Push blades can be considered “knuckle dusters” or “metal knuckles” in certain jurisdictions. Knuckle dusters are illegal most places. Which befuddles me. Why not allow knuckle dusters, saps and asps as less lethal options? But they’re outlawed even in many places where concealed carry is allowed. Statist logic. Push blades also don’t play well with a jury/judge since their only purpose is fighting… they aren’t a tool like a folder can be.
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Push knives are a last, last , ditch weapon. They require a offensive move only, as they are held in a grip that cannot prevent a slash and used with any type of “punch force” requires extreme grip strength. You are also limited in range and movement, since you will have the 3 to 5 inches out from your closed fist.
If you were carrying it “concealed” like in a belt buckle, several states will prosecute you for “offensive weapon”, same as handgun. Can they do major damage? sure, especially to soft areas like the throat, but, juries hate push knives, as they are seen as a killing weapon only. IMHO, a good solid, lock blade folder is a better choice and is much “friendlier” to a jury. BG is correct about juries.
The two most dangerous things about boxcutters is they are very hard to see in an attack and their extreme sharpness. Even a very small person can conceal a boxcutter in their fist. As Sento will tell you, “knife defense” is a subjective issue and you will be cut.The issue is how bad. Distance is you friend and should always be your first thought, knife fights are fast, deadly and end quickly. Situational awareness is your best defense.
When I was young and stupid, I allowed a female on meth to get to close to me (because, I was “bigger and stronger”) and she cut me with a very small knife. I ignored my own advise by being stupid. Distance, distance, distance.
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Thought for the day:
Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die.
― Frank Herbert, Dune
I am going to post some wise words from Pat today, something that has been on my mind recently. For those of you just beginning your shooting, try to ignore a lot of the “Tac-Cool” floating around the gun training world. Yeah, everyone likes to put on 5.11 and go full Rambo with an AR system. But, does that really fill your needs? Are you the guardian of your family’s safety or are you guarding a diplomat in a war zone?
Train for the practical, train for your battlespace.
Some more from Pat:
Understanding that semantics are involved, my number one rule of ‘Gun handling’ is; “You, the individual shooter, must understand the status of your weapon system.” In a gun fight, the weapon does not belong only to you but to the person you are protecting or the guy who’s ‘Six’ you are covering. If your shit isn’t up and running, you are not only fucking yourself but the one you are protecting or the guy who’s ‘Six’ you are covering.
The same can be applied to the human weapon. Know the status of your personal condition. If you can’t save someone else’s life, or can’t keep up with your partner during a foot chase, you are screwing that guy, that kid, your loved one. That life may depend on whether or not you can keep up to insure he isn’t getting his head kicked in in a dark alley.
You do not have to be an absolute stallion, but you should do your part to ensure that you have put in the effort to make ‘you’ a better ‘you’. Make incremental gains every day. The math is simple. Ask yourself, “If I cloned myself yesterday, can I kick my clone’s ass tomorrow?”
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What a waste. I never had the chance to meet him, but he sounds like one of the good ones, the kind many of us aspire to be like, but few ever hit the mark.
Thoughts and prayers with his family.
Love me some PatMac.
Very wise and instructive -
Too many live in their fantasy world, then bring it to the range where they try like hell to convince everyone their fantasy is reality.
So I agree with the meme 100%. Do something useful or get the hell out of the way so the men can train!
Good point. If I had to train in the most likely scenario for me to encounter violence it would be in a dark hallway in my sleeping shorts and barefoot after just having woken out of a deep sleep.
Wednesday’s Weapon:
“The Stick”
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” Theodore Roosevelt
I don’t know if Australopithecus Robustus, Homo Labilis, or Neanderthal first utilized the “stick” for hunting and warfare, but, it has been one of mankind’s weapons since we first walked upright across the savannah. Having the privilege of studying Kali for several years, the stick has always been one of my “go to” impact weapons. My training with the rattan stick and bo easily transferred over to the straight baton and ASP collapsible.
In socialist/ communist weapons free zones like California, New Jersey, and Europe, the ability to use a stick places you one up on the street predators. Use your imagination, a heavy duty tennis racket, a good solid cane, or my all-time favorite is a little league aluminum baseball bat, just buy a small cheap glove, hang it over the handle and walk anywhere you wish (States ,Japan) No one will give you a second thought and you have the ability to defend against a street predator. Better than bad language and fingernails.
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Another View:
Understanding and Employing Man’s Oldest Weapon
By George Matheis
Not long after early men hit each other with fists, they picked up the first weapon, a stick.
Typically when I talk about weapon use, it takes the logical progressing of selection, carry, deployment and use. For early man, the idea of selecting the perfect stick was more simplified than it is these days. They had the good fortune of not being subjected to tactical marketing.
I was lucky enough, at least in my opinion, to actually hit people with sticks early in my Law Enforcement career and see what worked and what didn’t. During my career, I carried the Koga Stick, PR-24, and several different size ASPS. Each stick had its pros and cons, mostly due to carry issues. I’ve continued to be a fan of the straight stick, a tool that in my honest opinion continues to be misunderstood, underutilized, and overlooked.
Selection and Carry
As you read this, please understand that it’s written from my point of view. I’m now retired from law enforcement and this information is for use by anyone, especially the citizen.
My favorite stick is your average plain jane 26 inch Rattan Escrima Stick, which are inexpensive, lightweight and durable. Many people like heavy sticks, not because of actual use, but for the simple reason that they just like them. The rattan is light and responsive and that fits into how I use them. I don’t count on one big strike to stop the action of an attacker, but rather a succession of strikes at specific targets based on human anatomy.
When it comes to carry, we obviously can’t walk around with a stick in our hand…or can we? When my wife and I go for a walk around the neighborhood, I carry a stick. Where I live, this is more for protection from four legged threats than the two legged variety. In every vehicle I ride in, there is a stick next to both the driver and passenger seats. A stick also sits just inside both doors to my home. You can probably see where I am going with this.
Deployment
Deploying the stick is pretty straight forward, you simply pick it up. If you give most people a stick and tell them to hold it so that they can hit somebody with it, they will usually hold it up over their head. This position attracts a lot of attention, appears threatening and limits your strikes to the front. Our ready position is with the stick at our side. Because of appearance, many people will totally dismiss this as a threat.
This position allows for a powerful backhand strike that allows you to strike a wide range of targets from your center line to your far right, as if you are confronted by more than one attacker.
Using Combative Anatomy, we attack the target like a machine, first doing damage to systems that stop the threat fast, not kill them eventually. With the stick, you focus on the Central Nervous System (comprised of the brain and spine) and the Structural System (comprised of the bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons.) For our purposes, we’re going to narrow it down even more to the head, clavicle, elbows, knees, wrists, hands and the ball of the ankle. The idea is to combat failure with redundancy by attacking these targets in rapid succession.
Use
Any strike to the face/head will cause thought pattern interruption. A faint to the groin will cause your attacker to bend forward and bring their hands down to block; this opens the door to a shot under the jaw or side of the head. The anatomical response to this will be their hands coming up to their face; this opens the door to a strike on the side of the knee, or ball of the ankle. This simple combination is likely to discontinue the threat.
Because of reach, the stick excels at defending against a knife. I found this out the hard way after a Taser failure during a SWAT call out. The woman with the knife was at a disadvantaged position (sitting in a closet). When the Taser failed to deploy, I dropped and transitioned to my ASP. Two strikes to her wrist caused her to drop the knife and saved her life.
Sadly, what is taught to most police in reference to stick work is a failure. That is why you have officers striking people over and over again. Police are taught to target large muscle groups. As a rule, edged weapons seek flesh, impact weapons seek bone. Changing this rule for liability purposes, does not change the fact that muscle strikes fail.
Notes
For the citizen, it’s important to understand that strikes to the areas previously mentioned are likely to save your life, no matter what stick you are using.
So in closing, I urge you to get yourself a friend and a couple of sticks and have some fun. You can make inexpensive trainers by sliding pipe insulation over the stick and wrapping it in a few spots with tape. By the way, everything discussed here can be done with the open hand using the same principles.
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And since this is Wednesday Weapons day:
This is for s_afsoc:
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OMG thanks - that’s soooo true!!
“The Venerable” beats a plastic toy gun every day 
Note: I call those “The gun that starts with a ‘G’ and ends with inaccurate.!”
Thought for the day: Rituals
In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible. Marina Abramovic
Last night, we were out with an Afghan unit looking for a guy, before leaving, I was back in my little space, checking over my gear. I have a chamois cloth, aged well beyond its use that I was just running over everything I carry on my chest harness. Nothing was dirty, it was just a “pre-game ritual”, a way to center myself and gain confidence in my selection of equipment. Even though, I have carried the same type of gear for years, it is always nice just to touch each item before deploying.
Neanderthal man is generally credited with starting the ritual of flowers at burial. Now, for those who keep up with this field, it is currently being challenged by pollen experts, however, I am going to continue to believe they did, since we will never really know the truth. They were the first to recognize that man needs his rituals to face the daily threat of death.
For me, I have more rituals than money or friends. I am also superstitious as hell: my dog tags have to have rubber silencers, my knife has to be sharp, my gear placed just so, holidays makes me really nervous, redheaded women are heart breakers, and unless I am some foreign country (besides an AO), I always carry weapons in the gym (backpack). My “lucky piece” is 3 inch tall, rubber model of Boba Fett, bought off a street kid in Djibouti. I have carried that in my harness for the last 10 years, I know that if I am about to die, Fett will save the day.
For me rituals are the fundamental actions of what I do, a way too center, a way to always be responsible. A few years ago, I wrote a small E-book on my experiences concerning the humor of working the street. Here is what I said then:
I lowered the tailgate and lined up my equipment in an orderly fashion, beginning a ritual as old as mankind. Under that oak, there was little difference between myself and Paleolithic man, checking the edge on his flint spear: body armor and weapons: check. OC spray and cuffs: check. Handcuff key, knife, flashlight, gloves, ASP Baton, spare batteries, tape recorder, and spare keys: check.
t was a way to center myself, and connect with the reality that police work could get you seriously DRT (dead right there) Feeling the wind increase, I ran my hands one more time over my Glock, like a priest squeezing his beads for comfort.
Examine your rituals, know yourself.
What are yours?
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Flashback Friday (1): Bruce Lee
Lee Quotes:
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.”
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Flashback Friday (2): Miyamoto Musashi
Musashi Quotes:
"Do nothing which is of no use."
“The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them”
“You can only fight the way you practice”
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Just a few when I get dressed in the morning:
Wallet - check
Keys - check
–cycle round in pistol, holster secure, check
- spare mags in place - check
- knives in pockets - check
- copenhagen in back pocket - check
Before walking out the door, repeat above
When going out door to car, scan area
When I get to the car, scan tires, body, back seat
…when something scares me but I have no action that needs taken, make the sign of the cross and thank God for my safety
Maybe those are quirks versus rituals, but they feel realistic when I think about them and list them out here…
(by the way, to all you plastic toy gun people - 1911’s still rule, bigger harder faster stronger!)
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Thought for the day: Saturday house cleaning, stuff from the past week.
When you think of an on-the-go survival tool, a Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman might come to mind. Yet these popular tools can come up short in at least one crucial category. This Off-Grid Survival Axe dwarfs your pocket knife and most other mainstream survival tools when it comes to both power and functionality. Despite its simple use, it also offers a slew of life-saving and practical tools.
The ax’s main feature is, of course, its all-steel head—used for cutting rope, chopping wood, or anything else requiring more power than a multitool blade. Yet this ax is much more than a giant blade. There’s a hammer, pry bar, sharpened hook, nail puller, hex wrench, folding Sawzall blade, can and bottle openers, strap cutter, and more. It even features a glass-breaker on the bottom of its handle for extreme situations.
Why Sandbag Training for Law Enforcement and Fire Departments?
Because you can go from sitting in a car one second, to a foot pursuit and wrestling match with a suspect the next or you can be in your bunk and 15 minutes later , running up 20 flights of stairs. You need to TRAIN ACCORDINGLY.
And following along with that thought:
Knives and stuff: