Automated Transcript
Best EDC Folders Under 3.5"
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 355)

00:00
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco and coming up, Kaiser adds Refiere noble to their lineup, a first look at best techs, new budget line, and I jump out of my wheelhouse with the best EDC folders under 3 1/2 inches.
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.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was actually from Thursday Night Knives.
It was a replay comment and this is from Brandon G and we were talking about best tech Man the the new budget line, best tech from best tech that I hinted at in the intro and he said we were talking about the name best tech Man.

01:00
He said best tech man.
Sounds like a misunderstanding between two people whose primary language.
Is not the same.
Come on, the deadline is today to submit the new name for the Product Division's new name.
What do you mean?
We're we're best, tech man?
I thought that was great.

01:18
It's it's a a bit of a confounding name but as I said on Thursday Night, Knives, so was savvy to me when it first came out.
I was like, survive.
What's this?
Sounds kind of Italian.
Sounds kind of Latin.
I don't know.
It'll never catch.

01:32
But of course so do a brand we know and love and best tech.
A brand we know and love and I cannot wait to show you this.
Best tech man Dundee.
It's awesome.
And it's in their new budget line.
So thanks, Brandon G thanks to everyone else for watching and also for commenting.
It's greatly appreciated and I guess I get some insights insights to what people are thinking.

01:55
All right, I think it's now time for a pocket check.
Today I had the SOCOM Bravo from Microtech on me as my primary carry in my front right pocket, and this was one that I was so excited about for so long, and it took me a while to get my hands on one, and now I see they're coming out sporadically.
In different iterations they had a fully serrated tanto and a straightedge tanto.
Now they have 1/2 and half.
And they also have 1/2 and half coming out for the clip point.
I chose the clip point after much deliberation because I already have a Tonto in the SOCOM lineup and it's the SOCOM Elite and it's from 2013. One of my favorite actually.
Like my favorite model year for tontos in the SOCOM lineup, if I'm going to be exact about it.

02:56
I really like the swedge and the drop point on that knife.
Just a beautiful blade.
So I decided, why not go for the also very fetching.
To the point that they make.
Never had a clip point from Microtech.
And yeah, so this is what I went with and I dig it.
I love carrying it.

03:14
I haven't really used it for much it.
You know, this rarely comes out if I'm carrying it and I have to cut a piece of toast or a bagel at work or something like that for breakfast.
This is usually not what comes out, so this ends up.
This so far has been mostly a collectible, but no doubt a stout and sturdy knife with M390 blade.
You've got this really stoutly built bolster lot.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's kind of like their well, it's A-frame lock, but the way it's attached is different.

03:45
And you've got the titanium pocket clip and you've got the carbon fiber.
It's very stout, very sturdy, and it's made by Reich in Reich knife in China.
That is not a bolster lock, nor is it a knockout.
I was speaking out of school there.
That's just a traditional frame lock.
It's just kind of oddly framed there.
So, right knife, known for their sculptural prowess, their machining prowess was the company that Microtech entrusted to to making their offshore knives.

04:18
So they've done this.
I cannot do it with my left hand, sorry.
They make this and now they make the annex, which is a integral.
It's beautiful.
It's got this thin handle, this very blood broad drop point blade with a nice, fuller, gorgeous knife.
I have not really sought that one out, but.
I'm just a a super so calm.

04:39
I love the SOCOM and I've been kind of seeking others, you know, casually.
I look here and there.
I would love to get an old one, like from the late 90s or early 2000. All right.
Also in my pocket today was the Finch knives Buffalo tooth.
I've been carrying this one so much.
Since I got it, just to me, a consummate gentlemen's knife.
Even though it's broad and and fat, you can get some, you get some real work done with this.

05:11
The day I got this, I was cooking with my wife and I was in charge of the salad and all the vegetables and I did them all with this knife on that evening and it was a storied occasion.
I I am not one who uses pocket knives for Kitchen Prep.
Why would you if you have kitchen knives?
But this was a just a proof, you know, I looked at that's a high height grind on a very broad blade.
I wonder how this is going to do and it did so great.
Greatly, wonderfully.
I've carried this a lot since then.

05:42
I've thrown it in my bag a lot.
The bolster has picked up a bit of scratch.
That titanium bolster.
This is titanium and just a a great model QSP made awesome action.
And for me the thing that really sells it is the Coco BOLO.
The Coco BOLO handle.
It's just.

06:03
Just gets me and I'm getting more and more into wood on my knives.
I really like that.
Next up, Speaking of things I really, really like.
The Jack Wolf knives.
Benny's clip.
Nothing new in terms of carry.
I've been carrying this thing nonstop since I got it.

06:20
This one yesterday was a part of a cardboard Derby I had.
After a full week of taking care of both my daughters while my wife was chicken **** at a business conference, I I was doing some man chores yesterday.
It was great.
I had the whole day to myself, and one thing I had to do was break down a bunch of cardboard.
I finally.
Brought this one out on some on some kind of hard use.
Heavy use, not not.

06:47
The cardboard is heavy use, but you know what I mean.
That repeated.
Well, on a lesser knife it would have failed after a while.
This thing just kept going and going and going with that M390 blade.
So thin and hollow ground there with that Saber ground.
Lanny's clip blade and that slight recurve and the downward angle of the cutting edge.
Man, it just did so well.

07:14
It like slipped down the seams of the cardboard.
It was really nice, you know?
You know how it can be.
And so of course I had to leave.
Leave the evidence on the blade.
Yes, actually, I didn't do that on purpose.
Ordinarily I would.

07:28
I would clean that right away with alcohol and maybe even flits it.
But I didn't yesterday.
I was too busy doing manly chores and having fun being alone.
OK, Next up.
Last on me today was a a fixed blade.
A small fixed blade.
The bright for war quaking by Josh Mason.

07:47
Such a good knife maker.
I like this setup.
I'll show it with the sheath first.
This is a really good neck knife, but it's also great just to drop in the pocket.
You can also do the thing where you attach it to your belt loop and then just slip it in your waistband.
But this one is a little small that sometimes I feel like it might slip down and now it never has, but I don't know, it's just a feeling I get beautifully wrapped rayskin handle rayskin wrapped with that suka Maki wrap and then a. Beautiful Turkish not here to stop your hand from going up onto the
blade.

08:25
And that blade of beautiful small quaking is picking up a lot of.
Patina.
I think I might bring this one back now I I started to patina this, but kind of the nature of this design.
You you rarely see Japanese blades with patinas, and it's so clean and so.
I don't know.
I think I'm gonna go back.
I'm gonna flip it back to.

08:48
Back to normal, but just a beautiful blade.
Very, very sharp.
What he does is he 0 grind.
He fully flat grinds these to A0 edge and then he knocks the edge back a little with a a relief edge and it's just really really super sharp.
Josh Mason.
He's checking out bright for war on Instagram.
I love this little knife.

09:11
I have a thing for the Suka Maki wraps for the Japanese.
Kind of.
Samurai sword wraps and he does a great job.
He also did my elvia from Copas design.
OK, so that's that's what I had in my pocket today.
What did you have in yours?
For me, it was the Bravo, SOCOM, SOCOM Bravo.

09:29
It was the Finch Buffalo tooth, the Benny's clip, and then the actually equally sized fixed blade.
Quake in from Josh Mason and Bright four.
Let me know what you were carrying today.
Drop it in the comments below, let me know, and let me know why you like that knife.
It's cool to get a comment and someone says today I was carrying the.
Which made bail out.
And then it'd be also nice to know like, and I think it's a great knife.

09:58
Or I I think I might.
I don't think it's quite for me or something like that.
I'd love to know what you feel about these knives you're carrying, because not every knife I carry and my psyched about.
And then it ends up either getting on the chopping block or.
Collecting dust.
The ones that collect dust, I try to move out of here.
And The funny thing is, is once I get the resolve to sell a knife oftentimes.

10:21
No one wants that knife.
That's very frustrating.
So I think the name of the game is sacrifice.
You know, a little bit of sacrifice now for a better future.
Works with everything, and I'm sure it works with mines.
All right, more philosophical waxing coming up, but first, if you're interested in supporting this kind of bladder, go to Patreon.
We have 3 levels of support, 3 tiers of support, traditional at three, tactical at 5 and 10 is the gentleman junkie, and there are all sorts of.

10:51
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11:34
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life News Kaiser.
I talk about Kaiser a bit here.
Lately I've been into the vanguard line quite a bit.
They're an awesome company and they're just they were the first high end Chinese manufacturer.
After Riot that I became aware of with the Matt Cucchiara Dorados and and those really nicely contoured titanium knives that they did as their proof of concept knives really launched them.
But that Vanguard line has always, always held my attention anyway.

12:12
So Kaiser now has a whole new line coming out with referred Noble.
A refere.
Noble is a material from a Danish company called Refere, that is.
Really beautiful and interesting and kind of.
Kind of like Damascus with.
Plastics.
Domestic plastics if you will.

12:35
Uh, similar to Seatac.
You can put different kind of metal materials in there and they do a whole bunch of different patterns.
I think it's absolutely beautiful.
The only experience I have with Referer noble, this material is was on a knife that Alex from cut watch and cut sent me a couple of years back.
It was a sharp eye design archnemesis and he had.
He had bright and they do, Brian.
They don't put Referer noble in the handle.

13:05
It's really, really beautiful stuff.
So they're putting it on five different different knives here.
The two different versions of the Gemini, the PY, the beg, lighter two, and of course the the sheepdog.
Everyone's favorite.
The sheepdog.
Beautiful.
I'm looking forward to checking these out.

13:24
I don't know if I will get one.
The two Geminis, by the way, one of them is a lefty Gemini.
So that's.
That's that's why the two Geminis, but I am interested in checking these out.
Am I correct?
Does refere?
Does that make some cool glow-in-the-dark materials too?

13:42
Can't remember anyway.
Uh, check that out.
Coming to you shortly from Kaiser, also coming up soon.
Is's new folder.
We always think of Essie for knives like this.
This is this is actually the RTAC 2, the precursor to the SEC hunguest their big Daddy Bush knife.
I keep it right here on the desk, you know, just in case, just in case.

14:08
Any bamboo pops out at me, they are announcing a new friction folder.
Friction folder you say?
Why that?
And that's kind of, that was kind of my response, but it is so nice on the eyes.
I gotta say, I think this knife is beautiful.
It's got a 3 inch scandy ground blade, this nicely sculpted and contoured and and it's got like these concentric arcs milled into the 10 canvas micarta.
It's a really nice looking knife.

14:39
Now technically this kind of a knife should not be an issue without the lock because you are always going against that stop pin that is stopping that extended blade Tang that you use with your thumb.
Somewhat like a front flipper except slowly to open up.
What do you think of this kind of knife?
I don't have any friction folders.
It stays.
Closed by friction so that that protruding Tang there once it is all the way, once the blade is all the way open.
That protruding Tang is sandwiched tightly between the two.

15:16
The two handle scales, and that's what keeps it if you're just holding it by the handle from folding down in.
But what stops it from folding when you're using it is using it properly and using it against that edge.
So really, technically there shouldn't be a reason to have that.
You need a lock on it.
I would just want a lock on it, but maybe that's in the offing.
Who knows?
Steve has done a number of locking folders, but I really like the looks of this one.

15:44
It it has, it maintains the real spirit of Essie in being a true outdoors knife with that skinny edge.
By the way, it's called the pinhoti pinhoti.
I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but the pinhoti and it's designed by a gentleman named Shane Adams.
Jane Adams, nice work designer.
Say locking 1/2 for those who might be interested.
And you say Bob, mind your own business and design one yourself if you want.
Right, so coming up next, we're gonna look at the state of the collection.

16:18
I have something on loan to me from hero sticks as he frequently loans me stuff.
I have something really cool there.
Then I'll show you the new best tech Dundee, and then we get to the 10 best.
Well, this is more than 10, but the best 3 1/2 inch EDC folders that I find myself carrying all the time despite being out of my wheelhouse, all coming up on the Knife Junkie podcast.
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16:56
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And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
So thanks to hero sticks and this old sword.
Blade reviews and other great viewers.
I get a chance to try knives that I've never experienced before, and this is a really cool one.

17:24
This comes to me from hero sticks.
Thank you, Sir.
This is the secant by Birch tree, bladeworks and riot.
Ah, I mean, if you're not looking, if you're not seeing this right now, it is a gorgeous recurved Tonto with a single hollow ground bevel and a beautiful downward pointing swedge with the with that tip totally down the center line.
But it's got this nice Swale in the top and a thumb extension with jimping.
Just a gorgeous blade.
Outstandingly beautiful blade.

17:59
And then it's on a handle that that is.
Surprisingly comfortable and ergonomic.
I saw this handle and I thought that looks cool, but it's going to be a problem and it isn't.
It's got a a partition for my medium sized hands I should say, and this is a smallish knife, that's what, 3 inch blade?
Three, you know, three and 1/4 inch blade.
Sorry.
My hand fits in that three finger partition perfectly and then my pinky rests on that outward on that outward and downward flank there.

18:32
And it just fits perfectly in hand.
And then in reverse grip, where you do need it in reverse grip, the sculpture is perfect in the in the back here for your thumb.
It's this is just a great knife.
So beautiful.
And then Riyadh just, you know, killed it just really did a beautiful job on it.
You just barely nudged the thumb stud and it flies open.
And then you get this incredible drop shut action.

18:59
So what we're looking at here is a titanium bolster lock, beautiful bolster on this front show side.
And then you have natural brown or tan canvas micarta that has.
I have a feeling that hero has carried this quite a bit.
The MICARTA has a bit of a patina on it, and then on this side you see that bolster lock.
I love bolster locks because they do not interfere with the opening.
And what do I mean by that?
What I mean by that is on a regular fully exposed frame lock, there is a much greater chance to be depressing lock with a finger or with an inactive finger or a bracing finger accidentally when you're trying to open it, and it can slow the opening or stop the opening.

19:45
A bolster lock gives you this platform, here in this case of micarta, for you to rest your fingers on, and that doesn't in any way exert pressure on the lock bar.
So I love bolster locks, I think.
They are quickly becoming my favorites in terms of or, you know, I think they're quickly becoming, in my mind, superior to the frame locks.
This to me is just a real, real looker.
Last week I showed off the bird Blade works knife that it kind of goes really well with this that would that would make a great double carry with this secant.
And I was like secant.
Secant, what is that?

20:24
I know I've heard that when I looked it up and I realized, oh, that's why it doesn't know.
It comes from mathematics.
The ratio of the hypotenuse to the shorter side adjacent to an acute angle.
The reciprocal of a cosine.
Ohh, of course it's the reciprocal of the cosine.
And if my dad's listening, he's saying, yeah, yeah, it's the reciprocal of the cosine.
What did we spend all this money on?

20:45
Your education for Bob?
See, can't beautiful knife makes me feel a little inadequate with the mathematics part, but in every other way, this knife makes me feel great.
Thank you hero for loaning me this beauty, and I'm going to be doing a close up video of this for the channel.
OK, Next up this is this is really, this is the exciting fun part and.
And where did I put it?
It's over here.
Wow.

21:15
Thought I almost left it somewhere else.
This is a very exciting knife for a number of reasons.
This is the best tech man Dundee.
The inaugural knife of the budget line of best task, the new budget line.
And you hear me say it all the time.
I love best tech.
There are a number of best tech made knives in the list you're going to see of of EDC folders coming up.

21:40
They just they do great work.
Under their own shingle and then they do outstanding sublime work for your favorite designers when they have them as an OEM.
Just just I I am enamored and I can't say enough about how much I like their knives.
This is no exception.
I got to say and and it's.
Smartly.
And I say smartly because, well, this is designed by ostop hell.

22:07
So they came out of the gate with best tech man or.
They came out of their best tech man gate, with an amazing designer ostop hell from Poland has designed some of the some of the most awesome EDC knives of recent days.
Stylish, futuristic, but totally practical.
This one, if you look at the handle closely, really does mimic the metamorph, the knife that put him on the map and was a put kind of put front flippers on the map I got to say, but this has a very, very similar.
Streamlined and faceted along the long axis handle here and then I guess that's their new logo on the pivot.
It looks a lot like Dylan Mallary's logo.
I have to say.

22:53
I'm not sure I like it, but.
Who knows, maybe that changes.
Maybe that's just for this.
You see the the clip?
This is called the Dundee.
So that that's a clip point blade.
You can see the clip start right after the thumb jimping here.

23:08
It's a long, subtle clip.
The Dundee, of course, named after Crocodile Dundee and his.
And his Bowie knife, which can be bought actually a by down under 9 or even by one, made by down under knives up in wanting to get one.
But anyway, so very subtle blade shape on this.
And then of course you see that beautiful, fuller, really handsome on that blade.
Unfortunately, it is not useful in terms of opening the knife.
Now I'm going to use my right hand as I normally would, and I'm really going to do my best to get the meat of my thumb in there.

23:43
Now the top of the fuller is sharp enough that it would be usable if it were accessible, but it's just not quite accessible.
I can.
If I do it really.
Yeah, I just cannot get it, cannot get it, and I want to get it.
That's the one little micro beef I have with this knife.
Everything else is totally on point.
You've got a deep carry pocket clip with recessed screws.

24:11
You you've got you've got the awesome Flipper tab triangular shaped.
It's like a perfect landing pad for your for your thumb here, or I mean sorry for your finger there actually works great with your thumb too.
I'd like to flip with my thumb.
And then it looks good down there and is a finger guard just in case you have to use it in the push.
The the G10 is very nicely sculpted, the action is great.
Good blade grind, it's very, very sharp.
It's.

24:42
This knife is great and this will be released on October 17th.
At a low price point.
I don't believe I I know what the price is gonna be, but it is D2 blade steel G10.
This one is Gray.
That's a 4.7 three handle.
That's 3.3 oz.
It's a. It's a 3.2 millimeter blade and.

25:06
They did not list.
This was sent to me by Basstech to check out and they did not list what it's gonna cost.
But yeah, it's it's coming soon and I'm really excited.
I think this is a good sign that they're coming out with a this is going to be their sevi and.
I think it's going to be awesome if this is any indication and every other mass tech, so keep your eyes peeled.
I know a number of people, myself included, have posted some content about this.
Previously.

25:38
So check it out.
All right.
Next up this is.
This is also a company that reached out to me and I must admit I was a little bit.
Skeptical.
But I've been, I've been impressed with what they sent me.
OK, this is a master cutlery, it's an umbrella brand and they own Mossy Creek and they own Mtech and they own some other budget oriented brands.

26:04
And their mission is to get good quality EDC knives into the pockets of people who need and want them for a low price.
And they have some stylish stuff.
They have some tactical stuff, they have some hunting and outdoor stuff, you know, with all these different lines.
And they asked if I was interested in seeing anything and I I perused their catalog and I actually found some stuff that I was interested in seeing from there.
Elite tactical line.
And so they sent me a couple.
But before I get to those, they also sent me a couple of, I gotta say, I love these little knives.

26:36
The two little novelty knives.
They're rather charming.
This one is the from task force, which is another one of their sub brands, and it's as heavy little steel.
Bomb.
It's just a cool little knife.
It's got a great little blade, very sharp and you know something you might keep in your bar or something.
I mean, I wouldn't carry this one because, well, I just wouldn't carry this one personally, but this would be a nice one to have, like sitting on the bar.

27:06
In your basement or whatever.
OK, Next up, another one that would be good for that.
Or maybe in the cooler that you take to the pool.
This little knife.
It looks like a Budweiser bottle.
It's from entec to fully hollow ground.
I don't know what kind of blade.

27:19
Stainless, I guess, but it also has a. Screwdriver, cap, lifter.
So cute little novelty knives.
These are very inexpensive things that you can get as get a bunch of them and give them away as gifts or whatever.
But the more serious knives they sent from their elite tactical line are these two.
This one is called the parallax.
And.
I've been very, very.

27:48
That came out weird.
I've been very impressed with this knife.
I got to admit, it's a face only a mother could love.
That blade is to the to the eye.
To my eye.
A bit awkward.
One too many lines, one too many angles.

28:01
But man, it works.
It works really well.
This is a really great EDC knife.
So far now, I've only had this a week, but I've been kind of banging on it.
I've been kind of like, Oh yeah, it proved to me that elite tactical.
So, Elite, you know, I've been kind and it's been impressing me.
This is D2 blade steel.

28:21
The one thing that that was a little wonky is actually the blade grind on this one.
The other the other knife.
I'm going to show how to perfect blade grind, but right here it seems to thin out a little bit.
And by that I mean, actually it's a little dull right there at the apex, duller than the rest of it, but the whole thing is razor sharp.
It's got a. What are we going to call this?
A Saber grind?
It's like a clipped drop point.

28:48
With a swedge clipped drop point with a swedge clear as mud, OK, they keep the the tip down the center line maybe a little bit lower than center line, making it really good for utility.
It's got a decent belly, but also a nice little straight here, which is slightly downward angled due to the shape of the handle and gives you some really good cutting geometry in this direction.
In other words, that angle of the blade to the knuckle is is really good on this knife.
Um.
The action, the action is outstanding.
It has this sort of access looking lock here, but what it is is it's sort of a yoke in there, similar to the scorpion lock.
That.

29:34
Fits down in in a notch on the Tang of the blade and when you lift U the.
When you lift up the thing.
The button.
It lifts up that bar and it releases a blade.
It's it's got a real addictive action, much like an access lock and a thick, very sturdy handle.
The whole thing is super sturdy.
I actually carried this around for a day of my day of errands my my Goodfellow, Goodfellas, days of errands, and this thing was really good.

30:07
It was though it is thick and sturdy, it was not bad in the pocket at all.
If anything I like a longer knife.
And so it felt a little short.
But yeah, I like this thing.
I got to.
I got to admit I thought it's kind of ugly, but I've grown to really like it and it it didn't take long and the shape of this handle is very nice.
It it flares out a bit at the end, reminds me, you know in the spirit of Strider kind of widens out towards the end and then.

30:37
We've got these, got this milling in here that's a bit of a anzo pattern, and it's quite inexpensive.
OI would check this out.
made in China, you know, of course made in China if you think it looks interesting or if you need a good bang around.
I mean, a super solid bang around, not too heavy, but but very sturdy knife.
So far I can recommend that.
This one is cool.
Um, I chose this one because it's big and tactical and this is also from elite tactical.

31:12
This is called the Conqueror and it's a flipper with a bagel double peaked clip point blade.
There it is a you know, I'm happy to see someone making big knives.
This is a four and it's a 4.8 inch blade, so almost 5 inches there.
You've got a sculpted GRN handle that has is very comfortable.
You got that forward position, and then you have a backward back position with your pinky and that bird's beak, and you get some length there.
Very sturdy.
Just very strong lock up here.

31:54
I'm not sure I have not put either of these.
I put this to a bunch of EDC use and I plan to take this out and bang around in the backyard and you know, just for light stuff that I use, big folders for divining stuff and small saplings and limbs and stuff.
And I want to see how this blade works when it's receiving impact.
I just don't know.
I don't know if it's going to jump out of there or if it's going to make it set, you know, lock in there even tighter.
A cool blade.
Also very inexpensive.

32:24
I won't give prices here, you can go check them out on Amazon or mastercutlery.com.
I'm going to do some more noodling around with these and actual testing of these so I can actually recommend them in good conscience if I end up doing so, which I so far, I'm pretty impressed with both of these knives.
But like when you get a cold steel, a large cold steel, other people and cold steel themselves have banged down them so much there's no need for me to, like, take mine out and hammer it, you know, and and do pull-ups on it.
But I haven't seen that from this, so also a very addictive, um, fidgety.
What do you call it?
Action and actually reaching pulling this up to close it?
Feels very good and very natural.

33:11
However, there have been a couple of times where I've been thinking and not looking at and not thinking, and it's felt like an axis lock.
So I've pulled it, tried to pull it back and I'm like, wow, I really jammed that lock in there.
That's a, that's a Ding.
And then I'm like, oh wait, no, that goes up and it really very easily.
Alright, so these are from elite tactical.
I'm gonna, I'm going to go deeper into them and you know get some testing done on them and you know my kind of light suburban dad testing, but still.
Make sure that they can bang around with with some of the better knives and and then I will recommend them in good conscience.

33:51
OK, so that's master cutlery.
Thank you master cutlery for sending me those elite tacticals.
And then also those those little novelty knives there.
Adorable.
And yes, a knife can be adorable.
Subscribe to the Knife Junkies YouTube channel at the knife junkie.com/youtube.
Cheers.

34:07
Here's my Mount Vernon, George Washington coffee mug to contract.
New debts is not the.
Way to pay old ones, and he was right.
Pay heed.
Oh, rulers of today.
OK, we're going to talk about knives under 3 1/2 inches, which I'm always talking about.
You know, it's gotta be at least 3 1/2 or over.

34:28
And if it's not, I don't have to get it, even if it's a really, really, really amazing, beautiful design.
Like the secant.
Luckily, the secant was not in my wheelhouse, so I didn't.
I didn't feel obligated to buy it.
But now that I have it, maybe my wheelhouse is moving.
It's not.
It's not moving.

34:46
It's.
Expanding we're putting an addition on the wheelhouse for under 3 1/2 inch knives, and I realize this probably started in earnest with the bug out.
This, to me, is still my ultimate sub 3 1/2 inch knife, because sub 3 1/2 inch to me means not in the front right pocket, which means oftentimes it might be in the waistband or in the back pocket, so it's going to have to be somewhat slim.
And it's going to for it, especially if it's in the waistband.
And it's gonna have to be what?
What was I saying?
Slim and and light and.

35:26
There are a few knives slimmer and lighter than the Benchmade bug out.
I have the the left-handed Snaggletooth MF on there and because this in the winter is frequently my jacket inside pocket knife and I like knowing that I can reach into my pocket and just pull it out and have it open.
So ohh this one is also wearing the Alan Putnam scales.
It's great now the bench the bug out has a million different ways you can get this knife, but when it first came out it was just with the cheesy blue FRN scales and this was one of the first options for my Carta that I found.
And I like the Alan Putnam look he he always uses the.
The sort of anzo pattern, and I like that a lot, and these have attended so nicely.
So this is the Benchmade bug out, and I'm going to say that that is probably the chief chief among all of these here at least have have gotten the most pocket time.

36:27
Next up, a new favorite is Koobi love koobi knives.
I only have two of them and I don't have plans to get many of them, but the two I have have been awesome.
The other koobi have.
The Flash is a full size nearly four inch bladed knife and that was my Blade show 2022 knife exclusively.
That's the only thing I brought because I was afraid.
TSA would take anything that I bought so I brought that one and they didn't take it.
This is the vagrant.

36:55
This was a gift to me from Dave of this old sword blade reviews and I love this knife.
Look at that blade shape, this one.
This model comes in two different blade shapes, this worn Cliff and then a more rounded spine sheep's foot and but they they share.
That shaped handle is great.
All of those angular facets feel amazing.
Hand, I mean it.
It just fits perfectly in hand in reverse grip or regular Saber grip what have you.

37:26
Just a very comfortable knife.
You just choose which blade shape you want.
I think that this is the wicked looking blade shape.
It also has the point a little bit higher so that it's center line.
Again, that's.
I always like that because no matter how your blade is oriented, you have a good idea of where that tip is.
Great for the slow roll, great for the Spidey flick.

37:47
Great for the thumb flick.
That's an outstanding knife.
And then this one here is, I'm going to measure some of these as we go.
Yeah, this is 3 point 3.1 inches.
It's a just over.
Just over 3 inches this you'll notice this list has nothing under 3 inches.
It's a weird.

38:08
It's got to be 3 to 3.4 inches, basically.
Next up is one that I've carried a lot recently.
This one got a lot of carry.
This summer is a good shorts knife.
This is the Kaiser Pelican, designed by our French friend Jonathan Renowden.
K Max ROM.
I love his designs.

38:27
I have a number of PRETA 2 is him, and I have a number of his.
Designs.
This one is one of my favorites though, because it has that signature thumb swell that we see with his designs, which I find very fetching.
Also on this blade very comfortable.
Fits the thumbs so nicely we see a nice.
Excuse me, we see a nice clip point there which creates a nice starting point to a cut.
Very thin sharp end 690 blade on black canvas, micarta handle, inset liners and just pops open with a thorough today.

39:07
I love this thing.
It's the slow roll on.
This is difficult.
I have not difficult.
It's fussy for me.
I have to get it with a certain part of my thumb, like right near the joint.
Otherwise, I have difficulty not just popping it out.

39:24
Um, so great little knife.
This one got a lot of pool time this past summer.
I was thinking of doing a, a list of the most carried knives this past summer, but I thought, a, that ship has sailed, and B, you know, I kind of talked about it all summer, so.
OK, Next up was one that man.
It's been recommended to me a million times and is on seems to be on everyone's list for knives to get newbies.
I posted the question, posited the question on Thursday Night.
Knives.

39:57
What would you get for someone, you know, someone who just started working for me, who was a little squeamish about knives, and I wanted to break them into the beauty of knives and the and the wonder and the utility.
I ended up getting him a Swiss army knife, which is good for him because it's got all the different tools and stuff like that.
But a lot of people recommended the QSP Penguin, and I finally, after that conversation, finally went out and got one.
I didn't go out because you can't just go out where I live and buy one.
So I went out to the Internet and bought 1 the QSP Penguin.
I got the original version with that denim micarta.
So nice.

40:38
I always mentioned that denim to me looks like the denim you would see on the overalls that a train engineer would would wear and all you train engineers out there like, no, that's not what you wear.
But I like how you can see on this, uh, denim micarta the patina.
When you look at the clip, you can see that light shadow around the clip where my hands aren't able to touch.
And yeah.
But I like the blade even better.
This is this sits on my desk pretty permanently.
With are, you know, I have a lot of other desk knives and those things rotate in and out.

41:16
But this one, since I got it, it doesn't really have an official spot.
In my special case.
I got it.
I was sort of, you know, sort of probationary.
Let's see how this thing works.
Is it worth all the hype?
But yes, I've determined it is.

41:30
And yes, I've also determined I don't even want to put it away.
It's just great hanging out because it is so useful.
It's on washers and it has gotten so stinking smooth.
I'm just so impressed.
QSP QSP makes some awesome knives.
They do the Finch knives, they do um KC's knives, OKC spherion of of Tempest knives.
They do his things and a lot of others.

41:55
And man, they're awesome.
But they first came on the scene with the not this one.
This was one of their.
First one was the parrot I believe and it was 20 bucks and people were like this is insane for 20 bucks so good.
And then and then sometime after that this came out and then they just kind of have launched into the stratosphere.
This is one of the few, this is a size of knife where where I I like this.
Of this sort of fob this or smaller.

42:25
Alright, that's the QSP Penguin.
Next up is new to the collection but already very valued and loved.
This was a gift from the man himself, Mr Jerk Pinkerton, and this is his contact by asymmetrical.
Asymmetrical is the midline from beyond EDC.
Beyond EDC has the beyond EDC line the asymmetrical line in the middle and then their top tier line is Terranova and that's that's the line that the River Wolf.
By John Demco came out from wonderful design.
Wonderful.

43:00
I usually don't say wonderful.
Terrific.
I'll use a Hollywood producer line.
It's a terrific design.
It's really terrific.
Derek, I'd love to talk to you about your design after the shoot.
It's really a nice, worn Cliff.

43:14
It's sort of typical of Dirk Pinkerton.
And by typical, I mean awesome.
But also Warren Cliffy.
He he tends towards the Warren Cliff and and then when he veers from it, he does it in a very nice way.
But the Warren Cliff is probably the knife I know him most for, but not just in its utility sense.
It's put in a context where it could be used as a as a self-defense knife.
He Dirk Pinkertons work, always has an aspect of self-defense, and sometimes that's exclusive.

43:47
We're going to see a knife.
Downstream from here that he intended to be exclusively for self-defense, but I think is an awesome utility too.
But this one is obviously an awesome utility and I've just looked at that Warren Cliff blade that tip presents itself for pull cutting and tip cutting so nicely and then you have this.
Neutral shaped handle that has this peak here on the top and that peak nestles right in the palm of your hand.
You can use this knife all day long in this sort of pull cut posture, but then if you if you.
Take it in a hammer grip or in a Saber grip or something like this.
That curve accommodates the curve of your hand, so just a really nice design.

44:31
It's not like the first time we've seen that, but the execution of it and the proportions are just ideal.
And then you have all this micro milling on the broad chamfering.
That's a sort of perpendicular to to the spine and the dorsal section here, and this adds a lot of grip.
Yes, it looks fancy and it looks nice.
But the grip it adds is really valuable.
You've got an anodized blue sculpted titanium pocket clip and an S35 VN blade that cuts.
Like the day is long and incredible.

45:09
Action.
Just incredible action.
I need to get more of these beyond EDC knives in my life.
Dirk has another beyond EDC knife coming out and it's based on the Navajo.
And you know how much I love the Spanish navaja and it's his sort of futuristic or contemporary take on the night.
But this, this one is coming in at three and 1/4.
Yeah, just, uh, was it 3.3 inches?

45:38
Beautiful, the Acer I I highly recommend this one and and actually a pretty decent price for that.
Next up is this is another.
This is a best tech made beauty by off grid knives.
This is their black Mamba V2 version 2. Just a. I love everything about this knife and and it's this is 3.125 inches in length.
And it's got a a slightly bigger brother in the enforcer and then a very much bigger brother in the enforcer excel.
I should say cousin because the enforcer and the enforcer excel are are in D2 and 14C or 154 and have G10 handles.
This is premium.

46:25
This is a premium build with this milled titanium.
Black Wash titanium handle.
I love the little golf ball divots that that matrix of golf ball divots in the titanium is so pleasing to the hand, and it's great for grip and great for indexing just to.
And and great for this worry stone effect.
It feels good in the hand.
It's like a massage and you've got a great.
I keep using that word, but I guess it's it works here because this is really awesome.

46:59
Everything right around this lock is screaming hot.
Hot spot, but everything is knocked down nicely right here.
The action is just stupendous as to be expected from off grid and from best tech.
You could swap the pocket clip on both sides.
This knife is and then you have that traditional file work jumping on top which is effective and also a good good indexer.
This knife is a dark horse, dark horse, a sleeping giant or something.
Here you look in there you can see all the.

47:33
The titanium milled out of there or best kept secret.
I'm surprised people don't talk about this knife more because it is really great with that worn Cliff slash or bellied worn Cliff or reverse tanto blade is just an it's an awesome knife and premium M390 blade steel and I don't hear about it as much as I would expect so.
That needs to change.
That's a great knife that that we need to find people to carry that knife because it it's awesome.
That's that's a silly thing to say but the enforcer, if you don't have black Mamba version two money.
The enforcer is also really awesome at A at a fraction of the price.
So off grid knives, you know how much I love them?

48:19
OK Next up is from Viro Engineering and it's the one Vero knife I have and I adore this thing.
This is the synapse.
I got this at Blade Show 2021 from the man and his wife themselves.
Such nice people, charming people.
And what a talent Joseph is with his engineering and his knives.
And when I say his engineering, if you don't know he, before he got into knives, he was building drones for the, for the defense, you know, industry and they're designing drones.
He made himself an electric motorcycle.

48:54
That was really cool.
You can see pictures of that.
Online.
So Joseph Vero is a is a very talented engineer and a man of many talents.
Also a very talented knife designer obviously.
Here's another one made by best Tech, a bolster lock.
As I mentioned before, I love the bolster locks.

49:13
This one obviously designed by an enthusiast, as actually many of these are.
Look at that little divot in there just for the Spidey flick.
So that little divot on that side allows you to Spidey flick the knife open.
One of the things I love best about Vero Knives are is the flipper love.
That flipper tab.
Very reminiscent of the mods people were doing early on with the Boker Burnley quaking before they came out with a flipper version of it.
People were cutting away the front of the bolster or the front of the handle there to reveal the square portion of the Tang, and then just adding a little bit of a. Something there to grab onto and then you could flip your Boker Burnley quaking.

49:58
Well, things have come a long way since that mod, and one of them is just the codification of of that kind of flipper, and I love it.
It sits in your pocket.
It doesn't it doesn't Peck on anything, and it's it works great.
It I guess.
I guess it's because of where that Jim?
Corner of that tab is in relation to the pivot, but just a great knife and beautifully done.
Also, the tactile knives Rockwall falls in this category.

50:32
This is just over 3 inches so it does make it into this category.
Beautifully milled titanium liner lock.
Yes, these past couple of years the titanium liner lock has been making a big play and for the same reason that we love the bolster lock, we love the the titanium liner lock.
There's no interference with the action in touching that lock bar.
This thing made completely in Texas.
Everything in there is made by tactile knives except the stop pin, and there was one other thing I can't remember what it was.
Now I'm not sure if that has changed in the interim.

51:09
I haven't spoken with the guys at tactile knife for over a year, but they're going to be coming back on shortly.
They have a couple of announcements to make and I'm very excited to hear about that.
This knife was designed to fit inside the package of an old wrigleys 5 stick.
Pack of gum.
Next up is the other Dirk Pinkerton I was talking about.
This is the inversion and I wanted to show this because that's a, that's a 3 1/4 inch blade that will or three.
What is that?

51:37
No, not three.
And a quarter 3.125 inch blade, which is 1/4.
I'm sorry, this is a 3.1 inch blade.
Ohh Bob, go back to math class brother.
But but it is, you know.
So it's in a small package, but you can do a lot with this.
And yes, this is what it's initially intended for as a precall style self-defense knife.

51:57
But.
In this, if you hold it just like a regular knife, it's a pretty damn comfortable, even with that weird gap here.
And you still have the tip nearly at center line.
So you can get a lot of good utility done with that, with that reverse Tonto blade.
This I know is straining, straining the category, but I had to, I had to just add it in there because yeah, it really actually does make a very good utility EDC folder.
If you can get over sort, well, it's called the inversion.
If you can get over the inverted look of it, you could see that blade turned around in this handle and then you'd hold it like.

52:38
Yes, so if you can get over the weirdness of it.
Or the disorientation of it.
It's quite a practical knife, and that is the Dirk Pinkerton design Kaiser made inversion.
Next up from Finch knives.
No, it's not the Buffalo tooth that is under 3 inches.
Believe it or not, but this simeron is just under.
This is 3.35 inches and what a great little knife this is.

53:08
This one is a Finch that does not get much attention I feel.
But I like it a lot.
It's very, very light.
In its handsome in the color combinations that comes in four different color combinations of orange and green.
This yellow and Gray, a Kelly green on the inside, blue on the outside, and then a black and red.
And they're great to look at.
They're great in pocket.

53:32
This is a great back pocket knife and pretty big for a back pocket knife, but the whole blade gets swallowed in the handle like the quake.
And we were just talking about, Umm, you've got the the badge, the glow-in-the-dark luminescent Finch badge and a really nice 14C28N blade.
Very good shape.
It's kind of a continuous belly, but this first portion of it kind of acts as a straight and great.
Sharpening choil and something I love about the Finch knives.
Again, a low profile flipper tab goes a long way with me, and this is a perfectly designed one and it's what they use on everyone of their knives and I love it.
This little knife is a little big knife.

54:17
It feels little, but you get a pretty good amount of cutting edge in that in that nice drop point blade O that is the simeron from Finch knives.
Next up, the nightshade from Vosti did.
Yeah.
I love this one.
I love this one.
It's my little pocket barong.
My mini pocket Baron.

54:37
I love that leaf shaped blade and the downward odd downward canting of the blade.
It looks odd when you when you see it like this, but when you get it in hand, you understand.
Get it in hand, you understand that tip is way down low.
Great for using and utility draw cuts without having to.
Without having to bend your wrist too much.
Also in that posture it works great.
You don't have to do and you don't have to reposition at all.

55:07
You've got all that belly in that leaf shaped blade.
So imagine having to cut some rope or some strapping or something like that and holding the knife backwards and pulling against the stop pin.
Look at that.
I mean it's gonna trap the material in that in that downward.
Downward angle.
A lot of people I've heard talk about this like it's like a cookery, and it kind of is like a cookery in that it resents that downward curve overall shape to me as a barong but.
Does it matter?

55:39
Is it?
Is it worth getting the?
Geeked out over.
Look at that in in a in a pistol grip.
I mean it has a pistol grip and in a Saber grip it resents that point right online.
So if if you need to thrust it into something, you don't have to change the angle of your wrist and and compromise the structure.
It's just right in line there.

56:00
Very cool night and I know this is intended as an EDC knife, but the lens I look at things through you know also means it would be a good self-defense knife.
Another good self-defense knife.
Which is obviously just made for utility and EDC, but I bend towards a different purpose.
Is the hadrosaur from Stevie love this knife?
This is designed by Dylan Mallory.
Such a nice guy.
I met him at Blade Show 2022. And I've been begging him to come on the show, and that's not for everyone, you know, but he's such a nice guy.

56:32
Also got a chance to meet his dad.
That's always neat, to meet someone's parents.
Anyway, uh, so this thing is a really nice worn Cliff.
That's 14 C, 28 N that's on bearings and, you know, thumb stud bearing action to beat the band.
Really nice slender handle.
Kind of.
Fits right in that in that pocket, as opposed to against the palm with the fingers wrapping around it.

57:01
It kind of gets trapped in the nook of the fingers right there and ah man, it's just such a sure knife and feels so good in hand.
Very thinly hollow ground.
That tip is a little dainty.
I'd hate to drop this one, haven't yet.
Knock on wood.
Nice weight relief on the steel liners and you say Bob, how did you turn that into a self-defense knife?
Well, first of all, you know, we know that the.

57:27
That the Warren Cliff shape is very good for that, but it also fits in the hand in Pical style grip very, very nicely and comfortably.
In that same sort of wrap it up in the fingers grip.
So there's that.
Now here's one that's pretty darn just tactical from the get go, and this is the Microtech.
Ultratech this one is double edged, with the top dagger edge being serrated.
You got that black coating and the sort of bronzed Anno.
Such a such a great and classic knife.

58:04
Now this one is really stiff, it always has been, but I've been working on my hands so hopefully, hopefully this thing feels lighter and lighter to me all the time.
But this is a 3.4 inch blade and.
Right under that 3 1/2, but I wanted to show it because it also comes in the UTX 70 which is 70% the size of this and the UTX 85 which is 85% the size of this, 85% the size of this.
So if.
If coming under 3.5 inches to 3.4 is still too big for you, but you like this knife, you can take it down.
He did you know you can take it down 15% or 30% and get smaller versions of this knife.
So and that being said this this blade might not be the best for EDC, though I might argue it's it's superior for EDC because you have that saw blade on the back to do.

59:04
To do extra work.
But let's face it, we don't think of daggers as utility knives, but those.
This and the smaller versions of this can be had in the much more practical Tonto and drop point versions.
All right, last two are these are all.
Many of these are classics.
But here's an instant or a new classic.
This is the Sharks foot version of the 8020.5 by demco knives.

59:32
This was from that first run.
You got the Gray FRN, you got the awesome shark lock action.
I carried this, among other things, on my birthday two years ago and did whole bunch of bamboo Whitland with it and because we were using them as steaks and stuff.
I added this little fob.
I liked the FoB and add some color to the Gray.
And yeah, not much to be said about this knife.
This is another one that has.

01:00:04
This is the OS 10 version by the way.
This is another one of those knives that at first was only available in this in the clip point and then it's exploded much like the bug out in different versions and and and aftermarket options and and man, it's so good to see the dempos.
Killing it post cold steel, I mean they were killing it while they were doing cold steel, but not in this production way.
So it's really nice to see that that.
Take off.
OK. The last knife on this list is the OG for the other OG, I guess.
I guess this comes even before the bug out, but this was the 1st 3.125 and three and 1/4 inch blade I was willing to carry in the front left, front, right pocket on a regular basis.

01:00:53
And that's the Yojimbo.
And that's because it is just so bad.
Look at that.
This this one.
Here is the 20 CV version.
This was a DLT exclusive a few years back.
With the carbon fiber.

01:01:06
Just haven't gotten around to replacing the carbon fiber handles, which I'm going to do someday.
This one is wearing an MXG gear clip.
I always thought that the Yojimbo wrote a little high.
And that deep carry clip actually makes the grip better on this knife in particular.
Sometimes deep carry can menace your grip a little bit.
This one not so much.
I have the five by 5 tactical solutions.

01:01:31
I think it's called wave opener thing pickpocket I think they call it attached.
And this thing is just so wicked.
This this is one of those.
This is kind of the original utility slash tactical knife designs for me where I became aware of the.
Like that, yeah, this thing, this thing was designed as a self protection knife, but look at it looks like a big utility knife.
So this is definitely a double roll knife.
Makes a great EDC, obviously makes a great self-defense knife if you know how to use it.

01:02:09
And it's a fidget.
It's a fidgeters dream with that compression lock there.
Alright, so that is my.
That is my take.
There are a few others that I have, but these are the best ones and I'm thinking that I need to.
I need to start expanding my idea of what is acceptable.
Now I will always.

01:02:32
I will always have it in my heart, the four inch blade as as the as the best way to go because that's when I first started carrying tactical folders.
That's how big they were.
They were all four inches and that that's just stuck.
Like whatever the fashion was in the 90s, it just stuck.
I am what I am and that's all that I am.
All right.
Thanks for joining me.

01:02:55
Make sure that you join us tomorrow night for Thursday night knives, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch.
And then on Sunday for an interview with an extremely interesting knife individual person from the knife world.
It's always fun.
It's always a blast.
Thanks for watching for Jim working his magic behind the Switcher.
I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, please don't take dull for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

01:03:22
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