[guerrilla1138]

I'm not quite sure how to start talking about this knife, as it really is the most amazing thing (and I dont even own one yet), so I'll just go for it.
Several months ago one of the members of Self Defense Forums, FrontSight, began discussing a knife concept she had, for a small knife, similar to a La Griffe in principle, that could be hidden, sheath and all, behind an ID badge clipped to ones shirt.
Before I saw this process start, I wouldnt have believed you could do that knife, not big enough to be effective,w ith a good sheath, not behind an ID card. Well, I would have been wrong.
I've watched for months now as this progressed, and a couple design ideas were kicked around, and then dropped and a new variation was kicked around, and FrontSight milled prototype after prototype (A girl with a CNC mill.. ohhh...
:loveyes: ;)), and Mikey Yurco made working prototypes, and sheaths, and we all got to see the concept in action, a brilliant concept was now a reality, and was just as brilliant as ever. And finally, when there was a final design, four variations of it, I watched as some of the best knife-makers int he world, took to creating final working versions.
I've been seriously impressed :bow: watching this process unfold as it has, with a great deal of the cocneptualization, and idea kicking, and design sharing, going on on the forums. That 18 page long discussion is one of the best anywhere about small knives, theory and application, and it is an amazing look at the process and effort behind this knife, Y'all need to go read it, so I'll post a link at the end of this post.
I've been fiddling with knives and knife design for close to three years now, and I havent come anywhere close to nailing something as 100% excellent as FrontSight has.
There is no way I cannot be impressed by this knife, and this effort to make it a reality. From every way I can look at it, from a designer/makers perspective, from an end users perspective, from an emotional human perspective, I am impressed with the design, the thoughtfulness, the effort, and the reality thats come from it.
And now... FrontSight has a site mostly up and running about the Hide-Away... and everyone needs to check this out, NOW.
http://www.hideawayknife.com/main.php Go, read, learn, you'll want one, I promise. ;)

For the price, these are a steal. Excellent craftsmanship, designed for the real world, with real world concepts behind it all the way, truly an end user dedicated product, no weird ideas, no questionable methods, just solid, basic, defensive knife work and a solid, basic defense knife, designed by an end user, made by end users, for end users. Its a winner.
As soon as I can cough up the dough, I'm going to be getting one (at least.)

The original thread:
http://www.selfdefenseforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=974&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Hide-Away review by Lee Aldridge of Reality Based Fighting Concepts, Albuquerque, NM:
http://www.selfdefenseforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2787


I've invited FrontSight over here, to talk about the HideAway, or whatever she wants. :) Y'all be nice now ;)

[FrontSight]

guerrilla1138 (what _is_ the story behind that alias?)

That is really sweet of you to post this. Funny timing - just this this week I was thinking, "I hope Morgan gets one!" Yes I get excited when anyone gets one, but when it's been someone who has helped and encouraged all along that is cool.

Here are a few pics. The first one is how the HideAway evolved, and the others are more current. Yes, that first pic second row down in the collage of photos is of my kitchen cutting board. While chopping broccoli, it occurred to me that perhaps that material could be great for prototyping. (ummm, no... ;-)

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/p6d4a47b477ca642a2fbe788e40d0f323/fc806d32.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/p7b6ac300f65a08448865c5f02598a3f1/fc806a94.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid53/pecc901c5d6e1e86f64c637b241f4c74b/fc8b8403.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/p1b992e4fb483f6ebf9f0349fe6c704b6/fc806ac8.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/p30167fa3b555d4be3fbc175e869cee4c/fc806bd5.gif

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid54/pc5f5ad1c062a45991d2a3fe0f33fbe39/fc83e1b4.jpg

Lots more pics and info at http://www.hideawayknife.com/main.php

The website is only 1 week old. If you have any feedback on it or especially the "I want one!" process, please let me know! I'm trying to make it very easy to understand, which is not easy for someone who is already a geek. ;-).

Thanks again Morgan!

FrontSight

[guerrilla1138]

The story behind it is kinda odd. When I first hooked up with the late board known as The Firing Line, I was in a quasi-anarchist, political protestor wanna-be, idolizing the Chiapas Zapatista guerrillas, phase. (I'm out of the phase, I know anarchy isnt good, but I am still a political protestor wanna-be, its just no one protests about anything related to my politics ;)) I was also really big on Police State novels, such as 1984, at the time... one of my favs was the novelization of the pre-Star Wars George Lucas movie THX1138 (Which is also the "name"/serial number of the main character)
Soo... I combined the two, and got Guerrilla1138. Thought it made a statement. I dunno if it does or not, but when FFF started up and I got on board, I kept it just to keep myself recognizable.

:) Cool to know I offered up something to the project. Everyone else offered up great advice and suggestions and help to get things rolling and all that, and I thought I just sat around and said "wow, thats cool" a lot, hehe ;)

Hmm... theres only one problem... once I figure out which one i want (first), and get a Hide-Away... then its going to be a daily decision between that and my La Griffe. ;)
Oh well... been thinking about moving the la-griffe to a behind the belt sheath anyway.

That Mick Strider version with the tiger striping and cord is totally bad ass. I love it. The claw shape is my fav shape, but that one so far is my favourite to look at. :)

Thanks for posting, FS... very cool to see ya here, hope you can find time to contribute more here :)

[The Warrigal]

Great to see you here FrontSight!

I love the knives, but I shudder at the thought of how many beaurocratic hoops I'd have to jump through just to get an Import Licence for one.

Guess I'll just have to wait until John Howard and Co. have had their arses kicked out of Office! :witchrev:

You're a right creative knife designer.

I look foreward to seeing more of your work!

Regards,

Warrigal

[s2babe]

:welcome: FrontSight! Glad to have you with us.
Those are really cool!
Unfortunately, I don't have $140 for one right now.:NO: Oh well, I'm getting myself a CRKT here soon so that I won't be totally defenceless.

[NGK]

I would like to have the curvy one in tiger stripe. Cool knife, i remember reading a thread about it somewhere along time ago when maybe it was just a squirt of a idea, but cant remember what forum, glad to see it got made and looks so good, i will def. buy one.

[Tony from Finland]

He-hey! Welcome, Frontsight! (And save me a Hideaway for summer, when I can actually (hopefully) afford to buy one... ;) )

[FrontSight]

Hey, all the smiley's on this board rock!

Originally posted by guerrilla1138
I was in a quasi-anarchist, political protestor wanna-be, idolizing the Chiapas Zapatista guerrillas, phase. Now that I can not picture! Got the ref now. It's a throwback to your more impressionable days :D.

Originally posted by guerrilla1138
Hmm... theres only one problem... once I figure out which one i want (first), and get a Hide-Away... then its going to be a daily decision between that and my La Griffe. ;) Noooo, definitely not! :magic: You don't have to make that decision, because you can handle both. Once you grab the HideAway, you still have your hands free to grab something else (another knife, a gun, etc.) :cowshoot:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/pe76956105567766751ec4eaf996603c4/fc7f1263.jpg

Originally posted by The Warrigal
Great to see you here FrontSight! I love the knives, but I shudder at the thought of how many beaurocratic hoops I'd have to jump through just to get an Import Licence for one. Thanks Warrigal! Bummer about the import license. Maybe the ferrett person (australian knife maker) would know?

Originally posted by s2babe
:welcome: FrontSight! Glad to have you with us. Thanks s2babe! Happy to be here. Didn't know that Morgan person haunted around here as well.

Originally posted by NGK
I would like to have the curvy one in tiger stripe. Cool knife, i remember reading a thread about it somewhere along time ago when maybe it was just a squirt of a idea, but cant remember what forum, glad to see it got made and looks so good, i will def. buy one. Hi NGK. Mickey Yurco grinds the curvy ones (he likes the more difficult ones to grind, and that one is the most difficult to grind.) He just got some blasting squipment, and he will be coming out with the Yurco Urban finish. Downside of doing things like beadblasting is that it scratches up more easily (or at least it shows more easily). However, I like this. I prefer to use knives, not keep them as safe queens. I really hope people who get HideAways use them. I know some plan on just keeping them though because a custom ground knife by the artists that I'm collaborating with is ... rare.


Originally posted by Tony from Finland
He-hey! Welcome, Frontsight! (And save me a Hideaway for summer, when I can actually (hopefully) afford to buy one... ;) ) Thanks for the welcome Tony!

Last night I added a Gallery section to the website. The background to the Gallery is a photo Mick Strider sent me of HideAways lounging around in their own steel dust after the initial grind.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid55/peb5e202cdb558329d809bfe2c964300c/fc7f3476.gif

www.hideawayknife.com\main.php

The gallery is under "Models"

FrontSight

[BrockthePaine]

I'm late. Again.

Hello FrontSight, welcome to FFF. Looking forward to having you around in the future.

That knife looks mighty impressive. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

BCP

[FrontSight]

Thanks Brock!

[Sleepy]

:welcome: FrontSight! As the others have said that sure is a very impressive knife! It's been added to my "Christmas" list ;) :D

[NGK]

I can't figure out from the website, are these available? I sent my e-mail in at the buy one place but nothing came back? Help I WANT ONE!

[FrontSight]

Thank you Sandy, and Hello NGK.

NGK,

Click on "I want one!" (and enter your size and what you want)

These are made to order to fit your hand. The picture below shows you why, with this knife, size matters! These are trainers before being anodized red. Look where the arrow is pointing. That is one order for a husband and wife. In both, the blade length is similar, and is ~ that of a LaGriffe.

Proper fit is crucial for one of the purposes, which is to balance getting it on quickly (yank, and it's on) and retaining it if your hand drops or if you hold on to something else.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid48/p2418295f575f174db757df7d087c8602/fcbd967d.jpg

I have a several available from Mickey Yurco that just arrived and aren't reserved. I will be sending an email to people who have already entered what they want via the website's "I want one" (and are in the correct size range.) I figure I should give them first dibbs on incoming stuff since they have been waiting already. However, if they want a different type than what I have available, I'll make it generally available. Someone who entered one just the day earlier got one mailed to him 3 days later like that!

FrontSight