JK Knives “Pentagon T”

Review

2019 Update: This knife is available on www.aliexpress.com and is produced by a company called HX-Outdoors.

In early May 2018, I was seeking a new blade for my outdoor forest wedding in August. I wanted something to connect me to my heritage so I chose a knife maker in Poland. I found him through a facebook search and chose a blade I liked. The blade was called the “Pentagon T” and the knife maker was called JK Knives.

Customer Service

I sent a deposit for the blade in May, and had hoped it would arrive for my wedding in August. It seemed a reasonable timeframe. At the end of July I still had not heard anything from the knife maker and asked for a refund as it had taken too long. The knife maker flat out refused to give me a refund and berated me. Calling me names, telling me I didn’t know anything about knives and if I didn’t pay the rest of the money for the blade, he would happily keep my money and I get nothing. I was also blocked from the the JK Knives Facebook Page after posting a review of how bad his customer service was.

Reluctantly, I paid for the blade and the day it was to be mailed, conveniently his car broke down which caused a delay in mailing it.

My wedding date came and went and still no knife.

Eventually it arrived in late August. It did actually come from Poland.

Features

• Full Tang
• Micarta Scales
• Tanto Point
• Pronounced Choil
• Good Finger Guard
• Thumb Ramp
• Stiff Spine
• Non-Serrated
• D2 Steel
• No Lanyard Hole
• Kydex Sheath

Unboxing

The blade came in a nice white box with the knife makers logo on it. Inside the box was of course the knife, a card telling me about the blade, and a business card. The blade looked good although it was missing any markings. I have never had a “handmade custom knife” not have markings by the maker. This leads me to believe the blade is most likely not hand made, but something produced in China and shipped out to whomever pays the $270USD (plus shipping) for the blade.

I asked the knife maker to provide photos of his workshop, but was declined.

The sheath was a tight fitting kydex with a belt clip. Even after vigorous shaking, the knife stayed in the sheath.

Edge Geometry

The edge on the blade was almost non-existent. It was incredibly small, and difficult to see. It was difficult to determine which kind of grind was used on the blade.

Testing

Hair Shaving test: I used the blade to shave my leg, and it shaved quite nicely. Took the hair off cleanly with no pulling

Paper Test: I held up a piece of 8.5×11 paper and tried to have the knife cut through the paper, but it didn’t work very well

Ferro Rod test: I used the back of the blade to make sparks with the ferro rod, it did a very good job and created a lot of spark.

Ice Block Test: Reminiscent of Forged In Fire, I used the knife to hack at a block of ice. The ice block chipped the blade badly.

Batoning Wood: arguably a method to test a blade. The blade made it through the wood okay, despite being dinged up by the ice.

Wood Shavings: The blade was capable of making wood shavings, but not very thin due to the dings suffered by hitting the ice.

OVERALL

The blade did all right, although I was quite surprised how poor it held up with something as simple as hitting a block of ice. Not something I would routinely do, but living in a northern climate not out of the range of possibilities. Thankfully my Ken Onion Sharpener put a shaving sharp new edge on the blade fairly quickly. The blade was adequate at best and there are many other better options for the $270USD price tag. In the end it would have been better to lose my deposit and chose a different manufacturer.