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 September 2025 gentleman junkie knife. I get a Filipino sword I've always wanted, thanks to my brother. And we're going to take a look at my cold steel voyager collection. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.

Announcer [00:00:18]:
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 Demar.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:32]:
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week of my interview with Reese of well Regulated, who designed the work tough gear V44X was from Jorge Fernandez, who says, first of all, this was a truly great interview. I've had the pleasure of knowing Reese since right before the first V44X drop, a friend of mine gave me a heads up on this sick new Bowie coming out at Work Tough Gear. And man, when I saw it, Van getting one became a mission. And one won't do. I've been very fortunate to have three.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:03]:
And he LAUGHS OUT loud.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:05]:
And a pock, a Blackwash and a K329. And I do mean fortunate. Reese's knives sell out in around two minutes. You'd be lucky to find one on ebay. And we want more. The field utility, the edc. I'm not the only one that's champing it the bit, sweating it out, waiting for their arrival. Epic video, Bob.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:25]:
Hey, Rhys, if you'd carve those other two models out of wood, I'd bet they'd sell out in two in two minutes, too. And he's referring to the fact that just to kind of get the feel for the knives, the designs that Reese has made, he's carved them out of wood and they look beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:44]:
He was showing them off on the.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:45]:
Show, so a great way to sort of mock up a knife and see if it feels comfortable in hand and.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:50]:
See if the sizes are right.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:53]:
Thank you, Jorge. And thank you one and all for watching the show, watching the videos, commenting, liking and subscribing. It's greatly appreciated. And don't forget, if you are not subscribed, subscribe, because when we get up to 50,000, we're gonna have 50,000 subscribers. Dirk Pinkerton is making a custom knife for me to give away to any one of you.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:14]:
50,000.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:15]:
So be sure to subscribe. All right, that said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:22]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the Knife junkie with his pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:28]:
Check of knives in my front right pocket. Today is a perfect summer Knife, Warm weather knife. It's a, it's a great EDC period. But I've really grown to love this knife. This is the Buck Range Elite. They have a couple of different models in this range line. It's brand new from Buck. I'm fortunate enough to have received this from Buck along with another, another knife which has become my wife's favorite knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:58]:
She totally appropriated this right off my desk. She loves how light it is and how small it is with its 2.7-inch blade. It's, it's featherweight with the FRN handle. So. So I can basically kiss this one goodbye even though it's tasted my blood.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:13]:
And it is clearly, clearly mine.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:15]:
Anyway, this, this Buck Range Elite has a magnacut blade with that Paul Boss heat treat that is so legendary. Paul Boss knows how to heat treat anything and make it great. I mean look at all that. 420 buck has been selling forever. This one has aluminum handles, an ambidextrous bar lock with great, great action and a deep carry pocket clip that's mounted on the tail end there. I really, really like this knife and it's, it is, it's becoming nearer and dearer to me. I also love how thin it is and relatively light as well. This is a good in the waistband carry if that's something you like.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:56]:
I pretty much carry fixed blade knives in the waistband these days, but for many years it was always a slender.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:03]:
Folder in the waistband.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:04]:
I like this Buck range a lot and you might too. All right, next up, I had the second release of the Jack Wolf knives. Laid back jack. That is Jack Wolf knives swayback. And this one is awesome with this.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:21]:
Beautiful, beautiful rosewood handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:23]:
I love the way the rosewood looks next to that lasted titanium bolster. Of course, with all premium top top tier Jack Wolf knives, this has titanium bolsters, triple fluted with the integral liners there. Really, really nice build. I have not carried this in a long time and I now, I mean I have such an epic sprawling collection of these Jack Wolf knives thanks to Ben Belkin that I have started going back through the catalog to figure out what to carry on any given day. I love them all, I truly do. But this is near and dear to my heart because I love a swayback. Look at that gorgeous S 90v Wharncliffe blade with the, with the hand rub satin. Beautiful, beautiful blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:15]:
Of course that always. All these Jack Wolf knives, especially the premium ones, ride in their own leather slips because I don't want to ding.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:22]:
Them up and get them all snail trailed up in my pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:27]:
Next up, it's fall. At least it feels like fall. Here in Northern Virginia, I was carrying the Ruffian by Hogtooth knives. This ruffian I had custom made for my 51st birthday a couple years back. Now I guess I can't say a couple. A few years back. Beautiful blue liners with the, with the 10 G10 natural micarta here. I'm sorry, not G10 natural micarta.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:54]:
That has really taken on a really nice hue from my, from my hand oils or whatever you want to call it. Personal filth signature. It's got this nice red tint to it. When I first got it, it, it was much more tan in color. Beautiful 154cm hollow ground blade here. I guess you could call it a drop point. I think it's kind of a clip point and great jimping and everything. And I was carrying this throughout the weekend and it's bled over into the week.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:25]:
And this weekend I showed this off at a party in the neighborhood here and people loved this knife and I thought, I thought it odd that I.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:34]:
Hadn'T shown it to them before, but.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:37]:
One of my all time favorite EDC fixed blades and probably on the, on the large end for what I can comfortably carry. And like I said, I mentioned fall. This, this is more of a heavy. This is like something I carry when I have jeans on. I'm not going to wear this with light shorts, but love that thing. Okay, so I've had the V44 on my mind and so today I had this with me. This was my emotional support knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:08]:
Yeah, that.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:09]:
Beautiful work, tough gear. V44X Bowie. This is the K329 version. So I think this is their most premium version of this knife. Such a beauty. Reese of well Regulated is really, really deep in the Marine Raider Bowie thing. He's got an epic collection if you guys follow him, which you should on Instagram. He recently posted an overhead picture with all of his V44X bowies and I think it was like 32 of them or something.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:43]:
All of these different versions of it from, well, from the World War II era. They're just astoundingly beautiful. And then by the way, he also collects a lot of other knives including K bars and he posted a picture of his K bars.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:58]:
If you like those.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:59]:
I definitely check it out. But yeah, great esk here in, in the V44X Bowie, if you're feeling a little insecure during your day, all you.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:08]:
Have to do is, is just put.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:10]:
This in your hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:11]:
And you're good to go.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:12]:
So this is what I had on me today, the V44X Bowie. I had the Hog Tooth knives Ruffian full size. He does make a small pocket pocket size.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:22]:
That's beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:24]:
I had the laid back Jack from Jack Wolf knives. This from their second run where they expanded the handle materials and then the Buck Range Elite. Loving that knife. Let me know what you were carrying. Drop it in the comments below. I always love to hear what you've been carrying. Okay, let's see. Gentleman junkie giveaway knife for September.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:46]:
Now I've been hinting at this, showing it off, showing off my version. This is the version you will be receiving. Here is the beautiful riot from three Dog Knife. Three Dog Knife. The in house custom knife brand from Northern Knives up in Alaska. One of the few companies if, if the only company, if not the only company I've ever seen making these really beautiful recurve Tonto Bowies. For all purposes, you might think that a tanto is just kind of self defense. But up in Alaska, three Dog knife is all about catering to hunters and outdoorsmen.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:25]:
And this is for that. You see that curve right up front? That would be great for skinning small game. I am told by those who have actually done that. And of course that recurve straight portion here.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:40]:
Recurve straight.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:41]:
You know what I'm saying. That recurve portion there would be great for carving and doing all sorts of camp pass. This thing is stout and sturdy as can be at 3.8of an inch thick. And that is K110 steel. K110 is analogous to K2D2 blade steel. So you can see that. And it comes with a cool little dog tag, AKA birth card here. So here it is.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:12]:
This will be yours. Could be yours I should say if you are a gentleman junkie. K110. Did I say K110 or K1.12? K110. This one could be yours. Micarta handle scales. All you got to do is become a gentleman junkie. That is the high tier of support on our Patreon page.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:31]:
And every month you get a lot of different stuff from becoming a patron. So please go check that out. You will, you will love it. And you know, if you're a Thursday night knives fan or you come to the show frequently, you know we give away a lot of knives thanks to Dave of OG Blade Reviews and also Mike of Northern Knives. We've had a lot of knives to give away and it's not letting up. So we do Give away a lot of knives. But that third Thursday of the month, the gentleman junkie knife giveaway, there's always something a little, little extra, a little more special to give away. And that's this month's giveaway, this month being September of 2025.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:10]:
So check that out. I'm going to come back to some interesting stuff on Patreon, but before we do, I want to show something and announce a date, a release date. Release date, you say? Yes. The agent 001 my design with Tim Kell knives is being re released on October 1st. And here is one of the four production samples that Tim sent to me. These are now being machined by the great Nick Chuprin up in New Hampshire. NCC knives. You probably remember, you probably know his incredible custom folders.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:47]:
He has slowed down on his own custom work because he's doing some incredible machining work for some of our favorite knife makers, Tim Kell chief among them here. Just look at that. Look at the terracing that the beautiful mill lines on this. Look at the chamfers on the jimping.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:06]:
There.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:09]:
Removed one of the gyms. Spread out the remaining four gyms and man alive, do they feel great in hand. They really, they're perfect in that they grab your thumb, which you definitely want. You don't want to slide up onto that wickedly sharp top edge, but they don't hassle, they don't, you know, they're not too sharp that they're going to make your thumb feel sore. But I'm really impressed with all this machining especially. I keep locking in on the chamfering on these. It's just so precise and so perfect. And Nick Chuprin is a perfectionist and guess what? So is Tim Kell.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:45]:
And so I, I am very, very thrilled to announce that the Agent 001s will finally be available again in their second production run. This one is wearing their battle lock handles. Now. Just looking at them online, I was kind of, you know, I don't know if that's a, if that's my, my cup of tea. I do love Micarta in G10, but it turns out this is so nice. It feels great in hand. It's sort of a mil spec type.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:17]:
What do you call it?

Bob DeMarco [00:13:18]:
Frn. And with the stippling in there that feels like skateboard tape. And his signature grenade grip here, that's these little scoops and divots. This thing locks in the hand like you wouldn't believe. I am so excited that these are coming back out. I also Want to show that you can now get a Badger Claw leather Badger Claw outfitters leather sheath for your double O1 and your other agent series knives. Tim sent me one. I love this.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:50]:
I haven't even put a clip on it yet. I just like dropping this in the pocket. The curve of this follows the seam of your. The inside seam of your pants and it just drops in. Then when you want to draw the knife, you can make it so that this kind of just wedges itself in under the seam of the pocket and the knife comes free. And you might be concerned about this wickedly sharp knife poking through the leather. It could under the right circumstances, no doubt. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna gloss over that.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:22]:
But this leather is so stout and sturdy, and the fit of this is so perfect that it would take a lot. It's got rivets, so it's not gonna poke through, it's not gonna cut any seams, and there's no welt in there, so it's not extra thick. So just masterfully made sheath on a masterfully surrounding a masterfully made knife designed by yours truly and Tim Pell. So check it out. October 1st, 2025, you can get your.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:52]:
Agent of a low one.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:54]:
Okay, now, before we head on to knifelife news, I want to talk about a new feature that Jim has brought to our Patreon page. It is so cool. It's called Maker Monday. And this Monday, he has Ernest Emerson. And you know how I feel about Ernest Emerson. He is the man. I love his stuff so much. And this is such a beautiful setup here.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:20]:
Here's a nice pencil drawing of the man himself, Ernest Emerson. And this is a pretty long one, I gotta say. It's got a bio, it's got. Got his background, and then it talks a lot about the knives he made and his. His innovative. His innovations to the field of folding knives and packable knives. And it. It's just a great feature.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:44]:
This. We've got the Friday funnies all obviously knife themed and. And we have knife notes. So Jim is just going working overtime to make our. Our Patreon worth your while and worth your filthy lucre.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:00]:
Let's.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:00]:
Let's be honest. And not only that, but we do interview extras. So if you like Reese of well regulated, you like that V44X Bowie and you're a patron no matter what the tier, you can see a little bit.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:12]:
Extra of the interviews we have.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:14]:
So scan the QR code on your screen or go to the knife junkie.com Patreon and check it out. When you buy a whole year at once, you get 12% off. So that's definitely worth checking out again. That's the knife junkie.com Patreon

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Announcer [00:17:01]:
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:04]:
And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. All right, first up in Knife Life News, a really cool one from Boker. I say that all the time because Boker puts out a lot of cool knives. But this one is the Boker mini tracker folder. That's right. You heard right ladies and gentlemen, they're making a tracker folder. If you know Boker, they do their version of the Thom Browne tracker. To me, I've always liked its contours or its profile blade profile a lot because it's.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:32]:
Well, it's like the Tom Brown tracker we all know and love but it's a little sharper, it's a little more tactical looking. They have come out with this which is so cool. Hopefully you're watching this so you can see the knife itself. But this is a. This has a 3.12-inch 154cm blade. It's a modified tracker with a flipper. Modified because. Well, it's kind of a clip point.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:57]:
It's got a thumb swale there. There are some differences here obviously when compared to the fixed blade tracker, but it does have those two very distinct cutting surfaces. That front bellied surface and then a secondary point followed up by a little kind of hook if you will. All sharp and then a long straight, more robust is the grind forward and then towards the handle. That secondary or that straight edge there is much thinner. I think that this is a really cool looking knife. I've already seen said so I do wish the handle to blade ratio was a little more blade heavy if you will. But obviously they have, they have things considerations that I don't know about when.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:47]:
Making a design like this.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:48]:
But look at that beauty, that little hook where the straight edge that comes out of the Ricasso goes down to that secondary point. That little hook area I've seen used on videos for all sorts of stuff to include feather sticking, which is kind of alluded to in this picture. You've got a micarta handle with a liner lock, heat carry, pocket clip, 3.77 ounces. So pretty light. Not bad at all. And it is available now. MSRP for this is a hundred and forty five dollars. So check this one out.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:23]:
I had a chance to see this one at the Boker booth and handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:26]:
It at the broken poker booth at.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:28]:
Late show in June. And I like it a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:31]:
It is a cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:33]:
Maybe they'll come out with a plus.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:34]:
Size and maybe I'll be tempted.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:36]:
Okay, next up. This one is from Benchmade. This is a knife that was announced beginning of the year in January 2025. But only now are we seeing it and only now is it available. It's the Benchmade 491 Loden. It's a rare axis lock flipper. Rare from, from Benchmade anyway. And I think it's got a stupendously beautiful blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:59]:
I gotta say I will not be getting this knife because it's not exactly my cup of tea. But I, I have to point out what is beautiful when I see it. And that blade is absolutely beautiful. If you're just listening, it's a 2.8-inch spear point with a full swedge. Almost a dagger grind I guess you could say though it's not sharp on the top obviously, but it's got a swedge that mimics the main bevel. So just a really beautiful blade. M390 blade steel flipper. As you can see, a low profile flipper with that axis lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:37]:
The handle is aluminum. Beautiful handle here, comes in red or blue. And it's got this center line fuller in the handle that comes from beneath the the clip and terminates right below the axis lock. So you know, if you've ever held a knife that has that kind of a setup, that fuller running down the center of the handle is just going to grab your your fingers. It's going to lock into your hand beautifully. We've got this little bulbous end, deep carry pocket clip. And this thing is 100% ambidextrous as our many axis style axis lock style knives. So on this one obviously the clip can go to the other side, no problem.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:23]:
2.99 ounces. So nice and light. Pretty small and available now. MSRP on this is for the blue one, $320. For the red one, $330. So Benchmade, always impressing with design and price. That's pretty pricey. But you know, they have their reasons.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:47]:
And I am not a Benchmade fanatic. If I were, I probably would find that to be reasonable. But what I find weird is that the blue anodized version is $320 and the red anodized version is $330. I. I speculate it has nothing to do with the color of the anodization, but the processing of the hardware or.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:11]:
Whatever processes they put the hardware through.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:14]:
So that's just my, that's my speculation. But The Very Cool Benchmade491 Loading. They made a large version of that. I'd be in trouble also. So Boker and Benchmade keep them small.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:26]:
So I can keep my, my wallet set.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:31]:
Okay, next up, last up here is from terrain 365. This is the new DTK @Topo. This is the second generation of the DTK EDC folder, which is a dog tag format keychain knife kind of, kind of locking folder. Look at that little cheat, little stubby son of a gun. 1.19 inches of it's. It's a 1.19 inch snub nose drop point. That's what they're calling it of terravantium. Terravantium is Terrain 365's proprietary cobalt alloy so it won't rust.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:10]:
And seeing that it's in a titanium handle with titanium hardware, you know, you could wear this all year long in the, in the jungle and it'll be just fine. As I mentioned, titanium frame lock. But this one, as is evidenced by the name, has a topographic pattern on the show side. And this is a pattern that's featured on a lot of 365 terrain 365 knives. I find it to be very appealing. I do like that topographical pattern. And this is thinner than the previous runs of the DD DTK. At 0.1 inches thick, it's 1.6 ounces.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:52]:
And available now. MSRP for this is 189. I'm going to start giving you MSRP when I can, when I know what it is. And you know, I feel like that's.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:03]:
Information you might want to know.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:06]:
All right, still to come, we're going to check out the state of the collection. I got two really cool new things. Two knives, swords, whatever you want to call them, edged things. But before we get there, I just want to remind you, as I mentioned before, Thursday night knives, every Thursday, 10pm Eastern Standard Time is our live show. It is so great. You gotta join us. It's so much fun. As a matter of fact, I think it's probably the most popular thing around here lately.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:33]:
Besides. Well, it's probably the most popular. People love it because they get to come on. They're talking with their friends in the chat, they're talking with me, I'm reading their questions, answering them. And we're having a two hour conversation pretty much non stop. Every once in a while people will drop in. We just recently had Shane of Edgy Blade Works, Edgy American Blade Works in here. We've had Dirk Pinkerton.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:56]:
We've had a lot of people come on the show, but it's, it's just great. And the funny thing is is when we wrap at midnight Eastern standard time, I always feel like I've been sitting in a room with friends talking and I realize that I haven't heard anyone else's voice. I've just been reading comments. But still, it's a fun time. And we've been given away knives every week because Dave Bogie Blade review sends me giant boxes to give away, as does Mike of Northern knives. So come join us, join the fun, join the conversation and you'll be glad you did. That's Thursday Night Knives, 10pm Eastern Standard Time right here on the Knife junkie channel on YouTube. All right, coming up, the state of the collect adventure delivered your monthly subscription for hand picked outdoor survival, EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals, the knife junkie.com battlebox.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:51]:
So my brother Veto gave me something cool as he has done many times. You can see a lot of what he's given me behind me. He's given me a majority of those things actually. Yep. Just looking at it. I'm a lucky man. And when I just saw him in at our ancestral home, we gathered there for a family occasion. I knew he was going to be giving me my birthday present.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:14]:
And he said, be sure to pack extra panties. You're going to love what I got you. That's my brother's sense of humor.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:20]:
So I did it.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:22]:
And when I showed up, I was trying to guess what it was.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:26]:
He's like, you want to guess what it is?

Bob DeMarco [00:26:28]:
He's. And I said, why didn't you just mail it to me? He said it wouldn't fit easily in a tube. And I said, is it, is it a compilon? And he said, what's a compilon? He looked it up and then gave me a look. And indeed it was a compilon. This is the Filipino battle sword. And it's a very unusual sword for the Philippines because it's larger than their usual 30 inches, generally speaking sword. And it is, it's just bigger than, than most of the swords. Now this one, I believe is, is not as big as they come, but because I've seen larger ones.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:08]:
But this thing is definitely old and definitely a, a real legit compilon. Got the beautiful handle with the alligator maw here, right here on the, on the pommel. Sometimes it has hair with that or like horse hair or other stuff coming off of here and various kind of carvings and stuff. But beautiful Penagong handle and nice long straight blade. This is the edge side down here. And then it has these, this funny little hook and all these jagged little things cut out of the top meant for. There's. There are a lot of different angles of attack in Filipino martial arts.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:49]:
And sometimes you're hitting with the tip, sometimes you hit with the back of the tip. And this is just meant to menace and, and destroy. It's just such a, a beautifully dastardly design. And I'm so happy to have this in my collection. Now it's going to go up on the Wall of Fame behind me though. Here's a little, a little foreshadowing. This room here is going to have to go through some changes soon, so there might be a few podcasts coming from it with a different background, but this will be on the Wall of Fame and I cannot wait. Vic, thanks for this, for this beautiful, beautiful sword.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:27]:
Now this is speculated that this is the same sword that, that killed Magellan. This not this exact one obviously, but Magellan died on a beach in the Philippines fighting. And it is speculated that this is the kind of sword that brought him down by Lapu. Lapu, a Filipino warrior and hero. And on a very famous sculpture in.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:53]:
The Philippines, this is what he's holding, the Campilan.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:58]:
All right, I'm going to set this over here. No room for that on the table. Next up. This is something I thought I never wanted until I started wanting it and then I had to get it. And that is the, the. The Counterpoint xl. So this is the Cold Steel Counterpoint xl. And it's kind of bringing my XL Cold Steel collection into the station.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:23]:
They're only if. Now all I need is a. Well, I need one more.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:29]:
And now I can't remember exactly what it is.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:31]:
The, the.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:31]:
The.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:32]:
The large ski and boo. But I can't remember what they call it.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:35]:
All these different Cold Steel names they.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:37]:
Kind of jumbled together in my mind. A beautiful 6 inch bayonet ground sort of Boot knife style folder. This one of course has the serrations I was originally looking for. The straight edge. I actually could not find it anywhere, but I'm sure that that will be remedied shortly. But then I started looking at my other serrated cold steels and I'm a sucker for their serration so I just.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:05]:
Went, I went for it here.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:07]:
A really nice grivory handle, nearly 7 inches in length. This one, unlike the older ones, has a very heavy stippling on the sides so it locks in the hand. It feels kind of like skateboard tape and really stays put. Got ambidextrous clip. Everything about this is ambidextrous as as it is on most lockback knives. It's got the triad lock, very stiff triad lock on this, on this one. Austin A. And a proud, proud member.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:41]:
Now the reason I thought I didn't want this is because I had the 4 inch counterpoint and I just, just did not do it for me. Maybe it would do it for me now, but this was years ago. It was one of the few cold steels I sent back and got something else. But very happy to have this one in the collection and looking forward to having this thing broken in more. Oddly enough, it's easier for me to open this with my left hand than my right if we're talking slow rolling.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:08]:
So very, very cool, cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:11]:
Super excited to have this. And I'm super excited to talk to you about some other XL cold steel folders. But first I just want to show off this new design that Jim came up with for our merch. Coffee in one hand, blade in the other, and man alive. Is that a, is that a maxim I live by? For sure. All you have to do is go to the knife junkie.com shop and check out all the super cool designs and funny logos that that Jim has come up with. We put them on hats, we put them on aprons. You know, it's still grilling season.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:46]:
T shirts, hoodies, cups, mugs, all that kind of stuff. Anything you want, we got it with these super cool designs. So my hat is off to Jim for coming up with these every week and adding them to our store. Artists, working man and podcasting, to be honest. So go check that out at the knife junkie.com/shop. All right, I want to talk to you tonight, today, this day, about the Cold Steel Voyager series. I've pretty much, I've pretty much completed my Cold Steel Voyager collection. I know I say that, but I probably haven't.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:26]:
There's probably Something that I will circle back and get another one of. They all have different versions and I'm excited by what I already have. So anyway, let's get into it. First one is a vintage 4 inch Kanto. Now this was from before you had a metal clip. It was also before you have a thumb stud on both sides. This is from 1998. I remember I was working on a movie called Judy Berlin up in New York when I bought this at.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:58]:
Where did I get this? Doesn't matter where I got it.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:00]:
It's one of the few places in New York where you could get knives. I think this was Paragons Sporting Goods, but I just looked it up today. This is AUS 8 blade steel. I. I wanted to find out what. What was the steel they were using on Voyagers in 1998. And indeed it was AUS 8A. How did I know? I looked up and, and found the catalog online from 1998.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:25]:
Cold steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:25]:
You have to do that if you like cold steel. If you've watched this long, you obviously like cold steel. Go check out all the old catalogs. I don't have many more in paper. I used to have them all, but now you can check them out online and see how relatively small their, their offerings were back then. Not. Not the offerings themselves, but how few relative to now with all the swords and spears and everything else they have. But in any case, I remember carrying this one a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:57]:
Very, very sharp. It came so sharp back then. This is before knives just shipped. Razor sharp and cold steel always, always sent them that way. This one you can see has taken a lot of abuse and use and sharpenings. I. I even practice sharpening on this with a, with a consistent edge or consistent angle sharpener. And it is wickedly sharp.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:21]:
If even though I kind of messed up profile a touch super light. It's got this asymmetrical cross section. When you look at it from the top, which I've never quite figured out. I think that this right up here near the pivot is extra thick to accommodate the size of this kind of thick clip. And this is the only voyager here that or no, this is not. But this is the only small voyager.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:48]:
I have where I have where I where I used a paracord lanyard on.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:51]:
This because I always thought this kind of lacked finger protection. And if you were thrusting you could definitely slide up onto that and put a little bit of. Without the lanyard that is put a little bit of skateboard tape on here in lieu of jimping and always love this thing. Never going to get rid of this one. Next up is, is the modern version of the same knife. This is the Tanto, the large Tanto, the very, very current setup. This has the AUS 10A blade but the same thing with that super hollow ground, super thin hollow ground blade there meeting the flat ground, chiseled chisel like tip. But when they came out with these, I believe it was 2006 if I'm not mistaken, where they, where they changed the handle design.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:48]:
And look at it. Demko got involved. They put on the triad lock and look at how much more finger protection you have with this knife. You've got two choils. You've got this nice swale here for, for the three fingers to, to rest in there. And then you've got this D deep finger finger groove here and a big guard, a guard that also works well as a sort of finger choil. So you can come up close to the edge there for doing your quote unquote fine work, but beautiful. Actually I'll put these all out at once since.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:27]:
Since they're all of a type. And then this one is the XL version, so. So you've got a five and a half inch blade of AUS10A. I opted for the fully serrated version on this one again being a kind of a nut for their serrations. And just the past two or three years I've really come back to the.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:48]:
Serrations in general on many of my folders.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:53]:
This one has a very similar handle with the same philosophy, except since it's a larger blade that curves to accommodate that blade shape. You have different, different areas. You can, you can grip and get.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:07]:
Super reach with this.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:09]:
This one here with the 5 1/2 inch blade and the near and the 6 1/3 inch handle has a lot of grip options. You can be right here, close up on the sort of guard there, like a choil. You can be back here with which is sort of standard. You can come further back or you can even come to here, which I've seen, I've seen Lynn Thompson do. And when you do that, the curve of the handle nestles right in the.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:40]:
In the palm and you can get.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:42]:
Some serious thrusting power because it butts right up into your palm and that puts force all the way down your forearm and makes it super rigid. He does something like this where he.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:54]:
Puts his finger out there.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:56]:
I don't know if I would do that unless I was just, just on a lark. But I love all the grip options.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:03]:
On the XL Voyagers.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:05]:
This one is wearing an aluminum Snaggletooth.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:10]:
Tactical MF pocket opener.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:13]:
That which does two great things. A, it opens, it opens the blade. As you draw it from your pocket, you just snag it on the edge and you can also use it as a thumb wrap to, to sort of bolster the, the guard. You've got a finger guard and now you've got a thumb guard. So a great, great pair or set.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:36]:
I should say of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:37]:
Now Voyagers have come in smaller versions but they don't anymore. Now it's just the large and the xl. So if you want to check out ebay for a smaller version, you can find them from time to time. You will pay dearly for them. But they, they are there and I have considered it. All right, next up, let's look at the clip point voyagers in my collection. First one, also a vintage one, also a single sided thumb stud with a integral nylon pocket clip. This is the 5 inch Voyager clip point.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:18]:
It has an extremely sharp. This has always been one of my sharpest knives but you know, now that I have a million knives it, it's, it's sort of, you know, par for the course. But when I got this I could not believe how sharp it was. Much like the Tanto Voyager, but a deeply hollow ground blade, gorgeous clip point profile. You've got a bit of a belly there, a descending straight portion of the edge and a very, very acute point. Again, I've added a little bit of skate tape to this one up here in lieu of jimping and then on the sides for gription. I always thought, you know, it needed a little more a bit of a finger guard and also it was a little bit hard to draw so I, I put that grip tape there on the end just to pull it out.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:06]:
Of the pocket and make it easier to do so.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:09]:
That was from 1999. Some of you weren't even alive then. Next is the current cold steel. Well, not so current because this is AUS 8A but this is the current design, the 4 inch Voyager. Large clip point blade. Again you've got that same exact handle that you saw on the Tanto but just with the clip point blade. Again a descending straight, a nice belly center line point and all of it extremely sharp. This is one that I kept for a long time in my bugout bag, but now I've replaced that with a rat one and have kept this in the collection.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:52]:
I kind of feel like it needs to be with its brethren, especially its biggest big brother right here. This is the current version of the XL. This one is in 10Aus 10A steel. And again you got that same handle. All of these have the same handles across, across blade profiles. And I think that that's cool. That's a great way to do a business, especially if you're a company like cold steel and you're putting out so many different unique blades. To have a similar platform or, or the same platform with different blades is just the way to go.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:29]:
It makes sense. I am a huge fan of this clip point profile here. This in particular, I must say I, I like it even a little bit better than the profile on the, on the Recon 1 XL. This has a full flat ground blade. Different. Flat. Differently different from the old school where they had the saber ground hollow laid right there. So you might be sacrificing a touch of thinness behind the edge, but you have incredible shearing power with that triangular cross section that you get on a, on a full flat ground blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:11]:
And let's just be straight, a little bit more strength to the blade itself. You could see how a very thin hollow ground blade could end up under, under duress, chipping or, or breaking a little bit easier. So let's put this down for a family portrait. These are the clip point voyagers I have and I'll take this opportunity to say that the Tanto comes in the fully serrated but the clip point no, as does the Vaquero, which we'll see in a minute. But the clip point version does not anymore and I'm not sure why, but thankfully they don't because I would have to buy that. So they saved me 80 bucks or whatever it costs. So these are the clip points. All right, next up, this next one is a, a one off so far in the voyager world.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:02]:
One off for them anyway. And that is the Chris. So they have a Chris in the Pilite series, but this is the Voyager Chris. And man, what a beautiful blade that is. Look at that undulating profile there. You've got. It's a re. Re.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:21]:
Re.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:21]:
Recurve.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:21]:
It's got the recurve here, the recurve here and the recurve here at the tip with that downward sort of hawkbill facing tip. That's how I think Chris's should be. Chris's should not terminate in an upswept tip. They should terminate in a down word kind of nasty hawkbill tip. This one is AUS 10A and they do not make a large version. They do not make a 4 inch version of this. Why? I don't know, but it's utter madness. This one also has the Snaggletooth MF on it, which in my opinion really completes this design.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:57]:
It looks beautiful. And if you know what a Indonesian or Malaysian or Filipino Chris looks like, you know that they have very ornate hilts with angles and jagged bits. And this is just adds a little bit more to the design and makes.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:15]:
It look a little bit more or.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:16]:
Makes it evocative of those, the, of the inspirational knives from which this was drawn. Same sort of handle again with the different grips, but a really wicked and nasty blade shape. This one should also come in a serrated version. If it were up to me, it would. The Tilite Chris comes in the serrated version.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:40]:
Why not Voyager Chris?

Bob DeMarco [00:44:42]:
And if you're, if you have any doubt, you're looking at that just thinking it's a mall ninja type knife or it's a, it's crazy. And they're just making it just to be different or to prove that they can. It's not true. This is a, a battle tested design and not just in the, in Southeast Asia or not just in the Philippines and Malaysia. And you know, think of the flambear sword and, and the other, those big German broadswords with the wavy blades. It's like a giant bread knife, you know that you're dragging across someone and as you thrust with something like this, it opens up a wound channel that is just gassing. So as is the word, the term wound channel, just utterly ghastly. Something I didn't point out before is that the grip on all of these modern, you know, current day voyagers is exceptional with that iron cross style pattern there.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:41]:
It really is grippy, it feels great. Which leads to these things, thread pockets. So usually when I get them, I will loosen up the clip a little bit, leave a little bit of space there. Now if you ever watch nothing Fancy, you know that he, he like sands it down and he puts JB Weld on it, does this whole thing where he modifies it. I just, I just make it a little less tight. And with these xls it works out fine because they're so large and long, they're not going to just come out.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:12]:
Of your pocket easily.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:14]:
So this is the Voyager Chris xl and they need to come out with a Voyager Chris L if you ask me. All right, next up, this one they have come out with a large version of and I totally forgot that. So now I need to get a large version of this just to truly, truly complete the collection. This is the drop point Voyager and if you ask me again, I, I will Tell you they should call this the Barong because it's got that beautiful long leaf shaped blade and it's evocative of the Barong sword from the Philippines. And I'm sure that was in Lynn Thompson's mind when this came out. But this one is a saber ground, so you, you're not getting that full flat grind. It's a little bit beefier of a blade back here and, but still wickedly, you know, acute and sharp. You've got a center line point on this one, on this drop, and then you have jimping.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:13]:
Yeah, that's right, Jimping on this knife. This is the one voyager model with jimping. This and the large version of this. And it's curious, I wonder why it's the only one. Maybe when they've sold all of the other voyagers that have been manufactured already, who knows, maybe on the next, next time they have to make some, they'll, they'll put that awesome jimping, but generous run of jimping that feels great on the thumb and maybe they put that there because this could be seen as the most pedestrian blade design, the least combative, so maybe the most likely to be used by campers and that kind of thing, those, those kind of activities. In which case you really will be coming up here, maybe you're making feather sticks or something and that jimping really will come in handy. But I don't know, I'd love jimping on everything. Why not again, triad lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:09]:
And all the, all the things that you've come to love about the Voyager XL is in this knife with that beautiful Barong shape or drop point leaf shape. And if you look at this one, it's got a continuous belly. From the sharpening choil to the tip, you have a continuous belly.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:30]:
So very cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:34]:
All right, next up. This is a family. This is a family coming up here. And I'm going to start with these two knives because these are not technically voyagers, but they have been brought into the voyager fold. This is from both from 1999. These are vintage cold steels. This is the El Hombre and this is the Vaquero Grande. Six inches on the Vaquero Grande, four inches blade length on the Elombre.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:10]:
These were my EDCs. Well, this one especially for a long time I carried this one for, I don't know, at least two years straight. I love the jimping on the back of this handle. It's sort of traditional file work there. This one even fell onto a subway track. I had to retrieve, retrieve it and fully Serrated here, fully serrated on the Vaccaro Grande. This one was a, A, an E. I didn't carry it all the time, but living in New York City, when I went would go out at night, I would put this in the waistband appendix.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:47]:
And now I can't believe I did that. I say that every time I talk about this knife. I would have ended up in Rikers island if they caught me with this. You know how New York City is. But this is pre. This is before this, before the Voyager series had the Vacuro blade and before the Triad lock. And I gotta say, these were still incredibly strong lockback knives. Triad has just sort of sent it into the stratosphere with how strong it is, but really, really strong lockbacks on these.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:22]:
So I wanted to show these as sort of an introduction to the Vaquero blade style. The blade has changed a little bit, but they still are featured in the Voyage. Now they are featured in the Voyager shoes. You can see that it is now a little bit more upswept on this Voyager up here and it's a little more uniform in its curvature here. The one on the bottom, I think it's pretty cool. I love the way they both look. I gotta say, sometimes I think I like the old style a little bit better because of the how the tip is, but I think I'm just. But that's just on this 4 inch version here.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:06]:
This one I sold for a while to my friend Ian and then I bought it back from him. It came back as dull as a spoon. I put a new edge on it and have never looked back. That was when I decided, why are you selling cold steels? That's it. No more selling cold steels. So I'm going to get these, the El Hombre and the Vaquero Grande out of the way. They were made in Japan. And then here, now I'm going to show you my xls here.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:35]:
I have three of them to bring them over here. The first XL to show you is the plain version and this is in AUS 8a. Now the length of this blade as compared to the 4 inch makes the Vaquero XL a more appealing blade to both look at and use, in my opinion. But designed and inspired by the Yatagan from Turkey and I also think from some Mexican style blades. But really, if you ask Lynn Thompson, he'll tell you the Yatagan was the main influence in this blade design. A great knife, super wickedly sharp with that deep recurve and that fat belly and the centerline point. It's, it is a fighting blade all day long and it is the knife that Lynn Thompson carries two of on him all the time. You know, Lynn Thompson, he carries many, many knives at once.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:39]:
Like a lot of knives at once and a lot of big knives. But he always has two Voyager XLs on him and usually they are the serrated version. So I had to get the serrated version and I also had to put a snaggle teeth MF on it for.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:54]:
Waving out of the pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:56]:
It also, as I mentioned earlier, gives a great thumb ramp or thumb stop to, to, to accentuate the stopping power of this guard here, this forward knot. AUS10 a beautiful knife you've got. Again you've got the one hand. I didn't mention this before, these Triad lock knives, all of them, pretty much all of them including the counterpoint and the knives far from the Voyager collection. They're all one hand closable. So there's always a bit of ricasso there that will stop the blade from cutting you. If you put your finger forward in that choil and deploy the lock and let it drop, you can see that non sharp part stops on your finger.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:43]:
And then you can just close it or let it drop.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:47]:
Letting it drop of course is always risky seeing as they could really, really give you, give you some pain there. The third of my XL Voyager vaqueros is the Lynn Thompson signature edition. Again I've got a snaggletooth MF on it. This one is one of their nylon, you know, plastic ones. They have pretty much moved to aluminum for the snaggle fuse altogether. But a very handsome knife is this with the green handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:21]:
I love the look of that green handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:23]:
And then the black CTS xhp. Always hard for me to say CTS XHP blade made in Taiwan. It is really beautiful and I'm glad I snagged this when I did. They're numbered. I'm not sure how many they made, but this is number 126-0126. And then of course it's one of the numerous signature editions of cold steel knives that are out there now. There's a, it's a growing list. I, I can think of four right now.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:57]:
The Coban, the Tilite, the, the, the Leatherneck XL Bowie and then this one. And I think it's charming that Lynn Thompson's signature is on it, especially because he's got the beautiful cursive of a first grade teacher. So it's, it's kind of an, it's got that sort of innocent looking signature on it, but it's on just an astoundingly wicked blade with those serrations. And before we wrap, let me just show you decelerations up close. You've got big sharpened scoops and then five little peaks and then, you know.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:36]:
And then you go back to the little scoop.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:38]:
So it's a. Or the big scoop. It's a pretty nasty setup here. And those little teeth, though, hard to sharpen when. When you end up mangling them, they really go the distance. They go a long time. And they keep these knives sharp for a long time. Much longer than if you were to dull the plain edge version of this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:59]:
You could just keep going.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:02]:
So now I realize I have to get the 4 inch drop point to really make it complete. And then I'll start doing my ebay searches for the little 3 inch versions and all that means I will have more knives in the collection. And that means I'm going to have to get rid of some. And I've been saying this for years. Not easy for me to do, but I think it is something I do need to do.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:23]:
It's true.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:24]:
Jim's back there saying, oh, Bob, stop it, stop it. You're not selling any knives. Not yet, but it's. It's in my plans. All right, that's it. Thank you so much for indulging me and letting me show you my voyager collection. I'll give you updates as I get others. But really, this.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:42]:
This is pretty much. This is pretty much all I need. And I think it's pretty much all there is except for that 4 inch.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:48]:
Drop point, which now I'm going to start obsessing until I get it.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:53]:
That's it for the Knife Junkie podcast. Be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, and check out our affiliate links. We have a lot of great affiliate links. I was mentioning TKL knives. If you want a TKL knife, all you have to do is buy it by going to the knife junkie.com/t. Kel. And when you buy a knife that way Tim Kell gets a sale and I get a little kickback. So it works for all of us.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:18]:
There are a lot of situations like that right below in the. In the description below. So check out all of our affiliate links and.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:28]:
And maybe we can help you get behind the wheel of an awesome cold steel or something else.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:33]:
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 [00:57:40]:
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