The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, the August 2025 Gentleman Junkie Giveaway Knife in the State of the Collection. We look at some oldies but goodies as I take a look at some of my favorite Japanese made Spydercos. And then zombie apocalypse Grab and go Fixed blades. I'm Bob DiMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.

Announcer [00:00:22]:
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 [00:00:35]:
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week from the Joseph Ben Bandico interview was what a great knife maker he has so many years to make such cool stuff. That was from Jason Small. I agree, I agree. I cannot wait to see what Joseph does in the future. He's a young guy and he's made some outstandingly beautiful knives so far, so look forward to seeing what the future brings. OG Blade Reviews Dave second week in a row. One of my favorite comments, he says, Beautiful work of art from such a young man.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:08]:
Buy them now and be guaranteed a lifelong investment. Good advice. Sage advice from Dave. OG Blade reviews But not only is this good advice from the perspective of someone who knows, it's good advice from the perspective of someone who's been there. Because Dave and I have had many a conversation where he is bemoaned the the past sale of knives he wish he still had. And I'm thinking right now of a Trizuola fixed blade that he that he wishes he still had. So buy early, get in on the ground floor of people like Joseph Bandico when they're just kind of coming out, get some sweet knives and then watch.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:47]:
Them grow from there.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:49]:
All right, thank you one and all for watching this past week. Really appreciate it. Love the likes, the comments and all that. I love finding out what you're carrying, where your mind is and all that. So be sure to continue with that. All right, that means it's time for a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:07]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:13]:
Check of knives in my front right pocket. A classic. This is one that I was showing off last week. Spyderco Police. This is the classic model. Right now they're up to the Spyderco Police number four. They have all sorts of lightweight models. They have all different steels and everything like that.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:30]:
But this is the one that started it all. It started the police lineup and a lot of the similar knives that came after it. But it also started my real love for clipped Single hand, opening pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:46]:
Gary.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:47]:
I told the story. I saw. I saw a guy that I thought was so cool when I was a young man in Philadelphia, carrying one of these, pulled it out, used it, put it back all with one hand and I was like, oh my gosh, how.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:59]:
Do I do that?

Bob DeMarco [00:03:01]:
So I've always wanted one of these fully serrated Spyderco police models. Finally got one in all of its 4.125-inch VG10 glory at the Willie Knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:12]:
Shop in Delaware a couple weeks ago.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:14]:
I love this thing. It is a little heavy, but it's nice and thin. So you know, it's, it's heavy but it's not, it's not out of out of bounds heavy, if you will. All right. Right next to it, clipped to the very same pocket seam. Something I've been doing lately was this. And in the pocket, fixed blade knife. And this of course is the brand new JW Collab collusion.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:40]:
JW Collab is Jack Wolf knives production branch that collaborates with established knife designers and makers. This is the second in that lineup and this is a collaboration with Jacob Ginsburg, goes by Jacob, creates on Instagram, been following him for years. I love his fixed blade knives. So clean, such great lines. And this is no exception. So this is basically a Jacob Ginsburg design with Ben Belkin production knowledge and experience backing it up. Really beautiful. This is s 90v blade steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:22]:
You've got a nice hollow ground blade. And this is PVD coated on this black version with that gorgeous purple Kirinite. It is just a beautiful handle, beautiful production altogether. You've got this nice sort of snake lanyard fob here with an anodized titanium bead on it. Really beautiful. And an excellent stout and sturdy leather sheath set up for pocket carry. So I had that right next to this in my front right pocket in my, in my waistband riding appendix, which is something I don't do that much these days, was this. And it rides very comfortably there.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:07]:
This is the Fisher Blades McNasty. This is their new dagger and it's a tribute to James McNeese. James McNasty McNeese, who was a paratrooper during World War II, led a group of irregulars called the Filthy Thirteen who did a lot of, you know, sort of commando style stuff. I wonder if Inglorious Basterds wasn't, wasn't a bit Inspired by James McNeese. But anyway, really, really beautiful blade. It's an inch and a three and a quarter inches of N690 blade steel. That bowler N690 beautifully done. Very symmetrical quad bevels with very sharp edges.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:58]:
No sharpening choil so it's not going to get snagged up in clothing or whatever. You're thrusting this into really nice high traction G10 with red liners and jimping in all the right spots. You have it right up there under the guard quillians on both the top and the bottom. Same thing with the pommel here. Great place for jimping. Also just fantastic spot to put the thumb and that's definitely what you want.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:27]:
You're using this in reverse grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:30]:
A really great knife. And this excellent low profile sheath works really well. The notch on the blade fits in the tab right there. It's on one side. So all you got to do is kind of push down ever so slightly on the sheath and the blade pops right out. All right, last up on me for emotional support. One I haven't carried in quite a while. This is the Bastinelli big drago tack.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:56]:
I've been into my big cold steels lately. I mean I guess I always am.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:01]:
But I'm on a little.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:02]:
Currently I'm on a little tear with my large cold steels and now I'm anxious to just close up all the gaps, get the last few, few large XL cold steels in my collection. But I was thinking about other large knives I have and pop this in my pocket slash bag.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:20]:
So it went back and forth today.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:22]:
This is a beautiful sort of sax design, sort of modified sheepsfoot or wharncliffe, whatever you want to say. But it is tactical all day long. It's got a great handle where like similar to the cold steels you have a number of different places you can grab. You can come down here for a little bit of standoff range. You can come up here to this main section. You can even if you need to kind of put your finger in that little area to do close up stuff. But I mean probably with this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:51]:
You'Re not going to have to do that.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:53]:
This is one of the earlier productions of this made by Lion Steel in Italy. This is D2 blade steel. Now they're up to M390 blade steel. Also the new ones have a contoured handle. This is just flat slabs. So really nice, really nice pocket, pocket check today. If I do say so myself, some pretty unique and different blades. That's one of my thing of things about pocket carry.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:23]:
My pocket carry on a daily basis. I prefer to have everything be from a different company and I prefer everything to have different blade Shapes. I kind of. I managed that this time.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:35]:
Doesn't always work out.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:37]:
So today I had the Spyderco Police model. I had the new JW Collab collusion, both in the same pocket. I had in the waistband the McNasty by Fisher Blades. Really, really cool everyday carry dagger. And then of course my Esk today.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:56]:
Was the beautiful big Drago tag from Bastimo Knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:00]:
What did you have on you? Let me know. Drop it in the comments below. I always love hearing about that. That's always one of my favorite parts of Thursday Night Knives is when people.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:08]:
Start telling me what they've been carrying all day.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:12]:
All right, for August 2025. If you're watching this show the day it drops, tomorrow evening. That's the third Thursday of August 2025. That is the 21st. We're giving this away to one lucky gentleman junkie. Gentleman Junkie is the high tier of support on our Patreon page. And if you are a gentleman junkie at the top tier of support on Patreon, every third Thursday of the month, you're entered into a very special giveaway drawing that we do on Thursday Night Knives. Now we give away a lot of knives on Thursday Night Knives, but the third Thursday is reserved for the extra special stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:55]:
And this is extra special. This is a custom handmade clip point or Bowie blade from Shane at Edgy American Blade Works. Shane famously hates clip point blades and Bowie blades, but he made this one just for us because he knows I love Bowies and he knows that a lot of our audience are Bowie fans. So he figured why not give the people what they want just like kinks and make them a really nice EDC Bowie. It comes with this beautiful 1931 leatherworks sheet. If you're a frequenter to Thursday Night Knives, you'll recognize that logo. Really beautifully done sheath. It's all molded really nicely to fit and you get this.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:41]:
It's similar to that Joseph Bandico comment. You will be on the ground floor of something big Edgy American Blades ain't going anywhere. And every time I see Shane has skills have gotten better and better and I am loving this clip point blade. So I'm really much looking forward to getting this given out to one lucky gentleman Gentleman. So Patreon, we have a lot to offer at Patreon. Not just, not just things like knife giveaways, but interview extras which are really awesome. Every interview we do we get another 15 or 10, 15, 20 minutes sometimes of interview with the guest and you get the stuff we weren't able to talk about or you know, sometimes maybe it's stuff that's not not fit for mass consumption. So the the patrons get a little.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:34]:
Bit more of everything from from Knife Chance podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:39]:
So go over and check that out. Another thing we do is the knife notes which Jim's been putting up loyally, which are really awesome. People are loving the knife notes, but I'm not sure if people have noticed yet. We've had a couple of Fridays with the Friday funnies, so all knife oriented knife themed comics that Jim comes up with and those go up on Friday. So it's a little community over there at Patreon. A lot of interest, interesting stuff happening that's like Scab with his blueberry Wilder's lemonade right there. Yeah. So go check us out the knife junkie.com Patreon See all the stuff you get in return for your support of this show, which we greatly, greatly appreciate.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:28]:
Really does help us as does sharing the show. Lots of ways you can help this show. So go to the knife junkie.com Patreon and check it out again. That's the knifejunkie.com Patreon adventure delivered your monthly subscription for hand picked outdoor survival, EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Thenif junkie.com battlebox you're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life news. First up in Knife Life news from the the ever productive prolific Boker knives. They have a new one now called the Rusticus, which I love.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:12]:
Rusticus Maximus. This thing's gonna rust on you in a heart. Just kidding. It's Rusticus because it's rustic. It's kind of like a farmer's knife. This one reminds me a bit of the Opinel and other sort of peasant slash farmer knives. This is a cool little one that I somehow feel compelled to get. I haven't gotten it, but I think it's cool.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:35]:
So it's a knife that sort of straddles the line between old and new in terms of aesthetics and function of a folding knife. 3.13 inches of 420HC, which as we know from Buck, can be a great steel. This one's got a nail neck, super thin. Similarly ground full flat ground to a oh, open L. You got that drop point. I'd call it a clip point, but everyone's calling it a drop point, so I'm not going to die on that hill. Stabilized beechwood handle also similar to a Opinel, but this one has a liner lock. So the offside has a liner lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:15]:
But instead of having a lock bar cut out so that you can access that lock bar with your thumb, this one is like an old school liner lock where it has a tab that protrudes from the profile of the handle. So to disengage it you can see maybe there right above the pivot, a little arcing piece of copper there. That's the, that's the lock. So a cool, inexpensive little opinel style knife coming from Boker called the Rusticus. This thing is available now and I don't know why, but it's just a temp, a temptation.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:56]:
To me it's just a cool little knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:59]:
Maybe I'll see if it can accident accidentally drop in my Amazon art.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:04]:
They have it on Amazon.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:07]:
Next up we've got two stories from K Bar. First one is the Slabby. I don't know why it makes me giggle, but I like the name the Slabby. That this is the full Tang USMC fighting slash utility knife. Frequently known like Kleenex as the KA Bar. But in this case Ka Bar brand is who we're talking about. And you see here in this picture of this beautiful knife, you see a blade that is very, very, very much like a standard KA Bar blade. A nicely swedged and fullered clip point blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:43]:
Modern bowie if you will. But as you go aft of this on this design, you'll see it doesn't have the stack leather handle. It has two, it has two bolts in the handle on that contoured handle. Slab. Yeah, that's grn and yeah, that's a.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:01]:
Full tang knife there.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:03]:
So the Slabby, of course it's slab construction. That's another expression, another term for full tang. So the blade and the handle all the way from the tip of the blade to the hommel of the handle is all one piece. 6.8 inches of 1095 CRO van steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:21]:
That's the K Bar.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:23]:
Go to clip point with traditional Fuller GFN handle scales bolted on single quillian guard so that you can bring that thumb up onto the back of the blade. This one reminds me a little bit of the dog head K Bar.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:39]:
A lot of people have mentioned that.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:41]:
It also has similar to the dog head, that teardrop shaped pommel that could be very handy for pounding and using like a hammer. Comes with a plastic sheath. I'm not sure what type of plastic it is, but it's that sort of molded plastic. It looks like it has one of those little Buzzkill release thumb notches on it that you see on, on some spartan knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:10]:
Sorry, this went blank there.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:11]:
I don't like that. I like, I, I like to be able to tug a sheath, tug a knife out of a sheath, even if it's got really high retention without having to, to, to actuate a mechanism like a thumb release like you see here on this. But that would be my only never having picked this up or held it. That would be my only one ding of this knife. Okay, next, also from K Bar, but also K Bar and Less George, one of my absolute favorite knife makers designers. He's a great human being. To former Marine Les George. Very, very famous knife maker and designer.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:51]:
He's got a line of three new knives coming out with KA Bar with the cheesily named Queen Cool Name line. It's obvious they couldn't come up with a name for it. And unless George, who's got quite a. He's got a great sense of humor, it's probably like just call it the cool name, but. So this lineup is called the Cool name line. And it's somewhat cheesy name belies its beautiful lines and character.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:20]:
Of these three knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:21]:
4.25 inches on that top drop point, down to up to 4.6 inches on that heavily modified sheep's foot down on the bottom. In the middle you have a 4.4 inch reverse tanto is what they're calling it, a full tang. Beautiful full tang. And that whole handle shape, that handle contour with the finger guard and the gimped thumb ramp that is, you know, you look at that, it is Less George all day long. As a matter of fact, the one on top looks somewhat like the vsep. So very much Less George profiles here. The handle a transparent smoke gray polycarbonate and comes with a Kydex sheath. Now these are made in America and available now.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:11]:
All very cool. If I were to be tempted to buy one, it would be the drop point because it's so less Georgie. All right, last up from WE knife company, this one's called the Zentron. The Zentron, it's an in house design and man, their in house designers are busy. They just keep coming out with such cool stuff. Designed in house by we. This one, the Zentron, is an American Tanto and a very pretty one. It's a drop point Tanto, 3.48 inches of M390 blade steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:44]:
You got a thumb stud and a flipper and a hollow ground main portion, flat ground front portion drop point. As I mentioned. Now that Tip is not exactly center line, but it's, it's not at the spine, so it's, it's in a pretty useful spot there. The one that we're looking up at, looking at on camera, is just a beautiful anodized blue. This one comes in four different anodizations. This blue comes in a dark gray, a full black out where the whole thing is black, and then a plain jane kind of raw look. Sculpted titanium handle with all sorts of little divots and holes and contours. It's, it's definitely, to me, it's a busy looking handle, but I love the blade so much.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:34]:
Really nice looking, stout, sturdy, 4.6 ounces and coming quote unquote soon. All right, that does it for Knife Life News this week. I'm really excited to check out everything new that comes out. I mean, whether I actually get it and, or it's just exciting to see what comes out on Knife Life News. That's, that's where I am. Like that new Boker Rusticus. I don't know why, but I think.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:01]:
I gotta have it.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:03]:
Yeah. And be sure to join us Thursday night for Thursday night knives. And we also have a newsletter, which I'm pretty good at. At least half the time, half the weeks we have a newsletter coming out. So I don't bombard you with stuff, but it's always a nice little article with some pictures and it's a good way for us to keep in touch.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:23]:
With you, as is Patreon. Did I mention?

Bob DeMarco [00:21:28]:
All right, coming up, we have the.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:30]:
State of the collection.

Announcer [00:21:31]:
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Bob DeMarco [00:22:02]:
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast, Second Shot.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:08]:
I'm opening with this.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:10]:
So I've been carrying this police model, Spyderco since I got it about almost two weeks ago. Really, really awesome knife. I've mentioned it up front.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:21]:
I really, really love it.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:22]:
One thing I love about it is this construction.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:27]:
The.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:27]:
The knives made in Japan by Cold Steel in Seki City, Japan are, I mean by Spyderco. I'm sorry, frequently are these lock backs and they're thin and tight and they have a real, they have that feeling of super low tolerances. Everything is so close to, to everything else in that mechanism and it just is super smooth. This one you can, you know, lock backs are not that fidgety but this one you can one handed close and open like a cold steel. And so it just made me think what else do I have from Japan that is from Spyderco that I love? Since I didn't get anything new this week, I'm reflecting on something that is somewhat new and that's this. And I thought Japanese and my, my mind first went to the Uzzah, which is a really cool knife that was kind of touted as part of the police lineup because it's got very much a very similar size envelope, same same length blade and slightly longer handle. But designed by a former German police officer, Ulrich Henika, this knife was also manufactured in Japan. This is not around anymore unfortunately.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:53]:
Such a cool looking knife. I remember when this one came out I was like that looks like a knife I should have designed, I thought because it reminds me of a Filipino sword.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:02]:
So.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:04]:
So again you've got that super tight, super low tolerance construction here with a back lock. Now this one's always been somewhat stiff. I think I've experienced other ULA's that haven't been. I think that's just this, this one in particular, but it lends itself even more to that feel of the Japanese made Spydercos that I'm talking about. Super tight, super robust, but very svelte and slender. The next one I thought of was this one. My brother got this one for me a number of birthdays back. It was in my 40s at some point.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:48]:
But this is the large Persian I'm going to show you on the spine again, look at, it's like one piece of metal it looks like, but of course those are liners. And then you've got the leaf spring in the middle. This one is an Ed Shemp design and I always thought Ed Shemp's designs were really super awkward and somewhat ugly. Gotta say now Ed Shemp I'm. This is in no way to diss him. He's a legend of the knife design, knife making world and I have massive respect for him. I just kind of always thought that his knives were a little ugly and weird. But you know, that's neither here nor there.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:30]:
That's my, that's just my personal taste. This knife, which I also think is a little ugly and weird is so good. This knife is so Good. You have that downward angled bellied blade. You get a lot of shearing power from this, from the placement of the blade, the type of blade. And even though it's a Persian, that point is center line. So you can use that point all day long with ease. You're not chasing after it, having it be a, you know, a Persian.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:05]:
You're not having to tilt the knife like this to use that tip because it comes center line. Also because of the ergonomics and shape of the handle. So it puts the blade right in the right place. So again, ergonomics and tightness, it just has this tight feel. And by tight, I mean low, small tolerances. Low tolerances. Clearances between moving parts are very, very tight without rubbing against one another. That is a desirable thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:36]:
All right. And then the last of the Japanese made, I was like, do I have any more? And then I realized, oh yeah, all of the Enduras and Delicas and Dellas are made there. Um, I have an Endura and two Delicas, but I figured I would pull out this Endura as it is by far the most used of any of my Spydercos, but also of those three models. Now, this one, when you're looking at it on the spine, you don't get the same sense of, of the tight tolerances that you do when you're looking at one of these knives that has the steel liners next to the lock, the locking leaf bar, because you just don't see how well they're hafted when.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:26]:
You, when you look at this plastic, the grn.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:29]:
But this also super smooth, has a great action, great tolerances. This has always come apart and gone back together really well. This is of the few Spyderco lockbacks.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:42]:
I've taken apart a few times.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:43]:
They are a pain in the, in the, in the butt to get, to get back together, I do have to say. But this one comes together really nicely. Everything perfectly aligned and milled. So I'm a huge fan of Spyderco. I come in and out of actually buying them, but I, I will never get rid of any of my Spydercos from here on out. It's a kind of a no sale list there. And I would like to acquire more of these Japanese made Spydercos because they're just so, they're so tight and perfect. And if you want super loose bearing action, they're probably not for you.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:24]:
But if you like lock backs, if you like that really tight tolerance kind of build, you will love these. The Edgehampic Persian. You can Occasionally see on ebay.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:38]:
These are pretty much gone.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:40]:
Same thing with the ula. But there are a host of other knives made in Japan by cold steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:48]:
Look at that.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:48]:
Look at how beautiful that is made by cold steel that you can get.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:52]:
So go check them out.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:54]:
All right, for this last segment, zombie apocalypse grab and go fixed blades. Where's this coming from? Well, this is coming from a robust and lively conversation we had on Thursday Night Knives a few weeks back. I dropped that as the main question of the evening. What is your go to and go to zombie grab and go fixed blade? This list, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put some caveats on this list before we get going. This is not a survival knife. Listen, many of, if not most of these knives could be used as survival knives. But this is not me thinking practically like, oh, zombie apocalypse. I'll probably have to make fires and open up cans and like do all sorts of like regular stuff that people like soldiers do with their knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:43]:
They're not out there getting the knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:44]:
Fights all the time.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:46]:
So I put all that aside and said, no, no, no. This is about utility is the second line of work for these knives. These are for, you know, the kind of things you see people do in zombie movies with knives. So primarily you have to be able to take off a head or to the brain with one of these knives to make it be an official zombie.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:13]:
Apocalypse grab and go blade. We will.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:16]:
We can do other categories where we look at good survival knives and folders and stuff, but this is just where the rubber meets the road. And this first one, now this first one is a tried and true legend in my collection. This is the cold steel trailmaster bowie knife. The contours of this blade have changed since I first got it. I've had this for about 30 years. It has, I have sharpened it and resharpened it and the most recent time I sharpened it probably two summers ago was on a grinder. So I took a bit off because it just gotten so worked in and dull and I chipped it up a little bit. But this has been the most robust and well used knife in my collection.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:07]:
I absolutely love it. It does have a full tang. That's a part of this. The reason I picked this and not the nachos, which is a larger, more pleasing to the eye, more dramatic and, and just a bigger, more headlopping style bowie knife. The reason I didn't choose it is it's got that cable tang, which I suspect is pretty damn strong, but it's not going to be as strong as a full tang. What's the cable tang? Cable tang means that it's got a tang that comes up to about here and then there's a cable that's soldered from here to a screwing nut that goes into the pommel and then it's tightened there and it pulls the whole thing together. By all accounts, it's a pretty stout and sturdy tang setup, but it can't be stouter and sturdier than a full tang. This one has a tang that comes all the way down to around that lanyard hole.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:06]:
And I just know from years and years of batoning this and abusing this, it will go the distance. Plus, plus and this is a big, big plus. It's got a zero ground swedge, so it's a great fighting knife. And it's light and lively in the hand, so it would make for a great fighting knife. Now, as I've said in the past, it's not the coolest, most dramatic fighting knife, but probably in the top three that I have across my entire collection, just because of how perfectly balanced it is and how it moves and shape of the handle and even that grip. So it's not. If you get zombie slime on your hands, it's not going to slip out.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:51]:
Because you got that rubberized handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:54]:
If you don't have a trail Master Bowie from Cold Steel, you have to get one. Even though you won't get it with this cool leather sheath probably unless you look for one on ebay. It is a great knife. It's so worth having. And I keep sort of chastising myself for not getting another one, not having a second one on hand. So I probably should because you never know. Things do go, Things do go out of print. I say, all right, next up.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:24]:
This was one you don't see often here, but this is. This one. I've had a long time and I.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:32]:
I love this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:33]:
It used to be hanging on my desk right here, but I got a.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:37]:
New desk and it doesn't anymore.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:38]:
This is the Ontario RTAC2 wearing an aftermarket sheath. I don't remember who made that sheath, but I, I got the recommendation from a nut and fancy video. This is the Ontario knife and tool rat 2 rtac 2. And I'm. I'm putting slash se homeless. My brother has an se homeless. The knives are nearly identical. They're very, very similar.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:07]:
And really, it's a type of knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:09]:
That I'm going for here.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:11]:
Now I, I personally would say this over the SE6 or any of the other SEs that are shaped very much in this family. Because this one is long, that's a 10 inch blade. It will span a neck for sure with a little room to spare. And I know that sounds very grim, but when you're talking zombie situation, you know, you know what you gotta do. And this will take care of that. It's thin, it's about 3/16 of an inch wide here. 1095 blade steel. It used to have a coating.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:45]:
I removed the coating.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:48]:
Really nice big handle. Gives you a lot of grip options in terms of you can be choked back, you can be choked up.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:56]:
You can even come into this choil here.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:58]:
This is a great one for giant hands. You have big sausage fingers, big meat hooks. This one will, this one will hook you up.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:06]:
You'll.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:06]:
You'll love the way this one feels. Even my medium sized hands like the.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:13]:
Way this fills the hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:14]:
Beautiful drop point style blade. Also in terms of pure survival, this is probably one of the best on this list. Just as a pure survival knife. Also long and thin enough to be.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:28]:
A.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:31]:
Very effective machete type thing. So light, light vegetation.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:39]:
This works great.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:40]:
And you put the lanyard around and you get this kind of chopping motion really, really nicely. Okay, next up on this list, one of my recent favorites of all time. I mean this is going way up on the list. This is from my good buddy Tim. Tim Kell and Tel knives. This is the Sapper, one of the smaller knives. There are two small knives on this list and this is one of them. Small.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:13]:
That's a six and a half inch blade. So it's not that small.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:17]:
That's.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:19]:
Yeah. Sorry, dropping things. I just wanted to be sure now. Now that I said six and a half. Yeah, it's like six and three quarters inches. So nice big blade here. This is 80 CRV2. So a very tough and robust blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:37]:
One of the sharpest edges on a, on a small production knife or any knife out there are the, the T Kel edges. They're just so incredibly sharp. This one I got at Blade show and man, one of my, one of my greatest acquisitions from Blade Show. I just love this knife so much. This is the second iteration where they opened up the choil a little bit here. So useful in this regard. But I just love that deep recurve slashing blade and the center line point, that's a big feature of this knife. The sapper is that center line point.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:18]:
The original Sappers, the first production had a line going in, etched in similar to the way the logo is etched in, going from the point of the blade all the way to the ricasso and lined up with those three holes there, those three bolts. So if you look directly down the knife like this from here and you line up the bolts, you know exactly where the tape tip is. And that's because Imre Morgenstern, an IDF soldier and ordinance disposal expert is the guy who co designed this knife with Tim. And the whole idea was to replace his. What, what did he have? I think he told me he had a K bar that he did a bunch of stuff to, to make it good for searching for mines in the sand. But when he designed this one he, he put that center line point there, the line on the blade. So they could always tell even when the blade is submerged in sand, he could always tell exactly where the tip was from the indexing line that ran down the blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:28]:
That's no longer on this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:30]:
But he also created a rounded pommel because the blade fits right in or the handle fits right there into the hand and you get this incredible feedback.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:41]:
Going straight up your forearm.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:43]:
So you wanted to make this rounded instead of like taping cloths to it. Anyway, that's, that's the long story. This thing is full tang. Another requirement of this list. Full tang and yeah, just robust as hell. Oh, comfortable. I'm going to be using that word robust a lot, I can tell in this conversation. Super comfortable in hand with the grenade grips and then a great sheath that is specked out for jumping out of airplanes.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:16]:
You can slide this up, crank this down and that sheath is not coming out, it's just locked in there. So a really cool feature that you can find on a couple of the tcal knives. Yeah, Tkal knife is definitely a go to war style knife or a fight the zombies style knife. And the sapper is the king as.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:39]:
Far as I'm concerned.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:40]:
All right, next up. Oh, this is a good one from Apoc Survival and Mike Wallace. This is the Smatchett. The Apoc Smash it based on the fair Baron designed fighting implement from late World War I and used in World War II. A little bit the Smatch it big leaf shaped double edged blade. I mean it's obvious why this would be a great go to grab and go apocalypse zombie apocalypse knife. You've got two curved slashing surfaces, a 10 inch blade here. You can get some serious head swiping with this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:29]:
And also it's got that center line point. It is essentially a giant dagger. So great thrusting with this very very wide Holes will be made with this. A Super comfortable contoured G10 handle. Reminds me a bit of the handle of a gladius Wilman gladius.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:50]:
Especially that pommel.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:51]:
Comfortable, really comfortable. These, these gentlemen finger wells here fit my hand well and I know that they fit larger hands well too as I've brought this one to work and had I have various people hold various knives, see how they like it.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:10]:
They're bigger than me.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:13]:
And this one is universally loved. It's got a great Kydex sheath that retains well, but you can just kind of drop it in, pull it out without, without the use of your other hand. So you might want to use that safety loop if you're not going to be pulling it in and out one Another great thing about this, and this might be counterintuitive because this is a double edged weapon, but I feel like this would make for a very good tool too. Like entrenching tool maybe, maybe a, an ad hoc digging tool just because it's so broad. Um, and don't forget, even if you're using this for just survival, it gives you a whole second edge. So you, you gnarl up this edge doing your survival stuff. You turn it over, you use that edge and you just be careful. All right.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:05]:
That is the Apoc Smatchet designed by Mike Wallace. Next up, this is the smallest on the list but it has to be on there. This, this knife has me starry eyed. This is the very good knife company first strike. And this one, admittedly smaller than all the other ones, but would really go well on my belt in a zombie apocalypse grab and go situation. It is a very sharp 80 CRV2. It is hollow ground and let's see. 3, 16 of an inch, full tang all the way around including the quillians of the guard.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:51]:
And a very nice point. The point is sharp and acute, but it is still sturdy. It's not a sharpened swedge. I have seen these with a sharpened swedge. That would be cool in this case pretty much not needed so great in the saber grip because it's got a longish handle and you can kind of extend your thumb that way behind that, that guard there or you can ride up here. This will pierce what you need it to. You know, I'm thinking in reverse grip up against a zombie.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:31]:
I think it would do very, very well.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:33]:
So that's why I was willing to go down this small. That's a 6 inch blade for, for this list because I also feel like of all of them it would make the best utility it would make possibly the best all around her because it would make it for a great utility knife. But it would have some stiff competition with the larger and and probably tougher trail nest. Beautiful knife. I like all of the very good knife company knives. I think this or the Eagle maybe you know the Eagle, it's an outdoor sax.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:07]:
Very cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:09]:
They would all make great grab and go zombie apocalypse knives. Next up, I had to have something from tops on this list and I vacillated between the Praetor War Bowie and this and I decided on this next. This is the wild Pig Hunter in the beautiful leather sheath. I do love that sheath. Ultimately I think this one would be a better zombie apocalypse knife for a couple reasons. It does have a guard and I like that the, the Praetor War Boy doesn't need one because it's got such a. The blade is so much broader than the handle. The only thing is is this one gives you one on the thumb side too.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:53]:
And if you're thrusting into matter and you don't want to get it all over your hands and you definitely don't want to slide up, you might want that top guard. So top guard, a super rigid blade. This is intended for stabbing wild boars to death basically. So it's got a. A really stout cross section. In cross section it's kind of like an I beam with a ridge down the center. This one you can see the Hamon. It's differentially heat treated so it's a little bit softer on above the hamon.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:34]:
That's the Hamon line right there. And then it's a little bit harder below on the cutting edge. Just a beautiful knife. This was a birthday knife from my.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:43]:
Wife a number of years back.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:46]:
Really great grip on this Micarta. Flat. It's kind of flat and broad so it's not going to twist in the hand. But Micarta stays nice and grippy even when wet, which might come up in the zombie apocalypse. I also like the way the knife, the way the handle broadens out and so it allows you to kind of swing from back here and make use of that length while resisting centripet. Centripetal force. Centrifugal, that force that happens when you swing something. And then look at that tip.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:26]:
I will end with the tip. It is such a sturdy tip. Widens out. That swedge ends right there at the very tip. Super sharp. And by the way, that's 1095 blade steel. So easy to take care of in the field. You just have to make sure that it's also coated so it's not going to rust as easily.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:48]:
But you gotta, you gotta take care of it.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:51]:
Wild Pig Hunter. It's a great knife and overlooked frequently.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:55]:
In my collection anyway.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:58]:
All right, next up, there's gonna be a few cold steels in this list, but I have them spread out. Next is the cold steel magnum tanto. 1212 inch tanto here would make a great zombie apocalypse Grab, grab and go knife. Okay, so just from the perspective of utility, I will just echo what the great and powerful Lynn Thompson has said in the past many times. There are many things you can do with a large blade. You can do everything you can do with a small blade with a large blade, but not vice versa, basically. So this knife to me is the way to go because it's the longest of the Tanto versions, so you get the longest span of weaving surface. If you're, if you're going after the head of a zombie, this is definitely great for that.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:59]:
It's also not a very broad blade, not a very broad blade. So there's not as much material to go through whenever you're cutting. So this zips through stuff and then you've got a hollow grind. So it's really thin behind the edge, most of that edge. And this is a San Mai VG10, I believe. VG10. San Mai. And you can see where the steels separate right along the edge.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:30]:
So this one also has a real, real sturdy tip in that triangular flat ground tip. And this knife has been proven time.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:40]:
And time and time again.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:41]:
It's been out since 1980 in one form or another. And in that time it's just proven to be super, super duper. Heavy duty. That's the word I'm looking for. Super heavy duty. And with the length, you're good to go because you can take care of everything you need in a zombie apocalypse with that length. But also as a fighter, if you have to fight humans too, you've got that great secondary point which you can use percussively, kind of hitting like a drumstick. And you can create really massive deep wounds with that.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:16]:
V shaped wounds. So all in all, just a great knife, but nice and slender too.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:21]:
You're not going to get too hung.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:22]:
Up on it with it. Also, kraton grip, so good even when wet. This is a pretty good one, I got to say. The Magnum Anto well from cold steel. Next up, a double edge. Also intended for hog hunting. This is the SA Catcher.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:43]:
Nice name. I like the name.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:45]:
The Odin wolf sow. Catcher D2 blade steel. You've got two recurved edges, so really nice for slashing and cutting and chopping. Even though this is a pretty light knife, you could, you could, you can get some chopping done with this. Especially with the use of a lanyard. Double edged, it's got this fuller down the center which again creates sort of an I beam effect. So nice and stiff and rigid is this double edged blade. Also I gotta mention this one is just a cool looking knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:18]:
It's got a really great profile on both the edge and on the garden handle. It's sort of a coffin shaped handle. Widens slightly as you get to the back. It's rubberized, but stiff, rubberized it's not, it's not as soft, we'll say as the Kraton on the cold steel handles, but you still get a grippy effect. It's jimped everywhere. Jim there. Jimped here, knurled on this surface. So really great grip on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:52]:
And.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:52]:
Then you've got that double edge. Not too many double edge on this list. Double edge is, is great for fighting humans. I'm not sure if it's as important when fighting zombies because pain is not an issue with a zombie. And I feel like the secondary edge on a double edged knife is often for secondary cuts and transitional cuts and the pain application more so than the coup de gras.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:24]:
But I could be wrong about that.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:26]:
It also obviously a double edge makes it a better thruster, but that's why we get swedges, that's why we have nice swedge. So double edge in a survival situation. I know like I said up front, this is not a survival knife that I'm talking about here, but it as a secondary, it will require that sort.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:48]:
Of use from time to time.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:49]:
And a double edge is probably the less safe but a really, really great knife. Great sheath, inexpensive. Some of the knives on this list are expensive. This is not. And it's easily attainable on Amazon and, and this company Odinwolf makes some other really cool looking outdoors and hunted knives. Next up from Spartan Blades And Bill Harsey Jr. Is the Spartan Harsey Kukri. And this is what I was talking about before when I was talking about the new KA Bar slabby sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:26]:
It looks like it has one of these. So this knife you are not pulling out unless you push this. And I don't like that because there might be cases where you, you can't reach it or you just for whatever reason you just need to pull out the knife. But anyway we'll talk about the knife itself. This kukri I love because it's got the, the kukri edge. It's got that deep descending recurve with the belly. But the way it's set up on the handle, it's not so curved overall. The point is just below the center line.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:03]:
So it's an, it's a, it's a good knife for thrusting and. But of course it's got that sinuous recurve which is great for chopping and lopping things off and cleaving. And this would be great for all of those things. Super robust.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:23]:
Oh, there, I said it again.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:24]:
Super durable, full tang construction here. That's 1095 CRO Van Spartan blades. And then this little tree there, that's a William Harsey's maker's mark. That's a William Harsey handle all day long. I love the way that looks, but I also love the way that feels. Think of the old Gerber Rock fixed blade you could get at Walmart a long time ago. Had the same exact handle. He designed that knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:58]:
This all many made. The Defensa has that handle, just a really great handle. But it's also great from this aspect too. You can see it's has a big palm swell and then tightens up right before the flare at the pommel, making it a really nice chopping knife without being over committed in terms of the, the contouring and the designing of the handle as a chopping knife. So this, this knife does a lot and straddles a lot of contradictions. It's a kukri, but it's relatively straight. You know, it's got a great handle for chopping without being over committed in the contouring and the, and the bird's beaks. It's got a lot of contradictions, but that's what makes it great.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:46]:
Quarter inches, a quarter inch thick. This thing is awesome. I would love to get its brother with the clip point blade called the Fighter. Came out the same time as this and the Nessmuk. Overall, I like the sheath. It's just that thumb release thing that sticks them across. All right, let's see one more. Let's see.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:09]:
Enough. Two more, Three more.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:11]:
Sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:11]:
Here we go. Next is the Marcaida Cortata.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:15]:
I kind of went out of order there.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:17]:
The Marcaida Cortata. This one is a fighter all day long. It's like a knife version of a ganun thing with that downward angled, that, that very low tip and the downward angled edge. However, this edge is straight, so you get the benefits of a straight edge with that downward curve. You know, a ganunting has a sort of sickle shape. This has that on the spine, but is has more of a sax edge on the cutting edge. So you get great chopping, shearing, slashing and tip tip cutting power with this knife. Also I dare say you could sharpen that swedge.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:06]:
I'm not going to, but I always thought it would be cool to you. This is a great thrusting knife with that point. You don't have to change the angle of your wrist much to get it to go where you want it to go because of the downward angle. You do have this jimping here, which would be fine if you have heavy duty glove on. But it's really aggressive, like super aggressive. Which makes me believe it's not really jimping for the thumb. It's more a surface for trapping. If you're using this in reverse grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:41]:
Or even in forward grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:42]:
There are moments in Filipino knife fighting where you find yourself trapping your opponent's limb. Trapping your opponent's limb with the back of the blade momentarily. It's like a half beat thing to get you to go somewhere else and to get that person to do something else. But while you're trapping, it's nice to have that aggressive serrated surface basically. So a great fighting knife. I think this would be awesome for the zombie apocalypse because you could stab brains or you could lop them off all day long with a relatively short 10 inch blade. Also the handle, super comfortable. You could hold onto this all day.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:23]:
Long while swinging and shopping.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:27]:
Leather sheath. Good leather sheath. A dangler. I always thought the dangler was a little odd for this knife. Seems like something that you would want to stick in your belt. Let's see, second to last here, cold steel. It's a big one. This is the Chaos kukri.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:49]:
Chaos is the line that has this sort of hand protection.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:55]:
So let's put this.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:56]:
I'll just set this thing down. So kukri, of course a kukri had to be on this list again, at least a more traditionally shaped fukri which that blade is more traditional than the Spartan Harsey. This one, even though it is that, that tip is so off center, it is somewhat easy to thrust. Thrust with you just hold your hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:20]:
More vertical.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:22]:
But an incredible chopper. Nice long 12 inch blade. A great chopper. This aluminum cast handle setup is great. It's very comfortable. It, it doesn't, you know, there's only one separation so you don't have to worry about. Sometimes when the fingers are separated into four different holes on a knuckle duster, it's uncomfortable if it's not fit to your hand. Well, this kind of precludes that by just having one partition between the swear.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:54]:
Word finger and the ring finger. And.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:58]:
And then you have a noggin knocker in the back which is. Would present a pretty severe divot to any skull. Maybe might even get into a zombie brain. Not sure. But the hand is totally protected while you're swinging at these gross things. Not only that, but you can punch someone in the face with it. You can do a lot of damage with that. With the handle, guard, hand guard itself, the duster itself.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:25]:
This is SK5, I think, steel. So it's going to be a tough carbon steel. Just have to watch out for the rust, but you're good to go. Easy to resharpen and tough. All right, last up from work. Tough year. Yep. The V44X Bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:48]:
Now, I vacillated heavily between this one and the Predator Hunter Bowie, the Puzan Predator Hunter Bowie, which is bigger and even more dramatic than this. But ultimately I decided on this because frankly, it's just a little more wieldy, but you get. It's. There's a negligible difference. You get maybe two more inches of.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:12]:
Blade with the other one.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:14]:
So it's still a substantially bigger blade, but I'm not so sure that. I'm not so sure that I would benefit from it because it is heavier. The, the handle is thicker. The whole thing is heavier and longer. I might fatigue fatigue sooner with that knife if I. If I have to make my way through a crowd of zombies to get to a safe haven. This, I think I could, I could swing for longer, let me put it that way. But overall a better survival knife too, just because, like I said, a little more wieldy.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:51]:
You've got this incredible chamfered choil here that I really like. You have a 90 degree spine up to here. They chamfer it right here and then beyond that 90 degrees so you can strike your ferro rod got a nice fuller there, lightening the blade a little bit, but also making it rigid, more rigid. You've got an incredible tip here. Very sturdy tip but also very acute right down the center line. A nice scooped clip will give you a good, a good snap cut if you need it or back cut if you need it. And overall very, very comfortable and great knife. It also the sheath plays into it too.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:41]:
The sheath on the Puzan Predator Hunter is a taco. So it has no grommets on top, but it's so big you kind of want to have it on a strap. So that's another thing about this sheath. This knife that I like better is the sheath. Even though it's the size of Texas, it's so big it has grommets on top.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:01]:
So I can hang it on a.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:02]:
Strap because this and the Fuzan predator hunter, they need to hang around your your neck. They're just going to pull your pants down otherwise. And you can't have your pants around.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:15]:
Your ankles and make your way through a crowd of novels.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:19]:
All right. Thank you for joining me on this very important discussion of this topic. I might do a folding version of it. Not sure. We'll see. It'd be a lot of cold steels.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:30]:
On that, so it might not be worth the time.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:33]:
But thanks again for joining me. Be sure to join us tomorrow night, Thursday, third Thursday of the month for our Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway. All right. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DiMarcos saying until next time, don't take Go for an answer.

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