x-posted from Great Write Way in order to get a larger pool of combat experts:

Help!

Two characters in my WIP are fighting. J has just tackled F, and they are rolling around on the ground. F draws a knife and slashes at J, scoring a minor cut or two, but then J disarms him, pins him down, and chokes him to death with his bare hands. Which sounded well and good, in a bloodthirsty way, until I tried to write it:

1. How does J disarm F? He's the younger and stronger of the two, so I think if he gets a good grip on F's knife hand, he can prevent him from doing any more damage, but how does he make him drop the knife? Should I have that happen before J knocks F down? I'd like the knife to be thrown/kicked somewhere where neither of them can reach it, because it's really important that J kills F with his bare hands--he's a soldier, so he's used to killing with musket and bayonet, and I want him shaken and shocked at himself in a way he wouldn't be if he'd used a bullet or a blade.

2. What is J going to see as F goes through his death throes? Will F turn red? Blue? How long will it take him to go limp and then to die?

Time is the opening decade of the 19th century, and J is a typical English redcoat--IOW if you want a musket fired and reloaded quickly or a line of infantry formed into square to meet a cavalry charge, he's your man, but he has no special training in martial arts or hand-to-hand combat and wasn't even the type who got in a lot of fights as a boy. So whatever he does has to be at least sorta-kinda plausible for acting on instinct.

Thanks!

Signed, Discovering that Fight Scenes are Much Tougher Than Sex Scenes, Probably Because I've Had Sex but Have Never Killed a Man With My Bare Hands

How does J disarm F? He's the younger and stronger of the two, so I think if he gets a good grip on F's knife hand, he can prevent him from doing any more damage, but how does he make him drop the knife?

oh! oh! I know the answer to this. But it's been years since my training and I'm sure ita would be able to answer it much more clearly.

Basically, J would break F's grip by grabbing his knife arm with both hands, one just above the wrist and one on the knife hand pulling the arm in close to his (J's) body but pushing the hand w/ knife away.

Um...and then knee him in the balls. That works pretty well.

I feel like I could demonstrate this still but don't know if it makes sense in writing.

Juliana, maybe Vortex and Aimee, and Steph would like to go and should.

cough Standing right here... Wanna go play.

Signed, Discovering that Fight Scenes are Much Tougher Than Sex Scenes, Probably Because I've Had Sex but Have Never Killed a Man With My Bare Hands

Hee! Better than the other way around, I guess.

Flea, that is super stupid, and they should totally suck up to you with money and bennies to make up for it. Damn.

Flea, that bites.

Susan, most of our knife disarms depend on the cavalier, which is like what lisah describes. Imagine the hand as a fist, holding the knife. Hold the wrist with one hand below the joint and pull it towards you as you strike the back of the hand right at the knuckles. You end up bending the wrist and loosening the tendons (and causing pain) which usually gets the knife right out.

Another thing to consider is that if the knife fighter is experienced and not afraid, his grip on the knife will be fairly loose. It's not uncommon for a strong grab at the knife hand wrist or a strike that lands somewhere else to make the knifewielder drop the weapon, and that can easily send it skittering somewhere neither of them can go get it without putting themselves in danger.

Can't help you with the colour of death, though.

I need to know more.

Thanks, ita and lisah! That helps a lot.

The verdict is in for Jose Padilla and will be read at 2 p.m. Eastern today.

That was fast. Meanwhile, I am procrastinating like whoa, and happened upon the best kerfuffle summary in the history of the universe:

The voices in my head told me to do it. Also, it wasn't me because I was drunk/in the hospital/touring with Van Halen at the time. Then, the Earth cooled. Also, they're not sockpuppets, I just wear them on my feet when they're cold.

(From the comment thread on the most recent F_W post, for those who are into such things.)

Awesome!

For Liese especially -- Dark Roasted Blend did a feature about the Micro Cars, including the model I think she was interested in buying (the mini-pickup!):

Ooh, ooh! Thank you so much for that link, Theo! That was a fascinating photo series. I had no idea there were that many micro cars through history! Some of them were superfantabulous.

That little Vespatruck I was looking at is gone! Woe! Someone must have bought it; someone who dithers less than I do. But it was so cute! I dunno if the SO would have fit into it at 6'1", but it would have been great to be able to haul stuff around from the home supply store to the build site, etc. I'm pretty sure that one was listed as being street legal. Less sure that a semi driver could see it over his dash! Heh.