Thoughts On CS Tiger Claw

[johnnywizzo]

Any love out there in Knifeland for the Tiger Claw? At first glance, I wrote it off, but it's starting to worm its way onto my radar. Would you go with the plain edge or serrated? Or would a fixed blade model (Steel Tiger) be a better choice for a self-defense carry knife?

 

[nephron]

I thought they were a gimmick until I read up about them. I bought both, they are a beautiful and wicked thing. The Steel Tiger is Japan and VG-1(I picked up 2-3 a while back). Tiger Claw is CTS XHP.

 

[Smiling]

Good knife, but not for me.

Karambit is a fighting knife, and while I do have some matrial arts experience, I'm trained for bare handed fight. And unless you're trained for knife fight and preferably for the knife you intend to carry - you're better off using a good old straight edge blade for self defense and general EDC. Straight blade is more suited for stabbing, and most untrained people will just try to stab since it's faster, more difficult to block, penetrates thick clothing more easily, and is lethal. It also looks better for you on court if you stabbed someone with some plain looking knife than if you cut someone up with a fighting knife.

Not to mention that straight blades will perform better at other general purpose tasks, not saying it's impossible to do them with karambit, but it won't perform as good as some other blade designs.

But if I had a knife collection, I'd definitley want to add one of them to it.

 

[johnnywizzo]

Well, I couldn't resist temptation and went and ordered a Tiger Claw today. It has a plain edge with CTS-XHP steel, which was the deciding factor in this purchase. I love the steel, and because it's being dropped by CS, now is the time. If I don't like the knife, I shouldn't have too much trouble selling it down the road. After checking out the Emersons, I realized what a great deal CS knives are.

 

[insta9ves]

Too large. Not designed to be held in a traditional karambit grip and more suited for forward grip without the ring. CS should make one with similar handle size of Fox 599. Karambit doesn't really need to be big. As is, it's better to buy the Black Talon II than the Tiger Claw.

 

[BitingSarcasm]

The ring on the Tiger Claw is really only useful for pulling it out. The handle is too long to keep a finger in the ring; I have large hands and there was a lot of handle showing between my hand and the blade, blade up or blade down doesn't matter. The ring works more like a pommel than anything. The thumb plate also wasn't catching reliably enough, it had to into the corner of the pocket pretty hard to be certain of a draw. On the plus side, it has one of the largest folding hawkbill blades around. I liked the blade, hated the ring.

This is the compromise I came up with. The handle needed a finger well for grip without the ring, and the thumb plate got groove got scooped out a bit to make it open cleanly every time. The Tiger Claw didn't make a good Karambit, but it can be a good EDC and utility knife.

 

[DangerZone98]

The ring on the Tiger Claw is really only useful for pulling it out. The handle is too long to keep a finger in the ring; I have large hands and there was a lot of handle showing between my hand and the blade, blade up or blade down doesn't matter. The ring works more like a pommel than anything. The thumb plate also wasn't catching reliably enough, it had to into the corner of the pocket pretty hard to be certain of a draw. On the plus side, it has one of the largest folding hawkbill blades around. I liked the blade, hated the ring.

This is the compromise I came up with. The handle needed a finger well for grip without the ring, and the thumb plate got groove got scooped out a bit to make it open cleanly every time. The Tiger Claw didn't make a good Karambit, but it can be a good EDC and utility knife.

Awesome modification. Looks like the clip sits pretty high on the knife as well, making for discreet carry. Was it easy removing the Tiger Claw ring?

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Awesome modification. Looks like the clip sits pretty high on the knife as well, making for discreet carry. Was it easy removing the Tiger Claw ring?

The stock clip is as low as it can get, if you got one of those aftermarket ones that you screw on through a hole in the clip it would functionally disappear. The ring was integral to the backspacer and came off easily with a dremel fiberglass-reinforced cutoff wheel. Final profiling took a couple of passes on a belt sander, which was also nice and easy. The thing I did wrong was to get a bunch of grit into the pivot when I cut the finger well. I left the knife assembled so I could check it for grip as I went. If I had it to do over again, I would work some tape into the gap first to forestall the cleanup and swearing. I like to tinker, and this mod was easy to do and gave me exactly what I wanted.

 

[johnnywizzo]

Got my Tiger Claw in the mail today, and it's a really nice knife! CTS-XHP steel with a perfectly centered blade and a smooth working Tri-Ad lock. I'm not used to karambits, but I already like it.

 

[Mohave Aviator]

The ring on the Tiger Claw is really only useful for pulling it out. The handle is too long to keep a finger in the ring; I have large hands and there was a lot of handle showing between my hand and the blade, blade up or blade down doesn't matter. The ring works more like a pommel than anything. The thumb plate also wasn't catching reliably enough, it had to into the corner of the pocket pretty hard to be certain of a draw. On the plus side, it has one of the largest folding hawkbill blades around. I liked the blade, hated the ring.

This is the compromise I came up with. The handle needed a finger well for grip without the ring, and the thumb plate got groove got scooped out a bit to make it open cleanly every time. The Tiger Claw didn't make a good Karambit, but it can be a good EDC and utility knife.

Why would you do this? Atleast before, you had the option chocking up on it, or extending your reach. That ring is critical when you suffer a massive adrenal surge and your fine motor movement goes by by. Any one who disagrees with resulting auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, and loss of fine motor skill that often come hand in hand with adrenalin packed life or death situations, is simply talking out of their backside.

Still....it's your knife bro, do whatever ever you like. I just realized I'm being overly tempermental. I apologize

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Why would you do this? Atleast before, you had the option chocking up on it, or extending your reach. That ring is critical when you suffer a massive adrenal surge and your fine motor movement goes by by. Any one who disagrees with resulting auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, and loss of fine motor skill that often come hand in hand with adrenalin packed life or death situations, is simply talking out of their backside.

Still....it's your knife bro, do whatever ever you like. I just realized I'm being overly tempermental. I apologize

If you want to apologize, maybe don't hit Post on your diatribe in the future. The handle on the Tiger Claw is shite. You can use the ring and have this bizarre gap right next to your hand with no blade at all. Or you can choke up and now that ring is just in the way for anything you want to do. I suppose you could use it as an impact tool in a pure SD situation, but I think I would rather use the blade end for that. In the massive adrenal surge, no fine motor movement life or death situation, do I want to try and use big moves to bludgeon down an assailant or am I going to make the slight turns with my wrist and arm that will get the 4" hawkbill into play--where minimal contact will result in injury?

I wanted a karambit, but the Tiger Claw has only cosmetic similarities to one. It does, however, make a good EDC without that idiot ring and with the handle scooped out for proper retention. I have found it to be quite useful over the last couple of years.

 

[Mohave Aviator]

If you want to apologize, maybe don't hit Post on your diatribe in the future. The handle on the Tiger Claw is shite. You can use the ring and have this bizarre gap right next to your hand with no blade at all. Or you can choke up and now that ring is just in the way for anything you want to do. I suppose you could use it as an impact tool in a pure SD situation, but I think I would rather use the blade end for that. In the massive adrenal surge, no fine motor movement life or death situation, do I want to try and use big moves to bludgeon down an assailant or am I going to make the slight turns with my wrist and arm that will get the 4" hawkbill into play--where minimal contact will result in injury?


I wanted a karambit, but the Tiger Claw has only cosmetic similarities to one. It does, however, make a good EDC without that idiot ring and with the handle scooped out for proper retention. I have found it to be quite useful over the last couple of years.

Yeah….ok buddy, all that aside, the blade on the Tiger claw extends almost all the way to the aluminum spacer/ring. This means, if you haven't nicked your finger/s with the blade yet, you will. More importantly, you over ruled the designer and eliminated a major safety component, and for almost no tactical gain. Matter of fact, it cost you versatility. You lost pommel strikes, extended grips and strikes, certain locks and come alongs. Lol…buddy, you basically neutered your karambit, and for what reason? Oh..it was too big. Question, when has anybody ever gotten in a knife fight and said, “dang! My knife is too big and I just have too much additional reach with this handle.”? It's your knife buddy, but maybe, just maybe you should think a little longer before you go around alterting things

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Yeah….ok buddy, all that aside, the blade on the Tiger claw extends almost all the way to the aluminum spacer/ring. This means, if you haven't nicked your finger/s with the blade yet, you will. More importantly, you over ruled the designer and eliminated a major safety component, and for almost no tactical gain. Matter of fact, it cost you versatility. You lost pommel strikes, extended grips and strikes, certain locks and come alongs. Lol…buddy, you basically neutered your karambit, and for what reason? Oh..it was too big. Question, when has anybody ever gotten in a knife fight and said, “dang! My knife is too big and I just have too much additional reach with this handle.”? It's your knife buddy, but maybe, just maybe you should think a little longer before you go around alterting things

I'm not your buddy, I'm just the guy you chose to insult based on a year old thread. In the years I have been carrying my mod, I have not nicked my fingers on the blade, there is 3/8" between the closest end and the knife, and I left the end fully enclosed by the liner. I overruled the designer because it was a bad design, it was neither useful while holding the ring nor with a regular grip with that awkward butt sticking out. The handle was almost the size of an XL voyager or a Frenzy with almost 2" less of blade. The ring was not a safety component, it was a gimmick to cash in on the karambit market, which incidentally was a market that Lynn Thompson had mocked in previous years. The handle was so ludicrously large that even after cutting and reshaping it, I still have a pommel if I need to hammer stuff; I have used it to hit wood pieces into alignment, I have no doubt it would survive wood or bone.

I guess I'm not a high speed, low drag operator like yourself who needs... dunno what to call it, features? The various bits on the Tiger Claw work against each other, it..is...a....poor...design. Tactical gain? You want to get that extended reach? Well try not to catch anything with that huge birdbeak of G10 around the pivot then, it's unlikely to cut anything. Locks and come alongs? I don't live in a dojo, if things are so bad I need to pull a weapon for SD I am using the sharp bits of the knife. I took a shitty karambit and made it into a good EDC hawkbill. You don't like my work, that's fine, but we aren't ever going to find common ground. If you really want to get your full Mall Ninja on, feel free to repost in https://bladeforums.com/forums/practical-tactical.680/ , but I will keep on "alterting" things however I damn well please.

 

[Mohave Aviator]

Right...I buy bad designs i don't want all the time
You know...if I wanted a knife, that was designed to be held in the traditional grip, with a blade similar to a karambit, but with no ring, i'd buy the black talon 2. But hey! Who am I to use realistic expectations when knife shopping? You are entitled to be as illogical as you want....buddy

 

[jlauffer]

Right...I buy bad designs i don't want all the time
You know...if I wanted a knife, that was designed to be held in the traditional grip, with a blade similar to a karambit, but with no ring, i'd buy the black talon 2. But hey! Who am I to use realistic expectations when knife shopping? You are entitled to be as illogical as you want....buddy

Dude, chill out. He modded the knife to suit his needs, which don't appear to be "tactical" in nature. Fine that you don't like it, but give it a rest.

 

[Mohave Aviator]

Dude, chill out. He modded the knife to suit his needs, which don't appear to be "tactical" in nature. Fine that you don't like it, but give it a rest.

Who put the dollar in you? I don't see the bat signal. You can take the cape off Mr. self apponited arbiter of other peoples business. Nobody asked for your self righteous display, he can speak for himself.

 

[jlauffer]

Who put the dollar in you? I don't see the bat signal. You can take the cape off Mr. self apponited arbiter of other peoples business. Nobody asked for your self righteous display, he can speak for himself.

Maybe you missed the part about it being a public forum? But just keep digging...

 

[Mohave Aviator]

Dude, chill out. He modded the knife to suit his needs, which don't appear to be "tactical" in nature. Fine that you don't like it, but give it a rest.

Coincidentally, guys like you, are the reasons forums are dying. You interject yourself into exchanges you have no part it in. You deal in hypocrisy and double standards. Your objections are never fair, they are based in what and who you like. The evidence for this assertion is all over this forum. It cracks me up, it really does. People like you, who act like arbiters and gate keepers because a status bar says your important. Ironically, what it really says is, you’re an A social personality with no people skills, who lives in computer land. Enjoy your virtue signaling sir, this is merely entertainment while I await for things that actually matter.

 

[Mohave Aviator]

Maybe you missed the part about it being a public forum? But just keep digging...

lol...says the guy who just told me to be quiet...lmao, just like i said.....pure hypocrissy and inconsistent thinking. lol...guy refutes himself and winks at me like i'm the dummy hahahahaha pricelesss!

 

[Mohave Aviator]

Maybe you missed the part about it being a public forum? But just keep digging...

I hope your watching folks. This person is the walking embodiment of liberal thinking and a study on how they argue. Probably is a Bernie Sanders staffer who thinks money grows on trees and socialism works. Now...go run and get your comrades and fellow social justice warriors. Make sure you tell them how i used logic to offend your subjective reality, thereby micro aggressing you and justifying your departure from due process and reality.