Are knives or swords ok to have for self defense?
if you can't own firearm for legal reasons that is.
Yes i can not own a firearm for legal reasons because i try to kill myself more than one's and the court take my right to bear arms away.
Are knives or swords ok to have for self defense? if you can't own firearm for legal reasons that is.
Why not pepper spray or something?
In most cases you may want to have a bit of distance between you and whoever you're trying to fend off.
Even a baseball bat is better.
second the pepper spray and bat. knives are messy
If I couldn't have a gun, I would use a spear for home defense. I'd probably buy one of those tactical spears. One that you could whack against a rock or the ground a few times and still have it hold up.
>I'd probably buy one of those tactical spears
that's a fricking meme, when it breaks you will have to buy an expensive handle. With a regular spear you can just use a stick. And nowdays there's lot of knive-spear hybrids like the cold steel bushman or condor matagi
>just use a stick
A 1.25 inch 6 foot hardwood rod costs like fricking 70 dollars at lowes these days.
>A 1.25 inch 6 foot hardwood rod costs like fricking 70 dollars at lowes these days.
Wood is free in the woods, don't be a gay
Perfectly straight, hardwood rods don’t just grow out of trees like branches. You’d have to cut down a tree and process the lumber.
Now you've got a fun new hobby
You can do it from a copse of young hemlock, maple, elder or ash. Just cut at least 8 ft poles, and dry for at least 9 months, then you can draw them down to size with a spokeshave
Just don't buy anything Japanese or the overwhelming urge to commit sedoku may return.
>In the U.S or Brazil
Give up on it and just accept death if you can't get a ranged weapon
>Everywhere else in the world
They're good enough for their size
If you're American legally barred from gun ownership then just get a black powder revolver
Don't you get like mega fricked by the law if you're barred from owning firearms and end up shooting someone with one of those black powder guns?
Getting fricked by the law beats getting killed by a criminal
No. They technically not considered firearms.
If it's from a felony it is based on your state. In at least over half of the states (probably more) it is still illegal to own a black powder firearm.
If you're in the US, you can still buy blackpowder firearms. A BP 6-shot revolver is enough for personal protection - at least one anon on here has de-lifed a dindu with one.
is a knife better than nothing? sure, if you are physically capable. are you much safer than you were before vs the big bad world out there? not by much really.
if you don't deal with large angry homeless populations, they're not very good.
mostly because real criminals with even modest resources love guns. they think they are awesome even if they don't know that much about them. they obtain them at a relatively young age. there are a ton of guns in America. a felon that can't buy guns can just have his friend or hoodrat girl buy him a gun. and if he can't do that, there are a ton of guns on the black market. so criminals often, often have guns. especially criminals who have been able to convince themselves they should go mug people or home invade; the power of the gun helps make these guys feel like they can pull it off. on top of that, criminals hang out with each other. they do drugs together. they hype each other up. so there's a decent chance you might end up dealing with two guys, possibly even more. and they are given the advantage of picking the time/place to attack while you are forced to react.
all that basically means is that with a knife, even if you were some kind of chad knifemaster, there are still an enormous number of completely unwinnable scenarios out there. if you are cursed with only being able to carry a knife and are at risk of dealing with real criminals, understanding when a situation is unwinnable is unironically probably more important than understanding how to use a knife.
Use a metal flashlight instead. It will look a lot better to the police or court than a knife or bat
best idea in thread. you can blind the assailaint for a moment in the opening of the skirmish and run away, or hit them if they still block the way.
if it comes down to a fight, a heavy flashlight is almost as good as a medieval mace. just try to find a sturdy metal one that uses d batteries.
souce of my recommendation: my family comes from the hood, and we kept 2 d-cell police flashlights, one in the house one in the car.
I recommend the mexican sacatripe, used for gutting sheep and other warm blooded animals.
No, knives are shit.
Swords are better I suppose, good luck carrying one around.
>Yes i can not own a firearm for legal reasons because i try to kill myself more than one's and the court take my right to bear arms away.
I'd rather have a cane with lead in the end than any legal-to-carry knife.
sword expert here.
There are several problems with "swords for self defence".
>ease of carry
You could keep one in your house or car, but cant keep it on your person in public (in most places). Reduces your options to home and vehicle defense.
>lack of range
Someone with a fairly long stick can outrange and kite a swordsman pretty easily. If the enemy has a gun it would be trivial for them to ventilate your torso from beyond sword range. This can be somewhat mitigated in home invasions by using the layout of your home to break sightlines and create distance, then setting an ambush if they pursue you. (ie waiting at a corner hallway any hitting them as they turn corner.)
>psychological x-factor
People do not have the same mental weakness to blades as they do guns. An enemy who is fatally stabbed but not incapacitated may continue to fight for up to several minutes, and may not even realize they were hurt. As opposed to guns, where loads of people will collapse and freak out when shot, as they have been conditioned by shitty hollywood movies that that is what happens when someone is shot. (The inverse also happens, with cuts and stabs being seen as worse than they are, but the gun causes that reaction more. maybe because of the "bang!"?)
(part 1 of 2)
>training
Gun training is somewhat simple. Take the gun to the range every once in a while, basically. There is much more involved to be "proficient" but for light self defence, "point and shoot" is generally all that is required. Hell, untrained people pick up guns and figure out how they work all the time ( usually to tragic results). If you havent trained with a sword tho, it is actually a worse weapon than a similarly sized stick. If you hit a target and have bad edge alignment, almost no damage will be done. In fact you may even bend or break the sword if you were swinging for the fences and hit a hard object. Thrusts would less likely to fail like that (and more deadly) but they are also awkward for the untrained and is tough to do accurately in chaotic fighting.
>armor
A heavy jacket could absorb damage from light slashes. And reduce the damage done by even medium blows. Thrusts are more likely to go thru and more deadly, but might get tangled in clothing in a near miss.
(part 2 of 2)
>sword expert
sooory, put it that way for brevity. I suppose it would be more accurate to say:
I am a nerd who studies military history, including the weapons and techniques that people , ancient to modern, use to fight each other. This has lead me to study (on theory and in person) martial arts like HEMA and kenjutsu, among others. So while i am not formally accredited by any martial organization, I am more familiar with archaic weapons that your average joe, or a neckbearded weeb who watched an anime with samurai in it once.
TL;DR: I read about and study how swords were actually used and i own several myself.
Better?
No, because you strike me as more of a reader and theorizer than a doer.
OP if your concerned about self defense and can’t own a gun feel free to carry a knife and some pepper spray. Get involved in a combat sport of some kind so you’re fit and prepared to fight if you need to. There’s literally no good reason to have a sword for self defense when you can’t carry them outdoors without looking like a moron and the majority of them save for something like a gladius or cutlass will be too long to use easily indoors. Even then it’s not much of an advantage over a knife unless you’re being robbed by a fricking pirate with his own sword. If you want to get a sword do it because you’re into swords, not as some self defense cope.
Also pic related, proof that I’m a doer and I’ve been doing it a good long while
nice door pommel gay
>door pommel
I have literally never heard anyone use this terminology before in real life or online. The feder itself is a Regenyei, I don’t know anyone who dispute that he’s a reputable sword smith.
Wtf is a door pommel?
I’m the other HEMA gay in this thread and can confirm that is a common and entirely legit Regenyei feder. Shut the frick up.
you morons he's talking about the glass doorknob that looks like a scent stopper
Fine, you are right. I am More of a theorizer than a doer. But I am a doer, even if not as much as you (which i have no problem admitting.) Is anything i said wrong? Not a sarcastic question. I really want to know if there are any gaps in my knowledge and/or theory.
>message to OP
This is entirely correct. I agree that swords are obsolete for a reason. I was just trying to engage with the question in my answer.
i bow before a federchwert chad. Wish they had a Hema club in my area so i could be more of a "doer." As it is I do alot of solo forms. I occasionally do some sparring. In fact i am recovering from spraining my ankle during my last sparring session.
Picrel: some of my stuff. Admittedly, mostly wooden wasters. I have more but it is mostly the same quality (shit).
> Is anything i said wrong
I’ll be real, I skimmed it, I can give a more detailed in response later. For now if you haven’t looked for a HEMA club here
>https://www.hemaalliance.com/club-finders
Do so and see if there’s anything nearby. Additionally there’s a HEMA general on PrepHole that has a lot of resources available.
thanks for the resources. I checked the map and would have to go to New Orleans or Mobile for the closest one. (Horrible cities, if you have no occasion to know. I might would need a gun just to get to sword practice safely.) Still might look into it tho.
Gonna look at PrepHole later.
I actually read through your post, most of it isn’t “wrong” just autistic (I’m pretty sure “kite” is an MMO term, so it’s fricking weird to see it used in this way). I will say that in your overanalysis you’re wrong about how much training is needed to use a sword vs a gun. You don’t need to know how to do anything other than deliver a good thrust and overhand cut unless you’re planning on fighting other people with swords. I’d say that’s comparable to “just going to the range”. Doing all the extra sword fighting training is more equivalent to dropping thousands of dollars on le tactical shooting courses which are unnecessary and stupid unless you’re really into that sort of thing.
Also the same people freak out and either freeze or run when they hear gun go off are going to crumble if you come chasing at them with a machete too. I don’t know why you have it in your head that people don’t have the same survival instinct when it comes to a large blade compared to a gun.
Thanks for the feedback.
Yea, reading back it is quite 'Spergy, isn't it? I am actually a diagnosed asperger, so that is something i try work on and not let cloud my judgement on self defence and other important matters.
>overhand cut and thrust = going to the range
Good point. Also, in a military setting those were the main strikes due to not wanting to hit allies. So it makes sense that that would be your bread and butter in self defense too.
>the same people would run from a gun or a blade
True. My point was more about their reaction to a wound if combat was assumed. But your point prolly still mostly holds true.
>video
Very cool. This was an engagement that gave a distinct advantage to the sword wielders (defending a breach rather than taking it) and it was still only dumb luck that kept them from getting wasted from a distance.
You are a fricking larper. Pistol rouds are anemic as frick, but you can easily rip tendons and inflict deep wounds with a sword. You are mistaking knives with swords.
god i miss when HEMA wasn't a thing and we didn't get homosexuals like these two walking around unironically identifying themselves as "swordsmen" because they like to LARP duel with other bespectacled, noodle-armed, chinless ponytail nerds
I wish there was a HEMA school near me
You think the katana larp of the early 200s was better? Never called myself a “swordsman” btw, I’m a hobbyist fencer and martial artist.
I don't think the katana existed in the early 200s
Whats your "martial art"?
I’ve done HEMA for about 4 or 5 years now but I got my start in martial arts doing Judo which I’ve been doing for just under 9 years now. I have cross trained bjj a little, and went on and off with kickboxing for awhile (currently doing it only 1 day a week). Martial arts are my passion.
Is that fricking peter griffin?
I trained at a HEMA school for about a year and did two tournaments. I have years of martial arts experience but HEMA was my first go at something weapons-based.
The source text is cool to get into, the techniques all make sense. You can tell they were all mostly written by people with practical experience versus mcdojo bullshitters.
The community is insufferable though. For every person who is there for a historically rooted martial art, there are 20 huwelll ackshually morbidly obese LARPers. I ended up stopping for that reason.
Cool pastime, insufferable community. There are some legit European and slav HEMA athletes though.
>The community is insufferable though. For every person who is there for a historically rooted martial art, there are 20 huwelll ackshually morbidly obese LARPers. I ended up stopping for that reason.
While your assessment is accurate it’s not something I’d consider it reasonable to quit over. Find the more competitive and practically minded people people and stick with them. In my experience they’re usually more in line with the sources anyways.
In other areas this would be solid advice, but where I am there is exactly one (1) HEMA club in a 100 mile radius and I don’t care enough to start another.
Have a free (you) for obvious bait.
If you don’t have a home defense machete what are you even doing?
Have you tried buying a gun?
Because spoiler alert the hospital to nogunz registry in most states is dogshit a lot of the time. I was hospitalized twice after having a crazy reaction to ssris, and then I’ve also bought and sold a bunch a guns at gun shows with them apparently running the background checks.
if you absolutely can not own a firearm then it is better than nothing, but seriously consider a baseball bat instead
and you still have ranged options
short javelins can be used in fairly tight spaces as can throwing axes
throwing knives are a meme don't bother
bows and crossbows are not regulated the same as firearms in most places and are probably legal options
Get an axe like a real man. Spear is impractical for indoor fighting. Sword makes you look like an autist - a robber would probably laugh you out of your own house.