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The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
©2023, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
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Transcript

Transcript

[0:00] Coming up, a 9th century Viking sword found in Poland, I get a Mora Companion at long last, and then my favorite knife designer slash makers.
I'm Bob DeMarco, this is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
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.

[0:29] Welcome back to the show i had two favorite comments this past week first uh on my uh full collection video part eight on large fixed blade knives ancient ixl says collecting is one thing using is another have you ever used any knife to take a life the randall model 1 model Model 2 and M16 with the M1 blade are worthwhile knives, better than 8-inch nowadays. I speak from personal experience.
Ancient IXL, no, I have not. I am a collector, and I have not used any of those knives to take a life.
I have a feeling that I'll be pretty adept at it, and I have no doubt that if well-motivated, anything could happen.
And then Eugene Krabs comes on. Always, always good for a smarmy comment on Thursday Night Knives. love the guy.
Eugene says, I collect skulls for the skull throne.
So, uh, we have two different points of view here.
One, you know, pretty serious user in ancient IXL and Eugene Krabs, who's making light.
And I appreciate both of you because if indeed, uh.

[1:40] The 8-inch is nowadays more preferable. Well, I'm glad that there is.
I love all my 8-inch knives for sure, but I don't have any Randall's in that measurement.
Anyway, Ancient IXL and Eugene Krabs, thank you both for watching and commenting.
All right. All that said, gee whiz, let us get to a pocket check.

[2:02] What's in his pocket? Let's find out.

[2:06] Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front right pocket today was the Model 2, the beautiful and accomplished Model 2 from American Blade Works.
You say, why do you say accomplished? We see how it's beautiful.
Well, that might not be the right word, but for the Model 1, Michael Martin, American knife maker out of North Carolina, went through six iterations of the knife, got it in hands of a whole bunch of different people and really learned what a great folding knife is composed made of how it's made and the best way to do it and after six iterations he nailed it and each one of those i had almost every one of those iterations in my hands at one point were amazing but uh six was was the final one and for the model two he just landed right on it what What I mean is he didn't do a whole bunch of versions of this knife.
He sort of designed it and created it.
And it's a titanium liner lock with this beautiful sheep's foot blade.
You can see some of the milling striations there, but you don't feel them.
And it's wickedly sharp.

[3:23] And it's MagnaCut steel, and it's actually one of the finest edges I have on my folders.
I have a lot of big, bulky, hard-to-use folders, but think the edge geometry of the Atom by Three Rivers Manufacturing.
Very thin, very slicey, very capable, and in this beautiful Art Deco package.
I always mention how closed this makes a beautiful knife as well.

[3:53] Yeah. Okay. Next up, in my left pocket, and it's nestled in its beautiful little leather slip here, is the Sharpshooter Jack by Jack Wolf Knives.
This, of course, is the second release of this design.
This was the very first design ever to be released, the Sharpshooter Jack.
This very beautiful and modern created gunstock jack.
Well, in this iteration, you've got five different new treatments in terms of styling.
I love this PVD coated black anodized with the blue Arctic Storm carbon fiber. It's stunning.

[4:40] But you also get on this one a long pull instead of a nail nick.
You get a triple fluted bolster up front And that bolster is a little bit longer than the first one And you get superlative action, I don't know if holding it in front of the mic ever makes a difference But the walk and talk on this is insane I would put this at an 8, In my totally arbitrary range of polls here It's very, very stout a bit stouter even than the original which i also have incidentally in blue carbon fiber this was just released this past friday if you're listening to this uh when when when it drops so on the 20th of i'm sorry the 19th of january 2024 these uh these new sharpshooter jacks were were released you got to check them out two titanium versions uh this blue carbon fiber There's a red, white, and blue kind of 80s carbon fiber.
That's not the 80s. It's a red, white, and blue carbon fiber.
And then there's one last material I can't remember, but it's interesting. It's cool as always.
So go check those out at the Jack Wolf Knives dealers. Jeez.
Let me take one more sip of coffee. That'll help.

[6:08] All right, next. In my waistband was a knife I got at Blade Show this past year, 2023, the absolutely incredible Fire Ant, handmade by Dirk Pinkerton.
It's a triple-edged wharncliffe or reverse tanto, not wharncliffe, triple-edged sheep foot or reverse tanto.

[6:30] I'm starting to see why people say reverse tanto, okay, because this part right here at the, top of the spine is an angle as opposed to a curve a wharncliffe would be a constant curve from the start of the blade to the tip a sheep's foot would come out straight like this and then curve down but here it's a reverse tanto a reverse americanized tanto i'm starting to see the light though i hate the term and i've been complaining about it for years starting to see why people say say that so anyway this i guess i'll say is a reverse tanto triple edged uh black and blue rich light handle um very very thin behind all of these edges except the front one that front one's pretty stout but uh you're getting into anything you want with this uh they made a fire ant version they made a folding version of the fire ant uh over at kaiser a few years back i don't think you can get that anymore uh of course it wasn't triple edged like mine uh but uh always was cool to see the um size differences between the fixed blades that i carry and uh folders that i carry it's pretty often that the fixed blade is smaller than anything else last i'm on my uh well this was in my back pocket most of the day my esk my emotional support knife was the sen cut arc blast.

[7:55] Cool little knife that was sent to me by Sencut last month and totally unexpected and very much appreciated.
Aluminum handle, beautifully anodized here in blue. You can get it in raw sort of silver aluminum, black with a black blade or red with a black blade.

[8:14] Just a great, perfect little button lock.
And I hate to use the word perfect, but for what it is, a little EDC, this is a perfect, perfect little knife.
Because you've got a deeply hollow ground, already thin, but deeply hollow ground, broad, leaf-shaped blade with that tip down low there.
And then you have the thumb stud. You have the flipper tab.
You have the lock itself you can depress to open it up. So it's a fidgeter's daydream.
Fidgeter's daydream here, but very, very sharp. 9 CR 18 MOV blade steel.
Really nicely sculpted and ergonomic handle a great deep carry pocket clip though shiny a little shiny for my taste i always would rather have um a matte matte finish on my clips or a black clip but in any case this that's just because i don't like to attract too much attention because if i get the attention there will be a lot more attention coming after it.

[9:19] So that is the Sencut Arc Blast.
That was my emotional support knife.
Let me know what your emotional support knife is and what it was today.
Not everyone carries four knives on them. Some people, as we know from Thursday Night Knives, carry up to ten knives on them.
I always have a backpack with me that's got knives in there, so I'm never under-knifed. But let me know what you carry.
Put it in the comments below. Let me know what makes you feel.

[9:48] Right. Sometimes just doing this and driving everyone around you crazy makes you feel right.
So let me know what that is. Alright, that is my pocket check and let me know what your pocket check is.
Okay, still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast we're going to take a look at some new knives coming down the pike from some of our favorite manufacturers.

[10:09] Among this week's specials at Knives Ship Free the Krine K9 Model 6 this full tang fixed blade from Krine Knives is built from D2 tool steel and includes a carbon fiber-patterned Bolteron sheath.
And while supplies last, they are specially priced.
The Filoso Dagger Knife by Beg Knives perfectly balances form and function.
It has a comfortable sculpted handle and a double ground blade with three available finishes.
And the newest release from Jack Wolf Knives, the Sharpshooter Jack.
The Sharpshooter Jack is a modern slip joint with hollow ground CPM S90V, unique handle covers, and integral titanium liners and bolsters.
Get these deals and other great specials from our friends at Knives Ship Free.
Just use our affiliate link, thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free.
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Support the show and get a great new knife at the same time.
Thenifejunkie.com slash knives ship free. You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
And now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Just a quick note before we get to Knife Life News. news, I was talking about the Sharpshooter Jack, and I couldn't remember what that fifth configuration was, and then that liner from Kniveship Free reminded me.

[11:23] The last one is a carbon fiber that glows, so it's got glow-in-the-dark elements in the carbon fiber.
A first for Jack Wolf Knives. I love it. That's very cool.
I certainly don't need my knives to glow in the dark, not if it's a quiet storm like this one.

[11:40] All right, putting this down, let's get on to knife-like news.
Speaking of traditional designs and traditional patterns, Boker is coming out with another cool Barlow.
They've had a number of Barlows and Barlow-inspired knives come out over the past couple of years. This one, man, this takes the cake. It's a beauty.
This is a modern tribute to the legendary traditional pattern.
We can see here, just from looking at it, It's, there is a, you've got the traditional sleeve board sort of outline of the handle, and it is titanium.
You've got a faux bolster that extends a third of the length, and then you have this sort of, sort of looks like wood grain, but they're calling it that jig.
It looks like a barn door sort of jigging on the rest of the handle, and then it's got got a minimal flipper tab much like um much like you see on um uh oh wow it's now well much like you see on on the quakens uh the little flipper tab on the quaken before they started making it um themselves people would do their their little uh their little micro um micro tabs anyway please Please forgive that ramble.
But you've got a clip point blade beautifully done here in MagnaCut, 2.56 inches.

[13:07] Very low profile flipper is what I was trying to get at.
You've got a frame lock and a sculpted tie clip. I think this thing is a true winner.
And Vero Designs, that's what I was trying to get at. Vero Engineering uses a lot of those real low profile flippers.
If you're used to them, it's the same thing here. It doesn't protrude from the handle.
It just sits there and waits to be deployed.
So yeah, very cool. This is called the Boker BRLW. So Barlow, you get it.

[13:38] Very excited. All right, next up, this one is really exciting.
So I used to like this knife back in the day and never got it.
And here is a trimmed down version, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for this.
It's the Topps Shadow Hunter, a beautiful little clip point fixed blade knife.
It's got a really wicked profile to me. It's so up my alley.
So it's a clip point buoy.
They're calling it kind of a harpoon. I don't see it. I just see an upswept clip and an upswept spine meeting at a peak, but I don't see a harpoon.
In any case, that's a 4.5-inch 1095 blade with beautiful natural tan micarta on it with the red liners.
But this one was one that they discontinued it in 2008 or something like that, and it was a big chunker. You know how Topps knives used to be blocky.
This was one of those, but it had that general shape.
Really happy to see them bringing this back.
And in this slimmed down version, it's got a taco kydex sheet.
And this might be one that I actually get. I haven't gotten a Topps in a little while.
I'm trying to be a little more disciplined in my purchasing.
But I'm always game for a sweet new QuickPoint Topps.

[15:05] Maybe the Shadowhunter will have a home in my collection. All right, next up to Kershaw.
Their 2024 lineup has been announced, and we're going to talk about a couple of folders, three of the folders here.
The first one is the one we've heard the most about lately.
A lot of our trusted voices love this. And to look at it, I think it's beautiful.
Luckily, it's got a 3-inch blade, blade, which is under my need to get, under, you know, measurement.
Okay, so Bel Air, like the Chevy, 57 Chevy Bel Air. Blade is three inches long.
It's a modified wharncliffe. It is, yes, magnetic. Very cool.
I like that they're doing this.
Duralock, their Duralock is outstanding. outstanding. I have the Kershaw Iridium.
It's one of my favorite knives from 2023, and it has that bar lock of theirs, the Duralock. It's just outstanding.
So this with G10 handle scales and magna cut, I'm sorry, aluminum handle scales, magna cut, and that blade shape, this is definitely intended for the enthusiast class.
I really do hope that they make a larger version of this, I will be 100% all over it.
Let's scroll down to the next knife, which is the Launch 19.
Can you believe that? 19. I have 19 in this lineup of...

[16:30] Out-the-side automatics. This one has a really cool two-piece handle, part aluminum, where the action is happening, and part G10 in the tail end.
You know, they say it's like the mullet, you know, business up front, party in the rear. It's that same sort of effect here.
3.3-inch clip-point blade, kind of a modernized long clip with that weird swedge, a weird but appealing swedge that Kershaw's been doing for the last, I don't know, three or four years.
Interesting stepped spine to the handle whole thing looks extremely comfortable um that's 154 cm blade steel the standard for the um for the launch lineup and then let's go all the way to the bottom uh that where the live wire out the front is here as we scroll by we'll see a bunch of cool looking but um assisted opening knives they're all very nice looking but just not not Not up my alley these days.
But this one, really nice. That's the out the front.
I do not have this and have not experienced it, though I've heard great things about it.

[17:36] This is part of two line extensions.
So the live wire line, that out the front line, is now going to be MagnaCut and carbon fiber. That's going to be an option.
So that's an expansion of that line. And the awesome Iridium that I was just talking about is being reverse tantoized, and I cannot wait for that.
I am already a huge fan of the Iridium, and as I mentioned as I was waxing poetic about this knife, the Pinkerton Fire Ant, I love that reverse tanto shape.
So I will really be looking forward to that and no doubt getting that.
All right, that's it for Kershaw, and that's it for new knives, but I want to show you this.
This is cool. came across this in Knife Magazine, our friends over there, always printing up interesting articles.

[18:29] I say printing up. I rarely get the print version, but the online version is cracking.
Okay, so they found in Poland while they were dredging the largest river in Poland, the Vistula River, probably not pronouncing that correctly, but they were dredging and they found this exceptional example of a 9th or 10th century viking sword and this is one of 170 uh and possibly 100 up to 100 up to possibly 177 but there are definitely 170 swords that are confirmed Confirmed with the Ulfbert Insignia on the sword.
And we've heard about this. We've actually talked about this on the show in the past. They found one a few years back.
I think, in Germany. But if you're watching the show, you can see the small space of the handle where the hand fits in between the quillians and the three-lobed pommel there.
Just a classic Viking sword. That Ulfbert insignia, or designation, I should say, really speaks to the sword's quality and materials.

[19:48] In the day when it came out, that was a maker and then it became more like a um more of a generic term like kleenex after a while oh well this is an ulfberg uh worthy viking sword according to this article uh so i think that's pretty cool uh uh you may know that for vikings swords were not necessarily common or i should say common or viking types did not have swords they used their axes and their and their Yeah, they're axes.
And axes and saxes are scramasaxes.
These big, beautiful swords were more signifiers of wealth and status.

[20:29] So interesting to find that. Always looking forward to seeing.
It seems like every couple of weeks they're finding some cool old sword or hash of ancient weaponry somewhere in the world.

[20:42] All right. right uh let's get on to the state of the collection but before we do i'd like to say if you want to become a part of the knife junkie podcast and help support the show you can do that on patreon we've been giving away some really great knives uh if you if you join up at our highest tier of support the gentleman junkie uh you get entered into a knife uh nicely a monthly knife giveaway and uh let's see we recently gave away a protech malibu donated to the channel by by Northern Knives.
We gave away a Taman XXL, recently donated to us by Off Grid Knives.
We've given away a lot of knives donated to us by This Old Sword, who we all know has an amazing collection.

[21:25] So be sure to check us out on Patreon. Quickest way to do that is to scan the QR code on the screen right here, or go to thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
I'll repeat that very complex address. It's thenifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
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[22:17] And now that we're caught up with Knife Life News, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

[22:22] Okay, so I was just in the country with my family for a long weekend, and I finally got a Mora companion, a Mora knife.
And it's an odd, it's not an odd story at all, but I always thought I would just throw one of these in my Amazon cart one day and just be done with it.
That's how I got my first little red-handled wood Mora.

[22:47] Mora's have never been that compelling to me because I like fighting knives.
But when I found out that they make great, quote-unquote, fighting knives or self-defense knives from the great and powerful Ed Calderon, my interest in them began to peak.
Anyway, we were at an antique fair, one of those indoor places that has numerous different stores.
Very, very cool place. And I walked into a kind of an Army-Navy-like place, and a former Marine working behind the counter had some of the most incredible gas station knives.
And I couldn't bring myself to buy one of those, but he had a few Moras.
And he had those red plastic-handled ones, and then he had the Companion in green, which is what I've always wanted in a Mora.
I don't need anything more than this in my collection than this Mora.
But I'm glad I got it super sharp.
These things are insanely sharp. They just come down to one atom.
You know, it's a Scandinavian grind, which means once the grind starts, it doesn't stop until it hits the other side.
So it's a zero ground bevel.
So yeah, it does get down to one atom thick, right there at the edge. You can quote me on that.

[24:08] This one is stainless steel, so a lot of moras are in high carbon.
This is in stainless, which leads me to believe it's probably in the 12C or 14C family because, well, it's from Sweden and I'm just making assumptions.
A great grippy handle, lots of room to really hold.
I mean, you could use this knife all day long, carving wood and doing whatever you do out at the campsite.
But you could also use it in this reverse grip with the tip down and the edge in and it's very light pretty thin easy to pack everything about this knife is is really great it's a this could be a one fixed blade solution is what i'm getting at and it won't break the bank i spent in person 24 bucks so you buy it online it's going to be even less.

[25:03] That is the Mora Companion, and I'm really psyched to have it.
Oh, by the way, great sheath.
Just a great plastic drop sheath.
It has this little clip, so you can clip it to your sweatpants while you're cruising around the home cleaning. That has never happened here.
Or you can clip it to your pack or just throw it in your bag.
It's a great, great knife.
It would be great in the truck if you have a truck or a car, if you have a car.
Awesome knife. Okay, oh my goodness gracious, Alright, the next one that I do I can't believe I didn't even give to Jim for notes here And I'm ashamed because this one is so cool But you can roll with this This is the new Pinkerton inversion.

[25:51] Dirk Pinkerton has made his first inversion Which was a Pakal style knife inversion, picol style folder and very odd looking to the uninitiated eye made by kaiser um this one i got in a trade with dave i wanted this knife so badly and uh it's got this titanium handle stepped.

[26:13] Terrace texturing and it's got that reverse tanto blade there but he this this went out of print with Kaiser and he wanted to make an inversion, a folding inversion under his own label.
So this was a prototype. I've shown this one off many times, this beautiful green one.
He started experimenting with the blade because he heard from people like Ryan Atkinson or Fieldworks, as you may know him on Instagram.

[26:44] He's been on this show, great guy, a bodyguard to the stars ours for sure right now he's on taylor swift uh detail i believe uh but um he gave back readings that this reverse tanto though very sharp and nasty uh did not penetrate pig carcasses quite as well as something more like this so dirt uh and he asked others like dave and myself and and i also said that i liked this better i believe dave did as well so um he created this, so this is the inversion this was a pre-order that you got on his website and it's finally here and it's so great I don't mean finally like I was like where is it but I was very much looking forward to it now you can see the handle changed a little bit from the Kaiser but is very much the same as this prototype here you've got this very wide chamfering all the way around the periphery of the handle, which makes it very comfortable.
You have an orange peel texture, which is so nice.
I've never had orange peel on anything, and I love this. I love the way it feels and looks.

[27:56] And then, you know, it's got the blade and the blade is S35VN.
He asked what serial number I wanted. I always love the number 44.

[28:05] So serial number 44 on there. Thank you very much, sir.
Frame lock i love that it's a black sculpted clip there's also a deep carry that it ships with a thumb stud instead of that wave opener if you don't want the wave opener and it also comes with a deep carry fold over pocket clip if you don't like this but i love the black first of all the sculpted clip works great um just enough retention um but the black too you're already attracting attention with the silver ring so the black kind of tamps it down a little bit it uh but the ring there it is the ring uh that's the 400 pound gorilla in the room or 800 pound i guess it is i love it you know i've been vacillating on rings for a long time ever since talking to ed calderon and uh he said people he's seen he has seen people really damage their fingers using these in dynamic situations he called it degloving i believe it's called where the skin comes off the bone or a five.

[29:05] But here, it's so perfectly aligned. You know, it's not at the end, it's coming off the side, just as a ring should, just in line with the fist.
It takes zero reaccommodation when making your fist.
So, you know, with the thumb up here, I believe this is super, super secure.
I think if you have giant fingers, you might find that this This ring is a little tight, but I do not have giant fingers, and it is perfect for me.
I think it's beautiful to look at as well, and you know that that means something to me.

[29:42] The Ringed In version, very excited about this. And I'm very honored to have this prototype as well.
And then I got, I'm going to go next to the old busted knife.
Get this out of the way real quick.

[29:56] When I got the Mora knife, as I said, we were in an antiques mall.
And we went into an antique section. My younger daughter, nine years old, found a typewriter and an old dial phone, and she's wanted both of those things for a while. I don't know. It's for play acting.
Maybe she wants to be a 1940s secretary or something, or, you know, who knows?
Anything. Power broker from a different time.
But anyway, she's sitting there typing, typing, typing, and I hear, she, like, did the thing with the – and first of all, I should have known, like, you don't type without paper in there, and this is an antique store, but I was looking for knives, and I was barely paying attention.
And then I hear the carriage return, and then I hear, and some piece of silver that was, or not silver, but crystal, that was also on that table came crashing down.
The ladies made me feel terrible about it, so I ended up buying this busted old Barlow that some farmer out in central Virginia used for years and years and years and years.
It's a hawkbill, and it's been sharpened to nearly nothing.
Love it. And then it had an old, what I presume is a pen blade in there, broken off.

[31:15] Little stamped, hollow stamped bolsters there and cheap plastic, sort of saw cut plastic.
But it's cool to have. I like it because it was in someone's pocket for years and years and got so much use.
And it meant something to them as a tool, as something just to make a living or whatever.
And I love it for that. Of course, I'll never carry it and use it, but I just like to have it. All right, the next two I'm going to do in concert here.
As you know, I've been in this Swiss Army knife phase, and so I wanted to check out these Rakes.
Rake, of course, is the knife company from Phoenix Flashlights, spelled R-U-I-K-E, which you might think should be pronounced Rueck, but it is Rake.
Okay, so this is the keychain knife. I got this one first.
Very impressive. Here, I'll put it up next to a Swiss Army Knife Classic SD, so a little bit bigger, definitely a little fatter and heavier, but if you're familiar with an SD, that's what it compares to, I guess, but it has a great blade of 12C27N, hollow ground, beautiful shape, drop point blade there.

[32:37] Nice action on it good uh good snap and then the next tool is a great pair of scissors, now note on the rakes you are when you're pushing the scissors down with your thumb you're going against the lock as opposed to the swiss army knife where you're where you're going against it.

[32:59] Or into it i should say let me pull this out and show you what i mean like on this uh when you When you reach all the end of that, you're going against the lock, and it's not moving any further. With this, you could technically close it.

[33:14] Not much of an issue unless you're trying to cut leather with it or something crazy like that so great little pair of scissors and then this little multi-tool on the end.

[33:24] Has a cord cutter it's very sharp right there got a screwdriver pry bar and a wire bender that little notch there and a cap lifter g10 i had it on my keys for a for a minute but it was just a a little bit too heavy uh so i i ended up putting this little fob on it and it's great to just drop in the pocket uh the second one is a bigger one they have one even bigger than this but this is comparable to the 91 is this 91 or 93 yeah uh it's comparable to the 93 so the alox um swiss army knives and the large alox victorinus knife this is called the m42g for green i believe uh but really nice 12c27 blade hollow ground we compare that real quick with this so you can get an idea this versus victorinus so bigger blade like much more substantial blade, And then this one also has a saw, just like the Swiss Army, the Victorinox saw, very similar pattern and same deployment with the tab that extends over the end, allows you to just grab it like that.
And then there is a pair of scissors.

[34:50] Very nice scissors working the same way and getting the tension off the back lock spring.

[34:57] It's not a lock. It's a spring. And then you've got the traditional opening tool.
This does have a half stop, kind of a sloppy half stop or soft half stop, I'll say.
But you've got the wire stripper and the cap lifter and the screwdriver.
And then over here, this is, they're calling it like a package opener and then a two-dimensional Phillips screwdriver.
But for me, that curved curved blade with the serrations is great for um going as um well i'll say it uh circumscribing or circumcising a bottle of wine you know you got to take the foil off this thing is perfect it's at the right angle and you just turn it and it takes the foil off really nicely i did that last night okay and then here you've got this little uh key ring slash slash lanyard hole. And if you don't want it, it folds away nicely.
Look at these tweezers, giant tweezers by comparison to the Victorinox tweezers.
Big difference there. So these tweezers are great. You could, you could tweeze your unibrow.
No problem here. We've got the, got the corkscrew. That works great.
Tried that one out last night.
And then over here, Here you have a great awl slash punch with the sewing eye.
And then a glass breaker.

[36:25] This thing is great. I absolutely love it.
They have like 10 different versions of this with pliers, with different things, with...

[36:35] Different tools and sizes. Now, there's one larger than this with locking tools, a locking blade, and I think the saw might lock.
But they're big and they're chunky. This is a four-layer tool.
This rake is a four-layer tool.
And here it is next to a five-layer tool, Victorinox. So let's see.

[36:54] They're about the same width. So you get a whole other layer of tools in Victorinox for the same width.
But if you want to change a pace you want differently a different shaped blade or maybe a knife a multi-tool that is much more blade oriented um i'd say check it out these things are great and they're they're competitively priced so these are the rake um rake models here and you can check them out on um i got mine on amazon they have a whole bunch of them so check them out and they they come in black and green uh no red i love the i love the different uh i gotta say i love the look of the swiss army knives but something about these rakes are really really appealing okay so speaking of really appealing let's get to this it's it's it's going to be a quick discussion but my favorite designers slash makers now you will notice right off the bat that there are some notable um omissions uh people that i didn't put on the list not because i don't think they're Great.
I mean, you won't see Lynn Thompson on this list and you're saying, what? Bob DeMarco? No Lynn Thompson?
You won't see Lynn Thompson. You won't see Gary Arifiche. You won't see Sal Glesser or Rick Hinderer. But I absolutely love their knives.

[38:10] And, you know, I have some that I would consider, you know, you do not get rid of those knives. So it's not that these people are not worthy of this list.
It's that I had to cut it somewhere, and these are just the ones that sing to my heart the most.
Let's start off with Ernest Emerson, and I'll put out two...

[38:31] Two of his knives here. This was the very first one I got and the very first one that I was ever aware of.
This was maybe his third knife once he was making tacticals, and it's the Commander. This one is from 2000.
It's 24 years old, this damn knife. Wow. So still great, still stout.
Created a little bit differently than they do now. Made more like a custom knife where to get to the structural screws, you have to take off the G10 first.

[39:06] But just an amazing blade, amazing design, and of course you have the wave feature.
And that was a happy accident that he created there.
That was supposed to be a parrying tool or a blade catch for other knives if you're in a knife-on-knife conflict and their blade gets caught in there.
But very quickly the seals he was designing this for the navy seals he was designing this for i realized that it was better as a a pocket deployer and b as a bottle cap opener so uh so the wave has always been there but it wasn't for its original purpose and then here we have the elvia a um a collaboration with ed calderon a very strange looking knife uh if you're not Not used to seeing that Pakal style thing like we saw with the Inversion.
Same concept here. But I show these two knives. This is with an aftermarket wave feature. The first version did not have the wave.
It just had a thumb disc. And then these are aftermarket scales from Tom Engelson.
Check him out on Instagram.
But I want to show just the pure dedication to, well, weaponry.
That is what Emerson makes.
Unabashedly, they make folding tactical knives for fighting, self-defense, and utility, kind of in that order.

[40:30] And so the versatility of design and just that year after year after year, there's this consistency in the design.
And a lot of it has to do with superior ergonomics and incredible blade design.
And all of these things are based on Ernest Emerson's vast experience as a martial artist and fighter and practitioner of blade-centered martial arts, so much so that he ended up creating his own system, kind of amalgamizing all those.
Those. So Ernest Emerson, he was on episode 94 of the Night Junkie podcast.
You got to check that out. He was also on a long town hall back in 2020.
But do check out episode 94. Pretty awesome. All right, next up.

[41:20] I mentioned him before, Dirk Pinkerton. Dirk has it all, as far as I'm concerned.
He's, you know, in acting, they have the triple threat, the singer, dancer, actor.
Well, here he is a designer and a maker and a business owner.
So he's got his own shingle.

[41:45] He makes his knives under his own name. Dirk Pinkerton Designs here, like you have with this.
He has a bunch of designs licensed and OEMed through makers like Beyond EDC here, this is Asymmetrical Line, or Kaiser, or Concept, or you name it.
And then he hand grinds knives and hand makes knives that are exquisite he is very well respected by his peers in the knife making world for his excellent skills at the grinder this is his handmade cave bear that i got at blade 2021 such an incredible knife uh and and so i not only does does he have these skills of design and of grinding, but he's got his eyes like Lynn Thompson on the past and he takes these beautiful time-tested designs like the navaja that the Spaniards started using when they could no longer carry swords to settle their beefs.
They carried these giant clip-point locking blades in their cummerbunds.
And so those are classic knives of history.
Here we see it reinterpreted in a modern design sense and with modern materials and manufacturing.

[43:11] That's Dirk Pinkerton. And then here you see a lot of Filipino influence as well as Middle Eastern influence.
Indonesian and Middle Eastern and Filipino.
So he's really scouring the globe and finding great blade designs all throughout history and incorporating them into modern designs or modernizing them.
And yeah, so for all of those reasons and the fact that he's also just a nice guy, by uh gert pinkerton is is one of my favorite designers he was on the show episode 88 episode.

[43:48] 362 you want to hear gert pinkerton talk about his work and design philosophy check those shows out next is ben belkin ben ben belkin um love the guy he's a great guy too i mean i guess a lot of these guys are great guys i've talked to many of them in this list so maybe i'll stop stop saying that.
Let's just assume they're great guys. Ben Belkin is one of them.
And he is the guy who brought us this knife.
The reason I'm showing you this one here is that we all know that Jack Wolf Knives has classic design with modern interpretation, traditional design, modern interpretation.
So we've seen this gunstock in the gunslinger that just came out.
That is a very traditional design in modern dress and manufacturing but here with with the cyborg jack here this is his own design so he's taking uh all of those years of um of traditional knife design all of those different patterns and then looking at modern knife design too with the angles in this handle, and created this pattern all on his lonesome.
So, how many people do you know who have created their own traditional pattern?

[45:07] So I want to see more of this. Like the handle is incredibly comfortable.
It's like a sow belly, but angular. And those angles actually really feel good in the hand and make this a very comfortable knife and also incredibly unique.
This is a perfect example, but same but different, which is what we all want.
But this is same but very different.
And then you look at that blade. That is kind of a Lanny's clip style clip point blade.
But also kind of a tanto, almost looks like a tanto, if this were a little bit pointier, you know, so very unique things happening in this design.
And then he just flexes, boom, and then does a frame lock flipper.
This frame lock front flipper this is the after hours jack a based a folding locking version based on the midnight jack so he's got versatility and uh and you know so you can do these locking knives the bolster locking the folder uh the frame locking knives and the traditional style.

[46:17] Slip joints relying on the kick As opposed to a Stop pin So the man can do it He's got it all So very very versatile Plus he packages them beautifully And he knows how to do business He's a great businessman So Ben Belkin is definitely One of my Favorite, Designers, Great walk and talk on this note. Next up, we're going to talk about Les George.
Les George. Here's the dagger that most recently Les George came out with in a production sense.
This is with Spartan Blades, and it's the Marine Raider dagger.
Based on the historical Marine Raider dagger that was ill-fated due to bad materials and bad build at the beginning of the war.
But very great design, very cool design, just needed to be updated.
And here he has updated it in 1095 blade steel, modern manufacturing.

[47:25] An injection molded handle with great texturing, a full tang construction including the quillions.
The quillions are also, that guard is also full tang.
So everything about this is 100% more robust than the original.
And this is what uh less george does he loves daggers he designs he makes tons of daggers he's he does he casts handles like the uh the 1918 trench dagger and makes daggers he does dagger collaborations with people he does edc dagger and then he does a whole host of folders like this right here and by the way daggers aren't the only fixed blades he makes that's his obsession though he has this new version of the M2 French Knight that's really crazy not the one with the knuckles but the, one with the slanted handle the classic but here's the V-Sep based on his this is one of the first.

[48:25] Mid-tech knives out there meaning he had the uh the blanks laser cut or jet water jet and then he did everything else um so half manufactured half handmade and uh this one was based on his rock eye design which we now see in production with protech as an automatic and here as the mid-tech so really Really, his design, the things he's interested in, i.e.
These historical daggers, and then his design eye just really resonate with me.
And then the quality of the build of this very complex thing.
It's not easy to do a folder and made. It's just incredible.

[49:09] So Les George is definitely on there. And he's funny.
He said he's a former Marine, explosive ordnance disposal.
Disposal he said uh first time i interviewed him i was a little starstruck i said it's really nice to meet you oh my gosh and he's like he's like you know what here's here's the most famous pro bowler and here's here's the least famous pro bowler here's the most famous nightmaker and so he disavowed me immediately of any any of that all right next up is andrew demko now andrew demko is why i didn't list lynn thompson lynn thompson no doubt has has uh designed and and developed some of the absolute best knives of all time and my favorite knives.
But Andrew Demko was the one who designed, for me, the Golden Age knives.

[49:59] The Cold Steel Golden Age knives.
But here I'm showing the AD-20 for the innovation of the Shark Lock.
So he innovated the Shark Lock.
He innovated the Triad Lock. Two of the strongest locks going.
The shark lock being incredibly fidgety as well.
The triad lock being...
Legendary for its strength a lot of people call it the strongest lock in the business but i'm showing you this this is one of his cold steel designs the frenzy based on a japanese, helmet breaker or helmet breaching knife and it looks to me like a gunung thing with that downward swooping hawkbill blade but here we have innovation we have beauty and then we also have that that fascination with knives from the past.
Andrew Demko has designed Tantos and Navajas and all of his versions of classic knives too.
So I love Andrew Demko's work for all of that, the innovation, the looks, and the history.

[51:11] He was on episode 2118 and 234.
Man, a lot of these guys have been on here. i'm very proud of that next up is a guy that i i've tried to get on the show and we came close and and then things happen but i'm gonna i've doubled back numerous times let's hope he comes and joins comes on the show because i want to talk to charles marlow charles marlow here here is a the only version of a charles marlow i will probably ever get because his custom knives are are extremely difficult to come by and expensive and exclusive.

[51:47] But this is the Squale by Boker. Boker's version of the Charles Marlowe Squale.
And he just creates folding knives that look like this.
And they're just positively gorgeous. I don't have much to say about them because I've never held a real one.
I should say a custom one. But this Boker, I mean, Boker can really knock it out of the park.
And this is one of those productions.
Just an astounding build. It is VG-10 blade steel, super hollow ground, very thin behind the edge.
I mean, just a wicked, wicked slicer with that recurve.
But the looks of this this i always say it looks like an italian racing boat going through the waves and uh and i don't know with the wake back here but it just looks like something.

[52:42] Beautiful to me so charles marlow uh if you don't know who he is uh go look him up on instagram that's probably the best way to see his work uh instagram and then there are a couple of people who collect him that i follow and yeah i you may still be able to get this i know he had the bull pup also a with boker a smaller production a smaller knife a clip point that was also very lauded uh that i that i never got charles marlow i love his designs.

[53:15] Next up is Matt Chase and Hogtooth Knives.
Matt Chase, as you know, is the guy who built my Nova 1 knives based on this platform, this handle and blade length, but with my Bowie blade design.
And I've been carrying this knife for a couple of years now, about three years, ever since I got it.
And this is the one that really got me seriously carrying fixed blade knives.
On an EDC basis. It really taught me what I like and what I require in a knife, especially with the new way I was carrying it, which is at the three o'clock position.
When I first started carrying fixed blade knives, it was ones I was making and I was carrying them on my back, which after landing on my back in the martial arts session and landing on a trainer that was back there, I discovered that's a bad place.
So I moved it around to the side and that required something something smaller and something with rounded handles and something easily stashable in the waistband.
And that was this knife, the Tanto, the EDC Tanto.
And it is small, it is simple, and it is perfection.

[54:28] And so that is why I asked to make my first collaboration knife for the custom maker, a collaboration with Matt Chase on that platform with my blade.
So that worked out great but he also does um he also has uh knives like the ruffian this one you've seen me carry and talk about a lot uh this is a hollow ground um long clip point blade i guess you call that a long clip point uh and it just carries awesome it's about a five inch blade uh from from here to the tip from the handle to the tip uh yet it carries awesome with that um rounded handle and um so matt is a 30-year knife maker he was a marine corps scout sniper uh used knives in the field not to take out anyone but to to to live and to do his job as a sniper and a scout and uh he carries that into all of his blade designs uh including uh the ones that he forges these are the knives he makes uh.

[55:34] You know in batches but he does uh singular um forged knives that are exquisite my 50 uh my 50th birthday knife is one i always show off but didn't want to show that here because that was my design basically he executed it these are his designs and they're they're amazing especially if you're if you want to get into actually carrying a fixed blade knife he's got some great knives for that And the EDC Tonto I've used to feather stick kiln dried wood.

[56:05] And it's worked better than almost anything.
Anything next up is fred perrin a french i always call him french badass fred perrin he was a french commando and all sorts of he just if you if you read just read up on fred perrin p-e-r-r-i-n i don't know much about him uh except that he was a commando and that he knows a lot about killing people by hand and with knives and other tools and he's a very charming guy i met him at blade show 2022 and that's when i bought this from him this is one of his designs that he has produced and it is a super thin full flat ground uh little little round the neck buoy or drop in the pocket boo it's got great jimping and um what what i really like about him is that he modernizes the traditional french fighting knife and combines it with uh the american buoy all the time and what what i mean by that is the the traditional french fighting knife looks a lot like the traditional french chef's knife in that it has a uh pinched handle up by the ricasso and it flares out as it as it gets to the pommel and the blade itself acts as the guard so all of his designs incorporate.

[57:26] That concept though he adds contouring into the handle and um finger wells and that kind of thing But his front finger choil Is Is.

[57:37] Always this sort of oblong shape, and not like a perfect semicircle, but oblong.
And it occurred to me why that is. When you hold this in your hand with that oblong shape, your finger gets pressed against this flat part towards the back of the finger well, and that cants the blade edge downward.
And I'll show you here with this Spyderco-produced street buoy.
Same thing is happening there. It is making the edge, putting the edge at a more advantageous angle for slashing.
We all know that slashing is way less effective in stopping an opponent or stopping an attacker than a thrust is, but it's also a way more natural motion than thrusting, as the Roman army discovered before they designed the gladius.

[58:29] So here, if you can have any sort of advantage in that slash by by making the angle of the blade point downward you should take advantage of that a very interesting dude i will always uh want more perrin in my collection spider go has done a couple of collaborations including a folder uh that's very very cool never talked to that man so i'd like to all right next up is bob terzuola who was on an early episode of the knife junkie podcast episode 38 pre-video but man definitely worth a listen he's such a cool dude this is the only knife I have by him and it's not even by him it's by Savivi but it's his design Bob Terzuola made folders custom folders are very.

[59:19] Desirable and expensive and hard to come by and some of our friends like Edwin Callow you can see some on his channel channel but uh this he started off uh living in guatemala making uh fixed blades for mercenaries and commandos and military types and this savivi uh tomashi e really harkens back to those days of his fixed blade design um i love the shape of that handle it is super ergonomic and fits the the hand so perfectly.
That's what super ergonomic means, I guess. Uh, but also there's jimping on the blades.
You can come up over top and, uh, use this in a close carving kind of situation.
But really we know this is a fighting and self-defense knife.
So if you're someone who, uh, likes to use that, that, that, um, thumb reinforced Filipino grip.

[1:00:16] It's there for you. Just outstanding design.
And of course, since it's Civivi and under the Wii blanket, it's so wonderfully produced. And I highly recommend you get this knife.
It's under $100. And it comes with a great sheet and a really great tech lock also, which was originally designed by Bob Terzuola.
But I've replaced it with this so I can carry it in the waistband this actually does ride in the waistband pretty nicely that's the that is bob terzuola okay last up and uh arguably well i'm not going to put favorites on any of these but last up is the great and powerful william harsey jr um he's just uh really to my eye one of the most has the most refined designs let's start with let's start with this classic dagger that he design.
First of all, it's in a really nice Chattanooga Leatherworks sheet. There's that logo.

[1:01:21] Under the RMJ logo of companies, RMJ, makers of the Tomahawks, and then American Tomahawk Company, and Chattanooga Weather Works.
Okay, this is a really incredible design by William Harsey Jr.
Because he has managed to take something as simple and as classic and as overdone throughout history as the dagger and made a new version that is stupendous and beautiful.
Beautiful um you've got a six and a half inch blade with hollow ground bevels and a medial ridge to to keep it rigid and uh all the way up to the front because the real mission for this is going through hard targets going into soft targets through hard targets so you got to keep it rigid and keep that blade thickness all the way to the tip as much as possible you have a uh cross guard here forward uh canted cross guard so you can put your thumb up against it for pushing if that's your thing but in any way it unlike the k bar which cants inward which i never quite understood cants in towards the handle uh the outward canted quillians really make sense to me not only like i said for pushing uh but just to accommodate the hand you know and the fat of the hand and that that kind of thing.

[1:02:43] This G10 handle is fluted in a spiral pattern and then sandwiches this full tang blade completely.

[1:02:53] The tang protrudes here with a little noggin knocker. But look at the Coke bottle shape.
So perfect ergonomics, perfect blade.
By the way, the ergonomics work whether you're in this sort of flat shovel grip with your thumb on the blade or whether you're it like this, taking advantage of the edges.
The ergonomics are perfect. The blade is perfect. Everything about this knife is perfect.
That's William Harsey Jr. Now, look at some of his single-edged knives that are produced by Chris Reeve Knives. You'll be blown away.
And then here you have the Spartan Harsey folder.
A superlative folder. The hard-use American style design with the thick thick slabs and the incredible washer action.

[1:03:44] And then those lines. Bill Harsey Jr., I got to get more of his work in my collection.
I think next up will be the Bill Harsey fighter from Spartan.
I got to start where I can afford it, right?
And then who knows, maybe later I sell off some knives and I get a Chris Reeve version of one of his knives. Anyway, I've gone on too long.
Thanks for listening. If you've been watching, if you've been here this long, I appreciate it. You know I've been going on at length recently, especially with my collection videos.
So thanks for hanging in there and checking out all the knife content.
Those collection videos have been a source of shame for me. I have been a glutton.
I have been a materialist. I'm going to change my ways.
Be sure to become a patron and help me be more of a glutton. Just kidding.
Becoming a patron helps us pay for servers, helps us pay for upgrades and materials, which we're doing right now.
So thank you for everything. We greatly appreciate it.
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, And until next time, please, don't take dull for an answer.

[1:05:12] Facebook and if you have a question or comment email them to bob at the knife junkie.com or call our 24 7 listener line at 724-466-4487 and you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the knife junkie podcast.

[1:05:27] Music.