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Transcript: My (Current) Spyderco Collection: The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 675)

Bob: Coming up, a Pattada knife, the new one from Jack Wolf Knives, and we take a look at my full Spyderco collection. 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 was from Walkingman 45. He said, "Lynn Thompson's Cold Steel really was the king of knives and related weapons. Funny that even now he's especially relevant with the bs of fake super steels and high end $800 folding nonsense. Cold Steel is still the best bet." One quick comment on that, I can see where you're coming from, Walkingman. For me, I tend to disagree. Some, some of that $800 folding stuff isn't nonsense, it's handmade custom knives, but I see where you're coming from. When you mention the super steels, you're talking about hype, and Cold Steel, though they hype themselves, is not full of hype. They are full of performance and history of great knives, coming from me, a super fanboy, admittedly.

Second favorite comment was from my buddy, Scab, who says, "Hyped! Love both you guys very much. You're awesome !!" Of course, that's a favorite comment for ego purposes. It's nice to hear that I'm appreciated by someone I appreciate, so there you go. Favorite comments from the week. Thanks very much for watching and listening, and keep leaving those comments, and love to hear from you. All right, that said, 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 Emerson CQC-13. This is a knife I haven't carried in a while. As you know, I'm on a Spyderco tear lately, but this was just calling my name today. I was thinking about Bowies, and this is one of the best folding Bowies I have, and it's wearing custom scales by Tom Engleson. These are natural tan canvas Micarta with some nice knurling. Just a great knife, really sharp and aggressive, and, you know, just something that's hard not to appreciate. And Emerson Knives does a bang up job with their American style blades. Tons and tons of Bowie knives from them. And by the way, if you're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation this year, you can buy an Emerson, one of a few that celebrates it.

All right. Next up, the French Broad Jack from Rosecraft Blades. This is one of their earliest, the slip joints, and one of my favorites, though I have so many now, and they are all, they all look pretty, pretty great, and if the build is anything like these and the few that I have, they're really excellent knives. This one, actually, that said, happens to be a lemon, looking at some of the fitment around the bone and the front bolster, but I don't care, it's my little lemon, and I love this knife. I really just love the dye job on the bone handle, and the Wharncliffe blade is super useful, and quite catching to the eye. You can see from this sharpening notch here that this is a new style slip joint, meaning that stop pin in the internals there between those two liners is what stops the knife in that notch, instead of the kick of the ricasso against the backspring. That's a more traditional style slip joint. Great walk and talk on these knives, just, just great, and Rosecraft has begun to focus exclusively on their slip joints, which I appreciate. They're leaning into their true strength. I was never too much of a fan of their modern folder stuff, for what that is.

All right, on my belt today, I had the NoVA-2 from Hogtooth Knives and me. This is a blade I designed, a Kiridashi blade, to fit Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives, to fit his handle. He's got a bunch of knives with that handle, and two of them are of my design, the Nova 1 and the NoVA-2, and though I love the Nova 1, which is a recurve Bowie recurve clip point, a little bit smaller in blade length than this, this is the one that I always reach for. I just love that blade shape, and something about the ivory and red is just beautiful to me. 154CM deeply hollow ground. This is a prototype. The production run, quote unquote, of 14 or 15 that we did, are slightly different, just ever so slightly, slightly more refined, if you will. But, love that knife.

All right, last up for emotional support, my ESK today was this beauty. I just put the carry method back on. This is the Jed Hornbeak Necromance, one of three, I believe, Necromances he ever made, and just an incredible knife. I want more from this maker. His work is impeccable, his machining is crazy. I don't know if you can see, I feel like you can see just from looking at this, but it is so comfortable in the hand. A fully bred fighting knife. You've got a really nice, almost Tanto profile there, but that long clip is zero ground, so you have a sharp edge on the back. A perfect sharp edge on the back, perfect sharpened swedge, for whatever have you, that you might be doing with a back cut or a control or trap or something like that. Whatever it is, it's just an incredible knife. You've got a near sub-hilt there, with a super ergonomic, almost pistol grip handle, and just an incredible, incredible knife. I highly recommend you save up your ducats and keep your eye on Jed Hornbeak, and grab a knife when they come up, because they're incredible. Every once in a while, you'll find them or a few of them on Arizona Custom Knives, so, if you got the bug, go check it out. Also a great, great sheath here with this cool leather with his beak, his bird skull logo.

All right, that's what I had on me today. Let me know what you guys are carrying. I'm always interested to find out. I had the Emerson CQC-13 , the French Broad Jack from Rosecraft Blades , the NoVA-2 from Hogtooth Knives , and the Necromance from Jed Hornbeak. What were you carrying?

Usually, oh, quite often I'm carrying one of these. One of those or one of their ilk. These are T Kell Knives, and I'm here to tell you we have an incredible 10% off deal with them if you use this coupon code. Go to thenifejunkie.com/tkellknives or put in knifejunkie at checkout and you get 10% off. These things are awesome, and I will just point out the Agent 001, my design with Tim Kell. This, this is my, probably my favorite carry fixed blade, though I have a few. One of them I was just showing you. But I love that double edge, this incredible machining by NCC Blades, Nick Chuprin, and, you know, collaborating on the production of these, just incredible. These all three have these new Battle Lock grips, which are, which are great. Oh no, this is a G10 here. This is the Adversary, this is the Agent 001, this is the Nautilus. It's not the little Nau-, it's the Nautilus, but it's got a full-size blade with a small handle. T Kell Knives definitely specializes in knives that you can actually carry, blade knives, defensive knives, that you can actually carry. And by actually, I mean because the knives and the blades themselves are effective but discreet, as are the sheaths, hiding nicely on the belt line and giving you full capability at a moment's notice. Go check out T Kell Knives at thenifejunkie.com/tkellknives. Use knifejunkie at checkout.

All right, before we move on to Knife Life News, [whistle] got to quit the whistle. I want to show you this American Edge 250. This is a series Jim is working on on our Patreon page , and this is talking about the evolution of the frontier skinner, and what do you know? I have a Spyderco here that kind of matches the setup here. But it goes through the history of the mountain man and the trappers and the kind of knives they were using, and what their purposes were, and the materials and that whole thing. And I love it. I love, read-, this reading, this reminds me a little bit of the movie I love so much, The Revenant, and the book. That's also a great book, I highly recommend you check it out. But I know we're all celebrating America's 250th birthday this summer, so definitely check out Patreon and the series Jim has created, the American Edge 250. We also have knife notes, Maker Monday, today in history, and Friday funnies. Go check it out, and if you're a member, you also get interview exclusives. Every time I interview someone, I do a little bit of extra interviewing, so check it out there. Go to thenifejunkie.com/patreon, scan the QR code on your screen, save 12% off when you join for a year. That's www.thenifejunkie.com/patreon.

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Bob: First up in Knife Life News today is , Civivi. They're often in Knife Life News, I love that. They keep dropping new cool stuff. This new one is from Pete McKinnon of Pete's Pirate Life. Now, going to try and remember, and I won't be able to, but someone on Thursday Night Knives is crazy about this guy's work. He's a photographer and a designer. This is his first knife, it's called the Iron Tide , a very apropos name for Pete's Pirate Life. A 3.24-inch clip point blade of 14C28N, got a nice little swedge there. It's, it's, I would call that a drop with a swedge personally, but, a, no one cares, thumb stud and also a flipper on this beauty. Nice aluminum handle with that fluted machining in there and anodized with a button lock. This is one of the very few Civivi knives that has, A, an right side only pocket clip, but B, that pocket clip is also sculpted, so, and titanium. So, a, an interesting twist on an older recipe here. 3.66 ounces, available soon, MSRP about a hundred bucks.

All right, next from Zero Tolerance. A knife company, I have a solid collection of five ZTs. Got rid of a few in the past and have always liked them. Kind of felt like they fell, kind of felt like they fell off, as I know a lot of us have. Well, they've come back with some pretty cool knives, but this one, in the recent couple of years, they've come back with some pretty sweet knives. This one takes the absolute cake, but unfortunately, you, me, and the hoi polloi will not be getting this sucker because it's 700 bucks. There's a little spoiler for you. But it's to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Zero Tolerance Knives. It's funny, it seems like that's a long time and a little time for ZT. Seems like they've always been around. But it's called the ZT 0020 for the 20th anniversary. So they reached out to Vegas Forge, famous for their beautiful Damascus steels, and got their Lytic, Lytic pattern Damascus, and chief among the steels in that pattern is AEB-L. That's the cutting steel, a cutting stainless in that steel. 3.5 inches. I will try to dis-, I won't even try to describe that. It's kind of a, I don't know what kind of blade that is, but a really, really cool blade. It's evocative of the 777, is that what it was? And, and, and other like Voxnaes knives or something. It looks familiar, but a really, really, really cool blade shape. Tapered, drop with a definite belly and a quite a point. Unique polygonal studs on that for opening. KVT ball bearings, just a beauty. And then you look at the handle, very ergonomic and swoopy. It has, it's anodized black and has all of the hardware hidden, which is cool. It's got the DuraLock, that's their version of the ambidextrous bar lock, and it's got a sculpted clip of the same Damascus steel on the other side. Same Vegas Forge steel on the back. 4.8 ounces. This will be available late summer 2026. As I mentioned, for 700 bucks. So if this is your thing, and man, it could be, for less if it were mine, save up. You know, we don't save up as much as we used to, I feel like. We just kind of buy impulsively. And by we, I guess I'm using the royal we. Um, so I've been teaching my, listening to my own words.

All right, last up here, Kershaw just dropped some new knives for Blade Show, and they look pretty good. I'm going to mention three of them. The first is the Celestian, Celestian, I think it's called. I don't know why that's hard for me to pronounce, but a beautiful-looking EDC here. You've got a 2.7-inch D2 drop point blade with a swedge. It's that sort of signature Kershaw blade look, from the last about 8 years. A contoured G10 looks so comfy in the hand. It's got the crossbar lock and a deep-carry pocket clip that you can, um, switch from side to side, but it doesn't have any, ex-, ext-, it, it, it mounts internally on the liners. The next is the Mini Iridium Fixed Blade. Now, the Iridium is one of my favorite knives from, in, in recent days, period. It rides with me every day in my EDC backpack, I really love that blade. And then they change, and then they added a sheep's foot blade to it, and that sheep's foot blade looks just like this Mini Iridium fixed blade here. So they fixed-blade-atized it, now, and it's 3.1-inch. They call it a Wharncliffe blade, I call it a sheep's foot, made from D2. It's got a full tang and linen Micarta scales, black linen Micarta scales, which is a nice and classy touch. You got a molded sheath on that one. MSRP 83 bucks. And then the last one is the Bel Air XL. This is a flagship for them recently, the Bel Air, and, when they, recently, they, they dropped a version of it with MagnaCut, and what was it? Right there, right there, that Bel Air with the M4 and the 3V steel. Yeah, that, that thing's a beauty. So, Bel Air XL coming out with two new steels here, the M4 and the 3V. The 3V you'll see, or the M4 which you see on camera right now on screen has the flat dark earth, anodized aluminum handle with M4 blade, and the 3V bladed version has OD green, and really, really nice, in addition to the MagnaCut version with beautiful carbon fibers. Now, there's, there's a wide range in the Bel Air XL line up, MSRPs from about 155 to about 225. So, depending on the materials you get. But exciting to see Kershaw, for a while they went, they looked like they were going big box for a while, like SOG, but they, they, they, they came back, and over the past, I don't know how, however many, probably less than 10, more than 5 years, and it's, it's really exciting. Happy to see that. Okay, coming up, we're going to, check out the state of the collection where I have a new Jack Wolf Knife and a Cold Steel Kobun back from Matthew Culbertson, who made it especially potent. We'll take a look at that, but first, let's take a look at the first tool.

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

Bob: On the island of Sardinia, off the west coast of Italy, there's a town called Pattada, and it's famous for a pocket knife that goes by the same name. Now, before I continue, this is a modernized Spyderco version of that knife. Now, for generations, Sardinian shepherds, farmers, hunters, craftsmen, and pretty much everyone, carried a folding knife known as the sa resolza. But the Pattada version, the town of Pattada had their own version, the resolza pattadesa. Excuse the pronunciation. It became the island's most elegant expression of the knife, slim, graceful, and organic in shape. The handle is unexpect-, let's see, its blade is often described as a myrtle leaf, long, narrow with a slight but defined belly before it tapers to a very fine point. A beautiful and practical blade shape and perfect for the small daily tasks that made up life in Sardinia. The handle was unexpectedly ergonomic and on traditional examples made of ram horn. Now, no two pieces of ram horn are exactly alike. They range in color from dark and smoky to blonde and honey colored, making each knife a unique piece. The modern Pattada is often linked to the Bellu brothers, Sardinian makers who helped shape the form between the 19th and 20th centuries. But the story goes further back to a time when the knife was part of daily dress, daily work, and personal identity. A traditional Pattada is usually a friction folder, simple in construction with clean lines and little if any ornamentation. And even today, skilled craftsmen on Sardinia produce them by hand for people to actually use, not just as tourist pieces to bring back to wherever you're coming from. Today, collectors prize the Pattada for its one-of-a-kind variety and because it preserves something rare, a folding knife as cultural symbol, to me, much like Spain's Navaja. And with knife companies like Spyderco and Extrema Ratio producing modern versions of the knife, Pattada is surely to endure for what is a practical, useful, and beautiful pocket knife. And I got to say, I don't carry mine enough, and in doing research for this and looking at the island of Sardinia, it gave me some serious Italian-American pride, and I got to go there one of these days. It's like the Bahamas of the Mediterranean. All right, if you like this kind of talk, join us on Thursday Night Knives every Thursday, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube. Go to thenifejunkie.com/youtube and join us, and you can even come on the show and talk with us live. It's so much fun. All right, coming up, the state of the collection.

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Bob: All right, well first up now, I want to mention, some of the knives you're going to see in the Spyderco line up in a minute , are brand new, so they actually kind of belong in the state of the collection , but, to spare you the, duplication of effort, I'll, I'll show you those in line up with the Spydercos. But I did get a couple of new things here, and the first one just came in, this is from Jack Wolf Knives. This is from their Gateway line up. Now, you know Jack Wolf Knives came out of the gate as a very premium brand and remained so, remains so, but remained premium only for the first, several years. Now they've created, Ben Belkin and Jack Wolf Knives has created a range of product lines, and this is the most affordable of them all. This is from the Gateway line up. And this is the first fixed blade or fix EDC, as they have branded their fixed blades, in the Gateway line up , and it is, it's called the Bison. Great name for a clip point blade, and I really, really like this vibe jute, what do you call that, Micarta? So that's a jute Micarta , really, really nice, beautiful to the eye and feels great to the touch. This, I've tested it, it's polished, you can see it's polished, but when you wet your hands, it really does give you extra grip. I love Micarta in all of its qualities. This is cool in that they maintain the shield from the original design, the original folding design. That's, this is the Barlow version, the Gateway Barlow, you can see the similarities, there's that shield. Same basic blade except the, same length and everything, except the new one has a shorter handle, so it does not have to accommodate the blade in a folding manner, so it doesn't have to have as long a handle. And a big goal of the fix EDC line up for Jack Wolf Knives is to get people who ordinarily care, carry folding knives, even slip joints, to carry a fixed blade, so Ben tries to keep the whole carry package pretty small. This is the first time we're seeing a fixed EDC from Jack Wolf Knives in anything but a leather sheet, this is a really nice Kydex sheath with a very cool clip. And I've, I've seen these clips before, but I'm, I'm actually not sure what they're called, so, or who makes them, but a really nice package here. Go check that out, I'm going to be making a close up video of this, so keep your eyes peeled.

Next up, I sent a knife to Matthew Culbertson, of, well, of Matthew Culbertson. I've been watching him for over a decade on YouTube. He's, he was recently on the show. He is a great guy, really like him and his brother, Austin, who goes by Hisatsu5, and they are just great, great people, and very knowledgeable about knives, knife fighting, and Cold Steel. So, check this out. Matthew Culbertson has created his own serration pattern, and it's a single large scoop, and it is astoundingly effective for such a simple pattern, and it's separated here by, I don't know, I'd say about three quarters of an inch, and, you can send your knives to Matthew to have him do this, and it is, I believe, 10, 10 bucks an inch. I, I will, I will do a close up video of this and tell you his, his very reasonable rate for putting serrations in your blades, but I love the single serration at the tip of the Tanto, that's why I sent him this Kobun. He's been showing off, this serration pattern on various Cold Steel knives he has and showing how effective it is versus non-serrated. So, very excited to, to have this back, and I've been carrying it, I've never, never carried the Kobun before because, frankly, I've never been able to get this AUS-8, on this particular knife, as sharp as, as he's been able to get it. So between those serrations, he put an outstandingly sharp edge, so go check out Matthew Culbertson on YouTube, his brother Hisatsu5, great guys, especially, especially if you love Cold Steel and you love and are interested in knife fighting.

All right, let's get to the Spyderco full collection now. Now, before I get there, [laughter] I want to show you this super cool design that Jim just came up with. Uh, Jim, our merch czar, has been coming up with a whole bunch, he just created a bunch, and you have to check them out. But this one is very near and dear and close to my heart, as you see me sipping on black coffee right now, Coffee, Knives, Repeat. And, besides make lunch for my girls, that's basically my life. No, I'm just kidding, there's a lot more to it. I say that to my darling if she's listening, which, coffee is, I love it, knives, I love it, and I love this design. So, you can get this on a t-shirt, you can get it on, um, an apron, it's grilling season, you know, a tote bag, a coffee mug, any manner or what hat you, and you can represent your love of knives, your fandom for this show, and meet like-minded individuals, and while you do so, you help keep the lights on, thenifejunkie.com/shop.

Spyderco, we all know Spyderco, those weird-looking knives with the holes in the blade. I want to tell you a little bit about how they started, well, a very little bit. If you didn't know, they started out as a sharpening company. It was Sal Glesser and his wife, and they were going from swap meet to swap meet to show to show, whatever kind of industrial or trade shows they could find, knife shows, of course, but they weren't as prevalent as they are today, with their knife sharpening truck and they would sharpen knives. And then they started producing knife sharpeners. You remember the, I still use it and love it, the Tri-Angle Sharpmaker with the triangular-shaped stones, the first sharpening system that I can remember that attempted to keep your blade at a consistent angle when sharpening. Now, the one issue with that is with the consistency of that angle is it relies on your human competency to be able to hold that knife north to south perfectly. Great company, great knives, and then they created the Clipit, their very first knife was the Worker, and they were the first people, the first knife company to create one-handed knife opening with that patented circular opening hole, they were the first people to create the pocket clip, first knife company to popularize and create the pocket clip. And now they're known for their incredible grinds, their adventurousness with super steels, I mean, they experiment with every crazy new steel there is, and they have a couple of test bed models like the Mule and the Paramilitary 2 where they will try all their steel, all the steels. They're known for their amazing grinds and heat treats, so, incredible cutting knives. You need a knife that's not just cool to look at and fidget with, but really, really works well, Spyderco is known for that. They're also known for a wide range of models from the very inexpensive, well, from the inexpensive to the very expensive, and they also manufacture in China, for their very, inexpensive brands, are lines, from China, Taiwan, Seki City, Japan, and Golden, Colorado, and in Italy, so they have a very diversified manufacturing base. And they're also known for their constant quality improvement, they call CQI, where they're constantly updating designs without too much fanfare, and then they have great collaborations with great makers. So, Spyderco is an amazing American company, now, Eric Glesser, son of Sal Glesser, whose maker's mark you've seen on a lot of different knives, he is now running the company and doing a bang up job from what, what it looks like.

All right, let's start with one that means the most to me because just by coincidence, my dad and my brother have the very same knife, just by coincidence, I didn't even tell them to get it, and that's the Spyderco Military , and this is the first one, so, at this point, we can call, we'll just call it the Military , the one that's out currently is the Military 2. This is the knife that when Sal Glesser, 25 years ago or so was asked, if his son were to be sent off to war, what would the folding knife look like that he would design and make for his son, and this is what he came up with. A signature design with a 4-inch, 4.02-inch blade of S30V, nice straight back drop point with the large opening hole and the belly, and an overall curve that really sets that blade up at an angle to cut and to accelerate through material, and then that downward cutting and angle with the with the belly, it's just a very slicey, full flat ground blade, and just a great cutting knife. Robust tip, and then a large handle that you can get a nice grip on, nice saber grip. The one of the Achilles' heels of this design, as it moved through time, was its tip-down-only configuration, and this was one of two knives that I forgave the tip-down-only configuration, it was this and the Socom from Microtech. But they improved it after, at long last, it took a long time for them to get to this, the Paramilitary 2 , shot up to, rocketed up to popularity, to the point where I'm surprised they didn't update the Military sooner and make a Military 2 , but this is the Military 2. It's brand new to me. This is the CruCarta version. I've been a sucker for Cru- CruWear blade steel recently, all of the examples of CruWear I have, which are few and far between, are really, really excellent, and so I just decided to go for it. I also love this handle material, I put a little bit of wax on it, I'm going to continue to wax it, I like it when it looks deep in color. That CruWear blade is frighteningly sharp, I mean, most Spydercos are as they come, but I don't know why, but the CruWear just feels sharper. You're probably like, "Because you spent an extra $30 for it, Bob, that's why it feels sharper." Maybe, maybe, but I love these blades, nice and big. I'm going to leave these out here while I show you my one Paramilitary 2. And this Paramilitary 2 was the first one to, was the first knife with this lock. I, I failed to show you how the, one and the two Military were updated, but I'll show you in a second. So, the Military 2 came along, people went crazy, the Military 1 was pretty nice, but it had a different lock, the Military 2 came out with the compression lock, which, if you don't know, has a tab on the back that locks into a notch in the tang of the blade, and then to close it, you just squeeze that and it is very fidgety, people love it, it became very popular, and now there are versions of it where you can just push a button on this side and you get the same thing. So, or get the same action and the same lock up. The differences here, you can see between the Military and the Military-, Military 2, you can they changed the choil area, so that 50/50 choil became more pronounced and more intentional here, and then they smoothed out the, the, this birds' beak back here, but most importantly, they took away the liner lock and added the compression lock to make this one of the large, largest fidgety blades I own. I really like it, I've only carried it a couple of times, but I'm very, very excited to have it in my line up. I love the Military, go check it out. Paramilitary 2 is great too, but with the Military , I don't need another Paramilitary, I, I just like the size of the big one.

All right, next up is the Native Chief. This one is in CruWear, and it's that CruCarta setup, CruWear and Micarta. A cool thing about Spyderco that I failed to mention before is that they do all manner of sprint runs, sprint runs meaning different versions, different config-, different material configurations of popular knives, and this one is, it's not a sprint run, but this one is a special edition, it's with the CruWear steel, and every time they do CruWear steel, pretty much every time, they use that style handle. So I bought this recently from Edge's American Blade Works, Shane, and I fell in love with it. That's, this is what kick-started this recent Spyderco stage that I'm in. And then I got another, Native Chief from the Salt series. This was a gift, a very generous gift from Jacob Green. Thank you so much, Jacob. You don't know how much this means to me, this and the Bible you sent me means so much, I really, really appreciate it. This is from his own personal collection , and he's doing a culling, which I should probably do at some point, but not of my Spydercos, certainly not of this. This is, will always be in my collection. This is of, in the, from the Salt series , you can tell from that bright yellow FRN , the lack of steel liners, and the MagnaCut steel blade. A great, very capable knife, the XL version of the Native, they're up to the Native 5 and that's when they, after the Native 5, that's when this came out, and then they have the little Native, so another thriving line up of knives, but one of my favorites, I love the size, 4 inches in blade length, and a very stout back lock. By the way, look at that incredible hafting on the back, just, it all looks like one material the way it all fits together, beautifully made in Golden, Colorado, so all the knives so far have been from their Golden, Colorado factory.

All right, next up is the Endura 4 series. So, the first Endura 4 I got was this blue one, got this years ago at this point, this is my painting knife and other household chores, one of my household chores knife, but it, it definitely comes out with when I paint, as you can see, some paint on this handle, and I think it's because of the color, blue, it looks like that, that blue masking tape, so I think I just went for it, for that reason. These are made in Seki City, Japan. The knives from Seki City are impeccable, they're all impeccable. What can I say? I've never gotten a bad Spyderco, I really haven't. But this is, VG-10 blade steel, a great cutting steel, kind of mid, you know, easy to sharpen, takes a great edge, cuts well for a while, and then easy to strop and sharpen back up. Has great stainlessness, stainless qualities, and this blade I've, it's old enough that I can just flick it open with my thumb, not all like you noticed maybe with the with the Native Chief, there's no way I can just flick that open, also the, the geometry is a little different as to where the hole is, but still, this is nice and flickable right now. So, that's the full flat ground version , and then I have the Endura 4 in the Emerson Wave version. This is also a brand new knife, as I talk to you. I did not go to Blade Show this year, due to personal circumstances, but I, I've been making up for it in purchasing a few new knives, and this was one of them. It just was a great price, and I've always wanted one. I, I got it, a Delica version of this for my wife years ago, and I've always sort of coveted it. But that, there's that Emerson Wave, I mean, what an awkward-looking knife, really, I mean, just look at it. But I love it. It's, it's like the ET, you know, lovably ugly, and, but that Emerson Wave works flawlessly. Now they're not calling it the Emerson Wave, I don't think, because the patent on the Emerson Wave has run out, and they have removed the patent details from the clip side of the blade. That's Sal Glesser's maker's mark right there. You've got the FRN handles with the incredible bi-directional texturing. It's really nice for plastic, you know, what, I don't know how else to, to put it, I really like these handles, they feel great, they grip great, they're rounded on the edges, which make them easy to stick in the waistband in the summertime when they might be rubbing up against your skin. I, I don't know, I just love this series of knives, but you can see that it has inset liners with weight relief, so, unlike the Salt series, these do have liners. Now, I'll, I'll bring, I'll leave this out while I show you the Cara Cara 2 , which is about the same size from Byrd Knives. Byrd Knives is Spyderco's Chinese-made budget brand. Now, they have some budget knives made in China that are of the Spyderco brand, but this is just another brand, Byrd, it's got the opening hole that looks kind of like a bird's beak. I don't like that opening hole, I don't like how it looks or feels, but that's just me. I also am not crazy about the handle, it doesn't feel good in the hand, the way they, the way it is, it has that wall around those bi-directional nubens. It's just not very comfortable. But, I bought this as a last ditch self-defense weapon, set it up for reverse grip draw and in, in pickal presentation, as I've seen Scott Babb of Libre Fighting do, I just got it cuz I thought it looked cool and, I carry it occasionally, but it is part of the collection and, and will remain so. So, this is the Endura 4 line up with the Cara Cara 4 for inspiration. Got a pretty nice blade. And those, those serrations are pretty, pretty gnarly.

All right, next up, in the same vein and in the same family is the Delica. This is my Delica 4, with that beautiful purple handle, my daughter's, my daughter got this for me, before my other one was born. She said, "Mommy get daddy a purple knife." Boom. I was like, "I know just the knife." And this for a long time had a nice little gray fob on it, fell off eventually. Sleepy Bear was what that was named by my daughter , so, forever that will be known as Sleepy Bear. A great back pocket knife. I love the Delica. This is a great, great knife, especially for me personally, the way I carry, for the back left pocket, it's light, it's, it fits great, right, right towards the edge of the pocket next to my bandana, can pull it out, easily manipulate it, uh, with the, left hand, which I can't say about all knives, and, it's one of my favorites for that. Uh, I also have the Wharncliffe serrated Delica, which was a gift of a generous listener, and then I got took off the black FRN scales and got these smooth titanium scales from Smoky Mountain Knife Works, and then put a, MXG Gear clip on it. Talk about a great back pocket knife for self-defense, that is just a wicked blade, and here is the first example, I don't have too much in my collection, actually, this is the only one. How is that possible? Okay, this is my, I'm sorry, I was looking over there and it drifted off. This is my only Spydie edge in my collection, that's crazy. I have to fix that, right quick, but, look at that beautiful Wharncliffe blade, 3 inches long with that aggressive Spyderedge serration pattern. And, just a really nice fit, I, I can get a full four-finger grip on it easily, if you, if you have giant mutt-, mitts, this might be a little small for you, um, but this is the Delica 4 line up. Nice lock backs, lock backs are very, very strong, uh, and, and, Spyderco's lock backs are super, they just seem super strong.

Here we go with the Manix 2. This is the Manix 2 Lightweight with a super steel. This is S110V, and man, is it super duper. Now, I, I say that kind of sarcastically because, uh, I got this also from Shane of, of, Edge's American Blade Works, Edge's American Blades. This was a gift from him, and he sent it to me absolutely razor sharp. Uh, I think he had Kyle Conly put an edge on this. It's incredibly sharp already, and S110V is a very, very, uh, robust steel, robust meaning, uh, the edge retention is insane on it, and the work I do is so light with it, that I will probably never have to sharpen it. So, I'm really not seeing how great the steel is, um, except that I don't probably ever have to sharpen it. That was word salad, but I hope you get what I mean. Again, you've got this nice, uh, sort of concentric, multi-textural, uh, multi-, directional texturing here, uh, focusing around that spider. And then something they do that I really appreciate is put the spider or put that little blank spot right where the clip goes, so that you're not totally messing up your pants as it comes in and out. Uh, oftentimes, companies like Cold Steel will have a super tight clip over a very aggressive texture without any sort of flattening or relief like we have here, uh, under that clip at the retention point, so a really nice, uh, consideration there. Here you have something that's very famous with Spydercos, that 50/50 choil, meaning 50% of the choil is blade and 50% of the choil is handle. And if you're wondering what a choil is because you haven't heard that term yet, that's this part right here, gives you a little bit of, uh, area to choke up and get really close to that edge for precision work, whatever that might be. Um, this FRN handle also does not have liners, it is super light, and, but it's not like Bugout light where you feel like you could just crush it. You can make it flex a little tiny bit, but it's, it still feels rigid. This is using a, a ball lo-, wait, is that the ball lock? What is it called, the Ball Bearing Lock. It's similar to a, all right, correct me people, what is this called? I'm, I'm spacing as we speak. Uh, but you pull this back and it interrupts the blade tang, much like a crossbar lock, uh, but, but different. And, uh, it's something that makes this knife very fidgety. This is also a Golden, Colorado production and you can see Eric Glesser's maker's mark on the blade right there, right near Golden, Colorado, USA, Earth.

All right, now we go all the way back in time to one of the first, well, to the very first Spyderco I ever laid eyes on in a bike shop in Philadelphia, and, uh, it was one of the guys working there was carrying this, and, uh, it is, this is the current version of the OG Police model. And pretty much the only difference that I can ascertain is that they tapped it, tapped the handle for four, uh, for four-position clip, so you can have it here, here, here, or here. Uh, originally, the knife was tip-down-only on the right side. Uh, but, you know, years have gone by and they have, uh, listened to the crowd. But, uh, this one I was so excited to finally, finally get in my collection. Full stainless handle, uh, nice and thin, very strong back lock there with the Boye dent. What's that? Um, that is this right here, named after a knife maker, the last name Boye. And then up here, we have the beautiful blade. They're up to the Police model number 4, but this is what it looked like when it first came out with that swedge, that beautiful point, and the full serrated edge. Okay, I was wrong, this is, I, I knew I was wrong as I was saying it, but I couldn't think of how I was wrong. This is a full Spyderedge, as you can see, and it's just like a buzzsaw. It really is, it's incredible. Of course, you're not going to be sawing with this, you're going to be cutting with this, and those, that aggressive pattern will just tear through whatever you're trying to go through. Uh, a really great knife. I, I very much enjoy carrying it because it's large at, uh, 2.0-, uh, 1-, I'm sorry, 4.2 inches in blade length, uh, but it's, it treats relatively light considering it's a steel blade. Also made, er, a steel handle, also made in Seki, Japan, Seki City, Japan, and you can see the impeccable build here with the chamfering and the hafting. It's, it's just beautiful. All right, that's the Spyderco OG version, that's not what they call it, that's what I call it.

The next is the Ulize , and this model is similar in carry profile, uh, to the Police model. And interestingly enough, uh, Ulrich Hennicke, the guy who designed this, um, is a German knife maker and designer, he was a police officer. This is the same size as the Police model basically , so I remember when this came out and it didn't last for long, it was kind of, uh, um, casually lumped in with the Police model. Uh, but it is not an official part of that series. A beautiful recurve blade. I remember when this came out, I gasped. It was 174 bucks, it was the first time I spent that much money on a knife, and I had to have it because it looked so much like a knife I would have designed or maybe even doodled on a page because it reminds me of a Filipino knife, uh, or a Filipino sword, with that beautiful downward-angled recurve and that, uh, leaf-shaped blade, it's just beautiful. Uh, made in Seki, Japan. This one was never, this particular, um, specimen, I always thought was kind of, kind of stiff. But now that I'm older and wiser, I realize this was never meant to flick out. Some of these knives you can, um, break in to flick out, like the Endura, but some are just not meant to, and I think this is one of those. You have that incredible Seki build again, and really nice fitment. This is VG-10, hollow ground and extremely sharp. I don't carry this knife enough. Now that I have this in hand, and now that I'm going through a renewed Spyderco interest, I got to start carrying this again. Kind of a deep cut at this point. Uh, and here's a little, uh, uh, bit of trivia. Ulrich Hennicke designed one of Kizer's most popular knives, the F1. Beautiful knife.

All right, next up is the Spydiechef, but this is no ordinary Spydiechef. This, I had to get a point on this. I, I have trouble with knives that don't have points, um, so, I had a point put on it. I saw a video of a fisherman, some ballsy dude in a kayak, uh, like, it seemed like he was deep sea, he was, he was in the ocean somewhere, uh, fishing, um, and he caught some large something and cut it up with this, he gutted it right there on the boat, which to me, I'm like, "You're going to have sharks, man, all over you." Uh, but he had put a tip on his like so. So I sent this to, uh, the great Mike Emler of Crazy Sharp, and, uh, he took care of the putting a tip on it for me and he gave it a razor sharp, sharp edge. He also, uh, treated the blade a little bit. This has been used, it looks like, to sharpen a blue pencil, uh, somewhat recently. Really nice, blasted titanium. This is one of the Taiwan productions, from the Taiwan factory. Gorgeous titanium, blasted and snail trailed. I love the snail trailing on, on, blasted titanium. The ergonomics of this are outstanding. It's, it's, it's kind of like a Santoku knife, with the, with the original blade shape, and it's set up so that you can, can cut so that the knuckles clear the, uh, clear the cutting board when you're, uh, using it. Also, happens to be great in reverse grip, which is, you know, not really a consideration generally for the Spydiechef, but in this case with the tip, it works great in reverse grip if you needed it. You've got their wire clip, reversible. Wire clip is very serviceable, works, works great. Not a huge fan of it, the way it looks, but that's just an aesthetic thing for me. That's my customized Spydiechef, designed by Marcin Slysz. Uh, I don't know if I propelled that correctly, he is a Polish designer.

Okay, next up is the Sage 2. The Sage series, uh, is a series of knives that pay homage to the innovators of various locking mechanisms. Um, and this is the two, the first one was the liner lock. The Sage 1 is the liner lock, that's Michael Walker, is the guy who invented that. The Sage 2 is the frame lock or the Reeve Integral Lock , uh, first designed by Chris Reeve of Chris Reeve Knives, and then the Sage series continues with different locks invented by different people. Don't ask me to tell you who those people were or what the locks are, but they are all sages of the knife industry, hence Sage. And one of the funny things is, I think the Sage 5 is the compression lock, the lock you see on the Paramilitary 2 , which was, uh, invented by Sal Glesser , so Sal has named himself, and rightly so, a sage of the knife world. You've got that 50/50 choil, uh, it again, a Taichung, Taiwan production, beautiful S30V blade, full flat ground, beautiful leaf shape, um, and then this nice titanium handle. So nice, with the chamfering, and this was, this was one I carried a lot when I first got it for many years in the back pocket, too. Um, 2020, 2014, I got this, uh, Christmas right, right after the birth of my second daughter. I'm on this thing.

All right, next up is the Persian. This is from, this was a gift from my brother, thank you, Vic, for my 42nd birthday. I remember because I cut myself really badly with a different Spyderco on my 42nd birthday. Uh, but this is from the Ethnic series, and it's designed by Ed Schempp. You can see Ed Schempp's maker's mark right there, a, a highly respected knife designer, and he designs really good and competent knives. I just personally have always thought his designs are awkward looking. This in hand is incredible, uh, and I'm, I'm actually talking about his Navaja and his Bowie designs. Uh, but, but this is incredible in hand and that blade is outstanding. Again, full flat ground, uh, this time, VG-10, and you have the Spyderco logo, uh, engraved, and I like that, that's kind of an older school thing there, and with that old school, um, typeface, and then there's the spider. Obviously, a very Persian blade with that up-sweep, but a nice bit of downward angling, so you get a, a very, very aggressive cutting, um, profile, and then a low tip, a low tip. Even though you have that extreme curve, you've got a tip that goes right down the center line basically, or, it, right, right below center line, so a very, very useful tip for such a up-swept blade. That's what I mean by Ed Schempp designs very, very, uh, capable and competent blade designs, um, but that look some what awkward, and I think this also looks somewhat awkward if I'm being honest. Um, you've got a great choke up point there, and I remember, just random little tidbit, I remember when this was the EDC for an entire year of Jeff Blauvelt of Tough Th-, of Tough Knives. Just for what it's worth. Uh, made also in Japan, Seki, Japan, and you've got that great back lock. One-handable like most of these knives, and, um, a great, great great addition.

Also from the from the Ethnic series, the Pattada. As I showed you before, I won't have to talk too much about this, but, uh, the knife of Sardinia, Italy, one of the most beautiful places in the world. I haven't been there personally, but I'd like to be there currently. Uh, a beautiful leaf-shaped blade looks like the myrtle leaf , and then you have a long, uh, traditionally a bone handle, uh, but in this case, obviously, it is contoured G10, so nice. This one is made in Italy, N690CO seems to be the only blade steel they like to use in Italy. Uh, that's not true, but, there's a Sal Glesser maker's mark, so that's his design. Maniago, Italy, very nice liner lock, very simple and beautiful, um, tip of the hat or homage to, to this popular world knife. Uh, I like to look at it in the same bucket as the Navaja. Though the Navaja was a fighting knife and a different style, but it, it's really a folding knife that's a, uh, a cultural symbol. A folding knife that's a cultural symbol, if I didn't say folding, I'm sorry. Okay, so there it is, and you get great action on those bear-, on that, on those washers here. These are all washer knives, by the way. Yes, it's true, you can get smoothness with a washer.

Here we go with the Yojimbo series, the Yojimbo 2. So, here it is, and I'll put it out with its entire family. Here is a very special one because it's a, uh, an exclusive, I don't remember who it, DLT, I think, 20CV blade steel, and full on carbon fiber instead of these layered carbon fiber, with a 4x0, 5x5, yeah, 5x5 Tactical Solutions pocket catch, and, uh, there it is. Oh, and, and, and a Jared Neeve edge, that's right. This is very special. Uh, Golden, Colorado, USA, Earth, you've got Michael Janich, the designer, who is, uh, the founder of Martial Blade Concepts and a world-renowned knife fighter and security expert. I shouldn't say knife fighter, he teaches people how to use knife as self-defense. Um, but he is a huge fan of the Wharncliffe or the straight edge, uh, blade like this with that point. It is excellent for slashing, better than a curved blade, or an upwardly curved blade, because it is constantly digging into the material as you cut into it, much like a hawkbill blade. Um, and then when you get to the tip, it's not glancing away, it's still biting in all the way to the tip. Uh, the, and then the tip down low like that, also, at, is great for thrusting and stabbing. That 4x4, I'm sorry, 5x5 Tactical Solutions pocket catch makes it waveable out of the pocket. This model has the compression lock, so, a very fidgety compression lock, and also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Spydie flick. Uh, that is using the, uh, opposite, the clip-side middle finger to flick open the knife. Uh, that all started with Spyderco's, now you can do that with many, many, many knives. A really nice ergonomic handle, and then this one I have a, uh, MXG Gear clip on it. In that series is the breast cancer awareness, uh, version, also, uh, this one in S30V, and that really nice, uh, and vibrant pink with the black, I love that. And then the yo-, uh, MicroJimbo. This was given to me by Michael Janich, very grateful for that. Uh, a super fidgety blade, and very small. This is one that, uh, I'll, I'll pop in my pocket if I have to go into DC, uh, cuz I think it's legalish there, and this also has the compression lock, making it super fidgety, and, uh, just a great, great little knife. Super utilitarian, I mean, uh, talk about a tiny little self-defense knife that, uh, easily flexes into utility or vice versa, this is the way to go. And then lastly, in the whole thing, and, uh, in the Michael Janich series , is the Yojumbo, and you can tell why it's called that from the size. You've got a 4.1-inch hollow ground S30V blade in this case, you can get it in a couple of different configurations, uh, but just a super wicked self-defense and, and utility blade, but definitely self-defense. This one has been altered a little bit by myself, uh, right here there was a peak much like this in the middle to partition your fingers, I didn't really like that, and since there was no steel liner reaching up into that peak, I just sanded it off, and it's much more comfortable for my hand, personally like this. Uh, that's the only thing I would do with this, uh, different. I love this knife, the Yojumbo, and, uh, let me, let me show you in the, in the main camera just how fidgety, look at this, it just, just drops.

I'm looking forward to my brand new Military 2 getting smooth like this , and, uh, and my brand new breast cancer awareness, uh, knife getting broken in like that, too.

All right, guys. I feel like I've said a lot of words and shown you a lot of Spyderco knives. Uh, this is not the end of the road for the Spydercos, I do have some fixed blades, uh, I will show off at another time, but, uh, you know, this, this has been all about the folders. The innovation, uh, the steels, the grinds, and, uh, the, the very, very collectible nature of Spyderco due to all the different iterations they have of their super useful models. All right, thanks for joining me, uh, and, uh, be sure to join us on Thursday Night Knives as I mentioned, uh, and 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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