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[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco. Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, I'm Bob DeMarco.
On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Kevin Doody of Doody's Daggers YouTube channel.
I recently tuned into Kevin's relatively new channel as I was reentering a slip joint phase of my collecting. Kevin, too, was clearly firmly in that mode and talking a lot about the Ohio River Jack by SeaRiser Cutlery, a knife I've been, let's just say, ogling for a long time, and it was his reviews that sent me over the edge. His presentation, his taste in knives, and his testing had me hooked. He's a tradesman with a real use for knives in his daily work tasks, which makes his thorough blade testing all the more valuable when laying down your dough, as far as I see it, because I don't use my knives that hard, but I like to know that they can go the distance.
We'll talk about that, but first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and hit the notification bell.
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[1:21] Again, theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. If you search Google for the best knife podcast, the answer is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Kevin, welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, sir.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Hey, it's my pleasure. Like I kind of said up front, you came onto my radar as an enabler immediately.
And that's often what I look for in the people I follow for knife reviews.
You know, you pick your advice when you pick your advisor. Yeah.

[1:55] Let's start first with your fascination with slip joints, and then we'll go back in time and find out how it all started.
But like I said, the Ohio River Jack. Tell me about your fascination with slip joints.
Well, it wasn't always so. I was never really a slip joint guy ever until, gosh, maybe six months ago.
I had been kind of a little burnt out on just the knife community in general.
The people but just I don't know it just seemed like These knife designers and large knife makers were just kind of spitting out design after design and they're just overwhelming. It's kind of too much. And I just, I kind of got burnt out and I was I was kind of looking into other areas of the EDC world. You know, there's a lot of stuff. There's watches and pens and flashlights. And and then I stumbled across a traditional knife or traditional slip joint knife channel.

[2:55] Richter Knives, if you haven't checked him out, you should. He primarily does videos on traditionals. And it was a whole new world to me. I had zero idea what was going on at all.
You know, I had heard the name case before. I knew they were, you know, probably knives that my grandpa would have and that's pretty much it. But it was a new, It was a new avenue of the knife world that I wanted to go down, and it was just the thing that I needed to kind of pull me out of my rut and learn something new.
Because I like learning things, and I didn't know anything about slipjoints.
So I watched a lot of videos.

[3:38] I found... Well, first, it was really modern traditionals. The Ohio River Jack was the first one, really.
And then kind of got into more traditional traditionals after that.
So it's a mix of both.
So it hasn't been that long. Is there anything about it to you?
I mean, I'll come right out. For me, the slip joint, you talked about grandpa knife or a knife your grandpa might have.
That is a huge part of the initial appeal for me.
Does that sense of nostalgia play in at all for you?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally.
It's yeah. Nostalgia is a good word.
I've described it as kind of like, almost like a warm, fuzzy, kind of...

[4:19] Feeling that you get with patina and leather and things that smell good and start to wear over time. I don't know. It has to do with nostalgia, definitely.
Yeah, that feeling of something taking on your spirit a little bit as you own it. I don't know. I got a lot of stuff from my grandfather, knives and stuff. Let's back up. Let's talk about how you got to this in the first place.
Why were you collecting knives? Why were you in the knife community watching these videos in the first place?

[4:54] Well, it started pretty randomly. For most of my life, I think I have the same story as a lot of you guys.
I carried just cheap knives most of my life. You know, I'd go into a Big Five or Walmart and just pick out something that looked cool, you know?
Spend maybe 20, 30 bucks. And that was fine for me most of my life.
And looking back now, I'm sure most of my life, I had a pretty dull knife in my pocket because I can't even remember sharpening them.
I think I just bought a new one when it got dull.
And that was fine. I didn't know there was other possibilities out there.
And then one day I was surfing on YouTube and I just stumbled across a video of this guy, reverse flicking his PM2, the Spyderco PM2.
And as soon as I saw him flick it open like that, I was hooked.
I was like, wait, how is he doing that?
Because you can't really see behind the knife. It just looks like it just magically popped open. And that set me off.

[5:56] Saved up and bought a PM2 after a little while and you know the story after that.
Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do know that story.
I'd always been into knives and for me it was knife videos, nothing fancy in 2008 or 9 or something like that.
Yeah, something about watching people with their knives can really get you to, especially those close-up shots of them flicking open, and it really gets you to kind of want to do the same thing.
But there's something about your videos that I find kind of calming, kind of zen, especially those testing videos.

[6:35] You know, you are taking us along with you. We're kind of, it seems like we're at your shop on the back of your truck a lot of the times.
Tell me about your testing, what you go through and why you decided to start doing that.
Well, I was pretty much already doing it to some degree just on my own.
When I'd get a new knife, I would want to see how it cut, you know.
And after a little while, I started to notice that there seemed to be a lack of testing videos in the knife YouTubing world.
And I know there are some really good ones, but there seemed to just not be a whole lot.
So I kind of wanted to throw my hat in the ring with the few guys and gals that do testing.
I wanted to kind of join in and put my spin on it. The way that I do the testing is not super scientific.
It's not, you know, we're cutting this many feet of cardboard, this many cuts of the Cecil robe. leg.

[7:34] What's it going to look like when you get the knife and you just use it day to day?
What's it going to feel like? What's the experience going to be like?
So it's a little less scientific, a little bit more, just see what the knife is going to feel like.
Kind of like anecdotal. What materials do you test on and how did you arrive at those in particular?
Well, we start with cardboard and we cut some leather.
Usually, so I'm a welder. I go through a lot of gloves.
So my old leather welding gloves, I'll save them and we'll cut them up.

[8:09] I don't know, just watching other cut testing videos, I found that a lot of guys use the Cecil rope stuff.
And for whatever reason, it seems to be a good, it's like, it's pretty abrasive.
So you don't need to cut a whole crap ton of them to really, you know, see the wear on the edge.
You can just cut a good amount.
Sometimes you have to cut a lot still if you're talking about 15B or something crazy, but that, some rubber tubing, just kind of day-to-day stuff that you might encounter.
All right, so Kevin, I fully admit who I am. I'm a suburban dad with way more knives than tasks to use them for, swords and all that stuff too.
And I gotta say, I have a lot of, like I kind of baby them a little bit with some exceptions.
I think there's a real value in watching people like you. I love Scab from Choir Boys. I love Stasa 23.
Lots of great people doing testing. And something I think that's really invaluable about the kind of testing you do and these others is that I might not necessarily want to take my jackwolf knife and use it hard.
But I like knowing what it can handle.
Exactly.

[9:26] Yep. And I have knives, too, that I baby. I have a couple that I don't use at all.
So and I've never been the kind of use your shit kind of guy.
I don't like that saying. I don't like it when people say it, it bothers me.
They're your knives, you do whatever you want with them.
But personally, if I, you know, for example, I recently spent a crazy amount of money on an Oz Machine company, Roosevelt. And this is the most money I've ever spent on a knife, way more, but it's, you know, it's so good, it's just, you put it in your hand and you feel it, it just wants to cut things. So I had to, you know, I did a cut test with it and I was careful, you know, but I had to, I had to cut with it.
And yes, I will baby it. I'm not going to treat it the same as some other knives, but you But that's just me, some people just want to collect them. They're more on the collector's side and that's completely fine too.
It's good as a collector. It's like the materials, it's like the steel.
You mentioned 15V or many of the steels in my collection to include 8Cr13MoV, I've never taken all the way to where I'm like, this is so insufficient for my uses.
But you still like knowing you're getting what you're told is the best for your money or the most.

[10:49] For your money. Now I'm not gonna pry, we all know that Oz machining company Roosevelt's are hard to come by and expensive, but what was it that, I mean you said this is vastly more than you've spent before what was it that compelled you?

[11:07] A couple things. It's a legendary knife in our community. You know, if you've been in the knife world for at least a little while, you will have heard of it.
And it's kind of like that thing that you hear so much about and all you wanna do is just experience it for yourself after hearing people talk about it for so long.
And I was actually a little worried about that because I was hoping I didn't have it built up too much in my mind and then be disappointed when I finally got it.
So luckily that wasn't the case. But I just decided to save up and it took me a while.
You know, I had to not buy some other knives when they came up that I wanted, But I said, no, I got to save him for the Rosie. and, i would do it again you know i did so i didn't buy directly from oz i tried a few times on their drops and it's just they go so fast it's so hard so i bought it from a fellow youtuber pocket priorities really good guy was selling one so i paid a little bit more than i would have from them from oz and to me it was worth it i probably wouldn't do that again but it was worth, with it, yeah.

[12:24] It sounds like my Sebenza 21 purchase in 2016. It was like, this is a knife, it's kind of a moral imperative. Like I want something flashier and more tactical looking, but I think I need to have this.
And I got the knife, which was made on leap day that year, which is kind of cool.
But it took me a while, and then I fell in love. It was like an arranged marriage, like I'm gonna learn to love this knife. And I eventually did, but I wasn't mature enough for it.

[12:56] You know, I don't know, but that Roosevelt is pretty outstanding, someone loaned one to me, and I didn't use it for anything, but I did inspect and flick and fondle, and that is a pretty amazing knife.
I gotta say, I applaud your discipline in saving up.
We don't hear too many people talk about saving up at all in our society, but you don't hear much about it, in the knife world.

[13:19] Tell me a little bit how you manage your channel. I mean, because we know that making a knife channel requires some new material moving through.
But as I recently was also, when you're saving up for something, you see a lot of knives pass you by.
And you're like, if I weren't saving for that, I would be all over this and maybe getting more views or whatever that is.
Tell me how you manage your channel and the knives that come through.
Yeah. In the beginning, it was more difficult.
When I reached maybe 2,000, 3,000 subscribers, I'm at a little over 5,000 now, viewers would often send me in knives to take a look at.
And it doesn't happen all the time, but I've been very lucky to have some really nice viewers that have sent me sometimes boxes full of knives for me to do reviews on for the channel.
So really grateful to those guys and gals have sent me knives. I don't get free knives for the from you know, knifemakers or anything. I've gotten a few here and there but I pretty much just buy the knives that I want and then I'll make videos about them. I don't go out and buy a knife because it's going to get me views.

[14:34] Or if a bunch of people are asking for it. I only buy knives that I want to buy, and that's one reason why you won't see a lot of bad reviews on my channel because I already know I'm gonna like the knife. I buy it, it's for me, and then I just make a video on it as well.
So, but, you know.

[14:52] It would be harder if I didn't do the cut testing videos too, because that gives you two videos out of one knife. You have the review and then the cut tests.
So that stretches things out a little bit too.
Well, for me, with you, when I started watching only a few months ago, maybe a little bit longer than that, but you were really into the hedgehog, and you had just gotten the hedgehog, the QSB slip joint, and I was doing Ohio Riverjack.
I was saving up for something else and not buying anything, but I really wanted that Ohio River jacket.
And you definitely helped push me over the edge with that. But I mean, that knife came up a bunch of times.
And no one minds, like that's kind of a character at a certain point in a stable.
You know, the knife keeps coming up. Oh, by the way, it's kind of like the hedgehog or it's kind of like the ORJ.
So I don't, I kind of, I've started to back away from feeling like I constantly need new knives.
Now, I also have people who send me boxes, which is very lucky.
So, I can sometimes, I don't know, get away with that.
But that discipline, again, I applaud.

[16:04] So, what did you think of the Ohio Riverjack? Oh my God, dude, I absolutely love it.
It's right here, funny you should ask.
I got the single-bladed wharncliffe with the natural canvas, so nice.
And I love the fact that it's full flat ground, unlike the sheep's foot.
I'm not much of a sheep's foot. I still need a point, because I'm always looking at it like you might want to stick it in something. Yeah.
But I do like this very much, and I'm very much looking forward to the C. Reisner Cutlery Lake Champlain Jack.
You have one of those. What do you think of that knife?
Man, you know, it's really, really badass.
It's, it's, uh, you know, you look at, this happens a lot for me, you look at the specs online of a knife, but you never really get, You never really realize how big it is until you get it in your hand.
And that was the case for these. These are big.
These are big knives. Let me hold it up next to the Ohio River Jack just so you can see.
Oh, my. Oh, that's big. Yeah, they're big. And that's not a bad thing.
That that's I mean, you could.

[17:14] Easily have this be your primary knife and it'll do everything you could possibly want in a knife, maybe not like, You know if you're baton and you're doing wood crafts wood craftsman kind of stuff, maybe not but I mean for my day-to-day, absolutely, I could get away with just that and, it's really good, you know one thing about you know, QSP makes these for Austin and, They really have their walk and talk nailed down so well Just the sounds these things make they're crisp. They're poppy. They're just perfect. I was talking to Michael Richter, who I referenced earlier, he has a traditional Pocket Knives channel.
I sent him one of my Ohio River decks to take a look at and he said he thinks it has the best walk and talk of any of his slip joints in his entire collection. This does. So that, you know, that's all you really need to know about how good the walk and talk is on these days.
Yeah, man. That's a feather in the cap. I got to say, like, like the sounds you get out of titanium, the resonance is nice. How do you maintain these knives?

[18:29] Do you spend a lot of time doting over them, sharpening them unnecessarily, anything like that.
I get a little out of hand with the stropping. I bring a strop with me to work and sometimes I'll even strop it like maybe a couple times a day even.
So I go a little overboard with the strop sometimes. But aside from that, I just wipe them down.
Luckily, I live in Central California, not a very humid area.
So I don't have to really deal with a lot of rust problems and making sure my knives are protected from that. I don't really have to worry about it. So yeah, wipe them down.
You know, I'm trying to learn how to freehand sharpen right now. I've always used a fixed angle system like the Work Sharp, which is really great. I still use it, but I just kind of want to learn how to freehand as well. So yeah, I strop. I use the Work Sharp and that's pretty much it.
Yeah, okay, all right, I just had to make sure, because some of us strop unnecessarily, and I've actually recently just come to realize, like, you can make it too sharp, the stuff just skips right off of it, you know, if it's too polished.
You mentioned work a couple of times, and as I mentioned, you sometimes get a little view.

[19:50] Into it a little bit, but how does, what kind of welding do you do, and how does that feed into your love of metal, and this hobby?
Yeah, it's kind of, I've had an epiphany one day where I was just doing what I always do and then I suddenly realized that all these things that I really love in life have to do with metal in some way.
I'm a welder, I like to blacksmith, I like knives.
I don't know, I just, I like metal. I kind of stumbled into welding.
I had always worked kind of odd jobs and, I got fed up with that. I wanted to learn a skill. So I eventually went to a welding school.

[20:30] And just on a whim. And it turned out I really loved it.
I work for a trucking business. So I work in their shop, doing a lot of repairs on trucks and trailers and that kind of thing. But my boss also owns a ranch. So I'm out there building building fences and gates and all kinds of farm kind of stuff.
And then on my own time, I also do side jobs. I build handrails and all kinds of stuff.
Anything having to do with metal, I'll do it.
And naturally, you would probably guess that I would want to make knives.
And I have attempted a few times. I've made a few pretty decent ones.
What's really holding me back is, you know, a belt sander. Those things are so expensive.
I mean, for a nice one, it's about a thousand bucks.

[21:26] So that's kind of the next barrier of entry for me getting into making knives, but I would like to at some point.
I saw on your Instagram maybe, or maybe it was a video of you starting your own slip joint.
Yeah, yeah. Oh man, yeah, that's tough, man. That's tough.
You know, I had high hopes for myself and I made a part one video where I started.
I cut out the pieces, you know, the liners, the back spring, cut out the blades and everything.
And then on my own time, I was kind of just fiddling with it, just kind of seeing how it all worked.
I had another old slip joint that I had taken apart just to kind of see how it would look.

[22:10] You know, it's complicated. I mean, it's probably the least complicated of folding knives, but it's still pretty complicated. So I'm still fiddling with it. Once I get it figured out, I'll make a part two and maybe we'll finish it up. It's harder than I thought it was going to be.
I think that's a really, when I saw that, I was like, man, like, wow, he just launched himself into that. That's that's pretty damn cool. Because slipjoint seems to be like, after the after, what's that, what's that kind of folding knife, that doesn't lock open, but you have the little tang?
A friction folder kind of thing? Friction folder, yeah, sorry, senior moment.
Like, after the friction folder, it seems like the slip joint is a logical progression.
Like, it is something you can open up and see, but also, to me, where conceptually I lose it, with building frame lock folders in my mind, because that's the only place I build it, is the angle of the lock bar to the blade tang.
And in something like a slip joint, everything's 90, 90 degrees.
I guess the tang can be rounded or if you don't want to backstop, but a lot of geometry involved in that.
Oh yeah.
I mean, people make titanium frame locks by hand, so it is possible.

[23:33] I wouldn't even know how to begin to do that. Yeah, man, yeah, I don't know.
So with the welding and with the work you do day to day, how often do you pull out your knife and use it?
And what kind of stuff do you use it for?

[23:52] Some days I'll go maybe a whole day without even really pulling it out.
But a lot of times I do. I'd say the thing I use it most for is making myself cardboard templates. So in fabricating, if I need to make a part out of metal, but it's got some weird angles, there's no 90s or 45s, everything's kind of just wonky. I'll make a cardboard cutout of the piece and make sure that it fits where it needs to go before I actually make it out of metal.
So, you know, I'm cutting stuff out of cardboard. Actually, I use the hedgehog mostly for that because it's pretty much like a utility knife.
It's so damn thin at the tip there that it works really well for that.
Do you have one handy so people know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Let's see if I can get a good shot here.
It's very, very thin.
It looks like a straight razor from that aspect. Yeah.

[24:49] That's cool. It's a badass knife, yeah. But yeah, I cut a lot of cardboard, rubber tubing, and random zip ties, you know, nothing crazy.
Oh, really? Actually, to be honest, I use a Leatherman more than I use my knife at work.
I carry a Leatherman all day, every day, and I use it a lot, a lot, a lot.
So you mentioned Central California is where you live. Do you...
I'm in the East. I'm near DC. Okay. We don't have very, I mean, our knife laws have changed considerably over the last two years, and they've gotten way, way better.
But that's only been recently. California, I know, has some conflicting and weird knife laws.
Do you find any issues getting knives there or collecting knives there.
There are some knife web knife distributors that will not send me automatic knives.

[25:45] Mostly the bigger ones won't just you put in your address they say oh you're in California, we can't send it to you but a lot of them will. I haven't really had a problem, and it's weird because in California you can't own those things you just can't carry them, So it's kind of weird that you can't even order one to your house, who knows.
But it really doesn't affect me. I kind of just do whatever I want, really.
Yeah. Before Virginia, before we were able to carry automatic knives, it was illegal to even think about them here. Don't even consider it.
So you couldn't own or carry?
No, you can own, you can even have it in your house. You cannot own it or buy it, or make it or sell it.
And the whole issue came up because someone wanted to start a company making automatic knives in a very depressed part of our state, the western part of the state.
And we had a governor who was going through some, he got busted in blackface and was trying to backpedal, So all knife legislation was off the table, you know?
And then knife rights came in after the governor changed and now we can carry automatic knives concealed.

[27:06] Wow, that's a big jump. Yeah, yeah, a full 180, we lucked out. That's crazy.
Yeah, I don't get that. It's funny, I, uh...
I had donated to Knife Rights for something or other, I forget what it was, but I sent them a message. I don't know if it was, it probably wasn't Doug that sent me a message back, but, I just, I said, Hey, is there any hope for California? You know, just curious, like if you guys are working on anything, like trying to get anything going. And, basically the response was, we've tried, it's not going to happen. So, you know, Never gave up hope, but it's not looking good.
Change comes from within, Kevin, and it's up to you.
So I'm sitting here, I'm pawing my jackwolf knife and another leather slip here.
And I'm coming back to your slip joints because you've been making leather slips.
Yeah.

[28:03] How did this come about? And you seem to be pretty damn good at it.
Thank you. Thank you.
Um, yeah, you know, I think really just because I started buying more slip joints and, um, I don't like to have it just sitting in my pocket because, uh, at work, you know, I'm around a bunch of stuff in the air, you know, metal bits and dust, and it settles in the bottoms of your pockets.
And if you have a knife in there, it just gets all gunked up full of stuff.
So it helps protect it in the slip. And first I bought a few from some really good leather makers.
And then I decided to just try making my own. I had made a few things out of leather in the past, but I really didn't know how to make something that looked good.
And I just practiced a lot, practiced a lot, a lot. Made a bunch of slips.
Most of them looked pretty bad, but then they started to look a little better.
Got a lot of really good tips from some friends who also do leather.
And I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, finally.
Well, let's see a couple. This is my newest design.
This is, I don't know if I'm going to call it the Sway Slip or the Sway, I wanted to make a slip for my Swayback Jack Wolf.
So I kind of wanted to mimic that kind of Swayback-y kind of look in the slip.
How kind of, you know, the tip goes up and the handle goes.

[29:31] Or no, wait.
Yeah, tip goes up, the handle goes down. Oh wait, no. Yeah, it's one of those ways.
But it fits perfectly, because the way the handle kind of shoops up this way, it kind of covers up in this area, and then you can kind of fold this back, and get your fingers in there and get it out.
That's kind of the hard part, is coming up with a unique slip design.
Because anyone can make.
One of these is the classic fold up one, nothing wrong with it, but I wanted to make something that kind of would stand out and get people interested in wanting a slip for me. So, um, that's what I came up, hold that one up again, please. I want to say something I really like about this because it's something I was complaining about my knife ship free slip, which I also love.
But I love how the stitching on the left, comes up three quarters of the way and then it gives you a flap that you can peel back.

[30:24] Because, and I would say that's especially, that could also be very valuable if you're using that slip for a number of different knives, like this one, all my GECs go in this one, it just doesn't, you know.
But when I wedged my Ohio River Jack in there, I have to like do this and shake it out.
So I like that idea of having a little doorway that you can peel back.
Yeah, I try to make all of them, I like to make all of them have a little, like even this one that's just a regular fold-up one.
I'll leave the top kind of, you know, like half an inch to quarters of an inch not stitched.
So you can peel this back and get in there.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it makes it easier. Oh, I'm gonna have to commission one for my ORJ, I think, because I know you've got one of those.
You can mold it, too. I've made more ORJ slips than any other.
So are people buying these from you? Are you actively selling them?
Surprisingly, yes. Yeah, I mean, I have a little book that I write down, you know, my books.
And there's always another couple names in there that I need to make slips for.
So yeah, it's awesome. I'm not charging a whole lot, just because I'm a beginner.
I don't feel like charging as much as these guys that have been doing it forever.
But so they're relatively cheap, but they're going to be good.
Yeah, and they won't be cheap forever. So get them while they're hot. It's like, exactly.

[31:52] And it seems like you have a pretty good collection that you can use.
But you don't have every knife.
But then again, you don't really need the knife itself for a slip, I guess.
It helps. It helps to have it.
Usually what I'll say if someone wants to make me to make them a slip and I don't have the knife, I'll say, you know, is it similarly sized to a different knife that I might have?
You know, is it kind of the same as a hedgehog or whatever? Or if that's not, if they don't have that, then maybe I'll just get the measurements of the knife.
You know, how big is it this way? How big is it lengthwise? How thick is it?
And usually I can make a slip that'll fit once. I think it's happened once or twice where I sent it to them.
It was too tight.
In that case, I just make another one a little bigger.
So yeah, not a big deal. So use it for your peanut. Use it for your case peanut.
Yeah. So you will accept, I mean, I would love a maroon leather one, for instance.
If I were to ask for a maroon leather one, is that the kind of thing you do?
You go out, you source the maroon leather and kind of...
I have been doing it that way, yes.

[33:01] It's starting to get a little bit...
I feel like I need to not have so many options for the colors because what's happening is someone will want a maroon one and then I have to go order it and then you know that's coming and then someone else wants a yellow one I have to make another order for that one so I think I'm gonna eventually have a selection of leather to choose from maroon will definitely be in there because I really like I like that color but I think there'll be a selection of maybe five different leathers that you can choose from and then you know whatever color thread you want to go with that so how are you having people get in touch with you to buy these. I didn't actually realize you were selling them and I'm really happy about that.
Instagram. Just Instagram. Instagram.
Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right.
And you're reasonable. Yeah.
So the leather, you just got sucked in because of the slip joints. What about the other knives you've got? You mentioned initially it was the PM2 that reeled you back in or showed you a different dimension to knives. What else do you like to collect and use?
No.
I want to go back to one thing you said earlier that I really liked.
You were talking about your Chris Reeve. Was it a Sebenza that you have? Yeah.
Okay. You said that at the time you weren't mature enough for the knife.
I think that was that what you said. I like that a lot because I felt the same way.

[34:31] I, for the longest time, didn't like the look of Chris Reeve knives. I didn't like that you You couldn't flick them fast. I didn't like that they didn't fall shut.
But it took a while for me to mature to the point where I really appreciate something that feels that solid in my hand. And I know that it's a tank.
It's going to serve me well for years and years and years to come.
So I mean to say that my knife tastes have changed a lot over the years.
I still, don't get me wrong, I still I love a nice fidgety knife.
But nowadays it's more, if it's fidgety as a by-product, but also a very good cutting tool, then that's great.
But if the fidgetiness is kind of prioritized over.

[35:24] Anything else really that makes a knife a good cutting tool, then I'm not a huge fan a lot of times.
So it's like it becomes a toy in a way. Yeah.
I have some of those, and every time you get one and it's just a toy, it's kind of like, oh, he didn't have to do that. But, and then I'm like, well, I have a channel, I didn't have to do that.
Exactly. There are some things that you just need to suck up and show on the channel, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how I'm gonna put it. But so yeah, I have a bunch of those.
But in terms of those kind of fidgety knives, the modern locking knives, where do you go?
Some lately button locks are getting to me.
What are the modern trends you're digging? You know, I love me a good button lock too, man, I do.
And they've gotten so good now. Just look like how the detent feels, the snappiness, man.
I'm sure you remember back when Civivi released their first button lock, it was the Kogen.
And before that, it was pretty much the Malibu, the Pro-Tech Malibu, or a few other really expensive ones.
There wasn't budget button locks, which is crazy to think about now.
But Civivi had their first button lock and I bought it and it was amazing.
But comparing that to where they are now, I mean, the Civivi Cubit is one of my favorite knives ever. I mean, this is a $65 knife.

[36:51] It's a button lock, aluminum scales, just a thumb stud, actuating knife with a nice, sharpening chisel, choke up spot, super comfortable, beautiful blade shape, just really amazing.
It's an amazing, amazing knife, and it's a button lock, and it's snappy, it's not mushy like they used to be.
So, I let me give up. That knife in particular, people are going really, really excited about, and that's one that I look at and I'm like, oh, it's a little bit too small for my unnecessary knife taste, so I don't have to get that, which is always like, I'm always looking for an excuse not to get a knife that people are loving.
Are you a big knife guy in general? I am. I prefer, like, when I started collecting folders, they were all kind of seemed like they were all four inches.
And then things started to get a little bit smaller. And four inches is where I came into it because I've always been into, you know, not due to my lifestyle, but I've always been into knives as weapons.
It's just what's interesting to me primarily.
And those tend to be a little bit larger. So that's kind of where my tastes reside, but what am I gonna do? Turn my back on something that is not 3 1⁄2 or more?

[38:11] I feel like the magic spot is 3 1⁄4 inches. It's not my magic spot, but I think the best designs are right around in there, and I think the most attention goes to that measurement.
I would agree. I would agree with that. Yeah, 3 1⁄4.
Totally, that's it. So why is that? So you're in the cords I see as well, oh sorry.
Yeah, no. I'll talk about it in a minute.
Why is that? I don't know.
I don't know, I think it might be a perfect kind of pocketable size to where it's, you have enough blade length to do everything you need to do but it's also not this honkin' big thing that takes up pocket space maybe.
Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it probably is that. I think it's, I think people open up a folding knife, they see something three and a half inches or more, it seems excessive and they start thinking weapon.
We were talking on this show, on the live show here recently about bad knife names.
Talk about weapons, like the Kaiser Assassin and...
Stuff like that. It doesn't make any sense to me, you know? No.

[39:18] Oh, but yeah, you mentioned the swords behind me.
Yeah, I was, you know, you like big knives. I was, obviously, you're into swords as well. So.
Yeah, yeah. Is it antique swords or modern battle-ready swords that you cut with? Or what's the...
The ones on the wall behind me are all antiques. Many of them are from the Philippines, bringbacks from soldiers. And I've done a lot of Filipino martial arts. I love Filipino martial arts and their blades and their whole philosophy. I don't know if it's a philosophy, but many, many, many of their designs have the angle, the blade angled down for accelerated cutting.

[39:58] And yeah, so these are mostly antiques. A couple of modern ones behind me that are, battle ready. But it's basically anything for me. It's anything with a blade.
I can't, I can't help it.
Would you, do you have more fixed blades and folding knives, would you say, in your collection?
I think it's, I think I'm about even, probably more folders actually.
They're a little bit easier to justify because I can carry them.
I do have a nice size, sizable amount of fixed blades.
And lately I've been getting into custom fixed blades because it's handmade knives that I, that I can afford, more or less.
And I have a lot of guests on the show whose work I want. You know, now you're self-included with one of those slips.
But so, do you have fixed blades? It seems like everyone's gotta have at least one.
I have a few, I have a few. I've kind of held myself back from really going down that road, but I know that I will at some point.
Just like I went down the slip joint road, I will go down the fixed blade road at some point, yes.
I carry the most though is um...

[41:11] It's not here. It's my Bradford Guardian 3. Oh, yeah.
That's a good one. Yeah. Mostly, I mean, the knife is excellent.
I love the sheath though. I love how that thing sits horizontally on your belt. I carry it just to the left of my belt buckle.
Kind of by my belly here.
And it's just... Is that called... Is that a scout carry? What is scout carry? Is that on your back?
Scout carry is on your back, but I call that front scout.
Okay, yeah, that works. Yeah, front scott, it's just easy.
You know, it's right there, you pull it out, cut, put it away.
So yeah, I could easily go down that road, I just haven't quite yet.

[41:52] You know, it takes for me, it took a long time before I could wear, like carry a fixed blade knife, regularly, or where someone might be able to see it. Not where someone can grab it, because it's up front, but, You know, in my state, we're allowed to wear it on our belt.
Where I live, it would have people dropping dead of heart. I would be SWAT teamed, you know?
It's not acceptable around here. But slowly but surely, more and more, I'm showing a little bit more handle, you know, if I'm carrying a little fixed blade, you know?
And it's not concealed, and it's a knife, and we're allowed to carry them, you know?
So, with Bradford carrying it up here in front scout, Is this something that everyone can see?
And if so, how do people react?
Yes, they can see it, because I always have my shirt tucked in, so it's not like it's underneath my shirt.
It's kind of pretty obvious. You know, I haven't really noticed any weird looks or anything.
Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but maybe it's because I'm wearing work clothes.
People think like, oh, this is a working guy, so obviously he's gonna have a knife.
Maybe that's it. Um...

[43:03] I mean, if I was just in street clothes, like at a mall, but he has a big knife, that would seem kind of weirder, maybe. I don't know.
Yeah. I mean, I guess you just got to read the room. You got to know where you're going.
And not be too... I don't like it when people are too in your face about anything, you know? Yeah, no.
Especially not knives. It'll make someone feel awkward.
I wonder where that fear comes from. Is it just because it's an object that can hurt you?
Have you ever heard somebody that where people are kind of, when they see it, they're, I wonder what that is.
I don't know, Kevin, because to me, it's like, to me, it's the single most compelling object in the world.
I think to everyone, one way or another, I think people recognize that it's in our DNA at this point.
People are sick of hearing me say this, but I believe it's a part of our, you know, maybe not genetic makeup, but whatever that genetic memory thing is, genetics or whatever, it's in us, you know? It's our first tool for everything.
And I used to take martial arts in Philly from one of my teachers was a woman, and whenever anyone brought in a new knife, brought everything to a halt, and people gathered around, and she used to say, men and knives, like, what is it?
And it's a thing. Oh yeah.

[44:24] Yeah, you're right. It is some kind of primal thing where it's like, yeah, this is my, this is going to, this can, it's going to protect my life. It's going to get me food.
It's going to make me shelter as it can do everything that I needed to do for help me, survive. Yeah. Self-reliance. Like, yeah, that's, that's like the highest ideal. I think where it was, it is for me, like, you want to know that you can take care of yourself and then the others around you. I think that's that kind of ties into what you were saying about you, might not use say 15 V to its full potential but you like to know that it can do that and that's kind of the same thing it's like knowing that the knife that you carry with you is going to be able to handle whatever even though it may never have to it's going to you know yeah and handle it yeah it's one less thing for you to worry about. Yeah.
So, in your time making videos and posting to Instagram.

[45:24] What to you are some of the best and some of the worst kind of trends you've seen?
What do you like? What do you dislike?
Well, I already mentioned one, the use your shit people that kind of bothers me.
I don't know, I guess the kind of trend towards, Like I was saying, kind of fidgety, over-function.
I get it because there's the whole fidget world of people buying fidget toys and things that I've never gotten into.
It's just not really my thing, but I get it. If you're into it, that's fine.
I don't know. It's a...

[46:06] Not a whole lot bothers me, to be honest with you. Yeah, I just do my own thing.
My front flippers bothered me.
Really? And then my old hands got good at them. Like, okay, I like them.
But something you mentioned very early on when you started looking at slip joints, I like to use the term peak knife.
Have we reached peak knife? And now Savivi makes N versions of the same knife that are kind of undiscernible unless you're a real connoisseur.
Do you feel like we've reached that spot or is something else going to pull things forward?
Do you mean like has there been a knife made that is the best knife?
Is that what you mean?
No, I mean like have we reached the peak of this current knife theory or fervor?
I know, we all know knives aren't going anywhere, but like, where can they go from here?
Have we reached peak knife and from here it's all downhill?
That's a good question. I think we're getting close, if we haven't already.
I think we're getting close.
You know, people always talk about the point of diminishing returns with knives, where what is the price tag where you're just paying.

[47:25] You're just paying for the brand of the knife or the person that made it I'm not really sure where that line is. I think somewhere around.

[47:36] 350 450 bucks. It might be somewhere around there. I, Don't know where I don't even know where it could go from here I mean, yeah, if it's if it's gonna be anybody to take it further It's gonna be Brian Winters that winter break. Oh, he's gonna be the guy to to bring it further That's the guy.
No doubt. And if anyone doesn't know him, he's using magnets in such a cool way in his knives.
And he even, he posted some magnetic dart shooter that he made a little while ago. I saw that, yeah.
He seems to be a bit of a mad genius. I tried to get him on this show, and he's like, I'll share dad jokes with you online, but I don't really feel like talking.
I'm like, all good, open invitation.
Man, that would have been cool to see him talk. Yeah, I don't think he's ever done any kind of podcast and I get it, but he is, he's a very, very smart guy. And yeah, he's a mad scientist.
Did you see on a while back on his Instagram, he posted a video of this prototype he had been working on, and it's a side opening automatic that not only opens automatically, it shuts automatically.

[48:47] I do remember that. Crazy. Wow. That sounds like a new and exciting way for me to nearly cut my fingers off.
Yeah.
But still something. Also the Hawks, Grant and Gavin Hawk, father and son team, they're real innovators with their out the front mechanism, which I've only experienced at Blade Show.
Yeah. I have never even gotten to fire one of those. I would like to at some point.
So it really feels quite different than an OTF that you...
Okay. It does. And I only have... I've only... OTF-wise, I've only really had Microtech and Heretic and then the Lightning out the front. Those real cheap Chinese ones.
And this... It feels like a totally different thing. It feels almost like a gun or something.
Maybe I'm speaking out of school for the people who actually have them.
But to me, it felt so solid. There was no... It was like, It was in this state and then it's in this state and there's like no transition or I don't know hard to explain. But yeah, yeah exquisite.
Have you ever been to blade show? Oh east or west or no, you know, I've been to one small knife show the California custom knife show I went last year.
And that was my first one.

[50:07] And even that was overwhelming. I mean, it was just, it was one room with, it was a lot of stands, but I mean, compared to Blade Show, it was nothing.
So I can't imagine how overwhelming that would be. I will make it at some point, probably next year.
So do you ever see yourself as a person who makes things and fixes things, do you ever see yourself going down the custom path and starting to buy.

[50:33] Others who are making things yes i like your idea of custom fix plays cuz that's a that's a really good way to get some custom work where you're not.
No draining your bank account i like that i would love to own a custom from brian and obviously sharp by design yeah that's i mean what an ultimate goal that would be you know what is that.
Any of his customs really, they're just unbelievable. A Demco custom, I would love one of a real Demco 8015 or 8010, one of those. Ray Laconico, and he makes some really nice custom stuff.
So yes, I would like to go down that road. I know I will. I'll get there.
Yeah. Yeah. I think when you have something, I don't know, well you get an attachment, I do, certainly.
I have a lot of knives from people that I've spoken with, and whoa, that's another great excuse to buy a lot of knives.
Well, I had them on the show, I have to buy a knife so I can remember that experience.
But yeah, there's a certain reward, I think, with having something handmade that's just, I don't know, you get a bit of that maker in there, and then also a bit of you, because you're helping guide that vision.

[51:59] Kevin, I do something here with people who have channels, and I want to run you through this.
You through this. I do a speed round where I ask, Yes or no, it's not a yes or no question. It's a one or the other.
And so this is our final way to really kind of get the cut of your jib, see who you are as a knife guy.
All right. And as we go, I might pause because I like to tweak for the guest.
Okay. Okay, first, fixed or folder?
Folder.
Flipper or thumb stud?
Thumb stud. Washer or bearings? Tip up or tip down?

[52:45] Tip up. Tonto or Bowie? Tonto.
Controversial. Hollow ground or flat ground?
Hollow. Okay, full size or small?
Full size. Now, gentleman's knife or tactical knife? Gentleman's.
Yeah, as is evidenced by your brand new Roosevelt. Yes, that is a gentleman's knife.
What a beauty that is.
Okay, automatic or bally sewn?
Automatic. Benchmade or Spyderco? Spyderco.
Okay, now this one's for you.
Jack Wolf Knives or C. Reisner Cutlery?
Obviously C. Reisner. Obviously. Okay. Chris Reeve or Hinderer?
That's tough.

[53:53] Hinderer. Well, like you said, you're not quite mature enough for a Chris Reeve.
Yeah. I missed it. Yeah.
Milled titanium or spring clip?
Milled titanium. Carbon fiber or micarta? Micarta.
Finger choil or no choil? Choil. Form or function? Now we're getting meta.
Function. And I figured you were going to be a function. I shamefully kind of am a form guy.
Island knife. One knife for the rest of your life. It doesn't have to be one in election it can be one that you can.
One knife. Not going to hold you to it. This is tough, man. I mean, okay, with keeping in mind that it has to last a long time and be tough.

[54:52] A Chris Reeve wouldn't be a bad choice.

[54:57] I think I'm going to go with the Demco 8020. Ooh.
Good answer. That's a good answer. I don't think I've ever had an oh looky there. Yeah, I got a beauty. Oh, If you're only listening full flat ground clip point with the with the opening hole, 80-20 it's beautiful. Yeah, I am.

[55:20] Ever since I first saw Demco 80-20 I wanted one so bad and then the 20.5 just came out and that kind of I have sated my thirst for one for a little while.
And then finally, I was able to get the full-size one, and it's amazing.
It's really good.
Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, I was looking for one for a long time, and then a viewer of the show let me know that they were standing in front of a cabinet of them at River's Edge Cutlery, and can I get you one?
Of course, I had to pay the guy back, but yeah, he's like, yes, please do.
And that was my lucky story because that was very evasive.
Elusive, I mean. Oh yeah.
So congratulations on that purchase. Yeah, and that was actually on a drop, too.
I just got lucky, I guess. Yeah.
Just sittin' by the computer, hittin' refresh. Yeah. Hittin' refresh.
Yeah. So Kevin, as we wrap here, what are your goals for the channel?
What are you gonna do with your life, Kevin? No, what are your goals for the channel?
Like, where do you wanna see this go, Doody's Daggers?
Well, I want to see it grow, obviously.

[56:31] But it's growing at a good pace. I don't feel like I need to do anything extra to help it grow faster or anything.
I really want to just continue to create a good group of people that are viewers, that are also friends, which is the case for a lot.
I met so many just awesome people that I've become friends with through the channel.
And I just want to continue to grow that, you know, keep meeting awesome new fellow knife guys like you and a bunch of other people.
And, you know, maybe hopefully someday companies will maybe send me some knives to check out, you know, loaners from, you know, wouldn't that be cool if like every time Spyderco came out with a new knife, they'd lend you one to have on the channel?
How cool would that be?
Yeah, we'll see, you know, I want to grow, but I'm not like, that's not my only focus, I guess is what I'm saying.
Cool, I like that slow and steady because it's easy to burn out on things, especially.
I don't know, especially when you might go through a rough spot, you're like, wow, I've been really obsessing over knives, I have something important going on over here.
It can get like that, but at the same time, and I'm sure this might be the case for you, it's also a redoubt, it's a place to escape to.

[57:57] For a little while if you just wanna get mechanical about it.
Mechanical about it. Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah. Kevin duty. Thank you so much for coming on the knife junkie podcast. I appreciate it. I hope you'll stick around 10 minutes extra for patrons. Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it. It's been really cool meeting you. This was really, really fun, man. You are a very good interviewer. Very fun to talk, to you. Oh, thank you, man. I appreciate it. Right back at.

[58:25] You. All right. Take care, sir. Yes, sir. The get upside app is way to get cash back on your gas purchases. GetUpside is an app you put on your smartphone, and whenever you need to get gas, search your area for savings, claim your discount, fill up your tank, and then take a picture of the receipt with your phone. And that's it.
You've just got cash back. Visit theknifejunkie.com forward slash save on gas to get the app and start saving. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash save on gas. There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Doody of Doody's Daggers on Instagram and YouTube.
Definitely check out those YouTube videos, they're so good. It's kind of nice to just hang out with him and his videos.
You know, there are various people you go to for different things.
Kevin, I definitely like watching this channel just because I like hanging out and watching him do his thing and give his thoughts on the knives.

[59:16] Be sure to join us next week for another conversation, another great knife conversation.
And then don't forget Wednesday for the Midweek Supplemental and Thursday for Thursday Night Knives 10pm Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at review the podcast.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 the knife junkie.com slash YouTube. Check out some great knife 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 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie Podcast.

[1:00:18] Music.