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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. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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The Knife Junkie Podcast
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[0:00]Coming up, a look at my favorite autumn belt knife, I get my first folding saw, and big bad bowies. I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast. 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. One of my favorite comments this past week was from Jeff Hamilton4587 He says, I have revolving pockets You know, differing folders depending On what's in store for the day or my Mood. I have, however, A T-Cal FLN That's the karambit. That hasn't Left my pocket. I train with it Solo practice with it, and sometimes Sleep with it I've made it the North Star around Which all folders Revolve. Beautiful little Statement. Let me repeat that. I've made it the north star around which all holders revolve interesting that's kind of how i've been going with my fixed blade knives whatever i'm carrying i i carry you know i rotate a lot with the uh with the fixed blades but whatever fixed blade i have on me everything else is kind of determined by that blade shape etc so uh jeff kindred spirits in a sense and then that fln is awesome The one thing I would do is caution you against sleeping with it, I gotta say.
[1:29]I've had a few close calls where I've fallen asleep with a knife in my pocket, and just the thought of it coming out by accident, oh, terrible, terrible. It reminds me of The Godfather, and I hate that scene. So be careful with that. But, Jeff, thanks for the comment, and glad to hear you're loving that FLN. Next comment was from Preacher2727, and this is just something that put wind in my sails. He said, Love your assessment on knives. No BS. Right to the point. great job keep up the good work thank you preacher uh sometimes you see a comment and it uh you just need to see it at that moment and i did so thank you very much for that preacher i appreciate it keep watching we'll have a lot more cool knives and great shows all right uh all that said let's now get to a pocket check what's in his pocket let's find out here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. Gonna go slow here, because I jacked up my thumb.
[2:30]Yes, with a knife, and no, there is no nerve damage, though. I wouldn't know it from the way it feels, but today, in my front right pocket, I've had what I've carried basically since I hurt my thumb. I've been carrying all Emerson's in my front right pocket, because just flicking it with the thumb and all that, you know, it's just, I would just rather not have to deal with the opening. Flippers are fine, but I've been then coming back to the wave. Just because you can draw out the knife, the wave opens the blade, and you're good to go. And these are some knives I have not carried in a long time, especially the ZTs. I carry my Emersons with some regularity still, but the zero tolerances, frankly, I kind of forget about.
[3:14]So today I had this one. I love it. Great blade shape. And that LMAX is pretty damn nice. This was after Zero Tolerance figured out their LMAX. I don't know if you remember, but, uh.
[3:26]ZT was actually the first company I heard of using LMAX kind of on large production blades, and they were having problems with it initially. I think the heat treat, and then they were running their grinders too fast on the edge or something, burning the edges. Anyway, this was, I remember famously, after they figured out LMAX. So great blade, great knife, of course, designed by Ernest Emerson. In my estimation, the absolute heyday of zero tolerance.
[3:57]Next on me, oh, I have it actually on me right here. I put it back in my pocket. I have the new one from Jack Wolf Knives. Such a great knife. This is the Benny's Clip. and this beauty is in the purple curanite how they call it purple cosmos something like that something uh evocative of space to me it looks like the curtains like the velvet curtains of a lush sort of 1930s mansion i don't know why that pops up but i love the look of this knife gotta be careful with it because it does have a stout pull uh not only the look of this knife but the The Benny is one of my favorites. I know I say that about every Jack Wolf knife, but you don't hear me say that about some of them. But these big clip points, I love. The Benny's clip kind of feels the biggest, even though you match it up next to other Jack Wolves. It's pretty darn close. But the broadness of the handle and the thickness of the blade.
[4:58]And the uh the saber grind on this one also gives it a more stout feel all the other jack wolf knives have a full height hollow grind this one as you can see has a flat this comes up to there uh you got the crescent nail nick on this one you have a triple fluted bolster the bolster is a little bit longer this has a hand rub satin uh running horizontally and is incredibly sharp You know, I frequently, I make the mistake of thinking that the wharncliffs, here's the Venom Jack. This one is so beautiful. And it's a terrific cutter. And you know it's terrific because I never use that word, but it is a really good cutter. And I always assume just because it has that tip, it's going to cut better than something like this. But this, that belly, that whole knife is so wicked sharp that the belly is, you just kind of touch things and it cuts. So, you know, you don't necessarily need that low point to be able to do utility work with a super sharp knife like this.
[6:01]Next up in my waistband riding appendix today. It's getting a little bit cooler here So I'm starting to carry him like that again The Fire Ant From Dirk Pinkerton This is a custom, Handmade by the great and powerful Dirk Pinkerton He's such a great knife maker We tend to think of him as a knife designer Which he is Extraordinaire And he's got designs with a bunch of different companies That we know, love, and trust But he also makes them by hand In his own shop And those, I will have you know, are exquisite I have four handmade knives by him I believe four, Needs to be more but I have four right now And this one.
[6:43]Well I guess I'll finish that statement They are all equally, Excellently done If you love the designs They are perfect in hand and in cutting They're just awesome But this one is really easy to carry It's got a four inch blade What is this Now I don't want to speak out of school, Yeah, it depends on where you're looking at it. Three and a half inch or three and a quarter, depending on where you're measuring it.
[7:13]But a great size blade with three edges and melts in the hand and got great positive jimping there to stop your thumb from running up onto that super sharp top edge. I love the Bakelite handle. Not Bakelite. Fake light i love that handle uh it's blue and black and you can barely detect the blue and to me that's i don't know beautiful and subtle what a great knife i haven't carried it in a little while and you know that angular handle is pretty comfortable in the in the well of the appendix that area where your legs kind of meet your your body you know how you can snug things in there that's a great sort of straight shape to fit in there okay lastly i've been carrying this one a lot for emotional support and actually it goes nicely into the hidden here i'm going to be very careful with this into the uh hidden cargo pocket of a pair of 511 pants i've been wearing a lot this summer because they're nice and light and stretchy for my expanding girth um and yet you can hide this in the leg and you don't even see it really awesome knife i love this thing um Um, this is the Aus 8 version. I got this at the Willie Knife Shop in Delaware over, uh, at the, uh, in mid-August, end of August.
[8:34]And it's been a faithful companion ever since. I really, really like that knife. I don't know why it took me, like, 25 years to ever get a 6-inch version of the Tile-Aid, but, uh, I'm glad I finally did. So this is what I had with me today. Not necessarily on me. Uh, this was not on me all day at all. neither was this i had to take this off at one point uh but here i had the zt 0 uh 620 i had the benny's clip i had the pinkerton fire ant which they also have a production folder version of with kaiser i think that's discontinued at this point and the tie light six what did you have on you let me know drop it in the comments below i always love hearing about that which you guys as Carrie and, um, There's always something interesting when someone's carrying the same knife you're carrying on the same day. Oh my god, today I was carrying that too. Great minds thinking alike. Alright, so we're here in autumn and last night in this past weekend we had our first bunch of fires outside. I have a lot of downed limbs that I ended up cutting up and using before even the firewood.
[9:43]I had this on my belt and I absolutely love this knife. The boon 2 by bark river knives and uh i was excited to put this on because recently uh oddly this spacer here was shifting around in the handle it's like it's like everything loosened up a little bit like it were like it was an older knife uh but there was no real gapping there was no wiggle in it uh when it was extended and it wouldn't extend much i'd say like an eighth of an inch or maybe even like a sixteenth of an inch but enough for me to tell and you could feel it uh so i super glued it back in super glue is awesome that's how i fixed my thumb that's how i fixed my blade here uh super glue is the best uh what is it i guess it's just an epoxy but uh it really did the job there so yesterday uh and well last night and then all this past weekend as i I record this. I was outside with this on my belt and working around the fire pit and trying different things, different ways of lighting fires. And I am no outdoorsman, but I've been watching a lot of videos with outdoorsmen doing fun looking outdoors and stuff. So maybe as I get older and as the family commitments shift and change, they haven't yet, thank God. But as they do, maybe as we become empty nesters or something like that, that maybe I end up going camping a little bit more.
[11:08]My wife is sort of an indoor cat, but she appreciates beauty. And so there's a lot of that out in the natural world. So anyway, that's what this knife evokes. To me, this is like a dad knife from the 30s or 40s, going camping.
[11:25]And this is what the man just puts on his belt, just to be around the woods and around camp. And I love it. I love the apple seed edge. I love that convex edge on this. This thing is incredibly sharp, but also really stout. You're not going to bust this 3D. I don't think. I have a couple of 3D knives from Bark River Knives, and this is the only one I've put to the test. And did I put it to the test hard? Not really. Not yet, but I'm going to keep carrying it, and I want that sheath to wear in, get a little more supple. It's nice and stiff. They make the best sheaths. They're so nice. But, yeah, there it is. favorite autumn belt knife. What's your favorite autumn belt knife? Do you have one? Is it goofy that I have one? Could be.
[12:12]Okay, next up, my daughter, Olympia, my younger daughter, she made me this. So I got this thin leather cordage, and she's always asking me to braid her hair before bed, and I'm not good at braiding. I can give her a daddy tail. That's a daddy ponytail. But my wife has to do the braiding. So I kind of turned it around on her. I said, look, I have this great knife. It's a Fred Perrin design. She's like, really? I love Fred Perrin. I said, yeah. Yeah, and it's made by Max Knives in France.
[12:44]I jute-wrapped the handle. She said, oh, that's pretty gangster. I like that. And I said, but I need a way to hang it around my neck. It's so light and thin, even though it's got a big, what do you call it, profile. This thing I think I can get away with hanging around my neck, but I need a cool necklace. And this cordage I got is way too thin. Even if it does the job of holding the knife, it will slice through my neck. It's so thin. So I asked her if she'd braid me one, and she did, and it's awesome. So I got to still figure out how I'm going to actually attach it to this knife. Those are the tail ends. But I told her I'd give her five bucks for each one. And all I had on me was a 20. So I gave that to her. And over this week, I've given her a deadline. I'm exacting three more of these. I think I'm going to replace the paracord on some of my neck knives. I think that's kind of what's stopping me from carrying it. You got a knot back here. And I just never really figured out a great way of carrying my neck knives. And this I love, and it was inspired by the Knives by Nuge Primitive Wicket.
[13:52]This knife has a leather cord with a little clip here, as opposed to a paracord. And I like that it's 550 pounds to break paracord. And if that's around your neck, I mean, I've been doing neck exercises, but I don't think I can hold up 550 pounds of paracord. So I'm going to go with this braiding, see what that does. You say, yeah, braided leather will probably have the same effect. Probably, but it'll look much cooler and it'll be way more personal. So I just wanted to show this off. I thought it was an awesome job. All right. And it looks cool with the jute. No? No? All right. Let's see. Next up, and lastly, in this opening section, I want to show you this masterpiece, or Meisterstuch, as we might say in Germany. This is the Demko Shark Lock, as you can see. This is the 8020.5, but it is a special version. This comes to us from Mike at Northern Knives and Colorful Filth. That's Paul Monco's company.
[15:02]And he is not only a great knife designer. This is not his knife design, of course. But he is also an incredible artist and does this kind of beautiful anodizing. So they teamed up for another project. We gave away a pry bar that he anodized a while ago with a space theme. That was so cool. this is an underwater doom scene here. You've got this giant squid and you've got a great white shark and you've got two. You've got one lurking back by the pivot.
[15:30]On this beautifully anodized sea that goes from this high voltage green to that beautiful blue and you've got that scuba guy but he's got the old fashioned diving bell. This is just really, really beautiful stuff. um and not only well done but kind of captivates the imagination uh kind of gets you thinking what's what's the story here and then here you see this trench like this marianas style trench here what was called marianas or mariana um and then this ancient looking submarine that's attached to something somewhere ship up yeah okay and he's coming up out of that uh out of that trench there There are all sorts of cool stuff happening there. And then, of course, the blade is Cerakoted with bubbles. This thing is really awesome. What I'm getting at is this is the Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway knife for the month of September 2024. And we're going to have Mike from Northern Knives coming on the show to give it away. Actually, I should reach out to Paul Monko, too, see if he wants to join us.
[16:38]He designed one of my favorite knives, My favorite production knife of 2023 was designed by him, the Kaiser Mystic. And here you can see he's continuing on that maritime theme here with this knife. This is a true collector's piece. This is titanium, of course, and you will enjoy owning this if you get this. You will want to get a leather pocket slip for it because they did not mill out holes for the pocket clip. The pocket clip is in here if you want to have holes milled in, but this is not one you want to clip into your pocket. You don't want to wear this down. This is something you want to show off and brag about, so if you're carrying it around, you want it in a nice, comfy leather slip that covers the holes. And you're going to pull it out, and you're going to show it off. Maybe you'll even cut the seams of the pizza, the stubborn seams of that pizza, but then you'll wipe it off, put it away, and, you know, that's that. Got to use it maybe every once in a while. Beautiful. It says prototype on the back, and I'm loving all the high-voltage green I can do.
[17:45]All right. I'm putting this thing away before I do anything bad to it. Even my wedding ring, I'm worried about that scarring it. So away it goes. All right. Still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to take a look at a few knives that are coming out. But before we get there, I would like to say that you can download this show to your favorite podcast app. That's a great way to listen to it. If you can't make it on YouTube, you can sit there and watch it. I get that. Also, you can share the show. We'd like that. That's a great way to help. You can also go to Patreon if you want and help support the show there. A great way to do that is to scan the QR code here. Or go to theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Theknifejunkie.com slash BattleBox. So in Knife Life News this week, let's talk about Civivi. We talk about Civivi a lot in Knife Life News. Last time we mentioned them, we mentioned how they will be now featured in the big box stores. Well, Walmart. And that's pretty exciting, I've got to say. Not only for Civivi, you know, happy for them, but it's nice to know that you can go into Walmart and get a great knife because the Walmarts around here, sadly, lack.
[19:13]Okay, multifunction button lock coming from Civivi. This one's called the Pragma, kind of like pragmatic or practical or something like that. This one is not an unfamiliar profile when you look at it. This looks like a cool worn cliff folder with a 2.2-inch Nitro-V blade coming from Civivi with a button lock. But this one, as you can see in the back, has a carabiner slash bottle opener steel backspacer. So a little sort of multi-tool. There's no clip on this, There's no pocket clip. There's just the beaner clip there. And you just hang it on whatever. But it's a cool little, We're going to call this a folder with a little extra. I don't think we can really call it a multi-tool, and that's an opinion that I got from Ben Schwartz of Knife News, but I tend to agree with him. Three functions, like a way to fasten it to you, a way to open a bottle, and a way to cut, does not necessarily a multi-tool make. But we'll call this a folder plus. Aluminum handle, love that.
[20:19]Stainless backspacer with the beater and the bottle opener. And this one here comes in a Damasteel version, as you can see, with that red. So a couple of different anodized versions available this month. That's September 2024. Cool. Cool little thing. They come out with a lot of little knife-lets and knifey objects. And that is definitely a knife. But, I mean, I like all the little kind of non-just straight-ahead folder and fixed-blade things they put out. So good addition to that line. All right. Artisan Cutlery, they do Kickstarters, which is kind of interesting. And they're doing a Kickstarter for a new knife called The Wizard from a new designer, new to us, called Dustin Rhodes. And this is coming in four configurations, similar to the knife they came out with about a year ago, whose name I'm now forgetting. But this knife here will come in four configurations if it meets its Kickstarter goals.
[21:20]It's a full-size folder. The goal here is to have a full-size folder in the smallest overall package. So if you look at the handle-to-blade ratio on this picture that Jim has up, it almost looks one-to-one. You've got a 3.47-inch drop-point harpoon blade, a beautiful blade, by the way, in a 4-inch handle. Now, we're used to seeing a blade and then a handle that's basically an inch longer. Longer uh that's pretty much how it plays out most of the time now here it's a half an inch longer and so it really makes it look especially with the back taper on the um on the pommel it really makes it look like it's a one-to-one uh and i really like that i appreciate that three ways to deploy this uh enthusiast's knife no doubt uh a four front flipper thumb stud and then of course, the lock with centrifugal force. You can see here three of the four versions.
[22:19]A titanium frame with fat carbon inlay, titanium frame with thymuscus inlay, and then the full godilla thymuscus with the mirror polished blade. All really nice looking. Oh, wait, these all have, yeah, that one has that mirror. Oh, one of them is going to come in MagnaCut. That's what it was. So three of them have S90V, and one of them is going to come in MagnaCut. The Kickstarter is live. If this one tickles your fancy, definitely go for it. This is an interesting way for artisans to highlight designers that aren't tried and true, I guess, in the industry or to them. Let's see.
[23:05]We'll make some prototypes. archetypes we'll make some different versions uh let's start a kickstarter see if we can fund this uh without gambling too much on someone who's new so i i actually think that's a pretty cool and fair way of of giving untested people a shot and by i mean industry untested we haven't heard of this guy yet dustin rhodes but we will and we have now all right next up from boker uh this This is coming from Matthew Gentry. What a great name, Matthew Gentry. I don't know this guy. He's a custom knife maker, but this is his first production knife, and it's with Boker Plus. So that's a huge win. Huge win for both him and Boker Plus, who has a gigantic catalog of custom knife maker collaboration knives. As a matter of fact, I would say that's their bread and butter. So this is a pocket fixie version, pocket fixed blade version of the Nesmuk, the classic outdoors belt knife. It has an upswept 2.4 inch upswept Nesmuk style blade. And at such a short blade, it's hard to fully express that Nesmuk shape. But a Nesmuk kind of has an upswept shape, but a rounded off tip.
[24:22]It's not like a Persian where it's upswept and it comes to a very acute point. It's upswept, but then it has kind of a bulbous point. So this is getting there, but really it's that edge, the blade edge that echoes the Nesmuk. With that deep belly, you get a little bit of straight on the front, a little bit more straight on the back, but a deep belly. This one has a full four-finger grip, which is cool. To me, it's evocative of a scalpel, a lot like a scalpel. It looks more like a scalpel than the street scalpel by Topps.
[24:58]That's 12C27N. Yeah, full four-finger grip on that Micarta. It'll come in a Kydex sheet that has a nice little clip. Drop it right in the pocket and have that. Okay. Have that handle protrude like people are doing these days with the pocket fixed blade knives. And this one is $40. The MSRP, $40. That's pretty sweet. 4.3 ounces. So very light. I'm sorry, not 4.3. 2.43 ounces. So quite light and available now. All right, and next is another fixed blade knife. This is the third from Ostop Hell and Real Steel recently. This one is called the Dex. The Dex is a 3.15-inch drop point of K110. It's flat ground K110. K110 is analogous to D2. It's a... Where is it made? Oh, you're all screaming at your screen right now. This is a European D2, basically, made by the same people who make M390. I don't know. the state.
[26:06]3.15 inches is a perfect little fixed blade size for a daily carry fixed blade. This one you could definitely drop in the pocket. I dare say you could hang this around your neck. Some people could.
[26:20]Or this could ride in a waistband with a discreet carry clip quite nicely. And you'd have enough to have a four finger grip, but it is not going to be extra long. It's not going to print very much and then you have that arched um pommel which would be perfect for uh over the over the pommel thumb grip like that anyway you're going to get two handle options with this and a cool thing about it is that the handle and the inlays are designed to be easily swappable so you can swap things around and um you can have them you can have new inlays made you could have new handles made, or you can go with what they need to do. But I think it's pretty cool that it's going to be swappable. I don't think they know what the scales are or if they're going to make extra scales available yet. This is not available, but it will be soon. From O Stop Hell out of Poland and real steel.
[27:15]All right, that's it for Knife Life News this week. A lot of cool things coming out. You know what I think is kind of neat is there's a constant constant drip. There seems to be a constant drip of knives coming out. There's always a new knife coming. Every week, there's a couple, and we talk about them here, and that warms the cockles of my heart. Okay, before we get to the state of the collection, another thing that warms the cockles of my heart is this store that Jim has put together. If you're interested in merch, if you like our cool logo designed by me and my sister, and, um.
[27:50]Put on lots of cool stuff by Jim, you can go to store.knifejunkie or you can go to the knifejunkie.com slash shop. And there you will find all that kind of stuff with the logo, but also you can find t-shirts that Jim has designed, pages of them, really cool knife-themed t-shirts with witty maxims and really cool artwork. So go check that out, the knifejunkie.com slash shop and see what you find. You might find something that you like. All right, coming up, The state of the collection. The Shockwave Tactical Torch is your ultimate self-defense companion. Featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100,000 hours, a super sharp, crenulated bezel, and a built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch. Theknifejunkie.com slash shockwave. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. So, as I frequently mention, I'm no outdoorsman, but I aspire to be. And as I grow older, I think I will start doing more stuff as my time frees up a little bit.
[29:00]But before then, I will outfit myself and I will continue to watch videos and live vicariously through other outdoors folk. But one thing that was kind of sadly lacking in my panoply of tools, you know, I got a lot of great outdoors knives, but I needed a saw. So I got a saw and it's a folding saw by Corona. And this is the, um.
[29:24]Razor tooth saw okay uh i got this on instagram i saw or not instagram on amazon i saw a video or two of a guy cutting with it and it was it was the one that was kind of inexpensive enough for me to get and to try but still had some videos with some pretty good uh reviews now i'm asking for help from you all out there about folding saws now i know that silky is supposed to be pretty good i I guess because they sell them at REI, I almost, I have a gift certificate, not a gift certificate.
[29:59]But the thing that you get from them just for being a member. And I could buy one of them, but I was like, oh, maybe I'll hold out for something else. And I ended up buying this for half the price on YouTube. Do you guys know anything about these saws? Let me know. Should this have blade play? This has, you know, I know the blade is supposed to be flexible. But within the pivot there's blade play and i have tried to tighten this down and there's no tightening it it is as tight as it goes so it's like is that is that there on purpose um built in play so that when you're sawing it's not so rigid in there that you're gonna break it if you um lose your tempo or get on off angle or whatever so um that's a question is play supposed to be built into a folding saw uh two i'm loving this axe handle um and and i'll see how it works but what shape handle do you like because if you look at this versus say a silky a silky saw folding saw is shaped like an arc so almost the the opposite of this this is very comfortable.
[31:09]And uh i haven't even used it yet it just arrived uh but i'm gonna i'm gonna take this outside and saw a couple of, I got it in the park and saw some logs like that. Saw and logs usually to me mean snoring, but today it will mean actually testing this out. So it looks like it's going to be comfortable. It feels comfortable, but it's sort of the opposite overall shape of say a silky brand saw. And I know there are plenty of other saws. Please let me know what you think. Have you used this one? It's plastic. I'm not sure what they're usually made out of, but I'm going to go this route, and I'm not going to go crazy. I'm not going to be the saw junkie, but I do want to get a good one. This one I'm going to take out and try, but let me know what you guys think. That's what I'm getting at. A lot of you are way more outdoorsy than I am. You go camping. You go hunting. You start fires. You live off the land. Whatever you're doing, and you're using the saws, let me know. Okay? Thank you. But I think it looks cool. Let's say that. This does look kind of cool. It looks a little bit weapon-y, I gotta say. So I was drawn in by that.
[32:19]This one has a lock on the back and has very bad play so that you have to make sure that it's centered when you close it. Is this acceptable saw stuff or should I not settle for a saw that has play? I don't know. I guess I can see both ways why it might make sense. All right. All that said, I bought that because you can't just have an axe. You can't just have a saw in the wilderness. Oftentimes, a knife like a big Bowie will do all of that for you.
[32:58]And this is something that, well, really every fall when I start doing the fire pits again with the family, I really start to value the Bowie knife. And it's for the second one in this list. Actually, Jim, I'm going to go to the second one first, because that's what really inspired this. It's the Trailmaster. The Trailmaster is, this is the most amazing knife, I got to say, probably that I own. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've had it really a long time, and it's been on a few misadventures with me. And it's just done a lot of work in the back, mostly splitting logs and stuff. When I first discovered Nut & Fancy and saw him using his trailmaster to baton, I was like, that's brilliant, that's genius. And so I've used that a lot for this. I know you can have an axe and I have axes and stuff. And I guess you can do a lot more with those, but something about the one tool option, going into the wilderness and having a bowie knife that you can skin your game with, that you can split logs with, that you can do camp chores with, that you can cut food with, that you can fight with and defend yourself with, that you can have in hand when that brown bear is charging you. This is something that you want a bowie knife so of all the knives that you could have out in the wilderness you know one knife option to me uh the bowie is the one is the way to go now i have.
[34:28]Great knives like the like the uh se hungless that is a great drop point do everything 10 inch a quarter inch thick fixed blade knife uh but on the on the holding it in your hand against a bare angle of things, it's lapping. So you can do a lot with it, and the fact that it doesn't have a swedge means you're not going to bust up your baton as quickly as this one does because you've got a sharpened swedge here, a zero ground swedge there. So you won't have to deal with that, but this gives you everything else. This is a weapon, this is a tool, this is a do-everything knife. And...
[35:09]At nine and a half inches, I think the Trailmaster is a perfect bowie. As a matter of fact, having this one out last night and this weekend prior, using it a lot, nice and thick. I got to get another one. I want to get one in 3V. This, of all the knives I have to double up on, this would be the one. So I might have to do that. Sadly, sadly, they don't make it with the leather sheath anymore. My leather sheath is a little bit busted up. You know, my retaining strap has always had duct tape on it because the way I use it, the edge goes against that and it slices every time. So duct tape for the rest of you. Another one that would be, will be great in the outdoors, once I break its proverbial theory, is the, if you'll excuse the expression, is the WorkToughGear V44X Bowie. Based on the Marine Raider Bowie And that beautiful Western 49 profile This takes that to the max I'm going to put the edge Straight across, or I'm sorry The spine straight across the.
[36:20]The camera here, straight across the screen, if you look, you can see that edge diving downward. You've got that downward raked edge and you've got about four to five inches of totally straight edge there. And then it graduates into that long belly with a little bit of straight at the front terminating in a very acute point. No swedge on this. I mean, it's more of a chamfer than a swedge. And that's a good thing because a swedge on this would leave that super acute point just a little bit too acute for any sort of rough chore even fighting if you were to jam this into someone and it it it was interrupted by a rib or something and you had a very thin point because of a swedge that would break this is and i say that that very callously but really this is a great this would make a great fighting bowie option. I know when we think of fighting bowies, we think of some of the longer, more slender, long-swedged affairs, but this would do a great job at it simply because of how it's balanced. It's balanced really nicely. It's got a long handle, and that long handle adds a little weight. It almost gives it like a sword-like weight so that the front of this 10-inch thick slab of steel is light and nimble. I'll do it with my left hand because my right hand is still heavy.
[37:48]Just keep the thumb out of the way. But 10 inches from my hand to that tip and a very thick and broad blade, and yet it moves around really nicely. Great design with that long handle. And the horse hoof pommel down here just adds weight to there and gives it great balance, that sort of fighting knife balance, which is right in front of the handle. Even though it's a great Get it, gotta prove it now.
[38:16]So even though it's a great outdoors knife, great for all those kind of camp chores and stuff, it would be a great fighter, too. And that's what I love about Bowie knives. They really run the gamut in terms of use cases. And I just like looking at this one. I'm going to put it back down and stare at it for a second. You see that swedge. I mean, I'm sorry. You see that choil. It's more than a half circle. And it's in that steel. And you think, oh, that must be uncomfortable. Comfortable but my lands it is not not only did they do a nice polished job in there but it's nicely chamfered and it just feels great in hand you come up here and it's very secure, all right i love this knife i'm going to put it away really nicely knurled handle and if you look at it from the top it's kind of coke bottled but lightly so and then if a lanyard is your thing there's a hidden lanyard option there but it's not like the other hidden lanyard options you You see where they just give you a little slit and there's no way on earth you can get 550 cord. That's a nice, generous hole and two generous holes on either side of the scales to put that lanyard in. But if lanyard is not your thing or if you don't like the feel of the lanyard under your thumb if you're riding way back, well, back here you don't have to worry about that.
[39:38]Great sheath, great sheath with these D-rings here, and they send it with a strap, so you can basically hang this around your neck. And that is the most comfortable way to carry this very broadly sheathed blade. You don't want this on your belt, I don't think, unless you are a giant. Okay, next up, this is a classic, the SP-10 Raider Bowie. This is another one based off of that Marine Raider style. So this is kind of in the same camp as the one we were just looking at. Before I take it out of the sheath, I'll just say this is a cheap Ontario sheath, but the best cheap nylon sheath I've ever gotten, including all the ones I've ever gotten from Topps.
[40:24]This strap, it's got two retaining straps, which is great. This one is adjustable in case you wrap the handle like I did with tape or something and it gets a little wider. You can adjust this clip or this strap here but this what i love about this one here is when you undo it this is now if you're just listening i'm talking about the retaining strap that goes over the pommel of the sp10 on the sheath when you pop it it gets out of the way it's very it's like spring-loaded somehow i guess it's like a piece of plastic or kevlar or something in there but when you undo it it snaps out of the way which is great you can draw the the knife without it getting in the way and if you it's an ambidextrous sheath and if you do keep it on this side you can either slide this over that way, or if you don't want to slide it over it's out of the way and the knife blade isn't going to cut, isn't going to cut it so really well considered uh sheath all you also have the molly, attachments on that side and the belt loop but there's the blade sadly ontario well they went away for a while and i know they were going to start back up but i'm not sure whatever happened with that or what has happened with that or if it's still in process i gotta sort of go back to their website and check in. But this is another one that was.
[41:46]Not inspired, but the purchase was inspired by Nut & Fancy. I always loved his videos with the SP-10 and the other Ontarios in this line. They all had this kind of handle. Very, very grippy rubber handle and kind of blocky. On the top it's flat and then it rounds out on the bottom.
[42:08]But super Super comfortable handle. I got to say, design-wise, I always thought it was awkward. This is obviously an off-the-shelf handle, and you can tell by how this is just kind of plopped on top. But it doesn't bother me. And actually, it would look cool without the metal also. It would work just fine without that. But this guard gives you extra protection, not just here, not just by your finger and your thumb, but on the sides too. Because it's nice and broad. Great blade here. This is 1095 with Cerakote on it, and that stuff has rubbed off. Yeah, Cerakote. It's that traction coating. Has rubbed off when I've used it to baton. Wood, it looks dramatic when it comes off like that. I kind of like it, of course. It looks like I've used it a lot more than I have. About a quarter inch thick. Great, great knife, And again, this one is, I'm going to hold this in front of the main camera. This one also has a great balance, would make a great fighting knife if you had to fight with it. I wouldn't use my left. I would carefully use my right. I'll just tell you people, be careful around that part of your thumb because I've learned that nerves are there. If you sever one, you're screwed. I came close.
[43:32]When I bump it, it's more than just pain. It reminds you that you're mortal. It's that kind of pain. Be careful. Be careful. It was a moment, an unguarded moment of carelessness and stupidity. And I know it'll happen again I just hope it's not as severe Alright, putting this one away The SP-10 Take a look around online I don't know if you can still find them But it's definitely worth your money And it was always kind of an inexpensive knife Now I'm sure they're going up in price Because that's how that sort of thing happens Okay, staying on the Marine Raider theme, We have the Cold Steel Western Bowie And the Western was I...
[44:18]It's based on the Marine Raider style. I think they call it a Western because it's evocative of the Western 49, the W49. But in any case, it's also that sort of Raider style where you have the extreme clip up front. You have the diving down of the straight towards the belly, albeit this one is less extreme. On this one, I love this giant S-Guard. I love it. It is so cool. It really makes this feel like a fighter. In hand, it's got a balance that is forward heavy, unlike, say, the V44X that packs a lot of weight in the handle, keeping it balanced more like a sword. This has a bit of a chopper feel to it. But these quillions here not only protect the hand, but they do allow for some control. I find that my hand my thumb butts up against it often times if I'm doing something in a saber grip and the flat of course I'm usually using my right hand but the flats really give you something to grab on here on this handle this handle is awesome the flatter the handle I think the more comfortable which is sort of counter intuitive because you know it's not going anywhere it can't rotate you can't you know.
[45:38]It's just you're just far less likely to rotate that knife when you're doing something that is uh engaging a lot of physics if you will if it's flat on the sides and we've learned that uh i've learned that personally but we also see doug marquita talk about that a lot when he's going to strike a pig with a sword it's got a round handle he's like oh god it's gonna it's gonna twist it's gonna bend not bend but twist in the hand i'm just sitting here looking at the screen what a perfect knife that is. That's the kind of knife, like when I was a kid, you think of knife, and that's what I thought. Right there with that big guard, that big Bowie blade, and the clip point. I love it. And by the way, this is one of the cold steels that ships with the leather sheath. It's a great sheath. I highly recommend it. The one problem I had with the Western was the coating they put on the handle. So I kind of stripped it down as much as possible. They put a lot on there and didn't let it dry thoroughly before sending it, I guess. So it always felt a little tacky. So I just took some 90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and just rubbed it until the cloth came back clean. So it lightened up the handle a little bit, doesn't bother me at all. Pinching the strap.
[46:59]Alright, next, we move on to a different style bowie. This reminds me of most of the European bowies you'll see. This one is from Spain. This is the Cudamon, but it reminds me a lot of German bowies with that super neutral handle. You know, we refer to the coffin-shaped handles. That's when it kind of flares out a little bit. This, I don't even know what to call it. It's like a stick handle. Totally neutral. This, again, similar to the Western. This is the kind of knife I would have drawn as a kid. It's just like clip point guard handle. There's like not much to it, but in being simple, it is so excellent. It's a really comfortable handle to hold on to. This is Micarta. It's got red liners.
[47:47]But nicely textured. Not textured, but it's not polished. You know what I mean? It's not slippery, but it grips in the hand, which is something Micarta excels at. So it's funny to look at something like this that has such a neutral handle where the spine and the belly of the handle are exactly parallel, and there's no pommel to speak of to hold you in there. But it's so comfortable and, uh, you can swing this around with sweaty hands and, uh, it's not going to come flying out of your hand. Have I done much with this? When I first got it, I, I got it, uh, at the same time I got the Western and the 1918 and, or 1917 and a couple of other knives. And I was doing a lot of like, let's see how this batons. And I think I may have done it once, but I was like, that's hollow ground. This is not a baton knife. Um, but, uh, I have, it's done Karenza duty, uh, quite a bit. So this is a fun one to shadow box with and to practice, uh, the Bowie knife techniques I've seen online. I've never studied Bowie knife.
[48:55]It's pretty intuitive if you know other stuff. And this one is very good for that. And with that hollow grind, for me, this is more of a hunting knife, more of a fighting knife, more of a big outdoor field knife. You could clear brush with this because, to me, the hollow grind, even though it's a thick and heavy blade, the hollow grind really makes it kind of thin behind the edge. This could do a lot of great camp duty. But, again, you could turn this to fighting. biting. I just don't think that it's much of a wood batoner because of that hollow grind. And wood batoning should not be a prerequisite, okay, for a Bowie knife or for any knife, I don't think. I feel like it's something that has been born in this day and age, or maybe was used in desperation when you didn't have a hatchet. I don't know. I could be mistaken about that, but But it doesn't seem like batoning with a knife is, you know, should be a prerequisite to is it a good bowie. But since that is one of the few ways I actually use my bowie knives, it's a measure. But I'm not going to do that with this next knife because it's a cable tang and it is a Musso Bowie. And this is all about fighting.
[50:11]This is the Natchez. Okay, let me use my other phone. This is the Natchez Bowie by Cold Steel. Again, it would have been so great to have gotten my notches in the leather sheath days. Don't get me wrong. This is an outstanding sheath, and you can do a lot of the same things you could with leather, like without a clip, slip this in the belt and have the wideness of the opening here be the thing that stops it from slipping into the belt or through the belt. You can still use it that way, but there's nothing like leather.
[50:46]Okay, so the Natchez Bowie is what they call a Musso Bowie, after Mr. Musso. And I don't know his first name, but he was one of the guys who created the upswept kind of southern style Bowie here that we see in this. Which some people say the style was the kind that was used in the Sandbar, the famed Sandbar fight by Jim Bowie. I don't think anyone actually really knows. But what I know about this is it's a very fighting-oriented blade. And if you look at it, you can see why. It's got the reverse taper. Instead of tapering towards the handle as all the other ones so far have and having a big belly, which is great for slashing and chopping, this one tapers towards the tip. And with its long, zero-ground swedge, it's basically at the tip like a dagger you've got a diamond point on screen got a diamond point and a very sharp back back edge that back edge is great for not slicing not cutting stuff but gouging tearing that sort of that sort of cut so that's used here i'll come to the main camera.
[52:05]That sharpened swedge, or even if it's unsharpened, I've shown this in videos here, but you drop, as someone thrusts in or gets their arm and their weapon close to you, you drop yours down in a flicking motion onto their hand.
[52:26]And it is really wicked, so much so that a lot of people fought with knives, with bowie knives, clip-point knives like this, and used that front tip to break the bone, to gash, to split, to tear, especially with that tip, and then to stab and then heave-ho backwards. That's how they taught a lot of U.S. military during World War II. That's how they showed them how to use the Randall knife. They called that the Randall fighting method where you have it backwards because the Randalls all had the sharpened swedge. And then you put your finger over the grip, and there's even on the number one blade, there's even a little notch there for you to put your finger in. You smash and do that back cut with the back edge of the blade, and then stab and pull back with the top edge or the main edge. So that's what we could get from this. To me, the way this is weighted, again, like a sword, with the heavy pommel on that beautiful grip. This grip is gorgeous, by the way. it's micarta it's not polished but not textured it's just sort of smooth and your hand, you can feel kind of the ridges of the fabric in there but with that big guard and this heavy pommel you have a lot of weight towards the back towards the front part of the hand.
[53:49]Which allows that long, long blade and that tip way down at the end to move around really nicely and easily. Now, cable tang is what I call this. That means the tang of the blade comes down to about here, and then it's soldered to a cable, a steel cable, that comes to here and is soldered to a threaded pin.
[54:12]And then screwed on here. And you think, oh, my God, that's terrible. You know, that's a terrible way to make a knife. it turns out it's pretty damn strong and that cable in there absorbs a lot of shock coming from the blade so there's a little bit of flexibility in there and uh you know cold steel's on point they've got their soldering down like i'm not concerned about this knife though it's, at a very thick um at a very thick 5 16ths of an inch and that broad blade it would make for a great batoning blade. I just wouldn't use it because I'm not sure that it can take or should take that much shock here, A, and B, with that sharp front edge, you just mangle your baton the whole time. You'd just be picking up new baton. So this is really a fighting knife, and so therefore it gets no use. It gets no use except appreciation, and it's around in case I get in a knife fight, but I have other options too. But as far as bowies go man i love this thing uh just wish the leather just wish i had the leather.
[55:22]Big come out with this all right i don't want to fight but if we have to i'd be like okay i'm okay von temsky the next one sward sward out of sweden this thing is i mean out of new zealand yeah.
[55:39]Sword out of new zealand uh von temsky was a guy was a um a ranger who who's who he and his crew uh ranged around new zealand carrying these things uh riding around on her they were like rough riders basically um and this was the knife that he had made for himself and uh and so he had them made for all of his dudes so this is why it's called the von temsky bowie and sorry for the uh sorry for the is it new zealand or is it sweden i always think it's sweden in my mind because i think of sword uh but s-v-o-r-d beautiful big chunk of steel this thing is a quarter inch thick and uh what do you call this convex ground like a third of it so it's like it's got so much weight up front now it does have a nice long full-tang handle with this beautiful walnut grip the grip is so nice it feels great it's also like the kudamon bowie where it's just two parallel lines are the handle got that nice big s guard but what's neat about this one is you turn it on its side look at how much it comes over the side here so if you're in some sort of altercation and blades are sliding on blades which used to be a bigger deal than it is now, it can stop.
[57:08]If you slide up, it'll stop here on that little plate.
[57:11]So it reminds me a little bit more of an older design with that flare on the side.
[57:19]Really nice knife. This my brother got for me for Christmas years ago at this point. But again, this one is a big one and very impressive. Come out with this one And people will definitely assume That you're a pioneer Riding the range.
[57:38]Again beautiful beautiful leather sheath on this one super thick um really nice nicely done and the sford logo is kind of cool reminds me a little bit of the seek symbol okay next up a few more cold steels before we're out of here and then we look at the last one but this this next cold steel is the laredo with the this is an older one obviously you can tell from this and i don't know what the tool steel was when i got the oh i think this was a a1 i believe uh but i put a nice patina on it because this one uh the sheath scratched the blade up something something fierce and i didn't want to send it back and it also had a a split in the faux cocobolo handle here never sent it back i just this was mine and i'm gonna live with it or whatever it was before i was as proactive as i am now this was 20 years ago i was like i guess this is just the bowie i get uh how the hell do you return something to amazon how do i know but anyway um so this one i did a white vinegar patina on and this like the nachez is a purebred fighting bowie it's got that same table tang in here and um and it's got a flared out guard on the side so you've got a lot.
[59:00]Of coverage on the guard this is 5 16ths of an inch thick so nice and thick full flat ground super sharp and then again that nice long zero ground sweat really sweet fighting knife now this one uh does do duty this does not get locked up this is uh strategically stashed uh for we're pulling and using it if heaven forbid it's needed uh if ever uh someone unwelcome makes it to a certain part of the house, this is what they're going to get. And they won't be happy about it. This and several other things, things that fly through the air before reaching them.
[59:41]All right, going to put this one away. Next up is, we were talking about beautiful S-guards. This one takes the cake. Here is the Cold Steel 1917 Bowie. Look at that. We've got the cool shape here, the metal shape on the beautiful sheath. And you've got this frog that removes. Unfortunately, that stud is attached to the frog and not the sheath. So when you take the frog off, it doesn't have that stud anymore, more which is a huge design mistake because that stud would be great for just slipping the thing in the belt if you don't want to hang it from the belt but someone wasn't thinking hopefully they lost their job no i'm just kidding uh so this is a blued that's something i love about this i love that blued blade and it is uh this one's out of india had that same issue with the handle as the western style buoy so i just rubbed it down with isopropyl until it was no longer tacky and now it's perfect and you look at it you think it's a weird handle you think it's not going to be comfortable it is very comfortable again aligning with that thought that a flat sided handle is not going to turn it's going to feel so secure in hand and it does and and orientation Orientation matters when you're dealing with something with an edge.
[1:01:03]You don't want it like this. You don't want it like this. It matters how it's oriented. So that flat, you know without looking at it. And then, of course, if you're in the pitch dark, you just feel that that's where the quillian is.
[1:01:18]But this one also gives you that forward notch so that if you need to get up close to do your... If you need to get up close on whatever you're working on, you can wrap your finger around there but i am a sucker for this guard that guard is straight off to me this looks like a cavalry saber that's been repurposed like maybe it was broken in battle so it was reground to be a bowie blade and then here they cut off the back part of the guard, it just looks like a repurposed saber to me and i love that about this knife it really does look like a pioneer's knife to me uh would make a great all-arounder this i've uh batoned wood with, did just fine. I was worried about the guard starting to rattle. Did not. But again, why tempt fate? This isn't for that. To me, this is more of a fighter and you know.
[1:02:10]That kind of thing more of a weapon uh that's the 19 oh boy i keep hitting my camera with these long knives 1917 frontier bowie all right last in this list is kind of the least bowie just in form but it's the predator hunter the puzon predator hunter bowie from from work tough i'm just gonna leave this year from work tough gear a big knife and based on the stylized bowie machetes that were used by the whole team in predator the greatest movie of all time and uh used and sort of highlighted by uh by the native american billy he throws away his guns and he's gonna make a a stand against predator with his bowie knife he pulls it out and he cuts his chest with the swedge i love that still one of the best scenes of all time and then he wraps the thing around his you know in movies how easy it is to pull things off your neck he pulls it off wraps it around cuts his chest and then we hear we hear he does not make it uh but this i love this thing this This is seeing some outdoor action. I just cleaned it. I had a lot of pine sap stuck on this one, so a little WD-40 took care of that.
[1:03:30]Just a beautiful blade, again, with that nice grip there. You can just come right in there with your finger, and it's nice and chamfered and feels great. All right, before we dip out of here, I know I've tipped you long enough. Let me show you this in the big camera. Got to be careful. I don't want to hit anything on the way. Look at this. Look at that beauty.
[1:03:53]So a bowie knife, you got the clip point, you got the thickness, you got the length. Really, they should be, technically, they should be 10 inches and a quarter inch long with a clip point. Who am I to make definitions? All right, thanks for watching Big Bad Bowies. And thanks for joining us here on this midweek supplemental. Be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives. And if you're watching this as it drops, you can become a gentleman junkie and win that super awesome Northern Knives Paul Monco design thing. Alright, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at ReviewThePodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, TheKnifeJunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos We'll see you next time.
[1:05:13] Music