Knife use in self defense is a pecuilar passion of mine as to me their potential is underrated and their effectiveness at defense (by being offensively defensive) is without a doubt. Fortunately there are some wonderful resources on the WWW that are not only free, but also were used in WW2.
W.E.B. Fairbairn's Get Tough comes to mind. Colonel Fairbairn designed a stiletto style dagger based on his years in the Changhai Police Force, in fact such a dagger is the picture at the top of the Blog.
More pertinent for this post is, Col Fairbairn also created a chart showing the major arteries in the human body along with an estimate of how long consciousness would be lost if one were severed as appears above.
A recent work by Paladin Press entitled Contemporary Knife Targeting studied Col Fairbarin's chart and asked medical professionals about it's accuracy or lack thereof. The work claimed Fairbairn was overly optimistic and that the volume of blood and heart rate would make the chart impractical and of lesser value.
My conlcusion is Col Fairbairn was too optimistic, but the Paladin Press work was to conservative in that the rate a injury will cause shock in an attacker varies from person to person, from situation to situation, they also failed to account for the increased heart rate and blood flow internally that a conflict will create. Authors Grasz and Janich however, did offer an effective biomechanical cutting program that relied more on targeting muscle groups then arteries.
That said, taking Col Fairbairn's chart and authors Grasz and Janich's study, it can be reasonably said that either penetration into the body cavity, or slashing a artery or muscle group can be done with the smallest of knives.
That 2 dollar steak knife literally can be used to save one's life in a pinch, if not knowing knife use system is a problem, it is one of a lack of knowledge only, the triceps, qaudraceps, radial artery (inside the wrist) are well known to most.
A steak knife one may ask? Of course, it is the deadliest blade in America, often a domestic dispute will erupt and the first thing that comes to hand is used, be that a chair or a knife from the butcher's block on the counter.
Of course things can be more complicated then this, and training never hurt, especially if one's life is in the balance, or could be in the balance, but do not let the "ninja master" syndrome effect one, mankind has used knives for thousands of years, it is not rocket science at a most basic level it is quite simple.
