The Knives of Spring Break - The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 410)
The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
©2023, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
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[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. Coming up, we're going to take a look at the Gentleman Junkie giveaway knife of the month, and it might be actually knives. You'll see about that. In the state of the collection, we're going to take a look at some very cool knives from this old sword blade reviews that came in. And then, of course, It's that time of year. It's the knives of spring break.
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.

[0:45] Welcome back to the show. My favorite comments from the week this past week.
First one from Maxwell Mortimer Montour and this is a comment on the video where I embarrassingly throw up a piece of paper and cut it in half after two tries with the big old Pouzon predator Hunter and he says, this guy knows how to party, that thing is a unit and I just couldn't stop laughing, I don't know, it tickled my funny bone and he had a couple of other funny comments, on other videos. Thank you, Maxwell Mortimer Montour. And we had Justin Fisher also on the video about, the close-up video on the Cold Steel Taipan, that big beautiful dagger.
And he said, I use this beauty to open my bills. And it just made me laugh because for years I used a German dagger to open my mail and I thought, this Justin Fisher, he's got.

[1:41] He surely is a knife junkie. Uh, thank you guys for the comments, and thank you one and all for watching the videos and commenting.
It's greatly appreciated.
Also, I love to hear what knives you're carrying. Sometimes that gives me ideas on what I want to carry.
All that being said, I think it's time for a pocket check. [♪ music ♪ Today in my front right pocket, I had the beautiful Arkane designs, antimatter dagger. I love this dagger. A, because it's one of the very few true double-edged folding daggers out there that's not an out-the-front automatic.

[2:24] And so I put this in the same camp with the Arch Nemesis by Sharp by Design and the Hinderer Maximus.
Double-edged, fitting all in a symmetrical handle, but this thing is also just incredibly beautiful.
I like Israel Bacchus's designs of arcane designs and I just this is the only one I have of him.
This is an amazing example of his design and also of Riat's build quality.
This is a Riat and one reason I got this over the Damascus or the Blackened Blade which also looks beautiful is I love their grinder satin.
I love seeing the grinder lines the way Riat does it.
I think that's just beautiful. So beautiful knife.
Luckily I didn't use it for anything because of course this is only for duels.
So today was a duel-free day. Next up, in my pocket consistently, constantly since I got it, the Big Bro Jack by Jack Wolf Knives. Oh let me do that in front of the mic.

[3:32] Really nice is the walk and talk on the Big Bro. Probably just blew out the mic there for a second.
So this is one of the ones, well this is the last model in micarta, and that micarta is black.
One color of micarta, I think four different varieties of carbon fiber on the new Big Bro Jack.
It's a sleeve board jack, much like the little bro just blown up, like a boy's knife. This is a bigger version of, say, the 15 from GEC. Just a very neutral sleeve board handle that just feels amazing in hand. It gives you nice full grip. And then you have that beautiful hollow ground full height hollow ground S90V blade. I stress full height because it makes the hollow grind, which is already keen and slicey into something ridiculous.

[4:31] Yep, so had this on a weekend trip. We just came back from a weekend trip and I was carrying that the whole time, that cut food.
That did a lot of duty because I had some bigger, burlier knives and my Nova 1 on me all the time and it's not always appropriate to pull out to cut food in a restaurant.
And let's just say the knives in restaurants of America are lacking, but that's a smaller fish to fry.
Uh, Fixed Blade on me today was the Bastinelli Anomaly.

[5:08] His version of a Pekal style blade. I should say his and Doug Marcaida's version of a Pekal style blade.
This is one of four collaboration knives in this series done with Doug Marcaida. It's the same handle each time, different blade. And of course, for the Pekal, I do love the Pekal. They had, They did this, they did a karambit version, a spade, a spade bladed version, something else.
Of course I can never remember all four. But this one I got from Bastion Cove with the Tsukamaki wrap on it.
I don't know if that's technically called that without the ray skin, but just a really nice and light and thin and deadly fixed blade carry.
I stress deadly because you could just as easily kill yourself as someone else if you start flipping the thing around with the ring and you're not familiar, especially with having the edge in the other direction.

[6:12] I for one do not do much of that. I figure why tempt fate?
I cut myself stupidly often enough. I don't need to do it with like centrifugal force added to the package.
And lastly, today for emotional support, I had, and ready for use if need be, I had the Boker Texas toothpick.
This is in the Cocobolo wood. I absolutely, I love this design because I love the Texas toothpick traditional style knife and to see it so seamlessly integrated in, uh, I just said that, so seamlessly integrated into a modern flipper design.

[6:55] Yeah, I used a phrase I don't like and I didn't even use it properly. So, sorry for even bringing attention to it. Just look at it. Just look at this and I'll move on. Coca-Bola. This one was sent to me by Boker Knives. I really greatly appreciate it. That was from Chaz over there, Boker Knives, sent this to me. And after our interview, which was greatly, greatly appreciated.
This VG-10 and then that's a titanium clip shaped like a banana.
It looks weird and kind of out of place, but it really helps this thin small knife stay in your hand.
So that's what I had in my pockets today. The Arch...
I won't say that. The Antimatter by Arcane Designs. The Jack Wolf Knives Big Bro Jack.
The Anomaly by Bastinelli Creations. And the Boker Texas Toothpick.
Let me know what you had on you today or what you have on you today as you go about your business.
Drop it in the comments or just, you know, let me know. I will appreciate it.

[8:01] There we go. So something cool, I was just talking about how we went on a little family excursion on, the weekend and we went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.
Man, you want to feel like you haven't done much in your life, you find out about Jefferson. Man alive.
He lived a life. Beautiful place and very interesting history and a very interesting amenity.
We get up to the front and I'm like, oh.

[8:33] All right, they're going to wand us or we have to walk through a metal detector. I wasn't expecting that. I got to take my knives to the car. My wife said mine too, which just warms the cockles of my heart. She hands me her knife and right as we do, security man sort of saw it and he's like, oh, we have knife lockers. Come over here. I was like, what? Yes, and on a table right by where where they let you in, there is a lockbox with, I say, 12 different compartments with their own locked doors, big enough to fit a Nova 1 and several other.
A Nova 1, a Mad Tonto, the Jack Wolf knives, Big Bro Jack, and then my wife's.
She had two knives. She had the Baby Rhino from Off Grid Knives in her purse, and on her purse, she had the Kershaw, that's Sinkovich. I can never remember the name of it.

[9:28] So we stashed those in there, took the key, and it was great.
And they said, since they installed this little locker lockbox or, you know, manly toy lockbox, I think they called it, you would have to go back to the parking lot and they lost business and it was, you know, people would raise a stink.
So they said things have been great since adopting the knife lockers.
So, to the whole of the world, especially the tourist world, I say, knife lockers, way to go, very cheap.
The only thing was when we came out, there was no one guarding that.
So someone could have picked it up and had a bunch of nice knives.
I saw an old Benchmade, William and Henry, which was pretty awesome.

[10:12] Okay, anyway, that's Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, even in death, innovative.
Okay, next up, the Gentleman Junkie Knife Giveaway this month is actually a knives giveaway.
And it wasn't originally going to be so, but fate changed things here.
Okay, so, firstly, I told you I was going to be giving this away.
This is the Off Grid Knives Viper V2 and this is a really nice redesign of the Viper.
As Off Grid Knives does, they listened to the crowd and figured out what the best suggestions were and through his own design, you know, maturation changed the knife a bit and it is awesome.
I love it. I've told you about how I love that spine filing, what is that?
Yeah, that file work on top and it's not actual file work but this sort of traditional dimpling on the sides and then you got jimping on top and then you have a center point Americanized tanto that is great for penetration and it's great to have that point right in the middle.
I used to not like the design look of it, but man, the utility is amazing.
So I'm totally converted.

[11:34] The handle is very nicely contoured through these very generous chamfers running around the outer edges.
You can have it left or right tip up, but they include a little tab filler, which is so nice.
Or filler tab, I mean.
A nice deep carry pocket clip, three screws, inset flat screw heads. Great, great action.
Of the three I received, this has the best action.
The one that I adopted has the least of them... The least good action. Sorry.
But it is very good also, but this one is just a buttery dream.
And then, Dave, this old sword blade reviews, check him out, I'm sure you know who he is already.

[12:22] But he sent me an amazing big and generous box of really cool knives to give away here.
And one of those knives happened to be the version one of the Off Grid Knives Viper with, a compound ground blade here.
You've got, still have that nearly center point tanto tip, but you have a hollow ground, straight portion and then a flat ground front.
And like all off-grid knives, it is wickedly thin behind the edge.
It's a really, really thin knife.
And there's a lock on this side, but it seems Dave either tightened it down with that screw that's on top or, or, you know, epoxy did in place.
I can't tell, but that lock is not moving. Nice clip point design there.
This thing is a beauty. So this is actually a package. This is going to be the Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway package for April, 2023.
Very excited to present it.
Thank you both to Off Grid Knives and to Dave of This Old Sword Blade Reviews.
Much appreciated.
Looking forward to sharing the wealth. Still to come, we're going to take a look at some infatuation, knife leases, and then we take a look at the knives of spring break.

[13:43] If you're a knife junkie, you're always in the market for a new knife, and we've got you covered. For the latest weekly knife deals, be sure to visit theknifejunkie.com, knives. Through our special affiliate relationships, we bring you weekly knife specials on your favorite knives.
Help support the show and save money on a new knife. Shop at theknifejunkie.com slash knives.
That's theknifejunkie.com slash knives.

[14:10] You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast, and now here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Of the recent fancy releases from WE Knives, this recent one that was just announced, and that's coming soon, it's called the Magnatron, is really the most compelling to me because it's a big, beautiful bowie. I'm calling it that, they're calling it an upswept blade, but I just think it looks like a beautiful bowie here. Look at this thing. First of all, you see that beautiful titanium handle there with the inlay. They have fat carbon and other kind of carbon fibers like the aluminum-boiled carbon fiber, that kind of thing, in those inserts there, but look at that pocket clip. I'm sorry, that is a beautiful pocket clip and you don't hear me ordinarily saying that. But it's not only gentle on the eyes, no doubt it'll be gentle on the pocket, but it also looks like a great finger hold when flipping that beauty open. Also, you'll notice the blue anodized pivot collar, or pivot itself, Very cool.

[15:19] But, oh excuse me, I'm going through puberty there. If you scroll down, first of all that handle looks incredibly ergonomic, gotta say, and that really cool micro milling looks pleasing to the eye and the touch.
But you have this 20CV blade, it's 3.72 inches, or .76 inches, so a big blade of 20CV.
I think it's hollow ground. I can't tell, and it did not say in this here article, but to me, this is, of the Xiphos and the...

[15:58] I'm not even going to try and remember the names... Exetan or something like that, this to me is the most beautiful.
And there are flamed titanium insets in the inlay, which is also a cool touch.
Now, a little fancy for my taste, I wouldn't mind just a patch of green micarta sitting, there, because to me that's this kind of knife, and that finger choil there doesn't even bother me.
So, one other thing about this, those other knives I was trying to mention are limited editions. This will be a regular production, so I'm excited to hear about that.
Maybe one of these days it will come across my desk.
Next up, from CJRB, who's been killing it.
Can't wait to check out that new artisan Snody, by the way. But anyway, the CJRB Echo.
Now this one comes hot on the heels of some really popular releases.
I'm excited about this because of that really nice and pretty big Sheep's Foot blade. I love the swedge.
I love that it has two opening methods.
You got that lozenge shaped hole or there's a front flipper.
You also have a number of different iterations of this. You can get it in G10. You got that.

[17:20] Neutral G10, that jade you see there. And it also comes in, I think, a black and a midnight blue.
And then comes in two different varieties of micarta. I think it's black. I know it's, they have a burgundy, which is awesome. Oh, I think it's OD green and burgundy.
And they tend to do those colors and their micarta is very...
But I love the look of this blade. It's like the... It's kind of like the pyrite. It reminds me a little bit of the pyrite blade, but a little more... just a little bigger and a little more steep on the front angle.
Very much looking forward to this. This is a liner lock. How old school. And I'm excited to see it.
Next up in Knife Life news, we have the Ellis Slim from the James brand.
33% more svelte is what I'm calling it.
So they've taken the Ellis, which was a multi-use knife of theirs.
The first one I think was a blade.
It was a two-layer, locking two-layer knife with a blade and then another, like a pair of scissors or a bottle opener.

[18:35] Well, on this slim version, they've gotten rid of one layer of it, so it's just a very thin non-locking drop point blade, but they've kept that screwdriver pry bar thing on the end and there's a clip on it.
Nice looking knife and we'll be seeing about that. That is the James brand Ellis.
Ellis didn't have anything that's a 2.6 inch 12 20 C and it's 112 C 27 and with the one point, 8 ounce. Yeah, you know how I feel about it. I'm sure it's cool. I'm sure it's cool. It's just.

[19:21] You know. Okay, next up, a very interesting story in Knife Life News. This is from Tennessee and Knife Rights, and the Governor Bill Lee has signed a bill, and I'm just gonna read you about it from the website. Yesterday, Governor Bill Lee signed knife rights, this was on the 15th, so that was two days, that was on the 14th. Governor Bill Lee signed knife rights supported SB 172 that repealed the ban of carry of pocket knives by adults voting on school grounds on an election day. At this point, Tennessee is one of the most knife friendly, quote unquote, in the country. This comes from Knife Rights. I love that. It's a very specific bill. It's interesting. I mean, to me, that just means that in Tennessee, they've gotten through all of the major knife issues and now they're getting down to more specific knife issues like carrying them in a polling place. Pretty cool. I love that Knife Rights keeps going. There is no small knife issue.
And then, you know, I cannot fail but to agree.
So good news from Tennessee.
All right.

[20:35] Let's get to the state of the collection in just a moment. But first, I want to tell you about Patreon.
You can go over there and enjoy three levels of support. and this month.

[20:46] If you're a gentleman junkie, you get entered in to win these two beautiful off-grid knives, Vipers V1 and V2. So please do that. Check it out. If you're interested to help support the show, help keep the lights on, as I'm fond of saying. All that at theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon. Again, that's theknifejunkie.com slash Patreon.
Don't take dull for an answer. It's the knife junkies favorite sign-off phrase and now you can get that tagline on a variety of merchandise like a t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, long sleeve tee and more. Even on coasters, tote bags, a coffee mug, water bottle and stickers. Let everyone know that you're a knife junkie and that you don't take dull for an answer. Get yours at theknifejunkie.com And now that we're caught up with KnifeLife news, let's hear more of the KnifeJunkie podcast.
So I mentioned that this old sword sent me a box, a very generous box of giveaway knives.
This man has an amazing collection and a, I'll just say it, a voracious appetite for the new and interesting.
He's always featuring knives on his channel that I've seen or haven't seen but are just very interesting to me. And maybe oftentimes they're not knives I want myself but I want to see someone talk about them.

[22:15] And he does an amazing job.

[22:18] But mostly I just covet his collection. Okay, so here we go. This is the...
Oh, I wanted to talk about three knives of note from this box, a large box of knives.
I think there are about 20 knives in this box.

[22:32] But these three, among others, these three really have keep me coming back to opening them up.
This one here is the Petrified Fish PF929.
And man, I love that wharncliffe blade. It's got a very steep, not steep, it's got a very shallow descent to that tip.
And I love that because that means it's very, very stabby.
But it also has the tip down near the knuckles or actually with this it's aligned through the center if you look at the pivot and the butt end here, the lanyard hole. Anyway, that puts the tip in a great place for that sort of utility pole cutting work. It's got jimping here at the thumb rest and then jumping forward here for this kind of grip which I definitely like but just the look of this thing is amazing and then it is snappy as hell.
That was a failure because I just put on lotion and didn't want you to have to see my ashy hands up close, so I slipped off the flipper tab but it is no fail flipping.
I am very very impressed with Petrified Fish. As a matter of fact, I have a petrified fish on the way.
We will see about that.

[23:59] Okay, so that is the Petrified Fish, what is it called? The PF929, very catchy name.
Next up is a knife that we talked about here and that I've watched a lot of videos on and it's just very interesting to me. This is the Ostop Hell Designed Kiwi Plus and I'm terrible at flipping it. It's got a very weird front flipper, I gotta say, and I've only really gotten good at it with my right hand so far but you can see how far down it is.

[24:36] Anyway, this knife has the look of a kiridashi and it's got that tip up, I don't want to call it tip up, tip in this case even higher than center wharncliffe blade with a slanting edge up towards that tip. I love that, excuse me, I've mentioned that in the asymmetrical contact. It makes for an excellent utility user, you know, for those kind of dragging cuts with the tip. But man, you can also in a pinch grip it backwards and you have a perfect Pakal style knife with that outward reaching angle there with the tip forward. This is set up just like an Elvia, sort of angular, it's not a a hooked blade, you do have that stabbing thrusting point forward of the knuckles when you do that.
So I don't know if that was a consideration when actually designing the knife, but it.

[25:40] Is definitely, or could be in an absolute horrible, you know, horrible pinch, but it's something that I love design-wise in this beautiful knife.
Also, I gotta say, Ivory G10 is very pleasing.
Alright.
Next up, this one reminds me of a yatagan, the Turkish knife.
This is the Kaiser Sliver.

[26:03] A really nicely milled aluminum handle that just feels so good in hand.
I'm pretty sure this is aluminum.
You know what? I gotta do my homework. I gotta see. That might be titanium.
Because that's an S35VN blade, and I remember when this came out, it was not inexpensive.
You have that down, again, you've got the point center line, it's down, you've got a downward angle on the blade, knife, ever so slight, ever, ever so slight sort of recurve action, thin hollow ground blade with a little bit of belly at the tip.
I think this is, man, you didn't hear much about this knife, but I think it's a winner.
It feels great in hand.
There's something very sleek and classy about it and also something a little menacing and dangerous about it. It reminds me of that Turkish weapon.
So yeah, I'm very, very excited about this knife. It has a very nice feel opening and closing too on those washers.
Kind of that very hydraulic sebenza-like feel.
So that is the Kaiser Sliver. And those were three very interesting knives sent to me by Dave, This Old Sword Blade Reviews.
Very grateful for the knives he sends me.
He does a lot for this channel.

[27:20] Here's to you, buddy. Thank you, sir.
All right. Now to round this out, as I mentioned, we took a weekend trip to Monticello in Virginia, and we had a great weekend. It's just really fun for the four of us to get away and just be together and knock around, and what are we going to eat next? My wife has everything planned out, but the restaurants we're always figuring out as we go. And we just have a ball. We have a good time out there but I always go.

[27:49] With some knives. So, let's see what I had this time. I brought the attention to detail mercantile, roll here. This is made by Stacia Jennings over there at attention to detail mercantile.
All right, it's a beautiful sort of Japanese motif here and then you flip it open and you have your knives. So usually it's this and something else that I bring but this time I brought only this roll, plus three fixed blades of course. Let's see, of course in my pocket driving out here this, inconvenient. Okay so in my pocket on the drive days of course it was the Ultratech, The Microtech Ultratech Tanto. This one is from 2013... no, I'm sorry, 2012. March of 2012.
Wow, it just celebrated its 11th birthday here. My favorite Tanto blade design from Microtech and they have a couple of really cool ones but I love this knife. This blade design really had me, dropping money I didn't have on this knife when I got it but glad I did and I'm glad I still have it. This has always been my road trip knife because it was the first knife I had with the glass breaker.

[29:15] And every day in all of my pockets I had Thee.
There we go. Jack Wolf Knives, Big Bro Jack, a real, real favorite of mine already.
And it's pretty brand new. And this did a lot of duty. This cut some fried chicken, and hoping to get some of that chicken love on the handle there and get my.

[29:43] My card are nice and tarnished.
Did a lot of cutting, mostly and really really psyched about this knife.
Thank you. This was a gift from Ben Belkin.
I appreciate it Ben.
So, thank you for that. Alright, next up and this got a lot of carrier on this grip because it is perfectly light and perfectly utilitarian.
I had this a gift from Shane Gables. My S110V, yes that's right, S110V Manix II Lightweight.
Just a beautiful, beautiful lightweight knife.
He put an amazing edge on this. Pure polished, it's some bite if that's possible.
It's a really, really nice deal.
A great bit of ergonomics to this knife.

[30:43] And then you have the wire clip. And I gotta say, FRN, I find kind of a turn-off most of the time.
But these Spyderco FRN handles, I love them.
The multi-direction texturing and then just the feel of them.
If there can be a premium healing FRN, I would have to say Spyderco does it.
I also brought another Spyderco, and now I think this is a rarity for me to bring two of any of the same makers knives, but I brought the old Yojumbo.

[31:19] And I am just in love with this knife. This is the, I gotta say, this is the Spyderco that I go for.
And whenever I'm looking through the craftsman there and I want a nice big and see, look at that, man, we're having some knife cam issues today.
I'm gonna hold this right here. One thing I love about this, my Paramilitary 2 does not do this.
My Yojimbo does, my Yojimbo does, but my Paramilitary 2 does not drop shut.
And that is an issue.
No, it's not really an issue. I've never been able to whisper my Paramilitary 2 into good shape, but it is such a great, working knife that it hasn't bothered me.
This one makes a very good working knife too, but that hollow ground blade with that very acute tip worries me for certain kinds of work.
So I was mostly thinking of it as how it was originally intended, as a just very, very.

[32:29] Well, let's just say self-defense knife.
Makes big holes and slashes very, very nasty. This sort of stepped up shape there really, really makes it bad for anyone.
And that's what Michael Janich had in mind when he designed the Yojimbo, the Ronin, and the Yojumbo.
Just that straight edge, never glancing away from the target, biting ever deeper as you swipe through it on a slash, and then widening the channel that it's making with that triangular shape.

[33:05] I put a MXG gear clip on there, had domed screws and no inset.
It's very, very 2018.
Okay, I love that knife. Next up, another knife I love, very close to my heart.
This one here, this is the Emerson CQC 13.
Now I cannot go on any trip without an Emerson, and oftentimes it's the CQC 13, and that's That's because I took a trip once for an entire week and this was the only knife I brought and I bonded with it and you know, I haven't done anything like that since because I don't want to be caught flat-footed but at the time this was the only knife I had and it was my June week-long trip in the mountains and I bonded with it.
So this has become a bit of a travel knife, like a travel kit knife.
But those handles, as you can see, are not factory. Those are made by Vantage Point Blade Works.
Awesome handles for them.

[34:08] Got a little stuff in there for Emerson knives and and other knives, but he I gotta say really spice fells, with these Amazing Emerson. He does a great job, And this did not get any carry on this trip, but it was there if needed gotta have a bowie with you, right?
Let's see next up going from the bowie world to the tanto world this is Matt tanto and, And, man, I love this thing.
Tis a damn designs, Adrian D'Souza's designs are gorgeous to me and I just don't happen to own any.
And this one, I had to get.
Kaiser Button Lock Mad Tonto.
I'm going to take this over to the main cam and put it right in your face. Look at that.
Ugh. So, you've got an arch and over, I've been looking at this knife a lot, looking at and holding this knife a lot.
You've got this single over overall arch, you've got a tanto, Americanized tanto point but with the point again going right down the center.

[35:16] Makes it easier to index and easier to use. You've got a really nice micarta handle and astounding button lock action.
I know everyone is very suspicious of button locks and the first thing they do is whack it on a table.
I did some gentle spine whacking with this because I had heard someone say that theirs had failed, mine did not.
I think it's amazing. I really do.
This one I've been carrying quite a bit. And one thing I really like about the Action is that that button, I'm going to put it in front of that white there, that button stands proud when in use like this.
But I've used it like this and if your finger is up there in the choil anyway, it's not gonna, it's just not gonna close on you.
I mean, maybe if somehow your thumb gets on it like this but in any case, are you not exerting pressure against the edge and against the stop pin?
Yes, you are.
So, it's just not much of a concern. If I do a couple of spine wax and it doesn't close, I'm not bummed out.
I mean, I mean, even more than that, I'm excited. I'm happy. It's good.
All right. And Tonto, you see that Adrian D'Souza's cool logo there with the Ram's horn.
Okay. last of the folders.

[36:42] I brought the Resco Instruments Mekong Delta Combat Folder. An absolute favorite and really stout and sturdy knife.
And I can see some gunk on it, so you're going to take this journey with me.
Cleaning that blade, look at that. Very gratifying feel.
You got this big John Gray style pivot that acts as an over-travel device.
And just amazing action. This is made by Bestech, designed by some old frogmen who do watches, Rescoe Instrument, sort of adventure military style watches that the Navy SEALs are very fond of.
I think supporting their brothers in industry after their brothers in arms.
I love that jimping there. It feels great. This is such a great knife.
Knife I want to get there's another version of this that's hollow ground and a bolster lock. Please don't buy them out before I have a chance to. Oh, one of, these days. It is an expan... not going to be happening anytime soon. This one will do me just fine. However, I am thinking of having BGM regrind it.
20CV blade steel and just a wickedly sharp but kind of a wedge, kind of a wedge.

[38:07] Mekong Delta combat folder. Okay, of course I cannot travel without fixed blades.
So I'm gonna roll this sucker up.
Got this little thing, you can tie it. But I do it sort of like...
I don't actually tie it off.
I do it like they do in the movies with horses, and they just kinda throw it around there.
And that's supposed to keep the horse from running off. And I guess it does. I guess it does.
I'm just not a chevalier, what can I say?
So I had to cover a couple of bases. EDC, double-edge, and then of course the if hell breaks loose while we're on vacation, night.
So first is the double-edge because, you know, going to Monticello, well, I didn't have this with me at Monticello, but I was just, I don't know, I kind of felt like I was going to a, place where I needed double-edge.
Okay, only because I thought of duels and I thought of knife duels and I thought I would want double-edged.

[39:09] Everything I just said, pretend I didn't say. This is the double-edged knife I brought with me, the Lacey Zabo Express by Topps.
Lacey Zabo is a former Marine and law enforcement officer who has designed some really cool fighting knives over the years, some under his own label and some mass-produced. He's had Topps make a few of his. This one is the latest. He did the felony stop as well. Just an amazing neutral handle butting up against a gorgeous double-edged fighter blade. That's, right. It's not a dagger. It's a fighter. Look at it. It's got that downward curve, a little, you know, slight downward curve and then it's got asymmetrical grinds.
The top is a shallower grind and a different shape. And when you flip it upside down, it's always way more apparent.
So that's more of a fighter style knife, double edged. You can also get the single edge too.
Vibe with your local knife laws. The handle here, as I mentioned, is not only.

[40:19] Very neutral and ergonomic, but it's nice and slim and you can, you know, it's easy to carry, this knife, but it's also very easy to hold and manipulate because it, though it's thin, it's flat. So a very, very easily used and manipulated handle. And I gotta say, I like the solution of the thumb ramp here because double-edged knife, you know, you always run into the idea of or the problem, the risk of putting your thumb on the back of the blade, like that. So, this is a very steep and nicely jimped thumb ramp there and then it's also, the handle is just slightly below the edge. So, it gives you a lot of room to push your thumb up against. So I had this basically next to the bed with other stuff and then of course I have to have my what happens if the world ends while we're on this trip. That.

[41:26] Night I went old school. The Cold Steel Trailmaster. Now the Cold Steel Trailmaster, this one has been with me for 25 years or more, I guess I should say and counting. And I had one experience that felt hairy at the time, that this was my hip. And it wasn't like a human on human thing, I was just in the wilderness at night, kind of lost, following the diseases. I wasn't lost, I was not wanting to there. And so I had this in the backpack and my girlfriend at the time thought it was ridiculous that I had it on me but when night fell and we realized we were stuck and lost and had to make our way back in the dark she wasn't unhappy that I had this on me. Anyway, since then it's actually gotten a lot of use. This has been for years a killing knife for the family fire.
It's also been the outdoor knife for clearing brush. In the winter when we have our neighbor has a white pine that's always shedding limbs onto our lawn. This is a great knife for chopping up limbs.
Limbs. A problem is, I don't know if you remember, but...

[42:45] For years there was all sorts of markings on here from east just could not get off, um Someone recommended something what it is, but it was in the comments and it's in my notebook, Uh, and it took it off so i'm happy about that.

[43:05] Uh, this has been slightly reprofiled by me Because I used it so much and and bashed up the edge, edge and didn't really know, I basically learned about taking care of knife edges along the way and never attended to this. So when I finally did, I had to use my grinder. And though I did a very good job, I have to say, with the edge, it did slender the profile ever so slightly. I realized that when visiting my father and checked out his and kind of compare them. Okay, that is the Cold Steel Trailmaster. Here, I want to show you this right here, that thick spine. This was the first blade I had where I was like, man, this, could do anything because that's a full quarter inch spine and a great handle. And I have to also say that this would make an amazing fighting knife. With all the cool fighting knives I have, I kind of feel like I might, if I was pushed to it, I might just come back, to this.
It's got a zero ground, a swedge here, it's very light. I'm not very light but it just moves really nicely in hand.
Got the cone-shaped head with the grippy grip. Love this thing.
It's not the most glamorous and it's not the most beautiful but man, it is possibly the most useful besides the next knife.

[44:35] You know it. It's the Nova 1. Now, the Nova 1 prototype, I have been carrying this daily, as you might imagine, since it came to me.
And that's been several months at this point. But I just transitioned to carrying this appendix style.
In a grip, in a way so that the edge is facing up, if you will.
And so I can retrieve it in reverse grip.

[45:06] But it's so very easy just to turn your hand or just to pull it out and turn it and to have it regular grip. Now, the big thing that I was worried about was how was it going to get in the car?
I'm going to have to take this off. And as it happened, I was able to appendix carry this with a seatbelt and the whole thing and not even really notice it, except for one time, shifted funny and I was like, oh, that's right, I have a knife there.
But great, I think I'm sold on appendix carry. I'm slowly moving things from the 3 o'clock to up front.
All that being said, it's size relative. If I'm carrying something larger, like I can carry that Zabo Express in the waistband, that's still going to be at 3 o'clock, obviously.
But something smaller like this Nova 1, which has a 3-inch blade, and so this will definitely be riding up front and very, very happy about the fact that that style of carry is working out for me.
Nova 1 154CM blade, recurve bowie with a hollow grind and a zero ground swedge.
That swedge has a little bit of bite with force, but it's not so bitey due to the fact it was knocked down in the tumbling process.

[46:28] So don't worry about having something too sharp, but if you were to use it percussively, it would do a nasty bit of damage.

[46:40] Just wonderful, wonderful up against the body with the curved handle and the curved pommel.
Now this is not me singing my own praises, this is me saying because this handle is all, Chase and the handle and the guard all a bit of genius as far as I'm concerned in terms of EDC knife design because I get a full four finger grip and most people that I hand this to do with the exception of one person so far get a full four finger grip and you've You've got that round pommel, but the Anzo pattern in the center, which really locks your hand in.
If those awesome ergonomics don't, the Anzo engraving, not engraving, the Anzo milling here will.
So I'm really, really excited about this knife, and then I'm really excited to be working on the designs for the NoVA-2.
This is a great everyday carry platform and if you don't like the NoVA-1, you can't get one at this point.
The pre-order is over.
But Matt takes the Tanto and this is based on Tanto.
So there are plenty of this form factor style knife out there.
You can just order a Tanto or wait for the NoVA-2.
I think you should do that. the NoVA-2. And order it now. to.

[48:05] That's the way to go. 23 of you out there have a NoVA-1. It works as we speak. And the word is late June. So that's exciting. All right. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[49:06] Music.