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.
©2025, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcribe Your Podcasts and Videos: https://theknifejunkie.com/magic (affiliate link)

Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, a tikka knife as a gift. I'll show you some new APOC survival knives and my Emerson collection as of spring twenty twenty five. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

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 [00:00:27]:
Welcome back to the show. Had a lot of very enthusiastic, comments about my interview with Bobby Raines the second. First comes from my good friend Strings twenty eight ten. He says, great episode as usual, brother. Bobby seems like a down to earth good old boy. Glad he's keeping this style of Bowie going. Beautiful knives. And by this style, he means that, fighting style of Bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:51]:
Next from Pale Rider seventy one seventy one, he says, one of his is on my is on the way. Thanks for having Bobby on. I got a couple of comments like that. People, who saw my interview with Rolando Escotada, saw those Bobby Raines, Rainmaker Bowie's, and called up Bobby and, ordered some. Last one really tickled me. That's my cousin. That's Amanda Holcomb Loudon, d y one j w. And, I love that.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:18]:
It's nice to, recognize when you see, your your cousin, on an interview. That's cool. So, well, thanks for commenting. Thanks for liking. Thanks for watching, and, keep it up. Please check out the interview show, the midweek supplemental. Join us on Thursday night knives, and watch the videos as they drop. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:39]:
That said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer [00:01:42]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:49]:
In my front right pocket for the past few days, I gotta say, has been the Microtech LUDT. Now this is a gen two model. And when I finally finally, after years decided to, pull the trigger on this knife, this is the only one left that I could find. Now you might be looking at a nice blue knife, but really this is purple. I'm not sure how your camera is showing this, but it's a beautiful anodized purple aluminum handle. And I guess I could say if there weren't if if all the gen twos weren't already gone, I probably would have gotten a different color, but, this is what I was stuck with and I gotta say, I'm happy to be stuck with you. Just like, Huey Lewis in the news said, I do love this color, but I wouldn't have picked it originally. I carry this thing a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:39]:
It's got those great micro, serrations that stand a little bit proud of the main edge, which leads me to believe they do the serrations first and then create the, the straight edge. So a beautiful knife. They have now, transitioned to a v three, a version three of this design, which is fine, but it's definitely not my favorite. I really like this LUDT, underwater demolition something something. I can't remember exactly what it's what it stands for, but LUDT, a great and classic knife knife from Microtech. Alright. Next up, I had the, new vampire fixed EDC in my pocket. This is from Jack Wolf Knives, of course.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:21]:
A, beautiful s 90 v spear point blade. You've got that perfectly symmetrical drop point there with a swedge and a hand, hand satin on it. So hand rubbed satin, you can see going horizontally on the blade. And then this one has an absolutely stunning rosewood handle. So those handle scales are rosewood, wood frequently seen on the fretboard of fine guitars, and, then this one also ships with a fob with a midpoint anodized, titanium, bead there. So really nice package. They make these to, be a little bit smaller than a fully opened up slip joint version of the same and, to to, even out the smaller handle, they have put the fob on there, which I really appreciate. For the midnight fixed EDC, they did not do that.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:18]:
You had to put your own on there, which I did, and I was fine with that. But I gotta say, it's nice to get this with that, titanium, bead on. So very nice. And then also, it's just got a beautiful white and, white stitched black leather sheet, with the DCC style clip on it. So the whole package is really, really nice. I do not use this so far. I have not clipped this to my pocket. I prefer to drop the whole thing in the pocket and, carry it that way.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:48]:
But, either way, it's a very comfortable carry and a beautiful, beautiful knife. Next up, in my waistband carried samurai style, I had the, side clip from off grid knives. Samurai style? What's that? You might ask. Well, that's kind of, a loose term, but you you stuff the sheet in your waistband and, it's sort of kept there by tension, the tension of your belt. But really what's holding it in there is the det cord here that is wrapped around your belt. So when you pull it, pull out the knife, it comes out of the sheath and then the sheath ends up dangling at the end of your, five fifty cord by your side. I like it. That's not my absolute preferred method, but I really like it with this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:37]:
This is a great 14 c 28 n recurved humpback drop point blade, fixed blade, full tang here with a newly designed arc handle. That blade you saw on the backcountry, a full size outdoors knife by, OffGrid Knives. Well, they made this companion or EDC style knife. And, this is my favorite version of this knife so far of this, profile. I really like the arc handle. It fills the hand perfectly. It's, just the right thickness. You got jumping on the forward thumb ramp and on the, blade here on that, thumb soil.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:16]:
Really, really nice and a very sharp blade. We are going to be given one of those away for the gentleman junkie knife giveaway knife tomorrow night. If you're watching this as. And last up, I had an an emotional support knife on me as always. However, it wasn't on me. It was just with me. Today, I had the Ka Bar dog's head. So this is a, build as a utility knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:40]:
It's, basically, if you love a Ka Bar but want something that's a little, better suited to bushcraft and camping and general utility, you get this. But to me, this is a combat knife all day long. What they did with this is extended the pommel a bit so you have more of a hammering surface. It's a little bit thicker there and then they, made the guard thicker out of a thicker gauge metal. It's fully straight and then it's got a smaller back quillion so that the thumb can ride on the, back of the blade just like that. So, yeah, I could see how this might be a little bit better for utility, than the usual, combat utility knife from Ka Bar. But to me, this is still a full bread fighting knife. I love this thing, in my bag.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:27]:
Didn't use it. Didn't even pull it out today, but it was there just in case I needed that emotional support. So today, my ESK was the dog's head knife from Ka Bar. I had the sidekick from OffGrid Knives. I had the, Vampire Fixed EDC from Jack Wolf Knives, and then, of course, the classic and the legendary Microtech LUDT. In this case, the Gen two, my favorite version of this knife so far. What did you have on you? Let me know. Drop it in the comments below and perhaps it will be some inspiration for my next knife purchase.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:08]:
Alright. I wanted to show these off. This will be the last time before we actually do the giveaway. This is the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway Package for the month of April 2025. I'll show you this, though yours will be black. We're giving away we'll start with the pen this time. An OffGridKnives Bolt tactical pen. This is a big aluminum pen, and you've got micro milling down here, where the finger grip is, and a really robust build here.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:39]:
You have a loop over pocket clip and then you have this bolt action actuation here. So when you, push down on that bolt and lock it over, the barrel comes out with a, a Jotter, Parker Jotter style pen in there. It writes so nicely. Beautiful flow on the pen. And then if you push it in the other direction, you get a tungsten carbide glass breaker there. So a do all pen. You've got, pen in writing all day long. If it's retracted, you have a kubaton, for pain compliance and other kind of stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:16]:
And then if you want to, smash out a window, because you're trapped in a car in the river, you push that out and you can break some glass. So a really, really nice pen from OffGridKnives. And then we will be giving away the SideKick. Now the SideKick was the knife I was wearing today, the fixed blade. However, this one has the clip still on it. I took the clip off of mine because I like to, carry it that samurai style in the waistband, but here is a fully rotating plastic clip. You can rotate it three sixty and carry it on your belt however you want it. Of course, if you wanna take it off and put a different clip on there, you can do so, but there is the knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:58]:
This is the blackout version of the Sidekick. Absolutely beautiful. These are great knives. I think, well, I love all pretty much all my off grid knives. Maybe I like one, but I love all of them. And this one to me is probably my favorite of the, of the fixed blades. They have a lot of great folders, a lot of great flick fixed blades, but this with its, jigged g 10 handle and, with those big, chamfers and that super comfortable grip and that recurved humpback drop point blade. It just can't be beat.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:36]:
So we will be giving this away. All you gotta do is become a gentleman junkie. That is our, high tier of support on Patreon. And, actually, we just, embarked on memberships here on YouTube. And, there's only one tier of support as a member, and that is the same as the gentleman junkie over on Patreon. So if you go, wanna get involved in Patreon, still wanna help support the show, you can do so by becoming a member right here on YouTube, and you stand to win this fantastic package. Every month, third Thursday, this month, it had to be the fourth Thursday because of, unforeseen plans. But every third Thursday, we do an awesome giveaway, and that's what we have this month for you.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:20]:
Alright. Let us do get now, to knife life news, but before we do, I'll tell you how to get, how to get to be a gentleman junkie. Just go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon, as you can see on the address below, or you can scan this QR code here on your screen. Go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon. Check out all we have to offer, including interview extras as well as these awesome giveaways. Again, that's the knifejunkie.com/patreon. Want to sell your custom knives online? With Launchcart, you can easily create your own ecommerce store. No coding required.

Advertisement Announcer [00:11:56]:
Launchcart is designed for knife makers like you with built in tools to showcase your craftsmanship, manage orders, and grow your brand. It's fast, flexible, and even includes low cost payment processing to help you keep more of your profits. Start your online knife store today at theknifejunkie.com/launch and turn your passion into a business.

Announcer [00:12:18]:
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:24]:
Okay. First up in knife life news, we have one from Boker. Boker's been dropping a lot of really cool knives including that, awesome Bowie a few about a month back. This one is called the Boker USA Backcountry. This is a really nice outdoors backpacking knife. I think this would be ideal for backpacking where you want a capable knife, fixed blade knife, but you want it small enough and light enough that you're not going to, feel it while you're hiking the trail. This one has a 3.43 inch drop point blade of, yes, MagnaCut. Beautiful swedge there.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:01]:
It's a flat ground blade. So you might say a saber ground because it's not full flat ground. And it's got forward jimping. So imagine you're doing some sort of detailed task like skinning an animal. You can have your finger engaged, stretched up the spine of the blade and engaged with that jimping. There's also thumb jimping and palm jimping and jimping, you know, in all the strategic places, but I really like it down forward there. Beautiful swedge on that, so it's gonna pierce well if you need it to. Contoured g 10 handle scales there on this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:37]:
You have a skeletonized, lanyard hole back there and a kydex sheet. Very, nice and light package. This will be available at the June, June thirtieth. So, you'll be able to see this one at Blade Show, in Atlanta, earlier in June, and then this will be released the June. The Boker USA Backcountry in Magna Carta. Alright. Next up from GiantMouse. Now, Jens Anzo left the company in January, but he still has, his design hand in this next one.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:14]:
And who knows? Maybe this will be the last. I'm not sure. But this thing is beautiful. I gotta say. Perhaps for me, one of the most compelling giant mouses or giant mice I've ever seen. Look at that beautiful s curve, hawkbill. So this is a 2.8 inch, s 90 v s curve hawkbill blade. S curve meaning it's got a bit of belly.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:37]:
It's not all concave. It's convex first and then goes concave. Think of, say, a less exaggerated, Black Talon from Cold Steel or or a, civilian from Spyderco. Just a little less dramatic in all of the curves, but same sort of concept here. S 90 v blade, softly contoured tie scales, really looks comfortable. I mean, you can just look at this knife and see that it's super ergonomic. You've got a reversible wire clip there, which, GiantMouse is prone to do, and then it has a ambidextrous bar lock. So I bet it's a bit fidgety as well.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:18]:
This is only three ounces, for a titanium and s 90 v blade, and it is available now. But if you're a a fan, that's a beautiful shot. Thanks for bringing that one up, Jim. I love the way that knife looks from that angle. If you are a fan of this or of GiantMouse in general, you wanna jump on it because this is limited to 400 pieces available now. Alright. Next up. This one's funny.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:44]:
A really nice looking knife from a, a maker that I really like, Scott Stills of Edgy Blade Works. I really like Edgy Blade Works. I follow them on Instagram. This is the concept tipper. The tipper is a 3.38 inch, quote, unquote, modified cleaver of s 35 v n. But I gotta say, this does not look like a modified cleaver to me in any sense. I would say that's a modified clip point or a modified Americanized tanto or even a spay blade before I would go cleaver, but a really nice looking knife nonetheless, no matter what you call it. You don't spell it, son.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:24]:
You eat it. And so this one has, like I said, s 35 v n thumb studs. Big fan of the thumb studs and that beautifully, sort of bronze anodized tie handle is a frame lock. You got a sculpted clip, only one side, right hand carry only. Sorry, lefties. And this sucker is available now. I think it's beautiful. I love the sort of, slicer grind on it where where, the grind rises from the plunge grind and disappears, and into a full flat grind towards the, the break of the clip up there at the clip point.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:03]:
A beautiful knife and, Scott Stills of Edgy Blade Works designs and makes some really cool knives. So definitely check that out. Concept Nipper. Alright. Last up in knife life news, we have a an eleventh anniversary knife from We Knives. Can you believe they've been around for eleven years? I can't. Time flies. This is the 07/2002.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:28]:
Now they started the series with the 600 series, and then they started the 700 series. So this is, the seven zero two eleven, seven zero two x I. And what this is is a, a sort of spiffied up or fancified send up of their very first integral knife. So basically the same knife, different clip I mean, I'm sorry, different lock it had, but look at this thing. This is absolutely beautiful. You have a 3.81 inch hollow ground modified flip point. I mean, it's really beautiful with a full length swedge on this sucker. It is M three ninety blade steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:12]:
It's got a flipper with a button lock and then a beautifully, shaped integral, titanium handle. Now this one has, two two part inlays, so each side has this two part inlay. And the one side, or not one side, but one model of it features copper foil carbon fiber, and that's that one. That's on screen right now. This is such a tasty looking knife. I gotta say that is just beautiful. And then it also has a Jungleware fat carbon inlay, which is the one you saw before this. Now if you like wee knives and you like the look of this knife, which I do, you better jump on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:54]:
This is available the April 2025, and only 150 pieces of this will be made all day long. So you are gonna wanna jump on this. And I gotta say, if this is one of the more beautiful wee knives I've seen in a long time, they make in they're incredible makers of knives. Their designs and the fanciness of them don't always resonate with me, but this one, that you see on the screen right now is positively beautiful to me. So that's, the WE Knives seven zero two x I or 11 in Roman. Alright. That does it for Knife Life news. I wanna remind you that, you can become a member of the newsletter here.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:37]:
Just go to the knifejunkie.com/ newsletter and sign up. It's a great way for you to get more information about knives that are dropping, the new knives that I've experienced or other thoughts and anecdotes, from yours truly. It's also a great way to stay in touch with the Knife Junkie podcast. You never know when someone might be deplatformed, not that I'm big enough to deplatform, but you know what I'm saying. So definitely, stick around for that and stay with us. And, you can also download the show to your favorite podcast app, something I also highly recommend, because sometimes you have to turn off the video and get moving. And, you don't wanna be caught lying in bed watching this show slack jawed, and drooling when you could actually be on the road headed to work and listening, to these dulcet tones on one of these great platform. So, sign up for the newsletter, download the show to your favorite podcast app, and, make yourself happy.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:37]:
Alright. Coming up, Stay Tuned collection.

Announcer [00:20:40]:
Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. The knifejunkie.com/battlebox. And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:58]:
Alright. The first knife in state of the collection is from gentleman junkie and friend of the show, patron Jammin Parker. Jammin, I wanna thank you so much for this. This is the Teakel knives Gideon v three. And, giddy it made me to get this Gideon three. This is designed by Frogman Tactical. You can see his logo right there. He also did the FMF, which I've shown off recently in in, the all American garb.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:30]:
And then a third one, the Taylor's Ridge, I believe, was his. But he's done three knives with TKL knives, and this is definitely the most, agro, angry, tactical. I don't know what else to call it. It is, positively wicked. It's sort of based on the, I'll show you. The night stalker platform, but it is a different knife. So you can see the handle size and shape is the same, and the ring is similar, but that's about where the similarities end. The let's start at the ring.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:06]:
The ring itself has a, a persuader on the back, a little spike on the back, and I gotta say, it is nasty. I have carried this in my waistband and gouged my forearm on this. This is something you wanna be careful with. It's not it's not super sharp, but you can definitely bust through a, soda can or something like that very, very easily, and I know that because I have. It is chamfered on both ends, so it kind of has an edge to it as you can see from this, perspective. It is definitely a, a persuader, a pain compliance, addition. Now I've heard that some people actually grind theirs down a little bit because it's a little uncomfortable and sharp, if you engage with it accidentally. I'm gonna leave it as is, because that's how the knife comes.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:01]:
I wanna I wanna keep it pure. But this one is a hell of a design with that. Now you have a longer, upswept drop point here, and the forward half of that swedge comes to a zero ground edge. So it's, it's a double edged and sharpened right there. Upfront, kind of like the swedge of a cold steel Bowie. It's not like something you're gonna be slicing cheese with, but it's definitely a nasty gashing, slicing, pressure cutting kind of surface there. Absolutely beautiful. The Gideon v three.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:37]:
This one is an A E B L stainless steel, and I gotta say, one thing I have noticed with this, spike coming off the, coming off the ring, you're not doing much of this kind of stuff with it. Not flipping it around karambit style. That definitely stops you from doing that and it stops you in a painful way. I have tried that. So if you're used to pulling out your your your, nightstalker and flipping it and doing that kind of thing, When you get this, there's a slight learning curve, because you definitely don't wanna flip it around with this thing, on the ring. But I have always been curious about this and I'm so grateful to Jam and Parker for sending this to me. So thank you so much, sir. It is such an awesome addition to my TKL knives, collection and a sprawling and beautiful collection it is indeed.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:30]:
Also, he was a gentleman enough to include the DCC, pocket clip on there. So discreet carry, concepts clip right there on the sheet. Okay. Next up, you may have seen this. I released a video, for this on Monday. This is from APOC survival, and I still left the schmutz on here. I used this, this past weekend as we record this. It was Easter weekend.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:57]:
I had a lot of cleaning up to do spring cleanup stuff around, our backyard especially, but along the fence in the front yard too. Lots of Virginia creeper vine, lots of, natural grape vine, and, English ivy. I went to war with that, some saplings, and also some, limbs on, one of our cedar trees, and that's what I used this for. This APOC survival, Demko Bowie knife is obviously a, Andrew Demko design. Here, I wanna show you, here's the '80 '20. You can see how similar those, Bowie knives are, and you say, well, of course they're similar. They're Bowie knives. But that that flat clip without the swedge, very signature, very signature, profile here from Andrew Demko.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:50]:
This thing is so comfortable in hand. It's a d two blade, flat ground, comes screamingly sharp. You got great big jimping up here, and a more than generous handle. So if you watch the video, you'll see I talk about holding it back here quite a bit to do that chopping. You get more leverage when you hold it back here. You have a vaguely two to three finger partition up front and, when you choke back on the on the handle, you still get a full forefinger grip and your forefinger can wrap around the end of that partition and you can get great leverage for chopping. So that's what this did a lot of. You have contoured g 10 handles with micro milling on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:35]:
So very comfortable. So this knife is awesome. Also, in the very back, you have this jimping, basically two jimps and a peak in the center, which is great if you need to hold this thing in reverse grip and you want a very short spot to, cap with the thumb. But I use this to break up ice. As I mentioned, well, maybe I didn't mention, but it was Easter. We had a big party. My wife has a huge family and we had friends over too, And we had a cooler, but the ice had, you know, formed into a big chunk, and so I busted it up with this. Just like, just like cops busting up a party during prohibition.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:16]:
I was just smashing that up, using that jimping, and I think it really dug in there with that, center pump. Beautiful kydex sheet. I, took the Tek Lok style lock and reoriented it so it would, ride on my back like this, basically, and on my side. So I get a good, what's it called, cavalry draw from it. So cavalry draw, if your knife or your gun is in reverse grip like this, you kind of reach over like that and pull it out for standard grip, or you can just pull it out like this for reverse grip. Yeah. You you won't wanna be doing that with your pistol. But, Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:58]:
So that's how I carried this one. Next knife, also from APOC. Thank you, APOC, for sending me these. These are just so cool. This one is from Mike Wallace. You saw me feature the Mike Wallace Wallace Smatch It on this show and also, in that close-up video. Well, this is his Bowie from APOC, where the Demko is seven and a half inches long, this is about nine inches, I believe. Let me now I gotta measure.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:26]:
Just be sure. Sorry. Yep. Nine and almost a quarter inches, And, you've got a beautiful, long, slender clip point blade. This one also doesn't have a swedge, so it'll be great for utility tasks. But also this would be great if you've got in a in a bind with it. Very, very comfortable contoured handle. You've got a nice forward thumb ramp here, and then you've got a great and, radiused, what do you call that? Finger choil.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:58]:
So you can come real close-up on the blade and, do whatever kind of work you need to do. This also is D2, contoured G10 with the micro milling. And I can't say enough about how comfortable this knife is. It feels so good in hand and I can't wait to use this. I have not used this one yet, but as you grip it here, maybe it'll be, make more sense if I hold it here. But as you grip this knife, it sort of angles down a little bit. So I think if you use this for slashing or chopping, you you're gonna have an accelerated, cutting performance there because of that downward angle of the blade. Now like the Demko Bowie, this thing is just screamingly sharp.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:41]:
It just kinda grabs onto the fingers when you when you, test it. Again, you have a nice pancake sheet of kydex, and this one also ships with that, Tek Lok style lock. That's the Wallace bow. Now the last one I got from APOC is really cool. It's called the waning moon Yatagan. The waning moon Yatagan. And now I talk about the Yatagan a lot. This is a Turkish traditional Turkish Turkish style short sword slash knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:19]:
I that's a little too big for the knife camp, but here you have it. It is a full on survival sword. It's a it's about three sixteenths of an inch thick, nice and thick, and, it's got this beautiful g 10 handle, with the bird's beak here, and it's got a lot of weight in the handle. So if you need to use this as a weapon, it it moves around really nicely. But if you need to chop with it too, you've got all of this leverage and all of that recurve, in this, ninety two sixty carbon steel, ninety two sixty. It's coated, so it's not gonna rust down you. Maybe the edge will if you're not careful, but it's a tough, carbon steel and this thing is built for all sorts of adventure. I think this would be a great knife to have on you, in the jungle with that recurve and the and the and the, thin blade geometry.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:15]:
Even though it's got a thickish spine, you could go through all sorts of thin and thick brush. As a weapon, you know, it would be awesome. You got that slight recurve, which makes it great for a slash or a draw cut, but also awesome in a slash. But the thing about the Yatagan is that it puts the point somewhat center line. It is a, think of the Fakiro from Cold Steel that was based on this knife. It's a little more dramatic than this one, but it even though it drops down and you get a recurve, it positions the point in sort of a center line. So, if you're thrusting from the outside or from different angles coming down or coming up or from the sides, you're gonna know where that point is and it's gonna be able to penetrate unlike, say, a kukri, which is great for thrusting from limited angles. You don't wanna bring a kukri in from the side like this.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:12]:
You're just gonna hit them with the spine and pull it. So the Yategan, I think, is a really beautiful knife, kind of under under recognized these days. That's, my new design coming out from Tefel knives who faced on the Yategan as well. And, I think it's I think it's an amazing blade shape. Here it is in the sheath. It comes with that cool paracord sort of noose knot noose knot, and then, this collar here, which is attached with mechanical connections, screw connections here to the sheath so that you could put other sort of, belt clips and such on. That is the Wain and Moon Yataga. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:56]:
That's it for my new knives this week. Four knives. It's a great haul. I'm a lucky man. So thank you one and all, to to those of you who sent these to me. I really appreciate them. Alright. Before we get to my Emerson collection as it stands in spring twenty twenty five, let me just say, that you should check out the merch, section of the knifejunky.com.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:21]:
Knifejunky.com/shop. Here's the newest one, knife dad, because regular dads just don't cut it, which I love. They do. They do. Just they don't actually cut literally. But, you know, all dads are good dads as long as they stay with the family, you know, that kinda thing. And even if you don't, I know I know there are plenty of dads out there who have to visit their their kids on the weekends and and and, God love you for what you do. It's not not easy, but it's not easy for any dad, so you should have a knife with you at all times to make things easier.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:59]:
You need that sandwich cut? You need to get that cut out of the tree? You know, you need rescuing? Here we are. So that's Knife Dad because regular dads just don't cut it. Go to the knifejunkie.com/shop, check out this design and scads. So thanks for doing that. Alright. First up, I wanna talk about Emerson knives, but first on this list, I wanna talk about the zero tolerance Emerson knives. I've had some of the, Kershaws. I don't have those anymore.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:31]:
These are the ones that really, really take the cake to me. First up is the zero tolerance zero six twenty. No longer in print, unfortunately. This one wearing an aftermarket, what do you call this? Micarta handle. Sorry. Canvas micarta handle. These are really awesome. They came originally in this.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:56]:
This was sort of the cheaper model, and and in LMAX, which is awesome. This was after zero tolerance figured out their LMAX problem. They had a heat treat issues with their LMAX originally, and this was after that. So you've got LMAX, you've got a beautifully faceted Americanized tanto with a swedge and, a a clip. It's like a clip point tanto, basically. Very nice, generous wave feature. And if you're brand new to Emersons, that wave feature is there to snag on your pocket as you draw the knife, and it opens the knife automatically. So it's the one I swear, any sort of wave knife, whether it's an Emerson or someone else who has adopted the technology, those are the fastest, holding knives to bring to bear.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:47]:
So this is the beautiful, six twenty. Now as I mentioned before, when this first came out, it was in this with g 10 or it was with a beautiful, grinder satin s 35 v n blade with carbon fiber. I'm glad I opted for the cheap one because now I think cheaper one, less expensive one because now I think this is the real this is the real collector's piece because it's an Elmax and then, I made it special with that aftermarket scale. Next up is the same, in that same line. This came out shortly after the $6.20. This is the six thirty. Again, wearing an aftermarket scale. This one is a linen micarta aftermarket scale as opposed to the canvas of the last one.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:37]:
And, this these two had the same sort of, I gotta say, sorta cheesy g 10 handle. I I wasn't crazy about the g 10. But this one is an s 35 v n, and it's got that beautiful grinder satin, and it's based on, the Banana Blade. The Banana Blade, the CQC eight, the classic, also known as the horseman in its smaller, incarnation. Beautiful swedged clip point, upswept clip point, again with that hugely generous wave, and, a titanium frame lock with the standard, clip, the three three screw clip. Now I've replaced both of them on both of these models because, they had big ZT logo on it. I prefer just the standard, so I got the standard Emerson clip and put that on there and I, of course, put that micarta on there. This knife, served me really well as a carpet knife when we were redoing our basement years ago at this point.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:41]:
Just chewed through the carpet like it wasn't there and, this is one of those use your stuff moments where I was like, oh my god. This is the best knife ever and I'm using it and it was one of my most expensive knives, at the time. Really awesome knife. However, I've never been able to get it centered, but that's okay. I still love it. Alright. Next up, and last in the zero tolerance line of, of Ernest Emerson designed knives is the zero six forty. Excuse me.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:11]:
By far, the most favored and loved, of the Emerson collaborations and one of the most, beloved zero tolerance knives out there. Everyone seems to love the zero six forty. This was based on one of Ernest Emerson's earliest tactical knives once he went from art knives to tactical knives. And, I love the look of this. I love the feel of it in hand. Of course, I did put on aftermarket, micarta handles. This had that split pea green, split pea soup green, carbon fiber, basket weave carbon fiber handle on it, which I didn't mind as far as basket weave carbon fiber goes. I didn't mind color.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:55]:
I just don't like that style of carbon fiber very much. So I got this awesome, these awesome hand micarta handles. Makes it very comfortable, very grippy, even when wet. This one has a nice, has nice centering, beautiful blade, and, also, 20 CV blade steel. Now this one is an incidental front flipper. Like like many Emerson designs, you can take the tang and use your forefinger and whip it open, and it's not even jammed. You'll see that over and over as we go through this collection. But this is the ZT zero six forty, also wearing an aftermarket clip, an MXG ear clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:40]:
Alright. Next up, the one that started it all in, the year '2 or in the year 1999, I bought this, but I ended up getting a February Emerson Commander. So this is from the year February. Now the Emerson Commander design has remained largely the same, though, some things have changed and if you're familiar with, current day Emerson knives, you'll know what those are. This has old old school style construction, much more like a custom knife where the, the scales, the micarta scales come off with these little screws and then you can noodle around, with the construction of it if you want to take it down. You do have to remove the scales first, very well, kind of different, than how things are built now. Old school micarta and, much thinner than, the Emersons these days. Had a little schmutz in there.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:41]:
Beautiful, beautiful blade. I mean, just stunning blade and super smooth action. This is so old at this point, you know, twenty five years old and just a great, great knife. And I've considered many times getting a new one, a new commander. I just haven't done that yet. Look at how small that wave is by comparison to the more modern wave. The wave started, as a blade catch, something you would catch another, fighter's, blade in. Say you're going knife to knife with someone, but really, they found out, the Navy SEALs who were testing, the, some early I don't think it was the Commander, but they were testing one of the early, Emersons with the wave, and they discovered that it was better for opening bottles and then opening off of your pants seams.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:38]:
And so that's that's how, the Emerson wave came to be. Next up, this is the SOCFA sock a. The sock the the b model has a an Americanized tanto. This one I bought used and it was well used. You can see it was worn in. That's not, my own use on that, but, I've carried this quite a bit. And this is, my one no. One of two Emersons that have the serrations.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:10]:
They have that great serration pattern, similar to the Spyderco, model. Very or models, or patterns, spidey spidey serrations, what do they call those? Anyway, a very, very comfortable ergonomics. That's something that, Emerson knives are known for. They're extremely comfortable ergonomics, as well as the wave and their deadly blades. Also, they're known for their chisel grind. Now this one is a v grind on the bevels. Like most of them that I have here, it's a v grind on the bevels. So both sides, you have bevels, but only on one side you have the edge.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:51]:
And so here is the sharpened edge on the show side, and, I kind of all have always wished that he had it reversed, because, chisel ground blades track differently through materials. And, if if the edge were on the other side, it would be more optimized for righties. And there are much many more righties out there, but, that's that's not much of, of a thing to think about. This one was made twenty years ago. This is a 02/2005 model. Again, I got this one used and that's kind of an old school, style of g 10. And then this one, I believe, whoever owned this put that aftermarket, flip on. Again, you have a a, incidental, front flipper with that extended tang there.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:45]:
And like most Emersons, you can take down the pivot with just a slotted screwdriver. Okay. Next, this is a super version. Now a super Emerson is a larger version. So this is a super CQC seven, the classic CQC seven with that Americanized tanto blade. Now something about the CQC seven, many of them, not all of them, is that they are fully chiseled ground, which means on this side, on the show side, you have the bevels and the and the edge. And then when you flip it over, it's totally flat. Now this sort of chisel ground blade where there's no v grind and the edge is chisel ground, This is really the kind where I wish it were done on the other side, because you feel it more.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:38]:
Chisel grinds, a lot of people think, oh, he's lazy. He doesn't wanna grind both sides. No. That's not the case. A chisel ground knife is extra sharp. Now think of a chisel. Here, think of your your knife edge in cross section. Now what's a chisel? A chisel is half of that.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:56]:
So it is extra extra sharp, extra slicey. You have half of the material behind the edge. So, chisel ground edges are super sharp and, probably best, or, in my opinion, on this kind of a knife, a, a, holder is probably best for fighting, for tactical purposes, for putting, for for cutting soft material. Soft material like, you know, because for precision's sake, look at that. It it it is a little oblique on the, on the bevel, so it's like I said before, it's gonna track differently through material. Even though it's wickedly sharp, you might take a turn you don't expect. So this one is the super model, meaning it's extra large and, in charge. Awesome, awesome knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:54]:
Now this one was an auction knife and, my brother ended up buying it from the auction and then he gave it to me. Isn't that a backhanded way of giving yourself a knife? Well, no, but my brother knows me so. Thank you, babe. This next one is also a chiseled ground, blade, fully chiseled ground. This is the, PSARC, and PSARC stands for Police Survival and Rescue. So this is, they have a SARC knife, which has a seatbelt cutter, built into the front of the blunt tip. But this one is the police model. So it is like a little gun hunting.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:36]:
It's a little hawk build, totally tactical, nasty, like fighting knife. Let's just be honest. That's what this is. You've got a really nicely ergonomic handle, again, similar to the SAK SAK a knife that I showed before, and, the handle is similar. And then you have a pretty generous, wave there. Flat on one side, and then you have the deep bevels and the edge on the show side. This one was made in 2013. I have a lot made in 2013 or a number of them, and this is before they went to the single detent.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:13]:
Now, from the beginning of Emerson Knives, they featured a detent right up front and you can kind of see it, featured right behind the blade tang there. You can see that detent, and then a detent on the, the folding leaf here of the liner lock. So one, they were opposing, one here, and one back here. The idea was, the second detent would keep it in. Say you're jumping out of an airplane during, night ops. That would keep it, firmly in the handle. I don't think it does so because you can actually shake it open. And I guess they decided somewhere around 2015, '20 '16 to get rid of that in lieu of a single detent, where it traditionally is on the liner lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:02]:
But this is one of the older ones, and I like them both. The the double detent begs you to slowly, slow roll it open, and then the single detent, begs you to flick it open. Next up is the CQC 13, my favorite of the many bowies. They have a lot of different, clip point bowie shaped, knives, coming from Emerson Knives. But the CQC 13 is chief among them if you ask me. Such a beautifully shaped blade. I love that upswept, belly. I love that upswept clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:36]:
And this one, I opted for the serrations. Actually, I'm lying. I didn't opt for them. This was the only one I could find back in 2013 when I was positively jonesing for CQC 13 and was afraid they were gonna go, discontinue. They didn't, but I've always loved this, and I'm I'm happy to have it with the serrations. This is wearing aftermarket, aftermarket, scales in micarta with that cross hatching, just beautifully done by Thomas Engelson. And, he still does really nice work, for Emersons and and other similar knives. So there you go.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:18]:
And you can see it right up close. Tom Engelson does beautiful work. I hope to see him at blade show this year. And I keep saying I need to send more Emersons for, to him for handles, but I just, I haven't. I just have to do it sometime. But I love the way this one turned out. This being one of my absolute favorite Emersons, it needed more than the generic g 10 handles. And, boy oh boy, did it get there.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:46]:
Alright. Next up is a gift from my brother. Another Emerson gift from my brother. This is the Super Harambe. Just a wicked blade. It's got a funny funny looking blade. Looks kinda like an aardvark to me, always kinda has. This is a when was this one? Can't really see when this one was made.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:08]:
I guess they stopped dating him at this point. But if you know about Ernest Emerson, you know that he is a combatives knife combatives expert, a Filipino martial artist, and and other things. And so, he makes two karambits, and this is the larger of the two. The regular sized karambit is obviously shorter than this and does not have that squared off tip. Now don't be fooled, that squared off tip can stab, can gouge, can tear, can do all the things, that a ceramic can do. This one is just larger. You've got really nice, ring size there, so it fits, all sorts of fingers. I've known guys in martial arts training who who have these with giant mitts.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:55]:
They can get their finger through there, and, I gotta say, I really like the way it is double thick like that. It's easy to stabilize and to keep true when you're flipping it around. And, I used to well, I have a friend who used to have the training version of the karambit with the shorter blade and, man, these things are great. If you know what you're doing with the karambit, these things are awesome. I have it set up, a reversible clip, I have it set up so that when you draw it, it it comes out of the pocket like this and is what is open and you can just transition to your combat grip. The next one is the super, another super CQC 15 and this one is a single detent. You can see how I flip that open instead of slow roll it. I gotta do it with my right hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:43]:
Sorry. But it just flicks open and this is beautiful. I love the CQC 15 blade. It's a combination of the commander and the CQC seven. So you have a tanto tip, and then you have that beautiful recurve, main edge. This was a gift from Bill s, a viewer of the show. Hope hopefully, you're still here, Bill s. I really appreciate this.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:06]:
Still carry it. Still love it. This is possibly my sharpest Emerson. It's just so nastily sharp. But, again, this is a v ground, so you can see bevels on both sides, but the edge only on the show side, so it's still a chisel edge. Super sharp. I had a c two c 15, regular size, and, it was a lemon, I gotta say. It it it failed the spine whack test.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:37]:
I sold it to someone on Blade forums, letting them know, that that I was able to make it fail and they thought that they could fix it, and so I sold it to them. And then, Bill, sent this to me, Bill S. Sent this to me years ago at this point, as a gift and I was just blown away. It is amazing to get a gift like this. Very comfortable, again, ergonomic handle, just ergonomics to beat the bend, and a blade that is, encapsulates all the things about Emerson Knives that I love. That's the Super CQC 15. This one, also not dated. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:16]:
There was there came a time when they stopped dating them. Alright. Next up, a beautiful another beautiful clip point, mounted on the, CQC 13 handle. This is the Tiger, and the Tiger has a blade very similar to the, CQC eight or here, the the zero six thirty from ZT. So you see that same sort of upward curved, banana blade style or, clip point style blade. This is another sickeningly sharp, knife. As a matter of fact, I just cut myself there a couple of days ago with it. First day without the, without the Band Aid on, and how did I do it? Just being stupid.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:03]:
Just opening and closing it and losing my grip. Design wise, definitely up there as one of my absolute favorite Emerson designs. You've got the super ergonomics of the CQC 13 handle and that beautiful, sweeping flip point blade. Also, a giant and generous wave on this one. So, there's no way you can rip it and rip it and not have this thing open up coming straight out of your mouth. Emerson Tiger. I know for a fact that this was one of, Ernest Emerson's absolute favorite designs, at least for a while. I don't know.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:38]:
He's done so many since and recently and so many clip points that I'm not sure where he stands at this point on his favorites. Next up in my top three is the Emerson Sax. Again, a single detent flips open flicks open really easily. And look at that beautiful Sax blade. I really wish they would do a few more. They've done so many, clip point blades. I say, why not do another, sort of wharncliffe style blade? It'd be cool, to have something like this that's just as pokey and stabby with just as nearly a straight edge as that, but with a more wharncliffe laid. So a continuous curve from the wave to the tip, would look super cool, but, you know, this is a a handle I I I had to, I had to learn to love, you know, like an arranged marriage.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:32]:
I had to learn to love this. I'm not a huge fan of the double finger partition, on most knives, and this one, I wasn't, but I've gotten so used to it, and this is still just super up there as one of my, top three Emersons because I love the blade shape. This is such a good cutter and, and everything else, slasher and everything else. A v ground blade. You've got the stonewash on the flats, the machine satin on the, on the bevels, and just a beautiful big wave awesome knife. This one has a DC, no, I'm sorry. This one has an MXG gear clip and somewhere along the lines, they they got rid of the backspacer and put in standoffs like this. So one of the standoff versions.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:24]:
Alright. Next up, a collaboration with Ed Calderon of Ed's manifesto. We know him a lot. We've seen him on all the podcasts, including my own, a former anti narcotics officer from Mexico, working the Southern side of The US Mexican border and he popularized this sort of fruit knife, because his mother carried a fruit knife for doing everything, cutting vegetables, peeling fruit, that kind of thing, but also defending the family. And he he saw her once defend the family with that sort of curved blade and adopted it as his own little sidearm in addition to his guns and such while he was on duty. So this, he's done many collaborations, since then with, reputable knife companies and and designers. But this is the one he did with, Emerson Knives because he was a big fan of the Emerson Pershing, a knife we're gonna see here in a second. And so when he got the opportunity to do a, collaboration with, mister Ernest Emerson and make the Elvia, he jumped on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:33]:
Holding Elvia, now now they come with a wave. This is when they didn't. I got, this wave aftermarket. And, these scales are also aftermarket, also from Tom Engelson. So beautifully done. And very, very comfortable. Now this knife is meant to be, is optimized, I should say, for reverse grip, tip down edge in a call style, grip and fight it. So a finger groove there to index the forefinger and then a curve to accommodate the hand in reverse.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:10]:
Alright. Second to last here is one that I, traded, my buddy Ian for. I I gave him, I traded a cold steel for this, and I love it. He got the big cold steel holdout serrated, and I got this. Pretty fair deal as far as I'm concerned. I told him. I told him. So this is the t k f one, the Tim Kennedy folder.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:35]:
This is a collaboration with Tim Kennedy, what is he? Green Beret Navy Seal extraordinary type. No. No. He wasn't a Navy Seal. He was in the army. So I think a Green Beret and maybe he did a a stint with, Delta Force. I'm not sure. I know I've heard, Shrek, you know, the the, sheriff of Baghdad talking about training him.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:59]:
I'm not sure, when that came in. But anyway, Tim Kennedy also, an MMA star and, just a general, you know, celebrity military guy. I don't even know what you call guys like that, but a beautiful knife. He he came to Ernest Emerson to do a collaboration knife. He wanted something long and stabby, and they settled on this, very, sort of Bagwell reminiscent long slender fighting bow shape. This one is waveless. One of my two waveless designs here. Really, really nice design.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:37]:
I gotta say, I love this one. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did. I got it because it was an Emerson and it was a great trade, but man, I really, really like this knife. It's a great EDC. That's about a four inch blade, so it's pretty big. You've got a great finger guard on this one. So and and all around great carry, super sharp, v ground, v ground bevels with that chisel edge. The Tim Kennedy, the TFK one TKF one.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:09]:
Sorry. And then the last one in my most recent acquisition, this is the rerelease of the Persian, now called the Pete. The Persian was one of the most famous knives out there as I mentioned earlier. Ed Calderon carried one of these for a long time and swore by it, and I don't even wanna know what that means, in his line of work, but I I bet it's a very effective knife, Ed, what it's meant for. You've got a nice big generous handle downward curved, almost like a horn shaped handle. Really, curved that way to accommodate that blade, but also, again, lending to those amazing Emerson ergonomics. Very comfortable knife, to hold, but then you have that beautiful four inch upswept Persian style blade, v ground on the bevels, chisel ground on the edge, no wave, and just all business. % business.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:02]:
And I'm so grateful and glad that, the Emerson Knife Company decided to re release, the Persian. I always wanted one of these knives and whenever you could find them on the aftermarket, they were super expensive. And so the PTAC, though it's not an original Persian, I don't care. This will do me. I love it. So very, very happy they re released this. There it is in reverse grip. Just a great knife.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:30]:
Alright. There we go. So Emerson Knives, even though I've I, against my better judgment, loaned two knives to someone who ended up being disreputable and sold them for drugs. And, and even though I gave one away to Jimmy Slash and even though I've sold one, these are now on the do not get rid of, do not sell list. So my Emerson collection as it is will only grow from here, but I'm pretty selective. And, I can't wait to check out some of, Ernest Emerson's son's knives. They are beautiful. He's got this awesome, folding, kukri, very much in the design language of his father, but taking it to a new new level.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:16]:
So do you like Emerson's? Let me know. Drop it in the in the, comments below. And, in the meantime, check out episode five ninety. Can you believe that? 590 of the Knife Junction Podcast. It's a great interview conversation with Jeremiah Burbank. What a dude, and what a name, Jeremiah Burbank. I mean, that's like an actor's name if I ever heard one. He's the owner of PVK, also known as PVK Vegas, a, outstanding knife store.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:43]:
They sell such amazing stuff. They specialize in automatic knives, but they also have all sorts of custom knives and fixed blade knives and ballet songs, and Jeremiah is just a cool dude. Also, host cohost of Bladeology Bladeology. We have a great conversation. Do be sure to check that one out. Alright. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, Don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [01:03:09]:
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at reviewthepodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, theknifejunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at theknifejunkie.com/youtube. Check out some great knife photos on theknifejunkie.com/instagram, and join our Facebook group at theknifejunkie.com/Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob@theknifejunkie.com, or call our 247 listener line at (724) 466-4487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie Podcast.