Automated Transcript
Favorite Designers: High-End and Low End Designs
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 341)

Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.
The place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco and coming up get in on the ultimate steal before it's over the new Jack Wolf Knives, K9 Jack and great knife designers.
High end and low end.
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.

00:40
Welcome back to the show.
It's good to have you here with us.
Thanks as always for watching my favorite comment from last week.
Was actually from last week's show the 10 best folders, and it's from Steve Sinclair and he says the 10 best folders for the first time knife owner are all Victorinox knives.
Once you have learned to use a Swiss army knife, you can diversify your knife collection to include savings and bucks.
The fact that no Victorinox knives were included in your video exposes you as a salesman for the knives you are pushing here, and neither an expert on knives or and.
I think he means, nor even a bona fide reviewer.

01:21
Yeah.
It cuts to the quick Steve, but I have a couple of thoughts and first thought is there is no such thing as a shill.
Without a platform in the age of the Internet, so all you have to do Sir is turn on your camera and face it.
And start talking about Victorinox knives.
Man people will listen.
People are interested in the brand you represent.
It's very popular.

01:47
Also.
On that end, you call me a salesman, and yet you say the 1st 10 knives.
Someone must own must be a Victorinox.
Who's the salesman?
And lastly, I gotta say.
Well, Sir, how do I get my bona fides?
Where do I get bona fides?

02:09
I think that's how they say it in knife reviewing is it?
Is it university?
Do I have to take out a student loan?
I certainly hope not but.
I'm going to start looking into it because I think I have to increase my credibility here.
As a guy on the Internet giving his opinions.
About pocket knives.

02:28
Steve Sinclair, thank you for your comments, Sir.
Now let's get to a pocket check.
Today I was carrying a classic tactical knife from the early days of the YouTube tactical.
OK, what I mean by this is I was exposed to this through nothing fancy and then Jim skeleton and some of the more early reviewers.
If I can use that word of knives online and.
It's the M1 by combative edge now combative Edge is a company out of the United States.
They have their knives OEM in Italy.

03:11
This was lion steel and the gentleman who owns and runs the company is a martial artist Kali.
Among the things he does and started this company combative edge with without any subtlety to the name, these are tactical knives and in my opinion this is always been my favorite of his designs.
Though he has.
A number of cool ones.
Uh, interesting thing about this is this is pre flipper perfection days so that flipper is more a finger guard.
So look this is how this knife flips.
So it does not.

03:46
It is not intended as a flipper.
You definitely need centrifugal force.
You know a little a little wrist whip or whatever to open this.
Or you can just.
Slow roll it.
You know like that, but this is made in Italy by Lion Steel and just has a beautiful fit and finish.
It's nice and thin.

04:05
That's an N690 blade and 690 Co nice recurve, excellent swedge there so you get good penetration here I I always kind of call this a clip point though it.
I don't know, you know, uh, classifications of blades can get a little dicey, but to me this is a clip point.
Beautiful recurve nice and thin.
The one sticking point I don't.
I'm not crazy about that extra long pocket clip, it's a little it's a little too much.
It's the same pocket clip that they put on the old version of the bastinelli big drag attack.
So it works fine, works great, but it's just a little bit obtrusive.

04:44
OK, secondly today I had my hog tooth Tonto on me.
This knife if you follow the newsletter, which you should we have been rehabbing it now or putting it back out because I have an exciting project in the works with Matt Chase of Hawk Tooth Knives.
So I have been carrying this.
I'll give you the quick and dirty we're doing a collaboration knife based on this platform.
I always talk about this knife.
It's so great such a great fixed blade knife for everyday carry and it is a very, very good user.
I've used this for feather sticking and other things, even though I carry it around for, you know, it's tactical.

05:24
Qualities and actually I heard a very interesting story by Matt, which I will not say here, but this this has been proven in the field.
Overseas as a a self protection knife will say so.
We are doing a collaboration of this knife where I am designing the blade and we are using this platform.
It'll be the same size.
It'll have my logo and his logo on opposing sides and they will be serial numbered and we'll sell them right?
Yeah?
Or, you know, sell them through our website through the website, but this is a great great knife.

05:58
This is one of the two knives in my sprawling small fixed blade collection that gets the most.
Carry.
This one and the Kramer custom knives voodoo.
They're both just the perfect size for in the waistband carry.
While remaining large enough to be very capable for a lot of things, so love that knife.
Lastly, for emotional support today I had an old one.
I had the Tangram Santa Fe, and I do love this Santa Fe and I also was very fond of Tangram.

06:30
It was kaisers send cut, if you will.
It was that they're super inexpensive line beneath the vanguard line, which is basically absorbed.
This kind of production, I guess.
So you don't see any tangrams now?
You can still buy some on Amazon.
They're not fully sold out from years ago, but.
I think this is an amazing 25 bucks spent.

06:56
It's got that.
A kudo steel.
It's a Japanese steel called Akudo and it's a. 440 C analog so very nice blade steel.
I love the the blade shape.
It's a beautiful blade shape for utility and all sorts of things.
The handle is great.
A really, really buttery washer action.

07:17
Just a great knife and a good one for fidget.
It's a great.
What do you call it?
Washer washer pivoted, fidget knife.
So that's what I had on me today for my Esk.
So today it was the.
One by combative edge, it was the EDC tanto by hog tooth knives.

07:38
Look for a another version of of this knife in the future with a blade of my design and and then the send cut the send cut the the Tangram Santa Fe Great Great Knives.
OK so as I mentioned the check out the newsletter and you will.
You will be kept up to date with how this project progresses with me and Matt Chase of Hog Tooth knives just.
Just a little question before we move on to knife life News, I was at a little party last night with some neighbors and.
Met someone new and and he said hey my wife says you have a Johnny Knoxville vibe.
A Johnny Knoxville vibe I was like.
Wow, I've I've heard I've heard different things like, uh, people, people said.

08:24
When I was younger, people said I looked like the guy from friends, the drippy one and I can't remember his name, but I had never heard Johnny Knoxville and I've never watched *******.
Do I have a Johnny Knoxville vibe?
I'm guessing no, I think.
Maybe they saw me be a ***** *** with my kids or something.
I'm not sure because my kids were there anyway.
Weird weird celebrity parallel.
Do I have it?

08:51
I don't know.
All right?
If you're interested in helping support such nonsense and other great great content, go to check us out on Patreon.
Quickest way to get there is go to theknifechunky.com/patreon.
You can also scan the QR code, but there you'll see we have 3 tiers of support.
We're going to put more in.
I keep saying that I have done it yet, but.

09:10
You get interview exclusives.
You get entered into knife drawings on the monthly, and we've been uploading some really cool martial blade, or it's not martial blade concepts, it's it's actually Mastro defense system and Kali knife videos that that has just started.
So there there are some cool things you can get if you have the means and the interest, go check it out and life junkie.com/patreon.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
Whether you go to Patreon or not, just you sitting here listening means the world to me again.
That's enough jackie.com.
Slash Patreon if you're a knife junkie.

09:47
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

10:20
And now.
Here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
So, as per usual, Savini has more knives coming out.
It's like every week I'm I'm.
I'm reading a new story about brand new survival knives and I got to say though, I love my sevis, I got to say they're starting to look a lot alike to me.
Now I don't know if that's just brand DNA shining through, or if they really are indeed starting to look a lot the same, but that's just the impression I get.
This this one on the bottom here though.

10:57
Let's see what which.
Which one is that OK?
So two new flippers this let me start with the one on the top because I do like the fuller on that I like that the fullers are being fully recognized as opening methods.
They're not just there to lighten the blade or stiffen the spine.
They are indeed there as opening, you know deliberate opening method and I think that that's pretty cool.
So I I do like this knife.
It's also a A in house design.

11:25
And a flipper.
But as we go down the I, I guess it's called the savant.
Is the one that I really like.
It's got a very simple profile and it has a drop point that drops the point more towards the center bottom of the cutting edge so that you don't have to tweak your hand at all for a pull cut.
It's just going to present the it's going to present the point down a little bit lower so you can do those sort of pull cuts.
They're sort of drag cuts and I don't know I'm starting something I'm starting to appreciate.
Because it does not it it does not affect.

12:05
Anything negatively as far as I can tell with the performance of the night, the knife, whereas an upswept blade sometimes can make it a a hassle or or make it more specialized for certain sort of motions.
And so to me this is a very nice looking combination of sort of gents knife and utility knife utility being that low tip that low point and then the gents factor just being the very sleek simple lines that 3.47 inch.
Blade, it would be a you know, pretty large Jensen knife.
That's 14 C 28 and and I love the wood handle you know I have the praxis in wood with the black blade and I just I think it's a very handsome combo.
So two new knives coming out from Savi.
I've mentioned the last two shows I've mentioned.
Zombies maybe maybe I'll give them a break and and let them kind of release a whole bunch of them and then I can cover them all at once.

13:04
I want to make a reminder to you all about the ultimate.
Steel.
It ends August 15th I I believe.
I thought originally it was August 18th.
It's August 15th.
You can tell by the counter there on the screen, but you know the ultimate steal.
The ultimate steal is the annual fundraising I'm going to call it a sweepstakes because that's kind of what it is, except for the fact that it's the sort of sweepstakes where everybody wins because you donate and you get something back.

13:32
Whether it's a you know, a small folder or you donate a little bit more and you win and you get to choose.
Umm?
They have a whole bunch of prizes donated by custom knife makers and knife companies.
Optic companies.
I think firearms companies that I think they might even have a server, a safari on offer.
But they they just have some amazing amazing prizes and you get to choose.
So go over to.

13:59
There's only a week left.
Go over or less than a week, five days I guess go over to the ultimate.
Steal on knife rights.
I'm very, very excited about how the Virginia law has changed, how it changed this very summer.
And we are allowed to carry automatic knives thanks to knife rights and Doug Ritter, so that's why I'm going to go over to the ultimate steel and donate.
And I highly recommend you do too so that we can keep this this going.
They rely on this.

14:30
Do they rely on this to keep going honestly?
Because.
The night the money that he makes from the Ritter, the RSK mark, one from Hogue that goes to living.
You know, so that he can put funds.
All the funds that are raised from knife rides into airline tickets.
They have to drop thousands of dollars in last minute airline tickets because you never know when a legislator is going to be able to see you or or when a legislature is going to be able to hear your case so that they have lawyers.
They have airline.

15:01
They have a lot of stuff to pay for, so let's help.
Knife rights.
Ultimate steel.
Less than a week to get in on it and you benefit to, uh, with really, really cool prizes.
Alright, I just want to mention Hogan knives, a brand I love.
That I just mentioned has two new hunting knives out and one of them is pretty interesting.
The the expel scalpel down towards the bottom of the article.

15:28
It's a a G10 affair with a an armature underneath that holds scalpel blades.
So it's a replaceable blade system.
I I am not a hunter, I could see how that would be extremely useful, but I'm also a knife lover and I think having having a regular blade that you have in baby for years and.
Sharpened and changed the shape of through.
Use is also kind of a romantic notions I I think the expel scalpel is a very interesting and practical thing.
We've seen this from.
Other you know much less.

16:04
You know high end companies, but it's cool to see Hogue putting their their hat in the ring for this.
By the way, those scalpel blades are pretty wicked looking, but we go to the top of the article the extract.
This is a really handsome and useful looking little clip point blade and actually I saw this one and picked it up.
And you know hefted it at Blade show and to say hefted it it is an overstatement because it's a featherweight.
And it's very thin, and I believe Stasa got one while he was there and he's had it in some of his videos.
But this is a it's got a very minimal plastic sheath.
This is a drop in the front pocket and forget it's there kind of fixed blade, but it's got a 3.3 inch blade.

16:45
It's a you know, so it's definitely capable and you see that's a full-sized handle so you can get a full grip on that.
So whether you're using it for dressing out an animal or or you're just dropping it in your pocket like stasa does and using it as a. EDC fixed blade.
I really like the look of this.
I gotta say the one thing I'm not crazy about is the Sarah coat but but it can be had without without the color, SO2 cool new hunting knives from Hogue.
I wanted to point out last thing I want to point out is a a story that is a boy.
It has a has me at mixed emotions part partly heartwarming and then partly horrifying.
This is the Las Vegas smoke shop clerk.

17:31
Who killed a robber with a knife?
And these two guys?
You can see the video.
We're not going to show it here, but you can go on online and see it.
But these these two guys with full on balaclavas walk into this smoke shop and start stealing stuff and then one guy jumps over the counter and Johnny Nauyen the guy behind the counter pulls out a knife folding knife.
I was trying to identify it.
But the footage is kind of fuzzy and he stabs the guy 7 times and I think the guy's dead.

18:03
And you can hear the guy.
Apparently lamenting and and that kind of thing on the floor and.
I say heartwarming and horrifying I. I don't mean to be callous about the loss of any life, even if it's you know a scumbag criminal.
A life is a life and human life is is sacred.
But man, I like knowing that people are fighting back.
He saw this other guy got his arm blown off just walking into a store and pointing a gun at someone.
The clerk shoots his arm off for the shotgun and the guy runs out.

18:38
I'll exasperate it.
Like the fact that this is happening and that people are fighting back is heartwarming to me that.
But what is hard to watch and harsh to watch is is what it takes to actually rebuff someone.
This guy jumps over the counter and the smoke shop and the the the gentleman behind the counter can only assume that his life is in danger and does he have to sit around and wait to be attacked directly with a weapon before he can respond?
I say no and.
That's why to me.
I say this is heartwarming because the guy got what's coming to him and and I, you know I I really, I I it pains me to say that because you know, like I said, if this if this a young dude is dead there there was a chance for him to turn things around before he jumped over that counter.

19:30
But man.
Anyway, I just wanted to show this story because, yes, knives can be used as weapons.
Yes, they can effectively be brought to bear and they were here.
And yes, he stabbed them in the back.
And yes, it was nasty, but hey, man.
His life was on the line.
What would you do?

19:52
OK, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast in the state of the collection I want to show you the new Jack Wolf Knives, K9 Jack, and then we're going to take a look at some of the best designers my favorite designers, high end and low end options coming up here on The Junkie podcast and now
that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
I got this beautiful white box this week, shaped perfectly like the Jack Wolf knives box and it was very exciting to me.
Looked at the return address and indeed that's where it came from and I was very excited because that means a new Jack Wolf knives knife had arrived and I knew which one it was and it's the dog leg.
The K9 Jack, a dog leg Jack has this sort of curved handle.
And I must admit I had mixed feelings because it's never been one of my favorite patterns.
Visually, I've never owned one and never really understood the benefit of the dog leg Jack, which I'm going to tell you about in just a second.

20:56
So this arrived and I was immediately dazzled by the beautiful twill carbon fiber.
What's that you say?
Beautiful carbon fiber?
Yes, that's right.
I think this is beautiful.
That twill is awesome.
And in black and Gray with the uh, Gray blasted bolsters, it has a very formal look to me.

21:18
To me, this really looks like a gentlemen's knife.
But then when I go to open it.
It's got such a stout, nice pull, not too stout, not finger breaker.
To me this is a solid seven and a half, and to me that's the perfect place to be.
Of course everyone's scale is different, but on my scale this is right right where I want it to be nice and stout coming in and great walk and talk.
Going back out, but I got to show you this blade.
I'm I'm sure you've gleaned if you've watched this show or listen to me at all for a while.

21:56
A drop points and spear points are not not never my favorite, never my first choice, but this kind of spear point I'm I'm trying to hold the hold it to the light so you only see the profile.
There you go, that that sort of deep belly towards the tip to the the spine and the cutting edge.
Not in parallel, but widening towards the tip.
That is the kind.
This is the perfect spare point to me because of that for a couple of reasons, and the first one will be the shallow reason.
To me it looks beautiful.
I love it.

22:29
What that swedge and being fully hollow ground M 390 it is.
It is gorgeous to look at.
But the other reason why I like that sort of.
Spear point that swells toward swells out to a belly towards the tip is that that means the cutting edge comes down at an angle from your knuckles and therefore it makes it a more efficient cutter.
Just think of a cookery except, you know, miniaturized and less extreme in terms of in terms of angle, but it sort of gives you that recurve effect because because the blade is canted downward, so to me it there's an aesthetic benefit and there's a practical benefit.
To that sort of bulbous spear point.
So really, really beautiful, beautiful job.

23:17
On the redesign of the classic dog like Jack and I also think another part of that redesign is he he.
Is the dog like shape is very defined and now I see why now.
Aesthetically I I never cared for that but getting it in hand I realize it.
It is 100% ergonomic dream here so this little pocket accommodates your thumb and that this the fat and muscle here and your thumb and puts the blade.
It's almost like a more of a pistol grip for a slip joint and it presents the blade and.
At at a great angle for cutting and efficient angle for cutting and then you add that angle.
I was talking about there and you just get a very very efficient cutter and something that feels very secure in hand with those ergonomics with those dog leg ergonomics.

24:12
Now something interesting about this and the very first knife he came out with the Sharpshooter Jack which was the which is the gun stock Jack.
That being a single blade, and this being a single bladed gunstock and dog like, you get to feel the real contours of the handle without the spine of another blade that's folded inside the handle, interrupting the contours.
So I really got to see from the.
From the gunstock Jack.
The importance of those ergonomics and the importance of the shape of that handle.
It's not just to look cool, it really is to fit in your hand just perfectly.
And same thing here with the dog leg you've got the integral bolster liner thing going on here, blasted titanium.

24:56
Amazing amazing walk and talk.
Just a beautiful blade.
There are, I think there are a few of these left.
I know they.
Oh wait, what am I talking about?
I'm now I'm getting ahead of myself.
These have yet to be released next week.

25:09
They're being released so keep your eyes peeled for those awesome awesome knives.
OK, second, I want to show off a two of three knives that were sent to me by Tier 1 Justin at tier one gear reviews.
I say two of three because the third one is over on a different shelf, but he sent me three of these to check out their knives of his own design.
Who he had manufacturer he had built by old squirrel custom knives and he had the sheets done by Guster leather.
But check these out.
He's calling these the sythe and you know how I feel about Picale style knives and these are his take of the Bacall style and we'll talk about this.
This one in a second but.

25:54
He's got 2/2 main versions, one with a ring and one without.
I personally would opt for without though the ring if you don't use it extends the handle.
I always like a ring for extended handles.
I'm just not a big fan of the rings in usage anymore.
I just don't feel adequately trained to use the ring without hurting myself.
Double Edge is beautiful, double edged sickle picale shaped blade is just deadly coming and going.
And then you've got this beautiful marbled carbon fiber handle, which is the other version that I have that's over there does not have the ring, and it's got a coke.

26:42
It's got a not a coke, but it's got a wasp waist kind of comes in and goes out and gives you some great contours to hold on to.
So very impressive design by Justin and just a beautiful execution by old squirrel.
I follow them on.
I follow him on Instagram and it was it's great to have one of his.
Builds in hand.
Now this one is in a custom leather sheath by Guster leather, which is just gorgeous.
Look at this very stout black leather.

27:13
You've got beautiful red stitching.
And then you have this ulti clip mounted on a piece of leather that circumnavigates the sheet.
You could take it off and switch it around and have the ulti clip on the other side right.
No, actually you can't.
Uh, right?
No, no, no, you can't.
Alright.

27:36
Well, it doesn't matter.
That's a great way to mount that Ulti clip on this beautiful sheath.
And it follows the contours of jeans pocket.
That's what it looks like to me, and this one is.
Has an acid wash that double edge and then it's got the red rayskin with the black lace.
Just a beautiful supermaket wrapped version of this site so go to tier one gear reviews on Instagram and check them out.
Follow them out.

28:06
Not only does he have and also on YouTube, not only does he have great videos and knife content, but it's great to see his his process in getting these things together so.
Get out tier one and old squirrel and guster leather while you're at it all on Instagram.
So very cool stuff.
Thank you.
Thank you Justin for entrusting these to me.
They are beautiful, OK. Last up I just where is it.
I just dug this out because I was going through my wife's knives for last week's show and found this and I frankly forgot I made this for her number eight years ago, but this is a knife I made for my wife.

28:49
It's called the Bella because that's her.
That's what I call her and it's pretty extreme.
I got to say I attempted something.
I started this with a file and I think I finished it with a with an angle grinder, but here let me show you it's got a cool handle here with a green liner.
Her eyes are green, green and purple liners there and you can see some of the green come through that kirinite it's got some mosaic pins and then it's got that extreme blade.
I was thinking you know you could you get the benefits of a of a tanto and a hooked blade.
You know like a a what do you call a hawkbill blade?

29:29
All in one I I always really loved a recurve tanto and I guess I took it to the extreme with this but it's a very comfortable knife in hand.
I gotta say I I do have some chops when I try I think but maybe I think my chops are just with pencils and I should have other people build my creations.
But I like this knife.
It was cool to find it and you know kind of like baby why don't you carry that knife she's like oh because I don't want to damage it oh OK. It's a good enough reason I guess for now.
So she carries her RJ Martin $20 Kershaw instead and and I appreciate that.
That's good design.
Also, alright?

30:11
Coming up, let's talk right now about favorite designers.
High end and low end.
It occurs to me, you know, I was telling the story about.
Getting rid of 40 tolerance.
Selling 40 tolerance hinderer knives so that I could actually buy a hinderer.
And it occurred to me that I have that situation sort of throughout my collection.
I have high end and low end knives from some of my favorite designers and in some cases there are obvious favorites, but in others there are not.

30:44
Sometimes the the low end knife is more compelling or just as compelling as the expensive one or the high end one and the first that occurred to me was Ernest Emerson because.
I love Ernest Emerson and I have a nicely sized collection of Emerson Knives recently reduced by two from an unscrupulous YouTuber.
But still I have a good number of them and.
This is a great representation.
I love this knife.
This is the tiger and it's got a a fat sort of upswept #8 blade.
CQC 8 Blade so it's sort of like the banana blade clip point blade, but with the CQC 13 handle and ergonomics.

31:33
So just to me, an ideal knife and I remember seeing Ernest Emerson say that when he designed this and first started making that that was his EDC for about a year and I carried that for a good long time after I got it.
I'm, you know, pretty regularly and it is a great night man.
It is so thin behind the edge here, even though it's got that.
Even though it's a chisel edge, I know some people don't care for the chisel edge, it's so thin it's so cuddy it cuts so well.
I love this knife.
It does track a little slightly differently through material because of that uneven edge, but you know, after one cut you can accommodate for that.
This one is a little stiff right now.

32:18
I I I tightened it up the other day and sometimes I do that with the Emersons.
I tighten it up and then just kind of work them back into us into.
Where I want them they are.
They can be persnickety beasts but I love.
I love my Emerson knives, so if they're too persnickety for you, you might like the ZT versions of them or the Emerson versions of or Kershaw versions so.
Mr Emerson Ernest Emerson did a a bunch of licensed, licensed a bunch of his designs to Kershaw Whoops, sorry my left hand.
And to 0 tolerance 3 to 0 tolerance, the six, 2030 and 40. Yeah, 2030 and 40 I have those and and then a whole bunch of kershaws and this is the one I had a few of them.

33:04
This is the only one I have left.
I love this little knife.
I haven't used it in a long time, but it's a teeny tiny little wicked 3 inch clip point blade.
It's got the the wave on it, you can flick it open like that or you can wave it out of your pocket.
It's got smooth washer action.
I'm pretty sure those are plastic washers.
You know it's cheap, it's I don't know.

33:30
$25 knife at but and it's a CR, but it's got his design and do I need anything more than this on my date for my day-to-day I, I personally do not.
So it works great.
Also it gets with that thin pointy blade it gets in some tight places.
I need it to without any difficulty.
Double edged though, not double edged V ground edge here you do not have in any of the CHI branded Emerson designs.
You don't have any chisels, chisel edges so those of you who hate the chisel edge makes you bristle go for the ZT or the kershaws.
So that's Emerson.

34:14
Now here's a good one.
This is Bill Harsey.
I love Bill Harsey and I'm I always say you can.
Whenever I bring up Bill Harsey, I say you can identify his knives easily.
He's got a style and these two knives do really show that off.
So on the high end you've got the Spartan Harsey folder, Spartan blades, and Bill Harsey got together on the dagger and on this knife, and on the smaller version of this knife, and have created some legends together.
This to me, is.

34:48
One of the one of the best knives out there.
It's it's it's up there with the sebenza and it's up there with the vsep and it's just.
Amazing and and and it's up there with the uh with hinderers too.
It's got the feel of a hinderer and a you know colliding with the sebenza.
Very very very solid.
Very very smooth on washers and it took a minute to get smooth but not long at all but you've got these beautiful long flowing lines you've got sort of business down here with the choices and the finger grooves, but overall you have that nice sweeping design with a slight recurve.
This is this is a high end knife.

35:28
It's you know it's sometimes it's catches catch can.
If they're between batches of them, and it's not inexpensive, but if you really love his designs, they can be had in a number of in a number of budget minded production blades.
And here is one of them.
This is made by CRKT branded Ruger.
This is the all cylinders.
And this is a harzi design.
Again, you've got that beautiful profile.

35:59
You can see the two of them together if you look at the two of them together you can see especially around the pivot area and the finger choil area and the and the thumb ramp and just the overall.
It has very Harsin lines but can be had for much less.
I think this is a $6070 knife here.
You've got veff serrations in this version.
That's those four big scoops with the three big points.
Those are really effective.
And quite, they can be quite nasty.

36:33
And very very effective if you wanna see how veff serrations work.
Check out Matthew Culbertson on YouTube.
He does.
He has been given special permission by Jeff Veff.
I think his name is or Mr Veff to put those kind of serrations in his own personal knives and then show them off on YouTube.
So he does that and he he does cut tests with those serrations and they're insane.
They really work well.

37:01
I totally get it if serrations are not your bag.
These giant ones are probably definitely not your bag, but beautiful contoured, a layered G10.
Here we've got steel bolsters.
Look at that.
That proprietary pivot looks like a revolver cylinder.
Hence the term or the name all cylinders.
The big buzzkill about this knife is that it is tipped down only.

37:30
Just tone deaf man and and that's not a diss of Bill Harsey you know certainly, but you know.
This this was a bad move that was a bad move and I think you know.
Oftentimes, gun companies that put out knives through knife companies make make little mistakes that maybe knife guys would make if they were making guns for gun people gun people be like would might might be like why did you put the safety here or you know that kind of thing.
So in this case a little behind the times there with the clip placement I really wish there was a tip up.
Tip up option for this because I would be.
I would be much more enthusiastic about that knife alright, but those are two options if you love.
If you love the Bill, Harsey junior designs, you can get this if you just want a little fix, you can get this.

38:27
All cylinders alright.
OK, Next up is by a gentleman we've had on the show.
I love his designs came Max from is what he goes by his name is Jonathan Renowden.
He's from France and this is his concept.
Pelican in titanium.
Uh, you know, I've talked about this one a lot.
I love it.

38:48
I love that Tonto blade shape.
It looks very.
Reminds me a bit of the of the umnumzaan I have in in tanto point.
And indeed he said he was inspired by that blade for this design.
Something that you see in.
Pretty much all came Max from designs.
Is that thumb Swale in the back?

39:10
Whether it's a thumb Swale or just a double peaked spine, you get that sort of feature.
And I adore it.
What can I say?
And then?
It's a concept, so man, they just build knives so well it is buttery smooth, buttery, buttery smooth.
The ergonomics are awesome on this.
Of course, that that's a that's OK Max round thing, but the execution is so good that the ergonomics are allowed to shine.

39:38
You can flip it.
You can use that fuller or the thumb stud.
I find with this one the thumb stud is the most difficult because of that lock bar.
This knife comes in around 187 bucks and you know.
So it's not an inexpensive knife.
But if you love that design, you love Kamax RAM designs or just this one or you love concept and you want.
Look at what they give you.

40:06
You can get this in a liner lock version with beautiful micarta black or as you see here, natural with 154CM blade steel instead of S 35 and you get the same blade shapes so you can get either the clip point like this or you can get the Tonto like that in an inexpensive version.
This this will run you about 70 bucks.
Great action and since it's a liner lock there's no trouble using the unless you use your left hand.
No trouble using the thumb studs.
There you go.
And.
Again, you got that Fuller, uh, this one is patina and nicely, that that micarta and actually you know I was talking about how much I like that tanto blade.

40:49
I really do, but I'm thinking I might be moving this knife along.
I do have to lighten the load a little bit.
I want to raise some funds page for other stuff and you know, projects that we're doing here and stuff.
And that knife I just don't carry that much.
This one I do.
I carry this one quite a bit, so I'm thinking maybe I give this to it, not give it.
I sell that to someone to a home that's going to carry it and use it and love it.

41:18
And report back from the front, but 189 bucks here versus 75 bucks or something here.
So a great spread.
154 versus S 35 you know.
Pick your poison.
I think they're both awesome.
OK, Next up is one of my favorite designers.
These are all one of my favorite designers, so I'm going to stop saying that Next up is Les George.

41:42
Love Les George and I fell in love with less Georges designs through this knife, the vsep.
Excuse me, and this was the knife.
That if not, he does.
He denies the fact that this was the first mid tech, but if this wasn't the first mid tech, it was really the knife that popularized the concept and certainly introduced the concept to me.
And now those waters have been muddied just through OEM mining and all this.
But basically, the concept behind midtech knife is a custom knife maker who is working on exquisite knives that take a lot of time, have designs such as this that are more simple to execute and and therefore can have parts made out of House of and then bring them in house, refine those parts and
then assemble them and sharpen the knife and and do all that kind of stuff so that you're not spending all your time.

42:41
You cutting out titanium handles you.
And have those things cut out sent to you, you refine it, grind it, Polish it, do whatever you gotta do to it, assemble it, and then you have your knife that you can sell, not as much.
As a custom in in terms of what you're asking, but it's still high end and it still has the custom makers hands all over it, ensuring its quality.
So that's that was that was what this was really known for, and also really known just to be a beautiful knife.
And I remember when this came out people were like sebenza killer and I I was like certainly is to me.
This is a much better looking knife than the sebenza at the time.
Now I love my sebenza but.

43:23
To me, this is still probably one of my most.
Coveted and one of my most favorite designs.
I guess I should say.
Love this, but if you can't get this don't want this but you still like less Georges aesthetic, which is definitely informed by his time in the military.
You can check out a number of Kershaw knives.
Low end.
I should say budget minded Kershaw knives of his design.

43:48
Here's one that I have.
This was a gift from my awesome brother-in-law James.
This is the Weston.
It's a speed safe so it's got the the spring in there spring assist and man I think this is a very handsome knife.
Have commented that I would love to see this a little bit larger and made by ZT without the without the assist.
What a beautiful knife this is and you can see some of his military lineage and his love for the M3 trench knife in the 1918 trench knife.
The one over my shoulder with the knuckle duster.

44:21
He makes his own versions of those knives and some of the design cues from those sort of militaristic knives make their way down into his budget designs like this.
The western that bayonet blade is just beautiful and then you see his thumb ramp here, which you can see over here in the vsep.
It's a little more subtle here.
But it creates a a great place for your thumb and Sabre grip, and then a great place to pull back on with your thumb in a Filipino grip with a thumb on the spine.
A very nice neutrally shaped handle that really does accommodate that that stepping down really does accommodate the hand nicely and give you very good purchase while remaining mostly neutral on this knife.
The speed safe doesn't really bother me, but like I said I'd love to see a high end version of this by zero tolerance.
Maybe a little bit larger, so here you have the the less George Vsep you know, and when you find it I think this is probably like a $400.00 knife.

45:25
$375 knife, I know now he's making them in flippers and doing a lot more milling and interesting stuff so I don't know how much they are at this point, but they're they're high end and then the Kershaw.
This is like a $30 knife so it's if you like his aesthetic, it can be had at at any range and I love that.
By the way, Boker is a great company for that kind of thing.
Boker, Kershaw, CRKT my absolute grail knife only exists to me in my collection.
Through poker and that's the squill which I talk about all the time.
Alright, another designer that I love Dirk Pinkerton and he's everywhere beyond EDC, concept, Kaiser and then his custom knives, which I have let me just show this real quick.
Here's a custom knife I have by him.

46:16
His grinding abilities are second to none.
When I had Sean Kendrick on the show he mentioned Dirk Pinkerton.
Uh and and Sean Kendrick.
Great guy, not, you know, not freely dishing out warm fuzzies, said wow, yeah, Dirk Pinkerton.
He's an amazing grinder and you can see that in his here.
I'll drum up some business for him, maybe.
Dirk Pinkerton's Custom knives, which can be had by going to his website are very reasonably priced.

46:48
If you like them.
I know custom knives are intimidating sometimes because they can be so expensive, but fixed blades are always a little less and.
Eric Pinkerton fixed Blades which are incredible, are very reasonably priced.
So go check them out if you're interested.
But again, in the production world you can find him high end and you can also find him low end.
I'm going to talk about a high end design.
This one I got in a trade with Dave.

47:17
This old sword blade reviews and this is the inversion.
The Kaiser inversion, and it's a folding picale style fighting knife or utility knife.
It really makes an excellent utility knife.
I'm sure most people are not going to carry this.
Umm primarily as a utility knife because of the design.
It looks weird.
Admit it looks weird.

47:39
You expect the blade edge to be on the other side, don't you?
Because of the finger grooves and everything, but this is intended for that pical style where it's tipped down edge in and you're using gross motor motion and the arching the arcing motion of your joints to go caveman on someone you're defending yourself from.
But it's obviously a very dressed up version in titanium terrorist beautifully terrorist concentrically terrorist titanium, very cool and a nice sculpted pocket clip that you can switch.
You know you got the insert and everything and then it also ships with this little brass wave, so you can use it like that or you can wave it out of your pocket.
Now.
I said that it's a useful utility knife in this grip.
It really, really is now do this to open a box.

48:33
Look at that.
It might look a little funky, but yeah, it would make a great EDC.
It's pretty light, it's titanium, it's got a decent size, but it's not too big.
That handle is just four fingers, and then that's a $200.00 knife right there.
And then for what did I get this for?
I think I bought this for 50 bucks when it first came out.
This is from concept I love concept.

49:03
As I mentioned before and this is the Street Street.
What is this the Main Street?
Sorry oh it's right there on the screen I could have just looked.
Thank you Jim.
This is the Main St. This one is from the first run where it's mistakenly labeled the little Main St. As you can see which.
Makes us collect this is worth several $1,000,000 now because it's miss misprinted but something that Pinkerton is known for also is that Warren Cliff that straight Edge, Warren Cliff shape and you see it in a lot the Shard.
You see it in a lot of his designs and I love it.

49:44
It's so useful both.
Practically and tactically, I know corny sounds corny, but it's true it it really is it it is.
It is.
I'm becoming convinced that it's the perfect blade shape even, even though sometimes it's not my favorite to look at, I think.
I think it's becoming the perfect blade shape because.
Uh, it's great in the slash.
It's great in the thrust it's great in reverse grip.

50:12
If you were to use this like this.
But it's it's also superior as utility thing.
You got to go outside and cut some cardboard before you so you can fit it in the recycling bin.
This is what you want.
You want that long straight edge, so you're getting to use as much of that edge.
It's not glancing away with any sort of blade or edge curvature as your arm arcs away from you as you're cutting through cardboard, you really maximize the length of the blade with that.
So the only thing that's not good at is rocking cuts.

50:47
And, you know, spreading butter, that kind of thing.
Though this would be good.
You could spread peanut butter with the back of this blade anyway, I don't neither here nor there.
This was beautifully patinaed this this.
Burlap my card was beautifully patinaed then I threw it in my pocket of a wet bathing suit and it bleached it.
And that sort of stuck in my craw a little bit.
But here you go for definitely less than 100. I think this was about 50 bucks when I got it.

51:17
I I haven't looked it up.
But there's the large and the small version of it, which can be had by an excellent manufacturer concept, and then the company from which concept sprung because some guys left Kaiser to start concept.
You can get the inversion, but these are just examples, especially with this designer.
But most of these designers have more design.
All of these designers have more designs across different companies.
So these are just examples.
OK, last up here is demco Andrew Demco.

51:52
Probably not even probably most definitely I have the most knives designed by him because I have a sprawling cold steel collection and then I have a budding demco collection.
It's only a A2 knife sub collection, but hopefully that grows in the future with the 8022 XL.
If they ever did, that would be super cool, but if you don't know the 8022 look it up.
Very cool.
So high end demco knives or Andrew Demco, the designer high end.
Here is the 8020 MG MG means machine ground.
That means that blade was beveled and ground was beveled on a machine and then the edge was put on in the demco shop.

52:41
You can get an 8020 with a custom blade that's a a blade that is grounded in the shop fully.
That'll cost you more, but what a what.
A beautiful knife this is it was, it was.
It kind of fell into my lap, uh?
Lavender pants a user here on YouTube.
Let me know that this was at River Edge cutlery in Ohio actually.
And I bought it.

53:07
He bought it for me, sent it to me.
Of course I I gave him the funds and oh, it was such a nice nice surprise.
I remember I was at work and just kind of had my head buried in something and I text came through and this was before the days where I just I leave my phone upside down now but text came through and I saw this picture and he's like you know.
This could be yours, and so I got it and just incredible feel stoutness action.
I mean you've got this really nice thick blade that is very sharp.
It's a great cutter, not the slicing thing in the world, but that's not what you have this for.
Beefy construction look at those standoffs.

53:47
Uh, nice weight and then just.
Delicate butter, smooth action.
No I, I make a mistake.
Delicate is the wrong word.
It is not delicate, but it is smooth as glass on bearings, so it's got, you know it's it's got all the rough and tumble features of a super hard use knife here.
But it's got that super refined action, so I like the it's not a contradiction, but I like the combination, you know, you oftentimes think of the most stout hard use knives as washer knives, but this one with the bearings.
Oh man, it's just a dream.

54:26
Love this thing and I love its production baby brother, the 8020.5 made in Taiwan for those guys, but I did not choose that as my low end because that one's 120. 5 bucks or more, and that's not so low end, so I went with a cold steel design and one that can be had easily and that is the cold steel
Voyager large.
In this case, the clip point you can get this in.
You can get this in the tanto edge.
You can get this in the drop point you used to be able to get it in a four inch vaquero and I am reacquiring my old four inch vaquero for my buddy Ian who I sold it two years ago.
But now that they're discontinued, I want it back and he graciously offered to sell it back to me.
So that's happened with another that happened with our military.

55:15
I I sold him my military and then bought it back from him.
But anyway, so this is a $60.00 knife, so you have a $400.00 knife here and a $660.00 knife here.
But what you're getting is the same thing, in a way you're getting that demco innovation.
Here you have the triad lock super incredibly strong lock.
Some people say it's the strongest in the industry, but who knows, he keeps besting himself.
The Scorpion lock is very, very strong.
This the the shark the shark lock is incredibly strong, and now cold steel has the Atlas lock, which by all accounts is incredibly strong, but he really was.

55:54
The was the first guy to say hey on this sort of lock.
The first and only guy actually on this sort of lock, meaning a back lock to make it even stronger because back lock is already one of the strongest locks out there to make it stronger, let's reduce the force that the blade puts on the blade spring by interrupting it with a stop pin and putting a
stop pin between the blade and the spring.
Unlike, say, the classic.
Buck here 112 where it's just blade Tang against lock spring you can see there you've got the you've got the stop in So what am I saying here?
I'm saying whether you go for a $60.00 Andrew Demco design knife in one of the Voyagers or one of the other budget minded cold steel knives.
Or whether you.

56:47
Put it all the money out and you get this kind of knife.
You can have.
Not only that really cool, useful, robust, demco design.
But you can also have innovation.
You can have these these locks that he invented and revolutionized things with.
So to me that is very, very exciting.
That's what I like about this.

57:10
This collection you can or this hobby.
You can choose people whose work you like, just like music.
Just like art.
And then pursue them at whatever level you're capable.
So there you have it.
Well thanks for coming down this this road with me and checking this out.
What do you have in your collection that is high end and low end?

57:32
Which designers do you think do it best?
Good enough that you want the expensive stuff and you want the cheap stuff?
Cheap in cost of course.
Let me know and also please do yourself a favor.
Ohh pointing the wrong direction and download the podcast right there on those podcast apps and listen.
If you can't watch all right for Jim working his magic behind the Switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco, saying until next time I implore you don't take dull for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

58:04
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