Quote Originally Posted by Dale Seago View Post
Before the early-to-mid-1800s you wouldn't have had a sgian in your stocking: It would have (with a wee longer blade) been a "backup" in the armpit of your jacket.

Second point: If it's in your stocking and you don't want to lose it, don't go to the ground. Easier said than done, I know, as a martial artist who for 27 years has delighted in going to the ground. . .

Sgian achlais, quite familier with them. Hence my using only the "sgian" term here-didn't want to misrepresent any established understood nomenclature. I guess the assumption was that it was dubh, though there was not a spot of black on it...

Happenstance, wasn't wearing a jacket, so no hiding spot...stocking was the alternative. The ground I went to was due to gettting clipped in the leg-and played it out as though it were a wounding that would have put me there. Not fun using a basket hilt from below, with an enemy above...disconcerting for them as well.