The Steel in your Steel

What kind of steel is that knife made of? I have asked that question myself while perusing the tables at knife or gun shows. It is really a useless question if you stop and think about it. It might be 5160, O1, 440-C, ATS 34, D-2, or any number of suitable steels, but in the end does it really make any difference? Probably kitchen knives see more abuse and use than any other knife you’ll ever buy. Did you ask the lady in the house-wares department what steel they were made of before you bought them? Being the male chauvinist that you are, probably not, because they were for the wife and you figured she wouldn’t care. More than likely you looked all of them over, picked out the prettiest ones, something in a middle price range, and cashed out.

Now you are wondering, “Is my steak really that tough or is the darned knife dull again”. What do you expect, you have been using it for a year and never touched up the edge. It was probably made from some low carbon stainless and tempered to a spring temper to ensure it didn’t break. In the past year you’ve used it to peel potatoes, slice cheese, and chop frozen chicken legs apart. I wouldn’t be surprised if you even used it to open a paint can or tighten a screw every now and then.

How many times have you used that custom tactical knife that you paid $450 for? Come on now be honest. Have you cut open any 55 gallon fuel drums like the advertisement showed? Did you go out in the back yard and dig a fighting hole, build a dead fall, or take out a few sentries with it? Hmm, not likely. Before ordering it you read every article in the top knife magazines on blade steels and tempering processes. Now you can spout out the composition of every steel known to man and its optimum rockwell hardness, but does it really matter? Despite the number of times you have not used it you specified that it had to be made from one of the latest exotic blade steels and be triple sub-zero quenched. Who am I to pick fun at you, haven’t I gone through the same scenario myself?

If you’re buying a factory made knife, buy from a reliable company then you can be confident that they are using the appropriate steels with compatible heat treat processes. Personally I am not a big fan of the modern tough stainless steels. Some of them are damned near impossible to sharpen and once dull only a belt grinder will restore the correct geometry and produce a sharp edge. Many of these steels are never truly razor sharp even with the best of edges. With some of them you could spend a lifetime rolling a burr from one side of the blade to the other. This is the price you pay for not having to take care of your knife. Remember that the use of these carefree steels was driven by customer demands and laziness.

If you’re buying a custom knife then you should be buying from someone reputable, someone with a track record for quality workmanship and materials. Many custom makers offer a choice of steels to satisfy customer’s whims but I would recommend sticking with the maker’s preference. It never hurts to ask for references or links to articles about the maker and his products. If the maker does his own “in-house” heat treat it would be a good idea to stay away from the real exotic steels with complex heat-treat requirements. On a side note, I have watched in fascination as the late Bill Moran hardened and tempered a Bowie blade for me with an acetylene torch and a bucket of quenching oil.

When buying from a custom knife maker you might want to ask about his policies on customer satisfaction and returns. You might even want to get it in writing. One time I bought a used custom tactical knife and when it arrived it was as dull as the village idiot. I tried every sharpening device known to man and never could put an edge on it. After several unanswered emails to the maker I resold it at a loss. I will not own a knife that won’t sharpen. Not too long ago I owned a Bowie made by one of the masters of that genre. It would not sharpen either and so I traded it off for a Randall model 14. I may regret the passing of that knife because of the name it bore but certainly not for its lack of cutting ability. A knife maker should stand behind his product one hundred percent unless it has been abused. Shame on you if you were the one to abuse it!

Based on my own personal experience here is a list of men whom I bought custom knives from that were delivered razor sharp. In no special order they are;
· Gary Bradburn
· John Greco
· Kent Hicks
· Chris Peterson
· Brent Sandow
· Mr. De Leon
· R.J. Martin
· Dale Larson
· Bud Nealy
· Craig Barr
· Brett Gatlin
· Larry Harley

For the most part I have no idea what steel these makers used. I know
the men and they know their trade. That is good enough for me. That doesn’t mean I won’t read the next article on the newest exotic steel, it just means that when I order my next custom knife I still probably won’t ask, “What steel is that knife made from?”

David Decker
White Shadow Dojo

The Knife-Fighter: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Dropping into a low crouch, his lips curled back in a snarl. A deep growl resonated from deep within his throat as his tongue flicked back and forth across his teeth like a darting snake. I knew I was in for trouble, he was in a foul temper and his knife was thirsting for blood. I silently slid my blade from its sheath.

This is “reality” as depicted in most knife-fighting media on the market today. If you daydream about taking on and subduing this beast then there are plenty of books and videos to satisfy your needs. These authors/instructors will tell you that they are teaching you reality when in fact they are only feeding your fantasy and filling their bank account. Cold hard statistics reveal that their version of reality occurs in less than five percent of all violent encounters. If you want a good taste of “reality” read James LaFond’s book The Logic of Steel. If you prefer the reality of pulp fiction then read the books we do not recommend that we have listed in the bibliography in The Rhythm of One.

I am convinced that probably less than one percent of all the people who buy knife-fighting books will ever try out the techniques in those books. Most of them, including those of you who purchased this book, are most likely vicarious martial artists or knife-fighters. That is not especially a bad thing. It is certainly preferable to having hundreds of people out in the streets practicing deadly knife techniques on their neighbors. But what happens when you are caught between a rock and a hard place? What will you do if you are confronted by a knife-wielding mugger or rapist? Are you going to drop into that low crouch and salivate in anticipation of cutting out your opponent’s gizzard? As scary as this sounds, it might work better than trying the techniques that were shown on the DVD on in that book you bought.

You might ask, “how do we get ourselves into these situations?” Whether combat is imagined or otherwise, men have an innate need to be valorous, to be heroes. If you do not believe me read the book by Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

"Campbell showed that the story always began with an Everyman just living his hum-drum life. Suddenly and unexpectedly, either by chance or by choice, Everyman is either pulled out of his ordinary life or chooses to leave his ordinary life to launch into a great adventure, whose ending he cannot know at the beginning.

The adventure, according to Campbell, then goes through several specified stages. The hero will journey into a dark world where he meets various forces or entities which he has to deal with. Along the way he encounters a teacher who gives him the instruction in new skills he will need to learn to successfully achieve his goal. No later than this part of the journey the hero becomes consciously aware of what that very specific goal is.

Striving for his goal, the hero is challenged to his limit, reaching a peak culminating experience, what Campbell calls a "supreme ordeal." The result is that the hero "gains his reward" and is forever changed by the experience. He often gains some new powers and sets off with them. Eventually the hero re-emerges to his society with these new abilities bringing a boon to his society which somehow restores that society."[1]

Romance, reality, fantasy, or myth, which one are you engaged in? It is a harmless albeit somewhat fruitless pursuit to train for that five percent possibility while ignoring the other ninety-five percent probability. What I see when I review a book or video is that the five percent solution appeals to the machismo in most men. The perception of becoming the ultimate knife-fighter able to beat all odds and vanquish all enemies appeals to a man’s subconscious. While this may be the heroes’ path it may not be the warrior’s path. Fantasy is OK when all of the parties are playing on the same game board, but Fantasy is harmful when those who are role-playing do not explain to the other participants that it is a game, and their lives may hang in the balance.

Some knife instructors feel that realism can be improved upon by snarling or making hideous faces. Others will use foul language and scream at you in an attempt to “condition” you to the realities of conflict. What you need to determine is whether these methods represent reality or not. In Mr. LaFond’s book the typical knifer moves in quietly and stealthily. He slips up close and silently stabs or slashes you making as little noise as possible and drawing as little attention as possible. How does this compare to what you learned on your latest DVD? Are we talking about two different realities?

Place yourself in the role of the anti-hero, the mugger or rapist. Which method of assault would you most likely choose? If there is someone standing there screaming obscenities at you and threatening you with a knife it is probably your irate wife not a mugger. Purchasing a three volume set of DVDs on how to use a folding knife is not going to do you any good if you do not train constantly and if you still walk down the street in a blissful fog. As I say in my new book: all you need is a few good techniques, a good quality knife, and the opportunity, skill, and courage to use it when the time comes. Don’t waste your money, or your time, buying the next three DVDs on the same topic. Practice your basics and be aware of your surroundings. In closing there is one book which I highly recommend. The book, Filipino Combat Systems by Mark Edward Cody, is available from Amazon.com or the FCSkali website[2].

[1] http://www.karmastrology.com/rek_hero.shtml
[2] http://www.fcskali.com/

Selecting a Fighting Knife

How does one go about selecting a suitable fighting knife? This is a very difficult question but there are two basic methodologies and about a dozen other factors. You can either buy a knife you like and fit your techniques around it, or you can buy a knife that is designed for specific techniques and then find a teacher to instruct you. No matter which route you follow, rest assured that it will take many years and perhaps many knives to determine if the initial decision was right for you. The trick is to stick with your training long enough to know. Listed here are just some of the variables that go into making that selection.

1. instructor’s preference
2. style of training
3. cultural dictates
4. your physical size or limitations
5. environment, urban or rural
6. state or local laws
7. security requirements
8. preferences & perceptions
9. budgetary constraints


1. Instructor’s preference: If you are already training in a particular martial art then your instructor will have a definite knife preference, based on the style he teaches. For example our karate instructor preferred small knives like keramit and folders because he trained mostly in a Filipino or Indonesian based art. Therefore his instruction favored close-in techniques, best suited to small knives. As his student you are obliged to follow that path or find another instructor. Some teachers will not object to you training with another person, while others strictly prohibit it. This can be a very touchy subject to bring up so you had better know your instructor pretty good before you ask. Otherwise you may suddenly find yourself without any teacher. If your instructor’s style is Combato or some other western style then his choice of weapon will most likely be based around a larger KaBar type fighting knife and broader techniques. During your search you will find that not only is there a difference in distancing and movement between inside and outside arts, there is also a difference in mentality. Do not mistakenly think that the forms in one style can be simply transposed into another. If you train under this assumption you will waste a lot of time.

2. Style of training: I think that this is adequately explained in the previous paragraph. There are certain weapons associated with certain styles. For example, you will not find a filipino stylist training with an Arkansas Toothpick. Depending upon which part of the islands he comes from you might find him using a dagger of similar size and shape. It is also possible that he might be partial to a barong, keris, or punal, or he may prefer the tiny kerambit tipped with a deadly poison. His choice will be a reflection of the village he came from and what his teacher preferred. Persons training in ethnic styles are often encouraged to wear the traditional garb and learn the language. This takes us to topic number three.

3. Cultural dictates: This does not necessarily mean that you have to be Korean to study a Korean art, although there are great advantages in understanding the art if you are. Typically, if you are a serious student of any art you have a desire to learn more about the culture in areas beyond the mechanical techniques. Some instructors may insist that as a part of your training that you wear traditional garb and learn at least a working knowledge of the technical language, a dojo vocabulary. They will also insist that you train with a knife representative of that culture. Other schools could care less what you use, as long as you pay your dues and testing fees. Oddly enough, often times it is the American instructor who tries to be more Japanese or Korean than their Asian counterpart. At times this can rise to ludicrous levels of silliness and get in the way of actually learning the true art. If you are of a certain ethnic background then I would encourage you to investigate your parent art and see if it suits your personality. I truly believe that styles evolved based on an ethnic mentality and that the shape of the weapons they carried grew out of that.

4. Physical limitations: Your own physical size will suggest the size knife that you should carry and what techniques you are reasonably capable of. Never try to over-compensate for your size or gender. Work within those natural constraints and you will suffer fewer injuries and be more successful. Be selective in choosing a style of martial arts based on your size. Sure a small person can learn to do judo as well as a big person, but do you think that on the streets you can successfully throw a person six foot four inches tall if you are only five foot tall? Be realistic in the expectations you make of yourself. Physical size may also limit the size knife you can readily conceal on your person. Again, if you are five feet tall then secretly carrying a Bowie that is sixteen inches long is going to be tough. Unless you have very strong shoulders and wrists swinging a two-pound Bowie is going to be a tiring exercise. If you have short arms don’t try to offset that by carrying a longer knife, pick a short, fast knife and learn to fight close-in. A good sharp knife is a great equalizer. Strength is not a requirement for knife fighting but stamina is a valuable asset. Therefore, rather than worrying about building muscle mass concentrate on building stamina.

5. Environment: Where do you live and where do you travel? This can influence the style knife you can reasonably carry without being looked on as a nut-case. If you spend a lot of time in rural America, farming, hunting, or working in construction you may get by carrying a knife in plain view. This is not usually the case. If you stop at the local Wally Mart or convenience store on your way home and you are still wearing your machete you may find yourself being swarmed by security guards or police. Obviously you must never carry a weapon on or near a school or airport whether it is concealable or not! If you really have concerns for your safety when travelling then you should read the “travelling with weapons” section in our new book. Common sense dictates carrying smaller knives in congested areas and larger ones in the country. This is not only for reasons of legality but for your ability to deploy them if you need to. Cold climates require longer blades than do warm climates. A kerambit with a two and three quarter inch blade will be totally ineffective against a man wearing a heavy winter coat. A twelve inch bladed bowie is unnecessary if your opponent is dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Practicality is a big part of making environmental and other choices when choosing a knife.

6. Legality: This follows naturally on the heels of the previous paragraph. The difficulty is in knowing what is legal and what is not. This is rarely defined in local laws and is instead left up to the whims of the local jurisprudence. Other times there are hard and fast rules; i.e. no double-edged knives, no blades in excess of three inches, no locking blades, etc. Many times I have carried a knife on the basis of “see no evil” in other words, out of sight out of mind. It is never good policy to flaunt your knife in public especially in crowded areas. Someone is certain to panic and call for the police or security if they see a Crocodile Dundee™ bowie hanging on your belt while you’re at the Mall. When in doubt carry a small folder and hope for the best. With foreign countries all bets are off. No matter what you do, as an American, you are probably breaking their laws.

7. Security requirements: Legality be damned, you feel your life is endangered every
time you walk to and from the parking garage to your office. Sometimes security has to take precedence over legality. You must be truthful with yourself and know that your fears are well-founded. Only you can judge the potential for encountering violence in your everyday life. Fear alone is not justification enough for carrying an Uzi or a Bowie to work. What do the crime statistics say? Know what is on the news and on the streets because these are often quite different than what is actually reported in government crime statistics. Will a pocket folder provide you with the edge you need, based on the crime in your area, or do you need something bigger in your handbag or tucked in your waistband?

8. Preferences and Perceptions: Finally we get down to the fun stuff, the gray areas that are usually based on our desires not our needs. How do I know? Because this was where I began my own knife collecting many years ago. Maybe we read a book where the hero carried a Bowie, or a stiletto, and that formed a vivid image in our mind. We equate the hero’s deeds with that particular weapon and are swayed to buy one just like it. This is how Hollywood creates the fantasy weapons market. Other times our choice is based on having a knife just like Dad carried, or Grandpa always used when he went hunting. These are heroes too in their own right. Maybe that knife you want just looks: mean, tough, deadly, magical, whatever. Perceptions often form our individual sense of reality and a weapon is an extension of who we are or whom we want to be. So our choice is often subliminally based on how we want to be perceived by others. Do we want to been seen as the hero of the Alamo, a secret agent, a deadly assassin, or the warrior who wins the heart of the beautiful damsel? Very few people will admit to the inner workings that drive their selection process. Why? Because they are too personal or they may be buried so deeply they do not truly know. A buyer’s choice may be based on aesthetics, purity of line, form or function. The mind may be stimulated by an appealing combination of materials or colors. The decision of one knife over another may be based on how well it fits in the hand. These are all things that a marketing person wrestles with when deciding which knife goes to market and which ones get shelved. Most of these attributes have minimal influence on the effectiveness of the weapon or its suitability for the user. Quite often they may even be at odds with what the user actually needs.

9. Budgetary Constraints: This is the most painful part of the selection process. Can you justify spending six hundred dollars on a fighting knife that will most likely never see a drop of blood drawn? When a six dollar knife will perforate an attacker with aplomb why do we feel we need to spend a month’s wages on a custom knife? This brings us back to preferences and perceptions. The flip side is what can we do when we cannot find the money to purchase a top of the line fighting knife? There are times that we have to face that reality and choose the best quality knife that we can afford. That may not be a knife that fits any of the other eight parameters outlined above. As I have said before, the perfect fighting knife is the one you have with you when you need it. Style, preference, aesthetics, legality, ethnicity, physical limitation, etc all are thrown to the winds when faced with the imminent threat of violence.

Spending some time in advance and giving consideration to the other attributes may arm you with a good knife should that time come. I hope that you never have need of it, but if you do, I hope that you have chosen your knife wisely.

David Decker

White Shadow Dojo

The Fog of Peace

What is it about the private ownership of weapons that causes politicians to lose sleep and civilizations to tremble? Can anyone tell me of any civilization or culture that was established by, or preserved through, hugs and kisses? News broadcasters talk about Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and the “Fog of War,” ladies and gentlemen I am more concerned about the fog of peace.

Through my love of knives and other edged weapons I have become acquainted with people all over this great nation and around the world and they all share the same passions and deep concerns. In an effort to stem terrorism America has engaged in wars of aggression in several foreign countries. We have overthrown governments and unseated irreconcilable dictators. We are losing the war on terrorism and another war right here at home. We are losing the War of Independence that our ancestors fought over 200 years ago. Daily our rights as citizens are being eroded under the guise of making us safe. Safe from what and whom becomes the question. It has become acceptable national policy to topple governments in the name of national security, or eradicate terrorists leaders with drones, yet we are now forbidden to take lip balm or shampoo onboard an aircraft. At the same time that military commanders are deciding whether to attack a sleepy hamlet with an airstrike or a cruise missile we are stripped of pocketknives before we can enter an Art Museum. Where is the sanity in all of this? Who are we punishing, and who are the terrorists? Our rights and freedoms are on the brink of extinction. This is a global problem that infects nearly every civilized nation around the world. Sharing some thoughts about intrusive knife laws I quote from a Japanese friend’s email, “I have a lot of doubts, though I love my country.” My friends in England and around the Globe echo this poignant sentiment. For example, here is a quote from the UK, “dave, by the way re. samurai swords, there is talk of them being banned here in the u.k. what a sad place to live.” Friends, I fear that we are wading through the sinister fog of peace.

One man hid a bomb is his tennis shoe and now every day tens of thousands of peace-loving, free citizens have to remove their shoes at airport screening. What if the billions of dollars spent bombing Iraq had been spent on better screening equipment? Wouldn’t that have made flying safer without toppling a foreign government and destroying a country’s economy, stability, and infrastructure? Some terrorists - whom we dare not describe ethnically for fear of inciting riots in the name of the peaceful prophet – hijacked four airplanes and destroyed Mankind’s fragile hopes for security and serenity. Because these religious nut-cases used knives to assist them in their evil purposes, civilized worlds will eventually seek to ban all knives as instruments of mass destruction and terror. How readily will we give over our rights to own knives and pointed scissors and lip balm? Is this really part of the struggle to save freedom? How far will Americans go to secure their safety, what freedoms will they sacrifice? I fear they will spill it all in the name of Homeland Security.

David Decker

White Shadow Dojo

The Evolution of the Cobra

A knife design is sometimes spontaneous and other times more evolutionary. Such is the case of the Cobra MkIII. What began as a seven-inch bladed fighting knife evolved into the current four-inch bladed self-defense knife you see here. Over time I have wrestled with my innate love of large knives versus the practicality of smaller knives. The Mk-III is the resolution of that quandary.

I initially designed a larger knife called the D~S #4 Fighting Knife. It combined my preference for both recurved and double-edged blades. My good friend Mike Sturman made this and several other variations. Armed with these prototypes I approached two major knife manufacturers here in Western, NY. It was a big disappointment when they both said that the design could not be ground with the machinery they had. To produce the knife would mean sacrificing many subtleties of the design. I decided not to go that route and for several years the design languished in my drawer.

As time went by I decided that maybe a knife with a seven-inch blade was not practical for anything other than combat use. The market had turned to combat folders, often with blades between three and one half, to four inches long. Obviously a folder when carried is only as long as its handle, a major advantage. The known drawbacks of a folder for defense are the necessity of opening it under stress, and the possibility that the locking mechanism or blade pivot can fail under pressure. One of the major stumbling blocks to carrying a fixed blade knife is that the overall length is partially dictated by the handle length. For example, a knife with a seven-inch blade is expected to have a handle five inches long for visual and ergonomic reasons. Another disadvantage of a fixed blade knife is the difficulty carrying it concealed, and the discomfort of having that long handle sticking in your ribs when you are seated.

So I determined to make a knife with a blade at least as long (or short) as most of the combat folders and combine it into the shortest fixed-blade package possible. I turned to the Indonesian punal for the handle shape. The punal or keris shaped handle was slightly modified to ensure that it fit in the user’s hand equally well in forward and reverse grip. Despite the handles short length there is adequate gripping area and there is a choil and thumb ramp to both orient the hand and prevent it from slipping onto the blade. Taking out a fresh sheet of paper I drew a straight line to represent where the point should lie and then scrunched up the D~S #4 blade to just over four inches. After several redesigns of the blade it is finally where I initially envisioned it. The MK-II was nearly perfect but it was ground from 6mm thick steel, which made the bevels on the blade steeper than I wanted, reducing the cutting ability somewhat. Because of this we went back to the excellent 5mm Sandvik Swedish steel. The final touch to the MK-III was the teeth on the back edge.

Once the teeth were added I realized that what I had created was a mini-Hobbit! I have always admired the REKAT[1] Hobbit, with only one exception, the shape of the guard almost forced you to use the knife in reverse grip. Not everyone is comfortable using the reverse grip and there are times it is not appropriate. On the other hand, although its blade is nearly a perfect size, the Pocket Hobbit has an awful handle design. The Cobra’s teeth are not intended for cutting parachute cords, seat belts, sawing wood, etc. They are designed to be used for trapping an opponent’s arm, allowing you to take control of his weapon. These trapping techniques are explained in detail in our first book[2] The Rhythm of One which is still available for purchase. The Cobra MK-III is one very powerful knife in a small package and there is no need to fumble about trying to open it under stress and it will not fail you under pressure. The Cobra is an excellent choice for your EDC (Every Day Carry) weapon. The cobra can he purchased with a choice of blade coatings and handle materials. Please contact me for more information and current availability and pricing. Look for the Cobra in an upcoming issue of Tactical Knives.


David Decker
White Shadow Dojo

[1] Round Eyes Knife and Tool; No longer in business.
[2] http://therhythmofone.blogspot.com/