Since it looks like this thread is going there anyway, I think I'll help it along a bit with a little OTT story which may alter the way you think about edged weapons.
Convential wisdom dictates that the more powerful the weapon the more dangerous it is and to a certain extent the more socially deviant the wielder is.
During a somewhat recent trip through Asia I had this assumption turned on its head though.
My plans were to cross the border between China and North Vietnam on foot and work my way South. An apparently impossible trip which every person I spoke to about it insisted was madness.
I made it a priority to kit myself out with an edged weapon at the first available opportunity.
As it turned out the first knife I found was a very flimsy folder.
In private I went about "assessing" the knife's strengths and weaknesses to plan out potential uses for it and drill them.
Up until this point my entire plan for armed confrontation revolved around the old SAS trick of ramming them with the backpack.
When assessing any weapon (even unarmed) the point is to ask the question "if one or more attackers armed with edged weapons attacked me what could I do that would guarantee immediate immobilisation, thereby ensuring my survival?"
The problems with the little folder were it had no lock so thrusts were out and it was flimsy so dense targets like shoulders were out for slashes...in fact this knife was so weak that the ONLY reliable shot was a slash to the carotid artery.
So naturally that is what I drilled...while desperately searching for a better knife.
Eventually I found one, a really good one.
It is rock solid, with a powerful lock and ultra sharp though it does not hold an edge and so needs to be honed often.
Now the beauty of this knife is it can easily motor through any dense target, it can hit bone and not break and can be opened easily with one hand.
This meant I could plan a reliable defense against edged weapon confrontations around dis-arms and immobilisations like hits to the wrist, shoulders and knees.
A much better solution...lets face it, slashing a 15 year old kid across the neck is a very BAD solution and one which irrespective of the kids intentions would haunt you for the rest of your life.
As it turned out I never needed it for self defense but it was reassuring to know that if I did end up in a violent confrontation I would not have to kill anyone.
The night before crossing the border I had to stay awake due to catching a gang after my bag. I scared them off but still had to make sure they didn't have another go.
While at the border I was held up by customs since they did not have an Australian Passport in their database so they scanned and entered mine into the system(if you want to know who I am, all you have to do is turn up to that border crossing with an Australian Passport and look at mine when they bring it up on the computer to compare yours to it).
While it was quite safe for me at the Border the Chinese Guards got in a huge fight, one of them was holding my passport at the time so it got a little bit wrinkled
With Respect,
Stealthy.
