Unarmed Knife Defences

17th Century Stiletto

In previous post, Rob said, and I agree, that most unarmed knife defences taught by martial arts instructors don’t work in the real world. During the Renaissance period, stilettos weren’t just carried by professional soldiers they were also carried by ordinary civilians for personal defence, even girls carried them for protection against would-be rapists when anti-rape defences were designed to be fatal to the attacker of to at least remove his capacity to rape – permanently! So most knife defences taught by fencing schools at this time were dagger on dagger.

But unarmed knife defences were also used in Renaissance and Baroque fencing. These techniques were only effective because they were designed to be used against a triangular stiletto blade, which wouldn’t cut the defender if they grabbed or were struck with the edge of the blade.

Extrema Ratio "Col Moshin"

They wouldn’t be very effective against a modern single or double edged dagger that could slice through flesh and sever an artery, like the famous Pugnale da paracadutista assaltatore Mod. 1939, “Col Moshin” Knife, 39 09, Nemesis, Milano stiletto, or Bowie knife.

Extrema Ratio "39 09"

Extrema Ratio "Nemesis"

Milano stiletto

Bowie knife

Even though Italian knife fencing was popular very popular in Italy during the 19th Century, few fencing styles taught unarmed defences because knives had changed and the old disarms could no longer be done without being cut to ribbons. So why do so many modern self-defence “experts” advocate unarmed knife defences that haven’t got a hope in hell of working?