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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, a Pinkerton prototype, a sweet new Civivi, and 10 knives, make that 11, that I wish I had when I was in Jamaica.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco. Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from this past week was from Diabolic Sabobel, who commented on a kind of a show off the short I put up about choosing a Bowie knife.

[0:48] In the morning if I lived in the type of world where a Bowie knife were necessary. And so got a good view of my Bowie knife shelf. He says, I know envy is a sin, but I'm weak and I can't help myself. I just have to go for confession this week. And I say to you Diabolik, here, well, I think I put a little French twist on that. But Diabolik, listen up. To be jealous is not a sin. To envy is sin. Because when you envy, you are both jealous and spiteful.
You don't want them to have it and you want to have it yourself. So just do what I do. Be jealous. Just think of me watching this old sword blade reviews, his videos, they make me jealous, but I love the man. So I want him to have them too.
I just want me to have this collection as well. So jealousy over envy and then work on the jealousy. All right, Diobalik Sabobel, thank you so much for commenting. And thank you one and all for commenting. I appreciate it. They keep coming in my sales. Yes, Wyndham in the sales, just like the catamaran I was on yesterday or two days ago, three days ago, I don't know, in Jamaica. Man, I see what they mean about Jamaica.
It's pretty cool. The people are pretty awesome. All that being said, I think it's time for A pocket check.

[2:06] Music.

[2:11] Today in the front right, I had a classic, a modern classic, of course, but I had the, Spartan Knives, the Spartan Blades Harzy Folder, the Spartan Harzy Folder as it's affectionately known. I love this thing.
Combination to me of Hinderer meets meets Strider, meets Rick Hinderer knives in a dark alleyway and they hash it out. And this is what comes out of the deal.
It is one of the stoutest knives in the collection, but also svelte, you know, it's not so.

[2:45] Broad this way. It is a bit of a chunker. There's no weight relief in there But you know, we all know about this knife and at this point, all I need say is it's always a pleasure to have this in the pocket and I love that too. My logo etched in the side, Courtesy of Curtis. I hope you go. Thank you, sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar, So this was Ryden shotgun today. Let's see, what else did I have? Well, I was trying to hold this back till state of the collection, but I'll show it off then too, just as a record. But I was carrying my feel-good jack, the new Jack Wolf knives, jack knife, based on the doctor's knife of old. Now this is a pattern that I do not own besides this feel-good jack. It's got this beautiful Arctic Storm blue carbon fiber. It's got a full height hollow ground. Wharncliffe blade here of s 90 v is so thin and slicey.
It each each one I swear each new jackwolf knife seems thinner and slicier, but maybe that's just, um...

[3:55] Perception. Cool thing about the doctor's knife is that the handle, the spine and the dorsal section, if you will, are nearly parallel or, or sometimes completely parallel lines. And, they are generally long knives that frequently contained two blades, a or two tools, a blade, and then a sort of a spatula looking thing. It's a symmetrical sort of spatula like thing, that after you after a house calling doctor, you know, back in the day, doctors would come to your house, it was called the house call, doctor would come in, open up his little black bag, and make you a potion to drink down. And what they would do is they would cut up a pill with the blade. And.

[4:40] Then they would take the other spatula thing up there, actually, they would take the butt end of the knife, the pommel was always squared off and totally flat. And you would you take a pill, you cut up the pill with the blade, and then you mash it up using the butt of the blade down here, and you get a powder, and then you scrape it into a glass of water or alcohol, and then you stir it up with that spatula.
So a cool knife, I love the history of the doctor's knife, but I've never owned one.
I got one from my dad, who was a physician before he retired, and he carries that thing quite a bit, case, but I am so psyched that Ben Belkin decided decided to go this route with his 13th release. I guess it's 13th knife 12 release. Yeah, because of the little bro. Beautiful, beautiful knife. I love this. And this is the first run now where everything is carbon fiber, five different flavors of carbon fiber. And I love that blue that he sent me. Thank you for sending this to me, by the way, Ben, if you are listening. But he sent me that blue arctic storm carbon fiber which is nice because it is more it is the.

[5:54] .
The very first Jack Wolf knife that I have, the Sharpshooter Jack, has the same material, and I like it. I like having it.
I like having two of them, is what I mean, and I also am especially fond of that carbon fiber.
Even though the others are dazzling, I think this I can live with, so to speak.
Okay, and on my belt today, I had the TKL Knives Night Stalker.

[6:19] Soon to be released to the open public at Blade Show in a couple of 10 days or something like that in AEBL.
Now I'm gonna show this to you in the sheets first of all because T-Kel Knives prides themselves, Tim Kel prides himself as does the company on their amazing sheets, very thin top to bottom so that they cover just about the same width of your belt.
So very low profile in that scout position up front. What's that called?
That has a different name. Anyway, parallel right up front, like scout position.
Now this, you might notice, is a cool clip and different than what usually ships with a T-Kal knife.
This is the clip that he just designed, co-authored, if you will, with Discreet Carry Concepts.
So this works really great. The other clip that they send is a plastic one, and it is also very good for in the waistband, but I do find that if you don't wear a belt or something like that, if you just want to slip it onto your gym shirts or whatever, you definitely want to go this route.
I really like it. It's also a little bit more low profile. Okay, the knife itself, a beautiful.

[7:34] Oh my gosh, I love this knife.
AEBL stainless steel and that nickel boron coating coating. It makes it very slick and it and also protects the blade. It's a it's a hard coating, that will protect the blade. He started using that as a blade protectant slash, dry lubricant. I don't know. So it slips through the materials you're cutting when he was only using 1095 and ADCR V2.

[8:08] But now with this AEBL, which is more stainless, probably not necessary for its stainless qualities, but really cool for making the knife such that it will slip through materials very easily.

[8:26] Very very nice. I love the sculpting that grenade Pattern sculpting on the handle that is a three-tone, Sort of camo Olive drab brown and black and let's talk about ergonomics for a second absolute dream, With ringed things ringed implements, which I'm not so into these days. This has totally changed my mind. This is a beautifully, designed ring It keeps your knuckles aligned when you hold it for a punch and it's just a very well-done ring knife.
Great blade, super incredibly sharp as per all Tecal knives. So just awesome.
I also had on me, as usual, an emotional support knife. Today it was the Gambit by Shielded Knives and Dirk Pinkerton.
This little sucker is a cool little, I cannot, this is, I gotta say, this is not an easy one to front flip on the left side for me.
I'm not sure why, but I think it might be my left hand.
But a great 154CM blade comes to a nice acute edge, a very nice belly on it, and let's see, can I do it?

[9:48] Okay, and also a nice fuller, and all of those opening holes there are really great for spidey flicking.
And then the size of this thing, it just fits in the hand very nicely.
It has a menace to it that I like, sort of a demon barber of Fleet Street sort of menace, and I do like that quite a bit.
All right, so these were my knives today. For emotional support, I had the Gambit designed by Dirk Pinkerton, made by Shielded Knives.
I had the TKAL Knives Night Stalker. had the old, well, the brand new, I should say, doctor's knife from Jack Wolf Knives, the feel-good Jack.
He's the one we call Dr. Feel-Good, and you know what I'm talking about if you're my age.
And then this is the Spartan Harzey Folder.
Do love it, do love it. Okay, just talking about Dirk Pinkerton, a knife maker slash designer that I'm, man, I just love his work.
Well, I have a prototype that he sent me a little while ago he said, keep under your hat. And then he sent the same thing to a number of other people who didn't keep it under their hat.
So he got to me and said, Go ahead, you can show it off now.
So I'm very happy to show off this beautiful Dirk Pinkerton inversion. You may remember the inversion from Heizer and Dirk.

[11:07] Which I just so happen to have right here.
I know Dave, I mentioned this old sword, he's got one of these, Fieldworks, someone who's gonna be a guest on this Sunday's show, a professional, we'll talk about him later, has one of these, and a number of other people have gotten this prototype.
This is the original inversion, which I absolutely love.
It is a classy titanium frame lock pickal with an optional wave opener on top, that disc, you can wave it open, and just really an awesome knife.
But I'm not sure if Kaiser is making this anymore, I guess they probably discontinued it, because this is the inversion that Mr. Pinkerton is working on to put under his own shingle.
It's in development, it is not an imminent thing. I think he's perfecting and zeroing in, and I love what he's done with the blade here.

[12:04] A couple of things he's done with the blade, You can see he took away that tanto shape and went for a more hawk, hawkbill, a pointy, drop-pointed hawkbill, and slenderized the opener there, which is cool.
And then changed the handle material, made it a liner lock, it's much lighter, and also changed the shape of the handle, conker as the handle.
But the basic premise is there. It is a folding pical knife, looks a little odd to the uninitiated eye, but to those of of us who know and like the call style knives, you know, they're not just for.

[12:48] Fighting. They are also really great utility knives. I mean, just look at this knife and utility grip. You can just, you know, do everything you'd want to do with it. But then if push comes to shove, you have a really effective fighting knife.
Anyway, I just want to thank Dirk right now for sending me this. I'm so honored. I think it's really cool to have a prototype, especially and to also see the development see how, the mind of great designers and great makers work. So I like I can't wait to see this thing come to fruition.
I think he's working on the clip, and you know, lots of stuff is happening with this, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that.
Lastly, I want to talk about the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway knife, which will be happening tomorrow night.
We will be giving away this beautiful Kaiser Roach, also courtesy of This Old Sword.
This one is one of the new ones.
I have one of the originals. new one, man alive, they really put some effort into that detent, it snaps open with authority, and it closes really easily. You know, definitely drop shoddy, as we like to say, and a beautiful, beautiful canvas my car to handle. Feels great in the hand. Ergonomically, that little hump is always stuck in my craw ever so slightly. But a great, great.

[14:12] As we'll be giving this away to one lucky, lucky gentleman and Junkie, tomorrow night on Thursday Night Knives.
It's been two weeks and I already forgot the name. Thursday Night Knives, Eastern Standard Time, that's 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, yes.
And YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. Come check it out and we will spin the wheel of destiny and see who gets this beautiful, beautiful knife.

[14:36] Putting that away. I have to say, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to check out some knife life news, some interesting things happening there as always. And then we will get on to state of the collection and then the main topic right here on the Knife Junkie podcast.
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 the knife junkie.com slash knives. You're, listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the knife life news.
All right, so something exciting and cool coming out from State and Union, which is K bars, small batch custom shop. We saw the red spacer K bar come out last year, I believe the Red Spacer Doghead K-Bar, very cool, pretty expensive, exclusive build.
Well, State and Union is coming out with a straight razor. How cool?
I love straight razors.
This one is called the 6412, I don't know, 6412 straight razor. Look at that.

[15:53] That is indeed a titanium handle with a kind of a cool arched pistol grip to it.
It's got, it's not just titanium, but it's titanium and rich light.
So I believe the rich light is on top. And the titanium is probably probably the liners. It's got a an interesting blade to it's called a kumai blade kumai blade with copper running down the middle on the home own line. So just a stunning beautiful thing comes in a nice collectors wooden box for, presentation. They only make a very limited amount of these Let's look at that profile there.
Monage, that's beautiful.
I really like that.
Straight razors are pretty compelling, aren't they? I mean, most knife guys must think that.
Anyway, these are still available. No doubt they are pricey. I've not looked up the, I've not looked at the price on these but for a collector, man, I highly highly, Want you to let me know what it's like if you get it. All right, so that is from State and Union That's the 6412 straight razor. All right next we have from CRKT, so they have a new website coming out and.

[17:10] To commemorate the new website, they are re-releasing a previously produced model, a high-end, limited edition version of the Hirin knife by designer Dohara.
Now this is a hugely skeletonized, sort of stiletto-style knife, modern locking folder, but this time it's using different steel, M390 blade steel, titanium handle, of course, And if you're watching, you can see it's got some pretty complex milling and construction, pretty cool.
And it's got an interesting blade of M390 and this damasteel called DS93X.
So it's a patterned blade and DS93X.

[18:01] I'm not exactly sure how it integrates in. I can see it right there with the patterns on the clip, on the blade, but they also mention M390. So I'm not sure if M390 is swirled into that damn steel mix. 300 pieces of this made in honor of the new 2023 CRKT website, made in Italy by LionSteel.
So check it out. If you are interested, it is there.

[18:30] Next up, from our good friend, Larren Thomas, the big brain of the knife industry, I should say, probably the biggest brain of the knife industry.
Lots of big brains, and we've talked to him right here on the show.
But Larren Thomas is a different cut.
You know, this man got his PhD in metallurgy. He designs for work, he designs new automotive steels, and for fun, designs blade steels, and writes book after book about making knives and blade steels, and this latest one, the story of knife steel chronicles the tool steel, and I think that that is so cool.
So taking the story of steel, knife steel, through its paces so you can kind of see, what development led to what.
It aims for a broader audience than Knife Engineering, the very popular book that he released almost two years ago, and it's, he aims to have this also be a single volume where you can learn the whole history of knife steel, which I think is so cool.
And he wasn't looking to make this book, it just sort of accidentally happened.
I would love to accidentally write a book.
Now, he didn't use the word accidentally, but he said he kind of had all this extra material from all of his research, and he had to sort of put it somewhere, and it all told a coherent story.
Isn't that nice? Ought to be a brain.

[19:49] Nicely done, Laren. Hopefully I bump into him at Blade Show, as I do.
Okay, so that's from Larren Thomas.
Check out his book, Last Up in Knife Life News. This one hit a little close to home, even if it was 30 years after.
I used to live in Philadelphia years ago in the 90s, and it was rough in the early mid 90s in Philadelphia.
And I always had a knife on me, and this was before I was a collector.
I just had a couple of, I remember I used to carry a Fury, serrated Fury, with me, everywhere all the time for years, and definitely through my Philadelphia years, which was also art school years for me.
Anyway, I cannot believe that in Philadelphia, check this out.
I'm going to read it to you because I won't be able to do it justice. Knife Rights has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city of Philadelphia's ban on and now check this out, quote, use or possession of any cutting weapon upon public streets or upon any public property at any time, as well as within 100 feet of any school.

[21:02] So to fight this fight, that city is insane. And if you live there, I love it.
I had some great years there and it is a beautiful city with a great history, but man, the way they run it.
Anyway, joining knife rights in the case are knife rights members Keith fit circa, and Scott melee. And they're represented by attorneys john W. Dillon at the Dillon law group.
So hopefully they give them help. Listen to this. They're they named as defendants, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner not listen to this name, Danielle outlaw. How do you.

[21:34] Like that outlaw? It's right there in the name, and the city of Philadelphia. That is not to say that I don't back the blue I I do 100% but sounds like Ms. Outlaw needs to update her view on knives. So luckily, we have Doug Ritter and Knife Rights to help Philadelphia out of this jam because, you know, the criminals in Philadelphia aren't obeying that knife law, nor are they obeying any gun laws. So hopefully, you won't have to either after Doug Ritter is finished with them. Doug Ritter et al is finished with them. All right, well, that has been Knife Life News. Coming up on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're gonna check out a couple of new knives in the state of the collection and then 11 folders I wish I had in Jamaica. Don't take dull for an answer. It's the Knife Junkie's favorite sign-off phrase and now you can get that tagline on a variety of merchandise. Like a t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, long-sleeve tee and more. Even on coasters, tote bags.

[22:35] A coffee mug, water bottle and stickers. Let everyone know that you're a Knife junkie and that you don't take dull for an answer. Get yours at the knife junkie.com slash dull and shop for all of your life junkies merchandise at the knife junkie.com slash shop. And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast. An exciting new addition to my high value collection is the Civivi cynicist cynicist. I'm sorry, The Civivi Synthesis and.

[23:11] This is a beautiful clip point blade. It is large as you can see.
That's 14C28N and burlap micarta on a steel frame lock.
That's right ladies and gentlemen, a steel frame lock.
Nice and thin so it's nice and light. You know sometimes you get a steel frame lock in hand and it feels too heavy.
Well this does not. This is a really nice feel to it and though it is thin...
Okay, let me back up and just say even though it's thin, it does have a heft to it. If this were titanium and it were this thin, of course it would feel lighter, but there's something very nice about having a large size knife like this being nice and svelte, and easy in the pocket, but that maintains some sort of heft.
And let me bring this in as a comparison here. Here is the, basically for size and concept comparison, Here's a bug out.
So you can see that this is a nice large size, nearly four inch blade.

[24:14] This bug out, before I got these micarta handles on them, which gave it a little bit of weight, it felt so light I could hardly take it seriously.
That's what having a steel frame lock on this being nice and thin gives me.
It gives me just enough heft for me to want to take it seriously and not think that it's being so thin going to be a drawback. The blade is very slicey, it is a flat, yeah it's a flat ground blade and gives you a lot of, looks like a lot of re-sharpening room there and a nice finger choil. I love that swoop up on the clip there, it's it's very Civivi, we Sen cut this this clip point blade. I think it's very very beautifully designed, I just like that shape, but as you can see that edge is oh Nice and sharp. This thing is a beautiful cutter.

[25:15] So it looks good. It feels good and man it cuts well cuts really well Nice and thin and nice and cool. All I want is a different clip for it and I have it on order, So I'm gonna see if it fits. I have tried those clips the aftermarket Civivi clips. The screws that they send don't always work. You have to hunt down longer screws to get through some of the handle materials. But this one is a great.
I highly recommend it because it was only like 40 bucks or no wait 50, 55 bucks. So very inexpensive for a great steel 14c28 and from a great company, making awesome knives. Alright so that's the Civivi Sinesis. Alright next up I I hear the hound raising cane upstairs.
Next up, this is the Feel Good Jack. I won't go into it as I did before, but I just want to, not chronicle, I just want to mark this down for posterity.

[26:14] That's what it was. I'm missing the word, so I want to record this here just so I know in the future days that this is when I got this knife.
I love this Feel Good Jack. This is available, has been for a week and a half now from all of the purveyors, online purveyors that you have come to find that have the jackwolf knives.
And what's great is that Ben has been able, through his success, to up his production.
So they're not as hard to find as the first few models were.
You know, they sold out immediately and then that was it.
Now he's putting a little bit more units, as the sick man likes to say, out there in the wild.
So that is the feel-good jack, actually, microphone. This is the, these are the knives I was supposed to knife him.

[27:06] Beautiful. And I would say 7 and 1 1⁄2 hole. I think it'll stumpy rate the pull-out, Ben does, the pull-out and the push-back.
I can't get there yet, so I'd say 7.75.
Know, is the pulse. We're going to do that, which I guess it just did. Alright, so that is that. Check it out. And last up in the collection is a ImpulseBot. I'm glad I ImpulseBot'd it.

[27:38] Bowie from Cold Steel. Yes, this is I think an 8C or an Aus8A. It's not a fancy pants steel or anything like that.
But that three and a half inch clip point blade is sharp as can be. It's got a really nice saber grind here.
And if you know Cold Steel, you know they do their Aus8 and their Aus10. They do all of their blade steels really, really well in terms of feature and edge.
This thing is very good, and look at how small that handle is, but you get a full grip on that.
If you've got the giant meat hooks, maybe that pinky slips off, but for your money, you get a very, very nice grip, and something that is highly, highly concealable and carryable. It's very light, and it's a neck knife.
I have it with the string there, but I don't use it as a neck knife, though I did when I first got it, and it rode comfortably, it's light enough.

[28:36] But I like to do the deck cord thing, you know, where I tie it around my belt, and then I just sort of put it in my waistband.
And then when I need it, you just, you know, it just sort of rides in the waistband, you just tug it out like this, and then the sheath is left dangling.
A great, great knife for very little. If you need a fixed blade, if you want, I mean, this would be a great work knife.
You know, if you're someone who's using knives all day long opening this or the Tonto version of this.
They also have a serrated Tonto version.
I think these would be great because they're small and low profile, but you could have a fixed blade on you that you know is gonna go the distance.
So that is the Minitac Bowie.
Do check it out. Okay, all of that being said, this was one of the ones that I could have used that I would have used in Jamaica.
Now, wasn't really thinking in terms of fixed blades, But I was thinking in terms of folders.
Before I went, I decided I need to be more responsible than I have been in the past.
I am not going to try to smuggle knives into the country just so that I can walk around with a knife in my waistband so that no one sees it.
Like I did when I went to...

[29:52] Another, well, when I went to Punta Cana, that's what I did.
And it was a bad idea, and I don't recommend you do that.
And so I decided not to do it this time. I'm like, I don't want to end up in Jamaican prison, you know, I just don't.
So I decided, well, I forgot to mention this up front, but instead of these knives I'm about to show you, I did come up with a couple of improvised weapons that I brought, just in case.
Of course, I didn't even take them out except for this one over here, but so I had a couple of different things. Let me just show you these real quick. One is a flail.
So I took this giant nut, the biggest one I could find at Home Depot.

[30:32] Just dropped it in the bottom of my bag like it was forgotten from days gone by, and then I brought some paracord, and then when you take this and put it through here, I saw this on a YouTube video.
I can't remember the guy's name, but he's a CIA dude, he talks about cool stuff, and he was talking about improvised weapons, And this little flail works awesome.
And then in this video, he slams it into a car window and shatters it.
So I have had this for a couple of weeks, and I've found that the shorter the lead, this is like 12 inches, the more wicked this thing is.
So I had this with me, though I never assembled it or even removed it from my bag or thought about it.
I also had this through the airport, on the plane, everything, and this is my ventilator pen.
It's a simple Bic round stick, and this is an Ed Calderon trick that he actually talked about on the show, I think.
But really, you take the pen, it can be a crystal or whatever, one of these Bic pens, and you remove the ink, and then you can even do this on the rug.
I did this on the rug at work. You just rub it against the...

[31:41] Rub it against the rug really quickly and it will sand it down, sand down that plastic material. So basically what you do is you create a little hypodermic needle. You sand it at an angle and you create a hypodermic needle. The back, you take the back off so that air goes through there and liquid and this is your weapon.

[32:03] And they say that it has been used to jam into people's necks and then slap it in there and and then this is stuck in their body, shooting blood out. I mean, it's very little you can do.
But even if you don't go that far with it, it's just a pointy thing that you can have with you in a place that you're not supposed to have pointy things.
Incidentally, this is what I used to fill out all of our customs forms and everything.
So it was a double duty thing.
And then lastly, before we go on to the knives, the last weapon I had on me, and I've trained with this a lot in various martial arts classes, but a magazine.
Smoky Mountain knife works. This isn't the one I had with me.
The one I had with me is now gone.
But take this catalog or magazine and just like Jason Bourne, you roll it up open side first, pages first.
It doesn't matter how neat you are.
You do want the spine on the outside though. And if it's a thick magazine, that spine turns into something pretty nasty.
Make it tight. Take some of your daughter's headbands in my case, or if you have rubber bands, that's good.
But I didn't have any rubber bands with me, so just take some hair bands and get that on there. a weapon.

[33:22] I mean, this thing is nasty, it is like having a piece of wood, you just don't have the density.
But, and then you can use that and you can do a lot of different stuff with a magazine, just with a magazine. It is handy to have it battened down like that or taped if you have the time, but then it starts looking like a weapon. You carry around a magazine and two hair ties and you're just a dad walking around, no one's going to think anything.
And it's even if you roll it up and do all that stuff, no one's gonna think anything. But it's something that you can have to somewhat level the playing field if there's some sort of, discovery. You know, I don't know, but I just wasn't gonna go there feeling defenseless. So I brought those with me. Anyway, what I was hoping for was or wishing for were one of these because I was so paranoid about having our family stopped at customs because I have so many times by knives, I had forgotten, that I didn't even bring a cigar cutter with me and I brought cigars and then I got a Cuban cigar while I was there. And luckily, I ran into someone who had one and was able to use theirs and then I bought one. But I have been really into jackwolf knives as my cigar cutters recently. So I was, wishing for a knife the first one I was thinking of that would be great because it's so hot down there. It's unbelievably especially if you're a yank like myself.

[34:42] Wow, it was hot. So everything you wear is light and breathable.
Linen, it was a wedding, I was down there for a wedding.
And so linen at the wedding and that kind of thing, everything is light.
You know, you're walking around in a bathing suit and shorts.
So you gotta have a light night. First thing I thought of was the Pyrite.
I would have loved to have the CJRB Pyrite with me because for a number of reasons.
First of all, it's light, it's relatively, well, and it's small at 3.2 inches in blade length, and it's relatively non-threatening looking.
Now the black one with the wharncliffe blade might look a little more menacing, but you know, you got the blue, it's kinda happy, it's little, it's not so bad, but also it's light.
And then, you know, for those dull moments, which there weren't any, you could fidget with it.

[35:32] I damaged my left thumb, so if I'm not as fidgety with these knives, you'll have to forgive.
The one thing that plays into all of these is that the sand there was very fine.
So I would have had to deal with sand in the knives. So maybe it's fine I didn't bring a knife.
But there were a number of times where it would have come in handy.
First thing I thought of would have been this pyrite.
Another knife, now this one would have been great in the cool outfit I was wearing because it is a cool and unique knife and is, but is also kind of dressy because it's a titanium frame lock.
And that is the Crystal Knives Aurora designed by Ivan Bragnets.

[36:15] Where is he from, Ukraine or Belarus, or is he Russian? I'm sorry, now I can't remember where he's from, but he designed some really cool knives.
Like the Arcona Nettle I have is also by him. But this one is just beautiful, and it's light.
And it's not only light because of all of that weight relief in the titanium handle scales here, But it's very light because of this giant fuller that has been removed from there.
And this is a take on the traditional Russian knife, so maybe he is Russian.
The Yakut. Yakut? I believe that's a Russian knife.
Anyway, and that big fuller is a signature of that Yakut knife.
This is really thin and slicey, and I feel like in that fuller area, they even, yes, more hollow here but I feel like if it weren't it would if it if this were fully ground it would be more of a hollow grind than a flat grind it just is so thin is what I'm trying to get at and slicey great knife very fidgety very fidgety especially with the thumb I do like the thumb on this this has a full this is all jimping on the side it's like rows of jimping and a a beautiful knife. This would have looked cool tucked in the waistband of uh...

[37:36] Of my wedding getup. Now this knife, this next knife, came to mind more thematically.
I was thinking about light knives and then the length that I like, more like the Aurora than the Hi-Rite.
And so on the lighter but larger end of things, I thought about this, the TRM Atom.
This would have been perfect for Jamaica Because of the lightness, of course, in the shorts and linens, pants and stuff, this would have been a fine carry.
But the color, that beautiful G. L. Hansen & Sons, G. Carta, in purple and green. Love that.
Sort of how that green is present in the Jamaican flag and you do see the yellow, black and green all over the place there.
It's pretty cool. Yellow stands for the sunshine, black stands for the complexion of the residents and green stands for the lushness of the land.
I learned that on the bus.

[38:44] So this would have been great. Nice and thin, good for steak.
I ate a lot of steak.
Good steak knife and just a classy carry to pull out and, you know, there are a lot of activities and you're, so you always have a wristband on and yes, I know you can take it off without a knife, but I prefer not to.
And that would have been great for that. But also, in a pinch, defense.
Next up is, this is a very, very non-threatening knife and I think that it would have been great to have there purely for utility.
This also would have taken care of my cigars and just would have been good to have on me.
Nice and light also has the fidget factor. And you know with travel, there is a lot of waiting around. Then again, I wouldn't have this in the airport where I did most of my waiting.
But also I live and travel with three females.

[39:39] I say females because they're not all women and they're not all girls, so I'll just say female humans.
And they all take a long time to get ready.
And so there is some pacing. And I do find that if I pace and flip a knife, they go quicker.
Because they just want it to stop because it's so annoying.
So this would have been great for getting ready for the wedding, which we almost missed. Just kidding, baby.
Okay, putting this one down. And picking up the next one is also in a similar category.
A little more threatening because it's a little more pointy, but it's got that awesome FRN handle.
And that's not something you hear too often, but it's got that awesome FRN handle that's nice and light and also a beautiful color.
I like that deep blue.
This is the S110V lightweight version of the Manix II by Spyderco.
And this was a gift from the great Shane Gables, edgy American.
And I just love this thing.
I love this thing. I love using it, I, of course, like the sentimental factor of it, but I had been sleeping on the Mannix for so long and just not getting one, and never buying one when I was in a Spyderco phase, and his sending this to me is, I'll never forget it, and I love this damn knife.
I love that it has belly and that it has a point right down, like below center line.

[41:01] So you still get the benefit of that leaf-shaped blade, It's like a spear point blade, actually.
It's just on a slight tilt from the rest of the handle. Great utility, it would be great for lots of things.

[41:16] And that S110V is insane. This is made in Colorado, US made knife.
Next up, I was thinking of this one because oddly enough, I wasn't thinking of this one for defense, which is its obvious use.
I was thinking of it for its robustness, it's lightness and then it's awesome utility.
This is the Microtech Pro-Adon.
Now, this one in particular, the utility on this one in particular, because it's double-edged.
Double-edged with the serrations on the top edge. So it just means if I got lost in the jungle, which I didn't come anywhere near, but I would like an authentic, more authentic experience if I ever go back to Jamaica.
But, you know, say that you need a knife and you need, you know, something really comes up and you need those two edges, and you're out of the country and you have no options, this would be a good one to have.
There are some drawbacks, of course, in having a double-edged knife, but there are some real, real benefits.
And then defensively with this, you know, if you didn't want to have to, you know, use the blade.

[42:25] All Microtex feel great with the blade in and you're just holding the handle.
This is just like made like a coubaton.
And then you have that glass breaker on the back to the attitude adjuster.
You hit someone on the back of the hand with that who grabs you, oh my god, that's gonna hurt so badly.
So an obvious advantage as a defensive knife.

[42:49] For defensive tasks. But really I was thinking about this in terms of, of, like I said, the lightness, robustness, but the task diversity you could get.

[43:01] With the two blades, with the two edges, I should say. All right, next up, probably my most carried in the super hot weather, had to have the bug out on this list.
This one has the Allen Putnam aftermarket Micarta scales and the, what is that called, the Snaggletooth MF.
MF. I put that on there originally because this is my inside pocket winter knife and I like to be able to just reach in the pocket, pull it out and have it open. But a great one again for in the waistband or in the pocket of super light shorts. I love those kind of stretchy shorts that you can use as bathing suits and as regular shorts and they tend to be very light and this is just perfect. Goes in there, it's nice and thin, disappears in the pocket, you got a small discreet clip and a 3.25 inch blade, which isn't too threatening. This is probably the one if not the if not the last knife on this list. This is probably the first one I would take the Benchmade Bugout I just have the most experience carrying this in that kind of weather and I think it would be great. Also just a great all purpose light knife.
Next up, speaking of great all-purpose light knife, is the Finch Cimarron.

[44:23] This one also, like I said, thin, light, has a good look to it.
It looks like a lifestyle accessory.

[44:33] And anything that looks less weapon-y is probably the best kind of knife to travel with, if I'm thinking about it.

[44:43] This one, nice and slender, blade like a Quaken, goes completely in the handle, which I really like.
Sculpted titanium pocket clip, light, thin, svelte, nice long 3.4 inch blade, 14C28N isn't gonna rust on you too quickly, except it does seem to have a bit of a blasted finish to it, sort of, so I don't know if that actually is gonna lead to more rust.
I know on my old Aus8 Cold Steel Spartan, it did, I had one of the old blasted ones.
A great knife, this would have been good in the pocket. For the Wedin, and for most utility, this thing would have been tremendous.
Nice and thin, looks kind of dressy, looks very dressy, but it's such a great design.
It's very utilitarian, very stylish, very utilitarian, and also very easy to carry, all in one package.
It's also fun because you can open it up with the thumb studs, or you can use the front flipper.
It's a great front flipper.
This is the Artisan Serious, designed by Ray Laconico, right there on the spine.
I think Ray Laconico's a great designer.

[46:04] I invited him on the show, and he very politely declined. He's not into public speaking, he said, but who knows, maybe I can work on him.
But until I do, nice thin contoured handles. Look at this from this perspective.
And then that fuller in the handle, your fingers wrap around and nestle themselves right in that fuller.
So just a great knife. Also drop shutty.
Very, very fun to fidget with. I don't carry this one much. I think I'm gonna start bringing it back out.
I was gonna for a while give it away and then I just decided to keep it.
Second to last in this list, this is one I've been carrying kind of around the house a bit recently.
This is the Hadros by Civivi. This is designed by Dylan Mallory.
You can really see that in that handle design.
But I really like Dylan Mallory's designs, and he's a really nice guy.
He's another guy who just doesn't really wanna come on the show.
But every time I've met up with him at Blade, He's a really gracious guy and a very talented designer.
And this one I love because of that nice long wharncliffe, and it's not that long, it's 3.5 inches, but that swooping, that drop to the tip is nice and long.

[47:24] Which makes it thrusty as well as utilitarian with that straight edge.
So I like any knife that kind of flexes that tactical way.
It also would be great in reverse grip and the pakaul grip. People say, why would you turn it in like this?
Well, I say, well, you know all the pakaul reasons because it's good for that sort of natural arcing motion that your body makes, your arms and joints make, but also when you're applying a lot of force in a folder, you kind of want the guarantee that it's not going to fold on your fingers, and doing it that way, puts all the pressure on the stop pin in the back and not on the lock which can fail easier than the stop pin. Like I'd say, probably by a lot.

[48:15] This would be excellent in that grip if you needed it. But really, you're just gonna use this to open up mail and boxes and other stuff, whatever you do, cutting your steak.
That's the Civivi Hadros. Oh, this, by the way, 14C28N, a great, great budget steel.
A lot of our trusted favorites out there in the knife world love 14C28N.
I know that I love it because I can keep an edge on 14C for a long time just with my usage, And then I do know that it sharpens really quickly.
And you can get a razor sharp edge like pretty easily on a 14C.
Last up, this had to be on the list.

[48:55] This and the Bugout are the primaries. The primary smuggle in country knives.
This one has been there a couple of times, just not Jamaica.
And it is the Cold Steel, the pink Cold Steel Broken Skull. The Broken Skull is a great knife.
It is now called something else by Cold Steel and it's got different materials.
But this was when it was the Steve Austin Broken Skull.
Before that it was the Lone Star Hunter and they've used the same profile.
It's just kind of changed materials and platform a bit over the years.
And this is during the Broken Skull by Steve Austin phase.
Obviously Steve Austin didn't design it but he put his name to it.
And I don't even care anymore. Like I don't even see that billboarding.
It's almost part of a charm.
A great knife. This is CTS XHP. This was my in the waistband carry for years.

[49:53] I guess three or four years, that's years.
And I got that pink aluminum snaggletooth MF on there so you can pull it out and have it ready to go.
I got it in pink for the cognitive dissonance of it. I got this knife before our first trip to the Dominican Republic years ago.

[50:16] Man, that was stupid. Don't do that, don't do that.
Don't go through that phase, I'm telling you. It's not worth it.
You don't want to end up in a Dominican prison because you couldn't stand not to be without a knife.
What you do is what the smart guys do, and go there, and if you really need a knife, buy one when you're there. Go to a grocery store and buy a cheap knife and then throw it away when you're done.
But this thing has ultimate utility with that full height, flat ground, CTS, XHP, XHP coated blade, this thing is just wicked.
And it's so thin and so light, those G10 slabs have no liners, it's just, but you can't.

[50:55] Listen, I can't really squeeze it, I guess I could a little tiny bit, but nothing like the FRN on the Bugout when I first got that.
So this had to make the list, this is probably travel knife supreme right here, it's because of it's four inch blade, it's, it's probably the most capable in the lot here. So now okay, I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that because then I peaked that Manix and I thought...
The Manics could give it a run for its money. Okay, so 11 folders I wish I had in Jamaica.
I did not have them, but we can think wistfully.
Well, thanks for joining me on that journey. If you couldn't join me on the journey to Jamaica, you could join me right here.
And it took a lot not to try and use the cheesy dad doing the Jamaican man thing here because I was doing it a lot to stick in the craw of my girls, and it worked.

[51:50] So join us on Sunday for a great interview. We're gonna have field works on the show.
Ryan Atkinson, he's like a real life Liam Neeson from Taken.
And also be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives when we give away this beautiful Kaiser Roach in 154CM.
Amazing action as you just saw and contoured canvas micarta.
You can also become a patron by scanning the QR code right there.
You can become a Gentleman Junkie or you can go to the knife junkie.com slash Patreon. And if gentlemen junkie is a little too rich for your blood. Check out the other levels of support we have. And if not, just watch, listen, comment and share with a friend. It all helps. All right, y'all. Thank you so much for joining me on the knife junkie podcast for Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an.

[52:44] 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, the knife junkie.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 theknifejunkie.com or call our 24-7 listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie Podcast.

[53:26] Music.