Bracing a hollow core door is useless - I've put my fist through one! (2 hits, reach in) - never mind having to open one with a youn child on the other side who had collapsed - one kick, and I was in - not that it unlatched - there was a hole in the door big ehough to reach in and unlact the door - I spent the rest of the day putting up a new door in both cases

These are cute and versatile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXnilQ4Z6U

i hate to assume, but i assume you've taken the 'layered' defense - strengthening all of your exterior points of entry and that your question is for the last line of defense.

hence my previous suggestion.

you might consider an interior 'fiberglass' door - much more difficult to put a fist through, looks quite smart, and less than $100.00 at lowe's - even comes with door frame - and coupled with the heavy duty box strike, should buy you a lot of time.

Depends on if you're talking a few extra seconds or minutes. If you're only looking to buy a little bit of time, a second deadbolt installed higher up on the door and with a stronger strikeplate will delay entry. That prevents someone from kicking directly where the lock is, and the flexibility of the door will work against them. Eventually the door will break, you could upgrade the door to something stronger, but then the weak point becomes the frame. But the difference between a one kick entry and two or three kicks might be enough.

Sorry Tom, it doesn't.

How do we define "stopping power"? I take it to mean that you can do enough damage to someone before the can get their hands around your neck or draw a weapon that isn't already in their hands. She is pointing out the 20-30 stabs because people have taken that many and still walked into the ER. That probably took a minute, minute and half to inflict, to.

Unless you do massive amounts of damage (decapitation, disembowelment, amputation), the way cutting weapons work is by blood loss or the severing of muscle tissue. The latter takes a LOT of skill, and usually a willing or at least unaware opponent. Blood loss takes time. During that time, you've got someone who didn't have your best interests at heart within arms reach. And there is a very real chance their blood qualifies as a biological weapon.

Considering that Quiqley's target audience is women, that lack of stand off become a big factor. Due to the general lack of body mass, and upper body strength in general compared to men, a woman with a knife unless she is very well trained in hand to hand is at a lethal disadvantage to someone 6-12 inches taller and 50-100% heavier even if all they have is their bare hands.

On the other hand, five or six 3/8" holes to the torso (or even just two or three that actually connect) has greater stopping power. Putting a bullet through the skull, not that hard; through the rib cage, very easy. Yes, we are again looking at blood loss, but we have more damage to deeper structures and two openings. And a LOT more kinetic energy. Oh, and you don't have to be close enough to smell their breath. If you let them get that close, you've already pretty much failed, man or woman.

So even though I've carried a knife with defensive applications in mind, I don't count on it, and I know quite a bit about how to use it. But it does not stop them quickly, I know if I'm using a knife, I'm going to be there a hell of a lot longer than I should be. I'm buying time for those with me to get clear. If I'm that worried about my own defense, I'm adding something with some range. And if I'm getting ore recommending something for someone who will typically practice maybe an hour or two a month, it absolutely is not going to be a knife- the maintence time of the needed skills is too high, the performance is to low, and range envelope is bad as the bare hand.

I'd rather give someone a length of 1" solid steel round stock, with sports tape for a grip- that will break bones, mobility kills are faster than fluid loss kills.

YMMV.

People have taken a fair number of bullets and lived. Somebody took a load of 12ga. buckshot but it didn't stop him from taking away the bad guy's shotgun and beating him to a pulp with it. There are NO guarantees ever. On the other hand, many, many people have been killed by something as feeble as a single .380 or .22LR. It works both ways.

I don't care about statistics and terms like stopping power or blood loss. It's a technical way to talk about something that is completely non-technical in nature. Which often indicates people don't entirely understand what they're talking about.

Anyway, cutting and thrusting with a knife is a gross-motor skill that actually improves under stress as opposed to the fine-motor skills required for using a gun. A lot of people lose fine-motor skills under extreme stress and that's a major factor I've not seen mentioned here lately.

Once you're at grappling range (where attacks tend to happen in the civilian world) there is basically no safe way to defend against a sharp blade. Some of the most experienced combatives instructors were reluctant to teach knife defense techniques because they knew they probably wouldn't work in reality.

A knife is a thrusting weapon first. Anyone can easily land three solid thrusts in a single second. It's not even a matter of skill or training, just intent. A kitchen knife a few inches deep in the gut will stop you in your tracks pretty much right away. Does that qualify for stopping power? A quick cut across the hand will sever fingers and cut tendons. Land a cut on the inside of the wrist or forearm and that arm is gone. A thrust to the groin plus a ripping cut on the withdrawal, whew! Then there's the face and neck, Achilles tendon and all the other minor targets of opportunity.

Above all, a knife is a psychological weapon. There are very few people who won't panic while they're being cut apart. That's also why knives work best in an ambush situation or when you manage to distract the other guy with a verbal ploy, quick punch or some dirt thrown into his eyes. But it definitely doesn't and shouldn't look like an Escrima bout.

Are knives a perfect self-defense weapon? Probably far from it. Are they suitable for women? I don't know, quite a few women have successfully used a knife in self-defense but yes, size and strength are a major factor. Would I recommend a knife to a woman? Extremely unlikely! A can of pepper spray would probably be a better choice most of the time.

But any time I hear somebody talking about knife fighting as if they were trying to write down a new Dungeons & Dragons manual (how many damage points per critical hit again?) I know that person simply does not understand the issue and probably has zero actual experience.

Your Mileage May Vary - and I really mean that!