HideAway Straight: "Put on this knife and you are a human velociraptor."--JB, new HideAway owner.

The straight is the popular model as it provides both utilitarian (opening boxes, cutting vines) and self-defense benefits. For the overall background on the knife, read "The Concept". Inspiration for this particular blade shape came when I was balancing on the 4" edge along my deck's planter box while trying to train the vines to go in a certain direction. I really needed a knife, but had clippings in one hand and needed to hold on for balance as I leaned across. Decided to call this the Horticultural model. That is until Mick Strider told me, "70% of people don't understand what Horticultural means. The rest of them think you are referring to something else." So, "HideAway Straight" it is!

Beyond its utilitarian uses, someone referred me to what Michael Janich wrote about the superior effectiveness of that blade geometry in self-defense scenarios. My buddy SouthNarc, someone with 25 years of martial arts training and a cop who gets into foot pursuits and life and death struggles with bad-guys way too often, also feels it's a very effective blade on this knife. He would go for the jugular vein with this knife.

I like the straight blade type the best because I use mine a lot and it's very fast to sharpen when I do that every other month or so. I picked the new S30V stainless as the metal because it keeps its edge a lot longer than the cheaper knife steels you can buy in stores, and because the best custom knifemakers recommend it. Some people say you shouldn't use your self-defense knife unless you really need it for self-defense. I disagree. Only by using a tool often do you get proficient at the tool. So use it! When my new roommate set off a strain gauge alarm, I went from being asleep to having my HideAway knife, gun(HK), and light(SureFire) in-hand in seconds. That was the result of training and use. After I put my gun down and was sitting on the stairs telling my new roommate that if he wanted to live long and prosper, he would not do that again, I forgot I was still wearing the HideAway, 10 minutes later. That was the result of adrenalin and the fact that it weighs only 1 ounce.

HideAway Claw: The overall physics of the HideAway shape makes the knife perform exceptionally well at a pulling motion as well as the traditional pushing one. Combine pulling with the shape of the bengal tiger's claw, and you have a lot of stength and devastation. When I tested the first HideAway on my Rip Redondo training dummy, that was the first big surprise I had about my knife. There is a lot of power in the pull stroke compared with how it feels with other knives. This is because the knife becomes a part of your hand.

HideAway Hybrid: It can both stab well like the straight model and has a slight curvature which gives it the cutting power of the claw. This is Mick Strider's favorite shape of the four, and as you can see, he put a bad-ass grind on it.

HideAway Curvy: This blade shape is commonly known as a "Recurve." It is the most exotic looking HideAway, and I've only CAD'ed a certain number of them. You can order this model if your HideAway size is 4.00"-4.66". The curvy slices up my Rip Redondo training dummy very quickly. The blade shape is similar to Ernest Emerson's Commander, a very popular folding knife. Mickey Yurco did the classic satin finish on the left. Joe "Chisel" Brum did the Urban Camo finishes. Urban Camo - Gecko is in the middle, and Urban Camo - Ant Colony is on the right. Both Mickey and Joe tend to like the really difficult to grind, curvy small edges.

Titanium HideAway: Titanium is an amazing material that is very light, very strong, and never ever corrodes. The titanium model is also in straight, claw, and hybrid shapes. Click on "I want one!" when you are ready to order. Also on the "I want one!" page is a picture gallery by blade type for the blade types above. In titanium, only pictures of the Hybrid exist so far.