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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 midweek Knife Junkie podcast episode number 91 I'm Jim Person and

Bob DeMarco 0:24
I'm Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco Welcome to the show. The

Jim Person 0:27
Knife Junkie podcast is the place for knife newbies like myself and Knife Junkie like you to learn all about knives and knife collecting. The midweek show is where we get a chance to take a look at some of the knife stories in the news with our knife life news segment. Bob will also have a chance to provide an update on his collection, including some news about the bassinet le creations diagnostic neck knife, can we get a longer title, as well as the cold steel XL Luzon? I think as I how you pronounce it and we've got a listener line call we want to hear and have a chance to discuss and if time permitting we'll get to some of the the knife shows from our friends at knife magazine. com So Bob before show again, midweek never seems to be a lack of stuff to talk about in the knife world.

Bob DeMarco 1:19
Yeah, yeah, that's right. And actually something that didn't quite make it onto your list. There's, there's more to talk about.

Jim Person 1:25
I know I was I was saving that snap.

Bob DeMarco 1:30
You know, Jim, I've been trying to sell three knives for a while. And, and I arrived at the three I wanted to get rid of and it's three that I find relatively valuable because they're cool knives. And they're great when I have them in hand, but I never carried them. So that was kind of a no brainer. So I put them up on blade forums, in one in one posting, and someone came back online. Yes, exactly. A one lot like like at an auction and someone came back to me and said, I'd like to buy them all for this price. And you know when I took into account that they'd all be going to the same place so it was reduced shipping by about 20 bucks. It worked out great. Everyone got a deal and I was able to unload my Kaiser compadre this big, beautiful two and a quarter inch recurve bow and the stuff that we 609 there's big, kind of goofy looking purple space sacks, if you will. And then my old car Katie Liang ma erasers such a cool and beautiful knife but just one I never carry anymore so I got rid of them. I'm moving some things around I want to get I want to get a Spartan I want to get a Spartan halsy folder. So they don't come for free. I'm saying

Jim Person 2:49
so is that Spartan halsy folder a before blade or during blade or

Bob DeMarco 2:56
say in an interesting question you raise actually because At when we were talking to staska 23 on the show we were talking about going to blade and and how he said right about now you start seeing people selling off their knives to save up for blade This will be my first year your first year Knife Junkie first year at blade show and you know I hadn't really taken that into account I've been thinking about about, you know, buying hotel buying food and flight and all of that and logistics and what we're going to do when we're there but I hadn't thought about the actual knife buying part and you can't go and not get one so we raised an interesting point maybe maybe some more knife

Jim Person 3:35
lots going up by then I

Bob DeMarco 3:39
maybe I need to take a more stern look at what I carry and and what I want and or or maybe I just slow down and remain satisfied with what I have.

Jim Person 3:49
Well, you raised an interesting criteria you as your collection evolves, you know you're buying stuff because you liked it. And now it's kind of gotten to where it's more About what you want to be able to carry, as opposed to just having it in the knife drawer on the shelf or whatever to look at. You want to be able to carry and use it. So that's that's your criteria now.

Bob DeMarco 4:11
Yeah, yeah, I mean, they're all I can carry all of them but but you're right at the end of the day, there are certain things that I'm just going to keep going back for. So why not? Why not collect to that strength and, and have my money until I open up the DeMarco knife museum and I have to get one of each, you know, like Noah, or I guess he had to a peach. That sounds even better. I'll just kind of start calling and getting some some better stuff.

Jim Person 4:41
Well, we'll give you four or five years before we open up the museum.

Bob DeMarco 4:45
And, and I have to I do have to clarify by saying better stuff. I mean, it's better inherently if I'm using it and carrying it then if i'm not i'm not talking about quality. Everything I sold to this gentleman is super high quality.

Jim Person 4:59
Yeah. Well, you know, and what you were saying to about caring and it's the same thing. It's not that it's not a great knife, not that you don't love it, but taste, evolve, taste change. So just the things you naturally gravitate to, is what you're wanting to carry in your pocket. You're right friend. prakit your left front pockets, your waistband, your neck knife. So there you go, you've got enough choices,

Bob DeMarco 5:25
right? There are good ads there will you know it will get carried at some point.

Jim Person 5:29
So anyway, Bob sells off some knives. We'll see what He replaces it with and how quickly

Announcer 5:35
you're listening to The Knife Junkie podcast. It's time now for the latest knife life news.

Bob DeMarco 5:40
The latest two releases from CVV look quite interesting to me. The first one has an interesting name, Jim, and I'm not exactly sure how they're pronouncing it, but it looks like asticus to me asticus kind of an interesting name. It sounds like it could either be from you know, Roman times or something else. dicus anyway, it's a new flipper from CVV and it is beautiful. I love the way it looks. It's got it it's up a drop point. And it's kind of nice hollow ground blade with a sweat long swedge on top and a nice finger choil but that is a 3.8 inch blade. You know I like the longer blades and this is the biggest thing servius done you know we has done a lot of large knives with this first thing from them. That's largest in in the house design, D to steel, flipper only ball bearing, you know that the usual gotta say, g 10. Insert and multiple colors. The cool thing about the insert is that it's letterboxed by the stainless steel frame behind it so the frame sits slightly proud, if you will, and it looks really beautiful and I know just from holding other knives that have that sort of that sort of letterbox effect with a handle scale. It is very comfortable. It kind of rounds out the Knife without thickening it and having to counter it. So you get a nice visual effect, you get a nice ergonomic effect. So, gotta say just for where my tastes are going. I haven't really gotten any civvies even though I find them very attractive, and I know that they're awesome knives. This one is kind of looking like it's up my alley. So this, this might be something I go for. It's a $65 knife, which is another reason for me to go for it. And they are going to do a sort of upscale version of it, but it's only kind of slightly upscale. They're going to have Damascus instead of D two, and they're going to have carbon fiber overlaid g 10 scales kind of Allah Spyderco and that will be 90 bucks. The other release from CVV is one that we saw here a few months back to him and in that stage it was still a prototype and it was unnamed, but it's a small actually Chinese how they describe it. fixed blade DC meant for pocket wear or neck carry by elisandra disentis. And it was this little curiosity looking thing you might remember nine cr 18 mo V with a bottle opener on the spine. Well, they named it and it's now called the Curie dash EDC, like, Kira dashi because it scared as she shaped blade but instead is the curat EDC. Cute. doesn't exactly roll off my tongue but neither does asticus. So, you know, CVV great at making knives great at designing and making knives. The names maybe, maybe that's where they have to work on it.

Jim Person 8:37
Yeah, maybe not so much there. Alright, and so vv is the the budget line of we

Bob DeMarco 8:46
Yes. All right. All right. And and you know as as, as we're speaking with staska recently, he just met he loves TV. So does sodas. Zell frequent contributor to Thursday night knives. Rick 42 loves cbv and I guess I just have to get my hands on one and this asticus looks like the one I want to get my hands on. Right That sounds funny

Jim Person 9:11
here. Okay, I won't touch that one. I just caught that. Yeah, the ass because that was Yeah, okay. Alright moving on quickly. Yes. Hey moving for that we'll go to bone that a blade works let's talk about a an X like product coming out Yeah, from the from the new folks there

Bob DeMarco 9:30
that is that is how I'm describing it looking at it. It's pretty cool. You know it's grown on me. Just in looking at it. I haven't haven't seen one of these. It's a new outfit called bone daddy blade works. It's a new design and knife making house doing small batch productions. And they got this knife like axe head or axe head like knife thing called the axis a x x is and It is very interesting it is a looks like a pretty large chunk of steel, large in width but it has been skeletonized massively aggressively. And the surfaces are also treated in such a way that either grooves are cut out very attractive grooves or sort of dimple patterns, all these things to lighten up this strangely shaped knife thing. So it's a it's a survival knife, but you can tie it to you can lash it to a limb and make an axe out of it. So it's got a very sort of wedge like geometry to it. And it's got a blade on the bottom where the traditional where the beard of a traditional axe would be, and then a blade facing forward so it looks kind of almost like a tanto or a Graham raizel if you will, a fixed giant slab of Graham raizel. Anyway, this is a pretty neat looking double edge, as I said, it's D two, it's five and 5.3 inches of cutting edge, including both the beard blade side and the forward blade side. And you can use it as a knife. You can use it as an axe, and it's got paid x, it's a little heavy at 14.3 ounces. But like I said, it's, it's an X nice so right you know, it's gonna be heavy. It's a knife with a capital capital and it's on Kickstarter right now. And they're they're seeking funding and they're looking, it's going to end by the 26th of March with for 55 green. Looks like a cool project. I gotta say, bone daddy blade works. That's w e r x.

Jim Person 11:44
So as Bob said, March 26, kind of the end of the month though, we'll keep an eye on that and maybe, maybe put a note on our books to revisit that around that time to see how they did and see how it's going. One final story in knife life news who want to get to an hour trouble with this one. Se Se Se ly s ok e se okay

Bob DeMarco 12:05
so they have a an interesting line se is is known for their outdoor blades, push craft camping, you know pretty hardcore outdoor survival and and outdoor adventure blades and they have a line called the expat series. an expat is actually the handle of someone on the SC forums who has been a contributor in a lot of different ways over the years and including designs. So as he started making a line of this this gentleman x Pat's designs I'm assuming these gentlemen could be woman. But in any case, they have this new one coming out and it's it's half knife half machete, it's it's sort of a short machete large knife at 12.38 inches. And it's it's got a beautifully shaped It looks like a spade blade as they say On knife news, but really, you look at this machete, it's got a drop point. Almost looks like a clip point and a long straight and a beautiful belly up towards that point and it really does look like a large space blade from a from a Stockman slip joint knife. Anyway, it's point 0946. So you can you can use it for hefty jobs, but it's also it's also pretty agile. Apparently, it's made by a partner company of SES in El Salvador, which is kind of like Pandora, well, kind of like Pandora, that's where Condor is located. So that made me think of Condor immediately 1075 with a convex grind and I don't know if you remember this about me, Jim, but I love a complex grind.

Jim Person 13:46
Can't say that. I remember that. But I thank you for letting me know what has happened. I gotta get better on my grind. Yeah, step by step

Bob DeMarco 13:54
Bob. I'll get there. Well, the convex grinds are very robust because you can get them super super sharp, but they're rounded right towards the tip. So you have also you have sort of the performance of an axe or the status of an axe but you can get them incredibly keen to anyway Canvas micarta handles Canvas sheath which I think is cool that's kind of a throwback to sort of world war two era machetes and yeah, I just think it's cool there. Here's a guy. Here's a person who's a total enthusiast for se knives and they took on his designs took them seriously and he's got a whole line of knives with them now.

Jim Person 14:32
This must be the show for big knives with the SE and the X that you just don't do

Bob DeMarco 14:36
so well. Yeah, maybe maybe I need to get in with I need to start haunting the cold steel forums and see if they'll, they'll make one of my crazy ideas that the pit fighting gauntlet perhaps,

Jim Person 14:47
perhaps you never know to ask. What can they say?

Bob DeMarco 14:50
No. Lynn Thompson I'm sure would come up with a great way to justify it.

Announcer 14:54
And now that we're caught up with knife life news. Let's hear more of The Knife Junkie podcast

Jim Person 14:59
back The Knife Junkie podcast time for the collection update from Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco where you want to start bastianelli or cold steel? Well, let's start with

Bob DeMarco 15:09
cold steel. I got that first, I guess. Oh, yeah, so not

Jim Person 15:13
alphabetical or no and,

Bob DeMarco 15:15
and not in the order I gave it to you. But you know, we're whimsical here The Knife Junkie pocket. So I recently had an Amazon order, you know as one does, and it was a bunch of very practical stuff. But I did notice that the cold steel extra large Luzon could be had for 38 bucks at that moment. And a wave of justification hit me and I can't remember exactly what it was, but it probably had to do with I don't even know how I justified it. I just threw it on there. 38 bucks. It's a leap year, but it's a leap year. That's a great one. That's very good. Thank you, man. I'm going to use that for the rest of the year. Because I said where you can this thing this this Luzon. is a pretty cool knife. I gotta say it's, it's it is one of the big ridiculous Cold Steel knives. So if that bores you, you know, you're gonna have to suffer through this for just a moment, if you don't mind. But yeah, it is this very large revery handled beast. And I tell you, it's very strange to have a cold steel. That is a liner lock. And this is a pretty robust liner lock it is taking in. It is taking a little bit of time to break in. But I gotta say this thing is amazing. Now, if anyone is on the fence, if anyone who is a reasonable individual like myself and collects these giant Cold Steel knives, and you think it's got eight cr 13 and movie, maybe I'll pass on this one. Well, brother getcha, that's where I was for a couple of years now. But then it occurred to me really, it doesn't matter what steel this has, because you know, chances are, I'm not going to really use it. I have a couple of other large cold steals I use for yard stuff This won't get used that way so if I ever need it, I'm quite sure that eight cr 13 mo ve will will do me just fine because this is a big folding fighting knife and I don't use those so the cheaper steel the softer steel is 100% acceptable and it makes it a little bit more affordable.

Jim Person 17:20
Well it sounds like a great price and I'm glad we were able to help you justify on there. Thank

Unknown Speaker 17:25
you. It's

Jim Person 17:27
that's right there you go. video I am assuming coming up on the YouTube channel at some point. Yeah,

Bob DeMarco 17:32
yeah, cuz since I put up my video of Cold Steel folders, I've gotten two more which was unexpected. But

Unknown Speaker 17:40
Gosh, now now an updated collection video no and updated. Updated update. Right.

Bob DeMarco 17:45
Alright, so we go from big knives big x, big Cold Steel down to a little neck knife. Yeah, that's new in the collection. He tiny neck knife inspired by my wife who wanted to carry a kurama when she was running something she could just kind of grip in her fist and have looped over her finger so that you know it can't be seen. And but it's there and it's handy. And I loaned her my Fox 599 kurama which is a relatively small kurama and it wasn't wasn't doing it for little too noticeable and big. And so I thought about bastianelli they have all these cool little knife he sharp claw type things, tons of different beautiful parameters and and fixed blade and folding knives that the he designs. And so I got I got her this little it's called the diagnostic neck knife and what it is, is a two finger kurama it and so far I have find that I have found it not as easy on the ring finger coming out the bottom of my fist but it feels great in hand on my You know flip off on my bird finger if you will, and and in gripped that way. This is a really interesting little knife It reminds me of some of the little ring claws that guru Dan inosanto has brought to different seminars I've been to where he shows all these really cool kind of covert, traditional Filipino and and Indonesian weapons and they look kind of like this they're like little little animal claws that fit neatly into your hand just in case you're jogging through the park and someone menaces you, you know. So yeah, I got one for my wife and yes, I had to get one for myself because I didn't want to be hogging it from her but I wanted to be able to to to review it and and discuss it so I had to have one for my own. So got one and it's awesome. I was gonna say so you're not hogging it. I am not. No actually got you actually got to but did you notice how I framed the conversation? It was about my wife and my wife's not for jogging, but it also helped me out to do

Jim Person 20:05
I did notice it totally I did and I was going to ask you if it was your wife's knife Why do you still have an advance? I'm glad I'm glad you clarified that a second was a minor good

Bob DeMarco 20:16
This might be the new one to ride behind the old the old work ID We'll see about that though.

Jim Person 20:21
Okay, and does she does she like it or is it too early to tell how she had enough chance to you she

Bob DeMarco 20:26
has not it just they just arrived so but she's half did it and likes the way it feels and she's got small hands feels goodness, my hands. Very good.

Jim Person 20:35
collection update there from The Knife Junkie will. We'll see how many more weeks we have multiple knives to talk about. And if he can keep this pace going for a while. We'll we'll wait till next week and see what's going on with the collection there.

Announcer 20:49
Have a question or maybe you just have a comment. Give us a call at 724-466-4487 will answer your question on an upcoming episode of The Knife Junkie pop Guests that number again 724-466-4487

Jim Person 21:05
all right knife junkies Don't forget we would love to hear from you get your feedback your comments your questions your thoughts give us a call on the listener line at 724-466-4487 724-466-4487 and that's what the gentleman that we're going to play a message from did he called the listener line left us a message unfortunately he didn't leave his name or anything so we you know can't give him credit or you know get back with him that way but hopefully he's listening to the podcast we wanted to play it and and give The Knife Junkie a chance to comment on it. kind of set it up Bob the the the call is about Strider knives and Stolen Valor.

Bob DeMarco 21:51
Yes, a gentleman left a message. complimenting the show it his tone was was really you know, pretty complimentary was a nice letter, but he was responding to my recent bloviating hope out about my new Strider SMF. And how excited I am about it, how much I love it. And he stated that it's very, very hard for him or impossible for him to support the work of people whose who he, he has problems with then, and well, I'll let I'll let him him talk about it. And then I'll give you my initial reaction, but I have to say I haven't thought 100% through how I feel about it, but I'm really happy this this gentleman called in and I like when there are actual things to talk about in this hobby in this in this realm of enthusiasm, and not just look at this cool new knife. Look at this cool new knife. This is an interesting thing to ponder.

Jim Person 22:51
Well, let's let's listen to that and then we'll come back and hear from The Knife Junkie.

Listener Line Call 22:54
Hey, what's up guys enjoying the podcast just ran over, ran out and found it Really good content that you guys have Hey man, just want to express my concerns with the Strider in general, with the history of the company, especially Mick Strider was Stolen Valor and being arrested for carjacking and all that nonsense. I just can't seem to support a company like that and so just hoping that you would actually support people who truly served who truly spoke honestly about what they did when they were serving. There's a lot of other nice companies out there that do that man so again, great show enjoying it very much that I'm just out no way would I support Strider knives anyway. Alright guys take care.

Jim Person 23:43
All right, so bob, we've we've heard the message, your initial thoughts, your initial reaction?

Bob DeMarco 23:49
Well, my, my initial feeling is, this is obviously coming from someone to whom this is important. Someone who served him self maybe Someone who has someone close to serving. The point is this obviously is coming from somewhere deep and, you know, everyone needs a code of ethics but that that code of ethics is oftentimes personalized by your own experiences and by you know, how you were raised in. And from my perspective, this is my perspective. I came up as an artist and going to art school and pondering the behavior of, of many different artists and, and, and then contrasting that with their work. Caravaggio, one of my favorite painters of all time, you know, murdered someone, and then got back in the good graces of the trick by making a painting. And I always kind of thought, hmm, but, you know, most beautiful paintings in the world character, you know, I'm not so sure about this guy's character. How does that make me feel about the art? It doesn't make me it doesn't change my feeling about his paintings and I I flashed over to my favorite movie made by a man named Roman Polanski, who by all accounts is, you know, a bit of a scumbag and but he made a great movie. I love Chinatown. does what Roman Polanski did change how I feel about Chinatown at I? It doesn't? It doesn't and that's sometimes I think if I were more principled, maybe it would, but in this case it does not maybe it's just not personal enough for me. So I hear I hear what this gentleman is saying about MC Strider and how and, and Strider knives and why he can't support them. And I admire that and I respect that. It is not where I stand at the moment and and, frankly, and to be totally honest, I'm not sure if that's due to an ethical stance or just because I absolutely love the knife and I'm willing to you know, justify how I feel about it. Or, and you know what I'm saying?

Jim Person 25:58
You know, I'm saying Yeah, well, I mean, every you know, there's a phrase, one of my former bosses used to say, where you sit depends on where you stand. So you know, you have your own perspectives, your own history. You know, whether you're grew up in the military, maybe you have military, family, military friends, you went to art school, so you understand art, the appreciation of art, it's all different, you have your own perspective. So to each his own, I like you I admire and respect this gentleman's opinion. I admire his respect your opinion. You know, I appreciate him sharing the message and getting this conversation started. And I would definitely like to invite listeners to give a call to the listener line and let us know their thoughts kind of how it affects them or how they feel about it.

Bob DeMarco 26:48
Yeah. And and actually, this, this raises up the real, the whole reason for being this podcast, I set out to talk to all the people that I admire and respect and I have something to say in the knife world, I would have sent out a couple of invitations to mixed writer, I'd love to have him on the show, not only to you know, meet and talk to this very storied and accomplished legacy knife maker, but also you know, I'd love to, to at least allow people to talk freely about their side of things. Who knows, you know, just an opportunity to have conversation and find out where everyone's coming from.

Jim Person 27:26
Well and I want to expand or clarify on something you said this podcast is not not just to talk to the people you admire and respect and want to meet it's to talk to anybody in the knife world any different opinions any different kind of things like that? It's like the show we did with super steel Steve, you know, I'm the first to admit I'm not my mind doesn't think steals and mathematics and chemistry and all that. So, you know, and I think we you know, we had a comment, you know, that says, you know, after that shows like interesting the the host and the co host You know, don't like steals or talk steals, but yeah, they're the host of this podcast. Okay, fine. You know, I respect that it's just not one of my strengths but it still we want to be able to talk to people in the knife world regardless of where

Bob DeMarco 28:12
they're coming from. Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's the whole point. I you know what I know could Philip embel I just know what I like.

Jim Person 28:18
Right? Right. Well, again, if you have a thought or an opinion, we would love to hear from you keep the conversation going seven to 44664487 and also join bomb on his Thursday night night, a Thursday night knives live video show. We have the opportunity for you to actually come on the show. If you have a webcam and a microphone. You can come on and talk to them ask him a question. Get some interchange going on there and want to plug this opportunity. Bob mentioned selling a few knives. On Thursday night knives. We're going to be able to you're going to be able to have the opportunity to sell a knife so if you have a knife you want to sell to raise some funds. Blade show coming up well just come on Thursday night knives will be more than happy to let you come on. Show off your knife talk about it and try to sell it no commission no charge just a surface from The Knife Junkie to the knife community

Announcer 29:12
subscribe to The Knife Junkie's YouTube channel at The Knife junkie.com slash YouTube.

Jim Person 29:17
Alright bob back on the Knife Junkie podcast our midweek Episode Number 91 kind of as I thought we had a lot to try to tackle so we're not going to be able to run through all the list of knife shows. But March is the time where a lot of shows kind of start kicking back up in the high gear, some hammer ends coming on. You know, we've got shows in North Carolina, Arkansas, Massachusetts, down in Georgia. So if you want to find all those events, go to see our friends at knife magazine. com slash events. And you can find a list of all the shows going on. But as we wrap up any final thought something I hadn't asked you something you want to talk about or just you know and wrap it up.

Bob DeMarco 29:58
Now I was just gonna plug the Thursday night knives tomorrow night definitely come check it out I should have Ze;rick42 tomorrow night on Thursday night knives and come enjoy and be a part of the conversation

Jim Person 30:12
alright for Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco I'm Jim the knife newbie person. Thanks so much for joining us on the Knife Junkie podcast

Announcer 30:19
thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast If you enjoyed the show please rate review and review the podcast calm for show notes for today's episode additional resources and to listen to past episodes visit our website The Knife Junkie calm you can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at The Knife Junkie comm slash YouTube check out some great night photos on Knife Junkie comm slash Instagram and join our Facebook group but Knife Junkie calm slash Facebook and if you have a question or comment email them to Bob at The Knife Junkie calm 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.