Category: Knives Save Lives (page 2 of 5)

Brandon Johnson with the bear he killed.

In a split second, the hunter can quickly become the hunted.

That’s what happened a few weeks ago when a Minnesotan hunter named Brandon Johnson was out tracking a black bear that one of his friends had shot earlier.

Johnson was out around midnight on a warm fall day near Sand Stone, Minn. The moonlight was low and there was a dense fog in the forest. Suddenly, the very bear Johnson was tracking charged at him and knocked him down, snapping his left arm in half and causing him to go unconscious for a moment.

When he came to, the 525-pound bear was biting at his hand and he was unable to get away. That’s where our life-saving tool enters the story.

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A picture of the crash provided by Maine State Police.

“They come in handy, I guess. Monday night really proved it,” Moody said.

That’s a quote from a 44-year-old logger from Maine named Leo Moody describing pocket knives.

Not long ago, Moody was driving home from work when he saw an SUV flipped upside down in the water. He called 911 and rushed to the vehicle where one of the passengers said there was a baby trapped in the back seat.

As only a special type of person would do, Moody immediately swam through the cold water to the vehicle where he saw the 3-month-old stuck in the child seat.

At this point, the average person would be helpless and incapable of ripping a jammed seat belt with bare hands. Fortunately, Moody is not your average person. He pulled out a pocket knife and began cutting away.

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Bob Dozier KM-17 Freedom Fighter, a similar version to the one used to stop the bullet.

When U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ned Clysdale handed down a knife to his son, he never imagined that it would be the only thing stopping a bullet from potentially killing his son.

This story, which first appeared in the December 2013 issue of Blade Magazine, is an amazing example of how knives save lives in many different ways. Ned Clysdale is a big fan of Bob Dozier knives and had four, including a Bob Dozier Freedom Fighter.

We’ve seen some pretty amazing ways knives have been used to save lives, including everything from cutting kids out of burning vehicles to sawing off limbs to escape certain doom. Still, some of the most impressive ways knives save lives are unintentional.

When Deputy John Capriola and his partner responded to a call in Fresno about shots being fired on the evening of Dec. 23, he never expected his knife would save him the way it did.

As they were searching for people who were recklessly shooting in the area, the sounds of gunfire became louder and more intense. Here’s what he told ABC news:

“I could hear it coming right towards me,” said Capriola. “It sounded like a laser and it hit me in the right leg and knocked me off my feet.”

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There’s blood pouring out of your leg, which is trapped under a several ton tractor. Nobody will notice you’re missing for the rest of the day and the only thing in arm’s reach is a knife your father gave you long ago. What do you do?

Barry Lynch, a 54-year-old Australian farmer, was faced with this life-or-death situation earlier this month when the drawbar on his crop sprayer collapsed onto his leg, leaving a gaping wound.

We’ve seen situations like this before. Early on in the series of Knives Save Lives, a logger had his tractor trailer collapse on his leg, leaving him trapped. Another incident involved a farmer whose arm was trapped under a piece of heavy machinery. In both these instances, the men had to use pocket knives to painfully cut off their limbs—a truly harrowing experience.

But instead of using the knife as it was intended for—to cut—Lynch used it to start digging. For six longs hours, as the pressure in his leg was building to a painful crescendo, he continued digging at the hard earth with his knife.

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Although a knife isn’t useful in every single situation you’ll ever encounter, I can think of hundreds of situations where you would want a knife over any other tool, including a gun.

The situation you’re about to read is one of those.

Late last month, a store clerk at a deli in Long Island was running the store when a masked man who wielded a gun came in and demanded money from the register.

Since the dramatic footage doesn’t have any sound, it’s difficult to really get the full story, but it appears the clerk was taking too long to hand over the money or said no and the robber shot at him. The bullet fortunately missed the clerk and that’s when he reached down below the counter and grabbed a sheathed machete. With machete in hand, the fearless clerk charged at the fleeing robber.

Some outlets are reporting that the gun jammed, which is why the robber didn’t just shoot the clerk. While this story would have turned out completely different had the gun not jammed and the robber shot the guy, this demonstrates that many blades, especially fixed blades, will not fail you when you need them most.

The footage is pretty tense, so check it out below.

The knife used to save Pauline Larwood. (Rachel Cook/ The Californian)

When you read about people in life or death situations, they’re usually hiking along trails where grizzly bears frequent or base jumping off rocky cliffs. But you can also find yourself in life or death situations doing something as innocuous as eating dinner.

One woman found that out the hard way.

According to the Bakersfield Californian, Pauline Larwood was eating at a restaurant with other politicians, doctors and experts who were in town for a symposium when she began choking on her food.

Local assemblywoman Shannon Grove, who was sitting at the same table as Larwood, said her husband jumped into action and immediately gave her the Heimlich maneuver. When that failed, he called for a doctor who also tried and failed to clear her airways with the Heimlich maneuver.

At this point, things were starting to seem grim.

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A photo from the scene of the accident.

For many people who don’t use knives on a daily basis, it can be pretty easy to dismiss them as unnecessary items to carry. Unlike a wallet or keys, a knife might not have to leave your pocket unless you need to slice open packaging or cut twine.

But there’s one other reason why everyone should carry a knife: knives save lives. Sure, this may only come about once in a lifetime, but in that single moment, you control the fate of someone else’s (or your own) life.

Over the past few years, we’ve written a series of blog posts called “Knives Save Lives” documenting the real stories of how knives have been used to save someone from certain death. One thing these stories had in common was that they were unexpected.

For example, early last year, a driver lost control of a car while going over a slippery bridge in Utah. The car crashed into an icy river, trapping three small children inside a car filling with water. The driver, Roger Andersen, tried desperately to save the kids from the vehicle, but the doors were jammed shut.

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What’s in your pocket right now? Probably a wallet, keys and a phone, but there should be one other item in there: a knife.

And not just any knife. Everybody should carry a Swiss Army knife and here’s all the evidence you need.

On November 10, a 38-year-old man was driving along in Germany when he suddenly lost control of his vehicle, according to a press release from Victorinox. If you’ve ever lost control of a car, you know how unpredictable it could be. This man’s car skidded across the lane of oncoming traffic, smashed a roadside marker, hit a tree and rolled over into a ditch on the side of the road. After all was done, the car was upside down on its hood and on fire.

Needless to say, the man was in serious trouble. Enter septuagenarian Rüdiger Leonardy.

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