This thread should be read to a german rendition of MACK THE KNIFE <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Automatics are carried by PJs and rescue swimmers for obvious reasons. A one handed knife easily stowed yet available instantly is very usefull. On the lifeboats we had a saying " one hand for yourself and one for the boat." We couldn't get automatic knives back then and substituted some pretty wierd solutions. I scrounged a german fallshirmjaeger's gravity knife. It had a mediocre Solingen blade and you had to hold it just right ( as in down) to make the thing work. The local sheriff decided it was illegal and threatened to arrest me if I walked with it from station to boathouse. So I acquired a Kriegsmarine sailor's knife in a nice sheath with marlinspike. It was far faster to deploy, sharper, deadlier and acceptable to the Oregon Coast prototype for Stallone's Brian Dennehy antagonist <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />