Olight Oknife Aion Gentleman’s Folding Knife Review

The Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife features Nitro V blade steel and the iconic OAL finish. Many styles are available on Kickstarter now! Read on!

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Official Specs

Here’s a referral link to the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife on Kickstarter.

Versions

At least three versions of the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife are available on Kickstarter. And at least four have been made. They vary in finish color or handle material or blade finish. Check out the Kickstarter for that info!

Price

The Early Bird price on Kickstarter for the least featured version of this Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife is $90. There’s a Zirconium Damascus option that comes in at $500, too. And a middle ground titanium, at $200.

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Package and Manual

What’s Included

• • Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife
  • Cleaning cloth
  • Manual and card

Look

The Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife is thin. It’s thin when closed, it’s thin when opened, it’s just a nice thin knife. Olight (Or “Oknife” – I’m not sure which to go with!) is using the OAL (Olight aluminum) that we’ve already seen on some of their flashlights.

OAL is said to be more durable than regular aluminum, but even to say that is interesting – this knife as aluminum scales! That’s at least somewhat unusual, and I like it quite a bit.

If the OAL isn’t for you, Oknife offers titanium and Zirconium Damascus, too.

Open / Close / Lock

The Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife is a flipper. In fact, there aren’t other options for opening the Aion.

It looks like you might be able to pinch the blade open, but the liner lock gets in the way of that.

But that’s fine. The flipping action on the Aion is fantastic. The action is smooth and the blade has just the right weight for flipping right open with ease.

Because it’s just a flipper, it’s clear that the name “Gentleman’s Knife” is given because of the look and probably size. Which is to say that it lacks a “slip joint” feel.

As I said above, the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife is a liner lock knife. Liner locks are among my favorite (or at least I prefer liner locks to frame locks). And this is a good one. The lockup is solid and unlocking with this liner lock is easy.

Build and Feel

Oknife promotes the fact that the pivot is hidden. That allows a geometric design on both scales.

It’s a neat look. The knife feels robust, too.

The blade is perfectly centered. Here’s the best end-on view of the pocket clip, too, which we’ll tal about more later.

Olight says that the pivot is hidden but they don’t describe it further – not if it’s ceramic or ball bearing or whatever. It’s very smooth.

The spine is rounded (very gentlemanly!) and it has a bit of jimping, too.

One of the things I like most about this knife is that, while there’s no backspacer, the scales are designed in such a way that the back (or top) of the knife doesn’t seem to call for them. In fact, there is a backspacer tucked in there, as part of where the pocket clip attaches.

The OAL scales are lined, too. Probably with stainless steel.

Size

3.5″ blade
8.19″ long (when open)
1″ tall (at the tallest)
0.78″ tall (scales)

Above, you can see the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife with the Civivi Elementum in orange G10. I use that knife so much!

Here’s the knife in hand:

Below you can see the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!

Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.

Steel / Cut / Oats

The Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife uses Nitro V steel. The blade is DLC coated.

Knifesteelnerds know a lot about it, and here’s what they say.

Nitro-V has a very fine microstructure and very good toughness when compared with other steels.

According to coltellimania.com, which produced this image, the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife appears to have a drop point blade. It’s a great, useful shape! Also just generally functional, so great for everyday carry.

It should be noted that other scale options of this knife offer other steels, too. M390 on the titanium version, for example.

Retention

The pocket clip attaches with one screw to the tail end of the knife. This allows for a very deep carry, which is fantastic!

It’s a simple pocket clip, but very useful.

Here you can see the single screw, in profile.

The pocket clip can be removed or turned to the other side for truly ambidextrous carry.

Summary and Conclusion

I like how light the Olight Oknife Aion gentleman’s folding knife is, but more than that, how slim it is and how slim it carries. Whether it’s a gentleman’s knife or not, it’s a great dress knife, suitable for thin (material) pants pockets. The blade shape is great for EDC and the flipping action is fantastic! I don’t care about the hidden pivot (maybe if you ever adjust pivots, this would be important to you), but the scales are removable anyway, so you can still access the pivot. The early bird price is decent, but I do recommend getting in the early bird price of $90! The price just goes up from there!

Notes

• This knife was provided by Olight/Oknife for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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