Before you pronounce something as the best, you should pause, take a minute, and think about it. This is anti-premise of sports talk radio and political commentary (though they are regularly proclaiming something as the worst), but it is how adults should behave. I have waited. I have thought about this. And now I am ready.

The Hogue Deka in Magnacut is the best readily available knife in the world.

What does that mean? Why not just say it is the best knife? Well, I like the Neutron 2 (I am going to drop links at the end, you’ll see why) just a smidge more. Its slightly, but noticeably better at cutting and in the pocket. But that knife drops in batches that evaporate like dry ice. I also like the plain jane Sebenza 31 a lot, but it too is hard to find, and considering price, it is not straight up better. An M390 or ZDP-189 Dragonfly would also score above this knife but alas those don’t exist right now. So we have the Deka. And it is good. Not just good, its great. This the knife we all knew Hogue could make and now, after about a decade of making good stuff, they have finally cranked out an instant classic. And it is cheap. And its light. And it is of a reasonable size. There is a TON to love here. Let’s get into it.

The Hogue Deka has a lot of variants and there have been a bunch of exclusives and sprint runs, all of which are designed by the great custom maker Allen Elishewitz (he designs most if not all of Hogue’s folders). Generally there are three categories of Dekas, each with two blade shapes (a clip point and a Elishewitz style wharncliffe): the polymer handle (which is what the review sample is), a G10 handled version, and a high end carbon fiber version. Oddly, the best steel, Magnacut, is found on the polymer handled knife. This is the first tip that something is going on with this version fo the Deka. I strongly believe that this knife is priced and built as it is to really be a market disruptor. It is about $50 less than what you’d expect it to sell for in the current market. More on this throughout the review. If you are looking for the absolute coolest version of the Deka there was a version with Magnacut steel and Ultem handles. That seems to be the one to chase. The G10 and CF versions sport 20CV, which is an excellent steel, but not as good as Magnacut. There are also some pretty cool aftermarket scales for Deka found here. Here is a video review from Pete, who makes some of the best content in the IKC. Here is a written review by Brooks Reviews, which I generally like and I find their logo to be quite visually appealing. Here is the review sample (paid for with my own money):

Quick Review Summary: Among the few blades at the summit of the production knife mountain right now.

Design: 2

If you wanted to take aim at the Benchmade Bugout, and really, given its success, why wouldn’t you, you’d start with this formula:

Ultralight Weight+Thin Blade Stock+Sliding Bar Lock+Good Steel

When you take those things and add the best steel on the market right now with a lower MSRP lower than the Bugout ($134 v. $162) the message is clear. Hogue has a red dot painted on the Bugout.

In part, by targeting the Bugout, Hogue guarantees that the knife will at least be very good. But you would think that formula would have worked for the Mini Ritter (targeting the Mini Grip), but it didn’t. That knife was WORSE than the original. Here, while clearly going after the same market as the Bugout, Hogue didn’t just Hogue-ify the Bugout, they pulled on an original design by one of the greats—Allen Elishewitz. And therein lies the difference. There is no exposed rear tang, the thumb studs are easy, the clip is great, the handle texture is there. This is just a very solid design backed up by a lot of nice features, materials, and touches. But make no mistake—as a market disruptor, the target here is clear and design-wise, its a direct hit.

Fit and Finish: 2

Hogue has always had its fit and finish dialed in. They were never the show off makers like Reate or WE, opting for functional designs that are well made instead of virtual art pieces (like the Reate EXO). The Deka is no different. This is a fundamentally error free knife and the lock up on this rendition of the sliding bar lock is completely and totally perfect.

Grip: 2

Do not put one iota of stock into the looney tunes in the IKC that say this knife feels flimsy or squashy. The handles are fine. They have a very, very small amount of flex in them, but nothing you would notice during regular usage. If you want to make them flex for the camera and get reactions on the Internet you can, but if you use this knife like a regular person, I doubt you will ever notice a problem. And they are nicely textured without being pocket shredders.

Carry: 2

Dropping the Deka in your pocket is quite easy. Walking around with it in your pocket is exceptionally easy given that it weighs around 2 ounces and is quite thin. The polymer handle isn’t slick, but its not too grippy either. You won’t notice it until you ned it.

Steel: 2

Magnacut is everything everyone claims it is—it is a game changer, a steel that breaks the steel dilemma of toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance pick two. Sure stuff like M390 was good on all these fronts but as data and anecdote show, Magnacut is significantly better at edge retention than M390.

Blade Shape: 2

This is a knife knut’s favorite blade shape. And in this knife is great. I love that deep belly and the pointy, pointy tip. But there is a potential drawback that I will get to in the Grind paragraph below. Whatever the practical impacts are though, I love me some clip point blades.

Grind: 1

The Deka has some really thin stock, but only about 2/3rds or 1/2 of it is ground. The rest is left flat for reasons I don’t really understand. After a few massive cardboard box breakdowns I realized that the Deka wasn’t the greatest slicer in the world. It was like top 10%, but not the best ever. And the only reason I can think of is its grind. If you want to do flat ground, which they are doing, you need to go FFG if you really want to get the most out of the knife. In many ways this isn’t about what they did, but what they didn’t do. Why NOT give it the old FFG treatment when you can?

Deployment Method: 2

Like some snappy detents (me) and others prioritize drop shut action (not me), but I think we can all agree, as knife owners, that there is something almost primal in knife knut blood that likes good thumb studs and the Deka has them in spades. A gentle nudge produces a blade almost as if it were spring loaded (it isn’t, of course). Washers and good thumb studs, yum.

Retention Method: 2

Remember how bad the floppy clip was on the Mini Ritter? Well, they fixed it. This thing stays put. Its also low profile enough to duck out of the way during long use sessions. Overall, super nice, super simple upgrade.

Lock/Blade Safety: 2

Ah…the joyful bounty of capitalism—competition produces better stuff. And here we have a sliding bar lock that just crushes it. There is never any blade play, of course, but there isn’t lock stick either. With omega springs and uber tight tolerances, sliding bar locks aren’t the easiest things to make, but for the user, its hard to imagine something better.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Very High

Sliding bar lock knives could remove the cutting edge and still be fun to carry.

Fett Effect: Very Low

Polymer handles and virtually stainproof steel will show wear around the next extinction level event.

Value: Very High

When you produce a market disruptor like the Deka with Magnacut, you know you have to be a good value to get attention, so Hogue cut the price way down and nailed it.

Overall Score: 19 out of 20

Only a ton of real world use convinced me that this wasn’t a perfect knife. Its really, really, really close. It didn’t have that elite level of slicing performance that separates the true air-crackling lightsabers from mere knives. In that regard it is not the superior knife compared to the Neutron 2 (which basically pops and hums when you deploy it, its so lightsaber sharp). But as an EDC where some stoutness is required, its not bad at all. I would say that this is a 1 in Grind only when compared to the absolute elite stuff. Elsewhere its damn good. But in every other regard, this is a truly great knife. I’d love to see an FFG version but until this we will have to settle with merely market disrupting good. God, its a good time to be a knife fan.

Competition

Well, there is the obvious—this is a knife that targets (successfully) the Benchmade Bugout. Its a better Bugout in every possible way. You get Magnacut for the same price as S30V. This, more than anything else, makes me think that the Deka is purposely designed to be a market disruptor—they target the best selling knife of the last five years, hit all the same design points, add a superior steel, and sell it for less. If there was a knife more purposely built to tackle the Bugout, I don’t know what it is. In this vein there is one other knife that often gets overlooked in the Bugout v. Para3 debate—the SOG Terminus XR. I really like that knife and while its stock steel, S35VN, is better than the Bugout’s its not in the same league as Magnacut. That said, I think the Terminus XR is a criminally underrated design and quite a handsome looking knife (though, in fairness, the Deka isn’t ugly by any means). If we are doing the 3.25 inch sliding lock bar thing, I also think the Asher Nomad is a good alternative as is the Spyderco Manix 2. But again, none run Magnacut and those that do have high end steel tend to be more expensive.

If, instead of cross referencing this knife with similar designs, we look at similarly good knives, the pool is pretty small. The TRM Neutron 2, the Chris Reeve Small Sebenza 31, and the Dragonfly 2 are all really excellent blades. If we expand out a bit to some of the more esoteric stuff, I really like the Vero Engineering Mini Synapse, Sharp by Designs Micro Evo 2.0, Terrain 365 Otter AT Flipper, Urban EDC Supply Baby Barlow 2.0, Tactile Turn Rockwall, and the Bridgeport Knife Co 395. In this soup I think I would order them as follows (making this my 10 favorite folders as of June 2023):

Any of these knives would make an outstanding EDC choice. Some of them are readily available. Some aren’t. Those that are sometimes come in less desireable steels (see: Dragonfly 2). When you factor those things in, the Deka comes out as the top dog right now, hence the statement at the start of this review. Its really, really good. But, as you can see, even with limited availability stuff there are a lot of good options out there and this does not include a whole host of knives that are great but have some nagging flaws (like the Quiet Carry Drift or the Spyderco Brouwer).

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