Announcer 0:03
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting here's your hosts Jim Person and Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco

Jim Person 0:17
Hello Knife Junkie and welcome to the supplemental edition of the Knife Junkie podcast I'm Jim The Knife Junkie Person

Bob DeMarco 0:23
and I'm Bob DeMarco Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast

Jim Person 0:25
Welcome to the Podcast the place for newbies and Knife Junkie to learn about knives and knife collecting and Bob it's our our midweek our supplemental episode you know second episode it's not really an episode second edition of the Knife Junkie podcast still working on a name you like supplemental I'm I'm coming around to it but if our listeners have any suggestions we'd love to hear from you call the listener line at 724-466-4487 and let us know if you have a cool name for this midweek edition that we're doing on the Knife Junkie podcast.

Bob DeMarco 0:57
Well, supplemental is definitely neutral, kind of like the hand Beloved Stubbins. So maybe, maybe that's what it is Jim. I'm telling. It's amazing how everything ties into a knife, doesn't it? It really does. Actually, Jim, I was at a party. Well, a feast, if you will. I have a friend who's running his first marathon is the Marine Corps marathon here in DC. And he had a bunch of his high school friends in town for three of them and they're all former Marines all going to run the marathon together. Well, one of them just got his black belt in, in kung fu and was has been noodling around with Kali and we got into knives and let me tell you, that's, you know, he and I, this guy and I and third gentlemen sat there and talked about knives and martial arts for about two hours until my what I saw my wife doing that sort of helicopter symbol with her finger like it's time to go and I was like, Alright guys, I gotta wrap this up. And it's somehow

Jim Person 1:53
sounds like a great party.

Bob DeMarco 1:54
Well year, it's great to get together with knife guys and martial arts guys, or, or you know, where you know, you can just start rambling on about this kind of abstract thing, and the other guy gets it and loves it and doesn't get it anywhere else. You know, where it's not every day you get to you get to meet another Knife Junkie.

Jim Person 2:11
Alright, well coming up on our show today we're going to talk a little bit of knife news. We've got a one or two stories we want to kind of talk about. And then two new knives we want to talk about and you're going Oh, yeah, great. Bob's got a couple of new knives. Well, Bob's got one, but Jim here. He's got one. That's right. I'm going to talk about one of the new knives I've got I've actually got two more coming that are already purchased. So we'll talk about those later. But first of all, I want to wish everybody happy Halloween Bob. This show is coming out on Wednesday night Thursday morning, depending on when folks find it in their feeds. So Thursday of course is a Happy Halloween. So hopefully all of our listeners get the treat of a new knife and Halloween and not get tricked by just some old candy that's right and and sleep with it close to the bed because you never know what's out and On Halloween and by the way, Jim, I gotta say I'm I feel great that you've been bitten by this book. I mean you have one in hand one new knife and two in the mail. That's a good place to be right yeah. Well and and you know my knife collecting I've bought one definitely to keep the one we're going to talk about today I bought specifically to sell so I come to this from the buying and selling aspect and I have an eBay store sell stuff on Amazon too. So that one, you know, so I guess I'm maybe a little bit different. I guess everybody likes to think they're a little bit different. But I'm not going to be solely buying just keep I'm going to be trying to buy some for resale. But yeah, we'll talk about that. So excellent. Yeah, looking forward to that. Hey, but first let's get to our nightlife news segment.

Announcer 3:47
More of the Knife Junkie podcast is coming up. But now let's get the latest industry news and product drops with this week's Knife Life News

Jim Person 3:55
Alright, Bob. One of the things again, our listeners know if they've listened to the past couple of episodes. The supplemental podcast is that we like to try to talk Mac news as best we can try to keep everybody up to date on stuff happening in the world and you want to talk about the bark River. something going on with them.

Bob DeMarco 4:11
Yeah, well, I was just on nice news. com a great place to find out about what's happening in the knife world. And bark river knives has the new Shin at Gumby tanta coming out. And it is a tempo of very traditional profile. And what I mean by that is we're all used to the Americanized tanta with the sort of chisel tip and the secondary edge and the secondary point as pioneered by cold steel and as adopted by pretty much everyone since but the real traditional tattoo that was part of the part of the three sword set that a samurai would carry the katana the large sword, the walk is actually the middle sized sword and then the tempo which is the dagger. This is most like that small knife and that small knife did not Having a chisel tip it had sort of a rounded almost well as as news put it bull knows tip except in fighting form and so bark river knives has created one like this with a nine inch blade and unlike the original ancient knives This one has a full tank so it's going to be Woods ready you know if it's a bark river knife it's Woods ready down to chicken want to take this beautiful weapon he style knife out into the woods, but it just looks like a great modern representation of, of one of these old school Samurai tanned toes but made in a modern factory and you know, modern small factory bark river knives and just, it looks like it's going to be a great and useful tool. Now Barker Over Knives is done other ethnic style knives though they're known for mostly American sort of historical patterns. Like you know wood wood craft knives and Bowie knives and this kind of thing Woods knives, they have done Qur'an bits and other kinds of other kind of ethnic knives. So this will be the new Chicago me tanta will be in three v steel which everyone seems to love because it has high toughness and high edge retention and it'll be a full time like I said so. So you can take it out and thump on it or you can hang it on the wall basically it looks really cool. So without actually having held one yet out of a five knife or five star, you know, five knives, what would you think it would get? 3394959 would say, I mean five, I have held other bark river knives and I have, I have one leftover from all that I had at one time. And they are outstanding knives and beautifully built, beautifully conceived and then the materials they use, you know, the first ones always come out in black, my carta and then they start you Once there's some response, they come out with all the exotic handles different woods, different materials,

Jim Person 7:07
moving from that high endorsement. I know it's not going to be a rant show like it was last week where The Knife Junkie went on a rant about several manufacturers and knives. But you also had a change of heart last week about a couple, maybe a change of heart or at least some improvements to the Gerber flat on that one. Oh,

Bob DeMarco 7:26
yeah, but first, let me say you haven't heard a rant until you've been at the DeMarco house on Christmas after you know, good, good spirited rant, of course, but I think I kept it under control.

Jim Person 7:39
Okay, I don't know what has that that has to do with Christmas. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. But anyway,

Bob DeMarco 7:46
well, so, Gerber flat iron, I, I put one of the few videos up on my channel, where I was panning a knife and it was the Gerber flat iron because I was so excited about getting This knife because it I find it visually beautiful It's this Smith kind of blend between a straight razor and a tactical folding modern tactical folding knife and just very appealing to me. I personally I saw it and dicks for 40 bucks I bought it and was just let down from the moment that clam shell package was open and it's very difficult to open it's like impossible to open one handed and it's very uncomfortable to hold and to squeeze into us and it's got a clip that looks kind of cool kind of looks like the 8010 clip but it's just short and painful and uncomfortable and overall it's like a it's a great concept for a knife but it seems like they just drew it and and stuck it in a machine had it made and never never felt it with their hands or tried to open it up. And so I guess they heard the public outcry and, and to Gerber's defense. They're a big company, but they were nimble enough to actually change up the design in response to the needs of the users, and so they so there are a couple of visual ways that you can tell that you are now getting a new and improved Gerber flat iron. Now I got this information from cutlery lover, one of my absolute favorite YouTubers about knives, been following him for 10 years. Great guy, but he just got one of these new Gerber flat irons and he put this out there that visually you can tell if you're getting a new and improved one, which allows you to open it up one handed with your thumb without any trouble. It has a new and improved lock bar over travel device and the interface with your thumb you know where you where you actually unlock the knife is now less like a saw. So, one of those ways visual ways you can tell the hole is further down the blade further away from the pivot and the local Now rides between the pivot and the opening hole. So it's behind the opening hole as opposed to the earlier ones it's in the front or another visual cue is that the lock bar over travel device or the lock bar stabilizer on the last one was the sort of sort of traditional hinders hinder style circular over travel device This is now like this big giant I personally don't like the way it looks but it's a good visual indicator that it's the new and improved version. It's like a big plate over there and then again like I said the it's it's easier on the thumb when you unlock it

Jim Person 10:38
well and if you go to The Knife Junkie dot com slash 55 The Knife Junkie dot com slash five five that's where we have the this episode of the podcast, show notes and that kind of thing. We're actually going to include a link to the video by cutlery lover so that you can watch that as you're listening to this podcast and kind of see some of the things Bob is talking about along with the video there from cutlery lover. couple of more knives we want to talk about Bob and our knife life news segment and kind of ties on to one of the knives we talked about last week when we talked about a sprint run. And we're going to talk about the spider code Mannix to limited run as well as the spider coach, shaman. shaman shaman. But the spider co Mannix 2 limited run brown GKNM 391 I went the knife ship free it was already out of stock so I guess that proves the power of a limited run folks really want to get their hands on something that's that's limited edition if you will.

Bob DeMarco 11:34
Yeah, well the the Mannix two is an awesome proven knife people love that knife, and then to get it in a new g 10 color. Which I love that brown g 10. But most especially in em 390 which is such an amazing steel that everyone loves. And to get such a a utility style knife with that awesome utility blade blade steel which hardly ever goes dull unless you're really jammin on it for a long time. It seems like a perfect marriage there.

Jim Person 12:06
Spyderco and other knife you wanted to talk about a shaman

Bob DeMarco 12:10
yeah well the the new crew were shamon with the shamon the with the natural canvas. Tan my carta just looks beautiful and I don't have one and I've been kind of wanting one for two years now and this might be the one I don't have any blades made of crew air and I'm just a sucker for for the tan campus. I think I'm kind of superficial, Jim. It's really the looks at that knife that just makes me but I know that the substance is there too. So you know,

Jim Person 12:39
while you talk about the looks, I am I'm definitely one of those guys. And that was one of the questions I was going to ask you. A lot of the interview shows you do you your lightning round you say form or function. Yeah. Explain that question. What do you mean by form? Is it the looks and function is it because of the functionality?

Bob DeMarco 12:58
What I'm really trying to get at is What? How do you spend your money? Do you buy something because it really looks cool or do you buy it because you know it's going to perform a certain task? Yeah, exactly. And I think we're most knife people Knife Junkie is knife collectors head to is that Venn diagram, that that little area where the two circles intersect, and it looks beautiful, but you also know that it's not just looking beautiful. It's going to perform amazingly right because actually, if you're being really honest about it, you can find some beautiful looking knives from I was going to name a couple of companies but from from companies that are less than reputable or make knives that are less than high performance, you can find some beautiful designs, but when that intersects with superior performance, just know it for me personally, just knowing that that potential resides in that knife or in that blade steel is comforting even though I know I'm never going to unlock The potential of em 390. Hopefully,

Jim Person 14:03
well, it comes back to and you know, pardon me for not remembering the guest who said it, but that confidence of having a knife in your pocket pocket and then that confidence of knowing that knife will perform what it needs to if you do need it. Yeah, that was that was Greg Medford. Yeah, that's right. Good man. Crew down.

Announcer 14:20
All right. And now that we're caught up with a nice life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

Jim Person 14:26
Well, do you want to talk about our new knives? Yes, yeah. Bob always likes to talk about that. And you've got a gorgeous one you want to talk about but I want to I want to throw my little one out there first. I am buying knives as I mentioned, not only for me, I've got the one coming in the mail that's going to be a keeper for me. But the Serengeti Skinner, Japanese manufacturer of Gen Japanese manufacturer, looks like it's a limited run limited edition that's numbered 580 out of 1250 I bought that specifically for resale again kind of going into my my resale background but that's I guess other than my Victorinox Swiss Army knives that's the only knife in my collection that I haven't been that I've bought that I haven't been given my someone to be unnamed The Knife Junkie Bob DeMarco but yeah your thoughts about the cold Serengeti scanner that I that I purchased Bob and and we'll have pictures up on the show notes page at The Knife Junkie. com slash 55.

Bob DeMarco 15:35
So this is another knife that I would never actively seek out but you keep showing it to me and and it is actually really a beautiful knife and knowing that it's Japanese made to me. I like that because they're impeccable. You know, in my experience Japanese made knives especially, you know, from the 90s onward, or the I guess the the 80s onwards were just really beautifully made and and stout and well finished but in looking at your knife, and I'm not a hunter would like to be maybe in another life or be later so I have no actual use for a hunting Skinner but this knife that you have actually looks like it would be a great for fighting to I gotta say it's got a good hook on the back much like sort of Indonesian style fixed Corbett's will and so so you can get, get some action on the backswing if you will. It's got beautiful belly to it for the skinning and then it's got some of that spider coast style situations up front, a little three inch run it looks like you're a two inch run. It's a beautiful knife and the sheath is really beautiful. And it's not overly branded, which I like it says built on the blade which is great, right but a lot of times Well, I have seen a lot of knives made for firearms companies and they look over branded gold gold gold gold. This one doesn't do that. Wherever you could put the logo it's there right? Yeah, exactly. So I like it and you know, it's the kind of thing that I don't know it could be an interesting addition to my collection I don't think it will be

Jim Person 17:21
well you never know maybe it'll be an interesting addition to someone's collection I you know, I didn't know a whole lot about it when I bought it but you know, I did a little bit of you know, preliminary research on you know, just places I'm familiar with like eBay you know, souls and those kind of things and it seemed like I could make you know, a couple of bucks on it. So vintage gold CT seven the Serengeti Japanese got hook Skinner fixed blade hunting knife, it's got a it's a black, black leather sheath it's even comes with a still has the original cardboard cover that goes over the knife when it comes in the box and I have the original box as well. I don't know, that kind of stuff to me, you know, like the original box and some paperwork and had a little ad where the the knife was originally sold. You know, that kind of stuff is what what I like about collecting so

Bob DeMarco 18:11
well, it's new old stock to it hasn't been used which is Yeah. And it could be very useful. I mean, you could you could buy it and use it for sure. But that's the kind of thing I would buy and like keep because of all the side things you

Jim Person 18:23
say. Exactly. Exactly. All right, well enough about me. Let's talk about the Knife Junkie, you you've kind of teased this on a couple of podcasts. I've got a new knife comment, you know from a guest we had on not going to tell you who it is yet, but I think you're ready to let the cat out of the bag.

Bob DeMarco 18:39
Yeah, well, I already have on YouTube. I couldn't couldn't wait. But yeah, I Greg Lightfoot, one of the guests on the show legendary tactical folder maker. he first started on the scene in the early 90s. When, when, when tactical folding knives were first kind of becoming a thing and I

Jim Person 19:00
asked him to make me

Bob DeMarco 19:00
and I and it is this beautiful element and and he made it just how I like it. You know I'm a sucker for my carta. He made it with my carta he made it the blade is CPM 154 and actually this is my first CPM 154 blade I have a lot of 154 CM which is the non powder metal metallurgy version of that steel. So I'm very I love that blade steel I'm very excited to have this CPM 154 and it is just oh and and and it's got a Chad Nichols Damascus pocket clip. And really I will refer you to the video. This knife is just amazing. It really okay, I have to open it there. Okay, it really does. It's very evocative of a shark. We were talking about some of Greg's design inspirations and he's really inspired by natural shapes, especially those in aggressive seafaring. fish like sharks. And, and this, this element just really, really looks like a shark and I've always had an affinity for sharks. As an artist that was my first recurring motif. You know, I drew sharks for years and years straight when I was a kid and, and so to have something with a shark logo on it that's like foots logo and a blade and a handle that are so evocative. It means a lot to me. What also means a lot to me is that Greg and I started talking back and forth during the making of this and, and, you know, it's, it's great to get to know makers on the show and to get to talk to them but to continue that dialogue afterward and into the creation of a custom made knife for me it was just a wonderful experience, similar to that of being with Douglas Esposito talking with him and having my first custom knife that fixed blade fighter gentleman's fighter made So this element, it's, it's a liner lock and the liners are about as thick as a frame if you were to have a titanium frame lock folder, the liners look thicker than the frame on my spider go Spidey chef, for instance, big fat, beautifully, beautifully blasted titanium liners and then thick slabs of green my card on the outside. This knife is such a Junker but it feels amazing in hand. And this is the kind of knife that where you have it in a full fist grip. There's no way on earth it's coming out of your hands. Not that I will ever do anything with it. That will merit such a such a grip because I'm going to baby this thing. I've decided I've carried it every day since I've gotten it. No but I've also carried my bug out if I have to cut something, okay, so I'm kind of carrying it around as if I bought a Jackson Pollock painting and really loved it and just kind of carried it around with me so I could gaze at it and admire it all day. So Jim, this having this knife has really, I don't know, it's really accelerated my thinking my, my reduced and refined thinking as far as far as the refining part of what exactly I want more of the reduced to have to be able to refine Exactly. I really want to experience more handmade knives. It really feels like a work of functional art. Now, it was a funny story getting this to me because the day Greg Lightfoot sent this to me, he sent me a text picture of the shipping label. And I looked at it and it was the wrong damn address. Well, I was like, Oh, no, and that so I look at the email that I sent him with my address in it right and I've typed the wrong damn address

Jim Person 22:52
in my email to him. You're so excited. There's different thumbs.

Bob DeMarco 22:57
I'm an old guy, you know, I can't text Lyft these these new things. Do and so I realized that I'd send them the wrong so I look it up because I'm like, Okay, this is still in the neighborhood, I'm just going to go, I'm going to introduce myself to this neighbor, make sure they know me, I'm going to go in my business card and everything and, you know, when this comes, you'll call me and you know, and I will bring you cookies or whatever, you know, to try and make it worth his while. Because otherwise you could see a random box showing up. Oh, I guess I have a new knife, you know, like, yeah,

Jim Person 23:25
or so or worse yet, send it back to whoever it came from. And then it gets lost in the mail going back or whatever, customs. So that's right. Canada. Yeah, that's right.

Bob DeMarco 23:36
So I go I drive around and the address doesn't exist. So I'm like, Well, okay, this is better at least it will go back to him and we can work it out and he can resend it. But as I'm driving into the neighborhood, I took away I usually don't go and it's a good thing I did because I see a DHL truck and I never see DHL, but I know they do a lot of international stuff these days and And so I kind of block them with my car and roll down the window. Are you looking for Bob DeMarco? He's like yeah, I am out of the car and in the middle of the road we do this transaction where he gives me the package from the van and, and, you know, I don't care what's going on.

Jim Person 24:17
I had not heard that part of the story. Yeah,

Bob DeMarco 24:19
it was 100% serendipitous. I could have been that could have gone the way I usually go every day into my neighborhood, and I probably would have missed this truck. The packets would have gone back I still wouldn't have had it. Oh, man.

Jim Person 24:32
So yeah, there you go. That's all a harrowing story. So not only a great knife but a cool story

Bob DeMarco 24:38
to go along with it. Absolutely. I'm gonna I'm going to do a well this is going to be featured

Jim Person 24:44
in a number of videos, numerous

Bob DeMarco 24:46
videos, I'm sure it's such a great knife and it makes all my other knives even my hinder XM 24 when you know my prize not makes it feel puny.

Jim Person 24:56
Well, if you want to see the video Bob did on his new Greg Litecoin Video night, Greg Lightfoot knife and more videos to come. Be sure to watch the Knife Junkie YouTube channel that's at The Knife Junkie. com slash YouTube. You can catch that in future videos there. You'll also want to make sure you subscribe to the Knife Junkie YouTube channel that way you don't miss any of his videos that are coming out and click that little bell notification that way you'll be notified anytime a new video comes out. Or if the Knife Junkie is going live on youtube, which is something we're thinking about. So if you would like to see The Knife Junkie go live every once in a while and do some specific chats about the different things. Give them an email Bob at The Knife Junkie. com or leave a voicemail message at the listener line 7244664 for 877244664487 any show ideas or anything you'd like to see Bob, go on YouTube Live and chat about. So Bob, final thoughts as we wrap up The Knife Junkie supplemental for This last week in October

Bob DeMarco 26:02
well no final thoughts except that I'm just now I'm on the handmade knife train and I just feel it and now i'm i'm looking with a more critical eye at what I have and and do I need all this doing the arithmetic as as Alex from Alex's knife box was saying how often do I actually carry this you know if I divide it by how many days in the year and I'm really starting to think that way and we'll see what happens I don't know.

Jim Person 26:29
Well thanks everybody for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast and visiting The Knife Junkie calm it is the place for newbies and Knife Junkie to learn all about knives and knife collecting. And we appreciate you being here with us on episode number 55 of the Knife Junkie podcast supplemental

Announcer 26:44
thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review it review the podcast com for show notes for today's episode additional resources and to listen to past episodes visit our website The Knife Junkie. com You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at The Knife Junkie. com slash YouTube check out some great night photos on the Knife Junkie. com slash Instagram and join our Facebook group at The Knife Junkie. com slash Facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at The Knife Junkie. com or call our 24 seven listener line at 724466447 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie podcast.