Coming up, the Gentleman Junkie giveaway knife for December
2025 Wild Turkey but not that Wild
Turkey and 10 great modern classic folders.
I'm Bob DeMarco. This is the Knife Junkie Podcast.
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife
news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your
host, Bob DeMarco.
Welcome back to the show. A couple of my favor comments this past week were
on my interview with KC from Knives
Fast and Tempest Knives Angry Tom's Hat next door. A member here
says my two favorite channels. Of course that had to
be one. Of my favorite comments. And then that was followed up by Byron of
Split and Slices who said I'll agree with Angry Tom's Hat.
Pretty sure these are my favorite two YouTube knife channels for
both the knowledge, passion and or drive to manage growth
and improve. The two best market examples of this are the business
relationships between KC and Tempest and
Kubi knives as well as Bob with Tekel knives. Still
waiting for the 4 inch black Chinook
AC says Byron. So thank you both very
very much. I had to put those in there because they put wind in my
sails and hopefully they do the same for Bob. Casey, another great
guy out there in the knife verse. All right, that
said, let's get to a pocket check.
what's in his pocket. Let's find out.
Here's the Knife junkie with his pocket. Check of knives in my front
right pocket tonight. Today I should say the
beautiful. Tough knives
designed DeMarco by concept. So the concept DeMarco
designed by Jeff Blauvelt of Tough Knives.
I love this knife concept
sent this to me. They they wanted to know if I wanted to check out
any of their knives because they saw a few a few
worshipful videos I did of the bison. They thought well
you like our knives, maybe you'll like some of these others. And I
picked the DeMarco because I just think it's beautiful and I
didn't even know at the time that it's a Jeff Blauvelt design
knife. Now I love tough knives. He was tough thumbs
way back in the day when he was just modding knives and I always
wanted one of his designs though his customs
are obviously quite pricey. So to have this has been a pleasure.
S35VN A really cool
carbon fiber and. Big old titanium
bolsters there. Great knife. Next knife. I had an
old one in my pocket today. Old. This is relative
when you have this many knives and I don't mean that as a brag
but this is from the very beginning of Jack
Wolf knives. The second knife I believe, or the third
knife. Ben Belkin and Jack Wolf knives ever released. This
is the first release of the Little Bro
and this did not go far and wide because there is an issue in
manufacturing that my knife was not
victim to. So I got to keep it. And I absolutely
love this little sleeve board knife with
the gorgeous clip point blade. Very much like the great
eastern cutlery number 15 there on my
belt today, riding front scout is my beloved.
Hob Tooth Knives Nova 2. This is
my collaboration with Matt Chase of
Hog Tooth Knives. This is the second one we did together and this
is the prototype. I think about 15
people ordered this knife and got it and still carry it because
they mention it on Thursday Night Knives. It's my ode
to the Kiridashi and Japanese knives without
going down the Tanto route. I really love this
thing. And Matt Chase does an
absolutely beautiful job both with his forged
fancy custom knives and his knives
that are more like this. 154Cm water jetted out.
We do have a Nova 3 that we're working on right now
and you'll. See that when it's ready. It'll
be a while. And my Esk today, my
emotional support knife was the Vaquero Grande
from Cold Steel. This is the predecessor to the
XL Vaquero Voyager. This one
I've been carrying for at least 20 years.
I know it's more, I just don't want to guess how much more.
But this recently did incredible
duty cutting up a bunch of carpet in my
man cave. It had to be removed. And this was
the knife that did the best job I did. I used this
and I also used the mayhem which was great. But I gotta say
the serrations on this deep recurve did a
fantastic job. On cutting the carpet.
...the
beautiful
Deadite from Jeff Blauvelt. And
DeMarco. One of my favorite producers of
production knives out there. I love DeMarco. All right, next
up I want to tell you about a deal that we have
and I'm going to do it illustrating it with this beautiful
three dog knife champions blade.
This is a Trevor Barrett design. Trevor Barrett, say
Alaska knife maker who won
an episode of Forged in Fire.
He has teamed up with the great and Powerful three dog knife.
That is the in house knife brand of Northern Knives
and our good friend Mike and Dakota up there.
So this is the knife we're going to be actually giving away in January
of 2025. But the reason I bring it up is that we have
an affiliate deal with three dog
knife that is unreal
25% off. One of these
hardcore Alaska made knives. They have a bunch of different models.
I've shown off the riot. I've shown off the Mac which stands for
multi animal knife. Mike and three
dog knife have embraced the concept of the outdoor
tanto which I think is so cool and incredibly useful.
But this knife is man.
This really goes to show what this blade shape can
be used for all sorts of stuff, not just tactical. So
just use the code Knife Junkie, all
lowercase, all one word at checkout at the three
dog knife website we have a shortcut. Just go to the
knifejunkie.com three dog knife and
any knife you buy there made by three dog
knife is eligible for this deal.
By the way, incredible leather sheaths also by
D. Johnston of Alaska. Beautiful sheets,
beautiful knives and an outstanding deal. 25
off if you put in coupon code Knife Junkie at
checkout. That does not count on the Northern Knives
website. So go to the knifejunkie.com three
dog. Knife for that outstanding deal. All right, since we
were talking about gentleman junkie giveaway knives, let's talk about what we're
giving away this month, the month of December 2025.
It is this wicked little custom knife. Yes, it's got
some schmutz on it from the Kydex because it's brand
spanking new. But look at this beautiful knife. This is from Gunfighter
Custom Wipe off.
This is from Gunfighter Customs. That's
Jared Franklin. And then this is a Michael Elliot design.
Beautiful sort of take on the clinch pit.
But in my opinion and perhaps many people's
opinion, it really improves on the clinch pick. You get that
reverse cutting edge and this one you get a forward
cutting edge. So double edged here but also a place for
your thumb. Nay, no, two places for your thumb.
And so yeah, it really is an improvement on that design in
my opinion. Beautiful
butterscotch micarta, a vintage Bob DeMarco here, a
rich light, nice grooves all around the handle for
easy grippage on this egg shaped handle.
Such a cool knife. These are not inexpensive.
So all you got to do is become a gentleman junkie and you'll be thrown,
your name will be thrown in the hopper to win this on
December 18th a very special day in my family.
So go check that out. Go to the knife junkie.com
and join their knife junkie.com patreon or you
can join us right here on YouTube. The join button somewhere
right below my finger. This is the
gunfighter from Gunfighter Customs. And it could be
yours on December 18th.
All right, I'm going to put this. A very, very sharp, double edged knife away
also, just in case you were wondering, you know, fixed blades
rely on good sheets and this has a fantastic sheet.
So check that out. All right, last up, before we get to knife
life news, since I was talking about Patreon, let me, let me show you one
of the great new features. Well, it's a, it's not so new but this is
a new addition to the
Maker Monday. It's Bob DeMarco. I have
an amazing Bob DeMarco knife and I
would have loved to have had more an amazing knife maker
who really popularized a lot of large CNC
made folding custom
knives. Just wicked custom that you may you may
remember one of his knives made famous from the
movie the Expendables. I love the whole series of Expendables. Don't
ask me to tell you why, it's just an awesome guy's
movie. But Jason Statham uses Bob
DeMarco. Great effect and
comedic effect in the beginning of the first Expendable. So
go to the knife junkie.com Patreon want to sell your custom knives online with Launch
Cart you can easily create your own e commerce store. No coding required. Launch Cart
is designed for knife makers like you with built in tools to showcase your craftsmanship,
manage orders and grow your brand. It's fast, flexible and even includes low cost payment
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knifejunkie.com launch and turn your passion into a business.
All of them are are awesome. Plus the
interview extras with everyone we interview here.
Plus you get thrown in the hopper to like
I said before to win a great knife if you become a. Gentleman junkie
every month. So go to the knife junkie.com Patreon check it out. Scan
the QR code on your screen. Buy a year at once and save
12%. That's quite a savings people. So go to the knife
junkie.com Patreon
check it out. Scan
the QR code on your
screen. Buy
a year at once
and save 12%. That's
quite a savings
people.
You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast and now here's the knife
junkie with The knife life news. So first up in knife
life news, this is an exciting one. It's from Civivi and I believe
I have one on the way from them. But it's called the
partake. Like let us partake of some vittles,
some food, let's eat. The partake
is a fantastic looking deal right here. You can see it on
the screen. We used to call them hobo
knives because they were knives that came apart and then had your
fork, your knife. Your spoon and can opener. But now we call
them food based. 4 in 1 multi tools. And that's what
this is. This is a food based 4 in 1 multi tool or
hobo knife that is. I'm so happy to see this
coming out from Civivi. I've had, I've had some
kind of random and janky hobo knives over the
years, but this is the first one that looks like it's really nicely made.
You got a fork and a can or
bottle opener on one side and then a spoon
and a food knife on the other side. And they stick
together, they fold out, all of those implements fold out
and then the whole thing sticks together with a very strong magnet,
just like a hobo knife. Uh, the steel
listed on the website is stainless. It's about as
specific as they get, but very cool. Bronze
washers and aluminum handles. So
aluminum, bronze magnets and stainless, it's like good
old classic four in one multi tool.
Food based or hobo knives is what I prefer. And
what else is cool is that there's no room for a clip on this sucker.
So it all gets put into a waxed
canvas pouch. And I am such a stupid
sucker for waxed canvas. I love it. I have, I
have. Well, let's just say over the past year I've
spent a little money on. Some waxed canvas here and there.
4.2 ounces coming out soon for about a
hundred bucks. Okay, next up is from
Buck knives. Now they have something new out called the 117
Mini. And you know the 117, that's their fixed blade
knife called the DeMarco. Like I think named after the cow.
But this one is the 117 Mini. And it takes
the blade, the beautiful clip point
blade from the 117 DeMarco and puts it on the
102 Woodsman's handle. So you've got that
phenolic handle with the, with the, with
the aluminum butt cap. But unlike the
DeMarco, the 102 has a more slender
tapering towards the pommel, so the whole thing is lighter. This
is a lean 3.1 ounces as
compared to the 117 grams 4.9
ounces. A little confusing here, but it's a mashup of Buck
knives and it's a stealth release. So this is
already out. Only 500 pieces made and
did not. Come out to much fanfare. That blade is
Magnacut with the Paul Boss Heat Treat. Comes with a beautiful
black leather sheath per usual. And that
handle, you probably can't tell. From the pictures, is a deep dark.
Maroon as a opposed to the black. Which it usually
comes in. And these are coming in at
$175 MSRP. And
I'm pretty sure that's the only. Way you can get it is by the manufacturer.
That's the Buck 117 Mini. All
right, last up, this is an exciting one also. This is
from JW Collab. Our good friends at
Jack Wolf Knives, Ben Belkin, has gotten together in
a collaborative knife designing sense with Melissa
DeMarco. I just call her Melissa Backwoods because that's what
she goes by on Instagram and YouTube. But
Melissa Miller was a contestant on Naked and
Afraid years ago and is a knife
designer. She designed a knife with Tim
Kell and Tkel knives and this is
her latest design. It is with JW Collab
and as. You can see, it's a beautiful little. Clip point
blade on a sort of sleeve board
style handle, much like this. Little
bro Jack handle I was holding up before. A very similar
handle shape. I saw a video where she was talking about
the inspiration for this knife. She has a. It was
a. What was it?
A steak knife from. I don't remember where,
but it was. A steak knife and it was clip point. And she thought how
cool would it be to have an updated version? And so this
is what she and Bob DeMarco came up with. Looks
very cool. I know mine is arriving, I believe, tomorrow as I
record this, so I'm very much looking forward to that.
2.9 inches of the usual S90v
hollow ground clip point blade, sleeve board handle.
As I said, four different handle materials. I think what we're
seeing here is abalone. On the screen there,
a pocket leather sheath, black with the DCC
style clip. 2.1 ounces.
There you see it in the sheath. 2.1
ounces. Pretty light. And will be available
on December 12, 2025. So if you're
listening to this, as soon as it drops, which I'm sure you all are,
two days hence, this will be dropping so
$245 MSRP.
Check it out. The JW Collab Fix EDC or
Backwoods. Fix EDC By Melissa Miller
Very, very cool. All right, still to come on the Knife Junkie
podcast, we're going to talk about the first tool we got
something really cool. We're going to talk about
K bars. You're listening to the Knife Junkie podcast.
Here's some cool knife history with the Knife junkies. The First Tool. If you ask
a room full of knife collectors to picture a fighting knife, chances are they'll all
see the same silhouette. If you ask a room full of knife
collectors to picture a fighting knife, chances are
they'll all. See the same silhouette. A long, lean
blade with a stacked leather handle with the bold
stamp of USMC on the tank.
That's the KA Bar, one of the few knives whose name
alone can summon an entire era. But the
story of the KA Bar doesn't begin in the mud of World War II.
It starts in the lean years before it, when the US Marine
Corps needed something better, something tougher. Their old
issue knives were breaking, bending, or simply failing at the
worst possible times. So the Marines turned to a
consortium of American knife makers and said, in essence,
give us a blade that can dig a foxhole, pry open a crate.
And still be sharp enough to fight with. What they got
in 1942 was the 7 inch clip point bruiser.
Part utility knife, part battlefield companion,
it wasn't delicate, it wasn't elegant, but
it did exactly what it was needed to do. That leather
handle soaked up shock like a dream. The guard kept fingers
exactly where they were supposed to stay, and the fullers on
either side of the blade cut. Weight without sacrificing strength.
It was the sort of knife that you could survive, that could survive
the. Pacific because it had to. The
KA Bar's name itself came early, purportedly
from a fur trapper's letter claiming he used one of the
company's knives to kill a bear, a phrase that, through
rough handwriting, became K A Bar.
The name stuck, and once the Marines adopted the knife,
it became legend. And make no
mistake, Marines carried it everywhere, across
Tarawa's reefs, through the jungles of Guadalcanal, and
into the black sand of Iwo Jima. The knife was
a tool, a morale. Booster, a symbol of grit.
Veterans talked about sharpening them on helmet rims, used
them to open rations, even pounding them into
wooden beams to hang their gear. If a Marine
had a KA Bar on his belt, he felt just a. Little more ready
for whatever came next. After the war, the KA
Bar didn't fade away. Hunters adopted it, campers adopted
it, even branches of the military kept some
variations of it. And today, 80 years later, that
same unmistakable silhouette still shows in the
hands of soldiers, collectors and outdoorsmen
alike. Because some knives are just tools
and some become icons. The KA Bar,
that's the one that. Went to war and never came home.
It simply became a part of who we are.
Okay, coming up on the Knife Junkie podcast, we're going to take a look
at some new knives or a new. Knife in my collection.
But first, I want to urge you to join us on Thursday
Night Knives. This is your mission. Join us here. You should
probably subscribe and click the notification bell. It'll give
you a reminder. Every Thursday we go live
here at 10:00pm Eastern Standard Time and we talk knives
and we have a big crowd and it is very fun
and we have a lot of knowledgeable and funny. Members
who come on and talk. So please, please join the conversation
and. Join us for Thursday Night Knives. All right,
let's get to the state. of the collection adventure. Delivered your monthly subscription for handpicked
outdoor survival, EDC and other cool gear from our expert team of outdoor professionals. Thenifejunkie.com
Battlebox
Christmas
came early for me this year, my friends, and that's
due to my friend Jim. He just bought this for me
and I love it. Look at this
beautiful big western style Bowie. Let me put it
under the knife camera. Here it is. It barely
fits. So beautiful and glorious it is. Here, let
me. All right, so Jim just got this
for me and it is a gorgeous western
style Bowie as you can tell. As you can tell here,
it's got hollow ground bevels much like the
Western 49 and it's got a
really nice swedge and a gorgeous shape. It
came really sharp. I'd never heard of wild, tricky handmade knives
before, but this one came really sharp. I
did of course run it over my strop a few times and get it
razor sharp. It has this beautiful sort
of gray purplish pakkawood handle
and a brass escutcheon. Really, really
nice. And then it also came in this white
stitched leather sheath. I like the sheath quite a bit.
I am considering removing the belt
loop, but I'm gonna wait and see if that urge
passes because I hate to do things that you can't take back
and then realize it was a stupid idea. You
got a true full tang here, a perfect
handle. It's very comfortable and hand filling.
And I gotta tell you, we had, I mentioned this on Thursday
Night Knives last week, but we had a plumber here
one day not too long ago, and long story
short, this room is going to change. But I'll tell you that another time.
But the whole time, whenever someone is in the house working, I'm like, here's
someone with power tools. A stranger in my house. He was a great
plumber, did a wonderful job. Personable guy, but still,
I'm like, I don't know. I don't know who this guy is. So this
was my. This was my comfort that day. This was
my. This was my esk, really. It gave me the emotional support
I needed to have a stranger in the house all day long.
You know, I'm a private guy, and when I'm in my home, I look,
you know, I like to feel comfortable, and this is what helped.
So thank you, Jim. I love this thing, and it's
another. Bowie in my quiver, another
Bowie in my collection of awesome Bowie knives. So I'm really,
really psyched, Bob. Thank you, sir. All right, I'm gonna. I'm
gonna put this away. And as I do, we have a new
design. I don't want to cut my. All
right, sorry. Oh, there it is. It's safely,
safely stashed away. All right. Check out this new design. This
knife has seen things. None of them are a sharpening stone.
I absolutely love this because most of the people
I know, this is the story with them. This is the story
I've. I've even met. And we've all known people who have
gotten rid of knives that just kind of passed them aside and bought new
ones when their knives go dull, which is crazy. It's
like throwing your car away when it runs out of gas. Am I right?
I mean, it's got a gas tank for a reason. You fill it
up and you get. To use it again. Same thing with a knife. It's got
a blade, you sharpen again. It again, and then you use
it again. But I love this. It's got some real attitude.
You can get this on any number of things. T shirt,
apron, other stuff. At the knife
junkie.com shop, we've got 30 some odd pages
of really cool merchandise with
all of these incredible and funny designs that Jim comes up
with. Is one of my favorites from the recent past. So go check that out
at the knife junkie.com shop. All
right, let's talk about it. Modern classics.
Okay, what are we talking about here, Bob? Modern classics.
So if you look at modern art, and this is.
This is not really based on modern art, but it does go
back to somewhere around World War I.
Or so we're, we're updating this,
we're starting in the late 60s, but we only
really have one, one occurrence in the 60s. And then we kind of jump to.
The early 80s with these. And I'm not going to be dating them,
but these are 10 knives here, 10 folders that have had
an outsized impact on the industry through,
through their strength, through the steels they've used,
through their designs and innovation, and through their
adoption, not only from users, people who
hardcore use their knives, but then later collectors.
So what are we going to start with? You know what, we're starting with the
Buck 110. So let's take a look at this
Buck 110. This one just got
a bunch of use from me. This one lives on my desk in
the leather sheath, the leather belt
sheath. That came with it. And I keep it always
handy, use it somewhat rarely carry or carry it.
Rarely I should say. But living on my
desk it sees some use. But this past weekend
I had a lot of work to do both inside and
outside and I had some stuff to burn off.
So when I did, I lit that fire using this Buck 110.
You can see all the gunk on. There from the, from
the Fatwood, but. 420 HC blade
steel here. Razor freaking sharp, man.
Hollow ground, razor sharp. 420 HC. Imagine that.
It's not a super steel and yet it still functions as
a knife. Unbelievable. Who would, who would, who would Imagine. You'Ve
got integral brass bolsters and liners
and nice and thick and just a super sturdy lock
back. I love this knife. I do.
I gotta say, for a lock back, I like the mid back
locks that you see on Cold Steels because they're easier to one
hand close. But at the time this was designed, one hand
closing wasn't really a consideration. Bob didn't care that much about it. People didn't care
that much about it. Plus you can always close this on. Your leg,
you know what I'm talking. About, when it's like this and then you just
depress it and you put. It against your jeans and close it. This is how
we used to close. Knives before we were pampered by the modern age.
The buck 110 has a nice solid feel to it. Super
sturdy and really changed the
industry not only with its,
its strength, taking something that was a hunting knife and turning it into
something smaller, more easy to carry in a folding
format, but also that lock itself was
super, is super strong and really changed
things. Permanently. In the knife business.
This gave birth to a whole slew of
copycats from the moment it hit the market
to now, you can still. Find knives that emulate the Bob 110.
What a great knife. I love this. And it's small, brother. The Bob
112.
Okay, next up. This one is
the Chris Reeve knives Sebenza. This is the Sebenza
21, which came out 21 years
after the original Sebenza. And it came with some design
changes, just as the 31 came out 31 years
after the original Sebenza with its changes. But to me,
the 21 is the true classic. Maybe that's just because
it's what I've got. But this, really, if it
didn't invent it, definitely popularized the
frame lock. I, I, I'm pretty sure this was the knife that invented, I know
that Chris Reeve invented the frame lock. So
the integral frame lock, meaning it's not a
thin liner with scales over it. The lock
itself and the locking leaf here is
exposed and enhanced by your grip.
So use of titanium at this point, when the,
when the Sebenza first came out was barely heard of in
the knife world. I know some people were using liners. At
the time out of titanium, but a full frame
titanium frame lock just didn't exist until
Bob DeMarco came along with it. And this one
has S35VN. S35
was also a steel that was pioneered
by Chris Reeve when he was
updating the Sebenza.
And he got that with the S35.
So a really great and classic
knife. This is one of those folding knives against which all
others are measured. And I feel very
grateful to have this knife. It's not, again, it's not an
inexpensive knife. Few of these are. And so to
be able to have one, especially a.
I can't open this. With my left hand. Especially a Sebenza
21, which was made on Leap Day
2016. Yeah, that's right. You get a birth card with every
Chris Reeve knife. And this one was made on Leap Day 2016,
so it only has a. Birthday every four years. So
this is the Chris Reeve knives, Sebenza, and in this case,
the 21.
...And
this was one of them. Ernest DeMarco. And Emerson
knives was using titanium liners.
This has titanium liners. And this is the
Commander. This Commander was made in the year 2000.
So this is a 25 year old knife at this point and I still
remember ordering it, thinking I would get it the next day and
waiting a year and thinking I got ripped off. By the Internet and then it
showed up. But I ordered it in
1999, showed up in 2000. Here's your
maker's mark, 154cm
blade steel, which at the time was a big deal.
This also has some early G10. Looks kind of Micarta
E, but this.
...with
sort of a clip. I know it doesn't really look like Bob. It,
but you can see a little.
...the
knife that Ernest DeMarco made
pro, the prototype of which he gave to some Navy
SEALs to check out in California. And
they discovered that this, which is now called
the Emerson Wave. Which was
intended as a blade catch. Like you're going toe to
toe and fighting knife to knife with someone and. You'Re going to
catch their blade in.
So
it was a mistake that led to the Bob DeMarco
Wave, which is now, you know, Emerson's thing for
sure.
It from your pocket. Uses that standard three
screw quote unquote benchmade style clip.
And just, and a really, really
iconic knife. And I don't use the word iconic much. Easy
may have noticed like many or most
Emerson knives, it's got a V ground bevel but
a chisel ground edge. So only
sharpened on one edge really makes it super
sharp. And according to Ernest Emerson, a big
inspiration for the chisel edge was easier to
sharpen the field because you only. Have one side to
sharpen. That's the Emerson Commander.
Next up, this is. You'll recognize this as
my dedicated road trip knife, the
Microtech SOCOM Elite. This one made
in March of
2012.
You can see that right there. So pretty, pretty old knife.
This knife represents a lot of firsts in my collection. First
S35VN knife I got. First knife with ball
bearings. Though I didn't know it at the time, I just thought it was crazy
smooth. First knife With a glass breaker first. Knife with
carbon fiber. This was a lot of firsts for me.
What really drove me to this knife and I bought it used on blade
forms from a guy who was building a house and needed to free
up some funds. I remember that. But what always drew me to
this knife was that incredible American tanto
grind with the, with the clip point and the long
swedge. This thing is just beautiful. But
since buying this knife and since.
Basically I don't want to say what's the word
buying this knife and.
Typecasting it as my road trip knife because it has the glass breaker
on the back, I've really grown to see what an amazing knife
these SOCOM Elites are. I have the SOCOM Bravo. I
like it plenty. Bob. It's beautiful and sculptural. But just give
me the aluminum handles with the nested liner lock
and even that tip down carry doesn't bum me. Out on this
type. This is one of two knives for, for that
really nice big thumb studs are also the blade stop. You've
got a thumb thumb ramp with jimping and then this reverse thumb ramp
on the forward part of the blade which I love.
It's a great place to have your hand or to have your thumb to
really create tension between your forefinger and. Your thumb for
a super solid grip. I love this
knife. This is, this is one of the last ones I would ever sell.
It's just been on so many great family road trips
and adventures that it's cut everything
including pancakes. That is my microtech
SOCOM elite. Okay, next
up. This is one that you know, no list
of modern classic folding knives would be complete
without the paramilitary tube. This
very, very little special about this particular
paramilitary tube from Spyderco.
It is the standard S 30v blade
steel standard everything is just a standard
paramilitary. And it's a great knife. I've used this one
a lot over the years. This one goes in my pocket when
I actually really know I. I'm going to be needing to cut
stuff, you know, as opposed to emotional support or
anything like that. And yeah, you can
see it's it, it's wearing some of the experience
on its sleeve. I remember
carrying this days on end when we were.
The place I was working was shooting the
world of police and fire games in D.C.
and there was a couple of day event and. And we were
working very long hard. Hours and there was a lot of actual
cutting which is great, you know. Hey Bob, you got a
knife. And this is the knife I was. Handing around to people and it was.
Funny because. One guy in
particular couldn't figure out how to close it. And, and
I thought, you know what. That'S so typical of that guy. Look at, just look
at it. So this has, on its innovative side,
it's got the compression lock which
has, I, I believe the patent for this has
run out. And people are starting to use a similar
system here. But you use this,
it wedges a leaf of steel in a slot in
the back of the tang here. Unlike a
back liner lock which looks very much the same.
And this is what gives it so much of its appeal and its
fidgetiness is that awesome luck. Also you
have a 5050 choil here, something that I feel that
Spyderco has really pioneered and run with
and doesn't bother me on this knife though the blade to handle ratio has
always irked me a little bit. I always thought the blade should be. A little
bit longer. But hey, that's just me. I'm not the genius Sal
Glesser who. Actually designed this gorgeous knife.
So this is the Spyderco
paramilitary two and most definitely a
modern classic. And before I said that the Paramilit
or that the Sebenza was a folding knife
against which all others are measured. This is another one of those
knives. For a good 12 years there, you could not see
a single knife review. Without someone referencing the
Spyderco paramilitary military too.
All right, next up, the rick Hinderer Knives
XM18. This knife also
has some innovation on it. You can see the,
the over travel stop there for the lock that
stabilizes the lock up and down and stops it from
being over extended side to side. So it,
it really helps. That. Helps that
lock in two different, on two different axes. And this
was due to the fact that Rick Hinderer who designed this
knife and owns Rick Hinderer knives, obviously used to
be not only a horse trainer but a firefighter. And
he talks about how he was on a job once, firefighting
job, and he un unlocked his
frame lock knife, whatever he was using and there was no
stabilizer and he over bent it. And then the blade wouldn't stay shut.
And kind of made the, the knife use useless until he could take it.
Apart and, and fix it. So that's when he dreamt
up the lock bar stabilizer. That little button
you see right there. Under the clip like I
said, stops it from being compressed this way north to south, but
also stops it from being overextended east to west.
A beautiful design. This one is the Sponto.
So it's Part. Spear point.
Part spear point, part Tonto. But in
this case I had mine reground
by by Josh of
Razor razor edge knives. And he gave it a
deep hollow grind like it was originally intended. I think
for mass production they just do them flat ground. And
it was nice as a flat ground knife, but as a
really thin hollow ground knife. This thing is an
incredible cutter. S35VN on this one though. I
know these days they use 20cv and Magna cut and all sorts
of other knives. Other steel's beautiful
titanium frame lock on this side with the hinderer
right up front. Kind of like the Idaho made on the
Chris Reeve knives. Great knife, great
flipper. This is free tri way. So this is
just one type of pivot and
it's our one type of, yeah, pivoting system
and it's the Nylotron washers. Nowadays you get
one of these and you can choose between Nylotron
washers, bronze washers, or the
captured ball bearings that. Pivot that it ships
with. This is an aftermarket though,
Hinderer sanctioned. We
call it scale. That's a maroon micarta which turned
black for a while with pork fat. But over the
years that pork fat has gone away. Probably all in my
pockets now and. It'S back to its maroon beauty
flow. So love this knife. I've got four Hinderers
and I have no plans on getting any others, but. I'm happy with the
four that I. Okay, next up, a true
modern classic. I mean these are all true modern. Classics, but this, you know, as
a cold steel fanboy. Oh no. No conversation
is complete without the Recon 1. This is an
old Recon 1. This is from the AUS 8 Hollow Ground
Days. And when they put that sort of
glorified spray paint on the blade, well, I got some,
some solvent, took it off, scraped off the the
coating and lo and behold, underneath
found a beautiful. Stonewashed Finish on this
AUS 8 blade. Incredibly sharp. That sharpening
choil is my own doing. I was never happy with the sharpening
choil. Not that I'm some big sharpening junkie, but
you can tell when it's not right. So I just kind of tweaked the. Choil
on this one. And this is so old.
Probably 2010, so old that the G10 is almost
smooth. I've had it for so long and. We know how rough
the G10 is. When you buy a brand new cold steel.
This one was one of the first knives cold steel
produced and maybe one of the first out there, period,
that just relied on the solidity and strength of the
G10 relatively fat G10 slabs
without nested liners or any other kind of
metallic liner on the inside. So an innovation there.
Also one of the early adoptees
of the triad lock. So that is a back
lock with a big old stop pin separating the
blade from the. From the lock locking leaf. Here you can
see that's the stop pin right there. And
so the tang of the blade does not come right up
to the spring like you see on
the buck. See the difference? There's a gap on the cold
steel. Below that gap where the blade
meets the stop pin meets the lock.
That's where all of the shock is absorbed. And that's where
you get the major strength from the. The legendary
strength from the triad lock. It's because.
The force that's being exerted on the blade.
Is transferred into that big stop pin and then from the stop
pin into the rest of the knife as opposed to onto
the. Onto the locking spring there.
So an awesome knife. I love the recon one. It comes
in a number of different flavors and. And also in
large. So you can get this in the. I'm sorry, xl.
So five and a half inches. This is the four inch. You can get them
in the three inch and then the old micro
recons for your keychain. So no matter
what size Recon 1. You get, it is a modern classic,
to be sure. All right, next up
is Benchmade. Yeah, I don't talk about Benchmade much.
Not a huge Benchmade fan, But I am a huge
fan of the Benchmade bugout.
This one wearing aftermarket Allen Putnam
Micarta scales with the. With the anzo pattern
milled into it. And of course, a snaggle teeth tactical on there.
Because I used to carry this in my back
pocket all the time. Also used to carry it in the breast pocket of my
winter jacket. I'll probably do that again this year. But I
always thought that this. This should. If I need
to reach into my pocket, sure, I'll give you my wallet. And I decide that
I can take the guy. Why not have it wave open
with the snaggle teeth tactical? I know, I know, I know.
You don't have to say it. I know it's ridiculous, but, you know.
I'm prone to ridiculousness sometimes. I love it
because it matches the color of the standoffs here.
And really, really nice clip on this.
But feather weight, that's what makes this a real
classic. Thin and feather weight with that awesome
axis lock. One of my best Ambidextrous bar
locks out there. The original axis
lock is not always. The best in my opinion, but in. This case
it is truly awesome. So
lightweight, small, thin, ultra capable.
Some people thought it was too lightweight and I may have been one of those
guys. I. I did not like the scales. That this came with the blue
scales. The original blue scales. So thin you could bend
them and see them bend under, under your, under the pressure
of your fingers. I thought I wanted something a little. More stiff, so I
got this Micarta. I've had this for who knows how
long and it's. It's been with me. I
carry this thing especially in the. Winter a lot.
And it's kind of an unsung hero for me.
It's the Benchmade bug out. All
right, penultimate here in my collection of ten
modern classic folders. By the way, I know these aren't all of them, so
let me know. What you think the modern classics are and drop them in the
comments below. I'd be interested to find out. Second
to last here is from Ernest Emerson,
designer and zero tolerance maker. This is the
ZT06
40A. It is a version of an
old Ernest Emerson design from
the days right when he was making his switch from art
knives to tactical knives. And this was one of the five
models he had at that time and
he updated it for zt. And I love
this thing. This is universally
loved. I think even people who don't like Emerson knives or
aren't crazy about ZT knives, everyone seems to love the
0640. However, no one seems to love
the. The split pea soup carbon fiber
scales. That come with it. So it's very frequent to see
these knives with aftermarket scales on. Like
I have here. Beautiful Micarta. I put on here
10 Micarta and. An aftermarket clip
on mine. This one has 20
CV steel, a beautiful clip point blade, 3.7 inches.
Not a shrinking violet, but also kind of.
I don't know, I, I sort of put this on the same shelf
with my Sebenza and with the knife that's coming
up next. It's got a really nice glassy
action. To it on those phosphor bronze washers. And
is just a. Has a sort of neutral
handle, a. Somewhat neutral blade, if you can even call it that.
There's nothing about this that screams
tactical. But it's totally tactical and practical
every day. I. I would call this
for, for all intents and purposes, it's a frame
lock with overlays here. So
really nice titanium. We'll call it
frame lock with overlays folder. Love this knife. The
zero tolerance,06 fluid.
All right, last up. The
Spartan Harsey. You knew that this was going to be on this list.
The Spartan Harsey folder. So
everything about this knife is super appealing to me.
I Love William Harsey Jr. Or Bill Harsey. I love
his designs. They are recognizable from a mile
away. And this knife, to me, when you look at just the profile
of it, looks a lot like the Lone Wolf knives.
Remember Lone Wolf knives? Are you old enough to remember Lone
Wolf knives? I think they were subsumed by
Benchmade at some point. I think Benchmade bought them and then put them out of
business. But Bill Harsey did a number of designs
for Lone Wolf, and they kind. Of had this vibe.
Very gentle recurve on this. You can barely see it. It's the kind
of recurve that you sharpen through, and eventually
you don't have it, but you use the knife so much that
you. You sharpen through that sort of recurve there.
Kind of like a traditional clip point on a. On a slip joint here.
But this is a drop point with a swedge. S35VN
is what these were originally done in. That's what this is.
Damn. Thick slabs of titanium. No relief,
no weight relief. Milled on the inside. Come on, you don't need that.
Giant, thick, sturdy standoffs. This is a knife
you could run over with a. With a. With an
M1 tank, and it's probably going to retain its
shape. So I wouldn't. Maybe not an M1 pen. Who
knows? Really, really solid,
solid build. Super sharp, though. A little oblique
behind the edge. I've thought of having this one reground, but.
Oh, what end. Why, Bob, are you gonna start slicing
things, like, more than you do already?
Probably not. Cool. Arrowhead
clip here. There's Bill Harsey's. Oops. There's Bill
Harsey's maker's marker signature there.
And you see my logo etched in there after I
had Curtis Iovito on the show years ago. At this
point, I'd like to have him back on. He. He said, send me your
Spartan RZ folder. I'll engrave your logo on it. And
he did. Not only there, but also on the filler tab.
Beautiful job. And so this knife is not only one of
the greatest modern, classic folders out there, but
also it has a lot of sentimental.
All right, well, that just about does it for this list of
awesome modern folders. Like I said before, tell me what.
You think the modern folders are. You know, you may have
noticed there's no Strider in this. Yes, Strider could be in this, I guess,
but I don't know. That seems a little more niche at this point.
At one point it was part of the holy trinity of knives, and I feel
like they've kind of fallen off a little. Still love them, don't get me
wrong. But. So let me know what you think. Tell me what you think
those modern classic holders are. All right, everybody,
be sure to join us on Sundays for interviews Thursdays
for Thursday Night Knives. And join us again here on the.
Midweek supplemental 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
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