Long Daggers for Leverage

Friday are Free for Everyone at this Substack, 19 December 2025

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This week, I want to talk about long daggers. Before we do that, though, will you indulge me in an ad? Evan Perperis and I are doing another joint webinar (and if I can stay out of the hospital, I might even be able to attend this one). This one is on the pop knife, that easily concealed and fearsome razor-sharp street weapon. If you’d like to sign up, just email me at phil [at] philelmore.com. More information can be had at philelmore.us/popknife.

Okay, back to the feature. One of the most famous long daggers out there is the Gerber Mark 2. I saw a video on YouTube not long ago that was all about the history of the Mark 2... but the video maker kept showing this knife when they were talking about it. This blade, which is basically a copy of the Mark 2, is the Schrade Needle.

There is an older “magnum” version of the knife that is even closer in appearance to the Gerber Mark 2. When last I checked, the Schrade name had been bought by another company, either Taylor Cutlery or one of those other companies that buys up once-famous brands and puts out mediocre cutlery wearing that badge. This knife is okay, but it’s nothing to write home about... unless you know what really long daggers are good for.

Now, a long dagger can be a liability. That’s because beyond, say, four inches or so (I realize that’s an arbitrary figure), it can become harder to use the knife in close quarters. Think about it: How do you maneuver a foot of stabbing, needle-point steel when the other person is chest to chest with you? This means that at extreme close quarters, a shorter knife (even a kerambit) might be more desirable.

Long daggers with thin, piercing profiles do one thing: They penetrate deeply into the body in order to damage organs deep within the torso. You don’t actually need a knife this long to deliver effective force with a knife. But there is something a knife this long can do that a shorter knife can’t, and that is give you leverage.

Long knives like these translate into cutting power because they act like, well, levers. When you stick this into the target, you now have a lot of steel to apply force while you push the knife up, down, or side to side.

For this reason, a compelling reason to carry a long dagger like the Mark II or the Schrade Needle is because you want to be able to apply this leverage. It may take a little more mechanical know-how to maneuver that long blade into the target... but once it’s in, it’s really in, giving you a means of shoving, ripping, or cleaving. This means you can either maneuver the opponent around using the leverage you now have, or you can do extreme damage as you shove the knife back out of the target.

It sounds gory because it is. That’s the power a long dagger can give you. That’s why you shouldn’t dismiss this type of knife out of hand.

See you next week.