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. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, a new one from Jack Wolf Knives, a beautiful DC Blades Pakal, and recent acquisitions in my collection of self defense, folding blades and fixed blades. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Night Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:17]:
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.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:30]:
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from frequent Thursday night nods contributor, Pete Davidson. He says, I tend to have a squire follow me around with a brass bound buggery box containing that day's blade of choice. Belt or pocket carry is for the normals. We say normals here. For we are knife junks. And, I appreciate that. Pete comes, hails from Down Under.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:57]:
So, normals, I guess, is how they say normies. But, really, it's the message that comes through. I was talking about how to carry your fixed blades last week, and, he suggested just hiring a caddy, or maybe some sort of indentured, situation, you know, where you can pay him or her in knives as they carry around your brass bound bugly box. Next comment was from, m s cole twenty three loves the sea. And, she says, thanks for another great show, Bob. Love that 2025 poker collectible. I doubt I'm the only woman that watches your show, but I think that would make a great Valentine's gift from my husband, not for her. And, Cole, I will tell Joseph and, pass it along.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:45]:
Drop that hint. Maybe I can, maybe I can make some headway on that effort. We all wanna get a nice knife for Valentine's Day. That is in a couple of days. We here in the DeMarco household have, have different plans, which takes off some, some of that pressure to find that special gift for Valentine's Day. But if you're looking for one, the 2025 Boker collectible, I'm hearing, is a good choice. Alright. That said, time to get to a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:17]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:25]:
In my front right pocket today, the venerable Microtex Stitch. This beautiful one has the aluminum handles. You can get this for the same cost in it with aluminum handles or g 10 handles, and they have that, contoured and fluted texture. But, I love this knife. This is also m three ninety blade steel, by the way. I love this knife, and I was resistant to it for a long time because I would look at it in pictures and think, oh, that blade to handle ratio, it just sticks in my craw, you know? It's just not quite, that choil is too blah blah blah. And then someone loaned me a, a Switchblade version of this, and I fell in love with it. So as soon as it was released as a, what do they call this, Ramlock edition.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:12]:
Ramlock is their version of the crossbar lock. It is different from a normal crossbar lock in that it uses a coil spring. Oh, it's dusty in there. Instead of two omega springs and, and kind of a block instead of a bar. But anyway, when this one came out, I jumped on it. I I really love this knife and, love carrying it. It's it's a big bigger knife. It's a little bit chunky, but it rides real nicely, and that aluminum is great.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:41]:
I do caution you to about carrying aluminum and full titanium handles in the very, very cold winter, just because it can be cold on your hands. And that doesn't sound like a tough night junkie, so I'll just pretend I didn't say that. Something I love about Microtech are their serrations. The peaks of the serrations are always proud of the edge, which I like. It's not like they carve those serrations once the edge is created. They kinda do it in reverse so that you you get serrations that, really kind of reach reach out, beyond the edge. Really excellent knife. I love this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:20]:
I used it to, package up a, a couple of boxes that were going out with knives. A great a great knife for that. Next, I had one I haven't carried in a while in my front right pocket. Well, this one has such a stiff spring. This is the Gitano from, Lionsteel and Gudy van Poppel. And if you don't know who that is, he is an amazing, knife maker from Denmark. What kind of name is Hunie Van Poppel? I can't remember. I think he's from I don't remember where he's from.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:56]:
Somewhere in Northern Europe, but he creates incredible custom folders. The Gitano is one that he does in a folding, flipping, locking version and in, slip joint versions and others, similar to this kind of modern takes on older European knives. In this case, sort of a sort of a Navajo style Spanish knife. And, this is one that I was very excited, to have and to carry when it first came out and just hadn't carried it in a while. So I popped this in the pocket thinking it might be a steak knife for an outing, that I went on with my wife, last night. So it just kinda stayed in the pocket today. Pocket clip is awesome on this, and the tough, tough spring on this is great. What kind of steel, you ask? I cannot remember.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:48]:
So I will look. Nylox. That's right. Nylox. A steel I'm not so sure what what's up with nylox steel, but doesn't matter to me. It's sharp and it keeps a pretty good edge for what I use it for. And I love the olive olive wood handle. I've, in my older years, have gotten to really appreciate wood on, knife handles.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:11]:
I just I just like it. Whereas before, I was all about the g 10, and I found carbon fiber exciting for a little while. But, yeah, we got the wood on the handle of the blade. I will take it. Alright. Next in my waistband right up in the appendix, was another one I haven't really carried in a little while. This is the Copas Designs Elvia. This is a design collaboration with Ed Calderon and his famous Elvia style knife and fruit style knife he kind of made famous.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:46]:
He carried tip down edge in with that spine curve on the, on the handle so that the blade reaches out in such a way that if you're backfisting or or throwing out that, throwing out that blade, the point goes where you want it to, accounting for the curvature of the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder, etcetera. This one, beautifully tsukamaki wrapped by, Bright for War knives. If you don't follow Bright for War, his stuff, Josh Mason, his stuff is amazing. He does amazing stuff. I have a, one of his Kwaikens, another knife I very rarely carry. That's that's most of my collection. When you get to the point where you have a ridiculously sprawling collection, you don't carry them all that frequently. But you have them, you possess them, and that's the important part.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:38]:
Peaks and valleys on this, really capture the hand, really, you can bury the fat of your palm in there, your fingers land in those little valleys. And here we have a purple dyed genuine ray skin. So really, really excellent version of the Elvia. I see a lot of different Elvia's, and I love what people do with the handles. Sometimes they're very utilitarianly wrapped with hockey tape or, you know, medical tape or whatever. Sometimes you see fancy wraps like this, but I love, how people do it up because these knives are one fifty four centimeters blade steel, but a very inexpensive injection molded, handle. And so to see how people, enhance the grip and also just the look is always exciting. Carry this with an Ulti clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:25]:
I don't have too many Ulti clips. I'm not as big a fan of the Ulti clip as I am, the discrete carry concepts clips, but, this definitely works for this. My emotional support knife today, my ESK, was the TiLite from Cold Steel. This TiLite, I I got kinda late in the game. I had the, the wavy bladed Chris for a while. I still have that one, but my point is, I've had the four inch version of this knife forever, but never got the six inch. I was very interested in getting the six inch, never got off my duff to get it. And then I found myself at Willie knife shop in Delaware, on a trip last, summer, we had the Willys on the show.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:07]:
Great people, a great knife shop in, in an unexpected spot for me. It was it's a sort of a rural environment, very, very beautiful part of Delaware. And, lo and behold, like a like a mirage, popping up on the horizon was this cool little knife shop. Go in there, meet them, feel compelled to buy something, and this is what I got. And I'm really happy I have this in the collection. The quillion, the front quillion of this is famously, waveable out of the front pocket. So as you draw this knife out, you can catch that quillion with the jimping on the side of your pockets, and it opens up quickly. One thing I've never understood about the design of this knife is why Lynn Thompson chose to put the forward reaching quillion on the on this side and the backward reaching quillion on the top side.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:00]:
It just makes sense to do them in reverse because, this would hook better on the pant, and this would be a nicer engagement with the thumb. My only speculation is that to have this one on top would be too much like a wave, and the wave only recently came, out of patent protection, the Emerson wave. So, that was probably done to avoid, patent infringement. I don't know. What do you think? Let me know. Drop it in the comments below, as well as what you're carrying today. Always find that very, very interesting. I've been a little slack on the comments this week, but I, it is sun as I record this, I will, not as I record it, but after I record this, I will catch up on the comments.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:48]:
I love talking with you guys, finding out what you're, what you're thinking and what's on your mind. And, so, let me know what you're carrying. Before I get to, knife life news, I just wanted to say I was watching, reruns of Forged in Fire, surprise surprise, with my wife couple nights ago on the VICE network. If you're not familiar, VICE is a is a cable network. And, they have commercials, and I saw the coolest thing. I saw a Montana knife company knife commercial. And, you know, I was like, oh my gosh. This is crazy.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:23]:
I've never seen a knife commercial on national TV. And it is cable, but still and then I realized, well, this is a forged in fire rerun, you know, block. So it makes sense that if there's gonna be a commercial, a knife commercial on TV, it will be happening, on cable and, during forged in fire. And, all all that put aside, it was so cool. First of all, very well produced commercial. But second of all, it was just so nice to feel that representation as a knife junkie, to the rest of the world. Montana Knife Company apparently is burning it up, as you can tell from the commercial, And also they are, they're just doing very well. I don't now I don't see too many of their knives reviewed, but I know that they're getting a lot of use because that company is is really, really grown growing quite fast.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:18]:
So congratulations to Montana Knife Company for, putting out a really cool commercial on TV. Nice to see. Alright. Before we get to knife life news, I'd like to urge you to help support the show. A very good way of doing that is to share the show with a like minded friend or even a, you know, a knife junkie adjacent friend. You might just push them over the edge and get them to love knives this way. Also, you can download the show to your favorite podcast app and listen on the go, like, when you're trying to get to work, or you can go to Patreon and support the show in a monetary type way. Quickest way to do that is to scan the QR code on the screen or go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:00]:
Again, that's theknifejunkie.com/patreon.

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Announcer [00:13:14]:
The knifejunkie.com/battlebox. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:23]:
Okay. A pretty exciting, knife coming out from TOPS. I would I would okay. I shouldn't start with this. But if this were my design, I'd make a couple of little, changes to it. But I'm really excited about this design and happy to see it, become popularized. And it's the new TOPS Gununting. It's the x 16 Gununting.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:45]:
Gununting is a knife I talk about a lot here. It's a short sword used a lot in Petitih Turchakali, and in The Philippines. The Filipino special marines carry these things, and use them with great effect. It's a sickle shaped blade, a downward large hawkbill shaped blade. And in this case, it's designed by Adam Boyce. He's someone I've been following, Spartan mode, I believe he goes by on Instagram. He is a licensed Marshall Blade Concepts instructor. If you're wondering, Marshall Blade Concepts is the fighting system, devised by Michael Janich.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:22]:
And so Adam Boyce designed this. It's a two foot long overall with a fifteen and three quarters inch ten ninety five blade with that black traction coating we know and love from tops. And look at that thing. It's absolutely wicked. I would say that that harpoon swedge on top is begging to be sharpened, which would make this sort of a bayonet ground, gununting. Modernized version of the sword used by the second Philip by the special Filipino marine, the TDU Church College. These are my notes. Sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:55]:
But great and intended for outdoor, bush chopping. It is a two pound knife, so, pretty hefty. Comes with a Kydex sheath, and, originally, this thing was designed oh, and it has that dangler that you see on the modern Gladius, by the way. Note how the, how the sheath has no grommets on the back. So this is gonna be sort the kind that sorta slips in from the side due to that long curve. Adam Boyce originally designed this for knife and death competition. Remember that, cutting, cutting, cutting sports show? It was a spin off of, forged in fire. He was a Adam Boyce was an alternative contestant on one of the shows who did not compete, but he had a knife just like this design.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:47]:
This is available now. And now what would you change, Bob? I gotta say I would make well, the blade is beautiful. I guess I would make it a little more slender, so it's a little, lighter. Though I haven't hefted this, I don't know how it feels. But the one thing I would actually change is I would make a larger pommel. Here's here's my right here. And, traditionally, have a much bigger pommel, that that really, you know, if you're doing a lot of swinging, which presumably will be for clearing brush with this, you wanna come up against something that really nestles in your hand and kinda wraps around, your pinky. All the Filipino swords on my wall and most of the ones that you can, look up and find have that sort of wrapping pommel.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:35]:
And it just it's a it's an insurance here's one right here too. It's just an insurance that the knife isn't gonna come out of your hand with extended swinging and chopping. So that's and and also for me, it's an aesthetic thing. I think I think those panels just look cool. So that's what I would have added. But, it's not my knife. It's Adam Boyce's, and, thank you for bringing a gununting to the general public. Very, very cool design, and thank you, Topps, for always being courageous with the kind of designs you take on.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:07]:
Okay. Next up. This one's interest interesting. This is from Kaiser Knives and, bladesmith Bradley Diaz. This one is called the Tomb. The Tomb, it's a very, unique looking knife, and it is a take on the very, traditional coffin shaped handle, but it's kind of reversed. Coffin shaped handle seen most frequently on Bowie knives where it's sort of an even swell towards a, drop in the back. Well, they've reversed it and, have the have it it really looks like coffin when it's shut.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:47]:
Okay. So this is as you can see in this guy's hand here. So the the portion that is up by the ricasso is usually at the pommel. It widens out to, to handle centrifugal force when you're Bowie knife fighting. This is obviously not a foe a fighting knife. It's an EDC. So that shape doesn't the fact that it tapers towards the pommel isn't a huge issue. But it's a it's a pretty cool looking knife, I gotta say.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:13]:
So it is called the Tomb, so really, really vibing on the coffin shape here. It's Nitro V blade steel. That's a 3.2 inches Nitro V full flat ground drop point. It's got an extended run of jimping that comes all the way from the break of the handle towards about halfway down the blade. And, that reorientation 180 degrees, with the button lock and the front flipper. So that front flipper is very easy accessed, easily accessed by reorienting the shape of of the blade of the handle. So pretty interesting. Comes in wood, ultim aluminum, and g 10 Damascus, which is sort of that swirly black and blue, Damascus.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:59]:
And then then if you look here at this picture with the top scale taken off, you can see the liners have a lot of weight relief cuts, but those weight relief cuts look like bones and a skeleton. So kind of a cool little Easter egg, when you disassemble the knife, you take that coffin lid off, and you see the skeleton within. This is available now. So all you guys are nuts. Time to go get one. Alright. Next, another elementum. Okay? I joke about how the elementum is Savivi's, Savivi's version of the Boca Burnley Quaken, where they just kind of reiterate the knife over and over and over with in in different forms.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:45]:
I'm surprised it took so long for them to come out in the fifth year of the Elementum being a thing. They finally came out with a slip joint version. Looks pretty nice. This comes with a 2.96 inch 14 c 28 n blade, hollow ground as usual. So you're gonna get a a really, really sharp and thin behind the edge knife. I believe there's only one element, and that's hollow ground not hollow ground. And I think that's the large button lock, version. The first of the button locks that they put out where you needed the button to open it.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:19]:
This will also come in the requisite Damascus as they always kinda do. Two handed opener, and you're using that nail nick there. It has it this is not a double detent slip joint. This is a genuine sort of slip joint with, but a modern one in that it doesn't stop with a kick at the ricasso. It stops with a, a pin on the inside of the handle, a stop pin on the inside of the handle. And so that does allow you to have a little bit of a of a finger choil there. This one is coming in a cool new material besides the g 10, and I think they'll have carbon fiber with the Damascus. That's their usual recipe.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:59]:
But this one you see on screen is a beautiful blue ocean resin, and I I think it looks really cool. I think it's beautiful. It looks kinda like a a view of the ocean from space, and, I approve. Fully ambidextrous and has a reversible pocket clip. This one is coming at the February. Alright. This last, little story here is about an actor I love, but I hate it when actors I love kinda talk about things other than acting. This is from the great Idris Elba, who is not only a great actor.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:34]:
He he I first came to know him when he played Stringer on The Wire. Man, he's so good, and I was shocked to find out he's British because he spoke like a a Baltimore gangster very, very well. He's also, an accomplished Muay Thai kickboxer and competitor. So, he's no lightweight, pun intended. But he has chimed in on, knives in Great Britain. Of course, he has more skin in the game as he is British, and he has a new, documentary coming up on knife crime in Great Britain. But, anyway, this is, from a New York Post article. Idris Elba suggests kitchen knives to be blunted.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:17]:
Others banned to prevent stabbings in The UK. So I'm just gonna read this little clip from from, Knife magazine, via or, from New York Post via Knife magazine. Quote, actor Idris Elba announced amid his forthcoming knife crime documentary that The United Kingdom must consider, quote, unquote, innovative prevention methods such as blunting or banning knives. According to IMDB, the documentary explores the reality of knife crime in The UK, needing offenders, families, youth workers, and police to understand this crime and find solutions, including discussions with the feckless and pasty cup, Keir Starmer, and the major dweeb, King Charles. Those editorials are my own. The 52 year old actor spoke with the BBC shortly before the release of his documentary about how to solve knife crime. He says, quote, unquote, the truth is that kitchen knives are perhaps 25% of the knives used in the most terrible crimes, and that is true. It's true here as well.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:22]:
That's one of the stats in the film. And those kitchen knives are usually a used in a domestic situation, Elba Warren. So kitchen knives, of course, it's very difficult. They're a domestic knife. I I think your heart's in the right place, Idris. I don't think that the, that the solution is to dull blunt the tips of knives or to outlaw knives in general. You do that, people it's gonna be hammer crime. Everyone's gonna be killing each other with hammers.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:51]:
There is an underlying reason as to why, there is knife crime. Maybe it's because the whole population is disarmed. They say an armed society is a polite society. And I'm I'm not saying we have a polite society here in The United States, but I am saying that we probably avoid a lot of crime through the fact that no one knows if the guy you're about to rob has a gun unless you're in a gun free zone like Chicago where only the gangsters have guns. So I think it's a tough issue, and I'm very sorry to hear that there's a, a violent crime epidemic in England, but I am guessing that there are reasons other than the fact that sharp knives exist. I mean, there are some very obvious reasons, and all you have to do is look at the news, and you'll you'll glean what I'm talking about. But this is not a political show, so we will not go any further with that. But I would like to say, like I told Robert De Niro in a video I'm sure he did not see, very few people saw, but just shut up and act.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:54]:
You know? And I hate shut up. It's almost worse than saying f you, but just kinda just don't talk about that. Just act. You're a great actor. We don't care about what you think. Sorry. Alright. Coming up, we're gonna take a look at a couple of new knives here.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:10]:
And, but before we do, I want to remind you that, we are here every Thursday night for Thursday night knives. It's a live show. You get to come on. You could even talk to us. A few very few people have done that in the past. You can go to the knifejunkie.com slash join, hop in the live stream, and we can actually have a conversation. So that's, that's always a fun thing to do. So why not check it out? And if not, just comment.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:37]:
You and I will talk back and forth with comments. We can hash through these sort of, fraught political, topics like blunted knives in Great Britain and mouthing off the famous actors. So be sure to do that. Alright. Coming up, we got the state of the collection.

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Announcer [00:26:28]:
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:34]:
A little reminder, I mentioned this a lot. LaunchCard is also an American company as opposed to Shopify, which is Canadian. So if you're American and you'd like to support an American business, do that. If you're Canadian and you'd like to support an American business, check out LaunchCard. Alright. Right here, I got a new one from Jack Wolf Knives, and this is Primo. This is the Jack Wolf Knives Primo, but primo meaning cousin, the Spanish word for cousin, not primo like this is this is the tops, man. But it is that as well.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:06]:
So this what is this? Let's let's talk about it. Do I have one on here? I don't. Okay. So this is the, folding flipping version, so slightly larger at 3.25 inch blade length of the Big Bro. So you know that Ben Belkin of Jack Wolf Knives has, over the past year and a half, has been, revisiting the Jack Wolf Knives catalog and making some of those models a little bit larger, folding bolster lots. Flipping, flipping bolster lots, I mean. And, this is the latest one, and I absolutely love it. Nice big knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:44]:
It fits the hand, fits you get a full finger grip on this sucker. That is a full height hollow ground, s 90 v blade, and it's got two long pulls, one on each side. A long pull is a sort of nail nick that you see on traditional knives, but in this case, it works great as a middle finger flicker spot. You know, you just bury your, bury your forefinger in there or your middle finger and flick it out like that. It's got nice hand rubbed satin. I love the way that looks. I'm leaving a little bit of leaving a little bit of, fingernail in those, long pulls. It's nice and sharp so that it grabs your finger.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:30]:
And he's brought back Micarta. So Micarta went away for a little while. The past couple of models, he's been offering Micarta due to popular demand. And here, we have this really nice polished micarta, which, when he was using micarta on the first group of designs, it was always, that thicker sort of canvas micarta without polish. This has a really nice polish on it, and that's a nice thin weave linen micarta. And this really takes the dye well. I love that I love how it looks here. You've got that dark blasted titanium bolster integral with liners, and then you have a full length backspacer, which, sort of evokes slip joint, looks a bit like the slip joints instead of having an opening there.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:21]:
It's got the full length, which I love. Backspacer. And then I'm looking at the clip and the hardware here. It's so nice. It's a bronzed hardware, but there's a little bit of a purple in that. You see that? Just a little bit of purple in there, and I just think it looks beautiful. Understated, classy, and, a hard I don't wanna say hard used knife. I'm definitely not gonna say that because I wouldn't know, because I've never hard used my Jack Wolf knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:51]:
I have used several of them to cut up lots of cardboard. That's not hard use. I know I know you use your shit guys are chuckling at that, but, the they can power through lots of cardboard. So that is to say they have a stout build and, and they will go the mile, especially for, for the type of knife it is. And in this case, a sort of gentleman's holder. The thing I love about these recent ones, he's doing a lot of Barlow style bolsters. Barlow style bolster takes up about a third of the length of the handle, and traditionally, Barlow's were were workers' knives, and that extra long bolster was there to give, greater lateral strength, to that pinched tang within. So a a really great look and, you know, extra strength, though with those integral, liners, I think that offers the strength even without the long bolster.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:54]:
But I just love this thing. So thrilled to have it in my collection, and really happy to see the way, Ben Belkin and Jack Wolf Knives has gone with the, flipping locking knives. Alright. Next up, this beauty was sent to me by Justin of of DC Blades. Justin of DC Blades and tier one beer reviews teamed up, with Old Squirrel Knives several years back, and they are a design team phenom. And this latest one is just awesome. I've been carrying it nonstop since he sent it to me. Thank you so much for this.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:33]:
Also, I wanna thank Ben for sending me, the Jack Wolf I was just showing you. But this thing has been riding in my back left pocket a lot, and when not there, it's been in my front right pocket. And it is the vendetta, the aptly named vendetta. Okay. It is a luxury I keep calling it a luxury Pakal. I don't know if you would take exception to that, but let's call a spade a spade. It is a, really luxury kinda nice. It's got the micro milling I believe Migron is the OEM on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:05]:
I might be mistaken. But it's got beautiful micro milling and the titanium frame lock here, and and it's got this incredible silver foil carbon fiber inlay, not only on the show side, but on the lock side, which I really appreciate. Got very nice, sculpted titanium pocket clip and a beautifully ergonomic handle or reverse grip with that thumb rest here right on top. Because when you're using a Pakal style knife, especially for its intended purpose, which is a lot of hard downward, stabbing, you want to be capping the pommel with your thumb so as not to slide down on the blade or Lee's grip. So this works beautifully this way. Also also not for nothing, fits nicely in the hand this way for an upcut. You can also use it in a more traditional way. It is less ergonomically sound or less ergonomically comfortable, this way.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:06]:
But for general use, it works great. You've got a finger a thumb swill there. You can remove this pocket catch, this wave type feature, but why would you, when you can just pull this out of the pocket and have it opened through that action? Really awesome. Did I mention this three inch hawkbill blade, this m three ninety blade steel? I don't think I did. M three ninety. It's just beautiful to look at, and reminds me kind of of a raven's beak. Let me show you the there's their maker's mark there, logo right there, DC blades. Sort of a demon skull, not an understated logo, demon skull type thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:47]:
Very cool. A reversible pocket clip available at dcblades.net and also an awesome front flipper, you'd say. If I could do it, there you go. Since I prefer front flipping with my forefinger, this one works awesome. Let's see how it is on reverse. Reverse, I mean, not reverse, but with the thumb, it's okay. I'm just not great with a with a thumb flip, especially, with my left hand. Go check it out.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:14]:
DC blades Vendetta. Alright. We're gonna talk about some self defense folding knives here in a second, folding and fixed blade knives. But before we do, I wanna show you this latest t shirt since we have, if you're listening to this the day it drops, in two days is Valentine's Day. So get off your duff, people, and, do Valentine's Day. Check this out. Sharp love. I love this.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:40]:
This is another awesome design by Jim. And, Jim, I love the the, the knives you chose for this one. Really cool handles and pommels. Sharp love. You've got the, nice pink, shirt here, and, your love will love it. And I love love. Don't you love love? So sharp love is the kind of love you wanna bring on Valentine's Day. And then other kinds also.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:05]:
Soft love works too. Alright. Let's talk about self defense knives, folding and fixed blade recent acquisitions. Since I was just talking about it, let me show you this again. But I'll I'll show you this vendetta with another recent acquisition from DC blades, the Rev. This is awesome. Now I'm a little less good left hand, sorry, front flipping this sucker. That's why I put the, aftermarket thumb stud that ships with this knife on there.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:37]:
This is the beautiful Rev made by Shieldon. This is a three way collaboration. It's, DC blades, you can see their logo here, with auxiliary manufacturing. If you look super close at this, you'll see an AM to the left of that demon skull, and that's auxiliary manufacturing. Michael Jarvis of auxiliary manufacturing, was approached by, Justin of DC blades. Justin said, I love your rev model, which is the reverse of another model. So, here's the story. Michael Jarvis of auxiliary manufacturing has a custom knife design that looks like this, where the sharp side is down here.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:23]:
One day, he realized it would make a really awesome pickle style knife if he just sharpened the other side, which he did. He called that fixed blade custom reverse, you know, call style knife, the rev for reverse. That's when DC blades comes to him and says, hey, we'd love to make the rev a folder. It would make a great folder. And, so that partnership was born, and then they went to Shields and Knives to have it made. This one has a pretty stout detent, but I'm breaking it in, and so I can even open it up with my forefinger now. It is awesome. It's a straight inline pekal as opposed to, the more traditional style pekal knife we see here, with the, Vendetta or here with the, with the, Elvia, where that point is kind of up and oriented away from the handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:17]:
This is straight and in line. This knife, this Rev makes for a really outstanding all around knife because if you just use it in the standard grip like this, and not in that, reverse grip like this, it works awesome. You're not it it feels it's ergonomically great. You're not feeling you're not compromising. And by the by compromising, I'm not saying that this knife is a compromise. I am saying it's optimized with the ergonomics, for reverse grip. So what I'm getting at is the straight Pakal works just as well as the, sort of traditional curved Pakal. And, this one, as you notice, has Ultim.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:01]:
I love the Ultim on this one. It's just gorgeous. You can't see too much through it. I'm not a big fan of too much Ultim, but this one is great. And I love the way it looks next to the black blade, and the, sculpting on the handle is so cool. And that comes straight from auxiliary manufacturing. They're big into that sort of sculpted handle. Also, you got that gear pattern, grip there or not grip, backspacer, which works great for gripping with the thumb.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:35]:
Alright. So that's two down. That's the two DC blades, Picall style knives here, the Rev and the Vendetta. Another recent one is from our friends over at Fisher Blades. This is the unicorn edition of their famous Beckwith Covert. Got this about a month and a half ago, and, I'm a huge fan of this knife. And I'm really, grateful that they sent me this unicorn version. I have two of the unicorns.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:05]:
What's unicorn, you say? Well, the standard edition of this knife is either black on black, black handle, black blade with the red liners, or, you can get it in flat dark earth, which is also actually quite fetching with black liners that almost look dark green. But every once in a while, they'll put out a unicorn edition. They do everything in batches, small batches, and the unicorn editions are small batches with different colorations. This one came out during the holidays, so came out in December, right before Christmas, and the gold and red with the black liners, to me, I'm not sure if they intended this, but is very holiday. It says very holiday without going red and green and just going over the top. Gold is a color we see a lot during the holiday season, and then matched up with that bright red. I love this. You know, I I don't really carry my two unicorn additions.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:01]:
The other one has a gunmetal gray, handle with white liners and black black handles. I'm kind of a little precious with these. The flat dark earth and the black version, I carry a lot. But I really love this design and vouch for how practical it is. This is a drop in the front pocket style sheath, and it is if you're wondering here, I'm gonna come to the main camera here. If you're wondering how it how you seek this when it's so deep in your pocket without cutting up your pocket, I learned this with the, Northman from, Bill Rapier. You just you just follow the clip down and it lands naturally right in the sheath. Now this is an everyday defense knife, not an EDC knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:50]:
You ask, the Fisher Brothers about this knife, and they will tell you, yeah. You can open up boxes. You can use this as an EDC knife, but, really, it's an everyday defensive knife. That that's its main purpose. And you can see sitting in the sheath, if you orient the sheath exactly north to south, the handle cants off just a little bit to the to the right. That's so that you can draw this when you're folded in half because, someone who knows wrestling or jujitsu, has you on the ground and is trying to kill you the apple. This makes the blade easier more easy to access, and it won't get hung up, on your hip. Very great design, really excellent, ergonomics in hand, inspired by the American Tanto, obviously, and also, the Delica with that with that, forward, thumb notch there or thumb rails.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:45]:
Love this knife. And, I think this red and gold version is a gaudy sort of version of it. For when you're feeling spicy, you might wanna carry that one. Okay. So, another one I got recently, this is a rerelease from Emerson Knives. This is a knife that I was trying to get my hands on for years, and for a long time, it was hard to get, and then it went away. You know, Emerson Knives also used to do things, more batch oriented when their capacity was smaller. They would work on the Commander for a while, and then they would work on the CQC seven for a while.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:24]:
Well, now they have a much bigger, setup years later, and, they can do more knives at once. This is one that I'm so happy to see them pull out of mothballs. This is the PTAC, the Emerson PTAC. Now this is their current version of what was once called the Persian. So this one, just came out about a year ago in rerelease, and, no. No. No. What am I talking about? Much less.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:51]:
This came out in, what, November 2024, and I jumped all over it. I didn't know about it until I saw Scav's video on it, where he announced it, and, I jumped on it. Love this thing. If you didn't jump on it literally, that would be quite painful. That's a two point a a 4.2 inch blade, one fifty four centimeters, chisel, v ground, and chisel edged. And then you have this nice generous handle, sort of a pistol grip handle, where you can kind of be right up on the blade for a sort of Filipino style, cut or grip, or you can come further back and put this part of the pommel in the in the palm of your hand, and you get, not only reach, but you get some, kinetic backing with the palm in that pistol grip. I'm a big fan of this knife, though. With all Emerson knives, I had to take some fine sandpaper to the, super grippy g 10 under the pocket clip so it doesn't shred my pants when I, you know, take it in and out of the pants.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:01]:
Yes. You will also notice this is one of the few waveless Emerson models. They're becoming more and more common, but still they are, I only have one other knife in my Emerson collection that doesn't have a wave, and that's the Tim Kennedy folder. I love this thing. I think it would look cool with the, and be useful with the wave. And if that's how you feel, look for the Hateen. The Hateen is also an upswept, albeit slightly smaller Persian style blade with a with a different handle. But that one has a wave.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:36]:
Love this thing. Alright. This next one was from a hall of knives that I, bought from the great and powerful Kirk Pinkerton who was looking to downsize his massive collection. And, man, I really lucked into this one. This is the KudaMax five point five, designed by the late great Daryl Ralph. Just an outstandingly beautiful knife. Lots of different, large folders he made. I said that kinda like Yoda.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:07]:
Daryl Ralph designed a lot of large, cool, aggressive folders, tactical folders. One that was made famous in I can't remember the name of it now, but in the first Expendables movie, Jay Stay. That's what I call Jason Statham. I love that guy. I love that guy. Jay Jason Statham carried a big folding, damn, I can't remember what it's called now. But it was a big tanto, and he, roughed up some dude with it, in the beginning on the basketball court. But this one, I was so excited and grateful to see, that Dirk had.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:47]:
He was willing to relinquish. This one, a beautiful long Bowie blade. It reminds me a bit of the Hell's Bells or one of the Bagwell style, fighting bowies, that remains slender, on the length of it with a nice long swedge. This one double quillons. Love the quillons. They, face forward, so allow your thumb to back, back up against it like this. A tip down only design, one of the few tip down only designs that I will tolerate. Now it would make a great waveable knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:22]:
And, apparently, Daryl Ralph was aware of that. Not apparently. I I have this on good word from, Dirk Pinkerton who, was good friends, with Daryl Ralph, who was a mentor, to him. And he was aware that if he had mounted the clip on the other way and made it tip up, you could easily waive this out of the pocket. But he did not want to get into, you know, patent issues with, Ernest Emerson, so he kept it up here. I know for a while, Dirk, this was he's not doing it now, but Dirk would do mods where he would put, mount the clip on the on the tail end, which is cool. Now if you wanna have this knife and wave it, you just drop it in the pocket this way. It's tall enough with a five and a half inch blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:11]:
It's tall enough that it'll it'll orient itself north to south and stay that way in your pocket. You just draw it out. The one, caveat to that is this is no longer in print. It hasn't been for a long time, so you're gonna have a hard time finding one of these. And if you do find it, it's gonna be very expensive. We're talking, like, $500. So, I mean, I I have seen it recently on Arizona Custom Knives for that. Great knife, really.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:39]:
I, like I said, I totally lucked into this. You know how they say you can sort of create your own luck? Well, it took me a while, but I feel like I've created my own knife luck in doing this show. I've met so many great people and generous people, and, so that's how I got this. Because this is something that you could easily hoard for many more years and then sell for tremendous amounts of money, and, Dirk was willing to let it go. So, I got one. I know, I know one other person who got one, and I I think I'll leave his name out of this so he doesn't get, hassled with, hey, man. Wanna sell your CUDA Max? So titanium and d two blade steel back in the day when d two was, you know, an exciting new steel. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:27]:
Next up, I also got this in the Dirk Pinkerton haul. This is the Shivwerks Clinch Pick, a knife I've wanted for a long time, never got off my duff to get. This is the v two version. You can tell because it's got a flatter and, knurled handle scale. They used to be more egg shaped. This was designed to fit on the belt on the front scout carry with the tip up. A very unique style like, I used to think this was a Pacal style knife, and I guess you could kinda call it that. But that wasn't its original intention.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:03]:
Originally, this is designed by, he goes by South Narc on, on Instagram. His last name is Douglas, I think. I always forget his name. Forgive me. He's a super cool dude and a dashing dude. He not only shows off, his knives and great ways to fight with pistols and knives in confined spaces. This all comes from experience because he used to be a narcotics undercover narcotics officer, so huevos of brass and steel. But his intention for this thing was to be worn on the front of the belt and hidden there and to be grabbed with the right hand or whatever, left hand too, I guess, but to be used in this grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:52]:
Not a not like a pickle where you're tip down edge in, but your your edge back like this, almost like mountain man style bowie fighting. And the reason for that was, he had experience in, drug deals in cars where he's an undercover officer and he's in the driver's seat and or in the passenger seat. And the guy he's with is reaching over and trying to get his sidearm, and they're in a fight. And this, you can pull out like this. Here, I'll do this over here. And then this sort of draw pull cut against the basically filleting the arm of the guy who's reaching across. And, so he found that to be, a need, which man, thank god there are people like that. Thank god I do not run into those kind of situations.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:43]:
But this knife was designed out of a need to, extricate himself from, in car grappling situations. So, a sort of, born out of a very particular scenario, but a very useful knife for all purposes. You can carry this I carry this a lot, actually, because it's so small and discreet. You could use this for self defense for sure, but you can use this for anything else. And, actually, since Dirk, put a he reground this hollow on a, I think, a 12 inch, grinding wheel, it's got a much better edge than how it ships. Apparently, it ships a bit like a sharpened pry bar. But there's the Shiv Works logo. Such a cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:29]:
I put the Ranger band on it for extra grip because, you know, high speed, low drag, that's neat. And, it's got a great sheath. You use the belt loop, and it just kinda disappears on your belt. You can still buy these, Shiv Works clinch picks. You just go to, I think, ShivWorks.com and find them there, as well as a couple of other knives and pickle style things. Okay. So the next knife is sort of a suite of knives I'm gonna show. Been carrying these a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:59]:
You've seen me, carry these quite a bit and show them off. The Regiment Blades LoViz and the Auto Lock, which I'm gonna open in the cool way that their designer, Al Salvitti, showed me how to open it. You just slap it like that and boom, comes into your hand like this. But this is the low vis, the auto lock, and then the low vis NPE version. NPE means non permissive environments. So this is a knife that will elude, metal detectors. No clip on this, so you'll wear this with the shock cord, wrapped around your belt or your belt loop, and then just tuck this in your waistband, imagine your belt is right there, and you have a great nasty knife to use, when you need to. You say, Bob, how could that how could that evade a metal detector? Look at those screws.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:54]:
Well, those screws, sir or madam, are, and the bolts are made of plastic. This whole damn thing is plastic. G 10, very sharp, and, I'm a big fan of this. Though I carry it infrequently, because I don't need I don't go into those kind of environments. And if I do, like recently, I went to the county courthouse. I didn't carry this. I don't wanna get busted with it, but, if I needed to, I would. So, yeah, really, really cool, implement.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:26]:
But, let me let me highlight the the low vis. This one I carry quite a bit. I actually carry the folder a lot around the house as well. But this one, is very easy to carry because of the shape of it. That pistol shape, kind of evocative of a revolver, especially with that finger hole, kinda disappears in the waistband. You put it in, appendix like you would a pistol, and then this just curves under your belly. And, you know, that's something you have to consider when you're sitting down. You've got something wedged in your waistband.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:01]:
How's it gonna engage with the the little bit of extra you may have? And, I have a little bit of extra. So this is very comfortable to carry. And and then when you draw it, I'm gonna come to the main cam here. When you draw like this oh, sorry. Sorry for the sound effects. But you draw it out. It's very easy to grab what with the handle down here and this hole, and then you punch forward. And Al Salvidi recommends, backing it with the back of the hand, to keep your other hand out of the way.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:35]:
Oftentimes, people will push before they draw. You see that a lot with, gun tactics, and to me, that seems just spurious because you got your your gun behind your hand. Same thing with the knife, so draw and then back it with the hand. Not only do you get extra power, but you get your live hand out of the way. And Al Salvidi, if you didn't listen to the interview, which you should, regiment blades, he's a a long time trainer of, tier one operator types with knives, and also, did a lot of boxing and power punching. So that's his background. And then bouncing, years of bouncing in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. And, he learned a lot doing that.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:19]:
And, so he designed a knife to fit his, his style of power punching, etcetera. Now you will you've probably seen or heard of the Colonel Blades knife that looks just like that. I don't recommend that knife as it was ripped off from Al's original design. So not nice by someone that he trusted too. How do you like that? How do you like them apples? So I don't recommend that knife if you can even get it now, but regiment blades, you can definitely go and get all sorts of cool stuff from them. Okay. Next up from one of my absolute favorites, the, Teacal knives. Here is the Adversary.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:03]:
And like all sheaths from Decal Knives, it fits like a glove, pops off easily. This is the Adversary. This is the Wharncliffe version of the Combatant, a perfect little belt carry knife. This is another one I carry scout style up front next to my belt buckle, and it draws like a dream, and it's a great user. I have not had to defend my life with it. Thank god. But it would be amazing for such a task. A very stout well, this is, AEDL.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:37]:
Oh, I'm sorry. ADCRV two. But nare you fret, this is, like all of them, nickel boron coated, so you don't have to worry about, you don't have to worry about, lubricity, a, and b, you don't have to worry about, corrosion. The nickel boron coating, which is, only first appeared on knives, when when Tim Kell thought to do it. Tim Kell, a former marine and, rifle and gun enthusiast thought, why why why don't why can't you take nickel boron coating, which is seen on bolt carrier groups and guns, and put it on a blade? A, to protect it, b, to add Rockwell hardness, and c, to make it slip in and out of the sheath and other places nice and easily. And so he did great blade shape. The ergonomics on this are perfect, and you have a great little jimp thumbswell with aggressive but not too aggressive jimping. And then this great short little handle, that's a a thing besides the narrow sheaths that that, fit on belts really well, something that TKEL knives is known for, a smaller handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:54]:
They have some knives with bigger handles, but this small handle disappears on the belt and then disappears in the hand. So you don't have a bunch of punyo sticking out the back end that could be used to disarm the knife in, close quarter, conflicts. But if this handle is too short for your big, meat hooks, you can get a knife I'm sorry, a handle set that fits the blade tang but comes out a little bit further. So, the full tang here is, taken up by sandwiched g 10 towards the back. Check it out. It's a great looking handle. To me, I don't need it. I don't have giant mitts, and, b, I don't wanna throw off the blade to handle ratio, which is so pleasing.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:42]:
TKEL knives, man alive. They're the best. I love TKEL knives. Go check them out. Of course, you know I love the agent series, my collaboration with him. But I love all the other knives too, and I'm I'm looking to get a mercenary and a sapper. Alright. Two more here.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:58]:
This next one, you know, I've been talking about a lot lately. This is the station knives station nine knives, number 12 undercover. This is a, you could call it sort of a Pakal style knife or a Persian knife with a handle that is offset at an angle. So putting that tip down a little bit lower than you would expect from an upswept Persian blade. You've got incredible belly on the main cutting edge and then wicked serrations, chisel ground serrations on the back. So, I mean, this thing is all business and, has a great ergonomic handle with g 10. Again, I have put Ranger bands on them for a little extra grip. The g 10 is, textured but somewhat smooth, and, that is, VG 10.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:50]:
They do a lot of, blades in, October, like the Seer and the Partizan, which I believe are both discontinued, sadly, or at least, not in production right now. I'm sure they'll be back due to popular demand. But those knives can double as, tactical and outdoors or survival knives, so ten ninety five is a great choice due to the toughness. But this is all self defense all day long. This will be, frequently riding in the waistband or or another like place and close to the body. So VG 10 with its, easy to sharpen nature, good edge holding, but most importantly, corrosion resistance, is a great choice for this gorgeous, gorgeous knife. I love this thing. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:40]:
Last on the list, you saw this one last week, and maybe you're just now listening to my interview, with Michael Grosso, the, inventor, or the founder of Armist Knives, Armist Knives and Tool. This is his VSK one, and I found out what VSK1 stands for. Watch the interview to find out. It's great. I love it. But this thing is so comfortable. This is another pocket carry knife, similar to, as I mentioned, the, Fisher blades. Beckwith is a pocket carrying fixed blade.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:20]:
This one is a pocket carrying fixed blade and fits in the pocket perfectly. It's got this really nice, ambidextrous sheath. This style of sheath that we've seen before, made famous most recently by Offensive Industries. I'm not sure if Offensive Industries invented this style of sheath, but I know they've made them incredibly popular. This has a a permanently mounted DCC pocket clip and a bit of soft Velcro on the inside for a smooth and soft landing. Also, you can this, back end can be heated up and remolded, if it gets loose, which I can't see it doing. But the blade here is awesome. Nitro v blade steel, very stout with a saber grind, super sharp and incredibly ergonomically sound and comfortable with that, thumb rest and the dual finger partitions that works so well.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:25]:
I'm not always a fan of that, but if it's nailed, man, he nailed it here. Very comfortable for my, medium sized. Alright, everybody. Thank you so much for checking out my self defense folding and fixed blade knives, recent acquisitions. If it weren't for you, who would care? Who would look at this? Who would be with me on this journey? Wanna urge you to watch the, watch slash listen to my, interview with Michael Grosso of Armist Knives, knife and tool. It's a good one, and, you will love it. Also, join us on Thursday night knives, 10PM Eastern Standard Time, right here on YouTube. It's a live show where I show off stuff, talk to people.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:09]:
Sometimes I have guests, and, really, it's it's a lively communication between, me and all of the viewers. So, do join us there. We'd love to have you. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dough for an answer.

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