Fixed Blade EDC, with Photos! :-)

[Dirty Bob]

I occasionally hear questions about how one can carry a fixed blade regularly. I'm here to chime in that I carry at least two on a daily basis, and sometimes three. It isn't hard. The two are carried at work, and everywhere else, and no one has ever seen either unless I want them to. I carry some innocuous keychain tools, which is what I pull out when someone asks for a knife. Chief among them is a Swiss-Tech UTIL-I-KEY. It's tiny and looks totally harmless.

Keychain fixed blade - I use one a brass keychain connectors to attach my keys to a fixed blade sheath. Why? The keys help keep the knife in a vertical position, and the weight of the keys helps to keep the sheath in the pocket when I draw the knife. I carry one of four knives on my keys, but it's usually a very flat blade from Jantz supply. It's called their Kodiak Blade. I filed off the serrations on the back and used a large, half-round file to reshape it into a single-edged "skinner" profile. The Kydex sheath is homemade. I put my hand in my pocket and hook my forefinger in the hole. I can grip the knife and draw, dragging the corner of the sheath against my pocket to unsheath the knife. If I have my finger in the hole, I can have the knife out in 1/2 second or less.

Other options on my keys are a DPX H.E.S.T., but that only works with huge pockets. A tiny Böker Fixed SubCom (440C steel, made in USA) is my choice when I have to deal with small pants pockets. It's a beefly little knife that is no longer made. A new, thinner Fixed SubCom is currently made in China. Finally, I put a black Pakkawood handle and brass guard on a Mora Tradesman. I ground some of the base of the blade down and slid the guard "higher" to shorten the blade a little. The shiny area on the handle is string -- dyed black and soaked in epoxy. It strengthens the handle and provides a great gripping surface. The homemade Kydex sheath has eyelets made from copper tubing from the plumbing section of the hardware store.

Neck knife - I usually have a CRKT Ringer 3 around my neck. It weighs nothing. I removed the little spur on the "butt" of the knife with a dremel and a file. I can slip my index finger into the ring nearest the blade and butt the other ring against the heel of my hand. In this position, I could stab against soft targets. Unfortunately, it's no longer in production. You might find one on eBay. The neck knife concept is best for utility use or for a stealth draw. Accessing one during an altercation is almost impossible. It'll probably be rotated up under your armpit, and you won't be able to find it.

DPX H.E.S.T. - I also carry a DPX H.E.S.T. (Hostile Environment Survival Tool) when I wear jeans with a long, vertical tool pocket on my right thigh. The DPX disappears, sheath and all, into the pocket. The knife is extremely strong, and the handle is very secure in my hand. If I had to try to stop someone quickly, the DPX would be my choice. The price has gone up somewhat since I bought mine.

TOPS Travelin Man 2 - A flat, all-steel, spear point. It's very sturdy and surprising easy to carry concealed under any untucked shirt. I put my belt through the loop on the "static line" and tuck the knife into my waistband in a somewhat horizontal position, on my left side. If I wear a tucked-in black shirt, I can walk around with very few people noticing the knife, yet I can grab it very quickly and easily. I don't carry it often, but it's often with me in a bag or in the car, just in case. No longer made.

Böker GITFO (Get It the F*** On) - I hate the name. I prefer to think of it as my St. FOOM knife (Stay the F*** Off Of Me!). It's actually a pretty good knife, and the ring makes for an extremely secure grip, but the price has gone way up since I bought it. Yikes. I rarely carry it, because the hard plastic, tuckable sheath -- made by me from trash can plastic -- is pretty uncomfortable. I need to make a new sheath. i draw it by hooking a forefinger in the ring and drawing it into a pakal (blade down) grip, with the edge away from my. I bought the knife as insurance in case someone tried to grab my concealed pistol. The usual drill is to trap their hand on the gun butt and to fight them with a "weak" hand weapon.

Long and short of it: I usually have the tiny neck knife and the flat, stainless knife with the forefinger hole on my keys in my pocket.

If you're looking for a small fixed blade for pocket carry, Jantz Supply sells a number of suitable blades, some for shockingly low prices ($10 to $15). Choose a blade with a flat tang and either wrap it with cord or leave it as an all-steel knife after rounding the edges of the tang a little. Make (or have someone make) a simple Kydex sheath, and you're good to go.

Respectfully submitted,
Dirty Bob

[Rastus]

Hey Dirty Bob it's good we have a blade guy going on here.  I rarely carry a knife purpose build for self defense now...generally only a benign pocket knive.

When I do I keep this https://www.knifecenter.com/item/CS12DCST/cold-steel-12dcst-safe-maker-ii-push-dagger-aus-8a-blade-kray-ex-handle-secure-ex-sheath Cold Steel model around. 

Before I got the dang bone spurs on my heels and could wear cowboy boots I kept this inside my boot:  https://www.knifecenter.com/item/CS10BCTL/cold-steel-10bctl-counter-tac-i-boot-knife-double-edge-blade-kray-ex-handles-secure-ex-sheath .  I still keep it close in the truck....

[Dirty Bob]

Thanks, Rastus!

I read all the Matt Helm books, starting at about the age of 12 or 13. Donald Hamilton's spy used a .22 Colt Woodsman pistol when the series began, because it was somewhat quiet and very accurate. In that first book, he uses it to good effect.

But Helm always favored knives, and it shaped some of my mindset. Hamilton was a gun and knife guy, and it showed in the books. Helm carried a Buck Model 110 Folding Hunter in some of the books, and the author described both the carry and the opening methods. The truth is, a knife complements a handgun very well. I can have my hand on that little all-stainless knife, in my right front pocket, with the forefinger loosely hooked through the hole. I can walk through a crowd like that. If I uncurl the finger, the knife drops down into the bottom of the pocket, but if I need it, I can get it out far faster than any handgun.

Curling my hand around a knife in my pocket (it was a utility knife: like for opening packages) got my wife and I out of an ugly daylight robbery by a two-man team. I was deciding where I was going to cut the large man in front of me, when he saw my hand, saw my focus, and stepped aside. I was glad no one got hurt. As soon as he came within reach I was going to try to cut my way free. I was very happy not to have to try that gambit.

Another pocket carry that could work well is one of the tiny Cold Steel push daggers, in a sheath that settles into the bottom of a back pocket and allows easy access to the handle. The whole knife and sheath would be about the size of a thin wallet, and with practice, it would be one of those draws that might have someone asking: where did that come from? It's also not going to end up in your armpit, like a neck knife can, even in a minor tussle.

I'm thinking I should make a static line for the Böker for a left-hand backup, in case I ever have to fight a gun grab. I can carry it in front, on the left side, ring toward the center, and make a very fast draw by putting either index finger in the loop. A gun grab has to be treated as a lethal attack, and dealt with as fast as possible. It isn't pleasant stuff, but there are places where a knife is faster or more accessible or more concealable than a firearm.

I can also toss a knife in my checked bag (preferably secured by a cable to the inside of the bag, to keep thieves from lifting it) and never have to tell anyone, but I have to declare a firearm, and it can be a slow process sometimes. I can also purchase an inexpensive knife while on a trip, in a transaction that takes a minute or two. There are some very good knives available for very little money, if you know which to choose, and even a crummy knife might serve in self-defense. My favorite "POS" knives come from the hardware section: a metal utility knife. Super sturdy, very hard to take away from someone, and even that little triangle of razor-sharp steel can do horrific damage in a second or two, if you have any idea of what you're doing. It also serves as a very effective pocket stick when the blade isn't deployed.

If you want to see what's possible, see Guro Dan Inosanto use a fake training knife to completely overwhelm an unsuspecting LEO in a training situation. It's in the video "Surviving Edged Weapons," a training film aimed at police officers. Scary stuff. If someone pulls a knife on me, my first thought is to run, but first you gotta see it. The most common phrase you hear in the officer interviews in the film is, "I never saw the knife."

Be warned, though it's not a film for someone with a weak stomach.

Be careful out there!

All my best,
Dirty Bob

[Rastus]

Yeah I got a weak stomach.  I can cut a gap in myself and super glue it, help someone who's trashed, smashed and split open and go on but...for some reason I can't do the video thing....or taking blood samples or blood pressure....go figure.

I have the small Cold Steel push dagger to go with the Safe Maker.  I usually carry a gun but on travel you are right...I keep a knife in the bag.  I generally don't know what's legal and not legal where I go and I'm too lazy to look it up but since you keep them out of sight that is not a problem...unless you use it I guess. 

I've never been to a CQB class that teaches edged weapons or an edged weapons class.  It would be a good thing but I'm too old with this food blister to go....I'll takes my chances.  I did send my boys to edged weapons CQB.  One of them used their training...in a college the football locker room no less.  Seems one of his team mates was getting picked on and wanted to show how he wasn't scared and pulled a knife to wave around in the air at everybody....then he zeroed in on the quiet guy to pick on and turn the tide of torment.  Wrong move.  In a flash he was on his back and my son very nonchalantly asked him not to do that again after he laid the knife on the guys chest....training is a good thing to have when you need it.