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When the modern martial artist and edged weapons exponent thinks of knife fighting arts, his thoughts typically turn toward the many Eastern disciplines that exist in this context. And though most of us westerners were raised on the movies of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Tyrone Power, and Errol Flynn, we don't tend to associate their edged weapons skills with a western martial arts tradition.The fact of the matter is that such blade traditions still exist, although they are either disregarded or taken for granted by the many cultures where they evolved. Recently, however, a number of individuals skilled in such arts have temporarily replaced their blades with pens in order to document the rudimnts of their particular western knife fighting methods. The bulk of these works focus on knife systems from the Mediterranean, since that is where such arts evolved and flourished. One such work is THE SICILIAN BLADE: The Art of Sicilian Stiletto Fighting, by Don Vito Quattrocchi.The Sicilian Blade is a succinct manual that explains how this weapon was historically used in combat, honorable or otherwise, by the culture that made the word "stiletto" known and respected on both sides of the Atlantic -- the Sicilians. Apart from the sociological information it presents, The Sicilian Blade is a technical instructional handbook that describes the various strategies and tactics for using this weapon. An especially interesting chapter is one titled Indraga mano, which covers the use of the stiletto when it is held "hidden" in the reverse grip.The Sicilian Blade is not a comprehensive tome; it is a concise and no-nonsense treatment of a similarly concise and no-nonsense art. If you don't have a Mediterranean knife arts section in your combat library, this is a good place to start.
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