The Knife Junkie Podcast

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.

Episode 666 of The Knife Junkie Podcast opens with a comment that cuts straight to the point. A viewer described surviving a serious rollover accident, trapped upside down and unable to free himself from a seatbelt, as smoke filled the car. That experience turned him into a lifelong knife carrier. Host Bob DeMarco uses the story to set up the entire episode: a pocketknife is not just a hobby. When things go wrong fast, what you carry and how fast you can open it can matter more than you expect.

Before getting to the main topic, Bob runs through a four-knife pocket check that includes a custom Spyderco SpydieChef modified by Mike Emler, a Jack Wolf Knives Gateway Barlow in Miami camo carbon, the TKell Knives Agent 001 from the first production run, and a Randall Made Model 2-7 combat stiletto. He also runs through the full Agent series lineup and the latest history installment from the Patreon, The American Edge 250: The Reclaimed Edge. Knife Life News covers four new releases worth knowing about: the We Knife Co. Dracarys with dragon-scale milled titanium handles, the GiantMouse Reddington, built in partnership with the U.S. SERE school, the Sencut Braxx slip joint, and a handsome new swayback from Bear & Son Cutlery.

The First Tool segment takes a close look at the yatagan, the Ottoman short blade carried by the Janissaries for roughly four centuries. Bob covers the blade shape, the history of its use, and the surviving museum examples that show just how beautiful these working weapons could be. He shows two modern blades inspired by the Yatagan, including a personal TKell Knives collaboration he hopes to put into production. Then he talks about the Cold Steel SRK-C, a compact version of one of the most trusted fixed blades in the catalog, which he picked up on Amazon for $27 and spent a full weekend putting to work.

The main topic for Episode 666 is 10 waveable folders. The Emerson wave is a raised feature on the blade spine that catches the pocket on the draw, opening the knife automatically. Bob covers ten folders that use this concept, from the original Emerson Seax to the Cold Steel Espada XL, including the Byrd Cara Cara 2, Cold Steel TiLite, Fox 599 Karambit, DC Blades Sting, Pinkerton Knives Ringed Inversion, Zero Tolerance 0620, CRKT M16-14ZSF, and the Arcane Design Antimatter. Each knife gets a close look at how and why the wave or wave-equivalent feature works, what makes it useful in a real carry context, and what sets each one apart.

Whether you carry for utility, self-defense, or the love of a well-made folding knife, this episode gives you a practical framework for understanding one of the most useful features a folder can have. Bob brings real carry experience to every knife on the list, and the depth of the conversation reflects it.

Find the list of all the knives shown in the show and links to the Knife Life news stories at https://theknifejunkie.com/666.

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 665 of The Knife Junkie Podcast, host Bob DeMarco welcomes David Baker, the historic weapons recreation specialist, bladesmith, and longtime Forged in Fire judge who has spent decades building some of the most accurate weapon replicas on television. Before he ever touched a forge, Baker was dancing in Grease 2 and acting in Hollywood. A knee injury, a stage combat class, and a chance to watch the legendary Jody Samson at work eventually pointed him toward the craft that would define his career.

Baker walks through his early years building stage swords in Burbank, the Spanish TV production Queen of Swords that launched his professional weapon-making business, and how he landed on Deadliest Warrior before eventually becoming a fixture on Forged in Fire. His job on the show went far beyond judging. He was the one building the example weapons, often working under a 10-hour deadline, sometimes in the early morning before the crew arrived, and sometimes late at night after everyone had gone home. He shares the lessons that experience taught him, including the clever salt trick one colorblind smith used to time his quench.

The episode shifts to Baker\'s new project: a self-produced motorcycle travel-and-historical-weapons show called Baker\'s Blades. The concept is simple and compelling. Baker rides his 2016 Indian Vintage motorcycle to locations across the United States associated with historically significant blades, researches the weapon\'s history, gains access to original or related artifacts, and then recreates the piece in his shop. The pilot episode was filmed near the National Museum of the United States Army. A sizzle reel is already live on YouTube at @BakersBlades.

Baker also opens up about why studying original weapons in person matters so much. His four benchmarks for any blade are weight, scale, edge geometry, and balance, and he explains how handling actual historic pieces at museums around the world has shaped everything he builds. He talks about the small details that most people never see: the angle of a basket hilt, wear marks from resharpening, and even file marks left by craftsmen hundreds of years ago. Those details, he says, are a direct connection to the makers who came before. Baker also shares the story of watching veterans and first responders find something powerful at the forge, channeling anger and tension into a piece of steel and coming out the other side holding something they built with their own hands.

To learn more about David Baker and see his work, visit davidbakerknives.com. Follow him on Instagram at @bakerblades, connect on Facebook, and subscribe to Baker\'s Blades on YouTube before the full release.

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.