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- Mar 15, 2000
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So I won a knife, a Ka-Bar Johnson Adventure Potbelly. Winning required me to pretend to be Brad Pitt, but then, of course, I have no real shame.
It came in the mail yesterday along with a bonus surprise. As I type this review, I'm enjoying the bonus surprise. Good stuff.
The first thing I noticed was the sheath. I like it. You could fit a small family of four in the pouch and still have room for a firesteel and a multitool. I have no idea how I'm going to fill it up, but I'm going to try. The Piggyback has its own liner, and the snap retention works well on the smaller knife.
A couple more pics of the knives while they were new. On the models I receive, the grinds are quite nice and symmetrical. Both blades came shaving sharp out of the box.
Yesterday, we had some lightning/hail storms come through the area, and I had a small pecan limb shaken loose by the wind. It had already snapped off, but had been hung up in some higher branches. I drug it around back and rendered it into pieces for the fire bowl. The Potbelly made quick work of the branches.
I took one of the pecan branches and did a little carving, making the bottom half of an L7 snare. In a choked-up grip, the knife carved well and had a good bite.
Then, I took a larger elm branch and did some chopping. I didn't have a lanyard handy, so I didn't get too crazy. I just went around the perimeter and then took out the middle with a few chops. The Potbelly has a good bite and the 1/4" spine gives it some nice momentum.
I started in batoning one of the elm chunks, but then I notice the scales were a little loose. Time out for some Allen wrench action. 3mm if anyone is interested.
Then I finished up with the batoning. The swedge/tip is almost sharpened, and is likely designed for folks who want a good pig sticker. In that capacity, it would excel. However, it does tear up a baton log pretty easily if you're batoning thicker branches.
Because the elm grain was so cockeyed, I wound up having to split it down the middle from the side. The curved belly of the knife made this chore quite simple.
The grip on the Potbelly is different from anything I've handled, and it took a little getting used to. But it does offer several good handholds depending on what sort of work you want to do. You can choke up for fine work, pull back for light chopping, or even grip it at the very end for heavier chopping. I would definitely recommend a lanyard with the latter grip.
Here are a couple of final shots, one showing the thick spine and the palm swell on the handle. The scales, a faux ray skin, are grippy, but I did find that my chopping grip (the middle one above) promoted a little bit of a hot spot on my thumb. Not bad though.
All in all, I like the knife a lot. I'm still getting used to it, but the design of the knife facilitates a lot of function, and you get considerable utility in a relatively small package. I'm not saying the Potbelly is a small knife. It's not. But it acts like it's bigger than it actually is, and that's a good thing. :thumbup:
.
It came in the mail yesterday along with a bonus surprise. As I type this review, I'm enjoying the bonus surprise. Good stuff.
The first thing I noticed was the sheath. I like it. You could fit a small family of four in the pouch and still have room for a firesteel and a multitool. I have no idea how I'm going to fill it up, but I'm going to try. The Piggyback has its own liner, and the snap retention works well on the smaller knife.
A couple more pics of the knives while they were new. On the models I receive, the grinds are quite nice and symmetrical. Both blades came shaving sharp out of the box.
Yesterday, we had some lightning/hail storms come through the area, and I had a small pecan limb shaken loose by the wind. It had already snapped off, but had been hung up in some higher branches. I drug it around back and rendered it into pieces for the fire bowl. The Potbelly made quick work of the branches.
I took one of the pecan branches and did a little carving, making the bottom half of an L7 snare. In a choked-up grip, the knife carved well and had a good bite.
Then, I took a larger elm branch and did some chopping. I didn't have a lanyard handy, so I didn't get too crazy. I just went around the perimeter and then took out the middle with a few chops. The Potbelly has a good bite and the 1/4" spine gives it some nice momentum.
I started in batoning one of the elm chunks, but then I notice the scales were a little loose. Time out for some Allen wrench action. 3mm if anyone is interested.
Then I finished up with the batoning. The swedge/tip is almost sharpened, and is likely designed for folks who want a good pig sticker. In that capacity, it would excel. However, it does tear up a baton log pretty easily if you're batoning thicker branches.
Because the elm grain was so cockeyed, I wound up having to split it down the middle from the side. The curved belly of the knife made this chore quite simple.
The grip on the Potbelly is different from anything I've handled, and it took a little getting used to. But it does offer several good handholds depending on what sort of work you want to do. You can choke up for fine work, pull back for light chopping, or even grip it at the very end for heavier chopping. I would definitely recommend a lanyard with the latter grip.
Here are a couple of final shots, one showing the thick spine and the palm swell on the handle. The scales, a faux ray skin, are grippy, but I did find that my chopping grip (the middle one above) promoted a little bit of a hot spot on my thumb. Not bad though.
All in all, I like the knife a lot. I'm still getting used to it, but the design of the knife facilitates a lot of function, and you get considerable utility in a relatively small package. I'm not saying the Potbelly is a small knife. It's not. But it acts like it's bigger than it actually is, and that's a good thing. :thumbup:
.
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I'm really upset with this review, not a single sliced and buttered biscuit to be seen ! 
