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Announcer [00:00:03]:
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 DeMarco [00:00:16]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition to the show, I welcome back Michael Jarvis of Auxiliary Manufacturing. Michael has always had a career centered around knives, first as a user in professional kitchens, then as a maker in his own custom knife shop. He's known for his award winning EDC and self defense fixed blades, though unsurprisingly, he cut his teeth making culinary knives. His auxiliary manufacturing is introducing a new product line of knives based on a very successful pocket fixed blade he dropped this time last year in 2023. We'll catch up with Mike and find out all about this exciting new direction. But first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification, bell, and download the show to your favorite podcast app.

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Bob DeMarco [00:01:33]:
Michael, welcome back to the show. It's good to see you, sir.

Michael Jarvis [00:01:36]:
Great. Thanks for having me.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:38]:
Always a pleasure. So, I I hinted at it. I hinted at what the knife was, that you are basing this new line on, but I'm I'm just gonna come right out and show the people because they've seen this quite a bit. This is your pocket Bowie that came out last Thanksgiving. I remember I was, overseas, on a on a rare trip to Germany with the family when you emailed me. Do you wanna check this out? And, of course, I hadn't been checking, my emails and such. And when I did,

Bob DeMarco [00:02:06]:
I was like, oh my god.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:07]:
I hope I didn't miss out. I love this thing. So tell us about, what's happening. What's what's new?

Michael Jarvis [00:02:14]:
Well, really, what's happening is the Packet Boy went so well. The coffin handle was super popular. Everybody loved it, so I decided to expand on that, with some no new blade shapes, and the Pocket Boy XL, which is probably one of my favorites from the job. I really took this thing, really stretched it out, extra inch on both ends. This is, very nice, very new. And I definitely kinda went with a Persian vibe on this guy. I'm sure you guys can pick that up. Really excited about it.

Michael Jarvis [00:02:42]:
But, you know, we could talk about the XL all day, but I do have to talk about a million other things, of course. And I'll start showing off blade shapes, you know, whenever you let me, but we can kinda trickle them in also. You know, it's we can't get too far ahead of ourselves, I

Bob DeMarco [00:02:57]:
don't think. Well, yeah. But don't you worry your pretty little head about it. I'll I'll take care of the pacing. Let's just talk about these coffin handle knives because, I I agree. I mean, I agree with everyone else. It feels so good in hand. And and, when I got this last year, I was very, very hot into the Kahl style knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:17]:
And I still love them, but it it was just my jam at the time. And something I loved about this coffin shaped handle immediately is how perfectly versatile it is in in all grips, whether forward, reverse, whether edge in, edge out, even sideways like this if you happen to grab it funky. It feels really, really good. What what inspired the coffin shaped handle, and and what have you been hearing from others?

Michael Jarvis [00:03:45]:
I mean, the coffin shaped handle on a pocket boy was certainly, you know, inspired by the old school bowels with their traditional coffin shapes. And just like a lot of my designs, I always try to kind of add something modern onto a very classic design and, of course, put my twist on it, which is generally a wrap or a textured handle. And, you know, in terms of these little, coffin handles, you know, I will say it kinda got lucky just fitting into a perfect 3 finger grip here and just locking right into the palm. It, you know, it certainly took a little bit of skill to get there, but I I lucked out with having to refine the design for just small amount. And I think maybe made 2 prototypes, and it was just it was ready. I was so happy.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:28]:
That's, like, all creative types, for all creative types, lightning strikes every once in a while. Some sometimes you gotta work real hard and slog through, and there's no guarantee that that slog will will, result in anything, that people want. But it's amazing when lightning strikes and you get something that just just works. And, I personally, as a fan of Bowie knives, think that, jumping off with something classic is, you know, it's a great way to go.

Michael Jarvis [00:05:02]:
Oh, I couldn't agree more, man. You know, it's, well, plus, you know, everybody loves a Bowie knife. I've never met a single person who's like, oh, I just hate that. You know? There's so many great times. I was in Warne Cliffs and everything else. I've yet to meet a person, at least in America, that's just like, oh, I hate Bowie. We might have to move them out of the country if that were the case.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:19]:
Now I have I've met a few people. I I can think of 1 in particular who's very picky about the Bowies he will accept, but, that's about as far as, yeah, as I've heard anyone go, you know, crash talking the Bowie knife. So you do the in this in this case and in the drop we're about to talk about, a number of different handle treatments, and this this was a beefy boy, this first, drop. Tell us about some of the things that are staying the same and then some of the things that are changing on this new drop.

Michael Jarvis [00:05:50]:
Well, a lot of you guys probably knew what happened last year and saw last year's job. It was pretty popular, and it went really good. And so things that are the same, for all the new blade shapes, same 3 16 steel, nice thick piece of steel, same textured handles, same wrap options as well. But for the g ten this year, it will be black only. It was a little too difficult to try to wrangle in all the colors and all the blade shapes at the same time. But other exciting things will also be the pocket bowie slim. A lot of you guys asked about a thinner version. I went ahead and put together a batch with 8 inch steel.

Michael Jarvis [00:06:28]:
They are super slicey comparatively. Gonna be really nice for those guys who like a thinner blade overall, like to be slicing, like to have a little more delicate of a tip. Certainly be mindful of, you know, your more delicate tip, but it's gonna be a great cutter.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:43]:
Hold them up next to each other so we can get a sort of relative idea.

Michael Jarvis [00:06:46]:
Of course. Of course. And, you know, this might seem more drastic to me than it might to you, but this here is almost double this here. You know? A quarter inch would be double this, and this is not too far behind to that 0.187, 0.125. It might not seem like a lot, but in geometry, with the exact same height grind on this thinner steel as on the other pocket bow, you're really gonna see improves cutting performance. It's really gonna be a really, really nice cutting knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:14]:
From a maker's perspective, what's it been like going from, well, I mean, I I have several of your other knives, and you you've used obvious different widths of steel, but what's it like going from something, like the pocket Bowie and then grinding it a certain way, making a a good number of them and then switching it to the thinnest almost by half thinner steel?

Michael Jarvis [00:07:41]:
I have to completely change the process for it. So with the standard pocket Bowie that you're holding and, you know, the spear point, the, leaf blade, and everything else, even on this 8 inch. You know, I do all the grinds the same height. But with this thinner steel and with this thicker steel, the big difference is that I can almost completely grind with thicker steel through suit sheets. So I'm grinding soft steel. It's much, much easier to work with, much more malleable. And this thinner steel, I risk warping if I grind it before heat treatment. So I grind it completely after heat treat.

Michael Jarvis [00:08:17]:
The same with my, pocket rocket, or bottle rocket that you're holding there in the eighth inch steel. You know, anything that's in a thinner steel, I do all the grinding once it's hard. So it is, in a sense, a lot more work even though it's a lot less grinding.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:32]:
Right. Right. And you, I would imagine, the it's less forgiving. It's thinner. It's less forgiving, not only in the heat treat, but also in the grinding process. But I I mean, it it's pretty obvious looking at the way at the grinds on all of your knives. I I'm a huge fan. This is still one of my favorite knives of all time, that you are, pretty adept at the grinding part.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:57]:
So I'm sure going to the thinner steel isn't isn't a big deal, but it seems like it from my perspective. Like, you know, there's gonna be some sort of a learning curve doing that same grind and trying to get the same height of the grind but but going to the thinner, the thinner steel.

Michael Jarvis [00:09:14]:
Absolutely. In my opinion, the thinner the steel and the higher the grind, it becomes more and more difficult to keep a nice, bevel line. Mhmm. So, you know, as we look at like my, Runt XL model, which is 3 32nd steel, super thin, the same thickness I would use for a kitchen knife. And that has a very high, almost full height grind, and I wanna say almost an inch tall. It is really, really difficult to keep those bevels nice and straight and even and everything else on something so thin like that versus that pocket Bowie where the angle's much more, steep or less steep. It's it's much easier to grind, in my opinion, on the thicker steel. It's a lot more forgiving.

Michael Jarvis [00:09:56]:
But with my restaurant background, I'm a sucker for a thin piece of steel. You know? I just we can't beat it.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:02]:
Yeah. So, before we get to the other blade shapes, which we're about to talk about, and the XL, because I wanna talk about the XL. Maybe this is a good time to mention that because there are a variety of other, blades in the coffin series. But, how did you arrive at this shape for the Bowie? You've got a little bit of a recurve, just towards the ricasso, but it's all it's all usable edge here. So it's definitely a recurve. And you got a nice belly. You've got a very long swedge. And, how did you come up with the with this in particular?

Michael Jarvis [00:10:36]:
Truthfully, the first one was much more like this, with a slight, you know, kind of clip, and it was a lot different. It wasn't really didn't have this kind of, built in guard, which does give that little, recurve bit. And the camera is just I wasn't feeling it. It wasn't performing well. The first one doesn't even exist anymore. I tried to regrind it and totally screwed it up. It lives in a scrap bin. But working through the design, you know, I'm not much of a paper artist, so I work way more on steel.

Michael Jarvis [00:11:06]:
And I just kind of plugged away at the knife, and I kinda built the handle much blockier than this and just ground away at the whole thing after the handle was really attached. So I finally got to a point where I was happy, and then started kinda shaping out the blade. And it was a really, I don't even wanna say labor intensive. It was mentally challenging just to, you know, tweak little by little, see what I like, see what I don't like. And like I said, I kinda got lucky on this one, from a design aspect without having to do too much. It kinda just fell into place looking at old designs and kind of mashing some of my current designs and styles up, and you'll certainly see remnants and, lines that follow, some of my other models. And one really important thing that is cohesive in all my designs is I try really hard and force myself to work within the parameters of my tooling. You know? So if I can grind these angles and I can do this kind of grind and, you know, I have a wheel that fits this and I have a wheel that that fits this.

Michael Jarvis [00:12:07]:
So these are the kind of ways I'm gonna try to work it to keep my life as easy as possible. Right. Right. So not only does my creativity go into it, but my restrictions certainly help to play a part in the design as well. Yeah. You know, it's running a business. I can't be hand filing and spending 40 hours to make one single knife while I'm trying to, you know, feed my family and pay a mortgage and so on and so forth.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:30]:
Yeah. It's it's sort of like the, necessities, the mother of invention kinda thing. Or also, you know, I I work in a creative field too. And when, when a lot of restrictions are put on something, it's almost like, okay. I can breathe a sigh of relief and work within these parameters because, if the if if if everything is wide open to you all the time, man, you know, you could do everything and nothing. You know?

Michael Jarvis [00:12:55]:
And you know what a perfect example of that is take when I was taking custom orders, I found it so funny. If I gave everybody just unlimited options, just they could choose anything in the world, it would just they could never choose. You know? I found it much, much easier, and they ended up being much happier in the end when I could be like, okay. You know? Do you want wood? Do you want this? Do you want this? What do you like? Alright. Here's 4 options. 3 options. Let's work with these things and make something you'll like. And we can really trim down the process from the weeks of going back and forth and, you know, trying to figure out the right material to being like, okay.

Michael Jarvis [00:13:30]:
Here's what I'm willing to use. Here's what we like. Here's where that cross section meets.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:34]:
Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:13:34]:
You know, let's figure that out.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:36]:
Yeah. The Venn diagram of custom knife making.

Michael Jarvis [00:13:40]:
Exactly. You know, kind of a nightmare at times.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:43]:
Oh, god. I bet. I bet. I mean, and because we we all know that, knife collectors such my such as myself are are finicky. We have our tastes, and we have our dreams.

Michael Jarvis [00:13:54]:
Oh my god. Wouldn't it be cool to see this in blah blah blah?

Bob DeMarco [00:13:58]:
But one last thing about the shape of the of the pocket Bowie, because we haven't talked too much about it, you and I, about this knife in particular, is, it's a thin line between Bowie and Persian. I say that often because there there are certain, makers, and designers who who kinda flirt with both and sometimes you could call it 1 or the other. And what I like about this is the the dramatic swedge, which kind of, signals Persian a little bit, but you've kept the point centerline. So it's very, it's it's ideal for utility cutting, the kind of stuff we're actually using these knives for. And and also if you do have to, heaven forbid, ever use it as a self defense knife and you need to wanna turn it around or something like that, the point is in a predictable spot. It's not out here somewhere like a Persian would be. So I I yeah. It just a comment.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:55]:
I think it's a thin line between those two blades, and I think you you balance it nicely here with that dramatic kind of upsweep, but it's not putting the point up in the sky somewhere. You know?

Michael Jarvis [00:15:07]:
Actually and I have a couple of comments to make about that. You know, I'll join on forever about things. But, one really important thing about the Swedge and maybe not so important on this one, but on yours. The Swedge is way more functional than on a lot of other knives that I make and probably out there because on a knife that thickness that you have, that 316s, And you'll kinda see it on this guy here, better example because it has this really, thick kind of kick stop almost.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:34]:
Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:15:35]:
How I did that. So what you'll find on that pocket bone is if we don't if we have this nice sludge, let's say we didn't have it, it would have a really big, thick shoulder right here. So if you're cutting inward, you're gonna kinda hit that big, thick shoulder and face resistance. And you will certainly you know, I can't even hide the fact that that will happen on this knife. Certainly would not recommend this so much for self defense, but if you need it, it's there. But this is kind of a good example between the 2. You know, you will meet resistance right here. Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:16:03]:
And also kind of right here with a thinner swedge. If there was no swedge at all, you would certainly need it even more as you move forward. Now touching on the centerline tip thing, you'll see that across the board on all my models. My Pecals, my Pandits, I will always make sure. You know, this is probably the farthest from centerline that I'll get, on this Pocketboy XL because I did wanna keep it a little more upswept following this nice curve, which is follows a 12 inch wheel pretty nicely. All my other designs, my sume, my piranha, everything always keeps a nice centerline tip just so if you ever have to stab, you do have a very predictive you know, you're never gonna be just stuck swiping or striking in one direction. You're always gonna have a nice thrust option, because that is gonna be the most simple self defense technique for anybody to use whether that's my wife, your wife, me, you, some guy who's super well trained. When you're in the heat at the moment, the easiest thing's always gonna be to go like this when fight or flight's taking over.

Michael Jarvis [00:17:06]:
So keeping that is always important, all of my designs. And you'll see on everything I do, there's always gonna be that option.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:13]:
Alright. Well, let's catalog the new, the new blade shapes that are coming out on your coffin. I mean, that's that's the official line, name. Right? The coffin

Michael Jarvis [00:17:23]:
The coffin series. Yeah. I was hoping that you would have your package of it. You could be wearing your coffin series T shirt right now, but you'll have to do it tomorrow. It's okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:32]:
I can't wait. I can't wait. Okay. So let's let's see these new blades.

Michael Jarvis [00:17:36]:
Okay. So, I will show off the blades. We'll talk a little bit about them, of course. I'm sure you'll have some stuff you wanna say. We'll start with my favorite. I really, really love, the XL. It is just it's beefy. It's big.

Michael Jarvis [00:17:49]:
This is not, you know, gonna be a nice concealable in pocket knife like the smaller EDC versions, but I got, you know, a lot of requests. It fills the hand, full 4 finger knife, really, really nice. Same thickness overall, 316 steel, same nice texture, bead blast, the whole works. You'll see I don't know how good I could get this to focus, but really took away all the hot spots on this guy. I mean, everything's got a nice, nice curved bevel all the way around, except for the one place you want it to be sharp, of course, right on the edge there.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:21]:
Nice. So you're talking about, for people who are just listening, you're talking about the very, very nice chamfering on on all of the, 90 degree edges and, yes.

Michael Jarvis [00:18:32]:
Yes. I mean, everywhere. I, I don't remember who told me, but, man, one time I saw a video on Instagram, it must have been 9 years ago, and it was just some old timer saying the only sharp part in your knife should be the edge. Soften all your corners and blah blah blah blah blah. And I was like, oh, well, this guy seems to know what he's talking about. You know, it really it shows who pays attention to the details of making their knives. You know, there's talk you know, Bushcraft knives, sure. You want a 90 degrees fine.

Michael Jarvis [00:18:59]:
That's great. I mean and even with a slightly shank, that's fine. You should have no problem starting to throw a rod. In my opinion, I personally don't. If you do, consider getting stronger. Otherwise, you should be grateful that your knife maker friends are making it so every way you're touching your knife, you are never gonna feel any sort of hot spot, any pain. It makes using a knife for a very long time much, much, much more enjoyable. You're gonna reduce your palaces over time.

Michael Jarvis [00:19:27]:
It's just it makes a big difference in the quality and the feel of any knife in my opinion.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:33]:
Before we go any further, I used to, a long time ago, used to kinda quip when I would hear people talk about, oh, it's uncomfortable in the hand. I'd be, well, this is a knife. Aren't we supposed to be, like, knife guys? Isn't this supposed to be and then, where it really came into into relief for me is, watching, say, Forged in Fire, where where they're where they're swinging these swords and and meeting massive resistance. And after, doing a lot of that myself, realizing, well, you know, if I can't hold the damn thing, what use is it to me? You know, this whole idea about, you know, well, you shouldn't complain about a knife. We're not cream puffs. This is knives we're talking about. But, yeah, it should be totally comfortable and a joy to use for longer than, you know, cutting the thread off of your collar, which being realistic was about as far as my knife usage went to that point. You know? So

Michael Jarvis [00:20:30]:
absolutely. You know, first and foremost, I am happy to sell knives to cream puffs and tough guys alike. I do not discriminate. Everybody is welcome

Bob DeMarco [00:20:50]:
Alright. Let's see, the other blades that are going on, the smaller models here.

Michael Jarvis [00:20:55]:
Of course. Of course. And, you know, I'll go with one of my personal favorites. We'll talk the spear first. I really like the spear. You may recognize it as an exact rip off of the Carl junior blade because that's exactly what it is. Same shape, same size, same everything. Just super handy.

Michael Jarvis [00:21:11]:
You know, it's often, equated to sort of a kiridashi kind of shape. This kind of knocks that kiridashi shape a little bit off kilter in my opinion, but still a crazy, in my opinion, probably the most practical of all of the new blade shapes, you know, because you're gonna get a nice everyday cutter. You're gonna get a nice, fine point blade. It's gonna slice well. You get some nice, rock texture on the top for some indexing and a little bit of, visual texture as well. I think if you're kind of torn, you just want a great every day, all day user knife, this is an excellent solid option, kind of middle of the road across the board.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:48]:
I love the, the you call it rock text texturing. I was I was thinking as I, was looking at I I jotted down file work. It looks like old fashioned jimping or old fashioned file work or just hand file work. I love the way that looks. Can you hold that up a little closer to the camera so we can see the spine of that?

Michael Jarvis [00:22:07]:
Absolutely. I'll do my best to get it in there for you. Oh, yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:11]:
Okay. I see. It's it's sort of a regular almost, almost like the, it's like regular irregular, like the patterning that you carve into the g 10

Michael Jarvis [00:22:21]:
Exactly. Of the handles. And, I mean, it's the same thing. I do it on the exact same tool. It's no different than that. And, you know, for this, otherwise, if I did not do this and you'll see that some of my color models and a couple other things I do as well. It's kinda common on my stuff. Otherwise, you know, it would just be a flat plane with a little bit of.

Michael Jarvis [00:22:38]:
And I just think I could add a little bit more visual texture. And another nice feature of this though is if you are indexing the knife, what you'll know when you get past that and you can't go farther. So if you're doing some nice detail work, you want your finger really close as you're carving or digging something out, you'll always know when you can't go any farther. So it does it is kind of a multipurpose.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:00]:
Alright. So what else? You had a wharncliffe that you were showing, and it's kinda similar but quite different.

Michael Jarvis [00:23:06]:
It is kind of similar but quite different. And please know I am showing them back and forth kind of in the, wrapped version with genuine stingray skins, and all the cord wraps are fully implemented with marine grade resin, rock solid, never going anywhere on there for life. Waterproof, excellent all around knives, but wharncliffe, similar but different. You know, it it's pretty much the same shape overall. Nice swedge on there, but nice straight edge. I think this is gonna be a great working knife overall.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:38]:
I I like that it had well, couple of things. First of all, I see what you mean. The other the spear point is more of a kiridashi because it's got that upward, sloping, blade edge. And this one, the wharncliffe, has the, flat edge kind of, par not parallel. Yeah. It was sort of parallel to the Parallel. In the same line as the bottom part of the handle. So the point is in a different spot.

Michael Jarvis [00:24:04]:
Absolutely. I had one of my buddies tell me that it reminded him of a Cybertruck.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:07]:
Oh, yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:24:08]:
I was a little embarrassed of that.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:10]:
But it's got a, so it's got a, sort of relief, bevel at the very tip. Not bevel, but, you know Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:24:18]:
It's got a nice little oh, so one thing I did do, yes, I did put a nice I'm trying to get this figured out. I'm stuck with this. But yeah, I got a nice deep swedge on there. But one thing I did do, and I'm still trying to put it on a sec, you'll notice there's no grind on the front. Hopefully, you can see that. So it does come to its full thickness at the tip there just because if I did run the swedge all the way down, you see it kind of tapers and stops right there. We could have kept it coming all the way down and turned it and kind of ground down this, but it would leave a really, really thin tip. And, that would certainly take away from me, boasting of this being a great work nut because you can't have a great work knife with a super thin tip.

Michael Jarvis [00:24:53]:
It will just Yeah. It will go awry on you. I promise.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:56]:
Yeah. Yeah. And then you have the leaf shape.

Michael Jarvis [00:25:00]:
The leaf shape is one of my favorites as well. I think it's actually really elegant personally. Really, really nice, just kinda sweeping edge on there. Nice belly that kinda mimics that pocket belly, but a lot less aggressive in the pocket belly.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:15]:
So what do you see But

Michael Jarvis [00:25:16]:
it certainly does. Oh, go ahead, please.

Bob DeMarco [00:25:18]:
Oh, I was gonna say, would you see the you know, you were talking the other 2 as being great work knives. This also seems like a great work knife, but maybe for different kind of, work. This one seems pretty robust, maybe outdoorsy.

Michael Jarvis [00:25:31]:
I think this is certainly a great outdoorsy knife, and I think it's gonna be for people who want something that kind of looks a little less scary. You know? All these knives, they're very pointy. Mhmm. They're very stabby. You know, you could pull this out and build, oh, oh, show me show me. Cut my rope. Do whatever. You know? No one's gonna be particularly alarmed by a big, large, rounded blade.

Michael Jarvis [00:25:49]:
You know, I find that stabby knives are much more scary to people. I should have, you know, when there's colors of the knives, they'll be a lot less scary, even more so. But I do think, you know, this is, an excellent work knife. I sent a couple out. My buddy, Matt Helm, knives, excellent knife designer. Yeah. Absolutely fell in love with this. And it then kind of came about that is very similar to his dog bone model that he does with Dauntless.

Michael Jarvis [00:26:15]:
Very similar overall. Really cool shape. I think I was probably partially inspired by that, because I'm just a big fan of his and Dauntless and the stuff that they make. And, you know, I can't help but be inspired by the things I see and enjoy and, hopefully, they feel honored that I took some inspiration away from those.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:34]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean okay. So you got you've got the 3 different new blade shapes plus the Bowie shape, and then you have the 2 different handle treatments. You you mentioned, briefly the wrapping, and the and the genuine ray skin underneath. Also, you you mentioned how you're going, only black with the handles. I I gotta say, I'm I'm liking the look of these. I I mean, I love that.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:00]:
I love the colorfulness of this. I also have the, broadhead. Is that what you call this?

Michael Jarvis [00:27:06]:
That is the broadhead. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:07]:
The broadhead with this crazy cool,

Michael Jarvis [00:27:09]:
It was super bright. Yeah. Yeah. That was like a cam like a camo g 10 or a forged g 10 or something.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:17]:
I I love the looks of these, but something about the all black, I mean, that that it and just to, accentuate that, you've been doing, like, some really killer photography, of this new line. I I I think you are really good at rolling stuff out. Like, this coffin drop seems to be a a really well conceived and, controlled release in a way. It seems like everything's in place, including this really, really great photography that you're featuring. Tell us about that. I mean, this is a this is a this is like a rollout from a bigger company.

Michael Jarvis [00:28:01]:
There is a secret to my success. And I will say I do have some of the skills to pay the bills, but teamwork does make the dream work. And I am certainly not doing any of this by myself. All the photography is being done by, Swedge Media. Really good friends of mine. Look up these dudes if you have not already. If you are a maker and you wanna step your game up, check out Swedge Media. They have tons of experience.

Michael Jarvis [00:28:26]:
They not only work with me, Doughboy Blades, they've done work with Benchmade, Reef Knives. They both were employed by Blade HQ previously. They have a ton of experience and are offering some really great options for smaller companies like me to do just like you said and make things appear very professional. Again, I am just me making the noise. I got my wife and doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes and coming into the shop to help as I need it. I got Sweds Media on the team helping do things, and, you know, I got some influencers like you and a few other great people helping me out. But I certainly could not be rolling out this drop the way I am without the help of everybody. It is it would be so much more difficult to do single handedly.

Michael Jarvis [00:29:13]:
I just I can't dedicate myself to making the knives and to learn how to take a picture, unfortunately.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:18]:
Right. Right. And marketing and all that, but it seems to be it seems to really come together. You mentioned Swedge Media, and first of all, I love the name. You know exactly what you're getting with a name like that, but

Michael Jarvis [00:29:29]:
Exactly.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:30]:
They, okay. Everyone one of everyone's favorite, knife photographers, and there are some very talented knife photographers. He's you see them set up shop at Blade Show. It's it's impressive. But Of course. We all know Sharpe by Coop, and, he he he does beautiful, excellent work, but it's different. It's different, and and this is he's a great guy, and his work is fantastic. To me, that's like, museum, archiving.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:58]:
Like, I wanna archive this knife I've made and, you know the way, Swedge Media and Auxiliary Manufacturing has come together as much more like a campaign. The the artwork is much more like, I've seen a number of different versions of the pictures and, I don't know. Just seems like a a real campaign and I'm impressed by it.

Michael Jarvis [00:30:21]:
This I mean, Swedge Media is for the next generation. You know? Sharpe Koop and everybody else that does the photos at Boatscher, they're amazing. They're incredible photographers, and they're catering, to the audience they've been catering to for a very long time, but there's there's so many new knife makers that are looking for some help. And guys like this don't really you know, guys like Sledge, they didn't really exist. Previously, nobody was offering what they're offering. You know? And, by the way, they are having a Black Friday sale for makers. You wanna give them a try, there's a great chance. I get nothing off point of them.

Michael Jarvis [00:30:58]:
They are just my friends, and I greatly appreciate their help. I wanna see them thrive in the knife world, of course. But, yeah, they have not only a style all their own, but an approach all their own. They really know what they're doing, and they will work with you to present your work in kind of a meld of your brands. That really is just striking. Their photography, you know, it's striking to say the least. You know, it really grabs attention. And even in a world where I'm sadly heavily shadowbanned on Instagram like you probably are and a lot of our nice friends are, their posts helped me to perform exceedingly well.

Michael Jarvis [00:31:36]:
It is refreshing to see, and it shows me that it's worth every penny that I ever paid for their help.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:42]:
Oh, well, so this this all, started or the reason I brought this up was the black on black. Like, they they made it a very exciting look, the way they have captured it and the backgrounds and the way they, you know, have photographed it. But just seeing it in your hand, unvarnished, you know, by awesome photography, they still are striking. I I think that, I I think it's a beautiful look. I I'm particularly fond of the wraps. I love, cord wraps. I don't have any of your cord wraps yet, but Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:32:18]:
Tomorrow, I think. Right?

Bob DeMarco [00:32:19]:
Yeah. I believe it's tomorrow as we record this. So

Michael Jarvis [00:32:23]:
And I do have, one other budget that I don't know if I mentioned or not. And it is I have the rap one with me right now, but I don't know if we talked about the Tanto.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:32]:
Oh, we have not. Look at that.

Michael Jarvis [00:32:34]:
And the Tanto's fun. You know, if you are a hard tip user, the Tanto is for you because then you do get a beefy, flat ground tip on a very nice, hallowed ground bevel, super slicey. I mean, this thing's crazy sharp, wicked thick, wicked beefy tip, beautiful little sludge. I mean, this has just come out to a really nice, compound grind on these. I'm very, very, very happy with the way this grind turns out.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:59]:
Man alive. That is beautiful. I I did not know whether that was because I have come to think of it, I have seen it in the photographs, but I never really studied that transition from the main edge to the tip to see if it was curved or not. And I see it I see I love a hollow ground. Yes.

Michael Jarvis [00:33:16]:
So this is hollow ground, and there is a slight curve on, the tip as well. I don't like a fully flat tip. You'll see it's got a very subtle curve to it. Yeah. But, yes, fully, fully hollowed. It's a hollow 12 inch hollow ground on the wheel and then fully flat tip. It has a really, really nice compound granite. If you guys are American tanto fans, this will be the one for you.

Michael Jarvis [00:33:35]:
I prefer Japanese style tanto. I don't love this hard point here, but I'm a man of the people, so I build the master for you guys, not for me.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:42]:
Man of the people. And and, the the wrap is very apropos on that blade. What's which do you like doing better? I I would imagine g 10 is easier, or less time consuming, but then again, on this one, you were doing, you know, this sort of a compound or, numerous or, what, like, 2 layers of g 10. I think you also had a white and gray on the first run. Oh. That that has to present its own, problems. But tell me about the difference between the handle making the handles and what you like more and why you offer 2 that are so very different.

Michael Jarvis [00:34:23]:
Well, one, I cannot wrap enough knives because I have tennis elbow, so that sucks. No. So working through that, it is what it is. But in reality, not everybody likes the wrap. Not everybody likes the g ten. It's kind of a a bit of something for everybody. The g ten is great. It's attractive.

Michael Jarvis [00:34:42]:
You know, the facets on here, the rock pattern look great. It makes a ton of dust. It keeps me in the shop longer. The nice thing about the wraps is that I get to do them at home. I can watch a movie instead of my couch while I wrap the knives. And really, they are my homework. So in the daytime at the shop, I'll be working on g 10. When I come home, throw a movie on, you know, before and after dinner and work on some reps.

Michael Jarvis [00:35:06]:
And it really helps me break up the work. And, hopefully, I'll have an employee and some shop help, and I can really expand fully on both and have a lot more of both ready all the time. And, honestly, for me, it just came kind of out of necessity. Some folks wanting the g ten, some folks wanting the wrap. And to be truthful with you guys, some folks absolutely hate the wrap. I cannot tell you how many people have been like, oh, this is such a cool knife, but, like, what is this? Is this a prison shank? Why is this odd? They don't they don't understand it. Maybe they've never seen a Japanese knife. Maybe you know, I I don't exactly know what the deal is, but people have been just dumbfounded time and time again by the rap.

Michael Jarvis [00:35:47]:
You know? What it doesn't seem so crazy to me, but what do I know?

Bob DeMarco [00:35:50]:
That's funny. I I am a huge fan of the rap. I love I love jute chord rap. I love all all sorts of the only thing I don't like is, paracord. You know? Kind of the first raps we ever saw, on Yeah. Modern tactical not I'm not a big fan of that, but, I love that. And and one of the reasons I you asked me very generously which handle type I wanted, and I jumped on the wrap, a, because I think they're beautiful, and and that is a huge part to me, how how something looks. But they feel great in hand, and they offer such amazing grip.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:28]:
This kind of tsukamaki or Japanese style wrap offers such amazing grip, that people might not realize until they hold it in their hands, you know, that those alternating little peaks and valleys and then feeling the, the texture of the ray skin through it. I mean, there's a reason why samurai did that. It it wasn't just to look cool. But, also, I intend to carry the, the XL, Bowie. Are you calling it the XL Pocket Bowie or just the XL Bowie? I was

Michael Jarvis [00:36:58]:
calling it the Pocket Bowie XL.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:59]:
The Pocket Bowie XL. I I intend to carry it in my waistband, and the thinner, the better.

Michael Jarvis [00:37:05]:
Fun for you. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:06]:
The thinner, the better. You know what I mean? Up against my skin like that. So, I'm I'm absolutely looking forward to that on on a bunch of different levels.

Michael Jarvis [00:37:15]:
Yeah. And, you know, what you like you mentioned, the, oh, it's very grippy. You know? And in theory, it actually very closely mimics, the way that this texture works. You know? It's got its peaks and valleys. It's got its highs and lows, its places to grip. While this is bead blasted for extra texture, the physical texture on this cordage that has been impregnated with resin is offers kind of that same bead blasted feel. So they are both extremely, extremely grippy on that front.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:47]:
So, we've talked a lot about blades. We've talked a lot about the handles, but I wanna I wanna mention, this knife. Yes. And I keep forgetting what it's called because I called it the pocket rocket. That's a that's that's someone else's knife.

Michael Jarvis [00:38:02]:
No. That's my knife too. I have the pocket rocket and the bottle rocket. You are having the bottle rocket. This is

Bob DeMarco [00:38:07]:
the bottle rocket. I Yes. Ever since I bought this knife, I I talk ad nauseam about it when I talk about it on the show for its incredible grip. I love the octagonal cross section of this. Oh. Oh, that is that the Oh,

Michael Jarvis [00:38:23]:
the Pocket Rocket. Pocket Rocket. That is sweet.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:27]:
Yeah. Might have to get one of those too. But but I will say. This,

Michael Jarvis [00:38:31]:
Exciting times. Oh, yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:34]:
Just the way no matter how you grab it, you know, it might be at a 45 degree angle accidentally. It might be flat across your hand. It might be in a perfect grip. No matter how you grab this knife, forward or reverse, your fingers land in in one of these swells here and it just, feels so good. I love this handle design. Was this something that you just stumbled upon or, because this doesn't seem like it would be the same if it were wrapped, for instance.

Michael Jarvis [00:39:06]:
I did a few wrapped. It takes away a lot of the aesthetic and a lot of the feel, in my opinion. There's maybe 20 wrapped ones floating around handmade, and there's probably 500 or so of those, bottle rockets. And I have quite a few in my drawer here, but I'll hold one up too just so we can all take a look at them. And so these, I actually do not make these anymore. Oh. Yes. Fun story.

Michael Jarvis [00:39:31]:
They will be available, but not handmade by me. I I have licensed this design, so you will see it, coming out with a major manufacturer next year. Gonna be readily available, budget friendly, very exciting stuff. I can't say who yet, but everybody likes this company. They are one of the best out, so I'm very excited about it.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:50]:
Wow. Congratulations. That's, that's that's awesome. That'll be, what Bob Kerzuola calls mailbox money. You know? Like

Michael Jarvis [00:39:58]:
Yes. And, not the first mail that is the first of a couple coming in. That is the one I can't talk about as much, but already available, guys. I have, folding knife out with Shieldon as well. Mhmm. The Rev folder. I believe it's an airborne shield on website. Right now, they did a small, Black Friday release.

Michael Jarvis [00:40:17]:
Yep. And then shortly, it'll be Amazon. Oh, nice. Super cool knife. Yeah. All time handle, front flipper, very cool knife. I worked with the guys at DC Blades, to help bring that into a fuller life. And, we we showed it to Shiel Dunn.

Michael Jarvis [00:40:33]:
They loved it, and it just kinda kick started into production. So I'm really happy to see it coming out.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:38]:
That that I gotta say first of all, I ordered one because Justin, Carvin of, DC Blades, and he works with the gentleman from Old Squirrel Knives, and I can't remember his

Michael Jarvis [00:40:48]:
name. Chris.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:48]:
Chris. He just posted that on his, Instagram, and I've always had my eye on that rev, and it looks beautiful. It's one of the few few cases where the Ultom is just it's it looks perfect with the black blade. It reminds me of a of an auxiliary manufacturing knife, maybe the Carl or something, but it's a straight bladed Pakal that you could very, very just easily use as a regular EDC all day long. But there's a slight, you know, a subtle curve to the back of the handle that makes you wanna hold it in reverse grip, if need be. That is a gorgeous knife. Yeah. Very cool and,

Michael Jarvis [00:41:29]:
And fun fun fact, I do make I do make a Rev fixed blade, although they are far and few between at times. And, of course, it is called the Rev because it's a reverse belt knife. Most people don't actually know this part. If you flipped the rev over, it would be the blank of my model called the KTK, the Quaken type knife. And so, you know, I just made one backwards. I was like, I'll just call it the Rev, whatever. And it has, become pretty popular. I don't make a ton of them, kind of a specialty thing.

Michael Jarvis [00:42:03]:
And we may see a fixed blade version coming out, licensed as well. I'm very I'm really working hard at these blade shows, man. You know? They're poking the bear with all these bigger companies. Oh,

Bob DeMarco [00:42:12]:
yeah. Gotta poke the bear. Oh, I mean, your your your table and your wife is awesome too. Your table you go up to your table and, it's you have a beautiful setup. You have the amazing knives, and you do a really great job of pressing the flesh and, you know, working the crowd, and, that is totally essential. I mean, we talk about that a lot here. You can't just go and show your stuff and expect it to sell itself. Important.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:41]:
Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:42:42]:
I mean, I see people every year, you know, frumpy faced at their table on day 2 because they didn't make a single sale on day 1, and they're like, well, Joe, man. How you doing? How's it going? Oh, blah blah blah. And, like, you know, what can I say? You know, I can't tell them, you know, smile and maybe you're so nice. Be a nice guy. Tell a joke and that people wanna hang out on your table, but it goes a long way. You know? Have fun. Make jokes.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:05]:
Send a

Michael Jarvis [00:43:06]:
little whiskey, maybe. Yeah. Yes. Every time. I almost never sit down. You'll see me all day long. I would be as soon as you walk up to my table, if you look at any of my knives, I'm immediately gonna greet you and tell you to pick up anything you want. And then as soon as you do, I will dive right into my spiel, tell you all the little fun facts, little tidbits Yeah.

Michael Jarvis [00:43:26]:
Cracking the joke here and there. You know? They're saying something probably that sounds stupid. It's very humanizing to be stupid. Trust me, guys. It's so weird. But it works great. You know, just be yourself. Talk to people.

Michael Jarvis [00:43:39]:
Tell people what your goals are. They're like, man, this knife would look so cool on your belt. Ask them what they're looking for. Ask them what they're into. Ask them why they're at the show. Just talk, meet people, you know? Make sure that when they come next year, they remember talking to you the year before. Yep. You know, building a rapport with people goes so far because they will be excited to see you

Bob DeMarco [00:43:59]:
again. And even if they don't buy a knife, you can get really valuable intel that way. You know, someone might just be like, I like this guy.

Michael Jarvis [00:44:06]:
A 100%.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:06]:
I can't stand his knives, but I like this dude. And you could you could probably learn a lot from from those people too, you know, the ones who love what you're doing and those who maybe don't. But the fact that they're there talking with you, you can you can extract a lot of valuable information, whether or not you're gonna use it, like, you know, or not, you could still, you know, still be right there. Tell me, tell us a little bit about we we've talked about this before on previous shows, but just to just to kind of people haven't listened to those shows yet, which they should definitely go back and do, but give us just a quick and dirty of your process because and I'm I I wanna preface this by saying, I know I know about it, but, it's kind of, I I know machines aren't making these, but your your stuff is so consistent. Tell us how you make them.

Michael Jarvis [00:44:59]:
So the knives are fully handmade. The only thing I, truly outsource is my water jet. I just I could not do what I'm doing without getting the water jet cut by the New Jersey Steelband. They do really great work for me. But aside from that, everything is done in shop. I do strive really hard to have consistency across all of my knives. I want every single one to look like the one before and the one after, for a few reasons. 1, dealers like that and I want dealers to sell my knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:30]:
If

Michael Jarvis [00:45:30]:
they can only take one picture and for a 100 knives, that's great. Same with Sledge Media. If I want them to do my product photography, it's a lot more valuable for me to pay for them to do, you know, pictures of this knife, and then I always make this knife. And the dealers can use the photos. I can use the photos. Everybody else can use the photos.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:50]:
But you were you were mentioning how consistency, not only for dealers, because they wanna take one picture and know that it represents everything they're selling on their site, and also photography,

Michael Jarvis [00:46:02]:
you were saying, as well. And, you know, I talk to guys like Swedge Media, and if I'm having them do my product photography, it's much more worthwhile for me to have them take, you know, pictures of this knife and then I continually offer this knife. You know, it's gonna cost a lot more money, if I wanna pay somebody else to do product photography, you know, to do a bunch of one offs. And that's kind of where a guy like Sharp by Coop comes in, you know, where if you're making a $5,000 knife, have him take the most beautiful photos of your one off knife ever. That's certainly a great way to do it. But back to consistency, you know, everything on my knives, if I can use a jig or a fixture or anything else to ensure that it's the same from every knife to every knife when I'm doing something like 250 knives at a time, which is what I just completed in this last batch. You know, using a jig, using my work rest, making sure, you know, everything is how it should be and consistency. I'm marking all my grinds out in every single knife, my center lines where my swedges need to be, lining the work rest up properly.

Michael Jarvis [00:47:11]:
That really goes a long way in creating continuity from piece to piece and ensuring that there's gonna be that consistency that I'm looking for because it, you know, in my opinion, it really does go a long way, and for customers as well, which I hadn't really mentioned. But, you know, a guy gets a great knife from you, gets a second one. If the knife is not great, he's unlikely to get a third one because, you know, it's gonna be hit or miss.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:34]:
Yeah. Well, you mentioned new New Jersey Steel Baron who's who's, you know, a industry leader, for sure. What what kinda steels do you make these out of?

Michael Jarvis [00:47:46]:
I almost exclusively use AEBL in the shop. I have my heat treat recipe honed in, so well. It performs incredibly. And I've shared this recipe with tons and tons of other makers, and I get nothing but great responses about it. It is so I mean, I did not, like, cook up this recipe. It was passed down to me. Okay. But it performed so well.

Michael Jarvis [00:48:08]:
It makes such a great steel. And I've used some other stuff. You know, I do some high carbons, some ADC r v 2 from time to time, 52100, various Damascuses. I've done some 3Vs. Of course, I like to use some Damasteels and some Damascus from Vegas forged and stuff like that, getting into stainless Damascus. But, you know, it's hard to beat working with the New Jersey Steel Baron because even if there are hiccups that they are from time to time within a small business, it's it's hard to beat the customer service that they offer. There's always someone there to answer the phone. Mhmm.

Michael Jarvis [00:48:40]:
You know? And it's a one stop shop for steel and water jet cutter. You know? Whereas if I wanted to use a local water jetter, I'd still have to order steel from somebody, get it shipped to them, probably freight shipped because it's a big old, you know, sheet of steel, and then go and pick it up. And, you know, the Steel variant has the sheets of steel, but have the water jets. They can cut it. They have the shipping capabilities. So, you know, maybe take 6 to 8 weeks from my order, and then I have all the blanks at my door letting me get ringed, brown and heat treated.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:09]:
Man. Yeah. That's a cool way to go, I gotta say. And and absolutely, in my opinion, at least from, speaking to a lot of knife makers, absolutely necessary. If you're a custom knife maker, a small knife maker, or a company starting out and you want to, be a regular business offering a regular selection of of knives or or a regular supply of 1 knife, to have the consistency, have it water jetted, I I I have a feeling, and I don't hear this too much, actually, but, you know, I'm a purist about certain things like pizza and, you know, certain other things. And I could see a purist knife maker saying, no. It is I said, this is handmade, so every single I have to cut out every and some people love doing that and but seems to me that when you take the step to become, more of a sustainable outfit, you have to do that. And, to me, I almost, almost not require it, but I want that because I do want consistency and I wanna know, that the knife I'm getting the next knife I get from you is gonna look like all the other, you know, bottle rockets, for instance, which leads me to this question.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:27]:
For auxiliary manufacturing, what do you or, like, how do you, what's your catalog? In other words, do you have all of your knives available all the time? And I know that you have a couple that are licensed now that you they're they're in someone else's hands now, but in terms of the ones that you make, how did how does that work? Do you do it in drops? Do you have a regular schedule?

Michael Jarvis [00:50:52]:
I do it in drops. To be truthful, it's kind of it is forced to be based around the shows, because I have to prepare for the Blade shows and the other big shows, and that takes a lot of effort, you know, to have a 100 plus knives for every show, which is what I like to take. And that takes a lot of preparation. So it does. You know? For me, drops you know, I've peppered it in throughout the year. I always have a big product release around December. Like, I do this show like I did last year because wrapping up after Blade Show West in October affords me a few months to just work on one thing, bring my new designs that I've been working on throughout the year to life, and finally launch those. But, you know, everything else, I do drops.

Michael Jarvis [00:51:35]:
I work with tons of dealers, international and domestic. You know, you can find my stuff at Blade HQ, PVK, Smoky Mountain Knife Works, knife ship free. Gonna be knife lounge soon, EDC Max, Mukama overseas, and, a few more. They're all linked on my website if you guys are looking to shop with dealers. And, of course, on my website, I like to do the drops and sell direct to customers as much as I can. But now I make a lot of knives. And, you know, this year, I'm on track to have built a 1,000 knives this year. It's, hard for me to ship physically from my office 1,000 things.

Michael Jarvis [00:52:13]:
It takes a lot of time. And working with the dealers really just, like, lets them do the marketing. It lets them handle a lot of the shipping so I can focus on making them more knives, which is where the water jet is important, you know, because then I can that is the first step into really upping your production as a knife maker. The first thing you can do to hockey production is to move into water jet knives. And you did mention some purists. They certainly exist, you know, and the way I recognized what happened to me was I lived in the water jet. I would never lie about my process. There's zero value in that.

Michael Jarvis [00:52:49]:
You know, I it's supposed to be upfront as possible because you always get caught in your lie and it just screws you over. I will say this. I moved into water jet very upfront about what I was doing. Maybe lost 2% of my customers who are die hard about, like, everything has to be done the hardest way possible. I want it hand sanded, hand shaped, and freehand ground, and this and that. Yeah. Well, you know, that 2% I lost, you know, the 200 knives I made a year pales in comparison to all the customers I gained adding, you know, 800 units I can build additionally a year by streamlining my process and taking the harder parts out. You know? So every year, I'll sit and I'll look at the way I make knives.

Michael Jarvis [00:53:32]:
I'll see where things get bottlenecked the most and I'll figure out how to work my way around that. You know? If it's shaping the knives that takes too long, well, I'll start water jetting them. If it's heat treating the knives that takes too long, you know, either I buy another kiln or I outsource that. Well, outsourcing bit me in the ass, so I got another kiln. You know, either one way or the other, you'll always have to find a new way to grow and there's always gonna be somebody who's not happy about it, but there's 7,000,000,000 potential customers in the world. The one you lose could probably always be replaced by 2 more who are happy to find your product at a more affordable price because it took you less effort.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:12]:
Yeah. And, you know, like like I mentioned, the, collectors are are have their peccadilloes, and, you know, that's that's totally acceptable to me that there are people who are like, no. I kinda want it from the very start. Everyone everything is yeah. I get that, because collectors are kinda weird, and so that's a Absolutely. So I totally get that. It's kinda no skin off your back, and and I'm and I'm sure, no hard feelings, but, you know, it's it's onward and upward. You seem to be a pretty astute businessman.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:47]:
Where'd you get this from?

Michael Jarvis [00:54:49]:
I mean, before I did this, I ran a multimillion dollar 9 seat restaurant in Chicago for many, many years, taught me tons and tons. He taught us stuff about running a lucrative business, you know, between my, director of operations, you know, who was my direct supervisor while I was the GM, and the owner who turned a tiny little bar into a huge monumental cornerstone of the restaurant for many, many years. It was really easy to just pick up stuff and read between the lines. And as long as you were willing to open your eyes and see what was really happening, you know, and want to learn, people wanna teach you what they know. It's it's way, you know I tell people all the time what I wanna do, what I wanna know, you know. I I tell people of these companies. I say, hey. I would love to see this knife in production and I think it would do great for you.

Michael Jarvis [00:55:38]:
I sell a bunch of them. You could sell even more of them if they're lower cost. And then they're like, oh. Well, I guess that is a good idea. You know, sometimes you just gotta say exactly what it is, what you want and people would be like, oh, I can help with that and do this and do that. Whatever the case, it's always been really helpful for me to do that same exact thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:56]:
Oh, man. And working in the restaurant business and in Chicago and, being forward you know, facing the public, I'm sure that's, that taught you a lot of lessons about, you know, selling we're just talking Blade Show. I'm sure you learned a lot, there. It is amazing. I mean, I've had a lot of BS jobs along the way, and I'm not calling that a BS job. But, obviously, that wasn't your calling. This is your calling. But it's amazing what you can learn from whatever you're doing.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:24]:
You know, I've I've I've worked pantry in restaurants. I've I've worked as a, you know, secretary. I've I've learned all sorts of skills doing BS jobs and or jobs that aren't the final job, the job I want. And, yeah, if if you have the right attitude, you you take that with you and, and build it into whatever you're building. You know?

Michael Jarvis [00:56:46]:
Alright. I just wanted to say you're absolutely correct. Everything should and I mean, everything could and should be a learning opportunity. You know? Any experience, whether good or bad, you should certainly be taking something away from it and applying it to how you move forward. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:00]:
Well, I I wanna just go back over the coffin series drop because, we're about to wrap here, but I wanna I wanna leave people with the this taste in their mouth. Tell us again about this series. Let's let's take one last look at the blades and, and maybe what you think, who who the customer is for each blade, if you will.

Michael Jarvis [00:57:23]:
Oh, of course. Of course. So let's start with the Pocketboy XL. Certainly the biggest, baddest of the launch. Coffin, very prominent. Full forefinger grip, very, very nice, long, slender Persian blade. This is gonna be for the guy who already has all his user knives and just wants a big, badass, tactical practical knife to, add to his kit, maybe take out in the field with him, have a little fun. You know, I think this is gonna be for your guy who wants you to see what kind of knife he's carrying.

Michael Jarvis [00:58:01]:
He's not for the concealed person. For the concealed person, maybe for the guy who carries a cymbal stack 9 millimeter as well, I think you're gonna be a pocket really slim sort of fella. You can put this guy in waistband or on waistband or, heck, even, vertical scalp style. Forget it's there until you absolutely need it. And this 8 inch steel with the wrapped version, so so thin, so low profile, would even make an excellent boot knife with the addition of the right, sheath for it. Or maybe even an Alta clip on its, kydex should make it a great deep carry boot knife. If you are hard on your knife tips, if you are just the guy who has to just put your knife through a piece of metal, the Tanto is for you. Very forgiving tip.

Michael Jarvis [00:58:47]:
You're not gonna break this one. Super slicey hollow grind edge. Gonna do all your cutting. Be really nice, really, really slicey. But again, the tip, it's a bruiser. If you don't treat your stuff well, this is the one for you, 100%. Because if you don't treat your stuff well, I also don't want it coming back for warranty work. We can all just be happier.

Michael Jarvis [00:59:10]:
Also, if you don't treat your stuff well, this guy's pretty beefy too. You'd probably be okay with this. If you're not looking for a self defense blade and you want something that's a nice everyday carry knife, pair this up with a deep carry in pocket sheath from Tailored by Cortez. They'll have Ultacrups. They will also be on my website for the drop. Very, very nice work knife. Head's fully in pocket. You have this much exposed.

Michael Jarvis [00:59:32]:
You're supposed to be sticking out of pocket. You know, it's not excellent for self defense in that carry, but who needs self defense when you have such a cool knife? People will be like, wow. That's cool, man. Where did you get that? I can't even hurt you anymore. Love it. On to the probably most practical utilitarian. We'll talk the spear point here, nice and thin with the wrapped blade or the wrapped handle. Sweep point's gonna give you a very, very nice puncturing blade, but a very nice slicer as well, nice little swoop on the edge.

Michael Jarvis [01:00:01]:
If you're looking for an all around user, this is gonna be your guide. If you're indecisive, I would say buy this one. If you're indecisive and rich, just buy them all. I'll throw in, something extra for you if you buy all 12 models. You don't get extra stuff for nothing. And lastly, the hardest worker in the bunch, the quintessential work knife, the WARN CLIP 3 16 inch AEBL. Very, very nice textured b blasted g ten handle. Again, chancery and rounded at every hot spot.

Michael Jarvis [01:00:37]:
Nice deep tapering sledge to a full, thickness tip. Gonna give you a really, really nice work knife, very nice package overall. All of the coffin series knives, hit my website, auxmfg.com@4 pm Pacific on December 6th, this coming Friday. Christmas is coming. Tell all of your friends, your parents, your grandma, your wife, if you have one, your husband, if you got one, what you want. Link them to our website. Send them countless emails, send them up to my email list. I'll even email them personally to remind them when the knives go by.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:17]:
Oh, man. Okay. So this is why, people say it's not just you're not just buying a knife, you're buying the maker. And, Michael, that was beautiful. I love it. We need to bottle some of this and and get it out to everyone. 4 PM Pacific Standard Time, December 6th, that's a Friday, 2024, if you're listening to this in the future. Who knows? These might be licensed somewhere, or you might just be buying them, from Michael again.

Michael Jarvis [01:01:46]:
I will tell you guys right now, I am working hard on having a production version of the Pocket Bully, self funded, no licensing needed. We will hopefully have a budget version available next year around the $99 retail. Oh, man.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:02]:
Oh, that's a steal. That's awesome. Michael, thank you so much for coming up. Well, you were about to say something and I cut you off. What were you gonna say?

Michael Jarvis [01:02:10]:
Oh, I will just I was just gonna say you will 100% have one in your mailbox when they get to me.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:14]:
Oh, beautiful. Beautiful. And and I will I will sing it from the mountain top. Thank you so much again for coming on the show. It's always a pleasure talking with you, and, you know, thanks to you and your wife for all the work and for contacting, me about this. I'm so excited about this series, and, yeah. Beautifully done, sir.

Michael Jarvis [01:02:32]:
We always appreciate the support, and thank you for having us. Next time, I'll make Anse Day in too, and we'll both be here. Awesome.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:38]:
Alright. Take care, man.

Michael Jarvis [01:02:39]:
Yeah. You too. Have a great night. Thanks.

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Bob DeMarco [01:02:55]:
There he goes, ladies and gentlemen. Michael Jarvis. He just got me so excited, so pumped for this coffin series, more so than when we started this conversation. So definitely keep your eyes peeled. 4 PM Pacific Standard Time on December 6, 2024. Alright. Be sure to join us on Thursday for Thursday night knives. Also, another great interview on, another Sunday and, of course, the Wednesday midweek supplemental.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:21]:
For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time. Don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [01:03:28]:
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