Automated Transcript
Camp Knives: Recreation, Bushcraft and Survival
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 359)

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, steel genius.
Learn well, just genius in general.
Larrin Thomas announces a new super steel just for forgers.
We take a look at a new Jack Wolf knife and then camp knives.
We're going to be talking recreation, bushcraft and survival all under 6 inches.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.

00:39
Here's your host, Bob the knife Junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was from Shane Gables, a name you might be familiar with.
Shane, good buddy and friend of the show says this is by far the best interview I've ever watched.
This should be required viewing for all knife junkies.
This man actually made tools to make terrorists ground temperature.
How could anything be more ****** than that?

01:10
Shane Gables?
I could not agree with you more.
The Daniel Winkler interview was was real.
It was a milestone for me.
I've been wanting to talk to Daniel Winkler for quite some time.
Finally, Chris Stroop of Stroop knives introduced me to him at Blade show.
Thank you Chris, because that you know, he's a very busy man and and I'm sure a lot of people want to talk to him.

01:32
So I felt privileged to talk to him.
Not only that, but I've been you know, reading the Jack Carr books and watching terminal list and all that.
And so to see Daniel Winkler knives out there in the.
In the wild world and in entertainment and knowing that they are favored by Navy seals, it's a thrill to me.
You know what can I say?
And then knowing that it all came out of this patriotic past of reenacting Revolutionary War era soldiers.
I love that.

01:59
So thank you, Shane, and thank you one and all for watching supporting the show commenting I've been more active in the comments recently.
I, I, you know I I just, I get so much out of it.
And so I've been making more time recently to.
To to well, to answer back.
So thanks for watching and thanks for commenting before we get moving.
I just want to say that today is missus knife junkie's birthday and I want to wish her a very, very happy birthday right now as we record this.
She is out on her 2nd 20 mile run in preparation for the Marine Corps marathon coming up at the end of the month and she's she's amazing and she's an inspiration to me.

02:42
She misses knife Junkie is is the perfect example of determination and a plan.
Plus, really hard work equals success.
She put herself through college, she put herself through Graduate School bartending and and doing other jobs.
And then and then she has supported our family well.
You know, she has earned some incredible duckets and has risen to the top of a male dominated industry.
So my head is off to her.
Not only that, but as a mother she's like the perfect exemplar of a woman for for our daughters.

03:21
So happy birthday baby.
Keep on running.
And uh yeah, she's gonna crush this marathon.
And by the way, she hates running.
That's discipline.
So hats off to you baby.
Alright, so I think it's time now for a pocket check.

03:45
OK, so today was, I had some of my favorites in pocket.
I guess I could say that every day, but today we're going back to some of the classics.
First up was the CQC, Super CQC 15 by Emerson and my front right pocket.
We were out and about with the family.
I wanted something that I could deploy easily, you know, sometimes.
Sometimes after reading the news and then going out into the world, more likely to grab an Emerson or something waived.
But you know, Emerson's Emersons are.

04:19
Really.
Uh, you know, not only fetching and cool, to me anyway, I've just been reading a lot about them and how they have had real, real world use.
Maybe.
You know, I hear people saying, I don't know any Navy seals that carry Emersons.
OK, fine.
But a lot of people do, and a lot of people have gotten in sticky situations with them.
And a lot of people train with them and.

04:43
Like in the live media or the organic medium testing realm, and they do very, very well.
Luckily I only use this to shear a very stringy piece of pizza dough.
This thing is so sharp and so thin with that chisel edge, it actually did better than my very well honed kitchen knife.
So I was, you know, had this big ball of dough, just a little bit too big for the pizza stone and this is what it cut right through it.
Like it was nothing, so maybe not its intended purpose, but hey, you know, does it matter?
And this giant grip gave me a lot of surety over the cutting board.
So CQC 15 cut pizza dough, but was ready to cut much more today in my front right pocket, second up.

05:32
The Jack Wolf Knives laid back Jack just a beautiful sway back slip joint with the Warren Cliff blade.
But you know this, this is a Jack wolf knife which means it's made with all of the modern with the most modern techniques finished by hand and created from modern materials.
That's titanium.
My car a black canvas micarta and M390 blade steel full height hollow grind and just a a wonderful Warren Cliff design.
I love this blade shape.
And I've always loved the swayback and I love what Ben Belkin did with it.
Kind of unswayed the back a little bit and straightened it out just a touch, which is preferred to me and then last up in the running for most comfortable EDC fixed blade in my collection.

06:19
And my this is one of my two absolute go TOS.
Like if I do not feel like carrying a fixed blade or it's just annoying me if I put this on or the hog tooth Tonto, I'm good to go.
This one is the Kramer custom knives voodoo.
This thing is one of my favorite knives in my collection period.
Eric Kramer who was on the show is a really great guy and when I spoke with him was just getting back into making folders.
I know he doesn't.
He prefers fixed blades and he is also former military.

06:53
And makes knives for his military buddies.
That's this is the as I mentioned the Voodoo.
It's a small upswept he calls it Persian.
I call it clip point.
But this just under 4 inches in blade length.
This is what he ended up settling on when he first started making knives he was making these big Rambo you know go to war looking knives for his soldier buddies and military buddies and they're like this knife.
Eric is sweet.

07:20
I love it.
You know it goes great on the bed stand.
He's like what do you mean on the bedstand?
Yeah, I use it for home protection.
He's like, I made it for you to carry.
He's like, well, it's too big, you know, I I got so much other gear and it's all heavy and it's all bulky.
And the last thing I need is a is a big knife weighing me down because I'm not using it that much.

07:39
So he took that and and brought those those design requirements into his knives and and now they're all real thin and pretty you know reasonably sized.
This is.
I mean I had him double edge this, but even without a double edge this is just an amazing little fighting knife with a 154 CM hollow ground blade.
Also it could flex into EDC, but you know a knife this this purpose driven, you're not going to probably want to use too much for DC so.
These three are the ones I had on me today.
That's the Emerson Super CQC 15 the.
Dogtooth, I mean, I'm sorry, the Jack Wolf Knives laid back, Jack and the Eric Kramer custom knives, voodoo.

08:25
And by the way the sheath he made for this, his sheaths are incredible.
And I have noticed as I've been collecting custom fixed blade knives is that your your sheath game has to be on.
Almost everyone I've gotten a knife from has made excellent sheets and and I think people realize that that is absolutely 1/2 of.
The recipe maybe even more, because if the carry system isn't good, if the carry system isn't working, you're not going to be carrying that knife.
Therefore the knife is in that situation, useless.
So.
Great sheets, keep your eye out for great cheese.

09:01
I think that should be a requirement.
Alright, that's what I had on me today.
Have on you?
What did you have on you today?
Do let me know.
Drop it in the comments.
Give me some ideas about how I should responsibly spend my money on knives.

09:17
OK, I wanna thank some patrons.
We've had some new patrons in the past couple well past two weeks that have gotten some have gotten mentioned on Thursday night.
I want to mention them all right here because I want to make sure everyone gets their due.
So these are gentlemen junkies, and I am.
I am told there gentlemen and scholars one and all across the board.
I want to thank Zachary Roberts will be frequent contributor to Thursday Night Knives, Yuval Peleg, Cam Michael and Jay McConnell also a Thursday night knives Dennis.
And I want to thank you guys so much for supporting the show.

09:56
It's it's really appreciated.
I also love the comments and I love the interaction say on Thursday night Knives and elsewhere oftentimes people go by different screen names so I don't know if I've.
Spoken with Yuval many times as something else on screen but or or Cam but like you know likewise.
Thank you so much it's greatly appreciated.
And now you are in the running for this off grid knife.
So this is going to be the giveaway knife for October on the 20th.
Sorry I keep banging my mic so excited here on October 20th, Thursday Night Knives will be giving this away.

10:33
Off grid knives by the way I love their packaging.
You get the magnetic thing there.
And then they always have really nice artwork of their knives and of the theme, like you know the the rhino has a rhino on it.
Very cool kind of tattoo looking artwork.
Anyway, here's the knife.
I like the way it's nestled in that foam.
Thing insert there.

10:56
So this is the rapid strike worn Cliff blackout.
It also comes in orange with a serrated blade and a glass breaker on the pommel.
I have that one in my car and that is a rescue kind of thing.
Those serrations on that knife are not for everyone that's for sure.
But this I could see in any pocket.
This is 14 C, 28 N that is a 100% straight edge.
Beautifully done, straight.

11:24
Edge this is made by Microtech.
You've got the.
You've got that dropping point there.
Makes me wonder, is this a warn Cliff or is this a sheep's foot?
And then it makes me wonder, does it matter?
No, it doesn't.
It is.

11:37
It is what it is, and it's pretty damn cool.
Very utilitarian.
And by the way, great for that rescue knife.
And you could use this as such too.
Just because you have this curve here makes it easier to get under something like a seat belt, though, you know, that point is still actually pretty acute.
So I don't want to be talking out of school.
I'm no rescue guy.

11:58
But it seems like that blade shape might be more more conducive to to rescue.
Anyway, this thing is on the.
Rapid fire.
I don't know if they call it that, but it's the rapid fire platform and this is an assisted knife.
And before I hear people go ohh this thing, this is an amazing assisted knife.
It feels incredibly strong.
It comes out like a like a protech.

12:24
It really slams out of the handle.
It does feel like an automatic knife.
Very different from that lag you get from from the speed safe from Kershaw, or the lag you get from the CRKT or the SOG.
It's just it just flies out.
I was talking to Kerry about why he does the assisted open on this knife and he says for a couple of reasons, one being this one is was an early one and favored by a lot of people, but it has, it's always had.
Sort of survival and rescue in mind.
So to him that that easy quick deployment and sure deployment is you know fits fits the form but the other the other thing is they sell.

13:16
You look at the let's see on Thursday night Knives last week I was talking about Ohh, are they dead, is assisted open dead.
And then someone came on, I think it may have been Shane actually came on and said yo, that's why do you think 50% of what CRKT and Kershaw makes are are assisted because they sell.
People love them.
So in any case this is the best assisted I've ever come across to include the cold steel swift.
Great deep carry pocket clip with the with the recessed screws.
Very nice spoon clip on mine.
I'm going to push it down a little bit.

13:50
This does create a kind of a little bit of a hotspot because it does swoop up pretty dramatically.
Contoured and milled handle scales.
This thing's awesome.
So this is the October gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway knife, the off grid rapid fire Warren Cliff blackout.
So Zachary Roberts will be of all Peleg, Cam, Michael and Jay McConnell.
You now stand to win this knife.
Just watch for the wheel of Destiny to be spinning on Thursday night knives 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on October 20th.

14:21
Alright, coming up we're going to take a look at 2 new knives from sevi and we'll look at Lauren Thompson's new forging steel and so much more right here on the Knife Junkie podcast.
If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife and we've got you covered.
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We bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives, help support the show and save money on a new knife shop at the knife junkie.com/knives.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

15:06
And now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
So V just announced 2 new folders and one of them, one of them has a familiar look and it's very fetching to me.
It's the one on top here in this article by Ben Schwartz over at Knife News.
And it's the new clavy rolls off the tongue.
Clavijo stop hell.
One of my one of my favorite designers, you know, consistently puts out things that look like ostop hell knives, but are utilitarian, beautiful, futuristic all at the same time.
I've been showing off the best tech men Dundee, which is coming out next week and loving that thing and it's got a similar handle to this.

15:51
This is the this purple knife is called the clavi.
It's by ostop hell and savvy.
That's a 3 just north of three Inch Blade.
But look at that taper on that worn Cliff blade.
Just beautiful.
That's Nitro V front flipping a liner lock and G10 micarta having and recessed.
Deep carry pocket clip, you know so pretty much the same sevai recipe so you know it's going to be good and.

16:20
The same sivi recipe.
But just a different look.
That being ostop hell, I don't think he's done anything with Savi or we think this might be his first collaboration.
Beautiful knife.
We all look forward to checking out.
And then they have a new clip point coming out and this is hot.
This looks really nice.

16:39
Called the cachet 3.4 inch.
Clip Point Blade with a fuller from the minds of the folks at Savi itself.
Really nice looking knife here.
Liner lock, Flipper comes in a number of flavors.
That sort of patterned G10 or micarta looks a bit like the GL Hanson and Sons my card at least from this distance.
And you've got carbon fiber, you've got some damasteel options, but I'm loving the shape of that blade.
Let's steal.

17:11
Do we have on here?
I'm not sure.
Uh, OK, don't know yet, but like the look of it.
And I love the ivory G10.
And by the way, I said that it looked like GL Hanson some that's actually black and red lava like G10.
So that's G10.
So 2 interesting knives coming out from from Survivor, no doubt with endless variations on the way.

17:35
Especially if they are successful.
And, you know, who doesn't love savvy?
It seems like they put very few designs to pasture.
So I think, I think right now they're just cranking out as many of them as they can because there's an appetite for them.
OK, Next up, Lauren Thomas.
Uh, you know him?
Knife steel nerds.

17:55
Laryn Thomas.
We've had him on the show a couple of times.
Very, very smart guy, obviously.
I I guess that's just stating the obvious.
Knife steel nerds.
If you go to the website, you'll see what I mean.
I mean, he's got long, long articles on different blade steels.

18:11
This is a man who went to school for steel, you know, did his graduate work in in steel.
Conjuring and he does it for the auto industry professionally and his hobby is making us all these amazing super steels like Magna cut that was put out by Crucible.
Well, Apex Ultra is his new steel.
I just love the name Apex Ultra.
I just want to say that all day long.
But he developed it in partnership with knife makers Marco Goldman and Tobias Handler.
And this is steel that is optimized for forging, for the going in and out of the forage and being pounded.

18:54
And it has a lot of.
All of these that that are comparable to one and 1095, but they have made it tougher.
Larin has made it tougher and given it a much higher edge retention property.
So this is about where I'm going to stop in talking about the chemistry of blade steel because when I've spoken with him both in person and on the show, he's been able to pull me along.
You know how sometimes, well this happens with me sometimes.
Sometimes I'm watching a movie or like Game of Thrones when we were watching it and while I was watching it, I was understanding perfectly what was happening.
And then when asked to repeat what happened, it's like, you know, it was cool.

19:40
And that's kind of where my conversations with Lauren have been like because he'll he'll talk and he'll get me to understand the chemistry of steel while we're talking, and then when we're done, it evaporates.
But I I do remember the main parts like higher toughness, higher edge retention, and also a greater ability to add.
Other materials in.
Like copper and other kind of things.
I'm not sure how that works, but you can read Lauren Thomas's interview on on.
I'm sorry, a knife news.
He talks with Ben Schwartz and you'll get the idea there.

20:17
Larry and Thomas, great Guy and great designer of steel man, are we not living in a great time.
By the way, look, if you're looking at the screen, there is a beautiful Japanese chefs knife with a beautiful wooden sheath that has a little knob that sticks out of it that suggests you're to wear this in your apron belt, which I think is so cool.
Alright, so we'll move on from here.
I think I've said cool about 100 times in the last minute.
Check out Larry Thomas's interview on Nut on Knife News where he talks about his new forging steel apex Ultra.
Alright, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast we're going to take a look at the one new knife I got this past week and then camp Knives.
These are knives for recreation, bushcraft and survival all fixed and under 6. The Get Upside app is your way to get cash back on your gas purchases.

21:10
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Visit the knife junkie.com/save on gas to get the app and start saving again.
That's the knife junkie.com/save on gas.
And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Well, here it is, ladies and gentlemen.
It's October's Jack Wolf Knife October 2022 Jack Wolf Knife review release.
Is the beautiful vampire Jack.

21:54
The vampire Jack.
I'm going to try moving this background, see if I can get a better focus.
On this beautiful vampire Jack without it.
So this is the new release.
You've got a spear point blade, a long slender sort of spear point.
It does come to a belly just north or just I guess in this case West of the of the pole, but it is on the whole a more slender knife.
And if you look at it kind of halfway down, you'll see that it is a spear point equal on top and bottom, similar to the dog leg Jack, which was also spear point but came out to a very.

22:33
Wide belly after the nail neck.
This is a more slender, piercing kind of blade.
This has the.
This has the full height hollow grind that we come to expect from a Jack Wolf knife, except for the Benny's clip, which uh, full height hollow grind would just be out of character for that blade.
But the full height hollow grind just makes it so sharp.
It's just such a wicked edge.
It's such a wickedly sharp edge.

23:03
And then and also with that, with that tall triangular sharpening notch gives you a lot of sharpening life.
So as the as you use this knife through the years, I mean let's be honest here.
It is M390 blade steel, so it's gonna hold on for a long time.
You know, maybe unlike the pocket knife you got from your granddad, that's 1095 blades deal.
This blade steel will last longer.
So I bet that it will retain its shape longer, even through a lot of use, because it will, it will require less sharpening over the years.
But nonetheless, each Jack wolf knife gives you that generous sharpening notch.

23:42
And a very, very thin behind the edge blade so that you can make it all the way up as you sharpen.
Just a beautiful knife and then walk and talk is amazing.
As per Jack Wolf knives.
This one to me feels like an 8. On my totally arbitrary scale of pole weights, on a knife, on a slip joint probably.
I mean every time I get a new Jack wolf knife I say something like oh this has the stoutest pull so far, but they pretty much all have very stout dialed in pulls.
This one seems stouter to me because you have a little bit less to pull to to hold on to to open it up if you don't use the nail neck.
That being said, you don't need much because it comes to that full height hollow grind creating sort of a Ridge.

24:32
U top that you can pull hold on to.
I always prefer to pull open a slip joint knife without the nail nick if I can, I don't.
I don't take great care of my nails, but I don't need them all like chipping and all that, so.
Yeah, I I love how you can grasp most of these knives just by pulling, just by grabbing the blade and pulling it.
Yeah, so this one does have a lighter pull than this one.
So it's not totally arbitrary.
But yeah, I would put this at an 8 beautiful carbon fiber on my example.

25:07
It's a. Sort of a marbled carbon fiber with very subtle hints of purple in there.
You can see some right there.
And you can see a little bit.
Sometimes in certain lights.
Very subtle and nice.
Reminds me a little bit of perhaps the cloak of a vampire, the velvety cloak of a vampire catching the light in just such a way that it comes out purple right before it descends on its victim.
Great choice for October.

25:36
You know.
The vampire Jack the you can look at my unboxing and I'm about to do a I'll be doing a close up video of this this week and you can see all the artwork there that goes with it.
It's all awesome.
All right, so let's talk.
Camp knives.
Now, Bob, what's a camp knife you say?
Or how do you define a camp knife?

25:59
You're not a camper.
Well, I've been camping.
It's just been years and but I have an idealized vision of how I would go camping today.
And you know, maybe maybe this vision actually comes to life sometime before my daughters grow up and fly the coop.
Maybe maybe we'll all go camping.
I have a very indoorsy crowd here.
I mean, my daughters like to go on hikes with me, but that's that's about where it ends.

26:27
So let's say we take them camping.
What am I going to have on my belt?
That's kind of like the big important thing.
That's that's where the whole camping trip starts.
It starts around the knives and then and then you go outward from there, I'm told.
So I would, I would have.
I break this down into three sort of categories, recreation, bushcraft and survival.

26:49
What's recreation you ask?
Well.
I'm thinking camping.
Tent camping.
Uh, you know you have a belt knife on the whole time while you're tent camping and.
And then when you sleep, it's next to you.
Umm, but that knife is there to do everything.

27:05
It is there to, you know, feather stick.
It's there to to, to food prep.
It's there to cut rope, to make your shelter or or at least to help put up your tent.
And you know, it's also there for hunting, recreation.
Hunting is a sport.
It's a thing that people like to do.
I also know what goes much deeper.

27:23
It's a way to get food.
It's a spiritual thing and all that.
But I'm putting it in the recreation camp because it's not quite survival and it's.
Not quite bushcraft.
So.
So let's start with recreation.
Now, these are the knives that I would have on me as as American dad at at the campsite.

27:41
And and a lot of this you have to see in the nostalgic colors of those old national parks posters.
OK, this is what's going on in my head.
All right?
I'm going to start with a classic.
This classic is, well, it's one that many of us have and that we all recognize and that can be had far and wide and that is the buck 119. And I say it can be had far and wide.
This, this was a gift and I'm pretty sure it was purchased at Walmart.
And the fact that you can go to Walmart and get this great classic is, well, it's pretty cool.

28:15
All right.
This comes in a beautiful leather sheath.
It's got a plastic insert and a collar to retain the handle to retain the.
But here it is.
This is the classic scream knife, right?
This is the knife they use in that movie scream, I believe.
Either that or the 1:20. It may have been a little bit longer, but in in any case, it has a menacing look.

28:36
It does with that, with that curved clip point, the long straight blade, and then the the hollow grind.
I'm sorry, but a hollow grind just looks more menacing because the the light dances on it.
So I could see why the prop master of that movie would choose this knife.
Also, it's not too exotic, it's readily available, and there's something kind of frightening about.
That about using an implement so readily available like the kitchen knife.
Anyway, so this has a really fat Delrin handle.
I always thought it was a little bit oddly fat, the way it kind of comes out to the guard.

29:14
I was thought it should kind of be a little more slender, but maybe my hands have grown or or I just find it more comfortable now than I did when I first got it.
I thought, wow, that's bulky, that's unexpected.
But it just feels really good in hand and I think that that bulk.
Is good, especially considering this is a slick plastic handle and this is a knife that is intended for hunting as well as like all the other things I was mentioning.
And so if you're using this knife in a bloody situation, it seems like, and by bloody situation I mean like, you know, dressing game, it seems like having a thicker night.
A thicker handle is probably a good idea if it's if it gets slick and all that if you're not going to have all sorts of texturing on it.
Thicker is better I guess.

30:07
You can see it's got a rat tail Tang.
Well you can't see that, but it has a Tang that comes down and then you can see a little pin which has been polished over, but the pin goes there holding on that aluminum **** cap.
Just a classic all around camp knife, but with a great look that that clip point Bowie look is, well, it's useful.
You got that nice big belly, you got that nice long straight.
To do your carving work and that kind of thing.
So just an awesome knife.
This is 420 HC and.

30:42
But Buck really knows what they're doing with their 400 series steals.
So before you bulk know that it this is good steal.
All right second up.
This is sort of the modern luxury version of the knife I just pulled out.
And and by luxury I mean it's an expensive knife and it's not one that I need but it's one that I got because of how I'm going to be honest because of how it makes me feel.
I saw this knife and and I thought wow, I I got to get this.
This is the boon to from Bark river knives.

31:13
And why did I think that?
Because this knife is a sporting knife from the early, you know, early 20th century style sporting knife, hunting knife, camping knife and that kind of thing.
But it's also the kind of knife that was turned into a combat knife during World War Two.
This is sort of the Proto K bar, this, this type of knife.
So you've got a stacked leather handle.
This knife by the way comes in a variety of handle flavors from bark river knives.
But true to the spirit of this style knife it's got a an aged stacked leather handle age meaning it's just darker leather and it aluminum pommel and guard and a 3V blade.

31:56
So now we're departing from the tradition here with the Super Steel the three V Outdoor, you know a super steel and but maintaining the look.
And the function of this style?
Early 20th century sporting knife that was turned turned towards combat during World War Two.
This one I remember when I got it, I just did a lot of poetic waxing about it and and my vision for it, but it hasn't changed.
I I have this nostalgic vision of.
The past, as many of us do at, uh, you know, this sort of simpler time when people were a little bit closer than nature but still had all of the benefits of civilization.
What do they say?

32:41
Nostalgia is history plus a couple of drinks.
Yeah, that's what this knife does for me.
So yeah, this would be in the camping thing in the recreation.
Sector and if I ever do go camping and take take my ladies out into the great wild this will be on my hip.
The great Wild KO a alright Next up is a gift from my brother-in-law.
This is a knife.
There are two gifts from my brother-in-law here and two knives that I would say I would never get on my own.

33:15
To say I would never get it makes it sound like they're bad knives.
That's not what I mean.
It's just this is what I get for my brother-in-law and my brother knives that I wasn't considering and they see and they're like, oh, I bet he would like this.
And they're always right.
This is the temperance too from Spyderco, a really classy package.
And so we're we're still in the recreation.
Sector here for these kind of camp knives and could you not see this on the belt of some cool suburban hipster dad, you know, around the campsite or a hunter?

33:51
It's got the it's got the pouch style beautiful, beautiful pouch style, full grain leather sheath.
And then it's got.
A great VG10 blade that's a full height, flat grind.
Full flat grind.
Much like a large and Dora blade.
A little bit thicker than an endura blade.
Naturally you got the full Tang and this sumptuous, so comfortable it's almost more comfortable in your hand than having nothing in your hand handle.

34:20
And that is a canvas micarta.
It's begun to take on my filth signature.
I've had this knife a long time.
I don't use it very much or use it very little.
Carry it every once in a while, but it's a great all around her.
Um, this knife.
If you needed to use this in a a fighting situation, it really is well set up for it with the birds beak and the the the book ended handle and the micarta and the thumb ramp and the and the reach.

34:50
But that's not what this is for.
This is a recreational knife.
This is a camping knife.
This would be great for food prep out at the campsite.
Also good for woodworking tasks to include feather sticking and carving because it does have a nice.
Thin behind the edge profile.
I guess heavy carving you you want something a little stouter, like a scandy blade, but.

35:14
Great thing to have on your hip around the campsite, and I don't know any of you hunters out there.
Would this be any good for hunting?
I'm not sure.
Maybe not enough belly, maybe too much blade, I don't know.
But I could see it around the campsite.
Right next to those cool genes.
Kuhl.

35:35
That is.
All right.
Next up, Tops, Tex Creek.
This is this is the last one in the recreation lineup here.
Now this one very handsomely set up with that lanyard and that sheath.
This, this is one that I originally bought to make a kydex sheath for, for, for EDC.
I made a great kydex sheath for it.

35:59
I always talk about how when I make sheaths they're either really good or really bad.
Well, I made a really good one for this one, but I never use it on the belt.
The It's it's got about a one to one handle the blade ratio here.
And on the belt it seems top heavy so I don't use the kydex for that because it doesn't dangle below and in the waistband.
It's just too long.
You need to reduce the handle length by an inch for me, or 3/4 of an inch to make it.
Good for in the waistband.

36:28
So this just got relegated to backyard use and consequently I carried this for many summers in a row as my outdoor knife.
And you know I use I use others.
And when I'm talking about outdoor knife, this is the scenario.
I've let the backyard go for two weeks or three weeks.
The vines have crept in, the grass is tall, and I'm out, out and back taming it.
That's about it.
So this has excelled at all of the things I've used it for.

37:00
Outback, cutting saplings, cutting vines.
Doing some kindling, some light, you can see a little bit of light.
Batoning has been done with this just for fun.
Not out of survival or anything, just recreation.
So I do know that this one works well for that.
The sheath has a big part to do with it, because you're.
You've got the pouch sheath you're walking around, you're your knife is in and out of your pocket as your or in and out of the sheath as you're doing different tasks.

37:32
It's nice to not have to fumble around with a with a retaining strap and all that.
So great sheath by tops.
As usual, they're leather.
Sheaths are awesome, but this thing would just make a great camp camp side knife again, hunting knife.
I'd love any hunters who are watching this to chime in as to which ones here would make.
Good skinning knives, because I'm just.
I know what good skinning knives look like, but I've also seen people take knives that didn't seem like good skinning knives and use them as such.

38:05
So.
Maybe I'm over complicating things, I don't know.
OK, now we're gonna move into bushcraft.
Bushcraft.
Is more aimed at wood processing, carving, feather sticking, making traps, making utensils, making tools, temporary or not, for the campsite out of wood.
First up is from off grid knives and this is the Ridgeback.
This has a really great setup though.

38:38
It's a camp knife.
It's kind of set up like a tactical knife.
You've got the nice kydex sheath, you've got the dangler that attaches to the back, which you can remove and replace with a a tech lock or any other sort of locking system or a carry system you like.
Mounting system that you like.
The sheath is great, it even flies.
If you can get it, it flies off the handle.
This is a 14C28 and scandi ground sort of Kephart profiled blade.

39:12
If you look down the center almost spear point though you have some a change of shape here as compared to the belly that scandy grind.
The bevel is the edge and that is makes for a very sharp, very acute edge but also strong so you can really horse into some.
Wood and not have it break on you here, let's see if I can get a. A nice shot of that edge.
Here you can kind of see if you if you're watching, you can kind of see I'm, I'm holding the knife so that the edge is coming straight at the camera and you can see how it's top and bottom.
The top is dark, the bottom is light, and never the twain shall meet.
It's not like a. There are a lot of scandy ground blades.
Tops makes a lot of scandi ground blades that have secondary edges, secondary bevels.

40:01
A lot of people do that.
A lot of knife knife makers do that just to make the final cutting surface less delicate, but.
I don't know.
I took this one out.
I cut down a bunch of saplings.
Well, not a bunch.
I cut a couple of saplings down.

40:17
With it in our park, don't tell anyone and did some carving with it.
I did a video when I got this of that and it did really well.
I mean it just chopped right through the sapling like it's nothing.
This is sort of acts like edge geometry but but extremely sharp and then for the carving.
You can get really precise and thin with what you're taking off because this bevel you can just sort of as you would with a sharpening stone.
You can rest the bevel so that it's flat across the surface you're cutting, and then just angle it in ever so slightly and push and you'll get very, very thin and very close to the.
To the wood there and get very thin shavings and such.

41:01
The handle is a really nice micarta on this version.
This is a special edition of the Off Grid Ridgeback sent to me by Carrie.
Thank you Kerry.
This has the jumping all the way up the spine.
I mean like you got to have giant thumbs to to reach the end of that.
And there's a slight blue tint to this black micarta, so it it, it adds class.
I like this part right here.

41:27
You'll see that on a lot of outdoor knives where your thumb can rest in that Channel.
If you're doing, say, those weird chest pull cuts here, I'll do that over here where you where you sort of you hold the stick there and you go.
And the edges?
The edges held away from you?
Well, that little divot in the handle allows your thumb a comfortable place to rest as you do that weird thing.
The chest, pull, cut.
A big Gideons tactical technique.

41:58
OK, Next up is the is also a scandy ground blade.
I do have a Mora knife.
I did not include in this because it's just a little petite by comparison.
I need to get an A Garber or one of the one of the flagship Moras.
This next one straight from Ukraine, the BPS Knives HK 5. This also was sent to me by the makers.
They reached out to me.
Do you want to check this out?

42:26
I said yeah, send it along and it's really nice.
It's, it's interesting because you've got a full grain.
I mean this is a thick leather sheath.
It is absolutely beautiful.
If I could eat this sheath, I would very great sheath with an excellent dangler.
I did carry this.
I've carried this on my belt just farting around the house and it the dangler works great.

42:52
I'm ordinarily not a dangler type, it's kind of floppy and kind of gets in the way, but.
In this case it works great, so really nice sheath with the white stitching.
I have this.
Paracord on here because when I first got it, it was so tight in the sheath it was very hard to pull the knife out.
I'll probably put a nicer one on here, this was just temporary but.
There's the knife.
That's 1066. 1066 or 1055. Can you rate this for me, Sonny?

43:27
It's got very small writing here.
I'm gonna put it up here and then maybe you can.
You're like, yeah, you ran into this last time.
You still haven't figured it out yet.
It's 1066. OK, so the blade is very nicely sharpened.
Someone, someone left a a comment in my video on this, someone who probably doesn't know what they're talking about and said that edge is crap.
And I was like.

43:53
My thought is, well, it's not on mine.
You might have one, doubt it, you might have one and it might be dull, doubt it.
But mine is very sharp.
So, you know, thanks for your valuable contribution.
The edge on this is not crap, it's really good there.
There are some definite handmade qualities to this.
I mean these are handmade by a father and son team over in Ukraine.

44:17
They're very nicely shaped and contoured.
Handle is unfinished, so.
You know, I'm gonna finish it myself.
I'm gonna stand it just a little bit because I've used this a bit.
Send it so that they're clean.
I'll take them off, take the handle skills off, and I have some stain.
I'll I'll stain it like a deep red color that I like, put it back on and it is good to go.

44:39
I kind of like that feature.
These are very inexpensive knives, 30 bucks, and you can get them on Amazon or bpsknives.com I believe, but.
What was I saying?
But, but well, ohh.
These are very inexpensive knives and so I kind of like the idea of being sent this wicked awesome blade and then an unfinished handle that I can make whatever color I want.
You don't have to, you could just let it go.
It's stable and feels good, you know?

45:10
It's it's sanded and smooth, but.
It it allows for customization.
The kind of low level customization someone like I am capable of has the 90 degree spine for throwing sparks and really the the the USP of this is the amazing sharp blade.
Unlike the dude who made his comment, this one is wickedly, wickedly sharp.
So BPS knives a great.
An up and Comer or or new to to our market, a bushcraft knife and there's no bells and no whistles and I really like it.
I I would say the bell and whistle here is the incredible luxury sheet, awesome sheath, alright.

45:55
I keep getting tangled up here.
Messed up a a last up in the bushcraft area.
Now this is one another one from my brother-in-law that like I said I just wouldn't get myself it just now.
Actually I looked at it because it looks cool and I like the name serrata.
Reminds me of serrata escrima but this is a knife from a custom knife maker.
Ackerman.
Ohh what's his first name?

46:21
Alright, sorry I'm spacing his first name, but this is the serrata great sheath on this serrata, even though it's got the giant.
What do you call it?
The the giant profile, as Spyderco likes to do, that makes these giant pancake sheets, but it works great.
So this is the Ackerman serrata, and this is a drop forged knife and it's got a really.
Nice thick blade.
It's 5 sixteenths of an inch back here and it distal tapers towards the tip.
And that is 440 steel A-440-C cast.

47:03
What did I say?
Drop forged.
This is cast.
440 steel and you can see it says it right there.
There.
I'm sure you trusted me and I didn't need to waste those 5 seconds trying to get that to.
To focus, but it's cast.

47:21
I love the shape of this knife and I very rarely carry this.
I've used this out in in the woods when I've gone on hikes with my girls just to have and see how it works and it works great.
But what what I think it does best and the reason I have this in the Woodcraft.
Is that it's got that wedge like full flat ground, thick wedge like blade and it is good for carving and it is good for pounding through small sticks.
You know like if you had to.
If you had to like, make yourself kindlings with this kindling.
Sticks with this for your fire, you'd be in great shape because of that wedge.

48:02
I mean, it truly is a wedge shape, but also the way it's got such a broad relief cutting edge, it makes it a very sturdy but acute Carver.
This is a great knife for carving, so I'm putting this in wood in the bushcraft.
All of that being said, to me it looks like a scalping knife.
To me it looks like hey ohh kind of an old school Indian, American Indian or Native American knife for some reason.
Or or an early colonial knife and it looks like something you'd scalp a sucker with.
Let's see right here.
There's Ackermans makers mark and you see a tomahawk there.

48:45
I'm wondering if that's a. If I saw that Tomahawk in Mr Ackermann's makers, mark and then just sort of extrapolated from there that I thought it looked Indian, but it does and I like that aspect to it.
Spyderco does interesting things and and take on interesting designs that are, you know so modern but so often referred to to past.
You know, historical knives, and I really like that, and I think this is one.
I think this is like that.
Kind of like some of the bowies they put out that look very modern but also tip their hat to the past.
So this is the Ackerman designed serrata and where the.
Scandi ground knives, to me, are more for delicate, intricate, fine tasks, whatever they call it.

49:37
This Ackerman serrata seems more of a brute.
You need to power through a bunch of kindling, or you need to, you know.
I don't know.
That's what this seems like because of that cast.
Thick, distal tapered 440 blade.
OK, Next up, this one is from the Newfoundland knife company.
And this is the Ranger knife.

50:00
Jonathan Stiles is the proprietor and designer of Newfoundland knife.
You should check them out.
He not only makes a lot of cool custom knives and and has some of them manufactured like he did with this the Ranger.
He had this made in Utah or Idaho by Millet knives, but he's also just an adventurer.
Outdoorsman type dude in Newfoundland drives around on his motorcycle with his.
Bulldogs taking awesome pictures of cool places.
It's one of those one of those Instagram accounts that you that you tune into to to to show yourself how boring your existence is.

50:39
So he's out there design, you know, doing cool things, designing these cool knives.
This one, the Ranger knife comes in a number of flavors.
This one is the red.
As you can see a contoured wood handle is so comfortable.
Again you see that divot that you see on on a lot of these outdoor knives.
Now this is the first knife in the three that I'm calling a survive in the survival camp realm.
So I mentioned before that that all knives were under 6 inches and I I don't want to say that that was a lie.

51:10
I want to say that was miss intentionally false information.
This is just a hair over this 1/4 of an inch.
Or what was that?
Yeah, just about 1/4 inch over 6. So, but it's still in that category because it's not a combat knife.
To me it is a survival knife.
It's very thin.
You're saying, Bob, that's too thin for a survival knife.

51:34
How will you survive with that thin blade?
This thing this is D2 and it's got 1/2 height Saber grind.
It is so sharp.
That is the thing about this.
It is a nearly two inch broad blade, but it's very thin blade stock for the for the type knife at one 1/8 inch thick, and so you've got that at one inch at an eighth inch thick, 2 inches broad with a half height Saber grind, you get an incredibly thin behind the edge geometry.
And that's why this is a great survival knife.
You're going to slip between the atoms of anything you're trying to cut.

52:14
It is it is a really really good cutter.
It's also somewhat flexible and robust.
I mean D2D2 steel we can we often think of as quite rigid as it's a tool steel, but the way that this is heat treated it's got, it's got a bit of a flex to it.
This has A and and that also helps with the.
The thinness also helps with that.
This has a mysterious little portion in it right here.
That sharpening notch, which is actually a pretty great sharpening notch.

52:49
It'll give you a lot of room to move N, but it's sharpened.
It's got a little sharp edge, like for cutting cord.
Now it doesn't do that so well, but it's an interesting feature and I've thought about.
I've thought about that and design stuff like that into knives that I've just drawn out, but you see that right there?
That's like got that sort of scooped out blade like a gut hook, kind of.
But I think it's there for just cutting cordage.
One thing I I wanted to see on this knife is a lanyard hole on the pommel end.

53:23
There's a lanyard hole right here, and that's good and you know, it's totally effective, but I'd also like to see one here.
I think the D, the D guard style of lanyard can be very.
Helpful.
And I think on this knife itself, it would be great that sort of D guard would go over and then you can use your fingers to do stuff and you don't have to let go of the blade.
It's a suggestion, I thought that'd be cool to have another another one there.
This one I've used in the backyard again quite a bit.
It hasn't really altered the hasn't affected the cerakote too much.

54:00
I mean, I could see a little bit, but the cerakote is hanging tough.
The red is.
Really good for camping when you drop your knife.
Except in autumn.
If you're in the woods in autumn and you drop your knife, it might blend in a little more, but we get the idea with the colored colored blades all right.
So that is the Newfoundland knives Ranger.
Also in a nice thick, full grain, somewhat unfinished sheath that double s as a pouch sheath, because you can wrap this around, and I do this oftentimes with retaining straps.

54:39
Just put them through the belt loop and snap.
So they're out of the way, and then when you're using it, you can just pull it out and drop it, pull it out and drop it.
Then when you're done using it, you just snap it up, get on your horse, and ride off.
Right off the 25 feet to the house for supper.
Alright, penultimate knife of this list.
This is still in the survival.
Solidly in the survival camp with this one.

55:04
Mr Survival himself designed this Doug Ritter and when I say Mr Survival, I should put a. I should put a caveat on that.
That's Mr survival from a crashed aircraft.
That's Doug ritters.
Doug Ritters approach to knives has always been from that perspective as a helicopter pilot and creating survival kits for helicopter pilots.
That's kind of how we started.
And then he wanted to make knives that had the the latest of super steels but could be on an affordable platform much like the griptilian.
That's why he went to bench made initially to have his Ritter Griptillian made and then years later moved to Hogue when Benchmade stopped.

55:49
In OEM work altogether, even for Mr Ritter.
He went to hog and hog, of course, ran with it and just perfected the whole thing.
Well, they now make his RSK mark three and by saying by saying they now make it, they've been making for a couple years now, but this is the survival version of the.
Hogue RSK mark one, which is the Ritter grip, the folding Ritter Griptilian.
First of all, I'm gonna show it in this sheath because this is a rare bird.
This is an excellent nylon sheath.
I love this nylon sheath.

56:24
First of all, you've got this here so you can you can put it on your belt without, without taking your belt off, which is totally essential for these kind of knives I think.
And a lot of them do that here.
Most of the leather ones.
None of the leather ones do though.
You also have another option here with the.
With a secondary snap, I'm not sure what that would be for.
Maybe for Molly compatibility, I'm not sure though.

56:50
And then you've got the retention strap in the right place, right down in front of the guard.
Love that.
And then you have a stout plastic lining in here.
And then of course it ships with all this paracord and a one of these things.
I'm not sure what that's called.
Tightener, so a great sheath, but.
The real.

57:10
Star of the show is the knife.
This is S 45 VN, the only S 45 VN in my collection.
And I gotta be honest, haven't really noticed what the difference is cause I haven't pushed this knife or used it that much.
Again this has gotten backyard and walk in the park treatment.
So it's it's gotten sporadic use in carving, cutting and this kind of.
Percussive, I don't even want to call it chopping, but sort of, yeah, I guess that's what percussive cutting is.
I guess light chopping.

57:43
And this thing is awesome.
I mean you can, if you can see this knife right now if you're if you're watching, it's got a very high, very high height Saber grind.
That's a flat grind that's about an inch and 1/4 tall on a relatively thin blade.
So it's really sharp behind the edge, similar to the.
Newfoundland knife company Ranger that I just had out.
So three of these.
I'm sorry, two of these three survival knives that I will be showing you actually have very thin behind the edge blades.

58:19
I am not convinced and and maybe that's because I'm not a survivalist, but I'm not convinced that a survival knife needs to be a pry bar.
I think a really good cutting knife that is well put together and well heat treated is probably the best bet.
Does that sound?
Accurate to anyone out there who's a survivalist or who has more experience than I, which is, you know, pretty easy to be had.
What about you military guys who've been out there training?
In the woods sharpened pry bar or do you want something like this that has a very, you know, thin profile and cuts easily well heat treated on a robust and tough steel.
Now this S 45 VN is probably not as tough as.

59:06
Some of the high carbon steels, but for an all arounder.
This knife is ideal.
Also, when you look at it in this aspect, you see that it's contoured, it's contoured this way, contoured that way, so contoured on all axes, and then you have that radiating sunburst pattern coming from the 1st.
First screw and that gives you just great.
Great gription.
This is an awesome knife.
Yeah, I very much like this now.

59:37
This is one that, though it's not as tactically flashy as some of the knives I like just because they sparked my imagination, this is one that I would actually really want to have on me in in a troubled situation.
Actually, this this might be the knife I rotate into my backpack.
My daily carry backpack.
The world ain't getting any nicer and I might need a survival knife on the way home from work.
Right now I have the SOG seal pup in there and actually I'm sure that's just fine, but I don't know, maybe I'll rotate this one in because for that reason.
For what reason, you say because I'm paranoid.
All right, last up.

01:00:18
This is the classic, you know, classic way to end this one on the survival end of things, this is the SRK from cold steel.
This is a blade that has been around in their catalog, I think for over 20 years at this point.
Beautiful clip point blade, and we'll get to that in a second, but just a great sheet.
The securex sheaves by cold steel on the whole are excellent and many of them.
Most of them have this style dangler as you can see it's just sort of attaches to the back, sneaks up the back and then you've got this retaining strap.
But the the retention on this is so good you don't really need the strap.
And then here is the blade.

01:01:01
This is the SK.
Ohh I'm sorry, this is the carbon V version.
From 2006 I bought this to put in a Survival kit for my wife.
She before she was my wife she moved to London for a year and a half to open an office for the company she worked for at the time and I made her a survival pack and put this in there.
It's probably 100% illegal in the Great Britain but she got in and out with it so and so this somehow kind of left her left her go bag.
And ended up in my collection.
That's terrible.

01:01:39
You say, Bob, what if you have to evacuate?
Well, we have everything centrally located, so if we have to evacuate, I I know where to grab stuff, and I've already replaced this in there anyway.
And basically, if we have to evacuate, I'm taking this giant Craftsman tool chest on wheels and pulling it behind me, you know, so I'm not under knives in the apocalypse.
This has a nice stout 3 sixteenths of an inch thick blade stock and one of the features I love about this that that.
Allows this to flex into a more tactical role.
In my eye is the 0 ground swedge.
Much like the trail master or the Laredo Bowie, the Swedge comes to A0 edge, so you can hit bone with that.

01:02:31
You know if you're a hunter and you're breaking a bone, that Swedge will do great for for that purpose I would imagine, or if you're in a situation where you want to disarm someone.
Um, not necessarily.
Cut their hand off, hit them on the back of the hand.
With this you break the bone and maybe even create a gas or a gouge.
But also at the tip it comes to a diamond point.
So this, and that's the that's the more salient issue with that zero ground swedge is that this is going to be a great knife puncturing things.
So if you have this on you for survival and you're caught in the canopy of an airplane or.

01:03:13
You need to pound this through something.
You have a you have a diamond shaped tip on a very stout blade.
So I I do like that.
Zero ground swedge factor and then the overall.
Wait, did I lie again or give you a mistruth?
No, this is 6 inches.
That is right on the nut, right on the money.

01:03:32
6 inches there.
Of SK5 clip point Blade Steel and then you've got the craton handle rubberized Crayton handle with the checkering, and then when you turn it and look at it from its dorsal side, you will see.
That there's a palm swell and a very nice contouring on this axis as well.
I love that cold steel does that with their molded craton handles.
That's one of the positives.
I'm not always crazy about the creton, but I've had a bunch of it for for, you know, one of them I've had for almost 30 years and it still doesn't.
Isn't, uh, degrading?

01:04:08
That's what I was worried about mostly that it would just start to melt overtime, you know, as plastics do.
Or degrade.
OK, so that's it for this list of Camp knives, recreation, bushcraft, and survival, and the SRK is bringing it on home for you all.
These are all excellent knives.
I highly recommend all of them.
Of course, some of the uses I was mentioning them good for are are.
Are ones that you should try out on your own.

01:04:39
Alright.
So please find a list of all the knives on this show on today's podcast and links to the knife news stories at the knife junkie.com slash 359. Thank you Jim, and be sure to join us next week or on Sunday for Michael Miller of Tactile Knives.
He came a tactile knife company came on the show and we talked all things tactical knives.
There's such a cool company and I love what they're doing.
And then join us on Thursday of course for Thursday night knives, 10:00 PM.
Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch.
For Jim working his magic behind the Switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

01:05:17
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