Since that exposé was written, Mr. Collins was arrested for alleged possession of child pornography.  Videos posted on his YouTube channel(s) allude to other legal issues that have either been resolved or are apparently ongoing.  The status of the child pornography case is not clear (at least to me), but it appears the charges have been dropped (or they are soon to be dropped). Mr. Collins has waited through three terms of the grand jury and has not been indicted as of this writing.

In the months following the publication of the West Virginian Ninja exposé, it quickly became apparent that Ron was someone I would rather not interact with, even long-distance through the Internet.  In an attempt simply never to have to deal with Mr. Collins again, and vowing to give up muckraking journalism (it is more trouble than it is worth) I requested that my article on Ron be removed from the site then hosting it.  It was my hope that, with the exposé no longer active, he would forget me and move on.

This, sadly, has not been the case.  Since late last summer Mr. Collins has made multiple YouTube videos referring to me, making vague threats of “legal repercussions,” and claiming that all of his problems are a result of an elaborate conspiracy that extends to the top of his state’s law enforcement hierarchy.

To make a very long story very short, Mr. Collins has made multiple false claims asserting that he is a “business competitor” to this site (he is not), that I, its publisher, have made maliciously false statements about him (I have not), and that he’s going to sue us all, or have the government clap us in irons for racketeering, and we’re all doomed, or something.

The original exposé was written in an attempt to decipher several years worth of online claims made by Mr. Collins.  In that, the only “claims” made in the exposé are the conclusions drawn in comparing things Ron has said to other things he’s said online. Integral to the piece was, however, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for Ron’s military records.

The documentation one receives from FOIA requests for military service members who are not related is limited at best.  The documents I received indicate that Ron Collins entered the military twice, the first period of service being for only about two months.  The logical conclusion is that he entered boot camp, either left or washed out, and then signed up again.  The FOIA documentation lists both periods of service as being with the Army.

Mr. Collins has resurfaced on YouTube with blurry, shaky video of his DD214 paperwork, which shows both his time in the Army and –surprise — his enlistment in the USMC.  However, the paperwork (insofar as we can decipher it from the hastily filmed, handheld  video) appears to show his “date entered” as 7 June, 1999, and his separation date as 11 August, 1999. These are the exact dates showing his first enlistment in the military in the FOIA documentation.

Mr. Collins also claims that the extension of service on his Army DD214 paperwork indicates that he was, in fact, “stop lossed,” and therefore he’s going to sue me for claiming, according to him, that he “was never stop lossed.”  However, the original exposé dealt with that claim only in the context of whether Mr. Collins served in Iraq.  His original claim, in an online forum, was that he was “stop-lossed” and then sent to serve in Iraq.  No record of service in Iraq is indicated on his FOIA documentation, which lists his time in the Army as being served in South Korea in a non-combat capacity. Our contention was not that his time in the service was not extended; it was that his time in the service was not extended, or that no evidence was available showing it had been extended, specifically to send him to Iraq.

To the extent that Mr. Collins’ latest video prompts us to print a correction to that long-since-removed exposé, it is that, yes indeed, Mr. Collins has now verified that he spent two months in United States Marine Corps boot camp during the summer of 1999. We therefore must correct the conclusion we drew previously from government-provided paperwork that, according to FOIA documentation, Ron Collins spent two months in United States Army boot camp during the summer of 1999.

We thank you for your service, Mr. Collins.

In the past, when buying the full-sized Pentagon, I’ve removed the belt loop attachment and affixed a Tek-Lok to the sheath.  I was pleased to see that the latest version of the Mini-Pentagon is a simple Kydex boot/belt model.  Too many knifemakers market knives with sheaths that try to please everyone.  The result is usually a sheath that does most things poorly.  Not so here.  The sheath is nice and minimal. It doesn’t try to be multifunction, although SOG does claim you could wear it as a neck knife. I think it is far too large for that.

My only complaint is that the sheath has a large shroud that protects the rubber swell that serves as an almost-guard.  That swell is large enough that I could not get a good grip on the knife.  Dremel and aviation snips in hand, I set out to correct the issue.

I trimmed, sanded, and buffed the sheath the way I do when finishing Kydex sheaths for Engines of Mayhem.  The result is this much lower-profile sheath, which allows you to get your mitt around the grip.  The only downside is that the Kydex now chews up the rubber guard-swell a bit as the knife goes in and out of the sheath.  If you’re not concerned with appearances in daily carry gear, this is not an issue, and I don’t think the guard will erode enough to change the retention of the sheath.  (If it did, I could take out my heat gun and tighten the Kydex.)

All in all, I’m satisfied with the experiment.  Give it some thought.  Never accept “good enough” when you can have “just right” in your gear.

I first saw the Zomstro when it was revealed it on the YouTube channel “ZombieGoBoomTV.” I was immediately impressed. I’ve been a fan of the Ka-Bar Zombie Killer line since it debuted a couple of years ago. Ka-Bar was one of the first, if not the first major knife company to come out with a line of tools dedicated to decapitating the walking dead. What I liked about the designs was that Ka-Bar took proven bushcraft designs and turned up the attitude.

For 2013, the company added a couple of knives to the line. More importantly, they started manufacturing the entire ZK line right here in the United States. Ka-Bar also switched from SK-5 steel to their 1095 Cro Van. To me, as a fan of their steel and heat treatment, this a big improvement.

The Zomstro is one big slab of metal. My scale puts it at 26 ounces. It has a 9.25-inch cutting edge with an over all length of  15 inches. It is supplied with Ka-Bar’s Acheron skeletonized knife, which rides in a small pouch in the sheath. You also get a zombie knife patch and some cord.

The factory sheath is one of the most functional offered by any manufacturer. It has MOLLE attachment points along the back and a large pouch in the front. Be advised that the wide blade of the Zomstro has a tendency to slice into one of the retaining straps as the blade enters and exits the sheath.  This issue can be resolved by simply removing the affected strap (which the knife will do for you eventually). While the Zomstro is not as sharp out of the box as some other Ka-Bar blades, it still has a very usable factory edge.

I really like the way this knife handles and the way it cuts. It swings naturally. I used it to clear some light vegetation,  chop some downed branches into kindling, and cut through a few 1″x4″ boards that I had laying around. The boards were old and pretty hard oak. The Zomstro went through them easily enough in about 8-10 chops. It cut through some one-inch tree roots in one whack.

The blade shape is very interesting. A traditional cleaver is usually totally flat or curved like an axe blade. This knife has what I’ll call, for lack of a better term, a guillotine shaped blade. At full arm extension, the farthest part of the edge is roughly in line with your elbow, allowing for a good transfer of force and excellent penetration of the tip. If you hit farther back on the blade, as you pull through the cut, it compresses the target and runs it against the edge. Having an oblique blade allows you to swing straight, but still get the benefits of a diagonal or draw cut.

After about an hour of yard work and chopping up whatever was handy, the blade was just as sharp as when I received it. I twisted it out of the wood a few times on purpose and never had the tip of the edge bend or warp. Obviously, you could probably baton the hell out this knife, but I did not bother to test that out.

I even used the Zomstro to cut up a few two-liter bottles full of water. It zipped right through them in one shot. It wasn’t really much of a work out for a beefy blade like this (the name of which, between you and me, I really hate), but the exercise gave me a really good feel for the knife.  I can’t wait to get off the beaten path and really put the Zomstro to work. Of course, should any ghouls cross my path, I know my new blade will be up to the task of putting them back in the ground.

Such was the case with the Pinkerton Wharning.  I like this design.  I like the handle materials.  I like the ergonomics. I like everything about the knife, including its low price tag.  The problem is that this low price tag comes with perhaps a greater risk of variability in quality control.  This was immediately apparent when the knife failed after only a week of moderate use.

Let me state at the outset that The Martialist employs several product testers.  One of these works at a trucking company and uses his knives for work on a regular basis.  Knives that return from his cruel ministrations have clearly been used for everything from prying and digging to cutting metal cargo straps and everything in between.  This was not the case with the Wharning.  I gave him the knife and he used it for light utility chores for most of a week.

Then it failed.

That’s right.  The knife was not adjusted in any way; the pivot had not been touched, nor was the knife abused or torqued.  The blade was opened using normal thumb pressure on the thumb stud… whereupon the the blade locked open and stayed that way with the liner lock engaging the opposite side of the blade tang.

This created a dangerous situation.  The knife initially jammed open.  (It was not possible to close it without taking it apart.)  Torquing the jammed knife to either side (as you might in using the blade for some work task, unaware that it was jammed open) eventually caused the blade to collapse. If you were distracted by the task at hand and expecting your one-hand-opening folding knife to operate as advertised, you could be surprised and cut either by trying to close the jammed knife, or when the blade folded on your fingers unexpectedly.

Subsequent tinkering with the knife showed that the error was reproducible.  The knife eventually started jamming every time it was opened under normal thumb pressure.  A screwdriver was used to pry the liner back to the correct (left) side of the blade tang, and each subsequent opening resulted in the same jam condition.

I sent e-mail to Meyerco asking them about the failure, and providing the images you see here, on 17 December, 2012.  A couple of days later I phoned to see if anyone had seen my e-mail.  I was told that the regular service person was out and given instructions for mailing my knife back to Meyerco.  On 22 December I wrote again to confirm that I had shipped the knife.  I also asked if anyone there had seen my original e-mail, as it detailed what is about the most serious lock failure you can experience in a liner-lock folding knife.

I received a reply on 2 January, 2013:

We have received your knife for repair. We have been closed for the
holiday’s and inventory. We will be getting to warranty/ repair issues as
soon as possible. Thank you for your patience in the matter.

Six weeks after my initial query, on 5 February, I received in the mail what appears to be a replacement Meyerco folder.  The knife shipped in a padded envelope in a box that was crushed in shipping.  I don’t believe this is the original knife, although I could be wrong.  It appears to be a brand new replacement with a nicely sharp factory edge.  No explanatory paperwork was provided, nor any description of what might have been done to repair the knife (which would not apply if this is, in fact, a replacement).

The Wharning has G-10 handles, a stainless steel Wharncliffe-pattern blade coated in “black non-glare finish,” dual thumb studs, and a removable pocket clip suitable for right-hand, tip-up carry only.  The G-10 handle slabs are comfortable and provide good traction. The serrations cut in the spine provide good purchase for the thumb, too. At seven inches overall, the Wharning is a good size for general carry, utility, and self-defense — which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

The factory edge is razor-sharp.  The knife snaps open with authority when you nudge the thumb stud, thanks to an extremely powerful assist-spring (it’s a coil spring visible when you peer between the liners).  My first thought, in fact, was that this spring is so powerful it might have caused the blade to lodge past the tang when the knife failed.  I have a Meyerco Jeff Hall Yakuza assisted opener by Meyerco that has had no opening problems (and in truth the Wharning is the first Meyerco folder I have owned that failed like this), but its spring is not as powerful as that of the Wharning. There is no vertical play, and only slight lateral play (it is almost imperceptible) when the replacement knife is locked open.

The pocket clip is affixed with three Torx screws.  My replacement knife’s clip had good tension out of the box and does not shift in place. As already stated, are no other holes for mounting the clip in any orientation but right-hand, tip-up. The scallop for the liner provides a sort of integral guard, but would not stop the blade from cutting your index finger if the knife foldedin a forward grip.

I find the Wharning very comfortable in my palm.  The rounded butt fits nicely in my mitt and, with my thumb on the spine, I can control the tip nicely for fine work.  The Wharncliffe blade is easily resharpened because it has no curve.  You sacrifice belly for slicing, but the knife tapers to a needle tip and is very well suited to puncturing, shaving, and scoring.  It would certainly function reasonably if employed for self-defense.  It would not produce efficient slashes, but it is an excellent stabbing, thrusting tool that also cuts.

Out of the box I’ve opened my replacement knife repeatedly.  I have not yet reproduced the failure, but I also have not used the knife for more than a day as of this writing. As this is a good design for a general purpose tactical folder, I am hopeful I will not see the error again.

Meyerco deserves credit for honoring its limited “forever warranty” without question.  I wish they had commented on my detailed description of the failure, however.  I had to pay to ship my knife to the company and was told I would need to pay extra if I wanted the return shipment insured, but I got the shipment without difficulty and nothing went wrong with the process. I cannot criticize Meyerco’s warranty fulfillment in any way.

It would have been nice to be reassured by Meyerco as to the nature of the original problem, but given that the new knife arrived, that seems to me an unspoken statement in support of, and standing behind, their product.  I will also say that I am not less likely to buy a Meyerco folding knife in the future. I like the company’s products and am a fan of the major knifemakers who collaborate with Meyerco to produce its line.  Quality control issues can occur in any product, especially a liner lock, which is more prone not to work than some other lock designs.

In answering my consumer query, the company has done what is necessary per its stated company policies. That can’t be taken for granted in today’s business climate.

Rod is also a martial artist, having trained since he was a kid. Over the past decade, he has focused entirely on Reality Based Self-Defense and scenario-based training. It is because of this training that he believes a self-defense knife must be usable while in an adrenalized state, when one’s gross motor skills are one’s only reliable method of employing technique. Further, Rod contends that the failure rate for drawing and deploying a folder during simulated assault at full speed and resistance is extremely high — close to 100 percent.

“My training partners and I began experimenting with a variety of small fixed blade knives carried in different ways,” he says. “We found that the most reliable knives to successfully access and deploy under stress were firmly fixed to the body in a way that would not change as your body shifted, attached somewhere near or around the waistline, featured a handle that could be quickly indexed using gross motor skills, and incorporated a hole or holes in the handle, which decreased the chance of accidentally dropping the knife.”

Rod subsequently modified the carry systems for a number of knives that featured a hole in the handle. He also experimented with cutting or adding material to handles to improve retention and general hand-to-knife ergonomics. Then he began mocking up his own designs from polymer. The result was the Talon Knife company, which features products inspired by the HideAway Knife, the CRKT Bear Claw, the Brous Silent Soldier, and the Benchmade 7 Safety Tool.

The Talon

The Talon sample submitted to The Martialist shipped with a Kydex sheath, a clip assembly (which can be attached to the sheath to keep it in your pocket for a pocket-draw), a breakaway bead chain, two zip-ties (for attaching the sheath to MOLLE straps or wherever else you wish to put it) and several pieces of paracord wrap (designated as extras).  All of these items were contained in a black velvet bag.  Also included was an instruction manual.

My Talon shipped with only a moderately honed edge, but it touched up nicely with a diamond rod. The subtle recurve edge is about 1-3/4 inches long and features a very nice set of thumb grooves that bite well for traction.  The steel is 1.4116 (X45CrMoV15), Rockwell hardened to 59-60.

Both the knife and the Kydex sheath — which is absolutely no larger than it needs to be (a nice touch) seem to be well executed, with good attention to fit and finish. The Talon seats positively in the sheath with a little bit of wobble (not enough to rattle) and draws easily into a two-finger grip.  The size shipped to me was the largest of the 5 offered by Talon; it barely fits my sausage-sized index and middle fingers.  The elongated tail braces against the underside of my ring finger and helps stabilize the knife in the hand.

The size of the Talon means you barely know it’s there.  It handles quickly and can do serious damage to an adversary in very little time, becoming an extension of the hand while leaving you the use of most of your fingers. The thoughtful extras provided with the knife also make it easy to adapt it to a variety of carry platforms.  That’s the name of the game when it comes to a self-defense blade like this.

Controversies and Challenges

Talon knives are made in China by the same factory that produces a line of knives for a major American sporting knife manufacturer. The product line consists of 5 different handle sizes to accommodate most users’ finger measurements. Knives are retailed through the company website right now, but Rod is currently exploring relationships with a number of online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

The appearance of the Talon immediately drew comparisons to other knives on the market, some of them quite unfavorable. Most notably, the Talon has been called a “rip-off” of the HideAway design — a design of which Rod says he was aware when the Talon was created.

“In our opinion, HideAway makes excellent knives,” Rod says. “Their high-end models feature custom workmanship and proprietary steel choices. I would encourage anyone who is interested in a truly custom made, two-finger EDC knife to check them out. I personally own a number of Hideaway knives and enjoy carrying and using them.”

Rod believes the Talon differs significantly, however, in several ways. The handle design extends to include the ring finger and reduce torsion during cutting, he explains, while the Talon incorporates a different, more aggressive thumb position (and jimping). The blade-to-hand geometry is also different, he says, and he believes the Talon’s sheath is of a superior design.

“Anyone who frequents the many knife forums is familiar with the fact that knives that are extremely similar in design are preferred by different users — sometimes to the point of fanaticism,” Rod says. “Pick up a Talon and it feels different in the hand than the Hideaway. When it boils right down to it, isn’t that the reason why most of us choose one particular knife over another?”

William Ericson of HideAway Knife disagrees. “I hate it when someone rips off my designs and produces them in China to sell here in the USA,” he says. “Some of my customers do not realize they are buying a ripoff of my designs. [Talon] sells 5 sizes — eliminating inventory cost — but not achieving perfect fit for all, so the odd fingers lose.”

The problem goes beyond similar blades like the Talon and extends to outright counterfeits, William explains. “On some sites, even my FS trademark is copied exactly. I understand capitalism — so I will offer a 5-sized identical model to any ripoff at half the prevailing rip-off cost.”

Ericson even threatens to undercut his competitors. “My customers advise me not to produce a competing model to a rip-off in China,” he says, “but I think that might be required to drive the profit levels to the point where there is no profit for these folks.”

Rod Freeman sees the label “rip-off” differently. “It is an accusation that is thrown around liberally in virtually every aspect of manufacturing today,” he says. “The first maker to incorporate a single finger hole in the handle of a small fixed blade knife was, to the best of my knowledge, Fred Perrin. Subsequently, a large number of makers and manufacturers have produced small, minimalist knife designs that incorporate a single finger hole in the handle… It isn’t until you pick each of them up and put them in your hand that you realize their distinct differences.”

The Future

While there aren’t currently many knives like the HideAway or the Talon incorporating a double finger hole design, Rod asserts, there will almost certainly be more in the future. He contends that with fixed blades — one of the first tools produced in human history – form follows function. “We hope that other makers and manufacturers continue to build on our existing knife designs,” he says, “to continually improve on what is available in the marketplace.”

As for the future of Talon, Rod says he will continue to make unique, affordable, and high-quality EDC knives for the general public. Some of his plans include a “Lady Talon” model designed specifically for female customers, and (possibly) a replaceable utility-blade version of the Talon. “We are continually experimenting with alternative knife designs based on user feedback,” he says.

At some point, the company appeared to change hands. Rumors of difficulty fulfilling orders followed. In the ensuing years, no single knife company has figured more prominently in queries to The Martialist. The questions were invariably the same: Who runs the company? What is its status? Are they still making knives? Should I place an order?

Recently, a proliferation of copies of the HAK, or knives that are at the very least inspired by the design, have renewed interest in the original HAK. In an effort to get, finally, the definitive word on this company, The Martialist tracked down and interviewed the man behind the business.  He is William Ericson of Orlando, Florida.

As it turns out, William (whose Yahoo handle is “artemisweapons,” and who can be reached through that address) does return phone calls if those requests are made through his e-mail. As a one-man shop, he is exceptionally busy. When we prompted him, however, he had quite a bit to say about the past — and the future — of the Hideway Knife and Artemis Defense Systems.

The Origins of the HAK

As William tells the story, he incorporated Artemis Defense Systems, Inc. in 2003 as a Delaware corporation. He has always been its CEO and Chairman of the Board. A young lady using the Internet handle “FrontSight9mm” created the first wooden model of the HideAway Knife. From the first days of the company, she was in charge of all public communications, publicity, and e-mails for customer service. She was, in effect, the public face of the company. Behind the scenes, William did the knife design CAD, maintained databases and websites, and saw to shipping accessories as well as sheathing and knife production.

“Initially we water jetted blanks that went through a series of process steps,” William explains. “[This included] heat treat, double disk grinding, tumbling, chamfering of sheath retention holes… to arrive at blanks ready for final grind and sharpening by custom artists.”

Those custom artists were a fairly impressive group. They included such notable knifemakers as Mick Strider, Ken Brock, Mickey Yurco, Rob Simonich, Jerry Hossum, Joe Brum, Peter Atwood, Matt Cucchiara, Charles Marlow, Justin Gingrich, Ken Onion, Tom Anderson, Bill Harsey, James Coogler, Tom Krien, Krien-Atwood, Kathleen Tomey and several others, some of whom declined to be named. “Knives were made to order based on reservations,” William says, “by sending prepared blanks to the specific requested artists. In 2004 Ken Brock was a very significant contributor with about 450 knives from his ballpark 800 HideAway total. Mick Strider was also a significant volume producer with about 800 total knives.”

Problems Arise

Unfortunately for William and Artemis Defense Systems, it quickly became clear that demand for the HAK was going to outstrip the capacity of the company’s various contributor artists to finish and ship. Problems began to arise because website customers could not tell the difference between a knife that was paid for and awaiting completion, and a knife reservation representing someone who had been placed on a waiting list prior to payment. “People get very mad when they want to buy something and they cannot,” William points out.

To solve the problem, he sought to automate the process. Waterjets, double disk grinders, numerical control knife grinders, numerical control milling machines — William had the daunting task before him of figuring out how to use all of these. This introduced more controversy to the process: How collectible and rare will the knife be, versus how many people will be able to buy it, versus what will quality control look like? Automating the process threatened to change the product and therefore demand for it.

William’s background is in computer design, with companies such as Data General, Digital Equipment, and IBM. “I have always respected the artistry of machines and automation,” he told The Martialist. “There is a natural evolution in making anything where, as demand goes up — an artist might first do everything by hand, then create a jig to hold the knife to be able to grind it faster, and etc. — until the handheld artistry gets supplemented by more and more machine assistance. That evolution has never bothered me, because I see the difficulty of having $200,000 waterjets and $150,000 NC grinders. Lots of folks want the Picasso or the Renoir — some want to see the imperfections in a hand made item, but for the most part, everyone wants to be able to buy one and no one wants to get the really imperfect one that really could have used a bit of help from a well programmed machine.”

Automation with a Personal Touch

Even as William automates production of the HAK, there are still some personal touches. “I personally sheath every HideAway in a very labor intensive process,” he explains. “I heat kydex squares and step on two plates to form each sheath half — plates that were carefully created with a numerical controlled mill and CAD CAM software to achieve the perfect snap fit. The same plates that I step on to form a sheath half are used to drill the sheath rivet holes, and then the riveted sheath has its outline ground by a numerical controlled mill. The sheaths are hand flashed, drilled for sheath sticks, and blown out and oiled with baby oil. I still do this as a hold out to the personal touch even though an injection molding machine could do the process much more efficiently.”

Kydex sheath blanks awaiting pressing.

Insisting on doing the sheaths by hand limits William’s production to about 100 sheaths per day. These days, every single Hideway Knife is manufactured in Orlando by William Ericson. The company is, as they say, a “going concern.” But what of the problems with order fulfillment?

“In the 2004 and 2005 period,” William admits, “orders were so far beyond any artist’s capacity that people were getting mad at the delays for unpaid but reserved knives. Worse, FrontSight was confronting the demands placed on her by aging, dying parents, and we both had other full time jobs that were demanding — so her ability to type at beyond-human speeds diminished, but she kept her grip on being the exclusive face of HideAway. Orders for artists were not getting communicated and I did not know it.”

The reality of the problem came home to William when FrontSight, suffering from health issues and overwhelmed by the other demands on her time, turned over an amazing six thousand e-mail backlog, saying simply, “I cannot do this anymore.”

“All of a sudden,” says William, “HideAway was one person instead of two.”

More Troubles Arise

The problems didn’t stop there. FrontSight had created some pictures for a website by maker Ken Brock, a site for which William had created the code and database. When Ken needed support for the site, that need was not communicated through FS to William.

“I am sure that must have angered him,” says William. There was yet another issue, too, involving the woman who until then had been the public face of the company. To that point, FrontSight had guarded her identity very closely (so closely that to this day, very few people know here full name).William sees that mystery as yielding diminishing returns. “All of these artists wanted to meet the mysterious FS whose net presence was so commanding for a few years,” he explains. “A very beautiful woman, FS had undergone [some health issues that made her reluctant to go public].” The result was a public relations failure.

“Before long, the Mata Hari of the net was becoming more like the girl in the yellow polka dot bikini that was afraid to come out of the water,” says William. “These artists had no idea what she was going through. As the publicity of it taking too long to get a HideAway was growing before my volume production was kicked in, artists were fleeing in fear that bad publicity would rub off on them.”

Completed Kydex sheaths for HAK knives.

Despite the difficulties he and his company faced, William is most understanding of the other individuals involved. “I am sure they had no idea how cruel they were being to a wonderful person whose intentions were always the best,” he concludes. “I have always adored the brightest strong willed women — but I have learned that everyone will find their limits. A business can grow fast enough to overwhelm anyone. Net gossip can behave like a nest of rats. Artists not understanding the unlimited demand, fearing being associated with publicity of slowness, fled — making my production more critical. FS had designed the Badlands forums and for some time we were getting promises that after turning it over, more artist production on backlog would happen. It did not.”

In order to repair these mistakes, William implemented a process wherein HideAway Knife process steps are done in batches at a variety of machine shops across the United States. William sees this as a marked improvement on his early methods.

“In the first two years of production, HideAway blanks were each tagged with a piece number and the website software updated the status of each knife in a batch based on the step the batch was at. There were real issues with this approach. You can imagine that 50 tags on a small batch of knives would not fare so well going through the fires of hell in a Paul Boss heat treat — and with so many discreet process steps, while each knife was targeted to a specific customer, tagging and re-tagging was prohibitive eventually.”

Hand grinding also proved unpredictable. “You could not predict which knife might meet a bad fate with a slip of the grinding hand, thus altering the schedule on a knife in an instant of mishap,” William explains. “You never knew what would survive in a batch until the artists returned what they were going to return.”

The result was that the status dots and tracking the knife’s progress on the HideAway Knives website quickly became obsolete. Batches became much bigger, sometimes 3000 knives at a time, with many batches in the works at any given time.

Meeting a Growing Demand

William pegs his production capacity at 100 knives per day, matching his sheath output. “It is very bad to be out of anything,” he warns, “because that will generate an e-mail asking when it will be ready. Emails are very expensive. At 3 minutes each, 100 extra emails would be 5 hours more work a day. So I am highly motivated to have everything a person might order on the shelf. I have 11 models in 4 metals and 32 sizes — and to span a 60 day production time, I could need 200 of each. That translates into 286,000 knives running 20 to 30 million bucks at retail.”

To the extent that William is able to keep enough of all 32 HAK sizes in stock, in models and metals, things go smoothly. He cites his tiger striped straight, tiger striped cat claw, utility, and tiger claw blades as being at that point. Metals that he does not have fully stocked at this time include titanium and Damascus.

Each stage of the company’s growth has presented different challenges, William explains. His website still allows reservations, for which customers pay nothing, but that makes his double shopping cart system complex and confusing to folks who aren’t used to asking for something to be made (then having the option to purchase it later when it is done and ready to ship).

Volumes are also much larger these days, but only a small percentage of reservations pay out when the knives are ready. That means that reservations are used as aggregate suggestions for what to make next as William fills out his inventory. One day, this procedure will eliminate reservations entirely.

Given that only three percent of people who reserve knives actually pay for them when they are completed, William would be quite reasonable to do away with the feature. He says, however, that an additional ten percent of reserved knives will be paid for over the course of a year.

“That means,” he explains, “that I leave many unpaid reservations set to “may pay.” The backlog of unpaid, ship-able knives can easily exceed 2 or 3 million bucks. If a lot of folks decide to pay all at once — for reservations that have been sitting unpaid for many months or years — I could come up short, depending how many of a metal/model/size are on the shelf. Most typically, if a knife is reserved and then paid when I email that it is ready, it should ship next day. If anything goes wrong, the net feedback can be fast and can impact schedule as much as anything.”

The impact of customer complaints is not minor. A single late knife, being complained about online, could prevent the sale of a thousand knives that are ready to ship. These are the very sales that would make the delay to finish the knife a matter of weeks. Schedule, for William, is about cash flow. He produces to his financial capacity on the theory that when he finally achieves complete inventory, all schedule problems vanish.

Small Business, Big Business

William has multiple investors as of 2013, all of whom have seen their investment grow. “The 2005 period of fleeing artists was one saga,” he says. “There was one other more recently of equal significance.” He goes on to relate how Bank of America first extended to him a line of credit, then summarily withdrew that line of credit in anticipation of the recession. “I was instantly going to be on the hook for 50K of production that was never going to hit my hands until I came up with the money,” he points out. “Worse, it would destroy my reputation with suppliers if something was done and I did not pay.”

Scrambling to make up the shortfall, William experienced further setbacks when multiple affiliate sellers took his merchandise but then absconded with the sales money. He is recovering from the economic blows dealt him, but the result has slowed production and also hindered him professionally.

“Some things in business can be quite beyond your control,” he says. “You need large cash reserves to buffer against things like this. Sadly, I mostly always put my last dime into production, because the growth ramp demands it. There have been times when folks have waited for a knife they should never have had to wait for. Everyone gets their knife. My inventory value exceeds my 3% late statistic by a factor of thousands to one. But sometimes to produce that one that is missing means spending for 2000 others just like it for economy of scale purposes. That can take time.”

The future holds many great things for HideAway, as William sees it. “Initially, FrontSight and I designed HideAway to be a corporation that would get bought out by a larger knife maker that wanted to sell my unique designs,” he says. “Currently I am planning on promoting and selling my designs for a couple more decades. People love the designs — these knives make people feel safe. When you sense danger you instantly become a human velociraptor. Then, like all good horcruxes, the knives sleep in your jewel box at night along with family heirlooms, favorite treasures, and your lucky rabbit’s foot.”

He will continue despite, he says, the incursions of copycat designs and outright counterfeit HideAways manufactured in China. His inventory will also continue to place a large demand on him because of its scope. This is part of the unique nature of the HideAway, and one of the things that make the design special.

“The sized nature of the HideAway dictates that inventory will demand more cash than most knives — 32 sizes is quite a burden — but less would not fit a person perfectly,” William explains. “So having complete inventory is quite a burden. Companies, in infancy, consume cash.”

HideAway, William told The Martialist, is a company still in its infancy, but one that has come a long way. “I am well established,” he says, “but the economy of scale required to hold price will take ever larger amounts of money. As I begin to use distributors to offload effort, there will be new issues,such as design ripoffs. There are problems for every stage of growth of a company.”

I predict massive non-compliance with the new legislation.  The Martialist, however, has always been about complying with the law completely in order to increase the chances of surviving the legal aftermath of a physical altercation.  To that end, I sold my guns. I am not willing to turn over weaponry to the state, nor am I willing to let a bunch of liberals kill me for believing in the Second Amendment (a stand for which this blogger called me “the last honest patriot”).  Therefore, I cashed out on my own terms, eliminating the problem by eliminating the weapons in question.

Where does that leave martialists in New York — and those in the rest of the country, who surely will join New Yorkers to some degree when Obama implements his own sweeping gun bans?  Well, it puts us all in a non-permissive environment, to some degree.  There are still weapons we may legally possess, and there are still contexts in which we may use tools to apply force. It is in all legal venues, and on all topics that may be discussed academically without legal repercussion (and with appropriate caveat), that we will continue our study, exploration, and exposition on the topic of self-defense.

The Martialist will continue to bring you the most realistic and pragmatic self-defense advice, information, and entertainment available. We’re just going to have to do it from behind enemy lines.

The Violence Policy Center is a rabidly anti-gun political organization. Its goal is to ban and to confiscate all firearms held by private citizens in the United States. Such groups invariably claim they want “reasonable gun control,” of course, but this is a lie. Their goal has always been the banning of firearms. To this end, they routinely use false studies, incorrectly analyzed statistics, and statistical conclusions that are unsupportable by the data on which these are based — all for the purpose of using “science” to declare firearms bad and the regulation of firearms good.

The problem with such a position is that it is not supported by the facts of objective reality. Firearms in private hands routinely save more lives than they take. Law-abiding gun owners commit crime at lower rates than the general population, and when they are forced to shoot someone in self-defense, their error rate is lower than that of police officers. These are statistical facts, borne out by the work of men like Gary Kleck, John Lott, and the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.

The VPC’s video, “Proof that Concealed Carry permit holders live in a dream world,” is a clip from an ABC News story. It is an attempt, on the part of left-leaning ABC and the Violence Policy Center,to paint the very carry and use of firearms as a futile gesture. In other words, the VPC hopes to persuade you that even if it were legal to carry a firearm, you would be stupid to do so, because you are deluded into thinking you might actually effect positive change with your weapon.

The “study” is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. “Average” people — people who have no training, in other words — are brought in, given some safety glasses and a Glock sim gun, and then told to have at. The experience with firearms ranged, according to the report, from none at all to “a hundred hours” — a figure that is cited to seem impressive. But what is a hundred hours of training with a firearm? It’s less than two weeks of work days or, perhaps more realistically, just over 12 weekends spent shooting targets. That’s an amateur no matter how you look at it.

Let’s be clear: ABC took half a dozen amateurs off the street and dropped them into simunition training that most students undertake only at an advanced level. I will use myself as an example. I have held a pistol permit for 20 years. I started shooting recreationally as a teenager. I had more firearms experience than ABC’s guinea pigs when I was a freshman in college — and I still had received no formal training. It wasn’t until several years later that I sought out and received formal, qualified training from military and law enforcement personnel in close-quarters combat and force-on-force scenarios.

My experience with simunitions initially mirrored that of the students in the ABC report. That’s because using a firearm in a force-on-force scenario can be very challenging. After experience the class more than once, I felt like I was finally starting to develop a new skill — that is, competence in force-on-force scenarios. But this is a skill that takes time to develop. You can’t take a bunch of amateurs, throw a few hours of training at them, stick cameras in their faces, and then expect them to perform like action heroes. That’s both irresponsible and unrealistic.

The ABC study is also rigged. Our amateurs are surrounded by fellow students who are supposed to mess with them to “replicate the chaos” of a real-life situation. In an actual training setting, your fellow students are there to help you develop attributes you don’t yet possess. The training time is not the test; it’s the PRACTICE. In a realistic, earnest, good-faith training seminar, students would be allowed the time to build skills knowing their teachers and their fellow students were there to help them do it — not to judge them or to play an elaborate game of “gotcha.”

What the ABC study and the VPC YouTube video attempt to do, then, is “prove” that you can’t defend yourself because people who have only begun to train in self-defense (if we truly can call what ABC is doing legitimate “training”) don’t perform at the level of people who have HAD a substantive amount of training, and therefore success in self-defense is impossible. This is a lie. It’s dishonest on its face. You can’t judge a beginner by the standards of an expert. Experts are made from beginners only after time spent working on the subject matter.

What the ABC report also ignores is the statistical fact that private citizens who have NO training use their firearms two point five MILLION times each year to defend themselves, per the work of criminologist Gary Kleck. Often, merely deploying the firearm ends the altercation without a shooting. It is also undeniably, statistically true that when private citizens shoot in self-defense, they make fewer mistakes than police do. That’s because a police officer entering a situation cold doesn’t know who the players are, whereas you, the private citizen with the gun, know damned well who the good guy and the bad guy happen to be.

People who hate guns, people who fear guns, people who want to ban guns, all have one thing in common. They are helpless non-copers who do not believe they, themselves, could use a firearm in self-defense to any degree of success. They hate anyone who believes otherwise because the comparison makes them feel weak. They engage in dishonest video productions like the ABC/VPC YouTube clip because only through deceit and dishonesty can they “prove” something that isn’t actually true. More significantly, though, people who fear firearms are WEAK, and they project that weakness onto everyone else.

If a liberal can’t see himself using a gun to good effect, he certainly can’t believe you, a functioning coper firmly grounded in reality, can do better than he can. Sadly, then, it is left-wing gun banners who live in a dream world. This is because they want to foist on us, through unconstitutional legislative force, a view of the world that does not match reality. ABC and the Violence Policy Center believe that when only criminals have firearms, we will all somehow be safer. There is no more unrealistic dream world in which to live — and no worse nightmare for honest, law-abiding citizens to consider.

At “Defensive Folding Knife.” I had hair.

On 8 December, 2012, I had the privilege of attending a six-hour “Small Knife Skills” class with Chris Fry of MDTS.  What was particularly interesting about this opportunity is that I took, years ago, a previous version of the same class with Chris.  It was then called “Defensive Folding Knife.”

The class has since evolved, reflecting Chris Fry’s own training and experience.  Where once the folding knife was highly emphasized (for obvious reasons — tactical folding knives have long been the standard of personal carry and protection with blades), Chris has shifted the focus to a much more generalized platform.  Armed with anything pointed (a pen, a folding knife, a small fixed blade), the student may use the methodology imparted in “Small Knife Skills” to engage in self-defense to good effect.

When I attended Defensive Folding Knife, the class was held in the clubhouse of a shooting range in Otisco, NY.  I remember that it was extremely informative, and that Chris was as I had come to find him in all the firearms classes I took with him: knowledgeable, engaging, friendly, and above all, extremely vigilant about safety. I remember learning Chris’ STAB methodology for drawing and deploying a knife that day, too — Slap, Tuck, Access, Brace.  Chris still uses this mnemonic today.

I didn’t just lose my hair; what remained turned gray. But some things don’t change.

As before, I brought a guest with me to the class: my sister-in-law, a beginner in knife combatives and through whose eyes I was able to watch the class with a fresh perspective. This time, though, the seminar was held in the beautiful facility that is AR15.com‘s headquarters in Farmington, New York.  I have lived in New York all my life and been aware of Arfcom for many years… and had no idea its HQ was practically in my back yard.

The class began with a lecture component, in which Chris covered the conceptual framework for self-defense, preparedness,  and what he called the “modern personal protection problem” of close quarters combat with tool-using assailants who may or may not present themselves in numbers.  Along the way, Chris dispelled several myths about criminal assault while framing that problem.  Specifically, he emphasized that criminals don’t care what skill level the defender has.  They are focused on getting close to you and delivering their planned assault while avoiding injury and capture.

Chris explained the justifiable use of lethal force, including the legal concept that an attacker must have ability, opportunity, and intent to deliver potentially lethal force before you may use lethal force against him — and then only if all other options (castle doctrine notwithstanding) have been precluded. He discussed the context of deploying using an edged weapon and broke it down into six simple components: dropping your weight, using a default defense (the mechanics of which he demonstrated and which students tested), driving into the assailant, moving into a position of dominance and escaping to a more favorable position (whereupon the timing necessary to deploy and apply the knife comes into play).

The STAB method was review, for me, and I remembered this part of the previous class quite well.  The idea is to make sure you can identify precisely where the folding knife sits in the pocket while, from a stable platform, you get a firm grip on it and protect it against your body with your knife side forward (for greater reach).  Only once braced is the knife opened.

Of course, all of this becomes moot when using a fixed blade, which can be more quickly drawn and more easily used.  Chris is an enthusiastic advocate of small fixed-blade carry and, after pressure testing the techniques taught in group exchanges, the advantage of a small fixed blade over a folder is only too apparent.  Still, the mechanics of the folding knife are part of the class, for many of us will continue to carry and use tactical folding knives from habit and for greater social acceptance.

All firearms and live blades were removed from the training area prior to class.  This is the attention to safety that I have come to expect from Chris.  All participants were frisked to make sure no one forgot anything that might endanger a classmate.

Students practiced accessing the folding knife (using folding metal drones) while dealing with an incoming “attacker.”  They were also given a simple set of targets: the face, particularly the eyes, and the “fork” between the legs.  The grips used were a simple forward and reverse with the thumb closed (a “caveman” grip).  Footwork was kept simple but included quartering (in quartata).  Strikes were limited to simple thrusts, hooks, and backhand slashes.  Forward slashes were discouraged because this opened up the student’s defensive posture.  Underhooks, overhooks, and a few other simple methods were also taught, for use when clinched up with an attacker and fighting for a better position from which to draw the knife.

The lion’s share of the class was devoted to working with these mechanics against resisting opponents — namely, our fellow students.  Burning too much energy in one exchange quickly produced many groans and wheezes during subsequent exchanges.  Eye protection was required and face masks were offered. Those students who used full face protection went that much harder at the goal of getting an “attacker” off them and keeping that attacker at bay by stabbing that attacker in the face and eyes.

The rest of the class, then, was a blur of different drill permutations, as class members worked footwork, scenarios, timing, and ranging their attacks.  The training knives used were the excellent hard foam trainers by Nok Hodges of “Amok!”.  While this meant there were no major injuries, the trainers hit hard enough to cause pain when taking repeated stabs and slashes to the limbs.  In my case, one of them even drew blood from the back of my hand during a particularly spirited exchange (after which my training partner admitted he was thinking of “going for the door” as I went at him).

The best gauge of the class and Chris’ efficacy as an instructor was my sister-in-law’s reaction.  She absolutely loved the class and was extremely pleased with the practical methods and foundation knowledge presented.  I have harangued her at length about my opinions concerning self-defense, but it was only after this class that she said to me, “I finally understand what you’re always talking about.”  That is a testament to Chris’ teaching abilities and ample evidence of the seminar’s validity.

Chris Fry and MDTS occupy the top tier of reality-based training available in New York State.  If you are ever presented with the opportunity to train with him, I urge you to do so.  It just may, as it has in my case more than once, save your life.  At the very least it will leave you competently prepared for something we all know is a possibility but which we hope we’ll never encounter: a real-life self-defense situation.

]]> http://themartialist.net/?feed=rss2&p=2418 1 http://themartialist.net/?p=2387 http://themartialist.net/?p=2387#comments Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:58:24 +0000 Phil Elmore http://themartialist.net/?p=2387 Over the years I’ve made no secret of my affinity for self-defense canes. One of the manufacturers of my favorite canes, Charles Davis, offers something related, and of which I was reminded early this morning. I went out to my Corvette to fire up the old girl for the commute into work when I discovered that the temperature had dipped well below freezing. It’s winter, officially, here in Central New York. That means it’s snow brush and ice-scraper season. My preferred ice scraper is my Charles Davis Escrima Scraper, shown here.

The Escrima Scraper is just what you think it is: a sturdy 1-1/16 inch diameter, 28-inch long, fire-hardened rattan stick, inserted in a custom machined (and extremely sturdy) block of solid acrylic plastic. Whether the Escrima Scraper would pass inspection by a law enforcement officer is debatable. I think it would depend on the context of the stop and on your conduct prior to discovery of the implement. For my part, however, I carry the Escrima Scraper in my car without fear that it will get me into much trouble.

The heavy acrylic block is incredibly sharp. It scrapes well (although perhaps less well than a slightly flexible scraper, because it has no curve and does not conform at all to the surface of the windshield). It excels in scraping the more vertical side windows of the ‘Vette, for example.

More importantly, that block of acrylic plastic transforms the Escrima Scraper into something like an axe when used defensively.  It hits HARD and cuts deep.  It is not so heavy as to be unwieldy, but it lends enough extra heft that hammering and hacking away with it is very natural.  I’ve no idea just how well the rattan handle is affixed inside the acrylic, but so far I have not managed to dislodge it.

You can use the Escrima Scraper for more traditional FMA/Arnis -type stick work, too, but given how top heavy the scraper is, you’ll want to reverse it and keep the scraper below your hand (where it will deliver ruinous punyo strikes).  Held in this manner I don’t notice the extra weight at one end, and the entire stick feels very steady in my mitt.

Any weapon that can double as a utility tool and perhaps even pass for one is worth considering. In this case, adding the ice scraper to a rattan fighting stick makes the resulting combination more useful for striking.  That’s rare in a combination weapon, because trying to do more than one thing well usually results in doing both things less efficiently.

Purchase the Escrima Scraper here, and be sure to tell them The Martialist sent you.