Carl Levitian
member
Ice picks.
They used to be part of everyday life once upon a time. I recall when we had a family picnic, mom would make all kinds of goodies to go in her big basket and dad would get the big block of ice from the store on the corner and break it down in smaller pieces with the ice pick he lept in the kitchen drawer.
I guess those days are gone now, with ice sold in nice little bags of cubes. No pick needed. So now there would be no exuse to have something that the old Murder Inc. people out of New York had great sucsess with in the 1930's, as a toss away hit weapon.
But, is there a substitute? Something mundane enough to not rate a second glance, have a pluasable reason to be on you, and still be utilized to defend oneself, not to mention have a multitude of other uses?
The common screwdriver is one answer. Cheap, handy, and durable, it has alot going for it. Portable pry bar, paint can opener, tool, it can still punch a nasty hole in something. And some of them have very good grippy handles.
I once had a fencing instructor at Ft. Sam Houston who had a mantra he'd pound into our heads. "Cut to the hard, thrust to the soft!" he'd yell at a student. He was an exitable Frenchman named Gerard Pougardou, and was the coach for the U.S.Army Pentathalon team that was headquartered at Ft. Sam. The fencing club begged and groveled enough that he agreed to be a part time coach for the Ft. Sam recreation club fencing get togethers. We had foil, Epee, and saber fencing, and Pouge took particular pleasure in saber in which anything goes, differeing from foil in that the only target is the thorax area.
Pouge would spot a student making a wrong move, and I can still here his french accent as he ran over to the student, "No, no, no, I tell you again, cut to the hard and thrust to the soft!"
Looking at a 7 or 8 inch screw driver, one can imagine how it can be used to block and repost in a defence situation. Given how even cheap screw drivers have enough strength for prying, it's more than strong enough for parying an attack and thrusting to the soft. (Throat, stomach.) It certainly has better reach than a box cutter or small kitchen knife that seems to be a couple of the weapons of choice of street punks in my neck of the woods. Maryland being a non carry state, and hostile to firearms owners, I have noticed in local crime reports that the robbery victims very often report that they are threatened with a box cutter, or small kitchen knife like a paring knife. Its something they can ditch fast if it looks like they are going to be shaken down by "the man" as they call the local police. In recent years, it seems as if fewer guns are being used in street and parking lot robberys and assaults.
Just some random thoughts.
They used to be part of everyday life once upon a time. I recall when we had a family picnic, mom would make all kinds of goodies to go in her big basket and dad would get the big block of ice from the store on the corner and break it down in smaller pieces with the ice pick he lept in the kitchen drawer.
I guess those days are gone now, with ice sold in nice little bags of cubes. No pick needed. So now there would be no exuse to have something that the old Murder Inc. people out of New York had great sucsess with in the 1930's, as a toss away hit weapon.
But, is there a substitute? Something mundane enough to not rate a second glance, have a pluasable reason to be on you, and still be utilized to defend oneself, not to mention have a multitude of other uses?
The common screwdriver is one answer. Cheap, handy, and durable, it has alot going for it. Portable pry bar, paint can opener, tool, it can still punch a nasty hole in something. And some of them have very good grippy handles.
I once had a fencing instructor at Ft. Sam Houston who had a mantra he'd pound into our heads. "Cut to the hard, thrust to the soft!" he'd yell at a student. He was an exitable Frenchman named Gerard Pougardou, and was the coach for the U.S.Army Pentathalon team that was headquartered at Ft. Sam. The fencing club begged and groveled enough that he agreed to be a part time coach for the Ft. Sam recreation club fencing get togethers. We had foil, Epee, and saber fencing, and Pouge took particular pleasure in saber in which anything goes, differeing from foil in that the only target is the thorax area.
Pouge would spot a student making a wrong move, and I can still here his french accent as he ran over to the student, "No, no, no, I tell you again, cut to the hard and thrust to the soft!"
Looking at a 7 or 8 inch screw driver, one can imagine how it can be used to block and repost in a defence situation. Given how even cheap screw drivers have enough strength for prying, it's more than strong enough for parying an attack and thrusting to the soft. (Throat, stomach.) It certainly has better reach than a box cutter or small kitchen knife that seems to be a couple of the weapons of choice of street punks in my neck of the woods. Maryland being a non carry state, and hostile to firearms owners, I have noticed in local crime reports that the robbery victims very often report that they are threatened with a box cutter, or small kitchen knife like a paring knife. Its something they can ditch fast if it looks like they are going to be shaken down by "the man" as they call the local police. In recent years, it seems as if fewer guns are being used in street and parking lot robberys and assaults.
Just some random thoughts.
