What is the ideal knife deployment method?

A few students asked me what my go to deployment method is…gravity, wave feature, assisted openers, autos.. etc.. I like the hat technique.

Basically where I work and train civilians; handguns and the permits to carry them are impossible to obtain if you want to be able to protect yourself. Naturally this leaves very few options for most. I teach unconventional edged weapons work, meaning I teach people to use knives and improvised weapons in manners not very many people think about. Criminals do…..good guys don’t.

I usually teach my students to be aware of their surroundings through atmospheric study and exercises. I try and cultivate the way of thinking in them in every class or live drill. All of the material I teach with a blade is based on concealing your weapon before you use it. Our mantra is “the opponent must feel the blade before he sees it”.

One method of hiding a blade is by actually carrying it in an open position inside of a baseball cap as you walk along a place where the atmospherics are on the red side (dangerous area).

If the need arises you can actually stab through the hat and into an opponent before he even knows there is a knife present. Or you can flick the hat at his face and work targets on his center line to give him something to deal with as you run out of there.

Not very elegant I know, but this isn’t meant to be pretty or fair.

This article is courtesy of The Loadout Room.