10 Best Appendix (and Front Scout) Carry Fixed Blade Knives - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 412)
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Transcript

[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers, and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco, and coming up we're going to take a look at the Topps Modern Gladius in Knife Life News.
We're going to take a look at the Vandrare Knives Fenrare in real life, and then we go over the 10 best appendix carry fixed blade knives.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from this past week was on my Cold Steel Minitac Kiridashi short. And Leon said, I've been looking for one. I'm sorry. I've been looking for one since forever. They are pretty rare nowadays. Thank you for the upload.", And I appreciated that. A, I like positive comments. Almost all of them are positive.

[1:05] But I like this because that's part of what this channel is about. It's not necessarily about the newest and trendiest, as you know from your humble host. I am not the newest and trendiest person out there. So I do relish some of the older things in my collections.
In my collection, and especially some of those things that you can't get anymore.
So, happy that that was recognized. That's this knife here, the Kiridashi Minitak.
And this is from about 2006, when Andrew Demko joined Cold Steel.
And that's when they re-released the Voyager in its current state, and came out with a bunch of other knives.
And this was one of them, a series of these. And now I got another one from this series from Dave, This Old Sword Blade Reviews, in a big box he sent as a donation to the channel for giveaway knives, and I'm gonna be showing that off later.
But Leon, thanks for the comment. Leon and everyone else, greatly appreciate it.
Love your comments. Okay, so all that being said, I think it's time to get to a pocket check.

[2:17] ♫ Today, I had on me one of the first expensive folders I ever got, and that is the Spyderco Ulisse.
Ulisse, designed by Ulrich Henneke of Germany, and he is a former police officer in Germany turned knife maker, and he's responsible for the very famous and popular Kaiser T1 and several other folders out there on the market, but this was the first place I heard of him.
And when this knife came out, I don't remember the year, maybe 2013, something like that.
I remember seeing it and being gobsmacked thinking that is a folder that I have designed.
It looks like a recurved Filipino sword for the pocket. And indeed it is that, just that.
That's VG-10. That's four and a quarter inches or 4.1 inches of hollow ground recurved VG-10, and on a back lock, this is a Taiwan production here.

[3:26] I'm sorry, Seki City, Japan production here, and just a really cool knife.
And at one point, I was looking to get rid of it. I'm glad I never did.
I paid, I remember, 174 bucks for this, and that was by far the most I'd ever spent on a folder.
So anyway, been a long time since I've carried this, which is loosely affiliated with the police line, not an official member of the Spyderco police line, but it's the same size and designed by and for police just from Germany. So that in my front right pocket in my well, it floats around from front left to front right to back front or to back left. Anyway, that's my slip joint today and it's the jack wolf knives. Big bro jack and look at that. It is a large boy's knife. It's that sleeve board pattern handle, very, very neutral. And in this case, pretty large, fits the hand very nicely. And then you have a clip point blade, much like a number 15 boy's knife from GEC, except this one is a little bit larger. This is the companion piece, the brother piece, the big bro, you might say, to the little bro. The third release from jackwolf knives that didn't see full release due to a blade wrap issue. I was one of the lucky ones to receive mine and no I did not send it back, I just sharpened through the.

[4:55] Blade wrap. And not everyone had it. Blade wrap is when on a slip joint knife, when you're closing it.
The blade overshoots the spring and hits into the edge, hits into part of the spring and makes a little ding.
So, that rhyme.
So here I have the last of the Jack Wolf knives in my carta.
The big bro in its black canvas micarta is the last of the micarta.

[5:28] They're really going gangbusters with the camo carbon and the fat carbon, so that's what he's sticking with.
Thank you, Ben, for sending me the last of the Mike Carter Jack Wolf knives, at least for now, that is.
Fixed blade today was not appendix carry, which is my new style of carry, and I'm very happy with it, and I'll explain what I have today, and that is the Murray Carter Perfect Neck Knife. I think it's called the Perfect Neck Knife.
If it's not, it should be. Here's the sheath, really excellent sheath, fully riveted, so you have one option, and that is to carry it as a neck knife unless you make another sheath for it.
But here is the knife given to me off the neck of Murray Carter.
This is one made by him. Now he's got a shop called Carter Custom Cutlery, and in that shop he's got a bunch of apprentices to whom he teaches this 720-year-old way of making knives.

[6:23] That he learned in his 18 years in Japan as a village knife maker and blacksmith.

[6:32] Look at this beautiful, beautiful knife. He sent it to me as a gift for quote unquote, all I do for the knife community. And I thought that was super cool.
A really nice handle and really comfortable in hand. And this choil here acts as a sort of, what do you call it?
Sub-hilt, and really keeps this blade nicely in hand.
Nice and light, and the contouring on the handle is just perfect.
It's very organic, feels like something God made. Very, very nice.
So I had that around my neck. Not something ordinary, you know, you don't see me carry that too often.
It is fancy, it is expensive, it is a pretty precious knife there, but it was great, plus if it fell out, which it wasn't going to, that sheath is awesome, but it would be inside my shirt, because it was tucked in.
I know a lot of you bash on me for tucking in my shirt. Gotta do what I gotta do.
But at least it would be caught in there.
Wouldn't that be nice to have a razor sharp blade just inside your shirt there, rattling around?
Just as long as you don't lose it. Okay, last up, one of the OGs of the emotional support knife.
Support Knife. This is the Rat 2, this one given to me by my daughter, my older daughter before my younger daughter was even born.

[8:00] I said, I want to get daddy a pink knife. And my wife got me this.

[8:05] In her name, this is the RAT 2. This is the Aus8 version.
Love this knife here. Really incredible action on this knife on the washers.
Just rockets out like nobody's business.
And really great, just a great knife all together. We call this one Pinky Tuscadero due to the pink skirt and the black leather jacket.
I mean the black blade and the pink handle.

[8:34] And then I got that sort of noose-type knot. I love that knot.
Not sure what it's called. We'll call it a hangman's knot, because that sounds cool and old-timey. Has a fob on there.
Just a great knife. This was one of the original emotional support knives.
I had this one a long time.
All right, that's what I had in my pocket. The Spyderco Uliza was main stage.
And then I had, for my slip joint, the little, I mean the big bro from Jack Wolf Knives, awesome knife.
And then I had the neck knife from Murray Carter hanging around my neck today.
And then for emotional support in my back left pocket, I had the rat model too, in Aus8.

[9:14] What were you carrying? Let me know, always a pleasure to find out what you all are carrying, you classy, classy group of people.
Speaking of class, Dave, this old sword, interviews, as I mentioned, if you don't watch his channel, you need to he's got an incredible collection, a great case, and an awesome presentation. The man's a wonderful photographer comes through on his videos. Anyway, he's given a lot of knives to this channel that we've given away. This one we're giving away as the random giveaway knife tomorrow night.
Thursday Night Knives, that is the QSP Locust. This thing is a really cool knife.
If you look at it, it resembles a locust.
This has been on before. This was one of the unclaimed, this is an unclaimed giveaway knife, actually.
This was given away once and unclaimed, so it's going back out.
It's been months.
But that is about a four inch VG10 wharncliffe blade on that very locust looking micarta handle.
It feels great in hand, but also looks very cool.

[10:31] Is really good in the reverse grip if you're using it defensively, and really, really good in the reverse pical grip.
That sort of curve fits the palm perfectly, angles that blade out just how you would want it.
But really, you're gonna carry this as an EDC knife, and it is a classy and very nice looking EDC knife with that blue anodized titanium sculpted clip, and the body that just looks kinda locust-like.
So we're gonna be giving this away tomorrow night on Thursday Night Knife.
By the way, amazing action on this, as you would expect from QSP.
Look, I even look like a rock star with the left hand.
That means it's really good action.
And I like the two-tone blade, not for nothing.

[11:17] So this could be yours, just join us on Thursday Night Knives tomorrow night, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube.
You can also catch us on Facebook and Twitch at the same time, and you can also comment from those platforms as well. And commenting is how you win this.
It will be hashtag knife, and that will possibly win you that very cool QSP locust.
Okay, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're gonna take a look at Knife Life News, and then a couple of loaners here from Dave and One New Knife From Me, all right here.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
I want literally everything that was in that Kniveship Free liner.
Everything, everything.

[12:34] The one that really caught my eye was the RMJ Talon, man. I think it's time for a new tomahawk up in hell, but that's another issue.
KnifeLife News, let's talk about a new Kaiser. You know, they do this Kaiser Friday Club, where they release a Kaiser model, but done up in fancy garb.
This time, it's the Kaiser Feist by Justin Lundqvist, one of their most successful knives and one of the first real popular front flippers. In this case, it's getting the dragon treatment. So they are sculpting the the feist here to look like a dragon. You can see up towards the top of the handle, where the pivot is, it's that black scaly texture and then that turns into red, a red texture with the scales and the wings. I guess those look like wings there.
And this one will have a drop point blade like the one that was released in 2017.

[13:40] Those are the 154CM blades that, you know, really launched this. They came out with the with the Wharncliffe blade, and they did a Kaiser Friday Club with it, Star Wars themed recently.
But yeah, I think this is pretty cool. I'm not sure what you think of the 3D sculpting here, but you know, it's actually not my bag.
This is a little bit Mall Ninja to me. This is a little bit, as people like to say, gas station knife-like, and that's fine. and.

[14:16] And sculpting things and making them look like other things.
Like, Rike Knives does some really beautifully sculpted knives that are supposed to look like insects and other things, and I appreciate the skill that goes into making them, but they're just not my taste.
Anyway, 154CM on this one. Check it out, especially if you're a Kaiser collector or a Feist collector. There have been so many different models of that, I could see it being a collectible at this point.
All right, next up, Topps Knives, they have their new modern Gladius coming out.
Now, this is an angular combat dagger, and I was quipping on Thursday Night Knives that if it were up to me, I would change some of the angles slightly to make it more Gladius-like.

[15:02] For instance, I would not have it taper to a narrower distance at the sub-tip there.
I would have it do the opposite.
I would have it be thinner down towards the ricasso and widen out, but to me, that would make it look more like a gladius, but still, I appreciate that they're making this a very cool angular combat dagger.
To me, it's like two Americanized tantos just sort of plopped on top of each other.
So you get those sub-tips, you get a wicked triangular thrusting tip, and then you get two straight and very useful edges and we know how great straight edges are for both combat and utility.
And this one to me is combat knife all day long with its 1095 black traction coating and micarta setup that TOPS usually does.

[15:58] Also, it's got those double quillions and the double edge. To me, it's combat all day long, but they have it in a sheath that's got a dangler. So I think they're trying to either give you options or say, hey, Gladius daggers are not just for combat.

[16:15] You can use this for the outdoors as well. And I don't know, I think it's a, I think it would benefit from a different clip.
But I would like to get this thing and have it and hold it. Available at the Topps website, and something, I thought I remembered hearing that it was also gonna be available from Smoky Mountain Knife Works only, besides Topps, so check it out.
Promises to be pretty darn cool. Alright, next up is this one, the Jack Wolf Knives, Big Bro Jack, so just an official announcement that this came out last Friday, that was the 14th, 18th, I believe, of April 2023.
Jack Wolf Knives, there's the Big Bro Jack. Look at these four beautiful carbon fibers plus that micarta.
The carbon fiber on the very top, I like the best. It reminds me of a burl wood.
That's some sort of copper micarta. But so here we have the usual recipe for Jack Wolf Knives, which, you know, that might sound boring, but it's not, it is the jack-of-all-knives recipe. So you have a beautiful integrated frame of titanium.

[17:35] So each side is a piece of titanium carved out with that pocket for the cover and the fluting and all of that, and those two are put together in a perfect seamless package with amazing, walk and talk, and in this case, five different cover options.
One of them being my micarta for the last time, and that's what I have here.
Black canvas micarta.
The blade's almost three inches, really, really nice, full height, hollow ground, S90V for the fourth time, I believe.
It's changing over from that M390. Absolutely loving mine. It has gotten serious duty. a food knife.

[18:21] Also, this one I made a short of last week and it got, immediately it got several thousand views, which was pretty cool.
People cannot get enough of their jackwolf knives. Now, which one of those do you like of the carbon fiber?
I keep looking at them and I'm thinking, in my future, when he starts doing a second run, and is probably going to change his marketing, I would imagine when things are well in line and I will be buying my Jack Wolf knives, I will be buying them in carbon fiber because that's how they will be coming.
And I keep seeing that one in the middle too. The one on top I said looks like Burlwood I like, but that one in the middle, I know that's the very popular one, the red, white, and blue.

[19:06] Somehow that's calling to me too, but I'm just a Yankee doodle dandy.
All right, that's Jack Wolf knives. Very, very excited to see that large sleeve board clip point boys knife style.
Classic American jackknife coming out from them.
Okay, wanted to talk about three makers inducted into the Cutlery Hall of Fame.
This is a hall of fame started by Blade Magazine, and we know them for Blade Show.
Blade Magazine just in there, like, leading the way for a long time in the knife world.
So the three that they have, they're inducting this year, Bob Terzuolo, we know him as the godfather or grandfather, if you want to call him that, of tactical folders.
His work is so incredible and for so long, quite exclusive.
I mean, in the last few years, he's done many more designs that have gone further and wider in terms of his production stuff.
Focused on getting his stuff into more hands, and I really, really appreciate that.
Beautiful knife, and his book, also he's known for his book, The Tactical Knife, a study of the anatomy and construction of the liner lock folder, which I love.
Devin Thomas, who is known for his DeMathiel custom patterns.

[20:29] He is also being inducted into the Cutlery Hall of Fame.
And then lastly, Steve Schwartzer is the longest serving.

[20:42] Master smith in the American Bladesmith Society, Steve Schwartzer, so he is also known for his specialized Damascus, mosaic Damascus patterns, and so he is being inducted as well.
Cool to see, just like any other industry or area of enthusiasm, that there's a Hall of Fame, And it's good to see some names that we know and some we might not be familiar with, but being recognized for their contributions. Okay, and last up, from from knife. So mad from knife rights, my apologies, from Nebraska and knife rights.
Knife rights supported the Nebraska constitutional carry bill, number 77, LB 77, which includes knives and preemption, which is important.

[21:37] Was passed by a bipartisan 33 to 14 vote in Nebraska's unicameral legislator. It now moves on to Governor Jim Pillen for his action, which I assume is signing the bill. That would be great constitutional carry. But also I love the idea of, well, constitutional carry. I love that idea. But preemption so so that from municipality to municipality, you can't be busted.
It makes the knife law consistent across the whole state.

[22:15] In states without preemption, you can go from one county to the next and be breaking the law suddenly, so I think that this is important.
And we hear about this, it's less splashy than some of the legislations that we hear knife rights fighting for and winning, but those preemption bills are really awesome and useful, especially to people like us, who are movers and shakers, and also knife lovers.
So, more and more good work from Knife Rights, as always.
Doug Ritter, support Knife Rights and Doug Ritter by either going to Knife Rights and contributing there, or go to, go to, get one of his knives, one of the Ritter Hogue knives.
Those are exclusives, so you have to get them at, where are they?
You can find them, just Google it.
The RSK Mark I from Ritter. You buy those, that helps keep food on his table so that he can keep up the good fight.
All right, coming up right after this, we're gonna take a look at the state of the collection, but first, I wanna say, if you like this show and you wanna help support it, you can do so on Patreon.
You can scan the QR code there, or you can go to theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
You can win knives like this month.

[23:42] The Lucky Gentleman Junkie won these two, version one and version two of the Viper from Off-Grid Knives. So, chances to win plus exclusive extras from interviews and other stuff.
That's theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
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And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
So, new to me is, and new to the world, I should say, is a knife from Ethan Curtis of of Vandrare Knives.
We spoke with him on the podcast recently. This is his Fenrare.
This is his favorite knife of his and the one that he carries most consistently.
So I got one of these from him and I just want to show it in the sheet.
I've been carrying this.

[24:59] This does not make the lineup coming up just because I have not had it long enough.
But I've carried it a few times with the Detcord, which I think I'm gonna continue with.
So I keep this nestled in my front waistband and then have the end of the cord wrapped around my belt.
Pull it and tug it out.

[25:21] It leaves the sheath and I have the knife in hand. So here it is, it is a Wharncliffe, and it's got really good ergonomics, especially in that reverse grip.
It's wicked sharp, it's got a slight downward tilt to that edge, and yeah, it is a self-defense knife.
It is a slasher and a thruster.

[25:45] And as we look around, there are some areas that are a little rough around the edges, but he has not been making knives for too long.
But it is a very, like I said, it just, it fits my hand perfectly.
Melts in the hand and then it lives up to that self-defense mission that I carry it for and that it's made for.
He's been doing this with that blade reversed and making it a, what do you call it?
A call, which looks very interesting.
I got this special sort of black and red swirled marbled G10 on this one.
So that is the Fenrir from Van Der Rhe Knives. And when I draw it, so this is how I've been carrying it.
Let's see if I can do this right here.

[26:40] So that has been sitting in the waist and this connected around the side and I can just grab it from my waistband like this and tug it out, and I have it right in here.
A great defensive knife is the Fenrir. It's hard for me to say.
So it's the Fenrir from Vandrer Knives.
I am not a viking, this is how all the vikings talk on the show, vikings, which I love, it's a great show, but I am not of their extraction.
Okay, next up is from ColdSteel, now this one is a loner from Dave This Old Sword Reviews, and as you may or may not know, when he sends me these big boxes of knives to give away, I always end up kind of adopting one.
And I think that this is the one that I have to adopt because it is a very hard to come by.
This is the one that was being commented.
Oh no, not this one, but one in the Kiridashi in this line.

[27:42] This is the Minitak Skinner. And to me, it is always, I never had this, but this was one that I always wanted to buy.
And it looks like all of the wicked parts of a bowie without any of the extra.
So you got a really deep, long clip, and then you have, it's not a trailing point.
It is sort of a straight, I mean, the point is center line, and it is on the upward trajectory, but you see the way it's clipped off at the tip, so that it's not a fragile tip, even though it's very thin and hollow ground.
This is set up for neck knife carry, but is just screaming for just being dropped in the pocket, and with a little cord around a belt loop and you pull it out and boom, you got this knife in hand.
I love that sub-hilt design.
Really, really holds that knife in hand. It's like a trigger or just some sort of a keep there, and it's also stopping you from running up onto that blade thrust.
This, of course, was marketed as a utility knife.
You know, this whole Minitac series.
They still make the Tonto and the Clip Point, which was a later edition.
They got rid of the Beaver Tail, which had a really broad blade, and something else, can't remember which one. I guess maybe this one.

[29:09] They're marketed as useful hunter's knives and just utility knives, but excellent, excellent, wicked little weapon-type knives.
So that is the Mini-Tac Skinner. Thank you, Dave.
Appreciate that. And then last up, also on loan from Dave, or making a stop here before it goes out to some lucky giveaway winner, is the Talon by Doug Markada and 5.11 Tactical.

[29:41] So it comes in this inject molded sheet, And it is indeed a beautiful little karambit here.
Really nice shape, great placement of that ring to keep in your hand and maintain a fist without changing the angle of your hand and doing anything crazy like that.
I love the forward angle of that blade for that sort of raking motion that you would be doing with a karambit.
And then say you flip it around like this, you've got a great angle for pull cuts and all sorts of, well, slashing and such.
Also fits great in the hand in a traditional grip, like this, and you can opt to use that ring or not.
Either way, it's very comfortable because of how the ring was placed outboard from the handle.
That is important in any sort of ringed knife, that the ring does not come at the very top of the handle, but comes forward so that it can follow your natural knuckle alignment.

[30:51] And this one does that great. But you make a fist and everything stays aligned, so you can hit with those knuckles.
By the way, if you did, if you held this just in a boxing stance like this, and you hit without even trying to hit with that blade, you know, something horrible is going to happen with it, so a great design. The thing I don't like about this are these cheap plastic smoked clear plastic handles. If this were mine, I might consider doing, you know, making scales for it myself. Since it's not going on a folder, it's not so complex. I think I could do that. Very beautiful knife. They also did a folding version of that, that waved open, like this little piece right here.
Very, very nice. Mark has his crambits in his Dutch.

[31:44] Actually, another one of his designs, a collaboration, is in this here lineup now.
Okay, so I'm going to talk about appendix carry knives.
Ever since having Ethan Curtis of Vandre Knives, who made this, on the show, I've been reconsidering my carry, which has always been my fixed blade carry, which has been in the waistband at three o'clock. And I pull it out, you know, with the tip down and the edge out, you know, forward, and I draw it in this reverse grip.
Or it's very easy to and handy to turn your hand around like this with your knuckles against your body and draw it and then you have it in standard grip.
That's actually an easier way of drawing it than having the knife oriented the other way with the edge back and reaching up like this.
It's just easier to, especially the bigger the knife gets. So I have reconsidered where I fit because if using that knife for defensive purposes, chances are, well, I will have better access to it if it's on the front of my body, because I'll be able to reach it with my left hand or my right hand.
Whereas if it's way over on my three o'clock on my right hand side and I fall on that side, I won't have access to that.

[33:04] And you say, what if you fall on your face? Well, there is that, but oftentimes, your hands are in front of you, might be easier to get at that knife.
So, you know, these are the kind of things I think of, this is not my life, I'm not out there, I'm not an assassin, I'm not a spy, I am not in law enforcement or in the military, and I am not getting into hustles and getting thrown to the ground and having to access my fixed blade knife.
But, if I were, I'd be ready for it more in appendix carry. or in appendix carry.
So it's been important to me figuring out how I wear knives on the front of me.
And in some cases, appendix carry is with a cord like this.
And in one case, it's actually, or two cases, it's actually on the belt in scout carry in the front.
So I've been going through, cycling through all of my mid-size and small fixed blade knives to figure out what I like to carry the best.
And well, I have a pretty decent list here. And the first one is, you might have guessed it, yes, it is the Nova one.

[34:07] It is the Nova one and the EDC Tanto. So this, these are my hogtooth knives.
It started with this knife right here, the EDC Tanto.
And I've been carrying this for several years. It is an amazing knife, a great cutter, hollow ground, very thin, 1.4.
And I love it so much, I asked to do a collaboration with Matt Chase of Hawk Dew Knives to make a Bowie version of it and co-branded it and we called it the Nova 1.
Those are in the works now and we're going to later be doing a different blade shape.
But the reason I...
I requested that collaboration with him because this is the perfect platform, perfect size for carry.

[34:58] At the time, perfect size for my three o'clock carry. Well, as it turns out, it's perfect for appendix carry.
Thing that's important in either style of carry is the rounded nature of the pommel.
Short and round means that when it's in the waistband, it's not going to poke into my ribs interfere with my love. Those have shrunk happily. I've been working on that people. So not not so much interference there. But also, it's got to fit into the seam of your leg, you know, where your leg meets your body.
Because you're going to be sitting and you're going to be in the car. That's, that's another thing. All of these knives in this list are good for sitting for extended periods of time, and for even having a seatbelt across them. And that was always my big hesitation with appendix carry anything, whether it's a firearm or a knife. So yeah, this EDC tanto from hogtooth knives, and of course, my Nova one, which is based on this platform is perfect for appendix carry. So So that thing I was showing you about turning your hand around to pull it out, the way I carry it, it's perfect for just grabbing like this and having in reverse grip.

[36:24] Or if you simply turn your hand around, you can draw it out and have it ready in standard grip. So hogtooth knives, EDC tanto, black, level one at the top.
All right, next up, JB knife and tool. This one is an awesome appendix carry and another thing that you'll see in the knife I had there and the other knives you'll see is that curve of the handle.

[36:51] Works well for the curve of one's belly, especially those of us male type people who develop bellies whether or not we want them.
So having that curve to accommodate your curve is a nice thing incidentally.
You'll notice all of these pretty much, or most of these have the discrete carry clips on them, discrete carry concepts clip because I like to clip to the pants themselves underneath the belt, not the belt, because I like to position it at certain angles that if you were to go over the bolts, you couldn't do without totally re-angling the clip itself.
All right, so the JB Knives Ditch Clip is definitely a defensive knife.
You look at it, it's like those defensive people you know, who's like, what, what are you looking at?
Like, it's got a curved blade, sharp on both sides, black and then shiny with that Texas star and that perfect handle for gripping and reverse grip and just going to town with.
So a very defensive knife. This would be a hard one to justify carrying.
I carry it for work, you know, cutting carpet.

[38:04] Though these are very, very capable. This is, I can't remember the steel this is, but in speaking with Jason of JB Knife and Tool, they do a lot of abusive testing to this very thin steel.
That's a 16th of an inch thin, and that is because this is a ditch model.
JB Knife and Tool does their models in a eighth of an inch and then a 16th of an inch.
And the 60-inch models they call their ditch models.
So, nice and thin, but this size is perfect. Now, size is kind of maxing out at 8 inches overall.
8 inches, a lot of these are 7 1⁄2 inches stem to stern here, and with the curve, that's nice.
Too much more than that, and then sitting down is going to be painful.
You're going to have a sheath poking into your genitals, and it will not be pleasant.
So, Ditch Pick, next up is the, this is the largest of them that I carry in the waistband appendix.
And this is from 1558 Knife Company, that is Josh Fisher, master bladesmith, Josh Fisher's production line, or mid-tech line, I guess you would call it.

[39:29] I think he has these water jetted and does everything else.
A 52100 blade steel. This is a gorgeous recurve clip point blade and has a nice, generous handle and yet is very comfortable for in the waistband, yet for appendix in the waistband carry even though that handle is a little bit longer than say the Nova 1. It fits perfectly on the contour, and none of these really print, much under the shirt, and if they do, it's when you're bending or turning a certain way, and then maybe the handle will poke up a little bit, but no one is really thinking this guy's got a fixed blade knife in his waistband.
I don't think.
I can't tell what everyone is thinking, but I just don't think people think that first.
They might think gun, or they might just think, Oh, he's got a weird bony protrusion, you know.
Coming out. I don't know. But anyway, this one's got a nice coke bottle handle in cross-section here and it flares out towards the end. Just a masterfully made knife. It's no wonder that he is a master bladesmith. And not for nothing, his daughter, who is in her young teens, became a, a, what do you call it, a journeyman smith.

[40:58] At last year's Blade Show.
And so did Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives, and I remember him saying, like, I'm almost 50, and she's like 14.
So, must run in the family there. All right, next up, this was a gift from my brother-in-law.
I always talk about how my brother has given me a lot of great knives.
Well, so has my brother-in-law.
And this one I've been wearing, carrying a lot.
And that is the Waxahashi from Sencut. Now this one is the only one that I'm using the IWB straps here to carry scout style.

[41:36] I carry one other stout scout and that's after this, but I carry it in a different fashion.
But the double straps here keep it nice and close to the body.
It is a very thin knife. Now, this is right up front, like right on the front part of my body.
So what I'll do is take my belt, what's that thing called, buckle, Slide it over.
And then strap this right up front. On occasion, I will straddle the belt loop on the front left with this, but then I find that the handle kind of comes off from my body at an angle like this.
I like it not to print at all.
Of course, I'm blousing... not blousing, but...
I have a shirt or sweater or something like that over these at all times, so that they're not showing.
But this wakistahashi is awesome. The teeth is great, and the blade is awesome.
What is this, a 9CR18MOV, you got that beautiful clip point.

[42:35] I love the shape of that clip point. It reminds me of the Civivi Cogent, the first button lock that they did.
I had that one, I think I gave that one to my brother. Nice neutral handle on this with the lightning holes, and that's not lightning like that comes from the sky, that's lightning like to make it lighter, but also you can manipulate it, maybe not with your left hand, But with your right, great jimping up the spine.
This would make an excellent self-defense knife for all the reasons just mentioned.
And really, really good in reverse grip. That neutral handle with that sort of neutral pommel is great for capping with the thumb.
And then of course you've got the swedge.
Great knife. This one I keep putting off, but I'm going to make that handle maroon.
I'm gonna make this knife a little bit more special. I have the RIT die over there to do so.
I just haven't done it yet.

[43:33] Have never done that. Have never done a RIT die job.
All right, next up, I also carry Scout Style on the front, so I can access it in reverse grip with my left hand or standard grip with my right.
And that is my TKEL Knives Guardian.
Now, something that T. Kel prides himself on, Tim Kel prides himself on, is the thinness of his sheaths.
And this one is indeed thin.
He does this in his own sort of patented way.
And the sheath is about as wide as a belt. And then he supplies you with an in-the-waistband horizontal belt clip there.
And now he does a special collaboration with Discrete Carry Concepts to do a wider clip like this, which is gonna be coming on a knife that he is sending me shortly, so I look forward to checking out that clip.
This plastic one is good, but I look forward to the metal one even more.
Now this one is a triple-edged wharncliffe, and it is all about self-defense.
It is all about self-defense. Look at that very, very wicked blade tip, blade tip, um, and you see three edges there, one here, one here, and one here, and on the.

[44:58] And just wicked and nasty and you can see the handle is purple and black.
You can get T-Kel knives in a whole bunch of different G10s and some Micartas.
But this one is also wearing the Sentry Grip. You see the ring on that?
Well, that ring is integral to the scale on the backside.
The scale on the backside is a Sentry Grip. That's an aftermarket thing you get from him for 30 bucks, I think.
And that is one piece of G10 that cantilevers over the pommel there and puts the ring in the center, lined up with the tang of the blade, if you want to turn your Guardian or Striker or several others that have the same handle into a Karambit-type item.
And while I have it oriented like this, look at that nasty point.
This is for making big, wide wounds that are difficult to close and painful.
This is a 100% last-ditch self-defense life-saving knife here.

[46:02] This is not for cutting cheese or for shaving arm hair or for slicing paper, though if you do it at the right angle, you can do all of those things with this knife.
The T-Kel Knives Guardian, that also has that nickel boron coating.
This is 80CRV2 blade steel with nickel boron coating That nickel boron coating is used a lot in firearms, and it makes things slick.
It makes metal really, really slick.
So this thing is meant, as they used to say, built for speed.
This thing is built for speed. Love it.
All right, next up is one of the newer ones that I've just started wearing, Appendix Carry.
And in that, I've been carrying this around a lot.
And that is the Cold Steel Counter-Tac 2. This is the smaller one, the Counter-Tac 1 is the larger five-inch bladed dagger, but this is a hollow ground, chisel ground dagger, meaning this side has those very steep bevels that are flat ground, you turn it over, and it's spooned out.
So that's a chisel grind, but it's convex right there, Or concave.
That was it. get that wrong.
Just a nasty little knife, really great around the neck. It's so light and so thin.

[47:23] But you still have your Coke bottle type handle that's very easy to grip.

[47:29] So I've always had this kind of in my bag or around my neck, and I realized recently if I do that thing where I tie the end of the sheath cable of the sheath cable to my belt at nine o'clock and then just put it in my waistband at twelve o'clock with the 550 cord tracing in my belt line from nine to twelve.
It's a great little forget you've had in the waistband fixed blade carry and it's really hard to see and detect and it stays in place due to that rubbery style handle and then And then when you need it, man, it's right there.
It's in reverse grip for your left hand or it's in forward grip for your right hand.
And this, I've been using this when I mow the lawn because I want, I always have something large and capable like one of the Voyager XLs in my pocket if I need to do any light chopping.
But just in case someone runs up on me while I'm mowing the lawn Rand Paul style, I'll have this in my waistband to defend myself.
So I like that setup quite a bit. So this is a nice little scout style front carry in the waistband cord carry.
And I imagine it's big brother would be good for that too.

[48:54] This is the counter tack too. I always have to read the blades of these Cold Steel's.
They all have very similar names and they all have tack in them.
Figure. Okay next up a defensive favorite and a low profile favorite except I bulked up the profile, aftermarket but that's the Kopis Designs Elvia and this is a collaboration with Ed Calderon, based on his Elvia knife. Elvia, his mother carried around a fruit knife with her, So, he, among many other weapons, carried a little fruit knife and, uh...

[49:33] There you go. That's what this is based on. I'll show it in the sheath first because this is one of those sheaths that you can just drop in the pocket without a clip or without a cord or anything and it can ride around loose in your pocket so it's undetectable. But that little hook is there so that when you grab it out of your pocket you can hook this on the side of your pocket and unsheath your knife and have a knife in hand, but have it all low profile. In this case, I have the ulti clip on this one, and this rides very nicely in the appendix. Appendix carry, right side, you've got that curved handle to match my curved belly, and then a relatively short sheath, so it's not going to gouge painfully anywhere. And then this one, as I mentioned, was very low profile, But I had it suki maki wrapped by Josh Mason of Bright for War Knives.
So that's purple ray skin, beautiful purple ray skin. You can pull this out and have it in reverse grip immediately.
You can also do the thing where you pull it out knuckle against your body and have it oriented with edge up, tip up like this.
Just in case you need to do a sort of pull cut that, what's his name, Douglas.

[50:59] Can't remember his name, but the guy who invented the clinch pick was talking about how he keeps it, would keep it in his waistband during, you know, undercover drug deals in cars, which just sounds like a terrifying thing.
But if stoned over, he would have it oriented like this, pull it out, and have the tip be able to, the edge in and be able to delve that way in that closed quarter.

[51:25] So, Appendix A works great either way for this package here.
Alright, next up, this is from BastinelliCreations. And this one I do...
I just haven't been able to figure out how to rig it so that it...
...more horizontal. It always ends up like this.
But it's still comfortable because it's so light and so thin.
And this is the anomaly. Usually it's like this.
It's on the belt, like this. And it ends up drooping like this.
But all you do is put your finger through the ring and tug it out, and you've got this bastinelli creations.
It is very, very well set up with that ring position And so that when you make a fist, it doesn't pull your finger or your knuckles out of alignment.
You've got that horrifying sort of cat's claw blade there for that clawing motion.

[52:36] Again, that Pical style thing, you have that hook, and you've got that blade reaching out with the tip, and in a gross motor situation, you're just doing that, and it's taking advantage of that hooking motion, that arcing motion.
So this one is really nice for front scout style, even though it droops down, and I will figure out a way, you know, with the cord and using the different loops in such a way, but I just haven't quite figured it out yet.
Next up, this one is, this is a custom cave bear by Dirk Pinkerton, and this one fits great.
If you look at the contour of the kydex there, that fits right into that curve where your leg meets your body perfectly when you're sitting down.
All of these knives have to be good sitting down because unfortunately that's a big part of my day.
So on occasion I'll get tired of having them there and I will take the knife out.
But on the whole I like to leave it on me and most of the time I forget about them.
This one, big as it is, it's probably the biggest in terms of it's overall, what do you call it.

[53:56] Footprint, it is quite comfortable. And so this is the Cave Bear, you've seen this before.
You got the happy Ronald McDonald handle with the devastating and beautifully ground double-edged curved blade here.
Picaul style all day long, but if you turn it around like this, has sort of a Middle Eastern flair with that double-edged curved knife, just the beauty.
Just the beauty, and one you want to have on you, no doubt, if it hits the fan, and it's a knife kind of situation.

[54:32] That was one of the sillier things I've said, but it is true. I am not incorrect.
I love, really, like the practical thing I get out of this is it is a work of art to me.
It is perfect grinds. It is a hand that is a perfect hand at the grinder and an amazing eye at the design table.
Love Dirk Pinkerton's work and this is among my favorites. So happy I can carry it appendix style.
Okay, last up. This one has been getting a lot of appendix carry.
It gets a lot of carry anyway, but it works perfectly.
It is flat, it is thin, it is large, it is capable. Large-ish.
This is the Kramer Custom Knives Voodoo. It's got a perfect sheath.
Man, I was just thinking, I need more Kramer custom knives in my life.

[55:32] This is a double-edged, upswept, clip point, I'll call it, he calls it a Persian, who you gonna believe?
The Maker or your lying eyes?
I had him sharpen the swedge, it is a very obtuse, splitting, gouging, tearing kind of edge, and then the main edge is a very thin, hollow ground, slicey edge.
A great, great self-defense blade is this, but also practical, that's 154CM blades, feels next to the body. During the summer in appendix carry it's not going to rust too readily, I'll have to be sure I take care of it. Not sure if I sweat more appendix style or not, but.

[56:15] Gonna have to gauge that. My fixed blade carry does wane a little bit during the summer months, but with some of these real light ones, I just might stick with it. All right, well that has And that has been it from the, from probably the two very best, our book ending this list, and that is the Hogtooth Knives EDC Tanto and the Voodoo by Kramer Custom Knives.
Both just outstanding for Kerry and as is the Nova 1, look for the Nova 2 in the future.
Anyway, what do you like to carry, fixed blade EDC? Do you fixed blade carry EDC?
I feel like things are headed that direction, ever more hardcore with every passing day.
So don't miss the train.
Get yourself an EDC fixed blade.
From Bradford to a custom, whatever it is, Kershaw makes some cool ones, they all make cool ones.
Try it out, it's awesome carrying a fixed blade knife. All right, that's it for me.
Be sure to join us on Sunday for Jacklings of Shed Knives.
Very interesting interview with a young entrepreneur and knife maker.
Has some interesting processes you'll want to check out.
And then also join us for Thursday Night Knives tomorrow night when we randomly give away this QSP Locust, very, very cool knife.

[57:41] Also, you can join us on Patreon by scanning the QR code on your screen or going to theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at review the podcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, theknifejunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at the knife junkie.com slash YouTube. Check out some great knife photos on the knife junkie.com slash Instagram and join our Facebook group at the knife junkie.com slash Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at the knife junkie.com or call our 24 seven listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie Podcast.

[58:37] Music.