How to Select the Right Knife

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Tres Tew. I'm an instructor here at Christian Martial Arts. Today I'm going to be talking to you on behalf of Expert Village about how to use a knife for self defense. Okay, now there are quite a few knives out in the world. Different makes of knives, everything. When you're choosing a knife, again, the first thing you want to think about is state law and national law. You don't want to pick something up like a K Bar here and walk around with that strapped to your hip if it doesn't abide by your state regulations. That's going to draw attention to yourself that you don't want, namely cops coming to take you away to jail. I know in the state I currently live in, the legal limit to a knife blade is 3 1/2 inches or the actual blade itself cannot go any longer than your palm. Also, folders are good knives to take. You can just clip them in your pocket, pull them out, flip them out whenever you need to work or whenever you need to defend yourself. There are different kinds of knives. This is a pretty nice little knife. It's a little bit different in the way that you would use it from anything else. The blade is a little bit curved forward so it'd be a little bit different. This is a regular pocket knife. This is probably something you'd see more often than anything else. Used for widdling, and you know carving the skin off of apples, things like that. And now there's kind of special knives, little bit different, have two edges. Camping knives, hunting knives, things of that nature, usually come with a sheath that straps to your hip. Then we've got throwing knives. You just throw them and they can also be used to stab and cut. Things like that. When we're talking about training knives, you want to pick a knife that's going to be most realistic. A metal training knife is probably the best. After that it'd be wood and then a pretty hard rubber that's not going to bend too easily. The reason being if you're going full force and you're stabbing at someone, it's going to bend. So if you're doing that you're probably going to want to use something a little bit softer rubber. But if you want to train in disarm, rolling the knife using the flat of the blade, you're probably going to want to use a knife that's a little bit more sturdy. So again, stay legal, stay safe and really comfort is what you're comfortable with, what you're most likely to use is up to you. "