Donnie B All Day (A.K.A. Dbad), Youtube Knife Reviewer And Knife Designer - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 389)

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

Transcript
[0:00] 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 Donnie B All Day.
Donnie is a knife reviewer on YouTube and a knife designer in the real world. These creations are available made to order from the Kukri House in Nepal.
And he has a love of big knives, big beastly bowies and other types, like his recent Arkansas toothpick, which some call a short sword, but they are wrong.
It is a big American knife and a beaut.
He can also throw anything with a point and make it stick. In fact, DBAD's YouTube shorts are responsible for rekindling my interest in knife throwing.
And actually, if I do say so myself, I've been doing better than ever, so much so that my daughters are asking me to teach them.
I've been watching them on YouTube for a while and I've been looking forward to meeting Donnie for quite some time and talk knives. But before we do, be sure to like, comment, subscribe and hit the notification bell and download the show to your favorite podcast app.

[1:16] Also, if you like to would like to support the show, you can do so by going to Patreon. Again, you can scan the QR code or go to the knifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
Again, that's theknifejunkie.com. the Knife Junkie at thenifejunkie.com to catch all of our podcast episodes, videos, photos,
and more.

[2:00] Donnie, welcome to the show, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
It's real good to have you and real good to meet you. So everyone knows, I first came in contact with your channel on one of those, I don't,
know, insatiable tears for one certain kind of knife.
For me, that's the Bowie.
I come in and out of different phases.
I was in a real heavy Bowie phase recently. The last Bowie phase, I started watching you.
You obviously have a love of this. I do. Tell me, actually, before we even get to your love of knives, I also want to congratulate you on your recent design.
As I mentioned up front, you design knives and have them made by an amazing company. you have something that you just released, the Arkansas toothpick, and that is an impressive knife.
You know what's funny is I actually have now two makers and another one.

[3:00] Possibly coming around the board. But yeah, the Kukri House. KHH is responsible for making all my giant knives. And the one you're talking about is right here. This little tiny guy.

[3:15] Just phenomenal, phenomenal in the hand. An amazing blade. But then there's Kroko knives that I have my second knife about to be. It's going to be released pretty soon with them.
And I'm excited about that as well. Well, okay, so let's back up to the very beginning. Where did this love of knives come from, particularly this kind of big knife? My grandmother used to stab us
as children. Oh, I see. It's a bonding thing. Yeah. You know, we talked earlier and where I live,
we have a lot of woodlands. I mean, a lot of woodlands. I live out in the Berkshires,
And I just grew up in the woods. I grew up with knives. I grew up with anything sharp, really.
And when I was young, I would make my own weapons and things like that. I've been in martial arts all my life and doing weapons training. It was something that didn't just start one day. It was gradual since you lost your first binky and you have to pick something up to to make up for it.

[4:24] That's what I found.

[4:26] Yeah, I can relate. I can certainly relate, especially to the part of just not really knowing where it originated.
I sometimes go back to a toy. My brother had a toy knife when we were like, very, very little, very little, and I coveted it, you know?
And, but, you know, that's just me overanalyzing, but it's interesting to see how over time an interest in knives builds.
Yeah, well, you know Rambo happened and once Rambo happened came this the Rambo knife the typical Rambo survival knife and then the late 70s early 80s,
We had these hollow handled pieces of crap that had a nut that held on a little screw in the bottom that broke and loosened every time you used it and,
And it's just the passion just ignited thanks to Rambo, that very first first blood knife.

[5:20] At all. That's what took me from just really liking knives to really having a passion for them. Me too. For me, it was First Blood, Part 2. Rambo, the first one, I didn't quite see.

[5:38] In the theater. I just didn't see it at the time. It wasn't exposed. But Rambo 2, First Blood, first blood part two. In any case, the thing that really bummed me out about the popularity
of the hollowed handled knives that came out shortly after that. And you remember it's got a bottle opener cut into the back of the blade, very cheap with the saw blade clip.

[6:01] Point was that it looked nothing like the actual Rambo.
No, it had a big bulb end on it. It was just a steel handle. The compass on the, I was on the outside and it was a bubble compass. They were so horrible. It was a zero tang with a nut.
Yeah, yeah. That's all it was. It was a little screw it. So you saw these movies and so that's when you started really getting into them and collecting.

[6:31] And I thought I'm already jumping out of trees. Why not do it with a knife? So, you know, perfect.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, amen. And what could speak to independence more than that?
Right, right. Exactly. I mean, he was so independent. I mean, they threw him in jail, then he was stuck in a cave. He was so independent.
Yeah, right. So, okay, before we get to how you design and kind of where it comes from and what your process is, you served in the military, correct?
Yeah, yeah, man. I was a U.S. Army man. I'm a nine-year combat vet and all that jazz, time decorated American hero and I got to get my swing things going on, you know?
Yeah. It was fun. It was fun. On behalf of me and my family, thank you for your service.
Well, on behalf of me and me, it was all pleasure. Well, yeah.
I'm glad you could derive that. So I am imagining that your experience in combat must really have shape. There must be a before combat and after combat idea of the ideal knife.
Can you track that?

[7:50] No. No, the knife I was issued isn't something I would have chosen, but once I got it and used it, then I'm really glad I had it. But my knife mind before going to combat was already,
there. I went in late. I did 12 years of law enforcement. I was a rescuer at Ground Zero in New York. I burned my eyes, my feet, my hands, and my lungs at Ground Zero. Once I
healed up, I healed up at 35 years old. I joined the Army immediately and volunteered for combat and that's how I ended up there. So I already had like a world of experience going into
it. You know, I guess I'd say if my way I saw knives change probably was because I was a boy scout early on and you go from this is a badass knife to okay this is how I start a flier and so
that's when it really started to click.
It was when I was younger. So in law enforcement, I'm not even sure how, you know, I know a lot of police officers do my job and they carry folders mostly, but so how was a law enforcement officer?
You said you were a policeman, police officer? I was a constable and I was a park ranger even.
Oh, cool. Yeah, that was a wild fun job. I bet, man.

[9:16] I was an animal control officer and I was a bounty hunter. Really?
Bounty hunting, I have to say, of all of them was next to animal control, it was probably the second most fun.
Bounty hunting, my last bounty hunt, the last thing I had to serve was in Spanish Harlem, New York.
We went out there with a team and we just had a blast chasing this guy down. It was ridiculous, but we got him.
Well, okay, okay, okay. What is it like? I don't think I've ever met a bounty hunter in real life. This is what it's like.

[9:56] It's really boring because you're just looking. You're looking for him, looking for him, looking for him. It doesn't get fun until you actually find him.
But just what made it so fun was the team I was with. We had a couple of guys, one guy, he's older guy.
His name was Angus. This guy was like 70 years old, wore a beret, like all Scottish. He looked like he just came out of a parade, like a Scottish parade.
He looked like that all the time. He had the big fat mustache. He was just this cool dude. My partner was with me and we just, we just, man, we went at it and had a blast.

[10:33] You know i was like i was always the guy that's gonna do the tackling i was always you know i mean i was that guy so angus who's seventy he just knew where to point us. And it was like point click go and that's what he did just sent me loose like that's the one and it was fun and it was so much fun once you got to that point outside that it was so there's nothing more boring than a stakeout nothing.
So were you doing, before you actually found the guy, were you kind of doing the same sort of mental legwork that Angus was doing or sleuthing?
Or were you just kind of waiting around for the... I did this much of the legwork, but I did this much of the get-em. It was my cuffs on him.
It was me who made first contact, but everything like the game plan, the setup, everything was Angus.
The guy was a genius when it came to this.
I was just a lackey.

[11:36] But I would imagine you have to be tough as hell, tough as nails to do a job like that, but also have a real love for that kind of confrontation, that kind of situation.
You have to have known what it's like to punch somebody in the face in your past and know that somebody's going to be trying to punch you in the face real soon.
Yeah, that's what makes it exciting. Being a big guy, a lot of times, like this last guy, he was a stocky dude, but he was like 5'8", so when he went chest to chest with me, he pretty much knew he was about to get messed up if he did.
It actually went really easy. The guy, once he was caught, was like, all right, all right. There was no, I would love to tell a special story about how he pulled out a knife and I had to throw him against a wall and there was a big glass breakthrough.
No, no, he gave up real quick.

[12:29] Real quick. Yeah. I bet that's where size comes in handy. Yeah. Because you might be smaller and able to handle yourself, but you don't want it to have to come to proven it.
Yeah. And I had backup behind me. So I mean, he was pretty smart. He was pretty smart.
He knew he was being chased. He knew he was supposed to be hiding and he was hiding in a car rim shop, his cousin's tires and rims.
It was a little tiny shop, which is crazy because walking through Spanish Harlem, it was like live chickens, live chickens, live chickens, car audio, live chickens, live chickens, car tire.
It was like the weirdest thing. All the stores were set up.
But yeah, it was fun, man. It was fun going in. Once it was point and click, then I'm on. That's my game.
So when you're doing that...

[13:21] Can you go armed? Can you carry a knife? Or is that forbidden? A knife, I mean, you're not really... It was since it was Spanish-style in New York, we had to go by New York laws. Oh, God. The only time I ever carried in New York was at ground zero.

[13:36] That was the only time I went in full gear. But as far as bounty hunting, no, no, no. You don't carry no gun.
And if you have a knife, don't get exposed. You're just a bounty hunter. You have no real anything. You know what I mean?
So the police really say, I don't, they can tell you, I don't give a crap what you are. I mean, you're just a bounty hunter. That's it.
So, and generally a lot of bounty hunters, um, were either ex ex military or ex police, a lot of them are just that way.
Like Angus was ex law enforcement from Scotland. So he was like the Scottish police officer who came here and started that up.
And, uh, and yeah, so they kind of respect a little bit, but most cops really don't care because they see you as lesser, which in reality, I'm not going to lie as a bounty hunter, you are. You're not out there doing the daily thing like a police officer is.
I'm not pulling people over and getting shot at all the time. Yeah. You haven't sworn an oath.
Yeah. The bounties, they come once in a while. It's not an everyday thing. So this wasn't like nine to five, okay, we got these seven to go get. No, it was like, all right, two weeks we found one.
You know, yeah, yeah, that's how that went. So then you go from that kind of experience, which is Seems like it'd be a pretty hair-raising Kind of thing for the faint of heart and then you go and then later you're you're in combat. So.

[15:01] So the.
Knives you end up designing afterward, you know, you, you're, you're, you begin to do that. First of all, when did you start actually designing an earnest?
Um, for my first real design was the preacher. Um, um, and, and what's special about this one is I wanted every, every knife design out there. If I pulled out this one, my Rambo
three, this knife design has been done a thousand times by a thousand people. It's nothing special. My job was just to make it better, more balanced, this and that. There's a jillion
kukris. This one obviously a little different, but it's still a kukri, right? There's a lot of the blade designs that I have are historical. I mean, if nobody's ever seen this, then they live under a rock. So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, not so fast. Show this off. Let me see this thing.
But yeah, continue, continue with what you were saying though. This is my version of the Musobuoy, right? And my it was my grail knife was a real moose. So the problem is, they usually come with.

[16:08] Some kind of stick or a little screw job in there. And they kind of suck in the in the handle. It's just glued on nothing or a little screw on the inside. It's really crappy. You get some kind of
rat tail. So my deal was I wanted to
make historically equal from here to here i wanted to be historically correct and that's exactly what i did this is actual. Act the actual size one hundred percent from here to here as the original.
I'm so boring and i want to make sure that that was capitalized when i hold it and i look at it.

[16:51] From my hand up, I'm looking at exactly what Jim Bowie would have looked at. That except mine instead of brass is steel and it's welded on, not glued on, and it's black instead of polished. That's the only difference.
But it's the handle that makes this one different. True Full Tan Construction, McCarter Scales, and the contouring and the size of the handle make everything.
Is completely measured out mathematically to be 100% correct. And that's what makes this one so special. Otherwise, it's just another Musso Buoy, to be honest. But it's
this from here to here and the way it's done hasn't been done by anybody else. It's weird.
This camera's backwards. I'm losing myself. But so when I did the preacher, the preacher, This is a one-off type design.
There's every kind of knife you can think of has already been done. It's just, they're overused, done designs, but it's because they work, so we're gonna keep overusing them.
Now it just comes to making it better or making it your own.
With this one, I went with a modified predator tip, which means instead of a true clipper, a predator tip is straight. It's two angular lines.
I went with a slight curve, but to bring it down just short So it's a really short clip.

[18:17] With a really short belly so you have a small waist with a high belly but it's a three cheer of knife and that's these. Grooves right here right so the three cheer is our first shock of the absorb shock and all that.
It just but what it changes on the way this one is the prototype and so you can see how real is it is a big thick knife. And what i did different is in the is in the finger choice the finger choice backwards so people will get it and put your finger here is a little comfortable.
What's not made for that it's made for this and so is the angle of the of the grip it's made to hold your pinky in a perfect placement so when you're grabbing the knife in a fighting position.

[19:03] You have a perfect grab. So what what's so special about this one is this is nobody's out nobody else has ever done this blade design. This is my own blade design and it's really hard as a designer to come up with something new.
It's like the guy developing the next car. It's like, oh, it's got a hood in the trunk. It's been done. So for this one, this one really set it off because I,
designed it for me personally. I wanted something that nobody else on the planet had. And I came up with something that nobody else had. The problem is I did a video on it saying, hey, check out my new knife. And then I just got tons of people I want when I want when I want. And so once I had 50 people saying that they're ready to order one, and,
I was giving them design the design to send to Krupprius. And I talked to the guys over there and I said, listen, I said, I got a lot of people asking. I said, I have more Why don't we just come together and you can do a page and you can sell my designs and.

[20:03] Instant. Well, yeah, so So that's how it all got started was with this knife. This is this is the knife that literally set the bad designs It's was it was supposed to be just a personal knife,
I designed it because nobody else ever had and I wanted it for me and.

[20:23] It turned out to be really really popular So that's how it all got started. That's the work right there.
So I saw that knife first on Scab's channel, on Quiet Boy's Cutlery.
He's used his more than anybody else. Beautiful. And then, okay, so there are a couple of things I wanna ask from what you were just talking about.
First of all, the predator tip on that is referring to the predator machete that they all had. Jenny with the straight cut and it had a linear linear cut down instead of a swoop and then it was just a straight line all the way to the tip of small can't in the line.
So what I wanted to do is I love the predator tip, but I'm not so, so much of a fan of linear knives. So I wanted to change it just a little bit and it has to be had to be short.
I didn't want a long one.

[21:17] And you see a lot of predator tips where people cut it cut it. So I said, how can I do a predator tip?
But to my liking, to how I wanted it. So I just gave it a curl and I shortened it.
And it's basically like taking a drop point knife. So if I was to take this knife, which is a drop point in this, as you can see,
aside from the size, they're almost similar up until that little break on this one.
That little break right there. tip for tip, they're pretty close, except for that. And so it was basically a drop point knife that I changed into a clip. So I just wanted to play with it and just literally do something nobody
else had done. Okay. So you were, you were talking also about the, oh yeah. And, and for sure, when I first saw that knife, I recognized that it was pretty unusual. You know, clip point, yeah.

[22:18] But everything else about it, you know, especially the, I can't remember the term you called it, but those giant fat shears. Shears is something used. It's famously from Nepal. And what they do
is they put scallops along the blade and it's to absorb shock when they hit. Right. And it looks It looks like it might add rigidity to like an IB.
It absolutely does. It's arches.
So, but what, oh geez, now I'm getting lost. So there's that.
Oh, but also you were talking about the Musso Bowie. So now every knife you held up, I'm like, maybe I'll get that one instead.
No, maybe I'll get it. And then I'm like, first of all, I don't have to just get one. A and B, it just goes to show like, you and I have, I think similar taste. I really dig your design. That Musso that you were holding up, beautiful blade.
But what does Musso mean?
It's actually a name. There's two people that were believed to have designed it, even three.
People talked about Rezin, who is Jim's brother.
And then they talk about James Black, and they talk about a guy whose name is Musso. And so there was huge controversy who actually designed the original knife.
And because so many people thought it was Musso or believe it to be Musso, it just commonly became called the Musso Buoy. So that's how it just got the name. But it was my grail knife. I actually.

[23:42] Got to see what's said to be the original. It was in a museum in Texas. I was down there.
And they let me in after hours to go and get a really close-up look at it. And it just put me in knife heaven. And so I knew when I took pictures of it, I knew that I needed to make this,
exactly what I saw. And that's, that's why it is what it is.
It's beautiful. Is that a clip zero ground sharp? Oh, no, no, no, this is just swedged. So you're not going to cut yourself on that.

[24:19] And like I said, the original was the same way it was swedged. As a matter of fact, the point where the swedge starts is exactly where the original is. The point from this tip to this
is exactly where the original is. The distance that the distance from where this curls up to where the spine is is exactly as the original is. So when you're looking at the blade down aside
from colorations, and here would be brass color and here would be polished, aside from color,
you're looking at Jim Bowie's knife. And that was the most important thing to me was to make it historically accurate and the important part to see, yet extremely strong and comfortable and the the most important part the whole.
So that's what I think. What do they think the handle or what did the handle look like in the original? The handle on the original, I don't have anything next to me, but it was basically.

[25:18] More similar to this, but not true full tang. So it was just a piece of wood and it had a little bump in it, but it was fat at the bottom and then it got itself thinner with one little finger you're swelling it and that was it.
But it was just a burn in where they basically took a triangle tang and burned it, heated it up real bad and stuck it through the wood and glued it and that's how they got it.
It wasn't really secured. There was nothing like this. It didn't go all the way to the end.
Yeah. So on that Musso and you see this a lot on that style of Bowie knife, that backstrap, In your case, it's steel on the original, you said it's brass. What's that for?
The brass is for absorbing shock from an enemy's weapon.
So brass is soft. So if somebody was to hit and you were hitting, let's say you're holding the knife and a reverse fighting grip, which is holding it so where the edge is out,
and you can bang a person's weapon and then come through with a thrust, it would take the shock away when you hit and then move through.

[26:30] And it would save your blade from possible cracking and chipping.

[26:34] Right, that is so cool. Yeah, these guys, this happened so long ago. They're just geniuses that never got credit for being geniuses.
It looks like a saber. You can really see some, in some styles of Bowie, you can see a sort of saber influence. and in some...

[26:55] You know, it's kind of hard to do research on Bowie fighting styles, but in a lot of fighting styles that I've seen, there's a lot of kind of saber-like, you know, motions and that back cut. And it's just very interesting to think that we have an American style of knife fighting.

[27:12] Right. And the saber is actually what prompted the Confederate Army to use things like this. or the guys in the South who first created the D-guard, it was so they can fight from
horseback. That's why it was so long. But it was absolutely the cutlass that prompted this design. And it just became such a famous weapon and a needed piece in history for the
Southerners, it was just a monster, monster fighting tool. When you're coming riding full out on a horse and you swat, this thing will remove a head. And that's why I wanted it because,
the past in this design, like if you look at mine, what separates it from the originals,
I use the same shape for a lot of the guards that you see historically, the same shape in the D guard.
My D guard is really strong, really thick. It is truthful Tang instead of what they did is use a rat tail and then they screw this onto the rat tail. With my knife, this is just pretty
much for show. The tang is pretty much welded onto there and this is that it's really because I wanted some kind of historical accuracy in the rear. I could have left it off, but.

[28:33] It's on there just because the originals would have had some kind of little acorn nut or some kind of nut to hold the knife in.
But obviously this is true full tang.
So this knife's not going anywhere from the scales, but it just needed that.
It just needed that realistic look and.

[28:51] But also a force multiplier on a on a back fist you know strike oh yeah yeah without a doubt i wouldn't want to get hit by it oh man so you showed this is something that's very interesting to me uh you showed holding the bowie in that reverse uh grip with the spine facing outward,
i've heard that called the randall fighting method because i think some some people in world war ii use their randall number ones that way right because they all have that sharpened swedge which Right. But the thing is it goes way back in history. This is BC type history. And so.

[29:27] People who popularize it get to call it whatever they want. But yeah, it's just a reverse grip to where you're aiming the spine at another person's weapon. And the only reason is to protect your
edge because your edge, especially when you're fighting Genghis Khan's army and you're in the field, you need to keep an edge for as long as possible. And if you're out there clashing
weapons, guess what? Your edge is going to get screwed up. That's why like you see, it's very popular in movies with, you see the samurai. And the samurai would take your swords and you see him in these movies and they're having these 30 minute knife, I have sword fights and it's, oh,
man, these are amazing. It's not how it was back then with a real samurai. His katana was his lifeline. So he wouldn't want to chance ruining it or breaking it or ruining the edge. So what they,
they would do is block strike. They would try to get a fight over within one to two moves any chance they could. They never had these big long extravagant, that's just all Hollywood. But to save your knife, a lot of times, or even your sword, you would turn.
So you're not hitting directly with the edge when you're combating against another sword. You're almost going sideways or closer to the edge of your spine and then you'd react. It's just.

[30:43] Guys back then, they knew what it meant to rely on a blade where today, blades are fun. Blades, you know what I mean? Unless you're a hunter or you're skinning, they don't really care.
You're not thinking about going at somebody and having to preserve your knife for the next 300 days of fighting. So it's a much different mindset now than it was back then.

[31:07] You know, I love thinking about, well, I love history and I love thinking about, you know, American knives, American, well, I should say recently when Cold Steel came out with
their Arkansas toothpick and then, and I got one for my brother for Christmas and then yours came, you know, to you and you started showing it off and I was like, man, the Arkansas toothpick, that is a knife that I never think of.
I always think of the great and powerful Bowie and you know, but there are other American designs.
You know, you showed the Confederate D-guard. That is- Right, even the classic old west Bowie, the western Bowie, which I don't have one right here but pretty close, it would be this style blade, right?
So you have like the Case XX and the western 49s. These things have gone back all the way as far back as the 1800s. They wouldn't have all that. would pretty much look like this, right?
Without the rest of it.
But it's a tried and true design that has been back the 1836-ish area,
where you've seen a lot of these big buoys being carried and the long Arkansas toothpicks where you're finding 17 to 20 inch blades.

[32:25] That's when these things really got popularized. Then when Western came out with their 49 model in 1849, a lot of people think it started there, but they go a lot farther back. People even say, oh, it was the Marine Raider knife.
That was a hundred years after the first ones were even made.
And so it's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's amazing. That's exactly it.
That knife right there that you're holding, that design is a lot older than people think it is.

[32:55] And if you do some research, you can find some really old ones that I don't know if I've seen any out of America that have the exact same like handle style and all that, but blade shape or blade shape,
they've been out there for a long time.
So the W49 is actually 1849? That is.
That is, I mean, I know mine was made in 1980. I did the research.
Yeah, no, wait, no, sorry, 1949. It's. Oh, okay. I believe is the Western 19th forehead.

[33:29] I don't know. I know 1836 is the earliest American made one I've seen. Yeah, I think, I mean, it makes sense.
Now you got me all jacked up. I don't know if it was 18 or 19.

[33:39] I mean, I believe it because I've seen, you know, historical examples with blades that look exactly like this. And then the S guard you see sometimes. But I mean, one of my favorite shapes, you actually
did a video recently on your channel, which we will talk about. But, you know, you're talking about best EDC-able Western Bowies. I'm like, man, I like the cut of this guy's chip. You know,
he's talking about Western Bowies as an EDC item, you know? Man, I'll tell you, if you're going to carry a big knife, carry the right big knife. Make it good looking. So the history part
of it though, you know, I was talking waxing poetic about American historical knives, but in general, you know, looking at your designs, there is, you see a lot of Bowies and that kind of thing,
but there are other things too like that. Very cool. Which I'd like you to show. Sort of,
nightmare ground, Kukri. There are other things up there. And also on your design page, on your.

[34:41] YouTube page. This one right here. So this is the DBAD 12,000. And basically the Kukri house who specializes in kukri, that's what they did until they found me. They asked me one
time, they said, can you design a badass camp kukri, something that you can camp with, but,
it's a kukri. And I said, absolutely. So I drew up one and I didn't like the way it looked.
And then I came up with this thing and I started liking it better. And here's the deal is people been asked me forever to do a tracker knife. I hate tracker knives. I do. I just don't like them.
So because I don't like trackers and because I needed a badass Kukri that was camp, I said, well, why don't I just combine them? And rather than having a hard shift here where it goes,
up above the shift, I went equal to it. And that way I feel better about it because it's not so ugly. And people get their tracker, the Kukri house gets their Kukri and it pays homage to the,
12,000 Gurkha soldiers who fought off the 30,000 British soldiers. And they fought so hard and so well that eventually the British said, screw it, you can't beat them, join them and brought the.

[36:03] You know, the military brought in Gurkha soldiers and that's how that all started.
So it was paying homage to the 12,000 Gurkha.
Champions these guys were just some of the best warriors on the planet and um and while paying homage to them I got to fit and a few other things like a tracker a camp kukri and put it all together and just keep it.

[36:27] Completely nasty it had to be radical and badass and just tough and I don't know I think I got it there because it's sick. It's really absolutely and you got a westernized handle in there and you also
Yeah, I went with modern material. I went with true full tang, you know, and I went away from the classic Kukri grip because it had to be camp worthy and I wanted it to be as comfortable as a grip
could be. And so that's what I did. You also got that secondary point on there. I have to say that,
my grips are my main focus when I am making a knife. My grips are everything. The only grips I have that I wouldn't put in that category are, and I know you are a Rambo 2 fan.
Um, when I redid the Rambo 2, my version of it, I went with a typical round handle.
And I thought about going with just a nice black handle, you know, black scales, but I really wanted the, I really wanted the line going across.

[37:31] And I don't know, I just really, really had to go round. And even though I had to go around, I still made it slightly oval.
It's not perfectly round because I didn't want it to be shifting too much because I know a hundred percent that you're going to get shift with any kind of round.
It's just going to happen. That's part of the game. So but when I did my John Jay tribute, I was able to utilize some of the shape from the MK eight knife from his last movie.
Yeah. So I didn't have to go around. Hard stopper.

[38:02] Yeah. Yeah. stopper had that awful grip. I don't have that one with me because I better the grip. But the hard stopper had a sub-hill and it had this jump in it. I had to make that much So what this.

[38:17] This is a combination of four different movies. This represents the 10 inch blade from the second one.
It is more silver, more polished like in First Blood with green in the handle. The handle shape is from the MK8 and from the Heartstopper I brought in that style of guard.
So, I wanted to pay homage to the first two, last two movie knives and that's how I came up with this thing.
And I have to say it's winter, winter chicken dinner, man. This thing is really, really sweet.

[38:52] Great knife, but it's an homage paying knife. Is the jade handle supposed to evoke the jade thing that he had around his neck? It's from Part II. Yeah.
You're going deep with this. I like it, man. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. When I did the review, I actually had the little Buddha jade from Rambo. I had one of those little Buddhas, and I ended up breaking it.
But yeah, that's exactly what that was. It was supposed to be from when the Asian girl gave him the Buddha.
Yeah, so how do you design? Are you a pen and paper guy? Both, both. What I'll do is, and what a lot of people don't realize that I do, and it makes it a lot harder.
I don't use any special programs on a computer. I don't have any things where,
I draw it on a pad a lot of times, and then I'll take a picture of it, and then I'll take a picture and send it to my computer, and I'll erase the entire background,
and then I'll take just the outline of what I drew, and then redraw it on your basic paint thing that you get on every computer for free.
That's what I use, I use paint. And I develop all my life's designs.
Your designs look pro, man.
Takes a lot of time.
When you see a design of a folder, you expect to see it blown up and blown apart, and all the 3D and the moving parts, but when you see a, like that's beautiful.
That's a crock, that's gonna, that's being made right now by Croco Knives.
Croco Knives, okay. That's gonna be, there's gonna be a first production run of 50 of those.

[40:21] Uh, what I was gonna say is when you see these, you know, you know, they're, um, they're fixed blade and you don't need all of that. Like this, this looks really cool too. Um, what are the,
on a lot of the knives they have, they look kind of like saw notches, but I'm not sure those for making traps and stuff or? A lot of them are, a lot of them will depends on the kind, like
on the first knife that you went past, it had these round ones, they're pinch serrations. So Normally a serration is going to be single sided. So it'll go that way and then you'll have a point
that goes one way and you can use those are saws. This one is for decoration. That's why I did not saw tooth it. It's just an homage paid one. You can use it for making fluff with a stick.
You can use it for notching things like that. But this one's just just for just for looks pretty much some of them I make for.

[41:23] Wound channeling and it's if you're gonna have a wound Once you go in and you turn and you pull back all those little teeth are,
Pulling apart parts of skin and parts of hide that can't be fixed the internals are getting locked in there And you're just pulling things out of place because it's yanking on them and just it makes more of a mess That's why with the Geneva Convention came around no more saw teeth on knives because it was too rough for the enemies,
But we're the only ones who follow that rule. So the enemies will use anything they want,
It's really freaking stupid. So when I when I designed my new one that's coming out,
I did what's called a pinch serration. So the serrations go both directions.

[42:02] So That way you can use it for braiding So if you want to make rope or line, you can tie a knot and slip it through one of the little holes Pull braid now you can make a stronger rope,
Things like that and it'll be great for wound channeling But will it be legal for any US military carry? No, but that's not what I designed it for. I designed it for.

[42:25] My perfect like if I wanted a combat knife, what would I want a combat knife? And that's what I designed it for for. So I was going to ask you what knife would you wish you had when you were in combat and weren't designing that? And this is this one.
I got to say, I made this one to to fix what was wrong with the K-Ball. And I would take this over that K-Ball. I would bring this into combat any day of the week. Now, right
behind me, you'll see an American flag up there in a triangle. Inside that triangle is one of these but it's signed by Rob O'Neill from Loddon. And Rob O'Neill loved it so much,
I had to send him one and sign the sheet for him and,
and he loves it. So Rob O'Neill actually carries.
For his personal use, they would be that war machine. That is rad. So the guy who kills Bin Laden is one of these.
That is rad, man. Yeah, he's a great dude.

[43:27] So I want to talk a little bit about your channel. So this is a great, you know, it's great to have a channel. It's a great way to show off the designs you're making, but I don't think that's why you started it. No, not at all.
I just... Yeah. Tell me why you started it. What do you always do?
The exact reason I started the channel. I think it was either my first video or my second video, I don't even know. It was the Case XX buoy, right? And what happened is I wanted one. It was the knife. I had two grill knives my entire life. It was the Musso and the Case, that Western style,
that old West style. And what happened was I wanted to look up videos. I wanted to see how this thing performed. I wanted to see if it's really bad ass because they call it a presentation So I'm like, wait, does that mean you can't use it?
And I had so many questions and every video I looked at, not a single person used it.
Not one, everything was tabletops, blah, blah, blah, that tells you nothing, nothing.
If I wanted to tell you how good a knife was and then not prove it, what have I shown you? Nothing.

[44:37] So I finally got so upset that I couldn't find a single, a single not one person just using it a little bit just go on use it a little bit. So I was
like well screwed I'm just going to spend the 200 bucks whatever it is and I'm going to chance it and if it's good it's good if it's bad it's bad it's on me. So I got it.

[44:58] And I said I'm going to actually film a video that way there's a video on YouTube of one of these actually being used and I started doing more and more and the people over at case contacted me when I had 50 subscribers, just 50. And, and they're like, look, normally,
we would not even give somebody a look who has 50 subscribers, like, but we see something in you. Can we send you some knives? And I was like, yeah, so he sent me some knives
and and that's what really, really pushed it. And there was another one, the se six was one of my first knives that I did on the channel. And it was just, I wanted a survival
knife that for myself for camping this net and I was searching, searching, searching for the perfect one. I really want this SE. So I got that and then the Kaiser hollow handle
knife and those were like the first ones that got it started. And it was just, I wanted to take some of the knives that a lot of people weren't testing. Like there was tons of videos
on the SE6. And I think I even mentioned it in that video it might have been where I'm like, what can I tell you about the SE6 that you haven't already heard? Nothing. I just wanted to show you buy take so
It's what really got it going. It was the fact that I went out there. I got a big personality I'm loud and I'm an idiot and I don't care what I swing and I don't care what I throw off throw everything.

[46:18] And it's just people clang to it clang to it and then it just started to grow and Once I seen people were appreciating somebody using some of the knives that other people weren't showing being used then I said, all right, well, this is what people want to see.
People want to see knives being used.

[46:37] So I looked at other videos and saw what people were either doing or not doing. And I said, well, how can I improve? Okay, this guy, this guy's got 200,000 followers.
It's got the personality of a rock.
You know, it was like, that sucks. So you can't, you can't go in there and just be boring.
He did it and he was popular. I don't know how, but, but, and then what they would do is they would pick a favorite and every video they'd take whatever they were doing and butt it still.
And it's like, obviously, all right, I think some companies like giving you a little giddy up to talk about your favorite. And that's why in all my videos, I don't go back to saying,
this knife's good, but it's not the D bad, this. It's not this. I'm going to talk about the knife that I'm holding. The only time is if I happen to have a knife on me. Like I just did a video of a
Devo knife and it was good but I was carrying this at the time and this one is a fraction of the price in my opinion it's just better and I made a mention of that didn't take away from the Devo Devo I think was still a great knife but I'm not going to if Kate Case gives me the the hammerhead,
every video I'm going to do I'm not going to say, well yeah but...

[47:49] Gadio this is my baby. What did you find from the case double X a knife? I've always coveted to um I found that.

[47:59] They call it presentation Bulls this knife is bad man. It is a serious freaking knife I took it out every week for some great and banged on it just used it doing the same stuff I do in videos seven months straight and,
And then did a video on it after seven months after the initial video and and just showed it performing after seven months and it just,
It just formed like crazy. So that knife since I got it all those years ago and I've brought it on camp trips. I've used it for seven months straight.
I've used it in multiple videos doing hard use with it. I've only honed it. I've never had to sharpen that knife. It comes razor sharp. It's got an immaculate finish the.

[48:49] Polish on it is Amazing and it's just super strong man. It's a great knife It's a it's not something I thought it wasn't going to be what it was because of how they named it,
But let me tell you it's probably one of the better of that style that I've ever used. I.

[49:07] Okay, so I'm excited about that. I've heard other people people talk very excitedly about it.
And it's something that you don't expect because it's Case. And I have a small collection of Case. I like their chrome vanadium lines. They seem to pay more attention to them.
They're always sharp though. They're all that.
And when they call it true sharp, they are truly sharp. They are really sharp. They hold an amazing edge. They do a great job on their heat treats. They temper the hell out of them. Case does a really good job. It's why they're the number one collected knives the world, you know?

[49:41] Plus they're so good looking and they come out with so many different um you know series and stuff they can design a knife oh man no kid that american sod buster oh yeah yeah i i have uh i,
i have several of their sod busters because you know they come in several you know two different steels and a bunch of different covers and they do yeah i comment out of periods of time where I gotta get it all, you know?
Yeah. And so I want to ask you, who besides, you know, outside of your designs and your knives, who do you think does it best for the kind of knives you like, like the large bowies and the camp knives and the big weapon you have?
As far as who does it best and who I like the best, Joe Mallinson, he's a guy that not everybody knows because he does really high-end stuff. Joe is amazing. Then there's another
guy and these I'll tell you the non mainstreamers first, Jed Hornbeek. Jed is the guy who when I designed my D-Bad Nepalese Gladiator and I can't show it to you because Scab has it.

[50:50] He's the one who made that. He is one of the greatest knife makers I've ever seen. Lately, He's been getting more into designing different knives and his designs are beautiful, man. They're so crisp.
It's like I love to take a knife design and say, oh, too bad it's not this, too bad. Nope. This guy, he can design a really good knife. I'm a big fan of Jed's.

[51:15] Man, outside of that, the guys over at Essie, they don't make a lot of big ones, but the big ones they do make like the Hunglass, It's an immaculately done design. I mean...

[51:29] There's nothing i can pick apart about that night i think it's you put in your hand and understand what's in your hand just holding it there's no guessing you don't i wonder if i can do this and i want. No you just know you put in your hand and it just.
It's an instant yes it is you know it's for when you're talking about a big knife done right.
I would have to say the guys over at s e and i don't know if they do collab designs or how they do it but. Golly man, they can design a knife the right way.
They balance them. They make them.
The grinds are perfect. Everything they do, I'm a pretty big fan of. I'll speak good about Essie all day long.
And then you mentioned like Randall's things. Some of those high end guys, they're high end for a reason. You know what I mean?
It's like you look at like K-Bar. I think K-Bar, some really great blades, great steel, great heat-treats.
I think they're designing. Some of their handles are the worst I've ever felt.
And it drives me crazy as a knife designer because it's like, why would you do this when you had this great thing going?
And it just bugs me. And then there's some others that come out there and there's some guys that do this fantasy crap.

[52:48] And I don't know. So I'm real picky when it comes to designs. you're talking about big designs, it's hard because I think the best big knife designers were alive 100 years ago. Um,
and now we're all just doing what they did over and over again, just slightly different.
You know, cause actually, um, I wasn't thinking this when I asked you the question.

[53:11] Um, but I was thinking more in terms of production houses, production companies like cold steel and those kinds of companies, but tops, it occurs to me that tops seems like the kind of company that you, that,
that could execute one of your designs.
I have a bunch of Topps knives, I'm not gonna lie. I have a bunch of Topps, I really like Topps.
I think personally they have the best differential heat treat in the business, flat out best differential heat treat in the business.
Some of their designs, I have a problem with some of their grips being way too small. My Silent Hero, the front of it, I can't get a full fist on it because I have too much of a gap between there.
Prather War Buoy does the same thing for my fans. It's not made for every hand. And then some of them are just a little goofy looking or they'll like, they call it the war buoy. Like I love the I love the Prather War Buoy because I think it's gorgeous. But when you call something combat,
it's just because you made it black. So now it's tactical. It doesn't really make it what it is.
They could have just called it like, you know, the pocket buoy or you know what I mean? Give it a different name but um but yeah some of their stuff um some of their stuff is just great to me.

[54:24] Great, but I can really really appreciate the differential heat treats I would much rather a tops blade over a cold steel blade that being said I will take that cold steel srk,
To the grave. It's just a great knife. It's Designed well the trail master the recon scout just really really good knives.

[54:45] They do they have some that don't make sense Yeah They have a lot they have a lot of those the problem of cold steel though is their inconsistencies with like heat treats and things like and sharpening. Some people just get them
crazy goals. Yeah. That seems to be a new problem. I've been collecting cold steels since the late 80s. And yeah, and I have experienced a little bit of that recently. I'll tell you, I had.

[55:08] I got a Natchez buoy back when, you know, Lynn still had the company and I put it in the stump to get ready to film. I just dropped it in the stump. And when I pulled it out of the stump,
the whole tip had bent over. So I was like, that's not supposed to happen. So I had a big problem with them. Their customer service was horrendous. I still have not gotten the knife replaced to this,
day. And that was a couple of years before he got rid of it, got rid of the companies or a year and a half before he got rid of it, whatever it was. So still they won't, they won't contact me back
over it. So, I don't know. The reason I actually wanted to ask you, this is kind of a weird question, but it's a specific question. It's about the cable tang actually in the naches.

[55:57] Naches, I've been told I mispronounced that. That and the Laredo have the cable tang. What do you think of that? I think the cable tang is genius because of what it's made to do. With the naches,
the nachos is a Western fighting boot. What it is, right. And a lot of people say, Oh, the cable tang makes the handle weak, and you're gonna break it, blah, blah, blah. Sure, sure you will, if you're hitting a bunch of hardwood all day long. But,
that's not what it was made for. It was made for hitting me. It,
was made for hitting you. It was made for that is a fighting knife. It's not made for that crap. If you use a knife or what it's made to be used for, there's a good chance it's not going to break because made for what it's used for. But a lot of people don't do that they they use things and like when I test the knife I test it.

[56:45] I know it's a fighting knife, but I'm going to chop a tree with it. And guess what?
It worked. I didn't break my, my Tang ever on my notches. And I've used that thing plenty of times. I think I probably have five videos of using that thing.
And I've never had a problem with the Tang once I had a problem with the company, but not the knife once, once I got another one.
And that's what I did. I got another one. I'm still waiting for them to send me the one to replace that.
You got the three V one, didn't you?
Yeah, I have the old one. and before that I can't remember what it was. I cheaped out, I got the 41-16 or 41-34, whatever it is.
But I just really had to have that Bowie. And also my thinking is also the same as yours. Like I don't need 3V, I'm not going out and like chopping up kindling and stuff.
Exactly, there's people rocking that SRK with the original steel, that knife's still going because they're using it for what it's made to be used for.
And that's the thing is cold steel, rather than coming out with new designs, they just use different steels.
It's just a ploy to get you the same, to buy the same knife because they're telling you that you have to buy this one now because this knife is so much better than that.
Well, this knife sucks so much before, why'd you make it in the first place?

[58:01] Well, they know the power of steel snobbery. That is a thing, one-upping people with the steel. That's exactly it.
But it's funny because that same steel snob had that San Mai one for two years, cut everything under the sun, never had a problem, but because this one's M390,
or the next great steel that's gonna be, whoa, this steel sucks, I mean that one.
Yeah, yeah. It's, I, the knife stop's driving me crazy.
Can't cut anything with 440C. It just doesn't cut. God forbid it, where, you'll, I hear it all the time. Oh, yeah, you used that, oh, that's a piece of crap, oh, that's junk.
And I just get done using it on a video, a hard use video, and they'll say, Oh yeah, but you can't, you can't use that in real life because it'll break or you can't use that because this, show me where it failed.
You just watched the video. Show me exactly where it failed and I'll give you a hundred bucks.
You're like, this is real life, by the way. But they can't, they just, all they do is this, but their eyes are so blind, they just watch something perform and then they tell you it can't do what it just did.

[59:05] Mama Luke's. Those people are driving me nuts, man. Yeah.
All right, so Donnie, I like to wrap every show with someone who has a YouTube channel and has opinions on knives.
I like to do a speed round. So these are just 16 or so quick questions and a one word answer.
Oh good, I suck at quizzes, let's go.
All right, fixed or folder?

[59:31] Fixed.

[59:32] Flipper or a thumb stud? slipper.

[59:36] Washers or bearings? Bearings. Tip up or tip down? Doesn't matter.

[59:42] Tip up or tip down? It really doesn't matter, but... Yeah, but you gotta choose. Tip up, I guess, I don't know.
See, I knew it. Conformist. I'm just kidding. Tonto or Bowie?
Bowie. Come on, man. Bowie. Bowie. Hollow ground or flat ground? Flat.
Okay. Full guard or half guard?

[1:00:04] Half. Full tang or stick tang. That's not even that's not even fine, man. It's a full hand after this conversation, you know, contoured handle or neutral or coffin style handle.

[1:00:16] Contour Condor or Ontario Knife Company. Oh, man, that depends on the knives, I guess.

[1:00:25] Ontario. I don't know. Cold steel or work tough. I think I'd go with work tough for the heat treat.

[1:00:34] Cold steel has better designs but work tough definitely has a better build. Yeah. Single edge or double edge? Single. V-Ground or Apple C? V-Ground or convex edge?

[1:00:52] V-Ground. Finger choil or no choil? Choil. Form or function? Function. Okay and then then your Desert Island knife.
That's one knife you get to keep from your collection for the rest of your life.
Everything else has to go.

[1:01:10] Everything else has to go? You know. It's not a fair question. Okay, we gotta take out all sentimental attachments. Not a fair question, but I'm keeping this.
If I have one knife for the rest of my life, I'm keeping something in case Donnie's gonna come back. Yeah. Right on.

[1:01:27] Donnie, I think that's, I don't know, that's probably the one I would keep, but then again, I don't know,
new one that you held up I was like, oh, I gotta say I really really dig your designs and I love that you're making big unapologetic fixed blade knives because you know my interests go all over
the place but they always return home which is this kind of knife. Yeah, you know one of your questions it was it's funny to me because you said form or function
Proper form creates proper function So I mean they it's the same thing if you've done it right if you've measured your knife
And you've measured you've used found them at mathematical mean and did everything right your knife is gonna be badass No matter what it looks like amen all right. Well. Let's let's wrap with that sir. It's been a real pleasure meeting you Donnie,
Yes, sir, and and for those of you who are patrons. I'm gonna. I'm gonna continue the conversation.

[1:02:21] So well consider joining Donnie, again, thanks for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
It's all right, brother. 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.
Yours at theknifejunkie.com slash dull and shop for all of your knife junkies merchandise at theknifejunkie.com slash shop. You know you're a knife junkie if
you plan your vacation around shot show. There he goes ladies and gentlemen Donnie B All Day. Hey the way he announces himself in his videos I gotta say reminds me a little bit of my grandpa DeMarco. He was a bit of a ham and he had a couple of voices and a few of those that Donnie does on his channel reminds me of him.

[1:03:20] All right, so thanks again for Donnie for coming on this show and sharing his love of big badass knives.
It was a great conversation. I look forward to continuing it. Join us again next week for another interview and of course on Wednesday for the Midweek Supplemental and Thursday for Thursday Night Knives live right here on YouTube, Facebook,
and Twitch 10pm Eastern Standard Time on Thursdays.
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
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[1:04:31] Music.