How do you carry your RC-4?

[cziv]

Thanks for your advice guys, you've been most helpful! :thumbup:

 

[Fletcher Knives]

I'm having a hard time figuring this one out.
So on the right hand side, pointy end toward the back, for a reverse grip draw?

I'm not even going to try to describe the draw. lol. I will say it's very fluid and not near as complicated as one would think and it's very easy to draw the knife in several gips.

With the sheath in this position, my shirt hangs down over the sheath, but the entire handle of the knife is exposed. What's funny is that if you wear your knife upright on your belt, people seem to notice it right away and you might get some funny looks. Or if they spot the bottom half of your sheath poking out, you might notice them giving you creeped out vibes. With this carry position, no one ever gives it a second glance and it doesn't seem threatening at all.

No lie, I carry my knife into my local bank just like this. It's clearly visible, but I've never so much as caught someone looking at it. Also, I've had a LEO tell me that my carry position was actually a very good idea to them for civilian carry. He said it was a very non-threatening position and it displayed to him that I'm not some attacker hiding a knife, but just a person who uses a knife. He said that once he noticed it, it made him take a second to think about why it was configured like that and instead of wanting to know what my purpose was for having a knife, he just wanted to know what the thought process was behind carrying it this way.

With the knife in this position, the handle is right there at my hand. All I have to do is move my hand towards my side and I have a handful of RC without having to think about it. I noticed when I carried my knife upright on the belt that I had to train my hand to where the handle was going to be and I had to raise my hand to draw the knife, as well as make an awkward movement, move my shirt, etc.. With my carry position, I don't have to. My hand is practically touching the handle all the time. All I have to do is grab and draw. No moving the shirt. No telegraphing motions. It's actually much faster for me to draw the knife from this position than any other.

Interesting that the carry position that allows me to put the knife into action faster is the one that seems less threatening. Needless to say, I put a lot of thought into things like this.

 

[cziv]

Dylside,

Thanks for the beautiful pic and description. Questions:

It appears that the sheath is para-corded to your belt? If so, could you avoid handle display by tethering it up where the two vertical strips are showing?

For a right hander, couldn't you tie it up (whatever way) with the handle reversed, by flipping the sheath over, allowing you to "pull down" & putting the edge forward, rather than the quick maneuver I can imagine that you're probably doing now?

Thanks very much - great pic, advice and BTW, to be sure, that's an RC-4 right?

 

[Fletcher Knives]

Dylside,

Thanks for the beautiful pic and description. Questions:

It appears that the sheath is para-corded to your belt? If so, could you avoid handle display by tethering it up where the two vertical strips are showing?

You could. It will however do two things. One, it will take away range of motion from you sheath and create basically a rigid bridge between your thigh and your side. One great thing about using the top holes is that you give the sheath and knife the ability to move out from your body slightly and move around. This comes in handy when you sit down, bend towards your right side, etc. If you try it both ways, you'll see that you have a lot less resistance against the sheath and more range of motion by lashing it more towards the tip of the sheath. Two, it will bring back the need to move your shirt out of the way, train your hand to reach up and find the handle, etc. Any bit of extra movement or thinking slows down your draw and it becomes less natural. I try to keep my knife drawing method in line with my martial arts method, "using the least amount of force and energy necessary to achieve the quickest and most effective result". The more efficient your movement, the faster and more natural it becomes.

For a right hander, couldn't you tie it up (whatever way) with the handle reversed, by flipping the sheath over, allowing you to "pull down" & putting the edge forward, rather than the quick maneuver I can imagine that you're probably doing now?

By positioning the sheath edge-forward, belive it or not, you're actually limiting the draw grip options more than having it reversed. I know that sounds crazy and I wish I was showing you this in person because it would make a lot more sense. If you rig the sheath edg-forward and draw the knife with a regular grip, it will actually put your whole body in a less natural position and require your to bend your wrist more making it less efficient and less comfortable. I'm really going to have to try to better demonstrate this with pictures when I get home.

Thanks very much - great pic, advice and BTW, to be sure, that's an RC-4 right?

Actually, that is my RP RC-3, but I used this exact same carry position with my RC-4 when it was my EDC knife. I only recently switched to the RC-3.

 

[cziv]

Dylside,

Thanks for replying. You are the man. I'm a Shorin Ryu practitioner since 1973. My avatar is our patch that was designed by the Gneck Brothers at our the San Bernardino club. Small world!

You make excellent points and I'll try your methods tonight and experience for myself with my RC-3.

Switching grips is not a big deal and as you mentioned. Why sacrifice bad mechanics in the draw and extra steps in deployment.

Last question: Is that the stock sheath or a kydex?

I really appreciate your time and will figure this out easily from here w/o more pics - although I bet a lot of RAT Packers would love to see them!

Respect!

 

[Fletcher Knives]

Dylside,

Thanks for replying. You are the man. I'm a Shorin Ryu practitioner since 1973. My avatar is our patch that was designed by the Gneck Brothers at our the San Bernardino club. Small world!

You make excellent points and I'll try your methods tonight and experience for myself with my RC-3.

Switching grips is not a big deal and as you mentioned. Why sacrifice bad mechanics in the draw and extra steps in deployment.

Last question: Is that the stock sheath or a kydex?

I really appreciate your time and will figure this out easily from here w/o more pics - although I bet a lot of RAT Packers would love to see them!

Respect!

No problem at all bro. My pleasure.

I always stick with the factory sheaths from RAT. The only time I haven't is with my Izulas because neither of them came with a sheath. With the RC-4, I love that the tension is adjustable. Both the RC-4 and RC-3 sheaths are perfectly fine for my method of carry. I'm one of those "if it aint broke, don't fix it" type of people. I made custom kydex sheaths for a little while and was actually pretty good at making awesome minimalist sheaths. That was my specialty. Wouldn't you know it, they followed almost the exact same style as factory RAT sheaths.

 

[matthewdanger]

One of my RC-4s is set up for belt carry with the MOLLE back panel. It works great on a normal belt and is especially nice on my MOLLE belt rig that I use in carbine classes and such.

The other rides pretty much permanently on an Eagle/Safariland 6004 drop leg holster (using the MOLLE-loks). Like so...