Personally, I thought the Great Sword and the Meat Bicycle explained everything clearly. But if you need to rationalize, listen to Lynn Thompson one more time:[video=youtube;rWT1-_S-aYw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWT1-_S-aYw[/video]
jeffright, thank you for sharing that video! I'd never seen it before and it was a nicely presented glimpse into Thompson's personality, business ethic, and preparedness philosophy. I very much respect his ethos.
I've been thinking about this thread for the past couple of days. I must say that the responses from a few people have truly saddened me, particularly as, thanks to a warped public education system, a skewed media slant, and lots of Hollywood tripe, these attitudes appear to be increasingly representative of American society's views of armed citizens as a whole. Hawgsnawt asked an innocent question about conducting a blade swap and before you know it we're all being labelled with a racial slur and lectured about what level of personal preparedness we're permitted in order to be seen as normal. As though we're children, we're told to be careful with our tools lest we hurt someone with them!
Here's my answer to that: Don't apply your pathetic personal standards to me! If you can't handle the idea of using a tool to defend yourself from attack, that's fine. If you believe that you're likely to injure an innocent bystander or have an aggressor steal your weapon, you're probably right. But how dare you assume that the rest of us are like you? One of the most interesting aspects of the anonymity of online discussion forums is that you truly have no idea who your audience is. This fact should be considered by far more people before they start generalizing and casting aspersions.
One last soapbox point: The reason that we have Good Samaritan laws in this country is to prevent the Monday-morning armchair quarterbacks from cowing into indolence those who would try to do good in a terrible, life-and-death situation. I believe that the same standards should apply to defense situations. Since when is inaction preferable to a failed attempt? Do you honestly think you'll sleep better knowing that you did nothing as people were dying all around you, safe in the certainty that at least you didn't hurt anyone by trying to stop it? Good luck living with that self-delusion. Personally, if for whatever reason I was powerless to intervene, I'd rather be killed by someone trying to stop a murderer than be forced to watch him continue his rampage unhindered.
OK, back to knives and the topic at hand. Hawgsnawt, I'm with those who think it's unwise to radically change the blade configurations of existing models. I say this because it's been my experience that Cold Steel puts a lot of effort into properly balancing its large folders, and swapping blades or grinding off significant portions of them will nullify that balance. That said, if you come up with a new Frankenstein design, I'd still like to see a picture and hear about how it handles!
-Steve
