Automated Transcript
Emotional Support Knives
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 357)

00:00
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, a ridiculously cool utility knife from G&G Hawk.
Yet another Bowie joins the stable and emotional support knives.
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.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was from Jose Abdul Favela and just on a personal note Jose, I sent some stickers out to you up there up north and they were returned to me.

00:49
I need your unit number and I'll send them back to you.
They got all the way to your building and someone put unit number, question mark and so they came back to me anyway, Jose Abdul favela on the midweek supplemental last week said just starting this video love.
That shirt I had the knife aholic T-shirt on, he said.
This month I spent $3000 Canadian on knives Lynn Thompson, Leatherneck, 10.5 clip point, arriving soon, by the way.
That's when I'm really interested in from knife center.
Knife a holic for real.
Keeping all boxes must have factory edge.

01:21
At least.
I can always sell, trade, etc.
In the future.
OK, so this does sound a lot.
Lose.
You do sound a lot like a knife junkie, because you have you're building up a a wall of justification around your purchases.
I know I do it myself.

01:36
I'm keeping the boxes and the factory edge, and I can always sell them or trade them for food after the apocalypse.
So I hear where you're coming from.
Just just be careful.
That slippery slope is a real thing.
Ohh my gosh.
And who am I to let you?
You?

01:50
Lynn Thompson Leatherneck, 10.5 clip point.
Now that I have the knife, I'll be showing off in the state of the collection from cold steel.
Now I have to move on to this Lynn Thompson.
So, Jose, you've opened up a can of worms for me too.
Thank you for watching.
And you know, knife aholic ISM is real, so just be careful.
Alright.

02:11
Thanks for the comments.
Keep them coming, one and all.
I I do enjoy them.
All right.
I think it's time.
For a pocket check.
Today I had an interesting carry on me, a little bit different reflecting fall if you will.

02:30
I had on me the asymmetrical contact.
I am in love with this knife, this worn Cliff frame lock folder.
Titanium frame lock folder.
This is has one method of opening just like an old school knife and I love it.
That is thumb studs on incredible action this thing is.
Buttery, buttery smooth on bearings.
Has all this beautiful micro milling around on the edge.

02:58
Chamfers there and.
Bronze anodization and these sculpted pocket clip the perfect Warren Cliff blade.
This thing is perfect because it really does live up to the what the Warren clip is for.
It's a great utility blade, but it also has that nice forward angle which makes it a good tactical option also, which, you know, I like.
That's just my my taste.
So this covers a lot of bases for me.
It is practical and it is tactical.

03:33
And it's a 3.15. It's the three-point 3/4 inch blade which is just South of my preferred 3.5 to 4 inch.
But but it is.
I find that with Warren Cliffs like this, and the Yojimbo and and some other knives actually by Dirk Pinkerton I can go low.
I can go to 3.125 in my front right pocket and feel confident that I have enough money to take me through the day.
This is S35.
VN asymmetrical is the mid tier line from.
Beyond DC, a new brand out of the United States with manufacturing in China, David Son was a guest on the show.

04:13
David's on the proprietor.
Great guy, Madam.
At Blade show we had an awesome conversation.
I love what he's doing.
He, by the way, is the one or beyond DC is the company that makes the river Wolf by John Demko, that's in there.
Terranova line.
Terranova line, that's their top tier sort of collaboration line.

04:35
OK, what else did I have on me today?
I had for emotional support, which is going to be the topic of the day I had.
3 victor from Petrified Fish I really like this knife.
It was on the chopping block for a short period of time only because I had a whole bunch of knives in this tier on the chopping block, and they have all come off shockingly because I feel sometimes I need them around for comparison.
Knives.
I need them as cast members, you know, for the show, so to speak, but this one I don't think I'll ever get rid of because of that.
Blade that that beautiful Bowie blade.

05:16
I mean, to me, this is a design, A Bowie design, A Bowie profile that you could put next to AA110 or a cold steel Recon one, or there are a few really, really emblematic iconic Bowie designs out there.
The the Hinderer folding Bowie, I think is amazing.
I think that this.
Deserves to sit on the shelves with those just in terms of profile.
It's it is a beautiful and perfect bone.
So I I will be keeping this, but it also is wearing these these these blue jeans that I just love so much.
These.

05:55
Micarta scales that have been actually picking up the funk pretty well and and gluing up nicely.
I you can see when you look around the pocket clip how much patina there is on these handles.
I I love the color of this blue denim micarta.
I frequently compare it to the genes you might see at a mall walking around and, I don't know, I don't know, like it a lot, but emotional support.
We'll talk about why this knife garners emotional support.
This is actually on a number of levels to me, the look and the utility of that Bowie blade, but also the the feel of the action has so much to do with it.
And we'll be talking about that a little bit downstream also on me today.

06:39
You know, Ben Belkin has really gotten me back into my slip.
Point phase over the past six months.
I understand.
I got one incoming and I'll wait to see that.
It should probably be here tomorrow as I record this.
But today, in my pocket, I went old school.
I went back several months to the little bro.

06:57
This is the boy's knife, made by Jack Wolf knives.
Designed by Ben Belkin, it's his modern interpretation of the classic boys knife.
Now that's the sleeve board pattern here.
It looks like the sleeve board on an ironing board and and then you've got that gorgeous clip point blade with the downward reaching edge and the slight recurve that you end up sharpening out through time.
Look at that sharpening notch.
Speaking of which, that is a fully hollow ground blade.
Hollow ground all the way up to the spine and very, very thin.

07:32
Behind the edge and with that sharpening notch.
That large triangular sharpening notch, you get a lot of life out of that edge.
You can keep sharpening upward towards the apex of that sharpening notch and still have a thin enough.
You have a very slicy Cutty blade, so love Ben Belkin's take on these.
On these traditional knives and the boy's knife thanks to GEC has been one of my favorites for a long time.
That's the perfect size and I do love the clip point blade.
Speaking at CLIP points last on me today, as I said, reflecting fall, I'm going back to a more fixed blade carry and this is actually one that I can't really pull off in the summer.

08:19
I mean I do in my shorts and stuff just around the house, but going out and about it's a little bit too much and that is the street Bowie by Spyderco and Fred Perrin.
Fred Perrin, former French commando, current French ****** designed this knife.
I have a number of Fred Perrin design knives and just love them.
Here's one that I got at Blade show this year, incidentally.
The little boy's neck knife, but.
Signature to his design style, by the way.
A lot of people dish on this, uh, this sheath I actually like.

08:57
It keeps.
It's a it's got decent cold, but not too much.
You can tug it out, and if you're wearing, say, loose shorts, this is nice and light.
You can wear this with lose shorts when you tug it out, it doesn't pull your shorts up and give you a wedgie, you know, it's just it's it's got perfect retention.
Yeah, it rattles around a little bit, but I'm not out doing night apps.
I don't have to worry about it, right?
And so I really do like this sheet.

09:22
Pancake sheets tend to have a little bit large of a footprint to me.
But anyway, that being said, the knife is so great.
I love this thing.
This is 5 inches of VG 10. It doesn't come razor sharp, but I I have gotten it.
So there's a hard plastic handle, but you've got these little rubberized inserts there, and when you look downward on it, you'll see that it's got a coke bottle contour in three dimensions, so it just fits the hand.
Perfectly and beautifully.
And this sharpening notch or not sharpening notch?

09:58
I'm sorry this finger choil here is.
Iconic.
I shouldn't say.
That was overused.
That finger choil is something you'll see in Fred parents designs.
That is in lieu of a blade guard of a guard that to stop your hand from sliding up onto the blade in the thrust.
That deep finger choil allows the blade to become the guard in a very French fashion.

10:26
By the way, a lot of their old fighting knives look like chefs knives, where the blade is wider than the handle at the ricasso and that acts as the guard.
So you see that French tradition.
Coming out in Fred Perrin's designs.
And yet he loves the Bowie, which is very definitely an American design.
So I like.
I love his designs.
I love the crossovers and such.

10:46
He's got the subway, Bowie.
Is that what it's called?
The subway boy?
Which, yeah, by the way, if you're caught on the subway with that little tiny knife, they'll throw the book at you and you'll end up in Rikers.
Or actually, these days, probably not.
Probably not.
They'll let you drive the train.

11:02
Probably so.
Fred Perrin.
St St Bowie.
This is a great utility knife too, by the way.
It reminds me a bit of the of a small version of the trailmaster.
Just a full flat ground.
Bowie, very long straight, slender, kind of fighting Bowie shape with a nice swedge.

11:24
Just a great carry.
So this is what I had on me today.
I had the asymmetrical contact, I had the petrified fish, victor, a little bro by Jack Wolf knives, and I had the the parent designed St. Shoe buy spyderco.
What were you carrying today?
Let me know.
Drop it in the comments below.
I always love finding out what you guys carry.

11:43
It gives me ideas about what I should be looking for.
Be on the lookout for because you'll have such good task.
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12:14
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12:47
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
Those knives and that liner.
The auxiliary manufacturing those Japanese looking chefs knives.

13:10
I think I talked to that guy at Blade Show.
Those things are fantastic looking.
Definitely interested in that.
Go use that link always.
Awesome stuff from night shift.
Knives ship free.
OK, so first up, Speaking of awesome and ridiculously cool GNG Hawk Grant and Gavin Hawke father and Son team, they seem to be insane geniuses.

13:33
They work out of sort of a barn.
Obviously it's not it's not a barn, it's a very high tech shop inside of a barn.
But they are doing amazingly interesting things.
Always have.
Their designs have been made by Chris Reeve knives, their designs have been made by CRKT and many, many others.
And they release things under their own, under their own shingle like this.
This is a utility knife and it uses it's a one handed folding utility knife.

14:02
You can see a thumb stud right above that pivot and it uses something very similar to the lock that they used on the tie lock on from Chris Reeve knives.
This thing is, I mean, if you look at it.
I mean, I don't even know how to describe it.
It looks like a piece of steampunk kit here.
It's got a cantilevered sort of bar on top and.
OK, well you're you're gonna have to look it up to to see what it looks like.
You can flip it open and all this, but I want to read to you the some of the.

14:39
Thoughts behind this from the Hawks?
Even with light use, the blade will need to be resharpened.
But Resharpening can be problematic.
He's talking about just regular knives and why they're coming out with this $450 utility knife.
And he continues, because of this, people tend to be careful with how they use their knives.
Utility knives, by contrast, aren't maintained, so they must be completely renewed every couple of weeks.
When you do replace the blade, it's like having a brand new knife.

15:09
If you look at the blade, it's not an ordinary blade that you're going to be replacing and.
You know, this is not exactly like the kind of utility knife you're gonna be picking up at Home Depot, that's for sure.
But I have never, ever been excited about a utility knife.
But look at if you, I mean.
I'm sorry, I'm a I'm a little speechless at at how cool this thing is, because I remember when Todd Rexford came out with his utility knife and the RUK and many others came out with theirs and and they cost a lot of money.
I'm just like, this is just a a a blade holder out of titanium with a slightly clever design.
How can you justify that kind of money?

15:51
But when you look at the engineering that goes into a G&G hawk knife, and you look at this knife in particular, yeah, it's out of titanium.
Look at how it closes.
It closes as quickly as it opens.
I don't know.
To me, here's a utility knife that's worth the insane.
You know, cost and $450 isn't isn't an insane cost for a knife in the kind of collecting a lot of us tend to do.
But for a utility knife, it kind of is.

16:20
But look at that thing.
OK, well you'll have to forgive me if you're only listening to this podcast because a words defy, as they often do with Grant and Gavin Hawk, by the way, you think they're interesting.
You should check out the interview we did with them.
I would like to do another one now that we do.
Now that we do video.
We've been doing video for years, but I did talk to Grant and Gavin Hawke before we did video, and I could see what was going on.
I could see their shop, but no one else could.

16:48
So pretty interesting stuff.
All right, Next up, 0 tolerance.
It's not really news, but I'm going to talk about it anyway.
They're rereleasing, a sinkovich classic.
I do love Sinkovich designs, especially fond of the 064. Or 50 outline.
This is the 0460. I had that and featured that on the channel quite a while back and ended up selling it for something else.
It has a very nice and light feel actually maybe a little too light.

17:20
That was something that turned me off a little bit about this night.
But they're releasing it in the dark wash with the with the red and black checkered carbon fiber.
Now this is kind of on trend for 0 tolerance.
They don't seem to be doing much new, they're just sort of rehashing older designs and.
That's fine.
Maybe.
I don't know.

17:42
I don't know what's up with zero tolerance, but I miss them.
I miss you.
0 tolerance.
What happened to you?
You were beautiful.
But this is a very nice looking knife.
It's cool to see them bring it back.

17:53
Maybe they shouldn't.
Maybe what they should just do is stick with the good models they have and not discontinue them and just continue to to make them.
And maybe they would if they were selling.
I don't know what's going on with them like I just said, so maybe I'll just leave it there.
If you're interested in the 046 in the 0640, definitely check it out.
NO0460 by that, definitely check it out because you can get it in this nice looking.
Blackwash.

18:22
Set up with the red carbon fiber.
OK, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast.
We're going to take a look at an awesome new Bowie for me and something on loan from Hero 6, and then we're going to talk emotional support knives.
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18:49
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It's no secret I'm in a Bowie phase.
I think I'm I'm very public when I go into a phase like my dagger phase, recent dagger phase.

19:13
But this a Bowie phase because I feel like the more public I am, the more justified I am and collecting more of them because, well, I told you all, I'm into it.
So here's one that's been on the docket for a long time and I just since I just discovered Chicago knife works and I have excellent prices on fixed blade knives, I decided to get this one.
I've been a good boy at work, and I decided to lay down the the relatively low amount of money for what you're getting out of this thing.
Look at this close.
First of all, the the sheath is a hard leather sheath with this.
It it's got a. A leather frog that slips on it.
And then it's got a chape, a metal chape down at the bottom so that if you're riding your horse, you know, into combat and you fall off the blade, which is very acute at the tip, doesn't poke through the sheep and stab you in the leg or just destroy the sheep, the sheep.

20:13
So it's got this big metal shape that's a blued, which I love the look of actually in pictures I thought it looked kind of corny, a little too sword like, but then again, Bowie knife fighting is based on Saber fighting, so.
There you go.
Look at the look at the swing guard and not the swing guard.
The swing.
The dangler is very stout on this sheet.
That's what I'm getting at.
This is made by windless cutlery in a windless blade craft, I think they're called from India.

20:44
They are known for their historic reproductions, accurate historical reproductions that are quote UN quote battle ready, whatever that means.
You know, we haven't had one of those kind of battles in a long time, but they're stout and sturdy and sharp, and this Bowie is certainly no exception to that.
This is my first windless made knife as far as I know and I really love it.
Look at the shape of this Bowie.
It's got a slightly upward curving blade, but it is it is relatively thin.
Comparing this to say, the Shining Mountain Bowie which has a big fat belly and reaches its widest point just above the apex of the clip.
This sort of does.

21:28
It doesn't do the opposite, but it maintains a sort of parallel line.
Swells ever so slightly below the apex of the clip, and then goes towards this insane tip.
That insanely acute tip.
It is a stout tip though.
When you turn it on its side and look down on the spine of the knife, it maintains.
What is this?
Maybe?

21:51
3 sixteenths of an inch.
Sorry, I didn't measure.
I don't think it's quite 1/4 inch.
But it maintains that thickness just about to the tip.
Um, so you, you have a very acute tip, but it's also really stout, I mean.
I have seen people abuse this knife.
I have not had a chance to take it outside yet.

22:09
It's pretty new to me and we have a bunch of rain.
We've had a bunch of rain this past week and I was planning on taking it out and kind of, I don't want to say beating on it, but using it somewhat hard while like getting wood ready for the family fire pit because it is a full Tang knife, much like say the trailmaster which is my usual knife for
doing.
For making kindling and for batoning and stuff like that.
Not that I want to baton this knife necessarily, but it's got this full Tang.
Unlike say, the Laredo Bowie, which is definitely just a fighting knife.
It's got a cable Tang which absorbs shock and no doubt is strong and soldered tough in there.

22:54
But.
I don't know, just having a cable tank to me does not say wood processing knife, whereas something like this which has a full Tang here.
You can see some machine chatter right here, so not not the most refined.
Construction but.
Not bad.
Um, but you can see the full Tang on the bottom part and then on the top it's saddled over.
Kind of like a like, kind of like a reverse.

23:22
Randall knife Randall Knives have a channel full Tang as well.
A big Asgard.
I love the big S guard with the with this portion coming down over the forefingers, it just looks kind of like a pirate knife.
It's it's it's a kind of a romantic style Bowie and that.
It's sweeping and dramatic and but definitely useful and has a nice balance.
You can you can really move the thing around and get the point where you want it to be with relative ease.
So that has to do with the balance, because the knife is, you know?

23:57
It's about a pound, I think.
You know, I haven't.
I haven't waited, but I think it's about a pound.
And so that can be a lot, moving it around, but uh, you know, this one is balanced nicely and that wouldn't blocky wooden handle I thought would be uncomfortable.
It is not.
So this is an excellent package and you can get something.
Well, you can get this from.

24:21
Chicago cutlery, or I'm sorry, I keep saying that it's not Chicago cutlery, it's Chicago knife works.
Look them up.
Chicago Cutlery is a maker of like, chefs knives, and that's not who I mean.
I mean, Chicago knife works.
And they sell knives and they're great.
They have great prices, and this was just north of 100 bucks.
So if you like big bowies and you want something that's going to, you know you'll last and pass it down.

24:47
Check that thing out.
It is it is worth it.
And check out Chicago knife works.
This is a totally unsponsored.
It's just something I discovered through Legion tactical.
That's where he got his kudamon Bowie and that's where I got mine.
Then I tend to keep going back there when I when I log on.

25:06
Alright, so Next up is another cool fix blade.
This one is from CRKT and.
This is on loan from hero sticks.
It's called the catch all, and the name sort of belies its purpose.
It's a it's a do everything camp knife.
First of all, it comes in a very nice.
Kydex style sheet.

25:27
And has really good retention.
It's a little loose, but again, this is the kind of life that you're going to be banging around camp with.
And actually when this is locked it doesn't rattle as much, but it's not something you're going to be sneaking up on sentries with, so you don't have to worry too much about the rattle.
It is in there, so it's not going to fall out.
It is locked in there, it's just a little loose down by the tip of the blade.
We have a rubberized handle with the.
With finger toils that is so incredibly comfortable, this feels almost like a big version of the CRKT minimalist.

26:06
You know how comfortable the minimal minimalist is in hand this.
This rivals that this is like the Big Brother.
You've got that big hump on the top of the handle that that really fills out the palm and also fills out the space between your palm and your thumb really nicely.
So if you have it in a sort of Saber grip like this, you get a lot of power in that.
In that curve down from the blade there.
Really excellent ramp for the thumb.
Pretty sharp jimping.

26:41
This is a Comer, uh design.
So that's a knife designer who does a number of designs that outdoor use designs that SRK team makes.
Actually, this feels really good in reverse script.
Not that you would ever really use this in reverse grip, but it does feel nice.
So we look at that blade.
What is it?
It's a big sheep's foot blade, hollow ground.

27:04
That's 8 CR 13 MOV.
Which?
Let's face it, it's, it's a it's it's old and cold and you know, CRKT sitting on 5 trillion tons of it.
So they keep using it.
But.
At the same time, let's also face it is a serviceable steal.
The problem is I don't know how much this knife costs, so I'm not going to comment on that here, but you, it seems like you limit yourself as a knife company with what you can charge when you use HCR 13 MOV.

27:35
But we have also seen it used for a long time.
People know how to heat, treat it and get the most out of it.
And by people, I mean knife companies, I mean even cold steel has used it in recent days and they have.
Done a great job with the heat treating of ACR.
So it is a serviceable steel.
It's just, you know, I'm sure most people just feel like we want to move on, man.
Very nice sharpening choil here.

28:00
You're going to get a couple of pretty excellent sharpenings out of that because the plunge grind sits a little bit further back.
Again, thin behind the edge because of that hollow grind.
Uh, this to me looks like a camp knife.
Master Jack of All Trades, Master of none, great for.
Food prep.
Great for I don't know, might be good for skinning game.
Might be a little large though, right?

28:28
I'm sure most of you who have skinned game are looking at this and.
Talking to your screen, that's a 5 1/2 inch blade that that might be too much, but.
Anyway, it's something I never would have had a chance to check out if hero sticks didn't send it to me, so I'm grateful for that.
And also I think it's got a really cool shape, especially when I look at it from this aspect.
So that is the CRKT catch all.
It is a from custom knife designer first name I can't remember last name Comer and it is from on offer from CRKT and it's a newish newish knife so check that out.
OK, so you've heard it before on this show many times.

29:11
Emotional support.
Emotional support knife.
OK, so we have all flown on on on airplanes where someone has a little dog that they have hidden away in a little.
A little case in it yaps and and they embarrassingly talk to it and try and get it to to to stop talking, but her to stop yapping.
But of course it's on an airplane and it doesn't understand what's happening with its ears and it doesn't understand the sensations it's going through and it's like, why are we here?
And I think I smell food and all that and that's giving the stressed out owner emotional support, which I don't understand actually.
So this is something I have observed.

29:52
Emotional support animals tend to make the the owners more stressed out because they're worried that the people around them are going to be judging them and going to be angry because they can't control the whimpers coming out of their dogs.
You don't have to worry about this with an emotional support knife.
Emotional support Knife is a knife you take along during your day that you're not expecting to necessarily use.
You've got your front pocket knife.
Maybe you've got your in the waistband, you know, self protection knife.
But that third knife, that ES K, that emotional support knife, is important because it represents all the things about knife.
Collecting and knives in general that aren't represented in the other knives in your pocket.

30:37
But you get to have them there with you as well, so that when you're sitting working and you need to breakthrough, say, a block of some sort, you can pull that thing out and fidget with it and it can get the juices flowing.
OK, so emotional support knives are.
This is not by definition, but this is how it is working out in in my book.
Need to have something unique about them, and they need to be fidgety.
They do need to be fidgety.
That is a big part of it, but fidgety can range.
That does not just mean drop shut.

31:09
That does not just mean the latest mechanism.
You can actually have an we will show this a fidgety lock back.
We'll get to that.
But first, let's let's show my first and most recent and most usable.
I shouldn't say usable the most carried in my front right pocket.
Emotional support knife.
Most of these knives are not carried in my front right pocket.

31:32
All right, so this right here is the Kaiser Begleiter excel and this is the button lock version.
It's a four inch blade, just a beautiful drop point blade.
You're not going to hear me say that too many times, but just an absolutely beautiful and so usable.
Drop point Blade that's 154 CM and fully almost fully flat ground.
Very sharp and thin behind the edge.
But the emotional support aspect is this.
You just press the button, that button lock and the blade.

32:03
Very.
Obediently returns to its cage.
You know, this thing reminds me of a monster that you have under your control because it is a big blade 4 inch.
That's a full 4 inch blade.
It's extremely capable and you never hear anyone talk about this, but this would make a very good self protection knife if need be, because you have the severe grip, the serious gription of the of the linen micarta which has all those little micro pockets to grab onto your hand.
And of course.
It gets wet.

32:36
It's even grippier.
But you have that long.
Thin, sharp blade with the swedge it would be.
It would.
This would make a great fighting knife if you had to, right?
Right, so it's like that monster that returns to its cage on command.
And something about that gives me the emotional support I need to get through the day.

32:57
But really, it is this.
It's the fidget factor.
I guess I could have called this fidget knives, but there is more to it than just fidget because these are not all little small shrinking violets.
So that's first up.
Next up is one that was sent to me by Vasd.
And from the moment I received it, it was true love.
It's the Bellamy funny name.

33:23
But the Bellamy this is a carbon fiber and M390 knife.
Now, this is 3.4 inches, so it's just South of my wheelhouse, so to speak.
But so you'll you'll rarely see this in my front right pocket, but you will frequently see this in my pajama pocket or in my workout pockets.
In my workout shorts pocket because it's so light but so extremely capable.
And it's got three ways of deploying.
Got the.
The front flipper, which to me is the least good.

33:57
It's got the fuller, which I love, and then it's got the regular flipper O. If you're trying to get through a writers block on some stupid script about something you don't care about, and you got to make it sound splashy, like you do care about it, you can take this out and absent mindedly flip it
in all three ways, drive everyone around you crazy.
But something about the tension it puts in the air really is good for creativity.
So, uh, this Bellamy?
This Bellamy really does the trick for emotional support.
It also has a very pleasing.
Hollow grind that you can feel with your fingers, which I like to do with hollow grinds.

34:39
I like to pinch hollow grinds and kind of feel how thin they are.
And yet it's black wash, so you don't have to worry about the fingerprints that are inevitable in other knives of this ilk.
So a lot gets covered with this knife for emotional support.
It, you know, emotional support knives also cater to your neuroses.
We're all prone to negative emotion from time to time.
Like, Oh my God, I just wish this thing wasn't such a fingerprint magnet.
You know, like that kind of negative emotion.

35:08
Well, this assuages that too.
So just a great, great emotional support night in this Bellamy by Vosti.
Next up, probably the very first emotional support knife ever.
And I've heard this described an old kempo karate teacher who was absolutely beautiful and reminded reminded me of a James Bond femme fatale.
But anyway, she.
Called this next knife the pacifier for martial artists, and that is.
The balisong.

35:42
OK. So I have a funny story about this very Bally song.
This weekend, I was doing something with my daughter, Olympia, my younger daughter.
We are in, in this room, the knife room.
We're doing some painting.
And I had to open up a package.
And so I pulled this knife out and I flipped it open.
I opened the pack and she's like, whoa, I guess she's never seen me do that before.

36:04
Whoa, what was that?
I was like, it's Bally song.
You know, your mother can do this too.
When I started flipping it to close it and on the second flip she'd ever seen, it dropped out of my hands and landed on the floor and she just looked at me and she said Ohh haven't mastered it yet and she went about her business and nothing I could do could get her interested in the night.
I picked it back up and did a bunch of cool flipping.
She's like, Nope, you had your chance anyway, the butterfly knife used to have a huge role in our household before we had kids.
My wife and I always had one on our table.

36:36
Are are.
Alright, what do you call it?
The TV table.
You know, when we were in our apartment in New York and we, we've always had Bali songs kind of around as utility, utility knives and and there is something cool about seeing my wife, you know, absent minded, not absent, mindedly without, without much thought, pulling it out and whipping it open and
using it for whatever, and then closing it back up.
When we had kids, we kind of stopped leaving them around so much, but the love has not faded.
And so when Kershaw came out with the Lucha a. A Bally song with the proper dimensions, that is a 4.125 inch, very roughly 4.3 inch blade with titanium handles.

37:23
I jumped all over it, especially considering it's not the extravagant cost of other balisongs other good Bally songs, I should say.
So this one is, what is it, 154?
I believe it's made in the US and just an awesome knife.
I really recommend this.
And they just came out with a. Drop point version, leaf shape, bladed version of this but I do like this, uh, clip point.
This came out in I think 2019 and 2019. They were doing these weird swedges on their clip points and I really like them.
So the original emotional support knife, the Bali song, is #3 on this list, #4, and these are in no particular order, of course.

38:10
#4 is the ad 15, in this case by cold steel, and probably in most cases from cold steel.
This is the cold steel version of the classic scorpion locked.
Custom knife by the Demco brothers by Andrew Demco and John and.
Cold steel by all indications, including the the dempos did an amazing job at translating this this very expensive and exclusive custom knife into something that everyone can have and.
In doing so, they've put this incredibly fidgety and fun lock in a lot more hands.
And you know you know this.
It's a backstrap lock.

38:54
This a scorpion lock.
Now, this interface is a little different than on the customs, on the customs.
This this is a hinge here, here on the cold steel.
This is all one piece and it it hinges there.
It doesn't break there.
Lift that up, it pulls that pin out of the notch in the back of the Tang, and the whole thing swings shut.
I have heard a one person did mention a long time ago Johnny.

39:20
I can't remember his last name but he was a cool dude who was making videos for a while he was talking about.
Having this portion exposed and how if you drop it and you get it nicked up, it will make a terrible gravelly sound when you open it.
And I thought that was an interesting observation.
Maybe maybe that hardened steel won't won't dent up so easily, but who knows?
It's it's an interesting thought.
So why is this an emotional support knife?
Yes, it is fidgety, but also if by chance you know the apocalypse happens on your way to work and this is in your pocket.

39:55
You're well covered.
This is an incredibly stout and sturdy knife, and the strength of that lock, which is very, very strong, is only added to by your own strong.
Manly or womanly grip on this thing really keeps it closed and and just compounds the lot.
Of course you have a really nicely shaped drop point with the swedge, so you can get some good penetration with this if need be, but it has a high height that's about a 2/3 high Saber grind, flat grind.
So it is fun and fidgety, but will see you through the toughest of times if they happen while this is in your pocket, so 8015. Is definitely an awesome emotional support knife.
Uh, one minus to this being an emotional support knife and possibly this big one and actually the lucha so far.
A lot of emotional support knives are are smaller than the ones I've shown so far.

40:52
So if this is not your main knife and this is in your back left pocket, you're going to notice it.
So emotional support knives can be main main carry but.
Generally they aren't OK. Next is the Finch.
Buffalo tooth.
This is relatively new to my collection.
And.
I don't know.

41:15
The emotional support that comes from this cannot be fully explained because some of it comes from gazing at that beautiful Coco Bolo wood.
I am just becoming a sucker for Nice wood on blades, on knives, and the mix of old and new, modern or I should say contemporary and traditional in these Finch knives just really touches something off in me.
But this one does it more than any other so far.
This.
Has been my favorite Finch knife, and that's saying a lot because every new knife from them that comes out I think is really, really great and every Finch that I have I love.
But this takes the cake.
OK, so why is this a good emotional support?

42:00
And I first of all, you get great flipping action out of it.
It's fun to open and close repeatedly.
Something about the width of the blade and the width of the handle also is very comfortable.
Makes it feel good in hand to open and.
Flows like this closing part feels uniquely good.
But also, uh, the materials, the titanium, that is titanium, which they don't always use.
The titanium next to the wood is very pleasing to me, and then the capability of that 154 CM blade is outstanding.

42:35
I tell the story oftentimes with this knife.
I prepared a whole salad with this the day I got it and it was so good at cutting vegetables.
And I know that is not the use, the main use for this knife to me, and I don't know what everyone else thinks.
To me, this is ultimately agents knife.
It is a gentlemen's knife.
It's light enough that it can be carried in, say, a suit pocket.
The one thing is the footprint is pretty broad, but if you can get over that, I think this is, you know, place it on a desk next to a Mont Blanc and a nice leather wallet and a cool watch and it just kind of fits that role.

43:12
It so emotional support from many angles, whether it's fidget, whether it's nostalgia, which is what it's.
Nostalgia is a memories and plus a couple of drinks.
And.
Oh yeah, and and the capability, so, you know, I mean like a a good emotional support and it has to be very capable too.
Next up is the nettle from Arcona.
The arcona nettle got this from Lavon.
This was actually a gift from Levon of the Knife Nuts Podcast and his business from Russia with Levon.

43:51
So he imports all of these really cool knives, a lot of them designed by Ivan Dragnets.
And this is one of them, made by a company arcona.
And again, this is the nettle.
Why is this an emotional support knife?
Well, you have a 3.7 inch blade.
You've got a nice.
Long got a good sized blade, beautiful swedge, nice to look at in behind the edge with a full flat or with a nearly full height flat grind, you've got amazing life on this knife.

44:27
Look at that sharpening toil and it remains pretty thin all the way to the the top of that toils.
You could sharpen this and resharpen this and resharpen this.
This is K110, which is sort of like European D2.
And then you've got this really cool.
Denim micarta with black mixed in there, blue and black micarta and a great swapable.
More people need to do this with the pocket clip so you don't have these unsightly holes on the side, you just clip it to the top.
I mean, SOG discovered that years ago.

45:00
I liked the big hardware.
It's cool.
Um.
I think that you take that off and then you've got nested liners under there, but you've got great fidget factor with that front flipper, probably my favorite and most usable front flipper, and then just absolute drop shut action.
So again, you've got size and capability and very good grip by the way, with the channels that are carved into this side of this micarta, you've got the size and the utility and then you have the.
Absolute joy of opening and closing it.
So you get the fidget and the use like you do out of this next one.

45:43
This is the 8020.5, so you get that awesome shark lock.
Another.
This is the one of three demco designs in this lineup, which was not planned.
But hey, I love, I love the man's designs.
So they're going to they're going to give me emotional support, right?
This one is.
Gotta say, I say it every time.

46:05
That shark foot, that's an ugly duckling.
It's a face only a mother could love, or a father in this case.
And you know, I've grown to love it.
A very useful blade shape, except if you want to stab something.
But on the whole, we don't have to do that much.
And if you need to get into a clamshell or something like that clamshell packaging that requires a puncture, that will do the trick.
This is the AUS 10A.

46:35
This is the very first run that they came out with.
Have put a lanyard on there.
I had.
I carried this around.
This was one of my EDC's on my 50th birthday a couple years ago.
Big party, and this came out all the time because the other night I was carrying was was just too big.
I didn't want to freak anyone out so this came out a lot.

46:57
This got used to carve a whole bunch of dry tiki torch bamboo which is more more of a pain in the **** than it sounds like and didn't.
Awesome jobs, but really.
The emotional support that comes from this knife is the design.
And that lock this is just.
Hmm, just a fidget fidget master.
And I actually like these Fr in handles.
These Gray anonymous FRN handles I think are so cool now, of course, like the bug out and like so many other knives in of of this kind of ilk.

47:35
There are just a million options now.
That starts off with the one FRN option and now there's like a million different ways you can have your 8020.5. And however however you do have it, it will, I guarantee you it will be a great Esk for you as well as full-time EDC.
All right, Next up.
I would be remiss if I didn't have a knife in here and then actually this knife in particular, but a knife in here that has the compression lock.
So this is one of my favorites.
This is a 3 1/4 inch knife, one of the few that I will carry in my front right pocket.
I mentioned that about the asymmetrical contact.

48:16
Well, this is the other, this is one of the others that is small, a little big knife that I will carry my front right pocket.
So just before I continue, look if you if you look at that forward.
Angle on the one clip.
That's a big part of it.
If you line.
If we were to line up a hinderer XM18 one Cliff right now, you would see that that has the very same tip angle.
So for me, that's what makes the most useful Warren clip, because you get that pull cut, utility cut tip, but you also have a very trusty sacks like weaponry tip, let's say.

48:54
Rolls right off the tongue, but this knife, so.
Snow gives you the emotional support of knowing you have a died in the wool, or I should say.
Purpose designed tactical knife in your pocket, self-defense knife in your pocket.
That just double s as an incredible utility knife.
We were talking about that G&G hawk utility knife that's so amazing.
Well, this, you know, this is not a GNG hawk knife, but this is similar in that it is like a big utility knife, but it's also just a beautiful design.
Michael Janich, the man behind Marshall Blade Concepts, designed this.

49:34
And Ronan and the Yojimbo 1. The Yojimbo 2, uh, the Yojimbo, but to me the Yojimbo 2, which is.
This is his most perfect design.
I have the five by five combat solutions, pickpocket on there, I think it's called the pickpocket.
It waives the knife out of your pocket, which is great on this knife, so it gives me the emotional support of knowing I have a an incredible self-defense knife on me.
But also and.
And it looks good of course, but also there's this.
It's just so nice to open and close that fidget factor is off the hook with the compression line.

50:14
By the way, all of these have to be good looking to me.
That's part of it.
You know, they all have to be knives that have a visual appeal.
This next one, it has a visual appeal, and it's honestly something I never would have sought out if the company didn't send it to me.
But I can highly recommend it and I really, really like it.
This is the daily Carrico magnifier and I have carried this in my bag.
I have carried this in my pocket.

50:43
I have left this on my desk for the pure fidget of it, but it also happens to be an excellent utility knife with a very good looking Americanized tanto blade.
But first let's take a look at that titanium handle nicely.
We call it Snail trail already.
But this knife?
Is sort of like a ballet song.
Best way to deploy it I have found is you take the spine, aim it towards your palm and you break it.
Break open the magnet like that it's a magnet holding it shut.

51:17
And then you just flip it like you would a balisong.
So it's a balisong on a different axis.
But it also has an M3.
I mean a 20 CV blade.
Really nice Americanized tanto blade with a very crisp grind.
I love the perfect little sub point that it comes to.
This has a Japanese name and I forget.

51:42
But I love the perfect chisel of that forward, um, portion and then this straight.
It's a very, very nicely ground blade.
I have pressure tested this, meaning I've stabbed this into stumps and or or or large trees, but they can take it.
And the handle does do a little bit of this if you're using it here because I thought this might be a nice little tuckaway attack self-defense knife.
If I could get used to deploying it and and quickly came to realize, hey, it would fall out of my hands if I actually had an adrenaline dump and I had to open up this knife.
Uh, it would be on the floor immediately, no doubt, or I would cut myself or both.
So, so that thought went out the door pretty quickly, but I the reason I thought that is when it's open, it tucks away in the hand really nicely.

52:38
It's a totally neutral handle, so you can hold it any which way and that blade is just would be an incredible self-defense improvement.
So yes, you could use it as such, but the handle does separate.
It's only held together with magnets and that might be just.
Enough to make you feel unsure if.
If you're able to actually bring it to bear if it's like already open and in your hand because.
I don't know.
I think you'd have to be a superhero to get this thing open in a in a. Quick hurry.

53:11
All right, Next up one that would not be a problem in that situation is man.
This is the only automatic on the emotional support knife scale that I have.
Other out the fronts would do, but this one due to its size and just.
Raw beauty it is, is on this.
Is on this right here.
And and and it is the Troodon, the original size, the three inch Troodon by Microtech.
So you do get the emotional support of knowing you have a dagger in your pocket, one side being serrated, and it's got that sharp noggin knocker, you know that this thing is a great little tactical, self-defense knife, last ditch sort of thing, and you can bring it to bear pretty quickly with that

54:00
sliding out the front motion.
This knife has a decent.
Quietness to it.
Unlike my heretic, which makes a hell of a lot of noise when I when I shake it.
I don't know.
That's starting to really bother me, I gotta say.
But this one doesn't have that.

54:16
And this one does have this, though.
Listen.
It rings and it resonates.
For a long time that used to bother me.
Now it just.
I just couldn't care less anymore.
After almost ruining the knife by putting oil in there and stuff, I did what they said, but I used the wrong material anyway.

54:36
You get the emotional support out of the fidget and knowing that you have a self-defense knife here, see this.
This happened.
And if you're not watching, the knife just did not come back in and it fell off its tracks, that does happen with this knife on occasion.
So the emotional support that you gain from having a self-defense knife that is so fidgety in your pocket can sometimes backfire.
Like if it comes off the tracks, then you're like all worried is my $300.00 emotional support.
And if OK, and that is counter emotional support knife purpose, right?
They're there for your feelings.

55:17
Of your emotions.
OK, third to last here.
You know what kind of a monster would I be if I didn't have an access lock?
And in this case it's the able lock the and enhanced bar the.
The ambidextrous bar lock enhanced by hogs.
That's what Abel stands for.
They just do a great version of the.

55:41
Of the Axis lock most people do at this point.
Even sativa and sativa and very inexpensive Chinese knives.
We gave one away here just the other week.
Man.
They they have it nailed.
They have the access lock nailed.
Uh, so, I mean, they've probably been ripping it off for years, so they had a chance, but they had time to make it.

56:05
Great.
But able.
The able lock from Hogue is my favorite.
It's just is awesome.
And this little knife.
This is the Ritter Hogue mini RSK mark one.
This was given to me by Doug Ritter, so it has a lot of sentimental value.

56:23
It's purple, which is beautiful so and it's incredibly capable, that knife that you can pull out in front of the masses, the hoi polloi without scaring them, that is at work and such.
So this has a lot going it, going for it and.
Uh, not the least of which is this awesome.
Flipping action and fidgetiness.
Uh, the fact that it's small means a lot too, because I found that with the larger one, the large RSK mark one.
I just didn't carry it, but this one I do carry a lot, especially after I put a bug out clip on it.
The bug out clip looks great on this knife.

57:05
I do not like Hogue clips.
That's the one thing about hope.
I do not like the clips, but that one is great.
So if you have a mark one I'm sorry, an RSK, and you don't like the clip, you can always put a Benchmade clip on it.
OK, second up or second to last penalty bit in the list.
Here is one that is new to me, but I'm loving it.
I got two knives from this company.

57:33
This is from sharperedges.com and they have this, they they have this line elite tactical.
And frankly, they're well, they're inexpensive and they're.
I'm glad they sent me these knives because I can actually endorse them now.
I thought they looked cool, but I kind of expected them to be cheap.
I'll be honest, I expected them not to be that good, and man, they are that good.
This knife is the Conqueror and it's a 3 point.
I mean a 4.75 inch blade.

58:09
I asked them to send me this one.
They they.
And then they sent me a really good utility knife.
That's kind of an ugly duckling, but is awesome.
But we'll talk about that one at another time.
This conqueror is, you know, it fits the big tactical.
The big tactical need this is supplies the emotional support that your Big Brother behind you in a fight does.

58:34
But it's really nice.
It feels good in the hand.
This is Fern, but it's molded with this sort of wing pattern that feels good in hand.
It gives you a couple of grips, like a like a cold steel will.
So you can be all the way back here, or you can come up here and so you have about two options I guess, but still very nice that you can use the length of that handle.
The fidget factor is insane.
Uh, this lock is not an axis lock.

59:04
It looks like it is, but it's not when you lift up on this.
There is a bar inside that that gets.
There's a. Stop.
Pin that ow, ****.
Excuse me.
There's a stop pin that fits into the notch on the back of the blade and.
When you lift it up, a yoke comes up.

59:24
Actually, it's most like a scorpion lock in there.
It's most like a scorpion lock, where you have a little a little notch in the blade and then a. Of lock pin drops in there.
That's that's what's going on inside.
And then this thing here is what allows you to lift that mechanism up and pull that little yoke up and remove the stop pin from the notch on the back of the blade.
So what does that result in?
It results in incredible fidget factor with a big knife.
And the cool thing is, is it's not loud.

01:00:00
It clacks.
It's got a plastic claque.
It doesn't have a metallic sounding clap to it.
Uh, the stop pin is metal.
I have confirmed that.
So it's not plastic on metal, but it's got a really great fidget.
Easy to do, one handed.

01:00:16
I always find the bar locks like the access.
I need both fingers and that's fine.
I'm fine with that.
But this one is very definitely A1 handed fidgeter.
And then as an Esk, this is probably the newest one in this list.
I get the emotional support of knowing I have a big knife, a big folder and this is strong.
I've spine whacked this just to try out.

01:00:39
It was very kind of suspicious of this lock at first, but I'm no longer.
So I have the emotional support of knowing I have a big burly knife on me, but it's fun as hell to open and close, and it's D2 blade steel.
It's good to go.
Oh wait, no, this is 8 CR 13 MOV.
The other one is D2.
So.
Good to go, knife to throw in the in the bag.

01:01:03
All right, last in the list is this is one that is my favorite dog walking knife.
It's my favorite going in in my urban.
Urban Outback, it's my favorite knife that I bring along for self protection.
I'm, I'm talking dogs, I'm talking people, I'm talking.
You know, whatever.
Whatever I might need to unzip.
That's what I carry this for.

01:01:30
So this this knife gives me the emotional support of knowing I got my bases covered for self protection, and that is the cold steel Voyager XL Vaquero.
Now if I needed this and finally like accidentally found myself lost in the jungle, this would be an outstanding knife for that kind of utility as well.
But this is a signature series Lynn Thompson knife.
I have a couple of those signature series knives and, but this is my favorite and most used of all of them.
It's on the it's the cold steel Voyager XL platform.
It is, but it's unlike the usual ones that has the green FRN.
I think they're starting now to bring color into their knives finally, but it's got the green fur and that yataghan blade, like that thing.

01:02:17
Sometimes looking at the knife upside down really shows you how dramatic that sweep is.
And then, of course, as Lynn Thompson does, puts the serrations.
On this already wickedly deadly blade, Yatagan is the is a short sword out of Turkey, and it has that recurve, and the point is lower than the knuckles, but still kind of comes up to the center line.
So you've got to, you've got a belly coming and going and then you have that deep recurve here.
So just a wicked wicked blade.
I have it with the Snaggletooth MF on there, so it.
And I can pull it out of my pocket and wave it open and have it ready to go.

01:03:05
I don't like the way the snaggletooth disrupts the lines of this knife in particular, but this isn't about looks, this is about having this thing on me, and I mentioned way early on that.
A back lock can be fidgety, and I say that cold steel triad locks are fidgety because they set them up for one handed clothes so that if you have your finger up in the front of that finger, well.
Let's get the ricasso is gonna is how it's going to stop, and then you can.
So you can do this with pretty much all cold steel triad lock knives.
They have them set up for that, so you can fidget it and you can save a life or two with this thing.
That is the Voyager Excel signature with Lynn Thompson's second grade teacher signature on it.
I absolutely love it.

01:04:02
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on this journey with me through my emotions and the emotional support knife.
What is your emotional support knife?
Do you buy into the concept or are you one of these people who takes your nervous dog on the flight just for your own good, the dog be damned and the rest of the people around you be damned.
Are you one of those people?
Let me know.
Or are you just someone who's satisfied with an emotional support animal as we all should be?
Alright, join us on Sunday for a great interview.

01:04:32
And then Thursday night for Thursday night Knives right here at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, also on YouTube and Twitch.
Or you can download us to your favorite podcast app as listed right next to my face.
So I think that's about it for this week.
For Jim working his magic behind the Switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying the caffeine is finally kicking in and until next time, don't take goal for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review it.
Review the podcast.

01:05:02
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