10 Great Gift Knives - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 376)

©2022, Bob Demarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

[0:00] 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, we're going to take a look at Peter Carey joining We Knives and the design team.

[0:16] Shrade Bolo Gift, yes, to me, and then 10 great gift 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 last week was from B. Ash on my shower knife short, which has gotten a lot of traffic and a lot of comments and he says don't you think a shower knife,
is a little ridiculous? Put a handgun in a ziplock bag and stuff up behind your shampoo and conditioner like every other normal adult and I say to you be ash
here here I like knowing that there are like-minded weirdos out there that made me laugh it's a good chuckle it's funny how that that particular short has gotten,
a lot of comments and a lot of you know light-hearted comments but my my fixed blade carry short has gotten a million not a million I shouldn't I shouldn't I,
shouldn't do that exaggerate the numbers it's gotten many many views more than any other video I've done and a lot of them are people commenting on the legality of it.

[1:37] I veer away. But thank you so much for commenting. Thank you so much for watching and participating. It's great. And B. Ash, love your comment. All right. Let's take a look right now at a pocket check.

[1:53] Today in my front right pocket, I had the Crystal Aurora. I love this thing. This is designed by Ivan Bragnets and imported to the US by Levan. You know Levan from the Knife
Nuts podcast. Well, he has a company from Russia with Levan and he brings these really cool knives over. A lot of them, if not all of them, designed by Ivan Bragnets. This one is great because it's
so thin and so light and yet quite quite strong. It is a titanium frame lock as you can see,
but it's got milling, milled sort of rows of jimping all along it in fashionable strips,
that really grip the hand nicely. It's very light. The scales are thin and it is pocketed out so that it makes the thing real light. It also resonates a bit when you open it, but the real star of the show here is that gorgeous blade with that huge fuller in the middle.

[2:57] It's very thinly ground here. I got some schmutz on it, but it's very thinly ground. And then you add this fuller to it and you just get zero resistance on the stuff you're cutting through.
This has a it's a really great blade. It doesn't just look cool, but that is why I bought it initially. I saw it. I was like, Oh my God, I have to have that. And just so happens that it also performs really great. I've had this in and out of the pocket a bit recently because I've had to.

[3:28] Dress, you know, put on a suit recently just for holiday parties and stuff like that. And this is a great knife for that because it's nice and light but it's also very strong and stylish. If if you have to pull it out to use it.

[3:41] It looks cool enough that it doesn't look like you're pulling out a large size tactical knife. It looks like you're pulling out some sort of artsy knife. To me, anyway.
Love that Russian design. Ivan Braganets. So I had that in my pocket today. Front right. I also had on my person the new Jack Wolf knives venom. Venom Jack. I love this thing.
But, you know, that's kind of a repeating refrain around here.

[4:10] I just love jack wolf knives in general, because you know that it's always going to be a superior build with really great materials.
So it's all about Ben's design and what he wants to express. And I love this one because you got a couple of factors in it that I really like.
I love a wharncliffe blade, especially on a traditional like this traditional knife. And I also love a downward rake to a straight edge or any edge.
But this one has that if you look, I'm going to align the spine of the blade with this straight line and you can see the downward angle that the cutting edge has.
And that makes the blade really efficient at cutting. As you pull it through, it's kind of effective.
It works kind of like a recurve. You're just gathering material into that, into the apex of that triangle that you create with the edge of the blade and the material you're cutting.
And then having that tip down low is just great for any sort of utility cut.

[5:13] Oddly, I use this as a steak knife and I say oddly because I think of bellied blades as better steak knives. But this is what I had on me.
We went out for dinner for my daughter's birthday.
And I ordered steak and eggs. She wanted to go to a diner. Love that girl. She's a cheap date still. That won't last forever. Probably a couple years she'll be like, take me to Ruth's Chris steakhouse. And what am I going to say? No? I'm just kidding.
Yes, that is what I will say. But this worked great on steak. I was concerned like, oh, I'm going to be dragging that tip against the porcelain plate. Will it dull it?

[5:49] Come on, Bob. It's M390 blade steel. You'd have to do that like a hundred million times to get that to start to round over.
So it was a great steak knife and it was fun to, fun to set aside the nasty wet handled dull saw blade excuse of a knife that they handed me to cut my steak and use this. Always get the respect of the waiter with that.

[6:11] And it's good to have the waiter's respect because they have power over your food when you're not looking. I was a waiter, by the way, but I'm going on the record to say I never filed anyone's food, even if they deserved it.
Because that's not right. Okay, next up I had my hog tooth ruffian. I've been carrying this nonstop.
I love this thing. This is a Matt Chase knife. Beautiful, excellent kydex sheet that rides very well. Discrete carry concept.
Clip always ships with his kydex.
And this is 154CM. This is one of his quote unquote production blades. It's something that he has the blanks water jetted out and then he does everything else by hand.
And to him that's production because his real bread and butter are his forged beauties that he labors over and spends much time on.
So these are kind of a way to express his designs and make useful tools without spending so much time on each individual piece.

[7:16] No this is a custom and each one is pretty much you know labored over but but he doesn't have to cut out the blanks. What do you see i'm great blade steel i've always love that stays nice and sharp gets nice and sharp.
And these are hollow ground these i mean is easy to see knives i have two of them.
This and a tanto are hollow ground and make for very great slicers. I mean I buy them because I think they're cool weapons basically to have on me but they end up being great utility knives. I use the tanto for feather sticking more,
often than any other knife now because it's just so nice and thin but it's very robust. Haven't tried that with this yet. I love that sort of antique looking.

[8:04] Micarta. Actually, I'm not sure if it is actual antique micarta or if it's just made to look so. And then lastly on me for emotional support, my emotional support,
knife today was the Orion Scorpio. I love this thing. It is a little chunker, like all good small knives in my estimation. Like all good robust small knives, let's
say, it has the full width of a full size knife, like my baby Rhino or like the the little QSP penguin, maintaining that full
width on a very small knife allows you to maintain control like a three finger knife. If it's full, fully width is easier to use. Anyway, I find that with this, but I just love the design in the ergonomics of this knife.
It's smaller than the Solaris, but it's got the same layout and same great flipper button lock action.
Now these knives, the Solaris, and let's say David Cam in general, he's Blade Banter on YouTube and the head of Orion Knives.

[9:20] He was one of the first dudes doing the flipper button lock. button lock. I should say, what I should say is he started doing this before they,
became very popular recently. And so maybe a bit of forethought there. That's kind of cool. A little bit of visionary-ism. This is 14C28N, a very
stylish and beautiful clip point blade with that jimping up front. And that's not just for dramatic effect, but of course that's what initially drew me to,
it. But David was showing me it's great for opening boxes where you want to control the depth of your cut.

[9:58] So you just sort of use that jimping to bite into your finger and then you can control the depth. I want to go that deep. I want to go that deep. A lot of good reasons for that jimping there, but,
of course I just think it looks cool. And then you have that fuller there. Great knife, great feel in the hand and build and beauty. And like the Solaris, this will have more pieces available
to customize it. So this is what I had in my pocket. What were you carrying today? Let me know down in the comments below. I always love to find out what people have because it's, well, it acts,
as an inspiration. And I always like to see what people are carrying. Who knows, maybe I end up carrying them too. Actually, I'm just putting these on my desk. I should close them because,
I could regret something right here on camera. So I'm going to close these up as we move on.
I want to talk about the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway, which because of the holiday season and because of obligations of mine and Jim has been a little bit cattywampest,
but will be given this away on December 22nd, which is a week later than we ordinarily do.

[11:09] We tend to give it away on the third Thursday of the month. This beauty comes to us from Dave, This Old Sword Blade Reviews, which I'm not going to call him a collector anymore. I'm gonna call him a curator. He's got an incredible collection.
And man, he's been going off on custom fixed blades that will just make your mouth water.
They're beautiful. His collection is sprawling and his heart is generous. And he has shared the wealth with this channel many times, but he has this really cool one up that he's given us that we're
gonna give away for the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway. It's his way of giving back to the channel and I really appreciate it and this thing is a beauty and I just want to show the box because I love these magnet boxes and QSP's got some great,
boxes. I'm not a huge packaging fan so the simpler the better for me and I like this but this one is cool because it's got a specs card on it and QSP ships
their knives with these specs cards and you can hit the QR code there and see it all online comes nestled in this nice velveteen fitting here. So this is the locust which before I even open it look at it it looks like a locust which,
I think is kind of cool without being without making the design weird or or or.

[12:30] You know, unergonomic. They've turned the handle into a locust. So yeah, you got that upturned thorax here with jimping. You've got very nice canvas micarta and these sort of milled lines here,
evocative of the segmentation on the thorax there. You've got a liner lock with outstanding action.
QSP is awesome. I'm really starting to like their knives a lot. I don't mean starting to, but I'm I'm always going on and on about best tech, but QSP is killing it too.
Just great in all grips. I like it in this tip down, edge in, reverse grip because of the belly of that handle.
But the belly of that handle also fits perfectly and nicely into the hand in the regular saber grip.
You've got a nice thumb ramp there.
Good hole. Nice long straight blade. That's what, about four inches. Just shy of four inches.

[13:29] An awesome knife, the QSP Locust. So this is what we're going to be giving away on the 22nd to a gentleman junkie. Of course, gentlemen junkie is the top tier of support on our Patreon page.
And you can go there and support at the $3, the $5, the $10 a month level. You can, or you can save 12% by signing up for an annual. And then every month you get thrown into the into the ring to win a knife and you get a lot of other stuff like extras from interviews. Those,
are the best. I think that's the coolest thing they offer. Anyway, check it out on Patreon.
There's a QR code right there or you can go to theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. Don't take dull for an answer. It's the Knife Junkies favorite sign off phrase and now
you can get that tagline on a variety of merchandise like a t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, long sleeve tea and more, even on coasters, tote bags, a coffee mug, water bottle, and stickers.
Let everyone know that you're a Knife Junkie and that you don't take dull for an answer.
Get yours at theknifejunkie.com slash dull and shop for all of your Knife Junkies merchandise at theknifejunkie.com slash shop.

[14:45] You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Let everybody know. I like that. like that Jim nice liner so Peter Carey one of my favorite all-time designers he's been in the tactical knife game folding knife game custom beauties and,
and tactical beauties since the early 90s. We had him on the show episode 232.
And he was on the show great guy had a very cool conversation with him about his life grown up in California in the seventies which sounded so much fun coming of age then and learning that he. Just you know what he wanted to make knives for work and that that just turned into these incredible duties so he is now.
Making knives i said in the open that he's joined the design team what i mean is he is now a collaborating artist.
With We Knife Company with the new Nitro Mini. Now the Nitro is one of his very famous custom designs and they're taking that and minizing it. They do that. I noticed they do that when they'll take a famous design.
They'll, when they start running it through We Knife, they'll make a smaller version of it.

[16:02] I think this is stunning. I mean, if you're looking at this, you'll see a damasteel blade and some sort of crazy fat carbon and a bolster, titanium bolster, it's gorgeous.
But what we're really looking at is that classic Peter Carey profile. That handle is 100% Peter Carey. It looks a lot like the Turbo, for instance.
And that blade, you can spot it a mile away.
He's famous for his collaborations with Spydercos. He did the Rubicon and, oh, the Magnitude, and the Rubicon 1 and 2, and the Firefly. That's right, the Firefly.

[16:40] And all of those knives were kind of like some carbon fiber and maybe some colorful G10, but nothing extravagant like his extravagant custom tactical folders.
Here, we're looking at this Wii knife and they're gonna come out in four iterations, one of which, or five iterations, one of which is super lux for like 750. And I think that's the one we're looking at right now.

[17:03] And, you know, these materials, a little bit Mr. Ferley or Mr. Roper,
but it is definitely sort of Peter Carey in terms of how luxurious the materials are.
You have a very aggressive sort of tactical profile, but illustrated or not illustrated, but built in these really high quality luxurious materials.
I think it's exciting to see him working with Wee because instead of G10 or, you know,
things are extra fancy carbon fiber he's getting this kind of his his designs are getting this kind of treatment and well that's exciting to see I have a Monterey Bay knives turbo which is one of his designs looks kind of like this knife,
just kind of blown up a little bit and of course I had to have that fancified,
by the the knife modders they did a beautiful job all right so that's Peter Carey and we knives glad to see that happening he deserves some of that mailbox money as as Mrs. Terzuola said. Alright, Farum Forge,
collaborates with SendCut. This is cool. So SendCut, which is...
Savivis budget line is now teaming up with Farum Forge. Now, I could be mistaken, but that's, you know, so rare, so rare.
I think this is the first big name collaboration with the Senkut line.

[18:29] Am I wrong? Of course, I'm not wrong. But if I am, please leave it in the comments below nicely.

[18:35] So Farum Forge making a knife with Senkut. It looks more like a Senkut than a Farum Forge,
which is kind of cool because that means, you know, I swear you could spot a Ferrum Forge knife a mile away. They're beautiful, but they speak in a
very tight dialect. Here they're expanding the language a bit and I would say meeting Senkut halfway. I would not necessarily know this to be a
Ferrum Forge knife except for the finger choil setup, the two choils and the shape of the flipper tab. But everything else, there's no void in the blade, you know.
There's... it doesn't have that sort of drop point shape. It has a more... a sheep's foot blade. And then you look at the handle and the handle does not,
necessarily say anything other than Senkut or modern tactical folder. So it's kind of interesting to see them, A, collaborate with Senkut because they've collaborated with the higher tiers of the of the we line but also to see them.

[19:44] Kind of change up their style a little or you know try something different that's what i should say try something different this thing's called the curil and it's got a three inch blade a 3.1
inch blade and it'll come in a number of flavors nine cr so it's a obviously it's a budget blade because it's coming out of Suncut. Exciting news across the collaboration front and both of those are our We Knife Company news tidbits. So there you go.
Still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, someone, a very generous viewer, sent me a bolo. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use his name, so I won't. But I'm going to talk about that knife and thank him.
And then, 10 great gift knives.

[20:28] If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife. And we've got you covered.
For the latest weekly knife deals, be sure to visit theknifejunkie.com slash knives.
Our special affiliate relationships. We bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives. Help support the show and save money on a new knife. Shop at theknifejunkie.com
slash knives. That's theknifejunkie.com slash knives. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. So I remember on Thursday Night
Knives having a conversation. I think it was Thursday Night Knives. Either that or it was in the comments. Forgive me for not remembering. But I was having a conversation about Shrade,
and we were talking about my Leroy Bowie. And I was talking about how cool it was and how robust.
And someone said, have you tried out the Bobolo Machete? And I said, no, but I've always wanted to because it looks a lot like a Barang. That's this blade there, and I love that. And so this This gentleman, we're going to call him Sean, sent me this knife.
And it is so sweet.

[21:40] Thank you, Sean. You're a gentleman and a scholar. I really appreciate this. I have yet to take it outside and use it.
We've had some crappy weather the past couple of days, but hopefully today that changes or this evening. And I want to take this out and see how it works.
Let me see if I can do this. Here, I'm going to do something unprecedented.
This up. Okay, so it comes with a sheet system that I really like that's got a strap. And If you're cool.

[22:13] You can carry it like Denzel Washington in the Book of Eli and you can draw it like that. If you're listening, it's got a strap like a luggage strap that fits over your shoulder,
and you can dangle it down low and then pull it out from the low position and it and you look pretty cool when you do it. I mean did I not look very cool doing that?

[22:39] Okay, don't answer that. So here it is. It's got a beautiful leaf-shaped blade. This is 3 CR 13 and we all go, 3 CR 13. But actually we've proven with the 3 CR on the Mule, Black Mule Bowie from
Rough Rider Knives, that 3 CR 13 is a really good outdoor blade steel. It really kept an edge. It's tough as hell. It kept an edge while I was banging it around trying to, you know, trying to see what
it could do. And it did great. And then it turns out the outdoor knives made by Cold Steel to be sold at Walmart are also 3-CR-13. And we saw Jimmy Slash batter those things. So I guess 3-CR isn't
like six worse or eight or I'm sorry five worse than what is it 8cr13mov oh god see math math in front of the camera but uh it's actually just a different steel and it's tougher I guess it has less chromium and more of something.

[23:49] And yeah, it works great. So I'm very excited to take this out. I want to show you the handle. I love the shape of that handle. This bird's beak here and then the extension of this really aid in chopping. So obviously we know the bird's beak holds your hand and grips your pinky and,
really... but having the handle extend forward gives your palm a place to not only sit but to arrest the motion as you're chopping. So you get that lever action in your hand. This has a nice.

[24:25] Big handle and it's a rubberized sort of material. I gotta say when I showed my wife this she was like, oh that is my size. She loved it. But then when she picked it up she was like.

[24:37] It's just a little bit big in her hand. So this one is still mine. But now I know to look for something that's what is this about a 13 inch blade just a great size for work and also for,
defense i mean this would be a cool thing to have in the car in the in the truck though i don't have a truck but what i mean is if you have a like a truck and you find yourself in the woods and stuff
a lot this would be a great one to have i do want to show off that angle here something i'm always talking about with the Filipino knives is that handle to blade angle. It's just downward raked,
just kind of like we were looking at on the jack wolf knife. But it's exaggerated and then it has that belly. So wicked, wicked chopper this thing would be. And not for nothing, a wicked slasher.

[25:33] Too. So thank you very much, Sean. I really appreciate this. I'm going to post some videos and some shorts with it. I can't wait to go outside and play with it and bash some wood and make some kindling and see what this thing can do.

[25:48] Alright, I'm going to sheath this and set it aside because that's a good policy. That's a good policy.
I remember back in my younger days, in my 40s, my wife had to levy a rule. No, this was in my 30s.
She had to levy a rule, no alcohol and knives because, well, because I used to do that and cut myself.
So we changed that. Alright, next up is a knife that has been drop shipped to me that's going to be sent back, I should say sent along to my good buddy Jock across the shock who has some really cool knives on the way to him.
I showed off his Sigeandu, Sigeandu, sorry, made by Emerson knives, that really cool fixed blade with the skeletonized handle with the Celtic knot.
Very very cool little knife and then he also had this Sent here for me to check out and then I'll send along to him and it is a Spyderco little native.

[26:56] What a cute and cool and capable little knife now. I have not flicked it but like two or three times so it's not broken in that is for Jack to do but.

[27:08] Just beautiful beautiful little knife now unlike Like the classic native or the native five, it is not a lock back.
It is a compression has a compression lock.

[27:22] So when this thing breaks in, it'll be a smooth little, little, you know, smooth little scalpel like blade.

[27:32] Yeah, when it pops open nicely, let's see that cutting edge is. The cutting edge is two inches and then you have another half inch there for the 50-50 choil.
Nice handle. Let's see, I can get a full four finger grip on it with the choil.

[27:51] I mean no one on earth is ever going to use this knife like this, probably.

[27:56] It's built for that choil. So you get a lot of, you get a full grip and a lot of good cutting in a very discreet little package here. This is a nice knife, man.
And if you look at this, let's see, is this, yeah, S30V made in Colorado.
But if you look at that edge, it's just perfect.
It's perfect.
And I know a lot of companies do perfect edges, but it's just striking me right now, maybe because of the black coating.
But man, Spyderco, they just do a beautiful job. Their stuff is just awesome. Look at that edge, just gorgeous.
All right, Jock, this is on its way to you shortly. Thank you very much for letting me check it out. I love the feel of brand new Spyderco G10.

[28:42] It's like just a little bit grippy and I like that. Okay, last up. This was sent to me by Carrie of Off Grid Knives. Man, he's like a dealer.
You know Lou Reed? Waiting for my man. He sent me this. This is so cool. This is the Raptor. He knows I like this Raptor knife with the audaciously odd but incredibly useful blade.

[29:09] Well, they just came out in the Coyote dress. So it's got this beautiful gray wash handle. I mean gray wash blade, I'm sorry, and then a Coyote tan handle. My
favorite color combination for the off-grid knives. My Stinger XL is in this coloration and it's just so handsome to me. That gray and the tan. I,
know I've talked before about how it reminds me of driving into Ohio whenever I drive to Ohio it suddenly turns gray. Not that it's not beautiful during my stay, but
it always is gray and rainy when I show up. And the fields look like this gray, or like this tan, and the clouds look like that gray. Anyway, you know, sentimental guy, but just an awesome knife. You got this big row of jimping on the top. The blade is already thin,
but it's also very tall and very thinly ground. So you get, you get, this is one of the best,
of the slicey cardboard off-grid knives.
And they are all slicey cardboard knives to a knife.
Even their fixed blade knives. They're just, I don't know how, they just get them super thin behind the edge.
Now this little hawk bill at the end of this, so they call it a hawk bill. I call it a recurve tanto. It's just the recurve is a method.

[30:31] But this is, for cutting into packages is just insane. It's so perfect this little scoop there and then this long flat is great for long just cuts through,
Boxes and stuff like that. Whatever you're cutting. This would be great for carving sticks too, feather sticks, if the wood is soft.
I don't know, I don't like doing that with...

[30:55] With folders these days, but this would be really good for that because you can bear down and really, you know, it's a good size for that. Push your energy into it. Just a great blade. I love the gray pocket clip as well.

[31:11] This thing is a pocket hog though. Oh wait, let me show it off with my tried and true black out raptor. So there it is. There it is. Awesome off-grid raptor. Nice.

[31:24] Alright, let's take a look now. Let's do this. Let's take a look at great gift knives. These would make great gift knives right here, but they're not on my list. They're not for everyone.
Not that all of these are for everyone, but these are less universal. I'm actually going to say, this is, these would actually make great gifts because they are different. So anyway,
putting those aside, let's take a look at this list of 10 great gift knives. Now, I'm gonna start off with Civivi. Why Civivi? Because they're cost-effective.
You can get great Civivis and now Sen cuts, but I have less experience with the Sen cuts and they have less variety. But Civivis are high-value knives. You're,
you're spending most of the time under 80 bucks and most of the time, yeah, most.

[32:16] Time under 80 bucks you can get dressed up versions of them of course but the variety of size design there are collaborations and all of this my favorite of all of them is one of the earliest and that's the praxis.

[32:32] This knife in this beautiful wood handle to me is the ultimate expression of this knife. I've seen it in my card. It looks great. I've seen it in all the different G10s.
I mean, it just comes in a bunch of different handle materials, but to me this wood is just stunning. And I can't remember what it is. Rosewood maybe?

[32:52] Next to that, Black Blade. Incredible. A lot of Civivi knives are hollow ground and that's one thing I really like about that brand. that brand. This is not. This is a high height flat grind. But you're starting off with very
thin blade stock and you have a broad leaf shaped blade. So that thinness behind the edge is as if you have a hollow ground blade. And with this generous choil here, you could
sharpen this up a bit and still be using that edge for a long time to come. When these first came out they had gold liners or blue liners like an anodized or not anodized
but like shiny and it just they didn't appeal to me though I recognized that I liked the profile of this and then time went on and I moved on and they made a.

[33:43] You know kept on with this and when I came back and revisited the knife and the design and actually bought one I was so happy with how many different
versions they had of this. So this is a great knife. This one is 9 CR 13. Yeah, 9 CR. Very nice knife. Very nice blade steel there. Okay, so next up, great gift knife. This is for
a knife lover for sure. This is the Ritter Hogue RSK Mark I. In this case, it's the mini.
And it's a little pricier, you're going to spend over $150 for these, but the reason this is a great gift knife is because
If you know someone that really uses their knife for work, this is a great one. So I'll start with that. You've got 20 cv blade steel, which is great. An awesome grind and robust.

[34:40] But very slicey grind here from Hoag Knives. And then it's in this great and comfortable contoured and grippy G10 handle. This is an aftermarket clip that I put on just so you know.
So a great and very capable knife in a small package as a folder and you can get it in this 3 inch version or the 3.6 inch version. The other reason it's great for a knife lover who really uses their knives is because when you buy this knife,
a KnifeWorks exclusive, knifeworks.com exclusive, a percentage of that money goes to, well, Well, what I should say is the proceeds of this knife,
goes directly to help support knife rights because it goes to Doug Ritter and Doug Ritter is knife rights.

[35:26] And Doug Ritter and the people who help him.
But he is the man who leads the charge there and this helps support that effort. So just a great knife all around, great design, timeless design at this point. I mean, this is a modern classic for sure.
Once known as the Ritter Grip because it was a griptilian version or alternative made by Benchmade and now it's made by Ritter to really, I mean by Hoag to great great effect. I love this knife.

[36:04] Plus you can also get it in some cool looks. This is the purple G-Mascus. They have They have red Gmascus, they have orange and black, they have all cool color combinations and that 20 cv blade steel man, it is awesome.
Just a little quick tidbit, the whole philosophy behind the Ritter Griptilian and the RSK Mark I is very high end, high performing blade steel in a budget friendly handle so that
the whole package is easy to afford but behaves like something out punches out of its weight path.
All right, next up is a Kube knife. is a great
knife company. I've come to decide that all of the Kubis I've handled and now I have one that I've been checking out from, that came in the last batch from Dave that has gotten such,
praise. It's a front flipper whose name I can't remember now. But so the Kubis are just awesome.

[37:09] But why the Vagrant as a gift knife? Well, it's got style, it's got, and it's got variety. So So you've got this blade style, which they call wharncliff.
And then they have a sheep's foot that has a flatter, straighter edge and a sort of a humped back.
And it comes in numerous colors of G10. So you can really kind of zero in on a style.
When you go to Amazon, say, and look at this, you'll see it gives you many, many options because two blades and a bunch of different handle scales.
Great Kube action. Kube just has incredible action. The fit in the finish of this knife is really, so far as I can see, flawless.
This is a Max Chuchuk design.
I like his designs.
Especially this blade, it's just so cool. And it fits in the hand just so nicely. Deep carry pocket clip with, It's not recessed, but it's got the flat screws, so you don't feel it in the pocket.

[38:18] Just a great design, 40 bucks. It's inexpensive and variety, and this is an AUS-10A blade, and we know AUS-10 to be darn good budget steel.
Sorry for the language. Okay, next up is the Tempest Pinion by our good friend KC of the Knives Fast channel and of tempest knives.

[38:43] This thing is a great EDC blade. And it's a looker. It's very interesting.
I showed this knife off when I was home over Thanksgiving.
I wanted to see if it was a polarizing design because I thought it was.

[38:58] But to a person in my family, they all loved it. Oh, that's cool looking.
Yes, it is. It is cool looking. And I thought it was going to be polarizing because it's different, you know, and the same but different. And anyway, everyone loved this knife.
And so I think you will get a lot of mileage out of this as a gift knife. This would be a great knife for the knife lover and the non-knife lover because I found out that the non-knife lover thinks it's a great looking design too.
But you get great utility out of it and not for nothing, it's super smooth and fidgety as the day is long.
It's got a blade shape that reminds me a little bit of the 940 but A, it looks better and B, performs better in my estimation. 14C28N comes in a variety of.

[39:53] G10. It comes in neutral, you know, Jade G10 and then black G10 and micarta and the micarta is nice. It's so nicely contoured. That's the one I have here and,
It's a very, very nice grade of my card that is taking my oils on.
Then lastly, the cool thing about this knife in this list is pride of ownership. Because this is a knife coming from the knife community.
This is a knife lover, Casey of the Knives Fast Channel, a knife lover who persisted and got his knife made to his specs.
His specs are great. It's nice to have a, to support someone in the knife community, but it's also nice because this is affordable. It's under a hundred bucks. I recall correctly. I believe mine was 90 bucks.

[40:47] Are right around there. So go to Tempest knives and check them out. You can get a like a small batch production knife designed by a knife enthusiast for a small for a.

[41:01] Manageable amount of money and you get bragging rights because it's It's somewhat exclusive. You know, not too many people have that knife,
And then you can show all your cop friends who love the 940 and say look, this is an awesome alternative for that overrated 940 in your pocket. Oh I said it. Okay next up is the Penguin line from
QSP. Now I'm gonna start with the garden variety. This is the first one that came out and this ranges in the Penguin line ranges in price. This is the first one that ever came out. This is the D2 and denim micarta version for 40 bucks. Oh no.

[41:39] No, like 35 bucks. And as you can see, this one gets a lot of use. You can see because the micarta under the clip is somewhat pristine. This hangs out of my desk quite a bit and either gets used or handled a lot. So you can go this way,
inexpensively or you can go up the ladder with QSP and check out their minis. They're mini penguin and this comes in six varieties I believe with,
their some of their and by their I mean QSP's own foil aluminum foil carbon fibers that they're doing really cool stuff. So this is a skosh more expensive
than this and you get a nice small pocketable chunker. Remember I was talking about full width being important on the three finger blade. Well this is a,
perfect example of that. Three finger grip but it feels very sure in hand due to the width and great cutter 14C28N. Or you could go whole hog and get the plus.

[42:51] The Penguin Plus which is a titanium frame lock that comes either in a a bronzed silver or, you know, bronzed untreated or blacked titanium handle,
or it also has some of those aluminum foil scales that you can get on the show side.
Black Blade or Satin or Stonewash and then just incredible action.

[43:18] Maintaining the same wire pocket clip all the way through. So, great gift knife depending on what you want to spend and what the knife person, you know, the usage.
You could get the garden variety here for a non-knife person.
And this would be a great one-knife folder collection to have.
Or you could, for your knife friends, start getting more specialized here.
Alright, next up, this one is from, well, great friends of the knife community, friends of this channel, and innovators par excellence.
This is the Demko Knives 8020.5. This is, you know, ranging from, I believe when I got this, this was 125, but I know they're more now.
But you can get them in many different flavors now. They have two different blade shapes. This is the shark's foot, and it's called shark's foot, not sheep's foot, because this here is the shark lock.

[44:21] A famous invention of, a now famous invention of Andrew Dunncope.

[44:29] He actually talked about this lock for the first time publicly on the Knife Junkie podcast. At least that's what he told me. Maybe he tells all the guys that.
But, Shark's Foot and Clip Point, a beautiful Demko looking Clip Point.
This handle, ergonomic and awesome. Thin, light GRN in this cool gray. I like this gray color, but now you can get it in a number of different colors.
A lot of different purveyors have their exclusives of this knife.
And of course, there are the dressed up titanium versions.
So nice. I had one here. I think it was Jock's that was coming through here and that was the Knife Center exclusive that we showed off. That had such a great feel with the titanium. My brother has the.

[45:18] ClipPoint version of this and it has become his true everyday carry. It's the one he carries on him all the time. He comes home and he'll do a wardrobe change and carry around an XL Voyager or something like that, but to work, and he's a very respectable person.

[45:35] This is the knife he carries, except in the clip point. Awesome, awesome knife. What a great gift that would be to receive.
And as a matter of fact, that's how he received it as a gift from his awesome brother. OK, next up is we're going to go off grid and we're going to take a look at the Cayman XL or we're going to just look at the Cayman lineup.
They are from inexpensive to moderate. Here is the Cayman EDC.

[46:05] Just a spectacular knife. Ergonomically, it's one of those knives that it's almost more comfortable to have it in your hand than not. And then you've got this aggressive, stylish, and very useful clip point blade with a point that is very low down by the knuckles.
So you can use this kind of like a sheep's foot or a wharncliffe blade, but you have a bit of that belly there.
So just a great, great design.
But if you want to get a large one, this D2 blade seal, if you want something larger, they have the XL version, same exact knife just blown up basically.
And feels great in the hand, same great ergonomics, same great blade and a great large alternative.
Now, this is the one I'm choosing from off grid, but they have a habit of doing this, a very good habit of doing this where they come out with a design and when it's popular, when it shows popularity, they release it in different sizes.
And there are a number of lines of knife from them that are significantly, I should say, budget friendly for the best tech builds that they are.
I mean, I don't know, I just put my air quotes up there, best tech builds.
But they're just great, great knives. So whether you choose the Cayman line or the Enforcer line or the Rhino line, you can get it in various sizes.

[47:33] And man, I think that's a great way to do it because you can cover many different knife lovers on your list with their lineup.

[47:44] Okay, next up, we're going to do a couple of fixed blade knives before we wrap. Because fixed blade knives are important, let's not just forget about them because you,
can't fidget with them because you can. It's just more dangerous. All right, first up, we're going to look at a budget fixed blade knife that has been around for quite a while, over 20 years, and has
just proven, tried and true, and that is the Cold Steel Coban. This has been at $40 for a long time.
Now I think they've crept up to like $50 or something like that, but you know, inflation.

[48:21] Just a great knife leveraging the cold steel American Tanto blade. First I'm going to show you, I have it set up with this aftermarket clip.
I know they, cold steel does make a clip somewhat like this, but I have carried this in the waistband and even though this is sort of grippy,
rubberized, cray-x material, it does not stick on the shirt or print.
Alright, I'm gonna take it out of the sheet.

[48:52] Here's the beautiful blade. A nice machine satin on this Kobun blade. Kobun I think means bodyguard in Japanese. And they used to have a bigger version of this. Same handle, same thin width. Look at how,
thin that is. And yet still has that Coke bottle swell in the handle so it's nicely contoured.
And they make the most of that thin blade. But they had a nice long version of this thing with with the same handle and the same blade width.

[49:22] And I can't remember what that was called, but that one meant boss. And this is like the bodyguard.
Great, great, awesome blade. You got a thin hollow grind and then a tough flat grind up front. Will not break the bank. I bought my sister this one years ago when there was some creepy guy hanging around.

[49:43] She never had to use it, thank God, but I think this is still her bedside knife. I forgot to ask, because I also made her one.

[49:51] And I know she keeps that around for protection too. Yeah, so just a great knife, won't break the bank and unique looking. And if the person on your list likes the Japanese style, man, this is a great one.
I remember when in high school, when I first saw the Tanto blade, I was like, oh my God, this is like a samurai sword that you can just carry around with you. This is amazing.

[50:17] And I've never fallen out of love with tantos. For a while, they got serious shade from the knife community. I'm not sure why, but they're back.
They've been back. Okay, next up, a great, great choice for a fixed blade knife as a gift is the K-Bar.
Now you can go from, you know, around 100 bucks to more, but there are pretty, there is a pretty big variety of them.
Variety of them. That's what I'm trying to get at. You can choose from different blade styles. They have a five inch version and a five and a half inch version. This is the classic,
seven and a half inch version. This one was released in the early 90s. My brother gave it to me as a graduation gift from college, I believe. And at the time, K-Bar was releasing a re-release
of the original design that was made during World War II. So it has a sharpened clip, which I love.

[51:17] Nice and sharp back there and it's got kind of a hook
kind of a wavy grind. It's not... it's... the quality of the grind is not outstanding, I see, over the years. But at the time, I didn't care and I still don't care.
This thing is so sharp. It's that 1095 Pro-Van. There's a thin layer of kind of rust on it, almost looking red in this light. Maybe I should... maybe I should flitz it or something. But,
but it's always been like this and just a great, great knife.
Now the K bars you'll get now do not have that sharpened swedge and they're really more aimed towards utility. At the time it was kind of half and half. This is like, this is definitely a fighter with that sharpened swedge.

[52:05] And then later through discovering that mostly people were using their K bars to open up crates and stuff like that and just do utility stuff.
The sharpened swedge I guess went the way of the dodo but I'm sure you can still find them here and there and also if if the K-Bar brand K-Bar design is not your thing you can check out the case I want to check out the case version actually case has a version of the K-Bar it is,
also under a hundred bucks and it does have the sharpened clip and it's their version of K-Bar it's a little bit different but it's their version of the world war ii version that they made and it It has a straight clip and yet sharp.
I gotta check that out.
Stack handle and all. Okay, last up on this list is a...

[52:52] If you like the big knives, if the person on your list likes the big knives, this is a good one because it's time tested and and you know it's a tried and true proven knife. You just you can go on,
many many YouTube channels and see people thumping on this thing you know all day long, all year long and it just keeps coming back for more. Plus it is just cool and has a little tidbit
a history to it. It is the Ontario Knife Company SP10 Raider Bowie. I'm going to show it in the sheet because I usually hate nylon sheaths, but this one is very nice. It's got a very,
very stout plastic liner. Like, really stout. And I don't know, I like the stylish stitching.
It's like if I can't have a Ferrari with the white stitching on the seat, I can have an SP10 with the white stitching on the sheet.

[53:42] All right, and then here's your blade. Just a big, big, beautiful V-44 style Marine Raider Bowie. You've got a big belly, a long straight, and a dramatic clip,
keeping that point right in the center for thrusting.
And that unsharpened swedge still will do massive damage on a back cut, on a flick.
Or if you just hold it like this, reverse grip like this, and just whack the back of the hand of your assailant. Shatter the bones, and maybe you don't have to use the rest of the blade.
But that's probably not what you're using this for. This is a great campside knife. You can see I've used it to baton some of that really hard kiln dried firewood that you get at the grocery store.
And it is worked in the coding and I'm gonna do more. I want to wear some of that coating off and.

[54:44] Because I want it to look like nothing fancy's SP-10. But a quarter inch thick, it just pops the and I'm sorry quarter inch thick and a saber grind it just pops the logs open as you baton.
This is for batoning that swedge is a little bit thin so it does chew up your baton a little bit.
So that's a nine inch blade nice big handle will accommodate large hands and and then some. Plus with that birds beak you can come back and use it as a chopper. You can come forward and throw your finger over the guard and do close work.
This is just a great knife and yeah you could use this as a combat knife of course. It might be a little heavy for a combat knife but it would be very comfortable in those environments.
But just a great great outdoor knife.
Grippy and an impressive large knife. If you know someone who doesn't have any fixed blades in their collection but might be impressed to have one something cool and big and you don't want to break the bank.
I say the SP-10 is a great choice. I don't know why I slept on it for so long. I should have had this knife for years. I've only had it for months, but I think it's great.

[55:58] All right. Well, that's my list of 10 great gift knives for this year, this holiday season. Some of them might be a little bit off the beaten path or maybe not on other people's list but I think you see a lot of very commonly praised knives before you.
So be sure to check them out.

[56:20] I think you'll like them. Alright thanks for checking out this show. Be sure to join us next Wednesday for another journey through my knife collection and through the knife world.
Also Thursday Night Knives, don't forget that. December 22nd, we're gonna be giving away that QSP locust and then also check in with us every Sunday for a great interview. This time it'll be with C.D.
Pierce, I'm sorry, C.D. Pearson of Woo Knives from England. Great guy, great conversation. Join us then. For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
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[57:40] Music.