History, Types and Uses of Karambit Knife

2 min readNov 4, 2019

Karambit knife is a popular knife in the market today, but do you know how it served the people earlier?

There is a long history associated with this knife. In this article, we shall explore the history of this knife.

Karambit knife is recognized due to its curved blade. It has a spectacular design, mainly because of curved shape.

There are plenty of uses of this knife. I will also cover the uses of this incredible knife, and will reveal its types. So, let’s go!

History of Karambit Knife

Karambit knife was originally used as an agricultural tool. It hails from the Philippines where it was first manufactured and used for reaping crops.

French also claim to manufacture the first ever karambit but most of the historians agree on the Philippines as the birthplace of this knife.

Anyways, it was primarily a tool used in agricultural work, however, women also used as self defense weapons.

Later on, it was adopted as a pure fighting knife.

There are basically two types of karambit knife. These types refer to the type of blade.

There is a fixed blade karambit and a folding karambit, and these are the only ways they differ.

One has a movable and foldable blade while the other has a blade that is fixed.

A folding karambit is easy to carry because its blade can be folded inside the handle.

Also, foldable karambit is more commonly used these days. The fixed blade karambit is only carried with a sheath out on it.

There are plenty of uses of a karambit knife. The uses differ with the type of the knife.

A folding karambit serves as a utility and everyday carry knife.

It is used for doing all the routine cutting tasks. However, it is sometimes used for defense as well.

A fixed blade karambit is used for self defense and close quarter combat. But, it can also be used for other cutting tasks.