I was asked to design and to make a new EDC utility knife for the members of the Home Front Command Squad (HAPAK) military unit from the IDF Israel Defense Forces. It had to be a simple lightweight knife, tough and reliable.
A wharncliffe style blade seemed the logical choice for a hard use utility knife: its strong tip allows precise and deep cuts.
The karambit handle with a ring offers a secure grip and adds extra tactical / fighting capabilities to the knife if required:
I decided to use my last reserve of thin stock 4340 high strength alloy steel for this project. Characterized by its high shock and impact resistance, 4340 steel is a shock and impact resistant high strength steel that offers exceptional strength, toughness and wear-resistance and is used for applications requiring the highest tensile/yield strength (Military aircrafts, heavy duty crankshafts...).
Unfortunately 4340 excels in toughness (it is by far the toughest steel) but edge retention is mediocre. By microwelding a thin layer of carbide onto a tougher metal such as 4340 high strength steel, I get the extreme toughness of properly heat treated 4340 alloy steel with the edge retention of the Tungsten cardibe with a hardness of 70-80HRC:
A quality multiposition kydex sheath with an Ulticlip retention clip were added to complete the blade:
The final result is the HAPAK, a Bladetricks karambit specially designed as a compact field tactical knife:
(All my blades can be customized to tailor customer's needs)