American Blade Works Slip Joint Knife Review

The 100% American Made American Blade Works Slip joint offers titanium scales, a Magnacut hollow-ground blade, and very strong detents. Read on for more photos!

Official Specs

Here’s a link to the American Blade Works Slip joint knife.

Versions

The American Blade Works Slip joint exists in a few versions that differ only in scale design. The one I have here is sold exclusively at DLT Trading (which is where I bought mine!). Notably, the American Blade Works Slip joint is not usually in stock at the ABW website, but occasionally DLT (and maybe others) will have stock of their exclusive designs.

Price

The American Blade Works Slip joint sells for $159. I believe every model has the same price.

Package and Manual

There is no manual.

What’s Included

- American Blade Works Slip joint
- Warranty paper (the whole thing in the image above!)

Look

The look is absolutely what drew me into the American Blade Works Slip joint. I am not even a huge slip joint fan. I’ve never disliked them; I have just always categorized them as more ‘grandfather’ knives. Sorry!

The American Blade Works Slip joint is positively a modern take on a slip joint, though, and maybe that’s why I’m comfortable with it.

What makes this American Blade Works Slip joint a DLT exclusive is the milling on the scales. On the stock version, the milling pattern is the same, but a different orientation.

I do not think this is much of a functional difference, and frankly, I chose this one because it’s the one I could buy (all others were out of stock!) I like the look just fine and it functions flawlessly.

Open / Close / Lock

The American Blade Works Slip joint is a slip joint! That’s not even “in the name” – that IS the name of this knife! American Blade Works is the brand, Slip Joint is the model. As is traditional with slip joints, this ABW requires a pinch action to pull the blade open.

There’s no flip, button, Axis, Crossbar, etc. Nothing but a pinch! And again, you expect that with a slip joint. There is a nail nick on the blade near the pivot. That may as well not be there – you’ll never open the knife using that nick in any way. I pinch the blade in the area just forward of that nick.

This is the “lock” section, but the American Blade Works Slip joint doesn’t have a lock. The blade path has two detents. One can be seen above. It holds the blade at around 90 degrees. The other is where the blade is fully open. It’s a very secure detent, to the point that in the position above, you could easily use the knife for cutting something.

To close the American Blade Works Slip joint, just press on the spine to push the blade back into the handle position.

Build and Feel

Both the build and feel of the American Blade Works Slip joint are fantastic. Everything that should be snug is very snug. Everything that should move moves very smoothly.

Not much about this knife could be done better, but here’s one very tiny thing – the Magnacut logo on the spine is off-center on my copy of this knife. Obviously, that doesn’t affect functionality in the least, and without detailed photos, you may never even notice.

The scales here are titanium.

We’ll talk about the blade more in a bit, but here you can see the blade centering. It’s not dead center on my knife, but it’s still very good.

ABW says this about the pivot:

The blade rides on phosphor bronze washers. The pivot and pivot screw has been made from hardened 416 stainless.

Below you can see these phosphor bronze washers.

Here’s my one design wish for the American Blade Works Slip joint. The back edges (seen below) of the scales have a very slight curve. The part in the middle, which I believe to be the spring part, does not have this curve. So there’s a slight mismatch in profile between the scales and the center part. I’d love for those to match!

One side of the pivot has a TORX screw. My reading indicates one generally should not disassemble slip joint knives, though, as they are very difficult to reassemble.

The other side of the pivot has the ABW logo and is keyed. I like that because I like specificity!

The scales are nicely beveled all the way around and generally comfortable to hold.

Here’s another look at where I wish the spring matched the profile of the handles.

The blade is very flat across the spine!

Size

Blade length: 2.25″
Length when closed: 3.312″
Weight: 64.7g

American Blade Works Slip joint on a two dollar bill compared to Civivi Elementum in orange

Above, you can see the American Blade Works Slip joint knife with the Civivi Elementum in orange G10. I use that knife so much! I haven’t talked about it much yet, but that Spyderco Lil Native is going to be my “nicer” knife size standard (in the same way that I use a Convoy S2+ and Hanko Machine Works Trident as flashlight size references.)

Here’s the knife in hand:

Above, you can see that on my average-sized hand, you don’t really have a place for your pinky.

Below you can see the American Blade Works Slip joint 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 blade steel is Magnacut. Magnacut is all the rage lately. I have no complaints about the steel.

American Blade Works doesn’t state what blade shape this is, but it’s a Wharncliffe or a modified version of that shape. For being just a 2.25″ blade, the cutting edge presents way bigger! In fact, that was an initial “complaint” (or just “thought”) about the American Blade Works Slip joint – it’s way bigger than I anticipated!

The blade is hollow ground. It’s very striking when viewed head-on as below! It is very cutty, too!

Coltellimania.com produced this image. It seems to generally support that the American Blade Works Slip joint is a Wharncliffe blade. (That’s also what DLT Trading calls it!)

One more little note from someone who knows more than I know about (probably everything.) At the back end of the blade, nearest the pivot, you can see the “plunge” – that’s where the blade goes from having a sharpened area to being full thickness (as it is inside the pivot). The choil is exactly in this plunge area, meaning when you sharpen the American Blade Works Slip joint, you won’t hit the plunge. It’s a well-designed, nice touch from ABW!

Retention

The American Blade Works Slip joint, like most slip joints, does not have any means of carry. I have just carried it loose in a pocket, but it’s a great candidate for a leather slip. But it does not have a pocket clip or any included pouch or anything.

Summary and Conclusion

I love the American Blade Works Slip joint. I don’t even love slip joints, but this one is so great. It’s thin, not burdened by a pocket clip, very small despite cutting large, uses great steel, has a neat design in the titanium scales, and honestly, it is a great price, too! I’m surprised the finish options are fairly limited, but I guess when you can sell out a knife with just one blade finish and minimal scale options, keep doing what works! This knife is a steal at $159!!

Notes

This knife was provided by me for review. I was not paid to write this review.
This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
Please use my Amazon.com referral link to help support zeroair.org!
Please support me on Patreon! I deeply appreciate your support!