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. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 674)

Bob DeMarco: Coming up, a new Hogtooth Knives custom seax for me. We take a look at the Highland Basket-Hilt Broadsword, and let's talk daggers. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is The Knife Junkie Podcast.

Announcer: 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: Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from @Itstherazor talking about Lynn Thompson. He says, "I will be buying from Lynn's new company. I can't wait. You can't beat knives from a man that loves what he does and knows what he's doing. His style of knife making is needed in this world." I concur, @Itstherazor. There were quite a few Lynn-era Cold Steel knives I missed out on owning. I won't make the mistake to miss out on what he will be creating now. That's exactly how I feel, and that's a smart strategy as a collector.

If you're really locked in on a certain brand, certain designer, certain company, as I have always been with Cold Steel, if there's something that comes out that you really, really, really like and you really want to add to your collection, and you can afford it or you're willing to save up for it, go for it because these things get discontinued. And often the most unique and interesting ones are the ones that get discontinued because perhaps they're less all-around useful. Like the Cold Steel Desperado—you know, the SRK is just as old, but that hasn't gone out of business because everyone can use that knife, but the Desperado has a very special use case.

Anyway, the lesson: check out what Lynn Thompson Tactical Knives has coming up and don't sleep on knives that you're really, really interested in adding to your collection. All right, words of wisdom, as my daughter would say. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. All right, that said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer: What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's The Knife Junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco: In my front right pocket today, an unusual choice for me. Usually, I like to carry something a little more bougie in my front right pocket, but this is a truly valuable working tool. This is the Spyderco Manix 2 Lightweight S110V. It's right there, I could just read it off the screen. An amazing steel, an amazing knife. These lightweight Spydercos are awesome. This is from, I guess, the early era of the lightweights; you cannot take this one apart, it's pinned. This was a very generous gift from my friend Shane of Edgy American Blades. And he's going to—that's a little foreshadowing.

But I was, as I record this, coming off a shed assemble. I was just telling Jim, "Hey, I built a shed." And then I realized, no, I more like assembled a shed yesterday. But there were a lot of things that required opening a lot of boxes, a lot of bags, and stuff like this. And this knife, this and the other knives that I had on me, were getting a lot of use. So I have this one again in my pocket today, the Manix 2 Lightweight. I love this knife. I'm in a Spyderco phase. I just ordered a new Spyderco, a new CruWear Spyderco stablemate for my new Native Chief, which I also, incidentally, got from Shane. But really liking Spyderco right now, and that knife performed beautifully.

As did this, this was also in my pocket, closer to the front of the pocket. This is the Fisher Blades Harvey PK. Awesome little knife. I really like this knife. You know, the Fisher brothers design knives that are right up my alley: everyday pocket carry defensive blades. But this is their first foray into an EDC or sort of bird and trout style, do-everything knife. And it's unlikely that this would be my favorite of all of their knives, and I can't say for sure that it is, but lately it has been because I've been carrying and using it quite a bit. And yesterday was a great opportunity to do a lot of actual work. It wasn't just gratuitous knife use just to see how it works; it was a knife I actually needed yesterday, and it came in very handy.

And I love that thing. I really recommend it. It's got that row of jimping up front, which I was using a lot for opening boxes, putting my finger there to regulate how deep the tip went in, not sure what was right underneath and not wanting to scar anything up and incur my wife's wrath. But this thing's awesome. I think the steel is 14C—it's unmarked and I don't remember now what it is, but I'll have to look that up. Sorry for the lack of information.

All right, next up on my belt while doing that, it was on the very back. While I do outside work, including mowing the lawn, I always have something combative. I don't want to end up like—who was it, Rand Paul?—who was attacked by his neighbor while mowing the lawn once, broke a couple of ribs. I want to be able to have something on me to fight back just in case. I don't know, stuff can go down while you're mowing the lawn, right? And this was that while I was building the shed, but it also came in handy here and there, but more gratuitously. This is the 1931 Leatherworks sheath for it, by the way. Beautiful thing.

But this is the Edgy American Blades Junkie. It's a collaboration between me and Shane. I showed him a sketch, kind of a cocktail napkin sketch, and he ran with it and produced this beautiful, beautiful knife. This is CruWear at 63 to 64, I believe. Very, very sharp, sharpened by Kyle Conly of Klingenberg Sharpening. He's going to come up later in the dagger talk. But I just love, love this knife. It is a mini seax, and the way it rides on the belt, it just feels like power. I love it.

Okay, now stationed with me during the shed build, this is always like—this is where it cannot be, it's either hidden closer to the front of the property or it's close to the house, and that's where it was yesterday. I always have outside with me a large bowie in case it really goes down. I know, it's ridiculous. It's just an excuse to have a large bowie with me. It's the Laredo—in this case, the Cold Steel Laredo Bowie with that SK5 steel. This is from the early 2000s, faux cocobolo handle. I put a nice patina on it because the sheath did a bit of scratching on the blade, and to sort of hide that, I put a patina on it. I think I used white vinegar and paper towels, something like that. Very, very sharp swedge, zero ground swedge, nice brass guard. Just a really great fighting bowie knife and just a beautiful knife in general. And so I had that close at hand, you know, just in case a bowie knife fight or a knife fight in general came up whilst building the shed. So this is what I had on me today. Tell me what you had on. What was your ESK? That's what I really want to know. What was giving you the emotional support that the Laredo was giving me today? Let me know. Also had the Edgy American Blades Junkie, the Fisher Blades Harvey PK, and then the Spyderco Manix 2 Lightweight in S110V. Awesome, awesome knives.

More awesome knives right here, I'm going to show you real quick. It doesn't have to be that quick, but here's here's one. That's the Champions blade from Trevor Barrett, maker, and collaborator, and OEM of this is 3 Dog Knife. So what I'm telling you here is 3 Dog Knife, this is the in-house custom knife brand of Northern Knives, the largest knife shop west of the Mississippi. It's up there in Anchorage, Alaska, and it is awesome. You probably know Mike from Northern Knives if you ever join us on Thursday Night Knives. He's a great dude, and he's always on that show with us talking, adding his expertise. He owns a knife shop, he makes these knives, and he's a hunter and outdoorsman in Alaska.

And the knives he produces are so unique and cool for outdoor knives. Now this one is kind of an EDC self-defense/outdoor knife, but he makes a lot of models that are outdoor tantos, which I just think is so cool. It always seemed to me that the tanto could and should be a very useful outdoor blade shape, and here are two examples of how that is. Now this is the MAC, the Multi Animal Knife. I love this thing. I think Mike said this is his main hunting knife. He's got different variations of it, coatings, not coated. This one is M390. These are different, that's 52100, and this one is something else, I don't remember. They all come with dog tags, birth cards basically, and they're just awesome. And those leather sheaths are as great as they are beautiful, made by D Johnston, a sheath maker up there in Alaska. So beautiful stuff.

We have a discount code for 25% off—that's one quarter of the price—if you go to theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife, it takes you to the 3 Dog Knife website, and that's where you can put "knifejunkie" at checkout. I know Johnny Evans, good friend of the show here and a Thursday Night Knives contributor, has taken advantage of that coupon code numerous times and is quite happy with his 3 Dog Knife knives. The Riot, this one's called the Riot, if this is catching your eye, which I wouldn't be surprised. Look at this horizontal belt carry, just beautiful. Look at that package. All right, so check that out at 3 Dog Knife.

Are you wondering, are you wondering like where you can get comics, knife-themed comics? Well, you can get it on Patreon. Just go to our Patreon page, and you can check out the Friday Funnies. Jim produces these on a weekly basis, and the new ones are awesome. They're all good. This one—yeah, and then he did some Memorial Day-themed ones that were really, really good. So they're kind of timely, and they're funny, and they're well done. So go check those out. That's just one thing that we have on Patreon. He also does Maker Mondays where he produces a breakdown article of some great knife maker. We also have the American Edge 250, talking about our country's, the United States, anniversary this summer, 250th anniversary, all sorts of cool stuff, today in history, that kind of thing. So just go to Patreon and check it out: theknifejunkie.com/patreon. I mean, that's just what you get for being on the page, but you also get interview extras. That's everyone I interview, we do another 10-15 minutes with them, you get to see that stuff where they let down their hair and talk about stuff that they don't want to talk about broadly. And lots of other stuff, so go check it out: theknifejunkie.com/patreon. You can also scan the QR code on the screen or just go to the website there. When you buy a whole year at once, 12% off. All right, that's theknifejunkie.com/patreon.

Announcer: Want to sell your custom knives online? With Launch Cart, you can easily create your own eCommerce store. No coding required. Launch Cart is designed for knife makers like you, with built-in tools to showcase your craftsmanship, manage orders, and grow your brand. It's fast, flexible, and even includes low-cost payment processing to help you keep more of your profits. Start your online knife store today at theknifejunkie.com/launch and turn your passion into a business.

Bob DeMarco: All right. First up in Knife Life News, something I'm excited about: the Spyderco Reveal 21. They started doing these product reveals a few years back so that they wouldn't show off what they intended to do during the year in January and then be scrambling in December to try and get everything out. So they do these product reveals. This one is sweet. This is the headline knife. This is from Mickey Yurco. Mickey Yurco, knife maker who I've met and chatted with, he's a friend of my friend, Matt Chase, and I want to get him on the show.

This thing is awesome. This is his debut with Spyderco, his debut collaboration. That's an 8-inch Gunting, so a smaller version of the classic Southern Filipino sickle-shaped sword. This thing is beautiful. I love his take with that harpoon swedge and the Micarta slab handles. That's 9Cr18MoV—I'm sure they have a reason for that. 9Cr happens to be a pretty good steel, and I'm sure Spyderco will perfect the heat treat and the edge. I can't wait for that. There's also a 50th anniversary Native, which is beautiful. That is a fancy, fancy one. There it is, that's to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spyderco. Look at that beauty. I happen to be in a Native state of mind these days—Native Chief more like—but I really like this thing. It's got S90V blade steel, that amber bone, and the logoed bolster, so the bolster is etched with a network of spiders there. Beautiful little thing, gorgeous lock back, and I love the amber bone.

And let's see, two others I want to talk about here: the Sage 5 joins the salt series, there it is right there. So again, lightweight and with MagnaCut steel, so good to go in all sorts of wet and salty environments. And then lastly, the one I want to show is the YoJumbo. The YoJumbo, the largest folding version in the YoJumbo family, joins the SPY27 family. What's SPY27? That's Spyderco's proprietary powder metallurgy steel, so they have a series of their knives with that steel and that color blue G10 handle. So, looking forward to that—I don't know if I'm going to get that, but I like seeing it. I love the YoJumbo and it's nice to have some collectible variety there. I'd like to see it in crew wear, I'm not sure if it exists, but that seems to be the Spyderco rabbit hole I'm going to go down is crew wear when possible because I've found that it seems magical. It's very, very sharp, and I don't know, I think it holds a great edge, I think it takes a great edge, and I think everyone that I've gotten in crew wear from, whether it's Edgy American, Spyderco, or Alec Steingraber, it's just been incredible. So that's probably the Spyderco rabbit hole I will go down.

Okay, next up from Boker. A classic from Boker gets an upgrade, and that's the CRKT/Burnley Squid II. Lucas Burnley has done some real, real classic collaborations with Boker like the Squid and the Kwaiken. This update to the Squid is, I got to say, it seems very tempting. I am a sucker for this design. I used to have a Squid, I gave it away, but it's a beautiful little design. Some might say a bit of a chode knife, but I love the design. 2.7 inches of M390 blade steel, it's a drop point. You've got a thumb stud as per usual, and this version has a flipper tab added. You can get it in the beautiful olive wood—that's the one on the bottom—or mahogany, Santos mahogany—that's the one on top—or you can also get it in black G10. Price difference there: the G10 is 129 bucks, the wood models are 195. You know, you're dealing with M390 and wood. 4.9 ounces, so chunky. I would imagine they have full steel liners, and they are available now. Really nice. I saw Melissa Backwoods did a video of these, and they look really, really nice up close, so check that out.

All right, next up, another one from Boker, this one called the Overnighter. And okay, here you go, I'm about to do some German pronunciation, trying using my high school German skills to read this guy's name. This is a camp and trail knife called the Overnighter. The designer's name is Florian Hoessu. Custom knife maker who goes by FP Knives. This thing is beautiful. It's like a really nice compact harpoon clip point for backpackers and overnighters—you know, overlanders, overnighters, meaning it might not be your ultimate survival knife, but you're going tent camping overnight, this is a great thing. You're going backpacking, it's capable and light. 4.57 inches of D2 semi-stainless steel—I think they announced it in 440C but they are releasing it in D2. Burl wood handle scales, very nice looking in my opinion. A leather pouch-style sheath, which as I get older, I'm starting to appreciate more and more. What I mean by pouch-style is like this: it fits deeply in the sheath up to halfway through the handle, and you don't have a strap or anything, and it just comes in and out easily but doesn't fall out. I'm appreciating that for an actual working knife. Tactical knife, you want it strapped in there so it's not falling out in the fight. So really nice-looking thing here, 6.77 ounces without the sheath, available now. $125 is the MSRP there.

Now it wouldn't be a week without me announcing a new Civivi, and this is a cool one, but this is in the offing, so this is still in development, but it's a slick modern slipjoint, it looks pretty darn cool. It's called the Almaris. This has a 2.95-inch drop point, super sleek. I mean look at that thing, it looks like a fish or a dolphin, it's just super sleek. It's got a long pull on that hollow ground drop point blade, an aluminum handle in this case here, beautifully adorned with an optional wood inlay. You can get this—well, you can't get this yet, but so far they've shown images with this inlay, which I think is beautiful and very classic-looking, or you can get it in all black where the aluminum handle is anodized and the blade is coated. Of course, non-locking as it is a slipjoint. 2.02 ounces so far, who knows if this'll change. Will be out later in 2026, and the projected MSRP is 75 bucks. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Are you a budding slipjoint guy or gal but love Civivi? That might be the way to go, so check that out. All right, still to come, we're going to check out daggers, we're going to talk all about daggers. Yeah, I guess kind of an annual topic for me. It's a chance for me to throw in some of the daggers I've got over the years. You'll find I do this with bowie knives and clip point, combat knives, and other stuff, little updates. We'll get to that. But first, let's check out the Highland Basket-Hilt Broadsword.

Announcer: You are listening to The Knife Junkie Podcast. Here's some cool knife history with the Knife Junkie's The First Tool. In the misty glens of Scotland, where clan loyalty could mean life or death, one weapon came to symbolize Highland defiance like no other: the basket-hilt sword. At first glance, it was unmistakable, a straight double-edge blade, broad and stout-hearted. But the real signature was the hilt, a cage of iron bars wrapped around the hand like a miniature fortress. That basket offered real hand protection in combat. The basket hilt protected the grip, turning the swordsman's hand into an armored fist. By the 1600s, the basket-hilt sword had become closely tied to the Scottish Highlands. It was a cutting sword, powerful in the swing, quick enough in the hand, and perfectly suited for the sudden violent rush of Highland fighting. Its hilt might be a simple iron affair or finely decorated. Its blade might be locally mounted or imported from famous blade-making centers in Europe. Many Scottish swords carried blades marked with mysterious inscriptions, old makers' symbols, or names that sounded mythical. Then came the Jacobite Risings. The basket-hilt sword marched with men who fought for clan, king, and country. At battles like Prestonpans, Falkirk Muir, and finally Culloden in 1746, it became part of the image of the Highland Charge, a raging wave of tartan and steel. After Culloden, Highland arms were restricted, and the basket-hilt sword took on a new meaning. It became a symbol of culture pushed to the edge, romanticized, remembered, and eventually revived. Today, the basket-hilt Highland sword rests in museums, collections, and ceremonial dress. Its iron cage still a symbol of clan pride, battlefield courage, and the beauty of a blade built for a hard land.

Bob DeMarco: Do you like this kind of knife talk? Do you? I know you do. Join us on Thursday nights, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time every Thursday for Thursday Night Knives, where you, me, and a whole bunch of other people you'll start to recognize and get to know join together to talk about blades. You know, in a way, it's a weekly offloading of all the talk we spare our loved ones. So come join us for some knife talk on Thursday night, Thursday Night Knives. We do giveaways and it's a good time. It's my favorite time of the week. All right, that said, let's move on and check the State of the Collection.

Announcer: Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Theknifejunkie.com/battlebox.

Bob DeMarco: This year, circumstance has it that I am not going to Blade Show. And then, when I made that decision, after I made that decision, almost almost serendipitously, I get a text from Matt Chase, "Hey, check out this seax I made for a Renaissance Fair that didn't sell." Well, it turns out that Renaissance Fair was just kind of a freak fest and not actually a Renaissance Fair anymore. You know, you got people with all, you know, walking around in rainbow capes and Stormtrooper outfits and sound like an old man. It wasn't a Renaissance Fair. And so no one bought this beautiful seax. And it just so happens that Matt and I have been talking about him making me a seax for years. So he's a smart man, knows what he was doing, and I said, "This will be my—in honor of Blade Show this year—this will be my big purchase." I bought it from him, and it is astounding.

And I'll show it in the sheath first because it is really, really something else. You've got this beautiful hog tooth engraved in there by hand, that's his logo, Matt Chase's Hogtooth Knives logo. Matt Chase was a Marine scout sniper, and when you graduate sniper school, when you did—they don't exist anymore, unfortunately, in the Marine Corps, they now have sharp shooters, platoon-level sharp shooters, I think—but when you graduated from Marine scout sniper school, you got a hog's tooth on a leather cord. So Hogtooth Knives is a tip of the hat to his Marine career, and then of course he has those cool sort of Anglo-Saxon-looking shapes carved in there. He does such beautiful leatherwork, I thought I'd show it off first like this. And instead of having two equal-sized—these would hang usually at the back with equal-sized drops there and upside down, so this with the long loop rides really easily on the side. Anyway, beautiful, I'm going to commission another sheath, I might be able to carry this at least sometimes, so I'm going to have him do a little more practical sheath. This thing is gorgeous. Let me show you the knife now that I've shown you the sheath.

Here it is. A beautiful, just gorgeous seax, that's 1085, 15N20, and nickel. And that's what makes up this pattern weld steel here, just absolutely beautiful. It's got a swedge and a really acute tip, which frightens me a little bit. Not that I feel I'm going to stab myself, but man, I would hate to drop this on the concrete floor in this room. It's got elk antler there and Micarta right here and here. See, I can't even talk when I'm looking at it, it's so dazzling. Hogtooth JS, he's a Journeyman Smith, and he does just beautiful, beautiful work. Hogtooth Knives, I highly recommend if you want to spoil yourself, go check out and commission something from him or see what he has on offer already made. He also makes really, really great EDC fixed blades that are—that he does stock reduction, but his real art, if you ask me, is this kind of beautiful stuff. So very happy to have this. This will be—like I said, this is my Blade Show not Blade Show purchase this year, and then I have a another Spyderco coming, that'll be my folding version of that, I'm sure I might sneak another one in there. But what a beautiful thing, very happy about that.

I also want to show off some stuff that Ben Odi sent me. If you're a Thursday Night Knives viewer, you know Ben, but if you don't, he is the merch czar for Terzuola Design. Bob Terzuola not only makes custom knives and does designs for companies, but he also has a pretty strong merch game, and it is Ben Odi who is in control of that, and he's great. He's an artist, a graphic designer, and merch czar extraordinaire. And he sent me a couple of things, one we're going to give away this coming week—it doesn't matter if you're viewing this depending on when you're viewing this, but we're going to be giving this away—and we've already given one of these away. So here's a beautiful hand-thrown stoneware mug, you got the Terzuola logo here and here, and I have one and you've seen me drinking out of it a lot. It's incredible. It's not only just beautiful and nice to hold, but it seems to—that stoneware keeps the coffee hotter longer, it seems like. So we have this. You can go to terzuola.net and check these out.

And then this, this is the new thing that they just came out with and they are doing a sale on them until after Blade Show for 20% off if you just go to terzuoladesign.net. But it's this really great carrying case for six knives, and I stuffed it with some of my kind of oversized folders: an XM-24, you got a Stitch here from Microtech, and an SMF, the big Strider, and then here you have your Fisher Blades McNasty combat folder, Spartan Harsey folder, and here you have a Demko AD20. But it zips up nicely and it has these flaps on the side which give it space, it's like three-dimensional there, so your if you have clips, they're not rubbing together, even though they're they're set up so that they oppose and they're not going to touch, but if you have two real long clips or a big I don't know, whatever, it it gives it space. Some of the knife cases and knife rolls I have, I feel like it grinds the knives together; this does a real job of keeping it separated. It's padded and Cordura and it's got this super heavy-duty handle. This thing is awesome. I am, unfortunately for me, going to be giving this away because, you know, just because it was sent to me doesn't mean everything is a gift, and I think Ben wants me to give this to you. So, join us Thursday Night Knives and we'll give this thing away. All right, aside, because I don't want to spill my coffee on it. And before we get to daggers, which I'm looking forward to this conversation, we have to have this little conversation, I want you to see some more merch.

This is Jim's merch, he does some awesome stuff. He comes up with designs on a weekly basis, posts it to theknifejunkie.com/shop. And this week's design: It's a Good Day to Carry. And I like this one a lot, and then it's got a cool little EDC folder, which I wouldn't mind actually owning, in the middle. You can get this emblazoned on t-shirts, tote bags, hats, aprons, all manner of what have you. And what I like about this logo is it looks kind of patriotic and it's summertime—summertime seems to be the most patriotic time because of July 4th—but also it's subtle. You know, you see a nice little folding knife and it's a good day to carry. It's not it's not too rah, "I'm a knife guy." It's just a way to signal to like-minded people, "Let's let's talk knives." So go to theknifejunkie.com/shop and check out the 30-plus pages of really great designs on all sorts of merch that you can get to represent your knifeitis.

All right, here we are. Let's talk daggers. It's 2026. I have a couple of new ones here to show since the last time, but let's start with the perennial classic, and that is the combat stiletto, the Randall Knives #2-7 Combat Stiletto. To me, this is the most classic configuration of the Model 2. The Model 2, of course, is their fighting stiletto, their stiletto, their dagger. And every model has a different blade, but you can get them and order them in a number of different configurations. You can have a different guard, different handle profile and materials, and the whole nine yards. So this I just so happened to score lucky at Knife Center years back now, when I had Randall made knives money, or at least I thought I did, on hand, and bought this and have never looked back. It is one of my absolute favorites, and in terms of daggers, I consider it the crown jewel of my collection. It's a 440 um steel, but I'm not sure which one, I can't remember, I think it's C. Brass guard, and then this is the commando-shaped handle. Like I said, you can get them in other variations, but this is the most common, classic, and beautiful, and symmetrical. And that is an aluminum butt cap, and I just like the nut on the bottom. It's very utilitarian and quite beautiful. So here it is, the Randall combat stiletto, the #2-7. But before I put it away, let me show you the details of the beautiful sheath. It is water-treated, and it gives it that nice dark, rich character. White stitching, beautiful, flawless, double welts here, and then it's got an Arkansas whetstone in there, which I've never used. It even can get pulled out. You know, this is the typical sheath setup. They're always just really, really nice. And I find that you can kind of tuck that retaining strap under the thin under the belt loop there, so that if it's coming in and out frequently—which it won't as a dagger, I'm sure—but if you don't want it brushing up against this because it is double-edged, it will cut against that, you can just stick it under there. Give it a try. There are a lot of fixed blades where you can do that. Look at that, a beautiful overall package, the combat stiletto.

Okay, another from Randall Made Knives. Another very classic dagger here is—this is a modern take on it from Ka-Bar, but this is the KA-BAR/EK Dagger. Now these came these were produced in towards the end of World War II and they also were used in Vietnam. I've seen them look a number of different ways in terms of blade grinds and the lengths, handle to blade ratio. The handle to blade ratio on this on this Ka-Bar version—you know, Ka-Bar bought the rights to the John Ek Commando Knife Company and they are producing these—and this handle is immense. It is huge. And the gentleman that gave this to me, Doug Bull, great guy, he said the handle was too large, he wanted to carry it concealed. And yeah, I see I see what he means. But it does allow for a full thumb extended saber grip, and it is a pretty neutral handle. I mean it does allow for a lot of utility, but it it does offer opportunities for disarming, too. When you have a lot of extra handle, there's a lot of extra opportunities for disarm. So if you're a big dude with big hands, this would probably suit you better than it does me. But there are a lot of different Ek dagger, you know, commando knife models out there. If this and that handle is very signature, I'm talking about those divots and stuff. If this is an enticing knife to you, it can be had if you want a different version of this, good luck finding them secondary market. But you know, you might might be able to. I don't know, I haven't looked in a long time. But Ek 44, 44 is my favorite number. This sheath has been cut down and I need to replace the sheath here. There it is, the Ek commando knife.

All right, next up, this list will have a few Cold Steels, as you may imagine, most of my lists do. But this is a classic that I had, got rid of, and then reacquired. I had this knife, this is the Cold Steel Peace Keeper II, from their earlier dagger series. This is a discontinued series. Great example of if you want it, get it while it's hot. And I had one—this is the smaller version, the Two, the Safe Keeper I is larger. I had one of these and then gave it to a buddy of mine from college, who I visited in 2003 or something. Long, long time ago. And he gave me a great pair of American Optical sunglasses, he had an extra pair, and they were awesome, and so I had this with me and I gave it to him. Like we were ancient Greek warriors exchanging weapons and finery. And I always missed it and then sought it out on the secondary market, found one for a reasonable price and bought it. It's very sharp. Whoever had this sharpened the hell out of it and in doing so, m- kinda blunted the tip a little, not that I could've forced that into whatever I was intending to force it into, but I kind of wish the tip was just a little sharper, whatever. First-world problem.

The handle very comfortable, Coke bottle and contoured in all aspects. Very comfortable in this sort of pushing saber grip because the pommel, which is nice and rounded, nestles in the palm and you just get that connection between the palm and the forearm and just a lot of strength in that. Also, a hammer grip would work well, and in reverse grip, obviously, it's a superior, it's superior in reverse grip. You got that nice rounded out pommel for the for the thumb capping and just a great powerful grip. This is AUS 8 and blasted, so you got to be careful with it. Those bevels are hollow ground and you've got that those nice bellies towards the tip, so a great dagger speaking relatively for slashing. Not all daggers are great for slashing, this one is. I find the Cold Steel knives really pay attention to the slash, the Cold Steel daggers.

All right, next up, this is from one of my favorite all-time favorite knife designers. This is the Spartan Harsey Dagger. Now Bill Harsey Jr. is one of my favorite designer designers. His work is just gorgeous. Everything he does, I feel like I can recognize. Okay, this is wearing a beautiful Chattanooga Leatherworks sheath. Chattanooga Leatherworks is under the RMJ umbrella, like American Tomahawk Company and RMJ. But this is a Spartan, and here is the beautiful logo, that giant evergreen tree is Bill Harsey's maker's mark. Bill Harsey was and comes from a family of lumberjacks in the Great Northwest, which I just think is so cool.

But he is just a knife designer extraordinaire, he does everything by hand and pencil, which I really relate to, and it's really cool. You can see pictures of him drafting up this knife and you can see his his pencil drawings of this knife. Beautiful architectural design drawing of this. Better than any CAD out there. You like, "No, it's not Bob, CAD is way more precise." Yeah, but it doesn't have the soul. A beautiful pinch grip can be had with this knife here. So you see that area for the finger forefinger and the thumb there is heavily jimped and a lot of dagger technique, especially like Fairbairn-Sykes stuff, the stuff you can see that gutter fighting, involves a lot of this sort of pinch grip here. And then I'm not exactly sure why, I would rather just hold really hold fast to the knife, but there's some of this pinch grip stuff happening when you look at those old videos. But also it's great for this sort of, I call it the shovel grip, I'm not sure what it's called, but sideways where you have your thumb against the side of the handle, feels so comfortable there. Those swells on the palm just feel amazing. You don't need to cap it with that, and the guard it's so ergonomic, though you might want to. Anyway, this is a rigid thrusting blade. Yes, these bevels are slightly hollow ground, and that might add to its ability to cut and slash, but this is primarily a thrusting blade. Look at how you get that full blade thickness to about a to within 1/3 of the tip and then it takes a slow taper and just gives you a fat thick rigid blade with a nice sharp edge. Again, even though we have slab handle scales here, we have great attention to grip, which you need in a dagger. Again, great in the shovel grip, you've got Coke bottling here with those palm swells, jimping on the flats as well as on the on the spine and belly of the tang, and then all around the the pommel there. This thing is just awesome. It carries really well for a dagger, and as an EDC defensive blade, it's pretty much on the on the outside in terms of size, especially with that sheath. It's pretty broad, so against the hip in the 3:00 or 4:00 position in the waistband, it's pretty comfortable.

Okay, next up is another one from Spartan, co-designed with another one of my favorite designers, Les George. Now this one I'm going to show you in the sheath also because it is this is an example of an outstanding plastic or, you know, extruded whatever, it's it's not Kydex, but this kind of a plastic sheath because it is as slender as you can get it around a dagger while being a pancake sheath, and the benefit to the pancake sheath, the larger it it gives you lashing options on both sides. So it is and then it gives this one gives you grommets and belt and, you know, loop lashing or molly lashing slots all the way down the length of it. So this is a great sheath. This one I can carry in I can carry this one around the house in the waistband. It's a little too big for me to walk around out in public with, but it's easy enough due to that slender sheath to just carry it in the waistband around the house. And it's also a pajama knife, I got to say. But this is based on the Raider dagger, the early World War II Marine Corps Raider dagger.

And this is the basic profile of it. The problem with that knife is it was kind of poorly designed, it was not a full tang knife like this, and it had a very thin blade and the quality of the materials was not that high. It had a tendency to tip, break. So guys would or Marines would take them and just pre-break them at the tip and it would be flat on top like a standard screwdriver and they would sharpen it like a chisel, sharpen that tip. So I I bet in the hands of a Marine that's just a pretty gnarly weapon in and of itself, but Spartan Blades and Les George have sort of perfected the design with a thicker blade steel, a stout blade going all the way up to the tip. You can see how how that tip is pretty stout for how acute it is in profile, and you've got this great handle. These are FRN knurled heavily knurled FRN scales here, and then you have jimping all the way around the grip on the on the tang. And then you've got that beautiful Coke bottle, fits the hand perfectly in that shovel grip or in a standard saber grip or in this reverse grip. Awesome, awesome knife. It's a 7-inch blade, I highly recommend this knife, and it it won't break the bank. It's one of their foreign-made knives. It's made in Taiwan, I believe. Yeah, I think it's made yeah, Taiwan. It says it right there on the blade, Bob, in letters.

All right, second to last here is a recent acquisition. This I made in a trade with Dave of OG Blade Reviews. I accidentally ordered an extra Ram-Lok Scarab, non-commando, and I was like, I don't need two of these and I don't want to send it back. See what Dave has. He wanted the knife, he offered me this. And yes, it's a Microtech, and yes, it's a dagger. The Microtech SBD Dagger, I've wanted this one for a long time. And here is a perfect example of broader is better with a dagger. You've got a broad dagger, these are flat ground bevels, but it's broad enough that the edges, like all Microtechs, even if they seem obtuse, they're so damn sharp. They're wickedly sharp. And this one is no exception, comes to a great point. So if you're concerned that broad means not penetrative, that point will prove you wrong. You've got full blade thickness to about a to within 1/3 of the tip and then it takes a slow taper and just gives you a fat thick rigid blade with a nice sharp edge. Again, even though we have slab handle scales here, we have great attention to grip, which you need in a dagger. Again, great in the shovel grip, you've got Coke bottling here with those palm swells, jimping on the flats as well as on the on the spine and belly of the tang, and then all around the the pommel there. This thing is just awesome. It carries really well for a dagger, and as an EDC defensive blade, it's pretty much on the on the outside in terms of size, especially with that sheath. It's pretty broad, so against the hip in the 3:00 or 4:00 position in the waistband, it's pretty comfortable.

Okay, last up, Cold Steel, had to go with Cold Steel, the Cold Steel Tai Pan. The Tai Pan, I wanted it for so many years when I finally bought it about, I don't know, a year and a half ago. Quad hollow ground bevels here. This is the San Mai version of it, so it's got a VG-10, I think, edge and then a softer 420 jacket, I believe that's the recipe of their San Mai. Very curved, very nice, um I'm sorry, bellied blade here with a very stout tip. So again, you're getting slashing, this is a great knife for slashing, but also great for thrusting. So this really does hit and fire on all cylinders here. You've got a 7 and 1/2 inch blade, nice and long here, aluminum guard, and then that attitude adjuster on the back, the skull crusher, which ordinarily I don't go for a sharp pommel, but A, this is classic on this knife in particular, and B, the grippiness of the Kray-Ex and the of the Kray-Ex handle and that guard leaves me confident that I'm going to stay on the handle if I have to come down hard with this knife. The Tai Pan from Cold Steel, a classic, classic dagger. Thank you one and all for joining me on this update to my dagger collection. I plan on it swelling in the future, so we will be back in a year's time to talk about more daggers. All right, 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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