Battles With a Striking Dummy
May 3, 2021 2:02:26 GMT
Post by Murffy on May 3, 2021 2:02:26 GMT
Dealing with covid winter isolation and nursing a minor obsession with swords and knives, I decided to make a striking dummy out of old rugs. I wrapped 6 rugs, about 24" x 36" each, around a stiff cardboard tube, mounted them on an old mic stand and weighed the stand down with cinder blocks and dumbbells. After beating on it with a wooden practice sword for a while I decided to try live steel.
Dummy with fresh outer layer.
The results probably aren't very revelatory but may be of some interest. The rugs are mostly made of cotton, jute or some kind of similarly textured synthetic material. The stand flexes quite a bit. I'm surprised it hasn't broken yet. My strikes are kali-style -- hammer grip with a pretty stiff wrist and close chambered -- usually quick 1 & 2 combos. All the blades I use are pretty short.
Cutting
The best cutters:
1. GGK 15" sirupate kukri. This thing easily cuts through four layers. I'm kind of in awe of it. I worry a really good cut would reach the metal of the stand.
2. Hanwei Raptor Wakizashi (19" blade). A close second. The tip is fearsome.
3. GGK 11" sirupate kukri. No. 1's little brother is no slouch, cutting three layers without issue. Kind of amazing given at 405 grams, it lacks the heft of other kukris
The runners-up are TFW Sansibar (17") and Condor Kukri Machete (13") -- they'll get through 2 layers if my striking is decent -- followed by an 8" EGKH Afghanistan campaign kukri which sometimes I can get to bite through two layers.
Disappointing are the big knives: CS Trail Master, Muela Scorpion, Ka-Bar USMC, and Tops Wild Pig Hunter. I have trouble getting them to cut the first layer at all. Perhaps my technique is bad. Curiously, strikes with my 4" Morakniv or 3.5" Finn Wolf cut pretty impressively. My thought is I get better leverage with the small knives (also they're sharper and have thinner edge profiles).
Thrusting
It occurred to me to try thrusting. Basically I hold the top of the dummy and try to jam the blade into its belly.
In terms of penetrating into the dummy, kukris suck. Maybe a bit of the tip gets through the first layer but basically the flex of the rug material binds on the belly and stops the thrust from penetrating. The Raptor wak and the sansibar, however, penetrate pretty well when thrusting.
Still disappointing are the big knives. Although they're better than my kukris they tend not to get much more than an inch or so into the dummy. The Ka Bar is the best of the ones mentioned above followed by the Trail Master. The Tops is particularly disappointing because it's supposed to be a thruster.
In a bin of stuff to get rid of, I dug out my Browning Backlash tactical dagger. It's fashioned after the Sykes-Fairbairn commando knives. I never liked it because the grip doesn't feel good in my hand and I could never get it very sharp. But it sticks deep into the dummy. The Mora does just about as well and the Finn Wolf is no slouch. My CS Recon 1 isn't very good.
Not sure if all this means a whole lot but I do have a greater respect for the protective qualities of things like gambesons or linothorax armor.
Dummy with fresh outer layer.
The results probably aren't very revelatory but may be of some interest. The rugs are mostly made of cotton, jute or some kind of similarly textured synthetic material. The stand flexes quite a bit. I'm surprised it hasn't broken yet. My strikes are kali-style -- hammer grip with a pretty stiff wrist and close chambered -- usually quick 1 & 2 combos. All the blades I use are pretty short.
Cutting
The best cutters:
1. GGK 15" sirupate kukri. This thing easily cuts through four layers. I'm kind of in awe of it. I worry a really good cut would reach the metal of the stand.
2. Hanwei Raptor Wakizashi (19" blade). A close second. The tip is fearsome.
3. GGK 11" sirupate kukri. No. 1's little brother is no slouch, cutting three layers without issue. Kind of amazing given at 405 grams, it lacks the heft of other kukris
The runners-up are TFW Sansibar (17") and Condor Kukri Machete (13") -- they'll get through 2 layers if my striking is decent -- followed by an 8" EGKH Afghanistan campaign kukri which sometimes I can get to bite through two layers.
Disappointing are the big knives: CS Trail Master, Muela Scorpion, Ka-Bar USMC, and Tops Wild Pig Hunter. I have trouble getting them to cut the first layer at all. Perhaps my technique is bad. Curiously, strikes with my 4" Morakniv or 3.5" Finn Wolf cut pretty impressively. My thought is I get better leverage with the small knives (also they're sharper and have thinner edge profiles).
Thrusting
It occurred to me to try thrusting. Basically I hold the top of the dummy and try to jam the blade into its belly.
In terms of penetrating into the dummy, kukris suck. Maybe a bit of the tip gets through the first layer but basically the flex of the rug material binds on the belly and stops the thrust from penetrating. The Raptor wak and the sansibar, however, penetrate pretty well when thrusting.
Still disappointing are the big knives. Although they're better than my kukris they tend not to get much more than an inch or so into the dummy. The Ka Bar is the best of the ones mentioned above followed by the Trail Master. The Tops is particularly disappointing because it's supposed to be a thruster.
In a bin of stuff to get rid of, I dug out my Browning Backlash tactical dagger. It's fashioned after the Sykes-Fairbairn commando knives. I never liked it because the grip doesn't feel good in my hand and I could never get it very sharp. But it sticks deep into the dummy. The Mora does just about as well and the Finn Wolf is no slouch. My CS Recon 1 isn't very good.
Not sure if all this means a whole lot but I do have a greater respect for the protective qualities of things like gambesons or linothorax armor.