WEBVTT

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Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast. Your weekly dose of knife

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news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your

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host, Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco.

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Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition

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of the show, I'm speaking with Tim Kell of T.Kell Knives. Tim

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is a former Marine, a talented machinist, and the helmsman of one of

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the most successful knife making ventures in the usa.

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He's grown his fan base, and yes, I do mean fan base, or t

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kellions with a weekly livestream produced by his wife who goes by

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cw. People love Tim, it's true, but

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it wouldn't mean much if he didn't make such amazing knives.

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I'm proud to be a design contributor to Tekel Knives and look forward to many,

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many years of more fruitful collaboration with Tim.

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But first, let's catch up with him and find out what's going on. We'll take

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a look at some really exciting new knives in the offing. But first, be sure

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to like, comment subscribe Hit the notification bell. Download the show to your

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delivered your monthly subscription for hand picked outdoor

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survival, EDC and other cool gear from our expert

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theknifejunkie.com/BattleBox.

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Tim, welcome back to the show, sir. It's great to see you. Hey, good

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to see you and hear you as well. All right, so let's start with

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what is, to me, the most exciting news. You

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got a lot of stuff going on at TCL Knives. You guys are always expanding

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a lot, but you are coming back out with my favorite

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knife, the Agent 001. This guy. Yes

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indeed. That's not even a setup. I've been carrying it for, for a

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long time. I go back and forth between this and an EDC depending

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on where and what I'm doing. Well, let's, let's, talk

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a little bit about how it's changed since the first run. I

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have them both here and I can hold them up for illustration.

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I've been going on and on about this for the last couple of weeks on

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this show. But let's, let's talk about some of the differences

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between, between the first and the second run. So

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the first run was incredible. I think an industry changing blade.

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And all we did is what we typically do is we listen to

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customer feedback and then each knife that we have in

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our lineup, every time I do the next run, I tweak it.

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So we brought a new machinist in and on board,

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you know, Nick. And he has this

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ability to really take exactly how I think

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of something in my head and literally put it into steel. And

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limitations of standard machining don't really mean much to him because he's self taught,

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kind of like me. So everything that we wanted this, I think

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what you and I envision the blade to be to begin with, that's what he

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did. So we did the step milling. We added the,

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the chamfers on the top and in the finger. Well, and

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it's incredibly precise. Really, really. I mean

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each identical. And it's,

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it's just artwork. I mean it's incredible. And we went back with Battle Worn,

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which is. We brought Battle one back. So that darker matte gray

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bronzish antique look, I think it's

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just right now it's probably the best blade we make. I think

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aesthetically the way it handles, it feels. The dimensions are

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absolutely spot on. Perfect. I'll just keep staring at

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it. Yeah, me too. Here, I'm going to hold this up close so people can

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see that beautiful step milling on the bevels. And I

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have a close up video of this coming out in preparation for the October

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1, 2025 drop date. Something I love

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showing off is the beautiful chamfering

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on the corners, like on the jimping and

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on the finger guard. And

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to me that it, it's a, it's just another step. This is the first

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one here. Beautiful and incredible. But this one is

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just has a refined nature to it. That's right.

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Yeah. I remember when I pitched it to you originally, you were like, well, I

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think it's great. What are you doing? I'm like, just, just wait, man. This thing

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is. There's science behind the step milling too. And I don't know if a lot

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of people realize that. We do that. You step this way

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and it steps. So if you get really, really micro or super

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high Magnification, you'll see that it's almost like a square pattern.

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And that reduces the amount of blade that touches

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whatever you're cutting. So about 60%. So it

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absolutely just flies through cut. So we can do a thicker blade stock.

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It's not just a look, but man, it sure looks cool too. Tim,

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are you saying in cross section? If you look at it, it's a,

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like a, like the side of the great pyramids or something? Like a.

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Yeah, yeah. Almost. So it's, it's almost like a cross hat. So it's step

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harder, you know,

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up to blade. But you, you don't really notice that there's little

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tiny. Oh. So that really,

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it, it just. You have the high points on the blade and that means there's

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less cutting. And it moves either if you're cutting meat or food

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or just the air because you're a mall ninja, it

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flies through everything faster. Okay. So it's less surface area

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touching, whatever. Oh, I had no idea. But I guess that,

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that, you know, you, you know that when you're going up the blade north

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to south, there's going to be steps. You can see them. But going towards

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the tip, that accounts for the natural distal taper that you have.

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Right. Okay. So another thing I noticed is

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the. You went from five gimps to

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four gimps on the thumb. On the thumb

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ramp. What was the thinking there? Just brain

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consistency. That's how many we have on the rest of the stuff. So I

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just thought that it'd be smarter just to do that. My. I have

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this symmetrical eye and I was like, Nick,

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man, that, that drives me freaking crazy. I want them bigger, but

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I want an equal number so that when you look at the Raider or the

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Outrider or anything, they all have that same flavor. Well, it's, it's

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interesting because it is more comfortable and, and it. And

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it does not lose any of its grip. That

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was my concern. When I told Nick. I was like, I want to. I want

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to. We need to chamfer it because it's. This is not an out. We're not

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trying to strike ferro rods with this thing. And we're going to be pushing really

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hard, but I don't want to sacrifice grip, but I want that sharp

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corner gone. And it was a lot of trial and error, but I

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think we nailed it. So what was it like going from. So

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Nick Chuprin is who we're talking about. NPC knives. What was

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it like going from your first

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machinist for the first run of 001s to Nick.

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It was a really easy transition for me. Nick just.

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He. He's like us. He really thinks outside the box, and he has this

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GKL style. Sure, I can do it. And it's. It's a challenge

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because geometrically, when you're using

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a program that does 3D modeling,

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it wants to make everything symmetrical.

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The ang. The sweeps, the curves. It wants all of that to be a

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uniform curve. And when we have this taper

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so this angle, it's hard to see here. This

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curve is not the same as the medial ridge. Typically, they

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have to be when you do CNC CAD work. But because we

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have a clip on the front and then a sweep, that took a

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lot of doing, and he almost couldn't pull it off. And finally he's like,

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I got it. And, you know, I was like, I knew you could. So it

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was. It was a challenge because the original blades were milled

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this way, and we were swiping it with a machine that had

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a tilt, so a fifth axis. But now that we went to 3D to

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put the step milling in like the rest of our blades, very

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challenging to get the program to do what we did when we hand ground them

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in. So what. What's amazing to me is that it's

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easy to draw by hand, and then you have this

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incredibly sophisticated machine run by incredibly

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sophisticated software, and it runs into difficulties

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that. To me, that's kind of ironic. And I jab them.

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Originally, my first machinist who's still with us, Jeremy.

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I would be like. He's like, I can't do that. And I'm like, well, you

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said your, you know, quarter million dollar machine can do what my hands can

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do. Not so. And it was. That's

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right. And they did. So the new

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grips, too. This. This. Okay, you. You offer

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about 30 different grips traditionally, right? Different

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manner of G10. And I love your Pearl G10, but you

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also had layer G10 and Micarta's and stuff. And now you're offering

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this battle lock, which I have to say, and I told you on the phone

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recently, I was a little bit skeptical of, because, like,

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frn, isn't that a step down? But tell.

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Tell us about this. I. This is just having them in hand has totally

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changed me. Tell me about this. And that's exactly what a lot of people say.

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Like, man, people. People don't like the fancy plastic. That's what people were telling. It's

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fancy plastic. I'm like, but it's glass nylon. You know, it's

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more durable than what people are used to. But it's

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going to be more impact resistance and we can get the grip out of

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it and the weight savings that we want if we

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do a glass fill nylon. And it just made a lot of sense to me.

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One, from a manufacturing standpoint, to be able to finally get the amount

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of texture and the color saturation that I wanted. And I have to be

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an American product. And I love.

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This is a. It's the same 60 grit texture that you'll find on

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common pistol companies. And we had to. We had

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to find the manufacturer of this pattern and get

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permission to use it. So

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I knew that it would increase grip and that's what we really need because my

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grips are more. Less on the, you know, broomstick style

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handle. And I'm. I'm in your camp. A lot of people

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were skeptical. And then they, they grab and they're like, man,

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why didn't anybody else do this? And I guess they didn't ask the right questions.

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So are you saying that the, the design, the

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contours of your handles are more slender, therefore you need

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more grip? What do you mean? Yeah, a lot of people. So G10, when

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it gets. You get your skin and your oils, it can load up

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and get slick. Especially Micarta is really, really bad about that.

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Initially they have a lot of grip, but then they're difficult to

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clean and to put a lot of texture in them, it kind of messes with

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the integrity of the surface. So you'll get chipping and flaking. And I couldn't get

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it aggressive enough but not be sharp and

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still be something that would be cost effective to manufacture. I

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was always chasing that grip, get the extra amount,

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and I think it needed it. I'm super, super pleased with how they turned out.

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I'm also, you know, a shallow guy. I like the way things

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look. It means a lot to me. And the. I, I

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just have this olive drab and. And the desert

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tan. And those are not very bold and

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bright colors. But the color saturation in these are amazing.

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They look beautiful. We. We're the.

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Oh. And the colors are almost infinite. So we've. We've come out since

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with this bright blue. We are married to solid

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black. Sorry. If it all. Yeah.

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No, no, no, no. Doesn't like it. All right.

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I don't know. Yeah. Anyway, if it focused earlier, but

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you were saying the colors are infinite. Yeah, they. They have

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metallic colors, they have starburst colors. We can even put fleck in there, but we

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can't do multiple colors. So that's why we're keeping the. The

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Burl G10s around. That's kind of a. You know, I'm a guy that

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obviously loves pistols and, and firearms. And as soon as I get

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one, I'll pull the, the grips off.

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And sometimes I want it to be matchy matchy, so

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I like the availability to still be able to do that. So we're keeping all

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of those around for aesthetics and

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still get grip. But then we're going to be switching primarily to the solid colors,

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but we're going to re release some with the color flex in them.

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And I mean, I looked at their color catalog. They're literally

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thousands. Wow. Now, you mentioned the Burl G10. I'm a

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huge fan of the Burl G10. Probably the most.

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My most carried tkal knife. And I got a pile of them. Here

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is my purple burl

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G10,001. But you have

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this proprietary red, white and blue G10 which appeared on this very

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special FMF that I love showing off. I love showing this

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thing off. As I mentioned to you on the phone, my older daughter

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said immediately upon seeing this, I want that when you die.

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I'm like. Which is a nod to your parenting. If

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they like my stuff, they're a winner. That's what I. I couldn't agree more.

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So is that burl G10, is that proprietary to you, like the

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whole thing, or is it just that color combo or.

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No, the manufacturer approached me I blade show several years

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ago and said, hey, what do you think about this stuff? And it was.

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They were swirling different material like metal, like we did

227
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with Melissa's blade and things like that. And we were

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already using the layered system, which everybody does. And I basically

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just asked them, hey, can you do just the

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colors and can you just. We want like a wood grain kind of

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swirl look. And they, they don't

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credit me with that. I do think

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that I was probably the first person to ask for that. I just thought it

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would look really cool and it would reduce the amount of skus because we had

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a blue and black and a black and blue. And I thought, man, that would

236
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be cool if we could do a burrow pattern. And they came through.

237
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So we're. It's. It's gotten popular too. I've seen other

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company or other knife manufacturers starting to use it. So

239
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maybe, maybe I came up with it. Well, let's just say they didn't.

240
00:14:56.560 --> 00:15:00.160
Okay, so we'll be narcissistic for a moment. I want to. I want.

241
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We will move on to Other knives. But before we do, I want to

242
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mention that when you sent me these production

243
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samples of the new agent series, you sent me two

244
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things that are new to me.

245
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One of them is the Badger Claw sheath and then also this

246
00:15:19.130 --> 00:15:22.330
awesome Ulti clip. And I want to talk about both of those for a second,

247
00:15:22.330 --> 00:15:25.610
but tell me about your. Your work with Badger.

248
00:15:25.930 --> 00:15:29.130
Badger Claw sheets. I mean, this is just so beautiful.

249
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That came by way of Nuge. Tom

250
00:15:33.170 --> 00:15:36.970
Nugent from Knives by Nuge. He and I share some common

251
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material sourcing, and we both are feeling the constraints of

252
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American manufacturing. And he said, listen, man, you should call the guy at

253
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Badger Claw. He comes through for me every time he uses American.

254
00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.760
Literally. They're American cows. They speak English. I've talked

255
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to him, and he's in Texas, and

256
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he's fast and he's super open to be able to. Hey,

257
00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.200
man, I got this cool idea, and he's. He's like me. He's like, yeah, sure,

258
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:06.560
let's do it. And it. It just

259
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expanded the possibilities of what was possible. And I love Apocalypse

260
00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:14.460
sheaths. They're quiet, they're comfortable, they got holes to mount

261
00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:18.260
stuff. I. I like them. I almost considered moving completely to

262
00:16:18.260 --> 00:16:22.020
it because, you know, Kydex leave it in a car and it's garbage

263
00:16:22.420 --> 00:16:26.140
for too long. So, you know, we're trying to back into using some

264
00:16:26.140 --> 00:16:29.540
other more creative products. Right.

265
00:16:29.860 --> 00:16:33.580
For sheathing, but we. We don't have that nailed down yet.

266
00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:37.010
But I love it, and that I have to give that credit to. It's a

267
00:16:37.010 --> 00:16:40.730
niche. A great nude, too. Yeah. Yeah. And I.

268
00:16:41.130 --> 00:16:43.850
So wait, now I got a couple of things. We're going to get back to

269
00:16:43.850 --> 00:16:47.650
Nuge in a second. But you were pointing to the handle. Are

270
00:16:47.650 --> 00:16:50.570
you saying that. Were you implying that maybe

271
00:16:51.210 --> 00:16:54.690
shes could be made from the same sort of FRN that you're making the battle

272
00:16:54.690 --> 00:16:58.410
locks out of? Maybe. Stay tuned. All

273
00:16:58.410 --> 00:17:02.250
right. Knives by Nuge. I love Tom Nugent.

274
00:17:02.350 --> 00:17:05.950
He's a great guy. I. I have two of its knives that I absolutely

275
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love. Both of them have this incredible

276
00:17:09.470 --> 00:17:11.470
jute wrap on it. So I had to get the

277
00:17:12.430 --> 00:17:16.230
DP1 with the I. Well, I love that. I

278
00:17:16.230 --> 00:17:19.830
do, too. With that. With the N Knives by

279
00:17:19.830 --> 00:17:23.430
N Jute wrap. And it has the Badger claw. It's a

280
00:17:23.430 --> 00:17:26.670
perfect setup. I dropped this in my pocket. It's good to go.

281
00:17:27.070 --> 00:17:30.390
And I discovered that with the 001, I can do the same thing, even though

282
00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:34.220
it's, you know, almost twice the size of the

283
00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:38.020
DP1. So one thing I love about these, she's.

284
00:17:38.020 --> 00:17:41.700
You can drop the whole thing in your pocket and. Yeah, same.

285
00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:45.300
Like, almost the entire thing is. Is covered up, especially in, like,

286
00:17:45.540 --> 00:17:49.180
work pants, khaki pants, and then jeans. Just a little bit

287
00:17:49.180 --> 00:17:52.980
peaks out. And then it's so easily removed and put back in.

288
00:17:53.780 --> 00:17:57.500
I love this setup. Well, it gives you the gentleman carry, too.

289
00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:00.500
You know, it's not as intimidating when you just have a leather thing with a

290
00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:04.030
little tiny handle sticking out. It's codex. Looks tactical, so,

291
00:18:04.590 --> 00:18:07.950
you know, and it's really comfortable. I like them a lot.

292
00:18:08.670 --> 00:18:12.350
Let's talk a little bit about this

293
00:18:12.350 --> 00:18:16.030
clip, the Ulti Clip spring clip. I've been

294
00:18:16.030 --> 00:18:19.390
loving this. You sent this with. As a sample with the.

295
00:18:19.790 --> 00:18:23.390
With the 001s. And yeah, I had it for a few

296
00:18:23.390 --> 00:18:27.190
weeks. I had it for a few weeks and did not. Did not put it

297
00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:30.890
on. And I finally put it on, and I'm so

298
00:18:30.890 --> 00:18:34.450
glad I did. I really loved it. That was an interesting project.

299
00:18:34.690 --> 00:18:38.450
We. There's a guy who used to make what I thought were the best

300
00:18:38.850 --> 00:18:42.570
IWB holsters, and I.

301
00:18:42.570 --> 00:18:46.330
I reached out to him, Eddie Massaro, about this clip. Man, I

302
00:18:46.330 --> 00:18:50.170
think we can use this for blades. I would like to explore that. And

303
00:18:50.170 --> 00:18:53.250
we went back and forth for several, several years

304
00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:57.180
trying to come up with some kind of an idea. And he basically got to

305
00:18:57.180 --> 00:19:01.020
retirement age and said, I'm done with it. You want to buy the company? And

306
00:19:01.260 --> 00:19:05.020
CDub and I were actually getting her a new phone,

307
00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:09.140
and we were talking about it while we're trying to deal with the Apple Store

308
00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:11.980
people. And I'm like, you know what? Let's do it. So we were going to

309
00:19:11.980 --> 00:19:15.620
buy this holster company just to get access to the

310
00:19:15.620 --> 00:19:18.060
clip. And I. I guess.

311
00:19:19.830 --> 00:19:22.550
And in the time that we were going to get back home and really discuss

312
00:19:22.630 --> 00:19:26.230
this seriously, sold the rights to that clip to Ulti

313
00:19:26.230 --> 00:19:29.790
Clip. And I'm like, eddie, I don't. I don't want the

314
00:19:29.790 --> 00:19:32.950
holsters. It was the clip that I wanted. And he's like, oh, no.

315
00:19:33.350 --> 00:19:37.030
And then he put me in contact with the guys at Ulti Clip. I kind

316
00:19:37.030 --> 00:19:40.750
of knew Ryan, you know, God rest his soul,

317
00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:44.390
and his family from thinking

318
00:19:44.390 --> 00:19:47.830
about carrying some of their other clips, the Slims. And we kind of had a

319
00:19:47.830 --> 00:19:51.540
little. A basic relationship. But then he and I started

320
00:19:51.540 --> 00:19:55.180
really communicating closely on this is what I'm

321
00:19:55.180 --> 00:19:58.980
thinking. Instead of just a single skinny little clip,

322
00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:02.780
let's do something that mimics more of a wider clip. You'll get

323
00:20:02.780 --> 00:20:06.300
more stability. You can do the lock in if you make it out of this

324
00:20:06.300 --> 00:20:09.380
material, you can spread it and put it in any hole configuration.

325
00:20:10.020 --> 00:20:13.140
And we went back and forth for, gosh, a couple years.

326
00:20:14.100 --> 00:20:17.950
And then I think Blade Texas,

327
00:20:18.510 --> 00:20:22.270
he and his engineer come up and they're grinning and they've got these things.

328
00:20:22.750 --> 00:20:26.590
And I was like, that's it, that's the one. And he goes, that's

329
00:20:26.590 --> 00:20:30.430
it. I knew it, man, we finally did it. And then I said,

330
00:20:30.430 --> 00:20:33.910
we want to roll it out. It's going to become our exclusive clip. We were

331
00:20:33.910 --> 00:20:37.230
going to debut it and then they asked if we would debut it with them

332
00:20:37.230 --> 00:20:41.070
at Blade Show Atlanta and we did. So we debuted that clip

333
00:20:41.340 --> 00:20:45.100
on Melissa's Blade and they

334
00:20:45.100 --> 00:20:48.420
entered it and actually won accessory of the year. Which was kind of a really

335
00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:50.140
proud moment for myself.

336
00:20:52.540 --> 00:20:55.420
You know, I'm not, I didn't invent it.

337
00:20:56.220 --> 00:20:59.580
I'm just happy to have been able to give them input to really make an

338
00:20:59.580 --> 00:21:03.420
incredible product. I love the clip. Just

339
00:21:03.420 --> 00:21:06.620
from looking at it, I thought, oh, that's going to be too

340
00:21:07.100 --> 00:21:10.770
like, flimsy is not the word. But it's like it's not going

341
00:21:10.770 --> 00:21:14.450
to stay flat against the belt for some reason just looking at it.

342
00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:18.010
That's what I thought. But this does two things. First of all, the

343
00:21:18.010 --> 00:21:21.050
spring is. The spring material is

344
00:21:22.570 --> 00:21:26.410
really durable and really stout. But it solves

345
00:21:26.490 --> 00:21:30.090
the, this is what I love the most. It solves the age old

346
00:21:30.090 --> 00:21:33.810
problem of clips and the holes. You can spread this thing out

347
00:21:33.810 --> 00:21:37.580
to fit any hole configuration. It is awesome. And

348
00:21:37.580 --> 00:21:39.980
I love it. I love it. I got to get more of these in my

349
00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:43.700
life now. All right. We have thousands upon thousands

350
00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:47.460
of them. And you know, I wanna, so this was Ulti clip. They brought

351
00:21:47.460 --> 00:21:51.220
this to, to the design that. So you can

352
00:21:51.220 --> 00:21:54.020
shorten it to inch and a half, bring it down, it'll fit over a 2

353
00:21:54.020 --> 00:21:57.260
inch belt and you can loosen it and cant it at a 45.

354
00:21:58.060 --> 00:22:01.860
That was their thing. Like, man, that's brilliant. Guys, I absolutely

355
00:22:01.860 --> 00:22:05.510
am just blown away with the clip. I use them on.

356
00:22:06.390 --> 00:22:09.870
We, you know, we make the tactical suspenders and I use that clip because it's

357
00:22:09.870 --> 00:22:13.630
so low profile, so stout on those. I use them on.

358
00:22:13.630 --> 00:22:17.310
Wait, you make tactical suspenders? I didn't know this. You didn't

359
00:22:17.310 --> 00:22:20.990
know we're not going to get naked. But they, you see, I'm wearing them now,

360
00:22:20.990 --> 00:22:24.790
you can't even tell. But they, they clip under your belt

361
00:22:25.030 --> 00:22:28.470
from the inside. So the only thing that's showing is the front part of this.

362
00:22:28.950 --> 00:22:32.790
So I wanted to be able to carry heavy stuff and

363
00:22:32.790 --> 00:22:36.470
they take 15 pounds of weight, so there's a cross piece, and then

364
00:22:36.470 --> 00:22:40.310
they're really commercial grade elastic, so

365
00:22:40.310 --> 00:22:44.150
they'll pick up £15. So you can completely loosen your belt and have

366
00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:47.990
heavy iron. So a 1911 style pistol, all of the

367
00:22:47.990 --> 00:22:51.470
nerdy stuff that us EDC guys like to carry. Keys,

368
00:22:51.470 --> 00:22:55.190
wallet, flashlights. But you're not sagging, so when you bend over,

369
00:22:56.100 --> 00:22:59.140
you're not showing everybody your exposed rear.

370
00:22:59.780 --> 00:23:03.540
But it really keeps everything compact and tight. And I didn't want something

371
00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:07.300
because suspenders are, you know, 1950s

372
00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:12.500
big red, wide things, but I wanted something that you could keep really clandestine.

373
00:23:12.500 --> 00:23:16.180
So you can't even see them there. Yeah, they're super. They're

374
00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:20.020
really popular in tactical communities. A lot of officers, a lot of

375
00:23:20.340 --> 00:23:23.860
military guys order them, and even CCW concealed carry,

376
00:23:24.090 --> 00:23:27.490
because you can. You don't have to have that belt cinched down so tight that

377
00:23:27.490 --> 00:23:31.250
it's cutting off the circulation to your hips. Yes, I. Okay, I'm. This

378
00:23:31.250 --> 00:23:34.410
is just a little moment I'm having. I'm gonna have to check these out

379
00:23:35.290 --> 00:23:38.850
and figure out how I can integrate. Integrate them into

380
00:23:38.850 --> 00:23:42.570
my stylish daily wear. Which is not so stocky. Yeah, you

381
00:23:42.570 --> 00:23:44.810
gotta. You gotta roll untucked, Mr. Demar.

382
00:23:46.410 --> 00:23:50.090
That's the issue. You can actually kind of clip them and tuck stuff in behind

383
00:23:50.090 --> 00:23:53.760
them, but you'll still see the little part.

384
00:23:53.840 --> 00:23:56.960
But you can tuck your shirt in about 2 inches behind them. So it's pretty

385
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.640
neat. Well, I know that. That, you know, real fine gentlemen who wear like

386
00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:04.240
real nice suits and stuff like that. Suspenders have never gone out of style

387
00:24:04.800 --> 00:24:08.480
in. In that. In that way, because you got the jacket. So I could

388
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.240
see some sort of a tactical GQ crossover here, but this is

389
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:15.680
something I got to think of. Yeah, you know, John Wick with a blazer, of

390
00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.410
course. Yeah, exactly. That's the marketing angle. I need to call Kiana.

391
00:24:19.410 --> 00:24:23.210
We're good friends. Not at all. That's a lie. Not at all.

392
00:24:23.850 --> 00:24:27.610
So, yeah, so we've covered this, this clip and these badger

393
00:24:27.610 --> 00:24:30.890
cloth sheets. Which. Which brings me to. And you've mentioned

394
00:24:30.890 --> 00:24:34.490
Melissa Backwoods, her knife collaboration. Tomas,

395
00:24:34.490 --> 00:24:37.290
alas. And his collaboration. My collaboration with you.

396
00:24:38.410 --> 00:24:41.610
What. What do you love? And. And you've done these awesome

397
00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:46.260
double oh seven. Agent Double oh seven with the Japanese

398
00:24:46.260 --> 00:24:50.020
wrap with auxiliary manufacturing. Tell me about

399
00:24:50.580 --> 00:24:53.780
what you get out of these collaborations, besides awesome products.

400
00:24:55.220 --> 00:24:58.260
Right. Well, and one, we'll focus

401
00:24:58.980 --> 00:25:02.260
mainly on the agent series. That

402
00:25:02.820 --> 00:25:06.180
design was brilliant. That was the first as a predecessor.

403
00:25:06.580 --> 00:25:10.380
You know, you kind of served up this Incredibly beautiful design on a

404
00:25:10.380 --> 00:25:13.960
silver platter. And when we initially started talking about it,

405
00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:17.800
I was like, man, I've really been trying to nail down that

406
00:25:17.800 --> 00:25:21.240
bird beak style blade and I don't want to do what everybody else is doing.

407
00:25:22.280 --> 00:25:26.120
I made minor tweaks to the handle. You had already

408
00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:29.880
designed it around our platform, lengthwise, the narrow grips.

409
00:25:30.120 --> 00:25:33.600
I made a few tweaks. I changed the blade. The only change I made to

410
00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:36.720
blades, put my name on it, that was it. And figured out how to machine

411
00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.000
the thing. And out of that has been born every

412
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:43.360
agent series and it is our most popular knife collaboration.

413
00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:46.320
So kind of backing into that

414
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:50.640
when somebody of your prowess,

415
00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:55.280
you've touched more knives than I have different types of knives. Your martial

416
00:25:55.280 --> 00:25:58.400
arts background is more extensive and in a different discipline than my own.

417
00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:02.640
So I can listen and gain feedback. And if you like our stuff enough,

418
00:26:03.300 --> 00:26:07.020
that's hugely valuable to me. It's a different perspective, it's a

419
00:26:07.020 --> 00:26:10.660
different subset of thought, of ideas, of vision.

420
00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:14.700
And I really like pulling from these different stuff and

421
00:26:14.700 --> 00:26:18.420
making cool blades. Yeah, I, I, I think

422
00:26:18.420 --> 00:26:19.460
you've got a lot of,

423
00:26:22.180 --> 00:26:25.340
I think to be open enough. And first of all, thank you for those kind

424
00:26:25.340 --> 00:26:29.150
words. I, I really appreciate it. It was because, you know, the night,

425
00:26:29.230 --> 00:26:32.990
the night stalker is what really inspired this. The length of the

426
00:26:32.990 --> 00:26:35.510
night, you know, this is the length of the night stalker. The blade is the

427
00:26:35.510 --> 00:26:38.910
same length, you know, almost exactly.

428
00:26:39.310 --> 00:26:42.990
And because I was carrying that so much, it's such a great knife.

429
00:26:43.230 --> 00:26:46.950
I was thinking, okay, this is doable. You know, carrying a fixed

430
00:26:46.950 --> 00:26:50.510
blade knife in on my waistband, outside

431
00:26:50.670 --> 00:26:54.430
of the waistband, and still have a shirt to cover it easily is

432
00:26:54.430 --> 00:26:58.100
totally doable. So I mean, you know, right

433
00:26:58.100 --> 00:27:01.740
back at you. Like, I was so thrilled that that was something you wanted to

434
00:27:01.740 --> 00:27:05.540
do. In my line of work, collaboration is absolutely

435
00:27:05.540 --> 00:27:09.220
essential and you get the best stuff. When you're asking

436
00:27:09.220 --> 00:27:12.540
your cameraman, what do you think we should do here? Or what do you think

437
00:27:12.540 --> 00:27:16.220
the lights should be like? And, and you get all this input that

438
00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:20.020
that's what really makes, you know, good stuff great.

439
00:27:20.580 --> 00:27:24.420
And I feel like you and I hit a nice stride with that. It,

440
00:27:24.420 --> 00:27:28.040
it can be hard sometimes collaborating if people,

441
00:27:28.120 --> 00:27:30.200
if people's egos are too,

442
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:35.480
yeah. Too involved. Let me that in this collab it was

443
00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:39.280
super easy. I mean, for me, I mean I

444
00:27:39.280 --> 00:27:42.200
just was, I just made a few changes and

445
00:27:43.800 --> 00:27:47.640
it was easy. Well, Jim just brought up your

446
00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:51.240
webpage and first of all, which is beautiful. And he is scrolling

447
00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:54.200
and we just scrolled by, casually scrolled by

448
00:27:54.890 --> 00:27:58.690
the adversary. I mean, the combatant folder.

449
00:27:58.690 --> 00:28:01.890
Let's, let's talk about the combatant folder. This is like a

450
00:28:01.890 --> 00:28:05.490
revolutionary thing, not just for TKL knives, but

451
00:28:05.490 --> 00:28:09.330
for the folder industry. And you're not really known so much

452
00:28:09.330 --> 00:28:12.250
as a folder guy yet. Let's talk at all.

453
00:28:13.850 --> 00:28:17.570
We have been on this quest for probably three years or more to

454
00:28:17.570 --> 00:28:21.170
get a folder that would stand up to heavy

455
00:28:21.170 --> 00:28:24.740
duty use, be light enough to carry, be comfortable.

456
00:28:24.900 --> 00:28:28.020
And I'm not a folder guy,

457
00:28:28.740 --> 00:28:32.540
so I, I didn't know anything about. You can't use this

458
00:28:32.540 --> 00:28:35.940
lock because so and so says you can't. And you can't do this because that's

459
00:28:35.940 --> 00:28:39.420
not allowed. And this is what's standard in here. And all that stuff would frustrate.

460
00:28:39.420 --> 00:28:42.740
Like, I just want to make something cool. And why doesn't anybody do

461
00:28:43.140 --> 00:28:46.940
fill in the blank. So I tried to design them

462
00:28:46.940 --> 00:28:50.300
on my own. I'm not super good at that. And then Emory, who you and

463
00:28:50.300 --> 00:28:53.460
I both know, introduced me to a friend of his that he learned knife making

464
00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:57.280
from V. Cornich, and Vance is out of Colorado.

465
00:28:57.840 --> 00:29:01.560
And he's like, hey, I got some ideas. I've got this

466
00:29:01.560 --> 00:29:05.400
really cool crossbar style lock. I

467
00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:08.000
didn't know what that was. I didn't know what an axis lock was. I didn't

468
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.440
know what an Omega spring was. I didn't know that because this company

469
00:29:11.840 --> 00:29:15.200
came up with it. I couldn't use it because I thought it was cool. So

470
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:20.240
I really pushed Vance in the have. I want modularity.

471
00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:24.520
This the first one. I'm like, this is so hard to take apart. Like, why

472
00:29:24.520 --> 00:29:28.160
do we, can't we just do this, this, this and this?

473
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:31.680
And Vance is, he says he's lazy,

474
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:35.000
but I think he's crazy enough to go, yeah, I think we can figure that

475
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:38.400
out. And he, he came up with this modular

476
00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:42.240
design on a crossbar that you can just drop

477
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:45.640
blades in and pull them out. And then I'm like, hey, I want bearings. I

478
00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:48.950
want something that just snaps open. I want to be able to hold it in

479
00:29:48.950 --> 00:29:52.710
reverse, which is not a crossbar thing at all. And I'm

480
00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:55.270
like, why don't we do that? Like, well, they're hard to take apart. So then

481
00:29:55.270 --> 00:29:57.710
he brings me, after a couple of years,

482
00:29:59.630 --> 00:30:03.310
some very close to this man. Now you

483
00:30:03.310 --> 00:30:06.910
figured it out. So then we, we tried to make, we pocketed the

484
00:30:06.910 --> 00:30:09.550
bearing so that you can do, if you've seen the video, you can do a

485
00:30:09.550 --> 00:30:12.910
blade change in just 15, 20 seconds, which is crazy

486
00:30:13.830 --> 00:30:17.670
for a crossbar. But the handles just Pull off two

487
00:30:17.670 --> 00:30:21.430
screws, you pull the pivot, drop the axis, the blade falls, you throw the new

488
00:30:21.430 --> 00:30:25.030
one in and you have the whole. This is a universal piece,

489
00:30:25.350 --> 00:30:28.950
the handle without the blade. So that allows us to make

490
00:30:29.430 --> 00:30:33.110
other blades that we can drop straight into it. And along that same

491
00:30:33.110 --> 00:30:36.870
vein, I wanted to use these spring style clips because I love the aph.

492
00:30:37.030 --> 00:30:40.870
The clip we were just talking about. But there's an aftermarket support

493
00:30:40.870 --> 00:30:44.550
for these clips that all these people make.

494
00:30:44.550 --> 00:30:48.230
Titanium clips, deep carry, they make metal clips, colorful clips,

495
00:30:48.230 --> 00:30:51.710
pla. You know, the aftermarket support for this clip pattern

496
00:30:52.590 --> 00:30:56.310
is huge. And I'm like, hey, you're talking about the spring. Some people don't like

497
00:30:56.310 --> 00:31:00.150
clips. Right, right. So there's, I mean like Lynch

498
00:31:00.150 --> 00:31:03.350
Northwest makes one, there's a bunch of other people that make. I thought I had

499
00:31:03.350 --> 00:31:07.050
one laying here. I don't. But if you don't like a wire

500
00:31:07.050 --> 00:31:10.570
clip, you can just pull this off and get one from Amazon

501
00:31:10.570 --> 00:31:13.970
that's metal and full and deep carry. So there's so many different

502
00:31:13.970 --> 00:31:17.570
options. And I

503
00:31:17.570 --> 00:31:21.290
wanted, of course we do interchangeable grips. And I thought how cool would it be

504
00:31:21.290 --> 00:31:25.050
if you could just get one frame and then buy

505
00:31:25.050 --> 00:31:28.490
all the blades and just swap it out? Or you can take in 10 seconds,

506
00:31:28.490 --> 00:31:32.170
change a grip out, or in just less than a minute, change blade out.

507
00:31:32.990 --> 00:31:36.350
I really think what we've come up with is very unique.

508
00:31:37.390 --> 00:31:40.470
And the other, the last feature I think that's unique is that this

509
00:31:40.470 --> 00:31:44.110
backspacer and the liner is a two piece design,

510
00:31:45.550 --> 00:31:48.990
but that's your stop. So you have this big quarter inch chunk of

511
00:31:48.990 --> 00:31:52.790
metal that is a stop and gives the support for the

512
00:31:52.790 --> 00:31:56.550
blade and then a hardened steel bar between that and

513
00:31:56.550 --> 00:32:00.300
the actual blade. It's incredibly strong. And it's not,

514
00:32:00.380 --> 00:32:03.580
it's not been done that way. And I really like modularity.

515
00:32:04.300 --> 00:32:08.020
But that is, is, is. That's interesting because that's kind

516
00:32:08.020 --> 00:32:11.780
of like a traditional slip joint. How a slip joint stops.

517
00:32:11.780 --> 00:32:15.340
This is where. Okay, so this knife coming from, a folder guy

518
00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:18.540
is unique in a number of different ways. First of all,

519
00:32:19.500 --> 00:32:23.260
axis lock style knives with omega springs are notoriously

520
00:32:23.260 --> 00:32:26.990
up just a bit pain in the ass to open up and to put

521
00:32:26.990 --> 00:32:29.950
back together. I hate it. I've only done it a couple of times and I

522
00:32:29.950 --> 00:32:33.710
never want to do it again. B, you have

523
00:32:33.710 --> 00:32:37.390
a knife that you can change the blade legitimately, change the blades

524
00:32:37.390 --> 00:32:41.030
without it having some sort of a cheesy arm and a cheesy sort of

525
00:32:41.030 --> 00:32:44.710
razor style blade that you. I've seen that before. Right but this is different.

526
00:32:44.710 --> 00:32:48.110
This is a totally stout and solid

527
00:32:48.110 --> 00:32:51.420
regular blade that you can switch out maybe an

528
00:32:51.420 --> 00:32:55.260
adversary and a combatant. And I think you have a sheep's foot style

529
00:32:55.260 --> 00:32:59.100
blade coming in there. And yeah, see, doesn't pull that one because

530
00:32:59.100 --> 00:33:02.580
she loves. And then you've got. That's cool. And then you've got this

531
00:33:03.060 --> 00:33:06.739
sort of the stopping system that's like a slip joint. I mean, this is

532
00:33:07.060 --> 00:33:08.260
very unlike

533
00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:14.020
folders in general. I mean, I haven't heard of a folder that does

534
00:33:14.340 --> 00:33:16.660
any of these things, let alone all three of them

535
00:33:18.280 --> 00:33:21.880
at once. And then also it's an, it's a, it's an unusual

536
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:25.560
business move to make something universal like that. Instead of saying

537
00:33:25.560 --> 00:33:28.040
you got to buy the whole new knife, you like this other blade, you got

538
00:33:28.040 --> 00:33:31.360
to get the whole new knife. That's what we did with our other stuff too.

539
00:33:31.360 --> 00:33:35.080
People like, you should just make a G10 in

540
00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:38.960
black and sell 50 of them. It's stupid business move to make all your

541
00:33:38.960 --> 00:33:42.680
stuff interchangeable. Like. But I'm a. I value my money.

542
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:46.350
I work really hard for it. So why not give a guy the ability to

543
00:33:46.350 --> 00:33:49.590
swap his grips out? I don't understand that. Yeah,

544
00:33:50.230 --> 00:33:54.070
it just, it just made sense to me across the board. So,

545
00:33:54.070 --> 00:33:57.470
yeah, it's dumb business wise, but I think value to the

546
00:33:57.470 --> 00:34:01.150
consumer and it's neat. So how I'm, I'm

547
00:34:01.150 --> 00:34:04.870
holding up my combatant right now. How different is

548
00:34:04.870 --> 00:34:07.910
the size between what you're holding in your hand and what I have in my

549
00:34:07.910 --> 00:34:11.740
hand? So I'll do them side by each. Oh, yeah,

550
00:34:14.450 --> 00:34:18.250
they're, they're very, very similar. To get the pivots and everything in the

551
00:34:18.250 --> 00:34:20.770
right spot, we only had the length in it

552
00:34:22.370 --> 00:34:25.690
just like three, eight of an inch. Put it real close to the camera, Tim.

553
00:34:25.690 --> 00:34:29.410
Let's see if we can turn her. Oh, there we go. There we

554
00:34:29.410 --> 00:34:33.090
go. Let's see if I can get it to stay this

555
00:34:33.090 --> 00:34:36.930
way. So they're, they're very, very similar. The handle platform is the same,

556
00:34:37.580 --> 00:34:41.060
but we just had to push it slightly forward. But the geometry, so you see

557
00:34:41.060 --> 00:34:44.860
these scoops and everything are the same. So we just had to kick this

558
00:34:44.860 --> 00:34:48.620
back. Oh, we lost it. There it is. I think

559
00:34:48.620 --> 00:34:51.820
that's just over a quarter of an inch so that we could get each blade

560
00:34:51.820 --> 00:34:54.780
to tuck into the handle where there'd be no issues to make it modular.

561
00:34:56.140 --> 00:34:59.580
So I can't zoom it in. I do need to send you one so you

562
00:34:59.580 --> 00:35:02.420
can play with it. Oh, I'm not going to say no to that. You know,

563
00:35:02.420 --> 00:35:06.190
people are going to love this because probably if. If

564
00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:09.870
there is any criticism of the combatant or the adversary, you might

565
00:35:09.870 --> 00:35:13.630
have guys with giant meat hooks saying that the handle is too short,

566
00:35:13.630 --> 00:35:16.710
which they can remedy with a sentry grip, obviously, but.

567
00:35:17.910 --> 00:35:21.630
Right, but this is going to extend the handle by a

568
00:35:21.630 --> 00:35:25.350
quarter inch, so it's going to make it even more. Even better in

569
00:35:25.350 --> 00:35:28.910
hand. Yeah. So you've got a lot more of a grip than you do on

570
00:35:28.910 --> 00:35:32.400
the standard combatants. That one stops, just

571
00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:36.160
passed, and then the combatant tucks in a decent amount

572
00:35:36.160 --> 00:35:38.960
more. So. But extra half inch really makes a big difference,

573
00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:44.320
and we will be in the future. We've already got the rings

574
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:47.440
designed for this series and the next, so

575
00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:52.400
we're gonna try to make it completely modular. You mean the, the aftermarket.

576
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:56.400
I'm holding up the sentry grip for. For my

577
00:35:57.770 --> 00:36:01.490
night stalker there. Right. Yeah, that. That thing works

578
00:36:01.490 --> 00:36:04.970
great. So. So people who buy this folder can get the. The ring

579
00:36:04.970 --> 00:36:08.570
also. That is the plan. Quick,

580
00:36:08.570 --> 00:36:12.370
quick question about the bearings in this. You have bearings at the

581
00:36:12.370 --> 00:36:16.210
pivot and they're sitting in a pocket. What. What stops

582
00:36:16.210 --> 00:36:19.450
them from just falling out of the pocket? Is there something there or.

583
00:36:20.170 --> 00:36:23.450
It's just the frame, so if I can get it.

584
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:28.000
Nope, it doesn't. All this fancy.

585
00:36:28.480 --> 00:36:32.280
You know, this guy Bob recommended this camera to me. There

586
00:36:32.280 --> 00:36:35.520
it is. Got it. It likes my face.

587
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:39.440
So they're just held in here

588
00:36:39.680 --> 00:36:43.360
and with pressure from the pivot. Okay. And

589
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.560
what keeps the frame together is this

590
00:36:46.640 --> 00:36:50.450
crossbar has a shoulder so

591
00:36:50.450 --> 00:36:53.930
that threads on. And that's how we can make it modular,

592
00:36:54.170 --> 00:36:58.010
so that everything just slides and tucks in. For the bearings to come

593
00:36:58.010 --> 00:37:00.570
out, you'd physically have to slide the blade out.

594
00:37:01.290 --> 00:37:05.089
Okay. And they're standard bearings, so you

595
00:37:05.089 --> 00:37:08.570
can get them anywhere. Same with the springs. The pivots are all standard,

596
00:37:09.130 --> 00:37:12.730
so it'll be really easy for people to, if they want,

597
00:37:12.730 --> 00:37:16.450
upgrade bearings, upgrade their own bearings or to replace any of the parts. I wanted

598
00:37:16.450 --> 00:37:20.270
it to be easy to tune

599
00:37:20.270 --> 00:37:24.070
or to add different stuff. I mean, that your. Your whole philosophy

600
00:37:24.070 --> 00:37:27.590
of modularity and your. Your requirement for modularity is

601
00:37:27.590 --> 00:37:31.430
very definitely speaks of your Marine

602
00:37:31.430 --> 00:37:34.990
Corps background. Yep, I think so.

603
00:37:35.710 --> 00:37:39.270
I mean, one piece of kit, one pistol, all the.

604
00:37:39.270 --> 00:37:43.030
Everything needs to fit so that you can easily change with your

605
00:37:43.030 --> 00:37:46.810
environment and that. I don't know why that seems

606
00:37:46.810 --> 00:37:50.490
like such a revolutionary contract or concept in this

607
00:37:50.490 --> 00:37:54.010
industry. And it just made sense to me.

608
00:37:54.330 --> 00:37:57.970
Well, I think people want to sell as much as they possibly can. You know,

609
00:37:57.970 --> 00:38:01.130
I think that's why it's kind of revolutionary or

610
00:38:01.210 --> 00:38:04.930
interesting. What's the production schedule on that? What can, when can we

611
00:38:04.930 --> 00:38:08.250
expect those to, to come out? And is Nick, is

612
00:38:08.970 --> 00:38:12.470
NCC working on those? No, that's actually vcc,

613
00:38:12.550 --> 00:38:16.310
Vance Court, Customs. So he's in Colorado

614
00:38:16.470 --> 00:38:19.830
and then Nick is in the northeast. So

615
00:38:20.390 --> 00:38:24.110
we are thinking through something. If you haven't seen

616
00:38:24.110 --> 00:38:27.750
Nick Chupin's Boulders, his automatic, all that,

617
00:38:27.750 --> 00:38:30.870
they're just, I mean they are premium and

618
00:38:31.670 --> 00:38:35.470
I would love to be able to commission a premium line of automatics with

619
00:38:35.470 --> 00:38:38.550
Nick because I think he's one of the best in the industry at that. He's

620
00:38:38.550 --> 00:38:42.280
innovated his stuff. Each one of his springs is custom

621
00:38:42.280 --> 00:38:46.000
made. I mean the guy is, he's, he's a freak of nature. And

622
00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:50.000
maybe one day we'll come out with that super high end automatic with Nick as

623
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:53.840
well. But we keep him really busy with the fixed blades right now.

624
00:38:54.720 --> 00:38:58.520
I don't think he wants to make competition for himself because

625
00:38:58.520 --> 00:39:02.240
he's pretty well known for his folders. Oh, that's true, that's true. Yeah,

626
00:39:02.240 --> 00:39:05.840
that makes sense. Okay, let's, let's move

627
00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:09.670
on to the sapper. So slash. Well, tell us about what's

628
00:39:09.670 --> 00:39:13.070
going on with the sapper. Now before you do, let me just gush about it

629
00:39:13.070 --> 00:39:16.790
for a second. This has long been one

630
00:39:16.790 --> 00:39:20.590
of my very, very favorites from tel knives

631
00:39:20.670 --> 00:39:24.430
and it is a collaboration with Emory Morgan Stern and it is

632
00:39:24.430 --> 00:39:28.230
a big knife. It's a recurve. To me it's a

633
00:39:28.230 --> 00:39:32.030
fighting knife but you know, combat style fighting knife.

634
00:39:32.750 --> 00:39:36.580
But it also I have learned excels in the back 40.

635
00:39:36.580 --> 00:39:39.940
Mine is nowhere near 40 but you know, you can,

636
00:39:40.340 --> 00:39:43.700
you can delimb and you can do all manner of work with this.

637
00:39:44.580 --> 00:39:48.300
So tell me about the evolution of this knife which started as

638
00:39:48.300 --> 00:39:51.980
the sapper. A sapper is a

639
00:39:51.980 --> 00:39:55.300
demolition expert in the military. So a guy who searches and

640
00:39:55.300 --> 00:39:59.140
destructs and makes minds inert. So

641
00:40:00.100 --> 00:40:03.540
there's a very specific set of tools that they use. And this blade

642
00:40:03.700 --> 00:40:07.500
was designed to be

643
00:40:07.500 --> 00:40:10.500
able to effectively do that. It was never

644
00:40:10.980 --> 00:40:14.820
supposed to be a combat style blade or a brush

645
00:40:14.820 --> 00:40:18.580
clearing blade. And I brought that to the

646
00:40:18.580 --> 00:40:22.020
table. I really wanted to make it multifunctional

647
00:40:22.660 --> 00:40:26.460
and Emory actually took it to

648
00:40:26.460 --> 00:40:30.260
the tracking school TTLs and they loved it. And there's

649
00:40:30.260 --> 00:40:33.800
a couple search that I ran into at Cancon when we were

650
00:40:33.800 --> 00:40:37.560
exhibiting there and this guy did ser

651
00:40:37.560 --> 00:40:40.760
training for the military and he got one of the blades and then the feedback

652
00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:44.040
from him was man, you're Ms. Marketing this knife. This Thing is

653
00:40:44.040 --> 00:40:46.640
incredible for that, that environment.

654
00:40:47.680 --> 00:40:51.000
So I felt like we were really

655
00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:54.760
pigeonholing the blade and anybody that bought it, they use a

656
00:40:54.760 --> 00:40:58.520
hey man, what's this line for? And I'm like, well, that's the probe for landmines.

657
00:40:58.520 --> 00:41:02.120
Like I live in Maryland. I don't. I don't. That's not here.

658
00:41:03.240 --> 00:41:06.840
It's like, you know, or we're delimming stuff. We're not. That doesn't exist.

659
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:10.680
So a lot of people shied away from it and the feedback kept coming

660
00:41:10.680 --> 00:41:14.440
in that this was a great Bushcraft backwoods kind

661
00:41:14.440 --> 00:41:18.160
of multi combat rule style blade. So I talked with

662
00:41:18.160 --> 00:41:21.880
Emery and I'm like, man, you know, I think we need to rebrand it.

663
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:24.840
And it was a lot of discussion around that. So

664
00:41:25.810 --> 00:41:29.570
we didn't really make any changes other than we pulled the line off.

665
00:41:29.570 --> 00:41:32.850
We still left Emery's logo because he and I were co designers on the blade.

666
00:41:33.250 --> 00:41:37.050
And we made it available in all the colors and multiple steels to not

667
00:41:37.050 --> 00:41:40.770
pigeonhole it because I think the blade deserves a different light. I

668
00:41:40.770 --> 00:41:44.490
think more people accept it. And we just

669
00:41:44.490 --> 00:41:48.330
did the drop Monday and we sold probably three times more than

670
00:41:48.330 --> 00:41:52.140
we normally do just from showing people those

671
00:41:52.140 --> 00:41:55.340
additional feature sets. So this is now called the Outrider.

672
00:41:56.300 --> 00:41:59.740
You can still get a sapper if you want a sapper, but

673
00:42:00.300 --> 00:42:03.580
you have taken the line. When you're talking about the line, if people don't know

674
00:42:03.580 --> 00:42:07.420
there, there is on the original sapper a line going from

675
00:42:07.420 --> 00:42:11.220
the very tip of the blade coming straight down the blade. That. That

676
00:42:11.220 --> 00:42:14.820
line up with all three handle screws. And as

677
00:42:14.820 --> 00:42:18.340
Emory was talking about it when he was on the show, it.

678
00:42:18.660 --> 00:42:22.260
It is integral with the, with the design

679
00:42:22.260 --> 00:42:25.540
of the pommel, which is meant to fit in the palm of the hand

680
00:42:25.780 --> 00:42:29.620
and to kind of align all the way with your forearm. And that

681
00:42:29.620 --> 00:42:33.419
is for when you're searching in the sand for a landmine and

682
00:42:33.419 --> 00:42:36.900
gingerly kind of poking around. That line

683
00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:41.980
shows you exactly where the tip is when the tip is buried in the sand.

684
00:42:41.980 --> 00:42:45.710
So you can know exactly where what your. Where the. Where

685
00:42:45.710 --> 00:42:49.550
your probe is. Basically that's important that you don't get

686
00:42:49.550 --> 00:42:53.350
any small misses. A landline? Yeah, I would imagine

687
00:42:53.350 --> 00:42:56.910
not. And so I always thought the line was cool and,

688
00:42:56.910 --> 00:43:00.310
and it would never stop me from buying a knife. You know,

689
00:43:01.190 --> 00:43:04.790
I think it's just added coolness. But from, from a

690
00:43:04.950 --> 00:43:08.550
knife company owner's perspective, marketing is a big part of it.

691
00:43:08.550 --> 00:43:12.320
And if people are start thinking that it's a more of a

692
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:16.080
specialized blade than it actually is then you'll

693
00:43:16.080 --> 00:43:19.600
have people turning their back on it. But you made the

694
00:43:19.600 --> 00:43:23.360
choil larger, it seems, for this

695
00:43:23.360 --> 00:43:27.199
kind of bushcraft kind of grip, you know, carving and

696
00:43:27.199 --> 00:43:30.760
that kind of thing. So just a couple of little tweaks. Yeah,

697
00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:34.840
very minor tweaks. The first sapper didn't have jimping at all. The

698
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:38.590
outrider does. We did open that channel up. I think

699
00:43:38.590 --> 00:43:42.230
they're an excellent sheath and people are responding well.

700
00:43:42.550 --> 00:43:46.110
You know, you kind of have to teach people in

701
00:43:46.110 --> 00:43:49.270
anything that you do, and if you want to stay in your lane and be

702
00:43:49.270 --> 00:43:52.230
like, well, this is what it is, then that's fine, you can do that. But

703
00:43:52.230 --> 00:43:55.430
I think I use tools for many purposes.

704
00:43:56.390 --> 00:43:59.990
I felt like these little tweaks and then pushing it into a different

705
00:43:59.990 --> 00:44:03.590
community would let more people enjoy the blade because people that

706
00:44:03.590 --> 00:44:05.750
bought them were using them for these use cases.

707
00:44:07.620 --> 00:44:11.020
Not many people were telling me, hey, man, I did a great job searching for

708
00:44:11.020 --> 00:44:14.620
mines and I kept my legs, so thanks. But everybody was like, hey, I

709
00:44:14.620 --> 00:44:18.380
carried on the ranch and I did a lot of cool stuff. Yeah. I

710
00:44:18.380 --> 00:44:22.099
have a solo camping weekend coming up. It was.

711
00:44:22.100 --> 00:44:25.540
Was gonna be this weekend. It's been delayed. And that's gonna be

712
00:44:25.860 --> 00:44:29.020
one of many knives that comes. But that's the one that I'm gonna have on

713
00:44:29.020 --> 00:44:32.820
my belt, I think, is the Outrider, because it's. It's

714
00:44:32.820 --> 00:44:36.490
got. It's got everything I like. It's got a very aggressive stance, but it's

715
00:44:36.490 --> 00:44:40.290
actually quite a practical knife. It's the thickest blade we make

716
00:44:40.290 --> 00:44:43.730
too. It's 3 16, so it's. It's thicker than anything else. So it's. It's

717
00:44:43.730 --> 00:44:47.490
durable. So just to get back to collaborations for a minute,

718
00:44:48.050 --> 00:44:51.810
two also very successful collaborations you've done with Tomas, Alas

719
00:44:51.810 --> 00:44:55.570
of Tactical Tavern and Melissa Backwoods.

720
00:44:57.090 --> 00:44:58.850
Those. Those are also

721
00:45:00.610 --> 00:45:03.840
very popular collaborations. Are you expecting

722
00:45:04.240 --> 00:45:08.080
to do more runs of those coming up? Yeah, we

723
00:45:08.080 --> 00:45:11.680
actually have some of both coming this year. The

724
00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:13.200
007 collab,

725
00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:18.880
really, it's just we. Minor tweaks to a blade that we had already

726
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:22.560
designed based on some of Tomas's feedback.

727
00:45:22.560 --> 00:45:26.040
So not a whole lot of changes from its original to his

728
00:45:26.040 --> 00:45:29.440
feedback on that blade, but he wanted

729
00:45:29.920 --> 00:45:33.600
in different steel. So we're going to do someone S35V actually those were made. We're

730
00:45:33.600 --> 00:45:36.160
going to do those. We're also going to do some

731
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:40.760
CTs XHPs in Melissa's blades later this year. And we

732
00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:44.560
also have some more carbon steel because,

733
00:45:44.560 --> 00:45:48.200
you know, she pushes more into the outdoors. So ADC

734
00:45:48.200 --> 00:45:51.720
RV2 made sense for that blade. So we're going to kind of do

735
00:45:51.720 --> 00:45:54.080
EDC and that and then the.

736
00:45:56.180 --> 00:45:59.140
I hope to get both of those to market this year. We have a really

737
00:45:59.220 --> 00:46:02.740
full schedule up until November

738
00:46:03.460 --> 00:46:06.020
and this is only our second release of the

739
00:46:06.900 --> 00:46:10.740
01s. And with the new features

740
00:46:10.740 --> 00:46:14.420
that we've added to that, I really want to highlight that blade because

741
00:46:14.420 --> 00:46:18.260
it's what started, I think, a movement. I mean, people

742
00:46:18.260 --> 00:46:21.700
love the entire Agent series and I think that we. It can stand alone.

743
00:46:22.620 --> 00:46:26.220
That's just an incredible blade. Yeah. And so I. You have been

744
00:46:26.220 --> 00:46:29.100
generous with me and you sent me

745
00:46:29.740 --> 00:46:33.100
the three. This is the three, right? Yeah, I believe

746
00:46:33.580 --> 00:46:37.420
the three and the two and Agents from the Agent series.

747
00:46:37.739 --> 00:46:41.540
I, I have slacked. I need to. I need to get back on and as

748
00:46:41.540 --> 00:46:44.940
soon as the 7 comes out, I definitely need a 007.

749
00:46:45.420 --> 00:46:48.830
I love. I'd love to get it in that auxiliary manufacturing handle wrap.

750
00:46:49.540 --> 00:46:53.340
But these are incredibly useful blades too. It's. So I'm

751
00:46:53.340 --> 00:46:56.180
pretty impressed by how you took the original

752
00:46:56.180 --> 00:46:59.940
001 and ran with it. You know, the,

753
00:46:59.940 --> 00:47:03.620
the tweaks you made to the handle made it so incredibly comfortable. I look at

754
00:47:03.620 --> 00:47:07.300
the. My original drawing and. And I can just tell it would

755
00:47:07.300 --> 00:47:11.140
not have been a very comfortable grip. It kind of looked cool,

756
00:47:11.140 --> 00:47:14.780
but that was, that was where I was coming from. It also had the

757
00:47:14.780 --> 00:47:18.130
bird's beak utility, but. But you really actually

758
00:47:18.770 --> 00:47:22.450
made it an ergonomic masterpiece. And then adding blades

759
00:47:22.450 --> 00:47:26.210
is just. Just makes sense here. Yeah, that's my style.

760
00:47:26.210 --> 00:47:30.050
You know, like the, the. The three is the Nightstalker blade. So I

761
00:47:30.050 --> 00:47:33.690
was like. That kind of pays homage to the beginnings of the entire

762
00:47:33.690 --> 00:47:37.490
Agent series. So. And that. That's a unique blade. I think

763
00:47:37.490 --> 00:47:41.170
I have actually seen that blade style popping up across the industry

764
00:47:42.170 --> 00:47:45.850
in the last year or so, which makes sense. That's our best seller, that

765
00:47:45.850 --> 00:47:49.450
blade shape. So it just made sense to do that and bring the

766
00:47:49.450 --> 00:47:53.290
wharncliffe. We already did. And then there's the. The four and the

767
00:47:53.290 --> 00:47:56.970
five that I don't think you have. I don't yet.

768
00:47:57.770 --> 00:48:00.410
We. We need to rectify that because the four

769
00:48:01.530 --> 00:48:04.330
is very Puukko

770
00:48:04.810 --> 00:48:08.170
Chevy. So it's a little mini puukko

771
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:12.280
sub. 3 inches still. 165 super stout

772
00:48:12.280 --> 00:48:14.800
tip. And this little guy is

773
00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:20.360
absolutely nasty. So this is the new four that we

774
00:48:20.360 --> 00:48:24.080
haven't sent yet. And then the five. I don't even have one

775
00:48:24.239 --> 00:48:27.920
completed from Heat treat yet. It's. It's a little clip point

776
00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:31.720
look. I, I modeled it after a folder, but it's the same

777
00:48:31.720 --> 00:48:34.990
footprint as the 01 blade, but

778
00:48:35.710 --> 00:48:38.990
the grind is completely different. Single edge swedge, high grind.

779
00:48:39.470 --> 00:48:43.110
And the thinner steel. Oh, cool. Is it the same profile as the

780
00:48:43.110 --> 00:48:46.910
one? Yeah. It was an accident. When I ordered the steel, I

781
00:48:46.910 --> 00:48:50.590
didn't pay attention and they sent it to me at 125.

782
00:48:50.830 --> 00:48:52.910
And you can't even tell when you look at

783
00:48:54.750 --> 00:48:58.430
the. The five, but it is. So I just made it a.

784
00:48:58.670 --> 00:49:02.210
I swedged it all the way up and a single grind. And you'll

785
00:49:02.210 --> 00:49:05.730
recognize it when you see it. But I need to get that out to you

786
00:49:05.730 --> 00:49:09.250
also because it's. I mean, it's born from this plate. On accident, the steel came

787
00:49:09.250 --> 00:49:12.770
in and I'm like, what in the hell did you do? This is the wrong

788
00:49:12.770 --> 00:49:15.290
thickness. And he's like, did you see your po? And I'm like, no.

789
00:49:16.330 --> 00:49:18.410
I'm like, what the hell are we going to do? So I was like, well,

790
00:49:18.650 --> 00:49:22.450
knife makers make knives. So I just. I made lemons

791
00:49:22.450 --> 00:49:25.770
from lemonade and we turned them into the five. The 005, which is.

792
00:49:26.570 --> 00:49:29.700
It's a neat. It's. A lot of people love it. It cuts like a steak

793
00:49:29.700 --> 00:49:33.300
knife because it's. That would make a great steak knife. Get a. A fancy

794
00:49:33.300 --> 00:49:36.980
handle on it and. Yeah, that's a good

795
00:49:36.980 --> 00:49:39.820
idea. Is there a 6?

796
00:49:41.020 --> 00:49:44.420
Well, here's the funny story that what is the

797
00:49:44.420 --> 00:49:47.820
007 was the 006. I had designed it.

798
00:49:48.540 --> 00:49:52.380
You can look at that blade and tell that it came from the Nighthawk design

799
00:49:52.380 --> 00:49:56.090
and the Ops Hawk design. I just. I wanted it to be more

800
00:49:56.090 --> 00:49:59.690
aggressive in its styling because the Agent series is

801
00:49:59.690 --> 00:50:02.890
really slim. So I had already designed it

802
00:50:03.690 --> 00:50:06.970
well before the. The colab came about for the 007.

803
00:50:07.370 --> 00:50:10.850
And it was actually Tomas's idea. Like, hey, man, can we please call it the

804
00:50:10.850 --> 00:50:12.970
007? I'm like, that's pretty rad.

805
00:50:14.810 --> 00:50:18.610
I guess. So we never backed into the six. So six is

806
00:50:18.610 --> 00:50:22.390
open. It's like we skipped it. So we have 1 through 5

807
00:50:23.110 --> 00:50:26.390
TBA on the 6, which I actually.

808
00:50:26.950 --> 00:50:30.070
Dave Everett, OG Blade reviews,

809
00:50:30.790 --> 00:50:34.470
he is really wanting me to put a troop call

810
00:50:35.910 --> 00:50:39.270
on that handle platform. And I like where his head's going with it, but I

811
00:50:39.270 --> 00:50:42.230
want to make sure we separate it from the O1 because the 01

812
00:50:43.190 --> 00:50:46.950
does double duty in. In my opinion, due to the. Due to the

813
00:50:46.950 --> 00:50:50.790
double edge. It has that back cut. But I. I know where

814
00:50:50.790 --> 00:50:54.590
Dave's going with it. I'm sure he wants that. That fruit

815
00:50:54.590 --> 00:50:58.190
knife shape, which would be. Yeah, it

816
00:50:58.190 --> 00:51:01.870
is. The trailing point is much more aggressive on that thing. Yeah,

817
00:51:01.950 --> 00:51:04.590
Dave is a great guy. I, I'm always talking about.

818
00:51:05.790 --> 00:51:09.550
And he, he, he really knows his stuff too with the martial arts. He

819
00:51:09.550 --> 00:51:13.150
does, he trained with, he certainly does. He was actually texting me about

820
00:51:13.150 --> 00:51:16.890
like, are we ever gonna do this? Man, it's

821
00:51:16.890 --> 00:51:20.570
been a crazy year. You know, we, we took some serious manufacturing losses.

822
00:51:22.090 --> 00:51:25.810
We've done incredibly well this year to rebound from that. And I was

823
00:51:25.810 --> 00:51:28.810
like, hey, we just kind of had to pause that. I would really like to

824
00:51:29.610 --> 00:51:33.210
get back to that. And then there's another design that the knife

825
00:51:33.210 --> 00:51:35.770
junkie, I don't know if you've heard of it. Oh, that guy, super good dude.

826
00:51:35.770 --> 00:51:39.130
You check his podcast out too. He's got some great guests on there.

827
00:51:39.850 --> 00:51:43.680
There's another design that I'm working with ibon, if you, you

828
00:51:43.680 --> 00:51:46.320
should look him up. Oh man, that, that thing is cool.

829
00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:51.000
I, you know, you gave me, I don't know, maybe about a year ago. The,

830
00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.840
the print, the 3D print of it. I absolutely of that in

831
00:51:54.840 --> 00:51:58.160
the smaller version that you came up with. I absolutely love it.

832
00:51:58.400 --> 00:52:01.920
You know, and, and this is, this is the sort of thing where you can't

833
00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:05.360
be impatient about it because, you know,

834
00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:09.320
I have no idea what it's like running a knife company. And

835
00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:12.980
someday when, when that has gotten to, and

836
00:52:12.980 --> 00:52:16.740
that fighter is, is in the works, it's going to be such

837
00:52:16.740 --> 00:52:20.460
an exciting thing. But you know, I, I, I just tell myself,

838
00:52:20.460 --> 00:52:23.460
well, I'm not a nice company. I don't know what, it's what it takes to

839
00:52:23.460 --> 00:52:27.060
run. And you've got all of these different blades that have to come out.

840
00:52:27.060 --> 00:52:29.900
You just mentioned manufacturing loss

841
00:52:31.660 --> 00:52:35.300
which, without getting too deep into that, like, how did you rebound from

842
00:52:35.300 --> 00:52:39.090
that? It's the support of our community. That's it. I mean,

843
00:52:39.970 --> 00:52:43.690
we have historically sold blades at an alarming

844
00:52:43.690 --> 00:52:47.410
rate. If you do the mathematics side of that. From six years

845
00:52:47.410 --> 00:52:51.250
ago, almost where I got my business license

846
00:52:51.250 --> 00:52:54.850
to now, we've grown 3,850%,

847
00:52:55.010 --> 00:52:58.530
which is absolutely astonishing. And

848
00:52:59.010 --> 00:53:02.370
yeah, I'm like, this is crazy. So we've just been chasing this thing

849
00:53:03.170 --> 00:53:06.570
and the support of the community and people being really

850
00:53:06.570 --> 00:53:09.410
excited about what we're doing differently in the industry

851
00:53:10.290 --> 00:53:13.970
that's, that's allowed us to be able to carry on.

852
00:53:13.970 --> 00:53:17.650
I mean it's, we're talking almost a half million dollars

853
00:53:17.650 --> 00:53:21.330
and we are a cash based company. It is there,

854
00:53:21.330 --> 00:53:24.970
there, it's been a slog. But our customers have

855
00:53:24.970 --> 00:53:28.650
really continued to buy our blades and

856
00:53:28.650 --> 00:53:32.420
supported us As a company. And it's, it's been, it's great to see,

857
00:53:32.420 --> 00:53:36.140
I mean, without getting in the weeds like you said. It's

858
00:53:36.140 --> 00:53:39.460
really inspirational to me and CW just kind of step back, like, man, this is

859
00:53:39.460 --> 00:53:43.220
crazy. Against all odds, it shouldn't work. A cash based company should

860
00:53:43.220 --> 00:53:46.380
not be able to weather that. And because of the support of the industry in

861
00:53:46.380 --> 00:53:50.020
the community we have. Well, I also think you're being maybe a little

862
00:53:50.020 --> 00:53:53.820
bit humble and I, you know, I believe what you're saying, but also you

863
00:53:53.820 --> 00:53:57.580
have been able to, I'm going to use a corporate term that, that

864
00:53:57.580 --> 00:54:01.330
grosses me out, but you've been able to pivot very nicely. When you've

865
00:54:01.330 --> 00:54:05.130
been, when you've received blade blanks that

866
00:54:05.130 --> 00:54:08.770
have not lived up to your expectations, you've been able to

867
00:54:09.090 --> 00:54:12.530
actually turn them into great kind of new ish

868
00:54:12.530 --> 00:54:15.650
versions. And I'm thinking of, of the FLN for instance.

869
00:54:16.610 --> 00:54:20.090
Right, right. What did you do with that? We had

870
00:54:20.090 --> 00:54:23.810
originally designed the FLN with Jared from Neve

871
00:54:23.810 --> 00:54:27.660
Knives. And then I think for

872
00:54:27.660 --> 00:54:31.380
his use case, I didn't hit the mark. I did what I wanted to

873
00:54:31.380 --> 00:54:34.260
do, but I didn't do a Jared wanted. So we backed in, tried to make

874
00:54:34.260 --> 00:54:37.860
a new one. And when we got them back from the same company, they

875
00:54:37.860 --> 00:54:41.379
were wrong. So we sent them out to Dan

876
00:54:41.379 --> 00:54:45.140
Hosen of Precision Knife Works in California and had

877
00:54:45.140 --> 00:54:47.740
a hollow grind put into those things. And those are coming

878
00:54:49.260 --> 00:54:52.980
on the 5th, the 1st, I think maybe

879
00:54:52.980 --> 00:54:56.740
alongside October 1st. I don't know, I can't remember,

880
00:54:56.740 --> 00:55:00.500
I can't even keep up. But we just reground those blades into that to

881
00:55:00.500 --> 00:55:03.420
make them an incredible blade. Just

882
00:55:04.300 --> 00:55:08.140
you have to pivot. You've got to listen to the community. And you can't just

883
00:55:08.140 --> 00:55:11.860
let you know, 1600 blades

884
00:55:11.860 --> 00:55:15.180
that are jacked up sit on your shelf and cry and go home and make

885
00:55:15.740 --> 00:55:19.150
winches. You gotta do something, you know.

886
00:55:19.310 --> 00:55:22.670
Well, and also in doing that in, in taking those

887
00:55:22.910 --> 00:55:25.990
wind chime blades and fixing them, I am

888
00:55:25.990 --> 00:55:29.750
imagining it's closer to Jared's vision. I mean,

889
00:55:29.750 --> 00:55:33.470
I know how much Jared values edge geometry,

890
00:55:33.710 --> 00:55:37.550
you know, very thin edge geometry. Well, now it's hollow ground and thin. And I

891
00:55:37.550 --> 00:55:41.230
know some of his designs that he's had made by W.E. knife Co. And other

892
00:55:41.390 --> 00:55:45.230
companies feature a very thin hollow ground blade.

893
00:55:45.230 --> 00:55:48.790
So kind of, you know, in a sense you were able to,

894
00:55:48.790 --> 00:55:52.630
to dry your tears and make something maybe

895
00:55:52.630 --> 00:55:55.590
that you weren't even expecting would be so good.

896
00:55:56.390 --> 00:55:59.950
Yeah, and it's, it's wicked, man, it's wicked.

897
00:55:59.950 --> 00:56:03.550
It's so cool. I mean I, I have the first. I'm holding up the, the

898
00:56:03.550 --> 00:56:07.310
original FLN and it is by far the, the

899
00:56:07.310 --> 00:56:10.700
best karambit I have. I don't have too many karambits,

900
00:56:11.420 --> 00:56:14.980
but in terms of grip, in terms of being able to make a

901
00:56:14.980 --> 00:56:18.380
natural fist, this thing is awesome.

902
00:56:18.940 --> 00:56:22.220
And that's if I can get this thing to cooperate with me.

903
00:56:22.700 --> 00:56:26.340
This is the 2.0 without the hollow. This is the thick

904
00:56:26.340 --> 00:56:30.140
version. Now it doesn't. Anyway, it's same flavor, just a

905
00:56:30.140 --> 00:56:33.420
little bit slice here and if you

906
00:56:33.420 --> 00:56:36.680
recognize it, that's the Piranha grip platform. So

907
00:56:37.320 --> 00:56:41.080
again we used the Piranha grip because I like it. It's small, it's

908
00:56:41.080 --> 00:56:44.680
compact, but you get a lot of grip so that I don't have to invent

909
00:56:44.680 --> 00:56:47.960
a new handle. And I thought it worked already. So

910
00:56:48.360 --> 00:56:52.120
we also use that for Melissa's blade. Again, back to modularity.

911
00:56:52.120 --> 00:56:55.840
Love that. So it didn't start life as a karambit. And then

912
00:56:55.840 --> 00:56:59.640
some of the experts are like, what is this thing? I'm like, well this is

913
00:56:59.640 --> 00:57:03.380
not at all what Jared said he wanted. But I said let's how about

914
00:57:03.380 --> 00:57:06.940
this? We'll get the same functionality and it ended up being this

915
00:57:06.940 --> 00:57:10.260
micro compact, nasty little

916
00:57:10.420 --> 00:57:14.180
karambati blade and that.

917
00:57:14.500 --> 00:57:17.860
Yeah, when you get one of these, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll get it. It is

918
00:57:17.860 --> 00:57:21.380
a cut. Yeah, man, this thing, this thing is sweet. And, and actually now that

919
00:57:21.380 --> 00:57:25.220
I'm holding it, it needs one of these wire clips. The wire, the, your

920
00:57:26.180 --> 00:57:29.900
wire clip that you've been, that you sent me would be perfect for

921
00:57:29.900 --> 00:57:33.520
the fln. I had the, I had trouble with how to mount this,

922
00:57:33.520 --> 00:57:37.000
how to carry it. For me, I think it works best with lace

923
00:57:37.160 --> 00:57:40.840
in the belt and just tug it. But so well

924
00:57:40.920 --> 00:57:44.240
this, this is a prototype of the sheath. We're working with

925
00:57:44.240 --> 00:57:47.840
MKM on this. So it's leather, it's going to have three holes,

926
00:57:47.840 --> 00:57:51.320
they'll be black and the, it's a

927
00:57:51.320 --> 00:57:54.880
magnet style sheath so it has the same amount of

928
00:57:54.880 --> 00:57:57.480
retention as a standard Kydex sheath.

929
00:57:58.830 --> 00:58:02.270
And we, we got super strong magnets and it's also

930
00:58:02.270 --> 00:58:04.990
ambidextrous so you could actually put this blade in this way. But they're going to

931
00:58:04.990 --> 00:58:08.470
come in black only with that aph. It'll allow you to

932
00:58:08.470 --> 00:58:12.230
IWB tuck this and it will be completely ambi and you can

933
00:58:12.230 --> 00:58:15.870
put a DCC clip and it'll be, they'll be in black leather and

934
00:58:15.870 --> 00:58:19.630
these will work on the existing FLNs also

935
00:58:20.190 --> 00:58:24.020
because it's the same blade profile. So we should

936
00:58:24.020 --> 00:58:26.860
have those back. The guys at

937
00:58:27.180 --> 00:58:29.980
mkm, that's the Italian knife company, They've.

938
00:58:30.780 --> 00:58:34.620
They've been great to work with. Lorenzo, he's

939
00:58:34.620 --> 00:58:38.380
just a good dude. A phenom

940
00:58:38.380 --> 00:58:41.660
on the foosball table, by the way. Don't try that. Don't try that.

941
00:58:41.980 --> 00:58:45.740
I'm telling you, Tim, we are. We're. We're up against our hour.

942
00:58:46.060 --> 00:58:49.700
Let's just tell everyone. I know people who are watching this,

943
00:58:49.700 --> 00:58:53.550
know you probably. But for those who. Who don't know you so well,

944
00:58:53.950 --> 00:58:57.710
tell them the. Tell our audience the best way to keep up with

945
00:58:57.710 --> 00:59:01.470
you and what you've got going on right

946
00:59:01.470 --> 00:59:04.110
now. Because we were canceled on Patreon last week.

947
00:59:05.790 --> 00:59:09.230
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We appealed twice and that's it. So

948
00:59:09.390 --> 00:59:12.750
we got the news yesterday that we. No more Patreon for us.

949
00:59:14.190 --> 00:59:17.190
Our newsletter to the website is going to be the best way. We also have

950
00:59:17.190 --> 00:59:20.550
a YouTube community tab. That's really

951
00:59:21.190 --> 00:59:24.950
our newsletter. There's a lot of people, we try to push information through there a

952
00:59:24.950 --> 00:59:28.710
lot. Our live streams on Sundays that you can ask

953
00:59:28.710 --> 00:59:32.470
a question that's. Typically, we go 10 to 12 Eastern on Sunday

954
00:59:32.710 --> 00:59:36.390
mornings to midday to try to keep everybody up

955
00:59:36.390 --> 00:59:39.990
to date on everything. So those three. Between those three, you should be able to

956
00:59:39.990 --> 00:59:43.630
get all the information that you need. Unreal. Well, thank you so much, Tim, for

957
00:59:43.630 --> 00:59:47.310
coming on. It's always a pleasure, man. I love talking with you. I love your

958
00:59:47.310 --> 00:59:50.770
knives. And we have some pretty good phone.

959
00:59:50.770 --> 00:59:54.490
Phone conversations too, like. Yeah, yeah.

960
00:59:54.490 --> 00:59:57.490
So aside from the industry, great to be a friend of yours.

961
00:59:58.370 --> 01:00:01.410
Right back at you. Thank you, Tim. Thanks, pal.

962
01:00:07.970 --> 01:00:11.810
There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Kell of Tkel Knives. One of the best

963
01:00:11.890 --> 01:00:15.620
out there. And, man, it really sickens me that they've been

964
01:00:15.620 --> 01:00:19.220
kicked off a Patreon. That's absolutely absurd. I know. They had a thriving

965
01:00:19.220 --> 01:00:22.780
community there, but they do have a thriving community on YouTube

966
01:00:23.340 --> 01:00:26.980
10 to 12 on Sundays Eastern standard time. Check them out there. That's a

967
01:00:26.980 --> 01:00:30.460
great show. Also, if you want to order one of those awesome

968
01:00:30.460 --> 01:00:33.900
teal knives that you saw, we have a great affiliate link.

969
01:00:34.460 --> 01:00:37.980
You just have to use the coupon code Knife Junkie. At sign out,

970
01:00:38.300 --> 01:00:41.960
they get a sale, you get 10% off. And I get a little something too.

971
01:00:42.120 --> 01:00:45.720
So it works for all of us. All right. For Jim working his magic behind

972
01:00:45.720 --> 01:00:49.560
the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying, until next time, don't take dull

973
01:00:49.560 --> 01:00:53.280
for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. If

974
01:00:53.280 --> 01:00:55.040
you enjoyed the show, please rate and

975
01:00:55.040 --> 01:00:58.840
review@reviewthepodcast.com. for show notes for today's

976
01:00:58.840 --> 01:01:02.520
episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our

977
01:01:02.520 --> 01:01:06.140
website, thenifejunkie.com you can also watch our latest episode

978
01:01:06.290 --> 01:01:09.650
videos on YouTube at the knifejunkie.com YouTube.