Thread: Need a Knife

Originally Posted by faesce

While I appreciate your insight, I carry knives for self-defense as an option. I agree that haphazardly pulling out a knife if you feel you're in danger is a dumb move, even if you're trained in the usage of it, and I also agree with the notion that being trained in knife usage is a huge benefit and marginalizes potential self injury.

But if you're going to tell me that being untrained and having a knife on you has zero benefits, I feel as though you're displaying a degree of elitism and/or cynicism. The flaw with your argument being entirely cohesive in every situation is that you have a choice in pulling the knife in the first place, and you still have the option of running after it's been pulled. Unless you're fighting superman who uses his X-Ray vision, there's no possible way for another individual to know you even are equipped with one in your pocket. Judgment is key to using any deadly weapon, and without it you can become injured by just about anything, screwdrivers, pens, etc (firearms as well).

Anyway, don't take this reply as an argument to your points as it's not, because I agree with what you're saying in the vast majority of situations. I just felt as though I had to defend myself from patronization.

I'd agree that simply carrying the knife can't hurt, since you do of course have the choice of whether to use it; I was just saying that, generally speaking, for an untrained person, pulling a knife is more likely to worsen the situation than to improve it, so it can be generally viewed as counterproductive and ineffective as a self-defense measure. Obviously this isn't true in EVERY situation, but since you can't know in advance whether or not a given situation is one where pulling your knife will help or hurt you, it's best for untrained people to stick with the rule of thumb that it's always a bad idea, because that rule will hold true in most cases.

Originally Posted by Shinysides

Where would one go about finding one of these combat knife training classes? I've never heard of this before and would be seriously interested. I'd rather carry a knife than a gun on a day to day basis.

Yellow pages and Google are probably the best way to find one. Look for non-firearm self-defense classes, especially knife self-defense classes or those that advertise as including knife or counter-knife techniques. I've never taken such a class (I'm lazy and just rely on my CCW), so I couldn't provide any recommendation more specific than that. It might also be a good idea to join some self-defense forums and talk to people to make sure that the class you choose is known as a reputable one with an instructor who actually knows what they're talking about, since there's a lot of BS out there when it comes to this sort of thing. I'm sure if you joined the right forum, there would be members who could help point you to good classes in your area.