Has anyone actually USED a sjambok?

[Pork Fat]

I carry one when walking my dumpy little dog. It is one of the Cold Steel
4-footers (black plastic, rubber-ish handle, 11-12 bucks), and it is intended
for dog defense. I live in a small town of modest charms, and one of the simple pleasures is going for walks with a pudgy Pug/ Boston mix that usually lives on a sofa (like me).
This has gotten to be less fun since we have been jumped by larger dogs.
I give them a chance to be good neighbors, but it doesn't always work, and I end up trying to pick up a panicky 30 pound loaf of dog while trying to kick
at the offending bully. One Lab,that usually lives in a small kennel,bolted while getting fresh water and ran through two yards to get to my dog and bite her. Red Wings and loud cursing drove it off as the owner finally showed up. Minor wound, but what the ****?
A few incidents later, I get my sjambok from SMKW. The wife thinks it's
weird, rolls eyes. After carrying it a couple of times it becomes comforting to have. I pick it up to go out, she starts again,"you walk around in PUBLIC with
that silly thing?!" like I'm some Renaissance Festival geek. I leave with dog
towing me, cross town without incident, am halfway back home, and oh crap.
This dude leaves his gate open and a Rottweiler/Heinz mix bolts out to us in the street. The dogs touch noses and BAM- the damn thing is biting my dog,
standing on her widish back, trying to get a good clamp.
My dog is comical but strong, so she stands there holding the weight and looking for a bite herself. This is about the time the sjambok hits the ribs/back
of the other dog. Twice. Hard. I'm yelling to it to get off my effin dog as it shrieks in pain and backs up 6 feet. It stays there wondering what happened
until the owner grabs it and drags it off. He wasn't mad at me, he saw what happened and apologized. My wife, of course, doesn't say anything about that silly plastic whip-thing anymore .
I was wondering if anyone else has used one of these things in real life, and also if anyone thinks that this would work on a more determined dog(such as the breed that Shall Not Be Named, lest ye be flamed by it's fans). While I am impressed by it's performance, I know that it is more of a pain type thing than a debilitating blow thing, and might not be the best thing to have.
I guess I like dogs too much to really maim one if I can help it.

Any perspectives appreciated.

 

[Sharpdogs]

I do not carry one when I walk my dogs but you may be interested in the model http://www.coldsteel.com/95sseries.html You may also want to add some type of pepper spray as well.

 

[RyanM]

Mace in one hand, gun in the other. Mace the dog, and if the owner makes any threatening moves, shoot him.

Although if your main problem is dogs attacking your dog, pepper spray isn't the best idea, since it would probably affect your dog just as badly as the other one. Pepper spray tends to have a much stronger effect on dogs than on us, because their sense of smell is much more sensitive.

I'd recommend carrying something with a little more power for in case the sjambok doesn't work, like a large expandable baton, or a gun.

 

[Pork Fat]

Sharpdogs- I have carried pepper spray before, but I have heard that it can
cause lasting problems for dogs, and if you spray it, it's gonna get all over the place- bad dog ,good dog , and me .
I don't mind getting it on some land shark, just not on the lap schmoo.
Thanks for the link, I have the 42", thinking about the big boy. More whippy.

 

[Pork Fat]

Ryan- check my location-Eastern Shore of MD- No CCW or open carry, no collapsible batons. Yes it sucks, but this is a low crime area for now, hoping to move to VA this year.



Maryland- a whole state ruled by three counties.:banghead:

 

[HighVelocity]

That's pretty interesting. I've never heard of this. Twice I have been rushed by unleashed dogs on my street. Once I met the dogs charge with a steel toed boot to the snout, which gave it a good reason to run the other way, the second time I grabbed the dog by the collar and spiked it like a football. Both actions had the effect I was looking for but the Sjambock thing looks like a good thing for my wife to carry when she is out with our dog.

How stiff is it? Can it pass as a hiking pole?

 

[RyanM]

Oops. Well, you may be able to get away with some kind of bludgeoning implement, like a stick. Oh! I know! Get one of those big rawhide chew toys and put a fishing weight or two in one end. You'd have a perfectly legitimate reason to be carrying it around while walking your dog, as long as no one hefts it.

 

[middy]

I use a 4' "stock sorting pole" you can buy at a ranch/farm supply store. It's fiberglass so it's not as whippy, but it doubles as a walking stick. It's basically indestructible, and it hurts, bad. No, I've never hit myself with it, but I've shattered 3/4" diameter green branches off of trees with a single blow... ouchie.

 

[5knives]

Ditto what Mr. middy had to say.

I use the same thing and at the edge of my yard is a bicycle and walking path that a lot of dog owners use.

Also Deer and the occasional Coyote.

Some owners refuse to obey the leash laws so there can be and have been problems.

My wife loves to be outdoors tending her flowers but she is 85% blind and epileptic and I do not fool around with her health or safety.

The sorting stick has worked very well on two occasions in the last 5 years. One Shepherd Collie mix with a bad attitude and one "who knows" moderately insane total mongrel which may have been a feral, as no owner ever showed up to claim it.

I would expect a sjambok to work at least as well.

Just remember, as has been pointed out, they can be very effective and you wouldn't want to kill or permanently injure any animal or person by accident.

Regards,

 

[Darkness]

I saw those a while ago and have been thinking about getting one, just haven't gotten around to it.

If those hit anything like a fencing sabre does, they are more than adequate for what you are looking for. I did fencing in college, and I learned really quick that I tended to over-reach, thus exposing my back. I went home with many a welt, but no permanent damage. It really got my attention, though!

Hitting any kind of neighborhood critter with one of those things should teach it respect.

 

[cane]

They are even better for dispatching snakes. You stop your swing just short of the offending reptile and the whip like snap takes care of them. I don't know how to better explain it.

 

[Pork Fat]

What I like best about it is that a healthy smack can be delivered with one
hand. My hiking stick would really take two hands, or I would have to choke up on it just to get it moving. The last thing I want to do is drop the leash.

High Velocity- It is really so flexible that it can't serve much of a walking stick role in the sense of supporting any weight.

Apparently the original ones from Africa are made of hippopotamus hide.When
used against lightly clad people in crowd control situations, they were known to cause nasty wounds. I can understand how the whip effect would do in a
snake pretty well, as Cane mentioned, especially the longer version that I haven't tried. Weather should warm up soon-time to walk the dog!

 

[saltydog452]

somewhere during the 7th-8ty grade (57-58) I had a paper route in New Orleans. Lots of dogs running lose back then. The guy who was in charge of our various paper routes advised that if we put a couple of tablespoons of household ammonia into a full water pistol and squirt the water/ammonia mixture from the water pistol on the face of a bicycle chasing dog, the dog would turn tail.

It worked.

 

[tellner]

I had an actual sjambok - hippo hide, not the plastic version Cold Steel sells. It was without a doubt the second nastiest weapon I have ever owned right after the Sudanese spear with dozens of barbs. Heavy, flexible, lead-weighted. It was a lash rather than a snapping whip. It cut a leg of lamb to the bone and broke the bone.

My wife grew up in East Africa. She told me in no uncertain terms that if it ever crossed the threshold she would divorce me. So I kept it in the car and eventually sold it to a dominatrix. I hope to Cthulhu that she never used it on a partner.

 

[Gunz]

I own the 42in and 54in Cold Steel polymer sjamboks. I think these things are absolutely wonderful tools. It is one of the more novel, and affordably innovative offerings from Cold Steel. (I know a lot of people hate the man and his demeanor and business approaches). For $12, and $15, I have some very nice little whips.

IN all reality, these are great tools, and there is a limit, I would imagine. They hurt. I have practiced with these things, and I get some power behind the sjambok with my whole hip and torso driving into the arc of the blow. No different from any sword, staff, or bat approach.

I do not know the effect on a 100 lb dog or larger. I walk the neighborhood with mine for dogs, also. The tip of the sjambok is pretty fast, and I am assuming that this is the purpose of the sjambok, from the brochure. The sharp stinging tip, which can draw blood on impact, is really the heart of the tool. I just have no clue how it performs on a rabidly crazed bent-to-attack dog.

For that, I would have to let it bite the sjabok, while my 45 finishes the work, and the knife to carve another hole, just in case.

 

[Preacherman]

The sjambok is brutally effective as a whip, creating huge welts and sometimes cutting the skin. It was widely used as a crowd control device by police and security agencies in South Africa during the apartheid era. Unfortunately, this has left it (in that country) with the stigma of being a racist weapon, and any white person who carries one in that country today might end up being targeted as a "racist", just because of having one.

 

[mordechaianiliewicz]

The sjambok was developed by a people who were pastoral cow herders (the sub-Saharan peoples me thinks Shona, Zulu, or Xhousa, maybe all 3, maybe none, but it is from Africa), and if you know much about cows, they can be much tougher than people. However the Africans could easily control their animals with it.
I'm sure most if not all dogs would respond similarly to African cattle. Which is to say, with painfull compliance.

PS Preacherman, are you from Sub-Saharan Africa? A couple of times you've referenced the area, and I've guessed you either were from there, or have studied the place.

 

[AJ Dual]

Just in case he dosen't see your question.

Preacherman's "first life" was in South Africa, before he emigrated to the U.S. and became a prison Chaplain.

 

[tellner]

It goes deeper than the South African Police and apartheid. My wife grew up in Tanzania which suffered the gentle attentions of the German colonials before the British came in. The sjambok was the lash used on plantation workers by overseers and similar. It wasn't a weapon for self defense. It was something to whip the keffirs with. In fact, the Swahili verb for "strike" as in punishing or whipping is "to hippopotamus". Carrying one would send a definite message to anyone in the culture - "I'm the Master. You're the servant. This is something I whip my servants with." Fighting words just by being there.

Since you're a Christian, and I'd guess Caucasian I don't know what the emotional equivalent would be. If you can put yourself in the shoes of a Jew for a moment someone walking around in a Nazi or Cossack's uniform would be fairly close. Blaspheming Jesus while describing the most intimate moments between you and your wife in the coarsest possible terms? It's somewhere in that neighborhood.

 

[Fred Fuller]

I ordered some several years ago after reading the article posted at http://www.donrearic.com/mightysjambok.html . I got a couple of the 36" ones for my wife and a couple of the 41" ones for me. I removed the cheesy plastic grip and wrist lanyard and did my own cordwrap handles and wrist loops with paracord.

We each carry one in our vehicle, and there is one behind each entry door in the house. We've used them herding cattle when our neighbor's stock gets out, having one in each hand extends your reach a lot and makes it easier to keep critters headed where you want them to go- always an advantage when there aren't many people doing the herding. Also used them to get dogs off one of the goats when they attacked it for some reason (neighbor's dogs, neighbor's goat). Never actually had to hit anything with them, just the sound they make 'swishing' through the air or rattling the bushes, weeds etc. is enough to get plenty of respect.

DO NOT underestimate these things, they may look cheap and cheesy but I assure you they are the real deal, and can easily draw blood if applied with some skill and vigor. The trick is to 'load' it on the forward swing and then snap it as you would a longer whip, this increases the tip velocity immensely. It carries none of the stigma stateside that it does in Africa, in fact most Americans have absolutely no clue what it is. That's an advantage...

lpl/nc

 

[tellner]

The theory is a lot like the old field-expedient car antenna.

 

[Kharn]

Porkfat:

Ryan- check my location-Eastern Shore of MD- No CCW or open carry, no collapsible batons. Yes it sucks, but this is a low crime area for now, hoping to move to VA this year.

I live in one of the older/"better" communities in Harford County and I snicker every time I see people walking with or without their dogs due to the odd things they'll carry to defend themselves at the nearby park (due to the thugs bringing their pitbulls to the park for "exercise").

One lady carries a 2'x1/2" stick (the bark's still on it) no matter if she's with or without her dog. I wonder what she plans to do after the first hit snaps the stick in half.

Another guy carries a cane as if it were a swagger stick and he obviously doesnt need it to get around with how fast he's going, and there's always the 90lb kids being dragged around by the 150lb dog.

How small does the sjambok roll up to be? I'm looking into my MD-legal options since I'm looking at picking up a dog this summer.

Kharn

 

[JShirley]

The CS version I had years ago was too stiff to roll. I believe if it rolled, it would just be a standard whip.

J

 

[Bullwhip]

I've never used a sjambok but (as my forum name suggests) I do carry a bullwhip while walking around the neighborhood with my dogs or children. It's a four foot shot loaded whip that I make out of kangaroo. I call it a Pocket Bull. It is a miniature bullwhip that coils up and fits in my back jean pocket or in a leg side cargo pocket. I've used it to deter several charging dogs. However, I've never had the need to strike any with it. After a few rapid cracks they tend to turn tail and run away before getting close. Judging from some of the looks I get after such an occurance I venture to guess that people might think twice as well. If I take my kids to the park you can bet I have it with me. Too many vicious dogs (and sex predators) around these days. Not on my watch.

 

[Waywardmonk]

FWIW Cold Steel is now putting out a video on using the Sjambok as a defensive tool. There is a teaser on their new Solid Proof dvd and it looks interesting, along with being flexible the Sjambok is also quite tough and can be used to " tie up " an opponents limbs or used as a lever for throws etc.
I like the fact that it's cheap enough to replace if you have to use it and it gets confiscated or you need to toss it or just because some dog chews on it. If nothing else I'd rather feed an attacking dog the Sjambok than my arm while I access another weapon.