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Cleaving
Crackpot Mailbox: Being the Mid-Sized Knife Man
© 2019 James LaFond
DEC/25/19
Sat, Dec 21, 12:23 PM (4 days ago)
Already dropped a comment so I won't repeat myself but it might be worth notin' I'm a 5'9" southpaw with a predilection for cleavin' strokes so my experience is probably a little skewed lol
-AmericanDagda

At 5' 9" you are the median Murican height.
Mid-height is perfect for cleaving.
We can generalize the duel to survival by noting that what would permit your dueling opponents to cut off your hand would give your scenario attacker a chance of grabbing you, which, sure, you could cut your way out of...but what if he has help, has his own edge, or if you have stabbed him and the blade is stuck in his cage?
The cleave is the best stroke with the best general combat blade ever designed, the Bowie knife, which can take off arms at a stroke, chop down trees, club people senseless, and is short enough to conceal and access. I used to carry one in Baltimore City.
The cleave, mechanically, is a smash, with a blade.
The smash and cleave does fix your position.
But, with a short sharp blade like a bowie, Kabar, etc., so you can still slice and stab, check and move off, move and slash, stab and slice—all the options open.
In a duel, with stick or knife, my go-to pull it out of the dirt against the taller, faster guy was an inside lunge to a neck cleave, cutting under his slashing arc or inside his stab, or outside and over his stab.
In self defense, imagine he has a machete, stick, bat and you have a hatchet, hammer, flashlight and you are cleaving his neck to collarbone area while stepping inside his arc. If you are both righty's then you can use your left hand to snake his stick or check his shoulder.
If you are an evil southpaw, then you play hurk and jerk, trying to get this guy to commit with your devilish feint, then as soon as his right hand-weapon begins to extend then you explode to his outside right with your left foot, while you check his armed right hand with your open right hand and cut his head off with a stroke that travels over his extending hand which you are hopefully depressing.
By the way, cleaving is very effective with a 5-inch blade with a 5-inch handle.
It does not have to be a bowie.
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AmericanDagda     Dec 25, 2019

Only used it once but how 'bout a step to the outside of an overhand, check with the open and lift, reverse grip cut off the draw to the inside of the arm, then point's primed for face and neck if you feel the need, or you're probably already inside their stance so just hook the neck and throw.
James     Dec 26, 2019

That is excellent. Try and travel with or way from your cut.
AmericanDagda     Dec 26, 2019

Apologies I just assume a step into a cut as default. Though distance is it's usual beast to nail down here in practical application, hopin' for a high swipe and a brachial bloodbath, instead I bit beneath the shoulder blade and ripped up across the pectoral. If he'd held still for the returnin' point I'm sure I also would've discovered as I later did drillin' it, that too close and once you come through the cut and your arm's at full extension that point's nowhere near head or neck, and if you're aware enough to improvise that's the moment you stumble across the hook and throw too.
James     Dec 26, 2019

A step out gives you better extension on the cleave, a clean cut-through maybe and a backhand return possibility.

Good job.
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