There’s knife versus hand, knife versus stick, knife versus knife, knife versus gun threats, threats, assaults, murder, death. Years ago, I wrote a knife book. It still sells. I spent an inordinate amount of time hunting for military knife fights. I still collect them. I spent a lot of time in libraries seeking history, autobiographies, and biographies, some in strictly military libraries. Given the military weapons continuum, from missiles down to hand fighting, not a lot of knife fighting occurred in the age of firearms. But I found about twelve unique events for the book. “Down to the knife,” as I was told in the Army. Not tens, not hundreds, not thousands. It is a mixed weapon world. Some of the rare knife stories are very interesting. How did two enemy soldiers get “down to the knife?”
Meanwhile, as a police detective, I sought out all kinds of assault and violent death schools, many taught by top autopsy specialists, usually in the United States. While there were all kinds of edged weapon crimes and murders, in comparison to the population, they were, and are, minuscule. You are more likely to have a knife attack or fight outside the military. And given that knives are everywhere, in homes and restaurants, you are still very unlikely to be involved in a knife encounter as a civilian.
In fact, in the big picture, you are very unlikely to be a victim of any violent crime in civilized regions. (England is always reporting on and complaining about knife attacks, but think about it, the victims usually knew the attacker, and there was some sort of serious problem or relationship before the crime. Same with prisons.)
I became very interested in these random group knife attacks around the world too, with one stranger victim or multiple stranger victims. Like school shootings, when compared to the big picture, they are very, very, very rare.
Still, the dangers exist. One might say that you have a one in ten thousand chance (or more) of being attacked, any attack. But if it is you who are attacked, then it becomes “one in one.” So still, we need to keep the best hand, stick, knife, and gun methods alive, for history and for the crazy future. Somebody has to. I my Survival Centric: Knife course, I break down the knife study in two groups:
• Military tactics (very malicious).
• Civilian and police tactics, with an eye and ear for you staying out of jail. The knife has a terrible legal stigma. An adult knife instructor needs to develop a system name, a knife, a mature persona, and moves that maximize the legal survival of their practitioners.
Use of force, rules of engagement. I am very organized in this, trying to keep people out of military and civilian jail, in the before, during, and after of training. This is not sexy to the knife seeking crowds, who often appear as butchers in short video clips (probably out of context? Or blind to the real results of what they are teaching and doing?) Anyway, as a result, I am not as sexy-successful as numerous other knife instructors.
There are many reasons why people keep martial training. Fun, exercise, history, social life, sport, hobby. But, I am not driven by any one of those abstract things. The unlucky “one in one” statistic is why I keep collecting, training, and teaching, which is not the smartest business strategy, I know, but it is my addiction.
Get the paperback or the ebook here. Illustrated.
