The Knife as a Self Defense Weapon

I have always been a “knife lover”. Like a pistol, the sight of over 5″ of razor sharp steel speaks a language all of it’s own. Unlike the days of the settlers of our great country, the sight of a knife worn in public, is extremely rare. That most people comprehend the lethality of a knife is understood, but the abandonment of the knife as a weapon of self defense seems to have pretty much arrived.

Case in point, we gave some beginning martial arts students rubber training knives, paired them off and asked them to take turns attacking & defending against knives, and at first they acted as if they had no clue what to do with them (a sign of unfamiliarity), and then they finally went after each other using karate techniques mixed with a couple of stabs or hacking motions for the finish. Needless to say it was a pathetic showing for the knife. Hopping side kicks, and round kicks to the body of a knife wielding adversary will lead to loss of life, limb or both, against anyone at least “somewhat familiar” with the combat use of a knife.

Sensei Will Duncan on the Bowie – A Classic American Fighting Art:

“I thought it would be interesting to research it’s development (the Bowie style knife), after I read that schools existed in the Mississippi River towns of the 1830’s – 1850’s which taught its use. People in Natchez, Vicksburg, New Orleans and so on, started carrying these things around and using them after Jim Bowie prevailed in a fight against multiple opponents in 1827 (he barely survived) using a large hunting knife.

In more recent times, American martial artists such as James Keating and Dwight McLemore were researching the history and tactics, and now teach usage (fighting applications). Knifemaker Bill Bagwell of Louisiana has actually taught Bowie techniques to Army Special Forces units at Fort Bragg. It’s an awesome weapon with a lot of subtle features that combine to make it particularly effective. Bagwell, Keating and McLemore sort of consider it the .44 Magnum of fighting knives.

I think it’s cool because it’s a native American weapon and, actually, a native American martial art! Bowie knives were routinely carried throughout the South and Southwest by civilians and used regularly, even after revolvers were being widely used. Early revolvers were, of course, percussion firearms and slow to reload. Early cartridge revolvers were mostly .32 caliber and smaller, so Bowies didn’t really start to go out of fashion until the 1870’s, when heavy caliber cartridge revolvers came into use. Apparently they saw very widespread use in the first half of the Civil War. The Bowie style fighting knife enjoys a rich and interesting social and martial history.”

When people connect the terms “martial arts” with “knives”, they are usually going to refer to the classic butterfly knife, a legendary knife with it’s roots in the Philippines. The word “balisong” was originally thought to be synonymous with butterfly knife but there is evidence that this knife (personally, my second choice of combat blade) carries that name because of the town they were made in, rather than other material circulating, which would suggest that balisong means “sharp knife” or “broken horn”.

According to The Balisong Collector:

Sources have reported that balisong is just a name and has no meaning.

“Recently a Filipino-American knife maker who grew up in the Philippines and speaks Tagalog as his first language, who was trained in knife making in the Philippines and who has studied the origins of these unique knives was a guest lecturer here at The Institute for Advanced Balisong Studies. Our distinguished lecturer explained that here in The United States of America, the country is divided up into states and within those states are cities. The nation of the Philippines is similar. In it, there is a province (like a State) called Batangas. And in Batangas there is a barrio (like a city) called Balisong. This city is famous for making knives much as, for example, the cities of Sheffield, England and Soligen, Germany are. It’s much like the American city of Detroit, Michigan is famous for making automobiles.”

So, the butterfly knife has a checkered combat history of it’s own, and is a viable candidate for a self defense “carry”. However from my chair, looking at the pro’s and con’s, I must agree with Sensei Duncan, that the Bowie is uniquely American, it can be called an ‘American’ fighting art and that the Bowie style knife is at least (but probably more) lethal in the hands of anyone with some knowledge of employing it for self defense use. My $.02!