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. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Announcer [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast. Your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:16]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Reese of Well Regulated. I started following Reese and his Well Regulated Instagram account when I discovered just who it was that designed my beloved work tough gear v44 x Bowie knife. Just from that design alone, I felt I knew a few things about its designer. He loves Bowies as much or more than I do, he has a real affinity for the Western slash Marine Raider style of Bowie, and he has excellent design instincts. That last supposition was based on his ability to draw a meaningful and beautiful update to the legendary design as seen in the V44X. I've made a number of assumptions about Reese from his page, but you know what they say about assuming.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:06]:
So we'll meet Reese and find out about the man from the man himself. But before we do, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell and download the show to your favorite podcast app. That way you can listen on the go. Also, if you'd like to help support the show, you can do so by scanning the QR code on your screen right here or going to the knife junkie.com Patreon and checking out what we have to offer you. Again, that's the knife junkie.com Patreon Adventure.

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Bob DeMarco [00:01:47]:
Reese welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, sir.

Reese [00:01:49]:
How you doing?

Bob DeMarco [00:01:51]:
I'm doing great. Thanks for joining me. So before we dig into the topic at hand and anyone who's watching this right now, people are listening. People are watching. But I know their eyes went from you down to those beautiful Bowies in front of you. And we'll talk about those in a second. But tell me first. I feel like I know where it comes from.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:09]:
But tell me about your name, your handle well regulated.

Reese [00:02:14]:
So I almost made a video on that because, you know, I guess it can sound kind of weird and you might not understand where it comes from, but you know, like a second amendment, like a well regulated militia. So these my channel kind of started off as like a gun channel and but it doesn't just mean like second amendment. So like well regulated also means like in good working order. So it's kind of like a, like a Physical fitness thing like preparedness. This, you know, like a, it has like multiple meanings.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:46]:
So a general overall sense of well regulated. Yeah, my, my mind first went to the second amendment, but I figured there was, there was more to it, you know, more to it than that. So how did you get involved in designing knives?

Reese [00:03:01]:
Well, I was, I got into an art school so I can, I can draw and stuff some, but I just don't sit down and do it a whole lot. And I didn't complete art school. I got in and I changed majors and. But as far as designing, so I was throwing, doing throwing knives for a while where I got pretty heavy into doing throwing knives and I started drawing some models of those, you know, just to have my own throw a knife because sometimes the, the distances like the lengths of the knife equate to your rotations. With my throw, I needed like a 15 inch knife. So I was kind of designing my own knife and I, I drew some stuff out, had to put on a file cut out of a saw blade. And before I started getting with work stuff gear, I also, there's a guy, Philip Burris, that's like a martial arts guy that does stuff in his garage and he's helped me with a couple prototypes and I mean I drew some things and had him try to do like some lichens, like some of the Ito wrap stuff. And when I really got into the Bowie, I guess designing, so this was like on a quest, you know, if like the perfect knife.

Reese [00:04:16]:
Because I searched for a long time. I've had a ton of knives, nothing very expensive until like kind of recently where I would consider more high end. But I got a lot of stuff and I'd get it. And then I wasn't happy with it. So I decided, hey, I'm going to make a custom, I'm going to find a knife maker and commission a custom knife. And so I started drawing it kind of the way I wanted to. And that kind of led into me doing a review on the Predator Hunter and that put me in contact with Vic and he asked me if I wanted to do a, like a knife. So but when I, my original design, I wasn't sure about the knife materials.

Reese [00:04:52]:
And the guy that I was gonna have make it, he was kind of starting off. So I had my, at first, my first design was to have Becker scales on there, but. And I had a BK20 that I was going to modify. But I ended up selling that because I didn't want to Dremel it, you know, Dremel a Choil in it. Mess up a collectible knife. And I wasn't crazy about the handle on like on the Becker. I know everybody really does like the Beckers, but I didn't like that it had was like kind of rounded off on the back. I felt like that you like lost some control.

Reese [00:05:22]:
So I wanted to like was going to do my own knife and was going to be for other people. I can't use somebody else's handle. So I, I redrew it and when I was in touch with work tough here and that kind of was the base drawing for the B44X. You know, becoming a production knife because I, I'm not like a knife designer that works for a company or anything. I was just a knife enthusiast that I was doing gun reviews and gun part reviews and I had like a gun channel mostly. I think I had one knife that I reviewed that a guy from an AK part store sent me. Yeah. So I guess it just really.

Reese [00:06:02]:
I was made. I was designing a knife for myself. I was asked if I'd like to make a knife with a company. And that's like, you know, that's something I never thought I'd be able to do. So when I had the chance to, you know, like I jumped to the chance and able to work with Vic and you know, put out the knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:19]:
Oh yeah. I mean work tough. Gear has been the, the greatest thing to hit knives, fixed blade knives in the last five years or I mean they haven't been around that long but man, they've made a splash. I also have that predator hunter Bowie. Just so people know what I've been going on and on about. This is the V44X Bowie. I'm sure most of you already know we're going to talk about this design and go into what you were, what your thoughts were, what your thinking was when you were redesigning it. But before we get to that, I want to back up a little bit.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:48]:
You, before we started rolling, you said you had 300 knives within reach. We could talk about. I just want to find out where you got into knives, how you got into knives. You got 300 of them all around you. You're like, you're like us.

Reese [00:07:02]:
They're kind of packed up in multiple places and like hidden. But so. So I've always kind of been like. I've always kind of gravitated towards that. So when I was about 4 or 5, my dad gave me a little buck knife. It's one of those ones where like a long skinny one pulls it at one Side and a little short study and pulls out the other side. So I had that knife at like, you know, four or five years old, and I flayed my finger open with it trying to cut an oak leaf, like the Dane of the oak leaf. And I learned early on my grandma put a paper towel on it and tape.

Reese [00:07:42]:
But I've always liked knives, and I've always. I was always asking for stuff, you know, like, hey, we'd go to this store called Green Top Sporting Goods, and I'd be like, you know, a bucket with full of machetes and all the displays. And I'd be like, dad, dad, you know, let me get a machete. You know, so right around the town that I was eight, I got a machete. Like, probably. I think it's probably like five or 15 bucks, whatever, you know, budget machete is. But I had a machete when I was 8, and I was kind of free range or so I was out, you know, making forts and chopping down stuff and, you know, so. And then actually, where's that knife down here? This was my first, like, kind of like, you know, like a nice knife.

Reese [00:08:29]:
I got this when I was in fifth grade. This was on Imperial. I guess they had a bunch of bayonet kind of blanks.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:38]:
Oh, yeah.

Reese [00:08:39]:
So this Imperial is going to business. But I got this in fifth grade for Christmas. And it has like a. You know, it's a survival knife kind of with, like a compass and had a bunch of matches and like a magnesium thing that's like a hammer, like, nail call.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:55]:
Oh, yeah.

Reese [00:08:56]:
So. And it's kind of funny because this is not the best, you know, survival knife. You know, it's like a dagger. It's not heavy enough to really chop, and it's not the. You know, I wouldn't pick this for a survival knife, but it looked cool and it was in my price range. This is what I got for Christmas. So that was. I've killed, like, snakes with these.

Reese [00:09:18]:
Like, my. When I was younger, my buddy stepped on a snake and, like, it went to bite him, like, in the back of the head. And. But this is the, like, the first, I guess, like, larger knife that I got. My dad gave me. I didn't pull it out, but I got a K bar, like one of the Skinners. It has a little thumb wrap back. I think the whole thing's about, you know, probably like this long.

Reese [00:09:42]:
He gave me one of those, too. So I had one of those around the same time, maybe even in earlier than fifth grades. And of course, I left the sheath outside. It got rained on. I think the dogs chewed it up. I would throw it at the bow and arrow targets and I lost it for a little while outside and I later, I later found it and it's kind of rusty because it was outside for a little bit and the leaves are lost in the grass. But I've kind of always, you know, had knives and then after I got no older and I didn't really have money then have a job and stuff. But no, I got like the, the Raider Bowie.

Reese [00:10:17]:
I think I bought that in like 98, but around 95, I bought the spec plus 7. It's like the fi. The 7 inch fighter. So I had that.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:27]:
You're talking the Ontarios right now?

Reese [00:10:28]:
Yeah, the Ontario. It's like spec, I think Spec Ops or Spec plus. Yeah, yep, I had it somewhere. But yeah, so I had that I think around 15. So. And, but really my ceiling for prices was right around, I think it was like probably 50 or 60 bucks. And I had a ninja sword. Of course I wasn't.

Reese [00:10:53]:
I was around Ninja Turtle time because I'm like 45.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:55]:
Okay.

Reese [00:10:56]:
So. So you know, like I begged for a ninja sword. So I got a ninja sword from like Smoky Mountain knife works. So. And that was really sharp. I cut myself pulling it out showing my grandparents because I have my finger over the guard. The, not the guard, but the scabbard. But I've just always been into knives and when I went to the military, like I made sure I had a bunch of knives on me.

Reese [00:11:20]:
I have, I have my pile of deployment knives down there. If we can, if you want to.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:24]:
Buy those words, let's see him. You were in the United States Marine Corps, correct? Yep.

Reese [00:11:31]:
Let me hop back up here.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:32]:
Well, as you do that, let me, let me thank you for doing that and for protecting my family with your body. We appreciate it.

Reese [00:11:41]:
Like I always wanted, since I saw the movie Navy seals, you know, when I saw that movie I'm like, that's what I'm gonna do. Like I had all the plans to be like an AP seal, but I'm really not that good in the water. And I was like, man, what am I gonna do? So I was like, well, I'm gonna be a ranger. So right outta high school I was gonna go into infantry, small arms in the army. And my dad really didn't want me doing that at all. So he's like, hey, apply to colleges. I'll pay for your college. So I was like, oh, you are.

Reese [00:12:11]:
So I got into college, went Two years. My little brother was going in the Marine Corps, so we went in together.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:19]:
Let me, Let me ask you this. You went in when your. When your brother did. Was that. Was that protective, big brother instinct kicking in?

Reese [00:12:28]:
It's a little bit protective, competitiveness, trying business. I knew he had a west coast guarantee, so he was definitely going to Florida. I mean, he's going to California. So, you know, I wanted to go in. I wanted to do that anyway. And some stuff happened around the same time where my brother was like, you know, hey, just say screw it and join the Marine Corps with me. I was like, yeah, I don't. I didn't want to go to college anyway.

Reese [00:12:51]:
What. What am I gonna do? Yeah, but it wasn't like a fun college. I was going like two days a week from like 8 to 6:45. I was working Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. You know, like, I didn't. I wasn't enjoying. I wasn't living it on campus. So I was constantly busy.

Reese [00:13:07]:
Like five hours of sleep if I got it at night. So I was busy. I wasn't having a good time. So I wanted to go to the military. So my brother's like, hey, let's go. I was like, yeah, okay. So like I. I had.

Reese [00:13:19]:
I was enlisted in college, had a job, and then like a large scale greenhouse. And then I withdrew from school and I talked to my bros recruiter on one Monday. The next Monday I was on Paris Island.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:33]:
Whoa, that's fast.

Reese [00:13:35]:
Very fast turnaround.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:37]:
Okay, so you just pulled out some of the knives you deployed with some of the knives you had in. In the Marine Corps. I think I saw a little Gerber boot boot dagger there. Yeah, I always wanted one of those.

Reese [00:13:50]:
This is one of the Gerber guardians. I had this on. I had a drop leg holster from SOE gear, and you have like two leg straps. And I had this knife and this Columbia River. I think this is a Carlson or something. I had to look it back up, but of course I broke that. But these were like my little utility, you know, like cut MREs. You know, it's where I don't have to pull out, you know, the big knife.

Reese [00:14:15]:
But these I had on both deployments. That's Ryan. Columbia River. Ryan. I had that pretty much my whole enlistment. I had also one of those Columbia river, you know, like the ones that everybody had with The Tanto.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:29]:
The M16.

Reese [00:14:30]:
Yeah, I had one of those two. That wasn't my deployment knife. I kind of had that around the barracks and stuff, but I mostly had this Guy and my first deployment knife. I was on the 11th year and while we were doing workups for the 11th view, that's actually when 911 happened. I was out. I was in 29.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:49]:
I'm sorry, sir, what is the 11 MU. What is that?

Reese [00:14:52]:
It's the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:55]:
Oh, okay.

Reese [00:14:56]:
So they leave from out from the west coast. They do like a six month float. You do like some humanitarian stuff. You're kind of like on call doing like circles out in the ocean around like the like Red Sea, Persian Gulf. I think we were off the coast of Djibouti. We did a bunch of ports. Like, one reason I wanted to California also was because I wanted to go. Always wanted to go to Australia.

Reese [00:15:20]:
And the west coast mews, they go into Australia. So I got to go to Australia three times. Twice on the mew and once on the way back from my Iraq deployment.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:32]:
Oh, wow, that's cool.

Reese [00:15:34]:
Like, Australia was great, but I could not. I couldn't find a knife. I went through all the gift shops. I'm like, hey, where can I find a bowie knife? I want like a, you know, Crocodile Dundee bowie knife. I don't have anything here. Like old stuff, antique, like, you know, but I don't know if it's the laws, the cities we're in. But I could not find a knife to buy. I got a.

Reese [00:15:55]:
I got a didgery doing some boomerangs. That's cool.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:58]:
I didn't do an attention.

Reese [00:16:01]:
I really wanted a, you know, like a, you know, Dundee type Bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:04]:
Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Who. Who among us didn't? So what else do you have there from that period?

Reese [00:16:11]:
So this has a different sheath because the sheath I had fell apart. And these are discontinued. These are like a spec ops sheath. But the, the green one, the camos one fell apart and I replaced the scales. I still have the black, like rivalry scales, but I replaced them with Micarta. That's like my spray paint camo job. But this is a Becker BK7.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:34]:
So. So you carried this and you. How many knives would you have on you at at once?

Reese [00:16:41]:
Well, I had this. The way I had my gear set up. I was a saw gunner, so I had a machine gun.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:45]:
Oh, okay.

Reese [00:16:46]:
So a lot of times I have had a gear with my. My drums on there. A lot of times I would have those off, but I was an mp, so I had my like pistol belt. So I had a pistol belt with my pistol and I had a knife on this side. And sometimes I would move the gas mask, like have it on the same belt on the drop. But when I did this deployment, like, I would keep this knife in my belt. And so, like, that way, when you're walking around base, when you don't have your long rifle, like, I always either had a knife or, like, a pistol on me, like, but no matter, like, where I was or sleeping or whatever.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:19]:
Is it true that you can't be armed on. On Marine Corps bases now?

Reese [00:17:24]:
Well, one thing was really weird on base. So, you know, all of our guns are locked up in the armory. So it's not like you have access to your rifle, your pistol, your stuff. And they have really strict rules. They had, like, health and comfort inspections. So once I had a vehicle, I could keep stuff locked in my car. Like, I keep, like, my knife in my car. But they didn't even want us having, like, our K bars in the barracks.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:47]:
Really?

Reese [00:17:47]:
So you think, like, oh, Marines, they have all their stuff, but, like, yeah, they kind of treat you like kids because, I mean, we act stupid and get drunk and junk off, you know, jump off the second deck and stuff. So. And we fight and, you know, everybody's drinking, Everybody's young and bored. So it's probably maybe. Maybe his best, but we just didn't have access to all that stuff. One. One of the guys that I was in with got in trouble because he had a foot locker. He was trying to go do the.

Reese [00:18:14]:
The indoc. I think, to do recon, and he had pistols under his bed and stuff. He got caught and got in big trouble. Having. It was in California too. So I don't know what. What weight the state laws factor into the military base, but you just don't really have access to stuff. I bought one of my first.

Reese [00:18:33]:
They bought my first pistol because I bought a Glock 17 when I turned 21. And I was actually at home. If you have orders, you know, from to California, but your home address is Virginia, I can still go to Virginia and buy a pistol. So When I turned 21, I bought a Glock 17 and I was in California when Kimber was still first coming out. I bought a Kember. Custom tactical, too.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:54]:
Nice.

Reese [00:18:55]:
I kept that in the, like, the gun range locker. And I had to check it out and, you know, shoot it and then put it back in my locker and crawl back to the barracks. But, yeah, the access to stuff is not, you know, it's not like we just have all of our guns and knives and we're running around doing stuff all the time. This is my K bar. I think these are discontinued. I Mean they make a similar blade. But this is the, this is a 1232 or something. 1272.

Reese [00:19:26]:
It's like the K Bar next generation fighter. Yeah. So it's like a. I think it was an 8 inch versus like a 7 or whatever the typical K bar length is. It's 8. This is like the Kydex sheath, little rubber piece that rotted and like kind of fell off. But you know, that's that. This is what I brought with me my Iraq deployment.

Reese [00:19:49]:
And actually had this mounted right here on my gear.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:52]:
Upside down, huh?

Reese [00:19:54]:
Right. So because I had had like your interceptor bus, like the Woodland Interceptor bus with this on there. I had my gear set up so I could put the suspenders over top of that so it didn't interfere with my knife. And I'd have like my belt with my pistol, with the pistol mags. And usually I was in a vehicle. So a lot of times I would keep my gear rolled up and stuck either on the floor somewhere up behind the back seat or if I had to, I could like grab it and throw it over my shoulder and jump out if we had to. Like, you know, we got ambushed or something happened where he. We had to get out of the vehicle.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:25]:
So is this where you gained your love for the Bowie knife and seems like you really love that Marine Raider Bowie where it's got a nice dramatic clip and a big belly towards the front. Is this where this happened?

Reese [00:20:42]:
Well, this. I got this knife two years before I joined in 98. And this is one of the first Raider buoys from Ontario. It wasn't always Cam though, but I had in the back of like my Suzuki Samurai and it got wet and got rusted. But I've had this since 1998. And this is Ontario's Raider Bowie. So I had this for a while too before I even, you know, went to the Marine Corps. And I never really knew what the Marine Corps was all about.

Reese [00:21:11]:
You know, when I was younger, um, I was always either thinking Navy Seals or like Army. I just knew the Marine Corps were guys that, you know, where they were all like crazy and wore blue dress blues and try to get you to sign up and do pull ups at football games. I didn't really know what they were about or what they did. So the K bar thing, I didn't know a lot about K bars until later. But when I was 18 I had this. So that's. This is pretty similar to the like. This is like a Collins, like a like Raider Bowie.

Reese [00:21:45]:
They call them like a bailout knife. The Air Force had them first like the army. The Army Corps of Engineers. Like the Army Air Corps of Engineers. They were in like survival kits and these little cutouts under the seat with like a survival kit like in the seat cushion. But all the times they got pillage and guys would take them out and stealing and carry them. But the second Raiders, this was actually on their gear list. For the second Raiders you have this.

Reese [00:22:15]:
They had a stiletto from Camless. But this is always messes up. It's like a brain fart.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:21]:
I have.

Reese [00:22:22]:
It's either Carlson or Carson's Raiders. I think it's Carlson's Raiders.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:26]:
Okay.

Reese [00:22:26]:
But I always say the wrong thing it seems like. And I. I realize I do it but I always. I always mess it up. But he requested this on the gear list. And this is what people refer to as like a Raider Bowie or most people see. But there was on different contracts where they couldn't fulfill all the need for the military. So Ken folks made them Western made one called the Bushman BX54 case.

Reese [00:22:51]:
Made one the Case XX and. But the original one is Collins. Collins had the first one and all the other ones US companies were fulfilling the. What they. What Collins couldn't meet. Um, I think they're in Hartford. They were in Connecticut. This one's really rusted, but that is a beauty.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:11]:
Uh, I have a. I have a Collins machete on my wall right here. This thing.

Reese [00:23:16]:
Yeah, I've got one of those down there. It's a lot thicker than I thought it was going to be. I think.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:21]:
I can't. I can't believe that that was just part of someone's kit. It's so heavy.

Reese [00:23:25]:
I would never want to carry that.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:27]:
Anywhere by today's standards. Yeah, yeah. That's why I was asking you about, you know, how many you carried with you when you were deployed.

Reese [00:23:35]:
So yeah, like usually one dig knife, two little knives on my. On my gear. You know like on my drop leg. Just like quick, quick accessible pocket knife that stayed in my pocket all the time. But you take your gear off and it's sitting somewhere. So I always had a pocket knife and then I had a pair of a. They called it like a lifer tool. It's like a pretty much like a fold up Gerber pliers.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:56]:
Oh, okay.

Reese [00:23:57]:
I had that on my gear next to my pistol belt. And you know if you're working with machine guns and cutting safety wire and doing stuff, it's always good to have pliers because stuff with machine guns gets weird. Like the, the Links get stuck in things, and you have to. There's stuff you have to do sometimes to fix things.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:13]:
All right, so let's. Let's fast forward to recently. I don't even know when. Uh, but you. You had the Poozan Predator Hunter Bowie from Work Tough Gear, you made a video, and Vic, whose last name escapes me, from Work Tough Gear, got in touch with you. How did this happen?

Reese [00:24:34]:
So I bought the Predator Hunter and actually bought the knife by accident. Like, it was a night. Like. Like my grandfather was dying that night. Like, he had been. Like, it was on the way out that week, and I was on night shift. But I knew this drop was happening, and I hadn't bought a knife yet from there. So I set my account up attached to PayPal.

Reese [00:24:54]:
That way, if I wanted to, I could do the knife. And all the time, I'll do this thing where, like, I'll add stuff to my cart, go to checkout, and, like, see what the shipping is and the total is. And I'm like, nah, I shouldn't do this. Exhale, Rob. I'm like, ah, screw it. I'm like, by now, I'm like, oh, I should have done, but. But this time I'm still like, I hit. I added to the cart, and I hit whatever the NAT button was after you add it to your cart.

Reese [00:25:17]:
Like, check out little things start spinning. And it said, congratulations on your order. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I just bought a knife by accident for like 3:30. And the guys at work are like, you, you idiot. Like, what do you mean you bought a knife by accident? I'm like, I pushed checkout now, and it didn't say submit or, you know, completes your order. Just like, it's like, it's yours. So then I was, you know, I had the knife, and I was asking the guys on, like, my social media, which is mostly gun people, like AK people.

Reese [00:25:46]:
I'm like, hey, should I. Should I resell this? Is this like a limited drop, or should I do like a use review? You guys want to see that? And guys were like, oh, yeah, hell yeah. You know, use the knife, do a review. So I did a review of the Predator Hunter, and I just put it up and my YouTube channel. I've been on YouTube for over eight years. And my first. First couple years, I had 25 subscribers for, like, over probably two years at least or more. And it's like, nobody, you know, nobody subscribed to myself.

Reese [00:26:20]:
So my channel's never been monetized. YouTube has monetized some of my videos, but I haven't given them permission to do that. They just had done it. So. So, Vic, I tagged him, you know, of course, on Instagram, and he asked me. He's like. He's like, hey, I saw you did a video with a predator hunter. Is it okay if I use the video? So I was like, sure.

Reese [00:26:43]:
You know, it's not monetized. You know, you can just do whatever you want with it, you know? So he had. He used the video, and I think it might have been. I don't know if it was a couple days or maybe a week or two weeks. I forget the time frame, but he's like, hey, would you be interested in making a knife with us? So, I mean, of course, I'm. I was already currently working on my own, you know, custom night for myself. So I was like, yeah, I would love to do that. You know, it's.

Reese [00:27:09]:
I've always loved knives. It'd be great. Second. I started, like, kind of like a long process of getting the final drawing nailed down and getting the dimensions on the handle right. I got that in there somewhere. But it's like a white handle, like a 3D print. But that kind of started the whole process. That was a long process.

Reese [00:27:31]:
And actually, nobody knew that I was working on that knife until blade show of 2023, when I brought the prototype with me. Sing along. It's a blade show. So. So I was. It was probably over a year or so, you know, probably close to two years just getting this ready and then getting this turned into a 3D printed handle and getting the specs right. But, yeah, that's kind of how that worked. It was.

Reese [00:27:59]:
Got kind of all by chance, which is funny, because when I started my YouTube channel, I didn't know really what I wanted, what I wanted to do or get out of it or do with it. I was like, well, I'll just make some videos. I'm shooting a lot. I think at the time I was probably shooting like a thousand rounds a month or something. I had a group of guys in a bunch of places I was shooting, shooting at. So I started recording stuff and putting stuff out there. And it's like, you know, who knows? Maybe some someday somebody will see something and it will give me open up some doors to stuff. And lo and behold, I end up being able to have, like, a production knife, which is something I didn't think, you know, was gonna be able to happen, so.

Reese [00:28:38]:
Cool.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:38]:
So is this a prototype you're holding in your hand, right?

Reese [00:28:40]:
Yes, this Is this is the prototype. And so this. So I originally intended the knife to have. Just make sure y' all can see that they have a round fuller.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:51]:
That looks good.

Reese [00:28:52]:
Like. Like the K bar. Yeah. This one actually came flat because it was done on a belt. And I used a Dremel and rounded it off by hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:59]:
Oh, nice.

Reese [00:29:00]:
I was a little nervous doing that because it's like a 400 prototype. So. So it was a. The drawing. I had the drawing in my closet that's a little bit off. Like, some of the clip got taken off and some of the belly got taken off doing the grinding. But this is, like the. The basic shape, you know, like, it's pretty close.

Reese [00:29:20]:
It's really close to the drawing. Not exact. And then after I got this, when I had to do a final drawing, you know, I. I added the belly song and I kind of made the clip pronounced, and I wanted more. So this is. I don't know if you can see that, but this is thin. I was really worried about the tip, you know, being too thin. So I.

Reese [00:29:45]:
You know, I think a swedge looks great, like on the Raider Bowie and stuff, but I just did not want to make it the tip really fragile. So on the production, kind of did, like, a really short chamfer for the.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:02]:
Like, right here.

Reese [00:30:04]:
Yeah, we just did a little bit.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:06]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:30:07]:
So I think on maybe the Bravo that's coming out later, that will have a little bit wider swedge, but it almost, like, tapers off into the tip, so it doesn't take any material off of. There is. Right. Actually, I put, you know, you don't know exactly how things are going to work out, but when I ordered this, I mean, I can. I guess I'll talk about that. So I was talking to the maker, and I was like, well, I might want to reshape things. Like, I actually got a Dremel tool and reprofiled everything. So I had to make the hand.

Reese [00:30:39]:
The handle bigger than I wanted it. And it's a full tank, so there's no cutouts. So that way I could. I got my Dremel tool, and I would go out and chop with it and do a bunch of chopping and, like, you know, heavy chopping and stuff. And if I felt like my hand was slipping off too much or needed a more ramp or a more contour up here or something, I would just sit there. And. And so this is so. But, like, I shaped that with, like, a Dremel tool.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:09]:
That is cool. So this. This was a prototype that you had Custom made. And did you send this to Vic to show him?

Reese [00:31:17]:
I think it would have been a lot easier to do that than doing like, you know, doing measurements from millimeters to standard because I had to learn millimeters and get calipers to do millimeters. I didn't know, you know, the conversion. So I had to start doing all my measurements in millimeters. But it had a. I had, I put jimping on there too. And you know, if you're holding it like that and the blade would have been here, it's probably not bad. But when you start choking up on the choil, it just like eats into the web of your palm. Oh yeah, and that's just not, it's not, it's not cool anymore when it's like, you know, sawing off here on the webbing of your hand.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:54]:
Well, an interesting thing about the production, at least the one that I have here, this is from the second run, is that the. Almost the entire spine is 90 degrees. And I've started fires, a lot of number of fires with this just in the back, back yard here, but right where the thumb would be and right where the web between the thumb and the forefinger would be in the choil grip is nicely chamfered there just for about an inch until it transitions into right there just before it transitions into the 90 degree spine. I love that feature.

Reese [00:32:30]:
So that was actually something that, that was something that was Vic's idea. Like, like my way of thinking was, you know, hey, make it all flat if they want it smooth and they can knock it down with like a diamond file or, you know, do it themselves. But Vic really wanted to make the product, you know, like finish and like to come like, you know, where you don't have to modify to make it comfortable. So that's, that probably would have bothered people if they're using the choil and then they're, you know, they're getting cut up with a sharp spine. So was that was probably a good idea to go ahead and make it come that way from the, you know, like from the factory.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:08]:
So let me ask you this, Reese. You, you have the Marine Raider Bowie. You want to design a new one? What were the things about the original that made you make the changes that were incorporated into your final design for the V44?

Reese [00:33:28]:
So I kind of got into Bowies. I wanted a large clip point Bowie, not, you know, like a W49, like the Becker BK 2029. I like that, that shape like the Raider Bowie that I had. So looking into Ethan Becker Stuff his inspiration for the Moses and the Boondock Bowie. His inspiration. So that's when I kind of learned more about the Raider Bowies. Like I knew about the Marine Raider Bowie, the modern one. But I hadn't gotten into the history as much until I looked into Ethan Becker's inspiration for the 20 and the 29.

Reese [00:34:07]:
So when I found that and I got the. I think the 20, that really kind of put me down the path of like, like, oh my gosh, now I need to get one of those. Like I. I found one that had like a night bone inlay of like a skull where a marine had like carved in and carved a enemy's bone and like inlaid it in the. Like the guard. Marines did crazy stuff. But. But like I really wanted the green horn handle and ended up getting.

Reese [00:34:35]:
I think I've had three or four of those now.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:37]:
But what is the green horn handle?

Reese [00:34:40]:
I don't think I have one. I didn't.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:42]:
Is it. Is it a shape or a material?

Reese [00:34:45]:
Was some material. It's like a actual like buffalo horn.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:48]:
Oh.

Reese [00:34:48]:
And it's like a green color. I. I forgot to bring. I have a whole box under there. I didn't pull it out from under the bed.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:53]:
That's all right.

Reese [00:34:54]:
But it's like a. Same shape. Same exact shape. It just has. It's almost like a. Almost like a ghost shade G10 with like swirls of like white and yellow. And some are darker, some are gray. I had one that's.

Reese [00:35:09]:
I have two that are gray. A lot of people don't know this, but most of these are brass and the pins are different colors. Some are. Some are brass, some are like a. I don't know if it's lead or steel. I think it's steel. But some of the guards are actually nickel plated. And so, you know, people.

Reese [00:35:29]:
Nobody likes collectors don't like to put out their secrets because then everybody knows what to look for. But they had a nickel plated one. A lot of them were. Were for the second raiders that were ordered. But if you ever find one like this that has a silver like a nickel colored guard, those are really rare. I got lucky and found one on a Facebook knife herd. I found one recently for one of my buddies that collects knives and they needed one of those and they were trying to buy mine. So I found another one at an estate sale and they were able to get that one for there.

Reese [00:36:01]:
They have a huge Collins Collins collection like. Like a basement wall and they needed that. They needed that guard. So I found them One for a good price. So we both have one.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:13]:
That's awesome.

Reese [00:36:14]:
Can.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:15]:
Can you pick that knife back up? I want to. I want to make an observation. The pommel of this knife, first of all, looks. Looks. Looks sort of like the Western, but when I look at this pommel, it reminds me of the pommels of Filipino knives and. And weapons. It just kind of has that. That it's probably.

Reese [00:36:38]:
I mean, it's kind of like. It's almost like a Latin machete, like a typical machete handle. But I don't know if this back piece here. I know one thing, like, a reason that I put, like, did so I didn't want to add stuff that didn't make sense to this thing, but the reason it goes down like that is so when you're chopping, your. Like, the fat part of your palm hits on that. So when you're going down like this, you just stop the knife, you know, like, that part's pushing into your hand, so it's. It's not, like, rotating forward or turning out or, like, rolling in your hand or deflecting. It actually helps you, like, decelerate.

Reese [00:37:15]:
So I don't know if that was, like, you know, why they had this little extra piece, because it kind of, you know, hits. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:23]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:37:24]:
I don't know why it's there, but.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:26]:
I think that makes. That makes total sense, actually, because without that, especially guys with bigger hands might be slipping off the back, and then you would have the corner of that gouging into your hand.

Reese [00:37:38]:
This one's actually got three notches in it.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:40]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:37:41]:
And I've got some other knives that have stuff carved in it, but you never know what it means. It could be three kills. It could be three, you know, deployments, Like, I don't know. But this one was really beat up, and it has the notches in there, but I don't know what they. I don't know what they're from.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:59]:
I love that. That's one of the things I love about. About the old knives behind me and in my collection, like, just thinking about what they. What they experienced. I know that's a weird way of putting it, but what. What these knives were used for, what they went through, what they meant to the person who owned them. Like. Like a couple of the K bars my brother has given me from World War II and Korea have things inscribed in the leather sheaths.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:25]:
And I don't know. I love that because these. These are all things that predate me. And I'm, you know, I'm Getting up there, I'm, I'm over a half century here and. But, but to think that these were used by people and relied on by people and you know, I, I just love that. Oh, what do you have there in front of you there?

Reese [00:38:43]:
So a little more history because these are rare. Sometimes things are so rare that nobody knows what they are and they get listed wrong on estate sales and stuff all the time. So this is a aluminum. It's. It's actually pretty heavy. It's aluminum guard. This was the first Raider Battalion knife. I think it was Second Lieutenant Carl Carlson.

Reese [00:39:05]:
Carlson, man, I can't never get that right on Phil selling bakers. But his son, like the guy that formed 2nd Raiders, his son was also in the Raiders, like he was an officer. So he commissioned a thousand of these to be made in New Zealand. And I think the company now is Victory. I follow them on Instagram, but it's Victory Knives out of New Zealand. So they commissioned a thousand of these and see if you can see it. So they, the handles were OD green, but not many of them have the, the paint on it still. This one actually has a little bit of the OD green paint.

Reese [00:39:42]:
And the same company also made a couple hundred for the. It's like the rnzaf. It's like the New Zealand Air Force because it was like a, their bailout knife for their, their pilot survival knives. But they, they made some too. And um, the way you can tell the difference is the, the ground height's different and the blades are different lengths. So that's how you can tell if you find something that looks like this. And if you have one of the, the scabbards for the New Zealand one, they have like kind of like a khaki color with like some leather on it and the back is stamped rnzaf. That, that's for New Zealand.

Reese [00:40:21]:
But the ones with the green paint stuff were Raider bullies. So I've got two of these. I've got two of the thousand First Rigor boys.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:29]:
Wow.

Reese [00:40:30]:
One I paid a lot for and I actually sold had a bunch of AK surplus stuff that I'd bought before AKs got real popular. And I sold a lot of money of that and where I pretty much paid for this when I sold the AK surplus.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:48]:
Are these the same, Are these from the same run? Because the.

Reese [00:40:54]:
It's definitely a little different. It's definitely different. So this one's skinnier usually a lot of times you see this blade profile is more on the RNZF ones, but materials were Scarce and you know, like I don't know where they were sourcing the material or if they had more than one guy in the shop or how they were like when they were making the batch for the Raiders versus the New Zealand Air Force. I don't know like if they were making them in batches or if it took them a month or at all the same time. Like, I don't know all the details of that. It's probably in paperwork somewhere. I just don't know. There are different, like these are the same length but they're.

Reese [00:41:42]:
I like the grind height is right. But one has more of a belly on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:45]:
Yeah, that one, the one in your, in your right hand, looks like it's got a thicker waist or a thicker Ricasso area there.

Reese [00:41:54]:
It's, it's about the same. These are actually a lot thicker. Like these. The second, second Raider boat, like the Collins, these are about like an eighth of an inch, like more like a machete. But these are closer to like 3:16 where they're actually like closer to the size of like the like, like my Boeing. But this one has a similar swedge. Where the swedge isn't like, you know, it's not like a K bar, right.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:21]:
It doesn't get real thin there.

Reese [00:42:23]:
You can see where it's kind of like it's actually pretty, it's pretty similar to this one.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:29]:
So when you designed the profile for the V44, V44X, what was your.

Reese [00:42:38]:
What.

Bob DeMarco [00:42:38]:
Was your goal in making such a deep belly?

Reese [00:42:43]:
So here's where I was when I was drawing out, while I'm thinking in my head, like why I wanted to do certain things. So I wanted to make something that shopped really well but wasn't very heavy. So I wanted the mass of the weight to be on a certain spot. And if you were batoning and stuff, I wanted that to be over the top of certain areas too. So like you get the most efficient, you know, like use out of all the weight that's there. So I wanted to have extra material here so it'd give you like a little bit of like, you know, chopping mass. And I wanted, with a tip, you know, I think like, even though it's a tool, it's also like, you know, a knife is defensive, maybe offensive, you know, if you're, you know, some type of environment where you're going to be stabbing like a pig or you know, something like, I guess something else. But I wanted this tip to be center lined so like, you know, when you're if you had to stab something, you know it's going to go almost like right on like a can opener, you know, it's gonna, it's not going to be like weird where it's kind of not gonna penetrate.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:49]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:43:50]:
A lot of the clip was I wanted the belly there for like the weight because I wanted this. This was 3:16, which is like 5 millimeters. And originally the first knife I was gonna have for myself, I was gonna do a quarter inch. But after handling some quarter inch knives, I was like, you know what? This is so heavy. Like after you use this for a while. I actually got tendinitis in this arm and it lasted for like a year. I did a video on YouTube how to fix tendinitis because it was so bad. Like, I could barely hold stuff and do certain things.

Reese [00:44:24]:
So I really wanted to make a knife that was like not fatiguing, not gonna injure you, you know, like, you go so big, if you're like whaling on something, you can really hurt, you know, hurt your ligaments and, you know, hurt your arm, especially if you're not doing manual labor stuff and your body's not used to that. But all the shape, you know, like, I wanted the clip point, like, like the Raider Bowies, this one. So it's, it's kind of similar to that one.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:53]:
Yeah, it, you know what the, the B44 looks almost like, and forgive the use of this term, I don't mean it in a negative way because this is one of my favorite pix blade knives, but it's almost a caricature of the Marine Raider in that, in that it, it, it exaggerates. It exaggerates the lines on the, on the Marine Raider to massive effect.

Reese [00:45:14]:
But that was kind of like the, the X part of it because like a B44, but it's like the extreme.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:19]:
Oh, okay.

Reese [00:45:21]:
So like the kind of like the concept of the extreme part, I wanted to take all the stuff that I didn't like about, like, I don't want to talk, you know, bad about other knife designs, but after you've had a lot of different knives and you've chopped with stuff and some hurts your hand, some like come out of your hand and you know, or they're wearing hot spots and different things on you, you know, like the reason I had my own custom made was like, had so many things that they didn't like about other knives that I'd used in the past, you know, like machetes too. Like use a bunch of different machetes, you know, you Find out what is not comfortable. So what I really wanted this to do, that's why some guys wanted a guard on both sides. But you know, then you can't choke up and you can't, you can't do a lot of stuff if you have a big guard back there.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:05]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:46:05]:
I really wanted this to be like an extreme version, like a functional, like a hard use extreme version of like the regular. So I wanted the handle to be comfortable. I wanted it to stick in your hand. I wanted you to be able to do like. I know people don't like the whole term like, like one tool option, but like this knife compared to the smaller stuff I've drawn up, like this was really meant to kind of do like you know, multiple different things. You know, know, like do fine work. Yeah. Chop well like a, like a.

Reese [00:46:40]:
The whole concept of like the American bowie knife is like a, like a do it all tool that you're going to have with you. You might not have other stuff. And let's see, where's this big knife? So they always say like, oh, you shouldn't do that with a knife. That's not what it's for. But this knife, you can see on the spine, it has marring marks that are actually worn down some. But if you're in the field, you don't have the option to like you might not have a hammer or you might not have a, you know, the stuff you need. So you just have what you have with you. So you know, guys would hammer with spines and do things like, you know, prior stuff and break tips.

Reese [00:47:18]:
And one thing you can see too a lot on the originals, especially on the, the cases their tangling went down to like here. So they were always break right in this crack. Like they're either cracked or there's a ton broken that people have rehandled, but they would crack all the time. So the whole, I guess the whole thing is this is supposed to be like a more functional, like a, like a, like a beefed up extreme, like extreme version of like the Raider buoy. You know, even like this, you know, like it's not a terrible handle. A bunch of people I'm sure have used this but you know, it leaves a little bit to be desired.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:01]:
Well, this one on the V44 you've really extended the. The handle itself is larger than at least the Western W49 I have here. And the. And the Ontario that you were. The SP10 you were just holding up and then you add the choil and that that gives it even you Know, essentially that makes the handle from here to here, almost like 6 inches. So a lot of versatility here. You can choke all the way back here for chopping. You have a hidden lanyard hole here.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:32]:
So you could. So I, I love the practicality of this. Now, granted, this, you know, every time I've used this, it's been like, ooh.

Reese [00:48:41]:
I'm going out to use.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:42]:
It's not like I've needed to use this in my. But that's, that's how my knife collecting is. It's. But I do carry every day a fixed blade knife. And I see a little prototype in front of you, and maybe it's not a little prototype, but these guys or these, these guys. That right there.

Reese [00:49:01]:
All right, so this is a knife. So I had these prototypes too. The EDC one, I have like readings up here, but this is actually one that I've like, I really want to have this knife made, you know, like, really, like really bad. Like, I think this is something that I think will be more useful to a lot of people. It's right at like 13 inches, maybe just like a hair under. But in comparison, what I've done is so like this one, when I designed this knife, it's full tang. I put the hardware holes in places where they wouldn't be in thin points, but I wanted the knife to be. You know, when people pick this knife up, one of the first things they say is they're like, wow, that knife is lighter than I thought it would be.

Reese [00:49:42]:
So that's because it's got like a. The handle is kind of balanced. So it's, it's making the, it's keeping the weight back so the knife, this part up here doesn't feel as heavy.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:52]:
Right.

Reese [00:49:52]:
So. So this is a more of like a one tool option, multi grip, you know. But I don't need to have a long handle, you know, on a shorter, like a, like a seven inch blade. Like a seven. I think this was that seven inch of sharpened part. But you don't need all that handle. So I wanted this to be more compact. I want it to be something where the pommel was more round.

Reese [00:50:12]:
That way when it's on your, on your side, you know, you're not like destroying your elbows when you're walking. People don't think about that stuff when they're adding stuff to their knives. I might do a slight little bump there and that. That was just going to be a standoff for like hammering.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:29]:
Okay.

Reese [00:50:29]:
Like if you're like doing baton or something, tapping stuff Back in. Or maybe you gotta do a quick, you know, like, hit something, but it's not gonna be for, like dedicated, for like hitting people. You have a giant blade in your hand. If you like pummel, pummel crushers, that's fine. But that's not one of the things where I'm like, I've gotta have one of those. Or that's like a deal breaker, dude.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:50]:
They, they, they end up just hurting the person who's carrying them.

Reese [00:50:54]:
Either wearing something or scratching up a weapon, scratching up a piece of gear, hurting your elbows, your arm, or heaven.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:00]:
Forbid, you try and use it in reverse grip and put the thumb back there.

Reese [00:51:03]:
Yeah, like, and with this one too, you know, we looked at different stuff like that. But if you, like when you chop down, you can chop down to your pinky and stuff, and there's nothing, you know, like, hitting your hand. A lot of guys were like, there's no, there's no glass breaker. That's a deal breaker for me. Like, you have a giant knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:18]:
The whole thing is a glass breaker.

Reese [00:51:21]:
Okay. You know, like, but so, so this one, this is the. And what I'm calling this one is the. The V44. And I've kind of been kind of funny with the name, but it's. I was trying, when I drew this, you know, similar to the Becker, you know, like my first deployment knife. And this is what a lot of people, they're like, hey, that's like a great, you know, like field utility combat, you know, like, deployment knife. And what I don't like about a lot of K bars and stuff is this is the new K bar.

Reese [00:51:53]:
Lucas did these scales, they make this knife, it looks killer like this. But this is more, you know, it's not a very heavy blade. It's more of like a stabber. You can do utility and cutting, but this is more like a combat knife. So if you had to like chop down a tree or, you know, do anything else, and it's not really much of a slasher, you know, like a heavy, like, belly slasher.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:15]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:52:16]:
So what I wanted to do is get a. I'm calling this the D44 field utility. So it's like a field utility knife that can like kind of fill a bunch of roles. Like a shrunk down version of the V44X. But stuff you can, like, if you had to, you know, you can like chop down a tree, clear, like shooting lanes, clear places for like a mortar, like, do like heavier utility, utility work, but still have something that, you know it will Fit on your belt.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:44]:
Yeah. Field utility knife. That's a, that's a, it's got a great acronym too. You know, everyone could, you know, shorten it and just.

Reese [00:52:50]:
Yeah, I was calling it like Joe Flame, like the field utility combat knife. But that's.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:58]:
I like the shape of the wedge on this one too. It's a, the clip is a slightly different shape.

Reese [00:53:04]:
It's a. Yeah, I've had to like Dremel it in. So this is.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:07]:
No, I'm talking about the, the clip at the front of the blade.

Reese [00:53:10]:
Oh, that's, yeah. So. So I made this out of wood. So it was a knot. So I, I, I like made this out of wood. I just painted it so you could kind of, you know, it would look more like a knife. Yeah, I made the, I made this out of a two by four.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:24]:
Nice.

Reese [00:53:25]:
That was under my shed.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:27]:
We're, we're coming, we're coming close to our time here. And I do want to see your prototypes for your EDC model.

Reese [00:53:33]:
Oh, this is, this is the blank that I had cut for this guy.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:38]:
Oh, nice.

Reese [00:53:39]:
So that's a little bit more. This is, I did this with wood, but you can see that.

Bob DeMarco [00:53:43]:
Yeah, I'm gonna do one.

Reese [00:53:45]:
I'm probably gonna finish one of these myself. I had two done. I just haven't had anybody here. I haven't had time to go out and do it yet. But this is the EDC version, the V44C. Like Compact, carry concealed, you know, like a smaller, like pocket bowie.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:03]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:54:04]:
This is the first one I did. That is so. And this one too. I had the guy do this, the guy from Papa Bear Knives, he had it more squared off and left it kind of like, you know, it wasn't rounded and contoured. I took my Dremel tool and, and like shaped like a contour, like hook bottle. And I did the same thing where, like, I felt it, it didn't feel right. I'd take some more off, felt it. Go ahead and use this on.

Reese [00:54:30]:
And when I was using this, one thing I didn't like about this where the lack, it was a lack of a guard. I've been using it some. I was stabbing into a log. And if you grab it like this, the way you can get around that, if you do a thumb over the top or if you grab back farther where it's like hanging off.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:49]:
Yeah.

Reese [00:54:50]:
So you put your pinky on it instead of chirping all the way up. You can prevent slippage like that, like going onto the blade, but that's a really dangerous thing to. That's. You don't want to ruin your index finger. That's an important hand point to finger. So. So what I did with this, I didn't like it. It didn't have a guard.

Reese [00:55:05]:
Even though you can get like, you know, right up on the blade. Like if you run Bushcraft stuff, that's probably, maybe better, but. So this is sad at a guard.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:18]:
Cool. So wait, have these been made? I feel like I've seen people like, like Scott from Choir Boys. I feel like I've seen him with one of these or maybe someone else.

Reese [00:55:29]:
Might have had one at Blade Show. Ankura Josh Mankura knives helping make a small batch of these before Blade Show.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:36]:
Okay.

Reese [00:55:37]:
And Jason from Straight Edge Knives, he has one.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:40]:
Oh yeah.

Reese [00:55:40]:
A couple guys have one. Lucas, Carol to the scales for me. And this is. There's a little slight changes with this. Like, it's supposed to be like the, the grind's supposed to be a little higher, but this is essentially what the production will look like. And the blanks they have cut now are in K329. And so this is the, you know, that's what it will mostly look like that. And this is, you know, meant to be in like a pocket sheath.

Reese [00:56:07]:
And I wanted a full grip but with no extra, like, handle. Like nothing extra.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:12]:
And.

Reese [00:56:12]:
But I wanted a big enough blade where, you know, it felt like you actually had something substantial. Like I have knives that have like a 2 inch, you know, like I had this little pocket Bowie I got from a guy in Ukraine and it's a cool knife, but I don't feel like I have something capable of like defense with that. Like, so I like to have something a little bigger and so that's where that came from.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:40]:
So we're about to wrap, but I want to, I want people to know, do you have. Are there plans for this in the works? Is this something. I know production with big companies say, like with worktop, you can never tell when it's going to happen. And they have their own schedules and setbacks and all. But is this going to be something. Oh, that's a cool grind. Is this something that's going to be available on a wider scale?

Reese [00:57:05]:
So this one, the blanks are cut for this one, so work tough gears make. Gonna make this. The blanks have been cut for a little bit, so they, they have these. And this is a Jofu leather sheath. This is kind of how I intended it to be carried. You know, where it's like in your pocket. You can grab it.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:25]:
We'll start a pressure campaign to get work tough gear to start moving on this.

Reese [00:57:30]:
Well, the date is looking like right then. Well, the date is like tentative, you know, because you don't know. You can't control everything that happens. But summer of 2026 is, is the ETA for the EDC and this knife, this one is from Jed Hornbeak.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:51]:
Oh God, I love his knives.

Reese [00:57:52]:
I sent him this blank and he's actually working on. He's supposed to be working on a batch of these in 3B but he just moved. He's very busy. I haven't been bothering him. But he, he made this for me. Just sent it to me and did this sheath and green shark skin and this sheath. Talk about like nice. I got this was in my mailbox when I came back from Blade Show.

Reese [00:58:16]:
Like just like on like the jimping, the machining on the jimping that goes from a hollow grind to a flat. It's just like this knife is really cool as like sure grip. He wanted me to test that out.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:29]:
It's like a rubbery 10. Yeah. I have, I have one Jed Hornbeak knife and he only four of the model that I have and I man, it is one of my prized prize knives. Man. I've had a ball talking to you. We got a lot more to talk about. We're gonna, we're gonna do an extra 10 minutes for our, our patrons and, and maybe we'll do a part two down the road because, because I feel like you're a wealth of knowledge especially about Bowies but about, about this, this style of Bowie especially. But I know you've got a cabinet full of stuff and we need to talk some more.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:06]:
But for now do you have any plans to. To. To work broader on different designs, say non Bowie designs so as can run.

Reese [00:59:17]:
Over there and grab a quen and my. Having my, my gear over there. But I, I'd have to go off camera but I, I have done stuff with like a clinch pick type design that I made for actually that was one of the first knives I did like a real knife I designed for somebody. I have a buddy that used to do contracting work and he wanted like a clinch pick like from Shiv Works, but he wanted a, a double sided Tanto. So I drew one up. I sent the drawing to the guy I know, Philip Burris in Florida and he made it, sent it to him, his buddy one on one. He made another one and then he just sent me one for free. He's like, hey, thanks for Sending me the business.

Reese [00:59:54]:
Here's an. Like, I. I have that knife in there. Let me grab him real quick.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:58]:
Sure, go ahead. And as you do, I'll just remind people that they can. Right now, they have to look at the secondary market to find these. But the V44 Bowie is most definitely something worth seeking out. The V44X from. From Reese and Worktop Gear. You know, I'm not a hard user, but I've. I've baton this through some nasty old wood, and you can barely see any marks on it, and it flies through.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:30]:
And by the way, work tough gear just puts an amazing edge on our knives. So let's. Let's see this one before we roll out of here.

Reese [01:00:37]:
So this was actually my EDC Bowie. I brought this one to Blade show in 2023, and I had drawn this, you know, years in advance, but I wanted, like, a wrap. Like a Bowie with like an ITO wrap.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:48]:
Oh, yeah.

Reese [01:00:49]:
So he doesn't. This guy doesn't have a machine shop, so he didn't have him a. You know, he doesn't have a. A mill. But he did that for me. And it's like kind of the same type of concept. I just kind of more refined it to, like, carry. But I did that one.

Reese [01:01:06]:
This is the one I did for my buddy.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:09]:
Oh, that is cool.

Reese [01:01:10]:
This is. This is meant to be worn like, you know, like you have it on your belt and it hangs down and you reach up, you grab it, and you can, like, hit legs or. It's kind of like a distancing tool. Like, hey, I'm tangled up pokey a couple times, get my gun, you know, and this is one. I wanted this made. So this is supposed to have two edges. It's supposed to go up here, be an angle, then be come up here and have another. Another angle where there's like a, you know, like a line, like an angle change.

Reese [01:01:41]:
I was calling this the. The death finger. And this is supposed to be like a, you know, like an edc, you know, like a qui gon, you know, long enough where it can, like, get. That would do some damage. But the concept of this, if you ever try to cut something with like a round belly, if it's not really sharp, sometimes it won't bite in. If you're cutting hair, like on an animal, it will just roll right over that hair, roll right over the clothes. So this is supposed to have an angle here, like a tanto edge, and another one there. That way, when you're slicing, those edges will bite.

Reese [01:02:15]:
You can really get, like, you know, like, deeper in. So it's like. This is not a. No, this was wrapped. I just wrapped it in some on, like, some goon tape, but it has the Edo wrap under there. It's khaki and OD green, but it's.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:29]:
Wrapped up with that.

Reese [01:02:31]:
But this is just like a. Like a defensive. More like a combat EDC knife. But this was, I don't know, six months or more before I did anything with the Bowies, because I do, like, you know, like, you know, katanas and Japanese stuff. Eater, like, I really like Eater wraps. I've got a bunch of Williams design stuff.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:55]:
Love his stuff.

Reese [01:02:56]:
And I met him at Blade Show. Him and his sons, like, they're. They're really cool. He, like, did some, like, comfrey stuff on me. Yeah, this is pretty cool.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:05]:
Stab you from across the room.

Reese [01:03:07]:
He's.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:07]:
That guy's crazy.

Reese [01:03:08]:
He's really tall, too. He's like. He's probably like six, three or something, maybe.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:12]:
Yeah. And he has an eerie calm about him.

Reese [01:03:15]:
He's a W. He's listening. If you're talking, he's listening and, like, he's, like, watching you, and you can tell he's like. He's processing everything.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:24]:
How could I dismantle this person? Hey, Reece, thank you so much for joining me on the Knife Junkie podcast. I've really enjoyed talking to you about the V44X, but also just the history of the Marine. Marine Raider Bowie. I'd love to have you back on sometime. Talk K bars, talk all the other stuff you got in there.

Reese [01:03:42]:
Oh, all these are K bars. And it's a World War II. It's a Japanese fuse palm. I got a bunch of those.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:53]:
That's cool.

Reese [01:03:53]:
A lot of people don't know what those are, but I got. I. I do. Those probably got multiple things in there.

Bob DeMarco [01:04:01]:
Well, let's talk again, sir. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate you, man.

Reese [01:04:05]:
All right. Yeah, it was great. Thanks for having me.

Bob DeMarco [01:04:07]:
My pleasure.

Announcer [01:04:08]:
Visit the Knife junkie@the knifejunkie.com to catch all of our podcast episodes, videos, photos, and more.

Bob DeMarco [01:04:15]:
There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, Reese. Well regulated. That's how you know him on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. More V44X bowies to come and. And then further on out, the EDC Bowie. I cannot wait. Definitely, definitely. Well worth the purchase, even if you're not a big Bowie guy.

Bob DeMarco [01:04:35]:
Like I say, every household needs a big Bowie. This would be a great choice. All right, thanks for watching for Jim working his magic behind the switcher on Bob DeMarco, saying, Until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [01:04:49]:
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our website thenif junkie.com you can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at the knifejunkie.com YouTube.