Editor’s Note: Today’s feature is from correspondent Dave Spaulding.
I started carrying a pocket knife daily in the 8th grade. It was 1969 and no one cared if you did. In my case, it was a small Swiss Army Knife but many of my fellow students preferred the wood handled Case knives. We had a woodshop teacher who loved to pick up a block of wood from the floor, whip out his Barlow folder and start to whittle most anything. It was a moment in history that is now gone. Due to the violence that has been thrust upon our schools, even the smallest pocket knife would result in suspension and prosecution. It’s really too bad, I always felt giving a boy a folding knife was a rite of passage.
The Full Immunity will serve as a “partner” to the author’s Swiss Army Knife for EDC purposes.
During my law enforcement career, I still carried a folding knife, but got out of the habit when I was assigned to work the county jail. The first few years in any deputy’s career was spent there, an assignment that I now look back on and realize was good for me, but carrying an edged weapon in a correctional environment was a non-starter. I do remember one situation in which a knife would have come in handy. While doing a “clock round,” a patrol of the jail floors, I came across an inmate who had hanged himself with a bed sheet. There were no portable radios, so I had to run to the floor phone, call down to the control room for help and then run back to the cell. The inmate was still gurgling, but I could not lift his weight off the knotted sheet. By the time help arrived, he had died.
Once I was assigned to patrol, I was still out of the habit of carrying a knife which was a mistake. I responded to a roll over traffic crash only to find a female trapped upside down by her seat belt and I had nothing to cut her out with. Fortunately, an off-duty firefighter arrived shortly thereafter and cut her free. Once the scene was stable, he looked at me and said, “Where is your knife?” to which I had to reply I did not have one. He stared at me with a look of bewilderment and said, “do you think if your job requires you to carry a gun that a knife would be a good idea?” Message received.
I have had some type of knife in my pocket every day since. While I do not consider myself a knife expert, I have certainly owned more than my share and I have taken knife training from some of the biggest names on the training circuit. My favorite was the simple methodology of Kelly McCann who started out his course with: “It has a point and a sharp edge. You can stab and cut. I’m not sure how much more you need to know.”
I carry a folder daily, but I do not really consider it a weapon. Sure, it could be a weapon of opportunity, but if I were carrying it primarily as a weapon, I would take my friend Greg Ellifritz’ suggestion and carry a small fixed blade forward of the body. The large tactical folders of my past have been given to friends or are sitting in my gun safe. I have been carrying a Swiss Army Knife again. Not because the knife blade is so good, they really aren’t, but because of all of those other features like the tooth pick, tweezers, screwdriver and nail file come in handy. But I really miss having a solid cutting tool. The answer is to “divide and conquer,” find a small folding blade that will supplement the handiness of the Swiss Army Knife.
While walking through an outfitter store recently, I stopped to look at the Benchmade, Inc. display and instantly homed in on a folder that just might fill the bill. The “Full Immunity” caught my eye. With its short length and solid Wharncliff blade, it struck me as a small knife with a big knife feel. Advertised as a “knife for when blade length is restricted while necessity isn’t,” it’s designed for easy concealment with a handful of utility. The Full Immunity features a sub-2.5-inch CPM-M4 blade with a Cobalt Black Cerakote finish. It features outstanding edge retention and strength with a Wharncliffe profile blade tapering to an ultra-fine point. The included lanyard speeds up withdrawal from the pocket for manual deployment in rapidly evolving situations. Finished with anodized Crater Blue aluminum handle scales, the Full Immunity is a concentrated dose of utility in a compact package.
The Benchmade Full Immunity is a palm sized knife with the feel and strength of a much larger blade.
The Full Immunity offers a total length of 5.94 inches, a blade length of 2.49 inches (making it legal most everywhere), a blade thickness of 0.09 inches, a closed length of 3.46 inches and a very narrow 0.5-inch overall thickness. This is truly a palm of the hand sized knife that can go just but everywhere, other than the airport. The spine jimping is substantial without being overly sharp. It allows the end user to “choke-up” on the blade for a solid grasp. The slight finger grooves in the grip area certainly help here. The Axis lock system locks the blade solidly in place with no fear the mechanism will fail even with hard use. Benchmade has perfected this locking system and there is nothing stronger when folding blades are involved.
The Full Immunity has a finger grooved grip with an aggressive spine jimping that allows the hand to choke up on the blade for better control.
I tested the Full Immunity by first banging the blade spine against a hard object when open to see if the Axis lock would fail. Of course, the knife stayed solidly locked even though I smacked it hard. I tested its cutting ability by snap-cutting a heavy cord suspended from above. Not surprisingly, it dropped pieces on the ground without fail. This is not the type of cutting the knife community wants to know about. They want to know about cutting tissue, which I can understand even though it is not my focus for an EDC folder.
The Full Immunity’s 2.5-inch blade is still large and sharp enough to deliver definitive cuts
I tested this with what I call the “meat arm.” When writing for the now defunct TACTICAL KNIVES Magazine, I “stole” the Meat Man concept from Michael Janich. Meat Man was basically a 3D humanoid target with large scraps of meat attached to vital areas. It was then covered with common clothing. The Meat Arm is a wood dowel to simulate bone, a thick chuck roast to simulate tissue, cling wrap to simulate skin and covered with dual layers of cotton t-shirt to simulate clothing. The test itself was quite simple, just snap cut the “arm” and see what happens. What happened was a deep cut consistent with the length of the blade. While it did not reach the wood dowel, it was very close. Some may feel a 2.5-inch blade isn’t long enough for defensive purposes, I would not want to be on the sharp end of the Full Immunity.
The Full Immunity is going to be my new EDC folder, not replacing my Swiss Army Knife, but acting as the cutting-edge supplement. Now I have a small, easy to carry knife that can handle most any chores along with the tweezers, toothpick and other tools to get me through my retired life which can be most anything.
— Dave Spaulding
