gloves long enough to cover one’s forearms, too.
What about a Kevlar vest? How heavy would such a vest be? Could it be worn under a business suit?
no, kevlar would not protect from a knife. kevlar stops bullets by distributing the force over a large area and forcing the bullet to deform and spread itself. a knife would not deform, and would keep it’s force focused, cutting through the vest and presumably your flesh.
an armor jacket with inset plates of metal or plastic might work. it would be pretty heavy, though.
While it will not be very effective against a stab, kevlar works well against cutting. People who cut meat and such for a living will wear kevlar gloves to protect themselves from cutting off a finger or slashing their hand. Wal*mart even sells such glove in the fishing section.
They DO make anti-knife-cut gloves… I can get 'em for about $6 a pair at any place that sells fishing gear. They’re designed to keep you from slicing yourself as you clean fish. And yes, they work.
Now, whether they’ll work against a more forceful slash is another question. I believe they will, but haven’t done any empirical testing.
I have seen similar gloves woven from actual fine steel-link chainmail, but the synthetic-fiber ones are, unsurprisingly, much, much cheaper.
In the hijacking case, the knives were actually pretty small, and were not designed to “stab”. So any anti-cut protection would have been a definite boon.
However, the question then is, taking on more than one determined hijacker with small knives, using just your hands and some gloves.
I used to work for a glass company and all the gloves we issued were Kevlar[sup]TM[/sup]. Most were either dipped in rubber or had rubber beads/dots on them for grip and extra protection.
They worked, every day, 24/7/365, for preventing cuts from glass, which I would argue is a good substitute for a knife edge.
No, now I think the question is a small number of hijackers with knives taking on large numbers of pissed off passengers who know that their lives are at stake.
I’ll be surprised if there are any future hijackings in which the hijackers are not armed with serious weaponry.
I once tried to cut some kevlar cloth. I ruined several razor blades trying. I think it would offer substantial protection from even large knives/blades. I don’t know where civilians could acquire this, but I’m sure it’s out there. Check with places that offer fiberglass in large quanities.
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No, now I think the question is a small number of hijackers with knives taking on large numbers of pissed off passengers who know that their lives are at stake.
I’ll be surprised if there are any future hijackings in which the hijackers are not armed with serious weaponry. **
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I’ll be surprised if hijackers ARE armed with serious weaponry. Security is being increased. Air Marshalls are coming back. We may even see armed flight crews.
If a hijacker gets on board with a gun, I would take a few rounds in order to get him to empty the magazine. His weapon is now useless. If I gotta go, I’ll go with a fight.
IMHO, hijackers are out of business.
Just as an interesting tidbit, I have a little bit of something I saw on a television show about kevlar. Apparently, those working the machines that cut the kevlar wear steel mail gloves. They’re also sold as butcher’s gauntlets. However, they’re designed to protect from big, fast-moving blades. As the others have already answered, you don’t kneed nearly that much for a simple edged weapon. As to price, try $80 per glove. Not per pair, per glove.
1kBR Kid, don’t you think you’re being a bit dismissive of human ingenuity? Man’s inhumanity to man is an area that sees a disproportionate amount of innovation.
Just as an aside, did you see the article where various agencies caught a group of people who were making four-shot “guns” disguised as cellphones?
The article I read didn’t specifically bring up hijackings, but think of it, every third person getting on any given flight is carrying a cell. You unclip it from your belt, toss it on the tray with your keys and change, and once you walk through the magnetometer, the nice security man hands you the tray. Which didn’t go through either the metal detector or the X-ray conveyor.
Sure, they’re just four-shot deals, probably not terribly accurate, and probably hard to aim well… but then, look what they did with little razor blades.
They make Kevlar everything these days. I’ve even seen a Kevlar baseball hat.
There is a line of Kevlar vests that LOOK like a business suit vest… in all the popular colours.
Last time I flew through Houston (IAH), they required all cell phones go through the x-ray. They also picked up several of them on the exit conveyor and punched buttons to make sure they responded properly. This was before the recent hijackings, but it was after the news about the cell-phone guns. I was going to quiz the guard about it while he was bomb-sniffing my kid’s diaper bag, but he didn’t look too chatty.
On the same topic, they also spent a lot more time with the contents of the bowl I filled from my pockets. They were only mildly interested in my SwissTech micro tool and my LED flashlight, but it made me glad I hadn’t tried to slip my KISS knife through as a money clip. In the old days, when I was too hurried to check a bag, this would work, but I wouldn’t try it now, even in the days before last week.
“Kevlar” is an aramid polymer that was developed by Dupont and has seen widespread use in “soft” ballistic body armor. Two types, Kevlar 29 & Kevlar 49 are available. Kevlar fibers function as a “net” to dissipate the energy of bullet impacts. “Hard” body armor is made by combining Kevlar fibers with stiffer matrices made, usually, of resins. Newer aramids, such as “Twaron” are even more flexible and stronger than Kevlar, and a non-aramid polymer, “Zylon,” is yet better and lighter. The current vest that I wear is a Second Chance product made of Twaron T2000, and is classed as Level 3A. The usual police issue vest offers Level 2 protection.
Kevlar soft body armor is not rated to stop knife attacks, particularly from weapons such as ice-picks. Nonetheless, wearing a Kevlar vest is better that wearing nothing against a stabbing attack, and Kevlar will stop a blade that is not directed at a 90 degree angle to the vest.
I can think of three places I’ve seen chain mail gloves.
As part of a shark suit, probably the most expensive, but I saw (on TV) a man take a full on bite from a decent size shark with NO ill effects. These have gotta work for knives in any capacity.
Butchers gloves. These too would probaly work. WAG, second most expensive.
At a gathering to replicate old english fairs, you know the ones. There were some for sale there. And an ad in ‘Nocturne’(?) magazine, along the same lines. Goth stuff. But I bet even these would work.
The idea would be to grab the blade itself. One on one you could probably pull it off.
The question is would they let you on the plane with these things?
Anyone?