my name is ryan johnson i'm with rmj tactical been making knives for over 30
years and we make knives and tomahawks for US military law enforcement and also for
the civilian market I got some new stuff to show off I've got we do the combat
series combat Africa combat Asia this is jungle combat and so right off the bat
you see I have kind of an homage to the the 1960s early 70s
Randall sheeths I'm a big fan of the old Randall knife I think they're so
important to history I love the old sheeths and so you see like the old Randall 14
sheeths this is based off of that but with a lot of new changes so for one we use a
split beltless with pulled on snaps what that allows us to do the split belt loop
can work as a belt loop or as Molly so this is Molly tails compatible this back
instead of being all solid like the old sheeths is put on with screws and screw
posts stainless steel black oxide screw post which allows us to take this off
completely and use both hang straps or I can take this and rotate it around and
run the knife upside down and so it's a it's a it's an old-school sheath with a
lot of new warfighter kind of applications so general combats actually
based off of the Vietnam blade based off of a knife that was custom made for
history of SOG in a small quantity you can find it in the Homer Bret military
knives and bayonets and so it's a kind of a saucy combat knife it's got a lot of
curve to it this is made out of nitro v this is a new steel from the home it's a
basically AVL with nitrogen vanadium in it I love it got great edge holding got
great edge was resistant to chipping as far as chopping it's a great chopping
steel every everyday carry steel very corrosion-resistant we
also have a Newland this is the Utsidihi the Utsidihi is the small EDC
knife meant as a small self-defense knife also as a small utility knife
Utsidihi is a Cherokee word that means man killer it was a name that you
can earn in combat if you had killed somebody in combat you can assume that
name so the Utsidihi is also Nitro V very
thin lightweight low profile you can cord wrap the handle will have g10 you
can add G10 scales that you can buy to add to it will have Kydex and leather
as an option the Kydex can run it off the clip you can run a regular pocket
clip you can run to inside the waistband the idea is to make it as versatile as
possible for your carry another new one for us right now is the origin designed
by Olivia at RMJ tactical she wanted something that she could put the purse
there's a neck knife but really more of a purse knife something that was very small
lightweight something that was useful but also could be used as a get off me
now so the origin has a bottle opener incorporated into the handle it is a
basically like a two finger knife and it comes with Kydex
so this is the Frank Frazetta death dealer the Frank Frazetta estate got in touch with us
and asked if we would be interested in doing a modern version of the classic
death dealer ax Richard Carmack who's the president of
arms a tactical he the huge Frank Frazetta fan and was excited I was the kid
in third grade that got in trouble for bringing Frank Frazetta artwork book to
the school was a little too much boobage in that for my third grade christian
school so we were both big Frank Frazetta fans and this is a kind of a
modern reworking of that design so obviously it doesn't have as long a
handle as the original in the drawings or a solid wood handle it is a place
hang modern style at but with all the spirit of the Frank Frazetta death
dealer this has machine G10 scales of copper eyelet this is 4140 tool steel
suspence CNC machine I mean it's a beast this is a one of our forged axes read
Carmack Forge disease this is one of his axes called The Raven and it's got a lot
of interesting little details the Raven has Celtic knotwork
forged into the handle we've got it off step from the handle a little bit from
the head to demarcate the difference is a small hand bearded ax meant for just
knocking around in the wood these are all hand forged and hand finished by
Reed and they are each one of a kind this is the strike you strike is our
workhorse it the tomahawk that I designed to replace the Eagle Talon we
took all the input from guys in Iraq and Afghanistan we took the Eagle Talon
feedback and incorporated that into the strike so the first thing you'll notice
the strike is much shorter than Eagle Talon it's a 15 and a half inches it's
got an over molded handle over the steel core what that gives us it gives us
shock resistance as far as chopping to actually take some of the shock from
chopping but also takes some of the shock from electrical shocks so it's electrically
insulated we've had this independently lab tested up to 3000 volts for 30
minutes full submersion without without any carry through what that means is if
you're breaching and you go through wire you can cut through wire without it
shocking you and we've had guys over in other countries before they hit a
building that will actually cut power to the building using a strike and cut the
power literally so the strike has overmolded hygrometer rubber handle it
got end cap that unscrews and inside there is a small sharpening
file a fine pile that you can set your edges up with the strike was billet
machined out of 4140 it's differentially heat treated got forwarded and spike are
55 Rockwell the the core of it is 30 Rockwell gives us a tough springy body
with hard cutting edge strikes is based off of an 18th century French and Indian War
style tomahawk so you see a lot of tomahawks like this that have narrow
skinny handles long they have a forward cutting edge of a spike was ment as a
hole puncher back then and forward edge was used as much as anything for actual
cutting for us strike is mostly is this breaching tool they think of it as a
lightweight small real estate breaching tool that's easy to carry the spike can
be used to punch holes and things can also be used to break lock you can break
a standard master lock with this in about three to four seconds you can also
break chain with it forward edge can be used to chop through glass it'll cut
through safety glass and get your glass the chicken wire the beard is meant as
a way to cut your way out of things once you cut your way into some things a
beard will help you cut your way back out also from a close quarter combat
perspective whatever I hit with the tomahawk I can pull and cut with the
beard so if I'm trying to defend myself if I grab and hook somebody's arm I can
also be cutting that while I'm manipulating me so this is our Raider
dagger this is the our take on the classic
marine Raider dagger from World War two we had some guys from Martha come and
say can you reinvent some marine raider dagger for modern combat so we made
these and we can still make those for individuals at Marssaw which is a 80crv2
I'm sorry we've made them out of 80cvr2 - this is CPM 3v
just a CNC machine black g10 handle handles to put on with stainless steel
eyelets you can see this a handle the shadow boxed around the jimping for grip
it's got a nice flat pommel for for grabbing onto to stab it comes with its
own carry system here this one set up with biothane straps these straps are
on Molly centers we pulled up you can Molly it up the spacing also works with
several other adapters - the winnaman pup it works with an ulti clip that are
Kydex is set up so that has a nice snap note that with almost all of our kayaks
I can get my full hand on that knife and pull it out so I don't have to readjust
my hands one of the ideas that we try to incorporate normal our stabbers we try
to be as pragmatic as possible with our design so when what seems to be useful
first and foremost the cut so we it be comfortable we need to be easy to carry
so with all our tomahawks and knives there's a lot of focus on carry system
the idea of being able to carry it with belt carry it with Molly positioning how
you want to position it so carry ability is first reform of being able to cut my
design philosophy I tend to do a lot of drawing a lot of designing it's just
what I do I'll have 200 designs out of those 200
there's about 18 that are actually worth following and out of those 18 we will
iterate that design that is make it make small changes try
it again make small changes change it again
we'll keep doing those small literation till we get it where we want it for us
testing is is the fun part we everybody to shop carry stuff so
Jonathan Charles Richard I all carry knives we all carry tomahawks will have
come on to the car when we're developing something we typically junkyard test
we've got it in with our local junkyard as far as they'll save cars back for us
and cutting up cars was a good test for anything you know as far as a edge so
we'll cut safety glass will break and break windows will cut doors off and
things like that so that's kind of how we test stuff out park on as far as tomahawks
knives it's just scaring them and using them
the Utsidihi as soon as we have one finished I had one I've been tearing one
for two weeks and so it's cut everything from boxes to large you know to a zip
ties really jamming it into stuff and trying how it's tab so we carry it for a
while before we try to release anything I was one of those kids that dressed up
like a ninja and ran through the woods for the machete strapped on his back and
I've always been interested in weapons I grew up in a household my parents met for
amateur archaeology so I grew up in a household where there was a lot of
history books a lot of clothes on weapons and things like that
and so I had a very deep interest in weapons as a child when
I was 12 I started blacksmithing and I was black smithing in order to make
tomahawks so I started making knives and tomahawks on a pretty regular basis from
age 12 in college I got a mechanical engineering degree have a degree in
mechanical engineering thermal science and mechanics and so that comes in handy
as far as the the nuts and bolts side of things and design but really the most
important thing for me background wise is just being able to
rub elbows to the people that actually use it and get feedback from them and
talk to them