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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 Agent 001 V2 prototype is here, I get my first bird knife,
and then smooth-on washers. You don't need no stinkin' bearings.
I'm Bob DeMarco, and 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]Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was
from Agent Orangefield, an old friend of the channel.
He says, Haha, you got me with that Gerber Paraframe.
This was on my list of 10 great urban survival knives.
You got me with that Gerber Paraframe. That was my co-worker's ultimate knife.
I got him a rat too, and finally he changed his mind.
He's saying this because I'm always bad-mouthing the Gerber Frame,
or at least as long as I've been doing this.
But in this case, for urban survival, for something you can ditch,
but that's still pretty sturdy and is serrated and cut in a pinch,
Gerber Paraframe is pretty good.
And it was shocking, number eight. Thank you, Agent Orange Peel.
And next, from Stuart Trollings, 602.
Funny that you have a seal puff in your bag.
I've had one for 30 years and it's still sharp. Great shape, too.
And those darn moras. many have uh
have many and never enough thanks for
the show glad you got your stitch but i really like
that uh seal pup uh comment because um
it's a long running knife and it's
part of the mac v sog uh history um but really it's like the most practical
and probably the most used of all the mac v sog uh knives so really cool to
see uh thanks to our trolling and thank you for everyone one who watched uh
listened commented liked and shared with your friends uh greatly appreciated.
[1:57]Well, that's it. Let us get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[2:06]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket
was the Microtech SOCOM Elite, my 2013 model.
This is my first ever Microtech, first ever S35VN, first ever bearings knife.
And it goes with me when I'm in the car for longer than an hour.
That's basically the rule.
This is my road trip knife, even if the road trip is a brief one.
And I had one this past weekend for a volleyball tournament.
And so this was in the pocket and it stayed in the pocket for a few days.
You know, I've been on my Microtech kick, and so to revisit this old friend
after carrying the Bravo so much and then the Amphibian and the Stitch all new
and my auto SOCOM new traded, you know, for that one.
It's great to have this old one in pocket. So this is the one I had on me today.
It's funny, when I carry this, it's so tactical.
It's so hardcore. You've seen all the testing videos. goes, and yet I always
end up cutting food with it.
It's kind of funny because you don't think of a tanto as a food knife,
but actually it's great for cutting waffles.
You'll find diner waffles because that front edge lands on the plate at the perfect angle.
I like to cut between the cups so that you have little individual bites with
its own little cup of syrup.
[3:29]So yeah, hardcore usage. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan,
that is as hardcore as it gets for me.
Um all right next up in my
front left pocket usually uh but
depending on my phone situation uh today
was the GEC number 15 uh the
boy's knife and this and it's probably in its most classic form um and that
is as a boy's knife which is just that drop point blade a single blade in that
handle but I am so in love with GEC's autumn Autumn, Jigbone.
I'm not exactly sure if that's what they call it. They have a number of different.
[4:10]Jigbone guys that look like this.
And they always have Autumn in the name. I just think they're beautiful.
Autumn is my favorite season, at least until winter comes. And I just love the colors.
And they're the colors I prefer to wear, that sort of earth tone.
Though I'm in cool colors right now, but I just love those tones,
you know, the tones of nature.
And so of all the materials on slip joint knives, a dyed bone is my favorite.
And of all the dyed bones, it's that autumn jigging, that autumn jig bone.
So the autumn colors like the reds, the yellows, the oranges.
[4:51]Love that knife and all of its kind. I've been carrying so many modern slip
joints lately, it's been nice to dip back into my pretty dang nice GEC collection.
All right, my fixed blade today in appendix carry was the Pinkerton,
Dirk Pinkerton Custom Fire Ant.
Here it is in its great shape. This is a piece of tire, inner tube, bike inner tube.
And I have it there because I I only have, I didn't want to drill a new hole
in the sheath, and to fit this clip, I needed, you know, another hole there.
So I didn't want to put that in, so I tightened this bottom one.
I don't like them too tight anyway, because they clamp down on the sheath, make it harder to draw.
As you can see, the clip here goes over onto the contour of the blade that pinches
the sheath even more there. So I like to keep it somewhat loose.
And then so this piece of inner tube over the clip keeps it in place, but keeps it flexible.
And also that rubbery feel keeps it from shifting around in my way.
All right, so let's look at the nice, beautiful, triple-edged sheep's foot,
I guess you would call that.
[6:09]I've been calling it a wharncliffe, but a wharncliffe, I'm told,
is a continuous curve from the thumb ramp, basically, to the tip.
This one with that blue and black rich light, which I find so beautiful.
Triple edge in that it's got a main edge here, it's got a top edge here,
and it's got a front edge there.
Reverse tanto, let's call it.
[6:32]Great jimping great thumb ramp here a
d2 blade steel this is just an awesome defensive edc
it would be a very good uh box opener if you needed it if you wanted a knife
to do double duty and you really uh wanted to lean into the defensive part of
it this would be great uh you know because of that all of those cutting edges
uh the discrete size but you get a full finger a full four finger or grip on it.
A great pommel for the thumb to grip over.
And so I have it set up to pull and reverse draw but you can easily turn it
around and turn your hand around and draw it in saber grip. Anyway, love that knife.
Find it really rewarding to have custom knives from people that I like.
I love his designs and he's a great guy. And, um,
you'll find that custom fixed blade knives are not nearly as expensive.
[7:36]Is that a double negative? They don't cost as much as folding custom knives.
So you can support your favorite custom makers by buying their fixed blade knives
because they're within reach.
And who knows, maybe if you have the urge, someday you save up and get the folders.
I don't have too many custom folders.
They just don't do it for me as much, like I said, as carrying something like this.
All right, lastly on the list, speaking of custom fixed blades by cool people,
this is the Auxiliary Manufacturing Pocket Buoy.
Carrying this one today in the waistband on the other side, so basically like
9 o'clock for left-hand draw. And then the string here, I have this.
This works really easily, you know, this det cord sort of thing where this is
tied to your belt or your belt loop.
And then you draw it and you draw the knife far enough and it comes out of the
sheath and then the sheath falls and dangles at your waist as you go to town with your knife.
It works really easily on this knife because it's a pretty small,
yet for me, full four-finger grip knife, and it tucks away real nicely.
[8:51]This one is Nitro-V, and here, let me show it up close. It is a really beautiful knife.
Uh orange and green g10 has a
sort of camping feel to me and then my carta
pins are very handsome in there and then that recurve is
devilish and it's got a very stout blade and point so uh for me of course i
always think of it as a defensive knife um but would make just an excellent
all-arounder if you're carrying one knife uh i would say that would be an excellent
one-knife option for a fixed blade.
So this is what I have in my pocket today, the Microtech SOCOM Elite, the GEC No.
15 Boys Knife, the Fire Ant, custom by Dirk Pinkerton, and the Auxiliary Manufacturing Pocket Bowie.
All really astoundingly awesome knives, and two of them from people that have been on this show.
So it's always a joy to carry something from someone that I've had a conversation
with, whose knives I like.
[9:53]Okay, the April Gentleman Junkie giveaway is coming up on Thursday,
Thursday Night Knives, April 18th.
And that is so far off from the
recording of this, I haven't quite decided what we will be giving away.
But you better bet in the interim, we will have a random knife giveaway or two
at Thursday Night Knives. I just love doing that.
And plus, we have some very generous viewers of the show, like this old sword,
who sends me a lot of cool stuff.
All right let me uh show off this i
got this from tim kell
this past week and this is the
version two or the final version basically of the prototype of the knife we
are doing together this is uh my design blade uh and uh well this was my design
and he tweaked it so uh it's a true true collaboration and it's awesome.
So this is a resin 3d print.
Um, it feels different from the 3d prints you may have experienced so far.
And it's very robust. Like you could use this as a, as one of those,
uh, knives you sneak into non-permissive environments with, uh,
you know, it's pretty flexible.
Uh, like if you, if you made it a little thicker, it'd be better,
but But in any case, it's a great approximation of the real thing.
[11:14]He actually printed out separate handle scales with that grenade grip and put them on there.
I want to show you some of the differences
since last I showed you this prototype. This was the first one.
[11:26]Um, let's start from the blade. A little bit, slightly bit more of a clip there,
but basically the same shape.
He added that sharpening choil, which definitely is great for sharpening, obviously.
For me, I just think it looks cool. I think it looks really cool,
but I also am happy that it's there for sharpening.
I don't plan on using that back edge so much that it needs to be sharpened,
but give me that choil every time. Great jimping.
[11:53]Now you can see the grenade grip here same sharpening
soil down here um and plumb
line and all that now back here we added
jimping uh three gyms here three gyms
there and it's right there
next to that glass breaker which i was first of all you can see much better
on the new prototype here i was afraid that was going to be a hot spot because
you know how much i like to put put my thumb up there that's the whole reason
uh this thumb area is there and it's the whole reason the jimping is there because
this is the primary way i want to be drawing it myself personally,
it's great in forward grip too but this
is my thing here i like it like that
and i was worried that this point here that pyramidal glass
breaker on the top of the pommel there
was going to get it in the way but it doesn't oh it just melts in
it's perfect like in that crook of your of your
thumb so i'm very excited about this this is the agent 001 you know i love uh
decal knives and i you know i'm so thrilled that that we could collaborate on
this and and he's a great guy he's great to collaborate with i love talking
with him and um and working things out.
[13:08]But besides all that, I just can't wait to have it on my belt.
I'll be carrying it quite a bit.
Also, speaking of knife, junkie knife news, I just got, I'm not going to show
them here, but yesterday I got pictures of the work in progress of the prototype
of the Nova II, which I guess it's no secret now, I'll let you know.
It's a wharncliffe or sort of reverse tanto, I guess.
[13:32]But with a very point-driven geometry.
It's really, really nice. And he ground it perfectly.
And he said, funny enough, he said, on paper, I wasn't so psyched about this design, to be honest.
But once I ground it out, he loves it.
So I don't know, maybe sometimes you just need a little bit of contact with
the thing and interact with the thing to appreciate it.
I'm glad he likes it because, of course, Of course, that will imbue it with even more knife power.
All right, still to come, we're going to do knife life news.
But before we do, I just want to say, if you like the show and you want to help
support it, you can go to Patreon and see the different tiers of support you can sign up for.
And at the top tier of support, you're a gentleman junkie.
Middle tier, you're a tactical junkie. And the $3 tier, you're a traditional
junkie. So all great knives, traditional knives, tactical knives, gentleman knives.
Those in the gentleman junkie category...
[14:41]Put into a monthly knife drawing that we do right here on Thursday night.
But whether you're in that category, a tactical or traditional,
I just want you to know that I really appreciate it.
You're going above and beyond and, and it's, and Jim and I both appreciate it. So thank you very much.
Quickest way to get there is to scan the QR code right here or go to the knife
junkie.com slash patron.
I'll repeat that complicated address. It's the knife junkie.com slash patron.
Among this week's specials at Knives Ship Free, the Bark River Knives Petty
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Find your favorite handle and order while it's still in stock.
The Spyderco Native Chief Lightweight is now available in a combo edge blade.
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It features a large finger ring for easy deployment and a molded kydex sheath
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Get these deals and other great specials from Knives Ship Free.
Just use our affiliate link, thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free.
Support the show and get a great new knife at the same time.
Thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
[16:04]Okay, before I get into knife life news, this is a message to the rare,
well, I guess the rare person is the one who watches the ads.
But if you skip over the knife ship free thing to get to the next thing,
the next segment here, I don't. It's Kniveship Free every week.
They have the coolest artwork and specials of these amazing knives that come across the screen.
And I always want to say, did you see that Native Chief with the combo blade?
Because I'm into serrations right now. That looks so sweet. I want it. It's the lightweight.
But I can never assume that anyone's watching that. So if you're going to watch
any of them, watch that first one because it's Kniveship Free. They're awesome.
And I haven't gotten anything from them in ages. So I've got to change that up right now.
[16:48]Well, maybe not right now. Now, right now, let me get to this.
The Svord peasant knife, you know, that's the Swedish version,
basically, of the French Apenel.
A lot of different cultures have their peasant knife.
You know, we kind of have the sod buster or the Barlow. That's not necessarily
a peasant's knife, but a working knife.
Over in Europe, they have the Apenel from France.
They have the cat knife from Germany.
I can never remember the name of that one. And then they have the Svord Peasant
Knife So anyway, this is the Svord Peasant Knife One that I've always liked It's a friction folder,
And it's very inexpensive, and
it comes in a variety of handles and a very rough sort of forged blade.
[17:34]And so let me just preface this by saying they're a company out of New Zealand,
which I also find kind of fascinating.
I've always thought it's a fascinating country ever since Lord of the Rings.
[17:46]But the company is helmed by Master Cutler Brian Baker.
I just wanted to throw that in because I didn't know that until I did a little research on this.
But this is a smaller version of the Peasant Knife.
And it's featuring something rare, this new steel called Damax steel.
And Damax is made by, okay, Alima, which is the current name for Sandvik.
So that Swedish blade company, Sandvik, I guess is going by Alima now.
But they are making the first Damascus steel produced on an industrial scale.
Ale and it's stainless 7c27 mo2
and 19c27 those are
the two blades steel uh so that's about
as nerdy as i get with steel uh but uh
both mid-level uh steels they're good corrosion resistant decent edge retention
and easy to sharpen uh that beautiful handle is wenj wood uh it's an african
hardwood and it's available now so if you like friction folders and if you're
a fan of this i I would imagine,
just like there are people out there who collect and mod open elves,
I would imagine that there are people out there who are into the sword peasant
knife, and they are all over this one.
Just a quick note, this is a smaller blade, 2.5 inches.
I think the regular one is closer to 3 inches.
So, yeah, that is out and available now.
[19:15]All right, next up, James Brand, the Klein. That's their first USA-made folder.
Gets a new marbled carbon fiber handle. Here's the scandal.
The carbon fiber is officially named molten carbon fiber and has kind of a different
look than marbled carbon fiber.
So that said, that molten carbon fiber is made by a company called ProTech. Not that ProTech.
As uh as ben schwartz says uh not
the not the makers of the automatic knife uh but so this
one is a 3.4 inch magna cut blade with
super uh thin hollow grind which
is exciting a great edc knife if you can
afford it and it's got their
slide lock which is like an axis lock i've always called the james brand uh
knives um kind of lifestyle knives and i think they probably would not take
exception to that and i have frequently with uh with a with a sporting attitude i've taken little.
[20:22]Jabs at them oh they're hipster this and that but from all
account uh all accounts that make great knives and i had one
james brand knife here on loan uh and it
was that little climbing knife and that was pretty cool
pretty well made so um i don't mean to dish
on them unnecessarily they've stuck around
so that means something to longevity means
something if they were true hipsters who didn't
care about knives they would have moved on but i think it's
also cool that they're producing knives for
people who a can afford them and b
who probably uh many of them maybe aren't knife
people necessarily but they they love well-made things
and everything that they buy and you know
what i'm saying so if i'm going to get a modern pocket knife it's going to
to be something stylish and very very well
made and you know could be this this
molten carbon i'm sorry this uh
if you if you're looking for the molten carbon fiber you're going to be uh missing
out so uh look for the um what is what were they calling it uh not molten uh
marbles that's what they were calling all right i've said enough about that
cool knife cool knife they have a couple cool cool knives over there. Um, many cool knives.
All right. Next up is we knives.
They have a new collaboration with Torby knives.
Uh, they've done two with, uh, Torby in the past, a big, uh, fixed blades.
[21:47]Uh, and this one is the yard bird.
[21:52]Uh, it's cool. It looks actually kind of bird. Like it's, uh,
taking a, um, Warren cliff handle.
I mean, a Warren cliff blade with that, uh,
I want to say upswept edge that makes it more like a kiridashi than a wharncliffe
in the presentation of the point and the edge.
And it puts it on a very modern titanium and G10 karambit handle with a spine-mounted clip.
I do not like the spine-mounted clips.
I just don't like how they feel in pocket. They kind of twist your pocket a
little. But that's just me.
I know it's an innovation that is well appreciated in certain corners of the
knife world, so I'm not dissing it. It's just not my thing.
But the handle looks very comfortable. I do like the jimping all the way around
the ring because if you're gripping tight or if you have it in reverse grip
and you don't have your finger through the ring, it's good for the thumb.
Or if you have your finger in the ring and
you're flipping around doing your karambit tricks it's great for
a resting motion just clamp your thumb down on that jimping and it stops i think
it's a beautiful looking knife i think it's pretty cool uh maybe too many notes
for me personally uh these are not the kind of knives i i necessarily carry
i appreciate them though Especially the more tactical, the better.
[23:16]So the blades deal on this 20CV, and the button lock is on the left-hand side.
It's as if this were a lefty setup blade.
So, yep, there's a button lock if you flip that knife over. So kind of odd that
they would put it on that side.
But, hey, I guess lefty rights too, you know.
Last up giant mouse the iona
so the iona v2 is coming
out in a limited edition actually is already out in
a limited edition and it's two uh two different
kinds one of them is an aluminum handle uh anodized bronze
with magna cut steel and the other is a titanium handle um with s90v they made
400 of the aluminum with magna cut and 300 of the tie with s90v and they're
calling that that second titanium version instead of the Iona,
the Tyona.
Love it. If you don't know Giant Mouse, you've been living under a rock,
but it's a company formed between the two very famous and well-loved Danish
knife designers, Jens Anzo and Jesper Roxnes.
[24:28]So two powerhouse designers, and they always make beautiful knives together.
They do make beautiful music together, as the old line used to be.
I just think everyone that they make, every knife that they put out together is recognizable.
And it seems like separately, every knife that they themselves make on their
own and design are recognizable as theirs.
They're two very talented and very...
[24:56]What do you want to say? Two designers that have very strong styles.
And together, I think it's really good.
Luckily, everything they do is pretty much below my size range.
And so I can kind of dismiss them from my must-collect category.
So there you go. These are available now. I do suggest you jump on it because
I think there are some super, super fans of Giant Mouse.
And if you're looking to get into an Iona V2 and you want one of these special
versions, you better jump in there because you do know that the collectors will be all over it.
All right. That is it for Knife Life News this week.
[25:36]Be sure to check out all the other shows we have here.
You can subscribe to all the other shows, meaning Thursday Night Knives and
the Sunday interview show.
I, for instance, just got to talk to, and you'll hear this interview next week,
but just got to talk to someone whose videos I've been watching for years,
12 years, and it was really good to meet him and talk with him and I felt like
I knew so much about him or felt like I knew him already.
It was just a great conversation. So tune into the other shows we have here
and also check out us on Facebook, check us out on Instagram,
but especially go to thenifejunkie.com, the website.
[26:16]Jim just knocks it out of the park over there and it has everything you want right there. All right.
Let's come up on State of the Collection right after these here messages.
The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion.
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TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Shockwave. And now that we're caught up with knife
life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
[27:17]About this well uh first of all it inspired today's uh topic of conversation
because it's so smooth and yeah it's on washers and this is something uh i we've
been talking a bit about on thursday night knives it's been coming up i just
i love washer knives it's just my um,
that's that's where i started out you know a lot of new collectors um or or.
[27:44]Collectors who are performance driven uh
really have gone whole hog
into the bearings as have all the makers like looking at
my collection now um it's definitely bearings
heavy um and but i still love this
hydraulic slow roll feel of
washers so that was one thing the
other thing the real reason i got this that that was
the bonus once i got it man this is smooth i
didn't know what to expect you know an inexpensive spider co
well i should have known uh that it would be great um
but scott babb of libre knife fighting uh a guy that i've been talking with
to get him on the show i can't wait to have him on the show to talk to him but
he's the guy who developed libre knife fighting which is uh really it's like
pick hall knife fighting so the tip down edge in um hammer amorphous style of fighting.
And this is the folder he uses, because you can just wave it out of the pocket
with the Emerson wave, which is a patent.
[28:51]Let's see, how do they do this? They've licensed it from... Spyderco has licensed the wave from Emerson.
And I think you see that, like my wife, I got my wife a waved Delica,
and it has the patent number and says Emerson on it.
This one does not. I'm wondering if it just falls under the umbrella of Spyderco's
license, and so they didn't bother putting it on here.
But in any case, it's really handy, as are all waves.
And I have the clip mounted for left-hand carry.
I don't carry this on the left-hand side. I carry this in my right back pocket
or sometimes in my right front pocket, but I'm a little squeamish about that,
and I'll tell you why in a second. Okay.
But what you do is you draw it and boom, it opens up as it will with a wave.
And then you just roll it in your hand and you have it in tip down edge in position.
It's very easy. I'm going to do it with my right hand here. Very easy.
As you draw, it comes out like this and you just roll it.
And you're going to be doing that anyway. And if you were trying to have the edge out,
you would have to readjust so in this case it's just very natural intuitive
and it brings you right into that into that fighting grip i opted for the serrations
serrations right now i'm just into them um.
[30:15]I want to do a demo video with serrations, but I would have to dull the rest
of the blade to do what I'm thinking of.
But I guess I could do that with this because this is 8CR13MOV,
which is very easy to resharpen.
[30:29]And so, yeah, I'm very, very happy, very impressed with this.
It was like $45, I believe.
It's got a little landing pad for the clip so that you don't mash up and tear
up your pants because the texturizing here is dual directional.
So when you pull back this way, you feel the grip. If you push forward this way, you feel the grip.
So nice. It's kind of like the bidirectional texturing of the Delica,
but it's a little different.
All right, enough said about this. I really, really dig it.
And if you're on the fence and you were thinking about trying out a bird knife,
but you're like, oh, you know, it's not a Spyderco. That is true.
It's not a Spyderco. As a matter of fact, you can feel that in certain finishing areas.
Like this, the edge of the lock here is sharp.
They just needed to knock that down a little bit. But that's part of why this is inexpensive.
And just in use and carry, it bothers me less. but I still want to take my diamond
stone a few times just on the corners.
[31:42]You feel a little bit of that. I used to feel a little bit of that on this FRN,
but it seems like going in and out of the pocket and handling it has either
kind of pushed it down and kind of formed it together or abraded it away.
Very impressed with this knife. Very good price. And if you're on the fence,
I say get off the fence and go for it. Check it out.
If you don't like it, you can drop it in the car door pocket,
and it'll be there in a pinch, and you'll be happy about that.
Okay, I want to remind you about the T-shirts we have and show you this week's
T-shirt. This is Life's Tough, Get a Sharper Knife, Dude.
This is a design by Jim. Jim has multiple, I mean, when I say multiple,
I mean like over 50 at this point, T-shirt designs in our shop, our swag shop.
TheKnifeJunkie.com slash shop is where you go. And actually,
you can scroll through the pages
and see all this awesome knife content T-shirtage that Jim is designing.
So be sure to go to the featured T-shirt of the week at TheKnifeJunkie.com slash shop.
[32:52]Alrighty, let's talk about this for a second.
Here in the modern era, it's almost like this is what people expect out of their knives.
Out of their folders. And if you're only listening, you can tell what that is.
I'm pulling the lock back on the on the Snex designed Fusion FG.
And just to illustrate how easy it is to flip and close and flip and close and
fidget and flip and close.
This could be the modern day version, the knife junkies version of grinding your teeth.
You know, it's like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.
[33:36]Information overload and I just have to get some energy out somehow and this
is just so gratifying physically gratifying but you know what else is gratifying?
And I'm going to show you with a couple of also rands that are not going to
be in this list here are three examples of very smooth washer knives first one,
this is the Civivi Acaro tomorrow,
This is one of the few Civivis you'll find on washers, and it's so gratifying
to open and close. It's super smooth.
There's no part of it that stutters. It's not like the action is glass the whole way.
This one, this is a Real Steel H6 Blue Sheep, and it's got nearly fall-shut
action, but that same ultra smooth,
flicking and closing all on washers phosphor bronze but they don't have to be
as you'll see from this list there are Nylatron washers and all these are.
[34:45]Phosphor bronze this is the old M1 this is the second run of the combative edge
M1 that flipper is is nearly a guard or something to start the action.
This is not a flipper. This is definitely a thumb stud knife.
But on washers, it is so smooth.
So why do we have to have the knife fall shut? Are we that lazy?
I mean, I know we are that lazy, but is it about that? No, it's not about that. It's about how it feels.
So I'm here to say that if smooth is your thing and not necessarily free moving,
if smooth is your thing reconsider washer knives i want to start bringing them
back a little bit more i'm i'm getting a little tired of the bearings all the
time the bearings first up on this list is the cold steel ad10.
[35:41]Phosphor bronze washers in there the rap
shot really i mean this is a fidgety triad
lock knife knife and i gotta say many of
them are and by that i mean not only
fidgety on the clothes because you can always on
all of these cold steel knives put your finger forward in the choil and drop
it and uh the ricasso will land on your finger not the sharpened blade and close
it from there i'm not talking about that i'm talking about the actual opening
i'm gonna use my right hand here because my left hand look you can just flick that open without risk,
So if it's the fidget you're looking for You can get the fidget in this.
[36:25]You say, but aren't bearings like higher technology? Isn't that like an advancement?
Isn't that innovation an advancement? Well, I don't think all innovations are
necessarily advancements.
Not on certain knives. I'll give you a for instance. The Demco 8020.
I love that knife. You know I love that knife. It is a hard-use knife all day long.
But sometimes I wonder, what if sand and grit and
gunk get in the in those bearings um it'll
probably still open but it'll grind open but
but with washers there's no way for that grit to
get in there i mean you'll still feel grit outside of the
washers between the handle material or the or
the liner material and the blade but not where
the washers are whereas you can get
sand and grit in between the bearings where
the bearings are and i guess that's what i'm getting at
uh with this that's not going to happen super smooth
and then of course cold steel super sturdy and durable great heat treats on
cold steel knives you know there's uh fingerprints on a lot of these and you
know i don't have my cleaning cloth around me so i'm not going to obsess i'm
going to live live on the edge here uh this is one of the this was from the
first run of these so that blade is is hollow ground,
which is awesome, and it's also S35V.
[37:52]Yeah, S35V. This is one that has gotten a lot of use over the past few years.
Next up, now, really, it's anything from this company, as is it's pretty much
anything from Cold Steel.
I don't think they have any washer knives, unless there's something brand new,
unless the Mayhem has it. I'm not sure.
[38:14]Everything from Spyderco, almost everything from Spyderco is on washers,
and almost everything from Spyderco is just ridiculously smooth and fidgety.
This, of course, has the awesome compression lock, and
that compression lock really is quite strong because it's a leaf spring that
pops into the path of the tang and has a tab that lands in a perfectly milled notch.
[38:44]And so you would basically have to shear the metal off of the lock spring to
get this thing to close on you.
So what's more likely to happen is the handle's going to break or the blade's
going to break before the lock fails.
So very strong lock, but also just extremely fidgety in the right hand.
I do not find it very fidgety in the left hand.
As a matter of fact, when I do it in the left hand, I feel like it just might fall out of my hands.
But with the right hand all day
long and that's on washer people
that just fell shut here let me go over here and just
look at this free hanging free falling
no bearings no bearings
uh so spider co yojimbo yojumbo are
my favorites uh but look at
anything else look at look at the um look at the military the
paramilitary the sage series none of those have bearings and
they all get it super smooth but i think the
the concern is this there are so many companies there are so many knives and
people trying to grab attention that no one is willing to put in the time to
break in a knife and yeah i know you shouldn't have to break in a knife but
i mean you know knives get nicer as you use them and that's called break-in uh and with washers.
[40:04]It's worth the wait, but I think that people go through so many knives,
especially people like me, that companies want to offer immediate,
break-in. And, yeah. I guess that's to be expected, and I guess I shouldn't
be complaining, but this is me starting to sound like an old man, isn't it?
You kids can't wait for your knives to break in.
Next is the QSP Penguin.
I'm loving this knife. I mean, I've loved this knife for a long time, but I just
I was going through my, for lack of a better term, awesome Chinese folders that
I have no heartfelt connection to,
to sell to a neighbor and to you all when I post them.
But this one, I was like, I'm going to keep this one.
It is, first of all, it's just stupidly smooth on these washers.
And it didn't start that way, but it got that way after like a day of use.
Uh this has come out of the collection and
it's on the desk pretty permanently uh where i
keep a bunch of knives over here and uh this is
one that just gets used now just random use and i'm glad i pulled it out because
this is not one that i consider collectible in that it's not it doesn't have
a lot of the qualities that i find precious uh other than it's just a really really good um.
[41:33]Utility pocket knife.
So, QSP.
QSP, baby. They got a lot of really cool knives, and they do a really great
job with their slip joint knives.
And if there's any connection between the ability to make a really great slip
joint knife and the ability to make a really good washer knife,
it would be through them.
All right, next up is the Benchmade, yes, Benchmade Bugout. And I say yes,
Benchmade, because I don't have very many. You don't hear me talk about them too much.
But this sucker is amazing. My bug out is so smooth.
[42:11]It may as well have washers, this one. Here, I'm going to come to the main cam
so I can show it drop in dramatic fashion. See that?
It falls and it swings. It's so loose, but there's no play. It's totally tight.
[42:28]Just the slightest
bit of acceptable use but it almost feels more like
uh i'm forcing it but you get this that's
swinging action no bearings but
you get the the stoutness of
the uh washers in this very very
thin package now what do
you think do you feel more confident when you
have a washer knife in hand and you're doing something critical
or maybe harder than usual uh or do
you feel better with washer uh with bearings i used to think that bearings automatically
centered a knife and they kind of do in a way uh and that was a big draw but
i'm starting to feel like the sturdiness the durability might just be in the
washers what do you think am Am I being an old fart about this? Let me know.
Next one is the Emerson, in this case, the Saks.
The Emerson Saks, but I could have pulled out any one of my Emersons.
They are finicky bastards, I will tell you. But they bloom into the most wonderful knives.
But they do go through a break-in sort of period.
[43:42]At least the older ones did. I just recently got the Tim Kennedy folder,
and my buddy had it for a while. And maybe he broke it in, but it came super smooth to me.
And now that they're doing the single detent, I mean, they've been doing that
now for eight years, so I shouldn't say now.
But with the single detent, it really adds to how it flies open.
Not very good with my thumb. Let me see. On my right-hand side.
But very, very smooth. Again, these are bronze washers, phosphor bronze washers,
and very, very smooth. and,
Sometimes you can look down in and see the color. I don't think you can at that light.
[44:25]So all the Emerson knives have that sturdy feel to them.
No back and forth wiggle unless you don't tighten it down properly.
And tighten it down with your Swiss Army knife or any other random thing that
fits there. That's what I always love about their pivot.
Really built for the field. So super sturdy.
And no frills are the Emerson knives, and it's no surprise that they're on washers.
I know they have the Sheepdog.
I know that their flippers are on washers, but I got to tell you,
I've had those on loan, and I find them, I don't know, suspicious.
At least the one I had, it was nice, but I didn't like it.
I didn't like the feel on an Emerson. I didn't like that.
[45:16]I don't know. know, not an Emerson flipper guy. And bearings, for me, definitely not.
All right, speaking of Emerson, this is an Emerson design from Zero Tolerance.
And a bunch of Zero Tolerances that I have are on washers. They kind of split it.
At least in my collection, the only one on bearings is my 0452.
Now, I know they have a lot of bearings and knives, but I love this one.
So this one feels. There is an unjimped extension to the tang there that you
can easily use as a front flipper.
You can even do it with my rollover with my front finger.
So it is incredibly smooth. It's got a great detent too.
It's dialed in perfectly for flicking and stuff like that. But also it's.
[46:10]It doesn't shake out, which I like. There are certain knives I like that I can
shake out, but those are bigger bladed knives where,
you know, like the big cold steels where you're letting the blade weight come
out so you can deploy it quickly and look gnarly.
I like that on some knives, but definitely not on my EDC. Not a big fan of that.
And so this has a great detent, but just a super smooth action on those washers.
And I think the knife would have a different character with washers.
I feel like knives do have a different character with washers.
They're just a little precious.
And hey, I like precious things. I'm not saying that in necessarily a bad way,
but it's sort of like, ah, you know what I mean.
Next up in this list is the Cara Cara. I will be brief with this one because
I was just waxing poetic about it. But, again, this is the one that inspired
this conversation, this one-way conversation.
[47:09]And, yeah, I'm a big fan of this. I look forward to – this has been not only
a back pocket but a drop in the coat pocket.
We've had a cold snap here. I've been wearing my winter coat again.
And I always have a pocket – a knife in the right-hand pocket.
And this one is cool to drop in like this. Here.
Drop in like this. So I'm walking this way. and so
it's riding uh with the spine up
or with the uh the lock up and the point forward so when i pull it out of my
coat pocket i can snag it on the pocket and open it yeah i know i know it doesn't
come up when i go to wegmans uh just you know the place i i end up going the
most during the week. I love that place.
Alright, next up. The Mekong Delta Combat Folder from Resco Instruments and
Gooseworks. Yeah, Gooseworks.
But who made this knife? This is Bestek. Bestek.
They have made what seems to be a classic American-style frame-lock folder.
I say American-style, like in the tradition of the Spartan-Harzy folder,
the Sebenza, the Strider, some of those knives.
It just has that super glassy feel and incredibly stout build.
[48:35]I'm very fond of telling this story you've heard it several
times at this point but I thought that this was an American made knife and I
was all thrilled with it because I love the knife itself and it was really exciting
to have felt like I was on the vanguard of a new American knife company after
watching Naff Sargent's video about this and then jumping on it and then it
turns out it's produced by Bestek,
which is great too because I love Bestek It kind of yanked some of the mythology
I was building around this knife, like a pearl.
But I still love the knife.
So it just goes to show that Bestek, a company that is known for its super high performance,
modern flippers and folders, can really do an old school style frame lock folder
with washers super, super well.
This thing, I swear to God, it feels, I shouldn't swear to God,
I swear, on my knife collection, this thing feels like a Sebenza,
like a Spartan Hosey folder, like a Strider.
Just super, super smooth and not falling shut.
You're always in control of the opening and closing. Love it.
[50:00]Resco Instruments. I really like this thing. I went on their website recently
to see if they had the Micarta version with the hollow grind,
and it was gone, and I hope they make more because I want that version of this
knife even more than this version.
Okay next up is three rivers
manufacturing atom now this
one uh like the neutron is uh
comes and goes it's not that it comes and goes um but
it's hard to get your hands on because they don't make huge batches of them
and you can't necessarily predict when they're going to be coming out um you
just got to kind of get get on the newsletter get on the um instagram and just
Just kind of follow them and see when they're dropping stuff.
A very, very good EDC knife. It's super simple, thin, very, very thin and light.
You've got a 3.6-inch blade, so in my wheelhouse, very capable.
I like that the point, it's a drop point, but the point is low,
and it doesn't have a huge belly.
It has a very nice length of straight, and then it has a slight belly up to
that tip. The tip is nice and low. Very good for utility.
[51:14]Very good ergonomics and simple. One of the unique selling propositions of this
knife and the Neutron and many other, numerous other, maybe all other Three
River Manufacturing knives,
which are made up in Massachusetts, by the way, is the fact that you can swap
out handles and handles, I'm sorry, you can swap out handle scales without taking apart the knife.
All you have to do is remove these two screws and it lifts off.
You don't have to remove the pivot or the body screws.
[51:45]So it makes, A, swapping scales easy and gives you options.
I have a whole bunch of scales for this. I have like five different pair and
I can swap them out as I desire and feels like I have a new knife.
But also it's a great way for a company to sell scales. come
up with a way to make it easy and
fast to swap scales i think nafs
does this now and you can
just sell tons of scales because who
doesn't want a whole bunch of if you like the knife if
you're a fan of the trm atom it's you can present
and you're a knife junkie you're going to want more of
them oh i need one with a black blade i
need one with this and that of that um but this
way you don't really have to do that you can just
uh buy scales and for a company that doesn't put
out millions of knives that's good for them too it
kind of reduces a little bit of pressure um this is a great knife just having
it in hand and opening it and looking at it uh i need to carry this more i don't
carry this enough i i did for a while and uh it's been a while this will be
a great summer knife i'm gonna have to bring this out in the summer again of
its thinness and its lightness.
[53:01]Also very capable. That's a 20CV blade, very thin, and really,
really beautifully honed and sharpened. Sharpened and honed.
Next up, this and its big brother.
This is the Ontario Rat Model 2. Super smooth.
This is one I call this Pinky Tuscadero. My daughter got this for me through
my wife when she was little.
And uh i had the
model one the rat one but didn't
really appreciate the line until i got the
model two because this one pretty much from
day one was super easy to flick open
this is one of the first knives uh where i started
just flicking them with my thumb it was always either slow roll with a a knife
or flipping with a knife um this is a knife i started flicking on and then and
then my tenacious i started uh finger flicking you know middle finger flicking so this is a this was a.
[54:04]Bit of a landmark knife for me for a lot of reasons but
one of them is just how very very smooth this is
and we all know how durable the rat
folders are uh it's this
smooth with zero play and to me
that is the sign of something that's really really well engineered
of a knife that's really well engineered it's got no
play tight tolerances and super smoothness
and the design has
grown on me i remember well probably 12 years back or so uh with this knife
i was like man it's just ugly like the way it steps up and and the sort of generic
drop point blade the way this and the thumb ramp steps up and the spine is above
the level of the back of the handle.
I don't know. Something about this proportions bothered me, but over time, I've grown to love it.
You have a place to choke up here that's not a choil, which I also like.
I would prefer a hand guard like this that you can come up onto than a choil
that takes up space, cutting edge space.
[55:10]So the rat two, the rat one, good to go. Smooth On washers Penultimate knife
here is the Spartan Harzy Boulder This one,
It is just, again, a very, very smooth washer knife.
First of all, it flies open easily. And then look at that.
The way it closes. It's so gratifying. And then even when you do that and you
feel it, and you feel just the slightest bit of resistance, but glassy resistance
as it hammers itself home with the weight of that blade.
This knife is incredibly durable. This is one of those knives that you can roll
over with, you know, a tractor, and it's going to be fine.
Two very thick slabs of titanium with no weight reduction in the middle,
or on the insides of them, with very stout standoffs. Look at those standoffs.
They're a quarter inch across, at least.
[56:15]Just super durable. and then
you've got three of them at the back and then a big big chunky
pivot up front so but all of
that rough and tough and hank
likeness belies its silky smoothness it's luxurious feel and that's what it
is that's what i like about it it's a luxurious smooth feel it's not out of
control tweaking and dropping and drop shutting and threatening to cut you it's
smooth you know It's not going to go crazy. It's not going to call your parents.
All right. The very last one is the Sebenza 21.
Got to use my right hand for this because there's no left-handed option.
But the Sebenza 21, of course, you knew that that was going to be on this list.
[57:04]Defines what I'm talking about here. Of all of these, it is,
I don't know. Maybe I can't say it's the smoothest because I think I just want
to say it's the smoothest, but it really feels like it.
Just having that Spartan Arzi in my hand, maybe that's smoother,
but there's nothing like the feel of a Sabendra.
It defines here. Let me see if I can middle finger flip this with my left hand.
Not a chance. Okay, but it defines that feel, it defines that feel.
And it's something that I'm not even tempted to flick open. I mean, you can.
Well, for me, yeah, you can. But it's not even a temptation to me because I
want to feel it the whole way, opening it and closing it.
And I guess what ultimately what it gives me is surety in hand.
I can't tell you how many times, and I've found this to be a virtue,
but sometimes not, like Like, how many times I've closed a knife and opened
a knife in the north. Is this tight?
And that goes to show you how smooth it is because it is tight.
But at the same time, it's like...
[58:16]It doesn't necessarily make you feel, doesn't make me feel as confident with it necessarily.
If I'm constantly testing it, and maybe that's just a personal hurdle I have
to get over, but hopefully you'll be here to help me get over that hurdle as
you were here to watch me badmouth bearings, which I don't mean to do. I do love bearings.
[58:38]I just love washers more. All right. Thank you.
Thanks for watching. Be sure to join us on tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives, as always.
And then the weekend following that, I will not be doing Thursday Night Knives.
But I'll tell you about that as it comes up. I say the weekend after that because,
to me, Thursday Night Knives is the start of the weekend.
Also, be sure to join us on Sunday for Carter of Edged Mindset.
He's who I was talking about before.
I love that guy's channel. I've been with him ever since he was juju1313, way back when.
And his take on knives has gotten even better. So be sure to join us for that interview.
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'd like to say thanks for watching.
I'm Bob DeMarco, and I'm begging you, I'm beseeching you, don't take Dolph Lanzer.
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[1:00:11]Music.