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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, I finally get the thin bear. I'm going to show you what I got my brother for his birthday this year, and then is it a knife or is it a short sword? I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
[0:14]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. go.
[0:27]Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from No Good Lion Snake. This was on my, how do I carry a fixed blade knife on me? And he says, I just carry a Phillips screwdriver. And when people jack me, I bone check them a good 10 times before I flee the scene. But I live in Detroit. And No Good Lion Snake, that resonates with me. I was born in Dearborn, Michigan back in the 70s. I know it was composed differently, but I'm not so sure how much nicer it was. Detroit, I know it's in a rough patch, but let's pray Detroit returns to its former greatness like all of our other major awesome cities. All right, next up was from Libra Moon. Lots of Libras in my life, Libra Moon. 9968. This was on my Cold Steel El Hombre video, and he says 1999 that's when i got this knife here matrix harry potter star wars in sync britney spears real world mtv the world's gonna end those days yeah that's right those days i remember y2k and feeling very concerned everyone was so concerned that their computers were going to go back to zero and the world would end and uh it didn't and i just think it's crazy that all the The big minds didn't just know that that wasn't going to happen. But anyway, that was 1999.
[1:47]Sometimes when things are going really well, we make problems for ourselves. I know I do that for myself, have in my life. And I think we as Americans do that sometimes because we have it so good. All right. Coming up, we're going to get to the pocket check. But I want to say before then, thank you for commenting, for watching, of course, and for leaving a thumbs up or a like or a comment. I appreciate it. It keeps things moving and, well, it lets me know people are watching what I'm doing. All right. That said, let's get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[2:25]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket, I had the Kaiser Mystic. I've been carrying this one again. This was my favorite knife of 2023, my favorite folder. And I've been carrying it a lot recently. I think it's because, I think this all started because there's been a lot of barbecues. There have been a lot of barbecues that we've been going to or cookouts, depending on where you live.
[2:49]And I wanted to get that Rex 45 blade into action because hot meat is the best way to get a patina on certain steels. Now, I don't know much about Rex 45, except that it's a really excellent, what am I, the edge retention on this is awesome. It's a semi-stainless, or actually it's not stainless at all, but it's not, it doesn't seem to, it doesn't seem prone to corrosion the way like 1095 is or something like that. Seems a little more stout-hearted, but you can get a really nice patina on this. I tried a force patina when I first got the knife. I didn't like it. I polished it off and just decided to go the natural route. So, yeah, I've been carrying this one a lot. I adore this knife.
[3:35]Very much lives up to its sort of maritime inspiration. It looks like a piece of whaling kit, and that's what he was thinking of, Paul Monco, when he designed this. He was thinking of his hometown of Mystic, Connecticut, which back in the day was a bastion of the whaling industry and a lot of people forget our whole entire everything ran on whale oil for a while there so thanks to the whales and also thanks to paul monco for designing that really cool knife uh also nice and light for the shorts i forgot about that i usually look at a knife like this and assume it's going to be heavier but then i pick it up and i'm like oh yeah this is great for shorts and light uh.
[4:20]What do you call it? Light clothing and hot weather clothing. So I could just move on now. Speaking of a piece of kit that reminds me of an artifact or an antique, this is the new Venom Jack from Jack Wolf Knives. And it's the finish and the combination of the finish, those dark wash bolsters and blade next to this dark matter red carbon fiber. I just love it. But I love the way it looks. And, of course, it is an excellent knife because it's a Jack Wolf knife. And it's very, very well made. Very thin behind the edge and slicey, making it a very useful little knife. Three-inch blade, basically. I think it's just a hair under. And a really full hand grip. Just an awesome blade. I love this knife. I loved its first iteration with the full height.
[5:17]Well, this has a full height hollow ground blade also, but the other one has the grinder satin. I love that one. Something about this just sings to me. I just think it's a beautiful, beautiful knife. And one of my favorite designs from him, Ben Belkin, because I love the useful practicality of this kind of handle a trapper style handle just with that gentle downward curve and the widening at the pommel very very useful and comfortable in hand next on me this is another one i've sort of pulled out of the archives been carrying a bit this summer uh since i've decided a new way to carry it this is the jb knife and tool ditch pick really nice double-edged pick call with a with a 1 16th inch, very thin blade, 1095 blade steel, very flexible, if you were to put it to that. I don't, but I've seen Brian of JB Knife and Tool flex these.
[6:17]These ditch knives ditch when you're buying a jb knife and tool if it has ditch before it the prefix ditch that means it's extra thin and uh it's gonna go in real easy uh this i opted for double edge i think when this run came out this was the first time he offered a double edge he also offered a very cool bayonet grind where it's just half on the front but had to go full full edge. This one I used to carry in the waistband and it was a little uncomfortable with the handle, but I have found that with this in the waistband clip going all the way around the sheath and just.
[6:53]Mounted on my very front next to my belt buckle, this works great. And it's a small enough knife, it doesn't print, it blends right in. Again, a nice light summer carry EDC. If this is a little too aggressive for you there are a number of models from jb knife and tool that will still get the job done of defending you if need be heaven forbid but they're a little more practical in terms of single edge and maybe the blade shape blade shapes are a little less aggressive okay lastly speaking of aggressive my gosh this knife i love and actually i want to develop well i'll tell you in a sec. This one is the Highlight 6, a knife I waited way too long to buy. I guess I'd say about 30 years too long. I really love this. This is new old stock from Willie Knives. Willie Knives, their interview is on the Knife Junkie podcast this week that this episode is dropping. But long and short of it is Delaware Knife Shop based around a father who made knives and.
[7:59]Happened upon their shop with my family on the way back from Rehoboth Beach and bought this knife there. It was my birthday. So this is my birthday knife of 2024. And I had seen Tomas go after a ballistics dummy with this. And it really inspired me to get this. I had the six inch. It used to be my EDC years and years ago when I lived in New York. And actually that knife ended up on the subway track and I, by hook or by crook, it was by hook actually, got it off the track. But anyway, I love this knife, and I think that its best expression, this design, is in this full 6-inch bladed version. So I had this on me for emotional sport. It was my ESK today. And I got to say, it carries nicely. I can only carry this as a third knife or, well, in this case, a fourth knife if I'm wearing a certain pair of pants. And it's a 511 pant that has sort of a hidden cargo pocket on the side. It doesn't look like cargo pants. They don't look like cargo pants, but they are. And this fits nicely on an internal pocket within that hidden pocket. Okay, I want to show you. I want to start developing a system. This is my own, you know, some drills with a knuckle duster and this knife. Because, and the reason I first picked these up together is they seem to go together. They're sort of west side story.
[9:22]But modernized and they go together. They really do go together. So I'm going to figure out some, just put together some little Kali drills, but have the weapons be this and this instead of two sticks or two knives or a knife and a stick and that kind of thing. So I think it'll be very easy to adapt to this. Lots of hammer fists, I see, and the coup de grace shots with this awesome knife. So this will be something I do in the morning when I'm putting off lifting weights or something like that. All right, that's what I had on me today. What did you have on you? Let me know. By the way, this handle, this grip on this JB knife and tool is awesome. He still makes these. I highly recommend you follow them on Instagram and even have some jute-wrapped models every now and again, which I do not have. All right, I want to talk about the pre-order. Open for one more week here on this knife, the Nova II.
[10:23]The beautiful collaboration knife between me and Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives, a Kiridashi on his EDC Tanto frame. This is the second in the line. The first was a recurved Bowie. Remember the Nova one with the maroon handle? Well, this one has the ivory handle. Coming back to the main camera over here. Oh, wait. Yeah, let me leave that here, though. It's nice. That dark wash blade, deeply hollow ground, 154CM. These are all handmade in Massachusetts. We're going to do special serial numbers, so custom serial numbers. The lot number will be what the lot number is, but your number out of that lot number is your choice. All right. And then it will come with an awesome sheath just like this, except we're changing the sheath color to a charcoal gray.
[11:13]Charcoal gray. These should be coming in December. I believe December is the date he put on this, depending on how many we end up with. It might be sooner than that all right go check out store.thenifejunkie.com for this beautiful ivory and red handled modern day kiridashi uh great for self-defense super awesome for utility this is very sharp the tip of this knife can it basically handles everything i've ever used this for um just don't drop it on a concrete floor i haven't done that uh and i'm not saying that His knives aren't super strong, but that tip does not want to be dropped face down. All right. And then lastly, before we get to knife life news, I want to give a shout out to Tom at Tactical Yama. I'm sorry. Yeah, Tactical Yama EDC. He sent me a couple. This one's still in the package. I have one on my bag. I gave one to my daughter. This is a patch. What do they call these? They call them morale patches with a cool yama there. With the sunglasses. Tom reached out to me and said, can I send you a couple of these, Pat? As I said, yeah, I love Yamas. You know, with my wife's Bolivian background, Yamas play heavily into the visual motifs and some of the things around here. So, yeah, Yama, very cool. They're interesting animals, too.
[12:38]Don't get spit on by one. I think like camels, they spit. And I think like camels, they're spit stains. Like if you get spit on by a Yama, now correct me if I'm wrong, Tom, if you get spit on by a Yama, I think that area is going to be a different color for the rest of your life. So check that out. Thank you so much, Tom. I really appreciate these morale patches. Check out Tactical at Yama EDC. Okay. Well, that said, I want to get to Knife Life news, but I would like to say, if you're interested in this show, you'd like to help support this show, you can do so on Patreon. You can also download the show to your favorite podcast app, so you don't have to sit here and look at my mug while I yammer on. You can just listen to me yammer on in your ears or in your car, wherever, when you're driving. When you get stopped by the cop, he's like, dude, you were going 60 in a 45. What gives? You can say, I was listening to the Life Junkie podcast. That cop will say, oh, I get it, I get it. You can't wait to get there. Uh, so go to the QR code right here or the knife junkie.com slash Patriot. Check out what we have to offer again. That's the knife junkie.com slash Patriot adventure delivered your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals, the knife junkie.com slash battle box. You're listening to the knife junkie podcast. And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
[14:08]Knife Smith, Bladesmith, I should call him. Lon Humphrey has a new one out, the Minigun Custom. A couple things I like about this, just to get a yes, I'm an American male, I love miniguns. You know, the big rotating Gatling gun that.
[14:24]Was used in predator and is on basically mounted in some form on every us aircraft they're so cool but anyway this is a knife named after the minigun and um it's sort of a play on words because it's a small version or a companion piece to lon humphrey's very famous gunfighter bowie with the beautiful long slender upswept bowie blade one i've never owned a lon humphrey but um i've I've been eyeing them up for a long time. I love the brute-to-forge look of them. They're definitely beautifully forged knives. This one, 5.2 inches of 52100 forged steel. And the scales, look at the scales on this. The beautiful scales. First of all, a lot of Humphrey offers a lot of different handle materials. But on this particular model, what we're looking at here is called Storm Maple. And it's stabilized maple from a tree that was downed in a storm on his 60-acre Ohio property. So everything about that I love, all the way down to Ohio.
[15:30]So just a beautiful-looking knife, a forged 52100 knife, a Bowie, but also has that very special story to it. Look at this right here. I'm looking at it right now. It's got just a really nice profile. That handle looks awesome.
[15:49]I might have to check one of these out. I know that you can get them at Kniveship Free right now, so go check that out there. These are 7.2 ounces with the sheath and available now. Beautiful knife, beautiful knife. Another fixed blade knife. This is on a different side of cool, but also cool, is a Benchmade EDC called the, I don't even know how to pronounce this. I guess we'll find out as it gets more popular. But the Dacian? D-A-C-I-A-N. How do you pronounce that? Dacian? Dacian? Uh the scion i'm gonna go with dacian uh and it's their first real edc fixed blade um we've had small fixed blades from um uh from benchmade before more in their hunting line or their kitchen lines but this is straight up edc and it is gymped as gymped as the day is long you can see gymping all the way down the spine of the blade there's also gymping around the pommel and around uh in the inner part of the bird's beak i gotta say i appreciate that i love the tactile So feedback of jimping, it just feels good and also sometimes is useful for grip. This Dacian, dedicated EDC fixed blade knife, spear point blade, 3.54 inches of MagnaCut. Like that. I like that. Oftentimes Benchmade would release new blades in S30V. I like that they're doing it in MagnaCut.
[17:16]Very nice looking handle there, brown and denim micarta. It looks like there's a little bit of contouring, maybe concave contouring in there. I can't tell, though. I love the pommel jimping. It really does, what am I trying to say? It implies that you might need this for self-defense, or you might need this for hard use. This is EDC, and you know that it's specifically that because the Kydex sheath has a pocket clip and not like a belt clip. but I think it acknowledges the fact that you might need to put it in reverse grip and come down hard on something. So I do like that. Very nice-looking knife, and I'm excited to see this one come out. The Blue Jean Denim Micarta, I think, is a brand-new thing for Benchmade, so that's also exciting. All right, next up is from Buck, and this is a stealth release, a stealth run.
[18:09]I like that. That means they're just kind of dropping it somewhat unannounced, But here I am talking about it and read it somewhere else So I'm not sure what they mean by Stealth Run But this is the Laren The 501 The 501 is their Squire model It's the 2.75 inch folding locking knife In the 110 series Under the 112 Ranger The 3.75 inch 501 In MagnaCut Is called the Laren After Laren Thomas of Knife Nerds Someone I have to have back on this show He's such an interesting dude and a nice guy to talk to and hang out with. But you can see that from this, it comes with a leather slip that has the Knife Steel Nerds logo on it, which is pretty cool. But the knife itself, it's a single bolster, folding, locking, hunter-style knife. Again, 2.75 inches of MagnaCut. You've got a different sort of nail neck than on the Ranger and on the Buck 110. This looks like just a machined groove as opposed to a nail neck.
[19:13]And uh i like the way this thing looks with that cocobolo handle and no bolster now it was already released in a elk bone model that is way long sold out i guess that was on the first run this is the second run of valerian that's the 501 squire with magna cut uh but i really like the way this looks with the single bolster and that cocobolo beautiful definitely a gentleman's carry And I've always kind of thought that super steels like MagnaCut or maybe even more so things like S90V and M390, like difficult to sharpen super steels, do belong on smaller gentleman's knives or smaller EDC blades because you're going to use them more than you will your larger knives. You just will. And it will require less sharpening. And it being more difficult to sharpen them, that seems like the perfect place to put that. Well, on a 501, which usually has the 420HC steel on it, this is a super upgrade with Magnetouch.
[20:17]Only 1,000 of these made, so if you're a buck guy, you better jump on it. All right, lastly, I want to show you something. I didn't know that CJRB sells prototypes, and this is another prototype that's for sale from them. This is called the Capstone, and it's got an arrestingly unique wharncliffe blade. I think it's pretty cool. When I first saw it, I was like, ugh, that's ugly. And then I suddenly liked it. I don't know. I love the drama of that giant fuller. So you have a large trapezoidal opening hole on this large, broad wharncliffe with a slight belly. But you also have a very dramatic fuller running all the way to the front. And when the fuller gets to the front of the blade, it presents as a large sort of notch. It has a cool sort of meat cleaver or straight razor sort of.
[21:16]Feel to it and i just i just like it uh 3.4 inches of ar rpm9 because it's cjrb and that's their proprietary steel over at artisan cutlery uh g10 it'll be a liner lock it'll probably have some variation in the handles in terms of micarta and possibly wood uh four ounces and this prototype is available now now hopefully people snatch this up and it becomes a production knife i'm assuming Assuming that that's what they do with their prototypes that they sell. I can't imagine they would make a prototype, sell it out, and then not continue with it. Because that would make all that stuff extremely collectible. All right, coming up, we're going to take a look at four new knives in the state of the collection. And then we're going to look at, is it a knife or is it a short sword? But before we do, I just want to remind you that you can download everything to the podcast. You can download all of the shows to the podcast apps, but also.
[22:16]We were talking about the store. The store does not only just sell the Nova 2. The store also sells T-shirts and all sorts of merch. Go over there, check it out. If you like sipping coffee out of a Knife Junkie cup, that's where you do it. If you want a really cool, unique, knife-themed T-shirt designed by Jim, that's how you do it. Go to thenifejunkie.com slash store and check it out. You can also do it at store.thenifejunkie.com. All right, coming up.
[22:46]The state of the collection. 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. Theknifejunkie.com slash shockwave. And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. Guest so you know that i love the cheap cold steels the roach belly in particular i've had a modified roach belly in my car for years and then uh just a couple weeks back you saw that i was showing this one off i got the canadian belt knife in that line twelve dollar knife and then i was like well i have to for completeness sake i have to get the fin bear So I got this Thin Bear, again, $12 on Midway, not Midway, Chicago Cutlery, Chicago Knife Works, I'm sorry, not Chicago Cutlery. And I got to say, I really like it. I haven't found a use for it yet. I got it wickedly sharp. It came sharp but with a toothy edge. I just ran it over some ceramic, got it razor sharp.
[24:01]And it's, again, one of these knives. It's a cheap, quote-unquote, I'll say it, throwaway knife. It's not throwaway. You can use this your whole life. As a matter of fact, I knew a hobo-type guy who carried the Roach Belly, a knife in this series, for two years and survived by his wits and his blade. And his blade was that. And I wanted it to be something more glamorous, but it was that. So I've always had faith in these 4116 inexpensive stamped cold steel knives. So I'm just happy to have this one in my collection. I know it doesn't seem like a collectible knife, but to me it kind of is. So, but it's the kind of knife that will also probably get modified and it's going to be stationed somewhere.
[24:48]So this might end up on the back porch or this might end up in my wife's car or this might end up, you know, just somewhere in a survival kit or something. Thing um so not necessarily something i want to see when i open my knife drawer to admire my cold steels uh but definitely something i want out there and in the mix uh and ready to use like the um like the roach belly has been for years and it's always coming in what do they say coming in clutch uh so i dig it i if my my daughter in the future watches this she's gonna cringe right there next up i've been carrying this positively gorgeous new um dirk pinkerton prototype now this is for his own line dirk pinkerton design knives and it is a worn cliff as you can see and i keep calling it 3.6 but we're gonna measure it right now yeah i think 3.6 is pretty accurate hearing.
[25:48]Really beautiful S90V blade, saber flat grind with a fuller and titanium frame lock with that broad chamfering that Dirk Pinkerton is known for, at least that I always bring up. I love how he makes these real wide chamfers because he's not rounding it, he's not contouring it, but you You get the feel of contouring, but with a more secure grip that you get from a flat surface. At least that's how I read it. I do love contouring. Don't get me wrong.
[26:24]But something that's a little more flat like this feels more secure in the hand, like it's not going to roll in a pinch. So as I mentioned, this is a prototype. He's got a couple of these out and about. I know Dave has one, OG Blade Reviews. And I think it's a great knife. I've been carrying this. I usually don't carry things that are on loan. He said, carry it, kick the tires. I need feedback. So I have two notes of feedback that I'll be giving him for what that's worth. And I know one of the things he's already addressed. So I have one little bit of feedback. This just feels great in hand. The jimping is perfect. The blade is so excellent. The blade is very, very sharp and acute, and you have a very nice tip. But it doesn't feel dainty at all. It feels like a pretty hard-use, pretty beefy knife, even though it's slender. I mean, I've worn this in dress slacks, and it's nice and light. You've got weight relief on the back of these scales. You've got flipping action. You can get the fuller to release, but it just needs to be a little bit sharper. That's the note he already commented on.
[27:38]Really nice in reverse grip. It feels great in reverse grip. It feels great in pick-call reverse grip. Heaven forbid you need that. And just a great, great, great knife. I love this. And I'm hoping that this goes into production. I think it will go into production.
[27:56]I know it's going to go into production. I just can't wait, I guess, until I get it. And it's mine. I wouldn't mind buying this prototype from Dirk either. What can I say?
[28:07]I'm generous like that. Look at that lock cutout. I love the curve on that lock cutout. So cool. Great pocket clip and a different sort of orientation in pocket. This works great in all sorts of pockets. Love this one. All right, next up is a brother I got from my knife. A knife I got from my brother. His birthday is today as I record this, so I have to call him right after this. But I told him last night via text, do not watch the show this week. Until you receive your package. So this is what I got him. He's always getting me historical blades.
[28:44]And I wanted to get him something he doesn't have in his collection, a SOG, MACV SOG by SOG. The MACV SOG Bowie is a classic design, very aggressive and famous. I happen to love this style of Bowie knife, with that double peak here boom and boom that was started on this knife that super long swedge from here down to the tip and sog is known on their fixed blades for that shark what do they call it tiger shark tip oh man doug or one of you saw guys help me but that little little faceting on the tip a it makes the penetration a lot easier and b gives you actually a nice little snag on the on the back cut if you were to use this in a Bowie knife fight and you're doing a back cut and all that that little extra tiny bit of sharpened back.
[29:45]Would be devastating on a on a person's forearms uh so this one is the uh the bowie i have the super bowie which has the bigger blade but this is the classic this is the one that you saw in terminator 2 maybe for the first time like me the first time i ever saw this no the first time i saw this knife was in uncommon valor the movie uncommon valor where a bunch of uh vietnam vets go back to Vietnam to rescue some of their buddies who are still in POW camps. And one of the guys is teaching everyone how to take someone out by doing them in the back of the head. And this is the knife he uses during that demo. And he says something about scrambled eggs. I can't remember exactly how that... But that was the first time I saw this knife. And then in Terminator 2, when um when sarah connor decides she's gonna go kill uh dyson uh to save the future and she's uh carving in the blade in the picnic table with this knife and then she's like okay i'm gonna go kill him and she stabs the knife and leaves it leaves the knife right there she's going on a mission and she leaves the knife and she has the sheath it's like come on sarah connor well i guess she She had a lot on her mind, so I guess I'll forgive her that. But that was the second time I saw this knife. It left an impression. The shape of it stuck in the table. She had a leather fob, leather lanyard coming out of it. I was like, oh, my God.
[31:12]So I love this. I really want to get this six-inch version, the original version. The bigger one is cool, too, but this is the original. So I had to get it for my brother. I have noticed that the difference in sheath in 20 years, The one that I have is about 20 years old This leather is not as nice As the original But what can you say The only reason I'm kind of conscious about that Is my brother knows leather So maybe he'll do a different thing I mean it is leather, it's nice, it's stout It'll do the job But it's not as supple as the leather On the one that I have, ages ago. Lastly, and actually this will just, we'll go into, uh, is it a knife or is it a short sword? Because, uh, the last knife in the state of the collection is the first knife in that category. And this is a gift from a very generous friend. And that's Dave of OG blade reviews. He sent me this Kukri. So a traditional Filipino weapons is a company out of the.
[32:19]The filipino smiths down in um down in the philippines obviously sorry i'm i'm had an issue with the camera so i'm yammering a bit uh so ron kazikowski uh is a filipino martial artist and jkd teacher in um connecticut he started a company where he got all these smiths together down in the Philippines who make all of these different traditional Filipino blades and in traditional ways, but they have branched out from all of the many beautiful Filipino swords they do and they are making other knives from around the world, including this Kukri. And look at that dramatic, look at that dramatic shape. To me, I feel like if there is any culture who can, who has the right and knowledge to make a great kukri. It would be the Filipinos because all of their knives have that downward angled blade and they sort of understand that sort of chopping dynamic of the design. So, this is a real beauty.
[33:28]It's a combination, it's made with a proprietary combination of D2 and 52100 blade steel forged and forged with steel. Made with kamagong. That handle is a kamagong wood, which is a very hard wood from the Philippines. And you'll see pretty much all of the handles from the traditional Filipino weapons knives are made out of that. I'm going to come to the main camera so you can see this to scale with me. Kind of hard for me to hold this under that knife cam, but this feels really good. If you can, And, you know, you can tell by looking at this that it's front heavy. It's a kukri. But the way they have it balanced, and I think the additional curve, you know, because they're Filipino.
[34:17]Instead of having the handle come straight off that portion of the spine, like a more traditional Nepalese kukri, they put another angle down there. So, I mean, you're getting just serious chopping action with this and slashing action. It has a very nice balance. It feels good in the hand, and it's a more generous handle than on most traditional kukris, well, at least the few that I have. So I just love this knife, and I want to thank Dave again, as I have before, for this thing. It is really, really great. And I'm thinking this is going to take on a role. This isn't just going to be a wall hanger behind me. This is going to go somewhere in the house, probably in the bedroom. It might hang on the wall because I've removed this sword from the wall. Uh, and put this, so this will probably end up somewhere where I can grab it in a moment's notice, say if someone uninvited is breaking into the house and, uh, this would be in the left hand because I would have something else in the right. So thank you so much. Also, uh, uh, Dave, again, also this wooden sheath wrapped in leather is pretty, pretty boss too. I like the sort of corset stitching on the front reminds me of my hog tooth knives, uh, sub-hilt fighter there. All right, let's sheet this up.
[35:41]So next up is a new one in my collection, newish, and that is the Cold Steel Cinque Dia, the five-finger-wide knife. This thing, people sometimes, and I don't take it too, I don't find it to be too ethnically charged, but sometimes people comment on how it looks like a pizza slice. Isn't that cute? But yeah, it kind of does, and it's five fingers wide, and it was the Italian sidearm, civilian sidearm for self-defense in the 15th century.
[36:15]Dramatic wide blade creates a dramatic wide hole in the person you're dueling. They weren't allowed to carry swords anymore, so they're like, okay, we'll make do with something really super wide and sharp. And I'm going to put this under the knife, Pam. I am really excited and happy with how really well made this cold steel is and lots of cold steels are. But the ethnics, you know, the more traditional old knives, really, they have them really well made. I know they farm them out to India and China, but the people who make these knives do really, really great jobs. Like this handle with all the little studs in it, and the engraving on the pommel and on the guard, and then you also have the sheath, which has a really nice engraved pattern on it, and leather, and a chape, and...
[37:18]One of these things, a little nubbin so you can slide it in your belt and carry it. Because who doesn't want to carry a chinkwa dia? Now, if we could carry around these kind of things, actually, I could legally carry that around. They might consider it a dirk. And I would have to correct them on that. Because in my state, I can't just carry a dirk. You know, who can just carry a dirk around?
[37:41]So I might have difficulty with that. But can you imagine this just being your daily carry? Man they did it different in the 16th century i'll tell you that much all right next is one that you may have uh may have just seen under the knife cam before our knife cam uh is just wide enough to show you this so this is a 13 inch blade this is about as big as we go on this um, in this list no this one i'm sorry this is 14 and a half i was thinking i was only going 13 team. To me, that seems like the size where I start questioning, is this a sword? Is this a short sword or is this a knife? Now, this parang is a machete, but it's almost a quarter inch. I mean, it's a very thick machete. So to me, it's more of a knife. To me, a machete needs to be thinner. It needs to be more flexible. It needs to be able to handle light vegetation. This is This is good for heavy vegetation. And I dare say this is also kind of a fighting design. In Southeast, in the South Pacific, in Southeast Asia.
[38:52]Neither of those. I'm talking about Malaysia and such. The parang is used not only for work, but it is also used as a weapon. You've got this nice, big, generous walnut handle. When I first got it, I thought I was going to sand it down and make it a little more thin for me. And then I just decided maybe I needed to work on my grip strength instead. And I did that. That's what laziness will get you, get you a better grip. But that lobed pommel there, or it's not lobed, that bulbous pommel there is great not only to keep this thing in your hand when you're swinging hard, but I mean, if you're using this as a short sword and you don't necessarily want to kill someone, you could really hit someone hard with this knob. I mean, I dare say you keep this in the sheath. I will stop saying that, by the way. Keep this in the sheath, and you could use that as a noggin knocker as is. You might want to lock it in there, though. As most condors do, it comes with a great full grain leather sheath, and this one is not generic. Sometimes you'll get a condor sheath, and it's like it was made for a number of different knives. This one is custom to this, for sure. And my information about Condor C's is probably old at this point. I haven't gotten a new Condor in quite a while. Okay, next up is, now we're going a little bit small. I have a couple of smaller knives here that are little big knives. Um.
[40:21]Knives that are small when you measure them, but present as much larger. And that one here is the Cortada. This is the Doug Marcaida Cortada. Coming in at, let's see, eight and a quarter inches.
[40:37]So considerably smaller than the Parang. But because of its use case, this is definitely a fighting knife. And it's based off of a fighting short sword, the Ganunting. Mounting so based on its use case and its heftiness it's heft in hand it really does feel a bit like a short sword i'm gonna i'm gonna bring this over to the main camera just so you can see what this looks like uh you know compared to me now yeah it it's an eight and a half inch knife but it is definitely meant for sword type slashing and thrusting you say sword type knife slashing and thrusting. Isn't that the same as knife? Well, yeah, but with this one, you have a much greater range, and with the downward yet straight blade, you get a lot of mileage out of that tip, meaning it's going to work like a recurve, even though it's a straight edge uh blade so uh this to me is a big little knife and uh this is probably the only one in this list that i could use in reverse grip maybe the maybe one of the other ones coming up here uh but yeah this one and also with a great high grain leather sheath now or full grain.
[42:00]Leather sheath they only made 500 of these so this one i always feel like when i show it off it's it's kind of um bittersweet because people can't go out and buy that one but pretty much everything else here uh people can go out and buy or wait for a drop um as you'll see coming up here um this next one you saw this quite a bit when i got it this is the chieftain sacks from cold steel great leather sheath traditional uh traditionally set up for mounting sideways on your back i think I think that's how they usually carried the sacks. This is the Chieftain Sacks, a 13-inch blade and also weighted and balanced like a sword. It's got this nice big brass pommel and kind of heavy rosewood handle. It keeps a lot of the weight down here, plus it's not a quarter-inch thick. It's a pretty thin blade stock here. Three-sixteenths, I believe. Yeah, about three-sixteenths of an inch thick.
[43:02]So nice and light, especially for something a blade this long, keeps the tip light and lively. You got the balance more back here, the weight more back here. That means you can get that tip to where you want it to go a little bit easier than something that is blade heavy and requires more strength to get that tip to where you need it to go. Place this under the knife cam here um i really adore that broke back sax shape uh when you look at it you see it looks kind of like a bowie uh but instead of having kind of a straight spine and then a clip dipping down and a corresponding edge dipping down you have an edge that comes straight off the handle uh straight from your knuckles and then the spine is what goes up to the clip. It sort of accommodates it through the spine as opposed to through the belly. So that's just a slight, that's just kind of my observation because I'll look at it like, why is this not a bowie? And then I sort of realized, well, that's because you've got that straight edge and the spine is what goes up. The spine is what arches, not arches. The spine is what reaches up towards the break and the clip.
[44:19]This is another one that I've had around the house as a boy i would grab that thing in a in a pinch because it feels so good in hand and it's thin, and it's fast and it's sharp as hell and uh yeah and it's menacing look at this thing this is men someone comes at you like this this is also by the way reminds me of a knife that used to be in an old that used to be his sidearm in the old 1980s conan uh at least some of the Conan comic books I had from the early 80s kind of looked like this, and he put it in his teeth. So this is a good one for putting in your teeth. By the way, I don't recommend what I just did. It's very uncomfortable. It does not feel good. I don't see myself swimming in the water with this in my teeth. But Conan can, you know, Conan. So again, nice, very nice leather sheath, traditional. I recommend this one. And inexpensive, I got to say. For what it's worth, it's inexpensive.
[45:16]Less than $120 on Chicago Knife Works will get you behind the wheel of a hold steel cheap than Saks. Next is from WorkToughGear. That's why I was saying drops. I mentioned drops. That's how you get the WorkToughGear, or you have to be Johnny on the spot at the websites where they distribute. The V44X Bowie. This thing, I was waiting a long time for. It really kind of kept my eye on Choir Boy's Cutlery. If you know Scab, he loves the WorkToughGear. and he's like, I would say their main spokesperson or he's not an official spokesperson, but they send him the knives and he puts them through the ringer and they, uh, they prove their worth every single time. So I keep my eye on his channel for the, for the work tough gear drops I want, by the way, I just missed one on Friday, but I wasn't ready for it. Didn't have the money saved up for it, but would have loved that, that Hondo. But this one, uh, another beautiful clip point from Work Tough Gear. They have the Puzan, all the Puzan Bowies and the Lanzetta and the Hondo. They have a lot of different Bowies, but this one to me is definitely the most dramatic and the most pertinent and interesting to me because it is a take on the famous Marine Raider Bowie, that V44 shape. I have this.
[46:41]Um pattern of bowie in a number of different iterations i have the western w49 i have the the.
[46:50]The bark river knives version of it i have the sp10 um from i'm sorry i'm having all the mind blockage here but i have the sp10 this one is by far the most dramatic i pull it out and i'm like damn it's so broad and also they add the fuller on this one the designer added the fuller to this one and that also evokes k-bar so it makes this look even more menacing to me to me this is a swashbuckler it's a menacing knife i know this is not what people are buying it for people are not buying this for fighting or for putting on their you know military lbe they're they're getting this to go camping and to go to do things outdoors uh but it has such a combative look to it and that That is where my tastes range.
[47:39]And I got to say, this really takes care of that for me. Giant handle. It's got, I mean, I would even go for a smaller handle. It almost affects the visuals, which are the most important thing. Almost affects the handle to blade ratio to me, but it doesn't. It doesn't almost. If it were any longer, but it really, really feels comfortable. I have swung this around in this small studio uh many many times without hitting anything i mean i did hit something in one of the videos while drawing it but um it handles so nicely it is a big beefy blade but it handles like a lighter knife like a like maybe because it's balanced similar to that those swords it's a little handle heavy or maybe it's.
[48:27]It's balanced like a fighting knife right up here at the choil, and so maybe that's why it moves so well.
[48:34]I don't know. I haven't had it that long. I have to fully investigate and take it out. I've got to make impact on wood and stuff with it to see how it feels. I have a feeling it'll feel great. This choil here is so comfortable. I know they look a little like they might be harsh, but all of the choils on the WorkTuff gear knives are nicely chamfered, and you get a very very comfortable fit there everything 90 degree spine except for right here where you'll you're likely to put your thumb when bearing down so that's nice the chamfer goes up to about there then you can use your ferro rod on any part of this and not just ferro rod knife this big be great for scraping bark off i don't know what you're making out there in the woods but you might You might need to scrape off bark, and this kind of spine would be great for it. Giant pancake-style sheath, which I didn't like until I realized that you need the pancake sheath to fasten these D-rings on, and I know that I want to carry this with the strap. So D-rings are okay by me, so that means the pancake sheath has to be okay by me. But what you get is a, what is this, a four and a half inch thick sheath. So it is pretty big. You're not sticking this in your waistband. You're not carrying this in an EDC fashion without getting a new sheath made for it.
[50:01]Or making it yourself v44x bowie awesome sweetness from work tough gear okay this next one is also a smaller one um but it presents like i like sting frankly this one to me reminds me of sting uh frodo not frodo um bilbo baggins sword from the cartoon version of the hobbit from the 70s a movie that i adored and watched a lot um this has that feel that's only a nine inch blade nine and a half inch blade uh but it feels big in hand and i think it's the double recurve edges the double recurve bevels and edges on this thing it looks like a sword i'm going to bring this over to the main camera so you can see how it looks uh with me so bigger than a k bar um smaller than.
[50:54]That parang but the shape of the blade has that feel of a sword it feels more of it it feels like more than just a dagger that's what i'm getting at nice and broad is that blade this is the sow catcher from odin wolf and this is i believe would make a great knife for hunting pigs i know that they really go for the stabbiness in the pig hunting knives and this one would definitely make a wide hole it's got a nice um stiff build here with the with the uh with the today i'm having a hard time today guys forgive me with the saber ground edges and the big flat here and then with the fuller it's very rigid very stiff so would make for an excellent penetrating knife on something that's moving around on you i know the dogs hold them down out. Sounds awful and awfully fun in the same breath.
[51:52]But you also have a widening handle, coffin-shaped handle that widens out and a very generous lanyard hole. I would imagine you might want a lanyard on this so that it comes out, you know, if you're doing it, using it for what it's really used for. But yeah, this D2 double-edged blade with the recurves really has the feel of a short sword and not just a dagger. All right, next up is from Traditional Filipino Weapons Also, and this is the dagger from the Espada y Daga set, the sword and dagger set that I have. This is wearing a beautiful...
[52:31]Demarco leather sheath my brother made that sheath he made a sheath for this a sheath for its large sword brother and then a whole belt to go with it a fighting belt it's so cool but this right here is a nice sinuous thin they call it a dagger dagger but it's not a dagger as we think of it it is a knife a long thin slender knife with a swedge that would just be devastating in a fight It's zero ground, so it's kind of like having a strop scan the edge here on this D2-52-100 blade and a very, very sharp tip. That swedge comes together with the main bevel to create a diamond tip. So even though this is a slasher, you can tell from that design, the penetration of this is outstanding because of that swedge.
[53:35]So this one is generally not separated from its larger brother, though I do. I keep them in two different places. The sword is over there, and I keep this knife oftentimes on the desk here or on top of one of my knife cases. places.
[53:49]Because this is one of those ones I keep by my side when I'm watching a movie at night with my wife. This is one that I frequently have out there. Just because if I needed to grab a knife quickly for something, this would do anything I would need it to do. And at nighttime, I'm only thinking about nighttime issues. And yet, I might be better off with something smaller. I also have that on me. But something like this with this handle, this kamagong handle, but that's that Filipino hardwood with the choil there and this horse hoof pommel back here. It's really meant for chopping. It has that palm extension for chopping and slashing. But if you needed to thrust this with that guard, this thing is just an all-arounder. I love it. It's got a classic design, and I love the rattan wrap there. It actually makes it very comfortable over the pin that secures that blade in the handle. So if you do get this, they have this and a different Espada Hidaga set. They go quickly at traditional Filipino weapons. If you get it, you will not have a leather sheath. You'll have a monoblock sheath that contains both the long and the short. That's It's also kind of a traditional Filipino thing for just kind of keeping them, um.
[55:11]For not carrying them, but for just keeping them where you hang them or whatever. All right, second to last one here, if I can get through it with my talking, is the Zword von Hemsky Bowie. This thing is, this reminds me of a small version of the Grosse Messer, the big knife that Germans for years and years throughout history, Middle Ages and Renaissance, had in their, they call them hearth knives, just big big knives slash swords and cold steel makes one and it would be used for everything from um from uh what do you call it sort of farmland land tasks to protecting home and heart this reminds me of that uh even though it is a well 11 inch blade it reminds me of that because it's so hefty. It's a quarter inch thick forged blade with a saber apple seed grind. So this thing comes down to a convex edge. It's really sharp, but kind of deceptively sharp. It feels like it might not be so much. And then you take it to paper or take it to wood and it's going to town. That's something that I find with convex edges that you run into.
[56:29]Sometimes they don't feel as sharp as they actually are. You have that giant S guard, which is big on both dimensions. It'll protect your hands somewhat on the sides as well as up front and on the back. That also reminds me of that great, the Grossa Messer, the big knife. But also this very neutral, I'll call it coffin shape, I guess, or it's just super neutral. To me, I can fit a hand and a half on there. There uh you might have big hands you might get a hand and a quarter uh but big handle i've never actually used it where i've held it with two but i could see you doing that for uh just for controlling this giant beast of a blade also the weight of it it gives it a sword-like feel because of how it just feels like a bigger knife in hand if i were to hold this i might feel like that edge is kind of out there. That tip is out here somewhere. Because there's no weight relief. There's no fuller. This is just a solid slab of steel except where they've, convex ground off that edge beautiful leather sheath by the way full grain is the word i've been going for full grain leather sheath with the sford logo on it which looks kind of like the seek.
[57:48]Or symbol i should say it's not a logo okay last up here is the um special marine the special filipino marine made bolo that my dad got me in the philippines uh some years back now um really nice traditional wooden sheath all carved and you know that's how they do it they do the wood and very occasionally wrap it with something more usually it's just like a uh well here it's this spring but usually it's uh like rattan or something but this has a 13 inch blade and wait 13 or 14 sorry guys let's see yep 13 and a half right in the middle 13 and a half inch blade Made from a leaf spring Very kind of rough This is a buffalo Water buffalo horn and you can see that The tang doesn't quite come to the end Of the handle, Like there is some roughness to this This is not what we would expect When we buy a knife in the mail But man alive does this thing move This thing moves Really really nicely And it's incredibly sharp This is like.
[58:59]This is made for and by a Filipino special marine. I know they oftentimes carry gununtings, but this is a personal carry, and you could see this being used in a very sword-like fashion. 13 and a half inches, is it a short sword? Is it a knife? Kind of hard to tell. This one feels like a short sword, maybe even more than any of them because of how it handles and how that blade is shaped. I love Filipino bolos. I love that downward angle, even on this one, which is relatively straight. You can see a long clip, and you can see a whole bunch of grinder chatter on this blade. This was not made for a collector. This was made for a user.
[59:47]Alrighty, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for stumbling down this road with me.
[59:54]Is it a knife or is it a short sword? I'm always kind of teetering between the two, and I found that around 13 inches. I'm not sure if I can tell the difference. Can you? Let me know down below. What is your favorite near sword or very, very big blade? You know, I come in and out of my collection proclivities, and right now I'm just digging these big fixed blades so that'll never go away it's just seasonal alright be sure to join us on Wednesday I mean on Thursday for Thursday Night Knives that's tomorrow night if you're watching this the day this drops and then on Sunday for another great interview with another interesting knife individual 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. Check out some great knife photos on TheKnifeJunkie.com and join our Facebook group at TheKnifeJunkie.com. And if you have a question or comment, email them to bob at thenifejunkie.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. Thank you.
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