ACRE Forge PKL Knife Pass around

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I received the knife in good condition, vacuum sealed with cardboard protection, that’s how I just shipped it out.

First impressions:
Me: Unwrapping the package, I immediately like the color scheme of the handle and the finish on the blade. I’m surprised the makers went for such a narrow tip considering it is supposed to be a knife for everyone. The rounded spine is a nice touch, appreciated on all knives and I wish it was standard. The knife is very thin, so it seems like it would be sure to impress.

Fiancé: “Wow, this handle color is nice, why don’t we have something like this? Can we keep it?”

Foods cut
  • Cooked bacon
  • Green onions
  • Butternut squash raw
  • Mushrooms
  • Onions
  • Bread dough (scoring)
  • Dried peppers
  • Sourdough
  • Prime rib
  • Octopus
  • Boiled eggs
  • Lap cheung

Review:
Going through soft foods is a breeze, the thin blade certainly helps with that. I would cut onions, mushrooms, and green onions with it all day. Splitting the butternut squash lengthwise was tough, but what scared me the most was peeling off the skin. The thin blade did not feel like it would hold up going along the curve of the butternut squash. I do not want to limit test it, but maybe a future customer of ACRE Forge will do that. I noticed food really stuck onto the blade, especially the squash. Surprisingly, the biggest turn-off for me is the handle. I think it was a little small for me and the bevel of the handle near the spine rubbed against my finger (circled in image below). I really tried to relax my grip, but I eventually ended up rubbing on the bevel. On the other hand, my fiancé liked the handle and the bevel posed no issue to her. She still wants to keep the knife. For her, the smaller blade size is more approachable and nimble in food prep.

I used two knives alongside the PKL for comparison, an 8” Global chef knife and 210mm Akifusa AS gyuto. I picked the former because it is a fairly well-known brand in the sub-$300 category. The latter is a sub-$300 knife that I think is a laser and introduction to Japanese knives that makes people go “wow”. I did not think this would be the case, but the Global is more comfortable to hold than the PKL for the reasons I mentioned before. The edge on the Global definitely does not last as long as the PKL, but the thicker geometry helps the Global go through harder foods. I almost think the PKL can cut down on some blade height. I never noticed before, but the Global chef knife is short by KKF standards, but it does not inhibit cutting. For the PKL against the Akifusa, I believe it comes down to personal preferences. Both are lasers made to impress first time users. The competitive advantage of the PKL is the stainless attribute. For someone coming from not a knife fanatic, not having to baby the knife is a huge mental relief. A few weeks ago, I had my fiancé use a Hinoura santoku and she left some garlic juice on for too long, resulting in a BKF rub. For her, the PKL is both fun and not a big commitment to use. I think some of this sentiment of non-committal knives is seen in the thread “240+ Knives and 1k Stones Are Hivemind Hype!”.

Final thoughts:
Sending off the knife to the next person, I think I’m going to miss the PKL. It is a fun short knife that I am not afraid of bringing out to use for any task because of the stainless construction. Ultimately, if the PKL fails, it would not be from the performance. The critical part is getting customers to the landing page and having the right product description. Right now, the description tries to appeal to both first-time knife buyers and professional chefs. These two groups are very different kinds of buyers that require different kinds of ad copy to encourage purchase. I hope the ACRE Forge team can consider which type of customer will be their biggest early-stage advocate and gear the marketing of the PKL to that group. I would be happy to answer any questions the ACRE team or the forum has on my experience with the knife. Thanks again @Matt Jacobs for letting me participate in the pass around. On to @Alder26
 
Fantastic right up, thank you. I couldn't agree more with the marketing aspect and shared those same thoughts with the team.
 
PKL just arrived in great shape! Will take it to work today and give a spin doing some prep!
 

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I’ll update soon with some thoughts on the PKL. Overall a very positive experience. Knife is en route to @blokey
 
Alright finally getting around to posting some thoughts.

The Good:
So first off, I think that the PKL is nicely finished, cuts really nicely, and the people behind seem to be getting something new and pretty exciting started.

The blade is thin, really thin. I think the most apt comparison is probably to a Takamura R2, or perhaps even more so Ashi hamono ginga. I think that the PKL is perhaps a touch thinner at the spine than either of those knives. The grind continues that trend and comes to a fine point with an edge that is definitely nail flexing thin.

The handle is warm and comfortable, just the right size for my hands when paired with a smaller format gyuto. The material selection is very nice. Richlite and micarta are always nice in my opinion and offer some nice practicality over wood.

Profile is a nice all purpose, little belly, little flat, which can be hard to pull off in knives of this size.

The Not So Good

The critiques I have are far out weighed by my positive feelings towards the knife, however I have a few.

The grind provides spectacular thinness. This knife would likely not have to be thinned for many years of home use, and cuts nicely. However there is very little, if any convexity. It's the flattest grind I've seen on a kitchen knife.....Ever? As you can imagine stiction is an issue because of this. The migaki finish on the blade definitely helps with this but still It remains an issue for sure.

The size of the knife is also perhaps less a critique, and more of a curiosity to me. I love having a 180mm gyuto in my roll, However it will never be my primary knife, it will always be a compliment to a larger gyuto. So from the perspective of a professional it is odd that they released this sized only with no other options. I do recognize though that they are primarily aiming for the home cook market, Acre forge has also eluded to releasing more options as they are able to get off the ground.

The biggest critique I have though is the value proposition of this knife. An Ashi Ginga 180mm or Takamura 180mm, offer much of the cutting ability of this knife, and even surpass it in someways, for a significant discount.

Final Thoughts

I think overall this is a nice offering and offers a pretty good value. A little pricey perhaps, but it is made by skilled craftsmen, in the USA, using good materials. Cuts nicely, and would make a great home knife, or line knife for a professional. Theres certainly stiff competition in this field but I think the PKL offers a nicer materials and finishing, it's up to you if that makes it a good enough value to you.

Personally I will wait until a larger format knife is released and see what the specs look like then.
 
The ACRE is still in transit, supposed to be delivered on 6th but somehow they can't get into the apartment mailroom... It shows will deliver next day but no update yet, I will try to pick it up
 
Alder26 said:
Alright finally getting around to posting some thoughts.

The Good:
So first off, I think that the PKL is nicely finished, cuts really nicely, and the people behind seem to be getting something new and pretty exciting started.

The blade is thin, really thin. I think the most apt comparison is probably to a Takamura R2, or perhaps even more so Ashi hamono ginga. I think that the PKL is perhaps a touch thinner at the spine than either of those knives. The grind continues that trend and comes to a fine point with an edge that is definitely nail flexing thin.

The handle is warm and comfortable, just the right size for my hands when paired with a smaller format gyuto. The material selection is very nice. Richlite and micarta are always nice in my opinion and offer some nice practicality over wood.

Profile is a nice all purpose, little belly, little flat, which can be hard to pull off in knives of this size.

The Not So Good

The critiques I have are far out weighed by my positive feelings towards the knife, however I have a few.

The grind provides spectacular thinness. This knife would likely not have to be thinned for many years of home use, and cuts nicely. However there is very little, if any convexity. It's the flattest grind I've seen on a kitchen knife.....Ever? As you can imagine stiction is an issue because of this. The migaki finish on the blade definitely helps with this but still It remains an issue for sure.

The size of the knife is also perhaps less a critique, and more of a curiosity to me. I love having a 180mm gyuto in my roll, However it will never be my primary knife, it will always be a compliment to a larger gyuto. So from the perspective of a professional it is odd that they released this sized only with no other options. I do recognize though that they are primarily aiming for the home cook market, Acre forge has also eluded to releasing more options as they are able to get off the ground.

The biggest critique I have though is the value proposition of this knife. An Ashi Ginga 180mm or Takamura 180mm, offer much of the cutting ability of this knife, and even surpass it in someways, for a significant discount.

Final Thoughts

I think overall this is a nice offering and offers a pretty good value. A little pricey perhaps, but it is made by skilled craftsmen, in the USA, using good materials. Cuts nicely, and would make a great home knife, or line knife for a professional. Theres certainly stiff competition in this field but I think the PKL offers a nicer materials and finishing, it's up to you if that makes it a good enough value to you.

Personally I will wait until a larger format knife is released and see what the specs look like then.
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Thank you for sharing, your thought mirror mine pretty well. I havent written my review yet but also struggle with the size/price. I did let a few home cook / non-knife people try it though and they loved it. I think many of us are used to bigger knives and to me I use this more as a petty than chef but I love having it out for guests.
 
Matt Jacobs said:
Thank you for sharing, your thought mirror mine pretty well. I havent written my review yet but also struggle with the size/price. I did let a few home cook / non-knife people try it though and they loved it. I think many of us are used to bigger knives and to me I use this more as a petty than chef but I love having it out for guests.
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Agreed. Seemingly they are selling these at a reduced price sometimes ($250 on sale) and I think at that price it is pretty appealing. Would love to see a 225mm that’s about 2.5-3mm out of the handle to stiffen it up slightly.
 
PKL Thoughts

First off I love the idea of hand finished and readily available knife made by a knife maker not a factory. I can only really think of Birch & Bevel or Steelport knives off the top of my head.

The PKL itself is really nicely made. I love the profile, it does everything well for me. I prefer taller knives but there is plenty of finger clearance. Everything is rounded and comfortable and unlike the Steelport it is a proper thinness.

I think the handle is fantastic, the materials are great. The colors are unique, and I find it incredibly comfortable in use.

Using AEB-L for this knife along with the handle material and corby bolts makes it pretty much bullet proof, I believe Acre even tested it in the dishwasher. The steel holds a fantastic edge and was very easy to sharpen. I also love the scotch Brite finish. I own a small 1x30 and knowing I can thin this as needed and refinish to new in a matter of seconds is a big deal to me.

I really enjoyed cutting everything I tried. There is some stiction which is to be expected with a finish like this and such a thin knife. There may be a touch of convexity but for the most part it performs like a laser full flat grind. Potato, onion, winter squash, it doesn’t matter it flew through everything.

I was able to let about 5 or 6 non-knife people use this and I got nothing but rave reviews back. Everyone said it was the best cutting knife they had ever used.

Final thoughts, I love this little guy but I also struggled a little bit. First, I do not believe I am the intended user of this knife. I own too many larger knives and don’t often use little knives. For its intended use of main knife for home cooks and professional chefs though I think it nails what ACRE is trying to do. I love keeping this knife out for guests to use and this has become my go to knife to petty knife. I think my main struggle is the price for this size. I understand setting it at $300.00 between the material and hand finishing I just think its too small for the price. If this was a 210mm knife I think $300.00 is perfect but I would prefer this guy to be about $250.00.

I hope this sells well, I love what ACRE is trying to do. Its so cool to see the group of makers they put together and having “stock” as well as custom “signature” knives coming out of that building is a great business plan. I hope to see more sizes/models as well as custom handle colors and maybe custom laser engraving as well. I am happy to own this guy and it has earned a permanent spot on my rack.
 
blokey said:
Package is en route to @Mikeadunne , the edge has become bit slippery for me so I added a new edge, should be good for a while, the edge taking is good, but the original angel seems bit big
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thank you, everyone can feel free to sharpen as needed. I think I am going to take this back to ACRE when it gets back to me. Have them refinish to "new" and then do and Instagram giveaway so hopefully any scratches etc. will be erased.
 
Matt Jacobs said:
thank you, everyone can feel free to sharpen as needed. I think I am going to take this back to ACRE when it gets back to me. Have them refinish to "new" and then do and Instagram giveaway so hopefully any scratches etc. will be erased.
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I feel like the initial edge is done on a leather belt, can be very sharp but no tooth, bit touch up on a stone could improve a lot. I will write more during weekend
 
I'll have to ask. When I picked up customs from them they finished on a King 1K and strop. I don't know about the PKL though.
 
Just got told I’m going to Colorado for work for about a month so I’m going to bow out of this pass around. Im a little bummed since this looks like a fun knife & something my wife would really enjoy.

I already let @Mikeadunne know to pass it to the person after me
 
Thank you. To anyone who had to pass, if you want to reach out to me directly I may still be able to add you to the end.
 
Thank you for including me in the passaround! I didn’t get to use it as much as I hoped but the little I did exceeded my expectations. It will be on its way to @Delat tomorrow and I’ll elaborate on my time with the knife a bit more once I get my thoughts together.
 
@Matt Jacobs thanks again for the opportunity to take this knife for a spin. Of course I waited far too long after using it to come here and share some thoughts. Ultimately though I'm not sure I would have anything novel to report as I feel most of my impressions mimic what others have already shared. But for the sake of the record, I will add my recollections. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, I'm too lazy to double check.

Feels a little small. I'm a 230mm kinda guy give or take but this size is definitely a bit more compact than I'm used to working with. But over the course of my culinary career I have certainly used faaarr worse knives. It's funny what a few years of Kkf participation will do to your "floor" so to speak. This knife would have blown my mercer culinary school kit out of the water lol.

I did use it on a nice cross section of ingredients - can't remember all of them at the moment but I had a dinner for 8ppl I was prepping for so it was a decent amount of work. Just as a point of comparison I was using it in tandem with my 210 hd2 gyuto as it is probably the closest to the acre forge in my arsenal. Closer to 200mm on the edge, stainless, similar in price range - it felt appropriate to use both side by side.

First thing worth mentioning is the thin stock of the blade coming out of the handle. First time in a long time I felt the callus on my right (cutting) hand index finger pulsating after a sesh on the board. I just don't use a knife this thin very often, by comparison the hd2 was miles more comfortable. Also, I think related is just the thin/flat grind is just not fun. That feels like a pretty imprecise way to put it but at the moment that's what I'll write. There's no fun in cutting with it. It certainly does not do a poor job. It's just not enjoyable. The little convexity that the hd2 has definitely made me notice the lack of it on the acre. In softer items this didn't matter quite as much. And the only thing that I thought the acre did better for some strange reason was just a rough cut on some parsnips to be pureed. Not in the other dense products did I notice an advantage for the acre - which struck me as odd after the parsnips 🤷‍♂️ .

Even though it is smaller than I prefer I found the edge profile to be nice and wasn't as outmatched as I would have first guessed. I did have a mazaki bunka for a little bit a few years ago and come to think of it, while a completely different animal, this sort of functionally felt the same. And while I did like that knife I determined that it didn't really offer anything that couldn't be done with another knife I had/preferred.

I didn't sharpen it, came with a workable edge and honestly I'm hesitant to sharpen anything on a pass around unless it's very necessary. Did notice some dulling after a few hours of use (total), nothing that I wouldn't expect. I was mostly using my hasegawa. I'm not sure I can really speak to edge retention with any authority.

I did have my gf use the knife, was curious what her impressions would be. She's not a hopeless case with a knife by any means but there are times I have to turn away lol. Anyways, she said she thought it was ok but says she likes some of my other knives more (she's a keeper, will eventually need to pause knife purchases to get her a ring). I have a few gnarly patinas/rust spots from her culinary adventures - mostly involving citrus. But I digress, maybe this point is moot because she too has been spoiled by using a kono fm to cut lemon for her hot water.

tldr: Nice knife for your friend who likes to cook but who would only dip a pinky toe in the larger knife world pool.
 
Mikeadunne said:
@Matt Jacobs thanks again for the opportunity to take this knife for a spin. Of course I waited far too long after using it to come here and share some thoughts. Ultimately though I'm not sure I would have anything novel to report as I feel most of my impressions mimic what others have already shared. But for the sake of the record, I will add my recollections. Please excuse typos and grammatical errors, I'm too lazy to double check.

Feels a little small. I'm a 230mm kinda guy give or take but this size is definitely a bit more compact than I'm used to working with. But over the course of my culinary career I have certainly used faaarr worse knives. It's funny what a few years of Kkf participation will do to your "floor" so to speak. This knife would have blown my mercer culinary school kit out of the water lol.

I did use it on a nice cross section of ingredients - can't remember all of them at the moment but I had a dinner for 8ppl I was prepping for so it was a decent amount of work. Just as a point of comparison I was using it in tandem with my 210 hd2 gyuto as it is probably the closest to the acre forge in my arsenal. Closer to 200mm on the edge, stainless, similar in price range - it felt appropriate to use both side by side.

First thing worth mentioning is the thin stock of the blade coming out of the handle. First time in a long time I felt the callus on my right (cutting) hand index finger pulsating after a sesh on the board. I just don't use a knife this thin very often, by comparison the hd2 was miles more comfortable. Also, I think related is just the thin/flat grind is just not fun. That feels like a pretty imprecise way to put it but at the moment that's what I'll write. There's no fun in cutting with it. It certainly does not do a poor job. It's just not enjoyable. The little convexity that the hd2 has definitely made me notice the lack of it on the acre. In softer items this didn't matter quite as much. And the only thing that I thought the acre did better for some strange reason was just a rough cut on some parsnips to be pureed. Not in the other dense products did I notice an advantage for the acre - which struck me as odd after the parsnips 🤷‍♂️ .

Even though it is smaller than I prefer I found the edge profile to be nice and wasn't as outmatched as I would have first guessed. I did have a mazaki bunka for a little bit a few years ago and come to think of it, while a completely different animal, this sort of functionally felt the same. And while I did like that knife I determined that it didn't really offer anything that couldn't be done with another knife I had/preferred.

I didn't sharpen it, came with a workable edge and honestly I'm hesitant to sharpen anything on a pass around unless it's very necessary. Did notice some dulling after a few hours of use (total), nothing that I wouldn't expect. I was mostly using my hasegawa. I'm not sure I can really speak to edge retention with any authority.

I did have my gf use the knife, was curious what her impressions would be. She's not a hopeless case with a knife by any means but there are times I have to turn away lol. Anyways, she said she thought it was ok but says she likes some of my other knives more (she's a keeper, will eventually need to pause knife purchases to get her a ring). I have a few gnarly patinas/rust spots from her culinary adventures - mostly involving citrus. But I digress, maybe this point is moot because she too has been spoiled by using a kono fm to cut lemon for her hot water.

tldr: Nice knife for your friend who likes to cook but who would only dip a pinky toe in the larger knife world pool.
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Perfect feedback, thank you!!! I think this is a great start for ACRE actually. A bunch of knife nerds like it but want bigger and a few other changes. I have to imagine non "knife" people are loving this.
 
Adding my feedback here.

The knife arrived with a decent edge that would slice copy paper, but it was bouncing off paper towels so I put a fresh edge on it. I think the original bevel is on the steep side and I first thought about keeping it, but decided just to go with my usual 12 dps bevel. I wouldn’t normally do that on a passaround but since it’s going back to Acre Forge for a refresh I figured it would be ok and wanted to give it a lower bevel so it could put its best foot forward.

First the positive - I really like the color scheme and look of the handle. F&F is good for the price range. The size was fine for me as I like knives in the 180-200mm range.

That said, I just did not gel with this knife. Much too thin at the pinch for comfort, and that plus something about the handle’s transition to the neck made for an uncomfortable experience for my fingers. Given the very thin spine I expected cutting performance similar to Shibata or Myojin. But I’m not sure what exactly was going on - despite the fresh edge the knife just wasn’t gliding through produce like I expected. The extra force needed to cut exacerbated the handle issue.

So overall, honestly I’m glad it was a very small prep that day or I would’ve switched to a different knife to finish. My feedback would be to use some thicker stock for more comfort at the choil, inspect the handle to neck transition for comfort, and have a look at the grind to see how cutting performance could be improved.

A little bit of speculation - I measured immediately BTE, 5mm and 10mm. Measurements at 5 and 10 are very thin, similar to Myojin. But BTE at the shoulder of the edge bevel it’s around .15 where most of my knives are <.1. When I was sharpening I thought my bevel looked a bit large (and it took me a while to get to the apex) and this would explain why - the grind is just a bit thick in the last couple mm before the edge.

If this were my knife and I was going to keep it, I think probably 30 mins of thinning the first few mm would really sort it out nicely (I experienced something very similar with my Hyde and it was an easy tuneup). But if the target market is non-knife fanatics who need a more rugged edge, the choice to make it a bit thicker BTE makes sense, although it’s oddly contradictory with the super thin spine and overall light weight.

So overall this is an interesting exercise in product positioning. The knife looks great and the price is nice. But it’s not my cup of tea as a picky knife nerd who favors lasers. This knife appears to be designed for more “traditional” buyers who want a nice-looking, handmade alternative to a zwilling, and it does compare well in that respect.

Although I’m not interested in one for myself, if I wanted to gift a stainless knife to a relative in this price range, I probably would seriously consider a PKL as an alternative to something like a Takamura.
 
Just had a bit of a “duh” realization. Forgot for a second there this was a passaround and people have been sharpening it.

It’s very possible it’s gotten a little thick BTE just from sharpening and is due for some maintenance thinning. The OOTB experience might be very different from mine, so while it does appear to be a little thicker BTE than I personally like, we shouldn’t draw any conclusions about it being a design decision vs just normal wear.
 
@Delat I don't think it has been sharpened much from the comments. I agree with you it could be a touch thinner right behind/at the edge. I have my Jameson Chopp with me and a PKL about half a millimeter up tjey same thickness but at the actual edge my Chopp flexes all the way down the edge along the cutting board and the PKL does not. I've probably sharpened the Chopp half a dozen times and the PKL maybe once I'm thinking they may be left it just a little bit thicker because they don't know who the knife is going to so they're keeping some toughness. Outside of wishing it were larger, that's the only other change I would really make. It's such a light knife and I don't have the weight to help get through things so I want it as thin as possible. I will probably thin mine soon and report back on what a difference it makes
 
Thanks to both of you for the feedback. Acre is local to me and I'm a fan of Jamison's work. So I expect to buy something from them. A couple of questions.

Mikeadunne said:
The little convexity that the hd2 has definitely made me notice the lack of it on the acre.
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Is this a stiction issue or an effort to push through to food issue?

Delat said:
the grind is just a bit thick in the last couple mm before the edge.
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Interesting. So it seems to be too thin at the spine and also too thick behind the edge? I see another comment mentioned that it could be ready for thinning already. This seems unlikely to me. Unless people went crazy with sharpening, it's hard to imagine how it could have gotten significantly thicker behind the edge during the pass around. Maybe this is possible?
 
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