Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives: A Practical and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting Read Online Free PDF Page A

hidden.
    We had a saying about that: “When some clown hides his hands, hit ’em. You know he ain’t gonna surprise you with a lollipop.” Remember that. It was true then and it’s true now.
    The front pants pocket is also a good place to carry a knife, but it also requires the pants to be stitched. Done properly, the knife will ride flat against the leg and slightly below the top of the pocket. This way, you can carry change and keys and the knife, and they won’t interfere with each other. The knife can be gotten pretty quickly by reaching in and gripping the blade with finger and thumb and popping it open.
    There are all sorts of ways to hide a knife and I don’t claim to know them all. At one time, I thought I did and then an incident occurred that convinced me I was still a babe in the woods.
    About 1963, I was running a bar located in one of the rougher ghetto sections of Atlanta. I’d gotten to know the regulars and was having a pretty good time. I wasn’t making any money but it was damn sure exciting.
    One Saturday afternoon a very loud argument broke out between two of the regulars. It was getting serious, which was unusual since most of my trouble was caused by strangers. Regular customers don’t want trouble in a bar because this causes the Man to show up and everyone had problems then. (I wholeheartedly agreed with this.)
    I wandered down to that end of the bar and then really started to worry. The guy who was hot was a fellow named Zack, about forty-five and normally very quiet. Zack leaned on the bar, but Shorty, the other fellow, kept on yapping at him. I remember it very clearly. I was worried about a cutting and was watching to see if I could forestall trouble.
    Zack turned and raised his hands high in the air, with the fingers of each hand spread. He wore a short sleeve shirt and the sleeves fell back to reveal bare, brown, and muscular arms.
    “Shorty, you leave me the goddamn hell alone. Get that!” With each word he would jerk his arms to give them emphasis. When he finished his statement he turned back to the bar, folded his arms, and opened his knife.
    I laid my hands on his arms and told him to cool it or he’d have the Man down all over me. I ran Shorty off and got everything calmed down.
    And then I started to wonder, and I’ve wondered ever since. Where in the hell did that knife come from?
    Standing where I was, I would have bet $100 that Zack had not gone for a knife, and I would have continued taking bets right up until I saw him open that knife. Standing where Shorty was, I would have bet $1,000 that Zack had no knife or any other kind of weapon. His arms were bare, ruling out an arm sheath. His hands never went close to his sides: they merely came down on the bar. He did not have the knife palmed: I could see the back of his hands and Shorty could see the front. But the knife opened up like magic.
    My best guess so far is that he wore it under his collar. He could slip it out as his arms came down to the bar. But I really don’t know. Wherever it was, I’ve never seen anything else quite so slick in all my born days.
    I really wanted to ask him where he carried that knife, but just couldn’t do that. Every social level has its own rules of etiquette. I was well liked and I wasn’t about to sacrifice that goodwill by committing the gaucherie of inquiring about his knife. But I really wish I knew.
    The main point to consider in concealing a knife is that it must be readily available. You can’t really hide one from a thorough search, but that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to keep it from being obvious that you’re armed. Whether you do this from desire to catch someone off guard or to keep other folk from being disturbed by the realization you are armed is immaterial.
    Above all, however, it must be available, and you must be practiced enough to get to it quickly.
    Telling about where people conceal knives is not to suggest that you do the same. But it will make you