Introduction and first thoughts.
So i have never seen a review on the Spyderco P'kal regarding it's utility use and EDC carry, i figured that the in the Philippines they use a variety of different knives, including the balisong, as utility blades. So i thought if the balisong could be used for utility, why couldn't the P'kal? Well hopefully this reviews tells you more.
Ok to start off, When i opened the box and saw the P'kal my first impression was "Wow, thats a large blade". Not to say that was wrong, its just that this indicates, in my opinion, that it is truly a self defence blade.
But i didn't seek out the P'kal solely as a self defensive tool, i wanted a good hard use EDC knife that I could use in different daily tasks. It was scary sharp right out of the box and the lock up was absolutely perfect. I have to say though that the clip was abit to tight for my personal taste. It was rather difficult to get it out of my pocket and i struggled abit with that. I also gotta say it stood out of the pocket a bit to much, Spyderco uses their flat wired clip on it which keeps the knife a lot higher up in the pocket and a lot closer to the handle material, Giving you a more secure carry but the knife becomes harder to remove.
Luckily i switched it out with my Caly3 clip which is a looped clip and is a bit looser and now its perfect (More on the clip will be discussed lower down the page).
So i have had it in my pocket for 2 days now and i gotta say it can be used for a lot more then just self defense. I used it for food prep and cutting up boxes and it works great in those fields. I tried it in several grips and felt that some were great while a couple might not have been that great for long time use.
The blade and usage.
The slight hawkbill blade was great for ripping up boxes and plastics, although for food prep it had some slight disadvantages when slicing foods, because it doesn't fully cut the food apart. It usually leaves a small bit of food still uncut. But to avoid this problem just make sure you use the tip of the blade and pull towards you to cut through that little bit of external piece (examples of foods i hade problems with were: onions, tomatos, meats).
This problem could have also been created by the shortness of the blade. But if you trully want fine food prep, use a proper kitchen knife.
Other then that it cuts perfectly when pulling away from you, shaving off pieces of cucumber or potato skin. I think the same goes for wood or card board, although i havnt personally tried that yet. Since it has that slight hawkbill blade it catches the material being cut and pulls it inwards to the blade, not letting it slip off until it has been cut apart.
Regarding boxes and opening different containers there isn't much i can say. Using the p'kal grip it cuts everything regarding packaging like butter, fantastic and easily done. Using a saber grip is also very easy, just remember to put you thumb on the wave or else it becomes very uncomfortable to use under hard pressure.
Handle and features.
So the p'kal has G10 handles, the G10 is rather agressivly textured, it locks your hand in and feels rather rough. A big plus for the G10 handles.
The liners on this knife are drilled out to lose as much weight as possible, their actually extremely drilled out, much more then my Caly 3, Endura or Delica. Which is another great plus on my side.
I cant say much about the BB lock, it seems to be very strong, and Spyderco say so themselves but i personally doubt it a bit, but i need to put this knife to harder use to fully test the lock.
The wave feature is great and very useful, like i said earlier you can use it in your saber grip as a thumb ramp. Another great feature with the wave, other then its the quickest blade deployment feature, is that its removable, If you don't like the wave feature or you simple just want to use the spyderhole instead, the P'kal allows you to do so. only problem is that it's difficult to remove, you must use pliers to remove the threaded wave. But i deem it unnecessary to remove the wave unless you really really don't like it. The P'kal becomes more useful with it on.
As i mentioned earlier the original pocket clip was very tight, almost unbearable, it was very difficult to remove the knife from my pocket. The clip is Spyderco's flat wired clip, what i mean by that is that the attachment part of the clip lies flat on the handle, another model of the wired clip is the looped version. In the looped version the clip loops at the attachment part of the clip, enabling lower carry. I would consider getting the clip replaced by a looped version since in my experience those clips have been a bit looser, not to loose though, but loose enough that you can remove the knife from you pocket without struggle. I switched my clip with my Caly 3 clip which is looped and now i have absolutely no difficulty removing the knife. By the way, in a self defense situation, you definitely don't want to struggle with your knife so i highly recommend bending the clip slightly or replacing it with another one.
All screw construction is a major plus, that means you can use this knife without thinking about difficult cleaning and handling.
Overall.
This knife is a great all around knife and the CPM S30V steel makes it a hard use and reliable knife. A great EDC blade in my opinion, whether it be self defense or utility.
For around 165$ (at my online store) i think its a bit expensive, i know it has G10 and CPM S30V but i have seen other models with the same or equivalent materials priced around 100-110$. But surely its priced some what higher because of the self defense issue, like most self defense knives, their usually priced a bit higher then their materials are worth. But considering that there will only be one Spyderco P'kal, this knife might be worth the extra buck for collectability aswell.
Look at my pictures (links below) of the P'kal for the different grips and comments on them, aswell as closer looks.
Picture links:
The unusual handle:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/the-unusual-handle?context=latest
Size and Weight:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/size-compared-to-my-hand?context=latest
Pen grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/pen-grip?context=latest
Reverse forward grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/reverse-forward-grip?context=latest
Ice pick grip - edge forward:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/ice-pick-grip-edge-forward?context=latest
Reverse ice pick grip - P'kal grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/reverse-ice-pick-grip-pikal?context=latest
Saber grip - forward grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/saber-grip-usual-forward-grip?context=latest
Please ask any question i haven't answered.
Thank you for reading
(Originally posted by me on Spydietalk.com. Please visit the site to see the pictures. My account name is Fredrik Avall.)
So i have never seen a review on the Spyderco P'kal regarding it's utility use and EDC carry, i figured that the in the Philippines they use a variety of different knives, including the balisong, as utility blades. So i thought if the balisong could be used for utility, why couldn't the P'kal? Well hopefully this reviews tells you more.
Ok to start off, When i opened the box and saw the P'kal my first impression was "Wow, thats a large blade". Not to say that was wrong, its just that this indicates, in my opinion, that it is truly a self defence blade.
But i didn't seek out the P'kal solely as a self defensive tool, i wanted a good hard use EDC knife that I could use in different daily tasks. It was scary sharp right out of the box and the lock up was absolutely perfect. I have to say though that the clip was abit to tight for my personal taste. It was rather difficult to get it out of my pocket and i struggled abit with that. I also gotta say it stood out of the pocket a bit to much, Spyderco uses their flat wired clip on it which keeps the knife a lot higher up in the pocket and a lot closer to the handle material, Giving you a more secure carry but the knife becomes harder to remove.
Luckily i switched it out with my Caly3 clip which is a looped clip and is a bit looser and now its perfect (More on the clip will be discussed lower down the page).
So i have had it in my pocket for 2 days now and i gotta say it can be used for a lot more then just self defense. I used it for food prep and cutting up boxes and it works great in those fields. I tried it in several grips and felt that some were great while a couple might not have been that great for long time use.
The blade and usage.
The slight hawkbill blade was great for ripping up boxes and plastics, although for food prep it had some slight disadvantages when slicing foods, because it doesn't fully cut the food apart. It usually leaves a small bit of food still uncut. But to avoid this problem just make sure you use the tip of the blade and pull towards you to cut through that little bit of external piece (examples of foods i hade problems with were: onions, tomatos, meats).
This problem could have also been created by the shortness of the blade. But if you trully want fine food prep, use a proper kitchen knife.
Other then that it cuts perfectly when pulling away from you, shaving off pieces of cucumber or potato skin. I think the same goes for wood or card board, although i havnt personally tried that yet. Since it has that slight hawkbill blade it catches the material being cut and pulls it inwards to the blade, not letting it slip off until it has been cut apart.
Regarding boxes and opening different containers there isn't much i can say. Using the p'kal grip it cuts everything regarding packaging like butter, fantastic and easily done. Using a saber grip is also very easy, just remember to put you thumb on the wave or else it becomes very uncomfortable to use under hard pressure.
Handle and features.
So the p'kal has G10 handles, the G10 is rather agressivly textured, it locks your hand in and feels rather rough. A big plus for the G10 handles.
The liners on this knife are drilled out to lose as much weight as possible, their actually extremely drilled out, much more then my Caly 3, Endura or Delica. Which is another great plus on my side.
I cant say much about the BB lock, it seems to be very strong, and Spyderco say so themselves but i personally doubt it a bit, but i need to put this knife to harder use to fully test the lock.
The wave feature is great and very useful, like i said earlier you can use it in your saber grip as a thumb ramp. Another great feature with the wave, other then its the quickest blade deployment feature, is that its removable, If you don't like the wave feature or you simple just want to use the spyderhole instead, the P'kal allows you to do so. only problem is that it's difficult to remove, you must use pliers to remove the threaded wave. But i deem it unnecessary to remove the wave unless you really really don't like it. The P'kal becomes more useful with it on.
As i mentioned earlier the original pocket clip was very tight, almost unbearable, it was very difficult to remove the knife from my pocket. The clip is Spyderco's flat wired clip, what i mean by that is that the attachment part of the clip lies flat on the handle, another model of the wired clip is the looped version. In the looped version the clip loops at the attachment part of the clip, enabling lower carry. I would consider getting the clip replaced by a looped version since in my experience those clips have been a bit looser, not to loose though, but loose enough that you can remove the knife from you pocket without struggle. I switched my clip with my Caly 3 clip which is looped and now i have absolutely no difficulty removing the knife. By the way, in a self defense situation, you definitely don't want to struggle with your knife so i highly recommend bending the clip slightly or replacing it with another one.
All screw construction is a major plus, that means you can use this knife without thinking about difficult cleaning and handling.
Overall.
This knife is a great all around knife and the CPM S30V steel makes it a hard use and reliable knife. A great EDC blade in my opinion, whether it be self defense or utility.
For around 165$ (at my online store) i think its a bit expensive, i know it has G10 and CPM S30V but i have seen other models with the same or equivalent materials priced around 100-110$. But surely its priced some what higher because of the self defense issue, like most self defense knives, their usually priced a bit higher then their materials are worth. But considering that there will only be one Spyderco P'kal, this knife might be worth the extra buck for collectability aswell.
Look at my pictures (links below) of the P'kal for the different grips and comments on them, aswell as closer looks.
Picture links:
The unusual handle:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/the-unusual-handle?context=latest
Size and Weight:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/size-compared-to-my-hand?context=latest
Pen grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/pen-grip?context=latest
Reverse forward grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/reverse-forward-grip?context=latest
Ice pick grip - edge forward:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/ice-pick-grip-edge-forward?context=latest
Reverse ice pick grip - P'kal grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/reverse-ice-pick-grip-pikal?context=latest
Saber grip - forward grip:
http://spydietalk.ning.com/photo/saber-grip-usual-forward-grip?context=latest
Please ask any question i haven't answered.
Thank you for reading
(Originally posted by me on Spydietalk.com. Please visit the site to see the pictures. My account name is Fredrik Avall.)
I remember the scene with the Velociraptor very well. It's indeed a very deadly personal claw 
