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[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, some very sad knife news.
And then we're gonna take a look at the TKL Knives MR1, and then our main topic today, things with rings.
♪♪ Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.

[0:36] Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from this past week was from someone who goes by seppuku sushi. 2848. By the way, I love your name seppuku sushi. He's this was about the night stalker knife by TKL knives. He says I really think they should have chosen a different name for this otherwise decent knife. I know night stalker is technically named after a military group. But when you say night stalker to someone, they're thinking of somebody else. And if you say night stalker knife, well, that's when they start cautiously backing away from you. And a well a well said comment, by the way, that's this knife, which I've been showing off a lot because I carry it so much and love it. But he raises a seppuku sushi 2848 raises an interesting point, one that we talked about a lot here, which is the naming conventions for knives, it's hard to name knives, there are a lot of knives out there and they all have names. And it's hard to come up with something new. But there are companies like Kaiser has a couple of knives that are charming little EDC knives that go by names like aggressor, and assassin. And to me, I'm like.

[1:43] I'm in the same spot with seppuku sushi. But I'm not just talking about telling other people about the knives. I'm talking about going into court because you were well within your rights to defend yourself with a knife, but they bring up, well, this knife is called the Night Stalker, or this knife is called the Assassin. It's gonna paint the wrong picture. So though I love the Night Stalker knife, and Tim Kell, I think is a great, great dude and a great knife maker. I do see what Seppuku Sushi is saying about the names because.

[2:16] They could be a little bit too on the nose and might get you in trouble downstream. I'm just saying, All right. Well, thanks everyone for watching this past week and leaving comments. I always appreciate them I always also like to hear what you've been carrying a simple.

[2:30] Simple pocket check comments are appreciated as well All right, well, that being said, thanks again SepakuSushi2848, let's get into that pocket check.
So today, in my front right pocket, I had the Emerson Elvia.
I've been carrying this quite a bit lately. I'm not sure why.
You know how sometimes you go through a sort of renaissance in your knife collection, or maybe that's not the right word, but you start to dig into, let's just say it this way, you start to dig into the archives and remember how awesome certain knives are and how excited you were to get the knife.
I've been carrying this on and off again after not carrying it for a while for the last couple weeks.
And it's just a pleasure to have in pocket. I think part of the reason I'm carrying it a lot, is it's a relatively light and small Emerson.
And we're in the summer months here and wearing shorts and things.

[3:30] I like to have the wave capability, I like to have the tactical self-defense capability, but I also just like a smaller package in the summer.
This is wearing custom Maroon Micarta scales from Vantage Point Blade Works, that's Tom Engelson.
You can check him out on Instagram. He does really, really great scales for mostly Emersons, Emerson's and then it's it's carrying a wave feature on the back.

[4:02] And that thing, this is an aftermarket, and people have been asking me what it is, and I regret to inform you that I just cannot find how I got that.
I know I got it on Instagram, so it's gotta be in the records somewhere.
But someone help me out.

[4:19] Forget it, I'm remembering. I have the business card, and I stuck it on my wall.
Next time, I'll tell you what it is. I'm so sorry.
I'll do a special video. That's what I'll do, because I've been getting some questions since I've been showing this off, a lot recently. Okay, Emerson Elvia, look for a short and I will tell you what that clip is, or what that wave feature is. Next on me today, the Gunslinger Jack. Awesome, awesome bolster lock folder from Jack Wolf Knives. This is, you know, he keeps kind of topping himself and this is in a different realm from the slip joints, but I don't know, He's already, Ben Belkin is already doing such a great job with his first bolster lock folder.
I look forward to seeing what they come up with next. Just as an anecdote, I showed this to my father.
My folks are visiting, I showed this to my father, and man, he went bonkers for this.
He loves that carbon fiber, the thinness of the blade, and the shape of the blade, and so now I think I know what I'm getting him for Christmas.
Probably not this, because I think this one's sold out, but I know you can still get some jackwolf knives out there.

[5:30] And I think for a while he had a little 15% off sale on them.
I got a comment recently from, now forgive me, I can't remember who it was, but I know it's someone who comments a lot, comes on Thursday Night Knives, someone that I like and that we have a good, who always has good comments, he said something to the effect of.

[5:49] I'm feeling like there's so much Jack Wolf Knives talk out there, myself included, that.

[5:57] He didn't say myself included, that's parenthetical, that's me speaking, that it feels like, it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth, it feels like too much of a promotional push, like maybe people aren't being genuine about how much they like the knives, but they're part of a promotional push.
And I thought that was a, I have felt that before about certain things, Certainly, O-Knife and O-Lite recently has been sending out a lot of merchandise to people like myself and other reviewers, and you've been seeing a lot of O-Knife stuff, because they've had a summer sale.
Well, yeah, in that case, you're kind of like their sales force.
They're saying, can I send you some O-Knife, O-Lite products?
And you're saying, yes, I love them, they're excellent.
I can give them away, or I can keep them, or whatever. But yes, I'll help you.
I believe in your product. I'll help you get the word out about your sale.
But in the Jack Wolf Knives case, Here is someone who very, that is Ben Belkin, who's a very astute businessman, a shrewd entrepreneur, and he knows that the best way to get the word out about his knives is through knife geeks like myself.

[7:02] But if the knives weren't good, people wouldn't be talking about them.
They are really that good.
It's just that Ben has gotten them in the hands of a lot of people, and that's smart business.
You know, if you're a small company and you don't have a marketing department, You need to rely on people who can help you. And it's scratch your back and I scratch mine because yes, I end up with a jack wolf knife at the end of it.
But if I didn't like them, like many people who have, or many companies who have come to me to show off their knives if needed.
I don't like it, or if I don't like even the look of it, or don't know the company, or the company looks like it's making cheesy stuff, I of course will say no. So I totally hear, I should have remembered who that commenter was, but I hear you. In this case, it's well-warranted praise from the people who end up with these knives, because he's also getting them in the hands of people who like slip joints.
So it's pretty easy math.

[8:06] All right, next up is the JB Knife and Tool Ditch Pick. Great little knife, very light, thin, excellent for summer carry.
That's a 16th of an inch thin, that 1095, and it's heat-treated in such a way that the folks over at JB Knife and Tool, Brian, who was on the show, they test these things.
They kind of do that British sword test where they bend them back and forth and measure the degrees.
And this very thin steel is very springy.
And man, this makes for one hell of a nasty and menacing knife.
That thinness and then those two razor sharp edges on that curved surface with this amazing peel ply handle that's so ergonomic.
This thing is, this is a very, very wicked knife. And I would say that with just one edge, you know, this is originally just a pick-all knife, and then he started offering it, or they started offering it with a bayonet grip a full double-edge.

[9:10] If this is a single-edge blade or some of the single-edge blades JB Knife and Tool puts out, an amazing, amazing EDC all-purpose cutting knife.
But in this case, it's kind of set up and profiled to be something a little more defensive.
But do love that knife. Thank God, didn't use it for anything today.

[9:30] Last up for emotional support, a knife that's been getting a lot of carry and also got high praise from my dad who thought it was just the coolest thing, is the Ocaso Knives Solstice, designed by Andrew Demko and produced by Ocaso Knives out of California.
Ocaso Knives is Rick Valdez's brainchild. Rick Valdez was a 20-year executive at Cold Steel, learned a thing or two about knife making, knife marketing, having knives made in amazing factories overseas, and he decided, you know what, I'm gonna start my own company.
And this one is going to take what I learned about making robust knives, but we're gonna translate it into, what do you call it? Gents carry knives, gentlemen's knives.
And they are indeed, this thing is super incredibly smooth.
Every time I open and close it after not carrying it for a few days, I'm always checking the pivot. Is this loose?
Because the action is all that. It is so nice. I love this thing.
We went out to dinner last night, and man, I had this in my pocket.
And I brought it with me because I wanted to cut a steak with it.
And then the place we ended up going, I just don't like the way they prepare their steak.
They actually slice it for you.
It's like, oh, you want to put it in here? You want to masticate it too?

[10:49] So that's what I was carrying today. Let me know what you had on you.
I had the Emerson Elvia in the front right pocket, banging around various pockets.
I had the Jack Wolf knives, gunslinger jack in my waistband.
I had the JB knife and tool ditch pick, and then in my back left pocket for emotional support, flipping, and possible steak eating. YAKASO KNIVES SOLSTICE.

[11:12] What were you carrying, let me know. Drop it in the comments below.
Always love to hear that. You know I say that all the time.
But I love to hear what you guys are carrying.
So do that, let me know what you have. Is anyone carrying an Emerson Elvia?
Does anyone have the Super Elvia besides Edwin?

[11:30] And does anyone have the Elvia with the wave built in? I do not and I'm interested.

[11:38] All right, coming up on the Knife Junkie Podcast, We're going to take a look at some sad news, some new knives in KnifeLife News.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
You know, I see that Kniveship Freeliner every time we record this show, and every time I'm like, oh, they have that? They have that knife? Oh, I got to get that. Well, it's never occurred to me to actually use my own affiliate link to order knives through there. What am I thinking?
Okay, I'm gonna check it out. I want the Iridium.
Everyone knows I want the Kershaw Iridium, everybody knows.
I don't know, maybe I've been blabbing about it, but do check out Knives Ship Free, one of the greatest websites out there.
And yeah, they kept the torch going, so check it out.
All right, I wanna talk about a couple of new knives coming out.
This first one is from a modern classic. We'll call it that because it's been so popular and taken so many different forms.

[13:02] Over the years, that it's cool to see them do a little retooling of it.
I'm talking about the Kaiser Sheepdog.
And for 2023, they've changed the Sheepdog a bit.
And the first most noticeable thing is the lock. You'll see that they have the clutch lock.
Now the clutch lock is their version of the axis lock, or the ambidextrous bar lock.
And then you'll notice right away, the blade. They changed the blade shape a little bit.
The overall profile seems to be the same, but they added a fuller and a deep hollow grind, that doesn't look like it comes up as high as the flat grind, but that's just me eyeballing it.
And then they've added that comet-shaped opening hole with a thumb stud, so dual opening methods there right next to each other.

[13:50] And of course, the handle, as you can tell from looking at this picture, is anodized aluminum.
So beautiful, they have it in black with a stonewash blade, and then purple with a black blade, and man, I just think it's gorgeous, that purple and black.
Now, that being said, I'm not so sure I can live with purple knives.
I've had a few purple knives in the past, and I just don't seem to carry them, even though I like the color and I like the concept of carrying a purple knife.
The other thing that they have changed here is the blade length.
This is kind of in between.
This is a 3.15 inch blade, so it's kind of between the regular slash original Sheepdog and the XL Sheepdog.
Yeah, look at that, that's a nice shot.

[14:34] Thanks for pulling that up, Jim. That's a beauty. This knife has done so well over the years, and I think that that retooling, it's a nice evolution.
Sometimes they'll new coke something. I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember new coke, but they really crapped the bed on that one.
Taking a classic and then putting out a new recipe after 150 years or whatever it was, 100 years.
Well, in this case, their new Coke is actually an improvement, I think it's pretty damn cool.
But I am not a Kaiser Sheepdog fan, I don't own one, not a huge Cleaver fan, so you all let me know what you think of this retooling, if you have this knife if you're a fan of this knife.

[15:18] Okay, next up is the Vosteed Corsair. I've seen a number of my knife friends out online have this and love it and have been using it.
And man, I dig it. I gotta say, I'm glad it's 3.25 inches in blade length because that means I don't have to buy it.
But I really like the profile. The knife to me looks a bit like a Harzey.
It looks a little bit like a Harzey design.

[15:43] But I don't think it's derivative or a knockoff or anything like that.
But just a really clean design, it looks all business, but it's a very graceful design.
Anyway, that's 3.25 inches of nitro-v steel.
You got that crossbar lock on contoured micarta, the handle, which is always great.
And the interesting thing about this is, as we're looking at it right now, when you look at the pommel area, It slopes down and, well, you can see what it looks like right here.
But the cool thing about this knife is it ships with an extra backspacer.
Because right now, the way we're looking at it, it's on standoffs with flow-through construction.
But they add a backspacer in there so that you can extend the length of the handle, which is interesting.
It adds a lanyard loop option, and then that extension adds a little bit of area for the palm.
That's pretty cool. I think that's pretty cool innovation. You can see that here in the picture.

[16:51] That backspacer is up there with the extra hardware. You can see they give you an extra standoff, stop pin, looks like thumb studs, and a...

[17:00] Pocket clip insert filler tab thing, but they also give you that micarta backspacer and you can see, how that shape extends the handle. So very simple design solution, but a cool way to give people a little bit extra if they got the big, you know, meat hooks and like lanyards. I like that. It, looks like it extends it by about a half inch, maybe a little less. But an interesting knife from Vosky, the Corsair. Also, just as an aside, I love the word Corsair. I used to love the Corsair airplanes, you know, that the Navy flew and that show Baba Black Sheep.

[17:40] Or, yeah, was that what it was called? It was when I was a little kid. It was so cool.
But anyway, Corsairs are ships, right? They're warships from the old days, I think. Anyway, I like the word.
So, Corsair, a cool knife.
Okay, next, I wanna talk about Rosecraft briefly. I showed these, I'll talk about this for a second there on Thursday Night Knives last week.
But Rosecraft, last week just dropped three new models. They are on a tear.
They have a lot of knives, relatively new company, about two years old, and they have a lot of models.
And it's pretty impressive the rate at which they come out with them.
Of these three models, the first one, the Waya, I really like this one.
The Waya has a look, it looks a little bit like the Comet from Kaiser and Paul Monco to me.

[18:32] But this is designed by Rosecraft, the head of Rosecraft, Andy Armstrong, and it's just a mid-size EDC, but a handsome one at that. I like the white bolsters with the black G10.
You can also get that with green G10 bolsters.
I think it looks cool with the black blade.
3.4 inches, so nearly something I'd be interested in getting.

[18:57] These are OEM'd by Artisan Cutlery, and that's funny because I was under the impression that they were OEM'd by like Rough Rider or someone, just from the font that they used for Rosecraft.
I know that's silly, but just in my mind, without giving it much thought, that's who I thought, but learning from this article, their OEM is Artisan, and that just makes me happy, I love artisan knives.
So this blade steel is AR-RPM9, you know, the artisan, budget-minded, powder metallurgy steel that's proprietary to them.
So that's the Waya coming out. I think this is my favorite of the three that we're talking about here.
And then next is the MA11, also designed by Andy Armstrong. And this one here is.
A beast, it looks like anyway, that's a four-inch blade, very interesting faceted four-inch blade.
Not looking at the spine, or I should say, the spine notwithstanding, it reminds me a bit of a CQC7 by Emerson with that real pronounced chisel tip.

[20:01] Yeah, very cool. But so this one is very heavy duty, you know, the Maya that we were just, or the Waya that we were just looking at is only 3.5 ounces.
This sucker here is 6.8 ounces with that giant 3.9-inch blade.
Flipper, thumb stud, G10, liner locks.
I'm assuming that those are full and not weight-relieved steel liners to get it up to that 6.8 ounces.
But it's also a pretty broad and wide profile, so just more material than a thinner knife.
Lastly, this one, I like the handle on this one, but I'm not fond of the blade, but that's just a matter of my personal taste.
This is called the Iris Rex, and it's by Hawkins Rose, cool name.
Hawkins Rose is the designer behind this one.
Another 3.45 inch knife. This one is AR RPM9 again, and it's got a interesting harpoon tanto blade.
I'm not, you know, I'm not crazy about harpoons.

[21:11] But anyway, I do like the look of this handle. The handle to me looks a bit like a Sinkovich handle, and we know how comfortable those feel in hand.
So my saying that I'm not crazy about this knife is of course me just saying I'm not crazy about this knife.
But it's made by, it's OEM by Artisans. You know the quality is there.
It's designed by Rosecraft, so if you like the design, you know the build will be good, so check it out.
All right, that's it for the Rosecraft releases from last week, and now this brings us to the sad bit of news. I'm sure you're all knowing what I'm talking about, but the closure of the Ontario Knife Company in New York.
It's a shock to a lot of people, certainly to me. This came up in conversation by Byron Kennedy on Thursday Night Knives, and I was gobsmacked.
I just hadn't heard it and I pulled out my usual excuse. I'm the youngest in the family, so I'm the last to know, but yeah, so this is pretty sad news pretty sad news because the Ontario Knife Company has been around 134 years and, Well, they've made so many knives that we all know and love.
But Servotronics is the company that owns them, and Servotronics is a company that does a lot of electronics, contracting for the military industry.

[22:39] And that kind of thing, and they just decided to sell it to Blue Ridge Knives out of Virginia.
Now, I hope that that keeps, I hope that Blue Ridge Knives intends to keep them going, but the shop itself in Franklinville, in Franklinville, New York, is closing and 56 people are losing their jobs.
And who knows if it'll come back, but for right now, that's always devastating news.
But, and I'm not just saying, I wanna stress the fact that 56 people are losing their jobs, and that is the sad part.
The sad part is that a 134-year-old company is going out of business in New York, in the States, making knives that we love.
You know, obviously, the least sad part is what we are feeling, but, you know, it does bear mentioning, and I gotta say, my Ontario machete, which was made for.

[23:34] And issued to the United States military is one of the best working blades I've ever used.
I tell the story about how an oak fell in our woods when my parents lived at the place where I was raised, and I happened to be home on vacation, and we had to cut this oak tree, cut a path in this oak tree because it fell right across the path.
And we don't have a chainsaw, and we didn't, you know.
So I brought out an ax and was hacking away, and I was like, my God, this is gonna take me a year to do this.
So I went and I got my Ontario knife, and my Ontario knife machete, and I hacked that thing.
It was a big damn oak tree, and I hacked through that in, well, in a lot less time than it took the ax, because it's a broad, thin, forgiving blade, sharp as hell, and just meant for business.
Ontario Knife and Tool, man, I'm very sad to see them go. I feel like there are a lot of knives in their catalog that I was like, yeah, someday I'll get that, you know, because I like it, and haven't.
So now's the time, if you've had your eye on an Ontario knife, you know, snap it up now because they're going away, unfortunately.
So I just, rest in peace, I don't know. I don't know what you say to a company, it's sad.
But hopefully Blue Ridge Knives brings them back.

[24:56] All right, well, that is it for Knife Life News. Not to end that on a down note.
So you can look forward to all the new knives that are coming out, we're very happy about.
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[26:08] I have the good fortune of being buddies with Casey Spirian of Knives Fast and of course Tempest Knives.
Even if I weren't friends, I'm sure he'd be sending this over to me, but this is the prototype for his Jetstream. The Tempest Knives Jetstream.
This is gonna be his third production release. This prototype has D2 blade steel, which will be 154CM in the production run, and that really nice big opening hole.
You've got a nice belly. It's a very gradual belly.

[26:43] And you have an effective line of straight edge right there, right before that belly.
You have a tip slightly below center line, which is great for those utility cutting chores and that kind of thing.
A very high flat grind, makes this thing very thin and slicey.
And then you have the proprietary pivot, which I love. Looks like the hubcap of a high-performance vehicle.

[27:07] And then this anodized contoured titanium with the liner lock and sculpted titanium pocket clip.
A couple of notes that Casey sent along.
They will be adding micro milling, which looks very beautiful, in the titanium surface there so that you have a little bit more gription.
And I did notice when I pulled this out initially, I was like, oh, it felt good in the hand.
It was like, feels so smooth.
But I could see how, with sweaty hands, it could be too smooth.
So the micro milling is a good idea, and it's a nice aesthetic choice.
A couple other changes besides the 154CM blade steel and that micro milling, they're going to.

[27:50] KC's gonna soften this landing spot right here.
I love this kind of low profile flipper, because I love flipping open knives.
I don't always love a flipper there, but the way this is built, this is one of my favorite types of flippers.
Super low profile, just grab that and pull.
But I guess others who have had this before have complained a little bit about this point, and that your finger lands on that point and maybe it's uncomfortable.
And the funny thing is, is I did not notice that, wouldn't have noticed it until I read that and I was like, oh, they're right. And now every time I flip it, I'm like, yeah, I'm glad he's gonna change that.
So it just goes to show the power of suggestion, or my weak mind, YouTube.
Nice big opening hole for that reverse flick, and just so incredibly comfortable in hand.
Nice long blade. This one I think is, well, this is the biggest knife that I think Casey has put out thus far.
Had the pinion and the microburst, and then the prototype for the Mach 51, which probably had a blade length approaching this, but definitely not a blade size.

[28:59] What else? Oh, oh, something I wanted to comment on. You know, as I mentioned, my parents were visiting.
My dad, I told you he really liked the Okaso knives. My mom picked this up and she said, this is beautiful.
I was like, oh yeah, it is beautiful, you know. A buddy of mine, a YouTuber who's making knives did this.
And she said, oh, that's amazing.
And I said, it's called the Jetstream. And she said, that's the perfect name.
And I agree, it has a sleek, a sleekness to it, and I know that that color, the beautiful blue anode color there reminds me of the sky, so I can see Jetstream being, yeah, I agree, great name.
Filler tab, all the good stuff.
This is, I'm sorry.

[29:46] The pre-order for this is open, and it's only 130 bucks, so this is something to jump on post-haste.
And the last thing I wanted to mention about this, oh, KUBI knives.
KUBI knives is the OEM for this.
And if you've ever held a KUBI knife in your hand, you know they know how to build a knife.
So if you like the design, you'll love the knife.
So check that out. That is the Jetstream by Tempest Knives.
The other new knife I got this week is from Tecal Knives. This is one I've been looking forward to. This is the MR1.
The MR-1 is the Pical version of the Night Stalker, the knife we were talking about earlier.
I love the overall package of the Night Stalker, and this is the perfect way to go Pical.
You already have this great design, well just grind it on the other side.
You know what, let's talk about ringed things right now. Since this is part of our main topic, let's just go right into it and talk about ringed things.
And this will be the first knife we talk about, this MR1. Because there's been a long period of time since I interviewed Ed Calderon that I've been very hesitant to use ringed knives.

[31:08] Because he talked about poorly designed ring knives and how damaging they can be to the finger that you stick through that ring.
Especially in the application that you most, that you think most pertinent for a ringed knife, which is self-defense and fighting, okay?
And through different testings that he does, He calls it the...
What does he call it, like, forgive me, I can't remember, like live medium testing or something like that, he's got a dead pig hanging, and they're stabbing it in his class, and seeing what it's really like, to make contact with something and have a knife go in, and while that thing is moving, trying to simulate a struggle, things change when things are moving, and the situation is dynamic.
And when you have a ringed knife on you, he has seen, Ed Calderon has seen the knife get out of people's grip and skin the finger coming off.

[32:13] They call it something nasty, I can't remember what it's called, jacketing or something, dressing out the finger, just pulling off all the flesh with that ring, because when you had it and you were training, you weren't thinking of that blade now being stuck in something that is moving away from you or moving in a weird direction.
So that was a big, I don't know, deterrent for me to get ringed things.

[32:41] And then slowly I started to realize for myself, well, a lot of it has to do with the design of the ringed things.
And so talking about these T-kels, for my hand and I think for a lot of people's hands, these have been designed properly.
The rings are placed well to align in the fist so that you don't have to change your grip to actually accommodate that ring.
Like you do when there's a ring plopped directly on top.
When the ring is plopped directly on top, I think it's for a different purpose, and I'll tell you about that in a minute.
But with the Night Stalker.

[33:23] This one gets a lot, a lot, a lot of daily carry because it is so small and with the knife, I mean, the knife isn't that small, but the whole package is so discreet.
It rides on my waistband up front. This is the wrong sheet. Rides on the waistband up front so easily, hides under a t-shirt, and just sits on the flat of my belly right there.
Boom, right there.
Where my, looking down your belly, that's where the knife is.
And it's perfect. So I love it, because it's a very nice, very big, or not very big, but very fixed, capable blade that you can have on you all the time.
But when you're going to pull it, that ring is great for extracting the knife.
I know that's a low-hanging fruit for a ringed thing. That's one of the things we use it for.
But the more I carry it, the more I see, yeah, that's a really great benefit to the ring is for just the pull factor.
And then when you pull it out and you make a fist, tight fist.
This design, this teak held design fits my hand perfectly. I have a medium-sized hand. I've had this, I've shown this off to people with large hands. It fits really well in large hands. I almost feel like better because, you know, there's a little bit of space for me.

[34:36] Especially in my left hand, which is a little bit smaller than my right hand, but there's a little bit of space in that forward finger choil that would allow a larger hand to expand while also having a big enough ring to accommodate that shingar.
This one is AEDL, first time I think they used AEDL, certainly on the Night Stalker, Tecal Knives most selling knife.
Their little attitude adjuster on the back also can act as a glass breaker or even a pry thing but I don't imagine anyone actually using it that way.
The handles are interchangeable, they have all different sorts of handles you can get for these different patterns of G10, but they always have, unless it's micarta, the micarta scales, which they don't seem to sell too much of, it always has, or they don't seem to push the micarta that much.
These little notches cut out, he calls them the grenade pattern, and they are so great, they're so simple, little notches cut out there, but your fingers land in them all over the place and just make that grip even better.
Now, we're talking about things with rings, and when I'm in a forward grip with a ringed knife, I almost never put my pinky in there.
To me, that doesn't feel comfortable, and it feels vulnerable, like that pinky could really get jacked up somehow.

[35:58] So I like rings in the forward grip because they give you such a nice wide pommel.
So if you just grip it like a regular knife use that ring as a retaining pommel or bird's beak. It works really well.
MR-1: Night Stalker's Evil Twin with Different Grounding

[36:12] Okay, so that's the Night Stalker. Now, it's Doppelganger, it's evil cousin or twin brother here, the MR-1, designed for a Marine Raider unit in California, hence the MR, is the exact Night Stalker blank.
So if you line them up exactly, it's the Night Stalker blank, and then it's profiled differently.
Not profiled differently, ground differently, beveled and edged on the opposite side with that long swedge on the top. So again, I have something like this. You do not want a loose, nuanced grip. You want to hold on to this thing like it's a hammer.

[36:55] And here it fits in my hand like a hammer. And I feel very confident with this knife as a Pakal style knife. That tearing motion, the handle is fully locked in, and so I think the translation from this to this is an excellent one. Can you use it in saber grip? Sure, you can if you think about how you're going to use it. This is how the clinch pick was designed to to be used and carried in the forward grip but edge up.

[37:33] So that when you're in a car and you're sitting in a parked car and there's a drug deal going down and the guy next to you starts, grabs you or something, you can pull that out of your belt, have the edge up, and cut the person away from you.
That's actually how it was designed.
A lot of undercover, Mr. Douglas, I think his name is, A lot of undercover work went into the design of that knife.
So yeah, you can use this in that way too. It just does not come intuitively to me.
Now what I've had to do is put a little bit of gaffer's tape right here on the ring of the MR1, so that when I'm carrying these knives, I can tell which one it is by feel.
Say I'm in a long, you know, say all week long I'm carrying these and I switch it up and I feel like carrying the other one.
I want that physical reminder that I've got the pakal. So that's what this is.
Last, another thing about the ring here, well let's set these aside and move on to the next ringed knives.
But the rings are very often used as pulls. Just something to access the knife.
Maybe not necessarily intended as a finger holder.

[38:50] What do you want to call it? As a finger ring, but more as a pull ring.
Okay next, folding karambit. How do I feel about folding karambit as a form? I like it, but...
I don't know, maybe a, you know what gives me the most pause on this, Fox Knives 599 karambit, is the fact that it's a thin liner lock.
And yeah, this knife is intended to cut this way because the edge is forward, but in karambit use, if you train with a karambit, you're doing a lot of this stuff.
And hitting with the back of the blade, and scooping, and trapping, and doing all sorts of stuff, you want to be 1,000% confident that that's not gonna fold on you and cut your damn fingers off, because that would be a horrible, horrible fate for those three fingers, you know, if this received any force on the spine.
That said, it's pretty good lockup on this. It comes right to the center, and you know, I haven't spine whacked it.
I do have the trainer right here which has the same build.

[40:06] And I've used this in class and it's never folded on me. So I guess I should put some confidence, more confidence in this.
But just in general, folding karambit makes me a little nervous.
But this one is one of my favorites because of the size. It fits my hand perfectly.
Again, that ring is placed in a very good orientation, at least for my fist, I can make a full fist, and squeeze tight without having it.

[40:37] Realign my fingers. This is how you wanna grip a karambit. You want that ring up over, and you see this a lot, and I don't know, I've never been in a karambit fight, but I was taught that this is not the best way to go about it.
You want a fist, you want that ring over that last metatarsal on your finger there.
And then if you have to flip it and do your stuff, whatever, you flip it, it'll move on your finger to where it needs to be, you know, in the crook of that joint.
But really, you wanna grip it tight and you want that finger through the ring.
You want it in a sort of a hammer fist grip.
I think that this is a very elegant design. I think it's a beautiful, beautiful design.
This one is made in Italy by Fox Knives And it's got, yes, N690, of course, it's N690.
And one thing that I did notice about this design that I'm not crazy about is the flipper, period.
There are lots of things about the flipper I do not like.
A, this is on washers and is not a good flipper. It is not intended to really, I think you really have to whip it open.
That said, I don't care about a flipper on a karambit anyway.
I want a wave feature on a karambit and the ability to have the clip on that side, on the traditionally left-hand side, so you can draw it out and have it ready.
Who wants to pull out a karambit, flip it open, and then change their grip?
Be dead at that point.

[42:05] But what I don't like also about that flipper is how it does not line up with the contours of the handle.
It sort of randomly pokes out there, and then when you're training with your friends, that kills, that really gouges and tears people's skin.
And this is supposed to be a trainer that's, you know.
So, if I carried enough, if I carried this a lot, I would be, I would somehow figure out how to grind this down a little bit.
You can't can't delete it completely because it's what engages the stop pin when it's closed, but.

[42:41] Yeah, this is enough that maybe on the, well, I feel like it could be an issue on the tactical version too. You're saying, well, Bob, on the live blade version, don't you want that, flipper to gouge and tear and do all that? Yeah, it's going to get hung up. It's not what you're there for. You want that slicey blade. You don't want to get hung up on the flipper tab, and even if it does hurt the other guy.
All right, so Fox 99 Karambit, 599 Karambit, and Trainer. There was a point in time when I was trying to get rid of this pair, and now I'm glad I didn't.
It's just cool to have. I'll almost never carry it.
Not really doing any Karambit training these days, but it's a good package to have.
So in that vein, this is a different sort of folding Karambit.
This was a gift from my awesome brother, Vic. Thank you, Vic.
This is the Super Karambit from Emerson.
A couple of things about this. Of course, it's got the wave.
Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that on this knife, which I'm gonna keep out for contrast.
This also has a wave.
This knife feels really good in forward grip. It is a super karambit, so it's pretty damn big for a karambit.
But...

[43:51] Feels really good in this forward grip. Of course, you know, you can, if you want, get a little bit more standoff reach and put your finger through there, but I don't.
I don't. You'll notice that it's got a chisel tip. That is one of the issues with a karambit. If it comes to too fine a point on all dimensions, it's gonna break.
And what I mean by all dimensions is you want it thin and slicey because you want the thing to cut at the slightest touch, but you don't want the thing to break. So with that chisel, you're getting the same thing.
And you can punch and thrust with it. And still that is sharp and it's going in the right direction.
But for the main purpose of the karambit, which is this sort of slicing and hole cutting and stuff like that, That tip is just perfect.

[44:42] 154CM blade steel, this is a... You know what, this is after they stopped dating them, unfortunately.
You can switch it to the other side on this one. Holes for speed or manipulation.
Speed holes, so you can kind of reorient. At least I think that's what they're there for.
They don't look cool, I'll tell you that. So I don't think they're there for that, in my opinion.
Because I don't like seeing the titanium liner under there. Chisel grounds are totally flat on that side, wickedly sharp, this thing is insanely sharp.
And then something that you're gonna see right away if you contrast the 599 from Fox and the Emerson is the width of the ring.

[45:24] Look at how thin the ring is on the fox. It is radiused nicely so that it feels comfortable in the hand, but the thickness of the Emerson gives you a different kind of stability.
My buddy Ian, who I train with now, he's my teacher now, but when I was just training with him way back in the day, he had one of these, he had the trainer version of the regular karambit.
And we would trade sometimes and I'd use his and he'd use mine, but that I always liked the way this felt better, that thicker engagement on the finger there.
Always felt more confident, like it wasn't gonna do this and go side to side and break my finger that way.
Not that I necessarily felt that out of the gate with this, but once I felt the Emerson and held the Emerson, it changed things for me.

[46:19] Another really cool knife I need to carry more is this karambit.
When my fist is fully, I'm sorry, when my fist is fully tightened, there is a lot of extra room on this.
So this would be good for the big dudes with big hands. I gotta say though, the opening hole, I'm not so sure with the big hands if the opening hole is generous enough.
But an interesting looking blade, no doubt. It kinda looks like an elephant or an anteater or something.
Some sort of marsupial.
Cool, cool knife. That's the Emerson Super Karambit. All right, next up, this karambit.

[46:58] Spent years in the shower.
This was our shower knife for a while. You can see some of that soap in there.
I just could not scrub out for this purpose, but this thing, I guess, started to degrade in the shower a little bit.
But this is one of the FGX series knives from Cold Steel. Real FGX is the material that they use here, it's a ballistic nylon that works great as a one-time, self-defense tool, and they make a lot of different models of these from the models that they already produce.
This is the version of their Wicked Karambit, the Tiger Claw, one of those knives that I flirted with getting for for years and years and never did.
This is a knife that my fist is in a full, hard fist, and it is not realigning the knuckles.
This is perfect the way this is set up. And then you got this, Little landing spot for your thumb here, which is excellent. It's also an excellent way to arrest, Motion if you're this is gonna be hard to do under the camera, but if you're flipping it and you flip it forward It's a great way to stop, The blade from continuing, you know, it's gonna stop anyway, but it gives you a nice landing landing spot there.

[48:17] Do I need a shower knife am I Jason Bourne do I have people assassins coming after me, Not that I know of, but I think we could all benefit from.
Importance of being armed for self-defense in unpredictable situations

[48:29] So Lynn Thompson's got this thing, never unarmed. You should never be unarmed, because is a tiger ever unarmed?
No, they always have their claws, always have their teeth.
Does that mean you gotta walk around the house with an AK?
No, but should you have a pocket knife on you? Probably, if someone comes busting through the door, I don't know, I don't know where you live. I live in a very nice neighborhood, But stuff like that happens.
And it happens in neighborhoods like mine.
So if you're in the shower and something happens, you know, what the hell are you gonna do?
Throw shampoo in their eyes?
Kind of try and make it stink? That's actually probably a pretty good idea.
But you also want to be able to stick this in them, too. To give yourself some space.
You know, that's what knives and defensive knives are a lot about.
Not necessarily about finishing people off. It's about creating space.
That is like the number one priority in martial arts, in fighting or fight ending.
It's like, I don't wanna be a fighter, I wanna be a fight ender.
And whether that's running away, getting out of the situation, or ending the fight in another way, having that knife on you creates distance, creates space, which allows you to do other things.
Maybe it's kick, or maybe it's run, or maybe it's draw your pistol, or something else, you know?
But think of the knife as a space maker, as well as, if you're thinking of it as a self-defense tool, it's a space maker, as well as a life taker, heaven forbid.
You know, so, yeah.

[49:55] So, think about getting a plastic knife and keeping it in your shower.
Your wife might think you're nuts, Your girlfriend might think you're nuts, but...
You know, or your roommate, whoever you live with might think it's crazy, but no, it's not.
It's there in case it's ever needed. So this is the FGX Tiger Claw Karambit. And by the way, on these knives they have, this one in particular, this has a rubberized grip. You can kind of see the difference between this and this. This grip is rubberized and then the rest of this plastic is kind of smooth and hard.

[50:31] All right, that's the FGX karambit. Now I have one other FGX I want to show you, and this is the ringed dagger.
Ringed dagger. Now look at the placement, here I'll just use these two cold steels for an example.
Look at the placement of the ring on the ringed dagger.
So everything I've shown you so far goes to great pains to accommodate a fist, you know, to accommodate this shape.
So it's curved to fit that shape and then the ring is canted out over the end in an, angled way so that your finger can go in there without realigning your knuckles.
On this one, this is what would happen. If you tried to use this like a karambit, this is what would happen.
This is how your hand would look.
It would hurt. It would not be effective. You would break something in here after any stress if you tried to thrust.
So this is not that kind of a ring.
We see this on many knives out there, like Tor Knives has a knife right now that has a ring placed just like this, a handle similar to this with that sort of wasp-waisted shape.
But that knife is not a dagger. The Tor Knives is not a dagger.
It's a regular sort of drop point.
So it's a weird recipe. This is great on a dagger. What is this ring for?
The purpose of the ring on the ringed dagger

[51:52] That ring is for your thumb.

[51:55] Your thumb through there and you get incredible power on a downward thrust, on a downward, strike. You get I guess maybe some retention but this is not about retention, it's about extraction and it's about power. You know, you could do this and have your thumb on the pommel, that's what I'm always talking about with reverse grip, always put that thumb on the pommel so that your hand doesn't slide down if you hit something hard when striking.
This is a variation of that, but your thumb is captured.
So that is what you do with a ring dagger. And this is another one of those FGX.
So very, very hard ballistic nylon, and then the serrations are pretty damn sharp.
I mean, I think he could do some.

[52:43] You could do something with these. Of course, not a cutting tool, unless you're cutting something soft, but not a cutting tool, because these are not hardened steel. Right here at the tip, I like what they did with the tip, reinforcing it, making it extra strong for punching through whatever you're stabbing into. Funny thing about these, there are videos out there with with Lynn Thompson talking about them, and he talks about having a whole bunch of these on his property stashed in flower pots, nailed to trees or whatever, just randomly placed around his property so that if he's out there and someone attacks him and one of the 12 giant knives he has on his belt, isn't available, he can just grab that and go to town.
Because these things don't rust, they don't rot, they just, you know, maybe this rubber handle is getting a little, you know, you can feel it getting a little tacky, but they will endure.
Okay, so these are the FGX. All right, also from Cold Steel, we got the Double Agent.
The Double Agent has two rings, just barely feels comfortable.
Now I had to add this jute twine and fatten that up.

[54:09] And once I fattened it up, it changed the levels of my fingers, now I can make a full fist with this.
But this makes me nervous. Having two fingers captured really makes me nervous.
But this is a very cool knife in any case. Very thin and hollow ground, Aus8 blade steel.
This thing's just wickedly sharp. This was a wedding, a best man, well, I wasn't the best man, but I was in the wedding party.
It was a wedding party gift from a friend of mine.
Very cool.
The double agent has this sheath that you have to press, whoops, sorry about that.
You have to press the button to be able to extract the knife.
An interesting choice.

[54:53] Not my favorite way of doing it. All right, next up is another ringed pick haul.
Introducing the ringed pick haul and its design collaboration

[54:58] This one is a semi-custom, even though that's what I call it, semi-custom, from Bastien Co., Bastinelli Knives, Bastinelli creations. This one is one knife of four in a four knife series, designed in collaboration with Doug Marcaida. This is the Pical version. Again, look at how, look at the accommodation for the ring. It's canted out over the handle. I'll use my right hand again. So you get a pretty good grip. This one is pretty good. And what I mean by that, I think it's excellent.
I think the way my hand fits it, it rides up a little bit closer here.
But when I'm up closer and I leave a little room down here, which doesn't really matter, then it fits my hand very comfortably.

[55:45] A great sickle-shaped hawkbill blade. This is N690CO.
A cool thing about ringed picauls is that if you're doing the picaul thing and you're flipping it around, you can extend it like this, and have a hell of a slasher, because it doesn't take much for that tip to do damage.
And you just need to graze over your opponent and you've got a nice long knife.
This Tsukamaki wrap, this Japanese wrap here done by Bastien.
Beautiful and very hard, because it's been epoxy'd and it fits the hand great.
Sheath is a little troublesome to me. This is a hard, difficult one for me to carry.
I don't like the way it sags down like this.
It almost looks phallic and I don't know, I don't like the grip.
So I gotta figure, or not the grip, but I don't like the way it hangs.
So I just have to figure out a better way mount it on my belt.

[56:48] Beautiful, elegant looking knife. Okay, let's see, on the list here, nearly last of the Blackrock knives, Monkey Thumper.
This thing is a wicked, wicked cool knife. I love this thing.
This is a custom, one of my first custom knives ever.
I got it, asked him for the double edge because I figured if it's a ring thing, and this ring fits great in hand, and even if you don't use the ring, It's so comfortable, that squared off shape makes for just a great pommel there.
So this is an awesome knife with or without the ring. And it's not the easiest one to carry.
It's a little heavy, a little thick. But I just put on this Discrete Carry Concepts Clip and it works pretty well in the waistband at the three o'clock.
So I think as the temperatures start to drop, I'm gonna start integrating this back into my carry.
I used to carry this scout style and then it was a little bit too much.
So I got to figure out another way. Then you benefit from the ring on this one in both extensions or flipping.
Doing that manipulation, and a great sheath here. By the way, if you like the Monkey Thumper, Fox Knives does a production version of it.
It is not double-edged, unfortunately, but maybe you could double-edge it yourself.

[58:17] All right, before I get to the very last one, I just want to briefly show these knuckles.
As I was going through my ringed things, I didn't call it ringed knives, so I could bring these in.
These things are cool.
I like them more as showpieces or paperweights than I do actually using them, and it's because they're a little too big for my hands.
Now this Station 9 No. 3, once I put this wrap on there, that very cheerful pink and blue wrap, pink and teal wrap, it actually fits my hands better.
It gives me a little bit more purchase, but I still feel like I would need knuckles if if I were to use knuckles and really go to town with them, I would want something slightly better fitting my hand.
These McNeese aluminum knuckles, McNeese knives, he's a great guy, Jonathan McNeese.

[59:11] And I dig his knives and I dig these knuckles. They're just incredibly uncomfortable.
And it's not just because of the wide finger splay, which I can live with, but it's this squared off palm piece.
I hit my heavy bag with this a couple times when I first got it and I feel like I did more pain to my hand than I did the heavy bag.
But still, just a cool thing to have, no doubt. And I bet I could figure out some way to wrap this, but you know, it's not like I carry them and use them, so.
They are items of interest, and I'd love to have an old version of that, like a, what do you call it, like an antique version of it.
Okay, and then I also want to show this off. This is the Bone Daddy Blade Works Axis, Also kind of a ringed thing, because of these rings, you can use this as a knife.

[1:00:01] And then you can mount it on a shaft here and have it as an axe.

[1:00:06] We had the guy and gal from Bone Daddy Blade Works, right now their name is escaping me, but that's me, had them on talking about this very cool knife, and there's so many different ways to use it, and a lot of them incorporate these rings here.
So I wanted to show these a bit. I mentioned that you could use it as a punch, as a weapon like this. And they were like, yeah, we weren't intending that.
We just like camping. I was like, okay, cool.

[1:00:33] But just so you know, if you're camping and you got to punch someone.
Okay, so last up on this list is you're probably guessing what it is.
This is the one that fits me perfectly.

[1:00:44] It's the U.S. 1918 Trench Dagger. This trench knife is a genuine one.
My brother got it for me.
Thank you, Vic. And this has four rings that fit my hand perfectly.
I gripped this in my hand and I'm like, man, in 1918, they didn't have all the bovine growth hormone in the milk, so people's hands were a little bit smaller. And this fits me great.
It's great in this forward kind of grip, like if you're thrusting, because of how they, mitered out this choil, and angled, everything is angled in towards the center, in a way that is just, it's perfect for me.
And I also think that much bigger hands would fit in this very well, because of the ability to expand out diagonally, you know, that way and that way.
Still bringing your fingers close together here, but allowing you space here.
I just feel like it's really well-designed and really well-considered.
And then these rings have spikes on them for, you know, for all sorts of trench activities.
And then this double-edged blade and the heavy bronze handle.
This thing is amazing and definitely, definitely in my knife collection, one of my very absolute, most prized knives in the collection.

[1:02:04] So I've come around a little bit on ringed things. I got really shy about them for a while, after being hot and heavy with karambits.
But I'm coming back around. It really does matter about the design, the ergonomic design of the thing.
So I would say if you are looking for a ringed thing, either look at this list, I can vouch for them personally for my medium-sized hands, but however you choose it, make sure that you hold it in your hand, you grip it, and you really feel it.
And know that if you have a ring that's sitting right on top of the knife like that, it's not a karambit, it's for a different purpose.
So do your research, but don't turn your back on the ringed things.
All right, thanks for coming down this avenue with me. It is a strange one, but an interesting one.

[1:02:55] And well, also, this is very exciting news, I'm gonna be breathless, be sure to join us on Sunday for my interview with Lynn Thompson, Cold Steel founder and president for 40 years.
What a great guy, what an interesting guy.
And I have to say.

[1:03:12] That I think, I should say I've seen a million, him on the web a million times in interviews and whatever.
I've never seen him open up like this.
So, it's awesome. Please join us then. Also, make sure you join us next Wednesday for the next Midweek Supplemental, and then of course, tomorrow night, Thursday night, Knives, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, right here on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch.
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:04:23] Music.