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| High and Low Profile Blades |
Disclaimer: A knife is a deadly weapon and should only be deployed in accordance with the laws and rules governing deadly force in your jurisdiction or Area of Operations. With this in mind, if a knife to be carried, it is necessary to train for its use in your force continuum. Live blades should not be used in a training scenario-seek out an appropriate training knife.
My journey into knife making started when I was looking for some hard-use knives to fulfill certain functions and was not finding anything that I particularly liked for those applications. When I started to have some money in my pocket from PSD work, I looked at some higher end customs that would have filled the bill, but I am a tightwad at heart, and I realized I would rather spend money on the equipment to make my kind of knives than to pay other guys to make what I wanted.
I spent a week with Ed Caffrey in Great Falls, MT learning to forge knives from raw steel. Armed with enough knowledge to make me thoroughly dangerous to myself, I started turning out some knives and eventually made some useful knives that people wanted to buy. I learn more from every blade I make, and I strive for improvement every day. I still have all my fingers, toes and eyeballs, as of this writing.
In my world, my knife is a back up weapon. Actually, in High Risk PSD work, my knife is the back up to the backup, the progression being: rifle, pistol, and knife. I carry my knife for a very specific purpose: to facilitate weapon retention in the event that someone would try to take my rifle or pistol from me.
Simply put, if someone grabbed my slung rifle and I could not shoot him off of it, I would utilize my pistol against the threat. If I could not use my pistol, my knife would be drawn by my support hand and employed against the threat.
If an armed professional must utilize a knife in a deadly force encounter, things have gone extremely wrong. Someone got too close, or there is overwhelming force, and things have deteriorated into a hands-on life or death encounter. Therefore, if a knife is to be depended on in a backup role, it must be of a design and construction that enable it to perform in an efficient and reliable manner.
Recently a California sheriff’s deputy had the opportunity to successfully deploy his knife against a suspect who was attempting to relieve the officer of his pistol. I bring this up to show that using a knife in a weapon retention scenario is not an unheard of thing. It happens in the real world, so it is something that should be mentally prepared for and then trained.
Returning to the idea of a back up blade, I want to share the design parameters I used to develop a knife that is very special to me, the PSD 5. The name not only designates it as a Pointy Sharp Device with 5 inches of blade, it seeks to honor those who daily risk their lives protecting others in high-risk environments.
My experiences carrying knives in HRE’s have led me to definite conclusions of what I want in a blade. My knife should be an easily accessible, fairly large, fixed blade design. It should have a good point for penetration, an angled blade with a good belly for powerful slashing, and be sharp as hell. It should be fairly wide, spine to edge, to produce a large wound channel. It should be comfortable in the hand, easily indexed by feel alone, and should lock into the hand. Finally it should be slim enough to be concealable. And of course there is nothing wrong with a knife that looks good while meeting all those requirements.
The original PSD 5 in the picture was forged from 1084 tool steel. This steel will take a wickedly sharp edge, hold it well, and is easily re-sharpened by the user. The handle slabs are bead blasted black G10. The blade and tang are distally tapered, which gives a very nice feel and balance to the knife. It comes with a Kydex sheath, which can be used with Molle clips, an IWB belt loop or a Tek lock. I also make the PSD 5 from D2 tool steel or 154CM stainless steel. The knife would also be fine in utility or camp roles, although those were not design considerations in any meaningful way.
This knife was designed for high profile work, where it would not usually be concealed. My preference is for the knife to be positioned vertically on my chest rig, so I could access it with either hand in a reverse grip. The PSD 5 also works well when utilized with an IWB sheath for concealment, but depending on the mission and the clothing requirements, there might be better choices for a fixed blade.
For lower profile jobs the PSD 5 could be utilized, but I prefer a more concealable blade, such as the pikal. From the Filipino Pekiti Tirsia style of knife fighting, pikal means, “to rip”. Pikal knives are used in a reverse grip, edge-in manner, and the edge is on the “wrong “ side. The pikal style knives are the epitome of simplicity, just grab, jab and hook. This style of knife is very effective, small and fast, and is very worthy of consideration for a back up weapon.
One thing I have learned in my life is that there is nothing new under the sun. I don’t try to re-invent the wheel with each knife I make. I simply try to visualize what I need to accomplish and keep at it until I get the results that I want. I use the best raw materials I can find, and I am continually striving to improve my work processes along with fit and finish. I love knives, and see them as tools for specific jobs. If you ever want to talk knives, feel free to contact me.
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