So You’Ve Been Challenged To A Knife Duel: Dedicated Fighters - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 374)

©2022, Bob Demarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers and reviewers that make the knife world go round. I'm Bob DeMarco and coming up, we're going to take a look at the F-22 Jared Oser's new knife.
A new Kaiser line focuses on specialized materials and then you're called to a duel. What do you bring?
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.

[0:33] Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco. Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was on last week's supplemental when we were talking about war clubs. And this is from Byron Kennedy.
He says, The woods was great, playing hide and seek, building forts, capture the flag, setting snares and booby traps, and fabricating weapons.
I found the most unique vine slash branch with a peculiar growth one day while playing.
The immediate survival instinct set in, and I knew this needed to become my war club.

[1:07] Now over 50 plus years old, plus whatever age the tree was in Canada, this war club hangs in our corner guest room as a reminder of both a great childhood memory and the strong
genetic survival instinct in each and every boy slash man. Okay, human. I thought this apropos during this Thanksgiving season, this hobby of ours and this episode of the Knife Junkie podcast.
Thank you, Byron Kennedy. That is, I love that little personal tidbit. That's kind of what this is all about. Like we have the knives that we love and that end up staying in our collection.
The knives or the items like war clubs, these kind of things that fall within our hobby.
And some we let go, but some we keep because of the memories they maintain or because of the memories they must have that you don't know about the mystery. So, but it is all about,
memories. So there you go. That's my take as a sentimental, middle-aged Italian American man.
Byron Kennedy, thank you so much for always commenting, but this comment in particular was great. All right, I think it's time that we get right now to a pocket check.

[2:20] Today on me I had the Off-Grid Knives Stinger. This beauty is a beast. That sounded corny, but it really is.
It is both beautiful and beastly. It is the most refined Off-Grid Knives design so far, in my humble opinion, due to the ergonomics, the contouring of the handle.
It's very well considered and it is nicely rounded out, nicely contoured and that makes all the difference.
Now they, Off Grid knives is known for their hard use knives and some of them, there's one in particular you really want to use gloves with, in my humble opinion, the XL Explorer.
This is on the opposite end. It is nicely contoured and smooth. It is great for everyday carry.
This is not going to gnarled up your pocket at all. got a beautiful deep carry pocket clip and a nice broad four inch blade. Four inches is my wheelhouse exactly is my favorite. This is 14 154 cm crucible so I.

[3:28] Think that means it's regular 154 cm but it's made by crucible steel. Beautiful beautiful action on this. So off-grid knives makes has knives made by Bestech and by a manufacturer in Taiwan. This is made from in their Taiwan manufacturer.
And you know me, I love best tech, but whoever this Taiwan manufacturer is is killing it also. This this is a just a really great well-made knife. And you know
what? I didn't use it for anything today, but I did have it in my front right pocket. And it made me feel good and it made me feel secure. And I pulled it out and I used it or flipped it from time to time to remind me that it was there.
But just a great, great knife. This is a knife, this is a great Christmas knife, I'm gonna say it, it's a great Christmas knife. Because for those knife lovers who like the three and a quarter inch, that's their wheelhouse, this is a good big knife for them to have, everyone needs a big knife.

[4:26] And for those who like to carry a four inch blade or a three and a half, you know, something a little bit larger, this is a dream in the pocket.
So awesome, awesome knife. Also very, very sharp. Interestingly though, with that saber grind, it is wickedly, wickedly sharp and thin behind the edge.
But the other knives from Off Grid that have full height hollow grinds and similar blade stock are even sharper and more paper thin behind the edge.
Just a great knife company, I love Off Grid knives. We do have a affiliate link.

[5:05] And so if you like any of their knives, you might consider buying it that way. Helps the show.
All right, so that's the off-grid stinger I was carrying. I also had in my pocket today, the Jack Wolf Knives Cyborg Jack.

[5:20] The season of the Cyborg Jack is coming to a close and the season of the Venom Jack is just beginning. We'll get to that later. I don't mean that the season of this is closing, but this is
no longer the brand new Jack Wolf Knife. When this first run is complete and I have the full complement, towards the end of each month I start gravitating towards older Jack Wolf Knives because I've had this, you know, in my pocket for a while and I'm like, yeah, let's remember some of the other great knives.
But anyway, this cyborg jack is really cool. It's such an original design with the faceted sort of angular handle.
It's I guess not faceted, angular handle in that profile in the beautiful clip point blade. It reminds me of a Benny's clip, but a fully full height hollow ground Benny's clip.
Benny's Clip Balls has a flat and sort of a saber grind to it.

[6:17] This knife I did use on me, this cut a bagel and wow, did it do it great. I could have used any one of the $5 knives in my work kitchen, but I chose this and man, it vanquished that bagel.
I love that thing. I don't mean to make light of it, but I just don't have a job where I need to cut stuff, unfortunately.

[6:40] Okay, next up on my belt or, you know, in the waistband carry, I had the Revere by 1558 knives. This is Josh Fisher, a master smith. This is one of his sort of mid tech or, you know, one of the
knives that he has that he makes more of than his than his than his customs, obviously. I got this at Blade Show 2022. This was, I think, one of like two or three purchases. I did not buy much this here. Such a great knife. A lot of people look at this and ask if it's a Winkler, but then,
again, I've been noticing a lot of people look at a lot of fixed blades that I have and ask if they're Winklers. And so I think people just have a general idea that medium fixed blade looks
somewhat handmade Winkler. But to me, this doesn't look really much like a Winkler at all. I guess maybe the long clip might, but I love the recurve on this.

[7:36] D 160 I think blade steel this is and my card a handle very um Slender carry which I like and that's almost a pre-wrecked requisite at this point with a few exceptions,
For carry for me is a smooth handle again with with some exceptions. I did carry my,
Coban this week and it worked great against clothes and stuff, but smooth handle here slender and then you've got coke bottle contouring and it just fits so great.
It's so good in the hand. This I used to cut jute twine because I was wrapping, putting a little tiny wrap on the handle of my war club which I'll show you later.
My thumper. Okay and then lastly on me I... wait did I have anything else? No I think that was it. That was it. I mean I have all these other knives in front of
that I've been playing with. Actually, I've been using this, this rediscovered my benchmade bug out and have been flipping it all day long. Love that thing. So this is what I have
in my pocket. You let me know what you were carrying today. I had the 5158 Reveille. I had the off-grid knives, cyborg jack, and the stinger from Off-Grid Knives. I said off-grid,
for this. This is the Jack Wolf knives, cyborg jack. This is the off-grid stinger. All great knives and I realize as I look at them all from interesting people. I had a good.

[9:00] Conversation with Josh Fisher who made this knife. So all these interesting people making all these beautiful knives. That's what this show is all about.
All right, speaking of which, another friend of the show, someone I'd like to have back on and we are working on that, is Jared Oser.
And man, he is the consummate slip joint maker, custom maker and inventor. You know, I was talking about how inventive the handle is on this jack wolf knife cyborg jack. Well, that's the kind of stuff that Jared Oser does. You should go back and check,
out the interview I did with him. A very interesting guy and he has been going into modern style knives and this is his F-22 Kickstop in M390. This is a beauty. This is on loan to me from MrVC256,
256, a great fan of the show and patron of the show, just a great guy.
And he had this, sorry, it's really snugly in this box. He had this drop shipped to me so I could check it out and I'm gonna send it along to him.
And wow, is it impressive. Holy mackerel.

[10:09] So just looking at it, you can see some signature Osir, well, you have a badge there, which is very evocative of slip joints and traditional style knives.
You have this really beautifully contoured canvas, black canvas micarta, and a sculpted titanium clip.

[10:28] And look at that flipper tab. Hey, where'd it go? Where'd the flipper tab go? It's a kickstop. Lee Williams kickstop is the mechanism used here as the flipper. And just a really,
great sort of setup here with the flipper tab. And then when you let it go, the flipper tab disappears inside and you have a very nice profile that's not messed up by the flipper,
tab there. And then at the base of the blade you have a really nice sharpening choil. You will be able to sharpen this blade for quite a long time. Though it is flat ground, it is very thinly ground,
and you'll be able to have a long life on this M390 blade. Not that you're going to have to, most likely. Unless this is your only knife and you're going to hard use it for work.

[11:21] You probably won't have to sharpen to the top of that notch. But I love the shape of it and I love that you have the option to keep sharpening. I like this badge. I like the beautiful shape of that
badge and how it fits so nicely in. It's like a bolster lock, liner lock. It's kind of hard to describe what this is. I guess a liner lock with an exposed bolster because it's titanium and you
have the steel interface in there. So man, what a beautiful knife. Check out Jared Osser's work if,
If you haven't, it is exquisite,
and he's got a number of different A collaborations and B OEM knives.
So here it is. Thank you Mr. VC256 for checking this out.

[12:09] Okay, next up before we get to knife news, I wanted to show off the knife we're going to be giving away as our Gentleman Junkie Knife for the month of December.
It is a QSP. It has been donated to the channel by Dave, this old sword blade reviews.
Man, generous guy because this is a really cool knife.
This is the way it comes with this nice magnetic box and this spec card. It's in this, it's encased in velvet.
Isn't that lovely? And I have gotten to the stage where packaging does matter to me.

[12:46] This is a butte, it's called the locust. Look at it, this looks like the thorax of a locust. Does it not? With all of the milling and the actual, the shape of that tail section.
And then you flip it open and you've got this beautiful wharncliffe blade. This is a nearly four inch, yeah, nearly four inch blade.
Very very sharp. This is VG10 and I love the grind lines on this. The grind lines and that sort of half and half with the coating on the flats and that nice satin on,
the bevel. So this is the Gentleman Junkie Knife giveaway knife for the month of December 2022.
Sweet action on this by the way, which is a hallmark of QSP.
You'll see that on all the knives I have by QSP, which are starting to number high, work very well.

[13:43] That is awesome. All right. So that is what we will be giving away this month.
Thank you, Patreon members, one and all, whether you're a gentleman junkie, a traditional junkie or a tactical junkie, your support is greatly appreciated.

[13:59] All right. Still to come on the Knife Junkie Podcast, we're going to take a look at a new line of knives from Ontario Knife Company and a new line from Kaiser.
If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife. And we've got you covered.
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[14:18] Through our special affiliate relationships, we bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives.
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News. Ontario Knife Company has been leaning into their Camp Plus lineup. It is a lineup, as you might guess, of camp knives. It started off fixed blades, and then last year they released two knives that,
forked, basically camp kitchen knives, big folders. I know a number of you had them, they're lock backs,
with FRN handles, kind of an institutional green color, look very cool and I've heard good things about them. Well, Ontario Knife Company now has a addition to those, which I have to say remind me a little bit of the Broken Skull by Cold Steel in a good way, or that kind of knife or a Delica,
something like that. So it's an FRN handled three and a quarter inch, OSS 8, clip point blade,
And it is a lock back. But but like the.

[15:30] Fuck 110 or 112, this is requires both hands to open.
This is not a thumb stud knife. This is not a flipper.
This is a two hand opener lock back. And something about that is absolutely charming to me.
I think these look like very good looking knives. They're going to be inexpensive and we're not sure when they're going to be released. But I don't know. I think I might like to have one.
I like the thunder cloud blue on top and it's always cool to have white and black knife though the one white and black knife I have never gets used because I'm afraid of.

[16:04] Dingy up the white You know evidence of my hands needing to be washed or something like that But these clip points are a really nice belly knives They're sort of the straights are downward raked and you have nice belly down towards the tip so just a great looking knife to me it does kind of look cold steel is and,
And also you have that nice spot just behind the ricasso to grip to choke up.
So this looks like a great utility knife. I think it'll fit nicely into that camp lineup. It's inexpensive FRN and Aus8.
Just a functional little tool, but I like the look of it, so I might have to get one. Next up from Kaiser, always a category of I might have to get one. I just, man, I love their knives.
And I just gave one to my brother. I gave him my big lighter XL when he was in the hospital. I think I'll keep mentioning that so that my aura, my halo grows.
Because as I was doing it, I'm like, look at you, Bob. You're such a big man handing over this knife that you love. And like, it's going over your brother. People mistake you for twins.
It's practically still in your own pocket.
So I'm glad it's there. Anyway, Kaiser has a new lineup.

[17:16] Pretty cool, evocative of a guest we had on this show, the work of, you know who I'm talking about, G. Carta, the work of G. Carta, that beautiful, the Serrape, GL Hanson, I'm sorry, I had forgotten
Thanks for watching!

[17:32] His name, but the maker of G. Carta does these beautiful Mexican blanket style handle scales as well as others. Well, recognizing the popularity of that look and that beautiful color combination,
Kaiser has jumped in to the fray and they are not producing the GL Hanson and Son G-Carta style,
handle. That is just colored G10 but still you get that Serapé look. The Serapé is the Mexican blanket that has been used as a cover or a shawl or you know a very very popular pattern. Well here
it is in a new lineup. They're going to do four knives in it. I believe this it's I don't remember whatever it's called, but they're doing the Big Lighter XL,
the original, that's what it's called, the original, and the Tauzer K with this one.
And then they're going and doing some Fat Carbon Series 2. And with that one, it will be the original, the Drop Bear, the Hiccup, and the Big Lighter 2 dressed up in that, in that Fat Carbon.
But the interesting thing is that the Fat Carbon lineup will get a nicer blade steel. going to get M390, whereas the Serrape maintains the steel that that knife in particular carried,
they're just changing the scales and coating the blade so you get a nice contrast between the black blade and the beautiful Serrape pattern.
It also comes with that little dog tag you see in that picture and a lanyard bead.

[18:58] Kind of cool. We'll have to see what it's going to cost, but I like the additional little lanyard bead thing.
Kind of a nice little addition. All right, that's to come from Kaiser Knives to come here on Knife Junkie podcast. We're gonna take a look at the state of the collection. I got quite a couple of cool things to show off.
And then, so you've been challenged to a duel. We're gonna take a look at some dedicated fighters.
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And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the Knife Junkie podcast.

[19:54] The star of some recent YouTube shorts. I have to show it off here on this show. This is the notches Bowie.
This is the Bowie I've been talking about for oh so very long, waiting for it to come out in an affordable version.
They just recently released the notches, but this is cold steel. been under a rock and haven't been listening to my.

[20:16] To my goings on about it. It is originally re-released in 3v a couple of months ago to the tune of like 500 bucks MSRP. It was showing up on all the sites for $3.99. I just, I just can't.

[20:31] I've spent that on knives, but they've been either customs or very high-end folders. For me, very high-end. I'm just not spending that kind of money on knives on the whole these days. I should.

[20:45] Say these days. But this Natchez Bowie, they finally came out with a 4034 version of it. And yes, 4034 stainless steel is is clearly inferior to 3v, but I don't plan on having any wood chopping
contests with anyone who has the Natchez 3v. I will I will bow out of any such challenge.
I will stick with this 3034 because I got this for fighting. This is my no, but this is a dedicated fighter. It's a cable tang knife. That cable tang in there absorbs a lot of shock that you might receive on that blade. But it is not a woods blade. This is not something that I'm going to be taking,
outside. I might take it outside just for fun, but it's not something I'm going to be making kindling with and batoning with and all of that. So I don't need or want the 3V. To me, 3V is a great blade steel, but it would deserve a full tang. If you're making a giant blade out of 3V,
you're sort of implying that it's going to take a lot of shock.
Meaning you're going to be hitting it on wood, you're going to be doing a lot of wood processing and chopping with it. Well, in that case, I would want a full tang. So I made the right choice.
This is vastly less expensive than the 3V and it's still just as cool. and for my purposes which is to.

[22:03] Have, you know, and use on occasion just for fun. 3034 stainless steel is just fine.
I don't get the 3D feel that warm feel you get knowing you have a superior steel that you'll never push to its limit.
But I will have the warm cozies of the warm fuzzies of knowing I have a notches bow. So cool.
Unfortunately, it comes in this great sheath.
It is a great sheet. This what I call a secure X. but I wanted the old school leather, black leather with the stud that sticks out so you can put it in your belt.

[22:40] They just don't have made that in years and they don't have that, but you can find it on eBay for a cool $700. Alright, so that is the Nachez Bowie by Cold Steel.
Finally, I can end this Bowie obsession for a little while and move on and obsess about something else. something else like war clubs. Speaking of war clubs, here is the new thumper from my friend Zack at Wingard wearables. Look,
at this thing he from the fertile mind that brought you the back ripper this nice light fighting tomahawk. That's what this is. It's a fighting tomahawk. It's not for door breaching. It's not for wood processing. It's for well, it's called the back ripper. So it's for trapping, ripping, chopping,
in defending yourself. This is another one that is... this is a weapon here and it is based on the Northeast... Northeast Woodland style ball war club. And we were talking about this on the podcast
we recorded a couple of weeks ago, Zach and I, and I very, very brilliantly hypothesized that this style war club that usually has a ball... this is flat and we'll talk about that in a second...
Usually has a ball here. It looks like the femur and the hip joint. And I was wondering if maybe that was the original inspirer of such a work club.

[24:08] Anyway, I thought that was an interesting thought. He thought it was marginally interesting and no one else has responded, so I'm just going to let it drop right there. But I wanted to go on the record with it. So based on the hip joint, as famous anthropologists have surmised.

[24:22] The ball war club is a very, very effective weight forward sort of bludgeon. And it's used in a melee and also in one-on-one combat to great effect with this sort of thing here.
You will see these ball war clubs with a spike or just a flat rod coming out. And what that is for, secondarily you will get a puncture and you will get whatever damage
you get from the spike or that rod breaching whatever it's breaching.
But really it's there to keep all of the energy on target. It's easy to glance off of something, especially if it's rounded, like a head or a helmet.
You have a rounded thing and you're hitting something round, it's easy for that force to glance off.
But you add a little spike or this little thing or like the knurling on a roofing hammer or the knurling on a war hammer.
That knurling is there to keep, to bite into the surface of the target and keep all of the force moving in the proper direction into the target. So it's not so much about the puncture, it's more about keeping all of the force going where it needs to go focused.

[25:38] So a really cool innovation and idea because I always assumed it was for poking holes. On this Wingard wearable now, let's talk about this. This is flat because as per the name
wearable, this is meant to be carried on the person. So if it were too much in the three dimension like round ball it would not be doable. So this is a collaboration and,
with a gentleman who makes war clubs and they came up with this flat design maintaining the weight and the shape up here and putting that steel rod that goes to about here.
Buries very deeply in there. And you get this amazing and compact weapon. This right here is the only sharp edge on this thing and it's around the edge of this rod and it is very sharp. It,
bites in for sure. And so it's hickory that is cut out with a CNC and then filed and hand hafted by,
by Zach himself.
Now I'm last night actually put this, this has been my nighttime dog walking stick.
And as I was fussing around with it last night and practicing pulling out the belt, and I found that I needed an index spot. So I knew when I was coming to the edge, the end of the handle, which is also faceted for poking.

[27:07] I also wanted something a little more positive grip because it's a tapering surface towards the end.
So I put this jute twine on there. I'm gonna probably gently shellac it, but it really helps not only in grip, but if you're pulling it out of the belt and trying to find where your hand needs to stop, it's great for that too.

[27:31] And if you make impact, it will keep it from sliding out.

[27:36] So that is my Winguard Wearables Thumper War Club. If you've ever looked at Wingard wearables, they're not inexpensive because they are handmade.
But these are by far the least expensive of the hafted weapons. The tomahawks cost more.
He's got a bunch of them. I know he's selling them for Christmas. If you're interested or if there's a war club fan on your list, go to wingardwearables.com, I think it must be, and check out the Thumper.
So cool. All right. side over here. Next up, the new jack wolf knives knife for December 22. And that is the venom jack. And I got this beautiful carbon fiber. What are they calling this? This is
camo carbon time Ascus. And usually I think of camo, I think of greens, this has a lot of blues in it. It's just beautiful carbon fiber and you really get a lot of character,
coming out of that material with the contouring of the handle. It reveals patterns. It's beautiful.
Look at that blue.

[28:45] This is my first of the fat carbons in this kind of style. The camo carbons, I think they've been coming out in different colors, I think. I've had some cool carbon fibers, but this is my first in
this style and it is stunning. Also stunning is that big broad wharncliffe blade. So I'm going to tell you, I'll tell you a little bit about this real quick. That is a broad wharncliffe blade,
But because of that tip, a Ben Belkin designer calls this a wharncliffe and not a sheep's foot, even though it's got that approach. It's got a sharper, more acute tip. It's got a downward raked
straight edge, which I love. You know, I talk about that a lot. It just really captures material as you pull it through, acts as a sort of de facto recurve, but much easier to sharpen for a lot of
of people use flat stones. And then the handle is based on a trapper. And you know, where you have a sway back and the handle comes up, the trapper kind of curves down. And man,
this thing nestles in the palm beautifully. That's a three inch blade. So what is it like almost? Yes. Sorry. Yeah, it's like seven and a half, seven and a quarter long. You like there's a big difference, Bob, but I know I get stage fright when I have to measure.

[30:08] So you've got that perfect, perfect action, not action, but perfect.

[30:18] Perfect smoothness across the top. You cannot feel the seam where that blade meets the lock and you have just beautiful action. M390 blade steel, every, every jack wolf knife's,
knife has the the artwork. This is the venom and as you can see maybe from this is the this is the wolf wrestling this giant serpent. Well, if any of you are Conan the Barbarian fans, this is the sticker.

[30:47] And it says Krom. So Krom is Conan's god and he says Krom like we say god sometimes. And then of course what is best in life and you all know what is best in life. It is not freedom
of the open stuff, falcon at your breast and the wind in your hair. It is indeed to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of the women. So I love the theme of
of this knife, Conan the Barbarian, one of my favorite all-time movies. And apparently Ben's too. He comes up with some great movie references in his things. So, beautiful knife.
I haven't even carried it yet. I just opened it. I look forward to bonding with this over the next long period of time. And of course, the nice pocket carrier.
All right, next up, this is on loan from Dirk Pinkerton himself.
That sounds like I'm name dropping, but he's a cool guy and I know him. So he sent this to me to check out through Dave. This old sword blade reviews. Dave had this first and he did a review on it. I haven't seen. I haven't watched it yet.

[31:56] But this is the inversion. You know, the Kaiser inversion Dirk Pinkerton designed. designed, but this is his under his shingle with this ring that you can take on and off.
And I am skeptical of ringed anything these days, even though I like them. I love carambits and I love my shower ring dagger and I do like the ringed things.
I just feel like I might break my finger if I use them because oftentimes I don't find the rings ergonomically placed. Well, in this case, I am wrong.
Design this right, put that right in the absolute right place without having to do anything to change your grip, you know, with your fingers.
Sometimes you'll find the ring is high. Here's an example. find that the ring is placed in such a way that you have to sort of...

[32:47] Alter your grip to get your finger in there. To me, for this Blackrock knives, I always use it like this. I don't really use that ring, but it is good for removing the knife. But if you want to use it in a usage sense, in the tactical sense, other than drawing it, that's how you mount it.
So you don't, so almost more like a nock than like the ring you see at the top of a parameter dagger.
So I think this is a very cool knife. I would like to get this. I have the the Kaiser inversion. I love this design because it does blend beauty, just raw beauty with,
something interesting. It looks inverted and with a great usage. This is a great self-defense knife but it is also a great utility knife. Now with the ring on it, it does add a little
bit of an issue for using this knife but my Kaiser inversion, actually you can just use,
it to the side. But my Kaiser inversion I like as a utility blade also. So that that ring might get in your way a little bit for that purpose but then for its weapony purpose I think that this ring adds value because you have a small you,
know titanium handle and that might get slick when wet so to have that ring I.

[34:04] Don't know I'm thinking I'm thinking it's a good thing and I really like this but I'm gonna dig into it and watch for a close-up video on this Kaiser inversion.
I mean, Pinkerton inversion, Ringed version inversion.
Okay, next up and last in the state of the collection, got a lot of stuff in this week. This is also from Dirk Pinkerton and also on loan.

[34:27] Unfortunately, beautiful sheath. We'll start with the sheaths because man that matters, awesome sheath.
But this is the Razorback from Dirk Pinkerton. This is a custom knife. This is a handmade knife.
And it really shows off how exquisitely skilled he is at grinding.
Look at that center ridge between hollow grinds here.

[34:52] And if you look back and forth as I have, it is symmetrical. He nailed it exactly.
This is an unsharpened swedge, but it's so close to sharp that all it would take is sending it back to Dirk and saying, put an edge on the top and I'll take it.
Is all it would take if I wanted this to be my knife.
So this is a hollow grind and you can see it thicken up just a little bit towards the front, kind of as it takes this turn, but it is a very, very acute thrusting point.
So you do get a little bit more strength because it remains a little beefy towards the tip.

[35:31] Just a really cool knife. He DM'd me, sorry, can't remember what the kid said, say he DM'd me and said, I see you're in a Bowie phase, you wanna check out the Razorback?
And I said, hell yes. And to me, this is not a Bowie or a clip point. To me, this is more of a, more of an upswept, more of a Persian-y kind of knife, you know, if you need to define it, which you don't.
God, it is just beautiful. That handle is gorgeous. It feels perfect in the hand.
And it's just the right amount of handle to use it in reverse grip and have a perfect place to cap your thumb.
Dirk Pinkerton, I'm just gonna say right here, is amazing. His work is awesome because he's very prolific in the production folder world.
You can find a lot of different designs from him with some very signature looks and then others that you might not guess are his.
But a lot of knives in the production world. But his, man, his custom stuff is just incredible.
And I find it to be reasonably priced.
I mean, for custom work and for such a big name and for such awesome designs.
So check out Derek Pinkerton is all I'm saying. All right, so this will be a great knife for this next one.
But since it's not mine, I figured I wouldn't put it in the list.
But the idea is you've been called out to a duel And the weapon is knives. Now...

[36:59] I've been forced to listen to the musical Hamilton in the car for quite a while now. I guess it's been four or five months. And at first, I was very resistant.
And, you know, like water on rock, I've begun to love some of the songs. And my daughters know what to play to keep me to keep my buy-in while we're driving. And one of them is about dueling,
the 10 duel commandments. And I was starting to think, well, I, you know, the dueling concept has a romance to it. I read a whole book about dueling with swords and, and I always thought
about dueling with knives. What would that look like? So these are the knives that from my collection that if I were called out to a duel and they said, bring, bring a knife, these are the ones
I would bring. All right. First up is a classic and kind of deserves this number one spot, though these aren't rank order but that is the combat stiletto by Randall Made Knives. This is the.

[37:56] Model 2-7. 7 referring to the blade length. It's a seven inch dagger and why this dagger? Well, first of all, it's a dagger. You're going to see a number of them in this list and like the others
in this list, this is a dagger that has belly. It has belly for slashing and this also has two hollow ground bevels. So a very good cutter, very good slicer and slasher, but also look at that tip.
A tip made for thrusting. It's broad. You're going to leave a large opening with this, but you're also going to be able to punch in well because of that diamond
So the reason I like the belly on a dagger is that I, when I'm John Wicking it all alone doing my karenza, karenza with shadow boxing with a knife or sticks, I find that I do a lot of slashing.
And I know the Roman army would not approve, but I do a lot of slashing as well as thrusting.

[38:58] But I want my slashes to count because slashes count a lot less than a stab, than a thrust. So I do want those slashes to count. So I'm going to look to belly to belly up.
Also, a great guard on this. A great guard. When I do the thrusts, I have a very large brass guard here and a nicely contoured handle.
Just a great knife overall and set up for this kind of grisly work.

[39:28] Okay. We'll put this back in the beautiful leather sheath. Look at that sheath. I'd like to have like a pair of shoes or a pair of boots that are like this with that white stitching. Very nice.
Okay, next up a much newer game in town. This one is from Blackrock knives. I showed it off a few minutes ago.
This is the monkey thumper and this would be the more compact thing that you have on you, but it is bred for fighting. Let's let's put it that way great sheath again great sheath. I just,
Changed the orientation of this loop you kind of need it high because because of this the blade gets exposed early.
But here is the blade beautifully done. Ken Vihikite of Blackrock knives makes some incredible weapony knives also camp and field knives, but he specializes in this kind of thing.

[40:21] He just recently did his version of a knuckle dagger that was just drool worthy. This is the Monkey Thumper a karambit style fighter. You've got if you like the karambit manipulation kind,
of things. You have a good ring here with flats. I do like the flats for arresting the motion. If it's flipping around, you can stop it quickly by pinching down on the flats. Also, I tend to carry this knife and use this knife without the ring and it's got a great pointed pommel for that.
Now, if you choose to carry it in reverse grip and not use the ring, that pointed pommel is not a problem like pointed pommels usually are for capping the thumb because of where that flat is. So this is a great, great little fighter. You've got the downward angle of the handle.

[41:12] Of the blade to the knuckle, like a berong. I mean like a kukri. And then on the back, I had him sharpen the swedge. It's a more obtuse, it's not a slicey edge, but you get the gouging,
tearing, slashing edge on the back. So yeah, dual knife number two. This would be if I'm thinking I'm going to fight real close would be this. Blackrock Knives Monkey Thumper. Next up,
a new one from Tops and has been getting a lot of carry from me is the Lacy Zabo Designed Zabo Express. Also comes in a great sheath. This is a taco style sheet so a little bit broader.

[41:54] Also comes with their steel spring clip, which is pretty good. I like it a lot, except I kind of wish it didn't have this down here. A backward protruding hook on the top would make it easier to take off.
But anyway, this is the double-edged version. Also comes in a single-edged Zabo Express.
I call this a fighter rather than a dagger. Not that it matters, but you can see it more when you turn it like this. can see that the bevels are uneven. The top bevel is shorter and so the edge is slightly
more obtuse. This is bigger and it has that curve and the belly crests here and the belly crests here. So it gives it a curved look. So yeah, it's a fighter as opposed to a dagger,
which is symmetrical. You got this great guard here with the thumb ramp for a saber grip And which is the nice thing about it is that the handle is just long enough for at least my hand and I think probably most people's hands to maintain that saber grip without running out of space down here.
And sometimes that can be a problem because you cannot use this knife. You cannot choke up on this knife and use the Filipino grip. Even if you get this in single edge.

[43:11] That swedge is going to be so thin it's going to be uncomfortable to put any pressure on with your thumb. So you're back here, you're kind of on the handle, you kind of have to be.
And so this is a great way to have this quillian pushed forward a little bit to accommodate the length of your thumb and then to have a longer spine with this shape back here works great.
It also works great in the reverse grip, incidentally, but we'll get to that in a sec.
Down here you have another guard just stopping you from riding up onto the handle, onto the blade. This is 154 cm blade steel. Tops uses that a lot on their self-defense knives that are close to the body.

[43:49] And then of course you've got the red liners and the black textured micarta handle. This is great. This is a great knife. I carry this when I walk the dog sometimes at night.
I will carry it in CM style. So that means coming down like this. My belt is here and it's angled downward and I can just draw it.
CM named after a CM FTW knife maker. Formal. Rest in peace.

[44:18] That's how he would carry his knives. So yeah, that thing is vicious and for a duel. I'm sorry, I just was talking about why for a duel. It's got some nice reach and you will you will get to what you need to get to and you have reach at standoff distance, but it's not too large that you're married to long range tactics. Ultimately, I think that's what I like best, though I'm thinking about the duel.
So I'm also thinking about standoff ranges. Like it's not something where someone jumps on you and you're defending your life, which you would always pretty much want something small because you'd be able to manipulate it in that tight space.
A good example of that is this next one. So, you know, if the other guy's dueling with a bowie, you're not going to choose this.
You're not going to choose this, but this would be a great knife for that sort of close-in portion of the dual. It is a double hollow ground three and a half inch push dagger. This is an
older one by Cold Steel. This is the Safe Keeper 2 and it has this rubberized grip. It's a very nice grip. It feels really good in the hand. I do know though that on some of their later models,
they have snuck the rubber up the shaft to make it more comfortable on the fingers.

[45:40] And I can see why. But this handle portion is so big and grippy that it kind of doesn't come into play as much here as it does with the smaller...
It doesn't come as much into play between the fingers as it does on some of the smaller pushed out here.

[45:57] Yeah, you get all of the strength of your punch with this and it's deceptive and very difficult to disarm.
That's what I like about the push dagger. You can hold a fist, the shape of this in cross section will keep it from turning. It's sort of squared off so it won't turn in your hand.
If you can hold a fist and punch, you can do a lot with this, but you can also swing and slash the Filipino style of boxing, pan and tuken. This would be amazing with that style of boxing, any style of boxing.
But yeah, so this is the Push Dagger and in this case it is the Cold Steel Safe Keeper.

[46:37] This is from when they first moved over to their Kydex sheaves. They did have this in the leather sheaves, if you can imagine that.
All right, next up is actually Fighter is in the name and this was my first custom knife purchase. This is the attention to detail mercantile medium folder. This is a sheet that my brother made for it.
That sheet. But here is the knife. And man it's gorgeous.
I ordered this with the with the tortoiseshell handle because to me tortoiseshell, I don't know, it's classy and it evokes a different time.
And I don't know, I think that fits well on this bayonet style fighter.
So this is S35DN, hollow ground, very thin behind the edge on the main. And then this, the swedge is also hollow ground.
And actually, that gives it a pretty nice edge, even though it's a not a very tall grind, it gives it a pretty sharp and nice edge because of that, because it's hollow.
Great balance, feels great in hand. I mean, this is, this is no doubt that so it balances right by the finger guard there or the secondary, the choil.

[47:48] Really nice jimping, crowned spine, and just feels great in hand. I mean, you move this, it feels very light and lively in hand. It's got the weight right in the right place to move that tip around really quickly. And just a very, very cool fighting knife. So this might be the one,
you bring out to kind of look the classiest. Like maybe you're kind of dressed up, you're gussied up.
Maybe you're going to this duel in a tux. This might be the one you bring.
Because that well that black blade next to that tortoiseshell is so yummy and then you got the brass liners so yeah this might be the one or it could be this next one which is a knife that I obsessed over for years and years and years and years and finally got recently and told you all about. I've shown it off a,
lot the cold steel Tai Pan this knife is an incredible this would make an incredible dueling knife and I'll say that because because it's got the, what I ordinarily don't like, pointy skull crusher.
Ordinarily I don't like a rubberized handle. It's got a long rubberized handle. Ordinarily I don't like a long handle.
But this gives you room for a full saber grip without running out of space. And that is kind of necessary on this double-edged knife because you cannot come up and put pressure on the back with a Filipino grip like that.

[49:12] Seven inch double, quadruple hollow ground blade. This one is very nicely done.
I got one before this that was a lemon.
It was sharpened by some ham fisted dude who got a call from his girlfriend. Right at the moment he was completing the grind down here.
But I returned it.
That was an Amazon purchase. I don't really do that much anymore with cold steels. I got this in return and it's beautiful. It is San Mai. You can see where the two different steels meet right there along the edge.
Very sharp. Again, you've got the bellies on this and the hollow grinds, which will make, which will maximize the slashing you get out of this.
The point is stout and sturdy or as stout and sturdy as a dagger will likely get.

[50:00] Maintains a lot of its thickness right to about here and then tapers.

[50:05] Nice big guard that comes out on the sides too. So if you're going to hold this in that sort of shovel grip, I'm not sure what they call this, but that flat grip, you have something to push against here.
And then this, again, this long handle, if you do get tied up, boom, you've got, you can really give this a nice hammer grip and sink your hands into that rubberized knurling and use this punyo to disrupt, cause pain and do all that.
So this would make an excellent dueling knife, maybe not as classy and good looking as the A2D with its tortoise shell, but very, very effective. And that's what you want.
Really, you're not going out in this duel.
It's not a fashion show.

[50:47] It's not a knife show. This is a fight for your life and your honor.

[50:52] So you might want to bring this because it might get close and nasty. And that is a Dirk Pinkerton knife. This is the Cave Bear.
This is a custom that I saw across a crowded room at Blade Show 2021. And I swear to God, I was George Costanza in an apartment fire pushing over old ladies to get to this night.

[51:11] This is so exquisitely ground because that's what we know about Dirk Pinkerton. He not only designs a beautiful knife but he can grind all day long and make these incredibly symmetrical quad.
He does a lot of double-edged knives, a lot of quad ground blades, and man!
So this is set up for that Picol style of fighting. So you might choose to go into this duel. Maybe the guy has a switchblade and you go in with this.
You're more than covered. You've got the gross motor motion that the Pekal knife is very good at.
But then you have the blade up front. So if you're doing some more nuanced fighting, like say you're using your Kali, and you're trapping with the back edge, and you're slashing with the front edge, and you're really maintaining your cool,
and you can do all that intricate stuff, this would also keep you in good stead.
If you choose to switch it up and go standard grip, you have a really great downward bellied, you know, angled blade there for slashing. And of course you have this awesome back edge.
This would make a great dueling knife for sure because it is very, very well considered as all Pinkerton knives are, even the EDC knives for fighting also. All right, next up, this dagger.

[52:37] Perhaps lacks the belly, but is oh so fine. This is the Spartan Harsey dagger designed by Bill Harsey Jr. and made in North Carolina by the brilliant artisans at Spartan Blades and this gorgeous sheath made by Chattanooga Leatherworks owned by RMJ incidentally.
Okay so this knife oh look at this it's a little bit shorter than the other daggers it's at a six Since blade
is wicked. It is all piercing. It is... I mean, so you will get some good slashing out of it because the edges are very, very sharp and these are hollow ground. Even though the bevels are pretty,
thin, they are deeply hollow ground. So you will get maximal slashing out of that blade shape as possible. But really, man, this thing is a thruster. You can see how it tapers only at the very tip.
How you get that medial ridge going all the way down the center giving it rigidity. That's what you want in a thrusting knife is rigidity.

[53:39] Now you have the forward-facing quillions so you can push off of them. You can, you know, they are fully there but unlike the...

[53:50] They're fully forward unlike say a K-bar which rakes backwards which I never understood. You got this nice voluptuous Coke bottle handle. I mean, voluptuous is the only thing, only way to describe this rubanest handle.

[54:05] You just kind of pinch it there and you can get it, you can do a lot of the Fairbair and Sykes kind of techniques where they're pinching it and holding it in certain grips.

[54:16] I've seen videos on them but I haven't internalized that information. You have a noggin knocker back here that does not in any way,
way disrupt the thumb cap. Though with this, it is so contoured and that guard is so nice and stout that you don't need to cap it. I don't think you could totally get away with thrusting hard with a lot of energy downward in a reverse grip without capping the thumb.

[54:42] Alright, so that is the most beautiful and awesome Spartan-Harzi dagger wearing leather from Jatanuga.
Okay, second to last, you know that this would not be complete without a bowie knife.
Now you might think I was going to go for the old Natchez bowie. Well, it's not old.
My new Natchez bowie. But you'd be wrong because it's just a little too heavy and I would want to be nimble and quick.
So because it is not a dedicated fighter, I did not choose the Trailmaster, which might actually take the place of this because it's even lighter and more nimble.
But this one is a dedicated fighter, and that is the Laredo Bowie from Cold Steel. This is an old one. So I'm so glad I got this old one with the leather leather sheath back in my New York days. So that means this is about 15 years old or so.

[55:35] It's got a I think this is a two plate steel whatever it is, it patina it up nicely with a little bit of vinegar. But this is a fighting bowie through and through. It's long and slender, relatively speaking,
compared to some of the more camp style bowies. Slender, maintaining sort of parallel lines until the tip. You've got a long sharpened swedge. Now I say sharpened because it doesn't have a cutting edge, but it's a zero ground edge.
So it comes to a splitting, tearing, gouging, back cutty edge.

[56:10] And really, that's all you need. You don't even need that much to do damage with the back part of a bowie. Even a flat swedge will really do some nasty damage on a back cut.

[56:22] You've got a great coffin style handle. I love coffin style handles because they're neutral, but they're also meant to stay in your hand as they flare towards the back.
So even though this is wood, I used to have a spite grip tape on here for years and I recently took it off. It gunked up the design and it just didn't need to be there.
You know, maybe if I actually were called to a duel, maybe out of an abundance of caution, I'd put grip tape there. But then remove it after the duel because it doesn't, it's really not necessary. And it kind of uglifies this slow coca-bola wood.

[56:59] This thing has always had a split, but I never returned it. Cable Tang, awesome knife, and light and lively.
Light and lively for a 10 inch bowie knife. Alright, last up, I think you probably know what it is, but maybe you don't. Anyone who's been watching me prevaricate probably for the last year and a half knows what this is.
This is, but my ultimate dual knife is the hog tooth knives sub hilt fighter.

[57:29] This was a gift from my mom and dad and an amazing gift. My design and my input and just beautifully executed.

[57:42] Thank you mom and dad. And thank you Matt Chase. This was a labor for him. But first look at that beautiful corseted sheath.
God, his leather work is as good as his knife work, I gotta say. It's beautiful. But here's the knife. That's 1095 and 15 and 20. Very, very intricate pattern there.
Long, slender, fighter style clip point with fully sharpened top and bottom edge.

[58:11] Sub-Hilt Fighter. It's a Bob Loveless, originally a Bob Loveless design. I had him make the shorter quillions and I love how he... This is his thing here. His quillions are usually shaped something like that. And then this bottom sub hilt is faceted all the way around. So beautiful.
Made from reclaimed wrought iron from the Longfellow Bridge in Boston. That's Black Micarta, Black Micarta. And then here you have this beautiful stag. He bought that at Blade Show 2021.
I bumped into him while he was searching for it and man, I'd say he found it.

[58:47] Now the tang of the blade comes all the way down like this, and then the stag sits on a frame that has a cutout that fits onto the tang and then boom boom boom boom.
It's like, oh, it's not bolted there actually. It's a very complicated handle. It's like 27 pieces or something. It was a bear.
It was his very first sub-hilt fighter and it was a good experience for all of us, but I think better for me.
You get to maintain this incredible saber grip, but then you can also do a wonderful very solid hammer grip like this.
You get the sub-hilt there so you can use it like a drumstick. You can use it percussively.
You can use it to remove it from between the ribs where that blade has been lodged. You know, that's what this whole thing is for.
So that your hand doesn't slip off the knife if it does find purchase somewhere. And just overall beautiful and big and sharp and impressive and built for the purpose.
So these have been my dueling knives.

[59:58] Do you have any dueling knives? Or have you ever thought about it? Have you ever considered it?
It doesn't happen much this day and age. But what if we go back to the other day and age and we do have to duel and you're called out with a knife? I'm sure this is all fantasy. As a matter of fact, I know it is. But it's a good mind experiment.
What would you bring? Let me know. And you can leave that in the comment below. You might say, oh, I would bring my Trailmaster or I would bring my Tonto. Just let me know down below.
Okay. Thanks for coming along on this flight of fancy. It's been a great one.
Until next time, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, for Jim Person working his magic behind the switcher, don't take doll for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast.
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[1:01:24] Music.