Blackjack Vs Nightstick

• Blackjack Nightstick
• Blackjack Nightstick

Multiplayer blackjack can be found at table games as well as in blackjack tournaments. Generally, players start out with the same amount of money in their available bankroll and at the end of a predetermined number of rounds the player that has the most money is declared the winner. On the Web you will find a variety of multiplayer blackjack games. It is illegal for a non-law enforcement officer to carry a nightstick, blackjack or other club unless it's being carried inside the home, vehicle or boat, or between the person's residence.

“The man who carries a weapon intended to crush the skull of his adversary,” wrote Fred Rexer in 1978, “is probably a lot closer to the men in bearskin breech clouts than he would like to think.” Rexer was talking about the sap or blackjack, a rounded leather shell filled with lead powder, lead shot, or a molded weight, with or without a spring steel shank to increase the tool’s response on impact. While the sap is compact and simple in design, it is also remarkably powerful when used to strike a person. The author of The Brass Knuckle Bible went on to claim, “A skinny kid can tear a person’s jaw completely off his face or render an opponent dead with one blow from a blackjack.”

That was more than thirty years ago and, despite Rexer’s hyperbole, there’s no doubt the sap or blackjack largely fell out of favor with citizens and law enforcement alike because it was deemed too effective. Where once many police officers’ uniform slacks incorporated a pocket just the right size to carry a sap, few citizens today have even heard of it (outside of novels featuring hard-boiled detectives). Those law enforcement supply companies that did produce saps no longer do, and many municipalities outlaw the possession and carry of blackjacks.

“Most of the companies, like Bucheimer, stopped producing saps in the mid seventies to early eighties,” explained Todd Foster, when I originally interviewed him for Tactical Knives magazine. “I bought a cheap sap in an Army/Navy shop in 1996 and carried it for a few years before losing it. I really couldn’t find one I liked to replace it.” After much trial and error, he successfully reverse-engineered his own saps.

I first interviewed Todd several years ago for Tactical Knives, but producing a subsequent review for this page proved a little challenging. That’s because saps and blackjacks aren’t legal in my home state — a fact that forced me to conduct my evaluation, and take my photos, in another location where it was legal to do so. I was not disappointed. These are incredibly well made saps that exhibit beautiful craftsmanship and attention to detail. These photographs do not do them justice. Foster saps are the standard by which modern saps and blackjacks should be judged.

Foster, who lives in High Point, North Carolina, has been a butcher for two decades. Over those years he has been a part-time leather worker. Since 2004, he has been producing custom leather, machine-stitched saps for law enforcement, military personnel, and private collectors.

“All my saps are hand cut from bull hide for the most part,” Foster explains, “and hand finished and stitched on a old Tippmann sewing machine. The ‘load’ or ‘frame’ of the sap is solid cast lead [incorporating] a half-inch tempered steel flat spring.” The result is a superbly crafted, top-quality leather pocket club that exhibits the richness of custom leather work and a surprising heft in the palm.

Foster’s soft shot-filled saps are all hand made in the United States and include his popular coin purse model. The coin purse sap is unique in that it is not heavy until filled with change, which increases its weight significantly.

The little coin purse strikes with authority and can give even the largest man pause. I first tested these for the magazine and now, years later, I can say that Todd’s work (which was excellent then) has only improved with time. He continues to turn out incredibly well-crafted pieces that are executed flawlessly.

There’s good reason for this. Todd stresses that his products are a labor of love. “I make all my own molds for each model sap and cast the lead in house,” he says. “Saps can be made with or without the flat spring. Without seems to hit a lot harder.”

Hitting, and hitting hard with very little effort, is what makes the sap so powerful. Even someone with relatively little strength in their shoulder, arm, or wrist can swing the sap with sufficient force to deal real damage when they make contact.

One very easy method for deploying the sap is to smack the flat of the tool on the opponent’s temple or the side of his face. It’s very easy to give someone a concussion this way. If the sap is swung with great force, it can even open lacerations using the “edge” of the leather. While striking to the lower torso is of relatively limited value (just as punching to the gut is not as effective as punching the head), striking to the clavicle or shoulder can stop an opponent in his tracks or drive him to his knees.

There is a revival, of sorts, where interest in saps and blackjacks is concerned. Prominent among these is the Facebook group Blackjacks, Saps, and Knuckledusters. Not surprisingly, Todd’s work figures prominently there.

“Saps make great tools for self defense,” Todd explains. “Being flat, they are easy to carry in a back pocket or inside the waistband. They’re basically force multipliers. You can go ‘light’ on someone to soften them up to get away, or go full steam ahead. Saps work great when targeting large muscle groups for limb destruction by attacking the arms and hands.”

While saps are legal to own and collect in Foster’s state of North Carolina, he points out that they are illegal to carry on your person. “The main reason most states frown on the carry of saps is that they are very effective tools,” he says. “Most police departments stop carrying them and went to [collapsible] batons for that reason.”

One alternative that may (I stress may) be legal where you are is the pocket stick. Also known as a kubotan or yawara (the former a brand name and the latter the Japanese term for a small dowel), the pocket stick is an extremely portable, effective impact weapon that concentrates the force of your strike into the tip of the stick.

Todd sent out a six-inch aluminum pocket stick that is as simple and elegant as it is effective. It’s an aluminum rod with a metal pocket clip that is perfect for those situations in which a pocket stick sends just the right message. Fit and finish are, of course, excellent. The stick is light, handy, comfortable to hold, and authoritative in use.

If you are one of those fortunate citizens who live in an area where saps are legal to possess, do not overlook this practical, reliable, and eminently powerful weapon. Todd Foster can be reached online a www.fosterimpactdevices.com.

A club (also known as a cudgel, baton, bludgeon, truncheon, cosh, nightstick or impact weapon) is among the simplest of all weapons: a short staff or stick, usually made of wood, wielded as a weapon^[1] since prehistoric times. There are several examples of blunt-force trauma caused by clubs in the past, including at the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, described as the scene of a prehistoric conflict between bands of hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago.^[2] In popular culture, clubs are associated with primitive cultures, especially cavemen.

Most clubs are small enough to be swung with one hand, although larger clubs may require the use of two to be effective. Various specialized clubs are used in martial arts and other fields, including the law-enforcement baton. The military mace is a more sophisticated descendant of the club, typically made of metal and featuring a spiked, knobbed, or flanged head attached to a shaft.

The wounds inflicted by a club are generally known as strike trauma or blunt-force trauma injuries.

Law enforcement[edit]

Police forces and their predecessors have traditionally favored the use, whenever possible, of less-lethal weapons than guns or blades. Until recent times, when alternatives such as tasers and capsicum spray became available, this category of policing weapon has generally been filled by some form of wooden club variously termed a truncheon, baton, nightstick, or lathi. Short, flexible clubs are also often used, especially by plainclothes officers who need to avoid notice. These are known colloquially as blackjacks, saps, or coshes.

Conversely, criminals have been known to arm themselves with an array of homemade or improvised clubs, generally of easily concealable sizes, or which can be explained as being carried for legitimate purposes (such as baseball bats).

In addition, Shaolin monks and members of other religious orders around the world have employed cudgels from time to time as defensive weapons.

Types[edit]

Though perhaps the simplest of all weapons, clubs come in many varieties, including:

• Aklys – a club with an integrated leather thong, used to return it to the hand after snapping it at an opponent. Used by the legions of the Roman Empire.
• Ball club – These clubs were used by the Native Americans. There are two types; the stone ball clubs that were used mostly by early Plains, Plateau and Southwest Native Indians and the wooden ball clubs that the Huron and Iroquois tribes used. These consisted of a relatively free-moving head of rounded stone or wood attached to a wooden handle.
• Baseball, cricket and T-ball bats – The baseball bat is often used as an improvised weapon, much like the pickaxe handle. In countries where baseball is not commonly played, baseball bats are often first thought of as weapons. Tee ball bats are also used in this manner. Their smaller size and lighter weight make the bat easier to handle in one hand than a baseball bat. Cricket bats are heavier and their flat shape and short handle make them unwieldy as weapons, but they are more commonly available than baseball bats in some countries.
• Baton or truncheon – forms used by law enforcement
• Blackjack or cosh – a weighted club designed to stun the subject
• Clava (full name clava mere okewa) – a traditional stone hand-club used by Mapuche Indians in Chile, featuring a long flat body. In Spanish, it is known as clava cefalomorfa. It has some ritual importance as a special sign of distinction carried by the tribal chief.^[3]
• Cudgel – A stout stick carried by peasants during the Middle Ages. It functioned as a walking staff and a weapon for both self-defence and wartime. Clubmen revolted in several localities against the excesses of soldiers on both sides during the English Civil War.^{[citation needed]} During the 18th century singlestick fighting (a training sport for the use of the single handed backsword) was called singlesticking, or cudgel-play.^[4]
• Crowbar – a tool commonly used as an improvised weapon, though some examples are too large to be wielded with a single hand, and therefore should be classified as staves.
• Flashlight – A large metal flashlight, such as a Maglite, can make a very effective improvised club. Though not specifically classified as a weapon, it is often carried for self-defense by security guards, bouncers and civilians, especially in countries where carrying weapons is restricted.
• Gata – a Fijian war club
• Gunstock war club – a war club stylized as the butt of a rifle
• 'Jutte or jitte – a distinctive weapon of the samurai police consisting of an iron rod with a hook. It could parry and disarm a sword-wielding assailant without serious injury. Eventually, the jutte also came to be considered a symbol of official status.^[5]
• Kanabō (nyoibo, konsaibo, tetsubō, ararebo) – Various types of different-sized Japanese clubs made of wood and or iron, usually with iron spikes or studs. First used by the Samurai.^[6][7][8][9]
• Kanak war clubs – traditional weapons from New Caledonia
• Kiyoga – a spring baton similar in concept to the Asp collapsible police baton, but with the center section made of a heavy duty steel spring. The tip and first section slide into the spring, and the whole nests into a seven-inch handle. To deploy the kiyoga, all that is necessary is to grasp the handle and swing. This causes the parts to extend from the handle into a baton seventeen inches long. The kiyoga has one advantage over a conventional collapsible baton: it can reach around a raised arm trying to block it to strike the head.^[10][11]
• Knobkerrie – a war club of southern and eastern Africa with a distinctive knob on the end
• Kubotan – a short, thin, lightweight club often used by law enforcement officers, generally to apply pressure against selected points of the body in order to encourage compliance without inflicting injury.
• Leangle – an Australian Aboriginal fighting club with a hooked striking head, typically nearly at right angles to the weapon's shaft. The name comes from Kulin languages such as Wemba-Wemba and Woiwurrung, based on the word lia (tooth).^[12]
• Life preserver (also hyphenatedlife-preserver) – a short, often weighted club intended for self-defense. Mentioned in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and several Sherlock Holmes stories.^[13]
• Lil Lil – An aboriginal^[specify] club with boomerang-like aerodynamics. Can be thrown or hand held.
• Mace – a metal club with a heavy head on the end, designed to deliver very powerful blows. The head of a mace may also have small studs forged into it. The mace is often confused with the spiked morning star and the articulated flail.
• Mere – short, broad-bladed Māori club, usually made from nephrite jade and used for forward-striking thrusts
• Morning star - a medieval club-like weapon consisting of a shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes
• Nulla-nulla – a short, curved hardwood club, used as a hunting weapon and in tribal in-fighting, by the Aboriginal people of Australia
• Nunchaku (also called nunchucks) – an Asian weapon consisting of two clubs, connected by a short rope, thong or chain, and usually used with one club in hand and the other swung as a flail.
• Oslop [ru] – a two-handed, very heavy, often iron-shod, Russian club that was used as the cheapest and the most readily available infantry weapon.
• Paddle club - common in the Solomon Islands, these clubs could be used in warfare or for propelling a small dugout canoe.
• Pickaxe handle – the (usually wooden) haft of a pickaxe used as a club
• Rungu (Swahili, plural marungu) – a wooden throwing club or baton bearing special symbolism and significance in certain East African tribal cultures. It is especially associated with Maasaimorans (male warriors) who have traditionally used it in warfare and for hunting.
• Sali, a Fijian war club
• Sally rod – a long, thin wooden stick, generally made from willow (Latin salix), and used chiefly in the past in Ireland as a disciplinary implement, but also sometimes used like a club (without the fencing-like technique of stick fighting) in fights and brawls.^{[citation needed]} In Japan this type of stick is called the Hanbō meaning half stick, and in FMA (Filipino martial arts) it is called the eskrima or escrima stick, often made from rattan.
• Shillelagh – a wooden club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob on the end, that is associated with Ireland in folklore
• Slapjack – a variation of the blackjack consisting of a longer strap which lets it be used like a flail, and can be used as a club or for trapping techniques as seen in the use of nunchaku and other flexible weapons
• Supi – a war club of the Solomon Islands
• Telescopic baton – a rigid baton capable of collapsing to a shorter length for greater portability and concealability
• Tipstaff – a ceremonial rod used by a court officer of the same name
• Tonfa or side-handle baton – a club of Okinawan origin featuring a second handle mounted perpendicular to the shaft
• Totokia – a Fijian spiked club^[14]

Blackjack Nightstick

• Trench raiding club - a type of melee weapon used by both sides in World War 1
• Ula – traditional throwing club from Fiji
• U'u – an exquisitely-carved ceremonial club from the Marquesan Islands, used as a chiefly status symbol
• Waddy – a heavy hardwood club, used as a weapon for hunting and in tribal in-fighting, and also as a tool, by the Aboriginal people of Australia. The word waddy describes a club from New South Wales, but is also used generally by Australians to include other Aboriginal clubs, including the nulla nulla and leangle.

Animals using club-like appendages[edit]

• Ankylosaurus (armored dinosaur)
• Anodontosaurus (armored dinosaur)
• Club-winged manakin (bird)
• Dyoplosaurus (armored dinosaur)
• Jamaican ibis, extinct bird
• Nodocephalosaurus (armored dinosaur)
• Rodrigues solitaire, extinct bird with carpal spurs or knobs
• Talarurus (armored dinosaur)

Gallery[edit]

• Ball-headed War Club with Spike, Menominee (Native American), early 19th century, Brooklyn Museum

• An iron jutte from Japan.

• Small Japanese Tetsubo, an iron club with a leather grip.

• Various assorted shillelagh (club).

• Traditional Māori mere, made from pounamu (nephrite jade).

• Head of Gata waka

See also[edit]

Blackjack Nightstick

References[edit]

1. ^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Club' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 564.
2. ^Lahr, M. Mirazón; Rivera, F.; Power, R. K.; Mounier, A.; Copsey, B.; Crivellaro, F.; Edung, J. E.; Fernandez, J. M. Maillo; Kiarie, C. (2016). 'Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya'. Nature. 529 (7586): 394–398. doi:10.1038/nature16477. PMID26791728. S2CID4462435.
3. ^Image of clava cefalomorfaArchived 2014-03-14 at Wikiwix Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino
4. ^Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 'Single-stick' . Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 148–149.
5. ^'Jutte'. E-budokai.com. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
6. ^Tuttle dictionary of the martial arts of Korea, China & Japan – Page 168 Daniel Kogan, Sun-Jin Kim – 1996
7. ^Pauley's Guide – A Dictionary of Japanese Martial Arts and Culture – Page 90 Daniel C. Pauley – 2009
8. ^Classical weaponry of Japan: special weapons and tactics of the ... – Page 91 Serge Mol – 2003
9. ^Secrets of the samurai: a survey of the martial arts of feudal Japan By Oscar Ratti, Adele Westbrook p.305
10. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2017-02-11. Retrieved 2017-02-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Retrieved February 7, 2017.
11. ^Francis, Dick. Straight (New York: G.P Putnam's Sons), 1989, pages 99 - 100 and 309.
12. ^'leangle - Definition of leangle in English by Oxford Dictionaries'. Oxford Dictionaries - English. Archived from the original on 2017-08-23.
13. ^'Notes on the Sherlock Holmes story The Bruce Partington Plans'. Sherlockholmes.stanford.edu. 1908-12-12. Archived from the original on 2011-12-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
14. ^Eric Kjellgren, How to Read Oceanic Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2014), p. 153.

External links[edit]