Dog Walking Knives - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 400)

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

Transcript

[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go round. I'm Bob DeMarco and coming up, we're going to take a look at some Spydercos on the way. I have a brand new, really cool knife that you may have seen me unboxing for. And then we're going to talk about my 10 favorite late night dog walking knives.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. My favorite comments this week were all revolving around the unboxing of my new work tough gear, Kuzon Predator Hunter Bowie.
Rolls right off the tongue. First one says, oh my god man, I gotta have one.
I knew I related to you, but this cements it. How cool is that?
And that's from Bear Arms.

[1:04] Second, and Bear Arms has been chiming in a lot on Thursday Night Knives lately, Bear Arms, pleasure to have you with us.
EDC for Fun also, who's been showing up to Thursday Night Knives said, was quoting me, A little darkness for my sweetheart, kids say the darndest things. Awesome night.
When I unboxed that, my girls were in the room and one of them was doing the cinematography.
My youngest daughter said, you know, made a kind of a dark comment.
She's this cute little child who's so sweet and so lovely and she comes out with some doozies every once in a while.
She said, yeah, you could probably, well, you watch the video, you can see what she said.
And so I appreciated that little darkness for my sweetheart.
And then lastly, from N. Conway, he says, perfect for fighting the yaoja.
And the yaoja are the predator species. In the predator universe, that's what they're called.
And I looked it up for the pronunciation and sort of like Japanese, you pronounce every letter.
So it's the yaoja. Perfect for hunting that, the predator hunter.
Now I think that the predator hunter, which is this knife right here under the knife cam, I believe that it's, it's the Pouzon Bowie.

[2:15] But patterned after the cool sort of large knife that all of the members of the Predator team had.
Of course, you all know, you're all knife people.
In Predator, they all had the survival knife with the sawtooth back and the round handle, but they also all had that large, really cool knife that we all have coveted for years and years and years.
So that's what that is based on.
And man, this knife seems to resonate with all of you out there, just like it did with me when I first saw Scab start cutting stuff with his. So, very cool knife, my first work tough gear, and I'm very excited about it.

[2:54] A couple of things here. I wanted to give a shout out to Have A Knife Day.
Have A Knife Day sent me a challenge coin, very cool challenge coin.
Have A Knife Day. If you're unfamiliar with his channel, you need to get familiar with his channel.
He's a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper who collects really cool knives, lots and lots of fixed blade knives.
He's had a lot of Randles recently, bowies, sogs, and sometimes he'll have them veffed.
He'll have the serrations put in.
And he always has his cat.
His cat always photobombs his videos and shows up on the table.
So he sent this along with a couple of t-shirts and some other cool swag.
I really appreciate it. Thank you, have a nice day.
And I'm really liking this challenge coin idea.
Maybe instead of stickers, though you can't just send out, you know, three challenge coins with every box you send out.
Lastly, this past weekend, the ladies and I, my wife and daughters, went to see the Broadway rendition of Into the Woods, a fairy tale, kind of modernized fairy tale.
And it was great, it was a lot of fun.
But one thing that really stuck out was that the Little Red Riding Hood character in Into the Woods is real sassy.

[4:18] She plays against type. She's a real tough, sassy girl.
And at one point, her grandmother, you know, behind the scenes, gives her a knife that she shows up with and she pulls it out, and is very cute but also very threatening.
She pulls it out and she says, and my granny gave me this beautiful knife.
And the whole crowd went crazy. And I'm sitting there thinking, this is a room full of dormant knife junkies. These people are all just.

[4:47] Dying for the social acceptance of having a cool knife themselves.
Well, I'm giving them that permission.
Go out there and buy yourself a cool knife because everyone wants one, everyone needs one, whether or not they collect, you know, obsessively like you and I or they just have one that they can rely on.
I highly recommend you doing that. Plus the play was really awesome.
All right, I think with all of that said, it might just be time for a pocket check.
♪♪ Had to put that Pouzon away, because, man, is that thing huge, and I don't want to, you know, accidentally drop it or anything like that.
In my pocket today, an old fave, the Spyderco Military in S30V.
This is your standard run-of-the-mill Spyderco Military. It's probably about 10 years old at this point.
But I've been carrying it, we were talking, we were talking about this on Thursday Night Knives, and I can't remember who it was. It may have been Have a Knife Day.
Someone said, yeah, just put down my money for this pre-order of the Military II.
I'm so excited about it.
You can do that over on Blade HQ. I'm sure you can do it other places, but that's where I put money down.
$5 down on a new military two, where they give it the compression lock, give it a four-way repositional pocket.

[6:12] Repositionable pocket clip after so many years of begging. And I'm very much looking forward to it.
Still S30V, I'm fine with that, of course.
It's not like I've ever come up against the outer limits of S30V, but I just thought they would do something different, maybe put a different blade steel on there.

[6:32] Boohoo, first world problems, but I'm really happy to have this knife in my pocket pretty much always, though I haven't carried it in quite a while.
The downward tip is still a buzz kill, I'll have you know, but it's not so bad. The thing I was worried about today, since I so rarely carry tip down, is this thing opening up in the pocket, because it's so big, so sharp.
If I reached down in there and something snagged on it and opened it and then I pulled my hand back out, it would be disaster, but that's never happened to me. I'm gonna knock on wood.
It's never happened to me, so I'm not too concerned. I'm very, very psyched about the new one, the new military.
And I've been just kind of in an odd Spyderco phase. I say odd because it's been a long time.
Ever since Shane Gables of Edgy American channel gifted me this S110V Manix II Lightweight.

[7:34] I've just been kind of really psyched about Spyderco. So we're going to be talking about some new Spydercos coming up in KnifeLife News.
Very interesting about the S110V and other super steels. Apex.
Apex Alchemy put out an interesting video about S110V and the mining of the minerals that go into the super steels we love.
So if you ever catch yourself bemoaning the fact that, well, that slaves harvest and mine the elements we need for our Tesla batteries, think about the minerals.

[8:14] And the elements that go into super steels.
It's a sobering video, but very interesting, and I'm glad he made it.
Next up, in my front left pocket, well, it kind of goes back and forth, depending on where I put my phone, is the Javelina Jack from Jack Wolf Knives.
This is such a great knife. I'm really loving this one.
As always with the Jack Wolf Knives, this past year, I've carried obsessively the knife of the month, right up until probably the last couple of days of the month, and then I go back and check out other older Jack Wolf knives.
But this one has been pretty much steady and constant.
This has done duty cutting cigars, clipping cigars for me to smoke.
It's lent. I've given up a number of my favorite things and so to replace them I've been smoking cigars.
And I do like a nice cigar, but I do not have a cigar cutter.
I broke my last one, it was a cheapo. And I know I should get something cool and expensive, made by a knife guy, like the Red Horse, or something like that, but I haven't.
And I find that these jackwolf knives actually do the trick so beautifully.
The thing I don't like, in the past I've clipped cigars with pocket knives and had the wrappers kind of.

[9:38] You know, if you're not careful and if the blade isn't thin enough, it can be very sharp, but if it's not thin enough, you're gonna kind of mess up the wrapper leaves a tobacco on your...
I just don't like it, the way those perform, but the Jack Wolf knives are great for cigars, I have found. So this has done a lot of that. That's going to do that tonight, no doubt.
Next up is the Hogtooth Nova 1.
I know you've heard all about this knife because I can't stop talking about it.
This is the 154CM hollow ground clip point blade with a recurve, and then you have the Linen my card in maroon and the production model, quote unquote production model, will have green liners, dark green liners.
That jimping will be moved forward and my logo will be much smaller.
This big logo is for me, for this prototype and I love it.
Of course it can't be big enough for me, but I know how most people feel about billboarding.

[10:39] So this pre-order is open, go to theknifejunkie.com slash Nova One.
This has been getting a lot of use because it's on me, all the time and I gotta say, I've always talked about how great Matt Chase's knife knives are, especially the EDC Tanto and the Ruffian, and this is in that line, just a different blade shape of my design and it works great.
I love this knife and I know it's weird when someone designs something and says, isn't this beautiful, isn't this great, but I guess I get where they're coming from. So highly recommend this knife. What was I saying? Oh, it's been getting a lot of use and it's really practical. Yes, it looks like a little a little fighting bowie knife, which is a good thing.
It is small and it is very easy to carry and it has got utility all day long.
Also, stay tuned for the Nova 2. That will be, when these things are out, we have another knife that will be coming out with a different blade shape, same handle, same size and form factor.

[11:47] That is the Nova 1. Oh, and all subsequent models will have different color, my color, by the way.
All right, and then lastly on me for emotional support, fidgeting, that's what that means.
Some people are like, what is an emotional support?
You know, you know how people have emotional support iguanas that they insist on bringing on the airplane?
By the way, there are three questions that must be answered correctly to actually have something be an emotional support animal.
And most of the time, people don't answer them properly. What are they, you say?
I cannot remember, but a friend of mine who owns a business told me, because he has people always coming in, trying to bring their animals in.
And it's a food-related business, and I personally think that's totally inappropriate.
You know, if you can't handle going to a restaurant without your little furry animal helping you out, then you got bigger fish to fry.
Okay, so here on me for emotional support, you can always bring a knife to a restaurant, and I have the Orion Scorpio, such a cool knife.
This is following in the tradition of the Solaris in terms of that handle shape and the geometry.

[13:00] Maybe that's not the exact right word, but the way the lock and the flipper is set up and the button lock.
David was one of the first guys to, David, love Blade Banter, you know, David Cam.
He's one of the first people I saw designing, flipping, and I'm not using that as an expletive, but flipping button locks.
I know that they're all the rage right now, but really he was kind of on the upward crest of the wave.

[13:29] And he did it really, really well.
Does it really, really well.
With the positioning, that's what I was looking for, the positioning of the flipper to the pivot, to the lock.
It just works great.
This knife is a little charmer. It's small, but it has a full thickness handle, which to me makes small knives, well, really nice to handle and tenable.
Otherwise, if they're too thin and too small, and too sharp, then it's kind of dangerous because they're hard to manage.
This one is great. I love the stylish clip point blade with the jimping right here on the clip, giving you gription here to allow you to choose the depth of your cut.
And yeah, I really appreciate this knife, not only for using, but for flipping and fidgeting, because we some of that, don't we?

[14:22] So that's what I was carrying today on me. The classic Spyderco Military II, the Jack Wolf Knives Javelina Jack, the Nova I from Hogtooth and yours truly, and the Scorpio from Orion Knives.
Let me know what you were carrying on you. Drop it down there in the comments, and maybe I'll get one.
If you think it's cool, you know, because that's kind of how I do it around here.
So we also have something coming up. As I mentioned earlier, we have something coming up by earlier I mean on Thursday Night Knives. This week's giveaway for the gentleman junkie is this beautiful Vastid Bellamy. As soon as I declared this is what we'd be giving away I regretted it. This is my personal Bellamy, given to me by Vastid Knives. And I think I may have put it in my pocket once, but it shows no evidence of that in the clip.
But it has appeared a lot on this channel because it is such, it is a great emotional support knife and it is a great knife in general.
It's got a 3.5 inch and very fetching, if you ask me, clip point blade with that great fuller and a deep hollow grind.
It's very slicey, very, very sharp and thin behind the edge.

[15:40] And you have carbon fiber. And that blade is M390 if I haven't mentioned it.
M390 in carbon fiber with this amazing action and a hollow grind.
It's like $150 or something. It's such a deal. Great knife all around. I love Vastid.
They've sent me four knives in the past. One of them is a kitchen knife. I've kept that.
This one I'm giving away and there will be others in the future.
But just really dig their knives. This one has three modes of opening.
Of opening, you've got the regular flipper, you've got the back, the top flipper, and then you have the fullers. So if you're interested, and you're interested in supporting the show, this is a good time to sign up for to become a patron, gentlemen junkie, you stand to win this tomorrow night on Thursday night knives. And as Jim just flashed up on the screen, we do have an affiliate link with vasteed. So if you bought a vasti knife by following our affiliate link the knife junkie.com slash vasti. We get a small fraction of that of, that purchase and that helps support the channel.

[16:50] I urge you to do so. All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look at some stories in Knife Life News, and then we're going to get to the cool new knives I have here. If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife, and we've got you covered. For the latest weekly knife deals, be sure to visit theknifejunkie.com slash knives.

[17:12] Through our special affiliate relationships, we bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives. Help support the show and save money on a new knife. Shop at theknifejunkie.com slash knives. That's theknifejunkie.com slash knives. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the Knife Junkie with the knife life news. I really ought to just keep my eyes closed during that liner because every week it's something new and every week it's something I should have, you know, just for you all. So you can experience those knives. It's kind of a moral imperative and a responsibility on my part. But I'm willing to carry that mantle. Okay, first up in knife life news. We've got some Spyderco news and I'm very excited about especially the second story. But this first one is cool for all you paramilitary nut jobs. They're coming out with now these are two stories here, this one and the next one that are coming out of Amsterdam, you know, the the annual Amsterdam meet a Spyderco collector. I believe that that's who sponsors it. I'm never quite sure how that goes. But you're always getting this news from the Amsterdam meetup from Spyderco collector. So Magna cut paramilitary to so this is for the salt series, you know, the salt series of folders and fixed blades from Spyderco. They're optimized for humid, salty, you know, maritime environments.

[18:37] In the past, they've used H1 steel, which claims to be rust-proof, and LC200N, which claims the same.
Well, MagnaCut doesn't officially call itself rust-proof.

[18:50] But it is, mostly, from anecdotal evidence, it's a great anti-corrosive steel, as well as everything else, because the genius who created it.
So this will have, This will be a latest addition in the Salt series, Magna Cut.
It will have this interesting rippled G10 texture, which is obviously evocative of water, but also some of the past Salt series knives.
Really looks nice to me. And this is a cool sort of harbinger of things to come.

[19:27] As Eric Glesser says, he wants to make all of the USA made in a salt version.
So that would be the military, that would be the native, the Para 2, is that made, or the Para 3?
I'm not sure if that's made in the US, but he wants to make all the US folders into salt series, which probably means in MagnaCut, which is probably very exciting to a lot of steel nerds out there.
So, very much looking forward to that, but I'm really looking forward to my military too.
I'm just gonna keep saying it. When's it coming?
When's it coming? You have my $5.
I want it. Okay, next up, in more Spyderco news, this one's exciting to me.
Because of this lightweight Manix 2, I'm really liking the lightweight context the lightweight models that they're putting out.
Coming up will be the Native Chief lightweight. The Native Chief is the four inch plus native.

[20:31] You know, this is the largest of the native series, and I think the most beautiful, and I had it for a short while when it first came out in S30V, and it was great, but I wasn't carrying it enough, and I sold it, and yes, it's one of those things I regret, but maybe I'll just get this one because it's gonna be lightweight at 2.96 ounces, which is a savings of one ounce, pretty much exactly from the G10 and steel liner lock version, or steel frame back lock version.
And it's gonna be in CTS BD1, which is a totally adequate steel.
I say totally adequate because the steel nerds who were going crazy about the MagnaCut story are going, oh, BD1, but let's face it, it's fine for pretty much all of us.
So BD1 is a less expensive steel, it's not a powder metallurgy steel, so hopefully this will affect the price and keep it cheap.

[21:33] But we're not so sure. An interesting thing, just an interesting note about this knife, we had company this past weekend, and the man of the couple always likes to check in with my knives, he has a small collection, but is definitely not a knife nerd.
And I showed him this, and he was like, oh man, this is so cheap.
This is this plastic and this clip, obviously this is just, and I was like, well the blade steel is pretty, and he's like, yeah, it just feels cheap.
And I thought, oh, that's interesting, it's an interesting take from a non-knife person.
Oftentimes we forget, to a non-knife person, weight means something.
And I think the plastic handle FRN threw him off a little bit, but definitely the weight. I've handed people heavy knives before and, and they've commented on the weight as some sort of indicator of quality. And you know, we know it's not.
But just an interesting take from a non knife guy on a really, really exquisite knife. Okay, next up from giant mouse, they have a new one in their ace lineup. And the ace lineup for giant mouse is sort of there meeting the audience halfway with with less expensive knives. Now, they all hover around $200.
So if that's less expensive to you, well, bully, that's awesome.
But.

[22:57] You know, it's still a $200 knife. But that's just a reflection of how much the regular knives cost.
So Ace lineup, new one, the Atelier. This is a, first of all, I love the shot with the beautiful leather bag and the tweed hat.
Very nice shot here, but this is basically a small version of the Ace Grand, with that beautiful harpoon clip point, full height flat ground blade and that profile of the handle, this is just a smaller version at 2.87 inches in blade length and that's Elmax steel, which is exciting.
Everyone loves the Elmax.
And it's gonna come in a green micarta version and then in this milled titanium version, both liner locks and I've been loving titanium liner locks over the past year.
Refreshing change from frame locks, especially when it comes to deployment.

[23:58] Beautiful looking knife there, repositional pocket clip. This thing is available now, actually.
You can just go and check it out right now and buy it. Next up, I wanted to show off a couple of cool little Rosecraft knives.
Well, it's one, but it comes in six different versions, six different colors, and it's called the Awanata.
The Awanata, and it's a little keychain knife, three inch handle, two inch blade of D2, very nice little sheep's foot wharncliffe blade, with a pole fuller, it's a non-locker, and it's just a little cute knife to have on your keychain for, you know, those little things that come up, or little situations that might come up for light cutting, where you're not gonna be deploying whatever the knife is you have on your belt or in your pocket.
As I mentioned about this knife, and other colorful knives, like I'm thinking of the Spyderco Roadie.
They look great when you have them all together. You know, any one of these would be cool on the keychain, just with the color that they exist in, but when you put them all together, they really look like a complete set. So this is the kind of knife that could be very collectible.

[25:12] Looking forward to that from Rosecraft. I'm also just looking forward to checking out a Rosecraft.
I have a sneaking suspicion, but I wanna get swags on the show.
I'd love to talk to her about this company that she's a part of, but something tells me that they're made by the same factories who do Rough Riders.
And I don't know if it's a font thing or what it is, but I just always get that feeling, and I'd love to have that confirmed one way or the other.
So check out the new keychain knife, the Awa Nata from Rosecraft.
Alright lastly in knife life news is a very cool story from the wider world, from outside the knife world.
A giant 7 foot demon slayer knife, sword was found in a 1600 year old Japanese tomb in Tomi-Omaru-Yama.
It's the Tomi-Omaru-Yama mound in Nara, Japan. This thing was found in a tomb.

[26:15] It's made of iron and you might be asking what is a demon slaying sword?
Well, a demon slaying sword is a sword that a Japanese warrior or royal was buried with, to fight off demons in the afterlife.
And they were usually quite big, but this is the biggest ever found at seven feet long.
That's a full 11 inches taller than I am.
Okay, I'll be honest, 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 and a half inches taller than I am.
And I think that's really cool.

[26:45] Very important person this must have been, no doubt. But it seems like if you do a little search, pretty much every week or every other week or so, I'm finding stories about swords and knives that are being found from archeological digs.
And it's really, I don't know, it activates my imagination cool it is to find something that old with, the purpose that we all love and mind. And not necessarily the demon slaying, but the blade thing.
You know, we know how old knives are and swords are, but when one is actually dug up.

[27:22] And is historically significant, it's always exciting to me.
So, that is the giant seven foot demon slaying sword found in Japan. How cool is that?
All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're gonna take a look at two really awesome knives, a study in contrast that showed up on the same day this past.

[27:43] Week. And then we'll look at favorite late night dog walking knives. But before we do, I just want to remind you that if you are interested in getting this winning the vasti Bellamy tomorrow night on Thursday night knives, you'll want to become a gentleman junkie at Patreon, just go to the knife junkie comm slash Patreon and sign up there. You can also zap the QR code at the tip of this blade. Again, go check it out at the KnifeJunkie.com slash Patreon. Don't take dull for an answer. It's the Knife Junkie's favorite sign-off phrase and now you can get that tagline on a variety of merchandise like a t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, long-sleeve tee and more. Even on coasters, tote bags, a coffee mug, water bottle and stickers. Let everyone know that you're a Knife Junkie and that you don't take dull for an answer. Get yours at theknifejunkie.com slash dull and shop for all of your Knife Junkies merchandise, at theknifejunkie.com slash shop. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. So it's rare that it happens that I'll feature a story in Knife Life News and then the company reaches out to me and offers to send me one. Who knows, maybe Spyderco will reach out to me and and giant mouse after this last one but after discussing the best tech be high they asked if they could send me one and indeed i said yes look at this beauty.
I'm.

[29:09] As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Bye.
Two weeks ago, I guess. This is the fourth in the boutique, in the bouquet series, sorry, designed by Ostop Hell for Best Tech Knives.
All flower inspired.
And this is inspired by the palalu leaf.

[29:28] And I just love this wicked little thing. And it is little. Make no mistake here, just for size reference, here's the tiny little penguin that they came out with recently at QSP.
It's even smaller than that.
But very potent with that leaf, palalu leaf inspired blade shape, that hawkbill blade, and the handle is very comfortable.
And if I use that choil, believe it or not, I can get nearly a full finger grip, a full hand grip on this. But it is tiny.
And I do have medium sized hands, which I can cram into a small glove sometimes.
And then sometimes require a large glove depending on the manufacturer.
So I guess truly medium hands, but I can get that full finger grip, within that ergonomic handle, which positions the tip below your knuckles.
Great for utility, small utility jobs, pull cuts, opening boxes, that kind of thing.
But also is being used a lot, according to Ostop Hell, by some of his friends for gardening, which is apropos of the design inspiration.

[30:43] But you can also see how pole cutting and using this to prune would be very nice.
A lot of pruning knives are that shape, that hawkbill shape, and it's good for reaching through the bramble and grabbing that stem and then pulling towards you and cutting, trapping the material, trapping the stem between the ricasso and that hawkbill tip.
Tip. Just a charmer. I love this little knife and I love the blue color, the cheerful blue color. You know, I like the Stormcloud blue, the Thunderhead blue TM, but I do also like the cheerful sort of blue. Now, this is inspiring me to get the push dagger. What is it called? The one that is a part of this bouquet series and has a little... It's not a dagger, but It's like a push knife.
I want to get that one now because I think it's very small like this and has a very small blade. more in that.

[31:42] Perpendicular mounting. So same day that this arrived, by the way, thank you Best Tech, I will be doing a review of this one and it will be positive, spoiler alert.
You may have noticed I don't really put up negative reviews.
It's if I feel negatively about a knife, which doesn't happen so frequently, because I don't have tons of companies sending me knives and I also don't buy knives I don't think I'm gonna like.
But if I really don't like one and I can't remember that ever happening recently, I'm not gonna put up a thing to bash it. I just won't highlight it, that's all.
But on the same day that this arrived, this arrived.

[32:20] Look at this. Look at this contrast here. Here is the WorkTough Gear Pouzon Predator Hunter Bowie.
There, I got it all out.
So the Pouzon Bowie by WorkTough Gear, we've seen a lot of, I've never handled one, but a lot of our friends have them and talk about them.
Scab, for instance, has been showing that off a lot on the Choir Boys Cutlery channel, as well as many others.

[32:50] But this is the second run of the newest version of the Pouzon Bowie, because there are a couple of different versions of it, and it is a monster.
It is an absolute monster.
It almost makes the Natchez Bowie, it's about the same, it's a little bit longer, but the blade is about the same, But it almost makes it seem diminutive by comparison, just because of how broad that blade is.
And man, do not be fooled. This is incredibly sharp.

[33:21] I have posted a short of me throwing up a piece of paper and swiping at it, and it's kind of dumb and dangerous, but it is so sharp it cuts the paper without any support from holding it.
To put this down now because it's so heavy I can barely heft it. Just kidding.
It's about a two pound knife with the sheath. It is no shrinking violet, that is for sure. Cool thing about this is I remember looking at that guard and thinking, that might hurt, but it's so nicely chamfered, so nicely chamfered that you can use it fully without any issue. It is very comfortable in this This choked up position is also very comfortable back here in sort of the regular position.
Saber grip and then also choked all the way back in the bird's beak pommel, it is very, very comfortable.
Now why is it called the Predator Hunter? Well I don't have confirmation on this, but I'm pretty sure it's inspired by the big knife that everyone carried in Predator.
So it is quite a beast.

[34:35] It's, what is the blade steel here? SK85, which I believe is a high carbon steel.
An interesting note here, it is very well finished, definitely when you look at the handles, beautifully sculpted, the blade itself is very well finished.
You do see a little bit of slight machine chatter right here on the tang, just a little bit on the underside.

[35:01] Not enough to feel, not enough to look bad in any way, but you can see the history there a little bit, which I actually find kinda cool.
But also, this top is 90 degrees.

[35:15] It's got a 90 degree spine for throwing sparks, which I have no doubt would do very well.
However, on this side, on the, I don't know if that's the show side, but on this side of the blade, there's almost like a little burr on the spine.
When they were grinding it, flattening the spine, there's just a slight burr you can feel.
I mean, I can scrape off fingernail there.
So what I'm going to do is just run a piece of sandpaper over that a few times and knock that down.
But I found that interesting, a little bit of unfinishedness to this.

[35:51] But that in no way takes anything from this knife.
Now, I am not sure what I'm gonna do with this knife besides just cut stuff, like just chop stuff for fun.
Like for me, it's not a fighter. I mean, you could certainly do plenty of damage with it, but it's too heavy and too broad for me to think of this as a fighter.
It's just more like an alpha knife. You know, it's just the big boy on the block that pushes everyone around, or just scares them with his size. That's what this is.
And it's got such a cool design, and I've always wanted one of those predator knives, and this kind of fits the bill nicely.
Even though it doesn't really look too much like it, it's that tip that is evocative of it, that swedge. Nice long fuller. Very cool knife. You got the beautiful liners there and love the handle so nicely sculpted.

[36:46] And shaped. Work tough gear man. Really, really cool stuff coming out of Taiwan and their small batch, small batch production knives. They almost I don't know they almost vibe as custom knives in a strange way, just with how they're released and and how they're made.
Very excited about that. and to check out other WorkTough gear knives in the future.
All right, the moment you've all been waiting for, the late night dog walking knives.
Now I'm gonna give you a couple of parameters, some parameters to this categorization.

[37:22] Late night dog walking, I oftentimes will put in earbuds, I know, bad idea, but we don't have a lot of cars driving through the neighborhood, especially late at night, And I always have what I'm listening to low enough that I can hear my own footsteps and hear the jingle of the dog's tag and that kind of thing.
And so that leads me to believe that I have, that I can hear pretty well.
But still, you know, I worry about, I worry about things just like you do.
And yes, I'm usually listening to something spooky in my headphones, because it's kind of fun to walk around in the dark listening to something spooky.
But I really have the knives on me, not for spooky things or for spooky people.
Of course, they would work well on spooky people, but I'm more concerned about other dogs or other animals.
We do have a lot of foxes around here, and there was a fox found to be rabid not too far away.

[38:22] And something that you'll hear if you listen to this week's interview, really confirms kind of how I think of things.
Like, if there's a dog attacking your child or your dog, and you have a pistol on you, you're probably not gonna wanna shoot because A, you're out in the middle of the neighborhood, but also, how do you get a clean shot?
It would be a lot more difficult than I would imagine. This is all in my imagination.
Hopefully it remains there, but then it would be to stick a dog with a knife because that way there's less risk of the bullet flying somewhere and hitting an unintended target, chief among them, whatever's being attacked that you love.
So this is what goes on in my brain.
Take it or leave it. All right, first up in this category of, oh, plus, almost all of them except for one are dark blades.
I do prescribe to the notion.

[39:26] That a knife should be felt and not seen, and man, when you're in a dark car, for instance, or just out at night, there is a marked difference between a dark blade and a silver colored blade.
So first up in this list is the Off Grid Knives Stinger XL.
Coming from Off Grid Knives Taiwan manufacturer, they have, they do knives with Bestech and then a Taiwan manufacturer that just does amazing work.

[39:57] This is a full 4 inch spear point blade, such a nice knife, it's like a real evolution for Off Grid Knives.
The handle is nicely contoured.
You don't have any squared off edges or any rough textures, which might be included in some of the older models, but this is so refined.
It also looks great and has really nice action. But for a tactical knife, this really hits all the points.
It's got the size.
It's got great stabbing ability, or thrusting, let's say thrusting, because that is probably the most important thing for a tactical knife to have. This may be a polarizing opinion, but thrusting is known, it was known to the Roman army. So it still works today still stands today.
Thrusting is the best way to stop a threat. Slashing, you know, no doubt will discourage someone but it doesn't have the physiological stopping power that a thrust will have. So, This is great at that. It also has a deep carry pocket clip and comes in a fully blacked out version.
That is the Off-Grid Stinger XL.

[41:17] Next up, if I am feeling slashy, I'm going to want to do it with this because of its deep, deep recurve blade.
This is the Jason Knight Elements MK Ultra.
It's made by Fox. Now I think you just buy it straight from Fox, I got this, it was a limited edition that was coming out from Tactical Elements, the website, that does some really cool limited edition knives. This knife, very much a Jason Knight design, that blade, that fuller, are all signature, and the harpoon, kukri shape, shapes of Jason Knight's work and a perfectly done folding version of his kukris, but also to me the most kukri-like of the kukri folders, to include the Raja II by Cold Steel. I think this one really captures the shape, the look, and the spirit of the kukri best of all the folding kukris I've experienced. It also is great on a thrust. People don't think of kukris as thrusting implements because of the off angle of the blade to the handle, but most thrusts, like just a straight thrust in this way, that sort of pistol grip shape allows.

[42:44] You to put that point where you want it without having to cant your wrist too much. Whereas Whereas if you have a straight blade, you gotta cant your wrist, the point is already pretty much where you want it.
Now I have found in doing some of the Kali stuff I like to do, if you're coming around this way you might have to cant your wrist a little bit more, but on most thrusts it's gonna be right where you want it.
Great handle, this is a micarta, very grippy micarta, and then it's also got a shape perfect for maintaining.
Your grip and keeping it in your hand with that swell at the bottom.
Yeah, love this knife. And then instinctively, I'm more of a slasher, that that hollow grind's gonna release.
Gonna do it in spades. So the MK Ultra, definitely high up on my list.
Half of these are, less than half of them are folders, and then the rest are fixes.
Right here is, I guess I could say, any one of my Emersons, but this is is the Emerson I always go for, the Tiger.
It is all blacked out, but the ergonomic CQC 13 handle upon which this is built is the most, to me.

[44:00] The most secure of the Emerson handles.
And I have a number of them, and they're all nice, no doubt, I mean, I have the CQC 13, but the blade is shiny.
So this is the one I gravitate towards most.
This is a single detent Emerson. You know they changed, I think about 2016 they started going to the single detent.
They used to have a secondary detent right up here.
Apparently for keeping it closed, but it did not do its job very well because you could always shake out an Emerson blade.

[44:33] I love the generous wave on this. You are not missing that wave.
As a matter of fact, most Emersons you're not missing the wave, but for this one if I want to pull it out of my pocket without waving it open, I have to consciously grip it like this to keep the blade shut.
Chisel edge on this is so wickedly sharp. Chisel edges are just nasty, nasty wicked sharp and also track a little bit differently through organic material. I don't want to get too gross about it, but it does things to either side of the cut that make the cut worse. And you can see that in an old CMFW, CM video, Matthew Freeman video, he actually shows off the difference between a chisel edge and a V edge cutting through leather.
And it's rather grim. But I love this one because of the deployment for the late night dog walking surprise. All you have to do is wave it out of your pocket and it's good to ago. So a big, big one here. Also, somewhat pocketable in the summer, also in shorts. All of these kind of are that except for some of the larger fixed place. Next one here is definitely my favorite winter folder for the purpose. This is.

[45:58] The Voyager XL. This one happens to be a signature series. But it's the Vacchero with the serrations. And of course, you get this in the.

[46:08] Just the regular version, which is available for like, I don't know, 75 bucks in Aus10.
This is in CTS XHP steel, and it's got that wicked yatagan-shaped blade.

[46:26] With a deep, deep recurve, but the point right down center line, so you kind of always know where it is, no matter how your hand is oriented.
Why do I love this for winter? Well, because that deep recurve with the serrations is going through leather.
It's going through big puffy jackets like they're not even there.
But I mean, it's really...
It has wicked, wicked bite. Heavy canvas Carhartt-style jackets.
It's not even going to know it's there. This one has a snaggletooth MF on it, so you can just wave it out of your pocket.

[46:59] To be totally honest, I don't like how it looks, but this isn't about looks in this case.
I also don't like the giant second grade teacher signature that Lynn Thompson has on that blade, but I've gotten used to it.
I love, I always mention that, I love his signature.
It looks like, well, it looks like a second grade teacher's signature, and he's such a, you know, he's so much not like that, it's a little bit of dissonance, and I like that.
Great grip on this thing that allows you to come all the way back here for standoff distances and still allows you to thrust very, very well because that curved handle nestles in the pommel, but also these finger grooves allow you to get good grip if you're gonna be swiping and slashing.
Great, great late night dog walking knife, but I gotta say, probably all of the large cold steels could fit into that category, but I would keep it to serrated, why not?
Okay, now we're gonna get into the fixed blade knives, And this is one that I've been carrying a lot recently because it's new and I'm very excited about it.
But this is if you're just, for me this is a grab and go dog walk knife because it's got the utility of a folder in that it just sits right in your pocket, but it's got the power of a fixed blade.

[48:20] This is the Amtac Northman, a knife that also comes with a trainer, I don't have it around me, so that you can practice taking it in and out of your pocket.
This is intended to be a pocket knife. Not an in the waistband knife, not a belt knife, but a pocket knife.
Now you can put it in those other positions, but I would caution against it.
Because of the tightness of your waistband when drawing it, you're likely to cut the the waistband.

[48:49] This one I opted for the serrated version. This was a gift from my father and he asked if I wanted the serrated or not.
And believe me, I'm sure you can imagine how I hemmed and hawed, I don't know, and back and forth. And I finally, I'll take the serrated.
It's a small blade and that can really help accelerate cuts.
And this is M390 and it's not like I'm out in the wilderness using it all the time.
So it'll probably never need sharpening and probably never actually need those serrations, but they do bite.
And if you look at the slant of that blade towards the tip, you know, it might be good to have some bite on it just in case it glances away. Sculpted G10 handle scales, very comfortable with that thumb rest on top.
You can really cap the thumb there. This is intended to be an all-purpose tactical and just outdoor, everyday carry style knife. It's got a ferro rod built right into it.
It's got a 90 degree spine for throwing sparks.
This Discrete Carry Concept style clip, I'm not sure if it is, but it's very much like it.

[49:58] Is permanently mounted in that position, unlike many kydex sheaths where you can reposition that.
But for this, great. There's gonna be no disarming this knife, and if you had to dispatch an animal, I think this would go right through the noggin without any issue whatsoever.
Heaven forbid you're attacked by a rabid fox, you know, this might be the thing.
But if you have a sword cane, that might help too, just to keep it away from you.
Sword canes are pretty awesome.
This is designed by Bill Rapier, who's a former Navy SEAL, and all that that implies.

[50:41] All right, next up is a wicked one. This is one that if you're ever busted by the cops and you're carrying this, they might not believe you that it's for work.
But this is the JB Knife and Tool Ditch Pick.
They have a number of models and then they have a number of those models in the ditch lineup.
The ditch means that it's thinner.
So this is 1,6 of an inch thick blade steel. very, very thin and quite flexible and very strong, especially for the thinness of it.
Double-edged, pick-all style knife.

[51:18] I guess if it's double-edged, it's technically not pick-all style, it's just a curved double-edged blade, but these are normally pick-all, and when this run came out, he was offering different edge types, bayonet style, double-edged, and single-edged.
Of course, I had to go for the double-edged.
The grip is fantastic, it's the textured peel ply textured G10, which is very grippy.
And then the profile of the handle itself fits in the hand perfectly and is really optimized for this reverse grip.
This would also be a great stabbing tearing kind of thing. Would take very little effort and since it's so thin, it's going to just slip through whatever is it's being pulled through.
So this one gets a lot of carry, a lot of play on those late night walks.
And oftentimes with these knives, especially the, well, exclusively the fixed blades, I can hang them upside down in CM style carry, under my belt so that the handle projects downward like this.

[52:30] And I can just pull it out.
My preferred, my normal preferred style of carry is in the waistband like this, but if you're wearing a jacket and you think you might need it and you don't wanna have to unzip your jacket and fuss for it, carrying it downward if it's got a good retaining sheath is a great way to go because you can just pull it out that way or you can pull it out normal grip if you just put the palm out.
All right, next up, this is one that's probably gotten the most outdoor play, or late night dog walking play, and early morning, and that is the Street Bowie by Fred Perrin, designed by Fred Perrin and produced by Spyderco.
Just a great, great bowie shape. You've got the integral finger groove here, which acts as the guard.
I guess the integral part is the guard. It's integral to that groove.
And the shape of the groove is important here. It's not just a semi-circle, it is asymmetrical.

[53:34] And it actually puts the knife in a position where the tip is perfectly center line and also the edge is slightly downward canted in that grip, which adds to the ability, the cutting and shearing ability.
Speaking of shearing, it's a full flat ground blade, VG-10, very, very sharp, and I've made it even more so.
And it happens to be a great knife for no-spin knife throwing.
So at about, I don't know, eight to 10 feet, I can whip this into a board, the throwing board we have outside, in this style.
That's right.
And it comes out and travels straight. It's really good for that.
I've tried it a couple of times further back and doing one spin and I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'm willing to throw it with abandon.
I think it would have no problem holding up seeing as it's molded, the handle is molded around the tang, but still, this is more of a no spin.

[54:42] Close up thrower for me. great in the reverse grip, that's how I carry it, tip down, edge out, and then I have the fob there because in practicing pulling this out of the pretty loose sheath, I mean, it comes out of the sheath pretty easily, that's why I've kept this sheath instead of making a new one, it is pretty big.
I would glance off the top because there's no sort of bird's beak to catch your hand, So I put that there just to grab in case.
And it works fine. And it looks kind of cute. You know, it's like that happy, cheerful pink on a black knife.
Oh, I mentioned the throwing before. That's why the tip is all one.
Like that, I'm throwing the wood.

[55:29] All right, this has been one I've been carrying a bit lately.
Actually, these last three.
This is the Zabo Express by Topps Knives.
It's got a great sheath and I love this clip that some of the Topps knives are shipping with now instead of the repositional, rotational clip which kind of sets the knife away from your belt about, I don't know, three quarters of an inch.
Not as fond of that as I am of this. sheet here but look at this knife.
You're like, yeah, we've looked at it, you've shown it to us.
Well, this makes a great late night dog walking knife, especially in that handle down carry method I was talking about, because of the way it swells out at the bottom of the very neutral handle, which I like and is not really very signature of Lacy Zabo.
Lacy Zabo, the designer of this, frequently has very ergonomically locked in handles, where your hand has to fit in a certain way.
This is quite neutral, but that nice swell in bird's beak right here allows you to draw it, with surety, especially in that downward position.

[56:42] 154CM blade steel, made in the USA. It comes in single edged or double edged.
I prefer the double edged.
And looking at this, at first I thought it was a dagger. I was kind of loosely calling it a dagger.
But it's more of a fighter because of the asymmetry of the top grind and the bottom grind and the profile.
And for some reason, I'm able to see that clearly when I look at it upside down.
When I look at it right side up, it looks more like a dagger to me.
But yeah, this is a fighter. It's got great quillions here. You've got the really nice jimping on the back of this quillion, which is important because you do not want your thumb running up onto that secondary edge.
Very nicely sculpted micarta, canvas micarta handles with the handsome red lines there.
Love this knife. This is also my current, one of my current bedside knives.
This is the one that's not in the drawer.
Okay, second to last here, this has gotten tons of play ever since I got it.
This is the Ruffian from Jack, oh, don't do that, Hogtooth Knives.
And it is so nice for the thrust because of that swedge.

[57:59] That harpoon swedge comes all the way down to the tip, making the tip rather dagger-like and diamond in cross-section.
And then it's just got a wicked relief edge at the base of this thinly hollow ground blade.
This is a wicked, wicked cutter, but also thruster. ruster and if you look at the point you'll see it's it's slightly below the line of the two screws so it's like slightly below midline which also makes it pretty good if you want to use it in a utility sense if you want to use that tip but that's not really what this is optimized for called the ruffian and And with that tactical look, it is...
Well, it is a good all-arounder, but it does excel at the sort of tactical usage.

[58:51] You got the really nice jimping there, and beautiful blue liners on mine, this is a custom, and really nice Micarta handle scales with this Anzo pattern milled in.
That Anzo pattern is so nice. It feels good, and it also just locks your finger in, your fingers in.
Also, you see the choil and the swell at the bottom of the handle.
I mean, the ergonomics on this are so sure and so positive. I do believe you could have wet hands and go to town with this and never, never worry about it coming out of your hands.
I love the deep hollow grind too.
This is the Ruffian from Hogtooth Knives.
Let's see, I guess, yeah, it's the only custom. No, I'm sorry, it is one of two customs in this list.
And this last one is also a custom.
Newest of all of these is the Dirk Pinkerton Razorback. And I had this one double edged as well.
And this is the only one that's shiny, but I just can't resist this sometimes.
It also carries really well upside down in that CM style carry and has this neutral handle, that just works perfectly. It's not too big and not too small.
It's the perfect, perfect size.

[1:00:11] And perfect neutrality. It swells towards the pommel, giving you that sort of retention, but also is curved nicely.
It fits the thumb well. And it also, if you're gonna wear it in the waistband, does not poke the ribs badly.
You know, it's not uncomfortable around the ribs. Deep, deep hollow grind on some relatively thin steel. This is Elmat.
Yeah, Elmax, you'll list it right there. And based on the conjar from the Middle East.

[1:00:45] So you've got a top-hooking sort of hawkbill blade, and then on the bottom, you have an upswept bowie-style blade, so together, those two factors make this utterly wicked, and makes me feel very confident, when I'm walking around with this late at night with the dog.
And a dog also helps.
Argo, what a sweetie. I should have put a picture up of him.
Wasn't thinking about that.

[1:01:12] All right, so that's my list of dog walking knives. And let me know, do you carry certain knives when you take your dog out late night for a walk? Maybe you don't have a dog, maybe you just go out late night.
Maybe you're taking the garbage out to the end of your half mile long driveway or something like that.
What do you carry?

[1:01:29] What do you carry late at night? It's, I don't know, something interesting to consider.
Also, whether you're gonna have a blacked out blade or not.
You know, you're gonna go commando style.
All right. Thank you for joining me on this version of the Knife Junkie podcast. So great to have you here with us. This, by the way, is episode 400. So if you've watched all 399 preceding podcasts, I thank you. And if you haven't, well, it's time to start catching, up. Thanks for joining us. And 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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[1:02:49] Music.