The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, the perfected Perfico, the new off grid knives Stinger XL full flat ground, and a bunch well, 12 to be specific, four inch cold steel folders. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:19]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob, the knife junkie DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:32]:
Welcome back to the show. I have three favorite comments from this past week, though I appreciated all of them. This first one is my from my good friend Dave of OG Blade Reviews, and he's talking about the Patrick Shipley Cas Iberia APOC episode. And he says, I go way back to the beginning with Cas Iberia, buying Paul Chen designed Chinese Jian style swords for kung fu practice and later live blades like the banshee sword. Great variety of weaponry for collectors and users. Great interview. Intriguing. He says, if you don't know OG blade reviews, you have to watch his channel.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:09]:
It's awesome. If you like what I like, you'll like what he likes for sure. And the man has some serious martial arts experience. So thank you, Dave, for that comment. Appreciate it greatly. Next two comments were from the great EDC steak knives episode. First from Stuart Rollings six zero two. He says, my favorite steak knife is the Tikal Sapper, which is quite a big recurve fixed blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:34]:
Works great on the 48 ounce cowboy rib eye. And speaking as a man who just made dinner but didn't get to enjoy dinner, I would love a 48 ounce steak, cowboy rib eye as I speak right now. If you hear my stomach growl, that's what it's all about. Next is from Dan Therios. He says, as an Austrian, I must say, your German wasn't that bad. Sure better than my English. Well, that I highly doubt, Dan Therios. Your English is written in a flaw in an unflawed way.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:08]:
So, and I've found that, through my travels, most people throughout the world speak English better than I. So, thank you very much, Dan Therios. There was an, there was a story about a a German sword, and I think I mentioned a German knife, and I mentioned a couple of, German names, and I really laid it on there. So Dan Therios, thank you so much, man. Had a lot of people comment on the EDC steak knife episodes with their favorite steak knives. Be sure to comment on this episode. What's your favorite four inch cold steel knife or, other folders, other cold steels, that kind of thing. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:46]:
That said, let us now get to a pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:50]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:57]:
First up, one I haven't carried in a long time, but such a great knife. This is the DLT exclusives from years ago. DLT exclusive Yojimbo, Spyderco Yojimbo and CPM 20 CV. This is one of those knives I dropped on its tip and had a resharpened and profiled by, Jared Neave back in the day and, this one has a five by five tactical solutions pocket snag on it so you can wave this sucker out of your pocket and that's the main UFC or I should say, USP of this knife is it is a fighting knife. It's a self defense knife designed by Michael Janich, who is a lifelong martial artist, a very accomplished Filipino, and other martial arts, and then he sort of codified it all into his own martial blade concepts. This is his, second iteration of his original Yojimbo design, and then he went on to design Yojimbo, the Microojimbo, the small version of this, and several other knives like the Be warned for other companies. But I love this knife. This is the knife that really convinced me, that a pointy point and a straight edge wharncliffe style blade make for excellent self defense.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:18]:
And that's why I got that five by five, tactical solutions pocket snag on there. So I was carrying that today. My slip joint today was the beautiful Rose Craft Blades Cane Creek jack. This is a really nice looking sort of coke bottle style handle. I love the original. This one had that yellow, orange, red, and black g 10. Very, very nice. And now they have like a rosewood.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:47]:
When you go to the to the, Rosecraft website, you'll find this with a rosewood handle, cover setup and it looks beautiful. But, this is one I have not carried in a long time. I just gave away my my what's it called? The Waxahachie Jack? Now I'm forgetting exactly what it's called. I'll I'll think of it. But I gave it away, to someone, that I work with who really hooked me and my family up on some great tickets to the ballet, and I gave him my, Aksahatchee Jack, I think it was called. And he loved it, and I'm very happy to give it to him. So, but it made me think of my Rose Craft knives. And I haven't carried them in a little while, and they are outstanding.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:32]:
And we've seen through, SCAB of Choirboys cutlery, outdoors. We've seen through his cut tests day after day how great the d two is on these Rose Craft blades. So, very happy to be carrying that today. Also very happy to be carrying the Agent double o one by TKL knives. Usually, I have the purple handled one. Today, I had the, woodland burl version. So, just a different, handle color, but that beautiful double edged blade inspired by the, loveless sub hilt fighter sort of clip point style blade. That's what this knife was ultimately inspired by, and, I'm really proud that this is what led to the agent series, at TKL knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:22]:
When I go to blade show coming up here real soon, I will be buying, if they have one at the table left, one of Tomas Alas's collaborations with Tikal on this platform, the double o seven, with that really nice looking, very pointy pointy tanto blade. I think I'll be picking up one of those. And then who knows what handle scale that will have. I got a bunch of decals and a bunch of different handle scales, and I love them all. Last up for emotional support, my perfected Perfico. As, as mentioned in the intro, so this has been perfected by Kyle Coonley and Klingen Werk Klingen Werk sharpening underscore sharpening on, Instagram. Kyle Conley, well known for his awesome edges in the knife world. I had him take the Perfico, which is a single edged dagger as it ships from Civivi and had him double edge it.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:23]:
He did a beautiful job. Both edges are wickedly razor sharp, polished to an extent, but they have nice bite. Sometimes, I don't like, edges too polished, Though they can be very sharp and very pleasing to the eye, they don't always grab as much as I like a slightly toothier edge. I don't remember what he brought this up to in terms of, grit on his sharpening stones, but this thing is positively beautiful. And I love this knife now. I I said when I first got it, this is one of the greatest looking daggers I've ever seen. It's in a great, hairy envelope, size wise, and it just needed that secondary edge. Now it has it, and now I'm truly, truly happy.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:13]:
So that was my EDC for the day. I had the Spyderco Yojimbo, a DLT exclusives, a DLT trading exclusive, carbon fiber and 20 CV blade with that five by five tactical solutions pocket opener on it. I had the Rose Craft blades, Cane Creek Jack, absolutely beautiful modern slip joint. Modern meaning it doesn't stop from the kick, it stops from a stop bar. I had the self designed and produced with t kal knives, double o seven agent I'm sorry. Double o one. Agent double o one on me. Looking forward to buying a double o seven in a month.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:56]:
And then today, I had the perfected Perfico on me. The Perfico by Savivi, great knife. Just needed that back edge sharpened. Thank you, Kyle Coonley and Lingenberks with a k, underscore Garpman on Instagram. That was a mouthful. Alright. Let's get to knife life news, but first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell. And if you please help support us on Patreon, that's a great way to do it.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:26]:
Great way to help us out. You can also download the show on those apps there. But when you go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon, check out what we have to offer you for your support, I'm pretty convinced you'll be convinced. You can scan the QR code on your screen or simply go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon.

Announcer [00:09:45]:
The Shockwave tactical torch is your ultimate self defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts one hundred thousand hours, a super sharp crenulated bezel, and a built in stun gun delivering 4,500,000 volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave tactical torch, the knifejunkie.com/shockwave. You are listening to the Knife Junkie podcast, and now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:13]:
Alright. We have four cool new knives coming out, today, all courtesy all stories courtesy of knife news. Check out knife news, Ben Schwartz. I love his writing. That's why I'm always I go to him first. I I absolutely love how he writes and makes each new knife, even if it's just another, Civivi liner lock. He just reimagines it every time. Great writer, especially about knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:40]:
Alright. First up is the James Brand Humboldt dude. When I was in college, Humboldt was the word you wanted to hear. The James Brand Humboldt fillet knife. Humboldt, a county in Northern California known for its natural beauty. This one is a, has a flexible seven inch n six ninety blade steel. That's a bowler blade steel, highly corrosion resistant and easy to sharpen. Now, of course, this is a seven inch fillet knife, so that is gonna be quite flexible.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:14]:
We have a hardcore fisherman in my office. He happened to walk by my desk while I was looking at this today and called him over, and he oot and aahed. And when I told him the price, a hundred and $79, he was like, what? But he's a knife guy. I mean, ma'am, sorry. He's a fishing guy. So it took him like that for me to say, well, how much do you pay for your fly rods? He's like, oh, oh, that's not too bad. It's just he didn't pay that for his, fillet knife. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:44]:
Textured g 10 handles and that beautiful, storm cloud gray, as I like to call it, full tang, with a really cool kinda James Brand logo in that first screw hole right, north right above the, the finger choil. That screw on the show side has the logo for James Brand. I gotta be honest with you. This is probably my favorite James Brand knife to look at so far. It's a tie between this and that integral they came out with a few years ago. But, I don't know. I think that this is a beautiful filet knife, and not for nothing, wouldn't be bad in a tactical, pinch. Kydex sheath, a beautiful Kydex sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:28]:
I I recommend you, click through from, knife news to the James Brand site and look at the video that I have up there. It's it is a beautiful blade. 4.5 ounces available now. Alright. Next up from one of our favorite, knife makers, and designers, Brian Brown. He's got the new micro trogan with WE Knife. His original design, he he made the trogan a few years back, and that was a 3.2 inch bladed version of this knife. Well, now it's there's a 2.68 inch version of this knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:08]:
That's M390 blade steel. It's a drop point tanto, as I'm gonna call it, with a fuller and a swedge. Absolutely, beautiful to look at for sure. Compound ground, so that means the front part of the tanto is a, a, a full flat, a flat grind. I'm sorry. That second half is as a tanto should be hollow ground and just nasty looking. I love that it's a swedge, there's a thumb stud, and I also like that there's a fuller. I like that middle finger flick.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:42]:
Contoured micro milled titanium frame locks here. Really, really cool. Kind of a futuristic look with those, five holes in the handle. Kind of a neutral, I mean, it's an arc handle but compared to that blade somewhat neutral. And I think the balance is perfect. Aesthetically, you have a very complex and aggressive looking, blade. So for contrast, as all great works of art and other things, the contrast, it has a relatively subdued and comfortable, looking contoured sculpted titanium handle. 2.89 ounces, pretty damn light for a 3.2 inch blade, less than an ounce an inch, and it is available now.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:27]:
That's the MicroTrogon from WeKnife and Brian Brown. Next up, they have run out of names. That's, that's all I have to say. Bestech. Bestech's new knife is called the Toddler. Yes. That's right. The Toddler.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:43]:
But designed by Maciej Torbay. I don't know how to pronounce his first name, but I know his last name is Torbay or Torby, I've heard it pronounced. He's a Polish designer, and I've been following him on Instagram and his custom knives for years now. But he's done some collaborations with Bestech. I think this is first with Bestech, but with Kaiser, and he's got some pretty forward looking geometry and blade styles and shapes. This one is actually relatively pedestrian for, mister Corby, but really nice looking, I gotta say. It's a 2.75 inch 14 c 28 and a modified wharncliffe. What do you mean by modified wharncliffe? Well, it could be actually more of a sheep's foot, but it's got such a a, shallow descent to the I'm sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:33]:
Steeped it no. Gradual descent to the tip, from the from the break in the spine that it looks more like a wharncliffe, though technically it's a a modified sheep's foot. Oh god. I'm going down the nerd hole. But, anyway, the point is center line with the rest of the blade, and it has an almost straight edge, but you can perceive it just a a slight arc upward. So kind of a kiridashi, actually, with that point being center line and the almost straight edge ascending to that tip. Very nice looking g 10 handles. They look like they would be comfortable.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:11]:
It is a liner lock. It opens with a front flipper, as many, many knives do these days, but also there's an oval opening hole that you can middle finger flick. I hope you don't think I'm flipping you off. I keep doing this, but, I love the middle finger flick, and you can definitely get it with that oval opening hole. 3.35 ounces is this knife. Not not bad, but where the, the WE knife that we just talked about had a, below the average ratio, this has a slightly above the average ratio. So, you know, a chunky little liner lock, available now. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:49]:
Lastly is the Buck of the Month. May 2025 Buck of the Month. It's the 01/12 Slip Pro I'm sorry. Yeah. Slip Pro TRX, And, it is a beauty. This is a beauty. It's, I love the one twelve. I always look over here.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:08]:
I used to keep my one twelve and my one ten over here. I just need to bring them back down here, for reference because I'm always referencing. But this is a, Buck 1 12 special edition with a straight clip, and they actually I appreciate this. In their spec sheet, they actually, enumerate that this is a straight clip and not their, old school upswept clip, which I actually prefer aesthetically a little better, though the straight clip, it puts the tip a little bit lower and makes it easier to use in a sort of wharncliffe or sheepsfoot sort of way. Anyway, this is a beautiful three inch Magneca clip point blade, hollow ground with oh, savor this. Crushed orchid Cerakote. What is crushed orchid? You say, well, of course, crushed orchid is a beautiful deep lilac, kind of a light purple Cerakote. It looks really nice next to the brushed silver steric coated aluminum handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:10]:
Crushed silver is, yes, you've guessed it, sort of a gray color. So that gray next to that purple just looks beautiful. It looks like driving into Ohio in the fall, leading into winter when the sky is gray, but still there is some purple to it. You get a really nice gold PVD coated backspacer, thumb stud, and, a deep carry pocket clip. Unfortunately, the deep carry pocket clip is not either lilac or, I should say, crushed, orchid, nor is it crushed silver, nor is it that gold PVD coat. It is a fifth a fourth design element. I believe in the magic of threes, you know, in terms of art and in terms of stability, like a tripod. Three is great.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:59]:
And you added that fourth black material, it slightly throws off the the design. That's the pocket clip I'm talking about. But, ultimately, if this were mine, I would be happy about that because I prefer black pocket clips because I don't need to advertise that I have a knife. I just don't. I used to want to, but I don't anymore. Anyway, if you like this, beautiful crushed orchid in crushed silver, a buck $1.12, Pro, TRX, Only 750 pieces are being made. They are available now and they are $200. It's a special edition.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:37]:
If you're a a buck collector, it I'm sure it's a no brainer. Alright. We are going to move on to, the state of the collection where I have something actually very cool, which, I will compare to these awesome knives. Oh, very quick. We didn't see what they were. But in the meantime, be sure to sign up for our newsletter. We write it every Sunday, though this past week, Jim stepped in and wrote it. Thank you very much.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:07]:
I appreciate you, sir. And I I missed out because I had some stuff to do, but Jim keeps me on the straight and narrow with the with the newsletter. Do sign up for it. It is cool because though I'm not Ben Schwartz, I like to write about knives, and, I think I do a good job at least for three paragraphs. And I talk about something in my knife life, and I show it off to with some pretty nice looking pictures, if I do say so myself. All beautifully curated into one, nice looking package by Jim. So just go to the knifejunkie.com/newsletter, sign up for it, and, receive it weekly. It's not a big deal.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:48]:
You'll love it. Alright. Coming up, state of the collection.

Announcer [00:20:52]:
Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. The knifejunkie.com/battlebox. And now that we're caught up with KnifeLife news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:11]:
So these are the two knives I showed off before saying, state of the collection, I'm gonna show you something that compares to these two. This is the original. This is the Stinger XL, beautiful sort of dagger ground blade. Love to have this one double edged, but that would be a serious menace. And then this one was the follow-up. This was the EDC version. That's a full four inch blade. EDC version with a 3.25 inch blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:36]:
This is an awesome knife. I carried this for a long time when it first came out. You can see with that, with that wear, but now they have a new one, and it is the Stinger XL drop point is what they're calling it. I'm calling it the full flat ground, and the reason I'm calling it that is because the blade shapes are nearly identical. We'll call it very, very close to identical. It's just a different grind. Instead of a saber grind, which on spear point like this results in a dagger look, it is a full flat ground knife, giving it, arguably better edge geometry for slicing. I gotta say, though, like all off grid knives, this one and this one has the most shallow or most, oblique behind the edge bevel, edge bevel is still an incredible cutter.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:33]:
These, I gotta say, my off grid knives are my favorite knives, bar none for cutting up card when I have a lot of boxes to harvest. I love my off grid knives. So this, having more the geometry of the drop point above, though a different, the cutting geometry but a different profile. You can see that this is a drop point, that's more of a dagger, full flat ground. It does cut and will cut, even better than this, which is kind of half a defense blade as well. So very, very psyched. Thank you, Kerry, from OffGridKnives for sending me this, these, I should say, because they also sent me he also sent me the blackout version. And, I was thinking, oh, maybe I'll keep the blackout version this time and give away the I don't know.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:22]:
You tell me. What should I do? So this is the blackout. I really love how this looks. It's so I don't know. It's menacing, but utilitarian with that flack grind. Something about that flack grind makes it less threatened than this. So I'm really excited to have it. It has the same contoured and deeply chamfered g 10 handles with the four, slots carved in there and same awesome clip.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:50]:
And for some reason, can't figure it out. I I have to investigate deeper, but they send an extra pocket clip and I think that's really cool. The pocket clip is definitely not one that relies, it's not unique from side to side like cold steel pocket clips, but they send you an extra one. I just think it's cool, generous, and probably cost them less to pop an extra pocket clip in than it does for them to send them to people who break them. So, this is the new Stinger XL, and it's not called the full flat grind, it's called the Stinger XL drop point. But to me, I I do feel like it's important to stipulate the difference with that flat butt. Alright. Let us get you the best four inch cold steel folders.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:44]:
Now why that sounds like okay. Here's the thing. In in doing this category, which is a very distinct one in my collection and in the lineup at Cold Steel, There's the XL. That's what I collect the most of. That's what I'm the most proud of. There are the real small ones, which are are few, but, you know, strong in representation. And then they have these medium sized ones. And I don't like to call them medium because they don't call them medium.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:12]:
They call them large. But for the sake of a list like this, if I say the best large cold steel folders, people will be actually expecting extra large, the the five and a half and up. So I wanted to stipulate. Plus, the very first folding tactical modern folders I got with the clip, pocket clip and the thumb studs and all that were four inches. And that's that's what it was way back at the at the start of this, when tactical folders went mainstream and suckers like me who didn't have any money could afford to buy them, four inches. So let's start with the Recon one. So this is my Recon one from, maybe 2012 and or 2013, maybe. It's Aus eight, but this was back in the day when they were kind of I don't wanna say spray painting them, but that was kind of the shorthand.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:09]:
Putting some real chintzy coating on. So I learned that with some, aircraft stripper and a screwdriver, I could scrape these down. I had to. One of them was stolen, but, this is the beautiful clip point. It is hollow ground and really, really wicked behind the edge and sharp. And this one, what I'm trying to illustrate, even with my left hand, it's really easy for me to manipulate, close one handed, that's something people don't realize about this, about the cold steels in particular. You can always engage the axis I'm sorry, you can always engage the, lock, back lock, drop it on your finger, and close it and do it one handed. Now I just stepped in with it a second.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:03]:
This one has a very nice, g 10 handle that's been kind of worn down by time. I just have been carrying that a lot recently, which is cool because I don't carry my Cold Steel that much. Alright. Next one. This was on my person all the time for a long time. Definitely, in 2018 and '19 when we first started this show, I always had this on me, and it is the Broken Skull. Broken Skull, quote, unquote, designed by Steve Austin. It's actually not designed by him.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:37]:
It's a it's a it's a branding collaboration, because this knife existed before that with the, with the silver bolsters and the and the fake stag. And and that now it exists as the ranch hand or whatever it's called with the cheap steel, but this was back in the day. CTX at XHP CTS XHP. Sorry. Very thin with those really, really thin g 10 handle scales. This went with me to the Dominican Republic twice. I'm ashamed to say because I would never do that now. I was a stupid fool at the time.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:16]:
Don't try and smuggle a big weapon you looking knife into a country. If you feel you need one, you know, get one while you're there or bring something a little smaller. But, yeah, I carried this twice. It's got a snaggle tooth tactical coated aluminum, pocket snag, snaggletooth MF, and it allows you to wave the blade open. And since this rode in my waistband all the time, for a long time, You can see the, denim sort of stained, the pink scale on the offside here, on the lock side flip side, but, really easy to carry in the waistband, even after a big full meal. And, this is one that, Lynn Thompson always has, at least the times I've met him at Blade Show and talked with him. He always has a blue one just in his, breast pocket here. I don't have a breast pocket, but it carries lightly.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:16]:
This is like the Cold Steel version of a CEO style pen. Next up, of course, you were waiting for this, you were expecting this. The Cold Steel of Voyager and I'll say series, because I'm gonna show you a couple. Here is the clip point, here is the bacchero, and here is an old tanto from 1999 I got this. I remember I was working on a movie called Judy Berlin. I was the second second assistant director, which was a really fun job. And, it's a lot of just, like, running around and, doing fun stuff. Assistant director doesn't mean I had anything to do, with the direction of the movie.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:01]:
But anyway, Zytel handle scales, you've got this, old blade style and the and the pre triad lock lock, which is still very, very strong. I have a number of backlogs from back in this day, and they're still very strong. But anyway, this is the Voyager four inches perfect in terms of a carry knife. Pretty much with the, four inch Voyagers. They are about as bulky as I like to go on an EDC, which means you have really good hand filling, handles, great purchase, and the choils and then the choke up points here on the guard. Beautiful full flat ground blades except for the tanto, even the, new version. This version with this handle came out in 2016. And, this old one, like I said, 1999.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:01]:
They still have a hollow ground tanto, but it's a very nice looking upswept, tanto. Better looking than this one. Plus, I have mangled this over the years through sharpening and stuff. I remember cutting a rope heroically the day I got this on the movie set. A piece of sash, not, wow. Because some dude was like with a with a sawing with a dull utility method. Alright. Next up, this is from that same era as the old, well, 1999, '2 thousand time period.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:38]:
This is the El Hombre. The El Hombre. So a funny thing is the Vaquero style blade. This is the original style. I love the way this one looks. I like the new one a lot too, but you can see the difference in that the Voyager has a more pronounced s curve and the Alombre, the precursor, has a a less curvy edge and a slightly lower point and not so much of an up sweep. And, this was one that I carried for, a long time. Probably, this was my EDC for three solid years before I got something new and I don't remember exactly what that may have been, but, this was, again, in the early days of me carrying tactical fixed blades, and I gotta say, tactical folding blades, in the early days of the genre itself, especially or the category itself, especially when it comes to easily affordable.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:38]:
There there were lots of cool, foreign tactical knives happening before they were affordable to most people. Beautiful swedge on this. Though it is called el hombre and it kind of has a Mexican kind of vibe or or something, at least, in how they were marketing them, the blade style is, inspired by the Yatagan. So, not a Mexican design at all. It's indeed a Turkish sword short sword. But still, it's a combined it's a mashup. I mean, it Lynn Thompson's an American dude, and so he, kinda, looked to the melting pot for inspiration here. And, man, I love the Vaquero.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:24]:
I love the Vaquero, and I think the, El Hombre is my favorite version of it, that blade shape. Next up, a gift from a loyal listener. Doug, thank you so much, sir. This is the, Twistmaster, a sort of Opinel style, not even sort of, an Opinel style or Opinel Opinel style, knife. Sorry for my little miss, misstep there. Sorry. Holler locked knife. You've got these studs that stick out, make it easy to turn, and, it's a much more robust style knife than the Oppenel, but the same sort of idea.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:09]:
Beautiful clip point blade here. You have a continuous belly from the sharpening drill to tip. The tip remains low, which keeps it very utilitarian, and then it's got an overall, cool look to it. It's one of my kinda clip point blades. And then you've got a nail nick there. It's all definitely very two handed. Some Opinel's, Opinel's oh my god. What is it? Opinel, I guess.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:35]:
Have, real loose action. I have a few that have very loose action, but they have to be very dry. If you bring them anywhere near water, they will swell up and, it'll be harder to open up. So the Twistmaster, I this was one that I always wanted, never got, and then, my buddy Doug, who's also a patron, had one, sent it to me. This is not rubberized Krayton like it looks, like you would expect from Cold Steel. This is actually, GFN that's mimicking that look. Twistmaster, long out of print. This one is not exactly four inches.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:16]:
This one is about 3.6 inches. This is all gonna be close and approximate here. Alright. Next up is the AD-ten. This is from the 2019 run when when, when Andrew Demko first was, kind of allowed to or or his custom designs were licensed. Okay. So what I'm getting at is Andrew Demko worked for Cold Steel for many years, I think starting in 2013 or something like that. And, he designed a lot of knives for Cold Steel, but never were his custom designs because he was a custom knife maker first, last, and always.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:05]:
8010, '1 of his most popular and early models, using the Triad lock. So they brought this into the fold at Cold Steel, and it he's remained some of the best selling knives. And they've, because of that, they've, opened up his, catalog of custom releases through Cold Steel. What I'm trying to say is older custom designs that are accessible by buying them through Cold Steel. Alright. So that's this contoured handle, g 10 handle scales, and it's starting to get stuffy here. And a hollow ground blade, which is telling you that this is from the very first run of these. S 30 5 v n, this is an awesome knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:55]:
It's gotten a lot of backdoor not backdoor. Outdoor backyard. How's that for Freudian slip? Use. You can see it in the blade here where it's gone up against wood. It's done some, done some feather stick making. It's done a lot of vine de limbing and, love this thing. It did have a pretty wonky screw setup when I first got it, so that is 100% epoxy down there, never coming off. Don't matter.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:28]:
Not gonna sell it. Next up, the AD15. You're that beautiful. So this has the Scorpion lock, which is, another proprietary lock by, well, designed by Andrew Demko, now licensed by Cold Steel here. I don't think he makes the eighty fifteen right now, or the eighty ten because they're under license, but he has his other cool knives, the eighty twenty, etcetera. But that back Scorpion lock is fidgety, yes, but it's also pretty damn sturdy. And so it there's a string here very, a spring here, very stout pushing down on this, in this case aluminum, on the custom titanium bar called the scorpion lock. It's a yoke, comes down over that stop pin and really holds it in place.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:28]:
Plus, your own grip reinforces it, similar to a frame lock in that respect. This one is flat ground, same model year. These two came out at the same time, caused huge splash. I got them both, which at that time was rare. I got them both on the same purchase and have been very, very happy. I'm really happy to have the hollow ground version of the eighty-ten, but this eighty-fifteen is a super sweet knife and if you want a custom version, you're gonna pay a pretty penny. 4 figures, but if you want, if you want the same knife without going totally custom, you get it from Cold Steel. Next up, this one was an EDC for a long time, back in the day.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:15]:
And by that day, I mean, like, I don't know, 02/2005 or something like that. So this knife has been around a long time. It's the TiLite. I happen to be carrying the TiLite, big brother right now. But, this knife has been around a long time, inspired by, the Italian stiletto and just a really, really fine, pointy, long, slender blade with that bayonet grind. I love it. So it punctures really well, but also it can open up these old ones. I mean, these smaller ones, you can open up like a front flipper, kind of, just using that quillion.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:58]:
You can also wave these open off of that front quillion, like that, grabbing the, the jimping. So this knife, I always thought, should have the quillion set up like this. Imagine the edge we're on the other side of where it is right now, where the thumb has that grippy, thing to push against and then this has it just looks more traditional. Right? And then this could catch off the ant with this side. But I think and I I don't have confirmation of this. I'd like to ask William Thompson essentially. I think they did that so as not to, come up against Emerson's wave copyright or or patent. If they had the Quillian facing forward, which is kind of the obvious design for this knife, it would be violating some sort of patent, because it would look too much like a wave.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:56]:
So I think, if I'm not mistaken, that's gotta be why they chose to orient the the, guards that way. Anyway, this is the Chris version, which came out in 2021, I believe. They started making me Chris, models in both the Voyager and this highlight and the large one. I have that one too. I just have it spilled away. But this one was made and dropped right after the sale to GSM. And I've gotten plenty of post GSM sale, cold steels, and they're all they've all been very good. This one was the fit and finish, not so great on the scales.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:40]:
And I keep intending to have, Thomas, Tom Engelson of Vantage Blade Works making you scales for this. I just I'm gonna do it. After this episode, I'm gonna do it, because the scales are the one Achilles' heel for this knife in particular because, I don't know, it's just cheap and it doesn't feel right. But this one, not so much. This one feels great, always has. So that's the tie light and, the spear point Tylite or the bayonet Tylite, we'll call it, and the Chris. Next up is one that a lot of Thursday Night Knives viewers love and carry. Very much a self defense oriented knife, called the Black Talon two.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:29]:
Now the Black Talon two, if you ask me, is definitely heavily inspired by the, Sid, Civilian by Spyderco. The civilian was an s curved, fighting or self defense knife, I should say, that looks a lot like this when you look at the edge, designed by Spyderco in 1991. And that knife was Purpose built for self defense, without any training, you know, intuitively, you know, it's like a claw, but it's a nasty, nasty recurve claw. And, it was originally commissioned by the government of South Africa in 1991 from Spyderco, the civilian was, with that blade shape because, of a lot of, essay happening on buses. And they wanted women to be able to, well, defend themselves without any training. You know, some guys on on you trying to get his way with you. If you take out the knife and you do this, you're gonna make a difference with that style blade. So I I know that Lynn Thompson must have been aware of the civilian, and I think, or I'm not sure if Andrew Demko designed this.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:45]:
But anyway, obviously, heavy heavy influences, but way more robust. And I I'm not trying to bust on the civilian. It's a beautiful knife, but, this one is more robust. It's got the triad lock. It's got these, very nice solid handle scales of g 10. It's nice and thin though, the overall carry package. But look at that blade. CTS XHP, a very nice stout, blade stock all the way to the tip.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:15]:
On the Spyderco civilian, the tip is very dainty. This, you could use for utility all day long for years and years. And, the civilian, you might not wanna do that with. That's maybe even more, dedicated to self defense. And by the way, the civilian was used, to let's see, by, Hannibal Lecter in one of those, prequel movies. And, I think he kinda cut someone's head open with it and revealed the brain or something like that. Okay. Next up is one that I got by chance.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:54]:
I got this from OG Blade Reviews. Dave, it came in a box he sent me, and he must have known. It wasn't by chance. He knows. He knows my taste and this came in a box, with a bunch of other stuff that we gave away a couple of years ago now, but this is the Immortal. And when he sent this to me, this was, discontinued And it was one of the discontinued knives that I really, really wanted, and he knew it, and thank you for sending me this. CTS XHP, if you look at it, it's like a double tanto. It's a or a drop point tanto with a swedge, but it's it's symmetrical in profile, not symmetrical in grind.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:39]:
But it's it's like a beautiful tanto blade there with a with a different kind of tip and spine, very robust, called the immortal. It came out around the time of, the movie, March, and, it was also kind of, looking back to Gladiator. I kinda feel like it was this knife was designed during that time when those movies were big. So you have sort of a, sort of a Gladius style handle here. Finger guard, you got a finger groove, hollow ground blade, really, really nice, and flat ground portion here and that swedge makes it an incredible penetrator. But when you look at it like this, you kinda block out the grinds a little bit, you can see it's a symmetrical sort of, Gladius looking knife. Love this Immortal. Jimmy Slash, this is one of the few cold steels Jimmy Slash didn't resonate with, and, I I have a feeling it has to do with the finger grooves here.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:44]:
For my medium sized hand, it works. For his, giant mitts, I I bet it it doesn't. He is a, what do you call it? Semi pro arm wrestler, which is pretty cool. Alright. Next up, this one is on the plus side. This is, 4.1 inches, 4.12 inches. This is the Spartan, and this is back in the Aus eight, bead blasted days. I had to sand it down, the bead blast, rusted like mad.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:19]:
And I remember, I was carrying this knife in 2010, summer of, summer of twenty eleven and on for, like, two years, I guess. And, through shorts and everything, this rusted like mad with that bead blast because a bead blast looks cool. It's kinda gray. It's matte. But, really, you're opening up tiny little pockets in the steel, stainless steel, and it's a great place for moisture and that kind of thing to get, trapped. And the salt water from sweat was murder on this blade until I sanded it down. Also made it look pretty cool. A wicked sort of or, copas style blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:04]:
I guess it's called the Spartan. So more, I guess it's a Copus blade. And then, of course, it it has that sort of Copus handle that wraps around your your hand. Beautiful design. This is Andrew Demko all day long. You got this really nice GRN handle with sort of deep grooves in there, you know, that really give you good purchase and, very stout pocketbook. This is a wicked one, and I know for a fact, from stories that Lynn Thompson has told, on YouTube here. He had an associate that used this to great effect on a in a mugging and, nearly took a guy's arm off at this blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:48]:
4.1 inches. This now comes in a full flat grind and you can also get it fully serrated, which would be cool. I'd love that. Last up, the Formax Scout. Yes, the Formax Scout, it's only four inches, it's hard to believe, but this thing hits above its its weight class. Really, really beautiful knife. And you're noticing, that I'm talking about it more and you're noticing that it doesn't have the usual, GRN handle, usual, well, high tensile plastic handle. It's got these beautiful beautiful bakote wood handles, handle scales.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:29]:
These were made by Alien Scales who is Rob Pena, the maker of the Snaggletooth Tactical. The, Snaggletooth MF. I mean, a tactical pocket attached here. He when he has extra time, he likes to work wood. This Bakote wood is so nice. It's tough. It's, hasn't, like, snail trailed or or it it's in very good shape. I think it's a pretty damn hard wood.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:58]:
All of the machining is perfect. The alignment, they were so easy to change these scales out. All the machining of it is perfect, beautiful, and it goes really in and out, you know, in and out of the pocket really easily with that flat surface instead of the, the textured surface and, just an awesome knife. This is four inches of AUS Ten. I really like the AUS Ten. A lot of these, older ones are AUS Eight. AUS then that's fine for me and my purposes, but this Aus Ten, I really like. I can sharpen it well, and it seems to really stay sharp long.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:38]:
This is the four max scout. I love the four max, and now I'm looking I think I should get a five max. I'm gonna get the five max before I get the mayhem. I know that. I think the Mayhem is a little, ham fisted in its design. It's a little little cartoony. I don't know what it is, but, I hear it's great. But in the meantime, the four Max and maybe the five.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:02]:
Alright. Thank you so much. I feel like I've been, off the charts tonight or as we record this, as I am starving Marvin and all jacked up on coffee. But, anyway, I really love the four inch hold steel folders. Do you? Let me know. Drop it in the comments below. Do you like the smaller ones? I need to do a show on the super small ones. We only have, like, four or five of them.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:26]:
So maybe as that number grows, we'll we'll go there. Alright. 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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