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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. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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The Knife Junkie Podcast
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Transcript

[0:00]Coming up, I finally get a Spanish Navaja, I get a French dagger, and we talk about handle-wrapped knives. I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast. 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.
[0:25]Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment this past week was from Harvest Blades. He was commenting on the Turner CNC Elvia, the video that I put up. That knife was on loan from Jock's Knife, and it's a nice pricey pick call. He says, the Elvia is sweet. I carry a fixed blade on my belt, often my CRKT Obaki, but often a Dexter Russell paring knife. I like it better than the with Tornax. I made the Kydex myself and added the pinky groove and since I had the Kydex already my cost was like $12. That's hard to beat for that price and while it isn't as tough as it should should I stab to the bone, the paring knife would most likely get me through that event and end up in evidence. I work private security and executive protection so having such a small, light but effective knife near my midline is a great tool for breaking a grapple and creating space to safely deploy my handgun. Hard to justify the additional cost and weight of the Elvia, but maybe if I get my hands on it, I'd change my mind. Well, Harvest Blades, you may. It may be the sort of thing where you have such respect for the format, the Bacall-style knife, that you only carry the Elvia to church or in fancy dress or in private. But when you're working the job where your knife could definitely end up in evidence, should it be used? as well.
[1:47]Stick with that. And by the way, I've never heard of Dexter Russell. Looked it up. They look nice. They look similar to the Victorinox, but the handle-to-blade ratio is nicer. Bigger blade, it looks like. I will definitely have to check that out. Alright, all that said, thank you guys for commenting, watching, liking over this past week. I do appreciate it. Now, let's get to a pocket check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
[2:16]Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives in my front right pocket today i had the benny by jack wolf knives and this is uh i have carried this more as a front right pocket knife than any other oh it's nasty too it's got covered with stuff on the blade but than any other jack wolf knife uh i have only carried the clipped jack wolf knives with the uh with the locks in my front pocket. So that's only about four models at this point. Um, but this one is, uh, Just big enough, it's just a bigger blade than all of them. Though not so much in length, in overall length, but in beefiness, width, and overall feel. This is just the bee's knees. And I would say the toughest feeling Jack Wolf knife. So this has done a lot of summer front right pocket. You know, the reason that's a big deal is usually my front right pocket is occupied by a folder that has at least a 3.5 inch blade. That's the minimum.
[3:18]There are a few exceptions. The Spyderco Yojimbo is one of them, and this is another. I carry this in my front pocket all summer long, and it would be just fine. I really, really like this knife a lot, and it is a great pencil sharpening knife. Jim suggested I make a pencil sharpening video. I think I will do that. This is one of the best. For me, a pencil sharpening knife, a good one, has to be very, very thin because you have to be able to glide with either that convex or that flat ground edge kind of against the barrel of the pencil. So you can shave off really fine pieces. I don't like facets in my pencil anymore, in my pencil tip. Now I like them as much like a mechanical pencil sharpener as possible. And for me, the super fine blades do that. This is definitely one of them, though it's capable of a lot more. Alright, next up, instead of a slip joint today, I had this. I've been carrying this all summer. I love this thing. This is the Primitive Wicket by Knives by Nuge.
[4:27]Primitive because it is wrapped in jute cord and that has a cool primitive old school look and feel. The thing that I love about this knife, the reason I've been carrying it so much, is that it is so very thin. So thin and so light, and actually this handle, which you would expect being jute that's been impregnated with epoxy, you would expect it to be kind of itchy, kind of like wool or sackcloth, but it rides next to the skin really, really well. Well, that's why I've been wearing it so much this summer. I can just throw it under my shirt, and it doesn't bother my chest or my stomach when it touches it. I know that sounds weird, but sometimes I need, like with every other neck knife, I need a layer between me and the knife, like a T-shirt. This one, not so. I love this knife, and it's a really handy little knife. This is ADCRV. I think I've got to I've got to.
[5:25]Scrap That edge a little bit I do use this a lot And I don't tend to Baby it at all So it's starting to Rust Ever so slightly On the On the edge ADCRV2 Not rust But a little bit of, Corrosion Starting there But man What an awesome knife Great sheath too, I know that Offensive Industries makes sheaths that work with the wicket, which I'd love to get, but I'd rather have that on a larger knife. So the one that comes by Tom of Knives by Nuge is quite awesome. And it comes with this leather cord, which eventually will punk out and crumble. But check out this cool connector, the Wazoo connector.
[6:06]It's got a little trigger here, and it will stop the... What I'm trying to say is if you have this around your neck and you're concerned that you're in the woods and you might like garret yourself with this, that will eventually give way. Kind of like the bead cord or something like that. Piece of 550 cord, which is how I always have my, almost always have my neck knives on my neck. It's probably the most dangerous thing if you're concerned about choking yourself out with your neck knife. I'm not so concerned with that, but that's what that Wazoo fastener is very, very good for. So I love that primitive wicket.
[6:40]It's kind of outside my wheelhouse because it's very much a um what do you call it outdoors knife a camping knife a field craft or bushcraft kind of knife but the knives by news knives are our field craft knives that really i don't know they appeal to me and then having this one has uh taken it over the top okay next up is, the beautiful nova 2 and i i say beautiful uh because i didn't make it i did design the blade but I feel like having this built by Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives has transformed my design into something totally new, so I can say it's beautiful without being conceited. He really did an awesome job. These Nova IIs, this pre-order is open until the end of August, and each Nova II will ship with an ivory G10 handle. Right now it looks like blown-out white, but that's Ivory G10 with a...
[7:38]A bit of the Anzo pattern there, grooved in there. White, I'm sorry, red liners. So this whole thing is evocative of a Japanese knife. I think those colors, the black of the blade, or the dark gray of the blade, the red, and the white sort of evoke that with the black hardware. It's a Kiridashi blade, which is a Japanese-style utility blade with a little extra point in case you have to thrust it into something tenacious. Extremely comfortable handle uh this knife uh this 154 cm by the way deeply hollow ground extremely sharp get all that out of the way but this knife is really comfortable this has also been getting a lot of summer carry for me it's been this and the tcl knives agent 001 two knives i had a hand in designing and i've been carrying them a lot because of that but also this one in in particular, is very kind to the love handles, which I'm sad to say I have not ridded myself of yet. But this short, curved, very softly contoured handle not only fits all size hands so far, like even big mitts really well, but it also is gentle on the extra fat around your waist. Okay, last up on me for emotional support, I had this, and this knife Never, never Fails to bring emotional support Emotional support of the.
[9:06]Self-defense kind, I guess I'd say. This is the absolutely beautiful Tier 1... I'm sorry, the DC Blades Shield and Tie Large Scythe. Justin of Tier 1 Gear Reviews and a design partner have created DC Blades. And they've released a number of knives through various companies and OEMs. So, licensed designs and then OEMs. This one appears to be a licensed design because I see the Shielden branding, but I really think of this as a DC Blades knife.
[9:44]An amazing folding Pakal. I have four folding Pakals, and it's a rare breed, and this is an excellent one. One thing I love about this, besides that incredible sickle-shaped blade, is the backspacer that stands proud of those contoured titanium handles all the way around. And it gives you that gear pattern that so easily and nicely sinks into the fat of the hand and the thumb. And your grip on this thing is just ironclad, as the politicians used to like to say. Ironclad. Remember the ironclad lockbox? Who said that? Horse crap. But anyway, this is an iron-clad grip. It also gives you a bit of a wasp-waisted, or even you could see that kind of as a coffin-shaped handle. So neutral, so you could have it in this Picol, or you could have it edge-out, or you could use it like a normal person, like a knife that you're going to open stuff with, like boxes and stuff.
[10:44]Picols are great for self-defense, but they are also pretty darn practical. This one though does have quite a um quite a refined tip but they all do they all should anyway so just be careful with the tip don't drop it on concrete like yours truly and uh and you'll be good to go all right this is what i had on me today uh a fine fine assortment of knives and i realize as i look at it and i take personal pride in this uh that i've interviewed everyone and i know everyone who made these knives i'm not saying that to name drop obviously that's the bread and butter of this show we interview knife makers but um i i love that i have uh and i've been able to support some of the people making these things other people um like like ben belkin of jack wolf knives sends me a new jack wolf knife every time one comes out so i mean the generosity is greatly greatly appreciated and i i understand uh how good i have it because it took me a long time to have it this good. And, um.
[11:47]I'm putting these away. You let me know. Drop them in the comments below what you were carrying today. I do like to find out. And let me know if you have any go-to knives for the summer that just are so comfortable for you because it's hot as Hades. My God, it's been hot here in Virginia over the past couple of weeks. And a heavy knife banging around in the pocket has not been an option. So leave those down below. Okay, still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to talk about four cool new knives out on the market. We'll take a look at a few knives in the state of the collection. But before we get there, I just want to say if you want to help support the show, which is greatly appreciated, you can do it in so many ways. You can watch, you can like, you can comment, you can share with a friend, which is amazing. That does so much for the show. Or you can go to theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon or scan the QR code and help support the show monetarily. Those who do enjoy Thursday Night Knives every third Thursday of the month when we give away a knife, so go check it out. TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Patreon. Become a patron. Again, that's TheKnifeJunkie.com slash Patreon. Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals.
[13:05]TheKnifeJunkie.com slash BattleBox. you're listening to the knife junkie podcast and now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news we got four really cool uh new knives in life knife news today one of them one of which we've seen here right on our stage but it's uh it's now it's starting to pick up public steam so i wanted to draw attention to it but first real steel and oh stop hell oh stop hell uh polish designer great dude uh i've had him on the show a few times and i've met him in person a couple of times at the real steel uh let's see maybe best tech at at one of the tables at blade show i see him every year he's a great guy but he also has a really unique design language and this is his first that i've seen dagger um uh fixed blade dagger coming out through real steel and look at this thing it's futuristic it's cool it is double edged it's not like the the spider code night stick doesn't do that bait and switch look it looks just like a dagger it would be awesome as a dagger but it only has one edge this one indeed has two edges skeleton and i skeletonized that is a 2.7 for for layman three and a quarter inch 3.27 or three and a quarter inch k110 double-edged blade now k110 is analogous to d2 i believe it's made by um so it's a uh.
[14:35]A European D2, heavily skeletonized and compact. It's got a Kydex sheath, 1.07 ounces. Pretty awesome. No release date on this. This knife here reminds me of another one I'm going to show you in the state of the collection, the new one I got. But this is a beautiful knife for a couple of reasons. First of all, double-edged dagger. I love it. Second of all, really cool, unique, futuristic design by a designer I admire greatly. Uh three the lightning holes are interesting they're not just holes uh evenly spaced along the handle there are two kind of bullet shaped holes on either end of the handle and four.
[15:16]Lost count i'm not a math guy and four this would be great to wrap if you're interested in wrapping things in jute or doing the sukamaki wrap or any of that this would be a sweet knife to do that on so a big fan of this uh so far anyway no release date yet real steel real steel they have some cool stuff all right next up artisan cutlery uh this one by dirk pinkerton i've shown this uh just released a video last week i believe of the banjara a middle eastern inspired knife uh in the nomad series and it it is a loose series or maybe a series in the mind of the creator or Dirk Pinkerton, over 10 years ago, I'd say, or maybe about 10 years ago, he released or designed a knife for Kaiser called the Nomad. It was a very successful upswept Persian style blade. He's done a few in that series since then. One of them, another one of them recently, the Arroyo kind of looks like that. But this one here is, it is exceptional. I saw pictures of it all over blade show it was on the big posters it's a big release for them it's okay let's start with the handle really really nice uh titanium frame lock handle with with uh a milled groove pattern in it uh that makes it very comfortable uh a non-ambidextrous um milled pocket clip.
[16:43]That's uh follows the back contour of the handle but the blade look at the blade it's interesting and unique because it's all belly like a persian will be but it does have about a third that is still a bit straight so a usable uh flat area if you will by the ricasso but it's an upswept persian blade with all of that implies great at slashing great at uh uh slashing and and uh cutting if you will uh.
[17:14]It doesn't leave you wondering where the point is way up in the stratosphere. It has the point basically between, from my estimation, between the spine and the center line of the pivot. So it's a Persian, but it's got a downward canted blade so that by the time you get to the blade, it's not too far up and weird to use. You can still use this knife very well in kind of drag cuts and pull cuts without having to change your posture of your arm too much. So a very thoughtful design, as we always expect from Dirk Pinkerton. He makes great knives that really, really, honest to goodness, Lee, work great as tactical self-defense knives, at least theoretically I haven't fought with any of them, but they also work great as EDC knives. Cutting your sandwich, cutting that string, breaking down some boxes, they're good to go. So you get jumped in an alley and you're able to actually draw it and have it ready to go in your hand. Great ergonomics, great blade placement and orientation. He just makes awesome knives. And Artisan Cutlery, he designs awesome knives and he makes awesome custom knives. But Artisan Cutlery, in this case, manufactures beautifully. S90V.
[18:30]S90V, that's pretty awesome. 4.55 ounces. It's available now. I'm a huge fan of this knife. And I actually have one on loan from Dirk. It's a prototype, so it's totally unlocked. It's sweet, but I've got to send it back to him. I'm doing that tomorrow.
[18:46]So, highly recommend that. Bun-ja-ra. Alright, next up, from Spyderco, a Sprint Run. And usually, I don't pay much attention because I'm not a steel nerd. I have major respect for Spyderco and their exploration of various steels, whether it's through Sprint Runs, like we're about to see, or the Mule series of knives. That's their main testbed for steels. This new one caught my eye because I love the way it looks. Look at this thing. Look at that. Beautiful. Combination uh so we have a black blade and maroon frn i mean maroon like burgundy i want to drink that so beautiful looking uh but what is this this is micro melt this is a micro melt sprint run you're like what's micro melt because that's what i was like uh micro melt is a high-end steel from carpenter we hear a lot about crucible this one is a carpenter this is cts pd number one not not to be mistaken with BD-1 by CTS, by Carpenter, which is a lesser steel, let's say. This is sort of the Carpenter version of Crucible's crew wear, a blade steel I have on one knife, and it is exquisite.
[20:01]Crew wear, in my experience with this knife, which is the Steingraber Shark, it just goes forever. And if you're a lightweight like myself in terms of cutting chores and needs, it really literally goes forever so here are these beautiful um sprint runs here it's going to come in the um oh before i get off of that before i get to that let me just say uh took some notes on micromelt it's an advanced tool steel very very high in edge retention and toughness um and and then it's semi-stainless so you know they're the three things you want out of a steel, you want its resistance to corrosion you want its toughness meaning ability to take impact without chipping or shattering and its edge retention and usually you only get two out of the three but there are some awesome steels like magna cut that that kind of bring them all together well this one brings them mostly together in a semi-stainless steel but cold steel has gone the the extra mile and coated those blades with a tie carbon nitride black coating. So it will protect that semi-stainless steel and it will also make it look.
[21:15]So enviable it's so nice looking i gotta say even for a weird looking spider cone let's face it they're weird looking but we've gotten used to it like you too it's all good this is going to come out in the delica for the indella the indora for and the one that i want the police for uh so these are available now but uh you better jump on it and i'm talking to myself too because it's a sprint run and they'll go fast all right lastly in this list of cool new knives out on the market is from rosecraft and it's their second barlow and it's a looker what can i say it's a looker it's a clip point uh d2 2.9 inch barlow d2 is their go-to steel over there at rosecraft and they they do it up they do it to the nines you you watch uh scab choir boys cutlery he's on his second d2 rosecraft knife or he's using it every day in hard industrial applications applications, uh, cutting sandblasting hoses and all sorts of crazy stuff. And these knives just hold out.
[22:18]And, uh, you know, he's got this goal of cutting until they can't cut anymore. He did it first with the first Barlow that, um, the otter, I can't remember what the name of the first Barlow was, but he used that every day for like 45 days until he had to resharpen and doing like real hard stuff, not just like, you know, clipping off, uh, errant threads and stuff like that. So the new one here, the Otter Creek is a beauty. 2.9 inch D2 clip point, sleeve board pattern. So it's rounded on both ends, but fatter at the tail end, the pommel. And that is, though it looks red, yellow sandalwood. And I would never do this, but I love the way sandalwood smells when you burn it. The bolster is stamped with an otter paw. I got to say, that's the one thing that I don't like so much on this knife. I don't like Barlow's to have any stamp. Honestly, I don't like Barlow's to have anything. I know the other Rosecraft Barlow has the RC, their logo. It looks nice. I think it's better. But I don't like Barlow's to have anything stamped on the bolster or anything inlaid on the handle.
[23:33]It's too much because it's a third and two-thirds. You have two-thirds handle, one-third bolster. You add something to either one, it's too much. If you add a shorter bolster, way more handle, and you add a badge to the handle, it looks fine. But with these visual ratios, Barlow's with any sort of marking on the handle itself, it doesn't work for me. But still, an awesome knife. I'm sure this will be super cool. And what I'm saying here is all very, very personal taste stuff. 2.7 ounces is this, and it's available now. There are a lot of Rosecrafts that are available, new ones that have come out.
[24:13]That moose, is it a moose I want to get? They just have a lot of cool knives that have come out recently. Three of them modern and four of them old school slip joints, so definitely go check them out. All right, coming up, we're going to get to the state of the collection. I'm going to show you two really cool knives that I just got. But before we get there be sure to like comment subscribe just hit the like button that's the thumbs up even if you're you're kind of on the on the uh on the on the fence you're like he talks too much and i just wish he'd get to the knives just still give me the thumbs up i'll get the point and i'll move on all right coming up the state of the collection the shockwave tactical torch is your ultimate self-defense companion featuring a powerful led bulb that lasts 100,000 and hours, a super-sharp, crenulated bezel, and a built-in stun gun delivering 4.5 million volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave Tactical Torch. Theknifejunkie.com slash shockwave. And now that we're caught up with Knife Life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast. First up in the state of the collection this week is a knife that I feel like I should have had years ago, but this is a legit Spanish Navaja. And And I say legit because it's from Spain. It's made by Joker. And it's the traditional construction. It does not have a ratchet lock. It has a...
[25:40]So now I need to do more research. I'm not sure if this is what the modern Navajas have lock-wise normally. I remember reading about these knives many times where the tangs here had a ratchet and it would click.
[25:54]But look at this beautiful knife. My God. So, you know, I'm a huge fan of the Navaja. It's one of my favorite historical blades. And in terms of historical folders, it is my very, very favorite. It was on a whim. I was getting a whole bunch of stuff for the household on Amazon. And I thought, Amazon's got everything these days. Let me see if they have a Navaja. It was just a little whim. And lo and behold, they sell Joker knives. And Joker makes this. So I was really happy to get this I would like to expand my collection of Navajas my collection of one Navaja to a Barbudo and to some traditional made ones, I'd love to go to Spain and go on a knife buying tour but until that happens this will suffice, very very sharp pointy blade and extremely thin hollow round blade, I mean this is a, This is a great old-school street fighting knife. I know it's used for other stuff and all that, but that's what the Navaja was about originally. No more swords. Can't carry swords anymore, so how are we going to settle our beefs? Locking folders, and we'll make them big.
[27:12]They get very, very large. This one here has a nice stag handle here and brass bolsters, and it's got that traditional steer horn shape, which does amazing things for handle to blade ratio because the handle thins out so much and it curves up to accommodate the long blade it it almost looks like the handle goes to there of course it continues but it almost looks like the handle goes to the end of the stag so when you look at these they have really great blade to handle ratios because the upward curve belly of that Spanish clip point nestles into that downward horn shape of the handle. All right, I'm going to show this to you with two of my absolute favorite modern Navajas. You know I'm going to do this one. This is the Espada Larg. Actually, this has more of an American-style clip point blade, if you ask me. Spanish uh spanish style clip point blades to me have long dramatic uh curved.
[28:19]Uh clips here and um or or long straight clips this one just looks like bowie and that's i'm totally fine with that it's no biggie uh and second one here is the dirk pinkerton designed um asymmetrical made uh night horse so here you see that's the kind of clip i'm talking about long uh with the with the shelf up here you kind of get the same thing out of this knife but so one of one of my favorite inspirational knives uh you know inspiring modern classics like the night horse and the espada and uh hearkening back to it to a day when a man's honor was defended with his blade. And of course, I'm glad I don't have to do that these days. But every once in a while, and this only comes when I'm driving the car. I drive in a heavily trafficked area. If you live in Atlanta, you have me beat. But if not, I live in the worst place to drive. And my honor is besmirched on a daily basis.
[29:25]And every once in a while, I would like to call someone out for a Navaja duel. But I have self-control, so I've stopped it. One thing I want to show you is just closing this. This leaf up here comes up, and as it levers up, it releases the tension off that leaf spring on the blade, and then you close it. There's no snap or any sort of springiness to it at all. You push it with a lot of force into the handle, so it does not spring back like a lock back. Very, very psyched about this purchase. The second purchase here, this came in the same order. Look at me. I'm such a good guy getting all this stuff for the house. Let me buy myself two knives. But this was pretty damn inexpensive, and I want this to be in the category that we're going to be talking about, handle-wrapped knives. But as it just arrived, and I attempted a couple of different wraps, I've got to figure out what I'm going to do with this one. But this is a Fred Perrin Daga, Le Daga. And Fred Perrin is a French master of the blade. He was a commando, French commando, and did a lot of that kind of work in his earlier days.
[30:42]Now he looks like, and this is not in any way an insult, he is cool as hell, and I spent a good bit of time talking with him and Zach Wingard at the Wingard wearables table during Blade Show, and that was like me talking with LeBron James for most people or whatever, or Tom Cruise. I was like, I'm standing here with Fred Perrin, and I got the brains of Zach Wingard right here, and we're all talking about weapons. This is so cool. But anyway, Fred Perrin designs a lot of small, and he hand makes, but designs a lot of small covert blades. He is a big fan of the spike because it leaves no mess. It leaves less mess than a blade. He loves spikes for tactical use. He loves small blades. blades and this one i couldn't resist because it's a coffin shape dagger um and the way it's set up either way you go you have no guard so either way you go with these uh pinchable coils here you've got an extremely sharp 440c edge here this is 440c made by max knives in france so he is french and he has them made in france i have a neck knife by him that's It's also super, super cool. This one, I have to admit, with the sort of sharp facets here on the top of the handle, it's a little uncomfortable. Not deal-breaking uncomfortable, but I think I want to wrap this in jute.
[32:11]In jute. I do love the wrapped handles. So why don't we get to that? So right here, the Fred Parent LeDag. I'm not sure how you pronounce it. LeDag.
[32:22]Something like that. But it looks cool. I like the combination of letters, and I love the way this knife looks. And no doubt, in a pinch, it would save your bacon. It's a 3.75-inch blade, very nice high-deck sheath. All right, let's get to the main topic at hand, and this is wrapped knives and implements of chaos, mostly knives. I've really used to despise wrapped handles, especially paracord. I still don't like paracord wrapped handles, and there's too much play between the outer sleeve of the paracord and then the seven fibers that run within. in. I love paracord for many different things, but not knife handles. I feel like there's too much give. Yes, even if it's impregnated with epoxy. Now, if you take the paracord and you gut it and you pull the strands out, that's a different story. That's more like a lace. So a couple of years back, I started embracing wrapping knives with jute cord, jute and natural material. Appears on, I think, some of these Filipino stuff, not in the string form I'm going to show you now, but some of this wrapping here with the natural materials inspired. So first up, this is my main car fixed blade.
[33:49]If I don't need the bowie, because I have a big bowie in there, and if I don't need the thing in the back. So this is if I have to cut something and it's immediate, and I don't want the Bowie. This is the Roach Belly from Cold Steel. That's in a sheath I made myself.
[34:05]This blade, I love the blade. It's their 4116 Krupp Stahl, so it's a cheap German steel, but a very good, tough German steel. Every time I pull out the Roach Belly, I tell the story of when I lived in New York, a friend of mine's cousin was coming through town, and he was on the road for like four years or something, just bumming around. He was a young post-college dude, naturalist type.
[34:34]Just camping camping his way across the country his only knife was the roach belly he told me my only knife is a cold steel i was so excited i thought he was going to pull out something uh that was going to really get my motor running like a like a trail master and he pulled out the roach belly i was like no kidding he's like yeah he would you would be shocked at how amazing this knife is and what it's done for me in this period uh so it does come with that jimping but it does not come with this uh sculpted handle here and it does not come with that jute wrap so i sculpted the handle uh right after i got it and i made that sheath i i actually bought this knife to practice making tie that sheath but discovered how awesome the knife is and um finally oh i was finding that when my hands were sweaty uh this knife even though i put the um the grooves in it.
[35:28]Was it felt slippery in hand so i wrapped it with jute and then eventually i wrapped i uh i did what i normally do which is soak the jute in not epoxy i probably should do epoxy but i use amber shellac and the reason i use that is because when i was doing a lot of paintings and like really into painting and doing art i would pour shellac on parts of my painting and and then burn it, and you would get this beautiful effect. And also, it got really, really hard. So that's what I've been doing now with the jute blades. This one I have not burned yet, or probably won't, because I didn't when I did it. But that jute just adds a dimension this way of grip. That is amazing.
[36:16]I love this knife for $12 to, I don't know, I think maybe it's up to with inflation, $17 or something. This is such a great knife. I highly recommend it. Just make an impulse purchase, even if $17 stings, because I've been there for sure. Even if $17 stings, throw it in your Amazon bin and get it when you feel you can, because it's freaking awesome. And it comes with a new sheath. It came with a nylon pouch sheath when I got it, but now it comes in a sort of kydex-y sheath. Next up is also a car knife. This is a Victorinox fruit knife, much altered. Just like the comment up front, I had Kydex laying around, so I made the sheath. It cost me nothing. This knife itself, I got on Amazon for $10 or something like that. But what did I do with the knife? I put it in the toaster oven and warmed it up and then bent the handle. Okay.
[37:18]So that you would get that nice McCall point orientation. That is the point not straight in line with your knuckles, but kind of up and over. So I'm going to go to the main camera here. If you're doing a back fist punch like this, back fist, you get the point landing right where it needs to go. It's not pointing off over in that direction. It's right where it needs to go. So you bend that handle. This is a little tip I got from Ed Calderon. We all got from Ed Calderon. And then it's wrapped in a 220 cord, and then over that is a jute cord burn. Now, the reason I did that is because initially I liked how thin it was. You just drop this whole package in the pocket. No one will ever see it, but it did not feel that secure in hand because it's a very thin handle. So with this little wrap in the center, just kind of in the middle of the palm, gives you something to grip onto, and then you have this finger groove here for orientation. rotation. You know that if it's in reverse grip and you feel that finger groove, it's going the way you want it with the tip down and the edge in. So that's a Victorinox fruit knife. I've had a number of them, but this is the only one I have left. I've given a few away and I dig them. But I want to try out the, what was it, something Russell knife that the commenter up front left.
[38:37]Next is one that I just did, my most recently wrapped, and this is an old knife. This is my old cold steel spike from the first iteration of the spike where it was just wrapped with a very thin black cord. So I pulled that cord off years ago. I used to have this wrapped with 550 cord, and then I had some other string on it. And I just took all that off and put on two layers of jute cord with extra space here to give it a little more belly and a grip because it's a very thin handle. Soaked it with the amber shellac, lit it on fire. Let this one go a little bit long. Whoops. Let this one go a little bit long so it's a little bit blacker than I prefer. But we're just talking aesthetics. In terms of feel and smell and all that, it doesn't smell, doesn't feel tacky at all. You know, sometimes coatings, if you light them on fire before the right time, they will remain tacky forever. This is not the case here. I love the cold steel spike, even though it looks like a blunt tip. This is just an absolutely wicked zero ground.
[39:48]I think it's 3-16ths. It's almost a quarter inch, but it's just wicked. Yeah, if I care to, I could grind that point down a little bit, make it a little bit sharper, but no need really. That's a full four inches there, and you can reverse grip it, forward grip it in the piccolo, the regular style. No matter how you grip this thing, it's so neutral, it'll do the work. It'll do the work. We just want to do the work. Okay, next up, I'm sorry, I was channeling someone else. Next up is from Fudo Forge. Now, this was an impulse buy. I'm upset because I saw Fudo Forge at Knife Show, at Blade Show this year, and they were talking to someone when I noticed them, and so I didn't interrupt, and I didn't get a chance to tell them that last year at Blade Show 2023, I picked up one of these $30 impulse buy scalpel things they have on their table. Even though I'd never heard of them, They make amazing chef's knives, Foodo Forge does, and other stuff. But this was out there, and I was like, that is sweet, it's 30 bucks, I'll take one. And it is incredibly sharp. I've made it even more so. Incredibly sharp little scalpeloid thing.
[41:04]But I wrapped it again in jute cord so that it had a bit of grip. It's still small, thin, and light enough that with my little homemade pocket sheath with the little thing so you can grab on. Both of these sheaths have little hooks. So if you drop it in the pocket without any sort of other retention method, you can pull it out of the pocket and this will hook on the inside of the pocket and drop back in. You'll have your knife in hand, but the sheath will be inside your pocket. So I did the same thing with this. This is an outstanding little knife for all sorts of stuff. I've carried this in the pocket thinking, oh, this is how I could, like the commenter up front, I could create space with this little thing if I get in a grappling situation. And I'm like, yeah, not getting in grappling situation. Unless it's that time of the quarter, you're going to a martial arts class. I don't do it, you know, but it's great for utility. It's in the pocket. It's easy to get. It's a fixed blade. It looks cool. It's fun to pull out and use. And I have to get in touch Watch the Budo Forge and let them know that this little scrap knife that they probably didn't think twice about is one of my favorite little pocket knives, like in-pocket fixed blades.
[42:25]Wrapped in jute, and good to go. Let's see, put this back. So this list is half jute cord, half tsukamaki, or Japanese wrap. There are other names for it, and I can never remember the other names, but tsukamaki is fun to say, and it looks cool on paper, so that's what I use. All right, next up is not exactly a knife, but you've seen it plenty of times. It's a knife-adjacent implement. It is the Quill by Wingard Wearables. The quill is a device that was conceived by Zach Wingard's wife, who's an awesome woman. I met her at Blade Show and talked to her quite a bit. She's really cool. And she wanted a wearable weapon tool, which is what the ETA is here. She wanted a wearable weapon tool that she could put over her ear and fake as jewelry. And so the quill was born. the quill uh this is a stainless steel they work in stainless and high carbon over there but this is a stainless steel um you have a pyramidal point on this end and then on this end you have a flat spade like um slotted screwdriver type point um it does not come wrapped it comes like this it comes in a large and a smaller and a thinner size um but really this is like.
[43:47]A multi-tool. It's a multi-tool spike. I like it mostly as a weapon because you can put it in various grips and go to town. This is my favorite grip right here because you can use your hammer fist, but also if you use a regular punch, that's pretty nasty too.
[44:02]But this thing, as I discovered once I got it and started carrying it in my pocket, has a million uses. You can pull out staples On this end, you can carve your coffee drink. On this end, you can do all sorts of stuff. Scraping, poking, or reaching. Sometimes you just need just a little reach. You can hook it or you can press it, whatever it is. These spikes have a lot of different uses. This one to me, I don't know, I just love the quill. I love that shape. It reminds me of Maui's hook. Um but so i took that jute wrapped it there because i saw um i saw others doing that wrapping it with uh 550 paracord or what have you and for me this is not a large one so 550 paracord would be too much in there and would not leave enough room for my fingers so the jute works perfectly and i have to say just the look of it against the shape of the of the wingard wearables quill.
[45:07]So cool. It's so cool. But really, to me, it needed that little extra width just for this kind of thing, for punching like that. All right, next up is something that I made myself. It's a, it's the, well, here is the steel version. I still have to have this heat treated. That's AEBL. I call it the Liberator. It's a chisel ground double-edged picol knife. Well, this is, It's G10 analog, so you can carry this anywhere, and it's not going to be detected, at least not by metal. If they have a G10 detector, you're screwed.
[45:43]But so far, they don't have that, and this will help liberate you from a bad accident. Someone's choking you in the airport bathroom. Well, don't worry, this is the airport. But let's just set up that scenario because it sounds cool. Say you're using the urinal at the airport bathroom. It's quiet in there. It's late. no one's there someone knees you in the back of the thigh you go down to one knee you wrap everything up you're good to go you turn around and you pull this out of your pocket uh because the guy's got his hands around your throat and he's asking for your money already so you pull this out of your pocket bury it in his arm remove his arm from your hand and then do what else you gotta do i know the scenario it needs work i just came up with it on the fly uh but you know there There are non-permissive environments where you can carry sharp things that are not knives, and this is one of them. It's a knife adjacent. It looks like a knife.
[46:37]It's not a knife, but it's pokey and it's plastic and it's wrapped in jute and it's not going anywhere from your hand because, well, from my hand. I designed it from my hand. Made this one a little bit bigger and this one's comfortable too. I can't wait. I'm going to, one of my knife maker friends, I'm going to see if they can just heat treat this AEBL for me and I'm going to turn this finally after years of just hanging on the wall. I know I burnt the edge there a little bit. it. I'm going to turn this into a sweet night. All right. So that is the Liberator, the G10 Liberator wrapped in jute. Last jute wrapped affair here is a cold steel. This is the double agent. And this was a wedding present from my great friend, Mike, when he married his awesome wife, Laura.
[47:25]I was a groomsman and he gave me this. And of course I wore it on top of my suit, you know so everyone could see uh it was so that was a great wedding that was a lot of fun and what a cool groomsman gift uh however i found on the double agent this is there's one that's a hawk build karambit style and then there are two that are serrated and then there's this plain edge olive buoy here but i found that the handle in the center was a little bit thin uh for a while I had it wrapped with something, some of that black 220 cord, I guess. I didn't like it, took that off, and then didn't use this knife for a long time, didn't consider it. And then I wrapped it in jute, and it's seeing a new dawn. I do have to still shellac it and get it nice and secure, but I tightened this. I did this so tightly, and I have two layers that it's really on there nicely. I don't really need the shellac other than for longevity.
[48:31]But this is such a cool knife. There have been times where I've wished it didn't have one of the rings. But with the extra jute there to make the handle wider, my fingers fit in those holes much better. You know, like brass knuckles, sometimes if they're not the right size for your hands, they spread your fingers out in a compromising way, especially if you're going to make impact uh this was doing that but with that extra jute cord wrap in there it uh it makes it fit much better this is such a cool knife i need to carry this one more but this is one that i have to carry in the waistband um with the cord wrapped around the the belt i tried to carry this neck knife it's just too damn big hanging around the neck so, Now we're going to move on to Tsukamaki and sort of Japanese style wraps. And first, I'll start with this one. This is the Bright for War. Oh, no, no, no, wait. Let me start with this. Sorry, dude. Let me start with this. This is the CRKT Obaki.
[49:39]And someone, oh, the commenter. I keep coming back to the commenter. He carries this knife. I love this knife. This is probably one of my favorite CRKT knives, period. What do they say? Full stop. This is a James Williams design. James Williams is an American master of the Japanese blade arts. He's been on the show. He also designs, as well as his sons, designs knives that get made under his own shingle and then also get licensed out to CRK.
[50:10]But this Obaki's been out for a number of years. I'll start with this cool feature. And you know, know i'm not a skull guy in general but this knife comes with this cordage and a little skull on it little skull bead and i really like it it's cool as hell on this one especially so the crkt it's a it's a um the obaki is a quaken or sort of traditional style tanto it has that splash pattern i'm not crazy about the splash pattern but i i can live with it uh this is uh a um.
[50:45]I think it's now marked, I'm pretty sure this is an 8CR. If it's not 8CR, it's D2, but I'm pretty sure this is 8CR. This has an amazing wrap on it. You look at the handle, it is 100% neutral. There's no guard anywhere. There's no nothing stopping you from sliding up on the blade, except for this exceptional wrap. They did such an amazing job on this wrap. So a Tsukimaki wrap or a Japanese samurai-style wrap has alternating peaks. So you have two cords that are wrapping around, and when they meet in the middle, they wrap around each other and then continue around the handle. Wrapping around each other creates a peak. Those peaks alternate, if you look at it from the top down. And those alternating peaks and valleys give such amazing grip, especially when the cordage is soaked in epoxy and it's hardened, and that's the case here. So that epoxy does not move at all. I think that's synthetic ray skin underneath. Traditionally, it's ray skin underneath that grips onto the lace so that the lace doesn't move.
[51:55]And in this case, it's faux, but you get the same effect here. This is such an awesome knife. Very, very sharp, hollow ground, very pointy and all. And you can use this in reverse grip like that, reverse grip like this, standard grip. It's good to go. Great sheath too. Small and discreet enough, but good lashing points here. if you wanted to put any one of the famous clips on there, the DCC or the Ulti clip, what have you. It's good to go. All right, next up, this one is a custom. And I'm going to come right out and say it. There are some things about the wrap on this I would change. So this is a BGM custom knife. And, man, he's amazing. We all know that. And John Miller, he does these great regrinds. And then he also builds his own awesome knives. He's known for his extremely thin and awesome knife grinds. This one is his Quaken. I know it doesn't look anything like a Quaken, but that's what he calls it. To me, it's a clip point. But this is his Quaken. Super thin hollow ground blade here. I can't remember what steel I ordered. I think I went with his least expensive option at the time. So it's probably like $10.95.
[53:18]Handle wrap. I had seen him do this handle wrap with the green and the purple somewhere else, and I really like the color combination. I probably wouldn't get it now. It's a little flashy for me now as a nearly 53-year-old man, but I do like this very much. But the one thing that I would change is the Obaki.
[53:42]When the two pieces of lace meet in the center, center of the handle, and then you twist them, it creates a peak. Here he's not twisting them. He's laying them flat, and it doesn't create the peak. So this is a less sort of grippy handle. It is also epoxied and everything, and it does have a nice texture. Texture but by comparison it does not have those those higher peaks to really grab onto the hand one could argue and i don't know john might uh that he does it that way to keep it more discreet and more slender and i totally get that and it does not take away from this knife i do not uh you know i have never had a problem with this knife because it doesn't have those peaks i guess I would say that that's another taste issue, personal taste issue. But just on another note, if you want to get an incredible regrind on a thick blade, like say your Spartan Harzi or your Hinderer Sponto, check out John Miller. He does amazing work, but also his handmade knives and his own designs. Incredible. Like this one. All right. Next up is the Bright for War Quaken. Bright for War is Josh Mason.
[55:01]He's awesome. He's been on this show before, and I started following him on Instagram. That's where I keep up with him. And he is heavily Japanese-inspired, even his logo, which is faded right there. I patinaed this knife and then removed the patina, and that removed his logo a bit. But a great Tsukamaki wrap here. That's ray skin, genuine ray skin under there. And then a Turkish knot up here as a guard. So this thing is awesome. You've got to check out Josh Mason's knives, Bright for War. He's been doing larger stuff lately. Very Japanese-inspired. He's got some American-style tanto he's been doing recently. That is so cool. So many knives, so little money So little time, but I would love to have A full collection of his stuff too This works great as a neck knife It does have a big footprint That sheath, but the sheath is excellent And the overall package is nice and light, Rests next to A t-shirt, not necessarily next to The skin, great Now look, you can see those peaks and valleys Very well on this one here, So your hand just Sinks right in, your fingers find their spot and you are good to go. Beautiful blade shape. This is 1095 blade steel. Josh Mason, he is awesome.
[56:23]Oh, the sheath. There we go. Hear that snap? I knew I was missing the snap. Alright, next up. This is a Bastinelli knife and this is a custom. Custom meaning custom sheath and custom wrap. Of course, the blade itself was manufactured by Fox Knives. This is from the Anomaly series. There are four Anomaly knives, and they are a design collaboration between Bastien Cove of Bastinelli Knives and Doug Marcaida. And on this one, I ordered this because I think he may have showed this very one on Instagram. And I said, oh, I've got to have one just like it. And he's like, here, have this one probably but that maroon wrap is just awesome uh bastion does great wraps he's been doing them for years and they are stiff as can be like you see all that space in there where your where your fingers sink in well that epoxy has this as stiff as the metal it's on so.
[57:26]A great ringed Picard-style knife. Big fan of that maroon wrap. The custom sheath is pretty cool. This is not the best knife to wear, I've got to say. It does not carry the way I like it too much, but I still love the knife itself. All right, next up is from Erroneous Blades. Do you know him? He's an interesting dude. I've been following for quite a while, and he makes some very interesting knives that he wraps. He wraps the knives and then he wraps the sheaths he does all sorts of cool stuff but he gave me this at blade show and it's just a simple razor holder uh and this i was talking about fred perrin earlier when i was talking about the french badass commando guy he loves carrying these things and uh if he's traveling he'll show up somewhere he'll go buy one of these and this will be his self-defense and he he shows me this one of those ones where you just pull it in and he shows how he uses it and he will uh he'll take it hit it on his chest and use it or hit it on his opponent bam that opens it up and then slash with it uh but here again this wrap takes this very mundane tool uh to the next level if you will and actually i saw again this year and he gave me another one this is the one he gave me this year and this one has a glow-in-the-dark bunny Minoki under there. But the mechanism is jacked up. I gotta fix the mechanism.
[58:54]But really cool wrapped razors. I love the Tsukimaki wrap, and he does a great job of that. Second to last one here is also wrapped by Josh Mason of Bright for War. But I sent this to him just for the wrapping. So this is the Copus Designs Elvia, so a collaboration with Copus Designs and Ed Calderon. Again, you have that hooked sheath in case you want no clip and just to drop it in the pocket. and then pull it out. It hooks on the inside of the pocket, revealing the knife. Here I have an ulti clip. Not crazy about ulti clips, but that one works fine. And then here's the blade. But I really wanted, I had this one wrapped, first with paracord, then with jute, took both off, and decided I wanted Tsukamaki wrapped. So I sent it to Josh Mason, and he did such a gorgeous job. Look at that. Alternating peaks and valleys. you've got a purple dyed ray skin under there that's legit ray skin dyed purple and then the black lace epoxy down there uh what does it do for this knife it takes it from a very dangerous somewhat difficult to hold knife to a very easy to hold very dangerous knife with slightly less.
[1:00:14]Concealability because it's just a little bit bulkier now but it's worth it it's worth the bulk up to have something that you know is super secure in hand, especially if it's something as dangerous and gnarly as this. Plus, it's taking a relatively plain design. You got 134CM.
[1:00:32]With this sort of injection molded handle and kind of classes it up. All right, speaking of classy, last knife here, one of my favorite custom purchases over the past couple of years. Here is the AB Knives or Aaron Bieber Knives 302 with his amazing wrap. He does awesome wrap. His handle work is amazing in general. He puts bone on some of his little fixed blade knives. I love it. But this is a full-on, beautifully done Tsukamaki wrap. Both sides, peaks and valleys. You've got the white ray skin underneath. And then this handle is sumptuous. There's no other word for it. It feels so good in hand. And the knife itself is a great user with its blade that is like a clip point blade and a wharncliffe kind of married together with that point down low. You still have a gradual belly.
[1:01:33]Such a great And with that wrap, you can transition grips really easy because the tips of your fingers kind of lock into those little valleys and allow you a purchase point to swivel the blade. Alrighty, ladies and gentlemen, that is my walk down the handle wrap avenue. I really like wrapped handles. Never did before. I thought they were cheap.
[1:02:01]But I think that that was when people were doing it with a paracord. Still not a fan of paracord wrap, but give me jute any day or that Japanese Tsukamaki and I'll love it. And I wonder if it's because the jute, to me, has a primitive look, reminds me, is evocative of some of these kind of Filipino, ancient Filipino swords I like. They're not ancient, but old. And then the others are the old Japanese style. Things go out of fashion, but that's because it's fashion. They don't go out of style because they don't work anymore.
[1:02:35]All right, be sure to join us tomorrow night for Thursday Night Knives. I believe we're going to be doing a random giveaway. And then join us for Sunday for another great conversation with a knife maker, manufacturer, reviewer, or operator. I'm Bob DeMarco saying, for Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, thank you for joining us here on the Knife Junkie Podcast. And whatever you do, don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at ReviewThePodcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, TheKnifeJunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at TheKnifeJunkie.com. Check out some great knife photos on TheKnifeJunkie.com and join our Facebook group at TheKnifeJunkie.com. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at TheKnifeJunkie.com or call our 24-7 listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of The Knife Junkie Podcast. We'll be right back.
[1:03:41] Music