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 November 2025 Gentleman Junkie Giveaway Knife. One of the greatest, most classic knives from the Great White North. And with the dropping of the agent 001 from Tel Knives, we'll talk about it and other great tekel knives. EDC blades I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast. 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 [00:00:32]:
Marco, welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week about my ESK episode comes from Jorge Fernandez, good friend of the show. He says, I have an SP10. That's the Marine Raider Bowie from Ontario Knife and Tool. My youngest son fell in love with it the moment he held it, so he got one. We rarely use them now because they aren't making them anymore. Now my ESK folder is the large G10 Espada. Yeah, that one.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:04]:
I think he means the XL incidentally. I liked it so much I gave one to my three boys, my grandson on his 21st birthday and my nephew. I've started this male Espada tradition thingy in the family. Lol. My girls like the gun sight so they can carry it in their bottomless pit purses. We all know what those are. Go figure. And the partisan that's from Station 9 is back in stock, making it my new Esk fixie.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:31]:
I waited almost a year for it. Before that, my ESK was and still is my Zabo Express from Tops Knives, which I carry daily. The Partisan goes in the backpack. Great show, Bob. I work nights as an ER tech so sometimes things don't wind down until 3 or 4am But I get to participate now, which I love doing. Thank you Jorge. I really appreciate that nice long comment. And I love the enthusiasm around the concept of an emotional support knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:01]:
That's what an EST is When you hear us talk about those. Those are those knives that whether whether it's a big beefy knife like the Partisan that you have around for self protection or something like this JW collab scuffle that you keep around a fidget with. It's the emotional support that matters. So everyone bone up on your emotional support knives and let me know what you're carrying. Drop it in the comments below. I really appreciate it. All right, time for a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:36]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives in my front right pocket.

Bob DeMarco:
Today was one I rarely carry. This is the Emerson Knives Super CQC7. The CQC7, the chisel ground. You can see that flat side Tonto. That really launched Emerson knives as a, not as a custom. You know, he was making custom knives for a long time, but the CQC7 was the one that really launched him into the public eye. That and the Commander which followed hot on the heels.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:12]:
They started making supermodels that's models with nearly 4 inch bladed knives sometime in the 90s. And this was a giveaway knife. This was given to us by Bill S. A long time ago and this was an auction knife that we did. My brother bought the knife and in that auction and then gifted it to me which was a pretty, pretty cool. No, it wasn't inside baseball. It was a total surprise. That's how my brother is.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:42]:
He's cool. Cool as hell. And a super generous dude. Has given me some of my absolute best knives. Many of them hanging behind me on the wall. This one, I, I don't know why I carried it today. I rarely carry this one, but it just sang to me. Sometimes in the morning I go through this little ritual where I open up my knife drawers and whatever just jumps out, I pick up and, and manipulate a little bit and it ends up going in my pocket.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:09]:
And that was this one today. The one thing I had to modify about this knife, which I do with most of my Emerson knives, I had to sand down the G10 on the clip side. It is so grippy and abrasive that it is likely to destroy your pockets even sooner than the other knives will do. So had that in my pocket today on my belt. I had a bunch on me today. On my belt I had this urban edge from cold steel. I really love this little push dagger. It's so light and so easy to carry.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:42]:
I just have it set up with this paracord and it, it rides near my belt buckle. And so I had this. I've been carrying this more often than I even let on. It's just a great little self defense option if need be. Also though, I know that um, in the old days, I don't know if this is still the case, but in the cold steel warehouse, guys would like these because they could sign, sign purchase orders and stuff and then open up boxes and sign and you know, use a pen, use a flashlight and not have to let go of the knife. Sort of like a bird and trout might, might work. So had this on me. That is also a chisel ground.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:20]:
I didn't I didn't put that together, but flat on one side. Actually slightly concave on that side. Next up, I had this flashlight on me because I knew I was going to a neighbor's house tonight for cigars and whiskey. A little tradition. A great neighbor of mine has started and done it twice and I've met some really good guys doing that. But since it's a. It's about a half mile walk and part of it is through a little wooded trail. I always have this on me.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:51]:
This was given to me by Dave of OG Blade Reviews. I love this. This is the Night Core EDC27. It has three. You can basically have this button do a whole bunch of different things. I'll put this under the knife cam. You can program the main button to. To do different things like have different combinations of.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:12]:
Of lighting. I haven't really dug into that, but has three different settings where it can go super bright, a thousand lumens or down to like 60 lumens or something like that. If you're just reading a map. Don't want to give away your position. And then what I really love about it is that it has this instant, instant strobe. Hope that didn't blow out the camera, but you can just press this down and have a strobe immediately. To me that's like the greatest self defense tool going. You could blind someone, especially in the dark.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:44]:
They're coming up to you and their visual purple is. Is on high and you can just blind them with that and run away or kick them in the knee or the groin and then run away. But I really like that light a lot. Nice and flat though. I have learned not to carry it with the clip in my pocket because oftentimes when I sit down, it's close enough to my hip that it'll turn the light on and I'll be like, why is my thigh on fire? And I'll look down and see the light coming through my jeans. So I just drop it all the way down in the pocket and if I need it or think I might need it, I'll just carry it in my hand. Really great light when I get used to carrying it more often. Next up, my fixed blade knife in the three o' clock position today was the beautiful Nova One.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:36]:
This is the prototype of the Nova One. We sold 27 of these, I believe made and produced by Hog Tooth Knives. So this is my blade shape on his handle design. Him being Matt Chase of Hog tooth knives. That's 154cm, very sharp, gentle recurved bowie blade. We did this one, I think it was 2022 and then we did one in 20, 23 and a half. And now we have to get to the Nova 3. We've been talking about it back and forth about what it could be.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:12]:
I've been giving them some designs but I haven't really settled on anything quite yet. But beautiful dark maroon micarta handles with red liners. The final versions that people bought had a slightly thinner handle but it had because the liners were thinner and they were a forest green with that same beautiful dark polished maroon micarta. Just a classy, classy carry. Beautifully sharp 154cm and I just love this knife. Haven't carried it in a while. You know there's always something new and exciting coming through here and I had to just go back to basics with that one today. Last up, my emotional support knife today was the beautiful Attention to Detail Mercantile Medium Fighter.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:59]:
This was my very first custom knife bought from Douglas Esposito when he and his Attention to Detail Mercantile knife brand were located near me in Northern Virginia. He has since moved to Mississippi and has since moved on to exquisite folders which I have to get a new one. I have an older one. I think it was the first folder he ever made but first folder he ever made with inlays. Anyway, I have, I have to get a new one. He's been doing some incredible stuff and he's obviously gotten better with time and I've seen some people showing them off and it's making me jealous. But a gorgeous tortoise shell handle here with the crown spine. The double edged fighting blade S35VN.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:48]:
It's 5 1/2 inches long. Near I think it's 5 1/4 inches long actually fits in the hand so perfectly. And you know how it is with older stuff. You kind of. You don't forget you have it but you take it for granted. And today I just had to carry it. It's so beautiful though I didn't carry it, it was in my backpack. A a subtle little detail here.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:11]:
No sharpening choil which I'm starting to come around to. The sharpening toil can hang up on clothing and other things if you use it as a fighting knife. So that's what I had on me today. Let me know what you had on you. I had the super CQC7 from Emerson Knives. I had the Urban Edge from Cold Steel. The push dagger right there on my belt, three o' clock position. I had the Nova one By myself.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:39]:
And Hog Teeth Knives, by the way, that's that giant knife junkie logo is just for me on the prototype. When you buy a Hog Tooth Knives slash knife Junkie collaboration, the logo is much smaller. I had the EDC 27 from Nightcore and then the beautiful medium fighter from the Crunch into Detail Mercantile. All right, speaking of cigars, which I was just a moment ago, the second batch of the Knife Junkie Zippos has just arrived at my place. So I will be ready to ship these shortly. I have four people who have said they want them and I think I just got a fifth message. So they're selling out quickly. I will order more.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:25]:
I just didn't want to order too many and then have be sitting on a bunch of Zippos. They, they ship to you with the regular wick and the windproof wick. I have bought the jet. I like the jets for lighting cigars better than the regular old school wick. But I gotta say I do love that as well. I just wish the T it tasted better, the fuel. But I just want to show this up close. Look at how beautifully they nailed my logo.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:56]:
Even with those tight, tight lines in the background above that horizon line. They just did a beautiful job. This one is mine and I've had it rattling around in my pocket a lot and it has not scuffed yet. Hopefully it doesn't at all. But the logo has remained perfectly un. Unmolested. What's the word? I don't know. It just hasn't been nicked up.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:21]:
So I really like the work Zippo does. They've been doing this for many, many, many years and they're doing a beautiful job. So now we have that to offer to you. They're 50 bucks. Knife junkie zippos for 50 bucks. If you want one, let me know. Email me at the knife junkiemail.com and if I get enough people, I'll. I'll make another batch.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:44]:
Maybe I'll make it bigger this time and just pock them and keep them around here and just kind of sell them. But it's fun to have to have Zippos out there with my logo on them. I've always loved Zippos. So there it is. All right, next up. Another thing I'm very proud about and happy about is on November 1st of 2025, the second batch of TEL knives agent 001s will be dropping. This is a version of that. We'll be showing them off a lot at the end of the show with some other really great decal knives, EDC blades.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:22]:
But this is the one we're going to be giving away on the during on the 20th of November 2025. This will be the gentleman junkie giveaway knife. But that beautiful blue and black layered G10 handle though, you can get it in so many different materials now. Different materials and many, many different colors. So rest assured, if you don't like blue, you can order one in any other color you like. You might see some of the foreshadowing up here at the top of the screen. Screen. So there is the Knife Junkie logo.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:59]:
This one is in 80 CRV2 I believe I have some that are AEBL stainless and 80 CRV2. They, they both seem to be somewhat equal in their rust resistance as they are all coated with nickel boron. And that nickel boron is not only a protective coating, it adds A to the Rockwell hardness and B it makes it really easy to slip in and out of whatever you're sticking it into. Where whether it's the sheath or a 50 gallon drum of Uzis or an opponent or whatever it is, it nickel boron is a material that is found in guns. And Tim, Tim Kell is a serious firearms aficionado and he figured why not put every blade in nickel bond? And I love that. So anyway, this is the knife will be giving away on November 20th. Just become a gentleman junkie. You can do that at Patreon.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:03]:
Go to the knife junkie.com Patreon or you can also become a gentleman junkie right here on YouTube when you become a member. We have six members now and if you do decide to become a member, please email me at the knife junkie gmail.com so I can send you your stickers and your coaster and that kind of thing. You just click the join button and take it from there. All right. Speaking of Patreon, one last thing I want to plug on Patreon are the Friday funnies. You know, I talk about Maker Mondays a lot and knife notes. These are things that Jim put that Jim puts together that are really fun to have in the Patreon feed. Well, Friday funnies are also a thing that Jim comes up with and posts every Friday.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:49]:
And they're knife related memes and comics. They're more like comic strips. Like single frame comic strips. Think the New Yorker or think the Far side, that kind of thing. So go check it out. That's just another thing you get from becoming a member on Patreon or a patron on Patreon. Let me tell you again, how to do that. You can go to the knife junkie.com/patreon.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:15]:
Check out what we have to offer there. Or you can scan that QR code right there on your screen. That'll take you right there. And if you buy an entire year or pay for an entire year at once, you get 12% off, which is, which is a lot percent off. So you might want to take advantage of that. A lot of people have been doing that recently and smart move. Go to the knife junkie.com Patreon Again, that's the knife junkie.com Patreon adventure delivered your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor survival, e EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals, the knifejunkie.com battlebox. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:59]:
And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. All right, first up in Knife Life News, Civivi is doing what I love when they do that didn't sound right, but you know what I mean. This is one of the my favorite things about Civivi is that they have some really cool fixed blade knives. This new one that's coming out, it's not quite out yet, is the Civivi Coravin. It's a beautiful, I'm gonna call it kind of a modern looking Puukko with the, with the blade shape. It's, it's 3.75 inches of AEDL stainless steel in that drop point. What's kind of, I, I hesitate to call it a drop point, but that's what they call it. It's like a straight back sort of puukko style do everything utility slash outdoors knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:47]:
But the USP about this one is it's got serrations. This is only the second knife out from Civivi with serrations and you can see them right there by the Ricasso. Cool thing about this is that there are three teeth and each one of them are separated with a different distance. The, the scalloped part between the two teeth is largest on the serration closest to the hand. And then they get progressively smaller as you go forward. And that's kind of cool. You. So you get some real aggressive cutting there.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:22]:
Say you have to cut rope or twine on your outdoor adventure. That's probably the best place to do it. Or at least it will start the cut. Those big serrations will start the cut and you can finish it with the rest of that razor sharp AEB L. This one is 4.34 ounces with a Kydex sheath. Beautiful ergonomic handle that sort of brackets the hand and has a nice palm swell there. Just, I mean you can just look at that and if you have a hand, you know it's going to be comfortable. The prototypes have been shown in two different handle materials that sort of brown.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:00]:
What's it called? Sack cloth. I guess there's another word for it which is escaping me. Micarta or that G10 that you can see in the blue and white. Again, not available yet, but they do have a price on them. These will be 94 and I would say well worth it. I have been so happy with the Civivi fixed blades I've gotten so far and I've only gotten the small fraction, but they are awesome. All right, next up, buck of the month. Now, as I record this, we are in the end of October 2025, but they still have some of these left.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:37]:
And it is the 101. The 101 is a fixed bladed version of the Emblematic, I guess I'll call it 110 Folding Hunter, the knife that really put Buck on the map in the modern era. And this, as you can see from the picture, is a fixed bladed version of this. Now they had this one out for a while and then discontinued it, but now it comes out every once in a while for a buck of the month. Last time it was a drop point, which in my opinion probably very, very useful and workable, but just not as compelling as this beautiful California clip. This one is now out with. That's 7 3.75 inches of S35VN. Yep, yeah, S35VN on this 101 with the Paul Boss heat treat.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:29]:
Paul Boss is the boss when it comes to heat treating. He can even make 420. Screamingly sharp, yes, but also very, very tough. So Paul Boss heatridon. This handle scales are El Dorado rich light with an Anzo pattern that, that Jen's Anzo was the first one to do that sort of grooved pattern. So it's been called the Anzo pattern for a long time. At least I still call it that. But that layered rich light really looks like wood.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:59]:
Looks like natural material. Perfect for the fall. Really, really beautiful. Comes with a distressed leather sheath. And there are still a few of these available at 175 bucks. So if you're a buck guy, and I wouldn't necessarily call myself a buck guy, but I am a huge fan and appreciator of the classic Buck models. And actually their new range series is really sweet. But I love the old 110, the 112, the 119, the 120 fixed blades.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:29]:
Those are awesome too. So if you're in that camp, you might really want to save up your shekels and get that one. But you better act fast because the bulk month is almost over. All right, next up is from Giant Mouse, a company that I again, Jen Zanzo, used to be a part of Giant Mouse for the first 10 years. I absolutely love Giant Mouse From a distance, I don't have any, but I just, I always love their designs. Luckily they, they are always pretty much out of my wheelhouse in terms of size. So I've never been, never had that moral obligation to spend the money on a Giant mouse. But they are beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:08]:
This new one is the Farley V1 Farley V1 rim. It's called trim. If any of you know Eddie Murphy, you know, I just chuckled. Anyway, so the, this, the original release of the Fairly or Farley, I'm not sure how they actually pronounce it was in 2022 and it was their, their answer to the lack of slip jointage in their lineup. And it had Micarta handles and then they had the v2 version back then which was the bolstered Micarta versions. So V1, no bolsters. V2 bolsters. So the V1 trim is actually now with contoured titanium.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:54]:
And then they hopefully will come out with a V2 which will have the titanium but also with bolsters. So this thing is beautiful. Nice and slim as the as the name would would betray. And it has a beautiful 2.75 inch Elmax spear point blade. I think the blade is beautiful. The handle is beautiful. Again, this is ergonomics that the eye can sense. You have a wire clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:25]:
And these are available now at 225 bucks. Now I am not sure about the action on these, but knowing, knowing Giant Mouse's reputation, I'm sure it's absolutely stellar. And I think that these have a stop pin. So they're not a traditional. They. I know they have a stop pin just from looking at it. They are not traditional slip joints that use the kick on the Ricasso to stop it, stop the blade when you close it. They use a stop pin against that sharpening notch.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:58]:
So absolutely beautiful Again from Giant Mouse. All right, last up in my in the knife life news today from Victorinox, a company that. Well, it doesn't change things too often, but here's a nice big change. This is their Alox Refined Collection Alox are those aluminum oxide handled knives that we all know and love. I got a bunch of them. The one thing I don't like about the Alox models parenthetically is no toothpick because I use that all the time. When I have my slip. My Victorinox is on me and no tweezers but.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:38]:
And you think with this model they might figure out a way to do that, but they haven't. But that's okay. I'm not throwing shade. Three models in this refined collection. Now you're looking, if you're looking at the screen you can see that there are odd cutouts that we don't see ordinarily on Victorinox knives. The one cutout that concerns me is on the the bottom side of it because it just it you can see kind of the works of the slip joint there and, and I'm wondering if that will introduce gunk and muck into the situation and kind of jam up the action on that side of the slip joint. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Beautiful cutouts on the top which I like a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:24]:
And then some of that knurled texturing but not on the whole thing. And then the rest of it has a sort of brushed bark looking texturing on those aluminum oxide handles. Okay, what are the unique selling propositions of these besides the new look? The first is a locking main blade. There is a locking leaf there. It has a tab that extends out like an old school liner lock and it locks that blade open. I love that. I love that aspect. The second USP here is the pocket clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:58]:
It has a pocket clip, kind of a deep carry loop over spring pocket clip. It does present the blade tip down but that's not such a concern in this case because it is a slip joint. There is no, I'm not a slip joint but it is a two handed opening knife. So all of the reasons we don't like a tip down modern folder don't really come into play with this one. Three models of this. The One Fold which is has a single blade locking blade. The Synergy A word I absolutely despise. But I can talk about that another time with a blade nail file, bottle opener and a flat flathead screwdriver.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:42]:
And then the boxer opener, that funny looking tool at the very top there. And then the Synergy X which has all of those tools plus scissors. These are available now starting at 56 bucks for the one fold and rounding the corner at 96 bucks for the Synergy X. Very exciting news. I wish it had a bale. I do love the bales on my, on my Victorinox's, but it has a pocket clip so that sort of precludes the bail. Right? I mean, doesn't for me, but might for you. So go check those out and you'll be excited to see them.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:23]:
All right, coming up, we're going to go to the first tool, but I want to remind you that you can sign up for the newsletter that comes every couple of weeks. It should come every week, but sometimes I slack. That's all right. You get enough emails anyway. But I want to get in your email box just in case this show ever has to leave this platform or other platforms. We can always be in touch and talk about knives. Just go to the knife junkie.com newsletter. All right, let's get to the first tool.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:55]:
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. Here's some cool knife history with the knife junkies. The first tool. If you ever hold an ulu in your hand, you'll feel something ancient, something older than almost any other knife design still in use. The ulu isn't just a tool. It's a living artifact of survival, culture and ingenuity, born in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the Arctic. For thousands of years, Inuit, Yuptik and Elliot women used the ulu for nearly everything. Skinning seals, cutting hair, slicing meat, shaping hides, even trimming the food for their children.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:36]:
It was a multi tool before multi tools existed. But its shape is what truly sets it apart. A crescent blade that rocks gracefully against a cutting surface, powered not by downward force, but by leverage and precision. Early ulus were crafted from whatever the Arctic offered. Before metal, there was slate, shale, or sharpened bone lashed to a driftwood handle. When European explorers brought steel to the north, the design hardly changed. Only the materials did. That's how perfect the form already was.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:13]:
Each ulu was personal, passed from mother to daughter. It carried family, lineage and spiritual weight. Some were engraved with simple carvings, others decorated with ivory or antler handles. And when an Inuit woman passed away, if not handed down to the next generation, her ulu was often buried with her, not as a possession, but as an extension of who she was. There's a quiet poetry in that, a tool so tied to daily life that it became a symbol of womanhood, care and continuity. In the Inuit tradition, men might make the blade, but women gave it meaning through their work. The ulu wasn't just used, it was lived. Even today, you can find ulus being handmade in in Northern Alaska and Canada sold both as practical kitchen tools and cultural treasures.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:09]:
Modern versions may use stainless steel and polymer handles, but the soul of the blade, that perfect arc, that perfect balance, remains unchanged. It's rare for a design to survive untouched for millennia, but the ULU has done just that. It's an Arctic's signature tool, one that connects modern hands to ancestors who carved, fed and thrived in a frozen world. Because when a knife works perfectly, it doesn't need to evolve, it simply endures. Now let's get to the state of the collection. Want to sell your custom knives online? With Launch Cart, you can easily create your own e commerce store, no coding required. Launch Cart is designed for knife makers like you with built in tools to showcase your craftsmanship, manage orders and grow your brand. It's fast, flexible and even includes low cost payment processing to help you keep more of your profits.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:08]:
Start your online knife store today@the knifejunkie.com launch and turn your passion into a business. So we're going to be talking about Tea Kel knives coming up here, especially their best EDC models. But I wanted to show you the very first Tekal knife I ever got. This one fascinated me and man, it got me. It got me right down the rabbit hole. This is the guardian. I'm sorry, I almost said defender. This is the guardian.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:41]:
There's also a night guard which is a smaller version of this, but this is the one that really fascinated me because of the audacity of that crazy bevel. That bevel is just designed sheerly for self defense. As you can see, the bevel is very short, very shallow, extremely oblique. You can see it looks like a diamond in cross section here. You are not cutting any salami with this. You are not slicing lunch meat with this. This is 100% about gashing, stabbing, thrusting and tearing. It is a super, it's a super nasty blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:24]:
It's pretty heavy, relatively speaking, for a knife of its size due to the full slab that you have up to that oblique bevel there. This thing I, when it first came out, you know, Tim, Tim of Tel Knives was admittedly more of a gun guy than a knife guy when he first started. And there were some things, some, some of the rules that he broke as a gun guy and not a knife guy really is what got him the attention and, and, and, well, I should say just the attention and infamy that made him who he is today. Who would ever put a bevel on a knife like this? Especially in this day and age when everyone's talking about Fin behind the edge and slicey. Well, Tim did and it really launched him. Now this is, you might look at this and think, well that's just too oblique. That's just too thick behind the edge to do anything. And all you got to do is take this through some spare ribs or swing at any soft material with this and you'll see what it does.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:37]:
It yawns open, it powers through soft materials like you would not believe. Actually, you can believe it. If you just look this knife up, you'll see videos of him going to town on his pork man. With this pork man is a couple of thick pork loins wrapped around PVC tubing and then wrapped with seven layers of Saran wrap to to this to approximate skin. And you, you will see what this thing does. It is admittedly kind of a funky looking knife. It's a three way, you know, tri edged sheepsfoot or wharncliffe. Depends on, on what you want to call it.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:20]:
But three distinct edges there. This thing is just wicked and nasty and I'm glad I have it. I do not carry it often to be 100% honest, because there are other tkal knives I just prefer. But it's on the warthog handle. So if you're looking at this, you can see the purple. Here is the handle from the warthog which fits perfectly in hand and is nice and small and fits on the belt easily. But I do have this with the sentry grip. So you can see how this side of the G10, the full black side incorporates a ring on there and that gives you a better grip in standard grip like this gives you more of a pommel to resist centrifugal force.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:06]:
But also if you carry it in such a way that you're drawing it, ring finger, forefinger first, it gives you that sort of karambit style engagement. Now for me, I wouldn't do much flipping with this. I'm not much of a flipping, flipping guy. I've hurt myself enough with curved karambits to just resist the urge to flip. But that ring is superior for drawing the knife. I absolutely love it and I love it even more so on other, other knives. But. So this is the guardian.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:39]:
You can still get it. If that style of bevel is just not versatile enough for you and your purposes. Check out the night guard. It's a, it's a little bit shorter and it's a similar shaped handle, but it's or similar shaped blade but it's got a swedge and a much higher bevel so you can use it for more, more cutting chores than just defending yourself. So go check that out. All right, now let's talk about Tekal knives. But before we do, I want to show off some of the cool merch we have. This is new stuff that Jim has just come up with.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:16]:
Jim is always busy at work and making, coming up with new witty maxims like these and designs for them. Don't make me unfold this, he says. And I like it because, you know, I'm especially fond of the more combative style knives. And here this is a sort of a tip of the hat to those of us who like to carry knives for self prot protection you need. It's grilling season still. I mean, for me it's griddle season all year round, but you're still going to be outside cooking or inside. I made a big pot of sauce and meatballs just this week and I wish I had this apron on me because it would have saved me the shirt I was wearing. You can also put on a hat with this on a T shirt or a great number of other things, mugs and other such stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:05]:
So if you're a coffee maker, you're a guy who wears shirts, maybe you wear hats, maybe you cook. Check us out. Go to the knife junkie.com shop. There are many pages of merch there with really cool logos and, and art on them. So go check it out. The knife junkie.com shop. All right, so to head up this conversation about TEL knives, especially the EDC TEL knives, which is kind of what they're born and bred for, but they have expanded and they have a lot more larger knives out there. We're going to talk about the launch of the Agent 001.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:45]:
I just said launch like I'm from New York. I don't know why I said it like that. But let's talk about these. They are really cool, super refined. As I mentioned, the first one that I showed off today is the blue one, which we're going to be giving away to a lucky gentleman junkie on November 20th this month of in this year of 2025. But I'm going to show you a little cavalcade of agent 001s here. So first off, you can get the 001 now with the badger claw leather sheath. Truth be told, this is how I've been carrying it.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:24]:
The most recent recently because this has been my main blade. Often times I just dropped the whole thing in my pocket. You can see from the shape of that sheath, it nestles down perfectly into the bottom of a man's jeans pocket. I'm not saying you got to be a man to buy this, but if you're a woman, you know, you don't have pockets deep enough, so you might just want to get a clip. But I just put it right in like this and I can just draw the knife directly out. So something you may have noticed, something I've been talking about a lot is that Tim has outsourced some of his milling, or much of his milling for his blades to Nick Chuprin of NCC Knives. An absolute perfectionist and amazing machinist. He's out of New Hampshire.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:15]:
You might know Nick from his beautiful folding knives. Well, he's taken all of the meticulousness of making those knives and put it into fixed blade knives. Look at the beautiful chamfering on this. Look at the striations in the bevels here. Beautifully, beautifully milled by Nick and NCC Knives as a collaboration with Tkel. And not only is this very much kinder in the hand than the first run, I love the first run. I still carry those all the time, but they're nice and soft on the edges here so they don't bite into the hand. He's reduced the number of gimps on the thumb ramp from five to four bigger gyms.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:04]:
I actually rather like that. My original design had five smaller ones. They've gone to four, four larger ones. And I really, really like it actually. It's more comfortable. And the, the thumb really buries deep in there. We have battle lock grips on this one. I have a bunch of battle lock grips.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:23]:
I'm going to show you in a minute. Beautiful saturated color. This is something I'm loving about these battle lock grips. Not only does that stone texturing portion in the center really grip, I mean, it grips beautifully. I mean, like, but it doesn't harsh the hand and it doesn't like, destroy your jeans somehow, maybe because those tiny little pebbles are very, very small. But in addition, with the battle grip here on the sides, that's this tkal knives sort of patented grip pattern here. It just feels so good in hand. This is another one of those knife handles that you can just look at visually and tell how ergonomically sound it is.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:07]:
Now I, when presenting the original agent design to Tim, he said, I love that blade. We're going to, we're going to nail that blade. And they did exactly as I drew it. But he said, I think the handle needs a little work. And he went to town and this is what he came up with, I had a more severe choil here for the pinky and here for the four finger heat kind of made it more graceful and arced and man, it feels so good in hand. We added the jimping on the back. Three here for my wife and my two daughters. Three here for the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:47]:
It doesn't have to be for you if that's not your thing. Totally get it. But that's what, what my what I was thinking, I was thinking how cool it is that say the Kukris or all of the Filipino blades and the Malaysian blades have different spiritual aspects to the designs that you don't need to know about and to make them effective but they are there nonetheless. And that's what I was thinking when I came up with that. So don't worry, don't have to be a Catholic own and appreciate these. So let me show you this. Now this is the standard sheath. It ships with awesome, awesome slender Kydex sheaths that Tim has kind of made his name on for, for serious everyday carry.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:31]:
But this one, now they don't ship with this clip but you can, you can purchase that extra and I highly recommend it. I am, I'm a total convert to this. I love the DCC clips for vertical carry but for horizontal carry I am 100% behind these ulti clips here. This is an Ulti Clip wire clip that Tim co designed with the, with the late great gentleman who started Ulticlip, may he rest in peace. But this thing is great. You can spread it out to fit any sort of grommet or lashing option, you know, within reason. But this could go even further and I could put it over here if I wanted to, but it keeps it really close to the belt, close to the body. There's very little standoff distance between the blade and your belt and it just holds perfectly and very stout.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:28]:
I, I, I thought just from looking at it that it would turn on the belt, it would swivel. It doesn't at all. Keeps it right where it needs to be. Here again is another beautifully saturated and it's funny to call this saturated because I've shown you two pretty dull colors in that olive drab and this desert tan. But when you get your eyes on these as well as your hands, you'll see how really great these battle lock grips are. All right, now I'm going to show you two special editions that are shipping right now. So these knives as you see them right here, are shipping out soon enough November 1st. But you better jump on them because they're not unlimited.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:07]:
But if you want one of these two special editions right now, you could buy it right now because they're already ready to go. Now how TKL knives works, you order it, say, you order it with this blue, blue grip. Say I want the blue grip on the, on the 001. Then they make your knife, they have the blades ready to go. They put the, they select the handle you want, make the handle, put it on, select the sheath you want and get all that ready. They put the edge on the knife and then the, they ship it to you. But these are already made. And I've got two special editions to show you.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:42]:
First has that beautiful cobalt blue battle lock grip. Again, super saturated color that I love so much. Check out the blade. This is the storm edition. I still have the oil on there. Maybe just for our purposes here, I'll wipe the oil off. So you got a laser etched lightning pattern on there that is so cool. And it's perfect for this time of year.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:10]:
Perfect for any time of year. But I love it for fall because, you know, creepy movies and thunderstorms go hand in hand. But you got the same super sharp blade. These are coming in aedl. So these are stainless. Am I right about that? Okay. Honestly, I don't know. All TCAL knives come in either AEBL or ADCRV2, but they're all coated with, with that nickel boron coating, so it kind of doesn't matter.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:43]:
Do you like a tougher, do you like a tougher, more outdoorsy steel in the ADC RV2 or do you like a more EDC style with the aebl? Uh, really, they're kind of interchangeable for me. They kind of don't matter. But both great steels. And look at that really cool lightened pattern on there. Of course it comes with whatever handle color you want. Actually, that's not true. These ready to ship ones have handle colors that you can choose from. It's not like getting a custom one here.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:19]:
Next one is, and I love this, especially for, for Halloween. You can tell from that. Again, super saturated lime green. You know what this is going to be? That's right. It's a Zombie edition. Remember when zombies were everywhere? I mean, not literally, thank God, but the zombie craze that started with the Walking Dead and, and ran its way through knives. There were, there was a long period of that. Well, at this point, this is kind of a tip of the hat.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:49]:
This is sort of a nostalgia bid here with the, with the Zombie Blood splatter on the blade. Of course, that is laser engraved or not engraved. Laser etched in there I guess is the word. And then you have that beautiful green handle. Now these, the zombie edition is shipping only in this green handle. And I love it. This will be what I carry on Halloween. I can't wait.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:18]:
And, well, I'll probably carry both of them, but I really love the look of this. I don't have too many zombie blades in my collection, so I'm really happy that the one I do have is an agent 001. How beautiful that is. All right, I'm gonna set this down here. That is representation of the full line of the Agent 001 series. You've got the Ulti clip here. And then this is the clip that they ship with. And this clip is actually really awesome.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:52]:
I love this. And if you have a couple extras of the. You could always swap. If you say you buy an aftermarket clip like this, you can take this off and put it on your favorite holster. It'll work on the holsters for in the waistband carry. All right, let me, let me remove these very, very, very sharp knives and let me do it very carefully so as not to cut myself. I've cut myself on, on camera here so many times that not all about that, as the kids say. Do they say that? I think they say.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:24]:
All right, next up is also from the Agent series. This is the agent 002. Now this is taking the agent handle to. So this handle that Tim and I collaborated on launched the entire agent series. And the second one is borrowing from the Night Guard. So you see that really great looking modified sheepsfoot modified wharncliffe blade on this agent handle. I've told the story many times, but I'll tell it again because that's the DeMarco way to retell stories over and over. Just ask my dad or my brother or my sister.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:05]:
I think my mom's the only one who doesn't indulge in all that. But. So this is the knife I used to install this flooring in our pool. My wife is a pool board member, much to her dismay at our local pool. You wouldn't believe how crazy political a pool board can be. But anyway, so she bought a whole bunch of this flooring to put on the pool on the tiled floor in the locker rooms. And this knife was perfect for putting that damn pain in the ass together because a. This wharncliffe blade with that straight edge was perfect for cutting really hard plastic.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:47]:
I horsed this through a lot of really hard plastic. And then this awesome handle, which was originally designed for thumb capping for. For reverse grip, turned out to be a great hammer. I used this so much to hammer pieces of these floor tiles together. And the Jims actually worked great to grip kind of like the knurling on the hammer pole of a roofing hammer. It just grabbed into whatever I was hammering into, especially the soft. The. The.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:21]:
The tough material I was using that. That I was pounding this into. Something I failed to mention when I was showing off the 001 is that this terminates in a comfortable yet effective glass breaker here. Like when you put your thumb here, it's right in the nook of your thumb, so you don't even feel this sort of diamond shape, that pyramidal shape there. But it works great as a glass cutter, not glass cutter. I'm sorry, glass breaker. And remember, if you ever have to break glass in, say, a car, do it in the corner. You'll.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:59]:
You'll see a lot of great videos of people trying to break the glass right in the center. Doesn't work, but once you do it in the corner, just shatters easily. Also, you don't want to do it in the middle because if you did make it through, you'd be smacking whoever's in there in the face with the butt of your knife. But the beautiful agent 002 right here. Love this knife. Now, this is wearing the. The woodland burl G10. So tan, brown and black, all swirled together.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:31]:
Not in layers like you saw on the blue and black, blue and black, blue and black. But each layer has swirls. And this is something that Tim worked with the G10 supplier to actually create. So really, really cool. All right, next up is the agent 003. Now, the 003 is with the night Stalker blade, the very popular night stalker blade on that agent handle. So here it is. You can see this one is when they first started working with ncc.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:07]:
You can see the, the. The milling lines on the bevel, but a little more subtle. Everyone loved the mill line, so they made them slightly more pronounced. Now has great, great jimping. Really grabs the. Grabs the thumb, though. I have it on good word that the new ones will have more chamfering on the side of those jimps, making them less sharp on the sides, but still as effective. This is wearing blue jean Micarta.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:38]:
I love, love denim Micarta. I'm a huge Micarta fan. I love the burlap. I love the canvas. I love the. The linen with that real tight weave. But I'm especially fond of the denim. I'm a big blue jeans wearer as it is for most of us are.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:58]:
But I love the look of it. It's, it's. I don't know, it's wistful and. But what's really the, the special part about this blade is about this knife is that blade. You've got a beautiful drop point. It almost looks like a clip point to me. With a full length swedge. This is great for piercing.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:17]:
You've got a center line point. If you align the point with the screws on the handle, it's exactly down the center. So you get great utility, great self defense capability in this and then just great everyday carry utility out of this. Admittedly, the agent001 is a bit combative with its double edge. This one can do double duty. It's combative but also utilitarian. Also it's probably more legal in some areas as it's single edge. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:51]:
Last of my collection of the agent series Tim just sent to me. And this thing is so sweet. This is the agent 004. Now the 004 is based on the Puukko blade. The Puukko from. From Northern Europe. Kind of a do everything outdoors blade. This one with that super saturated pink bad lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:17]:
Yes. My daughters want this when I die. Yes. I mean it's gonna. Yeah. Every time you try, you take off a sheath, it'll fly off the tcal unless you stop it from doing so. So there it is. Now this one is just under 3 inches and I got a little, little cloth stuck in that battle rock.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:37]:
I'll have to, I'll have to get out later. But this is just under 3 inches. So if you're concerned about knife lengths in your area, this one will probably pass muster. You've got a beautiful straight back blade there. Oh, that will drive me nuts. Let me just try it. All right. This is not.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:00]:
There it goes. Thank you. Thank you. You got that beautiful straight back Puukko blade, very high bevel. So nice and slicey for such a thin blade. You've got the quad gimps there, nicely chamfered. And that beautiful hand. You know you don't have to get the pink.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:18]:
I recommend it. I think it's wistful. I've used that word twice. I think it's kind of fun and, and fanciful. That's the word I'm looking for. Fanciful looks really cool too with the black bolts. I'm a big fan of pink when it's with black or that color combination. Used to hate pink altogether, but then had daughters, had to learn to love it.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:41]:
And that hot pink, man, that is something. You will see it a mile away though. So if your intention is to carry this surreptitiously on your person for self defense, you might want to shy away from that. But if you're taking this out as an everyday carry and you're going in the woods with it and stuff, which, this would make a pretty good little woods knife. You might buy something like this or that. Blaze orange or something in case you drop it. I dare say this would be even better than blaze orange because if it's in the fall, it won't get lost with the orange leaves on the ground. So this is the agent 004.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:17]:
I'm a huge fan of this blade design and I'm very grateful that Tim sent it to me to check out. Thank you, Tim. All right, next up, I just want to show real briefly. Here is the new version of the Night Stalker, also with the battle lock grips. What's new about this? It's the thinness of the blade, a little more svelte. They have a number of different versions of this knife, but this is now with thicker blades for, for more hardcore scenarios. But this is the standard version and it has a slimmer blade stock and I really like it. Super, super light.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:53]:
This is the knife that inspired the 001 in terms of carry length. It fits in the same carry envelope I was, I had my original Nightstalker, which I don't have on the table here. I was carrying it all the time. So when I proposed doing a collaboration with Tim, I told him this is fits right in the carry envelope of Night Stalker and I, I just, it's the perfect length and I love this blade. This is the one that really sold me on rings. Again, I started shying away from rings and karambits and then I got this and it, it reignited my love of the utility of the ring, not the fancy flipping and that kind of thing. All right, next up is new. This is the Nautilus and this is based on the Night Stalker.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:51]:
It's just a ring delete with a little change of the handle here and then pushing the thumb ramp forward so you could get good purchase on this three finger knife. Yeah, this is a, this is a little big knife if ever I've had one. Really only three fingers on there, but the, the pinky braces against the pommel so you get a really, really excellent grip on this. The thumb is able to Extend forward and you get the full night stalker blade on there. Just a little less on top to accommodate the thumb. So same cutting edge, same point, same blade, basically. And same handle in a lot of ways. I know you tweaked the handle once he deleted the ring, but this thing is awesome.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:39]:
The Nautilus, it's a great, super subtle on the belt, very small, easy to carry. I mean this is a great office fixed blade. If you have a sweater on and you can just kind of COVID up the knife, this will not print at all. It's so small yet so, so right. I don't know, it just fits the hand perfectly. And most three finger rings I want to put a fob on just for extra grip. You could with those rings there, those bolts, ring bolts. But I have no desire to do so on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:13]:
It just feels great in hand. There it is. That's the Nautilus. Brand new. And now I'm going to show you my FLN and just let you know that they have come out with the new FLN 2.0. They are hollow ground. So much more effective slicer. This, I mean, this is pretty damn effective as it, as it is, but this is the first version and then this is a collaboration with Neves Knives, as you can see there.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:44]:
And the new one has a hole cutout, which is great because it, it really makes the sheathing much better. The sheath on this is okay, but it's the, it's it something about it just not as good as the new ones. I experienced the new ones at Blade show, they are now out, so you can order one. The new FLN with the, with the high hollow grind and the, and the blade hole for retention. So check that out. These things are wicked. Jared Neeve just did a video showing it off against a ballistics dummy and yeah, it's pretty damn cool. Last up, I'm just going to show you these.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:24]:
I'm not sure when these are available again. I know they had a recent run of them, but I absolutely love them. Some of my very favorite EDC knives at all. Here's the Adversary. And on the same platform is the combatant. Now, the combatant was the first one and this is the second iteration of the karambit of the combatant. They did change the blade a little bit, gave it a swedge and a, a lower point, more of a spear point. But these things just melt in the hand.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:53]:
They are outstanding knives. I think the Adversary is my favorite because of that thumb swale and that beautiful wharncliffe blade. If You've got giant meat hooks and. And this is just going to be too small for you. I can get four fingers on it, but you have big hands. You can get a sentry grip for this. So that adds the. No, actually it's not a sentry grip.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:15]:
It's just an extended grip. So it doesn't have a ring. It just extends this handle a little bit. And it's just done with G10 and it's super solid. Again, that's something I got to experience at Blade Show. I don't have one for my knife, but I don't want the longer handle on this. I love how discreet the carry is on the combatant and the adversary. All right, if you want any of these knives, especially the 001 dropping on November 1, 2025, or you can get the Zombie or the Storm edition right now ready to ship, go to the knifejunkie.com TKEL and use our affiliate link.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:56]:
That's what that is. And you got to put on the coupe. You have to put in the coupon code. Knife junkie, all lowercase. Knife junkie. One word, all lowercase will give you 10% off your purchase. So do that. We all win from that.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:11]:
And you get 10% off one of these beautiful knives. They're not inexpensive knives, so take advantage of 10% off. But you will be very, very happy you did this. Looks like we've, we've crossed the 43,000 subscriber line in the last 24 hours as I record this. Very excited and happy about that. But I want you to know, spread the word because when we get to 50,000 subscribers, Dirk Pinkerton, the great and powerful and awesome Derek Pinkerton will be making us a custom knife to give away. And that's, that's to anyone on the third Thursday of the month or no, we'll do a special giveaway for that. That's, that's reserved for gentleman junkies.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:57]:
This is for everyone. So we'll, we'll find a day. I'll announce it. I'll do a close up video of whatever that custom knife is. We're going to decide together. It'll be something big and cool and we're going to give that away when we hit 50,000 subscribers. All right, thank you for joining me and thanks for checking out all these beautiful tel edc knives. They are great.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:19]:
I love Tim and I love his work. And I am so smitten with this design and how it comes out. And this second run is even better than the first. So go check them out. They do drop on the TKL website November 1, 2025. Or if you want a Zombie or a Storm edition just in time for Halloween, they are available. 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 [01:03:47]:
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