Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops Folding Karambit with 3" 7Cr Steel Blade, Finger Hole, Pocket Clip, for Tactical, Outdoors, and EDC

When I bought this knife, I was working on packaging equipment. I had to test the machines and that inevitably meant breaking down a lot of cardboard and shrink wrap when testing was done.I bought this knife for a couple of reasons. I wanted a hawkbill blade with a reverse curve and a sharp point so that I could pierce the cardboard boxes and then run the knife down the length of the box without it slipping out. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but try breaking down a few hundred cartons a day. As your grip fatigues, you'll appreciate that curve in the blade. That finger loop in the end also helps with this, as you don't have to worry about dropping it if your grip loosens.Cardboard is abrasive as heck, and I wanted a blade made from a relatively tough steel that would hold an edge. There are knife experts out there that will quote you chapter and verse on different alloys, but I'm not one of them. All I knew was that this knife had a decent reputation for holding an edge based on the reviews. The liner lock mechanism that keeps the blade from folding closed looked strong, and overall the knife looked like it would be robust.Appearances were not deceiving, either. When I got the package I looked the knife over and was impressed. It felt quite solid and the blade locked into place with no play. It certainly felt durable, but time would tell.I like to hone my blades on an MDF wheel with fine polishing compound. This gives a very keep edge that will actually shave arm hairs. Is this necessary? Nope. Is it cool? Yup. I was able to sharpen this knife to a very sharp edge with no trouble.Overall, this knife worked well to cut cardboard boxes and other packages down. However, after a few days I punted and switched over to a Milwaukee Fastback with replaceable utility knife blades for this task. Why? Because I like this knife too much to put it through that level of abuse. At the time, this knife cost less than $18 delivered to my door. I figured that if it lasted a year cutting boxes I'd have gotten my money's worth out of it. But this is WAY nicer than a typical $18 knife, and I just couldn't see myself sharpening it to death just so I could cut cardboard with it.In the meantime, I found utility knife blades with a carbide edge, which will out-cut typical steel blades by quite a margin. Those blades, plus the Milwaukee knife, were a winning combo for the abuse that cardboard could dish out.Since then, I stopped working on that type of equipment and this knife has been semi-retired. I typically keep it around for outdoor treks, where I might want something more robust than the Milwaukee that I still carry daily. Mostly it sits around, but that's certainly not a fault of the knife. It's a really nice piece of equipment that served its purpose well, and I'm glad I have it in case I want to cut fuzz-sticks to use as campfire kindling, split a small piece of wood, cut rope, whatever.This knife is made by Smith and Wesson and marketed as a tactical blade. However, I think this would make an excellent camp/field knife, and I'll test it out next time I go camping (accompanied by a full-tang fixed-blade knife to do the heavy lifting, of course). For the price, this could be a great addition to someone's camping kit.

This is a big, heavy, sturdy, well-made knife that feels far more high-quality than its price point would suggest. it also comes from the factory ridiculously sharp (always a good thing). The ambidextrous thumb stud opening works really well, and the body of the knife has a good, grippy texture.This is my first karambit-style knife, and I'm totally sold on that design if only for how well it works for breaking down cardboard quickly and safely. Its size and weight are a positive when using it, but a drawback as an everyday-carry knife, as it takes up a lot of pocket space and you'll know it's in there the whole time. Probably not the one you're tossing in your pocket for a day at the office or a trip to the mall. I threw in a photo comparing it to a more typical EDC folding knife just to provide a frame of reference.Bottom line: well-made and practical, and a steal at the asking price.

I really like this knife, it comes really tight, so if you want to be able to flip it open, you'll have to loosen the screws; however, that's not a big deal. It obviously doesn't have auto-assist, but I got a heck of a deal on it, it's super sharp and I've gotten compliments on it. I own quite a few S&W M&P knives (and firearms), I think they're great quality for a much cheaper price than Benchmark, which I always used to buy, but unless you can get a really good deal on one, I'd go with S&W but that's my personal opinion on the company overall. The various S&W M&P knives I have are all different styles. I've owned Karamabit knives before but this thing is absurdly sharp, I stupidly cut my finger opening it and it was a light graze. That's something that rarely happens to me when I buy a new knife. I highly recommend this, the design is pretty cool honestly, I'd prefer a digi desert camo, but that's just me. Cool knife though and definitely a great self-defense knife due to the nature of Karambits and how sharp it is.

I love this knife. I'm not a karambit user, nor had I even heard of a karambit until I did a little research into my next pocket knife, but this thing is a beast. I own another S&W pocket knife that I absolutely love, but just for the great looks, I've started carrying this karambit instead. It's not too heavy to carry comfortably, but it's also not so light that it feels cheap. The blade can be extended with a thumb easily (although I did manage to take of a thin layer of skin the first time I tried this) but it definitely has to be closed with two hands, no way around it. The blade is longer than I expected, and quite beefy. It doesn't extend too much past your hand when you hold it, but it's not supposed to. The color scheme is amazing, and I love the urban camo. My other S&W has the urban camo design and it makes these knives look incredibly bad ass. There are only a couple of downfalls to this knife. First, and really not even that big of a thing, is that when it closes, its sorta bulky. Definitely not sleek like a regular knife, and a bit tough to just hold in your hand, but still not terrible. My real problem with this and both of my other S&W knives is that it discolors very quickly. I literally had it for 3 days before I noticed a patch of what looks like rust (I don't think it's rust) on the blade. I didn't get it wet, didn't leave it in bad conditions, it just sorta did it. The same with my other knives, they just sorta discolored all of a sudden. Weird.All in all, this knife is bad ass. It looks like a freakin'raptor claw in your hand and is fun to learn to spin and fight with. Be advised, however, that you might want to be extra careful before you know how to use this knife, it ships sharp and if you're not careful, it can come back and stab you pretty good while spinning (or maybe I'm just bad at it).