Cold Steel Fixed Blade Collection - The Knife Junkie Podcast (episode 404)

©2023, Bob Demarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcript

[0:00] 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 a new medtech from Dervish knives, Tim Kells, TKEL knives, Guardian, and my collection of cold steel fixed blade knives.

[0:23] Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from this past week and there were many and I liked them all. But this one rang true. This is from WC reviews a new channel on YouTube.
I see folks who are not looking to this by the way this was on the video I did on the Jake Hoback summit a really cool knife. One of Jake Hoback's made in China is I see folks who are not going who are not looking to pay the price for this because it's made in China.
No judgment as the price is high. But if the quality is there, which I believe it is worth is what people are willing to pay. Riyadh, Liang Ma, etc, etc. They all charge premium prices. The USA med medfords are now like 700 to $1,200. Now that That said, $625 is a lot for any knife, but you wheel and you deal and you wait.
I just bought one for $525, brand new from the Knife Center.

[1:30] Great video. While you like big bruisers just like me, I'd like to sub.
Check out WC Reviews. Well, do check out WC Reviews if you're here.
You probably like the big bruiser knives as well, and he covers those. So do check him out.
What I like about this comment is the relative nature of worth.
When I was in college, everything's relative, man. That was the refrain.
And I don't believe that anymore.
Not everything is relative, but price is, especially in a time of high inflation.
We're not made of money.
And so if you're so compelled by a knife that you're willing to pay $625 for it, that is the value of it. Period.

[2:11] I guess I have not much more to say about that. Maybe that's my own justification for some of the knives I have.
But you know that old saying, beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
Well, in this case, worth is in the wallet of the beholder. So, well, take that or leave it as you will.
All right, I think all that depth being dredged up, it's time for a pocket show.
Today in my front right pocket in main position I had this beauty. This is the Mannix II Lightweight with the S110V steel. This was a gift to me from edgy American Shane Gables. Very generous gift I really appreciate it. I love this knife.
This has begun a re-interest, a resurgence of interest for me in the brand, in Spyderco.
I have a pretty hefty collection. I have about 15 Spydercos, and I haven't carried much of them, most of them in a while, but I'm back into them and this knife really did it.
That S110V is pretty amazing steel, I hear. I haven't pushed it anywhere near its limits, but it came with a wicked edge that Shane put on there, and I just love carrying and using this knife.

[3:33] All right, so that was Front Right today. Next up, I carried, changed it up a bit.
I've been carrying jackwolf knives pretty much every single day, and I decided to check out some of my other knives in the slip joint drawer.

[3:48] This is the Gunstock from Fox Knives, and this is the Collector Knives Edition.
Mike Latham of Collector Knives designed this and had it produced by Fox Knives Italy.
Such a beautiful knife, crown spine. It's got M390 blade steel.
We know that M390 is a premium steel and I love that.
It's got great action.

[4:16] Not as stiff, and we do that right in front of the mic so you can hear, but that walk and talk is not as stiff as, or stout as the jackwolf knives are.
So it's interesting to, after carrying the jackwolf knives for so long, on such a regular basis, it's cool to have this in the pocket and just feel the difference.
Nice and small this knife is. I don't carry this in a slip, though I have one just for it.
It. The slip itself doesn't really stop this from turning north to or east to west in my pocket. So I don't generally use it just kind of bangs around in the pocket. That being said, I keep those pockets free of other things because I don't want I, don't want to get unnecessarily dinged and danged up. Next, the.

[5:05] T Kel Knives Guardian. Now you were probably probably seen the podcast or listen to the podcast I did with Mr. Tim Kell.

[5:15] That's up this week. And I've been just grooving on this knife a lot. Carrying this scout style up front. It's small enough that handle is short enough. And it's balanced perfectly to ride horizontal horizontally without listing handle wise. I did have this with the Guardian, not the Guardian, I'm sorry, the century handle that's the aftermarket handle who sells that includes a karambit style ring and it lengthens the handle in a nice way but it does throw off the balance a little for me.
And the only way I can carry this scout style up front, I do not live in a place where people look kindly upon you know open carry of fixed blade knives but with a sweater or you know At work it's so cold I always have a little jacket on, so this covers that up perfectly.
Triple edged for maximum damage and that really short grind makes this a really nasty puncturing implement because of the giant hole it leaves.
I love this with the purple and black scales, that's his Blackhawk handle material and he's He's got a bunch of different handle materials you can get.
Go to the website, go to TKEL Knives, and check out all the really cool knives, and then all the great ways you can have them set up.

[6:43] And then get yourself one. You'll be glad you did. Lastly on me for emotional support today, I had the Beehive, the Bestech Beehive.

[6:54] This is just dropping now, and I put the video up on Friday, and I am not disorganized.
I put it up on the day that Bestech asked me to. This was sent to me by Bestech, and one of the caveats was, please post your video on such and such a date.
Well, I did, but that was only incidentally. And then I looked and everyone else who received one of these from Best Tech put their video up on the same day.
So it was a flood of Baha'i videos.
But that's not bad because this thing is awesome. I love this knife.
I think I showed it off last week in the state of the collection.
Fits exactly in the palm without showing anything at all.
And then you just use that top flipper and here it comes. Great little utility knife, I've used it a lot.
Opening up food packages, opening up boxes, and letters, yes, I still receive letters.
Mostly they're in bill form, but this works great for unzipping an envelope, and I bet it would work great for unzipping lots of things.
Very small, fits in the hand really easily. This reminds me of...

[8:05] Sort of the straight version of the Strelet. You know the Strelet, also designed by Ostop Hell in his Bouquet series.
Strelet kind of looks like this. It's a curved, downward curved blade that protrudes from between your fingers when you flip it open.
I really would like to get one of those.
But you know I say that all the time on the show. I want, I want, I need to get and all that.
Gotta keep that tempered a little bit.

[8:33] So this is what I was carrying on me today. A nice colorful grouping, I gotta say.
Not one bit of black G10 here. The Mannix II, lightweight from Spyderco.
The Fox knives, collector knives edition, gun stock.
The Guardian by TKL Knives, and the Behai by Bestech Knives.
Beautiful, beautiful knives, all in a range of prices.
And that's what we're about here at the Knife Junkie channel.
Get get knives that are six bucks from from from Walmart all the way up to knives that are $600 from from Hinderer knives and beyond. So that's, that's what I like. I like a wide wide range. A couple more days left for you to bag one of these.
Nova one my pride and joy. My material pride and joy my children are my pride and joy. But in terms of material goods, I love this thing.
This is the knife collaboration I did with Hogtooth Knives.

[9:35] There are two more days. You have until the 31st, midnight on the 31st of March, to get this knife.
Now, this is a EDC Bowie knife. That's what I'm calling it. You got that nice recurve that you can sharpen through over time.
You will always have a beautiful profile on this knife, no matter how much you use it, how much you sharpen it.

[10:00] There are going to be some changes from this prototype. That logo will be much smaller and featured on the flat of the blade.
The handle will be this maroon linen micarta, one of my very favorite materials, polished.
But with those grooves, man, it locks in hand, especially with that choil tube and the overall profile.
154CM blade steel acid stonewashed.
The liners will be deep green. that row of jimping will be moved forward for positive thumb engagement, and they will be numbered.
We'll max out at 50. It comes in an amazing sheath. Really, Matt Chase does great sheaths.
That thumb push off, it has very positive engagement in there and it ships with the Discrete Carry Concepts clip.
My favorite clip and I was just waxing poetic with Matt last Friday about, about those, he's gonna try and get me in touch with the guy who started that company, who's just, man, he has achieved incredible success with just a clip.

[11:08] It's not just for knives, people use them on their holsters for guns too.
Be sure to check out the Noble One pre-order.
This is a chance to be a part of history.

[11:19] And I'm gonna leave it at that. Next up, I wanna show you something that I started talking about a little while ago when I got this, but this past weekend, I just began the project.
So this is my Rough Rider Black Mule Bowie, the best 25 bucks you can spend in knives, period.
I'm not the only one who thinks this. This is like 3CR, and you think 3CR is gonna be terrible.
They got their heat treat so nailed down, I abused, I actually abused this knife.
Not just hard used it, I did stuff that you probably shouldn't do with knives and it's incredible.
It remained incredibly sharp, never a ding or a chip in the edge and I was just incredibly impressed by this.
And I am not the only one, you can check out a number of videos of people doing the same things and being equally shocked at how the Rough Rider 3CR performs.
The only thing about this is that handle, wah wah wah, it's this rubber handle and it's very comfortable, but I had it on good word that it's full tang.
Well, I found that out because I took the handle off.
And the reason I did that is through the use and abuse, one of the brass rings holding it in, brass tubes holding it in, became dislodged.
So I figured this was the time.

[12:41] To reveal the tang just to show the world, the wider world, that yes, it is full tang, but I'm going to turn this into a project knife.
This looks like the knife that Aldo Raine in Inglourious Bastards had on him.
And so I'm going to find a piece of stag. I was looking on jance and also a piece of brass.
I'm going to take up the, remove about this much of the tang there so that I can get a guard to fit up a little bit closer to the blade.
I'm going to cut off this end part probably and I'm going to make this into a really cool stag-handled bowie. Stag or maybe wood, you know, I don't know if I'm flying too close to the sun with the stag. I don't want to spend, you know, 50 bucks on a piece of sandbar stag and then and then have it have me not know what the hell I'm doing.
Plus, I don't know if this tang is too wide for the stag handles I can find.
So I gotta look into it a little more. All I know is I'm gonna turn this into something sweet and then I'm gonna have my brother make a leather sheath for it.
He doesn't know that yet.
And this will be my project knife. And I gotta say, in the process, I will probably cover up or remove the Rough Rider logo and the China logo.

[14:02] But I will always know and I will always give it credit. At least I will always give Rough Rider credit for making this awesome blade.
It's shocking how good this blade is, especially for 25 bucks, man, 25 bucks.
I highly recommend it if you're interested in Bowies but don't have one and you're not psyched about spending a whole bunch of money to get one, going to get.

[14:25] All right, setting this aside gingerly because I don't have the sheath close by.
I will set it down there.
Now, we're going to do something a little bit new on the Midweek Supplemental, this Wednesday show, and I want you all to be a part of it.
I have some knives to give away, and we're going to give some away right here on the channel, right here on the Midweek Supplemental.
And all you're going to have to do is subscribe and comment on this video by the Saturday following this video, midnight. In this case, it will be April 1st, 2023 at midnight.
All you gotta do is subscribe, you may as well like while you're there, and comment, and you stand to win this knife.
This is the Migiron Akri, a very beautiful, somewhat hard use I would say, due to the stoutness, gentleman's folder.
I'm calling it a gentleman's folder because it's so classy looking.
I'm terrible with front flipping with my right hand so I'll just do it...
Or with my left hand so I'll just do it with my right.
All black here with these nice gold liners. When Civivi came out.

[15:38] First came out with the Praxis and a couple of others and they had the gold liners with the blue handles and all that, I thought it was tacky and ugly but in this case, man, I really do like the way the gold liners look on this.
Just a little touch of gold. But that is a nicely sized 3.75 inch blade, very nice contoured G10 handle, and then you've got that front flipper there.
So all you gotta do if you want this knife to be yours for absolutely nothing, all you to do is comment below this video.

[16:12] Subscribe, and then I also suggest you like. If you're already a subscriber, well then you don't have to worry about the subscribe part. But yeah, be sure to like too. Why not? Why not like the show? It's a very likable show. So yeah, this could be yours. This is the Migyaran Akhari, and next week at this time, we will do a giveaway. All right, so that is that. Still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at some Knife Life news. We're going to look at at Dervish, that's a company that, whose earlier knives just really hooked me. And then we'll get to the state of the collection. All right here on the Knife Junkie Podcast.

[16:53] If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife, and we've got you covered. For the latest weekly knife deals, be sure to visit theknifejunkie.com slash knives. Through our special affiliate relationships, we bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives. Help support the show and save money on a new knife. Shop at theknifejunkie.com slash knives. That's theknifejunkie.com slash knives.
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
You might remember episode 108. That was some 300 episodes ago. I had on John Gonzalez of of dervish knives.
John started off as a custom maker, well he's still a custom maker, but he went heavy into the mid-tech way of producing knives to bolster his custom knife career as many have.

[17:50] And he's kind of stuck with it.
And recently, he just, well I should say, he just released this good looking knife.
This is the Prima Fixblade.
It's a hunting utility knife, And he designed this on the suggestion of one of his big fans.
This is not a design given to him by a fan. But the idea, this one of his collectors said, why have you not made a hunted yet.

[18:16] I don't know. So he put his beautiful design sense to the task and came up with this Prima. And like all of john gonzalez's knives and his mid tech runs, he he does one run in this case, it'll be a 250 piece run and then maybe 10 years later, he comes back to it actually, he's coming back to his Navajo model after 10 years coming up here soon, which he also licensed to BRS recently. But anyway, it's 2.75 inches of of blade there full tang nitro v somewhat mid tier steel. And it's going to come with these three colors of g 10 that purple, that dark kind of coyote, orange, and then that beautiful camo carbon. camo carbon is a USA made carbon company carbon fiber company that we've seen a lot on jack wolf knives recently and other places just beautiful, beautiful stuff, but he's going to be using his same OEM that he's been using for quite some time. All made in the United States, everything. I love hearing that. Alright, so that is the Dervish knives. Prima by John Gonzalez. Next up, this one is Very cool and I believe...

[19:40] Talked about this when this was just a sparkle in the eye of Leo Espinosa. Leo Espinosa of Topps knives. Topps is coming out with something they call the Papa Delta. It's a ring defensive knife that solves the ring problem. What's the ring problem you say Bob? Well the ring problem is on karambits and other ring style knives you want that ring there for retention but it's a thin line between retention and just being trapped and you don't want a knife trapped on your finger, possibly breaking your finger in a real tussle. So with the help of an undercover police officer slash former intelligence officer, they came up with this that open ring concept. So the ring is there. And it does lock you in but if it needs to come out of your hand, it can and not just the old fashioned way. It'll just pop off. And I think this is a really cool compromise because I I'm compelled by ring style. daggers and ring style karambits, but was I don't know, kind of made a little shy of them when I spoke to Ed Calderon.

[20:52] And he talked about in his, in his organic medium tests where they stab pigs with knives, how much the ring can really jack up your finger if you're not careful or or if the thing that you're stabbing is moving around a lot. So like I said this solves that problem and it has a nice little 1095, this is all 1095, but that blade is 1.63 inches, so very small.

[21:19] Double-edged fuller blade in in a midnight bronze coating. That's 1095 if I Also, the whole point of this is super low profile.
So that can be under your shirt, in the neck knife configuration, or in your pocket.
And just, you know, you're not gonna see it. It's just so thin and so light.

[21:42] So small. But you know, 1.63 double edged inches of 1095 breaching the skin is going to make someone reconsider their choices. And that's what this knife is all about. So very excited to see the the Papa Delta now in production. Next up, from CJRB company that I like a lot. That's the I'll say budget oriented line high value. That's what that's what nothing fancy The high value line from Artisan Knives, CJRB, they do a lot of great stuff.
I find that the high value lines in these companies tend to do some interesting things because they're willing to take chances. It's like we and Civivi and Sencut.
The Civivi and Sencut knives are more exciting than the We Knives because they're less expensive to produce, they can take chances.
Anyway, CJRB has something very interesting coming out called the Kord, and the prototype is just about, to be released to the wider world for people to check out.

[22:47] Of course, that is a prototype, so changes will be made. But this thing with its 3.5 inch ClipPoint AR RPM9, that's their proprietary powder steel, will be coming out in two distinct versions.
This one with micarta solid handle, flipper with a, what do you call that, button lock.
But then they're also coming out with a skeletonized steel version of it.
And that skeletonized steel version is also a button lock up at the top of the page.
And it's got, instead of the flipper, it's got a, what do you call it, a choil.
So, interesting, these two differences. It is a button lock, it does have a loop over pocket clip.
They both have thumb studs. I look at this, and I gotta say, Gerber paraframe comes to mind and I cannot stand that knife.
Even though I have one of them, it was a gift.
Not getting rid of it, but the Gerber paraframe has probably made Gerber the most money over the past 20 years.

[23:50] But I don't know, sticks in my craw a little bit. But this is cool to see.
I know coming from CJRB, it will be cool.
It will work beautifully. It's on bearings and I love the look of that knife, which they call a drop point.
I promised myself I wouldn't say this, but I'm saying it. They call it a drop point. Look at it. How can you call that a drop point when it's so clearly a clip point. So that will be coming out soon in prototype form for the wider world to Check out looking forward to that.

[24:22] Lastly, in Knife Life news, news from Florida, good news from Florida, the permitless carry bill brought up by by Knife Rights just passed their house that's House Bill 50 543, House Bill HB 543, and passed the House 76 to 32. Wonder who those 32 members were. And then it heads to the Senate where if it passes Governor DeSantis, who off the record, I like very much.
And not just because he's Italian. He has pledged to sign it, which is exciting. So this is thanks to Congressman Chuck Brannon and Senator, State Senator Jay Collins. And what this does is it ensures that all weapons can be carried concealed.

[25:11] Including firearms and all knives. That's what I meant, all knives, not all weapons, but all knives. So it's not just a pocket knife that you can drop in the bottom of your pocket. It, is, you know, all types of knives, which opens things up.
Florida, I like Florida. Let me just read this real quick. This is a little bit from the knife rights web page. It says, we thank primary sponsors, Representative Chuck Brannon and Senator Jay Collins for ensuring that this bill covers all weapons, including knives.
Thanks also to all of those who use Knife Rights Legislative Acts Center to contact members to support this bill.
Knife Rights supports constitutional and permitless carry and particularly bills such as this that rid the state of its ban on concealed carry of knives other than pocket knives without a permit.

[26:04] Yes, yes. Thank you, Doug Ritter, yet again. That is the refrain and I'm happy to sing it over and over again.
Speaking of Florida and the House in Florida, this is just something funny I heard in the news.
Much like the Simpsons, a state house congressman or representative had to read out some names in public comment.
And he sort of caught on while reading them. But one of them was Anita Dick.
She wanted to say something in public comment. And then after Anita, Mr. Holden, Holden Hiscock wanted to say something too.
And they had to read that out loud. And I gotta say, I cover a lot of meetings similar to this in my job. And man, I wish someone would do that.
Just to bring a little bit of levity. It's like Bart Simpson calling the bar and saying, I'm looking for Amanda. Amanda Hugginkiss. Is Amanda Hugginkiss there?
And then, you know, Moe the bartender has to yell out, I need Amanda! I need Amanda Hug and Kiss! Is Amanda Hug and Kiss there?
I love that kind of humor. I don't need much, just some physical humor and some of that kind of...

[27:16] Cheap, you know, 12th grade, I mean, 12 year old humor and I'm good to go.
All right, that's news from Florida and that's Knife Life news. Still to come, we're going to check out two new knives in my State of the Collection and then my Cold Steel Fixed Blade Collection.
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Visit theknifejunkie.com forward slash save on gas to get the app and start saving. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash save on gas. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. Speaking of CJRB, which we were just a moment ago, So, CJRB sent me this knife.

[28:10] This is the Pyrite. They sent me this to check out. And I've noticed that since, well, just recently, people are reaching out to me, you want to check out these knives, and oftentimes I'll say yes.
I said yes to CJRB because, well, I have a couple of them and I dig their stuff.
Plus, I wanted to see how this button lock would do.
This is the Pyrite. It's a 3.25 inch AR RPM9 blade, nearly full height flat grind, very thin, very slicey, really great blade on a very nice handle with excellent button lock action.
As a matter of fact, this came up on Thursday Night Knives this past week and it is my favorite of the button locks that I have for the button lock itself.
Now I like my Mad Tanto from Kaiser as a knife better, because it's a big burly tanto and it's a little bit more my style, but this has really an excellent button lock.

[29:13] The knife itself is very light. This is G10 with super skeletonized handle scales, and it comes in G10, a couple of flavors of G10 and then a stainless steel version, which looks really great too.

[29:28] Now the thing I like about the button lock here is that the button itself sits proud of the handle but not too far proud and is easy to actuate.
I find like though the Savivi Watuga or Watuaga as I like to call it is difficult to deal with because it has a convex surface, and I'm sorry a concave surface and you have to really push it like really deep, into the handle to make it go in and then once it goes in it slaps against the the frame and pops back out because you've over committed with the pushing in of the button and unless you time it perfectly it's not going to stay in that handle it's going to bounce back out this one solves that problem a with the with the button and how the button is designed, but also, instead of having a conical shape, that the button plunge lock goes into, this one has a very distinct notches cut into the tang. It's a perfectly sharp little cutout cup, half cup, that goes about halfway across the tang that the button lock plunger nestles into.

[30:45] Most button lock knives just have a conical groove cut out.

[30:51] And the idea is that the wide part of that button plunger seats in that groove and then over time as that plunger wears down it'll seat deeper and deeper and deeper.
Well, I like it conceptually, that's a good idea, that's kind of a Demko way of approaching it, know, as it wears in, it gets it, the lock up becomes deeper and more solid, but those things are failing on the button lock.
Those button locks are failing a lot. This one, I have spine waxed, sorry, Jim for the audio, but I've spine whacked this and harder than that with gloves on and it's not going anywhere. For me now, when I talked about this on Thursday Night Knives, I had of people talking about their button locks failing.
This one has not failed me yet.
And I am not worried about it because generally when I'm using a knife, I'm not using it like this.
I'm usually using it with the edge forward and edge down.
And I'm almost never hammering with the spine of my knife. Almost never.
Because they have a tool for that sort of hammering action. And it's called a hammer.
And you can get them for way less than you can a nice folding knife.
So I recommend a hammer for any sort of hammering tasks and a button lock, especially this CJRB Pyrite which has become my favorite button lock out of the.

[32:17] Five that I have Minus the Scorpio because the Scorpio that's a special knife, This thing is awesome. I do recommend this pyrite and I believe it's out. I think it's it's out for general, consumption so Highly recommended do you like the pyrite? I would check out the steel version if I if I had had the choice, Okay, next up. I just wanted to show the where is it? Where is it? Here it is.

[32:44] Man, look at this. This is new from Off Grid Knives. This is the Off Grid Knives Viper version two. Great thing about Off Grid Knives designed by Terry Orichice out in California, and produced by Bestech or an awesome Taiwanese OEM. He has them built in two different factories. Is that he's always listening to the customer and always doing quality control updates and it was time for the Viper to get a quality control update. He changed quite a number of things. The handle here is nicely contoured with these big chamfers. We saw.

[33:21] That kind of in the Stinger XL. The chamfers here on the side really give it the feeling of being contoured. You can see some blue staining there. I wore this in a new pair of blue jeans, carried this in a new pair of blue jeans and sort of rubbed off on there.
Also really great knurling on the on the flat part of the handle. So the the broad chamfers give it that feeling of being contoured without rounding it off, gave it the three screw inset with the flat screw loop over pocket clip. Awesome. And on the offside, as all people as all companies who are milling pockets for their clips to sit in, he put a pocket filler tab there so I like that quite a bit. This jimping is really cool because you get this sort of traditional file work jumping on the side and then...

[34:20] Boom, jimping on the top when you turn it this way. So it's like double jimped.
And who doesn't like double jimping?
And if you say you don't, you're lying. Sorry, that just came out.
But that tanto tip is a clip point. I'm calling it a clip point tanto because it's clipped right here.
And it puts that tip in the center line. So you're still getting that full thickness for penetration that you come to expect in a westernized tanto, but the tip is down in the center line, which gives you great.

[34:57] Indexing. So you always know where that tip is going to be, as opposed to a, say, a cold steel style tanto, which I love, but that tip is up at the top at the spine. And, you know, it doesn't It doesn't really reduce its penetrative power, but it does reduce your ability to index it, I believe.

[35:18] So having that tip center line, I think, is a great idea. I must admit, I'm not as crazy about how it looks.

[35:26] With the tip center line, but I really like how it functions.
And so, you know, I'm gonna have to ditch my shallowness for a moment and go with function over form in this case, really, really great improvements on the westernized Tanto and then on this knife in particular, he's made a lot of great changes. 154CM blade steel, 154CM crucible, he says here on the blade. So, crucible steel, 154CM ingot steel from crucible. Really, really nice. You know me, Off Grid Knives, I love them. We also have an affiliate link, so if you like this knife, buy it through theknifejunkie.com slash off grid. That way we get a little bit from, that sale, a very small percentage from that sale, but everything adds up, you know, everything helps. So you can help support us that way. All right, let's take a look at the Cold Steel Fixed Blade Collection. Now, I did this because I need to catalog, you know, my ever growing collection of cold steel knives and this is a great place to do it.

[36:36] And this, I want to say there is one caveat, as always, to the collection portion here. And that caveat is this does not include neck knives. I have about five neck knives, but I've covered them in other places, primarily the neck knife episode. So I'm not going to do those here. This is all of my big fixed blade knives from them.
First up...

[37:02] Is the classic. This is the one that started it all way back in the late 80s.
For me anyway, this is the Master Tanto. This one was actually, well this was made in Japan.

[37:13] As you can see there from the courier font, I love that. Made in Japan, designed in California.
You got the brass fittings, which they haven't used in ages, and they're nicely tarnished.
This handle here is 30 years old and still it's not, you know, this is a true long-term review.
It's not tacky. It's not coming... it's tacky enough to hold for grip, but it's not, coming apart. You know how rubber over time kind of comes apart? Well, this handle is still, pretty awesome. Yeah, I see that. I see the scratch in the hollow grind. I attempted to make a Kydex sheath for this years ago and I didn't know anything about Kydex and how it can scratch up a blade if you're not super careful and I wasn't super careful. So here it is, the Master Tanto, the one that started it all and I've been thinking of getting a new one but why? I don't, need to. Classic leather sheath, I wish I could find a replacement classic leather sheath for this, with a snap but lo and behold this this is the thing and so it will stay that way.
Next up the knife I had in my bag when I was running around New York City on 9-11, Of course, I didn't use it for anything, but I will always remember it as that. This is the Culloden a.

[38:41] Large skin-boo Style knife, you know the sock knife that the Scottish.

[38:49] Kilt wearers have in their in their in their socks This one is cool because it the handle can't out like that which makes it easier to grasp when you are pulling it out especially if it's close to the skin if you're using this as a boot knife as it's set up or if you're carrying it in the waistband as I like to carry it that little bit of angle out at the pommel really helps in removing it. Now look at that classic style file work jimping That's what I was getting at with the Viper 2 from Off-Grid.
It's sort of a tip of the hat to that style of jimping.
But I really like it. It feels really good in the hand.
Feels great on that thumb, and it does the work of the regular kind of jimping that we know, you know, the modern jimping. But I love that. I wish they did more of this kind of stuff on cold steel knives.

[39:43] It's a great 5 inch blade, great for penetrating, and this has seen a lot of use over the years.
I've had this for a bunch of years.
At least 20 years, I know that.
Or 21 years. Alright, so there it is, a great sheath. And also this sheath protects the flesh, whatever you're going to have this against, because it rises up higher on that side, on the non-clipped side.
So if you're carrying this in your waistband and you have it right up against your love handle, your love handle is safe.
As you remove this, you have a little bit of extra sheath there to guard and then also when you're re-sheathing.

[40:24] Next up, my one and only push dagger. This is sad, I need another push dagger in my life.
But until I get there, this Safekeeper II will do the trick.
This is one of their first, these last two knives, one of their first Securex sheaths.
I like it because it's flat on that side and then you have all the shaping on that side so it does rest nicely against the body if you're carrying it in the waistband. This does have the classic.

[40:53] Style handle here. This is how it's supposed to be in the hand like this or you could carry it like you could use it like this but in this case it's a symmetrical handle, t-shaped handle so, So, protruding between your ring finger and your swear word finger is the best.
I think that's a 3.5 inch blade, double edged, just wicked, wicked.
Very hard to disarm, great for slashing as well as thrusting.
We forget with these push daggers, which are so obviously set up for a punching thrusting motion, that they're also great for slashing.
Just look at the Strellet that I was talking about before by Bestech.
It's a downward hooking blade.
Can thrust with that and you can swipe and tear with it. So I'm a big fan of the format. I think these come from that classic Indian gauntlet knives. So you can see this if it had a pearlescent handle, you can see this in the cummerbund of a riverboat gambler right next to his his Colt peacemaker. I do love these and they are very, very user friendly, much like the S-shaped blades that you see in the Civilian and the Talon II, and much like the Picatl-style knives, they don't take a lot of training to use to great effect.

[42:16] Next up, this is probably, unofficially I'll say, probably the most money-making knife for cold steel because it's been around forever.
This is the Kobun, and it is a thin and economical version of the tanto that I was showing you before.

[42:35] You got your Secure-X sheath. I have an aftermarket clip on it.
And this is Aus8 hollow ground thin, slicey blade with that nice flat ground tip. A very, very effective knife.
I got my sister one of these when she had some creepy dude hanging around.
And she kept it by the bed. Made her feel good.

[43:00] That was years and years ago. And they're still making it. nice and thin. That's that's the real benefit of this. You got that coke bottle handle, but it's still nice and thin.
Carries great in the waistband. And this is one of my at home primary at home fixed blades. Because you can put it in sweat pants, you can wear it in a job about Adams, it's so nice and light, it's it's not going to hassle you, but you have a knife on at all at all times. And I gotta say, I am a real subscriber to that never unarmed philosophy that I first learned from Lynn Thompson. There's no reason to not be armed. Even when you're in your home, people, people come into your home uninvited sometimes. So yeah, and there are other things to vanquish them with. But hey, man, if you're in a tussle, and you're in you're surprised, this is a great thing to have on you. If you can't get to the 870 quick enough. All All right, next up is the Peacekeeper 2.
These names, man, I have to have them written down because some of the Cold Steel names, Peacekeeper, Safekeeper, 1, 2, you know, but this is a line of daggers that were discontinued quite a while ago.
This is the Peacekeeper 2. There is the Peacekeeper 1, which is a larger blade.

[44:20] I got this one on eBay in a recent purchase, I guess within the last year.
Man, not much to say about this except that it fits the classic...
Oh my gosh, I'm missing one.
I'm missing one!
Oh my... this is reminding me of the Taipan, which is over...
Damn, I'm gonna have to do another one of these updates.
It's in my case.
Alright, well, if you know about the profiles of the Cold Steel Daggers, first started with the Taipan, which I'm not going to be showing you, unfortunately.
They have quad hollow ground blades with bellied edges.

[45:03] That's what I love. They start at a, they taper outwards towards the tip, and then they come to a very stout tip.
So you're not worried about this in a thrust like you might on some daggers, but you have the belly for excellent slashing capability.
This is how I think daggers should be done, because yes, you can still thrust with great effect with this, but the edge with the bellying out towards the tip just gives you incredible slashing and swiping power.
I think that that's an important aspect of a knife. You don't wanna do everything just in deference to the stabbing ability. So I love this Peacekeeper II and I love my Taipan.
Actually, I waited like 25 years to get it I finally got it, I'm shocked I didn't remember to put it in this list.
The reason I didn't, I think, is because I keep it in the same drawer with my custom fixed blades. That's how much I love that knife.
Oh well. Well, you can look at my other videos on that knife. Okay, next up.
This one is the SRK. this SRK, this lived in a survival bag that I made my wife.

[46:23] Before we were wed and she moved to London for a year to open up the London office of the company she was working for at the time.
And I knew that in Europe, in England, if it ever hit the fan, she wouldn't be able to go out, and get one of these.
So I packed up a bag for her and shipped it over, big survival bag backpack, and this was the knife in there. And, it has somehow worked its way into my collection over the past 15 years, slowly but surely made it into the collection here. We, still have our escape bags. But it's a little less urgent that they're fully stocked as we have a house. At the time we were living in Manhattan. And you know, there's there's not much time if you have to leave the apartment and try and figure out how to fashion a raft to get yourself over one of the rivers to safety. You don't want to have to think about where's my SRK. So this knife is basically unused for all that time. This is the carbon V steel. This one was made in the USA. Look at that cold steel made in the USA. So this was purchased in 2006, or late 2000s, probably produced in 2005.

[47:42] Bought in 2006, just a great universal all-around clip point blade.
I could see this on the kit of a soldier, marine, or, you know, serviceman, or woman.

[47:57] Because it is so stout and yet slicey.
Maybe I'm not gonna call it slicey, but it's stout and sharp, and this is one of those knives that you could pry open a crate with, open up MREs with, and then fight with, because it's got that zero ground clip here.

[48:16] Which, this never is discussed as a fighting knife. It's always a camping survival knife.
But if you had to fight with this knife, it would be great because you have that guard, stopping your fingers from sliding up on there. But it's a single quillion guard, so you can have your thumb for pressure cutting on the back.
And look at the clip. As I turn it, you can see that the clip is zero ground, So it's not a cutting edge, but just a slight flick of the wrist on the back of someone's hand, you're going to do a lot of damage.
Also, that sort of zero ground swedge makes the back part of the tip pretty nasty.
We discovered this in an old colleague class, in a colleague class I used to be in here in where I live currently.

[49:05] As your, if you're doing this here, if you have someone trapped, have someone's arm trapped, or some part of their body trapped between your arm and the back of the blade, as you release and you pull, that tip, especially on a zero ground swedge, really can gouge and do some damage on the way out.
And yeah, that's not a fight-ending injury, but it's a distractive injury.
Something that, oh, now I hurt there, too.
And by the way, what's this guy doing?
You know, so there's a lot that goes into, theoretically, goes into this kind of knife fighting.
Now, yeah, people don't get into knife duels much anymore, but it's still a valuable.

[49:53] Self-perfection kind of martial art skill to have because you never know when one little tidbit of any of those self-perfection drills will come out in a real fight.
That's the whole idea. You see people doing martial arts and you say, oh, well that's not how a fight goes down. You'll never use that in the street.
Well, that's not exactly the point.
There are some things that you learn because that's how it's gonna go down in the street and you learn how to do it that way.
And then there are other drills and activities that you do over and over and over to perfect your attributes, your speed, your timing, your precision, your power.
And that's what those drills are about. not about exact one-to-one play acting.

[50:37] Anyway, I went off on a little rant, but that's a, that's a, uh, something to remember with those zero ground swedges. And you don't even need a zero ground swedge to get that kind of, uh, gouge I was talking about, but it certainly helps.
That's the Cold Steel SRK, Survival Rescue Knife.
Next up, this one I've had for quite a while.
And, uh, I was, I was with a, a former girlfriend at Lake George in New York, when this got its debut.

[51:08] She thought it was ridiculously large for me to be carrying around, and so I kept it in my backpack.
But then when we got lost, and then realized we had to walk all the way back to the car in the dark, which was pretty scary, because we didn't really have a flashlight.
I was prepared with my giant bowie, but not with a flashlight.
So we made our way back. We could still see the blazes on the trees, So we were able to get back, but it was kind of a harrowing trip.
So I pulled this out and I carried this on my, uh, on my thigh, had it strapped to my leg like Rambo, and we made it all the way back in the dark.
I didn't use it for anything on that night, thankfully, but I've used it a lot since.
Um, on that night we were paced by something. Uh, I don't know what it was, but there was something else walking kind of along with us.
Who knows, but at least I had this with me, making me feel secure.
This also has the zero ground swedge, and since it's not coated with that black traction coating, it is considerably sharper than that SRK on the back edge.
This knife I have thought many, many a time, despite all the other cool fighting knives I have, if I had to, you know, if I had to, this would be an exceptional, exceptional knife to have as a fighter.

[52:35] It's got that grippy, knurled, rubberized, I can't remember what that, Kray-X?
I can't remember what they call it, but it has that same sort of rubbery textured handle.
That coffin-shaped handle is awesome.
And the rather thin profile of the bowie itself is great.

[52:54] It's very facile in hand. You could fight to great effect with this knife.
Even though it's more of an outdoorsy camp style survival knife, if pressed, this would be an excellent one in that kind of situation.
This was also made in the United States with carbon V steel.
It was that carbon 5.
Made in the last century. So, great knife and you can tell how old it is because it's got the leather sheath.
Yes, they put the thing on the wrong side, the retaining clip, even though it's ambidextrous and if it's on that side, it's all right.
But I had to cover this with Gorilla Tape years ago to stop it from cutting every time I moved it out of the sheath.
Next up, and in a similar vein, is the Laredo Bowie. I love this bowie.
This is a closet knife bowie. So if I'm getting dressed, and then someone slaps me across the face with their glove and challenges me to a duel, this is what I'll use.
It's got the great leather sheath that you can't get anymore with that giant stud, which makes it so great for just slipping behind the belt.
Great great sheep, nice full grain leather, stitched beautifully. But look at this blade.

[54:17] Man. A fighter through and through. This is a perfect for that purpose. You've got a nearly 10 inch blade with again a zero ground swedge with a bit of a curve in it giving it a hawk bill. If you were to use it in reverse like this, not reverse grip, but if you're to use it with that Randall fighting grip which a lot of Bowie fights have gone down this way because of that hook shape, that sort of hawkbill shape of the swedge you can get nasty gouging, tearing cuts with this. This is great for that. Again, you got the coffin shaped handle that's faux Cocobolo, nice brass guard and that is one of those cable tangs. So the tang comes to here is soldered to a cable which is threaded and then bolted in there. At first I thought the cable tang was a weak idea but actually it's pretty darn good for absorbing shock. If you receive any shock it sort of takes that up. This I have not used in that rough outdoor sense, batoning wood and such, but I've seen others do it and it survives just fine with with that cable All right.
All right, next up is this is a cool one that my brother got me.

[55:40] It's the Chaos Kukri. All right, the Chaos series is Cold Steel's knuckle dusting series.
You know, two fingers there, two fingers there, and all pain right here.
I believe that's cast aluminum, but actually I'm not sure now that I say so.
It's got that old school 1918 nut on the back for changing people's minds.
And then right here, look at that beautiful kukri blade. That is just a wickedly shaped kukri.
I mean it is so extreme, the way it curves. It just seems more extreme than other kukris to me.
Maybe that's just me.
But yeah, super, super gnarly blade.

[56:29] I'm not sure what, I think this is SK5 blade steel, but I'm not sure, you can correct me, in the comments if you like.
I love the Chaos series, they make a dagger, they make a bowie, and they make a tanto as well as this kukri.
So this is an intimidator, I mean, you know, someone comes to the door trying to sell you a new roof, And you have to scare him off with this.
Don't do that, obviously. But I mean, this is an intimidator.
Look at it, it looks like a weapon off an ancient battlefield.
So that is the Chaos Kukri. Highly recommended if you're up to no good.

[57:10] Let's see, next up. Oh, this is, they're all good. This is the 1917 Bowie.
Look at this. This is a fighter through and through as well, that S-shaped guard and this really nice sort of cavalry style sheath. You've got the shape on the bottom just in case you fall off your horse that blades not going to come through the sheath, the leather sheath. Very nice sheath by the way with a rotating thing.
Dangle thing, loop, belt loop, that's what it is. But there it is in that beautiful blued blade, and a handle, boxy handle that I thought would be uncomfortable but is really quite, quite nice. I find that with these Indian made, this is made by Windlass Cutlery as are a couple of other of the large cold steel knives. Windlass is known for making awesome knives. They are in India. The one thing I don't like about them, at least in their cold steel knives is their, whatever the finish is, they put on the wood.

[58:17] So on this and also on the knife you're going to see next, I've taken alcohol and just rubbed it until all of the finish that comes off will come off and then they're good to go. Otherwise I found that with sweat and stuff your hand gets, well, gets stained. So got rid of that. This has an interesting tang sort of set up like a Randall where it's a slotted, where there's a slot, but you see that the tang is a full tang, but you can only see it on the bottom portion.
And there's a slot cut in that piece of wood in the handle and then it's slid up on top and then you have your screws. But not a full tang all the way up to the top. Full tang enough to be a full tang certainly, but you don't see or feel the tang up there, which, is fine by me. Great, great move. This is a large blade, but it still moves around very nicely because of how it's weighted more towards the handle. Also, they give you a choil here in case you have to do fine work. I'm not sure what you'd be doing with this, but very cool sheep as well.

[59:26] That is the 1917 Bowie. Next up, and penultimate selection here. Yeah, I got a lot.
And the Taipan should be among them. So if you don't know what that is, look it up.
Classic, classic dagger from Cold Steel.
But this is a classic Western-style Bowie from Cold Steel. This is their Western Bowie.
And based on the Western W49 and other knives of that style, It's going to be a little bit thinner at 3 16ths as opposed to a quarter inch.
Most bowies, like classic bowies, are a quarter inch thick, but the western style bowies are always a little bit thinner and that might be to aid in swinging and fighting and that kind of thing.
But that beautiful blade, some people I've found out do not like the shape of this blade.
They like the bowies that are more slender.
This one widens out towards the tip. the apex of that belly right above this swedge, right at the break for the swedge.
Nice curved swedge and nice giant S-shaped guard there.

[1:00:36] And then you got the bird's beak down here and it just stays in the hand like nobody's business.
I think that this one looks the most like a bowie knife.
You think bowie knife and this is what comes to mind to me with that big guard and that widening blade just just a beauty just a beauty this was also one that I had to rub vigorously with alcohol to get rid of the that kind of kind of ham-fisted job done on the finishing of this knife in just the the finish that they put on the handle I gotta say but other than that good to go great knife okay last in this cavalcade of amazing large cold steel knives is... I'm gonna have an avalanche of blades over here. It's the Natchez Bowie. My one regret is that I didn't get the earlier version when I had the chance with the leather sheath that's a lot like the Laredo. This is a Musso style bowie and Musso was one of the people that is credited possibly with making some of the early Bowie knives, as well as James Black from Arkansas.

[1:01:59] But you see this is a 12-inch blade, a nice curve on the overall profile of the blade, a very sharp zero ground swedge. This is the sharpest of all of them that I've shown.

[1:02:13] It's fitting because this is 100 percent a fighting knife, a fighting Bowie this is.
This does also have that cable tang, so the tang comes down to about here, and then there's a threaded cable, and then it's bolted back here.
Again, I have never heard any complaints with people who use this hard batoning and all that.
This is not a knife for that, but it does well because it's thick, and it's wedge-shaped and cross-sectioned.
But yeah, really, this is for fighting, and it's weighted that way.
That pommel, that metal pommel here, that's there for a reason.
The way it thickens out, that's there for a reason, not only to retain it in hand, but to add weight there so that the tip, like a sword, and like a saber, moves around very, very easily.
And that's the whole thing about classic bowie knife fighting style, is that it's based on saber fighting.
So you'll find a lot of bowies are weighted towards the pommel so that that tip, the end of that very long blade, moves around easily can be indexed in a duel. So next time you're in a duel, you might consider the Natchez Bowie as it is a wicked, wicked fighting knife. Alright, thank you so much for joining me on this collection video of cold steel knives. I'm realizing I.

[1:03:33] Have done a number of them, but my collection keeps growing. And And actually, the most recent edition isn't even here.

[1:03:41] Breaks my heart. But I'll stop right there. Thanks for joining us again. Be sure to join us on Sunday for Brian Montalvo of keenness and knives. Man, we had a great conversation. What a cool guy. And those keenness and knives are incredible. They're beautiful, beautiful knives. Join us for that conversation.
Also, if you like the conversation that much you can join us on Patreon because we talked for another half hour.
And only Patreon members can hear that quickest way to do that is to scan the QR code on your screen, or head over to the knife junkie.com slash Patreon 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 it review the podcast.com for show notes for today's episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, the knife junkie.com. You can also Also watch our latest videos on YouTube at theknifejunkie.com slash YouTube.
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[1:05:05] Music.