Knife fights just don’t happen. They are rare as hen’s teeth and when they do happen, both fighters usually end up dead.

In many systems, a knife is learned by going up against another knife in class. This is more about building a base of knowledge than preparing to actually go up against another knife. Because your chances of going knife against knife are slim to none.

First of all, if you are talking about street crime, those that carry knives are the least likely to face a knife. This means that if you pull your knife on a mugger that tried to use one to shake you down, they are likely to flee. This has happened to a few of the people I know that carry a knife for defense.

The reasons seem simple, the criminal that carries a knife does so in an effort to have an advantage that can’t be overcome. He doesn’t want a fight, he wants a victim. When the other guy pulls his knife, that advantage is gone and they know they can be seriously hurt. As knife- expert Marc MacYoung puts it, unless it is really personal, like you slept with their wife or burned them on a drug deal, most men carrying a knife will not have enough in the game to risk being killed with a knife like that.

When a knife on knife fight happens, both sides usually die. The exceptions are those cases where it is an honor thing, and people are usually satisfied with first blood. West Side Story is a great example of this dynamic. Young studs with more balls than brains show their peer group that they aren’t scared to risk themselves for the tribe by engaging in silly crap that can get them killed, but usually doesn’t.

Idiot young males have been doing this since before recorded time. Rapiers were notorious for being used like this. Many duels were had with them over stuff older and more sane men would gasp at the stupidity of. Having a scar on your face from a duel was considered a badge of honor in some cultures. It really was about showing the world your courage and willingness to face death than anything else, no matter the excuses young idiots tell themselves. People died from time to time, but usually didn’t.

But if you are there to kill the other person with a knife, and he has the same idea, both of you are likely to die.

The reason can be boiled down to one of Murphy’s Laws of Combat, “If the enemy is in range, so are you!”

There is killing power, and stopping power. I don’t need to explain killing power. A syringe filled with a deadly disease has great killing power. But it won’t stop a mugger for days, and in that time he can kill you many times over.

Stopping power is a term thrown around in the firearm circles a lot. It is amazing how many times someone gets shot, drops like a puppet with its string cut, and is almost fully recovered a week later. There are theories as to why people don’t need to bleed out or otherwise suffer fatal damage before their ability to even stand is taken away. I won’t go into them here.

Baseball bats are another weapon with great stopping power. They may kill you, but being hit by a bat will stagger most people and take away their ability to continue the fight.

Knives just don’t have stopping power. They have plenty of killing power, but people can easily get a lethal blow and continue on for a long while.

You can get stabbed or shot through the heart and keep going. Gun fighters in the west, using very primitive bullets compared to now of course, used to have a term- “Dead Man’s Ten.” It referred to the fact that a man fatally wounded through the heart could still keep shooting for about ten seconds.

At even pistol range, you have a good chance of doing damage and then avoid return fire until the other person collapses from their wounds. But at knife range, this is much less likely.

Many times, in real attacks and not duels, the weak hand grabs the other person, keeping them there and easy to stab. The fighter grabbing the other person might be stabbed through the heart, killing him in about ten seconds as I just pointed out. But ten seconds attached to someone intent on killing you with the knife in their hand can be very fatal. And that is why both sides have a good chance at dying in a knife on knife fight.

This is the big difference I saw when I learned tantojutsu in Japan. Knives were not used for duels in old Japan. If you had to pull a knife, you were pretty screwed. Some stuff I saw was for assassination and was sneaky as hell. And I am not talking just about ninjutsu or the yakuza stuff I was exposed to. Schools associated with the samurai  had techniques like how to conceal a knife under a serving tray, so that you could get close enough to stab someone to death in one move. This was used in the movie, “The Seven Samurai” when a robber took a kid hostage.

While having both people use a knife in class helps instruction, the methods you practice are more likely to be actually used against something like a sword in the old days, or a stick now. Tantojutsu has kata where the attacker uses a sword, and it is good for anyone that actually carries a knife for self defense to go up against something like that just in case. Because muggers with a knife are probably not going to go forward with the fight once they see they are on equal ground, but baseball bats give the attacker the advantage and are far more likely to happen.

But, in any case, don’t get into any type of fight with a weapon unless it is forced on you. The duels I mention are far too easy to walk away from. Don’t let your pride get you killed. It is amazing to read as much as I do about violent acts with knives and realize the vast majority of them could have been avoided if one side or both were willing to swallow a little pride, walk away and let the other guy have his victory because you retreated.

At my age, and after all my experience, waking up in the morning to make my kids french toast is far more of a victory in my eyes.