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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, we take a look at the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway knife that we can't stop looking at. I get three knives from Apex Alchemy, and we take a look at great camp knives. 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.
[0:28]Welcome back to the show a couple of my favorite comments from this past week first from the the great paul monco knife designer of some of my favorites right here thank you so much for the overview video and that was on the giveaway knife that he anodized he says uh and another thank you for the comments on the mystic truly an honor to be considered a a favorite production piece for that year. Good luck to all who entered in the giveaway. So Paul Monco, the man who did the anodizing on this with his company Colorful Filth, he is a true artist, and not just knife making and designing, but also this kind of graphic arts, has it anodized here on this beautiful titanium and 20CV 8020. We're going to be talking about this in a second, given to us by Northern Knives. The knife junkie uh gentleman junkie giveaway knife this week anyway uh this month so he says thank you paul i'm i'm uh i'm psyched that you're watching the show because man i love your work so it's great to have you here gotta have you back on the show talk about some of the stuff you've been doing recently my next favorite comment was from the same video about that knife from will be uh a uh a favorite on thursday night knives and a gentleman junkie himself he says He says, this one is beautiful. My two and a half year old was captivated by this one when he showed it on the live stream. And I totally see why.
[1:54]Because of that really cool shark thing. And giant squid motif with the diver in peril between them that's totally the kind of thing well i'm still going for it but as a kid i was so into sharks so into underwater kind of adventure stories uh that that knife man where was where was that knife 45 years ago that's what i want to know all right uh all of that said let us now get to my pocket check what's in his pocket let's find out.
[2:27]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives so as my thumb which i jacked up pretty badly about 10 days ago is now coming back online and i'm starting to get some feeling in there i've had a lot of encouragement from some of the viewers who have also hurt their thumb like like mr bull uh thank you sir he said it'll it'll come back online and it's doing so and part of of that has been trying to feel things the same way. So I've been carrying this. I carried this one today. This is the LUDT from Microtech. But the reason is I wanted to be able to locate the button with my thumb. I mean, I don't have so much feeling in the tip of my thumb right now. And so I'm trying to train it back. It's like with nursing home patients. Don't let the nursing home patients, you know, make them do everything they can do. Because if you start doing things for them, they will begin to atrophy. I'm feeling like it's the same thing with this thumb. So.
[3:30]I'm bringing it back into use and not babying it anymore. So today I went for the Purple L-U-B-T. And this is something I never do. I went totally 100% matchy-matchy today, and I never do this. Just ask my wife. Drives her nuts. Today I had the Purple Jack Wolf Knives Benny's Jack on me, the Purple Kyranite. Man alive. This thing is awesome. I've always been a big fan of the Lanny's clip in general. General ben belkin's version the benny's clip is a really really great update if you will with the modern materials and engineering and i really loved my first i really love my first benny's clip i did a little dye job make customized it the my card of myself this here tonight is just to die for as they say as the high society folks say and when i look at this i I think high society, it's like purple leather curtain, not leather, purple velvet curtains. You're like, is that what they use in high society? Purple velvet curtains. I don't know something about this. I don't know something about the royalty of purple. There's even a holiness of, of purple. That's another level, but that purple is a sublime color, right? Uh, even when we talk about unity, we talk about purple in this country, uh, blue and red coming together. So I've always loved the color purple.
[4:56]Not so much the movie, but this, the actual color. So to have it in Kyranite, a classic flip joint material and a very early sort of plastic that was used on knives. This, of course, updated Kyranite. I'm sure the recipe has been updated. Man, I love it. Perfectly hafted. It's all like it's one piece here. Of course, with Jack Wolf Knife, you get the amazing action.
[5:24]On this new one this purple keronite version it's got a really nice hand rubbed satin going that horizontal direction three other versions of this out there and coming with this new release of the benny's clip jack wolf knives is introducing the steel series and it is the same design same build same tolerances same everything different materials you have an integrated steel bolster and liner instead of titanium, which creates a solid silver back. It looks so cool. And then 14C28N blade steel, a blade steel we all know and love and perfectly capable.
[6:09]So you can get the super luxe edition now with the S90V blade steel and the titanium and the special handle materials. Or you can go for the steel series for $100 less. That's one third less and get 14C28N, still ground super thin, still grinder-satin'd beautifully, and then stainless steel handles with blue micarta. It looks like a maritime knife. It's beautiful. So really, really great strategy from Jack Wolf Knives in offering something that's easier to afford. And I say easier. I'm not saying it's inexpensive, even the steel series, but it brings it down into a different range. That's appreciated. Of course, with Jack Wolf Knives, you get the leather slip, you get the cool tin with the artwork and the fog, not the fog, the pog, and the cloth and the stickers, and you get the whole experience. That's part of buying a Jack Wolf Knife. Now, when you get the Steel Series, it's pared down. You get it more like a Great Eastern Cutlery, which is also really cool. It comes in a tube, but it comes wrapped up in that really cool wax paper. Old school. I love it. Okay, next on me, keeping up with the matchy-matchy, purple theme. Yeah, I did it. I went all purple, and I had my Nova 1. It's not like I don't carry this thing all the time anyway, but I mean, my Agent 001.
[7:37]This is the T-Cal Knives Agent 001. I have two of them in the double edge, and this purple one stays in the sheath that rides horizontally. I have a Woodland Burl, that G10 model that goes in the waistband version of the sheath that i have it's very nice i get to have both of those and then i have a single edge, but today of course it was the purple purple purple purple i i didn't use it at all i did draw it and pretend to kill someone a couple of times uh but i did not draw it at all i did not use it at all lastly on me for emotional support i had to go all in so i went with the purple um um, uh, Ritter Hoag Mini RSK Mark I. Um, what a great knife. I, I haven't carried this in a little while. Uh, you know, I busted it out when I had Doug Ritter on not that long ago and carried it then. But before that kind of fell off my radar for a little while. New things come in, uh, new, new little obsessions pop up and, uh, and then it takes it a little dive into the archives to find all the awesome stuff, uh, you have. Now that said, my archive is too big and, and I'm looking to pare down, and you're saying, I know, Bob, you say that annually. You declare that, and will you get rid of it? Just about enough. But this time, I mean it.
[8:57]This was my carry. Let me know down below, do you go matchy-matchy ever? Is it a little, I mean, is it a little too much to have all purple carry? I never do this. This never happens to me, I swear. But this time it did, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. So I had the purple L-U-D-T. That's the Gen 2. Now it's the Gen 3. And the reason I got the purple one of that was because when they brought out the Gen 3 and I decided I didn't like it, I.
[9:26]I knew it was time to get an L-U-D-T model hue before they were gone, and the only thing I could find was purple. And I was like, I'll live with it, and now I love it. All right. So next up, I just want to show this off under the knife cam. I'm going to take off my wedding ring to do so. Sorry, baby, but everyone knows I'm married. I'm going to do that because I don't want to scratch up the beautiful Anno job on this. This is the Colorful Filth Northern Knives Collaboration Knife. Northern Knives out of Anchorage, Alaska, has done a number of collaborations with Paul Monko and Colorful Filth. He is not only a great knife designer, but he's a great graphic artist. And this anodizing job is by his company and him, Colorful Filth. As you can see here, it's got a very beautifully done anodizing job. But also a really cool theme, this underwater. Of course, this is the titanium and 20CV version of the Shark Lock AD 20.5 with the shark foot blade from Demco, Demco Knives. So very on theme with the sharks and the underwater theme. Also, blue cerakote with bubbles on that shark foot blade.
[10:46]Our Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway knife. Knife, thank you so much to Northern Knives and Colorful Filth for donating this to the channel, and by extension, to you gentlemen junkies. All you got to do is go to Patreon, thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon, and sign up, and boom, you're on the list. You have to sign up at the gentlemen junkie level. This thing also does have a pocket clip that it ships with, but you'd be a fool, a damn fool, to put a pocket clip on this because it would definitely mess with that gorgeous anodizing. I suggest you have a custom slip made or find some sort of leather slip. If you're lucky enough to win this and you get this one-of-a-kind masterpiece to carry, then splurge a little, treat yourself, find a leather maker that you like and get some leather made for this so you can carry it and use it and pull it out to impress people, but you're not gonna jack it up with the clip and jeans and all that all right that's the september gentleman junkie knife giveaway knife september 19th 2024 wedding ring gotta make sure it's oriented properly going back on all right ladies.
[12:01]Okay, so that said, I want to get to just let you know that there's only one way to get this. There's only one way to get this from us, and that's by becoming a patron at Patreon. You can scan the QR code right here, or you can go to TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Patreon. Check out what we have to offer. Our highest level of support, Gentleman Junkie level of support is, you know, by and large, the most of our patronage is at that level due to the sweet knife giveaways we do every month so go over check it out um you don't have to go all the way up to uh gentleman junkie you could be a traditional junkie or a tactical junkie or you can just watch the show comment subscribe um thumbs up it and send it to friends there's a lot of ways to support the show but the most material The material way is right here, Patreon. Again, thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals.
[13:09]Thenifejunkie.com slash BattleBox. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. If I cared to actually do the research, I would look at other enthusiast markets like, say, bicycles or guns or cars. I wouldn't have to look at cars. I'm pretty sure about that. But, I mean, are there always new products coming out every week in these other enthusiast markets? We are lucky right now. We are lucky right now if we're knife lovers because every week I've got new knives to report on. This one, the first one here, is one of my favorites from ProTech, the TR3. It's a 3.5 inch drop point automatic It's been one of their bread and butter knives For a long time.
[13:54]Well, they are now, I say finally as if I've been waiting for it. I haven't, but it seems like this is low-hanging fruit because they are the ones who mastered the button lock first in many, many ways with the new port. Is that what it's called, the new port? Well, in any case, they have given the TR-3 the manual button lock treatment, and I'm really excited about this. So this is what the TR-3 looks like minus the thumb studs. Traditionally and that button lock would actually be the the button that actuates the blade to come you know popping out tr3 this is called the tr3 integrity that that that is the name that differentiates it from the tr3 ordinary automatic so that is a new lock and a new mechanism to bring that out three and a half inch drop point s35vn on this blade an interesting choice in my mind at at this point. I was thinking, I was assuming they'd go MagnaCut just because it's a tried and true knife that everyone loves and I think it's very, very high up on the, ProTech, in the ProTech Panoply.
[15:10]Parthenon, I guess I should say. So, Pantheon. Jeez, man. It's a P word. But I know it's very high up there so I thought they would do MagnaCut. No big deal. S35VN. Awesome steel. Thumb studs. bearings, aluminum, deep carry pocket clip. This is available. They're saying it's going to be available at the end of September or early October. So I'm saying early October 2024. Going to get it? Going to get it? You like it? One thing that I like about this better than my automatic, I love my TR3 automatic. It does have the traditional sort of Benchmade slash Emerson clip on it. So it doesn't go deep carry. This one, I like the look of the deep carry clip on it. So maybe that's a good excuse for me to go out and buy the new TR-3 Integrity. All right, next up, from another solid grouping here, this is Boker Knives at it with Bob Terzuola. The great Bob Terzuola, who, happy birthday, just turned 80 as I record this. He turned 80 the day before I recorded this, so that was, what was that, Saturday the 14th of September. Happy birthday to you, Bob Terzuola. His new, Tackmaster folder With Boker is All Bob Terzuola, look at that thing It is awesome, it is a bread and butter knife For him, meaning a 4 inch But 3.9 inch blade Japanese style tanto with a flipper.
[16:37]I've seen custom versions of this. I'm not sure if it goes by TAC Master. But that Japanese style tanto blade, it looks sort of Americanized to me because it does have a sort of secondary point. But the real point is it is a compound grind here and you have a lot of a lot more beef behind the edge on the straight portion. And then about a third of the way down the blade towards the tip, it goes to a thinner grind. Interesting choice oftentimes we see it in reverse uh but i like this especially if you're using that tip to slip into stuff or uh to um do any sort of utility cut this is a tactical knife though for sure beautiful liner lock with the with the subdued green micarta that's a nitro v blade with an acid stone wash very beautiful this one i might have to get he's got this he's got the new Fox ATCF, and then he's got the Protec ATCF. One of these I have to get because I don't have a Bob T in my collection. Whether it's a collaboration knife or a custom, I don't have anything from him, and I should. I mean, my moniker is the Knife Junkie. So this one coming out in October 2024. 24.
[17:58]Okay, next up from Benchmade. It's a new gold class, a new gold class knife from their version of their latest ballet song, The Necron. And this actually, this knife has not even been out for a year as I'm recording this, and they're already doing a gold class version of it. It must mean that it's popular, but man alive, it's a beauty. Now, I'm going to address the blade first. they're calling this a weehawk blade and i remember i've never heard anyone ever use the term weehawk blade except benchmade and they used to use that name on a blade style that was very different from this to me this is a clip point or a dow oh no it's not even a dow this is a clip point blade and they're calling it a weehawk if you look at their old older um.
[18:49]800 series, I guess, ballad songs. Their Weehawks blade. Now, I know there are people out there who know Benchmade and ballad songs better than I, so if I'm wrong, please correct me in the comments, but their Weehawks blade looked more like a bayonet grind, right? It was a drop point with a large swedge that came halfway up, maybe clip point-ish in profile, but it didn't look anything like this. Anyway, I'm getting in the weeds now. This new gold class, they're coming out with two versions of it, of the Necron, and they will both have that 4.6 inch, I love it, 4.6 inch, that's the traditional length, or anywhere from 4.5 to 4.25 inches, traditional length on a balisong, proprietary damasteel, two different types of damasteel patterns they're making for this, and for Benchmade exclusively.
[19:44]This knife also has tungsten weights at the end. I think you can kind of see them there. Those silvery tips at the end can be removed. And this is a clipless balisong. So this is for the balisong flippers. It does not clip shut. You would want a little leather sheath or something to put this in. This is a connoisseur's balisong. Also a Benchmade connoisseur's knife for sure because these are going to cost you a pretty penny. Jungleware and Lava Flow Fat Carbon. What you're looking at there is the fat carbon. The other one was the jungleware. These are available now, so no time to save up. Just go into that and get this now.
[20:30]I don't recommend that. Lastly here is from K-Bar, and these are pretty cool. These are some Solingen-made kitchen knives. Solingen, Germany, known for their steel historically, but also they have a lot of great kitchen knives coming out of Solingen these days, so I can see why K-Bar would collaborate in that direction. Look at this. This is their 9-inch chef's knife. This series is also coming out with a 7-inch Santoku, Japanese utility knife With a nice curve in it Like, Curved even more than the usual Santoku So that's kind of a cool thing So these are, These are coming out In 1.4116 Steel, oh thank you Jim That's the Santoku, it's got a nice.
[21:19]An exaggerated Curve up On the spine and that adds to the Belly of the blade for nice rocking and cuts and as you can see here and as you noticed on the last one yes this does have that same barrel shape handle uh as as the classic a combat classic k-bar usmc fighting knife pretty cool except that one is a rat tail tang and stack with stacked leather handle this is a full tang with micarta slabs but they're still kind of emulating that that rounded shape um this one is available now. Both of them, this one and the 9-inch chef's knife. Do check it out. And if you do, leave a comment. I want to know how the circular handle will feel on a chef's knife.
[22:09]And maybe they make it more of an oval for this, but, yeah, let me know. All right, coming up, we are going to get to the state of the collection. We have some really cool things that have come in from, well, from some familiar names. But before we get there, I want to do a call out to knife makers. I know a lot of knife makers watch this show and the interview show, and I just want to say if you're out there and you want to create a new store for yourself, we can help. There is a an alternative to shopify now i don't know if you know this but shopify is a woke canadian company and you might be a woke canadian and that's all good you might be canadian and and and cringing at your current state of your country current leadership we're doing the same thing down here but if you want to bring your uh your shopping cart experience uh you knife makers or anyone else uh into an american company that's not gonna you know if If it's legal, you can sell it with this company. It's called LaunchCart. That's where we sell our stuff. That's how we sell our stuff. This is something Jim takes a lot of pride in and passion in researching and finding out the best options, especially the best USA options. And he's done so here with LaunchCart. And we've been happy with it, very happy with it so far. So if you're out there and you have a store, it's with Shopify or another foreign company that maybe doesn't approve of your activities.
[23:39]You know, Shopify thinks they're your moral better, and they're going to tell you what you can and can't do. So if you're cool with that, well, then stick with Shopify. But if you want something great and something American and something that's not going to be up your rear end the whole time, check out Launchpad. Go to theknifejunkie.com slash launch. That's kind of our affiliate way in and we can help you there.
[24:04]Do check it out. We're psyched about it. Okay, coming up, state of the collection. We're going to take a look at some great knives from Billy. If you know who Billy is, you'll be excited to see this. All right, coming up on the Knife Junkie Podcast. The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super-sharp, crenulated bezel, and a built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch. The knife junkie.com slash shockwave and now that we're caught up with knife life news let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast so i was referencing billy and i meant billy ford of apex alchemy if you're um in the online knife world right now you know who he is and he has begun making knives and he sent me three of them and this is the first one that arrived and i really like it it's called the raptora and this one is let's see i have the specs i gotta i gotta i have to reference the specs because i know he takes a lot of care in these knives and i want to get them right but this this one is uh i think i'm about to mess it up 5160 this is the raptora.
[25:18]5160 it is uh hollow ground and heat treated to uh 61 uh hrc it's got a crown spine beautiful taratuff handles i love this sort of teal color with white liners and it's ergonomic feels so good in hand and it's a very exciting example of the work that that billy ford is doing i'm really liking the design in that it's got that downward raked edge which as you pull it through materials is going to accelerate the cutting it's a very sharp knife i've only so far.
[25:58]Sheared paper with it, but I am going to be doing a video of this and the other knives I'm going to be showing you. I have permission to do other stuff with it. But this Raptora, it's kind of an EDC. I would call this definitely an EDC knife. I think with a nice sheath, especially with the angle from the handle to the blade, I could see this in the 3 or 4 o'clock position in the waistband pointing edge forward and it would be so incredibly comfortable. And then, of course, easy to draw. And then you'd have it in this reverse grip. And I know it's not a self-defense knife, but of course it could be. Maybe take a little bit off of that and you get a self-defense knife. But really, really impressed with this. And then I got another package from him which further impressed me very much. Okay, this first First one I'll show you is, look at that beauty. So this is his amygdala, amygdala model. And it is a beautiful and very solid model.
[27:04]You know, you get a knife in hand and you think this is solid or you can think this is heavy. This, I feel like it's solid and not heavy, but I would easily go to town on, you know, anything with this because it feels so solid. Anyway, this is 5160 and it is really nicely hollow ground here and you've got a beautiful patina on it and this swirly red and black handle so this is this was water jetted if that's the proper way to proper past tense water jetted, and then it was ground and heat treated this bevel was ground and heat treated by brad vice he's a knife maker i'm unfamiliar with but i have to get familiar with him because he did a beautiful job on this one um so this is the the design is by billy ford of apex alchemy but he had brad vice make it. This is the version.
[28:02]This is that version. I'm going to show you another one of this very same knife. Man, it feels so good in hand. I really like this. I'm going to take this outside. I don't think this one. I think this one I'm leaving pristine. I think the next one I'm about to show you, I'm going to baton some wood and do some carving and even some food prep. I want to do a little video where I cook something outside because I'm watching videos of people cooking outside and i'm like that looks fun okay next this is the amygdala i'm sorry yeah the amygdala that that billy ford made himself in jed hornbeak's shop so with the with the uh with the watchful eye of jed hornbeak and it's funny because i have the same crypt tech material same color on my jed hornbeak knife but so made under the watchful eye of jed hornbeak by billy this amygdala is pretty impressive um first of all sheath i'm gonna turn it this way oh look at that so you've got a higher flat grind on this right that's flat yeah higher flat grind on this and this one is adcrv2 and this is uh the handle is micarta amygdala.
[29:19]Right there, the tang, and then you flip it over. What does it say here? ADCRV USA B Ford. So on the spine, you get some of that markings there. That's very cool. So beautiful knives. Billy, congratulations. You're doing beautiful work. And it doesn't just look good, but it feels good in hand. And I can tell this is going to be a great camp style knife a great outdoor knife a great do-everything knife and i like both very much actually it's kind of i've been vacillating back and forth as to which one i like more um but i i don't have to decide because neither of them are mine so uh when it comes time to get one myself i'll have it done the way i want it but i really really really like these and uh by By the way, this one you see more of a peak on the pommel. This is the one made in Jed's shop. And this is definitely a six-finger knife for me.
[30:21]If I had six fingers, six or seven, it's got a nice long handle. I mean, I can get, and I would venture to say most people can get a full hand grip on the back like this. But you got that choil up there. So you have options. If you're using this outdoors and you want to chop, you got a little lanyard here. Here, you can go three fingers with this and get a lot of leverage. So I'm very impressed with Apex Alchemy's work, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. But I also really can't wait to get outside with it and just do a little banging around in the backyard with this. So thank you, Billy, for entrusting these to me. It's my honor to check them out, and I look forward – always I look forward to checking out new knives. But when they come from people that I already know from this community who have decided to start making knives.
[31:16]It's even sweeter. All right, well, I was talking about those as great camp knives, and that's a great segue into this list of great camp knives. And this is not my ordinary bread and butter. I much prefer or collect, I'm more fascinated by tactical knives, combat knives, and swords and weapons, knives as weapons. These here, of course, that I'm about to show you, all could be used as weapons just as this could be or this could be or a hammer or a car. So these are not made as weapons. So I'm going to get that out of the way. Not made as weapons, could flex into weapons easily and be awesome at it. These are knives that excel at across-the-board chores. So whether you're making steaks for your tent or you're cutting down saplings or you're preparing your camp meal, meal. These all excel at that.
[32:17]And full disclosure, there are a couple of them I have never used for any of that, one or two, but I surmise that they would be good for it. Also, I have not used these all to cook with. A couple of them I have, you know, so for what that's worth. They're not all great slicers of tomatoes and cheese is what I'm saying. All right, first up here, we have the cold Cold Steel SRK, the SRK Survival Rescue Knife. This is a classic cold steel, and it's been made for a long time, but it's one of those knives that has been in everyone's hands, including the Navy SEALs and including outdoorsmen for survival.
[33:01]This one is... Pretty damn old. And know that it's old because it says Made in America on the blade. So this is Carbon V or Carbon 5, Made in America. An inexpensive knife, you know, they do a couple of different versions of this knife. Right now, I think the inexpensive version is SK5. And then they'll do a 3D version of it. And then they do a mini version of it. And one that's coated, one that's not. I mean, this is just a winner knife for them. And why is that because it's got a very neutral five and a three quarters inch clip point blade the blade has a long uh straight area that you can work with on that edge but then it's got the belly up here and then it's got a center line point with a zero ground swedge when it's coated like this with the black traction coating like this uh it it takes a little bit of the sting out of that zero ground edge but we know from cold steel clip point blades where they take the swedge all the way down to a zero point it gets sharp especially on impact so that is one drawback that people have or one hesitation people have about batoning with cold steel clip points because they have a very sharp clip and it'll ruin your baton i say don't get so precious about your baton and then you're fine.
[34:25]This has the grivery handle for great grip, a single quillion allowing your thumb to come up and fully rest on the back of the blade without dealing with anything up here. So, you know, to get in the way. This is like a great knife. And this would flex easily into fighting. I'm not going to bring that up every time. But, you know, with that swedge and with its length, you know, just under six, right? Yep, just under six inches.
[34:55]It's a great size for everything. Also, a little bit of a Coke bottle handle when you turn it on its side like this. But all in all, very nice and squared off. I bought this one in 2005 when my wife, who wasn't my wife at the time, but we were on the way. She had to go to London for an extended time. She went there for about a year. And so I made her a whole getaway kit. And that was in it. And I'm sure that knife is incredibly illegal in Great Britain. But I figured the only time it would come out is in a shit-hit-the-fan scenario. And, you know, who cares about that? All right, next up. This one, I've sort of inspired this category. This and another one we're going to see downstream. Because I've mentioned this a couple of times. I've been watching a lot of videos, mostly about hobos. But, you know, how do you survive on very little? It'll say you have a can of soup and you want to cook it over a fire. How do you make the fire? How do you make a little stove for it? How do you make a little way to eat out of it? How do you make a bowl? All that kind of stuff. It's fascinating to me. And so I've been noodling around in the backyard making cowboy coffee. That's my thing now. I make cowboy coffee and it makes me feel like I'm actually doing something out in the wild.
[36:17]I know. I know. It's Suburban Dad stuff, but hey, it's what I can do right now. But one knife I've been liking making tinder out of, making tiny little slivers that go in my little folding stove, is this knife.
[36:35]So this is the Boone II. This is the Park River Knives Boone II. You've heard me wax poetic about this knife for a long time. This is the pre-war camp knife that turned into the K-Bar. This is the knife that 1930s dads had on their belts when they were camping. You know, I have all these sort of little things, stories built into this knife because it's just so classic looking. And it's a great representation of it because it's made by Bark River, a company I love and whose work I trust. And so it's been a safe queen, so to speak, for years. And then, well, actually, that's not true. This used to be a lawn mowing knife, and it would cut the occasional vine or that kind of thing. But it's come back out of storage and is getting use as a little batoner and as a little carver. And I'm really liking it. not that little this also has a five and three quarters inch almost six inch blade.
[37:39]Five and something six eighths or something like that it's right there right there but a classic stack leather handle this is their antique leather handle they sort of blacken it as if it's been in your hands for years a stack leather with that aluminum pommel different versions of this knife came out it came out with a sort of sculpted moran shape handle uh not fond of that on this knife this is the perfect iteration of this knife and this knife with its apple seed edge is just great for wood processing and other camp chores beautiful beautiful leather sheath also in keeping with bark river knives they do great leather sheaths.
[38:20]All right, next up, this one is from Off Grid Knives. They've got a lot of knives that would fit in this category. Actually, there's another one that I'll be showing you later. But this one is their version of the Kephart, and it's their second version of the Kephart. This is the Off Grid Knives Ridgeback fully flat ground. Now, I also have the Scandi version of this, which is also nice, but totally different knife. It's got a different balance. Obviously, there's a lot less weight on the blade here. Because it's fully flat ground meaning if you put it in cross section it is a continuous wedge from just behind that cutting edge to the spine whereas with the scandi ground version it's it's flat bar stock blade stock all the way to the edge and then you take a sharp.
[39:10]Turn towards the edge so you get a lot more meat in the uh in the blade and a different balance this one i think he came back out with this you know doing it fully flat ground i i think uh carrie who's he's gonna be coming back on the show sometime soon i think he he made the right decision in paring it down making it lighter making it fully flat ground i feel like this is a more universally useful knife um the other one was is great uh the other uh ridge back i used that in one video up here to to cut down a couple of saplings one it was great just for chopping and right through it the other one i did that thing where you bend it and you just sort of rock it on there and i did some carving that is a great knife i'm not belittling the other one but i just love this ridge back full flat ground and then when you get to camp and you're done carving your stakes and for your tent and doing whatever kind of other chores you're going to do with this wood processing and such this would be great for that with that wedge shape.
[40:12]Then you turn it to cooking, and you've got a full flat ground blade. It's not that thick. It's going to do great in cutting up any sort of food you're going to have at the campsite. So this one is awesome. Also comes with a great Kydex sheath. All off-grid knives come with excellent sheaths, very positive snap. You've got this belt dangler that you can use, or you can just get a different tech lock or something to put on there.
[40:43]That's the Ridgeback Full Flat Ground from Off-Grid Knives. Next one is low-hanging fruit. It is the Mora Companion. This one I got in Germany when I was visiting my wife's cousins. We were there last November. My wife's cousin works adjacent to the Air Force or with the Air Force, I guess, as a civilian. We were on base, and we went to the PX, and this was there, and I bought it. I've always wanted a Mora Companion. I have the Mora, the old red handled one, like their second model they ever put out. And I love it, but I always wanted an updated one. And the Companion is the one that speaks to me. I know that Garberg is pretty cool looking too, but this one to me has always seemed like a universal do everything knife. And lo and behold, it is. It's got a four and a half inch blade, Swedish stainless. So let's assume it's maybe in the 14C area, because I know the 14C and 12C27 were created for bushcraft knives, so maybe that's what this is. You've got a nice rubbery handle that feels great in hand, a clip point, and then a true Scandi edge, so...
[42:00]Flat bar stock until you get to that edge and then it descends right to the edge no no extra cutting edge there just just that scandy grind and so great for carving really really excellent for carving but this is also really good for making tinder again it's with wood that's not as you know you're not spanning i guess whatever you can span with this blade this does very well with batoning. But I haven't done it for anything that big. I've used it for making tiny little matchstick kindling for my little rocket stove thing. So it fits great in hand. And also, as related to me by Ed Calderon, they make fantastic fighting knives.
[42:49]You don't think of Mora knives because they're so friendly and utilitarian, but they make outstanding fighting knives because they've got great ergonomics, grippy handles will stay in that are neutral will stay in your hand you can flip them around for this sort of the call grip or whatever super sharp and acute i mean acute enough point but strong enough point because for you know thrusting and penetrating because of that standy grind more companion comes in a number of colors great sheath clips right on these things are awesome and very inexpensive all right kind of in the same you know keeping with the same sort of theme this next one uh brs knives or i'm sorry bps knives out of ukraine are really uh pretty amazing and and inexpensive and have that same sort of use case as the mora now they've expanded I see they're now making a Ray Laconico design, a tactical fixed-blade knife designed by Ray Laconico. That is really cool. And I'm excited to see this because this is a Ukrainian company. It's a father and son making these very, very nice and affordable knives. And it's cool to see that they're expanding.
[44:09]So they have a larger model line than when they sent this to me. And they're doing a design collaboration with one of the greatest, so that's very exciting. I'm keeping it in the sheath just to show you how amazing this full grain leather sheath is. I would love to have...
[44:27]Maybe it's too thick for a jacket, but yeah, I'd love to have a vest made out of this or something. Very nice, supple but thick leather. Beautiful welt construction here, and I like the white stitching. BTS logo on there. A dangler sheath, or you could just use the belt loop if you want it higher up. Now, I have this cheesy lanyard on here. I say it's cheesy because when I intentionally put lanyards on, I make them look nicer. This is just a hollowed-out piece of 550 cord that I put on there because it was very tight in the sheath when I got it, and it only presents a small amount of handle to grab. But this is the hk5 and uh i gotta say i forgot about it until i started this list and and this is coming back out with this is coming into a full backyard rotation backyard commando rotation for me backyard survivalist i guess uh so you have a really nice scandi ground blade this one is.
[45:28]I'm going to measure it. I got the ruler out as well. Five inches, I guess HK5 would belie that. Very slight clip point. You can see if I silhouette it against the black sheath. And very nicely done blade. It's wickedly sharp. I've stropped it a million times. Not a million times, but I've stropped it to get it even sharper. But, I mean, it showed up like a razor. Now, it's got a crazy feel. That crazy it's high carbon 1066 ever heard of 1066 i have not uh untreated handle is nice too because you can do whatever you want with it um i haven't done anything with it but i might just dye it or not dye it but uh stain it maroon or something like that if i'm bringing it back out i'm gonna start using it uh but it's very comfortable very very ergonomic when i first got it since they were totally unknown to me. I believe I put a video out where I was doing some stuff batoning with it and carving with it, but, Really, really excellent knife, and I'm very happy that I have this because it was not on my radar until they sent it, and I've seen a bunch of other people now showing them off too.
[46:41]This has a 90-degree spine, great for throwing sparks off your ferro rod. So an excellent outdoor knife in the BPS HK5. All right, next one is one that I carried a long time just doing my chores, and i love this one this is the tops tex creek and this is an example of a lanyard that i spent a little more time with put a cool knot on it all that kind of stuff i'll show it again in this knife a great leather pouch style sheath i think that this is kind of an important thing in these kind of knives that you can pull take them out of the sheath drop them back in the sheath without having to fuss too much or without having to deal with too much of a stiff retention. Here on the Bark River, you pull this up, the tab, and it settles back behind that little notch there. So you can use it, take it in and out, take it in and out without having to worry about this. Then when you're done, you can just clip it back down. So that's a great alternative. These Kydex sheaths by Cold Steel and Off Grid are great. The Mora knife is great. It's form fitting. It drops right in. And then these leather pouch sheaths are great too for the same reason. Just a working knife. Weapon E knives need more retention. They're pulled out less. They're used less and you don't want it falling out.
[48:06]But this, you're using it a lot. You're choring with it, so you're going to be doing this. Taking it out, putting it in, taking it out, putting it in. The Tex Creek, I got this knife originally to practice kydex, making kydex on. And actually, I made a really great kydex sheath for this one. I'm very inconsistent with my kydex. This one, the one that I did for this, happened to be excellent. Um and it was the very same kydex sheet that i made my um prather war buoy sheets from so maybe it's that sheet that was maybe i just had it had a lucky piece there but this tex creek 1095 blade steel it's got a um i can't remember what the law acid rain wash on it oh no no this was gray traction coating and you can see how it's worn away because it's gotten a lot of use this one I remember I was chopping at some vines over by a back fence and I nicked a steel piece of the fence and put a chip in this. It sharpened out very nicely. I think you can see a little bit of it right there. But in doing so, I put a little smile on the blade.
[49:16]Very, very, very nice blade for anything. But wood carving, that kind of thing, you could baton with this pretty nicely. I think I think I have in the past. And you've got a nicely sized handle on this four and a quarter, or four and a half inch. Now I'm speaking out of school. Four and a quarter inch blade and a nice sized handle. So you can get a lot of different grips on this. I know I've used this, like when I put the ding in it, I had the lanyard around my wrist and was doing this kind of thing.
[49:51]So this kind of chopping motion. So an excellent one. They make this in an XL version, which has the same handle, just a much bigger blade. And then they have a, what is it, 30th or 40th or 20th anniversary edition. I guess 20th. Top seven's been around that long. Very great knife. I love this thing. All right, next up, very great knife. Next one is one that I've got a lot of use. I've had this kind of the whole time we've been in this house, which is 13 years, I think. Like that and uh this one used to get a lot more use than it does now but i still love it and this is another one that's been essentially reprofiled because of the dings i put in it we had a giant hedgerow in the back of our house when we moved in here and we hated it took a while but i got to it and i got rid of it and really it was this knife uh that did most of the work this knife and and And I had a whole bunch of stuff out there, as you could imagine. I had...
[50:57]A hatchet and an axe, one of those, you know, limb snippers and a bunch of stuff. I kept coming back to this. Something about this knife just really, really did the trick. Now, I have a screamingly wicked edge on here right now. I had to reprofile this also because of chips. This is 1075 blade steel made by Condor in El Salvador based on the Hudson Bay knife. The Hudson Bay Company was a company that had trappers all over Western Canada or all over Canada in general. But this pattern knife was what came out of that trapping era in the 19th century, in the 18th and 19th century centuries. Centuries so very neutral handle clip point blade but it's kind of set up more like a butcher knife where the blade is broader than the handle and the blade itself becomes your guard.
[51:57]So kind of butchery knife kind of outdoors knife kind of fighting knife this knife does it all and for me i know that it would make an outstanding camp knife because um if you can take a whole edge row out with this and also you know it'll baton all day long and you don't have a swedge sharpened swedge to worry about on this clip point um i highly recommend the condor knives hudson bay they also make a mini hudson bay which would be cool to have uh i don't have this this was a gift from a friend many years ago and i still love it still gets a lot of use well hasn't gotten a lot of use in a long time but has gotten a lot of use i guess i'll be bringing it it out now make myself an honest man i did a little bit of uh form fitting on that leather sheath okay next up uh one of my favorites in this list this this has uh multiple uses too this is another off-grid knife this is the second version of their grizzly so the grizzly v2 in its awesome kydex sheath they do great sheaths pops right off it would shoot off the table if i let it, But look at this. This kind of looks like a Hudson Bay knife, like the one we just had out. An extreme clip point or a cleaver style blade. I'll call it a clip point though.
[53:16]You got a very broad blade. That's the cleavery part of it. But this and your point gives you a clip point. So this is a knife that they market at Off Grid Knives as a camp kitchen knife. So this This is primarily for food prep while you're camping. And so we take this to our mountain place. It's not our mountain place. It's a place we share.
[53:43]And they have a kitchen, you know, but the cheesiest knives. So I always bring this one. A great knife in the kitchen. Actually, it would make a great knife in my home kitchen. I just have too many knives up there to integrate this. But what do I love about it? it's already thin blade stock it's super broad at two inches broad and it's fully flat ground so it's wicked thin behind the edge it's very very slicey it is a great knife in the kitchen plus the the height of it keeps your knuckles way off the cutting board and then the width of it and all of this surface area is great for picking up your ingredients to drop in the pan or drop in the pot or whatever you're cooking in so this is just a great great great knife i love it i highly recommend it and i really like this second version of it better than the first the first was great too and got a lot of use until we got this and then that one's kind of been um relegated further back in the drawer but um the older one had a square more squared off handle with ridges and um it was not fully flat maybe it was i don't know but there were some differences and i really like what they've done here mostly with the handle contouring this one here is 14 c28n uh the first off-grid i showed you earlier the ridge back the kept heart fully flat count pep heart is a cryo treated d2.
[55:10]Okay, second to last in this list is one that I've been carrying ever since I got it. I carry this knife a lot, way more than I expected. I mean way more. This is the Knives by Nuge Primitive Wicket. I had Tom Nugent on the show. He's a New Jersey knife maker. I know that's not something you hear too often, but he's a New Jersey knife maker and an outdoorsman. And if you don't know New Jersey, you might not know New Jersey has a lot of very beautiful, natural, and wild places. Places people think of trenton people think of newark people think of elizabeth when they think of new jersey oftentimes the more industrial urban settings in new jersey or you think of sprawling suburbs but there are a lot of beautiful wild places tom nugent has found them and he goes camping in them frequently and that's what inspired his line of knives and this wicket this is the primitive wicket because it doesn't have a micarta or g10 handle it's wrapped in jute.
[56:07]Um this primitive wicket is a great uh scandi ground outdoors knife but it fits so nicely around the neck super light and thin this is truly one that i forget i have on me until i need it uh because it's so light and thin and um it uh what am i trying to say uh the jute even with this jute, which is kind of inherently scratchy or grippy, it feels good next to the skin. Like I can wear this one without having to put it over a t-shirt, which is how all my other neck knives have to fly.
[56:44]There's his logo, Campfire. And I used this to baton. And, you know, I only what it could span. I had already split the thing up. But this is great for that. This This is great for that, you know, making kindling and stuff because of that wedge-shaped edge there. So I love this knife. I think you should check out Knives by Nuge if you are in any way interested in the outdoors and you like outdoors knives. This is ABCRV2. He just makes some really cool stuff. It's reasonably priced for custom handmade fixed blade knives. And I just think you'll like it. I couldn't recommend it more. And then also, this might have to do with why it's so comfortable. Instead of paracord, he uses leather and then this little clip up here.
[57:39]So if it gets caught, a lot of people don't like neck knives because they feel like if they're walking through the woods and the paracord gets caught on something and then they slip over a cliff, they're going to hang themselves with it. Or if they get in a fight, someone's going to use it as a noose. So if you're worried about that Which I'm not But if you are.
[58:03]This will break away and you won't suffer anything around the neck from that. Great sheath too, by the way. All right. Lastly, this is the most tried and true. I'm sure you know what's coming. The most tried and true knife in my entire collection, bar none really, is this. This is the Cold Steel Trailmaster.
[58:26]And this one has to be at this point 25 years old, I'm going to say. And that's no this has got to be more like 30 years old and i'm i'm dating it by the girlfriend at the time i know that sounds terrible but uh uh me and that uh that person uh got who nice person and everything i just never talk about ex-girlfriend but anyway the reason i'm bringing that up is because we we got in a misadventure with this and uh uh this was on On my belt, we got lost. This is basically the thing that made me feel like we were going to get out alive. Never had to use it, but we were in the dark, lost in the woods, and had to go several miles to get back to where we were going. Had no idea where we were. No flashlight. This was before I was an EDC guy. This was long before. This was just when I was just a knife guy and had saved up to get this and thought it was impressive. How cool is it to be hiking with a guy who's got this on his belt well wouldn't it be cooler to have a guy who can at least make a torch or has a flashlight and can get us out of the woods without being stalked i felt like we were being stalked by a mountain lion or something um.
[59:41]But now that I'm older and wiser, it's probably a SAF glove. All right, let's end it right there. These are my favorite camp knives. What are yours? Let me know down below. Mora Companion has to be on there. If you like the Mora Companion, check out the BRS knives, the HK5. They have other smaller knives. Or check out Condor or Off Grid. These are all great companies. And, of course, I mentioned Knives by Nuge. And he is a custom knife maker who makes great camp knives that are worth saving up for or that many of us can afford right off the bat. So check all those out, and be sure to join us on Sunday for a great interview. We've got some really cool ones coming up, and some people I'm very excited to talk to.
[1:00:26]So do join us then. 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. And if you have a question or comment, email them to bob at thenifejunkie.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.
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