Review of the WE Knife Co. 901B Deacon

The WE Knife Company is a bit of an oddity for me.  The Chinese knife producer has firmly established that they can make one heckuva knife for the money, with quality that matches and in many cases rivals what US knife manufacturers can produce.  But the question in my mind remains the same as it has since I first became aware of WE in 2016:  Can the WE Knife Company produce a knife that I personally like?  Despite the fact that I really want to like the company and the knives they produce, they’ve yet to hit a home run with me.  After meeting company representatives last year during SHOT Show, I decided to give the Elijah Isham designed Eschaton a try.  It’s a true triumph of design and manufacturing capability.  But it’s more of an “art knife” and not particularly useful or practical in my honest opinion.  In terms of a knife I’d want to carry on a daily basis, WE has yet to produce something that has spoken to me.  Anyone who frequents ThruMyLens or has seen any of my knife reviews on the ThruMyLens YouTube channel knows I’m a huge Zero Tolerance fan.  In most cases, I want knives that are robust that are well suited for defensive uses if needed.  But sometimes I want something less “tactical” and more traditional.  “Dressy” even. Something classy.  Something that’s lightweight enough to be invisible and unnoticeable in a suit pocket, but large enough to be useful for multiple purposes.  The new WE 901B Deacon seems to check all the boxes for me:

As a blade steel snob, I’m quite pleased that WE used Bohler M390 for the blase steel in the Deacon.  Admittedly, this knife is intended to be pure “pocket jewelry” for me, and won’t see much use – from that perspective, the steel used in the blade shouldn’t matter that much.  But M390 is my favorite blade steel and has been for quite some time.  Yes, S35VN probably strikes a better balance between edge retention and ease of sharpening.  But I’ve not had a huge problem sharpening M390.  Most vendors I see listing this knife show the finish as “bead blasted.”  I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s a bead blasted finish.  WE describes it as a “hand rubbed” finish.  So while it might start bead blasted, the consistency of the finish makes me believe that human hands actually did the work.  The blade is listed as being 3.25″ in length.  That’s only .25″ than what I consider as a minimum length for my more tactical blades, but the Deacon blade won’t intimidate or frighten “sheeple” the way a tactical knife will.

The Deacon features a flipper deployment, which is my  preferred method of deploying the knife blade on a folding knife.  If you know anything about the WE Knife Company,  you know that they have one of the best flipping actions that can be found on a production knife.  This knife has what I would call a medium detention,  and the blade deploys smoothly and consistently with even a light press on the flipper tab.   This is a premium, high-end knife and the user is reminded of that fact each and every time they deploy the blade.

I’ve been wanting a knife that has the bolster look for some time.  You most typically see this look on higher-end custom knives costing hundreds of dollars (if not venturing into thousands) which require the individual to pony up the cost of the knife (or a significant deposit) and then wait weeks or perhaps months on end…after of course they’ve already waited months on a waiting list.  As you might gather, I’m not a fan of custom knives or the process to obtain them…even if I was OK with the cost.  But the WE knife has that look, and the premium materials to go with the look.  The majority of the visible knife scales (we’ll get to what’s less visible in a moment) are some gorgeously shaped and sculpted carbon fiber.  This is real carbon fiber folks – not the faux peel some US manufacturers use (I’m looking at you Spyderco and Kershaw) on their budget models.  It’s the use of carbon fiber that’s primarily responsible for this knife’s amazingly low-weight of just 2.72 oz.  That’s almost half the weight of a lot of other knives I regularly carry, which makes this knife perfectly unnoticeable when dropped in the pocket of dress pants or a suit.  The bolster area is titanium on both sides, but what you don’t see is the titanum actually extends down the entire length of the knife on both sides as liners which are beneath the carbon fiber.   The liners actually extend to blade lock-up/release point – is it a liner lock?  A bolster lock?  It even looks and operates like a frame lock.  However you choose to classify the locking mechanism, I like it – it has a steel insert (credit to Zero Tolerance for being the first knife maker that I’m aware of to feature this innovation) which is nice, high-end design feature for mitigating “lock stick” where the steel of the blade would otherwise interface with titanium.  On the lock side of the knife, there are three screws and the pivot screw – all of which are torx.  Thankfully, WE discontinued the use of proprietary screws well over a year ago.  The display side features just two screws and all of the screws (including the pivot on the lock side) are tastefully anodized blue.  The anodized hardware looks fantastic with the blue titanium components and contrasts nicely with the black carbon fiber.  The knife also features a very well done blue titanium backspacer which starts about half-way down the spine of the knife and actually wraps around the bottom – well done:

The lockside of the knife also features a tip-up pocket clip, beautifully milled from titanium.  WE pocket clips are always on point – gorgeous.  I’ve seen some complaints about the fact that the design of the knife offers no options for the clip – right hand, tip up only.  I’d almost argue the opposite – you really don’t “need” a pocket clip at all on a true gentleman’s folder.  About the only time I can see using the pocket clip is if I happen to need to put other objects in my knife pants pocket which might scratch the knife, in which case I might want to clip it safely to the top of my pocket.  The only true “miss” I see here is the lanyard hole on the bottom of the knife – surely no one would want to put a lanyard on this knife.  There’s really no need for the lanyard hole.  But this is a minor nit to pick on an otherwise fantastic knife.

The WE 901B Deacon is the best knife I’ve seen the company produce, and I predict that it will be a big seller as the style is less polarizing than most others I’ve seen from the company, and is a fantastic EDC knife.  The Deacon carries an MSRP of $298.00, but can be typically found for $253.00.  The last couple of years, WE has put many of their releases on “clearance pricing” around Black Friday – if this one shows up similarly discounted, I might pick up the grey version (or maybe just another blue) to have as a user.

In addition to this written photo review, I’ve also recorded a video supplement to share my thoughts and additional footage of the knife: