Automated Transcript
The Knife Junkie Podcast (311) – The Blades of Spring Break

00:05
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 “The Knife Junkie” DeMarco
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.
Coming up, we're going to take a look at a new off grid knife.

00:34
We'll take a look at a new kombu design that's in the state that's in life, knife news, and then we'll look at the blades of spring break.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the blades of spring break.
I'm just back from a road trip with the family.
He was half Rd half train.
It was a great trip and there were some trials and tribulations and.
A knife loss that actually broke my heart.
I'll tell you about that in a minute, but we all returned sick and least of all myself and it just brings to mind one of my favorite lines from my absolute favorite movie Chinatown and that is summer.

01:11
Colds are the worst, and though it's not summer, it feels like summer.
It's like spring and Hope springs eternal.
I think I'm getting an ear infection like I'm seven years old.
So if I start to shout, please just bear with me.
OK, so let me tell you what I'm carrying today.
Today's pocket check.
A new knife, something that I'm really thrilled with that I've been carrying quite a lot.

01:34
That took me a while to get and that is this little beauty here.
Actually, it's not so little.
This is a big ish knife.
This is the new micro tech SOCOM.
Bravo, the SOCOM Bravo was a model based on the SOCOM Elite made by Marfione Custom Knives and also micro tech in their factory in North Carolina and.
It's a very complex build, much more so than the very.
Well, luxurious, but utilitarian elite line, which is an extremely capable folding combat and tactical and EDC knife.

02:14
Well, this was the done up version, you know.
Did up with carbon fiber and titanium.
Different exotic materials?
Fluting in the blades and handles well.
It was getting to be too much for their manufacturing here in the states so they contracted the workout to reach knife.
Highly, highly respected Chinese manufacturer of very limited production runs of pretty exotic and super machined knives.
Mike Knife has done an amazing job on this knife.

02:48
I'm really, really thrilled with this and something I'm finding interesting.
The longer I carry, this said there's definitely a difference in feel between this and the elite.
Not only is the clip in the right spot.
Here the elite always has it.
Tip down and it's one of the two knives to include the military by Spyderco, where I've always forgiven the tip down.
Only thing this knife has the clip in the back which alters the grip.
Also, there's no weight reduction in these titanium liners so it has a more handle heavy feel, whereas the elite has a more blade heavy feel due to the aluminum handle and the big heavy blade.

03:34
So I'm very very excited.
Got this knife, I'm gonna keep carrying it.
Originally I wanted the Tonto version of it, but then I realized in the 11th hour I already have the elite.
In the tontos, so I decided to get this clip point.
Glad I did.
So I've been carrying that one quite a bit.
I'm wearing shorts this week after work and carrying this in shorts.

03:57
Depends on the shorts.
If there are light kind of hiking shorts it's it's a little much, but in well like khakis or something like that.
Not too bad.
I've never minded weight too much.
All right Next up my fixed blade knife.
Today is a modern classic, something I've been crying ever since I got it quite a bit.
This is the JB.

04:20
Safe and tool ditch pic.
Just a beautiful pical style knife.
I think it looks beautiful in the sheath.
That's why I'm showing it off in the sheath.
Also, we have that discreet carry concepts clip.
Just a great great clip.
I wear this in the waistband 3:00 o'clock and when it's drawn it's in this reverse grip.

04:42
The intended grip for this knife, the original version of this knife did not have the front edge sharpened, but on this run he was offering it this way.
And I believe evermore.
You can get it with the sharpened front.
Or you can get it half sharpened on the front, which is kind of cool.
Sort of a band that thing, but I decided why not go Full Monty with it?
I'd regret it if I didn't, so I did and the ditch on all of their models when you see ditch as a prefix to the rest of the name.
That refers to this ultra thin blade steel.

05:18
Very flexible, very tough, but also very thin, so very light to carry and will slip between the atoms through which you push it.
Amazing knife.
Very happy to have this thing and always have my eye on what they're what they're putting out.
By the way.
They have some knuckles recently that were pretty cool.
Something kind of like these mcnees knuckles except in a G10 with a with an inner layer of metal.
Pretty cool looking last up on me is it's been hard to shake this from my pocket.

05:50
This is the Jack Wolf Knives sharpshooter, I believe he has almost sold out.
I think he's like 98% sold out sold out.
He meaning Ben Belkin, the man who started the company Jack Wolf Knives, making modern interpretations of classic slip joint knives produced to the absolute highest level and this guy is a stickler.
And he's got Ben.
That is, he's got an incredible collection himself of custom handmade slip joints.
He knows what he likes in slip joints and he's had it all distilled into this and all the folders coming for the next six months or so.
He's got a bunch in the offing.

06:34
He's gonna do monthly releases, and these things are beautifully produced and he is contractually bound not to say where.
So.
I don't know where, but it's the best company in China for making slip joints.
It seems because this thing exceeds all expectations.
Plus it is very very thinly not.
Plus I should say one of those things that exceeds expectations is the blade grind.
It is so wickedly thinly ground and full height hollowly ground.

07:09
I'm sure I didn't say that right, but it's a full height hollow grind and it comes to a super thin.
Edge with a nice big sharpening choil you could sharpen that thing for quite a while and move that edge north and still have a very thin behind the edge geometry there.
Not that you would need to, because this is not a hard use knife.
This is a slip joint pocket knife and that's M390 blade steel.
Frankly, I will never have to sharpen this.
I will if if anything, only Strop it and probably only out of just the pleasure of stropping it, because that is very sharp M390 steel.
I'm not going to do anything crazy with that blade and so the only thing I can think is if I'm I'm trying to go through a tough bagel and I'm and and I push down and it lands on a porcelain plate.

07:56
Maybe I'll have to.
Take that out with a little rod or something.
Ceramic rod.
Other than that, I I say it's bulletproof.
You know, that's that's the kind of blade steel that's I think the most valuable place for a blades deal like M-390-A small knife, a small pocket knife, something that you carry a lot and that you're going to use.
You know, to do little tasks.
That way you never have to sharpen it.

08:19
You can always go with the factory edge because it's probably never going to actually dull if all you're doing is opening well after a while, it will.
But you get my point.
I am sure, so that's what I'm carrying.
What are you carrying?
I had the micro tech SOCOM Bravo the JB knife and tool ditch pic and the.
Jack Wolf knives sharpshooter.
So I gotta tell you a little story before I move on and it it really bums me out.

08:50
But before I get to that, I have to let you know I've been reading the Reacher book the the very first in the Jack Reacher series because I watched the Amazon and my dad, the Amazon series.
My dad has always been into Jack Reacher as a sort of pallet cleansing book between history books.
He loves to read history books, but then he likes to read Jack Reacher between them.
And he's always been saying, Bob, you gotta check out Jack Reacher.
He's so cool.
He's a big dude, he just he's just minding his own business room in the country and people, just, you know, they just mess with him.
And he loves how he fights and everything.

09:23
So I started reading the book and it's excellent.
I really, really dig it and I look forward to reading other other Jack Reacher books after that, but there was one scene in the Jack Reacher book in this Reacher book that just rang hollow and he goes into someone's car and goes through the glove box and finds a switchblade.
With the the owner's name inscribed in it all good Ebony handle all good describes it like a an Italian switchblade.
All good.
I like it up until the point he said it had a 7 inch double edged blade.
I was like whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa 7 inch double edge blade.
That means an 8 inch handle that means a 15 inch overall blade that's larger than the Espada.

10:07
Excel from cold steel.
And he pops it in his pocket.
How is this possible?
How is any of this possible?
Lee Child.
I I I I I protest protest what what is going on here?
So I think maybe that was just a typo.

10:23
Maybe he wasn't thinking, maybe he was thinking 7 inches overall, in which case it's sort of a small blade for a guy of the stature of Jack Reacher.
So I need some questions answered answered from Mr Child here.
I know the book is 25 years old but.
You still have some things to answer for Sir.
Alright, moving on the next tragedy in in our awesome vacation now, there was no tragedy on our vacation, just.
Just me being dumb, ohhh, I hate it when I'm dumb and you know it happens, maybe with some regularity to the point where I can say it's coincidence, but in this case I've just done this so many times and I don't know what my problem is.
I lost another knife due to a security check.

11:08
OK, we went to a theme park here in the states.
In in we went to Universal Studios.
I'll say it and it was awesome.
I really enjoyed it.
However on day 2. OK day one, I walked in accidentally with my bastinelli diagnostic on the back of my work ID which I had buried in my backpack, which I swear to God I had gone through stem to stern so thoroughly and I missed it.
I missed it the first day and so did security.
The second day I had someone who was awake.

11:42
And they caught it.
This happened last year at Legoland.
I don't know if you remember this, but it was in the reverse order.
First day I forgot.
But in this case there was no getting back on the bus.
I was not going back another half hour, so I was like I'll do the the classic stash.
It's what I used to do when I lived in New York City and I went to a museum or something.

12:01
I'd find a little potting Potter and just kind of dig it.
Dig a little hole and bury it in there.
Well, I did that with my bastinelli diagnostic.
My wife is just like we were.
So on time for a change today and here you go bringing this thing and I'm like I didn't know I didn't know like like it's someone else's fault.
So I run out back through security and you know the guys like you got two choices.
You can throw it out or you can throw it out.

12:28
You can throw it out or you can give it to me so I take it down to a Potter.
I bury it all day long I'm like can't forget where it is.
I I mapped out the Potter with a couple of photographs.
Showed a couple of notes.
And at the end of the day, I came back and it was gone.
It was gone.
Someone was either watching me.

12:46
And dug it out, but probably more likely.
And that that's actually likely someone saw me do it, but but but more than likely there was a crowd of people waiting for a shuttle bus, and some kid was like playing in the dirt.
Cause you see a lot of kids playing in the dirt and laying on the ground at these theme parks.
And maybe the kid was digging through the dirt and found the the diagnostic and held it up to his mom and his mom's like give me that.
You know something similar to that happened when I was a kid, but in any case, I hope whoever wound up with my bastinelli diagnostic.
I hope you really need it, or I hope you don't really need it, but I hope it comes in handy.
I don't know what to say that was my fault, so my blessings on to you usually like when I know a knife has been stolen that has happened a few times out of my car and other places I'm like.

13:38
I hope they fall on it, but in this case I hope they need it.
Because it was my own dumb fault for losing it.
All right, well if you want to help me get a new bastinelli diagnostic, you can do so by supporting the show on Patreon.
We have 3 levels of support there and you get interview extras.
You get stickers, you get other stuff, and in return especially one of the funniest things is the monthly knife giveaway for the gentleman junkies.
That's the $10 high tier of support, so check it out you can you can ZAP the QR code right here because we are very contemporary.
Or you can go to the knife chunky.

14:16
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14:49
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You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
And now.
Here's the knife junkie with the knife life news.
We were all a little bit suspicious, hesitant, probably neither of those are the spurious.

15:20
I'm not sure what the right word is, but when GSM bought cold Steel a couple years back I was like, ooh, what's going to happen?
And they did a couple of things that made my Spidey senses tingle, but but we all benefited from like what model do you want us to bring back?
And they they got.
They brought back the Talwar Talwar excel which I still have not picked up.
I need to do that.
I still need one of those for my collection, but.
We are all concerned are they gonna go cheese and some might think that cold steel has always been cheese and I guess I get that, but to me they're they're heroes of the knife industry and I love them.

15:57
But they have a new fixed blade line out and.
I'm not thrilled.
I gotta say, I'm not thrilled.
I'll be 100% honest, you know.
I'm a cold steel lover.
Or maybe that's not the right word fanboy.
I hate that term.

16:11
I'm just a cold steel devotee since high school and that was a long time ago.
They've come out with this line.
The razor tech.
Interesting profile I can get behind the profile.
It's got a recurve and a deep belly except for the small 4 inch version.
That's a six and a half of five and a four inch version of the razor tech.
OK, so you either like the profile or you don't.

16:36
The five and the six and a half inch are, you know, look chopping heavy.
These are tactical blades that have you know, knowing cold steel, they have pretty good points to deal with, but.
Mostly slashing and chopping them, seeing from this blade type.
The price OK, and that's a matter of taste or taste of your collector or usage type of you're a user and you want to get a fixed blade knife for adventure or whatever, or camping or something like that.
But the the problem is when we run into the materials.
Now those molded slabs are GRN.
The urine that's glass filled, you know nylon, and then the blade steel.

17:20
The blade steel is 4116 Krupp, 4116. Krups krups is a great steelmaker from Germany, but the 4116, the stuff they were using on their budget line knives.
You know years ago my Roach belly is 4116 I believe my kiridashi.
That's something else, that's another that's a different budget steel, but the 4116 is on the spikes.
Theories it's on a number of their inexpensive knives.
It is soft.
It is not the robust Dist of steels and I'm thinking cold steel is coming out with a brand new line of knives.
I I feel like it should be in a in a in a jazz term.

18:07
It should be in a more legit steal.
I don't know.
I don't want a big slab of soft steel in a supposedly hard use knife.
Now I get it.
You've got to have these.
You've got to have knives across a number of budgets.
They have cold steel is making a lot of fixed blade knives that are expensive in 3V steel really excellent.

18:29
High impact outdoors, knife steels and and tactical fixed blade knife steels and you have to have.
Something in the more affordable realm, but I'll have you know, this razor tech line.
It's expensive.
That 4 inch one is 100 bucks.
The five inch is 129 and the six and a half inch is 200 bucks and I'm sorry fixed blade knives.
You priced them down as far as I'm concerned because they have less machining.
They have less engineering that go into them and something about these prices with those materials really rings false to me.

19:07
I would love to talk to the stick man on the show and talk to him about these knives and and see see what he's found in their testing.
Maybe they've found some magic heat treat for 4116 that turns it into a a more a less entry level steel, but I don't know.
I'm interested to find out.
That top the six and a half inch version is almost 1/4 of an inch thick, which is, you know, that's pretty respectable.
I'm sure it's a a heavy duty.
I mean cold steel did marvelous things with us.
Eight, they are known for heat, treating their steel well, but that was when Lynn Thompson was at the helm.

19:46
Who knows?
I know he's got something to do with them still helping to sell.
Maybe some of their other products.
Helping to design maybe some of the newer ones, but I don't know.
I I wanna find out more.
I'm a little, I'm a little surprised by the materials to price ratio on this one, but I want to believe in cold steel so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until I can talk to someone.
I'm going to try and have them on the show yet again, all right.

20:14
Next up, a guy we've had on the show.
Gregors gregar.
Grab grab our ski, better known as kombu Master designer of exotic looking folding knives from Poland.
He's been on the show by the bye.
It's got a bunch of new best tech collaborations, and this new one is pretty interesting because.
We'll get to the end.
There's a little bit of foreshadowing in this in this here story, so the Costa came out a couple of years ago in titanium.

20:46
With this really nice upswept bellied worn Cliff is what I'm calling it, or or aggressively pointed cleaver.
I don't know what you want to call it, but very nicely shaped blade with the IT looks sort of like a Chinese down sword to me, or a war sword.
I mean, and it's got the typical kombu.
Swoopy lined handle with very melt in your hand ergonomics.
Well, they're coming out with a budget version of that and I I shouldn't call it budget it.
It's a lighter in terms of cost and materials version.
It's called the cost of BL and it's going to come out with the same 3.46 inch blade, but it'll be instead of M 390. It'll be 154 CM and instead of a. Titanium frame lock.

21:39
It will be a G10 liner lock so just taking that same beautiful profile and scaling it down in terms of materials and making it wider.
More available across a broader spectrum of knife budgets.
A cambu is a designer who works exclusively with best tech and a lot of his designs, which are more expensive to make because of the lines and the milling, and there are a lot of details in his designs.
Well, they're starting to.
Introduce more of his designs in budget lines and now this is a little bit of foreshadowing to something I'm going to show you in the in the state of the collection, so I'm I'm really excited about this Costa and I'm excited about some even more budget versions coming out.
Of this same type of design from Kombu and bestech.
So if you like that sort of pointed bellied cleaver type thing.

22:42
But you don't even wanna spend Costa BL money and get 154 CM, there will be other options foreshadowing so you can check that out coming up right here on the Knife Junkie podcast in the state of the collection.
We're also going to take a look at the blades of spring break, the blades of spring break.
These are the ones I brought on our trip I. I travelled with a different knife philosophy this time and I'll tell you all about it coming up right here on the Knife Junkie podcast.
Have a knife you want featured or reviewed?
Call the knife junkies 24/7 the listener line at 724-466-4487 and let us know.
So right before we went away.
I had the honor of receiving a package from Lefty EDC, Kevin Lefty EDC sent me his knife a prototype of his knife.

23:38
The Devo Knives stout, and this is a collaboration between Kevin Kevin Johnson, left the EDC and Colin of CM knife designs, and it has a really cool, really well made bolster lock.
Sheepsfoot EDC I I'm I'm gonna call it almost a hard use.
EDC knife.
Usually excuse the terminology, but that's what it is.
And and also excuse the messy blade.
I did use this in a review video that I just posted this past weekend and I forgot to clean it off.
I'm not trying to show off.

24:21
Oh look, I used this knife but I did and it worked fantastically.
So it's a 20 CV blade here hollow ground with a swedge.
It's that sheepsfoot blade style.
It's got a very gradual curving cutting edge and a swedge, and that swedge really adds to the puncturing nature of the tip.
Because if you look at it, like most sheepsfoot, it has a pretty rounded off tip, but that swedge comes all the way to the tip and so that makes it at the very tip, more like a diamond cross section.
So it will penetrate easier as you can as you may be able to see up here on the Swale on the spine of the blade there is a nice Swale cut out for your thumb if you're up forward in this 5050 choil in the forward grip, it's very comfortable.
This crowned so nicely.

25:19
This whole everything here is sort of rounded off everything except this little tiny point right here.
And this is something they're addressing in the production version.
As is the hollow grind, this is a very nice hollow grind.
It it performed beautifully in my on screen testing in that video and as did that edge.
It's a super amazing keen mirror edge and just glided through material very very easily.
However, they're going to make the the hollow grind even deeper on the production version.
That's another one of the little tweaks.

25:56
Very nice branding.
Devo knives.
I like it Devo.
My wife calls me a devo from time to time when I'm being a diva.
There it is.
DK right there in the pivot?
That's a an integral bolster.

26:11
On that titanium liner and a bolster lock I just love bolster locks.
I'm a new, I'm a convert, I just love them because you don't have to deal with putting pressure.
You don't have to deal with worrying about putting pressure on that lock bar when you're opening it, even to include slow rolling.
I find a slow rolling open a knife, especially in right hand with a. Standard traditional liner lock or I mean frame lock can be troublesome because I find my hand landing on the lock bar but with the bolster lock you just don't get it.
You don't get that issue.
Nice bent wire clip here deep carry.
Very utilitarian.

26:55
I like it because you're not going to scratch other stuff up and you're not going to scratch the clip up.
These sort of rounded clips are much more kind to your steering wheel if you're getting in and out of your car.
A lot, or even if you scratch up against the paint, I just find that these are.
You know, a generally kinder on surfaces, so that's nice and it flips over to the other side.
Really nice.
My card on there so very very happy to have this.
Thank you guys for loaning this to me.

27:28
I'm gonna have lefty on the show shortly and we're going to talk all about it.
That's the stout from Devon Knives Next up.
I also put a usage video of this one up and a review video.
This is the OR a close up I should call it.
This is the off grid knives Ridgeback.
The Ridgeback here very nice.
Sheath as usual.

27:51
From off grid knives.
They put their logo there.
This is a outdoors knife for sure.
It's got a scandi grind.
Very very very sharp.
This is in 14 C 28 N. And interesting choice for a camp knife.
I did take it out and.

28:12
Slam it into a sapling.
It it laid the sapling out in three swipes.
I needed that sapling for something else so you peed a people.
Don't get on my case like that's not.
That's not so 14 C. 28. And like I said, unusual choice for this kind of knife, however.
Handy ground this is more of a bushcraft knife for you know carving and feather sticking and and you don't think of it so much as a chopper, but it performed wonderfully.
I've already it it did get a little a little bit of.

28:51
Not Dings, but I could feel it just a tiny bit.
I hit something hard and so I I took a ceramic rod to it and was a little imprecise.
You can see across the scan the edge there, but got it back to trust.
Dropped it up this thing.
I love this knife and incidentally my dad just bought one before I even mentioned I was going to be receiving this one.
My dad just saw it.
He likes off grid knives and he was lurking on their on their website and picked one up for himself.

29:19
Told me about it but he I doubt he got this one.
Because this is a special edition, this is a special edition dad.
This is a black and blue Gray micarta handle.
So sumptuously contoured, feels great in hand.
This is overall this thing feels awesome.
It feels a bit in hand like an S knife, which is a compliment.
And yeah, I'm really really psyched about this thing.

29:46
The coding on that 14 C 28 and is nice and smooth.
It's not like the black traction coating on the tops.
Knife, which kind of wears smooth after use it.
This is smooth from go, so dig this knife comes with a dangler on the sheath that can come off and you can use different.
Great fit and you can use different.
Belt attachments Next up a gift from best tech.
Now they sent this to me with some other knives to check out and offered that.

30:22
I keep this and I accepted the offer.
This was this was featured on this show about six months ago.
This is the eye of RA, maybe a little bit more.
The eye of RA from Bestech.
This is an in house design and just a cool little upswept Persian.
It's it's not an upswept but.
It's a straight backed Persian.

30:44
I'm going to call it cause that belly is upswept and it comes to a very acute point with a really nice swedge.
I mean, this is a wicked puncturing blade and slashing blade.
But it doesn't.
It's not upswept in that it doesn't rise above the spine, which is what I prefer.
Excellent, excellent action on the deployment and Nice return to the handle as is implicated or indicated by the name.
It's got this cut out here as not just for lightening the blade or for spinning it in your hand with ease.
It is also part of the eye of RAW motif so.

31:29
That's the eye part.
You've got nice, proud steel liners crowned off very comfortable and colored blue in this case.
Very cool little blade from from the people over at best tech.
They are it's 3 1/2 inch blade.
They are some of my favorite OEMs right now.
Every off grid knives is having their knives made by best tech.
A number of let's see Vero was having it made by having their stuff made by best tech.

32:00
Just outstanding quality.
Really cool designs coming from in the house and working with great designers like.
Well, for instance, kombu.
Here's something from kombu, something that they sent me to to show off.
I'm gonna be talking to a gregors again shortly about his new designs and the knives coming out.
This is the orneta.
Now this was out originally in.

32:28
Titanium frame lock form and here you can get it in this beautiful G10, in this case blue and black G10.
Contoured and milled.
This is some of that milling I was talking about before.
On the.
Milling on the handle here and it is really exquisitely.
Sort of sculpted and designed and you get this now in a G10 form instead of titanium and you still get that nice milled titanium pocket clip.
Just a stylish stylish knife that's N 690. A steel often used.

33:16
Often used in Italy and in some of these more budget.
Chinese knives, and I just think that this thing has a really, really cool look and feel.
The feel, the ergonomics of this.
It's it's just melts into your hand.
I love combos, designs and this is the first of the orneta that I've held and I really, really like.
It's got a nice choke forward point with that.
With that choil and just a super smooth, super cool and largish knife, that's a 3.6 inch blade, so not too big.

33:51
But kind of in that mid EDC range.
All right, last up here is the.
I had put a little foreshadowing.
This is called the Cubist before when I was talking about the Khalsa the Casa by Kambu.
That sort of a sweeping clavery pointed clavery style knife.
Well, this is.
This is the one that's even further down and more budget friendly than that, and this is from D2.

34:23
This is the Cubist D2 this beautiful aquamarine micarta very very high quality.
Canvas my card here.
Really nice shape.
You've got a point you've got that cleverly style blade.
It's kind of like a straight razor too.
You have this forward choke up point and just ridiculously smooth action.
Look at that.

34:46
It just falls.
I mean, you better get your thumb out of the way here.
Incredible action on this.
I have not seen this listed anywhere.
I got to find out from the gentleman who sent this to me from Bestech.
I got to find out what the schedule is for.
Releasing this again, I said I'm not sure if I said this is a D2 blade.

35:08
I just am in love with that color.
My card is so we'll we'll see more about the Cubist shortly.
I'll be doing videos and also talking with kambu here shortly before I had the Razorback out and I was talking about it and I always failed to mention, but I feel it important to mention that I have an affiliate link with off grid knives.
I've been offered affiliate links with other companies that I've given a positive, strong reviews.
But I. I've said no for one reason or another.
But after knives I love them so much and I have a collection of them and I just I think everything they do is pretty cool.
Almost everything they do.

35:47
You can't have every can't can't be perfect, but I do have an affiliate link so if you like this knife or any of the other awkward knives you've seen me talk about here we do have an affiliate link.
It's the knife chunky.com/off grid and it will.
That's the pretty link it will take you to.
You know the the website and if you buy something from them we get a tiny little Commission.
So if you want to do it, you'll get a little.
You'll you'll.
You'll be able to help support the show and you'll get a sweet knife out of it all right, so?

36:21
The Blades of spring break.
Why am I saying it like that, you ask?
Well, I don't know.
It reminds me of those videos.
The babes of spring break, uh, well we had spring break.
We took a trip down South and I took knives with me as usual and of course not just one.
I usually bring this here or I'll show it to you.

36:39
My knife roll.
I got this last year from attention to detail Mercantile software, that's a stacia over there.
This thing is my knife roll and brought this with me.
Excuse me, I keep sniffling.
You know, like I said, we all came back sort of sick.
Who knows, but you'll have to excuse me.
OK, so my idea here with with what I brought on this on this hearing knife during I'm gonna get this out of the way.

37:13
It's sort of shaken up the camera a little bit, but the whole idea here was of course I'm going to bring the SOCOM Elite so I'll bring this out first because that is my road trip knife officially.
So I brought this with me, but aside from this I was thinking I have.
I've had a lot of cool knives come in or that I've purchased that are.
More on the more budget side and really capable that I don't carry as much because when I'm at home and I'm around my fancy knives, I tend to drift towards those, but on the road maybe I don't want so many fancy knives because if I lose them that would be really bad.
And so I decided besides the SOCOM elite.
And maybe one other folder I was gonna I was gonna stay sort of budget so just to begin with the SOCOM elite here.
I've shown this off a million times but I do love this and now that I have the bravo I've been.

38:10
My whole love for Microtek has been reinvigorated and I want more of these elites.
I'd love to have a small one.
They make they used to make small versions of this.
I think that'd be cool so.
This knife is like I mentioned before, a little more balanced right in the center or blade heavy.
It's it's more right in the center, right where a fighting knife should be, but since there's no clip at the end to sort of more my hand in there, it's it.
It took a while to get used to this, having the clip there, but I am.

38:43
Why is this?
My road trip knife?
Because it was the first knife I ever had with a glass breaker and it sort of just sunk in.
That's my road trip knife so I do love that knife, the SOCOM elite and I picked that up and I just intuitively grabbed the SOCOM.
Bravo.
Love that thing.
OK so Next up.

39:02
I carried with that on the first day I do remember the hydros from Sievi.
You know my philosophy.
It's sort of like you gotta have different blade shapes.
If you're carrying multiple blades, so this is sort of the kind, almost the opposite of that tanto blade.
It's just a straight.
Pointy Warren Cliff this is the knife I did bring out when I needed a knife.
This was to cut food and it was.

39:31
I cut it in the car and as I was cutting it I was thinking maybe something with a round tip would have been better for cutting food in the car because that point could easily go through this Wendy's carton sitting on my lap.
So I I did decide that maybe that was the wrong choice for the intended purpose, but I do love the Savior.
Gross this is a great great knife.
This one's in 14 C 28 and and really nice micarta.
Almost polished, very smooth micarta and just a small knife.
Great for EDC and also if you flip it around and use it like this.
It would be a pretty good EDC as tactical knife.

40:11
I featured that here on one of the shows not too long ago.
OK, so the next full full size right pocket folder that I carried that I brought.
On the more expensive side is this, and now I'm thinking.
And and and this got a lot of carry too.
This is the Emerson Sachs, my beloved Emerson Sacks with the a MXG gear clip on it.
That's the only way to carry this knife, I believe, because he placed the clip as he does frequently audaciously low.
I know that so you have more purchase on the knife when you remove it in the knife fight, but so anyway, I just got the smaller MXG gear clip and put it on there and I really like how it looks, how it carries and how it feels in hand.

41:04
Uh, and I said I'm starting to think I'm starting to think I need to get wooden handles made by vantage point on this.
Tom Engleson does great aftermarket scales for Emerson knives and he's done a few in desert ironwood that just look amazing.
So maybe this sacks has earned that.
I love this knife.
I carry this I take this is probably my most carried Emerson.
And so this was with me on the trip and got a lot of carry when not in one of the fun parks.
With it, this got carried and again you can see it's because of the contrast in blade shapes.

41:45
This is probably what I should have had whilst cutting the burgers I was talking about, but this is the three and a quarter inch Pelican mini from Kaiser and another one of my favorite designers, this time from Paris from France and that is K Max from.
This is my small kmax from subcollection of four knives.
I don't know this is really a shot to the top.
I love this knife.
First of all, Kaiser just kills it all the time.
They're great.
I love Kaiser and.

42:20
This super smooth thumb stud knife.
Just something about it.
Everything about it.
I love the the detent on.
It is pretty stout and at first it took a little breaking in but.
It's almost hard to not get it to fully engage, and because it's a liner lock.
Easy slow roll.

42:46
So great knife, great knife, great utility and great cutting.
Great slicing, great shape, great look and the ergonomics are fantastic and this is one of those little big knives in my in my opinion.
Three and a quarter is a little small for me, but this is this acts like a big knife.
Also excellent canvas micarta which has begun to take on a patina which I love.
Next up, also a kmax room design, this time produced by concept, this knife has gotten a lot of press by me recently.
The Pritha too prita 2 means ready for anything in French, and this knife is indeed ready for anything.
This is the canvas micarta version and a liner lock.

43:36
I have the titanium frame lock version in the tanto Blitt tanto blade shape.
This one of course the double peak Bowie.
I love the double peak.
Bowie like the Mac V SOG.
The classic Mac V SOG design this thing is a great cutter with 154CM blade steel and very very nice edge geometry like the Tonto which is an S 35 EN.
It's just a great great.
This is great for cutting boxes.

44:06
I know it looks a little more high speed than that, like you might wanna use it for a. For that knife fight that you got paid to enter, but it is really an EDC knife at three and 3.6 inches.
And man, just a great cutter and slicer.
I've used this thing quite a bit more than the titanium actually.
I find that the blade that the thumb studs are much easier to use due to the liner lock nature of it.
Of course you've got the flipper and then you also have that nice Fuller that you can Spidey flick it open with.
This has a very I don't want to call it polished, but kind of.
Kind of polished or hard my Carta kind of like this one the hydros, whereas this feels softer and more absorbent, but I've been using this one so much it's starting to take on a patina where my fingers wrap around so I do like that carried this only one day but it got it.

45:09
It got overshadowed by this one.
The Gerber sedula.
Yes, it was overshadowed by a Gerber.
And this one I took with me because Gerber recently sent this to me.
I did a very positive review and review video and decided they were someone who offered me that affiliate link and I I. I turned it down because I want people to know that I actually really think that this Gerber is awesome and I really do think that it's worth the money if you because it's so well
designed and well produced.
It it might not win any beauty contest here, but that's S30V.

45:50
It's a really well ground real, really well beveled blade.
And then the cutting edge is is pretty perfect on both sides.
It has an excellent bar lock or axis style lock.
And.
Really kind of heavy GRN handles without weight reduction, so though it is a plastic handle, it still feels weighty due to the full liners and the density of the FRN they use here.
A very good grip, excellent pocket clip with ramping and flat screws and perfectly centered blade.
I got to say this is a Gerber that exceeds expectations by you know 200%.

46:39
And it makes me happy because I had a soft spot in my heart always for Gerber due to a knife my dad had back in the 70s and I I want to see them like everyone else.
Every other American business.
I wanna see them do well and this one is actually made in America and maybe that's why the quality is so high on this one.
So just an excellent excellent knife and I wanted to bring it on the trip and use it a lot.
And I did use it a lot that that cut a lot of pancakes again that cut.
Biscuits, all sorts of things that I don't.
Well, hamburgers, you know we ate like I don't know.

47:16
We ate a lot of.
Fast food type stuff and this did a lot of that kind of work for sure.
I didn't have much else to to do with knives while we were on the trip, but this thing I've used it a lot and I've got I want to see this upward trajectory for Gerber.
So the Gerber Sedula was a big one on this trip.
Also.
A big one on the trip was, you know I had a lot.
Had a lot of opportunity when not in the fun park to switch knives up.

47:51
This one got a lot of use, especially on the train and because I was worried I didn't know what the security might be on the train.
So I packed everything else up, stuck it in the car, the car goes on the back of the train.
I go in the front of the train with the family and this is what I brought with me.
This highly, highly capable Kuby flash.
Just a luxury knife at 40 bucks.
I got to say.
Really well designed, really well executed, excellent blade shape, excellent blade geometry a a brilliant cutter.

48:25
It's got a point right down center line with the with the pocket clip and the pivot so it's right where you want it but also has a handle that puts the tip where you want it for utility cuts and pull cuts and draw cuts.
That kind of thing.
So this thing is an all around her.
If you like a 3.75 inch blade and I do.
I love the big knives and you want something that's.
Equally capable as a utility knife or as a last ditch defense folder, men for 40 bucks.
The quality of this, I'd say you couldn't go wrong with this unless you don't like the shape or the look.

49:03
I'm also in reverse grip.
Incidentally, since I mentioned self defense, a great handle shape for capping the pommel.
With the thumb.
Just an awesome knife I I loved carrying this.
I have one gripe with it and that one ohh excellent access to the lock bar, something Jared Nieve has really opened my eyes to in terms of importance and also it's a nitpick but.
The clip is is decent because it's a wrap over.
It's a fold over deep carry pocket clip.

49:36
The problem here is recessed screws.
That's good.
The problem here is the clearance.
It's very tight right here.
Gonna wish that arc was a little broader, it it did not fit well into any pants except the most worn down genes like where the seam is gone, slipped in and out of that.
But that last little bit I'd have to lift lift the clip up here by the ramp just to get it over a thick seams of jeans.
So that's the 11 gripe with this knife, but that's like, you know it's a Sinfield type gripe.

50:10
She had man hands or he's a low talker.
That kind of thing.
Alright, three fixed blade knives I brought with me first.
This one rode around in my pocket when we weren't at the fun park.
And this is the.
Station 9 I'm sorry, I just reminded me of my bastinelli diagnostic.
Another little fixed blade knife that I left with but did not return with.

50:36
I know I shed a tear for my first world problem.
This is the station 9 #4 #4. This is a lapel dagger.
OSS style or or SOE style.
Lapel dagger, except it's updated.
You can see that's a kydex sheath instead of a little leather sheath that gets sewn in under your jacket lapel or into the inside of your pocket so it doesn't print.
This is kydex and that's what this is for.
It's a tiny little last ditch.

51:11
Double edged and those edges are damn sharp.
That's, uh, VG 10 blades deal, and it's a little tiny dagger and you see it's got these little it's got this little.
Pasture of jimping here that you're that's very sharp.
That really grip into your fingers.
You can hold this pinch this between your fingers and repeatedly stab thick cardboard.
And how do I know that?
Because I have plenty of times because it's fun but also this is a great little knife to keep in your pocket.

51:44
Especially you put a little a gutted paracord fob on there with a loop and you can do have all sorts of different hand holds with this thing.
Let me let me see if I can demonstrate.
Put my middle finger through this loop.
Of course, this is something you would have set up before you needed it, because it doesn't.
Not so easily done quickly, but have it on there.
Walk around casually like that and then flip it out like this and you've got a knife right there and then.
You also have that cord to help it keep stable so it's stable this way and forward to back.

52:20
And there are different ways to hold it, so you can punch with it if you look at the at the Instagram page for station 9, you can see the different hand holds they have.
It's pretty cool.
I got to say I really like station 9. I like their their raise on debt.
Raison detra they're using, they're producing products.
I think they have nine at this point, all based on weapons of the French resistance and other and other World War 2 units.
For instance the the knuckles which are not here with me that I have are based on the knuckles that were issued to Austro Hungarian troops during World War One and and after and this knife.
Is based on resistance stuff intelligence spy kit.

53:13
They have a number of different knives.
One knife that they have called the partisan is pretty cool.
It's it's a it's a fixed blade knife.
It looks like an altered chef's knife altered for combat with a swedge and and that's basically what it's based on.
They were not manufacturing specialized military knives for resistance people.
They were taking their own kitchen knives and and altering them to to be better.
Fighting knives and French French chefs knives are are very similar to some of the French fighting knives where the actual blade acts as the finger guard so that your hand doesn't move forward on that blade.

53:57
You can see that style a lot in Fred parents designs that that sort of integral blade slash guard.
So station 9 very very cool operation.
Check them out on Instagram at station Capital I Capital X Roman numeral 9. All right, this is the one that I carried on me only on the drive down there and I didn't carry it any other time.
This is my tops knife, but it also sat next to me on the bedside stand.
This is the tops knives rapid strike.
Love this knife and haven't carried it too much recently because I've gotten all these.
Custom fixed blade.

54:38
EDC knives and those have sort of eclipsed this, but I thought this is replaceable.
I wouldn't want to have to buy a new one, and I wouldn't want to lose it, but if I had to, I could replace it, whereas my custom ones are are not replaceable.
I might be able to have them make or remake them, but it's a different sort of thing.
This is the double edged version.
You can get this single edged if you are faint of heart.
If you are rabbit hearted.
But I love double edged everything if it's an option.

55:11
And so there it is.
Double edged such a great knife.
154 CM.
Blade Steel, one of my favorite stainless steels and a great choice for this.
For a tactical knife now tops knives uses 1 uses, a 1095 and 1075, sometimes almost exclusively.
Those two carbon steels, but for their stainless steel needs they go to 150 for it, and that's great, and that's always on these sort of self defense knives that they figure are going to ride close to the to the person him or herself.
And you know when you carry a knife like this.

55:53
Close to your your body, your body just, even if you're not sweating the off gassing of your inner juices, I can hear my dad who who's a physician laughing, but the off gassing of your inner juices, who will make 1095 rust so 154 CM is a great blade steel for taking a great edge.
Staying sharp, sharpening it.
It takes its easily sharpened, holds its edge.
You know all all of those great qualities and is pretty darn rust resistance, rust resistant.
This one I altered.
I I put those grooves in on both sides of the handle.
Those four grooves for extra added grip because I removed a bit of the pommel.

56:43
The pommel comes to a diamond tipped a glass breaker, which is nicely executed, but the wrong thing.
For this blade, this knife, if you ask me this is a self defense knife and should have some sort of pommel that allows you to cap with your thumb, and so I made one for myself.
I also rounded it off, made it short so that it's more comfortable for in the waistband.
Carry love that thing last up.
Last knife of.
Of the group O, I'll be darned.
OK, well I left the very last item somewhere else so we won't get to that, but the last knife of the carry was this.

57:26
This is this is my large travel knife these days this is.
Taking the place of my original large travel knife was the cold steel master, tanto for years and years, and then it became the Super Bowl Super Bowl by SOG, and then this eclipse that.
Years back, uh, this is the Prather War.
Bowie by tops, uh, this is that 1095 blade steel with the black traction coating.
Just a beast of a knife.
Beautiful knife I love that long swedge the only thing that would make it better was if that was fully sharpened, but I love that long swedge, graceful shape, wonderful for piercing and puncturing, but you do have a lot of beef for chopping too and that's what that big long.
Uh, clip point gives you.

58:19
154 I mean I'm sorry, 1095 blade steel you got canvas micarta with their mountain traction pattern there and then the red liners and then this is what I was talking before about the integral blade guard with the French.
The similarity between the French fighting knives and the French cooking knives.
Is this right?
Here this you don't need to add a blade guard because the blade is broad enough that it comes down below the handle and acts as its own guard on the thrust.
So just a wonderful knife.
I love that coffin shaped handle as it widens out towards the back.
It really, you know grips your hand for centrifugal force on the swing and makes it a great chopper as well as thruster and cutter and everything else.

59:09
So, uh, last up.
In a in a in a absent minded turn I was carrying it around last night and left it in my bedroom, but I also had the winguard wearables back Ripper and if you know anything about that it's a really cool really light, really easy to travel with Tomahawk and I I carry it around the house a lot.
As you can tell because it's not here and it would be an excellent excellent self defense weapon if you ever needed some sort of edged implement.
So I brought that along and my wife.
Accidentally opened my dresser drawer in the hotel and she's like did you bring a tomahawk and then one of my daughters who was laying on bed reading was like of course he did and and so when I was like yeah of course I did.
You know who doesn't travel without some form of acts with them?
You know that that's something that runs in the family, but that's a different story for a different time.

01:00:09
All right?
So those are the those are the blades of spring break.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I had these so calm.
Elite I had the hydros, the sax, the mini Pelican or Pelican mini, the Preta 2 the sedula, the flash, the number 4, the rapid strike, and the Tops Prather War, Bowie and then add in your mind's eye.
The Wingard wearables back Ripper and that was my Armory, my traveling Armory not not to include all the other little incidental knives like what was on my keys and the Swiss Army knife and this and that.
That's what I brought.

01:00:45
So if you travel and you have travel knives or a traveling knife philosophy, you got to let me know.
Be sure to call the listener line 724-466-4487 or leave a comment down below and let me know this is what I consider food for thought.
OK until next time.
I'm Bob DeMarco, saying for Jim working his magic back there behind the Switcher, please do not take dull for an answer.
Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review and review thepodcast.com for show notes for today's episode.
Additional resources.

01:01:23
And to listen to past episodes of visit our website theknifejunkie.com.
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