Great Small & Medium Fixed Blades - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 386)

©2023, 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 Cold Steel's brand new giant folder. We're going to take a look at the Dagger Vendetta. Very excited about that and great small medium fixed blade knives plus it's finally here the collaboration knife whip hog too coming up.

[0:30] 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.

[0:43] Welcome back to the show my favorite comment from last week was uh plain and simple right at the end of Thursday Night Knives. It was Cold Steel Collector 808 saying, Bob D for Prez 2024.
And I loved it. It's not only did it, you know, inflate the ego a bit, but it made me think, yeah, this is the answer to all our problems. I've been looking, you know, I've been glancing,
at the news and politics and I'm like, man, we're in bad shape and things aren't looking better.
Maybe it is up to me. You know, a knife in every pocket. That will be my tagline for the campaign. knife in every pocket. Bob D for Prez 2024. Thank you, Cold Steel Collector, for your comment.
And everyone else who watches, participates, comments, is greatly appreciated. Give me your time I give you my time it's great having a good time all right I think it's time for a pot.

[1:37] In my pocket today was the Off-Grid Knives Rhino V2. Now we just gave one of these away on the Thursday Night Knives this past week when it was suggested I should run for president.
We gave one of these away in Coyote and Greywash that was just sent to me by Off-Grid Knives. And I'm excited to see that going out into new hands. I love this knife. I always talk about how this is the one I recommended my dad get from my brother and then I got jealous.
I finally ended up getting one and it's a really great workhorse of a knife. And I also think it's quite a looker in a sense that looks reminds me a little bit of a Winkler.
Now it's funny I always sort of gripe that people who aren't too into fixed blades see a lot of fixed blades and say, Oh, it looks like a Winkler. And I'll say, in my mind,
no that doesn't look like a Winkler. To me this long, this long drop point, it's almost It's like a very, very long clip point.

[2:37] Just to me does evoke that. Anyway, I was carrying this today. Earlier today, went on a nice epic hike.
Maybe, no, it wasn't epic, but it was a good like two hour hike with a buddy.
We caught up, did some talking. I brought this just in case. No, I just thought it would be a good knife to have on me walking around in the woods just in case, you know, anything actually came up to cut or carve.
And I thought I might just actually, like I said, do some carvings, some just extracurricular, pick up a stick while you walk and carve. But it was a little more rocky, rock scrambly than I thought. So this was just in my pocket.
Nice, big, full-size knife, but easy to carry and doesn't really take up much space.
It was a great knife to have on me. I also love the baby version of that. The baby rhino is a really, really cool life.
Also on me, I had a light one, a light fixed blade knife. I had my custom Kramer Voodoo.
This is from Eric Kramer, custom knives.
Man, I've been following him a long time before I had him on the show and then finally ended up buying one of these from him.
But this was the knife I I always.

[3:51] Drooled over in his Instagram feed, this is the Voodoo, and it's an upswept, he calls it a Persian blade, I call it a clip point.
But it's a great very thin 154 cm hollow ground super thin and slicey fixed blade knife. You know it's not necessarily the knife I'm going to take camping, but for a hike it was nice because it is a very capable and sharp knife.
And what's more, I knew where I was going to be hiking chances are this would not even be coming out.
Coming out. So it was thin and light, didn't impede my motion at all, and it was there in case I needed it. But if I were going camping, this would not be what I would take. This is more of
a tactical knife designed for his friends in law enforcement, Eric Cramer's friends in law enforcement and military, at their request for a lighter knife to fit on their LBE. Love that thing.
Beautiful knife. Okay, next up I had my in the hopes of getting the leather to to form a little bit more around the knife. That's always what I'm going for with these jack-wolf knives, leather cases.
I had this one in my back pocket, the low drag jack. And I like to sit on these in the car with the heated seat. I think it'll imprint...

[5:14] Sorry, that might be too much information, but I think it'll imprint the knife in the leather more. I'm not sure if that's true. But anyway, goofy things we do.
This has a beautiful bulbous spear point. Love this thing with that downward rake edge. really good for pull cutting, really pulling through that. And then also presents the tip nice and low for this sort of drag cut you might be doing in your EDC. This has gotten.

[5:43] I have found that the jack wolf knives have done a lot of food stuff for me. In other words, they've been the knife in my pocket when I've sort of impromptu gone out to eat or something like that.
And it'll be my food knife. If the meal requires only a butter knife, like I'm getting an omelet or something at the diner, then I don't need to bust that out. Sometimes I will just for fun. But if I'm getting meat, definitely. Definitely I'm not using the knife they provide.
And this has done a lot of duty in that way, as have all of the jack wolf knives, oddly enough, even the warrencliffs.

[6:19] So that just goes to show when I have a slip joint in my pocket all the time, it does get used quite a bit. It's just it gets used for food.
Okay, last up for emotional support today. I had the Basti Grakoon on me. This is a really great EDC knife.
If not very pedestrian and sort of unoffensive.
That's a great thing about this knife is that it's a full-size knife and it's very capable. It's got a nearly full height flat grind. It's very thin, very sharp, slicey, has great action, fun to fidget with.
But when you look at it, and great ergonomics by the way, but when you look at it, it's not scary. it is full size and capable. So this is a good, for me this is a good office knife.
This is also happens to be a good food knife. This is what I find. I find that I'm not even using my front right pocket knife that much anymore. The tactical
front right pocket knife for just general tasks. That's now in reserve for you know, well let me move along and just say that these things are what I pull
out and cut with. I don't know what the front is for. I think tactical use in case I need to defend myself. But really, it's just those are my favorite knives. They get top billing in the front right pocket.

[7:37] Oh, Manaja. Okay, so this has been my carry today. Let me know what you were carrying. Now, when I was out in the woods, I did not have the emotional support knife. This has been in the
car. This was everything else. But, you know, I didn't need four knives on me because this would have been in my back pocket where this was. So in any case, that's what I had on me. What did you have on me? Let me know. Drop it in the comments for inspiration. And who knows, maybe it'll give giving me an excuse to go out and buy another knife.
Though, I must say, with efforts like the one I'm about to show you, I've been trying to be more disciplined in the knife spending and purchasing and acquiring.
It's more like acquiring because there's just a lot and I start to feel bad about not using them. So that's a rotten segue to what's coming up.
And that is that I've been talking quite a while about this collaboration I found doing with Hog Teeth Knives. Well, it is finally in.
I showed you a video two weeks ago, and then we had a little bit of back and forth, and then he sent it to me. And then I went away, so there was some things getting in the way of my receiving this, but I've received it.
What a beauty.

[8:51] We have a name for this. We had a code name, just a working code name, when we were talking back and forth, but we have arrived at a name.
And this is it. This is the first collaboration knife between hog tooth knives and the knife junkie.
It is based on the hog tooth knives platform of this Tonto that you've seen me carry for a year and a half straight.
Carry this thing all the time. I love it. It's the perfect EDC fixed blade platform.
For me, it's the one I carry the most. And I went to Matt and said, Matt, can we do different blade shapes for this perfect knife and make it a collaboration? He said I'd love to.
And we decided on a bowie for the first one. We sent some shapes back and forth, and then this was the one.

[9:41] We arrived at. And it is a, if I do say so myself, a beautiful long swedge, zero ground swedge clip point with a slight recurve. That sort of recurve, that will definitely help with cutting,
but it will also help with the knife lasting. That is a thin hollow ground 154CM blade and over time, If you carry this and use it a lot, as you sharpen it, you will sharpen through that.

[10:10] That big belly, that recurve, and it will maintain a beautiful and workable shape throughout its throughout its life. So it is not one of those pain in the butt recurves. It is more like the recurve you will find on a traditional slip joint that is there to sharpen through, if you will.
But in the meantime, it cuts furiously. This knife we are calling this the Nova 1. The Nova 1. We have yet to decide about different hand at handle options.
This is a Maroon Micarta. I just might choose to do this first numbered batch.

[10:51] These are numbered batches and then as we move forward with different blade shapes on the same platform. They will be designated Nova 2, Nova 3, etc. And we have yet, like I said, we have yet to decide on the handles. We might just do one handle color,
per run. They will be numbered runs. This is a prototype. You can see it says prototype at the top. That's my logo there, the Knife Junkie logo. We will reduce that in size.
I think it's cool, it's great for me, you know, this is mine, this prototype, but for For the main model we will make it a little more in keeping with his stamp on this side.

[11:35] That hog feed stamp is pretty cool. So probably keeping it within the flat if it works and if it's legible. And yeah, here it is. It is a thing of beauty. I'm very excited and I will have a full
video and full details on the pre-order. This will be a pre-order situation. This first Nova 1.

[12:00] And just so I can gauge interest. So once I announce the price and I will gauge interest I will get to find out how many people actually want it. We will make that first batch, that first numbered batch and then we'll go from there. I don't know if we will continue with the pre-order model or not. It's that is up,
in the air but this is the first step and I'm really excited. I have yet to carry this. This just came into me the night before we record this. So today as
we speak tonight is the first time I'm going to put this in my in my waistband. I love it. I'm very excited about this and I hope you are too. Look at that. I'm just looking at it in that profile
against that white background. Oh, very exciting. All right. So here it is. The Nova One at long last.
Hog Tooth Knives and the Knife Junkie. Still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to to take a look at Cold Steel's new offering in the XL folding range and then we'll get to the state of the collection and then great small and medium fixed blade knives.
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[13:37] You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Well, with Shot Show a week in the rear view mirror, I'm taking a look at all the different articles coming up and the and the one I wanted to talk about here because I talk about these quite a bit is cold steel and the cold steel XL folders, my,
my favorite, the favorite sub collection of cold steel that I have, and the one that I take the most interest in, in sort of having a complete representation of,
not that I'm going to have all of their XL folders. And this one might have to uh, might have to be sacrificed. This is the Mayhem, and this is their new design. This is a GSM-only design, and uh...

[14:26] It is a five and a half inch slash it depending on where you measure it is slash six inch blade it's gonna come in OS 10 and.

[14:35] Also s35 It's gonna have different handle colors for the different blades,
It's got the Atlas lock and I think I will be honest. It is a ham-fisted design I gotta say it does look a little ham-fisted. I'm gonna see if if having it in person or checking it out in person,
makes the difference.
But I gotta say, I watched the KnifeCenter's video interview with Stickman from Cold Steel GSM looking at the new knives for 2023.
And even in the hands of the great and powerful David C. Anderson, this just, it just didn't look, I don't know, I don't know, we'll have to see.
This might be one of those things where pictures just don't do it.
I want to be excited about this Cold Steel. The swashbuckling blade shape looks kind of interesting. It's a little intriguing with that deep clip and the centerline point.

[15:33] But I don't know. I almost feel like it's going more for effect than for use. And I think that with a knife this big and with the design pedigree of Cold Steel, they could come up
with something that is useful and dramatic. This looks like it's dramatic first. It's got those three very large notched jimps in the swale on the back of the blade that look ceremonial. They don't.

[16:01] Look purposeful for a thumb engagement, even if you're choked up into that into that ricasso area.
They also don't look like they're useful for trapping. You know, if you're going to use that swill in a reverse grip to trap someone's arm or something like that.
You would want more jimps to bite in. So, I don't know. A lot about this seems... It's... I don't know. It's not... It doesn't have the refined design of a Demko. And I'm not saying that you have to be Andrew Demko to design an awesome, large folder, but,
I think they got part of the way with this one. Am I just talking too much without actually having it in hand? Perhaps. So maybe when it comes out it will be worth the AUS-10 version to
check it out. I hope I'm proven wrong. You know, I love to be surprised. I love it when people that I assume are one way surprise me and are another way. Same thing with knives and that has definitely happened. We talked about that here.

[17:01] So um.

[17:03] A bittersweet release for me from Cold Steel. I wish I was over the moon about it, but we'll check it out. Okay, next up, from CRKT, another company I talk about a lot, but usually I cast a little shade on it.
I'll give it a backhanded compliment, usually. I'll say, man, CRKT is awesome.
The way they expose the knife-buying public to all of these different designers and makers through their collaboration knives. They are one of the most collaboration heavy,
production knife companies out there and and then I say but too bad they make them in such crappy materials. Well here we go. These are made in America from
good materials. This is Matthew Lurch and his wife MJ Lurch both coming out with their own designs that are being made in America by CRKT. This first one is the,
won by Matthew Lurch's wife, MJ Lurch.
Now, the reason I put it that way, Matthew Lurch's wife, instead of just calling her MJ out of the gate is because we've heard the name Matthew Lurch before with a number of great designs, especially with CRKT, like the.

[18:13] LCK, the Ruger LCK made by CRKT.
One of the great EDC, inexpensive EDC knives from the high value EDC knives from the past five years.
Well, this is his wife and man. She can design a knife too. This is a pretty large, I was a 3.6 inch, swedged spear point or clip point. Can't tell what that is really, but it's with their version of the Axis Lock. They are calling that the...

[18:45] What are they calling that? The Crossbar Lock. Kind of a generic name. That's that's kind of a describing though but an interesting shape nonetheless from her with that double finger swale and those vents cut out towards the tail end.
I'm curious to see how CRKT does the crossbar lock but that it's called a definitive it's a 3.7 inch blade that's a pretty nicely sized blade and it will
be in G10 and 154 cm. Love that blade steel. So it's a very usable very easy to sharpen to maintain to keep sharp to get a wicked sharp edge on it keeps its edge pretty well,
So just a good all-arounder.

[19:27] Though it is not super. Next is the LCBK from her husband, Matthew Lurch. And this shape is really up my alley. 3.4 inches, so right in my wheelhouse or on the lower end. And just a beautiful.

[19:48] Sort of wharncliffe, but a center point wharncliffe. It reminds me a bit of Dirk Pinkerton's design, the asymmetrical contact.
LCBK, lightweight crossbar knife. Kind of a generic name when you break it down, but super cool, man. I really like this design. 154 CM blade steel and a very light 2.8 inches.
At least that's light for me.

[20:13] They're gonna be live on the 24th, so actually they are live. And so go check one of these things out, man.
I might have to do that. This is a cool, very cool looking knife, especially with that low slung or high slung, orange clip, very cool.
And also, I mean, the reason I'm featuring this in the first place, I do like a family knife story, but really the big part is that these are made in America, which is exciting for CRKT.
This is where I would love them to go because if they can maintain the affordability of their knives, make them in America with better materials, Like 154 is a thousand times better than 8CR, at least as far as I'm concerned.
And I'm making them here, that would be awesome. I would start buying CRKTs again because that might be the only way I can get an MJ Lurch or a Matthew Lurch design.

[21:06] Or at Gus Chagini or anything else, you know, they might have to offer. So there you go. That is Life Knife News. We got the Cold Steel Giant Mayhem folder that I might get.
I think I'll have to get that just as research.

[21:21] And then the the two Lurch USA made CRT keys. Coming up on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we'll take a look at a knife that was given away and then give them back very graciously and then great small and medium fixed blade knives.
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And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Man, I hate that weekly liner from Knives Ship Free. It is, you know, every week those knives change.
And every week I'm like, oh my God, they have that on special. But that is the life of the Knife Junkie. All right, let me show you this.
This was a knife. I'm sorry, I got to wipe it down. This was a knife that we gave away in the in the lucky number seven night, give away a knife that was donated to the station, the station to the channel by Dave of this old sword blade reviews.

[22:42] But it was going to Canada, was Canada bound. And the gentleman to whom this was going, Kevin, a very gracious man said, you know what, Bob, it's going to be such a pain in the butt for you to send that to me here.
You keep it. You like big knives. It's it's suiting.
And so, you know, what am I going to say? No, no, I insist. I'm going to send this to Canada. So I didn't. And I am I am very, very grateful. Thank you, Kevin.
I'm not going to say your last name here because I didn't didn't get permission.
But Kevin, I appreciate you greatly, man. This is a cool knife. And no doubt it will find its place in my Excel folder collection.
One, two, three, four, five inches of V2 blade steel, dagger ground, single edged. You've got this interesting carbon fiber. It looks like it's got metal in it.

[23:36] It's red.

[23:38] It has the glass breaker on the back, and then this 100% pure camp.

[23:45] Pocket clip with the skull and the eyes and the screaming face and the teeth. This is a Russian knife. Now, I'm not sure if they make them in China or if they make them in Russia or where they make them, but Dagger RR, double G,
double R is a Russian company and man, they've been blowing up. I've been,
following them on Instagram and they just keep coming out with really cool new models doing some interesting things with automatics. I saw that they have one.

[24:10] That's like a ringed ringed dagger automatic and you can actuate it from two positions there are two sliders one down by the ring if you're holding it in
reverse grip and one by the by the blade opening if you're holding it in the standard grip so very cool stuff happening from dagger knives this one
has this secondary lock which I can't imagine needing because you see how small that lock bar is. It is a stiff lock to undo. So chances are you will never need that secondary lock, especially if you're gripping it up here. But if you decide that you need to,
have it back here for some sort of standoff in fighting or say you're trying to cut up something up high and you just need to get that little extra, you might want to use that. Locks,
secondary locks on folders are, are, you know, rarely needed, in my opinion, but sometimes welcome,
you know, rarely are they something that I'm excited about. But in any case, this thing I am excited about it, it is a menacing and kind of, it looks like something a comic book character might
carry like a villain. So happy to have this. Thank you very much, Kevin, greatly appreciated. And And thanks everyone who participated in the lucky number seven giveaway.

[25:30] There will be many more giveaways to come. I think the next thing we're going to give away, the next knife is an X2 tracker from it's a fixed blade knife from off grid.
Really cool knife.

[25:43] All right. Having gotten through the state of the collection, which is slim this week, besides, oh, did I mention I got this?
The Nova one, the new Bowie hog tooth knives and Did I mention that? Okay, so let's move on to great small and medium fixed blade knives.
Receiving this was what inspired this because I do have a lot of really great knives in that medium and small category, but a lot of them are strictly tactical. A lot of them are small, curvy, double edged.
You know, these are readily available and are the knives I'm going to show you are readily available except for one but there are many of the same type and brand out there and.

[26:30] These are useful for both EDC and tactical if need be but with an eye more on utility.

[26:40] First up is one that I got from my brother-in-law for Christmas. I have fallen in love with this. And actually, it was love from afar at first. I just had never gotten around to getting it.
This is the Waksahashi. Waksahachi from Senkut. I always say Sevibe and I think even in my notes to Jim I said, yep, I said Sevibe. This is Senkut. This is the new Sevibe. Sevibe has moved up a notch.
So it's we, Civivi and Senkut and Senkut seems to be where they're doing a lot of interesting things.

[27:13] I think with the less expensive knives like Civivi and now Senkut, they can afford to take more chances and therefore come out with some of the cooler knives in their stable. This I think has
a stunning clip point blade. I love that clip point blade. It is very reminiscent to me of the cogent the first Civivi button lock knife the first button lock knife under the whole wee umbrella,
and it had a clip point blade very much like this except it did not it did not curve up on the spine quite as much but it had that sort of low slung point with that with the sort of dramatic clip.

[27:55] This is light and comfortable man i love this knife i'm i'm going to dye the handles to a maroon. That seems to be the color that I just go for with knife handles.
But I'm going to dye this maroon and I'll make a video of it because I've never done a Rit Dye job. I went in to take the handle scales off of this and
somehow they are, man, they are just stuck and I didn't want to... the barrels are stuck and I didn't want to pound it through. So I'm going to try again and if
it doesn't work I'm just going to dunk the whole thing, at least the whole handle and then I'll polish off the edges here of the handle. But beautiful, very carryable.
I just carried this the other day with this in the waistband strap. It worked great, but it held the knife up a little bit too high. So I think I'll get a discrete carry for this one because I do plan on carrying it. It's a very, very nice and inexpensive fixed blade.

[28:55] Carry. You know, I talk about what makes a good fixed blade carry knife and for me it has to do with a rounded shorter handle, thin, and not too,
long a blade, but you know, four to five inches, max five inches. The new Nova 1 is three and a quarter, so you know, small, manageable, won't poke into the rib cage
because I can carry larger fixed blade knives, but I find that throughout the If it's uncomfortable at all, I'll end up taking it out because you know I need something sticking in my ribs and I don't need to be constantly readjusting people don't need to see me constantly readjusting,
they will make assumptions that don't need to be made.

[29:39] Okay, next up, this one's awesome. This is the Ronin from Spyderco. Spyderco knives. This is designed by Michael Janich and this particular knife was sent to me by Michael Janich, which was
a really, really nice gift and I really appreciate it. But totally apropos because I am in love with the Yojimbo Yojumbo line and this is the fixed blade version. This is BD1 steel, very slender,
and more economical than the folding versions. I cannot remember what this costs but it's definitely less than a hundred. I think it's less than 85. I think it's kind of like a 75.

[30:24] Dollar knife. It's very thin, very hollow ground and slicey. It is a self-defense knife through and through, but that shape is great for EDC. So, you know, it's like a big, it's like a big exacto knife or a big carpet knife. Just in a fixed blade format. So this, I think works great. It was intended as a as a fighting knife or a self defense knife, but I think it just works great as an all arounder, because of that awesome working, working knife blade shape that Warren club.
Super nice. It's interesting to see how, you know, this knife was less attention was spent on this knife. It is a A inexpensive, B a fixed blade.
I should say and be a fixed blade. So you can see how just the buffing process in polishing the edge.
They rounded off the this little guard here and it's not a big deal and it might even be deliberate, but I just know it's not.

[31:29] And it's fine. It's fine. But it's just interesting to see. Very thin G10 handle scales. This carries great, even in this gigantic pancake sheath.
I mean, this thing is just huge. And where they could have trimmed it to make it less huge, They didn't. Where they could have moved the grommets closer to the edge.
To the imprint they didn't and that's fine. It's audacious But and it works in some of my looser pants And I'm an old man. I don't do the skinny jeans, but I do have some that fit a little more,
Than others and and this does not work in that.

[32:11] So I keep intending to make a kydex sheet for this but.

[32:17] Or not can't I just haven't all right next up is the old It's not old. It's the BPS knives. This is the HK5. This was also sent to me by the company,
a father and son team in Ukraine who make these really outstanding no frills outdoors knives. This has sort of usurped my Mora and sent my Bushlor packen. I sent, I gave my
Condor Bush Lore to a work friend's son once I got this. Because I was like, you know, I don't really have much of a need for a Scandi outdoor knife like this. And this was much like the Bush
Lore in that it had a five inch Scandinavian ground blade with an unstabilized wooden handle.

[33:12] So I was like, I don't need two of those now. So I gave the other one away. This one, man, it is so wickedly sharp. And I do like that it's a clip point. But this I've featured in a couple of,
the videos where I'm outside noodling around and it just makes incredible feather sticks. It is an incredible carver. I think in the video I actually carved the handle of the baton I'm using to, you
know, I take a log and carve it down to a nice round shape for me to hold. And this is what I use primarily. And it's a really great carving knife. Like I said, unfinished
handle, but this is 30 bucks or 35 bucks on Amazon. And you're supporting a small business, albeit a small Ukrainian business, but it's cool. You know, I like
a family knife story and this is definitely one. What's the blade steel they use here? It's something, oh 1066 blade steel made in Ukraine. This thing is awesome and the high grain leather sheet is our high grade leather sheet is,
amazing. It is amazing.

[34:19] This is not a disc on the knife, but it almost seems to outclass the knife. It's a very, very nice, supple... It's like I'd love to have a leather jacket made out of this.
Maybe a little bit thinner grade, but you know, you could enter the apocalypse with a leather jacket made from this type.
And, you know, for style I'd get the white stitching too.
Alright, so that's the BPS knives, HK5. I know that they sent these knives to a number of fixed blade knife channels or channels that feature fixed blade knives and straight across the board. Great, great reviews. And you might say,
well, of course they're great reviews. You got sent for free. You're on the hook. And yeah,
you kind of are. Or you can send it back or you can use it and be honest if you don't like it.
Or you could just not make a video. But everyone seems to think these are great, especially the greater outdoorsmen among us. Also, 90 degree spine if you care. It seems to be a good thing
to have in a knife like this. Also, you can just put it on your belt or dangle it. And this is actually a really nice dangler. You know, I have the big Wild West Bowie from Cold Steel,
It's about 18 inches on the dangler.
I'm like, man, you got to be like 10 feet tall to make this make sense.

[35:46] But a smaller knife on a dangler, I have found that I like it, especially in that one.

[35:51] Okay. Next up is the Topp's Knives Tex Creek. This I love this knife and also a great pouch leather style sheet. Pouch meaning you just drop the knife in there.
Doesn't have straps and stuff for cleaning it. This knife I got because I thought I was going to... This is when I was going through my learning about making kydex sheaths.
I got this thinking I was going to figure out how to carry this on a daily basis the way I normally carry and discovered that the handle is just too long.
The blade to handle ratio for this is not good for my style of daily in the waistband fixed blade carry. I would want it more like that, you know.

[36:38] Reduced by an inch on the handle. But man, what a great knife this ended up being for just putting on the belt for a day of chores. Even if you're inside, you know, I always talk about a want,
you know, working in the back, mowing the lawn, you know, I don't have a huge giant property, but,
I take pride in it. So I prune it and stuff and take care of it. And I always have a knife on my waist. This was the knife for a couple of years. I have since moved along to others.

[37:09] But this one has seen a lot of use and I don't want to say abuse, but accidental abuse.
For instance, I was chopping some vines that cover a chain link fence in the way back and hit the fence on one of the actual poles and took a chip out of that 1095 which was surprising,
but I hit it pretty hard and it was on a pretty narrow surface area so I had to sharpen this out so that this knife has been sharpened to the point where I had where I reduced where
I took out a notch right about at the belly. So I took a substantial amount of steel off of it and it still remains in great shape especially in terms of its you know how it cuts it is a it is a chunker it is not a subtle thin slicey knife this is definitely a good,
outdoor beater but one of the very few knives in my collection that actually look like this where you can see lots of scarring and damage from from work I've put in yes I was out there putting in work using my knife. So I don't have too many like that because I live a pretty.

[38:20] You know, tame lifestyle here in the suburbs. But I'm proud of the work I put into this one.
One of the many cool finishes too that you can get from Tops Knives. I just sent my buddy Ian's Hawks Hellion in for refurbishment at Tops as a little gift to him. And they were really cool.
They said you can put the original black traction coating on or and then they have like a million different You know Sarah coats and different colors and different coatings and it was really cool. So we went with Sarah coat on this one.

[38:54] Black still but man tops is awesome and and when you When you bang through their knives and you want to have it refurb you send it back to them very reasonable costs,
For these services to great great American company pops knives and look at this gorgeous This is another I'd like to have boots made from this.

[39:13] A sheep leather.
Gorgeous.
With the double white stitching and the Tops logo, which I have always thought was cool, that Tops logo. All right, there it is. And with a nice big lanyard on it. Next up is the,
Off-Grid Knives Back Country. Now this one is pristine. This is one that Carrie just sent to me,
to show off the improvements they've made, especially to the handle of this.
I have had three of these. The first one, the blackout, is out there on a bookshelf stashed away just in case a fight makes it over to that bookshelf and I need it to fight for my life. But that one has a little bit of scarring from the from the noodling around I did with it outside. That's one that my dad got for me after he saw the first interview with Offred.
Off. These knives are awesome and I like the cut of Jerry's, of Carrie's jib. So he got me one of those and great knife, I
should have brought it here for this. But, but the handle not as ergonomic, kind of squared off with, you know, slightly contoured but thick enough that it's squared off, it's not as comfortable. And it's got the anzo scoops taken out of it. So,
it's kind of teeth like and after a while without gloves, that older handle, that V1 backcountry handle started to bug.

[40:37] So he did one change and he sent that to me. And that was my new one and I loved it.
And then he sent this one. They made further improvements on the handle. It is really comfortable.
It is from the additional contouring and the giant scooping and chamfering they did on these two swales. The knife has a much smaller dimensional feel north to south,
as well as east to west. So really, really great improvement. I have not used this one yet for anything, but that one in the middle, the coyote version in the middle that had some improvements, I gave to my brother-in-law who was over here, I think it was on Christmas,
And I was showing this one off to him and I was showing them all three to check them out and he liked the second one.

[41:32] And well, he liked this one best, but I wasn't going to give him that. So I gave him the other knife. It felt good to do because they were both gifts to me and my brother, brother-in-law James just loved it so much. I'm like, here man, take it.
I felt like, you know, extra Christmas present plus spreading the word about these awesome knives, especially this, this one to me, I was kind of quipped.

[41:55] Called the back country and I know he named it that so that it could sell on Amazon but I think it should be called back alley because to me it looks more like a fighting knife. And now in this super comfortable handle setup.
Yeah, it could be. I might consider figuring out how to carry this one, though it is a bit heavy for in the waistband and a bit large. But the sheath is also improved. They went
from pancake to taco, which I definitely approve of. And then they went from sort of bent over kydex clip to really nice dangler with nylon and snap. Kind of like you exactly like you
see on cold steel sheaths. So this is the Off Grid Knives Back Country Coyote. They call it V2, but to me it's V3 because there was a, or maybe it's V2.5 because there was another improved model in the
middle. All right, next up, this is a perennial classic. Perennial? Nah, this is just a classic.
And it took me so long to get this knife, even though it's always been inexpensive. And even Even though I got one for my sister years ago when she had a stalker.
Sorry, maybe that's too much information. But I got her this and until I made her a knife it was her steadfast companion. But what a great knife. The Koban.

[43:21] Koban in Japanese means bodyguard. When they first came out with this they had a longer version called the Oyuban, I think it was called, which meant boss.
So the larger one was the boss, the smaller one was the bodyguard.
I have put an aftermarket clip on there for very good in the waistband carry. This is a large knife, but it's so thin and contoured and even with the sort of grippy rubberized handles, Crayton handles, it carries really nicely.
Let me take it out of the sheath.

[43:52] It comes with a boot knife clip that I just immediately got rid of. Boot knife clips don't grip into the boot because you don't want to ruin the boot.
So they end up.

[44:03] More like walkie talkie clips that very easily come off and I just don't like it. So I put this on I Don't plan to carry this in my boot. Anyway, it is a rather, you know large knife at five inches five and a quarter inches long.

[44:18] Deeply hollow ground OS 8 still in OS 8 no need for much more unless you're using this for something.

[44:25] Other than body guarding That very thin coke bottle shaped Crayton handle just feels great in the hand. A small and understated yet valuable
and useful guard made of rubber there. And a very useful tanto shape. I think tanto, this sort of Americanized tanto shape is so typecast as a tactical knife.
But these are great utility blades. Tantos are great utility blades. Now you Now you might not get that wharncliffe tip all the way down at the bottom, and that's what a lot of people consider utility shape, but you do have that secondary point.

[45:09] And that, called a yukote, that's this area up here. That secondary point acts like having a wharncliffe tip way down there.
And then you get the benefit of a long straight edge. In this case, it's slightly curved. And then that chisel tip. These are great work knives.
You can scrape stickers off your windows with that.

[45:31] You can get through a thick leather jacket with that. You can carve wood with that beautiful hollow ground blade. You can do a lot with these knives. They're not just...

[45:41] They're not just for knife fighting, ladies and gentlemen. The Securex sheath is awesome.

[45:47] It maintains the knife, but not so much that it's pulling your pants all the way up to the navel. This one I carry.
This is one of those ones I'll carry when I'm bumming around the house and work out shorts or sweat pants or pajama bottoms or whatever.

[46:03] It's very lightweight. So in that kind of elastic strap, it's barely noticeable. And then when you draw it, of course I draw it just for practice and fun, but when you when you draw it, it does not pull your pants all the way up to your nipples, you know.
So good retention, not great retention, but sometimes you don't want great retention.
For instance, this has great retention and in in a pajama bottom or sweatpants, you're never going to be getting it out without pushing off with a thumb.

[46:35] Okay, so also in that same category as very easy to draw, lightweight, thin, with a classic, classically styled five inch blade is one of my absolute favorites is the Spyderco Street Bowie,
designed by Fred Perrin. Now unlike the other Spyderco in this list, look at how ridiculously huge that that the sheath is for this. Of course it's a slightly broader blade but it's so big.

[47:06] That footprint. The footprint for the Spyderco Street Bowie sheath is also larger than than need be but way more manageable and this one I can I can carry without a problem. By the way I also like this C-clip from Spyderco. This one has gotten here I'm going to put this up to the main for the mic.

[47:26] It's got rattle, it's loose in there. This this knife sheet gets a lot of flak because.

[47:33] Because it doesn't have some of those things like real tight retention. It does rattle, does have a big footprint.
But I think it's great because this knife is one that you want to be able to access easily.

[47:46] It is kind of it reminds me of a small in the blade, it reminds me of a small trail master, basically.
But you want to be able to access this quickly. This is a self-defense knife primarily. that's what this, you know, that's what it's marketed for and designed for.
You've got this deep finger groove here, which is not semi circular. It is straight on this side and angled on this side, which which angles the blade in a more aggressive, at a more aggressive angle to the knuckles.

[48:19] It also stops you from sliding forward onto the blade. Fred Perrin, the designer, is a former French commando and general badass.
And he takes he takes design inspiration from classical or from classic French fighting knives, which to my eye look a bit like chef's knives.
You know, the the the blade is broader than the handle and the blade itself acts as the guard. It's not like a crossguard that you see on a bowie or something like that.
And that comes down through his other designs. I have a I have one of his neck knives.
It's a similar setup and he's got the subway coming out or it is out and that has the same setup. And that's just a Fred Parent thing, signature design and I love it.
This knife is super light. That's VG10 blade steel that you can just get extremely sharp.
And then this I've been throwing, you know, I've been doing a bit of knife throwing and I've done a bit of no spin up close throwing. So within 10 feet, you know, and you throw it like this and it has no spin comes off your hand.

[49:28] Like this and you kind of massage you brush you brush the spine with your forefinger as it leaves and if you're within you know 10 feet or so and you really whip it hard it chunks right in uh it's,
got a you can see the tip got a great blade shape for it and i like knowing that this little knife that i carry around with me um you know as my never unarmed protection uh sometimes i like knowing
that it's a good thrower even with a little happy little fob on it. So I put this double knotted fob on there when I was walking the dog. For a while I was regularly walking the dog.

[50:10] In a close by woods at 5 a.m. and I stopped doing that because I got to be honest, it was spooky, man. The woods at night are different and 5 a.m. may as well be the night. And everything is
starting to stir and the dog was all fitful and we changed our habit and we don't walk there now in the in the dark. But this fob was there for easy grab because of course I would practice because
I'd be nervous walking along in the dark. I'm like anything that can see better in the dark than I can which is just about everything can see me right now. It's probably watching me. What is out there?

[50:52] And so I would practice drawing the knife just in case. And you know, I'm thinking MS-13 more than anything else.

[51:00] I had this fob, I put that fob on there just so that my hand wouldn't slip off and if I missed that first knot I would catch the second knot and even if I have the knife in my hand like this I can readjust.
That's that's better. So I did that for that reason and I like the happy happy.

[51:19] Bright pink and teal knot on there next to that blue next to that black blade Yep, I don't recommend anyone go into the woods without anything on you, like knife or firearm if you're going deep in the woods.

[51:37] That's... I don't know, man. I've been hearing some stories. There are bears, black bears apparently are really dumb and it can get quite... I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not an outdoorsman, but it makes me feel better to have that street bowie on my, on my hip.
Alright, next up is the Doug Ritter. This is the RSK Mark III. This is the Hogue Ritter fixed blade. And what an awesome fixed blade this is. And I'm starting again with the sheath.
These all have that in common. Great sheaths.
You can't have a great fixed blade knife without a great sheath.
The power behind the throne, if you will. And on the backside, you have these different ways of attachment.
You've got these two straps that unsnap and you can put it over your belt or they unsnap doubly and you can molly it.

[52:29] You know, if you unsnap this and unsnap that, feed it through a lot of molly. The molly loops you can have it on like that.
It's got a very, very sturdy inner here and then this Cordura is like high, high, high quality Cordura nylon here. They give you quite a length of, I don't think this is,
yeah I guess it's 550 and then one of these pinch clamps. But here's the knife man. What a great knife at, what is this, about five inches. Evoking the shape
of the vaunted MSK Mark 1 or RSK Mark 1 folder, the famous famous folder that started life as the bench made Ritter Griptilian and then now is manufactured by Hogue. Well,
they're making this fixed blade and man, it's great. Very thin, high, high, high height.

[53:28] Flat grind. As a matter of fact, with this hump, it's practically a full height hollow grind.

[53:36] You're going to have a very easy time keeping this knife sharp and free of corrosion with that S45. This is my only knife with S45 EN. It's very slicey but quite robust. If you look at the spine,
you'll see you have a pretty much a full thickness till right about half inch to the tip.

[53:58] And so it is light but quite robust, I would say, and has, again, this has done a little bit of backyard duty, but I have never batoned with this or done much tough hard work with this.
I feel intuitively like it would take it on with a plumb, but I just haven't put it through those paces.
I've been a little precious with this knife, I must admit.
But it's got the beautiful radial milling on the handle that you see in all of the Hogue-era ridders.
It's so nice. It's like a sunburst radiating from either the pivot or in this case that first bolt. Wonderful ergonomics. And you know it's wonderful because I never use the word wonderful.
So really, really great ergonomics in this saber grip. You've got that ramp that feels great.

[54:56] But really, this one to me is like more of a carving knife, more of a knife where you're going to be doing a lot of these push, push kind of cuts and, and it's kind of pull chest pull cuts
and stuff like that. Great outdoors and camp knife. I think this would excel in the food prep area too. You're going to get a lot done with this, but that's the whole point of these RSK knives.
R.S.K. Ritter Survival Knife. R.S.K. So Doug Ritter being a former, well not former, being a helicopter pilot.

[55:28] I don't think he flies much these days, but he started off his career in knives and knife making. This is way before Knife Rites, which he which he runs and created and has basically saved us all, all us knife junkies.
But before he was doing any of that, he was flying helicopters and creating survival kits meant for airplanes and helicopters. And key to that is lightweight.
So he was really hell bent on designing a folder that had premium steel and then an inexpensive handle. That's how the Griptilian, that's how the Ritter Griptilian was born.
So those Ritter Griptillians always had a much higher grade steel than the regular and a different blade obviously than the regular Griptillians at the time.
And then he made a number of other fixed blades in the past, but this is the one that is now carrying the torch as lightweight fixed blade, fully capable survival knife.
And no doubt if you needed to fight with this, this would be great for that because it's light and nimble and it's got a pretty decent point and a very sharp and slicey blade.

[56:41] But it doesn't scream that.

[56:43] Alright, so I'm going to put this back in the really excellent sheath, and I like the billboarding on the sheath.
Doug Ritter, I'm happily, I happily, proudly carry around his name like that. He's a cool dude and has done great stuff for us.
Okay, second to last in this list is a... this is an example that I have. Probably it is unavailable, but there is always a number of knives like this from this company available.
And that company is Bark River Knives. I love Bark River knives and I have a couple of their big bowies. I have the Boone 2, which is a larger medium size fixed blade knife. Not for this list. This is the Mini Bush Sacks.

[57:26] And it is a... I should have done this before. Three and three quarters inch wharncliffe.
Oh man, it's awesome. And it's got this beautiful micarta handle, coke bottle, olive shaped my part or olive shaded micarta handle with the red liners, just the beautiful craftsmanship
a one tool steel, beautiful craftsmanship that you expect from bark river knives with a really sharp.
Sorry, that was unnecessary with a very sharp apple seed edge or convex edge. This a one steel, however, to a two tool steel does not take a good patina I have found, or at least it doesn't take
a good forced patina. I tried to force the patina on this with a vinegar and it just,
came out blotchy and botchy and it looked terrible. So I polished it off but couldn't quite polish it all off. So if you see the surface of this and think it looks a little janky well that's because I messed it up. But a really sharp acute point. This is a,
I got this of course as you know I'm sure as a little self-defense knife but it's meant,
as a little bush knife and I think it would be great for that.

[58:43] I don't know about the point, though. The point seems like it's a little acute for bush tasks, whatever those are. But so maybe you folks out there who love fixed blades and have way more experience,
in the bush than I could tell me why, how that tip would come in handy in a bushcraft situation for me.
I know how it would come in handy for a self-defense situation.
And I carry this one. I made this Kydex sheath. This one comes with a beautiful leather, full grain leather pouch sheath that this very acute tip went through the bottom of. So I had to do a little fix,
on that. Like I had to recently that I showed off with the JB knife and tool.

[59:30] Ditch pick. But this one you'll see I carry it oriented differently. Usually I carry them tip down, edge forward. This one I carry tip down, edge back. A more traditional style of carry.
That's so that if I draw it in reverse grip I can have it more pickle oriented. And of course, if I'm doing that and I just need the knife to cut a bagel, which is probably what I'm going to use
it for. I just simply turn it in my hand. It's easy. Just turn it in my hand. But if I do need to draw quickly and use it in a self-defense situation, heaven forbid, and of course that's never happened to me, knock on wood, it would be oriented properly for my purpose with this knife,
for my use. But a beautiful job. I love Bark River knives. I would love to have a huge sub collection of them, but they tend more towards the bush and the camping and the outdoorsy.
And so it's easy for me to shy away from most of their designs, even though I have a profound appreciation for them and love all the different handle styles. So when they come out with a knife.

[1:00:41] When they do a run of knives, they come in a range of prices because they come in a range of handle materials. I would love to have Mike Stewart on this show.
I've reached out before and I'm going to try again. He seems like a really great character.

[1:00:58] Okay, last up in this list might surprise you because it is a $15 knife, but I love it. And I've know I knew a guy who swore by it, living on the road and camping for about three
years straight and this was his only knife besides the Swiss oven and that is the cold steel roach belly uh this cold steel roach belly is is wearing the first sheath i ever made of uh kydex and it's
pretty awesome sheath if I do say so myself but this is a dedicated car knife this is my,
car cockpit fixed blade. I have a fixed blade in the back that's bigger and more capable. But this roach belly at 16 bucks and a cheap plastic sheath. Mine came with a cheap Cordura sheath or nylon,
and now they have it in a more kydex-y thing. But this simple cheap knife in 4116 Krupp steel,
is really all I would need in a fixed blade. It is, you know, besides a big chopper or something like that, it is a very capable five inch hollow ground
blade. The cheap 4116 Kruppstahl works beautifully and keeps a really good edge for a cheap steel. You know cold steel, man, they can get every last ounce of,
hardness out of their inexpensive steels. They do great with futuri. This one I.

[1:02:27] Took and I put my own little grooved pattern in the handle and that's how it was for a long time. And then when I got obsessed with jute cord, I got some jute
cord and wrapped it on there and shellacked it. I love the way that feels in hand. So this is an inexpensive enough knife that you can feel free to make adjustments. I would like to get another one of these. I think I've may have mentioned this before. I just never have gotten around to it. But I'd love to get another one of these and then.

[1:02:58] Bevel, put a secondary bevel. Of course it would change the overall profile of the the knife, but I think this would be a really cool one as a double-edged blade. So I might try that because if I jack,
it up, it's $16 gone and a lot of knowledge gained. You know, you don't lose, you learn, that kind of So yeah, this is a knife that I highly recommend.
This is a no commitment.
But very high reward knife. That is the Roach Belly. And not for nothing, it's kind of cool looking.
And if you did need this as a fighting knife, it would be awesome.
So thin and slicey and quick and light and hideable.
And with that bulbous handle, it really fits the hand nicely.
And you've got the sort of blade guard, as I mentioned before, i.e. the blade itself being the guard, as I mentioned with the parent style.
And then we have the bulb in the back keeping it in hand. All for 16 bucks and yours to customize.
I highly recommend that knife. Okay, so thank you very much for coming along. The great small and medium fixed blades avenue with me.
These are great knives that can flex from daily carry to camp to self-defense if need be. But they are not those dedicated self-defense knives that I love showing off and have shown off so much.

[1:04:24] So check these out. It's the Waxahashi, the Ronin, the HK5, the Text Creek, the Backcountry, the Coban, the Street Bowie, the RSK Mark III, the mini bush sacks, or any small Bark River knife, and the Cold Steel Roach Belly.
And as you can see, I went from very expensive or somewhat expensive with the Bark River knives to barely any money spent with the Cold Steel.
So a knife in this category can be had for any cost. All right.
That's it. Join us again next week for a midweek supplemental where we will dive deep into a knife subject and then Thursday Night Knives, of course, 10pm EST right here on Facebook, YouTube,
or Twitch.
And Sunday for the interview. Man, thanks for this, joining me for this struggle.
Scan the QR code to become a patron and please join me in thanking Jim for working his magic behind the switcher. Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:06:08] Music.