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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, the weekly pocket check, I get an amazing new sweet giant fixed blade knife, and we take a look at some recent acquisitions. 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.
[0:27]Welcome back to the show one of my favorite comments from this past week was from cheese wizard cheech wizard 75 64 he says just the thing to hang on the arm of my wheelchair yeah i'm that guy and if you're wondering what that is it's the giant arkansas toothpick from cold steel this was a comment on that video and i love this um were i in a wheelchair i would be the same i would be that guy too i would be like you cheech wizard uh you better believe it uh you gotta have some sort of weapon on your chariot and uh i think a double-edged 13-inch blade uh is a great start so thanks uh cheech wizard for that comment next up uh from hector uh one of my favorite characters by the way uh from the iliad uh hector vx5yc he says hi knife junkie i just stumbled across your channel. I'm new. Now, he's commenting on the fixed blade collection video, or one of them, and he says, I just stumbled across your channel. I'm new, so please forgive me. All those knives are beautiful. Thank you, sir. However, can they all be used in the field, or is it for collecting?
[1:38]I would be concerned about ruining them, hoping for some education. Well, Hector, they are all definitely field worthy or would do awesome in the field. However, I am a collector, so I don't actually use them, unfortunately. It would be like a guy who collects Ferraris and never races them.
[2:00]That's kind of me. I have a collection of great knives that I love, many of them, most of them, robust, tactical, or outdoor knives, and I just don't lead that lifestyle. style. However, I do appreciate the kit. So, Hector, keep watching and check out some of the other collection videos. I have collection videos, full collection videos of my slip joints. This is from about a year ago at this point, so they've all expanded. But my slip joints, my folders, my high-end folders, my budget folders, my fixed blades. The one I haven't done is swords, machetes, and other implements of chaos. But I will get to that one eventually. Check out the rest of those collection videos. Hector, thanks for commenting, and thanks one and all for watching videos over the past week and commenting. It's greatly appreciated. That said, time to get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[2:57]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my pocket today, front right, of course, the starring role was the Dirk Pinkerton designed artisan cutlery Kami. K-A-M-I. Kami is a kukri maker in Nepal, Nepalese. That is what they call the people who make kukris. And you can see the influence in this knife. Dirk Pinkerton, what do you want to call it? A student of history, a student of blade design throughout history and different cultures. He loves mashing up.
[3:32]I've said this before. It's like the Jeet Kune Do of knife making for him. He takes what works from different cultures and different historical periods, He has put some together in modern EDC knives and custom-made fixed blades that he makes. I have a small but growing collection of his fixed blades, and I'm so into them. Dirk is... Definitely in my top three for designers of knives out there, designer slash makers. And this new one from Artisan Cutlery really takes the cake for me. It's S35VN. I love that recurve, which, by the way, don't be a wimp about the recurves. If you like them, get them, use them. They are not easy. They are easy to keep sharp. They are easy to hone. All you have to do is get the right materials, the right kind of sharpening things. Oval round or the triangle sharp makers all of those work great on recurves the thing that's difficult are big wide stones but how many of us are using big wide stones to sharpen.
[4:35]Maybe many of us i do not but so don't be afraid about the the recurve that blade there is s35vn keeping this uh in the what you know on the high end range a couple of years ago which is now high-end you know affordable somewhat but it's also got the titanium frame lock and the giant chamfers that Mr. Pinkerton is known for makes these handles very comfortable and feel contoured but they give you a little bit more feedback than contouring I like contouring and it's It's definitely an expensive process, especially in titanium. But I like the feel, like the contour feel while still having the flat surfaces. It just ensures that the blade is, the handle is not going to roll in your hand.
[5:28]Speaking of the handle here, the ergonomics are outstanding. In regular standard saber grip, it's very comfortable like this. And then in reverse grip, of course, you have this big thumb platform for really getting a lot of strength behind any sort of reverse grip thrust or downward action you might need to use. Use you know uh i'm not sure what you're going to use this for maybe you're fighting maybe you're opening up a 55 gallon drum full of uzis as you cross the border or as someone tries to cross the border uh and you need that thumb there otherwise you can slip onto the blade you really hurt yourself you got a flipper really excellent action and a thumb plate thumb disc i i cannot recommend this knife more and and if you are going to get this and you're going to cut cardboard all day day long and you're concerned about that thumb disc getting in the way it might but you can remove it you don't need it there a and b you can probably find something uh in the aftermarket that would actually sit up there as a little um uh low profile wave feature i've seen that on many other knives and i'll be showing something like that later on one of dirk's other knives anyway i'm so in love with this knife i love it can't get it out of my pocket that's the artisan cutlery calming.
[6:51]Next up, another one that I'm enthralled with is the new Jack Wolf knives. And I've had this before, the Viper, on the first release. But this second release with the red dark matter and the dark acid wash blade and bolsters is just stunning to me. I can't get over it. This is something I love looking at. It's more than any other Jack Wolf knife, I got to say. And I love pretty much. I mean, I love them all. The Ultim on my Pioneer Jack, I'm not crazy about, but I opted for that because I didn't have any Ultim. But for Jack Wolf Knives, I like looking at this like it's a painting. I got to say, that sounds corny, but I just love the way this thing looks. I keep saying it's like an artifact. It's like an antique. I can't quite figure out what it's like. Now I'm saying it's like a painting. Whatever it is, since I can't quite nail down what I love about this, about the looks of this.
[7:48]Suffice it to say, I find it beautiful, but it's an incredibly useful and outstanding design for an everyday carry knife. And I would venture to say I could have this as my everyday carry, not carry the fixed blade, not carry the locking blade and all that. And I would be absolutely fine, even if I had to go to Home Depot and cut through some thick rope or something like that uh this thing would do great they are refined but they are also super robust you have incredible action on this crisp at every station um you've got the full height hollow ground downward swept uh wharncliffe which gives you a a lot of life in that wharncliffe as you sharpen through up at the tip that's where you're going to use it even more uh so you'll maintain that wharncliffe shape but until you get there you are getting incredible trapping action in that triangle created between the spine the downward angled.
[8:44]Blade and whatever material you're you're cutting so this thing is awesome in in all ways i love it but you know me i i am shallow enough to or i'm a man enough to admit i am shallow and i love uh just looks of knives and to me this thing with its triple fluted bolster there it's double fluted bolster there and antique acid wash it's just beautiful it's just beautiful and of course it ships with the uh with all the accoutrement that you expect from a jackwolf knife including the luscious and uh form form-fitting leather pouch love that thing all right next up on me today one that kind of started it all and this is i say that a lot about a lot of different knives this started this and the uh kramer custom voodoo started my everyday carry of fixed blade knives This is the, and this is what started the whole Nova series, right? This is the EDC Tonto from Hogtooth Knives. I had this on me over my little beach weekend we had recently. Because it's so small, not that small, but I mean, it's so discreet. The package is discreet. And because this has the sort of rubberized G10 handle scales, you can barely feel the rubberization, but it doesn't have any of the anzo grooving that you get with most.
[10:09]Hogtooth knife handles like this. It also means the pommel is less bulbous. So this is a great light summer carry for bathing suits or shorts or whatever.
[10:22]So I had this on me, and I've had it on me for the week since. I love this knife so much. And so, yeah, I've been carrying that. It gets busted out a lot for use because, yeah, it's a fixed blade. And sometimes people are a little, ooh, a fixed blade knife. They're a little arrested by the vision of seeing. That was a weird way of saying it, but it weirds them out when they see you reach under your shirt and pull out a fixed blade knife. But it's small, discreet, useful, and beautiful. So people don't seem to care much actually they seem to care less about this than than they would a knife like this uh in my experience you flip open a 3.6 or 3.7 inch uh aggressive looking knife and people are like a little bit oh but you draw it out you draw out a fixed blade a small fixed blade like this and use the blade discreetly they're not freaking out okay last up on me this This would definitely make them freak out. This is the Shielden Scythe XL designed by Justin Carvin of Tier 1 and DC Blades and his partner, whose name escapes me at the moment, but I know he goes by Old Squirrel Knives, and they do really cool work together. This one is a beauty.
[11:40]You know what? I'm not sure if Old Squirrel is the DC Knives design partner, but I know he has made a lot of the knives, so I'm just going to leave it there. And I will do my research and find out. I'll give Justin a call. But anyway, this is a Shielden. It's incredible. I was talking about contouring. This thing, beautifully contoured titanium handle, coffin-shaped handle, so it swells out at both ends and just sort of bookends your hand. And this is the XL, so you've got a little bit more pommel here. The regular Scythe, which is out of Contour G10 and 14C28, I believe, is a little bit shorter, locks into the handle, into the hand, without any pommel exposed here, at least in my medium-sized hands. Here we have this really cool gear pattern backspacer going all the way around, giving you jimping on top where you need it the most. With a Pakal-style knife like this, because you're gripping with that thumb. You do not want to slide out. You do not want this to fall out of your hand. You don't want to... And this not only stops you from going onto the blade, but it gives you some modicum of control, or at least a pitch angle for the blade. And that blade, S35VN, with that incredible hawkbill, it's just gorgeous. Reaching out to touch someone, as a Pakal knife does, so it's got that angle, but.
[13:08]Oftentimes, a Bacall-style knife will put the tip just shooting off into space, which to me I like because it aids in the back fist. You don't have to cant your hand at all because that point is right there. This one, I'm going to come here, you might, to get that jab in, you might need to change it up a little bit, but that's where you get the control with jimping on the pommel. You can use the thumb to change the pit or change the angle and orientation of that tip without canting your wrist. So you kind of get the best of both worlds with this blade design because the tip is low enough to be useful for all sorts of utility tasks. But if you're going to use it to put someone's lights out and need that tip a little bit further out so you don't have to torque your wrist and create impact on your wrist at a weird angle, you can use that jimping on the thumb to reorient the blade. Wow.
[14:08]I don't think anyone that's an exhaustive analysis of the call of blades, but it is true. It is true. The less you have that angle reaching outward, the more you need control with the thumb. All right. This is what I was carrying on me today. Let me know what you were carrying. Drop it in the comments below. I had the XL Scythe from DC Blades and Shielden. I had the Hogtooth Knives, EDC Tonto, the beautiful new Venom Jack from Jack Wolf Knives. Highly recommended.
[14:40]As is the Artisan Cutlery Kami.
[14:44]Highly recommend that too. if you like good knives and you have good taste you love good design go for that uh okay next up i just wanted to remind y'all if you're interested in the hogtooth knives that i was showing just now this is my collaboration with matt chase of hogtooth knives this is my second collaboration this is the nova 2 it is a modern day edc kiridashi utility and tactical knife there we go getting uh.
[15:12]That ivory G10 always flares out the camera. But that is ivory G10, a beautiful sort of creamy white. Here it looks blown out white, but it is a creamy, creamy white with red liners and a dark acid wash 154CM deeply hollow ground blade. It is an exaggerated Kiridashi to me. Kiridashi has a less pronounced point, but I wanted to decrease that angle a little bit. For tactical reasons. I just like it. It's a little more thrusty that way. But very deeply hollow ground, straight edge blade with an upward sweep like a Kiridashi. Makes it very utilitarian. You know, that's for all you guys who carry your knives and use them. But for those of you who carry your knives for self-defense and for general... Well, this is also for you. This is also for you. It will have a numbered It will be serial numbered We're doing something different And it'll have my logo and the Hogtooth Knives Logo on it We're doing something different with the serial numbers this time Which is kind of cool, we're personalizing them So my brother is a tax nerd So he's getting I think it's 315 out of whatever it is Probably be in the 20s Or something like that, a low number, But whatever your number is You can have it in there So.
[16:41]I don't know just a little special way of going about it I know a couple of people have requested Numbers that are higher than I think we will go With this order and I'm willing to I'm willing to go there You could even do pi out to like Maybe five digits, All right, so this is the Nova II, an exclusive with the Knife Junkie and Hogtooth knives. By the way, this also makes for a great summer carry. I mentioned the EDC Tanto is the one that started it all. What I meant was carrying this led to us co-designing this and the Nova I.
[17:16]Look at those beautiful, beautiful knives. Too many knives, not enough time, not enough money. All right. Next up, I wanted to show you the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway Knife, which is coming up tomorrow night. We had to delay it by one week this week because of my personal summer plans. But one lucky Gentleman Junkie will be winning this really cool Kaiser Mini Paragon from RS Bladeworks and Kaiser. A really dramatic recurve tanto.
[17:49]It's got this really broad compound ground blade here. You have right here where you might be digging in the deepest, you've got a sort of oblique grind, but most of it is a thin, flat grind on this recurve, and then it comes to a curved chisel tip. This thing to me looks like a great white shark or something like that, something in the badass shark family, maybe a megalodon. You got the gills there on the blade, and you've got that opening lozenge. This one I like to open. I need to use my right hand. I like to open this one with the hole. You just kind of pop it out of that stiff detent, and the blade is so big, it just follows its momentum out of there. It feels so good in the hand. That blade, I can't really get over how broad that blade is. Hang on. Let's see. Edit's broadest.
[18:49]Let's see at its most broad it's an inch and three quarters it's that's big that is a broad blade and it starts out pretty thin uh so by the time you get to the edge there it's wickedly slicey a very cool knife this was donated to the channel by dave of og blade reviews dave thank you so much dave uh is a patron of this channel without being a patreon member because he has sent me so many knives to give away to you folks. So, oh, I just used folks. I used to use that word a lot for parents, but now I see it's been co-operated. It's folks. So anyway, I would love to give this to one of you awesome people, men or women out there, men or women out there who would love to have this. All you got to do is go to thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon and sign up to be a Gentleman Junkie, and you could be in the running. So in case you're new Thursday Night Knives, the live stream Every Thursday night, 10pm Eastern Standard Time, right here on YouTube We give away a knife to Our Gentleman Junkies Our patrons at the highest level And it's always fun It's a randomly generated.
[20:01]Number sort of deal But it's all on a wheel So it's very exciting, you get to see your name spin around And it always comes so close to your name But then it goes to the next guy No, I'm just kidding It lands on you So definitely check that out Go to theknifejunkie.com And you can win This mini Paragon By Kaiser We will see you in a second For Knife Life News But I just want Jim If you don't mind to float up that QR code Just because we've been talking about Patreon You can scan it right here, Or go to that address Right there Yeah. All right. Be right back with Knife Life News. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. TheKnifeJunkie.com slash BattleBox. Before we get into this week's show, here's The Knife Junkie with this week's Knife Life News. Okay. You caught me off guard. Checking out this really cool knife. I'm going to show you later. So this month, August 2024 A great month, no doubt Because Jim was born in this month I was born in this month My sister was born in this month My brother, parents were born in Alright, parents were married in this month Anyway, I love August, close to my heart Also you get the late summer cicadas And you get the buck of the month.
[21:26]The buck of the month this month is the 113 ranger skinner now this is a knife that i was flirting with buying not not this buck of the month version but the standard uh 420 hc version i was going to get this buck a long time ago when i was looking for small fixed blades before i started buying customs and really getting into that for figuring out how to make kydex and i I didn't for some reason, but I've always taken a shine to this knife. It's a compact, maneuverable drop point, but it's usually made in 420HC. This is an S35VN. You've got a nickel silver bolster. It's so beautiful. And then behind that, you have black and brown rich light scales, that black and brown alternation with the Anzo pattern carved in it. I don't think they're calling it that, but that is the Anzo pattern.
[22:23]That S35VN, thank you. That's a beautiful shot of what I'm talking about.
[22:28]The S35VN blade, of course, has the Paul Boss heat treat, and Paul Boss is the boss of heat treating. So I know that they make the 420 that they serve up on many of their knives. They turn it into a really great steel with that heat treat. So they're doing the same thing here with the S35VN. This comes with a black leather sheath, And they're only making 500 of them and they are available as we are in the middle of August. So if you're a buck collector, jump on that. I think that'd be a cool one to just carry around on the belt. A lot of places you can do that. Most places you can do that. But I'm saying a lot of places you can do that without even raising an eyebrow. Uh that would be a classy choice all right next up from savivi um this i have an incidental savivi collection i love it i can't quit them i can't quit you savivi it's like uh you know i get them and i just love them and i keep them even though my intention is to move them along well this is another one that if i got i would hold on to because this is a 3.75 inch savivi i love their big their big stuff they're not afraid to go big this is the tacticorix rolls right off the tongue yet again tactic corks it's a big worker the workhorse of a knife a beefy clip point made out of nitro v blade steel here we've got their um i gotta say this does not appeal to me in this case but you know subivi they're always doing their wood and their fancy uh.
[23:56]Damasteels this one too many notes for me but uh i like that they do it uh the tactic corks is normally nitro v and a g10 handle with the frag pattern up here it's the wood with the frag pattern and um it is a liner lock uh it's out now uh as a matter of fact i saw dave's review of this one so this looks like a cool one i like the imposing um blade shape uh jim could you scroll down to the next one it might be easier to see the swedge on that one it's got a really uh dramatic automatic swedge yeah yeah you can kind of see it there the swedge starts right in front of the thumb stud and uh lands you know about a quarter inch from the tip and to me it's uh it reminds me a little bit of the classic macb saw design but also look at the pommel on this a beautiful arch pommel for for hooking the thumb over if you need it in reverse grip and this is one of those knives that you just might need in reverse grip as it's a tactical BV workhorse. Also, that's a hollow ground nitro V blade. I mentioned the steel, but not the grind. So those Civivi lovers out there and those clip point pocket knife lovers, TactiCorex just might be for you.
[25:12]Next up, Smith & Sons, a brand I don't have much exposure to, but I know that they're a U.S. company that has mixed manufacturing. In this case, they're releasing a fully U.S.-made slip joint, and this is a beautiful one. I like the blade shape of this a lot. It's called the Marshland Trapper. I mentioned it was a collaboration. This is a collaboration with White River Knives, an amazing knife company.
[25:39]I almost bought one in person at a knife shop. Yes, that's right, I went to a knife shop, an actual one in Delaware. I'm going to have those guys on the show, Willie Knives. But they had some White River knives, and they are awesome. So anyway, White River helped in the manufacturing of this Smith & Sons marshland trapper. And it's a single-edged, well, single-edged, yes, but a single-bladed clip-point trapper with a sweeping blade. I love that. A sweeping edge, I mean. That is a really downward-diving clip-point. it's to me something that uh i really like seeing on a slip joint because it adds in it adds to the the um cutting power that you have because of that downward uh angle and and on a slip joint you have to be somewhat delicate or mindful of the fact that you're using a smaller non-locking knife and if you're if you're horsing it through some material uh you you're gonna want that downward slant to just help you with the cutting help accelerate the cutting without having to use as much force here's a nice shot jim just put up a bit in its very uh slender um uh aspect here you can see the spine and the you can see that the liners and the spine are beautifully hafted and then you have um the micarta scales you can probably also see that it's.
[27:09]You can see the Torx screws there. So this thing you can take apart and maintain, unlike many more classical-style slip joints. This one is S35VN, full flat ground.
[27:23]And when is it released? Oh, well, 2.5 ounces. Oh, also, this comes with a belt pouch. It doesn't come with a belt pouch, but you can get an optional belt pouch if you're the kind of guy who doesn't like the slip joint rattling around in the pocket because this is a large-ish slip joint with a blade at 3.19 inches. Available now and also by the by, White River Knives will be releasing this in their own collection after a while under the name the Trailhead Trapper. So I think that's cool. They're collaborating and they're both releasing it in their own product lines, but they're calling it a different name because it's a different product coming from different companies. Last up, from Viper Knives, a company out of Italy that, to me, has some really cool designs.
[28:12]Classy designs. I just like Italian design, what can I say? All right, so this new Viper is called the Oniro, Oniro, O-N-I-R-O. This is by Dennis Simonetti, and, I'm sorry, Simonuti, and he is a designer of the Radius line. He designed the Radius, which won a Best Overall Life 2019 at Blade Show, and then I think they won Best Import of the Year that year. The radius was that thumb stud that was embedded in the handle that ran concentric to the pivot. Interesting. It worked well. I got to pick it up and use it. I haven't seen it take off, but an interesting innovation nonetheless. This, I think, is quite a beautiful and fetching knife. And actually, that blade looks like a Viper Knives blade. If you ask me who made that, I might just guess that.
[29:06]But look at that handle. all the sweeping swooping ergonomics on this it looks like it would be incredibly comfortable in hand uh it also looks like it might you know uh require uh not require but only allow for certain sort of handholds uh but that's just speculation just looking at it looks like it'd be very comfortable in that saber grip or in the filipino grip or in the reverse grip you know and then and And then when you reverse a knife and picol it, sometimes those weird, not weird, but sometimes those dramatic swales and grooves don't feel bad against the palm. Other times, it's horrible. But you're probably not using that for this anyway, because this is a 3.16-inch blade. So this is MagnaCut. They're doing a lot of firsts here. MagnaCut, Ultem. I think this is the first that Viper has used Ultem. Uh you can also get six other varieties of uh.
[30:04]Of handle if ultima is not your thing beautiful leaf-shaped blade as i mentioned magna cut oh their first crossbar lock that's a biggie uh for viper first crossbar lock so uh those of you who try it let's uh find out how good they do the crossbar lock how well they do the crossbar lock a lot of uh companies are doing it and they're doing it well and i have a couple coming up here that i'll show you all right that's available now uh by the way that viper onero uh available now also check it out if you're interested all right we're going to move on to the uh we're going to skip over the state of the collection because basically that's the whole topic recent acquisitions uh recent knives i've gotten that i have reviews to do of but i wanted to show off, before i get to those but before i get to that uh this show is not only visual because of course we like to show off all these beautiful knives we're talking about all these cool uh products and such, but if you want to listen to it and listen to the interviews especially, I know that that's a favorite way to take in the interviews is by listening. Go to Apple Podcasts, Google, iHeart, Spotify, Stitcher, tune in, all of them. We're basically on all of them. You can download them there and listen while you're driving in traffic.
[31:18]And just know that I am cursing with you in spirit. All right, coming right up, we're going to get to recent acquisitions over here at 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 knife junkie.com slash shockwave and now that we're caught up with knife life news let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast so as i mentioned uh this past weekend i we took a nice little couple day excursion to rehoboth beach in delaware and uh delaware's got some nutty uh automatic knife laws but they have knife stores and we were driving road around but i'm gonna have these These people on there are awesome. And my wife is the one who spotted a sign on the side of the road that said Willie Knives, and it had an arrow. And so we put a bookmark on the map, and we were on the run. We had to go check in. But we were going to come back on the way back, and we did. And it was this knife shop in the basement of a house.
[32:38]The basement was specially built as a knife shop when they built the house. Because the gentleman who started it has been making knives for had been making knives for many many years on a farm and then well he started as a 10 year old on his farm and then he started making knives as an adult and a farmer and his kids came into it and they opened a knife shop and it grew and it grew and this place was such a find out in the middle of farm country in Delaware aware um but they have an amazing setup there they have all sorts of like knife events there they have people from companies i know the guy from buck is going to be i'm sorry i can't remember his name but president of buck who is last name buck is going to be there next week and they have different events and hammer-ins and all sorts of stuff and didn't know about them stumbled upon them so we went in there and um they were so cool a brother and sister run the joint, who were son and daughter of the original Mr. Willie Knife Maker. They had a lot of great stuff in there. Henry, McHenry Williams knives. They had Chris Reeve knives. They had Spartan blades, Spyderco, cold steel. I mean, White River knives, anything. You name it, almost. They had a lot of knives in this cool space. And it was great talking to them. Of course, it happened to be my birthday on that day. And of course, I had to buy a knife. I would have bought one if it wasn't my birthday.
[34:07]I didn't want to spend too much money because we had just spent some money, but I had to get something, and I got this. And I've been wanting this for literally forever. This is the Tylight 6 by Cold Steel. This is the Aus 8 version, an old classic standby. And, you know, I've wanted it ever since I got this in the late 90s, the 4-inch version. I've always loved this knife for a number of reasons. It's one of the very few cold steel liner locks, which is kind of unique. It is probably the liner lock I trust the most out there. And it's a tip of the hat to my heritage with the Italian switchblade. But why did I pick this out of the whole knife shop I was in with the 6-inch Aus-8 blade? Well, because I had recently seen Tomas Alas of Tactical Taverns go into town with one of these on a ballistic dummy. And I was so sort of gobsmacked with what it did, I'll just leave it there, that I decided I still should get one of these. Even though it's an old knife and I...
[35:24]Kind of uh well i have my base is covered you know in a lot of ways especially considering i have the chris version um i just had to have it so thanks tomas for selling me on another knife and thanks cold steel for having these uh for making these things but thanks to willie knives i'm gonna have them on the show they were so cool um and such a great story uh i was talking about i don't want to say that i was gonna say old man willie that's not his name i can't remember his first name but we will we will find out uh but the gentleman who started the whole thing making knives as a 10 year old well his son mark who i was talking to there and who will come on the show showed me the very first knife he made as a 10 year old from a saw blade and man that thing was beautiful it was a beautiful clip point blade uh with handle scales walnut handle scales and then the very last night he made before he passed away which was a gorgeous uh double edge what It reminded me kind of of a Walter Brend a little bit with an incredible handle.
[36:26]So it was neat to see his very first knife and his very last knife in the case. So thanks to those guys. They also gave me a free T-shirt, which I will happily show off and wear about 10. All right, so the first one, the Tileight 6. I'm going to be carrying this. This thing's so cool. All right, next up. Now, this is something that came in while I was gone. That was a – God, I was gone for two days. That was a random purchase on Amazon I was getting stuff for the family This is something I do sometimes A knife will slip into the old cart Well, I got another cold steel And this is one I've also wanted for years, From their super budget line This is the Canadian Belt knife, I've always loved that Canadian Belt knife shape I had one here Maybe a year and a half ago It was on loan from Kepmuk. I think Kepmuk Nessart loaned that to me. That one was an LT Wright. Much more refined knife than this, but this thing, I love it. I love it. And I just wanted this shape blade in my collection. Who knows, maybe I'll pursue it and someday get a nicer version of it. But this is a $14 knife. So it's easy for me to throw in the cart and afford. And maybe it's It's affordable to most people.
[37:48]And I know not everyone can, even $14 these days is throwing around money. And I will admit it, this is a totally, what do you call it, gratuitous purchase. But it will go to use. It will go to use probably in the kitchen in the back porch where there's a lot of cutting.
[38:08]Not food, of course, but anyway. Anyway, injection molded handle with a three-quarter tang these have.
[38:17]And it's the German 416 Krupp Stahl, Krupp Steel. And it's got a gentle hollow grind and that classic Canadian belt knife handle. It's got sort of a Mora-esque drop sheath here that I think, I mean, I guess it's set up for this. But I think they have a number of different knives that can fit this sheath, if I'm not mistaken. I'm probably wrong. All right, so I got this, but I wanted to compare it with this. This is from the same line. This is the Roach Belly. And I've had this one for years. And I like to tell the story that I met a guy, he was a cousin of a friend of mine, who was living basically the life of a modern day hobo. And by hobo, I don't mean bum. I mean hobo. Traveling around. He did ride the rails at some points. He said he could. But just, what do you call it? Pitch hiking and just making his way across the country. He was doing it for two years by the time I met him. And this was his one and only knife. He had a roach belly with the original nylon pouch sheath. And he said it was incredible. And it was funny because when I met the guy, this was a long time ago, I met the guy. I was like, oh, you carry a cold steel and you've been like surviving for two years? Which one? And I was hoping it was going to be the Trailmaster or something glorious. And he pulled this out and I was like, oh. But it stuck in my mind. and I ended up getting it to practice making Kydex sheets.
[39:47]And I fell in love with it. I did the grooving on the handle there. I wrapped it in jute, did all that. I love this. This is my car knife. This is in the center console of my car. It's done all sorts of duty. None of it glorious, but I love this knife. So I'm hoping that the Canadian belt knife sort of fulfills a similar purpose. Purpose i'm going to probably do a little customization of it and then stash it somewhere maybe it's in my wife's car because i don't think she's got a fixed blade at the ready she's got a bug out bag with a fixed blade in it but for a get home bag but i think she needs something like this so maybe this is where this ends up but um i gotta say these super cheap uh under 20 cold steel fixed blades are awesome and they have four or five different different models of them we also I also have the Pendleton Hunter version of it. Really great, inexpensive knives.
[40:44]That's what I love about being a knife junkie is that, yeah, I have some really awesome expensive knives, but I love the inexpensive ones too. It's just knives. If you have a hankering and a use, or maybe you don't even have a use, this might be the knife to throw some money away on. These cheap ones because you're not spending too much, and they will get used. This one's already opened a package. What was in it? Another knife, and we're going to see that one in a minute. All right, next up. This one was sent to me by Bastide. They do such cool stuff. Kind of came out of nowhere. The first knife I had by them, they sent me a couple of years ago, was the Morgan, an awesome chef's knife that we still use. It's a pretty great knife. Their folders are pretty great, too. I've had a number of them. I've given them away here on the show. This one they just sent to me, and I think I'll probably keep this one. It is so cool. Cool. The parallel, it is super thin.
[41:46]14C28N, sheep's foot blade here with a gentle belly and a downward placed tip, swedge and all that. Great blade, but the thinness of this thing is the USP for sure. You've got these aluminum, I'm sorry, these are steel scales, but they're very thin and very close together. And then you do have an aluminum anodized back spacer and thumb stud and their crossbar lock. And this crossbar lock is interesting because right there, it has a little thing to get over. I'm going to use my right hand here. So if you, if you pull the, the lock all the way back and flip it all the way in, it will come all the way home. But if you at any point let go, it will stop at this sort of three-quarters point, or it keeps falling out of my hand. It'll stop right here at this point, and then it has to get over a little detent. It's not a detent ball. It's a little bit of sculpting on the back of the tang, but that stops it from fully closing if you let up on the lock.
[42:59]This is one that's been riding in my back pocket for about a week. It is super useful. This thing is a do-everything knife. It also has really nice ergonomics, though it looks angular and like it might be uncomfortable, it ain't. Especially when you have your finger up here. I find that if you use this in that sort of.
[43:20]Draw cut utility grip with your forefinger up the blade. Your middle finger nestles nicely into the square finger choil and makes for a very, very comfortable pull cut. This one I am liking a lot. Wait, let me see. It is a smaller one at, let's see, what is that? If I measure from the edge, it's just under three inches. There you go. There's your scientific measurement. Just under three inches, but a very useful and fun-to-carry knife because it's so small and so thin. I have a feeling this might be one that my wife tries to steal because she likes them real thin because she wears them in the waistband. You know, girls' pockets are small, and she doesn't like anything too bulky in the waistband. But I wanted to show it off real quick before I put it away with the bug out. To me, this is kind of a bug-out-like knife. A little bit smaller, but it's got the same, I'm going to use my daughter's terms, got the same vibe.
[44:26]This is thinner than the bug-out, but altogether, the bug-out is larger. It's lighter because of the material. But this is kind of the same style knife to me in my carry usage. Either one of these, these are kind of interchangeable in my mind. You got great uh axis lock action on this i i gotta say the axis lock on this one is is a lot smoother than the vasti but the vasti has a very stout omega spring so as long as you hold it all the way back and it comes in all the way in uh you're fine and i'm talking about in terms of fidgetability if that's an issue you can make it work for sure and it's a break-in period like on On this next one, which is also a bar lock, this one came to me, it felt...
[45:14]I'm not going to say rough, but it felt a little stiff and I don't know, 50 flips. And this thing is buttery smooth, even less, probably 25 openings of this. It's buttery smooth. This is the new Hound, the Hound. And this Hound will hunt from Kubi. It is awesome. I really like it. It's got a three point. Well, I'm going to give you another unscientific measurement here. a three and a half inch blade 14c28n nice and sharp this one uh was also with me and uh i actually ended up kicking out the socom elite from my pocket once we got to our destination rohoboth beach and uh and started tooling around because i put on my shorts and this is very nice and comfy in the shorts uh because it's light but it's nice it's got a it's got a decent size half-inch thick handle. You know, it's substantial, but it's nice and light. Part of that is due to the four lightning holes on both sides, so you get a lot of weight relief on the liners. Nice thick steel liners here. And then Traction G10. This comes in a number of different colors, and it comes in a black blade option also. I love the look of this blade. To me, it reminds me a little bit of a...
[46:37]Like a scalper or a, oh, now it's totally, I'll move on to who the designer is here, and that word will come to mind in a moment. This is designed by Max Chuk.
[46:51]Chuk, I think is how you pronounce it. Beautiful swedge on that blade. He's done a lot of knives with Tucson and others. Very cool designs from him. Nice fold over deep carry pocket clip. A unique shape, but not too unique that it's goofy and carries nicely in shorts look at the angle or in khakis look at the angle of the of the blade there it's perfect for those kind of pockets non-jeans pockets and uh so how is the how is the action the action is incredible you have a ball bearing action on this uh kubi and and the crossbar lock is great i love it so they've done a really great job. At first, I thought, oh, it's a little gritty. It was. It was a little factory gritty, but I didn't have to take it apart at all. I just had to use it a couple of times, flip it open, say, 25 times, and it got butter smooth.
[47:43]Here's the KUBI that I will never get rid of. This is the Flash, and this is my travel to blade show knife. I've taken this to blade show a number of times because it's a really great knife. It's about 3.75 inches, D2 blade steel, deal cool design great action stout a very stout uh build but 40 bucks and if it got taken by tsa i'd be bummed but i wouldn't be heartbroken um so kubi makes some pretty awesome knives it looks like their logo is changing up here i'm going to do a full review on the kubi hound here and do some comparisons and other such things probably coming up this week but i i really really like.
[48:28]This knife i love the profile of the blade and the handle is super ergonomic and comfortable also whoops also great in that reverse grip and max to chuck thought of putting the proud, jimped gear space backspacer here or gear pattern backspacer so great place to rest your thumb in reverse grip what i was going to say is it reminds me a little bit of a winkler belt knife that uh that that profile just a little bit sleeker and with that long swedge this is going to be great for uh penetration on a thrust all right this next one i can't officially call uh an acquisition because it's not it hasn't been given to me but it's new it's exciting and i'm getting a sneak peek along with a couple of others and that is the new dirk pinkerton design and i'm not sure what he's calling this honest to goodness but this is one that will be coming out under his shingle. And I love that. I love Dirk has it down, man. He's got a bunch of designs with the companies we love, like Concept, Kaiser, et cetera, et cetera, beyond EDC.
[49:37]But he also releases folders under his own shingle, Pinkerton Designs. And then he also does handmade custom stuff. So I love his designs. I love his work in all of its different iterations. This one is so cool. He sent me a text not long ago showing me a few of these prototypes. So this and a couple of different handles and blade treatments. And he asked me the question, I hope he doesn't mind me saying, does this belong in the world? And I said, yeah, hell yes, It belongs in the world This is a beautiful 3.6 inch Wharncliffe blade That's a true Wharncliffe.
[50:18]Descending in a curved Shape from the thumb From the ricasso Down to the blade And down to the tip with a.
[50:28]Fiercely straight edge it is so nice man i love this thing titanium a frame lock with that cool curve uh lock cut out i am not sure what uh who manufactured this but there you got some of the pinkerton half scoop jimping there i love that reminds me of file work you have it there and here and here very handy spots to have it be nice to have it here too um but you have it extend from the blade jimping which is nicely sharp and engaging you have a really nice fuller on this blade which you can you can use to sorry which you can use to uh reverse you know spidey flick it look at that in the hand it is so comfortable he does these killer ergonomics again you can see like i was showing you on the kami before these wide champers um give you flat surfaces so that it's not going to turn in your hand but it also gives you the feel the comfort of contouring i love it i think it's i think it's super cool and uh kind of brilliant on dirk's park here on dirk's part here's another version of that on his um inversion now this is the one again also released under pinkerton designs you can see his logo right under the wave there um love this one. So hopefully the same manufacturer that made this made this. They feel similar. They feel real nice.
[51:56]And then, of course, I want to show this off. This also has the chamfering. This is the new Banjara.
[52:04]And you can see, even though it's got this really nice, uh, uh, concentric milling feels really good in hand. It's got, it's got that same wide chamfering contouring, really cool stuff from Dirk Pinkerton. As always, this prototype, uh, here, I am really looking forward to, I, I mean, I, I want this knife. Uh, I want this one right here. I would take this. I would, I would take this prototype if I had to. I love this thing. It is really cool. Way up my alley. and uh dirk nicely done yes it belongs in the world if you think it belongs in the world drop a comment below and uh and we'll let them know okay next up this is a super cool one i've been looking to get one of these knives for a long time just hadn't until i just did and he had a sale recently but i missed the sale so i could have gotten this for 20 less but that's okay uh this This is the Polite But Dangerous Tools Wrapped Dagger. Polite But Dangerous Tools, he was on the show.
[53:04]Sam, great guy, and actually brother of another guy who was on the show. I'll show you his knife in a second here. But Polite But Dangerous Tools, he does a lot of blending, again, blending ancient or primeval knife making, if you will, with the modern. So you've got this 1095 blade that has been manufactured in a somewhat modern realm, but it's been napped, or it looks like it's been napped. It's been turned into something that looks ancient. I just love his work, Polite but Dangerous Tools, because of that factor. What am i trying to say i just like how they look old you know i mentioned i was waxing poetic about the artifact nature of the new venom this has the same sort of uh same sort of grip on me uh this came it's very sharp uh and i just stropped it and made it even more sharp super thin really nice tsukamaki wrap over the jute this is my first jute and tsukamaki i love it together so nice This was bigger than I expected. The blade here is four inches, I don't know, four and a half inches.
[54:25]And it's just really comfortable in hand with that shaped blade. But it's nice and thin. I think that's what – I just got this, so I haven't even carried it yet. But I think I'm going to love how thin this overall package is. He also shipped it with a in-the-waistband carry leather fob sort of thing. And I love that this kydex sheath Has this leather wrapping Sometimes he does this sort of line work Um.
[54:53]Does designs or sometimes on survival knives. He'll put survival info on there, but it all looks really old and kind of primitive. And I really dig that. And speaking of primitive, it's kind of in line with why I love this knife so much. I've been carrying this primitive wicket by Knives by Nuge all summer long, right next to my skin. And it's because it's nice and thin. and I love those natural materials. You know, when you wrap a piece of steel, it's a lot thinner than when you put pieces of G10 or micarta on both sides. So it lends itself to carry. I've been carrying this thing like crazy. I love it. I love this thing. I want to get a bigger version of it. And then here is, real quick, here's the Fenrir by Vandra Knives. And these two guys are brothers. So this is the first Brothers collection I have in my collection. In other words, the first two knives I have by Brothers in my collection. That's the Vendrer and the Wrapped Dagger by Polite But Dangerous Tools. Such a cool knife.
[56:09]Okay, lastly, this is a really cool recent acquisition. This came, basically, the brand new Work Tough Gear V44X Bowie. This thing is tremendous. Put that down for a sec. So this is the second run of the Work Tough Gear V44 Bowie. It's in K329 steel, whatever that is. I'm unfamiliar with that steel. It's got some schmutz on the blade here. But look at that beautiful Marine Raider Bowie-style blade.
[56:51]This is my second WorkTuff gear knife. Every time they come out with something new, I can't help but check it out. And oftentimes, I kind of really pine for them, but then I miss the drops. This one, I made sure not to miss. And the cool thing was, I was out, my wife and I went out on a date to see a band. An old friend of hers is in a band, and they did a sort of reunion. Like he said, if you want to see a bunch of guys going through a midlife crisis on stage, come check us out. So it was awesome. They were great. But I was like, look, baby, there's a knife that's dropping. It would be really good for the channel. It's a great knife, but I don't know. It's dropping tonight. That was such a passive-aggressive move. I don't know why I didn't just say, look, babe, I got to bust out in the middle of our date to order this knife. But she was so cool with it. She's like, well, at 8 o'clock, go out in the lobby and order the knife. I was like, that's all I needed to hear. I have an awesome wife. I have a great family. What can I say? I'm a lucky man. But I told her also that this is –.
[57:58]This is a V-44 Bowie. This is a Marine Raider Bowie made by WorkToughGear, and she understood what that meant. She understood that that meant important stuff. She did not. So here's one. Here's another Marine Raider-style Bowie. This is the Western Bowie from Cold Steel. Same sort of deep, widening belly here, but this is taken to an exaggerated level which i love so in essence that triangle that is formed here from that downward sweeping edge yes again it acts a bit like a recurve because it traps material in that triangular area all that said i will not be using this probably for anything because i have this work tough gear knife and this is this has been used enough out outside side that uh i might just leave this one pristine what do you think is that a wimpy thing for me to do probably but i just for now i want to leave this thing as it is i find it such an arrestingly beautiful blade shape and i've been wanting it ever since scab got one uh whatever it was a year and a half ago maybe at this point that uh i just had to jump on this um on this drop uh knurled g10 so you got little peaks little diamonds knurling here gently contoured from this aspect.
[59:27]Orange liners, very nice and then you've got that nice wide pommel a little bit longer handle I gotta say if I had one criticism I'd say it's the blade to handle ratio for me I would take a shorter handle or a longer blade, but that's just me being a shallow esthete and looking at the aesthetics what can I say.
[59:47]Yeah, I used that word with Rob Bixby, and he called me out for being a snob. I said, my followers, my viewers can get with the word estate. If they've never heard it before, they just think aesthetic and athlete and put them together. Makes sense. I'm an aesthetic athlete. All right, thanks for joining me on this journey through my recent acquisitions. I'm really excited to dig into all of these and do reviews on most of them. Probably the tie light and the and the other cold steel won't won't i've i've should have had them years ago i probably won't do reviews of these but all these other ones you'll definitely see close up on the channel uh be sure to join us tomorrow night for thursday night knives and if you're a gentleman junkie which i highly urge you to become uh you can win this in our random generated giveaway for.
[1:00:37]Gentleman Junkie patrons. And that is this beautiful RS designed, RS Knifeworks designed mini Paragon. Alright, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. 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.
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