Rough Edge EDC: A tale of 3 knives comes back to friendship
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – No surprise here. Got a few new knives to showcase and talk about.
But even better: All three have a great backstory and represent friendships I have made in the online knife collecting community during the past year.
Let’s start off with my vintage Colonial Barlow, which I won in a giveaway on the Knife Delights channel on YouTube.
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Tom at Knife Delights is an avid Buck collector and amateur knife historian. He is also a whiz at cleaning up and refurbishing old knives. He does some great videos where he goes step-by-step, demonstrating the process he uses to bring out the luster of these old knives.
He also has an amazing playlist where he goes through his Buck collection and gives detailed analysis on their different offerings. I feel like I’m going to get a Ph.D in traditional pocket knives just by watching the Knife Delights channel.
But back to my Colonial Barlow.
It is a traditional Barlow, about 3 1/4 inches long when closed. It is equipped with two blades, and the word “Barlow” is actually stamped on its bolster. That is soooo cool.
Tom originally got the knife from mutual friend John of J.O. Ventures Outdoors, who got it from a coworker who found it while cleaning out the family home.
Tom cleaned it up and then used it in a giveaway to promote a smaller, but growing channel. That sort of generosity exemplifies the online knife community, at least the people I have come across.
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I was lucky enough to win this beautiful Colonial Barlow and now have a bit of history I can carry around in my pocket.
Neither Tom nor John were able to give me much background on the knife or about the Colonial brand.
I suspect the knife is at least 25 years old, though.
Anyway, I just love this Barlow. It signals a connection to two of my knife brothers, who share a mutual love for history and traditional knives.
The second knife to be featured this week is a Rough Rider Desert Fox Copperhead that I got as a gift from Bryan over at Bryan’s Knives.
I have been watching Bryan’s channel for several months, commenting on his videos. I soon started listing him in this column among my favorite YT channels.
Bryan delves into traditional and modern knives but with a down-to-earth approach. Definitely one of my go-to YT channels now.
We’ve became friends on Facebook and the next thing you know, Bryan sent me a message, “Send me your address. I want to send you something.”
I thought it might be a couple of channel stickers.
Instead, I got the aforementioned stickers, a button, a knife and leather slip from Sanctified Leather, which I have featured a couple of times already.
For frequent readers of this space, you know I love Smoky Mountain Knife Works’ house brand, Rough Rider.
But I am a relatively new collector of those budget knives. Before Bryan’s gift, I had exactly four of them – three from the Desert Fox line (a hunting knife, Barlow and a trapper) and a canoe knife with G10 handles (a glass fiber and epoxy resin mix that is quite durable).
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Anyway, Bryan sent me a Desert Fox Copperhead that matches the other three with the same motif (black and orange micarta handles and an orange fox shield or logo).
I had never mentioned to him that I had several of these knives already. So it was quite the cosmic coincidence for me to get another Desert Fox.
I also had never even held a copperhead knife before, much less owned one. So that was a nice surprise too.
A copperhead has an elongated bolster that bulges out over the pivot of the knife, sort of like the canoe pattern. It also has two clip-style blades coming out of one end. In a lot of ways, it is like a trapper knife without the more rounded spey blade.
What a great gift. It matched my other RRs and introduced me to a great traditional pattern.
As of this writing, the Desert Fox Copperhead is listed at $11.18 on the SMKW website.
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The thing I love about Rough Rider is they are a great budget brand that punches above its weight class. A $10 to $18 knife from Rough Rider feels like a knife you might have spent $30 or even $40 on and sometimes even has a better fit and finish than some more well known collector brands.
Last but not least is my new Bear & Son 4-Inch Barlow with rosewood handles.
My good friend and mentor of all things EDC, JB at Big Red EDC, sent this one over as a gift when he lent me his Rosecraft Otter Creek Barlow to review recently.
The Bear & Son is absolutely gorgeous and is instantly up there with my nicest and classiest knives in my collection.
At 4 inches long, the Bear & Son Barlow is a bit bigger than the traditional Barlow. It also has just a single blade, a sheepsfoot, which is perfect for opening packages and utility work.
Bear & Son is a U.S. company based in Alabama that manufactures its knives here in the good old U.S. of A.
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They have a bit of a reputation for uneven quality control, but my knife – a sample size of one – seems flawless – great wood covers, nice blade, excellent action.
I have also been told by many in the knife community that Bear & Son has been upping their game as far as consistency and quality control.
This knife is currently listed at $40.99 at the SMKW website.
Here is to friendship and new knives.
Here are a couple of links to two of the three knives highlighted this week. I am not listing the Colonial Barlow. That knife is one of a kind and I have no idea where you can get anything close to it. If you are interested in finding something like that Colonial Barlow, I’d start visiting local pawnshops or go online to the secondary market, like eBay.
Rough Rider Desert Fox Copperhead
Bear & Son 4-inch Barlow in rosewood
Here are some links to the YouTube channels mentioned in this column:
Here are some other EDC- and knife-related YouTube channels I watch and enjoy in no particular order:
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