HOKC Cougar | 332-709406 | Pocket Knife with Liner Lock, Ball Bearing Opening, G10 Handle, Ambidextrous Thumb Stud, D2 Stainless Steel Blade, Black Titanium Coated Utility Knife

So, Noks or Nox (Hokc in Cyrillic) is a knife company in Russia that has this madman named A. Biryukhov designing all kinds of big, interesting, crazy fighting (“urban tactical”) knives, which are then manufactured by an OEM in China and sold on the Russian market. I have a collection of their designs purchased here on Amazon, sold for cheap under the HUAAO brand and while they are decent enough, they appear to be either clones, factory overruns/seconds or simplified versions for the Chinese market. This particular knife is definitely the real deal – same as gets sold for about the same amount of dough in Russia. It’s slightly better packaged and more refined when it comes to the build quality and aesthetics. As far as I can tell, “Knife tech store” is the only dealer on Amazon that sells these Russian Noks versions. How is my first “real deal” Noks knife? Read on to find out… The packaging is very similar to the HUAAOs, with a nice black “pull up” cover box with attractive silver Noks branding. Unlike the HUAAOs, here you also get Noks’ web site on the other end of the box, as well as a sticker with a bunch of Cyrillic product information on the bottom. Also unlike the HUAAOs, this knife comes with the blade deployed/unfolded. There’s a much-appreciated plastic protector on the tip, as well as a sleeve covering the blade. The whole thing would make for a heck of an impressive gift. While I’ve been “spoiled” by the monstrously impressive size of a HUAAO Noks Avatar, the Kuguar (Cougar) here is also a very large and imposing looking knife. It all looks pretty darn great. The polished metal contrasts very well with the black G10 scales and the red accenting between the metal liners and the scales just put a cherry on top of this presentation, making for a very attractive total package. The fit and finish are excellent overall, with the only blemish being the blade sitting slightly off center when folded, at about the 55/100 position. The milling on the metal and G10 is very good, and everything is well rounded and chamfered in addition to feeling extremely solid. This is a very fidgety knife with at least half a dozen different ways to open the blade. Whichever way you choose, the sight of the massive blade “swinging into action” is guaranteed to give you an s eating grin every time. It’s very big, aggressive, intimidating and cool all the way around. What she said... Other than Noks’ trademark (no idea if it actually is TM) external flathead screw pivot, the most unique feature of this model is the button looking thing on the spine of the handle. No, it’s not a switch or part of the locking mechanism. It’s a blade kicker/pusher of sorts. Giving it a good push with your index finger, gets the blade past the detent, and at least partially deployed. If you're holding the knife (folded) tip up while pushing it, the gravity will help deploy the blade the rest of the way until it locks. Otherwise, you’ll need to generate a bit of inertia with a wrist flick. It works kind of like a detached “push button” type of rear flipper but doesn’t provide enough leverage to open and lock the blade on its own without the addition of gravity or inertia. In addition to this “blade kicker”, there’s a thumb plate attached to the spine of the blade. It uniquely allows you to flick the blade open with your thumb, while also allowing you to use it as a front flipper tab. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a generously sized blade fuller that lets you reverse flick the blade or kick it open from the tip up position, giving you instant reverse (“tactical”) grip. So yeah, lots of options and fidgeting fun involved! By the way, the product description does make it sound like there’s some kind of “assisted” (spring) opening involved but that’s not the case. This is a strictly one handed manual opening/closing folding knife with “options”. The blade locks up tight and free of play using an extra beefy liner lock mechanism, with plenty of contact surface, making me pretty confident that the lock is not going to fail on me. The access to the liner lock is good and it’s easy to disengage. There’s a bit of a “double clutch” on closing and the blade does take some encouragement to fall shut. However, considering how heavy and sharp it is, I prefer it this way. Speaking of the blade, it’s attractively ground from the ubiquitous D2 tool steel, decently polished and came extremely sharp and slicey. The tip is appropriately very “pokey”. No idea how well (or poorly) hardened the D2 steel here is but the blades on HUAAO Noks’ have held up well for me. It’s worth remembering that while properly hardened D2 steel is excellent at holding a sharp edge, is not a true stainless steel and thus requires extra care when exposed to moisture or a particularly humid climate, to protect it from corrosion. I’ve personally never seen a D2 blade corrode, but the air is very dry where I live, and I take care of all my blades. The large handle has some rather nicely milled G10 scales and offers plenty of gripping positions. The standard hammer grip feels great and so does choking up on the choil-like area below the pivot, with the reverse (“tactical”) grip feeling particularly excellent, which is a must for a “tactical” knife like this. The deep carry pocket clip doesn’t present any significant hotspot for me in any of these positions. The handle is rather thick which only enhances the grip. Overall, the ergonomics here are very good. As already mentioned, this knife comes with a deep carry tip up pocket clip and it works rather well. Unfortunately, it is not reversible for lefty carry. There’s a generously sized lanyard hole on the back if you’re inclined towards using one. The whole space between the liners on the back of the handle is filled with metal and is sturdy enough to break glass and pummel stuff. Do I have any complaints? Nothing that will bring my score down but yes, there are some annoyances. There’s the aforementioned lack of perfect blade centering. The pivot screw didn’t come loctited and after I played with the knife for a bit, it came loose enough to introduce side-to-side blade play (which went away after I retightened the screw). I plan on fixing this in the near future, but it would’ve been cool if I didn’t have to. Also, the Torx crews are all T6 size, which are pretty easy to strip. I always prefer to see T8 or larger fasteners. In addition, I would’ve preferred it if the blade was made from good budget stainless steel like 14C28N, VG-10, N690 or even AUS10, even if it did bring the price up by $20 or so. Speaking of blade steel, I’d love to see a premium version of this knife, using a stainless “super steel” like a S35VN. However overall, this is one heck of a big and super cool “urban tactical” knife for not much money and deserves a 5-star rating. Budget permitting, I’ll be ordering more “real deal” Noks knives from this seller!

- The build quality is impressive for a knife at this price point. Fit and finish are very good. - The grips are better than most of the grips I have seen on more expensive knives. - The opener system is unique but easy to learn, particularly for experienced owners. - The overall length fits my jeans pocket; the blade is almost the same length as the handle. - Be Careful! These knives are scary sharp out of the box!

Great knife. Sturdy, well balanced, well made.

This is a nice, mid-range folding knife from NOKS, a Russian company. I am not a knife expert, but I consulted one, and he told me what to look for. The blade is connected to the body with a bolt and twin ball bearing. The open (extended) lock is provided with a tab in the body known as a "liner lock". This is a solid method of construction. The closed lock is through a ball in hole, and out of the box, this was really tight. It loosened up a bit with use. The opening mechanism is assisted with a two-sided (left and right hand) thumb stud, and this is not a simple process. The photos in the listing show a semicircular hump on the back of the blade, with ridges, to assist in freeing the blade so it can be more easily flicked open. The knife I received had no such hump. The knife loses one star for this omission. This would have made opening MUCH easier, especially for beginning knife enthusiasts, like me. The knife feels very balanced in hand once opened and locked. The pocket clip is right handed, which is fine for me. I found the clip a bit fidgety to attach to the lip of my pocket, so pried the bottom part of the clip open a little more to facilitate clipping over my tactical pants pocket. The blade is D2 Stainless, and the edge when I took the knife out of the box was RAZOR sharp. From what I understand, D2 Stainless has a relatively high carbon content, which means it may show rust, especially if put away wet, not oiled, or not maintained. I will keep an eye on this. It took me a while to figure out how to open and close the knife with one hand, something that can be very important in certain situations. See my video and photos. The first method is to push on the indentations on each side of the blade to break the friction of the ball that holds the blade in place. This means it's a two step process - one step to break the blade free and a second step to flick it open. With practice this can be done ALMOST simultaneously. The second way to flick the blade open is to use the ambidextrous (can use your left OR right thumb) thumb stud. I taught myself how to do this, and can get it every time, now. If you don't have strong hands, and especially strong thumbs, I'm gonna guess this method will be almost impossible for you. And the third method is through inertia - just propelling the knife downward while holding it horizontally then snapping it QUICKLY upwards. This is also not easy, and like the thumb stud method, I'm having to practice this method A LOT. I would recommended using the convenient lanyard hole to rig a lanyard to allow you to loop around your wrist, otherwise you may end up throwing the knife downward, and if it is even partially open when this happens, bad things could occur. The knife does not come with a sheath, and I am looking for one. So far, my preferred method of one-hand opening is the first mentioned above, even though it is two step process. It can happen pretty quickly. I'm getting more skilled using the thumb stud, and also working on the inertia trick. To close the open knife, you need to flick the frame lock towards the middle. This can be done with your thumb, and if you hold the knife horizontally, the blade will unlock and swing down vertically, and then you can loop your thumb around to guide the blade home into the locked and closed position. BE CAREFUL! If you don't hold the knife horizontally while doing this, tipping it back towards vertical, the blade can EASILY swing into your thumb, and as I learned, the VERY sharp blade WILL cut your thumb. Of course, you can use two hands to open the knife, if you can't manage any of the one-handed operations. Overall, this is a very nice, well made knife, and I'm happy I picked it up. It will come in handy camping, metal detecting, or just working around the yard. The price is fair, giving you top quality for less than more established brands. HIGHLY recommended!

This is an awesome pocket knife! Well worth the money and made very well! Highly recommended

Very nicely made knife. Big knife, even in my big hand. Edge needs work a bit out of the box. Clip is tight, needs a little bending, but better than loose. The fullers play a key role, as this is my only way to open the knife. My main complaint surrounds the little button on the back. It is supposed to be an easy-opening device but it takes so much effort to actuate that I had to set the button on the table and push the whole handle to make the blade pop. Needs gorilla hands. Another issue is that the point of the blade can be caught and poke you if you run your finger around the frame. Just a hair too long. This is a "pigsticker" in my parlance. I like it. A couple of flaws but nothing to stop me carrying it.

This is the first knife I bought from this company and it won't be the last! I am so impressed by the workmanship of every aspect of this knife. It comes razor sharp the coating is perfect and the bearings make opening and closing smooth as silk. Usually I stick to the higher-end knives (Benchmade, Kershaw, coldsteel) but i had heard good things about the company so I bought a nice looking one and i couldn't be happier! I hope they come out with more big folders.