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. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, an exciting new knife from Civivi. I get two knives from a guy I've been following on Instagram, and then we're gonna talk about, surprisingly, XL cold steel folders. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:18]:
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.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:31]:
Welcome back to the show. This week, two of my favorite comments. First, both of them from from people who have been around the channel for a long time, so it's always great to hear from these folks. First from Stuart Rollings. He says, howdy, Bob, and thanks for the share. Now he's talking about, last week's supplemental. He says, well, since your last collaboration with Tim, Kell, was such a success, the fabulous special agent double o one. I imagine this next one, because we've got one in the works, will be epic.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:02]:
It's sure looking good. Reminds me of the ZZ Top song, legs long and strong. Well, thank you, Stewart. I'm really excited about this, collab this new collaboration with Tim Kell. It's going quicker than I expected. He loves the design. What can I say? And, I do too. So I'm really happy to see this happening.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:24]:
And, I'm not sure when it's gonna go into production or anything like that, but I do know that he's made resin prints of it, three d prints of it. And that's a good sign, so I'm very, very excited. By the way, Tim Kell, stand up guy, not just as a knife guy, but he's a beautiful human being, and I love him. So, very excited to be working with him again. Next comment from Michael Cervantes thirty six seventy, also known as cabin man. He says, it's Bowie, not Bowie. And, we've gotten that I've gotten that comment quite a bit. I am a yank.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:01]:
I'm from Ohio. So for me, it's Bowie. You don't say David Bowie. I don't say Jim Gooey. I say Jim Bowie. But, really, I just wanted to say hi to cabin man. He was one of my very, very, very first viewers here on the Knife Junkie podcast, and it's great to hear from him. He's an awesome dude with some great knives and very good taste in knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:24]:
And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, he's in he's down in Texas, maybe Arizona, or now that I'm talking about it. New Mexico, maybe. I don't know. He's south and west of me, so he knows better, and I'm sure it is Bowie, but I just even though I flex into Bowie every once in a while, I just I can't stay there because Ohio is Bowie. Alright. That said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:51]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:58]:
In my front right pocket is a buoy. Today, I have the KudaMax five point five in my front right pocket. This is a, Daryl Ralph design. So amazing. I was, forgive the term, lusting after this knife, in the early two thousands when it came out, and I had the the opportunity to get this, from Dirk Pinkerton when he was selling off a bunch of knives. Imagine his collection. So he has a gigantic collection. He needed, needed to make some room, and, so I snapped this up from him.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:37]:
And looking on Arizona custom knives and, eBay to see what these are going for, I gotta say, Dirk, again, I thank you a lot for this, but thank you. You gave this to me for a song, and I appreciate it. It is such a beautiful night, and I love having it. And, I've always been a big fan of Daryl Ralph designs, but this one to me is my favorite. It's got that long, slender Bowie profile. It's got the two forward facing quillons, which, in my opinion, all quillons should face forward. Even though I love the Ka Bar, them facing back always rang untrue to me. Anyway, beautiful, thin titanium, five and a half inch blade, such an awesome knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:23]:
So, carried this today and, had a chance to pull it out and show it off a little bit at work. So very happy to have this in my pocket. Second Nami today in my Doody's daggers, which I believe he goes by something else now in terms of, he's selling these through traditionalpocketknives,uh,.com, but this beautiful leather slip here with my initials, BB. Thank you so much again for this. But this is the Ohio River Jack, a C Reisner cutlery production. I believe this was from the second run and just a great knife. I haven't carried this in a while. I haven't carried too many other slip joints other than, Jack Wolf knives recently.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:11]:
I've just been on a Jack Wolf knives tear. I love that deep hollow grind. But on this, you've got a full flat ground, beautiful wharncliffe blade, awesome handle. It's nice and big. You don't have to do any sort of accommodations, with your grip. It just works great. I love this knife. And I have to be honest, I love the color of that, tan canvas micarta next to this beautiful green leather.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:41]:
I love this leather. I wish I could have a a big Bowie knife sheath for this, or is it Bowie knife? I really love that. And the knife in particular, I'm talking about that, the Natchez Bowie would look great in a sheath, a leather sheath of that color. Just saying. Alright. Next up, my fixed blade knife today, and yes, I had room for it in the waistband. I've been doing a little bit more exercise and intermittent fasting, so I'm starting to get back to to normal. Starting, not there.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:13]:
I can tell. But I had the VSK one from Armas knife and tool in my waistband. This was in the, I was carrying this in the, what do you call it, appendix position. So it's very much on the horizontal, it's almost fully horizontal. With this great DCC pocket clip, it stays where I want it to be because it's such a stout snapping flip. But so I had it just about like this in the waistband, and then with the bird's beak pommel here, it was very easy to tug out. If I needed it, I didn't eat it, but I definitely tugged it out a few times. That sounds gross.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:56]:
Sorry. I'll change my nomenclature. This last one today is unusual for a ESK. I very rarely carry this for emotional support because it's so precious and so valued, but I had this in me, not in me, oh shit. I had this on me today in my backpack. This is the Subhilt fighter from Hogtooth Knives and Matt Chase. This is not something that's a regular offering for him, as a matter of fact, this was a real pain in the tuckus for him to make, but, it was a commission for my fiftieth birthday. My parents have footed the bill, I created the design, and Matt sourced the materials.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:44]:
Beautiful stag handle, black micarta between the main guard and the sub hilt, And then the sub hilt and the front guard made from reclaimed steel from the Goodfellow Bridge, or is it Goodfellow? From a bridge in Massachusetts that was going through major reconstruction. So just an absolutely beautiful knife. I'm a huge fan of the Loveless style sub hilt folder, not, sub hilt fighter and he did a fantastic job on this. I just wanna focus in on this beautiful Damascus steel. Matt showed me, he's really good at at sending photographs of knives in progress, especially very customized ones like this. And, every step of the way, he was sending me different pictures of this fifteen and twenty and ten ninety five steel billet coming together. He labored over this to get this crazy pattern, And I love it, I love it. And not for nothing, it's got great balance, it's balanced right at the hilt where you want it for a fighting knife, and it just moves around like nothing.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:03]:
And if I had to go out to a duel, if my honor, was besmirched and I had to go fight for my honor or my lady's honor or my family's honor, this is what I would carry. Double edged, long, slender clip point blade. So beautiful. And then it's got this, what I call, corseted leather sheet. Matt is just about as good at leather as he is at steel and other stuff. So that's what I had on me today. What were you carrying? I had the BSK1, the Hogtooth Subhilt Fighter, the C Reisner Cutlery Ohio River Jack, coming from Ohio, that means a lot to me. And then the KudaMax five point five.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:51]:
Excuse me if I sound nasal, I think I'm getting another, illness from the daughters. So there you go. I also want you to drop in the comments below what you're carrying. I always love hearing what you classy ladies and gents are carrying. Sometimes it inspires me to spend more money and get more knives, So, please do so. I I wanna remind you, it's a quick reminder that, this is not just an awesome midweek supplemental show. We have a Sunday show where I interview great knife makers, influencers, designers, manufacturers. And, coming up this week, we have the great and powerful Joe Watson.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:34]:
He's one of the guys whose knives I don't own any Joe Watson knives yet, but he's one of the guys who following him on Instagram really got me into everyday fixed fixed blade carry, one, and two, the Japanese tsukamaki wrap because he's a master at making both of those. And a very cool guy. I really enjoyed talking to him. So that's the episode this week. It's the knifejunkie.com/570three. That'll bring you right to the episode. So go check that out. Joe Watson's a cool dude.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:08]:
He makes amazing knives. And next time I talk to him, I have to have him pull out. He's got some very historical Japanese knives and swords. I'd love to see him bust out. Also, coming up next week, another stand up guy, Rolando Escotada. He's, Rolando Garcia the third, but he goes by Escotada online. By the way, the the term escotada is Spanish for, the matador's coup de grace when he's, giving that finishing blow to the bull who's charging him. It's gotta be perfect.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:44]:
It's gotta go right into the heart between the shoulder and all and the ribs or whatever, and, that escotata, thrust is what finishes the bowl. So I always thought that was cool. I just assumed that was his last name until I did some research. Anyway, we just had our interview yesterday. He's a fascinating guy, super smart, and, very very knowledgeable about the fighting arts, especially with blades. He's a couple years shy of me, so in his fifties, but he's been training since he was four. Came up in a family, a Filipino knife fighting family, so you have to check that episode out. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:26]:
Coming up, we're gonna do some knife life news, but first, I want to urge you to help support the show if you're interested. You can go, you can scan the QR code on your screen, go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon. You can also listen to this show if you're kinda sick of seeing me gloviate on screen, or if you wanna continue the experience in your car on the way to work, you can download the show to your favorite podcast app. We're pretty much on all of them, thanks to Jim. So you can download those shows. You can see them right here. My favorite, personally, right now is Apple Podcasts. It's the easiest for me on my iPhone, but all these others are great too.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:09]:
So download the show to your favorite podcast app. Another way to do it is to share the show. Share the show with a friend who might be similarly minded. They will appreciate it. I will appreciate it, and you will now be a knife maven spreading the word. Alright. Now, let's get to knife lightning. The shockwave tactical torch is your ultimate self defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts one hundred thousand hours, a super sharp crenulated bezel, and a built in stun gun delivering 4,500,000 volts.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:43]:
Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave tactical torch. Theknifejunkie.com/shockwave. You are listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news. First up today is one from Bestech, one of my favorite, OEMs and also shingles, period. I love Bestech knives. But also Paul Munco, who's a great designer and a cool dude.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:09]:
He's one of those guys, you know, if I were 25 younger, I'd wanna be like Paul Munco. He's got a really cool one coming out called the Bestech Constellation. And, this one is has some some new elements to it. I have never seen a Tanto blade coming from, Paul Munco. So this is a a cool thing here. So that's about a three inch MagnaCut tanto blade. It's got a nice swedge on it, so, even better for piercing. We all know that tanto's are great for piercing, but you add that swedge, it's gonna go in even easier.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:45]:
Something I find interesting about this, if you look at the main bevel, there is no to very little differentiation from the long straight cutting edge. It's actually slightly curved cutting edge to that front portion. Sometimes on an Americanized tanto, most of the time, you see a very clear delineation. If it's hollow ground, you'll see a sort of curved border between two edges or if it's flat ground, you'll see a straight border between the two edges. This one, you kinda see no border and it's very appealing to me. Contrasting that sort of straight edge tanto blade, you see a nice curved ergonomic handle, beautiful bolster lock with that blackened titanium, and a very nicely patterned g Pen for the scales here. You also have a very nicely black sculpted clip, which I think looks really nice if if we can scroll down there. And this one is 2.58 inches.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:54]:
So for a three inch blade, I gotta say, that's a really great weight to length ratio. So on this shot here, you can see Paul Munco's colorful filth logo there and you can also see that gorgeous clip. I don't know, something about that clip is very appealing to me. I like a sculpted clip, but I also like when it's very high mounted so that the the knife overall, seats deeply in the pocket. So a beautiful, offering from Bestech and Paul Munco, and, this MagnaCut bladed tanto is available now. Next up from We Knife, and I will be showing this one off live in living color later in the state of the collection, but, We Knife Company has a new one. It's a fixed blade. You know I like this.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:46]:
I'm sorry. No, no, no. I'm sorry. This next one is from WE, but I won't be showing this one off. It's the next one I'll be showing off. The next one we're gonna talk about is the WE Knife Company Epollete. This one's from Michael Gavic of Gavco Knives. And, if you've been on the knife verse on YouTube for any length of time, you know Michael Gavic, you know Gavco Knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:12]:
Usually, Gavco Knives are named after sharks. This one is not, oddly enough, this one's called the epaulette, you know, like the thing you have, up here if you're in military dress or in a fancy, fancy outfit. But still, this WE knife is Gavco all day long. It's a beautiful reverse tanto with with, like a complete belly cutting edge. It's belly stem to stern here. And a nice point for piercing, even though it's a kind of a stout tip there. You've got that nice sweeping swedge up to the break of the reverse tanto front portion and an opening hole and a flipper. So just a beautiful blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:02]:
Looks like with that nearly full flat ground, bevel, it's gonna be very nice for slicing. Definitely know, it'll be good for piercing with that tip. This one is 4.5 inches long. That's m three ninety blade steel, kind of a standby for we knife co. And then we're gonna go back towards that handle. That handle, it looks like the Thresher to me. It looks like, many, many different Gavco style handles. Just beautiful kind of angular spine to the handle, but you know it's gonna be super ergonomic.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:38]:
You can see that nice swale where handle meets blade, where the thumb will rest, and then the rest fitting the contours of your palm with some angles, but it'll all feel great. You got a forward finger choil there and then a long sweeping swale for the rest of your fingers. Not for nothing, it does look, if you put it in reverse grip, you'd have a great place for the thumb to lock over the pommel there. The scales there, they have a very nice sort of knurling to them, which I very much appreciate and like and yeah, that is titanium, it is a frame lot. This one is available in late February twenty twenty five. Alright, the last one, this one I will be showing off shortly. This is a cool one from Civivi, and it's a fixed blade, and it's in their kind of tactical sort of line. Most of their fixed blades, besides the Tomashi E from, Bob Cherzuola, most of their fixed blades have been more outdoorsy, more for the the camper, the hiker.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:46]:
But this one is for the high speed, low drag general, gentlemen and ladies amongst us. This is the Perfico. Yes. That's right. It's the Perfico. Always coming up with interesting names, but I have learned my lesson. They're not just pulling these out of hat. They're not just randomly putting combinations of letters together.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:07]:
This is the Latin verb for to rub smooth or to rub all over. Little creepy. However, there's a turn of phrase, a Latin turn of phrase. It also has it as, to put on a bold face. And that's what I prefer to go with. So Perfrigo in this case, being a dagger like item, let's say that that means to put on a bold face instead of to rub all over that. So the Perfico is a an in house design, 4.5 inches. It is a dagger like item, but you hear me saying like in that it is a single bladed dagger, which is kind of a, note to me because give me a dagger with two edges, but I understand they want to actually sell this, not just around The States, but around the world.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:05]:
So they go with a single edge. However, that secondary, swedge, which is what it amounts to, is so thin that if you have anyone skilled with a grinder, you'll be able to put a secondary edge on that. That's what I intend to do. That's 14C28N blade steel. It is beautiful. I mean, just look at what you see on screen, it is absolutely gorgeous. You have that totally symmetrical spear point blade And then a very nice detailed grooved handle there, totally contoured, so nicely rounded and smooth, and great in a standard grip, a reverse grip, or in that sort of sideways shovel grip with the thumb on the ricasso. Very very nice.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:56]:
That's a g 10 handle. Comes in a variety of different different treatments. I have a different one than you see on screen, and then there's a really cool one. If you could scroll down, you'll see that there is a, a very cool version of it with a a chevron pattern on the blade, something we have not seen from Civivi. So you see a maroon G10 handle, but you see that really cool chevron pattern on the blade. I opted against that. When I got mine, I went for the black and the green, you'll see that in a minute. But super beautiful, I really really like this knife, I almost love it.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:38]:
Once I have that second top edge on it, I will absolutely love it. Alright. Lastly here, we have something from KnifeRites. And this is interesting, especially if we have any knifefluencers, knife influencers listening to us or knifemakers who have been blacklisted or shadow banned on either YouTube or Instagram, something very interesting. Put up or shut up. FTC invites comments on social media censorship. I'm gonna read directly from knife rights. Now this is an article from Doug Ritter himself.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:17]:
He says, the single most common questions and complaints I get revolve around social media censorship. Under newly appointed chairman Andrew n Ferguson, the Federal Trade Commission just issued a, quote, unquote, request for public comment regarding technology platform censorship. And he says, friends, it's time to put up or shut up. Here is your chance to make a difference and tell your story. You are being given the opportunity we have all been asking for. Just do it, he says. They have made it relatively easy. Just follow the directions to fill out an online form.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:57]:
I sincerely hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to share your censorship experiences. Knife rates will be adding your own comments about our censorship experiences, as will I personally, but they need as much ammo as we can give them. Let's all give them what they need. Okay. So what he's talking about is censorship online about knives. We have seen, many, many, of influencers and knife makers, I'm sorry, on Instagram and on YouTube saying, no one is getting my information. No one's getting notifications about, you know, my new knife coming out or this or that or my new review on this knife because kind of, willy nilly, Instagram and YouTube will decide that something is, totally beyond the pale and they cannot show it because it's a knife or it's a weapon or it's a sharp object, what have you. And people get kinda randomly shadow banned or or banned.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:03]:
We have not here, knock on wood, here at the Knife Junkie podcast. Haven't had that experience yet, but, I think it it's awful. It's awful. We're talking about knives, we're talking about the first tool ever created, something everyone uses every day, whether they're in their kitchen or on the job. Everyone uses knives and to and to ban the discussion of these items is absolutely absurd and very kind of random and you can tell it's all happening from some pearl clutching weirdos at these platforms who have no right to do this to us. So the new Federal Trade Commission chairman wants to hear your story, so follow the link, whether it's on kniferights.com or go to the FTC website and put your story in there. It's something that's very, very important. I'm gonna have, I'm gonna invite Doug Ritter onto the show to talk about this because this is a real opportunity for people who are in the knife world, whether they're making, whether they're influencing, or what have you, to to really have their voice be heard about this crazy issue.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:16]:
So go check that out. Okay. Before we get to the state of the collection, I just wanna let you know that, we have a newsletter here. It is very informative and if you like the way I speak, you're gonna love the way I write. Every week, we put out a newsletter where I talk about, a new knife, a new concept, something that's just on my knife mind. And, we send it out, Jim sends it out, we put some pictures in there. It's a great way to kinda keep in touch with us, also, not for nothing. And, though we're seeing brighter days for this kinda thing, with censor censorship out and about, if this show ever went underground for whatever reason, I'd still be able to be in touch with you through this newsletter.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:06]:
So whether you never open it, I hope you do, sign up for the newsletter, just in case things go south, and we can't get this news out about knives and talk about knives in an open way. The knifejunkie.com/newsletter is where you can do that. All right, coming up, the state of the collection.

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Announcer [00:27:58]:
And now that we're caught up with KnifeLife news, let's hear

Announcer [00:28:01]:
more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:03]:
Also, not for nothing, talking about LaunchCarte, the liner you just heard or saw. They are an American company, as opposed to their main competitor that's up in Canada. And we I love Canada and I love the Canadian people I know and their spirit, but let's face it, their government has been a little little nuts over the past, I don't know, bunch of years now. So if you want to sell knives, Launchcart is the way to go. They're not gonna hassle you about what you're selling, unless it's illegal stuff. Alright. So first up here, as I mentioned before, the Civivi Perfico. Now look at this knife in the sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:42]:
The sheath is so cool. I love what they've done. You've seen this a little bit. I think Topps has done this. I know that, Benchmade has done this with the scalloping, on the sides between the grommets. It's it's a beautiful looking sheath, not for nothing. Also, it has the Bob Terzuola, clip on it. Bob Terzuola designed this, clip for Civivi, it's very similar to the, to the other one that looks like this.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:13]:
I'm having a brain fart here. But here is the blade, look at this thing. Tek Lok, that's the word I was looking for, Tek Lok. Looks like the Tek Lok. So here is the very, very beautiful CIVIVI Perfico, it's a four and a half inch 14 c 28 and a dagger like knife. I say dagger like because this top edge completely unsharpened, though that swedge is very thin. So if you wanna put an edge on it, it won't be a huge deal. Now of course, they've done this to make this beautiful tactical knife legal in very, very many more places, not only in The United States, but all around the world, to sell.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:59]:
So they gotta look out for their bottom line, for sure. I do intend to have this sharpened up, but look at this, man. I find this really, really beautiful. The handle, from this perspective, nicely contoured, really intricately grooved, and then here's that thumb scoop I was talking about in case you wanna hold it in this sort of traditional, World War two style dagger fighting method with the thumb on the ricasso, you get a really nice sort of ramp there. The blade has some nice touches to it, you can see this medial center line here has some little flourishes there, a groove, a fuller and then a little triangular divot. This one, brand new. It it does come with a big long tassel. I have taken the tassel off, like Hasselhoff would.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:59]:
But, it just does not do me right, especially if I'm drawing it and thrusting that tassel fob thing kinda rub the flicks in the face. But it is beautiful. If you like this knife or any other Civivi, you can order one through our, affiliate link. It would help support the show a little bit. You'd still get, the knife and, you know, no one's worse than wear for it. You just go to the knifeduggy. Knifejunky.com/cevivi. You're wondering, how do you tell in the dark where the edge is? If it's a dagger and it's everything symmetrical, but you don't know which side the edge is on, you don't wanna put your thumb up to test? Well, they've given you some jimping on the top thumb ramp.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:49]:
On the bottom portion, there's no jimping, it's smooth. And then they do the same thing on the reverse side back here. So say you have it in reverse grip and you wanna know which way the edge is oriented, they give you some jimping here too near the pommel on the underside. I, to be 100% honest, find it a little confusing. I just have to remember that, these are two traditional spots, foot jimping on the thumb ramp and then on the back by the pinky. But, you know, I I like the accommodation, but really, just give me a secondary edge, I'll be much happier. I know they can't do that because they wanna sell this knife, so I will have to do that myself. So beautiful, I love this Perfrica, Perfrico, I'm sorry, Perfrico, which again means to rub all over or more colloquially, to put on a bold face.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:47]:
And yeah, I'm gonna put it on the bold face when I'm carrying this knife. That was my stomach. I hope you didn't hear that. All right, next up, two beauties. I'm gonna show these off together. From Sean Old, a custom knife maker I've been following on Instagram for a couple of years now. His company goes by Gross Motor Gear. And when you see these knives, you'll know why.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:14]:
Here is the Mamushi Mini. I'm I'm sorry, this is the full size and this is the mini. Mamushi, so these are Japanese inspired Picaul style knives. Gross motor gear refers to the gross motor skills necessary to use a pickle style knife. So the theory is that when you are in an actual knife confrontation or any sort of confrontation, and you're gonna use a knife to protect yourself, you need to go and use your caveman gross motor skills, and, the tip down edge in is the way to go. So gross motor gear is the perfect name for this company because Sean Old makes a lot of these sort of Takal style knives. Here, are two really beautiful versions of that, both with this tsukamaki wrap. And you can see the little, manuki under there, it's like a golden snake.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:18]:
These are absolutely beautiful. Now this large one, it's not that large, but the full size one, I have not carried yet. I have been carrying this mini non stop. Again, it has to do more with my belt line and managing my, spare tire than it does the size of this knife. They're about the same, but this one has been getting a lot of carry. I absolutely love this. Do yourself a favor and go look up Gross Motor Gear on Instagram. He also has an absolutely gorgeous dagger, very much in the same, sort of design paradigm as this.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:56]:
And, they're very cool. Now, also, it's it's optimized for a forward grip. You can carry it like this, use it like this very, very easily. Some Picall style knives sort of preclude that grip. This does not. Very nicely done. All right, that does it for the state of the collection. I will be putting out videos on the Mamushi from Gross Motor Gear and the Perfrigo from Civivi, so keep your eyes peeled on that.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:28]:
Also, keep your eyes peeled on our website shop. If you go to the knifejunky.com/shop, you can see all the really cool designs that Jim conjures up on a weekly basis. This week, I really like this. This is going back to basics. This is going back to our very, core here. Knives, the tools that built civilization. Yes, that's right. That was basically the very first tool.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:54]:
Someone picked up a piece of shirt, knocked off the edge, created a knife. We can carve stuff. We can open up animals, and we can do all sort we can open up humans, put this on a on the tip of a shaft, and we have a spear. Knives are the tools that build civilization. Check these out. We have a a camp cup. We have two beautiful hats, t shirts. We have that cool water bottle and a lot more.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:19]:
You can get this awesome design and logo on. So go check those out at theknifejunkie.com/job. Alright. Today, I wanna show off my large and XL cold steel folders. They have to be above five inches to make this cut. I've got so many cold steel folders. As a matter of fact, in my pocket right now, I have the old El Ombre. It's only four inches and it's from the late nineties.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:46]:
So it doesn't make the list because four inches is just too small for this list. I'm gonna put this back in my pocket and start with its big brother, a knife that I carried, in the waistband in appendix for years in New York City, not knowing how how much I was breaking the law. It'd be worse today for sure than it was, back when I was there. But this is the Vaquero Grande. And this is the first time we saw from Cold Steel this very emblematic design, the Vaquero. And though vaquero is like a Mexican cowboy, this is really, based on the Turkish yatagan. The sword that has the recurve, sort of the s curve, but with the midline tip. And what does that midline tip give you? It gives you the ability to, let's Here we go.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:42]:
It gives you the ability to know where that tip is at any point. It's like a dagger. The tip is midline. Unlike a dagger, you have this crazy, recurve situation happening. So, I'm gonna put out my Vaqueros. They have they do a number of them and I have a bunch of them. I love the Cold Steel Vaquero. Let me put these out.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:06]:
Here is the, Lynn Thompson Signature Edition. Now the reason he did a signature edition for this knife, he does signature editions for a lot of his, high selling knives, but for this one, he has two or three, large Vaquero Voyagers on him with serrations, on him at all times because it really is the ultimate holding fighting knife. So here they are. These are the, these are the four large ones that I have. I love them all. This is the most recent, with the serrations. Now I had the signature edition that has the serrations. I had the old Vaquero Grande, and I have the, plain edge Vaquero Voyager.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:55]:
But I had to get the one that he actually carries on him all the time, he being Lynn Thompson. So I got this. And by the way, that's no joke. I've met him, had him on the show, but I've met him in person numerous times. I always do a pocket check on him, and and besides other things that he doesn't show off, he's got a lot of knives on him, and he's always got at least two of these. Now at Blade shows, sometimes he has an XL, Espada, so maybe he's only got two Voyagers on him, but he even claims he sleeps with one of these, which sounds incredibly dangerous. But, hey, he's a dangerous guy. And, this one, as you'll see, has a Snaggletooth MF on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:41]:
That is an aftermarket wave like feature or pocket snag, so when you pull this out of your pocket, it engages the seam and opens up the blade immediately. And, if you have a fighting knife to me, you know, Emerson's made this technology famous. They created it with the Emerson's, Emerson Wave, but I am fully on board, with these sort of pocket patches that open the blade as you remove it. I love it. And if you're gonna get this, a Voyager Vaquero, with the serrations and such for self defense, maybe it's dog walking, maybe it's city walking, whatever, I highly recommend you go to the Snaggletooth website and pick up one of these pocket patches. This is tumbled aluminum. They do have it in a number of different anodized aluminum colors, to match various kind of knives. All you have to do is have a knife, that has a removable pocket thumb stud, or removable thumb stud, add that.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:50]:
So Voyager, I love the Voyager series, especially the, the Vaqueros, that that recurved s curve center line point, Yadagon inspired shape. You're like, What's a Yadagon, Bob? You all say that. Well, yatagan is a Turkish sword. Go look it up. It's cool. You'll want one immediately. Next in the Voyager series, I'm gonna show you these clip points. This is the first one I ever got from Roseland of Martial Arts in, in Old Times Square, Nineties Times Square, New York City.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:29]:
That place no longer exists, but you'll see in my interview with Rolando Escotada, who lives in New York City, he remembers this place. I've mentioned it over the years many times and he's the first guy who's like, oh, yeah. I remember that place. And we talked about it. Anyway, the Voyager also comes in the in this beautiful, we're talking Excel, of course. So the XL Voyager in clip point is beautiful. It used to come in a fifty fifty, half serrated, half not. I believe you can get it fully serrated these days, but, I don't have that one, unfortunately.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:05]:
I did want that, the half and half, but you can't really find that anymore. Also in the Voyager series is the Tanto. So here I have the fully serrated Tanto again with a snaggle tooth tactical MF here. So you can pull it out and, it's great for a opening the blade as you remove it from your pocket, but also, it's great as a thumb brace. With these Voyagers, you get a very generous forefinger choil and that acts as a great guard. But, you know, it doesn't hurt to have something to brace your thumb against too if you're jamming this into something that might give resistance. In the Voyager series, the tanto is the only one that's hollow ground, and you can tell by that curved delineation between the front chisel like portion and the back slicing portion. That's an easy way to tell if something, if a tanto is hollow ground.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:05]:
Just look at this area right here, where that transition occurs. The Voyager series continues with the somewhat pedestrian, but very cool and jimped, the only jimped Voyager, which sticks in my craw. I wish there was more jimping across this series. But this is the Barong like drop point. I love this one. This has a very stout, edge because it's not fully flat ground, it's more of a saber grind and it's not a convex grind like the Tanto. So, maybe the most rugged, most hard use of the Voyager XL series. Here is the drop point.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:48]:
And then the most exotic, the most, I don't know, exotic, that's the good word, is the Chris. Look at that. No one makes a Chris out there. Some people do. Some of the Italian switchblade makers make the Chris, but no one makes an actual hard use combative Chris. And here we see it in the Voyager series and in a minute we'll see it in the Kylite series. This one was begging for the Snaggletooth, not only to open it up to use it, this is a fighting knife. I know people think it's just, those wavy, those waves on this blade are just for looks, but it is all about fighting.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:30]:
It's like a giant serrated knife. Also with that tip, it's like a gununting or a downward hawk bill. So you wanna be able to open this up off the pants as you remove it. But also, in my, to my eye, that, thumb bracing snaggletooth pocket patch also reminds me a little bit of the hilt of a traditional Chris sword. So it's not only very, very useful, it's very, very it looks cool. So there it is. That's the Voyager series. You've got the Chris, you've got the Vaquero, you've got the Drop Point, you've got the Tanto, and you've got the Click Points, if I didn't say that already.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:17]:
All of these come in a serrated version of some sort or other and most of them come in a medium size. Now, the medium size is four inches. They don't make the small size, which was three inches anymore at all. And it's kinda hard to find some some of them. Like I don't think they make the bacchero in the four inch anymore, which is sad. Alright, next up, since we were talking about Chrises, let's come in with the TiLite crisps. Here is the Thylite crisps. This one, unlike the, Voyager, which looks more like a Filipino crisps, this one is more sinuous and looks more like an Indonesian crisps.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:59]:
A beautiful, beautiful, crisp, blade here. Now on the TiLite series, this is the large six inch TiLite. The Voyages, are all 5.5. This is six inch. You get a lot of, lot of curvature, a lot of sharpness out of this, especially with that downward hawkbill facing tip. A number of, what am I trying to say, traditional, this is actually and obviously based on the traditional stiletto, Italian switchblade, with the shape. You can see that. And you can find those in crisp shape.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:43]:
Here is the regular TiLite. This one I got recently, in the summer of twenty twenty four, even though it's been out forever. This one is Aus8, I believe. Yeah. So this is an older, sort of old new stock because now they're made out of Aus10 or, specialized steels, like this four forty something something on the Signature edition. But the one thing about this I always wish the quillion on the top were facing I wish that the quillions were reversed, basically. It makes more sense to have this forward facing quillion with the jimping on top for the thumb to brace. Also, it would make waving it out of the pocket easier.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:25]:
But I think, if I'm not mistaken, the Quillian's are set up this way to avoid any sort of, patent, conflict with Emerson. It would look a little bit too much like an Emerson wave when this came out. Now the wave patent has run out, I believe, so now they're free to switch the Quillians, if I'm not mistaken, but they haven't, and, you know, why why switch horses midstream? But this thing, both of these are really beautiful. Truth be told, I carry the plain edged version much more than the Chris. Even though, it's, like I said, more pedestrian, it just I love this thing. I can't believe it took me this long to get a long one. Now I've had the four inch version of this knife for many, many years. As a matter of fact, when I was living in New York City, it got snagged down my shoulder bag, landed on a subway track, and a guy came out and got it for me.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:23]:
I had to wait a while, but Next is the XL Recon series. And, all you Recon one, fans will be happy to know that they have re released this this year in the clip point version. So now you will be able to get the XL Recon one with the five and a half inch fully flat ground clip point blade, brand new from Cold Steel. They have not released the Tanto as of yet. I'm not sure if they're gonna be doing that, but many, many times I've shown these off on the Knife Junkie podcast and people have offered to buy them off of me, because they were discontinued sadly at some point in the early two thousands or early mid two thousands. Well, this one is back. I'm not sure if it's gonna have the matte blade, but I do know that it's gonna have the fully flat ground clip point, XHP blade. So here I have the older versions of this, and I always thought it was curious that the the, Tanto version has a shinier coating on that XHP blade, and the clip point has a more dull version, or matte version.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:42]:
Very very comfortable in hand with those double choils and then you have a long bit of run here where you can hold this knife full forefinger grip even if you have giant, meat hooks, which I don't. But even if you did, you'd still have plenty of room to, back off the blade, which gives this, like an eight inch reach here now. So this thing is, it's great. One question I have about, this besides why did you ever discontinue it in the first place is why have you never made a Vaquero version of the Recon? The Recon one comes in clip point, comes in tanto, and it comes in a drop point. You can't get the XL in the drop point. I don't believe it was ever offered, but why not the Vaquero in the Recon one? The Recon one is a more expensive You've you've got g 10 instead of the GRN that you have in the, glass reinforced nylon that you have in the handles of the Voyagers. Why not put out a g 10 version, this more exotic knife or more expensive knife with better materials with that exotic bacchero blade? By the way, the Recon series was the first one ever to come out with plain g 10 handles, no liners. No steel liners underneath, keeping it light.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:08]:
They discovered it's just as strong. You don't need those steel liners. Next up, this one is based on a Japanese helmet breaching knife, but to me, it looks like a Filipino pinoting is the Frenzy. I love the Frenzy. This one is in XHP, also c CTS XHP, blade steel, just a beautiful knife. This came in a version one, two, and three, but the only difference was the handle color. There was a gray, a blue, and this gorgeous green and black. All of them had the layered g tens with the main color and black.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:46]:
So you get the with all the handle sculpting, which by the way, makes this relatively guardless knife really sink into the hand, but it also makes it look great. I can't remember which frenzy version this is. To me, call it the three because it's green, it's a little weird, so I never really paid much attention to that. It is just a frenzy. One thing I do know, two things I do know, is that this is the most carryable of these five and a half inch, blades as it is the thinnest and it is the least broad, at north to south. So it really fits in the pocket easily. This is one that you can carry and kinda forget about. And, you can't say that about too many five and a half inch folders.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:36]:
Then again, there aren't too many five and a half inch folders. You get that great pecking motion and that great shearing and tearing motion from that hot bill blade. So beautiful. Another awesome Andrew Demko design. These are almost all Andrew Demko designs. Next up, another one off, though I used to have the small version of this and sold it like an idiot, but this is the Talwar, five and a half inch Talwar with the serrated edge. I was very happy to see them re release this when, GSM took over. They did a, they sort of canvassed cold steel nerds, what do you wanna see come back? And I'm like, Black Rhino.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:19]:
And I'm like, Desperado. They didn't listen to me, but they listened to folks who said, the Talwar XL, and I'm glad because I always wanted this. My brother has it. I was always a little jealous. Finally, I had the opportunity to keep up with the Joneses or the Victors, as it were. I went for the serrated edge because, though it is a very effective and, beautiful, fully flat ground blade, effective in terms of slicing and shearing. It does have that upswept edge, so I figured why not get a little bit of serration on there just to snag, to just to seal the deal as it's going through, what it's cutting. And I have no doubt this would be just ultra, ultra horrifying in terms of the wounds you could create with it, whether on a slash, a pressure cut, or a thrust, because it's a nice wide blade too.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:19]:
Also, this one has that thumb plate pocket catch, so that acts very much, like a wave. As you draw it from your pocket, it will snag on your pocket seam and open up automatically. Though you gotta be careful with some of these larger blades as you do that, kind of the angle of your leg, you might, or if you have it in a back pocket, you might you might nick yourself. Though, that's only happened to me a couple of times and I was probably a couple of drinks in or being stupid. So I've learned not to do either of those things. This is the Talwar, and they have this in the four inch in S35VN right now. What does this blade steal? S35VN. All right, next up, this was a housewarming gift, about thirteen years ago when I moved into this house.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:17]:
This, from my brother, Victor. This is the Raja two. Just a beautiful folding hookree here. Very heavy duty, these are FRN handles, nice and thick. You have really nice contouring all over and this handle, this sort of horse hoof pommel here, echoes the traditional hookery design. But really what I love is that blade. This is a blasted Aus8 blade. Aus8 a is a very tough steel, keeps a great edge.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:52]:
I know people are like, oh, Aus8, and they turn their nose. But I gotta say, the way Cold Steel did it with their heat treat, outstanding. This has always been a great, great steel. This is the steel that really built this company, if you ask me. I know they they did a lot of VG1 and Carbon Fi or Carbon V, But when they started with Andrew Demko and the Aus eight, they just blew up. So I love this one. This is I I consider this, maybe because it was a housewarming gift at six inches here, I consider this kind of a home defense folder. It lives alternatively in with in and among my collection in the drawer.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:33]:
Sometimes it's in the kitchen. Not that I don't have plenty of knives in the kitchen to use if someone were to break in and I needed to knife fight, but, yeah, that's kind of how I do this knife. Love this thing. Thank you always, Victor, for this. These all have, except for the one old Voyager that just has the very, very stout, old school, back lock, these all have, and also the TiLite, which has the liner lock, these all have the Triad lock. So the triad lock is the back lock here, mid back lock with the stop pin. It's the stop pin here between the the lock and the blade that transfers all of the energy coming to the blade into the frame of the handle and makes it the strongest lock out there. I don't care what you say, it's the strongest lock out there.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:27]:
There's the most evidence and proof of that, than any other knife. Alright, last series here. You've been waiting for it, the Espada series. I've gotta reach across table here. That's the g 10 large. Here's the g 10 XL, the seven and a half inch blade. That's so beautiful. These are Navaj, these are based on the Spanish Navaja.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:56]:
And then here are the more luxury versions. Now, this is the only one in my Espada collection of four that is flat ground, because I bought that one recently. All these others are older. Now you'll, here. There's not enough room for all of this on here, Luke. Okay. I bought all of these except for this. My brother got me this at a gun show.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:22]:
This is an older one with AUS Eight. This is the XL version with a seven and a half inch blade. These are hollow ground. The older ones are hollow ground. The newer ones flat ground. You've got aluminum bolsters and g 10 polished beautifully. And, let me just show you what the main benefit is of these very, very large knives. You have all these different places.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:48]:
If you're using it for camping, which you're not, you you can come all the way up here. There's a choil for fine work or a, a little landing spot there. But really, these are all about fighting. So you have a, a place to put your hands here. You can come back on this sub hilt here in in any way you want, but really, I find it, really comfortable like a trigger. So you can come all the way back here or for a thrust in, you can butt it into the palm of your hand and use it like this. I think the two best ways to hold this knife are here in the main hand hand well, or to come back here and use this like a sub hilt. Because now all of a sudden you have about a 13 inch reach, yeah about a 13 inch reach, and it's like a sword, a short sword or a machete.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:39]:
So these knives are fantastically beautiful and quite practical as fighting knives. You laugh because you say, who uses fighting knives? Well, you know, okay. I'll grant you that. But what if you had this in your backpack? And you had this is the XL with g 10. It's got a very stout, back lock here. It's stable side to side with that triad lock. There's no play back and forth, which is crazy for a mid back lock or a very forward back lock on a knife this giant. But here, you have this in your backpack.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:19]:
It's about eight and a half inches, stem to stern when closed. But you pull it out, suddenly you've got a machete, and you can clear brush, do whatever you need. Yeah, it's a weapon, but it can also be really used as a great tool. It's a foldable, very, very strong, type small machete. That's what I say when the cops pull me over. No, I'm just kidding. These are much thinner. The g 10 models are much thinner than the solid models, and lighter, but they're both just they're must haves.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:58]:
They are must haves in the collection of any true knife junkie. I shouldn't put it that way. Of any true Cold Steel fan or any true, fighting knife fan. You gotta have one of these, whether it's the XL or the Ls. And now let me show you something, before we dip out of here. Let me show you a difference in blade here. These are the large. This is the original g 10, model, and the g 10 models came out a couple years after, the original, fancy models.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:31]:
And look at the difference in the swedge. So the older one, this one I got a couple of years ago. It's black ground, it's a much newer model, s 35 en, all the others are AUS Eight. But look at how the Swedge has moved forward into a more traditional Bowie position here. So I'm I'm really happy I have both, because this older version here looks a little bit more, Navajo like to me, and a little bit less like an American Bowie. Now don't get me wrong, I love American Bowies, but something about this top version, is very, very fetching to me, so I'm glad I have both. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that does it for my collection of very large folders, the Cold Steel XLs. As I mentioned, well, in some cases, they're just called large even though that's a five and a half inch blade.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:27]:
But when you're going up to seven and a half, you know, you gotta accommodate with your nomenclature. So I have a lot of other cold steel folders in the four inch range and four and a quarter inch range, but for this one, I had to make the cut off five inches. Such beautiful knives. I highly recommend you get at least one. You might think it's ridiculous, but it's not. They are super strong. If they're big and weak, I could get it. You don't need it in your collection, but they're big and strong and beautiful and exotic, and many of them based on, historical ethnographic weapons, which is another thing that really turns me off.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:07]:
Alright. Be sure to join us on Sunday, this coming Sunday, if you're listening to this as it drops. Episode five seventy five with Rolando Garcia the third, otherwise known as Rolando Escotada on YouTube and Instagram. He's a fascinating guy. He knows all different styles of and has mastered all different styles of knife fighting, be it Filipino, be it Spanish, be it French. Check-in with this guy. Or or Japanese. He's he's amazing, very smart, and, a a great conversation.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:42]:
So check that. Alright. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time. Don't take dull for an answer.

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