Benchmade's Kitsari 213BK-2601 Puts the Fox-Hawkbill in Reach
Benchmade's first two Kitsari knives were not really products; they were announcements. The debut was limited to 25 examples with a Damasteel blade, and the follow-up was reserved for a collector group. The third, model 213BK-2601, is the one you can actually buy, and it is the cheapest of the trio — though cheap is relative, because it is still an unusual production knife with an unusual steel.
The headline is that this is the first hawkbill in Benchmade's catalog. The curved blade is 3.146 inches, deployed on a thumb stud, and finished in black Cerakote over Z-12Ultra PM tool steel. Z-12Ultra is a powder-metallurgy tool steel in the same conversation as CPM 10V and Vanadis 8: exceptional wear resistance, high hardness, and toughness that makes it suitable for a blade that will see real work rather than a display case.
The design language is where the knife becomes either irresistible or silly, depending on your appetite. The blade curvature references the kitsune, the nine-tailed fox of Japanese folklore, and the G10 handle carries machined grooves and laser-engraved texturing meant to evoke nine tails. Executed badly, that idea produces a novelty; executed in G10 with real machining, it produces a knife with a grip that is genuinely textured where your fingers land.
Compare it with the hawkbills people know: the Spyderco Harpy and Civilian, the Cold Steel Tuff Lite, the classic karambit shapes. Those knives exist to hook and pull. The Kitsari is more of a curved utility blade with an aggressive silhouette, which means it will open clamshell packaging and cut rope neatly, and it will not do anything a drop point cannot do better except look distinctive while doing it.
Verdict: buy it if you want a conversation piece with a genuinely exotic steel and you like the folklore angle enough to pay for it. Skip it if you want a working folder, because a $150 drop point in S30V will out-cut and out-sharpen a hawkbill in Z-12Ultra for most daily tasks.
Disclosure: EDC News may earn a commission on links in this article. Nothing here changes the price you pay.