Sal,
Didn't mean to put you on the spot, but don't sell yourself short, either. I used to work with a couple of guys who made Kydex rigs for fast deployment of fixed-blades; by comparison to that, I'd still say you're pretty darn fast. But don't go by my opinion, how about asking Dexter
?
The speed, effectiveness, and general feasability of any defensive device are going to depend largely on training, but they are also subject to inherent limitations. No matter how hard I train with it, a knife carried in a locked briefcase will never be terribly fast, and a pizza-cutter will never be very effective. We want to know
before devoting our time to training what the maximal results are likely to be. I'm pulling you into the conversation as a fair example of what training in drop-opening Spydie-type folders can achieve.
Also, any amount of training can be a failure if it doesn't use the right techniques or focus on the proper things. Seeing you in action, I realized that shifting to a normal grip was an unnecessary hindrance to my deployment method. No matter that I had practiced it enough to do it reasonably quickly, it would always be much slower than your method because it's an inferior technique. Similarly, my practice has never focussed enough on the initial strike, something I've been aware of but only recently made an effort to change. Speedy deployment is worse than useless if you're not practiced in turning it into an immediate strike and ready to handle all the forces and complexities this involves.
Anyhow, my point with this thread was not to condemn neck-knives or say that rapid deployment was the only part of defense. I do believe it's a critical part, though, and I wanted to hear what, with practice, neck knives could achieve. I already know that I love them for 24-7 backup utility carry.
-Drew