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- Nov 11, 2002
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Not having a life and lots of time, my brain drifted over to the topic of deploying your knife under stress. Did a bit of Internet reading on the subject. Gave it some thought after Bugs Bunny was over. The old ones. New cartoons stink.
But I figgered, doesn't really need to be in a physical altercation, but maybe an accident, or house fire. Making a shelter if you get lost. Someone with a bad cut on their leg. Something like that.
I know from past experience and training that under stress, one of the first things that gets lost is ones fine motor skills. I would think the more experienced trainers would agree. When the adrenaline dumps, using smaller items in your hands and with your fingers can be problematic. Even manipulating your handgun gets tough.
I would think that in a stressful situation where your knife is needed, it should be as easy as possible to hang onto with wet hands, such as water, oil, blood maybe, etc. You should be able to open the knife while wearing gloves. And you may need to open it with your off hand. So it needs to be off hand friendly.
I've knives with about every opening method out there so I was kind of able to experiment a bit in a completely unscientific comparison. I'm not going to get into locking mechanisms because, for the most part, any knife lock used will suffice just fine for the average guy out there I think. Providing it is well made and not a cheapo gas station liner lock just waiting to close on your fingers. In a situation, your knife may be put into awkward angles and blade pressures, so you want to have confidence in your preferred lock. What is the best lock out there has been debated forever and will never be agreed upon. Same with opening methods.
Anyway, I wanted to keep the knives right around the same size, so I used a plain small Sebenza with double lugs, Native 5 G10, Emerson Mini A-100 with thumb disc - no wave, Benchmade Mini Bone Collector with hole, and a Benchmade small Ritter with thumb studs.
That gave me a frame lock, back lock, liner lock, axis lock. Thumb studs of different sizes, thumb disc, thumb hole. I left out the wave opener method. Mostly cause I don't like it myself. Lol. Some guys love it. And I think once you get it commited to muscle memory, it'd be ok. I always ended up half opening the knife in my pocket.
My tasks were pretty simple. Cut up some cardboard. Cut a few couple foot lengths off a coil of 3/4" hemp rope, whittle some shavings off a two by four for kindling, and cut down the length of a pant leg to get to what's underneath. A board in this case since my wife wouldn't volunteer. She wouldn't donate any blood either.
I used water, 10W30 motor oil, spray canola oil, and mud. Made a heckuva mess on my knives, but I cleaned them between each test. I didn't dunk the knives either. Just kinda flicked the stuff onto the handles and the blades. In a real situation, you may have to fish your knife out if a mudhole or something. Who knows. I did hit each knife on my Sharpmaker too after each deal.
I went bare handed, surgical gloves, and those cheapie brown gloves you can buy in packs since I didn't want to ruin good winter gloves.
I'm not going to bore you with each step as this post is too long as it is, so I'll just say how it went for me. YMMV widely with certainty.
Bare handed, all the knives were easy enough strong handed. After I ran my hand under cold water for awhile, then dried it, but while my hand was still real cold, the Sebenza was a little bit of a struggle. Those tapered, on the small side thumb studs, for me, were difficult. When oily, my thumb kept wanting to slide off with the detent of the knife a bit in the heavy side maybe.
Bare handed off hand, the Native, Bone Collector, Emerson, the Ritter, then the CRK, in that order, I found easiest to open. While the Sebenza is a very well crafted knife, even double lugged, it just isn't too off hand friendly since the frame lock design prevents a larger "dip" to get your thumb onto the stud. And the tapered studs I found harder to use, especially with real cold hands. The thumb disc, and the larger studs on the Ritter, coupled with the lighter detent found with the axis lock is noticeable.
I found as I proceeded thru my tasks, the knives stayed pretty much in that order of effectiveness. For me.
I'll have to admit, while I'm find of my Sebenza knives, it was tough to use during the oily parts with surgical gloves or the brown gas station gloves after I glopped some oil on the knife or sprayed it with canola. It was just really slick and hard to do anything with much force, without it wanting to slide out off your grip. Cussed at it a couple times. And I think you would have to admit, by comparison to the other knives, except maybe the A-100, the handle is fairly small and thin. The Emerson is thicker though.
After it was all said and done, I came to the conclusion, strictly speaking for me, the most versatile and easiest to use knife for those different tasks with those conditions in place was the Native, then the Bone Collector. Both with Spydie Holes. Both with nice grippy handles on the larger side.
With the lightweight brown gloves, or the surgical gloves, when the knife is oily and wet, that Sebenza was tough for me to work with. I think with bigger, heavier, winter gloves, the CRK, and the Emerson, maybe the Ritter, would be tough.
Whichever knife you want to use, and think maybe you may come upon an urgent situation without other tools once in your life, you need a grippy type surface, such as G10, access to the opener from either side with or without gloves. And be able to complete basic tasks with either hand. Obviously your off hand won't be as good for some tasks and I did have to struggle with some things a bit more with my off hand and it took me longer. And the handle needs to be shaped well, and large enough, to provide a nice grip.
I intentionally left out closing the knife as I figured that's something you can do later. I did kinda tap a few times on the board with the spine of each knife just to see if any would slip, which they didn't. I didn't do spany goofy batoning or really smacking them. While I was messing around, I did purposely move the knife into odd angles and stuff while working with them. Like pulling the knife back out while applying upward spine pressure. All knife blade locks took that in stride.
Please, please, keep in mind, these are all knives I own. Many others as well. I picked these as they are all similar in quality I think, and very common in use among knife folks. I mean no disrespect towards anyone's favorite knife or locking method. This is just something I did messing around for my own amusement. I didn't record it. No referees were in place, nothing scientific by any means. And I have a total zero in any kind of knife fighting training or skills. Speaking for myself - if I get down to where I have to use my knife in a fight, I'm likely well and truly fu@cked. Feet don't fail me now. Lol. But it could happen I suppose. Never say never. Especially in these times we live in.
So for me, a Native G10, with its nice big cutouts for the thumbhole on both sides, reversible clip for lefties, is a nice daily carry knife choice that I have confidence in that I could use most effectively in less than ideal situations. Will I always carry it from now on? No. Too many other knives I like too.
Also, these steps were very relaxed. Nobody was screaming. Well, I did once when I cut myself. Wasn't on fire. Wasn't dark. No blood other than mine. Wasn't in an unfamiliar area. Wasn't real cold out. Wasn't pouring rain. Wasn't being rushed. Wasn't in danger. So if I were to add one or more of those factors, it'd suck all the way around. Lol.
So glean what you will, and I would just suggest maybe taking your favorite EDC, and trying a few different tasks under less that ideal conditions and see what's what. You could be surprised. I was.
Very sorry for the very long winded rambling thread. And I hope I caught most the typos.
Joe
But I figgered, doesn't really need to be in a physical altercation, but maybe an accident, or house fire. Making a shelter if you get lost. Someone with a bad cut on their leg. Something like that.
I know from past experience and training that under stress, one of the first things that gets lost is ones fine motor skills. I would think the more experienced trainers would agree. When the adrenaline dumps, using smaller items in your hands and with your fingers can be problematic. Even manipulating your handgun gets tough.
I would think that in a stressful situation where your knife is needed, it should be as easy as possible to hang onto with wet hands, such as water, oil, blood maybe, etc. You should be able to open the knife while wearing gloves. And you may need to open it with your off hand. So it needs to be off hand friendly.
I've knives with about every opening method out there so I was kind of able to experiment a bit in a completely unscientific comparison. I'm not going to get into locking mechanisms because, for the most part, any knife lock used will suffice just fine for the average guy out there I think. Providing it is well made and not a cheapo gas station liner lock just waiting to close on your fingers. In a situation, your knife may be put into awkward angles and blade pressures, so you want to have confidence in your preferred lock. What is the best lock out there has been debated forever and will never be agreed upon. Same with opening methods.
Anyway, I wanted to keep the knives right around the same size, so I used a plain small Sebenza with double lugs, Native 5 G10, Emerson Mini A-100 with thumb disc - no wave, Benchmade Mini Bone Collector with hole, and a Benchmade small Ritter with thumb studs.
That gave me a frame lock, back lock, liner lock, axis lock. Thumb studs of different sizes, thumb disc, thumb hole. I left out the wave opener method. Mostly cause I don't like it myself. Lol. Some guys love it. And I think once you get it commited to muscle memory, it'd be ok. I always ended up half opening the knife in my pocket.
My tasks were pretty simple. Cut up some cardboard. Cut a few couple foot lengths off a coil of 3/4" hemp rope, whittle some shavings off a two by four for kindling, and cut down the length of a pant leg to get to what's underneath. A board in this case since my wife wouldn't volunteer. She wouldn't donate any blood either.
I used water, 10W30 motor oil, spray canola oil, and mud. Made a heckuva mess on my knives, but I cleaned them between each test. I didn't dunk the knives either. Just kinda flicked the stuff onto the handles and the blades. In a real situation, you may have to fish your knife out if a mudhole or something. Who knows. I did hit each knife on my Sharpmaker too after each deal.
I went bare handed, surgical gloves, and those cheapie brown gloves you can buy in packs since I didn't want to ruin good winter gloves.
I'm not going to bore you with each step as this post is too long as it is, so I'll just say how it went for me. YMMV widely with certainty.
Bare handed, all the knives were easy enough strong handed. After I ran my hand under cold water for awhile, then dried it, but while my hand was still real cold, the Sebenza was a little bit of a struggle. Those tapered, on the small side thumb studs, for me, were difficult. When oily, my thumb kept wanting to slide off with the detent of the knife a bit in the heavy side maybe.
Bare handed off hand, the Native, Bone Collector, Emerson, the Ritter, then the CRK, in that order, I found easiest to open. While the Sebenza is a very well crafted knife, even double lugged, it just isn't too off hand friendly since the frame lock design prevents a larger "dip" to get your thumb onto the stud. And the tapered studs I found harder to use, especially with real cold hands. The thumb disc, and the larger studs on the Ritter, coupled with the lighter detent found with the axis lock is noticeable.
I found as I proceeded thru my tasks, the knives stayed pretty much in that order of effectiveness. For me.
I'll have to admit, while I'm find of my Sebenza knives, it was tough to use during the oily parts with surgical gloves or the brown gas station gloves after I glopped some oil on the knife or sprayed it with canola. It was just really slick and hard to do anything with much force, without it wanting to slide out off your grip. Cussed at it a couple times. And I think you would have to admit, by comparison to the other knives, except maybe the A-100, the handle is fairly small and thin. The Emerson is thicker though.
After it was all said and done, I came to the conclusion, strictly speaking for me, the most versatile and easiest to use knife for those different tasks with those conditions in place was the Native, then the Bone Collector. Both with Spydie Holes. Both with nice grippy handles on the larger side.
With the lightweight brown gloves, or the surgical gloves, when the knife is oily and wet, that Sebenza was tough for me to work with. I think with bigger, heavier, winter gloves, the CRK, and the Emerson, maybe the Ritter, would be tough.
Whichever knife you want to use, and think maybe you may come upon an urgent situation without other tools once in your life, you need a grippy type surface, such as G10, access to the opener from either side with or without gloves. And be able to complete basic tasks with either hand. Obviously your off hand won't be as good for some tasks and I did have to struggle with some things a bit more with my off hand and it took me longer. And the handle needs to be shaped well, and large enough, to provide a nice grip.
I intentionally left out closing the knife as I figured that's something you can do later. I did kinda tap a few times on the board with the spine of each knife just to see if any would slip, which they didn't. I didn't do spany goofy batoning or really smacking them. While I was messing around, I did purposely move the knife into odd angles and stuff while working with them. Like pulling the knife back out while applying upward spine pressure. All knife blade locks took that in stride.
Please, please, keep in mind, these are all knives I own. Many others as well. I picked these as they are all similar in quality I think, and very common in use among knife folks. I mean no disrespect towards anyone's favorite knife or locking method. This is just something I did messing around for my own amusement. I didn't record it. No referees were in place, nothing scientific by any means. And I have a total zero in any kind of knife fighting training or skills. Speaking for myself - if I get down to where I have to use my knife in a fight, I'm likely well and truly fu@cked. Feet don't fail me now. Lol. But it could happen I suppose. Never say never. Especially in these times we live in.
So for me, a Native G10, with its nice big cutouts for the thumbhole on both sides, reversible clip for lefties, is a nice daily carry knife choice that I have confidence in that I could use most effectively in less than ideal situations. Will I always carry it from now on? No. Too many other knives I like too.
Also, these steps were very relaxed. Nobody was screaming. Well, I did once when I cut myself. Wasn't on fire. Wasn't dark. No blood other than mine. Wasn't in an unfamiliar area. Wasn't real cold out. Wasn't pouring rain. Wasn't being rushed. Wasn't in danger. So if I were to add one or more of those factors, it'd suck all the way around. Lol.
So glean what you will, and I would just suggest maybe taking your favorite EDC, and trying a few different tasks under less that ideal conditions and see what's what. You could be surprised. I was.
Very sorry for the very long winded rambling thread. And I hope I caught most the typos.
Joe
