‘Articles’ Archives
Gerber 06-FAST
The Gerber 06 "FAST" serrated knife is an assisted-opening version of an automatic knife also available from Gerber. It is an a black-on-black "tactical" knife, obviously intended for self-defense, featuring an Americanized tanto blade with a titanium oxide coating. According to the statistics on Gerber's website, the knife weighs 5.7 ounces [...]
Why the Kerambit?
Why do some knives become fads? There are plenty of reasons. The Rambo movies made hollow-handle survival knives all the rage back in the 1980s. Theorizing over a lockback stiletto supposedly purchased by OJ Simpsons made that knife a best-seller during the publicity surrounding Simpson's murder trial. Any and all forms of "tactical folder" swept [...]
The Difference Between an “AD” and an “ND”
There are a lot of firearms owners out who treat their weapons far too casually, who then make lame excuses when they also make potentially life-threatening mistakes. Such dangerous, reckless, or simply indifferent gun owners have informed me, quite incorrectly, that making a distinction between an Accidental Discharge (AD) and a Negligent [...]
The Power Slap
One of the dangers of striking to the head of a human being is that the skull and jaw (with teeth in it) present some very real dangers to the striking hand. One can easily break a closed fist when hitting the skull. Punching someone in the mouth can cut you badly -- or leave the other party's teeth embedded in your hand. (Nasty infections [...]
High-High-Low Combination: An Example
An important concept in self-defense, when delivering physical force to another human being, is to overwhelm the opponent byrefusing him the ability to focus properly. One way to take the initiative (and to keep it) in a fight is to hit the opponent in rapid succession from different directions in different areas of the body. This produces a [...]
Anatomy of a Palm Strike
The following shots are motion captures from real-time video of a training session. The technique demonstrated is a simple horizontal palm strike to the opponent's ribs, in this case on the opponent's right side. These shots illustrate some important principles when delivering a palm strike using this method. It uses very little energy but [...]
Correcting SOG Safety Problems
I'm a big fan of several of SOG Knives' assisted openers, including the Trident folder pictured here. There is a feature built into many SOG folders that acts as a safety mechanism to prevent the spring-assisted blade from opening unintentionally. In normal use, the safety can be used or not used as desired. If the knife is used extensively, [...]
Roderick Scott Trial: What’s Wrong with New York?
His name is Roderick Scott. He's a 42-year-old black man with the build of a football player. He also holds a New York State Pistol Permit, or he did until recently. In fact, until April of this year, he kept a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol readily to hand. Whether that pistol has been returned to him by now, and whether he still [...]
The Myth of Homeless Nobility
One of the most consistently irritating, frustrating, and ultimately misguided notions, where the concept of "the homeless" is concerned, is the attitude that the homeless are, first and foremost, victims -- that they are all members of an underclass we might call the Noble Poor. Any reasonable human being feels compassion for those who are [...]
The New York Drop Opening
I'm not sure just why this folding knife opening method has been attributed to New York as opposed to somewhere else, but we'll call it that for the sake of this article. The "New York Drop" is a means of opening a locking folding knife with only one hand. It works best -- actually, I should say it only works -- with knives whose blades protrude [...]
