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

aware of the places that are available, and it will also alert you to what some other guy might be doing.
    Arm and shoulder sheaths are pretty good, but they generally require a coat or long-sleeved shirt. The exception is a sheath high on the upper arm that can be worn with short sleeves. It’s secured by flat elastic and the knife is worn on the inside of the arm. It works pretty well.
    Hats are also a good place to carry a knife. I had a buddy who used to wear an old slouch hat all the time. He carried his knife inside it, and if trouble seemed to be brewing, he would simply get nervous and take off his hat.
    The smaller the knife, the easier it is to conceal. That’s obvious. But don’t assume a large knife can’t be concealed. I used to wear a full-sized fighting knife with a nine-inch blade in a sheath I had made of very stiff leather. I could conceal it merely by wearing it upside down on my side. A coat hid it perfectly, and yet the knife was available almost instantly. The blade lay flat against the body and all that was necessary was to pop the snap and the blade was in the hand.
    It’s just human nature to jump at any good idea when you’re trying to invent something like a place to conceal a knife. But always think your idea through to make sure it’s practical. People have carried knives or guns concealed in a rolled-up newspaper or raincoat, for example, and I’ve always wondered about that. Sure, it conceals the knife, but who wants to walk around with something like that all the time? And what happens when you visit a bar? Are you going to maintain a death grip on your rolled-up newspaper all the time you’re there? Why not just carry a sign saying that you’ve got a weapon concealed. Some people may be stupid, but there are a lot of them who aren’t. Since you can handle the stupid people more easily than the smart ones, generally, for the sake of safety, always assume the one you’ll run into is smart.
    Let me end this with one more example before moving on to the more esoteric and erudite subjects. Several years ago, I had occasion to visit a large hospital in Atlanta to discuss with one of their doctors a lawsuit my company was involved in. I was waiting around outside the Outpatient Room where an old woman, as drunk as a skunk, was wandering around, talking to herself and picking up cigarette butts off the floor. Two young girls, both well dressed and attractive, started trying to take care of her. Evidently they did not know her but felt embarrassed by her behavior.
    One finally got her to sit down and then patted her on the shoulder. She drew back, then patted her again.
    “Honey, what’s that?” she said, pointing to a barely noticeable lump under her sweater.
    The woman glanced at her with a rather pitying expression on her face and moved with a speed no one would expect from a drunken old woman, whipping out a butcher knife with an eight-inch blade.
    “Just my knife, child.”
    In my mind’s eye, I pictured some young punk snatching her purse. Bet she could ruin his whole day.

5
    WOUNDS
    This section deals more with larger fighting knives than with the small folder or dagger. Larger knives deal more severe wounds, thus the fight is apt to be terminated more quickly. Nevertheless, I feel the information you’re about to read is important and should be included in any book dealing with edged-weapon combat systems.
    The controversy over point versus edge has raged for years. It was very much a major issue in the British military regarding the shape and use of the cavalry saber. The last issue saber [1912] was a pure thrusting weapon, so it might appear they had decided the thrust was superior to the cut, but that isn’t quite true. At the time that saber was issued, there were many predicting all manner of dire consequences for a cavalry sword that relied on the use of the thrust only. And there were dire consequences, but they arose from the meeting of the cavalry with machine-gun