Kind of.It’s realistic in the sense that it can and does happen. At the same time, itprobably won’t save your life. Knife wounds to the palms, (called, “defensivewounds,”) are fairly common when someone has been attacked by a knife wieldingopponent. Usually, what happens is they’ll attempt to block the knife byputting up their hands, palms out, and their palms and fingers will take theinitial assault. That I’m most familiar with the term from autopsies should saya lot about how well this usually works out for the victim.
If you’redealing with a situation, where someone’s trying to stab you and your onlyoption is to catch the blade with your hand, it is better than dying. However,it is also a very temporary solution, and one you can’t repeat after using. It’salso, probably, not your best option.
When youbleed, your body is trying to do two things; first clean the wound and expelany foreign objects in it, then seal the wound over to allow the tissue to heal.Fresh blood is aggravatingly slick. Once exposed to oxygen, blood becomes tackyand coagulates over the course of a few minutes. (Specific clotting times varybased on a number of factors. For example: if your character is an alcoholic,their blood’s ability to clot will be severely impaired.) It only remains tackyfor a few minutes, and will then harden into a solid mass, so the window hereis fairly narrow.
When youtake a knife to the hand, you’re going to bleed all over your hand. That meansyour hands will get slick, and have a harder time gripping the blade. This isbefore you consider the part where your hand is actually getting cut to pieces.Eventually the blood will clot (whether you survive long enough to see this ornot), at which point gripping the blade would become easier, but that’s not arealistic consideration because the fight won’t last long enough to get there.
As I’vesaid before, your body functions on a kind of pulley system. Your muscles pullon tendons which in turn tense against your skeleton, causing your limbs tomove. When you start cutting tendons, the pulley system starts to break down.Some of the most delicate pieces of this system are in your hands and feet.Start carving those apart, and your hand willnot work. This isn’t an, “oh, I can force my way through on sheerwillpower,” situation. The mechanical components critical to making your handswork will be damaged or destroyed. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh hasbeen turned into butterflyed steak. Catching a knife with your hand will stopthat strike, but it means your hand willnot work again. Yes, if you survive, it can be repaired surgically, butthat’s not going to keep you alive.
Thebetter option, if you have sufficient manual dexterity to catch the blade is tocatch your opponent’s wrist instead. Again, this isn’t a great position to bein, and wrist grabs are some of the weakest and riskiest holds, but it is far better than trying to grab theirknife. Your arm or hand might get nicked by the blade, but that is vastlypreferable to taking a direct blade to the hand. Going for the wrist is alegitimate strategy and a part of some knife fighting doctrine. Granted, yourbest option would be to maintain distance, and never let a knife wielder getclose enough to attack, but that’s not always a practical option.
