- Joined
- May 20, 2021
- Messages
- 645
Now, if you search Bark River JX6 you will find a lot of reviews on it already. Including Advanced Knife Bro, Cedric and Ada, and many others. This knife was designed by PreparedMind101 on YouTube. Now, the JX6 has gone through some changes, mainly to the lanyard hole area. Since the last model, the only real change seems to be the blade steel.
The first thing I want to mention, is that I wasn't into the sheath. Not to say that it was a bad sheath, I just don't like magnets in my pockets. Also, the stitching on the sheath got nicked by the blade a few times in different areas, and started to become undone. I already didn't want a leather sheath and was planning on getting a Kydex sheath aftermarket. On Etsy I found someone called ParacordWarriorArt who makes custom sheaths for many fixed blade types. Luckily, he made JX6 sheaths and had one in stock. The new Kydex sheath has made some marks on the blade but it does not damage the edge and honestly I do not really care how beat up my fixed blade looks. The Kydex is waterproof, Magnacut is pretty much corrosion proof, so right here is a pretty much corrosion proof setup. Pretty awesome.
I usually carry this in pocket, just dropped in sheath and all. It works pretty well that way and does not feel like a burden to carry. The Kydex sheath has a horizontal carry setup and so on the belt it carries very similarly to a Canadian belt knife.
My hand likes the feel of the JX6's handle. I wear XL to Large size gloves, and I can get a full finger grip on the knife with a bit of room to move. The coke bottle handles that Bark River is famous for, along with the contouring of the Denim Micarta feels great. I also chose the matte finish for the Micarta, so it feels extra comfortable to me. The blade goes below the handle, and the blade itself acts like a finger choil similarly to how the Microtech Stitch does it. It feels very safe in hand because of this, because you essentially have a large guard to protect your finger. The edge being lower in relation to the handle makes it so you can do food prep easily, or apply more force when chopping. In hand when carving, the blade can be a bit awkward to get used to, in addition to the handle. The blade itself is very curved, with almost no straight to the edge. When applying force to the handle, like when making feather sticks, it is not like traditionally shaped bushcraft knives. You really need to angle your hand a bit differently altogether in order to work this knife like a normal straighter bushcraft knife.
For the size of the knife, I was cautious with what I would put it through. But, since so many videos showed others splitting wood with their A2, or 154 steel, I felt like it would be fine. I batoned a few pieces of fire logs, carved a bit of feather sticks, started a fire, and the knife is still in tact and still sharp. Wood really shouldn't be much of a problem for a knife of this thickness (0.125 inch) which is the same blade thickness as a Mora Companion, or a Small Sebenza.
The whole bushcraft thing was something the JX6 was capable of, absolutely. But for the most part, I am not in the woods making fires unfortunately. As for opening boxes, cutting cardboard, all the usual stuff... along with some food prep, the JX6 did great. PreparedMind101 said that the JX6 was not designed with any one purpose in mind, but all purposes in mind. It was called the JX6 companion because it's basically the do everything knife that you can always have on you because of the size. Of course, the JX6 would not be my first choice for any of the tasks I did, there are better knives for any given task that the JX6 was put through. However, to have a knife that is capable of basically doing every knife task you could possibly want (outside of chopping reserved for machetes), is pretty darn awesome. I've also heard that this is a great skinner's knife. Honestly, I think that if you used it as a skinner, you would still have better choices for skinners. But the strength lies within the versatility of it being able to be a skinner at all, along with all the other things it can do. Throw in the fact that this is Magnacut steel heat treated to 62, with a Kydex sheath, and you have an above average toughness, corrosion proof, do-everything knife.
The first thing I want to mention, is that I wasn't into the sheath. Not to say that it was a bad sheath, I just don't like magnets in my pockets. Also, the stitching on the sheath got nicked by the blade a few times in different areas, and started to become undone. I already didn't want a leather sheath and was planning on getting a Kydex sheath aftermarket. On Etsy I found someone called ParacordWarriorArt who makes custom sheaths for many fixed blade types. Luckily, he made JX6 sheaths and had one in stock. The new Kydex sheath has made some marks on the blade but it does not damage the edge and honestly I do not really care how beat up my fixed blade looks. The Kydex is waterproof, Magnacut is pretty much corrosion proof, so right here is a pretty much corrosion proof setup. Pretty awesome.
I usually carry this in pocket, just dropped in sheath and all. It works pretty well that way and does not feel like a burden to carry. The Kydex sheath has a horizontal carry setup and so on the belt it carries very similarly to a Canadian belt knife.
My hand likes the feel of the JX6's handle. I wear XL to Large size gloves, and I can get a full finger grip on the knife with a bit of room to move. The coke bottle handles that Bark River is famous for, along with the contouring of the Denim Micarta feels great. I also chose the matte finish for the Micarta, so it feels extra comfortable to me. The blade goes below the handle, and the blade itself acts like a finger choil similarly to how the Microtech Stitch does it. It feels very safe in hand because of this, because you essentially have a large guard to protect your finger. The edge being lower in relation to the handle makes it so you can do food prep easily, or apply more force when chopping. In hand when carving, the blade can be a bit awkward to get used to, in addition to the handle. The blade itself is very curved, with almost no straight to the edge. When applying force to the handle, like when making feather sticks, it is not like traditionally shaped bushcraft knives. You really need to angle your hand a bit differently altogether in order to work this knife like a normal straighter bushcraft knife.
For the size of the knife, I was cautious with what I would put it through. But, since so many videos showed others splitting wood with their A2, or 154 steel, I felt like it would be fine. I batoned a few pieces of fire logs, carved a bit of feather sticks, started a fire, and the knife is still in tact and still sharp. Wood really shouldn't be much of a problem for a knife of this thickness (0.125 inch) which is the same blade thickness as a Mora Companion, or a Small Sebenza.
The whole bushcraft thing was something the JX6 was capable of, absolutely. But for the most part, I am not in the woods making fires unfortunately. As for opening boxes, cutting cardboard, all the usual stuff... along with some food prep, the JX6 did great. PreparedMind101 said that the JX6 was not designed with any one purpose in mind, but all purposes in mind. It was called the JX6 companion because it's basically the do everything knife that you can always have on you because of the size. Of course, the JX6 would not be my first choice for any of the tasks I did, there are better knives for any given task that the JX6 was put through. However, to have a knife that is capable of basically doing every knife task you could possibly want (outside of chopping reserved for machetes), is pretty darn awesome. I've also heard that this is a great skinner's knife. Honestly, I think that if you used it as a skinner, you would still have better choices for skinners. But the strength lies within the versatility of it being able to be a skinner at all, along with all the other things it can do. Throw in the fact that this is Magnacut steel heat treated to 62, with a Kydex sheath, and you have an above average toughness, corrosion proof, do-everything knife.
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