FOREARM MOUNTED COMBAT WEAPON

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to combat weapons employing cutting edges. Thus, the field includes daggers as well as bayonets. Military personnel have also utilized so-called “trench knives.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is particularly focused on a cutting weapon that is attached to the forearm of the user. It will be understood that the term “forearm” relates to the part of a person intermediate the elbow in the hand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The shortcomings of the prior art are overcome and additional advantages are provided A weapon primarily for defending the user from an attacker approaching from behind a user which includes an elongated blade that is substantially coaxial with handle and includes a harness for engaging the forearm of a user and positioning the handle of the knife in side abutting relationship with a user's forearm and the elongated blade extending generally coaxial alignment with the handle and forearm of the user and away from the forearm of the user.

In some forms of the invention the weapon includes a handle, and a blade fixed with respect to the handle. The blade extends from the handle as shown in FIG. 1. More particularly, in the illustrated embodiment centerlines of the blade 22 and the handle 24 are coextensive with a single arc. Because the blade 22 and the handle 24 are fixed together and the handle 24 is fixed to the user's forearm, this means that if the user's forearm is horizontal, the blade is in a defensive position. If the user's forearm is vertical, the blade is in in a passive or stored position

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. Although specific features of various exemplary embodiments of the invention may be shown in some drawings and not in others, this is for convenience only. In accordance with the principles of the invention, any feature of a drawing maybe referenced and/or claimed in combination with any feature of any other drawing.

The invention, however, both as to organization and method of practice, together with the further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention secured to the forearm of a user and having single blade extending beyond a user's elbow when the forearm is horizontal.

FIG. 2 is a top view illustrating another embodiment having a shorter blade connected to a harness for engaging the forearm of a user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a weapon for attachment to the forearm of a user. In some embodiments the weapon is a blade that moves between a stored position with the blade parallel and proximate to the users forearm in a deployed position in which the blade extends substantially and coaxial relationship with respect to the forearm. Accordingly, when the blade is extended, the blade extends substantially perpendicular to the upper arm from the elbow. Thus, when the blade is deployed the user is able to thrust the extended blade in a defensive move against an adversary approaching from the rear of the user.

Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown a side view of an embodiment of the present invention secured by a harness 20 to the forearm of a user A and having single blade 22 extending from a housing 24 beyond a user's elbow,

FIG. 2 illustrates still another embodiment of the present invention which includes a harness 30 to engage the forearm of the user. A small blade 34 provided with a handle 36 is engaged by the harness 30.

It will be seen that in the event of an attacker approaching from the rear of an individual utilizing the apparatus the present invention, the user will have the opportunity to utilize the significant strength of the user's arm muscles to defend himself or herself.

All publications and patent applications mentioned in this specification are indicative A of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

It will be understood that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of introductory phrases such as “at least one” or “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “an imager”should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one imager”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, it will be recognized that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two images,” or “a plurality of images,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two images). Furthermore, in those instances where a phrase such as “at least one of A, B, and C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” or “an [item] selected from the group consisting of A, B, and C,” is used, in general such a construction is intended to be disjunctive (e.g., any of these phrases would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B, and C together, and may further include more than one of A, B, or C, such as A₁, A₂, and C together, A, B₁, B₂, C₁, and C₂ together, or B₁ and B₂ together). It will be further understood that virtually any disjunctive word or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”

Although the description above contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Thus, the scope of this invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the scope of the present invention fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of the present invention is accordingly to be limited by the appended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more.” All structural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of the above-described preferred embodiment that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for a device or method to address each and every problem sought to be solved by the present invention, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.”