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

Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives: A Practical and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting
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push it off before you pressed the button. By the time you did this, a fast man could thumb a manual folder open and cut you. The alternative was to carry your knife with the lock off and that was not wise, either.
    I heard about one guy who was kissing a girl with a great deal of passion and she pressed against him. The knife sprang open in his pocket. So much for passion.
    There was one switchblade available then that was quite excellent. It was a German knife sold in Army-Navy surplus stores. It didn’t work on a button, but rather a lever that was hinged on the front bolster.

    German switchblade with lever.

    By flipping the lever up and back quickly, you could cause the blade to spring out. The lever flipped back into position, locking the blade. It was made of good steel that would take a razor-sharp edge, and it had a strong spring. It wasn’t popular, possibly because it didn’t make much noise when it opened. I rather liked that, since I couldn’t imagine many situations where I wanted to advertise I was opening a knife. But I’ve never been on the cutting-edge of fashion. It was the only type of switchblade I ever owned and it cost me $2.95. I ran across one in about 1979 and the price was a cool $100.00. I passed it up.
    Most of the people I knew in my younger days carried a plain pocket knife. Usually they carried a Case, Queen, Western, or Sabre. Lockbacks were prized, but very hard to find.

    Hank’s Queen, 8½ inches overall length. HRC650

    Lockbacks are knives where the blade locks into place once it is opened. The lock must be released before the blade can be closed. Usually this is done by pressing a spring on the back of the knife.
    The fact that most knives did not lock led to a pretty good maneuver that was taught to me by a man who was at least sixty-five. I was seventeen. The move was simplicity itself: merely striking down with the open hand across the back of the blade held by your opponent. This caused the blade to close, cutting fingers when it was stopped by the hand. There was the simple and obvious counter of merely turning the knife so that the blade is edge up.

    Striking down across the back of an opponent’s blade causes the blade to close, cutting fingers when stopped by the hand.

    The obvious counter to the old man’s trick is to turn the knife blade edge up

    The old man explained it to me and I just didn’t believe he could do it. I was considered pretty fast. I held a small stick and I knew what he was going to do and he did it anyway. I felt like a spastic snail.
    I’ve always had a lot of respect for old people because some of them didn’t get that way by being timid. Some of them are just plain dangerous!
    OPENING THE FOLDER
    There are four basic ways to open a folder and we’ll deal with each in turn.
    Most knives have springs that allow them to be popped open with a quick flick of the wrist. The blade is gripped tightly between thumb and index finger, and the hand is then snapped downward and back. With a little practice, this can be done in the space of a few inches, barely moving the hand.
    The folding knife can also be opened by reversing the grip and holding the handle rather than the blade. This is harder to do because the blade has less mass than the handle. This also requires faster hand and arm movement and more room.

    Popping open a folder by holding the blade (above) and by holding the handle (below).

    The most common method of opening a pocket knife was to thumb it.

    Thumbing open a folder: start (left) to finish (right).

    The knife is gripped by the thumb and middle finger with the pivot point of the knife (where the blade is hinged) pointing away. The little finger and the ring finger are on the sides of the knife handle. The thumb presses down and out, while the last two fingers pull back. This causes the blade to rotate forward into an open position. This operation can be sped up by snapping the wrist and imparting some momentum to the blade. This
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