If you had to choose one Tactical Folder for Self Defense...

Carrying a "waved" knife is just proving that youre looking for a fight and to stab someone - there is no practical purpose. Tool first, weapon second.

I don't understand what the users of these forums (and for the people who have multiple 100-1000 dollar knives) are doing that they find themselves in dark dark alleys needing amazing CQC combat knives and skillsets, but with the money that you obviously have you would be better suited to not go to those places (although with the amount of posts that I read from many of the people I think it's a self imposed pipe dream)

Knifemaking, collecting, and sharing is what I am into, a great community and a great time - but the obsession with the need to "defend" yourself from the mystical suburban wallet jacker is just infantile and a large reason why there is legislation like we are facing today.

Sorry to rant but I just can't take it sometimes. I have my concealed carry, I carry a pistol when I am traveling and having to go into places that I find unsavory, but this is once maybe twice a year at most, and I wouldn't think about pulling a knife in these situations due to most likely being laughed at and shot anyhow.
 
opivyh8su said:
Carrying a "waved" knife is just proving that youre looking for a fight and to stab someone - there is no practical purpose. Tool first, weapon second.

I don't understand what the users of these forums (and for the people who have multiple 100-1000 dollar knives) are doing that they find themselves in dark dark alleys needing amazing CQC combat knives and skillsets, but with the money that you obviously have you would be better suited to not go to those places (although with the amount of posts that I read from many of the people I think it's a self imposed pipe dream)

Knifemaking, collecting, and sharing is what I am into, a great community and a great time - but the obsession with the need to "defend" yourself from the mystical suburban wallet jacker is just infantile and a large reason why there is legislation like we are facing today.

Sorry to rant but I just can't take it sometimes. I have my concealed carry, I carry a pistol when I am traveling and having to go into places that I find unsavory, but this is once maybe twice a year at most, and I wouldn't think about pulling a knife in these situations due to most likely being laughed at and shot anyhow.
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and the guys that carry pistols are pipe dreaming too?

i don't know what powder puff city you live in but bad things happen here and imo you can never be too prepared. just trying to avoid trouble will only help you someof the time. sometimes it's just going to happen
 
I generally carry a Spyderco Superhawk. Obviously the top one in this pic....
102_3284.jpg


And for you folks who sneeze at a knife for SD, please have the courtesy to pass on this thread......

Andy
 
I can just imagine dudes practicing their "knife skills" in front of a mirror.... Come on guys, this thread really is silly. Make sure and take your nunchucks before you go out on the streets of Gotham tonight... It's a cold, dark world out there! Like it or not... THESE ideas are what will make us lose out rights to carry the most useful tool ever used by humankind.

I think I should have the right to arm myself with whatever necessary. I also think a knife is a GREAT offensive weapon, but a lousy defensive one. I support "due process" and stiff penalties for murder.
 
opivyh8su said:
Carrying a "waved" knife is just proving that youre looking for a fight and to stab someone - there is no practical purpose. Tool first, weapon second.

I don't understand what the users of these forums (and for the people who have multiple 100-1000 dollar knives) are doing that they find themselves in dark dark alleys needing amazing CQC combat knives and skillsets, but with the money that you obviously have you would be better suited to not go to those places (although with the amount of posts that I read from many of the people I think it's a self imposed pipe dream)

Knifemaking, collecting, and sharing is what I am into, a great community and a great time - but the obsession with the need to "defend" yourself from the mystical suburban wallet jacker is just infantile and a large reason why there is legislation like we are facing today.

Sorry to rant but I just can't take it sometimes. I have my concealed carry, I carry a pistol when I am traveling and having to go into places that I find unsavory, but this is once maybe twice a year at most, and I wouldn't think about pulling a knife in these situations due to most likely being laughed at and shot anyhow.
Click to expand...

Are you going to insult the sheepdog that risks his life to protect your flock because you're to lazy to carry your teeth every day?

The pipedream is believing your CWP or weapon will protect you sitting in a drawer somewhere or you're actually capable of protecting anyone because you own a firearm.
An armed sheep is still a sheep.
 
SD with a knife is usually a result of letting a knife carrying thug too close. He is probably better versed in it's use than you. In any case, slashing is the most common attack - and defense. Remember the numbness in your finger when you cut yourself? Imagine that magnified - and involving your arm. If your upper arm, you could bleed out in minutes, if unaided immediately. Across your belly? Cut an intestine, etc, and instant sepsis. That may take a day or two to kill you, without good and immediate care. If you're lucky, you'll get to wear a colostomy bag - and diapers - for a while. It's hell.

The best defense is your cerebral trouble filter. First Rule of Order... stay out of harm's way! Second, stay with/around people. Third - be ready to act French - and retreat. If that fails, retrieve something that will keep your assailant at a distance - pepper spray works (Ask 'Dog'!). If they are threatening your life, a legal CCW, ie, firearm, can be deployed. Only do so if you are in fear of your life - and ready to protect your life by taking another's. Check local laws for seasons and bag limits.

Preparation is important - training is more so. Seriously, familiarize yourself with your options/tools. A can of pepper spray so old it's propellant has leaked out is as useless as a pocket firearm jammed with pocket threads/lint or a folding knife jammed with pocket change. Be safe. Plan ahead. Train.

Stainz

PS I'd like to be a 'mall ninja', but our local malls fell due to the increased hoodlum element and correspondingly lowered sales. They were nice places, not so many years ago.
 
archieblue said:
I can just imagine dudes practicing their "knife skills" in front of a mirror.... Come on guys, this thread really is silly. Make sure and take your nunchucks before you go out on the streets of Gotham tonight... It's a cold, dark world out there! Like it or not... THESE ideas are what will make us lose out rights to carry the most useful tool ever used by humankind.

I think I should have the right to arm myself with whatever necessary. I also think a knife is a GREAT offensive weapon, but a lousy defensive one. I support "due process" and stiff penalties for murder.
Click to expand...

Do you think? I disagree. The willingness to carry a knife and use it for self-defense isn't what will "lose" the right to do so, it will be the mindset of people who believe that a knife isn't a viable tool for self defense.... or for that matter, anything besides spreading butter on a reduced cal muffin.

Before you start talking about something you know (evidently) nothing about, let me let you in on a small secret.... practicing your draw of knife OR gun in front of a mirror, or having it video taped so you can see what you are doing and whether your draw technique is smooth and without wasted motion is actually a very good idea.

Since most of us do still have the option of carrying a knife for whatever legitimate purpose, to include self defense, I personally would appreciate it if you and the others here scoffing at the idea would stop aiding the forces trying to convince us that to do so is a mistake.

If you don't want to carry a knife for SD, fine. It's your choice. But the OP here wants input on a completely legitimate practice.

Andy
 
opivyh8su said:
Carrying a "waved" knife is just proving that youre looking for a fight and to stab someone - there is no practical purpose. Tool first, weapon second.

I don't understand what the users of these forums (and for the people who have multiple 100-1000 dollar knives) are doing that they find themselves in dark dark alleys needing amazing CQC combat knives and skillsets, but with the money that you obviously have you would be better suited to not go to those places (although with the amount of posts that I read from many of the people I think it's a self imposed pipe dream)

Knifemaking, collecting, and sharing is what I am into, a great community and a great time - but the obsession with the need to "defend" yourself from the mystical suburban wallet jacker is just infantile and a large reason why there is legislation like we are facing today.

Sorry to rant but I just can't take it sometimes. I have my concealed carry, I carry a pistol when I am traveling and having to go into places that I find unsavory, but this is once maybe twice a year at most, and I wouldn't think about pulling a knife in these situations due to most likely being laughed at and shot anyhow.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a lot of wrongness in one post. Let's take them one by one:

Tool first, weapon second.
Click to expand...
Except when it's the other way around. Denying that knives can be weapons doesn't make them any less pointy and sharp.

I don't understand what the users of these forums (and for the people who have multiple 100-1000 dollar knives) are doing that they find themselves in dark dark alleys needing amazing CQC combat knives and skillsets, but with the money that you obviously have you would be better suited to not go to those places (although with the amount of posts that I read from many of the people I think it's a self imposed pipe dream)
Click to expand...

I can only speak for myself, but I'm going there because my job sometimes requires me to. I don't have any $1K knives nor do I have an amazing CQC skillset. What I do have is a wife and family I would like to come home to at the end of the day. Maybe having a knife won't help at all, but maybe the particular murdering wallet jacker who happens to target me that particular day isn't willing to test his skills against anyone who has the means to fight back. The presence of the knife alone would be enough in that particular instance.

Knifemaking, collecting, and sharing is what I am into, a great community and a great time - but the obsession with the need to "defend" yourself from the mystical suburban wallet jacker is just infantile and a large reason why there is legislation like we are facing today.
Click to expand...

I think you probably meant to say 'mythical' instead of 'mystical'... in which case you would be even more wrong. It's called 'crime'... look it up. It really does happen, and it occasionally happens to people who don't deserve it.

Sorry to rant but I just can't take it sometimes. I have my concealed carry, I carry a pistol when I am traveling and having to go into places that I find unsavory, but this is once maybe twice a year at most, and I wouldn't think about pulling a knife in these situations due to most likely being laughed at and shot anyhow.
Click to expand...

So you carry that pistol on the D.C subway, do you? You do realize that is a Federal felony, right? I have a CCW too, but the places I am most likely to need a gun are the places I am forbidden from carrying one. The knife is a poor SHTF substitute, but it is infinitely better than harsh words.

Not everyone is you, and not everyone's situation is like yours. You are generalizing that just because your life is a certain way that everyone else's must be as well. That's simply not true. Some people live in a different world than yours and don't have the luxury of only going to 'unsavory' places once or twice a year. Mind you I'm not that person, but I know some of them and I wouldn't want to trade places.

You wouldn't be shot by someone that didn't have a gun in the first place. Not every criminal uses a gun. Or maybe it's your day to die anyway no matter what you do, in which case you are right about the knife not making a difference. But how do you know? And wouldn't you want to at least give your murderer a few identifying marks before you bleed out there on the subway platform?
 
If anyone carrying a wave was itching to stab someone or get into a knife fight, they would have been long dead or in jail. Using your spider sense to sense trouble, or common sense to avoid trouble are obvious. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I started carrying a knife as a work tool and developed an interest and enjoy them as a hobbyist and collector. My SD training came as an offshoot of my MA training. In an SD situation you should learn to use anything in your environment as a weapon. It only makes sense to me that if you carry a knife, you train with that knife. For those of you that carry firearms, would you ever think of carrying without proper training?
 
As for all the suggestions to carry the latest Knife of the Hour, let's remember that jurisdictions with anti gun regulations already have three inch blade maximums. DC is even worse simply because of the Fed regulation for a max 2 1/2" blade in their buildings.

Since most of the knives suggested are likely illegal to carry, let's put the Knife Self Defense option in it's true perspective. Since the invention of the Bowie, there are laws against knives - and practically, lengths are limited to law abiding citizens to an ineffective and largely non-lethal size.

Knives are not the best answer. Awareness, training, and again, reach is highly important. It is why firearms have the advantage. Therefore, look to something that can give reach without being a tactically classed combative weapon.

Society came up with the solution over 120 years ago when large cities outlawed weapons and swords on the streets. The same public safety mindset we suffer with today is old news - the few abusers set the standards.

Sure, I used to think in my youth that a knife was a great answer for defense. Now, at the other end of a military career including military police work, and having a CCW, I look to a more effective tool than a folding edged weapon who's blade length is less than most concealable firearms, that has no effective standoff, and only guarantees the result of getting too close to an adversary. As most of us are not even locally ranked or skilled martial artists, we suffer from a overblown sense of ability.

Keep an open mind and look closely at the boarding ramp next time you're at an airport.

The general public has rediscovered the old solution, that's what they use, and it's a bit funny that the answer right under are noses is so completely ignored. Since it's not a knife, and not the OP's answer, I leave it to those with a real interest to discover - in my first answer to the question.

It's not a silly question in the tightly defined and artificial world of a forum, but on the streets, small folding lockblades aren't an effective weapon. They aren't even common issue to the rank and file, LEO or military.

Since a Sebenza was suggested, I'll play and raise with a SnG.
 
I won't get into the whole "knives are terrible self defence weapons" debate and just say that if I had to use a knife to defend myself and had no other choice, I would want a 6 inch Ti-lite in my pocket or jacket.
 
tirod3 said:
Keep an open mind and look closely at the boarding ramp next time you're at an airport.

The general public has rediscovered the old solution, that's what they use, and it's a bit funny that the answer right under are noses is so completely ignored. Since it's not a knife, and not the OP's answer, I leave it to those with a real interest to discover - in my first answer to the question.
Click to expand...

As in "speak softly and carry a..."?
 
tirod3 said:
Knives are not the best answer. Awareness, training, and again, reach is highly important. It is why firearms have the advantage. Therefore, look to something that can give reach without being a tactically classed combative weapon.

As most of us are not even locally ranked or skilled martial artists, we suffer from a overblown sense of ability.

Keep an open mind and look closely at the boarding ramp next time you're at an airport.

It's not a silly question in the tightly defined and artificial world of a forum, but on the streets, small folding lockblades aren't an effective weapon. They aren't even common issue to the rank and file, LEO or military.

Since a Sebenza was suggested, I'll play and raise with a SnG.
Click to expand...

I disagree with most of your observations. And, I have no idea what you are referring to in the bolded quotes above. Care to expand?

The knife is one of man's oldest weapons/tools. It doesn't take a great deal of ability to cut or stab something, anyone who has worked with knives robustly is certainly knowledgeable enough to cut or stab a person, if they are willing to partake of violence.

While martial arts training of various forms is an advantage, physical ability and the willingness to use it are probably as important.

Firearms, however, to require some specific training for the user to become truly effective, and less of a danger to themselves or innocents.

Knives are not the best answer, but they are better than no answer, especially since many jurisdictions don't allow carry of firearms at all. Even a three inch knife can be formidable in the hands of someone who is determined.

Andy
 
Uh...any of them have a gun attachment instead of a wave? I'd prefer not to have a knife for self defense, and even if I were carrying one and I got robbed, I almost certainly would not use it to stop the robber. If I get mugged, I'd rather give up any money I have, possibly even take a beating and still not take out a weapon; there's no reason to take bruises and escalate the situation to more serious, possibly lethal levels. The same goes for carrying a gun.

If he has a knife, he's probably going to know how to use it better than me. If he has a gun, it's already drawn and I'm at a disadvantage. Either way, having a gun evens the odds, and if he has a knife, puts the odds in my favor, and a knife just requires that I get closer to someone who ALSO has a knife. If I'm carrying a weapon for self defense, it's going to be something with range further than a few inches past my arm.

If I have to carry a knife for self defense, though, I'll go with the longest waved knife I can find.
 
archieblue said:
I can just imagine dudes practicing their "knife skills" in front of a mirror.... Come on guys, this thread really is silly. Make sure and take your nunchucks before you go out on the streets of Gotham tonight... It's a cold, dark world out there! Like it or not... THESE ideas are what will make us lose out rights to carry the most useful tool ever used by humankind.

I think I should have the right to arm myself with whatever necessary. I also think a knife is a GREAT offensive weapon, but a lousy defensive one. I support "due process" and stiff penalties for murder.
Click to expand...
boy, living in mr rogers neighborhood sure must be nice archie
 
I carry pepper spray for self defense.

I think OC spray is more safe, would get me in less trouble, and also more effective. I carry a knife to use as a tool, and in outdoors use.
 
opivyh8su said:
Carrying a "waved" knife is just proving that youre looking for a fight and to stab someone - there is no practical purpose.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't prove you are "looking for a fight." What an amazing amount of wrong in the very beginning of your post.
It is useful for opening the knife without employing a second hand, SAME AS WITH THUMB STUDS, OPENING HOLE, OR DISK.
I carry a waved knife when I feel like it, and I haven't been in any fights for 7 years now(wouldn't have been in THAT one if loud-mouthed friend of wife's cousin's friend hadn't got us attacked by two guys---no weapons used, even though I had a knife on me), and have NEVER stabbed anyone.
You sir, are just plain wrong in your assertions.
 
-Emerson CQC-13
-Spyderco Endura Wave
-Spyderco Millitay
-Benchmade Mini-Rukus
-Benchmade Griptilian
 
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