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Nostalgia Knives: The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 653)

Bob DeMarco: Coming up, a sweet little knife from Dirk Pinkerton. We're going to talk about the Boy Scout knife, and then, nostalgia knives. 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 DeMarco: One of my favorite comments from this past week was from Carino1, a contributor to Thursday Night Knives. He says, "Gents, really great episode. I've seen the Pinkerton Matador several times and it still gets me excited every time it comes across the screen." I did a little of my own writing in that, but yes, I hear what you're saying. I love that Pinkerton Matador. And not for nothing, when we get this channel up to 50,000 subscribers, he's going to make us a knife. He made the offer. Dirk Pinkerton will be making us a knife at 50,000 subscribers, and we will be giving that away on a Thursday Night Knives in the future. So, if you're watching this, subscribe. You could win a knife, like a really sweet custom knife. Well, thanks for watching and commenting over this past week. That said, let's get to a pocket check.

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

Bob DeMarco: In my front right pocket today was the awesome Andrew Demko, or Demko Brothers, I should say—Demko Knives AD20. And this thing has been one of the toughest knives I've ever had. You can see that nice thick spine and the amazingly robust build here with the shark lock, etc. The very buttery smooth action.

We've been kind of socked in with ice over the past week. I'm sure most of you listening to this know what I'm talking about if you're listening to it when it comes out in the future. Well, there was a great ice storm in 2026, and it left a giant layer of ice over everything. When that happens, I go into emergency mode, and the knives I choose are a little more utilitarian and oftentimes not titanium-handled, because I'll tell you what: it's been so cold. For instance, today it's 11 degrees right now. So, something that doesn't get cold to the touch and is robust and can go the distance if there's an actual emergency. And so, I've had this AD20 in my hand—I mean in my pocket today and actually a couple of times this past week. Love that knife, and hadn't carried it in a little while, so it was good to have it.

Speaking of robust, the new Jack Wolf Knives knife is in my pocket also. This is the Timber Jack, designed by Tracy LaRock, based on his very popular custom slip joint. This is the biggest slip joint that Jack Wolf Knives has produced, and I gotta say, man, the spring is—I'm going to do it here because I gotta do it right in front of me—it is a very, very strong pull and even stronger return into the handle. I love that thing. It's S90V, as per usual these days with Jack Wolf Knives, a full hollow grind with a pull, but you don't need that pull; you can just pinch the blade and open it up. That's a great knife.

I feel like I need to get a slip for this one, a special slip. The one that I have that this kind of fits is a little small. I almost want a belt pouch for it. I'm almost at the age where I don't care what anyone thinks and I might just start wearing knives on my belt. It's legal. It's legal, but I live in the land of pearl-clutchers here, so it's legal but, you know, might lead to some self-consciousness. But I'm thinking that thing needs a belt pouch.

Next up, my fixed blade today was the beautiful Knives By Nuge Bruin. I've been carrying the Bruin and the Cub, actually the Cub more than this. The Cub is a smaller version with a pocket sheath. But again, right now we're in this state of semi-concern with the weather and the environment. I wanted a really strong, do-everything, easy-to-grab, easy-to-carry, nice and small fixed blade on my belt. And this one, when I wear it on my belt, most—even this sweater—but most things I'm wearing will cover up the sheath. It doesn't make me feel so self-conscious about it if I happen to run out to get some eggs with a fixed blade on my belt. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Like, yeah, you can walk around with a fixed blade on your belt, but it feels a little weird. Maybe it's just me.

All right, next up and last for emotional support today, I had the beautiful USMC KA-BAR. And yeah, we all know KA-BARs are cool and great and utilitarian, but this one is beautiful. It is a 1990 or '91—I can't really remember exactly when my brother gave this to me—but it's a re-release of the original KA-BAR design as done by the KA-BAR company early back in the day, right in 1941, I think, when the requirement for this kind of a knife went out to manufacturers from the military or the Department of War at the time. This is what they came up with. A beautiful clip point blade, utilitarian—it's the utility fighting combat knife, or fighting utility combat knife. It's got that sharpened swedge unlike the KA-BARs you get today. And man, what a beautiful knife. My brother got that for me, as I mentioned, when I was a young buck living on my own in my second apartment in Philadelphia, and man, I had that next to me all the time, basically. So I love these four knives.

Had them on me today: the KA-BAR, the original re-release from the '90s; I had the Knives By Nuge Bruin with the beautiful Badgerclaw leather pouch sheath; I had the Tracy LaRock designed Timber Jack by Jack Wolf Knives—that's the new one right now, go check that out; and this beauty, the Demko Knives AD20. So, what were you guys carrying? Let me know, drop it in the comments below. I always like to find out what these classy folk carry. We also find that out on Thursday Night Knives, you can do that there too.

All right, before we get on to Patreon, I want to show you this. Well, not this in particular, but as you see here I have a beautiful knife in my hand with this gorgeous scout carry sheath in leather. That's the Riot from 3 Dog Knife. And 3 Dog Knife, that's Mike et al—Mike Dakota et al from Northern Knives—they have their own in-house custom brand of knives. They are really beautiful and robust and made for, I mean, they're up there going elk hunting and deep timber hiking and stuff. So they make these really, really awesome outdoors knives. You can tell how much of an outdoorsman I am by how I just described that.

But what I really like about 3 Dog Knife is they do a lot of tanto-style shapes for outdoor knives. I always thought that the tanto would make a great outdoor knife, but I always doubted myself, second-guessed myself because I'm not much of an outdoorsman. I have the soul of an outdoorsman trapped in the suburbs, I guess we'll say. But what I like about this one is that it's part back-alley, part back-timber—backwoods, I should say. So a really, really cool design, super useful, feels great in hand. Beautiful sheath from D. Johnston, a leather maker up in Alaska.

Well, 3 Dog Knife has offered us an amazing discount code. You get 25% off these incredible Alaskan-made knives. Good for the outdoors, good for EDC—some of them. Some of them just great for outdoor use because they're big and robust. But just go to theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife and use "theknifejunkie" at checkout as your coupon code and you save 25% off. 25% off. Unprecedented. I've never heard of such a great deal. So thank you Mike and 3 Dog Knife. Let me just highlight this gorgeous sheath for a sec. So beautiful and well-made. I love it. All right, so that's the 3 Dog Knife deal, go check it out: theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife. Doesn't work on the Northern Knives website, so you gotta go to theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife.

All right, every week Jim gets hard to work on Patreon. He gives us things like Maker's Monday, he gives us things like Friday Funnies. And I just wanted to show this to you. Look, that handsome fellow there looks kind of like me alienating his family with his knife collection. But funny, knife-related comic strips, single-frame comics, and I love that knife forum moderator one. So go check them out, they're really cool, really fun, and if you like knives and you like to laugh, this will tickle your fancy.

Of course, that's on Patreon, the best way—or one of the two best ways to support the show. I gotta say one of the three best ways; of course, the best way is to share the show. But you can go to Patreon and join us at our various levels of support, or you can go right here and join us on YouTube and become a Gentleman Junkie. A Gentleman Junkie is the high tier of support and that puts you on an every third Thursday of the month schedule to win a super nice knife. We've been giving away a lot of customs recently, so come join us. You save 12% when you join for a whole year. Scan the QR code on your screen or go to theknifejunkie.com/patreon. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com/patreon.

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Bob DeMarco: Okay, first up in knife life news, we've got the Bestech Senyu. This is a new one from Kombou, that's Grzegorz Grabarski. He's a Polish designer. He's been on the show, he's a great guy. You will find him at the Bestech booth at Blade Show Atlanta often. He's a great dude and a very artistic designer of knives. Well, he's got a new one, and he is—you know back in the old days when movie studios retained actors and you could only see this actor in a movie from a certain movie studio? Well, Grzegorz Grabarski or Kombou is the same way with Bestech. He's a designer exclusively retained by Bestech.

So his designs are awesome and he's done a lot for that company. But this is one of their premium EDC folders, the Senyu. It's got a 3.48-inch S90V drop point blade with a fuller and that sort of almondine opening hole and a flipper tab. Now I'm wondering if that opening hole or that fuller act as an actual opening method, because they both look a little slim for some of our fat fingers. Titanium frame lock handle is beautiful with its signature swoops and sculpting. These come with inlays on both the show side and the clip side as you can see here in that picture. Right here we're looking at Ultem. You can get it in Ultem or various fat carbon overlays—actually they look more like overlays to me. Beautiful sculpted pocket clip, and the overall profile of this knife is super appealing. This will be available soon, and the MSRP of this one is $320.

All right, next up from Boker Plus. Boker Plus has their annual collection knife. The collection knife for 2026 is from designer/maker Jared Price. And it's a beautiful hunk, I gotta say. Not Jared Price, but this knife right here. It's a 3.3-inch M390 clip point blade with that sort of trailing point tip, which is something we're seeing is kind of coming back in vogue, if you ask me. And you've got a titanium frame lock handle with those really nice and tasteful carbon fiber inlays around the pivot. Very appealing sculpted titanium pocket clip which is, you know, both utilitarian but also just looks nice. This whole thing looks like a tank. It reminds me of my F3 from Boker that the Voxnaes design from 12 years ago at this point, but it looks super robust. This one will be available soon, but there are only 500 of them. So if you are a Boker Plus collection knife collector, get on it. This is—thank you, Jim—this is the view I think is the most beautiful of this knife. Look at that handle. It looks super sturdy and thick in the hand, looks nice. So, soon, 500, MSRP on this sucker is 499 Euros. So they haven't quite released the—I didn't do the math, I don't know what it's going to be in American dollars, but if you're buying it in Euros, it'll be 499.

All right, last up, WE has released some of their new knives and I'm just going to run down them really quickly. They're pretty cool as usual. One of them in particular kind of jumps out at me. And these are some strange MSRPs too, so it also occurs to me that maybe these have not been translated yet into current dollars. So the first one, this beauty—or half beauty, I'll say—is the Angel X—I'm sorry, Angle X. 3.89 inches of M390 on that modified wharncliffe. What a beautiful blade, and a big blade, I gotta say. It gets ugly to me when you go aft towards the handle; it's layered and weird. I don't know, I'm just not a fan of the handle. The overall profile of it is fine because that dip down to the pommel on the finger side makes the visual handle-to-blade ratio look better than it would if it were extended. But a beautiful blade anyway, we'll just say that.

Next one is—this is the interesting one to me, the real interesting one. It's called the Shadow Hook. And it's a pikal. They're dipping their feet into the folding pikal/karambit. I shouldn't say slash; it is karambit set up with the ring and the handle, but the blade tip and edge orientation is all pikal. And we haven't seen that from WE Knives yet. Gotta say they're a little late on the trend, but hey, better late than never. It's not for everyone and it's probably not going to be their most selling knife. But it looks like a cool button lock sort of mechanism and you'll find out all sorts of cool ways of opening it in a flashy manner. So folding pikal-karambit in this Shadow Hook, MSRP for this one is $434.70. That's what leads me to believe they haven't quite made the conversion to American dollars yet.

All right, next one is the Notchline, and it's a fixed blade knife. The Civivi line has come out with an outdoors fixed blade with a similar kind of profile in the blade anyway. So this is cool, we don't see too many fixed blades from WE Knives. This one obviously an outdoors fixed blade has a different steel—3.45 inches of S35VN, which is a bit tougher than their usual M390, and that's kind of what you want from a fixed blade, something you might take out into the woods. Carbon fiber handle, that's a rose pattern carbon fiber handle, and it comes in a Kydex sheath. [Whining sound] I'd much rather see this in a beautiful leather sheath myself. But they didn't ask.

Next one, in all caps, is the VARG. Yes, the VARG, V-A-R-G. A really nice looking—reminds me a little bit of the Thresher from Gavko. No, but it's a very low tip, swoopy kind of clip point blade, but it's only 2.96 inches of M390. It's got a flipper and a titanium frame with copper foil carbon fiber inlays. That's what we're looking at right here, presumably it'll come in a number of different iterations. But a little big knife, and I think that's why they put the letters in all caps, I guess.

Okay, this last one is really appealing to me, and you'll know why—there you go. A nice double-peaked clip point blade here with a super ergonomic handle. This is called the Zorath. The Zorath. And a funny little quip from Ben of Knife News, he says it sounds like the name of a Power Ranger's villain, The Zorath. 3.84 inches of M390. It's got that interesting swell with the large jimping on the blade. Looks pretty damn menacing, I gotta say. So one of my favorites in this lineup—or my favorite in this lineup, I'll say. Titanium frame lock as per usual. And I don't know the different ways it's going to come out—575 bucks though, I probably won't find out.

All right, that's it for knife life news. Still to come, we're going to take a look at the First Tool and the Boy Scout knife.

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

Bob DeMarco: Picture a young scout in the early 1900s standing at the edge of a campsite. The fire's crackling, tents are half-raised, and in his pocket is something more important than rope or matches. It's a sturdy little folding knife. It's not flashy, it's not fancy, it's just dependable. This is the Boy Scout knife, a blade that became a symbol of preparedness for generations.

When the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, its mission was simple: teach boys self-reliance, responsibility, and practical skills. That knife fit that philosophy perfectly. We could stand to bring that back these days. Early scout handbooks didn't treat knives as toys or weapons; they were tools, earned through trust and maturity.

By the 1920s, the official Boy Scout knife began appearing, most famously produced by Camillus Cutlery Company. Now this is a Camillus scout knife from the era—it's just not branded with the Boy Scout logo, but we're going to be talking about this one a little later. This classic four-blade design included a spear point blade, a can opener, a screwdriver, and an awl or punch, which was in my childhood the most essential tool of all of these, and I'll tell you why later. Over the decades, millions of these knives rode in the pockets on hikes, jamborees, and summer camps. They cut rope, sharpened sticks, opened cans of beans, and occasionally saved the day. For many men today, their first knife wasn't a tactical folder or a collector's piece; it was a Boy Scout knife, worn smooth from honest use.

Even after Camillus closed its doors in 2007, the legacy stuck. Modern versions still exist, but vintage examples carry extra weight, a little extra something and gravitas. And that's memories and that's time spent out there in the field. Scraped knuckles, etc. The quiet pride of being trusted with a blade was the premier feeling of pride in owning this knife. It was the first knife you were given or earned and it meant something.

If you like talking about obscure knives or knives that don't get a lot of conversation these days, or just want some knife chat in general, join us every Thursday night right here on the Knife Junkie channel and let's talk about it. We love it. We love getting together talking knives, and that's Thursday Night Knives. It's all live, we chit-chat back and forth. It's great. Thursday Night Knives, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube. Now let's go to the state of the collection.

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Bob DeMarco: Okay, so I received a couple of things this past week that I want to show off. First one is from Roaring Fire. It's a company that has sent us a couple of pouches in the past, and I really like them. One of them is in my tool chest, they hold my files. One of them I use as a little survival kit. And this one they sent me, this is the Pack Mule Mini Tool Roll. Well, I'm going to turn this into a survival kit also. Actually, it's on its way.

But this is waxed canvas, not too heavily waxed. Sometimes you'll get waxed canvas and you can actually feel it. But of course, the wax here is meant to keep your tools dry. A lot of tools still have carbon steel and you don't want to get them wet when you're walking through the elements. Something I don't have here to show off—well I have it here but I don't have it attached—is the strap, so you can wear this thing around your shoulders. But let me show you what this is like.

Okay, so this opens up, and on one side—it's a double-sided tool roll. So on one side, it's got this—whoops, upside down. All right, there we go. So on one side you have a bunch of tool slots, and you can—and it also has these little elastic loops here. And so I have a little Cold Steel knife in here, I have a Victorinox, I also have a little folding—it's this knife heavy on this side. This is all going to change, I'm just trying to figure out what I want to put in this survival kit. I have a fork, a spoon, some chopsticks—chopsticks I find come in super handy when you're like cook—just cooking over the fire pit or over the campfire. Here I have a little survival kit, the Doug Ritter MK5 in here, and then I have a whole survival kit built around it. And then I have a TOPS whistle in there and a little collapsible cup, that kind of thing.

But another cool feature about this Roaring Fire Pack Mule Mini Tool Bag is this side. It has another side that opens up and it's got a series of pouches. And in these pouches I have some other stuff. I have a whole fire starting pouch here and then a first aid pouch and some other stuff. So I am—I'm going to put this together, equip it, see how well it works. Man, one of those fire starting cubes, they just stink, they smell like dead fish. You know what I'm talking about, right? So here it is. It's a little big for under the camera but it rolls up conveniently, snaps together, and I think we're going to be doing a giveaway of that. Once it's filled, once I figure out what all the implements inside it will be, that's going to be a Gentleman Junkie giveaway. It'll have a knife—fixed blade—it'll have a folder, it'll have utensils, fire starting stuff. I'm going to build this thing out and that will be a Gentleman Junkie giveaway kit. But I want to thank Roaring Fire for sending that to me. It's very generous and I really like it. First I have to do a big review of it, a long-form review of it and show it off.

Next up, this was sent to me by the one and only Dirk Pinkerton. This is the Asymmetrical MicroSantoku. Awesome little drop-in-the-pocket fixed blade or neck knife in S35VN. It's got that cool arrowhead shape, at least in the handle. From Dirk Pinkerton, the broadhead is a big-selling fixed blade knife from him, not only in his custom career but also Kaiser made them in different blade shapes and stuff. It's a single ring and then a little bit to put in your hand with a fob, and it really locks in. You can really use this knife. You know, you're not doing super heavy-duty chores with it but it's a great drop-in-the-pocket little gents fixed blade. So this is the MicroSantoku and, you know, evoking the Santoku Japanese chef's knife here. Great, great little user. And then it comes with this awesome fob. This is Asymmetrical, so they're not currently making these but they will be back with these sometime soon. I know Asymmetrical did a little re-org and they're on their way back. But if you can't get that one, you can find the Pinkerton Broadheads out there, so look for them.

Okay, well that's going to bring us to nostalgia knives. But before we get there, I want to show off this super cool and kind of cute and funny design that Jim just came up with: Detent Perfect, Finances Gone. Yeah, we've all felt that from time to time. You know, who among us hasn't made an irresponsible purchase every now and then? And by irresponsible I mean, yeah, you probably could have spent that on shoes for the kids or food for the baby. No, I'm kidding. Not that irresponsible, please. But go check this and many, many other designs out in our merch shop: theknifejunkie.com/shop. Jim puts out a new design every week and you can get them on aprons, t-shirts, hoodies, you can get them on coffee mugs, hats, drinking cups, whatever you want. You can find it there: theknifejunkie.com/shop. And put that on and meet like-minded individuals out in the wild.

All right, let's talk about nostalgia knives. Now, when I was writing the title for this, I wanted to say "nostalgic knives." But the knives themselves aren't nostalgic; I am. I'm a sentimental middle-aged Italian American man. So nostalgia is history plus a couple of drinks, they say. So that's what this is. I look at these knives and I think of various things from my past—stories or feelings or people or whatever it is. So let's talk about it. I'm sure you guys have these kind of knives in your collection. These are some of mine, not all of them, of course.

And we'll start with the Camillus scout knife. My first ever knife. And this is what given to me by my Grandpa Tinnirelli, Grandpa T. It was very well used. and I think I sharpened it maybe once or twice but it was my grandfather who really reprofiled this thing through lots of use. My grandfather was an artist, he was a carpenter, he was an art teacher, he built his house—he could build anything. He was one of those Renaissance men from the first half of the 20th century. He could do anything, build anything.

And this was the knife he gave me. He always had a pocket knife in his pocket. I'm sure many of you can relate if you're lucky enough to have known your grandfather. But this was growing up, this was the tool I used the most. This is the awl. It's still super sharp on the tip and on the side. And I would use this as a drill. I was always trying to concoct little weapons or little crafts in the basement and I always kind of failed miserably. We didn't have like the ultimate set of tools in our basement and, you know, I just wasn't that inclined, but I did have this and I was aware of how awesome that awl was.

And in particular I can remember after seeing a sneaking a little bit of Taxi Driver when my older brother was watching it—I don't know, I must have been 10, 11, I don't know how old I was. I was pretty young though. And I remember wanting to make that gun thing that straps onto his arm that releases the gun from under his sleeve. And so I started to try and make that and I obviously I failed miserably. But this was the main tool in trying to make that, trying to drill and carve and everything. So I used this knife but definitely that awl the most. And yeah, I was always up to something, trying to make something and always kind of half-assing it because that was the tool I had. So love that knife and I'm so grateful to have it, still have it, and to have known my grandfather. He was a great dude. Both my grandfathers were great men, and so glad to have that artifact from him.

Next up is one you've seen a lot. This is the Cold Steel Tanto that I got in 1987. And I was a junior in high school, a junior in high school. I could drive. I drove myself to the Randall Park Mall. If you're from the Cleveland area you might remember it used to be the biggest mall in the world until it wasn't. And man, it fell on hard times and then was abandoned altogether and—anyway, they had a Remington Blade Company, Remington Knife Company there. And I bought this there. My best friend Mike told me all about this knife. He's the guy who really got me into knives, and now he's not that into knives—he uses them on a daily basis, but he has a bike shop now, he's a bike dude. But he really, really got me heavily into knives even though, you know, I always had an inkling for them. But he told me about this incredible magical knife that's based on the samurai sword that CIA guys use and it can punch through car doors and all this and I was like, oh my god, I gotta have that thing. And it was this. And I saved up for it. I remember this knife was 115 bucks at the time and it felt like, you know, I was paying a fortune.

The only other thing I had bought as expensive up until that point was a Seiko watch, which I finally just recently found in my attic. But this beauty is—it's been by my bed ever since. So it's been my next-to-the-bed knife since 1987. Maybe before some of you were even born. It's got the nice Kraton handle, which still isn't breaking down like rubber often does. It's got the brass guard and the brass pommel and it says "Tanto" by Cold Steel, Ventura, California, and on the other side in typewriter letters, "Made in Japan." So definitely a prized possession in the knife collection also. It still has its original old leather sheath. And I've tried over the years to find a new leather sheath for this, you know, Cold Steel branded and everything, but never was able to. The Velcro on the strap has all but given up the ghost, so gotta be careful with that one.

Next up is the SOG Stingray. Now this one is nostalgic to me because this was the first like really nice pocket knife I carried. I don't know why that took so long to come out because now I'm thinking, wait, wasn't the Fury in there somewhere? But that thing is long gone. So this was the summer of 1991. I was just out of my sophomore year of college and I was living in Boston for the summer going to the Museum School Art School there. And super deeply in love with my second real girlfriend. And I remember she came to visit me in Boston. I was living in this crummy little sort of hostel but it was awesome, it was more of a dormitory for art students. And it was right on Commonwealth Avenue, so a very cool part of town.

And there was a knife shop, in all places, Boston, there was a knife shop on Newbury Street in the basement. I went down there, I saw this, and I knew about the SOG Bowie because I had just seen Terminator 2 and that was the first time I saw the SOG Bowie. And I saw this and I had to have it and I spent 91 dollars on this, which was a lot then—still a lot for a pocket knife. I remember this was 91 dollars. And that was like—I had a little food budget, this was before like oh transfer—there was no online banking, there was no online anything. So my parents sent me to Boston, I had a like a small stipend and I spent most of it on this knife and ate ramen the rest of the summer. But I carried this around in my right front pocket. It stayed north to south easily because of this grippy Kraton handle. And yeah, I think of that summer and man, just—it was like my first experience living in a city. I loved the city. I still kind of do, but just kind of in my mind now. Wouldn't want to live in one, but it was a magical time of my life and so that knife was a big part of it.

Next up, kind of on a similar line but a little later, probably about eight years later in the mid-90s I got this. This was the Cold Steel El Hombre. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen because I was just getting into Navajas, I thought this looked a lot like a Navaja. Even though it's based more on the Turkish Yatagan, it had that swoopy curve that just, I don't know, just really got me. I thought it was super unique. And so I saved up for it and got it, and then this was my EDC for a couple of years.

And I can remember going camping with the girlfriend at the time, and we were both—well, she got me to be a vegetarian, I guess I should say. She was a great vegetarian cook and so I was being fed vegetarian food and loved it. We went camping once and she brought some Tofu Lin, which is this tofu that's like fermented and marinated, and I cut it with this and it stained the blade forevermore. Kind of hard to see in the camera here but I can see it. So yeah, this was an early New York City knife—a New York City meaning that era in my life. I had just moved from Philadelphia. I remember I got this the day I saw Ghost Dog in the theater and I remember thinking, god, this thumb stud, this blade action is so hard I'll never be able to open it up one-handed. And a, it loosened up, and I b, became a man and so it became easy to open up. But truly a gorgeous knife. I've always been a huge fan of the Vaquero design, this was before the Vaquero name was put to it, but this knife, that four inches—it's also a small four-inch knife. This four inches of steel was on me for every day for a long time.

Next up, my first premium knife purchase. Besides the Cold Steel Tanto, but I mean I'm talking way expensive, was this. This is the Emerson Knives Commander. And this thing, I bought it in 1999, but I received a 2000 production and I tell the story a lot, I'll tell it again, that's the DeMarco way. But I ordered this and thought it would appear the next day because I had only bought like one or two things on the internet at this point and they had both arrived the next day. Little did I know that I had paid for like next-day shipping. But this didn't arrive the next day or the next day or the next day and I thought, oh, I've been had, I've been ripped off by the Knife Center. But instead of like chasing down the Knife Center, to me they were just some entity existing in some cloud in the sky, so I was like, oh well. Again, not quite a man yet. And then it appeared on my desk at work like a year later. I was like, oh my god, I remember this. And yeah, this was my main carry knife for a long time. Even though at first I was a little shy and squeamish because I paid 200 bucks for this thing and back then that was a lot of money. I guess it's still a lot of money.

And so it took me a while to start carrying it. But you've got this beautiful old school kind of—is it Micarta, is it G10, who the hell knows? I can't tell exactly what it is but you can see the weave in the handle material. It's much thinner than a current-day Emerson knife. It's got the back spacers, this is pre-standoffs. And it's got that long, long swedge which you see on the earlier Commanders. I'm not sure if he's brought those back, but you can see the lineage of this. And at the time I bought this and the knife before, as you can see, the Cold Steel El Hombre, I was super into recurves, super into recurves because that's when I had started training—I had just started training in Filipino martial arts and saw those swords and the recurves and the—I had to have everything I got, I wanted a recurve because it reminded me of a Filipino sword.

Next up, this one is an anonymous sort of generic knife. This is a knife I got as a groomsman gift, also by my friend Mike who introduced me to the Cold Steel Tanto. There's my initials, RLD. And his first wedding, his first wedding, I should say, was quite an affair. It was a big and fun and fancy affair, he got this for one of these for his groomsmen and this thing's a beautiful knife, I gotta say. It's not only nostalgic because I remember singing "Blue Moon" in front of a giant crowd drunk off my behind at his wedding—it was a blast. It was also the first sort of fancy event I ever went to with my now wife. We had just started dating and, again, it was a magical time. And it was so cool to have this knife in my pocket. I carried this one quite a bit. I haven't carried it in a while, but just unearthing it for a knife that's just called "stainless steel," it is a really, really nice knife. There's no blade play, it's nice and sharp, it feels great in the hand, the fit and finish is excellent for a generic knife. And I just love this thing. But most of all it reminds me of that wedding and everything about it but the bride was awesome. And thankfully that friend Mike has a different wife now and she is great, she's awesome. But that knife will always live in my memory.

Next up is one you see all the time, you see this a lot. This is my official road trip knife. It's the Microtech SOCOM Elite. And we've, you know, jumped forward quite a bit in time. I got this in 2013, this is a 2012 production. I got this used off of Blade Forums. and this was a first in a lot of ways: first knife with carbon fiber, first knife with bearings—I didn't even realize I just thought it was so sublimely smooth—first knife with S35VN, you know, first knife with a glass breaker. That's why it's always been my official road trip knife. So at this point it's become a bit of a superstition. If I'm in the car for longer than two hours I have to have this knife with me, just so I can break us out in case we crash.

The only—one of two knives where I will excuse the tip-down-only configuration. Just a truly amazing knife. One thing I remember, this was from a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. I remember cutting up about four Belgian waffles with this thing. and it's kind of awkward cutting with this knife, but I found the angle. Cutting waffles with this knife, I should say. I found the angle because I didn't want to drag that tip across the porcelain plate and once I did I cut them all, distributed them around the table, and then got to my own cold eggs. But yeah, love this knife and especially this one. This is a knife I'll never get rid of.

Next up is the Spyderco Sage 2. Now the Spyderco Sage series, that word "sage," they're not talking about the herb; they're talking about the word "sage" as it relates to luminaries in any sort of field of study or industry. And so this Sage series tips the hat—each model tips its hat to a different knife maker who came up with an innovative lock. And this is the Sage 2 and it is tipping the hat to Chris Reeve and his integral slash frame lock. And I got this one in 2014, right after my younger daughter was born.

I remember my wife saying "What do you want for Christmas?" This is another story I've told a million times, so forgive me. Old Man DeMarco's at it again. But "What do you want for Christmas?" and I said "Oh, I want the Spyderco Sage 2." And it was way more—way more in dollar amount than my wife would have been willing to spend at the time, but she had just had a baby and was kind of exhausted and just needed to tick a box. I was like, "Don't get me—you don't have to get me anything. This is a big year, don't worry about it." She's like, "Come on, Bob, that's not how we roll." So I was like, "Okay." She said, "Send me a link," I sent her the link. I opened this up at Christmas time and was so thrilled. Still love this knife, it's such a great design, feels great in the hand with that 50/50 choil. Or you can come back here, but really ergonomically it's so sound like this. I love the Sage series but this one really takes the cake for me. And every time I use it and pop it in my pocket—this used to be a big back pocket knife for me—and every time I put it in, think of my daughters, think of my wife and that moment sitting around the table where my wife was like, "I gotta get you a Christmas present." It was like the most un-heartfelt gift giving—and you know, that's in no way a criticism, it's part of the charm. And I snuck up on her and got a much more expensive knife than I would have otherwise, so I like it.

Next up, this one is nostalgic in a thousand different ways, or brings nostalgia. This was my grandfather T's Jean Case Cutlery Co. hunting knife. Looks a lot like a Marbles and this—my grandfather lived in Pearl River, New York. My grandma and grandpa lived in Pearl River, New York, in Rockland County right outside New York City. He built his house there, he had the ultimate basement. He had the ultimate set of tools, period. Including a lathe—all the—every—he had everything. And this was hanging up in his shop right near the door and I always loved it. I thought it looked like a pirate sword, I loved this thing. "Grandpa, grandpa, can I see the knife?"

And he once told me that he skinned a bear with this, but I always took that to mean he killed a bear with this, and I thought it was super cool. My grandfather, the way I saw him, he could have killed a bear with this, definitely. Beautiful stacked leather handles, what I think are—is an aluminum pommel, probably a stainless guard, and just a really cool upswept Marbles-style blade there for skinning and all sorts of camp chores. This one still has the leather sheath and this is getting there, this is almost a centenarian here. But "Robert Tinnirelli," you can see his name he carved in there, and then it says "Catskill" because he lived in Catskill, New York—no, he lived in the Catskill Mountains, you can see MTS, and then Tannersville, that's where he lived, 1937.

So this thing means a whole lot to me. It's usually hanging on the wall behind me, but until this room is rebuilt, it's not going to go up there; it's going to be kept safely away in my knife drawers here. But, you know, again, one of my prized possessions, another one from Grandpa T, and almost 100 years later it's still built like a tank and would do great. I'm just never going to take it out—you can also see I tried to sharpen it once and jacked up the blade. All right, that's a huge one and the leather, oh, the leather's so dried out; no amount of mink oil will bring it back. So I gotta be careful with it.

Next up is from my brother. This is the—he got me this US 1819 Trench Dagger with the full-on knuckle duster. And this was a knife growing up, we had a little—we had a book of weapons that we used to pour over. "And if you could have any knife on this page what would it be? If you could have any gun on this page what would it be?" You know, we'd spend time doing that and we both just thought this was the bee's knees, the coolest knife out there, period. And we would always point to this in the book.

Well, flash-forward 40 years or whatever it is and my brother bought me one because he has—well, because he's amazing and he's super generous and he is also—he's Knife Junkie-adjacent. I think he's turned into a Knife Junkie but he's a junkie for other stuff too. And he loves World War II memorabilia and militaria—I guess is more the word. He's very interested in the hardware and the history of that time and so these were used actually a little bit in the beginning of World War II; they were phased out quite quickly because of the use of bronze, but also they saw a little action at the end of World War I, so kind of an in-between or something close to this. Not with this knuckle duster, I have the 1917 I can show that another time.

So this thing means a lot to me because they're very hard to find, they're quite expensive. This is an LF&C, that was one of the manufacturers of this. And my brother got it for me. He's got me a lot of really, really great knives and I love and appreciate him not just for that but that's one reason. And so this knife in particular is special to me. He's got me a number of KA-BARs and I love those, he even got me a Fairbairn-Sykes and I love that. But nothing beats the all-American US 1918 bad-to-the-bone double-edge dagger trench knife. So big nostalgia here for this one. Also it has the metal clamshell sheath here.

Next up, this is the NoVA-1, the Hogtooth Knives NoVA-1. I say Hogtooth Knives and Knife Junkie NoVA-1 because I designed the blade and proposed to Matt Chase of Hogtooth Knives that he put that blade on his already existing, already extant handle. This was the handle used for the EDC Tanto and another Hunter that he makes, and it's super comfortable in hand—also the very, very, very similar if not identical to the Ruffian handle, also by Matt Chase. I just love the handle. I was carrying the EDC Tanto all the time, thought wouldn't it be cool to have this also in a bowie? And so we—this was the first project I've done where a knife that I designed or co-designed was turned into a real thing and people bought it. And so we sold this—we made—he made 27 of them and I sold them to our knife junkies here. So there are a number of you out there with this knife, like Byron, for instance, Byron Kennedy has one of these. And I know plenty of other Will B has one of these. And then we did the NoVA-2, that was the Kiridashi, and that also has a lot of nostalgic value to me, but this one really takes the cake because it was my first. And I absolutely love it. And this being the prototype, it says "Prototype," it's got my logo unnaturally large on it, which I like, and it's got a slightly different setup at the sharpening choil and a thicker handle. So a little different than the production "quote-unquote" 27-piece production model, but I love this thing and it will always be my first.

Next up, in a similar vein and a similar vein, is the TKell Knives Agent 001. And this was my first knife with Tim Kell and hopefully we do more in the future. But this knife was a design collaboration similar to the NoVA-1. The NoVA-1 was my blade and Matt's handle. This one is my blade and the handle was co-designed by me and Tim himself. So I sent him something that had a real extreme-looking bird's beak back here on the pommel and he tweaked the handle and made it feel great and together we put this out. And this means a lot of different things to me. First, I actually made money on this one and it was like a production production run, and it also forged a friendship with Tim Kell, who's an absolutely great dude, and Tim and his family and all the people who work with him—great dude, great people. Now I have a number of Agent 001s, but this was the first one I carried on a regular basis, so this one will always have a special place in my heart. This one is from the first production so it doesn't have that NCC—the Nick Chuprin custom milling, but it's still amazing milling and just an awesome, awesome knife. And of course with the sheath it rides beautifully right on the belt right up front in that front scout. But this knife will always be a landmark for me and I'm just grateful to have it, grateful to have been able to work with Tim.

All right, last in this list is a knife from my 50th birthday. You've seen this a number of times. This is also a Hogtooth knife, so couple of different things from him in this list, but this is my 50th birthday sub-hilt fighter. I'm a huge fan of Bob Loveless knife patterns, but chief among those is the sub-hilt fighter. I had already been collecting knives from Matt Chase and asked if he could make something like this and he said he'd never had and it would be a learning curve and he did an amazing, amazing job. But the interesting thing—not the interesting thing, the thing I'm—that makes it even more nostalgic is that my mom and dad got wind of this and insisted on paying for it. So once I gave him my design and the materials—I wanted it stag-handled—they dealt with Matt and did all the communications and bought the knife for me. And I know it was a very expensive knife. I don't know how much, but I know it was expensive. And so I'm always super grateful to my mom and dad for this beautiful, beautiful knife.

This 15N20 and 1095 blade steel in this gorgeous Damascus pattern—look at that. A very complex pattern that took a long time to make. And it is a long, slender clip point blade, fully double-edged, super sharp, meant for fighting. And then it's got the wrought iron reclaimed from the Longfellow Bridge in Boston by an ironworker friend of Matt. And then it's got antique black Micarta as the spacers here. A gorgeous hunk of stag that I actually witnessed Matt purchasing at Blade Show 20-whatever—I'm not even going to try and do the math—stainless silver pins in there, 27 pieces altogether in this knife and balanced perfectly as a fighting blade. But really the reason it's nostalgic is because it also forged a friendship with Matt Chase and my parents just going above and beyond as they always have and it's just super impressive. This beautiful sheath also—Matt Chase is an extremely talented leather worker and sheath maker and this one takes the cake because it is sexy. I dare say it's got what I call a corset-style belt loop—like this frog here looks like a woman's corset. So I like it.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, these are my nostalgia knives, knives that bring a lot of nostalgia to this sentimental aging Italian-American guy. And I love them all. It was hard to come up with this list because there are a lot of knives that I can associate certain memories with or certain eras of my life landmarks, and that's what I tried to do here: trying to get landmarks in my life. I'm sure you must have them if you're a Knife Junkie and you've been collecting knives for even five years; there are knives that remind you of certain times and certain experiences and emotions and memories. So let me know what those are. Drop in the comments below what your most nostalgia-inspiring knives are, I'd be very interested to find out.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks again for joining us. Join us on Thursday Night Knives on Thursday nights, 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time right here on YouTube. It's a blast and I want to talk to you guys. All right, 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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