CRKT M16-02KS Folding Pocket Knife: EDC Lightweight Pocket Knife with Stainless Steel Handle, 3 Inch Tanto Blade, Flipper Opening, and Frame Lock

I wanted a small, but not too small folder for everyday carry and potential self-defense, with no secondary locks for quick one-handed open and close. I haven't mastered closing it one-handed yet, but I'm getting close. Opening it with the flipper is super easy and reliable. The tanto blade was perfectly centered and came extremely sharp. (I hand-sharpen my Japanese Santoku, so I wasn't too worried about sharpness in any case.)I have a medium-small hand and the handle fits all four fingers sportscar snug, which was important for me. I wanted a secure grip and the tactical holes also help surprisingly well, providing texture. As a bonus, the holes provide effective axial points to rotate the knife into a reverse grip if desired. The holes also make anchoring and pulling the knife out of the pocket easy.This is definitely a flipper-type knife, so if you prefer thumb-open it's not really designed for it. The upside is that the blade closes snug with no extra locks and I don't worry about it opening in my pocket. I love the flipper style opening myself. It works great and it's simple, so I'm sold on the design. It did need a little break-in for smoothest operation, but it's now super smooth, quick, and reliable. And I'll admit it. It's fun. Breaking it in was a joy.I also like the shorter, beefy clip. It's so wide that it's easy to lift with the edge of my finger and slide over the pocket edge where it clips tight. The tactical-style holes give some grip on the draw, too. Having four options for the clip position was a prerequisite for me.The M16-02KS is an elegant, no-nonsense design. No extra liner, just a secure frame lock, reasonably thin, reasonably light, but still extremely strong. It vanishes in the pocket, even in snug jeans. You could probably use the semi-pointy butt end of the handle as a kubaton for non-lethal defense as well as a safety glass breaker in a pinch. The handle works particularly well in a reverse grip (perfect for me in fact) if you're interested in self-defense applications.The 3" tanto blade isn't huge, but make no mistake, it's a Pitbull of a blade and I'm not worried about breaking the tip off. I skipped serrations because I wanted something reasonably easy to sharpen (two edges notwithstanding). I'm not using the 02KS for general EDC, so I can't speak to general usability of the tanto style.My days on worksites are long gone, but the blade does make quick work of the avalanche of Amazon boxes that are invading my life these days. I now enjoy tackling the endless boxes that show up on the doorstep, the bigger the better. I cut down a giant box this weekend and it was a little scary how easily the M16 sliced through wide swathes of super thick cardboard. Fortunately, I know about knife safety and body positioning. This is definitely not a toy. Don't underestimate the size of this knife. It deserves (and requires) respect.One minor, temporary critique, I do wish the knife came with two torx keys. I've never used torx in my life and my old toolkit has a bunch of unused torx sockets that are all too large of course. So I had to order a bunch of smaller keys I don't need to get the T6 and T8 that the knife uses, effectively increasing the cost of the knife. The knife is cost-effective as it is, so that's not too big of a deal, but it would have been a nice touch. So many products come with included hex keys, why not include a couple inexpensive torx keys?I'm finding one handed thumb-closing a little difficult at the moment, but I suspect I just need to build up thumb strength and break in the frame lock a bit. It is getting easier over time, but it's a bit of a hit and miss affair at the moment, unlike the flipper. Worst case, I use two hands to close it.Even with these two minor nits, I wouldn't dock the knife. It's pretty much perfect for what I wanted and handsome, too.

This knife came sharp and the blade was perfectly centered. This blade locks open like a bank vault! Seriously impressed at the lock up! Sandvik is good, tough steel. You might need to touch it up more frequently, but it’s tough meaning it should take impact well and take a bit of prying even if you “had” to. I’d still avoid prying, but what I’ve read, this steel is very tough and you could do it. I like that.Thick blade, thick tip, solid steel handle and frame lock. This knife is very robust, ready for serious abuse. Big enough for a big hand. It’s smooth and easy to carry. I like the new pocket clip a lot.I gave the lock 4 stars because it’s a bit hard to disengage. If you have big hands, it’ll probably be even harder to disengage it. However, the lock up is perfect. It’s very secure.Other than that one gripe, for $43 this is a very solid, very tight, pretty great deal. I like it a lot.I wish the blade was shorter though but that’s only because of local laws. I want one under 3 inches with Sandvik steel CRKT! Pretty please.I’ll be buying a few of these as gifts. Buy it, it’s a work knife, it’ll last, it’s tough as nails, and it won’t break the bank.

I enjoy this knife, it’s easy to open and close. I like the frame lock my arthritic hands find it easier to open and close verse other knives. My last crkt was a let down felt maybe the quality had been slipping I’ve been buying crkt and the original M16 since the late 90s. This appears to be close to the original I will say it doesn’t match the quality of the original which i still have they seem moreSolid. But for the money this is steel a great knife well worth more then $35. It also came very sharp out of the box. The clip is in improvement over the other M16 and M21.

nice pocket knife

I have been wearing this knife in my pocket nearly every day for some months now. It is large enough to offer robustness of a large knife, but small enough to not draw too much attention when you carry it in your pocket or when you use it in an everyday situation among other people. In fact, for my rather large hands (size 10 gloves) the handle lacks about 5mm to offer a really good grip. But I have learned to accept it and now hold the knife slightly different from my other larger knives. Still, I reduce half a star for this (The larger 04Z is much larger and, thus, not an option here). If anyone would object on this reduction I can add that I would also like to reduce half a star due to that the belt clip does not allow the knife to completely disappear in the jeans pocket, about half an inch of the knife protrudes over the pocket edge, which makes it draw attention as the visible part is also quite broad (I have already had comments like "Are you carrying a knife?"). But In the end I still want to give it a 4 star and not pull it down to 3.The holes in the handle tend to collect dirt, thus definitely a reduction by another half star. They should have been made all through the liners, like in the S&W Extreme Ops Tanto CK13T. It would also help to keep the blade dry when folded, and make the knife somewhat lighter.The mechanism is very well made and strong. No blade play after prolonged use, and the tang of the blade goes relatively far back in the handle when opened.I have tried many blade shapes, and some have been tanto. For me tanto blades are a little of a gamble, I can really hate it, or really love it, rarely anything inbetween. I love this particular blade. It has all the right dimensions and geometry for the everyday tasks, be it cutting wood, cardboard, peeling an apple, or building plastic models with my kids. The edge of the tip has the exact right size and angle for detailed work. The bevel is slightly hollow grind, not too deep to make it weak, and it slices well. The steel quality allows a very sharp edge, and it seems to hold the edge pretty well.The blade opens incredably fast, but I had a problem with that it opened up too easily in my pocket. I had to tighten the screw a bit to avoid this, which now does not allow that lightning-fast opening anymore. I could have removed another half of a star for this, but I feel it is rather due to my personal preference than any significant fault of the knife. BTW, one things that outweighs this small negative observation is that the knife has a slotted pivot screw! Great, you can always find some screwdriver or metal item to use to tighten the screw.If you are used to put a lanyard on your knife then I have some bad news for you. There is indeed a small hole straight through the rear end of the handle. However, when the knife is folded the tip of the blade passes about half the view through this hole, it will cut any lanyard as nicely as a cigar cutter. Certainly a design fault. If this was not intended as a lanyard hole then I wonder what it was intended for as it is in the correct position and the only hole that passes also the liners. Now, I am not using lanyards on such small knives, but if I had I would have reduced several stars due to this.The knife feels a little heavy for its small size, but quality and strength often comes with that price.If you have hands up to, but not just as large as mine I am sure you will love this knife as an EDC. I think it has a correct price point, it is well worth about 40$, but it is no bargain. There are other knives in that price range, and also both cheaper and more expensive that are equally good.