Now you may not realize it if you’re a new viewer, but I happen to be one of the premier
switchblade experts on Youtube.
Offense, defense, throwing em, catching em, twirling them.
I’m described as a tactical nightmare, silent but deadly.
So if you want the best switchblade info anywhere ever, subscribe right the shit now.
So when blade HQ asked Boker to go Cold Steel on a Kalishnakov- it attracted me like flies
to a poop knife.
And that particular knife that I would not recommend as your main poop knife out of safety
would be the XXL Kalishnakov, the biggest of the Kalashnikov’s with a 4.5 inch blade.
For your main poop knife- That’s what butter knives in your kitchen drawer are for.
See today you’ve earned something.
Now the XXL here is not to be confused with the standard stupid XL with a 3.8 inch blade-
a Blade Ops exclusive.
Both of these are based upon the standard 3.3 Kalashnikov.
There’s also smaller ones, and then the karabmit ones for the whole other type of
stupid.
But the point is, the Kalashnikov has all kinds of variants out there and today’s
video is going to be celebrating 3 Kalashnikovs, two of which are undisputedly the best variants,
because I said so.
Those three are: 1st The XXL in Desert Warrior colors with D2 steel a blade HQ exclusive.
The second is you standard Kalsnikov black handle drop point, And the third, is the blade
HQ exclusive Dessert Warrior trim which is just a regular sized Kalashnikov but painted
differently so the aluminum handle and blade become entirely edible.
Mmm… blue Aus8.
I am not legally responsible if you can’t digest aluminum or steel.
That’s not my problem, but the channel lawyer decided I should say that.
But before we go any further let’s do a size comparison here.
So bring your significant other in the room right now, so they remind you just how much
you’re over compensating.
Like the overall length and weight.
By significant other I mean your smart phone.
Which you are always paying more attention to anyway, Blade size and cutting edge.
The XXL isn’t quite as obvious as the 8 inch lift on the 1 ton, and the 5th wheel-
but then again you can fit those in your pocket.
Handle Size and grip area.
Can’t fit that tricked AR into your pocket either.
Nope.
Spine thicknesses and handle thickness.
You can’t make up for any of your inadequacies until you own a 4.5 inch switch blade.
Tallnesses.
Ok maybe if you buy a jetski.
Unless you already have one.
Then it’s a side by side with a minimum of 20” of travel.
Then they’ll never make fun of you again.
So The Kalashnikov has gotta be one of bokers most popular knives right?
There’s no way the design has been milked this much and it not be popular.
It’s the Para Military 2 of Bokers.
Oh wow, Spyderco if you’re watching and I know you’re not.
PM2 auto?
Buck switchafied the 110 already so you’re behind.
Anyway the Kalashnikov, which I’ve called the AK-47 in at least one video, is a popular
aluminum handled switchblade that comes in a ton of varieties.
The most popular being the standard size which is listed as a 3.25 inch a lot of places,
but when I measure it looks like 3.3 inches.
Trust me.
Now the thing about the Kalashnikov is I haven’t bought a single one.
It’s a shitty and niche super power I have.
The OG black here was someone donated to my cause years ago.
It had seen a lot of use before me, and it came with a six pack of beers.
So now I’m just getting around to Youtubing it.
The Dessert Warrior was donated by Levon of the knife nuts.
The first time I typed that it corrected to knife buts.
I send him horror movies, he sends me knives because he owns probably a thousand he doesn’t
know what to do with.
And the Big One, until recently only used to describe heart attacks, earthquakes, or
former boyfriends, the XXL in the Desert Warrior of trims.
Blade HQ asked if I wanted one- fully aware of the things I do around here.
Let’s look at the blades first.
The Kalshninov basically speaking, and it’s only taken me 5 minutes to get here is a cheap
aluminum handled automatic knife with a budget blade steel.
Generally made in Taiwan the standard sized Kalashnikovs have an Aus-8 blade, and D2 for
some of the Bigguns.
Ahh Bigguns you might say… your Florida cousin’s favorite Daytona strip club, with
a solid 2 and half stars on Yelp.
You know he’s really into switchblades too.
Aus-8 and the D2 as you know are not super steels, and can usually be sharpened easily
and are some of the more rust prone of the stainlesses.
So make sure you dry your blades after your done opening a pack of Bar-S to boil for dinner.
Unless you want rust- which I’ll be honest adds to the character of cheap switchblades.
You can get Boker blades in nekked or coated as seen here.
The Dessert Warrior or donut knife, has a slightly longer cutting edge than the standard
drop point.
The Kalashnikovs here are all button press switchblades, although we call them autos
now to kind of class them up.
You press the button and pew.
The dessert warrior fires the hardest, but all are reliable openers than always lock
up when deployed.
The Button is a little more recessed on the donut knife, and the biggun, than the standard.
Lockup is solid.
And you’re like oh lets baton with these.
While we’re at it.
Now as a baton artist you’ll have to trust me when I observe that aluminum handled knives
with a stop pin that is sandwiched between the knives versus screwed, sounds like some
recent browsing history, are not the best for batoning.
The stop pin because it’s not screwed or set into steel liners will deform softer aluminum
if repeatedly whacked.
So to avoid whacking fatigue, don’t chop or baton.
Trust me on this.
It will also happen on G10 handled knives without liners and the sandwiched stop pin.
Cold Steels though seem to handle it better because of the stop pins that travel all the
way through and have more material around the edges of the stop pin.
That’s just more proof Lynn is all knowing, and understands his customers.
You know and Mr Demko.
Remember single action out the side autos like this are always harder to close one handed
because of spring resistance.
It’s the price a knife person pays for non OTF autos and assisteds.
That keeps some people from enjoying autos, but that’s not my problem.
The handle on all three is very comfortable, and the finger grooves and grip area fit my
medium sized average guy hand perfectly.
The XXL has room for your hand and one of your insane friends.
The dessert warrior might I add is one of my favorite color schemes of all time on a
pocket knife.
For those alphas that can’t handle pink that’s also not my problem.
Looks like Blade HQ has it set for coming soon, and as far as I know the only US based
retailer carrying it.
Sign up for alerts, and their newsletter so you get a heads up when to ready your f5 finger.
The clip.
It’s a crinkle style deep carry.
It is not reversible, however Boker makes a left handed version.
Not in the Dessert Warrior and XXL currently.
You can find the standard vanilla Kalashnikov in a freak of nature left handed variant though.
Looks like even a desert warrior trim too.
The pocket clips have the right amount of tension and aren’t pocket killers.
Some people may not find them pretty, but maybe we don’t find them pretty either for
not saying nice things about the crinkle clip.
Comparisons.
First the Biggun.
Now I wouldn’t classify most autos as hard use knives.
I’m not sure what hard use means.
I guess it means doing things with your knives that there are other more specialized tools
made for.
I see often people are like well it can’t be hard use it has an FRN handle.
That’s an instant giveaway of a low information knife bro, like have you even lifted a rock
with a knife?
You’ll break tips, strip a dozen screws, split an aluminum handle, and then still point
to FRN as the weak part because it flexes.
I know I’m not technically talking about the XXL right now, but I’m on a roll.
Believe me I have had aluminum and steel parts fail on knives before I’ve ever cracked
some of the super plastics on knives.
Flax is also not a sign of weakness or strength.
Skyscrapers flex without breaking.
Keeping that in mind though, Kalashnikovs are good light use or fidget knives, and not
choppers or batoners.
If you’re opening packages, or cutting cardboard, whittling out a diorama of your favorite Hentai
scene, or just cutting your finger those are all fine.
No bushcraft.
Just getting the texture right on the 12th tentacle.
The Cold Steel Colossus here Is a little more adept.
However I did break that screw holding on the deployment disc while batoning.
Cold Steel shipped me a new one.
Don’t repeatedly whack a tiny screw holding a disc.
The Colossus is one of my sliciest blades and despite it’s looks very functional for
cutting up food.
These are harder to get now, and have gone up in price.
Now the big ass Spyderco K2.
It’s huge, and it’s a shame they never came out with the smaller one.
One of my favorite spydercos that I’ve never used much.
It’s discontinued, and I’m glad I bought one when it was discounted.
Because they’re back up to MSRP almost.
Spyderco’s MSRP is definitely not the good kind of stupid.
Now the smaller ones compared to the big one.
For good functional carry, I hate to sound reasonable- but the smaller ones are better
suited for being a pocket knife.
I have a lot of big knives I love, but opt for something that doesn’t take up my whole
pocket.
The pink one is one of my favorites.
The black one is a little boring, plus I think the spear point blade is better looking.
There’s nothing worse than a boring auto- maybe the wildfires out here.
Now compared to the Protech Brend.
The Protechs have a bit more aluminum around the stop pin, which in theory is going to
keep the stop pin from moving and deforming the aluminum around it.
I wouldn’t call any of them hard use knives.
But that’s basically all autos.
A standard non knife asshole looks at an auto and thinks it’s more dangerous.
It’s all marketing though because a knife person looks at an auto and thinks… well
I have to baby this one more and make sure it doesn’t get all gunked up, and the only
person you’ll hurt is yourself.
It flies out of your hand and sinks in your foot.
Time to take a self self defense class.
A lot of my autos are on the higher end, but I still have this old Ganzo.
Channel OGs remember this knife.
These cost about $20 and you can’t get them anymore.
The bokers are about $30-70 depending on trim and steel.
Ok The hawk MUDD auto.
My favorite out the side.
Plus it’s hard to get gunked up.
This cost about $400 when you could still buy them.
As you know my Hawks are my favorite autos.
They’re expensive and hard to buy.
Let’s wrap it up.
Auto knives for me are sort of a novelty.
Kind of like slip joints.
You have to me mindful of how you use them and make tradeoffs in some areas like ease
of closing, opening, legality, people calling you old, or how you use them.
They help spark interest in the knife hobby that gets dull quick.
Ooh boy a pun!
A Para Military 2 might be a better choice, but a Dessert Warrior sure looks pretty.
And the XXL magnum is the good kind of stupid.
And the standard Kalasnikov is a good lower priced auto if you’d just like to try one
out.
Anyway thanks to everyone who gave me these knives.
Speaking of giveaways if you’re watching this video you missed my giveaway on Instagram
last week.
Not my problem I talk about Instagram all the time.
Say Hi to the amazing Patrons, they make all this possible.
You can’t see me but I’m gesturing and smiling.
Buy a T shirt.
Or sticker or a mug with this silly artwork on it.
Like, comment, subscribe, oh and listen to me on a Podcast.
I talk for like 45 minutes, which is exactly as fun as it sounds.
It’s great and the link is below this video or at the end.
Thanks for watching!