The Gunner's Blog

My previous post about the tomahawk's use  drew several responses, none of them showing any clear indication that the commenters had read the article. Apparently they were here to leave links to their own enterprises. Undaunted, I here make note of something I've noticed since I posted about my tomahawk method. The moves would be useful if you were armed with a kukri or a hawkbill knife. They would, moreover, adapt quite naturally to some improvised and makeshift weapons including hammers, entrenching tools, kitchen cleavers and wooden clubs. As I implied in the former post, it is all right if you add techniques to the method if you see that as an improvement. If you add things, though, I suggest you keep and rely on the two basic techniques I describe, using them as the core of your enlarged method. Downward tierce and inward carte are very sound and reliable techniques. Both techniques, as I do them, begin and end in the saber 3rd guard (tierce) and, when us...

Executive summary: This post outlines a very simple method of tomahawk use in self-defense. The method is one of continuous attack by means of moulinets.  I have elsewhere suggested that the tomahawk or hatchet was more often used as a tool than a weapon on the American frontier. It was a frontier weapon simply because it was an ever present tool. There were better weapons available. The cuttoe, the smallsword, the hanger or even a properly fashioned wooden club was a superior weapon. Those were purpose-made for fighting and carried for reasons quite apart from day to day utility. A hatchet, though, was something every forest traveler found useful for routine tasks, to get kindling and cut up game for the cookpot, and so on. I further opined that present-day attempts to make elaborate martial arts out of the tomahawk's use are neither historical nor practical. The weapon offers too few possibilities, too little variety in its practical uses...

'Round the cracker barrel t'other day, the talk turned to knife techniques for self defense. Something came up that was interesting enough to share here. One very good way to use a knife is with the knife hand held to the rear. The free hand runs interference for the knife hand and preserves the knife hand's freedom to act. You can use the forward hand to block, grab or hit, but its main job is making sure the knife hand is not pinned or obstructed.  Then, when an opportunity presents, in goes your point. http://seattlecombatives.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/applegate.gif Of course this leaves your forward hand vulnerable if the foe has a knife. One old answer is to wrap your cloak around the forward arm to protect it, the origin of the term "cloak and dagger." But have you ever heard of knife and hat? That one's from Spain, the method of using your hat in your off hand to distract and to defend, intercept another's blade or smack him in the f...