Complete Book Of Knife Fighting

Rating:
Summary: great for the kids!!!
Review: As a stay-at-home Dad, I'm always looking for ways to let my twin five year-old boys blow off steam. We tried reading, parcheesi, cooking classes, you name it, but my kids never seemed to stay interested. That is, until we discovered knife fighting. Now, a lot of you liburral eleetists would like to take away our right to own serrated, 16-inch hunting knives, but you haven't managed to turn us into France just yet! Anyhoo, whenever the kids get into an argument I just say "boys, get out the knives and head out to the back yard!!!" (in order to keep things safe I've outlawed head shots).

I believe that knife fighting has taught my boys character and instilled them with the survival skills they'll need when Kofi Annan and his jackbooted thugs come to take away our guns. I've even started a neighborhood league as a way to keep kids off the streets. My neighbor, a trial lawyer, has tried to stick his nose into my business, telling me to think about "safety" and "liability issues", but he seemed to change his tone once the tires on his Lexus were "mysteriously" slashed in the middle of the night.

Anyway, gotta go. One of my boys is outside yelling something about a tourniquet.

Rating:
Summary: A Classical If a Bit Dated Primer on Knife Fighting
Review: First off, I recommend that you buy this book if you are at all interested in knife fighting. This is one of the first and one of the classical American books on knife fighting. It covers all of the basic techniques that American forces have used for many, many years. At the same time, this book is a little short on techniques, and it is entirely absent the escrima techniques that have become very popular over the past couple of decades. If you don't look at this book as everything for everybody, you will find it a very good buy and not be disappointed. On the other hand, if you're looking for the snappiest way to open and close your balisong, you're going to have to look elsewhere, as this book was written before that time.

Rating:
Summary: Not about knife fighting, this is about knife duels
Review: On page 69 of this book, Cassidy makes it clear that, "Knife fighting is not a glamourous face- to- face duel..." And yet the bulk of the book seems devoted to just that- two guys duelling it out with knives.

The problem is that unlike certain areas that are known for their knife arts, modern day Americans do not usually run around openly carrying knives or swords. The chances of a knife on knife duel are somewhat slim in this case. But the techniques taught in this book, based as they are on fencing, almost all depend on both guys being armed with knives and nothing else. Passata Sotto, In- Quartata and Stoccatta all are pretty much the teeth of what is taught in this book, and all depend on both guys being armed with something pointy.

The idea of taking fencing stuff and applying it to knives is quite obvious if you know what to look for. There seems to be no use of the free hand at all except for one technique. And the idea that the other guy might grab your hand is not explored at all.

Many of the techniques make me pause. As the thrust and such are demonstrated in the photos you can see how the demonstrators are seriously off balance and would not be able to dodge quickly should they be attacked in this position. Many of the counter moves they show work because the attacker is using these types of off balanced thrusts.

Some things also make my jaw drop. For example, a kick to the crotch is shown. But you can easily reach the same area with your hand and can guess how easy it would be to slice the kicking leg with the extra length of a knife. And when thrusting in passata sotto and the like the person is open to a counter strike by the wounded adversary before he can get out of range. All in all, this book seems to be a collection of those techniqes that street fighters giggle about and tell you not to do in a real fight.

There is some good history in this book about some of the big names in knife fighting instruction. Some myths about Jim Bowie are laid to rest. But it is all too little to make up for the technique section. And the section of different types of knives does not deal with popular modern knives like the ballisong. And some of the knives shown are no longer made. Worse, the author takes up a good deal of space touting his own design, which probably is also not made anymore.

In short, if you want to round out your knowedge of knife fighting history you might want to pick up this book. If you are looking for a first book on how to use one, get something else.

Rating:
Summary: Not about knife fighting, this is about knife duels
Review: On page 69 of this book, Cassidy makes it clear that, "Knife fighting is not a glamourous face- to- face duel..." And yet the bulk of the book seems devoted to just that- two guys duelling it out with knives.

The problem is that unlike certain areas that are known for their knife arts, modern day Americans do not usually run around openly carrying knives or swords. The chances of a knife on knife duel are somewhat slim in this case. But the techniques taught in this book, based as they are on fencing, almost all depend on both guys being armed with knives and nothing else. Passata Sotto, In- Quartata and Stoccatta all are pretty much the teeth of what is taught in this book, and all depend on both guys being armed with something pointy.

The idea of taking fencing stuff and applying it to knives is quite obvious if you know what to look for. There seems to be no use of the free hand at all except for one technique. And the idea that the other guy might grab your hand is not explored at all.

Many of the techniques make me pause. As the thrust and such are demonstrated in the photos you can see how the demonstrators are seriously off balance and would not be able to dodge quickly should they be attacked in this position. Many of the counter moves they show work because the attacker is using these types of off balanced thrusts.

Some things also make my jaw drop. For example, a kick to the crotch is shown. But you can easily reach the same area with your hand and can guess how easy it would be to slice the kicking leg with the extra length of a knife. And when thrusting in passata sotto and the like the person is open to a counter strike by the wounded adversary before he can get out of range. All in all, this book seems to be a collection of those techniqes that street fighters giggle about and tell you not to do in a real fight.

There is some good history in this book about some of the big names in knife fighting instruction. Some myths about Jim Bowie are laid to rest. But it is all too little to make up for the technique section. And the section of different types of knives does not deal with popular modern knives like the ballisong. And some of the knives shown are no longer made. Worse, the author takes up a good deal of space touting his own design, which probably is also not made anymore.

In short, if you want to round out your knowedge of knife fighting history you might want to pick up this book. If you are looking for a first book on how to use one, get something else.

Rating:
Summary: Introduction to the Knife culture.
Review: The original publication in 1975 was ahead of its time on publications relating to this topic. To date there are many books written on "knife fighting" most of them junk, by authors who's only knowledge about edged weapon training is from some time spent in a dojo or reading some other uninformed author. This book outlines the forefathers of close quarter combat with knives and writes about their contributions to this warrior art. The book gives an above average curriculum for training with knives for defense as well as offense. It will serve well as a primer on the topic. As of yet, I can not recommend any one book as the best on this topic...

Rating:
Summary: Introduction to the Knife culture.
Review: The original publication in 1975 was ahead of its time on publications relating to this topic. To date there are many books written on "knife fighting" most of them junk, by authors who's only knowledge about edged weapon training is from some time spent in a dojo or reading some other uninformed author. This book outlines the forefathers of close quarter combat with knives and writes about their contributions to this warrior art. The book gives an above average curriculum for training with knives for defense as well as offense. It will serve well as a primer on the topic. As of yet, I can not recommend any one book as the best on this topic...