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

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

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host, Bob DeMarco.

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

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edition of the show, I'm speaking with K.C. Spiron of Tempest Knives

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and the Knives Fast channel. Casey started his

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YouTube channel with the goal of cutting out the noise and focusing on the

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signal of your run of the mill knife review, delivering quick

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takes on the newest and most relevant folding knives on the market. In

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the process, he built up a following from his live shows, which pushed

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him to prominence. But somewhere along the line, he turned

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his mind to the ideal and what he wanted most out of

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the knives he reviewed. And that's when his company, Tempest

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Knives, was born. We'll talk with Casey all about the

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evolution of his knife obsession and what's new with Tempest Knives.

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But first, be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification

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bell, and of course, download the show to your favorite podcast app. That

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way you can listen on the go. Also, if you'd like to help support the

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show, please share it or you can go to Patreon and

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join us there. Become a gentleman junkie. Save 12% when you get

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a whole year from. Scan the QR code on your screen or join right here

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on YouTube again, the knife junkie.com Patreon,

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that is. Then, if junkie.com.

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Ever visit the knives. Online in the hopes of satisfying your need to

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possess them in the real world, then you have a problem. You

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are a knife junkie. K.C. Good to see you, sir. How you doing?

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Doing great, Bob. The beard's looking good, man. I mean, come on.

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Oh, thank you, thank you. It's my winter shag. There you go.

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Well, I want to congratulate you first and foremost on the

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fast growth of Tempest Knives. It's

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been dizzying to watch and, and to be around. It's always

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cool to see you at Blade Show. You seem elated from the reception you

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get. So when you started the Knives Fast channel, did you ever see

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this happening? No, not at all. I had, I

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had no intentions of. Of that. As a matter of fact, Bob, I would

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say when I started Knives Fast, I didn't know

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enough about knives, if that makes sense. I. I feel

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like I had a lot to learn. And,

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you know, I think that evolution of seeing hundreds of

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knives a year or whatever it is, is what

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sort of drove that passion. Because as I, as I

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saw more, it became clear to me what I really liked

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and what I didn't like and it was time to. Again the same

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thing. You know, when I started my channel, it was, there was all these channels

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that were doing really long form videos and I didn't have time.

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So my solution was, oh, I'm going to do reviews and make short ones.

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So I guess my solution, you know, for Tempest

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knives was I wasn't seeing as much

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of what I really had honed in on

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as what I hope. So I just said, I'll design some. So,

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you know, it was it. But it took a long time to really learn

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that, you know, what I really liked, why I really liked it,

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why I didn't like certain things, if that makes sense. And, and

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hone it, like you said, into, into something that I am

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elated to have going. So. Yeah, absolutely.

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Well, and so during that period of time, you're, you're,

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before Tempest knives came around, you're reviewing all these knives.

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What, what were you honing in on? What were you deciding

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that were musts in knives that you

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weren't seeing elsewhere? Wow, that, that, that's crazy. And that's

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a really big topic. But, but we'll, we'll see what we can do here. But

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you know, I guess the things that, that really, as I started seeing

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more and more and more knives, ergonomics became way

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more important to me. It's, you know, how does the knife fit my

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hand, why does it fit my hand like that?

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You know, and, and it, it became a lot about that

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and then it became just about certain shapes I liked and, and,

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and the types of clip and the types of lock. I mean,

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I love, I, I'm a frame lock, liner lock guy, mostly

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lighter locks. You'll see most of the Tempest knives are, are

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inset or nested liner locks and

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you know, things like that, it's just, just kind of honed in on the things

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that I really liked. But yeah, ergonomics is a big one. And that's why the

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majority of my knives, not all of them, but the majority of my knives

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are contoured in some way on the handles just because I enjoy

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the way they fit my hand. That makes sense. Yeah.

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Yeah, yeah. So, so do you think that, or

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did you think leading up to making your own designs, that

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people weren't designing knives, they were designing

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knives more on looks and less on feel and usability?

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Boy, I don't, I hate to answer this question, Bob. I'm, I'm one of these

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people that has a lot of opinions on stuff. So I

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think a lot of people that design knives

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or were at the time. So, so it's changed quite a bit. But

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we're designing knives that they thought would sell. Does that make

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sense? Yes. Now, now I don't, I don't think that's a terrible

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thing. I think that's smart business. That's absolutely

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the way it should be. And in, in

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the large space, meaning if, if you're

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Kershaw, of course you're gonna, you're gonna be designing knives that

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you think approach the masses

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more. And I think that that's why like for example,

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Bob, when there's a, when there's a fad. But locks

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became the fad and suddenly everybody's doing butt locks. Now

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it's axis or bar style locks. They're everywhere. It's

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almost overwhelming to me.

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I think I had started to cross over between just a guy that had a

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few knives and cut things at work to a guy that

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wanted to collect certain things and wanted to enjoy them and

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create a collection. And at that point there were just certain things

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that I wasn't seeing enough variety in. And so I don't think

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anybody was designing anything bad. But it

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wasn't what was fitting me, if that makes sense. A lot of flat

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scales, a lot of, you know, clips that

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aren't super comfortable and things like that. And it's just, and

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blade shapes. You know, I'm kind of, you'll, you'll see like I

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could just pull out, you know, one of my middle of the pack. You know,

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this is probably my third, third night, fourth knife.

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You,

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you remember Bob remembers the, the very first

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Tempest knife.

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Well, the knives you design, I have two of them right here.

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There you go. You design are very practical

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and, and, and, but they're also very unique

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looking. They take very practical blade shapes and.

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And you know, make very functional tools. But they're also good

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looking and unique and, and in a way you're lucky

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because some of the knives I've designed and drawn, you know, as you can tell

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from the knives behind me, I knives I've made some

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swoopy, aggressive, weird looking. Why isn't anyone making this?

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And a couple of years later I'm like, thank God no one ever made.

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So, so in a sense like your, your sense of practicality having

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handled so many great EDCs,

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maybe it's lent itself to your design language.

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by

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the

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way,

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Bob,

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I

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got

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to

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show

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you

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something

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while we're, while we're here. Check this

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out. This just came out.

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Two, three weeks ago. It's, there's four versions of it. This is the

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Kubi. I sold the, the fixed blade design of

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the microburst to them. And so this is the Kubi

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microburst fixed blade in 14C.

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And these, these are available from them

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as we speak. And there's, I think they're blue micarta and

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brown micarta with stonewash blades and blackwash blades. So there's

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four versions, but yeah, I just thought, you know,

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hey, maybe it might be a pretty cool fixed blade. And they agreed.

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So. Congratulations on that. That's an

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excellent, just came out. So, so when you showed the

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microverse, I'm like, I gotta show him that. So. Well, wait now

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this begs a different question. You find it

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okay, so so far, you've done mostly

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your designs uncompromisingly, having them oem.

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And. And you're responsible for delivery and all that.

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If I've got your model correct, what's it like going from

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that to selling a design and watching them take

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it and it becomes theirs? It's definitely tougher.

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It's. It's. And it depends on who you're working with, so I'll

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give you a couple of examples. So I. I had

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the. The supercell with

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Kubi. This is a folder that

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I did. And you can see it definitely has Tempest

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lines to it. And. But, you know,

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they. Kubi does things very much

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in the realm of they put the materials they want,

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they pick the colors they. So that's a little

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tougher for me because it's like, I would love to be able to pick

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the materials, the. The blade steel, all those kinds of things.

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Whereas here's another model that I did. I don't. I. I don't know if you've

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seen this guy or not, but this is the concept

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Thunderhead. And. And I actually got to pick the variations

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on the. The Thunderhead. So, you know, it just.

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It's kind of. I'm a control freak if

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nobody realizes that, and so it's kind of tough to just turn

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it over and do that. But I will tell you what. It's done, Bob is

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it. It's brought my knives to a lot of people that had

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no clue, because, for example, at Blade show, you were saying, you come find me

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and you know where I am. But. But I would assume there's a lot of

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people that don't. And they end up going over to the concept

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booth. And I had this happen this last year. They go to the concept booth,

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they see this, and they're like, wait, who's that guy? And. And somebody says, oh,

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is Bruce over there? And they end up coming over, and

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I sold. I sold a bunch of my stuff that way. So I think

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it's. It's a bridge, you know, to a part of the

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market that. That I don't know. So I've. And I've got more

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collaboration knives coming very soon.

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This

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is the KB knives, which is Kubo

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Zephyr. The Zephyr is the first Tempest Integral.

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And. And so these are pretty pricey. I'm just gonna be honest.

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For those that are gonna look it up, they're gonna go, there are codes and

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things like that out there. But just, just gives you an

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opportunity to maybe do things. For example, I don't know that I would

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do a Tempest Integral

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simply because they're very, very

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pricey and I don't know how well I would say

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sell them. So if that makes sense. Yeah, it sure does. Man, that

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is. That's beautiful. That's. Thank you. And it's, you know,

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you can see your signature lines in it. But it's also

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a little bit of a departure from.

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And

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it's,

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you know,

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you

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can see

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your signature lines

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in it. But

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it's also a little bit of a departure

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from. Well, let's talk about this one

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since you have it out. Yes, sir. Let's look at

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the first of all. Flip it around. The lightning holes.

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Yeah. That you set our inlays on the, on the sandwich

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concept structure. Is there any

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significance or symbolism in that? No, they.

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So, so again, originally it was, it was drawn by me as a

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standard knife, not as an Integral. When they did the Integral, they said it was

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coming up a little heavy. And they asked me if I minded if they did

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some speed holes. And they, they drew these

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out and I said, you know what, let's go with it. That's pretty cool. I

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mean, I would have just done holes. And I was actually thinking about

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like small to large, like having a large. If there were,

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you know, this like, large hole and then small, small, small, small,

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small, small on either side. And then when they showed me this, I was like,

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yeah, we're just gonna go with that because it kind of gives it that

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playful kind of, you know, almost like video game

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vibe or something. I don't know. I don't know if that's what they were going

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for, but it looks like. A language of some sort. That could be

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true. Yeah, that's. So no, it was literally

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to give it some weight reduction. It's, it's already

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in this form. It's a 8 and 8.3 inch

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knife. So it's already a 5 ounce knife. And if you didn't do

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that it's probably more like 5.5, 5.6,

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something like that. It's just trying to control weight. That's, that's what you're

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trying to do. So that blade is about three and a half.

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You. Yeah, you asked me this and that's. Well, though that's the other issue

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about having so many knives out there. It's like. Yeah, so the cutting edge is

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three and a half. The blade itself is about three and three quarters.

236
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Just.

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Like

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the Tornado I was showing is. Well, no, I haven't showed the

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Tornado yet. So we'll get to that in a minute. But.

240
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Well, I have it written down here. Tornado. But. But before we go

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to that, I'm early. Let me ask you this. Well, first of all, you

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said that things have changed since you first started

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designing knives. And I know that, that things change pretty quickly

244
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and tastes change and people are

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obsessed over what, what has changed in the period of time

246
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since you designed your first knife. Wow, that's. That's. Well,

247
00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:59.060
okay, so if, if you take the, the Mach 51,

248
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that was a premium knife, this was going to be like a shoot, I don't

249
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even remember, like a $300 knife, I think. And

250
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so when that didn't go well, I went to the Pinion,

251
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which was the budget knife. And

252
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I guess in this day and age,

253
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if you're gonna play in the budget space.

254
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...occurred

255
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to me and people, you know, immediately, Bob, people were like, we need a,

256
00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:49.200
we need a titanium version of that. We need a titanium version of the

257
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microverse. We need. They still ask me about

258
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that...

259
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And so this was able to be like a $140 knife.

260
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And so I kind of settled, you

261
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know, in that the majority of my, my knives right now are in that

262
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140, 150, 160 range. It's a good

263
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range. And, and that kind of seems like. So when I say

264
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it changed, I think my mindset changed of

265
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who Tempest should be now. We did do, we did the,

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we did the fractus which was a 200 knife.

267
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So we have, we have played in the higher end of the

268
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pool but not way up there. Right. Like some of these companies

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have done. I'm, I'm, I've got some coming that

270
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are going to be a little more high end. But I think where my bread

271
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and butter is going to, my bread is going to be buttered, if you will,

272
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is going to be that 150 range. If that

273
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makes. Ben Belkin has talked,

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you, you talked a lot on the show about well,

275
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Jack Wolf knives and you know how he's diversified. Yeah,

276
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absolutely. And I love, I mean he's one of the best businessmen

277
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I've ever met, let alone knives or whatever he's doing, I would

278
00:19:22.100 --> 00:19:24.690
imagine. Super smart guy. Yeah, yeah.

279
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He, he commented last time he was on the show about how

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he found it easy. Not easy, but.

281
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It made sense for him to start high end with the slip joints

282
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and then start introducing.

283
00:19:42.290 --> 00:19:46.130
Going down market from there. Have

284
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you found any difficulty in switching spots in the

285
00:19:49.890 --> 00:19:50.130
market?

286
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But

287
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I think literally Bob, what changed

288
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for me was just getting my name out there more and

289
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you know, the mark. I am not like you. You know, our buddy

290
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left edc, he is the marketing genius, that

291
00:20:18.330 --> 00:20:22.090
guy. He knows how to get his name out there. He knows

292
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how to. I'm not that guy. I'm, I, I do a

293
00:20:25.890 --> 00:20:29.450
channel. I'm very. No nonsense. I'm not like in your

294
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face, you know, that kind of thing. I'm, I'm very.

295
00:20:33.090 --> 00:20:36.290
And so it's, it's a little more difficult for me.

296
00:20:36.770 --> 00:20:40.610
So it just took more time for Tempest, I would say and

297
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it took those collaborations. So what I would say is since I'm

298
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still small batch. It

299
00:20:48.060 --> 00:20:51.660
is. Well, I mean between 3 and 503 and

300
00:20:51.660 --> 00:20:55.500
600 knives. This, this next knife that we're going to talk about, the tornado

301
00:20:55.500 --> 00:20:59.180
is 600. It's, it's pretty crazy to think I'm doing

302
00:20:59.180 --> 00:21:02.980
that many, but it's, you know, living

303
00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:06.100
in that space, I haven't really had a hard time

304
00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:10.900
finding enough people that want to buy them in that price range. Now if I

305
00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:14.660
was doing $300 knives every time, it probably would be

306
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a lot more difficult, I would think. I feel

307
00:21:18.380 --> 00:21:22.100
like. And this is in no way minimizing

308
00:21:22.100 --> 00:21:25.820
the amazing work that Ben has done, but in a sense,

309
00:21:25.820 --> 00:21:29.580
you know, making modernized and,

310
00:21:30.940 --> 00:21:34.660
you know, updated versions of knives that people are already familiar

311
00:21:34.660 --> 00:21:38.420
with. The Barlow, the Swayback, that

312
00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:41.540
kind of thing. Almost as yes, sir or the equal.

313
00:21:41.540 --> 00:21:53.410
You

314
00:21:53.410 --> 00:21:57.210
know, you're introducing people to your design language and, you

315
00:21:57.210 --> 00:22:01.010
know, you have then, well, your name Tempest Knives and you have a whole

316
00:22:01.010 --> 00:22:04.770
theme, which I think is great because I could see how it

317
00:22:04.770 --> 00:22:08.210
could be difficult from knife to knife floundering around. I'll call this one,

318
00:22:08.530 --> 00:22:11.010
you know, the Ass Kicker and this one's the Assistant.

319
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.480
But, but I like, I love ridiculous. Yeah. And it's much easier with

320
00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:20.000
a theme. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you locked in on such a great

321
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.680
theme too. And it happened, I told you last time

322
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:27.280
it happened so weirdly. It was just, you know, we're sitting on the beach trying

323
00:22:27.280 --> 00:22:30.240
to come up with a name. We kept shooting down everyone and

324
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.440
looking at Storm. And I said, ah, there's a tempest to brew. And he goes,

325
00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:38.210
that's it. And I'm like, and I love weather. I always

326
00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:42.010
talk, I always talk about storms. I mean, I used to very,

327
00:22:42.010 --> 00:22:45.570
I, in the very loose sense of the word, sort of chase storms a little

328
00:22:45.570 --> 00:22:45.850
bit.

329
00:22:46.250 --> 00:23:00.490
So

330
00:23:00.490 --> 00:23:03.850
it just as soon as he said, Dad, that's it. I'm like,

331
00:23:04.470 --> 00:23:08.110
oh, crud. You know what I think of that? You know, and then we all

332
00:23:08.110 --> 00:23:11.510
sat there for an hour talking about a list of names that could be on

333
00:23:11.510 --> 00:23:15.030
knives within the theme. And it was just like, okay,

334
00:23:15.270 --> 00:23:18.910
yeah, this is gonna work. So there's, you have had to stay away

335
00:23:18.910 --> 00:23:22.510
from. Because other people already had them. But other than that, it's been,

336
00:23:22.510 --> 00:23:26.230
it's been really, really easy. And they all have a

337
00:23:26.390 --> 00:23:30.190
formidable sound to them too, you know? Yeah. Every time I show up

338
00:23:30.190 --> 00:23:33.600
for Thunderhead, people are Like Thunderhead, everybody wants Thunderhead to say.

339
00:23:33.760 --> 00:23:37.480
And plus it makes such, such a crazy sound.

340
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:41.280
It's got that ting to it. And then you just say Thunderhead, you

341
00:23:41.280 --> 00:23:44.640
know, and it's just like, it's just, it's fun. So

342
00:23:45.520 --> 00:23:48.480
since we're on the Thunderhead, let's talk about this for a second because.

343
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.800
Because in, in my knife collecting, here's a little preface. In my

344
00:23:53.800 --> 00:23:57.280
knife collecting, I started off fixed blades, spent a little, a long

345
00:23:57.360 --> 00:24:01.040
time obsessing about folders, but over the past few years I've

346
00:24:01.040 --> 00:24:04.560
just kind of naturally drifted back towards fixed

347
00:24:04.560 --> 00:24:08.400
blades and a lot of custom fixed blades, just given the, my

348
00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:12.240
taste in the people I interview. But concept here,

349
00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:16.000
I'm carrying one right now. Ah, the bison. Yes, sir. I love

350
00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.760
it. Concept has consistently been

351
00:24:19.760 --> 00:24:23.120
one of my, even, even through my fixed blade

352
00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:26.920
obsession. Concept is one of the companies I keep coming back to

353
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:30.530
because they're always impressive with their builds and they have so many

354
00:24:30.530 --> 00:24:34.050
cool collaborations and designs. Tell me a little bit about

355
00:24:34.690 --> 00:24:37.890
working with Bob. And did you have, did you design

356
00:24:38.610 --> 00:24:41.570
the Thunderhead with DeMarco in mind?

357
00:24:42.530 --> 00:24:46.170
I design every, everyone that I do is designed with

358
00:24:46.170 --> 00:24:49.730
Tempest in mind. And then I sit down and I make a decision. I meant

359
00:24:49.730 --> 00:24:53.330
with concept in mind, right? No, no, no, no. I sit down and

360
00:24:53.330 --> 00:24:56.860
I draw all of them in, in something I would want.

361
00:24:56.940 --> 00:25:00.700
Now, I will say there's one exception. I'm working on one collaboration knife

362
00:25:01.100 --> 00:25:03.900
and I might as well say with, with concept, but

363
00:25:05.020 --> 00:25:08.060
that they came to me and asked for something specific,

364
00:25:09.420 --> 00:25:13.220
a budget knife, basically. And, and I'm like, okay, so I drew

365
00:25:13.220 --> 00:25:16.900
that one for them and that's the first time I've done that. Everything else I've

366
00:25:16.900 --> 00:25:20.460
done has been I. I create a catalog of designs.

367
00:25:21.780 --> 00:25:25.540
I then once I get them where I want them, which usually involves

368
00:25:25.540 --> 00:25:29.220
Bob, I draw them, I draw several different views of them

369
00:25:29.620 --> 00:25:33.220
and then I, I, I write out all of my

370
00:25:33.220 --> 00:25:36.940
specs, what I want everything to be, and then I get together with a

371
00:25:36.940 --> 00:25:40.780
friend of mine who is a CAD artist and we work on it

372
00:25:40.780 --> 00:25:44.500
together. And once I do that, then I will think,

373
00:25:44.500 --> 00:25:47.850
okay, what company would this work, work well with?

374
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:52.690
And then I farm it out and, and ask, hey you, are you

375
00:25:52.690 --> 00:25:56.370
interested? And to see if they, if, if

376
00:25:56.370 --> 00:26:00.170
they're interested and go from there. So what happened actually was I

377
00:26:00.170 --> 00:26:03.850
had only worked with Cougie, I, I decided to

378
00:26:03.850 --> 00:26:07.290
do the, the fractus. Now, at the time.

379
00:26:08.970 --> 00:26:12.690
Kuby had not really done inlay work. You remember, back

380
00:26:12.690 --> 00:26:16.420
maybe two years ago, Kubi had not done inlay knives

381
00:26:16.740 --> 00:26:20.540
at all. And so I'm like start asking around who's good with inlays. It's

382
00:26:20.540 --> 00:26:24.300
not going to be no offense to certain companies out there, but I didn't want

383
00:26:24.300 --> 00:26:27.740
to do certain companies because I didn't want to be outside my price range, you

384
00:26:27.740 --> 00:26:31.420
know, too, too far. And so everybody was like, well, DeMarco would do good

385
00:26:31.420 --> 00:26:35.180
within that, that structure. So I got, I was started working

386
00:26:35.180 --> 00:26:38.900
on the fractus. Well, somewhere near working on the fractus, I

387
00:26:39.390 --> 00:26:42.670
drew the Thunderhead. And you can see there's some similarities

388
00:26:42.670 --> 00:26:46.110
to a degree, but obviously a totally different blade shape.

389
00:26:46.470 --> 00:26:50.310
And, and so I just asked him, I said, hey, I drew this

390
00:26:50.310 --> 00:26:54.150
one. Would you be interested? And what was cool with them is we

391
00:26:54.150 --> 00:26:57.870
did some collaborating on the design, we tweaked a few

392
00:26:57.870 --> 00:27:01.710
things together. We added some

393
00:27:01.870 --> 00:27:05.530
different clip, we changed the milling. We, you know,

394
00:27:05.610 --> 00:27:09.330
and, and so I will say DeMarco is, is they take

395
00:27:09.330 --> 00:27:12.970
a little bit longer than some, but they are, they're

396
00:27:13.210 --> 00:27:17.010
awesome when they get it going. They do great work,

397
00:27:17.010 --> 00:27:20.849
they market it well. They, so they, they're an absolute

398
00:27:20.849 --> 00:27:24.570
pleasure to work with. The answer to your, your question is no. I,

399
00:27:24.570 --> 00:27:28.370
I just draw Tempest designs and then once

400
00:27:28.370 --> 00:27:32.040
I get them to that quote unquote finish point, I, I think

401
00:27:32.040 --> 00:27:35.760
in my head, okay, I've got Tempest structured out for the next year.

402
00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:38.920
I got this one, this one, this one, this one. So I got some extras

403
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:42.760
here. What do I want to sell these, you

404
00:27:42.760 --> 00:27:45.680
know what I'm saying? That kind of thing. And then I end up picking a

405
00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:49.520
partner from there, depending on if they want or not. Yeah.

406
00:27:49.520 --> 00:27:53.240
Do you? Well, all of that was to say I love concept. I'm so happy

407
00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:57.000
that you're working with them because I just think their stuff is so

408
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:00.720
great. But do you feel any sort

409
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.520
of loyalty to any of these companies, OEMs

410
00:28:04.520 --> 00:28:08.240
or companies that you're licensing to or, or is that not really

411
00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:12.080
a thing? It is for me. I, I,

412
00:28:12.080 --> 00:28:15.480
I, I'm, don't get me wrong, I'm going to be doing work. I've, I've already

413
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:19.200
started talking to some other companies. There are, there are two or three more companies

414
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:23.000
that, and then I'm going to get prototypes for Tempest done from

415
00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.380
a company I've never worked with since in, because

416
00:28:26.620 --> 00:28:30.380
I, you know how I told you, I said most of my stuff

417
00:28:30.380 --> 00:28:33.740
has been in the 150 range, but there's a knife coming up that's going to

418
00:28:33.740 --> 00:28:37.420
be ultra primo. I'm going to try

419
00:28:37.420 --> 00:28:41.060
another company for that one. Just not, not that I Don't think Kubi or Concept

420
00:28:41.060 --> 00:28:44.780
could do it. I just, I feel like if I'm going to go all there,

421
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:48.140
we're going to go all there, you know what I'm saying? And so with someone

422
00:28:48.140 --> 00:28:51.560
who's known for that. Yeah, so, but

423
00:28:51.560 --> 00:28:55.400
loyalty wise, I guess what I would say is for the, for

424
00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:58.400
the most part, I feel okay.

425
00:28:59.120 --> 00:29:29.380
What

426
00:29:29.380 --> 00:29:33.219
happened was between myself and Kevin, from Left to

427
00:29:33.219 --> 00:29:37.060
EDC or Devo, pushing them to try new things,

428
00:29:37.540 --> 00:29:41.020
they realized, hey, we're pretty good at this. So now what's

429
00:29:41.020 --> 00:29:44.870
happened is, is their there. And, and so I do, I do

430
00:29:44.870 --> 00:29:48.710
feel a connection with them, if you will. Not, not necessarily. I don't know if

431
00:29:48.710 --> 00:29:51.830
I call it loyalty because I'm going to shop around and do some other stuff,

432
00:29:51.830 --> 00:29:55.230
so if it makes sense. But I do feel

433
00:29:55.390 --> 00:29:59.110
connected with them in a really cool way because I feel

434
00:29:59.110 --> 00:30:01.950
like I've watched them go from a company that did really good work

435
00:30:02.750 --> 00:30:06.190
but, but pretty basic stuff to a company that could do

436
00:30:06.670 --> 00:30:09.310
whatever they want right now. I mean, they're just,

437
00:30:10.210 --> 00:30:14.050
they're, they're, they're knocking it out of the park for sure. Kind of

438
00:30:14.050 --> 00:30:17.850
mirroring your, your growth in a way. Yes,

439
00:30:17.850 --> 00:30:20.690
sir. Which is pretty cool.

440
00:30:21.010 --> 00:30:23.570
And

441
00:30:23.570 --> 00:30:27.050
then

442
00:30:27.050 --> 00:30:49.920
next

443
00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:52.400
thing you know they turn it around and they put it in some of their

444
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:55.720
knives and you're like, wow, that's, that's really cool.

445
00:30:56.200 --> 00:30:59.640
And so you do, you do feel that kind of loyalty because you

446
00:30:59.800 --> 00:31:03.480
feel linked if you know yeah, yeah. And,

447
00:31:03.800 --> 00:31:07.620
you know, you're kind of with them earlier on, too, right? There's something

448
00:31:07.620 --> 00:31:10.580
to be said for that. Yes, sir. Another thing that there's something to be said

449
00:31:10.580 --> 00:31:13.900
for is with concept, you're in some

450
00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:16.740
incredible company as a designer,

451
00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:21.540
and that's got to feel great, too. Actually doesn't

452
00:31:21.540 --> 00:31:25.180
feel real because I. I look up to Ray. Ray Loconico

453
00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:28.820
is. He's not just a good design. I mean, the guy's a great dude.

454
00:31:28.820 --> 00:31:32.660
He's. He's a fantastic human. Love talking to him.

455
00:31:33.630 --> 00:31:36.750
And then you throw out names like Jonathan Stiles and. And,

456
00:31:37.470 --> 00:31:41.070
you know, they've had stuff from Paul Munko. They've had. I mean,

457
00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:45.150
their list of designers is. Is absolutely crazy. Even some of

458
00:31:45.150 --> 00:31:48.830
the newer designers they've. They've brought out recently, like

459
00:31:48.830 --> 00:31:52.630
Jesse Pauley and. Shoot, I'm. I'm blanking on his

460
00:31:52.630 --> 00:31:55.630
name right now. But the guy that made the site, the Concept Silo,

461
00:31:56.270 --> 00:32:00.030
and excuse me, that's the Kubi Silo. But anyway, he's done some work with.

462
00:32:00.550 --> 00:32:17.270
At

463
00:32:17.510 --> 00:32:20.910
Blade West, I. My

464
00:32:20.910 --> 00:32:24.510
picture and a picture of the Thunderhead were on their

465
00:32:24.510 --> 00:32:28.350
banners in their booth, and I wasn't there, but people sent me pictures, and I'm

466
00:32:28.350 --> 00:32:31.710
just like, what in the heck? It doesn't.

467
00:32:31.950 --> 00:32:35.710
That doesn't even feel. Feel like it should be happening, you know?

468
00:32:35.710 --> 00:32:39.390
But it. When you see the. I love the. The bison.

469
00:32:41.230 --> 00:32:48.430
But

470
00:32:49.070 --> 00:32:52.630
the saber tooth. I mean, it. It was from Monterey Bay

471
00:32:52.630 --> 00:32:56.080
knives. I love how Ray has a. Has a type of.

472
00:32:56.390 --> 00:32:58.910
But then all of a sudden, he breaks out of his type, and you see

473
00:32:58.910 --> 00:33:02.430
this crazy knife and you're just like, wow, okay.

474
00:33:02.430 --> 00:33:06.110
So, you know, again, it's that. It's that I just look up to

475
00:33:06.110 --> 00:33:09.790
Ray so much, and it pushes me to see his work. So that is very

476
00:33:09.790 --> 00:33:10.950
cool. He does.

477
00:33:10.950 --> 00:33:16.910
80%

478
00:33:16.910 --> 00:33:20.190
of his knives are identifiably Bob

479
00:33:20.190 --> 00:33:20.910
Laconico.

480
00:33:22.490 --> 00:33:44.010
Concept

481
00:33:44.010 --> 00:33:47.170
sent me one and I'm like, wait, wait, who designed this?

482
00:33:48.380 --> 00:33:52.060
And, and I looked it up and I'm like, there's, there's no way. It

483
00:33:52.060 --> 00:33:55.660
must have been a fever dream. Yeah, that. And, and like I said, the

484
00:33:55.660 --> 00:33:59.420
Monterey Bay Saber tooth is, is in that, is in that category

485
00:33:59.420 --> 00:34:02.460
as well. It's just an angry looking knife. And it's like,

486
00:34:03.100 --> 00:34:06.620
you're used to like the, the ECC and the,

487
00:34:06.700 --> 00:34:09.260
and the old Guard and, and they're very.

488
00:34:10.780 --> 00:34:14.210
You know, like a kitty cat. You can pet them, you know, and it, that

489
00:34:14.210 --> 00:34:17.850
thing looks like a mean dog, you know, it's like, okay, all right.

490
00:34:18.490 --> 00:34:22.010
Yep, very cool. Before we get to the Tornado, because

491
00:34:22.090 --> 00:34:24.410
I want you to show that off. I want to talk about Bob, but. I,

492
00:34:24.410 --> 00:34:27.610
I have a question from before that that

493
00:34:28.010 --> 00:34:30.810
I think you, you could answer for me

494
00:34:32.010 --> 00:34:35.850
in the last, say, I don't know, five to eight years

495
00:34:36.090 --> 00:34:39.530
in knives or however long you've been in it, let's say.

496
00:34:41.239 --> 00:34:44.199
How much of the popularity of

497
00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:46.839
knives, because we've seen it explode.

498
00:34:48.519 --> 00:34:51.799
Not as popular as guns or bicycles or other things, but

499
00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:55.918
we've seen the popularity of knives and knife collecting explode. How much,

500
00:34:55.918 --> 00:34:59.279
in your opinion, is that due to things like

501
00:34:59.279 --> 00:35:02.959
fidgetiness and, you know, lock type? You were talking about

502
00:35:02.959 --> 00:35:06.670
bar lock and button lock and you know, as,

503
00:35:06.830 --> 00:35:10.510
as trends and as. But to me that's, there's a lot

504
00:35:10.510 --> 00:35:14.230
of visceral joy in opening and closing a knife. We all get that

505
00:35:14.230 --> 00:35:17.830
fidget factor. How much do you think is that

506
00:35:17.830 --> 00:35:21.670
responsible for the growth in the knife industry? And does that have

507
00:35:21.670 --> 00:35:25.487
a diminishing return effect? Number one would, would be, like

508
00:35:25.488 --> 00:35:26.396
you said, the fidgetiness. We've gone from a place where a knife was a, a

509
00:35:26.397 --> 00:35:26.525
utilitarian tool that you pulled out, made a cut with, and put back in your

510
00:35:26.526 --> 00:35:26.580
pocket, you know, or, or if it was my dad peeled your apple, wiped it

511
00:35:26.581 --> 00:35:26.630
off with your handkerchief and then put it back in your pocket, if you know

512
00:35:26.630 --> 00:35:27.140
what I mean. But now it's, it's exactly that. You've got that, that a couple

513
00:35:27.141 --> 00:35:27.654
of things I think it's important to not just hang up on the fidgety ness,

514
00:35:27.655 --> 00:35:28.113
but it's the, it's the show and tell factor is what I like to call

515
00:35:28.114 --> 00:35:28.313
it. So it's, for example, sorry, I had reach over here, but this is the

516
00:35:28.314 --> 00:35:28.448
knife that came out earlier this year, the downdraft. And you know, it's this stuff,

517
00:35:28.449 --> 00:35:28.540
it's camo carbon. People love this stuff. And you love to pull this out of

518
00:35:28.541 --> 00:35:28.590
your pocket and hand it to your buddy to cut.

519
00:35:34.700 --> 00:35:38.100
Number one would, would be, like you said, the

520
00:35:38.100 --> 00:35:41.580
fidgetiness. We've gone from a place where a knife was a,

521
00:35:41.900 --> 00:35:45.700
a utilitarian tool that you pulled out, made a cut with, and put back

522
00:35:45.700 --> 00:35:49.340
in your pocket, you know, or, or if it was my dad

523
00:35:49.420 --> 00:35:53.220
peeled your apple, wiped it off with your handkerchief and then

524
00:35:53.220 --> 00:35:56.780
put it back in your pocket, if you know what I mean. But now

525
00:35:56.780 --> 00:35:59.910
it's, it's exactly that. You've got that, that

526
00:36:00.710 --> 00:36:04.350
a couple of things I Think it's important to not just hang up on the

527
00:36:04.350 --> 00:36:08.070
fidgety ness, but it's the, it's the show and tell

528
00:36:08.230 --> 00:36:11.990
factor is what I like to call it. So it's,

529
00:36:12.150 --> 00:36:15.990
for example, sorry, I had reach over here, but

530
00:36:16.310 --> 00:36:18.710
this is the knife that came out

531
00:36:20.150 --> 00:36:23.350
earlier this year, the downdraft. And

532
00:36:24.150 --> 00:36:27.680
you know, it's this stuff, it's camo carbon.

533
00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:31.400
People love this stuff. And you love to pull this out of your pocket and

534
00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:34.960
hand it to your buddy to cut. And he's like, whoa, what is that? You

535
00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:38.720
know? And so I think what happened was we went from

536
00:36:38.720 --> 00:36:42.440
a place where you had two or three knives. One was in your drawer

537
00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:45.680
that you put in your pocket every morning, one was in your drawer beside

538
00:36:46.640 --> 00:36:50.480
the, where you get your mail every day, and maybe one in the

539
00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:54.320
kitchen, you, you know, and then a kitchen knife or something. And, and now

540
00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:58.160
we're at the point that people are collecting these because it's that

541
00:36:59.040 --> 00:37:02.880
enjoyable almost status thing of, of the collection

542
00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:06.480
of. I can carry a different thing every day and post it on

543
00:37:07.200 --> 00:37:10.880
social media and I can hand it to my friend or show it to my

544
00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:14.720
friend. And I think. So I, I think the answer to your question is

545
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:18.640
that now it, the diminishing returns part.

546
00:37:21.090 --> 00:37:24.850
I think we're going to reach a point where we've done it

547
00:37:25.730 --> 00:37:29.450
at some point, if that makes sense. I think I, I, I

548
00:37:29.450 --> 00:37:33.010
think you can only reinvent the wheel so many times, so I think

549
00:37:33.010 --> 00:37:35.410
eventually we'll reach a point where.

550
00:37:37.170 --> 00:37:41.010
You know, the saturation will have to go down a little bit. But I don't

551
00:37:41.010 --> 00:37:44.410
think, I don't think new handle materials, new

552
00:37:44.410 --> 00:37:47.960
steels, new lock types, I don't think that kind of

553
00:37:47.960 --> 00:37:51.680
stuff is, is going away. I'm reviewing a knife right

554
00:37:51.680 --> 00:37:55.200
now from a company called Numb Knives, and they got this

555
00:37:55.200 --> 00:37:58.240
brand new lock called the pinch lock, and it's

556
00:37:58.960 --> 00:38:02.400
super cool and it works really well. And it's like having two

557
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:06.240
detents on either side of the blade instead of one and two

558
00:38:06.240 --> 00:38:09.680
lock bars in front of the blade instead of one. And you're like,

559
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:14.050
wait a minute, what the heck? And, and so

560
00:38:14.050 --> 00:38:17.890
I think, I think to some degree you're right. I think we'll see a

561
00:38:17.890 --> 00:38:21.570
saturation of some of this stuff and,

562
00:38:21.570 --> 00:38:25.290
and eventually, you know, like, stuff like this is 80s camo carbon. Some people

563
00:38:25.290 --> 00:38:28.970
love it, some people hate it. And I think at some point, you

564
00:38:28.970 --> 00:38:32.570
know, they'll, they'll either be something else or people will just be

565
00:38:32.570 --> 00:38:36.250
like, kind of tired, you know, I think, yeah,

566
00:38:36.330 --> 00:38:40.080
yeah, that's great. So that's material issue. But the profile of

567
00:38:40.080 --> 00:38:43.720
that knife is, is always beautiful like that, that will

568
00:38:43.720 --> 00:38:47.480
never not be beautiful. And that's, that's the thing, like, because I, I,

569
00:38:47.480 --> 00:38:51.280
I wasn't pushing for any, any. No, I knew you weren't. I just didn't

570
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:54.920
answer because I, I. Kind of vacillate personally, I

571
00:38:54.920 --> 00:38:58.680
think sometimes. Like, how many more of these holders can. Oh,

572
00:38:58.680 --> 00:39:02.120
that's nice. You know what I'm saying? Like there, there's a couple of things to

573
00:39:02.120 --> 00:39:05.970
it. It's been around, you know, longer than trees. Not really. Right.

574
00:39:05.970 --> 00:39:09.610
I mean, they're like super old tools. Yep. Everyone loves them.

575
00:39:09.610 --> 00:39:13.370
Everyone's got a personal connection to them in one way or another, whether it's your

576
00:39:13.370 --> 00:39:17.170
grandpa or your experience working in the restaurant, whatever

577
00:39:17.170 --> 00:39:20.810
it is. So everyone's got a love somewhere in. There

578
00:39:20.890 --> 00:39:24.610
or. But I don't know, I was just,

579
00:39:24.610 --> 00:39:27.850
just curious from a designer's perspective, you know. Yeah, and

580
00:39:28.250 --> 00:39:31.410
you're right on what you said a minute ago. You said, you know, it's time

581
00:39:31.410 --> 00:39:34.300
to how many more of these I can have. And then you get, you know,

582
00:39:34.300 --> 00:39:38.140
a whole haptic in your hand and, and you're able to buy one of these

583
00:39:38.140 --> 00:39:41.780
for the first time ever. And you're like, oh, my gracious. There

584
00:39:41.780 --> 00:39:45.620
is, there's, there's some really cool stuff out there if I can just afford it,

585
00:39:45.620 --> 00:39:49.060
you know. And then now you're, now you're down a totally different

586
00:39:49.060 --> 00:39:52.260
rabbit hole and you're like, what have I done? Oh, man.

587
00:39:52.580 --> 00:39:55.980
And so, yeah, there's, I, I think there's so many

588
00:39:55.980 --> 00:39:59.620
options out there. And, and you know, in my case, I've been

589
00:39:59.620 --> 00:40:02.150
selling some to buy more expensive, expensive stuff.

590
00:40:02.470 --> 00:40:09.270
can

591
00:40:10.230 --> 00:40:23.590
you,

592
00:40:23.590 --> 00:40:43.390
Bob,

593
00:40:43.790 --> 00:40:47.550
can you

594
00:40:47.790 --> 00:40:51.390
ever think of a time, I mean, think about it.

595
00:40:51.550 --> 00:40:55.320
In any given month. There

596
00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:58.920
might be A hundred new models or, or more.

597
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:02.800
And I just think to my. That is, I did. There

598
00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:05.800
was nothing like that when I started doing this channel. There was.

599
00:41:06.120 --> 00:41:09.240
It's, it's every day it feels like there's something.

600
00:41:09.560 --> 00:41:13.080
Here's something that's coming next week, here's come to something that's coming in two weeks.

601
00:41:13.080 --> 00:41:16.600
And you're just like, wow, this is crazy.

602
00:41:17.400 --> 00:41:21.090
And you're right, you do that. Oh man, I gotta have that. Yeah.

603
00:41:21.250 --> 00:41:24.850
So I feel like as long as enthusiast

604
00:41:25.090 --> 00:41:28.450
designers such as yourself, you mentioned Lefty and

605
00:41:28.850 --> 00:41:32.170
so many others. As long as there are enthusiast

606
00:41:32.170 --> 00:41:35.250
designers working with great companies,

607
00:41:35.650 --> 00:41:39.010
like guys like me, we're good.

608
00:41:39.250 --> 00:41:42.850
We're taken care of. When it becomes

609
00:41:43.410 --> 00:41:47.070
just another task for an industrial designer to

610
00:41:47.070 --> 00:41:50.910
make another knife, then, then it starts to lose its soul. But I, I

611
00:41:50.910 --> 00:41:54.670
kind of feel like, you know, there's no telling where this spiral ends.

612
00:41:54.670 --> 00:41:58.030
If people are, people like yourself are, are still like

613
00:41:58.030 --> 00:42:01.630
engaged and designing knives from an enthusiast

614
00:42:01.630 --> 00:42:05.190
perspective. Keep asking myself how many more things I can

615
00:42:05.190 --> 00:42:08.910
design and not have one look like the last one, you know, and

616
00:42:08.910 --> 00:42:12.550
they all hearken to each other. They're all like in the family, if you will,

617
00:42:13.520 --> 00:42:17.360
all my stuff. So it's, but it's, you know, it still keeps happening.

618
00:42:17.360 --> 00:42:21.160
I've got two right here that I drew last week that I'm sitting here thinking,

619
00:42:21.160 --> 00:42:22.800
wow, that's totally different.

620
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:28.719
So, you know, it's you. I'll keep working on it for sure. Well, you know,

621
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:32.400
like, like any artist or design or designer, you know, you, you go

622
00:42:32.400 --> 00:42:36.120
through periods, you know, Picasso had his Blue period and then he became a Cubist

623
00:42:36.120 --> 00:42:39.940
and then he was doing crazy paintings for a long time and then, you know,

624
00:42:40.500 --> 00:42:44.220
and then he came back to his childhood self. So, yeah, like things

625
00:42:44.220 --> 00:42:47.860
move in stages and those stages all have, you know,

626
00:42:47.860 --> 00:42:51.620
echoes of, of the last work. Right, I,

627
00:42:51.780 --> 00:42:55.499
I totally agree with that. And some, you know, sometimes you'll hear

628
00:42:55.499 --> 00:42:59.340
a comment from a, from somebody that's like, all your knives look

629
00:42:59.340 --> 00:43:03.100
the same. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then, you know, you look

630
00:43:03.100 --> 00:43:06.880
at something like I said, like the, the, the supercell and

631
00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:09.240
it's got this really classic looking

632
00:43:10.440 --> 00:43:14.280
drop point blade. And then, and then you look at the, at the,

633
00:43:14.440 --> 00:43:18.280
the, at the Thunderhead and I'm like, how does this look anything like

634
00:43:18.280 --> 00:43:20.840
that? So again, they're in the family,

635
00:43:21.960 --> 00:43:25.640
but it's, it's you, you find ways to make

636
00:43:25.640 --> 00:43:29.440
stuff different and interesting at

637
00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:33.140
the, at the same time, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. All right,

638
00:43:33.140 --> 00:43:36.180
so let's talk about the Tornado. There was a, there was some

639
00:43:36.340 --> 00:43:39.860
foreshadowing about this and you showed me before we started rolling.

640
00:43:40.660 --> 00:43:44.260
Let's take a look at this. Well, okay, so here, here's the deal. You asked

641
00:43:44.260 --> 00:43:47.940
at. Yeah, I think when we were first talking about getting

642
00:43:47.940 --> 00:43:51.340
together what's new? And, and the answer is the

643
00:43:51.340 --> 00:43:55.100
Tornado. So my, my latest model will be

644
00:43:55.100 --> 00:43:58.810
coming in January. And they literally.

645
00:43:58.810 --> 00:44:02.610
It's funny, Bob, we're doing this today. Obviously we're

646
00:44:02.610 --> 00:44:06.290
recording this in advance and, and some of my boxes

647
00:44:06.290 --> 00:44:10.010
came in today. Thank you UPS for not bringing the rest but,

648
00:44:10.010 --> 00:44:13.490
but I have, I have one of each of the seven

649
00:44:13.490 --> 00:44:17.290
variants. But I'm gonna hold off on showing the, the dealer

650
00:44:17.290 --> 00:44:20.890
exclusives. But yeah, this is just a

651
00:44:21.610 --> 00:44:25.310
six and a half inch knife. First clip point blade

652
00:44:25.390 --> 00:44:28.430
that I've done. Very contoured

653
00:44:29.470 --> 00:44:33.070
scales on this guy. You can flick it real easily. It

654
00:44:33.070 --> 00:44:36.510
does have the, the low profile back

655
00:44:36.510 --> 00:44:40.350
flipper that I like to do. A little different shape this time, but it, it

656
00:44:40.350 --> 00:44:44.070
works like a charm. And, and there's a bunch of versions.

657
00:44:44.070 --> 00:44:47.750
I'll tell you. I always try to do some firsts in a run.

658
00:44:47.750 --> 00:44:51.240
And this is, this is, this runs

659
00:44:51.320 --> 00:44:55.080
first. It is a black PVD coated handle

660
00:44:55.080 --> 00:44:58.760
with man, I'm sorry about the focus and, and

661
00:44:58.920 --> 00:45:02.520
bronze accents, but this is the first DLC

662
00:45:02.600 --> 00:45:06.040
coated black blade. And what you get there is you get that belt

663
00:45:06.040 --> 00:45:09.880
satin underneath that dlc and I just think,

664
00:45:09.880 --> 00:45:12.840
I don't know what it is about this one. This thing just looks

665
00:45:13.720 --> 00:45:17.390
absolutely killer. I wish I had made more of these. I

666
00:45:17.390 --> 00:45:20.790
was, I was seeing when I saw it today, I'm like, oh my goodness.

667
00:45:21.430 --> 00:45:25.110
But there's a bunch, there'll be camo carbon versions. First

668
00:45:25.110 --> 00:45:28.790
time there's been a purple Tempest

669
00:45:28.790 --> 00:45:32.230
knife. So this is the purple

670
00:45:32.230 --> 00:45:34.870
flow camo carbon.

671
00:45:36.470 --> 00:45:40.270
Really nice. So yeah, I won't show them all, but there's, there's

672
00:45:40.270 --> 00:45:44.020
definitely some really cool. There's seven different versions to it. Dealers and the

673
00:45:44.020 --> 00:45:47.820
rest on Tempest knives. And we're shooting for the middle of

674
00:45:47.820 --> 00:45:51.580
January I think, I think around the 15th, but not

675
00:45:51.580 --> 00:45:55.380
in stone just yet. We're waiting, waiting for the dealers to confirm that

676
00:45:55.380 --> 00:45:59.020
they're good with that date. But if they are, that's, that's where we'll be

677
00:46:00.460 --> 00:46:04.100
and yeah, and we'll be announcing the dealer exclusives very

678
00:46:04.100 --> 00:46:07.660
soon. So this is your smallest so far, I believe.

679
00:46:08.460 --> 00:46:12.140
What, what inspired this design and, and why a clip point?

680
00:46:12.140 --> 00:46:15.520
My favorite place. Boy, that's. Yeah. Okay, cool.

681
00:46:16.400 --> 00:46:19.760
Very interesting question. What inspired. Well,

682
00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:23.760
I, I had most of My knives had been bigger,

683
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:28.240
and so I had a lot of people begging me for a really cool, small

684
00:46:28.240 --> 00:46:31.960
knife. Now, I, I'll be honest with

685
00:46:31.960 --> 00:46:35.600
you. You talked about. Names.

686
00:46:35.920 --> 00:46:39.730
I have wanted a Tornado sound since the

687
00:46:39.730 --> 00:46:42.650
beginning of Tempest. I'm like, it has to. I couldn't.

688
00:46:43.290 --> 00:46:47.050
I, when I designed these knives, they, it's like if you get a dog

689
00:46:47.530 --> 00:46:50.970
and you've had the puppy for a couple days, you know, whether a name fits

690
00:46:50.970 --> 00:46:53.810
them or not. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like when you draw a

691
00:46:53.810 --> 00:46:57.450
knife, draw a design, to me, it feels like it should

692
00:46:57.450 --> 00:47:01.290
be something or it shouldn't. And so I just started scribbling

693
00:47:01.290 --> 00:47:04.730
out. I'm like, I actually said, first of all, I want a small die.

694
00:47:05.250 --> 00:47:09.050
Second of all, that's the Firestorm version here. That's

695
00:47:09.050 --> 00:47:12.250
gorgeous with that, all that acid.

696
00:47:12.250 --> 00:47:15.330
Stonewashed is killer in the anno as well. So, yeah,

697
00:47:15.650 --> 00:47:18.850
it's, but, but I started drawing it. I'm like, well, I haven't done a clip

698
00:47:18.850 --> 00:47:21.090
point, so I'd like to do a clip point. So I drew that.

699
00:47:22.850 --> 00:47:26.370
And, and then I wanted it small and then the rest just came together.

700
00:47:27.090 --> 00:47:30.920
So it is actually a little more contoured than some of my

701
00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:34.520
knives. Even, even more. And that was because I wanted to do

702
00:47:34.520 --> 00:47:38.240
this sort of, I call it the top of the tornado milling.

703
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:42.800
It's just kind of like bands there like you, you might

704
00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:46.000
see in a tornado, you know, and,

705
00:47:46.640 --> 00:47:49.920
you know, it's just, I, I guess it was just inspired by that.

706
00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:54.560
But more than anything, I just, I, I again, sometimes I just

707
00:47:54.560 --> 00:47:58.090
start off with a blade shape or a size or whatever,

708
00:47:58.330 --> 00:48:01.290
and, and I knew I hadn't done a clip point, and I really wanted to.

709
00:48:01.370 --> 00:48:04.490
So that's, that's kind of where that one started.

710
00:48:05.530 --> 00:48:08.930
And then we've got. Bob, if you don't mind, I'll, I'll, I'll show a couple

711
00:48:08.930 --> 00:48:12.770
more. We've got more. Wait, wait, wait, Hang on. Before you do. Yeah.

712
00:48:12.770 --> 00:48:15.850
I just want to say those, those milling lines, what you call the top of

713
00:48:15.850 --> 00:48:19.690
the tornado. Yeah, I would, I was thinking that, that

714
00:48:19.690 --> 00:48:23.060
they look, that they're reminiscent of, of a

715
00:48:23.060 --> 00:48:26.820
closeup on your company logo. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

716
00:48:27.060 --> 00:48:30.740
That's, that's exactly where that came from. Now, I, I can't really

717
00:48:30.740 --> 00:48:34.460
talk about this right now, but I have a collaboration that I've come out that's

718
00:48:34.460 --> 00:48:37.860
going to have similar lines on it,

719
00:48:38.660 --> 00:48:42.140
and, and you'll see how they tie in when it

720
00:48:42.140 --> 00:48:45.380
happens. I, I, I kind of have some ideas of,

721
00:48:45.780 --> 00:48:49.580
of how this, this milling is going to become a thing that kind of lives

722
00:48:49.580 --> 00:48:52.780
on down the road because I do agree with you, it does look a lot

723
00:48:52.780 --> 00:48:56.380
like the logo, which is again why I thought I couldn't just

724
00:48:56.380 --> 00:48:59.980
do, you know, I couldn't just throw the name Tornado

725
00:48:59.980 --> 00:49:03.540
on any old knife. It had to be one that kind of

726
00:49:03.540 --> 00:49:06.940
fit that if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. I'm kind of a

727
00:49:06.940 --> 00:49:10.660
weirdo. But no, I just want to show you a couple, couple

728
00:49:10.660 --> 00:49:13.940
more real quick that yeah, I think you'll find interesting. Now

729
00:49:14.740 --> 00:49:16.340
this will probably.

730
00:49:18.260 --> 00:49:21.820
Be mid-2026 and I

731
00:49:21.820 --> 00:49:25.420
showed the. Well, where'd it go? I showed the, the

732
00:49:25.420 --> 00:49:29.220
practice moments ago. This is going to

733
00:49:29.220 --> 00:49:33.020
be the mini Fractus. And so I have been asked

734
00:49:33.020 --> 00:49:36.700
for that. And believe it or not, the bottom one is concept.

735
00:49:37.420 --> 00:49:40.940
The top one is actually Kubi just to kind of

736
00:49:40.940 --> 00:49:43.740
prove how far they've come down the road.

737
00:49:44.790 --> 00:49:48.550
This is, is absolutely gorgeous, by the way. I think I'm going to call

738
00:49:48.550 --> 00:49:50.630
this the vintage sports car.

739
00:49:50.630 --> 00:50:04.550
...and

740
00:50:04.550 --> 00:50:08.190
then, you know, Bob, I love, I am

741
00:50:08.190 --> 00:50:09.270
huge. Into.

742
00:50:11.120 --> 00:50:21.240
...of

743
00:50:21.240 --> 00:50:21.800
the

744
00:50:21.800 --> 00:50:26.479
Mach

745
00:50:26.960 --> 00:50:30.640
71. And I wonder what that's going to be. And so

746
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:34.640
this is going to be the next knife after the tornado.

747
00:50:34.960 --> 00:50:38.320
I'm hoping April, May, June, somewhere in there of 26.

748
00:50:39.430 --> 00:50:43.230
And this is the Blackbird edition, as

749
00:50:43.230 --> 00:50:46.990
I'm calling it, of the SR of the Mach 71. It is

750
00:50:46.990 --> 00:50:50.550
modeled after the black and red of the

751
00:50:50.950 --> 00:50:54.629
SR71 Blackbird. It's my homage, if you will,

752
00:50:54.629 --> 00:50:58.230
to that. And airplanes are

753
00:50:58.230 --> 00:50:58.550
made.

754
00:50:59.190 --> 00:51:09.340
...but

755
00:51:09.340 --> 00:51:12.820
there'll be different versions of it as always.

756
00:51:13.220 --> 00:51:16.500
And, and just I.

757
00:51:16.740 --> 00:51:20.380
These, this is also Kubi and this is probably

758
00:51:20.380 --> 00:51:24.180
for its size it's about seven and three quarters. And for

759
00:51:24.180 --> 00:51:27.700
its size, this is one of the lightest titanium folders

760
00:51:28.100 --> 00:51:31.700
I've ever experienced. The milling we did inside

761
00:51:32.250 --> 00:51:35.450
it is just, it's super light. So

762
00:51:36.010 --> 00:51:39.730
hollow ground blade. First time I've Done a hollow ground. Well

763
00:51:39.730 --> 00:51:43.490
actually I'm sorry the mini practice is also hollow

764
00:51:43.490 --> 00:51:46.850
ground but this, this will be the first production knife I've done with

765
00:51:46.850 --> 00:51:50.570
hollow. I just prefer flat ground. I'm weird

766
00:51:50.570 --> 00:51:54.010
but people have been asking me for hollow. So here it comes.

767
00:51:54.570 --> 00:51:58.170
That is really cool. I'm a sucker for a hollow ground. Yeah, me too.

768
00:51:58.410 --> 00:52:02.150
I like light. It does lighten up the blade. I mean it lightens up

769
00:52:02.150 --> 00:52:05.950
the whole thing 100%. Yep, it's it

770
00:52:05.950 --> 00:52:09.310
and it's. It's just I've been carrying those protos a lot

771
00:52:09.550 --> 00:52:12.910
and I can't wait to get them to market. It's just things have been slow

772
00:52:12.910 --> 00:52:16.310
this year just because of shoot the

773
00:52:16.310 --> 00:52:20.150
production cycle and tariffs and everything else.

774
00:52:20.150 --> 00:52:23.390
We got war stories that you wouldn't believe but

775
00:52:24.030 --> 00:52:27.860
it's just you keep fighting through it and, and everything's coming

776
00:52:27.860 --> 00:52:31.540
out on the, on the good side. So I love it. Well, we only have

777
00:52:31.540 --> 00:52:34.740
a few minutes here but I want to ask you about the tariffs a little

778
00:52:34.740 --> 00:52:38.460
bit. Like how, how did you see that on the ground?

779
00:52:38.540 --> 00:52:42.060
How did that affect you? Well thankfully at the

780
00:52:42.780 --> 00:52:46.460
tornadoes, even though we're late, it came out on the, on the right

781
00:52:46.700 --> 00:52:50.060
side if you will because we have a deal in place now.

782
00:52:50.860 --> 00:52:54.700
Whereas I had friends having knives come out during the middle of the

783
00:52:54.700 --> 00:52:58.450
height of the China tariffs and they ended up

784
00:52:58.450 --> 00:53:02.250
having to ship their knives on a boat and it was like

785
00:53:02.250 --> 00:53:06.010
two months to get here and customs took forever and

786
00:53:06.010 --> 00:53:09.730
everything else. So thankfully I came out on the good side. But the

787
00:53:09.730 --> 00:53:12.889
part that was tough for me was just

788
00:53:13.290 --> 00:53:16.890
shipping timing. Everything changed with, with, with

789
00:53:16.890 --> 00:53:20.730
shipping. So when I, I bought for example, whoops, here it is right

790
00:53:20.730 --> 00:53:24.270
here. When I bought the camo carbon material that's made in

791
00:53:24.270 --> 00:53:27.870
California and so it had to be sent over to China and it just took

792
00:53:27.870 --> 00:53:31.590
longer to get there and longer to go through customs and I

793
00:53:31.590 --> 00:53:35.270
had to pay a tariff on it and you know, as it went into

794
00:53:35.270 --> 00:53:39.110
China and, and you know that just, that kind of

795
00:53:39.110 --> 00:53:41.630
stuff just made things a little less

796
00:53:42.510 --> 00:53:46.030
clean. But thank thankfully it hasn't been brutal

797
00:53:46.030 --> 00:53:49.590
and the timing worked out that the knives came

798
00:53:49.590 --> 00:53:52.030
after the deal got put in place place.

799
00:53:52.030 --> 00:54:01.190
I

800
00:54:01.190 --> 00:54:02.510
mean

801
00:54:02.510 --> 00:54:06.110
can you

802
00:54:06.110 --> 00:54:09.950
imagine these are going to be around 150 and it would have

803
00:54:09.950 --> 00:54:13.478
been terrible if I had to sell this same thing for like 200,

804
00:54:13.622 --> 00:54:17.430
250, because of the tariffs. You know, I, I don't even know how

805
00:54:17.430 --> 00:54:21.160
you. I don't know how that works. You know what I'm saying? Are people

806
00:54:21.160 --> 00:54:23.600
still going to buy it or are they not? And thankfully, I don't have to

807
00:54:23.600 --> 00:54:26.760
discover that, so. Right, right. It's.

808
00:54:26.840 --> 00:54:33.440
But.

809
00:54:33.440 --> 00:54:37.080
But I will tell you, some of the manufacturers and Kubi did this too.

810
00:54:37.160 --> 00:54:40.880
They're just eating the tariffs because

811
00:54:40.880 --> 00:54:44.610
we have paid. We have had some tariffs and for stuff coming this way,

812
00:54:44.610 --> 00:54:48.450
they're just either building an enterprise up front or eating

813
00:54:48.530 --> 00:54:52.250
some of it themselves. And, you know, that's, that's

814
00:54:52.250 --> 00:54:56.050
what a good business partner looks like. So that's been good.

815
00:54:56.210 --> 00:55:00.050
Yep. So. So thankfully not terrible on your

816
00:55:00.050 --> 00:55:02.770
end of things, on the operations end of things.

817
00:55:03.890 --> 00:55:07.690
This is something I've always wondered, and I guess I've.

818
00:55:07.690 --> 00:55:11.490
I haven't really asked you or others in a similar

819
00:55:11.970 --> 00:55:15.650
position, but you receive all these knives and then you

820
00:55:15.890 --> 00:55:19.730
ship them. You are the company. I mean, we talk a lot about

821
00:55:19.730 --> 00:55:22.770
who makes this, and that's super important,

822
00:55:23.730 --> 00:55:27.170
but who designs this and who ships this is also,

823
00:55:27.490 --> 00:55:31.250
you know, you're. You're bookending the, the manufacturing process.

824
00:55:31.650 --> 00:55:35.290
Well, and I think that's why I sometimes. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut

825
00:55:35.290 --> 00:55:39.070
you off there, but, um, I think that's. Well, I don't know if

826
00:55:39.070 --> 00:55:42.710
you want to get into this topic, Bob. This could be a whole podcast to

827
00:55:42.710 --> 00:55:45.310
itself, but you hear a lot from American

828
00:55:45.550 --> 00:55:49.070
manufacturers about those of us that use Chinese

829
00:55:49.070 --> 00:55:52.190
manufacturers, and we're taking money out of America. And

830
00:55:52.830 --> 00:55:56.550
I would beg to differ with that. My, my stance on

831
00:55:56.550 --> 00:55:58.910
that is, yes, I'm sending money to China.

832
00:56:00.430 --> 00:56:03.910
I am, and I would love to find an American manufacturer that would

833
00:56:04.140 --> 00:56:07.860
work with me, period. And, and second

834
00:56:07.860 --> 00:56:10.740
of all, would work with me and price things in such a way that it

835
00:56:10.740 --> 00:56:14.580
would make financial sense. Right. But I

836
00:56:14.580 --> 00:56:17.660
think what I, what I would like to say is if you think about it.

837
00:56:17.660 --> 00:56:21.260
So let's, let's take the Tornado, for example. This is

838
00:56:21.260 --> 00:56:24.060
154cm steel. Bob, where's that steel made?

839
00:56:24.860 --> 00:56:27.980
Pennsylvania or New York? Okay, it's New York.

840
00:56:29.340 --> 00:56:32.220
This is camo carbon. This is. Is made in California.

841
00:56:32.860 --> 00:56:36.660
I have myself and my family, which is a

842
00:56:36.660 --> 00:56:40.460
business. And so American money, money coming into America. I

843
00:56:40.460 --> 00:56:44.300
have two dealers on board. For example, my last night,

844
00:56:44.300 --> 00:56:48.060
the downdraft, we had blade binge on board. And they are an American

845
00:56:48.140 --> 00:56:51.940
company. So that's money staying right here. And who knows?

846
00:56:51.940 --> 00:56:54.500
I mean, there's other parts in here that I'm sure. As a matter of fact,

847
00:56:54.500 --> 00:56:58.160
I'm working on a knife right now where with the

848
00:56:58.160 --> 00:57:01.600
steel we're working with, they had to get American sanding

849
00:57:01.600 --> 00:57:05.000
discs to be able to. To. To grind the

850
00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:08.520
steel. And so it's. I guess what I would say is,

851
00:57:08.840 --> 00:57:12.600
yeah, I mean, there is a small portion of the money that is going

852
00:57:12.600 --> 00:57:16.040
to China, but there's a portion going to me go. And I'm

853
00:57:16.040 --> 00:57:19.640
shipping through American companies and I'm buying boxes

854
00:57:19.640 --> 00:57:23.320
from Uline and, you know, tape from an American company.

855
00:57:23.850 --> 00:57:27.530
So there's plenty of this money that people are spending staying right here.

856
00:57:28.010 --> 00:57:31.530
Well, not only that, but if it weren't for Tempest knives or.

857
00:57:31.610 --> 00:57:35.370
Or a company like yours, that money wouldn't be generated at all for

858
00:57:35.370 --> 00:57:38.730
anyone. But the fact that some of it's going to China, you know.

859
00:57:40.570 --> 00:57:44.090
That'S a part of it, but it's a small part of something much

860
00:57:44.090 --> 00:57:47.610
bigger. Yeah, it's just an interesting topic because I hear that a lot.

861
00:57:47.610 --> 00:57:50.410
And, man, we could get into, you know, the different

862
00:57:51.040 --> 00:57:54.680
misinformation that tends to be out there in that. In that realm, but we

863
00:57:54.680 --> 00:57:58.320
won't, you know, we will save that for another day.

864
00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:00.720
Code made that you're leaving that comment on.

865
00:58:03.120 --> 00:58:06.000
I. Look, I love American Eyes. I got a lot of them

866
00:58:06.800 --> 00:58:09.840
and, and I review a lot of them, and I love them. And I would

867
00:58:09.840 --> 00:58:13.680
like. I said I would love to do some stuff, some collaborations with American companies.

868
00:58:13.680 --> 00:58:17.440
I'd love to do OEM work with American companies down the road.

869
00:58:17.870 --> 00:58:21.630
But I think it is important to remember, like you said, that,

870
00:58:21.630 --> 00:58:24.670
you know, it's an American guy sitting here with a dream,

871
00:58:25.070 --> 00:58:28.830
drawing this out, trying to turn it into something.

872
00:58:28.830 --> 00:58:32.510
And the best, the best part, people, now, look, I do make money

873
00:58:32.510 --> 00:58:36.070
off of this. I'd be stupid to do this and not.

874
00:58:36.070 --> 00:58:39.790
But can you imagine today, Bob, cutting open

875
00:58:39.790 --> 00:58:43.600
a box and something you designed, something

876
00:58:43.600 --> 00:58:47.280
you came up with, you get to pull it out of a box and realize,

877
00:58:47.280 --> 00:58:51.080
wow, this is real. I designed this. I came up with this.

878
00:58:51.320 --> 00:58:55.120
Spent blood, sweat and tears trying to make this happen. And here

879
00:58:55.120 --> 00:58:58.640
it is. And, you know, that's. That's an incredible

880
00:58:58.640 --> 00:59:01.800
feeling. When I was opening the boxes, my wife's just like. They're like that little

881
00:59:01.800 --> 00:59:05.600
kid, and she's laughing at me and picking on

882
00:59:05.600 --> 00:59:09.240
me, like, well, you. You get more excited about that than you did,

883
00:59:09.240 --> 00:59:12.980
you know, the day we got married. I'm like, oh, no, that is

884
00:59:12.980 --> 00:59:16.740
not. I Have to live that joy every day, honey. Not true. Exactly.

885
00:59:16.740 --> 00:59:19.860
That is not true. But it is, it is,

886
00:59:20.420 --> 00:59:24.100
it's, it's incredible. And, and again, the support I get from

887
00:59:24.100 --> 00:59:27.900
people. You know, it's just, it,

888
00:59:27.900 --> 00:59:31.620
it makes you, definitely makes you feel good and keep, you know, because

889
00:59:31.620 --> 00:59:34.980
there are, like you said, there's times where I'm just like, man, this stuff is

890
00:59:34.980 --> 00:59:38.260
tough. Do I want to keep this going long term? And then you see,

891
00:59:38.730 --> 00:59:42.010
you know, like you said, the reactions and the comments from people on my knives

892
00:59:42.010 --> 00:59:45.530
fast YouTube channel. And then you see, you know, the comments

893
00:59:45.690 --> 00:59:49.490
and the people posting your, your knives and

894
00:59:49.490 --> 00:59:53.050
I'm sure you get it. Like on a Thursday night, people night, people saying, I'm

895
00:59:53.050 --> 00:59:56.370
carrying the Tempest this or the Tempest that. I mean, that's

896
00:59:56.370 --> 01:00:00.170
crazy. It's, it's crazy. I, I, I don't think I will

897
01:00:00.170 --> 01:00:03.690
ever get over that feeling

898
01:00:03.690 --> 01:00:05.770
of, I can't, I just can't believe that.

899
01:00:07.410 --> 01:00:10.610
You know, that people carry something. I came up with

900
01:00:11.250 --> 01:00:15.090
knowing, knowing your background, you're obviously a creative guy, but to see something

901
01:00:15.570 --> 01:00:19.330
go from zero point energy or whatever, just

902
01:00:19.330 --> 01:00:23.130
go from zero to a knife in every pocket has got

903
01:00:23.130 --> 01:00:26.930
to be something really intoxicating. Before I let

904
01:00:26.930 --> 01:00:30.530
you go, Casey, let everyone know how they can A, keep up with you

905
01:00:30.690 --> 01:00:34.290
and B. Find out what's newest with

906
01:00:34.290 --> 01:00:37.050
Tempest knives and how to get your knife perfect. So

907
01:00:37.850 --> 01:00:41.610
I would suggest I'm going to be posting, like I said, the middle of January,

908
01:00:41.690 --> 01:00:45.290
the tornadoes are coming, and other stuff. I would just say two things.

909
01:00:45.610 --> 01:00:48.382
If you're on Instagram, go to tempest.tempest

910
01:00:48.678 --> 01:00:52.290
knives us.com. yeah, there's the

911
01:00:52.290 --> 01:00:55.530
US because there was already somebody with Tempest times on

912
01:00:55.530 --> 01:00:58.440
Instagram. But Tempest dives us

913
01:00:59.240 --> 01:01:02.440
at. Tempest dives us and then.

914
01:01:04.760 --> 01:01:08.320
And then obviously Knives fast. Just watch my, you know, check out my YouTube

915
01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:11.880
channel because I'm going to be doing videos on these

916
01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:14.880
knives and talking about what's coming and where they're going to be and what the

917
01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:18.120
price is and what the composition is. And then

918
01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:22.160
I haven't, my website has been refreshed. It's tempest

919
01:01:22.160 --> 01:01:25.860
knives.com and if you go there, you can

920
01:01:25.860 --> 01:01:29.620
sign up for the newsletter. And I'll be sending out a newsletter saying, hey,

921
01:01:29.620 --> 01:01:33.260
Knives are coming. And so that, that's

922
01:01:33.260 --> 01:01:36.900
probably in any of those ways, but like I said, whatever's most

923
01:01:36.900 --> 01:01:40.700
convenient for somebody. I, I got a big mouse and spread

924
01:01:40.700 --> 01:01:44.300
it around everywhere, so. Amen. Gotta, gotta do

925
01:01:44.300 --> 01:01:47.700
that. Hey, Steve, thank you so much for coming back on the show, man. It's

926
01:01:47.700 --> 01:01:51.540
been great talking with you. I love being on here with you, Bob. Thank you.

927
01:01:52.020 --> 01:01:55.820
All right. You got it. Take care. All right. Adventure delivered your

928
01:01:55.820 --> 01:01:58.820
monthly subscription for handpicked. outdoor survival,

929
01:01:58.900 --> 01:02:02.740
EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor

930
01:02:02.740 --> 01:02:05.220
professionals. The knife junkie.com

931
01:02:06.020 --> 01:02:09.460
battlebox There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, K.C. Spiron

932
01:02:09.460 --> 01:02:13.300
of Tempest Knives and the Knives Fast channel. Also, he's

933
01:02:13.300 --> 01:02:16.680
got some great lives. Be sure to check those out and and

934
01:02:16.920 --> 01:02:20.720
keep up with him@tempestknives.com all right.

935
01:02:20.720 --> 01:02:24.520
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time,

936
01:02:24.520 --> 01:02:28.240
don't take dull for an answer. Thanks for listening to

937
01:02:28.240 --> 01:02:31.760
the Knife Junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and

938
01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:35.600
review@reviewthepodcast.com for show notes for today's

939
01:02:35.600 --> 01:02:39.240
episode, additional resources and to listen to past episodes, Visit our

940
01:02:39.240 --> 01:02:42.810
website, thenifejunkie.com you can also watch our latest

941
01:02:42.810 --> 01:02:46.370
videos on YouTube@thenifjunkie.com YouTube.