Defending against a Knife Attack, 8

Continued from "Defending against a knife Attack, 7"

As you may (or may not) recall, this series began in answer to a query by Valiant for Truth about a carry knife for self defense. One of my major objectives has been to point out that for legal as well as for practical reasons, knives do not make the best weapons for defending against a knife attack.

Nevertheless, I'm sure there are still those who want to carry a knife for defensive purposes. Following Valiant for Truth's specs (folding knife with pocket clip & one-hand opening), I can think of one knives that I would recommend within those limitations.

That knife is the Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn Tactical Knife (Review Here). I do not own this knife -- if I were going to stake my life on a combat knife, I would choose a double-edged fixed blade. However, it gets high marks from those who do own one.

Among the Gerber's pluses are that it's a liner-lock, which allows you to close it with one hand. Also, Rex Applegate designed the blade as an adaptation of the Fairbairn-Sykes combat knife.

So, IF you're going to pin your survival of a knife attack on a knife, you could do a lot worse than the Applegate-Fairbairn Tactical.