Announcer 0:03
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your hosts Jim Person and Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco

Jim Person 0:17
Hello Knife Junkie and welcome to episode number 65, it's the supplemental edition of The Knife Junkie podcast and I'm the knife newbie Jim Person

Bob DeMarco 0:26
and I'm The Knife Junkie Bob DeMarco. Welcome to the show.

Jim Person 0:29
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast ... the place for knife newbies like myself and Knife Junkies like you and Bob to learn about knives and knife collecting and I guess I should have not said it that way. I guess there are other and hopefully other knife newbies that are joining us along on this podcast and you know, and can turn turn them like myself into Knife Junkies at some point.

Bob DeMarco 0:51
Yeah, Jim. It's been a year. It's been a year actually, officially. And at this point, I can't I can't consider you a newbie. I mean because you know know the names, you're working your way into it. You have some taste of your own that you've developed.

Jim Person 1:06
You and I have bought a few knives. Yeah,

Bob DeMarco 1:08
yeah, you've gotten a few knives as gifts. You bought a few knives, you and I've even had a knife debate right here on this show. So I think that you are no longer a newbie. But if you want to know,

Jim Person 1:20
I'm definitely not a junkie. So my newbie hood continues. You know, I don't know at what point I'll be. I'll transition from newbie to intermediate or whatever the next step is, but yeah, still, I'll still keep that moniker because I really feel like there's a lot I don't know yet about knife collecting. But

Bob DeMarco 1:37
yeah, that's a good point you made about a year ago, we started this podcast and you've, you've been a part of and witnessed many, many an interview with some of the top knife makers and manufacturers and tactical users, etc. So you know, you probably have more of an education floating around in that prefrontal cortex then, you know,

Jim Person 1:58
I could just remember it. Yeah I'd be a smart guy. Hey speaking of knives and the transition from learning about knives to being a Knife Junkie, a great resource is the knives 2020 book. And if you want to grab that maybe as a great Christmas present holiday gift, maybe just get it for yourself and also help support The Knife Junkie podcast you can. What's the old phrase you can kill two birds with one stone you can do both at one time by going to The Knife junkie.com slash knives 2020 that's The Knife Junkie. COMM slash knives 2020 pick yourself up a copy of the knives 2020 book which is just a massive book over 800 something full color pictures, a lot of eye candy in there. So it's a great book,

Bob DeMarco 2:46
The perfect word eye candy. That's one of those books, obviously not the 2020 but over the they released one of these every year and over the years. That's been one of my great lunch escapes. I'll leave work go to the Barnes and Noble I used to go to borders to and find that book and pour over it and see what the new knives are what's coming out what's just recently come out and then and then it's also an opportunity to see some crazy beautiful custom knives that you may not have had your eye on over the years. So I mean, that book is awesome.

Jim Person 3:17
Well speaking of books, one of our past guest Bob Terzuola, he, as you I think referred to him as the the godfather of the

Bob DeMarco 3:27
godfather of the folding tactical knife, his his new expanded version of his classic 2000 and when I say 2000 I'm talking ad in the year 2000 he released the tactical folding knife, and it discusses the anatomy purpose and and drive behind making the tactical folding knife and what an actual what a tactical folding knife is actually comprised of. It's a very famous and classic book and if you want to find it, you're going to pay a lot of money on the secondary market. Well, he just released an expanded version. It's out and available to people on the mailing list his mailing list and I'm assuming that that's an early release kind of thing and that it will be available to the broader public shortly but I'm amazing guy with amazing legacy and this book really looking forward to receiving mine I just put my order and so

Jim Person 4:20
well if you want to hear that interview and it was really a great interview a lot of history there a lot of name dropping and I say that in a nice way that the names of the of the past and that have really kind of made knife making a knife collecting kind of what it is today. You can hear that interview The Knife Junkie dot comm slash 38 that was Episode Number 38 of the Knife Junkie podcast so just go to The Knife Junkie dot com slash three eight you'll get a chance to hear that great interview with Bob Terzuola as well.

Bob DeMarco 4:52
Yeah, I mean it's a it's a real deep dive into the history and and legacy of what we all love today. So he's a cool guy. Man

Jim Person 5:00
well in listeners, regular listeners to our supplemental will know that we normally start off with knife life news and we're kind of doing that but in a different kind of way we're having just a couple of quick things at the bob t book was one of them and then we want to do a let you talk about a new knife drop. So not really setting it up with nightlife news because we've got a great show segment we want to get to today, we have talking about doing a holiday gift guide. But what we decided or actually what Bob decided to do was do a little twist on that the top 10 carried knives of The Knife Junkie for 2019. So those can kind of help you guide any kind of knives you want to buy for the holiday holiday season. But we'll get to that in just a second because the question is will this new knife from Todd knife that Bob wants to talk about the shodan, will it become one of Bob's favorite carried knives of 2020?

Bob DeMarco 5:59
well Okay, so here's the deal that Terrell and Seth Todd of Todd knife and tool. They're on this podcast a couple weeks back and they were discussing we were talking about, about their design process and all this and they were talking about a new knife that was about to drop. Well, it has dropped. It's called the Shodan. And it's a leaf shaped blade, which is new from Todd knife and tool. They're, they're very preferential to the wardenclyffe style blade or, or the near Warren cliff. If you listen to that podcast, you'll know what I mean. But now they've come out with a showdown and it is a beautiful leaf shaped blade on one of their sort of futuristic, yet extremely ergonomic handles. showed in is the name of a villain from a classic sci fi horror PC game which called System Shock two, which I'm unfamiliar with but I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. And this knife has a nice blend of futuristic Angular shape and design. Very much Todd knife and tool in the handle. And then as you extend out through the blade, it's this beautiful as I mentioned before, curvy leaf shaped blade now it still has the design language of Todd knife and tool. It's got a beautiful fuller and opening hole and it's and the jimping is interesting. You just got to take a look I'm sure you've seen it at this point, but this is a knife that when they showed me just on the on the video interface of recording the podcast, I I thought immediately that is a Mannix killer, that's a showman killer, you know, I was thinking of the blades that it was not even reminiscent of but I would put on the same shelf if I had to categorize it and it has that like I mentioned leaf shape blade, but it's got just a little bit more design and pizzazz than those other knives and to me I think it's going to be a great competitor for the Mannix and the showman. Take a look at it. It looks cool. Now you said Will this be in my next list? Though I am I'm enamored with the sholden I think it's a beautiful knife I have my eye on the Roxy to listen to for I'm sorry the Roxy for

Jim Person 8:11
it's there for both.

Bob DeMarco 8:13
Yeah, exactly. It's their four inch wharenclyffe blade that came out recently from we It's so cool I gotta get my hands on that the showdown will be a will be a close second for me. But I think the show Dan will be a more useful and work friendly knife to most people. So definitely check that one out. It's got a titanium handle but it also has a couple of it has a titanium straight titanium and then a black stone wash and then it has two different kinds of carbon fiber I believe so a little bit something for everybody.

Jim Person 8:44
So new knife from Todd brothers, Todd knife and tool and Bob mentioned that episode, The Knife junkie.com slash 54 that was Episode Number 54 of the podcast so The Knife Junkie dot com slash five four

Bob DeMarco 8:57
I would be remiss if I didn't say It is the best tech night so when you look it up look up best tech showed in it's designed by Todd nights and tool but it's it's under the best tech shingle

Announcer 9:09
subscribe to The Knife Junkie's YouTube channel at TheKnifeJunkie.com/YouTube.

Jim Person 9:13
Alright, so let's get into it our main topic for the show this week, The Knife Junkie, top 10 carried knives of 2019. Even though there's a couple of weeks left of 2019 I don't think anything's going to change his mind about his favorite knives over the past 11 months. And he tried to narrow it down to 10 but just couldn't do it. So Bob, you've got some runners up

Bob DeMarco 9:39
Yeah, it's more like 15 and let me just as a preamble, let me say I wanted to do top 10 knives of 2019 what you should buy but then I realized, you know, this year was was different for me in terms of knife buying and collecting, instead of kind of getting a lot of the new stuff that was coming out I was more interested in finding some of the knives of some of the people I talked to some of the people I interviewed and also kind of calling down my collection, reducing and refining as epic snuggle bunny says and kind of getting down to what is really what are my real favorite knives. So, my runners up. I'm going to start with two ever present knives. And by that I mean they don't, they don't really go on the list because they've been everyday carry knives for years at this point. The first one is the cold steel micro recon one micro recon one. It's a tiny tiny little key chain knife and yes, it is on my key chain. But it it has all the materials that you find in an old school micro recon one including acedo a steel which is fine for a one inch blade one and change inch blade. And it's been riding on my keys for I don't know several years at this point. And this great little knife comes in handy when it's on your keys. Let me tell you I've used it a million times. And being so tiny it's still features the triad lock just kind of scaled down version of it. So you know, you can still do pull ups on it on its one inch blade but yeah, that's a great knife rides on my keys. I kind of don't think about it but I thought it deserved mentioned here, as does the CRKT minimalist, that's a knife that we featured on the show a couple of times. And that knife comes in that's designed by Alan folds custom knife maker and this is a tiny little three finger knife but never ever has a three fingered knife felt so secure in your hands. It's like ergonomic perfection. And it also features a a one inch plus blade. The one I've been carrying recently, most often is the buoy shaped. Now they also have a warren cliff, a recurve tanto and sort of kurama it, they call it the Caribbean and then the fourth is A drop point that comes in only black I believe, but I've been carrying the Bowie shaped blade which I got at Walmart for some 20 bucks of years back and it rides on the back of my tag that I have to wear at work. I'm a tagged individual and I need a pass to get in and out of work. And this thing is on the back and no one can see it and then it's just handy. I don't have it there for anything other than pulling out and use it whatever I need to open up a new knife package. So yeah, Crk t minimalist and cold steel micro recon one. They're sort of perennial favorites there. Now I have three runners up and they're runners up because well, for various reasons. I haven't had them very long but I see them being favorites in the upcoming year or whatever. The first one is the cold steel at 10 which I got with the at 15. At the same time, I hardly ever buy two knives at one time but when those came out and were available, I snagged them simultaneously. Now that was right around the time we talked to Andrew demco on this And well setting myself up like that I was like well since I spoke to the maker I will never get rid of this. So it is a permanent player in my collection but the ad 10 is a knife I have found in my pocket pretty much every Saturday or Sunday when I'm out mowing the lawn and picking up sticks and raking leaves and doing all that crap in the back. It is a great utility knife. It's got a great utility shape and that seriously ergonomic handle. I got one of the earlier ones that has the hollow ground blade, which I'm preferential to but it also now is out in a flat ground blade which I can only imagine is just incredible because I have the cold steel at 15. And it's basically it's very similar blade shape, same blade width, but with a full flat ground blade. So whatever at 10 you get your hands on, it's going to be worth it. Next is the Spyderco Delica wharenclyffe serrated model. Now this is something that Since I received it only two weeks ago, from our awesome listener stew, up in Vermont, he's got a company incidentally called stone and steel and he goes to the knife gun shows up in New England and sells knives. Check them out. Great guy. He sent me a Spyderco Delica wardenclyffe serrated blade. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. It's three inches. And serrated and the Delica is a tried and true model. I've had one for a number of years. It's really a fantastic and extremely effective night. And since we had Michael Janet on the show, Michael Janet Karis one in his back pocket and has for quite some time. His do got in touch with me. He said I think you better have one of these because I carry one well he carries the endora but no Same difference just a little bit smaller. And he was right. It is an incredible knife and I see it in the coming year being a standard player in my back, left back Damn pocket that's where I keep my my small three inch blades. Great knife. And then last of the runners up is a is a tactical front. That means a front right pocket knife my featured Knife of the day I carry a number of them but there's a featured knife for the day and we'll get into my knife weirdness at some point but that that rides in the front right pocket and we're talking about the Bastenilli Creations Dragotac, and this one is made by lion steel. Now bastianelli best Ian koves is a

French knife designer who makes nothing but the most elegantly beautiful, gnarly tactical knives and this one is the drag attack has a sort of sax shaped blade it's like a curved Warren cliff and I know that that isn't a diametrically opposed term right there. Curved and Wharnecliffe but it looks like a Wharnecliffe. It's got a slight curve to it. And it's an incredible utility knife. It's it's ground, very thin and and i ground mine even thinner and It's produced by lion steel from Italy. They make amazing knives. It's got a incredibly ergonomic handle, and it's pointy Sharpie, draw Khadi and it's got an amazing steel breaker on the tail end that doesn't affect the grip when you cap it with your thumb in reverse grip so I just kept finding myself coming back to the best Nelly drag attack, but not quite as much as all the rest of the knives I'm about to mention. Wow. And that's those were just the runners up folks.

Jim Person 16:32
And Bob did drop a couple of names I did want to mention epic snuggle bunny was on the podcast twice the most recent one with the reduce and refine that has kind of turned Bob's world around if you will, Episode Number 35. So The Knife Junkie dot comm slash 35 Andrew demco was on episode number 20 The Knife Junkie comm slash two zero and Bob also mentioned Michael janich. That was episode number 58. So The Knife Junkie dot com slash 58. So if that weren't enough, just these wonderful runner up knives. The one thing that I thought about when you were talking about those is I think you're going to have to find pant design has more pockets. Yeah, cuz you're running out of pockets to carry knives. But anyway,

Bob DeMarco 17:19
that's so funny you should mention that

Jim Person 17:21
top 10 carried knives of 2019 for The Knife Junkie. I'm just gonna, I'm just going to turn my mic off man and let you go want to hear some of these top 10s

Bob DeMarco 17:31
Alright, so the first four I'm going to start with secondary knives. Now secondary knives are knives either carry in my front left pocket and that those are usually slip joints or in the waistband of my pants. That's the third knife that I carry. And and that's the knife. Now this is this is just going into my my brain. This isn't based on reality it's based on what happens in my brain so that that that in the waistband knife is the knife I rely on when I'm On the ground getting kicked by a gang and I have to pull something out and cut some ankles and stab some feet,

Jim Person 18:05
which doesn't happen very often by the way. Yeah,

Bob DeMarco 18:08
bi weekly basis. I guess that's it. Like I said, this is a this is a mind game. So anyway, but I'm going to start with the front left pocket. This year I carried almost every day, the GEC The Great Eastern cutlery number 14 lick Creek boys knife. Now that's the smaller version of the number 15 and it's just a spectacular little slip joint knife. Now the one that I have, has the large clip point and then the small pen, pen blade. And when I say small it is small. And when these are when this knife arrived, I put my edges on it and got it super sharp. And now this little thing is like a scalpel. I use the the larger clip point blade for for whatever I need to use a knife for in front of people at work and then the Small pen shade blade, I keep super sharp and untouched. And I leave that in there just in case. You know, just in case I have to do field surgery on someone, right? So the clip point blade has a beautiful patina on it because it's 1095 steel and I I encourage a patina, though I never force a patina, and it's got this yellow, what is it called? This is an antique yellow Jawbone handle. It's beautiful. It's an unexcelled version. So that means it's got the machine cuts wedge and the long pole. Amazing knife, I highly recommend it. There are a couple other GCS that came out this year chief among them that 83 and I want to get my hands on that. Next is the benchmade bug out now I'm not a huge benchmade guy and some benchmade have come in and out of my collection, but one that will never leave is the benchmade bug out what a fantastic knife they created with the bug out. They made it sort of as an inexpensive for benchmade sort of light backpack knife, they really going for lightweight and they really nailed it. It's got an s 30 v blade. It's a drop point blade with very thinly ground very sharp. And I bought that knife in the blue configuration that was the original the blue handle with the with the blue thumb studs, and then I swapped it out with Alan Putnam micarta skills, which I got from blade HQ, and I'm just a sucker anyone who has ever listened to me Yammer about knives knows I'm a sucker for my carta and I just had to have these skills. So I put those on. And this knife is great for the back pocket. This knife is great for in the waistband. It's got a tiny little discrete clip which I love and I kind of wish they would put on more more of their knives even the larger ones. As you can see from some of the huge gigantic Cold Steel knives, you can still put a smaller clip on them and a not advertise that you're carrying a knife but be they do the work just fine. So benchmade Bug Out with the allen Putnam skills. definitely definitely a huge win. Next in my lineup I just mentioned Cold Steel so I'll mention this one next. This is the knife that road in my waistband all year long and until towards the last couple of months I started swapping it out with a couple of newer knives but this thing I will never get rid of this is the cold steel, broken skull. And I have mine in pink, which incidentally you can buy on their website for a mere 40 bucks. I guess not too many of us tough guys want pink knives. But I got the pink for cognitive dissonance, and I added a snaggletooth mF to the thumbstick. We've had Rob Pena from snaggletooth on the show. He's the creator of this. It's a removable wave feature. Basically you can put it on any thumb stud knife with the thumb studs removed and it will Do your pocket deployment for you like an Emerson wave just beautifully. I carry this one it's very thin. The Cold Steel broken skull is very thin and the one that I have is in CTS, CTS x HP, it's very hard for me to say sorry people, they now make it an S 35. vn. But in any case, it just makes me feel with this knife in existence. There is no excuse not to have four inches of super sharp super steel on you at all times. So I carry this one quite a bit.

Next is one of my favorites. And man I carried this one a lot. It's probably my most carried fixed blade other than one that I made for myself. This year. It's the tops rapid strike. It's an incredible little Well, I'm not gonna call it too little. It's a four and a half inch blade and about a four and a half inch handle, which incidentally is jumped all the way around, but in a comfortable manner. And this is a slim, stealthy little hideaway tactical knife it is it does not want to pull out to cut your sandwiches and it comes double edged or you can get a double edge which is which is what I did. This rapid strike is very, is I keep saying small but it's not very small. It's just very discreet. It tucks in the waistband very easily. I have it set up

for reverse grip draw.

And it's just a great little knife. Now if you needed it for utility, it would be a great choice because the most of the width of the blade goes almost all the way to the tip. But it is a drop point. So it's a it's a very utility kind of oriented shape. That being said, For me I ground off the glass breaker on the end of the handle to make it a little better and reverse grip and I haven't I haven't for my little fantasy gang Fight Night. So yeah, that's the rapid strike by tops and by the way, I just ordered another thing for tops because I was getting some other things on Amazon and I figured to set up in a up in a decent guy this year, maybe I should get this little. So I have a little EDC tops coming my way, but I'll mention it when it comes.

Jim Person 24:11
You were playing Santa for yourself that happens this time of year. Good excuses for it. Alright, so those were four of the secondary knives that are front left pocket or waistband knives, right?

Bob DeMarco 24:24
Yes, that's right.

Jim Person 24:25
Okay, so those are four of the 10 top carried knives of The Knife Junkie for 2019. So I'm interested to find where these other six are on your body.

Bob DeMarco 24:39
Okay, they're all in the front right pocket. But this next one is probably not a surprise and probably the most carried front right pocket knife this year. That is the Emerson sacks. I'm a sucker for Emerson designs pretty much anything he makes, I think is beautiful and and obviously extremely functional. Now. Emerson sax is the first knife I got from Emerson that has their single detail and they've always done sort of a double detent for keeping the blade in and and also for keeping the blade out I guess or to keep tension even actually, honestly I'm not sure why they did the Double detent. Because they're doing the single detent so beautifully. Never have I had an Emerson this smooth and I think they're all like this these days. But I'm just a sucker for that Warren Cliff slash sax straight bladed shape it looks kind of triangular and, and Viking like and I'm just into it these days. And when I saw about a year ago when Emerson dropped the sax I jumped on it. This knife I the only thing I've done to this is sand down the G 10 which is a bit aggressive. And man all of my pockets are so mangled. I have to I have to kind of watch that. Now in my younger years I was like I don't care doesn't matter but now I'm kind of like I don't need to be buying a new pair of pants just because the pockets are wearing So I sent it down the G 10 on the clip side and I got a deep carry MXG gear clip. I'm a sucker for MXG gear, sort of like a Lynch clip, but in my opinion better it's got that spoon shape. So with that I carry this thing all the time and it flicks open, like no Emerson I've ever had. So I think the new Emerson's are all like that. And I look forward to getting that quakin to check that out. So yeah, Emerson sacks. Next is a knife I've had a couple of years, that's the zero tolerance 045 to CF, this isn't Dimitri syncovich design and to me, just the ideal of beauty and simplicity, but this thing is a nicely sized blade. It's got a 4.125 I think corn an eighth inch blade, so it's a nice long blade. It's thin, and it's got carbon fiber. It's one of the few carbon fiber knives left in my collection. I've kind of been getting rid of the carbon fiber. It's just not my material. But I like how light it is. And on this particular knife, it's beautiful. Same thing I did put the MXG gear clip on it because this knife ships with kind of a goofy looking Kershaw off the shelf clip. That's the one Achilles heel to this knife as it ships. But so I got the I got the MXG gear clip on it. And recently, I think just from constant use, I feel like after two years of having this it's finally broken in. Yes, I did take it apart, and I did do a little bit of tweaking to it and now it is as awesome as everyone else's. I know. Nick Chavez always talked about his 04 or five, two, as just one of the smoothest knives he had at least for a while. I know his his collection has moved on. And I was always slightly envious thinking mine is not as smooth as his. And then I did a little bit of work on it and just opened it and closed it a billion times. Start carrying it more. And the action is incredible and I've just rebounded with this design. They also have a smaller version the 04504 or five zero, smaller, more pocketable to some people. But yeah this night featured largely this year. Next is the Hogue Ritter RFK one this is the new version of what people might call the Ritter grip the Ritter griptilian Doug Ritter of knife rights and other knife designs as well always had benchmade as his OEM maker of his RFK knife and benchmade stops doing OEM work all together including for Ritter. Even though the Ritter grip was such a huge seller, and he took is designed to hold and hold men they knock it out of the park with this knife. It's got a insanely beautiful and comfortable contoured g 10 handle with a with a starburst pattern. milled in radiating from the pivot. And they did an update to the access lock, which they call the ABLE lock. It's the same blade shape as the Ritter benchmade grip tilian but it is now in 20 cv steel, which is magnificent edge holding stainless steel. It's got a deep carry pocket clip, and just is a fantastic cutter. It's found its its ground thin, from thin ish stock, and then it's got a pretty high secondary bevel so or a primary bubble. So it's a high performer and though I'm not this is kind of a unique sort of selection for me to be carrying a lot in my front right hand pocket. It's almost on the small side for me at three and a half inches. And, you know, it's it's not as flashy as some of the other knives I tend to carry. But this thing is a beast and it's beautiful and the action is Second to none. So yeah, the whole grid or RFK one. Next, it's kind of in the similar vein and that's just an outstanding EDC knife, whether you like big knives or small knives. This knife is way up there, kind of like the whole gritter. And this is the pro tech, tier three. Now this is an old and vaunted design, it's an automatic out the side automatic knife. And I bought one because I've always kind of loved the design. But then I saw a testimonial from a soldier and I can't remember exactly who or where I saw this, who this guy was but he was talking about how he had an older version of the TR three with the fish scale pattern milled into the handle which incidentally you can get now. They're making that currently and you can get that on the pro tech website will link to it. But he was talking about he had served for a number of deployments with his friends rotech tr three automatic knife and at some point had lost it, lost it in some grime and grit and then found it several years later. And it opened up like nobody's business it opened like up like it was brand new. And so I figured with that story and with my love of the design, I had to check it out. I got the SWAT version, tr three SWAT is what it says on the side. And you know what, I like it. It's not cheesy at all. And it's got these beautiful milled fillers and the handle which gives excellent grip, and it's got their hard anodized black finish, which I love and I also love how it wears it takes a while, but eventually it wears and it looks cool kind of Boba Fett. So the pro tech tier three, if you can do automatics, where you live? I highly recommend that if it's an outstanding etc. Plus, you know if you needed it for more than DC it would be more than adequate Next is the as another zero tolerance as you know, I'm quite partial to them, even though I got rid of one this year, but that's okay. We'll talk about that later. This is the Z t 0640. Another Emerson design Emerson, Ernest Emerson, I love his designs. I have knives from Kershaw from him. I have knives from Emerson from him and I have knives from zt from him. And this is one of my three zt Emerson knives, the 0640 came out quietly at the end of 2018. And this is the one that you may know it has the split pea soup green carbon fiber handle, and it's got no wave on it, which is somewhat unusual for an Emerson but also kind of coveted the Emerson's without the wave are, are sort of seen as, I don't know, kind of seen as as greater catches, at least when it comes to the Emerson and so this knife is based on An older Emerson design people can comment below and let me know what it is I can't quite remember. Oh, the Viper I think it is tell me if I'm wrong, but it's a very simple clip point bladed knife and it's got a handle that's somewhat, or at least for an Emerson who's definitely known for their ergonomics, this knife is very ergonomic but it's also very neutral. You can hold this in any grip, kind of equally comfortably. And this is the knife that I'm calling kind of my sebenza killer. And by that I mean in my collection, I'm not saying it's out there just placing the sebenza from from popular fandom, but to me it it checks all of this sebenza design boxes, but is just to me a little bit more exciting. And what I did with this knife is I got the MXG gear clip because it ships with the with the 09 20 clip which is Just Well, it's substandard kind of it doesn't leave you enough room for actual pants that people wear. It has very little ramp and it sits kind of low on the knife so it's kind of a triple whammy so I got the MXG gear deep carry clip for this and and then I got some some natural micarta Custom skills for it. When I say custom actually on misspoken I actually got them from blade HQ as well. But they're made for aftermarket, you know, addition to your to your 640. And as I mentioned, I actually liked the color of the carbon fiber that comes on the knife, but I'm just kind of not into carbon fiber and really into my card. So I made that switch and ever since I did I carry this thing all the time. It's a great night. Oh, and by the way, it cuts beautifully.

Jim Person 34:50
Well, and it sounds like it's all been changed.

Bob DeMarco 34:54
Well, yeah, you know, just the handle and the just the scales and

but the soul of the knife is there the 20 cv clip point blade is there. And the you know, the handle and frame. It's all there. Yeah, if you look at it, it looks like a different kind of 640. Okay. All right. I got one more Jim. I know I got one more and it is also an automatic knife and it's a newish one in my collection. But men have I've been carrying it a lot. And this is a great in the waistband knife. And I'm talking about the microtech Ultra tech. Now the version I got is from 2017. And they're not making this particular version of it, I should say a configuration of it. So this configuration from 2017 this was made in August, by the way has flat dark earth aluminum handle, which just looks great. I love I love the coloration. And it's double edged with a serrated edge on top. And I got this from a great guy on blade forums. He gave me a great deal on it. And man is this an incredible knife now it's one of two out the front. No I should, I should change that it's one of four out the front I have but it's actually one of two of the fine ones I have to microtech out the front. And this thing is incredible. Now it is a little weapony and it is a little kind of frightening looking. You got the you got the blade coming up the front, you know with a hard spring action, you got serrations they look kind of like teeth. It's it's kind of a gnarly knife at first glance if you're not initiated, if you will. But as a utility knife this thing is amazing. I'm used to the other two out the front that I have that are kind of on the cheaper side, rattle, make all sorts of humming sounds with the springs inside and they just kind of seemed like toys. This thing is for real and it's a great tool and it comes incredibly sharp. This would be an excellent utility knife, even though it looks scary and Daiquiri, but having the the serrated side and then having the plaintiff side is actually quite handy. If you are in law enforcement and can carry this or if you're in the military and can carry this, you get a lot of utility out of this thing. And they're super tough. It's got a glass breaker on the tail end, which, unlike the older models has been rounded off with a tungsten ball at the end instead of a, instead of a super pointy kind of pokey thing. It's a little bit more manageable. When you brush your hand by it. It doesn't it doesn't. It doesn't hurt at all, but it still breaks glass to beat the band. It's got a great deep carry pocket clip that'll accommodate fat tactical seems on your pockets. And an interesting thing I found out about this, which is only really relevant to the double edged version of the ultra tech. But if you open it up Slide the lever forward and open the blade and then actually flip it in your hand so that the lever is down by your forefinger in the forward position. It has a very, very comfortable grip. So if you need to use that backstory that side and you flip it over, you have jumping from what what is ordinarily the bottom side for your thumb ramp, and you have the lever that opens the thing up as your forward protection for your forefinger. And it works great. This knife is amazing. And I see myself carrying a lot in the upcoming year even though it's pretty new. Wow.

Jim Person 38:39
What can I say about all that five runner runners up? And 10 knives that are The Knife Junkie's most carried of the year 2019 man what a list?

Bob DeMarco 38:50
Well, Jim, you know, I was I was looking at what I think people should buy. And then I started thinking Well, I've never held the three Rivers manufacturing the trm Atom looks like an amazing knife and I can't wait to get my hands on one. I'm going to get one of those. And I would love to recommend it. But I just thought, you know, it's kind of disingenuous, I haven't carried it. I'm sure that everyone else in the world who loves that knife is being honest and true and has the experience to back it up, but I just can't do it myself. So there are a lot of great knives that that came out in 2019, including lots of great budget knives from CVV for instance, and, and others best tech, but I just haven't. I haven't bought them I haven't carried them haven't held them. So I figured I'd stick to the ones that I know. And, you know, all of you who are listening, you know who the reputable reviewers are on YouTube. Listen to what they have to say about some of the new knives I haven't mentioned here but yeah, I thought I'd let you know what I've been carrying.

Jim Person 38:51
Well, the the 2020 list will no doubt be much different as you get your hands on a lot of these other knives. Christmas is coming So hopefully you get some new knives that other folks have bought for you as opposed to you playing Santa and getting some for yourself. I want to ask you, and I'm going to give you a minute to think about this while I'm talking about something else what your favorite of these 15 knives is. So, let you think about that for a second. I'll give you a minute. I won't put you on the spot. But you did some name dropping there I want to mention mentioned Rob Pena from snaggletooth mF pass gas of The Knife Junkie podcast actually on twice Episode 16 and 2316 and 23. You mentioned Nick Chavez. He was on episode number 37. Doug Ritter we're fortunate to be able to talk to him twice in the in the year number 22 and number 29. And you also mentioned Hogue knives we had Jim Bruhns on episode number 47. So a lot of name dropping from The Knife Junkie if you will, but a lot of these folks have been on the Knife Junkie podcast and as we come out of the Thanksgiving Season I do want to say on behalf of The Knife Junkie and for myself thank you to all these folks for being willing to be on the show and to help make the the podcast that much better by having all these big names that that you can talk to. So without further ado, I'm going to put you on the spot. ... of these most carried 15 knives What's your favorite?

Bob DeMarco 41:24
I gotta say I'm really really really digging the Hogue Ritter RSK 1... I mean it is you might not think that because there there are other knives that are more tactical more my taste I have to be totally honest but this this whole gritter is just it is awesome it for me it's it's an intersectional knife, if you will because it's it's got the Houge the Ritter 1 and and those are close to my heart because of my experience and in speaking with them, but but it's got an incredible 20 cv blade and it's ground, Mine is ground so, so thinly and beautifully but you know with 20 cV, it's strong and the retention is incredible. It's a great great workhorse of a knife but it's also got incredible aesthetic appeal with the beautifully milled g 10. contoured g 10 handle with that radiating sunburst pattern. And finally, it's got the fidget ability factor that able lock that that they're using, which is sort of an improved updated if you will access lock as that patent is run out for benchmade people are jumping on that lock because it's an amazing invention and and this knife, it's got it all. It's got it all.

Jim Person 42:43
Well, you did a good job of justifying your number one pick there.

Bob DeMarco 42:46
Why thank you.

Jim Person 42:48
And I want to ask our listeners if you are agreeing or disagreeing with The Knife Junkie about his favorite carried Knife of 2019 If there's a knife you own and you purchased and you carry that you think The Knife Junkie should add to his collection so that he could carry it and enjoy it as much as you did. We would love to hear from you please, please, please, we'd love for you to call our listener line because you can leave a recorded message and then that way we can share your thoughts with other listeners about what knife you enjoyed caring for 2019. So please call the listener line at 724-466-4487. That's 724-466-487. Again, you can comment about one of the knives Bob likes and is on his most carried list. Or you can tell us what your favorite knife that you carried in 2019 was and is and tell us a little bit about that and we would love to hear from you.

Bob DeMarco 43:52
I think it'd be cool to put together a segment of a show just going over different comments we've gotten people telling us about favorites or

Jim Person 44:01
that would be awesome, folks. I need your help. I need your help. You gotta call Yeah, yeah. All right as we wrap up this supplemental edition of The Knife Junkie podcast, I do want to remind you that one of our sponsors for the year and we like to mention from time to time is Ebates, now known as Rackuten, I want to say Rahcootin, but that's not the way to pronounce it. It's Rackuten / Ebates rackuten there now part of the same family and we've got a deal for you. If you like shopping and saving money, then you need to hear this you can get cash back for your purchases just by using Rackuten. And because you're a loyal Knife Junkie listener, if you're not already a member, you'll get $10 for joining. If you go to theknifejunkie.com/cashback. it's easy. I even use the eBay Chrome extension. So whenever I go to eBay or another online merchant Ebates Rackuten will pop up and ask if I want to use the link and save money. Absolutely. I would so shop like you normally would online and cash back, just go to TheKnifejunkie.com/cashback, sign up after you spend $25 you'll get $10 in cash. So TheKnifeJunkie.com/cashback.

cash back, Bob a fun show, kind of looking back at the year and what you carry? Did you bring back memories?

Bob DeMarco 45:17
Wonderful memories, wonderful memories of time spent with wonderful blades. But I just want to say in closing, Jim and you know this as you've been a beneficiary this year, give people knives as gifts. I know it's gonna sound Oh, of course, of course, you're going to say that. But you'd be shocked. I mean, I've given so many knives to people who didn't know they wanted them. And then they got them like, wow, I mean, the thickness of them. The actual thickness of knives is appealing to everybody. Just think about what you're getting for who I've gotten my mom, I got my mom and open l A few years ago, and my folks travel quite a bit. They take it with them everywhere they go. It's their little lunch knife, and you know, so think about Think about what you're getting them don't just get what you think you like. But yeah, get someone that you would never imagine giving a knife give them a knife for Christmas, make it small, make it inoffensive, whatever it is. But you'd be surprised to see how people actually use them and actually start to really like them.

Jim Person 46:17
And I enjoy my gifts from The Knife Junkie wink wink hint hint.

Bob DeMarco 46:22
Christmas is coming.

Jim Person 46:23
I've gotten several knives from The Knife Junkie and I treasure every one of them so Thank you Bob.

Bob DeMarco 46:28
My pleasure.

Jim Person 46:29
All right, again remind you please call the Knife Junkie listener line Leave us your thoughts 724-466-4487 724-466-4487 that is going to wrap it up for our supplemental edition of The Knife Junkie podcast it's Episode Number 65 You can find show notes and links and more information at TheKnifeJunkie.com/65. so for Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco, I'm Jim the knife newbie Person and I want to thank you for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer 47:00
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