What do you guys think of HideAway knives?

G

GlockerChaZ

Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
11
I already ordered a Midnight Claw from www.hideawayknife.com and I am wondering if any of you guys have positive or negative thoughts about it. I have tried to search about these particular knives in archives but doesn't see anything.

HideAway%20claw%20bluegreen.jpg


That's what the claw look like, but Midnight claw is black. I have thought of getting an Emerson LaGriffe but changed my mind when I realized that its overall size would be obtrusive when hung from my neck. Hideaway look so smaller and simple. And with two fingers inside the hole, there's no chance of blade rolling backward like lagriffe or other similar knives.

-GlockerChaZ
 
I dig'em! Nice small tool too add to your defensive layer, lots of deployment options, hard to disarm and you still have the abilty to grab other "things" while it's still in your grasp. FrontSight collaborates with some very fine craftsmen and even the sheath work is top-notch.
Stay Safe,
Clyde
 
It's an excellent concept and well executed. FrontSight is great to deal with.
 
These knives have a very ardent following. A lot of talented makers are involved in the project.
 
Love it, love it, love it.

It's as if a claw were to grow from your first knuckles.

My first day after having gotten it, I typed a thank-you letter to FrontSight while *_wearing_* my HideAway around my fingers.

It's a very, very well thought-out product, and a truly useful tool.

Allen
aka DumboRAT
 
I wrote a review of the HideAway a while back that turned into a fairly lengthy discussion. Here's the thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277012

Five months after writing that review I'm more enthusiastic than ever! The HideAway isn't just an amzingly cool new idea, it's a very practical knife that has done everything I've asked of it, day after day, with no problems.

--Bob Q
 
Frontsight has a great concept..and who doesn't love Mickey Yurco?--Joe

P.S. She has a Fitting guide on the website. This is brilliant, as I have larger hands and Fingers than a lot of people.
 
Absolutely love mine. In the final stages of cordwrapping it w/ hollow paracord for better grip & tweaking the carry rig (IWB) and I can't wait to carry it as an EDC. Excellent design/execution (Yurco) and FrontSight couldn't be easier or better to work with.
 
Still waiting for mine. It's at the sheath maker. It's been nine months and it's killing me! I have high hopes for it. The design strikes me as brilliant.
 
Well you asked, so I assume you're interested in the "Nays" as well as the "Yeas"?

Outside of the, "coolness factor", I don't like them. They look uncomfortable to hold and I'm sure it only gets worse in use.

You know, I often see people who think they can wear big rings on their hands in case they're in a fistfight they'll do more damage. They'll do more damage alright! Imagine what the impact on those rings will do to the few square milimeters worth of finger and bone beneith. I feel the same way about those knives.

I think you should have gotten the Emerson LaGriffe or a Microtech Medallion or a Spyderco Spot or any of the dozens of other knives that have had a lot of real thought and research put into the design and give excellent performance and ergonomics for their size.

In a pinch, I would prefer to have in my hand a (ahem :( ) cheap-o Cold Steel Push-Dagger than that squarish pice of steel wrapped around my fingers.

Oh... IMHO! :D
 
I wondered about that too till I did testing on rump roast and beef ribs nailed to a wooden board. This is not linked to by any link on my website.

http://www.hideawayknife.com/testing.php

My purpose in doing the testing was to just see what it felt like when slicing through something (meat, in this example) and then hitting something hard (wood, in this example).

What happened was I didn't feel anything. The ick feel of the bloody meat was a much stronger physical and emotional feeling than anything else. I whacked at it for a while, experimenting with hitting bone, etc. The next day I felt my fingers thinking I'd have bruising or at least soreness, and I didn't. I'm sure that under the right circumstances the method of holdign could cause pain though. It just didn't happen in 20 minutes of whacking away at rump roast and beef ribs.

A conventional handled knife dictates a very knife-centric approach to solving the problem. In a perfect world, that would be fine. But things might not go perfectly, and you might need the dexterity in your strong hand to grab on to something for balance, to dial a cell phone, etc.. the instant after or before you need your knife.

FrontSight
 
fulloflead: Theory is fine, but you really can't judge the ergonomics of a design just by looking at pictures of it. I have performed hard punches using the HideAway against stacked layers of carpet and against pine boards. I wouldn't recommend it for casual entertainment, but it was no harder on my hand than a comparable strike without the knife. It certainly did not do me any damage and it did considerable damage to the surfaces struck.

Personally, I prefer to slash with a blade that short. Most good stabbing targets are too deep for reliable penetration.

Defensive purposes aside, the HideAway is a practical cutting implement. The grip and blade angle allow you to put a lot of strength behind a cut without any danger of slipping. And it remains comfortable even under extended use, particularly when compared to a conventional knife handle that requires constant pressure just to hold. A properly-fitted HideAway does most of the work of maintaining its position in the hand without any help from the user.

--Bob Q
 
frontsight said:
A conventional handled knife dictates a very knife-centric approach to solving the problem. In a perfect world, that would be fine. But things might not go perfectly, and you might need the dexterity in your strong hand to grab on to something for balance, to dial a cell phone, etc.. the instant after or before you need your knife.

FrontSight
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Interesting statement and there might be a good argument in there somewhere. I wish you would elaborate or rephrase. Are you trying to say that the simple handle design lends itself to stressfull times when you don't have acute motor control of your hands or are you stating that the handle design allows you to still use your fingers while holding the knife?

I would be interested to hear how someone's hand felt after two or three stabs into a firm but padded object simulating a... well, you get the idea.

[Edited to add: bquinlan must have been writing at the same time as me. I stand corrected on my stabbing assumption until I handle one myself.]
 
fulloflead said:
Outside of the, "coolness factor", I don't like them. They look uncomfortable to hold and I'm sure it only gets worse in use....I think you should have gotten the Emerson LaGriffe or a Microtech Medallion or a Spyderco Spot or any of the dozens of other knives that have had a lot of real thought and research put into the design and give excellent performance and ergonomics for their size....In a pinch, I would prefer to have in my hand a (ahem :( ) cheap-o Cold Steel Push-Dagger than that squarish pice of steel wrapped around my fingers.
Click to expand...

Let me paraphrase a recent post....


I'm SICK of the DEFENSIVE KNIFE LECTURES!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rant mode ON:

I'm SICK and TIRED of all the LECTURES every time someone ask about defensive-use knives!

I would think that people with a couple hundred posts on this forum would understand knives to a certain extent. But, STILL...

People keep sending this quote about, "A knife that looks cool can't possibly work."

Well... DUH!

But there's NOTHING WRONG with someone asking about a knife that could be a prybar, scraper, chisel, etc. in ADDITION to it's use as a knife!

Most of us KNOW that knives are used for cutting, but it's REASONABLE to expect answers about products that were DESIGNED to be used for more than simple cutting.

IN FACT, companies like Emerson, Strider, Szabo, Frontsight, Toxic Tools, and others have INTENTIONALLY designed their knives so they COULD be used for other purposes including defense and they PRIDE themselves on their knives' ability to handle things a knife isn't usually supposed to do.

Sure, I wouldn't ever use a nice custom or an Ed Fowler to take out a few sentries, but there ARE knives that ARE designed to be used for nasty crap like that when needed. So it's not like it's a crazy idea!

It's reasonable to expect, with today's knife and steel technology, to expect to be able to do more with a knife than cut with those knives from manufacturers who've designed them to do more.

When I or someone else asks about unconventional defensive applications with a knife, PLEASE, don't give me or them a bunch of crap! Because it's NOT an unrealistic question. Many manufacturers have anticipated that kind of hard use and have designed their knives to serve multi-purpose uses INCLUDING defense. Often times it's just a question of which knife is best at which particular defensive tactic.

So, the next time you see someone asking about a cool looking defensive knife or any other use of a knife...
that they might need for more, other than cutting,
if you really feel the need to shoot the person down
for expecting more than one use out of the knife,
if you don't have ANYTHING ELSE to contribute...

you should just GO SCHIT IN YOUR HAT.

Rant mode OFF.

Thank you!



But of course it is ok to criticize a defensive knife when you have 1) never handled it 2) zero training (with it)

RL
 
RL said:
Let me paraphrase a recent post....


I'm SICK of the DEFENSIVE KNIFE LECTURES!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rant mode ON:

I'm SICK and TIRED of all the LECTURES every time someone ask about defensive-use knives!

I would think that people with a couple hundred posts...

But of course it is ok to criticize a defensive knife when you have 1) never handled it 2) zero training (with it)

RL
Click to expand...

Cute. :rolleyes:

The difference is that the poster asked for opinions (Good OR Bad was implied) AND I did read and consider the post AND I did contribute something to the post by respectfully stating my opinion about the knife, supported with reasons and suggestions for other knives that could work better...

Jerk. :mad:

[If you have a problem with me, take it up on the ACTUAL thread that offended you or go say something nasty about me on GB&U. NOW, let's leave GlockerChaZ's thread alone without you polluting it with your personal vendetta against me.]
 
I have made a bunch of sheaths for hideaways and naturally I get to handle them quite a bit. Every one I have seen has felt good in my hand and though I didnt cut with them(hey, they're not mine), after 25 years of collecting and handling knives, you know what you like or not.
If my hand was sore the next day if I ever had to punch someone with one, so what? It would be a life or death situation and I'll take a sore hand over being the loser in one of those anyday.

RL, you would take out a sentry or whatever bad guy was a life threat to you with a custom or Fowler if that was what you had with you at the time. There's no doubt a Fowler would do the job, probably decapitate someone if you had to cut their throat.
 
re: full of lead "I wish you would elaborate or rephrase"

When I put a knife in my hand that has a conventional handle on it, i.e., a handle that protrudes into my hand, that immediately limits what else I can do with the hand. The ability to do other things with that hand is diminished - to what extent depends on the knife.

For example: with a conventional knife and handle, if not everything goes perfectly and I take a hard blow to the head, I'm likely to drop the knife or at least relax my grip on it. I can no longer securely hold on to both a light and the knife in the same hand, presuming I want or need to keep my other hand free for my gun. I can't grab on to something for balance if I had to without dropping the knife. I can't perform a fine motor skill like dialing a cell phone without dropping or putting down the knife or trying to do both and then dropping the cell phone.

Or, say I actually do connect and things get bloody...

(Taken on this customer's hunting trip to Africa.)

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gutsclose_resize.jpg



re: fulloflead, your initial comment on other knives "that have had a lot of real thought and research put into the design"

I AutoCAD'd and CNC'd over 100 prototypes in Corian and a lot in steel before finalizing the design, settling on the Fibonacci ratio as the best boundary condition and optimizer for strength (which is why a 3-fingerhole hole was not necessary) as sizes changed. Then I mailed prototypes around the world for feedback. I have put a ton of real thought and research (and prototyping, and testing) into this design. Ken Onion told me just last week that I think too much (hrumph! ;-). I had to not follow a lot of the advice I received because most of it compromised the overriding design requirements of 1) concealable 2) retainable 3) hands-free use. At one point I was convinced that no one else in the world was going to like this knife except for me. I decided that was fine with me as long as I could find someone to make 7 for me to keep in various places.

But ya know what? All that - the design process - that was the easy part. Creating a process that provides for consistently good execution of this concept, a custom-fit, custom-ground and finished knife, from sizing to sheathing, is what has been mind-numbingly difficult and incredibly time consuming. It's given me a lot of respect for knife manufacturers. A 5-year-old can draw a design. Ability to execute consistently well is rare.

Back to the other usage topic, I am describing what is true for me. I am an engineer with a MBA and working on a graduate degree. I have one reference point from being in a very bad situation where I really could have used an edge. I am not a trained martial artist, military, or LEO. The closest training I have to martial arts is 10 years of ballet.

FrontSight
 
fulloflead,

You are way, way off-base.

Again, as many others have pointed out above, your assumption was one that you simply could not have made without having handled one of these knives first-hand.

I also own a Cold Steel push dagger, and there's no way in hell that I'd prefer it over my HideAway in *_any_* situation.

Once you've actually held one, much less tested it by punching it into some meat, then you'll understand the difference -- and you'll also feel which hurts your hand more.

Combined with the superior made-to-fit ergonomics of this knife, which allows you to retain virtually full use of your fingers and hand for grasping (individual fingers) and its ease of concealment (either with the right color cord-wrap or bare, depending on finish, it can simply "disappear" if you held your hand open with your palm toward the observer), it's simply in a league of its own.

It's a true purpose-designed tool that's seen a tremendous amount of thought and knowledge input into the piece, it's not just some all-show-no-go disco decoration.

You won't see many of the top knifemakers or true knife enthusiasts in the field today endorsing any product that they deem is unworthy. Just look at FrontSight's list of collaborators and the feedback she gets from customers on just about every Forum.

No further explaination nor exposition is needed. It's a superior product, and is far from being able to be questioned simply based on third-hand "observations" or supposition.

Allen
aka DumboRAT
 
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