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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.
©2024, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript

[0:00] Coming up, I revisit a SOG knife and am pleasantly surprised, a gift from Michael Janich, and knife brands I will never part with.
I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
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.

[0:27] Welcome back to the show. my favorite comment from this past week was from bronco 1199 and he was talking about my video on the tops knives uh l uh l pioneer from uh uh the collaboration with uh ed's manifesto ed calderon and he said this knife is modeled at uh the knife it's modeled after is eight bucks i think he could have found a way to do a collab and keep the price below eighty dollars it's way over a hundred and that kind of cash grab pisses me off.
Just saying. I like the knife, but I bought a Pioneer Woman for $8 instead.
And now what he's talking about is a knife that is intended to be used for self-defense.

[1:11] That is modeled after a simple kitchen knife.
This is something Ed Calderon talks about.
If you're traveling, you show up in a new town, you can't bring a knife with you.
You go to a grocery store, you get a paring knife. knife they work great he's tested them out in all sorts of dynamic biological medium tests and such and really came to the conclusion that the pioneer woman paring knife was the best tactical knife out there for self-defense and it can be easily acquired in any new city just go to walmart and you have a self-defense knife on you and uh you know bronco's point is well taken that's that's an eight dollar solution twelve dollar solution uh and here he's doing a collaboration with tops Knives making a $150 solution.

[1:57] The thing you got to remember is that these kind of collaborations ...

[2:02] They don't really make anyone that much money. And so everyone, you know, they try and pump up the price a little bit so the designer gets some because he's only getting, I don't know, whatever his percent is.
But I don't think, last I heard, Topps doesn't give like a huge royalty.
So I think they were just, yeah, just trying to make it work for everyone.
Sometimes I think that's the problem with collaborations.
You end up, you know, getting a CRKT, paying, you know, 70 bucks for a CRKT because Michael Walker designed it. Well, it's much more that Michael Walker.
But my point is collaborations sometimes get pricier than you think they should be. Anyway, thank you, Bronco. Good food for thought.
And thank you one and all for watching and commenting this past week.
All that said, let us get to a pocket check.
What's in his pocket? Let's find out.

[2:56] Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. It's been hard to get this one out of my pocket since I got it. This is the Microtech Amphibian.
This is the knife that I credit with reinvigorating my love for the modern folding tactical style knife.
Not that my love ever went away, but I kind of felt like I have everything I really want and feel that I need, so to speak, for the collection.

[3:23] And was focusing more on other kind of knives. knives, slip joint knives, big fixed blade knives.
But seeing that this was not only out again, but available, really made me excited.
You say out again, it's been out for a year. Yeah, it's been out for a year.
But I didn't know that. And I started seeing videos coming out. And man, that really...
It harkens back to the spirit of the commander. Not that this is biting off of that spirit, but the same thing that attracted me to the Emerson commander when I first got it 23 years ago really got me excited about this.
So I saved up and got this one, and now it's got me on a Microtech tear?
Maybe, maybe not a tear. They're too expensive to go on a tear.
But now I'm, well, Thursday Night Knives last week, I traded my Heretic for an out the side, an automatic Socoma. I'm very excited about that.
I'm really excited about Microtech again. They are so well built.
That's the thing. I mean, in my experience, they are very, very well built.
Now, my Ultratech, I think, is a little finicky.

[4:40] I think it has a harder spring than most. It's a little more difficult to actuate, but it's built my thumbs up. It's made me stronger.
But really, the build and the design of these knives are exquisite, and I can see myself kind of in real time going down a rabbit hole.
But I'm going to do it differently this time.
I am looking to do trades and sell some knives and kind of lighten the collection a little bit so I don't feel like I'm being owned by these things, but I am being owned by myself.
Okay, enough of that. The slip joint today was a case.
I had this medium toothpick, something that, a pattern that they have brought out and now feature in most of their lines, which I really like.
Beautiful knife. The one thing I'm not crazy about is the very light action on this.
It is pretty light, but sometimes I feel, and I'm not sure if this is perception or.

[5:42] But sometimes I feel like slip joints get stouter over the years.
They get like the action becomes maybe a little bit harder to actuate.
And maybe that's true and maybe there's a real reason for it, but it's something I sort of tend to feel.
This is a Sunset Whiskey Bone.
Beautiful, beautiful dye job. I mean, that's really why I got this because it's an incredible bone cover.
And this is in our carbon steel line. I'm 1095, and so this will patina over time, or if I take it to the diner and get steak and eggs with it, I love the red meat patina on 1095. It might go that route.
But for this knife, yeah, it's one flaw to me is the action is a split four or so.
But the build is really nice. There are no gaps. I hold every case.
I hold every slip joint up to the light, and you can usually see a little bit through most case knives and Rough Riders.
I've never seen any light through my Jack Wolf knives or my QSP knives, but that's neither here nor there.

[6:56] What is here and there is on my belt today.
That was stupid. three o'clock in the waistband uh the cryptek sheathed necromance by jed hornbeak knives a great little uh sub five inch double-edged uh fighter just a beautiful asymmetrical double-edged knife here almost almost a tanto with that little sub tip there i mean maybe tanto inspired i don't know if that counts for me uh but just a very very thinly hollow ground 3v blade with a scandi swedge so that comes to a zero edge very nasty and sharp let's see do i have any i'm going to show you something real quick i'm going to take a piece of paper and show you how uh that clip Now, I have shown that before where even a dull clip on a clip point blade will do some damage.
But look at this. It's going to very lightly...

[8:03] That's just just barely touching the paper uh that's what that scandi edge will do if if you flick it on something or someone like an incoming hand with a blade boom uh you know uh that's probably never going to factor in to your use of this but that's a bowie knife fighting technique and that comes from uh saber fighting i think uh so it's a tried and true technique and if heaven Heaven forbid you ever use this fighting knife for what it's actually intended for.

[8:35] That's Candy Ground Swedge. I love it. I love it. You know I love double-edged knives. You know I love a sharpened swedge.
This is like ultra, ultra swedge.
And the ergonomics of this are astounding. It is, you might be able to tell just by looking at it. It is so very comfortable in the hand.
It's almost like a pair of slippers that, you see this palm swelled?
The way this shoots up into that, it locks it in, and then you've got this sub-hilt here.
Oh, so comfortable in the Sabre grip.
And then you come up to a Filipino grip with the thumb on that.
Awesome jimping, very comfortable up there.

[9:13] Also great in reverse grip because you have a peaked pommel over which you can put your thumb, and it locks right over there.
That's exactly how I like it.
And you know preferences are preferences but if yours are anything like mine you will love this knife now I gotta say this is not like a widely available knife as a matter of fact I only know that he made three of them but I don't think he retires patterns necessarily I think he retreads old ground with many of his different knives and hopefully this is one of them because I think he could he could do dynamite business with this. I'm trying to bring dynamite back.
My brother and I have for over 10 years been trying to bring it back.
It hasn't gotten any traction.
If I could beseech you out there, if you're listening, just use dynamite as an adjective once today.
Hey, mom, this casserole is dynamite. Or hey, Jim, you did a dynamite job on the report.
And just see how it goes. And don't do it ironically. It's like, let's let this be organic. Okay, lastly on me, for emotional support.

[10:22] The Black Mamba by Off Grid Knives. This is an often overlooked knife, but man, it's awesome.
This version of it was made by Best Tech. I believe it is now made in a Taiwanese OEM that Off Grid uses.
I'm not sure what the name of that OEM is, but they produce amazing knives.

[10:45] Taiwan is known for it. But this is an enforcer, basically.
This is like the Enforcer EDC, except in titanium with this awesome golf ball texturing and old-fashioned file work on the spine that acts as jimping.
This one, as you might be able to see on that coating, has gotten a lot of use.
Off-grid knives are my absolute favorite cardboard knives, hands down, except for the large 6-inch Luzon, which is just an unfair advantage.
Advantage uh they make off-grid makes the best cardboard knives at least in my collection as far as i'm concerned and uh so this has got a lot of that but but this one in particular um is just got has such great action and it's tough as nails but is also luxurious in this titanium frame lock build uh what's the steel on this m390 so it's a it's a luxe little off-grid and i really really like it That's a very handsome carry, if I do say so myself.

[11:47] The Microtech Amphibian, the Case Medium Toothpick, the Necromancer by Jed Hornbeak, and the Off-Grid Knives Black Mamba.
Sorry, these names sometimes, they just get all bound up in the head.
Let me know what you were carrying today.
Do you carry fixed blade knives on a regular basis? We have some on Thursday Night Knives who will go unnamed because I didn't get permission to name them who carry a lot of knives but also a lot of fixed blade knives. Wow, I was shocked.

[12:22] Made me think of that character in Lou Diamond Phillips' character in Young Guns 100,000 years ago.
All right. So I had a cool kind of weekend where I was choring around a bit and part of that choring is taking care of this room and kind of fixing the collection between all my storage now and then separating out some stuff I want to get rid of.
And I came across the SOG Hiku XR.
Now, this was a knife that was given to me by SOG after I interviewed them.
They talked about this and sent this to me.
It is a sweet knife. I forget that SOG has done their rebranding.
I mean, I don't forget, but I forget how effective their rebranding has been because they're really producing some pretty nice folders.

[13:20] Now, they're not necessarily up my alley these days in terms of the assisted opening and some of the colors and stuff, but I appreciate what they've done.
Their rebranding has been so good. it i am more partial to this kind of uh thing this is uh their folding version of the kiku which was originally a fixed blade and then they did a folder um and this is more on their high end and this is what the xr lock this lock is really good now i have the xr on a couple of other sogs and it's gotten better over time this at this point this is three years old i guess uh and they had it dialed in at this point and i have a couple of older sogs using this xr lock which is basically an axis lock um and they weren't as good uh, you would have a difference in, you know, the bar would not span equally as you pulled it back, unless you used both fingers for sure, but also used them in perfect concert.

[14:28] But anyway, this one right here is stout and sturdy.
That's XHP steel. I love CTS XHP.
It's got a beautifully hollow, beautifully compound ground blade with that hollow recurve area.

[14:43] And And it's very sharp, especially since I put a better edge on it.
Got this great jimping here, a harpoon.
This is a really good knife. And they make a version of this with carbon fiber liners.
And so it's even lighter. This is a little chunky boy here.
The one with the carbon fiber liner is super light, apparently, according to them. I have not picked one up.
I really like this so i did i carried this around quite a bit this weekend and uh it came in handy i was boxing up a bunch of stuff to send out and that's what i was using so a great little knife the sog xr and uh yeah i'm glad i have it uh next up is i want to talk about the gentleman or show off the gentleman junkie knife giveaway knife uh for march 2024 this is another one from dave this old sword blade reviews and this is one that I have been delaying giving away because it's so cool not that I've been pawing it or carrying it but kind of like I don't want to give it away yet so this is the of course it's got a name like this the Tucson TS394 but this is a Tepe design I like Tepe designs and look at that beautiful tanto beautiful American Americanized tanto with a nice long swedge.

[16:08] Those big, awesome thumb studs that Tucson does there.
And, of course, it's a button lock. It's a big, bolstered button lock with great action.
I'm better with my right hand on this one, so I'm just going to use my right hand.
But it's got a nice big handle in a saber grip. It's a very comfortable handle, if not a little big.
It's a little bulbous down here. and um for me it visually it doesn't need to be but then when you get it in hand you know i'm shallow like that visual things really do matter to me but when it's in hand you're glad it's there it's so comfortable it almost feels a bit like a rounded off uh strider if if that means anything to you uh amazing sharpening choil look at that look at that i mean you can really literally literally with, you know, the plunge grind is way back here.
There's a giant choil way in front of it. You could literally sharpen up to the top of that choil and still have a sharp edge.
You would probably run into problems up here, up front, but this thing is awesome.
I think this is D2. Yep, D2 steel.
Great action. This is a serial number. Now, I believe this is, yeah, this is 42.

[17:23] Wait okay this is the TS-175 this is not the 394 this is just came to me in the wrong box my apologies I was just reading the box when I listed it but just reading the blade and I can see see there there's the Tepe Tepe Designs logo there those wings very cool TS-175 so if you are a gentleman junkie and And actually, I want to thank my dad right now.
My dad just became a Gentleman Junkie, and he's going by V2.
And V2 is a Gentleman Junkie. Thank you, Dad. I appreciate it.
But I texted him. I'm like, what are you doing?
You've been a lifelong patron. I wouldn't be here without your patronage.

[18:10] But I appreciate it, Dad. That's awesome. I think he's like, it's not about you, Bob. I just want the knives.
Because I've turned him into a knife junkie. have you turned anyone into a knife junkie i i've i've i've been like a missionary i maybe i should put this to better use but right now i'm doing it for knives and i've gotten a lot of people hooked like it uh okay still to come we're gonna talk about two new knives uh coming out three new knives one of them by saw which is pretty cool and then some good news from knife rights but But first, I'd like to urge you to like, subscribe, hit the notification bell, but also tell a friend about this show if you think it's interesting. And...

[18:54] Share it. That's the best thing you can do for this show, is share it.
All right, we'll be right back with Knife Life News.
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And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life news.
Okay, in this first story, we're going to have a couple of tongue twisters. So forgive me.
Until this is out there in the common knife vernacular, the knife-a-sphere, the blade-a-sphere vernacular, I'm going to go with the new Vosteed Ankylo. Ankylo. loan.

[20:17] And really what it is, it's a platform for their new Vanchor, and that's what I'm going with, Vanchor Law.
Okay, so this is a modified wharncliffe. As you can see, it's got that front flipper, that back flipper, and the lozenge-shaped hole for deployment, so multi-deployment.
But the real big thing on this is that pivot-based law called the Vanchor Law.

[20:41] It's kind of like a deadbolt at least in how it presents itself to the world you press in the button it unlocks it but i'm not sure what's happening inside yet it's patented and they haven't uh they haven't really uh divulged that yet uh but it does use an anchor plate and this is cool a magnetic connector, magnetic that's that's pretty cool it's like we only see that from winter blade co these days uh pretty much i think uh you see some magnets and some sheaths here and there but um not much in the way of locking mechanisms.
So VostE'd been burning it up lately, so this is cool to see another innovation.
Actually, they have another one, another...

[21:25] What do you call it uh lock that they say that they've come up with uh but a third thing about this lock i have to say uh not only will you not get your hands on it for a while because it's kind of still in the works uh but it has a fail-safe system and what i like about that is it's unlike the locks fail-safe system say on the crkt you don't see anything it's not an external thing so i'll be interested to see how all that works i will also be interested to see how uh what all all the tinkerers think you know uh the people who take apart their knives on video love to see what that looks like all right next up is from boker and michael birch famed custom knife maker michael birch uh they have a new one coming out together called the swoopy uh interesting name uh the boker swoopy uh if you don't know michael birch uh you may know his uh he did a collaboration with Spyderco, I think, in 2020.
Makes very robust folders, and here he's got a 3.11-inch wharncliffe in Nitro-V, not in D2.
We've been seeing more Nitro-V slip in instead of D2, which is kind of nice.
I like both. I have no problem with either.

[22:43] Stainless frame lock knife and G10 on the front.
This one reminds me a little bit, when you scroll down and you see the lock side of this, it reminds me a bit of the Lateralis, the Boker collaboration with Jason Stout, especially on the backside.
I really like Boker stainless frame locks.
They really lighten up that steel. First of all, you can see all the contouring on the outside, removing steel, but also there's a lot of pocketing on the insides.
They get their steel frame locks to feel a lot like titanium frame locks in terms of weight.
Speaking of weight, 3.3 ounces, non-reversible clip, and available now.
So go check that out. All right, the last knife I want to take a look at here is a SOG.
Coincidentally, I was talking about the XR Kiku. This is an XR using the XR lock.
It's called the SOG Diverge or Diverge.

[23:44] It's a 3-inch D2 sheep's foot. Pretty interesting-looking knife, especially for SOG.
We haven't seen that blade shape from them. Kind of arresting, kind of interesting.
I don't see the point, literally. No, I don't like so much sheep foots on these kind of knives, but I have to say it is a striking design.
The handles are aluminum, and you've got a deep carry pocket clip, the 6061 aluminum XR lock.
They come in black and black, forest green and black, and then a light blue with a sort of goldish, bronzish blade.
These are kind of cool. I think they're cool and, you know, leaning in, if you will, to the EDC nature of how SOG has gone.
They were, you know, originally combat knives, fixed blade combat knives, and then they got into lockback folders and then they got into some really nice folders and then they went total cheese, in the sort of big box tactical realm.

[24:53] And then did a total rebranding about five years back and have been really accentuating EDC stuff.
And this one looks like it'll hit the mark. If the action is good and you've got that XR lock and people love sheep's foot blades, they might find some success with this one.
All right. Last up, this is good news from Knife Rights.

[25:19] In Idaho. The Idaho preemption bill goes to the House floor, and I'll just read to you from the Knife Rights website.
Knife Rights bill that would enact Knife Rights' signature knife law preemption in Idaho, called HO 620, was voted out of the House State Affairs Committee with a due pass recommendation.
Todd Rathner, Knife Rights Director of Legislative Affairs, testified in Boise in support of the bill.
Sponsored by Representative Jordan Redman, Knife Rights would especially like to extend our thanks to Chairman Brent Crane for expeditiously hearing our bill.
Now, this is the interesting part here. This is the definition.
We talk about knife preemption bills here all the time. This is the perfect boiling down encapsulation of what that is.
Knife law preemption is a knife rights criminal justice reform effort that repeals and prevents local ordinances more restrictive than state law, which only serve to confuse or entrap law-abiding citizens traveling within or through the state.
Preemption ensures citizens can expect consistent law enforcement of state laws everywhere within the state.
I think that's the perfect definition. I've had Doug Ritter on here talk about it, and I've had him redefine it to me many times, but he wrote it down here perfectly.
So that's your definition for knife preemption, and it should, without a doubt, be in every state.
You don't want to go from your county to the next and suddenly be a criminal.

[26:48] It says here, Knife Rights passed the nation's first knife law preemption bill in Arizona in 2010 and has since passed preemption bills in Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Knife Rights will let you know as soon as it's appropriate to contact your Idaho lawmakers to support HO620.
So very interesting. Thank you, Doug Ritter, and thank you, Knife Rights.
He doesn't do it alone, that's for sure.

[27:20] He also couldn't do it without support and donations from knife junkies such as ourselves.
So if you have it in your heart and in your wallet to donate whatever you can to Knife Rites, you know it's always going to a good cause.
All right, coming up, we are going to take a look at the state of the collection.
I got one new knife since last we spoke, and it is a gift from Michael Janich.
We'll check that out. But first, be sure to check us out on Patreon.
Actually, wait till after the show. You can do that by scanning the QR code, got my finger wrong, right there, or going to thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon.

[28:01] If you do that, you get to see the three different tiers of support you could enjoy and the different benefits from each one.
So be sure to go over to thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon and check us out.
Again, that's thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon. The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super-sharp crenulated bezel, and built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts.
Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch.
TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Shockwave.
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. podcast.
Okay, so after having Mike Janich on the show, he said he would send me a...
Oh, I knew I'd botch it with my left hand.
So this is the Microjimbo by Spyderco. Let me grab some focus here.
The Microjimbo by Spyderco. And you know what this is. This is the small version of the Ojimbo.
This was inspired by...
Requests that uh mike janich had received and spider co had received asking for a version of the.

[29:20] Venerable self-defense knife in uh something carryable in chicago and we all know chicago is not the safest city in the nation though they seem to have more of a gang uh problem than like a knife fighting problem but still you want to have something on you always to protect yourself And in Chicago, you're limited by size pretty severely.
I think it's got to be below two and a half inches. So right here, this is the solution to that.
Now, he had done numerous reversionings of the knife where he had gone on a grinder and taken the old knife and just made a smaller version of it.
But here, they just decided to codify it because they had so many requests for it.
I love it. And I got to say, the compression lock here works really, really great.
I wasn't sure it was going to work so well on a small knife, but you pinch it all the way in, and it just drops.
But since it's not on bearings and it's on washers, you still have this kind of more hydraulic action, if you're just manipulating the knife by hand like that. I mean, slow rolling it.

[30:38] Very, very nice knife. S30V fits the hand really nicely.
I have medium-sized hands. I can get a full four-finger grip on there.
Some of you guys with giant mitts might need to come up here onto that sort of blank space, the ricasso of the blade and the finger guard.
There's plenty of room to kind of choke up there. But I like that you can get all of that pressure right at the tip because your thumb is so far out over that blade.
So in that classic configuration of G10 and S30V from Spyderco, super wickedly sharp.
And this one, now it is shipping with a wire clip.
I believe when they first announced it, it was with that giant...
Oh, well, that's not the clip.
But it was with a bigger, the sort of standard big Spyderco clip, and it came down here, and it looked pretty awkward.
Now, I'm not sure if that was just for the prototype, but...
So here is a Spyderco Yojimbo, coincidentally, with a 5x5 Solutions pocket snagger thing there, Wave.
But look at how much smaller. This is 3 1⁄4 inches in blade length, and look at how much smaller that is.

[31:54] Great, great knives. Well, Spyderco in general, but great knives.
These Michael Janich designed Warren Cliffs, the Micro Jimbo, the Yojimbo 2, the Yojumbo, and the Ronin fixed blade.
Very, very good everyday carry knives because of, I mean, look at it.
It looks like a box cutter, basically, but also just incredible for self-defense.
Well-researched and incredible Incredible for self-defense, especially for slashes.
You get maximum damage out of that straight edge.

[32:29] So very, very happy to have this microjimbo in my collection.
Thank you, Michael Janich and Spyderco, for sending this to me.
It's greatly appreciated and will be cherished for here and evermore.
Very great, by the way, in the back pocket. This I've been carrying in my back left pocket next to my bandana. It's great.
You barely know it's there, and then when you need it, boom, right there. And what have I needed it for?
Opening chips and salad bags, basically food so far.
But there will be more.
School projects and such, that knife is made for it.
All right, before we get on to the main topic of conversation, I'd like to say go over to theknifejunkie.com and check out the featured t-shirt of the week. I love this one.
Luck of the Irish, I'll trust my knives. And you see an angry leprechaun with a tanto, with a traditional Japanese tanto, and then a Bowie knife in his hands. And he looks mean.
Themed for March, of course, and you Irish folks out there might like this.

[33:39] Hopefully no one's sensitive culturally. But I know that Jim's got some of that in him, some of that Irish blood in him, so we're allowed to do this.
Uh luck of the irish i'll trust my knives uh if you don't like that one or if you like other ones better there are more than 50 uh t-shirt designs knife themed all by our good buddy jim up on knifejunkie.com slash shop and it's page after page and they're awesome and some of them are hilarious and they all look really good so go check that out all right last thing i want to to talk about today is um kind of uh maybe last week's topic where i was talking about 15 knives that are 10 knives that are a dozen knives it was 12 that signify my 25 years of collecting since i got serious about it basically and what what those knives mean i discovered or i was thinking about these are some knives here that i will never get rid of like i these are knives that I've sold previously.

[34:46] Knives from these companies and have regretted and i just don't want to part with them anymore so now when i acquire knives from these brands i'm holding fast and uh not not letting them go there are plenty in the fixed blade category like i would not let go of these randall knives but these aren't the ones i'm talking about i'm talking more on my everyday carry the ones that impact me uh when i sell them and i'm like ah i regret this i regret this and you hear me talk talk about it here all right first is microtech they've been uh top of mind as they like to say in the corporate world recently uh because of the amphibian but this was my very first microtech and this was also as i mentioned last week my very first s35 vn knife my very first bearings knife uh very first knife with a glass breaker and with carbon fiber this was like a this like broke a this was a.

[35:39] This broke me into a lot of different knife trends that have become standard that's what I'm trying to get at but I've also discovered with the Amphibian and with revisiting the Bravo the SOCOM Bravo recently that I'm just crazy about their builds they look beautiful yeah we all know that we all have eyes they're gorgeous well maybe we don't all but, they are gorgeous but the way they They are built. They are so substantial.
They feel, they're just finely engineered.
They just feel so finely tuned. And I haven't had, like I said before, I've had some finickiness, but I've never had any disappointment with a Microtech build in terms of stout, sturdy, zero play kind of stuff.
Of course, not including Alpafronts, which have play.
So Microtech is one of them. And I have a new one coming in, an automatic version of this, which I am so excited for, except it's from 2018. This is a 2013.
So it'll have the grippy area here instead of the carbon fiber and a different designed blade, as well as the spring automatic.
So I'm very much looking forward to that.
Okay, next brand is Spyderco.

[36:59] I will not get rid of any of my Spydercos. I have not been acquiring them at any sort of extreme pace, but...
I have decided that this is a brand I will not let go because almost every one of them at this point is a sentimental knife to me.
A lot of them were given to me as gifts. A number of them were sought out because I interviewed someone who designed it, say like this.

[37:30] And they all have a sentimental value to me. But really, these knives are worth keeping.
These knives are worth passing down or selling off much later when they're worth a lot more because, like Microtech, they are kind of beyond reproach with build.
When was the last time you had a quality control issue with a Spyderco?
I mean, you know, kind of like Victorinox, it doesn't happen often.
But you add the designs and the steels and the heat treats and the fact that many of them are made in America and it's an American brand, And then many of them are also made in Taiwan, which produces incredible knives.
They're just worth not getting rid of.
And then you have the innovation, too. Spyderco innovated the one-handed opening with the opening hole, the pocket clip, and then the locks, like this compression lock.
And then all of the steels with the Mule Team platform.
They're just amazing.
All right. right next up great eastern cutlery uh i have gotten rid of great eastern cutlery knives uh a few i got rid of two and i i don't remember what the numbers are but one of them was the.

[38:52] Uh uh eureka jack double-bladed eureka jack from like 2014 or something like that 2015 and i sold it to a guy that i worked with and uh who was my old boss Oh, anyway, he has it, and I'll never get that back.
But I also sold another one to him, and I have always, always regretted it.
But this is one of the, not signature models, this is one of my absolute favorite models of theirs that I own. This is the 86.
It's a big jackknife. You've got that gorgeous clip-point blade, and then you have a really awesome sheep's foot blade here.
Nice, long, usable sheep's foot blade.
Gorgeously built with that.

[39:44] Tortoise shell and if you're hearing it it's got amazing action um and then these things are made on old machines now i think that they have updated some of their some of their factory and some of their methods because they're able to produce more knives more frequently i believe or at least that's anecdotal i've been trying to get an interview uh and i i just don't think bill Howard gives interviews because he wouldn't even let the Apostle P interview him.
And they've been friends for a long time.

[40:17] So these things are worth keeping. If you have them, they're worth keeping because of how they're produced, where they're made up in Michigan, and they're made in old ways and they're old patterns.
Even though that they're innovating with some patterns, I just won't get rid of mine now.
A lot of regret in getting rid of those two, but also just there aren't too many knives made like this, especially production knives.
And so it's worth keeping.
These are my justifications. Welcome to my justifications.
All right, next up, Rick Hinderer knives. These are made in Shreve, Ohio.
I've never been to Shreve, but I know it's close to where my brother went to school, and I've been there before.
And uh that if they were made in pennsylvania i'd still buy them i love rick hinderer knives again innovation with the over travel stop uh and some things that we probably uh didn't see too much of like these plates and such but super robust builds and great knives that cross from.

[41:31] EDC into tactical. I mean, to me, this is a great knife that spans both.
This one here is the XM24 and the XM24 has the 4-inch blade as opposed to the 3.5 on the XM18.
These long blades are beautiful but also very, very effective, especially this wharncliffe.
So you could use this all day long for chores with that robust m390 uh wharncliffe blade with that tip down low doing all your uh all your utility cuts and stuff that we're always talking about but uh you need to turn this into a fighting knife look at that thing it's like straight out of it's like a folding viking knife here but really what it is is the build and the the feel and the quality and the fact that it's american made um now i haven't gotten a new hinderer in a long time and frankly i have no plans to um i would like to get the project x knife but.

[42:32] Um you know and i also wouldn't mind having a slicer and having some of the other blade configurations but i'm not they are just expensive enough and and there have been there's been enough little kind of weirdness uh politically not politically that's the wrong term but in terms of uh uh litigation that rick hinderer has been i don't know i don't know i All I'm trying to get at is I really, really love these knives for what they are, and they are really awesome, but I'm not running out to spend more money on them because they are very expensive, and frankly, I'd like to give my money to other people.
All right next up is the chris reeve knives uh brand of knives label of knives if you will uh i now i've only ever had two and uh they are slow coming as i spoke last week the uh the sebenza 21 which just celebrated its eighth birthday or technically its eighth birthday but it was born on leap day so so it's kind of only two birthdays uh but that knife and this knife This one I got used, the other one I got new.
They are so exquisite. They are examples of the best knife making out there, folding knife making out there, the way they feel, the way they cut.

[43:59] The way the action feels.

[44:02] This is that hydraulic feel.
That term was invented for Chris Reeve knives, the way they feel when they open and close. It's like a very light and smooth resistance that is reassuring.
It is the opposite of fall shot action.
And I love fall shot action too, but that's a different...

[44:23] Totally different vibe the build on these incredible incredible build uh and we're going to see later um a couple knives down when you combine these two knives you get a third, when you combine chris reeve and rick hinderer you get a third brand of folding knife and i'm wondering if you know what that is we'll get to that in a second uh next up pro tech i was talking about people i'd like to give my money to i would like to give more money to protect uh dave uh Uh, Wattenberg is so awesome. The company is so awesome.
It's, uh, the people I've come in contact with, uh, from, from ProTech are great.
And that means a lot. Uh, but what also means a lot are these amazing knives they make.
This, this was the, um, knife that allowed me to get behind the wheel of the Les George VSEP and RockEye design.
One of my favorite folding knife knife designs of all time.
I could not afford or find a VSEP when they came out with this.

[45:26] And I was so thrilled because sometimes when you see a knife that you like go into production as a production knife, they will change the dimensions and change it up a little bit.
The dimensions are all the same here, and this is CPM D2.
So this really allowed me to, like I said, get a knife I could never get or thought I could never get. I ended up getting one in the future.

[45:57] So ProTech, great build, great out-the-side automatics.

[46:03] And button lock non-autos I'm trying to get at.
This is distracting me here. I'm going to turn this light down. It's.

[46:16] Please forgive me, people. All right, there we go. That's better.
It was flaring out a little bit.
So ProTech, amazing action, amazing build, all this aluminum, and they are beautiful.
Something I see in Microtech that I see in ProTech is exquisite milling in aluminum.
And you really get to see how jimping feels in aluminum from both of those brands.
I love it. it's it's sharp without painful you know sharp without being painful just truly engaging jimping here we don't have any of it on this aluminum just on that uh on that blade but on the other microtechs i have you see that uh right now i mean uh protex right now there are no protex that i'm burning to get except one that is out of reach for me right now and that's the terzuola and it's It's very expensive, but rightly so.
There's a, I would imagine, quite a nice royalty going to Bob Terzuola for that and well-deserved.
So combining the incredible build of ProTech and the great people behind that brand and then the sort of people they collaborate with, Les George, Bob Terzuola, and others, great brand.
So I'm not getting rid of any, don't ask. Next up.

[47:35] Jack wolf knives there are there are a couple of reasons there are two two main reasons why i won't get rid of uh jack wolf knives the first one is this more selfish reason because they're really really awesome and i love each one of them and they all get a lot of carry some of them get doted over some of them get dye jobs from with the micarta and some of them are a little more more love than others.
But here is the perfect example of why I'm not going to get rid of any Jack Wolf knives, because he shows innovation.
Ben Belkin has innovated the modern slip joint by keeping it traditional.
And by that, I mean having it all guided by the kick and not a stop pin.
And he's gotten the engineering to such a fine point, especially with the slip joints in terms of their action, in terms of their fit and finish.
And then he flexes into, oh, I think I'll design a bolster lock.
And he does a perfect job right out of the gate.
The only thing I say perfect, the only thing I would change is maybe give a little bit better access to that lock bar.
But only because I've heard other people say it. For me, it's fine. It's fine.

[48:52] Beautiful knives. Also, they've been gifts. And so that's another reason why I'll never get rid of them. I don't get rid of gift knives.
People give me a knife, I keep it. Even if it's one I don't like.
But in this case, it's like gifts of the finest, finest knives.
And I'm so psyched about them. So not getting rid of these, you know, unless I'm trading for food after the apocalypse. lips. All right.
Sorry, Ben. I might have to do that.
Next up is this is the knife that I was saying is the combination of Chris Reeve and Rick Hinderer knives.
This is the Spartan Harsey folder. Now, I'm not saying all Spartan folders are that combination because I just don't have the experience.
I have more experience with the Spartan fixed blades.
But this one from one of my my favorite designers, Bill Harsey Jr., William Harsey Jr., really encapsulates everything to me that makes a folding tactical knife a really good knife.

[49:56] The kind I don't want to get rid of. It is, well, first of all, great to the eye and great to the hand.
Feels great in hand, this knife, and is beautiful.
When you look at the build of it, it is as stout as these two knives.
And has that same feeling action.
So it's got that sort of hinderer stoutness. Look at how, look at the standoffs on that. And then look at the standoffs on this.

[50:22] Like extra, extra wide standoffs. You can run these over with a car.
And they're not going to collapse on themselves.
You get that super sturdy build, and then you have the super smooth, I'm sorry, I keep saying super, incredibly smooth action on the slow roll, that super hydraulic washer action.
I'm such a sucker for it, and this knife gives it to you in spades.
The one, it's not even a ding, but the one observation that if I had my druthers, I might change, but then again, maybe I wouldn't, is the grind.
I might make the grind a little finer behind the edge, but this is very sharp and it's very robust, so maybe not.
I have considered many times having it re-ground, and then I'm kind of, to what end?
And then I see Jared Neves, and he had his hollow ground, and it looks so nice.
So who knows? Maybe I will. I am a sucker for a hollow grind but in the meantime this this is something I will never get rid of also it has my logo emblazoned in it so there is a sentimental value sentimental value to it but this is one I would never get rid of because it's a Spartan blade made in North Carolina.

[51:41] By by great folks and I have I have a couple of their fixed blades and I won't get rid of those So great designer collaborations and incredible builds.
So Spartan Blades right there. Next up...

[51:57] Emerson. You probably knew this was coming. Emerson knives. Never getting rid of any of my Emerson knives.
A couple were gotten rid of for me, stolen.

[52:07] And then I have also given away and sold a couple.
I gave a mini CQC7 to Jimmy Slash.
And the funny thing is, is now I think about it, Jimmy Slash is a big dude.
He's got giant hands. I gave him this mini.
I was like, like how did he open that thing uh but i've had a number of great emerson's and i've let a few go uh whether on purpose or not and have made the decision that i'm not going to do that emerson is one of those knives that and and one of those makers one of those people uh that i want to give my full support and um part of that is acquiring as many of these as i can And I'm not, I don't, I am not always looking for Emerson's.
I rarely, you know, but when they come up, like recently I did a trade for an Emerson with my buddy Ian, and I got that TKF-1 and love it.
And yeah, put it in there.
And these will always be in the Knife Junkie collection.
And this will be among, in the list of knives that I tell my girls, you know, if you want to keep them, keep them.
But if you want to sell them you'll get good money for them uh lastly cold steel cold steel.

[53:29] Cold steel i have gotten rid of a few um but not too many and uh and that's that's just my rule i love these knives so much and.

[53:42] I got to say, it's more like, which cold steel knives don't I want?
That's kind of how I would like to collect them.
And why is that? First of all, I love Lynn Thompson. He's a great person.
And before I knew that, because before I interviewed him and got to know him a little bit personally.

[54:00] And got to, you know, when you talk to someone for an hour and 20 minutes, you get a little feel for them, and what I suspected was true.
And some of the things I suspected were not true. He was a very humble and down-to-earth and warm guy.
And I always wondered if he would be awkward in an interview, and he wasn't. He was very comfortable. I had a great conversation with that guy.
But all that notwithstanding, he has a brilliant mind and knowledge of historical knives and the whole spectrum of knives throughout history.
And he has a huge collection of historical knives and then turns some of those into modern, well-produced, combat-ready knives and swords.
And I am so grateful to that. Like this.

[54:54] This is a modern version of a Navaja, one of my favorite knives from history.
The large Spanish folder that was a locking folder adopted by common-day Spaniards when they could no longer carry swords to settle their beefs.
So they'd pull these giant knives, this and much larger, out of their cummerbunds and fight with them.
And Cold Steel has done this countless Well, you could count, I just haven't But many, many, many times They have taken knives from history And given them new life, modern life With these incredibly stout, sharp, well-built Folders and fixed blades and swords And so Cold Steel, to me You know, I know they've gone through some patches Where people don't like them I think they have reached.

[55:45] Saint status or what do you call it? They've reached kind of unassailable status at this point.
People used to like to bust on them.
But I don't think anyone's busting on them anymore. I think people recognize how great they are.
And then they made the transition to GSM ownership.
And thanks to, in great part, to Stickman, they have maintained, they have really maintained and have done great stuff and have been releasing great stuff.
Some of the designs the new designs you know without uh demco at the at the design helm and without uh without um without lynn thompson designing a lot of the knives some of them are a little ham-fisted i gotta say the mayhem early what is that called yeah the the big no no the big swashbuckling folder yeah the mayhem yeah it's a it's a little little much but i'd I'd like to get one, for sure.
But my point is, Cold Steel is a great company with a great past and a great present, and I believe they'll keep doing this.
I think the people who have it now love it, and I think they will maintain the spirit of Cold Steel, a knife brand I will not part with.

[57:02] All right, what are your knife brands? Some people I know are bench-made fanatics.
A lot of people in law enforcement that I've met pay bar what is it tell me what are the brands you will not part with uh if you have that luxury right now i have that luxury who knows down the road i might be forced to part with these but for now thank god i get to hold on to them all right be sure to join us tomorrow night for thursday night knives and sunday for a great interview i love this i love doing everything i love thursday night knives i love talking with you guys uh i love doing this show and and catching up with the knife world.
But to me, you know, the heart and soul are these interviews, getting to know the knife makers that are creating these things that we collect obsessively. All right, thanks.

[57:49] 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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[58:39] Music.