The Knife Junkie Podcast

Lynn Thompson founded Cold Steel Knives in the early 1980s and ran it for about 40 years, building it into one of the most recognized tactical knife brands in the world. After selling to GSM Outdoors and honoring his non-compete through June 2025, Lynn is back with something new: Lynn Thompson Tactical Knives, available at NeverUnarmed.com.

On Episode 671 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco sits down with Lynn for a wide-open conversation about where it all started and where it is going.

Lynn traces his love of knives back to wooden ones his father made for him when he was a four-year-old growing up in Brazil. That passion led him to build his first push daggers in 1980, years before the word \"tactical\" was applied to knives as a category. After breaking two Gerber Mark II blades during backyard training, he set out to design a knife with an unbreakable point—and that drive eventually produced the Tanto, with the final Trail Master design sketched on a placemat at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura. Bob and Lynn also discuss the sub-hilt fighter, the history of the push dagger from the katar to the riverboat South, and the debate between double-edged and single-edged blades.

Lynn is a serious practitioner, not just a designer. He trains with blades four sessions a week in a gymnasium stocked with $80,000 worth of aluminum training weapons, working with students and training partners on knife fighting, Bowie work, and combative research across multiple martial systems. He talks about what he would fix on the Trail Master guard, how fighting with a Bowie taught him to use the crossguard, and why he believes the Bowie knife is one of the hardest fighting tools to beat when it is built and balanced correctly.

Lynn Thompson Tactical Knives is launching with 35 knives, including two new Bowie designs, the Japanese Quaken, a cutlass, and plans for sword canes. His new factory has 12 five-axis CNC grinding machines, robotics, automatic sharpeners, and polishing equipment that he calls the best he has ever had access to. You can find Lynn and the full lineup at Blade Show 2026 in Atlanta at booth 2413 in the secondary room and online at NeverUnarmed.com.

This is one of the most knowledge-packed conversations in the history of The Knife Junkie Podcast. Whether you collect Cold Steel, study knife history, or just want to hear one of the legends of the knife world talk about what he is building next, this episode is required listening.

Be sure to support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.

You can also support The Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives.

Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review. Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.

To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our preferred platform: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.

Episode 670 of The Knife Junkie Podcast is all about great high-end knife carry combinations, and host Bob DeMarco brings seven of them to the table. Each pairing follows two simple rules: never carry two knives from the same company, and never carry two knives with the same blade shape. The result is a thoughtful and practical look at how to build a multi-knife carry that actually makes sense.

Whether it is a heavy-duty folder paired with a slim fixed blade, a large clip point paired with a straight-edge Wharncliffe, or a utility folder paired with a defensive fixed blade, Bob breaks down the logic behind every combo.

Before getting to the carry combos, Bob runs a full pocket check featuring the Off-Grid Knives Polaris XL in Vanax SuperClean steel, the Jack Wolf Knives Feelgood Jack in S90V, the Dirk Pinkerton Matador with its JL Hansen and Son handle scales, and the Edgy American Blade Works Junkie, a Seax-style fixed blade by Shane Gable in Cru-Wear at 64 HRC. He also covers four notable new releases in Knife Life News: the Bestech Kobber designed by Jake Diaz of Happy as Larry, the RoseCraft Blades Birchfield Camp Jack, the Civivi Dracolis Balisong trainer, and the TOPS Snake River Rescue dive knife by John Garcia.

The \"First Tool\" segment of this episode covers the Seax, the single-edged blade of the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, and Vikings that served as the original everyday carry knife throughout early medieval Europe. Bob traces the Seax from its role as a farmer\'s tool and a warrior\'s weapon to its appearance as a decorated object of identity, including the famous Seax of Beagnoth found in the River Thames. He also draws a direct line from the broken-back Seax profile to the modern clip point, connecting a thousand years of blade design in a few short minutes.

The State of the Collection segment adds more to an already full episode, with Bob showing the Spyderco Lum Tanto and Cold Steel El Vaquero acquired from Dirk Pinkerton, plus the brand-new Fisher Blades Harvey PK, the first EDC knife from Chaz and John Fisher of Fisher Blades. A set of custom leather XL Espada sheaths from patron Cesario Aton rounds out the segment. Bob also spotlights the 3 Dog Knife affiliate offer (25% off with code \"knifejunkie\" at theknifejunkie.com/3dogknife) and the Patreon-exclusive \"American Edge 250\" series, which covers historical American blade designs in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Whether you are building your own two-knife carry or just love seeing high-quality blades presented by someone who genuinely cares about them, Episode 670 delivers from the first minute to the last. Bob wraps it up with a question for the community: What carry combos are you running? Drop your answer in the comments and bring it to Thursday Night Knives, every Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern on YouTube and Twitch.

Find the list of all the knives shown in the show and links to the Knife Life news stories at https://theknifejunkie.com/670.

Support the Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives. You can also support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.

Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review. Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.

To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our preferred platform: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.

What does it take to turn a 40-plus-year obsession with blades into a YouTube channel worth watching? Joe Steel of The Steel Mindset can answer that question.

In Episode 669 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco sits down with Joe for a conversation that covers the origins of a lifelong passion, the craft and culture behind the katana, top production sword brands, and what it is like to build a knife and sword channel from the ground up while living in one of the least collector-friendly states in the country.

Joe Steel traces his love of blades to May 14, 1982, the opening day of Conan the Barbarian. The forge scene at the start of that film hooked him at age nine, and the obsession never let go. He grew up collecting flea-market swords, bringing blades back from travels abroad, and absorbing everything he could find about bladecraft long before the internet made that easy. When the 2020 shutdown ended his career in live event production overnight, he discovered the YouTube sword-review community and made a decision: he had the production skills, equipment, and knowledge. He was going to make his own videos. The Steel Mindset channel was born from that decision.

Much of this episode focuses on the katana, and for good reason. Joe talks about studying Japanese culture and sword forging since his teen years, reading about tamahagane steel, the quenching process that creates the blade\'s natural curve, and the remarkable fact that the katana was designed to be disassembled. A single bamboo peg called the mekugi holds the entire sword together. The tang of the blade, the nakago, reveals the level of care a maker put into the work. Joe explains all of it with the kind of detail that only comes from decades of genuine study and collecting.

Joe also discusses the top production katana companies available right now, including Citadel, Motohara Evolution Blades, and Hanwei, as well as American smiths Walter Sorrells and Howard Clark. He touches on the strict laws governing katana ownership in Japan, where blades must be registered like firearms and can only be legally owned if they were made on Japanese soil. Bob and Joe also talk through the challenges of collecting knives in New York State, where the laws are strict, and Amazon will not ship knives to a residential address.

Beyond The Steel Mindset channel, Joe co-hosts the Blade Talk with Joe and Scab podcast with Scott Baldwin, known as Scab of Choirboyz Cutlery Outdoors. The show has brought in a number of well-known names from the knife world, and the chemistry between a New York voice and a Southern one makes for great listening. Joe is also heading to the Blade Show in Atlanta and working toward surpassing the 10,000-subscriber mark on his channel.

Find Joe and The Steel Mindset on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@JoeSteel1 and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/the_steel_mindset.

Be sure to support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.

You can also support The Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives. Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review.

Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.

To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our preferred platform: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.

In Episode 668 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco tackles a subject that sits right at the intersection of utility and self-defense: folding knives with straight cutting edges.

Bob walks through 12 folders that all share a flat or nearly flat edge profile, and he explains the geometry behind why these blades transfer more force to the tip on a slash or thrust than a curved edge does.

Whether you carry a knife for everyday work or are interested in personal protection, this episode offers plenty to think about and plenty of steel to admire.

Before getting to the main topic, Bob covers a strong pocket check featuring the Emerson Knives P-SARK, the Spyderco Delica 4 (known in the household as Sleepy Bear), the Microtech SBD Dagger, and the Hogtooth Fighting Bowie.

The Knife Life News segment covers three notable releases: the 100th Buck of the Month featuring the Drop Point 112 Ranger in S35VN, the new TOPS Sidekick Diver from designer Anna Espinosa, and a sharp-looking Buck Range Elite Stealth Run with gold-thread carbon fiber and a tritium thumb stud.

The First Tool segment covers the 1918 Trench Dagger, officially known as the US Mark I Trench Knife. Bob covers the history behind its design, including why soldiers needed something compact and fast for trench warfare, what made the bronze knuckle guard so distinctive, and why collectors still prize original examples today. This particular knife was a gift from Bob\'s brother, and the personal story behind it adds to an already fascinating segment.

The State of the Collection segment gives two older knives some well-deserved attention: the Real Steel H6 Blue Sheep, one of the first Real Steel knives to reach the American market, and the Sencut Waxahachie, a clip-point fixed blade with a great profile and a low price.

Then the show moves into the main event, where Bob walks through twelve folding knives with straight cutting edges, including the Hinderer XM-24 Wharncliffe, the Kansept Main Street, the Pinkerton Knives Standoff, the ABW Model 2, the Northmountain Blade BBMN, the Shieldon Knives REV, the Off-Grid Knives Black Stallion, the Sencut Awassi, the Artisan Cutlery Proponent, the Jack Wolf Knives Diamondback Jack, the QSP Penguin, and the Spyderco Yojumbo.

Find the list of all the knives shown in the show and links to the Knife Life news stories at https://theknifejunkie.com/668.

Support the Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives. You can also support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.

Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review. Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.

To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our preferred platform: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.

On Episode 667 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco sits down with two of the most well-known brothers in the online knife community: Austin Culbertson, known on YouTube as Hissatsu5, and his brother Mathew Culbertson.

The Culbertson brothers have been making knife videos for close to 20 years, starting with water bottle cut tests filmed on a bad camera, and building their channels into trusted resources for knife owners who want to know what their blades can actually do.

One area of discussion in this episode is serrations and why they matter more than most people think. The brothers reveal that denim has a level 1 cut-resistance rating, meaning a razor-sharp, plain edge can bounce off denim without cutting through. Their testing shows that serrated edges close that gap and guarantee a bite that a plain edge sometimes cannot.

Mathew walks through the pros and cons of Veff serrations, Cold Steel serrations, and Spyderco serrations, and describes the custom large flat top serration pattern he has developed for his own carry knives. He also covers a single oversized serration near the tip of a tanto blade that boosts performance on snap cuts — what he calls the \"snap master.\"

The conversation includes why both brothers carry knives as tools of defense. Austin started carrying in high school after the Virginia Tech shooting. Mathew is a prison chaplain who cannot carry a firearm on the job and trains with knives every Sunday alongside his brother. Both brothers make a strong case for the knife as a practical carry tool, covering Texas self-defense law, the limits of firearms in restricted locations, and the ways a knife can save a life that a gun cannot.

Bob asks both brothers about the deeper pull that knives have on the people who collect and carry them. Austin points to the knife as the first tool humans made with real intention. Mathew describes it as a symbol of justice, truth, and the responsibility to protect others. The episode also features a long look at Bowie knife history, including trainer knives made by Bobby Raines, a tour of the Bowie knife exhibit at the Little Rock, Arkansas, Museum, and a discussion about how historical Bowies took very different forms across different regions and eras.

Find Austin Culbertson on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@Hissatsu5 and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/p/DG4dLfrMvjz. Find Mathew Culbertson on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@mathewrculbertson and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/matrculbertson.

For the full episode and all show notes, visit www.theknifejunkie.com/667.

Be sure to support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.

You can also support The Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives. Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review. Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.

To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our preferred platform: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.