A koppo is a pocket stick bearing a finger loop for your middle and ring fingers. When your fingers are threaded through the loop, you can open your hand without dropping the stick. This is an extremely useful feature in a handheld tool, as it aids in retention while facilitating digital manipulation for grabs and such. The pocket stick itself, obviously, is a striking tool. It is more rigid than your hand’s bones and it does not feel pain. It focuses the force of your strikes into a smaller area, which means that, by simple physics, it enables you to strike harder.
The koppo-wrapped flashlight is a versatile self-defense tool.
In a society that grows more hostile to self-defense every day, even a pocket stick can get you in trouble in some venues. Increasingly, citizens knowledgeable in self-defense are turning to flashlights that can be used as striking and pressure point implements. One of the most common (and least expensive) is the basic AA Mini Maglite, the length and diameter of which is similar to many pocket sticks.
Using the koppo wrap, you can turn any cylindrical object into a koppo without drilling holes or making other permanent modifications. All you’ll need is a length of paracord, something to trim the cord, and a source of flame to seal the ends of the cord.
I usually cut a length of cord about six or seven feet, leaving plenty of excess. Take the cord and make a loop at one end. Place the loop near the border where the wrap will be on the body of your flashlight or pocket stick.
At the opposite border, leave a few inches that will stick out underneath the wrap at that end. Take the lion’s share of the paracord and start looping it around the body of the light or stick.
You’re going to work your way slowly up the body in a tight spiral until you get to the loop you made at the first border. The trick is that you’ve got to get the loops as tight as possible or the wrap will be a mess (and probably too loose at one end). If your hands hurt while you do this, you’re probably pulling the loops properly tight.
When you get to the loop at the end, feed the cord under and through the loop and pull it taut. Now grasp both ends of cord at either end of your light or stick and pull with all your might to cinch everything up. Be careful to keep the cord loops lined up as you do this.
The loop you made first should tighten up to constrict the long end, while – if you did this right – the cord bordering the shorter excess end will be tight too.
You’ve done the hard part. Now you just size the loop to fit you, tie it off, and trim the ends. Burn the knot to seal it and you’re good to go.
Adding a finger loop to a mundane object makes it a more versatile improvised self-defense tool. You can also wrap these as keychains. I have a tutorial about it over at Engines of Mayhem.