Halfbreed Blades CCK-01

I am a big fan of carrying an edged weapon to support your CCW firearm, as most of you know. And I also believe firmly that a fixed blade is superior to a folding blade, so long as your state laws allow it. I have tried many blades over the years, with a perennial favorite being the Spartan Blades CQB tool. Well finally, after a very long run at the top, we have now a contender to the throne. The Halfbreed Blades CCK-01, which stands for Compact Clearance Knife version 1.

You can see the heritage of the Spartan in the Halfbreed, which is obvious at a glance. We could easily call the CCK-01 an evolution of the Spartan CQB, with some differences geared toward a slightly different use. And that is in no way an insult to the Spartan, nor to say that it has outlived its purpose. The Spartan was originally designed by Special Forces members and Greg Thompson, a civilian hand-to-hand combat expert contracted to revamp the combative program for CQB assaulters.  Unlike King of the Cage, you are allowed to cheat when you are competing for the title belt of Sadr City, and I was very happy to see edged weapons play a big role in the new combatives program. Do you know what the best guard pass in the world is? Three inches of razor sharp steel it turns out.

With a very specific purpose behind its creation, the CQB was designed to fit a very narrow set of parameters. It was thin, so thin it would take up no more than one row of MOLLE webbing. It was light, almost non existent light, because every ounce counts when you are patrolling the Hindu Kush. And those factors were actually judged more important than lethality. The CQB tool was always thought of as a “get off me” stabber, in the event a bad guy got his hands on you before you shot him. Which does happen in real world close quarter battle fights. The Spartan version was allowed to compromise a bit on blade lethality because it was assumed you were also carrying a Glock full of get some, a machine gun, and hand grenades. The idea was the knife would get someone off of you long enough to employ one of those really good options, such as an M-4 set to giggle switch.

Now that is not to say the Spartan is nonlethal, far from it. But it is not the deepest stabber or widest wound channel maker, both things we look for when it comes to the damage an edged weapon will deliver. It is also safe to say that a Johnny Rambo knife or a Scottish Claymore are probably the best tools for the job, but both are a bit much for everyday carry. So everything else is a compromise, and the Halfbreed is an excellent one.

The Halfbreed maintains a relatively small profile, easily small enough for everyday carry. The sheath is very well designed and comes with attachments for either MOLLE or normal belt carry. A great bit of R&D obviously went into the sheath, and it does both roles well. It is really nice to see a knife maker think about the carry options, instead of just making a really cool knife you leave in the box because there is no good way to employ it.

The blade of the Halfbreed is not only longer but wider. Both of which mean bigger damage when you need it, if not by a huge percentage. The Spartan is 2 and 7/8ths inches long, while the Halfbreed is 3.94 of the blade. You pay for that a bit in overall length, with the Halfbreed being 22mm longer. (The conversion in inches was a weird number, like 57/64.) How is that possible? Because Halfbreed shrank the handle, just a tiny bit. It still works with full-sized hands, but your pinky is just a bit closer to sharp metal.

Halfbreed made up for some of this by putting thin G10 scales on their knife. The Spartan is bare metal, and tiny, between the ring and the blade. Weight savings, as well as it isn’t designed to chop kindling. The Halfbreed realized that their target audience could eat a few more ounces for a more hand filling handle. And it works out, really well.

Finally, we see a design change in the finger ring. Both knives employ a karambit style retention ring. The Spartan is perfectly round, which is a more direct heritage method. The Halfbreed sports a much larger heart-shaped ring, which I am now a big fan of. The larger ring not only makes the Halfbreed easier to rip out of the sheath, but for larger hands or gloves, I find it more comfortable.

Both are great knives, but the Aussie wonder from down under has a lot of reasons to be a contender for your EDC belt. Not least of which is a package that includes a steel trainer, with exactly the same weight as the knife. If daggers bore you, Halfbreed has also stepped up with other blade shapes in the form of CCK-02 and CCK0-03. Halfbreed has a lot of exciting designs in the catalog, absolutely worth your time to check out. 

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