The Ultimate Guide to Knife Combat Paperback – June 1, 2007

It is hard to give this book an exact star rating since the work is essentially a compilation of various articles in Black Belt Magazine from the early 80s to the mid 2000s. Some articles are good. Some are complete crap! I'm old enough to remember when the average pseudo-traditional karate school was seen as the "expert" on real-world defense. So read these articles with a critical mind. Beware of the sections written by Jane Hallander who was a author of martial arts magazines and books at one time. She essentially writes articles about an average martial artists who believes that they are premier experts at knife fighting. Their technique is junk! (One technique advocates to use a drop spinning leg sweep to subdue a charging attacker with a knife; yeah right!). Having said that, there are also a fair wealth of information in other articles by other authors. David E Steele does a number of great historic articles, pseudo combat expert Jim Wagner gives some of his takes on the subject (Wagner writes good info, but DON'T believe his bio), and I was pleasantly surprised by a James LaFond who used real police cases for referencing his article. There is even an article written by Ernest Emerson of Emerson knives. The material is about 1/2 and 1/2; half useful material to think about, half junk that could get you killed. So read with a critical mind - but read it!

I just finished this book, and it was an interesting and entertaining read. Firstly however, I wouldn't tell anyone to go to this book as a guide. It's more of an interesting read if you're already well on your way.It is simply a collection of Black Belt Magazine articles on knives/knife fighting dating from the early '80s to the mid 2000s, some of which are guides on how to get killed horribly by a knife wielding attacker, to the so-so, to the few gems throughout the book, and they are also in chronological order in addition to being in the order just described, more or less.It's interesting to see how the martial arts have evolved in America over the years as demonstrated by these articles. Some of the articles were easily 10 years ahead of their time, and some should never have been written, and most of the later ones are typically contemporary and predictable in that regard. I particularly enjoyed and found useful those couple of articles on 3rd person studies of knife attacks with statistics.They are all short.

great book to read, excellent collection of articles from great masters. a must for beginners to intermediates who wants to include the use of knives in their martial arts.

The articles remain timely. The photos are small, black and white and dated. Hard to see what is demonstrated. That is the one bad thing about this book, which is otherwise informative.

Training is always better with a partner. You can learn just so much from pictures. It is a good guide to what to practice.

Just look at the knife in the cover photo. It's a Spyderco Spyderfly, a cool gadget for show, but it is just not possible that it be a knife of joice for anybody who has a slightest idea about knifefighting. Hence instant turn down.

As someone who is into knives(as well as guns and other weapons), when Black Belt decided to put together this book from previous articles that had appeared in Black Belt Magazine, I immediately ordered a copy. Since I had been a subscriber to Black Belt Magazine for more than forty years, I had read most of the articles in the past; nevertheless, it is a good feeling to have all the great knife articles over the last twenty four years in one volume. This book is a compilation of Black Belt knife articles written between 1982 and 2006. There are 312 pages with 49 articles. Some of the articles in this book include: Overcoming the fear of defending yourself against the knife, The Bowie knife, The Pocket knife, Boot-knife fighting, Knives VS. guns, Armed defenses against the knife, The knife fighting tactics of the U.S. Marine Corps, Modern knife fighting, Developing a Warrior attitude, Knife wisdom from World War 11, Reality of the blade, Girls best friend, Cutting edge, Red Warrior System, Anatomy of a knife fight, 8 Tips for better knife defense, Edged weapon survival and numerous other articles. This short review cannot do justice to the enormous amount of material this book contains.In conclusion, if are seeking knife fighting and knife defense advice from numerous experts in their field, this is a book that you will want to own. Though I do not agree with a few of the articles concerning knife use and defense; nevertheless, the sheer volume of articles and view points makes this book a must read for all martial artists and combatives instructors.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale(Author: Tanto-Jutsu Manual).

I bought this book as well as others like it for historical reference. In the modern day people tend to forget how we got to where we are in the MA here in America. UFC, tacticool shooting schools and the like have not always existed. This book shows a very good progression in BB articles as to what people were thinking at the time. As "Somyunguy" stated below there are a few good gems to be found within, just like with any book, but some things should be ignored. Overall I gave it three stars for a historical reference and it saves me the work of having to research every single one of these individually. If you are looking for some true training from a book, Bob Kasper's material is where one should look in my opinion. Simple and basic instruction that can be applied to your current environments.