Peter Janda is one hell of a nice guy. That’s a good thing because he’s big—6 foot plus something, less than 10 percent body fat—and with his close-cropped hair, he looks a little like central casting’s idea of a former Soviet block soldier. In fact, he served in the Czech army for a period of time during the Cold War years. You could guess this yourself because when he runs, he still looks like he’s running with a ruck on his back. Peter is a fixture at the Tactical Defense Institute in Ohio, where he teaches firearms, knife, and empty hands skills. He is often the guy in the FIST suit letting students learn their skills by hitting him. Peter is also the proprietor of FIN Designs, where he turns out exquisite custom-made Kydex holsters. He makes the fastest holster I’ve ever used that’s also practical and secure enough for concealed carry.
To no one’s surprise, Peter also has opinions about knives. In his words: “I have been playing with knives of all sorts since childhood, with the self-inflicted injuries to show for it.” Given Peter’s background and build, it should be no surprise that the fixed-blade knife and the folder he designed are both on the beefy side. Shorter than you might have guessed, but beefy. In fact, that the knives are a little shorter than some others have designed indicates to me that he has actually used and continues to use knives—in that a big monster knife has few actual utility uses. The FIN fixed-blade and the FIN folder are now produced by KA-BAR, where they were introduced at the 2008 SHOT Show.
Discussion about this post