It still possesses many efficient uses for the modern laborer, allowing use of the blade for utility work, with the finger ring eliminating the need to put the knife down between operations, if use of the fingers to manipulate the object to be worked on is required (such as the action of cutting and opening a shipping box, or removing plastic wrap from shipments, in two very basic examples). It's a smaller variant of the Southeast Asian sickles (Filipino garab and karit Indonesian celurit, arit, or sabit and Malaysian sabit). The Karambit was originally an agricultural implement designed to rake roots, gather threshing and plant rice in most of island Southeast Asia. Origin King Adityawarman statue holding a karambit, he was a king of Pagaruyung Kingdom or Malayapura, a state in West Sumatra (1347–1375). The karambit is one of the weapons commonly used in pencak silat and Filipino martial arts. The karambit or kerambit (as used in Indonesian), kurambik or karambiak (both from the Minangkabau language) is a small Indonesian curved knife resembling a claw from the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra.
Single, double or triple edged, crescent curve A traditional Minangkabau style karambit, Lawi Ayam, pre-1887.
