One of the biggest issues of carrying a fixed blade knife is that of concealment. Unlike a folding knife which can be folded down to the extent that it can be placed in your pocket, a fixed blade knife cannot normally be made any smaller. This leaves you with the dilemma of how to carry a fixed blade knife concealed, so let’s examine how it can be done.
Let’s Start With the Law
Before we go any further, we have to state that we are not lawyers or legal experts so any of the advice we give here should not be read as a legal interpretation of the law in regard to carrying a knife. For a start, you could be living in any country or in any state within that country, and the laws relating to carrying weapons differ greatly across the globe.
The best and most important advice we can give you before you even consider carrying a knife outdoors, whether it is concealed or not, is to check what the laws are in relation to carrying knives in your local area, and whether or not it is actually legal to do so.
Why You Would Want to Conceal Your Fixed Blade Knife
You might be someone who has no issue with openly carrying your fixed blade knife, and assuming your local laws allow it then fine. However, there are more reasons for concealing it than not.
In urban areas, the first issue is that you could cause undue concern for others to the extent that you might induce fear in them were they to see you carrying a fixed blade knife in your hand, even if it was housed inside a sheath. This is especially so in the case of children, so for no other reason than to prevent others from being alarmed you should always keep your knife concealed.
This might be less of an issue in areas such as the countryside where knives are commonly used for bushcraft etc., but even here you should have your knife safely concealed whenever it is not in use.
Keep Your Fixed Blade Knife Safe Inside a Sheath
We will discuss specific places where you can conceal your knife shortly, but before we consider that, the optimal way to carry your knife is by using a sheath. This is paramount for the safety of both yourself and for others who are near you, with the obvious intention of preventing any possibility of the blade causing bodily injuries.
Sheaths come in all shapes and sizes, as well as being made from a vast array of different materials. Our advice, bearing in mind the sheath is the first level of protection, is to only use a sheath made from a tough and durable material where there is no possibility of the tip or cutting edge of the blade coming through. This is why hard plastics or acrylic sheaths are preferable to the likes of leather.
When you house your knife in a sheath it is highly recommended that the blade is pointing down rather than pointing up, or that the sheath is attached to your belt horizontally; if you slip or fall, you want the sharp tip of the blade to move away from your body when you hit the ground, rather than pointing upwards and potentially coming towards you. Even with a sheath covering the tip of the blade, it can still cause severe injuries were you to land on it.
Ways You Can Conceal Your Fixed Blade Knife
The simplest way to conceal your knife is to wear clothing that is long enough to cover over the sheath when it is being worn on your belt, which is the most common place for them to be.
If you have your sheath attached to your belt horizontally, this makes concealing it even easier, as the length of clothing required to cover your belt is not as long.
Using an ankle sheath is another excellent way of concealing your fixed blade knife. These will have a strap or straps which go around the calf or ankles and secures the sheath to your leg.
Staying in your foot area, if you mostly wear boots, there is a special knife called a ‘boot knife’ which is a fixed blade knife designed to be concealed within the laces of your boots or in a special knife compartment.
Lastly, we have an arm sheath which can be fitted to your forearm and the knife is then placed into the sheath on your arm. Obviously, you should be wearing a long-sleeved top for this.