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Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.
Carrying and Concealing Knives
By Phil Elmore
WARNING!
Knife training is an inherently dangerous activity.
The Martialist disclaims any liability resulting
from injuries sustained while training using any concepts contained
herein.
Check and obey all applicable laws
regarding the carry and concealment of knives and all other forms of
weaponry. The Martialist disclaims
all liability arising from the legal repercussions of carrying or concealing
any knife.
A self-defense knife can be carried and concealed on
your person in countless ways. Some types of knives are better
suited to certain modes of carry than others. Your body type and
size may also play a role in what you can carry comfortably. For
example, you cannot carry a full-sized hunting knife around your neck.
You also cannot comfortably carry a knife inside your waistband at the
front if you have a protruding stomach. These are the types of
individual-specific concerns that make each person’s needs different.
The two most important factors that must be
considered in carrying a knife are comfort
and concealment. Will the knife
cause you physical difficulty or irritation? Must it be visible to
be in compliance with the law? If you are permitted to carry it
concealed, will you choose to do so? If so, how? Does the
method of carry you have selected completely conceal the knife, or will
the knife show itself at inopportune moments?
Many of the modes of carry I will list here could be
“open” carry — visible to all — or concealed carry depending on the
garments worn over them. The task is yours to determine what works
best for you and what is most legal where you live and operate. This
article focuses on the major methods for carrying a knife, but there are
other means I have not listed. Do your homework and don’t be afraid
to explore unconventional options.
In the article on knife fighting I touched briefly
on this topic, but I will again recommend Michael Janich’s
Street Steel: Choosing and Carrying Self-Defense Knives.
Another useful book is Andy Puzyr’s
Concealed Carry Revealed. Jerry Ahern’s
CCW book has some material on knives as well.
POCKET CARRY
Any knife small enough to be placed in a pocket can
be carried there, though a knife at the bottom of a pocket is slow to
retrieve. One way to do this properly is to carry the knife in your
back pocket (flat against the bottom of the pocket), oriented so it will
be facing the correct direction when you reach in and grab it. Try
this a few times to make sure your draw is consistent and the knife is
“right side up,” whichever side is “right” for you.
A better option (in terms of access to the knife) is
to choose a
tactical folder and
clip it to your right front pocket
(assuming you are right-handed). If you carry a knife clipped to
your pocket, do not carry anything else in that pocket. Items in the
pocket could interfere with grasping and deploying the knife. Loose
change could scratch the blade, too, if you care about such things.
A knife carried clipped to the pocket is fairly
discreet, though anyone aware of such knives will know immediately that
you have one when they see the clip. Make sure you check your local
laws to see if this mode of carry constitutes “concealing” a knife — and
find out, if you can, whether this is legal.
POCKET KNIFE LIABILITY?
A reader of the original version of
this article opined that a police officer told him that carrying a
folder clipped to the pocket was a liability. He cautioned that
someone with whom you come into conflict will see the clip, know you
have a knife, and could conceivably claim you pulled it and brandished
it in the absence of witnesses, thus causing you difficulty.Such a person might even have such
an overwhelming knowledge of knives that he or she could describe your
knife in exquisite detail, thus proving to the officer beyond a doubt
that he or she was telling the truth, while you are a
bloodthirsty Rambophile bent on flaying alive the neighbors and their
pets.Well, defeatist scenarios of this
type are easy to construct. It is up to you to weigh the risks
versus the benefits. (One wonders why, when building these
hypothetical situations, the builders are so eager to assign to all
opponents a level of knowledge and skill that is always vastly
superior to your own.)Be careful, do your best to stay
within the law, and be aware those who mean you harm may also lie to
the police about you. Your demeanor and your ability to
communicate with law enforcement officers will be important factors.
Treat LEOs with respect and conduct yourself in a polite and positive
manner.
BELT CARRY
Belt carry is very common and can be done in several
ways. Large fixed-blade “sheath knives” can be
worn openly on a belt, though
this attracts a great deal of attention. It’s certainly a simple
method. I’ve seen people wear belt knives openly like this when
hunting, while visiting gun shops, and in a particularly bad neighborhood
in my city.
I have also seen straight knives of this type —
what we would typically consider hunting knives — worn on the belt over a
back pocket. The sheath is tucked inside the pocket and some sort of
concealing garment is worn to cover the portion of the knife protruding
from the pocket. I spotted this mode of carry in a Thruway rest-stop
restaurant, once. The fellow carrying the knife was wearing a vest,
much like one you’d wear with a three-piece-suit. The vest was
caught on the handle of the knife, exposing it.
Small fixed blades may be worn in horizontal belt
sheaths. There are a number of special harnesses and holsters for
fixed blades, including rigs that imitate the “Crocodile Dundee”
across-the-back position for large knives.
Folding knives can also be carried in belt sheaths.
The two most basic types are the vertical sheath and horizontal sheath.
Vertical belt sheath (left)
and horizontal sheath (right),
both of Nylon with Velcro patches sewn onto the flaps.
Belt sheaths for folding knives are also commonly
made of leather with snap closures on the flaps. Some prefer to
carry vertical leather belt sheaths upside down, in what is called
the “upside-down dump” position, because releasing the closure allows the
knife to fall free into the hand. I don’t recommend this method
because it’s too easy for the knife to end up falling out and getting
lost.
IWB CARRY
There
are a lot of knives on the market advertised as “boot/belt” knives.
This is because they are fixed blades with
sheaths bearing metal spring
clips. Such a sheath can indeed be secured inside a boot, but a
blade carried in this manner is a deep-cover backup only. (It simply
cannot be reached quickly enough in case it is needed.) The best use
of sheaths of this type is as IWB (inside (the) waistband)
carry systems.
I prefer IWB carry over other methods for small to
medium fixed blades. It is fast in deployment, secure, concealable
(under the appropriate clothing), and simple.
The two best places for carrying a knife inside the
waistband are the “appendix” carry — basically in the front of your
beltline off to the side — and behind the hip. Some carry IWB
knives directly over the small of the back (pistols are carried in this
manner too), but I don’t recommend this. Avoid placing a hard object
directly over your spine. You could fall on it.
Tactical folders (or any knife with a
built-in clip) can be clipped inside the waistband without sheaths.
For those who like to keep their pockets uncluttered with folding blades,
this is a good option.
SHOULDER HARNESSES
Shoulder
harnesses are normally used for fixed blades. Such harnesses
generally consist of an elastic loop or strap that fits over the right arm
(assuming you are right-handed), while a strap connected to the knife
sheath runs behind the neck or across the back and over the left arm.
The knife is thus positioned more or less under the left arm, as would be
a shoulder holster for a firearm. Some shoulder harnesses place the
knife more on the chest than under the arm, but the idea is the same.
I’ve heard it said that you should avoid shoulder
harnesses because the motion of drawing your knife could be seen as the
motion of drawing a pistol, escalating the situation and possibly getting
you shot. I don’t see this as the issue. If you’re drawing a
fixed blade knife from concealment you’re planning on applying potentially
lethal force anyway. No, you should avoid shoulder harnesses for
knives for the same reason you should avoid them for pistols: they
are difficult to conceal unless you’re dressed for Winter.
Expedient shoulder harnesses, particularly for very
large knives, can be made using the thigh tie-down straps that come on
many fixed blade sheaths. By threading the knife through the belt
upside down and then using the tie-down as a shoulder loop, you can mount
the knife under your arm. More cord tied to the thigh strap and
looped over the opposite arm secures the rig, but the whole affair isn’t
very comfortable.
FOREARM SHEATHS
I am not a big fan of forearm sheaths. I have
seen ordinary sheath knives
strapped to
forearms using Ace bandages, tape, and rubber bands. There are
also plenty of forearm rigs on
the market, usually packaged with inexpensive self-defense blades.
In all cases, though, the basic logistics are problematic. If the
knife is concealed properly, it is too buried under clothing to be
accessible. If it is accessible, it is probably going to become
visible at precisely the wrong time.
“Fury” triangular
self-defense tool and Nylon sheath.
The Velcro-bearing forearm straps are elastic.
NECK KNIVES
Neck knives solve a variety of
problems. If you don’t have a pocket in which to carry your knife,
and you don’t want to carry your knife clipped inside your waistband, you
can always sling it around your neck on a chain or cord.
Blackie Collins
“Buddy System”
neck knife.
Worn under a shirt, a neck
knife is very well concealed. If the strap is visible, those around
you will assume it is part of a pendant of some kind.
Simple neck knife.
Neck knives have certain limitations
dictated by their position on the body. A neck knife cannot be too
heavy or it will hurt your neck.
It cannot be too long or it will “print” against your shirt,
especially when you sit down or if you have a less-than-flat stomach.
It must be relatively rustproof, as it will be exposed to your
perspiration when worn under the shirt. It generally will
have to be worn under the shirt, too, unless you don’t mind displaying to
the world that you have a knife around your neck.
Drawing the neck knife with
the right hand.
The knife must be positioned for a proper
draw — in this case, with the blade edge
pointed to the left side of the body.
Drawing a neck knife worn under the
shirt presents a few minor challenges. You must either haul the
knife up on its cord and out of the neckline of your shirt, or untuck the
shirt to reach in and grab the knife from below. If you are wearing
a button-down shirt you can
pull the
buttons apart and reach in to grasp the knife, though if you do this
under stress you’ll end up looking for a needle and thread when it’s over.
Neck knives are, given these limitations, very small.
If you wish to carry a large knife, neck carry probably won’t suit you.
STATIC CORD
Some knife sheaths are specifically
designed for static cord draw, while others are simply neck knives adapted
for this mode of carry. The static cord carry involves looping a
cord or chain connected to the sheath — in the examples shown here, this
is the neck cord of a neck knife — to the belt. The knife is then
placed in a back pocket.
Drawing a static-cord-carried knife is
easy. Reaching back, you pull the knife from the pocket still in its
sheath. When the cord is pulled taught, the knife is pulled free,
leaving the sheath dangling from your belt and the knife deployed in your
hand. When using this method, experiment with different cord lengths
until you find the one that works best for you.
Static cord carry (left)
being deployed (right).
CONCLUSION
Finding the legal mode of
carry that works for you can be challenging, but it does not have to be
unpleasant. Experiment with what you find most comfortable and
easiest to use, carefully weighing all the factors relevant to your
decision. Like any person who owns guns or knives, you will
accumulate a drawer full of carry systems and sheaths that seemed like a
great idea but didn’t work out in practice. Don’t be discouraged by
this.
It happens
to all of us.