What Makes A Knife A "Fighting Knife"?

I just saw a discussion on another forum about why the Benchmade Infidel is the finest fighting knife ever. A lot of the people responding are saying it's not a fighting knife at all and the very first thing that most of them are saying disqualifies it is that it's not a FIXED BLADE knife, which absolutely makes sense to me. I would not want to get in a knife fight with a folding blade knife.

I have zero experience with knife fighting but when I think of a "fighting knife" I think of an actual James Bowie design Bowie knife.

I seem to remember that a lot of people carried the Buck 119 in Vietnam. None of them that I am aware of ever said they actually got in a fight with that knife but it is kind of that Bowie pattern.

So for those of you who have more experience in this field than I do what features would you look for in an actual fighting knife?

 

Because it was made for soldiers only in the beginning, this is a true fighting knife.

 

I haven't been in a lot of fights involving knives, but these aren't what you would call bird and trout...

 

A "fighting knife" is the one you have with you when and if that situation ever arises. For most of us, that is going to be a folder with a blade of 3 in or less.

 

If you can kill a hog with a flint knife, then does that make it a fighting knife?




Hog hunting Caveman style!

Have to wonder how many more cooking careers were ended with one of these




than men killed in combat with a "fighting knife"



Randall had a small room, connected to the sales room, full of old stuff and letters from service men describing various situations in which a Randall knife was used in anger. It had to be good for sales.

Sammy claimed to have killed a Japanese solider attempting to bayonet him, on Iwo Jima, with this knife



Sammy showed me the still existing bayonet wound in his left arm and side, where the bayoneteer had got him with the long bayonet on his Arisaka. That left Sammy's right side free to stab the Japanese solider with his right hand.

Sammy also left me feel the bump on his head where Japanese bayoneteer #2 hit his with his rifle butt, stunning Sammy and knocking him down. When I asked why he was not dead, Sammy said "those Marines over there got him"

This is an extremely rare Vietnam special forces type knife





Notice: no markings!

My bud Danny Boy, with whom I bunked with at Camp Perry, was issued this thing in Vietnam and never liked it. This is his second, the first broke its tip cutting saw grass. So, Danny Boy, who was Special Forces imbedded with the Hmong Vietnamese, carried this Kabar



because it would slice the bread in a type C rations can.

So, is the second a fighting knife? Danny Boy claimed it would put a real hurt on someone.

The Hmong were given to believe that once they helped the Americans beat the North Vietnamese, that America would help them to create their own country, independent of South Vietnam. Of course, not only did that not happen, it would not have happened. The US just lied to them to get them to use their knowledge of the area, and guerrilla tactics, to fight the North Vietnamese. Danny described an intelligence probe where he was the only American with a group of 200 Hmong. No South Vietnamese were along for the recon.

 

There are some very nice knives pictured above.

My thoughts on a true fighting knife is that it needs to be 9-11 inches long, distally tapered, balanced at or just in front of the guard, and weigh in the ballpark of 14-17 ounces. It should have a guard to protect the hand and fingers. It will of course have a bowie style profile. The handle should be easy to grip, with no pain points or potential pinch points, and allow the change of grip as needed for various maneuvers. The blade should be a differentially heat treated carbon steel.

Shorter knives have a reach and speed disadvantage, as a longer blade can cover distance much quicker with the tip than a shorter blade, and has more leverage to deliver power.

The distal tapering allows the balance to remain close to the hand, so it remains a quick knife. A tip heavy knife is good for chopping, but slow in movement. A knife with too much weight in the hand versus the blade is wasting potential power.

The bowie style profile allows one to do multiple cuts to take advantage of your opponents stance. It can stab like a dagger, chop like a kukri, and tear like a hawksbill. I'll leave it to you to research what I mean by these things.

The differentially heat treated carbon steel can absorb shock without being brittle, but take and maintain a strong and hard edge.

 

The same thing that makes a rifle a Sniper Rifle.

 

Whatever you can wield confidently. I think a combat knife can be any lentgh, but must include at least 1 finger groove and a bone cutter, and definitely has to be fixed blade.

 

That locks. A very important folder feature. IMO.

 

No, that's a killing knife. That's for sneaking up behind somebody and cutting cutting their throat.

 

Glock Talk.

 

Whatever these jagged edges are called. I have always heard bone cutter.

 

Any knife could be a "fighting knife," of course, but one that has been specifically designed for fighting would be the classic WW1 Trench Knife, which is a medium length blade integrated into brass knuckles:

 

The man wielding the knife makes it a fighting knife. Case in point I have this knife for peeling bananas. Not a fighting knife, I'll just shoot whomever has a knife.