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Dave Everett, This Old Sword Blade Reviews – The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 340)

Dave Everett of This Old Sword Blade Reviews on YouTube and Instagram joins Bob “The Knife Junkie” DeMarco on episode 340 of The Knife Junkie Podcast.

Dave Everett, This Old Sword Blade ReviewsEverett has been involved in knife collecting since his days in photography school on the West Coast, c1970. He currently offers blade reviews and knife shorts on YouTube through his channel, “This Old Sword Blade Reviews.” He has an enviable and large collection, which grows by the week. For instance his Bastinelli collection, one dozen strong, is enough to make any Knife Junkie blush!

Dave has a collective experience and background that fosters a broad interest in blades that both function well and are aesthetically pleasing. He was the photographer for the catalog at Ron Kosakowski’s Traditional Filipino Weapons website, and he worked directly with the late custom knife maker, Norm Bardsley on designs and photographed many of his custom blades.

He also trained in Kung Fu, Karate, Aikido, Judo and Filipino Kali, which nurtured this interest, in Asian culture and edged weapons. Dave owned and operated martial arts schools during the 1970s through 1990s and trained with world renowned Kung Fu and Kali masters including Grand Tuhon of Pekiti Tirsia Leo Gaje, Jr. In addition, Dave has written articles for Inside Kung Fu and Inside Karate on blades and martial arts technique over the years.

Find This Old Sword Blade Reviews on YouTube and on Instagram.

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Dave Everett of This Old Sword Blade Reviews on YouTube and Instagram is my special guest on episode 340 of #theknifejunkie #podcast. Dave is not only a good friend, but also a benefactor of the channel, martial artists and huge… Click To Tweet
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Automated Transcript
Dave Everett, This Old Sword Blade Reviews
The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 340)

00:06
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 to the Knife Junkie podcast.
I'm Bob DeMarco.
On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with my friend Dave Everett of YouTube and Instagrams.
This old sword blade reviews.

00:32
Dave is a bit of a kindred spirit.
He's a creative type.
He's trained for years with some of the best.
G, Kundo and Kali instructors.
He's been collecting knives since the early 1980s or maybe before, and has a very diverse collection of knives, swords, and other implements of mayhem.
When I met Dave a few years back, he had a great collection.
But since starting this old sword blade reviews which posts knife content daily, I'm pretty sure his collection seems to have reached museum like proportions and importance.

01:04
We're going to catch up with Dave and get his perspective on knife collecting and usage and the knife world today.
But first, like.
Comment, subscribe, hit the notification Bell and download the show to your favorite podcast app.
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01:44
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02:08
Hello Dave, welcome back to the show how you doing.
Thank you Bob.
Thanks for having me as I was saying earlier, I guess everything went good the first time.
So here I am again indeed indeed.
Well, I want to congratulate you on the success of your channel.
This old old sword blade reviews.
It is one of my favorite channels because it covers knives that a lot of people don't cover and it covers it from a perspective that most people cannot cover knives from.

02:37
What were your goals?
I just want to find out a little bit about your goals in starting this.
So people have an idea about your channel.
If they don't know it yet.
Yeah, I do it for the fun.
I really do.
I can't really get competitive with it because I am seeing some of these other YouTuber knife channels, so you know, taking off like a rocket and you know the way I look at it is everybody's got their style of everybody's got their interests.

03:09
And everybody has their skills that they share.
I mean, I sharpen my own knives, but I'm nowhere near the knife sharpener that let's say crazy sharp or Jared is, you know, and I don't get into it to that depth.
Maybe, maybe I would one day, but.
As you know, I draw from some of my martial arts experience, so when I got really into knives after collecting them just out of interest.
And probably the from the 70s through the 80s.
The interesting thing about that was I was kind of right in the sweet spot of knives being developed, like cold steel tanto.
In the early 80s, the Bali song in the early 80s.

04:02
And the emergence of these companies, some of which have stuck around with us for a long time.
So then when I got into the Filipino martial arts training in the 80s?
I had I had the implements but now I could create a language out of that.
If you want to look at it that way.
I began to understand what to do with them and what blade shapes could do what.
What was useful, what wasn't useful.
And I probably have more background in that than I have in, you know, give me a knife that I can go out in the woods with and do prepping.

04:43
You know, I I may not.
I'll bring a kitchen knife out if I know that I have to prepare a steak and and throw it on the fire, right?
Other guys have very specific needs and and wants when it comes to that use of knife so.
I guess what I'm saying is I have less utility.
Use and background of knives.
Then I do of the Marshall use of the knives and.
As we discussed in the the last time we met.

05:15
My background is in Filipino martial arts with Grant tuhon, Leo Gaje and Tuhon Bill McGrath.
They were the main guys who gave me my knife background.
I also studied a bit directly with Dan and Asunto through some camps.
They were camps that strangely enough I went to see Ben and ended up meeting Leo.
So that was a long time ago too.
That was back in the 80s and.
We were walking around a soccer field, swinging our sticks and getting blisters on our hands and rolling on our backs on asphalt.

05:55
Basketball courts and all kinds of interesting stuff.
I had the opportunity to train with Leo Guy.
He came to with Tuhon Leo Gaje the the grandmaster of Pekiti Tersia Kali I think still and I also had a chance to to train with his nephew and I I think unfortunately they had a rift somewhere along the way but it was a in a very up close and personal way in a very small class.
It was just a regular class and they happened to to be there because they knew my teacher and it was amazing.
Being being handled by Leo Guy, he was in his late 80s and he threw me with incredible violence to about an inch to the floor and then gently, gently laid me on the ground like it was terrifying until I was like Oh my God, this guy could have just killed me.
Amazing power but also amazing restraint.
Well, it's interesting that prior to learning from Leo.

06:53
I had many years of Japanese martial arts, many years of Chinese martial arts and then and I keto and Aikido.
You know you have all the various risks, twists and locks and control.
Which are a kind of akin to jujitsu.
But a little more gentle.
When I met Leo, he was doing all the same stuff but applying it in totally different ways and incorporating sticks and knives into the locks and into the throws.
And my mind was blown.
I said I got to learn this stuff because it took what I already knew and now it was the next several.

07:36
Iterations of it.
It was, you know, evolving it.
And when you see that happen as a martial artist, you you know a few things, and then somebody shows you the next few phases.
You say wow, this is a continuum.
So you know it's it's a circle, so you go once around the circle and then you go into the next time around the circle and you're spiraling.
But you're drilling deeper.
You know that circle just keeps going and going, and you know you're headed somewhere.

08:08
So that was the feeling that I got.
And strangely enough, my wife was the one that interested us in the Filipino martial arts because she was a student of mine and helped run the school that we had White Lotus.
So she was teaching Kung Fu.
She was teaching Tai Chi to a degree and.
Strength and stretch training, and she had a background in dance and a very long background in dance.
And.
We trained together at the school, but she ventured out.

08:41
She saw something about Dan and Asanta and that interested her and.
She got in with a local colleague Guy that was doing the precess system.
And we gradually brought that into the school, starting with the sticks and then the knives and the footwork.
And and some of the the principles that come from.
Filipino martial arts because you know, really Filipino martial arts is principal based.
You don't have to learn.
You know hundred movement forms.

09:11
And you don't have to learn all this preordained stuff.
It's more drill format, as you know.
So you know, and you you don't have.
There's three things you don't have in Filipino martial arts, no blocks.
No stances and no forms.
So instead of blocks you have deflections instead of forms.
You have drills and instead of.

09:37
Stances you have footwork footwork because you're like a boxer.
Your feet are always moving.
It's pointless to stay in one place.
But then again, those people will tell you that teach you that that really, that's just the beginning, and that's the structure that's the foundation, and you know you're going to learn to walk with that.
You're going to learn to run with that, so which I think is by and large, true, but the methods of training, and I'm not putting down the Japanese martial arts or.
You know Chinese martial arts or any of the others, but they're very regimented and it's just a different kind of thinking from the Philippines.
And those people had to survive.

10:20
They were the March lands for lots of other people.
You know, throughout the the centuries.
I I feel like it's the difference between memorizing a response to to a statement in the conversation as opposed to having your thoughts together and having a a vocabulary and being able to form a sentence on the go.
Yeah, I have no notes tonight so I'm at.
It's like that you know, and same thing with G kundo or or with like Wing Chung and and trapping and that kind of thing.
It's like a it's like a conversation so you mentioned you were kind of around at at a fortuitous time.
For modern knives you were in California in the 80s, early 80s when I guess the Pacific Knife company or mentioned in the late 60s.

11:14
OK, all right, OK?
Early 70s and then basically I was running a school in the late 70s into the 90s.
OK, but you were you were there for the birth of, for instance, the cold steel, tanto and and the balisong as per bench made or Pacific knife company.
Whatever they were called at the time is that what they were called Pacific knife.
So no, that was the actually the second iteration.
They were called the Balisong company and they were in Burbank, CA.
Lovely downtown Burbank.

11:51
You remember the laughing?
Yeah yeah, yeah.
See I dating myself, but yeah, I mean Jeff Amata and those guys were doing the Valley song.
Lynn had just created the Americanized tanto.
It's funny because I posted a knife a a week or so ago that was.
An effin grow knife of all things.
Kind of a real budget knife.

12:18
It looked great and it had your traditional tanto blade and somebody said, you know, you must have the wrong picture up.
That's not a Tonto.
And so right away I'm thinking.
The only time so this guy knows is the chisel point tanto.
Which was really taking the tip of specialized swords and transposing them onto a knife because none of the knives ever had that tip.
Traditionally in Japan they had something more like that, OK?
And that's the the OSA Rocco style Williams design.

12:59
It's beautiful, which is a little different.
This is my new favorite fixed blade, by the way.
I love those James Williams designs.
What now?
What kind of Tonto did you call that?
I was through rock is what Williams calls it, but this was designed by his son Chris.
Oh, OK, all right so.

13:17
So at this time, like where were you aware that something was changing?
Uh, did you see?
OK, my my interest is that you have been a part of the knife world longer than many of us, and it's cool to see.
It's interesting to see your take of.
When did the knife world go from?
Just yeah, this is something you have because everyone carries a pocket knife and everyone goes hunting to.
This is something that's a little more specialized and a little more.

13:48
You know, expensive, interesting and exclusive or what have you.
It was an explosion and we didn't have social electronic media.
Everything was coming through inside Kung Fu magazine, Black Belt magazine.
Karate illustrated OK. And that's where you would see poses of Jeff Amata.
As you know, Jeff Amata became a stuntman.
We became a a stunt coordinator.
And he was featured in.

14:22
I don't know if you remember the movie big trouble in little China.
Ohhh yeah Russell, so you know he was in that he was a bad guy in that he was in a bunch of other films.
So was Dan and Disanto.
Dan and Asanta was in Sharky's machine.
He flipped the Valley song and he was going to get.
Bert what's birth name?
Reynolds, Burt Reynolds Reynolds and Sharky's machine?

14:48
He's going to, you know, threatened to cut them up and so forth.
I mean, the belly song was showing up everywhere, maybe not so much.
The cold steel tanto because you couldn't do much with the Tonto that you could do with the ballet song.
The ballet song was flashy.
You know.
You could snap it around and.
Nowadays what they're doing with the Valley song.

15:07
I mean that that's not even balisong technique, that's acrobatics.
I mean that that's.
Yeah, it's off the charts.
That's hacky.
Sack it's not really Marshall vet you know doesn't have a big Marshall value, but I call it the yoyo of and I don't get offended people that are that are way better twirling that thing around your fingers than I am.
But you know it's become the yoyo of knives.
And these guys that you know, remember the yoyo that they could whip it around and and make it walk on the floor.

15:44
And they could have two of them and.
You know it kind of looked like somebody twirling, you know, swords with the.
Yeah, The funny thing is, is that it gets lumped in with gravity knives and switch switchblades automatics.
And yeah it it.
It's a totally different thing.
It takes a different skill set and.
I think I think it, uh, it.

16:08
The Bali song must have really mystified people when they saw it.
It's like Oh my God.
What is this thing it's you know, clickety clack and it's man.
If you if you have skills with that, Oh yeah, that's the gravity night knife, the riot but it's it's like it's like the.
The idea being it well, if you're good enough to open up a ballet song, you must be dangerous, you know.
And yeah, and I think.
It sort of parallels the switchblade, right?

16:39
Which apparently Marlon Brando made infamous and and the his biker gang movie there.
Get on the riverfront.
No, that was the wild ones, right?
And you know.
You talk a lot about knife laws because I know that.
You know you have and his name is slipping my memory right now.
But you know, Doug Ritter he's going to.

17:09
And in your state, you now have the ability to carry.
Automatic knife yes.
Yes I do.
That's a beautiful one.
By the way.
Yeah, thank you.
So you know it's thanks to people like Doug that we get the loosening of these laws which were ridiculous in the 1st place.

17:30
You know, I think I mentioned last time and I might have mentioned somewhere else in some interview that.
In my state here, Connecticut.
There was a there was a mental health institution.
Called connect.
Typically it was called Connecticut Valley.
It has another name now.
Back in maybe the 80s or 90s.

17:53
A young girl was a knife by a guy who they had out on a. A day pass.
And what did he do it with?
He went into a hardware store and bought a steak knife.
And he had held it in his belt.
And a piece of cardboard so any knife can be dangerous.
Because there's a spring in it because it flips out.
I think a sheath knife is available just as quickly or more quickly than a. A gravity knife or a. A switchblade yeah, as as is an assisted or anything on bearings with a flipper or or an Emerson.

18:38
Uh, you know that comes opening.
Yeah, so it it.
It's all about, it's all about the looks and that that story about the about the steak knife.
That's always the story.
It's never a switchblade.
It's never any of these knives that we collect the kitchen knife for steak.
Knife is what 90% or better of the the knife assaults.

19:00
And it's usually somebody that gets into an emotional.
They know each other usually, and it's usually a couple and one person picks off the other person.
It escalates and they grab the nearest thing, basically.
Yeah, that's a that's a an interesting.
Thing for for people like us who?
Collect knives we're a little bit more interested in knives as weapons or in the Marshall application.
You know it's taken me time in the in the knife world and watching you know, 8 billion knife videos to get into EDC knives.

19:43
Now I do like little EDC knives like this.
Say for instance, this QSP Penguin.
I like this little knife, but this is not my wheelhouse, you know, I I do like the bigger more.
Uh, Marshall.
Marshall things.
What?
What is your wheelhouse?

20:04
You know I made a list because we had some communications on this earlier, right?
And.
So you know I I tried to get one or two on the table near me of each of these.
I would say my wheelhouse is probably best represented.
There's there's column A and there's column B. Column A is everything.
Like best and Ellie and tactically oriented, beautiful designs, he calls it tactical art, which is a perfect term and I follow him religiously.
Every new thing he comes out with.

20:47
I have my eyes on, but I also really appreciate.
Stuff like.
This recent acquisition.
Why is replicas?
I just love the grind on that.
I mean, it's it's wicked.
But at the same time, it can be utilitarian.

21:20
And this is the abyss.
By arcane designs.
Just beautiful, I love his work.
I only have one of his knives.
I happened to have his prathia on here.
I have to send it back to him.
I've had it in for review and and this is sort of in the $200.00 range S 35 VN G10.

21:44
I was saved from that because it's too small.
Yes yes you.
Big knives, that's another category, right?
Well, I think you and I rely on that on the love of big knives to keep us ourselves from buying them all, because there are so interested in this so many beautiful little ones out there.
And if they're too small, unlike that one, you know, I'm just not going to spend the money this one.
Of the Max age knives.
So as far as large folders go, this is probably my grail right here and I have you to thank for loaning me yours.

22:28
But I upped the game.
I got the M 390 yeah and contoured scale.
I don't know if you knew this, but they changed the disc.
You see the little gear pattern around there.
This will wave out of the pocket.
Ohh nice.
You just.

22:50
If I may.
Love that thing.
That's a, that's a what a foreign four and 3/4 inch Warren Cliff, right?
He doesn't advertise it as a pocket opener either.
We can't stay away.
We of course, Mr. You you got to send a check?
Yeah yes so OK so large folders yeah but I have noticed recently that you have been exploring a lot with different brands.

23:28
OK so bastinelli is the is is home base you know he's he's your home base so to speak.
But what are all these other brands?
6 leaf all these brands you've been checking out man I can't keep up with all these brands I wish I had brought some sick.
6 leaves out.
I don't know that I have anything offbeat you were mentioning artisan right that you wanted to get into more artisans I have.
A pretty nice sub collection of artisan knives.
And you like the old fashioned style Barlow knives.

24:08
Oh yeah, that's cool.
What's that one called?
So what is this one called?
I know it's designed by D rocket.
Oh, OK. That is slick, and it's a four inch or Bob.
Ohh right on so it will kind of get that same interest.
That you have in the.

24:32
In the.
The.
Slipjoint knives, right?
Yeah and and some of those that are coming out now I'll get you the name on this one real quick.
See that's why the database is good.
Hyperion, Hyperion and and it brings those, those esthetics, the the slip lock aesthetics into that flipper.
Kind of like the Finch knives which I know you don't have any Finch knives right?

25:00
Because one knife?
I have the Roadrunner Roadrunner, the one that looks a bit like a like a Italian stiletto.
Review on that one, but here's another artisan you might like.
I was just eyeing that one up today and you know who designed this one?
That's got to be a Pinkerton, right?
That's a Pinkerton.
Yeah, yeah, this is the tacit.

25:27
It's it's a really cool kind of a slightly upturned Tonto and I don't know if you can tell or not, but it is Damascus.
Oh yeah, I can see I can see it in this light.
Like many Pinkerton knives, it's not a big knife.
You know he tends to like to design somewhat smaller knives, and I think it's for the reason that he likes them to be pocketable and available.
Yeah, little big knife.
I got this Pinkerton from you in a trade.
Remember of that blackjack and this is such a cool pical style knife.

26:06
This is the inversion and it's a great frame lock titanium frame lock, but it's got that blade looking like.
It's on their backwards, but it works great as a utility knife and as a self-defense knife.
This this is a. This was a cool great.
So what are what are your?
What are your recent favorites?
You know, you you've been exploring, you've been looking 6 leaf I think is is the budget brand to Tucson right?
And everyone's got petrified fish.

26:38
Bob is is got to be.
Favorite budget brand.
While we're talking 35 to $55 knives.
It's them and then a bump.
Above that I would say damn designs.
Yeah I do like damn designs, I don't.
I don't own any.

26:58
I would like to.
But yeah, yeah, just just going back, petrified fish, weird name strange you know out of nowhere they pop out of nowhere and I I. Was kind of looking a little askance at them, and then you sent me one to give away and I was like, oh, this is very high quality.
I wasn't crazy about the design and then the beluga came out and I got that on loan and I was amazed by that.
And then I got this the victor not this one but I got the victor and man that that thing is knocked my socks off.
I love the victor.
Your favorite color Bob.
Yeah I love that.

27:38
Denim micarta reminds me of my days, my mall days love that and with that wide ever expanding Tonto, that's a pretty interesting Tonto blade shape on this.
They had to.
Everybody knows this, but I did see LTK measuring it up and I measured it up.
They had a wide in the handle on the beluga to handle the Tonto.
The dimensions are actually.
I think somewhere around 1/10 of an inch wider.
In order to.

28:15
Manage this and I'm not a front flipper.
Kind of a guy but.
That the it's the blade that gets wider near the belly.
I love that and that's why they needed to widen the handle.
So this I'm sorry if you would just open that back up.
This really maximizes the faceting maximizes the damaging effect of the faceting that you see in in the Americanized.
Tanto because you've got that downward angle from the knuckles and that downward angle is kind of like a recurve.

28:52
But it also makes that secondary point, even pointier, and so that thing is man.
That's a wicked.
That's a wicked knife, and I see that being a great crossover Tonto for people who don't like tontos but love this brand.
You know what I mean?
You have that leading point, and then you have your primary point.
And you have a little bit of.
A downward turn.

29:22
Can you see that?
So he they dropped the point a little bit as well.
And I think it's a fabulous design.
I saw it.
I think on Instagram and it might have been nashorn, who was the designer that was showing it on Instagram.
And while we're on the topic of petrified fish, I'll just show you one that was my first favorite.
And this is the warrior.

29:56
Yeah, I have seen the warrior.
I like the IT reminds me a little bit of a sinkovich here just a little bit and the first time I saw that swirled.
I they tell me it's a carbon fiber G10 mix.
But it feels beautiful in the hand.
I've got one with an Ebony handle as well.
Who are these guys did?
Did they just?

30:23
Were they doing something else?
Were they making kitchen knives and decided to flex in this direction or what?
They just you know what?
Check out the Trevisa brand?
As another budget knife, I drop.
I'll be dropping a review of.
A cleaver style blade, tomorrow's video.

30:45
And I don't think I have that one handy.
But TRIVISA trevisa.
How do you decide the direction of the channel in terms of content?
How do you decide where you're going to go?
What you're going to cover?
It's easy, it has no direction.
It's just what you like.

31:11
I see something that interests me that I think would interest other people.
And usually you can get a read on it by popping it up on Instagram and showing a you know one minute opening video or a still.
And you can sort of see the reaction to it.
And that gives me kind of a read on how well it's going to be received on YouTube, but.
Today I dropped the video on the zealot, which was a. It's a maxace.
Another large knife A4 incher.
And I think.

31:49
Reaction wise views wise that flopped.
Hmm OK yeah you you put a a Goliath 2 up there and everybody goes wild over it so.
Everybody's the tastes are getting very, very refined.
And the glut of knives coming out if you so Vivi drops 10 different models at a time now.
And I've cut back on civies, although I've got some send cuts coming in.
They've kind of taken over in that dollar space that of survival used to be, and like the $40 range you know and now survives, are you know they're bumping up just a little bit.
Real quick though, you were asking me about new brands and beyond EDC.

32:42
Is doing a great job.
This is a Dirk Pinkerton design.
This is the Gara.
Which is Spanish for claw?
That's pretty cool.
And it opens solely with the fuller.
No flipper.

33:02
This one's got a real nice tan micarta.
Kind of a Gray tan micarta.
And.
Dirk's design on.
This is very Marshall.
Because he raised the point.
You see how the whole blade angles up from the handle, so you still have some thrusting ability, but then you have definitely have a gashing or slashing ability with the knife.

33:33
I like beyond DC's three tiered structure, there are a number of companies who are doing something like that, but I like that they have.
Beyond EDC tier and I believe the Gara is on that and then they have the mid line which is called the.
Oh inversion or something, and then the third is the Tara Tara van Terra Nova Terra.
Oh boy, I should have done my research, but those 3 tiers.
They're all a muddled mess for me too.
But yeah, yeah yeah.
Muddled mass is about right, but you know the the aging brain I've.

34:16
I've got to work on what my wife calls.
She's studied a lot of gerontology, so see I'm all prepped for for my the next few years of my life.
But they call it brain plasticity.
Doing doing, doing your crossword puzzles and that's why I do mental gymnastics in front of a computer all day long.
It keeps me young.
Alright, well it's not helping me right now.
Tara Tara, Tara no travanti Yum is that is that.

34:52
Terrain 365 no no.
I'm thinking of beyond DC.
There are three levels OK, and and so you can.
You can get into their, you know you can get into a $5060.00 knife with them $150.00 knife or a $300.00.
You know the Demco River wolf for instance is in their Terra.
Whatever it was, they're high tier.
Spanish style knife that they're going to do have you?

35:19
Yeah yeah, I checked it out at at the beyond EDC table.
It's pretty cool.
I got to say it's pretty cool.
I believe me.
I I really love Dirk Dirk's designs and I love especially his homages to ethnographic weaponry.
But I have to say I I'm not crazy about his interpretation of the Navajo.
One of my favorite all time things.

35:44
Same thing with Ed Schempp though.
Ed Schempp did the Navajo.
Oh yeah, I remember that one.
Yeah, what a what a dog.
I think most of his designs are like that they feel good in hand but man well I really love this custom from Dirk.
Let's see.
Oh very nice.

36:04
Oh yeah, that that blade shape is very much like the inversion.
Alright, Jim's helping me out here.
This is a smilodon.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah and this is.
This is a hybrid where he took a handle.
From another one of his designs and maded the Smilodon.
Blade to it.

36:27
Now here's his standard run-of-the-mill Smilodon.
He does this in a Tonto as well.
But you can see the differences.
And the handle.
Yeah, the one the one in your right hand you wear under the suit, the one in your left hand you wear on a combat rig or something.
You know what I mean?
Like once?

36:49
Yeah that one looks title God.
That's beautiful.
That little.
Right, this is almost exactly like the inversion, but boy does your hand lock in between.
The the pommel.
It's perfect for me for my size hand.
I wanted something that would lock me in and I wouldn't feel compromised that the handle was too small on that other one.

37:17
It's getting really small.
The handle disappears, but it does have the advantage of being used.
In this position as well, you just gotta don't careful of.
Also also having that tiny handle nestled into your palm also means that the chances of being disarmed are are far less.
But but but, but chances are with the picol style knife, it's going to be difficult to discern Mew anyway because all you got to do is turn your wrist and I just want to, for the record state Jim is helping me out here beyond EDC featuring desirable designs with budget minded materials.
That's the the first tier.
The second tier is the asymmetrical tier and that's featuring higher end handle materials.

38:06
And then Terra Mundi is the is the premium, and that's featuring high end handle materials with premium super steel blade stock.
So yeah, there you go.
Every day I I, I think, you know, in terms of collecting, so you're asking me these questions about you know what to select?
I think you know about every fifth knife or so I'll get something pretty expensive.
Like the the arcane designs, right?
And then I won't carry the thing because I'm afraid to, you know do this.
That and the other thing to it.

38:41
But something like a damn designs knife.
They're they've come out with.
This new line where they're using the titanium handles.
This is the basilisk.
This is just a great beat around knife and it comes you know pre distressed there with this.
With all that.
That stonewash well, that's a nice because you don't feel like you can't bang it up and be I'm I'm liking that titanium liner locks are are kind of making a little.

39:22
I'm making a minor splash if you will.
Nothing like the button lock but they're they're making a quiet comeback and I like that because so many knives I have, especially those that are more slender, just give me a hard time when I try to flip them open due to due to ham ******* them.
You know, maybe it's my problem but.
So what are the you were talking about, front flippers and how you're not much of a front flipper.
Guy I I have a couple of recent new front flippers.
I love this concept, bulldozer for instance.
Yeah yeah.

39:55
I yeah, I saw you talking about that one Bob, so I thought I would up the game a little with you tonight.
As always, let's see, gotta gotta one up you man.
Oh boy, you know what?
I'm an enabler.
I had brought the I might have brought the wrong knife down, man.
Hang on, no concept concept.
Here we go.

40:20
Concept.
Well, I got that one.
Man, Oh yeah, that's a plus.
I do love the concept knives I I really dig them.
I'm digging it out here.
Good Lord.
I think it's the last choice here.

40:36
Here we go.
Like I was telling you earlier before we got started.
It's like.
I got trays of knives here.
Ah.
Finally, I can up the game.
Let's see, uh boy.

40:56
OK he pulls out of titanium bulldozer.
Such a cool knife.
It's a such a great knife, man.
I I think the 2020 CV on this one too.
Great cutter this this just this just has D2 so you you you cut through butter and you have to sharpen it again because it's it's not super steel but but you were you were saying before about how you're.
You're not quite a front flipper guy.
I was saying that for a while I've gotten much better at you know, front flipping, but what are the trends that?

41:25
Do you like and where?
Where do you think it's going?
What do you think is going to be big?
Obviously we know the button lock is huge right now, but where do you think things go from here?
I think we'll see more button locks.
I think we're at the same time we're going to have problems.
Surrounding the button locks.

41:47
Because they can go out of alignment.
Fairly easily.
Now Jared.
Came up with a perfect solution for the one you just showed tonight.
The the Kaiser.
The veg liner right?
Mine began to freeze up and.

42:10
It got sticky.
You couldn't open it sometimes.
And other times you could.
And he had the perfect solution.
He figured it right out.
The scale on the top.
Where the button goes in where the plunge lock goes in.

42:32
If it gets the slightest bit torched out of alignment.
Your button begins getting stuck and when the button gets stuck, you can't use the flipper.
Because it's fighting the button.
It's fighting the lock and I found this on at least one or two of the knives that I have that are button locks now, but I use Jared's technique, which is to loosen all the screws on that side, including the pivot.
Take them out, put a little loctite blue loctite on the tips and then sequentially go around the clock and tighten them slowly.
To get the pressure even on that scale, I could see that that would be a problem, and then once I did that, I haven't had a problem with that big lighter since.
And there are people Bob that.

43:27
Haven't had any problem with it at all, so but since I ran into a problem with that and one of the SUV.
Forget the first ones that were coming out.
The technique works.
Those are the only two button locks I have the the cogent and the big lighter too.
Well I hope I don't run into those issues, but if I do that's a that's a good Jared's.
Got the video up.
So yeah, it works.

43:57
So what?
What else?
What do you see besides?
It shows anything.
I think there's more of an interest in small, fixed blades.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that.
I think.

44:12
You know, people like to sit and fidget with their knives.
You can't fidget with a fixed blade, but the people who are serious.
About so it's like Steel City, you know you did the review on the steel city Fang, right?
Yeah, I just watched that today and he's been in touch with me and I know that.
That's gonna come my way and I'm gonna do a review on it.
That to me, is kind of an echo of the clinch pick, right?
Yeah, which is basically a handle that fits right into your palm.

44:45
And a claw that comes pretty much straight out.
I think for people that are going to carry a knife seriously.
I think if you carry a knife rather flirtatiously if you will.
With the idea that you know, hey, because I got in my pocket I'm all set, right?
You don't have any technique you haven't practiced taking it out and putting it into action quickly.
You haven't thought of scenarios you haven't gone through your mental color scheme, which is like the Jeff Cooper gun sight.
You know white, yellow, orange, red.

45:27
You may have heard of that.
Do that.
Do those mental.
Drills every day.
As you're walking down the street as you're in your house or whatnot.
White means you have no awareness of what's going on around you.
You're busy listening to your tunes, you're.

45:44
You know and absorbed into something else.
Yellow means now that you.
Have an awareness of your environment and what's happening around you.
This doesn't happen when you're reading your cell phone text messages and driving down the highway at 70 miles an hour.
So and then orange means you're preparing a scheme of action.
So.
And then red is basically equates to pulling the trigger.

46:13
It means you've got a preordained set of tasks that you're ready to act on.
And you know you mentally pull the trigger and say go right?
And you act and there's no looking back.
That's a tough one for most people, because they're.
You know they're kind of conflicted halfway through that.
So getting back to the the trends, I think what I was showing you earlier.
Small Tonto style knife with a neutral handle.

46:47
That's grippy.
But you're not going to slide on.
That you know James Williams had some videos of him punching us through a car door.
I like a metal uh sheet metal, right?
And he said the people that said that you need a guard in your hand is going to slide.
Don't know how to hold the knife.
And I agree with them.

47:11
Certainly you wouldn't want this to be a slick micarta, but you could still get it to work if you have a small handle and you know how to palm it right.
So you've got a backup built into the pommel.
Like that, but the neutral handle.
I think they're going to sell a lot of these.
They just came out this year.
This one came from Lamania.
Where when I can't get any anything anywhere else, I go to Lam the other in Finland.

47:42
And I get it in two days.
FedEx express.
Who is the manufacturer of this?
Is this a Winkler?
I know this is lionsteel lionsteel.
OK, I know Winkler did limited edition for Williams.
It's Chris Williams and it's from Sleipner Steel.

48:03
Man, that's that's a beauty.
There are some slightly larger ones made out of M 390, so so you're you're saying that you think that a small fixed blade knives that are pocketable are are a growing trend?
I actually.
Tried to get someone interested in a design of that that I had who's who, who will go unnamed right now, but is a you know is in the industry and and he he said no because he said he he didn't think that that was what's happening and and you know he's the guy with the knife company so I just I
politely thanked him for his advice but I I kind of was thinking like you're thinking like I. I also think that.
Folders will always be more popular because of the fidget factor and the acceptable and ease of carry, but.
I do see a growing people also love expanding their EDC so I could see people going for the smaller less Marshall but smaller fixed blade knives.

49:08
Stasa loves small fixed blade knives and they're not, you know.
Well, just to stay on that topic for a moment.
This is a new acquisition from Bastinelli.
Says the tell them.
And tell them is basically a term which has to do with spear right?
A javelin or a spear or an arrow.
And.

49:35
I was always looking for a perfect Pacal pikal knife.
Because one of my instructors, Bill McGrath, said the perfect knife is a 3 inch.
You know this is around two and a half, a 3 inch double edged knife.
Similar to what I think SOG came out with years ago as a mini Pentagon.
So you have a full-sized handle.
No compromising your grip.
You have a built-in guard.

50:12
And you have on this one.
A dual function edge.
So you've got the teeth.
Which will rip and cut, but are also useful for a rope.
Strapping.
Utility right?
So we have here a broad small double edged knife where this.

50:37
Distance from the edge to the center can be roughly what you got for a grind on a single edged pocket knife.
So you've got to usable utility edge if you want to look at it that way, and you have a package.
That is small.
And concealable drops right into pocket.
This is the tracker Dan clip that it comes with.
Interesting thing about that blade design too is at the base of the blade at the ricasso you also have the the the full width of a full dagger so so so if you push that in up to the hilt you're still getting an opening the same size, just not the same depth, but.
You get my point.

51:30
I get your point, Bob.
Yes no, no no pun greatly great using that fun all the time.
So what are the knives you don't like out there?
What what?
You know?
Maybe these are knives that people love and you're just like I don't get it.
So what?

51:45
What is it?
I hate to cash the side an entire brand.
But I'm not real fond of the work Shieldon was doing.
They came out and they approached me.
And I took my time getting back to them, and now they're not responding to me.
Which is fine, but they had asked me, I think, to do some reviews I sent you the BOA and I sent you the transient on I think for giveaway and it doesn't make them guys that got those knives.
They're not bad knives, OK?

52:21
But you know their workmanship was kind of marginal.
Some things about him were good, some things about him weren't.
The transit on.
I know that Mike Emler, he kind of panned that.
Uh, for a number of good reasons and you know, I thought it was OK. But I'm not.
I'm not real high on the brand.
I think maybe there's certainly a lot of room for improvement, so they may come out with something terrific at the end of this year.

52:52
Who knows?
But for the money, I would buy a petrified fish any day for 35 bucks it would stomp all over.
You know everything else.
I mean, even savvy, because savvy tends to make.
I would say a more delicate knife, one that you can't beat on too hard.
At least that's my perception right?
My humble opinion.

53:21
I have plenty of SUV knives.
I've probably got a good 15 or so savvy folders.
I've got some excellent SUV fixed blades like the one that was designed by Bob Trisula.
And there was a few.
Other was a new one designed by a guy.
That's kind of a combatives instructor, and it turns from it angles off into a karambit and then straightens out.
I picked that one up.

53:53
That's a real odd one, but I'm just saying.
Dollar for dollar, I would get petrified fish any day.
For a really great solid knife, everything about him is perfect.
The actions perfect the lock up is perfect.
The deep carry is perfect.
I'm sure there's some flaws that people have encountered depending upon the environment they're using it in.
But for me you know I'm high on.

54:24
Petrified fish, that's why I probably got a dozen of them, you know?
Yeah yeah, that's interesting.
What you said about shielding too?
Because the boa that we gave away with that cool Tonto that was a really nicely made knife, the Transjordan one for style points.
But I agreed with mikes with Emler's prognosis of that knife.
It was a it did have its problems, but I think we're we're shieldon is going to shine in the future is if with OEM.
Work I had a chance to check out Devo Knives that's you.

54:57
Know a lefty EDC and column Maison Pierre.
They're their work.
Their growler, which is coming out, was they had a prototype by Kubi and Sheldon, and they're going with Sheldon.
And I had a chance to check out that prototype.
Great, they did a great job, so sometimes maybe what you need is the direction of a of a passionate designer.
You know, if you feed a good solid company.
A adequate design and their designs weren't the greatest, but and I think they're they're machining and their fit and finish.

55:33
Needed a bump up too, but I think if they're making it for somebody else and they got to satisfy that customer.
I think they can rise to the occasion.
Let me ask you this, Dave, as a fellow knife as.
Marshall tool Guy as a knife.
As a fellow knife as weapon Guy, did it take you any time to come around to knives as a?
Just a tool as an EDC thing.
Probably not, because.

56:11
I mean, before there were clips on knives, I was carrying a Pardue Mel Pardue lock back in my pocket every single day.
The same knife.
And it got used for everything.
It probably even got used for a screwdriver when it shouldn't have, but you know it it was used to pry things, cut things and I doubt that I sharpened that much either.
I at that time I needed somebody to show me how to sharpen a knife because I wasn't that adept at it and I had a good friend who became a martial arts student of mine who showed me how to sharpen a buck knife on.
You know, an Arkansas stone.
Nice and and I started developing an appreciation for sharpening from that.

56:57
But yeah, I was EDC.
Seeing that knife back in the.
I would say the mid 70s.
OK so OK alright alright, so knives are a part is it's almost like there were two separate things in a way.
Knives have always been a part of our daily lives.
At some point they were stigmatized but I I feel so everyone was probably carrying a pocket knife and then the birth of these modern things and then it becomes a whole a whole new world.
I want to try something before we wrap here Dave I have I do.

57:32
I haven't shown you everything on the table yet.
Yeah, well, we're gonna do an interview extra for the patrons.
We we'll have to do a ceiling Cam and and just give you a. I would love that 24 hour ceiling Cam over your desk.
That'd be awesome, so I usually do a speed round and I've done that with you before but so it it made me think I'm going to read off 15 brands and I want you to rate them one to 1010 being the highest.
And just so you know.
Well, no, I'm not going to give you that information.
The manufacturers watching right now.

58:13
Do I get any points for for all the way around?
OK, all right.
So all right you ready I'm ready OK Spyderco.
Oh, OK, tends the highest one is the lowest.
7 bastinelli nine and a half cold steel.
Uh.
6 petrified fish.

58:48
8. Sivi 7. Maxis?
8. Benchmade 8 riatt 10 uh Chris Reeve knives.
I had his fixed blades.
In the 70s.
Based on that experience, I would say A9.
Concept.
9. Kaiser.

59:29
8. Emerson.
Umm?
Based on past experience, I don't have any 7. Fox yeah their own brand or OEM.
Fox Fox OK. Got to have the name on the name on the knife.
OK 7. And two more demco knives.
Never had one.
OK so I got to opt out of that but.

01:00:06
I feel that his shark lock, what 8010.222?
I would give it a 5 just because I don't think it's worth 150 bucks, sorry.
It's an innovative lock and it's too small, which is why I don't have one.
I think I would.
I would pay.
I would pay 75 bucks for that knife and no more.
And I know I probably spent more for knives than other people.

01:00:38
Say that wouldn't be worth it either, but well, it is a matter ultimately of your taste and and and what you like size wise.
I have one too small and materials need a bump up.
OK alright so I got one last brand.
So actually, no, no, I'll.
I'll add, I'll add two more because Demco, well, we'll just take demco off.
OK, second to last is Boker.
Hmm.

01:01:07
UH-6 and then the last is artisan cutlery.
88 alright, alright so I think if we compile that we can we can we can crunch the numbers and then we can extract what you're exact tastes are going to come up with an algorithm right?
Yeah yeah exactly exactly and I'll get back to you on what type of knife collector you are.
Hey Dave thanks so much for coming on the show and for catching us up.
I love your collection.
I love your taste and knives and and you've been very generous to this channel.
Also I forgot to mention just in giving.

01:01:47
Uh, passing along some of your knives that we pass along to others.
And of course you've passed along a couple that you've say stay with me like this one.
What a beauty and and these kind of gifts mean more than you know.
So thank you so much Dave for coming on the show.
Thanks for having me, Bob.
Be out in YouTube land.
Take care.

01:02:12
Do you use terms like handle the blade ratio walk and talk, hair pop and sharp or tank like?
Then you are a dork and a knife junkie.
There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, Dave of this old sword blade reviews, you know, one of these days we got to meet halfway at some rest stop on the highway and and bring our our hundreds of knives.
I got to check out that guy's collection.
Amazing stuff.
Anyway good man and it's always a pleasure to have him here on the channel.
It's always a pleasure to have everyone here on the channel.

01:02:48
Check out next Sunday's show for another great interview and Thursday Night Knives right here on YouTube, Facebook.
And Twitch live at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time every Thursday night and of course the Wednesday supplemental in there sprinkled in are close up videos on knives because I just cannot stop talking about knives 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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01:03:31
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