Don't forget your knife could save your life! Respect it and choose well.

reply to post by TreadUpon


Nice watermelon knife!! Definitely a tireless tasking knife. Reminds me of an old khukri that my uncle used to bring out during family picnics. We all watched in awe as he made quick work of the watermelon on the picnic table. Nice!!

reply to post by jibeho


I got seriously distracted looking at some of those sheaths! I do all my own leather work and was pretty impressed by the sheaths at both places you linked. So often I see cheap sheaths for really nice metal. Of course I'm a DIY sorta guy and tend to over build.

Originally posted by Jinglelord
reply to post by jibeho

 

I got seriously distracted looking at some of those sheaths! I do all my own leather work and was pretty impressed by the sheaths at both places you linked. So often I see cheap sheaths for really nice metal. Of course I'm a DIY sorta guy and tend to over build.

Gotta love leather. I don't have the tools or knowledge to mess with leather too much. I've been toying a little with kydex recently and wouldn't mind stepping up my operation a little. I'll end up making kydex sheaths for everything in my house including a beer bottle.

check this out martinsheaths.blogspot.com... for some gems that combine leather and kydex. The yin and yang of sheaths. You've gotta have patience if you are going to order here. Fantastic work though!!

reply to post by Jinglelord


Here is a pic for you. It looks almost like a fantasy knife, but it is seriousle devastating. I believe cold steel now holds the patent on it and are coming out with a mass market copy. I hope the picture thing works.

reply to post by reluctantpawn


That is awesome! Hopefully Cold Steel does a good job... sometimes they really don't, sometimes they do...

I carry a good ol' leatherman skeletool CX with the 154CM blade for EDC. My Survival/combat knives come from a crazy old indian from Oklahoma. He builds them out of "junk" he finds at industrial surplus outlets. He doesn't charge for his work. If he likes you he will make you a knife. If you pester him he'll cut you. If he really likes you he will keep sending you a knife about once every four or five years.

He makes them out of all sorts of things, but mostly car leaf springs. They're indestructable. I asked him for a "pretty" knife one time, and he made me a nice 4" tanto blade from some high carbon steel he dug up somewhere, and found some italian briar for the handle. I'm not sure where the guard came from, but it looked high tech indutrial, and was titanium, or tungsten I think becasue he said he could even scratch it, much less cut it. The thing was gorgeous. A few years back some thug smashed my car window for it. I hope he cuts his nuts off with it.

Great thread. I carry a leatherman super tool and a buck lock back everywhere I go. The leatherman can work as a punchknife and a fist load in a pinch. The pliers do a heck of a lot of damaged when used in that manner. Just partially unfold it with the pliers end sticking out between your middle and ring fingers. For a little extra, extend the knife blade out of the bottom and use in the same manner as a "hammer fist".

I keep it simple, a Gerber Guardian Backup.


(Uninspiring video I know, but great knife none the less.)

reply to post by Binder


I have a hand and a half sword made from leaf spring. The stuff really is invincible. I chopped down a tree with the sword once and it didn't even notice. (The sword, I think the tree noticed)

I've lost a couple of really nice blade over the years, I sympathize. It always seems to be the custom irreplaceable ones that walk off too!

reply to post by DarthMuerte


Brilliant Leatherman ideas!

All you folks in places where you can't carry a decent lock blade be sure to read those defense tips!

reply to post by Jinglelord


A sword made from heavy spring steel?!?! Freakin' awesome man! I want one. Can ya hook an ATS brotha' up? I have an old cavalry sabre, but it is gargantuan, and heavy, and of course designed to be wielded one handed due to the basket pommel. It would work great if I had a horse to swing it from, but in a grounded dual with someone with a lighter, faster weapon I would be at a distinct disadvantage. I learned some swordplay in my youth, but haven't praticed in years. You got me thinking I should get another practical sword, and unrust the joints. I learned gong fu style, but wouldn't a hand, and a half have similar balance to a Jian, or Tai Chi sword?

reply to post by Binder


Don't know about Jian but it is heavier than a Tai Chi sword and is used slightly differently. More like a pummeling weapon than a slashing one. Remember it was designed to crack guys in tin cans.

It is nearly impossible to find a sword that isn't garbage these days. I can't even the find the guy that made mine anymore.

This site: www.beautifulblades.com... has some pretty good blades if you have the money.

Do a little web surfing, there are quite a few custom sword makers who are making good stuff.

reply to post by Jinglelord


Thanks Jinglelord, The swords we trained with belonged to my sifu, and he was in no way parting with them. We put bamboo guards over them so we would just whack the snot out of each other, and not actually remove whole limbs. I remember how much I loved the balance, and feel of the weapon, and you're right I have never held anything commercially made that even came close.

Just checked out the link. It's gonna take a whole bag of cat liter to take care of what just happened in my shorts. we have very similar taste in blades methinks.
The long tantos or the modern fighting sword look like a pretty good deal. Although I don't like the idea of giving up a guard for the tantos. The long claw is epic man, well worth the $16K if you had it.

reply to post by Binder


I have played with Tai Chi Swords but never got to train with them. I did get to train with Butterfly Swords in Wing Chun style... Talk about devastating.

I always tell people to go for the Chinese Soft or Soft / Hard styles and they never listen thinking the Korean stuff is so much cooler.

If you really want to defend yourself just walk around with an old person who has spent the last 40 years practicing Tai chi Chuan. The bad guys guns and knives will look remarkably useless as they lie unconscious on the ground...

reply to post by Jinglelord


I LOVE the Tai Chi sword, but as you say you can't find a "real" one anymore. I had a bud try to tell me he could just shoot me before I could get him with a sword even in close quaters. So I had him put some sparring gear on, and hold an unloaded 9mm pistol, and told him if he could click the hammer before he hit the ground he won. I had my old clunky cavalry sabre in it's scabbard just laying in my hands. I never drew it I just centered him in the chest with the base of the pommel, and he went down like a lead balloon even through the chest protector. I told him without the armor, and if I had tried harder I could have given him flail chest, and killed him without ever drawing the sword. He's very interested in swordplay now.

reply to post by Binder


yeah... pulling a gun on someone who is armed with and knows how to us a knife or a sword is a bad bad idea.

People laugh at me when they tell me not to bring a knife to a gun fight... I remind them they better keep their guns out of a knife fight.

I did something similar with a wooden training knife. We used to train on hand gun defense. One guy would pull the training gun (A full sized cap gun) and try to get off a shot before that wooden training knife was thrust into a place that would make the shot impossible.

Once we got good nobody could get off a clean shot within the 5 foot range, rarely in 10, and surprisingly a little less than half the time at 20.

reply to post by Jinglelord


My Sifu used to say, a blade MUST be felt before it is seen. I kinda use the same strategy for my concealed carry gun too though. If a thug attacked me or my family they would never see the weapon that got them.

On the handgun defense. Most guys don't realize that gun Vs. knife means if the gun guy wins the knife guy has a 1/4"-1/2" hole somewhere. If the knife guy wins, the gun guy has severed flexor tendons, a brachial plexus evulsion, and probably, a severed anticubital, and/or brachial artery, and gets to hear the knife guy laugh histerically as he bleeds out uncontrollably, unable to move his arms. I mean hypothetically... not that I would actually know how to do that.

Great thread! I love knives...seriously! Remember the scene in Twister where Helen Hunt askes "Who ARE these people?". That would be me. I have been collecting them for years (my first one was my Girl Scout utility knife - that started the love affair, and I still have it 30 years later). And yes, I carry one wherever I go (except onto an airplane, of course ) It's truly amazing how much I use them on a daily basis. I have never had to use one in defense, and hope I never will. I'll be prepared tho. You never know what the future holds.

My husband says there is nothing hotter than a woman with a knife.....unless it's coming at him.

reply to post by Jinglelord


Holy hell, those are some very expensive knives! But boy are they nice.... Another time I wish I was filthy rich!

reply to post by Lolliek


Your husband is a wise man. Fits into my rule that I will never ever ever hit a woman... unless she is coming at me with an ax.

There are a surprising amount of knives out there designed specifically for women complete with pink handles and flowers. And we're not talking about cheap garbage knives either, these are some quality knives.

Not saying you necessarily want the girly knives, my wife returned a pink Kershaw I bought her for the chrome one.