I must admit, we always used to use polyclonal antibodies, and there is a reason for this. Even blended monoclonal antibodies will still only recognise certain epitopes within the antigen, and while the K and k antigens tend to be single amino acid substitutions of methionine at position 193 for the K antigen, and threonine at position 193 for the k antigen, this is by no means universal. A weak expression of K is seen when either an argenine or a serine residue replace the methionine residue at position 193. As with amino acid substitutions leading to weakened expression of the K antigen, so the same can happen with the k antigen, but these substitutions may not actually be at position 193. A recent publication has shown that a substitution of Leu196Val weakens the expression of the k antigen (see Uchikawa M, Onodera T, Tsuneyama H, Enomoto T, Ishijima A, Yuasa S, Murata S, Tadokoro K, Nakajima K, Juji T. Molecular basis of unusual Kmod phenotype with K+wk-. Vox Sang 2000; 78 Suppl. 1: Abstract O011, Poole J, Warke N, Hustinx H, Taleghani BM, Martin P, Finning K, Crew VK, Green C, Bromilow I, Daniels G. A KEL gene encoding serine at position 193 of the Kell glycoprotein results in expression of KEL1 antigen. Transfusion 2006; 46: 1879-1885 and Millard GM, Lopez GH, Turner EM, Lizarazu ME, Roots NM, Liew Y-W, Flower RL, Hyland CA. Modified expression of the KEL2 (k) blood group antigen attributed to p.Leu196Val amino acid change three residues from the K/k antigen polymorphism site: implications for donor screening. Transfusion 2019; 59: 1156-1158.). Therefore, it is more likely that you may get a false negative result using a monoclonal antibody in adsorption/elution tests, than by using a polyclonal antibody, with its wider breadth of specificity to the antigen's epitopes.