Knives: The Universal Edged Weapon of all Human Kind
I am reading Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives: A Practical and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting. Reinhardt describes the “quick and dirty business” of knife fighting and has chapters on “The Street Knife,” “Knife Concealment”, “Wounds” and “Using the Knife.”
There is good information in each chapter, it seems, though I am certainly no expert. In the chapter on “Using the Knife,” Reinhardt makes the point that some instructors have decided the best way to hold a knife is in the “icepick grip” with the blade lying flat along the underside of the forearm. He is not a fan of this hold. “The first thing it costs you is reach. When you try to close in on an opponent, and you’re holding your knife in that way and he isn’t, he will probably cut you first. That’s the second thing it costs you.” The author says it’s important to hold the edge down and elaborates on why.
If you want to learn more about knives, basic skill and some history, this book seems like a good one. There are a number of instructions and illustrations that make it easy to understand what the author is telling you about how to master knife skills.
Do you have any unmarried sisters?
Does your daughter like older men?
Much older men?
Never was much for knives in my younger days; my grandfather had an old Case, all pocket knives were a “caseknife” just like all copiers are a xerox, that was his constant companion and in idle momements, he’d take it out and whittle. He was a master with those split stick and leaf whistles. I never realized how much actual work he did with that knife. Am I dating myself? Anyway, never was any good at whittling or carving and never formed the habit of carrying or using a knife, and in the places I lived, for personal protection you really didn’t want to bring a knife to the gunfight.
When I came to Alaska in the ’70s every man in the state not wearing a suit had a Buck folding hunter on his belt, so I had one too. Never used it much though. When I got into boats I quickly learned just how hard it is to untie even a well laid knot after it has been wet in saltwater and then dried a few times, and I discovered the marlinspike and the rigger’s knife, a tool with a knife blade and a marlinspike. If you spend much time on a boat that actually really goes into big water, goes places, and does things – not the usual pleasure palace that never leaves the dock – you learn that a knife on your belt or in your pocket is not only practically essential but a safety necessity; you absolutely must be able to cut yourself free if you get tangled in a line under tension or an anchor rode that might pull you in the water. You also need a marlinspike to be able to pick knots that have hardened. My first rigger’s knife was a $25 or $30 Davis in stainless steel with about a 3″ blade; perfectly adequate actually and I ultimately had one on a lanyard at several useful spots around the boat. Then I discovered real rigger’s knives and to my mind the Japanese Myerchin is the best currently in production, though knife snobs like to get older Case riggers or, the ultimate one, old Royal Navy riggers.
A good, big rigger’s knife like the Myerchin will do two things, it will help you handle lines on a boat and it will end almost any argument in a waterfront bar because only a tough guy who also has one or some guy with a gun will challenge you. If you handle one of these things you gain great insight into how sailors and longshoremen got their tough guy reputation; a rigger in your fist with that 4-4 1/2″ blade on one side and that 4-4 1/2″ spike on the other side is one Godawful intimidating weapon. I know old deckhands who can flick a big Myerchin open like a switchblade. I’ve never gotten that good, but I have ended a couple of arguments.
Oh, and there’s a whole other arcana of the intricately knotted lanyards and pouches for rigger’s knives. The work is fashionably called macrame these days but almost all of it is the sort of decorative knotwork that sailors of an earlier day did to pass the time, and some of the work is practical ropework even today. They’re lovely things but to have one you need to bring serious money or know how to knot your own. My wife bought a fancy lanyard for me but I bore down and tied my own pouch; ain’t as pretty as the ones the pros make but it works and I made it.
Thanks for the post, Art. I went to high school with Chuck Buck (of Buck Knives) and they had a pretty fair lineup even then; don’t know if they are ever selected by sailors.
For seventy of my eighty years I have carried a knife, the tool not the weapon, in a pocket, on the belt, or in my boot. To a degree it was the result of Scouting and being prepared, both Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts. Never drawn any human blood excpt my own due to misuse. The quality on these knives varied from a pre-WWII Barlow to hand crafted fixed blades to the legendary Swiss Army to Five and Dime imports.
The most memorable of all however is my namesake, the original Schrade’Old Timer’ a knife with many configurations. This is not in any manner or form a commercial plug, as Schrade opened his factory in 1904, expanded it to pre WWI Germany, and lost that one to Imperial Nationalization. Returning to the USA he resumed business and the company survived until its One Hundredth Anniversary in 2004, when it closed its doors and sold off assets including its good name.
I did build one blade which was essentially a weapon, a double edged seven inch machined high carbon steel file with carved Black Walnut Grip and polished aluminum hilt. Another creation was a replica Bowie Knife from high alloy Manganese steel, a general all around outdoors work knife. Over the years there was never a threat to my right to ‘Be Prepared’ until the hysteria of 09/11. There was a time when every Gentleman who was literate carried a ‘pen’ knife to dress his quill pen, and a ‘cigar clipper/piercer’ for his Havanas. Still looking forward to the time when a knife will again be regarded more as a tool than a weapon.
“I did build one blade which was essentially a weapon, a double edged seven inch machined high carbon steel file with carved Black Walnut Grip and polished aluminum hilt.”
Sounds beautiful. High carbon’s the way to go for me too.
The author mentioned in the article basically describes a scenario where both fighters have knives and both have already drawn their weapon. From that standpoint,his advice is practical. The only way I’d use a knife in a fight is as part of a surprise attack,in which case the ice pick style is more of a benefit and throwing knives become more practical as a first attack weapon.
These days you never know what the other guy is packing,so it’s arguable that knives take a back seat as a weapon and come to the forefront as a tool.In that application,they are still indispensable if you are a man.
If you are being attacked by a guy with a knife,if he has his blade out waving it at you in the “proper” knife-fighting fashion, it’s actually easier to just disarm him and use his own blade on him than it is to go round and round trying to slice or stick him with a blade of your own. I can take just about any object that is in your hand out of your hand in a couple of seconds, though I don’t know if I’d risk it with somebody holding a gun because that’s the same amount of time somebody could kill me in.
Only in these times could a man get through the course of the day without his knife. Our ancestors were experts with blades and wouldn’t leave home without it. The importance of blades can be gleaned from the entombment of them with their owner.
In short-a blade meant life,and was nothing less than an extension of his hand.
In reply to Oldtimer:
My father always carried a small pocket knife, a pen knife. He kept it in good shape and very sharp. If he got dirt under his fingernails, he would use the smaller of the two blades to clean them. He might use the knife as a make-shift screwdriver for tightening his glasses frame. The silliest use, to my mind, was at Christmas. While we four kids were tearing apart the wrapping paper of our Christmas gifts, he would use his knife to cut through the scotch tape so that he could carefully and methodically unwrap his present, preserving the wrapping paper for another use.
In my adulthood, I carried his knife for a few years. But it now rests in my top dresser drawer—safer there than my having to forfeit it to the security guards at the airport or the county courthouse.