Top Drawer Large Fixed Blades - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 384)

©2023, Bob Demarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript
[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 tonight we're going to take a look at the drop number 12 for Spyderco.
Very exciting.
Cold Steel Voyager sub collection in the XL range. Complete?
And then we take a look at my top drawer large fixed blade 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 Marlin1895.
He said he was talking about one of the videos I put up, one of the shorts where I had a a bunch of five of my most menacing Bowie knives, I believe it was.
And he said, they're kind of ridiculous looking, comical, even more than more like machetes than knives.
And then he says, me, I'd rather have an Arkansas toothpick smiley face.
And I love this because at first I started reading it. And there are a lot of comments that are like this, where they're kind of like, oh, that's a ridiculous knife. You know, what do you need a knife like that for? And I thought that's where he was going with this.

[1:19] But that was a red herring. He kept saying, I want my own ridiculous kind of knife. I want my own like double edged short sword, you know, from the early, early pioneer days. So I appreciate that kind of sense of humor, knife senses of humor. It's almost like dad knife sense of humor there.
I really do appreciate it. And I appreciate all the comments I see each week.
I really appreciate it. And I just wanna say, actually right up front here, we've had a lot of new subscribers here.
And I just want to say we have interviewed and covered a lot of people over the last four years.
So if you hear me referencing episode numbers here, that's just so you can. This is like cross-referencing.
It's like an audio link so you can go check out different makers that that might play into today's to this episode, whether you're listening to it in the day or the night. So I think on top of all of that,
it is time now for a pocket check.
All right, so today was a road trip day.

[2:25] I came in hot today from a little bit of time away with my family. It was great.
We had a lot of fun. We went for our little mountain readout. So that means in my front right pocket was the Microtech Socom Elite.
At this point, it's become a superstition. I have to go on road trips with this in my pocket. This was my very first...
Folding knife with a S 35 en so this is pretty old and also my first folding knife with a Window breaker, you know glass breaker on the pommel So this became my road trip knife a long time ago figuring, you know.

[3:03] If I need to break out of the car for whatever reason heaven forbid I'll have a glass breaker with me since then I've acquired many glass breakers They're all over the car as a matter of fact by if I stop short, I'm in danger of breaking the window so I gotta be careful. But this was in my pocket today. I love this thing. This has done everything,
from open cans, you know, just like making a triangular opening in cans. This has also cut waffles, kind of an awkward affair, cutting waffles. But I learned how to use this front,
portion, you know, to go along the plate and then use the angle of the rest of the blade to, you you know, slay the waffle. But so this is this is done everything on these road trips. And so this was in my pocket today. Always at always proud to have that. That carries really nicely. And it's one of two knives, one of two knives that I excuse the tip down only
configuration. We're going to talk about that other knife a little bit later on, and that's the,
military from Spyderco. Some exciting things happening with that knife. A little foreshadowing that. Next up.

[4:12] On me this did this did a lot of duty this weekend was the jack wolf knives low drag jack the latest from jack wolf knives this thing is a beautiful bullet-ended jack mine is in black canvas
micarta that is starting to patina nicely um man the quality of the micarta on jack wolf knives,
is really awesome one thing i've been getting into oiling them to bring out that rich beautiful colorful color and then I'll slip them into the leather cases they come with,
which are leather on one side, suede on the other naturally, and the suede soaks up the oil. So I'm trying to see how many times that'll happen before the oil,
before my Carter remains kind of dark from the oil. Anyway, a beautiful, beautiful knife. This was a breakfast knife for me, breakfast and pizza knife.
You say pizza knife. Well, we made some Detroit style pizza and I got very crusty on the bottom. So I use this to breach said crust for my breakfast with eggs. You know,
pretty pedestrian uses for my pocket knives and I am way overdoing it with how I carry.

[5:23] With how I collect, with how I live. You know, I could get away with a 420 HC buck for the rest of my life, no doubt. Even, you know, the cheapest among them and I would be fine, but I I choose not.
All right, next up on my hip all weekend was the hog tooth knives, ruffian, no surprise.
Just about my favorite fixed blade knife these days. And I say that because I carry it all the time. Maybe some of these others, which are all amazing, would take that title if I carried them every day.
But this beautiful 154 CM hollow ground, um what is it four and a half inches yeah one two three yeah about five inches soup the nuts on the blade. Wait, I'm sorry. Forgive me. One, two, three, four and a half inches.

[6:17] Don't judge. Four and a half inches here of hollow ground 154 cm with that really nice long, dare I say harpoon swedge. It's not a harpoon swedge because I don't like harpoon swedges.
So this is something much like a harpoon swedge. Really excellent jimping right there. Zero ground on the on the swedge, though in the tumbling process it got a little bit rolled over there.
So, just beautiful. Just beautiful. I asked for a zero ground swedge. So, just in case, you know, I need to do a back cut, I can inflict some damage. Of course, that's just me being goofy.
A beautiful handle. This is a really, really comfortable handle. This size and then in that smaller EDC tanto I carry, by the way. We've come up with a name for the, our collaboration knife,
the Lil' Jim. We'll get back to you with that, but that's what we're calling it amongst the two of us. And that's going to be here sometime this week. Very excited. And I'll, of course, be showing
that off and blabbing a whole ton about that. But, uh, hog tooth knives, I love them. Uh, you'll see number one on my list of top drawer knives is a hog tooth custom. But these, uh, these ones that,
he does that are water jetted out and he does everything else by hand are, um, I don't know I don't know what you call them, like his semi production knife.
They're so awesome, man. They're really, really good.

[7:44] And then for emotional support, my ESK basically for the past four days has been my Benchmade Bugouts.

[7:53] Just an awesome knife, man. I forget how much I love this knife because this does duty in my Duluth trading company, Winter Coat, inside pocket.
And that's what the I have that snaggletooth MF on there. So I if I need it, I can just pull it out of my inside pocket and deploy it or or pull it out just regular regularly. These are Alan Putnam micarta scales canvas micarta scales with that anzo pattern. Really great. I got these before the before Benchmade themselves and a whole cottage industry sprung up around
handles for this.
These were the first ones I saw because I could not stand the blue, but really recognized how awesome the blade and everything else is about the bug out.
So I love that.
So that's what I had on me today for this travel day. It was the SOCOM Elite by Microtech.
That's a 2013 model, by the way, my favorite configuration of a tanto from them ever.
And then I had the Jack Wolf Knives Low Drag Jack, the Hog Teeth Ruffian, and the Benchmade Bugout. Let me know what you were carrying on you today.
As I always like to say, it's inspiration even if I don't end up buying the knife.

[9:06] You know, there are a lot of knives to buy and I like hearing what my very, very classy viewers and listeners like to carry. Oh, by the way, walk and talk on this. Outstanding. I did not open this
for you and close it too much, but yeah, you know, the usual. And one thing I forgot to mention about this, about this Jack Wolf knives, low drag jack is the different steel. It's S 90 V steel on it. I think there were requests for something other than M 390 and came up with S 90 V. So I'm very excited.
My first S90V knife. Okay, coming up on the 19th of January is the Gentleman Jack...

[9:45] I'm sorry, sorry... the Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway. And I'm very excited to be giving away this knife here. Now I have one and I have a couple of mini versions
of it or baby versions of it. And when I got this I really had to hold myself back from keeping it for myself. So this came in from Kari Orifiche of Off-Grid Knives. He sent me four knives. Check out our affiliate link with Kari with Off-Grid.
And so he sent me these and it was this and two of the Tracker X2's. This awesome outdoor knife and a baby Rhino in this coloration. Rhino is one of my favorite of the large knives by off-grid.
Is the one that my brother got on my recommendation to my dad and then I felt all jealous. I wanted it was more like envy. I wanted it really badly and I thought my brother was just kind of.

[10:43] Over flipping it that one Christmas. I was like okay but anyway to see it in this coloration, my very favorite, that gray wash blade and the coyote tan handle is it is awesome. So,
Uh, Gentleman Junkie is the, our high tier of support at Patreon.
That's a $10 per month level of support. And there are other levels or you get other cool stuff.
Go check it out. But I just wanted to show off the knife, uh, for those of you in the running and for those of you considering, uh, becoming a, a, a Gentleman Junkie.
Uh, we do the usual Thursday night knives, uh, spin the wheel of destiny and whoever gets it gets it.
I mail it off a couple of days later, or in some cases more than a couple of days later but you get your knife and you get some stickers and you
get a handwritten note and all of that so very much looking forward to the gentleman junkie knife giveaway if you do want to become part of that just scan the QR code on your screen or go to the knifejunkie.com slash patreon again,
that's the knifejunkie.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 tee, 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.

[12:09] Get yours at TheKnifeJunkie.com slash dull and shop for all of your Knife Junkies merchandise at TheKnifeJunkie.com slash shop.

[12:19] You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.

[12:31] Because within this spider code drop comes the update of the military. My lands, what have they been waiting for?
I mean, this knife has been around forever. This has been around since before the Para military.
And certainly since before the Para 3.
Maybe it's because it's not as popular because it's a full 4 inch blade and it's a large-ish knife. But it's always been thin. It's always been light. It's always been awesome.
And the only reason this has not spent more time in my pocket is the orientation.
It is tip-down only. And that is because they wanted to keep this big knife as light as possible.
No liners on these G10 handles. Just a little bit around the inset liner lock and around the pivot. And that's what anchors this tip-down clip.
I've always said and I'm not the only one there a chorus of people have said why not just put tiny little plates of metal On the other end and not gonna wait that much. We'll take the weight so that we can mount it Tip up the proper orientation and they finally,
Listened and that's part of this.

[13:43] Drop this drop 12 and I don't mean to sound like an ingrate and I'm not a huge Spyderco fanboy, so it's not like I've been waiting around like I might be for a re-release of the Black Rhino from Cold Steel, which will never happen.
But this one really does excite me. The interesting thing... Okay, so let's bring this up, shall we, Jim? Now that we've taken a look at my Spyro Co.
So if we scroll down one blade from that feature blade there, we'll see the military. Now what they've done with it...

[14:16] Well, they have it pictured tauntingly with the clip in the tip-down orientation, which is how they ship their knives anyway.
But I just think it's funny.
It's like they finally, finally have given the people what they want, but they won't ship it that way.
But anyway, you've got this beautiful, beautiful military shape. I love it. I think this is the best expression visually, of course, visually, of the Para series.
I think the Para 3, which is a great knife I've heard, is a little stubby looking. I've always thought the Para 2 had a blade to handle ratio issue visually.

[14:51] But is a great user. And I always thought the military was just the sweet spot. Oftentimes the bigger cars, the larger versions of things.

[15:00] Just express the lines better. And I always thought that about this, but also in terms of use, um, kind of the same blade as the Para 2, Para Military 2, just a little bit longer, but you got that same full flat ground, awesome geometry,
and you have the strength in a thin light package.

[15:18] The other very, very exciting thing is, well, they've expanded the lanyard hole. Just kidding. That's not the other very exciting thing. The other very exciting thing is that it's got a compression lock. So like the Para 3 and the Para 2, you can now fidget with your military.
And I'm really excited about this. I really, this is, this is a Spyderco that I'm going to go out Get it's gonna come in about 200 bucks. I believe 196 dollars. I think MSRP and of course there will be a scad of.

[15:52] Oh, you know sprint versions and stuff like that as as time goes by but this one oddly enough They're releasing it after all of this after all of this reworking in s30v
which is a great steal and it's what the you know para military too and the military have always kind of come in base model but I just think it's kind of,
funny I think it's kind of funny it's sort of funny kind of like the shipping it with the clip tip down even though they've given us the tip up option now,
of course left and right hand and everything else you want that you get out of a fully loaded Spyderco but I'm really excited about this so anyway Let's take a look at what else they have real quick coming out.
These are kind of neat, these little three inch fixed blades, kind of an overall large package for a small and very thin three inch fixed blade knife.
But that's not unusual for fixed blade knives from Spyderco. They're there. The the what do you want to call it? The footprint of their sheaths are usually a little much, if you ask me.
But this one comes in a clip point as pictured there. And then there's a drop point that we saw earlier that looks a bit like Sheep's Foot. They're coming out with the paramilitary 2 in a 15V sprint model, so they,
always have a different handle color when they release a different sprint run in a different and this one is kinda walking the line between...

[17:19] Brown and Mauve? I don't know. But the Mauve sprint run. That doesn't sound so good. But it looks beautiful, of course. And you know that 15V is going to be incredible.
So look for that. Let's see. There are some people out there who have, you know, all of them. All the steals. The counter critter. This looks like a great little four inch, you know, leave on the counter and cut whatever you need to cut kind of thing.
Including packages and string. And then at the very bottom they're gonna have a new run of K390 variants. The Enough II, the little Temperance III, that's the one pictured. It's a cute little knife.
And I think that's cool. K390 seems to be a really interesting steel in that you can...

[18:02] I like that you can get it to Patina. I don't know what else its qualities are, but I know people really, really love it.
Like Cedric Ineta, who loves that steel. Anyway, that's what's coming from Spider-Co drop number 12. I'm very excited, but as you can tell, most excited about the military too.
The exotic steels, I love that they do it because I also know that Spider-Co is renowned for their heat treat. So whatever exotic steel they feature, it's not like they're going to bungle it.
And I think that that's great.
It's just that I don't really have the knowledge or the raw enthusiasm for the steels as much as I do for the designs and that kind of thing.

[18:40] So anyway, look for all of that to come, especially the military right here. All right, and now for Monterey Bay Knives, very exciting. They're releasing the Min Pin again in a 2.0.
Now the Min Pin was the knife that launched Monterey Bay Knives. Check out my interview with Owen Sanford of Monterey Bay Knives.
That was episode 136. Just go to theminpinpin.com slash 136 and listen to our conversation about how Monterey Bay Knives came to be pretty interesting and he's a cool dude. But I'm really excited to see this
Min Pin re-release. Min Pin stands for Miniature Pinscher. It's a design by Ray Laconicot, a renowned,
dog lover or a known dog lover. But in this version they're trading in S35VN on that beautiful,
clip point blade for ZDP 189, a clad Japanese steel and the handle is now a smooth titanium instead of with the lightning holes. Just a beautiful, beautiful knife. And this is the
one that they started the whole thing with, so it's exciting to see coming out from them.
By the way, Ray Lacanico, just keep your eye on him. Not like he's an up and comer. He's a dominator of the industry. Look at that! That even looks beautiful closed on the clip side.

[20:03] But, just, I mean, this man is really prolific. So keep your eyes peeled for his designs across a number of brands. Beautiful stuff.
All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to take a look at my Cold Steel XL Voyager collection.
I'm now beaming with pride as it is complete, except for one that's going to nag at me. And then we're going to take a look at my top drawer large fixed blade knives.

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Now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. One thing I forgot to mention about the Min Pin, I'd be, this would be a problem if I didn't mention it,
is, and this is my favorite part about it, is that they made it like other Monterey Bay knives, I'm gonna put this under the knife cam real quick, in that it is an inset liner lock in titanium.
It is not a frame lock.
And that I realized right when Jim cut, I realized that's what makes it so beautiful to me.
You flip it over and on the lock side, there wasn't the lock. It was just a beautiful, smooth titanium. So that is one thing I wanted to mention. I know a lot of people have been very happy and excited about titanium liner locks recently.
I wanted to mention that that min pin is one.

[21:46] Okay, now moving along to my Cold Steel XL Voyager sub collection.

[21:52] This is something that I started a while ago. And then in other words, I had both when it was just the ClipPoint and the Tonto. I'm gonna put the ClipPoint under here as this is my newest one in Aus 10.
I had the ClipPoint and the Tonto years back in Aus 8A.
And then I got to know Jimmy Slash and really, really had to get myself an XL Recon 1.

[22:19] So I got an XL Recon 1 ClipPoint and Tonto just right before they kind of stopped making them.

[22:26] And I was like, oh, since I have my XLs, I can get rid of the voyagers. Well, I almost immediately regretted that after very generously giving them to two friends.

[22:36] And so all I had left was the Vacchiero, which I forgot to mention before.

[22:42] And then ever since then, it's been a, now I need to reconnect with the Voyager and I've got them all back and I'm not gonna get rid of them.
Like, this is what I've decided of all of the knives Besides some of my very top folders, the ones that I don't want to get rid of until the very end.

[23:01] Are my cold steels. My cold steels, my Emersons, and then a couple of top shelf folders. And then, and that's all I'm talking about on the folder end of things. But these large cold steels, I just never, I'm going to part with them because no one else is doing it.

[23:17] Some people do on occasion, they'll put out one or two models, but they're the ones who do it and they do it best. So I have here the clip point. Really awesome.
I love Aus 10A by the way so far and I haven't done much with it on this blade but I have with the 4 Max Scout. I've done a lot with that 4 Max Scout and it just man it just keeps on coming.

[23:41] So I think that's a good steel with a great heat treat. That's kind of a cold steels thing. So here's the clip point. By the way I was looking at this today just holding it up against the sky. It was a
grace guy and just silhouetting it and this is a perfect clip point blade. Just a perfect shape in my eye. And it's not something that I can quite analyze, it just is. Alright,
next up, this is also a recent re-acquisition because I got rid of my old XL Tonto in OS and I decided this time I'd get sassy and get serrations.
Really nice serrations. Love the serrations on these knives.
It's a big, big sharp scoop with five tiny teeth and a big sharp scoop with five tiny teeth. It is devastating and it's kind of devastating to take care of too when you dull them.
Those little teeth are kind of a pain in the butt, but you can get sharpeners that fit perfectly in there or you can sort of, you know, fake it with a with a sharp maker, triangle sharp maker.

[24:48] But I figured on this one that has a pretty straight edge, unlike the medium version or the large version of this, the four inch version, which has kind of a sweep to it. This one has more of a sharp straight edge.
I figured I'd get it serrated just to double, double the power.

[25:05] Awesome. I mean, also in us, can a. I love that handle. Now the benefit of this handle is that you can come all the way up here if you need to get close to the edge for precision.
Or you can come back here. This is kind of the main posture or position I should say to hold it in. Or you can come back here. This is nice. I like this back here because when you're a little bit on this horn in these two finger grooves,
You can use it like a drumstick to do light chopping.

[25:40] And then I guess in a pinch you can come all the way back here to reach something or I know I've seen Lynn Thompson say that you can nestle it in your palm and use it like a push
dagger. I don't know that's not me. I would just rather use a push dagger. But there it is, the tanto. Next up, my favorite of all shapes or I should say blade shapes by them. I'm going to,
to, well, okay, we'll go to this first actually.
The drop point.

[26:09] Now the drop point is also an AUS 10A and this joined the family, joined the, I should say,
joined the lineup, I believe right after the, a few years after the Vactero, but before the Chris, we'll see in a second.
This, not just your average drop point. Your drop points, I always kind of talk about how they bore me a little bit, but this has a continuous belly to it, making it look a bit like a Barong.
You know, one of my favorite Filipino short swords with the loose shaped blade. So yeah, it is a drop point, but it's not like an S-E drop point that has a straight blade that goes up, sweeps up to the drop.
It is a continuous belly, giving you some behind the belly right here, behind the belly kind of like recurve sort of right here, or at least a downward angle, and then you have all of that sweep.
This is not full flat ground. As you can see, this is a very high saber grind or flat grind.

[27:11] I guess it's a very high flat grind. A saber grind only comes to the middle or lower, I guess. Next up, this is exciting, the Chris.
This thing is incredible. I mean, and what's incredible about it is not just the shape. It is not just for like ooh and ah factor. That is a really, really wicked blade shape for slashing,
and for thrusting. It's horrifying. Each one of those waves widens the opening of whatever you're opening by, you know, a pretty big factor. It's like a giant bread knife with a point,
a hawk bill point no less so on a slash it's it's nasty if on a cut it's horror it is this is really pretty pretty brutal knife pretty nasty design uh designed by this looks more to me like a Filipino
Chris uh the um the tie light the large tie light looks more like a an Indonesian Chris to me that's,
is my thought. Awesome, I put the aluminum, the raw aluminum, what do you call it?

[28:23] Snaggletooth X, X, Snaggletooth MF on there so I can wave open this blade. It's a pocket deployer aftermarket by Snaggletooth. And then lastly, and this is
this is my favorite of all, cold steel shapes and I have a couple of them and I want some of the older ones too.
But it's the Vaquero. There it is. The Vaquero is, despite the name Vaquero, which is like a Mexican cowboy, this blade design in particular was inspired by the Yatagan.
And that's coming out of his mouth, the Yatagan, him being Lin Thompson.
The Yatagan is a Turkish blade with that deep recurve, but with the point right on centerline, which is handy in thrusting from all angles because you don't have to torque your wrist in any certain direction to account for the curve.
That point is right in the center line. Yadaghan is a very cool knife slash short sword.

[29:27] Definitely check it out. Turkish in origin, but I do believe... Well, there was a...
When they first came out with the Vakierow and the Elombre, which was the four orange version way back in the late 90s of this shape.
It was different. It looked different. It still had the S curve, but the overall shape of it was slightly different.
And I'm wondering if it wasn't first inspired by Mexican knives and Navajas and then, and then with the reshape and the redesign of the Vakiro, um, become more like a Yadaghan.
Are there any cold steel nerds out there who hear me? I mean, Or am I just going down a wormhole because uh or a rabbit hole that that is uh I'm pretty sure that's the thing I mean I've been observant the whole time and uh I'm pretty sure when that design,
change happened uh when they re when they redesigned the handles and all that um I'm pretty sure the inspiration for the blade shifted from south america yeah from from the Mexico area.

[30:29] And Spain area is Spain Mexico as influenced by Spain over to Turkey I I don't know. Let me know. Maybe I should talk to Lynn Thompson.

[30:39] If that would ever happen, that'd be awesome. We had flirted at one time and broke off our pants. Alright, next up is the last one and it's the Lynn Thompson Signature Edition serrated Vaquero in CTS XHP.
This one is number 126 out of how many? I don't know.
But it's pretty, at this point, it's a pretty valued knife. You can find them for a lot on eBay every once in a while.
I have a snaggletooth on there too for pocket deployment. This is just an absolutely wicked and vicious blade with that shape and those serrations added on.
And then of course, I mentioned this all the time. I love the cognitive dissonance of that wicked nasty gnarly blade,
with Lynn Thompson's second grade school teacher signature on there in perfect cursive.
Lynn C. Thompson.

[31:35] I like that a lot. It's, you know, if they made it in pink, oh man, people would be confused. Is that a deadly weapon or just something so cute and charming?
I'd say yes.

[31:48] All right, that is it. I put a question mark on this. Actually, I put an exclamation mark, but when I announced it, I put a question mark because there is one that I want that is out there, but it is very hard to get.
And that is a limited edition signature um tanto that is serrated or half serrated and it's a lint it's not a lint thompson it's a um can't remember the name of the guy something rolls,
he used to have or still does have a survival blog and they did a special one of these with the green handle the black blade i believe it was 440c it was it was an off steel for cold steel,
but I want that in the collection and then it's done and then it is 100% done,
except maybe a regular silver bladed Vachero with seri. Okay I'm gonna change the subject now because I can hear you all saying change the subject and now
I'm going to my top drawer fixed blade knives. Now this is coming from and I,
I think it's a beginning of the year examination of my collection goals.

[33:01] Right now, I don't really have any fixed blade knives that I want to part with, but I do have some emotional support folders that I could get rid of.
Now, these emotional support folders I've kept because they're cool.

[33:16] Let me just say that. They're cool, but they're not valuable, and they're not valuable to me in any sort of sentimental way.
So I think those knives I can get rid of, and as I do, I want to start refining.
Refining. I know I've said that for a long time, but these are the kind of things I'm looking to move more towards. Now I have a bunch of custom, I have a number of custom medium and small fixed
blade knives and I would love to continue doing that and I will show those off again sometime soon. But this is kind of where my mind is right now. Large fixed blades, what can I say? So to start this off is the topest drawer of the top drawer and that's the hog tooth,
hog tooth knives sub hilt folder a loveless sub hilt folder Bob loveless came up with this design putting the sub hilt on a double-edged very slender
double-edged clip point blade and I've always wanted a custom version of this And so this was my 50th birthday custom knife funded by my parents and designed by me.

[34:23] Very, very, this is my proudest knife. I love this thing.
But it's got a Damascus blade or pattern weld blade that's 15 and 20 and 1095 steel that had just been cut and recut and stacked and placed in so many cool different configurations.
To come up with that cross pattern.

[34:47] And then you have wrought iron, that was taken from the Longfellow Bridge when it was being rehabbed in Boston.
You have black micarta there. and then a gorgeous stag handle.

[35:02] That stag handle was a very difficult feat. It was hard for him to find stag that was even, that would fit.
And then the construction under here is pretty outrageous. This is a like a U-shaped metal under here, and then the tang comes in here.
And it's a pretty complex build. And I have I know from Matt, he has gotten some requests for a knife like this after people have seen this.
And once they hear the quote, because it was more of a pain in the butt than he thought it would be to build.

[35:37] Basically, they say it's gone elsewhere or just drop the idea because it turned out to be a lot of work in it and next time he would charge more than what he charged for this, I believe.
So this is definitely my top shelf, large fixed blade knife. This is my dual knife, you know, the ten dual commandments. This is what I bring.
I mean, you know, besides the gun.

[36:01] Oh, and by the way, look at this. Absolutely beautiful leather sheath. It looks like a corset to me.

[36:09] So just really, really nice leather work. I mean, his leather work is as great as his work with knives, I gotta say.
Next up, the Randall made knife. This was one of two Randall made knives I got. And I kinda gotta say never again, unless I shouldn't say never.
But unless I come by a sweet deal, they just are so expensive.
And I feel like they've gotten like a lot more expensive even since I've gotten these. And this was like two and a half years ago I bought these. But this is the 16 special number one fighter.

[36:47] I can never remember exactly how it goes because I've seen it a number of different ways.
But what it is, it's the number 16, which is a dive knife. and you can see it's got sort of a dive handle with all of those finger grooves.
But they put the number one fighter blade on it. The seven inch standard number one model on there.
Our number one model blade on there. Beautiful clip point blade with a sharpened swedge up to here.
Like pretty much every other Randall-Made knife has that back edge sharp to the crest right there.
Even their little hunting knives, even when it seems like it might be impractical to have it sharp.
To have it sharp. And you know that I love that. A beautiful brass cross guard here. The bottom quillian is longer than the top. I love the way that works. I love the way that feels and looks.

[37:44] And then you've got the finger grooves. Green linen micarta on my handle. Interesting thing about the way they build these. Interesting thing about the handles on these is it's a channel.
You get a channel there and the tang is dropped in the top of the channel and the mechanical connection is right there with that lanyard tube and then the rest it's friction fit and epoxy.
Epoxy epoxy been there. 440C I believe done just like they've done it since World War II basically. Maybe maybe some of the processes have changed a little bit. You can see all,
the the machine marks and I mean if you look closely you know you can see some of the grinder marks and stuff like that the buffer it's just beautiful. I've had people comment I I had one guy comment in particular say,
oh, that's like a totally unrefined knife.

[38:42] Like not worth the money.
And maybe, maybe, but it depends on you're buying your knives and what you're you know
When I got this knife, there were a couple of things I was thinking. One of them, and kind of the chief thing is that I love this knife. I've always wanted the number one blade from the
Randall-Made knives and also the 14 bow. But I've always wanted this blade shape and it is a storied company. I want them to remain alive and there's a lot of history in these beautiful knives. So to me,
that is worth some things like I remember the person in particular mentioned,
being able to see like it's not a totally lustrous finish and all that and and yeah I get it like if you're if that's what you're looking for something
kind of art knifey or super high high polish I get that but I'm looking for a combat classic from a classic American knife company and man that fits the
Bill. What a beauty. This knife, this blade, I should say, did did a lot of time in World War Two. This was a big knife in World War Two. Now, not with this handle, but a slightly different handle and number of different handles. But so this is the number 16 special fighter with the number one blade.

[40:07] By the way, their leather sheaths are also very, very nice. Alright, next up is also a Randall-made knife.
This is the Randall number 2-7. Now, when you see a Randall, when you see that it written out, the first is the number, is the model number, this is the model number 2, combat stiletto,
and then the dash and then the number after that is how long the blade is.
So this is a seven inch dagger. Another beautiful leather sheet with that gorgeous stitching.

[40:43] And there is the blade. This is the commando style handle. I love this style handle. With the stacked leather and the aluminum cap. You can, when you order this knife... Okay, so both of these I got from KnifeCenter. They had them in stock and they happened to be like what I want. So I got them.
Whereas if you want to order this exact thing and you can't find it already somewhere, which there are only a few dealers that have them on hand, then,
you're gonna order it and wait five years. So I lucked out because this is if I were to get the combat stiletto from scratch, this is the exact configuration.
So I lucked out big time. To me it's the most classic. I love the brass cross Quillians, even cross Quillians there, and then the stacked leather handle with that nice wasted...

[41:35] Not wasted, that's not wasted, dude... this bulbous, coke bottle sort of handle, looking a lot like a commando knife. It is not round. In cross-section it is oval, so you can hold it
sideways like this. You can know the orientation of the edges in the dark by holding it. Of course,
you can tell by the quillions but if you're not up.

[41:58] There, you know, you can tell by the shape of the handle and it's not going to turn or rotate in the hand. You have a bit of a ricasso here, so you can come up and put your finger there.
I know that there's a fighting style called the Randall method, where they would hold it like this and use the back edge.
Much like, you know, we talk here about how that back edge is used in Bowie knife fighting. And sometimes they even turn the knife around like in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
And there was another cowboy movie where they did that.

[42:34] So, yeah, this is just to me a classic beautiful stiletto. To me, it's the American sort of answer to the Swiss Army.
The British commando knife, the Fairbairn Sykes, and this came out during World War II as well, so it's kind of the American version of it. I love it. I love the belly and the substantial sort of parallel lines of the edges to about two-thirds of the way down.
And that maintains some of that slashing and cutting capability.
Capability a constant taper on a dagger is great for thrusting no doubt But maybe not as good for slashing and cutting so another great top shelf knife,
Love this. This is an heirloom piece and now you know with the way and things are built now and with the materials,
You know my Gerber zilch is an heirloom piece at least it will last way longer than me.

[43:34] But.

[43:35] This is the kind of thing I'd be proud to hand down. I better start working on no, I'm not even gonna say that All right. Next up is The Spartan Harzi dagger since we're on the topic of daggers. Oh,
My goodness. Oh my gosh. Oh So Spartan are as Spartan has of course the less George dagger,
And now they have the v44 and now they have a new one that's coming out but I think they're calling it the Raider Dagger.
It is so gorgeous and it's priced within reason. And what I mean by that is this is a very expensive dagger.
This Spartan Harzie designed by Bill Harzie and one of two daggers at the time by him and then one by Les George in the Spartan catalog.
But they're $400 knives, you know, they're expensive. got this for a deal and I got it with the leather sheath which is how I would get it.
That's Chattanooga leather by the way.

[44:35] So, but they have one that's coming up for like less than 200 bucks designed by less George that is absolutely gorgeous.
If you love daggers, please check that out, but don't buy it before I get mine. I think they're going to be sold out everywhere.
Initially. Anyway, so pull this out of the sheath.

[44:53] By the way, I love the, the logo of the hop light helmet with the crossed arrows emblazoned in that leather Chattanooga leatherworks owned by RMJ and American Tomahawk company.
Three companies are all one. Six inch hollow ground double bevel. That hollow grind really makes it a little bit thinner behind the edge than most
daggers, which makes it better for slashing and cutting. You don't want to be a one-trick pony. You know, this is... you don't want this to be just an assassin's knife. You must thrust it in and that is the only way. You want it to be capable of other things. But this also inspired by that sort of wasp wasted,
handle that sort of Fairbairn Sykes style handle. I had Curtis Ayavito on the Knife Junkie podcast. That would be an interesting show for you to
check out. I want to have him back on and talk about some of the stuff they've been doing recently, but he's a great guy. Check him out. It's episode 152. That was
theknifedjunkie.com slash 152 to listen to Curtis Ayavito. One of two of the men who started Spartan Blades. They're cool, man. They're really cool guys. They're both ex.

[46:10] You know, bad asses. Current bad asses, but I mean ex-military guys. Snipers, I believe.
And just have an amazing knife company.

[46:19] Okay, so I'm going to take this one and put it aside. This is the smallest, oh no it's not, I take it back.

[46:26] It is the smallest of the daggers, however. Alright, next up is a slight gear shift from fighting knife to nearly art knife.
This is the Murray Carter neck knife. Murray Carter was on the show episode 344 here, that's theknifejunkie.com, slash 344. But really, this guy, you've got to check this guy out.
He was a Canadian and at age 19, went to Japan to start learning knife making. And he fell under the tutelage of a village knife maker, or I should say a village blacksmith.
And the village blacksmiths and metal workers took care of everything, including making knives, making tools.
That's what they did mostly, was make tools. while he was there learning, he learned some ancient forms of Japanese steel making and,
working. And so Murray Carter has built his career on that. And by the way, he wasn't just an apprentice. He became the local blade guy and knife guy for that town for years.
He was like, what was he? He was the first American, first white guy in a tradition that was 740 years long to have that position.

[47:49] And he makes outstandingly beautiful knives. This was his that he wore for years and he gave it to me after the podcast.

[47:59] And after the time he came on, he's wanted to thank me for what I do for the community and gave it to me.
I really, really appreciate that.
He has a very unique setup in his shop.

[48:12] He's got a number of people that he has trained, and it's kind of a revolving thing, in his way of knife making.
And then they make knives of their own design and then also following similar pattern under his shop and put his logo on and then their own logo and sell it from his shop.
I think that's a really cool and old school way of doing it.
And I love it. Just look at that folded steel.

[48:41] Gorgeous, feels great in the hand and is quite light. Interesting, he calls it the neck knife and he has it, he has the Kydex set up exclusively for a neck knife carry with those two holes.

[48:52] Beautifully done.

[48:54] Okay, next up, back to the fighters. This one is my first custom knife purchase ever and it's from Attention to Detail Mercantile and Douglas Esposito. It's wearing a sheath made by
my brother. My design, a flawed design. I wanted this to carry like a big bowie that has a nub and just slides in the belt but I didn't realize. The blade is way too short to do that. So,
but beautiful nonetheless from my brother. Let me pull this out now. This is Douglas Esposito's.

[49:31] Medium fighter. This is the medium fighter. A2D stands for Attention to Detail Mercantile. That's S35VN blade steel with two hollow grinds and I had him sharp in the top.
And I picked it up from his shop when he was near me in Manassas, Virginia. He is now in Missouri. I think he's in Missouri now. But he is a former Marine and a
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and coach and he had a beautiful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu studio or I should say it was like a warehouse and then his knife shop was in
the back. It was very cool and I went to pick this up. Beautiful crowned spine on this knife and just look this thing is luxurious. I used to call it a classy assassin's knife but
maybe I will distance myself from that. Nice tortoise shell and brass. I saw something else he made with tortoiseshell and I I I love it I just love tortoiseshell so this was my first custom.

[50:37] And yeah, I love this thing. Very, very sharp. And at first I was upset by how the blade got marred from the kydex sheath that he made for it. But now I just like the history in it.
I don't carry it much. It's just on the other side of Too Large from the game. Next up is a Camp Knight.
And this one, when I got it a couple years back, you might remember, really captured my heart in a very sentimental kind of way.
I kind of like the ways I talk about some of my favorite great eastern cutlery knives.
It evoked a time in this country that I didn't experience. I looked at this knife and immediately thought.

[51:21] It immediately took me to a time in this country when, at least when we look back on it, it, things seemed less complicated. Who knows when you're living in the time at whatever given time, it's as complicated as it's ever been. So you have no future reference. But,
now we look back at the turn of the century. We look back at the, you know, the first half of the 20th century is what I'm getting at. We look at the turn of the previous, you know.

[51:50] The 18th, the 19th into the 20th century and the first part of the 20th century. And there's there was a, I don't know, at least from my perspective in time and growing up in,
the 70s and 80s and some of that stuff was still fresh. You know, in the 70s you're watching shows that were made in the 40s and 50s, you know, Little Rascals and, you know, and then the 50s and 60s. You're getting a lot of older influence,
the more quote unquote wholesome America. And that's what this reminds me of. This reminds me of the kind of knife a dad would carry when they go camping, you know, back in the
40s or whatever. Here's a thing. Go do this. Go to your favorite search engine and type in under images, do an image search of early 20th century camping artwork. And you'll know
exactly what I mean. The kind of stuff that was in the outdoor magazines, the kind of stuff that was in Boy Scout illustrations and stuff.

[52:53] That's what this reminds me of. Early ammunition packaging. Are you picking up what I'm putting down, people? Anyway, besides all of what it evoked emotionally, this was my backyard knife
for a few years. It replaced the, for a while I was using the Tops Tex Cree. Whenever I'd go out back and things needed clearing or anything needed cutting or carving or whatever, this was the knife I was bringing. 3v steel, this was my first blade with 3v steel, a gorgeous clip point with a fuller.

[53:24] And the other thing I like about this knife is that these were the proto versions which led up to the K-Bar knife. These were the kind of hunting knives that GIs were bringing on their own to
battle in World War II, especially towards the beginning. And then these were the kind of hunting knives that were kind of the the jumping off point in designing the the Kaba. Clip point,
classic American style knife, stacked leather handle. These are these Bark River knives, antique stacked leather handles are very nice. So that's what that is. And a great sheath,
as can be expected from Bark River knives. Also can be expected from Bark River knives is a convex,
grime. Very, very, very excellent for, for working wood and remains very sharp and is does well under impact because of the shape. Okay, next also a bark river. There are a couple of bark
rivers in this list. This is one that they have out right now, I believe. Oh, no, no, I'm sorry.

[54:33] The last one I show you they have out right now. This is the V 44 Bowie based on here. I'm just going to show it in this beautiful sheath with the frog. You can take it out of the frog and
slip it under your belt with that or leave it hanging from your belt. But this is based on the Marine Raider knife. The Marine Raider Bowie. That big broad clip point blade. Much like the Western.

[55:00] W49 and other knives we can think of. It's got a very distinct bowie shape in that it's got a wide,
you know it's wide down by the ricasso it widens out to a nice thick belly and then it has a curved clip this is not this is what is this three eights this This is 3.

[55:23] Sixteenth of an inch thick unlike the standard quarter inch bowie and I think that that is because this was used a lot in the South Pacific as a you know machete as a clearing thing as well
as a weapon but this was kind of you know so you don't want it too thick you don't want it too heavy they had those Collins machetes like I have on the wall that thing is a beast so you know this,
this one right here. So if you can minimize weight with your other knives.

[55:52] Have at it. And so they made that a thinner blade.
This one has the, um, and that can also be seen in a Western, uh, Western W 49 Bowie that can be seen in the Wild West Bowie, which is kind of like this by Cold Steel. Uh, they put the S guard in here.
I do like the uneven Quillian's a lot. And then I got the Morant. Actually, they're not uneven. They only look uneven because I got the Moran style handle. So instead of having the straight out handle, which looks a little funky on this knife, I gotta say, because it,
kind of like the K-Bar. It's a little bit offset from the center. The center line of the handle is offset from the center line of the blade, and it looks weird to me. But on this curvy,
horse hoof Moran style handle, all contoured and nice like that, it looks great because the spine aligns with the top of the handle and then this doesn't have to and it makes the blade look more
dramatic and it also sets the blade below your knuckles so very very nice. Beautiful, beautiful knife. This was a gift from my dad for Christmas a few years ago. Yep, I've turned him in a full
fledge knife junkie with this show so thanks dad. I love it, I love it. It's never too late to become a knife junkie. My dad is proof.

[57:15] Next up and penultimate knife. This is the one I've been man I've been wanting this for so long finally got my hands on it. This is the,
Natchez Bowie by Cold Steel now. I'm saying Natchez now because someone helpfully.

[57:31] Told me how to say it. I've been saying naches and And that is sounding like a total yank trying to not sound like a yank. I guess but it's Natchez,
So, Nechis. It's the Nechis Bowie. It's just a beautiful Musso style Bowie, kind of, at least in terms of the mythology, the style of Bowie that Jim Bowie had.
I will not say Bowie, or sometimes I do, but I don't say it as a matter of course, so you can't correct me on that.
But yeah, so James Bowie, they think Jim Bowie used a knife that looked like this on the sandbar fight. But who knows? We don't know.
We've seen a lot of examples that people think it looks like. Oftentimes it doesn't really look too much like a bowie, as a matter of fact. Sometimes it looks more like just a sharpened pry bar kind of thing.
But this graceful, gracefully curved blade long, it's got a 12 inch, 12 and a Let's say 12 and a quarter inch blade right around in there.
Nice long sharp, that's about a five inch sharp swedge.
Now that's a zero ground sharp, meaning it's kind of like a giant Scandi blade there.

[58:46] You're not going to slice bread with it, but you could definitely do some damage with impact. Or just drag cutting with that swedge.
This one has really nicely done handles, G10 handle scales. They're not scales, I'm sorry, I'm just talking at this point. But very nice handles, contoured. You got a cable tang in here.
That means the tang comes fully down to here. You can see someone take this apart on YouTube. I can't remember who does it though.
The tang comes down to about here, and then from here, mechanically and soldered, there is a cable that comes to here where there's a nut that screws this cap on.
And that actually has proven to be pretty strong. I mean, I haven't seen anyone have tang issues with their nachas or Laredo Bois. They both have that cable tang style thing.
And it's believed, anyway, I believe it. I should say that that absorbs shock on a big knife like this. When you're, say you're using this for something other than fighting, even though it's a fighting Boi, say you're using it for something other than fighting.
The shock will not be... you're cutting trees down. You're making kindling. That shock isn't going to get to your hands as much, apparently.
Alright, last in this list, a glorious Bowie. of my all-time favorites.

[1:00:12] In execution and design is the Shining Mountain Bowie. This one is the same as these other two bark river knives, but this one I got treated for water. No, water treated, I guess. What do you call
it? Waterproofing, and it makes the sheath dark and beautiful. All right, here it is, that famous Shining Mountain Bowie blade shape. Now this one is indeed going to be... This one indeed is,
available right now. It's one that they have come out with recently. Though what happens with these is with bark river knives in general, they release a pattern in a million different handles.

[1:00:50] And a lot of them are very expensive. But the micarta handles are less expensive. Some of the leather stacked and some of the more pedestrian woods. But they get very expensive with the,
handle scales or with the different handle materials. And usually those very, very expensive ones are the ones that are left after the first feeding frenzy,
when a popular model is released. And this one is definitely a popular model.
This design by Mike Stewart, that blade shape has been used by his former company Blackjack Knives, former and current Blackjack Knives. Also I believe Winchester has used this.
And of course that's the blade shape that we see Brad Pitt carrying in glorious bastards I always bring that up but that's not a bark river and it's not a.

[1:01:42] It's not a Blackjack, I think it's a Winchester. And they retrofit it with a really cool stag crown handle. So this is where I hope to lead my knife collection during the year, during this year
2023. I of course will be keeping up with some of the more trendy stuff as it comes out and excites me because it does. But this stuff will always, always dominate my heart. Bowie knives,
short swords, swords, even that comment before, those Bowie knives look ridiculous.

[1:02:17] But I'll take a big ridiculous Arkansas keep it. I love that. So that's what this channel is about and that's where I'm gonna keep going. Alright, thank you
so much for checking out this edition of the Knife Junkie podcast. We will be here again next Wednesday with another Midweek Supplemental. Of course, check us
out every Thursday night for Thursday Night Knives, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard time right here on YouTube. You can also check it out on Facebook or Twitch. And then of
course, check us out Sunday for the great interview shows we do. All right, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:03:38] Music.