- Joined
- Nov 4, 2012
- Messages
- 191
Hey folks, I'm more of a reader of reviews than I am a writer of them so don't get your hopes up. There are some really great reviews for the Potbelly here on the forum, you can find them at:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/857672-Ka-Bar-JAB-Potbelly-Biscuit-View
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/857062-JAB-Potbelly-MoosezView
I thought there was another one, though I can't find it right now, sorry if I left it out (maybe it wasn't in the Ka-Bar sub-forum??). Give them a read, they were instrumental in my ordering one sight unseen.
Edit: Found the 3rd one, and its a really good read:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/755435-Johnson-Adventure-Blades-quot-Potbelly-quot
For starters, I really like this knife, its a little hard to explain, but I find this blade "fun". It does everything I'd expect of a knife of this size, and it excels at some things I wouldn't expect of a knife with this blade length, but then its a little heavy for a ~7" blade, of course its a full tang 1/4" blade, so the weight is understandable. It weighs a little over a pound so there's some mass behind the edge. The balance point is right at the top of scales, so almost every single handed grip you use to hold it is going to be blade heavy. That makes it a chopping machine. When it was delivered, I was literally out in the yard chopping out suckers and doing some heavy pruning on a holly tree that was crowding my driveway, so I took a break to open it up and put it right to work... pruning isn't one of my favorite jobs, but it was fun with this tool. I wouldn't hesitate to use this in the field to clear an archery shooting lane in hunting season, or to limb some downed branches for firewood or shelter.
Here's a pic.
One of the things I noticed in other reviews there was a concern about the lower retaining strap being cut by the blade, I'm not sure but it appears Ka-Bar may have addressed this issue by installing velcro on the sheath and strap, so that when you unstrap it, you can press the strap against the sheath, and it will stick to the sheath and stay out of the way. My recently acquired BK-5 has the same configuration, I'm not sure if this is something new, or not, but its a nice touch!
Now I'm going to change gears, from here on, this is not going to be so much a review, as it is a critique of a single sample, and based on this one report, shouldn't be taken as a problem of the knife in general. My knife came with a few problems, there were a couple of issues with the grind and there seems to be like a double coating on it.
First, the sharpening of the tip. My blade came with the tip unsharpened, the edge on the tip was actually flat, not sure if it shows well in the picture
but the result is pretty clear, I would advise against doing this with any other knife at my house, even the butter knives would be sinking to the bone with the kind of pressure I'm applying here
The area just ahead of the sharpening choil is even worse, its almost like the plunge just wasn't completed, the part that should be the edge was actually still coated black, I'm not sure if its an issue with blades grind not being deep enough at the plunge, or if they just didn't sharpen it out properly, anyway, here's a shot of it
Edit: FWIW, I've found a review on another forum that shows an identical grind issue on another specimen.
Again, don't try this at home, on a properly ground and sharpened knife, this would really hurt.
That said, one of my pet peeves is knives that come from the factory with uneven grinds, this knife may not have been completely sharpened, but the grinding is very even (just incomplete), with very good symmetry, which makes fixing these minor defects pretty easy. In all honesty, this is something I'm kind of picky about, other than 2 customs, I've found fault with the grind of most of the knifes I've bought in the past decade or so, and plenty of those cost a good deal more than the Potbelly.
The other thing I find kind of strange is that it seems like this knife has two separate black coatings, there's an outer coating that is flaking off pretty easily underneath which seems to be the standard Ka-Bar coating, at least whats left after the outer coating flakes off seems the same as what is on my "old coating" Beckers. Its not like the coating they introduced with the tweeners at all. Not sure if it will show up well in the photo, you can kind of see it in the first photo, and here's a close-up.
Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has had a double coated blade. FWIW, this is a completely cosmetic and trivial, the outer coating literally flakes away with fingernail pressure.
All in all, I really like this knife, I think its the funnest knife I own, I actually make up tasks to do, just because I know I'll be able to use this knife. The initial issues I had were trivial and easily repaired. I'm adding it to my load out, can't wait to get some woods time with it.
Erik
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/857672-Ka-Bar-JAB-Potbelly-Biscuit-View
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/857062-JAB-Potbelly-MoosezView
I thought there was another one, though I can't find it right now, sorry if I left it out (maybe it wasn't in the Ka-Bar sub-forum??). Give them a read, they were instrumental in my ordering one sight unseen.
Edit: Found the 3rd one, and its a really good read:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/755435-Johnson-Adventure-Blades-quot-Potbelly-quot
For starters, I really like this knife, its a little hard to explain, but I find this blade "fun". It does everything I'd expect of a knife of this size, and it excels at some things I wouldn't expect of a knife with this blade length, but then its a little heavy for a ~7" blade, of course its a full tang 1/4" blade, so the weight is understandable. It weighs a little over a pound so there's some mass behind the edge. The balance point is right at the top of scales, so almost every single handed grip you use to hold it is going to be blade heavy. That makes it a chopping machine. When it was delivered, I was literally out in the yard chopping out suckers and doing some heavy pruning on a holly tree that was crowding my driveway, so I took a break to open it up and put it right to work... pruning isn't one of my favorite jobs, but it was fun with this tool. I wouldn't hesitate to use this in the field to clear an archery shooting lane in hunting season, or to limb some downed branches for firewood or shelter.
Here's a pic.
One of the things I noticed in other reviews there was a concern about the lower retaining strap being cut by the blade, I'm not sure but it appears Ka-Bar may have addressed this issue by installing velcro on the sheath and strap, so that when you unstrap it, you can press the strap against the sheath, and it will stick to the sheath and stay out of the way. My recently acquired BK-5 has the same configuration, I'm not sure if this is something new, or not, but its a nice touch!
Now I'm going to change gears, from here on, this is not going to be so much a review, as it is a critique of a single sample, and based on this one report, shouldn't be taken as a problem of the knife in general. My knife came with a few problems, there were a couple of issues with the grind and there seems to be like a double coating on it.
First, the sharpening of the tip. My blade came with the tip unsharpened, the edge on the tip was actually flat, not sure if it shows well in the picture
but the result is pretty clear, I would advise against doing this with any other knife at my house, even the butter knives would be sinking to the bone with the kind of pressure I'm applying here
The area just ahead of the sharpening choil is even worse, its almost like the plunge just wasn't completed, the part that should be the edge was actually still coated black, I'm not sure if its an issue with blades grind not being deep enough at the plunge, or if they just didn't sharpen it out properly, anyway, here's a shot of it
Edit: FWIW, I've found a review on another forum that shows an identical grind issue on another specimen.
Again, don't try this at home, on a properly ground and sharpened knife, this would really hurt.
That said, one of my pet peeves is knives that come from the factory with uneven grinds, this knife may not have been completely sharpened, but the grinding is very even (just incomplete), with very good symmetry, which makes fixing these minor defects pretty easy. In all honesty, this is something I'm kind of picky about, other than 2 customs, I've found fault with the grind of most of the knifes I've bought in the past decade or so, and plenty of those cost a good deal more than the Potbelly.
The other thing I find kind of strange is that it seems like this knife has two separate black coatings, there's an outer coating that is flaking off pretty easily underneath which seems to be the standard Ka-Bar coating, at least whats left after the outer coating flakes off seems the same as what is on my "old coating" Beckers. Its not like the coating they introduced with the tweeners at all. Not sure if it will show up well in the photo, you can kind of see it in the first photo, and here's a close-up.
Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has had a double coated blade. FWIW, this is a completely cosmetic and trivial, the outer coating literally flakes away with fingernail pressure.
All in all, I really like this knife, I think its the funnest knife I own, I actually make up tasks to do, just because I know I'll be able to use this knife. The initial issues I had were trivial and easily repaired. I'm adding it to my load out, can't wait to get some woods time with it.
Erik
Last edited:
