Those who know me know that I’m a big knife fan. Whether it’s a good chef’s knife, a fancy limited edition, or a simple folder, I’m into it.

As my collection grows, I’m moving away from the hyper expensive blades, and searching out solid, dependable knives that I can use every day. This first happened in the cooking arena, where I put aside my hand-made Masahiro and replaced it with a stamped Dexter Sani-Safe. If I want to cut fish into 1/16″ slices, I grab the Masahiro. For everything else, the Dexter is the one I go to.

The same thing goes for folders. I love my Ken Onion Random Task, but it’s a valuable, and hard to replace, knife. Which means I don’t want to use it for every day work. Instead, I have been using the cheaper Kershaw Leek, in the Rainbow pattern:

As a friend of mine calls it: “The Hippy Killer”. It’s a fast, and light, knife. But the one I have doesn’t have a serrated blade (useful in certain situations) and it’s just too nice to use. It also has a pretty thin blade, and it’s not something I’d want to have in a “life or death” situation (ex. hacking off my own leg or something gruesome).

All this brings me to my newest knife, the CRKT Model M16-12ZERC. I happened on it pretty much by chance while roaming around the REI site. (I was trying to find good use for a coupon and my dividends.) I thought to myself, what the heck, it looks okay and it has decent reviews, why not.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. Why? Because I was expecting a weak-ish knife with a shitty opening mechanism. Instead, I got a brute that opens super fast and locks tight.

Let me diverge for a moment: Buy folding knives which (a) have locking blades and (b) can be opened with one hand. Let me reiterate: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ONLY USE FOLDERS THAT LOCK AND CAN BE OPENED WITH ONE HAND.

Pretty strident, huh? There’s a reason. When you are trying to use a knife, the last damn thing you want is the blade wanting to slip back into the handle, cutting your fingers in the process. A liner lock, or something similar, is absolutely necessary. Do not carry a tactical folder that doesn’t lock. Period. They are dangerous and unreliable.

Second, and this holds true mainly for tactical folders, you want a knife that can be opened one-handed, as quickly as possible. Whether you are trying to untangle your legs in a river, or fending off hobos, you want a knife that opens fast, with one hand. Now I know there are a lot of people who are afraid of fast knives. Don’t be. They are some of the safest, best engineered, tools available. Any bozo can stamp out a simple folding knife. But it takes proper craftsmanship to make a high-speed opener.

Back to the M16-12Z: This knife opens fast. You can’t see it in the photo, but it uses a setup called a Carson Flipper. It’s on the back of the knife, near the pivot point. Pull it down / push it in (easier done than said) and the blade flips open. I judge the speed of the knife by how much it scares people. This knife scares people, because it flips open so quickly, and with a definite “this is the wrong person to fuck with” sound (due to the blade width). The other nice thing about the Carson Flipper, besides it’s speed, is that it acts as a blade guard when the knife is locked open. It helps prevent your fingers from slipping too far forward–excellent for dangerous situations.

The M16-12Z is a liner lock, which is pretty common these days. This means a piece of springy metal in the handle moves up when the blade passes it. This locks the blade and prevents it from wanting to fold back into the handle. To unlock the knife, you simply push down on the liner with your thumb and ease the blade back in. Again, much easier done than written about.

The problem with liner locks is that they can become unlocked under high torque twisting motions. This is a pretty uncommon movement, but it could happen under emergency conditions (like fending off a brown bear). To solve this problem, this knife includes an AutoLAWKS safety. this is a little safety level which automatically engages when the liner lock does. This means that when the life is locked, it’s locked. To close it, you have to engage the safety, push down the liner lock, and then fold the knife.

It’s kind of funny: With a handgun, and some folders, you have to disengage the safety to open/fire the device. With LAWKS you disengage the safety to disengage the knife. You see, the whole point of high-speed tactical folders is to get them open and ready as quickly as possible. These are life-and-death knives–you don’t want to be fiddling with them, or have them close one you unexpectedly. On the downside, this knife is a little more difficult to close single-handed; it will take some practice to do it quickly. But, then again, it’s more important that it opens quickly than closes quickly.

The other thing I like about this knife is it’s girth. It’s a chubbier knife, with a thick tanto-style blade. The tanto part refers to the tip, and how the thickness of the blade changes (very thick along the top edge). Long story short, it’s designed to stab and slash. The name comes from a Japanese style dagger which was developed to pierce through armor. This kind of blade will pierce sheet metal without a problem.

The handle itself is Zytel over a stainless steel frame. Zytel is a heavy duty material, and comes in a lot of colors. This knife is available in black or orange. I went with the orange, because it’s easier to find/see. The one I have comes with a 3 inch blade, serrated toward the lower half of the blade. One half of the tanto tip is also sharpened, which is different from some other tantos I have (the Random Task comes to mind).

All in all, this is a sturdy, very well made knife. At first I was fooled by the day-glow “plastic” handle, but the Zytel is some tough stuff and this knife is not at all flimsy. It can be found for between $40 and $50 and is a great deal. Highly recommended as a daily use knife.