Highland Knife Fighting: With the Dirk and Sgian Paperback – January 1, 2007

Nice book that is well written and contains nice photos of the material to follow along with the written material.

Most books on knife fighting are written poorly and give a fantasy view of the subject and offer formulaic methods for dealing with knives and knife fighters, this book goes back to bare bone basics. It's written under the premise of men intent and killing each other in warfare. It helps shatters myths associated with knife combat because it goes back to brutal reality. While it won't impress those in search of what I deem "Jack in the Box" defenses ( I.e preempted attacks where both the attacker and defender know the move and harmonize in a prearranged set of scenarios)It does however offer cold realities of blade combat and tactical food for thought , even though its written as historical reference its very useful information. It's one of the few books I've ever read that doesn't paint a favorable picture for the unarmed defender ( Realism) although the days of the Scottish highlander are long gone we can learn from the period and make well informed training methods in our present day skill sets, It offers a concise picture of warriors in combat to the death and the ruthless methods employed. A very good book if you study combatives or knife fighting or Scottish Warrior Culture. Highly recommended

I find myself not wanting to write a bad review as the book isn't bad. However, the information (which is well researched) is fragmentary. This is not the fault of the author. Much was lost when Highland culture was suppressed by the English, but also Europeans abandoned their traditional martial arts readily, or so it seems, when guns became dominant. It is only recently that European martial arts have been reconstructed, or are being reconstructed. European dagger fighting in general is based on wrestling, and the author points out this is the case with Highland knife fighting as well, but the explanations and techniques described in the books are not very helpful unless you already have a familiarity with Highland wrestling. Since I don't have much experience or exposure to Highland wrestling (actually I don't have any), the book offered little in the way of practical insight. Someone with a wrestling or grappling background may find the book to be more revealing than I did. This book worked out to be a decent scholarly/historical analysis of Highland dirk fighting, but it is not a practical manual of any great depth. Again, for the right person with the right background, it could be very useful, but I am not seeing it.

This book in combination with the info available on the authors websites are exactly what you need to learn this style. I've practiced martial arts for 30 years and have learned many forms from books. It can be difficult. Not so with this book, and especially if you join the organization and/or use the videos. Most, if not all of the information is given freely other than the cost of the books, which I find quite admirable and rare. I tried at first to learn from the videos alone, but the book gives more information and detailed instruction. Makes learning much easier because of the extra detail, and more fulfilling due to the history shared. All of the books in the series are very good and there is plenty of history, diagrams and reference. Again, quite rare these days. If you are interested in authentic information for the Highland and Gaelic martial culture, you probably wont find better than this. I will repeat this message on all the books because I feel the same for all of them. Each provides great instruction and history for the various weapons.

I brought this book, thinking it would be another of those boring history books, talking a lot about what this group did, and what that group did. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while there is a history section, it is by no means boring. And the lessons on the Highland style of Knife fighting are both informative and useful. They are easy to follow, and once you have the basics, the rest just seems to flow from there.If you are interested in Historical combat, re-enactment, or just like the idea of Highlanders, then this is the book for you.I highly recommend this book.

I found this fascinating. Chapters are concise.I have received this product in exchange for my fair and honest review.It's the stuff that separates ordinary beings from deep thinkers, from Geniuses. I particularly like that this product. The price considering the quantity and quality for this product is the key selling point and is really unmatchable with anything else out there. So far I do not have any cons about this product! Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I hope it is helpful in helping you decide whether to buy the product or not!

This is a good book and I think it's almost a five star book; I just wanted more material. What there is is well written and interesting. Good historical background and the illustrations are well done. A nice addition to the knifists library.

A fun read and silly coffee table book. Very informative but definitely not a "read this and put on a kilt and become the William Wallace of knife fighting". For anyone interested in Highland culture/history, HEMA-bros; or anyone interested in martial arts or knife fighting looking for a unique take on wielding a big freaking knife.

Living in Scotland again and having acquired the family estate I was interested in the Amory a place out of bounds as a young boy. Living in the place alone besides the few staff I felt rather uncomfortable over holidays. I decided to keep a dirk and broad sword in my room for self defence proposes as large house are not unheard of being raided. To while away some time I have trained for nearly a year now, and have become rather proficient. When I first started the dirk felt heavy and cumbersome, but now with constant training my arm is strong enough that it feels light. I can also use my left hand for fighting, this felt horrible and unnatural at first, however I am totally ambidextrous with the dirk now. If not to prove this systems worth I recently attended a seminar in combat and had an opportunity to spar, the instructor was very impressed with my ability and enquired how I had learned. So something must be good within these pages.......like all training books there was the odd problem but overall it's proved valuable teacher. I plan to invite the author to my home in Scotland....

An excellent insight in to the old ways of Scottish culture, and how exactly the weapons were employed during combat.I will deffinately start to wear a dirk from now on with my highland dress.

THE DELIVERY OF THE BOOK WAS VERY PROMPT.ONCE IT ARRIVED, EVERY PART OF THE BOOK WAS IIN BEAUTIFUL GLOSSY PRINT, EVERY PAGE AND PICTURE AND TEXT WAS CLEAR AND CLEARLY LEGIABLE. CLEARLY THE AUTHERS HAVE A PASSION FOR THEIR SUBJECT. THE OMLY THING I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE WAS A SEQUENCE OF ACTION SHOTS TO EXPLAIN THE TECHNIQUES MORE

This small book attempts to present the techniques for fighting with the highland dirk in the days before 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', when this weapon was in common use. Despite liberal use of text and photographs in it, I found the instructions hard to follow and suggest that this subject would be better served by a DVD. For someone fascinated with his highland heritage or historical reenactors, this manual could still be of interest.

Das Buch ist gut aufgebaut und bietet eine gute Zusammenstellung einfacher Dolchtechniken. Die kapriziösen Hebel- und Festlegetechniken, die aus mittelalterlichen Publikationen bekannt sind, fehlen hier, der Autor zeigt nur die simpelsten Grundtechniken. Man kann damit schon recht gut die Basics des Dolchkampfes trainieren. Das Gezeigte funktioniert sowohl mit mittelalterlichen Dolchen als auch mit modernen Stichwaffen von weit geringerer Länge. Da der Autor darauf eingeht, dass der Dirk eher eine Waffe für die Abwehr von Überraschungsangriffen sein soll, kann man das Gezeigte durchaus für ein SV-Training verwenden. Allerdings beschränkt sich das Buch auf die Darstellung einer historischen Situation und verzichtet daher auf alle Aspekte einer modernen SV, wie Deeskalationsstrategien, rechtliche Seiten usw. Ich frage mich nur, was daran typisch schottisch sein soll, abgesehen von den dekorativen Aufnahmen der Darsteller in Kilts des 18. Jhds.