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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
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Transcript

[0:00] Coming up, the new LVIA V2 from Turner CNC, I get the Microtech Stitch Ramlock, and 10 great knives for urban survival.
Number 8 will shock you. 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.

[0:30] My favorite comment from this past week was from my new spirit animal. This is BadDogID4PO.
He says on my Cold Steel Taipan Dagger video, I have this knife in CPM3V up here in the Rocky Mountains.
This is part of my everyday carry along with two Hellcat 9mm sidearms, a Leatherman, a CRKT Big Dog pocket knife, and a Bic lighter, a ferro rod, and a flashlight.
You city slickers wouldn't understand. end the number one important piece of gear is your pick lighter you wouldn't last three days in the mountain wilderness without it this knife is for wolves mountain lions and wolverines that will jump on you before you can even draw your sidearm i will never go anywhere here in the mountains without this gear unless i'm in an area where it's illegal and i gotta say um bad dog that's pretty cool i as a city slicker uh i love hearing how people actually use some of this gear that I love and love to collect especially the cold steel type hand uh to think that someone carries that on them for self defense against mountain lions and wolverines um.

[1:39] Well, it warms the cockles of my heart. So thanks for leaving that comment and kind of letting me know what your lifestyle is up there in the Rocky Mountains.
It could not be more opposite than mine.
And, well, I admire it. And your whole line about the Bic lighter, I totally get.
And I was wondering how people, in your case, who live in the Rocky Mountains and live and die by their gear, Bic lighter versus Zippo.
Why a Bic lighter over a Zippo? I'm just curious if you have any thoughts on that.
All right. Thank you, BadDogID4PO, for commenting on this video.
And thank you, one and all, for watching over this past week, commenting, liking, and subscribing.
All of that said, let us get now to a pocket check.
What's in his pocket? Let's find out.

[2:29] Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front pocket today, totally in keeping with my recent obsession with Microtech knives, I had my tried-and-true Ultratech double-edge partially serrated.
This is an awesome knife. It was made in August of 2017.

[2:49] 817 is my birthday. I have an affinity for the number 817.
I looked it up, and there is a very, very poignant Bible verse.

[2:59] Uh and oh where is it it's dated right here on the clip it's the only uh billboarding i like on knives are on microtech knives there we go my gosh so 817 i just realized uh i have an affinity for that number and i uh that's when this was made um i love the dagger shape the dagger blade is so so great on these knives, and this one is stiff, but I've been really, really working it, and trying to get it less stiff, and I don't think that's happening.
I think what's happening is that my hands are getting, my thumb is getting a little bit stronger.
I love the anodizing on this. I did drop it the other day, and it received a little bit of a ding, but that's fine.
I'm okay with that. And the more I carry it, the more it'll wear in and look sumptuous.
Now, I am not a huge fan of out-the-fronts, but I have a couple, two of them, and they are Microtex.
And I wouldn't mind checking out their new one that's coming out that is supposed to be Zero Play.
That's an exciting one. Okay, next up in my left pocket, kind of volleyed around actually today, was the Jack Wolf Knives Gunslinger Jack.
This is the second coming, if you will, of the Gunslinger Jack.

[4:19] This knife was so popular when it came out. Jack Wolf Knives' first folding, flipping, locking, modern, traditional, in the truest sense of the word, because it's got this modern setup with the locking and the flipping and whatnot.
But it really is this traditional gunstock jack pattern.
It's just larger. It's got about a 3.2-inch blade, so right there in that perfect EDC zone for most people.
And in this case, ironwood, just beautiful ironwood covers. I'm so just, I love these.
Enamored, that's the word I was looking for. They have a knurled titanium pattern.
They have a smoky purple curonite, and then they have two different carbon fibers.
One is a golden carbon fiber that looks like wood in pictures. Just awesome knives.
The flipping action on this one is even more free and ball-shutty, if you will, than the first version, which had exquisite flipping action as well. Let's see, next up.

[5:31] I had on my belt the 302 from Aaron Bieber Knives, the 302 with the Tsukamaki wrap.
This is in MagnaCut, and just a really, really beautiful blade, as you can see, kind of blending with that Tsukamaki wrap, and sort of a blend between a Kiridashi and a Clip Point or Bowie blade here.
And it's very utility oriented with that tip down low and then that long slight belly but it acts as a straight edge there.

[6:12] Very light and you put this on your belt.
I like to wear this in the waistband just right up front appendix and I can draw it in reverse grip so easily with that wrap.
Look at how the alternating peaks and valleys there create a place for your for your hand to grab in and actually the way he negotiated this rap through that choil is masterful he being aaron bieber i've been following him for a long time then introduced myself to him at blade show 2023 and it ends up we went to the same art school and and uh lived in the same area uh philly for a while it was just uh pretty cool to meet him him never never knew him in school but years later to to uh fall in love with his knives and then and then meet him in person and then have him on the show really great but this knife uh all of that aside is really uh a great everyday carry um small fixed blade it is uh classy looking very well made uh definitely deadly but um you know for self-defense if you needed it but chances are it's just one of the most handy fixed blade knives you'll ever put on your belt and forget.

[7:28] Uh, lastly on me, this was more for emotional support than anything, was the number 86. I haven't carried this in a long time.
Great Eastern Cutlery 86 jackknife. Such a beautiful knife.
I bought one for me and one for my brother when these were out. Let me check the date.

[7:50] The date is always here on one of the blades.
So this is the number, number 86. six uh number uh let's see the primary blade is number one which means a clip point uh the number two there means two blades and then that one nine is 19 this was made in 2019 and uh so that year that five years ago i got one for me and one for my brother because it's because of my brother that i am absolutely in love with tortoise shell my brother vic has always been into tortoise shell I think he got his love from the pickguards of Stratocasters and Telecaster guitars.

[8:28] But he had horn-rimmed glasses with that and various things with that tortoiseshell on it.
So it made me think of him. I got him one, got me one.
And it is probably my second favorite Great Eastern cutlery knife right behind my No.
15 Farmer Boys knife.
That clip-point blade is great. Great, big and long. It reminds me of a Sheffield clip point.
And then that Sheepsfoot blade.
Nice and big and useful. That's what I love about Great Eastern Cutlery.
Their secondary blades are big and useful, like Penblade or Sheepsfoot.

[9:08] Really, really great knife. Great action on this. I love the Great Eastern Cutleries, and I've been neglecting them recently for all these modern traditionals I've been into.
So I've got to dive back in And take advantage of my Awesome GEC collection Alright that's what I had in my pocket What did you have in your pocket?
Let me know Drop it down there in the comments Of course you give me inspiration And, Yeah so Let's have it down below Again it was the Ultratech It was the Gunslinger It was the 302 and it was the 86 Alright coming up Tomorrow Tomorrow on, if you're watching this the day this is dropping, but so coming up on the third Thursday of March this year, we have our Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway.
Of course, that's March 21st.
And it's the Tepe Designs Tucson TS394.
And I'm sorry, just the 394. I always mix up these numbers.
It's the 175. My apologies to all. This is the 175. I keep messing up the number. uh.

[10:15] A beautiful, broad tanto, Americanized tanto with a very thin grind right behind the edge.
It is wickedly thin, very, very sharp.
You've got flat grinds on both the tip and on the main.
You've got this incredible sharpening choil. It's like he was taking notes right from a Neves Knives video on that choil. Very well done.
Really great thumb studs on this. and the button lock is awesome it has this ever widening handle which reminds me a little bit of a strider i like to bring that out for reference it just widens out and so makes it easy on the hands on any sort of long use task because you're not gripping something real thin so but it has It has this nice bulbous round end, which makes it comfortable in the pocket.
And, man, I love this knife. This was donated to the channel by This Old Sword.
I can't do it with my left hand for some reason.
This Old Sword Blade Reviews donated this to the channel, and I really appreciate it.
So I look forward to passing this on to you. This is a hard one to let go because I always admired it.

[11:31] All right. All right. So this is to a gentleman junkie, one lucky gentleman junkie coming up here on the 21st of March, 2024.
Still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at some knife life news and then a couple of new ones in my collection.
And then, of course, we'll get to the main topic of the day about urban survival knives.
But before we get there, I just want to I just want to say, if you like the show, you want to help support it. You can do so on Patreon.
You can scan the QR code on the screen. and that'll take you right there.
But one of the perks of being a gentleman junkie or a top tier Patreon patron is you are enrolled monthly.
Automatically put into a knife drawing and.

[12:18] Win it. Like it or not, you win it, you get it. You can do whatever you want with it, but it's our way of saying thank you.

[12:25] So check us out on theknifejunkie.com slash patreon. Again, it's theknifejunkie.com slash patreon.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
I'm always excited to see a new Topps knife. They come out with numerous models every year.
I just love their stuff. This new one looks pretty good to me, too. It's called the Topps Arnado.
It's a collaboration with a Forged in Fire winner, Josh Navarette.

[13:51] And look at it, man. It's a beautiful all-purpose outdoor workhorse of a knife.
You've got six and a half inches of, as per usual, 1095. Awesome blade steel.
Tried and true for years and years and years.
And Topps has been using it for years and years and years. Great outdoor steel.
Keeps a great edge, easy to sharpen, very tough, meaning it takes impact well.
In this case, and in most for tops, it's coated with a corrosion-resistant coating.
Nowadays with tops, I know that when you have a knife re-coated, if you send it back into them, you have your choice of many, many different coatings.
But in this case, I believe it's their black traction coating, off-the-shelf that is.
So it's a full-tang knife with micarta handles. It's the usual Topps recipe, beautiful Kydex sheath with a dangler loop there.
Those do come in handy, even though I don't like how the knife might swing around and bang around if you're being very, very active.
But if you're getting in and out of vehicles or on and off tractors and stuff like that, those dangler sheaths work very well.
This is available now, so go check it out if this is your type of knife.

[15:08] It is the Arnado, a collaboration with Fortune Fire winner Josh Navarette from Tops Knives.
All right, next up, from Bestek, you know the Bouquet series, series of knives designed by Ostap Hel, great designer out of Poland.
And he has been inspired by all of these exotic flowers and plants out there in the world, too.

[15:32] That inspiration has gone into these knife designs. Okay, the latest is the Soap.
I have a knife avalanche over here. This latest one is the Sambach.
Sambach is a flower, a jasmine flower, a type of jasmine flower, and that is what inspired this somehow.
And I guess it's the beautiful flowing lines. I love Ostap Hell's designs.
Here we have something that is bigger than most of the Bouquet series.
In this case, 3.6 inches of, for the first time ever, from Bestek, MagnaCut steel, a steel you may have heard of recently.
First one from Bestek, this is different in that it's got a whole range of anodization colors and different inlays.
You can even get that inlay with, what is that stuff called, Mokutai.
So this is the first time, This is one in a series, so kind of same but different, and yet it has all of these new things on it.
So go check that out. It's the Bestek Soundback by Ostap Hill and Bestek.
I like it because it's big and flowy and beautiful.

[16:53] Would I get it? Will I get it? I probably won't. That's the problem with knife-like movies.
We look at so many cool things, and I think that would be great in my collection, but you can't have them all.
Next up is another case of you can't have them all because I have a bunch of these and I have no plans to get any others because I rarely use them.
But they are handy as hell and those are Opinel knives. This is the Opinel No.
8, but this one's called the Opinel No. 8 Forge because it's a tip of the hat to the forging process for knives.
Knives this one comes in the same xc90 high carbon steel which is very similar to 1095 but in this case uh they gave it that brute de forge look uh where it looks like it's been hammered out and they've left the hammer um you know marks and only sharpened the edge i think it looks really really cool uh dark handle dark uh vibro lock viral lock that's the um collar lock thing there but this is a limited edition they're limiting it to 6,000 pieces and for a company that makes a knife so inexpensive and yet so tried and true and and vaunted in the knife world, 6,000 is a pretty limited run so if you're interested in this, keep your eyes peeled for it, I am not sure they say it's available soon, I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if you're an open L collector, you better get on this one.

[18:18] All right. Lastly is not a knife. It is a watch, but it's a watch that has some knife connections, two knife connections, as a matter of fact.
This is a collaboration of two micro brands, one called Notice, which is pretty well liked in the micro brand world, from what I read, and they create sports watches. And then the other is Raven.

[18:42] They make tool watches very similar to Rolex and Tudor, that kind of styling.
But you may have heard of Raven on this show because that is the micro-brand that Steve of Finch Designs, Steve Laughlin of Finch Knife Co., that's his watch company.
You know how all Finch knives, most Finch knives have the shield with the loom?
Well, that is directly inspired by Steve Laughlin's Raven and watch company.
So this is Raven and Notice coming together And the other The feature that they borrow In this knife from the sort of EDC And I would say Gun World Is Cerakote on the bevel There's Cerakoting on the bevel And it does, on the bezel I'm sorry, mixing my Knife and watch terms here But it has a really really nice look And obviously will be Super durable on the bezel And the bezel is the part that receives a lot of action.
So that Cerakote is a great place to have it. The case, it's a 39 and a half millimeter case.

[19:49] So not as big as a lot of watches are these days, but kind of in that sweet spot.
The movement is the Miyota 9075 automatic, which just in passing, I've heard a lot of when watching Baldessari videos and other watch videos.
It's a GMT, which means you can You can set the movement to track time in two different time zones, which is cool.
And it's waterproof up to 20 millimeters.

[20:23] And it's $875. So under $1,000, it's available now.
I am told that in the watch world, that is a very, very good price, especially for coming from two great micro brands coming together like that.
So if you're into watches and you like these kind of uh two knife connections with finch steve laughlin's uh finch's steve laughlin cerakote check that out i wish i had the disposable income to be a watch collector because i love watches um and that one would really suit my needs for something super cool uh all right we are going to be coming up on on the state of the collection and I'm going to show off some new ones that I'm really, really excited about.
One of them is not mine. One of them is. But before I do, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell, and...
Well, check out some of our older videos. We've got a lot of them.
Check them out and see what we have here on the Knife Junkie Podcast.
All right, we'll get to the state of the collection right here in a second.

[21:31] If you search Google for the best knife podcast, the answer is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Save money on gas, groceries, and dining out with the Upside app.
TheKnifeJunkie.com slash save on gas. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

[22:15] Calderon as have many other numerous other companies uh to create a version of his elvia picol style uh fruit knife defensive blade and this turner cnc version is just incredibly cool i had the smaller version of this i guess that was the v1 on the channel uh also jocks i sent that along to him that was probably a year or so ago um a smaller package altogether together uh this one this one really really fits the bill for me it's it's a very nice size it's got a big blade and but not too big uh it ships with two pennies so you can undo these uh screws here and there is a relief cut in the middle you can stash stuff in there um handcuff key or uh whatever hundred dollar bill all wadded up or something uh but a cool little feature the the.

[23:12] The whole community behind and around the Alvea Knife and Ed Calderon and Sneak Reaper Industries and all of that, they're very into stashing little urban survival tidbits on you.
I'm sorry, I'm not so into that world that I just used the term tidbit, but handcuff keys.
What are those little wires that you can cut yourself out of things with?
And money and tourniquets and what have you. Obviously, you're not going to fit that all in here, but stashing those things on your person.
So if you're kidnapped or find yourself in a really tough spot, you have the basic tools you need on you to extract yourself.
That whole community's ethos. And I think it's cool. I don't, I'm not that prepared, but I like that level of preparedness.
That's where this knife, that's the sort of world this knife comes out of.
Of course, these are great for just regular, what do you call it, utility tasks and just basic cutting tasks.

[24:15] Maybe not the handiest. It's maybe not as handy as some other knives, but you can definitely use this for all sorts of everyday carry tasks.
But of course, I mean, it is just a weapon through and through.
Through ships with this awesome trackerdan style sheath now i'm not sure if the sheath is trackerdan i do know that the clip is you can see his logo right there but i mean obviously this is a sheath created for the turner cnc lvia v2 and the cool part about it is that it is 100% ambidextrous so you don't have to worry about how your sheath is oriented to to sheathe your knife in any way you want.
So this is an incredible knife, really beautiful package.
Turner CNC is now working on his Gin knife, which is this incredible double-edged recurve, the one that Lynn Thompson saw at Blade Show 2023 and said was his favorite knife there.
I think that was Blade Show West, actually.
So I definitely want to get my hands on that. He also makes a Bowie knife that's incredible and then an EDC clip-point blade that has gotten rave reviews from Tomas over there at Tactical Cavern.
So Turner CNC, making incredible work and someone you have to really keep a close eye on because the drops come quickly and they are small.
So definitely if you like it, follow him on Instagram and keep your eyes peeled on his work.

[25:44] Okay, next up is one I'm very excited about having.
Speaking of Jock, who's Elvia that I was just showing off, I recently received and sent along a stitch for him, and that inspired the acquisition of this stitch.
Let's see if I can do this left-handed.
This is the Stitch Ramlock, and it's just as exquisite as everyone else has said.
Mine is in fluted aluminum. Aluminum.

[26:12] Really, really like that aluminum handle. It makes a great noise when closing it.
You just hear the finality of metal hitting metal.
Not that the blade is hitting the aluminum, but it's hitting the giant stop pin and it's all resounding through that aluminum frame.
And the pockets, the light, the pockets that are put in there to lighten up that aluminum make it more resonant.
And so it it just has a great sound sound aside this knife is one that i kind of didn't want to like in a way when i had jocks i was like okay i'm really glad i experienced this because now i know i don't need to have it but that didn't turn out to be the case i thought i just don't like the handle to blade ratio it's not even that it's the handle to cutting it uh cutting edge ratio and that was my my Seinfeldian, she's a low talker, where you're trying to find the smallest reason to say no to a knife.
But I just couldn't say no to this.
And once I had my...

[27:19] Once I had this, the Amphibian, I kind of felt like I just had to have this, especially considering this Microtech jag I'm on.
And look, I have around 15 knives I'm going to try and sell so I can acquire more.
But that put aside, the Stitch is amazing. It's an amazing knife. A couple of things.
Okay, so this might be disgraceful, but I'm going to compare this to a very good Fugazi, a very good rip-off fake i mean it is a counterfeit they even put microtech's name on i got this in a trade and um as as a throw-in uh dave threw this in i guess it came to him in a trade and he was passing it along and uh just in looking at this and then looking at um the stitch automatic there are a couple of things the first ramlock had that that they changed uh i do like this non-DeepCurry pocket clip better.
You're like, that's a fake, but this is what it looked like.
Instead of this pocket clip with the giant screws, the screws do get in the way of pocketing and pulling it out.

[28:31] But not, I mean, not terrible, but not a deal breaker, but I find myself lifting up the clip just to be safer.
One thing that I do love about this clip is how there There is a slot cut in either side of the screw hole, so all you have to do is back the screw out, and then you can turn it and remove the clip instead of taking the screws all the way out. That's kind of cool.

[28:57] Really, really great action with that ramlock.
I'm a big fan of the ramlock. Instead of the Omega springs, it's a coil spring on a pin that backs into that giant block of metal that engages the tang.
And really strong, but also super, super fidgety. I want to show you something.
That's enough of this here. But I want to show you.
It just occurred to me. The Microtech Stitch is really the Strider SMF walks into a bar and makes big eyes at the Yojimbo.
And nine months later comes the Microtech Stitch.
I mean, look at it. Look at the holes. The opening holes, you know, it's like you combine those two opening holes, you get something like you get on the stitch.
Look at the blade shapes. You combine those blade shapes with this huge choil and that nearly, well, that flat edge and that wharncliffe blade.
And you combine that, you get a blade shape like that. Look at the handles even.
They kind of take this organic and this blocky and you get a blend there.
So, I mean, I'm just saying. And then...
Maybe the Strider and the Ajinbo will get in the case.
But I love this knife, and the price difference between the aluminum and the G10 is none, and the weight difference is about 0.5 ounces, so about a half ounce.

[30:26] So great, great, great knife. I'm so excited to have this.
However, if I were in an urban survival situation, yeah, this would be a great knife to have, for sure.
I'm going to get to what all of that is about, but before I do, I want to mention that we have some great new t-shirts on offer, not just a knife, a lifestyle.
This is the latest in Jim's design journey.
He's been making t-shirt after t-shirt, and they're all really cool.
I particularly liked the Last week's St.
Patrick's Day T-shirt I hope you guys had a great St.
Patrick's Day It's the one day a year I'm Irish as most people And this year during Lent It fell on a Sunday Which was great Because I was allowed to drink.

[31:17] So check out the t-shirts On the knifejunkie.com There are pages of them And they are cool If you're going to wear a t-shirt Why not have it be there, all right 10 great knives for urban survival and number eight will shock you now i have a couple of stipulations here as i mentioned before this is a great knife and would serve you so well in a dire situation however i'm thinking about urban survival and in that i'm also considering knives that are less expensive because you might have to ditch them the most expensive knife on here is about $150.
And so something that is not going, so something that's light, something that's very capable, whether it's large or small and, you know, no matter the size, super capable for its size is what I'm getting at.
It's not heartbreaking to lose or ditch if you have to ditch it for whatever reason and can be used both defensively and for utility.
So these are things that you could throw in your backpack or your purse.

[32:27] There's one here. There are numerous ones here that my wife could throw in one of her smallest bags and have super capability.
So those are the stipulations here. Pretty much anything in this room would be great for urban survival if you have no rules.
But we're taking into account that cities have rules, and it's not like you're going to enter into a city that is in chaos.
You will be in a city when things turn to chaos.
So these are things that you might want to have on. All right, first up is a low-hanging fruit.
I was just talking about my use of this in the city, and that is the Microtech Micro... I mean, the Spyderco Micro Jimbo.
So this is the small version of the Yojimbo, a knife designed by Mike Janich who is not only a knife fighting expert, he's also a survival expert and so this knife will do.

[33:28] Amazingly, if you need to cut pretty much anything in your day-to-day, especially if you live an urban lifestyle.
But if you have to bring it to bear in a defensive situation, that's its bread and butter.
That straight edge and that 30-degree angle tip, that's more like a 45 on this one.
But but it is just meant for penetration and slashing.
Straight edge blades like this are really, really, really great at slashing, probably the best.
Recurves have their place, as do those S-curve knives and Hawkbill knives, but for overall utility and defensiveness or defensive purposes, this sort of straight edge is best.
And on this, it is small, so this is legal in Chicago of all places, where you really are more likely to get into a gunfight than a knife fight, I would imagine, just from the news.
No offense to those out there who live in that wonderful, wonderful city.

[34:38] But this is something you can carry and you can use for utility and defensive purposes. It is small.
This is the most expensive one on the list.
And so if you need to ditch it, it's not a huge tragedy. For me, it would be because this has sentimental value. It was given to me by the designer himself.

[34:58] Okay, next up, this one. This one, and I will say ones like it.
So this is the Cold Steel SR1 Lite.
Okay, I chose the Lite because it's light, A, because it's just got these.

[35:14] Instead of having full G10 slabs with steel liners, this one has, or I'm sorry, instead of just having the full G10 slabs.

[35:25] Which is heavier than this FRN, This is just FRN and no liners, and you have 8CR13MOV, which is light in terms of the cost of the steel.
It's a less expensive steel, but one could argue in an urban survival situation, maybe better than S35VN.
A, it's tougher, it's a little bit softer, easier to sharpen, takes an incredible edge, and is very corrosion resistant. So this might actually be a better blade steel for that purpose.
I might be wrong about that, but something tells me I'm not.

[36:05] The handle itself is very light, so it keeps this large 4-inch, 9-inch overall knife in the light zone.
Uh i prefer the tanto to the clip point um not only um well just because i think there's a little bit more utility in the tanto uh even in i would say even in an outdoor situation i you never see people using these uh as um camping knives or outdoor knives why don't people use tantos uh let me know i'm sure i'm sure it has to do with that secondary point but to me that's what that's That's what might come in handy is that secondary front edge.
Incredible penetration power. You have very, very thick blade stock, full thickness right up to the tip, and just a sturdy as hell build with that triad lock.

[36:56] I would also say, you know, you could carry this in a purse, like a woman's light purse, or you could put something like this, a larger cold steel, one of the 5 1⁄2 or 6-inch ones, Drop it in a backpack, and it's nice and light, and really, you have the utility of a large fixed-blade knife with it, for all intents and purposes with that triad lock, unless you're doing something really, really, really difficult.

[37:24] You know uh unfolding knife like you have the utility basically of a large fixed blade with this in a folding package you know it just doesn't take up as much space so i say the cold steel sr1 light uh is is a prime example of this but you could go uh you could go with most you go that large luzon that six inch luzon it's 40 bucks or maybe 45 now but it's it's inexpensive and And it's a great knife, and you're not going to care if you lose it too much.
Okay, next up is the No.
8 Sear from Station 9 Knives.
Station 9 produces these really cool knives at a very sober pace.
So they'll release maybe one or two knives a year, and all based on urban survival, on French resistance knives from World War I and World War II and French fighting knives like Fred Perrin's knives.
And this one is, to me, it is just a great all-arounder. This is one that has ridden in my backpack a lot since I got it.

[38:41] Not displacing my normal backpack knife, just so you know. That's in this list too.
But very, very capable in terms of its materials.
You've got very nice contoured G10 handle slabs over a full-tang blade, 1095.
Just a great blade steel.
But this clip point is amazing.
It penetrates really, really easily. So it wasn't something I was necessarily not expecting, But when I punched this through cardboard box, I was surprised at how easily it went all the way up nearly to the hilt with very little power behind the thrust.
And I believe it has to do with the thinness of the blade and that incredible swedge there.
I mean, that swedge really thins out the blade, makes a diamond cross section all the way up to about here. I mean, look at where the swedge comes up to.
And that is very similar to the mac v sog bowie knife that has a very very long swedge coming all the way almost up to the hilt and that gives it a dagger like cross section for a longer.

[39:57] Section of the forward part of the blade so that just means it's going to be a great thrusting knife but also just look at it you've got a nice four inch length of straight edge here And then a nice belly going up to that tip So a great all-arounder If you have the room in your backpack Or in your briefcase or in your purse.

[40:19] Uh for a knife such as this i i this would be the ideal thing to have on you in an urban survival situation and you know i say urban survival situation this is this is the context i always think of uh you know i i lived in manhattan for eight years with my wife well girlfriend she turned into my wife while we were there but uh uh i always thought i'm on an island i'm on an island with like millions of other people uh none of whom who you know they have urban survival instincts like they can survive in this city here and uh they'll afford it and whatever pay the rent and exist here but uh they don't have many of them don't have the outdoor survival skills myself included oh what would happen if all of the services here and uh and the infrastructure structure collapsed and the bridges and the tunnels are inaccessible how would i build a raft how the hell would i get off of this island um the the roiling uh massive humanity in the streets like how would i survive that uh so that's the kind of thing i think of in urban yeah i'm just in here for the day i'm i'm you know i just work here i'm trying to get out you know like you find yourself in my case now if i found myself in dc there's there's rivers i'd There is a river I would have to cross to get home.
If the bridges were out, I'd be, what the hell? What would I do?
So, I mean, these are the kind of things I think of.
It could get dire, like, very quickly.

[41:47] So it's good to have stuff on you, right? Like the guy in the comet.
He lives up in the mountains. He's always got all that stuff on him because he's got cougars that could jump on his back. Jeez, man.
So in an urban situation, the more you can have, the better.
Now, you're caught in an urban situation with a knife like this, or just in your day-to-day, I guess I should say, you're going to be in trouble.
But don't break the law, and it's probably not going to happen.

[42:14] Here, I have it set up for CM carry. If you remember CM from YouTube, he would carry it like this with the handle down, and you could just grab it in reverse grip.
And so that's how I have this set up. And when it's set up like this The handle usually does not Extend too far below my winter, Outer gear Of course summer that'll be different But it hangs kind of at this 45 degree angle I got the Ranger bands on here For grip And also you can take them off and use them for stuff If need be, Love this knife, I love Station 9 I highly recommend you check out their really cool Wears Alright next up.

[42:57] Also from a survival expert, Mr. Doug Ritter, good friend of the show, and a good friend of every one of us who loves knives because he fights for our knife rights on a daily basis.
And for instance, in my state, in which it was totally illegal to own or to even own or make or sell or import, export an automatic knife, now I'm allowed to own an automatic knife and conceal it on my person out in public, thanks to Doug Ritter.
This is the Ritter RSK. RSK stands for Ritter Survival Knife.
Mark 5. We know him for the Ritter Hogue that we love so much, the Mark 1, the RSK Mark 1, or the Ritter Griptilian before that, and the Mark 3, the survival fixed blade that's so cool.

[43:46] Doug also created this. And this is a little knife.
He used to have it made by CRKT. now it's made by the same manufacturer in taiwan that created that knife this is the mark five, tiny little knife tiny little capable super capable knife uh this is a uh.

[44:09] Little you can make it as a neck knife whatever it fits in one of these altoid tins this is the size of an altoid tin by the way i'm totally i've been addicted to altoids for years i have the freshest breath of anyone you know uh except when i don't um so this one this little guy here uh you can use this for any number of things you can lash it to something a bigger handle a stick or something and make a make it easier to hold on to um you can carry it around your neck as a neck knife you can wrap it with cord you can do all sorts of stuff with this little tiny blade it's shaped much like the uh the bigger it's bigger brothers and what's great about it it's usp is its size it's tiny and it fits in the altoid tin now what else you can put in there um if if you're uh you know living a more rural lifestyle you might put fishing hooks in there uh whatever um um fire starting stuff see i don't even know because i'm i am like you said up front a city slicker uh but for a city slicker who's who's uh attempting urban survival what could you have in there uh this is gonna sound funny you could have a little coiled up charger uh cable in there uh you could have your bick lighter in there definitely have to have fire um you could have a a little power bar or something you know some sort of nutrients in there you guys are like I'm like, Bob, you'd be dead.

[45:31] But my point is you can customize.
Hell, you could have a USB thumb drive in there with all of your vital documents.
I mean, whatever it is, you could fit it in this tiny thing, put a Ranger band around it like one of these rubber bands around it, throw it in your backpack or your purse or your whatever, and you could have all your essentials in there.
A little mini flashlight, a little O-Lite in there.

[46:00] That would be a great thing to build out for urban survival.
And, of course, you can customize it if you live out in the country and you want to have that in your, I don't know, I'm sure you can carry around bigger stuff, but you want something small just to keep in the door of your car or something like that.
So it's the Ritter RSK Mark V.
It is tiny, but it is capable, and that is the point. No matter the size, it is ultra-capable for its size.
All right next up this is a cool one i don't show off much uh and it's the tops uh fdx 66, and it really just drops in the front pocket easy as pie in this beautiful full grain leather sheet and tops tops in their leather but you can tell from the handle i've wrapped it with some electrical cord uh electrical tape there just to beef up the handle a little bit because it's pretty thin.
But this is a 1095 Tanto, super capable blade, very thin behind the edges.
You can tell from that pretty broad cutting edge there. Very thin.

[47:10] You've got thrusting capability, you've got cutting capability, and you've got two distinct edges with that Tanto.
You have a perfectly circular, nearly complete circle choil there that really encapsulates your finger.
Uh, your forefinger, you can even hold it in reverse grip like this and have your pinky buried in there and grab this and really power down on it.
Um, there is jimping back here and, uh, on the handle. If you, you don't have that tape on, the tape is temporary.
I'm thinking I'll, I'll do a jute wrap on this, um, and carry it a little bit more.
Uh, cause it is nice to have just dropped in the pocket it's a it's big for that so this is this is what i like about this uh 1095 easy to sharpen two edges drop in the pocket defensive utility very thin low profile and light um and i gotta say it's also just appealing and uh let's let's just say that that's uh that's part of it too and here you can put it on the belt two ways horizontally or vertically very cool knife the fdx If not this Topps makes a myriad Small blades.

[48:22] A bunch of them. Some of them are thin like that. Some of them are little fatties that you can hold in the hand really easily.
So check them out if you want a small blade. They've got them.
All right, next up, the Off-Grid Hoglet. This little knife is great.
This appears on a lot of favorite small fixed blade knife lists from our trusted voices of the knife internet. And for good reason.
It's got a great carry profile in that it's small, but it's got a full four-finger grip here, and the blade kind of blending into the handle allows for that.
So you're kind of up onto the blade with the forward part of your hand.
Great jimping there. You've got a full inch and an eighth flat grind there.
So like all off-grid knives, this is an incredible slicer.
It just zips through cardboard like it's not there.

[49:19] But this one, unlike some of the other off-grid knives, is a little chunkier.
You know, most off-grid knives are very, very thin in the bevel.
This one is, but it's a chunkier stock to start. So very durable.
It's D2 blade steel, Cryo D2, they boast here, Cryo D2.
Also has that cleaver look with the hole up front, like you're going to hang it over a meat cutting board.
So I think that's just a visual flourish. Great handle.
Everything about this knife is awesome, including the sheath, except the, I don't know if they still ship it with this. It's kind of a cheesy clip.
It's just bent kydex. It works. It works fine.
But I've never, I guess I should put a tech lock on that.

[50:05] I'd probably carry it more. But the hoglet, great knife and also very capable.
Fits pretty much anywhere. You can throw it in your bag, your purse, your backpack.
Your car door, and it's going to do great.
Not only that, it would go great in a picnic basket for cutting limes, for your mint juleps, and for cutting cheese.
Not cutting the cheese, but just cutting cheese.
That's the hoglet from Off-Grid Now.

[50:31] Okay, next up is more of a category than it is a specific knife.
I'm going to put a couple examples here.
And these are cognitive dissonance knives. So bright, cheerfully colored knives.
In this case, the RAT-2.
This is Pinky Tuscadero, a knife I've had for a long time.
Love this knife. Given to me by my older daughter back in the day.
Here is the uh the the famous i used to talk about this knife all the time because i used to carry it in the waistband without exception this is my cold steel broken skull in cts xhp and the pink handle with the uh pink snaggletooth mf for wave ability out of the pocket or waistband um and here is my main work around the house painting knife uh that's the endura in the blue and the thing about about these knives is that i call them cognitive dissonance knives because the colors are you know throw you off obviously they could be used as deadly weapons but they're tools officer they're just tools look it's pink um now does that really work i thank god it's untested in my case uh but i developed this theory when i was allowing myself when i was trying to build a justification for bringing a knife with me overseas, and that was this knife.

[51:57] I brought this knife with me twice to the Dominican Republic, and now that I say that out loud at my age with all that I have to lose, I'm terrified that I did that in retrospect.
Don't do that. It's probably a really bad idea.
You can probably, if you really want to have a knife, you probably go there and buy a cheap one and then get rid of it when you're but i did it uh and this is what i did and and i was thinking you know if it if i got caught with it uh not in dominican republic but in the airport uh you know i could say uh oh i you know officer i didn't know it was on in my dob kit or whatever i don't know i was stupid just don't do that i'm telling and you don't do that but that's my whole theory behind this so in an urban survival situation.

[52:52] It's kind of in in line with the micro jimbo you're gonna be there before everything happens before it hits the fan you're gonna be there otherwise you just wouldn't go and you would avoid that urban chaos to begin with but assuming you're already there and you're walking around day to day with a knife, uh, if it looks bright and cheerful and something, uh, is possibly unthreatening.
I mean, this is obviously kind of threatening.
Now I look at it, I'm like, just cause it has a pink handle.
No one's going to look at it and say, Oh, but you know, maybe the rat do, which is bigger than you could carry in Chicago. But, uh.

[53:31] With pink and, I don't know, I don't know.
I think that it's a risky thing to assume, but if you're going to carry around a large, capable folder, why not have it in an Easter egg color just to make it look less, look, it's like this.
You're in the courtroom and they say, what knife did you have on you?
You said, I had the Kaiser Assassin on me, which is a little three-inch EDC.
They call it the Assassin. that they might look at the knife and if it were called the bumblebee they'd say oh it's it's cute it's it's fine um maybe not so uh it takes your chances with it but i say if you're going to carry around something big in a non-permissive area uh make it brightly colored all right i belabored that next up this is the shocker and yes it's true this is a knife much much maligned by the Knife Junkie podcast and the Knife Junkie channel and myself, but it has its place and here it is.
The Gerber Paraframe, the ultimate ditchable knife.
Now, why the Gerber Paraframe and not another equally inexpensive knife from a company that you like, Bob?
Well, for a couple of reasons. First of all, this one is a very common and easily acquired knife uh you can get it at most walmarts and um targets uh and um.

[54:59] Dick sporting goods and lows and what you can get this knife anywhere at two it's okay what do i i dislike it because it ignores all of those things that knife people look for um but what it is is very very sturdy it's it's a it's a thick you know it's a metal metal frame with a, I mean, it's a steel frame with a steel blade in it with awful tight action.
So it's not quick on the draw, but once it's open, it is sturdy. I have to give it that.
Now the blade steel is, what is it? It's like 420.
So it's nothing to write home about, but it has serrations. It has a very good serration pattern.
And we're assuming this This is not your work knife.
This is not your, you know, you're using your knife at work all the time.
Well, this is, you wouldn't be carrying this. This is for urban survival. This is for stashing.
This is for using. This is for using in a pinch and ditching if you need to.

[56:02] So strong frame, light, capable steel, good serrations, very common, easy to find, and not something unfamiliar, I would imagine, to the police officer that might be taking it from you.
So in that, I'd say that this is a great one.
Ultimately, in its capability, but also, ditchability.

[56:29] I hesitate to call this a capable blade, but it is, you know, for as much as I poo-poo it. Look at the lock engagement.
You know, it makes us knife nerds shudder. But also, you know for sure that knife is not closing.
It's got 100% engagement on that frame lock.

[56:48] By the way, I had a small one of these, and I carried it for years as my fifth pocket carry before I got into buying nicer small blades.
And it was actually pretty great.
And I ended up giving it to a buddy that I work with who's a fisherman, and he uses and carries it all the time to this day.
So as much as I hate the ParaFrame, I think it would be really great for an urban survival knife that you can put in your bag, forget about, and pull out in the worst case.
And the small one also will fit in one of these, by the way, one of these Altoid things, the small version of this. All right, second to last knife here.
This is my dedicated backpack knife.
It has been for years, so I guess you could say this is a daily carry fixed blade, even though it's not on my person.
This is the SOG Seal Pup in the aftermarket sheath, Kydex sheath.
I do have the regular sheath, but it is much heavier and bulkier, so I just keep it in this.
Plus, I can wear this in the waistband. man. A tried and true knife that Navy SEALs actually carry and use. I've.

[58:04] Heard accounts and seen. I love watching gear dump videos from Navy SEALs. I can't remember.
Frogman Tactical does some, I think. And these are all the knives I used on deployment.
And the SOG SEAL PUP always pops up in those lists.
It doesn't have a glamorous steel.
This is is Aus8, and, you know, it's got an injection molded handle, and I bought it for $40 at Walmart.

[58:35] You can, by the way, get the Elite model of this, which has jimping all the way down the back for scraping and stuff in survival situations.
It has a different setup, I think different blade steel, but basically the overall shape of this and handle of this is just, It's great for everything, whether it's fighting or survival.
You've got that double-peaked bowie shape. You've got a hollow ground main bevel, super sharp edge here, and then a great serration pattern.
I am more and more about serrations these days.
They just prove over time to remain sharp, even when used a lot, and you can count on them when you can't count on the rest of your blade.
So I do love the serrations on this. I forgot to mention that about the paraframe.
Paraframe comes with serrations too.
So this is a great urban survival knife. And I think this, along with the number eight, the most tactical and combat-oriented of this list.
Okay, last in the list, probably the best for any kind of survival, whether you're in an urban environment or what it's known for, in a wooded environment, the Mora. In this case, the Mora Companion.
This thing is probably the lightest, I don't know, it's about as light as the Micro Jimbo.

[59:58] And we all know the Mora's capability. It comes in this great sheet that you can just clip on anything, clip on your belt or whatever.
It's got that great push-off point. awesome blade uh four inch uh this is sandvik what is this.

[1:00:14] Stainless so it's probably sandvik 14c28n or something like that 12c27 something from sandvik but it's got the rubberized handle but not too grippy but grippy very comfortable handle um you can ride up like this for for more power behind the blade uh back here you get full grip.
It's great in reverse grip. It's almost made that pommel is almost made for the thumb in mind.
So this knife, though it's known for its abilities with that awesome Scandinavian grind, that zero edge grind, is known for its woodworking capabilities, its outdoor survival you know.

[1:01:03] Attributes but it's also known ed calderon mentioned what a great fighting knife these are the moras are not intended as such but they make outstanding fighting knives and he's tested these in dynamic bio medium tests you know where he has a swinging pig carcass and they're testing out different blades and these are just awesome they stay in the hand they cut incredibly they They penetrate incredibly, and they're low profile.
And so I have no doubt that in an urban survival situation, having this light, really super capable fixed blade Scandinavian ground mora in your pack and just having it with you all the time, this would just be a great choice.
And it's very non-threatening. Unlike the SOG seal puff or the SEER No.
8 or one of those large folding cold steels, it's non-threatening.
So, this is my take on 10 great urban survival knives. Did number 8 shock you?
Is it crazy that the Paraframe made it on one of my top 10 lists? I could do this.
All right, thanks for joining me in this. Let me know down below if you have any favorite knives that you like to carry on you for this type of eventuality.

[1:02:20] Let's not call it that. Let's call it possible situation. Do let me know down below. Also, be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives, where we give away the TS-175 by Pepe Designs and Tucson Knives.
And join us on Sunday for a great business show. All right. My name is Bob DeMarco.
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[1:03:28] Music.