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

The media could not be loaded. 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!

If I could change anything, I would relocate the thumb peg lower on the blade but that is a personal issue and not a complaint. For the $70 price, there is nothing to complain about. The finish and mechanism are well done and have the look of quality. The blade arrived with a razor edge and a beautiful mirror finish. This blade is significantly longer than my current EDC but I'm definitely going to put it in the rotation and see if it holds up.

HOKCs ‘Kytyap folding knife is solid, well made, a heck of a knife. I’m very glad I purchased this folder. Stout blade, stainless steel liners & liner lock. It’s taken a minute to work out the opening mechanism on handle spine, but I’ve got it down L or R handed. Jumping on blade spine & the G10 handle scales are ‘corrugated’ for better grip. The stainless steel liner lock is stout, NOTHING flimsy about this knife. I’m gonna feel a lot safer on those dark nights when I’m traveling alone on my bike, I have a ‘friend’ A hole is located @ the base of the handle for a lanyard if wanted. Blade steel is stainless AUS8, w/blood groove. Now I’m gonna go admire this knife 🔪 ; if your looking for a LARGE solidly built folder, might I suggest HOKCs KYTYAP Russian folder.

An incredibly sharp (out of the box) knife with the smoothest action and aggressive and firm grip. A++I would buy again!!!

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.

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