Coming up, the gentleman Junkie giveaway knife for November 2025.
The new Jack Wolf Knives Gateway slip joint. And
then we're going to take a look at my biggest cold steel fixed
blade knives. 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 the show. One of my favorite comments this past week was from
Michael Elliott, designer of the Gunfighter Customs Gunfighter, which will
be giving away in December. He says, I wouldn't call it
a journey. He's talking about Paulo Rubio. I wouldn't call it a
journey. I would call his experience growth. I've watched
Paulo's growth from the early days when he was a this
wouldn't work or drills are stupid guy. And I've been
pleased to see him grow into the instructor that he's become. Course,
Paulo Rubio is a allotted instructor in
knife fighting arts, chief among them the Filipino martial
arts, as is Michael Elliot. So it's kind of cool to see
the perspective of one teacher to another. If
you like this kind of content and you think that talking to
knife makers, knife fighting instructors,
knife manufacturers and designers is
cool, be sure to subscribe right here because
every Sunday we do an interview show with a
luminary like that. All right, that said, 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. All right, my front right pocket. Today I had
the bbmn, a Dwayne DWI
designed North Mountain Blade. I really love this knife.
I got it, of course, because it's got a lot of
strider knives, design cues.
This, of course, designed by Dwayne Dwyer, one half of
strider knives. And he's got.
Custom folders that look just like this. And I knew
from what I'd heard from friends about North Mountain blades that they make
incredible knives. And so when I saw this one, I had to
jump on it. Very, very nice glassy
phosphor bronze action on this. And you've got a San
My steel here that they call SLB
magic. And I believe the main cutting steel is a
VG10. And then it's got some sort of 420
or 440 jacketed steel there. I love this
knife. Been carrying it a lot since I. Got it this
summer. Next up in my front
left pocket, I had the Gateway
Barlow from Jack Wolf knives. Knowing that I would be receiving
another gateway knife. That very same. This very same
day I got that I was carrying this knife
and really enjoying it. I love the pinned
construction of this one. Most Jack Wolf knives, the premium ones, have
that screw construction which is also great. But it's nice to have
a pin constructed knife. And this one
is a modern traditional in that it uses a kick to stop
the blade when it goes back into the handle. It is not a
stop pin, it. Is a kick right there. So
very, very nice knife and beautiful rosewood
covers on this one and a. Nice big
clip point blade there. Next up and carrying it quite a
bit. But I went old school today and I had my
agent 001. This is the one from the first
run of knives that I've carried the most. You
know. You know, I love this knife. I co designed it with
Tim Kell. He perfected the handle and perfectly
created the the blade that I drew out on the back of a
cocktail napkin. That's not true. It was actually a pretty well done
drawing. But I love this one with the
purple burl G10. And this is like
I said, the older one. So it doesn't have all the refinements like the
chamfering. And it's got one extra
gimp on here. AEDL steel.
Just an awesome knife. If you like the agent 001,
you can go to Tel Knives right now and purchase one
and have your own handle material and you can choose the steel. Go to
the knife junkie.comTK and put knife junkie
in the coupon code section. That's all one word, all lowercase
and. You will save 10%. So take advantage of that. We've had a
number of people recently doing that. My emotional support knife today
was rather large. Not sure if it's going to fit here, but
I had the Waning Moon Yata gun from
Apoc Survival Tools.
A big knife. And actually I've been going to the
gym more recently and I can already feel my
grip improving, which is good when you're. When
you've got the Waning Moon Yatagon on you because that
handle is big and it is heavy. This is
a pretty heavy blade and it's got a lot of the weight in the
handle. So you know, eat your Wheaties and
do your reps and. And maybe you too
can wield the Waning Moon. The Yatagon is one of my
favorite blade shapes out there. A lot of knives today
are inspired by it, even if they don't know it. But
for instance, the Vaquero series was very Yatagan
inspired and it is a Turkish blade
short sword and I guess it was first introduced during the
reign of the Ottoman Empire but just a
beautiful knife and Apoc Survival does an awesome
job with it. You, you can't find too many Yatagons out
there, especially in a
non ornamental and sort of usable
format. So definitely check out Apoc Survival for knives like
this and, and others. So that's what I had on me today. Had the
agent 001, I had the Apoc Yatagan,
albeit not on my person. I had the
Gateway Barlo from Jack Wolf knives on the
BBMN from North Mountain Blade.
Next up, I just wanted to show off. Oh, I don't have the actual one.
Yes I do. Yes I do. I take it all back. Just pretend I didn't
say that. This is the knife we're giving away this coming
Thursday. So Thursday November 20,
2025 as we record this, we will be giving away this
beautiful and new Tkal knives agent
001 to one lucky gentleman junkie winner.
Let me just put them together so. You can see the difference between the. First
run which is on top and. The second run which is
on bottom. You can see the, the one on the bottom, the one we're giving
away the new. The, the. The second run, the one that
you can buy right now has beautiful chamfering all around, all the
corners and edges. But I like to look at it right by the
jimping larger jimping reduced by
one Jim. You've got terracing on, on the bevels
there. You can see those mill lines.
And these are now machined by Nick Chuprin and NCC
Knives up in New Hampshire. And he is a perfectionist, does
an absolutely beautiful job. So I'm really looking forward
to giving this away. This second run of TE Cal
Knives Agent 001s designed by, by myself and Tim
went live this November 1st, November
1st, 2025 and they've been going like
hotcakes. So I'm excited to be giving this away to someone
as a thank you for supporting the show. And you can do that by
going to the knife junkie.com Patreon I also want to show
you, since we're talking Patreon, what we're going to be giving away in
the month of December 2025.
And I just showed this to you, but this is the Michael
Elliott designed Gunfighter Customs
Gunfighter made by Jared Franklin. The head of
Gunfighter Customs. Just a beautiful knife that he
made for me to give to you. A
lucky gentleman junkie. He knows how much I love the knife he gave
me. Get rid of this piece of Kydex off there, okay?
He made me one of these and gave it to me at blade show the
two of them did. And I was very, very excited about it. I've shown
it off a lot. I've been carrying it a lot. And so he made
another version, another specimen to give
away to you. This one has these beautiful
antique butterscotch micarta handles
and that is AEBL steel.
There's a Michael Elliott's Maker's mark. It's a chisel ground,
wickedly sharp, kind of an improvement on the
clinch pick, giving you a place to put your. Thumb
and all the rest. So beautiful knife.
Please become a gentleman junkie by going to the the
patreon@the knife junkie.com patreon and
you can join there or you can become a gentleman junkie right here.
By joining us on YouTube. Last, last little bit here on
Patreon. Today in history we have a super cool
thing that this is some this is a feature that Jim comes up with
and today it's the birth of the disposable blade. I
say today, but it's November 15th, the birth of the
disposable blade. Talking about shavers,
Gillette, et cetera. And it's a very interesting
article that I this is something I would never have thought to
look into, but it's. Fascinating when you read it. And
so this makers Mondays Friday funnies
and all, all sorts of great features
that Jim has been doing. Especially he does a great
knife one where you can find out about the history of various
knives. So please go check us out. All right, this is the end of my
Patreon plug. You can scan the QR code about to pop up on
your screen and when you do, you can save 12%. If
you join for a whole year. And and you get all sorts of benefits.
Chief among them, the third Thursday of the month we do a very special
giveaway. We've been giving away a lot of. Custom knives, but
also all the things I just mentioned. Plus
interview extras with the fascinating people who interview. So
if that sounds like something you'd like, go to the knife junkie.com
Patreon and check it out again. That's the knife junkie.com
Patreon adventure delivered your monthly subscription for hand
picked outdoor survival, EDC and other cool gear
from our expert team of outdoor professionals, the
knifejunkie.com battlebox.
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast. And now here's the
knife junkie with the Knife life news. All right, so first
up in knife life news today I have Rosecraft Blades,
the Cumberland River Coke Bottle Jack.
So as you may have heard, if you watch this show you, I know
you've heard Rosecraft blades has given
away. Not giving away what I want to say. They have stopped
their line of modern folders so they will sell all the
modern folders they've already produced. But they are doubling down
on their slip joint game and that's what people. Go to
Rosecraft Blades for. They love Rosecraft blades for their
ultra robust and beautifully made
slip joint knives. So they are doubling down on that. This new one, the Cumberland
River Coke Bottle Jack has a 3 inch clip
point blade of D2 steel. Really focusing
heavily on the long straight cutting surface
of that relatively long edge there. And,
and then it terminating in a nice big belly and a downward
flip. So yeah, generous belly and cutting edge. And
then the Coke bottle shape, I love the Coke bottle
shape. So it extends up and it extends down.
If you look at it, there's a center palm swell that
accommodates a the pin so that you can
have a larger blade in the weight in the blade well
without having it stick too far up. That's kind of the
utilitarian purpose of that profile. But I really love the way
that thing looks. You know, I
love the way the utility actually looks. You've got
pinned micarta covers or they have this beautiful
toasted bone. Each one very unique and
different from one another. I love the look of that. Kind of looks like stag
and then they all have a spade shaped
shield. 2.9 ounces. These are
available now for $60 MSRP.
Okay, next up, the Kaiser Topsail. This one designed
by Newfoundlander Jonathan Styles.
Jonathan Styles had the Newfoundland knife company
before he became an exclusive designer for
Kaiser Knives. He's designed both fixed blades and
folders for Kaiser and this is his.
So as far as he goes in the knife world, he is exclusive
with Kaiser now. I used to follow him. I mean I still do
follow him on Instagram and. And not only does he post
his cool knives, but also he'll go on little motorcycle
adventures around the beautiful lands of Newfoundland. So kind of a
cool. He's got a cool IG to follow.
A statement piece from Kaiser. Four models, four
versions of this. 3.1 inches on that
drop point blade. It comes in either M390
or S45VN. Two models on each
with an opening Hole and a front flipper. The
scales are all titanium with inlays of either blue
or green crystallized titanium.
Blue is on the M390 version and green is on the
S45 or you can get it with Timascus or a.
Zirconium one each per blade. Steel
3.7 ounces. Available now for
200 bucks. 200 bucks. Let's see next
up there is a suppressor company
called Dead Air
Silencers. Sorry about that. Dead Air Silencers, which is a cool name.
A Dead air is actually a broadcast industry
term when, when the channel
goes blank and there's nothing there. That's also a radio term that's
called Dead air. Well, Dead Air Silencers just
released a, a battle axe, if you will. I'm
calling it a battle ax because what else are you going to use this to
blow with? Winkler knives. So you've got a,
a full slab sort of ax.
It's, in other words, it's not a, an ax head hung on a
haft. It is a full tang ax handle
or axe with a, a spike
on the back and a nice big blade on the front.
They've made 16 or they, they have made 50. There are
only 16 of these things left as we record this.
A beautiful ax. You are going to pay for it because it
is not only a Dead Air ax, but it's
also a Winkler ax and everybody's got to get paid. So this
battle ax is 630 bucks, but no doubt super
capable and it will be, you know, much beloved by
the type of guys and gals who need this
and will use this in some sort of combative situation. I
dare say you could use it. For other things too, but to me.
It looks like a battle ax. So that's what I'm calling it. Maybe you call
it a tomahawk. All right, last up, last thing I want
to show just a little bit of personal editorial and it just made
me so sad. So this is a picture
of a nice turn in box in North
Yorkshire in England. And these
are the knives that they recovered. These are the knives that people felt
guilty about having or, or perhaps that
they just didn't trust themselves around the knives. I just don't understand
how people are giving away. I see a republic, I see one
quote unquote tactical knife. It's on the very top left and it's one of
those hollow handle, cheesy survival knives we all had in the
1980s if we were alive then everything else here
is a kitchen knife. I see scissors, I see Fruit peelers.
I see corkscrews. It's just depressing to
me. I see. I see ice cream scoops and
spoons in this damn picture. And a can opener. So these are
the things that people felt so ashamed of
having in North Yorkshire that they had to drop it in a
collection bin for dangerous weapons. That
is a gilded society. And I'm not in any way
trying. I'm not trying to be
critical of the great British people. I love the people,
you know, you know how that is, how you feel. About the people then, versus
the government. I love the people. And I. We know we have some friends
in England and everything. All of those land
acknowledgments out of the way. I just feel like this is
pathetic. Keep your kitchen knives. You're going to need to cook
with them. And if, heaven forbid, anyone ever
breaks into your house, I know you have nothing else to defend your house with.
So keep your damn kitchen knives, people. Come on.
And definitely keep your ice cream scoops. Because how is he going to get it
out? Especially considering you've also given your spoons away.
So that's it for Knife Life News. Please, please, people, hold
on to your spoons and your scoops and your knives. Especially those
kitchen knives that you're going to need.
So anyway, we can continue this conversation on Thursday night
Knives every Thursday night here at 10:00pm Eastern
Standard Time. We got the holidays coming up, so there's going to be
one down around Thanksgiving and there's going to be one down around
Christmas. But basically, this is my Thursday
night readout. I love Thursday night Knives because it's my
chance to talk live with all of y'. All.
That's how we speak in the south of. Of. Of
the United States. And I'm told, as I am directly south
of the Mason Dixon, I am in the south. So join us every
Thursday night, 10pm Eastern Standard Time, right here
on YouTube. For Thursday night night. All right,
let's get to the first tool. You're listening to the Knife Junkie
podcast. Here's some cool knife history with the knife junkies. The
first tool. I want you to look at this blade. Not necessarily the
handle, but look at the blade. And let me take you
back to the early 1940s, when the world was. Buckling
under the weight of war. And a small workshop in
Orlando, Florida, was about to change the story of the
fighting knife. Bo Randall didn't set out to
arm soldiers. He was a fisherman who bought a handmade knife
from a craftsman named Bill Skagel. Now a
legend that blade opened his eyes. It cut
better, held an edge longer, felt alive in hand.
But went home thinking, I can do this, maybe even better.
What he did, what he didn't know was that American
troops would soon come knocking for his knife.
As young men prepared to ship out for World War II, they wrote
letters to Randall asking for reliable knives,
something tougher than the mass produced military issue.
And so the Randall number one was born.
The hand forged fighting knife, built one at a time, shaped
and polished by craftsmen. Picture it 7 in
a 7 inch blade looked exactly like this. With a gentle
clip point sharpened, I might add, and a brass guard
wide enough to stop the hand from slipping. A stacked
leather handle that felt warm even in cold rain.
Nothing fancy, nothing wasted. Just the right
tool for a soldier. Stepping into a world of Unknowns.
The Model 1 wasn't just a knife. It was a piece of home.
Troops carried it in the Pacific, in Europe, and later
in the humid jungles of Vietnam. Many
wrote back to Randall afterwards saying the knife saved them. Cutting
rope, opening crates, or in the worst moments, doing
exactly what a fighting knife is designed to do.
And here's a cool detail. Randall didn't mass produce these.
Each knife was handmade and the wait list stretched
for months. Even generals and astronauts wanted them.
In fact, Randall knives went into space literally,
carried on NASA missions as survival tools. But
through all the fame, the Model 1 stayed true to its roots.
A working blade built for people who needed something they could trust their
lives with. Today, collectors chase old
model number ones like Treasure. The grind lines,
the handlewear, the small differences from one smith to another.
They're all cues to who carried it, where it traveled and
what stories it might tell. If steel could speak.
The Randall Model 1 isn't just a fighting knife. It's
a reminder that sometimes the best tools come from a quiet
shop made by hands that care more about strength.
And honesty than speed. And
that's why even today, you have to wait for your Model
1. But when you finally get it in hand, it's like
feeling a soldier's handshake across time.
Now, if you like these first tool segments,
and if you like hearing about segments about knives
and reading about the history of knives, or just my personal
take on knives, you can sign up for the newsletter. You go to the knife
junkie.com/newsletter and
every week or so you'll get a newsletter in your inbox. I'm not asking
for anything. It's no hard sell. It's just musings about a
knife with. A picture, a beautiful picture or two.
So check that out. That's also a great way for, for us to keep in
touch with you. Heaven forbid we lose contact,
so go check that out@the knifejunkie.com
newsletter. All right, let's get to the
state of the collection. Want to sell your custom knives online with
Launch Cart, you can easily create your own e commerce store, no
coding required. Launch Cart is designed for knife
makers like you with built in tools to showcase your
craftsmanship, manage orders and grow your brand.
It's fast, flexible and even includes low cost payment
processing to help you keep more of your profits. Start
your online knife store today@the knifejunkie.com launch
and turn your passion into a business. Okay, this
first knife just came to me from Jack Wolf Knives
a day ago as we record this. This is the beautiful
new gateway equal end Jack. So
equal end on this model refers to. Yes,
the fact that the pommel side and the pivot side are the
exact same and they're mirror opposites of one
another. This is a very old style
slip joint knife. Sometimes they're called Churchills, I believe
after the fact that Winston Churchill
liked smoking cigars. And this is vaguely cigar shape
or pretty much exactly cigar shape. So this is a new
gateway knife from Jack Wolf Knives. That means it's within
reach. It's, it's a gateway to their
series of knives. Whether you're going for the steel series, the
JW Collab series or the premium slip joint series,
these are your way in because they are the least expensive
and made from the least precious materials.
But they're still made by the same manufacturers with the same
attention to fit and finish. So this here,
here it is that beautiful drop
point blade with the swed. So I really,
really like this knife. It is 14C 28N blade
steel. You've got steel bolsters and liners with in the
construction, the premium slip joints and the
steel series slip joints from Jack Wolf knives have
a screw construction. So you can take them apart
for. Whatever reason you might want to do that. And. But
these, the gateway are pinned more like a traditional
slip joint. And like a traditional slip joint, they use
the kick. That's this extended part of the blade tang
to stop the blade from slapping the liners inside instead
of the way many modern slip joints
use a stop pin inside. But
I love that these use that. Traditional style
of stopping the blade with the kick.
This one has beautiful ebony wood with. A, with a perfectly.
Embedded inlay there. That shield is inlaid
perfectly. You can't feel it all the transitions from material to
material, like from the wood onto the steel bolsters
or across these nickel silver pins here
or across that shield, you can't feel any of that. It's all
hafted perfectly. Same thing with the back. If
you look at the spring and the liners, they all look like one
piece. And then at the half
stop you have a fully flush lock bar
there and not lock bar, spring bar. They call it a lock
bar. But this is the brand new
Jack Wolf Knives Gateway equal end. I believe this is dropping
on the 21st of November 2025
and you will definitely want this. So one of the ways
they keep the cost down with the Gateway series. Now the premium
knives are in the 300s. The Gateway series are sub
$100. And the way they keep costs low is like
I said, instead of S90V on the blade, it's 14C
28N. A great blade. And by the way, this is unbelievably
sharp. But also in the packaging, the
packaging is a, there's a lot less packaging. You do not get the leather
slip automatically with this like you do on the premium knives.
So there are some ways that they can save costs to get a
great Jack Wolf knife design and build in your
hands. So definitely go check this out. Before I showed
with my pocket check, I
showed the other gateway knife. This is the Gateway
Barlow. I was lucky enough to get wood on both of
these, but they also come in numerous other
more modern materials. So definitely go check these out.
They're phenomenal. And I think you can still get. The Gateway
Barlow if I'm not mistaken. All
right, so that is the equal end new from Jack Wolf
knives. Next up, I wanted to show you a new light. So I went
out yesterday as I record this to buy
a flashlight for a friend of mine who just had a
birthday and he lives in the neighborhood and I see him walk his dog
on occasion and I figured he needed a good light
to traverse these dark suburban streets.
And so I got him a Phoenix. And then I self one too
because. I think they're super cool. And I've been
talking about lights, great for self defense and all this,
but I, I don't carry them as much as I should. And this one was
an excellent size size. So this is the Phoenix
LD30 and I have it set up for the, the,
the brightest lumens here.
I think it's 1200 or 1400 and then you can
take it down, take it back up right here with
this switch. You can also go to strobe And I love strobe.
There's also an SOS mode where it does
a slow flash and. But
what I really like about it is that it is small enough to
carry in the pocket without. Without me feeling like I have too much in
there. It also has the baseball hat clip. So you can see
this clip will fit over your pants, but if you want it to fit on
a visor as a impromptu headlamp, the
clip doubles over on itself. So a great feature.
Why do I say light? For self defense. I've never used one,
but if I needed to, I would much rather blind someone, kick them in the
knee and run off than pull out a knife and stab them.
Let's face it, none of us need that in our lives. That is last
ditch. But there are lots of things you can do before that last ditch,
like spray them with pepper spray or blind them with light and run off.
So I figured, why not? Why not incorporate this more into my life?
Now, I am not saying I'm becoming a flashlight nerd
or a torch or whatever they call themselves.
I am a. I am a knife dork.
And. But, you know, these lights are adjacent.
And why not? We have a lot of friends here who
love their flashlights. So I've been taking notes. People love the
old phoenixes here. And I got this for a somewhat reasonable
price. Could have. Could have gotten it for a
dollar more on Amazon, but I was right there at rei. So I bought it,
paid the Virginia. Sales tax, and stuck his mind out. And I'm going to start
carrying it a lot. I think this really, genuinely
has to become part of my EDC, not just the. The smaller
I3T I keep on my keys. I need something
a little more robust. So I'm excited about this, and I'm. Going
to start carrying. All right. So while I was at rei, I made
a weird purchase. I'll say it, but I couldn't resist. I could not
resist. It was this little opinel in the number
six size, but it's a vegetable peeler.
It's an opinel vegetable peeler. It's for campers. It's
for people who find themselves, you know, with cucumbers and
potatoes in the wilderness. This is what they do to peel them.
I have a kitchen. I've got two peelers in the kitchen. I can't decide
which one I like better. And yet I had to bring another. Peeler into my
life. So I'm going to. After this show, after we record
this, I'm going to fold this up. I'M going to drop it in the kitchen
drawer and I'm going to start. Using it every time I have to peel.
I was thinking all sorts of crazy. Things when I was trying to justify this
purchase. I was like, oh well, you know, my daughters love
cucumbers. Instead of preparing them for lunch, for
their school lunch, I'll give, put this in the box, you know, in their
lunchbox and they can peel their. And I'm like, that's not. They can't open
this up at school and say, oh, it's just a peeler.
So you know, this is one of. Those
uncontrollable things and I just had to
buy it. Isn't it cool? Isn't it cute? Say yes Bob. Yes. That that
was not. That was money well spent, Bob. Say that. Please
just drop that in comments Making me feel better.
All right, so if you ever need a peeler on the go, check out the
little Opinel number six vegetable peeler. It is
stainless steel. So I mean, I'm not a total fool.
All right, Speaking of total fool, let me show you
how I am a. Fool for these large cold steel fixed blade knives. Before we
do though, let me show you this latest design
by none other than Jimmy Notes. He's got this
S35 with a heart. It's just like who doesn't
love S35VN, you know, for a while that was the super
steel of mention. Everyone had to
have S35 on their blades and then M390
came along and. 20 CV and all these other just ruined the party.
But S30 volts, a tougher version of S. I mean,
S35, a tougher version of S30 volts,
both steel inventions
quote unquote derived from Chris Reeve knives
and his needs for the Sebenza. So we are
lucky to Chris. We are grateful to Chris Reeve for many reasons. But you
can get this awesome S35 logo on a tote bag,
on an apron, on a hat, on a T shirt,
coffee mug, whatever you want. There you go.
We have it for you at the knife
junkie.com/shop. Go check it out.
All right? Everyone knows that I love cold steel. I am not shy
about it. Even when people were saying, well I,
I respect the knives but I don't like the way. I don't like his
sales tactics and his marketing. I always thought, man, come
on, are you not a knife fan? Don't you love
seeing pigs cut in half by knives? They're already
dead and they're going to make a meal down at the
Ventura Rescue. So why not just.
Why not just enjoy? Let's start off with the one that
I've carried the most and has done the most work and
play for me. That is the cold steel trail
master. This is a knife I would recommend to
anyone, especially people who do things outdoors, go
camping, go hiking, go over landing and such.
I love this knife and you might say ounces are pounds
and pounds are pain and that's a big knife but it is so well worth
it. This is a quarter inch thick slab of
SK5. Because this is a pretty old one here. This one
is a. Is over 25 years. I'm hesitate to say
it's 30 years old, but I. It's probably about 30 years
old. Beautiful zero ground swedge on this.
So equal equal parts fighting knife
and outdoors knife. This would make an
outstanding fighting knife there. I've put many hours into swinging
this around shadow boxing with this knife.
Carenza they call it. It's got a nice coffin
shaped ray ton checkered handle. So very grippy. You can see where it's
worn down over the years there. And in 30 years it
hasn't become tacky and gross like some rubbers. Rubber
materials do nice thick brass guard
and the original leather sheath. Now I've been
stalking ebay. I'm gonna buy another trail master. I. I
want it to be original and by that I mean I have
reprofiled this blade so. So this blade is a little thinner
than a standard trail master just because I've
sharpened it and I've chipped it and gouged it and done things to it
and had to reprofile it a few times. So when I hold it up against
my dad's it's definitely more slender. But I want to get one that
is old enough that it will come with the leather sheet. That may or may
not happen. I might just buy a brand new one. But I feel like
this is a knife that is so tried and true I can
afford to get a second one. I'm not one of these guys who
oh, I like this knife. I better buy two. But this one, I've had it
for so long and it's done such great duty. Maybe I should just get a
second. One just to be sure. But. Or just out of respect,
but I love this thing. So beautiful. If, if you
get anything from this list I'm giving you today, it is. Get
yourself a trail master for sure.
Next knife is also a nice big bowie and
probably my second favorite though I have a lot
of favorites. In this list. And this is an old version too. This is the
Laredo Bowie. This is kind of a dedicated fighting
bowie. Whereas the trail master was full tang, this is a
cable tang, meaning the tang of the blade
comes to about here and then there's a cable that goes from here
to a bolt. And the idea behind that is that it
absorbs shock. It is super strong. I mean, I've
baton this through wood and done done some stupid stuff with this.
But really, this is a fighting knife. This was a knife that
when this prototype was first
made years and years and years ago, Lynn
Thompson sent this to Bill Bagwell, the legendary
fighting bowie knife maker, and asked him for
input and basically asked for his blessing. And
Bagwell gave it to him. You've got a
beautiful 10 1/4 inch
blade here, or 10 1/2 inch. This is also
SK5 blade. I have mine nicely
patinaed because mine originally, when it came the
the sheath, scratched up the blade and so I patinaed
it and never looked back. But this is a pretty
old girl here. It's got faux cocobolo wood.
So it's wood that's made to look like cocobolo, but it's
inexpensive enough that it's not knot. Beautiful grass,
brass guard and a nice long again,
zero ground swedge. And that is for back
cuts. So if you are fighting with this knife,
and this is a fighting bowie knife, you can do that back
cut, which is you're coming in with like an angle one and
you turn the blade over and you use that tip to
gouge, slash, tear, slash,
cut, whatever. It comes in contact with. To do that,
you don't really need a zero ground or sharpened swedge,
but it definitely helps. Sometimes people fight
with bowie knives with that clip forward like this, and the
primary edge back. They call that mountain man. And you can
get a lot of damage. It's like having a hawkbill blade here.
This one, like I said early on in its.
In its life, or not in its life, but in its run as a
knife for cold steel, they were putting them out in these
beautiful leather sheets. I mean, the sheath is gorgeous, but that big
brass stud, you just slide this in the belt like a
riverboat. Gambler and you are good to go. So
probably. Well, I don't know. One of my absolute favorites
in this lineup here.
All right, next up, this is a tip of the hat to
the very original six blade knife that put cold steel on
the map. But this is a larger and more modernized version of
it. This is the Tanto 12 so that's
a 12 inch Tanto blade. You remember, the Americanized
tanto is the one that puts cold steel on the map. And
this one is just like that knife, except the
original had a brass furniture here,
the pommel and in
the guard were of brass, but everything else is the same. Same
checkered craton handle. This one, if you look
closely near the edge, you can see two different steels. This is
a San Mai. Call it San My3. I believe that's
VG10 and 420
stainless. I know they, they change it up here and there, but
this knife is so light and agile in
hand, light and lively in hand, if you will,
that I could see this being an incredible fighting knife. Even though
I prefer a bowie. Even though I prefer, prefer a
double edged, say double sub hilt fighter
in my imaginary knife fights. This one just moves
around so well. It's weighted, it's, it's balanced
slightly forward of the guard. But with a knife this large,
it really makes that tip move around fast.
You got some weight here in the pommel. So it's weighted more like
a short sword than a knife. So really, really
outstanding knife. And you've got the Yokota, that
sub tip there, that secondary tip right up front
that is frequently used. That of course makes the
tip very, very stout for thrusting through
tough materials. But also that
sub tip, that secondary tip is good for a
percussive snap cut. Snap cut is. Imagine
you have a drumstick in your hand and you're hitting the snare and
you're really gripping with the forefinger and the thumb
and stopping the recoil with the rest of your hand.
That secondary tip up front can put a nasty
gouge in anything you snap cut it with. This
one comes with their grivx sheath, which I'm fine with.
I don't need leather on this style of knife, though
my original Tanto does have leather.
Okay, next up is the Jimmy Slash
competition Choppa. This thing is
what it lacks in length, it makes up for in girth. Let'S put it
that way. Beautiful leather sheath here. And look at this
sucker. Oh my gosh. This is a huge
heavy slab of
3V steel. This is 516 of an inch
thick, so just a little bit over a quarter inch and, and
it. This has serial number 11,
by the way. Thank you. Jimmy Slash. He sent this to me when it first
came out. Quite a gift. Because this is
not an inexpensive knife that 3. There is a lot of
3D here and 3V is an expensive steel. You can see it's,
it's lightened with this swedge on the back for perfect
balance. It is 10 inches in length.
As. As is all. As are all competition
choppers for, for USA Blade sports that have to
fit into a certain envelope here
you've got a downward angle blade on this awesome grivx
handle and very, very nice
bird's beak here. Quite grippy. And then one of the things
I really love about this is the lanyard hole
here and the back, the pommel and then the lanyard holes here
right near the, the ricasso. So
you can make a sort of D guard lanyard to really keep it. On your
hand if you're doing your competition chopping. Now
here's a little news break. You don't have to be a competition chopper
to use this thing. This is outstanding for
batoning wood. As you can see, I've gotten some, some,
I got some schmutz on there I have to remove. But this is a really,
really great knife for all sorts of chopping
tasks. It is heavy, it is weight forward. The
sheath does not have a loop. It's not really meant to be carried. But you
could do it. You could do it and this would. Be a great
campsite knife. Say, if you're car camping, you don't want to
carry a pound of steel. Into the, into the bush with
you. This is the Jimmy Slash competition
chopper. Next up, back to Bowies. Because
this is cold steel. I've got a lot of cold steel Bowies. And this one
is the Western Bowie.
Now I'm going to be saying Bowie. You could say Bowie. I've tried it.
It just doesn't work for my Yankee tongue.
To me, I say Bowie, but this beauty is
the, the Wild West. So this is
based on the Marine Raider style of Bowie or
the Western W49 style of Bowie.
So you've got a nice long straight, a decent
belly and a widened tip. So the whole
thing widens out towards the clip. And when you meet the apex
of the blade here, that's where it's at its widest. This
is made by Windlass Cutlery in India
and they do a fantastic job with these. With these
Bowies. There's another one I'll be showing you here soon. That they also
make a slightly hollow ground
bevel here. And really, really
sure in hand grip with that bird's beak. Full tang
here. So what you see is what you get. You got a full
tank and then this amazing giant brass
esgard. Just a
wicked everything knife. I mean, you could use this
for camp chopping chores. You could use this in a fight. You could
use this to skin an animal. Preferably a big
animal, I'm thinking. But it's a do all, do
everything knife. This came with a sort of
tacky, like they put too much coating on it. I removed
it on the handle and. Now it is perfect.
Comes with a great leather sheath and hopefully they never change this
to the grivx. That would be a real shame. But
a great sheath with a dangler.
And a retention strap here.
Okay, next up is the Rondell
dagger. Now, the Rondell dagger is
quite a big dagger, but it doesn't. It has three
edges to it and they're all quite oblique edges.
Not sharp like you're not cutting cheese with them. But they are zero
ground so that if you had to slap someone on the
forearm with this, you would split the skin and break the
bone. It is a nasty dagger
meant for thrusting. Rondell, referring to both the guard
and the pommel on this. This was the kind of dagger a,
a knight in shining armor carried. And
when they got in their inevitable clinch, you know,
fighting for knights in armor, it was
a lot of bashing. The swords were sharpened usually just at the
tip, and the, the length of the blade was more for just smashing
and bashing and, and also as a handle because they would also
hit with the heavy pommels of their swords. So
eventually, oftentimes a fight between two
knights in armor would end in a clinch and rolling around on the ground.
And then you pull out this Rondel dagger, which is triangular
in cross section, and just jam it through the
armor or preferably in the joints of the armor. And. And
it's meant to go through chain mail.
I dare say you don't need to be a knight in shining armor to make
good use of this. This would make a good.
Well, I'm not going to say what it would make. It would be good for
all sorts of modern self defense. You could even keep this in your
car and say, oh, I'm. I'm going to a larping event if. The cop
ever stops you. But all jokes aside, a
really, really. Powerful thrusting weapon here. And
not only is this going to breach armor and
chain mail, but you could really use it to great effect
as a bludgeoning sort of
weapon or. As a, A. Yeah, blunt
force weapon. All right, next up, the
1917 Frontier Bowie. I'll show it to you in the
beautiful leather sheath with the metal
chape and throat here.
It's also got a dangler. Very, very nice sheath. But this is the
knife right Here. So beautiful S guard
on this. I really like the look of that guard. This one is also
made by Windlass Cutlery in India. Again,
it came with too much coating on the handle. I
took it off with isopropyl and got it down. This
has a channel channel
tang. So it's a full tang but it's not. The full width of
the handle comes. All the way down to the pommel. But
like a Randall made knife, the channel
is cut into the handle and. It is fitted over
the over the tank. A beautiful
blued clip point blade with a giant fuller not only
to add rigidity but to lighten the blade itself. Make
it a little easier to wield. A bit of
a swashbuckler is this knife. To me this reminds me of
the kind of knife that would have been made from a
discarded or broken saber. It
kind of has that effect. It is called the
1917 Frontier Bowie. So who knows, maybe
the thought behind that is that,
you know, we're, we're, we're into the 20th century but there still is
a frontier out west. So you take your old
saber from the Civil war, cut it down and make something more
useful of it out on the plains. I'm
just making all this up but I love this handle. It's weird, it doesn't
look like it. Should comfortable, but it is quite comfortable in hand.
I've seen some people reprofile the handle or rec
contour it but I love. I love it the way it is.
So this is the 19 front 1917
Frontier Bowie. A big knife. Let me tell it. Let me
give you the measurement on this one. It is
12 and a quarter inches long. So that's a big
blade, 12 and. A quarter inches long. Nice
big boat. All right, next up, this one also
in historical piece as you see going through this. A lot of these
have a lot of historical.
Markers to them. This one is the chieftain Sax.
So a sort of Viking sort of Anglo Saxon
style blade here. Here's the sheath. Very nice sheath.
Set up for horizontal scout carry
hang if you will. And then here is
the blade. Now this one is big. Let me, let me
measure this one for you. This is a full 13
inch blade here. Not sure if I can get the
full thing in but it's got a beautiful rosewood handle, nicely
carved with some sort of, I don't know, it
looks like traditional, not runes but traditional patterns
here. Not only on the rosewood handle
but also on the brass guard and pommel.
And then you've got this long brokeback Sax blade. I Always
say it's a thin line between brokeback sacks and
Bowie, but this one does have a very
straight edge with an ever so slight curve up towards
the tip. And then it's got that clip down or that drop
down. A lot of people like to say that the sax knife
was developed from broken swords. I think that's
poppycock, personally, but.
I. Mean, I think that this is a, an excellent design
in and of itself as a knife. It doesn't have to be like a
salvage kind of thing, but, you know, that's not to say you couldn't make
a great sax from a salvage sword, but I just don't think the other
proportions work in that situation. But
this knife, this has spent many a night
in front of the tv. This is one of my TV
guarding the house knives. So I have plenty of stuff
to guard the house with. But I also like to have a nice big fixed
blade with me. And this one, I don't know, just generally tends to,
to be there with me. I think it's intimidating. It's big,
comes out of the sheath easily. It's thin enough that you can shear through
anything that full, flat grind. So yeah, this is
a, this is. A personal favorite of mine. This is the
chieftain sax. All right,
next up, one of the, one of the OG
beauties here. This is the Natchez Bowie.
Now, unfortunately, this is in a securex sheath. The
securex sheath is outstanding and the throat
widens enough that you can use it, slip it under the belt and
use it like a traditional studded sheath. For the
belt for belt carry. But this one really
deserves a leather sheath. And I have a
line on a leather sheath that I'm going to have made
from a great friend of
the show here, and I'm not gonna mention him until,
until it comes to pass because I don't want people knocking on. His door for
a leather sheet. But I am gonna have a leather sheath made for
this one as soon. As his books open up.
Beautiful, beautiful Musso style Bowie. You've got
a Coke, Coke bottle handle here. I know that's not what they call it on
Bowies, but that's basically what it is because you've got the palm and the
finger swell here and then a sort of coffin style termination.
Nice big guard on this knife both
north and south of the edge, but also east and west. So
you've got a, a little bit of protection on the side of the
hand. This is also. Oh, wait, don't
want to talk out of school here.
It's a quarter Inch. It's, it's maybe between a quarter inch and 5
16. It is damn thick. You've got a nice
swooped clip here and that is also zero
ground. So you want to talk back cut with this knife. There's,
there's a lot of weight in that blade and a sharp enough
clip that if you were to land a back cut with
this, it would be absolutely devastating.
Very sharp knife. Now this comes in 3V. I did not
opt for 3V, which is way more expensive than the
4034 stainless steel. But
for me, I see this with its cable tang
as a fighting knife. This is not an outdoors
knife. For me, it could be. You know, I could, I have
once baton with this just to make sure it could. But
this to me is not that kind of knife. So I do not need 3
3V. To me, this is a knife fighting. That is a bowie. This is a
dueling knife. So I don't need the 3D.
I've got hardened 4034, which I believe is a
Krupp steel. The Germans know their steel and
cold steel knows it's heat treat. So that,
that together works great. Works well enough for me,
let's put it that way. So beautiful micarta
handle. I absolutely love this knife.
All right. Second to last in this list was a gift from my
brother. This is the Chaos Kukri.
Nice giant blade here.
Here it is. The Chaos has a cast aluminum
D guard handle for protecting your hands in the
bush or protecting your hands against the face of people
that you are fighting in the trench. Whatever. Whatever you
what? Whatever is your use case. This a 13
inch SK5, I believe.
Kukri blade with that extreme recurve, that
low tip and the deep belly. People think of these
as choppers only or slashers only. But I'll have you know
they make. For great flavor thrusters. So on a thrust
on a stab with a knife like this, not only can you do it in
a snapping sort of way and use some of that, the momentum
of the weight of this to penetrate, but also you could just go
straight in because your wrist doesn't need to change
posture because you've got that extreme curve in the blade.
This is one of those zombie knives. This is one of those last
ditches, the world's ending. Grab something big and
furious to take out the door with you. This would definitely
fall into that category. Also has an attitude adjuster
as a pommel nut here. So this thing is just
chaotic all the way around. Actually, it's not chaotic at all it's very
well thought out. Chaos is what it's called. This is
what you reign. This is what brings order to chaos
right here. Nice big chaos kukri.
All right, last up, this is another historical piece and
one that is very. Close to my heart because this is.
The Italian fixed blade
EDC for self protection in the
16th century. 16th and 17th centuries. This is
the Cinquea, which means five fingers
because of the width of the blade. A lot of people like to quip
that, oh, it's an Italian knife. It looks like a slice of pizza.
And actually I, I, I like that. I like pizza, I like
being Italian. I'm proud of my heritage. And sure,
okay, it looks like a slice of pizza. Also looks like a slice of Roman.
Cheesecake if you want. But really what it is is a
deadly double edged, super wide dagger
used in duels and all sorts of sort of back
alley engagements. Here
you've got a nice big guard, a beautiful handle here with
the studs for extra
grip. This is more comfortable with a glove than not. I will have.
You know, I've done a lot of shadow boxing with this one too, and I
always end up putting my workout gloves, which are just workout work
gloves on to, to
keep it in hand. Without it harshing my skin
and hurting. So you got the double guard, you've got the super
wide blade, you've got two edges and
a really nice heavy pommel which weights it like a
short sword so that you can
have that. Tip move around exactly where you need it to go.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, that is my trip down
the big cold steel fixed blade lane. Hope you enjoyed it.
Hope you yourself have a big cold steel. And if you don't
and you're looking to get one, remember the first one. To get is
the Trail. A true masterpiece. All right, I'm
Bob DeMarco signing off here saying for
Jim who works his magic behind the switcher, have a great week
and we will see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Knife Junkie
podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and
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