Let's Talk Neck Knives

[Moshe]

I know this can be controversial.  But, I view it as a matter of last resort.  Most of the one's I have reviewed, complained that the sheathes give out, or not snug enough and end up doing themselves a mischief.  Any suggestions of knives that avoid that problem?

[Moshe]

After a lot of research, I think I am going to go with the Spyderco ARK.  I have over the last five years had good luck with Spyderco products.  Now, they have push release, so it won't fall out.  Moreover, the steel doesn't rust.

[Pima Pants]

Makora 2 clone in Kydex sheath and a small flashlight. I've been carrying this setup around my neck for years.

[fastbolt]

I've got a decent collection of neck knives, some of which go back many years when they were a real subset of knives, but they're mostly just for "collecting". I somehow never wish to hang one around my neck.

For one thing, I'm often already wearing one of my other many pendants or chains around my neck.

For another, the knives would too easily print when I'm wearing just a t-shirt or thin pullover.

For yet another, it just doesn't sit right with me to think of positioning a knife so it's handily ready for someone to grasp if it's revealed if the engagement becomes really close and my hands are tied up with other matters. (This is also why I refrain from using crossdraw, AIWB and ankle holsters, myself. (Close physical soirees of the really dynamic sort may put a holstered gun or knife too close to an attacker's hands at an inopportune moment, and retention is hard enough when holsters are positioned out of easy reach of attackers.)

They're fun to collect, though.

One of my favorites is an older very basic version of the Newt Livesay Wicked Knives chisel ground tanto neck knife, and another is the Bob Taylor designed REKAT Hobbit Fang neck knife when it was made by Round Eye Knife and Tool. One is basic utilitarian and the other is practical, and yet incorporates curve and style.

Edited June 7, 2019 by fastbolt

[Historian]

I have been known to wear a Benchmade neck knife.   Usually when i do I am wearing enough clothes that it has no chance of printing.

Wicked sharp knife.

[BamaBud]

I've got several HideAWay knives. Rarely wear one but they can be pretty handy.

[Gray_Rider]

Fast, 

Those are some VERY thought provoking ideas and I thank you for pointing them out.

Though I never thought about it, crossdraw really DOES offer your gun butt to an attacker and then PRESTO! you have your own gun shoved into YOUR BELLY!

You are correct too about 'situations' getting 'up close and personal' and having your hands busy or blocked usually is on the same street as it were.

Clint Smith mentioned this in one of his YouTube videos. As an older guy, my getting ground tossed could be a death sentence as Mr. Zimmerman VERY nearly found out!

Though I do have a razor pointed neck knife, I found it difficult to access under a shirt with any speed. Hence it's rarely carried.

GREAT (and sobering) points! Will pass them on in my other sites.

Gray_Rider

Old Secessh

[fastbolt]

It's a tossup for front mounted knife carry, whether cross or AWIB. What puts the blade readily at hand for the wearer also does so for a frontal attacker, presuming the blade is visible. This may be more an issue for a uniform cop, as the belt gear is often readily apparent to a possible attacker before the cop may detect and recognize danger.

Ditto ankle carry. Handy for reaching while being seated, but if that ankle becomes caught or wrapped up by an attacker, the ankle mounted blade (or gun) is now quite possibly readily at hand to the attacker, but it may be as far as is possible for it to be from the wearer's hands. To use a knife pun, it can be a double edged situation.

These are the kind of things that may require some careful thought before deciding which side of the coin may be weighted more in your favor, versus that of a potential attacker.

While we're on the topic of neck knives, usually meaning concealed blades, here's a neat little double-edged one I picked up after the Iran Hostage situation. It was produced by an American blade maker who wanted to offer something low profile that might escape detection in a less rigorous search. It was called The Last Friend. It was meant to be secured within the waistband of dress slacks, via attaching the hook part of a Velcro system inside the waistband. The sheath came with the soft part already attached to the outside of the sheath. It was made of 440C and was ground flat on the "outside". It had to be ordered for a right or left hand draw. Neat and wicked little double edged dagger.

The sheath was a hard kydex/plastic on the inside and a softer plastic on the outside. Very thin. Being handmade, it came wickedly hair-popping sharp.

The obsidian rock in the pics was just used to prop up the knife and sheath so the thinness was visible.

 

[Gray_Rider]

Shweeeeet little shive there Mr. Bolt!

And I'll just bet it DID come scary sharp, though being a hand made,  NOT cheap!

 My little K-Bar TDI came reasonably sharp but I honed it even a bit more.

GREAT Post.

Gray_Rider

Unreconstructed

Old Secessh

[fastbolt]

I can't remember if I got mine a little faster or less costly because I was LE when I ordered it, but if I remember correctly I think I paid $35 for mine directly from the maker.

I actually bought a second one a little later, but had a bout of stupid and gifted it to a close friend who liked knives. He stupidly left it in his office desk drawer one night and it disappeared. No break-in of the office, and it was an unmarked/disguised UC office for a special bureau. I was pissed off he couldn't discover which special cop assigned to that task force had stolen it. Well, that's why they put locks on lockers in patrol dressing rooms, right?

The hand-honed edges are seriously hair-popping sharp, which makes sense when thinking back to the low key promo of it indicating this knife was never meant to be a general everyday task blade, but was made with close quarter survival in mind for gov folks who couldn't be armed with firearms.

I've often tried to find info online about Jerry Price, whose shop I vaguely recall may have been located in AK, but without success.

I won't wear this blade due to the concealed dagger laws in my state, and no longer having an active badge, so it remains in one of my boxes of older and interesting blades. Even back when I was a young cop I somehow never got around to having my wife sew on some Velcro patches to the inside of my jeans and slacks to accommodate the sheath. Always too busy with other things (and spending my discretionary money of lots of guns and holsters).

Wicked and nasty little double edged blade that was ahead of its time, though.