Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. Your weekly dose of knife
news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your
host, Bob DeMarco.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this
edition of the show, I'm speaking with K.C. Spiron of Tempest Knives
and the Knives Fast channel. Casey started his
YouTube channel with the goal of cutting out the noise and focusing on the
signal of your run of the mill knife review, delivering quick
takes on the newest and most relevant folding knives on the market. In
the process, he built up a following from his live shows, which pushed
him to prominence. But somewhere along the line, he turned
his mind to the ideal and what he wanted most out of
the knives he reviewed. And that's when his company, Tempest
Knives, was born. We'll talk with Casey all about the
evolution of his knife obsession and what's new with Tempest Knives.
But first, be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification
bell, and of course, download the show to your favorite podcast app. That
way you can listen on the go. Also, if you'd like to help support the
show, please share it or you can go to Patreon and
join us there. Become a gentleman junkie. Save 12% when you get
a whole year from. Scan the QR code on your screen or join right here
on YouTube again, the knife junkie.com Patreon,
that is. Then, if junkie.com.
Ever visit the knives. Online in the hopes of satisfying your need to
possess them in the real world, then you have a problem. You
are a knife junkie. K.C. Good to see you, sir. How you doing?
Doing great, Bob. The beard's looking good, man. I mean, come on.
Oh, thank you, thank you. It's my winter shag. There you go.
Well, I want to congratulate you first and foremost on the
fast growth of Tempest Knives. It's
been dizzying to watch and, and to be around. It's always
cool to see you at Blade Show. You seem elated from the reception you
get. So when you started the Knives Fast channel, did you ever see
this happening? No, not at all. I had, I
had no intentions of. Of that. As a matter of fact, Bob, I would
say when I started Knives Fast, I didn't know
enough about knives, if that makes sense. I. I feel
like I had a lot to learn. And,
you know, I think that evolution of seeing hundreds of
knives a year or whatever it is, is what
sort of drove that passion. Because as I, as I
saw more, it became clear to me what I really liked
and what I didn't like and it was time to. Again the same
thing. You know, when I started my channel, it was, there was all these channels
that were doing really long form videos and I didn't have time.
So my solution was, oh, I'm going to do reviews and make short ones.
So I guess my solution, you know, for Tempest
knives was I wasn't seeing as much
of what I really had honed in on
as what I hope. So I just said, I'll design some. So,
you know, it was it. But it took a long time to really learn
that, you know, what I really liked, why I really liked it,
why I didn't like certain things, if that makes sense. And, and
hone it, like you said, into, into something that I am
elated to have going. So. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, and so during that period of time, you're, you're,
before Tempest knives came around, you're reviewing all these knives.
What, what were you honing in on? What were you deciding
that were musts in knives that you
weren't seeing elsewhere? Wow, that, that, that's crazy. And that's
a really big topic. But, but we'll, we'll see what we can do here. But
you know, I guess the things that, that really, as I started seeing
more and more and more knives, ergonomics became way
more important to me. It's, you know, how does the knife fit my
hand, why does it fit my hand like that?
You know, and, and it, it became a lot about that
and then it became just about certain shapes I liked and, and,
and the types of clip and the types of lock. I mean,
I love, I, I'm a frame lock, liner lock guy, mostly
lighter locks. You'll see most of the Tempest knives are, are
inset or nested liner locks and
you know, things like that, it's just, just kind of honed in on the things
that I really liked. But yeah, ergonomics is a big one. And that's why the
majority of my knives, not all of them, but the majority of my knives
are contoured in some way on the handles just because I enjoy
the way they fit my hand. That makes sense. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So, so do you think that, or
did you think leading up to making your own designs, that
people weren't designing knives, they were designing
knives more on looks and less on feel and usability?
Boy, I don't, I hate to answer this question, Bob. I'm, I'm one of these
people that has a lot of opinions on stuff. So I
think a lot of people that design knives
or were at the time. So, so it's changed quite a bit. But
we're designing knives that they thought would sell. Does that make
sense? Yes. Now, now I don't, I don't think that's a terrible
thing. I think that's smart business. That's absolutely
the way it should be. And in, in
the large space, meaning if, if you're
Kershaw, of course you're gonna, you're gonna be designing knives that
you think approach the masses
more. And I think that that's why like for example,
Bob, when there's a, when there's a fad. But locks
became the fad and suddenly everybody's doing butt locks. Now
it's axis or bar style locks. They're everywhere. It's
almost overwhelming to me.
I think I had started to cross over between just a guy that had a
few knives and cut things at work to a guy that
wanted to collect certain things and wanted to enjoy them and
create a collection. And at that point there were just certain things
that I wasn't seeing enough variety in. And so I don't think
anybody was designing anything bad. But it
wasn't what was fitting me, if that makes sense. A lot of flat
scales, a lot of, you know, clips that
aren't super comfortable and things like that. And it's just, and
blade shapes. You know, I'm kind of, you'll, you'll see like I
could just pull out, you know, one of my middle of the pack. You know,
this is probably my third, third night, fourth knife.
You,
you remember Bob remembers the, the very first
Tempest knife.
Well, the knives you design, I have two of them right here.
There you go. You design are very practical
and, and, and, but they're also very unique
looking. They take very practical blade shapes and.
And you know, make very functional tools. But they're also good
looking and unique and, and in a way you're lucky
because some of the knives I've designed and drawn, you know, as you can tell
from the knives behind me, I knives I've made some
swoopy, aggressive, weird looking. Why isn't anyone making this?
And a couple of years later I'm like, thank God no one ever made.
So, so in a sense like your, your sense of practicality having
handled so many great EDCs,
maybe it's lent itself to your design language.
by
the
way,
Bob,
I
got
to
show
you
something
while we're, while we're here. Check this
out. This just came out.
Two, three weeks ago. It's, there's four versions of it. This is the
Kubi. I sold the, the fixed blade design of
the microburst to them. And so this is the Kubi
microburst fixed blade in 14C.
And these, these are available from them
as we speak. And there's, I think they're blue micarta and
brown micarta with stonewash blades and blackwash blades. So there's
four versions, but yeah, I just thought, you know,
hey, maybe it might be a pretty cool fixed blade. And they agreed.
So. Congratulations on that. That's an
excellent, just came out. So, so when you showed the
microverse, I'm like, I gotta show him that. So. Well, wait now
this begs a different question. You find it
okay, so so far, you've done mostly
your designs uncompromisingly, having them oem.
And. And you're responsible for delivery and all that.
If I've got your model correct, what's it like going from
that to selling a design and watching them take
it and it becomes theirs? It's definitely tougher.
It's. It's. And it depends on who you're working with, so I'll
give you a couple of examples. So I. I had
the. The supercell with
Kubi. This is a folder that
I did. And you can see it definitely has Tempest
lines to it. And. But, you know,
they. Kubi does things very much
in the realm of they put the materials they want,
they pick the colors they. So that's a little
tougher for me because it's like, I would love to be able to pick
the materials, the. The blade steel, all those kinds of things.
Whereas here's another model that I did. I don't. I. I don't know if you've
seen this guy or not, but this is the concept
Thunderhead. And. And I actually got to pick the variations
on the. The Thunderhead. So, you know, it just.
It's kind of. I'm a control freak if
nobody realizes that, and so it's kind of tough to just turn
it over and do that. But I will tell you what. It's done, Bob is
it. It's brought my knives to a lot of people that had
no clue, because, for example, at Blade show, you were saying, you come find me
and you know where I am. But. But I would assume there's a lot of
people that don't. And they end up going over to the concept
booth. And I had this happen this last year. They go to the concept booth,
they see this, and they're like, wait, who's that guy? And. And somebody says, oh,
is Bruce over there? And they end up coming over, and
I sold. I sold a bunch of my stuff that way. So I think
it's. It's a bridge, you know, to a part of the
market that. That I don't know. So I've. And I've got more
collaboration knives coming very soon.
This
is the KB knives, which is Kubo
Zephyr. The Zephyr is the first Tempest Integral.
And. And so these are pretty pricey. I'm just gonna be honest.
For those that are gonna look it up, they're gonna go, there are codes and
things like that out there. But just, just gives you an
opportunity to maybe do things. For example, I don't know that I would
do a Tempest Integral
simply because they're very, very
pricey and I don't know how well I would say
sell them. So if that makes sense. Yeah, it sure does. Man, that
is. That's beautiful. That's. Thank you. And it's, you know,
you can see your signature lines in it. But it's also
a little bit of a departure from.
And
it's,
you know,
you
can see
your signature lines
in it. But
it's also a little bit of a departure
from. Well, let's talk about this one
since you have it out. Yes, sir. Let's look at
the first of all. Flip it around. The lightning holes.
Yeah. That you set our inlays on the, on the sandwich
concept structure. Is there any
significance or symbolism in that? No, they.
So, so again, originally it was, it was drawn by me as a
standard knife, not as an Integral. When they did the Integral, they said it was
coming up a little heavy. And they asked me if I minded if they did
some speed holes. And they, they drew these
out and I said, you know what, let's go with it. That's pretty cool. I
mean, I would have just done holes. And I was actually thinking about
like small to large, like having a large. If there were,
you know, this like, large hole and then small, small, small, small,
small, small on either side. And then when they showed me this, I was like,
yeah, we're just gonna go with that because it kind of gives it that
playful kind of, you know, almost like video game
vibe or something. I don't know. I don't know if that's what they were going
for, but it looks like. A language of some sort. That could be
true. Yeah, that's. So no, it was literally
to give it some weight reduction. It's, it's already
in this form. It's a 8 and 8.3 inch
knife. So it's already a 5 ounce knife. And if you didn't do
that it's probably more like 5.5, 5.6,
something like that. It's just trying to control weight. That's, that's what you're
trying to do. So that blade is about three and a half.
You. Yeah, you asked me this and that's. Well, though that's the other issue
about having so many knives out there. It's like. Yeah, so the cutting edge is
three and a half. The blade itself is about three and three quarters.
Just.
Like
the Tornado I was showing is. Well, no, I haven't showed the
Tornado yet. So we'll get to that in a minute. But.
Well, I have it written down here. Tornado. But. But before we go
to that, I'm early. Let me ask you this. Well, first of all, you
said that things have changed since you first started
designing knives. And I know that, that things change pretty quickly
and tastes change and people are
obsessed over what, what has changed in the period of time
since you designed your first knife. Wow, that's. That's. Well,
okay, so if, if you take the, the Mach 51,
that was a premium knife, this was going to be like a shoot, I don't
even remember, like a $300 knife, I think. And
so when that didn't go well, I went to the Pinion,
which was the budget knife. And
I guess in this day and age,
if you're gonna play in the budget space.
...occurred
to me and people, you know, immediately, Bob, people were like, we need a,
we need a titanium version of that. We need a titanium version of the
microverse. We need. They still ask me about
that...
And so this was able to be like a $140 knife.
And so I kind of settled, you
know, in that the majority of my, my knives right now are in that
140, 150, 160 range. It's a good
range. And, and that kind of seems like. So when I say
it changed, I think my mindset changed of
who Tempest should be now. We did do, we did the,
we did the fractus which was a 200 knife.
So we have, we have played in the higher end of the
pool but not way up there. Right. Like some of these companies
have done. I'm, I'm, I've got some coming that
are going to be a little more high end. But I think where my bread
and butter is going to, my bread is going to be buttered, if you will,
is going to be that 150 range. If that
makes. Ben Belkin has talked,
you, you talked a lot on the show about well,
Jack Wolf knives and you know how he's diversified. Yeah,
absolutely. And I love, I mean he's one of the best businessmen
I've ever met, let alone knives or whatever he's doing, I would
imagine. Super smart guy. Yeah, yeah.
He, he commented last time he was on the show about how
he found it easy. Not easy, but.
It made sense for him to start high end with the slip joints
and then start introducing.
Going down market from there. Have
you found any difficulty in switching spots in the
market?
But
I think literally Bob, what changed
for me was just getting my name out there more and
you know, the mark. I am not like you. You know, our buddy
left edc, he is the marketing genius, that
guy. He knows how to get his name out there. He knows
how to. I'm not that guy. I'm, I, I do a
channel. I'm very. No nonsense. I'm not like in your
face, you know, that kind of thing. I'm, I'm very.
And so it's, it's a little more difficult for me.
So it just took more time for Tempest, I would say and
it took those collaborations. So what I would say is since I'm
still small batch. It
is. Well, I mean between 3 and 503 and
600 knives. This, this next knife that we're going to talk about, the tornado
is 600. It's, it's pretty crazy to think I'm doing
that many, but it's, you know, living
in that space, I haven't really had a hard time
finding enough people that want to buy them in that price range. Now if I
was doing $300 knives every time, it probably would be
a lot more difficult, I would think. I feel
like. And this is in no way minimizing
the amazing work that Ben has done, but in a sense,
you know, making modernized and,
you know, updated versions of knives that people are already familiar
with. The Barlow, the Swayback, that
kind of thing. Almost as yes, sir or the equal.
You
know, you're introducing people to your design language and, you
know, you have then, well, your name Tempest Knives and you have a whole
theme, which I think is great because I could see how it
could be difficult from knife to knife floundering around. I'll call this one,
you know, the Ass Kicker and this one's the Assistant.
But, but I like, I love ridiculous. Yeah. And it's much easier with
a theme. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you locked in on such a great
theme too. And it happened, I told you last time
it happened so weirdly. It was just, you know, we're sitting on the beach trying
to come up with a name. We kept shooting down everyone and
looking at Storm. And I said, ah, there's a tempest to brew. And he goes,
that's it. And I'm like, and I love weather. I always
talk, I always talk about storms. I mean, I used to very,
I, in the very loose sense of the word, sort of chase storms a little
bit.
So
it just as soon as he said, Dad, that's it. I'm like,
oh, crud. You know what I think of that? You know, and then we all
sat there for an hour talking about a list of names that could be on
knives within the theme. And it was just like, okay,
yeah, this is gonna work. So there's, you have had to stay away
from. Because other people already had them. But other than that, it's been,
it's been really, really easy. And they all have a
formidable sound to them too, you know? Yeah. Every time I show up
for Thunderhead, people are Like Thunderhead, everybody wants Thunderhead to say.
And plus it makes such, such a crazy sound.
It's got that ting to it. And then you just say Thunderhead, you
know, and it's just like, it's just, it's fun. So
since we're on the Thunderhead, let's talk about this for a second because.
Because in, in my knife collecting, here's a little preface. In my
knife collecting, I started off fixed blades, spent a little, a long
time obsessing about folders, but over the past few years I've
just kind of naturally drifted back towards fixed
blades and a lot of custom fixed blades, just given the, my
taste in the people I interview. But concept here,
I'm carrying one right now. Ah, the bison. Yes, sir. I love
it. Concept has consistently been
one of my, even, even through my fixed blade
obsession. Concept is one of the companies I keep coming back to
because they're always impressive with their builds and they have so many
cool collaborations and designs. Tell me a little bit about
working with Bob. And did you have, did you design
the Thunderhead with DeMarco in mind?
I design every, everyone that I do is designed with
Tempest in mind. And then I sit down and I make a decision. I meant
with concept in mind, right? No, no, no, no. I sit down and
I draw all of them in, in something I would want.
Now, I will say there's one exception. I'm working on one collaboration knife
and I might as well say with, with concept, but
that they came to me and asked for something specific,
a budget knife, basically. And, and I'm like, okay, so I drew
that one for them and that's the first time I've done that. Everything else I've
done has been I. I create a catalog of designs.
I then once I get them where I want them, which usually involves
Bob, I draw them, I draw several different views of them
and then I, I, I write out all of my
specs, what I want everything to be, and then I get together with a
friend of mine who is a CAD artist and we work on it
together. And once I do that, then I will think,
okay, what company would this work, work well with?
And then I farm it out and, and ask, hey you, are you
interested? And to see if they, if, if
they're interested and go from there. So what happened actually was I
had only worked with Cougie, I, I decided to
do the, the fractus. Now, at the time.
Kuby had not really done inlay work. You remember, back
maybe two years ago, Kubi had not done inlay knives
at all. And so I'm like start asking around who's good with inlays. It's
not going to be no offense to certain companies out there, but I didn't want
to do certain companies because I didn't want to be outside my price range, you
know, too, too far. And so everybody was like, well, DeMarco would do good
within that, that structure. So I got, I was started working
on the fractus. Well, somewhere near working on the fractus, I
drew the Thunderhead. And you can see there's some similarities
to a degree, but obviously a totally different blade shape.
And, and so I just asked him, I said, hey, I drew this
one. Would you be interested? And what was cool with them is we
did some collaborating on the design, we tweaked a few
things together. We added some
different clip, we changed the milling. We, you know,
and, and so I will say DeMarco is, is they take
a little bit longer than some, but they are, they're
awesome when they get it going. They do great work,
they market it well. They, so they, they're an absolute
pleasure to work with. The answer to your, your question is no. I,
I just draw Tempest designs and then once
I get them to that quote unquote finish point, I, I think
in my head, okay, I've got Tempest structured out for the next year.
I got this one, this one, this one, this one. So I got some extras
here. What do I want to sell these, you
know what I'm saying? That kind of thing. And then I end up picking a
partner from there, depending on if they want or not. Yeah.
Do you? Well, all of that was to say I love concept. I'm so happy
that you're working with them because I just think their stuff is so
great. But do you feel any sort
of loyalty to any of these companies, OEMs
or companies that you're licensing to or, or is that not really
a thing? It is for me. I, I,
I, I'm, don't get me wrong, I'm going to be doing work. I've, I've already
started talking to some other companies. There are, there are two or three more companies
that, and then I'm going to get prototypes for Tempest done from
a company I've never worked with since in, because
I, you know how I told you, I said most of my stuff
has been in the 150 range, but there's a knife coming up that's going to
be ultra primo. I'm going to try
another company for that one. Just not, not that I Don't think Kubi or Concept
could do it. I just, I feel like if I'm going to go all there,
we're going to go all there, you know what I'm saying? And so with someone
who's known for that. Yeah, so, but
loyalty wise, I guess what I would say is for the, for
the most part, I feel okay.
What
happened was between myself and Kevin, from Left to
EDC or Devo, pushing them to try new things,
they realized, hey, we're pretty good at this. So now what's
happened is, is their there. And, and so I do, I do
feel a connection with them, if you will. Not, not necessarily. I don't know if
I call it loyalty because I'm going to shop around and do some other stuff,
so if it makes sense. But I do feel
connected with them in a really cool way because I feel
like I've watched them go from a company that did really good work
but, but pretty basic stuff to a company that could do
whatever they want right now. I mean, they're just,
they're, they're, they're knocking it out of the park for sure. Kind of
mirroring your, your growth in a way. Yes,
sir. Which is pretty cool.
And
then
next
thing you know they turn it around and they put it in some of their
knives and you're like, wow, that's, that's really cool.
And so you do, you do feel that kind of loyalty because you
feel linked if you know yeah, yeah. And,
you know, you're kind of with them earlier on, too, right? There's something
to be said for that. Yes, sir. Another thing that there's something to be said
for is with concept, you're in some
incredible company as a designer,
and that's got to feel great, too. Actually doesn't
feel real because I. I look up to Ray. Ray Loconico
is. He's not just a good design. I mean, the guy's a great dude.
He's. He's a fantastic human. Love talking to him.
And then you throw out names like Jonathan Stiles and. And,
you know, they've had stuff from Paul Munko. They've had. I mean,
their list of designers is. Is absolutely crazy. Even some of
the newer designers they've. They've brought out recently, like
Jesse Pauley and. Shoot, I'm. I'm blanking on his
name right now. But the guy that made the site, the Concept Silo,
and excuse me, that's the Kubi Silo. But anyway, he's done some work with.
At
Blade West, I. My
picture and a picture of the Thunderhead were on their
banners in their booth, and I wasn't there, but people sent me pictures, and I'm
just like, what in the heck? It doesn't.
That doesn't even feel. Feel like it should be happening, you know?
But it. When you see the. I love the. The bison.
But
the saber tooth. I mean, it. It was from Monterey Bay
knives. I love how Ray has a. Has a type of.
But then all of a sudden, he breaks out of his type, and you see
this crazy knife and you're just like, wow, okay.
So, you know, again, it's that. It's that I just look up to
Ray so much, and it pushes me to see his work. So that is very
cool. He does.
80%
of his knives are identifiably Bob
Laconico.
Concept
sent me one and I'm like, wait, wait, who designed this?
And, and I looked it up and I'm like, there's, there's no way. It
must have been a fever dream. Yeah, that. And, and like I said, the
Monterey Bay Saber tooth is, is in that, is in that category
as well. It's just an angry looking knife. And it's like,
you're used to like the, the ECC and the,
and the old Guard and, and they're very.
You know, like a kitty cat. You can pet them, you know, and it, that
thing looks like a mean dog, you know, it's like, okay, all right.
Yep, very cool. Before we get to the Tornado, because
I want you to show that off. I want to talk about Bob, but. I,
I have a question from before that that
I think you, you could answer for me
in the last, say, I don't know, five to eight years
in knives or however long you've been in it, let's say.
How much of the popularity of
knives, because we've seen it explode.
Not as popular as guns or bicycles or other things, but
we've seen the popularity of knives and knife collecting explode. How much,
in your opinion, is that due to things like
fidgetiness and, you know, lock type? You were talking about
bar lock and button lock and you know, as,
as trends and as. But to me that's, there's a lot
of visceral joy in opening and closing a knife. We all get that
fidget factor. How much do you think is that
responsible for the growth in the knife industry? And does that have
a diminishing return effect? Number one would, would be, like
you said, the fidgetiness. We've gone from a place where a knife was a, a
utilitarian tool that you pulled out, made a cut with, and put back in your
pocket, you know, or, or if it was my dad peeled your apple, wiped it
off with your handkerchief and then put it back in your pocket, if you know
what I mean. But now it's, it's exactly that. You've got that, that a couple
of things I think it's important to not just hang up on the fidgety ness,
but it's the, it's the show and tell factor is what I like to call
it. So it's, for example, sorry, I had reach over here, but this is the
knife that came out earlier this year, the downdraft. And you know, it's this stuff,
it's camo carbon. People love this stuff. And you love to pull this out of
your pocket and hand it to your buddy to cut.
Number one would, would be, like you said, the
fidgetiness. We've gone from a place where a knife was a,
a utilitarian tool that you pulled out, made a cut with, and put back
in your pocket, you know, or, or if it was my dad
peeled your apple, wiped it off with your handkerchief and then
put it back in your pocket, if you know what I mean. But now
it's, it's exactly that. You've got that, that
a couple of things I Think it's important to not just hang up on the
fidgety ness, but it's the, it's the show and tell
factor is what I like to call it. So it's,
for example, sorry, I had reach over here, but
this is the knife that came out
earlier this year, the downdraft. And
you know, it's this stuff, it's camo carbon.
People love this stuff. And you love to pull this out of your pocket and
hand it to your buddy to cut. And he's like, whoa, what is that? You
know? And so I think what happened was we went from
a place where you had two or three knives. One was in your drawer
that you put in your pocket every morning, one was in your drawer beside
the, where you get your mail every day, and maybe one in the
kitchen, you, you know, and then a kitchen knife or something. And, and now
we're at the point that people are collecting these because it's that
enjoyable almost status thing of, of the collection
of. I can carry a different thing every day and post it on
social media and I can hand it to my friend or show it to my
friend. And I think. So I, I think the answer to your question is
that now it, the diminishing returns part.
I think we're going to reach a point where we've done it
at some point, if that makes sense. I think I, I, I
think you can only reinvent the wheel so many times, so I think
eventually we'll reach a point where.
You know, the saturation will have to go down a little bit. But I don't
think, I don't think new handle materials, new
steels, new lock types, I don't think that kind of
stuff is, is going away. I'm reviewing a knife right
now from a company called Numb Knives, and they got this
brand new lock called the pinch lock, and it's
super cool and it works really well. And it's like having two
detents on either side of the blade instead of one and two
lock bars in front of the blade instead of one. And you're like,
wait a minute, what the heck? And, and so
I think, I think to some degree you're right. I think we'll see a
saturation of some of this stuff and,
and eventually, you know, like, stuff like this is 80s camo carbon. Some people
love it, some people hate it. And I think at some point, you
know, they'll, they'll either be something else or people will just be
like, kind of tired, you know, I think, yeah,
yeah, that's great. So that's material issue. But the profile of
that knife is, is always beautiful like that, that will
never not be beautiful. And that's, that's the thing, like, because I, I,
I wasn't pushing for any, any. No, I knew you weren't. I just didn't
answer because I, I. Kind of vacillate personally, I
think sometimes. Like, how many more of these holders can. Oh,
that's nice. You know what I'm saying? Like there, there's a couple of things to
it. It's been around, you know, longer than trees. Not really. Right.
I mean, they're like super old tools. Yep. Everyone loves them.
Everyone's got a personal connection to them in one way or another, whether it's your
grandpa or your experience working in the restaurant, whatever
it is. So everyone's got a love somewhere in. There
or. But I don't know, I was just,
just curious from a designer's perspective, you know. Yeah, and
you're right on what you said a minute ago. You said, you know, it's time
to how many more of these I can have. And then you get, you know,
a whole haptic in your hand and, and you're able to buy one of these
for the first time ever. And you're like, oh, my gracious. There
is, there's, there's some really cool stuff out there if I can just afford it,
you know. And then now you're, now you're down a totally different
rabbit hole and you're like, what have I done? Oh, man.
And so, yeah, there's, I, I think there's so many
options out there. And, and you know, in my case, I've been
selling some to buy more expensive, expensive stuff.
can
you,
Bob,
can you
ever think of a time, I mean, think about it.
In any given month. There
might be A hundred new models or, or more.
And I just think to my. That is, I did. There
was nothing like that when I started doing this channel. There was.
It's, it's every day it feels like there's something.
Here's something that's coming next week, here's come to something that's coming in two weeks.
And you're just like, wow, this is crazy.
And you're right, you do that. Oh man, I gotta have that. Yeah.
So I feel like as long as enthusiast
designers such as yourself, you mentioned Lefty and
so many others. As long as there are enthusiast
designers working with great companies,
like guys like me, we're good.
We're taken care of. When it becomes
just another task for an industrial designer to
make another knife, then, then it starts to lose its soul. But I, I
kind of feel like, you know, there's no telling where this spiral ends.
If people are, people like yourself are, are still like
engaged and designing knives from an enthusiast
perspective. Keep asking myself how many more things I can
design and not have one look like the last one, you know, and
they all hearken to each other. They're all like in the family, if you will,
all my stuff. So it's, but it's, you know, it still keeps happening.
I've got two right here that I drew last week that I'm sitting here thinking,
wow, that's totally different.
So, you know, it's you. I'll keep working on it for sure. Well, you know,
like, like any artist or design or designer, you know, you, you go
through periods, you know, Picasso had his Blue period and then he became a Cubist
and then he was doing crazy paintings for a long time and then, you know,
and then he came back to his childhood self. So, yeah, like things
move in stages and those stages all have, you know,
echoes of, of the last work. Right, I,
I totally agree with that. And some, you know, sometimes you'll hear
a comment from a, from somebody that's like, all your knives look
the same. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then, you know, you look
at something like I said, like the, the, the supercell and
it's got this really classic looking
drop point blade. And then, and then you look at the, at the,
the, at the Thunderhead and I'm like, how does this look anything like
that? So again, they're in the family,
but it's, it's you, you find ways to make
stuff different and interesting at
the, at the same time, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. All right,
so let's talk about the Tornado. There was a, there was some
foreshadowing about this and you showed me before we started rolling.
Let's take a look at this. Well, okay, so here, here's the deal. You asked
at. Yeah, I think when we were first talking about getting
together what's new? And, and the answer is the
Tornado. So my, my latest model will be
coming in January. And they literally.
It's funny, Bob, we're doing this today. Obviously we're
recording this in advance and, and some of my boxes
came in today. Thank you UPS for not bringing the rest but,
but I have, I have one of each of the seven
variants. But I'm gonna hold off on showing the, the dealer
exclusives. But yeah, this is just a
six and a half inch knife. First clip point blade
that I've done. Very contoured
scales on this guy. You can flick it real easily. It
does have the, the low profile back
flipper that I like to do. A little different shape this time, but it, it
works like a charm. And, and there's a bunch of versions.
I'll tell you. I always try to do some firsts in a run.
And this is, this is, this runs
first. It is a black PVD coated handle
with man, I'm sorry about the focus and, and
bronze accents, but this is the first DLC
coated black blade. And what you get there is you get that belt
satin underneath that dlc and I just think,
I don't know what it is about this one. This thing just looks
absolutely killer. I wish I had made more of these. I
was, I was seeing when I saw it today, I'm like, oh my goodness.
But there's a bunch, there'll be camo carbon versions. First
time there's been a purple Tempest
knife. So this is the purple
flow camo carbon.
Really nice. So yeah, I won't show them all, but there's, there's
definitely some really cool. There's seven different versions to it. Dealers and the
rest on Tempest knives. And we're shooting for the middle of
January I think, I think around the 15th, but not
in stone just yet. We're waiting, waiting for the dealers to confirm that
they're good with that date. But if they are, that's, that's where we'll be
and yeah, and we'll be announcing the dealer exclusives very
soon. So this is your smallest so far, I believe.
What, what inspired this design and, and why a clip point?
My favorite place. Boy, that's. Yeah. Okay, cool.
Very interesting question. What inspired. Well,
I, I had most of My knives had been bigger,
and so I had a lot of people begging me for a really cool, small
knife. Now, I, I'll be honest with
you. You talked about. Names.
I have wanted a Tornado sound since the
beginning of Tempest. I'm like, it has to. I couldn't.
I, when I designed these knives, they, it's like if you get a dog
and you've had the puppy for a couple days, you know, whether a name fits
them or not. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like when you draw a
knife, draw a design, to me, it feels like it should
be something or it shouldn't. And so I just started scribbling
out. I'm like, I actually said, first of all, I want a small die.
Second of all, that's the Firestorm version here. That's
gorgeous with that, all that acid.
Stonewashed is killer in the anno as well. So, yeah,
it's, but, but I started drawing it. I'm like, well, I haven't done a clip
point, so I'd like to do a clip point. So I drew that.
And, and then I wanted it small and then the rest just came together.
So it is actually a little more contoured than some of my
knives. Even, even more. And that was because I wanted to do
this sort of, I call it the top of the tornado milling.
It's just kind of like bands there like you, you might
see in a tornado, you know, and,
you know, it's just, I, I guess it was just inspired by that.
But more than anything, I just, I, I again, sometimes I just
start off with a blade shape or a size or whatever,
and, and I knew I hadn't done a clip point, and I really wanted to.
So that's, that's kind of where that one started.
And then we've got. Bob, if you don't mind, I'll, I'll, I'll show a couple
more. We've got more. Wait, wait, wait, Hang on. Before you do. Yeah.
I just want to say those, those milling lines, what you call the top of
the tornado. Yeah, I would, I was thinking that, that
they look, that they're reminiscent of, of a
closeup on your company logo. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
That's, that's exactly where that came from. Now, I, I can't really
talk about this right now, but I have a collaboration that I've come out that's
going to have similar lines on it,
and, and you'll see how they tie in when it
happens. I, I, I kind of have some ideas of,
of how this, this milling is going to become a thing that kind of lives
on down the road because I do agree with you, it does look a lot
like the logo, which is again why I thought I couldn't just
do, you know, I couldn't just throw the name Tornado
on any old knife. It had to be one that kind of
fit that if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. I'm kind of a
weirdo. But no, I just want to show you a couple, couple
more real quick that yeah, I think you'll find interesting. Now
this will probably.
Be mid-2026 and I
showed the. Well, where'd it go? I showed the, the
practice moments ago. This is going to
be the mini Fractus. And so I have been asked
for that. And believe it or not, the bottom one is concept.
The top one is actually Kubi just to kind of
prove how far they've come down the road.
This is, is absolutely gorgeous, by the way. I think I'm going to call
this the vintage sports car.
...and
then, you know, Bob, I love, I am
huge. Into.
...of
the
Mach
71. And I wonder what that's going to be. And so
this is going to be the next knife after the tornado.
I'm hoping April, May, June, somewhere in there of 26.
And this is the Blackbird edition, as
I'm calling it, of the SR of the Mach 71. It is
modeled after the black and red of the
SR71 Blackbird. It's my homage, if you will,
to that. And airplanes are
made.
...but
there'll be different versions of it as always.
And, and just I.
These, this is also Kubi and this is probably
for its size it's about seven and three quarters. And for
its size, this is one of the lightest titanium folders
I've ever experienced. The milling we did inside
it is just, it's super light. So
hollow ground blade. First time I've Done a hollow ground. Well
actually I'm sorry the mini practice is also hollow
ground but this, this will be the first production knife I've done with
hollow. I just prefer flat ground. I'm weird
but people have been asking me for hollow. So here it comes.
That is really cool. I'm a sucker for a hollow ground. Yeah, me too.
I like light. It does lighten up the blade. I mean it lightens up
the whole thing 100%. Yep, it's it
and it's. It's just I've been carrying those protos a lot
and I can't wait to get them to market. It's just things have been slow
this year just because of shoot the
production cycle and tariffs and everything else.
We got war stories that you wouldn't believe but
it's just you keep fighting through it and, and everything's coming
out on the, on the good side. So I love it. Well, we only have
a few minutes here but I want to ask you about the tariffs a little
bit. Like how, how did you see that on the ground?
How did that affect you? Well thankfully at the
tornadoes, even though we're late, it came out on the, on the right
side if you will because we have a deal in place now.
Whereas I had friends having knives come out during the middle of the
height of the China tariffs and they ended up
having to ship their knives on a boat and it was like
two months to get here and customs took forever and
everything else. So thankfully I came out on the good side. But the
part that was tough for me was just
shipping timing. Everything changed with, with, with
shipping. So when I, I bought for example, whoops, here it is right
here. When I bought the camo carbon material that's made in
California and so it had to be sent over to China and it just took
longer to get there and longer to go through customs and I
had to pay a tariff on it and you know, as it went into
China and, and you know that just, that kind of
stuff just made things a little less
clean. But thank thankfully it hasn't been brutal
and the timing worked out that the knives came
after the deal got put in place place.
I
mean
can you
imagine these are going to be around 150 and it would have
been terrible if I had to sell this same thing for like 200,
250, because of the tariffs. You know, I, I don't even know how
you. I don't know how that works. You know what I'm saying? Are people
still going to buy it or are they not? And thankfully, I don't have to
discover that, so. Right, right. It's.
But.
But I will tell you, some of the manufacturers and Kubi did this too.
They're just eating the tariffs because
we have paid. We have had some tariffs and for stuff coming this way,
they're just either building an enterprise up front or eating
some of it themselves. And, you know, that's, that's
what a good business partner looks like. So that's been good.
Yep. So. So thankfully not terrible on your
end of things, on the operations end of things.
This is something I've always wondered, and I guess I've.
I haven't really asked you or others in a similar
position, but you receive all these knives and then you
ship them. You are the company. I mean, we talk a lot about
who makes this, and that's super important,
but who designs this and who ships this is also,
you know, you're. You're bookending the, the manufacturing process.
Well, and I think that's why I sometimes. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut
you off there, but, um, I think that's. Well, I don't know if
you want to get into this topic, Bob. This could be a whole podcast to
itself, but you hear a lot from American
manufacturers about those of us that use Chinese
manufacturers, and we're taking money out of America. And
I would beg to differ with that. My, my stance on
that is, yes, I'm sending money to China.
I am, and I would love to find an American manufacturer that would
work with me, period. And, and second
of all, would work with me and price things in such a way that it
would make financial sense. Right. But I
think what I, what I would like to say is if you think about it.
So let's, let's take the Tornado, for example. This is
154cm steel. Bob, where's that steel made?
Pennsylvania or New York? Okay, it's New York.
This is camo carbon. This is. Is made in California.
I have myself and my family, which is a
business. And so American money, money coming into America. I
have two dealers on board. For example, my last night,
the downdraft, we had blade binge on board. And they are an American
company. So that's money staying right here. And who knows?
I mean, there's other parts in here that I'm sure. As a matter of fact,
I'm working on a knife right now where with the
steel we're working with, they had to get American sanding
discs to be able to. To. To grind the
steel. And so it's. I guess what I would say is,
yeah, I mean, there is a small portion of the money that is going
to China, but there's a portion going to me go. And I'm
shipping through American companies and I'm buying boxes
from Uline and, you know, tape from an American company.
So there's plenty of this money that people are spending staying right here.
Well, not only that, but if it weren't for Tempest knives or.
Or a company like yours, that money wouldn't be generated at all for
anyone. But the fact that some of it's going to China, you know.
That'S a part of it, but it's a small part of something much
bigger. Yeah, it's just an interesting topic because I hear that a lot.
And, man, we could get into, you know, the different
misinformation that tends to be out there in that. In that realm, but we
won't, you know, we will save that for another day.
Code made that you're leaving that comment on.
I. Look, I love American Eyes. I got a lot of them
and, and I review a lot of them, and I love them. And I would
like. I said I would love to do some stuff, some collaborations with American companies.
I'd love to do OEM work with American companies down the road.
But I think it is important to remember, like you said, that,
you know, it's an American guy sitting here with a dream,
drawing this out, trying to turn it into something.
And the best, the best part, people, now, look, I do make money
off of this. I'd be stupid to do this and not.
But can you imagine today, Bob, cutting open
a box and something you designed, something
you came up with, you get to pull it out of a box and realize,
wow, this is real. I designed this. I came up with this.
Spent blood, sweat and tears trying to make this happen. And here
it is. And, you know, that's. That's an incredible
feeling. When I was opening the boxes, my wife's just like. They're like that little
kid, and she's laughing at me and picking on
me, like, well, you. You get more excited about that than you did,
you know, the day we got married. I'm like, oh, no, that is
not. I Have to live that joy every day, honey. Not true. Exactly.
That is not true. But it is, it is,
it's, it's incredible. And, and again, the support I get from
people. You know, it's just, it,
it makes you, definitely makes you feel good and keep, you know, because
there are, like you said, there's times where I'm just like, man, this stuff is
tough. Do I want to keep this going long term? And then you see,
you know, like you said, the reactions and the comments from people on my knives
fast YouTube channel. And then you see, you know, the comments
and the people posting your, your knives and
I'm sure you get it. Like on a Thursday night, people night, people saying, I'm
carrying the Tempest this or the Tempest that. I mean, that's
crazy. It's, it's crazy. I, I, I don't think I will
ever get over that feeling
of, I can't, I just can't believe that.
You know, that people carry something. I came up with
knowing, knowing your background, you're obviously a creative guy, but to see something
go from zero point energy or whatever, just
go from zero to a knife in every pocket has got
to be something really intoxicating. Before I let
you go, Casey, let everyone know how they can A, keep up with you
and B. Find out what's newest with
Tempest knives and how to get your knife perfect. So
I would suggest I'm going to be posting, like I said, the middle of January,
the tornadoes are coming, and other stuff. I would just say two things.
If you're on Instagram, go to tempest.tempest
knives us.com. yeah, there's the
US because there was already somebody with Tempest times on
Instagram. But Tempest dives us
at. Tempest dives us and then.
And then obviously Knives fast. Just watch my, you know, check out my YouTube
channel because I'm going to be doing videos on these
knives and talking about what's coming and where they're going to be and what the
price is and what the composition is. And then
I haven't, my website has been refreshed. It's tempest
knives.com and if you go there, you can
sign up for the newsletter. And I'll be sending out a newsletter saying, hey,
Knives are coming. And so that, that's
probably in any of those ways, but like I said, whatever's most
convenient for somebody. I, I got a big mouse and spread
it around everywhere, so. Amen. Gotta, gotta do
that. Hey, Steve, thank you so much for coming back on the show, man. It's
been great talking with you. I love being on here with you, Bob. Thank you.
All right. You got it. Take care. All right. Adventure delivered your
monthly subscription for handpicked. outdoor survival,
EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor
professionals. The knife junkie.com
battlebox There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, K.C. Spiron
of Tempest Knives and the Knives Fast channel. Also, he's
got some great lives. Be sure to check those out and and
keep up with him@tempestknives.com all right.
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time,
don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to
the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and
review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's
episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our
website, thenifejunkie.com you can also watch our latest
videos on YouTube@thenifjunkie.com YouTube.