Here's my Strider Knife made in San Marcos near you Travis:
I also have a Gerber Bowie knife. I keep one in each vehicle. The Gerb is almost a cutlass actually and she has been christened already...albeit against an animal. If in serious trouble, I will use them. They are both very deadly even in an amateur's hands. I think it's advantagous for a full grown man to have a knife that will both stab and cleave (not just cut) effectively. Never let anyone get your knife away from you....like a gun. I cannot imagine using my knives on a human unless I am in deep doo-doo and then if pulled, it is going promptly to work or as I said before, someone deserves to be dispatched that personally....something I sure hope doesn't happen because it will de facto infer that I have suffered an unbearable loss already. This all reminds me of the Long Riders blade fight scene. That recent TL Jones/Bernicio del Toro rather unbelievable flick had a lot of up front blade use concentrating on cutting. It made for good cinema but my common sense view was that if you are that close and capable, why not just kill your opponent and reduce your own risk exposure instead of all that tendon slicing and whatnot....blame Hollywood or Kurosawa.
Buck knives is still located a few miles east of me in El Cajon Cali. I a very partial to their Nighthawk, below. (Mine is all black.)
There is a "thumb rest" top forward, it sounds goofy, but you cannot believe how much more force is put on the blade both stabbing and cutting when your thumb is on top, instead of wrapped around. Of course, you can still wrap your thumb around, but the rest gives you an option not available with other designs.
Another small change I made is the addition of a green paracord wrist lanyard. This goes through the butt, and has a loop a few inches back, made from a bowline knot, just large enough to fit over my wrist. If I anticipated a real to-the-death knife fight, I'd slip that over my wrist. Then no matter what kind of a knockdowndragout I got into, I'd keep the knife. It couldn't be dropped or kicked away. No matter what, I'd keep the knife, until somebody stopped breathing.
I think it's a very hard knife to beat for the money. I can't see spending pistol money on a knife...any knife.
