Concept

Proudly serving the knife community since 2003, we have thousands of satisfied customers all over the world as a result of our simple yet unique design. Let's dive right in and see what all the fuss is about.

The concept behind this knife: Something ultra-concealable, highly retainable in a struggle, and accessible quickly and easily.

1) Ultra-concealable, yet highly retainable.

In a real struggle, it would stay in your hands under conditions when any other knife would drop or be knocked from them.

Knife in Fist  HAK knife and playing card

2) Hands-free use.

Hold a flashlight, balance yourself, or deliver a blow with the same hand. Something unique compared to any other knife and most other weapons.

HAK knife with flashlight

3) Quickly deployable, yet still covert.

Yank and pull in one motion. It will feel familiar to those comfortable with the drawstroke of a gun. Covert even when "at ready" in your hands.

Knife compared to gun  Hideaway Knives

4) No excuses

This kind of knife is concealable in enough ways that there are no excuses for not having a weapon there when you need it, constant and consistent.

Hideaway Knife on keychain         Small waistband sheath

  HAK knives

With other knives, these needed qualities become tradeoffs.

One person called it "the perfect backup-knife."

It's a concept motivated by fear. Fear of not having a weapon when I needed one. Fear from knowing that my physical strength alone is not always enough. Fear of dropping a knife in a real struggle when things don't go perfectly for just a couple seconds.

  • Because if you take a blow to the head and your hand must relax for a second, then you have an edge on the ground.
  • Because blood is slippery. If you get blood on your hand holding a knife, it becomes more difficult to retain.
  • Because in everyday life it is not easy to conceal a self-defense weapon and have it constant and consistent.
  • Because I am not so arrogant as to presume that I'd be able to hold on to a blade for the entire time that I needed to.
  • Because I am not so completely knife-focused as to not understand that I could need both hands available at the same time as when needed an edge as a weapon. I could use my hands to balance, to grab my gun, to strike. Or to do these other Martial Arts or Combatives things that SouthNarc and Lee Aldridge described that are possibly with the Hideaway at the same time as conventional knife techniques.

No knives I saw came close enough to offering all these things, all at once; "hands-free" use, easy to retain, quickly accessible (yank, and it's on), and ultra -concealable - both before and after deployment.

1) Ultra-Concealable

Ultra-concealable means something that would fit behind my corporate ID badge. Which means its total size needed to be roughly that of a playing card. Concealability mean that I'm more likely to have it than when not needed. Concealability means if I take a break at work and go on a walk outside with nothing extra except my security badge on, I still have a weapon. Concealability means that it is easy to integrate into my everyday life. This is important because you don't know when something is going to happen.

Curvy Knife on playing card

Carrying a concealed self-defense weapon is always a challenge. Even people who are highly motivated to be able to protect themselves, and trained in self-defense frequently will not have an extrinsic weapon simply because most weapons are not concealable or easily carried on their person.

Strider HAK knife

My design solves the concealability problem by being about the size of a playing card, While providing an edge the length of other common self-defense knives.

2) Easily Accessible

Easily accessible means something that I could successfully deploy if every cell in my body were feeling fear. Or if any of my hands were shaking, or if I were out of breath. It means both speed of access as well as ease of access.

My design solves the accessibility problem by providing one large capsule-shaped hole for grabbing and yanking. The sheath designs are implemented so as to not interfere with a single motion grab.

3) Good Retention

The problem with most knives that are small and wonderfully concealable is that they are tough to hold on to even in simple use. I have long fingers. Knives that have a big enough handle part to get a good grip on are simply too big for easy concealment and then you still have the problem that if your hand must relax, the knife will fall out.

HAK knife in hand

My design solves the retention problem by being custom-fitted to the buyer’s 2-finger circumference measurement. Through a lot of prototyping on a CNC machine and AutoCAD script manipulations, I have a routine that creates the right size capsule hole for each wearer based on their 2-finger measurement.  The right size means that the capsule hole is big enough to be easily accessible, yet snug enough to facilitate retention if your hand were to have to open up.

Hideaway knife green

So that is why the HideAway was born.

Additional Benefits

There are several extra benefits of the HideAway knife’s design.

4) "Hands-free" use

This knife is great for people who would find it convenient or necessary to be holding on to other things at the same time as their knife. You can also hold a flashlight or a kubotan with the knife in the same hand. With the knife your off-hand, you could still use your normal 2-handed gun grip.   You could still execute an edge-of-hand blow a la Carl Cestari / James Fairbairn Combatives.

Hand holding flashlight

Paratroopers, fishermen or gardeners would also find the knife handy because of this.  I got the idea for one of the blade shapes (the straight one) when balancing on the 4’ tall planter box edge along my deck while trimming the vines.  While you are doing all of those things, dropping the knife is very inconvenient, and having the use of your hand and dexterity in most of your fingers is very convenient!

5) Hidden in plain sight

Yes, it’s ultra-concealable.  But even when you are “wearing it”, this knife can still be concealed.

Closed fist   Hand Holding HAK knife

Another way to think of it = it is an anti-Murphy’s law knife.  Relevant Murphy’s laws:  
1) You won’t have a weapon when you need it
2) In a struggle, things won’t go perfectly.

With a HideAway knife, form follows function. To see models and pricing, click here.

Prototyping the HideAway

Hanging HAK knives

Prototyping the HideAway

If you'd like to know more about the HAK's innovative applications or the many carry options, click here.

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