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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, an exciting view of the Agent 001, Fisher Blades has a Unicorn Edition, and my top 10 favorite off-grid folding knives. That's off-grid knives, that is. I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
[0:18]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.
[0:31]Welcome back to the show my favorite comment from this past week was from solo g, 764 he says thank you for this this was on the interview show with john miller bgm knives and he says thank you for this i've had the pleasure of having knives reground by john and i'm planning on purchasing some of his own designs like this quaking i would love a second interview on uh sometime i'm sorry let me read that again i would love a second interview now that some Some time has gone by and some things might have changed for him. And I appreciate that comment for a number of reasons. I've been wanting to get back to John for a long time to have him regrind a couple of my knives. But also just to get another one of his knives. These are so awesome. I love this Quaken. It's kind of a sort of a clip point. But it's just a great blade. And this guy, John Miller, can grind a blade like no one's business. This is deeply hollow ground on both sides, perfectly symmetrical and awesome. And he has been known for quite a while now for just bringing knives that aren't the sliciest into a new category of sharpness. So, yeah, I'd love to have John Miller back on, and I will be reaching back out. Thank you, Solo G, for the suggestions.
[1:50]By the way, I do love, as you might know, having guests come back on after over time or as new things come out just to see how they're evolving because that's basically what the show is about. All right. Next comment was from Lynn Mac 5420, and it was on one of these supplemental episodes where I was talking about 10 double-edged knives from my collection. And his comment says, the first two are not double-edged, unless I misunderstand what double-edged means. Stopped watching after that. So that's kind of funny. He stopped watching. But there's a scrub bar on the bottom of all of these video players here. And you can scrub to the part of the show where I talk about the 10 double-edged blades. Otherwise, just to let you know, Lin Mac, this show has a format. And the main topic always comes at the end. So I'll do a pocket check. And then I'll do some news, knife news, new stuff. And then I'll show some stuff that I've gotten in my collection. And then the last part is kind of the main course, like a meal. So approach it that way, Len. All right. That said, let us get to the pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[3:08]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket, a modern classic, the Les George Knives V-Sack.
[3:18]This, when it first came out, everyone was calling this the Sebenza killer.
[3:22]Or maybe not everyone, but that's what stuck in my mind, and I always liked this design more than the Sebenza, though now I have a massive respect for that, that knife as well, of course. But to me this was just the epitome of knife beauty and sort of tactical elegance coming together in a super robust knife and plus it's just easy on the eyes man and this was one of the first as used to be called mid-tech knives that was a a semi-custom knife where the maker is having some of the parts manufactured elsewhere say having the handle slabs cut out or the blade blanks cut out and sent and then finished and tuned and sharpened and everything by the maker so there was a period of time where that was a thing now that's kind of just a part of regular production i would say using out outside vendors it's like being a movie producer you're not writing it shooting it acting in it and doing all that stuff on your own you're hiring a bunch of.
[4:26]Different experts to take care of their lane and you can say the same thing for knife production anyway this knife is uh one that i looked for for a long time never could afford and then finally found it on blade forums from a dude in singapore and it took several months to get to 12 weeks to get to me to the day and the guy said it'll take 12 weeks and actually i didn't believe him and i lost hope and i thought well i guess i just sent money to some scam in singapore and then 12.
[4:56]12 weeks to the day. That 12 weeks is a long time when you're waiting for something you paid 400 bucks for. And it showed up. It was a great day. Next up in my pocket, next to this Titanium Beauty was another Titanium Beauty. This is the newest one from Jack Wolf Knives.
[5:15]This is the Mini Cyborg Jack, a smallerized version of the Cyborg Jack, which came out in the fall of 2022. An original pattern designed by Ben Belkin of Jack Wolf Knives. You can see it has, if you were to really hold it up to the sun and then squint your eyes, you would see this overall curve, and it would look somewhat like a sow belly. And then you would look at the blade, and you would squint your eyes, and it would look somewhat like a Lanny's clip to me. But then you open your eyes and take it out of the sun and look at it, and you see the facets and the angles, and you see that this is a unique traditional design. That doesn't make sense, does it? This is a contemporary and unique take on a traditional style knife, and it fits so well in the hand. Even though it's angular, it feels great, kind of the way a Strider feels great. In hand but i would have to say that the size reduction of this is the real usp it it it brings this into the little bro jack realm and to me that's the perfect size i love all of these jack wolf knives especially and even uh the large benny's clip the largest one in my estimation.
[6:37]But to me, the ones that are most comfortable to carry are the smallest because I'm carrying lots of other knives. This one has an amazing hand-rubbed satin clip-point blade, that very unique clip-point shape. Look at that incredible sharpening notch with that deep, full-height hollow grind. You can be sharpening this basically up to the crest of that or the peak of that triangle angle and still have a serviceable and probably more than serviceable wickedly sharp knife there uh so i had that in my pocket riding in the um leather slip that came with it and this is already beginning to take on shape uh very nicely uh next up on the belt i had the mr1 from t-cal knives i gotta say uh my um uh agent 001 has been held up by sickness in the t-cal family sorry to if i'm I'm revealing too much. And, you know, Tim's like, I could get to the... I'm like, you don't need to spread contagion on my behalf, sir. I will wait for my Agent 001.
[7:42]But in the meantime, I'll carry this MR1. As you can see, I have it mounted on the front scout style, appendix scout, whatever you want to call it, with this discrete carry concepts clip. And this is the one that is the reverse ground Night Stalker. So this is the same pattern as the Night Stalker. It's just edged on the reverse side. It's ground on the back. So this is a really nice Pakal style knife. The Night Stalker with its ring, and very well set up ring, by the way. You can maintain a full fist and a tight grip on this and not have it realign your fingers in a weird way. So not all ring knives are created equal. This one is very comfortable for me, not only in this tight grip, but also in drawing it from the handle.
[8:41]Drawing it from the sheath, and that's what inspired the design of the Agent 001. So I had this on me today, created for a Marine unit out in San Diego, Marine Unit 1, presumably, as this is the MR1. One, I guess they needed something small, easy to carry, easy to draw, and absolutely vicious. And that's what they got. Okay, last on me today, the KnifeWorks exclusive Ritter-Hogue RSK Mini RSK Mark I. That's a mouthful here. But this is just such a great knife. This is the current, and well, for the last good number of years, this is the current iteration of the Ritter Griptilian the Ritter Grip except now made by Hogue with a slightly longer handle, better ergonomics and in my estimation it's, an equally good lock. This is their Able Lock. That's ambidextrous bar lock enhanced.
[9:42]So they're saying they've taken the AXS lock and enhanced it with this. And I believe they did. I did, however, take off the one thing I don't like about Hoag's very much are their clips. So I got an aftermarket bug-out clip off Amazon for like a song. And they sent it to me and I put it on. And it's so much better. I like it better than the big Hogue clip, which is at once too large, but also too small in that the gauge of the metal is too thin. Just personal preference.
[10:15]But so this is what I had on me today. It's a good looking lineup, I got to say. And the MR1 was the one straight edge. I always have to have something with a belly and something with a total straight edge. Today, that was the MR1. So I had the VSEP from Les George Knives, I had the Jack Wolf Knives Mini Cyborg Jack, the T-Cal Knives MR1, and the RSK Mark I Mini from Ritter, Hogue, and KnifeWorks. So what did you have on you today? Let me know. Put it in the comments. I find inspiration out of your carry. So I wanted to show you a new page on the TKL Knives website. In lieu of having the actual knife with me, I can show you the website and the web page for the Agent 001. Check this out. I love the photography. It's, you know, okay, just to bring you up to speed, the Agent 001 is a design that I came up with, sent to Tim of TKL Knives. He tweaked the handle, and bada-bing, bada-boom, Here we have an awesome on-the-belt carry or in-the-waistband carry, double-edged, last-ditch defensive fighting knife. Double-edged, as I mentioned. Asymmetrical, as I didn't mention, making this a fighter and not a dagger.
[11:40]And I got to say, that sharpening choil on the top edge, that's a Tim Kell addition for making that top edge as serviceable as possible. And I'm going to be shallow. It looks cool. Look at those two sharpening notches there. If you use this all the way to the max, it will sharpen all the way to the hilt beautifully. I'm sorry, all the way to the ricasso beautifully. beautiful decal on the show side uh the knife junkie you can barely see it in that picture there but my logo on the other side i am spectacularly thrilled to get this uh he is sending me five copies one uh two for myself a double edge with a purple handle as requested by myself purple and black burl and then a single edge version because some of you might not live in an area where you can get away with double edges. I don't, but that's another issue. I won't carry that one in public.
[12:42]But if you want, you can get a single-edged version, and it will be spectacular. So I have a bunch coming here. I can't wait to show them off. And we're going to give some away. And, yeah, it's very exciting. I have a feeling, and I'm totally fine with this, I'm going to see my first Agent 001 at Blade Show in two weeks. For less than two weeks. I'm so excited. All right, let's move on from there. Coming up, we're going to do some Knife Life news. I'm going to show you three new knives and then an announcement from Knife Rights. That's coming up. But first, be sure to comment and subscribe, like, hit the notification bell, subscribe to the podcast app, do all that stuff. It helps out here. Even if you don't even ever listen to us on your podcast app, every week when it's downloaded and then flushed out, it helps us so.
[13:33]Do that, if you would. All right, coming up, Knife Life News. Among this week's specials at Knives Ship Free, the Kitsune Tanto is inspired by traditional Japanese knives and made in the USA with CPM-154 stainless steel, now available with new handle selections.
[13:49]The Microjimbo has the sturdy build quality and aggressive profile of the original Yojimbo, all packed into a folder with a 2.5-inch blade. The CPM-S30V blade has a straight cutting edge and is secured by Spyderco's patented compression lock. And the Benchmade Ranger Green Bugout is a sub-2-ounce folder. It's a go-to EDC featuring the ambidextrous AXIS lock and CPM S30V stainless steel.
[14:16]Get these deals and other great specials from our friends at Knives Ship Free. Use our affiliate link, thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free. Support the show and get a great new knife at the same time. The knife junkie.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 now i'm sure you didn't advance through skip through that last liner from knife ship free but in case you did i just want to say they have the micro jimbo by spider coat back in stock at knife ship free and go for it it's such an awesome knife i love that thing anytime i have to actually go into dc that's the one knife in my my pocket because i'm not going down over weapons charges all right uh first in knife life news new from we this is a cool one and it's small and i normally don't go for that but uh this we tyro this is a new one from snex pan uh snex is a designer and maker of knives out of.
[15:20]Malaysia i believe he is in malaysia and uh he really popped on the scene uh with the build of a um a totally hardware free knife it came together came together like a puzzle out of titanium, on instagram a few years ago and he developed a couple of uh innovations besides that one of them is the Super Lock. That's the lock that you see on the Vision FG from Wii and Civivi, and now you see it on this cool little knife. This is the Tyro. That's a sub-3-inch 20CV blade on a little skeletonized titanium handle with that Super Lock. I love it. Now, the Super Lock, if you're watching, you can see the Super Lock is engaged with a tab on the spine of the handle close to the ricasso of the blade. You pull it back, it flips in. Similar to how you would use with a shark lock. Very similar there, but a different mechanism.
[16:24]But works great and is totally fidgetable. And right here on this knife, it looks great. And it looks like it's going to be a fun little knife. But I have to say, it's also handsome. For a small little knife, it looks great. That's a titanium handle, release date unknown but something that's interesting here uh that you'll see from the knife news article if you read it is that um there was a lot of r&d that went into making the super lock work on such a small blade because snex is known for his three and a half to 3.7 inch blades he's known for larger knives where the momentum of a larger blade plays into how well the lock works.
[17:10]Pause for some iced coffee And on this small blade As you all know from anything That's small even with a super fidgety Lock it doesn't work as well So spent some time In the R&D in making this lock This super lock as awesome On a small knife as it is On a large one.
[17:30]Alright, next up, from another great designer maker that people absolutely love and that I have none of yet. Maybe this will change the pattern. From Boker and Chavez, we have the Mini Redencion Auto. Yes, that's right. An automatic knife. Boker is known for their automatic knives, of course. But those usually come out of the Boker Plus lineup. Up this one uh maybe it's because it's with chavez knives which is premium uh this is a solingen made knife so this is made in germany in deutschland so i've lost most of my high school german but i can say deutschland convincingly so this is made there and i gotta say i've always thought that it's a very beautiful knife fetching knife i love all the chavez designs the thing that has mercifully stopped me from going down that very expensive route of collecting his knives has been the goofy skull clip. I know that's a very polarizing statement, but I cannot stand the clip. It looks too much like the Punisher, and I like the Punisher skull enough in high school, in the 80s, but I think I'm past it, and here it's too derivative.
[18:49]I don't know. Never liked it, But I know that on some of the Redencion's you get now, they give you a regular clip, but I know you're looked down upon for putting that on. So I got to say, I'm not in the club. But this one could turn me, because I love knives. I love Boker knives, and I love the show side of a Redencion. Anyway, this one is 2.48 inches, so 2.5 inches of magna cut. That's nice. Smaller than his usual style knives.
[19:19]Hewn in aluminum with a button, you know, there's a plunge lock actuation out the side. This one is going to be 1.86 ounces, so barely there, and released on the weekend. No, not the weekend of Blade Show. This coming weekend, actually, 6-3. So June 3rd. I hope you're in Europe, though, because we don't know when it's going to come out in the States. They're presuming probably at Blade Show, but for you Europeans, you can get it on the 3rd of June. That's the Bokor Chavez Mini Redencion Auto.
[19:56]All right next up from artisan and mallory uh dylan mallory i love his designs he's such a nice guy and very very talented and i've had tried to have him on the show a bunch of times he's like i'm good i'm good and i respect that some people don't want to be interviewed and uh i totally respect that but he's such a cool guy and his designs are so so beautiful i'd love to eventually potentially wear through the armor and bring them on the show but in the meantime we can all take solace in his new release which is the ornus ornus from artisan and it is beautiful and i gotta say it sort of distills all the mallory isms into one beautiful and nicely sized knife i gotta say that's a 3.5 two inch um blade uh s90v which i'm liking a lot i'm using it quite a bit on my jack wolf knives that's where i'm getting the most experience out of that so a great blade steel on a nice big leaf-shaped blade the only way to open it is that cool long opening hole which is almost long enough to be a fuller there and it's got a button lock so you can use that reversible sculpted pocket clip which is a nice rarity on this one 3.68 ounces available now Now, I love Artisan Cutlery and I love CJRB and I'm very fond of Dylan Mallory's designs.
[21:26]As a matter of fact, yesterday I was emotional support knife carrying his Hadros from Civivi. Love that knife. Check it out if you don't have it. All right, so new from Artisan and Dylan Mallory, the Ornis, and that's available now. So perhaps a blade show pickup. We'll see. I don't know. We're getting close and I've saved up. I have, if you've noticed, my state of the collection has been kind of sparse these days because I want to buy some knives at Blade Show this year. All right, lastly, in Knife Life news, we have news from Knife Rights. Their annual Ultimate Steel has launched. The Ultimate Steel is their annual fundraising.
[22:10]It's a fundraiser, but man, as a donator, you get so much out of it.
[22:16]First of all, let's say if you get in early on the deal, you stand to win any number of custom knives or high-end production knives because Doug Ritter of Knife Rights, and of course, as I was mentioning before, the RSK Mark I by Hogue and Pimp, he is the guy who runs Knife Rights. So if you buy one of these knives from Knife Works, it's an exclusive from Knife Works, you're also helping Knife Rights. But anyway, their annual contest for raising money and for you winning awesome stuff is here. Now, there's over $100,000 worth of prizes you can stand to win. And as we speak, more and more knife makers are sending their work in to Knife Rites to go out during this donation period. So if you donate $20 or more, you could be in a drawing. You donate $100, and you automatically get a limited edition SOG, rewriting knife rights, knife. And then as it goes up, $200, you get a Spyderco. $300, you get an SE. $400, you get a QSP. $500, you get a Cold Steel. Now these are all just, and then $1,000, a limited edition.
[23:42]Hogue knife with damasteel And no titanium So my point here is that You donate and if you donate early You stand to get These just thanks for Being a part of this We're going to send this to you And then later on As you donate You get entered into drawings And the higher you go You can get some custom stuff You can get trips to Africa Last year there was a trip to Africa you know uh hunting doing exotic game hunting you can win rifles and optics and knives and custom knives but all of it goes to help kniferights.org and kniferights.org is the organization that has changed the knife rights in 37 states allowing people like me in virginia to own and carry and sell and make automatic knives that would not happen without doug ritter and without knife Knife Rite. So go to Knife Rites. Go to the Ultimate Steel Spectacular. Donate some money to this awesome group. Become a member because you do get member benefits. And help us all carry the knives you want. And then win a sweet prize. All right. That's my best pitch so far. As the season goes on, I'm going to keep doing it. And it'll get better and better.
[25:05]All right, coming up, State of the Collection, right here on the Knife Junkie Podcast. The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion. Featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super sharp, crenulated bezel, and a built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch. The knifejunkie.com slash shockwave. And now that we're caught up with knife life news, Let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
[26:03]Up the fisher blades model is to release small batches of knives in the 200s 300s and with each new release they might make a tweak here tweak there but with this they have a unicorn version and what that is is they'll take a model of knife now so far with the new version of fisher blades They really have one new release, and it's the Beckwith Covert, this awesome EDC self-defense knife. It's usually all black, but they have a Unicorn Edition now coming out. That's a special Sprint Edition that is this beautiful gunmetal gray, battleship gray. I'm not sure what to call that color, but it's gorgeous. It's a cerakote. You can see the little unicorn right there. And of course, that refers to the fact that this will come and go. It's almost mythical.
[27:02]Is it here? Is it not? I don't know. But this is a very handsome version of this knife, I've got to say, with the white liners, very thick G10 white liners, black high-traction G10 handle slabs, and a beautiful gunmetal gray blade. I love this. So these are going to be coming out not only on this knife, the Beckwith Covert, but there are other Beckwiths coming and other Fisher blades coming, and each one will come out in small batches and it will have magical little batches with different configurations, not configurations, but like colorways and material choices. And I'm very excited to see where Chaz and John Fisher take that. So I've been carrying this one the past few days. This was my Impress the People at Pool Opening Day knife. That was fun.
[27:58]Works well. Well, I didn't have to defend myself, which is what this is really for, but it did cut open some packages. Sorry, Chaz. Sorry, Chaz. You designed a really great self-defense knife, but it's also awesome for opening other stuff too. So that is the Beckwith Covert, a unicorn. I like to say that over and over again because no matter how hard you try, even the most, you know, any sword on the wall You could open a chip package if that's all you have.
[28:30]All right, so that is the state of the collection. Very grateful to Fisher Blades for sending that along to me. I'll do a close-up comparison. There's not much to compare. It's just how they look, but I will be compelled to do so and moved to do so because it's an awesome knife. And this knife is getting me more and more into the pocket fixed carry mode. All right, last up here, let's talk about off-grid knives. I have a bunch of off-grid knives, a really nice collection, and I realized that I've never kind of gone through the folders I like best. Now, this list leaves out not too many, but these are my favorite versions because lots of them come in large, small, extra small, and extra large models. So I'm going to take you through my favorites here. First up, and this was the first off-grid knife that ever came on my radar, and it's the Rhino. This one came out and I was like, what is this company? Who is off-grid? This is about 10 years ago, I think, at this point. At the time, my budget was more limited, and I was not into exploring new knives as much as trying to acquire the ones I already wanted. So I always kind of put these on the back burner. And then one day, not this night, um.
[30:00]I got and was hooked. But this knife was the first one that really caught my eye. It reminds me a little bit, I got to say, of a Winkler with that long clip. This is, ow, just got myself. If you look at this and think about it, it is a clip point. It's just that the clip goes all the way from the thumb ramp. Now, some of you are saying that's a drop point, but it's not. A drop point would have more of a curved spine. That straight spine, to me, that's a clip point. Fight me, as my daughter would say, fight me. Taylor Swift is the best musician. Fight me.
[30:41]I'll fight you on both fronts and win on both fronts. But we're not going to do that here. I'll just say, yeah, I can get down with getaway car.
[30:49]But with this one, saber ground, that's about an inch and a quarter. Quarter and going of that high height grind here. And we're already thin on the blade stock. So behind the edge, you'll find on this first knife here, the Rhino, that this is a wicked slicer. And it's not even full flat ground. They are known, at least by me, I have to say off-grid knives are my favorite cardboard cutting knives. Now, recently I got the Tesseract NF1. I like that That one allowed for cutting cardboard, but these absolutely take the cake. Now, here is a small micro version. This is called the Baby Rhino, and it is so small. Look at the difference. Now, the main rhino, or just the rhino, we'll call it, that's got a 3.6-inch blade. This one, the Baby Rhino, has a 2.5-inch blade, and yet they have the same handle width.
[31:53]So if you're looking at this and not just listening, this is not just a redesigned Rhino. I shouldn't say just. This is not a redesigned Rhino. This is brought down by a percentage. It is the same exact design, just smaller. And on many knives, that will not hold. The design will not withstand such a downscaling. But in this case, it really does. A lot of that has to do with the fact that.
[32:21]Uh, Kerry Orifiche, the designer and, and, uh, proprietor of off-grid knives is not designing, redesigning the width. The knife is the same width, whether you're dealing with a, a 3.6 inch blade or a 2.5 inch blade, almost, it's just slightly less. You can kind of feel it, but it's about the same thickness. So this is what I think makes a great small, uh, knife. A great three finger knife Which is what this is Is a thick handle that you can still hold on And Kerry knows that I know he's got giant hands He's got to because some of his handles Are big for me, Not big like I can't use them But I'm like huh This dude must have huge paws He is after all a man of adventure This knife here has a forward.
[33:13]Thumb ramp and then a Or a thumb ramp and then a forward Thumb jumping section Which I love and uh maybe on the next iteration of the rhino you can put it back here too because i love that and that's another thing i love about off-grid knives is that between versions uh some of these knives are on their third version some on their second he makes a lot of changes he listens to us oh you want jimping i'll put jimping oh you want you want deep carry pocket clips uh embedded in the handle with flat screws so it doesn't jack up your pocket all right i'll give you that. All of his new knives have that. I.
[33:52]I respect the dexterity of a company like Off-Grid Knives who can make those changes as they're being presented. And case in point here, you can see on the left-hand side, you can see where you could put that clip. And there you go, on this Rhino V2. The clip is deeply embedded, and it's exactly how we want it these days. Oh, by the way, incredible action. Incredible action, super robust. This is 154 CM blade steel. Same blade steel you get on knives like emerson's and lots and lots of custom knives and yet you have it on this knife with a reasonable price point these things are awesome most of the off-grid knives are either made by best tech or in a taiwan manufacturer some of the premium ones were made by we back in the day but now it's best tech or taiwan and i don't know what the name of the taiwan manufacturers are to be 100 honest i don't care i just know that that all the taiwanese spider cos and cold steels and several other brands that i have um are awesome and i don't know the names of the manufacturers from which they come next up is one that i don't see much anymore and frankly i'm not even sure if it's in print anymore but that's the uh black stallion Look at this thing.
[35:14]This is a giant wharncliffe, beautiful wharncliffe. And no, it's not a sheep's foot. It's a wharncliffe. And it's like a classic pocket knife, a slip joint wharncliffe in that it has that nice gradual descending spine going down to the tip, which is nice and sharp. Good for penetration, not coming to an obtuse sort of sheep's foot angle, but more of that sort of pokey, stabby angle. And I appreciate that, especially on such a broad blade. Now you look at this and that flat grind only comes up halfway.
[35:55]So I know now you're wondering, well, it's only halfway up. It must not be slicey. Well, I'll tell you right now, like all other off-grid knives, this thing is an incredible cardboard cutter. Zips through material like it's not even there. And on this one, you can see, has received a lot of action. This is one of my oldest off-grid knives. Besides that beautiful blade, which is D2, many of the off-grid knives are D2. They're D2 or 154CM, two of my favorite steels, actually.
[36:28]Here we have the hexagonal golf ball pattern milled into the G10. It's so nice on the hand. If you're in any way tactically inclined, it feels great in the hand, but it also makes the knife really stay in hand. If you look at this, you can see this is a Gen 1, and I don't think this ever went to Gen 2, but this is before he got feedback about the screws going into the clip, but all the new ones don't do that. Really excellent action here. Flipper only, but you can middle finger flick it just by surface tension. Your middle finger on the blade can just whip it open. Great knife is the Black Stallion. I'd love to see new iterations of that. Minis, slims, just another V2 of it. All right, next up, this knife I hated until I got it in the head. And the reason I hated it, I thought it was too audacious. What do you think you're doing designing a knife like that? That's the Raptor. It looks like a wharncliffe that I dropped on the floor, frankly, and I've dropped a lot of wharncliffs on the floor.
[37:57]But what is it? It's a recurved tanto, but the part that's usually recurved on a tanto is straight, and the part that's not is. So we have this weird-looking tanto, the Americanized tanto with the secondary tip, the long straight edge, but this forward portion is curved, and man alive did perry hit on something with this blade and i can't believe it's also if you think about it if the if the back were curved instead of uh pointed here it would be like a reverse buoy blade where the clip is the main cutting surface a curved clip and then the the spine of the bowie knife the straight spine is the other part of the cutting edge so this is a pretty audacious uh blade shape here let me get that it'd be like a bowie right it works amazingly this is uh this one you can see has the flat dark earth with the gray this has gotten some action my other one which is all black has probably been the most used off-grid knife box breaker downer because these are my favorite. This brand is my favorite for that particular chore. But this one's probably my favorite altogether because of that curved scoop forward section.
[39:20]You can make surgical cuts, super precise cuts, by the way. This is also good for school projects. But you can make super precise surgical cuts with that tip. Or you can just find the cut with that tip and then move into the straight through it. And what I mean by that is, say you have a big double-walled corrugated box. You can get into that box with that tip and then create a huge channel with the recurve. And then once you reach this point, you have all of this spine behind it. Just push your way in and you're zipping before you know it all the way down that material on that straight edge. This thing is.
[40:03]I'll say it. It's ugly. It's ugly, but so beautiful. You know, we know some people like that. You know, maybe not as kind on the eyes, but kind everywhere else. You know, on the hands, on the soul, on the whatever it is, this is that knife. It's kind of a dog, I got to say. Even the flipper, where the flipper meets the front here, it's a little awkward and a little ugly, but it feels good and it cuts amazing that's the raptor this is like a backhanded compliment the whole thing about this knife but it is really cool really unique great action beautifully built and my god if you if you cut cardboard in your job or anything like that get this knife just do it next up is the only well no one of a couple of um assisted knives that i love i there are a few like the leak you can't turn your back on the leak what a great knife but this is the rapid fire this thing this thing hits like a rifle i mean when you when you press the flipper tab on this. I mean, it just jumps out with serious, serious power.
[41:24]All right, here's two of them. I have one in my car that has an orange handle and a serrated wharncliffe blade. It's sort of a rescue knife. So I keep that there. But these are the other two rapid fires I have, the Stinger and the Viper. This is the Stinger version. It has that bayonet ground sort of dagger blade and then a super robust handle with an incredibly strong release. It feels like a Microtech automatic, at least in how it slaps out so hard. This one, of course, with that double-edged blade is very kind of tactical. You want to thrust with it because it's going to penetrate beautifully. It's got very thin blade stock. These rapid fires have thick thick handles, and thin blades. They remind me a lot of the 300 series of...
[42:21]Of zt zero tolerance knives and yet they're one handable even with the left hand come out super strong this one is from the viper line so that's a center line tanto center line point tanto sorry so if you look at it if you hold it up to the sky it's almost going to look like a gladius though the two points the two secondary points don't quite align but it has that sort of feel And it takes the point and drops it to the center line. So no matter how you're oriented, you know where the point is, which I think is great. I love it.
[42:58]Actually, I've always talked about how great it would be in fighting to have that center line tanto. Yeah, that is true. I still believe that is true. But in having the Viper knives, this one and another one I'll show you in a minute, these Viper blades from off-grid, having that point there is perfect. You get the best of all worlds. It's almost like having a wharncliffe because the tip is easy to access, the very tip. But then you have this secondary edge it's a full straight edge that you can use um and then you know as you use it on a flat surface you're feeding material into the triangle created here so it's kind of recurve like there's there are a lot of really excellent cutting qualities to having a thin blade stock and be a centerline americanized tanto like this centerline point Americanized Tonto.
[43:51]And in a very rare case here on the rapid fires, we just have an enjoyable, assisted blade. Usually I don't go for that, but I do here. Okay, next up, Became one of my favorites as the EDC, but the XL version, which I'll show first, really won my heart. Okay, this is the Cayman XL, a really aggressive, unique, southern-style, southern, like Confederate-style bowie knife. Why do you say it's Confederate-style? Well, that straighter edge than normal, very mild belly with a deep descending clip here looks a lot like some of the Confederate-style bowies I've seen and recently received from my brother for birthday slash Christmas last year that I've shown off a bit here with that dramatic, dramatic down-swept clip. lip.
[44:55]I love this knife and I loved it ever since I saw this. This is the EDC version, the first version that came out. This is just the Cayman. That's a 3.25 inch blade. You can see how much carry and use this got on the blade there. I don't have much to say about how much I love that blade, but I love it. And one of the reasons is not only the aggressive look, but the effect it would have if you were to use this in a thrusting motion in a self-defense situation it would open up such a large and um daunting hole in something that uh you don't see how it would spread open to about an inch and a half there or inch and a half here inch and a quarter here it's really going to open things up wide and will require you to not do as much work at least that's how i see it in my fantasy mind that's the justification for this gnarly aggressive style bowie i just i absolutely love it and then he came out with a fixed blade version that now lives in my top dresser drawer just in case i'm getting uh all dapper for the day and someone bum rushes they're gonna see a caiman coming at them and i'm not talking about the reptilian kind. By the way, before I put these away, these things have astounding action.
[46:21]This one is probably the best off-grid action I have.
[46:25]One of my earliest off-grid knives.
[46:28]I frequently will pick it up, flip it, and then test it for wobble. It comes out so nicely, so freely on that bearing pivot.
[46:41]All right, next up is the Enforcer line. This one is the Red Dawn version. So that means instead of D2 blade steel, it's 154CM. And instead of black G10, it's this black and red combo G10. The Enforcer is such a cool knife. This one, the original, is big. This is a 4-inch blade. and you have a sheep's foot but a very aggressive pointed sheep's foot with a with a nice belly on it flipper that acts both as a finger finger guard but of course as the deployer on bearings it just, flies out the weight of the blade the length of the blade helps in its flying out but not convinced you can take a look at the smaller version this is the uh this is all i guess this This is the Enforcer XL. Some of them are XLs. Some of them are Norms. This is the XL, and this is the Enforcer. And that's a 3.25-inch blade, one of the few 3.25-inch blades that I'm totally comfortable carrying. Not, you know, like I feel like I need that extra quarter inch to be effective.
[47:54]It's just a case thing. But in this case, like the Yojimbo, it doesn't affect my decision-making at all with this. Nice long run of jimping here. This one is D2 blade steel. And no matter what size you choose, I think it's a great design. For a long time, my D2 and black enforcer, not shown here, rode in my car because of that awesome glass breaker tower that stands on the back. But that is now my dresser knife. I have that on the top. I have some in my drawers. I guess I have two off grids as dress or not. This is in my, uh, my little EDC thing as a regular. And, um.
[48:43]Yeah, love this. A reversible pocket clip on these V2 versions. It sinks all the way in, and you have no screw interruption in the path there. That is the enforcer. Now, next up, this one came out first as an XL, which meant, ooh, they're going to come out with another version of it. But this is the Stinger. I love this knife. The Stinger XL, you've got that beautiful dagger-like bayonet ground blade. Blade um this is the shallowest or the the shortest uh bevel grind i think on any off-grid knife and yet it is still incredibly slicey it does not widen out towards the spine at all i mean well it does i'm sorry but you don't feel it as it goes through material so you have a decent A decent blade stock, but with the swedging on top and the bevel grind on bottom, it is just super slim and super slicey, but in a big package.
[49:47]This knife, full four-inch blade, and the handle, about five inches, is so comfortable. It is not contoured, but it is heavily chamfered. So you can see the chamfer starts here and descends on either side. And that just gives it a feel of contouredness. Wait, wait, wait.
[50:10]I'm talking out of school. This one is lightly contoured. It's a different knife coming up that has that quality. But anyway, I love this thing. Carried it a lot when I first got it and then started wondering, people are going to love this knife and want this knife, but it's big. And not everyone likes these knives so they came out with the stinger edc this thing is a little piece of gold i love this knife uh now this one does have that uh chamfering on the sides that does make it feel like it's contoured uh this blade is different in that it's not a dagger profile or a spear point profile it's a drop point so the spine or the tip is a little bit bit higher than center line and the blade is asymmetrical not only in profile but in this case in cross-section as it is fully flat ground instead of saber ground like its bigger brother but it has the same incredible action this this is a great little knife same incredible action and it's got a stout enough handle that just barely four fingers still feels super super secure in hand, and why is not everyone doing this? But look at how far up my thumb is extending. Let me say that again. Look how far up the spine of the blade my thumb is extending, and then look at how far the jimping goes up. The jimping goes halfway up that blade.
[51:36]And especially on a knife this small, that's how far our fingers can go, our thumbs. And some of you guys, most of you guys have bigger hands than I got. I have medium-sized hands like Jake LaMotta. And so if my thumb can go that far up, your thumb can too. So people, knife makers and designers, we want jimping going further up. At least us jimping freaks do. All right, so this is the Stinger XL and the Stinger EDC. And just look at the size difference here before I put these down. It's substantial. So if you like the design, but you fall in one camp or another, large or small, you have your pick of the litter here.
[52:20]Okay, next up, one of my favorite Tantos of all time right here. This is the Viper.
[52:27]And this is, I was showing you the rapid strike version of this knife, but this is the original, well, this is the V2 of the original, and something I really like about this, again, we have jimping all the way up the blade, but here we have small cut jimping, and then traditional large scoop jimping on the side, which not only adds to gription, but it looks cool. It's like traditional jimping working, like we'll see on older cold steels. I'm not saying that the cold steels are the traditional knives, but they were looking at older daggers and swords and ski-and-doos and stuff like that that had that sort of scoop jimping on the side. We also see Dirk Pinkerton use that sometimes where it's not going all the way across the spine and it grabs on either side of the spine of the blade. It gives you a different sort of grip, and I like it. So the thing that I love most about this, besides the incredible action, yes, and this has that super wide chamfering that makes the whole thing feel contoured, even that knurled surface there. This one got a lot of carry. As you can tell, it's sort of dirty. But the thing I love most, again, is that center point contour where you have those two extremely useful straight sections of sharp edge.
[53:54]Presented at great angles to the ergonomics to how you're holding it. In this case, you can see the triple screw.
[54:05]Like we saw here on the black stallion v1 but on the v2 of the viper those three screws have been, recessed into the handle and flat so this one is great uh it's this one is a great because here it fits in between it's a great size a lot of the off-grid knives are xl and up here in the four inches on the on the nose uh length per blade and they're a little bit big and then a lot of of them are kind of down here in the three inch or three and a quarter inch and they're a little too small but this one is just right hits that goldilocks 3.6 inch blade length so uh if you're feeling kind of uh like the sizes aren't aren't aren't hitting for you this one will for sure right there in the center all right second to last here this one these last two are luxury And this is my favorite of the luxury. This is the Black Mamba. The Black Mamba is one of the first designs that they came out with, and this is the V2, Black Mamba V2. It's got the golf ball texturing on the titanium, two titanium sides to this handle. And I love that they put all of the millwork on the lock side. It's not that hard, is it, guys? Is it, guys? If you're going to put milling and special stuff on this side, it's not that hard to put it on this side. I'm betting as a non-knife maker.
[55:33]This one was a Best Tech production. I'm not sure if this is still being made by Best Tech, but when I got this one, that's who was making it. Three and a quarter inches. Again, that's small for me, but this is one of those exceptions like the Yojimbo and like the Enforcer. It's 3.25 inches Of incredibleness This one is M390 blade steel This is super luxe.
[56:04]You can see by the coating on the blade, I've used it quite a bit. And this one gets carried for emotional support in the back pocket if it's not a summer front pocket ride. That is the Black Mamba V2. And again, it's got that cool traditional jimping file work sort of up the spine. And this one has a uniquely excellent clip, by the way. I really like the clip on there. All right lastly is i think the flagship it's the scorpion and this was one this is one of the first versions of the scorpion made by we knives and now they're being made by best tech i believe, but just a great clip point blade you've got a um a clip point that's more in line with like like, say, a 940 or something like that, where the clip is just taken off the tip. It would have been a drop point, but just a little bit taken off the front. Makes it a much greater penetrator and tip user here. A 4-inch blade here.
[57:13]Titanium with the carbon fiber inlays. It is lux. It is totally luxurious. This one is an older S35VN. Now I believe they're an M390. And the inlays, the carbon fiber inlays, you're seeing all sorts of nice sort of wood burl-type swirl carbon fiber inlays and that kind of thing. Just beautiful. And to me, this knife has always kind of reminded me a little bit of the SOCOM Elite. And when you hold them up next to each other, they don't look anything alike. But something spiritually is congruent between the two. This is not aluminum. It's titanium. And there's a lot of differences. Made in China, different blade, a lot of differences. But something about them kind of...
[58:04]I put them on the same shelf. So I love this Scorpion, and I love my off-grid knives. The fixed blades are awesome too, but not enough time in the day to talk about all of these cool knives. So there we go. I'm going to put this one down. I'm going to thank you for coming along with me and checking out my top 10 favorite off-grid knives. We have an affiliate link. You can go to thenifejunkie.com slash off-grid. If any of these strike your fancy that I just showed you, and you want to get them, you can do so there.
[58:36]Absolutely loving the off-grid knives, so go check them out. Also, check out our episode this weekend, episode 5N, with Evan Nicolaitis of ESNYK Knives. Really cool guy, making the most chef's kiss folders, slip joint folders out there, and then a lot of productions with his S-Nyx brand. All right, that does it for me. And it does it for Jim, working his magic behind the switcher. I want to thank him, and I want to thank you for coming along. I will talk to you next week. My name is Bob DeMarco, and this is the Knife Junkie Podcast. See you next week. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at ReviewThePodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, TheKnifeJunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at TheKnifeJunkie.com, slash YouTube. Check out some great knife photos on TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Instagram and join our Facebook group at TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at TheKnifeJunkie.com or call our 24-7 listener line at 724-466-4487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of The Knife Junkie Podcast.
[59:56] Music