hey william, i totally understand where you are coming from with certain instructors that teach things that dont work. i was in the same boat. an amazing system that has a knife program that you should check out is vee arnis jitsu. professor james knows what he is talking about and breaks it down very easily. i am training in this system now and i wish i found out about it years ago. i also have a couple of their videos which are also great. i think there is a satellite vee arnis jitsu school around you. check out their main website and find out,
www.veearnisjitsu.com. i hope this helps the discussion.