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)

Announcer [00:00:04]:
Welcome to the 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 [00:00:16]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:18]:
I'm Bob DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:19]:
On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Eddie of OEG EDC. I was introduced to him by Aaron Bieber at Blade Show a few weeks back. Knowing my tastes, Aaron told me I had to check out Eddie's beautiful EDC fixed blades and folders. But when I got there, I discovered that OEG EDC offers a lot more than just blades and they had one of the most unique and oddly comforting blade show booths I've ever experienced. I checked out his knives and other wares and chewed the fat with Eddie for a few minutes. And since then I've been looking forward to finding out more about his EDC gear company and what makes it tick. We'll meet Eddie and learn all about the One Eyed Ghost. But first, be sure to like comment, subscribe and hit the notification bell.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:04]:
Of course you can download the show to your favorite podcast app. That way you can listen on the go. Also, if you'd like to help support the show, share it with a like minded friend, or go on over to Patreon and see what we have to offer you. There you can scan the QR code on your screen or go to the knife junkie.com slash Patreon Again, that's the knife junkie dot com slash patreon.

Advertisement Announcer [00:01:27]:
Do you use terms like handle the blade ratio, walk and talk, hair pop and sharp or tank like? Then you are a dork and a knife junkie.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:37]:
Eddie. Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, sir.

Eddie [00:01:39]:
Great to see you again of the amazing intro. I feel way more special than I am, so thank you.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:45]:
Well, my pleasure. And yeah, I, I really dug your especially your fixed blade edc. I think it's called the Marion. Well, we'll talk about that. You're like, maybe not. I'm not sure if I got the right.

Eddie [00:01:59]:
That's okay. That model was retired so we can talk about it, but let's, let's not live in the past, okay?

Bob DeMarco [00:02:04]:
Let's not. We'll talk, we'll talk about that. But man, I got to say, first up, your Blade show booth was awesome. First of all, how was Blade Show? And tell me about your idea for that booth.

Eddie [00:02:16]:
Blade show was great. So this is my third year doing Blade show and it was my first in. I know it's not the big room, it's not the what do they Call it, technically, I don't know.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:26]:
The main room.

Eddie [00:02:27]:
The main room. It was my second time having a booth, let's just say that. And it was great. I love it. I had a blast, as usual. It was great. Down being. Being down from Aaron and the gang and across from our mutual friend Ben, Jack Wolf.

Eddie [00:02:39]:
And I was texting my. My buddy Tom of Notorious, then Vero was on the other side, which is awesome. But, yeah, it was good. And as far as the booth, I felt like I. I didn't. I blended in too much. Last year, it was my first year having a booth. And every booth has a black backdrop with white lettering, red new lettering, this lettering.

Eddie [00:02:58]:
And being a relatively new maker, I've been in this. I started this in 2021, and I've only been making knives now for three years, so I kind of want to have some, have fun and do a theme. So I'm starting ADHD SideQuest now, where every year is gonna be a different theme. So this year was your classic east coast pizza shop, which is what you mentioned earlier.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:20]:
Yeah. Oddly comforting. I've spent a lot of time in east coast pizza shops. And, yeah, I walked up and you had that. That sort of board with the letters that you stick in it, and it looks like a. Like a menu that's been up for, you know, a thousand years, coated with grease and all.

Eddie [00:03:37]:
It was.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:37]:
It was great.

Eddie [00:03:38]:
It definitely was. When I bought it, the ham sandwich, I think was like A$85 for a ham sandwich. And as a fellow from the East Coast, I mean, you're in Virginia, right? And you understand ham sandwiches have not been a bucket five in this area very long time. So it was sitting. So it was a. It was a really good marketplace find, obviously.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:55]:
So you just mentioned you've only been making knives for three years, which to me is surprising. I mean, I know that you. You haven't been around for too long in. In this incarnation as OEG edc, your knives don't seem like the knives of a beginner. What were you doing before you ventured into the. Into the knives? You were making other EDC products, right?

Eddie [00:04:18]:
Oh, yeah. When I first started doing the edc, or. Sorry, before knives, I started doing, like, edc, like, my bottle openers. So, like, I had the keystone here, which was in the Charlie's collar, probably way, based off my pitbull Charlie's collar and the pry bar, the good luck pry bar. And that basically got my feet wet because it just started as kind of like a little hobby, like rolling out the pandemic I was doing a lot of work at my other job. I was working at a place called Titanium Finishing Company, doing Cerakote and Titanium anodizing. And I was doing a lot of stuff for different makers, one of them being Casey Lynch. So I was doing a lot of his Cerakote work and just started meeting different makers and talking to him like, oh, these guys are, like, really cool.

Eddie [00:05:00]:
This is a cool industry. I'm like, I think I want to make something on my own as, like, a little creative outlook. And now we're in LLC and paying taxes and doing fun stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:09]:
Yeah, paying taxes. Well, wait, so. So you're working in a company that. You were working in a company that was doing anodizing just for titanium and just for this kind of EDC stuff, or was it a broader.

Eddie [00:05:22]:
So it's my. It's actually my wife's family's company. She works there as well. And it's titanium. It's mainly, like, medical and government work, basically. Okay. So, like, if you have medical implants, most likely they. They anodize the screws that are in your body.

Eddie [00:05:35]:
So I got to that job. Before that, I was a tattoo artist. So I was tattooing for seven or eight years and then needed a change. Went there, from there, came to here. So I don't know what I'm gonna do bull riding next. I don't know. Something. Well, wait.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:51]:
Okay, so tattooing. I mentioned before we started rolling, we talked to a lot of people who have come from the tattoo world, obviously. I mean, this is. Okay. I went to art school, and I'm a pretty good draftsman. But the thing that always blows my mind is how someone can be a good draftsman on skin with one of those machines that. That is not shaped like a pencil on a squirming body. Like.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:19]:
So what was your. What was your past going into this? Obviously, you're an artistic guy.

Eddie [00:06:24]:
Just someone I always had to make stuff, you know, I'd rather spend 500 to make something that would cost me $50 kind of guy, if that makes sense. So that's what's part of this all out. And it's not really hard to tattoo. I still have my gear. I'll. I'll let you tattoo someone one day. I'll show you.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:40]:
Oh, well, good.

Eddie [00:06:41]:
Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:41]:
I'll tattoo you. Maybe that'll be the.

Eddie [00:06:43]:
Just that. All right, I'm not scared. Let's go.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:45]:
So. So you're. You're working at the anodizing place. And. And so what about what you were Seeing outside of the government and medical stuff, what were you seeing? You said Casey Lynch. So you're seeing some pocket knife clips.

Eddie [00:06:59]:
And stuff like that? I'm seeing pry bars and clips. And like, I'm seeing Tori cdc. I'm seeing these beer bombs. I do some stuff for gdc. It kind of introduced me into, like, the kind of, like the pocket arty kind of facet of this industry. You know, there's so many different levels to this. And. Yeah, just like, it's just creative, cool stuff, and it made me want to just kind of give me a little itchy, like, I think I could do this.

Eddie [00:07:22]:
And I literally was talking to Casey the one day, and he's like, just go do it. I'm like, okay. Taught myself Fusion 360. Modeled my first bottle opener, found someone to make it, and did all my finishing work.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:34]:
So wait, you said Fusion360, that's a CAD program, right?

Eddie [00:07:40]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. CAD and can. Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:41]:
Okay. And. And so you learned how to basically draw in the virtual world, and then you had someone else make your. And you said the keystone was your. Was that your first thing?

Eddie [00:07:53]:
That was my. My very first project, yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:55]:
Okay, so you're from Pennsylvania and Keystone, that's the Keystone State.

Eddie [00:07:58]:
Right. Is where we fall in the original 13 colonies. We're dead center, so we are the Keystone State.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:03]:
Okay, I like that. I saw that. And it's. It's kind of shaped like the symbol on the license plate.

Eddie [00:08:09]:
I think that's. It's. I love Pennsylvania. I love all four seasons. So it's a. It's a fun representation of the state I love.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:16]:
Yeah, I do too. And I grew up in Ohio, and I used to hate Pennsylvania. I don't know, I guess I felt some sort of competition with it or something. And then I started driving through it multiple times a year to get out to New York and. And other places east of there. And I've. I fell in love with two. Now it's one of those places.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:36]:
And I talked to my wife about, like, someday maybe we can live in Pennsylvania.

Eddie [00:08:41]:
That's just great, because we could go beach in a few hours. Upstate Pennsylvania, mountains in a few hours. Philly, New York City, D.C. richmond, all Pittsburgh. Everything's a stone. Soil, wet. Yeah, all four seasons included. I mean, you can't get much better unless you're in Southern California.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:56]:
And there's tons of history there too.

Eddie [00:08:58]:
Which is tons of history. So, yeah, it's a. It's a great place. I hope to see. Hopefully we'll Be neighbors one day.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:04]:
That would be cool. You can come to my giant sprawling mountain estate when I have it. But I like the idea of pocket art. You just used the term pocket arty so that the idea of collecting things that, you know, a lot of tattoo havers, owners, whatever you want to call it, are collectors. You know, they, they have collections of art on their body. But a lot of people in, in this realm love to collect pocket stuff. Knives is where I land most soundly, but I have a few things here and there other kind of doodads that I like. What is it about the pocket art thing that, that originally drew you in and kind of got you fully immersed in this world?

Eddie [00:09:51]:
I just think it was the ability to customize it. And like I said, we're all just kind of little hoarders. So it's just like fun little trinkets in there. So there's that little dopamine hit of buying a new, you know, EDC tool, pry bar, follow opener, whatever it is, worry stones. Like there's just several, many the price point you usually in the, you know, 50 to 150 range for these said items. So it just was really fun. And I don't know, it just. Because, I don't know, we're just all hoarders.

Eddie [00:10:19]:
We all like collecting things. It just depends on how clean your front yard is and how many knives you have. What do you mean about your front yard? Well, hoarding, hoarding cars. You know, we got some hoarders and that's right, we. Would you, would you come up? I'll take you around, I'll show you.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:34]:
All right, so you started with pocket bottle opener, but that's also a nut.

Eddie [00:10:38]:
Right?

Bob DeMarco [00:10:39]:
Right. I mean that's, that's also something that you could clean someone's clock with.

Eddie [00:10:42]:
Right. I mean, what you do with it is up to you. I make a bottle opener. So what you do with it once you purchase it, that's totally on you. But all I'm selling is a, is a lovely keychain bottle opener.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:52]:
Okay. Well, coming from my perspective, I feel like everything is kind of a weapon because that's the, that's the lens through which I see things, pens, you know, and, and that kind of thing. Um, I love the idea of knucks. I only have, I have like two or three. I don't have a big, a sprawling collection of them, but I like this idea. I also like full on, you know, brass knuckles. I have a good budding collection of that kind of thing. And I know we're talking about different items here.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:23]:
Brass knuckles are for weighting down your papers.

Eddie [00:11:26]:
I must say. They're belt buckles. You can belt buckles if you go to the flea markets around here. You have to see the belt buckles.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:31]:
Yeah, exactly.

Eddie [00:11:33]:
So yes, anything could be a weapon. Some of us correct different things and just use them different ways. Would be the kids. Would you say it.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:41]:
Was that ever a part of your fascination in starting with the nux. You know, the, the mo. Well, let's just say the, the multi use factor.

Eddie [00:11:50]:
Yes and no. It's just more like the kind of trinkety partness that I like about it because I don't like to think of these things as actual weapons. Could it be used some way? Yeah, it could be. But tv, it's just, just a work of art. It's a little bit. Little piece of me that I made and kind of share with the world. Not to seem too artsy right there. That did sound horrible.

Eddie [00:12:12]:
So art.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:13]:
But hey. So also pry bars then you move into, into pry bars. Tell me a little bit about that. I, I, and, and let me preface this by saying I know I'm a little chatty tonight, but I have a couple of pry bars and they're things that I, I never use, but I like having. And I attach little tassels to them and, and every once in a while I might find a reason for them. But I'm kind of fascinated with the pry bar thing. What drew you into that?

Eddie [00:12:42]:
I didn't want to make a pry bar because Casey obviously makes the best pry bar. Like Casey lynch has a hand on the market. I designed mine because my wife and I liked to. Well, we still do. We just haven't hit in a while. We like doing scratchers. So she was having neck issues and her hand would not. Her hand was numb.

Eddie [00:12:59]:
So we used to use nickels and she couldn't use a nickel anymore. So I designed a pry bar that had a little divot in it. I wish I was more prepared. I had every other product except for a pry bar in front of me, but there's a little divot in it right behind the actual. Probably a bottle open apart so you can lock your thumb into it and kind of scratch it. Lottery ticket like this. So hence I named it the good luck pry bar because it's for scratching lottery tickets.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:22]:
So are you saying that because of her nerve issue, she couldn't grasp a nickel?

Eddie [00:13:26]:
Yeah, she, her hands were. Yeah, her hands were down so she couldn't feel it. So that's why I came up with a pry bar that's actually a scratcher, but it's still a pry bar.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:33]:
That's cool.

Eddie [00:13:33]:
And yes, it could be a weapon if you used it correctly.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:37]:
I wasn't even gonna go there with the pry bar.

Eddie [00:13:40]:
I beat you to about. I'm like, yes, Bob, you use the.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:43]:
Weapon, but could you use the system? No, I, I, I like pry bars mostly as canvases for beautiful anodization and, you know, different pictorial kind of kind of things. And then looking at your Instagram, but also at your website, I see you, you kind of do things in batches, and the batches have themes, it seems like. Is that, is that like, now Jim is scrolling through your stuff and I see some of your pry bars going up there. Is that kind of accurate, would you say?

Eddie [00:14:22]:
Yeah, I wish I would say this is all planned out and part of my master plan, but it's basically whatever I do. There's no real rhyme or reason to how I do anything. It's kind of okay, I'm going to drop some keystones this week and I'll do some keystones on my pay. I haven't done this for a while. Or I'm like, hey, I feel like doing this. And that kind of just is really organic. I evolved it from there.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:39]:
Okay, so at some point you decided, I'm going to take the plunge into knives. And, and I am guessing that there's a whole other world of considerations that go into moving from nuks, bottle openers, pry bars, into something with a blade that has to be hardened up. Up until then, everything's in titanium, right?

Eddie [00:15:02]:
Yeah, yeah, I love titanium, so mainly titanium.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:05]:
Okay, so now you're moving into knives. What was it like taking the plunge into something with a blade?

Eddie [00:15:12]:
Basically, I just dove in head first. I had people like Aaron and John Gray and Ed Cab three local awesome makers I could kind of help get help with and figure out what I needed. But I just literally dove head first into it because I just want to make knives then. So I kind of was in my EDC world and I then opened up the world I always carried. I had this somewhere. It's just a little cobra. I've had it since I was probably 19. I would just lose it for years, old man.

Eddie [00:15:37]:
It would always just find its way right back to me. So it was fun to find. Like, okay, I'm gonna nudge now. This is where I want to go. This is, I want to be a knife maker. So literally got my first grinder and kind of still Fed for sim. I got hooked up with a awesome dude in Michigan area that was laser cutting blanks for me. And then he had a heat treater right down the road.

Eddie [00:15:57]:
So I was getting blanks sent to me from CAD designs that I did and then yeah, just started grinding and then I bought, I bought a CNC router. So it's basically CNC with a little handheld router in it mounted to it. And I started cutting out my own G10 handles. So I then taught myself how to do cam. So I was doing computer and machine to make my own handles and literally just dove in head first not knowing what I was doing.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:28]:
Okay, so you get, you get the blanks cut out by Felon Michigan. You send them your, your CAD files. He cuts them out, sends them to you. What's it like going from. You have this perfectly cut out blank but presumably you don't really quite know how to grind yet. How was that process going from. From you know, not knowing how to grind to getting the beautiful bevels and edges I was seeing at blade show this year.

Eddie [00:16:56]:
I'll show you the box if you come visit the shop of all screw ups. That's how, that's how I got there. You know, everyone only sees like the wins but you don't see the tons of losses and fails or like I forget I was on Lehigh show and I called Aaron like three days before. I'm like dude, I don't know how to grind knives anymore. I just lost it one day. So he had to come down and he helped me with stuff. Like is tons of sales behind the victories you see at blade show. And oh man, I'm still green and I still fail daily.

Eddie [00:17:21]:
But it's the, the drive Always want to do about a reach perfection. Even though I'll never be perfect, but I'm gonna try my hardest to get as close as I can.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:29]:
Yeah. Do you have any blades in front of you you could show as we talk?

Eddie [00:17:33]:
Yeah, yeah. So I have my pike which is like my small EDC fixed blade. I think there's one. This is actually one first one in my personal one. It's like my first hand finish. So there's that guys, they say this is like my like let's see if you hear something that's trailing the pitbull. He just wandered in here. This is like my everyday carry kind of fit play.

Eddie [00:17:58]:
Great for pouches. These dialots here. That could be also a great little neck knife. Great for couches, great for appendix carry. This is also one of my first Tries at digital sublimation on Kydex.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:11]:
What is that? What is digital what?

Eddie [00:18:14]:
Digital sublimation. So that's basically melting an image onto the Kydex. So this is white Kydex with my logos all over it.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:22]:
So your logo is OEG stands for when I'd go one eyed ghost. And that's. That's what your logo is. Oh, and we can see that on your T shirt too, if you don't mind.

Eddie [00:18:33]:
Pick.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:34]:
Pick that knife back up again. You call that the pike?

Eddie [00:18:37]:
Yes, that's the bike. This is my like my small EDC fix blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:41]:
Okay, so now when you designed this knife, was this. This wasn't your first design? This is right?

Eddie [00:18:47]:
No, the first was the Marion, the one you, you. You mentioned earlier. That was my very first six blade. And I learned a lot from that. And I wasn't the happiest with that. So that's why I kind of retired that one because it was a great stepping stone to get here, but I didn't want to continue with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:02]:
Okay, so what. What were your design goals? What were you. What were you looking to achieve? And. And what did the Marion teach you that led you to this?

Eddie [00:19:11]:
Marion taught me how to do soils wrong and right. The first batch had my logo. The little ghost face with the, you know, the crossed out eye and the open eye in the mouth. Kind of like cut into the back of it and there's like a little hollow spot. I knew there was a weak point, but I tested a few times. It was pretty good until one of my customers was in a zip line with it on and it got caught in a zipline harness and it broke the little tab off. So after that I kind of changed the design. And then once I changed the design, it didn't feel like the original anymore.

Eddie [00:19:40]:
So I felt like, you know what? I'm going to retire this model. I wasn't really happy with the blade shape, so there's a bunch of reasons. Like anything else, it was learning from my failures and letting really learn what I could do better. Your experience. There you go. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:55]:
So what. When you. When you design a knife, both the Marion, which is something you can see if you look in the past, but now the Pike. What are you going for?

Eddie [00:20:07]:
I'm just going for. For sleek lines and just carryability, Something that you're going to want to carry, something that doesn't end up in the door. So it's going to be a workhorse, but still have, you know, nice lines like an old muscle car. So. And then and then not to cut you off. So then from the Parian became the district which was my next full size model then. So that was something where you can get like a full four on and then this is one because everyone always asks me that. I learned from the Marion.

Eddie [00:20:34]:
Everyone asked for interchangeable hair handles. So this is something where you can actually do interchangeable handles. So this comes with titanium on this one. G10 Ultem Micarta's. So I kind of just picture framed it around the tang there. So you have some tang hanging all around it and then you bolt. You can bolt your scales on and off.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:55]:
That is beautiful. Hold those up together. Unsheathe them both if you don't mind. Hold them up together so we can see. I mean just this is just my, my very off the cuff impression. But. But the, the one in your left hand. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:12]:
Seems like another step beyond in a way. I mean that, that seems like a pretty sophisticated design. I love the swedge. I love the jimping. I'm a jimping. I won't use that expression but I'm a jimping whore. And I love the 5050 choil and I love the. The very sort of neutral handle of that.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:34]:
I mean you can really seems like you can use the one in your. In your left hand for everything. The one on the right is also beautiful but it seems like by comparison slightly more limited.

Eddie [00:21:46]:
Well this is more concealed carry something like that. Something that you're going to have with you. It's just there. You know you're going to have it. It's in your backpack is wherever you want to have it. You know this is more of like this is my knife. I'm carrying this with me. I'm taking it camping and still adventures.

Eddie [00:21:58]:
You know, four wheeling stuff like that.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:00]:
Right, right. Because the, the pike is considerably smaller. So.

Eddie [00:22:04]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:05]:
I mean or certainly it's like more of a three finger knife.

Eddie [00:22:08]:
Definitely a three but with the right bead you can get that purchase on the 4th then with a stubby bead is how I kind of market it if someone that does a bigger paw or wants to get all four on there.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:20]:
So was when. When you moved to the second design. I'm sorry, I keep forgetting what it's called.

Eddie [00:22:26]:
Dude, we're all over the place district. That's okay. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:29]:
When you started making the district were you. Were you looking to. How were you looking to make a different design? Because definitely the handle seems more neutral.

Eddie [00:22:40]:
What were you.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:41]:
What was your mind?

Eddie [00:22:43]:
It's been moving from as my taste Is growing as someone that makes knives and likes knives and also getting customer feedback where we're going. You know, this would be cool. Like, hey, can we switch your handles out? I'm like, well, no, you know, I get naked like that. You know, I married the handles to the tang and then I'm hand shaping them all. So no 2. No 2 handles are the same. Like, everything's too. Too one off.

Eddie [00:23:07]:
So that's why I say make something that's more interchangeable. There's just very clean up on the actual spine of the knife, so I'm not changing the shape. So your picture frame is always relatively even around the whole entire handle. So, yeah, it's just kind of just evolution of me growing as a maker, the designer people.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:26]:
How much of your ad slash ham skills had to grow between the first and the second? Because if the handle is totally unique on the pike and it's hafted on, but you want to make things interchangeable, it seems like a big growth spurt there.

Eddie [00:23:43]:
Basically day and night. In the beginning, I had no idea what I've been doing. But I try to be a healthy mix of computer nerd and be able to make it with my hands is where I want to be at. So I want to know how to do both of the best I can. It's also super convenient to just be able to hop on my computer for an hour or two right here and just be like, all right, I'm just gonna work on some design work. I have hundreds of eyes. I'll probably never shoot a lighter day. They're just kind of fun practices for me.

Eddie [00:24:10]:
Or if whenever someone needs help in design work, I'm always happy to help them out. Just because it's just more practice to get better and better.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:17]:
I mean, that's exciting. I mean, that's where you want to be. You want to have more designs than you could ever possibly make than the other way around. Obviously, you know, I'm flat out of ideas. You don't want that.

Eddie [00:24:30]:
No, no.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:32]:
So speaking as a guy who's made 10 to 15 knives just noodling around in my shed over an expanse of time, I can't say I learned too much, because it was. Wasn't a concentrated enough amount of time. But what I did learn is that if you're doing everything completely by hand, it's incredibly hard to make something the same every time. Especially if you want to be making handles that you can swap out, you know? Yeah. You know, you. You sell the knife and then you sell five different handle. Scales, sets, they're all going to be different unless you have it really, really locked in.

Eddie [00:25:10]:
Oh yeah. That's where I use my CNC router. So I'm basically machining my own G10 handles and then my tie sets are coming from my machinist, Chris Barclay, who's in Spokane, Washington. So luckily, through the aid of machining, my G10 is pretty much exactly the same every time. And then same with my tie handles. They're always the same.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:31]:
So is this your, this is your full time gig?

Eddie [00:25:33]:
Full time. I've been full time for a little over a year now.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:36]:
Okay, so what, what does a day in the life look like for you?

Eddie [00:25:41]:
Usually up at 4, I'm at the gym by 5, back home, take care of the pups and usually in the shop by 7:38, but then usually in the shop till about 4ish. And whatever's gonna happen in the shop that day is. I know it kind of depends on what show is coming up or what drops I'm gonna do, you know. So I was just doing Blade Show. So I just spent the last two months prepping for Blade show and before that I had the Lehigh show. So I spent about a month prepping for the Lehigh show, all while trying to pepper in drops here and there for, you know, all my online customers and people that can Blade show at a Lehigh show. So it's, it's a little crap shoot. It's kind of how I'm feeling.

Eddie [00:26:19]:
It's a. The curse. It's the gift and the curse of working for yourself. You know, I get to choose what I want to do and sometimes I don't know what to do.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:28]:
Is that the curse part? Not knowing?

Eddie [00:26:30]:
That's the curse? Yeah. No one telling me what to do. I can do what I want, but I also have no one telling me like, that's the curse.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:36]:
How much is your online customer base, your boss, in terms of knowing what you need to be doing aside from the show prep? I mean that's a huge thing, but.

Eddie [00:26:45]:
Oh, that was a great question. I never actually thought about that. I'd probably say 60% and then 40s or 40 shows.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:53]:
Seems like you're never going to know what you're going to get at a show. But if you have a consistent, you know, customer base online.

Eddie [00:27:00]:
Yeah, and I can't, I planned like, say especially for this show. The finishes I planned for some like esun and stuff. They were hot last year. They were not at this year. So you can't plan. And it always feels like, whatever. Whatever I'm most stoked about that I've made for a show never sells. And everything that I'm like, I don't like, it always sells first, so I'll never get it right.

Eddie [00:27:20]:
And I'm. I'm okay with that. That's.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:22]:
That's interesting.

Eddie [00:27:23]:
That's.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:23]:
I mean, that. I don't know, somehow, weirdly, that's kind of intuitive. It makes sense intuitively. Kind of. Because the stuff you're not sure about is probably stuff that's newish, you're not as comfortable with and. Or it's just.

Eddie [00:27:37]:
It's just a finish that I'm like, ah, this is my favorite finish. Remember that? It's subpar. It's just like, oh, no. This is the finish I like. Blaze show. I had a, I had a blacked out Windsor. Just. I did all this air coat.

Eddie [00:27:48]:
Everything was blacked out. The action was buttery smooth. It was just like the perfect knife. And everyone's like, I love this knife. It never left the table. And I brought it home with me.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:57]:
All right, wait, wait. We haven't talked about the Windsor.

Eddie [00:27:59]:
Let's talk about the Windsor. The Windsor is my first folder.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:03]:
Yes.

Eddie [00:28:04]:
So all titanium, minor cut blade. And this is it. This is the second iteration. So this is the first V2 that I just made for myself.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:13]:
That is beautiful.

Eddie [00:28:15]:
So I've been working on these for, yeah, a little over a year. I've released them at Nick's last Nick show. When was that? Easter, April last year. April last year is when these first.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:28]:
New York custom knife show.

Eddie [00:28:29]:
Yep. New York custom, but yeah. So that's tie with my radial pattern. Um, that's Typhon 200. So it's a gray anodize on there with a stonewash blade. Um, I just moved to a. Sorry, I just moved the fully machine clip. So this is my personal one.

Eddie [00:28:44]:
She's a bit boogered up right now, but yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:49]:
Oh, that is beautiful. Take us through the specs. How. How big is that blade? How. How big is it overall?

Eddie [00:28:54]:
Oh, you're asking me questions I haven't thought of ever since I made it. Overall, I think we're somewhere like six and three quarters. I think for competing area. I think I'm just under three on this. And you'll have to forgive me. I don't have my specs to once I make it on the computer. But they're on the website. So if anyone wants to go oegdc.com all the specs are on there.

Eddie [00:29:17]:
I apologize. I'm not A better businessman.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:19]:
No, no, no, no. I, I, I was, I was thinking just looking at it, it's about 3.3.1, 3.2 inches. And it's, it's, it's really beautiful. It looks a lot like a shark to me. I mean I guess a lot of knives do, but it really has so.

Eddie [00:29:35]:
Hard to make a knife that doesn't look like a knife. It's so hard.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:40]:
Okay, hold this up for a minute so we can talk about it. Just hold it up, you can view it. And so I want like, tell me about what it's like making the transition from designing and having concerns for a fixed blade and then going into this totally, almost completely different realm with a folder.

Eddie [00:30:00]:
I mean it's absolutely day and night. Like I said, it's, I've been working on this one for a year now. And then before that it was probably a good year of like R D in the background and just you know, paying for one off prototypes. I got most of the geometry right. I had some detach shoes so I had to put the detent hole and move that all around. Geometry is pretty decent on the flipper right away. So I don't have to make too many moves on that. Other than that I've been fortunate.

Eddie [00:30:28]:
It's just a little like little touches here and there like the V2 all. Only thing I'm doing different is I went with a 1 mil bearing stiff bearing now and I'm running on washers so I can washer and bearing. So thrust washer then bearing so I can run different show side can do a fat carbon. I have a few in ultum I've already done and like G10 so I can do different staircides now.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:52]:
Okay, I'm afraid I don't exactly understand. Can you break that down a little bit? What do you mean that washers on one side and bearing?

Eddie [00:30:58]:
No, no. So it's a thrust so washer bearing then blade. So the bearing's not riding, the bearing's not riding on, on like a comp on a composite. So there's a metal washer bearing than the blade. So the first model with some people is weird because some people say it's okay because I was doing titanium bearing than the blade with no issues. But then I want to try and do some more different options for show sides just to spice it up a little bit. And so now there's a washer bearing then the blade with the handle sandwiching.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:32]:
That because presumably the bearings will wear a rate.

Eddie [00:31:37]:
The ceramic bearing is going to Work your softer titanium. Yes.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:42]:
And whatever the composite is too, it'll do the same thing there, I guess.

Eddie [00:31:45]:
Right, Exactly. In a quicker fashion. My first one, I mean, I've talked to tons of makers that have had knives for years with no issues. This one was saying, better be safe than sorry and just switch it up a little bit and gave myself more options. Run different show sides now.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:58]:
And saying thrust bearings. This sounds extra cool.

Eddie [00:32:01]:
It does. That's what they're listed on Alpha's website. As I. I had to say.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:07]:
Okay, so this is your first folder model. Yes. Now, this might sound obvious, but what. Obviously you wanted to make a folding knife, but what were your goals with this? If you. If you're already making fixed blade EDCs, which are super hot right now, and. And they're falling in a envelope that fit in your pocket or fit around your neck. What about the folder? What were you going for?

Eddie [00:32:38]:
Selfish reasons. I wanted to carry my own folder. Just basically after carrying all kinds of different stuff. I was a Spyderco man for a long time. I just wanted something that was a bit smaller. I want something that you'd forget about in your pocket. So this is. I know.

Eddie [00:32:51]:
Here's the spec. I know this is 3.2 ounces, so it's really light and it's. It's under a half inch wide, so it's definitely. You don't feel it in your pocket, so you don't know what's in there. So. So I like that. Not. I don't like clunky pockets.

Eddie [00:33:04]:
Um, I don't know, I just don't like a bunch of stuff. I know I'm a VC guy. I don't like a bunch of stuff in my pockets. I work around tools every day, so I don't need 50,000 tools. You know, I have my knife on me and I have one of my pocket. One of my pry bars on my keychain and that can get me through the day along with every tool I have at my house and in my shop.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:24]:
So you said Magnacut on this one, right?

Eddie [00:33:26]:
Yes, sir.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:27]:
So what was the. How did you choose Magnacut?

Eddie [00:33:30]:
I hate to say it, but everyone else is doing it. Um, it seems to be. I mean, it's. It's the super seal for now. We don't know what's going to be in the future for Magna with everything going on right now. Was it going to be Magnum Max starting soon?

Bob DeMarco [00:33:42]:
Yeah. Yep.

Eddie [00:33:43]:
So Magnamax and then it is going to be China, correct?

Bob DeMarco [00:33:47]:
Oh, that. I don't know, actually.

Eddie [00:33:48]:
But I didn't. I've heard rumors in. Never mind. How do you say that?

Bob DeMarco [00:33:53]:
It. Well, it seems to make sense given the. What, what the steel companies you're going through, especially CPM or. Yeah.

Eddie [00:34:01]:
Crucible. Crucible, yeah. So, yeah, I mean it is good. I mean it's for ED retention. It's just weird. Everyone. If you do it at 64, people like it at 62. If you do it at 63, someone with the sub repair, it's.

Eddie [00:34:15]:
I've seen what's best for you is whatever's best for you. Run that knife at whatever HRC you like. Um, it's hard. You can't freeze everyone. I run mine off. I run mine at 62, 63. Because when I first started doing them, that was, the hotspot was like 62 and a half. And then everyone, everyone I talked to at Blade show says it has to be 64 now, but it's going to give you a better edge retention.

Eddie [00:34:35]:
But then there's, there's the, the, the weakness then when it gets higher in the hrc. So like it's so hard. The whole knife steel nerd industry is a whole different level that I try to pay attention to and I, I can't, I can't throw my hat in that ring. I can't keep up with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:52]:
I, I think it's a moving target, so.

Eddie [00:34:54]:
Well said.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:55]:
Yeah. So let me ask you this. With the making of the folder, how does that work? Is it all CAD work? You send it out, it comes back to you assembled, or do you get the parts and make it from there?

Eddie [00:35:10]:
Or I get the parts. I get the parts and make it. So my machinist in Spokane does all my tie work and then my guy does my fix my fixed blade blanks, cuts my blanks out and does that P treat and then I grind my bevels, set the lock, do every, set the P tent, assemble it all, and then do all the finish work and then put the edge on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:31]:
To me, as a non knife maker, that sounds like the best of all worlds. Like you don't have to do the kind of tedious part of cutting everything out and you also don't have to suffer the, the expendables. You know, like you're, you're, you're cutting blades and that kind of thing. You don't have to pay for that. Obviously you're paying for it in a different way, but you kind of get to put the whole thing together. Is that, is that a fun kind of process?

Eddie [00:35:59]:
Yes and no. I, it's enjoyable, but I felt like there was almost like an imposter syndrome. So then later at the end of last year, I got my own heat tree oven and then I've been slowly making like one off pancut heat treated by me full customs. So it's fun, but I always feel like I have to take it to the next level.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:19]:
Wait, wait, what do you mean by imposter syndrome?

Eddie [00:36:22]:
I just feel like I wasn't a fully full knife maker just because I'm a stock removal guy, because I'm just removing stock from blanks that are cut. So. And like being like another ADHD quest. I wanted like, well, I want how do he treat? So I got nothing. And then I just started cutting out steel, doing my own heat treat. I made one custom slip joint so far for my buddy and I made a few little fixed plates.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:44]:
Oh, that's cool. You know that, that's admirable because in, in my opinion, and, and I know that's what imposter syndrome is all about. It's a, it's a mind trick for people who don't believe they. And if you don't mind my saying, people who don't believe they deserve what they've actually achieved.

Eddie [00:37:02]:
Oh, 100%.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:03]:
But, but that, that's admirable that you're fighting against that by actually investigating a different way of doing it and maybe. But some of our most admired makers do it the way you do it.

Eddie [00:37:17]:
Oh, yeah. You know, I think it's a, it's a me problem. I'm not saying it's not. That's not the right way or wrong way to do it. It's just me wanting to feel, learn more about the craft and feel like I've actually a part of the industry a little bit more, more sense. But there is still imposter. I mean, I'm so green. I've only been making that for three years.

Eddie [00:37:35]:
Someone's going to figure out I don't know what I'm doing eventually.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:39]:
Yeah, but it'll. It, it'll. It will be a customer. And it seems like your customers so far are pretty damn happy. What do you, what do you hear from these people? And who is your customer?

Eddie [00:37:54]:
I don't know anyone that has the same hot size hand to me loves my knives. So most of my customers have the same hand size. Everyone loves how it feels. I'm like, well, you just got the same hand. I basically model everything off of my hand. So they're all the same hand size as me. Usually no yeah, just. I don't know.

Eddie [00:38:10]:
My customers, just average dudes. I mean, no celebrities. So I can't tell you any good celebrity stories.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:17]:
What I mean is, are they. Are they finding you on Instagram and just kind of buying your stuff or, or, or are they, you know, hunters? Are they urban dudes or like, who do you think is. Is collecting your stuff?

Eddie [00:38:28]:
I'm not really a hunter, guys. More like, more based. I feel kind of like urban. Like not hypebeast or not in a hypebeast level. Kind of like more like artsy. Urban would be my thing. I don't know. That sounds so weird to say it, but.

Eddie [00:38:46]:
Another good question, Bob. You caught me off. You caught me off guard on that one. I never thought about that.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:50]:
Artsy, urban. You're like defeat sophisticated people you run into. Yeah, they're the guys who are collecting my stuff.

Eddie [00:38:57]:
Well, I just sold a knife to a Delta pilot at Blade show. That's pretty cool. It was so. Well, I'm definitely afraid of flying. And I told him that and he's like, yeah, I'm a Delta pilot. I'm like, I geeked out. I'm an airplane nerd too. So it's horribly funny.

Eddie [00:39:11]:
So. Yeah, it looks in, right? Yeah, there's just. It's a really effective group of people, so I'm very happy they. They like what I do and I appreciate it.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:20]:
Wait, did you say you're an airplane nerd?

Eddie [00:39:23]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up loving airplanes, yet I.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:27]:
Hate flying, like, fighter jets.

Eddie [00:39:29]:
Yeah, I had a book, I had a book called My God. And I was like this. Nothing but military.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:33]:
What's your favorite plane?

Eddie [00:39:35]:
Ooh, a 10. Warthog's been pretty good for most of.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:38]:
My life, so a lot of titanium in that plane.

Eddie [00:39:41]:
That, That's a good same. With SR71, that was. The skin was mainly all titanium. The fuselage would leak when I was on the Runway because the pound. See, look, you got me going. All right, you got. We'll still have a whole airplane nerd podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:55]:
Yeah, my. My dad, My dad was in the Air Force, and so me and my dad, my brother, have always nerded out over airplanes. And SR71 has always been my dad's favorite plane. And I never heard of titanium until the 80s. And he was talking about S71 and he, he had gotten a new watch that was made of titanium. And he's like, this is the same material in the SR71, and that thing leaks until it, you know, reaches the reaches atmospheric level and.

Eddie [00:40:23]:
Yeah, sort of started expansion and it actually will stop leaking, which. That's great design, I guess.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:29]:
I love that. I think that's cool. And I think you can kind of see that in the. In your flipper it out again, if you don't mind. I. I said it looked like a shark, but it also has. Definitely has a sort of. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:43]:
That sort of sleek vibe of an airplane.

Eddie [00:40:46]:
Yeah, I could totally see that. And maybe that's subconsciously been something I've based all my designs off of, but I didn't realize it till now, so. Thank you, Bob.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:54]:
Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Eddie [00:40:57]:
So, yeah, so, yeah, we can have a whole different podcast about airplanes. I got some. I got some good stories for you about that.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:03]:
I'm. I'm. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I'll stop right there. Except I will say love the F22, but still the F15. Nothing's nothing beats the F15.

Eddie [00:41:12]:
Nothing beats nothing beats F14. Was a Tomcat.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:17]:
The Eagle.

Eddie [00:41:18]:
The Eagle, yes. That was the fixed wing. F14. The wings moved. F15. The wings were fixed. Yeah. Right.

Eddie [00:41:23]:
Am I doing good?

Bob DeMarco [00:41:24]:
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Eddie [00:41:25]:
Okay. Okay. All right. All right. I also have a really good customer shout out to Alan Bruce. He was a C17 mechanic, so he sent me one of his jumpsuits. Yeah. So you work on the Globemaster.

Eddie [00:41:36]:
And I have plays with the patches, so. Thanks, Al.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:40]:
Oh, that's cool. So who were the first people who started buying your knives? Was it the people who were buying your. Who are already on board for your keystone and your pry bar and that kind of thing, or.

Eddie [00:41:53]:
Yeah, yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:54]:
You see stock.

Eddie [00:41:56]:
No, no, no. Well, yeah, because I debuted my first six slate at mix. My first Knicks in 202022 or no, 2021. It was September 2021. So I was luckily that, like, it was mainly Internet customers and mixed customers. I was also very fortunate to do the Lehigh Valley Knife show, which I've done religiously, that I've made lots of customers and be able to sold. Sell a bunch of knives at that show as well.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:21]:
That's a big show. The Lee. The Lehigh Valley show.

Eddie [00:42:24]:
It's. It's only getting better. I love that shows. It was my very first show and I think I've been doing it. So I've been doing this since 20. Since 2021 now. And would never. I missed one of them because blade shows close.

Eddie [00:42:36]:
But I go to that show whenever I can.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:39]:
So how important are knife shows? And I'm not just talking about blade show. That's the big. The big show. But in Terms of Lehigh, that is.

Eddie [00:42:47]:
Also a very large one.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:48]:
But New York Custom Knife show, regional shows, how important are they for new makers?

Eddie [00:42:54]:
I think they're huge. You get this good exposure. It's just be, it's great to be able like make like minded people and other makers just to kind of bounce ideas. There's not too many gatekeepers in this industry. Everyone's pretty open. I blade show this year. I was seeing the breakfast of the wife and there's a table of like very famous makers behind me and they're talking about screwing up mammoth handles and pivots being wrong and undersized. This.

Eddie [00:43:22]:
I'm like, all right, I'm not the only one. So it's good to get to those shows where you can kind of talk to people and see like, okay, I'm not the only one that struggled with this or this is how I can do this better. So I think it's really important. And just getting out there and meeting new people and customers helps a ton.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:37]:
I mean, you, you to me personally were a model, model knife maker in terms of how you engaged at Blade Show. I mean, I know you and I had a personal introduction through a friend of yours and friend of mine, but like, what would you say is the way to go about it? You see a lot of new makers. Some are great, some go about it in a great way. Others maybe need some pointers.

Eddie [00:44:04]:
What would those pointers be? Just, I mean, easiest way to keep your mouth stuck shut and ears open. That's one of the good things, you know, just trying to absorb it, take it all and just be a fly on the wall. And when you see your shock, you entered the conversation, take that shot and kind of just go in there. I mean, that's kind of guessing. You have to make friends. I have no idea. I just have a bunch of weirdos that I get along with. So it's kind of the same thing with knife making.

Eddie [00:44:28]:
It's not too hard to get along. Just introduce yourself and talk about knives. It's that easy.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:35]:
Yeah, Well, I mean, I mean, to me you were very embraced. Like Aaron brought me over. You're like, hey, you were like, very warm and talkative and you had this really cool setup, which is unique. And you told me that your strategy is every year to update that and make it unique and memorable. And that pizza shop theme was totally memorable and hit me hard as an Italian.

Eddie [00:44:59]:
I want to go on record right now. How many people do you think are going to have a theme next year? Well, we'll See, I was thinking about that because a lot of I, I had double the traffic last year because of the booth and everyone loved it. So I'm going on record, Bob, you and I were going to talk next year. We're going to see how we do have a theme.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:17]:
All right, all right, we'll count. We'll do a little unofficial count. But even minus the theme, the way you engaged is, is important because especially, I mean, it's, it's especially. It's important anywhere, whether you have a smaller table or a bigger booth. But if you have a big booth and you're not like out in the open, you may as. I don't know, I just, I just feel like that is something a lot of creator types have to get over. A sort of, you know, instinct to, to stay in the background and just. I just like doing my stuff and they.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:53]:
And you really have to reach out.

Eddie [00:45:56]:
It's a weird mix because I'm full of social media and like, I'm trying to be more active on social media and kind of be like, like I said earlier, like, try to be a real person a little bit more. I'm a super introverted extrovert. I love talking to people. I love people with the same interest. I can get along with people super easily, but my social battery runs out pretty quick and most nights I'm watching the Phillies game with my wife and two dogs on the couch. So like I said, it's fun and like I said, have years of experience with being a bartender before I did everything else, I'd bartended for years. I can pretty much talk to anyone, but literally I spent entire last week I did nothing. I went to the shop and I would just like move something and wipe underneath of it.

Eddie [00:46:31]:
Like I was gone. So it comes at a toll.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:35]:
Well, that's totally understandable. You had just gotten over 72 hours of selling yourself and your. And your brand and, and being present. I mean, that makes sense. I keep seeing a red knife in your hand. What's that all about?

Eddie [00:46:51]:
This is my bike knife. So I did two. So that's a good thing about shows is just inspiration on the creative juices are fun. So I did do nothing by designing a folder last week and last week I also designed this. So I'm working on just like a skeletonized knife. I'm gonna call it my bike knife because I've been doing a lot of bike riding. So I went to run a very minimalist bike format knife for my bike. So this is just.

Eddie [00:47:14]:
I've been playing with the prototype I always make, you know, I'll do my, my CAD and I'll export it to my 3D printer. So I'll do a 3D print and I'll carry it out for a while. So you've noticed correctly, I've just been fidgeting and playing with it and seeing if there's any hot spots, seeing if it feels good, like the four fingers. And I just. I play with my voice.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:32]:
That's funny. You call that a bike knife. Because as I mentioned earlier, I have a good friend in Cleveland who sells bikes. Got a very unique shop. And at one point I was like, I'm going to design you a knife that you can sell at your shop. And it's going to have in the handle, it'll have a little, you know, wrench or whatever. I don't know. I don't know bikes that well.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:51]:
But I had an idea for a bike knife that I never really actually developed, but it's. I used the expression. So it's cool to see and hear of someone who's actually doing it. Do you mind holding that up? You can take a look.

Eddie [00:48:05]:
It just. I don't carry some. I don't have much storage on my bike, so I can't fit a knife sometimes on my bike. So I'm working on a fixture that this is going to mount to, like the water bottle mount. And then I figure I'll have a decent amount of attention in the, in the holes here with the G10. So I don't have to worry with the Kydex. Excuse me. So I don't have to worry about if there was an accident, the knife coming loose.

Eddie [00:48:26]:
I think I'll be able to get really solid retention on that. And I figured if I make like little. A little aluminum bracket that follows the curvature of the tube, I can mount the Kydex. Mount Kydex through eyelets to the mount to the, to the bracket underneath the water bottle. No, go ahead. Sorry. In my mind, that's how it's going to work. And then, like, the rear hole is perfectly sized for paracord.

Eddie [00:48:49]:
You do paracord wraps. So if you're on the trail and there's emergency, you'll have paracord on you as well. So this is really new. This might never come now or it might happen next week. We'll find out.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:02]:
God, I love the blade shape of that and the skeletonization. I. I know the little I do know about bikes.

Eddie [00:49:10]:
You know, you.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:11]:
You're always trying to keep it as light as Possible. So you're, you're doing that. You've got a beautiful blade. Looks extremely useful. Also you've got a guard just in that the blade is wider than the handle itself. So that, that looks, I think that's a great idea. And a lot of people cycling, I.

Eddie [00:49:31]:
Think it'd be great for protection or for just roadside repairs if anything happens. It's like, it's always great having that fun.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:39]:
Yeah, yeah, no doubt about that. So couple of years doing this, doing knives, three years doing knives, about six years owning an EDC company and, and a couple of years full time. What kind of lessons have you learned in terms of business?

Eddie [00:50:01]:
Oh, I wish I had a good answer for this. I am the worst at business. Luckily I have my wife, so she's helping me with the books and doing, and doing all that. And I say I don't have anyone, I don't have a boss, but c different helps keep me alive. And she can tell when, when the ad ADHD's taking. I need to be like corralled this way. Like, okay, let's do this now. So I definitely, definitely have help from my life for sure.

Eddie [00:50:28]:
But basically business kind of just follow the building rule. I try to treat everyone how I like to be treated. I try to ship fast and accordingly. If you have an issue with a knife, I try to take care of it right away. And yeah, just kind of see others how you want to be treated. As my business advice.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:44]:
That's a, that's good advice for just people in general, you know, meeting new people, whatever. It is also something I was going to ask you before that, that I, I forgot to ask is how do you, how do you. Well, how do you sell your knives? Like is it. And then how do you make them? Do you make them in batches? How does that work?

Eddie [00:51:04]:
All online drops. So basically I have a newsletter that goes out usually Wednesday before drops and I'll make an announcement and also with Instagram I'll just announce Monday and so what the drop is. And yeah, I'll just do them in batches. So I'll just do like I'll do a batch of stonewash with this handle or that handle and then just do that, batch it all out and then post up on the newsletter or social media the drops coming and then have a drop always on Friday at 7:45.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:32]:
I saw that. And I'll ask you this as you pick up your earbuds and, and about how many knives do you do at one time?

Eddie [00:51:40]:
Not much since I'm a one man army. It's usually like five to 15. Okay. Yeah. So I keep it. Keep my draws very small when it comes to like the smaller keystones and stuff like that. I can do like 40, 50, 60 pieces in the drop. That's not an issue.

Eddie [00:51:53]:
But for knife, sister hand, ground. Oh, that's the other thing. This knife. I'm looking at this knife to be fully machined bevels. So this will be a. This will be a product where I just finish it, make the sheets and be able to get more out there to public and maybe like bike shops where, you know, I have a laser in my shop so I can be doing maybe bike shops custom logos for the shops engraved on them. So I'm trying to think of the feature and you can only make so much with your hands, so I'm starting to see, like I'm reaching the ceiling where I can only get so much done. Holders take a lot of time.

Eddie [00:52:24]:
Running bevels take a lot of time. So this would be a night that I could kind of have America produce in America and be able to sell larger volumes up.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:33]:
I love that idea too, because there are a lot of small bike shops out there and you could, you know, customize it with your laser to. To there and. Oh, that's a. That's a really cool idea. Maybe, maybe at some point I connect you with my friend and maybe maybe that you guys could be the. That could be a.

Eddie [00:52:53]:
What do you call it? What's the.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:54]:
A test bed kind of thing.

Eddie [00:52:56]:
I love that. And I guarantee you, I mean, I have a connection to someone in this industry since I did some bike work back before that I did this, I would do some custom painting on bikes. So I guarantee you we're gonna have like another 7 degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon. I'm sure we know someone in the industry.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:10]:
No doubt. And. And funny thing is, the first time this was in the early nut. This was like 1993, 4 or 5. I remember I was big into biking until I got in a nasty accident. And then I sort of wimped out and shied away, but there was.

Eddie [00:53:31]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:34]:
Oh, nice.

Eddie [00:53:34]:
There it is. One plate and one plate and six.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:38]:
Grease, perfect front teeth. That's from the. There was a bike shop in Philly because that's where I lived at the time. And I. I remember thinking these guys, they were probably like 5 years old, and I'm like, these guys are so cool, you know, and they, they know bikes and they're like. And then this one guy had a. A spyderco police model, all stainless steel with the serrations. And he pulled it out to do something.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:02]:
And I was like, what is that? Like, yeah, that. So anyway, I think that that that sort of gear oriented culture. I love the crossovers, you know.

Eddie [00:54:16]:
Well, just for backpacking or hiking, this would be great. So something simple. No parts are going to break. You don't got to worry about harder falling out, anything like that. You know, if I do magic cut, there's good corrosion resistance or something like that. Like this easy to took your knife. Knife, you just always have it on you and then hopefully keep it at a decent price point just so it's not breaking the bank and keeping it affordable. Because we all know three baggies of groceries cost 300 bucks right now.

Eddie [00:54:42]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:44]:
Okay. So I know that this knife is kind of in the offing is something you're working on. But just so I can know you as a maker, we can know you as a maker. Like, what is the most aspirational knife you could think of? Sword, bowie knife, you know, scalpel, whatever it is.

Eddie [00:55:02]:
What.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:03]:
What is something that you haven't made yet that. Oh, what is this?

Eddie [00:55:07]:
I've been working on pinning tang with wah. So this is a petty that I made. So my goal is to do some culinary pin and tang with the long handles. So this is just a pediatric I've been running for about four months now. So this is the first one. No, second. This is the second one I made.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:23]:
I don't know the term. What is that petty knife?

Eddie [00:55:26]:
It's just a small chef's knife. So it's a small. Basically do everything in the kitchen knife. So this is this your basic knife knife in for a chef in the kitchen. So I definitely want to work on some of that stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:38]:
And could you hold that up just to the camera for a minute so we can take a look at that? That is beautiful. It's got what looks to be like sort of a Japanese octagonal handle in a way, hidden tang. This is sort of like this for people listening. It's like a paring knife. It looks like maybe a little longer.

Eddie [00:55:55]:
A little bit longer than a paring knife. Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:57]:
Oh, man, this is beautiful.

Eddie [00:55:59]:
And then the ferrule is G10. So I was experimenting with doing G10 for the feral. So then this is hit and cut and heat treated by me as well. So this is like. This is one of those adventurous side quests I've been wanting to take myself out.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:13]:
Oh, my God, that's beautiful, man.

Eddie [00:56:15]:
Thank you very much, Bob.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:17]:
Oh, you're welcome. And we, we have a fondness in this, in this house for. We have a couple of custom kitchen knives, three that have pushed everything to the side.

Eddie [00:56:27]:
Everything.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:28]:
And we still have this big butcher block full of knives that we never touch. It's because hand ground, like, they have soul.

Eddie [00:56:36]:
The knife actually has soul. So I think that's the fun part about that, especially in the kitchen, because when you're cooking, you're cooking for people you love.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:41]:
Yeah.

Eddie [00:56:42]:
So makes total sense.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:44]:
They cook better too. They cut better too. They're not, they're not. They're not ax wedges. They're very slender.

Eddie [00:56:51]:
That one has done some damage to some tomatoes. It's got some real nice thin slices. So I'm happy with how that's going to.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:57]:
Man, that's awesome. Well, I, I'm, I'm really excited to hear that because that's a pretty broad range. You have.

Eddie [00:57:04]:
You.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:05]:
You've already got a folder out. You've got two sort of EDC fixed blades. You've got a bike knife coming, and then you've got this handmade one off kitchen knife that, that you want to reproduce. I love it. As you continue with the knives, do you think you will keep up with the keystones and the pry bars and other things like that, or will it all go to knives?

Eddie [00:57:30]:
I see them kind of like, I notice to compare myself, it's kind of like a. Almost like a Lucas Burnham style where, you know, he drops the side pops every now and then. So I could see it doing where it's like something where maybe there's a quarterly drop of them. And not that they don't take a back burner because I'll never turn my back on them because that's how I started. But I definitely want to be focused more on knife making, on this craft and learning more about this and then having these products to drop here and there, if you will. But no, I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna shy away from it, but nice making is definitely where I want to be. And then these are products I'm gonna do here and there.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:13]:
Well, I don't mean to be presumptuous, but I think I speak for a lot of people in the audience. I think we're all psyched about that. I love what you've done so far, and, and man, the future looks promising for you. And I also like just how varied your, your offerings are, and I love that too.

Eddie [00:58:30]:
Thank you, Bob. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:32]:
My pleasure. Eddie of OEG edc. Thank you so much for joining me on the Knife Junkie podcast, sir. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Eddie [00:58:39]:
Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be on here. And let me know when you come up, we'll cook something.

Advertisement Announcer [00:58:45]:
The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super sharp crenulated bezel, and a built in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary, choose the Shockwave tactical torch. The knifejunkie.com shockwave

Bob DeMarco [00:59:19]:
There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, Eddie of EG. I'm sorry, OEG EDC. Real pleasure talking with him and it was awesome meeting him and seeing his setup at Blade. Not only that, I guess I didn't mention this too much, but I pawed over his stuff quite a bit and it is super beautiful, high quality stuff. So I can't wait to see what.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:28]:
Comes from him next.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:30]:
All right. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [00:59:36]:
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our website thenifejunkie.com you can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at the knifejunkie.com YouTube.