Jay Peterson
  • Home
  • Acting
    • Headshots
    • Resume
    • Press >
      • C3 Tweets
    • History
    • Reels
  • The Gruntverse
    • Three briefings before a crisis
    • The Preliminary Report of Marshal Bennett
    • So your kid turned out to be a mage
    • Ghost Light Sample Chapter
    • Gruntverse deleted scenes >
      • Gruntverse farewell jasmine
      • Gruntverse chittendens insight
  • Jay at Play
    • Nonfiction >
      • A Millenial's guide to inheriting guns
    • Other videos >
      • Just Blanks
      • Tommy That
      • Machine Gun Shakespeare
      • Igor
  • Blog

The meaning of Knife

2/17/2015

0 Comments

 
Had knives on the brain for a couple days. Partly because I'm working on an order of them, partly because I'm drafting a knife class with some ideas I've had running around. So in the interest of seeing them inscribed before they escape my head, enjoy!

**********************

With a ~very~ few distinct cultural exceptions, the knife has never been a preferred weapon among humans who had to fight. Especially not among those who fought regularly and often. Human primary weapons are the spear, the bow, the sword, the pike, the rifle. These are the weapons that come up again and again when combat happens. Distance weapons. Long, back off, fuck you, die over there weapons. Those were what professionals used. If a professional used a knife, it was because their primary weapon was unavailable or rendered useless. A knife was a weapon of those already in the cacky. A soldier using the knife happened when shit already hit the fan.

Exceptions? yes. The assassin with the stiletto? They're not there to fight. They're there to kill, and then leave. Ideally, fighting won't happen.

The knife does have it's place of supremacy, though. It is humanity's penultimate tool. I don't care how ass-backwards you are. Even those who didn't figure out a wheel or fire learned quick that a sharp edge was a damn handy thing to have around.

And it's those tool users I'm thinking of when I rack my brain trying to think of a knife as a primary weapon. The Pukko of Finland? Tool. A Gurkha's Khukri? Tool. The fact that they're devastatingly effective weapons doesn't stop them from being tools first and tools more often.

This tool/weapon divide also explains something else I've been unconsciously doing: NOT using a reverse grip. It's a grip and movement only used in fighting with a knife. Nobody chops vegetables for dinner with a reverse grip on the knife. I don't sit down and eat a steak using a reverse grip. Old-timers don't sit on the porch whittling old sticks in a reverse grip. It's first and foremost a fighting grip, which makes it feel a bit unnatural in the hand.

Which brings up another thought: what's the difference between a knife fighter and someone who finds themselves in a fight and happens to have a knife? Which do we see more of onstage? On screen? On the page? on the news? on the blotter?

There's some more pondering to do. This could get interesting.

~J. 


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Jay Peterson

    Musings on violence, storytelling, and humanity in general.

    Archives

    January 2025
    August 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    February 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    August 2010
    June 2010
    August 2008

    Categories

    All
    2nd Amendment
    Archer
    Armor
    Barbarism
    Blades
    Blanks
    Boobplate
    Book Review
    Chainmail Bikini
    Fight Scene
    Film
    Firearms
    History
    Killology
    Military
    Reality
    Safety
    Set Life
    Shakespeare
    Teacupping
    Theater
    Tucker Thayer
    USMC
    Viking
    War Stories
    Weapon Of The Week
    Workshops
    Wounds

    RSS Feed

Certa Bonum Certamen

Picture