Actually, Karambits are good boxcutters . I know people who swear by them as defensive tools, and they can be very effective. Personally, I find the design limiting, and none of the people I've trained with promoted their use. I prefer a knife that can be used in any of the conventional grips, and isn't super specialized. I like to train so that any random knife feels useful.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
Modern karambits often are designed for defense, but, IIRC, the original design was essentially a tool for farmers and fishermen in Indonesia (like a small hand scythe?). Pencak Silat (spelling?), the martial art of those islands, uses the karambit extensively as it is a very good slasher and traps well.
While I am no expert in its use, I have found that, used in a forward grip, it makes for a very good 'get off me' knife for the weak hand where basically all you do is hack at whatever is trying to get at you or holding you. The effect on hand/forearm would be nasty. Another limited, and kinda niche advantage, is the ring; specifically, in a forward grip hold, if you have managed to gain space to deploy your gun (strong hand), you can just open your weak hand and the karambit will drop (hanging by the pinky) and you can get a two good two-handed grip on your gun while not losing your knife.
The "proper" method, as is taught in the martial arts that use the karambit, is in reverse grip. Since I don't have training in that, I can't comment on it.
The main disadvantage (aside from degloving by the ring) is that it doesn't stab well and can't use straight lines, at least not as easily a curved ones.
As a tool, it's excellent for opening boxes. Any work that a Clinch Pick can do (which is a lot as discussed in another thread), the karambit will do.
" La rose est sans pourquoi, elle fleurit parce qu’elle fleurit ; Elle n’a souci d’elle-même, ne demande pas si on la voit. » Angelus Silesius
"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers." Paul Muad'dib
I thought it was a Mexican design. Aycarambakarambit!
There's nothing civil about this war.
Advantages of the original Provoke:
Cool design
Addictive as hell to pop open
Very robust and reliable opening
Blade length adheres to the letter of many restrictive laws, if possibly giving the spirit the finger.
Disadvantages:
Ring can be a problem, per LHS, above—although this one is pretty large
Sort of a one-trick, three-lines/angles pony. Not very versatile at all, IMHO.
I like it, again, because it’s technically legal in places requiring sub 3” or even 2.5” folders, and the opening is the most reliable of any folding knife I’ve tried—including wave, OTF, etc.
The main issue is that when it does pop open, you’re holding a Karambit.
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
I can tell you this about the original Provoke: it's hard to put down.
I have one as the result of another PFC member's inability to judge who is deserving of gifts. It's my summer knife and I love it...it clips into board shorts and is invisible there and I got the draw shockingly fast. You can also punyo like no tomorrow with it; a hard hammer on any vulnerable point will wreck stuff.
Plus, you open that thing and guys are like "I'm not fighting a fucking Klingon ninja wtf fuck this" and bail. Or so I assume and hope.
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff