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The Knife Junkie Podcast — Episode 672 Transcript
Locking Jack Wolf Knives (with their slip joint brothers)

Bob: Coming up, I lecture about the Kephart knife, we take a look at two of my new Spyderco knives, and a deep dive into locking Jack Wolf Knives folders with their slip joint brothers. I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast.

Announcer: Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob "The Knife Junkie" DeMarco.

Bob: Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week—and there were a lot of them on the show with the interview show with Lynn Thompson—Fishbag, my buddy Craig, said, "Bob, you and Lynn have made my week. I just watched two of my most influential knife world personalities interacting and forging an epic conversation that only the two of them together can have. I say this because you get him. He recognizes that fact and then dispenses very liberally, to our delight, the exquisite pirate treasures of pearls that he has amassed in his brain." Then he goes on for a while and comes back with, "Well, I'm going to just call this one 'The Trailmaster' of episodes."

And Craig, oh my gosh, okay, first of all, lots of comments, a lot of comments. Probably more comments on this than any first-week initial interview, including the first Lynn Thompson interview, and they were all so positive. But this one just tickled me. Plus, you know, he held me in a good light too, so I had to hold that up. Thank you so much, Craig. But yeah, Lynn Thompson is amazing, and what an amazing conversation it was, and what an honor it is to know him and to be able to talk with him a little bit more regularly now, not just on the show, but in other ways. So it's cool, I'm excited. Thank you so much, Craig, and everyone else who commented on the show, and thanks for watching. It was cool, and he did reveal some real nuggets about what's to come now that his NDA has expired with GSM. All right, that said, let's get to a pocket check.

Announcer: What's in his pocket? Let's find out. Here's the Knife Junkie with his pocket check of knives.

Bob: In my front right pocket today was the Spyderco Military. This is not a Military 2; this is a Military. I can't call it a Military 1; that doesn't make sense. So this is the Military, the first version of it with the liner lock, the S30V blade, and the tip-down-only configuration. I was carrying this today because I'm seriously considering getting the new—well, not the new, I should say the Military 2. It's new-ish, but it was already 10 years late in the coming, and I'm already two years late to getting it. But I'm in a Spyderco, a little Spyderco phase right now, and the Military is so near and dear to my heart. First of all, it's the perfect Spyderco in terms of size. It's got that classic Spyderco look, shape, fit, finish, and all of that, but it's also nice and big with that 4.1-inch blade. But now that it's set up with the four-direction pocket clip and the compression lock, it's basically a beast. So I think I have to get one. And while I'm at it, I might just get it in the CPM-CruWear setup: tan Micarta and CruWear. So today I had this, and it doesn't stick in my craw that badly that it's tip-down only, but I'm not a huge fan.

Next up, a real classic. I haven't carried this one in a long time. My favorite Great Eastern Cutlery knife, this is the Boy's Knife, the Farmer's Boy's Knife with the most beautiful covers ever. Look at that. Looks like an autumn sunset; it's just gorgeous. I love this blade, this knife so much. This one came out in, what, 2013? You can tell from the numbers marked on the tang. And this one has a spay blade and a clip point blade, and it's just awesome. It's sort of that classic trapper configuration in terms of the blades, but it's got that sleeveboard pattern number 15 handle. Great knife. I forgot I even had it in my pocket. I don't carry that frequently anymore. I haven't carried Great Eastern Cutlery much in a while, but I'm going to bring myself, steer myself back that way. I have a really nice sub-collection of those beautiful old-school knives, so I've got to do that.

All right, next up, in my waistband at the 3 o'clock today, it was the Brock Blades Magni XL. The Magni is actually a Joe Watson design, so this is technically a collaboration, but look at how beautiful that is. That swedge is thin enough to be sharpened if you were to be brave enough to do it yourself, or to send it to Mr. Brock. I'm not sure if he would do that; I'm sure he would, why wouldn't he? But a really, really nice design. I love the recurve, very precise tip. Again, 3V for a nice thin knife like this is nice because it's tough. You're not going to be using this for too much other than self-defense anyway, and so maybe it's tough against harder targets. Really comfortable in hand, very nice and thin with those two thin G10 slabs, and it just feels great in hand. I always have it set up for a reverse draw. You can always put the back of your hand against your body, palm out, and draw it this way like a cavalry style, and pull it out and have it for regular use. But today's EDC fixed blade was the Brock Blades Magni XL. I love this thing. I would love to get another Brock Blades knife, and I will do that at some point.

But for emotional support, and I've been carrying this around the house recently, just been loving this knife all over again, is the HZ6 from CRKT and James Williams. James Williams, the designer, this is a classic Williams profile... I'm sorry, the HZ6, he goes... Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm spacing on the Japanese. Someone can drop it in the comments, only one person. I'm sure you all know it and you're yelling at your screen right now, and I get it. I should have done my homework and reminded myself. I knew it at one point, but anyway, just an exceptional knife. They do a 4-inch version of this as well. I love the super-jimped handle. It does not have a guard, and yet it is a very thrusty knife. Does it need the guard? I dare say not, with the swelling handle. It swells at the pommel end and at the ricasso, and it's got these really deep and sharp jimpings. It just grips the hand, and I love the jimping on the pommel as well for the thumb. Everything is thought of. This knife is so nice, so beautifully done, and then there you have a really nice long swedge. I'm not sure who made this knife. Now I know some makers like Hogue and TOPS have been doing some special productions for CRKT. I'm not sure who made this. Again, got to do my homework. All I know is it's really comfortable to carry, light for what it is, and just so wicked. So I love this knife.

All right, that's what I've been carrying on me. You let me know what you had on you. I had the Magni XL, I had the number 15 from Great Eastern Cutlery, and the Military from Spyderco, such a great knife. By the way, my brother and father both have this knife, and we all got them independently, believe it or not, of one another, and that just goes to show it runs in the blood.

I want to tell you about T.Kell Knives. And I want to—well, you know about T.Kell Knives, so I'm not going to show them right here right now. I just want to let you know that we have an exceptional deal with T.Kell Knives. You can get 10% off if you buy a T.Kell knife through theknifejunkie.com/tkell and you use coupon code "knifejunkie". I co-designed the Agent 001 with Tim Kell. I sent him a design, he tweaked the handle, and ever since then, we may have made history with that amazing double-edged fighting knife, and then every amazing knife that came after it. Some of them, like the 007 collaborations also, like with Tomass of Tactical Tavern. So check out T.Kell Knives. Of course, I'm pushing the Agent 001, that's my knife, but all of the T.Kell Knives, with very few exceptions, are really, really excellent and perfect for carrying on your person on a day-to-day basis, and they're not so obvious and not easy to see. So very discrete, but excellent self-defense and utility fixed blade knives, and now folders. So go check out theknifejunkie.com/tkell, get 10% off your purchase with coupon code "knifejunkie" at checkout.

All right, so before we move on to Knife Life News, I just want to tell you about a really cool thing I noticed on Patreon. Jim is always hard at work on Patreon, even when I'm not hard at work on this show. And he did a Maker Monday of one of my favorites, Shane Sibert. And now, I do not have a Shane Sibert knife, which makes me sad. I really should. I don't even have an Adamas, which is one of his more pedestrian, if we will, because he's done a lot. His work is so worth following on Instagram. His custom knives are just luscious, beautiful, tactical fixed blades and folders. But then he's done some really excellent collaborations like the Adamas with Benchmade, so check it out. Maker Monday, every Monday Jim puts out a really cool article on one of our favorite makers. He also does the Friday Funnies—catching a theme here—he also does, we've been doing this, a 250th anniversary series, which is also very cool, The American Edge. So go check that out on Patreon. Quickest way to do that is go to theknifejunkie.com/patreon or scan the QR code on your screen. Do a one year at once, buy one year at once, if you will support me for an entire year at once, you save 12%, and that's a great deal. So go to theknifejunkie.com/patreon.

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Bob: Okay, first up in Knife Life News, Columbia River Knife and Tool, affectionately known as CRKT or Cricket, sometimes people call them. They are celebrating the nearly 30 years of the M16 model knife. Probably, I don't have the information on this, but probably their most-selling knife. Let's just say their most-selling knife. They got a million models of it and everyone has one, and you can buy them anywhere. The beautiful M16, I love it. I love this current version. This is a brand new one you're seeing on screen. That's 8CR14, so a little bit better than 13, MoV blade steel. It comes in that desert tan or black. You've got a compound ground blade with those three Veff serrations. Tom Veff, I believe, really broke out with those serrations through CRKT. This one has—that blade is 3 inches in length and it's got a crossbar lock with a reversible pocket clip at 2.1 ounces, available now, $48 MSRP. And that thing is, if you couldn't tell from the picture, that is a—well, first of all, deep carry pocket clip, which is so much better for this, but that's FRN, and it's very obviously FRN from this picture, and I have nothing against FRN, but that's what it is.

All right, next up, TOPS Badger Creek. This is a Leo Espinoza design. Leo Espinoza, one of the founding members and the current owner of TOPS Knives. This knife apparently was nine years in the making, and this was a design that first surfaced a long time ago but was a back-burner for other designs until they could get back to it. And I think it's super cool. I really like this. This has a 6-inch rather swashbuckling clip point blade, if I do say so myself, to quote myself, "swashbuckling". It looks kind of like a pirate knife, and that is quoting Mr. Schwarz, Ben Schwarz. But anyway, very much looks like a pirate knife. N690Co for that corrosion resistance, it's 3/16ths of an inch thick, so pretty, you know, pretty stout and sturdy. Canvas Micarta handle, very, very ergonomic. It reminds me a little bit of the neck knife I have from them. Kydex sheath with a dangler. Not so fond of the dangler, but I don't know, if you're getting in and out of a four-wheeler or a tractor or whatever, a truck, I guess it's pretty handy. 15.4 ounces with the sheath. I like that they have their weight with the sheath because who's not carrying it that way? Available now for $300 MSRP. I'm sure you can get that for slightly less at one of our favorite purveyors.

All right, next, another beautiful fixed blade knife, this time from We Knife of all companies. Now, We Knife, we don't know them really that well for their fixed blades, but Civivi, their sort of—well, their younger brother, we'll call them, have really been on a fixed-blade tear this year. So We Knife and that whole conglomerate coming together with some cool fixed blades. This one's a really nice straight back design. This is an in-house design, 3.45 inches, smaller than I expected, but then I compared it to the handle and, yeah, that makes sense. So about 3.5 inches, this time S35VN. We is a very, very big M390 and sometimes 20CV company, but to see S35VN is pretty different. Makes sense, it's a little bit tougher for a sort of fixed—for this sort of fixed blade. You've got two runs of jimping on the spine, one closer to the tip, one back for the thumb, full tang with carbon fiber scales. This here, these are copper foil carbon fiber scales, and then they always come with that giant goofy lanyard. I mean, I appreciate it, We, Civivi, and Sencut, I appreciate it, but those big lanyards are kind of weird. Anyway, Kydex sheath with a Tech-Lock-like belt attachment, it's a Terzuola Tech-Lock style thing, and available soon, 4.5 ounces with no sheath, and that is—it does come with the Kydex sheath, but that 4.5 ounces is without the sheath. Really nice-looking package right there, available soon, $254 MSRP. I don't know why that was exhausting.

Okay, last up, Civivi High Graph. This is one of the Civivi fixed blades I was just talking about, here before mentioned. I am calling this a nice little, sweet little bird and trout knife, because that's what it reminds me of. This is designed by Matt Gentry, and it's part of their mid-year fixed blade blitz. So this is a 3-inch drop point, very handsome-looking knife, just look at that profile. But also a bit down to business, wouldn't you say? You could use this for self-defense if you needed to. Two runs of jimping on this. I say it's a bird and trout style knife because you have a full-size handle there, in this shot here, beautiful green Micarta, but you have a full-size grip with a smaller 3-inch blade, so to me, that reminds me of a bird and trout. With a Kydex sheath and that same Tech-Lock, comes in orange G10 or contoured Micarta, green Micarta, 2.74 ounces without the sheath, available soon for 63 bucks. So check that out. Matt Gentry, he did the Gander; that was a cool knife, I really like that. So some very cool stuff, always great knives coming out on the market now, like every week. We're living in a golden age, people, we're living in a golden age. Okay, still to come, we're going to check out some of the new knives I got here, a couple of Spydercos, Fisher Blades, and new Jack Wolf Knives. But before that, we're going to check out the Kephart knife.

Announcer: You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. Here's some cool knife history with the Knife Junkie's The First Tool.

Bob: There are knives that look like legends, and then there are knives that quietly become legends. The Kephart knife is not flashy; at first glance, it can almost seem a little plain, like something you might find resting beside a tin cup, a whetstone, and a half-finished supper in a smoky mountain camp. That's where I wanted to be this weekend, but I wasn't, but that's a different story I'll tell you another time. But this is exactly the point. Horace Kephart was not designing a knife for display; he was thinking about cold hands, wet wood, dull edges, and many, many miles in the woods. He was a writer, outdoorsman, and student of hard-earned woodcraft, and in the early 1900s, he moved into the mountains of western North Carolina, where the wilderness was a strict teacher. There he began making his experience with words, and his book Camping and Woodcraft became a classic because it respected the woods and the absolute power of nature.

Kephart tried plenty of knives: big hunting knives, Bowie-style knives, heavy blades that looked impressive in a catalog but became clumsy around a campfire. He learned that a woodsman knife just needed to work. His ideal blade was thin, broad, pointed, and roughly 4 to 5 inches long—long enough to dress game, short enough to control, and wide enough for slicing, strong enough for green hardwood, yet not so hard it couldn't—that it would chip the first time it struck bone or a knot in wood, he said. It was a knife built around common sense and woodcraft experience. Even the handle abided. Kephart wanted it oval, comfortable, and free of sharp edges, neutral, no guard, just a good camp knife that could be used comfortably for hours. The Kephart was made for the unglamorous work that actually matters: making feather sticks, trimming tent pegs, cutting cords, slicing bacon—sweet, sweet bacon—and peeling potatoes, cleaning fish—also delicious—and just an all-arounder for any woodland outing. Modern bushcraft makers still return to the Kephart pattern because the design never really went out of date. It's simple as a good axe, hard to improve without ruining, and that's what made it work in the first place. In a world full of knives trying to prove something, the Kephart simply does the job.

You like this kind of knife talk? If you like this kind of knife talk, join us on Thursday nights for Thursday Night Knives at 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. We have talked about the Kephart ad nauseam, as well as the Bowie and every other knife over the past eight years we've been doing this. So join us on Thursday Night Knives, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. It's, yeah, I'm talking a lot, but really it's you who are talking because I'm reading your comments and the conversation that's happening between you all in the chat. So join us for Thursday Night Knives, the best night of the week, and the weekend starts there. All right, let's get to the State of the Collection.

Announcer: Adventure delivered. Your monthly subscription for hand-picked outdoor, survival, EDC, and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals: theknifejunkie.com/battlebox.

Bob: Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we've done this show, and so there are a couple of things that to me now feel like part of the collection, and this is one of them, because it is at this point. I've had it for about two and a half weeks or so. I got this from my good friend Shane of Edgey American Blade Works. He heard me talk about how I wanted to—I was about to buy a lightweight version of this with the BD1 steel, I think it was, and he says, "Wait, I have a Crucarta version." He gave me a great deal, and I've been carrying this thing nearly religiously. I absolutely love it. This one, again, in that CruWear steel, CPM-CruWear steel, incredibly sharp. I forgot to ask Shane if he sharpened this himself, but it's just so incredibly sharp. The tip is amazing, it's a little bit over 4 inches in blade length, you've got a 50/50 choil that's very comfortable to use, but you don't need to use it. This is very much walking that self-defense line. This is the largest of the Native series, and I would say the purest and most beautiful expression of the Native series, though I like the Native series in general. So this is an outstanding knife, and this is what really has got me to think about getting the Crucarta version of the Military 2. Wouldn't that be a great pairing? Wouldn't that be nice to have them both matchy-matchy? Yes, it would. All right, I'm going to put these down and show you the next one, which also happens to be a Spyderco. And this one, you know I love Yojimbos, and I love pink and black, and so I got this. This is the Breast Cancer Awareness Sprint Run Yojimbo. This is an exclusive over at Knives Ship Free, S30V blade steel, so kind of the standard blade, so nice. I love the Yojimbo. It's still my favorite of the whole Yojimbo, YoJumbo, Micro Jimbo, and Ronin grouping there. It's still my favorite, just the standard Yojimbo 2, so perfect. The ergonomics are absolutely stellar and perfect. But I love that beautiful hot pink with the black. I'm just a sucker for it. I used to hate pink when I was an art student and a painter, I was just like, "That's just red mixed with white, that's lazy, blah, blah, blah." But then I had girls, and I relented, and now I like pink in certain occasions, like this with black. I just really like the look. And I love the Yojimbo. This is an amazing knife, go check it out, and I highly recommend you go support this cause over there at Knives Ship Free. So this is the Yojimbo.

So, you know, Spyderco heavy, Spyderco heavy, but now we're going to take a turn to a really cool knife from a great company, two brothers whose work I admire a lot, and we're going to be talking again soon at the end of May, and that's the Fisher Brothers. This is the new Fisher Blades Harvey PK. And this, you will notice, is, you know, we were talking before about the new Civivi knife, well, this is also kind of a bird and trout, definitely inspired by that style knife. You've got a smaller blade with a full-size handle. So this is designed by John Fisher. So I've had Chasz on the show, Chasz Fisher, a few times, and Chasz and John a few times. Now, Chasz, I first met him at Blade Show a few years back when he was representing Boker Knives. He left the professional world of knives—he was in that big knife world business, he worked at a number of different companies—he left that and started Fisher Blades. And then shortly after that, which was focused on and is focused on everyday defensive carry blades, but he enlisted his brother John. John became a part of Fisher Blades, I believe that's how it happened, timewise. And John is a custom knife maker, so how about that? Well, one is a magnet in the production world and one of them is a custom maker, they come together, they have a great company, they're interesting guys, and this is one designed by John. This is more of an EDC and all-arounder indoor, outdoor, everyday carry in the pocket fixed blade knife. Harvey of Harvey PK is their grandfather, who has a very—had a very interesting story, and they outline it in some of the material that they put in with their knives. Have I shown this off? Now that I'm talking about it, I feel like I may have, but in any case, I've been carrying this thing a lot, and I really love it. When I first got it, honestly, I was like, "Oh, it's nice, you know, it's nice. But I'll still take the black-coated tanto or the double-edged dagger out with me," but it started going into my pocket more and more, especially first around the house, and then it just started popping into my pocket more and more, and it's become a beloved knife. I love this little thing, the Harvey PK, this little fixed blade. It's not that little, just under 2 inches, but what a great sheath. Yeah, I know now, I know for sure I've shown this off, but that may have been on Thursday Night Knives. Anyway, great knife, check out the Harvey PK from Fisher Blades. They make cool in-pocket sheaths too. Have it too tight, you can tighten and loosen it, was having trouble putting it back in.

All right, last up, and this will launch us into our discussion of Jack Wolf Knives locking knives. Now, I'm going to show you briefly, I'm not going to go into depth about this, but I just received this yesterday, and obviously, this is what inspired this because it is—inspired this whole topic, it is so beautiful. It's like an Art Deco masterpiece, and I'm not sure if it was intended to be so, but look at that. This is the new Feelbetter Jack, a riff on the Feelgood Jack slip-joint, but this is part of the locking, folding family, and that's what we're going to be talking about in just a second. But I wanted to show this off. I'll open it up later and show it off, but look at the beautiful contrast between that bronze—those bronzed bolsters and that blasted dark titanium with the sunburst pattern. And then, and then this, the way the blade looks when it's folded, it's just beautiful. It's beautiful folded—and I thought this about the original Feelgood Jack—and it's also beautiful open, and a great tool. So that is a new one, and we're going to check that one out at the end of the show when we get to the end of this list. But I think it's important now to catalog the folding, locking, flipping, locking knives from Jack Wolf Knives. A lot of folders, they were built on folders, they have some fixed blades but vanishingly few by comparison, but somewhere along the line, they started—they meaning Ben Belkin—started making flipping, locking versions of his classic, now classic, slip-joint knives. So let's start with the first one. The first one, I have three of, and these are from three different runs, and here, I'll show them how they came out.

There we go. All right, so these are the Gunslinger Jacks. This was the first one I got with this beautiful blue and green carbon fiber and the S90V blade steel with the grinder satin, and then came the wooden version with that beautiful—what's it called—Cocobolo wood handle, really, really fine in its production, and then with the hand-rubbed satin running horizontally on the blade as opposed to the grinder satin with the beautiful lines running north to south on the blade, as on the first run. And then the most recent version of this, and I think this wasn't that long ago as I record this, but now I don't remember, but this is the titanium with the cross-hatched covers. I say covers because this does have bolsters and those do fit in there, not scales, they are covers, but these do really emulate the slip-joint versions of these with the long backspacer, it's just like a spring. Now, these are born of the original, and I will only show you one of the Sharpshooter Jacks. The Gunslingers come from the Sharpshooter, and the Sharpshooter was the very first knife that Jack Wolf ever produced, and this is from that run, from that very first run. This has that beautiful blue and black carbon fiber, look at that, so gorgeous. It's like a storm, it's like a storm on a distant planet. But look at how he upsized it. The slip-joint has a 3-inch blade, these have 3.25-inch blades, and they really take advantage of that super ergonomic rifle stock handle, that gunstock handle. Now, where does that come from? Well, here, I'll use this wooden one. If you look at the profile of that, it looks like an old rifle here, like a lever-action rifle, and that looks like the gunstock. Well, that is actually a very comfortable handle for the human hand because you have your forefinger and your middle finger nest right in that front portion, and then the two smaller fingers, your ring finger and your pinky, want a little bit more to grab onto, so it steps up and becomes a little bit larger and it really fills in the grip nicely. I always thought that the gunstock was just sort of a decorative thing until I got this, because this was the first gunstock I ever held that was large enough to get a full four-finger grip on, and I thought, "Oh yeah, I see what that step-up really does." So really excellent ergonomics on the Gunslinger Jack, it doesn't just look cool, it's there for a reason, and this series with the flipping, locking version really takes the cake. So I use the middle finger flick way more than I use the protruding tang for the front flip. You can use your thumb, you can use your forefinger, you can use this reach-around—I love that people call it a reach-around. Not in my day you didn't call it a reach-around, that's for sure. But anyway, a great knife, the Sharpshooter Jack and the Gunslinger Jack, just exceptional and beautiful, and they also make great sounds. Here, let me put one up to the mic for you so you can hear it, let's see, I think this one will do it well. Hear that? Well, anyway, maybe you had to be there in person.

All right, next up, this is one of their straight-edge knives, excuse me, this is the Afterhours Jack, based on the Midnight Jack. So this was the first one, all titanium handle with the DLC coating, and then here we have a really, really, really gorgeous version. I mean, they're both beautiful, and actually, when this—when I got this one, this was the first run, I carried it all the time, I carried it a lot as a primary knife, and I generally don't carry anything this small as a primary knife, but this one definitely, it's like a wicked, wicked razor. But I love this version of it with that sheepfoot blade with the grinder satin, and then you have the antiqued sort of bronze bolster, so beautiful. Again, all of these, every single one of these knives I'm showing you has four or five other—or, I'm sorry, three or four other versions with different materials that came out at the same time, and it was luck of the draw that I got these. Look at that, so beautiful. But this is from a very, very popular knife called the Midnight Jack. So the Afterhours Jack came from the Midnight Jack. And this is my first one, this is in M390, so this is a very early Jack Wolf Knives knife. I don't even think they used M390 for a full year and then they switched to S90V. So this with the M390 and the Micarta, they eschewed Micarta for quite a while, it just wasn't selling, and then people demanded it and they brought it back, as well as they brought out bone, they brought out wood, natural materials that Ben said he wouldn't use because of producing in a foreign land, wasn't sure how it would work out with the humidity differences and temperature differences affect the fit and finish. Well, he finally went for it and, no, they did not, and so everything has worked out, meaning that there are now—there is now a very broad spectrum of materials used for handle covers by Jack Wolf Knives, as well as blade treatments and titanium bolster and steel treatments on the other knives. Other knives meaning the more budget knives, but these are all premium that we're showing here. So this thing is really great. I would not be surprised if he brought back the Afterhours Jack, I think this has been very, very—this was very, very popular when it came out, as is the Midnight Jack, the several times they've brought that out. A very useful blade shape. I keep emphasizing the aesthetics, but I do have to say, they're not just a pretty face, they're super robustly built, the fit and finish is outstanding as you expect from Jack Wolf Knives and I've spoken about here until the end of time, but they are also extremely capable. Where was I going with this? Anyway, they don't just look good, they work great.

All right, next up is my favorite in this whole list, my favorite. And it's the—I want another version of this, come back with this—this is the Diamondback Jack based on the Venom Jack slip-joint, with that beautiful wharncliffe blade with the descending straight edge, just a shearing phenom here. And this one I talk about a lot because I think it looks like a piece of USA World War II kit with that sort of brushed titanium bolster, brushed and acid-wash titanium bolster, and the green Micarta. And then you've got the stonewashing on the full-height hollow ground blade. These are all full-height hollow ground S90V blades for the most part, super incredibly sharp, incredible action. These things are just great, but this one to me is the best, it's my very favorite. And here is my favorite of the slip-joints of all time, I believe, this model and this configuration. So I guess these are my two favorite Jack Wolf Knives of all time, I guess I can definitively say, though it is a very close race, I just love them both so much. This one also looks like an antique, but it looks like a gentleman's folder from a different era to me. You've got that acid stonewash blade, beautifully again full-height hollow ground, super sharp S90V, with a giant sharpening notch, so a long life on this blade if you ever actually need to remove metal and resharpen it, which I don't, I mean, I don't ever foresee that. Really nice blasted, acid-wash titanium triple-fluted bolsters—this one double-fluted—and then it's got this great trapper-style ergonomic handle, so a nice straight back and descend toward the bulbous pommel, just a nice design, just a beautiful, beautiful design that works great as a slip-joint and great as a modern flipping folder. Flipping, and I don't mean that like I'm trying to substitute the F-word, you know what I mean, really nice flipper. But as I must say, I almost always do the middle finger flick with my right hand, left hand I can do more stuff these days.

All right, next up, this one's a beauty as well, this is the Primo Jack. Primo meaning cousin, cousin of what? Cousin of the Big Bro Jack. This is a sort of an analog, a larger analog to that Great Eastern Cutlery 15 I showed before with the sleeveboard pattern handle, but this one is a Barlow with that 1/3 bolster, that bolster that spans 1/3 of the handle, that is a signature Barlow part there, piece, part if you will. You've got triple flute again on the bolster. This one has no shield, though other Barlows by them do have shields and it works, I'm thinking of the Steel series. And then here you've got those beautifully anodized titanium screws with bone, really, really nice. Excellent fit and finish, excellent of course, walk and talk. And then he upscaled it. And look at this thing, it's got—it is the same size as the others, but it seems bigger, it just seems bigger than this. It's not, you'll see in a size-by-size comparison, but something about it just makes it seem bigger. The Primo has that big neutral sleeveboard handle, again triple-fluted bolsters with an acid-washed titanium kit here with a blue sort of bronze clip, and really nice Micarta, kind of a double black Micarta. And again, you've got hand-rubbed satin, horizontally hand-rubbed, you can see that the fuller there is, or that long pull is really nice and sharp, you will always find a little bit of fingernail dust in those pullers, that's kind of gross, but I'm sorry, it happens. For me again, a bolster lock here and a nice robust build. You could see a cowboy, like in a cowboy movie that has anachronistic knife design, which, you know, wouldn't be the first time, you could see a cowboy carrying this, it would fit, definitely. But I love that Barlow bolster effect and the strength that is inherent in it, because I use these to the max, believe it or not, they're not just safe queens—yes they are. Okay, well no, no, I carry them, but I baby them, I must admit.

The next one, this is my second favorite of all of these, and here, I'm just going to put this up to the mic so you can hear it, this has flawless sound. Did you hear that? I'm not sure. Ping, got a nice ping to it, and I don't know what is so satisfying about that, but it's very, very satisfying. This one is the Bionic Jack, and this is the 3.25-inch bladed flipping, locking, bolster-locking version of the Cyborg Jack. The Cyborg Jack, there's also a Mini Cyborg, which is ultra-charming, I did not pull it out for this. But this is one of Ben Belkin's super original designs. Most of his slip-joint designs are modernized takes on classic designs, but this is 100% original with that angular handle. Looks very modern, hence the moniker Cyborg and Bionic Jack, but with that angularity of the handle comes incredible comfort. You wouldn't expect it, but it is a very, very comfortable knife, and then you scale it up and it's even better, and on the Mini, it's super comfortable too, so just a really, really accomplished design. For a slip-joint pattern that never existed before, a really, really accomplished design, and it looks cool. Comfortable in the hand and works great. This is M390, so this is an older one. Full-height hollow grind, he came out with a mini version of this before he came out with this, and so I would say they're due for another full-size slip-joint of this because I think it was pretty damn popular. I love the look of that clip point also, by the way. It has almost a tanto vibe to it, as the kids would say. This again, old with that canvas Micarta, though the canvas is—or the Micarta is making a comeback, this rough canvas, not so much. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful knife, slightly recurved again, for—I say again, I haven't mentioned that this time, but that slight recurve that you see on a lot of traditional style blades, it's there so that you sharpen through it and you'll maintain the shape. So over time, you sharpen through the most-used area, usually it's around the belly, right after a recurve, and so if you sharpen off that belly and it starts as a recurve, you will maintain the shape for longer.

Okay, next one is also seems like a big one, feels big, this is the—I'm not doing well with the left middle finger flick. This is The Benny. A beautiful big clip point and the only model line in Jack Wolf Knives' slip-joints and modern folders like this that aren't full-height hollow ground, this has a saber hollow grind, much like The Benny, or, I'm sorry, Benny's Clip. The slip-joint version from whence it came, really, really nice, this one here, let me just show you, has Kirinite. I have a couple of knives in my Jack Wolf Knives collection that have Kirinite. This beautiful purple to me, it looks like, I don't know, a velvet curtain that would open revealing some sort of a starlet on a stage in the '40s, I don't know, '30s, '20s, I don't know. Something, it's evocative of something, but I love it, that purple, ah, it's beautiful. And Kirinite is a rather pleasing material to hold in hand, it's smooth but grippy, and it's manmade, yet kind of warm, I don't know, I like Kirinite. And I'm really, really happy that Ben has incorporated Kirinite in his traditionals because it is a very traditional folding knife material, so I love it. Here is that again, that sort of, similar to the Cyborg Jack, that sort of Tony Bose clip point. If you don't know the Lanny's Clip, after which Benny's Clip is modeled, is a Tony Bose design, and it works perfectly for a larger locking folder. This thing is, you know, again, I baby them, but you could go to town with this knife, this one especially because of that saber ground hollow grind and a big, big, big generous handle, just a gorgeous knife, and then with this insane carbon fiber, it's just a pleasure to look at, and also the carbon fiber is warm as well. Again, you've got that full-length backspacer as you've seen on all of them so far, that evokes the long spring of the slip-joint, which started the whole thing. Look at how perfectly hafted the blade is with the backspring, perfect, beautiful. And then you fold it, and all Jack Wolf Knives will give you that too, a totally flush backspring at the half-stop.

All right, last up, and then the one I was teasing before, just came in and it's a beauty. Look at that bronze next to the blasted titanium with the slightly purple bronze screws, I mean, this is a really real, real, real subtle beauty. You know, some of these scream beauty, like that purple Kirinite or this carbon fiber, but this is subtle and beautiful. So these titanium covers are blasted and, what do you call it, acid-wash and blasted, and they are nestled in the bronzed titanium frame here that you see, integral bolsters with the frame, ah, so beautiful, liners, not frame, I'm sorry, liners. And then look at that clip, this is a perfect Jack Wolf knife. There are many, or there are, yeah, I should say there are many absolutely gorgeous Jack Wolf Knives, there are a few perfect ones, this one is perfect. If you look at the handle, you can tell it's based on the doctor's knife. Now, the doctor's knife, the story with the doctor's knife was the following, and here is the version it's based on, the Feelgood Jack. A doctor's knife was usually, traditionally, a two-bladed knife, it had a—most often, drop point blade with a long pull and a swedge, and another blade that was not sharpened, it was a paddle, and it looked like a kind of a tongue depressor, squared off at the end. And it was used, and then it had a pommel that was squared off like this, very neutral handle and a pommel squared off onto a flat bottom. And it was used for doctors who did house calls. They would show up, you were ill, so they would pull out a pill, they would open up the blade, the usually drop point blade, they'd cut up the pill, and then they would use the pommel, the flat pommel, to crush up the little pieces of pill and create a powder, and then they would open up that third tool, which is shaped like a squared-off paddle, and use it to scoop and to put it into alcohol or water and stir it up into a tincture. So a very useful tool was the doctor's knife, but also a beautiful pattern resurrected by Ben Belkin of Jack Wolf Knives, and I think brilliantly festooned—festooned isn't the right word, but it sports a quite a beautiful clip point blade—sheepfoot blade rather, which for most of our purposes is the best utility knife, great at shearing, great at cutting and slicing, but man alive, that tip can get incredibly precise. So the Feelgood Jack and the Feelbetter Jack—the Feelbetter Jack is now, well, this is the new knife for May of 2026. So go check it out, I have a feeling these are going to fly off the shelf, people have been asking for a locking version of the Feelgood Jack for a long time, they've also been asking for a second run of the slip-joint, which we haven't seen yet, so this will fly off shelves. It also comes in a nice Kirinite and some carbon fiber, but this, look at that, look at how beautiful that is. You'd be a fool not to buy it yourself. No joking, just kidding.

All right, thank you guys for joining me on this locking Jack Wolf Knives walk down memory lane. I absolutely love what Ben Belkin does, all of his knives, the slip-joints are incredible, but I have to say, I really think what he's done with the crossover between modern and traditional has been exceptional, and this new one, this Feelbetter Jack is—it's almost like a CEO knife, this thing is incredible, go check it out. All right, thanks for joining me, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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