The $30.00 CRKT Hissatsu

[Skofnung]

I just received my CRKT Hissatsu from Smokey Mountain Knife Works yesterday, and I thought I’d share some thoughts on it with yall.

First off, this is my first purpose driven “fighting knife.” I’ve owned and carried many kinds of knives over the years, but all of them have been working tools first, weapons second. This design is not a working tool in the slightest.

The reasons I bought this particular design are twofold. First, I found a good price on it by chance. Smokey Mountain Knife Works has them for $30.00 on their website. Second, I’ve been taking Modern Arnis for some time now and decided that I want a martial blade.

The Blade:
The blade is made of 440A Stainless. Now I’m no fan of stainless steel for my working knives, but for some reason this does not concern me with this knife. It is not a knife that will see much hard utility use, and thus edge retention and ease of sharpening are not of great concern. In the very unlikely event that I need to use this blade for defense, it will be sharp enough long enough to work.

Grip:
The hilt of the knife is a rubbery plastic material that affords a good grip. The lack of guard would have kept me from buying this knife at a higher price, but I’ve found that the swell of the handle is adequate to keep ones fingers off of the blade in a straight stab with dry hands… I’ve yet to try it out with wet hands.

The Sheath:
The sheath is of typical “ubertactical” design with multiple attachment points. It is adequate in terms of retention, but the supplied hardware for mounting the belt loop is sub-par. I’ll probably end up making a traditional Saya for it and maybe ordering a real kydex sheath from a custom maker… provided that further tests prove that this is a good blade.

Thoughts on Handling:
This thing handles well. It feels very comfortable in the “pikal” grip (icepick grip with the blade facing you) and in making saber grip draw cuts. I still have a few concerns about forehand stabs at full force, but further testing (with gloves at first) will prove one way or another. I’ll post an update after I’ve wrung it out a little more.

Final Thoughts:
I would not have bought this knife at the suggested MSRP, but for $30.00 I have been impressed thus far. I look forward to cutting some pool noodles and such when I get the chance.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

There is a guy over on Blade Forums that was removing the grip and doing a traditional wrap job on them. I had one done and like it, grip is a bit small for my hands, but the appearance is much better.

I also took a scotch-brite pad to the whole blade to give it a hand rubbed appearance. I didn't like the super shine that mine had from the factory.

It's a great knife for the price!

 

[Skofnung]

Ok, I’ve now had the chance to do a little testing, and the results are… mixed.

First the bad:
The very tip of the blade (the first 1/32”) got a very slight bend while testing the stopping power of the hilt. I was able to bend it back, but as we all know, that means the tip is now weakened further. Bummer.

The good:
The hilt works. The grip is secure even with wet hands.

I tested the cutting power of the blade on some sweet gum saplings using the factory edge. I was surprised that it had little trouble going through saplings as big around as my index finger using a draw cut on a Modern Arnis #1 and #2. It is a thick blade and grind, so it did better than I thought that it would.

I think that I am going to try my hand at convexing the edge on this sucker. I’ve wanted to try this edge profile, and this seems like the perfect platform for it.

More on the sheath:
The belt loop attachment is useless. In fact, it is worse than useless, it scratched up the tip of one of my leather belts due to an untrimmed seam on the inside that I couldn’t see.

Lacing a length of 550 cord through the holes makes for some interesting attachment options.

So far, I’m still glad I bought it. When I get the edge re-profiled, I do a few more tests.

 

[Skofnung]

Ohen Cepel,
Yhea, I've seen those, they do look cool. I figured that if the hilt didn't stop my hand in a thrust, I would tie a turks head knot on the hilt like that fellow does. Heck, I still might.

I don't mind the super shine, but I can see after a few more tests that the shine will fade.

 

[tellner]

I wouldn't want to use a knife that didn't have some sort of guard. It's just too easy to hit something like bone and end up with a handful of blade and your own blood.

 

[Skofnung]

I wouldn't want to use a knife that didn't have some sort of guard. It's just too easy to hit something like bone and end up with a handful of blade and your own blood.

The guard is sufficient. Like I said earlier, I bent the tip in a full force thrust. My hand didn't ride up the blade one whit.

I too had your reservations at first, but this design seems to work. That said, my ideal fighting knife has generous quillons.

 

[tellner]

Fair enough. I'm still a little hesitant. I've seen it happen too many times. In fact, it happened to me when I slipped while I was dressing out a sheep.

 

[Sir Aardvark]

I've taken a couple of self-defense and knife-defense classes with James Williams - he is the designer of the Hissatsu and certainly knows his stuff.

He makes handling a knife look easy - he also makes hurting you really, really bad look easy too!

His Dojo is near San Diego:

http://www.dojoofthefourwinds.com/

He is also President of the Bugei Trading Co. which makes Samurai swords:

http://www.bugei.com/

 

[texascarl]

Thanks for the heads up, I've wanted one of these for quite a while. Mine just arrived today, heckuva deal at $30 + shipping.

Here's an older article about these knives, back before the CRKT version came out.

http://www.dojoofthefourwinds.com/hissatsu.html

 

[Skofnung]

Update:

Well, I've done a bit of playing, and here are my thoughts:

The steel on this piece is very soft. I put a convex edge on it and got it to a scary sharpness. I decided to cut some rolled up cardboard with it to test the edge. It did very well for the first 6 or 7 cuts, but the edge didn't last much longer than that. Cardboard is very rough on edges, but most of my other knives stand up much better than this.

I used it to cut some water filled coke cans after touching the blade up, and again, it did well for the first few cuts. Then it started sending cans flying.

The knife is useless as a utlity blade, but would work ok as a backup weapon.

I'm still glad I bought it.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

It's good for one thing (looking cool in my case ).