WEBVTT

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Coming up, the Okapi knife. The October

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drop date of the agent 001 by TKL knives and

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we see a very small selection of Topps knives in my

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collection. My name is Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.

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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 back to the My favorite comments from this past week was on the Rolando

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episode Strings says. Love hearing from

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Rolando. He is a wealth of Marshall blade concepts. Thanks brother

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for the awesome content. You're my favorite knife tube

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channel by a long shot and you know that makes me feel great.

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Thanks for the kind words, Strings. I appreciate you and you're

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one of my favorite trading partners. Next was from Tactical

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Tavern, Tomas Allah simply says awesome episode.

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I was trying to get the two of them on during that episode

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but but he was traveling. Tomas was traveling and

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couldn't make it. So we'll have the both of them on some episode coming up,

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you know, this winter or this fall. Those two guys

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are great, really nice guys, of course, but also

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both a wealth of knowledge when it comes to

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all different kinds of martial knife applications. So we'll have

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them on here and we'll just lab about knife fighting.

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All right, that said, let's get to. A pocket check what's in his pocket.

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Let's find out. Here's the Knife Junkie with

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his pocket. Check of knives in my front right pocket. One I haven't

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carried for a while. This is the Off Grid Knives

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Mamba V3. An absolute beauty. This

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is one of the places, one of the many places where Off Grid knives

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shines. It's in this sort of modified wharncliffe, modified

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sheepsfoot sort of realm. They've got a bunch of

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different models that have a similar blade to this and I just

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love it because you have a great point placement, which

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is actually if you hold the spine straight, it's just

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below center, but you also have a gradual

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belly and so makes this excellent for

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all sorts of utility cuts and that kind of thing. But let's face it, I

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like to carry knives for their potential Marshall application and this

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would be great both for slashing and for thrusting.

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This one is beautiful in that it is a titanium frame

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lock, nice and slender. This one has a Magnacut blade.

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I've got a few Magnacut play blades in my collection at this

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point, but it's always nice to me to

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have see something in Magnacut Because I hear it's a

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fantastic steel. Do I know the difference between this and

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8cr13 mov? Pretty much only when I'm sharpening it.

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That's to be totally honest with you.

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I love the golf ball texturing, the gold anno and,

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and the gray coating on the steel. Really nice

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knife. Big. That's a four inch blade. Very capable,

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but carries very nice and light. Next up on

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my pocket, in my pocket next to this off

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grid knife, I had the Ohio River Jack by

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C. Reisner cutlery in the duties daggers

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sheath. That beautiful green sheath. I think it goes so well.

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Talk about autumnal. That's like a beautiful autumn color

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combo, that green and the natural canvas micarta.

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I love this knife. Haven't carried it in a little while. You know, I have

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so many jack wolf knives and they're always tempting me away from other

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things. But this is one thing never to forget. It's such

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a great knife. M390 blade steel. Got

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titanium handles and and liners here.

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Great canvas micarta. Beautiful build, really nice walk and

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talk and action.

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So just a great wharncliffe blade. Now that is a wharncliffe.

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I called this right here a modified wharncliffe. This is a true

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wharncliffe. It's got that sort of continuous arc

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from, from the spine of the blade down to the tip

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which is about knuckle level with a straight edge.

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So I mean that's what a wharncliffe really looks like. That's why we're always

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flummoxed when we see this. And we don't want to call it a reverse

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tanto. So we call it a modified wharncliffe or a modified

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sheepsfoot because reverse tanto is unacceptable. All

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right, next up in my waistband today is the brock

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blades Magni XL. This was a,

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a proud purchase from Blade Show 2025.

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Bought it right from Ken Brock. Great guy. Makes

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amazing fixed blade knives. This one is a very thin

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3V blade with a swedge that's just begging to be

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sharpened. It's not sharp in this case. This is a

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Joe Watson design. So I knock out two birds with one

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stone with this knife because as I mentioned, frequently one of my

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collecting goals is to have a knife from every person

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I've interviewed that is probably never going to happen.

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But I can dream. And this one takes care

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of Joe Watson and Ken Brock. I'd love to get more knives from both

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of them, but this one will do until, until I do that

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beautiful recurve. This one I've used. I didn't this

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time but I've used this one as a steak knife or

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dinner knife when at fancy restaurants. And I gotta say I love

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that. Especially when, when the waiter makes

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a comment like when I was visiting my parents in Ohio for

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their 60th anniversary. I remember what the knife

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was. Oh, I had my, my

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mangana steel Aurelia. I used that as my steak knife. We went to a

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fancy restaurant for this beautiful occasion and the, the waiter

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was, oh, I see you brought your own steak knife. And I was like, that's

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right, get that thing away. Lastly, for

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emotional support, it's been hard to pry myself away from this.

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My hog tooth Fighting Bowie. This of course is

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a, an homage to Bill Bagwell style Bowies like the

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hell's bells etc. Except this one

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has a bit of a broader blade made by Matt Chase W2

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Blade Steel. You can see that gorgeous hamon and the

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sharpened back edge. And then of course the devil horns guard

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which is probably the most

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Bagwellian thing about this knife though it's got

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different, different geometry and such. It is a.

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Those are very effective guards, I would imagine. I don't know, haven't been in a

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fight with it yet. Ring the gidgee wood handle

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from Australia and just a beautiful build. Of course

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I, I got the. I don't say of course like it's on every blade but

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I have that Luke 8:8 17 on

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there and you know, I like to have that. It's

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for nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will

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not be known or brought out into the open. So it's a. It's all about

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truth and you cannot run from truth no

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matter how much you want it to be different. And so I don't know,

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it's a theme I really like. Plus 817 is my birthday

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and every time I look at the clock it seems like it's 817. So

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it just had to happen that way. All right. This was my carry today.

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As I look at it, quite a nice bit of knives here.

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The off grid Mamba V3. The V2 and the

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V1 are interesting but the V3 is the best. The Ohio

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River Jack from Sea Reisner cutlery with this beautiful

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green slip from Duties Daggers now I think they're called.

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Now he's got an official company and I can't remember what he calls it but

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go check out Kevin Duties

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sheets there pocket slips. I think you can get them at traditional pocket knives

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dot com. I had the magni XL from a design

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from Joe Watson made by Ken Bra. And then of course

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my, my beautiful, my spirit animal here, this

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fighting Bowie from Hogtooth Knives for

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my Edk, my Esk. All right, next up,

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I want to tell you about YouTube memberships. They are live

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right down here where it says join. You can click on that and you get

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the benefits of a gentleman junkie from

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Patreon. And we all know what those things entail,

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especially if you like to get a, a knife every third

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Thursday of the month. You're in the running for that. So definitely

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check that out. Plus all the other stuff. And speaking of Patreon,

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Jim's been hard at work coming up with the Friday

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funnies, coming up with coming up with Knife

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Notes and Maker Mondays. The the most recent maker Monday

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was cool and but this most recent

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knife notes is of the sandbar duel.

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And since we're talking about Jim Bowie, I should put a Bowie knife there. Uh,

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a really cool day in history. I don't know if I should say a cool

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day. That, that doesn't make it sense, but it was September

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19th when the famed sandbar

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Sandbar duel where Jim Bowie, though, like

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nearly shot to death and run through by a sword

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cane, was able to disembowel one of his.

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I'm not laughing at that. Was able to disembowel someone

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the second in the duel that he was seconding. And

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so it's a very, very famous proving ground of the Bowie knife as a

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fighting knife. It did not look like this

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apparently looked more just like a straight up butcher knife, but

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there's been some controversy around that. So

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anyway, go to Patreon, check it out. A lot of cool stuff we have to

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offer there. You can go to the knife junkie.com

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Patreon or you can scan the QR code on your screen to do so.

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Uh, when you sign up for a full year, you save 12%. So you might

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consider that we've had a few people take advantage of that here recently

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and greatly appreciate it. The knife junkie.com patreon

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again the knife. Junkie.Com patreon want

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You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the

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knife junkie with the knife life news. So we have knife

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life news articles from four of the biggie big big

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biggest out there. First from crkt, we have a limited

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edition iridescent series where

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there, there's one new product and then they're

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putting this iridescent titanium nitrite coating

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on a bunch of knives designed by heavy hitters.

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First one I want to talk about is the. Well this one right

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on screen actually we'll go to that one first. That's called the facet.

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That's a Ken Onion design and if I do say so myself,

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it looks more like a benchmade 940

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than a Ken Onion design because I always know Ken Onion as

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recurves and swoops and grooves and choils and such.

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But this was a departure. You should not

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typecast yourself as a designer. And so always

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moving around. Ken Onion created this a few years back. The

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facet in their fancier line. You can get this in

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steel but mostly it's you want this for the

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titanium frame lock. So here this one is the dime

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damascus version with the tyne coated titanium

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frame lock handle. That's 3.38 inches in blade

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length. And, and I gotta say it's, it's a pretty

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cool knife. And I especially like it, like I said, because it doesn't

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necessarily look like a Kenyan Ken Onion.

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Next is one called the Hang Pry. The Hang Pry

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right there that we see on screen is a Richard Rogers design.

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Accompanying one that is a

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kiridashi version of this. But this is a titanium

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pry bar with that tie nye finish.

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You can pry, scrape score with this. It's got a bit of a

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tip, but it's not just sharp, it does not have an edge that's

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3.6 inches overall. Next up is

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one called the snap lock. This is

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a tie knife version of the snap lock which is an Ed

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Van Hoy design that came out 21 years

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ago in 2004. Which is crazy quirky

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design with something called a cam lock. And we've probably

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all seen this knife, maybe we've even been tempted by it when

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we've been in our museum building phase. But this one

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has the has that kineye

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rainbow treatment to it as well. A pretty neat looking

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knife, especially with that weird looking pocket clip that descends and

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gives your palm something to rest upon.

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If you scroll down, you'll see that that anc cry was

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a an accompaniment of this. The hang tie. A Titanium

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bladed kiridashi. Pretty neat looking thing here.

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None of these are quite up my alley,

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but they're all available now, right for you. I do

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like what CRKT has been doing in the last five years. Kind of upping their

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game a with their collaborations but also most

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importantly with their builds. Having the Italians build something,

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some things, having Hogue and other American companies

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build stuff. So I like what CRKT is doing here.

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Next UP is the third 2025 product release

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by Kershaw Kershaw. The Pack Mule is

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the first one. And this is one that came up on Thursday night Knives

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this past week and I hadn't heard of it and someone said,

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are you gonna get the Pack Mule? Looks like your kind of knife. And it

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really does look like my kind of a knife. There's one part about

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it that is definitely not me and I'll tell you about that in a second

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second. But I love the profile of this clip point blade.

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I'm looking right at that choil there. That triangular

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sharpening notch between the handle and the ricasso of the blade is

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beautiful. Also will give you much, much Life on

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this 3.9-inch N690

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blade. You'll be able to sharpen up because of how they did that plunge grind.

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You'll get a lot of life out of that blade. E10

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handle scales made in the USA. Here's the part that isn't

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quite me. This is a $232 knife,

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MSRP. And to me that's pricey for a

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Kershaw period. It's also pricey for a fixed

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blade. Less engineering goes into a fixed blade and

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you know, I don't know. Plus, there's nothing about it that

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doesn't look. It kind of looks like a big box store Kershaw in

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its sort of muted tones and generics

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kind of G10. All of that said, I do like the look of this knife.

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I'd love to have it just at a lower price. All right, next up is

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the Bel Air xl. People love the Bel Air. I

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love it from a distance. It's not quite in my wheelhouse in terms of

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size, but it's a beautiful knife. This XL

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is a 3.4 inch, so nearly my size.

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Magnacut Wharncliffe. A modified Wharncliffe. We'll call

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it G10 handle skills. You've got that ambidextrous bar

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lock, also USA made, which is great. I love that they're

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bringing a good a bit of their production Back to

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the USA. This one's $175.

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So coming a little closer to my

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threshold, but I'm sorry if I'm spending

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that money on a Kai knife. I'm. I'm going for a zt. But

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hey, I'm an old man and I'm thinking old school. So

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Kershaw's back. They're back in the States. We need to support that. I

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hear the Bel Air is a magnificent knife. So if you like the

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XL 3.4 version with magnacut,

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you know, 175 is probably worth it.

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Next up is the Atreides A A

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an American Tanto. Americanized Tanto. Named

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after one of the great houses of Dune. I

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just, I just got the download for my wife. I've seen all the Dune

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movies and I've very much enjoyed them, but she's read all the books and

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really likes Dune. She's a. My wife is a beautiful nerd.

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That's what I like to say. She's very into the sci fi and the

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fantasy. So she explained the whole story about the House of

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Tradies. Let's just say they're the good guys. From what I gleaned from

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that conversation, what I do know is that this is an Americanized

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Tanto and does not look much like the Kriss

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that they fight with in. In

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Dune. The Kris is not a wavy blade. It's just a. An

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appropriated name used for the knives that are in the

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Dune series. 5.7 inches of

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00:17:52.050 --> 00:17:54.850
65mn, which is a

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10xx series carbon steel.

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Steel I've never heard of, from a series I've never heard of. But I love

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carbon steel and I'm glad that this one has that blackout finish. Now this

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is a reasonable $60. So

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we're getting more into my ballpark in terms of Kershaw pricing.

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Next up, I'm just going to mention the Launch 22. There's

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also a Launch 23 that looks great too. But this Launch

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00:18:21.130 --> 00:18:24.890
23 floats my boat with that beautiful spear point bayonet

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00:18:24.890 --> 00:18:28.320
ground blade of that is magnacut. The

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00:18:28.320 --> 00:18:32.080
23 is 154 cm, but this one has that

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green anodized aluminum finish. Really nice looking,

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especially with that canvas Micarta inlay.

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We know these Launch series knives pick like

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mules. So I don't know, this is. This is kind

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of a tempting one, I gotta say. Also, USA made

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$180. All of these Kershaws

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are available now. All right, next up, this

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one is from Boker Boker, a company really famous

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for their collaborations. I mean, constant collaborations.

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And I'm not complaining. They have allowed me to have a knife

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by Charles Marlow who you know occasionally

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makes custom or makes custom knives on a very

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00:19:16.930 --> 00:19:20.530
non production friendly schedule and at prices I couldn't,

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00:19:21.320 --> 00:19:24.880
you know, begin to afford. But Poker was able to make

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two knives by him bring them to market. But this is

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a Charles DeBuyere

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00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:35.480
collaboration. He's opus Knives, a company I've been following on

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Instagram for a long time. Opus Knives they have that

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00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:42.360
signature hole opening there. It's sort of swoosh

315
00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:46.120
shape. Anyway they've got this new one which is another

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00:19:46.280 --> 00:19:50.000
trailing point as as as mentioned on

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knife news 2025 has been kind of the

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00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:57.800
resurrection of the trailing point blade. We've been seeing a number of

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them. This one is just such a thing.

320
00:20:01.040 --> 00:20:04.800
2.7 inches of that's D2

321
00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:08.640
blade steel. Very nicely contoured and

322
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sort of tactical handle with the with the graceful

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arch, the forward finger choil and

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thumb area which kind of gives it a pinch point.

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Great for thrusting. Kydex sheath this one

326
00:20:24.010 --> 00:20:27.210
is $70 and is available now. If you've always

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wanted a Charles debyer or Opus Blades knife or

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00:20:31.050 --> 00:20:34.730
Opus Knives blade, this is a good way to get in on the

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00:20:34.730 --> 00:20:38.450
ground floor. Check out the Tavros from Boker. Okay, last

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up is a Buck of the month. We always talk about the buck of the

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month when that comes up. This one is from the the

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Pack Light series, not one that is

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that you would expect to see the buck of the month treatment of. They usually

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do their signature signature

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designs. This is from a more budget line as the

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00:20:58.910 --> 00:21:02.430
631. Pack Light is a heavily skeletonized

337
00:21:02.510 --> 00:21:06.270
knife both in the blade and in the handle. Has a very small handle

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00:21:06.270 --> 00:21:09.920
scale on both sides. But this one got the buck of the month treatment.

339
00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:14.000
That's a 4 inch blade of hollow ground CPM

340
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:17.840
Magna cut and you can see

341
00:21:17.840 --> 00:21:21.680
a small what do you carbon fiber handle scale on both

342
00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:24.479
sides just between the two

343
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:28.800
voids there. Kydex sheath 3.1 ounces so

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00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.480
pretty light for a 4 inch blade. Also USA made

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and 165 $5. So if this

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floats your boat if you're a buck collector which I'm not a buck

347
00:21:40.170 --> 00:21:43.850
collector but I have a small collection of bucks let's say and I really love

348
00:21:43.850 --> 00:21:47.210
them. Check out the Buck of the month. I need to start doing that when

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they come out with models I really love like the 112 and the

350
00:21:51.049 --> 00:21:53.606
110 and the 119,

351
00:21:53.907 --> 00:21:56.770
120, 119117

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00:21:57.330 --> 00:22:01.050
hunting fixed blade arena all right. Still to

353
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come on the knife junkie podcast, we're going to get to

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the first tool knife themed shirts, hoodies, mugs,

355
00:22:08.580 --> 00:22:12.260
water bottles and more. Thenifejunkie.com shop.

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You're listening to the knife Junkie podcast. Here's some cool knife

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history with the knife junkies. The first tool so today we're

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talking about the okapi knife. This is not exactly

359
00:22:23.860 --> 00:22:27.460
an okapi. This is a kudu, a slip joint version from

360
00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:31.060
cold steel. I had an okapi from cold steel and I busted it.

361
00:22:31.870 --> 00:22:35.230
So I do intend to get another one. But it's a fascinating story.

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00:22:36.110 --> 00:22:39.870
If you've ever handled an okapi knife, you know it's not flashy,

363
00:22:39.870 --> 00:22:43.630
it's not polished steel or bone handled elegance.

364
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It's simple stamped metal, wooden scales, and a distinctive

365
00:22:47.790 --> 00:22:51.030
ring pull lock. But despite its plain looks, the

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okapi earned a reputation that made it one of the most famous knives in

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southern African history. The story begins in

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1902 in Solingen, Germany. German manufacturers

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were producing inexpensive folding knives meant for export. And

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one design destined for Africa, took root. It was

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named the okapi, sometimes called the forest giraffe,

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named after an animal, a shy striped animal discovered

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around the same time in the rainforests of the Congo. It's endemic

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00:23:20.360 --> 00:23:23.760
to the Congo. Just as the animal was exotic and

375
00:23:23.760 --> 00:23:27.200
mysterious, the knife carried a sense of novelty when it first

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00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:30.960
appeared. But it was in South Africa that the okapi found

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00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:34.720
its true home. It was cheap, durable and easy to

378
00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:38.480
sharpen. It became the working man's knife, carried by laborers,

379
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:42.400
farmers and miners. You could find one in the pocket of a fisherman

380
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:46.240
or in the hand of a sugar cane cutter. It was in many ways

381
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:49.840
the Swiss army knife of southern Africa. But

382
00:23:49.840 --> 00:23:53.400
stripped down to pure utility, of course, the

383
00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:56.840
okapi also picked up a darker reputation. Its

384
00:23:56.840 --> 00:24:00.680
affordability and locking mechanism made it popular with street gangs and

385
00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.960
criminals, earning it the nickname the flick knife of Africa.

386
00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:08.520
In some townships, just the sight of that ring pull handle

387
00:24:08.600 --> 00:24:12.280
was enough to command respect and feat. It became

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00:24:12.280 --> 00:24:15.880
woven into the local folklore, even appearing in music and

389
00:24:16.040 --> 00:24:18.980
and stories as a symbol of toughness.

390
00:24:19.700 --> 00:24:23.260
Yet beyond the notoriety, the okapi endures as a cultural

391
00:24:23.260 --> 00:24:26.740
icon today. It's still made now in South Africa,

392
00:24:27.140 --> 00:24:30.860
still recognizable by its crescent shaped wooden handle and simple

393
00:24:30.860 --> 00:24:34.660
construction. Collectors often call it the knife of the people,

394
00:24:34.980 --> 00:24:38.740
A blade that wasn't born in a royal court or carried by generals,

395
00:24:38.900 --> 00:24:42.020
but one that found its place in the hands of everyday workers.

396
00:24:43.790 --> 00:24:47.310
So the next time you see an okapi Knife. Don't just see a cheap

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00:24:47.390 --> 00:24:50.950
folder. See the history it carries. A German export that

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00:24:50.950 --> 00:24:54.510
became African through and through. A knife that

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00:24:54.510 --> 00:24:57.950
worked its way into culture, labor and legend.

400
00:24:58.430 --> 00:25:02.150
Because sometimes the simplest knife can tell

401
00:25:02.150 --> 00:25:05.710
the deepest story. Do you carry multiple knives?

402
00:25:05.790 --> 00:25:09.470
Then overthink which one to use. When an actual cutting chore pops up,

403
00:25:09.790 --> 00:25:13.630
you're a knife junkie of the first order. First up

404
00:25:14.110 --> 00:25:16.830
in, first up and only up in the

405
00:25:18.430 --> 00:25:21.510
agent in the state of the Collection is the agent

406
00:25:21.510 --> 00:25:24.630
001. This is released on

407
00:25:24.630 --> 00:25:28.350
October 1, 2025. Coming out

408
00:25:28.430 --> 00:25:32.190
real soon. As if you're watching this as it drops and

409
00:25:32.910 --> 00:25:35.950
I've been showing this off quite a bit, I just had Tim Kell on the

410
00:25:35.950 --> 00:25:39.320
show to talk about some of the updates. This now

411
00:25:39.320 --> 00:25:43.120
machined by Nick Chuprin of NCC Knives, an

412
00:25:43.120 --> 00:25:46.640
absolute perfectionist. And he has gone all the way with these

413
00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:49.960
beautiful knives. He also has been machining other

414
00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:53.720
Tekal knives and they're just coming out beautifully. Look

415
00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:57.480
at that step milling on the bevel. Look at

416
00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:01.240
those chamfers on the jimping. And then of

417
00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:04.970
course, you've got 30 different handle materials to

418
00:26:04.970 --> 00:26:08.650
choose from. Not different handle materials, but different varieties of

419
00:26:08.650 --> 00:26:12.410
G10 and Micarta. Now you can get it

420
00:26:12.410 --> 00:26:16.170
in this. A glass reinforced nylon battle

421
00:26:16.170 --> 00:26:19.530
lock handle. Oh my gosh. It grit has such

422
00:26:19.530 --> 00:26:22.930
incredible grip to it. These things are awesome.

423
00:26:23.330 --> 00:26:27.010
I was telling Tim in person I had my doubts about

424
00:26:27.730 --> 00:26:30.850
glass reinforced nylon on my TKL knives because

425
00:26:31.470 --> 00:26:35.070
I love the different handle materials they've been offering so far. But

426
00:26:35.310 --> 00:26:38.470
once I got this in hand and also saw it with the naked eye, the

427
00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:42.110
beautiful color saturation in both this

428
00:26:42.750 --> 00:26:46.590
and the. And the olive drab version he

429
00:26:46.590 --> 00:26:50.150
sent me and then knowing there are thousands, literally

430
00:26:50.150 --> 00:26:53.790
thousands of color options that can be had with these knives

431
00:26:54.590 --> 00:26:58.120
and these handles, it really, really got me going on these

432
00:26:58.120 --> 00:27:01.320
battle locks. This is made, it's a proprietary,

433
00:27:02.840 --> 00:27:05.960
not proprietary to Tim Kell, but it's something he was able to

434
00:27:06.360 --> 00:27:09.560
license from some of the manufacturers who make

435
00:27:10.120 --> 00:27:13.800
Sig and or no, I'm sorry, I think Glocks

436
00:27:14.360 --> 00:27:17.720
and FN USA handles

437
00:27:18.520 --> 00:27:22.200
also you can get it in the Kydex sheath. In this

438
00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:25.720
case, carrying the awesome. My. My new favorite clip,

439
00:27:25.860 --> 00:27:29.220
especially for horizontal carry. This is an Ulti clip

440
00:27:29.780 --> 00:27:31.940
and it's got this incredible,

441
00:27:34.260 --> 00:27:38.100
easily spaced between holes, a wire clip.

442
00:27:38.260 --> 00:27:41.860
So definitely check this out. Or you can get it in

443
00:27:42.020 --> 00:27:45.780
the leather sheath by

444
00:27:45.780 --> 00:27:49.300
Badger Claw. Let. Let me get it right. Badger Claw

445
00:27:49.300 --> 00:27:52.580
Outfitters. And these are super stout,

446
00:27:53.290 --> 00:27:57.010
incredible sheaths. I've been carrying it just like this, dropping it in the

447
00:27:57.010 --> 00:28:00.690
pocket. I love it. I love it just like that. Some, sometime I

448
00:28:00.690 --> 00:28:04.450
might attach it with a clip, but I just like the low profile of

449
00:28:04.450 --> 00:28:08.290
dropping this in. You can still remove the blade and re sheathe

450
00:28:08.290 --> 00:28:12.090
it quite easily without it being clipped in there. But

451
00:28:12.250 --> 00:28:16.090
these I would highly recommend. So I highly recommend

452
00:28:16.090 --> 00:28:19.330
this whole package. Check out the agent double

453
00:28:19.330 --> 00:28:23.000
O1 series. This is the second production run.

454
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:26.840
This is my design collaboration with Tim Kell which

455
00:28:26.840 --> 00:28:30.560
launched the whole Agent series, which they're

456
00:28:30.560 --> 00:28:34.360
up to seven, missing six. But they're going to double back and make it

457
00:28:34.360 --> 00:28:37.560
an agent double oh six. So do go check those

458
00:28:37.560 --> 00:28:40.680
out@tcalknives.com

459
00:28:42.120 --> 00:28:45.960
all right. Before we get to Topps Knives. And I called

460
00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:49.760
it a small selection because Tops Knives makes a million

461
00:28:49.760 --> 00:28:53.520
different knives. I mean they make so many different models and

462
00:28:53.520 --> 00:28:57.080
they have many of them in constant

463
00:28:57.080 --> 00:29:00.920
production. It's, it's not like they just cancel them,

464
00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:04.400
mothball them and move on. They keep a lot of the

465
00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:07.680
knives still going. So I'm going to show you some of those.

466
00:29:08.080 --> 00:29:11.600
But first check out this merch that Jim's been working on.

467
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:15.900
Stay spooky, stay sharp or get

468
00:29:15.900 --> 00:29:18.980
spooked. And of course we're moving right into

469
00:29:19.460 --> 00:29:22.820
Halloween season and we are going

470
00:29:22.820 --> 00:29:26.500
Halloween themed. So go to the knife junkie.com shop and

471
00:29:26.500 --> 00:29:30.340
check out this design on T shirts, aprons, cups,

472
00:29:30.340 --> 00:29:33.860
mugs, all sorts of things. Also coming up here,

473
00:29:34.340 --> 00:29:37.220
I'm gonna have a very limited, like five

474
00:29:38.420 --> 00:29:42.070
Zippos with the Knife Junkie logo on them. So, uh, we're going to be selling

475
00:29:42.070 --> 00:29:45.790
those. Just want to see if anyone's interested. I got it for myself because

476
00:29:46.030 --> 00:29:49.790
I've been smoking a lot of cigars recently and I like to use my Zippo

477
00:29:49.870 --> 00:29:53.470
with a, with a torch insert to light it. And I figured why not?

478
00:29:53.470 --> 00:29:56.790
That'd be kind of cool. See if anyone else wants one. So if not, if

479
00:29:56.790 --> 00:30:00.190
no one else wants one, I've got five Zippos with my own logo on it.

480
00:30:00.190 --> 00:30:03.470
Not the worst thing. All right. Topps Knives,

481
00:30:05.230 --> 00:30:08.670
a great American company built out west in

482
00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:12.390
Idaho and started by four law enforcement

483
00:30:12.390 --> 00:30:15.470
officers and ex military guys. And,

484
00:30:16.030 --> 00:30:19.710
and now it is owned and, and run by one of

485
00:30:19.710 --> 00:30:23.350
those four original members, Leo Espinoza, a

486
00:30:23.350 --> 00:30:26.470
by all accounts a great guy. I tried to have him on the show, but

487
00:30:26.470 --> 00:30:29.990
I think he's kind of, he's not into doing that kind of thing. Though he

488
00:30:29.990 --> 00:30:32.030
did send his, his

489
00:30:34.670 --> 00:30:38.510
chief of staff Craig and chief of designs Craig, who

490
00:30:38.510 --> 00:30:42.190
came on a great dude. But I want to show you these knives.

491
00:30:42.190 --> 00:30:45.950
They're, they're, they've always captured my imagination since long

492
00:30:45.950 --> 00:30:49.590
before I could afford them. They first came out with the Iron

493
00:30:49.590 --> 00:30:52.950
Eagle, a big Tanto and, and they were just

494
00:30:53.510 --> 00:30:57.030
big full tang combat style

495
00:30:57.030 --> 00:31:00.710
knives. And since they first came out, they've, they've

496
00:31:00.790 --> 00:31:04.640
widened out their scope into everyday carry, into self

497
00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:08.360
defense, into bushcraft and outdoors. But they started

498
00:31:08.600 --> 00:31:12.360
as a combat blade knife company and that lineage has

499
00:31:12.360 --> 00:31:15.800
always stuck with me. First in this list

500
00:31:16.520 --> 00:31:20.320
probably. Well, I'm not going to say my favorite. I

501
00:31:20.320 --> 00:31:24.080
have at least four favorites on this table, but this is

502
00:31:24.080 --> 00:31:27.200
the Praetor War Bowie in a sheath of my own

503
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:30.840
construction, which, if I do say so myself, one of the better

504
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:34.440
Kydex sheets I've created. But this is a beautiful

505
00:31:34.760 --> 00:31:38.480
blend of three different kind of bowie knives in my, in

506
00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:42.320
my estimation, the Mexican style bowie knife

507
00:31:42.320 --> 00:31:46.000
with the super long clip, the American bowie

508
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.240
knife with that sort of coffin style handle. And then it

509
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:52.920
resembles also especially in this area right here

510
00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:56.170
where the handle meets the Ricasso, a French fighting knife.

511
00:31:56.650 --> 00:32:00.330
Not so much a bowie knife, more of what a butcher knife looks like,

512
00:32:00.330 --> 00:32:04.130
but it makes the wit of

513
00:32:04.130 --> 00:32:07.650
the blade, the handle guard. This one

514
00:32:07.650 --> 00:32:10.890
was out of production for a while and people lost their mind

515
00:32:11.530 --> 00:32:15.370
because like me, everyone was saving up for one or everyone wanted one

516
00:32:15.610 --> 00:32:19.130
and so they brought it back into production a little while ago. And

517
00:32:19.210 --> 00:32:22.330
I love this one. This is one that could stand a secondary

518
00:32:22.810 --> 00:32:26.330
edge sharpening. This is one that could stand a small

519
00:32:26.410 --> 00:32:28.970
version. This is. This one is

520
00:32:30.090 --> 00:32:33.850
one of my favorite bowie knives, let alone one of my favorite Ops

521
00:32:33.850 --> 00:32:37.610
knives. 1095 blade steel. That's a common theme. As a matter of fact,

522
00:32:37.770 --> 00:32:40.730
out of all of these, and I believe I have 11 in my list,

523
00:32:41.370 --> 00:32:45.090
there is only one that is not 1095 blade steel. But I will mention

524
00:32:45.090 --> 00:32:48.330
it each time. They've got that black traction coating

525
00:32:48.900 --> 00:32:52.260
on here. Beautiful Jimping. There's an interesting

526
00:32:52.660 --> 00:32:56.340
video of Jeff Prather, the guy who designed this, showing

527
00:32:56.340 --> 00:32:58.820
all the different ways that he carries this and

528
00:32:59.700 --> 00:33:03.060
draws it. I've heard there's some

529
00:33:03.060 --> 00:33:06.740
controversy, controversy around Jeff

530
00:33:06.740 --> 00:33:10.420
Prather, but I've always been a guy who's able

531
00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:13.980
to separate the art from the artist if, especially if they have

532
00:33:13.980 --> 00:33:17.810
kooky ideas or have done bad things. Many artists throughout

533
00:33:17.810 --> 00:33:21.610
history, like Caravaggio for instance, was a bit of a murderer, I think.

534
00:33:21.850 --> 00:33:25.570
Well, I. Let's just say he killed someone in a bar brawl, but he painted

535
00:33:25.570 --> 00:33:29.130
his way back into the church's good graces and none of that

536
00:33:29.130 --> 00:33:32.650
matters today. What Matters is are his beautiful paintings.

537
00:33:33.210 --> 00:33:36.490
I, I find it the same way with, with knives.

538
00:33:37.290 --> 00:33:41.130
I know that Mick Strider has had some

539
00:33:42.180 --> 00:33:46.020
from what I've heard unwarranted criticisms. But I don't care.

540
00:33:46.020 --> 00:33:49.660
I love his knives. Same thing with Jack Prather. I don't know what he apparently

541
00:33:49.660 --> 00:33:53.180
did, but one thing he did well and right was

542
00:33:53.180 --> 00:33:56.820
design this really awesome knife. So this is the Prather

543
00:33:56.900 --> 00:34:00.660
War Bowie by Tops knives and they're all by Tops

544
00:34:00.660 --> 00:34:04.500
knives so I'll stop saying that. But this thing is incredible. Seven and a

545
00:34:04.500 --> 00:34:07.780
half inch blade, so about the size of a KA bar

546
00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:12.080
but a lot beefier. Next up is one that

547
00:34:12.080 --> 00:34:15.880
I got from my good buddy Dave of OG Blade reviews.

548
00:34:16.200 --> 00:34:20.040
This is a Colin Despens design. He's a

549
00:34:21.240 --> 00:34:25.040
self defense specialist who trained a lot in Russian martial arts

550
00:34:25.040 --> 00:34:28.600
to include Systema. And this is a

551
00:34:28.680 --> 00:34:32.360
knife, crazy looking knife specialized for

552
00:34:33.969 --> 00:34:37.329
their style of blade fighting. To me it looks like a very

553
00:34:37.409 --> 00:34:40.849
exotic, high maintenance and

554
00:34:40.849 --> 00:34:44.449
exotic picol style knife. It is to be held like

555
00:34:44.449 --> 00:34:48.289
this. So you've got the, you've got

556
00:34:48.289 --> 00:34:52.129
this nasty reverse edge blade here for

557
00:34:52.529 --> 00:34:55.649
thrusting and pulling and then up front you have this

558
00:34:55.969 --> 00:34:59.329
sharpened scooped area here for punching

559
00:34:59.770 --> 00:35:02.970
and forward slashing. So a very specialized

560
00:35:03.370 --> 00:35:06.810
tool. This is not one you're going to make feather sticks with at the campsite.

561
00:35:06.890 --> 00:35:10.330
This is probably not one you're going to EDC unless you,

562
00:35:11.130 --> 00:35:14.570
you know, are carrying it strictly for self defense.

563
00:35:15.449 --> 00:35:18.810
Not that you couldn't open up a box with this, but it is

564
00:35:19.050 --> 00:35:22.730
just strange enough and beefy enough that it's,

565
00:35:22.730 --> 00:35:26.060
it's a specialized area. This is also

566
00:35:26.060 --> 00:35:29.820
1095 blade steel and when you look at it on this side you

567
00:35:29.820 --> 00:35:33.620
can see a, that black fracture coating. You can see how that scoop though

568
00:35:33.620 --> 00:35:36.580
very oblique in edge geometry is

569
00:35:36.980 --> 00:35:40.820
sharpened on both sides. You would do some nasty damage with both of these

570
00:35:40.820 --> 00:35:44.620
edges, steep as they are. And then you can see there it

571
00:35:44.620 --> 00:35:47.780
says designed by Ste Desbins. It's the

572
00:35:47.780 --> 00:35:51.500
X1251. And I love the Topps logo by the

573
00:35:51.500 --> 00:35:54.840
way. One of the few companies along with Emerson and Microtech

574
00:35:54.920 --> 00:35:58.520
whose labels are like their, their

575
00:35:58.520 --> 00:36:02.200
makers marks are kind of militaristic enough

576
00:36:03.080 --> 00:36:06.160
that I like the way it looks on the blade so I don't mind the

577
00:36:06.160 --> 00:36:09.080
billboarding. It's also set up to hold in this

578
00:36:09.880 --> 00:36:13.440
sort of forward grip a strange knife and

579
00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:17.240
definitely one for the museum. Also comes in

580
00:36:17.240 --> 00:36:20.880
a great sheath which is another theme with the, with Topps knives.

581
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:23.680
And this was something they did for a long time. They still do on some

582
00:36:23.680 --> 00:36:26.880
of their models but it's a 360 degree

583
00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.720
rotatable spring clip. Interesting and

584
00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:34.040
cool. Definitely came out before all of the

585
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:38.040
modular belt clips that are popular now and

586
00:36:38.040 --> 00:36:41.720
so always was kind of an interesting thing. The one thing I don't care about

587
00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:45.780
it too much is is the distance from the belt that this will,

588
00:36:46.740 --> 00:36:50.580
this will put the the the knife but still an

589
00:36:50.580 --> 00:36:54.260
excellent carry system. Okay, next up. This is the

590
00:36:54.260 --> 00:36:57.860
one, the one that does not have one

591
00:36:58.420 --> 00:37:02.020
1095 blade steel. This one is called the

592
00:37:02.420 --> 00:37:06.020
Rapid Strike. This is a Leo

593
00:37:06.020 --> 00:37:09.300
Espinosa designed fighter. I love this little knife.

594
00:37:09.620 --> 00:37:13.200
Asymmetrical fighters are my thing as you know. And this

595
00:37:13.200 --> 00:37:16.520
is a great everyday carry asymmetrical fighter.

596
00:37:17.560 --> 00:37:21.400
This one is a little bit modified

597
00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:25.160
by myself. It had a longer and pointy sort

598
00:37:25.160 --> 00:37:28.439
of glass breaker style pommel here which

599
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.680
through the made it more difficult to carry because it

600
00:37:32.680 --> 00:37:36.440
made this knife longer and it kind of stabbed into my side

601
00:37:36.680 --> 00:37:40.530
and then also did not make it easy to to cap the pommel with

602
00:37:40.530 --> 00:37:43.690
the thumb for downward thrusting

603
00:37:44.650 --> 00:37:48.290
or reverse grip thrusting. So I just ground

604
00:37:48.290 --> 00:37:52.010
it off and I also put grooves in the handle to make it grippier

605
00:37:52.010 --> 00:37:55.610
and easier to draw. It's got this cool jimping going

606
00:37:55.610 --> 00:37:59.330
all the way around the handle which if you

607
00:37:59.330 --> 00:38:03.090
grip it tightly it doesn't stand proud of the scales but if you grip it

608
00:38:03.090 --> 00:38:06.890
tightly you can engage that that jimping with

609
00:38:06.890 --> 00:38:10.530
the fat of your thumb and hand that that just kind of melt into

610
00:38:10.530 --> 00:38:14.210
there. Nice and slender. Also a good length. That's

611
00:38:14.210 --> 00:38:17.690
about four inches or four and a quarter inches. So a good,

612
00:38:19.210 --> 00:38:22.650
good long self defense knife but also nice and

613
00:38:22.650 --> 00:38:25.450
slender. They've got a number of knives like this

614
00:38:26.570 --> 00:38:30.330
that are long, slender, thin, close to the

615
00:38:30.330 --> 00:38:34.160
body style. Self defense knives. They 1 it's an

616
00:38:34.160 --> 00:38:37.480
area they excel in. One kind of interesting thing I've never seen on any other

617
00:38:37.480 --> 00:38:41.320
knife that I can remember is that it's got this bolt going

618
00:38:41.320 --> 00:38:44.560
in on one side and that's for positive

619
00:38:44.560 --> 00:38:47.160
engagement in this Kydex sheath.

620
00:38:48.760 --> 00:38:52.400
That bolt kind of notches right into that dome and

621
00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:56.160
keeps it nice and secure in there. And a knife like this,

622
00:38:56.160 --> 00:38:59.160
a self defense knife, you want it to be secure in the sheath.

623
00:39:01.090 --> 00:39:04.850
All right. That is the rapid strike. My 154cm selection.

624
00:39:05.010 --> 00:39:08.850
You would, you would think, one might think that that would be more common,

625
00:39:09.170 --> 00:39:13.010
a more common blade choice for the tops knives like

626
00:39:13.010 --> 00:39:16.690
say this next one that ride close to the body. But this is definitely

627
00:39:16.850 --> 00:39:20.370
1095 as well. This is the Lacy Zabo design

628
00:39:21.570 --> 00:39:25.340
Felony stop this was one of

629
00:39:25.340 --> 00:39:28.940
the knives that really made me fall in love with tops

630
00:39:28.940 --> 00:39:32.620
after, after they started adopting different

631
00:39:32.700 --> 00:39:36.380
designs other than the giant combat blades. This one

632
00:39:36.380 --> 00:39:39.180
just really did it for me. It's a dagger.

633
00:39:40.220 --> 00:39:44.060
We'll call it a dagger just for our purposes here. Even though it's

634
00:39:44.060 --> 00:39:47.780
bayonet ground and isn't symmetrical all the

635
00:39:47.780 --> 00:39:51.540
way, it's a pistol grip dagger that easily stashes

636
00:39:51.540 --> 00:39:55.350
on your body. This was one of the first knives that carried EDC on a,

637
00:39:55.350 --> 00:39:58.910
on a, on a pretty full, full time basis.

638
00:39:59.790 --> 00:40:03.470
You've got this great thumb swale here that also

639
00:40:03.550 --> 00:40:07.390
doubles as a trapping swale. So

640
00:40:07.390 --> 00:40:11.150
if you're, if you're use holding this knife using this in reverse grip.

641
00:40:11.870 --> 00:40:15.310
This scoop here with the jimping is great for

642
00:40:15.310 --> 00:40:18.980
trapping your opponent's arm or wrist if

643
00:40:18.980 --> 00:40:22.020
you come in contact with them in, in this sort of manner.

644
00:40:24.020 --> 00:40:27.820
And that is not a way to, that is

645
00:40:27.820 --> 00:40:31.380
not a way to apprehend someone. That is a way to.

646
00:40:31.940 --> 00:40:35.220
It's a halfbeat in, in a sequence of

647
00:40:35.620 --> 00:40:39.420
moves in a knife fight at that sort of trapping thing would be a

648
00:40:39.420 --> 00:40:42.900
momentary way to trap

649
00:40:42.900 --> 00:40:46.090
someone's arm before you move on to something else. It's not, not. It's not a

650
00:40:46.090 --> 00:40:49.850
way to permanently trap them or, or to hold them in place. It's just

651
00:40:49.850 --> 00:40:53.450
a sort of halfbeat measure but a really great consideration

652
00:40:53.450 --> 00:40:56.890
on a knife like this. Double edged and

653
00:40:56.890 --> 00:41:00.250
intended for self defense and fighting.

654
00:41:00.650 --> 00:41:04.090
Very, very sharp 1095 and gray

655
00:41:04.090 --> 00:41:07.530
traction coating. If you buy this today, it'll be black traction coated

656
00:41:07.770 --> 00:41:11.330
which to be honest I like a little bit better. This one you can see

657
00:41:11.330 --> 00:41:15.090
which side was touching my skin more often and it was this

658
00:41:15.090 --> 00:41:18.810
one. As you can see from that gray G10, that's.

659
00:41:19.450 --> 00:41:22.250
I mean that gray micarta which is started to patina.

660
00:41:23.210 --> 00:41:26.930
Really, really nice knife. I've carried it a long time. I haven't carried it

661
00:41:26.930 --> 00:41:30.490
in a while but, but I was carrying it in the waistband in

662
00:41:30.490 --> 00:41:34.130
this manner. So this would come over my belt would come through

663
00:41:34.130 --> 00:41:37.450
here and it would just ride up above my waistband.

664
00:41:38.900 --> 00:41:42.260
That's the felony stop. And all of the billboarding of this knife is on the

665
00:41:42.260 --> 00:41:46.100
handle, which is kind of a cool way to do it. Next

666
00:41:46.100 --> 00:41:49.620
up, also very self defense. This one's

667
00:41:49.620 --> 00:41:53.300
designed by DC Blades and they're really pushing

668
00:41:53.300 --> 00:41:57.020
this one as a very useful edc and I could, I could see

669
00:41:57.020 --> 00:42:00.580
that. But of course I really look at this through the lens of

670
00:42:01.140 --> 00:42:04.830
self defense. This is the Afyra and

671
00:42:05.230 --> 00:42:08.950
a wicked, wicked design from the very prolific design team

672
00:42:08.950 --> 00:42:12.510
that is DC blades. This one

673
00:42:12.670 --> 00:42:16.470
fully gripped in hand just melts in

674
00:42:16.470 --> 00:42:20.030
the hand and gets pretty much buried in there. And then the only

675
00:42:20.030 --> 00:42:23.790
thing sticking out is this wicked sharp finger. It's like an extra

676
00:42:23.790 --> 00:42:27.070
finger or a tusk. Looks like a rhino to me

677
00:42:27.310 --> 00:42:31.160
and is awesome in reverse grip. They've considered

678
00:42:31.160 --> 00:42:35.000
the pommel in a way that I love. You can either kind of rest

679
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:38.800
your thumb there or the way I prefer is to hook over and

680
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:42.520
grab onto that jimping and it gives you really, really excellent

681
00:42:42.680 --> 00:42:46.040
purchase. Also with that curve of the spine of the blade,

682
00:42:46.280 --> 00:42:49.480
another good trapping sort of style knife

683
00:42:50.040 --> 00:42:53.640
again, just for a half beat, you're going to yank the guy's arm here before

684
00:42:53.640 --> 00:42:56.910
you come over here. So a great shape.

685
00:42:57.310 --> 00:43:01.070
Also this jimping here is excellent for both the thumb

686
00:43:01.070 --> 00:43:04.870
and then also for grabbing 1095 blade steel with that black

687
00:43:04.870 --> 00:43:08.430
traction, high traction coating. I love the

688
00:43:08.430 --> 00:43:12.150
maroon liners here. They're not going for that bright red this

689
00:43:12.150 --> 00:43:15.550
time, they're going for a deep maroon which is very

690
00:43:15.550 --> 00:43:19.190
subtle and quite beautiful. On this really unique and

691
00:43:19.190 --> 00:43:20.430
beautiful knife.

692
00:43:23.080 --> 00:43:26.880
You say how could this be a practical edc actually when

693
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:30.560
it was described to me it could be used

694
00:43:30.560 --> 00:43:33.320
to chop vegetables. It could be used for

695
00:43:33.640 --> 00:43:37.320
campsite stuff, feather sticks and that kind of

696
00:43:37.320 --> 00:43:40.920
thing I guess. But to me

697
00:43:41.480 --> 00:43:45.120
this is EDC self defense all day long. Great fold

698
00:43:45.120 --> 00:43:48.750
over taco sheath. And they have this clip on it

699
00:43:48.750 --> 00:43:52.230
which I also got from a different knife and put on my

700
00:43:52.310 --> 00:43:55.670
rapid strike. But I, I really like this top split.

701
00:43:55.990 --> 00:43:58.790
Really keeps the thing on the belt easy and,

702
00:43:59.910 --> 00:44:03.590
and stoutly. Okay, next up. This one was featured

703
00:44:03.590 --> 00:44:07.350
recently in a pocket carry fixed blade episode we did here. This is the

704
00:44:07.670 --> 00:44:11.510
FDX 66. There are

705
00:44:11.510 --> 00:44:15.140
a couple of knives in this FDX model. This is the most bearded

706
00:44:16.730 --> 00:44:20.330
paired down version with no handle scales. Though I've thought about

707
00:44:20.410 --> 00:44:24.050
putting handle scales in. It would actually affect how it rides in this

708
00:44:24.050 --> 00:44:27.730
awesome stout pocket leather sheet. I say pocket leather, but you could

709
00:44:27.730 --> 00:44:31.490
also carry it on the belt either horizontally or

710
00:44:31.490 --> 00:44:35.210
vertically. There was a period of time where I was

711
00:44:35.210 --> 00:44:38.610
carrying this quite a bit and I ended up wrapping that with

712
00:44:38.610 --> 00:44:41.770
electrical tape just to give it a little bit more grip.

713
00:44:42.820 --> 00:44:46.340
Not only in terms of width, which I gave it a little width there,

714
00:44:46.500 --> 00:44:49.940
but also just in terms of surface grip.

715
00:44:52.900 --> 00:44:56.660
More than half circle there acts as the finger groove

716
00:44:56.660 --> 00:45:00.340
and swedge. The, the depth of that really aids

717
00:45:00.660 --> 00:45:04.060
in the grip of this. Because this is a two and a half finger

718
00:45:04.060 --> 00:45:07.900
knife. I've vacillated back

719
00:45:07.900 --> 00:45:11.730
and forth about keeping a fob on There I'll probably next

720
00:45:11.730 --> 00:45:14.930
time I start carrying this, next time I go through an FDX

721
00:45:15.170 --> 00:45:18.810
66 phase I'll probably put a fob on there to, to try it

722
00:45:18.810 --> 00:45:22.490
out for extra grip length here. But I

723
00:45:22.490 --> 00:45:26.170
love the shape of this Americanized tanto. It's

724
00:45:26.170 --> 00:45:29.930
got instead of a secondary point it's got like a belly, like

725
00:45:29.930 --> 00:45:33.570
a very subtle belly there. And I think that this one would make

726
00:45:33.570 --> 00:45:37.250
a great fixed blade, a longer fixed blade knife, a

727
00:45:37.250 --> 00:45:41.020
more combative fixed blade because I love that

728
00:45:41.020 --> 00:45:43.780
downward angle of the straight edge here.

729
00:45:44.660 --> 00:45:48.260
I think that that really aids in cutting and would make it an

730
00:45:48.260 --> 00:45:51.700
excellent slashing knife if it were a little bit larger. I mean as it is

731
00:45:51.700 --> 00:45:55.380
it's a little self defensey kind of EDC knife. So it could,

732
00:45:55.380 --> 00:45:59.220
it could make a good slasher as well. But with only two and a

733
00:45:59.220 --> 00:46:02.780
half fingers on there. You know, you'd have to be

734
00:46:02.780 --> 00:46:06.050
careful using this in any sort of dynamic

735
00:46:06.770 --> 00:46:10.490
scenario. The FDX 66 also

736
00:46:10.490 --> 00:46:13.890
1095 and seracoted with that

737
00:46:14.930 --> 00:46:18.770
tan, tan color. Okay. The second one from

738
00:46:18.770 --> 00:46:22.130
Lacy Zabo in this list is the Zabo Express.

739
00:46:23.810 --> 00:46:27.570
This was a must have when it came out. I, I, I ran,

740
00:46:27.570 --> 00:46:30.770
I didn't walk to my nearest top stealer which was I believe

741
00:46:31.610 --> 00:46:35.330
knifecenter and snap this up. Now I was thinking this

742
00:46:35.330 --> 00:46:39.170
one before I just looked it up was 154. It's unmarked but

743
00:46:39.170 --> 00:46:42.730
it indeed is also 1095 blade steel. This one has

744
00:46:43.050 --> 00:46:46.610
a black coating but it's not that traction coating. It's a

745
00:46:46.610 --> 00:46:50.290
smoother, smoother coating. I opted for

746
00:46:50.290 --> 00:46:53.530
mine to be double edged as you can see here. No choils,

747
00:46:54.330 --> 00:46:57.810
no sharpening choils which aid in a

748
00:46:57.810 --> 00:47:01.290
smooth retraction from any sort of, sort of material you might be

749
00:47:01.450 --> 00:47:05.090
stabbing this thing into. And you're not going to get hung up on the

750
00:47:05.090 --> 00:47:08.610
choils there. An asymmetrical fighter

751
00:47:08.610 --> 00:47:12.370
design. You can especially see it when you turn it upside down that it

752
00:47:12.370 --> 00:47:15.370
is asymmetrical. And then of course you've got this

753
00:47:16.410 --> 00:47:20.130
arched grip. Very comfortable guard here is really

754
00:47:20.130 --> 00:47:23.890
protective. Nicely jimped on that thumb ramp

755
00:47:23.890 --> 00:47:27.500
there. Really stops you from moving forward.

756
00:47:27.580 --> 00:47:31.180
Move that thumb moving forward onto that nasty top

757
00:47:31.180 --> 00:47:35.020
edge. Also a nice bottom edge. I'm going to put this out with the other

758
00:47:35.260 --> 00:47:38.740
Zabo design just so you can see if you don't know

759
00:47:38.740 --> 00:47:41.980
Lacy Szabo, he's a former marine and law enforcement

760
00:47:42.059 --> 00:47:45.860
officer martial artist who has designed some of the

761
00:47:45.860 --> 00:47:49.260
most unique and crazy looking tactical knives

762
00:47:49.500 --> 00:47:53.220
in his day. This Express is probably one of the

763
00:47:53.220 --> 00:47:56.820
Most Tang designs I've seen from him, really, really cool.

764
00:47:56.980 --> 00:48:00.820
If you just do an image search of Lacy Zabo designs, you're going

765
00:48:00.820 --> 00:48:04.500
to be wowed by his very combative style

766
00:48:04.500 --> 00:48:08.020
knives. Here you see the, the black micarta,

767
00:48:08.660 --> 00:48:12.340
this time with that bright red liner. Looks so

768
00:48:12.340 --> 00:48:15.300
nice. I love this Zabo Express.

769
00:48:16.660 --> 00:48:20.390
This one I have carried in the waistband at the 3

770
00:48:20.390 --> 00:48:24.190
o', clock, but as soon as I have to sit down for

771
00:48:24.190 --> 00:48:27.910
any length of time, I would remove it. So this is not so much

772
00:48:28.070 --> 00:48:31.670
an edc. I tried to push it with this one, but it's

773
00:48:31.670 --> 00:48:35.270
great under the belt, just, you know, walking around

774
00:48:35.750 --> 00:48:39.590
and not in the waistband, but just under the belt. That's the Zabo Express.

775
00:48:40.950 --> 00:48:44.710
My top's not as. All right,

776
00:48:44.710 --> 00:48:48.270
next up. This one is on loan from Dave of

777
00:48:48.270 --> 00:48:51.910
OG Blade Reviews. Not on loan, but this is a going to be a giveaway

778
00:48:51.910 --> 00:48:55.470
knife. I used to own this knife and foolishly sold it.

779
00:48:55.710 --> 00:48:59.150
This is the, this is the very cool Swanagan

780
00:48:59.150 --> 00:49:02.830
designed cut four. This is

781
00:49:02.830 --> 00:49:05.470
a really, really useful and

782
00:49:07.230 --> 00:49:10.830
useful, practical and wicked knife. Of course, you look at it,

783
00:49:11.170 --> 00:49:14.610
it almost looks like an SE or something. You've got a pretty

784
00:49:15.170 --> 00:49:19.010
tame drop point, albeit a very acute

785
00:49:19.010 --> 00:49:22.450
pointed drop point. Nice and thick. This is a

786
00:49:22.450 --> 00:49:26.250
3,8 of an inch thick blade. 1095 blade steel,

787
00:49:26.250 --> 00:49:29.970
again with the high traction coating. But it's a,

788
00:49:30.370 --> 00:49:34.210
like an outdoors knife that doubles as a tactical knife. That

789
00:49:34.210 --> 00:49:37.970
ring there is perfectly placed and very, very stout.

790
00:49:38.430 --> 00:49:41.950
Perfectly placed, meaning you can make a natural wrist, natural fist

791
00:49:42.110 --> 00:49:45.710
with this in your hand. But also a really thick ring

792
00:49:46.110 --> 00:49:49.310
that can be used not only for adjusting

793
00:49:49.310 --> 00:49:53.070
attitudes but also breaking into things like coconuts.

794
00:49:53.070 --> 00:49:56.710
I've seen people do that with this ring or any, any

795
00:49:56.710 --> 00:49:57.790
manner of hard,

796
00:50:00.910 --> 00:50:04.760
hard, hard walled. What am I trying to say?

797
00:50:04.760 --> 00:50:08.280
Nuts. You could, you go and you could smash open nuts with this.

798
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:12.120
Coconuts. You could pound in ten steaks with it. It's nice and thick.

799
00:50:12.200 --> 00:50:15.320
It's just, it just has a lot of purposes. It's not just a

800
00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:17.320
Karambati type knife

801
00:50:18.920 --> 00:50:22.640
in standard grip. I don't use the ring and it makes for

802
00:50:22.640 --> 00:50:26.480
an excellent pommel. So this is an all around great

803
00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:30.270
knife. It's got a fold over Pakko style sheath which as

804
00:50:30.270 --> 00:50:33.710
far as I'm concerned for self defense. These are the best kind of

805
00:50:33.710 --> 00:50:37.310
sheaths because they're slender and they mount, they

806
00:50:37.310 --> 00:50:40.710
mount easily without having too much real

807
00:50:40.710 --> 00:50:44.510
estate there. This is a tan micarta. You can see

808
00:50:44.510 --> 00:50:48.110
as you go from side to side, this side is darker. It's contacted the

809
00:50:48.110 --> 00:50:51.910
Skin more, I think. And I love how it turns kind of

810
00:50:51.910 --> 00:50:55.640
red as it gets more and more oil in

811
00:50:55.640 --> 00:50:59.440
it. This is the Swanigan design cut for

812
00:51:00.160 --> 00:51:01.520
combat utility.

813
00:51:03.520 --> 00:51:07.320
Combat utility, whatever the T stands for. Not

814
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:11.080
sure, you could call it the cuck combat

815
00:51:11.080 --> 00:51:14.160
utility knife, but that would be untoward.

816
00:51:15.200 --> 00:51:19.000
By the way, when I was carrying mine, I definitely carried it most

817
00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:22.690
often in the waistband at the 3 o'. Clock. If I were to carry

818
00:51:22.690 --> 00:51:26.410
this nowadays, I would carry it using the soft loops on

819
00:51:26.410 --> 00:51:29.770
the, on the front in scout style.

820
00:51:31.130 --> 00:51:34.930
Next up, another ringed knife. This was designed by

821
00:51:34.930 --> 00:51:38.690
Craig Powell. I mentioned him earlier. He's there. I

822
00:51:38.690 --> 00:51:42.050
don't know, I don't know what his. He's like their chief of staff and their

823
00:51:42.050 --> 00:51:45.890
chief designer and maybe not their chief designer, but their head

824
00:51:45.890 --> 00:51:49.730
of Prada. He's the, the forward facing guy that you see from

825
00:51:49.730 --> 00:51:53.530
tops. Really nice dude. He was on the show years ago and

826
00:51:53.530 --> 00:51:57.010
this is his design and it's a really cool one.

827
00:51:57.250 --> 00:52:00.290
Another case where the ring is actually quite useful

828
00:52:01.010 --> 00:52:04.210
and you can use it, you can hold it in a natural

829
00:52:04.690 --> 00:52:07.970
style fist. If you're going to use it combatively like this,

830
00:52:08.210 --> 00:52:11.730
you've got that straight edge which we all know is great for slashing and such.

831
00:52:11.890 --> 00:52:13.570
But this is more of a

832
00:52:15.180 --> 00:52:18.780
utility knife and I could see this almost as a bird and trout

833
00:52:18.780 --> 00:52:22.540
knife. It is the poker. Now

834
00:52:22.540 --> 00:52:26.220
all you actual hunters and fishermen are like, yeah, but that's got a straight edge,

835
00:52:26.220 --> 00:52:29.620
Bob. So the, the, the part of it that really

836
00:52:29.620 --> 00:52:33.060
strikes me as a bird and trout is the ring. It's a utility with a

837
00:52:33.060 --> 00:52:36.780
ring, a utility knife with a ring. So you're using it, say however you're going

838
00:52:36.780 --> 00:52:40.140
to use it. Maybe you're cutting open boxes and then you need to do something

839
00:52:40.140 --> 00:52:43.450
else. So you let it hang on the ring, you do that something else, you

840
00:52:43.450 --> 00:52:46.490
bring it back, you do your cutting and then you let it hang on the

841
00:52:46.490 --> 00:52:50.210
ring. So rings are not always for caramb flipping

842
00:52:50.210 --> 00:52:53.570
and, and, and that kind of flashy tactical

843
00:52:54.210 --> 00:52:57.490
movement. Oftentimes they're used just for retention

844
00:52:57.970 --> 00:53:01.490
and for deployment. So it makes it easy to take out of the sheath

845
00:53:01.730 --> 00:53:05.210
and then makes it easy to hold onto when you have to do other stuff

846
00:53:05.210 --> 00:53:08.050
with it. This one has a beautiful two layer

847
00:53:08.950 --> 00:53:12.590
micro micarta handle. You've got black and

848
00:53:12.590 --> 00:53:16.230
then black micarta liners and then

849
00:53:16.710 --> 00:53:20.310
the tan handle, canvas handle. Really, really nice

850
00:53:20.310 --> 00:53:23.670
knife. Made in the USA as all of these are in

851
00:53:23.670 --> 00:53:26.550
Idaho. Just a beautiful, beautiful knife.

852
00:53:29.990 --> 00:53:33.390
All right, second to last is my, or

853
00:53:33.390 --> 00:53:36.990
penultimate is my most used tops

854
00:53:36.990 --> 00:53:40.510
Knives knife by far, maybe not the most carried because

855
00:53:40.510 --> 00:53:44.150
I've, I carried the felony stop and the rapid strike a lot

856
00:53:44.150 --> 00:53:47.910
just edc ing it. But this one has gotten the most use. This was

857
00:53:47.910 --> 00:53:50.270
my, my outdoor knife for a long time.

858
00:53:52.670 --> 00:53:55.630
This is the tex Creek a

859
00:53:56.350 --> 00:54:00.110
1095 blade. This has been reprofiled because I've,

860
00:54:01.630 --> 00:54:05.230
I've chipped this blade before. Even though 1095 is super tough,

861
00:54:05.630 --> 00:54:09.150
sometimes it doesn't like it when you're swinging and you hit it

862
00:54:09.390 --> 00:54:12.710
hit metal pipes. And so I took a big chip out of this at one

863
00:54:12.710 --> 00:54:15.630
point. You can still see the ghost of it right there.

864
00:54:16.670 --> 00:54:20.110
But filed it out, sharpened it out and

865
00:54:21.390 --> 00:54:24.990
here it is good to go again. So 1095 with the acid

866
00:54:25.310 --> 00:54:29.150
stonewall or acid rain finish. So it's kind

867
00:54:29.150 --> 00:54:32.030
of a clear coat that protects that

868
00:54:33.550 --> 00:54:36.910
high carbon steel. And you can also see the

869
00:54:36.910 --> 00:54:40.430
hardening, you can see the, the hamone a little bit. If you look,

870
00:54:40.510 --> 00:54:44.230
you look closely you can see a darker steel down towards the

871
00:54:44.230 --> 00:54:47.390
bottom. USA made. Again, great

872
00:54:47.950 --> 00:54:51.230
handle. Very, very comfortable with the red. I got this initially

873
00:54:52.030 --> 00:54:54.990
to edc I thought this was going to be like a cool

874
00:54:56.490 --> 00:55:00.170
self defense kind of combat knife. But I found the handle to be too

875
00:55:00.170 --> 00:55:03.890
long. I made a great Kydex sheath for it, but I found

876
00:55:03.890 --> 00:55:06.970
the handle to be too long. And if I were to

877
00:55:07.530 --> 00:55:10.570
cut it down, I found that the

878
00:55:11.129 --> 00:55:14.970
lanyard hole was kind of in the wrong spot for making it shorter. So

879
00:55:14.970 --> 00:55:18.810
I just left it as is and discovered that this is actually the perfect

880
00:55:18.810 --> 00:55:22.490
sheath for this. Because this isn't a combat knife. This is not a,

881
00:55:22.850 --> 00:55:26.570
an EDC self defense knife. This is a do everything kind

882
00:55:26.570 --> 00:55:30.410
of outdoor chore knife or camp knife. And so this kind

883
00:55:30.410 --> 00:55:34.250
of a leather drop pouch sheath is

884
00:55:34.250 --> 00:55:37.890
perfect for walking around doing your cutting. Then just drop it back

885
00:55:37.890 --> 00:55:41.650
in and no fuss, no muss. You don't have to worry about

886
00:55:42.690 --> 00:55:46.250
sliding it into a tight sheath and then snapping a

887
00:55:46.250 --> 00:55:49.790
retention strap or any of that. It's just easy access

888
00:55:50.350 --> 00:55:53.630
and good to go. I have this set up for this

889
00:55:54.030 --> 00:55:57.750
style lanyard here so

890
00:55:57.750 --> 00:56:01.470
that I, I saw this once I described talk about this a

891
00:56:01.470 --> 00:56:05.190
lot at first on this show. I like a lanyard

892
00:56:05.190 --> 00:56:08.990
to go around the back of the hand so that if it drops

893
00:56:09.150 --> 00:56:12.870
it swings side to side. If you have it around your

894
00:56:12.870 --> 00:56:16.430
wrist and it drops it more tends to swing towards you.

895
00:56:16.990 --> 00:56:20.750
So a interesting way to

896
00:56:20.750 --> 00:56:23.870
have a lanyard that I learned somewhere. Now I can't remember where

897
00:56:24.510 --> 00:56:28.230
but makes it swing side to side. If you have to drop it, let it

898
00:56:28.230 --> 00:56:31.790
Go or it slips out of your hands. This is the tops

899
00:56:31.790 --> 00:56:35.470
Tex Creek now the last

900
00:56:35.550 --> 00:56:39.350
in my collection. But not the last forever certainly. This

901
00:56:39.350 --> 00:56:42.920
was a gift from my wife with a little bit of

902
00:56:42.920 --> 00:56:46.600
direction from her husband. And this is the Wild Pig

903
00:56:46.600 --> 00:56:50.080
Hunter. This is based on a Russian combat

904
00:56:50.080 --> 00:56:53.840
knife. It has a very stiff blade. You can see it's

905
00:56:53.840 --> 00:56:57.640
got, it's got this swedge, this hard cut swedge

906
00:56:58.119 --> 00:57:01.840
really meant to shore up the blade. You have full thickness of

907
00:57:01.840 --> 00:57:05.560
this blade, which is about a quarter inch, I think

908
00:57:06.200 --> 00:57:10.030
going all the way to the, the tip. Let's see, is this a

909
00:57:10.030 --> 00:57:13.630
quarter inch? Yeah, it's a quarter inch and you have full

910
00:57:13.630 --> 00:57:17.310
thickness nearly to the tip and a very, very, let's get this

911
00:57:17.310 --> 00:57:20.190
to focus. Very, very stout tip there.

912
00:57:21.870 --> 00:57:25.470
So perfect for rusting into a wild pig.

913
00:57:25.870 --> 00:57:28.110
This is also got that same

914
00:57:28.990 --> 00:57:32.670
1095 blade steel with the acid rain finish,

915
00:57:33.230 --> 00:57:36.750
which is kind of a clear coat. Allows you to see the hardening line of

916
00:57:36.750 --> 00:57:40.350
the hamon there. You can see it's harder down below

917
00:57:40.430 --> 00:57:44.030
on the edge where you want it to be, but softer in

918
00:57:44.030 --> 00:57:47.790
other places so that it can flex when it's

919
00:57:47.790 --> 00:57:51.310
in a struggling mammal. Really

920
00:57:51.310 --> 00:57:55.150
nice handle in terms of a. The, the gorgeous

921
00:57:55.710 --> 00:57:59.150
red G10 liners and tan

922
00:57:59.150 --> 00:58:02.990
canvas micarta. But also that profile is

923
00:58:02.990 --> 00:58:06.630
really comfortable in hand. I mean, very comfortable in

924
00:58:06.630 --> 00:58:10.150
hand. And we look at this and we see the guards and we see the

925
00:58:10.150 --> 00:58:13.150
blade and then the name. And we know that this is primarily a

926
00:58:13.390 --> 00:58:17.070
thrusting knife. But if you do have to slash, swing

927
00:58:17.070 --> 00:58:20.830
or chop with this, the shape of the

928
00:58:21.149 --> 00:58:24.950
blade how or the shape of the handle, the way it swells out towards the

929
00:58:24.950 --> 00:58:28.790
pommel makes it perfect for retention in

930
00:58:28.790 --> 00:58:31.310
a, in a swing, chop or slash.

931
00:58:33.660 --> 00:58:37.420
Beautiful logo there again and again. Like I said, one of the

932
00:58:37.420 --> 00:58:40.940
few knife companies whose billboarding actually charms me

933
00:58:41.500 --> 00:58:44.780
rather than turns me off. This is the V 1914

934
00:58:45.500 --> 00:58:49.260
model and this is the gorgeous leather sheet it comes

935
00:58:49.260 --> 00:58:53.060
with. Now if you decide to get the all black super tactical version

936
00:58:53.060 --> 00:58:56.620
of this knife, it will ship with a black

937
00:58:57.030 --> 00:59:00.750
Kydex sheet. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Tops

938
00:59:00.750 --> 00:59:04.390
Knives, one of my favorite companies out there. American made and

939
00:59:05.270 --> 00:59:09.030
coming from a place of combativeness,

940
00:59:09.030 --> 00:59:12.350
self defense, outdoor definitely fix blades

941
00:59:12.350 --> 00:59:16.190
primarily. They make a couple of folders which I've never actually experienced

942
00:59:16.190 --> 00:59:20.030
but I wouldn't mind checking out. You should check out some tops

943
00:59:20.030 --> 00:59:23.750
knives too. You can, you can find them everywhere you buy

944
00:59:24.260 --> 00:59:27.780
your favorite knives. All right. For Jim working his magic behind the

945
00:59:27.780 --> 00:59:30.980
switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, thank you and

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don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie

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podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and

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review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's

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episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our

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website, thenifejunkie.com you can also watch our latest

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videos on YouTube. YouTube@thenifejunkie.com YouTube.