My Favorite Knives This Year - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 378)

©2022, Bob Demarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

[0:00] 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 and coming up, we're going to take a look at my favorite knives purchased this year.
Tactile knives comes out with a long awaited Richard Rogers collaboration.
And then we're going to take a look at what we're giving away for the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway. All coming up on the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was from Black Hole Rainbow, an individual who I don't think knows me very well.
They commented on the Shower Knife short, they said, how frightened of the world can you get?

[0:58] How frightened of the world can you get? And actually I read that and for some reason I heard it in Greta Thunberg's voice and it made me laugh. And then I started thinking of the Greta Thunberg Tiger King meme that my brother's been sending me that makes me crack up.
And so I liked the comment for that reason. Obviously Black Hole Rainbow doesn't know me, doesn't know the gist of some of the stuff we cover here.
And so thinks that a shower knife is absurd. But to answer your question,
actually answer your question, Black Hole Rainbow, I'd have to say that there are horrors around every corner that defy belief, and it's mere luck that you don't run face to face with them on a daily basis.
And then that gets you starting to believe, well, maybe those horrors don't really exist. Maybe I shouldn't be so frightened of the world.
Until one day, one of those horrors presses its case and aims its foul wrath at you.
And in that moment, you're in the shower.

[2:00] What are you gonna do?

[2:02] I mean, I'm just saying.

[2:05] All right, enough said. Let's get to a pocket check. Today and actually a number of days this week.

[2:16] I was carrying an old Emerson favorite that I just have not carried in a long time. And that is the P-SARC, this beautiful.
Just a beautiful work of tactical modern knife art, if we're going to say that. I know maybe some of you are balking, you're like, well, that's an Emerson.
And a lot of people aren't crazy about Emerson. But I know a lot of you are. And I can remember buying this. I remember being at a barbecue. It was a Bolivian barbecue and we were eating beef hearts.
And man, it is really good the way the Bolivians do it. I remember getting a notification from one of my favorite knife purveyors that this was on sale.
And of course I jumped on it with a mouthful of beef heart. And ever since then, this has been one of my favorite Emersons. I love the hawkbill blade. A very welcome shape in this format with the wave,
and with the tactical nature of it. Also, Ernest Emerson has a rich past in Filipino martial arts and other kind of martial arts.
And in Filipino martial arts, you see that downward curved hawk bill in the ganunting. So to me, this was a pocket ganunting that I had to have.
Plus it's chisel ground, truly chisel ground, meaning the edge here, sorry for the schmutz on the blade.
I should have dolled this up for you.

[3:40] But the edge itself is chisel ground. So that's just one edge going down to that cutting edge. And then when you flip it over, there's no cutting bevel on the other side.
Alack, there is no other bevel at all. It is a flat chisel grind. And I got to say, man, flat chisel grinds get so incredibly sharp, even though that the main bevel on the front looks,
obtuse. It is so sharp. Now, my one beef with Emerson's and how they do a their chisel edge and overall their chisel bevel is that they have it dressed. They have it. They have it dressed so so that you see the bevel on the show side.
But that is only ideal for left-handed users because with that chisel shape You want this flat side to be against your work?
Whatever whatever you're cutting you want this to be on the flat side on the on the workpiece and want this to be gently very sharply.

[4:41] Chiseling or cutting away with that chisel edge whatever it is you're doing But they have it reversed here just for looks.
And I actually asked Ernest Emerson when he was on the show, and he, yeah, he's fessed up without any hesitation.
Oh yeah, I have it so that it looks good like that. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. But to me, I just kind of wish they had it on the other side.
Now some places, some aftermarket places like Tactical Elements, they have offered CQC 7s, I believe with the with the bevel on the right hand side, the proper side for a righty.
But it's not a normal thing for members. So that's always been something that's stuck in my craw a bit.
But all in all, I love this knife. I love that wicked blade shape.
I put an MXG gear clip on it. The clip placement is audaciously low on the handle.
I mean, it is like top heavy. There's so much hanging out there if you just use the standard clip. So I got the old MXG gear clip on there.
This thing is awesome. The action is superbly glassy. There's no fall shutness about this at all. This is 100% manual and it feels so good. It's so smooth. And like all of my Emersons,
a problem child went through a difficult adolescence but finally broke in.

[5:59] So I know a lot of people this day and age do not want to go through that, but there's something about the break in of an Emerson that really tests your metal. And I think I have come through with flying colors, you know, to seeing all the Emersons that have come through my hands that have left, you know, well adjusted folding knives.
OK, next up in my hand in my pocket today was the Venom Jack, the Jack Wolf Knives December twenty twenty two release.

[6:32] Probably the perfect Jack Wolf Knife, though I say that every time. This one with that big, broad,
wharncliffe blade, fully flat ground with that very deliberate downward raking of the edge and lowering of the tip really
makes this an efficient cutter, an efficient pull cutter, and you know tip, tip knife, everything about this with that downward raking edge and that point so low just screams utility. I used this the
day I got it as a steak knife because I remember I came home from work, it was on a Friday that I got.

[7:11] It, pulled it out of the case, we're going out for dinner, dropped it in my pocket and this was my steak knife. And though it's not a shape I prefer for a steak knife, you know, I'd like a trailing point for that. I was careful not to drag the tip on the,
porcelain plate too much, but this was my steak knife. And then it was awesome and impressive. You know, you know, you always get the waiter's eye when you pull out a nice knife. And this one came to me. Thank you, Ben Belkin. This one came to me in in this beautiful blue fat carbon.
I can't remember the name of this. I think it's like Arctic blue camo carbon fiber or something rather. I gotta look it up.

[7:54] These gorgeous carbon fibers, the names confound me after a while, they're all kind of descriptive. So I'm going to call this blue camo marble ripple.
And really great knife.
I think that this trapper shaped handle is a really, really comfortable shape.
We've seen this journey through ergonomics with the jack wolf knives because they are all mercifully single bladed slip joints.
I say mercifully, I love multi-bladed slip joints too, but I say mercifully because each one of these knives, we are able to feel the full ergonomics of the handle because we don't have the spine of a secondary blade obscuring the contours.
So this one just feels great and with that little downward scoop at the pommel of this handle that further pushes the tip down making this an even more efficient cutter than just the blade and the angle of the blade cutting edge will allow for.
So awesome knife. Love that. Love that thing.
And of course it's got a beautiful leather pocket slip that's breaking in.

[9:10] Speaking of beautiful, I had on my three o'clock position the the hog tooth ruffian. This is this has been my go to EDC fixed blade.
Love this thing. It's on the heavier and longer side, but it carries so so nicely. I think it's the rounded pommel, the end, the perfect sheath.

[9:34] This thing just carries really, really nicely. Now, it'll be interesting to see what it's like come summertime. I might opt not to carry this with the lighter garments and such but right now for winter. This is the bomb I love this thing,
154 cm deep hollow grind ground blade and.

[9:52] My Carta handle scales with blue love this thing I've gotten a lot of comments on my short about how I carry fixed blade,
Knives that that is the most viewed video that I've ever done. It's a short It's got a lot a lot a lot of views.
It has gotten so many comments.
This is and my favorite is don't bring a gun to it. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight or oh that's simple.
I just pull out my 45 and you know my reaction to that is well I'm not saying that guns don't exist and I don't like them and I don't have them.
I'm just saying hey look at these knives.
So it's just kind of funny. Oh yeah?

[10:34] Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. I say you bring both and multiples. All right, so this is what I had on me today. Just for I had no emotional support knife on me today and that was just fine.
I let the Emerson take that duty. So I had the Emerson PSARC. Also check out the Emerson SARC.
SARC stands for Survival and Rescue Knife, I believe. Or no, Search and Rescue Knife. And the P-SARC is police search and rescue. So the police model has that very sharp tip.

[11:06] And the regular SARC model has a rounded off tip. And sometimes you'll see like a seatbelt cutter groove in the spine also.
Very ugly, but cool purpose-driven tool, unlike the P-SARC, which is just gorgeous. And then I had the Jack Wolf knives, Venom Jack, the new one.
And then of course the hog tooth ruffian. Love this knife and all things hog tooth. As a matter of fact, he's got beanies and baseball hats on his website.
I'm gonna go get one of those probably baseball hat because I wear it more year-round. And I'm just gonna show off what a nerd and enthusiast I am with one of those.
Okay, next up I wanted to talk about the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway, which is tomorrow.
It's been delayed due to travel and other obligations on my part and Jim's part. And so we will be giving away the knife tomorrow, which is December 22nd of December Thursday.
That was awkward. We're giving away this beautiful QSP Locust.
This knife is really cool.
It comes with a sort of birth card or it's not a birth card. It's a specs card there It has a little drawing and measurements kind of cool. And then here's the knife.

[12:31] Ensconced in velvet It is a micarta Micarta D2. I'm sorry micarta and VG 10,
flipper on bearings That handle is very evocative of a locust. This is called the locust You can see the segments in its thorax and that upward turning tail there,
Just like the real deal and then look at that beautiful wharncliffe blade. That's.

[12:58] Think this is nearly four inches one two Three it's three and three-quarters inches long nice big long blade,
very comfortable in hand is this QSP Locus. I've had QSP on the mind lately because of all of the new penguins that have
come out and then several knives by some of my favorite people, some of my trusted voices who have been having knives made by QSP and so I'm loving everything that's coming out of there, but this is under their shingle here.

[13:31] You got titanium sculpted pocket clip, really excellent action, and just a stylish, beautiful knife.
And yes, you can use the hole to deploy the blade.
Very useful blade too. I don't mean to just linger on its looks and coolness, but that blade, that wharncliffe blade is very useful with its straight edge and downward tip.

[13:55] So this is it. If you want to be a gentleman junkie, head over to the knifejunkie.com slash Patreon and check it out.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Well, I was just talking about Emerson whilst discussing the peace arc in my pocket today and very cool little news story in knife life news with featuring Emerson.

[15:24] They made a very special CQC 7 that is the most famous of the Emerson folding knives, probably the first one that really put them on the public map.
That is their iconic chisel ground tanto. So they made a really beautiful one of a kind knife and sold it, auctioned it off,
for St. Jude's Medical Center for Children.
And they call it the Galaxy 7.
And this beautiful, beautiful knife has a G10 that you can see has stars, a whole nebula theme.
I think this thing is beautiful. I think if they made these, they could sell an awful lot of them.
So this is a one of a kind knife and they auctioned it off for 3,100 bucks. This one, amazing. And so this, some lucky winner.
I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I know several people who this could be going to, but I don't know for sure.
But I know one person in particular, and it's not Edwin, who I think might, who has a very special collection of CQC7s.
Be cool if he ended up with this. But anyway, just a beautiful thing and going to support a wonderful organization.
St. Jude's Children's Hospital, which fights pediatric cancer and other ailments.

[16:50] So that's a really nice thing for Emerson to do. Glad to see that kind of thing and that kind of give back. There seems to be an awful lot of that in the knife world.
And I'm not patting my back when I say knife world has a lot of great people in it. Ernest Emerson is one of them.
If not chief. All right. Next up is, uh, tactile knife company. Now when we were talking, uh, with Matt from tactile, uh, recently, I mean, I'm sorry, Mike from, uh, tactical.

[17:23] Manager from tactile knife company recently, we were talking about two very exciting collaborations that were in the often we saw the drop of the Christians in fixed blade Tonto.
And now it's the Richard Rogers collaboration, the long-awaited Maverick folder. And this thing is beautiful.
Much in the tradition of Richard Rogers, designs it as simple and sleek and beautiful and proportioned and all of that. And then living up to the tactile name, you can see the beautiful micro milling all across that contoured handle.
I mean, this thing looks really, really nice. And if you've ever handled the rock wall or the bear, you know the quality of their construction. Look at that thing.
That is beautiful. That pivot is really cool. And then you see this is their take on the Axis Lock.
So excited to see how they do that. I'm sure they will crush it. Tactile Knife Company is a very young company, but born out of an experienced pen manufacturing and designing company. So they already have the chops to solve manufacturing problems.
And so I have no doubt that it's onward and upward. This thing is just tremendous though. And maybe a good opportunity to get your hands on a Richard Rogers knife.

[18:53] I mean, most certainly a great opportunity to get your hands on a Richard Rogers knife, because for me, there's no chance of getting a custom or anything like that. So.

[19:02] Really happy to see that out. And one thing that makes me very happy is that that is a 3.6 inch blade. So that makes me happy because this is a knife that is appealing, truly appealing to me,
but a little concerning because now it's sort of, there will be that nag. Well, you know it's a 3.6,
inflate Bob. I mean you should consider getting it. There will be that nagging voice.

[19:27] So thanks Tactile Knife Company and thanks Richard Rogers, Maverick Boulder on the way. Still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to take a look at two new knives from
Off Grid and something that is very old on loan from a friend and then we'll take a look at the my favorite knives from this year. The Get Upside app is your way to get cash back on your gas purchases. Get Upside is an app you put on your smartphone and whenever you need to get gas,
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[20:05] Saveongas to get the app and start saving. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com saveongas. And now that we're caught up with KnifeLife news, let's hear more of the Knife Knife Junkie podcast.
So this beautiful knife just arrived this couple of days ago from me. This was sent to me by Kerry of Off Grid Knives and this is the back country Coyote V2.
Alright so if you know anything about Off Grid Knives, he is constantly, Kerry Orofiche, the head of Off Grid Knives is constantly refining the designs of his knives and they
go through iteration and reiteration and we've seen him address pocket clip issues and by that I mean like the first time he heard someone mention flat screws he was embedding the clip
and using flat screws and he just listens very intently to his customers and makes changes and this V2 is really incorporates some very nice changes to an already great knife.
So on this knife, I'm not sure, well here, let me start with the sheath. First of all, they went from a pancake sheath, which had a bit of a pancake sheath, means that it's two pieces of kydex flattened with, flattened around the blade with grommets going all the way around.
So it means that the sheath is going to have a larger footprint.

[21:34] So they turned this into a taco sheath, and as you may guess, taco sheath is one piece that is folded over like a taco, over the blade, and there's a seam on one side, or a fold on one side, and then a seam on the other, and then that's held down with those grommets. So I'm happy that they went to this more slender taco shape.

[21:58] Because not only is it just less and Makes it a more discreet package, but now it puts it in the realm of if I remove this really excellent dangler this is sort of a cold steel esque dangler with the Velcro and the snap and,
But if I remove this this sheath will allow this to go into to in the waistband carry. It looks like it'd be at the very high end for me, but it could
be done. So I'm going to try that out. I haven't yet. But anyway, excellent sheath, really nice upgrades on the sheath. That dangler, I feel like I'm very happy they went to this dangler. They had a sort of ad hoc folded over piece of kydex before. That worked, but,
This is much better. Okay, and the blade. So like the other, like the original back country coyote, and the original back country coyote improved on the original back country, which was originally the blackout version. So they went to lengths to contra the handle and they changed the.

[23:04] Texturing to this sort of elongated hexagonal thing. But on this V2 version, they just slenderized the handle all together. They gave it really nice contouring this way. So rounded this
way and very very nicely rounded on the edges. It doesn't feel anything like the last one which.

[23:28] In terms of the squareness. The handle of the other one felt good but it felt squared off.
This just feels rounded off and way more comfortable.
Though, you know.

[23:40] The other one wasn't uncomfortable, but just having this one, it's an improvement. And that's the point.
And right here you see these flared chamfers that come up from the bottom. These make a huge difference all along your fingers, on the surface of your fingers.
Reaching around and grabbing there. And all in all, it's less...it's just a thinner package in the hand. Which feels better to me.
My hands aren't giant, they're about medium I'd say.
Sometimes I fit large and sometimes I don't. So I put them at medium. And for me, this feels better.
My off-grid blackout, which has an anzo pattern and is more squared off and just feels bigger, is also comfortable but by comparison, not even in the same boat.
Boat. So they really, really, I think they've kind of perfected this design at this point. And that's three iterations so far that I've that I have that I've been keeping track of.
And now that I have this new Coyote V2, I think I'm going to give my other Coyote to my brother because he has the rapid fire, the folding version of this. And I think it'd be cool for him to have a matching pair. So really, really psyched. Thank you for this,
carry and I say this a lot this.

[25:05] Is called the back country. So yeah, it is a camp and outdoor knife, but I also.

[25:11] Like to call it the back alley because to me it's kind of a tactical design with that recurve and that point You can see this being sharp and that would be even more tactical. So really great knife, very psyched to have this.

[25:27] Thank you and I'm happy about the changes they made to that. Now, Next from Off Grid Knives also sent to me randomly was not expecting this, but what a delight.

[25:38] The only change to this is cosmetic as far as I can tell, but it is the Raptor in Coyote. And I love this little charmer.

[25:47] I will admit when I first saw it in its black version, I opened it up and I was like, oh really?
Really? Are we just like trying to be different now? Like um and then I started using it and realized that blade is awesome. It's a great blade. It's a great blade shape and like most off-grid knives it is
wickedly thin behind the edge here and this whole this whole blade is thin so on any sort of straight cut it zips through uh but this this hawk bill up front is so useful for pull cuts and all sorts of
utility chores. Just a great little knife and now it looks even better. I love the gray wash,
with the tan. I just love that look. Reminds me of an Ohio field with a gray sky.

[26:38] Just do. I just love it. But this knife, the one drawback of this knife... Oh here. See? Deep carry pocket clip. Recessed pocket clip. Flat screws. The one issue with this, it's a little bit of a pocket hog. It's a little wide, you know, but you know, if you like cleaver style blades,
if you like cleaver style knives, this will not be an issue. For me, it took a little getting used to.
I'm not such a cleaver guy so much, but this kind of fits in that sort of profile. Beautiful knife. Again, thank you, Kerry, for sending this along and happy to have another off-grid in the stable.
Last up in the state of the collection, this is not mine. This is on loan to me, sort of. Well, it.

[27:26] This was my buddy Ian. He teaches me martial arts and he's just a friend Who brought this?
He's like, yeah, can you sharpen a knife for me? I'm like sure and this is his hawks hellion by tops knives
And this is one of those they're kind of cheesy sheaves and it is just busted but it works and then look at this thing Man, he is just so the answer is the short answer is no, I'm not sharpening this this thing is a beast,
and really like a gnarly knife for survival.

[28:01] It's got these big teeth here for making notches for trapping. It's sharp all the way up here, or supposed to be.
This is kind of like a bone breaking kind of sharp here. And then I guess progressively thinner.

[28:16] You got five edges here. One, two, three, four, five. Pretty cool. This guy Hawks. I don't remember who he is. I believe Michael Hawk, I think.

[28:29] I think he was on the television show, the television show, dual survival with that guy Cody Lundin, the dude who didn't wear shoes, fancying himself an aborigine.

[28:43] Everyone they ever paired with wanted to kill him. But anyway, I think this is one of those guys.
I remember when this came out, I was like, wow, this thing looks so badass. And you know, Ian is a badass, so he went off and got this thing, and you can tell he has used it into the ground.
So no, I am not going to sharpen this. No, I am not going to refurbish this.
What I'm going to do, because this is missing some Chicago screws, and I'm gonna send this to Tops for my buddy Ian, and have them resharpen it, and whatever they can do to refurbish it.
You know, I don't wanna take the history out of it, but you know, clean it up a little bit, the new bolts in that kind of thing. I think I'm going to do that.

[29:26] So what a really cool outdoor knife. And I want to point out this single finger partition here with this very high peak.
Whenever I draw knives and I make that, I always think that will not be comfortable. It looks cool and it looks like almost like a sub-hilt, but it won't be comfortable.
So I always kind of eliminate that from my drawings. But having this in hand, I am wrong.
That feels so comfortable. I mean, you're set up for a saber grip. You're set up for any any type of grip with that and it just feels feels great. So anyway, very cool knife. I love,
Tops knives as you know and it was a thrill to get one in here just to check out. This is not one I would necessarily want in my collection but a very cool one to have and check out. All right, now,
Now, speaking of knives that I love, we're going to get into this.
These are my 15 favorite knives from this year. Now from this year, some of them were released this year.
All of them I got this year.
I tried to keep this to, well, they're pretty much all knives you can get. Yeah, they're all knives you can get and they're all excellent. I fell in love with each one in turn this year.

[30:51] Okay, first up, the Resco Instruments Gooseworks Mekong Delta Combat Folder. And let me just say, these are in no particular order. These are, except that the fixed blades come at the end.
So I guess maybe they are. But they're not rank ordered in terms of favorite.
But I found myself carrying this by default many, many days since I got it. just the perfect sort of hard use, sleek, American-styled.

[31:23] Um, knife sort of in the tradition of Chris Reeve, sort of in the tradition of Spartan blades and Strider and Hinderer knives has this just tough look, simple stoic tough look
and build and it's washers and 20 cv and blasted titanium that feels good to the hand and shows,
lots of snail trails.
I love everything about this knife.
It's made by Bestek and I love Bestek. I remember when I first got this, I thought it was, I was convinced it was American made by a couple of barefoot frog men in their North Carolina basements.
But it was designed by those guys and made by some awesome knife makers called Bestek. So I absolutely love this knife.
I love this action. It's got that hydraulic sort of sub-enzoid action.
Is super sharp, but does have, now you can also get this hollow ground. This has a bit of an oblique saber grind, but is very sharp, kind of in the way microtechs are. They feel
like the geometry is oblique, but they're just wicked sharp. It's kind of like this.
Great knife, great, great knife. Very, very happy to have this one and been one of my favorites if not my favorite folder this year.

[32:50] Okay, next up, I said all the fixed blades were at the end. I lied. But this one is a fixed blade and this has gotten the most use out of everything on this table.

[33:01] This is the Vosti Morgan. It's a beautiful 8 inch chef's knife sent to me by Vosti knives. They asked if I wanted to check out one of their kitchen knives and I said,
yeah, I sure do because I had been seeing a lot of videos of their folders by people I considered trusted voices and they were loving the folders. So I wanted to see what the chef's knife was like.
This thing is awesome. So this sits with my I have I have the Vustoff try a very nice Vustoff tried end. I have a couple of Henkels and then I have the Kai... what are those called?

[33:43] The Kai series. They escape me now. So I have some good production kitchen knives. This came in and kind of blew them away. I'm really, really in
love with this knife. I'm not in love with the Pommel. That's the only thing I'm not in love with. But at this point it looks like a 50s car to me so I don't
care. The handle, which I thought I would not like with these angular facets, is incredibly comfortable for both my hand and my wife's hand. She loves this knife also. Very, very
thin, yet nicely crowned spine. And it's VG 10 San Mai. So VG 10 is the cutting steel.
I think this is a 420J jacket, I think.

[34:33] And, um...

[34:35] It's just, it's wickedly sharp. It keeps a really good edge. I think that VG-10 cutting edge is, you know, in our realm of pocket knives and such and these EDC knives, it's not much.

[34:50] Or it's, you know, it's okay. It's fair to Midland. But I think in the kitchen realm, it's really good because it's been great in this context. Lots of stropping. I keep a
a strop in the kitchen. And every once in a while I have used a steel. Sometimes when you drag the edge across a strop, it'll leave lines and you can tell that there's some jaggedness going on on the edge. So I'll knock it off with a, with the steel and then strop it.
But this, this has already been used a lot more than anything else on the table and has prepared a lot of tasty and then some pretty lackluster meals also. I am, I do a lot of the
cooking during the week and sometimes I run out of imagination. My wife's a killer cook and she does all this awesome stuff during the weekend. I keep it running during the week. She keeps it,
fun and interesting during the weekend. Anyway, how do we do that? We do it with a Vostied Morgan,
among other knives, but I really dig this knife.
And if you're looking for us, an affordable kitchen knife, Look no further, I would say.

[36:00] Alright, next up, Concept. Man, they have just been knocking it out of the park. Sorry for the sports analogy there, ladies and gentlemen, but I love Concept knives. I have a
small sub-collection of them. Only like four or five or three or four, something like that. I think I sold one recently. But I love the way they're made and the designers that they collaborate with. This is a K-MaxROM design. I really dig K-MaxROM designs as Jonathan,
Renaudin from France. I've been following him and his designs and his custom work on,
Instagram for years and then was very excited to see him doing some collaborations first with Kaiser and then with Concept. The Préta 2.
Préta 2 means ready for anything. This one comes in clip point fuller like this or Tonto that looks a lot like the Umnumzan Tonto and with a fuller.

[37:03] Both with the Micarta in black or tan or you can get it all as a frame lock. I had that and sold that off to a good friend of the show.
So this one is the one that I kept even though that other titanium one was just so perfect, So perfect, but I was just not carrying it.
So I decided I had to keep one and it was this one. This is the one I kept popping in my pocket.
So love the work over a concept and then love the work of Jonathan Rendon.
All right, next up, I have got a good number of these. This was a hard one to choose from, but this is a shining beacon to me in the Jack Wolf Knives lineup.
That's the Midnight Jack.
One of my favorite knives this year at all was this Midnight Jack. Now, the Jack Wolf knives came out this year and I got each one of them. Thank you Ben Belkin. He sent them to me.

[38:02] And I'm ever grateful and they are amazing. To a knife, they are amazing. Not just in how beautifully built they are with these modern materials and really, really impeccable builds. I mean,
really impeccable. But also the design tweaks to very common old patterns.

[38:26] And this one is his take on the Barlow. And he's got that nice big 1 third length bolster. That's what a Barlow, a large Barlow bolster is one third the length of the handle. So he's got that.
He's got that triple fluting in the bolster there.
And this really nice coffin-shaped handle. Reminds me of the handle of some old Bowies with that coffin shape.
And then the downward raked blade cutting edge. Let's see that. Look at that.
I love that. Of this sheep's foot blade.
So you not only have the tip down low, you have it even lower. It's just kind of like the Venom Jack as I was talking about before. The straight edge does not come straight off the bottom of the handle.
It comes down at an angle. So it accelerates your cuts, puts your point where you really need it to be for all sorts of precision cutting and that kind of thing.
And this just this knife really, really impressed me and they're all very thin.

[39:32] They're all very thinly hollow ground, full hollow ground, except for the Benny's Clip. But this one to me just felt thinner, still feels thinner.
Feels like the thinnest that I've felt so far.

[39:47] So in love with this knife, love the green micarta next to the gray. Just a handsome, handsome knife.
And yeah, I do keep it in its case, leather case, so it doesn't get messed up. But listen to the walk and talk. outstanding action and walk and talk and sit and finish.
Okay, next up, well, this is looking like the off-grid show because there is another off-grid in my list. Here's the Stinger XL.

[40:18] First of all, we see that color combo that I really love that we saw on the last two knives, but this one just takes the cake.
This one took the cake this year.
I love the design. This is made not by Bestek, but by their Taiwan manufacturer.
And they do really incredible work.
So the thing I really like about the Stinger XL, besides the promising name, which leads me to believe there will be an EDC version of it, a smaller version, but I love the 4-inch blade, that broad bayonet-style blade, and the handle, the ergonomics on this is way more comfortable than any other folder by Off-Grid Knives Heretofore,
which are usually pretty squared off, but they're squared off but they're comfortable because of the contours.
This one is comfortable from the contour, sure, but also, and by contour I'm sorry, I meant the outer profile, the shape of the handle. But this one also has the surface contouring and the wide chamfering, and it just makes this knife so comfortable to hold.
So this thing got a lot of pocket time this year. Plus, it's just so formidable.

[41:38] It's got 154CM steel by Crucible. Not to be mistaken with CPM 154. Just really sharp.
Now I was talking before about how awkward knives are all really thin behind the edge.
This one is too, but it has a bit more of an oblique approach on the bevel just due to where that center ridge line is. Just a very, very nice looking knife and to me it has a bit of,
a militaristic feel to it. It's evocative of the M3 trench knife and some bayonets and I just love,
it. Also a nice little luxe addition. He's now starting to put tab fillers in some of his knives there so that void is no longer you know you're not feeling that great action,
great knife, great cutter, and man, she's a looker.

[42:36] Okay, next up in this cavalcade of awesome knives from this past year the Orion scorpion Scorpio, I'm sorry Scorpio.

[42:47] This thing has been an emotional support knife ever since I got it this little little Stylish clip point that is just so fun to play with.

[43:00] Forgive me while I do so right here But like the Orion Solaris, this has, well, the very same shaped handle as the Solaris,
but it's smaller.
This area here is exactly like the Solaris with all of the same layout and setup so that you get really great flipping and really great lockup and all the geometry and physics and,
leverage are just so.
So that gets shared between the two models. But this one, again, is smaller and it features this gorgeous 14C28 and very unique clip point blade.
It's got a crowned spine with a really nice fuller and that really cool run of jimping on the clip.
And I was thinking it was just there for style and coolness. And when I mentioned it to Michael during one of our interviews, he was saying, no, no, no, I'm sorry, David.
I'm getting everyone's names mixed up. David Cam.

[44:07] He said that is so that you can determine how deep you want the blade to go into a package. Say you're cutting the seam of tape and there's a pillow inside. You don't want all that blade going in.
So you can choke up with your finger right on that jumping, find your exact spot and stay right there. I thought that was a brilliant little use of that. But really, it's just a charming, fun little EDC knife. And then like every small knife that I love and that,
I like, it maintains the width of a normally sized knife. It's not thin on all dimensions.
It's still thick. And when it's thick and small, you can have a three finger knife really work out just fine because you've got that width you got something to hold on to.
Also sculpted titanium pocket clip on this beauty and then like the Orion Solaris David Cam promises that this knife will also have a bunch of modular pieces that you can get,
to trick it out which I love. Who doesn't love that? All right next up is another stylish and beautiful clip point. This one just won my heart for its sheer beauty and then once I got it I
realized what a great knife it is. This is the Petrified Fish Victor. Now I saw this while I was was surfing for.

[45:36] Serpent, I haven't used that term in like 15 years. I was looking for a Beluga I was looking for a beluga and I came across this and that blade shape intoxicated me immediately,
Just a perfect bowie shape. I talked about that,
different some of the different perfectly shaped boys like the buck one ten like the.

[46:01] The recon one There are many. The Buck 119 has a beautiful classic. The K-Bar is a classic bowie shape. This one right here on the Petrified Fish Victor is just perfect and beautiful.
So that's why I got it. Literally, just to have a petrified fish and to have this to look at.
But I've been carrying this one a bit recently again. I got this quite a while ago.
Ago and I'm just loving it. I love using this knife. One thing I'm not crazy about is that shiny pocket clip but it's not a huge deal. Not a huge deal at all. But I do like gazing
upon the beauty of this. I also really like this bright blue denim micarta. Just really,
really brightens my spirit. Also, it's taking on my personal funk signature beautifully,
And you can see that when you look at the clip there.

[47:01] Oh, yeah, you're wondering what that notch is? Yep, you guessed it. For Spidey flicking, they think of everything.
So accommodating are the people at Petrified.

[47:12] Really cool design. Also comes in green micarta with a black blade. That was a hard decision.
Not a hard decision was to get micarta on this next one, because to me, it was my favorite.
That is the Tempest Knives Hinyon.
Now this is like some of these knives like this one. I count JC of the Knives Fast Channel among my friends. He is a trusted voice out there and just a very cool guy.
The Knives Fast Channel and his Tempest Knives company. Well this is the first run. He's got a new knife coming out shortly that he's been showing the prototypes off of.
But this one, I just really like this knife.
And the one that he came out with before this, the Mach 51, to my eye, looks better.

[48:07] But for some reason I like this better. I just like this knife a lot. This is what the 940, the Benchmade 940 was supposed to be for me. It's got that same similar shaped blade,
at least in terms of the cutting edge and the tip, but it works so much better. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of the 940 and but this the the part of the 940 that appeals to me this,
takes uh but but delivers so much more for me so this will do it. Very nicely contoured handle is comfortable very ergonomic great design for a new designer I mean great design period but,
Casey is a new designer he he did not spend the last 20 years cultivating his design he's been,
and doing other things, having a family, having a career in a different line of work.

[49:00] So very cool for him to come out with something new, but different, same, but different. You know, it's a, yeah, it's a, it's a liner lock, 14C28 and liner lock with my Carta.
You've seen a million of those, but this one is totally unique and I love it. I love carrying this and using it.

[49:21] Yeah, so I highly recommend you get it. I know that he keeps these on stock at tempusknives.com. I think he has, I think he has Jade G10 right now among the Micarta and the other color G10s,
which is somewhat new, but also made by QSP and just buttery, buttery smooth.
Great, great knife.

[49:42] Did I speak that of turn? Kubi, I think Kubi made this, not QSP, Kubi. Beautiful knife, nonetheless, is the Tempus Knives' pinion.

[49:52] Next up, this is one that was sent to me to check out by Dirk Pinkerton. This is the asymmetrical contact, asymmetrical, the mid-range company from beyond EDC.
And Dirk Pinkerton, you know him, the famed and prolific designer and knife maker. This looks like a Pinkerton all day long. This is like such a perfect example of his work.
And the perfect example of my favorite shape Warncliff. That angle up front is perfect.
This tip angle, I'm not sure what it is, I always talk about it and then forget to measure it. But that angle is perfect. The widening of the blade towards the ricasso is awesome.

[50:37] And everything else about this knife, the handle sets it up for all sorts of use, though it's very neutral. It's great as a in all grips. This sort of saber grip, it's fine, it's good, fine.
This accelerates at this choked up Filipino grip. Reverse grip is awesome. Pick-hall style is awesome. So this is a great knife for flexing and actually he corroborated this one I mentioned.
And to me, this knife is a perfect flex between utility slash EDC and really set up well for tactical. And he said that was his aim in creating this. And well, I'd say he accomplished it.
Because if you look at it, it looks like a civilized, doesn't look too gnarly, doesn't look too scary to me. It does look utilitarian with that blade shape. And you can tell it's a nice thing just by looking at it.
Don't have to be a you don't have to be a knife maker to know that this is a nice thing and so boy lost track there my mind went somewhere totally different,
but in any case one of my favorites this year and in jerks a smart man he sent this to me knowing I'd fall in love with it hey we're check it out I ended up.

[51:59] You know walking off with the prize I love this thing and it is also a rare one in my collection to get front right pocket access because it is only 3.3 inches in bladeline.

[52:14] Okay, next up, the last of the folders this year that really blew me away that, that, yeah, just changed my perspective ever so slightly,
is the beautiful Finch Knives Buffalo Tooth.

[52:32] Just a gorgeous knife you remember hearing me go on and on about this knife about the wood about how it's a gentleman's knife About how this changed my mind about what a gentleman's knife needs to be. No, it does not need to be thin and slender,
No, it does not need to be shallow and tiny and svelte This is a big knife. It is a broad knife. It's not too thick this way, but it is a broad knife and yet.

[53:00] Super capable, super comfortable, and just looks classy as hell. Sitting next to your watch and your wallet, your leather wallet, and your flashlight, and whatever other EDC stuff you carry,
you nerd. This thing looks so good and gentlemanly next to it. Makes me feel so good. You've got your fluted bolsters, like on a nice traditional knife. You've got Coca Bola wood, some of my
absolute favorite. And the contrast between the titanium bolsters, yes this is titanium ladies and gentlemen, the contrast between the titanium and the wood to me is just gorgeous. This comes in another setup with mother of pearl or.

[53:45] Not mother of pearl what's that other stuff called? Abalone and then it also comes with jigged titanium and in any other circumstance you'll hear me say
jig titanium all day long and maybe even abalone just for its fanciness but in this case nothing beats this gorgeous kokabolo wood. A very very thin broad high saber grind or not saber grind but
flat grind. This thing prepared a salad the first day i got it and did a great job you know of course,
it's a little short for prep work but other than that great great blade geometry for for slicing and cutting all manner of vegetables and such. So I love this knife, big big one for me this year,
the Finch Knives Buffalo Tooth. Next up was this strange thing, it's not a strange thing, it's a Bowie knife and you know I love Bowie knives but this launched me on this feverish
Bowie knife thing I've been on for a little while. This is the Kudamon Bowie. I don't think it has really any other name. Kudamon is a company out of Spain and I realized, geez, I have no Spanish knives.
I need to get some Spanish knives in my life. Beautiful black leather scabbard here with the red stitching so appealing to me. There's their embossed logo.

[55:10] It's an elephant. But here's the star. Beautiful, kind of very classic looking bowie knife and bowie blade there. It is hollow ground. It's molybdenum vanadium steel, as you'll see a lot of Spanish knives,
whether it's Kudamun or Ator or Joker. There are a couple of others.
Others. They all use this molybdenum vanadium steel and it's really good. I have thumped a little bit on this, but I also watched Legion Tacky Cool's video with him just totally
thumping on this. As a matter of fact, Scruggs over there is the one who introduced me to this knife and I kept going back to that video and eventually I just found it and bought actually buying this from Chicago Knife Works is what introduced me to Chicago Knife Works.
They have awesome prices on fixed blades. I gotta say, check them out. Check out Chicago Knife Works.

[56:13] Great, great selection of cold steels also and just very good prices. That's where I've been getting some of my big knives lately because that's where I've been getting the best prices.
But this one you don't see too often so I'm really happy to have it in my collection I love that it's sort of a plain Jane Bowie I do love the shape I love the slightly curved clip and the hollow grinds here that straight steel,
even quillianed guard and then the grippy micarta handle which is it's actually pretty smooth.
Pretty neutrally shaped. That's another aspect of this that I really like. It kind of reminds me a little bit of some of the German Bowie knives you see with stag handles. I'd love to let this collection just go crazy with the Bowies, but I should be tempered. But anyway, this is one of them.

[57:07] This had me going for a good chunk of the year. This is the Kudemann Bowie. Alright, next up by one of my favorite knife designers for fixed blade, crazy tactical designs is Lacy Zabo.
And this is from Tops Knives.
Love Tops Knives.
This is the Zabo Express.
I have one other Tops Knives knife designed by Lacy Zabo and that is the Felony Stop, another double edged wonder.
This is a five and three quarters inch or six inch, depending on where you're measuring from fighter.
This is a double edge. They make a single edge version. No, it's not a dagger. It's a fighter. That's what I can test.
If you look at it upside down like this, you'll see where the apex of the bellies are on both sides.
They're uneven, set up much more like a fighter than a dagger, but who cares? I just like harping on that for some reason.
The top bevel, like on a fighter, is smaller than the main bevel, just by not too much. But that's not really changing the angle of approach enough to make that so that it's not still wickedly nastily sharp.
You've got a pretty neutral handle, especially for a Zabo design. A lot of his things are very choiled and kind of strong arm your hand into a certain position.
Or I shouldn't say strong arm, but like...

[58:35] You really need to hold the knife in a certain way to make it work. This you could, well it's double edge, you don't need to do too much in the way of changing your grip, but excellent in reverse,
excellent in this fencing grip, or I'm sorry, saber grip, and then of course a hammer grip would be fine and dandy. Just be careful when you do that hammer grip, my proclivity is always to put my
thumb up on the spine and turn that hammer grip into a Filipino grip, but in this case that would would spell disaster. Luckily this this little thumb ramp here comes up high enough that before you would really press down you'd be like, what's this doing? Oh yeah,
wrong knife. Canvas micarta handles, very nicely textured, just an awesome knife.
This one's been doing next to the bed duty recently. Okay, next up is the Rough Rider Bowie, the Black Mule Bowie. This thing just amazed me with its three CR
13 MOV blade steel. I was expecting that to be total garbage just because that's how I'm.

[59:42] Pre-programmed. But it has been awesome. I mean, better than 8 CR, I would venture to say.
I think this 3 CR 13 is a very good outdoor steel, outdoor budget steel, because I've been seeing it on, let's see, the cold steel knives that they're now selling at Walmart that are
marketed as outdoor knives. Jimmy Slash beat the crap out of some and they just kept coming back for more. And those are three CR. This is three CR and I know that there are some others. So I just think that it's a, even though it's sounds close to eight CR and we like to rag on that,
I just think that it's a different sort of a different bird, a very tough bird because,
this one I got and for 25 bucks, I had no bones taking out to the stump of truth and banging on it and doing a lot of batoning and just making kindling and stuff like that.
And it maintained a razor sharp edge. I mean, I cut paper before going out, cut paper when I came in.

[1:00:43] And, you know, I'm not Paul Bunyan. I wasn't cutting all day, but I did a good amount expecting this to come back in all dull and it wasn't.
It was awesome. So I really like this knife a lot. If you have a hankering for a Bowie and you don't want to spend too much money, 25 bucks,
you something very, very serviceable and plus it's got the same profile as the Shining Mountain Bowie, made famous by Mike Stewart who designed it but also made famous in the old Inglourious Bastards. By the way, this rubber handle has loosened up though I know it's a full tang,
comes all the way down. I'm going to remove this and put an Elkhorn on there when I get,
it and kind of make this be a project knife.

[1:01:30] This be a project knife? I don't know. I don't know if that was correct. Make this be a project knife. Okay, second to last is not a new knife, but it is coming in a new steel. And I finally,
finally got it this year. The Notches Bowie by Cold Steel. Love this fighting bowie. This is a a Musso-style fighting bowie.

[1:01:56] And there are no two bones about it. This has a cable tang, meaning that the stick tang from the knife blade comes to about here. It's welded onto a cable, a metal cable that welds onto a screw.

[1:02:13] The screw is screwed down here with the pommel and it's all held together like that. When I first saw that, I was like, what?
They also do that with the Laredo bowie. What is it?
If you're going to be cheap about it, why go through so much effort? And then I realized they're not being cheap about it.
This and the Laredo bowie are fighting knives. They're meant to be fighting bowies.
They're not really meant to be taken to the campsite and batoned with. Of course you could and all that, but these are meant more as fighters. And so as such, a lot goes into the balance, the weight, the feel, and all of that.
Plus, that cable tang in there is a shock absorber. It basically reduces, you hit something hard, it reduces the shock that travels down to your hand.
So kind of a cool design, shocking and weird to me at first, but interesting nonetheless. This knife is just a fighting masterpiece. 12 inch blade and a.

[1:03:17] Nearly sharpened the swedge. I mean it just comes to a zero edge. So it's it's pretty sharp With a back cut motion you will do plenty plenty of damage,
Very very nice. This is the one in the 4034 stainless steel. That's their cheap steel,
But knowing cold steel they are so incredible with their heat treats and knowing what I use my knives for which is pretty much What you're looking at right now I know I don't need to spend another 250 bucks to get 3v,
For this knife 3v for this knife seems weird with a cable time because 3v makes you feel like oh I want to I want to I want to hit this I want to chop with this But that's not what this is it's a fighting knife,
So I don't know maybe maybe that's a conversation for another time Alright last up in my favorite knives of this year. You've seen it already tonight so I won't wax on too long about it, but it's the hog tooth knives ruffian. This beautiful gents,
I'm calling this a gentleman's bowie. You know, it's small, I can carry it, and I'm a gentleman.

[1:04:21] Therefore it is a gentleman's bowie. What I love about this knife, besides everything else that I talked about before, is that I can carry it on a daily basis. I've bonded with it, I've used it it a little bit, not too much frankly yet, but I can have it on me all the time. It's,
just the perfect design. It fits perfectly on my waist. It gives me a nice long blade without being too crazy, without having too much sheath in the in the waistband. So this,
one really does take the cake. I love this knife. And I said I wasn't rank ordering them, But since this was my birthday custom knife and another one from Matt at Hog Teeth, maybe call us.
Alright, let me know what you got this year, what your favorites were. Let me know the top three.
Drop them in the comments below. I'd love to know. And don't be shy.
If you had fixed blades, put them in there. If you got a sword or a mace or a tomahawk or some sort of knife-adjacent implement, put that down there too.
You know I'm gonna love that. Alright, please join us tomorrow night for a Thursday Night Knives right here at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
That's live, also on Facebook and Twitch. And join us on Sunday for an awesome conversation with Jimmy Slash. You know him from YouTube and what a great guy. We have an awesome conversation yet again.

[1:05:47] So for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
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[1:06:36] Music.