Help needed! I own a knife i have no idea how to use!

[Falcatarius]

Greetings Everyone

Here's my situation. I'm an active member on e-bay, and at some point i bought an item off a trusted seller with a good reputation.

To make a long story short, the item broke when he was storing it and i'd already payed for it. He asked if he could send me a nice knife instead and i okayed it. (the original item had to do with camping so he figured i could use a good knife)

So he sent me this knife and i must say, i was very very impressed with it. We finished the deal.

Now, I just put it aside for a little bit but eventually i came back to it and started looking into it. It turns out it's a Tom Brown Tracker knife. Now, as you can guess, i'm into camping and wilderness survival. And Tom Brown is one of my idols.

For those of you who don't know him, he's considered one of the worlds greatest living survivalists today, and he designed this knife himself to be the ultimate wilderness tool.

So suddenly this thing has become one of my prized possessions and i would truly love to use it next time i go camping. Now, i've looked at it's manual and it's detailed all of the ways it can be used as a survival tool. But i've never owned such an impressive knife before and i have no idea how to use it as a fighting weapon.

http://store.yahoo.com/topsknivesstore/tombrowtrac.html
As you can see by the specs it's a real monster and i could go on and on about it.
http://www.spiritbow.com/tracker.jpg

I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me some techniques for using a hunting knife as a weapon, especially the tracker knife.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers
-Falcatarius

 

[Goodmanfj]

The Tracker is a great camp knife, Do a search here on that and the WSK for some killer review's and how to's.Or watch the Hunted a bunch . lol (JK)Great Epray snag

 

[BladeGoblin]

Is this a serious question?

You don't know how to use it as a weapon?

Grab it by the handle, not the blade, and put the blade between you and whatever is attacking you.:yawn: Quite simple really, once you put some thought into it.

 

[dsvirsky]

To borrow a line from Jerry Fisk, "the pointy end always goes away from you."

 

[longbeachguy]

One of the other forums here would probably be a better place to pose this question.

Here's the link:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=674

 

[deserthawk]

seems my post didn't go through, so one more time...

post yur question over at www.survival.com/IVB

over on their bladeforum. several folks are intimately familiar with that knife.
seems to me that a knife like that requires some familiarity with camp knives, not really a "beginners" knife. personally i wouldn't own a knife that requires a manual, lol...
no offense, i'm just not a TBJ fan, and question his stories. have fun anyway with it, use it, throw it abuse it. thats what knives are for...

dhawk

 

[Muddy Waters]

seems this knife which has taken off (especially on ebay), was portrayed as an ultimate fighting knife in the movie "the Hunter". I saw it and for some quick action entertainment it wasn't bad. The knife's roll in the movie is that of being the "hunted" (Benicio Del Toro) weapon of choice for close combat.

the "hunter" is Tommy Lee Jones who seems to have trained the "hunted" with this weapon.

I'm not positive whether Tops references the movie in it's advertising.

As to the seriousness of the question, I would imagine that the forum member needs to know how to learn the fighting style used in the movie and if anyone who's seen the movie know's what the style is called (or whether it was just choreographed BS) I would like to know also.

 

[visionsect]

In response to the fighting style in "The Hunted" I am pretty sure it is called Kali. From what I understand, this style is derived from the Filipino Fighting Arts. There are some top notch people out there who teach this style, one of them being one of Bruce Lee's old students, Dan Inasanto.

However...I am not sure if the TOPS Tracker would be the best of fighting knives. Of course, just about any knife could be used in self-defense, but that does not mean it is the best for that purpose. To be honest, it is just too heavy to properly use for fighting. It can however perform as a decent wilderness survival tool, which was its purpose when Tom Brown supposedly designed it. Hope this comment helps in some fashion. Take care. -Damion

 

[Sword and Shield]

I will challenge the notion that Brown is the best survivalist, or even close. Over on the other forum, guys have taken smaller, simpler knives, and done everything he built the Tracker to do. Also, his background is somewhat suspect- he claims Native heritage, including his upbringing, but speaks none of the language (I think Cherokee).

 

[hicomp2]

It looks like a neat knife, a bit like the Ka-Bar Warthog, just much more refined.

 

[Dijos]

In response to the fighting style in "The Hunted" I am pretty sure it is called Kali. From what I understand, this style is derived from the Filipino Fighting Arts. There are some top notch people out there who teach this style, one of them being one of Bruce Lee's old students, Dan Inasanto.

. -Damion

Just to clarify, It was Sayoc Kali. Rafael (Sun Helmet on this forum) was in the movie briefly, and he worked with the actors to show them how to use the style.

http://sayoc.com/

 

[Macclint]

Actually, Tom Brown's claim is that he was mentored by an Apache Elder for 10 Years during his youth. He's one hell of a tracker, and all the actual survival skills I've learned from him worked for me, even though I live far from New Jersey (Washington State, in the Cascades actually)

 

[Macclint]

Any time I've seen Tom handling one of the Tracker Knives, he had it in a reverse grip, and the "gut hook" was to be used for Slashing. TOPS version has shortened that Gut Hook, much to my displeasure.

I took the Scout Class in 2004 (see my story here
http://www.wanderingones.com/scoutclass/ScoutClassPage1.html ) and we did a lot of martial arts and allwere taught by Philipino Martial Arts practioners George, Nessa and Paul.

 

[hicomp2]

You say you want to use this as a fighting knife. Are you talking about defense in the wilderness against critters with 4 legs, or against humans? In the woods I often carry either a Bowie or a hatchet as a tool and in case of wild dogs, etc. IMHO edged weapons against animals is a fairly simple, basic defensive action; downward chopping, slashing, etc. A carnivore won't dodge and dance around like a human will, so therefore reverse grips, and a high level of skill should not be needed. At least I hope so...LOL! If a big toothy critter can avoid my spastic, primitive chopping blows with my Norlund hatchet or Bowie, I'm in serious trouble, unless the smell from my long underwear (my bowels quickly loosening) drives him off...

 

[visionsect]

Thanks to Dijos for the clarifications on the exact style name, and to Macclint for the correct spelling of "Philipino". My apologies for the misspelling of the word. The art is great to study from what little I have seen of it. Very practical for the hand to hand kind of man or lady. It reminds me of Wing Chun with knives.

I agree with hicomp2 regarding the reverse grip for use on animals. Probably won't need that stye of knife holding on the four leggers. However, in regular hatchet chops grip, you could pour out some hurt on animal attackers. For me though, I just drop my knife, belt, and supply sacks and run. That way I have three diversions for a creature instead of having to fight it. HEHEHE! Just kdding fellas... but seriously...I'd run like a gazelle.

 

[IntheWoods]

Wow, send it to me and I'll figure out how to use it as a weapon and let you know.

 

[theunknowncook]

Falcatarius,
TOPS Knives are the best hand-made tactical knives you can buy made in the USA(or anywhere)!
When the Russian and Chinese Armies searched the world over in search of the best tactical knives to supply their Special Forces soldiers, they bought TOPS Knives because they are the best tactical knives made, period.
However, I would not recommend that you use the Tom Brown Tracker as a "fighting knife"--use it as a survival knife.
I consider "survival" knives to be a compromise. If you want a "camp" knife--buy a camp knife. If you want a "hunting" knife--buy a hunting knife. If you want a "tactical" knife--buy a "tactical" knife.
You would do much better to use the Steel Eagle 107D, Steel Eagle 111A, or DART as "fighting" knives.

 

[Marcelo Cantu]

Falcatarius,
TOPS Knives are the best hand-made tactical knives you can buy made in the USA(or anywhere)!
When the Russian and Chinese Armies searched the world over in search of the best tactical knives to supply their Special Forces soldiers, they bought TOPS Knives because they are the best tactical knives made, period.

Thanks......well um...I guess we can all go home now.