waterhouse
Member
After reading a little bit about them here and other places, I decided to take the plunge and get a Hideaway knife. There are about 300 good pictures at http://www.hideawayknife.com so it seems like a waste of time to post my crappy pics, but I'll do so anyway 
I've never done any sort of knife review, so I probably left a bunch of important stuff out, but please feel free to ask questions.
A little background: For several years I carried various 3.5-4.5 inch Spydercos and Benchmades. A couple years ago someone gave me a Spyderco Co-pilot. I found that I loved the small size. I pretty much stopped carrying the larger blades at all. The only drawback to this move was that I always had the feeling that the small knife wouldn't be very useful in a defensive situation.
The Hideaway: I was a little unsure at paying $140+ for a little knife, so I started out with the $70 Utility version made out of 440C. It arrived yesterday and I haven't put it down since. This thing is very sharp, as my finger found out about 20 minutes after taking it out of the packaging. The nice lady who runs the company must have known this would happen, because she included a band-aid along with the knife.
The knife was custom fit to my fingers, which means that it fit perfectly but also that it took a couple months to arrive. If you look at the pictures on the website, the knife is designed to stay "in" your hand even if you open it. I find this works very well from a martial arts standpoint (at least for me, as uechi-ryu involves a lot of open palm grabs and the fist doesn't close until ready to strike). You can pretty much put it on and do everything naturally, which again works well for me because I don't have any formal knife training.
The knife comes in a very slim kydex sheath which has pretty much endless attachment possibilities. I made a couple loops with some zipties and wear it on my belt.
I found ordering to be slightly less than user friendly (I actually did it correctly, I just wasn't sure that I had) but I did receive a prompt and polite response when I emailed about my order. Customer service couldn't be better.
Anyhow, it is a very small package, and now instead of feeling like I gave up something by switching to a smaller knife I feel like I gained something. I've already ordered a Hybrid version. I'm sure this isn't the knife for everyone, but it is pretty much exactly what I had been looking for. If you've been on the fence about it I highly reccomend trying one out.
I've never done any sort of knife review, so I probably left a bunch of important stuff out, but please feel free to ask questions.
A little background: For several years I carried various 3.5-4.5 inch Spydercos and Benchmades. A couple years ago someone gave me a Spyderco Co-pilot. I found that I loved the small size. I pretty much stopped carrying the larger blades at all. The only drawback to this move was that I always had the feeling that the small knife wouldn't be very useful in a defensive situation.
The Hideaway: I was a little unsure at paying $140+ for a little knife, so I started out with the $70 Utility version made out of 440C. It arrived yesterday and I haven't put it down since. This thing is very sharp, as my finger found out about 20 minutes after taking it out of the packaging. The nice lady who runs the company must have known this would happen, because she included a band-aid along with the knife.
The knife was custom fit to my fingers, which means that it fit perfectly but also that it took a couple months to arrive. If you look at the pictures on the website, the knife is designed to stay "in" your hand even if you open it. I find this works very well from a martial arts standpoint (at least for me, as uechi-ryu involves a lot of open palm grabs and the fist doesn't close until ready to strike). You can pretty much put it on and do everything naturally, which again works well for me because I don't have any formal knife training.
The knife comes in a very slim kydex sheath which has pretty much endless attachment possibilities. I made a couple loops with some zipties and wear it on my belt.
I found ordering to be slightly less than user friendly (I actually did it correctly, I just wasn't sure that I had) but I did receive a prompt and polite response when I emailed about my order. Customer service couldn't be better.
Anyhow, it is a very small package, and now instead of feeling like I gave up something by switching to a smaller knife I feel like I gained something. I've already ordered a Hybrid version. I'm sure this isn't the knife for everyone, but it is pretty much exactly what I had been looking for. If you've been on the fence about it I highly reccomend trying one out.
A large blade can draw unwanted attention, though, even if it's legal. One nice thing about the HAK is that it really doesn't look like a knife to many people. It can also be "worn" on the hand without sacrificing much in mobility or dexterity. 
..... the way I interpret Texas weapon laws that knife even though it is well below legal blade length because of the manner in is gripped could be considered as a "brassknuckle" or in the same class (illegal to carry) as certain trench knives (knives that have a full enclosed handguard with the secondary use as a brassknuckle
. 
