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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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[0:00]Coming up, the Bald Man Knife and Tool Thickatross, I get a beautiful knife from Poland, and then we talk pig stickers. 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.
[0:26]Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from ScottBeaver26.
[0:32]He says, Serrations. My imagination tells me I need them. That's awesome. That's a direct quote from yours truly from one of my recent Microtech videos. He said, I just purchased the green aluminum with serrations and have to say it's the best new folder. It's the stitch. Thanks for the video, sir. I agree 100%. I like that. Serration. My imagination tells me I need them And I guess I said that But really what I meant is That my imagination tells me I will need my knives long After they go dull Though I do very little with them to dull them But the serrations will keep them going forever That's why I am so into them recently So Scott Beaver Great minds think alike sir Second favorite comment from this week Was from Rolando Estocada And he's been coming to Thursday Night Knives recently great to talk to him he says great episode i'm working with zach i'm putting together a martial movement episode on my channel should be out this week and he's talking about zach from uh wingard wearables and uh you know so different ways to use the tomahawk now uh this this gentleman rolando has an awesome channel uh that i just subscribed to just this week after Been reading this comment and Yeah this guy knows his stuff and he's Got in terms of Martial craft and he's Got a great collection of amazing Knives chief among them If you ask me he's got a Bill Bagwell Bowie.
[2:00]Which, you know how I feel about that. All right. Thanks for the comments, one and all. Thanks for watching. Thanks for subscribing, listening, and watching, and leaving comments. All that said, time for a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[2:18]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket today, I had one I have not carried in a long time. I had the Spyderco Patata in my pocket. The Patata is a traditional Sardinian knife, Sardinia, an island off of Italy. This is basically the profile of their traditional folder that they carry on them for everything. Utility, food, cutting sausages and cheese, cutting rope, cutting people in a fight, that kind of thing. beautiful shape and an impressive addition to the Spyderco Ethnic lineup here. This has fully a radiused G10 here. So nicely contoured and comfortable in the hand. I love the look of that. This one is made in Italy, which is good. I think by Lion Steel. You can see it's a liner lock. And you've got a four inch long patata style blade.
[3:18]You've got two distinct straight cutting edges with a small belly in between and a very acute point. You'll see in a minute why I was carrying this today. A random, as it may seem, I haven't carried this in a long time. Well, I'll show you right now, actually. My wife's cousin, the father of our godchild, was just in Sardinia, and he got me this desk paper, what do you call it, letter opener set. And as you can see it takes on that beautiful patata shape hold that up next to one another there uh so thank you jonathan such a cool gift uh he didn't give this to me in person his mom gave this to me but i really appreciate it and i immediately said this looks sardinian it's like a patata he's like oh my gosh how did you know we were just in sardinia and uh i said that's because I'm a big dork. So that's why I carried this today, and I love that knife. I have a recurring nightmare that I'll drop that one on its tip, because it's such a fine and cute tip there on a distal tapered blade that, you know, it's just dying for me to drop it on a concrete floor.
[4:37]All right, next up in my pockets today, I had the, oh, no, I'm out of order now. The Benny. I had the Jack Wolf Knives Benny. This one is the first Jack Wolf Knives knife that has taken front right pocket position. Not today, it didn't, but it has a lot since I've gotten it. User error. This thing is super smooth. But the Benny I just think that this might be His best selling knife So far Now what do I know about it Absolutely nothing That's just a testament of how much I like it It crosses over Truly crosses over For someone like me who only carries Something in the 3.5 inch range, This like the.
[5:25]Spyderco Yojimbo Is a hall pass I will carry this at 3 point 3.4 inches, I think it is. 3.39, something like that. It's slightly shorter than I like to carry in the front right pocket, but man alive does it perform. It's got the solidity feel and thumbprint in the hand, like a much, I don't know, like a much, I don't want to say much more rugged knife, like a knife you would be more apt to use in a rugged way. And the reason I say it that way is that the build on this is so refined and the materials are so lovely that you don't want to bring this on the construction site, but it could do just fine out there with that S90V blade that's not even full-height hollow ground on this one. So it'll be an even more robust blade than most Jack Wolf knives, which already are pretty damn awesome.
[6:24]Okay, next up, Hogtooth Knives and the Knife Junkie, yours truly. This is our knife right now, the Nova II, a continuation of the Nova series. This has ivory G10 handles, polished ivory G10 handles, and red liners against that beautifully acid stonewashed 154CM, deeply hollow ground. This thing is wicked. it. It's so sharp on the edge, and the point is so ridiculous that it is really, really sharp.
[7:02]You got to be careful with that point. You really have to be careful with this point. I speak from experience. Let's just say I truly own this one, but if you look at that next to the patata, it's smaller than the patata, and this is how I like it mostly. For a fixed blade knife, I like to have just about the same blade length as you would have on your average folder that you like to carry, but less handle length. That makes it easier to carry. All right, last up on me today, I had the Rosecraft Easton. The Easton, this was given to me at Blade Show and at the Rosecraft booth, and it's a pretty cool knife, I've got to say. Really great use of the button lock and the front flipper. It's a great front flipper. I do have to use my right hand. Let's see. Let me take a chance with the left. Yeah, it's great. Look at how far forward that front flipper protrudes. Makes it really easy to just knock it straight out.
[8:08]This one came not so sharp, I got to say. It's already kind of an obtuse angle behind the edge with this because it's saber ground. It's kind of thick. It's not that slicey a blade. But the edge itself needed some touching up. Once I did that, it is very sharp. But like I said, it is more wedge-like in its geometry. Still though with the contoured g10 the great action and of course for anything i actually need it for it works great so i am digging this knife and it is my first modern rosecraft that's from the 2024 lineup uh dropped at blade show 2024 in june so this is what i had on me today an interesting lineup the spider coat patata the jack wolf knives the benny and the nova tube made by hand by Matt Chase and Hogtooth Knives. And, of course, I had the Easton here from Rose Craft Blades. What did you have on you? Let me know. Always interesting to take a look at the comments and find out what people are carrying. Or join us on Thursday Night Knives. That's also a great place to do a pocket check because that's a huge feature. Well, as you know, I had this out, so I'll just show it again and let you know that the preorder for this custom knife, And this is, uh.
[9:34]This is an exclusive. This is the Knife Junkie, and that's me and this show, and Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives. This is our second custom production together. We did our small run of 27 knives a year ago. It was a recurve Bowie on this same handle. This handle is taken from Matt's EDC Tonto knife I was carrying all the time, And I asked him, can we do a little series and put some other blades on this handle? He said, hell yes. We number them, make them special. This time we're going to do a special thing with the numbering. So no matter what number you want, if you're interested, you can get your own number on it.
[10:19]Like my brother likes a certain tax code, so he's going to get his tax code number out of 27. Or however many of these we make, your number will fit in there somehow, some way. So check it out go to this go to store.thenifejunkie.com if you're interested in this i will tell you it's not an inexpensive knife but i will also tell you it is 100 handmade here in the united states of america by matt chase of hogtooth knives in massachusetts and by the way this is great i've been carrying this a lot this summer it's basically the nis and the t-cal knives Knives Agent 002, the other knife I'm collaborating on now. And this one is really nice in the waistband at 3 o'clock for the muffin top or the spare tire or whatever you call that. Extra little bit of lower back fat that men of a certain age have. This is very gentle on that with that short curved handle.
[11:21]So, if that's how you buy your knives, you might be interested in one of these Nova II. Go check them out. All right. Oh, I want to show this off before we get to Life Knife News. We have a very special Knife Junkie, Gentleman Junkie giveaway tomorrow night, actually, this very same week. And it is of this. We've been showing this off a lot. This is the Baldman Knife and Tool Thickatross, a custom knife from Brent Smith and Baldman Knife and Tool. This one here is an albatross, but a thicker version. Now, the albatross is one of Brent's most popular models. And, of course, you add the thick part, Thickatross. He does these very thick, robust knives, thick versions of his knives. This is the quarter-inch thick version of the Albatross, and I have really fallen for this knife. He gave me this one to give away, so we will be giving this away tomorrow night. So I'm at Blade Show, and he said, take this, and I said, we will give this away, and he said, okay.
[12:27]And so we're going to do that tomorrow night. Three gyms there feel great, really trap the thumb. You have a full four-finger grip, and I don't care how big your hands are, they will fit on this handle, especially with that 50 50 choil up front uh very very sharp despite its super thick not super thick it's just a quarter inch uh stock those wedges are very nice by the way for piercing i've used this a little bit only against paper but you can get some idea of a knife's geometry.
[13:01]When using it against paper. So if you want this knife, you want your own custom Thickatross by Baldman Knife and Tool, Brent Smith at the helm, just become a Gentleman Junkie. Go to thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon and sign up there, or you can scan the QR code on the screen that, or that, I should say, that Jim floats up on the screen from time to time, and that'll take you right where you want to go. And that helps you win that really cool knife. It is a really cool knife and actually he gave me two knives to walk away with and there's another one that is very cool. I'm about to post a video on so keep your eyes peeled on that. All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we have Knife Life News. I got a really cool knife from Poland I'll show you and then we'll take a look at pig stickers. But before that, there is the QR code I was just talking about or you can go to theknifejunkie.com Again, that's theknifejunkie.com Slash.
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[14:22]TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Shockwave. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. First up in knife life news, one of my favorite knife manufacturers from China, both on the OEM front and on their own in-house design front, is Bestek. And they have one coming out. Boy, talk about in-house. This is the boss's son, the guy who runs Bestek, owns Bestek. His little boy has designed this completely badass folder totally it's based on the praying mantis and I gotta say I absolutely love it it's a as you can see it's a hawkbill blade this is also the first one the first best tech knife ever to feature serrations so they do this version they do a fully serrated version of this it's 2.96 inches so we'll say three inches of 14 c28n hawkbill blade with a thumb stud and uh the cool thing about this oh by the way uh it's ostap hell and gogo and gogo is the son of best tech boss and this knife is called the qq so qq was designed by Gogo and Ostap Hel.
[15:43]Helped on the boss of Best Tech's daughter's design, which looked like a little cicada I think, or something. But very cool. I like this. They both like insects. But look at this knife open. I mean, that is a that reminds me of your.
[16:01]Tactical spider toad with the hawkbill blades and the serrations. I absolutely love it. I'd love to get my hands on that. I love the thorax look. It looks like the thorax of a praying mantis. And I'll have you know, if you haven't had any experience with a praying mantis, they are super cool. I've had a few experiences where I've seen them and I've come up close and they do this thing where they, turn their head and look at you it's weird it's weird i've never had another insect do that the other insects just reposition their body or fly away but praying mantises look at you like what do i have to kill you too uh so i'm really liking the look of this best tech qq uh that that should be out uh on the 26th of july 2024 so right around the corner all right next up another of my favorite of the chinese manufacturer artisan this time they're collaborating with christian porterfield uh this is the second collaboration with christian the first one was called the nova uh this is just a tease of what's to come because this is not ready for market but they've uh they've leaked some pictures you know those kind of convenient leaks so you can kind of read the temperature It's a pretty cool looking knife to me.
[17:16]S90V is the featured steel here on that three inch sheep's foot. You got a front flipper and a frame lock. Of course, that'll be titanium. And they're looking to release this later this year. We don't have a name on that. But if you're a fan of artisan and this kind of knife or a Chris Porterfield fan, check it out. Incidentally, I won't go down that road. All right, next up. This one is from Boker. One of the things I love about Boker is that they really bring super high-end custom knife makers' work into reach for me. Personally, I have a Chuck Adritis by Boker. I could never afford a Chuck Adritis regularly, but I have that. And, of course, my prized Charles Marlowe squail. I'd love to have a custom Charles Marlowe, but that day will probably never come, so thank God for Boker, or at least thank Boker for Boker. Another designer that makes incredible knives. I met him in an elevator and was starstruck with a bunch of other French knife makers. Guy Poggetti. He's got this very Japanese-inspired front flipper tanto Panto coming out with Boker called the Sanjo. And if you know Agipo Getty's work at all, you know that this is a signature-looking knife for him.
[18:39]On top of that profile, which is a signature him, you have that beautiful burlap micarta. You've got that sort of old-school custom construction where you don't see the pivot. All of that is hidden under that top layer of micarta. That's kind of an older school way of doing it. I think it's cool to see here. 3.39 inches, that is VG10. And a lot of their collaboration knives happen to be VG10. This will be out on August 9th. If you're interested, definitely, definitely check that one out.
[19:22]All right, last up here, we have one from Wear Knives, who I've been following a long time on Instagram. Very cool folders. This is a Wear Knives, Civivi Knives collaboration on a knife called the Nugs. The Nugs, N-U-G-Z. Very cool looking, what is that, a bellied sheep's foot with a swedge? I don't know what that is. Kind of a one-cliffy thing. uh 3.17 inches and that comes in 14c28n or uh of course you can get the uh deluxe in damascus with your average variety of civivi handles everything from wood g10 to um carbon fiber on that damascus blade 3.16 ounces of course that might vary slightly depending on on your handle material. I love the look of this one. I just think Civivi, they have a hard time messing anything up.
[20:21]Really, it's a matter of whether you like the design. And to me, this looks good to the eye. I'm not sure how that handle would feel, but I really dig the blade. So, wear knives. I know I like their work a lot. And I like to see this growing stable of collaborative designers with Civivi. It's pretty exciting to see. All right, coming up here, We're going to take a look at another really exciting knife I can't believe they sent me in the state of the collection. And then we'll get to pig stickers or what I, as a non-pig hunter, would imagine would make a great pig sticker. All that's coming up right here on the Knife Junkie Podcast.
[21:03]Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Originals the knife junkie.com slash battle box and now that we're caught up with knife life news let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast all right well i got an email from herman knives in poland uh saying hey bob you want to check out one of our knives and i kind of thought it was a joke because i don't ordinarily feature um well i shouldn't put it that way i just didn't think that they wanted me. I thought they would want a different guy. But they reached out to me. I know they've reached out to a lot of knife channels and have been on a little, you know, sending these out. And man alive, this is amazing. This is a great knife. This one is called the Ishtar. They have a number of different knives and the Ishtar itself has a couple of different blades. And this one has that traditional upswept Persian. That's M390 blade steel. It's got this very fine blasting on it and a very fine.
[22:12]Full height, flat grind, super sharp. I've used this so far for just vegetables and mostly food. I think that's all I've used. Oh, no, no. I cut down some cardboard. I saw a couple of cat food cardboard boxes last night with this. So cardboard works great, but also really good with food. but just a beautiful, beautiful knife. It's a titanium liner lock. Got this sculpted titanium clip here with that channel underneath to fit your pocket. Really incredible action. These titanium slabs have been weight-relieved. And on the surface, you have this, I'm calling it gravel road texture. It looks like a gravel road.
[23:02]And then look at this this is really cool uh the pivot on the back side to stop it from spinning instead of being a little d pivot it's like a flower it's like a blossom everything around here is crowned it's very oh god this is a luxury luxury knife uh but it seems pretty robust i haven't done like i said i haven't done much with it the the hardest thing i've cut with it is cardboard um and you know this is an edc knife it's not for camping and it's not for doing super hard work with but uh in a pinch you could use it for self-defense no doubt that blade is wicked um and it cuts it cuts great i just i love this knife and it makes me think i want to get my hands on some other herman knives and it also makes me wonder about knives like shiragorov which which I know they kind of play in a similar playground, if you will. I think Sheregorovs, or maybe they're around like this, or maybe a little more expensive, I'm not sure. But, I don't know, just having this very refined knife sent to me, it's making me feel like maybe I need more of this refinement in my refined life. It feels so good in hand, and I'll tell you this, in reverse grip, which I'm sure you're not going to use it that way unless your life is threatened.
[24:29]You have a great place to put your thumb right here.
[24:34]Awesome, awesome knife. I love this. Thank you so much, Herman Knives. Now, I got to get these guys on. I'm not sure if it's these guys or this guy. I'm not sure who runs the Herman Knives operation, but I would love to get them on the show. I've had a number of Polish knife makers on the show to include Ostap Hel, who we were just talking about. And they have a rich tradition and a thriving current knife making and knife design arena. So I'd love to talk to Herman Knives. This thing is amazing, and I'm thrilled to have it.
[25:10]Alright, now, on to a very different type of knife. I want to talk about pig stickers here. And you say, Bob, why are you talking about pig stickers? You're not a pig hunter. You're not a boar hunter. Well, no, that's true. Though I do have this fantasy, this sort of Odysseus-esque fantasy where someday I go spear hunting for boar with some hounds and some of my men. Just like Odysseus did when he was 12 and he got the star and all that. But all joking aside, if I'm going to eat a wild game animal, which I don't eat enough wild game animal. It's just not my lifestyle. I would love to. For me, I have a soft spot for the swine, and I just think it's absolutely delicious. When we were in Tuscany, the Tuscan ragu, the Tuscan sauce, is wild boar sauce. Oh my god it's so good over fresh.
[26:10]Pasta anyway so I wanted to talk about this because I watched someone else's video where he was actually a pig hunter and he was talking about I need something that's 7 inches so you can reach the heart and I need something that's robust and I was like okay and I bet that also means it's got to be a robust blade it's got to be very sharp it's got to be very pointy and it's got to be 7 inches is what he said 7 inches or longer, because you got to reach that heart But also, it's got to be rigid, and you might want double-edged if you can manage it.
[26:43]Got to have good ergonomics so you can hold on to it. And it can't be too long. I was looking at some of the knives behind me, like the Talibangs and some of the longer swords you could definitely dispatch an animal with, but it's too much. You would have to be out here and you you might lose control in the fray with a wild pig this is this is from my vast experience so all right so let me tell you the first one here this is a list of 10 and the first one is low-hanging fruit to warm you up to the idea this is the odin wolf, sow catcher i mean listen to the name the sow catcher it's built in right.
[27:25]You've got a beautiful D2 blade of 9 inches, I believe this is. Yeah, it's 9 inches in blade length, so a very good length. We don't have too many knives of 9 inches, unless we're talking about our big Bowie knives. So they start to feel like short swords. I know that sounds ridiculous, especially if you fix blade guys, but my daily fix blade carry is about 4 inches in length. So when I have something like this in hand, it's way more substantial. So why is this a good pick sticker? Well, besides the fact that it's marketed as such, you've got a blade that's got a nice, a decent-sized flat here. So it's nice and rigid. You also have this fuller on both sides, so it's got the cross-section of basically an I-beam.
[28:16]You've got pretty steep bevels here. You could devastate in a slash, no doubt. Out uh but but it's not very thin so and you've got your double edges and you've got this wasp wasted a double belly thing here so it's it's pushing in it's creating the widest part of the channel here and then you're you're pushing up to the hilt now you've got a hilt that is built to push against and then it widens out towards the pommel for retraction uh the the recurve is great for the retraction too. It cuts on the way in, cuts on the way out.
[28:55]So I think the Odin Wolf sow catcher with a thong or a lanyard, and you guys tell me, if there's anyone out there who's actually a pig hunter.
[29:08]Let me know. Let me know if my estimations are correct. Some of these might be good, some of these might be bad, but this is what I'm thinking. Because you're going after a game that obviously is short, it's strong, it's got a tough hide, it's struggling and moving and doesn't want to die. It's fighting for its life. So you need something that's going to stay in your hand and that is going to do a lot of damage on the way in and out. So I think this is a great start. The Odenwolf Saupatcher. also this handle is sort of rubbery so it has a nice grip to it all right this next one this might be just for the movie you know where the in the movie where the guy is uh maybe he's a grizzled vet and he's going uh pig hunting this one maybe in the eight inch version would be better but this is the randall knives seven or two seven so the model number two with the seven inch blade. The two is the combat stiletto. You've got kind of the same thing happening here where you have dual bellied edges. Something I love about this one though. You have kind of a.
[30:23]It's not a blunted tip. The tip is very sharp, but it has a sort of chisel quality to it. So it's a pretty tough tip when turned on the side. And so I think that that's going to do a great job going into the thick, struggling hide of a wild pig. And then you look at it, it's got this medial ridge that goes all the way to the point. And it has its maximal thickness all the way to about, I guess we'll be generous and say three quarters of the way down the blade and then it starts to taper. So you have a very robust point but it's also thinned out there and then it widens out at this medial ridge.
[31:16]And if you go all the way in, which you might because this is a seven inch blade, you will go to the hilt here and you will be able to cut out of it easily because, the ricasso has this sort of sweep here you'll be able to pull it out, handle wise you've got double quillions that are really great for pushing, whether you're like this in the hammer grip or in a saber grip or in a reverse grip here you've got just awesome Awesome. If I were doing a reverse grip, it would probably be sideways with the quillians across the palm that way. If I had my option, maybe with my palm on the back of the palm out here. I just don't know.
[32:06]Because I think something like this might be a little bit small. But we'll move on and see what you think. This, by the way, has that amazing commando handle, which is contoured in such a way that it fits the hand kind of great in any position. Leather, you know, when it gets wet, it does get a little grippy, but I'm not sure how long it has to be wet with something as slick as blood to get grippy. So that might be a moot point here. But the Randall 2.7. yeah all right next up this one uh i i really uh have faith in because one of our listeners and viewers carries this on him to vanquish uh mountain lions and other uh miscreants when he's out in you know the rock you see and it's the cold steel type hand again double-edged.
[33:03]7-inch blade, hollow ground, but still a thick medial ridge down to about here, so almost at the tip. So you get the full thickness here of that blade. A very grippy handle here with this grivery.
[33:21]A pointy back. This part I'm not crazy about, because I feel like you might need to back up your thrust with your palm. And that works fine with the Randall, works great with the Odenwald. With this one, with that Skullcrusher, if you were to use this in such a way that you would be using your other palm to back up the pommel to thrust, or if you were using it with your thumb on the back in reverse grip, you would want to grind this down. I've seen people grind these down on both the tantos and on the taipan. I'm not going to do that. I don't need to. I'm not taking this out hog hunting. But all you hog hunters, if you clicked on this, tell me what you think. Would you want to grind this down? Is this something that would be a liability in a struggle with a wild hog? I have a feeling it would be a liability in a struggle with a wild human, but I am not so sure. You could use this to brain a human or at least stun them a little. Uh so let me know about that uh but i i was impressed when we had someone right in saying that they carry this uh in the deep wood for animals in case they're jumped by a mountain lion and you can kind of manage to pull this you might be able to shiv it right into them.
[34:45]Okay next up on this pigs the pig sticker uh hypothesis this hypothetical pig sticker uh I'm not sure about this one. What do you think? Since it's based on a butcher knife, I think it might do all right. This is the Partisan by Station 9, and it's a 1095 blade, and it is springy. It's got a relatively low, what do you call it, HRC. It holds its edge pretty damn well, but you can also do some pretty...
[35:19]What do I want to say, some pretty strong maneuvers with this blade and have it bend and have it return back to normal. So I feel like with that sharp edge and then with the swedge, which is added on to make this more like a trench weapon from World War I, the idea being in World War I, a lot of people were called to battle before they could be equipped properly, and so they took whatever they could. A lot of people took butcher knives and then uh altered them for combat like adding this swedge and that's what this is based on um like a dagger at the point so far we've talked about daggers this is not a dagger but with that swedge at the point it's rather dagger like so it's going to pierce very well and um even though it's a it's a it's a an eighth of an inch thick it's still very flexible. And though I think that rigidity is something you really want out of a knife like this, the last thing you want is rigid and brittle. You would want rigid and flexible. And I think that this might be that. Also, not for nothing, but it has a very familiar form factor with that handle. The knife we all use the most, let's be honest, is our kitchen knives because we eat every day.
[36:41]We don't do, we might, many of us might not do a lot of hard chores with our knife daily, but we probably all use a knife daily to cut food. So the form factor is important, the familiarity with, you know, muscle memory and how your hand feels, I bet that also plays into it. Also, not for nothing, if you needed to back that up with your palm, that's a very comfortable and secure pommel shape to do that on. That's the Partizan from Station 9.
[37:14]Next up is one that I love. It's just about my favorite type of knife. The Loveless Sub-Hilt Fighter. This one is the Cold Steel OSS. I chose this over my custom Hog Thief Knives sub-hilt folder because this is something that's readily available for not that much scrap.
[37:39]This knife comes in a single-edge version. It also used to come in a wharncliffe version that I wish I got back when it was available. But this is the best of the lot, if you ask me, because it is the true embodiment of a Loveless sub-hilt fighter. If you don't know, Robert Loveless was a knife maker who created a number of iconic designs. The Shoot Knife, the New York Special, and the Sub-Hilt Fighter, I guess chief among them. And, uh, the sub hilt is this part here. It's a secondary hilt behind the forefinger. It allows you to, uh, allows you greater dexterity when manipulating the blade. And then also, uh, gives you a solid hard point for you to pull against when drawing the knife out of your victim. It's a fighting knife through and through no doubt. And that's why I feel like, uh, this would make a great pig sticker because you've got double edge, you've got the benefit of the clip point shape for penetration.
[38:44]But you have a sharp edge all the way up to the hilt and then you've got this super grippy handle material with that sub-hilt. This one, by the way, is all kind of dusty and dirty. This lives on top of our refrigerator so if I'm getting something out of the fridge and you hassle me you might find this up in the grill. But other than that, I think a pig sticker, it would be great. Because really, you know, the Randall-made would probably be a good knife too, but do you really want to get all sorts of blood and viscera on that beautiful handle? Or would you rather have this in your hand, not only for the secureness of grip, but also for just getting all that stuff on it? You can just hose this down and be ready to go. That's Aus-8 blade steel. It's a blasted finish. I sanded it down a little bit, and it's absolutely positively razor sharp. Love this thing.
[39:39]That's the sheath it comes with. You can see the dust in the corners here on that sheath. All right, next up. This one is more about the idea because I think it might lack in length, but I'm talking about bayonets. This is the M8 bayonet. My brother-in-law gave this to me. This was his sheath in Iraq. His knife, actually, his bayonet itself was stolen.
[40:06]As often happens in the service, us but he still had his sheath and he wanted to give it to me so he bought a new knife to put in it and it's very prized it hangs on the on the wall not here but over there and i love this thing but why why do i think it'd be a good pig sticker because look at how slender that blade is and yet the first uh more than a third i guess the first well let's say the first third of it is a double edge it's slender it's um it's got a dagger grind so there's there is no more hang up on either side than the other and then it's got a very good guard and a great grip you can get a really good full grip on this it's knurled and textured and then you have the giant of course uh the lug that goes over or you know this ring that goes over the uh muzzle and this guard down here you have a great way of holding onto the knife, a great way of not slipping onto the blade, and a great slender blade, that will definitely do the trick. My question is, is the six and a half inch length too short for the job? You guys can let me know if you've ever stuck a pig with a knife. Do let me know. According to the guy who was watching, this might be a little short.
[41:33]And I will take his word for it.
[41:36]All right, next up, this is the only one of its sort on the list. It's another cold steel, and it's a Bowie. But this one is the Laredo Bowie. And contained within its internal logic in terms of design, it's a slender Bowie blade. It's got a sharpened swedge, a zero-ground swedge. And the tip is very much like a dagger. Dagger so i feel like once it it slips in this far it's gonna it's gonna keep going uh because it's not widening out and it doesn't have a hump to get over it doesn't have an excessive belly up front to get over it's just gonna slip in once it breaches and i feel like you're gonna go all the way to the hilt with this one um i think that this would be a great pig sticker uh it's not a dagger shape. It's not even on both sides, but I feel like that sharpened swedge and the basic parallel lines of the spine and edge and the extreme sharpness of the edge, the toughness, thickness of this three-sixteenths inch thick blade, this will do some serious work. I think that's actually a quarter inch. Does it matter? Not really, but let me check. Yeah, that's a quarter inch.
[42:57]Great knife of course the coffin shaped handle and the guard work in concert coffin shaped handle swells ever more until the end of the pommel and then of course you've got the guard to stop you in that direction so when you're pulling it out uh you've got a widening handle to help you do the job now if i were using this to pig stick or to actually fight i would put a couple of ranger your bands on this somewhat slick Bo Cocobolo handle.
[43:27]Next up, this one I'm sure, this one might be, this is my second favorite on the list for this job, and that is the traditional Filipino weapons, Daga. Daga is Tagalog, I think, for dagger. So this is from their sword and dagger, one of their two sword and dagger sets, the better of the two if you ask me. Of course, it's not a dagger in the traditional sense that it's a symmetrical double-edged blade. They just mean dagger like a smaller knife compared to the sword that goes with this. That's the same shape. This one has a swedge. I always wish this swedge was sharpened just to a zero edge. It would be fine. I'm a simple man. I don't need much. But a very rigid blade. You've got about a quarter inch thick of steel here, and then you have a saber grind. So you have the full thickness of the steel.
[44:24]That goes all the way up to nearly to the point so in terms of rigidity you are there in terms of grip, no one beats a Filipino grip this is amazing, you've got up here the most important part is that you can get it in without sliding up on the blade, here you have this big piece of copper coming down there on the forefinger that'll stop you and then when you retract you've got this incredible bird's beak and and uh hook here on the sort of flirty pommel that will allow you to extract it no problem but nice and thin very sharp you got a belly up here you'll cut up to the belly and the rest will slip right in uh this one 11 inches i believe, about ten and a half inches in blade length like the vacuero so i think this is my second favorite of the bunch uh in terms of for this job and i think this next one might be the primo even though the last one is the namesake so this is the cold steel rondelle dagger.
[45:33]This is based on a medieval design so this is the kind of dagger that knights carried so they They would engage with their swords and their pole arms and their long maces and such. And when they would come into a clinch and those weapons were rendered useless, they would pull these out and seek chinks in the armor or seek areas, exposed areas of chain mail to push these through. But areas between the armor. And it's a three-sided dagger. So you're not cutting anything with this. You could hit really hard on someone's skin and split it and do nasty stuff like that, but you're not cutting any salami with this knife. The rondelle aspect of it is talking about the pommel and the guard.
[46:23]And with armored hands, gauntleted hands, I guess this was a great way to engage, for both pushing and thrusting and then retracting to keep this thing in your hand. And this, to me, I think is probably going to be the best here in this list because you've got 10 1⁄2 inches of super rigid steel here. The edges are sharp-ish, sharp to do the forward thrusting job. Now, you pig hunters out there, let me know. Do you need something flatter than this? Do you need something that actually does have a cutting blade? Or is this like in other words do you have to be too accurate with this to make it work and you need to kind of cut around with it or would this just be the ultimate pig sticker i don't know you tell me but before you do take a look at this very last one this one is sow catcher this one is called the wild pig hunter and this is by cole uh by tops uh this is one of my favorite knives. I mean, I say that about them all. I love this Topps knife. This one was given to me by my wife by my suggestion, of course. You can see the differential heat treat here.
[47:47]This is their acid rain wash finish where you can see that. This is 1095 blade steel, but.
[47:55]You can see how it's hardened here, and you can see that difference. Everything above this temper line is softer steel, and that's going to help you. You want it to be flexible.
[48:09]You don't want it to be brittle. You want rigidity, but not too much rigidity. The differential heat treat gives you that. You get extra hard on the edge where you need it, but the rest is flexible and can handle it. You turn it on its side and look down from the top. You can see how this knife retains its full thickness to right about there, where the swedge goes away. It's a hard-cut swedge, and you've got two integral quillions. This is a full tang knife based on a Russian fighting knife, Russian military knife. And I have no doubt that this thing would do exactly what it's meant to do. As a wild pig hunter not only do those quillions help you from going on to the blade but also these um finger choils uh do the same and then as you can see at it towards the pommel it widens out of course that's for uh pulling the blade back out and uh.
[49:13]And then, of course, you take it back to the lodge, you cut it up, and you make your tomato ragu.
[49:19]So as someone who has never killed a pig with a knife, tell me, does this list make sense? How would you change this list? And let me know. I'm genuinely interested because some of the qualities that go into dispatching a pig are valuable for other lines. So I am curious. Do let me know. All right, well, thanks for joining me on this little pig sticker journey. And thank you to YouTube that helped through their algorithm, helped me come up with this topic because for some reason, I got a couple of things on me in my feed about pig stickers. And I was like, oh, let me weigh you. If that's what you need, I think I got a couple of here.
[50:03]So thanks for joining me. Be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives, where we give away this beautiful bald man knife and tool thicket tross to one lucky gentleman junkie. All right, for Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at ReviewThePodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, TheKnifeJunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at TheKnifeJunkie.com. Check out some great knife photos on TheKnifeJunkie.com and join our Facebook group at TheKnifeJunkie.com.
[50:50]And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at TheKnifeJunkie.com or call our 24-7 listener line at 724-466-4487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of The Knife Junkie Podcast.
[51:05] Extro