Coming up, a very special gentleman junkie giveaway knife.
I get a cold steel I said I'd never get. And
these are the knives, the fixed blade knives that should be in every
collection. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie podcast.
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.
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments this past week was from
my good friend Dave of OG Blade Reviews who says top notch
interview with a no, no nonsense maker and
practitioner, Bob Kudos. And he was talking about Cash
Haggard from Revenant Core who specializes in making
weapons for NPE non permissive environments. So
G10 knives and that kind of thing. Great conversation
and well, I'm, I'm glad OG enjoyed
it. He's one of the greatest knife combatives practitioners I
know. So that's, that's a cool thing. Next was from our
friend Trent Costello who said I think I'm turning into a
knife junkie because when you guys videos hits, I'm
like, yes, all caps. Yes. So
Trent, I'm glad, I'm glad we broke through and now I
know you, you join us a lot on Thursday night knives and in the comments.
So thank you very much. That puts wind in my sails. Every new knife
junkie feels like one of the fam. All right,
that said, let's get to a pocket. What's
in his pocket? Let's find out.
Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. All right.
In my front right pocket today. I've been carrying this one a lot
since I got it last week. This is the
BBMW from North Mountain Knives. It's a
Dwayne Dwire design. You know Dwayne DWI from
strider knives fame. That's why this looks so much like a strider.
The handle is a handle that we've seen in custom striders in
the past. But that blade is all,
is all strider all day long. That beautiful tanto
profile. I really love this knife. It's very sharp and did some shipping.
Well, that wasn't today actually. But I've cut out
labels and stuff with that tip. It's very sharp tip and
the whole knife, the knife on the whole feels very strong,
very robust. It's got these thick slabs of,
of non weight relieved titanium with a
really stout lockup unlike the striders
I have had. This does have a steel lock bar
interface there, but it's Got this SLD magic steel. It's
a, a San Mai style steel and
it's really cool. It's got that natural Hamon line where the two steels
meet. And if you look at it on the spine you can see the three
different layers of steel there. So very cool. Great knife.
I'm really going to enjoy having this and just kind
of breaking it in. I have a feeling this is going to be one of
my everyday carries for quite some time. And when
I return to like my real strider and my hinderers
and, and microtechs and you know that tier,
I really, really like this knife. All right, next up in my front right
pocket, right next to that beautiful North Mountain blade
was this. Yes, this is a Kevin Dudy Duty's
daggers. His company is now called Do Leather
or something. I can't remember the name of his company he started, but
this is before then. But he's always made really, really beautiful
slips. I love that color green. But this is the
QSP Hedgehog. One of the few
cleaver style blades in my collection that I really,
really like and keep coming back to. And
it's great in pocket, nice and thin, nice and light. Beautiful
jig titanium with the foam faux bolsters
and with the double flute there. Kind of
wish, I mean if I were to picnits I would say
you already have the branded logo on
the pivot. The branded pivot. Why put the logo there? I'm not
crazy about the logo there but anyway not a huge deal of course.
This is an M390. This was a special run on
traditional pocket knives. So really nice blade steel, super duper
thin on the, on the
behind the edge geometry. Very thin, very, very
nice. I should. Well, I'm not going to go down that
rabbit hole. Okay, Next up is Pinkerton knives. Matador.
I love this one. This is a very, very comfortable knife. He does great sheets
and that's a huge part of fixed blade knives which you will see
later. But Dirk Pinkerton, just one of my absolute
favorite knife makers and designers out there. I'm especially fond of
the knives he makes by hand, this being one of them. I named it the
Matador and this was unnamed when I bought it.
But it feels so good next to the skin in
the summer. This is just a very comfortable riding knife. Very smooth
contoured micarta handle. You can tell it's
Micarta from that little patch there. It's kind of like a G Carta
style material except it's polished,
it's less Soft feeling than G Carta. Beautiful
double edged S30V blade. And I've
been, I've always been hot on Dirk Pinkerton's knives, but been carrying them
a lot recently. Trying to figure out what knife we're gonna use for
the 50, 000 subscriber giveaway.
When this channel reaches 50, 000 subscribers, Dirk
Pinkerton will be giving me a custom made knife
of our choice. So if you have any. Our
choice meaning mine and your choice and Dirk will make whatever we
decide in his, you know, catalog of
fixed blade knives. So, so let me know if you know Dirk Pinkerton,
tell me what, what blades you'd like to see, what
knife you would like to see him make. Custom or giveaway to
everyone after we hit 50,000 subscribers. And if you don't
know his blades, just look them up on the knife junkie channel because I've
got a bunch of them. All right, last up
my ESK today was the
Partisan by Station nine knives. I love this thing,
it's really cool. I, I have a drawer
to the right of the drawer I'm always in for my fixed blade
knife cabinet and it contains this and other
Station 9 knives and the Marketa Cortata very
tactical drawer. And I hadn't opened it in a quick minute,
so I did this morning and I saw this and, and I grabbed it, threw
it in my backpack and man, I love this knife and I
love the testing videos I've seen of it. It's a super tough
1095 blade. I say super tough because I've
seen it. I don't want to say abused, but I've seen this baton
through multiple logs and I've seen it do all sorts of other stuff
on Station 9 videos and other people's videos. So
it's a super tough, super robust kitchen knife,
if you will, repurposed kitchen knife
a La World War I when French, French guys were running to
the front and grabbing whatever they could for their knives. And
this was typical of the kind of knife they would bring a sort of
kitchen knife with a swedge ground in or some other
modification to make it ready for the trenches. And so I think it's
a really great useful knife, but also an
interesting historical perspective for the design.
All right, this is what I had on me today. What did you have on
you? I had the partisan from Station 9.
Wicked Deadly Kitchen knife by the way. Here's the sheath. Got a cool sort
of tuck it under the belt way to carry it. Really like it.
I had the Matador from Dirk Pinkerton knives.
There's his maker's mark. I had the
QSP hedgehog in a Kevin Duty made
slip, beautiful green slip, and
one that's been hard to get out of my pocket. The only thing that's been
kicking this out recently is the bison
from Concept. I got these within a day of one another. It was
the BBMN from North Mountain Blades. All right, let me know what you're carrying,
drop it in the comments below. And as you do, I will show you the
Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway knife for August of
2025, the month I turn another year old.
Okay. This is made by Shane. You
know Shane Gables. He's the man behind edgy American blades.
First, I'll show you this gorgeous sheath made by 1931
Leatherworks. If you come to Thursday Night knives, you will recognize that
logo because it is also his avatar on
YouTube and he comments quite a bit towards the end of the show.
So this beautiful leather sheath contains this
incredible clip point
bowie. Custom clip point Bowie, super thin,
super light at four and a quarter inches and
with G10, nice thin blade, stock super sharp.
And the funny thing about it is Shane does not like clip point
blades. And it's always been a bone of contention between the two of us. A
friendly bone of contention, of course. So when he told me he wanted to
make a giveaway knife, he started making knives. Only, I don't know, a year and
a half ago. A year ago. And I've seen a number of his
pieces. He gave me one and he took it back to tweak it. I can't
wait to get that one back. It's called the Junkie.
He decided, I want to give you a knife for the show and
it's going to be a clip point because it's something we debate. It's a. It's
a difference we have. And he's building bridges here, people building
bridges with us Bowie lovers. So really
nice, very comfortable. Full four finger grip, but nice and small.
I could see if this were mine, which unfortunately it is not. I'm giving it
away to a patron, but maybe there is another one in the future.
This were mine, I would build a Kydex sheath for it and keep it in
the waistband. It's so nice and thin and the handle is short.
Big enough for four fingers, but short and round.
Short enough and round enough that it doesn't bother the spare
tire, which is slowly deflating the spare
tire only through consistency. Lesson I learned right
here on the Knife Junkie podcast. So this is what we're going to be giving
away. It does have a belt loop, this leather sheath
by the way. And if your belt is too thin, you
can, you can snap it like that. So really, really
cool package. Become a gentleman junkie.
You can go to the knife junkie.com Patreon I'll tell you about that in a
minute. But I'll tell you something else you get from Patreon. No matter whether
you're a gentleman junkie, a traditional junkie
or a tactical junkie, you get knife
notes. And if you don't know what knife notes are, you
have been missing out. So this is a regular feature
that Jim started, oh I'd say three
weeks ago and they have been a raging success.
So it's a regular segment that he puts down here on Patreon
where he breaks down, he talks about bowie
knife, he talked about kukri, we Talked about the M3 trench knife
and and also just different variations of knives. This is all
about understanding grinds and it's got a really
great breakdown of your different grinds
and the types of blades they're on and how they cut
and what their purpose and history are. So really cool
tidbit here that you can just go on to Patreon and
see. I mean this isn't just a tidbit, it's a full on bulleted
informational guide on grinds. So that's another thing you
get at Patreon on the Knife Junkie Patreon
channel. So the quickest way to get one is to scan the QR code on
your screen or go to the knife junkie.com patreon
that's thenifejunkie.com patreon adventure
delivered your monthly subscription for hand picked outdoor
survival, EDC and other cool gear from our expert
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battlebox you're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
And now here's the Knife junkie with the Knife Life news.
First up in Knife Life news from Rose Craft Blades they
have a new jack knife out. This is their bread and butter
in my, in my opinion this is their really what
they were known for from the very start with a really well made
modern slip joint knives. This is a 2.7 inch
D2 as usual they use D2 and it is great
D2 clip point blade. Sort of a
slender to me I see sort of a California clip point or the kind of
clip point you see on a case trapper. Just a little pointier, a
little more aggro in the point. But Beautiful clip point
blade. It's got some modern touches again, like the
slender profile, but also that swedge up front.
It's got a nail neck and so that's a two
handed opener right there obviously. But it's also got this really
friendly and comfortable looking trapper style handle,
sort of trapper style. It's a little different at the pommel area, a little
rounded off, but who doesn't like that in a pocket knife?
Two cover materials, you've got that beautiful Bora Bora
blue. Bora Bora blue bone. So that's a
quadruple alliteration. And the
canvas micarta in green. They both have the bombshield,
the Rosecraft bomb shield in there. Really
beautiful. Available now. And if you don't know, these are
incredibly robust blades. I've seen the
whole Scab series where he took one. He's taken two different
Rosecraft slip joints and used them on a daily
basis until they fail or need to be sharpened. So
very, very tough blades. You know, he's always cutting like
Kevlar fire hose and Teflon
coated this and that. So great tests there.
Great knife in Rose craft blade. Buffalo River Jack. All right, next
up is the Gerber Strong Arm. Now the Strong Arm is
widely viewed as one of the few Gerber blades
that are worth it. Two knife junkie
types and that sounds snobby but you know,
Gerbers had taken a lot of shots because
it's made a lot of, taken a lot of missteps. But the Strong
Arm has been a combat oriented, very strong
knife that was first released during
Global War on terror, I'd say circa 2012.
And very, very, very strong blade. Very
sharp. This one. They have the Strong arm tan.
They've kind of friendlied up the design, made it a little more sleek
with a sleeker drop point,
4.1 inches and a handle
that was a little less on the tail end
and created the strong arm tamp. Well, now it's out in
Magnacut. So this more utilitarian version of the
original is now wearing Magnacut. And we all know that
Magnacut makes everything but better. Diamond texture.
GFN handle that's class. Reinforced nylon
with full tang and a striking surface at the pommel. You can see it's
sort of shiny at the tail end. Multi
mount Molle compatible sheath. Looks very, very nice
and very low profile compared to the regular
strongarm. Comes in at 4.8 ounces. It's made in the
USA, people. This by all accounts is a great knife. And
it's available now. So I, I have a couple of Gerbers that
I don't really want. I got a couple that I really love, like some of
the older ones. But this is one I would
definitely, you know, I would, I would be interested in this
night. All right, last up, I want to talk about a big news
story from this past week, past two weeks,
the the Walmart stabbing in Traverse City, Michigan.
A individual human being called Bradford James
Gill, G I L L E stabbed 11 people
in the Traverse City, Michigan, Walmart with a buck
110 or something that looks exactly like a buck 110.
So presumably it's a buck 110. And
you know, that's neither here nor there. It's just that they mentioned
the knife in particular, did Clay Alders in
this article. There, there's a picture of it, the Grim Tool,
two in serious condition, two in fair condition. And
you know, my heart goes out to them and thank God no one
died from this. But what a terrifying thing to be attacked with a
knife when you're just trying to buy your ramen and some motor oil
or what have you. But a former Marine,
Derek Perry, armed with a pistol, kept this
scumbag at bay until the police came. I kept him
subdued along with the help of two other people. But again,
former Marines, man, Marines forged some really
incredible characters. We've talked to a lot of them here on this show.
They're now a lot of them make knives. And here's this guy just
keeping the peace even though he's not in active service. And
I really appreciate it and I love those stories. A good guy
with a gun. Someday there will be a good guy with a knife.
That'll happen probably. But good guy with a gun saves the day.
So thank you very much to Marine veteran Derek Perry.
All right, coming up, we're going to take a look at a knife that I
said I wouldn't get. And it is a cold steel. Crazy
about that. But I ended up getting it and
I love it. I do. We'll get to that in
just a second. Just want to remind you about our newsletter comes out
regularly and it has a host
of information. That's where I write down stuff, show some pictures of knives I
have and, and just kind of tee up the week.
So check that out. The knife
junkie.com/newsletter. Also, if you
never come to Thursday Night Knives or if you've
stopped for whatever crazy reason, join us on Thursday night
knives at 10pm Eastern Standard Time. It's a great opportunity
for us to get Together and talk knives. All right, coming
up, the state of the collection. Knife themed shirts, hoodies,
mugs, water bottles and more. The knife junkie.com
shop. Ever strap a knife again? Even though it gets no
real use? Face up to what you are, you're a knife
junkie. First up, here it is. Yes indeed,
the frenzy. Now this is the reason I got. This is
thanks to two. Two different,
two different people, just people in general on
Thursday night. Knives telling me I need to get this. And one guy in
particular, Terminator Joe. I saw a video he
did recently of these and I know Terminator loves
his cold steels. I believe he's also a former Marine
and so I took his advice and I bought the Mayhem.
Others have mentioned it. Just get it. Okay, I will. And
I did. And I love it. I don't know why I waited this long. I
know why I always call it a ham fisted design. And it is.
I ain't a comic bookie, isn't it? But there's
appeal in that. I. I don't know what took me so long to see the
appeal in that. But this is a big knife. 6 inches
of Aus 10. It has come out in
S35VN from time to time,
special limited editions. But I got the regular one.
I got it on Amazon and yeah, it's a little bit more than I've
ever paid for a cold steel folder. I think
or right about it was 200 bucks. I'll just come out and say it.
Usually it's been like 260, you know, it's coming down.
But it's still pretty expensive for a cold steel and it's also pretty
expensive for AUS10
which is a good steel and they of course heat treat it wonderfully.
And I know that from other Austin knives I have of theirs. I haven't really
used this one yet, but still you expect
for that money s 35 yen or cts x
xhp like they have on some other more
expensive models. Anyway, great, great knife.
This I'm still a little spurious with. I gotta, I gotta get
a little more used to this Atlas lock.
But it's very strong by all indications,
if you believe the press. Anyway, it's very, very strong
and so that's good. And you can fidget with it, which is also kind
of fun. So there it is. Big,
giant, stupid like crazy. Wicked sharp,
almost 2 inches broad. And very, very, very
slicey and sharp and nasty. So this is the Cold
Steel Mayhem. You'll hear more as my love affair,
as the honeymoon goes on next up,
from auxiliary manufacturing, their first production
knife. This is one of two of their first production knives. It's the
pocket Bowie, one of their most famous
models. That's when I say they, I mean Michael
Jarvis and his wife. Auxiliary manufacturing
it is. Michael Jarvis. His wife helps out a lot. I met her a couple
of times at Blade show. But anyway, they had
Miguron make a production version of this,
and they did a beautiful job. It's 14C 28 and
saber ground recurve, small 3 inch bowie blade
with a nice sweep swept.
What do you call it? Swedge there. But still that, due to the
recurve and the. And the depth of the swedge,
the point is still in the center line. It lines up with the pins.
Now this one above is the custom version that
I got Thanksgiving time,
2023. He
really went with a great maker here. Meguron did an awesome job of turning
this into a. A great production version of this knife. The
handle's a little skosh smaller on the, on the
production, but it's very, very comfortable. I get a three and a half finger
grip on that Coffin handle. Coffin shape
handle knife there. That's the
Deadhead symbol there. Not Deadhead like Grateful Dead, but
Deadhead is a line of knives, his production line of
knives. Now, I said two. This comes
in black with. With black G10,
and then it also comes in two folding versions.
So titanium frame lock versions of this or
titanium bolster lock version. Gorgeous, gorgeous knives. I had
a chance to experience them at Blade show and I. I
really, really love. All right, that's what I've got to show
you. Really happy with what I've gotten this
past week. It's very nice. I. I was in the little dry spell, which is
fine. Got plenty of knives to keep me busy, and that sort of turned around
recently. All right, before we get to the fixed blade knives that should be
in every collection, I got to show you a new design from Jim.
And this one made me laugh. Folding is my
cardio, and yeah, indeed, folding is my
cardio as well. And thank God for
fidgety knives. So this is a design that you can get on T shirts,
hoodies, women's T shirts, men's T shirts, hoodies, baseball
caps, coffee mugs,
aprons, a whole host of stuff, just like you can. All
of the different logos and. And funny, witty
maxims that Jim has come up with for. For T shirts and products.
It is awesome. I love it. And this is one of my favorites. Actually. Folding
is my cardio, especially considering the struggle I Feel
as I become a man of, I'm, well, a man of a
certain age and trying to lose weight. Well, this
is one way to do it and a great justification. All right,
so here we are. USMC K Bar is the first
so knives that we should have in our collection.
This of course is a continuation from the folders. This is the
fixed blade edition. And I just want to make this caveat
up front. I'm not saying every collection needs every one
of these, but if you're someone with a folder
collection and you start thinking you need a fixed blade, this is a
great place to start. These are some of the best knives of
their category and some of them, like the
USMC KA Bar or in this case the Doghead K Bar,
really are moral imperatives. Like everyone should have this particular
knife. The KA Bar. It is a great
place to start. It's got a great history in this country
in two different ways. First of all, it's
a clip point blade. It's a, it's a, a bowie essentially.
But also it is our military's fighting
knife. Fighting utility knife for 80 years
now, pretty much. And I just love it. This one
has a stick tang. They do make one now I'm seeing with a full
tag, which is kind of interesting. But mostly they're the
stacked leather and sort of
plastic handled. The 1095
blade steel 1095 CRO van, very, very tough
steel. So they took the combat utility knife, the
USMC K Bar and turned it into this sort of
utility knife in the dog head,
shortening the quillians, making them a little thicker and then giving you this pounding
surface in the back. So every
collection, I, I, I would say that this is the first one
you should get and that's why I'm mentioning it first. But all these others are
so great. Next up, the buck
119. This beauty is
the sort of knife that
led to the KA Bar design. A lot of American
soldiers were bringing knives like this, though not this knife, to World
War II. Just clip point hunting knives.
Do all hunting. Hunting knives that could skin
animals but also do all sorts of camp chores and are just
great. Do all knives. But also, if you think like me,
this would also make a pretty good fighting knife. I think the
120 is the same knife except a couple inches
longer. So that's probably an even better fighter. You got a hollow ground
420 HC blade. But if fighting is not
your purpose, which probably it isn't, this would also be just a
great fixed blade knife to have. But 420 HC
a la buck. Nicely heat treated. This has a zero ground
swedge which to me is why. That's
why I kind of mentioned fighting. But I guess it might have a
skinning utility as well. I'm not sure. Tell me in the
comments. Got this thick plastic
handle. Thick that goes all the way to the sides of the
guard. And the grip I used to
think was too much. Now it's perfect. I love it. I love the way it
feels. And then the bolster, it looks good. I'm sorry.
This is a bolster on the pommel there. It looks really good. It
functions really well. It's super sharp. It's been around a long time.
It's not that expensive. I remember ogling these in our
hardware store growing up. They had a case and
a buck display case and
I would just linger at this. I always thought it looked like a. Well, it
looks like a Daniel Boone knife. It did to me as a kid. So great
knife. Great leather sheath. High quality leather
with a plastic insert and then this cool
snapping throat retention buck 119.
Okay, the next is more of a category. I'm going
to be inserting four more categories in here between
specific knives and this category is neck knife. A lot
of people aren't crazy about neck knives, but I am. I
don't carry them that often but when I do it's been this
one for a long time now. This is the primitive wicket
by Knives by Nuge. And then
this is another example if you, if you don't want to spend a
good deal of money on a fantastic custom knife, you just want
something quick, usable and awesome.
Quick and cheap and usable and awesome. You can get a mini tack or something
like this. Cold steel has a whole bunch of
neck knives. A whole bunch of them. This is one of my very favorites
though. 3 1/2 inch Bowie blade, AUS 8.
Really great sub hilt, 3 finger sub hilt
handle and great sheath.
Tucks away under the shirt. Pretty light. This is
though it has a big footprint. It is pretty light. I
just don't like it next to my skin because this G10 bow G10
here is very grippy but a great, great knife.
So neck knives are great for. For another reason
especially this is evident in the mini tack. But you can take this
sheath and you can alter it to fit on your belt. Especially
scout style. Well actually scout style or vertical
just by putting in zip ties through here or
paracord and just strapping it on your belt. Super light,
very small, easily,
easily obtained with that grippy handle. And the sub hilt
and it's to hand quickly. So great small,
useful fixed blade knives. This one you can start a fire
with. It's got a great Scandi Edge 10 I mean
ADC RV2. So just good to go for all sorts of
chores. And so light hangs, hangs on your
chest. Don't even feel it. This one is
nothing. So definitely neck knives I would have to put
on here. All right, next
up is a specific knife. This is the Mora
knife companion or Mora kniv. Not sure exactly how
they pronounce it, but mora. The Mora companion. I have a
couple of moras. I have the old red handled one. I have
the stainless steel one which I'm not crazy about.
I mean I haven't really used it actually much but
I don't like the sheath on that one. But in any case this,
this one has gotten a lot of use and it's a great
knife. Now I would say it's light duty. I've
seen tests done on it
like the hammer test, the hammer and nail test and this steel
doesn't fare super well. But
you know, you probably don't need to hammer this through a
nail in your day to day. If you did it could do it. It would
just take a chip out of it. But that's not really what
this is for. This is great for carving wood, for
making fire sticks for any sort of
chore around the house. I've had this clipped on my,
even on my gym shorts. Just chilling at the house and
you know, doing, doing chores and stuff.
It's got a great drop sheath. You just,
you can just drop it right in while you're working. You don't really have to
look at it. You can just sort of feel where it
is and it just pressure fits. It's really light,
it's really inexpensive. It's like me
cut myself on camera. This can be had for
just slightly over 20 bucks. I believe used to be in
the teens, but now I believe it's in the like 25
or something like that. But more knives are incredibly useful. You can get a bunch
of them and you can throw one in your tackle
box, throw one in your truck and you know you're going to have a super
useful knife that's also not very
threatening, especially if you get it in one of the cute colors that you can
get it. All right, next up is
a category type and now I'm talking about daggers.
Everyone needs a dagger, every
household. Now you don't necessarily have to get the Spartan
George Raider which for a spartan knife is quite
inexpensive. But look at that beauty.
Designed by Les George, a former Marine yet
again and a EOD expert.
Outstanding knife maker and designer with an, with a real
love for daggers. And
this one is based on the Marine Raider Dagger which was
short lived due to, due to its
very delicate specs and the
state of materials during the startup of of the war.
So they were usually very cheaply built and just didn't last very long.
So much so that Marines would kind
of proactively break the tip off with a pair of pliers and
sharpen it like a chisel at the front because they knew it was going to
break off anyway. But this is a much more
robust build. 1095. This is
made in conjunction with. I think
Ka Bar had something to do with this. Correct me if I'm
wrong, it's been a while. A beautiful commando style handle that
bulges no matter how you turn it. So you always have
nice palm swell and a great grip with the knurling
and the checkering and the jimping. But
if you want something a little smaller, a little more subtle and you're just not
willing to go the double edged route because. Because it's illegal where you
are, get a spyderco perfo.
I'm sorry, a civivi Perfo SPO also
has a cool dagger by the by and it also is single
edged. Now this one I had made double edged by
Klingenberg Sharpening and Kyle Kunley did an
amazing job. But it comes single edge.
So maybe you like the symmetry and the
penetrating potential of a dagger shape, but are conscious
of your knife laws and don't want to, you know,
run afoul of the law. Get yourself a civivi. It's really, really
great. And this has lived up to a lot of torture
testing which you can see on YouTube. So
this 14C 28 and blade steel is a really
good, well, heat treated
steel and in this case in a great, great
blade. Also I like the sheath even though a lot of people don't like it.
But all in all, a dagger should be in your
collection. Sometimes it, it could be like a
historical dagger like the Fairbairn Sykes on the wall.
That's one category I don't talk about here is historical blade.
All right, I need to take care of this blood here.
That, that just goes to show you that the knives on this show are real.
Okay, next up is the. Is another specific
knife you should have and that is the Sog SEAL
Pup. This knife has been,
yes, used by Navy seals and preferred by Navy seals
and is cheap. But I, I'm not calling the
Navy seals cheesy obviously, but, but to say, oh, the Navy seals
like this, yeah, it's like that's how people sell products. But
really this was made for them
and used by them immensely. Bought at
PXS and yeah, so. And at one point
I think it was standard issue before the srk. But don't quote me on
that. Really, really beautiful double peaked
Mac v SOG style Bowie blade. In this case AUS 8.
First they were AUS 6. I think you can get
the SOG seal pup plus it's called in
S35VN and that's got like continuous jimping on the
entire back of the blade, which I'm not crazy about. I know it's used for
notching, but I don't notch.
Really nice handle with a thumb rest here and a finger
guard but not too much. It's not going to get in the way. Finger wells
that, that fit my hand well, especially in the saber grip
when my fingers are splayed out a little bit like that,
a someone with big meat hooks could definitely grab this
in a hammer grip and their, their fingers will sink into those
wells nicely. Really, really great blade. This has
been riding in my bag for years and years, my EDC bag.
And there have been a number of times where I've been alone at work on
the weekend and put this in my belt just because
there's no security there, you know, I'm just, you know, so I've stashed this in
my belt and it's done duty with me at
work sometimes. This right here, great lanyard
to just wrap around the hand like this and hold like
that. Got some ranger bands on there to increase
the grip. SOG Seal Puppy.
All right, next up is a very loose category and I'm calling
this fighter. This is the fighter
category. And to me you differentiate the
fighter from the dagger in that it's asymmetrical. But to me
a fighter has to have at least a partially sharpened
back edge. In this case it's fully double edged. But no, it's not
a dagger. You can especially see when you turn it
upside down like that. You can see the asymmetry of it. This
main bevel is a much is
bigger and at less steep and
angle than the top and then it's got like a drop and an
asymmetrical tip. Really, really nice knife. This is the
Zabo Express. Can't believe I haven't carried this
in so long or just had it out and about I tried carrying this, it
was just a little bit bigger for me at about five and a half inch
blade length. Really nice micarta handle
and all the rest. But double edged and
asymmetrical, not a dagger. Another
one we were talking about, Dirk Pinkerton. You know, there are all sorts of
fighters. There's the famous sub hilt fighter
which I have a few of. But also there's a fighter like
this for instance. Totally asymmetrical. You got that upswept
blade but two very sharp edges. So this
is a knife intended for fighting self.
It's almost more like fighting, you know, something
you would have if you were someone who relied on your knife to
survive this. And I don't mean survive in the woods.
This is a combination of a Middle Eastern Kanjar
and a Hell's Bells Bowie by Bill
Bagwell. I'm. I'm talking in terms of inspiration. It
is also a Dirk Pinkerton knife. And here's a great opportunity to plug
50,000 subscribers. When we get that, he's going to make us a custom
knife for giveaway. It could be this. We haven't decided on a model, so if
you like the Razorback, let me know. I do,
I love it. All right, so fighters. So that's a
category of knife asymmetrical,
double edged or at least partially double edged
fighting knives. They need to be in every collection. But that's
less, you know, less necessary than say the Moronite.
It's something to aspire to, I guess. All right, next up
is the cold steel srk and
it's this knife in particular. This definitely is used
by Navy seals and often this is like
a very, very well loved knife in that realm, but
also in basically everywhere. Everyone loves the
SRK. It can be had in 3V for, you
know, over 150 bucks. I'm not
sure how much, like maybe 250 actually
and, or you can get it in. This is carbon 5. This is
pretty old. This one was made in the USA. So this one's from
2006. I remember because that's the year
my wife went abroad and started opened up a
this before we were married. She opened up a branch of her office
in London and so I made her a bugout
bag and she smuggled this into the country, kept it there,
smuggled it back out. Never really been used. But
super awesome knife is the SRK. It's a
6 inch clip point blade. No matter what
steel you get, it's going to be nice and tough because
cold, cold steel does such a great job with their heat
treat. SRK stands for survival rescue knife.
And this one has a zero ground swedge which
I love. If you haven't caught on to that yet. Great
grippy handle, nice and big and also
has that palm swell there.
So a really nice profile. That's the cold
steel srk. This is one that everyone should get.
This a KA bar, you know, this or a KA bar kind
of. Or both. Both preferably, of course.
All right, next up category, the small
self defense blade. We've got three examples
here. First is the Beckwith Covert. This is a nice
one. This is by the Fisher Fisher Knight.
Fisher blades sits deep in the pocket on
this extended DCC pocket clip. And that's where the
pocket goes through. All that sticks out is that. And
it's easy to grab using the pommel
there. And it's got grippy G10, a really
sharp and well designed three and a quarter inch
Tanto blade, downward
angle so that it really takes advantage of
any sort of pressure, cutting or momentum. And then the tip is
center line and it's also very, very sharp. This is such a
great self defense everyday self defense knife.
The Beckwith Covert there.
Next up is the Elvia from Copus
designs. This one I had wrapped by Josh Mason,
right For war knives that Sukamaki wrap. But really that's the
star. It's that Picol style knife.
You can get this design knife with the tip down, optimized for the
tip down and the edge in for self defense. Just think you're
a tiger basically can be had
in a lot of different ways. But this is sort of a
formalization of the trend of taking
Victorinox fruit knives and bending them like I have
and turning them into Pikal self defense knives.
This sort of codified it with the injection
molded handle already bent into shape with that finger groove
and for the forefinger and the hook style fruit
blade set at an angle or
optimized for back fisting and for tearing and
ripping. So great small self defense knife.
This has an Ulti clip on it, but you can also just drop it
in the pocket without the clip and then use that hook to
extract the blade from the sheath on the inside seam
of your pocket. Sort of like a fixed blade wave.
All right, lastly in this category of small self defense
knives is the push dagger. This is the
stroop SD1
stroop knives. Really, really knocked it out of the
park with this. This was the year I was looking for. I
was at blade show looking specifically for a push dagger. And this is what
I Ended up getting, getting very, very comfortable in the hand
though it has a bit of a wide neck here.
It seems comfortable. More comfortable than if it were in the
middle of the, of the hand somehow because this is set up
for finger on top
and then the rest of the three fingers on bottom.
Really, really nice. Great little sheath. This
one just I have in the belt. I don't
have it horizontally as this mounted
DCC pocket clip would, would imply. It actually
goes under my belt. And then I put this over the belt or the seam
of my belt. So push dagger
pocket. Self defense and. And pal style
knife. Some great small self defense knives. No matter what style
you choose. Maybe it's just a paring knife or something that looks just like a
paring knife. If you have it there for self defense,
it's nice and small. You can carry it every day. Then if you need it,
heaven forbid you'll have it. All right, next up
is a specific knife, but it's two specific knives.
It's more of a specific platform. And that's the
tkal knives combatant or the
tkal knives adversary.
Same platform, different different blade. Now I would
say get them both, but you know, that's just
my inclination. Great handle on these. And if it's too
small for you, because decal knives really
goes for small handles to maximize
concealability. If this is too small for you for your giant
hands. He does make, he being Tim Kell
makes an extended handle. So it's G10 that looks
just like this. And at the end it sandwiches together and creates
a longer grip. Very,
very great. Very good idea for these knives because they do have
a small profile. Great blade. This is the
redesign of the combatant. So the drop
point blade redesigned and made pointier. And
then here we have the wharncliffe in the adversary. A
really nice thumb swale there that does great machining. I mean
this machining is incredible.
Thumb swales and, and thumb jimping. Really, really
awesome. Two great knives. You choose. But they
go really well on the belt. So this rides
just right up front on my belt. I have it set up for standard
draw. So like this up front on
my belt. Standard draw and then the
same for the adversary. They're just great knives if
you want to get used to carrying fixed blade knife. This is a great, great
knife to start that with. It's nice and small but super
potent. So that is the tel knives
adversary or combat. All right, last up or
second to last is a category and it
is the tanto. You want a tanto first? I'LL
start with this. This was the one that started my entire knife collection
in the 80s. This is the cold steel
tanto. This was their first big, big knife.
They did well. This was their first night. They came out with this and the
push daggers. First you got brass. This was
one of the originals. OG's Tanto by Cold Steel, Ventura,
California. Made in Japan. And those typewriter letters.
Really, really nice knife saved up for it.
It's got that Americanized tanto tip that you see on cold
steel tantos.
Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel is the guy who really, he
invented it or at very, very least
popularized it. But I'm pretty sure he's the guy who did it. I
think that's kind of his claim, and I think most
people accept that. Next up is the
Tomashi E. This designed by the great Bob Terzuola.
This is also a tanto. This is a more traditional style
Japanese tanto with that upswept
blade and no real difference in
surface from the flat to the hollow there. This has a
nice swedge on it for piercing and it's got a great
setup jimping up here on the blade, also jimping back
on the handle. If you're gonna handle this in a
saber grip, this one has really
well seasoned, dark green G10. And
what is it, 14C 28N blade steel
or no nitro V blade steel. I'm sorry.
Really, really nice. The, the main USP of the
Tanto is puncturing. You can get through tight
spots. You can get through tough materials with those acute
tips and with the cold steel, with the brute force force of
that triangular flat ground tip. So.
But there are no slouches when it comes to cutting either. They're great knives.
I, I'm surprised that they aren't used more often in the
outdoors. Tell me why Americanized tantos aren't used
more in the outdoors. But there is everything from super
expensive, which I'm not saying this is, but there's a whole spectrum of
tantos out there on the market, both in blade design
and in cost, that you can, can and
should indulge in. But this last one takes
precedence. And it is the large bowie knife, but
it's not a category. I'm going to get specific. I'm going to tell you
it's the cold steel trail master.
This knife has been with me for well
over 25 years, could even be 30 years.
I, I have to really pinpoint my mind when I got this, but it's been
through a lot, both voluntarily for fun
and then also on A couple of camping trips. One in particular.
This is way back when it made me feel
secure running through the woods with
no flashlight. When we got when
me and a former girlfriend got lost around
Lake George in upstate New York and I swear we were being
followed out. I. I think I might be making that up as I go.
I've been saying that for a while, but I think maybe I've been listening to
too many Bigfoot stories. But I was spooked as hell being in the
woods with no flashlight. Like an idiot I had this but no
flashlight. Anyway, nice
thick 516 of an inch blade. Nice
slender profile on this bowie with a zero ground
swedge makes this a great fighting knife. It's got a coffin
style handle. This is one that I've often thought if, if
I really had to defend myself like this really might be it.
I love this. It swings great. It's nice and light though.
Not light. Lively in hand. Brass guard. This is an old
one of course as I mentioned, carbon V steel, but it comes in
3V. It comes in 304034 I
believe. And it can. It is just
a life saving knife. I love this knife. In later
years, more recent years, it's been used a lot to
baton wood. All that said, like I think
large bowie is the way to go. You can get an SP10 still probably
from Ontario knives or any other,
any other great bowie knife out there. Cold steel's got a lot of.
So pick your poison but definitely get a large bowie. And I
highly, highly recommend the cold steel
trail. All right,
thank you, thank you for joining me on this journey through
the realm of knives. You should have fixed blade knives you
should have in your collection. Now as I said, you start with
one and you go from there. Or you start with a couple maybe if your
budget allows more a knife, very
inexpensive. So check these out. You'll be glad you did,
especially if you're a folder exclusive guy. All right.
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DiMarco saying
until next time, don't take dull for an azzy. Thanks for
listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please
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