Now if you think back 10, 15, 20 years1 or last October you might remember I posted
a few interviews over the course of the day at Blade Show West. Other than my recent beer video
that was my biggest loss over one day of channel subscribers,
and a very proud moment in channel history. People hate it. But one of those interviews was with Ben
from Jack Wolf Knives, because Ben Wolf Knives wouldn’t make sense. But back then all of his
knives were in the prototype phase, but since this is now, the future and also the present-
Jack Wolf Knives will be releasing all those knives in production runs. All of them are modern
interpretations of classic traditional knife patterns, but seasoned with the M390s and the
titanium. And the very first one to drop at quite a few retailers is the Sharpshooter jack, which is
based on a classic gunstock handle pattern traditional. Confronted with
the dimensions card here, we notice it isn’t a big ass pattern but more a medium ass one.
For the most part traditional’s can be medium or small ass and be just fine.
So up front we have a clip point blade here with a nail nick and M390, looking like a and I can
barely fucking believe it a hollow grind. Hollow grinds are the rarity in knife grinds these days,
because we just settled for flat. It’s a thin hollow grind, made for slicing, I mean ground
down very thin. Now as you know viewer I kinda like Carbon steels and the filth signature they
get as you use them, but a modern knife guy who has his watch collection, and owns a combat bead,
and his Lynch pry bar might, prefer the harder wearing and stain resistant m390. If you’re that
guy there’s nothing wrong with you I promise. Because I get that light corrosion and blade
staining stress some of you dudes out. You want your knife looking good with minimal wear and not
have to maintain a blade with lube and worry about fully wiping it down after it encounters your
fluids. This knife is razor sharp right out of the tube. For a second here let’s marvel at this tube.
I have a tube collection myself with my GEC’s but I can admire a fine tube when I see one.
This ones metal and really ups the tube game. You have a sticker, what looks like a POG,
a wiping cloth for your fluids, and a sticker. You can just line them up above your desk like I do,
it’s like college with beer bottles, except a weird conversation when someone asks about it.
What’s in those tubes. A lot of knives I don’t use.
Ok how about the action. Jack Wolf Knives make slip joints, slip joints don’t lock. So it’s
all about the backspring. Or the walk and the talk like they say on the forums. The walk is
how the blade moves from close to open, and the talk is the snap. I like a crisper backspring
and a stronger pull. The recent GEC 36 is about perfect, there’s real estate to grab
on to and a half stop. It’s not mushy, a mushy backspring can really make me forrow my brow.
My Sean Yaw is a bit like that too, can we call it the stumper? Now too strong is like
The GEC 23, and maybe the Boker slack because they feel strong to the point of being
unsafe. I mean they’re not if you’re careful, but that’s how they feel. But the sharpshooter
is about perfect it ranks in there with the Lionsteel shuffler, maybe a touch stronger pull.
Very similar to the Great Eastern Cutlery 2021 blade forum knife. It’s a satisfying and smooth
like a fresh colt 45 al the way through the talk and a satisfying click open and close
or the talk. And good luck getting anyone to have sex with you after explaining any of that.
The handle, it’s the gun stock pattern because it looks like a gun stock. Handle is nice and
comfortable, some hands may not line up with the bump on the handle but mine do fine. The
bump comes in between the ring and middle finger and I can barely feel it. Everything is pretty
comfortable, rounded, no harsh areas in the grip sections. Maybe if you fondle it closed in your
hands the butt up top is a little touchy. The liner/bolsters, backspring and scales are all
have that glass like smoothness at the top. I have missed out on a Gunstock from GEC. The handle
here has torx screws for disassembly and not pinned together like your standard great eastern
cutlery. Modern knife bros like the ability to watch a nick Shabazz video and take apart a knife,
to maintain a knife they just bought. Or at least watch him do it. In the before times, BT,
before torx, our forefather knife bros flushed the pivot with lube and hoped it’d get less gritty,
after their idiot kid left it in the rain. Here you have the one piece titanium bolter/liners
or integral as the knife guys like saying when you combine anything on a knife. Integral lock,
integral knife, needs to be another integral descriptor. The scales come in natural micarta,
olive drab micarta, fat carbon with some blue shirt in it, and black canvas micarta. I like a
good natural so that’s what I chose. Plus my Mini Tempest has the blue flake shit in it already.
Ok the pocket clip. There ain’t one, but there’s a clipless slip, to protect the knife from your
challenge coin, or your titanium chaptick tube. Yeah EDC people buy anything made out of titanium.
You don’t have to believe me. It’s sold out on Urban EDC.
Comparisons. First the Sharpshooter we’re checking the boxes folks we got the modern
materials, and modern construction methods- but inspired by a traditional pattern, a rare thin
as shit behind the edge hollow grind. And there’s a lot of nice patterns on the way from Jack Wolf.
He and I talked at the Blade Show West, and once when I didn’t have a huge smile on my face when
snapping a backspacing on a proto… he’s like no bro we’re gonna have them fix it. It wasn’t
even Benchmade Proper mushy , it was pretty good. But that level of detail is what he’s going for.
I’m looking forward to the Laid Back Jack, you can see all the prototypes on their website.
As you know Pena has got the market on the most desirable modern traditionals. A lot of those are
front flippers. But we also have the C Risners Ohio River Jacks, taking on similar patterns to
a sunfish but a little smaller. These are pretty nice too. I have a video coming out about these
around early may. Stay tuned. What about the Lion Steel Shuffler, this got me started down the path
along with the Bull Buster. This has a nice crisp spring, a nice look, some bone micarta, off white,
egg shell, whats the knife term. Let’s check in with a few knives quickly here. Bull buster,
it’s still around. The Benchmade Proper, mushy backspring, it’s an ok knife. The Blade Forums
Barlow, it’s still pretty emotional over there about this. Serge slipjoint another outside the
box, but great modern slip joint, but with a clip. And the Sean Yaw, my favorite slip joint.
I need to review this. It’s a handmade just for me custom. I love it, you should follow
Sean Yaw on Instagram and see his progress as an in the garage knife maker. Pretty nice!
Ok wrapping it up. Looking like I’m becoming the traditional knife guy.
I’m not that traditional, but for knives I like a little something extra. It’s hard to explain.
I mean truly Paddys Pototo Peelers is he hunts down all kinds of classic patterns,
but I guess they reminds me of the stuff I grew up with- and if it means doing videos about smaller
companies vs say the Spyderco stove pipe, I’ll take it. No one needs to see my take on those.
Anyway, thanks to Jack Wolf Knives for donating this knife to the channel.
Follow Jack Wolf Knives over there, so you can keep an eye out for your favorite pattern and
when he’s releasing them. The Sharpshooter is the first release of several this year.
Say high to the Patrons you know the drill by now. They’ve helped me updgrade my camera and computer
for 4k. A few bucks a month help me out. Like, subscribe, click that bell. Thanks for watching.