Introduction
A boot knife is a small fixed-blade knife that is typically carried in one's boot. They are also commonly carried on one's belt, or under ones' pants leg.
A boot knife certainly shows one way of carrying a knife, but there are a variety of ways to carry a knife, even a boot knife. You can carry a knife in your pocket, which would usually be called a pocket knife. You could carry one on your belt, which about 30 or 40 years ago were the only ways to carry a knife. However, today, there are many ways to consider carrying your knives, even boot knives.
Boot knives are an old school self defense tool that started in the '70's when Gerber's Mark I became popular in the military. It worked some there, as the combat mentality of the time thought a small last ditch knife concealed in the boot and somewhat accessible had justification. It worked OK, the grip stuck out of the boot top with the bloused pants. The smaller size worked as a utility knife if you didn't mind a dull, blunt cross section and the legal liabilty of two edges.
Clipped pocket folders have far surpassed most boot knife designs. The neck knife with flat cordwrapped handles replaced the boot knife as the fixed blade choice, but the main objection is still availability, which the clip folder excels at, while being more compact and presently made in a much wider variety. The classic boot knife really doesn't offer much in the way of carry options, concealability, or usefulness because of it's inherent design. The sheath is required, and can be bulky in some carry positions - clipped knives are naturally smaller, more compact, and can carry in more places, including bras. Boot knives are always "open," which conveys readiness to respond to danger that the carrier might think is constantly imminent. Folders are carried closed - safe - and have to be turned "on," and then "off," which minimizes their intent as a weapon. It's also a safer carry method, as some fixed blade users have been perforated when they sat on the sheath and the blade cut through into them.
Hunting Knife First: First and foremost, a boot knife is a hunting knife, usually with a fixed-blade knife. A fixed blade does not fold up and they are not real long. These knives do a variety of things such as help with field dressing when hunting and skinning an animal. A boot knife can be a utility knife in which they do jobs such as cut tree limbs for fire when camping, cut twine for a campout, and cut just about anything needed. Because they are 'quick draw' type knives, they are not folding knives.
Concealed Knives: Boot knives are concealed weapons and they are concealed under the pants, in the boots, or clipped on to the boots. They come with a pocket sheath to prevent your skin from being nicked and the blade from being damaged. However, some people prefer a strap style sheath, which attaches to your leg with straps.
Easy Access for Bicycle Riders: Bike messengers and postal carriers could also benefit from wearing boot knives. The bike messenger might need a boot knife to cut open a package or defend him self against someone, even a rabid dog. The postal worker would basically need a boot knife for the same reasons: opening a package, cutting twine or rope, and protection.
There are many different sizes, shapes and functions of boot knives. Some are simply utility blades meant to be drawn for any number of uses, such as cutting rope, removing tangled clothing or warning off a potential attacker. Other knives are aerodynamic and are meant to be thrown instantly at an attacker once drawn from the sheath.
While boot knives are very glamourous, it takes skill and knowledge on how to use them and to intelligently know when to pull them out. Knowing how to install the sheath properly inside the boot will reduce the possibility of accidents. Some sheaths allow the user to control the pressure inside them and adjust how hard or easy it is for the blade to be inserted into it.
Daggers
Boot knives are fixed bladed knives and are generally daggers. A dagger is a typically double-edged blade used for stabbing or thrusting. They often fulfill the role of a secondary defense weapon in close combat. In most cases, a tang extends into the handle along the centreline of the blade.
Daggers may be roughly differentiated from knives on the basis that daggers are intended primarily for stabbing whereas knives are usually single-edged and intended mostly for cutting. However, many or perhaps most knives and daggers are usually very capable of either stabbing or cutting.
Much like battle axes, daggers evolved out of prehistoric tools. They were initially made of flint, ivory, or even bone and were used as weapons since the earliest periods of human civilization. The earliest metal daggers appear in the Bronze Age, in the 3rd millennium BC, predating the sword, which essentially developed from oversized daggers. Although the standard dagger would at no time be very effective against axes, spears, or even maces due to its limited reach, it was an important step towards the development of a more useful close-combat weapon, the sword.
Daggers achieved public notoriety in the 20th century as ornamental uniform regalia during the fascist dictatorships of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, but dress daggers were used by several other countries as well, including Japan. As combat equipment they were carried by many infantry and commando forces during the Second World War. British commandos had an especially slender dagger, the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, developed from that used in Shanghai. U.S. Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific carried a similar fighting dagger, and others were fashioned for American forces and their allies from cut-down World War I Patton sabers.