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: Coming up, the Seax in the first tool. Man, I have a lot in the state of the collection this week, a lot of new cool stuff. And we're going to talk about some great high-end knife carry combinations. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is The Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer: 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: Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from my friend Michael Elliot of Red Flag Blades, a knife designer extraordinaire. He says, "The Culbertson bros. are a joy to watch. I've always said, 'I'm glad they test stuff, so I don't have to.'" And that's always what I've said, Michael. I would love to train with them, and being from East Texas, I hope to have the opportunity to. Yep, Austin and Matthew are always doing their knife fighting training, and lately they've been posting different videos of different fight scenarios: Bowie versus Tanto, two Bowies versus buckler and Bowie, all sorts of cool combinations, and they talk about the strengths and weaknesses of different knives and how to fight with them.

My second favorite comment was from Debbie Skipper, who says, "Fantastic interviews. I learned a lot about knife history, knives, and practical protection information. I enjoyed hearing about Austin and Matthew's YouTube journey. What a treat to learn about my son's YouTube journey that I didn't know. I am really excited to hear about Lynn Thompson's news". As am I. And, you know, I know it's a layer of separation away, but nice to meet you, Debbie, and thank you so much for commenting. I'm glad you liked the interview. That means more than any other comment you could possibly imagine on that episode.

All right, well, thanks for watching, thanks for listening over this past week, leaving comments, etc. Keep them coming. All right, that said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer: What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's The Knife Junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco: In my front right pocket today, I have the Off-Grid Knives Polaris XL. I've been carrying this knife quite a bit since I got it. It is, as far as my wheelhouse goes, this is perfect and right up my alley. You've got a 4.25-inch, so over 4-inch, Bowie blade, clip point blade. Really nice profile with that big swedge and a low-slung tip. A bit of belly, but a lot of straight to this and a precision tip. And as most Off-Grid knives are, it's got a thin blade stock, beautifully ground, high-height flat grind on this thing, and it just glides through material. I'm a big fan of Off-Grid knives, especially as they slice so well.

They're great for cardboard and other kind of things, and I have found with this one, it's really good for feather sticking. Yes, I've used this for feather sticking, what do you call it, fatwood. Not really feather sticking, but creating tiny, tiny curls that I dislodge from the stick in general. But with this, very thin Vanax steel, Vanax SuperClean, super steel here, that works great. Now, people go bonkers over Vanax super steel. I'm glad to have it, glad it's on this knife, but I haven't really reaped the benefits yet as I'm not a hardcore user and I haven't been out on the construction site with this for several months. But the edge retention should be very, very high on this and I'm excited about that. Who doesn't just love knowing they have some of the best, most high-quality materials on their favorite items, even if they don't push those items to the limits of those materials? A really nice swirly kind of marbled carbon fiber. This he calls Red Dawn. I love it. He being Cary Arefeh, the designer and proprietor of Off-Grid Knives. This knife is made by Kunwu and it is a masterpiece. They have an elite line and this is the most elite of their elite line. I love this knife. It's been kind of a default knife recently where it's like, I don't know what to carry, and I pop that in my pocket. I'm glad I did.

Next up, I went into the Jack Wolf Knives archive and got one that I am utterly shocked they haven't done a second run of. I'm pretty sure they will at some point because Ben has talked about how popular this model has been over time, and that is the Feelgood Jack. So I have my one and only Feelgood Jack. I say one and only because I have duplicates of a lot of these knives because he's done duplicate runs of a lot of these knives. This one in that really nice blue and black swirly carbon fiber. I can't remember what they all have names, all these carbon fibers have names. It's either Camo Carbon-made or Fat Carbon. Those are, you know, brands or labels of carbon fiber, if you will.

Really beautiful blade. This is S90V. I couldn't remember if this was part of the M390, you know, the first group that they put out were in M390. Anyway, S90, really nice high full-height hollow-ground blade, so it's super thin behind the edge, and a really nice-looking sheepsfoot with that beautiful swedge and the long pull. Outstanding action as always on the Jack Wolf Knives. And a really pretty stablemate with this big, beefy Polaris, to have that nice dainty and very, very precise tip, Feelgood Jack. So I like that. Didn't go into the day thinking I was going to double-carry carbon fiber. That usually never happens, but today it did, to glory.

All right, next up, one of my favorite knives of all time, but definitely one of my top three from Blade Show 2025. I laugh because I can't wait to get more stuff this year. Anyway, this was from Dirk Pinkerton, and this is his Matador model. Now I'm going to brag for a sec because this is my platform, I get to brag. I named this the Matador. That's right, I did. Isn't that incredible? Don't I have a way with words? But I bought this from him at Blade Show 2025. It was on Dirk's table. He said it was an old knife, he hadn't made one of these in ages and he was just kind of clearing it out. And I immediately thought of the Night Horse knife, his Navaja folding Navaja design that was made through Beyond EDC. I thought of that knife, especially, well, in the blade, it looks like a Spanish clip point blade, minus the little swoop and the clip.

But I had to buy it. I got it, I love it. He was like, "Oh sure, you know, you can have it." And I started showing it off. I said, "Can we call it the Matador?" because he didn't have a name for it. He said, "Sure, I like that." I thought it was a cool name because it's a Spanish clip point to me. And then I sent it back to him because he had gotten some requests for it and he had to measure it and kind of remember how to make it and sent it back to me. And oh man, I'd love to have another one. I'd like to have a bigger one of these. I know they exist. But the Matador sits so nicely in the waistband. And over the winter, I porked out a bit, I've been losing weight, that's been not easy, but I've been doing it slowly but surely. But even when I was in my porked out stage, which is not completely gone, I shouldn't rest on my laurels, but that was a very comfortable knife to carry close to the body because the handle is smooth and it's somewhat short and it's round. So kind of to the spare tire.

All right, last up, my emotional support knife was the Edgy American Blades—this is the maker's mark for the Sheepmaker 1931 leatherworks—but there is Edgy American Blade Works. That's Shane Gables' company and his handmade knives and they are awesome. This is the Junkie, based on a sketch I sent him. This is Cru-Wear hardened to 64 HRC and then sharpened by Kyle Kunnecke of Klingenwerk Sharpening. Just an absolute beast of a knife. This, speaking of Seax, this thing is just positively gorgeous and we will be speaking of Seaxes later. Now, I had a chance over the past week to take this outside and noodle with it, and oh my gosh, it just explodes through—I was just picking up random sticks and then I also have a bunch of aged birch—and it just plows through that stuff like it's not there.
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This is a really, you know, of course I sketched it out and had it made thinking of it as a fighting knife, self-defense knife, but what a great design as an all-arounder. That long straight edge is very useful when carving, when plowing through wood. You really get full contact with the edge to the very tip. So I'm very impressed by this shape and other shapes that you don't think of as outdoor shapes, like Tantos, for instance. I'm impressed by the non-traditional shapes for outdoor chores and that kind of thing. But at one point, this was the outdoor chore shape, you know, when Northern Europeans and Vikings and such were carrying that around, bigger versions doing everything with them. So I guess I get it.

So this is my carry today. Kind of funny to look at, two straight edges and two curved edges. I had the Polaris XL by Off-Grid Knives in my front right pocket. I also had the Feelgood Jack by Jack Wolf Knives in my waistband at the 3 o'clock. I had the beautiful Matador with those gorgeous JL Hansen & Son handles in my waistband, and then lastly, for emotional support, my ESK today was the beautiful Junkie. Sounds like a Velvet Underground song, "The Beautiful Junkie" by Edgy American Blade Works. What did you guys have? Let me know, guys and gals. There are a few of you out there. Let me know what you're carrying. It's always inspirational to me. I love finding out what you guys are carrying.
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Now, I was just waxing poetic about non-traditional outdoor knife blade shapes, and we are going to show two of them now, because I want to tell you about 3 Dog Knife and show you these. Now, you know Mike from Northern Knives. He is a long-time contributor and not only in his wisdom but also in knives that we've given away on Thursday Night Knives. Now, he owns the biggest knife shop west of the Mississippi. It's up in Anchorage, Alaska, but he also makes knives and has an in-house knife brand. He's an elk hunter and an all-around Alaskan frontiersman and outdoorsman, like many of his fellow statesmen, and so he makes knives for his outdoor adventures and those of others. And these are some of them. He has offered us a great deal, 25% off if you use our coupon code when you buy one of these. You have to go to theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife and then use the code 'knifejunkie' at checkout.

This one here is the Riot, beautiful gently recurved Tanto. Great for outdoors, also great for the back alley. This is his most, to me, tactical design. It's not designed as such, but I see it as such. O. D. Johnston is their sheath maker, he makes incredible leather sheaths. But 25% off is an amazing deal just to type in 'knifejunkie.' Johnny, one of our patrons here and a good friend of the show—I'm not going to say his last name just in case—but Johnny, you know you are, he just recently got a Champion Blade. This is the Trevor Barrett—I'm sorry, not Trevor Burger, Trevor Barrett—but it's right there on the blade where his maker mark is. Trevor Barrett was a winner, winning contestant of Forged in Fire. He's also an Alaskan knife maker. And this is his production model through Mike and 3 Dog Knife. It's called the Champion Blade and it's a monster, and Johnny was just talking about how he was batoning with this. I have left mine pristine. I'm kind of the—these two are safe queens. The MAC, the Multi Animal Knife, which is my third 3 Dog Knife knife, is the only one I've really actually taken out and pounded on and batoned with and stuff, and it works great. These I'm going to have to bite the bullet, I just don't want to mar these beautiful blades, but once I do, I know I'll be all in. And I know you guys are rolling your eyes, "Use your shit," and I will, excuse the French. But I'm just going to wait a little while, at least they're so beautiful. Go to theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife and use 'knifejunkie' at checkout for 25% off. That's the greatest deal we have as an affiliate here at The Knife Junkie.

Okay, lastly, before we head into Knife Life News, I want to talk about Patreon. And before you hit fast-forward, The American Edge 250. This is an awesome feature that Jim has been working on and it is commemorating our 250th anniversary here in the United States, talking about different blades through the birth and growth of the United States. And this one he's talking about the maritime knives, the rigging knife. There you see that beautiful sheepsfoot that was oftentimes put on rope and then pounded on with a mallet to cut rope fast. But you didn't want something sharp and pointy because if you're on a boat and it's pitching and yawning and whatever, you don't want to stab yourself accidentally, but you still need a sharp knife to get work done. And I like this example that's up here that Jim has on screen, got that really nice knurled handle so it's going to hold fast to your hands when it's wet. But you can also see the pitting on that blade because this is an older one, it's carbon steel and it's exposed to saltwater. Anyway, really cool stuff on Patreon, but I love this historical series right now, The American Edge 250. We also have the Friday Funnies, we have Maker Mondays, and This Day in History, all sorts of cool stuff on Patreon. So go check it out, theknifejunkie.com/patreon. If you sign up for a year at once, you save 12%. Scan the QR code on your screen, join us. If you don't want to do Patreon, you can join us right here on YouTube and also be a Gentleman Junkie and also be in the running to win an awesome knife every third Thursday on Thursday Night Knives. It's always a special knife, more special than the others that we give away on the other days. All right, that's it. Just go to theknifejunkie.com/patreon and check it out. Coming up, Knife Life News.
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Bob DeMarco: First up in Knife Life News today is a handsome new knife from Bestech, and this is a first-time collaborator with the brand, an Australian design shop called Happy as Larry. And the head designer there is Jake Diaz, and apparently Jake Diaz has a little scrum of knife designs coming out from Tuya and Bestech and some of our favorite designers right now. It's kind of like a design push going out through a bunch of different companies. This one, I think, is a really nice-looking knife. You've got a—this is called the Kobber, by the way, C-O-B-B-E-R. Nice-looking handle but, and a beautiful-looking blade. Anyway, 3.37-inch drop point blade, 14C28N. You've got that nice big long opening hole plus a thumb stud. G10 in various colors with a bar lock and an ambidextrous wire clip. So a great little recipe here for a nice little EDC knife. To me, it reminds me almost a little bit of a Bugout in that realm, except you can see it's got steel liners, probably a lot heavier. Well, it is a bit heavier at 3.1 ounces. It's available now for 70 bucks. That's the Bestech Kobber, designed by Happy as Larry.

Next up, this one hits me on the nostalgic nerve. This is the new RoseCraft Blades Birchfield Camp Jack. And this is the first—I admire RoseCraft's, I have a few, and I admire all their new releases from afar, they all look nice to me. But this one just kind of, mmm, stuck it to me. Reminds me of something my grandpa would carry. This is called the Birchfield Camp Jack, and you can see it's an equal-end or cigar-style or Churchill-style handle. I'm sure that some slip joint nerd out there right now is correcting me on at least one of those. But if you're looking at this, you see they both have the same dimensions on either end. Both sides have a single fluted bolster. I love that. Kind of like the Great Eastern Cutlery I've always wanted. I think they call that one the Churchill, like after the Churchill cigar.

But I digress. This beauty has a 2.9-inch clip point blade of, yet again, 14C28N. I think this is their third or fourth blade with that. They have diverted away from D2, which everything they made, including their modern folder lineup, which they have now mothballed, has had D2. But now they're moving to the stainless 14C28N, very popular blade steel and a perfect fit for these here knives. It's got a really nice long pull, green and brown jigged bone. That's what you get here and this is the quandary. You get this or the green. Both that sort of almost muted classic style, they almost look like they're antiques when they show up. If they're in brown or that olive green jigged bone. I think they're both beautiful. I don't know what I'd—I guess I'd go for the green, maybe I will. Maybe I'll just spoil myself, I don't do that enough, and get one because they are cool. 2.9 ounces, so you know, they're chunky. Available now, 63 bucks. Chunky, but get yourself a little leather slip, it'll stay nice and neat in the pocket.

This next one is interesting. I pause for a sip. From Civivi, this is their first Balisong trainer. So it's their first Balisong and it doesn't have an edge or a point, but that's fine. Maybe someday in the future they release its sharpened live blade counterpart. But this one's called the Dracolis. And I think it's a play on words like Basilisk, you know, the giant, you know, magical serpent. But also Draco, I know means dragon in—is that—I think that's Latin, maybe. I don't know. So I know it has something, it's in that neighborhood, the Dracolis. Maybe it means something, people are now furiously Googling what Dracolis means.

But it's got a really cool kind of scimitar-esque clip point blade, so kind of an upswept short clipped blade. 4.6 inches, as is traditional for a Balisong, so a nice big blade. And you know, even though it's got that blunted tip and the blunted edge, I think that this would be a good one to spar with too. I know a lot of people who—most people who are really into Balisongs are generally not thinking of them as weapons, they're more things to flip and they're more, you know, for aerobatics and acrobatics and that kind of thing. But I think they make for great weapons and you can use the handles as flails and stuff, so something like this would be good to train with because you'd feel it if you got hit with that blade. It wouldn't cut you, but you'd feel it, as you would the handle. Anyway, that's a bit of my own editorial. Bronze washers, so on this bronze washers, it will move better with time, that's for sure. The handles are anodized 3D textured aluminum. There is no latch, there is no lock to contend with. 4.18 ounces, available soon for 117 bucks. So expensive in the Civivi universe, but you would expect that. This is a unique design and takes a bit of engineering.

Last one is another one from TOPS, and man, I always love hearing that. I love TOPS knives. Can't get enough TOPS knives. This one is called the Snake River Rescue and it's the second dive knife in the same amount of weeks. And this is also an employee design competition winner. The last one that we featured, the Sidekick Diver, was designed by Leo Espinoza's wife, a knife designer in her own right—I don't mean to just pin her to Mr. Espinoza—but she is a part of the company and has designed a number of knives. She designed an outdoor one a couple of years ago that also won the contest. Anyway, this is the other one, and they're both dive knives, and I think they're both super cool. This one would be even better if it had a point, but it is a dive knife. This is called the Snake River Rescue, John Garcia is the designer.

A 5.5-inch tipless American Tanto. Now it does have a tip, it's just a pry tip, it's not a stabbing Tanto. You have two very sharp edges, as you can see down there on the belly side, and then it's got spine side serrations. I love the handle of this. I would love them to put like a K-Bar style blade on that handle. It is just a cool handle, they could get a lot of mileage out of that handle with different blades. This is N690Co blade steel. That handle is somewhat almost symmetrical except for that downward curve finger guard. So nice, especially contrasted against the thumb ramp. Yellow and black G10, which is more visible and better in the water apparently, and a Kydex sheath. 10.9 ounces, available now for 320 bucks MSRP. Very, very cool stuff in Knife Life News today.

All right, still to come, we're going to get to the State of the Collection. I got some really, really cool knives, five new beautiful items to show off. Some of them are new-old and a couple of them are new-new, so we'll get to that. But first, let's talk about the Seax in the first tool.
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Announcer: You're listening to The Knife Junkie podcast. Here's some cool knife history with The Knife Junkie's "The First Tool".

Bob DeMarco: Picture a cold morning in early medieval England. Mist hangs low over the fields, smoke rises from a timber hall. A man steps outside, pulls his cloak tighter against the chill. At his belt hangs a blade. Not a sword, not an axe, something smaller, simpler, and far more personal. It's a Seax. The word itself comes from Old English, and at its most basic, it means knife. But this was no little pocket tool.

The Seax was a single-edged blade carried by Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Vikings, and other Germanic peoples across early medieval Europe. It could be small enough for daily chores or large enough to look almost like a short sword. And that's what makes this knife most fascinating. The Seax lived in that gray area between tool and weapon. For the farmer, it might cut cord, trim wood, butcher meat, or prepare food by the fire. For the hunter, it could dress game. For the traveler, it was a survival tool or a self-defense weapon. And in a truly dangerous world of raids, feuds, and sudden violence, the same blade could be drawn in an instant as a weapon of doom.

Unlike the sword, the Seax was not only for the wealthy. The sword required expensive metal, skilled labor, and social standing. But the Seax was more universal. It was practical and ubiquitous. It was the blade of everyday life. Some Seaxes had long straight backs, others had the famous broken-back shape where the spine angles up and then sharply down towards the tip. To the modern knife enthusiast, this profile may look strangely familiar. I talk about this a lot, I say it's a thin line between the clip point and the broken-back Seax. We admire them both for their strong points, their useful edge, and a design that means business. This broken-back Seax, very rarely or never, actually, I've never seen it, with a swedge, a sharpened swedge.

But the Seax was also carried as an identifier. One of the most famous examples is the Seax of Beagnoth, found in the River Thames in the 1800s. This blade was decorated with precious metal inlay and marked with runes. Not just a name, but an entire runic alphabet. In this case, the Seax was both weapon and written record. That's the power of the Seax. It was something worn, handled, and used, and trusted. It belonged to the hand, the hearth, and sometimes the grave. As with so many knives, the Seax was a tool, a weapon, and a symbol. And for more than a thousand years, and a thousand years later, its edge still cuts through history.

Now, if you like this kind of talk, if you like going down the rabbit hole about knives, if you want to get specific about knife designs, knife makers, new knives on the market or just what you have in your collection, join us on Thursday Night Knives every Thursday, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube and Twitch. We have an awesome time and we talk, we talk, and I read your comments, and if you want, you can even come on the show. It's easy and we'll talk about it. That's Thursday Night Knives every Thursday 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Let's get to the State of the Collection.

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Bob DeMarco: My friend Dirk Pinkerton, sounds like I'm name-dropping because he's such an amazing designer and you people know who he is, but he's an awesome dude and if you ever meet him at Blade Show, he's very, very personal. But anyway, he sent me—he's got a vast collection of knives. Every once in a while, he does the responsible thing and purges his collection. And I got a couple of really cool things from this latest purge. He sent me a couple of pictures, "Want any of these?" "Hmm, let me see."

First one, and I've been carrying this since I got it, which was about a week ago as I record this, is the Spyderco Lum Tanto. The Lum Tanto. Now there were two runs of this. I believe this is from the second run, but an absolute, absolutely beautiful VG-10 blade here. You have a hollow-ground main portion of the blade with that upswept upsweep, and then a flat grind right at the tip with a long, almost zero-ground swedge, pretty much zero-ground swedge. And it is a stabby and beautiful 4.1 inches here. Really comfortable, this sort of—I'm not sure what the material is, it's sort of a pulp Micarta or something, feels kind of like rock but it's not heavy like rock. But it feels really comfortable in hand. It's a little slippery, you get a lot of surface tension, but I added that Ranger Band just for easier grip. Now, this comes in this beautifully made and materialed, but dweeby sheath, okay. I'm not a fan of the sheath and I'm very grateful that Dirk had made a sheath when he had gotten this knife and he makes amazing—this is perfect for this knife and perfect for in-the-waistband carry. So I've been really, really happy with this knife and it would have made my list of Great High-End Knife Carry Combos, as would the next knife I'm going to show, but I just haven't had it long enough to qualify. So a really outstanding, really happy to have this. Thank you for the opportunity, Dirk.
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All right, next up also from him. This is a discontinued Cold Steel that I've wanted for years. And you know, this is a regular theme that comes up on the show and I'm catching up with a bunch of discontinued Cold Steel. This is the Vaquero, the El Vaquero. You're like, "Bob, you have a million Vaqueros." This is the 5-inch version from the pre-Voyager Vaquero days. So there it is, El Vaquero. You know I have the Vaquero Grande I show off a lot, one of my most used knives of all time. This has that beautiful 5-inch yatagan curved, recurved S-shaped blade with that tremendous shearing power of those serrations. This thing is an incredible knife. I've been carrying this a lot in this past week. It's got that old-school long clip, but it's a pretty nice clip, I got to say. It's not a pocket destroyer like some of the newer ones, and maybe it's just a little less tense because it's a little less long. But the beautiful Cold Steel Vaquero in 5-inch, what a great knife.

Actually, before I put it away, I got to show you real quick. Here it is with the 4-inch from the same era and the 6-inch from the same era. And now I'm seeking out the 3-inch Lobo from the same era. I found one, it was 200 bucks and I got stage fright and didn't complete the order. But I intend to get the 3-inch and complete this collection. But so I'm very, very psyched to have gotten these. Dirk threw an extra knife in the box, which was so cool, so generous. And here it is. Yes, it's a Navaja. Really cool Navaja by a company called Albainox, and you know, a Spanish company making Navajas. I really, really dig it. Huge fan of the Navaja, the history of it, you know we've talked about it in "The First Tool." I've talked about it ad nauseam over the years. And there's that Spanish clip point I love so much with that long flat clip. Oh man, this thing is beautiful. One of my favorite knives from history. So thank you, Dirk, for throwing this in there. Really appreciate it. Got that ratcheted lock and you heard that walking through an alleyway. You knew you were in trouble, or at least you knew to pull your own Navaja out to settle the score. All right, got to be careful closing that.

All right, next is from Fisher Blades. This thing is so cool. I love this knife. Now Fisher Blades, you know them for the Beckwith and the McNasty, really well-researched and designed everyday carry defensive blades. Well, they just came out with their first everyday carry EDC knife and it is awesome. Here it is. It's called the Harvey PK, PK for pocket knife. Harvey is referring to their grandfather. They being Chaz and John Fisher. Their grandpa, his name was Harvey, and this is inspired by him. Inspired by the bird and trout full-handled knife with a smaller blade that can do anything. I've had this knife for about three days as I record this and I've carried it a lot. And this is the knife that actually inspired the Great Carry Combo topic we're going to talk about, but it's not in there because I just haven't had it long enough to have it qualify.

But as with all Fisher Blades, you get a lot of really cool stuff in it, including the Harvey PK user manual from the Fisher Blades Department of Daily Carry. And this is awesome because in the Beckwith and in the McNasty books they show you different places to stab and how to fight with the knife, but since this is an EDC, it's talking about different ways to hold and use this knife for EDC tasks: like opening boxes, sharpening pencils, cutting straps, pulling splinters, opening blister packs, cutting cord, cutting apples, batoning wood, fighting, getting revenge (not recommended), stabbing a tire there, emergency amputation. You know, this kind of stuff. So cool illustrations, funny but also actually very informational. And then this great, great piece in the back, it's a tribute to their grandfather Harvey Venom and a fascinating character with a—with a really interesting story and touching to see, I was close to my grandfathers so it's cool to see a tribute to the grandfathers here of the Fisher brothers. A beautiful in-pocket sheath works excellent and excellently and similar to the Pinkerton sheath I was just showing, has these extended lobes here to protect the skin if you're wearing it close to the skin. This one, of course, drops in the pocket. Also has a screw here, which I intend to dial in so you can get the retention you like. For me, it's a thin line between loose and rattly and tight and not rattly. I like it loose enough so I have to—I can pull it out of my pocket without it pulling up my pants. But a great amount of handle that presents to pull it and then you have a—it draws real easy with those two fingers like that. This is really great knife. What is the steel? I don't even know. Oh, I think this is AEB-L. So, but I will in my close-up video of this I'll straighten that out, but I'm really, really digging the Harvey PK and yeah, just a great knife with a great story and background.

All right, last combo here, I carry this by the way horizontally on the belt up front in that great, great sheath. All right, last combo—oh, I jumped ahead. The Cesario Aton XL Espada Sheath. Another really, really cool thing I got from viewer and a patron and all-around great guy, Cesario Aton. And he makes sheaths. And I've shown you my Adversary sheath, my TKell Knives Adversary, but he sent me three of these beautiful belt sheaths made of leather for the XL Espada from Cold Steel. Now this one is a beautiful burgundy maroon leather. This one I am adopting, this one I am keeping as my favorite color. I love this. It is just beautiful. So he sent me three, all leather, all form-fitted like this. The other two are black. One of the other ones hangs vertically like this, another one is set up for horizontal carry, which is also very cool. I'm going to be doing a giveaway of the other ones, I believe, but this one is mine. And it fits really nicely in there. And it's just a classy way to carry around your modern-day Navaja. You know, if you don't have the pockets for it, just put it on the belt. So beautiful leather work from Cesario Aton. I look forward to featuring more of his stuff here and that's—that's not a soft launch, I'm not trying to ask Cesario for more sheaths. But, you know, I wouldn't say no.

All right, let's get to these great high-end knife carry combos, but first check out this really cool design Jim came up with for T-shirts and everything else, every bit of merch you could get this design on. But I love this leather knife roll, it is so cool. Rolling with the Sharp Crew. Of course you have a knife roll here, so you know, little bit of wordplay, which is always welcome. We are dads, Jim and I, so a little bit of wordplay's nice. But you have this beautiful roll with all these chef's knives. You can get this really cool logo on T-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, aprons for the barbecue season and what have you. Just go to theknifejunkie.com/shop and check out our 30-some-odd pages of really cool designs.

All right, let's get to these here. So these are recent carry combinations. Now I've covered carry combos on the show before. It's a recurring theme and I start to notice patterns in my carry. Sometimes it's out of laziness, admittedly, like I just don't have the time in the morning to opine—or not opine, but to—to open up my case and labor over what I'm going to carry and so some things just stick. Other times I'm very specific in what I want. Recently, I got the Microtech SOCOM Ram-Lok and it has been, you know, a pocket hog. I've been carrying this thing so much. Matter of fact, I think I'm probably going to re-carry it today because I've tried to put it down for about a week and I want it back. So I've been loving this knife, but you'll see over and over in this list here, contrast. You'll never see the same company carried on the same day. You'll never see if it's two folders, which there aren't—these are all fixed blade-folder combos this time. But in folder case, you would never see the same lock used twice, carried twice. In this case, blade. If I have a clip point blade, I need something with a more straight edge.

So I've been carrying this quite a bit and in the Cesario sheath around my neck or on the belt with the TKell sheath. And since this is how you would get it if you were to buy it, I'll show you the TKell sheath, a great sheath. But this is the Adversary, so you have a really nice Wharncliffe blade. What's a Wharncliffe? A Wharncliffe is a straight-edge blade with a low point like this that has a gradual drop to the spine from the thumb. A sheepsfoot would come straight out and then drop down. So there's your sort of quick and dirty about Wharncliffe. This one has really, really nice machining done by NCC Blades, Nick Chuprin. And man, he does that beautiful chamfering on the edges there. And this design by Tim Kell, he's a master—well, knife designer and maker for sure—but he is a master at designing super ergonomic handles that are small enough to carry and conceal easily but still give you a full grip. My medium hands get a full four-finger grip on the Adversary and the combatant handle. But if your hands are bigger than mine, which probably 50% chance they are, you can get a handle extension to this. It is a really very comfortable extension, it's two scales that meet once you get past the tang here, they meet and extend about three-quarters of an inch and give you a full grip. So this has been a great combo because you get a small knife in the fixed blade and a larger knife in the folding blade. You get a straight and somewhat thick and robust blade here and straight edge, and then with this one, you get a curved edge with a nice thin slicing blade. This is also fun to fidget with. So this first carry combo, the Microtech SOCOM Ram-Lok and the TKell Knives Adversary. Outstanding.

All right, next one is from two other great companies. This one is the Jack Wolf Knives Diamondback Jack. I've been really into this knife recently. It—I think it came out in 2024, but this is the Jack Wolf Knives Diamondback Jack, the larger flipping locking version of the Venom Jack. A beautiful downward-angled Wharncliffe edge here with a nice thick blade, pretty darn broad and a full-height hollow grind makes this thing an epic slicer. And I don't use the term epic a lot unless I'm talking about the Odyssey. A really nice handle fits in the hand real nice, full four-finger grip with room to spare here for my hand anyway. 3.25-inch blade and like I said ergonomic trapper style handle. Mine with the Micarta, I think this thing looks like a piece of World War II military American kit. I love it.

And I've been carrying it with this and actually in the same front right pocket right next to this. This is the McNasty. Arguably my favorite Fisher Blades blade, though I got to say the Harvey PK has walked into my life and charmed—and charmed me. I really like that knife. But this McNasty PK is just so good. It is so good. It's got a—it's 1000% symmetrical, got a great handle, especially for reverse grip. The way this is shaped and angled in those three facets, it's perfect for thumb capping. And then you get that 3.5-inch double-edge blade, really, really nice. What is the blade steel on this? I can't remember. AEB-L, I think. But there you go, they're both actually rather small but they're both quite capable. This is a capable utility knife and a capable self-defense knife, I would say. Most people don't think of Jack Wolf Knives in that light, but I do, at least with certain knives, and this is definitely one of them. And then of course, the McNasty would make an excellent self-defense knife, but also using it for utility you've got double the edge. One side gets dull, you flip it, use that side. So great carry combo and also an awesome sheath for the McNasty. Nice and just sleek. I like a sleek sheath, and I got to say, they do it well and TKell Knives, they're like the—they're the ones who really opened my eyes to how sleek and low profile you can make a sheath for everyday carry of a fixed blade.

All right, next up, a great one, a classic knife. This is the Spyderco classic Police model. They don't technically call it the classic, but I do. This is the first Police model that they came out with and the first Spyderco I ever saw, and I remember when I saw it and I say it all the time, but it was in a bike shop in Philadelphia, must have been 1993, and this dude who worked there had one, pulled it out to cut a tube, and I thought, "Oh my God, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I want one." And took years before I got one, like many years, like 30-some-odd years. But I finally got one recently, this past summer, summer of 2025. I got this in Delaware. Anyway, love this knife. So great with those serrations and the swedge. They don't make the Police with the swedge anymore and I—I really like that. Great for thrusting, it's got that pretty acute point but still pretty utilitarian because it's got a chisel-ground serrated edge and then that—that very svelte but sturdy Japanese Seki City build with the stainless handles. It's awesome.

It's also a 4.25-inch blade, so you get a lot of reach there. And this has been going—I've been carrying that with this and actually on the same belt. This thing disappears on the belt, it's so light and I love this knife. This is a seasonal knife, meaning I go through seasons with this. I'll remember it and start carrying it a lot. This is the AB Knives 302. Just a great knife. It's kind of like a modern classic in my lineup. Modern classic meaning I've had this for a few years now and it's really burrowed its way deep into my heart. Aaron Bieber, the maker of this beauty, went to the same art school that I went to in Philadelphia, PAFA, and we sort of learned that just by chance in talking and then in interviewing. And I really see the artistry in his work, not only in the designs but in the impeccable build of his knives. This one of course has a beautiful Tsukamaki wrap with that really nice ivory rayskin and then the wrapped cord around it. Such a nice job. And you get those alternating peaks and valleys that the hand just sinks into. This is a great, great knife. This is a do-everything—I think it's MagnaCut, but I can't remember. Doesn't matter. Is it a clip point, is it a Wharncliffe, or a modified sheepsfoot, you decide. But it's made for a wonderful carry companion with the larger Police model. You'll find that in this list, it's often that the folder is bigger than the fixed blade.

All right, next up, another newish knife to my collection that I've been carrying quite a bit is the North Mountain Blades BBMN, designed by Duane Dwyer. Got the DNA of a Strider knife and the specific design cues of Duane Dwyer's customs. This BBMN rocks that SLD Magic—oh my gosh, I'm getting this mixed up with one of my viewers' names. Beautiful jacketed steel here or a San Mai-style steel. You can see where the two blade steels separate there. Two straight cutting edges with that super hard steel, and then you have a softer steel jacketed edge. Beautiful drop point Tanto putting that point down low, so it's really useful for utility-style cuts. And then you've got this curve at the back of the handle. This knife is great to use the tip. I've used this a lot for cutting out shipping labels and other stuff like that. It's got a really wicked and acute tip but quite stout. Not that I want to drop this on the tip, but it's got that stoutness to the tip that I appreciate. Really handsome-looking blade. You've got the blade stops right there, they look like thumb studs, can't really use them that way. This is a slow roller or a middle-finger flicker or a thumb-flick this too, but it's on washers, very stout build on washers. I love the feel of this knife. There's no weight relief and it's solid and it's got that detent, nice detent.

I've been carrying that with this awesome thing. This is the SBD Dagger from Microtech Knives. Isn't that a slick combo? Man, I love the way these two look together. They're both kind of futuristic to me. But also both kind of futuristic and beautiful. This one was a knife I traded for my other Ram-Lok that I accidentally bought, SOCOM, with Dave of OG Blade Reviews. Was so excited to get this. It carries really nicely. Same thing with that rounded-off handle. It's not a super short handle but it's also not super long. Look, in this saber grip, my pinky is kind of locking into that little hole, not going through but kind of locking in that notch. So if you have bigger hands, a saber grip might not be the thing for you with this. It might be the reverse grip which is really nice with that jimping on the crowned pommel there and the contoured handle scales, coke-bottled there, make for a very, very comfortable ergonomic and locked-in grip. Also, this is great in that sort of—I call it a shovel grip, I don't know what you call it, but when it's flat like that and your thumb is flat, flat on the handle scale as that, works great. So this is also one that I carry with a DCC clip in the 3 o'clock position in the waistband. So that is the BBMN from North Mountain Blades , an awesome folding knife, and then this beautiful SBD Dagger from Microtech Knives.

Next up, a really unexpected knife that I fell in love with, sent to me by the company Piratech. When did they send this? I don't know, little the better part of a year ago, I guess. This is the Tsunami, and outstanding knife. And as soon as I got this, I was like, "Oh, I would way rather have this than a 940." It made me think of the Benchmade 940, but I like it way better. Got a similar blade shape, similar cutting edge and kind of slender overall. But this is titanium, not aluminum. It's ultra-robust and just well put together by a company I didn't really know much about, still don't. And I'm going to seek them out at Blade Show this year and find out more about them in person. But the ergonomics of this are great, the jimping on the back of the blade is—everything about this knife is really, really well-considered. And the ambidextrous bar lock is excellent, it's very fidgety but also quite robust when you spine-whack it. But something very cool about this that I'm not going to do on camera right now, but you can watch the close-up video I did of this, is these titanium scales are held on to the steel frame by magnets. So there are very, very strong magnets mounted to the underside of these titanium scales that just lock very, very tightly onto the steel frame. Plus, the shadow-boxed machining is so tight, the tolerances are so tight that it fits on without any movement or anything like that. And it's as a matter of fact, it's almost more difficult to get the scales off of this than ones that screw off, but I really love it and there's no hardware to look at, none of that unsightly hardware. Look at that gorgeous blade. I just can't quit this knife. And it's S90V blade steel which is also a great blade steel. So that, and it's been snail-trailing nicely that blasted titanium, it's been showing wear beautifully.

And I've been carrying that with this most excellent and fearsome knife from Roger Pirson and Savage Creature Defense Tools. This is the Masako-Hachi. Isn't that a slick combo? Man, I love the way these two look together. They're both kind of futuristic to me. But also both kind of futuristic and beautiful. This Masako-Hachi is just so good. It is so good. It's got a—it's 1000% symmetrical, got a great handle, especially for reverse grip. The way this is shaped and angled in those three facets, it's perfect for thumb capping. And then you get that 3.5-inch double-edge blade, really, really nice. Roger Pirson, the maker of that knife, is a former tattoo artist and a just an incredible artist, and it comes through in his work. Also very Japanese-inspired.

Next up, a Kansept Bison. This is the knife designed by Ray Laconico, the only knife designed by Ray Laconico I have in my collection. That's not because I don't love his work, his work is so beautiful to the eye. It's usually a little too small for what I know I'm going to carry, but this is a 4.25-inch blade and it's a big Bowie. Of course I'm going to carry this thing. A beautiful knife by Kansept. Actually, there are two Kansepts in this lineup. I've been carrying them a lot recently. Really nice clip point blade, S35VN blade steel, which nowadays is like a good, sort of standard good blade steel. Used to be super steel, but I don't need anything more than that, that's for darn sure, probably don't even need that. But this has a really nice knurled titanium frame lock handle, also with the knurled clip helps in drawing the knife. Real nice action on bearings and just a beautiful knife to look at, per usual with Ray Laconico.

I've been carrying this beast of a knife with this little fighter. This is the Gunfighter Customs Gunfighter. It sort of picks up where the Clinch Pick left off. So you've got that beautiful egg-shaped handle and beautiful and practical because it's, again, small and round, gentle against the manly curves I have around my waist, but locks in the hand like nothing else, that shape just locks right in. But unlike the Clinch Pick, this has a little bit more edge and places to put your thumb, as a matter of fact, two places. You might come up here for the Filipino grip or some pressure cutting, and put your thumb there on that double-edged curved blade. Or you might come back here for a little more reach and a little more aggressiveness in your slashing. So this is designed by Michael Elliot of Red Flag Blades, a nasty little knife with that big capable knife. I also need a straight edge in my life, I'm carrying that, but this one also has a hawkbill on the back. So don't think I'm not thinking. And this is one of the few knives that I currently carry appendix. But maybe hopefully I'm losing some weight and it stays off, maybe I'll go back to appendix for a little while. But that's the beautiful Ray Laconico design Kansept Bison with the Michael Elliot design Gunfighter Customs Gunfighter.
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Next up, another Kansept knife. This one has gotten so much carry since I got it, winter of 2025. This is the Jeff Blauvelt designed or Tuff Knives designed Kansept Deadite. An absolutely beautiful clip point Tanto perhaps, or Tanto-esque clip point, I don't know, but it does come to that straight edge, comes to a definitive point where it curves upward, so it kind of reminds me of a Tanto. Beautiful Barlow-esque in a way because you've got a bolster here that on the top is going a third of the way, like a Barlow down the handle, and down here halfway, so it's like half bolster, definitely a bolster lock. Just a beautiful, beautiful knife. Sent to me by the company to check out. It was their choice what to send me. I wouldn't have chosen this rose pattern carbon fiber, but I've really fallen for it. I love it. And it's scratched up and now I—I'm not happy about that. But anyway, it looks really, really nice to the eye, and that's cool when a company sends you a knife. It's cool because, A, it's a company sending you a knife, but B, they send you what they want to send you and it's so nice to have something that you wouldn't have chosen and it exposes you to things and opens you up. So really great tip on this, really, really exceedingly sharp S35VN blade steel, very thin behind the edge. That point is very utilitarian.

I've been carrying that with this, I of course need a straight edge in my life. I'm carrying that. This is the Kiridashi-inspired NoVA-2, designed by me and made by Matt Chase on his handle platform, so that was a handle pre-existing and we designed a number of—a couple of blades to put on his handle there and man, I love this combo. Kiridashi Japanese straight-bladed rising point Japanese utility knife. This one super thinly hollow-ground 154CM blade steel. We might do another run of these, I'm not sure. But this makes for a great, great carry companion with the larger Deadite model.

Last combo here, another Dirk Pinkerton. This time, I guess he's the only one in this list right here, but I was carrying him today earlier. This is the Standoff by Dirk Pinkerton Knives and Pinkerton Design. This one is a prototype in the titanium, beautiful chamfered titanium with S90V. What a great blade steel, S90V is a true Wharncliffe. It's got that continuous descent from the thumb to the low tip. Flat edge there and this one, if you want to get this knife, you have to go to his website. I'm not sure if it's still on offer, but it's in Micarta and 14C28N, I believe—Micarta and 154CM. He did a number of different versions of this knife in prototype and I was lucky to snag one of the S90V titanium versions. But I got to say, I did a video of the ones he did, of the ones I'm talking about with 154 and the Micarta, and they are awesome. I really want to get one or two because they come in a few different handle materials or patterns.

I've been carrying that one with the TKell Knives Agent 001. The 001, this is the one that I designed with Tim Kell, started the Agent series. This is from the second run that they did with the NCC, the Nick Chuprin machining, and man, it is so wicked, so beautiful. This one with the Battlelock grip, so these are the GRN grips that are so saturated in color and feel so great in hand. So this makes for a great carry combo. You've got the two different curved edges on the TKell and then you've got the straight edge of the Standoff here.

I've been enjoying these seven carry combos. What about you guys? What are your favorite carry combos? Sometimes when we do pocket checks on Thursday Night Knives, I'm astounded at how many knives some of you guys and girls carry. So let me know, drop it in the comments below and we'll talk about it on Thursday Night Knives, 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on YouTube and Twitch. All right, thanks for joining me on this midweek supplemental for Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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