Opinions on the Karambit

Lazarus

Lazarus

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The Hen that laid the Golden Legos
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My EDC knife for about 10 years now has been the a Kershaw Blue. I really like it for an everyday multi-purpose knife. Its fast,reasonably sharp and a good size. With that said I'm not sure how good of an actual fighting knife it is. I've been entertaining getting a new knife, was looking at a CRKT M16 but recently I've been seeing a lot of karambits and talk of karambits. Saw a couple of Youtube videos and they seem like good fighting tools but I haven't heard any feedback on it from a EDC perspective. I'd probably get a fixed blade since I haven't seen any folders with assisted open feature.

What do you guys think about them? Are they all that cracked up to be? Do you feel like they are easier to use in a defensive or offensive situation? What are some good ones to look at that dont cost $200?
 
karambits are bad ass. If you can find a rapid deploy karambit, they are easily concealed in a pock and auto deploy when you pull it from your pocket. Too me, they have their place, but they're more for last ditch/self defense as compared to other fix/folding blade knives which can have much more use bc of the straight blade vs curved. As far as defensive use, I think Karambits have much more use. Curvature of the blade is better for cutting vital areas, neck, arms, wrists, stomach etc, which is what you will most likely be going after in a SD situation.
http://www.knifecenter.com/item/EMS...h-Stonewash-Blade-with-Wave-Black-G10-Handles
I like this one the best, and if you're patient, you can find them for cheaper than that.
 
Personally, I think karambits are great! BUT they are not for everyone. I studied 5 different styles of martial arts over the course of 15 years and I think the karambit is a great fighting tool, but you have to train with it. A couple martial art styles (which are not the main part of my repertoire) are a Southeast Asian style called Silat and a specific Filipino style called Kali. Google them just for kicks. When I was studying Wing Chun, my sifu was also a master in both Silat and Kali and he was SICK with the karambit. Absolutely devastating! But again, you need to train with it. If you don't train with it, you'd probably be better off with a typical folding knife for SD. And when I say "train", you could probably even benefit from going to Youtube and watching videos of how to use it. At least get a working knowledge. You can buy plastic training karambits and find a friend to do drills with. It will make a WORLD of difference. If you can find a martial arts instructor that can teach you how to use it, that would be even better.

Another note is that I really think that a double edged karambit is 100x more effective than a single edge. No offense to MilSpec, but the one he linked is only a single edge. The double edge is better because on a single edge, only the "inside" edge of the blade is sharpened. When the outside edge is sharpened, it allows you to strike arteries on the body with a much more fluid movement allowing you to quickly make a swipe and then move on to the next swipe. Under the arm pit when someone is striking at you (which hosts a large artery), then coming back across the body to stick the neck with the pointed side. You can also use the pointed side to stick into the inside (soft) part of the bend in the elbow. In fact, if trained properly with a karambit, I would say that about 4 out of 5 of your strikes will probably be done with the outside edge of the blade making a single edge blade mostly useless. Whereas being trained properly with a double edge makes the karambit one of the most (if not the #1) deadliest SD knives out there.

To find a double edge blade karambit, just Google "Filipino karambit" or "Kali karambit". This will make it much easier to find a double edged blade.

Also, check out this video. You'll see just within the first 30 seconds of the intro that most of the strikes are done with the outside edge of the blade. I hope this all helps. Speaking of which, I need to buy myself a double edge karambit. I lost my last one and haven't gotten around to getting another one.

 
biker_bill said:
Would definitely want that fellow on my side.....
Click to expand...

Haha yea seriously! If one wants to make themselves much more effective with general self defense, buy and train with a double edged karambit. And you don't have to make deadly blows with it. Someone punches at you and you block the punch with a karambit followed up quickly by a few swipes to the forearm and I doubt that guy will punch again.

Oh and OP, if you really want to do it the correct way, get a fixed blade. But a folding one will suffice (good luck finding a folding karambit with a double edge though).
 
Awesome knives. It's either a love them or hate them thing. As far as fighting with them they are absolutely devastating. Study the mechanical cutting techniques and defensive tactics and they are hard to beat. One con is that they are a specific purpose knife. That's how mine was. My Emerson was for one purpose and one purpose only.

I recently moved to a standard knife (Emerson CQC 15) to have the ability to penetrate deep enough to cause major organ damage if needed. That's one thing the Karambit won't do is deep penetration. Slash and poke but man the results are scary.

Karambit 1.JPG
Karambit 2.JPG
 
Last edited:
Lazarus said:
GlockIssue GlockIssue what do you think of this one: http://www.unitedcutlery.com/ProductDetail.aspx?itemno=UC1466B&cat=NW
Click to expand...

Looks pretty solid to me. You'll notice that there are different styles of handles out there. Compare it to the one that Mercaida is using in the video and you'll see the differences. That all comes down to preference though. I won't say one is better than the other. I would imagine that if you don't have any experience with them, preference won't really matter at first. Over time you may learn to love or dislike it and move on to a different style handle

It comes with a sheath too, which is necessary in my opinion. You can't beat the price. I say go for it and see how it goes.
 
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