Are these Kubaton things you can buy for your keyring illegal to have?

No totally legal and a total waste of money as well.

I disagree. I have used mine quite a bit when I was working bar security and had to escort a drunk out. They are also a good defensive weapon.

I don't actually have one, what do they do? Is it just a piece of metal with a few grooves in?

The Kubotan and How To Use It

The Kubotan is designed to be used against bony surfaces, soft tissue and nerve points. It is effective because of the temporary paralysis or extreme pain it causes. Even for those without experience in a martial art, the Kubotan provides an inexpensive and easily learned method of self defense.

The Kubotan increases the power of any strike. It is not necessary to waste time or miss an opportunity by trying to be overly precise. It's better to react naturally. Good targets are the groin, stomach, solar plexus, throat, the arm, the shin, hip bone, collarbone, ankle, and kneecap. A sharp strike to a bony part of the body will encourage an assailant to stop his attack. A harder, well placed blow can easily break bones--especially if the force of the blow is not hindered by clothing.

The most basic applications involve striking or poking vulnerable areas of the body with the Kubotan. Generally speaking, swinging strikes work better against bony surfaces while fleshy areas are more susceptible to pokes and jabs with the ends of the Kubotan. With this concept in mind, a person avoids the confusion and frustration of trying to remember specific strikes for specific targets. Instead, one simply remembers to strike bones and poke soft tissue and pressure points.

There is no wrong strike. Just hit as hard as you can the closest body part. The strike does not have to be perfect. Since nerves are close to the surface of most bony parts, even a glancing blow will inflict enough pain to make your assailant think twice about continuing his attack.

You can also use the keys that you have attached to the Kubotan. You can hold the Kubotan and swing the keys. Most effective when you hit the face.

The Kubotan is legal and entirely unregulated. To most people, the Kubotan is little more than a nondescript key ring. While the Kubotan is not particularly intimidating, it remains an effective self defense installment. It really can save your life.

The Kubotans are made of aluminum and come in various colors and have either pointed or flat tips.



Some History and Facts About The Kubotan

One of the most common types of self-defense weapons is the kubotan. Kubotan can vary is size and shape, but they generally run about six inches long, and are around a half of an inch thick. Though there is some debate about the specific order of events that surround the birth of the kubotan, many people agree that it originated as a modified yawara, which itself is a modification of an Okinawan martial arts weapon.

A Japanese American named Frank Matsumaya popularized Yawara during the last century. Matsumaya is widely credited with altering traditional Japanese martial arts techniques and implements in order to make them available to a wider audience. The yawara stick was one such weapon--Matsumaya modified traditional tools and then propagated the resulting tool as a police weapon.

The causal link between the yawara and the kubotan is fuzzy, at best. One version of events says that Shinan Tak Kubota, the inventor of the kubotan further modified the yawara stick to produce the modern kubotan. Other versions profess that Tak Kubota invented kubotan techniques while looking for efficient ways to use the common ballpoint pen. Regardless, Tak Kubota inarguably designed the kubotan (the item) to be functional both in and out of fights, and was wholly conscious of its use as a key chain and the added functionality that keys could bring to the weapon.

Kubotan are generally manufactured from heavy-duty plastic or aluminum. Most kubotan are simply straight rods with a tapered end, but some have two thin wooden protrusions that, when held in a fist, fit on either side of the user's middle finger. The versatility of the kubotan allows it to be used in different ways by people with different martial arts backgrounds, as well as by people with no formal training in the martial arts.

Link to source (many pictures of different types of kubatons aswell)

Norm



Edited. Norm, see the PM I sent you for more info

It looks as big as a micro maglite doubt you could do much damage with thet

I will bet you a bottle of your favorite scotch that I can ruin your day with mine.

Our Personal Safety Trainer brought one to class once and used it!! VERY impressed

But in the wrong hands ....

Clicky Clicky

OUCH. I retract my previous statement