Name: Cold Steel 49KST Steel Tiger Karambit Fixed 4.75" AUS-8 Blade, Griv-Ex and Kray-Ex Handles, Secure-Ex Sheath
Brand: Cold Steel Knives
SKU: CS49KST
Price: 66.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.25 (12 reviews)

Dr. Mark
Upstate Noo Yawrk

May 23, 2017

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Sheath/Scabbard, Materials, Finish, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Absolutely Badass!

I've heard warnings about Cold Steel Knives, but honest folks, be EXTRA careful with this baby. She is truly ultra sharp. The point can get you. What a wonderful self defense knife. I am truly amazed. I have an extensive knife collection, and please, forget about money. I'm a stupid collector. I own 3 Rocksteads. This is a real gem...a real honey of a knife, and will be a friend to you. The fit and finish, the grip, blade (which is VG-1) is nearly perfect. For the price point, I cannot recommend a finer knife to go to. I am perfectly pleased 100%!

Yours Truly
Kalifornia

Aug 20, 2020

Pros: Weight, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Sheath/Scabbard, Materials, Finish, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Handle Material

Excellent knife!

This knife feels great, balanced and sturdy, blade is incredibly sharp. I highly recommend it.

Chad
texas

Mar 27, 2017

Pros: Handle Material, Overall Quality, Sheath/Scabbard, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Finish

great knife

love this knife but it is clearly only has one us self defense

Halb
South Carolina

Oct 04, 2017

Pros: Weight, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Great knife

Great knife. Very sharp, looks good and feels good in the hand. Very happy with this purchase.

Bryan C
Columbia, SC

Mar 16, 2017

Pros: Handle Material, Sheath/Scabbard, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Great fixed karambit

Especially for the price, Cold Steel has created an excellent karambit. It feels great in the hand and came very sharp. The included sheath works well.

Joshua
Southwick, Ma

Jun 13, 2017

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Sheath/Scabbard, Materials, Finish, Blade Sharpness

Cons: None

Beast of a karambit

I recently received my steel tiger from knife center (fantastic delivery speed by the way) and I am incredibly pleased! I plan on using this knife for self defense and honestly its pretty hard not to cut everything around your house once you unbox this talon! very comfortable fit in your hand and i highly recommend it! On a side note, I've heard some people complain about the sheath being sticky but it has not been an issue for me at all.

Rashmi S
Jayanagar, Bangalore,

Apr 17, 2017

Pros: Weight, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Finish, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Handle Material

Excellent

Great design, incredibly sharp blade. Very light.

Reaper 187
Buford, Georgia

Oct 09, 2017

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Blade Material, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Sheath/Scabbard

Cold Steel Tiger Claw Karambit

I like the quality of the product. I switch between it and the Boker Karambit as my edc. It is comfortable to carry and to use. I like the rubberized handles and the edgr seems to hold up well, so far. My only real complaint is on the sheath itself. I wish it could be set to index at different positions.

Licensed Civilian
A carry friendly state

Aug 30, 2017

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Sheath/Scabbard

Design worthy of high end version.

I hope Cold Steel considers producing a higher end version of this knife again. I would also like to see this knife with a black coated blade. The steel tiger is legendary for its cutting ability. This knife comes sharp as a shaving razor, has a fine needle tip, and curves resembling a traditional karambit. I am unsure in this model if the tang continues into the ring, which concerns me. The sheath is blatantly right hand only (clip placement options). As a south paw this is a SIN, even though my intention is to use it as a weak hand knife. Quality is ambidextrous, period. That being said this knife is a devastating self defense weapon, and a precise cutting tool.

Anonymous
USA

Nov 20, 2019

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Blade Material, Sheath/Scabbard, Materials, Blade Sharpness

Cons: Overall Quality, Finish

Nice design but subpar fit/finish

For those wondering whether or not this is a full tang Karambit the answer is no it’s not. The tang stops at the plastic ring so technically this is not a full tang Karambit. A previous reviewer stated that there’s a “sharpening anomaly”. What they are describing is the actual cutting edge stops an inch short of the plunge line. This is difficult to notice just by looking at photos, but is obvious in person. I don’t really have issues with the lack of full tang,the plastic ring, or even the “sharpening anomaly”,my issues are with the overall fit/finish,or rather lack there of. I wasn’t expecting the fit/finish and detail of a Bastinelli Creations,or even a Fox Knives Karambit,because I am fully aware of the age old saying “you get exactly what you pay for 99% of the time”,but I was at least expecting the fit/finish of a sub $50 CRKT,SOG,Kershaw,etc. A LOPSIDED edge bevel was immediately noticed out of the box. The bevel is plain sloppy near the tip. The stonewashed Aus8 blade was covered in machining marks. A couple more minutes of detail would have worked wonders here. I contemplated returning to SMKW the same day I received the Karambit, but ultimately decided to just keep it,fix the issues, and toss in the pickup. For less than $50 this isn’t a bad deal, but if I had it to do all over again I would have saved up more cash and went with Bastinelli Creations or a FOX Knives. CS is still one of my “preferred brands” but the Steel Tiger needs more refinement and detail.

Billy
USA

Jun 07, 2024

Pros: Blade Material, Finish, Handle Material, Materials, Overall Quality, Sheath/Scabbard, Weight

Cons: Blade Sharpness

Not as sharp as in the cold steel videos

The design is good enough, the tip needs to be reinforced like the emerson like a reverse tanto tip, but not too difficult to reshaped imo. Not sharp! But maybe i just got a bad one. So just a heads up you might get a not so sharp like mine.

Brian
Lemoyne, Pa

Sep 19, 2017

Pros: Weight, Handle Material, Sheath/Scabbard

Cons: Overall Quality, Blade Sharpness

Not even close to the original.

The original version of this knife was much better. It was sharpened to a fine "tine" so sharp that even though it wasn't sharpened on the back of the blade, it still would have cut through tissue on a reverse attack. NOW, the tine is gone and the tip is like many other Karambit blades. This Tiger has lost much of it's "bite". Most disappointing is that I found a sharpening anomaly in the blade close to the handle. This is the kind of thing I'm used to seeing on blades I used to get from Cold Steel: Special Projects, which were the "seconds" that CS used to sell at a discount. It's sad to see a company like this fall very short of their former glory, Lynn Thompson used to run a tighter ship.