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, a new one from Knives by Nooj I'm very excited to have. It goes with my primitive wicket. I get a cold steel, new old stock that I've been dying for for literally decades, and then we're gonna talk about asymmetrical, double edged fighting knives. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:21]:
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 [00:00:34]:
Welcome back to the show. I had some favorite comments from this past week's clip point show. First one from chaplain Dave Sparks. I was talking about I'm sorry. I was talking about the large cold steel folders, and he says, I love those large cold steel knives. I have the Voyager in clip point and the large, and the large in XL versions. I often think of their offerings as being slightly upscale LARPing tools. That's live action role play if you don't know what LARPing is.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:02]:
That are fun to look at and visually impressive, but also well enough made that you won't break off your blade inside of a perk. Well, I love this because, I I love kind of LARPing. I don't LARP myself, but one day, years ago now, I was walking through my park. And in this, valley, I saw a whole bunch of knights fighting each other with big puffy nerf swords. And I'm like, what what is this? And I discovered what LARPing is. So, yeah, I hear you, Chaplain Dave. They do look a little comically large, but they are outstanding, stout, awesome, folding knives. So, I too have the large clip point.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:43]:
As a matter of fact, I'm carrying it in my pocket right now, the XL, and, you inspired that, Carrie. And those things are awesome. I love it. So I got some other comments. This next one is from Derek j Sturms, thirty seven twenty four. I also had a a similar comment from sword x x x y, good friend of the show. But they just said, while I was talking about a new we coming out from, Michael Gavic, designed by Gavco knives, called the epaulette. He says, just for clarification, there is actually an epaulette shark.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:17]:
Don't, don't get very big around reefs and beaches a lot. I find them in Florida a lot. Really cool species, also, and also really cool design. Epaulette shark facts. Size, behavior, diet, pictures. And he sent me a link. Thank you very much for that. I am a, a kind of a shark fiend, at least I was in my very early years.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:39]:
That was one of the first kinda series of things as a young artist that I drew. I I knew them all and when I when I'm talking about this, they only knew about 250 species of shark. And I know that that's vastly more at this point. But I had never heard of the epaulette shark and I was, quipping that finally, Michael Gavic has designed a knife that isn't named after a shark. And I had, I had some people, set him straight on that. It was a little embarrassing as a former shark expert. Alright. That said, let's now get to a pocket check

Advertisement Announcer [00:03:13]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:22]:
In my front right pocket, kinda following a recent theme since talking with, Rolando Escotada about, about, Nevada knives. Today, I had my Dirk Pinkerton designed modern Nevada called the Asymmetrical Night Horse. Asymmetrical was a brand from Beyond EDC. It was kind of their Midland, version. Beyond EDC has been taking a, a breather. I hope I hope they come back. They did a lot of cool stuff, and, this was one of my favorite. Now the night horse, this modern Nevada design was exclusive with Smoky Mountain Knife Works.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:03]:
They did this beautiful titanium and s 35 v n version and it was shockingly priced at like a hundred and $50 or something like that. And then they did another shockingly priced version with, 14 c 28 n and g 10 for, like, $30. It was crazy. Such a great knife. I ended up giving mine to my brother, a, a token of appreciation for all the amazing stuff he's gotten me. But, today I had this on me. I love, talking to Rolando about how the Navajo was actually used in street fights. That was the big Spanish folding knife, that was used by a lot of people once they were, once Spaniards were no longer allowed to carry around swords with them to settle their peace.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:55]:
So they carried a lot around sword sized ratchet lock, folders. Beautiful. Carry it in their cummerbund. They pull off their cloak, use that as a shield and a deceptive device, you know, and, go to town with those. Anyway, this is the modern version of that, or a modern version, and I love it. Dirk Pinkerton, absolutely one of my favorite designers of all time. Next up, just for you general utility, I had the Victorinox Tinker, hanging in my pocket. I have these danglers.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:28]:
I get them on Amazon. I love them for my Swiss Army knives because I don't need or want to carry this in a pouch. It just, I like to throw it in my pocket but I hate when it falls to the bottom of the pocket and, lands, east to west. I like it north to south, and these danglers kinda keep it like that. This one, of course, is the Bigfoot edition. I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a Sasquatch nerd. Sabe, if you're really a nerd. They're the Sabe people.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:59]:
And, yeah. I love listening to stories of people out there in the woods, seeing these things. And, if you're snickering right now, I'll have you know that there are a lot of people who have a lot to lose or, let's just say, nothing to gain by telling their stories. They are very interesting to hear. So, anyway, I got this one from, Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Nice depiction of Bigfoot there. Kinda looks like the one on the beef jerky commercials. This is the Tinker, so it has the main blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:32]:
It has the usual opening stuff here and then a secondary small blade, which I love, but this has always been a favorite of mine, since a very young high school in a way, because of that. I love that full Phillips screwdriver. So I will put this down with the screwdriver out. Alright. Next up on me, on my belt, riding scout, is the beautiful Teakel knives Adversary. This knife has just walked away with my heart. What can I say? I love this thing. This is basically the combatant with a wharncliffe blade, true wharncliffe blade that's a continuous slope from the thumb ramp down.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:13]:
And by the way, this one has a great spot for your thumb. It's a little swale cut into the top of the blade with some very nice jimping, just grippy enough. This one beautifully machined, so nice. Every little hard edge knocked off. These are machined by Nick Chuprin and NCC Knives. So, man, that guy is awesome. I'm on a podcast with them, actually, that's coming out on March 8, and, it's it's the, Bladeology podcast. Nick Chuprin is on there, as is Chuck Goodradis, but it is, what what do I wanna say? It's hosted by Jeremiah of, of, well, of, oh my god, I'm having a little brain fart here.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:05]:
PVK knives. PVK knives. Great conversation. We talk about this a little bit, but, anyway, my point is, the Teacal knives, Adversary is such a great EDC. And if you needed it for self defense, my lord, god help the sucker who steps to you. By the way, you can get these handle scales upgraded from Tikal knives. If you've got big mitts, I do not. I have medium sized hands, and this, little handle fits me great because it's quite easy to hide on your person.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:40]:
But they make versions of these combatant and adversary scales that extend beyond here, so you get about another half inch, three quarters of an inch to grip onto. It's very cool. Look into it. That's one thing about Tikal knives among very among a lot, that I really like. They offer different scale options that either elongate handles of their knives or add a karambit style ring to the pommel side, and I think that's really, really cool. So go check that out. Alright, lastly for emotional support, my ESK today was the beautiful Spartan George dagger. Based on the Marine Raider dagger that was pretty short lived, early World War II before the Ka Bar was adopted and before the M3 came along.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:31]:
It was a Fairbairn Sykes inspired dagger for the Marine Raiders, but materials at that point in the war early on were at a premium, and the knives were delicate, and, oftentimes the tips broke off. Oftentimes, Marines would break the tip-off, and then, sharpen it and have it be kind of a squared off chisel tip. But this is an homage to that. Les George, an amazing knife maker and knife designer, is a former Marine EOD guy, so he, that's explosives ordinance disposal. So, he is a a proud former marine, a very funny guy, very talented designer, and a lover of daggers. He makes a number of different daggers, and he has sort of spearheaded a project with a bunch of knifemakers where he casts bronze, nineteen eighteen knuckle dusters like that, and then has, various knifemakers like Alan Elishewitz and Matt Chase make blades to put in those, and, and they have been very cool. But so I had this with me today. Of course, not on my person.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:46]:
I say of course, but this one is not so difficult to carry. Perfect sheath from Spartan Blades. Not too much greater than the contours of the knife itself, but a lot of lashing options. I put this very cheap, clip on there, and this rides in the waistband pretty comfortably, I gotta say. So there it is. I had this on me today. What did you have on you today? Let me know. Drop them in the comments below.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:13]:
Give me some inspiration. That t kel adversary. Oh, by the way, t kel knives, we have a coupon code with them. So if you go to the knifejunkie.com/tkell, and buy a TKEL knife through that link, you get 10% off, and I get a little something on the back end. Look at that, it's a it's like a kickback. Old school politics. But I don't do too many kickbacks because there aren't too many companies, that really have my attention like T belt knives. I love Tim.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:46]:
He's an awesome dude. His family is great, and they make such amazing knives. I'm a proud collaborator, with that company. Speaking of collaborations with Tikal knives, let me show you some three d prints. These are three d prints in, resin of the knife I designed that, Tim has tweaked the handle to, much like the, agent double o one. And I'm not sure when it's coming out, but it'll be coming out sometime soonish. Because, that man works quick. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:19]:
So this is a double edged fighter. This is what inspired today's topic of conversation, asymmetrical double edged fighters. So what you will not find in our conversation today are any daggers. That's perfectly symmetrical, and I love them. I love the daggers. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about double edged fighters, and that's what this is. So we are going back and forth on the name.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:46]:
We will, agree on something soon. I think we may have, but we'll continue to talk until that's actually, hammered down. But this is a double edged fighter based on or inspired by the Turkish Yatagan. And hopefully, while I was sipping my coffee, you looked up what a Yatagan is. If you don't, it's a Turkish blade that has a recurve, but it puts the point back right on the center point. And that's what the, Cold Steel Voyager, that's what the the whole, vaquero line is based on. The the Yadagon blade. So it's got a deep recurve and then a point in the center line.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:29]:
This one does not have the recurve because I know how much, people kinda bristle at the recurve. They don't like to sharpen them. So here, if you don't look at the, angle from the handle to the blade, let's do this, you will see that it's a regular straight edge blade with a belly and a slightly curved sharpened clip. So easy to sharpen, the recurve part happens with how the, blade is linked to the handle with that downward angle. So you get the best of both worlds here. You get that sort of recurve cutting capability without having to sharpen a recurve blade. That's because the blade comes down off of the handle at an angle. So I sent him a design with this sort of spec'd out feature here, and he said, Wow, we could shorten that up a little bit, and make an EDC version.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:30]:
So here it is, and here, let me show you real quick with the Agent double o one. So it's got a similar sized handle, here, but a longer blade, and once this comes out, I will be carrying this. I love it. I love it not only because I designed it and, Tim tweaked the handle, but I also love it because it's a carryable double edged blade. Now be careful about where you live and what the laws are and all that blah blah blah, but you might not be able to carry a double edged blade. What I would say is don't get in trouble with the law, and it's not an issue. So here we go. I'm a I'm a big fan.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:17]:
What can I say? Alright. Let me put these aside. These are the double edged fighters from me and Tim Kell. Not sure when the when they're coming out. Hopefully, Blade Show Atlanta twenty twenty five. We shall see. Alright. Also, I wanna mention this.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:35]:
I wanna show this off. Okay. Do any of you come to Thursday night knives? Excuse me while I pick this up. Got a bit of the old dry mouth this morning. Alright. If you come to to Thursday night knives, you know, Benedict Ode. Benedict Ode is a designer, and he's an artist, and he is now the merch czar. I love that title.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:01]:
He is now the merch czar for Tirzowola Knives, and he sent me some cool stuff that we're gonna be giving away. Now check this out. So you know Bob Tirziwala, the guy who invented the tactical folder, he's got a new coin coming out. Now I'm not gonna call it, it's not a challenge coin necessarily, it's more of a elector coin. So this is a beautiful coin made out of, navy, what what is it? I'm gonna naval brass. Machine from Barstock naval brass, hand finished, with a forced patina. 100% designed and made in The United States Of America, machined by Hogdoggens out of Washington State, United USA. Look at this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:50]:
This almost to me looks like the coins they carry in John Wick, you know, when they need to, do a hit or whatever it is. They have, coins that look a bit like this. Okay, so this, little package, hundred and $30, you get this beautifully naval brass, machined and patina ed coin. You get a couple of stickers, which are cool. I have this one on my coffee cup. But you also get a, what do you call it? A patch here with Velcro. And by the way, that's the Italian flag, a terzuola, and he says here, the Latin terzuola motto, nun quam secundum means second to none. Terzuola means third.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:45]:
Full motto on the edge of the coin, Tertius sum nunquam sunkundum translates to third I may be, I am second to none. So basically, his last name is means third, but he is second to none, because he is the great and powerful Bob Treswella. So we're gonna be giving one of these packages away. This one is mine. You cannot add this, it's mine. But one just like this, we're gonna be giving away on Thursday night knives, so definitely stay tuned and, join us there. This is from Benedict Ody, the Tirziwala Czar Of Merch. I love that title, czar of merch.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:30]:
Now if things go south, he will say, I was never the the merch czar, like someone else we know who has faded into obscurity, thankfully. But, there you go. Alright. Let's get to knife land management. 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. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave tactical torch, the knifejunkie.com/shockwave. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast, And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:12]:
First up in knife life news from Boker, Boker plus. It's a Bowie. In case you didn't know, I love bowies, and this one looks super cool. This is the new compound ground Northwood Bowie. Now this one's designed from Dave Wenger, and if you don't know who that is, definitely look him up. If you are a fan of this show, you will appreciate his stuff because he, make he's a custom maker who does a lot of really cool fixed blade outdoor knives. He has a super cool tracker that I've been eyeing up for years at this point. But anyway, Dave Wenger has this new one, the Northwood Bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:53]:
It's compound ground, 10.7 inches of clip point blade, and, you have an outer length. Most of it is a sort of thin and acute bevel for chopping and, that kinda stuff. And then closer to the ricasso, you have a skandi ground portion that's great for carving and doing kinda wood tasks, finer tasks, as we like to say in the biz. And then you have that beautiful large micarta handle and that forest green, man, is really fine looking. This captured my heart. I haven't hadn't seen it until, I saw this knife, knife news story. The one thing, though, one thing, what do you think it is? As a Bowie lover myself, what do you think it is? It's the lack of guard. But I would be willing to, you know, this is a chopper.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:51]:
It's more, it's not for fighting, okay? So less reason for a guard. You're not gonna be thrusting it necessarily. But you will be chopping, so it's got a nice, flared pommel that I really like. It's kind of, it's kind of a very abrupt coffin shaped handle, if you will. It comes down straight and then flares out at the very end, and you've got the top swell for chopping, recoil, and then you have the bottom bird's beak, for centrifugal force. It's it's a nice looking knife, I gotta say, and it's a big Bowie. And I like Boker. When I first started this show, when Jim and I first started this show almost seven years ago, crazy enough, Boker Knives was on the ropes.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:38]:
People were like, there's no quality control there, man. But Boker has never disappointed me, so, I think I think they're great, and I think this Bowie is gonna be super hot. I I love the two different edges on this knife. And if you look, you'll see that the, the cutting edge along the thinner portion up front is the same as the Scandi. So basically, you're dealing with the same edge, just a different geometry right behind that cutting edge. Very nice looking knife. That is the Northwood Bowie. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:14]:
Next up, Vosti. Okay. The Parallel. We know the Parallel. We had that here. The Parallel is a very thin EDC knife with a one fifty four centimeters reverse tanto blade and a very thin titanium handle. It has their version of the Axis Lock, and I gave it to a great friend, my oldest friend. He has that knife and loves it.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:39]:
Anyway, the Vosteed Parallel is being re released with an awesome new handle. Hand blade. So this one, two point nine inches of now s 35 v n. So you're now looking at an s 35 v n reverse tanto, and instead of the one fifty four centimeters that came before it, and everything now instead of being black is this beautiful dune colored, anodization and we call that p v PVD coating, I guess that is. So, I'm I'm excited about this because it's a good looking knife. I really like it, but what you have here is a new color and, it's not something we see often. It's not that sort of desert tan or coyote. It is a it's a really nice looking dune color, we'll call it.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:38]:
To me, it looks like the red clay of Virginia, but I'm excited to see this come up because I like Vostide, and they started with a kitchen knife, and they've really gone down the road of really cool EDC blades. They have a new one coming out, that is a fixed, fixed blade, and I'm pretty excited about that. Alright. Next up, WeKnife, the Zenthura. The Zenthura. Now this one is a very clean and modern design wharncliffe blade. This one has a swedge. I really like the look of it.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:15]:
I'm not a big fan of the handle, if you wanna know, but the blade itself is gorgeous. So another true wharncliffe, we have a continuous slope from the thumb placement down to the tip, and, we have a swedge on that handle, which is quite nice looking. This one is 3.3 inches of m three ninety. Again, a thumb, stud and flipper, Titanium frame lock. You've got a sculpted clip on the other side. The handle looks nice. I'm not a huge fan of the, of the carbon fiber inlay on the one you see on screen. If you go to the WE Knife website, you'll see they have a bunch of different colorways with different, carbon fibers.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:02]:
And those look nice, but, oh, that one right there. Thank you, Jim. That's a silver foil carbon fiber. Looks nice, not exactly my bag, but I love the blade. This one is now available as of the February, and that's where we are. Beginning of mine. Alright, last one here, last story here. This is a cool one.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:25]:
Jim sent me this. This came on his radar, this past week. So some treasure hunters from Poland, Treasure Hunters and adventure seekers, were out in Poland along the okay. I'm gonna butcher all of these. We're on the, this Okso River, and they found a really cool double edged broadsword, from, they don't know when exactly, but it's very well preserved for for for a broadsword from the medieval times. Now, the the medieval age lasted almost a thousand years. That was from the fifth century to the fifteenth century. Can you imagine that? So when we're talking about the medieval times, we're talking about the dark ages.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:14]:
And they call it dark ages because, basically, thought was arrested during that period. So that's a thousand years where thought where where things just kinda slowed down and stopped and just kinda stayed at that same level. Think of us now. I was born in the early seventies. I went from the, the mechanical age to the information age. In my time of being here on Earth, things have gotten insane. You know, Star Wars, Star Trek had the communicator, and now the communicator, which we all have in our pocket, is ubiquitous. We can all look up whatever we want, whenever we want, and we have all the knowledge of the universe or at least all the knowledge of humanity in our hand or in our pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:02]:
That wasn't the case fifty years ago, fifty three years ago when I was born. The middle ages, everything stopped for a thousand effing years. Can you imagine? And there was a lot of, you know, kings and kingdoms and swords and fighting and bloodshed and and just, you know, like in in the Monty Python movie, just, you know, stacking mud. There's nothing happening, but this sword came from that period. And to me, that's incredible. It's big. It's, very well preserved for something coming out of the out of that time, and they think it's because it was in the river that, that river I can't pronounce, in the Nowamjiski region of Poland. I'm so sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:50]:
I just totally butchered it, but, this will end up in the Ostrado, Ostroda Museum in Poland, amongst their various arms and armament from the Middle Ages. But, it's an incredible thing to find something like this, especially from that period of time where nothing else was happening. But I guess they were making some pretty incredible knives, and blades. And if it happened to drop in a river, somehow it would be preserved, which to me is very counterintuitive. You would imagine it would have to be in a dry place, like something mummified, to last. But very beautiful. 3.2 feet of blade there. Rest it, but the handle, the pommel, and the guard are still there.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:42]:
So pretty amazing. This was also found alongside two axes. The hafts were gone, but the axe blades were similarly preserved. So exciting, cool, and interesting. Can you imagine that? A thousand years of nothing happen, nothing happening. Think of what has happened since you yourself, were born. A lot. Every year, there's something new.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:08]:
AI, etcetera. Alright. Let's get to the state of the collection. Let's do that.

Announcer [00:29:16]:
Knife themed shirts, hoodies, mugs, water bottles, and more, theknifejunkie.com/shop. Visit the knife junkie at theknifejunkie.com to catch all of our podcast episodes, videos, photos, and more.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:29]:
What do we have here? We have some cool stuff. Alright. Let's get to it. Knives by Nuge. You guys like this guy? Knives by Noods. Tom Nugent out of New Jersey. He's a former, sheriff's deputy. Now he does this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:46]:
He makes this knife, which I love, and that I had I got at blade show, and I carry all the time. I love this thing. This is the primitive wicket. Well, he came out with a ambidextrous sheath for the primitive. This is the primitive with the, with the jute wrapped handle and a fully 90 degree spine. This thing is a beauty, and he just sent this to me. I haven't even had a chance to to carry it. So there it is in the sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:21]:
Now, these ambidextrous sheaths, we've talked about these recently when we had, when we were talking about the Armas knives here. We were talking about the birth of this sort of ambidextrous style pocket sheath. And, who did it come from? Maybe Gypsy EDC, maybe Offensive Industries, but everyone is making them now. And they are just gorgeous. So they have the really thin grommets around the side, and they have the sort of, DCC style clip to go right in the pocket. And, this one here has Velcro, the soft side of Velcro right there, and you can drop the blade in there anyway. But the real exciting part about this is that, is that blade. So the wicket in a primitive design here, I really love.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:16]:
It's got a Scandi ground blade. Now I know he makes these in a full flat ground, but I really prefer the Scandi blade, with the jute cord wrap. It makes it nice and thin, really easy in the hand, and, like I said, he finished this one off with the 90 degree edge before he sent it to me. Now that is for throwing sparks and, and that kinda thing. And, also kinda scraping off little tiny, pieces of fat wood and that kinda thing. This is 80CRV2. That's his logo and that's the handle. I love this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:59]:
A lot of people don't like the jute cord. Mostly what he does now is micarta or g 10. And, on this blade style, but what a great outdoor knife. You get a full finger grip, a nice three and a half inch blade there, and, you can go to town all day long with this. So I'm really grateful to him for sending this to me, and I can't wait to start carrying this. This is definitely EDC able. Here. If the ARMS blades if the ARMS blades VSK, one is EDC able, this is gonna be EDC able.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:37]:
There there is a size comparison. And the reason I show this is because I've been showing it off a lot recently. They go together very well, I gotta say. Nice looking knives. So yeah, very excited about this Knives by Nooj Primitive XL. Follow him on Instagram. You'll see he does weekly drops of these awesome knives. The quick and dirty about him is he was a sheriff's deputy in New Jersey who loved camping and being an outdoorsman.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:11]:
He retired from that line of work, and now he just makes these incredible outdoor knives, and I love this thing. Very grateful for that. Thank you, sir. This is going into pocket as soon as this show is over. Next up, this one, I've been waiting for, waiting to buy for years and years, and finally got one. This is the Cold Steel Knives Big Bear Classic. The Big Bear Classic is based on the, Bob Loveless, Big Bear Sub Hilt Fighter. So this is a design arrived at by Bob Loveless, very famous knife maker, and one of the two guys, along with Bill Bagwell, three guys, and a third whose name I forget, who started the American Bladesmith Society, ABS.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:03]:
And this was one of his, signature designs. It's a double edged, fully double edged clip point fighting knife with that sub hilt. That's this, you're no stranger to the sub hilt if you watch this show, and, I'm really psyched to have this. How did I get this, you say, with that leather sheath? I got this on eBay. I keep my eyes on eBay, but I don't buy much from there. And, I've always wanted this knife, but not with the Rivex sheath. The plastic sheath with this gorgeous polished, sub hilt and hilt, and my Carta just seemed wrong. And, I finally found one at a great price, and, man, this thing is wicked.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:52]:
Wicked. I love it. I'm a big fan of this knife, and this is what inspired, today's conversation about double edged fighting. Now, when I talk about fighters, I'll I'll just call them fighters now and again, it's because they are not daggers. I do love daggers. That's a symmetrical, double edged fighting knife. But these are not symmetrical. They have a different spine than they do blade, but they are still double edged.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:22]:
And that's what I, that's probably my favorite style of knife. So we're gonna talk about that here in just a minute. Double edged fighting knives coming up, but before we get there, I wanna talk about some of these cool things that Jim has been creating. I'm gonna put this in. Gotta be careful. Two edges. So, this is may your blade be sharp and your pints be cold. This is for, the upcoming holiday that we all love, Saint Patrick's Day.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:55]:
The cool thing about Saint Patrick's Day is that every Lent, I give up drinking alcohol, and yet this is a very alcohol centric holiday. And I'm sorry if you're Irish and you're like, no, it isn't, Bob. It's about the same. I'm sure it is. But for those of us who aren't Irish, we think about drinking beer on that day. So it's kind of a cruel timing for that holiday. So check this out. We got a a a great cooler here.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:21]:
We've got, beer koozies. We've got hats. We've got t shirts. We've got, tote bags like you see on screen. Anything you want with this cool logo. May your blades be sharp and your pints be cold. Jim is a design phenom. He comes up with stuff all the time, weekly, and puts them up on the podcast we have or on the website.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:43]:
We have page after page of really cool stuff. Go check it out. And a lot of them are, timed to themes, that are happening in the calendar, so go check those out. Knifejunkie.com/shop. Manage, I've been just going off. Let me let me get to these cool double edged plates. Now you saw this one here, the Big Bear Classic by Cold Steel. I won't belabor this.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:11]:
I'm a huge fan. I will not be showing the OSS. The OSS is up on the kitchen, up on the fridge in the kitchen. That is the kitchen fighting knife, though we have a lot of big butcher knives up there that could do the trick. First one I'm gonna show is the Teakel Knives Agent double o one. Yeah, a little self serving to show this one off first, but this one was based on and inspired by, the Big Bear Classic and the double edged flip point, sub hilt fighter designed by Loveless. So this one, if you look at it, it's got a bayonet ground blade here. So the double edge doesn't come all the way to the ricasso.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:57]:
There is some room there for the thumb. And then you have a sort of clip point slash drop point double edge blade. Double edge bevel on top. Mine, of course, has that beautiful purple Burl g 10. I'm a huge fan of this knife. I carry it all the time. So the story is I sent Tim Kell a design. It was this blade and a handle similar, and he saw he's like, I love the blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:23]:
The handle needs work, Bob. And if anyone knows how to design a great ergonomic tactical knife handle, it's Tim Kell. He went to work on it, turned in turned it into this piece of perfection here. And, with the his my blade and his handle or our handle, it turned into an outstanding knife and a series. I have the two, which is a wharncliffe, the three, which is the nightstalker blade, and then there's four, the five, the six, and now the seven, and that's that beautiful long Americanized tanto blade, a collaboration with Tomas of Tactical Tavern. So the agent series has really turned into a force of nature. I love this thing. So this is the agent double o one from TKL Knives, rides on my belt front, scout style.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:17]:
Alright. Next up, this one is from Station Nine Knives. If you watch the show, you've seen this a lot recently. Double edged, but that secondary edge is a wicked line of serrations. The guys over at Station Nine are always designing really cool, unique fighting knives, and this one is probably my favorite that they've ever put out. Now I love the partisan. I love the seer, but this one to me is the most beautiful. Fits great in hand, perfect for my hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:53]:
Again, bayonet crown. You've got a, line of chimping here for the thumb to extend onto, but that secondary double edged blade is all serrated. Now, what do you want that for? You've got the continuous sweep of the belly and the midline tip. You know what that's for. It's for thrusting and for slashing. But what's what's that curved serrated edge for? Well, I'll show you. It's for this, it's for trapping. You know, you're in a knife fight, you're in reverse grip, you capture that other guy's hand and you, I'm gonna do this very gently.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:28]:
You hold it here in that curved space for a moment. That's just to give you a it's a half beat. That's very quick in a knife fight. Boom. You got it right there. And then as you release, you slash through. It's gonna tear up his arm. He's gonna drop whatever he's holding, and then you can do whatever else you need to do to get out of the situation.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:51]:
It's all about neutralizing the threat. Right? Neutralizing the threat. This one is g 10, a very nice textured g 10. But on this, I have some, Ranger bands that really accentuate the grip because, the grip is nice and it is textured, but not textured enough for a knife this gnarly. It's called the undercover, the number 12. Here's the sheath. I wish it weren't square. It makes it a little more difficult to carry it in the waistband.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:24]:
But this one is set up for scout carry up front. Next up, from the great and powerful, Dirk Pinkerton, whose night horse was featured earlier in the state of the, in the what am I carrying pocket check. This is his Razorback, a full curve double edged knife. You can get this one in a bayonet grind where, you have more room for your thumb here. That's plenty for me because, give me as much edge as possible. This one is based on two knives, the Bill Bagwell Hells Bells Bowie and the Khanjar from The Middle East. Khanjar is a curved blade where both sides are sharp. I always thought, like, why not just sharpen both sides? And you're gonna say, because you might baton wood or put your palm on the back of the blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:15]:
Well, I'm not doing that. I'm slashing and cutting my way out of a nasty situation. No, I'm just saying that. But this one is quite beautiful. This is in, LMAX. You can see that on the spine. I like the way Dirk does that. He features the blade steel on the spine of the handle somewhere.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:37]:
You got a beautiful, canvas micarta, a great jimping. Here it is just underneath the handle, or the handle scales, so if you're pressing in, it engages. If not, it's not so bad. And then right up here where it is revealed, on the naked steel, it is nice and, sharp there. So you feel that. Very sharp hollow ground, on both bevels, and I love carrying this one because it releases from the sheath. It it carries nicely in the sheath, but it releases easily. This is a favorite kinda sweatpants, pajama, around the house kinda knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:22]:
So, woe be it to the man who busts into my house, because he's gonna get shot or he's gonna get slashed and stabbed. Alright, next up, from the great and powerful Lacey Szabo, man. Lacey Szabo, former Marine, former, law enforcement officer, and definitely a martial artist, designed some very cool and exotic looking knives. This one, somewhat more pedestrian from him, but a great, great choice. Made by Top Snipes, and, they've made a couple of his other designs. Chief among them, the felony stop. This one, double edged, you can get it single edged depending on your jurisdiction. But this one, a great fighter.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:07]:
You've got an awesome ergonomic handle, that does not push you into any grip in particular. If you happen to grab it in reverse, or not reverse, but flipped around like this, you'll still be able to use it because there aren't a bunch of choils and that kinda thing. You've got micarta here, canvas micarta, beautiful liners, and then this incredible guard. The guard on this is awesome, especially for a full tang knife. You don't often see this, but, you've got a great guard where the thumb ramp, the thumb is lower than that top edge. And that really, and with, three sharp Jimps here, that really gives you purchase with the thumb. It's There's nothing gonna ride up on that on that blade. Down here, of course, you have this nice descending, quillion here, and then a beautiful, asymmetrical double edged blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:05]:
That top bevel, you might notice, is a lot larger than most top bevels on, asymmetrical fighters, And that will give you a sliciness on the back as well. Now what do you need two edges for? Well, first of all, you get great penetration, that's for sure, with two sharpened edges. But also, you get the benefit of that sort of back cut. Yes, you you do get a great back cut on a Bowie knife that has an unsharpened swedge, but that has a lot to do with the length, 10 inches, and the width and and the heaviness of that blade. You get, momentum with that. With this, it's short, you don't get that. The the luxury of the momentum, and, the weight of the blade. So you are reliant more on the edge.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:55]:
So you can do, you can use these double edged fighters for a lot of different, techniques. Also, as I showed before with the number 12, a lot of trapping happens, with a short, shorter double edged blade, used in the in the in the, reverse grip or the ice pick grip, where someone's coming in and you're stopping their arm with your arm, and then you drop that blade down and trap, you want a cutting edge there preferably, because it will inflict pain, and also, make it, the kind of cut that will force them to drop whatever weapon they have. So I'm a big proponent of double edge. Daggers are great, I love daggers, but this is more my speed, personally. Also, if you look at this, you get a little bit of a recurve on, on the main cutting edge. So this is the Zavo from TOPS, Zavo Express. Also, they make a great sheet. This one is almost too big, but it's, it retains the knife so perfectly, and lets it go so well that I'm willing to forgive the thought.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:05]:
Next up, from a two d, this is attention to detail mercantile. Right now, Douglas Esposito of this company is making exclusively folders, but he started with fit with fixed blades, and I love his fixed blade knives. His folders are awesome too. Don't get me wrong, but his fixed blades are beautiful. This is his medium fighter, a bayonet ground, double hollow ground, knife with a nice long run of jimping on that crowned spine. It's not just the crown, it's not just the spine that's crowned, the whole tang is crowned so it's very comfortable in hand, and that tang, sits slightly proud of the handle. When I saw that he was offering faux tortoiseshell, I jumped all over it. I love tortoiseshell.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:55]:
This is, something that I acquired from my brother who also loves it, coming from Fender Guitar Pickguards. That's where he acquired his taste for it, so I guess mine too. Very very nice s 35 v n, super thin hollow ground fighting blade. I've always called this a classy assassin's knife. This is the kinda thing that, you know, you could expect to see this in a John Wick movie. Really love this. And then here's the sheath that came with it. My brother made a leather sheath that is beautiful, but I designed the sheath and I botched the design.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:34]:
He did a beautiful job actually making it, but the design itself was not good, so I generally tend to carry it in this now. Really, really nice knife. That is attention to detail Mercantile, and, that's Douglas Esposito, formerly out of Virginia, now out of Missouri, USA. Okay. Next up, from Blackrock Knives, this is the Monkey Thumper. Funny name, beautiful blade. This is, usually not double edged. I've seen he's done a few of them, double edged, but I this was a special request on my part because, you know, why not two edges? And, this one is karambit esque with that hole.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:21]:
And actually, even though it's got a hole and a slightly larger handle, it's very comfortable and allows you a a, an authentic, fist grip. The way the edge is angled from the handle, you get sort of a recurve effect as, you do from that design I was showing you my new collaboration with Teacal. It is a straight edge if you look at it with a belly, but the way it's angled down, you get a recurve effect. And then on the swedge, you got a fully sharpened edge. So you're cutting coming and going. With this one, I actually prefer it in standard grip, sort of ignoring the hole. The pommel here works great. You don't need to have your finger in the hole, and then if you reverse it, it's a great place to put your thumb.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:12]:
So a really great handle design that offers a ring but isn't dependent on the ring. Love this thing. By the way, if you like this knife and don't wanna pay, custom prices, you can get this from Fox Knives. They do a version of this. Did you hear the click of that feet? I'm sure you did. Another perfect sheet. And by the way, you have to have great sheathing on a knife like this because it's meant to be drawn and used. And on this one, you get full finger choil access.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:48]:
So you just grip it and rip it. Alright. Next up, from Jed Hornbeak, the Necromancer. This thing is amazing. It's so beautiful. It is ridiculously comfortable in hand. I mean, it's the most comfortable in hand of any of the knives up here. The the ergonomic design is great, but also the finishing is just outstanding.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:16]:
This is double edged. This top sharpened false edge here is standi ground, so it comes to a zero edge right there on that portion of the blade. And then the bottom, the main cutting edge, has a slightly recurved straight, I know that's a kind of a contradiction in terms, but you know what I'm saying. And then it comes to a point, a secondary point, much like an Americanized Tanto. So this is a wicked, wicked fighting knife. And I wish you would make this in a larger version. That's a five inch blade. It'd be so cool to have this in a seven inch blade or a six and a half, because it is a perfect fighting knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:57]:
You've got a crown spine, you've got jimping up here if you need to double down on the Filipino style cut. Back here it's got jimping for the, for that standard sort of saber grip and, just an incredible handle. You got a fuller here, on both sides. I guess that's to lighten the blade and give it a little bit more rigidity, and you have a hollow ground main bevel. I am a lucky guy. There were three of these made, two of them in this configuration, and then one of them fully, chisel ground, so one side totally flat. And I just happened to be around when this went up, and I grabbed it. And this is the version I wanted, and man, I love it.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:43]:
But wouldn't it be cool with a longer blade? Now I don't think I could commission that from Jed Hornbeek. He doesn't really work on commission, but he is a frickin' genius, and this thing is outstanding. I love this knife. Alright. Second to last, this was one of the first fixed blades I ever carried EDC. This is the Kramer Kramer Customs Voodoo. And, this one is set up for in the waistband carry. I carry this one at about 03:00.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:18]:
And here we have, what mister Kramer himself would call a Persian. I call it a clip point or a Bowie. And, ordinarily, this one doesn't come sharpened on the top edge, but he did it for me, and now I've seen he's done it for a number of others. So this, perhaps I'm a trendsetter. I got people wearing their, their, their news caps backwards, and I also got people wearing pea coats again. You didn't know that, but it was 1993, and that was me in, Upstate New York. Yep. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:51]:
So, hollow ground, very thin and slicey behind the edge here on this continual swept, belly blade. We've got a centerline point here, which makes it, great, because when you have an upswept blade like that, you're worried your your tip is gonna be kind of off. So if you're coming around at angle seven or an angle eight like this, you're gonna miss where the tip is because it's gonna be pointing down or even on a straight thrust. But if you have an upswept blade like this and you put that point in the center, I think you're good to go. Very nice and thin and slender is this Kramer Custom Voodoo and just a great, great carry. If you're someone who wants to carry a custom fixed blade knife, but you in the waistband, you think it might be too big, get one of these, man. They are so nice. Fills the hand well because it's from north to south on the handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:48]:
It's kinda broad, so you have a lot of, a lot of gripping room without it being too fat. Beautiful, beautiful Kramer custom booty. Alright. Lastly in this list is another sub hilt fighter, and, might not be a surprise, but I am featuring the beautiful hog teeth knives, made I'm gonna call this fiftieth birthday knife. This was the knife my parents got for me on my fiftieth birthday. They commissioned it. I designed it, basically, and, I don't know. Maybe they had to do a second mortgage to get this thing made.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:28]:
It's not an inexpensive knife. I don't know how much it cost, but I I know how much work went into this. So I can imagine it cost a pretty penny, and I'm a very lucky man to have it and to have such a great family also. But look at that. Look at that Damascus steel. There was a huge amount of work that went into making this billet. I saw it. There was a lot of stacking, hammering, folding, cutting, restacking, and so you could get this sort of, diamond like pattern here.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:04]:
Stag handle, you've got, reclaimed steel from the, Longfellow Bridge in Boston. Old antique black micarta as the spacers, and just an incredible feel. And if you hold it, if you put your finger right there at the sub hilt, you got perfect fighting knife balance. That's where you want a knife a fighting knife to balance is right there where the forefinger goes. I don't want this to drop, but that's what you get here. So, what does that give you? It gives you, the the, fulcrum of weight right where your forefinger is. And if you're pretend fighting, what do you do? You put up your forefinger. That's your blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:49]:
So it gives you great balance. It gives you a lively tip. So you've got enough weight in the handle, that you can move that tip of that long blade around very easily. So I don't know if Matt Chase, of Hogteak Knives, who is a former marine corps scout sniper and a and a a a lovely badass of a guy. I don't know if he was actually planning the balance to be so perfect, but he really created a perfectly balanced fighting knife. And what is an asymmetrical double edged knife if it's not a fighting knife? Alright. Thank you. Thank you for hanging in with me as I tried to speak today.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:31]:
I'm not sure what my my deal is, but, this has been my walk down the double edged fighting knives, wrote. I have featured these in other smaller videos and, but but I realized I hadn't done a full supplemental on this issue, and it is an issue indeed. Be sure to join us on Sunday for Jack Billings of Shed Knives. That's, episode five seventy seven. And Jack Billings started Shed Knives as a young man, and now he's a still a young man, but he has made some big changes. He has really perfected his process and, has grown from the shed knives he was two or three years ago. So be sure to join us for that, and, it's a great conversation. He's a great dude.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:18]:
Also, if you wanna help support the show, you can become a patron by scanning the QR code on your screen or going to theknifejunkie.com/patreon. 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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