Fire

I sell blades for a living, and untill recently, my store had a training area in the back where the local Kali, arnis, escrima class met- a class that I took, along with numerous other martial arts. I have done professional high risk security, bouncing, and some useless desk riding security gigs-

A knife is a poor choice for a home defense weapon-
if you are interested in a knife to own, then I will continue in that vein toward the end of the post....

as to self defense and the knife/ other weapon- There is little that will stand up to a gun in the hands of a well trained user- If you are willing to seek that training, i recommend a gun- shotguns are available in your $ range- If you do not like the idea of using a gun, then you will need training every bit as much, with whatever you go with.

1- It takes training- while a profcient fighter need not accept the idea of being cut in every fight, it is always a possibility, ( the old maxim that in a knife fight you will get cut, I believe in fact comes from the old style of military training, wherein the non dominant arm is held out to block, grapple and accept a cut if need be- this is a way to train a lot of men quickly, and is acceptable in some cases, especially when a modern trooper is unlikely to engage in a knife fight- it at least strove to keep the troop alive while allowing him to dispatch an opponent) While you may not get cut in an encounter, be aware that even among trained combatants, it is common to get killed in a knife fight- in the philipenes, in fights among gurros, it was said ( no good confirmed statistics here, sadly) that half the fights ended in mutual slayings- in japan in a samurai duel the figure I have heard is that one in three ended in mutual death....I know that it is not your intent to get into a knife fight, but stats show its a loosing game- and you will be far too close to the enemy for comfort

I must respectfully disagree with the idea of the bat as a home defense item, simply because that you need a lot of room to swing it- according to the FBI stats, a lot of people get bats taken and used on em- I also do not recomend a sword either, for the same reason- It is much harder to take from you though, but try sometime using a boken in your house- it can be an enlightening experience- Machete's are better, and have more reach than a knife, but IMHO if you do not choose to use a gun, then I recomend an Asegi- A short spear, one of which is currently available from cold steel knives, and which provided plenty of reach, without needing a lot of room to swing- plus it is very intuitive and easy to use, and cheap- PLEASE NOTE- the weapon, and that means any weapon, does not give you any skill with it- be it a knife, sword, bat, spear or gun, LEARN TO USE IT- practice with it indoors, know what in your house will get in the way, and how much room you have to work with- and remember, lots of dead idiots thought having a weapon made them safe, when knowing that weapon's propper use would have..... PS- another good choice for home use is SABER brand self defense spray- They have a pepper foam model that mounts to a wall bracket, and that stuff does work (the foam wont contaminate the air in the house)


Now then, if you are in the market for a good blade, Heres my two cents- First of all, decide if you want a modern piece, or something in the historical repro category-

For modern knives, I recommend cold steel, SOG, CRKT, linder, and boker - all of them offer good double edged fixed blade knives...

For historicals, Museum replicas limited is good, as is arms and armor, and Cas Iberia, and Paul chen.....

Beware anything from pakistan, and a lot from china- if looking at a no name, assume the worst and remember that it is hard to fuck up a slab tang, even in pakistan..........

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Thought the harder, Heart the bolder,
Mood the more as our might lessens