Great Fidget Knives - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 398)

©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 around.
Coming up, we're going to take a look at five stories in knife life news.
We're going to take a look at a knife gifted to me very generously from the edgy American, and then 10 great fidget knives.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your wiggly 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 the Apex Alchemy channel. Go check him out, Apex Alchemy on YouTube. He says, this was about the gift knife that I got that I'll be showing later. He says, Shane is a treasure to the community.
Shane the edgy American.
Shane is a treasure to the community as are you Bob.
By the way, the Knife Junkie podcast on Spotify keeps my 18 wheels bouncing down the interstate.
I appreciate you and all you do. And I really liked this comment for a couple of reasons.
First of all, I couldn't concur more.
Shane Gables is a treasure to the community. Of course, I love to hear that I too am a treasure to the community.
But what I really like is imagining Apex Alchemy bouncing down the road in his 18 wheeler listening to this show.

[1:26] First of all, the concept of driving around America. I love that because I've done so much road tripping in my life.
I absolutely love driving and being on the open road. But also, I like the idea of people doing their work or doing their thing, sharpening their knives, dropping their knives, driving their 18 wheeler or running their forklift and listening to this show.
Because I have podcasts that I love that fill that same role.
So to do that for other people, to know that I'm doing that for other people really puts wind in my sails.
So thank you so much, Apex Alchemy, and thank you to everyone else who watches, leaves a comment, subscribes, which you might want to do right now if you're not, thumbs up, sus, and checks out Patreon.
I really, really greatly appreciate it, as does Jim.
Alright, all that being said, I think it's time for a pocket check.
Today on me, in my front right pocket, was the great and powerful Spartan Harsey Folder.
This is a knife that I could not wait to get my hands on, and when I did get it, they were in short supply.
I know they make batches of them and kind of have to get lucky, and they also do a lot of really cool customized work on the handle scales. This one has my logo on it, which was very generously.

[2:54] Given to me if you will by Curtis Ayavito after he came on the show. Send me your Spartan Harsey folder I'll put your logo on it Before he was done with that sentence. It was in the mail, I really treasure this knife not only because it is an incredible design by one of my favorite designers Bill Harsey and, Built like the proverbial tank that we all talk about, by Spartan Blades, but it really shares a lot of the qualities of the the Hinderer XM18 and the Sabenza 21 that I love so much that this is one of those perfect knives. Nearly perfect. I might have it hollow ground yet. I've had my eye on that for a while. I've talked about it. But then when I go down that rabbit hole, there are plenty of other knives I'd also like to have hollowed out. And something about this being a super, or stout knife.
I don't know.

[3:52] I may, I may not. You'll find out when I do, but this was in my pocket today.
Someone hacked Bill Harsey's account, I think on Instagram, and that's why that went in my pocket today.
I saw it and I was like, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw someone mention that, and I thought that was real, real craptacular of whoever did that.
Bill Harsey's one of the absolute foundations one of the bastions of this knife industry, this knife community.
Such a great guy.
He's given so much to the community over the years, especially in terms of incredible designs.

[4:29] But he's a great man too and to do that to someone just randomly like that is just really crappy. So, anyway, I was carrying this in my pocket today for the solidarity if you will.
Okay, next up on my hip or in my front left pocket today, it vacillates, it goes back and forth depending on where I put my phone, but today I had my Midnight Jack on me by Jack Wolf Knives. I do promise that I'm going to start carrying other slip joints other than jack-wulff knives sometime soon. But this one is up there in my top three of jack-wulff knives and just wanted it in my pocket because today I have a smattering of blade shapes. Each blade shape is unique and different and I needed a wharncliffe on me. This is a great, great knife. This Barlow, it's a coffin-handled barlow. So it has a number of different unique qualities from different slip-joint knives in this design. And it is so usable, so incredible. I always remember when I first got this, I was able to use this very thinly round M390 blade to slip between a cardboard box.

[5:46] And a printing label without cutting either. I mean, I was careful and I am a very skilled blades man but this knife really really crushed it. Loving this and it's in green micarta. Micarta is going to be going away with jack-wulf knives that's just not as... doesn't sell as well as some of those beautiful fat carbons and, camo carbons. What's the other one? Carbocarbons that they sell with the beautiful dazzling colors and patterns so I have it on good authority that they will be in the next round of jack wolf knives there will be different blades in these handles and different handle materials so I'm very psyched to have a good amount of these in my card up. Just talking with Patty this week from Patty's Potato Peelers, man he got me all jazzed up on slip joints again and I'm bringing out the GECs and I gotta say there is as he mentioned in his interview he keeps his jack wolf knives kind of separate from his other slip joint knives because with the modern manufacturing and materials they almost seem.

[6:57] Like they fit in the modern boulder category more than the slip joint category. I saw where he was coming from and I think that's a pretty interesting take.

[7:08] All right, next up on my hip today, one I haven't carried in a while, the Ron Steele designed and created a custom knife, the Prime. And this one I had him double edge. Now, I think this is the only double edged Prime he's done, if I'm not mistaken. I know it was the first one. And well, this is one of those knives that took me by surprise because I really like Ron Steele's knives and Justin from tier one few years back loaned me a prime that's this shape and then a prime clip point that was absolutely gorgeous and I wanted to order one from Ron and strangely enough I got the drop point over the clip point because the shape of this is so unique and cool but I couldn't just leave well alone well, enough alone I had to have him double-edged it and this is a really fantastic knife beautiful knife little thick for me to carry in the waistband in the handle, but you know, I powered through, I can manage, because well, because I'm a knife junkie and I really wanted this on my person.
In that nice maroon linen micarta, I do love maroon linen micarta. I know that's exceedingly obvious at this point, given all my talk of the Nova 1.

[8:30] Okay, and lastly on me for emotional support. I had the 80 20.5 knife I haven't carried in a little while. This is more of a summer carry for me. This is a light, shorts sort of carry knife, but today as I mentioned I I just had a, feeling I wanted a number of unique blade shapes on me and, It was the blade shape that got me to choose this one, but it was the, eminent fidgetability. It was the amazing fidgetability of this that gave me emotional support and probably drove everyone in earshot nuts. But you know what? We were all going nuts last week and this week, so, you know, little bit of clickety clack ain't gonna kill anybody. And There you have it. This was my carry for today. For this day I had the Spartan Harzi Folder, the Midnight Jack from Jack Wolf Knives, the Double Edged Prime from Ron Steel Designs, and the AD 20.5 from Demco Knife Company. I am so psyched.
We were just talking before we started rolling about Blade Show. Coming up, it's coming up quickly, you know, I.

[9:51] I don't want to sleep on it and lose my chance to go, but I was thinking in particular about the Demko table last year and the year before, but just how people sprint to get to that table when they open the doors because they know there will be some full-tie customs and different blade shapes and stuff coming out of there that you can't get anywhere else. So very excited about Blade Show.
Just a reminder, the pre-order for my collaboration knife with Jack Wolf knives is up until March 31st or 50 knives sold, whichever comes first.
They will be numbered. You saw how that popped off. Such a great, great sheep.
They'll be numbered and some people have requested special numbers and obviously if we don't get to number 44, you won't be able to get 44.
But if we do, you can have your choice of number between one and 50 as long as it hasn't been taken yet, which I think is kind of cool.
44 I chose. It's always been my favorite number, but I will let someone else have that because I have this sweet prototype.

[10:59] 154 CM blade steel deep hollow grind with a nice recurve designed to be sharpened through over time.
You use that front belly portion more and sharpen it more. It comes with this maroon linen micarta handle. As we go from the Nova 1 to the Nova 2 and we change blade shapes, we will also change the color of micarta, the handle material. Who knows, it might not be micarta. A couple of changes will be made. That row of jimping will be moved forward so that the thumb lands squarely on the jimping. The logo will be much smaller and will fit in the flat of the blade right up there.
And the liners will not be red. They will be a deep forest green.
So go to theknifejunkie.com slash Nova one to pre-order it. We have sold a, I'm excited because we've sold more than I thought we would originally.

[11:57] I thought we would keep it to 10, but we have exceeded that order.
And Jim always thought that was unrealistic. Maybe I was being humble, but I'm very excited.
These are starting to move and people seem to be looking forward to it.
So do you want to carry a classic American Bowie knife on you on the daily?
Well, this is a great way to do it with this EDC fixed blade made by the great and powerful Matt Chase of Hog Teeth Knives.
And, you know, I'm always pushing hog teeth knives. I love them so much. I carry them all the time.
That's why I asked to collaborate with him on my first collaboration knife, because I'm always carrying either the Tonto or the Ruffian.
I wish I could carry that 50th birthday sub-Hilt fighter on the regular, but you know.

[12:46] People would be looking askance and we can't have people looking askance. All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to take a look at five stories in knife life news.

[12:57] The Get Upside app is your way to get cash back on your gas purchases. Get Upside is an app you put on your smartphone and whenever you need to get gas, search your area for savings, claim your discount, fill up your tank and then take a picture of the receipt with your phone. And that's it, you've just got cash back. Visit theknifejunkie.com forward slash save on gas to get the app and start saving. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash save on gas. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. First story today is exciting news out of Sweden or Germany, depending on where you heard about it. But Mora Knife or Mora Niv, I'm not exactly sure how they even pronounce it, but Mora Knife is releasing and just announced at the IWA Outdoor Classic in Nuremberg a new line of knives, full tang with ash handles.
They're calling it the Ash Wood Collection. This is exciting because, well, for a number of reasons, Mora knives, we've seen them, they all look the same kind of, and they're great knives. I'm not trying to say that they're not unique in their different designs, but these really take the cake. They are full tang and they only have one full tang knife so far. That's the Garbird. So.

[14:20] This is the full tang with the wooden handles going back to their roots with the wooden handles, but this time it's ash and they're featuring leather sheaths. They got four different versions, a small one, this one, the width of 4.5 inch looks really cool.
And there are 3D machined ash scales there, which I think is really cool.
Interestingly enough, they have, they are featuring what they're calling Swedish recycled steel, which is very unspecific, and I'm not sure exactly what that means or what how these will perform but I'm loving the way they look and I love the idea of full tang I love it I love the idea of a full tang.

[15:09] Woodcraft knife I mean it just it just makes it seem like you could take them the extra mile and start powering them through materials in different ways than you had the options before they're available now in Europe so if you're listening to me from across the pond run out right now stop everything you're doing run out and get yourself a Mora knife ash wood collection. Very exciting!
Next up, Rosecraft. We know Rosecraft knives, a new company as of last year.
They did a lot of sponsoring at Blade Show 2021.
Well, they are announcing six new slip joint knives in a staggered release for this spring.
Some interesting stuff. I like these because they're kind of the same, but different.
And this first one really strums that chord for me. The Osoco.

[16:01] I'm not sure how you pronounce that. A Ko'i River Kayak. Interesting, this knife is interesting to me in particular, this one on top, because we all know about the, the canoe and this is a kayak. It's got a very similar handle to the canoe type knife, but it has a reverse tanto, a weird looking blade for a slip joint. So that, that is immediately interesting to me.
And plus I look at that dyed bone, it's absolutely beautiful.
Scrolling down, they have a really nice looking Barlow there with the worn cliff blade with that heavy swedge up front, very cool, the Beaver Creek Barlow.
And then that nice looking dogleg that are called a French Broadjack.
The next one is a boy's knife, but it has a bit of a Barlow vibe to it.
The bolster is not quite a Barlow bolster, but it looks, I don't know, it just kind of has that sort of appeal to me, the Lusahatchee Jack.
And this one is the one I've commented on in passing.
It's unique with that big finger choil, the Zambezi. I find it...

[17:16] Compelling but ugly like ET, you know, the extra terrestrial kind of cute kind of ugly.
I don't know something about this knife. I can't I can't look away from like a car wreck.

[17:26] And again, that's not a disc of the design. It's just my mind has to wrap itself around a choil on a slip joint knife, which makes a hell of a lot of sense. That knife has no lock, and it most definitely is not going to be closing on you because of that choil.
But just, it takes a minute for my eye to adjust. Kind of an interesting design.
Last up, it's a big one, the Riverbend. This is the second version of their Riverbend Skinner.
And it's a large one. The first one was nearly 3 inches. This one is nearly 3.5 inches with a black bone handle.
Very, very handsome knife, if you ask me.
I love that it has, yes, a lanyard hole. I'm sure that's an unpopular position to take, but I do like lanyard holes on larger slip joints.

[18:18] You see it on a couple of GECs and you see it on the classic Tony Bowe's design, the back pocket.
That lanyard hole allows you to put a fob on it and then you can put it in your back pocket.
Pocket the fob hangs out keeps the knife oriented north to south instead of flopping to the side which is of course annoying as hell. All right next up from Dirk Pinkerton you know I just put up a video on Saturday of my sub collection of Dirk Pinkerton knives he's another one man I just I love his work he does both the production stuff that we see from some of our favorite production companies, but he also is a master behind the grinder, as you can see from a couple of the.

[19:04] Customs I have from him. But this one is a cleaver, and I am ordinarily not much of a cleaver guy, but I really do like the... this one's grown on me for sure. I love that big belly on the cleaver.
I like the holes evocative of a classic cleaver that you hang up in the kitchen, and Shilden has OEM'd for quite some time and now they're coming out with some of their own designs.
I had it reversed and actually Dirk sort of corrected me gently in the comments on one of the videos featuring his... I think it was Thursday Night Knives actually last week.

[19:40] Shilden had an OEM and now they're starting to come out with their own designs.
I kind of thought it was the reverse. This one is a front flipper, small, it's like a 2.4 inch blade.
Another little big knife no doubt from Dirk Pinkerton this is gonna be 154 cm, g10 nested liners and a liner lock and he also mentioned he's gonna send one around for me to play with which I will appreciate I will show off and then I will probably buy from him because that's that's how I do yep looking forward to that deep carry pocket clip.
Next up, this one is from a company that I swear it gets no play and and from myself, Myself included, but I have to change this. I would really like to talk to these folks, This is from Baron Sun. They have a sub brand called bare edge and it's sort of a.

[20:33] More budget line, I guess or high value line The reason I'm very interested in Baron Sun's is they make all of their knives in Jacksonville, Alabama These are USA made knives and we frequently talk and bemoan the fact that there are few production knives made in the United States.
But here we have this company, Barrensons, making them in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Even their budget line or their high value line like we see here.
So I think it's incumbent upon me and maybe some of us who talk about American folders to check some of these out.
They do some really nice looking automatics. They do ballet songs. They do slip joints.
And they do fixed blades, like big bowies.
So a very unique company doing a wide variety of things. But this one caught my eye.
This new 61 125 rolls right off the tongue by Bare Edge.

[21:32] It's a 3.14, I'm sorry, 3 1⁄4 inch drop point, but kind of a modified drop point.
Very, very handsome blade to me. I like that, especially the point.
That's 440 steel. I'm not sure what letter follows the 440, but it's 440 steel, hollow ground, bearings, assisted.
That might lose a few folks, but I would say well worth the look because check out the, those steel handles are so nicely milled with that elongated knurling and the jimping on the bottom.
The overall profile of this knife is very pleasing to my eye.
It's got a reversible pocket clip and it's only 3.4 ounces for a steel liner lock.
That seems to be pretty good to me. Also...

[22:20] It's 70 bucks and it's made right in Alabama. So I think I might have to check some of these out as some barren sons. I have a ballet song by barren son, but it might be worth expanding the look.
And I would love to get one of those folks from this company, family company on the show to talk and find out more about them. Last up in Knife Life News, I want to talk about an article I stumbled on.
Made me smile in a very snide knife lover way. And it's a pretty cool website called Gear Patrol.
Gear Patrol. But they have an article on the 12 most popular pocket knife brands and then the most popular knife from that brand.
And the funny thing is the picture at the very top shows a hand, a man's hand holding a knife that I can't identify. So it doesn't fall in this category at all.
But they start the article interestingly by saying the oldest known folding knife that's been discovered dates between 600 and 500 BC.
That's old. That's believed to be of Celtic origin featuring an iron blade and a bone handle.
And they quip and no liner lock.
And I'm not making fun of them. I think that's a funny little quip.
Anyway, they start from the top. Benchmade Bugout. Yeah, I'd go for that for sure.
I do love the Benchmade Bugout.
And then, man, they throw a curve right away, the James brand.

[23:50] And to me, I would not put them up there in the 12 most popular.
I'm not saying that they're not worthy of that. I just don't see them there.
Chris Reeves Sabenza 31, playing drop point. Yeah, I can get with that.
Even though it's technically a clip point, if you look closely.
And next is the Kershaw Knockout. Kershaw, oh yeah, knockout.
If it's not, it should be one of their most popular, though they're not making it anymore.
It is a USA made knife. Next is the CRKT Pilar III.
Sure, I love the Pilar. Vox Design and CRKT has done a really great job on that knife in particular, updating it with different steels and also the Pilar III in a different shape.
Now they're coming out with a clip point that looks pretty hot.
So next is the Gerber Fastball.
And then this one really threw me for a loop. Wesson, the Wesson Allman Liner Lock.

[24:52] Really? In the top 12 most popular knives? Folders?
I mean, again, I'm not saying that Wesson isn't a good company or producing good knives, but this is definitely not one of the 12 most popular folders out there.
Is not. So that's why it kind of makes me chuckle. This one is though the OpenL number 8 That is the classic size that everyone should have. If not other knives, they should have this in their pocket.
I was going to say pocket book in their in their backpack or whatever.
And my mom carries one in her pocket book.
That's why I said that. I got her one years ago and that is one of her main carries.

[25:42] It is her main carry. It's the only knife she has on her in her purse all the time.
I did make her a little fighting knife to defend herself with that she also likes to travel with.
But the Open L number 8, everyone should have one. And if you ask me, it should be a carbon steel version. And then, of course, the Swiss Army knife. And that would be the classic.
Everyone's got on their keychain. Though they mention the A-locks, which is cool. But I would beg to differ, I would bet that that's not their most popular because it's more expensive and it's, harder to find and it doesn't have the tweezers and the toothpick. And then lastly, the Para Military II by Spyderco. Yeah, of course, that's their most famous. You know, that knife speaks for itself.

[26:30] Very, very popular. It is kind of the knife against which we measure most knives in a lot of cases. So, So interesting article. I love getting the knife take from non knife people. Obviously they're gear people over there. It is a cool website. You should go check it out for sure.
But it's always interesting to get that's gearpatrol.com. But it's always interesting to get a non knife person's take on the knife world. Okay, there you have it. Knife life news coming up. We're going to take a look at the state of the collection. I got one great new knife this week that has not left my pocket and then we're going to take a look at 10 great fidget knives. If you're a knife junkie you're always in the market for a new knife and we've got you covered. For the latest weekly knife deals be sure to visit the knifejunkie.com slash knives through our special affiliate relationships we bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives. Help support the show and save money on a new knife. Shop at theknifejunkie.com slash knives. That's theknifejunkie.com slash knives.
And now that we're caught up with KnifeLife news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
This is my first full-size, regular-size Mannix. And it is the Mannix 2 Lightweight in CPMS S110V.

[27:59] This was a gift from the great and powerful Shane Gables. You know him as Edgy American on YouTube.
You probably know him as Shane Gables. He's a very popular guy because he's a very awesome guy.
He is the guy who definitely would help, but he started the Knives Live 24-hour YouTube marathon for knife rights two years ago.
And I had the privilege of taking part in that this year. It was so exciting, so cool, so fun, and raised a lot of money for our favorite organization, Knife Rites. In any case, Shane was looking to make some fundage to get a new knife, and I think if I'm sleuthing properly, it was to get his XM18 with the slicer grind. So he posted some knives to sell on Instagram, and this was one of them. And I wanted it but didn't have the cash at hand and he was selling it for an amazing price. And I just mentioned on Thursday Night Knives a couple weeks back that I wanted to get it and that I had the money and I was going to get it and he just.

[29:16] Insisted on sending it to me as a gift. And I so greatly appreciate it. He put his own edge on this S110V and it is a razor sharp knife. So Shane again I'm gonna thank you again, thank you so much.
You wanted money for these knives because you wanted to put them towards something else and.

[29:37] You just were so generous you just gave this to me even against my protests. I guess I didn't protest that hard but I really really appreciate it. I love this knife, I will cherish it always, it will go in that category of knives I never get rid of.

[29:54] Because of that sentimental reason. But also man, what a great knife design!
The Mannix, I used to have the Mannix II XL, I got rid of that one a long time ago, but always kind of wanted a Mannix back in the collection.
As a matter of fact, it was a big debate on Thursday Night Knives between the Shaman and the Mannix II, and many people came down on the Mannix II side. I can't remember where Shane came down.
I think he came down on this side too, which looks pretty sweet with some aftermarket scales.
But anyway, that ball lock is so strong, and it's evocative of the Axis lock, but in my opinion, I think it's stronger.
And what do I have to go on? Nothing, really, just intuition.
But they always say trust your gut. And I think I'm going to trust my gut on this one.

[30:47] So I've had this for a week now. So I've had this for a week now, or almost a week, and like I said, it hasn't been out of my pocket.
And it's, I've been just finding things to cut for this.
And man, it is amazing. So happy with this knife. And I love this sort of melancholy blue.
It's not that cheerful blue that we see on most blue knives.
It's more of a brooding blue. And I really like it.
Really like it. Pinned construction so I'll never be able to take this sucker apart but that's just fine by me. I'm not much of a tinkerer I have found. I'm just I'm very happy with a knife and never opening it up never not open it never disassembling it unless I have to. So Shane Gables thank you so much for this and be sure to go check out Edgy American on on YouTube. He's got such a good channel. He's got such plain talk about knives about the knife world. And he's just a great guy. So go check out Edgy American. Thank you, Shane. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[31:56] Alright, so speaking of fidgety, and I guess I wasn't, but this knife you'd expect to be fidgety. It's not as fidgety as say the Axis Lock because that spring, there's a coil spring in there instead of the dual Omega springs. It's a totally different mechanism. It just actuates in a similar way. This one to me is less fidgety than say the Axis Lock, but, in being so also a little more trustworthy to me.

[32:30] You know, that's just how my head is working right now. But these knives that I'm going to show are the ones that I personally, when I have them in my pocket, or I'll just reach into the case and grab them just to fidget with them, just to have them while I'm doing something else to like the worry stone, the proverbial worry stone.
Before I get to my list of 10, I want to show you the two that basically introduced me to the concept of fidgeting with knives.
And that is the first one is, I don't want to call it an also ran because this is these are like the originals for me, but the so calm elite by Microtech was the first knife I ever had with bearings and Microtech was putting bearings in their pivot without fanfare long before it became fashionable.
I discovered.
I remember being like, why is this so smooth? This is like, like weirdly smooth because I'd slow roll it and it would get ahead of me as I slow roll it get ahead of my thumb and almost pop out on its own.
And then I discovered, oh, you can just pop it out.

[33:40] I know, but it was 2013 or 2014 I guess when I got this. So a bit of, you know, a bit before, knives became fidgets things to me. And well, those bearings just made all the difference.
So this was probably my first fidget knife. And then when I got the Riat K2, when I got this knife this was my very smoothest knife. It no longer holds that title but remains the first knife that just fell shut for me like that that I bought with that sort of in mind. I really got this because it has the most exquisite design. I absolutely love that tanto blade shape and it's It's one of my absolute favorite blade shapes, along with the Socom Elite I just showed you, the older Tonto design for the Socom Elite in this, just take the cake for me.
So the first two fidget knives for me were these two in reality.
That doesn't mean I wasn't opening my cold steels and closing them and learning how to do it all one-handed and having fun doing that, but these were a different level.
Okay, so for my official list, These are roughly in order of size.
Well, not really.
But first is the Baby Rhino by Off Grid Knives.

[35:04] And the reason I love this one for fidgeting is that it's so small, it disappears in my hand.
So you can kind of walk down the hall at work and fidget it and it hides easily.

[35:18] That's a pretty specific example, but I guess that's what I have found myself, doing with this because it hides away so easily and something about the fact that, it's not a drop shutty it's a it's a slam shutty with your with your forefinger it's just like the way it feels to shut it actively with my forefinger and then have the whole thing disappear into my palm this is a great knife this off-grid baby Rhino with 154 cm blade steel and the same thickness as the adult Rhino it It just really fills out the hand, even though it's essentially a three-finger knife.

[35:57] This household has three of these. My wife has one that she, man, she adores it.
It's the all gray version. This one, Carrie sent to me not too long ago, that has the gray and the tan, and then I have the all black.
The Baby Rhino by Off Grid, I highly recommend. It's what Birdshot IV, they call them chode knives.
I know that's dirty, but I think it's funny and it just seems to fit.
Little small fat, knives like this. And by the way, just because it's a small knife doesn't mean it should be a thin knife.
Much to the contrary in my opinion, the smaller the knife the fatter it should be to stay in hand and really give you a full, you know, like I said, three fingers there. It really feels like a full grip knife. It's not going anywhere.

[36:49] So first one, the Baby Rhino. Second is the Vero Engineering Synapse.
This knife is fidgety for a number of reasons. First of all, it is just smooth as smooth can be.
It really is like drop shutty, smooth, just lovely action. This is best tech made.
And this was the knife that really got me to understand how amazing best tech is.
I always, for some reason, assumed that this was made by Riat.
And then when I found out it was Bestech, I thought, oh, okay, so they are top players.
And in my book, they are.
I know Riyadh is seen as the reigning king of Chinese OEMs, but to me, Bestech gives them a run for their money.
Plus, this design by Joseph Viro is just amazing. That super low profile flipper is very appealing to me.
You get all of the...

[37:53] Visceral joy of flipping open a knife without having it pack the other things in your pocket and keeping that profile super clean.
This is a bolster lock and they also offer, I mean you can tell that Joseph Vero is a fidgeter and a knife lover because on the offside they offer that little pocket in there and that is for, off-handed or off finger opposite finger spider spidey flicking.
You know what I mean. Opening it with your swear word finger.
And then plus the knife, the grind on this blade is amazing.
This is an M390 blade and it is ground. It's a flat grind.
It's ground so thin. Just an amazing knife.
And I discovered last night that this one in particular, you can front flip.
It's definitely an incidental front flipper.
That's just because that jimping is so good.

[38:57] Oh, maybe I can't do it with my left hand. Let me try it with my right hand.
But yeah, see that? You can even front flip it.
And the working on it is another form of fidget.
The one downside to this is that clip that rises up a little bit high.
You always feel that in your hand.
But in subsequent iterations of this knife, he has knocked down that clip.
So that's not an issue anymore.
A weird bit of micarta on this one. No matter how much I've oiled it, the oil just does not take.

[39:33] First world problems and actually it's become an aesthetic flourish that I enjoy.
So Vero Engineering, even their double detent slip joints are fidgety. They're awesome. Alright, next up is I mentioned the axis lock and I have a number of them. I have the Able lock on my on my RSK Mark I, mini RSK Mark I, but, But this bug out to me is king of my Axis Lock fidget knives.
I just love this knife. Everything about this knife I love, especially since I replaced the handle scales from the original blue plastic.
Now you can get so many different versions of this, both made by Benchmade and then aftermarket, that there's kind of no...
Unless you just don't like the knife, don't like the size, don't like the blade or whatever it is. There's no excuse not to have a Benchmade Bugout because you can get it in so many different flavors now. What a great design, even the even the small, they have the small and.

[40:39] There's this debate who does the best ambidextrous bar lock and you know the Axis lock was invented by Benchmade and I guess they still are the reigning champs though I have mentioned many times I think the Hoag Abel lock is incredible but everyone else has caught up too. So I'm going back to the original. This is the one I love to fidget with the most. It has a snaggletooth MF on barrel spacers. I got that because this is a great knife for the inside pocket of a jacket.
And when it's in there, first of all, it's nice and light. You could even have it in a blazer.
But this has done a lot of duty in my winter jacket, my Duluth Trading Company jacket.
And I have the the Snaggle Tooth MF on there to wave out of the inside pocket.
Snaggle tooth MF on there to wave out of the inside pocket.
You know, just cause. Imminently fidgetable, amazingly fidget, I keep using that word, I think I'm using it wrongly.
But very, very fidgety knife, great pocket clip, and just a beauty to behold.
That's the Benchmade, bug out.
Next up is the one button lock representative in this list and that is the new and new to me, Mad Tonto by Damned Designs and Kaiser Knives.

[42:08] Before I get to the fidgetness of it the blade is Amazing first of all, it's a good looking drop point.

[42:17] Tonto that point is dead center down the down the pivot line So, in a great place to always know where that tip is, whether you're using it tactically or using it in a utility draw cut way.
It's a great placement for that point. The Yokote, that secondary tip there and that front wedge-like portion is flat ground but very thin and very sharp flat ground.
And then the straight is really thinly hollow ground. I mean, we're talking jack-wolf knives thinly hollow ground.
So this knife is an absolute pleasure to cut with.
But we're not talking about that. We're talking about fidget. How does it fidget?
Well, it fidgets beautifully. I've acquired a number of button-lock knives recently, and I like them.
Sometimes they leave me a little cold.
But then there's recently been a lot of talk about how they fail easily.
Got a lot of people spine whacking them on their videos. And I did some extensive spine whacking.
Not ridiculous, but I, you know, got kind of got that in my head.
Like it might close on me. And this one, the button lock is stout and sturdy as hell.
And then you see the button.
You don't have to, you don't have to reach her too deeply. You don't have to stick your finger in too deeply to...

[43:46] To hit the button. I'm going to rephrase that and just say I like how the button sits proud and is easily accessible. How's that? Better than the Vastid Ratoon, better than my.

[44:01] Senkut Watuga. It is really perfect. That button sits up nice and proud and you know there might be the concern that you're going to actually hit it while you're using it somehow. But even if you you do, it's set up in such a way that it's not going to cut you.
But I just don't see that happening. And who puts actual force on the back of the blade when they're using a knife?
Unless they're batoning, in which case it's also being shored up by whatever the material is you're cutting through. So it just doesn't seem to be much of a concern, the button lock closing thing.
But to me, to have that button easily accessible just allows you to fidget with it better.
You know? The ultimate goal of the button lock is to, yes, lock the blade open.
But if you're in that fidget mode, you might just want to have that button easily accessible.
And I have to hunt too much for it and stick your finger too deeply in there to get it to close.
So this this Kaiser Mad Tonto kind of saves the button lock for me.
For me, button lock is still an automatic thing.
I'm like, I only really want to see a button lock on a knife like this.

[45:20] Until now, because this Mad Tonto is pretty sweet. And if you're if you're listening, I just opened up a Pro-Tech TR3, which is an automatic, but also a button lock.
So there you go. And on an automatic, you don't have to worry about that, because the spring is constantly giving tension, is putting tension on the blade and keeping it open.

[45:44] So there you have it. That's the Mad Tonto by Kaiser Knives. I highly recommend it. I got mine at Atlantic Knife and got a great, great price on it. Next up, not sure if I can fidget with this one with the left. We'll try. This is the Heretic Manticore X out the front. And yeah, I'm going to do this with my right hand here. I can do this all day long with my right hand. Open and close it.
It's such a smooth, smooth out the front this heretic is.
This is the knife I got on July 1st, 2021 when it or 2022, I'm sorry, when it became legal to carry this in Virginia.
All the other ones that I had, I got illegally, I guess. But well, I guess I didn't get them illegally.
I carried them illegally. But then again, I didn't carry them much.
So water under the bridge people, but this is so smooth.
There are bearings in there that underneath that slider.
And it allows me to really open and close, open and close in a way that I can't with my Microtech Troodon.

[46:57] Or my Microtech UltraTech. Now that being said, I have a feeling my UltraTech was sold to me in the first place on the secondary market because it is especially stiff.
So, but you know, as I become stronger, it's easier and easier to open, but this manticore is the thing.
And the most fidgety of automatic knives would be the out the front where you can where you can shoot it out and then retract it, of course.
This one has a beautiful Elmax recurve blade, and that is a nice deep hollow grind.
It is a slashy stabby knife.
And then you've got the jimping on the back, which I really like.
You don't see jimping much on out the front blade handles, or blade knives, out the front blades.
And I really like that.
That feature. And it does come in handy for maybe not the best reason. This one has a bit of rattle, both up and down and side to side. And I know that tolerances, unless you're, getting a G&G Hawk deadlock, tolerances on out the front knives are such that there is going to be some rattle, just because it's got to slide in and out of the handle and To do so, it needs a little tiny bit of room.

[48:19] That said, it just does rattle just a little bit more than my microtex.
And I'm not sure if that's just this one or if that's their mechanism.
But. Kind of don't care. I just love to beauty and it is nice one to use because it's so very sharp.
I haven't had too many uses for it, but yeah, the integrated glass breaker also is very comfortable on the thumb.
If you decide to cap the knife with your thumb.
All right, so that is the Manticore X. That's the large one.
Next up is a newish one for me, and that is the Sturk Pinkerton designed Nighthorse, an exclusive at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks made by Beyond EDC.

[49:04] Beyond EDC has three tiers of production. The Beyond EDC budget line like this knife, the midline asymmetrical, where they feature better blade steels like S35VN and titanium handles.
And then the Terra Mundi, the very top, where they OEM for designers and really pull out all the stops, if you will.
But this knife, whoa! So that's a 4.25 inch blade and that has, ah, see, that just bit me.
That has something to do with it.
But it is so smooth. It is, it's unbelievably smooth.
And I have knives like say the Tauzer K by Kaiser that is smooth just like this.

[49:52] But the blade is shorter so this accelerates the drop shut like you wouldn't believe.
And yeah, I just really, I'm going to use my right hand too. I like to do this.
Flick it out, you know, and then flick it back in. All you got to do is just barely touch the, liner lock and it and give it a little whip and it comes whipping back in.
I don't have too many liner locks on this list, just regular straight up liner locks, but this one, with the bearings and the long blade and the superior manufacturing and design is just amazing.
If you look at the tip, you might notice it's a little bit re profiled.
That's because I broke the tip and then.

[50:38] Sanded it into position or sanded it into shape. So I do have the titanium version of this, but this one is fidgetier, I must say, though the titanium one I have is a prototype, so it might, might not have the full treatment that the production release has.
But this one is just amazing. It was between this and the Boker Smach It designed by Chuck hydritus that were kind of when I was going through my collection looking to fill this spot, of large liner lock on bearings it was between that and this and this one worn out this is a great knife smoky mountain knife works exclusive as I mentioned and if you want this navaja inspired knife you can get it in that uh fancier titanium version for 150 bucks or you can spend 30 bucks $30 and get this 14c 28 and version with g10. I do not like to do the math on human suffering.

[51:42] And and how this can come to us for 30 bucks. Maybe I shouldn't say human suffering. Maybe I should just say under compensation. No doubt. But hey, their economy is different. And I'm not even I'm going to try and pretend to understand it.
Okay, next up is from our good friends at Spyderco and that's the Yojumbo.
The Yojumbo with its.

[52:10] Now this is not on bearings, believe it or not. It's not on bearings, but it is super smooth and it's got that compression lock.
We all know compression locks are very fidgetable and very fidgety.
But this one with the long 4 inch blade really really does it because.

[52:33] Sends it back into the handle. And I have the Yojimbo, and I love the Yojimbo, but the larger size makes it more fidgety to me.
Your mileage may vary, especially considering the little, what do you call that, the tang of the blade.
Not the tang. Whatever.
This little ricasso part kind of protrudes into the path of the larger size.
Into the path of the lock, but it does not affect me.
I feel it, I guess sometimes, but I just actuate the lock and let the blade fall in and proceed to drive everyone.

[53:16] Around me crazy and intimidate them, because look at that blade.
Holy mackerel, you push this into something, it widens out immediately.
That is a big hole you're gonna make with this thing.
Hollow ground and very, very thin and slicey. And of course that straight edge shape really pulls the material into the cut, especially on a slash at the tip.
This one I did a little bit of modification to. There was a mid-handle two-finger partition peak here that just didn't need to be there and just kind of annoying.
And luckily it didn't have the steel liner up into that area so I could easily sand that down and give myself a smoother handle.
As I could do with this right here if I felt like it.
But I think I like that in there just to kind of bookend my hands.
My medium sized hands. If you have big meat hooks, you might want to sand that off too.
And give yourself a little bit more room without feeling boxed in.
I also put the MXG gear clip on there. Button screws, doesn't bother me. Plenty of space there.

[54:31] You know we all like the inset, uh, we all like the inset clip with the flat screws, but here the button screws work just fine. The fidgety, the imminently... oh man, I'm gonna stop. The super fidgety... ah, the super fidgety compression lock, um, does it best on the larger knives, if you ask Okay, next up is the Vosti'd Bellamy.
The Vosti'd Bill Bellamy. This thing is amazing with its various ways of opening.
You've got the flipper, you got the fuller for the reverse flick, And then you've got this great front flipper.

[55:13] And so three ways to open, three ways to fidget, and a great drop shutty action with those bearings.
Now this one is really appealing to me because the materials are so awesome.
This is M390 blade steel hollow ground, very thin and slicey hollow ground M390 blade in a carbon fiber handle, a unique and very nice looking carbon fiber handle, if you ask me.
And it comes in at $135 last I checked. It's an inexpensive, high design, excellent material knife for a very good price. That of course is the theme with the Chinese knives. As I mentioned before, their economy is different and they don't, you know, you can get their stuff for a lot less.
But if this is your taste, it is an excellent, excellent carry knife. It's light also.
And you've got three and a half inches of blade, so it is in that perfect spot where it's not too big and not too small.
But super, super fidgety.

[56:24] I just like watching myself fidget with it. Alright, putting it back to get the second to last knife, which is at this point a modern classic.
And that is the Shark Lock. Anything with a Shark Lock. The Demko 8020.
As a matter of fact, today I carried the 8020.5 just for the Fidget Factor and the unique Shark's Foot Blade.

[56:46] This one is a Machine Ground 8020. So that means the blade bevel was Machine Ground.
And uh...
Man, it is awesome. The blade itself is thick and robust, so the weight of it gives it an even.

[57:05] More fidgety feel because the the weight of the blade kind of pulls it right back into the handle.

[57:13] I love this knife. This one was a Lavender Pants, who I haven't seen around in quite a while, helped me get this knife and I greatly appreciate it from Rivers Edge Cutlery in Ohio.
And he saw they had like six of them in stock. He sent me a text in the middle of work. I was, in a meeting and he sent it to me and I was like, I have something very important. I left and said, yes, get it for me. I'll send you the money. It was more, but I don't know what that meeting was about anymore, but I do know I still have this knife. So I was right. It was important.
So anything with the shark lock but definitely the 80 20 with that weighted blade is very fidgety and just an extremely awesome knife all the way around. Plus love that red handle. Okay last up, I can't do this under the knife cam but it's the original the original fidget knife. Can you guess what it is? The original the very first fidget knife. I had a martial arts teacher who used to call them martial art martial artists pacifier and that is the ballet song is there anything more fidgety than a ballet song no probably not now i'm not talking about the the stuff that the ballet boys do at blade show which is very impressive and i'm just talking about Just opening it to use it is so.

[58:41] It's just a fidgety experience inherently, Unless you open it like this.

[58:48] Which no one has ever done in the history of knives. It is just about as fidgety as it gets.
And there are different ways to open it.
Of course, you know there are different ways to flip it around and do aerobatics with it.
I almost did that the dangerous way.
You know, you can do it... You can open it for use in many, many different ways.
I know like two or three.
Well, I guess three.

[59:12] I got one of these in high school. Not the lucha. This is the Kershaw lucha.
But I got a ballet song in high school and learned how to use it.
And, you know, my wife and I used to have a ballet song on our coffee table when we were, you know, without kids.

[59:28] And yeah, there is a thrill back in the old day to see my wife, you know, we're sitting there watching TV and she just reaches down, opens up the ballet song and I don't know, cuts the foil off a bottle of wine whatever we used it for. All sorts of illicit purposes. Yeah, Fallysong. If you want one and you want it a little bit nicer than your average or inexpensive one, get the Lucha. It's just over a hundred bucks. It comes in a couple of blade shapes at this point and it is so well done. I mean this has really really scratched my itch. I know there are a lot of sweet really really nice expensive ones out there for the ballysong collectors and the ballysong flippers for whom the flipping part is the main part. But if that's not your bag and you just want a usable but full size, I mean traditionally the ballysong blades are about four and a quarter inches long, so you, want something like that, get the lucha. This thing is awesome and they make a trainer that has the the same weight and same form factor as the lucha.

[1:00:43] So you can practice on a practice knife that is that emulates exactly the knife you'll be using.

[1:00:51] Alright, well thank you so much for joining me on this journey through my great fidget knives. What are your favorite fidget knives? Let me know. I've heard people like Greg Medford says a real man doesn't fidget with a knife and thank you, I'll take that on advisement.
But I just think that sometimes we need to expel a little bit of nervous energy and I'd rather do that than rock my knee up and down to do that thing or flip pencils or anything like that for me, I'd rather do it with a knife. How about you? All right. Please be sure to download the show to your favorite podcast app so you can listen whilst on the go and then join us on Sunday for another great interview. And then of course there's Thursday night knives tomorrow night 10pm Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. And if you want to help support the show, just zap the QR code right there and it'll take you right to theknifejunkie.com slash patreon.
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't.

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[1:02:39] Music.