Customer Reviews

Columbia River Knife and Tool M16-10KZ 3-Inch Black Folding Knife

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The M16-10KZ is a very well designed knife. I carry a cold steel ti-lite 6" a lot of the time, but when I want something smaller and more innocuous I carry this knife.

BLADE: The AUS 4 stainless blade features a combo edge, half straight, half serrated, and a tanto point. I'm a big fan of tantos, lots of penetrating power and stronger than a clip point. It holds an edge well, though not as well as its larger AUS 8 counterparts such as the M16-14SF(Columbia River Knife and Tool's M16-14SF Big Dog Aluminum Tanto Blade Combo Edge Knife). If you're looking for a larger blade for heavier jobs, I'd recommend the 14SF. The 10KZ, however, is a great tool to have in your back pocket for every day jobs. The thumb stud on this knife is poorly positioned in my opinion - it's difficult to get enough leverage to open the knife - however this is of little consequence because of the excellent carson flipper on the back. The flipper is easy to use, has a smooth action, and allows for lightning fast, switchblade-like opening. It also doubles as a finger guard when the knife is open, definitely one of the best design features on this folder.

LOCK: This knife features CRKT's AutoLAWKS locking mechinism, which has an extra lever that prevents the liner lock from being accidentally closed. A lot of people dislike this feature, saying it makes one-handed closing of the knife difficult, but after a little practice I've had no problem with it, closing it just as easily as any regular liner lock. The AutoLAWKS provides extra safety and I see it as a plus. It's tight and opens with a satisfying click. There is no play whatsoever. The center pivot screw is easily adjustable with a flathead screwdriver.

HANDLE: The handle shape is very well designed, fitting comfortably even in larger hands like mine despite the knife being rather small. The Zytel scales are nicely textured, preventing slippage when wet. It's also tough material - it doesn't dent or crack easily, and is more or less impervious to water, salt, etc.

CLIP: The only part I don't like about this knife is the clip. It's strong and it functions well, but it's positioned for tip-down carry, meaning you have to turn the knife over after removing it from your pocket before opening it - inconvenient.

Overall, this knife has a lot of great features that I love - the tanto point, the carson flipper, the AutoLAWKS, and the excellent handle. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a tough, lightweight blade for every day use

Let me start of by saying that CRKT makes some of the best knives out there and the Kit Carson designed M-16 is a fine example of the quality you can expect from CRKT.

The blade is a 3" high-carbon Tanto-style blade with a triple-point serrated edge. The blade is surprisingly sharp right out of the box. Most knives in this price range usually require some good bit of sharpening when you first get them, but the M-16 was almost razor sharp when I got it. A few passes with a Diamond stone and it was good to go.

The Carson Flipper is really the gem feature of this knife. It allows you to flip open the knife with the speed of a switchblade. The flipper also rotates down into a blade guard position which helps to protect against finger slippage. The knife opens incredibly quickly and locks firmly into position.

The second feature I really like about this knife is the AutoLAWKS safety that is built into the knife. This is basically a red safety knob that you have to pull back in order to close the knife. This prevents the knife from accidently closing on itself. It is a great feature that adds a cool tactical feel to the knife.
The frame consists of a stainless steel liner frame with Zytel back spacers. It is all held together with Torx screws including the Teflon-plated stainless steel clip.

Zytel is basically a super dense nylon with varying amount of fiberglass added to the mix. It feels much harder than normal plastic and the folks at Dupont say Zytel is super durable and abrasion resistant, but I would a little careful if your hands are wet or covered with any type of material that could cause the knife to slip out.

My two dings for the knife are this:

They advertise the size of the knife as 4" closed and 7.125" open and this is true. What they don't mention is that the knife is only about an inch wide at the widest curve of the handle. If you are a guy like me with larger hands, it might feel a little small around the grip. On the flip side, the narrow profile of the knife allows you to carry it around in your pocket and not even notice it is there. This is a VERY comfortable knife to carry.

The other ding is one that is common to this type of folding knife. When opening quickly the internal leaf-spring that locks the blade into place can and sometimes lock into a stuck position on the upper section of the frame. This can make it extremely difficult to depress the spring to close the knife. This problem can sometimes disappear as you break the knife in so time will tell.

All in all the CRKT M-16 is an excellent knife for the money. A close competitor is the Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops Tanto, but the M-16 blows it away.

This knife is well built in my opinion. I havent had any major issues with it thus far. I like that it is small and compact. I have had to tighten the screws on the pocket clip once in the month that I have had it. No big deal. The edge is good and the locking mechanism is very adequate. It does take some practice to close it with one hand however.

I just needed a small lockblade for everyday use at work, this does the trick. It's very light at a few ounces, has a decent size blade 3", came razor sharp, comfortable handle, and has some clever cam and lock designs that keep the knife from opening or closing when you dont want it to.

You can open it fast with one hand by pulling the top lever backward rapidly with a strong flick of your forefinger. It is not a spring assist knife but uses a cleverly placed indent and lever actuator angle. The lever can only be activated with strong pressure from a deliberately narrow angle of backward pressure to overcome the indent resistance and open the knife. It takes a bit of practice. But the advantage is You cant open with any downward or random pressure. so that greatly reduces accidental opening that plagues spring assist knives. I tried for a long time rummaging it in my pocket and poking it and squeezing it and such and that blade would not budge. Also the pocket clip is arranged knife tip down for additional safeguard.

Closing it is also a bit of practice due to the Lawks system, but once this knife is open, you do NOT have to worry about accidental closure. To close, simultaneously pull back the lawks lever with your finger and push in the liner lock with your thumb. Lawks lever swings a piece of steel between the liner lock and the handle and thus the liner lock cannot disengage from the blade.

For $20 shipped it was a great deal and definitely way better than those dangerous chinese knockoffs. And for 20 bucks I dont care if I break it or abuse it either.

I really wanted to like this knife. It's lightweight, low-profile clip, all black, easy to open in various ways. Extremely tactical looking, lock is accented with red dot and looks neat on black. Blade dulls quickly, and after a year, the safety broke. This isn't uncommon, seeing that the body is made of plastic or whatever. CRKT is willing to replace it though.

Assuming you're not going Rambo with this knife, its a decent knife. It's got a comfortable grip and weight, almost needle-like tip, and a fairly sharp edge out of the box.

And yes, its a tanto blade, which most knife enthusiasts seem to think is terrible unless you're stabbing through car doors. But lets keep the reviews on THIS knife, okay?

Cons:
- Blade wobbles. There is a thumbscrew that adjusts the tension for flipping it open, and you can only go from ~1mm wobbly(easy to open) to imperceptibly wobbly(impossible to open with one hand). Somewhere in between is good for everyday use.
- AutoLawks: its pretty much stupid, because the chances of a (well designed & reputable)liner lock blade accidentally closing on you is pretty much nil.
- Many people complain that you can't open it with one hand (another complaint of AutoLawks). To these people, I say "LIES! ALL LIES!" It isn't only possible to do so, but it is nearly exactly the same method you would use with any other liner-lock knife, with an added step of "pulling" the little AutoLawks trigger with your forefinger before pressing the liner, after which you are free to release the AutoLawks trigger and push the blade down with your forefinger. You can adjust the thumbscrew to make it easier/harder to flip open. Just find a video on youtube if you still have trouble visualizing it.
- If you want to sharpen it, you have to do both sides (tanto blade)
- Can't open with your thumb. I don't even know why they put the studs there...

Pros:
- It looks cool. Nuff' said.
- Comfy grip. Surprisingly so.
- Not cheap plastic grip like people say. Its a nice plastic grip over a metal frame.
- Sharp point. Good for poking people's eyes...er...holes in stuff. Yea.
- Comes sharp enough to slice paper easily, but not quite enough to shave. I tried.
- Finger guard. My old knife didn't have one...let's just say I'm glad I have one of these now.
- The clip is both well made and removable. Slides onto jeans just fine. Holds its place well.
- It is not a knockoff.
- Great for cutting apples and fudge :)

Overall, I give this 4 stars for its price/performance+features ratio. Great knife so far, and looks to be just as great in the future.

EDIT: 2 months later, it still works like a charm. Still sharp, and the wobbling probably isn't a big deal, since I just pounded it into a tree with a hammer the other day. Tip still sharp.

This knife is wonderful, even someone as bad with knifes as me can use this knife. I bought it for my boyfriend becasue he had one for years and finally the tip snapped after all the ware and tear. But the knife lasted forever! He was so sad when his knife broke that he still carried with him, so i gave in and bought him a new one for christmas. he was so happy to have his knife back but in better condition!! Perfect knife for anyone!!

this knife held up for about a year before I lost it. Very sad and I will buy another crkt, but this time I think I'll go with an m16-13sfg, though this knife is VERY practical for carrying every day. i had it in my pocket and after a while it becomes so easy to flick out that you just use it for everything. Tanto blade was great, serrations were alright. Held it's edge pretty well (its the best knife I've owned) and beat the heck out of my old Gerber.

Great knife. Been carrying it for 3 weeks. Right size to carry everyday and still be functional for a variety of tasks. Great opening action.

The M16-10KZ is a great everyday carry knife.
Even if you are not familiar with the auto-lawks system CRKT uses, it is simple to figure out and becomes natural to use. The auto-lawks system makes this folding knife into almost a fixed blade knife. The flipping mechanism works great and is very simple to use as well. The Tanto edge is great, but can be difficult to sharpen at first.
Overall a great knife with few drawbacks.