What defines a self-defense/combat knife?

What defines a "self-defense / combat knife"?

It's the one that you happen to have on your person, at the time of need.....nothing more.....nothing less.

Don't let knife titles / classifications muddy the water! :D
 
I don't know much about combat knives, but don't write off the Wharnecliffe as an ineffective defensive knife... I think it will slash and penetrate with the best of them, IMO.
 
I think we are all being foolish here.

The type of knife you are using doesnt mean anything. Its all in how its used, and thats all about training.

Take a person who is well trained and put a butter knife in his of her hand and then take the biggest, meanest 12 inch blade bowie you can find and put in the hand of an ordinary guy whos done nothing with a knife but butter toast. Who are you gonna put your money on?

My point being that with proper training a small fixed blade can be both easy to carry and very effective. Likewise, with no training, a Strider or Busse can be pretty useless or in a worse case scenario dangerous to the person trying to use it. If an untrained person draws a big knife on a guy who knows what he is doing and starts swinging wildely , it can easily be turned against them.
 
Realistically, my money is on the guy with the bowie. No matter what training you have, sharp and pointy knives are very dangerous.

Yes, actually the knife does matter if you have a choice. "Get training!" is the stock answer here when people ask about SD, but the question was just what a combat knife. It ain't foolish to pick the right tool for the job.

Wharncliffes - they have no belly so slashing isn't too amazing - slashing is very limited if you want a quick kill. The idea would be to sever the arteries in the wrist of inside of the elbow or at the neck, so you really have to have some control of the person. Wharncliffes don't do well for penetartion either, as the point is too low and the edge isn't realy set up to make it easier. Wharnies and Sheepsfoot knives were common with sailors, probably because they didn't have to worry about sticking the sails, themselves, or each other.
 
Will P. wrote:
Wharncliffes - they have no belly so slashing isn't too amazing - slashing is very limited if you want a quick kill. The idea would be to sever the arteries in the wrist of inside of the elbow or at the neck, so you really have to have some control of the person. Wharncliffes don't do well for penetartion either, as the point is too low and the edge isn't realy set up to make it easier. Wharnies and Sheepsfoot knives were common with sailors, probably because they didn't have to worry about sticking the sails, themselves, or each other.
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I would respectfully disagree. My now-traded Webb and Fisher wharnecliffe penetrated BETTER than any knife I"ve ever owned, including most other blade shape configurations. The knife has no belly , you are right, but it does slash. I won't attempt to explain physics which I haven't mastered, but the wharnecliffe, in my view, is a very underrated blade geometry when it comes to a defensive knife. I have no experience with a sheepsfoot, but I think it would be erroneous to lump it together with the Wharnie as one and the same. Just my opinion....
 
I don't know what it proves, perhaps nothing, but the scramasax was carried as a weapon for hundreds of years in northern Europe. The point is distictly wharncliffe.
 
Roodog said:
Take a person who is well trained and put a butter knife in his of her hand and then take the biggest, meanest 12 inch blade bowie you can find and put in the hand of an ordinary guy whos done nothing with a knife but butter toast. Who are you gonna put your money on?
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Roo, gotta respectfully disagree here. I put my money on the guy with the bowie, almost every time. People with no training but armed with a knife kill other people all the time. A knife is a big equalizer, even without training. If a person claims they're not scared of an untrained (but aggressive) person with a bowie knife, they're lying or woefully kidding themselves. Training is a great idea, but the idea that an untrained person with a knife would not be a terrifying opponent is unrealistic.

diamdave said:
The knife has no belly , you are right, but it does slash. I won't attempt to explain physics which I haven't mastered, but the wharnecliffe, in my view, is a very underrated blade geometry when it comes to a defensive knife.
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Wharncliffes can slash. Mike Janich does a demo in meat that's pretty impressive, with his modified-wharncliffe blade profile. For certain angles, a wharncliffe seems to slash and cut deeper than a blade with a belly; at other angles, the belly wins. Wharncliffes also seem to work extremely well for reverse-grip edge-in methods; I've been slowly moving from bellied blades to straight-edged (wharncliffe-type) blades as I train with a pakal grip. Wharnecliffe's enter and penetrate perfectly in pakal, due to the entry angle.
Anyway, in summary, don't count wharnecliffes out, especially for certain grips. I'd go with a classic small-belly-and-sharp-tip that Will favors, for forward grip and for larger knives.

Joe
 
You guys are right, my mental concept of wharncliffe is limited - I was thinking about certain wharnies that I own. I wasn't thinking about the seax I have. As with basic blade shape, it's preformance depends a lot on the individual knife.
 
I'd say let's look back in history to the time in this country when knife fighting was so prevalent that laws were passed in an attempt to curb it ...the mid-1800's. And who is the most famous knife fighter to come out of the period? Why, that'd be James (Jim) Bowie. And the epitome of a "self-defense/combat knife" was/is the Bowie Knife.
A refined version of the Bowie can be found in some of the modern military issue knives, so one could say that the minimum requirements needed for a true self-defense/combat (fighting) knife would be a reasonable sized blade with a full guard.
Can any old knife be used 'in a pinch' for combat/self-defense? Certainly. But that doesn't make them a 'fighting knife'.
Would you show up to fight Jim Bowie on a sandbar in the middle of a river with a wimpy knife? I wouldn't :)
 
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