Tag Archives: Tool

an item used to perform a specific function

Knife Fighting: Hand Grip Techniques

Posted by on December 10, 2011 Comments Off

Knife fights aren’t quite as common as they used to be, though it is useful to know how to use a knife as an offensive and defensive weapon.  To do this, you employ a variety of knife grips.  These various grips each have advantages and disadvantages.  Here are the two main types of grips:

  • Holding the knife in a forward grip (with the blade facing up out of your hand, as if holding a hammer) allows for more precision, skill, and a longer reach.
  • Holding the knife in a reverse grip (with the blade facing down out of your hand, as if holding an icepick) gives you for more power. The reverse grip is considered as much more challenging to effectively employ in knife-on-knife combat by everyone but the very practiced, in part because  reverse grips can require skills in footwork and quick defensive body movements to compensate for the increased danger of getting closer to your opponent.

Or, you could take a different route and bring a gun to a knife fight.  That seems to work for a lot of people.

Featured Photo by hondasniperlife

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The KA-BAR Combat Knife

Posted by on December 8, 2011 Comments Off
KA-BAR Knife

The KA-BAR (trademarked as KA-BAR in all caps) is a popular combat knife used by the US Marine Corps and the US Navy.  They are manufactured by KA-BAR Cutlery, Inc.  The KA-BAR is perhaps their most well known product (among many).  One handy trick employed by marines is to spray-paint the knife and its accessories with matte black spray paint in order to reduce light reflected from the blade and to provide a limited degree of protection from saltwater corrosion.

There have been several variations of the KA-BAR knives available through the years, such as both single or double-edged versions and newer models made from state of the art synthetic materials (such as handles crafted from non-slip Kraton).

Check out www.kabar.com to check out their quality products. Read more »

Survival Tools: Uses for Barbed Wire

Posted by on December 7, 2011 Comments Off

Barbed wire (also called barb wire) is a kind of wire for fences and other barriers, crafted with gnarled, pointy edges at varying angles along the strand of wire. It is very useful for cheap fences and to help secure property from both human and animal intruders, due to being such a sharp and painful obstacle to cross.  Attempting to pass over or through barbed wire can be very painful and cause serious injury.

To create the most simple barbed wire fence, you simply need fence posts, barbed wire, and a way to fasten the wire to the posts.  Due to this simple design, it’s is generally not difficult to construct, even for novice fence builders.  It has largely been used to restrain cows to a specific range of property.

Humans can manage to avoid serious injury when dealing with barbed wire in a slow, careful manner.  Protective clothing can also help you to avoid injury.  Being in a hurry to get through the barbed wire and not being careful will lead to more serious injuries.

Unfortunately, barbed wire has historically been used as a tool for torturing people as well.

Featured Photo by Richard Leonard

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Hunting and Self Defense Gear: The Crossbow

Posted by on December 6, 2011 Comments Off

The crossbow offers up it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages as a tool for self defense.

Advantages:

  • A crossbow has the advantage of being a ranged weapon, allowing you to take out prey and foes at a comfortable distance.
  • The ammo is reusable, though be careful to sterilize the ammo thoroughly lest you accidentally infect yourself from some blood-born pathogen.
  • The crossbow is a much more quiet weapon than a firearm, allowing you to hunt without drawing attention to yourself.
  • The crossbow can also be used with rope to establish a zip-line.

Disadvantages:

  • Most crossbows don’t have an automated function (unlike certain firearms), making them less useful against large groups of opponents or in close combat.
  • You will need plenty of practice with a crossbow before you have decent accuracy with your shots and to have a good understanding of how to properly use and maintain your weapon.

Featured Photo by Nick Perla
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Hunting: The Animal Foothold Trap

Posted by on December 5, 2011 Comments Off
bear trap

Foothold traps can be a good way of indirectly catching prey or for protecting yourself.  When the animal (or unwitting person)steps on the trigger, the trap snaps closed around its foot, preventing the animal (or person) from escaping.

Pros:

1.  Reusable

2.  Mobile – Some traps need to be location specific, such as pit traps, but you can set a bear trap up wherever you have a flat surface and room.

Cons:

1.  Heavy to lug around

2.  Only useful for certain types of prey Read more »

Non-Lethal Ammunition

Posted by on December 4, 2011 Comments Off
paint balls ammo

Non-lethal rounds of ammunition are intended for use in firearms to incapacitate (rather than kill)  targets. Examples include bullets made from rubber, wax or plastic, beanbag rounds, or rubber bullets with an added electroshock effect.

Also, high-speed paintball guns can be used to launch rounds not intended to kill.  These can mark the target, making it easier to track the target.  There is even paintball ammo with a pepper-spray additive, further incapacitating the target.

For the most part, non-lethal ammo works through the same basic mechanism – launching a chunk of something at a target to injure/incapacitate the target.  Newer technology, such as rubber bullets with electroshock or paint-balls with pepper spray, are innovative ways of making non-lethal ammo more effective.

Featured Photo by Maria Fernanda Aristizabal M.

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Womens Self Defense: Using Car Keys in Self Defense

Posted by on November 29, 2011 Comments Off
key ring

Many women’s self-defense classes teach that you can use your car keys as a potential weapon of self-defense.  If you are traveling alone, well before you approach your car you should take out your keys and hold them in a way that there are keys sticking out between your knuckles.  If you were to punch someone with your key arranged this way, it could cause a far more serious injury than a punch by itself, especially if you manage to jam a key into your assailants eyes.

OF course, now that you know this tidbit of safety info, you should practice holding the keys this way and gently pressing against solid surfaces (such as a door) to see if you can keep the key steady against your palm as you thrust your hand forward.  If you can’t keep the keys steady, they won’t do much good when your fist connects.

Personally I think it’s better to be prepared with a more reliable deterrent (such as pepper spray or a stun gun)  but sometimes you have to make due with what you have in the moment and improvise your way out of a tough situation.

Featured Photo by Travelling_Artist

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Equipment: Stun Grenade

Posted by on November 26, 2011 Comments Off

A stun grenade (also called a flash grenade) is designed to be a non-lethal weapon.

They’re primarily used to temporally disorient the senses of the intended target:

  • Each produced a bright flash of light, triggering all light-sensitive cells in the eyes and essentially blinding the target for about five seconds.  The eyes will quickly restore themselves to its normal, unstimulated state.
  • The loud blast created by the stun grenade further incapacitates the target, disturbing fluid in the ears.
  • The concussive blast from the detonated stun grenade can cause injury.
  • The heat created by the blast can ignite flammable materials.

Note that while the stun grenade is considered a non-lethal weapon, there have been a very small number of fatalities associated with their use. Read more »

Equipment: Net Gun

Posted by on November 24, 2011 Comments Off

The net gun is a popular tool for the nonlethal subduing animals, riot control situations, catching shoplifters, and other law enforcement purposes.  As the name suggests, a net gun fires a net to entangle the target.  Unlike some nonlethal weapons, such as tasers or pepper spray, a net gun simply entangles the target in a net, making it a great method for capture with no real risk of serious injury to the target.

Equipment: Tranquilizer Gun

Posted by on November 23, 2011 Comments Off

Tranquilizer guns use a projectile capable of administering an  incapacitating agent into a persons body.  The two most common agents used to incapacitate humans are Kolokol-1 and Agent 15, as most agents used to tranquilize animals are fatal to humans or can produce long term damage to the victim’s body.  There are tranquilizer guns you can buy, or you could take the cross-bow or blow-gun route as your delivery method. Read more »