Often new students come to my classes and ask the inevitable gear questions. And while there are lots of fantastic options on the market I needed something a little different not primarily in the knife itself but in the entire carriage system that supports it.
Understand I don’t want something for the enthusiast. I can’t really recommend one of my custom Ban Tang Knives to someone and explain why several hundred dollars is a good deal and the workmanship involved. Further I ideally want something that is optimized for small hands. The Shivworks Clinch Pick is the gold standard for a solid small fixed blade for self defense, and the new 2.0 addresses the large grip concerns but the weight and belt mounting precluded it from the clipped to a skirt or yoga pants application. I also cant point towards things not traditionally knife shaped or too uncommon looking for someone new to all of this. I need something that is more easily socially acceptable. A spyderco Pikal is a GREAT knife designed by my mentor Craig Douglas but my wife’s wedding ring doesn’t fit past the fingernail on my pinky finger. I need something scaled down.
For this project I reached out to my good friend Morgan at No One Coming
My requirements where thus:
- Be pedestrian enough visually to be acceptable
- Optimized for smaller hands but usable by all hand sizes
- Light weight complete package
- Not print or snag under shear clothing
- Non corrosive
- Able to be attached to clothing with no belt, yoga pants, bra, skirts, stretchy material, etc
- Easy to clip on and off
- Small size to aide ease of carry but still useful
- Usable in the method we favor (reverse grip, edge in, point driven)
With those guidelines we started down the testing and evaluation path. The prototypes where put into real world carry by students, and the testing drone was put through countless live training force on force sessions where we tested the clips, deployment, and carriage system under pressure by a variety of body types and sizes as well as skill levels.
I can’t overstate how key the student feedback and testing process is for something like this. We aren’t just coming up with a good idea and going to press with it. In fact quite a few components had to be adjusted or completely changed during the process during which we sent video, student feedback, and input to Morgan to adjust and modify the design.
What we came up with fits all the criteria, is completely non metallic, conceals wonderfully, sticks in the hand, easy to deploy under pressure, and comes out at a reasonable price point.
Ideally a new student with very little training can clip this to themselves without too much of a burden and be able to as Craig says be able to execute “Get off me! Stay off me!” .
Hit up Morgan at https://www.noonecoming.com/ to get your order started !
Shawn Lupka
Antifragile Training 