Coming up, we talk about the Benchmade balisong. In the
first tool in the state of the collection, I get a really great new
artisan cutlery knife designed by Ray Laconico. And then
we're going to talk about 12 great full
titanium folders. I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie
podcast.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife
news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your
host, Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. One of my favorite comments from this past week is
from Sean Clark, who says, great video. Can't wait to
get the 001 the decal agent
001. And I want one of those Zippos. What? What's he talking about?
Zippos? I have these. I have these Knife Junkie Zippos.
I keep making little batches of them. People keep buying them, so I'm going. To
keep doing that. So if you want a Bench, a Benchmade, if you want
a Knife Junkie Zippo, get in touch with me. Let me know
at the Knife Junkie gmail dot com. I'm going to be ordering some more.
I'm loving them. They're great for cigars, especially if you. Put the
little jet insert in. And then he was also talking about the agent
001. This is like a plug. I don't mean this to be a plug, but
this was one of my favorite comments. Agent001 is the
TEL knives collaboration with the Knife Junkie.
Go check it out. It is now on sale and ready to be
ordered. Not on sale, like at a discount, but it
is now ready to be ordered on the TKL website. Just go
to the knife junkie.com
TKEL and use the coupon code knife
junkie. All one word and get 10% off purchase. All
right, next up was from Long Rider. We know him as James. He says, hello,
James here. Well, I did it. I dropped the hammer and bought
the K Bar Dog's Head knife. I will get it on Friday.
Not sure why I bought it since I have the USMC K Bar,
but since that is now a collector's item. I will keep it safe.
James, I feel you. I feel you. Now I got the. The K Bar
Dog's Head. I don't know, I guess maybe six months ago
at this point. I have a bunch of K bars, a number of them,
historical ones like this one that my brother gave me and.
But I always wanted that dog's head with the asymmetrical
guard. And the hammer pommel. And I got it and I've
always loved it. I just really love that knife. So, James,
sometimes you don't know why you have to get this knife, this
or that knife, but sometimes you just know you have to. So
well done, sir. I'm glad you were listening to your inner voice, the
quiet voice inside, and. You got that
knife. Thanks, guys, for commenting, watching, listening,
etc. All right, let's get to a pocket
check. What's in his pocket? Let's find out.
Here's the knife junkie with his pocket check of knives. In my front
right pocket. Today I had the Cold Steel 4
Max Scout. My 4 Max Scout is
wearing beautiful cocobolo scales from Alien
Scales, a sort of parallel business that Rob
Penna of Snaggletooth Tactical has. When he has
free machine time. He. He mills out beautiful
scales for various knives. And man, when I
saw he had these, I had to jump on them because I love my
formax scouts. But the grivory
handles, I don't know, left me kind of cold. And
this seemed like the perfect solution. So. Did a beautiful job on these.
This is a knife that's just big enough and just heavy enough that
it doesn't get as much carry as it should. But I carried it
yesterday and today and made
a little fire pit fire with that. I made some fatwood
feather sticks with. It and it did great. I mean, it should,
right? It's a sharp, nice knife, but love those
scales. So keep your eyes on alien scales.
For more drops like that. Second, in my front
right pocket, I had the Case Canoe.
This, this is one of the few CV
or chrome vanadium canoes that Case
makes. And this is in their amber jig bone.
And I love this knife. It's got the. Let's see, let me get it right.
It's got that Indian in his canoe.
There etched onto the handle. I love how that the
blade angles down from the handle and with that big belly, it's.
It's actually a very, very good cutter. And
yeah, I just. I've always really loved this knife. I've. I've talked about it before.
I have a short story that I've begun. I've begun
to write, but I haven't finished it. And it's based
around this Case canoe. The Case
canoe is sort of an incidental character. It's not really about
it, but that knife gets traded between
different characters and kind of see an
overarching theme. We'll get to that. We'll finish that up. One of these
years. But I love that knife and it. Inspired
literary greatness for me. Or future literary great.
Next up, I've been carrying this since Halloween. This is
my agent 001Tkal knives. Agent 001
in the zombie dress. You got that blood
spattered sort of look on the blade
with that laser etching. And then the toxic
green handles, battle lock
GRN handles, which are so grippy
and they're such great handles. I love these battle lock grips. But
this, this whole setup, I gotta say, be a hundred,
100% honest, would have turned me off
a couple of years ago when I was so over the zombie thing. But now
that the zombie thing is kind of far enough back in our rear rear view
mirrors, this setup here on this teal almost
seems retro. And I, I love it. Carried it on
Halloween, showed it off to a couple of people at the Halloween party.
Um, and I don't know, I just love it. I love me my,
my, my zombie 001. This
TK knives agent 001 design
collaboration with yours truly. The second drop of it just went
live on November 1st. So go. You can go order these
now in any configuration you like from
the website. Again, knife junkie.com. if you go through the
knife junkie.com/decal and then put
in knife chunk, you. Get 10% off your purchase.
But there's that. This one was available even before
that November 1st drop, as was the Lightning
one. So it's got lightning on the blade with a blue handle.
If you like the fancy editions, go check those out.
Last up. My Esk today, My emotional support knife
today was the beautiful Kutamon Bowie.
Kudamon is a Spanish company. I think they're
associated with Joker somehow. But
I love this knife. I don't even remember how I got wind
of this. I guess I saw some random video. With this knife in
it and I had to have it. It's got this classic look to me,
like it is a classic Bowie
with that straight handle. And that blade
is beautiful. So, I mean, really, that's
the only reason why I bought it. I thought it looked cool. I thought it
looked like something that. Would be on the hip of a. Cowboy from like
a, a pulp fiction novel. So
I just love it. And I had this in my bag today. Nice full
steel guard on this molybdenum.
I can never say this. Molybdenum. Molybdenum,
vanadium steel, which is something you see on a lot of Spanish knives.
I don't know exactly what all that means, but it is
very sharp and. A pretty tough knife. I have used this
outside. I haven't baton with it because it's. Got a hollow grind,
but it's a. Pretty, pretty sweet knife and a great.
Outdoors knife, I'd say. All right, this is what I had on
me today. Let me know what you had on you. I had the cold
steel Formax scout with the special cocobolo scales.
Whoops. Almost spilled my coffee there. I had the case
Canoe in chrome vanadium steel and amber jig
bone. I had my Zombie edition
detail knives. Agent 001
and I had my Kudamon Bowie on me. Look at that thing.
That is beautiful. For emotional support. That was my
estate today. Next up, I just want
to briefly tell you about the Gentleman Junkie knife giveaway.
If you're a Patreon member at the Gentleman
Junkie level, or if you are a member here on
YouTube, which is the Gentleman Junkie level, this is what you stand
to win in November. Yes, a second run
PKEL knives agent001 this one would be beautiful.
Layered black and blue G10. Just,
just made basically for your hand. These things
are super comfortable. This is in
aedl. They also come in ad CRV too, if
you're wondering. And that's what we're giving away. So
become a patron. Go to the knife junkie.com
Patreon see all that we have to offer. This is the kind of
thing we have to offer. We have other things to offer too,
like Maker Mondays. So we have Maker
Mondays, we have Knife notes, we have the Friday
funnies, all sorts of stuff on our Patreon
page. Thanks to Jim who puts a lot of work in to give you
this extra content. Maker Mondays this past,
this past Maker Monday was Rick
Hinderer. You may have heard of Rick Hinderer. He's
sort of changed the folding knife game in a permanent
sort of way with his LBS and several other innovations.
And you can go there, read all about him and
you know, find out more. This is, this is the kind of thing that
makes the Patron Patreon experience
even greater than just showing up every. Third Thursday for the
giveaway. So go check it out at the knife
junkie.com Patreon
and you can sign up for a year
at once, 12% off you get. You could also just scan
that QR. Code on the screen again. That's thenife
junkie.com Patreon want to sell. Your custom
knives online? With launch cart, you can easily create your own e
commerce store. No coding required. Launch
card is Designed for knife makers like you with built in tools to
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knifejunkie.com launch and turn your passion into a business.
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the
Knife Junkie with the Knife Life news. Okay, first
up in the Knife Life news from Kaiser. This is a cool
fixed blade knife designed by Vincent Rizzo. It's called the
Kaiser Rook. It's an outdoor fixed blade knife and
obviously takes inspiration from the classic
Nessmuk outdoors knife. This has a
3.1-inch modified Nessmuk. It's got a
sort of harpoon swedge there. Now this comes in four different
steels, AEBL D2
or two sort of collector's editions. One in
CPM10V and the other in a three layer
composite. Four different handle or
three different handle materials. You have G10 Micarta, two
different kinds of Micarta and Rich light. I'm a big fan of that rich light.
It's like a paper micarta and it comes with a Kydex
sheath with a Tek Lok style
attachment. This is available in the end of November
2025. We're kind of at the start as we record this, so
coming out by the end of the month. Look kind of a handsome knife
even in the sheath there. I love the look of that handle. Looks like it's
going to be very. Comfortable, but a 3 inch blade and it looks like not
too much bigger than a three and a half inch handle there.
It's nice and compact.
2.81 ounces. And this will
be $90 MSRP.
Next up from Boker Knives. Now this one I saw at Blade show
and it wowed me. I thought it was pretty darn cool. And I've seen it
on a couple of channels. Well, one channel I think. Melissa Outdoors
has one of these. It's the Boker extension
knife. It looks pretty aggro, looks
pretty tactical. But this is billed as an outdoors knife
but it's indeed an outdoors folder. And you say Bob, but I
see. A sheath in that picture. But it this is a
knife that converts from a 7.3
inch D2 recurve like you see in that picture
to a more practical but still imposing
4.7 inch drop point when
retracted. So you can see from the picture. On your screen here. Now
this is a folding knife. It's just not A blade that fits
in the handle when it's fully extended in its
7.3-inch configuration, which is large, that's about
the size of a KA bar blade. It's got a beautiful
recurve. They're saying kukri, but not
really. It's like more like a bolo but like a clip point
bolo with a swedge and a nice deep recurve.
And then when you fold it the other way on that
somewhat symmetrical handle, it is
very utilitarian drop point.
The handle in this is based on the
Bazlard short sword from, from the medieval days.
And it's got FRN scales. It's got two safety
features including a screw down bolt.
So if you're not so feel not feeling so safe and
secure with having such a big sharp blade
folding and. You can just bolt it down.
This thing is 15.6 ounces. It's got a
Kydex sheath set up for the shorter configuration, as you
can. See kind of see here in this picture. And it's available
April of 2025 for
$215 MSRP. I think it's really
cool. I think it's really cool. I I
this is a, this is one I would consider getting because
just it would fit in the demarco museum.
Of blade and cutlery very well because
it's pretty unique. Okay, next up. This is
from bestech. This is the best tech mas
these names, man. The Mothus. This is from Kombu. Our,
our good friend Kombu. He's Gregor Grabarski from
Poland. He's been on the show a couple of times. A great guy
and an outstanding designer who works exclusively
with Bestech. This is a 3.47 inch
drop point 14C 28N
with a thumb disc. And that beautiful vivid, vibrant
handle there that you see on screen is G10. I thought
it was aluminum when I was looking at the pictures until I. Went to the
website and looked a little closer. That is milled G10
with beautiful swoops and arcs and such in the handle
per Kombu's usual.
This one has a crossbar lock, as you can see, beautiful drop point with
the thumb plate. And so it's basically ambidextrous with the
thumb plate for a deployment. The crossbar
lock and the swappable pocket
clip. This thing is fully ambidextrous. It comes in
seven super colorful options. Actually, a couple of the options
aren't that colorful. Like the carbon fiber is just kind of black and
black. But you know what? I'm saying you get this beautiful lilac. A
bright red, a purple, blue, all sorts of beautiful colors on this.
This is available now and it is
$68 MSRP.
All right, lastly in our knife life news for today, this
is from one of my favorite knife makers out there, Jason
Knight. This is from W.E. knifeco and Jason Knight. It's the
W.E. essential. This has a
3.6 inch harpoon clip point blade.
I mean that is a handsome knife there. Harpoon clip point
blade, that's M390 blade steel. It seems like we knife
vacillates between 20cv and M390
quite fluidly. So this one has M390 flipper
and fuller deployment.
So you can middle finger flick this. Or, or just use your,
your forefinger. Or thumb to flip that out with. The, with
the blade flipper. The handle definitely
evokes a sort of Jason Knight look
with that horse roof pommel and overarching,
overarching arc.
Say that a couple times fast and just the general look of this
is. Definitely quite Jason Knight.
This has three subdued colorways. You're looking at one
of them that's. Like a, a battle worn, apocalyptic
finish on the, on the titanium. Now I can't
tell if that's topographic or not. I can't tell if you can actually. Feel that
or not. 4.03 ounces. This is
available at the end of November 2025.
And this one goes for
$351, so check
it out. All right. Still to come on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're
gonna get to the first tool. We're going to talk all about
a specific knife. And that knife is the original
Benchmade bally saw. You're listening to the Knife Junkie
podcast. Here's some cool knife history with the knife junkies. The
first tool. There is something mesmerizing about the motion. Of a
butterfly knife. The way it's twin handles swing open,
spin and come together with a clack. But behind that
hypnotic, hypnotic deployment lies a story of migration,
craftsmanship and controversy. A knife that
fluttered from island roots. To the heart of American
innovation. The Balisong, as it's called in the
Philippines, began as a commoner's tool. Simple,
tough and easy to carry. It was used to cut rope, sharpen
bamboo, or slice fruit. Its folding
design wasn't about flash. It was about practicality.
It was indeed the original one handed folder.
The blade hid safely between split handles. With
one quick hand motion, it was ready for work. In Tagalog,
balisong loosely means broken horn, a Nod to the
carabao horn, often. Used for early handles.
But when American soldiers returned from the Pacific after World War II,
some brought Balisong's home, and a new fascination was
born. The knives quick action caught
attention stateside, especially among collectors and martial
artists. By the 1970s, it wasn't just a
curiosity, it was becoming a movement.
Enter Les Diasis, a California machinist and
knife enthusiast. In the late 1970s, he met Maker
Jody Sampson, the guy who made the. Conan the Barbarian sword.
And together they reimagined the balisong with modern materials,
tighter tolerances, and a craftsman's precision.
They founded Benchmade Knives, and their first major success,
the benchmade Balisong Model 68, was a
revelation. Suddenly, this once rustic
Filipino knife had aerospace grade handles,
razor sharp steel, and engineering so smooth it
felt alive in hand. Of course, that success
came with a shadow. Hollywood noticed. Action movies turned the
butterfly knife into a visual shorthand for danger and
rebellion. And soon, laws followed.
By the mid-1980s, several US states restricted
and banned Bally songs outright,
branding them as switchblades, which is hilarious because it. Takes a
lot more skill to flip open a ballet song, then push a button.
Benchmade adapted and expanded into other knife designs, but
the spirit of the ballet song remained in their DNA. It
was bold, mechanical, and beautiful with a
purpose. Today, flipping a ballet song is
as much about performance as function. A ballet of
motion, muscle memory and precision engineering.
It's a knife that crossed oceans and eras, changing shape
but never losing. Because the butterfly knife,
like the butterfly itself, has always been about
transformation, turning utility into art
and motion into mastery.
That's the Benchmade ballet song, ladies and gentlemen. And that original one
had what's called. A wee hawk blade. All
right, we're gonna get to the state of the collection, but before we do,
I want to remind you about Thursday night knives. It is
the beginning of the weekend. It's my favorite night of the week.
Especially my favorite weeknight. We get together here from 10
to 12 Eastern Standard Time on YouTube and
we talk. You talk to me, we talk back and forth.
This has become a very, very popular feature. The Knife
Junkie podcast. I love meeting you guys. I love bantering with you.
And we give away knives, too. We give away knives
pretty much on. A weekly basis due to the generosity of our good friends like
OG Blade reviews. So come check it out. That's
Thursday nights, 10pm Eastern Standard Time. We go to
12 and we talk knives. So come join
us. Adventure delivered your monthly subscription for
hand picked outdoor survival EDC and Other cool
gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. The knife
junkie.com battlebox first up,
in the state of the collection, I got these kind of by
surprise. They showed up at my door, and
I absolutely love them. I've been seeing them
on various people's YouTube channels. It looks like
a lollipop with a scorpion embedded in it, but really,
it is a GTFO device. This is a get off
me device. It looks like a lollipop, but it's got
super high tensile. What do you call
this? A fiberglass handles with a
sharpened point. So it's another one of those
hiding in plain sight sort of weapons
that I love. I love these kind of. I. I call them
loosely implements of chaos because they're the sort of things
that become useful when chaos erupts.
They do have a little plastic
bottom. Here, a little rubber bottom that you. Can put over the
bottom so that you're not cutting yourself up or stabbing. Yourself if you put it
in your front pocket. I carried one of these for the first time on
Halloween. This was in my front pocket. I had a bunch of stuff on me,
and this was one of them. And I figured it was very apropos, given the
nature of the weapon. It looks like a piece of candy.
This is from Malice Company. You can check
them out on YouTube. He does Sunday
drops, I think, once a month. So you
might not be able to just go right there and buy it immediately.
I think he's had a big influx of customers
since Blade show, but he sent these to me, and I. I
really love them. I'm gonna be giving one to my daughters
so that especially my teenage daughter, when she goes
out, which she doesn't really go out, but
she will be soon, I'm sure, and I would like. Her to be able to
take care of herself. And this is just one of the things, one of the
tools in her. Toolbox that she'll be carrying with her. This
is the Malice company, Scorpion King.
Yes. I like it. I like these kind of things.
Can I say. All right, next up from Artisan
Cutlery. They just sent me this knife, and, man, I am
so grateful. I love this knife. I've loved the look of this knife
ever since it dropped. And I just kind of hadn't gotten. Around to
getting it. This is a Ray Laconico design.
It's called the Revel. And it's just
the. It's another beautiful clip point
design by Ray Laconico. When I think of him, I think of more
beautiful drop points. Very graceful lines, and Everything but this one.
Man, it is sweet. I, I have not
used it yet. It's got the AR RPM 9 blade steel on it.
This just arrived as I record this last night, or at least I opened. The
box last night. Very thin blade stock for a
pretty. Broad clip point blade. You've got a
point that's slightly lower than center. So really
great for utility. If you're one of those people who. Complains about clip points
not being good for utility, this is an exception.
You've got a big belly on it and then the
straight portion of the. Blade is downward arcing. This is a new
color for them. It's called mint green
and it pretty much looks like how you see it on screen. So
it's, it's walking a fine line. Between blue and green, but
they're calling it mint green. Got great deployment here. You've got a,
an excellent button lock. I like the way Artisan
does their button locks. See that little squared off
pocket there. On the tang of the blade? I like that better than
the conical shape you see on most
plunge locks or button locks. To me that, that
scooped out cut that's got 90 degree walls really
captures. The bolt well and really keeps it in there.
I think it's very strong and it's also seems to be smoother
than the. Conical sort of depression thing. You've
got swappable loop over pocket clip
and really nice FRN handles here. So
I'm loving this knife. This would be a cool knife to
see in. Well,
cjrb, who's their, their younger brother company
does one of their pyrites and it makes it look like a
case 110. So I think that this one or. A,
a buck one pen. I think that this one would look really cool
with the brass and wood. Personally, but that's just
me. All right, so this is the Revel.
By artisancutlery and
Ray Laconico. This next one is on loan to me from my good
buddy Jock, who's also a gentleman junkie.
It's from Offensive Industries. This is a
guy I've been following a long time and a knife I've wanted to get for
a long time. And it's kind of catches catch can. He'll make
them, post them and basically. Sell them right away. Jock was
lucky enough to snag one. This is his Varger
and I love the. Well, I've really grown to love the.
Look of the blade. I used to not like the way it looked and
then it grew on me visually and now that I have it in hand. Oh
my God, I love it. It's so comfortable. It's got this
really nice bulbous pommel that gives you. Well,
it's great and comfortable in hand, but it also gives you an
awesome option for changing
your grip on the, on the blade because it's bulbous
both in both aspects in profile
and then. From the top down. So really
cool knife. And it's got a beautiful ambidextrous sheath here
with a DCC clip on it.
So I'm gonna have to get one. Of these, one of these vargers. I
think this is 80 CRV2. I know it's
sharp. It. It has a very sharp blade. It also has a
very sharp spine. So if you want to use this as a, as
a little camping or what am I
like backpacking and woodcraft knife?
You could definitely. It seems like it would be good for that too though. It
definitely has a defensive bent to it, but with that 90 degree spine
you can throw sparks. You can, you can make little curls. Off your
fatwood and then with that super sharp edge
you can do whatever else. So really, really excited to
have had this on loan. Now I have to send this over to
Jock. So thank Jack for letting me check that out.
Last up. I just wanted to. I know you're all wondering. You need an
update on my. On my station nine
number 12. How are you carrying it, Bob? Because I've been complaining about how I.
Just haven't found the right way to carry it. Well,
this is how I carry it now and I carried it first during
Halloween under my costume and it
went great. Man, it was so comfortable. So this is the
shoulder rig for Bastinelli knives
and I figured why not? I used to have the. The sear
knife from station 12 on this or station 9 on
this. So why not this knife? And then I discovered that none of the
holes really lined up, so I. Use zip
ties and it works great. This is the
knife. It is VG10 double edged
with that really incredible serration running on the back.
Reminds everyone a little bit of the Goblin knife from
the 80s and 90s. But when you have
it in reverse. Grip like that, the point kind of. Reaches out
much like a pacal knife. So you have a deep curve
and an upsweep, but you still have that point basically
center line due to the. Angle down of the
blade. So such an awesome knife. Really great
protection, self protection knife and
goes very well. Is light enough that hanging around
your. Shoulders and hanging this under your arm,
it works great. I'm a big Fan. I
love it. So check it out. All right, we're going to get to 12
great full titanium folders. But first I want to show
this new design from Jim. My other knife is
sharper and we've got a T shirt here.
But you can get this in an apron, you can get this in a. Mug,
you can get this on a hat, all manner of tote bag
or whatever you want. Just go to the knife junkie.com shop
and check out all of these cool. Designs that Jim has come up
with. This one's cool. It's got sort of a Becker
ish looking knife on it and it says my other knife,
he's sharp. All right,
12 great full titanium folders. This was
inspired by the fact that I got a couple of a number of these somewhat
recently. My roots in knife collecting
are fixed blade knives and well
born of, of early TV shows. Well, TV
shows early in my life. In the 70s and 80s and then. Really
reinforced by Rambo and Predator and
Commando and these kind of movies in the 80s that really got me going.
On big fixed blades. But somewhere around 2012,
2013, I really. Really got into folders
and expanded my. Folder collection and was basically
in, in mired. I shouldn't say mired, that makes it sound negative.
I was happily dancing in fields of folding
knives for a good 10 years. Now I'm an equal
opportunity collector, more bent on fixed blades again.
Uh, but now it means that when. I get a folder,
when I go. Out and buy a folder, it, it
means a little bit more to me right now. And so I've gotten a number
of. Those in, in the past year and. A, and a bunch here recently.
So I wanted to show them off. The first one is
arguably my current absolute favorite.
This is by Sharif Manganis and Mangana
Steel. This is the Aurelia. This is his most recent
design. And I've had
major respect for Sharif's
designs for a long time. He was definitely
people on Thursday night. Knives definitely pushed me to go check him out.
And when I did, I was like, oh yeah, I know, I know this, this
guy's work. I had him on the show and he's such
a nice guy and just like really fun to be around.
We hung out a little bit in. A, in a group in the pit.
After Blade show this year and it's. Just a super cool
guy. But this knife,
fool or not, like I don't, I don't care who designed this knife.
It is one of my favorite. It just so happens that he a really
awesome dude this designed it beautiful. Magna cut
clip point blade. I love that long clip and and
a good short. It almost looks like a subtle recurve on the
edge. You know Sharif's designs are
pretty elegant modern folding knives but
he is inspired by people like Ernest
Emerson especially actually loves those kind of
tactical knives and little Terzuola in there
and you can sort of, well you can, you can
feel the lineage when you hold this in your hand. It doesn't really look like
anything else. But it, it has a classic, classic look.
It looks like this knife has been around forever. This is the
Mangana steel Aurelia in in Magnacut
super super sharp produced by Reate Knives.
So and all that that implies. Great,
great, great knife. Next up this is
one I got a few years back and I've carried pretty
obsessively for those few years. This is the
Resco Instruments Goose Works
MDCF or Mekong Delta Combat folder. So the
the longest knife title in this list
but this is from Resco Instruments. They're the guys
former Navy Seals and. Frogmen or maybe active duty still I'm.
Not sure to be honest who have
come up with a really great watch brand that's well
loved amongst the high speed low drag set. But they also
have released a couple of knives and the knives come
out much more sparsely than the than
the watches. They're more of a watch company. Uh but
this here the Mekong Delta Combat folder is
their latest and they're really hard
to come by. I would just kind of go to their website every once in
a while and check it out and you might catch them on a drop. They've
done this with Micarta half scales. Or you know
bolsters and Micarta scales. They've done this with a hollow grind
and then obviously this Jane version it is
produced by Bestech Knives. It has the
feel of a Spartan blades or a
Chris Reeve in hand. It so best tech
does a really great job at making sort of
traditional classic modern combat
USA folders. It's with washers, it's got a
super hydraulic washer feel. 20cv blade
steel. Somewhat of an oblique grind
but the way the
way my car Microtech has a super like
sort of oblique but wickedly sharp grind. So tough
and strong as the day is long. This Mekong
Delta Combat folder, I love this thing. Don't ask
to buy it because I ain't selling. All right, next up
another Ray Laconico design. We were showing you the Revel
before. Well this is the Bison and this
one I waited about six months to jump on this, but I should have
done it sooner. I love this knife. Comes in a bunch of different color
color combinations, including ones in
with two tone anodization where this
bow inlay is anodized. Different color yet not knurled.
But this one is a beautiful S35VN
clip point Bowie style blade, double guarded.
Which I really love. It's got the guard down here and. The guard
up here. So a, a classy knife but
also ready for action. You know, ready for that, that
push at the tip because you can.
You. Can really guard against slipping up onto. The blade with
these two finger guards. Really cool textured clip on this
full titanium again frame lock.
Just a beautiful, beautiful knife. This one has a
4.12 inch so. Four and a quarter inch blade.
And it's, it's a biggie, but it carries nicely. It's
light and slender. So huge fan of this knife.
These are still around. You can still get these.
Next up is from North Mountain Blade.
This is my one North Mountain Blade though. They have so many cool knives.
I'd love to jump in on that tip more. But this is
the BBMN designed by
Dwayne Dwyer who is 1/2 of Spark of.
Of STR. Sorry, who was one
half of Strider knives. And you can definitely see that in
the blade shape. The handle is similar to
Striders though this is more of a Dwayne Dwyer
softening of this. This part of the handle and this.
Back part of the handle. You can see that in a lot. Of his custom
knives. This has that D
SLT magic. Is that what it's called?
SLD magic blade. So that's a
VG10 core with I think it's 420
over it. So a nice San Ma steel.
This company, North Mountain Blade does a lot of that.
You'll see this blade steel on a. Lot of their stuff. SLB
Magic. This one has two fat
slabs of titanium giving it a nice heft. Not too
heavy though, giving it a nice heft and a nice
solidity. And then you can see those
phosphor. Bronze washers right there. Beautiful washer
action on this knife. I love this knife.
Super sharp. This is one of the ones that got me off of my
duff and back into getting
titanium. Just back into getting folders, especially
these. Kind of full titanium folders. You got that Strider
style clip on there, you've got your overextension
guard there. Next
up, this one is from
George Knives Les George. This is his classic
vsep, a knife that Was kind
of a testing ground for the whole midtech.
Paradigm. Mid tech knives refer to knives where
makers have their parts milled out
by third party machinists and such
and then they assemble them and sharpen them and. Do all the critical
work. That is kind of a,
a rote process. Now lots of
people use that process. But when the VSEP first came out it was kind of
a new concept and he had his
rockeye design which is that profile there
and he wanted to bring it to a larger audience
and a lot of people were wanting that knife. So this is where
the, the mid tech
idea came from. He just figured he could streamline
his process, drop his price a little bit and
deliver the lockeye look to a broader
audience. So good in hand. This is a,
I think this is a number, a
generation two. I have changed the clip. It came with a spool,
a spoon bill clip. So it. I'm pretty
sure this is a generation two.
I've done the research and then I've forgotten and then I've done the research
again and forgotten. But yeah, pretty sure that's what that is.
You've got a really, really excellent by. The way and
hydraulic feeling washer action for this.
That's the VSEP by George knives. Next up,
this is one that you're going to be hard pressed to find these days.
This is the Dirk Pinkerton designed Night Horse.
His take, his modernized take on the classic
Spanish Navaja fighting folder. That's a
four and a quarter inch blade. It's a nice big blade.
That is S35VN I believe.
This is made by Asymmetrical which was. One of the companies.
That came out of beyond edc which was the umbrella company.
They've gone fallow for a while. I hear they're coming back
but that. Can'T be soon enough because they made some
really awesome knives. They made a bunch of Pinkerton
designs. And I'm a huge fan of Dirk's, Dirk's work.
This has a really nice micro milled titanium handle
in the shape of that steers horn like a traditional
Navaja which gives you sort of a pistol grip
grip on it. If you want major
reach you can always come back here. It curves the point
down and gives you a great, great reach.
About 7 inches of reach if you come back here.
So just a beautiful knife. This one is on washer or on
bearings. Opens up very smoothly, closes up just as
smoothly. Excellent jimping up here. These were
not only asymmetrical which is. No longer
producing knives at the Current moment. But also they were
Smoky Mountain knife work exclusives. So you
could get this one for like 150 bucks or you could get the
G10 14C version for like 25. It was
ridiculous. A ridiculous spread. One
was so inexpensive and that G10. Model was
so good. It was such a great knife. It was
shocking that they were selling it for so little, but they did.
So hopefully they come back with these in the future.
To weight non relieved slabs
here. Very substantial knife and jimping
on the clip which I love. Aids, aids in the draw.
Next up from Auxil.
I'm sorry, from arcane design we
have the antimatter. Now this is my only
folding dagger. My non out. My only non
out, the front folding dagger. So you got dual
edges there and. You have to be very
careful when. Closing this knife because it's got two edges.
So usually I press on the quillion.
Like this and then you can just hold it like that
and just let. It drop back in. A beautiful double edged
design. And you can see from that
very broad handle that it's not just for
the good looks but it's also to accommodate that double age.
A double edged blade so that it. Does not peek up
above and cut. You really
nicely engineered. And this one was also made
by Reate oem by Reate and it's got
that classic futuristic
horror movie, sort of fantasy movie, sci fi movie
look that you get from Israel Bacchus
designs. I love that sort of energy
conductor thing. I don't know what, what that is. Tesla
coil right on the clip. Very cool. It sort of
really sells the futuristic look of it.
Super fond of this knife especially seeing as it's a
true double edged. It's a true folding dagger and I love
it. Also really good in reverse grip because you have that peak to
wrap your thumb around. So if you need to get
combative with a double edged folder, this is. This is the one to do it
with. There's only a few of them out. There and that's,
that's the one I have. All right, next up, this is from
Les George and Alan Alishowitz.
This is the EK integral holder.
So all milled. This handle is milled out of one
solid slab of titanium. You can see, see there
are no seams on the spine here. There's no
backspacer, no standoffs. It's just
one solid hunk of titanium that's
been milled. So cool. It's an expensive process.
There's a lot of material wasted and
I think at this point it's probably down to a science, but
I know that in the past, getting the lock. Bar right was
a problem for making these
integral holders. Beautifully modeled after the
classic EK Commando. Dagger, which first
debuted in World War II. Has that exact shaped handle with the
three bolts and the scoops, and it gives you just
great purchase on this blade. I got this
at Blade Show 2024. This was my
fancy knife of the show, My fancy titanium knife of the
show. This blade steel is
20cv and it is
wickedly, wickedly sharp, especially for a
relatively shallow bevel grind, because
it is a daggerish grind. It's more of a bayonet grind
technically, but it's a spear point with symmetrical.
Bevels, so close enough. It'll do to the
dagger. Gets it. But a cool tip of the
hat to the original EK designs. Putting the maker's
mark there. And then.
Les George and Alan Elishewitz put their maker's mark there.
Did I say 20 CV? This is Magna Cut. Sorry, guys,
Magna Cut. It's got a stupendous action, too. This
drops right in also. This
is a first for me for a flame anodized anything.
And I think that looks so beautiful there on the. On
that integral titanium handle. All
right, next up. This one is from Chris Reeve Knives.
This is the, um.
This is the Tonto Umzon, as you can see plainly. See
what a great knife this. I was kind of vacillating between this and the
Sebenza. And no, I think I carried the Sebenza more often.
This one with its full titanium scales. My Sebenza
has inlays, Micarta inlays.
I figured this would be a better one to show off. I love the cross
hatching. I love the way it looks and feels.
And the blasted titanium on this is awesome
because it just patinas and snail trails and wears
in and just is
gorgeous. This one has that. That super glassy
washer action to it. One of the few knives that came with a.
A lanyard that I actually left on
S35VN is the blade steel on this. This is an older
example. Deep hollow grind. And then that
stout chisel tip. And then on the. On
the back side, the clip side, you see the lock bar
stabilizer there with the Chris Reeves logo on it. And
Idaho made huge fan of this knife. I love
this thing. I got this from a guy who used to show up to Thursday
night. Knives and now I don't remember his. Name, but he was a
good dude and he gave me a good deal on that. All
right, next Up. This one I got and wore
carried all summer long. This is the
JW Collab Tango, the first from the
JW Collab lineup. That's Jack Wolf knives collaborating
with other. Designers and makers to come up
with. Knives that Ben wouldn't have come up on his own. Look at this
beautiful beauty. It's like a sponto grind. You've got the flat up front
and the deep hollow in the. On the straight portion of the
blade. That's s 90 volts, as
per usual. With Jack Wolf
knives. It is a front flipper and thumb stud deployment.
This was the one from this series. That wasn't a bolster
lock, but a full titanium frame lock. Got that beautiful
radial pattern coming from the.
From the pivot again, gorgeous
blasted titanium that snail trails oh so
nicely. I love how that looks. And
this knife just feels great. It cuts great.
This was an excellent knife to have. In light shorts all
summer long. And it came super
smooth, and it's become even more.
More smooth. So.
Loving, loving this knife. And I hope they do a re tread
of this, do a reissue of this. I'm loving the JW
Collab knives just in general. As a matter of fact, in my pocket right now,
I have the Scuffle, another one. So
I would have shown that one off, but I don't have the full. Titanium
version of that beautiful knife, the Tango.
All right, last, penultimate, in this is
the American Blade Works model two.
This thing, to me, not only is. A great cutter with that.
With that thin ground, magnacut sheepsfoot
blade, but to me, this thing looks like a masterpiece, modern
masterpiece of, like, art deco work.
When it's closed, it's beautiful.
I love the way this thing looks closed. Also. It goes really
nicely with my American Blade Works slip joint.
They're. They're sort of similarly themed and
looked. Very, very nice together.
This has a liner lock. Most of these that I've shown you. Actually,
all of these that I've shown you have been frame
locks, with this one exception.
So it's got sort of a clamshell construction there with
the. With the liner lock
nesting nicely in the titanium handle.
Beautifully milled with these lines. Gives great texture and
just a great look.
This was one of the first knives I got where you could see. See the
grind lines on the blade itself, the milling
lines. I think it looks really sweet. Now, this is a knife I'd
love to see in a wharncliffe. And you're like, bob, that is a Warren Cliff.
No, that's a sheep's foot. A wharncliffe would have the continuous curve
from the thumb ramp to the tip. And I've seen him
do that. I've seen
Mike Miller. I'm sorry, that's not his name.
I've seen them make on the model. One,
the, the wharncliffe. I'm sorry, I'm getting
all wrapped around the axle here, trying to remember his. Name and trying to remember
the word wharncliffe. What can I say? Beautiful
milled clip. Everything about this knife is really, really
sweet. All right, that is the American blade works
model two. All right, last up in my list of
favorite full titanium folders has
to be this. This is the Spartan Hary
folder. That full 4 inch blade of 20cv blade
steel. A downward angled drop point with
a. You gotta, you gotta really put on your glasses, but you can see
a. Slight recurve on that. I think that's just there to
sharpen through, you know, because the belly is. Is
Michael Martin is his name. Sorry guys.
You can sharpen through that belly as you use it. Use it over time. You're
going to use the belly the most. So if you give a little extra on
the belly as you continue to sharpen through that, you're still going to. Have a,
a useful blade shape. This one, full titanium.
I bought it Plain Jane and then Curtis
Iovito offered to put my logo
in it. So I sent this to him and he etched my logo in there.
So this, this knife means a whole lot to me, but it's
also just one of my absolute favorite designs, period. I
love Bill Harsey Jr's design
language. I love what he designs and I feel like everything
he makes, everything he designs is
identifiably his design without looking. A
lot like the one that came before it.
This one has open construction with super
wide standoffs. You could definitely run this thing
over with a truck. And it's not going to flatten out. Or anything like that.
I mean, I'm imagining I've never done. It and I'm not going to. But
just the stout, most stout
build pretty much of anything on this table.
So that is the Spartan Hary folder. And that is
my. Those are my 12 favorite. There are others in my collection
and I love them all. But these are my 12 favorites and
12 that you can go out pretty much, maybe with an exception or two.
And buy today if you've got the ducats. So
thanks for joining me, I really appreciate it. Also make sure you join us on
Thursday for Thursday night Knives. If you're watching this, when it drops us
tomorrow night. Guys, put it in your calendar. We're at 43,
000 subscribers. A little bit more than that. When we get to 50, 000
subscribers, we're going to do a very, very, very special
giveaway. Dirk Pinkerton himself is making us
a custom knife. We're going to decide what that is. As we get closer to
50k. But he's going to make us a nice big fixed blade
knife. Of his very own that we're going to
give away here. So be sure to subscribe. All
right, everybody, thanks for watching. For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm
Bob DiMarco saying until next time, don't take
dough for an answer. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
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