Fox Karambit Trainer

No argument there, I was agreeing with that. Just saying about the price... It's still a bit up there considering there's no need for high quality steel and careful tempering and grinding and sharpening....it's half the cost in materials, a third the amount of skill and work needed to make it, but it still wasn't cheap

Yeah thats true, but you can still use the training karambit as a great means of non-lethal control. The amount of force it would take for most peoples hands to cause the skeltonized stainless steel liners to break or fail is more than most people have the ability to exert.

trainers tend to cost 25% less then the actual knives you could probably find cheaper versions but they will not hold up under regular usage. expensive trainers are allot of money for something with much less "work" done to them but they tend to be worth while in the long run. that said I totally feel your perspective its an unfortunate catch 22. serious operators suggest that nothing but an exact replica will do. the other side is any thing is better then nothing and regular training with anything is always better then no training.:)