Self-Defense With a Knife: Stabbing vs. Slashing

This is a rudimentary guide on the positives / negatives, purposes / effects, consequences / lethality of stabbing and slashing with edged weapons in live combat.

Knife combat is like gun combat in that in any hands it can potentially be deadly. But a strategy to simply kill is not ideal even if termination is the end objective, it’s more about disabling, disarming and defending.

A knife, like any tool, is only as useful and effective as the user’s ability and application of it. As a weapon, it can be used defensively or offensively and with varying degrees of damage.

It takes just 6 pounds of pressure (lbs.) to pull a trigger of a firearm and even less pressure to penetrate human skin with the blade of a knife. The point is that the end-result of a knife can be just as devastating and with equal stopping power as a gun.

The difference is the modes of delivery. With a knife, the 2 modes are essentially stabbing and slashing.

What’s better, stabs or slashes? The answer is dependent on the situation and purpose of the engagement.