Pretty much a fighting/defensive knife. The shape is made to put a lot of teeth in contact when you slash with it. Good for "grabbing" the wrist that is trying to take your gun away.
Spyderco Civilian
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JFrame
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This is from memory, so apologies in advance if I'm screwing up any details...
As noted, the Civilian was purpose-designed and made for an unnamed law enforcement agency which wanted to be able to arm its agents with a last-ditch weapon, especially where carrying a firearm was unfeasible. The knife would be used by people with limited or no knife-fighting training. Since (I speak from no practical experience -- am merely repeating the historical doctrine I read) untrained people tend to revert to the most gross motor actions (i.e., to slash frantically and wildly), they wanted a weapon designed to optimize on that motion. Spyderco responded with the Civilian.
Later, a representative for a personal defense contractor in South Africa approached Spyderco. Assaults had skyrocketed in South Africa, notably rapes. The rep had many female clients who wished to defend themselves. The rep was impressed by the Civilian, but he wanted a knife that was somewhat smaller (to better fit in a handbag, and in a woman's hand), and that could also be less expensive. Spyderco responded with the smaller Matriarch, which they also equipped with FRN scales to further lower the cost.
I've never heard any outcome from the order that went to South Africa... Would be curious if any got put to good and practical effect.
I have a Matriarch ordered from S. Africa when the Civilian wasn't readily available in the USA for the first couple of years as well as a prototype Civilian and a couple of rare variants of the Civilian.
My wife carried a fully serrated Harpy for many years before the Civilian was developed and I remember Sal being surprised when she demonstrated one Blade Show drawing it from her bra where she'd had it clipped. The draw and slashing motion was completely concealed and looked all the world like a backhand slap if you didn't see it coming. I doubt this inspired the Civilian, but may have contributed a crumb to feed the idea.
As already mentioned, the Civilian was designed to be used by LE that had no training in knives to get an attacker off of them and make space to draw a weapon or break off.
https://smallarmsreview.com/the-spyderco-civilian-family/
https://www.spydiewiki.com/index.php?title=C12_Civilian
Zaydok Allen
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The man certainly sounds like he knows that knife well.
Video definitely need Dolph Lundgren in it.
Video definitely need Dolph Lundgren in it.
Master Keating knows every defensive knife well.
Zaydok Allen
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To be clear, this was just a subtle joke about the clearly old school nature of the video and the opening music. It’s not meant as a jab at the content or the expert in question. Or master, if that’s the proper term.
I rather enjoyed the video, and learned some good info. I’ve seen that blade style before and had no idea of its purpose.
The Civilian can works well for the untrained user, and, can be used for advanced techniques, by the advanced user. I used to wear one, clipped to my concealed soft body armor, accessible by reaching in and downward, through the shirt collar opening, and another, clipped into a front trousers pocket. I got away from carrying the Civilian, for some time, but as I become less capable, physically, the Civilians is again making plenty of sense, as a carry weapon.
This discussion reminded me that I had wanted to order a spare Civilian, when I had the funds. Well, I just recently had the funds, to enable justifying the purchase, so, it was a matter of finding one in stock, at a reliable authorized dealer. (Plenty of counterfeit Civilians have worked their way into the system, including some formerly-reliable sellers whose no-questions-asked return policies have allowed return fraud to get out of hand.) Blade HQ dot com had none in stock, a few days ago, but did have Civilians, today, so, I placed an order.
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