The Gun Counter

Around the Water Cooler: CopTool
By Rich Grassi


A few years back, I got the opportunity to write a column for a print publication. I was happy to get to do a column. While features are great, a column gives a regular opportunity to speak to readers. When it was offered, it was a mixed blessing; I wanted a column, but this was to be about knives.

A friend once asked me to write knife articles for him. I declined.

"What do I write," I asked. "It's steel, it's sharp, it cuts."

A few years of writing a knife column shook that out of me. Still, most of the knives out there weren't well suited for duty. Some are quite expensive. Beautiful cutlery, masterfully made, make for tears resulting in the event of loss. Cheaper knives weren't "exciting," but they were more likely carried.

The most important task for a duty knife is cutting - rope, seat belts - more than defense. I'm happy to highlight the more duty style cutters. A retired cop has designed a knife and it's being made by Triple Eight Professional. It's called the CopTool.

Designed by Roy Huntington, Publisher of such print titles as American Cop and American Handgunner, the CopTool is innovative. Closed, it's only 3" long. It's barely over a quarter inch thick. In an era when cops are overloaded with "less lethal," commo gear, body armor, guns, ammo, and a cup of overpriced latte, a useful implement that's tiny is worth much more than its weight.

The CopTool terminates in a lanyard. It can be a neckknife or a keyring. There is a pocket clip, but the tool is so light (two ounces) and small, it could be missed coming off a pocket.

Triple Eight Professional describes the CopTool as a "folding fixed blade knife." It really is. The handle is split and swiveling it open and around to lock produces the knife. The 440 surgical stainless steel blade is designed to cut seatbelts, with a flat sharpened edge for scraping and a sawtooth edge for rope. It's hell for strong and the blade does all it does at only 1 ¼" in length.

At only $50, it's a bargain. Keeping it close to the centerline of your front makes it available to either hand. In that cataclysmic car wreck, when it's your seatbelt that needs to be cut, the CopTool can get you out - if you can reach it.

Buy it. Wear it everytime you're in a car or on the job.

For more info, take a look at www.888professional.com or call 858-382-0055.