Automated Transcript
The Best "Grab-n-go” Fixed Blades (Knife Junkie Edition
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 325)

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 round.
I'm Bob DeMarco.
Coming up, Spyderco fixes the classic with the military two.
I have the Devo Knives growler prototype in hand and the best grab and go fix.
Blade knives, Knife junkie edition.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.

00:28
Your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host Bob the Knife Junkie deMarco.
Welcome back, my favorite comment from this past week was a comment left in replay on Thursday night Knives.
It was from Hollywood Tacticool, good friend of the show and he said, Oh my gosh OMG.
Finally someone pronounces big lighter correctly and he laughs and beiglighter is German.
I don't know what it means but I can just see from how it's spelled and I took German and in high school so I just presumed that I was pronouncing it.
Directly, but it's good to hear from Hollywood tacticool that indeed I am, and it makes me think of this time way back in the 80s during a snow day in Cleveland, when.

01:19
When the snow was too deep to go to school, you had called trees and parents would call other parents and those parents would call other parents to let everyone know that there was no school on that day and my mom on her list was the Nagy family and a GY.
And she called up knowing that it's a Hungarian name in that in Hungary it's pronounced Naj and so she she says, it's Mrs Naj there, and they're like, sorry, wrong number and she's like no, it's not, and they GY and the kid was like it's Nagy Lady.
And so we never let her live that down, you know?
So that's one of those little family things that you just hold on to forever.
And if ever you're losing in a fight, you can always bring up the naggy incident.
So Hollywood tactical.
Thanks for the comment made me made me go back.

02:05
OK, So what am I carrying today?
Here's the pocket check for today.
I was carrying something that recently was rereleased in a new fancy schmancy version.
This one is the good old.
I don't know Jen one or two XM 24 Bowie.
This is from I don't know how many years back, but I bought it on the secondary market, say five or six years back, and at that point it was.
It was long in the tooth.

02:35
So I think this was one of the first runs of XM 24 back in the day.
It's got pretty unimpressive action.
This was definitely not built for action.
It was built for strength, stout, sturdiness, and dare I say beauty.
That Bowie blade is just stunning.
Now with that thumb swell on the back of the blade, it gives you the impression of that Mac V. SOG double peaked Bowie look.
That I'm so very fond of, but it also gives you a really long swedge which not only is pleasing to the eye and lets the whole Bowie shape express itself fully that the three and a half inch XM18 does not, in my humble opinion, but it also that long swedge gives you a lot better penetration if you

03:23
were to use this in some sort of thrusting manner.
And if you look at it you've got full thickness pretty much up to the tip, so any anything helps.
And along Swedge and clip would help.
In that in that.
In that role I'm sorry for that brain freeze and I added a aftermarket.
I think this is a RC bladeworks aftermarket scale here.
So you got linen micarta black linen micarta with an inlay of burlap and.

03:55
Love those two colors together.
Love that on this knife and this is a great knife.
I don't carry it enough these days.
There was a time when that was a pretty much a daily carry.
It is big.
It is heavy to be sure, but so I had that.
I also had as a fixed blade knife.

04:12
I had my new Fred Paron neck knife.
This is a midtech of his one of his self defense designs.
He does forges his own blades.
He makes his own blade, stock reduction and forge.
And he also makes little picks and little other implements of pain and and you know self defense that are really cool.
It was fun to lurk at his table.
Excuse me at Blade show and talk to him his.

04:43
You know he's not the most fluent in English, but way more than I am in French.
So we spoke in English and he certainly knows the language of self defense and violence in English, and it was really interesting to talk to him.
Just a guy with a whole different set of life experiences.
And that's where a lot of these knife designs come from.
He posts frequently on Instagram walks.
He takes in the country with his dog and he'll show the little weapons he takes with him.
And frequently he'll have a small clip point blade like this and I really like this one.

05:19
This is made by Max Knives and then I believe he puts the handle on and.
Sharpens it.
So mid tech in that regard, really nice little thin super slicer.
I mean this thing is really sharp and thin, it just slips between the atoms.
Lastly on me Speaking of slip in between the atoms I had the.
Little bro Jack from Jack Wolf Knives and as always I got a I got to open and close this in front of the mic because of that walk and talk so pleasing.
This.

05:59
Of the three I have, the three that are have been released thus far.
They are all impeccable builds, beautiful designs, perfect execution.
I think this one has the stoutest walk and talk, and I really appreciate it.
And it also makes the knife feel so solid when it's open.
As with all slip joints, I don't care how strong it is.
You can push it down with your thumb a little bit, but really, what are you ever using the spine of this knife?
No, you're using the edge and therefore you're you're applying pressure against against the lock, so you don't really have to worry that that you know if you're using this properly, you don't have to worry about the fact that it doesn't lock.

06:45
Just a beautiful knife.
The classic boys knife in dimension and look with some slight tweaks.
By Ben Belkin, owner and proprietor.
Designer of Jack Wolf knives.
He has a he's a connoisseur of the type and he has a sprawling collection of custom slip joint knives and he distilled out all the finest qualities and and put them into his knives and their hand.
They're they're made overseas and all.
They're all hand finished and you can really tell when you get these in hand.

07:20
Flat at the half.
Stop everything about these knives is just cherry.
It's very sweet.
I love it.
Sorry sorry for using Cherry and it's not a Camaro that we're talking about, but so this is what I was carrying today.
Oh, look at that all clip points.
I think I'm breaking some sort of a rule, but hey.

07:38
It's summertime and wearing my my white pants.
Alright so we have the XM 24 Bowie we have the by Rick Hinderer knives.
We have the Fred Paron Mid Tech also a Bowie and then we have this clip point boys knife called the little bro by Jack Wolf knives.
All clip points I will repent somehow.
Tomorrow I will carry all crazy and different blade shapes to make up for it all right.
Let me know what you were carrying.
Just drop a comment down below or call the listener line 724-466-4487 and let me know.

08:14
Always love to find out what you guys are carrying.
It helps me.
It helps me.
I am not a maven but I like to surround myself with them to find out what the latest and greatest is.
Also if you want to find out the latest and greatest and get extras.
On your interview intake for the week, go to Patreon and sign up.
That's one of the the perks of being a member over at Patreon.

08:35
Is that you get to interview extras.
Things we I think I'm gonna start calling it off the record knife chunky off the record and there we talk about things that either don't make it into the podcast or maybe maybe they're too risque to bring up in the main podcast.
So go to Patreon and check it out.
See what the see what you missing.
That's the knife junkie.com/patreon.
Or you can scan this QR code here.
Just go to the knife junkie.com/patreon.

09:03
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
And now.
Here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
OK, so this knife.
This is the spider coat military my dad when he decided he needed a a tactical knife years back.
Now this is what he got.
He got himself one of these.

09:23
My brother incidentally had one and I incidentally had one all in black.
I sold mine.
Bought it back from from my good buddy Ian.
So this is a storied knife in my in my life and in in the family.
We all have one of these.
I love it.
I love the military.

09:40
I love everything about it.
Except for the fact that you can never, you could never swap the clip well.
I'm here to tell you that Spyderco has finally come out with the military too, and I am excited.
This is actually a spider Co. I am quite motivated to to acquire, just like when the Yojimbo came out.
I I really want to get this so the military too is taking all of the cues from the paramilitary to that has been such a crazy success ever since they made it.
The number 2 and they got rid of the lock back and did all the things to make it what it is today.
So they've done some of the things.

10:18
Same things here.
If you look at my knife, this is the old one.
The standard military up until now, if you look in the Choil area, it's kind of rounded off here and then it does sort of graduates into this choir.
If you look at the new one, it looks a lot more like the paramilitary too.
It's a, it's a A. Square not squared off, but a full scoop.
5050 choil there just like the paramilitary 2. They've made it so that so that's going to be more comfortable when you're choked up.
It's going to have a feel more like the paramilitary to more of a full choil than a round it off neutral area and a half choil so you get that you get the option.

11:01
The four way option so they didn't just move the clip from the one right side tip down orientation.
Uh, they moved it to all four corners, so now you can carry it any which way, which I would have preferred.
Well, hey, you know I'm not looking to give tours in the mouth, I don't like all the holes all over the place, but hey, you know I'm I'm willing to suffer through it.
So now you have an option to carry tip up.
Thank you.
Took you long enough, but thank you and I don't mean to sound like an end.
Great and then then they put the compression lock on it, which is I mean to me that's very exciting because the compression lock is a great blade.

11:37
Great lock, it's very strong.
It's fun to fidget with.
It's fun to use and on a bigger blade it's even better.
So I definitely look forward to getting this military to probably on the secondary market.
Why do I say that?
Uh, I don't know.
I don't know.

11:55
I have a feeling it it might be expensive and I might balk at the price of buying a new one.
I don't know that that seems to be the trend with production knives for me lately, but I'm very excited about that.
Thank you Spider Co. That this this is a great night, just a little back story.
Back in 96, Sal Glesser was asked if you're a little boy Eric.
Back when he was, you know, younger ever gets drafted and called to war.
What knife would you want him to carry?
And he designed this.

12:24
4 inch military and from that came the paramilitary to or the paramilitary, the paramilitary 2 and of course the paramilitary 3 is that what they call it?
The little one?
That is what they call it.
At this point I think originally it was not called the paramilitary.
3 I think it was called.
Something else anyway?
Happy about that Next up HEA designs took the hunter which was a very.

12:52
Unique clip point blade.
Very futuristic looking design and they've released a a second go at it.
A second incarnation of the of the hunter and this one is a much more.
I will say sober design.
It has the basic footprint in the handle though though the.
The pommel is markedly convex where the old one was concave, and the same can be said about the blade, the, the uh, the initial, the original hunter, which you can still get.
A Boker, makes a version of it.

13:26
If you don't want to spend HEA design money, you can get the Boker version of it.
Very cool design, but it's a front flipper with a radical sort of clip point up front.
Well, this one is very toned down and looks much more suited to EDC with that drop.
Point and and that sort of relatively neutral handle, it's a a titanium frame lock.
It's got a a nearly three inch blade, 2.85 inch blade that's 154 CM.
Or you can also get it in wait.
Yeah, you can get it in.

14:03
This is the chief version of it and you can get it in S 35 VN.
The first one was in 154. But just a really cool design.
I think I. I think the old one is more dramatic and more interesting and fun to look at, but this one to me just seems like a. A more practical and classic design, maybe something that won't go out of style as quick.
Sam Abdulrahman II got a chance to meet and shake his hand near the artisan booth this this year at Blade show.
It was cool to meet him.
Very nice guy.
I really enjoyed talking with him on the show here so it was like many others, it was very nice to finally press the flesh so very happy for him and the success of his company and very much look forward to getting this in hand.

14:53
By the way, this.
This hunter has a a fully sculpted titanium pocket clip.
Forgot to mention so check that one out still to come on.
The Knife Junkie podcast we're going to take it a a look at a couple of new knives in my collection.
One a new knife in my collection, two others on loan that are very exciting.
And then we're going to look at grab and go fix blade knives.
This is a continuation of last week's grab and Go folder collection.

15:18
These are a little different and I will explain why.
All coming up on the knife.
Chunky podcast.
And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
OK, so when I was at Blade show, this is how a lot of stories are gonna start.
I met the guys at Devo Knives.
Uh Kevin.

15:42
Kev from Lefty EDC and Colin his his design partner Colin Maison.
Pierre is a CM knife designs and he sent me their new prototype.
This is the Growler and they're they're staying beer themed to.
The first one was the stout that was cool.
We had that here on the channel a little while back that beautiful sheep's foot bolster lock.
Very nice knife.
Well this is a new one.

16:12
And this prototype in particular is from Cuba, and they did a beautiful job.
This looks like I'm not sure if it is.
I have to find out, but it looks like crosscut.
Canvas micarta they have the Devil Knives logo right here on the pivot which I really like.
It's subtle.
It's a nice looking logo.
It's subtle, understated and it also avoids billboarding on the blade, which was not all gunked up.

16:40
I used it to open up a package yesterday and it man it really OK, so this is a very tall.
What is it?
Almost an inch and a half tall blade and that's almost fully flat ground.
It's a thin blade stock, so it is really a nice slicer.
I could see this being a good picnic knife or or food knife because of how it places the edge compared to your knuckles, but also how thin it is.
It has a sort of a chef's knife geometry, really thin and slicy, but I do appreciate that it's got a a just north of centerline point.
That point was very useful.

17:22
The package I was opening was a. One of those horrible padded envelopes that doesn't have the air bubbles in it.
It has the the.
The crap stuffed between 2 walls, like little little, I don't know.
Little little balls of paper, the kind that when you cut them open make a mess anyway.
That tip went right in really nicely.
Punctured, so I like a blade like this that is very edge and belly oriented but still comes to a tip.
I always like a pointy tip, that's why I'm not too fond of the of the cleaver genre.

18:02
I miss the tip.
Very nice action on this as as might be expected from Cuba and also from Devo knives.
Really really nice action.
I find myself wanting to finger flick it the most.
I do not put my.
Fingernail in there like I do on some knives.
This one is all about the fat.

18:23
Just get the fat in there.
The fat of that finger and just dislodge it from.
From the detent ball and it will fly open.
The action is exquisite.
It is a big opening hole and that allows you to easily slow roll it.
Say you're in the lunch room at work, cutting up an apple.
You slow roll it like that, but you're you're in the bar and you want to show it off.

18:48
You flick it like this.
Hence you know the the bar theme has to do with the with the beer.
With the bear theme, you probably should not be opening up knives in the bar.
I will say that that's my disclaimer.
Very very nice knife.
I dig this a lot.
I like that they supply a lanyard hole for those of us who like lanyards, I do.

19:10
It is small and understated, but I like the shape of it.
It's a nice.
It's a good shape and I also appreciate a being able to put a lanyard on, but I also appreciate taking them off.
I'm always that on again off again with the lanyards and the fobs.
And it's nice to have not two giant a hole there, but when the 5:50 cord is through there, it's nice to have a snug fit so that it's not flopping around, rattling around.
That's just my personal taste, so this is the Devil Knives growler.
I know that they got prototypes from, I think QSP as well.

19:46
I can't remember who the other OEM was and and that one turned out a little different.
I got a chance to to try them both out and the other one was a little bit thicker if I recall.
Directly and just had a different build, different feel.
Really, I like this knife a lot.
I really dig that blade and the handle is nicely neutral.
Very comfortable, gives you a lot of options to choke up or to be back on it and and it's comfortable and simple.
Very nice knife, so this is the Devo Knives Growler prototype sent to me by Colin Maison Pierre.

20:21
He's the design half of or the you know the CAD.
Half of Lefty EDC and and his knife company Devo.
Alright, so what's up next, next is another loaner.
This is on loan to me for my good buddy Jack across the pond.
Over in England he's a Scotsman in England, as did I say that right task.
Anyway, this is his and he sent it to me to check out first before sending it along.
It is a knife center exclusive of an outrageously fantastic knife.

20:54
The Demco Knives 8020 this one in a beautiful blasted titanium with a 3V blade so man, they just went all out on this.
This is the ultra.
This is the ultra.
I almost hesitate to grip this with my left hand because I'm afraid my wedding ring will leave a snail trail.
I do not want to send this to Jock with a snail trail.
I gotta say the action in the titanium handle.
The weight of the handle just.

21:24
Oh man, it makes the action feel so much different here.
This, here's my.
A standard version with the.
Face only a mother could love blade the the the the sharks foot still love it but that just the feeling is so much different because the the handle is so much lighter with that grivory I really like this.
I'm not going to change this one because it means something to me but.
They want to get.
I want I really want to get this right here.

21:57
I love this incarnation of this knife.
It's perfect.
I love the demco clip point blade.
I have that on my 8020 just one of the best clip points in my to my eye and then everything else about it.
This one actually looks like a shark.
Something about it.
Everything about it looks shark like.

22:16
Something interesting is that you can get a lot of replacement scales for this version.
The original version.
But if you look at this exclusive tie handle version, the pivot is much larger.
They have the the demco pivot on it that you see on the 8020, so it's pretty large and it's a totally different aperture than the pivot hole for the the standard.
So don't don't buy this and then get aftermarket scales for this thinking it's going to fit.
That might be an that will be an issue so you have to look specifically for aftermarket.
Skills that will accommodate that large pivot man.

22:56
Such a cool knife jock.
Thanks again for loaning this to me.
I'm going to shoot a quick video of it and then I'll send it your way, I promise.
Who to talk about a a good candidate for a leather fob?
This would look smart with a leather fob.
I gotta say, even though they're kind of annoying, they look cool.
I don't know something about them.

23:17
It's like a stamp of ownership.
OK, last up was an unexpected one, but it was in my it's been in my bit my Amazon bin forever.
This this is the knife that came in the annoying envelope that I opened up with the Devo stout or with the Divo Growler.
OK, so this is the Voyager XL cold steel.
With the drop Point Blade, I call it a barong because it looks just like a barong.
That's the sword over my shoulder that I always talk about.
Beautiful leaf shaped blade.

23:52
You've got a full belly.
The thing is 1 continuous belly.
If you look at the sharpening choil area and then trace the line of it, it's never going exactly straight and then you have the top curve, so it's it's leaf shape.
In general I always wanted this.
It was in my Amazon bin and then I got notification that this was the price had dropped to the point where I was like, well, it's irresponsible for me not to get this.
The people need to know the people need to know, so I got it for you.
I got this for you if it's.

24:25
Incidentally, coincidentally, if it's beautifully into my collection of Excel cold steel folders.
Jeez, so just such a coincidence.
So now I feel myself ever since a couple of weeks ago when I did sort of inexpensive essential folders and I showed the four inch clip point Voyager.
Ever since that, I've been into the Voyager back into it.
I haven't been in a long, long time and.
Well, so this popped up and and so it was all meant to be.
I really dig this knife if if by chance you need an XL knife and I think you do, I would.

25:06
I would make an argument that even if you do not have one, don't have a collection.
Aren't interested, you still need one Excel folder from cold steel and I'll tell you why.
Because.
It is a great option to a fixed blade if you don't have the room for a fixed blade, but you want something that becomes large and and very versatile in a smaller package you can get one of these for 60 bucks.
Throw it in your bug out bag and and all of your knife needs are taken care of from the large to small because with this knife you get first of all that triad lock is the Super super ridiculously strong and you get a number of grips here.
Let me go to this wide shot here.
You get a number of grips with this handle.

25:50
You can choke all the way back on this pistol grip and and if you have a lanyard you can wrap around your wrist.
You can use this as a chopper because you've got a 9 inch reach here and because that's a five and a half inch blade, you got a 9 inch reach and you can get some queuing done.
Some light chopping, you can move up the blade and you know use it in different hand holds all the way up to choking up here using that jumping and using that little platform there.
So this is a very versatile.
Life and it could take the place of having a couple of knives in your bug out bag, so that's my that's my sales pitch for the Voyager XL.
Of course, if you wanna spend more money and get into a more luxurious Excel knife that can be had with the fancier additions with G10 and polished aluminum not in the Voyager series, but in the Espada series and.
And like that, but just just for utilitarian purposes, I highly recommend these.

26:48
They're super strong and they have a number of different blade shapes.
To suit your needs.
So cold steel Voyager excel.
Alright, so that is the state of the collection.
I'm I'm very happy with it.
I like the way things come and go it's feast or famine and this this was a nice this was a nice snack if you will because it's always nice to check out knives that I don't have that I can borrow and keep for a short while use and check out and send along.
So thanks to you Jack and also to you Colin all right so Next up I want to talk about grab and go fix blades.

27:25
Last week I talked about the Jared Nieve inspired grab and go folders topic that is a knife when you don't have time to linger over the knife case.
What am I going to carry?
What am I feeling?
What's my knife mood today?
You just got to grab a knife.
You got to get out of the house.
That's what we talked about last week.

27:42
Well, this is the fixed Blade edition and as you might imagine, for me it's a little different because I love tactical.
I love fighting knives.
That's kind of my aesthetic.
If you will, to quote my daughter.
But it is so so that sort of determines my fixed blade carry to a large extent, but also that is also the area where I dabble the most in custom or handmade knives.
Now the one thing I will say in this list of 10. There are, I'd say there are there are four production knives and six custom knives.
None of the custom knives exceed $250 except for one which exceeds it by by half.

28:24
So so though there are customs, there are all pretty much readily available pretty much and are not the the.
They're not in the same level as custom folders, which tend to be much more expensive.
OK, all that being said, my first grab and go.
This is perfect for utility perfect.
All around knife, uh, even food, even I even wager self defense, even though I know that did not factor into its design.
And that is the steingraeber performance knives or SPK shark.
This one is in crew wear.

29:02
I got this on the secondary market when I you know I had.
I had him on the on my show and he was.
He gave me a special e-mail like before this dropped and I missed the e-mail and I missed out on on a run of his.
Knives and it always bummed me out and then I found this on the secondary market and crew wear and bought it and I just love this knife and have bonded with it.
Now.
Alex Steingraber really specializes in.
A number of things.

29:30
He has a very scientific approach to.
He had a scientific approach to learning knife making through fixed blade knives, and now he's been using that same approach to figure out frame locks, titanium frame locks, and his beautiful lamia his new.
Frame lock knife is just a stunner and and it takes a lot from this DNA.
Crew wear.
In a thin stock ground, super thin and laser like this is a very very thin behind the edge.
Very very sharp.
Glide through any material kind of night.

30:06
This is one of my classic all around cardboard slayers.
And I said before, great, it could be a self defense knife.
It it's.
It's got a very neutral handle so when held in reverse grip it feels excellent.
So so I feel confident wearing carrying this knife.
I say wearing this knife because I do wear it on the outside.
This is the one knife I carry scouts style on the front so I don't know if that Scout style that's I guess on the front.

30:35
Horizontally it's it's overall length, hides under the plume of my pirate shirt.
You know, under the plume of my shirt.
So I really like this knife.
Definitely a grab and go.
You could grab this one, have nothing else on you and pretty much take care of anything.
Alright, that's the steingraber performance knives sharp.
Next up, this is the.

31:00
Oh that was my stomach.
This is the priciest.
One of the bunch, but possibly my absolute favorite.
This is the voodoo from Eric Kramer custom knives.
First of all, a great sheath.
That's all of these have in common is a great sheath and the one that came without a great sheath.
I made a great sheath for, so that is if I forget to mention it.

31:24
These all have excellent sheaves.
This one is.
Got my Carta handles.
Is a clip point.
Double edged clip point.
Now he doesn't sell this double edged.
I requested it and that swedge is so shallow that when you put an edge on it, it's not a paper cutting edge.

31:47
It's more of a gouging, tearing, splitting edge so it's like a, you know a four pressure cuts.
You know if you're using this knife to trap and you have someone trapped behind that and then you pull up, it's going to split, but that edge the main cutting edge.
Is very thin.
It's a hollow ground blade.
It's on a thin stock.
The handle is thin.
Everything about this is easy to carry, it's very swelled.

32:14
It's a it's a good.
It's 154 CM.
It is a good utility edge, though I will do whatever I can to not use it for that.
This is a I think of it more as a self defense implement and like I said to me it's a clip point to Eric Kramer, the maker.
He calls it a Persian so who you going to believe?
I'll believe him.
It's a Persian, but to me it's a clip point.

32:39
Persian love this thing and a big part of it is how thin it is.
It really nestles nicely.
All of these, with a few exceptions towards the very end get carried in the three o'clock position in the waistband and most of them have the discrete.
Carry concepts clip on them because that's my favorite.
OK, Next up is a custom.
Well it's a. It's a sort of quote, UN quote production, run from a custom knife maker.
This is hog tooth knives.

33:14
This is Matt Chase and this is that beautiful EDC tanto.
I carry a lot.
I carried this thing a lot.
It's the perfect dimensions it carries so well.
A lot of it has to do with that rounded handle.
The handle is perfect for my sized hand.
I can get a full forefinger grip on it.

33:33
But nothing else.
If I were to use this in a in a fight situation, say I'm fighting with a very well trained Filipino fighter who knows all the things I know and this is of course this is all fantasyland.
But what I'm saying is there are a lot of ways you can disarm theoretically disarm a knife using the pommel.
The part that's protruding from the back of the hand.
If you can, you know if you're in a in a tight.
Sort of grappling scenario.
This you cannot get that.

34:03
So this of course is useful theoretically.
For me it's useful because if I'm carrying this the the handle is so short and so rounded off that it doesn't poke my ribs when I'm sitting in the car and it doesn't interfere with my spare tire.
You know, it's just very soft and neutral, very nicely chamfered, and just the right length that I can get a four finger grip and nothing more.
But if I am holding it in reverse grip to, you know, say, thrust through a 55 gallon drum containing Uzis I got I got this good grip that I can bear down on on the back with my thumb.
So this is a great knife.
I tell the story that I was carrying this incidentally, carrying this whilst trying to make feather sticks with a bunch of other knives that are brought out.
I'll bring all these, you know this one has thin geometry and I'm going to try this one with feather sticks and it was just you know that kiln dried wood.

35:01
That you buy at the grocery store to do a family fire pit and I was having difficulty with everyone of them.
I was.
I was worried because they were all folders.
I was worried that I was gonna.
I don't know it.
It seemed like really tough wood and I didn't want to Jack up the pivots or anything like that.
So I ended up pulling this out and with the hollow grind and that and the really thin edge you can see it's a tall tall edge.

35:24
There.
It just Oh my God, it was like butter it.
This made incredible feather sticks.
I'm not sure if that's what you would consider this to be the main.
Purpose of this is a kind of an all around utility knife I think of.
I think it tends more towards the self defense, but that's just my lens through which I look at things.
But incidentally, it's a great little sidekick camp knife I I am one of those people who thinks that tantos could be very useful in the woods, but I am not a woodsman, so I can't tell.

35:58
Maybe maybe it is that you put a stick on the other side, and then you have that straight blade and you can use it as a draw knife.
I guess you could do that with any kind of blade, but that straight blade that straight edge seems like it could be useful in a survival.
Scenario, I don't know I've gone way off the rails with this.
This is not a survival knife, but you definitely turn it to that.
Again.
154 CM tumbled acid wash and then a very interesting handle material.
You've got a maroon G10 with alternating layers of a sort of rubber like material, so it's just ever so slightly grippy.

36:33
You can barely detect it, but it's just enough and I really like that you got the G10 pins.
Just a handsome knife.
That's sort of a production thing that.
Matt Chase of Hog tooth knives.
Who just got his journeyman Smith certification.
Congratulations Matt.
This is one of those kind of.

36:52
Things he does as more of a production.
I think he has a water jetted out and then does all the grinding and everything else.
So that's the hog tooth EDC tanto.
Next up after this, swig of delicious coffee.
Is the bright for war quakin Josh Mason custom knife maker had him on the show.
I've had a lot of these guys on the show actually.
Yeah, most of them.

37:17
All of them except for cold steel alright, but we'll get to that later.
So this is the quakin by Josh Mason.
He does different sized knives.
Now he's doing a knife just like that's this.
That's larger.
He also does an Americanized tanto version of it.
You see that I have it set up for neck carry.

37:35
This actually works great as a as a neck knife.
It's just light enough, but also just sharp and sturdy enough.
This thing is a work of art, it's.
Beautiful.
Alright let me show it off.
So it's a quake in that shaped blade what he does with these knives is after he cuts out the profile he's 0 grinds them so he he.
He takes this all the way down a full flat grind all the way down to a super sharp edge.

38:07
And then he dulls that edge and then and then creates the sharpened edge from that.
So it's really really thin behind the edge, wicked sharp.
This is 1095 and I have started a patina on it, which I might reverse at some point because I I've decided I kind of missed his makers.
Mark.
He's got a beautiful makers mark.
It looks like a A5 petaled flower.
And it says.

38:35
Jay Mason under it but he goes by bright for war.
It's a quote from a book I can't remember which one.
Uh, I think it's George or maybe not.
I'm not sure, but beautiful hand wrapped handle he uses this.
This is a same rap.
I believe they call it, but this is ray skin under there and then he does the Japanese traditional Japanese lace wrap where they cross in the middle and twist around and and then soaks it in a proxy.
And it has this.

39:13
Intense grippiness I love these kind of handles because they have those alternating peaks and and it's essentially like finger grooves.
Your fingers really melt into the side there and then and they did this Turkish knot on the top so that just called Turkish knot.
I think just a great little knife.
Wicked sharp kind of like a little little scalpel.
It reminds me a little bit of that knife in the man the movie The man who wasn't there.
Great movie by the Coen brothers.
In black and white with Billy Bob Thornton and James Gandolfini and and Frances Mcdormand, just an awesome movie.

39:51
If you haven't seen it, one of one of the lesser celebrated movies by them.
But there's a scene where someone gets murdered by a little knife and and it was a little knife that was brought back from World War Two from Okinawa I believe, and it looked a little bit like this.
And.
So that's all I'll say about that, but that's what this knife reminds me of.
Kind of an obscure reference, so do I go all the way with that patina?
Or do I hit it with some flitz right now?
I think I'm going to go all the way with the patina.

40:20
See how it looks and and double back.
A great food knife.
Also, by the way, the only thing is you got to be careful.
It's kind of nasty.
You don't want to get food up in that in the lace work there.
So you got to be careful.
All right, Next up is from BGM Knives and John Miller, who is just blowing up for his regrinds and his custom knives and his custom knives really.

40:46
You know he has a bunch of different models or you can come to him with with things you want to do and.
So reasonable and this guy is so known for his incredible grinding skills.
Incredible and this is one of them right here.
This is.
This is directly I saw that he had a knife exactly like this on his website and I said I wanted exactly like that.
I want that that goofy zombie green and the purple handle.
I love the way that looks.

41:16
And you know, a Gray sheath.
The steel itself I got.
3V and got it hollow ground and you know?
So I pulled out all the stops.
I prefer the lace to his.
To his.
Just G10 handles.

41:36
I mean, they're nice is G10 handles are nice, but I like the cord wrap as I mentioned earlier.
Plus it's thinner.
It allows you to carry it next to your person easier now when he crosses center line with his rap, he doesn't twist it over so that it does not create the same sort of tall peak you get from.
The twisted.
Uh, but beautifully ground, very, very thin, and oddly enough, when I got this it was not at the edge, super sharp I I dragged it across my ceramic rod a few times and it became install laser.
So much so that I very badly cut my my forefinger.
I had a band aid on there for I don't know like a week and a half and that's a long time.

42:22
I usually heal up quickly.
Rather Wolverine like in that way.
Uh, but so this time.
This time.
Not so, and that's because this thing was so sharp it it cut very, very deep early.
I like to carry this in reverse, grip all of them, reverse grip basically.
So when you draw it with the right hand comes out like this.

42:46
Just a nice clip point.
He calls this the quake and to me it looks more like a clip point.
But hey, man, who you going to believe it's his knife?
Well, it's mine now so I'm calling it a Bowie.
A clip point BGM knives.
Check them out.
So many cool beautiful models of very very good at what he does and he's a young guy.

43:06
Very talented.
Check out BGM knives also.
Gotta regrind you want?
Look him up I I got a couple I gotta send him to include my ZT0640.
I think it's time.
I think it's time alright.
Next up is 1. It's brand new.

43:23
I've only had it a week and a half and but it's already in the rotation.
I know it's going to be one that I carry a lot like the reminding me a bit of the Kramer custom Knives voodoo just in how easy it carries.
That's this one and that was my blade show pick up.
This is the 1558 knife company Revere 1558 Knife Company 1558 recurring to Corinthians I believe.
1858 and it's a knife company owned by Master Bladesmith Josh Fisher.
I had the pleasure of meeting him and his family and his daughter, who at 12 or 13, just passed her journeyman Smith certification, which is pretty amazing and looked at his really beautiful knives.
He had a couple of hand forged knives and then couple a couple that he makes that are more readily available like I was talking about how how hog tooth makes this EDC tanto.

44:25
This is a similar kind of thing.
So he makes batches of these and it is a gorgeous recurve recurve clip point.
He calls it a hunter I. I to me it's a it's a fighter.
To me it's a fighter, of course, because that's what it looks like.
But if you're a hunter, I suppose it looks like a hunting knife, but to me it has just that beautiful recurve profile is just all business, but it's got such a nice thin handle and if you can if you can see it sculpted so it's thicker where I'm pinching and then it it thins out towards the pommel
and then flares at the pommel so it's got the.
From from this aspect, it looks a lot like a larger fixed blade knife.

45:14
With that with that touch I gave showed this to a number of people who who all said immediately.
Is this a Winkler and I thought huh, to me it doesn't look like a wink.
I know why they think it looks like a Winkler.
It's that long.
Clip point.
To me, though, you know it's just obviously not, but it doesn't it you know the recurve and the thinness and but yeah, I guess I guess maybe in a in a similar universe in terms of design.
I opted he had beautiful leather sheaths and I should have gotten both.

45:50
I should have just spent the money and gotten both sheaths.
The leather and the the kydex.
I'm sure I could just go to his website or call him up and buy a leather one but I chose the kayaks because I knew I wanted to carry this and the kydex is rubbing in an annoying fashion as kydex will do.
You know it's already stripped some of the I don't know if this is parkerizing or what this is.
I knew I know that this is 52100. The steel though and my card a just a great knife.
Nice and thin, carries nicely, draws in the reverse in the reverse, grip nicely and then with that recurve gives you a chance for slashing in reverse grip.
I tend to think that slashing in reverse grip is kind of something for the movies or something if you're in a phone booth with someone or an elevator.

46:39
I mean it's like very close in, you know if you're going to want to slash you're going to want to be far out.
So in any case that recurve.
Gives you some hope, uh, if you need to use your knife like that, heaven forbid all right.
Next up.
Speaking of which, this this is kind of a knife that's definitely self defense oriented, but has great utility.
Qualities.
Just not the way I have it set up.

47:08
This is the tops rapid fire, and I'm.
I'm sorry, not rapid fire rapid strike.
The rapid fire is an off grid knives knife.
This is the rapid strike.
I have modified it a little bit and I also opted for.
This is one of those knives that you can buy from tops with or without.
The top edge sharpened of course I opted.

47:28
For the top edge sharpened because why?
Why wouldn't you if you have the option such a great little knife.
Now if you got this thing without the top edge sharpened would this would make an outstanding?
Utility knife really, really good because you have a lot of reach at at about 4 1/2 inches, 123 or about four and an eighth one about four and an eighth inches there.
So you got a lot of nice reach.
It's slender and fits anywhere when you when you first buy, meaning you can stash this knife.
It it it hides away nicely.

48:07
Here's the sheath.
I added this from a different tops knife, but so it it stashes away nicely.
You've got jumping all the way around the handle, but it sits nestled underneath, so when you're when you're flesh sinks in there when you grip it tight, you can take advantage of that jumping, but if not, it's not annoying.
And then you have full on jumping there.
That little bolt is to is to get it to stay in the kydex sheath because there's not a lot of meat around the ricasso, and then these four grooves on both sides.
I added myself because.
I. Ground down the top.

48:43
Now they they make this knife.
Part of its utility is that it comes to a diamond point here as a glass breaker.
It's fine, I just didn't like it because I thought of this primarily as a self defense knife and would be carried like this and it wasn't comfortable to put the thumb over.
So also that little point was just long enough and pointy enough that it would stick in my ribs when I sat down in the car because I carry this at 3:00 o'clock or 3:34 o'clock in my waistband and it just wasn't comfortable.
So I made it comfortable, made it my own and this this is definitely a grab and go knife.
I have used it for utility but I have to say having that top edge sharp does make me nervous in using this just as a an EDC.
All right, that's the tops racket.

49:36
Rapid strike.
The next one is one that I keep in my car.
The next three are grab and go, but they're not necessarily ones I'm carrying on me.
These are grab and go in three different scenarios.
First one is my dedicated car fixed blade.
And that's the cold steel Roach belly.
Now this is a knife that you can now buy.

49:58
I remember I bought it for 13 bucks.
You can now buy it for 20 bucks with.
You know on Amazon or what have you and it comes in a different sheet.
It's a great great knife.
OK, it comes in a different sheet this is a kydex sheath I made.
This is a knife I bought initially to test out my kydex making skills and to to learn about kydex.
This was one of my first sheaths.

50:22
It remains one of my best.
I used the thin 6 mill stuff and I really liked it especially for this light knife.
Another reason I bought this knife.
Besides it's being inexpensive.
Is that I knew a guy who bumped around the country for about a year at least.
He had been doing it for a year when I met him and he was camping mostly and this was the one knife he had was a was a cold steel Roach belly and I remember he said Oh my one knife is a cold steel.
I want to show it to you.

50:55
I was so excited.
He was the cousin of a friend and he was staying downstairs from the apartment I was staying in so he was hanging out in our place and he's let me show you and he pulls out his backpack.
You know he's been living out of.
For a year and I'm I'm hoping to see I don't know a trail master Bowie or something.
He pulls out the Roach belly and I was like ohh cool but inside I was like, oh.
But he proceeded to tell me how great this knife was and how it was the only knife he had.
The only knife he used.

51:21
I think he had a Swiss army knife too.
And how it just did did the thing he used it for kindling.
He used it for everything.
He he slept with.
It made him feel safe.
So I bought it and I really like it.
It's it's based on an early early American colonialist design.

51:41
You can see the little musket there.
Just a just a great utility knife and to me it's just a great all around her.
It makes me feel safe to have close by.
You know it's a 5 inch blade.
It's well, gimped.
You got great purchase on it I I did my own sort of jigging pattern in this and then I wrapped it not too long ago with jute twine and then I soaked the jute twine and shellac and I got that nice gold color and it's.
It's just really stout.

52:11
It's a great grab and go knife for 19 bucks, so I've shown you a $400 grab and go knife down here with the with the Kramer custom knife all the way down to a $20 grab and go.
This thing is is awesome.
The sheet that comes with I can't vouch for when I got this they were all shipping with these nylon pouch sheets that were just barely adequate.
Now they send them in these boxy looking plastic.
You know she's not not sure about those.
I'm sure they're fine, but if you want to learn how to make kydex, that's a good knife to do it on as well.
OK, penultimate grab and go fix.

52:48
Blade Knife is the one that lives in my backpack and that's my EDC bag.
I carry two and from work or whenever I'm going anywhere.
You know errands or whatever.
I take it with me just because I have so much crap in there.
I'm like I could.
I could fare well if something happens, even though I have a get home bag already stashed in the car.
It's something I rely on anyway.

53:11
The knife I've had in there four years has been this Walmart purchased.
Sog seal pup.
And this is back when they were making them an awesome 6 but I scored one in yeah AWS 8. So that's what this was.
This one was AUS 8, especially back in in the day when I got this, Walmart was almost selling exclusively the August 6th version.
I don't know why they had an AUS 8 but I got one.
It came in a great comes in a great sheath, a big a Cordura sheath with a giant pouch on the front that you could put a. Utility a Leatherman in or something like that, but I also got this kydex sheet.
This is before I was making kayaks myself pretty good.

53:57
It'll do got this on there just in case, so there have been many times when I've been at my office alone on the weekends and just because I'll grab this stick it in my belt and you know it's a big empty building and there is reason why people would sneak in there.
So there are reasons why.
I don't know, so this is just something I've had on me many times.
I like this little notch here.
It's for putting cord channeling cord in there and cutting in case you you you you don't want to pull the knife out, but you still need to cut something.
With that you need to keep your knife razor sharp to make that work, but this US 8 is not difficult to keep sharp.
You've got that beautiful classic Maccabee SOG profile on the blade with the two peaks.

54:45
The two humps there.
I just love the look of that classic blade.
And I like how soggy knives has kept it alive.
Now that that that fire was dwindling for a while, but I think they're they're on their way back and I think they've done a great job reinventing themselves.
I just never want this stuff to go away.
They're fixed.
Blades are what I like best about SOG.

55:07
By a mile, this one has the half serrated blade.
That's a great thing to have for survival.
You know this knife does not have a super steel, but it and is not a crazy build, but it really does get used and and it gets used by professionals apparently.
I I have heard here and there that this is a a preferred knife even though it's not super fancy.
Or is it or expensive, and that's probably why, but you have that serration there, those serrations there for when the rest of the knife gets dull.
That will still be able to cut through stuff, especially tough, you know, tenacious.
Material like rope and that kind of thing.

55:48
So just a great.
All around fixed blade knife.
This is one of those knives I would I would recommend if.
You don't want to spend too much and you're a folder collector, but you think as you should, that you should have a fixed blade knife in your collection.
This is a. When I bought it 40, that's probably 50 or 60 bucks at this point, but this is no matter what it is right now.
It's money well spent.
It's good knife to have around.

56:12
So a good one fixed blade knife to have.
All right, last up is a grab and go knife that is for that we grab and go when we go on vacation.
I started this two years ago I guess and now it's become tradition every time we go somewhere.
Usually it's somewhere with a kitchen.
So.
We take this.
This is the off grid knives grizzly I have.

56:37
I have it with a little in the waistband.
Carry thing in here but that's just to put it on a belt.
If I needed to put it under a belt but this thing, this grizzly is such a great knife.
It is a big broad 2 inch.
Wide almost fully flat ground OSS.
8 very thin blade.
This is a camp kitchen knife and it excels in the kitchen.

57:03
I will tell you that.
So when we go up to our little mountain cabin in the.
It's actually called a villa.
How do you like that?
It's a villa we go up to our mountain villa in the summer.
We take this because the knives there it's it's a timeshare.
The knives there are crap and so we bring this and you know, we spend a lot of time cooking and take pride in our food and there's nothing worse than sawing food that you just spent money on that you're going to prepare lovingly.

57:34
Sawing it with like a dull old ginsu.
So bring this sucker along.
It's us.
8 which is great in the kitchen.
Sharpens up quickly, has a great edge, does well against a a wooden cutting board or bamboo cutting board.
It doesn't all too quickly.
You've got that big, broad surface for scooping up your ingredients to throw them in the in the pan of olive oil or or what have you.

57:57
And then, as I mentioned, it's a camp kitchen knife.
This is also a pretty tough steel for just whacking against a small pieces of wood.
You need to make kindling.
You need to make fire sticks.
You need to do little camp chores.
You need to like, take little limbs off of a a sapling.
Maybe you're making a trap for dinner.

58:19
I don't know what you're doing, but this is great for all those kind of chores.
It's kind of machete, like in thinness and profile and.
Yeah, just one of my favorites.
I love this thing.
I wonder what this would be like in 1095?
Would that be better than AUS?
8 Because 1095 is a tougher steal it might, it might do better in the machete camp chores, but still do great as a kitchen knife, especially if you if you do the sort of treatment this has and and sort of treat the blade, the blade coat, the blade in the way that protects it against the elements.

58:54
Yeah, so this is the grizzly.
This is it a grab and go knife for vacations and camping.
All right, so this is my fixed blade edition of the grab and go fixed blades I'm I'm very excited to to round the corner with this and tie up this lose now.
Now now you know I'm not going to do a grab and go slip joint edition because they're all grab and go all right let's let's rattle these off.
We got the steingraber performance knives shark we got the Kramer custom knives voodoo.
We got the the old here.
I'm going to use my.

59:27
We've got the hog tooth knives tanto.
We've got the bright for war quake in we got the BGM quake and we got the 1558 Revere.
The tops rapid strike and we've got the Roach belly coming in at 20 bucks by cold steel.
We've got the SOG seal pup for a great bag knife and then grab and go on vacation.
Great knife.
Here is the grizzly because you can do your camp chores and you can do your kitchen chores all day long.
That beauty alright, thanks for joining me on this journey and be sure to join us on Sunday for Phil Harvey, Phil Harvey from England who makes those gigantic folders you've seen in Dirk.

01:00:09
Warnings collection videos.
I talked to him, charming guy from across the shock and then also be sure to join us next Wednesday for another supplemental tomorrow night.
You know, that's the knife junkie, gentleman junkie giveaway and we're giving away the Red Dawn edition enforcer by off grid knives.
That's the three, three and a quarter inch version.
What a great EDC that is.
Join us then and also join us here.
All the podcast app so you can listen while you're doing the stuff you got to do all right for Jim working his magic behind the Switcher.

01:00:41
I'm Bob DeMarco, saying until next time I do implore you don't take doll for an answer.
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01:01:19
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