Hey everyone David C Andersen here coming at you from the KnifeCenter and
today we're gonna take a look at the best tactical Karambit knives that you
can buy right now in 2020 across a range of price points for
everyone out there let's check them out
originally designed as a farming tool today the uses of a Karambit are
primarily in the tactical or martial arts environments now they can still be
useful for utility in a forward grip like any hawkbill blade it works well
especially on things like cutting rope bandages or clothing or basically
anything where you don't want your blade to slip away from what you're cutting
that said they're going to be best suited for reverse grips during their
intended use with the index finger anchored through the ring at the back of
the handle this is gonna help you to keep a solid grip on the knife and it
makes it harder for you to lose control of the knife in a sticky situation first
we've got a couple of budget options before we get into some more premium
stuff and if you're wanting to give the Karambit style a try the Boker Magnum
Dark Claw is a really good option at just a hair over 30 bucks at this point
in time the blade itself is very broad and it can be open either with the thumb
cut out or the flipper tab on the back of the blade and both of them work
extremely well this knife has a two-position pocket clip on one side for
a tip up or tip down carry although you're gonna have to reorient your hold
on the knife if you want to deploy it in a reverse grip and as far as size I have
just enough space with my slightly larger hands to fit all my fingers in
there but if you anticipate wearing gloves while you're using the knife you
might want to look elsewhere the steel on this knife is 440A stainless so
while it's not gonna have a crazy high amount of edge retention it makes up for
that by having a super solid very rugged build you get a full metal back spacer
that continues through the finger ring flanked on both sides by full steel
liners and you also get g10 along for the ride
overall this is a tool that is definitely built to last another
affordable Karambit is the Enforcer from the Brous Blades Import line available
starting at about 45 bucks from the KnifeCenter the blade materials get an
upgrade here to d2 in your choice of different finishes I've got the
stonewashed one here although satin, black, and black stonewashed are also
available this is gonna give you a good amount of
edge retention and you can see that when it's open the blade points at almost a
right angle to the handle which is a bit more than most Karambits out there it
has a flat grind along with a broad swedge along the entirety of the spot it
gives the steel an octagonal cross-section which is going to remove
drag along the spine and help it move through cuts more fluidly rather than
G10 the enforcer uses synthetic handles with inset liners it still feels very
solid but it manages to be about 2 ounces lighter than the Boker so it's a
bit more pocket-friendly it has about the same length of usable handle and a
nice broad finger hole that you can see here got a lot of surface area on the
inside that makes it very comfortable when you're using it now the pocket clip
on this Brous is reversible for left or right carry with the blade pointed tip
up and like the Boker this is also a flipper with a top-mounted flipper tab
which fires the blade out on Brous's proprietary bearing systems for quick
deployment we've actually got another opening method here as well but I'm
gonna come back to that in a minute but suffice it to say that in the budget
arena this is the Karambit that would get my personal pick now given their
tactical nature Karambits benefit from some kind of quick-draw capability a
fixed blade Karambit of course have this area covered but folders can make
up for it in a few certain ways and Emerson knives has been hugely
influential in that regard with their Wave opener this allows you to keep the
blade closed up clipped in your pocket and then the protruding hook at the
spine is gonna grab your hem as you draw the knife and open the blade in one
smooth motion you can see it in action right here on Emerson's Combat Karambit
a compact and strong design comes in right about 275 bucks right now but you
can also see that in action on the Brous from before with these three
hooks here right on the spine it's not an official Emerson Wave but it does the
job very similarly the clip on the Emerson can go on either side so that
you can set it up to wave open in a forward grip or in a reverse grip right
away and it lets you get into that ready position more quickly since you don't
have to readjust your hold on the knife we've got G10 handle scales with
titanium liners and lock a finger hole that's integrated into the scales and if
that finger hole wasn't enough it has a lot of texture on the G10
combine that with prominent finger grooves and your grip is going to
be very secure now the 154CM stainless steel blade
features a chopped off point this grants more tip strength since you don't have
that needlepoint but there still is a sharp enough point to penetrate very
well in typical Emerson fashion this blade is chisel ground with a secondary
edge right at the bottom some say this is stronger and some say it's easier to
maintain as well which can be helpful with the recurve edge on that Hawkbill
shape which is already not as easy to sharpen as a conventional blade shape
now in addition to that wave shaped opener you can also open this knife with
the thumb cutout or with the flipper and both open the blade very smoothly thanks
to a GTC bearing based pivot and as we look at these next knives I think you're
gonna clearly see the influence of the Emerson the first is the Fox 478 and 479
series the difference between the two being aluminum handles on the 478
and G10 on the 479 this 478 features a flipper a blade cut out and
an officially-licensed Emerson Wave you can even see their patent number here on
the back of the blade that's because when a design works it just plain works
and if you can't beat them you might as well join them and the Fox is definitely
one of the more premium feeling Karambits on the market today which is
impressive considering this one is just a few dollars more than $125 the steel is
N690 and has a pointier tip than the Emerson and a long swedge like the
Brous we saw earlier it also has a reversible pocket clip and a liner lock
for similar usability now the handles on this Italian-made knife are the roomiest
we've looked at yet we're getting into glove wearing territory with this knife
although the ring might be on the smaller side depending on the size of
your fingers but this knife even feels good in a forward grip without using the
ring thanks to the size and the mostly straight profile of the handle it's also
thanks to the edges on the ring itself both the inside and outside of the
circle have been completely crowned for comfort if you like your kerambit to
come with a touch of class the 478 is definitely a good option although we'll
have another one coming up shortly as well first though we'll look at the
Spyderco Karahawk another Karambit with a licensed Emerson Wave opener
if small-size ease of carry and discretion are your priorities the Karahawk
is the one to get by combining a lock back with thin liners and textured
G10 that's nearly as thin they've made one of the flattest carrying Karambits
out there without giving up on strength that's thanks to that lock back which
even comes with the David Boye dent cutout to help prevent accidental
disengagement now with that dent and the Emerson connection we see one of the
things that I really appreciate about Spyderco they always cite their
sources and give credit where credit is due the blade steel is VG-10 and just
like the whole knife itself which is a little on the smaller side the blade is
kept slightly smaller as well it's just about two and a quarter inches long all
the better for compact carry the blade itself has a titanium carbo nitride or
TiNi coating and in fact the liners are also TiNi coated and the back spring
is black as well that's gonna help keep reflections down for those who need that
the Karahawk is definitely a duty ready knife price right now at about 240 bucks
now onto another fancier model the WE Knife Company 816 Incisor an
offshoot of their 708 series Karambits
now with the incisor you get everything that makes a WE Knife great you get
excellent build quality with milled titanium handles a machined pocket clip
which is reversible that S35VN steel a ball bearing pivot
and a nice flipper tab now despite the premium materials this knife actually
doesn't cost much more than the Spyderco we just saw it's just over two hundred
and fifty bucks at this point in time this knife does not have the emerson
wave but it does have something that achieves the same result you get this
small metal tab that's screwed into place on the spine of the blade and in
addition to the hem of the pocket trick it also works as a thumb stud if you
want to open the blade that way the handles feel good and this knife
actually comes with a frame lock the only one on our list today that does and
it has the now commonplace but still appreciated lock bar insert it enables
consistent lockup over time and it even has a small tab on the inside that
prevents the lock bar from being pushed out too far when you're unlocking the
knife now the incisor is nearly double the price from the Fox that we looked at
earlier but if you want the utmost premium experience possible from your
Karambit this knife is definitely the way to go
now for another bruiser the Cold Steel Tiger Claw which is easily the biggest
we've looked at yet with most of the rest of our knives all
the blades have been between two and a half and three inches or so in length
the Tiger Claw stretches nearly two three and a half inches you can get it
with a plain edge or fully serrated and it uses premium CTS-XHP steel for a long
lasting edge and it does it all for a price of just under a hundred and twenty
bucks right now the handles bigger, too, and for gloved hands this is definitely the
largest option here there's even plenty of room for a full
grip without gloves without having to use the finger ring at all the handles
are slim G10 with a decent amount of texture although not quite as thin as
the Spyderco from earlier and this knife gets around the quick-draw problem with
an ambidextrous thumb plate designed by Andrew Demko this allows Wave-like pocket
opening as well as conventional opening with your thumb
another Demko innovation is on board with this knife with the Triad lock now
it looks like a lock back but it's even stronger thanks to some improvements
they've made under the hood so to speak with the build quality on this knife, the
blade steel you get, the size and the price, the Tiger Claw is definitely worth
a look if you need a hard-working Karambit
finally and probably the most innovative Karambit on this table the CRKT Provoke
which completely reimagines what a folding Karambit can be rather than the
blade spinning around a pivot point it actually rotates open on two arms so
that it's pointing the same direction the whole time that it's opening now
this may seem like a gimmick at first but it is much more than that they call
this action kinematic and it actually serves a purpose first even if the lock
were to fail the blade has no chance of closing on your fingers second it also
enables fast blade deployment I'll unlock it here real quick to show you
that now this is not gonna be nearly as easy to close one-handed as these liner
or frame locking knives but I think that's outweighed by some of the other
advantages with this design it's because when you draw this knife from your
pocket or the available belt sheath your finger is already in the ring then you
push firmly on the subtle jimping on the back of the arm here and the blade
shoots forward with an affirmative click and you're ready to
now this method is a hair behind the Wave in terms of outright speed but it's
even more intuitive to use when you're under stress and those kinematic arms
solve a couple of problems that no one was even thinking about as a problem
before this knife came out the steel is D2 which isn't as premium as some of
these other options but the engineering is a bit more complex to be fair it has
a chisel grind and it starts with pretty robust blade stock a bit over three
sixteenths of an inch thick just over 0.2 inches in fact it also has a finger
ring with a wide surface area which I appreciated on that Brous and a flush
fit pocket clip that springs out of the way when you're holding the knife the
prices range from 200 up to 225 for this First-Responder version right now and in
my opinion the First-Responder is the one to get because it adds a ceramic
glass breaker here at the end and that's a nice bit of added functionality that
doesn't get in the way at all and it also includes the boltaron belt sheath
all for less than the price of buying the base model and then getting the
sheath separately so that's it for our list of best folding Karambits that you
can get in 2020 with something for every budget and every level of user the only
question is which would you pick to carry be sure to let us know your
favorite in the comments and to get your hands on any of these knives we'll leave links
in the description to head over to KnifeCenter.com and be sure to sign up
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button below I'm David C Andersen from the KnifeCenter signing off see you
next time