Can anybody help me settle a 20 year old bet? Way back in high school a friend of mine made the declaration that you can tell that somebody doesn’t know how to knife fight when they hold the knife underhanded (blade on the thumb side of the hand). His reasoning is that in the Marines they teach you to hold it the other way in hand to hand combat training. I disagreed, but the
only evidence I have in my favor is dozens of movies and blurb in 12 Angry Men. Any insight on this topic is appreciated?
it depends on what kind of knife, what you want to do with it, and how you intend to do it. all i can offer is what i recall reading in knife mags and from handling my knife collection, i havent been ‘trained’ to knife fight nor have i ever been involved in a knife fight.
for a standard slash, holding it so that the blade is coming out of the knife end of the hand works well, especially since most knives are designed to be held like this for mundane tasks. for stabbing a downed person or to punch thru a soft part of the shoulder then the blade out of the pinky side with the sharp edge toward you. the inverse of that with the sharp edge away from you feels right to make a punching attack or a sweeping arc with your hand to slash. various grips can be used to block more effectively, in a knife fight you WILL get cut, your only option is to decide where to take it and make a more effective counterattack. as WAG the marines probably teach that grip because its the easiest to stab with, and stabbing ends a knife fight not slashing. a good slash will take a few minutes for the target to bleed out and go down, a stab thru the vitals will take them out sooner. a big ass marine will fight differently than the rest of us too.
just because the USMC tells some grunt ‘hold the knife thus’ doesnt mean thats the only way to fight with a knife.
I had a knife class last night, and we covered both techniques. It all depends on what you want to do with it.
Check out the article linked below. It is a knife-fighting intro by Phil Elmore, who is worth listening to on the subject. He addresses the myth about the “one true grip” in his list of fallacies.
http://www.philelmore.com/martial/knifetraining.htm
In general, blanket statements about “this is the right way” are almost invariably wrong when it comes to martial arts. You can hold the knife in your toes and be correct, if that’s the way you’ve trained to fight. If you haven’t trained, all grips are bad (some may be worse than others). If you have trained and learned effective technique, the grips you’ve trained with are good regardless of what others think of them.
nice link micco
I do know that you should generally hold it by the roundish end, and not the flattish end. 
Brian
Unless you’re going to throw it, right? See, you can hold it anyway you want 
I know nothing about knife-throwing–I only know that when I’ve seen it done it’s usually held by the blade. Maybe the weight of the handle gives better spin?
I can firmly say it is poor form to grip the blade firmly between the liver and pancreas.
troub, that is why I said “generally”.
Brian
This, of course, depends on your goals.
It has been my experience that holding it by slicing through part of your hand seems to be counter-productive for most tasks, although it does give ones physician opportunity to practice suturing.