I was talking with Mike on our Training team at the USCCA and mentioned that I needed a topic for a pocket dump, in one quick, fluid motion he pulled a shiv out of his belt. “How about a shiv?”
Mike is always great for pocket dump ideas because he carries so much, you’d never know it looking at him.
I can honestly say I never thought about carrying a shiv - frankly, I associated it with being in jail. (Too many Hollywood movies.) But it makes sense to me. If someone has my arms tight to my body so I can’t get to my gun, I can still get to a knife on my belt.
(unsheathed picture is borrowed from a Reddit post)
Do you carry a shiv or a knife hidden on your belt?
Sooo… having recently learned (on here) that I know WAY less about knives than I thought… and having some of my friends here teach me a few things, I’m now the proud owner of two fixed blade knives.
This:
@Zee that’s because you’re in the Ann Arbor area. It’s a L*****l cesspool. Come up north, everybody’s got fixed blades, pocket knives and auto openers.
I was simply raised with the understanding that a knife was an essential tool that every man should carry and given my first pocket knife when I was about 10.
The older I get the more essential I believe knives are and that they should be carried by every adult.
The key is having a knife that is always acessible so I’m prone to carrying several.
For self defense I believe knives are even more essential than firearms and of course there are lots of places you can carry a knife but can’t carry a gun.
In the modern era we know have ceramic and plastic undetectable knives some of which are very small and very easy to conceal.
One thing I like to encourage is the carry of such knives where they can be accessed in any normal position or circumstance and even some that are neither.
You can for example easily find yourself in a scrape where your hands are pinned behind your back. Where is your knife?
There are many very small but still very effective plastic and ceramic knives that can easily be carried in the lining of your belt, shirt pocket, back pocket etc.
Having knives like these carried in places people don’t expect them to be found is a great way to enhance your survivabilty in many self defense situations.
because, you know, FELONY. 
