The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, winners from the Texas Blade Show custom awards. I get a great little gift from five door, which I'm very happy about. And we're gonna take a look at old versus new cold steel knife. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:20]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:33]:
Welcome back to the show. A lot of great comments this week as every week. One of my favorites was from the great and powerful Pete Davidson from Down Under. He says, Thought you were gonna pull out a Desperado. The Magnum is still cool, though. And he was talking about, when I showed off my, Cool Steel Magnum Tanto 12, the 12 inch Tanto that I've always wanted, He thought I was talking about another knife I always wanted, the Desperado. But the news is good, people. I'm in negotiations with Strings, to get one right here.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:04]:
Strings, a great guy who, joins us every Thursday night on Thursday night knives, has a Desperado, and we're we're, we're negotiating a trade. And I'm very much looking forward to having one of those in my stable of, avacuro blades. Next one was from Walter Billings sixteen thirty three. He's talking about the shed knives interview. He says, outstanding interview. The enthusiasm, passion, application, and energy about knives is truly contagious in this video. Great job. Thank you so much, Walter.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:36]:
I appreciate that. Jack Billings of Shed Knives is a great guy, and he's got all the enthusiasm. He's got all the enthusiasm in the world, and he loves what he does. And, so I'm I'm really happy that, all of that came through. The love of knives came through in that video as I try to make it come through, in each one. A lot of people responded very positively, to that Shed Knives interview. So thank you, one and all. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:04]:
That said, let's get to a pocket check.

Advertisement Announcer [00:02:07]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:14]:
In my front right pocket today and for a number of days, this is how it's working right now with my front right pocket EDC carry. I've been picking one and just kinda out of laziness, carrying it, for a couple of days in a row. But I think that that's good. That laziness is serving a purpose. I'm revisiting a lot of knives and carrying them more often, than I have in the past when I go day to day changing knives. And I've been actually liking bonding with various, selections. This week, for a number of days, it's been the ProTech Rocckeye. Yes, this is the ProTech version of the Les George, Rockei or VECP VCEP.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:55]:
Just a beautiful, beautiful design. This was a knife I got my first, like, real nice automatic. Also, the knife that got me in, you know, behind the wheel of a Les George, knife. I always loved and admired the v set and the Rocckeye, the custom version of the v set. And this was the only way I could actually get one affordably. It was about $200 at the time, which was a big stretch for me, but well worth it. And I've always loved this knife. This is in a very thin slicey CPM d two, so that's powder metallurgy d two, an awesome knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:37]:
If this weren't mine, I would ask, Peterbilt knife guy to pound it through some, pound it through a nail because, c, d two has been doing really well in those nail test. Some of the best results, which is lovely. I love it, because d two's still a great steel. I remember when this knife came out, d two was somewhat of a magical luxury steel, and then that quickly got relegated to, budget stuff, and I still think it's awesome. So, yeah, I had the, I have the hair stuck in here. I'm not sure why. Because you can tell I don't have much of it. The Rockei from ProTech.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:17]:
Great knife. Alright. Next, in my back right pocket, I had or left pocket, right next to the bandana, I had the Jack Wolf Knives Diamondback Jack. This is the new release for March 2025 and it's a bolster locking version, front flipping version of the Venom Jack. Probably my favorite overall pattern by Jack Wolf Knives. It's a trapper handle with a really beautiful and compelling wharncliffe blade. True wharncliffe with that continuous slope from the ricasso, but the the real unique selling proposition of this wharncliffe is that downward descending straight edge. It's got a tip below the handle and, so that creates a very powerful shearing motion when you're sliding this through material you're cutting, say cardboard for instance, because it creates a triangle, right there, feeding material in towards that tip, much like a recurve without the recurve.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:20]:
And then of course having that low tip also makes things real easy when you're doing that sort of hole cut. So really really like this. Plus, as I mention every time I show this knife off now, because I've shown it off a couple of times, is how beautiful it is. In this particular colorway, material, combination with the very, tightly woven linen micarta in olive drab next to the blasted bolsters with that tumbled finished blade, fully black fully hollow ground s 90 v blade. It looks like a piece of military kit from World War two, and I I really, really love it. Next up on me, been carrying this one quite a bit since, since I got it, the Mamushi Mini from Gross Motor Gear. I also have the Mamushi, the regular size, which I if I had only gotten that one, I wouldn't have thought needed a mini. I've really, taken to this mini version.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:22]:
It rides nicely in the waistline here. I have a DCC clip set up for, in the waistband carry. My large one, I've been putting the DCC horizontal carry on and, frankly, I have it on there. I haven't carried it as much. But this week, I'm transitioning over to the larger, standard version, and gonna wear it in that horizontal front scout carry. He sends all of his knives out with that little piece of bike inner tube. He doesn't put a clip on there because everyone's got a different way of carrying these things. But I like the bike inner tube because it's like a ranger band but wider, more surface area, and, keeps the knife oriented how you have it positioned initially.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:07]:
Because it just gives a little bit of gription, little surface tension, if you will, in the waistband or wherever you're gonna carry it and kinda keeps it exactly how you, how you put it in there. It doesn't drift around because it's not a slippery surface against another slippery surface. This one, of course, has that beautiful, snake manuki in there. Really, really fine piece and a great tsukamaki wrap on these, gross motor gear knives. Sean Old, the knife maker, is going to be coming on the show real real soon. Alright. Next up, and lastly, I had this for emotional support. This is the station nine number 12 undercover.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:50]:
Just wicked and small but large. It's like a medium sized EDC, self defense knife. You have all the benefits of that upswept Persian blade, but the way it's positioned with the handle downwardly angled, you don't have the point way up here. And the benefit of that is on a thrust, like this kind of a thrust, you're not overcompensating for the the upward curvature of the blade. You can find where that point is easily. It's pretty much midline. It's a little higher than midline, but still, it's not in that, upward position of a Persian. It also, in reverse grip gives you this serration here on the back for gripping and ripping, you know what I mean? And this is like someone's coming in with a knife or a baton or something and you block it with your arm and trap it there.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:48]:
And then I'm gonna do this very gently as you pull away to do other stuff, you're slashing and gashing through that arm or whatever, and, you know, going going back into whatever your move is. Now, for me, this is all theoretical. I've done this kind of training in Filipino martial arts, and have, thank the lord, have never, even had to try to see if it works out there in the streets, the mean streets of, suburban DC, but I like that it's there. I like the serration on the back edge. And this knife and all Station nine knives are so beautifully made, but also really well, designed and considered. Because the two guys behind the effort, Westival and Tony Lopez are both, not only adept at martial arts and bladed martial arts, but also outdoors survival stuff. So I love their stuff altogether. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:48]:
That's what I had on me. What did you have on you? I had the, station nine number 12 undercover, for emotional support, my ESK, riding in the waistband today. I had the Mamushi Mini from Gross Motor Gear in the back left pocket next to the bandana. I had the beautiful, Jack Wolf Knives Diamondback Jack, the new release for March 2025, and riding shotgun right in my front left, front right pocket was the ProTech Rocca. Oh my gosh, lots of words today. Alright, drop in the comments below what you carried, always like finding that out. Got a lot of classy, classy viewers here. I like to find out what kind of knives I should be getting.

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Advertisement Announcer [00:10:56]:
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast, and now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:02]:
Alright. This one has caught my eye. I have to say I probably won't be going for it, but it has caught my eye because I've always liked the Benchmade Freak and the Mini Freak from a distance. Now the Freak and the Mini Freak came out at this point, I would say eight years ago. This is just off the top of my head. But it's a knife that is really in that classic bench made utilitarian category, like, I would say the Griptilian or the Bugout. But this new one is a SHOT Show edition. You know, every SHOT Show, blade show, companies put out special editions of their popular knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:37]:
Look at this beauty. This is now available. You don't have to go to SHOT Show. You don't have to go back in time to SHOT Show twenty twenty five in Vegas. You can get it from knives ship free. And this little beauty, is a, as I mentioned, no nonsense EDC, but this is a Ultum version. It's Ultum with that flint chip, texture. So very grippy.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:02]:
But a cool thing about this, and if you look closely at this picture Jim has up on screen, you can see the guts of the, axis lock and see the Omega spring and how it's anchored in there. And, that's one of the that's one of the exciting things about Ultima is that it's transparent and it allows you to see the inner workings of the knife while being a beautiful sort of transparent or translucent ocher color. And I really like the way this one looks. Not always a huge fan of Ultium, but they put it next to this gorgeous amethyst, cerakoted m four blade. And I just think it looks beautiful because, you know, purple and yellow on the color wheel are opposites and complementary. And so, it it's naturally gonna look good, but the the ocher tone, that yellow ocher tone of the handle and that and that subtle purple of the blade really pop off each other and then you look at the It it's all accompanied with black hardware. I think it's just beautiful. So if I were to get a Mini Freak, it would be this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:10]:
But that's not what I'm in the market for these days. But if you are in the market for an awesome Benchmade Mini Freak, these are gonna go quick and they are very limited, so go to knives ship free to get one for yourself. You can also, check it out through our affiliate link, theknifejunkie.com/knivesshipfree. That's gonna be neat. Alright, next up is one from Gerber. We don't talk too much about Gerber here because, you know, we don't like Gerber that much here, except if we're talking about the stuff from the seventies and eighties. But, they've been doing some pretty cool stuff with, EDC folding blades lately. And, this one I would I would put in that category.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:52]:
This is the Gerber Mini Sada. Yeah, that's right. The Mini Sada. This is a modified and smaller version of their popular modified sheepsfoot, slim SADA that came out in 2022. That was a three and a half inch sheepsfoot with a d two, d two blade and a flipper. The mini SADA is a 3.13 inch, D2 drop point. So a little bit smaller than the original slim Sada from which, this comes. And I gotta say, it's a handsome knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:28]:
I like the way this one looks. So the slim SATA this or the, mini SATA has a flipper, it's got a d two blade, but this one's a drop point as I mentioned. It's got a center line center line point with a a nearly full height flat grind on that d two steel. The front, which we don't see in this particular, picture or article, instead of micarta, which is what the slim Sada was, this one features an aluminum front. I love aluminum knives just as a little side point. And a full, steel frame lock side. Something Gerber's been doing that I really appreciate and you can see in that picture, on screen, is it's got an over travel plate. So you see that little green plate there? It's not just an over travel button or something hidden inside, to stop the frame lock from being over exerted if, under stress.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:28]:
It's got a full plate there, and what that does is not only stop the the, stop over travel of that locking bar, but it also gives your fingers a place to rest, so that when you're flipping it, it's you're exerting pressure on the plate and not on the lock. It doesn't make it harder to open the blade. So I really like, this sort of Gerber over travel plate. It acts almost like a bolster lock at this. So an interesting thing, it's their thing. I haven't seen anyone else try and rip that off, but, I really like it. So this one is 2.5 ounces and available now. Check it out, it's the mini SADA from Gerber knives, Gerber knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:16]:
Next up, I would just wanna go through the custom knife awards from the Texas Blade Show. Really, really cool stuff happening over there at Blade Show always, but I always love the, the custom knife, custom knives that win awards and well, pretty much all of them, but I wanted to go through this. Alright, the first one is right up my alley. This is from Franco Knives and, from a maker, I think he's Brazilian, just from checking out his, his profile here. But, the first one is best in show and best fighter. Check this one out. This one is a beautiful long slender clip point blade with a gorgeous, some sort of ivory handle and gold inlays. Here's what the judges said.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:05]:
They said, we felt his had the best technical aspects with the gold inlay and engraving. It's a very long blade but has a short feel and is very wieldy, easy to maneuver. So I love this thing. As you know, I love the long slender clip points and, fighting knives in general. And, this one is really floatin' my boat. Next up, this one is from Tom Overhinder, and this is a best in show contender, so I guess the runner-up for best in show, and it's best custom folding knife. And look at this beautiful thing. Look at the bolsters on this.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:45]:
Looks gorgeous. And then the the, inlay and the handle, the badge looks like a, looks like a chest piece and a dog bone in one. The judges said, the fit and finish, the action, there is nothing wrong with this knife. It's an awesome knife that's super clean. And I like how they say, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with it. But I hear what they're where they're coming from. You know, you have to, you have to assume that everything in the category is awesome, but this one has not no flaws to point to.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:17]:
And I would I would have to say again, look at those beautifully engraved bolsters. Absolutely gorgeous. Alright. Next one is best art knife, and this one really would've appealed to the 12 year old in me. It looks like a knife that you would see on the cover of those awesome fantasy, books from the eighties, with the really intricate blades on them. This one is best custom best art knife. Paul DiStefano is the winner. I think this dagger is beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:52]:
And what the judges said was, it has a cohesive vision executed with no flaws. Its color, texture, and finish all tied together. And I would also say, you could vanquish many a dragon with this thing and, and many a an orc. It's really, really beautiful. And, in solidly in that fantasy sort of category. Alright. Next up, from David Lish is the best custom bowie. And though I must say, I'm not a huge fan of the protruding pommel thingy, d guard, it is positively beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:33]:
If I were to get this knife, I would order it without that d guard and just stick with the, with the sub hilt. But who am I? Let's take a look. The judges said the organic flow of the guard and fittings, and the complication of doing the sub hilt all flow into one. The Damascus is well executed and the knife is near perfect, has near perfect fit and finish. And, yeah, I mean, I can't I can't disagree with any of that. It's it's only my personal pace, that, eschews that d guard. But really beautiful from David Lish. By the way, you should go and seek every one of these makers out on Instagram, support them there, and watch the beautiful, beautiful work they're doing, as they do it.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:23]:
Next up is a chef's knife. This one is from Pedro Fornari, and it's Best Damascus. And I can see why. This thing is beautiful, not just that incredible, incredible Turkish twist Damascus, but also the the the handle and how it all integrates. The judges said, it's an eight bar Turkish twist that's nearly perfect in execution. It's difficult to make and it's an integral. And when we're talking about fixed blade knives, an integral is the handle bolster, either the bolster or the entire handle is all in one piece with the blade. And, truly, truly an impressive work here.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:07]:
Look at that handle, just exquisite. And then the patterning is just gorgeous. It's sort of mirrored as you get towards the tip, from the dorsal side to the pectoral side. Just beautiful. Next up, from a former guest of this show, Evan Nikolaides. You know him for his, Esnix knife brand. This is best custom EDC, and this is one of two knives, that he won one of two categories that he won, this year. This thing's beautiful.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:38]:
What the judges said was, It's light, elegant, deploys quickly with little movement, and it's efficient. And I would say that that's a, kind of a cold reading of this beautiful thing. They didn't say, This is just a beautiful thing. I think it's gonna be an incredible cutter for whomever owns it. I don't think they're probably not gonna use it, but, the way that curved, modified sheep's foot is angled off the handle, it's gonna be an incredible cutting knife. But when they say little movement, it takes very little for that flipper tab to launch that blade out. A gorgeous best custom EDC this year from the Texas Knife Show. Next one is best custom hunting knife from Josh Fisher.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:23]:
Josh Fisher's, fifteen fifty eight knife brand was featured last week in last week's overlooked, fixed blade category, but this is from his master Smith, custom side of the house. The judges said, we all think this is a differentially etched Damascus blade with the Damascus showing on the spine of the blade. So you look at this, it's a beautiful Damascus blade, but you can't see it unless you look at the spine. It's lightweight with a great blade length for a hunter. I would also note the handle looks extremely comfortable, and it's some sort of beautiful burl wood. And then you see on the back strap, there's some incredible, incredibly detailed dimpling and stippling there for texture. Gorgeous knife. It would be great for any hunter crazy enough to use it in the field.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:14]:
Alright. Moving down, best custom kitchen knife from Luke Delmeier, and Richard Patterson. What the judges said, the blade shape is spot on. It doesn't have any undergrinds or overgrinds. Not sure what those are just so you know. The heel doesn't rock. It's balanced and feels lightweight. I'll also add that handle faceted is quite beautiful in whatever kind of burl wood that is.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:40]:
Next up, the next one is the best custom slip joint, again, from Evan Nicolaitis. And if you look at it, it's a beautifully made wine full. It's, for for unbottling priceless bottles of wine, but it also has two blades on it, Beyond, the sickle shaped foil blade. What the judges said, the action is great, everything lines up, and it's beautifully well made. Of course, it's also got that incredible, cordish shell look to it. Alright. Best machine, custom knife machine assisted custom knife was from Jared Oser. A great dude.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:22]:
He's also gigantically tall and handsome. What a great guy. But his blade is even more so. Look at this thing. The best Mac, what the judges said. Overall, it has clean lines, operates smooth as silk, and, technically, it's perfection. Last up, a a sword cane. This is, this is my pick of a lot.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:46]:
Best of the rest category from Josh Taylor. What the judges said, it's a very cool piece. Parenthetically, I'd say I concur. The blade is dead nuts straight, and that is a an actual measure, dead nuts straight, and the carving is good. Very stylish use of the natural contours of the wood. This thing is so cool. Oh my god, I'd love to walk the dog with this, and just hope that someone steps to us. Best of the rest from Jock Taylor.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:15]:
Cool sword game. Alright, so that's from Texas Blade Show. Last, I just wanna get to a little note from KnifeRite. It's not a little note, it's a, it's quite a victory in the super, quote unquote, progressive state of Washington, their spring spring blade ban repeal passes senate. So we're talking about automatic knives, and I'm just gonna read directly from knife rights. Knife rights director of legislative affairs, Todd Rathner, was in Olympia, Washington on Wednesday to lobby for s b fifty five thirty four. The bipartisan I will say again, bipartisan, so everyone thinks this should happen. Spring blade ban repeal bill, which went on to pass the senate by a vote a vote of 60 46 to two.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:05]:
It's now off to the house. SB fifty five thirty four would repeal the ban on sales and civilian possession of spring blades or automatic knives, as well as specifically exclude them from the definition of dangerous weapon. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of our bipartisan bill sponsors, senator Twina or Twina Nobles and Phil Fortunato, and senate law and justice committee chair Manka Dhingra for moving this bill through the senate. So you could even just look at those names and assume it's bipartisan. I love it. I love that. Too much division in our country right now, and I love seeing people come together over the vanquishing of antiquated and ridiculous knife laws. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:53]:
That said, let's now get to the state of the collection. Before we do though, I do I do wanna say, that I would love it for you to download this show to your favorite podcast app because, this isn't just a video show here. This is released every week, twice a week on all your favorite podcast apps right here. So you can listen on the go and kind of imagine the knives we're talking about as we talk. I don't know about you, but, I spend a lot of time doing a lot of stuff, that I don't wanna be doing. And I put podcasts in my ear, and I go to it. You can also help support the show on Patreon. Quickest way to do that is to scan the QR code on your screen, or go to theknifejunkie.com/patreon.

Advertisement Announcer [00:27:40]:
Again, that's the knifejunkie.com/patreon. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. The knife junkie dot com slash battle box. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more

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of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:03]:
So good friend of the show and, patron, gentleman junkie, Five Door was that's Doug, I'll I'll say his first name, Doug, at Five Door or from Five Door was at the Texas Blade Show, and he sent me this really thoughtful little care package. One of the things in the care package was this, Great sticker from Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Saint Bowie, patron saint of blades. I love it. Thank you, Doug. But he also sent me this very cool, neck knife. This is a Jason Jurose design made by Ka Bar, and here is the blade. Beautiful little Ka Bar. This is a great little skeletonized neck knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:46]:
It's the seven zero zero one BP, and it's got a hollow ground blade. It's wickedly sharp and has this great injection molded sheet. The whole package is super light. I think I mean, I really desperately wanna wrap this in juke cord because that's what I like doing with skeletonized blades. But I love seeing the Jurose logo here. So I I might wrap around it and kind of reveal that. But I don't know Whether I do or not, this is gonna go right into general use, and I'm gonna start carrying this just to remind me of my great patrons and also how much I love this little knife. And Jesse Juroses, I said Jason Juroses before, I'm sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:32]:
Jesse Jurose, I love his designs. And until I can get a legit custom Jurose, these kabars will definitely do, and I love this thing. Thank you so much, Doug. I really appreciate it, from appreciate your thinkin' of me while you're at, Blade Show Texas, but then actually, goin' the extra mile and getting this for me, as well as that really cool sticker. I didn't know about Saint Bowie, but, I do believe he is a, a Vatican approved saint here, saint of the blades. Alright. I wanna get to I wanna get to the cold steel old versus new, but before I do, check out this cool merch, Jim has designed. He's always coming up with cool logos and cool designs.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:20]:
Not a knife hoarder, but a collector. I like that. Not a knife hoarder, a collector. I feel like a hoarder from time to time, but really I have to remind myself I'm a collector. And, both have their issues, I'll say. I always thought collectors were weird until I had to admit to myself that I was one. And, you know, hoarders, and I'm not trying to cast any aspersions here, but you do have to get rid of some stuff, hoarders. Believe me.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:49]:
And and I've known and loved, two hoarders in my life. And, that is something you have to kinda You you do You don't need that newspaper. That news is old, and it's been cataloged on the Internet, so get rid of it. So not a hoarder, a collector. Alright, just go to thenightjunkie.com/shop to check out all the really cool designs and all the great, logos, pithy maxims, that are put on t shirts, hats, mouse pads, tote bags, and my favorite for the season, the griddle season or for most of you, the grilling season. That is really cool aprons. So go check those out. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:34]:
You know that I am a hoard I mean, a collector of cold steel knives, and I have cold steel knives that span the decades. I started my cold steel collection in the eighties, the mid to the mid late eighties, And, you'll see one of those knives here compared with a brand new knife of the same category. But I have six of them here, six six, contrasting, categories of cold steel I wanna show off you. First one, from the Vakierra series. This is one that I've had for many years. I'll I'll say at least twenty two years. This is the cold steel Vaquero Grande. And when they released the very beautiful Vaquero blade based on the Turkish Yataghan I know it says Vaquero on there, because it's also got a little bit of, we'll say, south of the border ified, Nevada, sort of involved.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:40]:
I know we're getting a lot of influences in here, but I have it from the man himself, that, and that is, mister Lynn Thompson that this blade was mostly influenced by the Turkish yatagan with that deep recurve and the centerline point. This was a a series of its own. It was this and the Alombre, which I have, and then a midline, five inch version of this blade, which I wish I had. Every once in a while, you'll see them on eBay. But the Vaquero blade really took off and is still seen today, very strong in, the Voyager series. So here is a very recent, Voyager Vaquero. This one, rocking the Snaggletooth MF pocket opener there. But you can see when when you put them side to side how the blade has changed a bit.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:33]:
And I do love the new one, I gotta say, but something about the older, a little more sinuous, a little more curvy, and lower pointed, Vaquero still, still has me by the short and curlies. Now this, bottom one is the current one. That's a five and a half inch blade. That's as large as the Vaquero gets now. The older Vaquero Grande, is a six inch blade. So a little contrast there. Same serration pattern. This one has been used forever.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:04]:
I've used it, I used to carry this in New York City, which scares me now that I think about it in retrospect. But a very, very awesome, serration pattern. Like I said, this one has been used and re sharpened, with great effort because it's a pain in the butt re sharpening, the serrations of the cold steels. Here's one very, very unused and very sharp. And then here's the one that's used and sharpened. You can see, you can see a little bit of wear and tear on there. This one also, if you look at the spine, you can see that this one does not, this is three axis lock. When you look at the spine of a Cold Steel and you see the space between, locking leaf spring there and the blade, that's where the the stop pin is, and that's, an easy way to tell if it's got an access lock or not.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:58]:
This was just in their regular back lock days and not for nothing, it was incredibly strong. The the back locks, even then before the axis lock, they were incredibly strong, that's what they based their whole company on. The strength of their blades, strength and sharpness of their blades, so. They went to great lengths to make sure their backlocks, were extremely strong and then Andrew Demko came along and made them even stronger. Also, I love that old school jimping here, looks like file work, right on the thumb portion of the blade. So here we have the Vaquero through the ages. The Vaquero Grande down here, the original, the OG, if you will, and then the five and a half inch Voyager from today with the Triad lot. Love this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:46]:
Both of them. Love them both. Also, the new ones have the, Aus 10 a steel, and this, you don't know. This was made back in the day before people absolutely positively needed the blade, steel designated on the blade. Next up, a neck knife. Oh, I could've done the Spike series too, but I didn't. This one because I've modified my my old spike series. This one is the mini tak.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:14]:
Now we have an old mini tak. This is no longer available. This is the hiradashi. Love this, man. This is a great, great blade, designed in 02/2006 by That's almost That's 19 years old as as I record this. Designed in, 02/2006 by Andrew Demko, who created this line. And if you don't know, Andrew Demko is a long time, like, lifelong Japanese martial arts master. He grew up in a family, where his father owned an Aikido studio.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:49]:
So, he and his brother have been training their whole lives in the Japanese martial arts, and, I would not mess with either of them. They're both big dudes, but also they could twist you into knots if they if they wanted to. But they're nice guys, so don't worry about it. This is a blasted AUS-eight, and if you know anything about AUS-eight blade steel and blasting, which I do, because I've had a lot of older cold steels, that AUS-eight blade steel is awesome, especially how, well, it's sort of pedestrian. Let's put it that way. But the way Cold Steel did their heat treat on Auss-eight, really awesome, very tough, and, pretty good edge retention. The only thing is is when you blast it, it it creates micro pockets, micro divots on the blade. And, if you're wearing it close to the the body, you can get some rust on that, which I did I learned with my Spartan.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:45]:
So here's the old one, old MiniTac in a discontinued model. Then here's the new one, the very popular Bowie blade. And I love this one. It's extremely sharp, it's got a great bowie shape, and it continues, with something I failed to mention on the kiridashi. The real, unique selling proposition of these, besides the fact that they're super light and easy to carry around the neck is that they have this sub hilt. These are little sub hilt knives and, they are three finger knives, but that sub hilt really keeps it in the hand. Three finger knives can feel tenuous at best in your grip, but with that sub hilt, that super super deep choil, it really just locks in the hand. This one is a eight CR 13 MOV, and I know everyone sniffs at that steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:43]:
People got sick of it. Every Kershaw, every CRKT was made from this steel. But cold steel, in recent days, took advantage of the fact that, I guess, there's a a trillion tons of it around the world. They bought some up probably for cheap and figured out how to heat treat it to the max. And, they've really turned HCR 13 into a a pretty quality budget steel. I have it on a couple of my I have it on my, SR one Lite, and that is an absolute tank. So, don't don't look down your nose at eight c r 13, especially if it's coming from cold steel with their incredible heat treat. This seems to have a blasted finish, but I think it's more tumbled.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:25]:
I have not had any issue with this one, carrying close to the body. I perspire quite a bit in the summertime. I'm that guy. And, and I have never had any corrosion resistance issues with this. But you can look going knife to knife. You can see the similarities in the handle, especially with the deep choil and the excellent sub hilt. But so this is an older one. Also, that that is a a more obviously a GRN handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:54]:
This seems to be g 10 on the old on the old school MiniTac. So g 10 versus GRN, AUS-eight versus eight Sierra 13 MOB, and blasted versus tumbled. This is I think this one, the the current ones are blasted then tumbled. You don't feel that texture. Great sheaths, kind of the same SecurX sheath, from old to new. Next up, let's talk about the Voyager series. Here is a large Voyager. This is the medium sized at five inches from back in the day.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:33]:
This is like, late nineties. I think I got this pre pre February, I'll say. I got this from Roseland Martial Arts, a place, a mythical place at this point. I talked about it with Rolando Escotada because he's a New Yorker, as I once was. I mean, he's born and bred. I just I was living there for fifteen no, for thirteen years. But he remembers this place. I talk about it all the time.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:01]:
He used to be in Times Square. Rose was an amazing proprietor of a great martial arts store with an awesome knife counter and I bought this there. Spent a pretty penny on it at the time, I think it was just over a hundred bucks and, for me as a freelance producer, just getting my teeth, my feet wet there, this was a big this was a big expense. But, this was my sharpest knife for a long time and, hallowed in my collection. It's a a deeply hollow ground clip point and I don't think they mentioned the steel on this, nope. So probably VG one, I think that's what they were making a lot of their stuff out of then, especially their folders. But if you look at this, and the Voyager series continues strong today, but it looks totally different. This again has the non Triad back lock, and by the way, the grip tape, that's my addition, whether on the spine or on the sides of the handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:01]:
So you can't see the texturing. It's got kind of a diamond texture. You can see a little bit peeking through right under the the back lock here. But a mid back lock, very stout. I think when you put the back lock in the center, it makes it a little more stout because the spring is shorter and all that. But when you look at where the blade meets up that that lock spring, there is no space, which connotes, the fact that this is a regular back lock and not a triad lock. When you look at it down the spine, you'll see it's asymmetrical. I'll hold it right here.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:36]:
And that's because, they created a clip integral with the handle. So this GRN handle has a clip kind of, like the old school Spyderco clip it models that, is built right into the handle. And I think to accommodate for the extra width coming from the clip, they, right around the pivot beefed it up a little. Didn't have to do that for me, but works nicely, feels great in hand, is wicked sharp, and I love the horn shaped handle. Even at the time when this came out, I knew it wasn't a Navaja or even trying to really emulate it, but the the handle kinda looks a bit like a Navaja because it's got that, curved horn shaped handle that accommodates the curve of the beautiful clip point blade. Really sharp, really thin hollow ground clip point blade. Well, here's the most current in this size category. This is a five inch.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:40]:
This is the current five and a half inch clip point Voyager. You can see all sorts of things happened in 02/2006 when Andrew Demko redesigned this handle. I can't believe this is almost 20 old at this point. It's like, I remember when this happened. I remember a lot of stuff, a lot further back than twenty years at this point in my life. But, this redesign was so welcome. You first of all, let's look at the handle. You've got the the, iron star iron cross, shaped texturing that's really grippy and nice in this FRN handle.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:18]:
But you also have a really kinda modular handle. What I mean by modular is your grip can go all over the place and be sort of equally secure. To start, you can come all the way up and use this, finger guard as a, a de facto choil, finger choil. You can come right up on the blade for quote unquote fine work that we all hear about, or you can come back into the main position using that finger guard so that if you're thrusting, you're not gonna come up on the blade. Or you can move back to this position, probably my favorite, position when I'm pretending I'm dueling with it, because you can get the palm on that curve and really get a strong thrust, that back curve of the blade nestles, or of the handle nestles firmly in the palm, but you also have these two choils for your back two fingers, to really lock into. Or, you can come all the way back. This is one that, Lynn Thompson likes with the pinky way down here, and then you also get, this curve butting up into your palm, but you get maximum reach here. To me, it's a little too tenuous a grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:28]:
I I prefer to be a little bit further on, but you have a lot of grip grip options with the current design of the Voyager. Also, when you look at the spine, you'll see the space between, the the tang of the blade and the spring, the lock bar here, and that means that there is a let me close this just so you can see a little bit. You can see that massive stop pin there. And what that does is when this is fully locked up and you're using the blade, say, chopping downwards, for instance, it's transferring all of the energy that's coming into the blade, into that stop pin, and then that stop pin transfers all of that energy into the rest of the handle. Whereas in the in the standard lock back style, if you're chopping or exerting a lot of force into the blade, the energy from the blade goes directly into the, lock bar of these of the back lock here. And that concentrates all of the energy right in this area, instead of spreading it throughout the steel frame, which undergirds this handle. So, yeah, they did it right. The the redesign of this knife was perfect.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:43]:
That's why they haven't changed it in nineteen years, I guess. Just to look at the blade real quick, this is also the clip point, but it's got a much longer clip. Looks less like a western style Bowie, more like a I mean, if we're gonna make, comparisons, more like a fighting Bowie. This looks more like a Vaquero for instance, or like a, Laredo for instance or a Bagwell style, Bowie. So you got a much longer clip there and you have a full flat ground blade. Still a very, very sharp and thin behind the edge blade. That's what you get from a full flat grind. But also you've got a wedge like shape, so maybe a little more robust, behind the edge than the deep convex surface that you get behind the edge on this older Voyager.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:32]:
And, you get a lot of shearing power. You got a downward angled belly on this one. So just awesome. I love the Voyager series. I have every one of the large ones. And now, I I've I kinda sold and got rid of some of my, smaller versions of the Voyager, but now I'm slowly gaining them back. Don't sell your stuff. I mean, unless you really need to to get to get, to get something new that's fantastic, but you you hear all the regret every time.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:04]:
Alright. Next up, we'll talk about the OG of OGs, the Tanto. This is the first awesome fancy knife I got when I was in high school. The the fabled, at the time, the fabled Ponto from Cold Steel. I remember my friend, oh, the CIA carries them and they pound them through car doors and that all made sense to me at the time. Like, of course, because the CIA needs to pound their knife. Like, how else do you get at the bad guys unless you have a knife to get through the car door? And then, years passed, I I realized my friend was referring to the tests that Cold Steel does on their knives. Well, this is that original, Tanto, which came out in, I think, '81.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:47]:
This one is from '87, '80 '8. And as I say all the time, this has been my bedside knife ever since. Like literally, it followed me everywhere. High school and then college and then Philly and then New York and then Virginia. Everywhere I've gone, this has gone with me and has been in the bedside drawer or just before I had kids, just out. This past week, I featured this in, in my, supplemental, And before I did that, I I resharpen it, and this thing is just crazy, crazy sharp. But to look at it, these old ones, say Tonto by Cold Steel, Ventura, California, which I love. They're I don't think they're in Ventura anymore, but they're still in California, based well, now that they're a GSM, I'm not sure what the deal is.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:38]:
Made in Japan. Made in Japan and all that that implies, Japanese knives are awesome, especially back then. In the eighties, all the great Al Mars and the Cold Steels were made there. This one has a steel that we were not sure of because it's not marked down. I think it's VG-one again. But we have brass fittings, a brass guard and a brass, skull crusher. Still the same grippy, Grivec, Grivec material. And after thirty years, it has not disintegrated.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:15]:
I mean, I was kinda concerned all along. What's gonna happen to this rubber handle as time goes on? But it's still real grippy and still not getting that sticky. It's not filmy. It's not coming off in the hand, like you might expect. Beautiful old leather sheath. This is the original leather sheath. It's got really dry. Occasionally, I'll rub some mink oil into into the seams and stuff, but really dry.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:43]:
The the, Velcro here has given up the ghost pretty much. I do wish that they had put a snap there. I don't like Velcro so much. Only if it's accompanied by a snap, you know. But, so this is the original version, and now, as you know, last week I showed this off. This is the new version of the 12 inch Magnum Tanto. So nowadays, we've got a, the blade steel here. Let's see if I can I can get it to show? There you go.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:16]:
See the line right above the edge? Right here, this line. That shows you that this is a San Mize steel. What is San Mize steel? San Mize steel is a very, hardenable strong steel in the center, for the cutting edge, jacketed with a softer steel. I think in this case, it's a 400, series steel. They kinda change it up a bit with cold steel, but, so you've got VG 10 on the edge, very hard, and then you have a softer steel, jacketing it and, on the spine. That allows for a lot of shock resistance. But you can see now look at the difference between the tips here. I'm gonna hold it in the light so that you can see.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:04]:
Both have hollow ground blades, hollow ground main edges, but where that hollow grind meets the tip, you can see how much sharper the, the angle is. So you have, instead of a rounded junction here between the front tip and the back tip, you have a very, very sharp, secondary point there and a flat ground tip. Now, the point of that, secondary tip there is, it is great in a fighting situation for snap cuts. Now we see this a lot with bowie fighting or a lot of knife fighting, that snap cut, from the side, it looks like this. You sort of grip here and kinda loosen, grip with the forefinger and the thumb and kinda loosen the back, kinda like you would a drumstick and you you have a percussive hit like that. And, you could hit the forehead, I know that's a big target, for Lynn Thompson, but it creates a triangular, deep triangular cut. And you can really affect that well with that with that secondary tip. Instead of brass fittings here, we have aluminum, on the guard and on the butt cap here.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:21]:
Just about the same size, in terms of handle length, but different materials, same grippy material on the handle. And now, that's right, we get the Kydex sheath, or I'm sorry, this Securex injection molded plastic sheath, which I'm hot and cold with. On this one actually, I kinda like it. People talk about how it dulls the blade, but you can draw this in such a way that you're holding the spine against the, against the back of the sheath and it won't dull. But if you ask me, I'll always opt for a leather sheath. I love me some leather. Unless it's in the waistband, then I'll prefer tie dye. All right, next, the Espada series.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:05]:
And I'm gonna show you the difference especially, is especially noticeable in the large model. There's a medium, a large, and an extra large, the notorious seven inch, seven and a half inch blade. This one is where you see the differences the most. Okay, so, it does have the triad lock. All the Espadas, the Espada was born in the era of the triad, so they all have the triad lock. You've got great, again, much like the, Voyager series, you have all these different grip options. You can come up here for your close in work and use the, guard as your de facto choil, or you can come back here and use the, guard, or you can come back here. This is a preferred method for slashing and reaching out.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:56]:
Or like Lynn Thompson likes, you can come all the way down here. So lots of options. You do have a sub hilt way back here, on the on the handle. It's horn shaped like a classic Navaja, which is what the Espada series is inspired by. But on this old version, you have a deep hollow grind, very thin behind the edge, very slicey and slashy. Aus8 blasted Aus8 blade steel, and a thumb plate for pocket snagging and opening as you draw it. But a real big difference between this and the new one, and, let's forget for a moment that this new one is is in the full dress, because both eras, the older and the newer, have this full dress with the polished g 10 and the aluminum bolsters, which I like very much. But all is the same, behind the blade, basically.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:49]:
But the difference is the blade shape. Look at the blade shape. We have a a much longer, more Spanish style clip here on the on the older Espada, and a more modern looking Americanized Bowie shape on the newer one. I used to like the more Bowie shaped model better, and, and, but now that I, I don't know, recently I've been into Navajas and I like the longer clip better. But that's just a taste issue. It fluctuates for me, you know. But here, we'll see that this is now, S35VN, and on the finer version here, S35VN, and it's a flat ground blade. And I have noticed in my dueling, that the flat ground doesn't slash quite as as deeply as I'm just kidding.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:46]:
I don't duel and, I haven't noticed any difference. It's probably a little more robust with the flat grind, but that is a huge difference, I noticed, between the old aspadas and the new aspadas. Now, I've I consider myself lucky, because three out of four of my Espadas, I also have the G10 XL, and the Fine Dress XL, all of them are hollow ground except for this one. And you know what, I can live with it. It's just a personal preference and it makes very, very, very, very little difference. Alright. Now the last is not exactly a one to one comparison, but I'm gonna look at the old bowies, big bowies. Here, I have the Laredo, and it's in that beautiful leather sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:33]:
I talk about this a lot. Beautiful leather sheath. I do wish Cold Steel would go back to leather for some of their models, like their fine, fine Bowies and the Black Bear Classic. They should go back to leather. Come on, man. Go back to leather. A beautiful full hide leather sheet here with the with the giant brass stud. This is meant, to slip behind your belt, and it doesn't slip all the way through because it's got that giant star.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:01]:
I love that, I wish they would go back to that. This one is from, I would say, 02/2008, '2 thousand '9. Probably 02/2009 is the most accurate. It's got faux cocobolo, so kinda fake cocobolo wood here. This one has always had a crack in it, but I've always kept it, never returned it. Probably makes it a little less strong, but what am I doing with this knife? I have batoned this and it's never didn't affect that crack. The crack was there when I first got it way back when. But something I've noticed that they've changed is the steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:36]:
This is some sort of is it Mark? I don't even think it's Mark. Some sort of I think it's probably carbon v or carbon five, not sure what the proper, term is, because I was able to put, to force a patina on this with white vinegar. It always scratched up the blade. The inside of of this sheath always scratched up the blade. Maybe you can see a little bit. So I patina'd it, way back when just to kinda cover up the scratches. But I really like how it turned out because it looks like an old Bowie, like an old old Bowie. As usual, they have the zero ground swedge, which makes for a great knife with a back cut, and this one has the brass guard.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:19]:
Really really love that. But I'm gonna contrast this with the new Natchez. I know it's not a one to one comparison, but the old Natchez had the leather sheath. It had the, I think some versions had the brass fittings, but here's how they have updated. Yes, as you can see, they have gone to the SecurX sheath, which to me just looks weird with such a fine looking old school bow here. But I have actually warmed up to this sheath in particular on this knife. But we have some of the same things here. We have, the zero ground swedge for an awesome back cutting action.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:02]:
We got a longer blade on this one, but, we have aluminum again on the, guard and butt cap. Actually, the guard is steel, the butt cap is aluminum, forgive me. But nice, in in every way, a luxury Bowie knife, but, I gotta say this sticks in my craw just a bit, because wouldn't this look cool with the old school black leather sheath that they used to have with the silver stud coming out? Yes, it would. That's your answer. And, that's it for this show. Thank you for, joining me on this, this walk down memory lane with the cold steel knives, where they were and, you know, how it's going now. Let's see. How it started and how it's going now as the moon goes.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:53]:
And, I love them both and I'm really happy to have this, old, like kind of a deep Cold Steel collection. They've always kind of been my favorite brand even though even though there are other things that my favorite knife isn't a Cold Steel, I don't think, but, still, I'm just a huge, huge fan of the Cold Steel knife. Be sure to join us this coming week for episode five five eighty one with Tom Nugent of Knives by Nugent, the man who makes this super cool wicket. Love this thing. And, we have a great conversation. What a mensch. Love that guy. And so join us for that.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:29]:
Also, be sure to join us tomorrow night if you're watching this as it drops for Thursday night knives. If you're not watching this as it drops, Thursday night knives is live on YouTube every week at 10PM Eastern Standard Time. Come join the conversation. It's a great time. Alright. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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