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Description:
The updated Hogue Deka is a stellar everyday-carry knife designed by Allen Elishewitz. It differs from the original model in several ways. First, the handle is made from super lightweight polymer that conceals much of the knife's hardware, making for a cleaner aesthetic. Second—and most notably—the blade is made from CPM MagnaCut steel. This steel type has taken the knife world by a storm for its incredible edge retention, toughness, and stain-resistance. The rest of the knife is what you already know and love: excellent handle geometry, an eye-catching design, and Hogue's dependable quality. The Hogue Deka is a knife you can afford to put in your pocket, and one you'll find every occasion to take out and use. It promises to perform well and stand the test of time.
Hogue Knives is USA-based company that makes tactical and EDC pocket knives and fixed blades. Take a look at our selection—you're sure to find a knife for the job.
Super excited for my new bug out killer, i recently purchased the kershaw dividend with a wharncliff blade and leek in Magnacut and I am beyond pleased can't wait to see what the hogue deka v2 has to offer, I hear the handles can be a little squishy so upon ordering it, I immediately ordered some beautiful aluminum after market scales from OG goat for around 60$, they offer titanium too at around 200$, but I wasn't going to spend more on the scales than I did for the entire knife, only downside is it takes a about a month to receive them because of processing times, but either way the anticipation is very high and if you want quality you have to have patience. I love my American made knives! Hogue claims a 63 hrc hardness in the new batches which is the sweet spot, according to the creator of magnacut Dr. Larrin Thomas.
I really like this design for an EDC knife. The wharncliffe blade with the compound grind is a smart choice and works really well. Hogue's version of the bar lock works very well with smooth action, perfect blade centering, and no blade play. This knife has two issues. The T8 screw heads on the pocket clip stick out too much, so they catch on my pocket half the time and block the clip from going all the way on. It's a minor annoyance, but some competitors (like the Banter) are using completely recessed clips and screws for perfect clip function and I like that a lot. The other issue with this knife is that the scales are a bendy polymer that flexes when you grip the handle. This knife ticked every other box for me so I bought it anyway and ordered a set of OG Goat aluminum scales to upgrade it.
This is far from my first knife, but it’s my first Hogue, and my first magnacut blade. Fit and finish the look and feel great. Action is easy and smooth right out of the box, whether you’re doing a fast or slow flip open. Axis lock is just the right tension to close when you want to, but not accidentally. The blade edge is stupid sharp from the factory. The polymer scales are very light, but as noted in another review, they do not make it blade-heavy. I’ve seen a few complaints that the scales are squishy - I did not find that at all. They may flex a tiny bit more than G10, but I don’t see that affecting usage at all - they’re significantly stiffer than FRN or GFN scales I have on cheaper knives. I’ve been fidgeting with this knife since it arrived this afternoon, and I’m loving everything about it.
A very sharp, lightweight knife with a very smooth action. The balance point is right at the pivot. You might think it would be a heavy blade due to the light handles, but the blade stock is thin enough for it to all work out in practice.
Before starting the review let's address an elephant in the room. This is the lightweight model. It has FRN scales, but I'd actually call them handles in this case because it only has partial liners, which also act as the cage for the ABLE lock. They are about a third of the handle length, starting at the pivot and ending at the screw closest to the pivot. The handles don't feel premium, they aren't grippy, and they don't feel like they would stand up to heavy-duty abuse. What they do excel in is weight. This entire knife is a featherweight, due in no small part to the handle design, which is very well engineered and thought out for its use case. The blade-stock is thin, just a hair over 9 hundredths thick. It came razor sharp, with a nasty tip. The interesting blade geometry doesn't really affect sharpening. I'm very excited to use it a little more to see how the Magnacut behaves, but so far for cardboard duty, it's been my preferred folder. The action on this thing is seriously excellent. If I didn't already know that this ran on washers, I would think it was on bearings and just slightly too tight at the pivot. It's orders of magnitude smoother than my Mini Griptillian. It locks up perfectly, and the only way for me to get the Mini Grip as smooth is to loosen it until it has side-to-side play. If you understand that this knife is designed to be light, and for light-duty EDC use, you won't be disappointed. If you do something that ends up breaking this knife, it's because you didn't use this tool for its intended purpose. If you want something to beat on, get something like a Petrified Fish Beluga or Kizer Sheepdog. If you want something that will excel in 99% of EDC uses and completely disappears in your pocket, get this.
As cheap feeling knives go, this feels like the most toyishly cheap I have ever experienced. However! You aren't going to see a knife in this steel come along at this price often, and I bought it with the sole purpose of upgrading the handle material with something third party and much more rugged than the flimsy, cheap feeling scales it comes with. The bar lock leaves a little to be desired too, it feels gritty. The Magnacut blade really is the only star of the show here though, and the blade shape is peak utility, so I can forgive the rest up to a point. Pros: Magnacut, thin and slicey, good utility blade shape, nice deep carry clip, everything is T8. Cons: HUGE blade play, garbage scales, questionable quality bar lock, gritty action, lock stick.
Overall this is a good knife. It’s incredibly lightweight, which goes into one of the qualms I have with it: the liner only extends about 40-50% of the handle length, so the remaining tail end of the handle is just G10 with no liner. I’d rather have a full liner but the knife does pack a lot of other features for the price so it’s hard to complain too much.
Bought this obviously because of the Magnacut craze. Didn't know what to expect from "Polymer", thinking probably Grivory or FRN territory knowing it wouldn't be premium. The clip point blade is tremendous, one of the sharpest ive ever seen out of the box. To my untrained eye, the polymer is cheap plastic, think tv remotes, housing to pc speakers. The polymer scales really give it a chintzy feel & makes grivory/frn seem like a big upgrade. The polymer scales are very light weight. The handle almost feels weightless. Which may be great for some people, feels very weird. There is a partial liner in the handle and standoffs so one cannot pinch the scales together like a grivory bugout, not that that was a big deal for edc tasks. Clearly some thought was put into a lightweight design, but they went for too light weight on the scales.. It's a shame to match the latest and greatest steel with the cheapest feeling scales out there making it very blade heavy. I would prefer something that feels a bit more heft to match the steel weight. Would be a 5 star knife with a grivory/frn esq material. Would be interested in an aftermarket g-10 upgrade.
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