Hey everyone, David C Andersen here coming at you from the KnifeCenter and welcome to KniFAQ
number 49. The knife series where I answer all your questions, whether they're sharp or adult,
this week got a bunch to talk about, but I think key among them, we're gonna get into that
thought process is something that's tactical really useful or you're just going to verge into
that tactical territory. Let's get into it.
Alright, before we get started, thank you to everyone who has put your questions in the
comments down below. Always have a great time picking them out for this series. And if you
want a chance for your question to be featured bargain is the same just leave them down below
in the comments. So first question today comes from gadgets gear and greatness. Hey David, what
would be your personal weird but useful blade shape slash design? I think it'd be cool if a
push dagger had a blade with half serais to Sarah Tetons and the other had a plain edge.
Sometimes I clean up the spelling and capitalization grammar and such in these
comments. Sometimes I don't because Sarah Tetons it made me smile. So going in the dictionary so
I left it in. Don't go to urban dictionary and look that up. I'm afraid there's probably
something already there. They search on search on people safe search on. So for, for your
suggestion that does exist already. Actually, the Cold Steel urban edge comes in about 23
bucks. And you've got a plain edge on one side and a 30 Ted edge on the other.
He's gonna be doing this all day now.
If you can't amuse yourself, you know, be funnier, I guess. Really cool little knife.
Yeah, very, very fun. Maybe a little tactic. Cool. I don't know, there's certainly plenty of
folks out there that do know how to use something like this very effectively. Probably
most of us who would buy one don't. But that's okay. Push daggers are pretty, you know,
intuitive, you just kind of pointing pointing punch. so to speak, or pointing pointing cut to
good EDC knife actually can be you know, it's got a good shape if you need to use it for
utility. Obviously, this is designed as sort of a self defense thing anyway, as for my useful
but weird blade shape, I gotta go with a hawkbill. I've got a Spyderco here. This is the
Tasman salt, two comes in about 96 bucks. And that hawkbill shape. Very useful for stuff like
cutting cardboard. And you know, we featured that a little while ago on this channel. And
just anything else where you don't want your blades slipping out of a cut, good for use in
the yard. This is very reminiscent or very similar to some pruning blades out there. Or at
least I can do a similar job. Really good for getting in under zip ties, because you've got
that very acute tip. And you can kind of stick it in there and rock back on the blade here. The
spine of that will kind of lift that tip up and hopefully punch it right through those zip ties
as you go. Very useful stuff but very unconventional for most folks here in the States
Anyway, you can get it in a black handle as well. But I like the yellow in in combination
with the H1 blade steel here, which is of course a rust proof metal. Just a really cool knife. So
that would be my pick. Definitely hawkbill stuff all the way. All right, next question comes from
Zoltan Kuhn. I see the tops fieldcraft has an indent on the scales for a bow drill. Yes,
that's what here's the knife right here. That's what he's talking about. Using this, there are
the ability to use this knife as a bearing block if you're doing a friction fire with a Bow, bow
drill and spindle, that sort of thing. So the question is, I'm curious if one is making a bow
drill fire, there's a pretty big friction on the bow drill indent, will it warm up or damage the
scale? Anybody got any idea? Kind of Yes or no? I'd say first off, before I get into it, the one
thing you're going to want to do if you're actually using a knife like this as a bearing
block for your bow drill set, please put it in the sheath. Be a lot safer, if you did. But you
can then safely are much more safely place it on top of your spindle on the indent right there
and go to town. Yes, there's definitely going to be a lot of friction on something like micarta.
Yeah, you probably will see some some burning, quote unquote, burning, it's not going to catch
fire. But I bet you after a little bit, that indent is going to be kind of charred and
browned and I know when I'm making knives, and you're going too fast with a belt that's maybe a
little worn out. It's real easy to put brown, brown burn marks on a micarta especially lighter
colors. Now is that going to damage the scale? In terms of usability? Probably not. I do say
probably there's always a possibility something could happen. But in a way I think that's
actually going to look cooler because you've actually used it as its intended and you've got
the proof there that can't really be faked. So I really like that. Some wood handled knives do
have Also, but they usually will have like a little metal cup right there, right there. And
then the indent, because you wouldn't want to be using wood too frequently, because you
definitely could drill through that through the handle scale a lot quicker. And last thing you
would want would be to building up char and building up an ember in your wooden handle. So
an answer to your question, yes, maybe a little bit. But that's part of what is going to make it
cool. All right. Next question comes from Michael concert. I don't understand the entire
tactical slash combat knife category. Is there really an entire industry segment dedicated to
providing military and police with equipment that is different than what the government can
provide? Or do people just have them? Because they look cool. That'd be the tacticool
statement. Some people Yeah, probably do. But I kind of want to unpack a few things in your
statement there. You know, you mentioned about having an industry segment making things apart
from a government providing things. So let's say you know, government agencies are issuing things
to their personnel, they're still not making them, they're still going to have to buy them
from someone. And these companies are kind of tooling up to serve that market. And there's no
reason for them not to want to sell those products to anyone else who could use that
product. Furthermore, you know, back that notion of what the government provides a lot of
operators out there, especially when in like police forces and SWAT across the country, a lot
of times they're having to purchase their own gear of that type. In order to take it out with
them. They're not even
getting issued that sort of thing. So there's plenty of reason for that market to exist for
those people. Furthermore, and I'll hold it up a knife I own as an example the new Benchmade
Adamas, there's plenty of things that that kind of fall into the tactical knife category that
are useful for anyone with no matter what category they're in, namely, things like one
handed opening, this knife has thumb studs here, ubiquitous nowadays, sure. But that was
something that was seen as a very tactical feature, when it was kind of was on the rise,
strong locking mechanisms useful to me as well, I'm not a tactical guy, as well as ambidextrous
use that you can get on something like this. I like that as well. And that ability to quickly
open and close the blade safely. huge benefit to anyone out there. But yeah, I mean, to sum it
back up into one kind of sentence, again, things that are useful to tactical users are pretty
much useful to everyone. Now, are there certain blade shapes out there that are a little
crazier, that might be seen as more aggressive? Sure.
But
a hawkbill is a very aggressive shape. You see that on karambits All the time. And as we
already talked about a little bit, still a very useful shape for a non tactical user. So I hope
that gives you a little a little bit of background into why at least why I think the
whole tactical versus non tactical users question is is sort of a red herring in a way or
misplaced something. Hope that helps. Hope that helps. It is that's my catchphrase. I don't know
how to end a question. Hope that helps. Next up, Avery asks, hey DCA, I'm finding that using my
EDC in the garden, or sorry, I'm finding that I am using my EDC in the garden pretty often. But
I find the shape and thickness of my para three not great for pruning tasks. Can you recommend a
EDC knife that can double as a pruner? Sure thing, first off, Tasmin salt, again, any of the
hawkbill shapes Spydercos are going to make a pretty decent option because, you know, a lot of
pruners have that recurved hawkbill shape to them, if you don't want to carry something quite
so out there, though. One thing that that I know works. And I learned this from from Ethan
Becker, who he's usually carrying one of his little neck knives and a Swiss Army knife with a
saw on it, specifically for pruning as he would walk around and see something in his garden that
needed a little snip snip saw saw, you know what I mean? You have a nice little pruning saw in
there. I'm not a gardening expert. So if you mean something different by pruning, I
apologize. But that's the answer. I'm going to give I know he carried a Rambler or sorry, a
rucksack for a long time. They don't make that anymore. But at one point, I did give him an
Outrider, which is one of my personal favorite choices. And I know he carries that sometimes
too. So that would always be could be a very good option. got that nice, long saw right
there. And nice locking blade as well. Really cool. Really cool. Little bit nice. Alright,
next question comes from Jeremy two. He says I'm putting together 5 55 liter backpacks for 72
hour bugout emergencies, what knife would be good slash best to put in each one price for
each knife around $75. So for me, that size bag and that type of purpose. It leads me to think
you'd want to be very weight conscious As well as space conscious, we still are going to want
to some want something that's strong and tough. So that leads me to some of Mora's offerings and
I want to say the bushcraft Black can be had for as little as 40 bucks but some other versions
depending on like sheath ops and options and such bump up a little bit. This one right here
is the the tactical version comes in about 90 bucks. Sorry about that this one, this one's not
the one I would recommend. It has got a partially serrated edge here on the stainless
blade. The rest of the bushcraft blacks are carbon steel, however, the one I really would
like to recommend actually is the $65 variant that comes with the they call it the bushcraft
black survival knife, which I don't have here in front of me but the sheath on that comes with a
small sharpening stone and a small firesteel. So you've got some extra capability without taking
up extra space. And you've got a knife design that's a little bit tactical, a little bit
survival and a whole lot of bushcraft as well without taking up a ton of weight in your pack
in that version. I don't have the specs here. So we'll have to guess it how heavy that version
is, but it's not very heavy at all. And these have been proven to be very tough designs
despite being pretty lightweight. Alright, now we get to the lightning round for today. First
question is from Brian. Hey DCA, which do you prefer? Letting your knives with copper or brass
accents, patina or polishing them up? Are you talking about collection or carry pieces. If
it's a collection police piece I could definitely see maybe wanting to protect it from
tarnishing too much. We don't want to like polish it up too much after the fact. But if
there's anything you could do to protect it, that might be cool. But if you're talking about
things you want to carry, you're fighting a losing battle if you want to keep them bright
and shiny. You just got to let nature take its course as your item patina is it's going to take
on some cool individual characteristics. I mean, this guy right here is an old light that our
buyer Jason carries every day made out of a copper body and looks nothing like it was when
it came out of the package. And looks pretty cool and you're never gonna get there if you
don't like I said, Just let nature take its course. Alright Jeremy two asks if you lost your
Victorinox S18... Him again? It is him again. Jeremy, Four? Jeremy twofer. Yes. I do every
once in a while someone gets in with two questions in one FAQ. And you owe me a beer
something Jeremy. Alright says if you lost your Victorinox Evo grip s 18. Which Victorinox would
you replace it with?
The exact same one. I have it right here. This is the the Swiss Army Knife it's on my person
every day because it does what I want my Swiss Army knife to do on a daily carry knife. And for
me anyway, I don't really I'm not really a Swiss Army Knife collector per se. So for me, the
Swiss Army knife that my one is the one that does the functions I want. Unlike maybe a
primary EDC where as an enthusiast you have a little bit of fun maybe picking out a different
one this day over that day. This is just got to do the job. So no matter how many times I've
changed out my primary EDC, this one is always the thing that's right next to it. And let's see
I did they did come up with a tool that had a complement of functions that I liked even
better. These things aren't so expensive that I would wait to lose this one to replace it. I'd
probably be able to just afford the next one. So exact same one. Love, love. Love that knife
right there. Alright, Tommy asks, hey DCA, I've recently been looking at the SOG Terminus xR, do
you think there are any better value folders with a similar locking mechanism around the same
price range? No, when you're getting into like the higher end of the terminus xR range. There's
other things like the bug out in the hog, deca that are very compelling competitors, it's good
to see a lot of stuff in that segment honestly. But when you get down to like the $55 range that
the D two versions sell for nothing else like it out there. I mean, you can get some less
expensive crossbar lock stuff from Gerber but it's it's kind of a slightly lower category, I
would say the steel is not nearly as premium as D2, which is not necessarily a premium steel
these days. But this knife does a lot. It does a lot on paper and it does a lot when you actually
put it in your hand as well. You've got that great xR lock, flipping action thumb stud action
wrist flick action, deep carry pocket clip, it does say SOG on it. So it's not a super subtle
clip. But it's a great little design three inch blades and carry it most places and enough
handle length, where you're going to be able to get the job done without straining against your
equipment too much. Alright, that brings us now to our most serious question of the day which
comes from philosophes Bella tour. In terms of sheer mu free what in your opinion are the top
three most intimidating folders? Something that would persuade a predator with nefarious intent
To keep moving, so I was gonna go over to our warehouse and get three spata excels from Cold
Steel because that is clearly the correct answer. But we didn't have enough of them on the
shelf today when we're filming anyway to make that gag work. So I decided to go a completely
different direction. I've got three here. Honorable Mention, I went with the Kris version
of the Voyager from Cold Steel. The reason I didn't go with it though, is this style of blade
shape is so uncommon now that it might not be intimidating. If you pull it out. People might
look at it quizzically going like what the heck is that? So for that reason, this guy's out. I
wish I could just like throw it at a wall now, but I won't do that. Instead, I'm going to go
with the Cold Steel frenzy. Five and a half inch s 35 vn hawkbill blade, very minor hawkbill
going on. Deploy that choke back on the handle. Yeah, look out for that guy. On top of that,
we're going to go with the half breed large bush flipper, or as I like to call it the one pound
titanium liner lock flipper. Because this is a beast in the hand. And definitely makes
impressions not as long as as that Cold Steel there was, but certainly substantial. And
finally, from rich made a custom large fat ratchet. Because that is, well, I'm undermining
my point now because somebody might look at that and just kind of giggle and go What the heck is
that to. Giggle in fear. Giggle, giggle in fear, the Fear Giggles? I get those. Is that a thing?
as much of a thing as a moofery is. we'll leave a link to all of this stuff down below of course
if you want to get your hands on anything. Thanks, everyone. For your questions. Remember
to leave your questions for potential inclusion in a future episode down below. And if you want
to get your hands on these items, like I said, links are in the description. While you're over
at our website, make sure you sign up for our knife rewards program so that when you put your
money down on one of these knives, you can earn some free money to spend on your next one. I'm
David C. Andersen from the KnifeCenter signing off.
See you next time.