Сколько лет, сколько зим, Comrades. I am back once more.

Here is an NKVD NKD, with a special credit going to user @[email protected] for bringing this particular knife to my attention.

It may surprise you to learn that I don’t reflexively buy an example of every knife that crosses my desk these days. But I did with this one, because it has something that is, if you squint at it in the right light, a pocket hook opening mechanism like the Wave opener on my beloved Kershaw CQC-6K. I am, naturally, all about those. So I got out my $60, and down into the rabbit hole I descended, feet first.

This is the HOKC, or NOCKS or even KNOX as they are sometimes rendered, Finka-C. This is a knife designed by one Alexander Biryukov, who is certainly an individual I wouldn’t know from a hole in the ground. HOKC or however they’re Romanizing their name at the moment is a Russian knife company who outsources much of their production to China. I understand this sort of thing is out of vogue these days, perhaps doubly so, but nevertheless I found this knife pretty interesting.

Since these knives are made in the PRC, it is a given that they have been ripped off and cloned in great quantity by the Chinese. That was apparently the fate that befell our friend Squiddick, and while I can’t prove my knife is the genuine article it sure as shit showed up with a lot of Russian on the box and you can view our subject on the manufacturer’s web site here, verbatim, which leads me to believe that mine is probably real.

This is broadly a reimagining of the Soviet NR-40 combat knife used throughout World War II, only with a modern twist and converted to a folder. These were colloquially known as the “scout’s knife,” or “finka,” so no points for guessing where this knife got its name.

This is turning into a big wall of text, so here – I’ll break it up with another photo. Damned if this knife doesn’t look cool. It’s available in a few finishes but I absolutely had to get the most ostentatious one available. HOKC describe this as “brown” but the highlights on its G-10 scales are in reality very orange.

HOKC of course make a tantalizing array of knives, most of which I predict will be damn difficult to get your hands on in the West. In addition to several variations on the Finka theme, other points of note are additional hook openers, this groovy tanto arrangement, and a Finka balisong rendition that I think just became my primary mission in life to obtain.

The first thing that will probably leap out at you regarding the Finka-C, other than its sheer size (it’s 10-1/4" long when open) is the funky integrated crossguard. This has the one forward, one back style that mimics the original combat knife from which it was derived. They’re built into the blade so their positions reverse when you open it. The lowermost one becomes an effective finger guard, and the one on the spine of the blade serves as a hook opener so you can, with a bit of practice, snap this off of your pocket hem and have it automatically open when you draw.

This does in fact work, I am pleased to report, which is a damn sight farther than most other presumptive non-Emerson/Kershaw pocket hook openers manage to get. This is because HOKC have basically completely ripped off Emerson’s design, with the cheerful knowledge that where they’re located there probably isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it.

It’s not as nice to draw as an Emerson/Kershaw knife, though, and that’s because of this:

The Finka-C positions itself as some kind of fighting knife and therefore has very deep machined channels cut into its scales, presumably for grip while Spetsnaz operators or whoever the hell are using the thing while wearing gloves. But that makes the scales snag on your pocket just a little too much, when the only thing that should be snagging is the hook. The clip is also not nearly as nice as the one on any of the CQC Kershaws, is a trifle too small, the recurve in it is too narrow, and it’s too tight. I ameliorated matters somewhat by grabbing the clip and giving it a hearty bend away from the handle, loosening its preload. But really it could stand to maybe have a spacer added beneath where it mounts. Or in the extreme, maybe it just needs the one ridge directly beneath the clip’s contact area to be ground off. Kershaw, Emerson, and Zero Tolerance solve this by eschewing the scale altogether on the clip side and just presenting a smooth flat surface. This… doesn’t.

It’s likely to work better on heavier, stiffer fabrics. But I only wear lightweight hiking pants these days so it’s kind of a raw deal for me. The clip is not reversible either, by the way. It’s set up suitable for right handed users and that’s all you get.

The Finka-C’s other trick is having a hold-open for the lock. That’s the little switch thingy just forward of the pivot here, with the grip knurling in it.

This is a deeply stupid feature.

The Finka is a regular liner locker at its core, just like the Kershaw and Emerson CQC’s. So once again, nobody’s managed to pair a novel locking mechanism with a pocket hook opener. But its lock is quite positive, a bit stiff, and nearly completely recessed into the handle. Therefore the chances of it “accidentally” becoming unlocked during use are so close to nil they’re probably negative.

By the way, this is very much like unto the one on some variants of the the CRKT M16 (a knife which this in some ways superficially resembles), and other LAWKS safety equipped knives, although it’s fully manual so is not equivalent to the AutoLAWKS system. I’ve always felt that the genuine LAWKS was dumb, too, for what it’s worth. Nobody’s knife needs two locks.

But nevertheless, there it is. Slide the tiny toggle upwards (if you’re holding the knife edge down) and a small hook rises into place blocking the liner lock from moving far enough to disengage with the blade. A near microscopic “on” inscription on the blade just forward of the pivot indicates the locked position.

The lock does not detent in either position and is very easy to move with basically no resistance. Fortunately it’s tiny, so it’s unlikely you’ll engage it by accident, and it thankfully also can’t be manipulated at all when the knife is closed so at least you can’t lock it shut.

It’s also trivially easy to defeat if it annoys you, which it probably will. We’ll get to that in a bit.

The Finka-C has HOKC’s rather distinctive giant slotted screw on its pivot. The inscription in addition to HOKC’s logo and “Series ‘T’” is the model designation in Russian, and “Design by A. Biryukov.”

It is a flipper and/or pocket hook opener. “But wait,” you say. “There is a plainly visible thumb stud right there, you nerd.”

That’s not a thumb stud. This is something else strange about the Finka. The studs (there’s one on either side) are way too close to the handles for you to get any purchase or leverage on them. You can thumb open the knife if you prefer, but only using the hook.

The studs are actually the endstops for the pivot, and rest in two opposing semicircular pockets on either side of the handle, one each for the open and closed positions.

This is once again eerily reminiscent of the CRKT M16. It’s a clever idea, regardless of whose it is, because it removes the weak point of the traditional end stop pin which in this case is sure to be repeatedly hammered by a longer (and thus heavier) than average blade with the wielder snapping it open of the pocket all the dang old time.

The Numbers

Somehow, we haven’t gotten to these.

The Finka-C is huge.

As stated, it is every bit of 10-1/4" long, opened. It has a massive 4-7/8" long blade made of D2 that HOKC describe as a “Bowie” profile, and it very nearly is. The blade is 0.140" thick at the spine, fullered, and be still my heart, it is even flat ground. It’s not the absolute beefiest of boys, but it’s still definitely above average and the increased thickness is welcome to add durability against the likewise increased length. The blade’s spine is square but its corners are chamfered, so while it’s a little more comfortable it will alas be useless for striking your ferro rod. There is a choil at the base of the blade, though, the forward half of which may just be sharp enough to do that job. It also means the entire edge is theoretically usable.

The Finka is of course quite large when closed as well. 5-3/8" by my measure, and a hefty – not to mention possibly auspicious – 0.666" thick not including the clip. The crossguard arms are of course the widest point, at 1.916". It is needless to say a very meaty lad, a total of 162.4 grams or 5.76 ounces. Believe it or not this is actually helped along by only having one full length steel liner; the majority of the non-locking side of the knife is just comprised of the G-10 scale. I don’t know if this is a weight or cost cutting measure, or both.

Largely because of that, though, I would not rate the Finka as suitable for duty as an actual trench knife. This despite the fact that at its length the Finka-C is probably just about at the minimum I would personally consider truly suitable for a pure “combat” type of knife. That’s not polite to say in public anymore, of course, so I’ll also point out that it’d make a dandy camp knife if you had a particular desire to make such a thing a folder rather than fixed. The crossguards or finger guards or whatever you want to classify them as do introduce the age old problem of precluding you from bringing all of the edge down on a flat surface, but the blade is long enough and has enough of an upsweep that even so the forwardmost third or possibly a little more can be used for cutting board work. That’s an overall usable range of just over 2" by my measure, which to be fair is pretty much the entire edge length of a lot of lesser knives to begin with.

For EDC use, it’s probably a shade or three too large for most people. But perversity breeds all kinds; don’t let me tell you what to do.

In addition to its clip the Finka-C does have a lanyard hole. Given how finicky it is to draw and deploy via its Wave, finding something to fill this with may actually turn out to be advisable. Some fluorescent orange paracord would be favorite in this case.

Here’s the return of an old friend we sure haven’t seen in a while: My Kershaw CQC-6K, which has no doubt been sorely missed as the obligatory comparison object in many of my recent writeups. In case in particular it seemed especially fitting to welcome it back.

The Finka absolutely towers over it.

Side by side like this, you can see that the pocket hook on the Finka is significantly larger than on the Kershaw CQC. I guess theoretically this might help it work better on thicker fabric, but I don’t have a way to scientifically prove that to you. It sounds good on paper, though, so we’ll roll with it.

Devils Lurking In The Details

Or rather, are there any?

Given the famously sterling reputation of Russian manufacturing – boots that dissolve in the rain, stationary tractors, and cars made from old pants – I don’t blame you if you enter into this with, let’s just say, some doubts. To be honest, I did too.

And then being made in China for the Russians? There may never be a more textbook example of out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Well, here’s the thing. The Finka-C is actually perfectly competently built.

I’m just as astounded as you are, really.

The fit and finish on the components is all just peachy. The blade is nicely centered, too. There’s no lash, nothing wiggles, nothing scrapes, nothing rattles, and none of the fasteners arrived stripped. The lockup is positive and appears to have been hand tuned. Yes, I realize that getting excited about this is kind of a low bar, but it is cleared nonetheless.

The edge grind is quite serviceable out of the box, and is sharp enough in my opinion to be put into duty right away. Producing julienne shavings off of a post-it is no problem. I don’t see any telltale signs that the edge has been burned, but time will tell if it retains its sharpness as D2 should. The entirety of the blade has a pleasing tumbled finish which is consistent and looks quite nice. It’s had a nice finishing pass done on it and doesn’t show any machine marks on the faces.

The point profile is good, with the grind carried through consistently all the way to the end on both sides without any weirdness.

The edge is of course mildly out of true, with the left side of it (looking down on the edge from above) observably shallower than the right.

This is to be expected given the origin and price, and not at all unusual even for budget models from the brand name makers. It would be a little nicer if it weren’t, of course, but the Finka’s simple geometry and refreshing lack of anything in the way of your stones (including thumb studs!) ought to make it as easy as it gets to reprofile to your preferred angle when the time comes.

What’s Inside

I’m just chuffed to bits to report that my Finka-C came right apart with no fuss. All of the above adds up to my conclusion that I must have received the genuine article. Fakes of this are quite prevalent, which is how this whole odyssey got started in the first place. At present I think the best indicator of a real one of these versus a fake – other than the price, of course – is the presence of the clip. HUAAO and some others are hawking knockoffs of this, which is a pretty damn rich sauce given what this is and its origins, but all the fakes I can identify universally lack the pocket clip. So if you spot one without it, run.

All of the fasteners take a T6 Torx bit, except for the pivot screw. You will want a large slotted driver for that. You can just about undo it with a dime, but the slot is straight and not dished, so a proper screwdriver is probably better.

Inside you get brass pivot washers and a generous helping of what appears to be silicone based lubricant all over absolutely everything. The handle halves are separated by a single piece G-10 backspacer, and it’s nice to see that while this comprises part of the lanyard hole, it’s also reinforced there with one of the steel liners.

Underneath the right hand scale is this surprise, which is what I alluded to earlier. There’s a partial length substructure under here housing the pivot, and it’s anchored on the other end by engaging with one of the scale screws. But most of the length of that side of the knife consists only of the G-10 scale and the liner does not extend the full length on that side. The other liner is full length, the scales are very thick, and G-10 is actually fairly stiff stuff, so there are no noticeable rigidity issues. However, the jury is still out on whether or not this will be a weak point if you try to inflict some kind of heavy duty use on this knife.

This is how e.g. the Kershaw Skyline successfully does it, and many others besides. But usually knives that try this trick are much smaller EDC jobbies that are not positioning themselves as the spiritual successor to a Soviet fighting knife. If nothing else, their much shorter blades can’t apply nearly as much leverage to their pivots even if they’re used unwisely.

Here’s how the safety lever works. It’s a simple single piece, and just rotates around the main pivot screw. It’s trivially easy to defeat by simply not reinstalling it; its thickness is not necessary for the proper reassembly of the knife and the head on the pivot screw is more than wide enough to bridge the gap it sits in without it. If you were truly paranoid you could replace it with a plain washer.

The female side of the pivot screw has an anti-rotation flat, and there is indeed a matching flat on the hole it goes through on the liner side of the knife, so for once it’s not just purely decorative. I’ll bet you a dollar the fakes don’t bother broaching the anti-rotation hole in the liner correctly.

Maybe this serves to better illustrate how the Finka’s lockup and endstop not-thumb-stud works.

The hardware. There are two screw lengths: The shorter ones go through the scales directly into the steel liners, and the longer ones go into brass inserts in the G-10 backspacer in between the two halves of the handle.

Unboxing

Since this is a new knife, the box is still on my desk. We’ll have a look at it while we’re at it.

Knife boxes are generally not terribly exciting, my bona fide milk crate full of the damn things notwithstanding. But the Finka-C is the only knife I’ve ever bought that showed up in a box – not on a hang card – in the open position.

I suppose that’s not terribly interesting, but the large block of authentic Russian bumf on the back might be:

The long paragraph at the top repeats the marketing blurb which notably name drops not only the Lawks safety but also the Wave opener, verbatim. Somehow, I’d highly doubt that either of the above have been dutifully licensed from their respective owners.

It also lists the Изготовитель, manufacturer, as “Linear Group LTD., Room 1412, Tian Plaza, No. 49 North Yunnan Road, Nanjing, PRC.” So that answers that.

The smaller block down in the lower right corner is the typical set of care instructions and admonitions. Do not use for throwing, do not give to children, that sort of thing. But it also goes out of its way to note (on the top line), “This is not a cold weapon and has no restrictions on circulation (distribution) or carrying.”

This “cold weapon” thing is a wrinkle of Russian law that I don’t pretend to understand, and the internet tells me the definition is rather complex. What an idiom, though.

Still, how nice to know that this doesn’t count as a “weapon.” One wonders just what the hell does, then. In my US state the Finka is more than large enough that carrying it concealed in public would require the same permit as a firearm. (Maybe the Ruskies are cooler in at least one respect than I thought.)

The front of the box is considerably less amusing, although the logo and web address are printed in shiny silver foil.

The Inevitable Conclusion

I really like the Finka-C.

I like it so much that I wrote this entire column without making one “In Soviet Russia, X Y’s you” joke. You probably didn’t even notice, did you?

I don’t know if the Finka is the absolute superlative largest Wave opening knife you can buy, but it’s definitely got to be getting there. If that’s what you want and you’d like it without spending an insane amount of money on a Zero Tolerance or an Emerson, maybe give HOKC a shot. It’s a shame about the lock, but it’s easy enough to discard. A CRKT M16 would be an easy substitute for this if you’d like something from stateside, but none of those have a Wave on 'em.

And there is no denying that the Finka-C both looks and feels bad ass. Well deserving of the space in the middle. That’s got to count for something.