The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Bob DeMarco [00:00:00]:
Coming up, some beautiful wood scales for my Formax Scout. I get a smash it finally in my collection, and then we're gonna talk about emotional support knives. This is the fixed blade update. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer [00:00:18]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:30]:
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week was from someone who raised my ire, a youngin, who says, man, everything in this podcast is so old school. I listen without even seeing the night or seeing video except when he announces the night, then I do a quick look. So everything sounds like an old radio show, says, Dallas Castellano three one seven. Well, mister Castellano, I had a curmudgeonly response, but, hey, man. Let's face it. Maybe well, this is what what what my response was. I said, there are plenty of great channels where you can check out the latest, and greatest new knives on the market.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:12]:
And I would say, Stazza. I would say, at Neeves, you know, these guys. But that's never been my thing. But the price of admission here is free, so stop complaining. And I stand by that. I just I I guess I'm too old at this point to accept criticism about this show. I mean, you can criticize me and you can criticize my collection, but the show is what the show is, and we are not showing off everything that is, pumped out of the factories as they come. So, mister Castellani, sorry I haven't pleased you here, and, sorry if I sound like an old timey radio show there, buster.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:52]:
But, you know, that's what we're here for. We're here for the cool stuff, whether it's old or new. So thank you for commenting. I might sound like an old fart, but, really, I love that you watched watched the show and that you commented. And one and all, thank you for watching and commenting. And, that's it. Let's get to a knife, pocket check.

Announcer [00:02:16]:
What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:22]:
So my front right pocket today, I had the cold steel four max scout, and I've been carrying this quite a bit since I got these beautiful, bokate wooden scales from Alien Scales. Let me show you their their sticker, their logo. Alien Scales. So this is Rob Pena of Snaggletooth Tactical, you know, the Snaggletooth Tactical MF, the pocket catch, the wave like pocket opener, that a lot of us have. You can put that on any, blade that has removable thumbscales, and it will catch on your pocket as you remove it and open it. Well, when he has extra time on the mills, he's been making some beautiful, scales for for knives, and the Formax Scout is chief among them. And so these scales he sent to me, they are beautifully milled, perfectly fit my Formax Scout, and have totally, resuscitated my love for this knife. And I got this knife thinking I should have it, and I really liked it.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:26]:
However, yeah, I don't didn't carry it that much. They have those grivory scales and, and whatnot. But with the wooden scales, I gotta say, just just perfect. I love this. They feel great. They go smoothly in and out of pocket, and they fit every hole and divot perfectly. So when you're putting them on, it went these, scales went on super quick. And, so I've been carrying the Poremax Scout a lot recently.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:54]:
It's like when I carry a large cold steel folder, it's it's rarely this. It's something longer. But this still is a four inch bladed, cold steel, and I have plenty cold steel folders at four inches. This has always felt much larger. But with these scales on, it's it's like a luxury item. So, super hot on that. Thank you, Rob, for those scales, and I highly recommend you go check them out. Gotta say, per his, instructions, they are Ketch's Ketch can.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:28]:
He does only make those scales when he has extra time on his mills. He's mostly making snaggletooth, stuff, the the, the pocket catch, the rings, and that kind of thing. So do go check those out. Next up, I had in my pocket one that I used to carry all the time and just use all the time, but haven't in quite a while, and that is the case, just jackknife. That's all it's called, the case jackknife. This one with black delrin. It's got a a main clip point blade and then it has, a smaller pen blade. And I got this, I remember, at DICK'S Sporting Goods years ago when they used to carry case knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:10]:
And, I had never seen this model and hadn't really haven't seen much of it since, though they do have this in the, carbon let's see what it CV lineup. Texas Jack is this, same makeup. You probably recognize the frame. It's the medium frame from the Stockman and a couple of other knives. Had this in the bottom of my pocket. It's so light. It's so small, especially compared to that Formax Scout. So a a great little knife, and that one really got used a lot back in the day, back in my a different a different time, let's just say.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:51]:
Next up in my pocket, this had to do with that different time, my brass Zippo. Again, I've been carrying my, my brass Zippo with me. I've been carrying the pipe Zippo a lot recently because I've been smoking a pipe a lot recently. But decided to go for this because it's my favorite of all my old Zippos, and because it's pure brass. The new ones are kinda brass coated or they almost feel like they're coated with a with a film, but this is straight brass from 1987 in high school when I was sneaking cigarettes. Sorry, mom and dad, if you're watching. But so I got that then. Just so you know, I always liked the lighters better than the cigarettes themselves.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:35]:
So, had that in my pocket today. Did not smoke a pipe, though. On my waistband, horizontally front scout, I had the, Gross Motor Gear Mamushi. Sean Old is the knife maker. Look at that beauty. You've got the tsukamaki wrap. You've got, a black twine underneath it. And then between the, the two, you have that golden serpent manuki.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:01]:
A Mamushi is a serpent. It's it's a a venomous snake. And, so it is, the Manuki is, you know, content relevant, we'll say. This is the larger size. I have a smaller one I've been carrying in the waistband quite a bit, but I've kind of trans kind of moved over to this larger version. It's only larger by a, about a quarter inch, but it's such a sweet knife. I love it, and I really like it horizontally, front. You can check out Gross Motor Gear on, Instagram, gross underscore motor underscore gear.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:41]:
And, you can check out, the Sean Old podcast that we just put up. It's, five fifty five eighty four. It's a great show. He's a very interesting dude and, a martial artist, really knows what he's talking about, and so, makes these excellent, fighting knives. I'm sorry. That was $5.83. The knife junkie dot com slash 5 80 3 is the Sean Old, episode. Lastly, for emotional support today in my bag, I was carrying the special edition, Keekel knives FMF with the Gadsden Snake and Don't Tread On Me on the front and We The People on the other side.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:22]:
Look at that. Frogman Tactical is the designer of this knife. They've done a couple of collaborations, I think three collaborations with TKL knives. And, he's been popping up in my feed a lot lately. He's got a lot of really cool, he being, frog man tactical, frog man, yeah, frog man tactical guy. I I'm not sure what his name is, but, he's a former Navy Seal, and he does a lot of videos of for you and I, the sheepdogs, the regular, folk out there who care about, their own security and maybe, community security. Goes through a lot of, tactics and, just maybe mindset things that, people who didn't serve as Navy SEALs might wanna know in terms of how to protect their family, how to protect their home, what to think about, how to act, that kind of thing. So I'm, really like this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:20]:
He's done the Gideon three and also, can't remember what the other one was called, the Something Ridge, Taylor's Ridge. I think that was him. But check these out. So you got the Timkel FMF, Tekel knives FMF, the Gross Motor Gear Maimushi, the medium, jackknife by Case Knives, and the Formax Scout wearing the Alien Scales. Again, that is the Alien Scales. Let me show you his logo one more time. And you can check this out by going to Snaggletooth Pactical online. Snaggletooth Pinnacle.

Bob DeMarco [00:09:57]:
Alright. Before we get to knife life news, I just wanna urge you to check us out on Patreon. We do a monthly giveaway for gentleman junkies. That's the high tier of support on, Patreon. There are other tiers of support, and you get interview extras. That's my favorite part of what we offer, because, we have great and engaging interviews on this show. But if you wanna hear more, once the knife maker lets their hair down, so to speak, and, you can get some inside scoop on, on knife makers, the knife biz, and all that. So go to the knifejunky.com/patreon, check out the different tiers, see what we have to offer, or scan the QR code on the screen right there.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:40]:
Again, that's the knifejunkie.com/patreon.

Announcer [00:10:43]:
Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for handpicked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. The knifejunkie.com/battlebox.

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

Bob DeMarco [00:11:02]:
Okay. So first in Knife Life news, just announcing that there's a new batch of Chris Reeve knives Sebenza 30 coming out, and they are now at knives ship free. Knives ship free is a great, purveyor of knives online. I think we have I think we might have a knives ship free, affiliate link, somewhere. But I just wanna let you know that the new Sebenza 31 is out, and it is a big batch of them at knives ship free. They have the plain Jane style with the clip point. Yes, I'm saying clip point. It's not a drop point.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:39]:
Really look closely. They have the plain Jane in the clip point in the tanto, and then they have a number of, carbon not carbon fiber, micarta inlays that are just beautiful. If I had a spare $545 rattling around in my pocket, I would get the, the red micarta. This one that you're seeing on screen is a mere $500, but I gotta say, it is worth it. And and you don't hear me say that too much, especially for a folder, but I've been carrying my Chris Reeve knives recently, and they are superlative. So this is one of the most celebrated production knives of all time, designed by Chris Reeve, who is a South African he was a South African motorcycle racer. And while he was on compulsory military duty, he came up with the idea to start making knives because, what they were handed was crap, basically. And so he started making fixed blade knives, survival knives, hollow handled knives, and then, he started making the Sebenza in 1989, the year I graduated high school.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:47]:
And maybe some of you weren't even born then, but I think we have an older crowd here, but a more mature crowd here. The Sebenza 21 was the flagship for quite some time due to its simplicity of design. It To all of our eyes, looks just like the 31. Here, the 31 has some some changes we'll talk about in a second, but, really known for its robustness and its tolerances. Everything on the Sebenza was so tight, in terms of tolerances that there was never any blade wiggle. And when you un, disassembled it and still do, it's very difficult to disassemble because all of the, all of the pylons and such are so tightly fit that you have to perfectly pull it off, all with perfect pressure on all ends at the same time for it to come apart easily. And, that inspires confidence and also makes for a super strong knife. Also, Chris Reeve, totally pioneered the frame lock, and that was mostly in the Sebenza model.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:59]:
And he also pioneered the s 30 line of steels and then consequently the or, incidentally, the s 45 v n stuff. So s 30 v, s 35 v n, and s 45 were all in were all pioneered by Chris Reeve, with, you know, with the company to actually make that steel. So, the Sebenza 31 now out, and, I mean, it's been out for a while, but a new batch and that's that doesn't happen too often. New big batch over there at kniveship free. The Sebenza 31 introduced the ceramic ball lock, interface, which we saw with the and, you know, very, very much a request from Chris Reid and I of owners. They wanted that feature brought over into the, Sebenza when they redesigned it in 2020 for the '31. That's thirty one years after it was brought out. They integrated that ceramic ball lock.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:04]:
So, that and MagnaCut, brings you a superior Sebenza. If you're interested, go to knives ship free. And by the way, you better do it quickly. I was just down there right before recording, and they have they have about six left, I think, or seven, something like that. So get over there if you want a 31 and you've been saving your shekels. This knife is definitely worth the money. Alright. Next up, from Pops Knives, one we've been seeing a lot in knife life news recently because every year, they come out with a bunch of new knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:40]:
This is a mini version of the El Chete. It is, so the original had a 12 inch blade. It's a bellied cleaver style outdoor knife, real nasty chopper. But this one is a pared down version. And if you're looking at the screen right now and you see this, miniaturized version of the giant El Chete in the model's hand here, you'll probably notice that it is just by a percentage a pared down version of the knife. Like, it doesn't look like they've reshaped or resized the handle to match the new blade size. It looks like it was just reduced altogether. It's a five and a half inch ten ninety five blade here, and it is a real go to sort of chopper cutter and, go to camp knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:35]:
But still, in this small five and a half inch version of it, it's still gonna maintain all of those, rolls. I would say, though, for chopping, you might wanna add a lanyard because that's a tiny handle. The handle, as I said, proportionately shrunk down. You got, full tang there. You've got green canvas micarta. Pretty beautiful. A very light seven and a half ounces with the kydex sheet. Comes with a belt loop, but you could just drop that in your backpack too, and it would be, good to go.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:06]:
This one is now available. So if you like the El Chete, but it was a little bit too much night for you, go check out the El Chete Mini. Alright. Next up, from Terrain three sixty five and Patrick Mah. He's the guy, who is in charge of all of the he's one of the cofounders of Terrain three sixty five, and he's the creative director there. So he designs all these knives. And he came up with this new one called the Narwhal. And if you look at it, it's definitely in the, design language of Terrain three six three sixty five.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:43]:
A pretty cool looking knife. This one, and I am quoting here, is inspired by the simplicity and ergonomic balance of the capsule shape, the capsule shape. So that sort of lozenge shape, a long oval. He was inspired by that shape. Pretty, meta. I I I appreciate it. This one here has a fully symmetrical 3.5 inch teravantium blade. And when I say symmetrical, when you look at the grinds, obviously, it's not.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:13]:
But, when you look at the silhouette of the blade, it's symmetrical. You've got a long fuller down the center of both sides of the blade and a, we'll call that a, saber grind flat there. So completely rustproof is this knife. And that's kind of the USP, the unique selling proposition of most Terrain three sixty five knives, because they use titanium, which is rust, rust resistant or totally rust free, and then this teravantium, which is a, proprietary dendritic cobalt, alloy. Say that a couple of times. It's a it is a, proprietary dendritic cobalt alloy, so it doesn't rust at all. So this would be great for all sorts of marine and and nautical applications. It's got a very low profile flipper that you can open with your thumb or your forefinger, and I do appreciate that.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:18]:
And if you're looking at the screen right now, you can see that flipper. It is quite quite low profile but broad. So there are lots of places for your finger or your thumb to grab onto that. This one is available now, and, I have not had any three sixty five knives, but Terrain three sixty five knives. But my good buddy Dave has, and he loves them, and everything I hear about them is very, very positive. So if you like that shape and you need something for a humid environment, then definitely check that out. All right. Last up, I wanna talk about a little thing here from KnifeRite.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:58]:
And maybe some of you who have, purchased knives on, PayPal have noticed or, you know, maybe you run a business and you've noticed this with the banks. But a lot of banks and and, monetary, companies do not like knives and weapons, but knife rights has a new bill, that is changing all of that. And I'm gonna read directly from the knife rights website. Knife rights is a first in the national bill to prevent banks from discriminating against persons and companies involved in the manufacture, distribution, wholesale, supply, or retail of knives. State bill ten twenty seven has been signed by governor Brad Little. The new law become this is in Idaho, by the way. The new law becomes effective on July 1. Knife rights is taking the lead in protecting the knife industry from the adverse effects of anti knife sentiment that unfortunately exists among some banks in this country.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:02]:
Numerous members of the knife community have raised the issue of financial institutions debanking and otherwise shutting down our community from their services, says Doug Ritter. A number of states have taken up this debanking issue, and recently, bills were introduced in congress, the Fair Access to Banking Act and Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act. It's past, time for knives to be included in this discussion. So, basically, the point is, people are, banks are trying to make it difficult for knife makers to do business, whether it's a small knife maker, custom knife maker, just trying to sell their wares and make a living, or, bigger companies like Chris Reeve Knives that we mentioned before, who are, you know, larger, more established companies who are having difficulty in banking. That's a terrible thing. We saw that happen in Canada with the, during COVID with the with the truck convoy and people being de banked up there. We've seen it here when we try to buy a knife using PayPal and people say, don't mention that you're buying a knife, and the PayPal comments. So this is a bill state bill that is, going the distance to try to, assuage that and get rid of it altogether, and I'm wholeheartedly for it.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:26]:
These are just good people making a tool we all need and use on a daily basis. So, if this is compelling to you, go to kniferights.org and see what you can do about sending them a little bit of money to keep them going. Because if it weren't for knife rights, we would all be trying to claw back, a whole lot more of the knife rights we've lost since the civil war. So definitely go check them out. Doug Rigger is a great guy and he is fighting the good fight for all of us. Alright. Before we get to to, the state of the collection, I just wanna say, check out the newsletter. We have a great newsletter.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:08]:
And actually, one of the comments that I didn't put into the comment section today was that one of our, our, steadfast viewers signed up for the newsletter because of my push last time. So I'll just say, the newsletter, it comes out pretty much on a weekly basis, and I write some three paragraph piece about something in the knife world or in my collection that is concerning to me, always accompanied by a couple of beautiful photos. But the real purpose of the newsletter is to get you to sign up so that in case we get cut off from our favorite platforms here, because of things like knife debanking and, that sort of sentiment, we will still have a way to reach out to you, and we will still have a knife community going. So go to the knifejunky.com/newsletter. Sign up. Give us your email address so we can send you a newsletter. Open it up. Don't read it if you don't have the time, but just open it up, and, you will have done a lot for this channel.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:09]:
So again, that's the knifejunky.com/newsletter. Again, the knifejunky.com/newsletter.

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Announcer [00:24:47]:
And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:52]:
Also, I must add, Launchcart is an American company, so definitely check them out. Okay. So first up, a very exciting addition to my collection. Maybe it's a little bit old school, and maybe this might, get your knickers in a twist, but check this out. I finally got this in my collection. This is the Cold Steel Desperado. A an an old part of the Vaquero lineup, this is no longer in production. It should be or at least a fixed bladed version of the Vaquero blade should be in production if you ask me.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:32]:
But I made a a trade with Strings, Strings with a z. He's a musician, great dude who tours the country playing his music with his wife, and, he is a contributor to Thursday night knives. He joins us every week. And, I was complaining about how I I never got a desperado, and he said, I have one. Let's make a trade. We did make that trade, and this is the result. I'm so happy about this. And it looks like very, very minimal use over the years, from strings of this beautiful desperado.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:10]:
When you look at this, you can see it's the slightly older school version of the bacchero blade. These days, it looks a little bit different, but it's the same s curve, s curve fighting blade with the midline tip. Nowadays, the tip is just a little bit higher, just a little bit more midline, but I absolutely am so smitten with this knife. It's got a Kraton handle, so that grippy rubberized handle. But I gotta say, with the Kraton, over the years and I've had you know, one of my oldest knives is a Cold Steel with the Kraton handle. It does not disintegrate over time. I always thought it was gonna start to get gummy and gooey in hand. It just doesn't.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:54]:
It's a very stable material. And this is an older knife, probably twenty five years old, and, still feeling great in hand. Fits the hand beautifully. That that egg shape really gets nestled into the palm, but there's nothing on the punyo side to get disarmed with or get caught, on your clothing or whatever, you know, when you're drawing it for your knife duel. Very, very comfortable in the hand. I'm not as happy, with it in reverse grip. Seems like there's a lot less leverage in reverse grip. But in the forward grip, it is outstanding.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:32]:
And I think it's worth bringing back out. I think cold steel should. And if they do, add a little jumping right here, and that would make it even more secure in hand. You got the beautiful, five little and one big scoop there, in the serrations. I love cold steel serrations. And just to be a little trifling, I'm not as pleased with how they look as, say, the spidey edge, but man alive, do they perform well. Great sheath on this Desperado. Fits in there really, really well.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:05]:
Goes in and out really well. And, you know, that's not easy to do with such a deeply recurved blade. So I'm very pleased with the whole package. Thank you so much, Sean, for this great trade. And we have another trade in the works, and I'll show you that when it comes in. So that's the Cold Steel Desperado. A long time I've needed that knife in my collection for a long time. Huge fan of the Vaquero blade shape.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:31]:
I have almost every version of it, and this really, is one of the most difficult versions to get in into the collection. Alright. Next up, and this will segue right into the emotional support knife topic. But right here, I have a new one, and I saw this on Fireboy's cutlery channel. I love this thing. This is a Smatch It from APOC Survival. APOC Survival is is a Cas Iberia company, and the Demko brothers have a lot of knives, and and Mike Wallace, who is associated with them, have a lot of designs on this website and from this company. This indeed is a Mike Wallace design, and it is the SMATCH IT survival knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:24]:
Now they call it a survival knife, but the SMATCH IT historically was a weapon designed by colonel Fairbairn, the guy who designed the Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife right to my left ear here, double edged dagger. Well, this is a double edged, big, fat blade meant for, melees. This is, for fighting in trenches and for fighting on the battlefield. And yes, it is wide and shovel like and also like a hatchet. You could use it for a number of different purposes, but, really, it was designed for fighting. And to me, that's I really like purpose driven knives and tools, and to me, it's a I just like that. It's meant for fighting. You do have to be careful though.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:12]:
It is absolutely double edged, so it is razor sharp on both sides. That's a nine and a half inch D2 blade and then a micro milled G10 handle here. You have an integral guard and a bit of a Gladius style pommel here. Just a great knife. And I have to say, not so hard on the wallet. It was not as expensive as I thought it might be, so, I jumped on it. This was definitely a impulse purchase, and I'm glad I followed my impulse. I'm gonna put it down.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:49]:
Got a little bit of oil still on the blade, and I don't wanna, get it on my leather here. But, it's really, really wickedly sharp. And if you watched Choir Boy's cutlery, he went out in the in his swamp, avoiding the skunk apes. Hope hopefully, they're down in Florida. But he and his buddy were out there chopping stuff, and it ricocheted off something and hit his buddy on the top of the head. And he happens to have a shaved head, so you could see it did a little bit of damage. So you gotta be careful with this one. It is double edged.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:26]:
Maybe just think of it as a sword or as a fighting blade, and, you'll be, in good stead with this thing. Alright. I'm gonna segue directly into the emotional support night and leave this out here. But before I do, I just wanna remind you that if you like T shirts, cool knife themed t shirts, or anything else, you can go to the knifejunky.com/shop and get one of these beautiful designs, that Jim creates. He creates a lot of great taglines for knives and then really cool designs. And this week, it's knife collector. And I have to say, we are in grilling season or Blackstone season, if you're like me. And you might wanna get a an apron so that when you're hanging out at the grill and people are coming you're holding court when you're at the grill.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:16]:
People come to you and talk to you. You don't have to circulate. So when you're holding court, you want people to know what you stand for, and you stand for knives. We all have different political beliefs. We all have different religious and spiritual beliefs and feelings, but we can all agree on knives and how essential they are. So you want people to know that, and you don't want people to bring up politics or religion at your party. You want them to bring up knives. So get one of these aprons or a T shirt or hat or anything else we have over at the knifejunkie.com/shop.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:50]:
Alright. So this, APOX match it, which I still have out on the mat, has been, since I got it, about a week ago, a huge emotional support night. And, huge both in size, but also I've been carrying it a lot. And by carrying it, I don't mean wearing it. It's been in my, in my backpack quite a bit. So that in case it all goes down at work, I have something I can draw and use. I'm gonna rest this on the handle of a different knife over there. But let me show you the sheath.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:23]:
The sheath is an excellent, micarta sheath. It's got a, removable drop loop here. Not a Velcro loop, so it's not gonna come off in the field at all. You do have to undo your belt to get it on, but I am really pleased with this. I am not going to take off the drop loop. I frequently do that. This is a very large sheet. Let's see, tip to tail or dorsal to pectoral, let's see.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:55]:
Yeah. About four inches. So it's a big sheath. It's a pancake sheath going around a very wide blade. And so I am not removing the drop loop, because I would not be putting that in the waistband or or doing anything but dangling it from my belt. This would be a great one. I I feel like this would be a great one for, posting near the front door, next to your shotgun. So if anyone decides to break in, you've got this and something more potent than this.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:27]:
Just an awesome melee weapon here. This is a weapon and yes, none of us really use knives as weapons these days. And if we do, they're much smaller because we're in the military or law enforcement. But as a historical nod and as a last ditch home defense tool, I I feel like this Smatch It would do great. And having this in hand, I really wanna get, an old school Smatch It. I believe in 1980, colonel Fairbairn kind of opened up the, that was just before he passed away. He opened up the rights to make these on a broader scale. So go check out I think Boker makes a Smatch It that you can every once in a while get, and also Cold Steel made a Smatch It machete single edged, That might interest you.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:20]:
Alright. Another favorite, emotional support knife recently. And and let me let me just, preface all of this by saying, that emotional support knife, the concept, started with fidgeting. I started carrying emotional support knives for this fidget factor, and they were all usually small, and fidgety, folding knives, like, say, this six gill from Cevidi that I recently, posted a review of. By the way, I love it. But my emotional support lately has not been coming from fidget, nervous fidgeting. It's been coming from knowing that I have a large, very good to go fixed blade knife near me. Now it's not on my person, but they're always near me.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:09]:
So that's how my emotional support knife has evolved. And by evolve, I don't mean has changed from one thing to another. I I guess I have to say, like, everything in my collecting, we're following a sine wave. So I'm sure I will come back to the fidget as my emotional support. But right now, the emotional support I need is knowing, I have a Go to War knife with me. And so, this one has been a big one, in the backpack recently. This is the Big Bear, the, yeah, the Big Bear Classic from Cold Steel Knives and man alive. I love this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:48]:
This is based on the sub hilt fighter from Bob Loveless, a pattern that is most beloved, among fixed blade knife makers. This is the sub hilt right here, and this allows for two things. First of all, easy extraction. Once you, thrust this, double edged slot long slender clip point blade into something and need to retract it, this sub hilt gives you something to pull against, besides the pommel to ensure that you retract the blade. It also gives you this. If you're in a nice fight and you're doing this kind of motion, it gives you a sort of trigger point that you can gives you positive retention when you're flicking and doing snap cuts or or, this sort of back cut. Gives you something extra to hold on to, allowing you to free up these, three fingers here to give you some flexibility. Now you don't wanna do too much freeing up.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:53]:
You wanna hold onto your knife tightly, but every once in a while, you gotta you need some flexibility to do certain certain moves. And and pinching this subbuilt gives you that flexibility. There's nothing that annoys me more in movies when I see people do this, when they when they, flip their knife around or their sword around and they open up their hand. I was taught in Cali, you just give yourself, train wrist suppleness so that you can do that sort of twirl without relinquishing your full grip. So that's what that sub hilt does. Plus this one has the beautiful leather sheath with the sharpening stone. I love this. Now if you wanna get this knife, it's still I'm sure it's a great one.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:39]:
This was made in Taiwan. If you wanna get the new, Cold Steel, sub hilt, it's gonna have a kydex sheath, and I don't know. I just wanted to I held out for the leather one and got it on eBay. Next up and and the leather one is old. That's why I say held out. Next up is the Station Nine Partisan. This is Station Nine's version of a very common style of knife used in World War one, especially by French troopers who were taking butcher knives and chef's knives and, altering them for trench fighting. So this, very much looks like a butcher's knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:24]:
You have that very neutral style, handle with the bird's beak and then it definitely in typical French fashion, the blade being wider than the pinch point of the handle, so the blade itself is the guard. So this does look like a chef's knife, but then look at that long swedge. This is out of ten ninety five blade steel. It is not currently in production with, from Station nine. They keep kind of making new models, and I I love that because I love all their new models. But I strongly recommend they go back to making this or put this back into production because every time I show it, people comment on how much they like it and would like to get it. I think I got this right at the tail end of, production of this knife. It's got a burlap micarta I'm I'm sorry.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:16]:
Canvas micarta scale, nice and smooth, with these pass through copper grommets. So you can you can put put a d guard style, lanyard on there that goes over your hand to keep it in your hand. I also put a ranger band here because I like a little of that grippiness, to it. So it's a pretty simple looking knife. It looks kinda like what we all have in our kitchen, but definitely bred for fighting. So I really like this. I also love the sheet. Now the sheet is kydex, but it also has this wrap around leather, belt loop.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:57]:
And it's an odd looking belt loop at first at first blush, but really, the belt passes through this slot and then over the sheath. It doesn't just hang on the sheath, on the belt like this. The belt comes underneath and passes over. So it rides real clo close and tight to your body. Of course, the thinner the belt, the more of a can't you can get on it. So I do prefer wearing this with a thinner belt so that that I can get a nice angle on it. So that is the Station nine Partizan. Such a cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:36]:
And by the way, it also looks like the, blade shape of the knife in the, Halloween movie, at least on the movie poster. Alright. Next up, this one has, I've kinda pulled this one out. Hadn't carried it or had it with me for a while, but sort of saw it anew in my collection and have been putting this in my backpack quite a bit recently. This is the Cortata from Doug Markaida and Fox knives. It was distributed by Russian blades. But this thing, they only made 500 of these and 500 of a smaller version of this, which they call the dagger. But I would I would take exception to that definition.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:19]:
But this is a gununting style knife, so a, down downward tip and a downward edge. Interesting thing about this one, though, is that most gununting have a curved edge. This one has a straight edge. It's just extremely downward pointed and, wharncliffe in in spine style. So you get the benefits of a curved blade without the hassle of sharpening a curved blade, if you find that to be a hassle, which I do not. Here up here, there's a swill that looks like it might be the for the thumb. And, yes, of course, you could use it with your thumb, especially if you have gloves. Those are pretty sharp.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:02]:
But I think that those are for this. I'll show you here in the main screen. They are for trapping. So if you have this in reverse or even if you have it in forward grip, but it works better in reverse grip. And you are fighting an opponent who comes in with a sword or a knife and you stop arm to arm, you drop this, using the leverage of your thumb, and those gimps grab into the arm. And that allows you a moment of control before you release and and, you know, strike or whatever you're gonna do with it. But, that is less for the thumb and more for control of your opponent's appendages. Beautiful knife with, made by Fox with, wooden handles.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:53]:
And these here, these symbols here are tattoos on Doug Markkajda's arms, for his culture. That's the wave For his, warrior, nature and culture, that's that arago head. And then here, these symbolize his three sons. So a cool and personalized touch. There you see Doug Markajda's maker's mark. You see, three ninety one out of 500, and that's the Russian blades symbol there. Now this one I lucked into because I totally, slept on it when it came out and didn't jump on it, and really was sad about that that I never got this. And then I met Doug Markajda at the Texas Custom Knife Show, which revolves around the Forged in Fire brand.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:43]:
He was there, and he had this on auction. So I got this in an auction there. A very nice leather, sheath with a drop loop. Not my preferred way to carry, but if you don't like that, you can slide this part over the belt. So a beautiful knife. I really hope they come back out with this, gununting style knife, sometimes called a hadidis, by the way. But, by the way, but this one is so cool, and, it's been a big it's been offering a lot of emotional support lately in the bag. Alright.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:18]:
So the smallest of my recent fixed blade emotional support knives is one of the newer ones, and, that is my worktop here, Dead Fast. This beautiful thing, designed by Cal Richardson, and made by WorkTough Gear has one of the sharpest edges on any knife I've ever had. It is insane. I did that folded paper cut test where you fold paper like an accordion, stand it on its end, and it just slices down. I have a short doing that. It is just crazy sharp. It's got a polished edge and a beautiful long clip point blade. It's got a thumb platform, we'll call it, not a ramp because it doesn't go up.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:03]:
Nice thumb platform. I wouldn't mind jimping on it, but you definitely don't need it with this super ergonomic handle. You've got a nice finger guard here that stops you from sliding up on the blade in a thrust and, and then a really nice, milled handle scale here, a black g 10. I think this came in a couple of colors, like green g 10, with black liners, But I got the black and white, that sort of tuxedo look I love. And if you look at it from its dorsal aspect, you'll see there's a bit of a Coke bottle, a slight palm swell, but it definitely, widens out at the pommel. The pommel, speaking of which, has not only a lanyard hole, but a nice, point there to wrap your thumb around if you need to use this in a reverse grip. It does so really, really nicely. And there is Hal Richardson's Maker's Mark.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:00]:
I need to reach out to him. I'd love to have him on the show. Looks like a big crow flying overhead. It's a beautiful Maker's Mark, And, man, this knife is just gorgeous. I love this blade shape. I could look at it all day. And to be a % honest, I've only used this for making feather sticks. So very light use on this knife so far.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:22]:
But I see this field knife as more of a fighting knife, I have to be honest. Oh, look at me being all honest. Just as a side note, whenever anyone says honestly or to be honest, I'm always like, I don't trust you. So forget I said that. But here, here is the sheath itself, very broad. That's the one thing about work tough gear knives I'm not crazy about are their sheaths. Now don't get me wrong, it has incredible retention, but it's also about the size of Texas here. It's such a big, bit of landscape.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:58]:
I mean, you could even not you, but the the the makers could even, grind this back to much closer to the grommets and, lose a bit of that overall size. One of these days, I'll probably make a taco sheath for it, but, a taco style foldover sheath. But in the meantime, this will do just great. Also, a drop belt loop here with the Velcro and the snap. Next up, a newish one, for me, and that is the Cold Steel Magnum Tanto 12. This has been going in the backpack a bit recently, and, it's just a big boy. It's just a big, tall, slender drink of water, we'll say. And, so it just kinda barely zips into my backpack because it's so long, but I love this thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:49]:
And one thing I love about it is how light it is. First, before I get to that, it's got that real squared off ponto tip with the deeply hollow ground main edge and then that flat chisel tip. It is beautiful. 12 full inches of VG 10 San Mai steel. You've got an aluminum guard and, persuader on the back with that skull crusher, the grippy Kraton handles, which just seem to go forever. But what I love about this knife is how light it is in hand. It's light and lively. You could do a lot of sort of, fighting techniques where you're batting away the other blade, the incoming blade just by going side to side.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:36]:
I've seen, Ron Balicki and, and Lynn Thompson do that a lot. Ron Balicki is like a super master of Filipino colleague. Well, so is Lynn Thompson, but I think Ron Balenki kinda taught him. And, so there's a lot of, like, this flicking away and then coming so you're slowly flicking away an incoming knife and then coming in for a snap cut. So I like that because this blade is thin and light and hollow ground, but it's got a very thick spine. So you can move it around. The balance is right even for a long knife like this, the balance is right north of the guard, so you can flip those, incoming attacks away and then come in with a snap cut. And the beauty of that is with that squared off, chisel tip and that secondary point, a snap cut is gonna make a deep triangular wound.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:29]:
And if you do it on the forehead or on the forehead, a lot of it's not gonna do much damage to your opponent like if it's just a friendly knife fight, but it will, leak a lot of blood into their eyes, and then you can either retreat or do whatever you need to do. But, that's all theoretical. I've never done that before. So there you have it. I've only heard tell, and, that secondary point on the Americanized top of the tip is great for a snap cut. Also, the guard reminds me a lot of a of a of a samurai style tsuba. It is oval in shape and protects, the thumb, the forefinger, and then the sides as well. And, the sheath originally, was not great, didn't fit well, and then, it was sitting on the counter next to the stove while I was cooking, and I think it melted a little bit around there because now it's got much better retention.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:26]:
That is the cold steel Magnum Tanto weld. Every once in a while, I'm in a dagger style mood. And, recently, I've been carrying this, dropping this in the bag quite a bit. This is the Spartan George Raider dagger. So designed by Les George as a tip of the hat to the, marine raider dagger that had a very small tenure, at the beginning of World War two. But due to material deficits and, and the daintiness of the blade, they they moved on to the m three trench knife and then later the tahbar. But this was the marine raider dagger. It looked just like this, except this one has an integral has a full tang here, very nicely jimped full tang, and it has an integral guard.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:19]:
So that is a full metal guard. So if you were to take the handle scales off of this knife, it the silhouette would look exactly the same, which I love. It's what a what a great way to to to make what was a dainty dagger a very stout and sturdy, fighting knife here. Since I have it in this aspect, you can see it's got a deep, a big palm swell there and then a deep recess before it widens back out at that, commando style pommel. You've got jimping on the on the tang all the way around, so a very nice gription on this knife. And then a deep knurling here on the FRN handle scales. And then that blade, that beautiful blade, made in Taiwan, and you can see the Les George logo and the Spartan Blades logo. Les George is a huge fan of the dagger.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:17]:
He does, he does all these projects based on daggers. He's been doing a nineteen eighteen dagger project for quite some time where he casts the nineteen eighteen knuckleduster in bronze and then sends it out to his knifemaker friends, Matt Chase of Hovtooth Knives being one of them, Alan Elishewitz another, both marines, and they put their own dagger style blades in the handle. One of these days, I have to get one, preferably for Matt Chase, and, yeah, I just have to own one. But Les George, a maestro of the dagger, teaming up with maestros of the production knife world Spartan blades and making this great knife. And by the way, what a great sheet this is. All of these lashing options, and though it's wide, it seems thin with all of the, with all of the slots in there. This is a cheap aftermarket in the waistband clip I put on there. It does come with your traditional dangler style belt loop.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:23]:
Next up, also a dagger, but this one, a little bigger, almost, approaching short sword status. This is the Odin wolf sau petcher. Kind of a grim name, but it's a it's a hog hunting or pig hunting knife. At least that's how it's marketed. But it's a broad recurved dagger, and it's got these beautiful swells up by the tip that allow for great slashing, not something most daggers are very adept at. But with those big recurve swells there and bellies on both sides, this is a great slasher. Very sharp. It's got a pretty stout blade geometry with those, saber ground edges on both sides.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:12]:
Very thick medial ridge, punctuated by a fuller there, sometimes called a blood groove, which is kinda ridiculous. But, the fuller there keeps it light, also makes it incredibly rigid. You've got d two blade steel, which I am now a, a reconvert to. I'm loving d two because I love watching how it performs in Peterbilt knife guy's nail tests. A d two is seems to be superior when it comes to that test in particular. A great plastic rubberized handle. I don't know what the material is, but it's got a slight rubbery grip grippiness to it, but it's not overly rubbery at all. It seems like where you knurl it or or cut the hatching in, you can you can sense the rubberiness more.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:02]:
I don't think that's an inlay, but it's got jimping and, and, grip grooves all around the handle. So a really, really nice handle. I would imagine if you have, a a boar, a wild boar cornered by your dogs or held down by your dogs or however that works, this handle, is going to drive that blade in, in a very sure fashion because you have these guards, and you have all this grippy, surface milled in or molded in. So a great knife. Got a great sheath here. Again, you've got the drop loop. The one thing I don't like is that you cannot remove it. So that loop with the Velcro and the snap is there.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:47]:
Next up, not much needs to be said about this beauty. This is the TOPS Prather War Voe and, with my own Kydex sheath, one of the best Kydex sheaths I've ever made. But this one goes in the bag quite frequently, because it's just a very solid, sturdy, and stout ten ninety five, a long clip, nearly Spanish in nature, clip point blade. I love this knife. Nine and a half inch or nine inches of blade here and, just a a beauty. You've got a coffin style handle here, so it's, and like the French knives, the knife the blade itself is the guard because it's wider than the pinch point of the handle, and then the handle widens out towards the pommel, resisting any sort of centrifugal force in a slash, or or hack or chop, but then again, also resisting the it's gonna stop you from going on the blade with that awesome wide blade guard. Also, great jimping here, and, I always wish this had a sharpened swedge. How wicked would that be? But it's not even close.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:59]:
It's pretty pretty wide up there on the swedge. But I imagine a thinner swedge or even a double edge there would make this, an an even more effective knife. Jeff Frazer, who I don't know why. I I I haven't really looked into it, but he's a very polarizing figure. A lot of people think he's a a bad dude, but there's an interesting video of him, and how he carries this knife in, sort of samurai style and how he uses it and flips it around, using a lanyard, which I don't recommend unless you have a a training option on him. So that is the Prather war bowie. The next two, the last two are also bowies. This one, the Kudomon j k, JVK one.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:49]:
This is made in Spain with, molybdenum, vanadium steel. I can never say that m word. It's this neon. But a beautiful classic style Bowie knife with a straight handle, and this handle is so comfortable. It's contoured micarta, so it's rounded, but still flat enough not to turn in your hand. Even though it doesn't have a bird's beak or a coffin profile, it just stays in hand really, really well. I've used this to chop vines and small saplings, and it definitely stays in hand without, without any sort of handle feature that would guarantee it. A nice big guard stopping you from sliding up onto that blade.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:36]:
If heaven heaven forbid, you have to thrust it into anything. Nice hollow grind, comes to a very thin behind the edge geometry. Beautiful swedge. I just love the shape of this Bowie knife. This is a classic looking Bowie knife to me, the kind of thing you see on old book covers. And then there is the Coudemann, elephant logo. Very beautiful. Made in Spain.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:01]:
Check out CudaMon. Check out, Joker knives and, what's the other one? Well, several really, really cool knives, and great knife companies coming from Spain. I'm starting to see more from them on Instagram, and I can vouch for this knife. It is a really great knife. Also comes with an excellent sheet, beautiful black leather with the red stitching just like in my Ferrari. And, just kidding, I don't have a Ferrari, but just a beautiful, beautiful night and classy design there. Alright, last up, one that barely fits in my backpack, similar to the to the Ponto is the Cold Steel Natchez Bowie. I love the Natchez Bowie.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:49]:
A Musso style Bowie with a zero ground clip, so very sharp clip, great on the back cut. This has a nice big guard and a, a vampire style coffin handle. And, I'm I guess I'm just sort of acquainting that now. Vampire meaning it looks like the coffin shaped handle from the jack wolf knives of vampire with the, with the center humps there. Really nice in hand, beautifully balanced, a little bit heavy with that, five eighths of an inch thick blade, but, you know, eat your Wheaties and do a little weight lifting, and it won't be that bad. This has the, forty one sixty or I'm sorry. Forty forty thirty four stainless steel. And, if you're at all trepidatious about forty thirty four stainless steel and would rather spend the extra hundred and $50 to get three b, before you do, I would I would ask you two questions.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:48]:
This with its cable tang, a a true bred fighting knife, do you need three b, or are you gonna be using this out in the field to, baton wood? That's my first question. And second comment, I guess, is, check out Jimmy Slash's review of forty thirty four stainless steel where where he takes a, a cold steel in that steel and, does a lot of abuse to it. This steel can take it. Cold steel is great at taking, quote, unquote, substandard steels and heat treating it to maximum, capability. This knife gives me true emotional support because if anyone were to ever break into my office, you know, I'm sure they'd have a gun, and I'm not allowed to have a gun in my office. But, if I could get the jump on them, this beautiful Natchez Bowie, would have a great effect in stopping the threat. So, that's what emotional support means to me right now. It's not so much the fidgety nature of a knife like this.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:53]:
It's more knowing that I have a great backup with me. What's your favorite emotional support knife? Let me know what your ESK is. Drop it in the comments below, and, I'd love to talk about that on the next Thursday night knives. We often talk about, ESKs on Thursday night knives, and I wanna get, I'd love to get a roster of things we can mention. Be sure to check out this week's, interview coming out on Sunday. If you're watching this as it drops, that's episode, five eighty four. You will love it. I guarantee it.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:27]:
Alright. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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