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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 Welcome to our midweek supplemental episode of The Knife Junkie podcast. It's Episode Number 103 I'm Jim Person

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

Jim Person 0:29
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast it is the place for knife newbies and Knife Junkie is to learn about knives and knife collecting and Bob I know folks maybe have heard about it, but hey, we thought we'd mentioned it again. We're on episode number 103. This past Sunday a week ago we had episode number 100. A couple of special things came out of that including a knife giveaway that we just did this past Sunday on the the interview show.

Bob DeMarco 0:54
That's right We gave away a cold steel broken skull in od green With a snaggletooth mF the snaggletooth tactical wave Deployer pocket Deployer on it and we did a random drawing we had everyone sending an email to Bob at The Knife Junkie calm with the subject line Episode 100 and they would be immediately entered into a drawing. And people wrote some very nice things thank you by the way in their in their emails, but that wasn't necessary, but I still appreciate it. So I entered them into the random.org random number generator. This is a website I've used before they seem to take randomness very seriously. They study it like a science. And so I entered in. I entered in the numbers and got it out and it was number 13 and that was Ben sharer So Ben share. Thank you for listening to The Knife Junkie podcast. Your Cold Steel broken skull will be on the way post haste and definitely 13 proved lucky this time around for bands That's right. Yeah. So maybe who knows more knife giveaways from The Knife Junkie, as long as maybe he can sell some knives to afford to keep giving. Right? Right actually, maybe I'll start doing giveaways. Slightly used knives. Just kidding. But it is fun to do these giveaways it kind of feels good

Jim Person 2:20
Well, we were looking for something to do kind of kind of special on the 100th episode so we had that and we also announced a very special live Saturday afternoon knife hangout as we're calling it. You know with all the knife shows being canceled the knife sales going you know the knife sales on the weekends that are being canceled. We thought it'd be just a cool opportunity for folks to get together for a few hours on this coming Saturday, April 18. At noon, just to talk knives, hang out and show off knives, maybe even sell knives. You know, if you have a knife you want to sell you are invited to come on and you know, pimp it out, show it off and sell it Maybe there'll be some somebody there watching that. That wants to buy your knife at no charge. We're not charging anything for this just a great way for the community to come together and talk knives on a Saturday when most of us can't get out because of the Coronavirus.

Bob DeMarco 3:13
That's right. If you've ever seen Thursday, Thursday night knives are live YouTube show Thursday nights at 10 you'll know some of the Friends of the show they are going to be helping they're going to be co hosting the Saturday April 18 knife Hangout. And I'm excited this coming Saturday and we're gonna have some other special guests coming in to join us too for small segments of time. And really looking forward to it. I'm I have I have to say at my at the tender old age of 48 I never thought I'd have actual cyber friends. I thought that was a thing for 14 year old girls but here look at look at look at me I got cyber friends and these are really proud of you. And they're spread all over the country and the world actually and it's it's great can't hang out with these people in person and talk knives but we can get together through this magical magical box in front of us and see them and hear them and I'm really excited it'll be a lot of fun.

Jim Person 4:11
Absolutely. And again that's noon this coming Saturday April 18. So be sure to join us live on the knife junkies YouTube channel if you're not yet subscribed, please do so that way you'll get the notification Saturday when he goes live but also for Thursday night knives and other knife videos that he drops. So The Knife Junkie comm slash YouTube that's going to be the place that you go to this Saturday at noon. And again if you want to join in all you have to do is have a webcam that you know obviously has the microphone attached and you can come join us for a few minutes and talk about any topic that you want to talk about ask questions of the co host or the guests that we have on or as as I said, if you've got a knife and you know you're wanting to sell it and maybe you wanted to you know you're in the knife business like our buddies Do you know for him a stone and steel If you're planning to go to a weekend knife sale and now can't go, come on the show and sell a couple of your knives it just should be a fun night hang out

Bob DeMarco 5:09
and not for nothing but the Co-hosts know so much more about knives than I do that a I look forward to it because it's good opportunity for me to hang out with people who know so much more than I do. But also I can just wrangle their knowledge. And you know, it makes me look good too at the same time, but I get to hang out here with the likes of well, you know who we have on the show, so we'll keep teasing that Yeah, yeah, so so definitely come join us. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Announcer 5:35
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's The Knife Junkie with the knife life news

Bob DeMarco 5:42
Real Steel knives has teamed up again with poltergeists works. A Polish knife company, Jason white, coarser Wits of poltergeists blade works is working with real steel knives again and he came out with this new one called the Phasma. And it is again soon super slick I love the aesthetic of Poltergeist blade works. I love their knives. They use this big oversized hardware on the handles and they have very unique blade shapes that all fall within a traditional sort of realm, you know of usability. And this new knife is called the Phasma. And the first thing I think of is the shiny Stormtrooper general in the latest Star Wars movies who was Captain Phasma, I believe, but I'm not sure if that's what this is named after. In any case, it comes out on the heels of the Luna another knife that he designed for real steel. That was a What do you call it a slip joint. And that you know, this it was 2.76 inches, I believe two and three quarters inches. This new one is 3.3 inches, it's D two and it's a locking knife and the cool thing about this knife and it's it's kind of custom made for the European market, you can either buy it with a long Nail pole. So it's a two handed opener or you can get it with the thumb stud. So kind of a kind of a neat way to take this knife and make it as universal as possible.

Jim Person 7:12
I know we've talked to quite a few times on the show about real steel. I've never I don't know if I've ever asked you do you have a real steel or several real Steel's? Or is that a knife brand that you like collecting?

Bob DeMarco 7:25
I had the metamorph the real steel metamorph which is right yeah, which is a really great front front flipper designed by Oh stop Hill, one of my one of my current favorite designers out there, but I ended up getting rid of it because I needed to move a lot of knives and then ended up getting caught in the current. But yeah, real steel. They've been producing some pretty excellent, high value knives for about eight years now. I think.

Jim Person 7:53
Well, I know Ostop. left a comment on one of the I think it was one of the YouTube The podcast the YouTube videos we always put the podcast up on YouTube so folks can air quote watch you know, I listen as they're doing other things and he left a comment and definitely like to get him on the podcast sometime too. Yeah,

Bob DeMarco 8:13
I've invited him and he's gotten back to me and we're going to figure out if if there any language barriers and and it'll be great. I'd love to speak with him is here comes this word again, Jim. I love his aesthetic but I just love the way his knives look. Let me let me put it that way.

Jim Person 8:31
Well, thanks to apostle p because I learned the word asthete from him

Bob DeMarco 8:35
So Oh, man, I love it when people call me out on my $4 words.

Jim Person 8:39
That's right. That's right. Because I've been doing that for however many years we've we've known each other. Alright, knife brand that seems like we're constantly talking about a lot is reott they've got a new one.

Bob DeMarco 8:50
Yeah, reott. Again, man. Everything they put out that I've ever held in my hands is so solid and so special. mood and so well built designed, executed everything about I love however I'm going through through my own fits and starts with my a couple of reacts I have but I'll I'll save that for another time. They have come out with another excellent looking knife This is the iron EDC it's called and this is from this is not a collaboration This is from an in house designer and it's got the usual kind of M 390 and and titanium frame lock frame but what is immediately apparent to me is how beautiful the handles are. They have very intricate inlay patterns on both sides of the knife. But on the show side they have it you just have to look them up let me just put them that way the iron EDC the way they they have designed the inlay is it. I don't know. I don't know how to say it. You

Jim Person 9:55
don't have any words for it.

Bob DeMarco 9:56
Well, they're just beautifully done. It almost looks like the inlay Is the handle and then the the handle is actually the inlay you're seeing more titanium in the center and I don't know you have to see it to know what I'm talking about but it's beautiful and they're coming in at 3.25 inches with this blade which which is the obvious EDC reference there because that is the universal link right etc and it's hollow ground you know me I love the hollow ground blades and leaf shaped with this wedge so there's there's nothing about this knife that won't be excellent they're designed beautifully so I'd say if you like the design go for it through a lot of

Jim Person 10:38
thrown a lot of terminology there at me hollow ground Yeah, well I forgot forgot all of them now but hollow ground with a switch there swedge Yes,

Bob DeMarco 10:48
yeah, you know what this wedges that's the that's the sort of false edge ground into the top of a blade that sort of makes the top of the blade more slender and it allows you to to push through things in a penetrate Trading cut more easily Okay,

Jim Person 11:01
and define hollow ground for me what's the kind of shape on that

Bob DeMarco 11:06
so that main bevel on the blade, so you have the flat part of the blade and then it bevels in towards the edge, that bevel can either be flat and that's a flat ground or Sabre ground blade, or it can be concave kind of like traditional straight razor that's the most dramatic sort of hollow grind I can think of. But so it comes in real thin and it thins out and and gets thin behind the edge. It allows you to a take a very thick knife stock and bring it down dramatically thin in a short period of space or short space. But it also allows you to sharpen that hollow ground blade. high high up before it gets to wedgie, you know, sharp and resharpen and resharpen and since it hollows out and gets very thin right above the edge For a longer run than if it's a wedge shaped flat grind, you'll be able to sharpen it longer. Oh, okay. But the trade off is it's less robust if you're going to be using knives for some really hard uses. You want the more wedge shaped,

Jim Person 12:15
flat grind. So you can resharpen Yeah, more often.

Bob DeMarco 12:19
So that when you're when you're driving it through a medium it, doesn't it less likely to break that too. Okay. All right.

Jim Person 12:26
Sorry for the knife newbie question, but no, I love it. It's always a learning opportunity.

Bob DeMarco 12:31
I will geek out on the hollow grind whenever you want, sir. Okay, all right.

Jim Person 12:36
Well, next one. I don't know where to start on this one. Sound Glasser forums spider edge serrations. I mean, okay, so how do I how do I how do I sell this one? How do I lead into it?

Bob DeMarco 12:48
Well, this was just a as you know, Spyderco is well known for a number of things. One being the round spider hole which somehow they have managed to patent a circle which is awesome. But also the serrated edge the spiky edge on their knives. They were the first company to take the pocket knife serrations wide stream is that the right term mainstream mainstream. And so, in perusing knife news, which I do all the time I saw that Ben Schwartz over there and I've news had been on the Spyderco forums. And apparently Sal Glasser is. He's the the guy who started Spyderco with his wife and now his son Eric is is, is carrying the baton as well. But Sal is very vocal on the forums and people were talking about the history of the Spidey edge serrations and it's kind of an interesting story he came on I don't know if anyone if everyone knows this, but Spyderco started as a mobile sharpening company. They went around in sort of a camper and sharpen knives, and they also sold things at like traveling salespeople and sold things at county fairs and stuff like

Jim Person 14:04
that flea markets things

Bob DeMarco 14:05
yeah, exactly and and at this at the same time they were doing this there was another pitchman who was whose name was Ron Popeil and he was selling us.

Jim Person 14:16
I know Yes. Do you know him? Yes, absolutely. Oh, sometimes

Bob DeMarco 14:20
I know him. Yeah. Okay. He's this famous guy. Okay, so I think I know who he is. Because I thought it was interesting. They mentioned his name and then it sort of came to me so he had the feather touch kitchen knife which was a you know, used a serrated pattern on the blade to do crazy things like saw some cans in half and then

Jim Person 14:38
then slice a tomato.

Bob DeMarco 14:40
Yeah, yeah, you still have enough edge left and those serrations

Jim Person 14:42
But don't order yet standby there's more. Operators are standing by.

Bob DeMarco 14:46
Or as my dad would say makes frozen treats for the kiddies

Bob DeMarco 14:50
so so there was this knife that was going around and people started selling this and and sell lesser got fascinated with it and started messaging around with the, with the serrated patterns and he was looking apparently at some German knives from the 40s that had the big, Little Big Little serration pattern and sort of added it to what he was learning from seeing the pitchmen and and the other folks who were selling these serrated kitchen knives. And then when then once it went mainstream with ginzu you know, everyone knew about the about the magic of serrations. And that's when he they were able to start selling the spider edge, not only on their kitchen knife, their utility kitchen knife put on their folding knives and people. It was sort of baked into the culture at that point that serrations are there are a great way to keep knife sharp for long.

Jim Person 15:39
Yeah, absolutely. That's cool. That

Bob DeMarco 15:42
is cool. And I think it's cool that that Mr. blesser gets in gets in on the forum and talks to his own fans. And

Jim Person 15:49
absolutely,

Bob DeMarco 15:50
because who doesn't like to hear about the origins of these kind of

Jim Person 15:53
land? Who better to tell the origin so you know, you're getting the true story? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's all Awesome, awesome story on so many fronts as she said,

Bob DeMarco 16:02
Yeah, I hope I retold it. I hope I retold it right because I don't want the legend to skewed. You know like, right.

Jim Person 16:09
Alright, sounds good to me.

Announcer 16:10
And now that we're caught up with a knife life news, let's hear more of The Knife Junkie podcast.

Jim Person 16:15
All right back on episode number 103 a good look at some knife life news that's going on now and as Bob said, a good shout out to knife news.com for providing all this great news and information on a very regular basis that that we cite and bring to you so kudos to knife news for doing that. state of the collection Bob. That's our kind of final segment that we're going to talk about and I know you can talk about this your knives. I know you love your knives. We're going to look at what a couple of recent acquisitions and kind of contrast those I guess

Bob DeMarco 16:54
Yes, yes. It's interesting because Jim, every time I think, you know I've been on the reduced and refined kick for a year now or so. And every time I think I've got it nailed Yeah, I'm gonna stick to like very robustly built small batch American made mostly kind of production, mid techie knives and how's that working out for you? Well, there are so many other things to consider that's the problem. So, so at that last definition, that mid techie American made robust thing is that the core of the collection that is the core that is the heart and soul of the collection and here comes

Jim Person 17:35
however justification to stay

Bob DeMarco 17:37
on the cutting edge. Oh, please. I have to I have to venture out so I have two recent acquisitions, probably my last for for a while.

Jim Person 17:48
Till the next guest your interview on the show

Bob DeMarco 17:50
Until the next interview, who gets me all pumped up. No, but these last two acquisitions are an exercise in in contrast for me, you In my in the spread of my tastes so I recently got the Medford Praetorian I think it's the G it's got a G 10 handle on one side titanium on the other. Absolutely beautiful D two steel. It's kind of a sublime structure. I don't know what else to say about it right now I'm still in awe of it, you know, asked me about it in a month but right now I'm shocked at how sharp it is being such a big monster it is. It is incredibly sharp so and you can get some fine fine cutting them with this massive boat anchor. It's actually funny. I had it out on the bar in the kitchen the other day and my wife used it to open up the package. And she chuckled. She's like this is ridiculous. What is that with this stubby? Oh, it's so sharp. I was like yeah, baby. That's right.

Jim Person 18:49
That's how I roll.

Bob DeMarco 18:50
That's right. So I mean this this Medford patrol Praetorian. You know, I laughed The first time I saw it too, but it is a real example of an acquired taste. And I am so impressed by this knife now and it's taken me a number of years and talking to Greg Medford on the show and and, and then getting a slim Midian hand that's their sort of gateway knife and discovering I had to go all the way and get to Praetorian. And so I'm amazed by it at the same time and this was a very costly knife let me I got a great deal from Stuart stone and steel, but it is a very costly knife to contrast that accidentally somehow this CVV knife slipped down to a family Amazon order no getting supplies to survive during this pandemic. I don't know how this happened. But

Jim Person 19:40
I would say I hate it when that happens. But I'm sure you didn't hate it that it somehow got into your cart.

Bob DeMarco 19:45
Yeah, yeah, somehow. But I tried to make lemonade when I'm handed lemons.

Jim Person 19:51
There you go.

Bob DeMarco 19:52
So I have this Civivi Shredder. And if you don't know if you've been living in a dark room as petty from petty potato would say if you've been living in a dark room Civivi is the budget brand or I should say the high value brand of weed knives we all know that we knives out of China makes an exquisite knife, extremely well engineered and designed and all the rest but those are costly knives to arranging in the two to 300 you know, area CVV this CVV that I just got came in at 60 bucks it's called the shredder and it has the the most thin blade that goes down to the most thin behind the edge grind that I have on anything here and it's feather feather light so I I just got this big boat anchor of a Medford and then I got this little flyaway kind of feels almost cheeps Vivi that is that is you know slender and thin and spelt and I'm carrying them both around. I can't decide Which I like more obviously i like i like the Medford more, because it is more my taste and it's just more of a it's more of a commitment but this little Civivi shredder man, it is so great. It makes me want to buy all the civvies. That's the problem, Jim, because they're somewhat affordable, and they have so many great designs and you know, the execution is excellent that you feel like well, why not just get them all and then you're stuck with a whole bunch of knives that you have to unload, so I'm going to avoid that. You don't have to unload. That's true. I could save them for bartering during the apocalypse, right?

Jim Person 21:35
Well, well, why I mean, if it's, if it's good enough to buy and you like it?

Bob DeMarco 21:41
Well, because then we run up against the must be somewhat used. Because if it's inexpensive, it has to be like for me to justify not using it, it should be very expensive. If I have a whole bunch of cheap knives, I'm going to be just laboring to find chores for all Have them

Jim Person 22:01
okay, so have to use them every once in a while at least carry them every once in a while that kind of thing.

Bob DeMarco 22:06
Welcome to my head people. It's not a picnic, I'm sorry if

Jim Person 22:09
it's not a pretty place folks

Bob DeMarco 22:12
So anyway, yeah, Medford and Civivi like they couldn't be on more opposite ends of the spectrum except for the fact that they're both very, very well made. But one is expensive and American and, and, and proudly and boldly American, and pretty much anti anything else. And the other is, is is Chinese and inexpensive and very well built and leveraging leveraging ideas and technologies that arguably started here, you know, and, and just done to such a wonderful level, man. So, yeah, to great knives to great contrasts, and I thought I was done with one type, but I seem to be exploring, you know, just just to stay current.

Jim Person 22:56
Well, you obviously mentioned Greg Medford being a podcast guess that was way back on episode number 4646. So you can listen to that in case you missed it at The Knife Junkie. COMM slash four six, The Knife Junkie, comm slash four, six and hear his thoughts on knives and his company and how you got started. And as you said, it might be interesting to hear that and even bring him back on maybe to talk about this contrast.

Bob DeMarco 23:24
Well a funny thing is is I remember asking him what about fidget factor? A lot of people consider it very and severe. I mean, you can't get a more fidgety knife than svv because they're the action is so incredible that you just want to play with it. And I asked Greg Medford I'm like, you know, your your knives are known to be kind of stubborn in the beginning and take a lot of breaking in and, you know, how do they How do they rank on the fidget factor and boy, he took exception to that he was like, a man doesn't fidget. I'm like, oh, okay, well, what if what if it's

Unknown Speaker 23:54
not about me?

Bob DeMarco 23:56
What a non man has your knife? How do they fidget with it? He was just like Look, fidgeting does not go into the design. I don't think about fidgeting. And and I like and respect that. You know, I like I like opinionated people. Whether or not it's my opinion isn't the point. You know it right.

Jim Person 24:13
Well, I know, growing up a lot of politicians I remember from back in the day and you know, they were polarizing figures, one of which I'm from North Carolina was jesse helms. A lot of folks loved him. A lot of folks didn't. The thing I liked about him, you knew where he stood. He gave me his opinion and you knew what it was whether you liked it or you didn't like it. So again, opinionated people love them or hate them, you know, you know where they stand. There's no, there's no wishy washy Miss, you know, have tried to figure out what's going on. tell it like it is. And there you go.

Bob DeMarco 24:47
Amen. Amen.

Jim Person 24:48
So final thoughts on this contrast? Obviously, I think I know you would buy both of them again. I

Bob DeMarco 24:57
yeah, I would. Here's the thing. I would buy them. it again exactly as right. I really like the Civivi shredder, but if I didn't buy this I could easily buy a different Civivi and be just as happy and never necessarily have to buy the shredder. So actually I'm more interested right now. I have the Civivi it's taken me ages to get one I have a 10 gram that's the that's the budget of the Kaiser I want to try the CJ RB that's the budget line of artists and and I'd rather do that then become a collector of civvies I'd rather just kind of like get get the broader lay of the land and, and kind of

Jim Person 25:34
compare compare them maybe even do a video kind of comparing some of the some of those. The budget brands as you said, right from

Bob DeMarco 25:41
the perspective of collector whose core is the robust American made Hardee's knife, okay,

Jim Person 25:49
well love to hear your thoughts about Civivi or some of the other budget brands that Bob mentioned. If you have a thought, give us a call on the listener line at 724-466-4487, we'd love to play your comments or questions on an upcoming podcast. 724-466-4487. Let us know. Also Bob, folks can come on to any of your live video shows on Thursday night, Thursday night lives Thursday night knives at 10 o'clock every Thursday, share opinions, ask questions, but also this coming Saturday, Saturday, April 18. You're going to have a special Saturday knife hangout starting at noon on Saturday. So a great opportunity for folks to ask questions of knife reviewers, knife makers, many you know those kind of folks, we're going to have a lot of guest co host and a lot of guests on the show. So a lot a lot of a lot of opportunity to ask some questions.

Bob DeMarco 26:43
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna have a bunch of the Friends of the show co host of Thursday night knives, you know them. They're going to be with me and and we're also working on getting some, some other very special guests very special guests. So we will get to talk to them. All of us talk to them and also comment and and you at home we'll be able to talk but also I would love for you if you have a webcam to shake off any nerves and and hit the join we have a join link hit the join link and I'd love to see you for a minute and talk to you for a minute right here on the show right here on YouTube and we can talk to one another right and you know it's no commitment to you Hey, how you doing? And then that's it we'll go into what else but I'd love to see you like not just hear from you but to see ya so

Jim Person 27:30
something about that face to face interaction is putting a face with a name sometimes Yeah, yeah. And I would really love for like your buddies to or any other folks that you know sell knives, either full time or part time or whatever. You know, part of the reason you came up with the idea of this Saturday night hangout was because you know April is seems like the knife shows were picking up that's kind of the season after the winter is over springtime starting but now with the Coronavirus a lot of night all the knife shows are being cancelled and postponed and rescheduled so you know folks that are making their livelihoods from selling knives, we'd love for you to come on you know maybe for just 510 15 minutes Tell us about your knife company your knife business what you're doing maybe show off a couple of knives that you have for sale, no charge. You know, just come on do it and maybe who knows somebody's watching me get in contact with you and buy a knife. So kind of what it's all about just knife community hanging out and chatting up knives. That's right. That's gonna be this Saturday at noon. That's Saturday, April 18. And you can find that at The Knife Junkie. COMM slash YouTube. Be sure to go there and subscribe and click the little bell notification so you'll be notified anytime The Knife Junkie goes live this Saturday future weekend events. Thursday nights for Thursday night knives Again, that's 10pm every Thursday night.

Bob DeMarco 28:52
You hear the term knife community used all the time. Well, this is a chance to actually have the community together. Other online since we can't get together and meet in person, it's going to be a virtual gathering an online actual community. Let's do it.

Jim Person 29:09
Let's make a plan to be there this coming Saturday we look forward to seeing you there at noon, Saturday April 18 on the knife junkies YouTube channel, so I'm going to wrap it up for Episode Number 103 of the knife junkie podcast but as a good co host I always try to like I always try to give The Knife Junkie the last word on his podcast so pumped. Wrap it up for us here what do you what do you want to wrap it up with I'm just gonna say don't take dull for an answer Jim. Always love that one. For Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco, I'm Jim the knife newbie person. Thanks for being with us on this midweek supplemental episode of The Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer 29:46
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review and review the podcast comm for show notes for today's episode additional resources and to listen to past episodes visit our website The Knife Junkie You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at The Knife Junkie comm slash YouTube check out some great night photos on The Knife Junkie calm slash Instagram and join our Facebook group but The Knife Junkie calm slash Facebook and if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at The Knife Junkie calm or call our 24 seven listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of The Knife Junkie podcast.