Another awkward fight scene

[LizW65]

Okay, so the opener of my current work in progress has the protagonist beating the snots out of a home invader with a bottleneck guitar slide (in lieu of brass knuckles.)  I think it's kind of a cool idea, but unsure whether it could work in practice; short of actually going out and doing it, which would cause more problems than it would solve, I don't know how to test something like this.  I'm open to suggestions, though, particularly from veterans of street/bar fights...anyone?

[Enjorous]

It is and I'm assuming that he chose it as a weapon of opportunity. What else is around him? I'm not familiar with a bottleneck gutair slide but to me it doesn't seem like a weapon that you'd grab on the fly. Most improvised weapons ted to be on the bigger side for whapping power. Although keys, antenni, lanyards, towels and the like are really effective if used correctly. I hope that somewhat helps. I'm not a veteran off street fights but I do have a certificate in improv. weapon fighting.

[whingnut]

I have some experience with slides. They would have been made of glass, or a light steel/aluminum . The way they rest on the finger covers the first 2 knuckles and just a bit past so if you used one ON a finger in a fight you'd likely break said finger. My suggestion would be grasp it in the hand like a roll of quarters ( I assume you have seen that old trick?) making the fist as a whole more dense and deadly. I hope this helps.

[LizW65]

Good plan, whingnut--I was kind of wondering how he'd do it without breaking the finger in question.  And yes, Enjorous, it is improvised; he just happens to have it in his pocket when he surprises the burglar.

[Enjorous]

Then I'd go with Wingnut's suggestion and have him hold it in his fist.

[Figging Mint]

If he holds it like a roll of quarters and tries to use it  like a stamp  to pound circles in the guy, there is a good chance of gamekeeper's thumb.

[whingnut]

Good plan, whingnut--I was kind of wondering how he'd do it without breaking the finger in question.  And yes, Enjorous, it is improvised; he just happens to have it in his pocket when he surprises the burglar.

Glad I could be of some help. I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer but I sometimes have a good idea. 

[Piotr1600]

Alternately, it could be a slide from either pedal-steel or lap-steel guitars. Those tend to be solid masses of metal that would *definitely* fit the "weighted hand" thing.
The slide for my dad's pedal steel is a solid bar, ~4" long x ~1" in diameter, and is quite weighty.

[Breandan]

$0.02 from someone who has been in CQB- armed and unarmed- many times. Unless both combatants are very well trained, any close-quarters melee or unarmed fight will inevitably devolve into grappling. At that point, the man with the knife underhand or the free elbow will be the only one to get any decent blows in. The objective when grappling- unless you excel at a style that uses close-in grappling such as Pancratean, Krav Maga or some more advanced forms of Judo or Aikido- is to break free of the entanglement to re-engage with strikes. If you don't have the room, either because of conditions or you cannot break entirely free from the grapple, elbow and knee strikes come into play. If your elbow is above the line of your opponent's shoulders (such as when he is wrapped around your chest or waist), striking the neck and temple with the elbow is bloody brutal, and unless you have no power behind it, can really bugger an opponent up. Even more so if he has you around the waist and you can rotate to cross-strike (rotate around to the left so that your right elbow strikes his right temple, including the force of unwinding the twist). Knees come into play in some instances, but hitting someone in the groin is not as disabling as movies and books make it out to be. Been there >.<

As for ad-hoc weapons, the more the merrier. Hitting someone with a fist, knee or elbow does damage to them, but it also does damage to you, albeit much less. Getting something to take that abuse for you is always a welcome enhancement. I looked at a few pictures of guitar slides, and they don't seem to add enough mass to increase the damage of a punch, nor do they cover and protect the knuckles. However, for a hammer-fist strike to the face or temple, they'd do some right nasty damage as mentioned before, concentrating the blow into a ring-shaped area. If you want alternatives, never underestimate the nastiness of a set of keys clenched between knuckles and pointing outward between the fingers, almost like miniature punch daggers, ESPECIALLY when aimed at the neck or eyes.