folder with the grey matte Micarta handles is one of the rare occasions I would leave my Victorinox at home and carry it, and I thought that that was a quite a nice comment because I know we all know which is from the interviews with Ben.

01:27
That's exactly what he's going for with these knives.
Bree hashing traditional designs, making them modern, putting them in modern materials, but maintaining the true spirit of the knife itself.
And here we have someone who would put his Victorinox down to carry this knife.
So there you go, Ben.
That's what you were going for.
So my favorite comment of the week, so.
What was I carrying today?

01:53
Let's do a pocket check, shall we?
I think that you need to let me know what you're carrying as well.
You can leave a comment below when you do that.
It helps me figure out new knives that I should get and cover here on the channel so.
Let me know what you're carrying today.
I had my most venerated and.
Valuable, not valuable.

02:16
What's the word?
I'm looking for valued.
I love this thing that's what I'm trying to get at the demco MG8020MG stands for machine ground.
That blade is a machine ground so it's sort of a. What do you call it a midtech if you will?
And made in his shop in Wampum, PA his there shop in wampum PA. You can see it right there on the on the pivot and just an awesome knife.
I was recently watching a video where Jim Skelton sort of discovered this knife for himself and it it made me want to carry this again and put it back in my pocket.
I got it a little over a year ago, carried it a lot hot and heavy for a while and then you know how things happen.

02:57
It rotated out but it's still on my, you know, way at the top of my list.
And on my top shelf in my knife collection.
So that's the demco MG 8020 by the way.
The 8020.5 you hear me call that an ugly blade.
I'm sorry the Sharks foot an ugly shaped blade, but.
I do it with the greatest affection.
It's like ET.

03:21
The extraterrestrial Hollywood alien.
He's ugly, but in a cute kind of way.
That's that's how I feel about the sharks.
Footplate alright, Next up this was a weird carry.
I must admit today was an odd carry.
My other knife was a full size for most people.
For me it's slightly small, but a full size flipper.

03:42
That's my American Blade Works Model 1 version five.
This is 1 version before he settled.
On the final tweaks, Edge and design and this thing is awesome.
Now this was like a. Pain in the **** teenager for a long time and but finally it's broken in and blossomed into a well adjusted, really smooth and trustworthy knife.
It was always trustworthy.
I'm just talking about the action it took a while for the bearings to really.
Create a smooth race for themselves to move through around the pivot of this heavily blasted blade.

04:22
This is S 35 VN.
I haven't had any issues with the blasting and corrosion or anything like that.
Why was I carrying to somewhat full size modern folders on me that's not ordinarily how I do it?
Usually it would be much smaller, I don't know.
I think I haven't given enough spent enough time with the American blade.
Works Model 1. It is a fantastic knife and now that it's really smooth, getting smoother and noticeably so it's even more of a pleasure to carry.
So I guess today I just wanted a little bit of American Blade works action, so there's that.

04:58
And then and then to compensate for the fact that I had two, you know full size folders on me.
I carried this very small fixed blade.
This is the Dylan Blade, Dylan Grace Blade Company, DG Blade.
No scalpel and warning.
I love this knife.
I really like this guy's work.
He's been on the show before.

05:23
He does some stuff that is really refined like this, and by refined I'm just talking about that incredible Buckeye burl handle and how nicely contoured it is.
What a beautiful section of burl it is and then that resin filling in the voids and then really nice forged blade, just beautifully done and then comes to a wicked sharp edge now and point this thing is a great.
Great EDC utility.
Fixed blade.
If you're doing utility chores, this thing is awesome.
I think this is 01 tool steel, I believe.
So I'm you.

06:03
You have these different postures for holding it.
You can hold it like this like this.
You can even carry it and use it like this if you needed to, but a very very useful little fixed blade knife now in these really.
Up tight and well molded.
Kydex, like leather sheaths that he does he no one else really seems to do this.
I I. I think it's awesome.
I don't know why more people don't do it but it's like kydex and it fits nicely in the waistband for me and but also would drop really well in a pocket and just be able to about that much of that beautiful burlwood handle would be popping up out of your pocket next to this big black clip.

06:48
I would get a different clip on it if I were to carry it in my pocket.
But this is totally adequate for in the waistband carry.
This could be a very good just in the pocket fixed blade knife.
That's what I'm getting at.
You could take this clip off and with the thin profile of this leather.
And by the way, this leather is really tough and hard.
It would take some real doing to get that point to come through the leather so you could just take this clip off, drop it in your pocket in any standard jeans pocket or khakis.

07:18
Sort of pocket and it would.
It would just drop in there and you wouldn't see it at all.
So a really cool knife from a great maker who does some really refined stuff like this.
And this is what I was getting at and then some really rustic looking stuff that is also very cool.
Much of it is Japanese inspired, but through Orlando FL.
So this is what I was carrying today, the.
Demco MG 8020. The American Blade Works Model 5 version or Model 1 version five and the DG Blade Co. Warning scalpel.

07:52
What were you carrying?
Let me know you can call the listener line 724-466-4487 or you can drop a comment down below.
I would love to see what you were carrying today and what you're thinking you know what's on your knife mind if you will if you also, if you're interested in helping the show help pay the bills.
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You get interview extras and other stuff so check it out right here you can.

08:29
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09:01
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On this show and on the interview show we talk a lot about companies and their capacities, and there are areas of focus you have Chris Reeve knives.
Who is a smallish company and focuses on just a couple of designs like the sebenza, the Umnumzaan and and a couple of others and just perfect them.
I mean, they start out perfect and they perfect them over the years and and they stick with what they know.
And then there are other companies that have greater capacity, let's say Boker.
In this case, and they have the opportunity because of their capacity to every year put out a whole bunch of new models.

09:45
You know, see what will stick and like throwing spaghetti at the wall, and then they also have their models that they refine or reiterate ad infinitum.
In Bokers case, for instance you have the Burnley quakin or you know that there are a million different versions of the Burnley quake and some not even made by Boker like they're out the front.
Booker, also at this must be a good strategy for them.
You know you get a good knife that is popular across a lot of different styles of carry, and then you just reimagine it over and over and over for every possible type of knife, user and collector.
OK, so Booker has done this again with the urban Trapper, the Brad Zinker design, AA across the board, appealing design by.
By my standard.
It is slim, slender, but just under 3 1/2 inches.

10:40
Very capable nice length blade, great action just.
Cool and classy, they've created large small versions of this light versions of this just all sorts.
Now they've come out with one that is.
Oddly.
Universal but still not universal.
I mean in terms of knife laws around the world, this is a non locking Brad Zinker.
Urban trapper it.

11:07
It looks good.
It looks like an urban trapper.
This has some olive wood handle scales and such but but this knife is non locking, which means that it will be legal way more places.
But it still has a long blade and a flipper so it's a. It's a double detent flipper.
Non locking knife and so it's not a slip joint but it's in effect.
It's a non.
It's a non locking knife so in effect it's like a slip joint.

11:35
What's holding it open is a detent ball and then the pressure that your forefinger exerts on that Flipper tab.
The the reason it's sketchy is that a lot of places don't like the Flipper tab because that evokes switchblade.
That evokes the quick scary action, so it's odd to me and and also the blade length thing.
I would think that if they were doing this they would want to make this as universal as possible so they would knock the blade length down a bit in, you know, if.
If I were the head of Boker, so they still have the long, the three and a half inch drop point blade.
And the flipper.
Yet it doesn't lock open.

12:14
I don't know it.
It seems like they went halfway.
Seems like to do this.
You remove the flipper and you remove an inch worth of blade or or half an inch worth of blade so that it's 3 inches or just under 3 inches and so that doesn't have the flipper tab and so that it doesn't lock.
And then it's universal you could take off the pocket clip just to be safe.
And then everywhere in the world would accept it.
Just my thoughts.

12:42
If you're going to riff endlessly on a knife design.
I don't know.
Well maybe they have the one that I just described in the offing.
Maybe there's gonna be another one.
It'll be called like the Flip Joint light.
The flipper less flip joint, double detent light urban trapper.
If it sounds like I'm being sarcastic, I am just a touch.

13:04
I do get kind of sick of seeing the same thing over and over, just a slightly different flavor or reminds me of the different types of Duff beer you know.
Duff, light, Duff, ice, Duff, dark all coming out of the same keg.
All right.
Two new.
We flippers coming up.
These and and I. I don't mean to sound negative ladies and gentlemen, but these are just knives and they look clean and nice, but.
Nothing too new from wheat.

13:34
The exciting thing about the first one here, the Culex it is a nice looking knife.
It is very.
It's a very clean modern design.
The exciting thing is and we can't see it in the picture right here, but it's a it's a high end button lock.
Now we know the we knife company through SEVI has been crushing it with the button locks for the past two years.
This this year for them is year the button lock so it's good to see if you're on that train and you're really excited about the sevii button locks and you love we not knife, you're going to be very excited about the coolest because here it is just to.
Fill that high end titanium.

14:17
Pulex, I'm sorry that high end titanium need that you might have and and this nicely blued anodized titanium.
It looks very tempting and if you like that sort of really useful blade shape, you might just go for this because it's.
It's a high end button lock just under 3 inches.
Good looking blade, so that's that's the USP for this one.
It's a high end button lock that's 20 CV steel on that drop point.
Next one is this speedster speedster.
It looks cool, it looks cool.

14:51
It's not.
These are both in-house designs.
It's not anything that's going to.
I don't know, it doesn't get my heart racing, but also it looks kind of cool.
It's slick.
This is a new titanium frame lock 3 1/2 inch drop .20 CV.
It's kind of par for the course I I feel like we plays it safe now.

15:15
I feel like they have sevian send cut to do the exciting stuff and the more expensive stuff they play it safe.
These days we when they first came out everything was four inches and blade length which I liked or appreciated.
I should say and then.
Everything was very overdesigned and I appreciate that things are not as overdesigned, but it also seemed like they were just putting a concept knife after concept, knife after concept know this when everything was still numbered and they were doing a lot of exciting different things.
Maybe the public taste has swung and changed, and maybe people prefer the simple now to the chance taking.
But yeah, I think the most exciting stuff happening from the we knife company is.
From their lower end brands the the STEVIES and the.

16:04
Send cut doing some cool stuff too, so that's my take on these new knives coming out still to come on.
The Knife Junkie podcast, we're gonna take a look at three.
I had an absolutely incredible weekend in terms of knife haul.
We're going to take a look at three new knives in my collection.
And then 10 cardboard destroyers.
We had a an IKEA build weekend.
A shelf finally came in for the Legos in the one daughter's room, so that went together and it came in a beautiful gigantic box which had to be broken down by a number of different knives.

16:39
That got me started thinking about which are the best knives for that in my collection.
So I'm going to show those off coming up right here in a moment on the night Turkey podcast.
And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
One of the knives that has been a constant over the past month and a half here on the channel and on the podcasts and Thursday Night Knives has been the Jack Wolf Knives.
Sharpshooter Jack.
This beautiful modern interpretation of the classic gun stock slip joint.
Imagined, designed, imagined and designed by Ben Belkin, the head of Jack Wolf Knives and masterfully produced somewhere overseas which he can contractually not disclose.

17:29
Beautiful knife.
Well, he sent me the second one in the series.
He's going to be releasing 1 per month.
For six months, which is exciting, he sent me this one.
And it is the new laid back Jack.
And it is a gorgeous.
Rendition of the Swayback Jack, the classic Swayback Jack.

17:53
With that wardcliff blade.
In this case, M390 blade steel, full height hollow grind.
This is the knife that the comet was about in the beginning of the show and.
A Greek veteran was saying he would give up his Swiss army knife to carry this because of that really nice full height hollow grind.
It just gorgeous and then whoever produced this does amazing belt satin work on these blades.
This one has a really nice swedge ground in there and you can see the grind lines on the swedge.
And with that triangular sharpening notch Greek veteran was right.

18:38
You could sharpen this thing way north of the cutting edge where it is right now factory and still have a useful thin edge behind the behind that bevel.
This model is black micarta.
I have a I'm I'm tempted just to take a little linseed oil to it and really blackened it up, but there's also something nice I can see my my thumbprint there from when I was handling it earlier, so I'm going to let this one naturally petina what a beautiful knife.
If if you're a. Slip joint guy.
Let me just let me just say that if you find these hyped man it is worth it.
If you're slip joint guy check this out.
I'm gonna come to the main mic and camera.

19:23
Just listen to the walk and talk.
It's really, really good, and then when it's in the half stop position, the spring is 100% fully flush.
Another thing that slipjoint people appreciate and then it snaps open with authority it it just feels like a solid thing that's ready for work I. I know that I'm gonna baby this one a little bit because I'm a little nervous about the tip I must admit and that's a robust tip.
If you look at it.
That swedge thins up right by the hump, but it thickens up.
The tip is very useful and and.
The tip is trustworthy.

20:14
I am not.
That's what I'm getting at and I'm nervous about dropping this one for some reason, so I'm not I'm gonna stop talking about it so I don't make it real with my words.
All right?
So this was one that I got.
And of course I left the box elsewhere, but it has the the full Jack Wolf knives treatment laid back.
Jack is another wolf character created by Ben and the comic book artist that he works with.
And there's a beautiful.

20:43
Piece of artwork wrapping the aluminum Tim Tin that's embossed with the logo on top.
He opened it up.
There's a pog, there's a different colored cleaning cloth in it.
This time that the knife is wrapped in this time it's a sea foam green and there's another sticker in there and just just soup to nuts.
A great knife experience and and the knife itself is heirloom quality.
Just I'm so thrilled with it.
So if if you can.

21:13
I recommend highly that you go check out the different dealers that Ben sells these Jack Wolf knives on and and get yourself on a list or just hit the button when they go live and it's usually around the 15th of right around the middle of the month.
He's going to be releasing these so do jump on it.
I highly recommend it, and if you only get one so far, well jeez, they're both awesome.
And I don't know if the sharpshooter Jack is even an option there.
I think that's pretty much sold out, so get this knife.
It's awesome.
OK, Next up the tauser.

21:47
OK, this is one that I've been very very interested in.
Since its release and then they sold out real quickly, I guess I wasn't interested enough.
They sold out pretty quickly.
And then they, they just came back on the scene.
This is a an azo designed azo.
As though I think.
I think he designs a lot of stuff for.

22:13
Do some Tucson knife and Kaiser and I think he's the gentleman who designed the Begleiter am I correct in that?
Anyway, he designed this one and it's awesome and I ordinarily don't go in for the cleaver blades.
This one massages a different spot.
You know, it's sort of worn Cliffy sort of belly worn Cliff.
Approaching Cleaver, but you have a nice point on this.
This one in particular is the blue rich light model.
I wanted to try out rich light.

22:48
It's kind of like a paper micarta.
The other model is for the same price with a contoured red micarta.
It was hard to choose, but I since I had no rich light in my collection, I decided to get the.
To get this this particular one, I love the way it looks.
It would have been nice if this were contoured.
Also, I gotta say to to to be honest.
But the flat slabs work fine.

23:16
You have a great row of jimping here that extends very far.
They understand a so understands that people are going to be coming all the way up there to power through materials as I did.
I used this.
This is going to be featured in the 10 great cardboard destroyers because this went to town on some IKEA boxes yesterday and man it slipped between the atoms you got here.
A little working surface.
It's kind of like a choil.
But it's just a little gimped surface so you can come up even further on the blade if you need to use that point for something delicate.

23:52
Very nice ergonomics.
Really insane action.
I kind of wish I had this knife when I did my action podcast a little while ago because this thing is just dangerously smooth, dangerously smooth.
It will drop on you on you if you're not careful, and it's got a pretty good weight to that blade just due to all the mass, so it just closes really nicely.
Deep carry Pocket clip is not recessed, but has the.
Recessed screws, very nice standoffs, beefy standoffs.
This is a good work knife.

24:28
I'm really happy to have gotten it.
I didn't get it for that necessarily, but that's 154 CM and that is a really thinly ground blade, so I had to press it into use yesterday and I'm glad I did.
All right, last up is one that came on my radar and I jumped on it.
Super super quick.
This is something that NAV Sergeant introduced me to through his video introduced us to last week.
Or several weeks back, or maybe two weeks back now.
From an American watch company Resto, I'm sorry, resco instruments.

25:08
They make dive watches that a lot of watch nuts like and they make a knife.
Now this is a little bit different from the one that he has that he showed off, but this is their goose works.
Mekong delta combat folder Mikon Delta combat folder.
This is a watch company started by some some frogmen.
Seals from the Navy and this is a knife that they designed and manufacture, and it is like.
It's amazing and I love it.
It's got a big blade.

25:48
It's a four inch blade.
It's four and a quarter from the pivot to the tip.
That's how they measure it, so that's how I'll say it.
But it's just about a four inch blade.
Titanium thick slabs of titanium that are milled out for weight savings on the inside, but the way it's constructed and the.
The washer action, which is luxurious and smooth like a sebenza, makes this thing feel heavier than it is.
It's just feels like a stout brick of a knife.

26:23
I brought a couple of knives out that it it.
It reminds me of, in terms of feel it it reminds me of the feel of a sebenza and.
A Spartan harsey folder.
It has that sort of solidity if you're familiar with these knives and familiar with the action and how just.
Overwhelmingly solid, they feel.
They remind me of that in terms of looks.
It reminds me a lot of the old Emerson Viper five.

26:53
I believe it is the one that they turned into a a ZT.
It looks a bit like the ZT0640 in terms of the profile of the handle.
But then again, there are a few things new under the Sun.
It's similar, not exact, but like many tactical knives that widens out here.
It has a choice for the for the thing, but it did that for the lock, but it did strike me when I saw it.
I was like, oh, this reminds me of the zero 640 or the Emerson Viper.
I I have really quickly fallen in love with this knife.

27:31
This blasted titanium is just beautiful.
It's there's no way of stopping the snail trailing and and I'm happy about that.
I'm looking forward to a nice patina quote, UN quote developing on this titanium.
It's already begun on the clip.
Where unfortunately, I've rubbed up against stuff starting to wear down the the RESCO logo.
That's fine by me.
That's what happens to pocket clips they get, they get messed up.

27:57
That's why I'm not.
That's why really nice pocket clips worry me like the like.
The pocket clip on my turbo that the knife modders did gotta be careful with that one.
Just because it's so nice, I don't wanna walk up against a countertop and scrape it and all that, but.
I'm going to reiterate a sentiment that naff Sergeant brought up in his video now his was a little bit different, didn't have the steel lockbar insert, it was a bolster lock with my Carta.
Totally handsome gorgeous knife and had a hollow grind.
This is not a hollow grind.

28:33
This is a this is extremely sharp but it's sort of obtuse, kind of like some micro tech knives are.
So what I was going to say is I want to.
Reiterate what he was saying.
This is a knife that fits in the category of the.
The Big Triumverate hinderer knives.
Chris Reeve knives.
Strider knives Spartan blades.

29:01
I'll add that in there.
This is one of those kind of knives demco.
It's just like solid as it can be.
Solid as can be, and it looks cool and I like the name of it and I need to find out more about the people behind this knife.
It showed up in a in a priority small priority box.
It was wrapped in foam wrap and sort of just taped to the inside of the box like 0 pomp and circumstance.
Of this knife, and to me that's also kind of attractive.

29:32
Reminds me of the tactical Ziploc bags you used to get the striders in or the OR the tactical peanuts you used to get in with your with your hinderer knives.
This is just wrapped up in.
And sent to you.
I think it's cool as hell and I I'm gonna seek out the gentleman or gentleman or men behind this resco knives goose works.
Mekong Delta combat folder very very very cool knife.
All right, so that brings us to.
The cardboard destroyers OK so.

30:08
Why cardboard?
Why am I talking about this?
This is a task that over and over and over is like comes up the most when we talk about the things we do with our knives.
Oftentimes it's open boxes for other knives, and all that requires is a knife sharp enough to cut tape, which we could actually just use a key if we wanted to really, really.
Make the knife junkies around us bristle.
But oftentimes we have a lot of boxes.
We gotta break them down to get them in recycling.

30:38
And so that means lots of cardboard cutting.
Usually I find I can get away with bit large panels lining the inside.
I can fit quite a bit in there, but I also find that cutting giant cardboard boxes into very small pieces is gratifying.
So there are some knives that are good for it and some that are surprisingly not.
Before I go into my list of 10 and then I have two two also Rans that are that are very good but did didn't quite make the list for one reason or another which I'll explain but one I'm going to start off with that didn't make the list because it's just not available but it is an amazing cardboard
cutter.
Is this niche designs ingress.

31:22
This is a knife designed by Nick Rogers of Niche designs and this was one of three different prototypes.
He had created by we Knife Company few years back and he was generous enough to gifted this one to me because it's the most tactical of the versions.
But if you look at that super high grind, that's a super.
I mean that's a full height.
Full height grind on most knives.
Of this, you know that just count followed the country of the spine.
So this thing just cuts like a maniac and and takes very little.

32:00
Very little maintenance.
Also, that's 20 CV steel, so one of my absolute best, but I can't mention it here because it's just not available and and I'm a lucky guy to have it.
Let me say that way.
OK, of of all of my knives, this is the classic.
Has probably broken down the most cardboard of any of them.
This is my Spyderco Endura 4 now why the endura?
Not the delica.

32:24
I will say because of length now, part of what makes a good cardboard cutter is, you know, a huge part of it.
The chief part of it is the blade.
But also do you you know cardboard can be a challenging material on the hands if you're holding something that's not comfortable, one of our runners up ran into that situation here with the with the endura you have the confidence of that long almost 4 inch blade to be slicing.
This is the full flat.
Round version.
VG10 to be slicing through cardboard and not running out of blade and also have a full forefinger grip that that is flexible.
I can get a full 4 fingers on the Delica but I can't move around this.

33:11
I can move around, there's there's space and also my thumb is far enough away from that lock that I'm never worried about about undoing it.
This has done so much work over the years.
This this is the knife that when I need a good knife to do work like around the house inside, this is usually what I go to and has gotten the most use.
Though I have a few new ones that are are taking its place.
Next up is is I think yes Next up is the only hollow grind on this list.
Which though I love holograms and I think they cut and slice so nicely, sometimes I find that the shoulder.
At the top of that, hollow grind can slow things down if it's too hollow or or what have you.

34:02
This knife is is the perfect combination because it's got a super thin blade stock and then a very deep hollow grind.
This is the sevi astacus.
I just love that name I need to.
I'm not.
I'm not going to riff on it, but I think it's funny, has a nice long swedge on top which aids in penetration.
But really, what this thing is all about is that long.
That's about four inches that long, super thin, hollow ground, slicey blade, and and really with that swedge up here.

34:38
It also helps with the slicing, because that shoulder I was talking about that.
I bump up against down a lot of hollow ground knives.
That shoulder is reduced.
By this hollow grind intersecting with this top swedge, which is also somewhat hollow.
So a really great knife all around because it's thin and super rigid and capable, but very light and somewhat large.
This is a great knife.
This hits a lot of great.

35:10
This hits a lot of points for people if they like large knives but don't like heavy knives because it is like I said spelt in the pocket you've got the recessed pocket screws.
It's got that rigid steel frame.
And it comes in a number of.
This is the most plain Jane with the black G10.
There's a wood version which was really nice looking.
There's all different kinds of G 10s and then you can also get this with Damascus steel so the astacus is a great knife overall, but also a very good cardboard knife.
It's also quite comfortable even though it's thin and those liner stand proud.

35:49
Very comfortable to use for a while in cardboard cutting.
So Next up is the.
Knife that I said I I mentioned with the endura that something has been eclipsing it lately and that's this.
This is the protech TR2.
This is one I got on blade forums a few years ago from a guy in Texas or Oklahoma who had a farm who used this knife for harvest one season and I thought that was cool knowing that it was coming here for retirement.
Basically to be lavished with attention and get some work.
But but not like his old harvesting days when this TR.

36:33
2 showed up it it was gritty.
The action was gritty, but it still kicked like a mule and just through blasting it with air, putting a little bit of oil on the pivot and opening and closing it a million times.
It really smoothed out and it still kicks like a mule and soon in July, July 1st in in our great Commonwealth.
Here I'll be able to carry this legally out and about.
On July 1st, so I'm very much looking forward to that.
I'm also very much looking forward to my automatic.
Collection blossoming.

37:09
As that law passes.
A great thing about this knife is the jimping, like like all protects and microtechs they're milling in.
Aluminum is just outstanding.
The Jimping really does grip.
It's very.
Pardon me, very sharp jimping and also the knurling up front here.
And at the back.

37:36
Is very grippy that Knurling has has never like rounded out.
It's sharp and grippy, so if you have to hold this in a pinch grip like this man, you're in.
You're in.
You're in a good spot.
This has been used for a lot of painting.
At this point you see that light blue?
I can't get it out of there without really messing up the anodization.

37:58
Taking a wire brush to it might do it, but I'm just going to leave it in there for memories.
I'm not going to get rid of this knife anyway.
My daughter expressed an interest in.
Learning that one day so she can remember the time we painted her room as she flips it open to ward off the the the boys all right Next up is a really good one.
With an asterisk.
Alright, so this is the TRM, atom and we all know this knife that it does have great action that was just bad deployment on my end.
Great knife, great knife.

38:34
We know this as an ergonomic, slim light, comfortable, great fit and finish.
Super slicer.
Great length, you got a 3 1/2 inch or 3.6 inch blade I think on this 1/3.
Yep, about 3 1/2 inch blade on this one.
Thin and slicy.
Great for cardboard.
Here's the asterisk.

38:58
First of all I did not use this one on cardboard.
This is a DLC version and my only atom at this point I had two.
The other one was a Stonewashed 1 and that's the one that I had the cardboard experiences with that is no longer in my hands.
I have no doubt this is especially with that very slick.
DLC coding would do great in cardboard also I just have not used this one in particular.
Here's the one thing, here's the one.
Here's the other asterisk about this knife.

39:30
I very much prized these knives and I'm a I'm a little I gotta say, I'm a little delicate with it because it is thin.
It is not a delicate knife, it is a thin yet robust knife and still in my mind.
Even though that thin blade with that awesome grind just glides through the cardboard like it's barely there, I'm always worrying about the pivot.
And that's me.
That is not the knife.
The knife is fully capable, it's just I prize.
This one so much and the other one that I had that I don't know.

40:04
It's so light it makes me feel like oh is this going to something going to happen to this knife?
So that's.
So the asterisk on the TRM atom is a personal neurotic reaction.
OK, I think that it is 100% capable.
I broke down cardboard with the other one and nothing ever happened to the pivot and it worked great.
So just get over it.
Thank you for this little session.

40:29
Check is in the mail all right.
Next up is a Finch knife and I would be remiss if I didn't.
This is my favorite of the Finch knives in terms of cardboard and that is my favorite thing to do with this knife.
This is the harvester.
Originally inspired by the Sodbuster knives that.
Steve's the designer of this knives in laws carried.
However now they have the Chernobyl Ant out, which is also really cool and that is a true flipping sodbuster this is like a sodbuster ish handle with a totally different kind of blade on it and that blade is awesome for cardboard full flat ground thin it's 154 CM.

41:14
One of my favorite blade steels and it slips through cardboard again like it's not there.
It has a really nice downward.
Angle of attack on the blade there if as if you're watching, you can see how it intersects with that straight line.
If you if you straighten the spine with a straight line and then you just see how when you're pulling this through it acts sort of like a recurve.
It's just constantly reengaging the material just by drawing it through because of the angle.
A great knife for cardboard.
Now this is a knife.

41:50
That I thought was gonna be awesome for feather sticking and it probably would be, but the time I tried it was on some of that.
What do you call it?
Kiln dried wood?
Super hard that I just buy at the grocery store to throw on the fire pit and it was doing OK but there was another case where I started worrying about the pivot and in that moment I pulled out a fixed blade.
I was carrying the hog tooth EDC and that went to town on it and I didn't have to worry about the pivot I. I think there's almost no need to try and do that kind of woodwork with a folding knife.
It just makes me nervous.
You say what about whittling Bob?

42:32
Well, you're right.
I guess there's Woodling, but if given the choice for wood, I would use a fixed blade.
But for cardboard I would have no problem and that would would happily recommend this knife.
I would recommend this knife anyway.
It's a great EDC knife, but for cardboard and that kind of task in particular, man, it's awesome.
All right, love me the Finch knives.
You know I've fallen behind on my French knife collection.

43:00
I gotta, I gotta catch up too many knives, man.
No, no, I take it back.
Alright, Next up I showed this off before.
Hey, a happy new collection.
Happy new addition to my collection.
The Towser K love this thing I've been.
I've gotten a few kaisers recently, you know.

43:22
I got the mini the Pelican mini and and then about a year ago I traded Dave for the.
The inversion man.
They make some great knives.
I used to have a lot of kaisers.
I got rid of them and then now I've been slowly reacquiring them.
This knife has just outstanding action.
I know we're talking about cardboard, but it's just.

43:47
It just goes to show.
I mean, this is just.
It's amazing where everything has come.
Let me just show this up front.
I'm gonna show the drop shutty nature of this blade.
OK, all right.
All I'm getting at is that it's super smooth.

44:05
I talk about this a lot.
I don't require that I don't even necessarily prefer it.
I was talking before about the glassy action on this knife the the I love that sort of glassy action on washer knives but there's no denying that this is a sign of quality that you can have that kind of action and have absolutely zero blade play north or South East or West and then have such a
perfectly ground blade and shaped.
Played for cardboard cutting.
This is as if they created it for the task.
Something I like a lot that I showed off before is this sort of work surface here that's gimped that engages your forefinger very well.

44:48
If you need to choke way up and use the point for some precision task.
Back here it feels great.
It feels great in all those grips.
Of course you would never use this.
I can't imagine why you would use this reverse grip, but if you had to, it feels good in reverse grip as well.
But the star of the show here is that blade now, why do I say this thing is is designed for cardboard?
Well, I found that with these very large boxes you know that furniture comes in.

45:19
Oftentimes I'm not starting at the top and cutting all the way down.
Sometimes I'm just thrusting in the middle, cutting down and then.
You know starting in the middle somewhere, so I like.
I prefer a tip on my.
On my cardboard cutting knives and and you will see that my absolute favorite.
Has has a tip even though it looks like it might not.
So this thing's tip is really really good it.

45:46
It punctures very nicely, but it's also pretty stout.
There is no swedge there, so it is like a triangle coming at the cardboard.
It yawns it wide open and then and then.
Really, you get almost no resistance as you push this blade through cardboard.
And then if you do it on a seam you know like on the seam of of a flap and you just got.
It's like the seam.
It's like it's not even there.

46:09
It's like you're just waving it through the air.
I am a big fan of this rich light handle material.
Not sure how well the color is coming through with this green background, but it's a gorgeous blue.
It's just a beautiful beautiful blue.
It's a little bit deeper than that.
Thunder Thunder head blue that I like but it's not as cheery as this here.
Delicate blue.

46:34
So very happy with this.
It was a. It was a it was a real Sophie's choice to try and figure out I shouldn't even make light of that, but it was a real tough choice for me to try and figure out between the micarta because it comes in a red micarta contoured scales or this and.
Have no rich light, so I thought I'd go with the rich light and I also like the color better the the red micarta.
Well I'll get that on the second one but Tawzer K really really excellent.
Next up is probably the fanciest of the bunch.
This is my two son TS 301 in D2 and this is a monster with cardboard really really, really great cardboard cutter.
This also has an asterisk, though the one issue with this knife is that for cardboard cutting, you have about 2/3 of that blade as truly useful.

47:34
The point is good for getting into stuff, but also it's it's a pretty extreme trailing point, so if you're not accounting for that when you're push cutting, if you're slashing more than push cutting, you're going to come to the end of the run of of useful edge, and it's going to slip out.
And follow that curve as long as you're thinking about that and thinking about the trailing point and doing push cuts more than you are slashing or or dragging the edge through, you'll you'll love this knife.
It's really comfortable in hand.
And like I mentioned before, that is a big part of it.
You don't want to be cutting through cardboard for a long period of time with something that doesn't feel excellent in hand.
This one does its contoured.
These are micarta and carbon fiber overlays by the way, you feel no transition between the two materials.

48:28
It's pretty impressive.
Uh, that that sculpted titanium pocket clip is very low profile and sort of crowned over so that you don't even feel it in hand and you can really grip this one in a solid hammer grip.
And and just power through stuff straight.
Uh?
You find yourself you find yourself in this Sabre grip.
Then you need to kind of.
Can't your wrist a little bit more that way so that you're feeding the cardboard the material into this section and not slipping off over that?

49:02
So that's the one caveat for this knife, but the performance is so impressive when you're when this knife is being put to that use in in the way I just described that it definitely makes this list something.
I also have to mention is there are some knives.
That, I suspect would do very well that I just I'm not gonna cut cardboard with.
So I'll never know, but I might have a few of those in the collection alright, Next up this.
This is a knife that lives in the kitchen.
We have one of those things in our kitchen.
You know, where random mail that we want to ignore goes.

49:39
Or no.
I'm just getting things announcements from school and calendar stuff, and the tape measure and pencils and stuff.
Kind of sits next to the wall.
Well this resides in there, uh, this is the cold steel.
Luzon XL this is a 6 inch bladed knife that's 8 CR 13 MOV.
This is grivory the handle this is a. When I bought it $45.00 huge XL knife.
I'm sure it's more at this point.

50:11
45 bucks was pretty low.
That was pre inflation but.
Still pretty low for what you're getting here.
That's 6 inches of very well heat treated 8 CR 13 MOV in a frame lock era liner lock that has a secondary lock there, and an integral plastic pocket clip that's a little annoying, but fine for this, and it's a flipper flips out pretty well.
You can also whip it out, you know, just through inertia or not inertia through centrifugal force if you were.
Using this as a self defense knife, but as I've mentioned, this is this lives in the kitchen.
And is closest to the area where the recycling is outside, so this frequently will get grabbed to breakdown cardboard.

51:03
It is very sharp like like all cold steels.
It's wickedly sharp that 8 CR 13 MOV is no joke.
I mean they know what they're doing with heat treat and this this knife has never required a major sharpening.
I do Strop it up, I have a Strop in the kitchen then I'll run this over when I'm done using it.
But on the whole, the ACR has been an outstanding Lee Heat treated blade.
And really you get comfort out of this.
You get, you know, just endless comfort in the handle and then endless blade.

51:36
Well, you got 6 inches of blade length so you're never running out of blade.
You can just slice and dice through cardboard like it's not there.
That sort of shiny sort of belt satin really helps.
The material helps this slip through material.
Those are not very tall shoulders at the top of that edge.
So at the top of that bevel.
So this thing is just awesome.

52:03
Plus I don't mind thrashing on it.
It's a an inexpensive but large knife and.
Yeah, it's it's the cold steel.
The Excel cold steel that I have in my giant collection of Excel cold steels that actually gets work.
This one and an old vaquero Grande.
Alright, penultimate in my official list is the only fixed blade on this list, and I'm pretty sure you may have guessed what it is.
Uh, but it is the steingraber performance knives shark.

52:35
This thing first of all show it in the sheath.
Awesome awesome sheath that is a big part of the recipe with a fixed blade, especially in EDC fixed blade, which is what this is.
This is a tops spring clip fits perfectly on there and this is 1 knife that I like to carry.
Scout style up front.
I'm not sure if that's considered Scout style, but right across the belt buckle.
Take out this the take out the knife here and here it is.
This is my only crew aware knife and I do like crew wear steel I've discovered.

53:12
But this knife is just awesome.
It it looks like a shark.
OK, the profile that's kind of the obvious many knives do, but.
It is fully flat ground and so thin it's laser thin.
I'm going to put this up to my mic and listen.
Does that mean anything to you?
I mean, you can tell how thin that is.

53:37
This thing just unzips cardboard like.
Like a time machine, it's like it's going back in time and and and uncle creating the cardboard as it glides through it.
It's got a wickedly incredibly comfortable handle, I shouldn't say wickedly.
It's got a very, very comfortable handle.
Which hits a lot of points for me for an EDC fixed blade.
It is large enough for a full four finger grip for me with a little room to spare, but it's a small enough rounded enough blade, rounded enough and small enough handle that I can tuck it in the waistband north to South and it feels totally fine.
But also this one is.

54:21
Discreet enough I can just carry it on my on the front.
So yeah, this this is.
This is actually tied for first this and the next one, the next one is the one I use have been using the most recently, but.
This is a hard knife to beat period, but for a cardboard knife, it's man.
It's like it was born for it.
Also I like to show off how this unassuming knife could also be used as a nice little defensive tool because it's very comfortable in hand and facilitates many many different grips so.
Love the Steingraeber performance knives shark.

55:04
He's got another model of the Sasquatch, and then he's been working on his his folders.
Oh my God.
His folders are amazing.
You got to check out Alex Steingraeber Steingraeber performance knives if you haven't already.
All right.
Last up my favorite.
My favorite, I mean.

55:21
I just love this one.
This is the off grid knives Cleaver version two.
This one you can see has gotten a lot of action.
On that coating.
I an unexpected unexpected favorite.
I got this and I was like, oh it's cool.
I like it I like it to cleaver with a tip.

55:44
I do like a cleaver or if I have to have a cleaver.
I like a tip as I mentioned before with this knife.
But this really meant it takes tip to another dimension for a cleaver.
If you look at it, it's got a. It's got a really pretty extreme swedge on the front that thins everything out to the point where you can push this through anything.
It's got a very nice tip tip, but it comes to such a fine and thin edge just above the tip.
And I'm not even talking cutting edge.
I'm just talking swedge Edge that it it.

56:23
It it punches through cardboard perfectly so you can get this.
I was talking before about.
If I have a big sheet, I like to stick it in the middle and then drag it down.
Well, this does that with that point, even though it's a a cleaver.
It does that with the point and then.
I gotta say, the blade itself, the cutting blade itself.
The best it's the best out of all of these, and and I I don't know why, but it gives the steingraeber shark a run for its money and I'm wondering if the difference between these two because they're about the same blade length.

56:59
I mean, width.
Something about this coding on these D2 blades that that they use at off grid is so slick that I feel it aids in the cutting.
So yeah, this this thing just is comfortable.
You've got that grip and then you've got a full finger choil that you can use, I only.
Have used this to cut up cardboard before I before I slice it this way.
But you got a full four finger grip.
Very nice grip, you've got great access to the lock bar.

57:34
You've got awesome action, you know, false shut.
You can, even Spidey flick it on the blade itself.
You've got great looks with that hole up front, evocative of a meat cleaver and a deep carry pocket clip with everything recessed.
This knife is so good and it's grown on me.
I would love to see this with a with different colored G10.
I know Offgrid doesn't doesn't really offer that much in terms of different color G 10s, But this would be a knife that would.
This is like a collectible, this one he could start doing in a whole bunch of different handle scales and I I believe people would love love to get them because I think this is one of his.

58:16
A very successful knife for him.
All right, uh, I said I had two runners up.
Let me show him off real quick.
Next one is a concept.
This is the concept, UM, Main St. This is a great knife.
It's very, very comfortable to hold for extended periods of time.
It's sort of neutral, but it does keep your it, it does have.

58:43
Ways to index.
You know it's got sort of ceremonial jumping up here that you can feel you can index up against this, and then it's just got a long straight and pointy wardcliff blade, and again, that coating really aids in helping this thing slip through.
It.
The yeah.
And then and then.
Lastly, this one didn't make the list because I wanted to have just one knife from each brand.
But off grid makes some amazing cardboard cutters and this one was a surprise.

59:17
This is the off grid Raptor that blade shape I thought was just something he was doing to be different.
That's Kerry the designer, but it isn't that that front recurve section is incredibly useful.
We're scoring cutting and precision cutting and carving out of shapes in cardboard.
If if if your druthers demand but this straight here, that's 2 1/2 inch straight.
Is that 2 1/2 inches?
It's almost 2 inches of straight here.
Ohh my gosh just.

59:54
Zip through like kind of like this.
Kind of like this.
Now.
The only reason this didn't supplant this so the one the one reason the Raptor didn't supplant the Cleaver version two is the ergonomics on the Raptor are not on point for me.
The handle is a little small, my finger comes off the back and a lot of space is wasted on this finger guard and sort of awkward flipper.
I don't.
I don't really like that situation there and it's it's not as comfortable to use over an extended period of time, and that's only in this area right in here.

01:00:30
Other than that, this thing is amazing.
The Raptor it's a odd design that I thought was odd for odd sake and then realized once once I started using it in earnest.
It's a very useful blade shape, if not a little odd and perhaps off putting.
Alright, well that wraps up my list of 10 great cardboard destroyers.
I hope you enjoyed this.
What do you think is best for cardboard I know.
I know tastes change.

01:00:59
I know new knives come out all the time and so let me let me know what's on your mind.
Which one you like best and what blade shape you like best.
If you notice there weren't any tontos here.
Be sure to check in on Sunday for episode 314. We talked to kombu again, that's Gregor Gregorski.
He's a great guy from Poland designing tons of knives exclusively for best tech.
He's got some new ones out.
We talk all about it.

01:01:25
He's a great guy and I love his designs.
Also, be sure to check in for Wednesday, the Wednesday supplemental and Thursday night for Thursday night Knives.
10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time live here on YouTube.
Also on Twitch and Facebook lastly.
Be sure to check out the podcast apps.
You can download us on all the podcast apps and listen as you drive.
Moe and wash the dishes for Jim working his magic behind the Switcher.

01:01:53
I'm Bob DeMarco, saying until next time don't take dull for an answer.
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