Engineering safer, more realistic knife training tools

I'm an engineer and martial artist who has spent years on the mats training Taekwondo, Kali Silat, and Kickboxing. Especially in knife defense and knife sparring, I kept running into the same problem: the training knives we used never felt quite right.

Many trainers are either too light, too soft, or too unforgiving. They don't move like a real blade, or they punish mistakes in a way that stops people from training with realistic intensity. That gap between safety and realism is exactly where I wanted to work.

With a background in engineering and 3D printing, I started prototyping my own knife trainers. Session after session I would go back and forth between the 3D printer and the training floor, adjusting weight, balance, geometry, and material choices to better match the feeling of a real knife while still staying safe enough for contact training.

Over time, and with constant feedback from my instructors and training partners, these prototypes evolved into the daga45 training knives you see here: tools designed from the ground up for martial artists, by someone who trains with them every week.

My goal is simple: provide a training knife that lets you pressure-test your skills with realistic movement and commitment, without compromising on safety. daga45 is the result of that ongoing engineering and training process.