Do karambits offer any tactical adventages over standard straight end fixed blade knives?
Do karambits offer any tactical adventages over standard straight end fixed blade knives?
Do karambits offer any tactical adventages over standard straight end fixed blade knives?
They provide advantage in cutting/trimming crops, that it. That's literally what ALL of these "ninja" weapons originally were, farming equipments
They piss off the person you cut with them more than a regular blade.
forward curved will give you a more penetrating cut, thats about it
They're great for breaking your trigger finger if you trip whole holding one.
>whole
While*
They do a great job of giving you multiple deep cuts on your fingers when you fondle them.
My former PSD job sent us to a class by Steve Tarani who is a former cop but spent 5 years as an apprentice in the PI learning the karambit. His demos by the numbers (ie slow) we’re still insane how much devastation is done when you trap, hook, cut, and use the attacker’s body mechanics against them. He demo’s a defense to an attacker where he slit every major artery and tendon and the
Coup d’Grace was slicing off the nads. I bought one of his knives and sold it without 48 hrs bc I was gonna wind up in the ER. If you’re serious, BUY A TRAINER.
Disclaimer: He’s an extremely nice and low key guy, not some Rex Kwan-Do internet tough guy. He also spent time in tbe underground fight scene in SoCal. He said the takeaway for the week should be don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
I can’t find the video, but he showed us an old Philippine assassin move where they whip their silk sarong off their waste, use it to trap you close as the karambit you to pieces.
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Feels like the modern karambit knife is mainly designed for more or less one goal which is ripping the throat & the arteries arteries in it of your would be attacker
I met Steve, he's very chill and very snappy on his feet, and several other folks in the penjak/silat community
>trained w de Thouars for a bit
but people should know that his stuff is a skill predicated on learning an entire style of body motion and stepping/leverage patterns, and ungodly amounts of practice.
You should take away from Tarani a few new ideas of what you can do with a kerambit in a pinch, but it won't make you a knife fighting god at all, only a bit more viable for self defense.
the worst thing about it is there is zero deterrent factor, its basically a surprise weapon in the clutch aka a unicorn situation
They're farm equipment adapted to work with one specific martial art, while the fixed blade is longer, potentially a dagger, much better at stabbing and very much agnostic to your skills as long as you can get the pointy end on target.
You do the math.
Cutting and slashing is fine if you get vulnerable areas where major blood vessels are at, but stabbing gets to important bits much more easily and it’s a simpler motion.
They take half the pop space
They're cool.
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I think I'm over these kinds of movies.
Assassin guy had a million opportunities to cut the protagonist while they were grappling and just doesn't do it.
It's miles ahead of most hollywood shaky cam bullshit and I appreciate the skill and dedication that goes into the production, but I still kind of hate it.
Additional slash leverage on top of ice pick grip penetration which one might not otherwise have and dubious niche grappling utility
They were originally women's farming tools. As it was the ony metal they carried in the field it was only their sole means of defense. Seeing how it is literally shaped as a claw, I think a rape attempt would end up in your intestines being spread in a four feet wide circle after a couple of slashes. And then she would turn vindictive. Gruesome, but that's how close the wielder has to be to the target - literally in an embrace.
No. If there were an advantage we would have seen much more use (and specialization/modification) of them in history.
But they look cool, so they have that going on for them.
farmer here.
I have several knives with a forward curve, all which have special applications. One is for grafting trees, one is for getting stones out of cattle's hoofs, one is for basketry and wicker craft.
You can use one as a tiny sickle, I cut my asparagus and mushrooms with one, not that it really matters,
farmers tools are often associated with indigenous martial arts because they exemplify national tradition, this is a foolish ideological tendency. Don't fight with farm tools.
>mushrooms
I've seen some really classy mushroom knives from Italy, come with a brush and everything
< Don't fight with farm tools.
let's be too hasty, they don't call this a kaiser blade for nothing
Ooohkay
So first of that's a westernised karambit, pic rel is an actual karambit.
Which was as usual an agricultural tool, raking roots, threshing etc etc
Tactical advantage?
No.
Thrusting wounds are more lethal than slashes or cuts. Hence why pointy/double edged daggers were always a mainstay.
Is it basically a shorter sickle then?
In essence it's the same tool, the same concept.
>Tactical advantage?
>No.
Well strictly speaking the tactical advantage is being able to disguise a weapon as a farming tool, or more accurately the advantage is being able to possess a weapon in a location where you are only allowed to have farming tools without arousing suHispanicion. In pretty much every other respect they are inferior to knives or daggers, at least when it comes to murder, but if you can't get those or happen to be in a place where they aren't allowed...
Just get a flooring knife.
It's more meth-head than mall-ninja, but whoever you pull it on will think you are desperate enough to use it.
No. They are originally 3rd world boxcutters made by monkeymen with their feet.
just like a real boxcutter, they can be used to slit someone up and you can even practice doing so, but also much like real boxcutters, when Indonesians are serious about stabbing/slashing a motherfucker, they switch to a real knife or a sword like so
The curve does provide a leverage advantage in tearing through something, but such a mechanical advantage is hardly that beneficial when you should be able to ram a straight blade clean through someone.
Cold Steel Karambit Mk XIII is the best goddamn knife ever made. It will save your life.
You can hook people and their clothing with the point. That's about it. Otherwise it is almost the same as any other knife.
cutting off the clothes from your future warcrime victim is easier with a karambit
Karambit is a slashing weapon, not good for thrusting or stabbing.
Arcing blows from slashing are easier to block
The ring makes it easy to draw and lets you hold onto the knife while still getting a grip on something else. This led to a niche as a handgun retention knife which inspired dedicated knives with rings like the SOCP
You can twirl it on your finger as a distraction while you reach for a pistol.