The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Announcer [00:00:03]:

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.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:16]:

Welcome to the knife junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Dave Everett of this old sword blade reviews. Dave is one of my earliest knife world friends, and he's a man I admire for a number of reasons, like his martial arts skill with a blade, his impeccable taste in knives, his photography skills, his generosity, and his depth of knowledge. I readily admit that though not quite jealous of his collection, I am in awe of it and would like to make so much of his mine. He's gotten rid of more classic blades over the years than I've ever acquired. And we'll talk all about collecting knives and so much more right here. But first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and share the show with a friend, especially one that you think might like this sort of interesting and obscure material. Also, if you want to download the show, you can do that to your favorite podcast app. And as always, check us out on Patreon to help support the show and also see what you get in return, like interview extras. Like you might hear from Interview tonight. So be sure to join us there on Theknifejunkie.com Slash Patreon. Again. That's theknifejunkie.com slash patreon.

Announcer [00:01:30]:

If you search Google for the best knife podcast, the answer is The Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:37]:

Dave, welcome back to the show, sir. It's great to see you.

Dave Everett [00:01:40]:

Great to be here, Bob. This three's a charm, right?

Bob DeMarco [00:01:43]:

Three is a charm, and we're not going to stop there, that's for sure.

Dave Everett [00:01:47]:

I'm happy to hear that. I'm very pleased. Watch your shows all the time, your Sunday podcasts. I'm not a knife maker, but I'm glad you keep bringing me back. And I'm not a blade designer. You keep bringing me back, and those seem to be the prevalence of your podcast these days.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:06]:

But you are indeed a knife collector, that's for sure. And I bet that's part of the reason why you like to hear these people who make these things that you like talk about them. I want to say congratulations. Your channel is blowing up. You are very prolific. You put out a video, I think, a day, if I'm not mistaken. And if not, it feels like you've got a regular flow of content and it ranges from the I don't want to say pedestrian, but the everyday say like a civivi folder or something to some sort of exquisite custom. So congratulations on all of that. How do you keep your channel going with so much new content?

Dave Everett [00:02:53]:

I just relax and try to enjoy it, Bob. And I guess I get a fire lit under me every now and then as I go out and see new knives coming out. It seems like we've got more new knives coming out now than ever than even like a year ago or less. I hate to say it's like they're being stamped out, but maybe some of them are being stamped out, but in a good way because companies like Savivi and Concept and Kaiser, this sencut and so forth, they're just popping them out. I see them up on, for instance, White Mountain does videos now as new knives drop, and they're showing close ups with the knife being manipulated. And that kind of gets me going, oh, that looks like a good one. You know how it is when you see something you like, you instantly identify with it. So although I've tried to say, well, I'm only going to collect such and such, I'm only going to collect high end, I'm only going to collect budget because I can buy more of them and I'm not flipping them fast enough. I've gone out to NAF Sale and sold a few. I think you mentioned you were interested in going out to the new Love Knives site and trying your hand at selling a few. I may do the same there as well, but I appear to be, to myself, spending much more time and energy in collecting them than in selling them. I am making that effort because pretty soon we're going to need to bring in more storage here. And I know storage was one of the things you wanted to talk about tonight, so I set aside a few things. You can't see the clutter on this little plastic picnic table that I've set up here or on my desk next to me, but I've got lots of stuff laid out so that I can just bring it right into the conversation, Bob. So show me out the front. Boom. I got it out the front.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:20]:

All right, well, I definitely want as much eye candy as possible, but you mentioned you feel like even in less than a year you felt an acceleration in an already expanding market. What do you think that's due to.

Dave Everett [00:05:36]:

Social media plays a big role in this? Instagram stuff comes up quickly on Instagram. I would say even more so than reviews on YouTube. I've been popping stuff up on Instagram almost daily, some sort of content, and I'm getting a little more savvy with it, how to link back to the YouTube review and so forth and put up some stills. I put up some short videos. I've been putting up more shorts on the YouTube channel now, and it's amazing how that blows up. You get a lot more hits instantly with shorts than you do with full reviews. And then I question, well, how long a video do I want to do on a knife? And sometimes it just escalates, and before you know it, I'm at 20 minutes, and I don't want to do 20 minutes videos on one knife. I want to try to do maybe twelve minutes. I think ten to twelve minutes is the sweet spot where you can cover most of the aspects of it, and then at the same time, you're not having people fast forward through it. People are going to fast forward through your videos anyway, right? I think skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. Used to have people come on the channel before I made an effort to be a little more animated and said, you're putting me to sleep.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:59]:

Oh, man.

Dave Everett [00:07:00]:

Well, come on, guy. It's like too much study drug there, I think.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:06]:

Yeah, exactly. I got a two word answer for you, buddy.

Dave Everett [00:07:09]:

Breathe in. Zen breathing. Come on, enjoy. Get into it. That kind of thing. I like to take my time. It's like box will arrive with a few new knives and it'll sit there for a few hours and take my time. And I don't used to be the kid in the candy store, tear the box open kind of a thing. And I know there's guys that do that. And it's whatever you enjoy. It's who you are. I've been pondering the same thing as you lately, is why do we collect anything? Why do you collect hummels? Why do you collect chotch keys that you put on your mantle? This, that, and the other thing. So I visited Chat GPT, which is where we have to get all our answers these days, right? Or write all of our term papers. And number one was an innate desire for acquisition. And two is a sense of ownership. Three was interest and passion. And then it goes down through connection with history and culture, aesthetics and beauty, investment. I think we're seeking perfection because I find myself doing that. I'll look at the knife. It may not be what I thought it was going to be when it's in my hand, sometimes an ugly knife will feel terrific. And I'm not going to call this an ugly knife, okay? But here's a good example. This is the Kaiser brat. I loved it mainly because of the fact that it is an integral g ten. And I love the look of the back. And some people hate the look of the back, some people hate the look of the blade because it's just so pedestrian. But it is one of the most fidgety knives. It's a great button lock. I mean, you could just play with this thing all day long and locks up tight as a drum. Whatever they did up front here to insert the steel hardware underneath, inside. And there's a special way to take that apart. As far as engineering goes, it's pretty incredible. But this is an example of a knife that is fidgety. It feels great in the hand and just doesn't have a wow factor to it, but it's just really solid and mean.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:55]:

Dave that's the kind of knife that you can only discover if you are collecting or in a collecting phase. And what I mean by that is that's the kind of knife that to me doesn't get my heart beating faster. I like the aspect. I actually do like the blade. I love the fact that it's integral G ten. But I personally would only get to appreciate how awesome that knife is if I was in a very acquisitive stage and I was getting all the big cold steels I wanted also, and getting some of the other. So I think that that is actually one of the real positives about collecting is that you can discover you can become a maven. You can discover things for other people as well. It's the balancing, the acquiring and letting go that is a hard part.

Dave Everett [00:10:46]:

There's another one that you made me buy that's this one?

Bob DeMarco [00:10:51]:

Yeah. So how close to perfection did that get you? I'll talk about the Kaiser Med.

Dave Everett [00:10:58]:

I usually like a straight knife, but you know, this has a bow to it, right. So we automatically know when you hold it in the hand that the point is going to be a bit down, it's going to drop. But on this one, I think it has kind of that pistol grip sort of thing going for it to where that curve actually helps you align the point straight. And I like the fact that this was a damn designs design. That's the first that I didn't know. Is it Adrian D'Souza?

Bob DeMarco [00:11:34]:

Yes.

Dave Everett [00:11:35]:

So he actually designed a knife for Kaiser and called it the Mad.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:42]:

Yeah. Damn backwards.

Dave Everett [00:11:44]:

If you can't be damned, you're Mad. Right.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:46]:

Exactly. So you say that you were thinking about the concept about why we collect. I partially agree with you. Or I hadn't quite thought of it the way you put it. And I'm assimilating but this idea of seeking perfection and of course it's kind of an abstract way to seek perfection out of a tool that gets very little use but has some sort of real appeal. And lately I've been watching watch channels, one in particular, and listening to that guy about watch collecting and kind of looking at knife collecting through that filter. And at some point in one of his videos he was stating, look, these are very accurate toys. Talking about timepieces.

Dave Everett [00:12:38]:

Fortunately, I'm not getting into watches, but I found out that my daughter is, and she's an executive in an insurance company and travels a lot and you got to have the right. So, you know, she's got the Cartier bracelets and she just picked up, I think it was an Accutron or Boulevard or one of those from way back when they started making the accurate watches. No battery. It's a wind up.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:09]:

Cool.

Dave Everett [00:13:09]:

And she found out going through the metal detector at the airport that it kills the watch. Oh, so there's something with that tuning fork that's inside of it.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:20]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:13:20]:

So she now has to put it in her carry on stuff and let it get X rayed. It's fine with X rays, but you can't go through the metal detector with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:32]:

So talk about perfection. You can make a watch that can keep a detailed calendar, including leap days and all that, until 2100, just with some plates and some springs and some gears. That's amazing to me. That is a sort of perfection in knives to you. What makes a good knife? How do you know if you're getting something that's good?

Dave Everett [00:13:58]:

Well, I'd have to break that down into folder versus fixed blade. Right. Because I've been picking up quite a few fixed blades lately. A lot of custom fixed blades or mid tech fixed blade. To further my statement about perfection. Don't you buy your next knife because the last one you got didn't quite have this and didn't quite have that, and you wanted one that has that aspect to it. I find myself doing that. It's like, this is good, but that's better.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:40]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:14:41]:

And guess what? After you get that one oh, there's another one that's better than that. So that's why I say seeking perfection in a strange sort of a way. I don't see that on the list here that got printed out from Chat GBT. But I guess I'm influenced by the influencers, Bob. I hate to say it, including yourself. And you may show something that piques my interest. You may talk about, you know, we're all influencers, whether we've got a big channel or a little channel and how somebody talks about something. It's like I watched Thomas Alas Tactical Tavern. He's a great guy.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:28]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:15:28]:

And he brought out, like, a $1,200 wicked edge sharpener that I watched today. It's like Bob. I know. I don't need another Sharpener. I just got the Professional precision adjust worksharp beautiful. It's beautiful. So I don't need a $1,200 sharpener. But after he's done, I mean, he could do those commercials with set it and forget it back in the 80s. Ron Popeal, right? He could be him.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:03]:

Oh, yeah. He'd make a great pitch man.

Dave Everett [00:16:06]:

He's a pitch man. Yeah, he's a great pitch man. Plus, he twirls things really well, so my arthritis doesn't allow that. In fact, getting that thumb worked on in November, so see if I can get my grip back again. But I think it's maybe it's unique features, but the knife also has to be sensible. It can't just be stupid, crazy. It just can't be so outlandish that it almost serves no purpose for me. There has to be some practicality in it. Even if it's an expensive knife out of expensive materials, it's got to have that solidity, that tactical kind of a feel to it, right?

Bob DeMarco [00:16:56]:

Yeah. That's a taste thing for you, no.

Dave Everett [00:16:59]:

Matter whether it's got a shiny blade or a stonewash blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:02]:

Right. So when we're talking, like, tactical or gentleman or something like that, that's kind of a taste thing that's getting into what your preferences are. And that's definitely a place where you and I resonate. I love your taste. I love the stuff that you're into in terms of objective, is there any way to measure? Okay, let me put it to you this way. You have a very earnest approach to collecting. That is, I have this knife. It's great, but I want more out of this tool. So I'm going to get that one. For me, it's like, I like this one, and I like this one, and I like this one. Until the end of time, I've tried to figure out, is there an end?

Dave Everett [00:17:53]:

Well, we're really good at rationalizing things. The mind is a great rationalizing tool. If you desire something, you'll figure out a way why you need it. Right. One of my most recent acquisitions is the Microtech MSI. At first, just as with you, I said, don't I want more point because it's kind of a sheep's foot. Right, right. But what overrides everything else with this knife? And by the way, this is the injection molded polycarbonate version. First day I was using this and carrying it, I dropped it on the driveway. I was working outside. I was putting some deck tiles on my deck and so forth, and opening boxes and I don't know, trimming something. Opening a package. In fact, no, I was opening a package of knives that had just come in. I had them up on my garbage can, one of those big plastic recycling cans. And I went like that. Except when I went like that and gave it a little wrist flick because these have a soft detent just like any Barlock. Right. So there's no snappy break right there, but there's no chatter or anything either. It's beautiful. But I must have gotten halfway open and the wrist was flicking the rest of it. And I had it too tentatively in the hand, and it just kept going. Well, testament to the knife, there were no marks on it, no scratches on the blade. There was a tiny little nick that you may be able to see right about there that's so insignificant that I'm just going to wait till the first time I have to sharpen it to just grind that off. But a lot of people are saying, oh, the M 390 MK. They only harden it to 59 Rockwell. That might Dave been the reason why I didn't get a bigger chunk out of the you know, so maybe they've got something there after all. Maybe Tony Marfione's not a dummy, and I don't want to say that. Did he call?

Bob DeMarco [00:20:40]:

Right. Right. Clearly he's not.

Dave Everett [00:20:42]:

It's a beautiful knife because it's about four inches, I can get a full hand on it. It's very industrial. I like knives that have that industrial look to them. I mean, even though this is injection molded, this stuff doesn't flex. This is like solid G Ten sort of material. I got it with the partial serrations on purpose because I used to get all my benchmades that way. And I found a use for that for strapping and for rope and for things that are resistant to even a very sharp edge. As far as the point goes, if it's going to go right, all you got to do if you want to use the point is bring it up. So you've got the point there, and for Know, no problem. So I'm convinced that the knife is going to be my regular EDC for a while. We'll see.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:48]:

Well, how long, you say, your regular EDC, how long do you keep things in your pocket?

Dave Everett [00:21:53]:

I'll keep EDCs for up to a month, maybe. The lightweight one I was carrying was the.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:02]:

Yep.

Dave Everett [00:22:03]:

This is a beautiful fidgety little knife. What a great button lock this is. They developed something called a trex lock, which is their button lock. I'm pressing it with my finger, Bob, as hard as can.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:19]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:22:19]:

Okay. It's not disengaged. If I want to disengage it, I dave to press the tip of my finger in. I like that because there's going to be less accidental disengagements of this knife. Knives like the Mad Tonto if I do the same thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:47]:

Oh, yeah. That's one of the things about the Mad Tonto I like is how proud that button stands. And I know I've mentioned it before, like the Watuga by Sen Cut, you really got to dig your thumb in there. And I think I like it for the fidgetiness. I just like it easier. So let me ask you this. What are some very common mistakes people make when they're starting collections? Because this is one that I think I'm talking about right now. I'm going for the fidgety nature with the proud standing button, as opposed to the one that's maybe more mechanically and safety sound. Anyway, it seems like a noob mistake. Of course, I'm not new to this, but what do you think the mistakes are that people don't?

Dave Everett [00:23:42]:

I think if you're talking mistakes, you first have to say, what's the interest of the new collector? I would say generally new collectors get the bug from old collectors. People they watch on YouTube, people possibly a Know. I'm an old guy with very few friends, Bob. That's why you're probably one of my only friends. I don't get to hobnob with other collectors face to face. It's all through social media. All right. Well, I think that they're either a person already using a knife, maybe in a trade or outdoors, or they grew up with knives, and now they're going to get more detailed into it, or they just like they're a person that likes the knife aesthetics. And there's a lot to be said about knife aesthetics. For instance, what would make an idiot go out and buy this knife?

Bob DeMarco [00:24:58]:

The Sandstorm.

Dave Everett [00:25:00]:

I mean, this is crazy.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:03]:

Yeah, it is.

Dave Everett [00:25:05]:

It weighs 10oz. You're really not going to want to be carrying it around all day. Most of us won't. It's got a big honking thumb studs on it. It's integral. But here's something you're asking me. I love the rock pattern. That's what got me into Ken Vihicate's work. He did the rock pattern all over the blade. He does rock pattern all over the handles. Oh yeah. By the way, there's the cool.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:41]:

Wow, they really maxace did a real number on this redesign. That blade is really nice looking.

Dave Everett [00:25:49]:

That's like the third or fourth gen. Here is the Sandstorm K, which was a knockoff of the original Sandstorm. And you have this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:05]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:26:07]:

So there's the rock pattern again.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:09]:

Yeah. So you know what? You raised an interesting point. First of all, you're showing multiple versions of the same knife. That's something we like to do. We like to get updates of knives. But something you said, I'm an old guy with a big collection. Well, something I've noticed as I get older is you just tend to accumulate stuff and if you're lucky, a little bit of money. As you get older, you can spend more money on things. Once certain expenses unless you have children. Bob yeah, I know, I was going to say until certain expenses go to college.

Dave Everett [00:26:50]:

Yeah, mine are all over and done with that.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:55]:

So my point is, from your perspective these days are behind you. But there's a time when you're maybe coming up or you're new in a career or new in a job or you have expensive tastes. One has expensive taste. I have expensive tastes. And you get involved in the knife collecting hobby and you become ravenous for things. A collector just god, they get their mind on something, something so beautiful like that. Sandstorm do you think that people run the risk of doing serious damage by getting too involved in collecting?

Dave Everett [00:27:35]:

Absolutely. They should not up and down. Absolutely. Because it can become a habit like gambling. I mean, it could be as bad as gambling. It could be collecting stuff. The there was a person I knew, an older woman related to me indirectly years ago. I won't say exactly the relationship, but she would spend her evenings in front of the TV on QVC and she'd be buying stuff and buying stuff and buying stuff. And when you went to her house, it was all there. Still in the mean collecting can get into hoarding, let's face.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:25]:

Yep.

Dave Everett [00:28:26]:

Right. And if you whimsically just buy something and I know I've experienced this, it comes to you, you look at it and somehow you have lost appreciation. It's nice, but there's going to be something nicer or you've already got something that's nicer and you acknowledge it. And I think Jim Skelton did a very good video on this once, and I don't know if it was all on that, but he said eventually you need to get your knives for review from a bottomless. Well, it can't be coming out of your pocket. So you either get the patreon thing going or you get the manufacturer sending you knives or you have people loaning you knives. I know metal complex asks for people to send knives in for review, so I'm going to need to shift gears eventually and do something like that and liquidate a large portion of what I have. So I think we have to be careful that we're not hoarding things. There has to be an appreciation of even the simplest, most basic knife. I recently got this one that was designed by Dirk Pinkerton. This is the Slim Flipper, I think they call it. It's a beyond DVC knife. It's only about $50 knife. It's 14 C. It's got an amazing drop shot action, and it would make somebody a great EDC utility knife. And it's very much in keeping with his sheep's foot worn, cliff sort of style. Deep carry clip, nice thick stock switchable clip to the left side. I appreciate. See, now that I wouldn't worry about too much. I could put that in my pocket and beat it and I wouldn't worry about it, wouldn't think about it. But I know that it would hold up.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:48]:

So that too, this idea of opening up a package and kind of already moving beyond it before you even pull it out of the package. I've had packages come and I open them up and it's like self disgust. It's like you could not control yourself. You had to get this. And you know you're not going to EDC this. Like, I have a whole class of knives that I have in my collection that I just don't EDC. Like small knives that I like. I like small knives, but I don't like carrying them. Really?

Dave Everett [00:31:21]:

How come? I don't see a whole bunch of fiskars bubble wrap things on the wall behind you, hanging up on racks. Are those the ones you're talking.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:32]:

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm talking about?

Dave Everett [00:31:34]:

Those Home Depot knives, right?

Bob DeMarco [00:31:36]:

I'll even get yeah. Oh, man. It's a problem like that. But yeah, when you get, for instance, that Beyond EDC knife, maybe that's a bad example because I love Pinkerton's work and Beyond EDC is making great stuff. But I might get a petrified fish or something that I like that I really like. The Victor. I love the design. Beautiful knife. Hardly ever carry it. I like having it because I like to look at it and then sometimes it's hard to think about selling it when I actually have it in hand.

Dave Everett [00:32:06]:

I got damn designs knives that I love because they heavily stonewash, the titanium and the blade. And I'm one of these guys, if I spend a lot on a knife, I don't want to see it scratched up. There are a lot of guys that will buy a pricey knife. They'll buy a 500, $600 microtech and they'll just EDC it all the time and they don't mind at all. And they got it because they have faith and trust in the build of the knife that they bought it because it's going to last. I would buy that because it's pretty.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:43]:

Yeah, me too, me too. Me too. What do I need it to last against the threads on my collar or whatever I'm going to use it for? I like the idea of and this is also not me, but I love the concept and idea of that guy who's got a strider or a hinderer or some really nice kick ass knife and he's got one of them and he takes it to the work site with him and he uses that thing as it was intended. I mean, it's kind of like, what's the point of spending all this money on such a workhorse hard use knife when like having a MercedesBenz and driving.

Dave Everett [00:33:24]:

At 20, if he doesn't use it as a screwdriver and uses it as a knife and keeps it sharp and oiled, god bless him.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:34]:

Yeah, I think it's cool and it grows wear. It takes on a little bit of a life of its own. Dave, with your collection and the sort of pace at which new things come in, do your knives, Dave. I mean, the knives you've sent me, I said up front, one of the things I admire about you is your generosity. You've sent this channel so many knives over the past few years for giveaways and stuff, and some I've adopted, they're all immaculate. Is this because you are fastidious or is this because you have so many knives, none of them end up taking on too much wear?

Dave Everett [00:34:12]:

Well, yeah, and that's part of it. If I looked at everything, there's probably a good 15 knives that have seen a lot of pocket carry, right. And I keep going back to the same ones, but like I showed you, some of the newer ones that have come in, I've been EDC quite a bit like that. Well, first of all, the MSI, right? And that's going to see more EDC. I got it in the polymer handle. I've got one in the G ten handle with a smooth edge. And I've got the stitch ram lock. Okay. And I got the stitch auto, as you know. But this was another one I probably carried quite a bit and I don't get them down in the dirt and get them all gnarly and everything, so they stay in pretty good shape. But I probably never sent you anything that's been really used or carried because I figure if it's a giveaway, the person would want a new knife, right? If you adopt it, you would want a new knife. If I give you one as acknowledging your birthday, that should be beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:36]:

That should do.

Dave Everett [00:35:39]:

Should Dave, a certain something that aligns with your character and your interests.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:45]:

Oh, you nailed.

Dave Everett [00:35:47]:

Yeah, yeah. Here's another one I'd like to show real quick, and that's the Williams, not the Otanashi. No, Kenashi. It's the Mini. Kaiken. But it's the mini Kaiken flipper. And they did something. Extremely interesting with this in that it is integral fat carbon fiber. But it isn't just fat carbon fiber, it's spectral fat carbon fiber. And they have tested the stress on the frame lock 100,000 cycles.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:33]:

Wow.

Dave Everett [00:36:34]:

Without it fatiguing, they must have rigged the jig with a machine. It's got a hardened steel insert here. The rest of the knife is all just spectral carbon fiber. And the spectral carbon fiber was something that the owner of the Fat Carbon Company developed specifically for high stress industrial purposes. M 390 blade, designed by Chris Williams, I believe, which is John Williams. James Williams son. John Williams, boston.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:13]:

I met those guys. I met the brothers you interviewed.

Dave Everett [00:37:21]:

Great interview.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:23]:

Yeah. He's sort of a modern mystic in some ways. He kind of had a little bit of that vibe because he studied so many of those esoteric arts.

Dave Everett [00:37:35]:

Well, he's the guy who could defeat you with his mind before he needs to defeat you with his knife, I think.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:40]:

Yeah, probably. And then if he had to defeat you with his knife, it'd be embarrassing and very final. You wouldn't see it coming, probably. So I want to talk a little bit about how you manage your collection in terms of well, I want to find out how you store your stuff, but also, is it readily available? In other words, if you decide at one moment, oh, that knife I got a year ago that I wasn't, I want to grab that. Are they all at your fingertips? How do you maintain?

Dave Everett [00:38:17]:

I would say 90% of the time, I can find them. I have kind of a mental catalog going, but I also have a database where I log everything. So, for instance, if I give you knives, they go into the deleted. They're no longer in my database, so I know I don't have them anymore. As I was mentioning, I think in a DM or in a chat message, maybe your last show, I store some in quite a few in their boxes. In fact, if you look at the table in front of me here, I've got quite a few in the boxes. Because I feel for knives, I'm not going to use a lot. It's an easy way to catalog because I've got a big metal cabinet from Staples right. With locking doors, kind of file cabinet material, sheet metal. Right. And all the savivis are in one column. If I've got an overflow, then the column next to them has more civivivis. I get all the concept, all the Kaisers, and they're all in similar sorts of boxes. Right. The only thing about civivi is somebody decided they were going to put the labels on the side instead of the ends.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:50]:

Oh, yeah.

Dave Everett [00:39:51]:

Which kind of throws me now, something I got recently. A lot of people talk about putting them in cases, right?

Bob DeMarco [00:39:59]:

Oh, yeah.

Dave Everett [00:40:00]:

This is a $55 case. Okay. I happen to have most of the better Tucson knives in this case.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:14]:

So it's sort of a Pelican style.

Dave Everett [00:40:17]:

Well, it isn't you see that it's got a flex to it. Yeah, but it's not cheap flex. It's not like it's going to collapse. And then they give you pluck out slots that are not pick and pluck.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:36]:

Okay.

Dave Everett [00:40:37]:

This is mill spec foam, and your options are the size you want to pluck out for knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:44]:

Oh, that looks great. I like that you have them sideways like that so you can observe the.

Dave Everett [00:40:50]:

Whole that is the only way they will let you put it in the case. Now, this is just the top layer. There's two layers under that, so it's flexible. You do have to be careful with this, actually. Just stuck my finger on the point of a knife. That happens to be this Tucson button lock, and the point's protruding enough that where I stuck my finger on it. I don't like that anyway.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:24]:

Oh, look at that. Okay, so it's on a large, flexible sort of platter of foam.

Dave Everett [00:41:28]:

Well, there's two layers of the mill spec foam. Right. The top layer is cut out, and the bottom layer is a support for the knife. And then under that is another row. Altogether, 60 knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:46]:

Wow.

Dave Everett [00:41:47]:

In this case. And you can feel it because this has got to weigh about 40 pounds.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:55]:

So you keep all your two sons in there. You keep a lot of the stuff that you know you're not going to be using and carrying in their boxes in a file cabinet. How do you keep your most in rotation stuff? Knives readily handy.

Dave Everett [00:42:19]:

If I need a blood test, I'm all set tonight in rotation. That would be in an actual Pelican style case that holds 40. And that was actually harbor freight. Makes an excellent case called the Apache. And then I got the foam from Nalpac. And Nalpac makes excellent foam, but the cutouts, you drop them down end first, and you can't really see what knife is. What I would say the most readily available storage I have. And I'm going to try something that I may regret, but we'll see in these guys.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:12]:

Okay.

Dave Everett [00:43:13]:

And these were originally designed for paper. Hopefully I don't drop the laptop.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:18]:

Oh, yeah. Drawers full of premium knives. Love it.

Dave Everett [00:43:23]:

So those are the loose ones. And then up here, some are in the cases, some of the ones in those plastic cases, like the PMP knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:37]:

Right.

Dave Everett [00:43:37]:

And then I've got some microtech and higher end stuff up here, either in the boxes or in the pouches. And then you have to guess what's in this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:53]:

Stitch auto.

Dave Everett [00:43:55]:

No.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:56]:

I like seeing all the Filipino swords on the wall as you turned around. That was pretty cool.

Dave Everett [00:44:01]:

I moved one just so I'd have a sword behind me over there.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:04]:

Nice.

Dave Everett [00:44:06]:

This is one of my favoriteists knives. You'll recognize this guy?

Bob DeMarco [00:44:12]:

Oh, yeah. What a beauty. God, I love that thing. The big drago tack. You got the one with the contoured handle and the M 390 on the rerelease.

Dave Everett [00:44:20]:

Yeah, it's got the little diamond pattern, M 390. And they did an upgrade to the disc where they kind of put this gear pattern around it that actually allows you to wave it out of the pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:34]:

Oh, nice.

Dave Everett [00:44:36]:

So when you pull it up, you just this it a little bit and that'll catch.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:42]:

Awesome.

Dave Everett [00:44:43]:

I had that out a few days ago. Just going to do a comparison video.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:49]:

So then a number of I don't even know the time, but there was a moment where it seemed like you shifted gears and really started going all out in custom fixed blades. Another passion of mine. How did that come about? And what are you looking for in a custom fixed blade?

Dave Everett [00:45:12]:

Well, I blame two makers, maybe three makers. Right. Dirk Pinkerton, Ken Vihikate, basically because I started seeing his work on your channel and I started seeing Dirk's work on your channel, but of course I was familiar with Dirk through his designs for companies like Concept, the Main Street and so forth, and quite a few from Morgan Cohen's.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:43]:

Oh, God. His knives. Yeah, his knives are just exquisite.

Dave Everett [00:45:48]:

Now they're married to some beautiful sheaths. I have to give a shout out to Pete Guster of Guster Leather. Incredible. This is eel skin and reindeer.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:06]:

Wow.

Dave Everett [00:46:08]:

And he gave me plenty of places to attach stuff. I couldn't quite decide how I wanted the mount to be. So I can use a belt, a strap, I can put even DCC clips through here.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:22]:

Oh, nice.

Dave Everett [00:46:24]:

And that's a custom tonto that Morgan made for me. That's eight inches of nitro V. His work is insane.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:35]:

And it's interesting because he's not a full time maker and he does these batches of little not little, but he does these small batches of perfection, like out of nowhere.

Dave Everett [00:46:49]:

Yeah, he'll do four of them. And by the time they've hit the site in the early stages of production, they're they're spoken other. This was the bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:04]:

Yeah. This is the one I really love.

Dave Everett [00:47:07]:

On this one, he used antiqued canvas and safari sharkskin. He calls that.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:17]:

I love that knife. He just did two new Bowies like a day ago. Or yesterday.

Dave Everett [00:47:23]:

I saw yesterday.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:24]:

God, they're just beautiful. So is that what it is? Obviously the knives that you already get a K bar and it would handle probably a lot of the work that either of those knives. So what's with the customs?

Dave Everett [00:47:41]:

Yeah, what's with the customs? I think in the long run, more value. You can tune them to what you want, but there's caveats there, too, in that what you see two dimensionally and you say, make me this, but do that and change this and change that. You may still get it and still not be happy with it. Because there's one thing about a production knife. If you get it from, let's say, the Knife Center or White Mountain, and you don't like it, you send it back, right. I would be hesitant to send a custom back to a maker when nothing was wrong with it other than the fact that I didn't like the design or it didn't feel right in my hand. Now, I got some beautiful knives from Ken Vahicate. They happen to have a handle that's a little too small for my hand, and I don't have extremely large hands, but I like a handle that fills my grip. That when I begin to grip know? I feel that I'm hanging on to it. That's why with a lot of the small fixed blades here's a pinkerton.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:00]:

Which one do you got there? Oh, yeah.

Dave Everett [00:49:06]:

That'S a Warren cliff. That's the urban nomad. After Dirk sold me this, he said, I'm so sad that I sold you that. That was my favorite knife. So it's in Magna Cut, and he likes that concept. And I've heard you say that it's good to dave a handle with nothing sticking out regarding disarms and so forth. But that really applies more to sticks than it does to knives. Unless you've got a humongous pommel stick if it sticks out. So that's an example of a handle I would call just big enough. Right. Not always my favorite size handle, though. Here's a handle that I deem to be perfect for me. And that's the chopper from Bastinelli. Now, with Bastinelli knives, you pretty much are getting a custom knife. That's a production knife. If you felt how this feels in the hand, Bob, it's like your hand is just married to that handle. The only thing I don't care about is that I'm not a real big fan of trailing points, because the anatomy of the trailing point is that on a cut, you're moving away from the tip. This is the Mike Janich concept, that the trailing point is trailing. Are you familiar with Dan and Asanto's concept of zone of maximum pressure?

Bob DeMarco [00:50:55]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:50:57]:

So, like a baseball bat, right?

Bob DeMarco [00:50:59]:

Yeah.

Dave Everett [00:51:00]:

You've got to hit it in the sweet spot, and you got to hit it at the right moment. If you hit it too late, you get a foul ball. If you hit it too early, you get a foul ball. Right. So the zone of maximum pressure is where the knife can do the most damage. And that's where Janet would take a knife. Like this is very similar to his yojimbo in concept. And now, as that's arcing through, you see the point contacts first and continues to cut. People don't realize that on a thrust, it's a different matter, of course. Problem with thrusting, this one, I mean, these are polar opposites, so they're good examples. Right. If this one is thrusting and you have it like that, you're really hitting the upper portion of the belly. I listened to Fieldworks do the review on your show. The podcast is it greg.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:16]:

It's fieldworks. Ryan Atkinson.

Dave Everett [00:52:21]:

Ryan. Ryan Atkinson. So, based on that show, Bob, here's a good one. Based on that show. If I can find the darn thing, I picked up the knife that he was demoing. I've got to look at them all, check the handles.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:43]:

Was that the pioneer woman steak knife? No, pioneer woman pairing knife.

Dave Everett [00:52:49]:

I like that one, too, though. That's funny. I thought I stuck this. I'm going to go out. Oh, here we go. Black on black. Everything disappears.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:03]:

A vandal. Oh, that's nice.

Dave Everett [00:53:05]:

So now for Pikal, we're talking that is exactly where the point should be. When he held that in his hand and said that they raised the point, I could instantly see that because I know the motions of the PICAL usage. Right. And you can still jab with it. Right. When you have a PICAL knife, you're not just doing this, you're doing this. And Leo gahe taught me how to flick that out. It's a jab. Right? And when that comes back, guess what's you're you're tearing, right? You're making a triangular shape cut, not just a little jab. So I saw that, and then I ended up getting the double edged version because it does have some usefulness either in doing your back cuts or even holding it this way and holding it this way. In Filipino arts, we're coming in on the nine and the eight.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:23]:

Well, that's what I was just thinking. When I think of trailing points, even some of my favorite knives, like trailing point Bowies and stuff, I'm always thinking about the thrust from an eight or a nine or an angle five or something coming down like a shovel punch because you want to engage that tip. We're about out of time. I'm grateful to you that you're going to be doing where'd the time go? I know we're going to do a couple of extra minutes. People should stick around. I have a couple of other questions I want to ask you, but this one, I think, is a good one to wrap this up with, because we're talking about collecting, and we've gotten to this part where you and I love, which is tactical knives, martial arts, and the martial aspects of knives. If there's someone out there who has started a knife collection, they don't have much in the way of, say, a defensive knife or a tactical knife or a combat knife. They want that kind of thing in their collection.

Dave Everett [00:55:25]:

What would you tell them about getting a specific knife? Bob?

Bob DeMarco [00:55:29]:

Yeah. What would you recommend?

Dave Everett [00:55:33]:

I like the new spartan. I didn't like it at first. The poros.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:39]:

Okay. Yeah. So you did not like that at first. Why?

Dave Everett [00:55:44]:

I was having some trouble slipping off of the liner, trying to close it, but then I realized I don't want it to close accidentally, and there's no need for speed when you close the knife. It's more when you open the knife because what they did with this one is fold it over. It's a folded over liner, but it makes great contact and it feels super in the hand. And it's got a great blade shape for EDC.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:17]:

Yeah, it's a beautiful knife.

Dave Everett [00:56:19]:

And it's 154 CM, so we're good there. We've got a lot of traction on the handle. And it's coming in, I believe, well under 100. No, I may be wrong on that.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:31]:

It's under 150. It's like 125 or something like that.

Dave Everett [00:56:35]:

Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:35]:

This is a great recommendation, Dave, because it's got all the things you're talking about, it has all the tactical things you're talking about, because that's the kind of recommendation we're going for. It does make a great EDC, though. Everyday carry. But also, you're getting a knife from a great what is now becoming a legacy brand. I mean, Spartan blades are not going anywhere and they have a fantastic reputation.

Dave Everett [00:57:02]:

Are you going to get their new trench knife?

Bob DeMarco [00:57:04]:

Yes, I must get the new trench knife. I also want to get the kukri, but yeah, the trench knife, I guess that'll be first on my, like, about.

Dave Everett [00:57:12]:

A grand, isn't it? I don't oh, no, it's RMJ is making that. I'm sorry?

Bob DeMarco [00:57:18]:

Oh, that's who it is. RMJ. I saw the one you were talking about in my mind's eye. Yeah, RMJ.

Dave Everett [00:57:24]:

But, yeah, I think you can't go wrong with the poros. Some people are saying it's maybe a little overpriced, so if you can find it at a bargain and have a coupon and so on and so know you could do that. And I think they're a little more widely available now than they were a few months ago when they first came out.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:44]:

All right, Dave, before I let you go, one piece of invaluable advice to the collector out there. Be they new or be they old.

Dave Everett [00:57:55]:

Start slow and study what it is that you want. Start off with some good basic reasons and find something you can carry with you and get familiar with. And I think your knife passion will grow based on that.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:16]:

Couldn't say it any better, Dave. This old sword blade reviews. Dave, thank you so much for coming on Knife Junkie. It's always a pleasure. And you and I are kindred spirits with the knives we love. Be talking to you soon, sir.

Dave Everett [00:58:28]:

Take care.

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Bob DeMarco [00:59:01]:

There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, Dave Everett. He says start off slow and maybe he should take his own advice. Nah, I'm just kidding. He's been collecting a long time, and as I said up front, he's had some real buttes, so he's had an opportunity to hone in his vision for his collection, and that's something I'm constantly struggling with. All right, join us next week for another great conversation about knives with another awesome knife person. And join us Wednesday for the midweek supplemental Thursday. You can actually join us for Thursday Night Knives, which is live 10:00 p.m Eastern Standard Time, right here on YouTube, facebook and Twitch. And what I mean is you can actually come on the show and join me. There's a simple link we float on screen and you can pop right on. I'd love to meet you. 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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