Actual Self Defense Knife Use

[hso]

There's a lot of discussion that goes on about defensive use of knives, but they're typically someone else's story or just theoretical.

I've had three violent encounters out and about in my 50+ years being on my own (that's a lot according to my LE buddies for an Ewok in biz casual that doesn't frequent stupid places with stupid people), but I got out of them without using a knife or gun.

I've recounted warning off a would be attacker by displaying a handy impact tool (heavy carabiner and heavy padlock) but no knives (and I carry knives all the time).

I'd like to hear from folks outside LE and Military combat (where you'd expect to be in a fight for your life) that actually used a knife to deter or defend against an attack to gauge if this is simply that rare. Please, direct observation of others is ok, but no "I heard/was told" stories.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

One time when I was about 10 years old I brandished my Barlow knife to avoid a fist fight.

All I got.

 

[Jimfern]

I resemble your description of yourself and have never had any incidents where I had to brandish anything and I've been to many, many places from Chicago to Belgrade often during the late hours.

 

[Hartkopf]

Just the old hand in the pocket ready to draw my pocket knife (assisted opener). The strange acting, too close for comfort guy definitely noticed my posture and hand in my pocket. He observed me observing him for a few seconds and then left. If he had bad intentions, which I believe he did, he didn’t want to deal with whatever was going to come out of my pocket. He had lots of awkward body language and facial expressions, like micro expressions, that told me he realized at the last second I wasn’t an easy target. In the end there was no excitement.

 

[The Night Rider]

When I was in the seventh grade my mom moved us out of downtown Omaha to Millard. That's back when Millard was its own separate town.

I went from Lewis and Clark Junior High School to Millard North Junior High School, night and day.

My second or third day there some kid tried to pull a knife on me.

I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. Apparently the wall that I slammed him against was to the Teachers Lounge because I got their attention and one of them came out and broke it up. I got in trouble for hitting the kid. Nobody believed me that he had a knife.

Now that I'm an adult I would reach for OC way before I would reach for a knife

 

[dh1633pm]

I opened my trusty Benchmade Griptilian at a bar a long time ago. I observed a young person (holigan) a short time before attempting to start a fight with someone. He then came to my end of the bar and started to make fun of my shirt as a pretext for whatever. I pulled the knife quietly, opened it and had it in my hand under the bar. He went the other way, and I went out the door. End of story.

 

[JohnKSa]

Here's an example that was posted on THR some years ago.

Cane was no good there!

I love canes/walking sticks. I've made no bones about it in past posts, and consider a knife a poor third rate weapon at best for self defense. Yesterday morning I changed my mind. I got up early to get my oil changed in my car by a buddy who has his own shop. Supposed to get there abut...

www.thehighroad.org

Another post by the same person.

Re-thinking tactics with age.

Okay, its been 48 hours or so since the great showdown at the bagel store. In that time, there's been a lot going through my head. People are always saying a knife should be felt before seen. Maybe so, in some cases. But I've been thinking about that. Twice in the last year and a half I've...

www.thehighroad.org

 

[ms6852]

Times have changed since I was a kid. Had many fights when I was in school, you know I'll see you after school type of thing. I kicked butt and sometimes got mine kicked but one never brandished a knife. We settled our differences with fists and that was it. Now everything is settled in bloodshed. Just sickening that my world has become so violent and younger generations don't value life at all. It is the reason I've always felt compelled to carry, not because it is my constitutional right but because I have to level the field if I can never de-escalte a situation.

 

[jahwarrior]

There's a lot of discussion that goes on about defensive use of knives, but they're typically someone else's story or just theoretical.

I've had three violent encounters out and about in my 50+ years being on my own (that's a lot according to my LE buddies for an Ewok in biz casual that doesn't frequent stupid places with stupid people), but I got out of them without using a knife or gun.

I've recounted warning off a would be attacker by displaying a handy impact tool (heavy carabiner and heavy padlock) but no knives (and I carry knives all the time).

I'd like to hear from folks outside LE and Military combat (where you'd expect to be in a fight for your life) that actually used a knife to deter or defend against an attack to gauge if this is simply that rare. Please, direct observation of others is ok, but no "I heard/was told" stories.

 

[jahwarrior]

I've had to use a knife in violent situations, more than once. The last time was about 25 years ago, and involved a short stay in county, after being treated at a hospital, until I got to stand in front of a judge. I was attacked by 3 men in what would now be considered a hate crime, caused by road rage. They followed me to a parking lot, and used weapons, while hurling racial epithets. I've always carried a knife, so I did what I had to do. We all got messed up; I ended up with a concussion, a broken tooth, and a nice big cut on my face requiring 20+ stitches to close. The idiots who attacked me got worse.

In the end, I was released, and this was the event that made me to decide to get a carry license, and to buy and train with firearms, because I'm pretty sure that if I'd had a gun, all of us would've walked away from this incident without injury.

 

[Boattale]

Knife? Never ever. And only one time in my life did I wish I had a gun with but didn't. Camping on the Missouri River and three or four guys walked up on us to see if we had any spare beer. They didn't seem to believe us when we said nope, no spare beer around here. A couple of other guys did have theirs, put them in their laps and the night was quiet after that,

 

[d2wing]

I haven't been in a knife fight, but I watched a street smart Sargent hold off guys all around him with a straight razor. Nobody wants to get cut. I learned something that day. Maybe a couple things.

 

[Hillbilly Hydrographics]

Never had to use a knife or a gun in a defensive situation. Have had plenty of fist fights over the years mostly as a youth. Only real time I thought I was gonna have to use knife was at a rest stop early early morning when I was 18. When I pulled in there wasn't but one other car parked off to the side from buildings. I parked right in front of the restrooms. Done my business and when I come out a guy in a hoody approached asking for a cigarette. I told him a didn't smoke and he walked inside the restrooms. But by the time I got to the vending area about 40 feet away I noticed the guy coming back my way so I pulled my knife out and had it in hand standing there waiting on him to turn the corner. He seen me standing there with a knife and quickly walked away. I got in car and left.

 

[Double_J]

I do remember one altercation about 25 years ago. I was on a construction site during a rough patch between the trades and racial groups. I saw a group of "rednecks" start to attack a lone Hispanic guy in a room. The Hispanic guy used his drywall hatchet and a pocket knife to good effect and left several other guys bleeding before the fight was broken up. I made the decision to bail out of the area when I saw the fur start to fly as I didn't want to be collateral damage. I was told that everyone involved needed multiple stitches.

 

[Kingcreek]

Good Lord no, never been in a knife fight.
I was a bouncer in a couple rough bars over 45 years ago but the only stabbing I witnessed was a jealous girl friend that stabbed her man in the neck with a bic pen.
I carry a knife every day but I never want to be anywhere near a knife fight.
If somebody with a knife is after a piece of me I think I would prefer my walking stick if I can’t have my gun.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I'm not trained in knife fighting. If it came down to actually using a knife in defense, I wouldn't make it known I had one until the instant I had to use it if at all possible.

When I went to Hawaii for three months for engineering purposes late 2020, I did a lot of hiking with a coworker. One was coming back at the end of the hike late in the day and we heard voices of a small group of guys approaching from the opposite direction. When they came into sight, they had a not-small-at-all dog with them and their appearance and manner was quite "off".

I palmed my small ceramic folding knife and kept it out of sight until our groups were well past each other. I figured the dog would be the lead in an attack and had formulated a defense based on that.

I quietly let my co-worker know and we altered positions a bit as we approached and passed the other group. She had been wary as well.

That's all I had on me, so that's what I had to work with. Had a violent encounter actually taken place, I judged that making a show of it in the hopes of deterring anything would likely not have worked with their numbers and a large dog factored in. If one of them also pulled a knife as a result of a premature revealing, things could have gone from very bad to very much worse, because nobody walks away from a knife fight without bleeding.

That's all I've got. A non-event, and thankful for it.

 

[The Night Rider]

This is something to think about that happened to me 40 years ago.

I was working on a construction site and I did something to offend one of my co-workers. He was older than me and he sat me down to talk to me. I don't remember even when we talked about or what the incident was but I respected the guy so I sat there and I listened to him.

While he was talking to me I had a box cutter in my hand and was opening and closing the blade just as a fidget spinner (before Fidget Spinners were a thing).

After about 5 minutes the guy stopped when he was saying and told me if I intended to cut him I should go ahead and do it or put the box cutter away.

Attacking him was the last thought in my mind and I said that to him. You never know how people are going to perceive what you're doing

 

[theotherwaldo]

Closest that I came was outside the Apache's Tacqueria in Huntington Park, California, back when I was a teen.
A couple of guys started harassing my mother.
I pulled out my ridiculously dull Italian folding bayonet, flipped it open and started pretending to clean my nails.
They found something else to do... .

 

[glistam]

I've never cut or stabbed anyone, but I've used a knife to threaten three times. One was as a young kid and it was to get a bully to stop hitting me unprovoked (he thought it was 'funny'). Told him I'd cut his hand off if it touched me again. Non-LEO authority figure got a bit mad at me, but after I pointed out they did nothing to stop the hitting, they shut up and let the issue drop. I'd not really call that "self-defense," to be fair, but I consider it "just," even if it wouldn't have been "legal" strictly speaking. Second one was late teens. Got grabbed in a rear choke suddenly. Went for a thumb-stud pocket knife and was going for his eye when he saw it and let go. Another teen thinking he was being "funny." Worth mentioning is that courts and legislation have ruled a choke as "deadly force," just saying. Third was in my 20s. Random racist drunks on the street making overt threats of violence. Flashed a blade without saying anything. They muttered some curse words and went another way, and never saw them again.

The choke situation stuck with me the most, as it's a situation where a handgun or OC wouldn't have actually been a good tactic, but a knife would. Then again, a pen would probably have worked just as well.

I think your observation is valid that defensive knife use is pretty rare. Justifiable use is even more rare. I have some court cases written down of knives used in what might have seemed like self-defense but ended up being murder instead because the defender engaged when it wasn't really necessary.

Here's an example that was posted on THR some years ago.

Cane was no good there!

I love canes/walking sticks. I've made no bones about it in past posts, and consider a knife a poor third rate weapon at best for self defense. Yesterday morning I changed my mind. I got up early to get my oil changed in my car by a buddy who has his own shop. Supposed to get there abut...

www.thehighroad.org

Another post by the same person.

Re-thinking tactics with age.

Okay, its been 48 hours or so since the great showdown at the bagel store. In that time, there's been a lot going through my head. People are always saying a knife should be felt before seen. Maybe so, in some cases. But I've been thinking about that. Twice in the last year and a half I've...

www.thehighroad.org

It's been long enough now I think I can safely say this: I used to live in close proximity to the user that wrote those posts and knew his real identity. While I can't say for 100%, I investigated both the locations the supposed events happened in person and examined court records, and could not find any corroborating evidence that these events he claims actually happened.

 

[Zerodefect]

I'm rethinking a horizontal mounted fixed blade, since Ohio relaxed it's rules. But I use it mostly as a tool.

 

[W.E.G.]

Suprisingly, DOGS are often afraid of knives.

I presume that because dogs evolved as companions to humans, they have developed an instinct to fear a human with any object in their hand.

I have deterrred dogs by brandishing a knife. Never had to poke the dog. Maybe the dogs weren't going to bite anyway. All I know is I produced the knife, and the dogs pulled up short.

I remember too a bully, who was two to three years my senior, inquiring whether I was "carrying a knife." I pulled it out and said, "Yeah,... What about it?" I never had any more trouble from that bully. I still have the knife after 50 years.

 

[W.E.G.]

I carry two knives now most days.

I use the lightweight Buck 110 for general duty. I used that knife to cut the birthday cake at my grandson's first birthday party. Nobody else had a knife. Just a dumb old man with delusions that he needs to carry a knife.



In the other pocket I carry an inexpensive knock-off of the Spyderco "Civilian." The character "Hannibal Lechter" used one in the movie. I used mine to cut weeds at a local ballpark, so my wife and I could have a seat to watch fireworks last summer. Otherwise, I carry it for,.... reasons.

 

[mm93]

When I was in high school myself and a friend were walking home from a movie late one night when 3 guys came up behind us and began talking loudly about "maybe we should rob them" so we picked up our pace to get away. Of course they also walked faster, and since they appeared much older we were scared about what their intentions were.
My friend had his pocket knife, as did I, and I didn't see him pull it out, but he suddenly stopped and turned around to confront them with the knife in hand. The biggest guy kicked his knife hand hard and the knife went flying. Then they grabbed both of us, and one held me while two others held him and sort of roughed him around a little, and scared him even more.
Turned out they were just bullies trying to scare us, and it worked. They kept my buddy's knife, and let us go. But I learned to never take a knife out unless you have the skills to actually defend yourself with it.

 

[JohnKSa]

It's been long enough now I think I can safely say this: I used to live in close proximity to the user that wrote those posts and knew his real identity. While I can't say for 100%, I investigated both the locations the supposed events happened in person and examined court records, and could not find any corroborating evidence that these events he claims actually happened.

Very interesting. I will admit that it seemed improbable to me that the guy would have had two knife self-defense situations happen so close together in time.