Neck Knife cautions (not Striders of course!)

L

Lewis

Joined
Oct 9, 1998
Messages
368
I just wanted to post this somewhere that my fellow knife nuts that carry knives for so called "tactical" reasons would see it and this seemed like the best forum. First let me say that the knife in question was not a Strider (which may be the problem.)

Last night I got in foot pursuit of two young lads that had been in a bar fight. While running I had to jump a cable strung about 2 1/2' off the ground along the edge of a parking lot. After jumping the cable and running a little more I raise my portable radio to speak and when I brought it back down I felt a poke on my left thumb. I felt the front of my uniform shirt and realized that my neck knife had come unsheathed, probably when I landed from the jump and had cut through my shirt into my left thumb as I brought the radio down. It was a shallow cut, but I had to stop running and resheath the knife.

The good news is that I caught both the guys. The second one got alot of my blood on him when I cuffed him. This is not a cheap knife. It is a custom and has a good kydex sheath. I went home and tested all the other knives I carry this way by putting them on and then jumping while weighted with all my gear. Every single one came out at least one out of three times. No more neck knife carry for me. I was just getting ready to buy a DB to use for neck carry too. I will probably still get one, but it will ride handle up on a vest strap. Until I get a DB I plan to carry my MFS that way. Stay safe!
 
Good to hear you caught them. Sorry to hear you got wounded in action from a malfunction.

Is there anyway to line the sheath for more friction lock? Was it a La Griffe, because I got two coming and I am worried about those things coming loose with those curved blades.

Take it easy, and hope your thumb heals quickly,
Reed
 
Mr. Lewis,
First of all, well done in "staying the course". A lesser man would have called off the chase! The public thanks you.
RE: neck knife carry, that has always been a concern with us and we make a tight neck knife configuration however this should serve as training data for all. A bit of test and evaluation of this type of carry may save others from similar or worse situations.
Let us know your results on this and this is an issue to share with any other makers as well. The industry is full of good people.
Thanks for the post Mr. Lewis,
Duane Dwyer
 
Reed,
It was not a Le Griffe. I had one for a little while and traded it, it was very tight in the sheath, tighter than the knife in question. I still wouldn't carry it upside down without doing a little T and E.
Duane,
Thanks for the kind words. I've carried neck knives for years and ran with them so this was unexpected. I think I will just stick with right side up carry from now on.
 
Lewis,
Glad you're OK, and glad you caught the little jerks. It's a good thing that it wasn't a Strider though, you might have seriously severed a digit.

Paul
 
Good job on the pursuit!

As far as my personal opinion, I have never liked anything around my neck, especially in a scuffle.
 
I have to agree with MR Joshua, I do not like anything around my neck. It is just one more thing that the bad guy can grab and I have to worry about.

Rich

PS Good job on catching them
 
I know a few guys who wear neck knives - what they did (to reference Josh), is remove the paracord from the sheath and install a light chain that had a crimped connection. That way, if a BG got ahold of it and tugged, the chain would separate instead of becoming a leash. :D

The only neck knife I have is a custom G10 version of Fred Perrin's LaGriffe, which is so light it stays put in the kydex, unless I give it a good jerk.

HTH

Chris
 
Lewis, very interesting post.

Please tell us more ... in your best estimation, what caused the knife to come unsheathed?

* weight of knife...such that "landing" after jumping was enough momentum that weight of knife caused it to overcome sheath friction?
* was the sheath simply way too loose?
* did the neck knife get sort of bound up in your uniform/undershirt or maybe ballistic vest?... and the when that clothing friction unwound on landing it pulled knife out?

Just curious... a good lesson here to be learned, but I'm not sure what it is just yet.

(I've always preferred very lightweight neck knives [e.g. smartly skeletonized handle or otherwise just light from size & stock thickness], and insist on tight sheath... am I missing anything? )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slightly different topic: I often get road rash from mild wipeouts on my mountain bike on trails, etc... garden-variety contusions. I've convinced myself that simply allowing the wound to scab over may not be the best thing (after thorough cleaning/disinfecting of course).

It is more of a pain, but by keeping something like Neosporin or better a triple antibiotic salve on the wound and by keeping it covered with bandaid or bandage for a week or two, and not allowing the "bacon-like" scab to build up, several things are improved:
1. heal time, slightly
2. wound flexibility ... stays soft, more important for big wounds
3. less scarring (who cares on knees, but arms & face, well, I'll take my old self over a scarred-up one).

Just had arthroscopic cartilage reconstructive surgery on shoulder, and have qty=3 little surgical "wounds", the scope holes, about 1/3" in length each. Same treatment...bandaids and polysporin, and they are healing up nicely also.

And those flexible, stretchable bandaids sure work great, especially on moving parts (knees, fingers, elbows).
 
I will give more details, but please understand that this is not meant to be an indictment of the maker or his knife. The knife is a Kendrick Sentinel. Length wise it is about the same size as some of the smaller striders (DB for example) It has a somewhat recurve edge with a tanto point and micarta scales. There is an ad with a pic of one in the back of the new Tactical Knives. It is 5/32" thick and fairly heavy. The sheath seems to hold it well and has a positive "snap" feeling when you put it in. The sheath is not tight all the way down the blade like my EBLT or MFS from Strider. I believe that when I jumped the cable the knife popped out past the tight part and was able to fall on out the rest of the way. The knife is held fairly flat between my uniform shirt and body armor so I don't think it was twisted. Fortunately for me the first guy gave up when he saw me giving chase. I ordered him to his knees and cuffed him before being cut. I then ran around a dumpster and saw #2 kind of shuffling away about 50 yards away. When I started running he started to run again and thats when I tried to call out on the radio and got cut. I got the knife back in as quick as possible and continued on. when I got close enough that #2 knew he wasn't getting away he gave up. Apparently his sprint from the bar to this point (about 200 yards) had winded him. I'm glad because I am no great runner. Thanks for all the words of encouragement, but I didn't do anything that 95% of the cops out there wouldn't have done. We don't want to talk about the other 5%! I actually view this kind of stuff as fun. Breaks up the otherwise boring midnight shift.
 
Mr. Joshua has a neck like an alligator but ... whatever. I think he doesn't like things around his neck because it reminds him of when his momma used to tie a bone around his neck to get the dog to play with him.
Duane Dwyer
 
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