Announcer 0:03
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your hosts Jim Person and Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco

Jim Person 0:17
Hello Knife Junkie and welcome to the midweek supplemental episode of The Knife Junkie podcast I'm Jim Person

Bob DeMarco 0:23
and I'm Bob DeMarco Welcome to the podcast.

Jim Person 0:26
The Knife Junkie podcast is the place for knife newbies and Knife Junkie is to learn about knives and knife collecting and our midweek supplemental episode as we are calling it is the episode where we get to dive deep into a handful of knife stories and knife news and you know really get the news and kind of dive deep on some of the topics in the news and Bob something that just came out a couple of days ago and maybe even the end of last week. SOG and it seems like we are constSOGantly talking about SOGyou know we

Bob DeMarco 0:57
have been talking about SOG most recently. Due to their rehashing their whole line of folding knives and kind of restyling and updating and the the updates that I've seen so far are really exciting and definitely have me taking another look at SOG folders always been a big fan of their, of their old classic style fixed blades but but you know, this, the gentleman who started it, his name is Spencer Frazier and he started the company SOG by trying to recreate the famous Mac v SOG. Bowie and and this was a knife made for Special Operations who are going in and doing reconnaissance in Southeast Asia Vietnam and and such. And the knife that they had was sort of legendary. And I remember seeing an interview on YouTube with nothing fancy interviewing Spencer Frazier and he talked about the whole story of of getting this having this MAC the sub But we reproduced in in Japan and just kind of the tribulations he went through to have this knife reproduced, but how having it done was what launched the entire company. And 3030 some odd years later, he's stepping down he'll take an advisory role, but it's kind of interesting. It's happening kind of right as the whole series of knives that they have are kind of being retooled. So maybe that was his swan song, you know, on leaving, but I gotta say I'm so I'm so glad Spencer Fraser brought this MAC v SOG sort of popularized this, this blade in this blade shape, but it out of the three or four songs I have, it's definitely my favorite, but it does remind me of the one that's closest to my heart. And it's this folding lock back SOG lock back. Think it's called a wild cat. But it came out I bought this in a knife shop in Boston in nine 1991 in the summer of 91, I was there studying art at the museum school. And there was a knife shop, I believe it was on Commonwealth Avenue. And it was downstairs. And I remember going in there and just being wowed by everything I saw. And seeing this, this SOG folding knife it was the weirdest thing. It looked like the tactical knife that I knew, just in a folding version. And at the time that was brand new. I think maybe Cold Steel had started to make folders at that point. But I've had this thing ever since. And only in the last year have I put a decent edge on it. It came dull, and it stayed no because I could never sharpen it. And then finally I finally got it screaming sharp but it's such a sweet little knife. So anyway, I hope Mr. Frazier is off to greener pastures.

Jim Person 3:54
Well, it was interesting, what two weeks ago we had David C. Anderson of the knife center. That was Episode Number 76 The Knife Junkie dot com slash 76 and when you ask him about you know 2020 things to look forward to he said SOG knives were kind of the what what did he say that the one to look for?

Bob DeMarco 4:14
Yeah, yeah I think so i think you know they have the pedigree for sure. And for a while they stepped astray of what what is commonly you know, commonly accepted or loved in the knife community but that didn't stop them from selling a whole lot of knives. You know, there are a lot of people who don't care about things that knife guys nitpick over. And I feel like that you know, for a little while there they had a few things that people love to nitpick over but you know, SOG is SOG, they're not going anywhere.

Jim Person 4:44
All right, more The Knife Junkie podcast coming up in just a moment. But first I want to remind you that our podcast this week is brought to you by g sweet. It is the solution for anyone running a business whether it's a side hustle, part time, effort or full time like a knife maker. G Suite has a comprehensive set of tools all backed and powered by the power of Google. And not only can you get a professional email for your business but lots of other tools and features within G Suite. So take your business to the next level start running your business like a business look like a business, get your professional business email address and take advantage of all the tools within G Suite and you can do that for free for 14 days. By just going to The Knife Junkie comm slash G Suite. The Knife Junkie com slash g sweet when you do that start your free trial email me Jim at The Knife Junkie calm. I've got a special code set aside for you where you can save 20% off your first year of G Suite. So get the ball rolling start looking professional. Go to The Knife Junkie dot com slash g ssuite.

Announcer 5:56
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast and now here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.

Bob DeMarco 6:02
So ESEE has come out with a fixed blade version of their very popular zanpakuto folding knife, and this one's called the xancudo. But instead of z a n c u d o, it's x a n c u d o. So sounds the same looks different, I suppose. But this fixed blade version looks I don't know I really like it. I've never been a fan of the of the folding zancudo. But this just something about it looks very appealing. It's a three inch blade se instead of using their their normal 1095, high carbon steel, went with s 35 v and on this and I'm assuming because it's a small three inch utility knife, more of an EDC than anything that's going to receive any sort of impacts. You don't need that sort of high toughness of 1095 and it's got g 10 handle skills, and it comes with two different sets of skills. One is just A regular molded sculpted scale and then the second one is the same scale except to the large oval cut out in the second half of the handle. And that is so that you can apparently hang this thing with its kydex sheath on a carabiner you know hang it off your bag if you're if you're hiking with it. Interesting thing that the whole s 35 vn which se has not used before as far as I know. They're also going to be offering as 35VN on the ESSE three very, very popular, small camping knife. So se three I think again that's a that's a knife that frequently often flexes into etc and just sort of everyday use for people. It's such a great little knife great little universally shape that why not just have it be s 35 VN and not worry about the the stain, the stainless quality and all that so much

Jim Person 8:00
So you said that was S E Knives. That's how you pronounce it. But it's Yeah,

it's spelled e s e e.

Bob DeMarco 8:07
Yes. And unfortunately, I can't remember what that stands for. It is an acronym and I think it might be in Spanish. But don't quote me on that.

Jim Person 8:16
All right. Well, I think about it will try to look it up and put it in the show notes. But don't hold. Don't hold me to it. All right. Got to talk about seems kind of interesting here. WE knives and Kaiser, all involving Justin Lundquist.

Bob DeMarco 8:32
Yeah Justin Lundquist hot designer knife maker who a few years ago, his design the Feist was a front flipper I believe it was the first front flipper that Kaiser made and one of the first real popular ones out there and people went nuts for it. Very cool design, very minimalist design. And then he also came out with the axed also with with Kaiser

Jim Person 9:01
So I have angst

Bob DeMarco 9:02
Yes me too. I have knife angst. So yeah, he, he is back with both Kaiser and we, with Kaiser he's back with this cool little knife called the contrail. And that's in their Vanguard series. And Jim I'm not sure if you know this but Kaiser their Vanguard series is a high value line of knives. So you get some of the same designs in their higher value lines, just with lesser materials. And by lesser I mean Vg 10 steel actually they're moving to 154 Cm with this contrail. And hopefully they do that across across the whole line. I love 154 Cm steel Vg 10. It's fine, fine, still leaves me a little cold. But so anyway, this contrail, I am assuming is called contrail because it's kind of like you can fly with it. You can't really, but it's very people friendly, very sheeple friendly. It's got a two inch cut. A happy looking curved, you know, belly the Warren Cliff blade. I don't know sheep's foot blade. I don't know what you call this thing, but it's got a downward slope from that from the, from the spine of the blade and it's got sort of a curved edge. So it can't be a warren cliff. I guess it's a sheep's foot. But anyway, this little thing is friendly looking. Like I said, it's going to come in a number of colors. It's a liner lock, and they're using 154. It looks like a great little secondary, or tertiary pocket knife. I would definitely go for it. If I were in, you know, if I could actually if I would actually carry it. I would, I would get something like that. What do you mean by that? Well, I just keep finding myself buying these awesome little knives and I like them because I love the designs, but I just never carried the little knives.

Jim Person 10:49
You're a big knife.

Bob DeMarco 10:50
Yeah, that's right.

Because I'm a manly man.

Jim Person 10:54
That's right. We all knew that.

Bob DeMarco 10:56
But also he's got two others coming out with We knife and frankly I don't know if he's ever done anything with a knife before but these two he is coming out look cool. I'll get I'll get the first one. He's got a dagger coming out which I just love and it's called the OSS dagger, like the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. And it's this beautiful You know, beautiful little dagger double edge naturally as it should be. But it's it's based on the lapel daggers of World War Two, these little, these little last ditch daggered flat dagger knives that spies would have sewn in in the lapels of their jacket just in case they're getting roughed up. They could pull it up. So anyway, it's gonna be a 2.13 inch 20 cv chisel ground dagger and that sounds so up my alley. I'm gonna have

Jim Person 11:49
I'm gonna have got it gotta have one. Add it to the list,

Bob DeMarco 11:53
Exactly... but the but the one that's a little more interesting in terms of what I think will get more airplay out there. His black void Opus, which I'm sorry, that is such a pretentious name. It makes my head spin. But in listening to Justin Lundqvist talking about designing this, I can see that Justin Lundqvist is an artist, just by the way he talks, you know, I went to my fair share of our school six years if that's if that's long enough, and he talks about, he was designing the knife he was playing with the positive and negative space and the voids and and, and he has a lot of interesting ideas behind how he came up with this thing aesthetically, but none of that matters. It is a beautiful looking knife though. It is it is really a beautiful, very sleek, very nice looking front flipper. People should just look it up it the blade itself has its its sort of stabby Wharncliffy. It's kind of in the Justin Lundquist. It's what you might you might Imagine him designing from what I go for. But anyway, I just loved that kind of very artsy description of because this is someone who obviously to whom that means a lot, you know, right. So anyway, focus on positive and negative space, like Miles Davis, it's the notes I don't play.

Jim Person 13:18
Well, I am you know, from just a pure business standpoint, I find it interesting that at the same time, he's got knives coming out with Kaiser and WE so I just, you know, yeah,

Bob DeMarco 13:27
it's like, interesting how that works. And you know, what else is kind of interesting is that things that products that have a story attached to them, whether it's organic milk, you know, that comes from happy cows, or whether it's this knife designed by a heady artistic knife designer, like an a product that has a story behind it is inherently more interesting, though. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, next, Jim, I wanted to bring up Spartan blades, Spartan blades has been around for I would say less than 10 years and they really differentiated themselves right out of the gate for their high end beautiful, unusual fixed blade combat knives. And the Spartan line names all of their products after Greek mythological figures and weapons and such. And you know that that really had me right at the start. First of all, I've always liked the design of their fixed blade knives. And I just liked that they were doing unusual things with them in terms of shape and such. But they were always out of reach, you know, pretty expensive fixed blade knives, a lot of people these are the these are prices, people want to pay on something that that has a mechanism a lot of the time but I'm very happy to find out that they just launched the silverline their price conscious silverline and I'm not exactly sure what the prices are but price conscious to me means it's less than their, you know, it's it's clearly much less than their regular line. But that could be still leave you with a with a fine bill. Anyway, they're coming out with three knives the olala the Allah, which is an EDC style, almost four inch drop point blade, and then the Demis which is a five and a half inch. Now this one looks the most like a combat knife, it's a knife that could, you know, you could do hard, hard use tasks with it but it also has an aggressive point to it and you can definitely use it as a fighting knife. And then they have a big recurve chopper called the MCI. Now, this is three solid offerings across a span of uses coming out from spart and I think that was smart. And usually they use as 35 vn and I think 20 cv this time out there using 1095. Crow Van 1095 is a great steel for outdoor knives and great steel for fixed blade knives, especially if you're going to be using them hard and you need that sort of toughness. So I I think that was a smart move there. And they're going to be powder coated, which a helps with the, the fact that the 1095 is a high carbon steel and it also looks tactical. So it goes with the whole with the whole Mystique or thing. The cool thing about this is they're going to be made in, in New York by K bar. And as you know, we mentioned on the show a while back spart knives and K bar came together to form pinelands cutlery.

Jim Person 16:29
That's right, down in North Carolina, yeah, so Southern pines, I think.

Bob DeMarco 16:32
Yeah. So this is a this is kind of the same thing, same companies, same partnership. It's under a different under different shingle, but it's kind of kicking that K bar and Spartan relationship into high gear. So that's interesting. That's great to see. I love K bar knives and they make great stuff.

Jim Person 16:53
Well, I like my K bar knife. All right. Wrapping up. Knife life news. Want to Talk about one of the names that we always hear a lot about Spyderco

Bob DeMarco 17:04
Yes, yes well, so spider co just came out with their first product reveal of the year they've been this is their second year doing it this way instead of instead of showing everyone what they plan on coming out with at the beginning of the year, they are coming out with several different product reveals in which they release. I don't know whatever amount of knives are ready to go and there's some pretty cool additions. This time there is the bombshell which is a flash batch of Michael birch designed the custom Knife of that same name. It's a knife I've been seeing on Instagram for a long time to beautiful thing and it's a great knife to to have Spyderco make it looks like it the aesthetic fits perfectly into spider COEs line. It's going to have a less than three inch blade so it's pretty small but it's a it's going to be 20 cv steel and it's going to be a big fat fat little knife and I thought that was a cool. Just right off the bat. I thought that was a great custom knife to see. Get the Spyderco treatment. But one thing that's really interesting to me this year is Jim they're there. They're premiering two new steals, CPM spy 27 or spy 27. So they teamed up with crucible industries to create that and that will appear on exclusively Spyderco knives and it will be featured on some other USA made models and I'm not sure what the qualities of the steel are supposed to be I'm not sure what they were going for when they were making CPM spy 27 but what a cool name that is. And then their second one that they came out with and it seems like it's about time with all the S 35 vn knives we've had floating around the last few years they're debuting s 45 vn on some of this 10 better, it is 10 better. I mean, that's substantial. 10 is something there and so this is going to be on their starting it on the pair of three in the paramilitary too. And so Lehren Thomas of knife steel nerds has has weighed in on this deal and he says that s 45 Ian's formulation improves edge retention and corrosive corrosion resistance over s 35 vn while sacrificing a little bit of toughness and as you know the these special steals when Spyderco releases their models and special steals they always have a certain color handle material to correspond with the steel so you can tell immediately from the handle material what steel the blade is and for this for S 45 vn it's going to be forest green forest green ladies and gentlemen. Okay,

Jim Person 19:49
that sounds kind of nice.

Bob DeMarco 19:50
So yeah, and then they have a number of other great looking things coming out the night stick it's a Gil Bradley dagger, single edge want long. If you're gonna do it dagger do a dagger. And then the Chaparral they have a cool Chaparral coming out, that's kind of an artsy Sun and Moon kind of thing. You know, they they usually have a knife every year that gets an artistic sort of treatment and then the in della is coming out the end della that the totally unnecessary knife between the Delica and the endura is coming out with the Emerson opener

Jim Person 20:23
so there you go, there you go. We mentioned Lehren Thomas of knife steel nerds he was way back on episode 13 of the Knife Junkie podcast and I've checked com slash 13 Knife Junkie, comm slash one three and and, you know as you were talking about these, these steals, and now these new ones, I mean, you know, I've heard you rattle off these numbers and letters and abbreviations, you know, and I'm like, okay, you know, there's three or four or five or six. But there's more than that. I mean, it just seems like it goes on I mean, Steel's are there lots and you know, the funny

Bob DeMarco 20:57
thing is is the hot steel lately has been m 390, or 20 cv or two of four P and those are all steals, I believe they're all made by different companies or I know, I know there are two different companies involved in those three steals for sure. And but they all have, you know, just three different companies, but they all have it's like the same formulation just from different companies.

Jim Person 21:21
So they can brand it as their own and put their own letter alphabet combination on

Bob DeMarco 21:25
exactly. And then and then when we were talking about this stuff with super, super steel, Steve, you know, he was talking about heat treat, and how much heat treat matters. You know, you can have a soft em 390 blade and then what's the point, you know, you're paying a premium for the steel type, but if it's not heat treated in a way that optimizes that steel type, you know, it's kind of a waste. That's one way of looking at it in a very interesting and compelling way of looking at it.

Jim Person 21:57
Well, you mentioned super steel, Steve off of YouTube, we had a chance to interview him and you'll hear that interview coming up this Sunday on the Knife Junkie podcast, so that'll be coming up on the weekend interview show. But yeah, definitely having to get more educated about steals and I don't know that I can do it. I just I was never Yeah, that was just never a thing of mine. You know,

Bob DeMarco 22:24
you know, Jim, I kind of feel I just don't want I don't know I don't care to dip into the chemistry and find out that deeply about steel. Yeah. I think I think for me personally, my desire to to learn that stuff would only come out of out of a practical need, like if I start forging knives in my later life, you know that that kind of information Sure, will probably become pertinent and interesting to me. But right now, it's just as abstract as high school chemistry and and to a great extent. I am Choosing knives by the designs and by the perceived utility and the difference between steals, though kind of important as a collector as a user, it's just not coming much into play.

Jim Person 23:14
Yeah, well I we will agree on that it's it's not at all into play for me I'm I'm the aesthetic guy the looks guy so so yeah Larrin back on episode 13 Super steel Steve coming up this weekend, and maybe we'll work to get Lehren back on the show to talk more steel as we seem to be having more steals coming out and that kind of thing. So anyway, and now that we're caught up with a nice life news, let's hear more of The Knife Junkie podcast. Want to remind you that coming up or some knife shows maybe still steal, still a chance for you to take part in some of these coming up by the end of the month. down in Florida. It's going to be the Gator cutlery show. That's Friday, January 31 three Saturday, Sunday, February 2, get more information if you go to Gator cutlery, calm Gator cutlery calm. Then at the canary ballroom, Nashville, Tennessee, the tactical knife Invitational February 15, the Las Vegas custom knife maker show with the Las Vegas antique arms show, February 28. through March 1, that's at the Westgate Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. And then in Miami County Fairgrounds and Troy Ohio, March six and seven. It's the spirit of the blade custom knife show. Just a few of the knife shows going to highlight here if we can remember to do it every week here on the supplemental and again this information we're getting from our friends over at knife magazine. com great list of knife shows and knife club meetings. If you don't have a subscription, we encourage you to go and do that now.

Announcer 24:54
Visit The Knife Junkie, The Knife junkie.com to catch all of our podcast episodes videos, photos and more

Jim Person 25:01
Bob. You mentioned super steel Steve that's coming up but also the next Thursday night knives show Thursday, January 23. A repeat co host for you.

Bob DeMarco 25:13
Yeah, we're going to have Teryl Thomas, otherwise known as Zelrick 42. On YouTube, he will be guest hosting What a great guy and and very knowledgeable as he and his brother have have been not going to say on a journey. He and his brother have been making knives and engaging in this complicated effort of designing and having knives produced by overseas companies and they're just killing it and I have to have their knives I have the malware produced by best tech and I have the Roxy for produced by way knives, and both knives. But design wise I love both knives. A very interesting futuristic look that look like they shouldn't be comfortable in our comfortable and just have incredibly functional and and useful blades. Anyway, it's it's great to have him on the show we had him on once before. And then we also had him on the interview show and with his brother Seth, his designing partner for Todd knife and tool, and it's just great to have him on this show because he brings a perspective that we would otherwise be lacking because he's been through the mill ... pun now intended

Jim Person 26:35
intended!

Bob DeMarco 26:36
he's been through the mill of, you know, the design process, but also the production process. And he's a direct link to that world that we love because you know, he's involved in it. You know, I love he's they're also making great use of as much modern technologies they can get their hands on. Yes, they design their knives in AutoCAD or I can't remember what program but you know, they send the files to the other side of the planet. And on the other side of the planet, they stick that file in a machine it starts producing these incredible knives. They use technology that way but they also have their own 3d printers for prototyping and you know I think at this point, that's kind of a necessary purchase I would maybe not necessary but what a great way to feel something and to actually get a get a sense of how the mechanics work. Then then building a very true to live mock up in one of those machines.

Jim Person 27:38
Absolutely. Well again, mentioned Teryl, a past guest on Thursday night knives but also Terrell and south on The Knife Junkie podcast. You want to get any of the podcast episodes go to The Knife Junkie, comm slash Listen, you'll be able to find all those there and listen right there on the website. And if we could ask you a favor, please. leave a rating leave a review on the podcast it really helps us get some feedback about what we about what you think we're doing right or wrong. What guests you're like what guests you'd like to hear just you know give us a review give us a rating it would mean the world to us to get your feedback on that and if I could ask one more favor if you want to help support the show. If you're shopping on Amazon or shopping on eBay, let me give you a link to us. You won't pay any more if you buy some stuff but we'll get a very very small commission but it will help keep the lights on here so if you go to The Knife Junkie comm slash shop Amazon or The Knife Junkie com slash shop eBay and just make your purchases as normal and will get a very small commission and like said it'll help the show out. Bob as we wrap up final thoughts from The Knife Junkie, this midweek supplemental,

Bob DeMarco 28:52
I've got a number of people on hold. I'm trying to figure out dates to interview but still attuned to the Sunday show, as you alluded to before, Jim, there are just endless people in this industry who are interesting, and I just need to get them to talk to me. Right? So I have a number of people who want to talk to me and we're nailing down those dates and so we got a lot of great shows coming up. Yeah,

Jim Person 29:19
let's just say we got a lot of great interviews already in the can a lot of great interviews already booked but still need more if you want to be interviewed, or if you know somebody that should be interviewed. Call the listener line and let us know 724-466-4487, 724-466-4487. Bob, your final word,

Bob DeMarco 29:39
Jim, it's don't take dull for an answer.

Whew good final answer final word for The Knife Junkie Bob DeMarco, I'm Jim Person. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.

Announcer 29:50
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