The Fox 479 SW is a novelty knife that turns out to be genuinely good at two unglamorous jobs, and that is a stranger result than it sounds. Wayne Walter spent time with the Italian-made karambit for Wayne's Sharp World and came away recommending it for envelopes and package tape, which is not what anyone expects from an 8.5-inch hooked folder with a finger ring.
His starting position was skepticism with an asterisk. Karambits looked interesting, he wrote, but he did not see one as a practical everyday knife. So he bought the 479 SW, carried it for a while and kept track of what he actually reached for it to do. The blade is 3.1 inches of Bohler N690, flat ground, stonewashed, with roughly three inches of cutting edge on a 0.12-inch stock. The handle is black G10, 5.5 inches closed, half an inch thick, and the whole thing weighs 4.2 ounces on a liner lock with steel liners.
The hawkbill curve does something specific to an envelope. The point catches the paper and the belly slices through it in one pull, and the same geometry works on the tape seam of a box. Where the shape stops helping is cardboard in bulk: the deep curve binds in long cuts, and Walter said he would not choose it for that work. His summary of the blade itself was that it is razor sharp and a better slicer than its thickness suggests.
What the ring and the clip do to your pocket
Karambit layout puts the clip high and the ring outside the pocket, and the 479 SW follows that rule exactly. A lot of handle sits above the seam. The trade is a fast draw with the index finger already through the ring, and the cost is a knife that announces itself in a pocket and draws attention when it comes out. Walter's verdict on that was blunt: he enjoys it at home and around friends, and would not pull it out at a grocery store.
The flipper on his sample was the weak point. A finger-only push did not do the job; the blade needed a substantial wrist movement to break over. The Emerson Wave worked far better for him, catching the pocket edge on the draw and opening the knife in one motion. Forward grip drew unexpected praise, with useful jimping on and above the flipper tab and an index finger that sat behind the tab rather than against it. Reverse grip was comfortable but a little long: he reckoned the handle could lose a quarter to a third of an inch and fit his hand better.
Construction is the part that reads strongest in hand. Steel liners, a half-inch handle, aggressive G10 texture and a liner lock that feels solid. The knife listed at $129.95 when he reviewed this version in September 2020, and the 479 line has since grown several variants including the smaller 599 and aluminum-handled models, which differ in dimensions from the stonewashed G10 knife tested here.
Buy it as a karambit, not as your only cutter. The ring, the high carry and the stiff flipper all point the same direction, and someone who wants a conventional drop point for breaking down boxes should spend the money elsewhere.
This is a fun, unusual piece that certainly isn't for everyone. I wanted to try a karambit for myself, and I'm glad I did.
Wayne Walter, Wayne's Sharp World