Knives CS2 Skins
Knives are CS2's most coveted cosmetic items. Every player spawns with a default knife, and all knives share identical combat stats — a knife skin changes the model, animations, and inspect, never the damage. What makes them special is scarcity: knife skins drop from cases as Rare Special Items at roughly 0.26% odds, and since Valve's October 2025 update they can also be crafted through trade-up contracts using five Covert skins from the same collection. That update reshaped the whole knife market, cutting prices on most models by 20-50% and making a first knife more affordable than it has ever been.
Bayonet
BothThe Bayonet is one of the five original CS:GO knife models, and its long clip-point blade gives finishes more canvas than almost any other knife — a big part of why Bayonet Dopplers, Fades, and Case Hardened patterns photograph so well on marketplaces.
Bowie Knife
BothThe Bowie Knife is a big fixed-blade brawler introduced with Operation Wildfire in 2016. Its broad clip-point blade shows off busy finishes well, and it consistently trades in the mid-to-lower price band of the knife market — real knife flex, sensible money.
Butterfly Knife
BothThe Butterfly Knife sits at the very top of the CS2 knife market alongside the Karambit — its counter-rotating handles and constant flipping animations make it the most watched knife in the game, and demand prices it accordingly. If knives are jewellery, this is the tennis bracelet.
Classic Knife
BothThe Classic Knife recreates the original Counter-Strike 1.6 knife model — pure nostalgia in item form, introduced with the CS20 Case for the game's 20th anniversary. Its buyers skew veteran: the appeal is history, not flash.
Falchion Knife
BothThe Falchion Knife arrived with the 2015 Falchion Case, bringing a swooping single-edged blade and a spring-assisted flick deploy. It has settled into the affordable tier of the knife market — one of the classic answers to "cheapest knife that still looks good in hand".
Flip Knife
BothThe Flip Knife is one of the five original CS:GO knives and the traditional "starter premium" — a clean folding design whose upturned point catches finishes like Doppler and Fade beautifully, at prices a tier or two below the market's celebrities.
Gut Knife
BothThe Gut Knife is the traditional floor of the knife market: an original CS:GO model whose short, hook-spined blade has never been fashionable — which is exactly why it is usually the cheapest way to own a real knife in CS2.
Huntsman Knife
BothThe Huntsman Knife landed with 2014's Operation Huntsman and its namesake case — a no-nonsense full-tang tactical blade that gives you maximum knife-per-dollar. Its large flat surface wears loud finishes like Fade, Tiger Tooth, and Case Hardened unusually well for its price tier.
Karambit
BothThe Karambit is CS2's status symbol — the curved claw with the spinning inspect that has anchored the top of the knife market since 2013. When people picture "a CS knife", they picture this, and a decade of demand keeps it duelling the Butterfly for the most expensive model in the game.
Kukri Knife
BothThe Kukri Knife is the CS2 era's first new blade, debuting in the 2024 Kilowatt Case with a Nepalese forward-curved profile and heavy chopping animations unlike anything in the CS:GO-era lineup. Novelty and a single-case supply define its market.
M9 Bayonet
BothThe M9 Bayonet is the muscle car of the knife market: the biggest of the original five blades, with showy twirl animations and a long flat surface that makes premium finishes look enormous. It has sat just behind the Karambit and Butterfly in the price hierarchy for a decade.
Navaja Knife
BothThe Navaja Knife is the little Spanish folder from the 2018 Horizon Case — small blade, modest animations, and reliably one of the two or three cheapest knife models in CS2. It competes with the Gut Knife for the title of most affordable Rare Special Item.
Nomad Knife
BothThe Nomad Knife is the field-craft blade of the Shattered Web generation (2019) — a matte, full-tang survival design whose understated look pairs naturally with the military-styled finishes and agent skins it shipped alongside.
Paracord Knife
BothThe Paracord Knife is the budget entry of the Shattered Web knife generation — a straightforward survival blade with a cord-wrapped handle whose simplicity keeps it among the more affordable modern knife models.
Shadow Daggers
BothShadow Daggers are CS2's only dual-wielded blades — twin push daggers from the 2015 Shadow Case with punchy two-handed attack animations. Perpetually divisive and perpetually cheap, they anchor the budget end of the knife market alongside the Gut and Navaja.
Skeleton Knife
BothThe Skeleton Knife is the premium of the Shattered Web generation: a skeletonised full-tang design with a beloved twirl animation that vaulted it, almost immediately, into the upper tier of the knife market — rare company for a post-2019 model.
Stiletto Knife
BothThe Stiletto Knife is the Horizon Case's sharp-dressed option — an Italian switchblade whose spring-snap deploy is one of the most satisfying sounds in the game. It sits in the upper-middle of the market: dressier than the budget folders, cheaper than the icons.
Survival Knife
BothThe Survival Knife is the Shattered Web generation's rugged utility piece — a sawback fixed blade that looks requisitioned rather than collected. It trades in the accessible mid-lower band of the knife market, overshadowed by its Skeleton sibling and priced accordingly.
Talon Knife
BothThe Talon Knife is the Horizon Case's luxury item — a hawkbill folder that reads as a folding Karambit, with an ornate handle and theatrical deploy. It consistently prices near the top of the market, just below the Karambit/Butterfly/M9 trinity.
Ursus Knife
BothThe Ursus Knife is the Horizon Case's workhorse: a broad, bear-named fixed blade with clean lines and a big flat finish surface. It occupies the sensible middle of the knife market — more presence than the budget models, without Talon or Stiletto pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do knife skins do more damage in CS2?
- No. Every knife in CS2 deals identical damage — a $2,000 karambit and the default knife kill in exactly the same way. A standard attack does more damage from behind, and the secondary (right-click) backstab is an instant kill. Knife skins are purely cosmetic.
- How do you get a knife in CS2?
- Three ways: unbox one from a case as a Rare Special Item (roughly 0.26% odds), buy one on the Steam Community Market or a third-party marketplace, or — since the October 2025 update — craft one with a trade-up contract using five Covert-rarity skins from the same collection.
- Why did CS2 knife prices crash in 2025?
- Valve's October 22-23, 2025 update let players trade up five same-collection Covert skins into a knife or gloves. Knife supply, previously limited to rare case drops, expanded overnight — most knives fell 20-50% within days, while Covert skin prices spiked. Prices have since stabilised at a lower level, which makes entry-level knives far more accessible than before the update.
- How much money do you get for a knife kill?
- A knife kill awards $1,500 — the highest kill reward in the game, five times a rifle kill's $300. That's why humiliating an opponent with the knife on an eco round is both a flex and a real economic play.