Although knives are commonly used by the criminal fraternity as a means of achieving their goals, we should also cover the use of other types of sharp implements which can be just as dangerous. As well as carrying knives criminals and young males (and in some cases young females) are routinely carrying kitchen knives, stanley knives, screwdrivers and scissors as well as anything else that is sharp and pointy. Many of these young people wrongly believe that carrying some kind of conventional or adapted weapon can give them the edge, for them it becomes an equalizer, especially if they find themselves alone against multiple attackers. These types of tools are pretty much found in every household up and down the country. No parent is going to become suspicious of their teenage son/daughter if the odd tool goes missing.

A sharp tool can be just as dangerous as any military RAMBO style knife, they are easily concealed and are relatively inexpensive.

There are many martial arts instructors teaching knife defences but i have found a lot of the material related to disarms to be impractical and down right dangerous. Most knife disarm techniques taught in 'dojos' will usually involve a student standing in front of their 'sensei' in a wide horse stance, the sensei will then give the signal for his devoted student to attack this is usually followed by the instructor seizing the knife wielding hand and employing some kind of wrist lock.

The film industry and Hollywood are also guilty in deluding the masses when it comes to disarming. The archetypal hero is often shown disarming the 'baddie' with relevant ease and walking away unscathed (or if your a bollywood fan the baddie is usually shown being launched into orbit and landing in the next town closely followed by everybody on screen breaking out into song and dance, only if it was that easy)