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The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
©2024, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript

[0:00] Coming up, Jack Wolf Knives brings one back by popular demand, we take a look at my new SOCOM Auto, and fantastic flip and folders.
I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.

[0:28] Back to the show. My favorite comment this week certainly put wind in my sails.
This is from Mason Lemons, HN6UI. The world becomes a little better of a place when people that are actually nice and who promote good manners and etiquettes are also deadly. We love what you're doing, Bob.
Well, thank you, Mason. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I appreciate that.
When I started making this show with Jim, I knew that my parents were watching and I knew that my daughters on occasion would be listening.
And so I've always kept that in mind. So I appreciate that. The deadly part really makes me feel good.
I do appreciate that. That, of course, is untested and hopefully it always remains untested.
I've always thought, you know, I'm not a tough guy. I do know that, but I've trained with a lot of tough guys and hopefully Hopefully, those tips come through if I ever need them.
So whatever you can, when you can. Thanks so much, Mason. I do appreciate it.
Thanks, one and all, for watching and listening this past week.
To the shows, to the interview, and Thursday Night Knives, and of course the shorts and videos that we're putting up.
Okay, that said, I think it's time now for a pocket check.
What's in his pocket? Let's find out.

[1:43] Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket today, I had the beautiful Attention to Detail Mercantile Mark I.
This was one of the very, Very first examples of the model that Douglas Esposito ever made.
And I saw this on Instagram and had to go for it.
It was those beautiful, beautiful micarta inlays there.
All done very accurately, very, very, very accurately with a pantograph, an old-fashioned machine.
You know, from I'm not early 20th century, if not even before that, where you can scribe things over here with a sort of pencil and over here it's it's cutting out.
That's that's my very rudimentary understanding of the machine.
I actually saw the pantograph in Douglas Esposito's shop way back when, when he was out of the back of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu shop in Manassas, VA. He's not there anymore.

[2:45] He's left our state, sadly, but he's still making awesome knives, and he's using more modern machinery these days.
This is a great knife, though it does have some, you know, it's not nearly as smooth as what he's making now and on bearings.
Earrings but that's part of what i love about this uh sort of like my tattoo on my left arm it it is an early work of a master and um when the guy who made my uh makes made my tattoo sees my tattoo which hasn't been for a long time he's always embarrassed oh i had such a heavy hand back then now i'm so much more refined well the same thing could be said for this folder uh it is rock solid and beautiful uh but in terms of its action and such um an early example but still incredible i love it just not the fidgetiest but you know what that's not what it was made for deep hollow grind and of course looks like an italian speedboat all right uh next up in my pocket was the beautiful and uh.

[3:51] Classy little bro jack from jack wolf knives this was the second release of this knife and i believe i lucked out with the handle material i got the blue cura night here um these this was sent to me by by ben belkin of jack wolf knives so um you know i certainly will happily accept whatever he wants to send me but in this case this was my favorite material that was being offered on this fun and uh it's really beautiful it looks to me like uh something you might see while floating through outer space you know nebula etc nice uh very thinly ground hollow grind with a beautiful machine satin on this one uh on all these second runs of jack wolf knives that uh he's bringing bringing out different blade treatments you know that first whole year and a couple of months were We're all sort of grinder satin blades.

[4:51] And then on the second runs, he's been doing hand rub satin with a sort of horizontal grain.
And he's been doing PVD coating and all these different treatments to both the blade steel and the titanium bolsters, as well as new materials.
So keeping it fresh and exciting and still making every run desirable for the collector.
So I'm really psyched about Jack Wolf Knives. Okay, and next up, another brand or another maker I'm so into now is Jed Hornbeak, especially this knife.
I believe from everything I've seen from Jed Hornbeak, I got the one knife that is the most me knife.
And there are others, you know, that he makes some really cool buoys, a lot of really cool tactical combat style knives. edge.
But this one just takes the cake for me because it's EDC-able at 4.75 inches on the blade.
But it's a double-edged fighter.
You've got a Scandi ground swedge there. So you could be carving up wood with the swedge there.
And then it's got a thin hollow grind here on the 3V blade and an extremely sharp edge.
The handle is just... I mean, you can look at it. You can tell how how comfortable just from looking at it, it feels.
I've been carrying this a lot and showing it off a lot for good reasons.

[6:19] It feels great in the saber grip. If you can see this hump, it's almost a pistol-style grip.
So on a thrust, you've got the energy coming up through this hump into the back of your hand, down your arm.

[6:31] It's just really nice ergonomics for getting as much power behind that point as possible.
But if you come up and use that jimping in a more Filipino grip with the thumb on the back for power cuts and power slices or slashes, it feels great also.
So putting the blade at a downward angle to your hand, so accelerating the cut.
It's also great in reverse grip, which is how I carry it, so that on a draw it would come out like this, except with the right hand.
But all you have to do to get a normal grip on it is just take the knife like that and put the back of your hand against your body and just kind of pull the knife out like that.
Um so so far one of the best uh small fighters that you can just carry uh all the time and this one to me is just on the outer limit uh you know uh ordinarily i'd go for something with a shorter handle for for edc but this this works great just on the at the three o'clock or 245 position as as opposed to in Appendix, where it is just too big.
All right, last up, I have the Stout, the Mini Stout from Devo Knives.
These guys are just burning it up. They just released a new version of the Stout.
Wait, no, this is the Stout. New version of the...

[7:58] Mmm, Growler. That's what it is. The other one that I have with a swedge and beautiful carbon fiber. They're just doing great over there.

[8:08] Kevin Johnson of Lefty EDC and Colin Maison-Pierre of CM Designs are just a powerhouse team with Devo Knives.
And they just keep coming out with the new improved versions of like the stout also they came out with a the large bolstered version of this i believe it was the v2 with all sorts of machining really nice but this this one right here has this nitro v blade very very thin on that hollow grind almost got the thumb there uh very nicely contoured um g10 with the reversible pocket pocket clip, wire pocket clip, nice opening hole, great action, a non-flipper on bearings.

[8:49] I'm just, I love, I'm a sucker for that, and this one is great to fidget with, so also great to cut with, didn't happen to use it today, but this was riding in the back left pocket, this was my EDC today, what did you have on you, I had the attention to detail mercantile mark one, a very, very early if not the first one uh the jack wolf knives second uh release of the little bro jack i had the necromance from jed hornbeak knives and the devo mini stout um and i realized just looking at these like i know all these guys and uh have interviewed all these guys and i um that's exciting to me that's exciting that's exactly what i want my knife collection to be uh made up of knives from the people I've had the honor of speaking for an hour with. I mean, that's the real...

[9:42] I mean, I love this channel. I love everything about it.
But having the opportunity to talk to these people who are making the knives we love is probably my favorite part of it.
So to have knives from those people is a real honor.
When I sit down and look, wow, every one of these, I know these people and I've spoken with them and know what's in their heart, at least as far as knife making them.

[10:06] That feels great. All right, I'm starting to babble now. all right coming up um in march this uh let's see the third weekend of march let's get it together bob um gentleman junkie night giveaway at thursday night knives and this time we're giving away this really cool tepe design tucson it's the 175 the ts no yeah ts394 i don't know i get these all confused um this is the the one that uh one of the ones that dave this old sword blade reviews sent over and that i was harboring for a while because it's so cool i i couldn't believe i had to give this away but i do and that's that's fine everyone you know let's share the wealth and it's very very sharp very pointy and that's a broad blade it's about an inch and a quarter long long and thinly flat ground, you know, saber ground so that, and you can see that that relief edge is pretty tall.
So it is an incredibly sharp and slicey Americanized tanto here.
And you've got that nice sub tip and a great working front area that's totally straight.
So great for scraping and all the kinds of tasks that Americanized tantos are good for.

[11:23] Also, So, you know, breaching softer targets and, you know, being a tactical thing.
If you look at the handle, it reminds me a little bit of the Strider, only in spirit in how it starts pinched and widens out.

[11:38] And it gives you a lot to hold on to. It's a really nice knife.

[11:42] You got a sculpted titanium pocket clip, a hidden lanyard post, and a wonderful, outstanding action on the button lock.
Button lock on bearings just awesome all right so if you're a gentleman junkie at the uh if you're a gentleman junkie which is a patreon member at the highest tier you're entered in automatically to win this on the third thursday of the month we do that every month so check it out uh we get some really great knives in here to give away and it's always fun to see who wins it uh we also do random giveaways on Thursday Night Knives um.

[12:22] There's that as well. All right, coming up, we're going to have Knife Life news.
We're going to take a look at some new knives coming out.
But first, I just want to say, because we were just talking about Patreon, the quickest way to get there and to become a patron and see the kind of things you get in return is to go to thenifejunkie.com.
You can also scan the QR code on your screen right here, or you can go to thenifejunkie.com. Slash PPL.
Among this week's specials at Knives Ship Free, the Spyderco Military 2 Blurple Folder is built for durability and cutting performance with a 4-inch blade of CPMS 110V Super Steel.
Knives Ship Free has some Jesse Hemphill knives available and on sale now.
There's a variety of models and materials in stock, so grab one before they're gone.
And the new USA-made Duralock Folder by Kershaw, the Bel Air, is becoming a go-to EDC due to its perfect sizing, aluminum scales, steel liners, and magna-cut blade.

[13:20] It's also equipped with a ball-bearing pivot and a reversible deep-carry clip.
Get these deals and other great specials from our friends at Knives Ship Free.
Just use our affiliate link, thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free.
That's thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free. Support the show and get a great new knife at the same time.
Thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast And now here's the Knife Junkie With the Knife Life News Alright so When we do Life Knife News I'd like to tell you that I get a lot of information From Knife News and from Knife Magazine So you should go check out both of those Online publications Knife Magazine also has A paper version But outstanding, Knife publications Knife News I love I love Ben Schwartz's writing.

[14:13] Also, Clay Alders over at Knife Magazine also is a great writer.
Anyway, spotted at the Amsterdam meet.
So if you don't know what that is, every year there is a meetup, a Spyderco meetup in Amsterdam where they kind of leak all of the new designs that are coming out.
And there is a very famous super fan called – or super collector, or a super fan called Spider Collector, who they allow to take spy pics.
They let him certain things. They don't let him take pictures of everything from the Amsterdam meet, but they let him take pictures of some, and here are some images that were released.
This first one is very interesting, an upcoming night called The Charisma.

[14:57] You can see just from looking at it, it is very slender and svelte.
It's got a long, very typical Spyderco blade.
It almost looks like it's, I mean, it's not long. It's three inches, but the whole thing looks slender. Okay, I'll just say it that way.
Called the Charisma. That's BD, CTS BD1N steel, three-inch blade, FRN handle lock back.
But here's the USP. Here's the kicker. it's eight out it's 0.8 ounces 0.8 ounces so it is a real real featherweight but you've got the, almost the entire edge length of a pm2 on this knife so pm2 you know is a much bigger knife with a longer blade by a half an inch but it's got that big damn choil up there so you're you miss out on a lot of cutting edge this knife makes up for it in a smaller lighter package so So this could be very exciting.
Also to see if this is a popular one in ED1 and FRN. Who knows where they'll take it next.
Like this next line that's coming up now. They have a 15V lineup.
This is at the bottom of the page here.
They're going to go full on 15V with a line of knives coming out of Boulder, Colorado.

[16:17] The Boulder models coming out in 15V. Now, 15V is a steel that has been promoted a lot by Big Brown Bear, who is Sean Houston, and he's a heat treater who takes this 15V, which is a CPM steel, and he treats it to its greatest extent, or to its greatest properties, I guess you'd say.
I have no experience with it, but we've had a lot of people on Thursday Night Knives getting the, I think it was a PM2 that came out with it, or a native, I don't remember what it was.
But this 15V steel is super tough and also has incredible edge retention.
That is its real strong suit. So if you happen to use your knives so much and you use your 15V so much that it dulls, you're going to need some special tools and special levels of patience to get that edge back on there.
But very cool, very exciting to always see Spyderco embracing new steels.
You know, that 15V with the big brown bear heat treat knife was a very, very popular proof of concept.
So they're kind of jumping headlong. Just sort of like how in the Salt series now, they have three different steels that they're embracing.
You know, MagnaCut being the latest edition. And they're just going...

[17:46] Deep let's say and uh i like that all right next up uh coming up from k bar this is an exciting one it's the first usa made folder in 50 years uh first new usa made folder in 50 years uh this one is called the fo1 and uh this is being done with their state and union shop arm and i believe that's up in new york uh it's a blend of the old and the new as you can see here that's a lock back and you can see an ambidextrous wire pocket clip there.
But also you see a sort of traditional, they're just calling it a modified drop point, but I mean, we can all see it's a modified wharncliffe.
Sheep's footy, it has that sort of slip joint vibe, but it does have thumb studs or thumb bars, you know, oblong shaped thumb lozenges or whatever.
And so modern touch, one-handed opening, opening one-handed closing with the mid uh mid spine lock back but a sort of old school aesthetic that i like that's a 3.5 inch s35 vn blade you get this color accent hardware and sort of a um morse code like motif you know you got your dots and your dashes i'm not sure if it's um if it means anything but looks good and probably adds to the gription overall uh 3.2 ounces and And we're not sure when this will be available.

[19:14] All right, next up from Browse Blades. Yeah, that's right, Browse Blades.
Jason Browse hit hard and hit early with the Silent Soldier.
It was a neck knife and then turned into a flipper and...
His knives early on really kind of rocketed to popularity, and then something happened, something with D2, something with China, something with maybe not being straightforward with the manufacturing. I don't really remember.
I wasn't paying too much attention back then.
But Jason Browse never went away, and Browse knives are still around, and you see them released every once in a while.
And I got to be honest, they have really nice designs, designs, but I'm always shocked at the cost to material balance.
Let's take a look at this new one, though. Good looker. Like a lot of Browse blades, it's a big one. That's a four-inch blade.
Drop point D2. He always uses D2, quote-unquote, been using it since before it was cool.
Not sure how cool it is, but he's been using it a long time.

[20:16] One of the first to embrace it, but never kind of went beyond it, let's say. I remember when D2 was the hot new steel.
That's when I got my ProTech RockEye in D2. I was like, oh my God, I got D2.
And that's how it was back then. But, you know, things progressed.
At least if you want to charge, you know, SuperSteel money, you kind of have to offer SuperSteel.
But anyway, G10, I like the Contour G10.
I like the overall look of this as I do many of the Browse designs.

[20:48] Uh contour g10 you got that sort of maze pattern which is a signature milling motif and there are only 150 of these going to be made so uh get on the pre-order if you're interested in this um there have to be collectors of this i i know we had um we had a contractor here who was working on our porch years ago and he had a browse i don't remember what it was it was a but it was was big and it was very tactical very cool design and and it was expensive and this guy used it like it was any other tool in his toolbox and he said it was awesome so uh i feel like i maybe have been sitting here bad mouth and brass blades are kind of giving them a side eye but i can say that someone who used their knife like the rest of the tools in his toolbox a contractor said that the brass blade he had was awesome and he was a collector obviously that's why you know to him him that was his bang around knife and i was this was a time when i thought uh where i was pretty impressed by that all right last up uh we had carl pearson on the show of who knives he's out of great britain and he's a knife enthusiast who's been given the people of great britain what they want and in those restrictive european uh countries uh what they want with his v1 through v3 and now Now he's got a V4.

[22:13] These are double detent, you know, non-locking knives that have the aesthetic of locking tactical folders.

[22:21] And this latest one, the V4.

[22:24] It has this extremely handsome Americanized Tonto.
It actually reminds me a lot of one of the knives in the list coming up.

[22:35] It reminds me of the K2 blade on the Riat.
It's got an incredible swedge, a really, really nicely shaped Tonto with the hollow grind and the flat grind up front with the chisel tip.
This is a flipper, and it does have a thumb stud. stud. It's a titanium frame.
You've got the reversible pocket clip.
You've got everything you would want except the lock out of a knife.
You even get the M390 blade steel, 3.6 ounces.
This should be coming out this summer. So if you are in Europe or if you're just a collector and love the look of this knife, I love the look of this knife, you might want to keep your eyes Because I know that Hunives, they come and they go pretty quickly because there aren't too many people out there doing this.
So when he does a drop, when Carl Pearson does a drop, you better be paying attention because they go quickly.
Especially, I think, this one with that awesome Tonto blade.
So he keeps pushing that tactical folder look, keeping it in a non-locking sub-3-inch bladed context.

[23:49] Platform all right coming up we're gonna take a look at the state of the collection some of the new knives uh coming in here uh but first i just want to you know remind you of all the stuff we do here uh check out the sunday interview show drops around 12 noon eastern standard time every sunday check out thursday night knives 10 p.m eastern standard time right here on youtube facebook and twitch uh and then also uh we have the supplemental and all the videos also i want I want to wish our Irish brothers and sisters a happy St. Patrick's Day.
Actually, everyone. You know, my wife, it's funny.
She's, I guess she's got some Welsh in her. But she becomes Irish every March 17th. It's the damnedest thing.
Ever since I met her. So this old Italian man, I think, will become Irish this year, though.
It's still falling within Lent. Oh, but it's on a Sunday this year, so I can be Irish, and I will.
Not to say that Irish haven't contributed a whole lot more, especially in the arts, but that's what we like to talk about on our seven people.
All right, all of that and more coming up on the Knife Dental Podcast.
The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion.
Featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours.

[25:17] And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Coming over here, the Sharpshooter Jack. It needs no introduction.
This one was so hugely popular when it first came out not too long ago.
Show um this was the first version uh that i have here uh with the with the blue carbon fiber and the um machine satin blade but uh by popular demand i mean people went bonkers for this knife it sold out so fast on the first run that ben is offering a second run and as usual he's offering new materials some old material not old materials but well-worn materials like exotic carbon fibers uh but um and and now in titanium like he's been doing on these second round knives there's a knurled titanium that is just looks great but this one i am so grateful he sent me this one because that is ironwood and it is spectacular uh feels very warm and smooth to the touch it's it's really nice to hold in hand but besides that it just looks so beautiful you've got a A polished titanium clip here, polished on the top but blasted on the sides like the bolsters.

[26:38] It is a bolster lock and a bolster locking knife. And then you have the S90V with the hand rub satin on this.
Hand rubbed and just beautiful. A long pull, which works very well for that flickage.

[26:56] And what I mean by that is if you're only listening, middle finger flick works great on this.
You can also use your thumb just to slow roll it.
But you can grab the long pole there or just the mere fact that it is a full-height hollow grind, so you have the flared, in cross-section, you have the flared spine of the blade.
You can just kind of grab onto that because the action is so ultra-smooth on these bearings that I can left-hand front flip it.
I can even left-hand do that sort of finger roll thing.
Let's see if I can do the quote-unquote, and I think it's hilarious that people call this reach around. Yeah, that works.

[27:36] I don't know if any of you guys saw Full Metal Jacket, but there are other definitions, other meanings of reach around.
But, you know, hey, let's let it be a front flipper thing.
And the ironwood here is, I'm wondering if he used ironwood because of the fact that it's made overseas, shipped here, and experiences a lot of different temperatures and humidities along the way.
In talking with Ben Belkin of Jack Wolf Knives, that has been his main reservation in using natural materials.
But that reservation has sort of very slowly and scientifically seemingly dried up during the second run as he's offered various woods.
Now, I am holding out hope for dyed bone sometime in the future, only because I'm a sucker for that material too.
So this beauty will be out this Friday.
So as you listen to this, this Friday, this knife will be dropping. I believe that's the.

[28:41] It's 15th um so the 15th of march this beauty will be dropping be sure you go to all of the uh i would i would bookmark the various purveyors if you're interested in a particular version of this uh knife because um this being a front flipper and 3.25 inches a little bit larger than the regular jackwolf knives this is more of an edc um locking folder more in the tradition that the less traditional, so to speak, so people will be jumping all over it.
That was totally awkward, but you get my point.
Get yourself over there and get the knife. All right, last in state of the collection, this is one I traded for with This Old Sword Blade Reviews.
Showed it off on Thursday Night Knives. Haven't had a chance to show it off here.
This was the knife I was looking to buy when I brought the Manticore X onto Thursday Night Knives and said, anyone want to buy this?
I wanted to take the proceeds to buy an automatic SOCOM.
And I was up in the air about Tonto or ClipPoint.

[29:50] And my good buddy Dave, this old sword, Blade Reviews, came on and said, hey, I got the knife you want, and I want the knife you got, so let's trade.
And we did, and here it is. Been carrying it an awful lot.
This is a 2018 model. This is one of the few knives where I actually actively love all the billboarding. Like, I would be bummed if it weren't there.
Something about the Microtech billboarding I really like.
Yeah, so M390 blade steel. I love the PVD coating on the bevels and on the swedge.
And then you've got this really awesome jimping up top, right forward of the thumb ramp, which, when you're holding it.

[30:33] Gives you this grip, gives you like a pinch from the thumb to the forefinger that really locks in the blade.
I prefer that almost to this. This is nice if you are dueling, this sort of saber grip.
But coming up here on the jimping is where I tend to be most.
This knife, of course, less than a week in my possession, has not seen much action.
It has cut some bread. It has cut something else.
But nothing much. It has been dropped, but that's okay. It didn't break the tip, which I'm happy about.
Got a little ding right there, just a little ding on the edge.

[31:16] But yeah, that will come out with, you know, I can't even feel it when I run my fingernail on it, so that'll come out with a little bit of stonage, a little bit of stropping.
These inlays here are nice and grippy, but it's not an obnoxious rubbery feel.
There's a slight rubber texture to it, but it doesn't even feel like the Benchmade's that have been coming out in the last five years that have that rubberized texture.
This feels, it's a little more subtle and has a stippled texture, which adds a lot to the grippiness of it.
All right, great knife, great action. will jump out of your hand if you're not prepared.
So be prepared. A great glass breaker.
And who knows, this might become the new road trip knife, though the old Socoma has been the road trip knife for so long. I'm not sure if I can do that.
All right, before we get to fantastic flipping folders, I want to show off some cool stuff that Jim's been working on in his lab.
Heat, beat, repeat. This is the featured T-shirt of the week.
Featuring a really cool This almost looks The blade looks almost a bit like The Terzuola.

[32:38] Tomashi Except for the top quillian Maybe not Maybe I'm talking out of school here But Jim has just been Just furiously Creating new designs, Knife based t-shirts And of course these t-shirts can also be made Into different items if you like patterns and stuff.
So go to theknifejunkie.com slash shop. Check out the featured t-shirt of the week.
And if that one doesn't strike your fancy, you can go page after page and check out Jim's other designs. And they're super cool.
So check that out. That's theknifejunkie.com slash shop.

[33:19] All right, flippers. You're saying, why are you talking about flippers today?
They've been around a while, Bob.
And I realized that I've been avoiding them, sort of. If a knife has a flipper, it's almost incidental to me.
I've been partial to washers. I've been partial to thumb studs lately.
But in going through the collection, I wanted to, well, kind of pull out the ones that that I think are the best.
And these are the kind of flippers I'd like to see more flippers being like.
First one is from Finch. This is the Buffalo Tooth. Well, the knife itself is gorgeous.
You can just see from looking at it, it's an elephant toe style pattern in a modern flipping bolster lock context.
You've got this incredible wood That is, not ebony. What's that wood called?
Well, I'll come back to it. I'll remember it in a second. I'm having a brain, senior brain issue.
We got sort of a hand-rubbed satin, horizontal, and a nice, that's already a thin blade, but it's so broad.
It's got such a high grind that it's nice and thin. But I love this flipper.
Very low-profile Finch flipper.

[34:37] These are OEMed by QSP, and I've seen them use that flipper.
Other knives. I've heard people say, oh, that was a QSP flipper first. I beg to differ.
I'm pretty sure that was a Finch flipper first. But as par for the course for many Finch knives that are more traditional, they have made a lot of flippers that are now veering more towards the modern and less veering away from the more traditional aesthetic to my eye.
But on a lot of the earlier finches you would see this the um the nail the nail neck even though obviously you don't need a nail neck with this flipper um but extremely low profile flipper um.

[35:23] I like that because it stays out of the way but also you get incredible just from where it's located uh respective to the pivot you get incredible rocketing action from that uh very very subtle and small flipper.
So I really like it. And it also seconds as a platform for your finger if you want to choke up.
So instead of taking a putting real estate with a choil, which always kind of sticks in my craw a little bit, this just gives you a broad space that's jimped for you to put your hand on if you need to choke up.
So first is the Finch Buffalo teeth. And really any Finch knife because they all sport that same flipper.
Next up is the American Blade Works Model 2.

[36:10] This really is a culmination of everything that Michael Miller learned about... Oh, I'm sorry.

[36:19] Oh, my gosh. Sorry about that. So this has really distilled everything learned in making the first, the Model 1.
He went through six different versions of that and got feedback from the community and the like and really, really nailed the flipper down.
Now, I have the American Blade Works Model 1 version 5, the model right before he settled on the 6, and basically perfected it.
And I noticed at Blade Show a difference between the Model 5 and the Model 6 in the flipping performance.
Now, my Model 5 is awesome, and I love it.
I think the blasted surface took a while for the bearings to wear a race in so that it would be really smooth.
But I had noticed right off the bat that the Model 6, he really did die with it.
And with the Model 2 here, which is a stunning knife as it is um the performance the high performance flipping action is just baked in from the start uh didn't have to really go through all of the trial and error on this one and uh yeah michael martin not michael miller i'm sorry michael miller is is from tactile knives and i just spoke with him and i conflated their names so michael martin of American Blade Works here.

[37:44] Just crushing it. And doing it all, a one-man band. Of course, he has the help of his awesome wife, you know, helping him.
I always see her at Blade Show, and they're a really cool family, very nice family. He's got great kids and the whole nine.
And he's doing this all on his lonesome, and he's creating great knives.
And you know what, people?
They are not, you know, if you're buying Spydercos, and if you're buying Benchmade, um you can afford an american blade works uh model one or model two you just have to you know be aware of the drops because he can't produce them in numbers that spider comb bench made can but he can give you something way better way more personal and uh for the same price, way more did i just say way more better someone let me know if i said way more better, If I do, I owe each one of you $5.
Next up, this is one that gets a lot of love in the summer.

[38:43] The Concept Prêt-à-Tout, designed by Jonathan Renaudin, otherwise known as K-Max Rom from France, really...
Beautiful knife, very indicative of his design language with the double-peaked blade.
Whether tanto or clip point like this, he very frequently has that style blade with that thumbswale where you can come all the way up here.
To me, it's always evocative of the SOG buoy that I love, that shape that was pioneered for the fighting-slash-survival combat knife used by the Special Observations Group, or SOG, during Vietnam, that blade shape.
I love when I see a double peak, and you see that a lot in K-Max Rom's work.
So that's the first thing that that really got me to go for this knife but also the blade shape uh i mean sorry the blade length the overall size the ergonomics the fact that it comes out in this came out in the micarta second but first it was in a titanium version that had a great looking tanto very much like the chris reeves style tanto so this whole model line just has been exciting I had the titanium version of this sold at my good bud, Will B.

[40:03] He's a gentleman junkie. And I know he's enjoyed that knife quite a bit.
So this one just has stellar action.
And I like my Carta version best personally because I've had better luck, ironically, for this list with the thumb studs in the linolock version.
Uh for some reason well not for some reason uh my hand shape and the ergonomics of the profile of the handle with the frame lock i it's harder for me to not press in on the frame lock so uh always always kind of preferred the micarta version of this knife it's got a downgraded steel and materials with 154 cm as opposed to s35 uh but that's debatable and um.

[40:51] You know titanium isn't always the answer so this is the preta 2 from concept all right next up this one i love the flipper here and i've seen other people do it but uh joseph vero i think, uh really main mainstreamed it and does it best that's that inline flipper it's a regular flipper on the regular flipper side you're using your pinky all right you could use your thumb but I mean, you're using your forefinger here like a regular flipper, but it does not protrude at all from the spine.
It's just in line. And the first time I ever saw this was back in the day, over 10 years ago, I'd say, when the Boker Burnley Quakin was new and hot and didn't have 50,000 versions of it.

[41:41] People were making this mod. They were carving away a little bit of the front of the bolster to reveal the tang, and then you could just grab the tang and flip it out.
And I'm sure we saw other people do that eventually in the non-mod community, but I remember when I saw Joseph Vero doing this in Vero Engineering and had him on the show a number of years back.
He really was the first guy who codified it, turned it into a feature of his knives.
I really like it. It gives great action because essentially the flipper tab is way forward of the pivot.
So it takes very little effort to send the blade, especially since it's on really nicely tuned bearings, to send it rocketing out.
And then when it's out, you get that platform, which for me, this Synapse is a small knife.

[42:42] It's a 3.25-inch knife, and for me, I do need that platform.
I'm not holding it back here like this, though I've had the XL in my hands thanks to Hero Sticks, and I did hold that one back here, but for the small one, I tend to grab it up here.
If you're wondering when he released it with that stunning maroon micarta, you'll be saddened to hear that he didn't.
That's a mod I did myself. That's right. That's just Rit Dye, people.

[43:13] Nothing like taking the, this is that dusty, dusty micarta. I could never get it to look good.
It was just a nasty cut of micarta, you know? How did that look like? It's not.
I hate to say that. That's a horrible thing to say. But I just could not get it to look good no matter what I did. So I dyed it I put it in some boiling maroon dye And it turned out beautifully.

[43:37] Another modded knife with an exquisite flipper here is the Monterey Bay Knives Turbo.
I had this done up by Lindy Lou and Richie over at Knife Modders.
I wanted that high voltage green. I wanted it to look sort of like the tarnished Statue of Liberty.
And then that blasted black blade. I am going to have them redo.
I keep saying this. I just haven't done it yet. I want to redo the clip in that black blast.
But a short flipper tab designed by the great Peter Carey, a very early maker of this kind of knife.

[44:17] And it just is so good. So what am I talking about here?
I'm talking about Monterey Bay Knives manufacturing because the smoothness is just so ridiculous on this knife.
And then I'm also talking about that low profile flipper tab the design so the design and the manufacturing I guess on all of these are what make them great I mean you can't have one without the other I guess you could have a great design but a poor execution of it you're not going to know it's a great design here I also think it looks really good the way it looks when it comes out also it's very comfortable you'll notice there is no hinderer knife on this list though though they are one of my absolute favorite knives in my collection, the flipper tab is painful.
Let's be real about it. It's not a comfortable flipper tab.
Probably best used when you have work gloves on because you're not going to feel it.
Here, when it's open, you've got a great little finger guard and a fetching plunge grind look there, as well as a good plunge grind.
But when it's closed, you have a very comfortable platform to put your finger on.
Similar to that QSP it is low angled and flat and gives you the perfect flip every time a good flip cool clean smoke every time.

[45:41] So love this thing and if I get this done so it's not gold and have it black low profile I will carry it 100% more self-conscious about a gold pocket clip I gotta say.

[45:56] Monterey Bay Knives, by the way, all of the knives that I've ever picked up by them are just chef's kiss awesome.
All right, next up is the Kubi Flash.
So we have a lot of different, you know, we have some expensive knives on this list and some inexpensive knives.
This one at $40 when I bought it, I don't know, it might be a little more, is just astounding.
I can't believe that this is a $40 knife. It is so smooth.
The action is incredible.
E2 blade steel. I've never really had to sharpen this. I've used this one a lot because I'm like, oh, it's just kubi.
But this one is really a good user knife.
This is also the knife I've carried with me at Blade Show a number of years because, well, when I've flown there, this is what I've had.
Now out of tradition, but initially because I didn't, you know, If I lost something to TSA, it wasn't going to be expensive.
But really great action on this knife.
I mean, just I'm sure maybe many of you have Kubis, and you know what I'm talking about.

[47:04] Very smooth, very smooth bearing action. But also I'm a fan of this kind of flipper.
It's jimped all the way around, and it's like a volcano shape.
It's got a steep peak, and there's no missing it.
It and on this kind of um flipper i feel like it's easiest to go um light switch or push button either way yeah just great fun to play with and really good ergonomics on this blade i'm a big fan of the modified sheep's foot of this because it's got a great point why do you call it a sheep's foot bob and not a wharncliffe because i'm now being anal about wharncliffs and that uh it has has to go from here to here as a constant curve to be a wharncliffe.
Anything else that comes here and then has a noticeable hump or peak and then drops down, now I'm calling that a sheep's foot.
Here it would be a modified sheep's foot because it's got a point and a swedge and would be great as a thruster, whereas we don't know ordinarily sheep's feet as great thrusters.

[48:11] Next up, speaking of Tactile Knife Company, which I just was, is the tactile rock wall.
A snappy, snappy little gem of a knife, to borrow Nick Shabazz's expression.
It really is a little gem of a knife. This one is a prototype.
This is pre-production.
This was a copy that was out right there. Review sample.

[48:37] Before they really went all out on these, this was given to me by the company.
Michael Miller, who I mentioned earlier, who's one of their guys over there, great dude. Talked to him a bunch of times on this show.
They're constantly researching, doing collaborations, coming out with new knives.
They have one coming out soon here that is going to use the Snex lock.
Maybe I'm talking out of school. No, no, no. know he already released it we already talked about it this next lock and uh and it will be affordable this ironically that you know so this is in my list as one of my favorite flippers because it is so snappy and so on the spot with a flipper that is much like that kubi uh shaped like a rounded off triangle get incredible action from it it's small it's supposed to fit in an old old-school Wrigley's five-slice chewing gum pack, which I haven't seen one of those in a while, but I'm guessing it will.

[49:40] And everything about this I love, except now they're not doing it with the flipper.
Now it's with the thumb stud.
And I'm sure that that's awesome and great too, but they really had this flipper dialed in.
So hopefully they come back with that. I think they do have plans to come back with the flipper.
But they've been enjoying quite a lot of success with the thumb stud version.
This knife is really cool. They're doing great stuff over there.
And this old sword brought to my attention that they OEMed a push dagger for Bastinelli, which is, I like that. I like that.
Bastinelli has used Fox knives for years and some Lionsteel, a lot of Italian manufacturers.
But how great that he can keep some of it in-house or in-country.
He is French But he is an American He lives here So.

[50:33] Okay, next up is one that you're not going to really get your hands on in this version unless he comes out with the new one. But this is the Pinkerton Inversion.
And this is released under Dirk Pinkerton's own shingle.
But he has had this out there by Kaiser.
So without the ring and with a slightly differently shaped blade.
So I'm sure you'll be able to find the inversion by Kaiser out there.
Though it's discontinued, I think you can still find it.
This has an interesting low-profile clip, or low-profile flipper.

[51:16] This has a similar low-profile flipper to the Vero Engineering inline.
So you get that same crazy reaction. action.
All you do is just gently pull back on this tab and it rockets out.
A lot of that has to do with where it's placed.
You know, it's placed forward of the pivot there.
And when it's forward of the pivot, you get a lot more torque on that as you pull it back.
Perfectly dialed in detent is always necessary for a great flipper.
And in this case, you got that for sure. But But I know this is not everyone's cup of tea in terms of knife, and also it's not currently available, but really I'm talking about that flipper style.
And that can be found, say, on the Kaiser or in the Vero.
It's just that inline style, and I love how it feels when it flips open.

[52:12] Okay, next is a, this was a hard one to pick because off-grid knives has a lot of really excellent flippers, but I went old school here.
I went with the Enforcer, and the reason I went with the Enforcer as opposed to, say, the Stinger, which is awesome, is that this is big.
This is a full four-inch bladed knife, and it's big and heavy.
I should say heavy-duty. It's, you know, it's got weight relief and everything.
For its size, it's not heavy, but it's a big boy, And I'm always impressed by flippers that flip like more of a medium or small size knife, but are big like this.
Yes, the blade weight carries momentum and will shoot it out there.
But something about the dialed in nature of these off grids.
Now, this one here, I believe, was a Best Tech made enforcer.
But now I think most of them, most of the off-grid knives are not made by Best Tech.
I think most of them now are made by one of two Taiwanese manufacturers.
And, man, they make incredible knives in Taiwan. They're known for it.

[53:24] Here you've got sort of a shark's fin flipper tab.
It looks a bit like a shark's fin hovering directly above the center line of the pivot. it.
But with that curve, it catches your finger and kind of forces you to do a light switch.
And not only that curve, but this angle of approach that's cut away from the front kind of puts your finger exactly where it needs to be to just shoot this thing open.
It feels good when you open this because it feels like you got something really stout in hand, and you do, but it whacks out with authority.
It feels almost like an automatic.
Highly recommend this knife. This is the Red Dawn version of it with 154 CM blade steel and this red and black G10. Very, very nice.
But you can get that with D2 and just straight black G10 for a lower cost.
All right. No flipper list would be complete without this. This is the K2.
This is the one that I said the Who Knives that we showed in Knife Life News.
This is the blade that that it reminds me of.
But this is the flipper that I, first flipper I got that was drop shutty, where I was looking for it and got it. Like, wow, look at that.

[54:50] Frankly, I don't care about that anymore. It is amazing, and I'm always astounded and impressed, but it's definitely not a prerequisite, not something I look for, and not a deal breaker if it doesn't have drop shut actions.
Um this of course is just a beautiful knife it's got the nearly four inch uh hollow ground tanto blade um a beautiful blade and a very interesting handle the handle that i didn't want and then when i got i was so glad i got instead of the handle i wanted frankly i wanted the one that emulated the handle of the samurai sword with the diamonds going all the way down but uh this is way cooler or in my opinion, and I'm glad.
I'm glad this was all that was left because I was forced to buy it.
Forced, you see, but you've got the dimpled, stippled faux bolster and the sort of dragon spine and great ergonomics, but the flipping action is just great.
Kind of a combination of the shark fin and the volcano here, so you've got the high peak a little bit flat on top, which I love. It's not that point.
Get a little bit of a point on this or the point you get on a Hinderer, which is so uncomfortable.
So they knock off the point, but you still get the benefits.

[56:10] And, yeah, incredible action on this K2.
You know, Riyadh, they have that all mastered and dialed in.
Here is the Synergy 4 from Civivi.
Not only just a really, really cool, big tactical knife based on the Jim O.
Young design from the late 90s, early 2000s, but this one has another low-profile flipper tab that I love.
See that? All you got to do is just grab that little bit of jimping, and the whole big blade rockets out.
It has a different feel. This one feels smaller than it is. It feels smaller than, say, the off-grid here, which is also big, but feels big, feels heavy.
And like I said, when this one thwacks out, it carries a lot of energy with it.
This one just flies out and doesn't really do much in terms of changing the balance.
You know what I mean? When that blade comes out, it just zips out.
And I don't think I'm articulating what I mean here, but because the blade is less heavy, when it comes out, it feels less like it's going to come flying out of your hand, I guess.

[57:30] Really nice small flipper tab when it's open, but large enough, I mean, when it's closed, but large enough when it's open to act as a finger guard, which to me is still one of the main responsibilities of a flipper tab.
Um so i i'm a little uh a little schizophrenic about whether um excuse the term i'm a little back and forth about whether it's more important to have a low profile flipper tab out of the way or or something with a guard and and i will come back to you if you can get the best of both worlds low profile and with a guard um and that's going to have a lot to do with the handle design right here, then I'll go for that.
And that's what I like about this. You do get that low profile here, but it is a big tactical knife, and you do want some.

[58:21] Assurance you're not going to slide up there. And you get that from the widening of the handle, but also that jimped flipper tab.
Okay, that was a struggle. Last up, I'll just go easy on myself and on you, is this.
This is the Kukri designed by by Jason Knight, and created by Fox Knives through Elements at the time. This is the MK Ultra.
And if you look at it, you'll see that the flipper tab is like a volcano, considerably behind the pivot.
But I think it works so well because of the overall curve of the knife itself.
It's got great flipping action. This is made by Fox in Italy, and they know what they're doing.
It's got a great flipping action, but you wouldn't guess it from how it looks in the closed position.
You'd think it would lag because the flipper is so far behind the...

[59:24] The pivot. But it's the curve of the handle and then the opposing curve of the blade, I think.
Totally unscientific that makes it flip out so great. But also when it's out, obviously a tactical knife or a hard use knife, you have that flipper tab stopping you because, despite the fact that it is so much of a slashing and chopping knife, the Kukri is, you can still thrust a great aplomb with it and if you have a flipper tab there, you're just going to be safer every time.

[59:54] Alright, that's it. These are my favorite flippers.
I have a bunch of them, but these are the ones that really draw me in for their various reasons.
Some are small, some are large. All have great action and all make the knives more pleasurable to have.
Especially right now in this period of time where I'm really more about washers and thumb studs. All right.
Be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives.
Tell me what you think about this.
Line up this list here and you can tell me in person.
Just go to theknifejunkie.com slash join and you can actually come on the show and we can meet and talk.
Let's do that. All right. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:01:21] Music.