QUALIFICATIONS

Who am I to write this book? I am not a knifemaker or designer. I have never forged a blade from a chunk of raw iron or stood before a grinding wheel and watched one of my creations emerge from a steel blank. Nor am I a metallurgist. I have, however, been fortunate in learning a good deal about knives from master bladesmiths and knifemakers over the past thirty years or so, during which time I have been an informal but active student of knifemaking. It has also been my privilege to review hundreds of knives during ten years of writing for Blade magazine, all of which added to my knowledge about what works and what doesn’t for using a knife.

Essentially, I am a knife user. In addition, I am a student of edged weapons and have been an aficionado of the blade for more than a half-century. My military service was with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 7th Special Forces Group (ABN) back in the sixties, which today seems like it was shortly after the invention of repeating firearms. I know of no other contemporary military unit in which the knife was given as much importance as it was then, and is now, than in Special Forces. We learned many lessons about what should go into an effective tactical knife, although we did not use the term tactical in relation to knives at that time. Some of the lessons I learned then, and over the years since, were taught in a hard school. They were hands-on, real-world lessons—the kind that stay with you for a lifetime. That time and place, Special Forces during the sixties, was a crucible for the development of the modern tactical knife.

As a consultant to various governmental and private organizations, I’ve traveled and worked in more than forty countries, often in primitive conditions, and have been involved in armed conflicts in several of those countries. I have been obliged to defend my life with edged weapons on more than one occasion, which is an experience that gives one a certain perspective on these matters.

As a journalist and amateur scholar, I have visited and worked at museums and archaeological excavations in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia with the specific goal of studying ancient edged tools and weapons. As a student of the blade arts, I have trained in Eskrima, both in the United States and the Philippines, in western fencing, and in a number of combat-oriented knife fighting methods, both military and civilian, often by teachers who owed their lives to their skill—or luck—with edged weapons. I have also taught self-defense with edged weapons.

My grandfather gave me my first knife at age five, and I’ve been fascinated by them ever since. As a kid, I wandered the woods with a .22 rifle and a blade. As an adult, I’ve successfully hunted small and large game, often with primitive weapons on four continents. I’ve dressed game, built shelters, chopped kindling, and peeled fuzz sticks for fires. I’ve made bows and arrows, atlatls and spears, animal and fish traps by the dozens, and other primitive food-getting tools. Knives have been my essential tools for all these activities.

Like everyone else, I’ve used knives to open thousands of boxes, slice a mountain of bread, and peel enough fruit to feed all of California (well, maybe Los Angeles). I’ve also cut through a fire door to escape a high-rise fire with a Randall and stopped myself from being swept away by raging waters in an aqueduct with an Ontario Pilot’s Survival Knife.

From all this, I’ve arrived at some conclusions about knives and their usage. My intent in giving you a bit of my history is not to impress you with my background and knowledge, which is meager and undistinguished when compared to many others. Rather it is to let you know that the information in this book comes from someone at least minimally qualified to write on the subject. The information herein is a distillation of my education, observations, and experience. Much that I learned came from people more experienced and wiser than I. It is my hope that you will find something of value herein.