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EP98: Curtis lovito - Why Every Man Needs to Have Knives and Learn to Use Them
65 Plays2 years ago
A knife is a tool, first and foremost. There are hundreds of ways you can use a knife day to day. Anything from preparing food to chopping down trees. Curtis lovito is co-founder of Spartan Blades, an award winning knife manufacturer in Southern Pines, North Carolina. He walks us through various designs like multi-tools, pocket knives, and fixed blades while suggesting how to decide which one is right for you.
Curtis is a former Special Forces member. During his time in the military, he played many roles including weapons sergeant. He and Mark Carey founded Spartan Blades fourteen years ago.
Also in this episode:
Chris Reeve Knives https://chrisreeve.com/
The Mnandi Knife https://chrisreeve.com/collections/mnandi
Rick Hinderer Knives https://www.rickhindererknives.com/
Victorinox Knives https://www.victorinox.com/
Greg Medford Knife & Tool http://www.gregmedford.com/
You’re invited to come to a Sovereign Circle meeting to experience it for yourself. To learn more, go to https://www.sovereignman.ca/. While you’re there, check out the Battle Ready program and check out the store for Sovereign Man t-shirts, hats, and books.
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Transcript
The Necessity of Knives in Everyday Life
00:00:00
Speaker
You know, in an army, whenever you go on a mission, they give you a packing list. It always says, knife, fixed blade, one each. I look at it as an everyday necessity. If I don't have a knife, my pocket almost feels naked. I'm prepared, so I feel like a better man because I think it's important to be prepared so that you can move within your operational environment.
00:00:19
Speaker
We got together and said, hey, man, let's try something on our own, man. Let's try to be our own bosses. Firearms, firearm accessories, and knives and cutlery. A lot of people reached out, helped us, mentored us. We just came back from the International Blade Show. We won the Manufacturing Quality Award for our whole
Meet the Hosts and Guests: Embracing Masculinity
00:00:34
Speaker
line. I've had a pocket knife in my pocket every day of my life since I was 13 years old.
00:00:41
Speaker
You're a man living in the modern world in a time when men and manhood are not what they once were. You live life on your own terms. You're self-sufficient. You think for yourself and you march to the beat of your own drum. When life knocks you down, you get back up because in your gut, you know that's what men do. You're a badass and a warrior. And on the days when you forget, we are here to remind you who you really are.
From Military to Knife-Making: Curtis's Journey
00:01:14
Speaker
Welcome to the Cyberman podcast where we aim to make men masculine again. I'm your man Nicky Baloo and we've got a very special guest lined up here for you today. He is a former Special Forces member. He has actually fought in blood for your freedoms and he is one of the world's top knife makers and we're going to talk today
00:01:38
Speaker
uh to him about the things to do in the world of knives and why knives are really really cool for men to know about for men to use and why knives are awesome welcome to the show Curtis well thank you Nick I appreciate you having me you know you said I fought and bled I'd like to think I did a lot more fighting than bleeding but you're probably right on both accounts so
00:02:05
Speaker
But you know, yeah, you know, you and I were talking earlier about masculinity and, you know, things boys and men do and, you know, hunting and fishing, things we enjoy. And you asked me to come on and talk about knives, and man, I'm happy to do it. So Curtis, before we get into it, just give us a brief background of you, how you came to be where you are, and then let's take that and jump into knife making and let's talk about, you know, why you're passionate about that and why you think it's a cool thing for men to be into knives.
00:02:36
Speaker
Sure, sure. I started out, grew up in a small town called Bolingbroke, Illinois. I think it's part of Chicago now, but at the time it was a small farm community. Things have changed since I left, but kind of grew up as a feral kid. You know, parents kicked you out of the house on Friday and you had to be back Sunday for dinner. So we did a lot of camping, structure building, you know, playing army in the woods and that type of thing. So I had a kind of a fun neighborhood,
00:03:03
Speaker
Childhood was allowed to run free. You know, I always wanted to be a Marine when I was a kid. And of course, my dream came true. There was a recruiter just up the road. He was happy to help me out with that dream. He was super helpful. I said, I want to be a Marine. I want to go into infantry. He's like, oh, that's a hard job to get. Let me see what we can do for you, kid.
00:03:26
Speaker
Of course, my father, both my grandfathers, all my uncles were all Navy. So when I went to the Marines, you would have thought I burned the house down. It was something. But spent four years in the Marine Corps. Eventually ended up going into the Army of all things. Went in the Army, didn't have to go to basic training or anything like that, because I'd already been in the Marines. So my first day in the Army was at airborne school.
Building Spartan Blades: Mentorship and Growth
00:03:52
Speaker
And you want to talk about culture shock.
00:03:54
Speaker
When all you know is the Marine Corps and you have an army uniform on, it was a bit of culture shock, but I eventually went to the second Ranger battalion, jumped into Panama with them, did the airborne assault, spent some time, a little more time in infantry, ended up in U.S. Army Special Forces as a weapon sergeant, and later on as an intel sergeant. So kind of with an emphasis on a sniping and counter-terrorism. You know, I was the first Special Forces group, did a lot of work in Asia.
00:04:22
Speaker
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, stuff like that. Eventually, I got my time in, retired, want to work for another intelligence type organization. Four years in Iraq and then two years in Afghanistan. I always wanted to start my own business. I had a really
00:04:45
Speaker
Great friend who I was a sniper with an army, who I worked for at the sniper school and who was an 18 Delta, which is Special Forces medic. Guy's got a brilliant mind. I knew he'd be a great business partner. We got together and said, hey, man, let's try something on our own, man. Let's try to be our own bosses. So we did several business plans, firearms, firearm accessories, and knives and cutlery. And I had been a custom knife maker for a few years, making it for friends in the army.
00:05:14
Speaker
And we looked at those industries and man, the cutlery industry is where it's at. I mean, I had a guy from Gerber and we were starting out and said, hey, if you want to come up here and stay out in Oregon, you can work in the factory for a week. I'll walk you around, show you how the stations can help you out. And I was like, that's like Ford Motor Company telling a guy from Jake's garage, come on down and we'll teach you how to change oil. You know what I mean? A lot of people reached out and helped us, mentored us. So we were like, you know what?
00:05:41
Speaker
I think we can do this. So in 2008, we started a knife company called Spartan blades. And then here we are 14 years later. We've cut a deal to sell half our company to cave our knives or part of Cutco in New York. We just came back from the international blade show. We won manufacturing quality award for our whole line. So life's good, man.
Why Men Are Drawn to Knives: Functionality and Connection
00:06:06
Speaker
Life's good. That's amazing, man. So, um,
00:06:10
Speaker
Why knives? Like seriously, like why did you even become a custom knife maker? I mean, it's an out there profession. Yeah, you know, I worked in the gun shop as an E5 in the Army, Fort Lewis, Washington, in a place called McCann Industries, and they were known for gunsmithing and making kind of aftermarket gun parts and that type of thing. I was working in the shop and
00:06:35
Speaker
you know, in the army, whenever you go on a mission, they give you a packing list. It always says knife, fixed blade, one each. So anytime you go somewhere, you're supposed to have a fixed blade knife with you. I thought, man, I'd like to make my own. So I made one. It was, dude, it was horrible, man. It was, I just had some industrial art students in here the other day. Some of their knives were better than the first one I made.
00:07:02
Speaker
Made another one, threw it away. Wasn't that great? And finally got one. It's like, you know what, man, it's sharp, it's pointy, fits my hand. It's not that bad. I'll use it. And then of course a friend wanted one and another. Then he told two friends and so on and so on. So I knew I could do it. You don't have to tell people how to use a knife. You know, no instructions are required. No instructions are required. That's true.
00:07:27
Speaker
Well, we know we're not gonna stop making knives anytime soon. It was one of the oldest, you know, products known to man. So yeah, we kick a swing at it. And with a little bit of luck and a little bit of help and God blessing us, it's all kind of worked out. So why do you think a knife's an important tool for a man to have in 2023? Well, man, I think you said something real important. You said tool.
00:07:54
Speaker
You know, I show knives to a lot of people, you know, they'll have to see a knife and I'll fall out and go, you know, here you go. They do this, especially women. Oh, you know.
00:08:04
Speaker
But it's a tool, man. It's what we cut our steak with. It's what we fix things with. It's how we cut tape. It's how we open them damn blister packages without hurting ourselves. So I look at it as an everyday necessity. I mean, if I don't have a knife in my pocket, I almost feel naked. But I think part of the reason men in particular
00:08:26
Speaker
are interested in knives and I know it's men in particular because I look at our demographics, the people we sell to all the time. I look at folks on Instagram where I can pull up those information and analysis and it shows me who my customer base is and where they're at and it's like 95% men
00:08:44
Speaker
And I think the reason men are attracted to it is, one, it may give them a sense of security. Because I think a lot of men feel it's their job to protect themselves and protect others. So I think as far as carrying it day to day, I think they feel they can accomplish that task better. But I also think, at least for myself, I'm a workaholic. I love to work. And I like to have tools there to help me do that job.
00:09:12
Speaker
And there's such a variety of knives. So I think that that thing in us that makes us want to collect is probably also a driver. Yeah. You know, I think all those things are true. And I think the, the thing that every man ought to understand is that a knife is a tool and you have a thousand uses for it that will come up in your day to day life. You get a package from Amazon, better have a knife to cut it open.
00:09:40
Speaker
because if you don't, you're probably gonna hurt yourself trying to open it, right? If you...
00:09:47
Speaker
If you go out camping and you're cooking food, you're probably going to need to have a knife to cut your food. If you're setting up a bonfire, you're going to need a knife to cut up kindling and do other things like that with it. It's just a handy, useful tool. And I think that one of the things that's missing for a lot of men today is they don't have that masculine camaraderie. They're not out with men.
00:10:14
Speaker
olden days men would be together masculine camaraderie was understood to be a good thing now the bottom end just don't see it don't get it the messages that are coming to them aren't telling them to do it and
00:10:29
Speaker
having a knife viscerally connects you to that masculine side. It's one of those things along with being out with some men, going out for a hunt, going out fishing, going out to see the game with your friends. Those are the things that I think bring men together and help make our world a better place because when men are coming from their masculine essence,
00:10:52
Speaker
They're better fathers, they're better husbands, they're better providers, and they're better stewards of our communities and societies, in my view. Yeah, that was beautifully put. It's not the brandishing part. I've got a knife. You better watch it. I can count on my hand the amount of times I do that.
00:11:12
Speaker
in my life, I was under duress, like dire duress. It's the fact that you can use it to accomplish the type of task that you're going to do together. For example, this weekend, I'm going to go camping with a buddy of mine. There's some Scottish games going on and a large camping facility where we're going to be camping. We have bagpipes competitions out there, stuff that's really neat. Nice.
00:11:38
Speaker
But I know I'm going to use my knife 100 times over the period of that weekend. We're setting up a tent. We're going to have to cut ropes. There was a guy working on his camper last year. I had a loan on my knife. A woman was opening some hot dogs. I loaned her my knife. A kid had a rope tied to a tree, couldn't get it undone because of a knot. I gave him my rope wrench, which is another name for a knife. So I don't think it's like I'm a tough guy and I got a knife.
Choosing the Right Knife for Everyday Tasks
00:12:06
Speaker
I think it's unprepared, so I feel like a better man because I think it's important to be prepared so that you can move within your operational environment, right? I mean, for the life of me, every time I cut something, I was opening up a bunch of boxes of catalogs today. They got all that plastic wrap around and the bindings, and I was cutting those, and I was cutting one after another, and I was like, what do people in New York do? They're not even allowed to carry a screwdriver in public.
00:12:32
Speaker
What do they do in New York City, New York City? I'm just thinking, how does that guy do those day-to-day tasks, especially if he's on the run and he's at several locations throughout the day, or he doesn't know what task he's going to be dealing with until somebody provides it to him that morning if he works for somebody? I've had a pocket knife in my pocket every day of my life since I was 13 years old. It's part of me now.
00:13:00
Speaker
Someone's listening to this show and they're going, okay, I think I can wrap my head around. I need to have a knife. Right. But they don't know what kind of knife they should get. What be your advice? How should they go? Www.spartan, but no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Listen, you know, look at the tasks you're going to do for the day. It's not just men, women to look at the tasks that you do daily.
00:13:23
Speaker
identify those specific tasks, and then purchase a knife that's going to help you with that. That's why small Swiss Army knife is so popular, because you can do so many tasks with it. You know, the airlines almost changed the laws a few years back. The flight attendant, you fought it, you know, I understand, but they're going to allow basically Swiss Army knives on planes again.
00:13:47
Speaker
because they're just so useful. Nobody uses them as weapons. So yeah, I looked at the tasks. I mean, you know, we made some knives for the Canadians, well, an element of the Canadian Special Operations environment, a community, I think that's how I'm supposed to say it. But, you know, they said, hey, I want this big long knife. You're probably familiar with that, it depends on the model. I have one, I have one. But I said, man, you know,
00:14:15
Speaker
That's a pretty big knife and you're climbing them out and you'll kick your wife's picture out of your wall to lose some weight. You know, they're like, yeah, man, but we're not like you guys. I'm like, what does that mean? He goes, well, we don't have posse combat cottas. Sometimes you got to work in the woods in the middle of Canada. So sometimes I got to chop logs and branches and things like that. Um, so we need not only a good combat knife, but we need something just large enough that we can carry it and still chop with it if we need to.
00:14:39
Speaker
And that dramatically changed the design of what we provided then. But what they did is they identified the tasks and their mission, then we provided a knife that matched that. You know, if you work in a kitchen all day long, obviously you need to use a chef knives or bread knife and those types of things, but you may want a small pocket knife just for opening up boxes and packages of food that come in.
00:15:00
Speaker
If you're a fireman, you might need something that allows you to break glass or that you know will cut seat belts and that type of thing. So if you're talking to the average businessman who works in an office and he doesn't want to have anything big and beefy and scary in the office, but he wants something he can use if he needs to,
00:15:30
Speaker
what would you tell him would be a good type of knife to be thinking about for himself? I'd probably tell him to find something like a Swiss army knife, possibly a small, maybe a three-inch folding pocket knife, something kind of slim. For example, because, you know, if you're in slacks or you're working in a suit, a big knife like the type I'm used to carrying, if I had worked pants or jeans or uniform, might bog your pants down in that type of thing.
00:15:58
Speaker
It's something lightweight you put in pocket that you can forget is there. You can also buy a small leather slip and put it in there and drop in your pocket so it doesn't scratch other things, something like that. Yeah, you know, I think a Swiss Army knife is good. I like the small Leatherman tools. I think those are good. I've got a couple of those around the house. And if you're a man who works with his hands, then you probably need something a little bit more robust, right?
00:16:24
Speaker
No, I agree. I agree. Something about that size there. Just so you can immediately get to it, keep it on you. It's like a gun in combat. What's the best gun to have in a fight? The one that's on you, right? Yeah, the one that's on you. That's it. What's the best knife to have? The one that's on you that you have all the time that you can count on and trust. Yeah, amen, amen, amen, amen. So I'd say every man ought to
00:16:53
Speaker
go out there and buy himself a multi-tool slash Swiss army knife. Every man ought to have a basic pocket knife of maybe a slightly beefier one for tasks. And probably every man should have some sort of fixed blade knife as well for availability to do, you know, weightier, meatier tasks. Yeah. Keep one on your boat. Keep one on your car, you know? Yeah.
00:17:20
Speaker
Imagine you come to the scene of an accident, there's some kids in there, the car's on fire, but then, you know, there's children in the back and you can't get them out because you don't have a knife. You can't cut the seat belt, you can't get them out. They're hung up by clothing. One of your co-workers is hung up on a piece of equipment. If you had a knife, you could have got to lose. You don't ever have to take it out of your pocket. You know,
00:17:44
Speaker
And everybody talks about those types of things, but man, sometimes it's nice just to be able to clean your nails. Sometimes it's nice to scrape that tape off your, you know, your file cabinet that's been there for two years. You know, opening envelopes, there's a lot of things you can do with knives other than stabbing something or chopping something. And I think a lot of people, depending on what community you grow up in, where you're from,
00:18:07
Speaker
are indoctrinated in the fact that knives are evil, bad, and are only made for hurting people. And that's just not the case. I can count on my hands, the amount of people I've talked about, yeah, on hands. Now understand I'm at Fort Bragg and you know, he has special forces guys, special operators coming here all the time. But I only know of like six or seven incidents where a guy killed a guy with a knife. And they were all at breach points and all in combat.
Knives in the Media vs. Everyday Use
00:18:33
Speaker
You know? Amen.
00:18:35
Speaker
Unfortunately, in Toronto, lately there have been some publicized stories of somebody killing somebody with a knife. They didn't used to talk about it, but lately they've been talking about it. And it's, I don't know if it's any more than it's ever been, but it's certainly in the news more often than it's ever been. But I will tell you this, most knives, I've got over 110 knives in my collection, including a bunch of yours, Spartan blade knives. And most of the knives I have are not designed for
00:19:05
Speaker
you know, tactical or combat use. They're just not. Right. And, you know, we're kind of known as a tactical life company. And it's funny, people, I used to go to trade shows when I was younger, the people like, well, you were Green Beret, right? I was like, yes, sir. I was. He's like, can you tell me what you did with your knives when you were a Green Beret? And, you know, I would lean in a little bit.
00:19:32
Speaker
I'd look around and make sure nobody's listening and I'd say, well, I cut tape. I cut the margins off my map one time. I even opened a box and an MRE. My point to do that is military guys use them for the same thing everybody else does. You know, the same general tasks, opening packages, you know,
00:19:50
Speaker
taking off bindings. I walk, you know, I do a lot of gardening, man. I walk around my yard every time I see, we've got these vines, small vines in North Carolina. They just attack trees, they get older, they start spiraling up. So whenever I see when I pull that sucker out and I whack it, my wife laughs at me, she's like, yeah, now I know why you're a knife maker. So you can whack all these darn vines in the yard.
Recommended Knife Brands and Makers
00:20:11
Speaker
I was walking around the yard whacking, whacking and whacking. Yeah, kind of funny. No, it's good, man. It's good. So if
00:20:20
Speaker
If someone is curious about knives and curious about how to go about selecting some brands, obviously you're a knife maker and you make some really, really cool knives, but just for the purpose of this discussion, let's take the Spartan blades knives out of it. We'll bring it back in at the end and I'll talk about some of the ones I like.
00:20:44
Speaker
What would be your selection in each of these categories? The kind of multi-tool type category, the basic pocket knife, the beefier pocket knife, and the full tank fixed blade. What would be your selections that you would tell people, hey, go pick up these knives? Well, sure.
00:21:06
Speaker
Well, as a gentleman's folder, as a single-bladed, fixed-blade, high-quality knight that you could probably pass down to a family member, I'd strongly recommend Chris Reeve-Nines out of Idaho. I think they've won the Manufacturing Quality Award almost a dozen times. It's just absolute best quality. Frankly, they make fantastic gifts.
00:21:32
Speaker
They range in pricing between four and $500 and people may scoff at that. But if you were ever to go to their factory and look at the time, care, precision they put into making their knives, I mean, you think you're in a watch factory. I mean, really, it's amazing. So if you can afford to spend a little bit of extra money, to me, it's not, it's a super value. I wouldn't think twice about buying a knife from them. I'd go to Chris Reeve knives and they have several sizes of organized. They have a very, very small little one.
00:22:01
Speaker
It's beautiful. It's called a manandi. Yeah. And they'll put all kinds of exotic wood inlays into them. You get a cutting tool and you get a work of art. You get an heirloom quality product that you can pass down to some of your family, literally for generations and their warranty for life. So for a pocket knife, they're the first name to come to mind.
00:22:21
Speaker
If you're looking for something that's robust, if you're an EMP, firemen, police officer, something like that. You know, there's a lot of companies out there, but one of the ones comes to mind is Rick Hinderer and I's in Ohio. He makes a good one. He uses great steel. You know, what is a knife?
00:22:41
Speaker
It's an object that has a point, a cutting edge, and a way to interface with your hand. And he does all three of those things very, very well. Just like the Reeves, he uses great steel. He used particle metals specifically, engineered to hold an edge to be tough and to have torsional strength. So again, you'd be buying something that if you maintain it, take care of it like any tool, it lasts you a lifetime.
00:23:07
Speaker
Fixed blade knives, you know, there's a lot of people out there. Um, I'd look into some people, local knife makers. There's a lot of great knife makers in the United States that make fixed blade knives. And of course, I think, you know, I think no matter who you are, when you think of a fixed blade knife and for somebody as you draw one, the matching marker, you probably draw something similar to a K bar knife. Yeah. Um, a bar.
00:23:31
Speaker
you know, now I've said they're partners of ours, but you know, they've been making fixed blade knives for 120 years in the United States. So not only did you get a good fixed blade knife, you can use to cut things or use it in the military as a combat utility knife, but you're also buying into some U.S. history right there. Now, what about your favorite multi-tool or Swiss Army type knife? What would you pick? Well, Victorinox,
00:23:58
Speaker
is a company I would go to. I know that their owner just got inducted into Hall of Fame a few years back, which is pretty neat, man. I tell you, a Swiss Army knife you buy from Victoria Knox, it's a great value. There's a few reasons for that. One,
00:24:16
Speaker
How long it lasts and how well it works compared to the price you're going to pay for it is one. And two, they had a lot of government money put into their infrastructure, especially during times of conflict as well. So some of the equipment and manufacturing capabilities they use now, you can't buy them if you want them now. So they will never have any real competition for a Swiss Army type knife at the price point. So Victorinox is to be a good selection.
Exploring Spartan Blades Products
00:24:45
Speaker
I tell you, if you just want something big and beefy that you want to beat the crap out of that you're never going to have to worry about, but you want a little bit of style and good steel, Greg Metford of Metford knife and tools and probably in another good. Yeah. His stuff is definitely big and beefy. All right. So now let's turn it around and make the same selections out of the Spartan blades family. Okay. So, uh, so for a small knife, you might use an office or something like that. Um,
00:25:16
Speaker
I got a knife that's coming out in September, but we'll have to do this again. I can't show it to you yet, but it's a small, thin, easy to use knife. We have one called the Talos designed by Bill Harsley out of Credisville, Oregon. Um, it's a small little thing. Let me see what that one is here. This is actually one of the prototypes, but that'll explain what it is. It's an old prototype, but just a tiny, a small little pocket. I can see it buried in my hand. I'll be, it's not very big. Yeah.
00:25:42
Speaker
Just right around three inches, but it locks open so it won't collapse on you where you can hurt yourself. It's lightweight enough that you can carry it in your pocket. You'll forget it's there. One of the verses we do is about a G10 composite. I believe it's one of the lightest knives on the market for its size. So something like that might benefit you well. If you're looking to do something more high end, we have what we call our Harsi 325. It's an all titanium pocket knife with a super steel blade.
00:26:11
Speaker
That's out there. Of course, that's that's one of our top knives. That's great. For a large fixed blade knife, we have a knife. It means almost not even a contest. We have a knife called a defenza. And so when I talked about that, we made for an element of the Canadian forces. Some of your brethren up there. If you're just looking for a camp knife, self defense knife, all run good combat utility knife.
00:26:33
Speaker
I would recommend Defenza as one of ours. You make a few small mid-sized knives that make them easier to carry. So if you're camping, you're moving out the woods and on a trail and carrying a lot of equipment and weight becomes a factor. You've got a few small mid-sized knives of that size.
00:26:51
Speaker
And then, of course, we have our kind of pre-mirror knife that we're known for. It's called the Spartan Harsey folder. I don't have one here in my office, but it's the one we're all known for. It's a large folder that's almost the size of a fixed blade, all titanium parts, double-d, cryoed. I mean, we put a lot of technology into it, so it's another heirloom knife. And we do a lot of custom work on those. We actually want a manufacturing quality board. That's submitted as one of our samples.
00:27:25
Speaker
I'll tell you, I have a defense and you promised me you're going to let me get one of the hardsies when it comes out. I'm going to hold you to that. Those puppies sell out so darn fast. It's crazy. It's on the site and 15 minutes later they're all gone. I'm like, what is this? It tries to be crazy too. We're making eyes as fast as we can. We hire more people. We build more equipment.
00:27:50
Speaker
But the demand, I think we have a 14 month backlog now for dealers. And we put a priority on dealers. We'll send knives to dealers. And for a year and a half, we didn't have any folding knives on our own website because we tried to take care of those guys. But we've been accused of creating an artificial shortage on our knives. And man, I wish we were in a place we could do that. But yeah, the knives, they're pretty popular. They sell pretty quick.
00:28:16
Speaker
We put him up, they sell out, or we do special edition for a dealer. He'll put up 100 of them, they're gone in six minutes. People are calling him, he's getting upset because he can't get more. I'm upset because I wish I could have made more.
00:28:30
Speaker
All good problems that they have, right? We never find, we just whine a little bit, right? Like I said, I might end up becoming just as a side business, one of your dealers, just so I can feed my own knife habit, man. I think we'll talk about that offline, but I'll tell you something.
00:28:49
Speaker
So there's two other types of knives I'd like to talk about before we wrap up. So do you guys have anything that's comparable to a Swiss Army type knife for a multi-tool? Or have you considered doing something like that? Or is that like out of your lane? No, we don't. We don't have a Swiss Army multi-bladed knife yet. Okay. Yeah. All right. So that's something that might happen.
00:29:15
Speaker
We're very aware that we don't have that knife and probably need more. I'll leave it at that. Yeah. I mean, listen, I've got some Swiss Army knives. I've got a, I've got a fuck ton of Leathermans, you know, but they're awesome. I love, Tim Leatherman's been on my business show a couple of times. He's a great man. He is totally a great man. But you know, I have, I like my Swiss Army knife. I've seen a bunch of multi tools. I'm sorry. None of them compared to the Leathermans. Sorry.
00:29:44
Speaker
There's a couple of Leatherman models, the Wave and the P4, that are just unreal, phenomenal tools. And for what you get, the price you pay is nothing. Like honestly, I think they could be charging twice as much and it would still be worth it.
Venturing into the Kitchen Knife Market
00:30:02
Speaker
You look at that Swiss Army knife. You know, it's a cute little knife. It's got some little blades in there. It looks super simple. There's no locking mechanisms. There's no springs. I'll tell you why.
00:30:14
Speaker
If you don't have fine blanking equipment, you better know what you're doing because they are not easy to make. They are not easy to make.
00:30:24
Speaker
No, no, of course not. Look at all the moving parts they have. That makes sense to me. I'd be scared of just making a fixed blade. I mean, that's complicated. Nevermind. A knife with eight different or 12 different moving parts. It's crazy. So and the final type of knife I'd like to have you weigh in on before we wrap up is kitchen knives.
00:30:48
Speaker
uh, Benchmade came out with their kitchen knife set and now they're only selling it off their website. No dealers only in the US. So I can't buy that those and I, I love kitchen knives. And I just thought, wow, these are cool. I got their meat crafter, which is good for cutting meat. That is a fantastic kitchen knife type blade. Are you guys doing kitchen knives? Is that something on your radar? And what are some kitchen knives outside of your own thought, uh, daily work that you think are worth buying right now in the marketplace for people?
00:31:17
Speaker
Oh wow. Yes, we are looking at kitchen knives. I just recently made some trips to Germany and Italy looking for some help. Kitchen knives are a strange animal. You know, one, you tend to get put into niches and we're kind of in a combat knife, outdoor niche.
00:31:36
Speaker
I mean, I know some ABS mastersmiths that make 30 and $40,000 high-end buoys. They try to make a kitchen knife, they can't sell it for 200 bucks. So you've got to be very aware of placement, what you can do with those things. We're fortunate. Our parent company is K-Bar. Their parent company is Cutco, largest manufacturing cutlery in North America. And they are slammed with kitchen cutlery. I mean, they are slammed.
00:32:04
Speaker
You know, I can tell you, we are working on a set of kitchen knives now. It's in the design phase. I think I found a manufacturer for them. Kitchen knives are tricky. You know, people think, well, I've got to make the new next great, cool looking kitchen knife. And that's great if you're selling somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. But if you were to take a picture of all the quality kitchen knives with ones that sell well throughout the world,
00:32:28
Speaker
and overlay them over each other. Maybe put them in Adobe Photoshop and adjust the opacity as you go back. You'll see that that cutting edge is about the same on all of them. And for good reason. One, human hand works one way. Most schools teach our students how to use kitchen cutlery in a very certain ways. So we want to make something that's going to stand out when people see it and they know it, but it still has the complete, all those standard, basic tasks that every chef is going to do.
00:32:57
Speaker
We are working with the friend of ours who's a world-class designer, in my opinion, not well-known, but managed good with cutlery. And we're talking to manufacturers now to partner with.
00:33:12
Speaker
It's my, our intent for Pineland cutlery, our parent company. I think that's how we would do the kitchen knives. Um, I don't think anybody's going to pass any combat, you know, when they're cutting sausage. No. So they're probably Pineland cutlery, but we're looking at a possibly three to five knife set of kitchen cutlery. Um, and I think we're about two years out on it. Have you, have you seen the benchmade, uh, kitchen knives? I have. Yeah. What are your thoughts on those guys?
00:33:41
Speaker
I haven't used them so I don't know. I think they look okay. I believe the ones I saw, I think they were flat stock with handles, if I remember correctly. I don't think they're forged. What I'm looking to do is forge high carbon stainless. That's what chefs want. I've talked to a lot of chefs. Phil Cookston, our European vice president in charge of European sales, was a master chef. He's part of the
00:34:10
Speaker
the British cooking core. I guess Army, Navy, Marines used to all have their own cooks. They came together as one service as a core. So he talks to chefs on a daily basis. So we're still in the late incipient phase of starting the kitchen cutlery, but man, we're doing a lot of research and I've learned a lot. And I think when we come up with something, we're going to do something we can be proud of. So right now, what would you recommend people buy? Which brands are you?
00:34:40
Speaker
I like Hankles stuff. Okay, just named this make good German knives, they make them the old way. They're forged high carbon stainless. I actually when I was looking in the kitchen, I was looking at the type of skills that he was actually want to visit.
00:35:00
Speaker
but there's steel factory in Germany that provides steel to a lot of those companies just to see how it's made and how it works. So, you know, it's great to have a great design, but you want to look at materials, how they're made, what makes one steel better than the other. Why some steels have impurities in them and others don't. A lot of that comes down to how they're placed in the crucible, how
00:35:20
Speaker
materials I use to remove some of the impurities and things like that. So that's kind of the thing. That's where we're at now on kitchen covering. Probably won't see it for two years, but I think we're going to do something special.
00:35:32
Speaker
Well, I'm excited for some of the new stuff you got coming out from myself. I'd like to pick it up for the personal collection, but I think it's important for men to be familiar with the various types of knives and be able to use them in their day-to-day knives. Lives, excuse me, their day-to-day knives. That's good. That was good. So, you know, Henkles, huh? All right. That's a name I know. I'll go check out some of their stuff.
00:36:03
Speaker
They're affordable for what they are. I think they retail for like $140 for a good chef knife.
Quality Kitchen Tools and Recommendations
00:36:10
Speaker
That's not bad. So I had Greg Lightfoot. He was a custom knife maker out in Alberta. He's made a few knives for me. He made me a kitchen knife. He calls it TACTA Chef.
00:36:25
Speaker
It's a nice kitchen knife. It's ground on one side. On the other side, it's kind of flat. So it's a little chisel ground. It cuts really well. I like it, but it's just the one knife. I'd like to go take a look at getting myself a complete set of kitchen knives, because at the moment, I don't have that. And I bought myself some poultry shears as well. Those have been useful. They've gotten a little bit of use.
00:36:54
Speaker
and I wanted to come and ask you what your thoughts were on the subject, and I'm glad to see that you're looking into making some. Keep me posted, keep us all posted. Oh, sure, sure. I'll tell you if you're looking, if you got a good pair of cooking shears, take care of them, hang on to them, because that's becoming lost art really, really fast. I mean, you look at all the scissor makers in Italy and Germany, and man, they're disappearing like COVID. Really?
00:37:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's harder and harder to find quality systems. CUTCO makes probably some of the best citizens I've ever used. We should talk offline. I'd like to get some.
00:37:36
Speaker
I'm kind of half joking about becoming a dealer, but half not. At some point I'd like to do it. I know Cutco has independent reps, and it could be a neat thing to become an independent rep just to buy some of my own knives. But for me, shears are important. I mean, I got a pair of shears that I bought off of Amazon. They seem to do the job, but if I can get something super great, what would be your recommendation? Buy a Cutco set of shears?
00:38:04
Speaker
Well, they have scissors. Well, you should have two sets. One for you to use when you want to cut something difficult, and one for your wife to ruin in the kitchen doing crazy shit with. The same the same type of shears or? Right? Yeah, those cut coat scissors. They're forged. I think that they're well, they are forged by a company called Shilling Forge in New York. And you know, it's the one thing cut coat
00:38:32
Speaker
Man, they're just really, really good at making scissors. I mean, you cut pennies in half with them, thick
Conclusion and Farewell
00:38:38
Speaker
leather. I cut chicken legs off with them. I mean, they're fantastic.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So co-coast the way to go. All right. Curtis Sieto, the man, the myth, the legend, co-founder of the Spartan blades USA. One of the true iconic American knife companies. Thank you for educating us as men on knives and how to pick a good set of knives for the various tasks that we do. This has been a fun and educational interview. Well, I appreciate it. Appreciate you having as usual. God bless you, brother. Catch you on the flip.
00:39:13
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Sovereign Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your life and become the man you've always wanted to be, we invite you to join the movement at sovereignman.ca.