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, the April gentleman junkie giveaway knife, something new from Bob Terzuola and Fox Knives, and then my CIVIVI collection so far. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie pod.

Announcer [00:00:15]:
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 [00:00:28]:
Welcome back to the show. We had a lot of great comments on the last, episode with Rolando Espitata. First one from Salas Castellani, who I gave a real hard time last week for his comment. But, so I just wanted to put this one up because I really liked it. He said, mister DeMarco, please bring more knife fighters onto your podcast. I'm loving it so much. Mister Castellani, I really appreciate you, sir, and, I too those are some of my favorite interviews, people who really know what they're talking about when it comes to knives and knife fighting. And we've had more knife defensive training, we we should say.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:04]:
I've had a bunch of people on, so, check those out, but still more to come. Another, great comment from fishbag sixty one. He says, JackpotBob, for some time now, I've been tracking the channels of both you guys and sacrificing imaginary chickens on the altar of collaboration, in the hopes, in order to someday see both of you do a show together. I can die a happy fan. Bravo. Great episode of Fishbag. Don't die. But if you do and you're happy, I'm grateful for that.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:37]:
But please, please stick around, because there's a lot of great, stuff to come. But thank you so much. That really put wind in my sails as did, jorge Fernandez sixty four zero seven's comment. And he said, there should be an applause tab on YouTube. Bob, you put on some classic shows, and this one is no exception. I follow Rolando's channel too, but this collaboration of the two of you on this video is priceless. Excellent. Excellent show.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:05]:
Well, thank you so much. It's, you know, more than my pleasure, to do the show in general. I really kind of feel a kinship with everyone I talk to on this show, but Rolando, he's a great guy, and, he and I have a lot in common, and I don't know. I could talk to him for hours and hours. So I'm glad, you all feel that way. Alright. Thanks one and all for for watching and commenting over this past week. Keep watching, keep commenting, and we'll be here.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:36]:
Alright. Coming up, time for pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:40]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:47]:
Today, I had an and for a couple of days, I've had this beautiful and luxurious Herman knives ishtar in my pocket. It all started with my mother in law's birthday, and it was a big throw down, a big sort of let Latino barbecue at my brother in law's place. It was great. We had a lot of fun, and I figured I should bring a special knife. I knew I was gonna be pulling out and cutting a lot of meat with it. You know, so many people, you tend to get the plastic silverware, which is great, which is fine. I travel with my own silverware anyway, but I wanted the knife to be special. And, so I had the Ishtar.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:25]:
It's so beautiful. No one noticed. No one commented, but that's okay. I noticed. And it zipped right through, the meat like you wouldn't believe. Rotisserie chicken and those kind of, spare ribs. That was so good. He did them in a Korean way, though, which was interesting.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:42]:
This, knife did a great job. This is m three ninety blade steel from Poland. This knife comes from Poland with that beautiful gravel road texture on the high voltage green anodized handle. And that beautiful upswept, scimitar style blade, Persian style blade, it's called the Ishtar, for that purpose. So I've been carrying that for a few days and really appreciating it. It's an expensive knife, though the company sent it to me and, I really appreciate it and I figured why not just carry it? I've been babying it a bit, but it's a fantastic knife so it was great to have on. Next on me today, I had the Victorinox Compact. This is a great little two layer Victorinox.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:28]:
It's not little, it's the regular size, the ninety one ninety one millimeter, but it has extra tools like a pen. That's a pen there. And then it's got this eyeglass small, screwdriver right here that fits right in the corkscrew and then there's a pin in there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll pull it out. There's a pin right in there. I haven't had to use that pin yet but it's there and it's got a lot of great tools crammed into this tiny little well, but in this relatively small space, lots of tools, lots of utility, plus it's got my favorite Victorinox tool of all. Yes, that's right, the scissors. I love the Victorinox scissors.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:14]:
I carry this one quite a bit. I've got one of these dangler things on it. I've got three of those and I kinda rotate them but, this always stays on that Victorinox. That's my most carried Victorinox. I've been carrying it a lot lately. My fixed blade today was this super cool and beautiful, Desperado from Cold Steel. A discontinued knife that my buddy Strings, a regular on Thursday night knives. We've now done two trades.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:42]:
You'll see the result of our second trade a little bit later. But this is something, that I traded for him with, and I love it. And it carries very well. I was concerned with this grippy rubberized Kraton handle that it might, you know, catch the clothes and print a lot. It does not at all. I mean, as long as you have some sort of loose garment over it. It's a moot point because unless you're really looking for one of these, they're discontinued, so they're hard to come by. Anyway, I've wanted one of these for about twenty five or thirty years.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:15]:
I don't know. However long it is. Seems like a hundred, but I finally got one, due to due to, strings. Thank you so much, Sean. I appreciate it greatly. And I really like carrying it. By the way, this is one of the best SecurX sheets ever. It kinda, like, comes out as easy as it needs to.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:34]:
It retains well. It's got this little fat flap here. It's that little, flap of, what do you call this? SecurX, Tidex, whatever, plastic, that guards your little extra bundle that might stick over the edge of the sheath from when you're drawing it. So a little guard there for the for the for the ample gentleman, we'll say. And then last up for emotional support, been carrying this one a lot. Not carrying, but leaving the house with this one a lot. This is the APOC Smatch It designed by Mike Wallace. Just an absolutely and not the one from sixty minutes.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:13]:
No. The one that worked with Andrew Demko and Cold Steel. This thing is awesome. Oh my gosh. D two blade steel. You've got a 10 inch blade or nine and a half inch blade, double edge. It is substantial. Feels great in hand with this contoured, g 10, micro milled, and, with nice little finger wells there.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:35]:
It just fits the hand great. It is reminiscent a little bit of a Gladius, as some people have have commented. So, had that in my bag. Of course, I don't carry that around. I would if, you know, there weren't so many, pearl clutters around me, I would be carrying this thing all the time. It is so cool. I look forward to checking out more knives from APOC. I think it's a really cool brand.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:00]:
It's a Cas Iberia brand and I know the Demkos and Mike Wallace are involved in it. So, I'm very excited to do more exploration of this brand in their knives. So this is what I had on me today, my emotional support knife, my ESK today was the Smatch It, a dedicated weapon, by the way. This was invented as a weapon. All other purposes are secondary. People say, oh, it's a hatchet and a shovel put together. It's a big, nasty fighting knife for real. I'm sure it was put to a lot of other uses in the field, because who's always running into a melee? Not too many of us, even those in combat, tend to rely on their firearms.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:42]:
Also a Desperado I had in my hand, in my belt I should say. I had the Victorinox Compact and the Ishtar from, Hermann Knives. Now before I move on to the second little item, I I wanna back up to the comments for a second and just say we got some interesting comments too from r j bailey three two zero eight who's talking about guns. And ordinarily, I dismiss the discussion of guns when we're talking about knives. Yes. I have guns. Yes. I carry guns.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:15]:
We lots of us have guns and carry guns. But oftentimes, I forget to mention that these discussions of, self defense knives, are happening within the context of guns. We did cover that on the first, part one interview with Rolando Escotada. We talked about guns and the relevance of knives. So, Jared Bailey, I do appreciate your comments, and I wanted you to know that, I wanted to address them a little bit. But, so I just figured I'd mention it there, but very interesting. They're very long comments, so go check them out on Rolando Escotado, part two interview. So, there you go.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:56]:
Okay. So now coming up in April, this month, the April, gentleman junkie knife giveaway is two things from OffGrid, very cool two things. The first being the knife. This is the OffGrid knives SideKick. SideKick, it's a small EDC version of the backcountry, one of my favorite, if not my favorite, at least blade shape from Off Grid Knives. Now I must admit, I use several of other of their knives more than I do the Backcountry because I find the Backcountry to be quite tactical and, you know, I don't tend to use those knives as more as much, even though I like them more. This is a perfect combination of tactical and everyday carry useful, with the three and a half inch 14 c 28 and blade, that beautiful recurve, humpback drop point with jimping on the thumb ramp and on the forward thumb, swale there on the back of the blade, and a beautifully redesigned handle. And I I should say redesigned from the Backcountry.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:07]:
This is not the Backcountry, so to say it's redesigned is kind of strange. But, it has a different handle, than the Backcountry even though it has the same blade. And this handle is dreamy. It's an ergonomic dream, fits the hand perfectly. You've got, really nice jigging here on the side of that g 10. Huge chamfers, sorry, little brainlock there. Huge chamfers there, really make this feel great in hand, rounded, however, still squared off that it's not gonna turn in hand. Great in reverse grip as well, all that jumping is fantastic.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:44]:
That recurve is very useful as where as well as, deadly if you need it to be, heaven forbid. And then it comes with a great Pydex sheath, a fold over taco sheath with a little, area down below to vent off humidity and and water or any other sort of liquid. And then here you have this great, clip here. This sort of emulates that tops clip that can turn in any angle, any direction and you can wear this thing, however you want on the belt. I have the coyote version that I'm keep keeping for myself and I have, I've I'm changing up the clips a bit because I like to carry in the waistband, but this is a a very nice everyday carry fixed blade knife. So we will be giving this away to one lucky gentleman junkie as well as the Bolt Pen from OffGridKnives. The Bolt Pen, XL, it's nice large aluminum pen. It's got a, Parker Jotter style cartridge on one end with the, the whole barrel coming in and out.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:52]:
And then on the other end, it's got a glass breaker. So very useful, very technical and a great writer. I write my show notes, with this pen. It's a fantastic package. So one lucky knife, one lucky gentleman junkie will win this in April. Now, what's a gentleman junkie, you say? Well, that's our high tier of support on Patreon. Go check it out. You can go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon or you can, scan the QR code that Jim will put up on the screen.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:24]:
You you see it up here, quite a bit. Right there. You see it right there. Scan that. Go see what you what we have to offer and I'll break that down in a minute. But, that's what you stand to to win and I hope each and every one of you win it. Of course, you can't so I hope well, I know one of you is gonna win it and I'm I'm glad because I love you. Not just the patrons, I love you all.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:46]:
Thank you for joining us. Thank you for watching. Thank you for coming. All of that said, let's get the knife life move.

Announcer [00:13:52]:
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Bob DeMarco [00:14:13]:
you keep more of your profits.

Announcer [00:14:15]:
Start your online knife store today at theknifejunkie.com/launch and turn your passion into a business.

Announcer [00:14:22]:
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:28]:
Well, after Shot Show and Blade Show Texas, we finally have a somewhat slow knife week. So just a couple of, new knives here, but this first one's pretty cool, right up my alley. This one is from Boker Plus. It's called the Kaggat. At least that's how I'm pronouncing it, k a g a t. This comes from Filipino martial artist Frank Dello Junior. And what is this thing? This is a compact tactical fixed blade. And if you're looking on screen, it is a 3.43 inch double edged clip point.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:02]:
That's right. Double edged clip point. You know I'm a big fan of everything I just said right there. So, this sucker is a little guy. It's ten ninety five blade steel, but it's got a pretty chunky, point one eight inch stock. So it's a thickish blade, two wickedly sharp edges, and then a big jimped thumb swell, which I dare say in reverse grip would would act nicely as a trapping, a trapping feature in, in a Filipino knife fight, let's say. I'm pretty sure that's, that's a great place to put your thumb, but it's also a great place to capture, the incoming arm of someone that you're fighting. And I think that, most Filipino martial artists think that way.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:46]:
Did I mention ten ninety five blade steel? I think I did, but you can see it's well coated, so it's not gonna rust. Though, be careful. You gotta keep those edges oiled and stropped. A g 10 handle, scales on that handle there, full true tang there, and, nicely knurled or diamond, what do you call it, pyramid texture there. Kydex sheep, 5.8 ounces. It's available now and check this out. MSRP is $77. So you know it's gonna be, lower than that at your favorite knife purveyor.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:21]:
So definitely go check out this Boker Plus Kaggot designed by Filipino martial artist, Frank Dello Jr. I know I think I would like you. Alright, next up, this is one with a funny name. I, and I don't mean to have my twelfth, my my my 12 year old humor popping on. This is the Bestech VK Koos. That's right. The VK Koos from Bestech. This comes from, German knife designer, Vulpeks knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:51]:
We've seen some Vulpex Knives here. We've talked about it. I think that's where the VK comes from. Vulpex Knives in the Who's name. So this is a minimalist Japanese inspired, folder. Beautiful, three inch MagnaCut blade. It's a traditional tanto style blade so it doesn't have that secondary point like the Americanized tanto does but a beautiful upswept edge. Got a pretty much flat spine.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:19]:
So if you're not a huge fan of the sort of, Persian style knife, this will give you that curve without giving you the, the the curved spine. So, quite a nice looking knife here. This blade, this MagnaCut blade is on ceramic bearings and it opens with a thumb stud, single sided thumb stud, which on the offside, presents a beautiful, grassy color. This is a titanium frame lock and, the overall length of this is 7.33 inches. It comes in three different colorways, a black stonewash, a bead blast, and then check this out, a dark bead blast stonewash. So you kinda get all of the best things right there. All all of the best the best of all worlds. It's a three ounce knife which is pretty light.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:10]:
They they say the ideal is an ounce per blade inch, and that's what you're getting here. $230 across the board, whether you buy it at Bestech or one of your favorite purveyors. It started off at $2.70 and they're they're doing a special or something right now. So, this is available now for $2.30 wherever you wanna buy this beautiful Bestech VK Coupe. Alright. Lastly, I wanna talk about this. This is a cool little, piece. Some, in Poland.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:43]:
We now stories like this oftentimes come from Poland, which is kinda cool. But two metal, detectorists, that's what you call someone who uses a metal detector. I didn't know that until this article. Two metal detectorists discovered a 2,800, that's 2,800, year old dagger on the beach. Now they were, scouring a beach right after a very heavy storm in, Poland, knocked off, a whole bunch of cliff face. Cliff face fell and they were, you know, metal detecting in the, stuff that was slucked off the side and they found this beautiful old dagger. And when I say old, I guess I mean ancient. Decorated here, as you can see, with crescent and star, motifs.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:34]:
So they they think that this thing is probably ceremonial. Nine and a half inch overall, this is copper and this is a copper and tin alloy from the Hallstatt period of the Iron 80. Now I say that like I'm very familiar with the Hallstatt period. I am not, but I think it's so cool that there are people who are, meaning the museum who came and checked this out, where this will finally reside in Poland. They know what they're talking about, and they can look at a knife like this, a beautiful ceremonial dagger, which was probably owned by a rich warrior, perhaps, part of a solar cult where where, we hear from visual motif, that they could take a look at this thing and kind of know the period it comes from from shape and the materials and, know how to how to, classify it. Now this is all, of course, perhaps, but very, very educated guesses from people way more educated than myself in the matter. Unlike other finds in Poland, they're not sure if this was made in Poland or elsewhere in Europe and shipped in. So, very, very cool find.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:46]:
Now I usually find these stories on knife magazine. A lot of the, stories here most of the stories here where I'm talking about new knives come from knife news, but a lot of these interesting stories, I'm find, interesting historical, stories, I I find linked at knife magazine. Go check that out. Clay Alders, a buddy of mine over there, he actually ended up he went to my high school, which is very cool and very, you know, surprising, but, he was a little bit younger than I was so I didn't know him in high school. But, anyway, go check out Knife Magazine. He links to a lot of really cool ones. This one, for instance, was in Popular Mechanics. A magazine I don't normally peruse, but I wouldn't have seen this without Knife Magazine.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:32]:
Alright. Coming up, we're gonna get to the state of the collection, but before we do, I want to, tell you a little bit about the Patreon membership. Yes. We have three tiers of support. $3 a month gets you the, traditional junky moniker, and you get, stickers and a, and a coaster, and you get, interview extras. Then then we have the the $5, that's the, tactical junkie tier. And then we have the gentleman junkie tier, which enters you every month into a knife giveaway, a special knife giveaway. We do some random knife giveaways, on Thursday night knives, but we save the real special giveaways for the gentleman junkies.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:15]:
So go over to the knifejunkie.com/ patreon and check it out, or scan the QR code on your screen. We have a new, member I just saw right before we logged on here. So sorry, Jim. I didn't give you a chance to make a graphic, but Jeff Wright, who has been a, a member before and he's a member again. So thank you very much, Jeff. Greatly appreciated. Become a patreon, patron and check it out. Also, coming up here soon, we're gonna do YouTube memberships and it will be the same cost to be a YouTube member or a gentleman junkie and you'll get, the same stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:48]:
And really, like, what I think the most value, added part is you get to see extras from these great interviews I do with all your favorite knife makers. So do go check that out, theknifejunkie.com/patreon. Again, theknifejunkie.com/patreon. 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.

Announcer [00:23:25]:
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:30]:
Would you feast your eyes on this beauty? This is brand new and it's not mine. I have to return this in pristine shape so I gotta be very careful with this. But these are the new knives coming out from Bob Terzuola and Fox Knives. Fox Knives out of Italy makes some of the best premium knives out of Europe and, they do a lot of work with Bob Trusull in a lot of our favorites here. But Bob t, I was just on his wife's podcast, The Knife Wife. Go check that out. We had a great conversation. His wife, Sue, is awesome.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:05]:
She's a really great person and, a really great interview interviewer. And she's also starting, a new life as a stand up comedian. And she told some pretty funny jokes she didn't even mean to tell during our interview, so definitely go check that out. But this is the new knife, from Bob Terzuola and Fox Knives. Look at that beautiful dagger grind. Dagger grind with a bayonet finish meaning there's a little bit of, extra, flat there for your thumb, but a very thin swedge up top, a spear point, so, even on the top and the bottom. You've got a fuller running down the center and this is the Thor pattern Damasteel. Just beautiful to look at.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:50]:
And then this is a special carbon fiber here. I had it I had it where did I put it? A special kind of carbon fiber in the handle. We have marble carbon fiber on the other one, which I'll show you in a second, but just a stunning, stunning knife. That's a 3.75 inch blade, and then you can see that you can see the damasteel pattern from the top, when you look at the, thumb rest there. Gorgeous. Nice, long sculpted pocket clip. Just beautiful, incredible action. I wish this were mine, but I love the, flipper tab.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:28]:
Everything about this knife is slick and cool and a % terzuola. Here's the other version of this. This is in MagnaCut. This beauty is in MagnaCut. Now I'm not sure what the HRC is on this MagnaCut, but I know that Fox Knives does a great job with their heat treats, so I'm sure they did it well. I gotta say, I love the look of marbled carbon fiber. This feels so good in hand and just looks beautiful. You've got a lighter, clip on this side and that, gorgeous satin finish on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:03]:
Really nice action on that, liner lock. So, exquisite. We recently had, Benedict Odey, Ben Odey of, who who's a an artist and a graphic artist, in his own right, but he is also the merchant czar for, Triswold and Ives and they recently came out with this beautiful five millimeter thick marine grade, brass coin, just incredibly intricately, there you go. Look at that. You probably don't wanna see that close-up of my fingers. Oh, look at how beautiful this coin is. Oh, my lens. And check out the dragon.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:42]:
Everything is so detailed on this beautiful coin. And then he's got his logo around the outside, which in, English means I might be third, but I'm second to none. Because Terzuola means, is a version of third in Italian. So, go check out Terzuola, Terzuola Design for the cool merch that they're doing, including that coin. And then very shortly, this, new knife from Fox Knives will be coming out. This style of sort of end cut carbon fiber looks like charcoal to me in a beautiful in the best sort of way. Not the kind of charcoal briquettes that you're gonna, cook your burger over, but like, charcoal that you would draw your masterpiece with. Just kinda has that vibe.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:29]:
And I love the ergonomics of this very, neutral handle. It's beautiful. Alright. So these are the Pacifico knives from Terzuille and Fox. And if you keep seeing this little circle here under the clip, that's just to, since this is brand new, that's just to stop the clip, from menacing the, the carbon fiber until you buy it and take it out yourself. It's sort of like one of those covers you see on on screens, you know, of your phone or something like that. Alright. So that's the Terzu wool, Fox Knives Pacifico.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:11]:
Very gingerly and carefully take these off screen so they are not anyway. Okay. Next up, this is one that I got in a trade with Strings. My buddy Sean, he's he goes by Strings on, when he's on Thursday night knives. That's his that's his handle on YouTube, and we traded, and this is what I made off with. He knows, I guess, he's smart. A lot of you guys are smart. You know what my soft spot soft spots are and you make these trade offers and it's hard to resist.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:43]:
This is the, Boker Arbolito made in Argentina, Bowie and it's a beautiful slightly recurved Bowie, made of, N six ninety five steel, N six ninety five blade steel and, what do you call this? Canvas micarta, beautifully sculpted. It's a truthful tang, it's a slightly tapered tang, and it's also crowned, so very comfortable in the hand. Beautiful guard, an absolutely gorgeous leather sheath. This is, of course, used so it's all already sort of patinaed and broken in. Very nice. This unsnaps and you can put a dangler loop there. There's a a little loop for a tie down on your leg. But I like it just like this, right on the belt, riding high like this, or even slipped under the belt.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:36]:
But it has this very nice, retaining fob here. And, so I'm a big fan of Peterbilt knife guy on YouTube, and he had one of these. I'm not sure if he still does, but about a year ago, he was testing these and he he took some exception to the steel. I guess it's a little soft. So if you're batoning this through wood, you might need to touch it up sooner than you'd want to, but this to me is a purebred sort of fighting style Bowie, just seeing as it's thin and long and has that, has that great feel. And let's face it, I mean, all of my personal, Bowie actual use is done with a couple of knives. Chief among them, the the Cold Steel Trail Master, which this is somewhat reminiscent of, at least in blade. And I don't really pound anything else.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:32]:
Maybe every once in a while, I'll use a different knife like the Huzon Predator Hunter Bowie or one of or or the other, the b 44 x, to do batoning and stuff like that. But really, and I appreciate the the, the research that Peterbilt knife guy does, but for me, the softness of the n six ninety five steel is not an issue. It's it's harder than the targets I'll be dueling against when I have this knife. So, of course that's a joke, for the sensors and such. But just a beautiful, beautiful shape. Look at that then. Oh my gosh. I'm really pleased to have this.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:09]:
I also saw a little while back, they used to have this with a stag handle which would also be gorgeous. But but this this, canvas micarta with all that fluting feels really good in hand and, gives me positive feedback especially against my thumb with the janky nerves. So, really, really pleased with this, with this trade. And then, wouldn't you know, he threw in there two different things. One of them is a hoodie, a beautiful, like, really nice big hoodie from his band, Small Town Famer. It's so cool. And also, he threw him this knife. And I remember, I think, seeing a little bit about these on Nieves Knives channel, but this is the Nook Knives, Companter.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:01]:
Companter, I'm gonna say. Really nice little d two hollow ground, drop point with a swedge. It's got a great thumb stud action. It also has really nice front flipper action. Comes in a cool little pouch, and, I didn't ask for it. He just threw it in there, as part of the trade, which I really appreciate. Again, he got a, Maxace, Sandstorm k for me. So I would say, though, that is a very cool knife and I love it.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:31]:
And, if I start thinking about it, I'm sure I'll miss it. But he I made out in this deal, so thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Strings. Alright. I wanna get to our main topic of conversation. I have this preponderance of a certain knife brand and no, it's not Cold Steel, you know I have a lot of those. And, no, it's not Emerson, I've got quite a bit of those too, but this one is CIVIVI and this is one of my favorite affordable, probably my favorite, high value company because they take a lot of design chances, they do, a lot of interesting and unique designs, but they have all of the manufacturing, backing them up that WE has and we all know that WE Knives is a very, very special and beautifully manufactured knife. So I really love my Civivis. I've got 15 of them here and not so much time.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:29]:
So I'm gonna cruise through them and just kinda tell you a little bit about them. And But I do I do need to pull up my notes to remember the steal because I'll tell you why and I'll use this as an example. One thing I love about CIVIVI's is the lack of branding. They either have the maker's mark, they have the c on the on the pivot on the on the show side and then if it's a collaboration and I'll only have a few of these collaboration knives, They'll put the maker's mark on the back. But look at how small the steel is though. You can see it. Nitro v. So I had to write them all down and look at them with a magnifying glass like an old part because, they they they are so, like, hype on making these as clean as possible.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:17]:
They're not billboarding these, so you really have to pay attention to find out what the blade steel is. Alright. So this first one is a Michael Gavic or Gavco knives collaboration. This is, one of the newest ones, out there and certainly my newest, CIVIVI. This is called the sixgill, named after the sixgill shark, a rare and exotic eel like shark if I remember, correctly. Really beautiful big bellied reverse tanto blade with a with a bit of a choil. If you've got big meat hooks, I I'm not so sure I'd put my finger in there, because it it does terminate with the sharp edge there. But really, really nice shape, a very sharp knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:01]:
Carried this a few times around the house. It cuts like you wouldn't believe. It's like a laser beam. So, this one is is the most beautiful version of it if you ask me. Of course, like most Civivis, it does come in a Damasteel version. And this one is with, like I said, the Nitro V coated black with that beautiful British racing green, or forest green canvas micarta. What's the difference between that and olive drab or OD green? Well, it has more blue in it. It's a more civilized, dark green, if you will.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:38]:
It's like what you put on your jaguar, you know, instead of, the olive drab. So it's it's less military, a little more pie. Really nice ergonomics on this one, deep carry pocket clip and excellent lock bar, cross bar action there. Alright. Next up is, the one that first caught my eye. It was one of the first three CIVIVIS ever to come out. And, back in the day when it first came out, it had gold liners, ACK, EGADs, no thanks. But, thankfully, they've they've done this in so many different colorways and this is my favorite, I have to say.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:17]:
This beautiful gyramutawood, I can never pronounce it, but this beautiful wood, and a, gorgeous black blade, a very thin, so this is a nine c r 18 m o v blade. And though not hollow ground, neither was the last one. When they do a flat grind, I'd say they do a flat grind half the time, and a hollow grind the other half. But their flat grinds are so thin and so sharp, you wouldn't know the difference, honestly. So this, is a beautiful leaf shaped blade. Always reminded me a little bit of the Barong, one of my favorite blades from The Philippines. And you've got a nice choil for choking up on the blade for that, quote unquote, fine work we're all doing. And then you've got, jimping for the thumb there.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:09]:
Just a beautiful knife. And, of course, all of these have superlative action, just outstandingly, top notch action. And, you know, these are all coming in under a hundred bucks, most of them. Some CIVIVIs are slightly north of a hundred, mostly when it comes to fixed blades. But, just outstanding knife and I love this one so much in the in the wood. It's just beautiful. So that's the Praxis. So VV Praxis in nine CR 18 MOE.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:43]:
Alright. This third one is another, collaboration, with a favorite designer out there. This is the Dylan Mallory designed, Pedros. A really gorgeous I mean, I don't have to tell you. Look at it. It's a beautiful wharncliffe blade, deeply hollow ground. This thing is incredibly thin and slicey, and it's got great thumb stud action on bearings and a super ergonomic handle. Now this has, more of a split pea soup green colored micarta.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:17]:
Still like the way it looks. I like all Puce, I think is actually the the name. In the seventies, there were all these crazy colors, like mauve and Puce. I think that's what this is, Puce. But anyway, I always say that this would make a great tactical knife. All you gotta do is kinda reverse it in the grip and have it in a, Pakal style grip and you are % good to go. Now this one, now I'm not sure if it's mislabeled or if this is just the steel that that came and went, but this is 10 c r 18 MOB, 10 c r 18 MOB. Now, I wouldn't know the difference, frankly.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:57]:
I wouldn't know the difference between any of them, really. I'm not a huge hardcore sharpener. I'm also not an over and over and over and over again user to the point where I know, like, oh, this dulled out quicker. So, you know, with the CIVIVIS anyway. So is 10 CR better than nine CR, one better perhaps? Or is it a miss mislabel? I'm just not sure. I do know it's a great knife and it's a great back left pocket knife. Deep carry pocket clip. This is I I'm in love with this knife and I really like Dylan Mallory's designs.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:34]:
And one of these days, one of these days, I will convince him to come on the show so I can interview him. He's a he's a really cool, guy and, I always look forward to saying hi to him at blade show. So this is the Civivi Hadros. You can still find these. Alright, next up, this one is a was a gift from my brother-in-law, I'd say Christmas twenty twenty, I'm gonna say. And it's got a funny name. This is the full sized CIVIVI Asticus. Have you found an Asticus yet? No, but I'm I'm getting there.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:12]:
Deeply hollow ground, a drop point with a long swedge, straight back drop point. So I guess it's not a top point at all. Let's not let's not call it that. Let's just call it a straight back swedged blade. Really, really nice. Very, again, thin and hollow ground. This one is d two blade steel and D2, since I was talking about Peterbilt knife guy before, through his nail tests, we have learned that well treated D2 is some of the best steel out there, at least when you're pounding it through a nail. It's the least deformative.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:46]:
Now this is so thin behind the edge, I'm not so sure how it would hold up if you were pound it through a nail, but, I do know that it slices through the anything that you wanna cut in good conscience very, very well. This one, is Oh, I mentioned that. So that's a G10 handle scale. This also came in a wood and several other colors of G2 and then recently, recently meaning the last couple of years, they have a mini version of this. So it is a really, really excellent, knife and design and something you don't see much of from Civivi, you've got the liners standing proud and the, the g 10 handle scales are sort of onlays, if you will. But in in any case, it's very comfortable. Now, now that I'm saying this, I haven't carried this without gloves in super cold weather. So I wonder how much I'm sure, you know, that metal, of the steel frame is going to conduct, but, you know, that's not some that's not a deal breaker, let's say.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:56]:
Super thin, super slicey is this beautiful Asticus, by Sid Levy. Great action, they all have great action. This next one was also a gift but this from my friend Dave of OG Blade Reviews. This is the Keen Natter. Another weird name. These are all weird names. But generally, if you look them up, you'll see they all mean something. I'm not sure what Keen Natter is.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:23]:
But it is keen because it's quite quite sharp. So this is a nice compound ground recurve tanto. The forward portion is flat and then the, main cutting section is like vanishingly thin and hollow ground there. Got a beautiful fuller and thumb studs and a flipper, so a triway opener. You can flick it open with the thumb studs. You can slow roll open it with the thumb studs. You can hit it on the flipper or you can engage that fuller and middle middle finger flick it. This one in a beautiful colorway that blasted, blasted blade steel which is, n six ninety c o and then you've got a really nice neutral ish but arced, and slender handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:11]:
In this case, with that beautiful tan canvas micarta. I've used used this one a lot over the years I've had it and, it seems I didn't clean this long but, this is a great pencil sharpener. I've used it a lot for sharpening pencils, and you can see that the slightly arced, main cutting edge here, it is great when sharpening pencils because a, it's super thin behind the edge and then b, that curved recurved surface traps the the pencil as you draw forward and you get, maximum damage there. A very, very nice, and acute point. This thing is very cool. It's a great knife and also outstanding action. Next up, this one, a couple of my, friends in the neighborhood, all gravitated towards this knife and, everyone seems to think this is the best CIVIVI out there. This is the Vision FG.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:19]:
This is designed by Nex. And this is Maker's Mark, designed by us Nex. He is a Malaysian, I believe, Malaysian knife maker who used to tirelessly catalog his process of making his custom knives, which were exquisite, feats of engineering and beautiful, beautifully designed. For instance, he made a knife, I think he only made 16 of them and I I think, Jim Skelton had one for a little while, but, these folders that were very intricate with this kind of lock but had no hardware. Everything just sort of puzzled together. So, another case of Civivi working with a great designer and, we're seeing this more and more. Michael Davic, Bill and Mallory, here we have Sneks, we have a couple more down the Downstream, but, really they're working with some great, great designers as well as having an outstanding in house design team. This lock is the Vision Lock, I think that's what that's called.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:28]:
Yeah. Has a really great interface here that you just pull back and it kinda goes back and up and, and it just closes the blade. Of course, fidget all day long with this thing. And, a really, really great grip surface here. I've seen this duplicated elsewhere, with a less steep, grasping angle there and it just doesn't work as well. But, yeah. The Vision f g, it comes in, this one here is in Nitro V but it also comes famously with white g 10 and our beautiful damasteel blade. I think I prefer the the black but, man, what a great knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:15]:
The Vision FG, I know a lot of people think it is the bee's knees and the the one, the best of EV. Now, if you were to ask me what's the best of EV, I I I would lean more towards these next two and they're they're they're two of the same model, just, different iterations. Here is the Sentinel strike one with that beautiful, modified wharncliffe blade and then the Sentinel Strike two with a sort of Spanto style blade. So a very long fronted tanto here, with a very subtle point there and then, you've got a straight there. So a flat ground front portion, a very thinly ground hollow portion, a nice swedge, and just a handsome blade, man. I love I'm a I'm a big fan of the Sentinel Strike two. I think this is, one of the coolest knives ever, let alone, from Civivi. Something that these knives have in common, the handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:19]:
And you can see that it's an integrated back strap here, integral back strap. One solid piece holding the knives together back here. It's of FRN textured, with that sort of frag pattern there. But, a very unique design, feature there. This one has excellent button lock action, excellent, excellent. This one and the next one that I talk about have button locks and I've spine whacked them, ad infinitum and haven't had failure on these. I've I've actually only personally had failure on a Travisa button lock. But not not a brand I care too much for anyway so it wasn't like a heartbreaker.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:03]:
But, yeah. These two are gorgeous. This one, the the very first one, the Sentinel one, this is k one ten steel and k one ten is, the bowler version or, basically, it's analogous to d two blade steel, Just a European d two and then the Sentinel Strike two is Nitro V, a favorite from Sidibe Naz. Look at that thing. Just beautiful. Alright. Next up is also a button lock and super cool, with marbled g 10. Similar to that marbled carbon fiber that we saw on the Fox knives Pacifico a moment ago, this is shredded and marbled, shredded g 10.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:50]:
You can see how it's shredded and compressed and has that marble, surface. This is called the neurohaptic, and man, what a complex looking knife this is. I mean, even the blade, it's a saber ground, clip point blade with a long fuller and a long swedge and a forward, thumb notch area. It's not a notch, but that former thumb area. I love that. I love it when companies put jimping up here, especially if it's backward angled because you get this sort of tension, this dynamic tension between the forefinger and the thumb which really secures, the knife in hand. A beautiful, beautiful knife with, outstanding action. Again, really, really nice, flipper button action.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:42]:
All of these have, by the way, ambidextrous, pocket clips and this is my favorite of the CIVIVI SEN CUT pocket clips that very plain deep carry clip. Also, Nitro V blade steel on this one and just a really cool futuristic look. A somewhat neutral handle though it does have a, finger choil and a slight arc there for the, for the fingers to lock into. Beautiful knife. This is a somewhat recent one, if you're listening to this in 2025. This came out late twenty twenty four. And you know. Next up is the Brazen.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:23]:
So the Brazen comes in a drop point in a tanto. This obviously is the Americanized tanto here, really nice blade. This one is, 14 c 28 n. They do 14 c very, very well. And, this is let's see. When this came out, I think this was their very first button lock. Button lock flipper, was the Brazen. They came out with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:48]:
I got one in the drop point, I believe. It was maroon and black, and then I got rid of it, and then I got this one. So a really, really nice knife. Like I said, this rode in my backpack for quite a while. It actually displaced a cold steel, for a while. I ended up putting the cold steel back in, because, you know, you might have to jam it into a wall and climb up on it And I I don't know if the button lock would do that. But this button lock is very stout and sturdy, another one I've given the spine whack test a number of times and just really comfortable in hand. Though it's not hollow ground, it is wickedly sharp like all the rest here And I think it's got a very handsome, swedged tanto blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:33]:
I love the look of a swedge on the on the tanto. And it's not all about looks people. That's gonna pierce really really well. And does. I I know it from plastic bottles. This will go right through a plastic bottle like it's not even there. And I'm talking about that hard plastic near the opening where you take a drink like this. Again, super clean, very, very tiny designation for the steels and then you've got the logo right there on the pivot.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:04]:
Next up from Ferrum Forge, this is from the brothers over there at Ferrum Forge, so there is their, there is the maker's mark there. This one was a gift from my buddy Jaime, and, it was too small for him. And I was like, oh, take it. This is the Odium. I really like the Farum Forge aesthetic. This is the only knife I have from them, but this little guy fits in the hands so perfectly. You've got, really nice textured canvas micarta. Sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:39]:
I don't know why that's taking so long to come out. And then liners that stand just proud of the micarta. So it almost looks like, liners that you would see on a fixed blade knife. Nice gear pattern in the micarta backspacer here and just a great little knife. The Odium is also d two, which is a great steel for a small knife. We see that a lot in Rose Craft Blades. They're small slip joints in d two. Two.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:06]:
They keep they take a lickin' and keep on tickin', as the old Timex, tagline was. And I think d two is great for small blades. We do use our small blades more, and so why not have something that's extra tough and, has great heads of attention. So the Odium, great little gentleman's knife, great little, do everything knife. This is one that I imagine I will gift, to my younger daughter at some point, while her hands are still small. And when I say gifted to her, I know it's still gonna be in the family, so that's that's my caveat. If I need it, I can always go grab it out of her room. Okay, next up is the, Synesis.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:53]:
I was looking for a clip point, something I remember when I got this. I was looking for a clip point, something inexpensive, and, something robust with a longish blade. This has a 3.7 inch blade of, 14 c 28 n, a really excellent blade steel. This one is blasted, also very thin, flat ground, tall flat grind. That beautiful, clip point reminds me a little bit of the the Waksuhashi from, Sencut or the, what's the other one? Well, I can't remember the name of it. Lot of lot of names in the Civivi Sencut universe, but I I really appreciate how they do a clip point here and, this this one is a steel frame lock and it's so thin that it doesn't feel heavy. It feels like a titanium frame lock, frankly. You've got a really nice, burlap micarta handle scale on the one side with, a minimal liner up in there.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:56]:
It's hard to see when you turn on the side, but there is a liner in there. And no weight reduction. It kinda doesn't need it. It just works perfectly well and is pretty darn light, especially for its size. Wickedly sharp. This is a great one. I gotta say, a lot of these knives, this one, included, are, knives I carry more in the summer than in the winter, and that's because they're so light, that they go really well in shorts or a bathing suit. You know, I go to the pool a lot in the summertime, and always have to have knives because we're always eating and drinking and barbecuing and and basically hedonizing.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:33]:
So I need a knife on me at all at all points and, these Sabeevys work great. This is a really cool one. If you want a frame lock, don't wanna spend a lot of money, and it's rather large with a, with a pretty light feel, I got the CyneSys. Next up, this one is out of production but you can find it in a number of places. I love this one. This is the Picaro. That's a, that's a just about a four inch blade. Beautiful drop point, slightly humpback drop point, with a very thin hollow grind and that really cool big, opening hole with the floating thumb stud.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:10]:
Super cool, d two blade here and just full g 10. Really nice. I need to carry this one more often. This is one of those knives that every time I pick it up, I'm like, why why do I not carry this, like, all the time? This is also one that I got from, Dave of OG Blade Reviews. However, this one wasn't, overtly or specifically a gift. This came in a box he sent me and I had to adopt it because ever since I saw Jared Neave, waxing poetic and raving crazily about this knife, I wanted one. So I finally got it and, I absolutely love it. So, this summer I'm gonna be carrying this one a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:50]:
Next up, this is, I think, going to be my official blade show knife, now that my Kube Flash is in the hands of a avid Flash collector, which I was happy to do, I think this will be the one I will take, with me to Blade Show. I love this knife too. A four inch tanto on this Synergy four. This is an Ohyoung design, so there you see his maker's mark there. Just a beautiful knife originally designed in the late nineties, early '2 thousands, not for Civivi, for what was it? HTM or ERC or can't remember who made it, but it was an aluminum bodied knife. With this blade, they also had a drop point version, which Civivi also makes. Oh, this thing is absolute luxury, for an inexpensive, you know, for a high value knife. Nitro V blade steel, you've got this concentrically milled circular pattern radiating off of that, gorgeous low profile, branded pivot.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:57]:
I love this thing. Feels great in hand and I have to say would be absolutely wicked if you needed to use it, for self defense which I won't. I won't need to. So, there you go. That is the Synergy four. They also come in a Synergy three which is like a three and a quarter inch blade so you check that out. Alright. The last two knives here are fixed blades.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:24]:
This is the most recent acquisition in the fixed blade category. This is their dagger, the Perfico. That's right, Perfico. So this is a single edged dagger. So, if you're a nerd like me, I I I venture to say this is just a spear point blade and not a dagger because of the aura dagger and have two sharp edges. But I get it, Savivi, you wanna sell this knife far and wide and you can't do so with too sharp edges. But you do supply a very thin swedge on that top edge. So I'm about to send this off tomorrow as we as I record this to get that new edge put on the top and I'm very much looking forward to that because that's the one thing holding this back, from being just super, super amazing.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:08]:
This is a Nitro v blade, and I'm gonna bring up Peterbilt knife guy again, but also, Aaron of Gideon's Tactical. I know he's tested this knife too. This thing is robust as elk. You might not think so just from looking at it, but it is crazy tough and extremely sharp. And, so I'm very much looking forward to having this in my regular rotation. Very cool Kydex sheath. I like the scooping. Some people, don't, but I like the the way it looks.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:37]:
I, however, will remove this, first of all, as to VV, Tek Lok type thing and put on something a little more low profile or in the waistband carry. Something cool about this is that they do give you some indexing jimping here, at the thumb. So if you feel that's not it's only on the thumb side. So if you feel that, you know where your edge is if you're in the dark. And then, likewise on the opposite side, you've got jimping towards the tail end. I, however, in my in my right thumb do not feel this so well, so I will be happy to have two edges, so I always know I have an edge presenting either way. Also love the, love the g 10 handle with all of the milled in patterns and contouring. This thing is sweet.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:27]:
The Cerviti Purfrigo. Alright. Last up, speaking of sweet, probably my favorite of all of these is this. This is the Bob Terzuola designed Tomashi I, and it is a gorgeous traditional style, Japanese type blade. It's got dark green micarta handle scales which have, taken on my personal filth signature, to quote to quote Advanced Knife Pro and really has patinaed nicely. Feels great. This has a totally captured full tang, So the tang comes down here, but you've got, scales that meet at the spine and the belly. So, it does not you do not see that full tang.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:10]:
Really nice in in hand. You've got two different jimping options here for the thumb. Got a thumb ramp here and then thumb jimping on the back for that Filipino grip. Beautiful upswept and swedged Japanese style panto blade. Really, really, really nice. This is probably, like I said, this is my favorite CIVIVI. I know that there are a couple of other fixed blade knives from them that I would really like to get my hands on, but I gotta say, they do them both great. Sabibi, it does fixed blades and folders.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:43]:
Beautiful. That's it. If you wanna get a Sabibi and you're, you wanna do it through, our affiliate link, it's this, the knifejunkie Com / sabibi. So you check it out if that floats your boat. I hope, these knives float your boat, and I hope you enjoyed this show. Thanks again for watching. Be sure to join us tomorrow night if you're watching this as it drops for Thursday Night Knives every Thursday 10PM Eastern Standard Time. It's live.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:12]:
We get to talk. It's a blast. It's the start of your weekend and mine and I love it. Also, be sure to join us on Sundays for our knifemaker one hour interview. It's the best. Alright. Thanks for watching. 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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