The hawkbill is the most misunderstood blade shape in folding knives. It is useless for slicing a tomato and excellent at everything that involves pulling a blade toward you through a tough material, which is why it keeps showing up in rope, cable and landscaping work. The Kubey Harpy KU414E is a $60 version designed by Johan Jordaan.
The blade is 3.03 inches of D2 at a vacuum heat treat, blackwashed, with a flat grind and a plain edge. D2 is a semi-stainless tool steel with high wear resistance and modest corrosion resistance, so it holds an edge through abrasive work but will spot if you leave it wet. At this price it is the right steel, and the blackwash hides the scratches that a hawkbill inevitably collects.
The curved edge concentrates cutting force into a small contact area, so the knife bites into rope and zip ties with very little pressure and keeps biting as you pull. That same geometry makes it awkward on a cutting board, since the belly cannot make full contact with a flat surface. It is a specialist, and it does not pretend otherwise.
The handle is black micarta at 0.51 inches thick, with a 4.02-inch length and a total weight of 2.57 ounces. Micarta is the right call for a knife that will be used with wet or dirty hands, because it grips better as it gets rougher and it does not show scratches the way polished G10 does. The liner lock is ambidextrous in operation, though the clip is not.
At $60 the Harpy competes with the Spyderco Harpy and Tasman Salt, both of which cost two to three times as much and offer H-1 or LC200N for full corrosion resistance. Verdict: buy it if you cut rope, hose or landscaping waste and want a cheap hawkbill to abuse; skip it if your cutting is mostly opening boxes, because a wharncliffe or drop point does that better.
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