What is a CS2 knife finish?
A knife in CS2 has two parts: the model (the shape, such as Karambit or Bayonet) and the finish (the paint, such as Tiger Tooth or Fade). The same finish looks different on each model, and the model drives most of the price. A Factory New Tiger Tooth costs $56 on a Navaja Knife and $1,006 on a Butterfly Knife (CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026).
There are 20 knife models in the ByMykel item dataset, which reads the game's item files, and 26 finishes including the plain "vanilla" knife. Not every model gets every finish. This guide covers what each finish looks like, which wears it can come in, and what it costs, starting with Tiger Tooth.
What is the Tiger Tooth finish?
Tiger Tooth is an orange metallic finish with dark, hand-cut stripes. The game's own item text says the knife "has been anodized orange and hand-etched in a tiger stripe pattern" (item data). Valve's Weapon Finishes guide explains that the anodized look in skins is usually a colored candy coat over a chrome base.
Three facts decide how Tiger Tooth trades:
- Factory New and Minimal Wear only. Its float range is 0.00 to 0.08, so there is no Field-Tested or worn copy.
- 18 knife models. Every model except the Classic Knife and the Kukri Knife.
- The Chroma set of cases. It comes from the Chroma, Chroma 2, Chroma 3, Spectrum, Spectrum 2, Prisma, Prisma 2 and Fever Cases, the same cases as Doppler and Marble Fade.
Here is what each Tiger Tooth knife cost, cheapest first.
| Knife | Factory New | Minimal Wear |
|---|---|---|
| Navaja Knife Tiger Tooth | $56.00 | $90.86 |
| Shadow Daggers Tiger Tooth | $60.85 | $81.74 |
| Gut Knife Tiger Tooth | $77.92 | $109.00 |
| Survival Knife Tiger Tooth | $95.51 | $110.20 |
| Paracord Knife Tiger Tooth | $97.78 | $113.83 |
| Bowie Knife Tiger Tooth | $108.15 | $147.31 |
| Ursus Knife Tiger Tooth | $118.80 | $152.46 |
| Falchion Knife Tiger Tooth | $125.99 | $166.20 |
| Huntsman Knife Tiger Tooth | $127.66 | $136.44 |
| Nomad Knife Tiger Tooth | $167.41 | $198.42 |
| Flip Knife Tiger Tooth | $190.62 | $207.08 |
| Stiletto Knife Tiger Tooth | $251.80 | $325.43 |
| Bayonet Tiger Tooth | $262.87 | $352.00 |
| Skeleton Knife Tiger Tooth | $300.97 | $348.10 |
| Talon Knife Tiger Tooth | $409.31 | $460.92 |
| M9 Bayonet Tiger Tooth | $582.47 | $704.58 |
| Karambit Tiger Tooth | $836.83 | $909.19 |
| Butterfly Knife Tiger Tooth | $1,006.41 | $1,085.25 |
Source: CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026 (lowest cash listing across five markets).
Notice that Minimal Wear costs more than Factory New on every model. That is the float range at work. Factory New covers floats 0.00 to 0.07, while Minimal Wear on Tiger Tooth only covers 0.07 to 0.08, a sliver of the range. Fewer Minimal Wear copies exist, and the wear is barely visible on a finish this clean. If you just want a Tiger Tooth, Factory New is the better buy. Our float values guide explains the wear bands.
What are all the CS2 knife finishes?
Finishes come in sets, and each knife case draws on one set. In our case data, three sets cover almost every knife:
| Set | Finishes | Knife models | Example cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | Fade, Slaughter, Crimson Web, Case Hardened, Blue Steel, Stained, Forest DDPAT, Safari Mesh, Boreal Forest, Urban Masked, Scorched, plus vanilla | All 20 | CS:GO Weapon Case, Horizon, Kilowatt |
| Chroma | Doppler, Marble Fade, Tiger Tooth, Damascus Steel, Ultraviolet, Rust Coat | 18 (no Classic, no Kukri) | Chroma Case, Prisma, Fever Case |
| Gamma | Gamma Doppler, Autotronic, Lore, Black Laminate, Freehand, Bright Water | 10 | Gamma Case, Gamma 2, Dreams & Nightmares |
The 20 models split into two groups of ten. The older ten (Bayonet, Butterfly Knife, Falchion Knife, Flip Knife, Gut Knife, Karambit, M9 Bayonet, Shadow Daggers, Bowie Knife and Huntsman Knife) carry the Gamma set and the Night finish. The newer ten (Survival, Paracord, Classic, Navaja, Kukri, Nomad, Skeleton, Stiletto, Ursus and Talon) get Night Stripe instead of Night, and no Gamma finishes.
How much does each knife finish cost?
The table below shows, for each finish, the cheapest knife you could buy and a typical price across all models that carry it. It uses each finish's most common wear: Factory New for the finishes that only exist in Factory New and Minimal Wear, Field-Tested for the rest.
| Finish | Float range | Wears | Cheapest knife (price) | Typical price, all models |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boreal Forest | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, WW ($28.57) | $57 (FT) |
| Black Laminate | 0.00 to 1.00 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, FT ($30.87) | $124 (FT) |
| Rust Coat | 0.40 to 1.00 | WW, BS | Shadow Daggers, BS ($33.96) | n/a |
| Safari Mesh | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Gut Knife, WW ($34.11) | $57 (FT) |
| Bright Water | 0.00 to 0.50 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, FT ($34.51) | $122 (FT) |
| Scorched | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($34.69) | $73 (FT) |
| Forest DDPAT | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($35.63) | $58 (FT) |
| Urban Masked | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, BS ($36.12) | $72 (FT) |
| Damascus Steel | 0.00 to 0.50 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($36.55) | $116 (FT) |
| Night Stripe | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, BS ($36.91) | $83 (FT) |
| Vanilla (no finish) | none | none | Navaja ($36.94) | $115 |
| Autotronic | 0.00 to 0.85 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, FT ($37.76) | $166 (FT) |
| Ultraviolet | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($37.93) | $109 (FT) |
| Stained | 0.00 to 1.00 | FN to BS | Navaja, WW ($39.06) | $86 (FT) |
| Night | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, BS ($39.27) | $121 (FT) |
| Freehand | 0.00 to 0.48 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, FT ($41.58) | $122 (FT) |
| Blue Steel | 0.00 to 1.00 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($42.26) | $124 (FT) |
| Lore | 0.00 to 0.65 or 1.00 | FN to BS | Shadow Daggers, BS ($43.70) | $151 (FT) |
| Crimson Web | 0.06 to 0.80 | FN to BS | Navaja, FT ($52.16) | $132 (FT) |
| Tiger Tooth | 0.00 to 0.08 | FN, MW | Navaja, FN ($56.00) | $167 (FN) |
| Case Hardened | 0.00 to 1.00 | FN to BS | Navaja, BS ($60.84) | $143 (FT) |
| Marble Fade | 0.00 to 0.08 | FN, MW | Shadow Daggers, FN ($73.82) | $204 (FN) |
| Slaughter | 0.01 to 0.26 | FN, MW, FT | Navaja, MW ($76.11) | $167 (FT) |
| Gamma Doppler | 0.00 to 0.08 | FN, MW | Shadow Daggers, FN ($83.41) | $332 (FN) |
| Fade | 0.00 to 0.08 | FN, MW | Navaja, FN ($92.67) | $249 (FN) |
| Doppler | 0.00 to 0.08 | FN, MW | Shadow Daggers, FN ($98.55) | $271 (FN) |
Source: CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026. "Typical" is the median across all models with that finish; for vanilla knives, across all 20 plain models. Float ranges from the ByMykel item dataset. Only listings with at least three copies for sale count.
Two things to take from it. First, the cheapest way into a knife is a camo, Rust Coat or Black Laminate finish on a Navaja, Shadow Daggers or Gut Knife, around $29 to $40. Second, the clean "shiny" finishes (Tiger Tooth, Marble Fade, Fade, Gamma Doppler, Doppler) have the highest floors, and they only exist in the two best wears, so there is no cheap worn copy to fall back on. Our cheapest knives page tracks the live floor, and the float cap calculator shows which wears any finish can reach.
Which knife finishes depend on the pattern?
For most finishes, two copies in the same wear look the same. For a handful, the pattern index (the random placement of the texture, which Valve's finishes guide describes as offsets and rotations chosen within set ranges) changes the look and the price.
- Fade: the pattern rotates the gradient, so some copies show more pink and purple. An open-source calculator turns the seed into a "fade percentage" from 80% (worst) to 100% (best).
- Marble Fade: the mix of red, yellow and blue changes, and red-and-blue copies are sold as "Fire and Ice". See our Marble Fade guide.
- Case Hardened: the amount of blue or gold on the playside. See the Case Hardened guide.
- Crimson Web and Slaughter: where the webs or the shapes in the pattern land.
- Doppler and Gamma Doppler: the phase is set by a different number, the paint index. Our Doppler phases guide covers it.
Tiger Tooth is not on this list, and it is not one of the pattern-sensitive families in our pattern guide. For Tiger Tooth, wear and model set the price. The pattern index guide explains the whole mechanism.
What do Fade, Slaughter, Crimson Web and Autotronic look like?
The game's own item text describes how each finish was made. Here is a summary of that text and what each one costs on a Karambit.
Fade. Transparent paints airbrushed so they fade into each other over a chrome base. It runs from yellow to pink and purple. Factory New and Minimal Wear only, on all 20 models. A Factory New Karambit Fade listed at $1,782.56; the cheapest Fade knife was a Navaja at $92.67.
Slaughter. Zebra stripes in aluminum and chrome paint under a "tomato red candy coat". Its float range of 0.01 to 0.26 allows Factory New, Minimal Wear and Field-Tested. On a Karambit: $1,126.77 Factory New, $902.63 Minimal Wear, $860.91 Field-Tested. Because the float stops at 0.26, every Field-Tested Slaughter sits at the clean end of Field-Tested, which makes it the value pick.
Crimson Web. A spider-web hydrographic print over a red base coat. The float range starts at 0.06, so Factory New only covers 0.06 to 0.07, a tiny band. That makes Factory New Crimson Web scarce: the Karambit had a single Factory New listing at $6,500.63, against $962.43 for Minimal Wear and $600.72 for Field-Tested.
Autotronic. An anodized red blade with steel mesh to cut the weight. Part of the Gamma set, so only on 10 models, and its float runs to 0.85, so every wear exists. A Field-Tested Karambit Autotronic listed at $886.72 and a Butterfly Knife Autotronic at $733.92. On Shadow Daggers, the same finish cost $37.76.
Item text from the game files via the ByMykel dataset. Prices: CSRated price snapshot, 2 October 2026.
How do you choose a knife finish?
Start with your budget, then pick the model, then the finish. The model moves the price far more than the finish does.
- Under $60: a Navaja Knife, Shadow Daggers or Gut Knife in Boreal Forest, Safari Mesh, Forest DDPAT, Scorched or Urban Masked. Tiger Tooth on the Navaja ($56) just fits.
- $60 to $150: most finishes on the cheaper models, including Marble Fade and Fade on the Navaja, Shadow Daggers, Gut and Survival knives.
- A Karambit, Butterfly or M9 Bayonet: the floor was about $261 for an M9 Bayonet, $341 for a Butterfly Knife and $361 for a Karambit, all in worn camo finishes. For a cleaner look on those models, Field-Tested Slaughter and Field-Tested Autotronic are among the lower-cost routes.
- Clean look on a budget: pick a Factory New-only finish like Tiger Tooth. You never risk a scratched copy, and Factory New is cheaper than Minimal Wear on these finishes.
- Pattern finishes: if you buy Fade, Marble Fade or Case Hardened, check the pattern before paying above the floor. The how to inspect guide shows how.
Common mistakes when buying a knife finish
- Paying more for Minimal Wear on a Factory New-only finish. On Tiger Tooth, Fade, Marble Fade and Doppler, Minimal Wear is rarer and pricier, with a float only slightly higher than Factory New.
- Buying Factory New Crimson Web at any price. It is a tiny float band with few listings. Unless you collect, Minimal Wear costs a fraction of the price.
- Comparing prices across models. A "cheap Tiger Tooth" and an "expensive Tiger Tooth" are usually two different knives. Compare the same model.
- Opening cases for a specific finish. The chance of any knife is about 0.26% per case, per the 2017 odds disclosure, and that is split across every model and finish in the case. Buying the knife is cheaper. If you open cases anyway, set a limit; our responsible gaming page has tips.
For every knife and its current price, browse our CS2 knives page, and see the knife and fade entries in the glossary for quick definitions.