who else has a karambit? what do yall think of them? playing with mine, i feel that they are the best fighting or personal defense knives.
a video of me playin around with mine. excuse the hair and weird clothing, i went through some weird stages:jester:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkFWIHf4Ag0
After watching your video… you should seek out qualified instruction before you hurt yourself.
“Learning on your own” with a live blade is asking for trouble. At a minimum, get a training blade with no sharp edges.
The kerambit can be a devastating close quarters weapon in the hands of a trained user but it wouldn’t be my first choice as an edged weapon.
Based on “playing with” it, some sort of training, or experience?
Karambits are cool, especially with some sort of leverage-assisted opening feature, like Emerson’s Wave. This could be said of any knife style with a similar feature.
The unique blade shape lends itself well to cuts delivered along a specific path, and not so much when trying to go backhand. They also seem to work better in an underhand or reversed grip. But I find it hard to transition between the two grips on the fly, at least with the K-bit. Reversing your wrist, like you did at 0:17, doesn’t give you a lot of leverage for the type of strike you’re simulating. Twirling the thing, or gripping it solely by your index finger (0:06) through the loop has little security, and that kinda crap can easily result in a lost knife in a back alley, or wherever you’re using the thing. Looks cool though.
This sounds like the knife version of “the sound of a shotgun cycling might scare them off”. Put this out of your mind.
Karambit training is a lot of fun. There are some really gifted instructors out there who can really make the thing work. For this mere mortal, I found the karambit to be more or a training tool or gateway towards understanding proper hand positioning and blade mechanics/awareness.
I’ve always carried a straighter blade, as I find them more versatile both for fighting purposes, and for utility purposes.
I’ve been in martial arts for about 25 years, have practiced knife/blade arts via JKD and Kali for the last 5 years, and carry a folding knife daily, on and off duty. I consider myself a decent martial artist, but by no means an expert, and I’m far from the most qualified person on this board. I’m just a student. I would invest in a lot more training before I carried a karambit for defense.
Nice post. It left me with the opposite feeling that I got from watching the OP’s video.
You should at least look into something like “fighting folders” from Michael Janich. The wave offers great advantages and I carry one quite regularly, but you seriously need some training to make the knife work well in a SD scenario. Otherwise you might just ended up stabbing someone without effect instead of stopping his attack.
Yep, pretty much.
yea, all true good points. i like the straight fowardness of everyone here.
imo, Kerambit is one of the WORST blades to have in a knife fight.
It is a marketing hype & farse regarding it’s efficay as a all around knife etc.
It has limited applications & I would never use it as a my primary.
When I was an Emerson Combat Instructor & sparred 5 days+ a week we would ALWAYS wup up gents w/ Kerambits.
Won many a bet against many even in “PI” where I trained a variety of systems, even @ the 96’ World Eskrima Championships in Cebu where we w/ sparred w/ many indigenous etc.
Kerambits’ inherently sacrifice way too much range & give up about 4 to 6+ inches of reach in the pikal or pakal grip. No matter what skills you think you have you will NOT be able to compensate for the loss in range w/ speed or redirected attack against an opponent who has same skillsets.
Train & Spar some more then figure it out. Did so many times myself in “PI”, IAMA, Dog brothers etc…
Pics are of me training on D0S contract in Kabul, Astan of Intelligence Assets circa 02’ techniques are very basic nothing HS at all, blade is LIVE.
YYMV…
HTH…
Karambit’s LOL I remember those. Quit the fad a few years back, remember all the 5.11 catalogs. :rolleyes:
That’s probably not the best criteria to judge the effectiveness of the kerambit.
An analogy would be like saying all the guys with J-frames got out-shot by all the 1911 shooters at an IPSC match.
The kerambit fills a role for those who are willing to take the time to train with it and understands its advantages and disadvantages.
First the butterfly knife because you could twirl it around and do fancy moves now the karambit:lol: for the same reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karambit
Notice it is referred to as a last chance weapon not a primary, also referred to as feminine by some not all silat masters of those cultures.
A more apt comparison would be bringing a taurus judge loaded with 410 shot to a gun fight anywhere BUT point blank range & your opponent has an m4 carbine .
Try any fancy moves in the real world & some street punk will shiv you so fast you won’t know what happened till you wake up in the ER if you’re that lucky.
I’d be hesitant to use wikipedia as a source for information on the kerambit.
That the weapon has survived hundreds of years across multiple south east asian cultures and fighting arts is a testament to the value that those who know its capabilities place upon it.
The unique blade design lends itself to certain techniques, to judge it based on how you would use a 7" ka-bar is flawed.
As stated before, it requires specialized training to get the most out of it.
I have been studying FMA for a some 5 years now.
My master is a student of Paul Greg Alland, and I also was in some seminars he and Dennis O’Campo taught in Rio de Janeiro.
When talking to Greg on the side, he did mention that he preferred the straight blade to the karambit or other specialized tools. His thoughs were along the lines: “specialized weapons requires special move, that means you have to train that in addition to the “normal” tools.
If you train just the regular tool, you get twice the training time…”
So, while I like kerambits, and think their moves are great, I still prefer the straight blade for fighting/utility purposes.
some good arguements and points in here. i also agree, wiki, not the best source.
on a side note, they do make for awesome box cutters and utility knives…
Im also a student of JKD along with Kali. I do quite a bit of knife training. I have been doing it for several years, and I still have a ton to learn. I do know that the Karambit is best used as an offensive tool. I have had some training with them and from what I can see is that they are just another cool toy. Straight blades for me!
I dont want to pile on here, but I can only agree.
Knives , just like guns, are lethal tools, if you look to use one in a life and death violent encounter it is beyond just prudent to seek out qualified instruction.
Thats not to say untrained doofus’ with hi-points dont prevail over BG’s every day… because they do, but that luck of the draw isnt exactly in tune with either my mindset or the mindset of this community.
Heres a good Karambit vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3BQ1327Pms
FWIW I have a limited amount of edged weapons training and a small amount of MA experiance. For me the Karambit is way too specialized of a tool for MY application.
Hoploethos,
Based on your experience what kind of knife do you like if you had to use one in a fight?
Serpico,
I’m still operational these days so bare w/ & forgive my pale look etc.
I do not represent ANY manufacturer’s or knife makers.
There is a metric ton of blades that will do, If you will do.
Giving up 4 - 6 inches reach is not what a switched on operator would do. I know more than I can say here but suffice it to say, Tier one units are not using Kerambits.
Kerambits have applications (trapping, raking, gunting et alia etc.) BUT they are more limited than others because of their range.
Even in the infamous legendary PI “death matches” Kerambits were/are not preferred. I call that a clue, does that tell you something…
PM me the models you have in mind w/ specs & I’ll help you out w/ reccomendations.
best regards,
HTH…
On a little hijack, what is your take on knife disarms?
Personally, one I believe is blowing the mofo out of this living.
I don’t believe in barehand knife disarms, or even bladed disarms (unless that means dismembering (dis-arm). Partly because I never was able to do that, not even saw my master do them.
What I have seen, however, is going straight to finish, with no regards for taking away the weapon.
Pmarc,
While they look flashy in real time speed very rarely happens.
Through the years I have seen some amazing things.
Disarms w/ frequency are not one of them.
Generally,
the limb/attribute needs to be immobilized before it can be SAFELY disarmed. Joint cranks/locks work effectively at slowing down the energy and steel so you can safely effect a disarm.
Otherwise, cut/thrust as much as you can & hit targets as vigorously & often as you can.