The Anti-Stab Knife that Can't Kill

[woo me with science]

You knew they'd have to come up with this one...



http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/14/anti-stab-knife-crime

Britain's first "anti-stab" knife, designed to chop safely in the kitchen but useless as a weapon, could be on sale by the autumn, under a Home Office-funded project to cut crime. The knife has a rounded point, with a blade for cutting underneath. Its designer says it cuts vegetables, but is almost impossible to use to stab someone.

The New Point knife was developed by industrial designer John Cornock after his wife, Liz, saw a TV documentary in which three doctors advocated banning traditional knives. His idea was picked up by the Home Office's Design and Technology Alliance, a group set up to examine ways of designing products that deter crime.

"It can never be a totally safe knife, but the idea is you can't inflict a fatal wound," said Cornock. "Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone."

The prototype is expected to be given a test run within months.

[Blue-Jay]

1. You can still slash with it.

[JerseygirlCT]

13. That's what was thinking, too. Stab, no. Slash? Looks like yes. nt

[YOY]

2. Well I see this a pointless endeavor.

n.t.

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. LOL! nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. .

:thumbsup:

:rofl:

[sakabatou]

86. DUzy!

[YOY]

106. Good luck with that...I never get a DUzy.

n.t.

[Skip Intro]

112. Well not if you edit out the remark....

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

3. Great! A knife we can take on airplanes, to schools, and into prisons!

If you want to find a way to hurt someone with that knife, you will... such as cutting instead of stabbing.

[mikelgb]

4. "The prototype is expected to be given a test run within months."

I sure hope not.

[Caliman73]

56. seriously...who's going to volunteer.

Yeah stab me to see if it is really stab proof...OUCH!, No...didn't work? Oh well back to the drawing board.:rofl:

[JVS]

99. "We gave a control group of 100 hooligans regular knives and another 100 hooligans our new design...

[Indydem]

6. I'm not a medical expert...

But I bet if you swing that thing and decapitate someone, it will be fatal. Just a guess.

[Statistical]

7. "Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone."

Really. Would he be willing to be the demonstator.

It still cuts! As in cut your wrist or your neck!

WTF?

[Liberal_in_LA]

46. Many other things in the kitchen could be used to kill

[konnichi wa]

8. Are they taking suggestions for participants in that 'test run'?

I have a little list...

[hfojvt]

9. if it has a sharp blade

then you could still cut somebody's throat.

That may be harder to do than stabbing.

But you cannot stab anybody with a box cutter either, and it is not 'useless as a weapon'.

[HeresyLives]

10. The UK is said to have a 'knife culture'

because they have so many stabbings. I presume this is meant to counter that.

[Ghost in the Machine]

35. It's a result of the gun bans...

stabbings have risen dramatically, to the point where Britain was considering banning knives, too..


People were killing people longgggggggg before guns were ever invented, and they'll continue to kill people even if guns and knives are banned.

[madeline_con]

83. What's next? Nerf cricket bats? n/t

[Ghost in the Machine]

115. Yep, and after that it'll be those inflatable "swimmies" that kids wear in the pool...

You can smother someone with those, ya know...

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

58. Though the UK still has less homicides from knives than the US, proportionately

US, 2007: 1,796 murders by knife or cutting instrument
mid 2007 US population: 302.7 million
5.93 per million inhabitants

England and Wales, 2007-08: 270 homicides by sharp instrument
mid 2007 population: 54.1 million
4.99 per million inhabitants

[mainegreen]

12. Until hoodlums turn to screwdrivers.

Then Britain in All It's Wisdom, will make a non-pointy screwdriver.

:D

[ieoeja]

27. Canada has already done that.

And their square screwdriver is actually far superior to flat or phillips. Less slippage and stripping.

[Fumesucker]

30. Square bits have been around for decades in the US.. n/t

[ieoeja]

45. But they were a Canadian invention (I think). n/t

[benEzra]

69. And trivially easy to file to a sharp point

in the standard-screwdriver version (i.e., steel shank, not bit and socket).

Sharpened screwdrivers predate the invention of the Phillips head. All you need to convert a common flathead screwdriver into a stabbing weapon is a file, or in a pinch, a rough rock.

[BarbaRosa]

14. Might be difficult to cut the stem from a tomato,

with this one.:shrug:

[rcrush]

15. I bet you can still stab with that knife. Let me try it.

Its not that round. And still has a point on it. I bet if you stab hard enough you can get through the skin.

[benEzra]

68. You can certainly snap-slash perfectly well...

and the extra weight on the tip probably helps in that mode.

[gratuitous]

16. I rather like it

Less chance of an accidental wound if you drop it, as well.

[BoneDaddy]

65. you have to be kidding me

the depths of liberal protectionistic infringement on anyone else

[varelse]

72. You're objecting to the knife design because it infringes on your freedom to inflict a fatal injury?

:wow:

Then again, maybe I just misread your post :shrug:

[Posteritatis]

79. I'm objecting because it does no such thing and is a colossal waste of time/money/etc

The fact that a government actually got involved in something so monumentally stupid - and believed that these things would reduce knife attacks at all - is more than a little troubling to me.

[varelse]

81. Is your name Bonedaddy???

:P

[BoneDaddy]

102. No

but I approve this sentiment. I grow very tired of time and money and energy spent on something so goddamn stupid.

[varelse]

107. You're absolutely right

all knives should be usable as deadly weapons!

I suspect this one actually is as well, albeit you'd have to put a bit more effort into the act. Still, where there's a will, there's a way.

[BoneDaddy]

110. lol look at the knife

although blunt at one end, it had a small spike, not to mention about ten inches of slashing ability. This is ludicrous and ridiculous

[BoneDaddy]

101. ditto

[BoneDaddy]

100. Yeah let's take it to the worst possible scenario

as some "liberals" often do. It is ridiculous and once again born from the paranoid fear based style of thinking that wants to wrap the world in cotton.

[gratuitous]

80. "Infringement"?

Uhm, okay.

{Maintains eye contact, smiles, backs away slowly}

[Iggo]

109. Yeah! Fucking liberals!!!1

Oh, wait a minute.

[BoneDaddy]

111. I am a liberal

but I have a problem with some of the "liberal" community who want to wrap the world in cotton, and react to every single fear based event with stupidity.

[Iggo]

113. Don't care. Still funny.

[Warpy]

17. A determined enough person can kill another human being

with almost any household object.

Blunt tip knives might temporarily cut down on robberies at knifepoint, but that's about it. Thieves will just turn to clubs and hit first, rob later.

On edit: the one thing that did cut down on street crimes was a 10 year program testing the registration of hard core addicts and then supplying them with their drug of choice. Street crime dropped 80%.

A side benefit was that at the end of those ten years, 50% of those addicts were clean without any other treatment.

[Webster Green]

18. That is one of the most stupid ideas ever.

You could still do a lot of damage with that thing. :wtf:

[sui generis]

19. sporks for everyone!

no more shoelaces.

Toilet seats, which can be used to beat an unsuspecting blind nun to death, are also on the list.

Stairs under consideration - you know how many people are pushed down stairs. Now we'll just have gentle sloping ramps everywhere.

Oh and re: the OP - that only works on the rib cage, and then only most of the time, provided a rib gets in the way. In a stab and run, most people don't die from the wound trauma itself - they die from blood loss and shock.

[Mythsaje]

20. Well, that's an example of "Teh Stupid."

Are they going to make ALL knives like that? Well, now, they can't, really, can they? And, hey, there's always scissors, right?

Ugh.

:eyes: In the hands of someone who knows what s/he's doing, this blade is no less deadly than any other. In a world where box knives can hijack a plane, something like this is... arrrgh!

[Raskolnik]

21. Jebus this is stupid. n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. More bullshit from the UK

They got rid of the guns, and now they're doing their damndest to get rid of knives.

Fucking ridiculous.

[dorkulon]

32. Yeah, what bullshit

They have 1/5 the murders per capita that we do. Bulshitters. :think:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

37. And Canada has more guns and less murder

Obviously, there's something else going on.

Regardless, I think legislating knives is absolutely ridiculous. First guns, then knives, what next?

[dorkulon]

44. I agree that would be silly

but I don't think they're doing that. This is being offered for sale, but if they ban regular knives I'll agree that would be pretty silly.

"The New Point knife was developed by industrial designer John Cornock after his wife, Liz, saw a TV documentary in which three doctors advocated banning traditional knives."

I'd like to see that documentary.

I was under the impression that handguns and semi-auto rifles were illegal in Canada.

[piedmont]

53. Link

She probably saw these guys:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm

And those guys have probably never seen one of these things:


or this:

[Starry Messenger]

23. I love how we all opened this with ideas on how you could hurt someone with it.

:D

[madeline_con]

84. Imagine that, what with it being an "anti-stab" knife and all. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

98. It must be a general anti-authoritarian streak at DU.

"Oh, an 'anti-STAB' knife...I bet I could get around that!"

[madeline_con]

104. Must be, DUers aren't sheep. The futility of the U.K.'s quest for a utopian

society goes against human nature and common sense. It's kind of funny and sad, really.

[SteppingRazor]

24. When we outlaw pointy knives, only criminals will have them!!!!!11!

n/t

[-..__...]

25. I wonder if there'll be a black market for illegal knife conversions?

[1]

28. that would be an "assault knife" conversion, which would be illegal...

[Dogtown]

51. *That* made me laugh

Good 1!

:applause:

[X_Digger]

33. Make grinders illegal, too! (makes as much sense as this.) n/t

[votingupstart]

75. don't forget any metal files and smooth concrete also... ban them all nt

[scrinmaster]

26. Just crazy.

I'm glad my parents moved here from England before I was born.

[Fumesucker]

31. Given that I'm currently without insurance..

I'm not so glad..

[montanto]

29. FAIL: unless that rounded tip

is the size and shape of a golf ball, you could still stab somebody with it.

[LostInAnomie]

34. If the rounded edge is thin enough...

... stabbing someone would not be a problem.

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. Stabbing problem solved. Now, onto all those strangulation cases.....

Removal of opposing thumbs, perhaps?
ropes that won't bend?

[Stevenmarc]

38. Geeez why don't they just hand out kindergarten scissors.

[Duer 157099]

39. Reinventing the wheel. The Chinese did this thousands of years ago

[rucky]

52. And nobody's ever killed anyone with a cleaver before.

:crazy:

[JVS]

97. As children we were encouraged to use them as dodgeballs, they're so durned safe

[varelse]

108. We've got one of those

my sister's always worried she'll drop it while chopping vegetables and it will land edge down on her foot. Ow. Me, I worry about someone pissing me off while I'm working with it, and cause me to throw it at them at speed, so I generally stick with the "pointy" but less dangerous chopping knives.

[Codeine]

40. Slashing is more deadly anyway.

You could kill a person in a heartbeat with that knife.

[Mopar151]

41. A cleaver. How very modern. n/t

[TexasObserver]

42. It's a great idea.

I'm sure the company that makes them sees both marketing and reduction of civil claims for knife injuries, both accidental and intended. There are probably more claims from dropped knives than from thrown knives or stabbings.

There is no functional reason most butcher knives are pointed.

[biermeister]

43. I can almost feel my brain shrink as I read this article nt.

[dorkulon]

47. It'll be a regular knife after a few sharpenings.

Ever worked in a restaurant kitchen? Every time the knives go out for sharpening, they come back a little narrower, until they look like this:



So these knives--if you want them sharp--will evolve into regular pointy knives eventually.

[JackRiddler]

48. Is this to counter the rash of UK killings involving knives grabbed out of kitchen drawers?

Oh, never mind.

[spin]

54. Of course...

UK is knife crime capital
Will Iredale and Cordelia O'Neill

Another teenage schoolboy was stabbed to death this weekend as Britain was named as one of the knife crime blackspots of the developed world.

Paul Erhahon, a 14-year-old from Leytonstone, east London, was killed in a fight involving 12 to 15 youths on Good Friday. He is the sixth teenager to die in a knife attack within the last month.

The tragedy occurred as a new study of 28 countries found 13% of violent crime victims in England and Wales had been stabbed or threatened with a knife. Scotland came close behind. Only Spain and Portugal had worse figures, while countries such as Italy, the United States, Estonia and Mexico all had less knife crime.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1626691.ece

Despite draconian knife laws, the U.K. has a serious problem with knives.

It comes down to: If you ban knifes only yobs will have knives.

[AsahinaKimi]

49. These were never meant for stabbing either

Always a slashing weapon..

Tameshigiri (ためしぎり）
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS2YcBbubs8

[Dogtown]

50. Woah, where'd that testosterone surge come from, Dogtown?

It's ok folks, I've put down the non-lethal knife and I've backed away!

Editted to squelch my machismo.

[noamnety]

55. Y'all can laugh

but I was just thinking, Boy, I wish I had a kitchen knife ... but what if I decide to stab someone with it?

[Iggo]

57. Wait a second. This ain't from The Onion?

:crazy:

[pinniped]

59. Is it a crime to file the tip down?

?

[piedmont]

60. You know, it's true. People really have forgotten Rwanda. nt

[AsahinaKimi]

61. Rwanda who?

:hide:
Sorry..just had to say that..:rofl: :yoiks:

[nadinbrzezinski]

63. Well in Rwanda they used machetes, which is a SLASHING weapon

not a stabbing weapon, primarily


I am sure you knew that.

No, this is to deal with the high stabbing rates they do happen to have

[piedmont]

71. That's what I meant-- this knife looks like a baby machete.

Sometimes I'm a little too subtle. Sorry.

[nadinbrzezinski]

77. Doesn't have the heft

[piedmont]

91. Which is why I used the term "baby"

[nadinbrzezinski]

94. Yes but it will not do the damage

and trust me, as a medic I saw both the damage done by stabbing knives, including your chef's knife, which this is, and also machetes.

Now this one as a slashing weapon will do some damage, but take a limb off, I doubt it.

And given most people will still use it as a stabbing weapon...

That said, in the creative hands of somebody intending to use it to kill.. well good intentions and all that. It will still be able to slice a neck very well thank you very much.

But a machete does the damage it does as a hacking toy due to the weight in it. In some ways it is similar to what a Cutlass did back in the days of piracy. That one wasn't a stabbing weapon either.

Yes the things one learns treating patients, and doing research for fiction.

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. Given that the UK has a high rate of stabbings...

yes so?

By the way, they have also worked into developing chain mail to put inside Kevlar for cops.

By the way I am betting that test will include running it through Kevlar (with the chain mail as one of the layers)

[Posteritatis]

78. They have a high rate of sensationalist panic about stabbings (nt)

[proteus_lives]

64. Anti-Stupidity reaches new heights.

They refuse to address the human problem and continue to blame lifeless objects for violence.

Stop trying to baby-proof the world!

[anonymous171]

66. Save a life, bin your knife! nt

[benEzra]

67. Can kill perfectly well. Methinks the MSM is a bit gullible.

How do they think anyone was ever murdered with a straight razor or a hawkbill knife? Hint, they weren't beaten to death...

And unless they also ban bench grinders, angle grinders, files, igneous rocks, and unpolished concrete floors, then it is trivial to convert that knife to a Bowie style point.

This is a very, very clever marketing gimmick. I predict the company will make a pile of money marketing these, and will lobby to make them mandatory in as many settings as possible.

[pinniped]

76. They might as well go all out and ban those volcanoes that spew out that....

deadly obsidian.

[undeterred]

70. Is there an anti-stab knife holder?

[varelse]

82. damn it

consumerism sucks, but I *want* that knife holder! Must... have... :cry:

[AsahinaKimi]

87. Oh thats awesome...

Where do you find those? Please don't tell me Walmart.^^

[RedCloud]

73. So what about forks? And blenders? And toasters set to explode?

Fear, I tell you. It's what sells. Bravo capitalism. You make me proud.

[tj2001]

74. The Anti-Shoot Gun that Can't Kill

is next.

[dysfunctional press]

85. so- the masked intruder has you by the throat, holding you against the kitchen counter...

you flail your arms, desperately reaching for anything to fend off the assault- when suddenly you're able to grasp a knife, and thrust it into the attackers side...or not. :shrug:

it sure won't do much for hollywood endings in c-list slasher flicks.

[madeline_con]

88. ROFL

:rofl:

[zagging]

89. Just when you think, "That dude's got to be The Dumbest MFer In The World"

Somebody raises the bar, or lowers it.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

90. John Cornock hasn't seen many movies and doesn't have much imagination.

[mamaleah]

92. You can still kill someone with that.

Not everyone goes stabby stab.

[McCamy Taylor]

93. I could slice a carotid with it....

[old mark]

95. The round ends on table knives were an English idea, too -

When drinking distilled spirits instead of wine came into practice in Britain, guests of the rich nobility frequently stabbed each other with sharp pointed table knives in drunken arguments. The round end table knife was introduced to halt the bloodshed among the noble drunks.

mark

[Maru Kitteh]

96. I'll bet the promoter is not willing to test it's safety.

If it cuts vegetables, it cuts major veins and arteries in the human neck. How long does that take, grabbed out of the kitchen drawer?

[armyowalgreens]

103. I can see it now...I see an intruder in my home...

I reach for a knife in the dark and stab at him or her. And then I realize I grabbed the "anti-stab" knife.

And then I get shot.


Sweet.

[cliffordu]

105. Carotid artery

easy peasy

[WeDidIt]

114. A slashing fighting style can be deadlier than a stabbing fighting style.

Just sayin'.