Spyderco ARK (With Serrations) Media
Published: 7 years ago
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The ARK — or "Always Ready Knife" — is a purpose-designed personal-defense knife with an extremely interesting history. The man behind the design is U.S. Army combat veteran John Shirley, who enlisted one month after the September 11th attacks and served his first tour as an infantryman. After completing his initial enlistment, being called back to active duty, earning two degrees, and becoming a commissioned officer, Shirley deployed to Afghanistan for the second time in 2011. During that tour, he served as the officer in charge of a joint-service team of non-commissioned officers who traveled in two-person teams to remote outposts throughout the country. In addition to the obvious threat of operating in a war zone, Shirley learned that forward-deployed troops faced other dangers as well, including the threat of sexual assault.
Although not widely publicized, an alarming number of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan were victims of sexual assault by foreign nationals and members of coalition forces. Many of these attacks took place in shower facilities, where soldiers were unarmed and often alone. Shirley, a long-time practitioner of the Japanese martial arts, was determined to keep his team members safe and set about designing a weapon that could literally be carried and used anywhere—even in the shower.
Shirley's vision was a small, lightweight neck knife that could be worn constantly and effectively drawn and employed even with wet, soapy hands. Since Shirley is not a knifemaker, he contacted his friend Sam Owens, a talented craftsman and specialist in historic preservation, and explained the concept to him. Owens immediately embraced the project and began crafting concept models and prototypes that he sent to Shirley to test and share with other forward-deployed personnel. Based on their feedback and the results of his testing, Shirley suggested refinements and Owens dutifully incorporated them into further prototypes.
Although original prototypes of the ARK had full tangs, textured G10 scales, and an index-finger groove, the grip they offered was still not adequate for use with wet, soapy hands. Spyderco therefore decided to invest in the tooling to mold a fiberglass-reinforced nylon (FRN) handle directly onto the blade's tang. An FRN handle allowed the use of Spyderco's proven Bi-Directional Texturing pattern, which provides unparalleled grip control even when wet.
Although the first-generation ARK sheath functioned well, to further increase retention during vigorous activity, Spyderco redesigned it to incorporate an integral retention tab. This tab keeps the knife locked in the sheath during carry, yet can be quickly released with the index finger to facilitate a rapid draw. For joggers and other folks with active lifestyles, this ensures that the ARK will stay securely in place while remaining quickly available when you need it most.
The ARK is a truly unique personal-defense tool that will surely find favor far beyond its intended audience. Shirley and Owens did an outstanding job of driving their vision forward and making it a reality and Spyderco is honored to be involved in this worthy project.
Music: "Slow Heat" by Kevin MacLeod
(http://incompetech.com/)
Check out our entire inventory: http://www.knifecenter.com
Keep up with all our newest products by signing up for our newsletter: http://www.knifecenter.com/newsletter
Follow KnifeCenter on:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/KnifeCenter
Instagram - https://instagram.com/knifecenter/
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/knifecenter
_____________________________________
The ARK — or "Always Ready Knife" — is a purpose-designed personal-defense knife with an extremely interesting history. The man behind the design is U.S. Army combat veteran John Shirley, who enlisted one month after the September 11th attacks and served his first tour as an infantryman. After completing his initial enlistment, being called back to active duty, earning two degrees, and becoming a commissioned officer, Shirley deployed to Afghanistan for the second time in 2011. During that tour, he served as the officer in charge of a joint-service team of non-commissioned officers who traveled in two-person teams to remote outposts throughout the country. In addition to the obvious threat of operating in a war zone, Shirley learned that forward-deployed troops faced other dangers as well, including the threat of sexual assault.
Although not widely publicized, an alarming number of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan were victims of sexual assault by foreign nationals and members of coalition forces. Many of these attacks took place in shower facilities, where soldiers were unarmed and often alone. Shirley, a long-time practitioner of the Japanese martial arts, was determined to keep his team members safe and set about designing a weapon that could literally be carried and used anywhere—even in the shower.
Shirley's vision was a small, lightweight neck knife that could be worn constantly and effectively drawn and employed even with wet, soapy hands. Since Shirley is not a knifemaker, he contacted his friend Sam Owens, a talented craftsman and specialist in historic preservation, and explained the concept to him. Owens immediately embraced the project and began crafting concept models and prototypes that he sent to Shirley to test and share with other forward-deployed personnel. Based on their feedback and the results of his testing, Shirley suggested refinements and Owens dutifully incorporated them into further prototypes.
Although original prototypes of the ARK had full tangs, textured G10 scales, and an index-finger groove, the grip they offered was still not adequate for use with wet, soapy hands. Spyderco therefore decided to invest in the tooling to mold a fiberglass-reinforced nylon (FRN) handle directly onto the blade's tang. An FRN handle allowed the use of Spyderco's proven Bi-Directional Texturing pattern, which provides unparalleled grip control even when wet.
Although the first-generation ARK sheath functioned well, to further increase retention during vigorous activity, Spyderco redesigned it to incorporate an integral retention tab. This tab keeps the knife locked in the sheath during carry, yet can be quickly released with the index finger to facilitate a rapid draw. For joggers and other folks with active lifestyles, this ensures that the ARK will stay securely in place while remaining quickly available when you need it most.
The ARK is a truly unique personal-defense tool that will surely find favor far beyond its intended audience. Shirley and Owens did an outstanding job of driving their vision forward and making it a reality and Spyderco is honored to be involved in this worthy project.
Music: "Slow Heat" by Kevin MacLeod
(http://incompetech.com/)