Columbia River Knife And Tool M16-10KZ EDC 3-inch Zytel Black Folding Knife with Autolawk and Tanto Razor Edge Blade, 7.125-inch Total Length
- AutoLAWK patented automatic knife safety which actuates automatically
- 3″ AUS 4 Stainless Steel
- Zytel black handle
- Tanto blade
- Removable stainless steel clip
Product Description
Strong, lightweight Columbia River M16 – 10KZ Knife. Columbia River built the M16-10KZ to be a multi-purpose marvel you’ll reach for again and again. That means it not only has the strength to handle a variety of tasks, but also to take the sort of everyday knocks and abuse that would send most knives to the scrap heap, yet still delivers peak performance. AUS-4 high-carbon stainless steel black-coated tanto blade; Rigid but lightweight frame and handle; “Carson Flipper” opens blade fast and doubles as blade guard when open; Smooth and serrated combo cutting edge.; Blade measures 3″l., overall measures 7 1/8″l. Weighs 2 3/10 ozs.; Order today for doorstep delivery! WARNING: You must be 18 or older to purchase Cutlery. Cutlery cannot be shipped to Marin, Napa, Ventura and Yolo counties, CA; D.C.; MA or Puerto Rico. Please check your State, County and City laws for restrictions before ordering Cutlery. Columbia River M16-10KZ Knife… More >>
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.
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.
Had this knife for over 6-months now. Here’s the low-down:
Best things about this knife: it’s sharp, cuts all things, opens fast and is slim/small in the pocket.
Worst things about this knife: somewhat cheap build quality, not too solid, with some quirks
If I remember right, this one’s made in Taiwan. The blacking on the blade is pretty fragile. Mine had a funny bump/smudge in the black blade coating when I got it, so I went to buff it out with 0000-extra fine steel wool. It took the top layer of the coating off with just a few strokes. Not great. I’ve seen worse/much cheaper coating, however, so it’s not too bad.
The coating on the clip and knife handle are worse, however, and they’re on their way to bare metal now. The plastic pieces that coat the handle are OK, not exactly the greatest grip, made worse by all the little holes cut in the gripping material (cost cutting, anyone?) — but it’s more because the knife is so small.
Really, this one’s pretty little. I was really surprised how incredibly thin the handle actually is. When clipped to the inside of my jeans pocket, it feels like I don’t even have a knife on me. Feels more like an X-Acto/pen knife than a pocket knife. And initially, it’s about as sharp as an X-Acto, too. It holds an edge OK, but I started noticing it losing sharpness within a month of fairly gentle use. It’s still sharp, though, just not like a razor. But that comes with the territory.
I really like the blade shape, very versatile cutting surfaces for all kinds of material. Rope flies apart using the serrations, and the bump in the blade made by the tanto angle works great for opening boxes, or pressing into any material to cut a good line into.
The flipper only really works if the screw that holds the blade/locking mechanism in the knife handle is at perfect tension — too tight and blade won’t open more than half-way, no matter how hard you mash that Carson flipper. And as the blade opens, it naturally tightens the screw.
So, that quick, switch-blade like opening works for just a handful of knife-openings, then you have to loosen the screw again. The designers obviously knew this, however, because the screw is coated with a check pattern that makes it easy to turn the screw just by pressing your thumb on the face of it.
I would throw some Blue Loctite on the threads, adjust the screw to perfect, and let it set — but I’m wary to disassemble the AutoLawks mechanism. It’s spring loaded, and tiny. Doesn’t look exactly very easy to put back together, or very “fixed-blade” secure to me, either.
It is easy to learn how to open/close the AutoLawks with one hand, but the lever that releases the spring release is pretty tiny, I have to get it with the very tip of my finger. Anybody with big meat mitts would probably find this knife intolerable for that reason alone. Let alone the fact that again, it is like a little pen knife.
Conclusion: If you want a really small, sharp knife that you can open fast (most of the time) for cutting all kinds of materials, this is great. If you want a really solid pocket knife, look elsewhere. I recommend any Buck or Schrade Old Timer lockback folder. Those are knives you can bet your life on.
This one I’d leave for those times when you need a knife, FAST. Not for when you need it to last.
I ordered this knife because I wanted to know the quality of CRKT. I want to say that this is one pleasant suprise. The Carson Flipper works so well you might think this is an automatic. The knife is not large so it might not fit large hands. It is small enough to fit in a pocket without being noticed. The Zytel handle is very lightweight. I was quite surpised at how sharp this knife was out of the box. It is, by far, the sharpest out of the box I have bought. This is a nice knife and I will say CRKT is producing quality knives.