Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives: A Practical and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting (9 page)

Attack at the hand from a high position, cutting downward, then dropping the wrist and flicking the knife around to cut from the inside.

But when your opponent has a longer knife, he can always stay out of your range while working on your hands. As I said, you have a problem.

When you have the shorter knife, reverse your stance to protect your knife hand, then move in close and attack quickly, aiming to incapacitate.

Virtually the only way to deal with the situation is to reverse your stance, with your left foot forward. The rule is to protect your knife hand. You may have to take some cuts on the left arm, but the fighting arm has to be protected.

As your opponent attacks, attempt to fend him off with the left hand and counter-cut with your knife.
This is a high risk maneuver
, but if it works, you can make your move. Nothing tricky, nothing special, no big secret. You just leap forward, trying to close with him as quickly as you can. If you can land on one of his feet, so much the better. Not to break his instep, but to throw him off balance and prevent retreat. As you close, cut and stab in a frenzy of motion. You have only a fraction of a second before he will bring his knife into play. During that time, you have to hit something vital or incapacitating—throat, eyes, solar plexus, groin—and the attacks must be vicious. Twist and rip for all you’re worth. If you fail, you will never have a second chance.

Should the situation be reversed and your opponent have the shorter knife, remember the above. He has to close with you in order to make his weapon effective. Don’t allow yourself to be worked into a corner where you can’t retreat. Move away, move in to attack, then move back out again. Take full advantage of your longer reach.

Should he manage to close in, however, you have to retaliate in kind, stabbing and cutting in a frenzy of motion at least the equal of his.

FIGHTING TWO AT ONCE

If fighting a man with a longer knife is bad, fighting two men is even worse. If they know what they’re doing, they’ll cut you to ribbons. The only hope you have is the fact that very few people work well as a team.

Back in the mid-1970s, when I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, a good friend of mine found himself in this position when two guys tried to roll him. He’s a relatively mild sort, but he had the benefit of a misspent youth and was pretty streetwise. What happened is a rather classic approach and not a bad way to handle it.

The two men approached and one walked directly in front of him while the other walked to the side, eyes straight ahead.

As soon as the second was behind my friend, the first snarled a few curses, put his hand in his pocket and demanded money. My friend, being a very reasonable man, reacted in a reasonable way. He spun, lashed out with a low kick that caught the guy in back of him square in the crotch, continued the spin and popped the other guy on the nose with his fist. He then moved back, thumbed open his knife and started forward. His bad knee gave way, so he stumbled, which gave the two time to hobble away, clutching various parts of their wounded anatomy. Had the leg not given way, I’m sure he would have been in some serious trouble for cutting up some people, but then again, maybe not. I don’t think he really cared.

The point is, he reacted in a totally unexpected way. He attacked. He did it quickly, viciously, and with dedication to wreaking harm on his attackers. He then backed off, armed himself, and was about to renew the battle.

When faced with two men with knives, this is by far your best defense. Attack one, then turn the fake into a real attack on the other. Whether the attack succeeds or not, you should be able to split the two apart and that should give you time to run. If the attack works and you can disable one, then it’s the old one-on-one. Otherwise, just run. Two men are just too many for one guy to face.

FIGHTING WHEN UNARMED

Equally frightening is to be attacked by one man who has a knife when you’re unarmed.

A lot of books on self-defense describe neat disarming moves, and if you believe them, you must think it’s the easiest thing in the world to subdue a man with a knife. Ha.

Of course, it’s possible to disarm a knife wielder. If he’s not familiar with knives or if he’s afraid of it, it’s quite possible. If, on the other and more likely hand, he knows what he’s doing, you have almost no chance at all.

Earlier I stated that the practiced knife fighter is not interested in seeing who is the best man, but only in cutting you. It doesn’t matter if you’re unarmed or not.

I never met anyone who was good with a knife who did not regard each and every adversary with a great deal of fear and respect. No matter who he fought, he regarded that opponent as the toughest and most deadly person he was ever likely to meet. Any and all attacks would be made with a great deal of caution and restraint. He would always be alert for any trick that might be attempted.

Facing a man who regards you as a totally unknown danger and threat to his existence doesn’t leave you much room. He isn’t about to extend himself in a wild lunge so that you can grab his knife arm, yank forward, and smash your hand against his elbow. He won’t attack you with an overhand stab so you can cross block and then slip into an armlock. He will attack you just as if you had a knife, too. Feints, hand cuts, moving in and out. Cutting and weakening you until he can move in and make a kill safely.

I can offer no ways that give you a relatively high chance of success when forced to face a knife unarmed. There are things you can try, but how well they work is problematic. But any attack is better than giving up and waiting like a sheep to die, standing around and bleating.

The eyes are a highly vulnerable and sensitive area. Any attack in this area is likely to produce a certain degree of panic, particularly if it is quick and vicious. This is a last-ditch, desperation move because the moment you initiate it you are completely vulnerable.

That said, the move itself is simple. You leap in, grab the head with your hands on either side and dig your thumbs in at the eyes. You’ll probably get cut, but it only takes a second to dig in at the cornea and blind a man permanently. If I’m going to die, I’d like to at least leave my killer something to remember me by.

Wrist grabbing is a very chancy thing. Until a few years ago, I would have said it’s impossible, but then something happened in a practice session that changed my mind. But I still wouldn’t want to rely on it.

Grab a wrist and chance getting cut.

Grab just back of the guard and potentially disarm him.

A close friend, John Roberts, was on his way to Vietnam and spent a few days with me. I questioned him about the hand-to-hand training he’d received as a Green Beret and one thing led to another, so we made up some practice knives and headed to the yard. I was doing rather well (John may try to bomb me if he reads this), when suddenly I slipped on the grass and fell. John, having all the honorable instincts of a rattlesnake, instantly jumped in and tried to do me in.

I was reacting with a mild case of panic and trying to ward off his attack with my left arm when suddenly I brushed his knife arm. My hand slid down his arm and I found myself gripping his wrist. Not one to pass up an advantage, I yanked and he fell forward onto my “knife.”

So it’s possible. But again, I have no wish to rely on it. However, if it does happen that you do manage to grab the knife arm, clutch the hand, not just the wrist. With only the wrist being held, the knife can be levered down and used to cut your hand. Or it can be switched to the other hand. The best place to grip the hand is just back of the guard. This gives you some leverage and—who knows?—it might even be possible to you to get it away from him.

Just grabbing the knife is no real solution to your problem. Obviously, you need to do something more—biting, kicking, punching, anything. The body is full of vulnerable spots, so make the most of them.

This is no self-defense book, so I’m not going to talk about pressure points. A medical text on anatomy will tell you what you want to know if you take the time to study it. You do need to learn where they are, how to attack them, and what happens when you do.

But keep one important thing in mind if you ever face a knife attack while you’re unarmed: you have almost no odds of surviving.

A friend of mine beat those odds, once, and beat them damned well. His name was Don
⁴
and he was about three years older than me. He was one of the toughest people I’ve ever run across. In Korea, he was highly decorated and badly wounded.

We had been to the local movie when the fight broke out. I ran to see what was happening and saw a guy trying to cut Don, who kept backing up and avoiding him. I knew Don didn’t have a knife with him because I’d just borrowed it to open some boxes. I started to move in and help, but Don waved me back. The guy with the knife wasn’t real good. He kept making the sort of wild slashes you see in movies.

As he made one, Don slipped to the side and lashed out with his foot, taking the boy’s legs from under him. The kid hit the ground and Don was standing over him. He stomped him in the mouth with the heel of his boot and then pivoted. The kid on the ground lost all of his front teeth and you could hear his jaw pop. I damn near lost my supper.

Don later confessed that he felt real lucky.

You can’t count on luck, however. Quick thinking is a must. Quick thinking, combined with a bit of lying and deception is nothing short of deadly, especially when combined with experience.

I watched a fight that broke out one night between a couple of over-age high school students who didn’t know each other. They exchanged a couple of punches. Then one broke away, ran to his car and grabbed a piece of pipe he had there. He started at the other, who backed off, looking for something.

Somebody in the crowd yelled, “Bust his goddamn head, Bobby.”

The other boy stopped, held up his hand and said, “Whoa, wait a minute. What’s your last name?”

The other glared and secured his grip on the pipe before answering, “Strickland. Bobby Strickland.”

“Strickland! Bobby Strickland? Well, I’ll be goddamned. Man, you’re my cousin.”

“Boy, you’re crazy, you ain’t no damn kin to me.”

“Hell yes, I am. I’m your cousin. Hell, I ain’t gonna fight my own cousin. My momma would tear me up if she found out. Hell, let’s just call it quits.”

With that, he simply walked forward with his right hand outstretched with an offer to shake. The other guy hesitated and that was all it took. The boy got closer, promptly kicked him where it hurt, thumbed his knife and slashed Bobby across the chest.

He ran like hell and everyone could hear him laughing.

Two of my favorite stories concern the same boy. Let’s call him Harvey (his real name was just as bad). He was a really mean and nasty guy. He had quite a reputation as a street fighter and I believe it is probably well deserved. Harvey had never taken a bath in his life and you could smell him a mile away. Many a night I’ve been talking with some guys and someone would sniff and say, “Here comes Harvey,” and sure enough, there he would be. He won his fights by getting in close. Sooner or later the other guy would have to breathe and when he did, he’d gag on the stench.