The story 

One day I got an email asking if I’d mind a father-and-son team doing a “mash-up” of my Defenders to build something they really wanted. I said go for it — let me see what you come up with.

For a long time I’d been trying to make a smaller Defender myself — something not much bigger than a credit card — and I’d never quite cracked it. This team did. They sent me what we now call the RP: a very compact Defender that drops right into a pocket. They’d taken the curved head of the Owl, shrunk it down, and paired it with the sawtooth edge from the Defender 2. They kept a digit-capture hole and lanyard holes for easy carry.

Here’s the clever part. Because the tool is short, it seats in the palm of your hand — so they gave it a smooth curve where it meets your palm, so it never bites into you. And they left a 90-degree point out the back to bring down on hard, bony structure. You hold it with one finger through the digit-capture hole and the rest wrapped around the outside; your grip naturally pulls the tool into your palm, locking it in — secure and easy to hold even under stress. Your thumb rides over the sawtooth, ready to work.

Same idea behind it as every newer Defender: not pain for its own sake, and never to punish. The RP is built to stop the threat and get you clear. The forward points are strong against chokes, punches, kicks, and grabs. The rear 90-degree point brings force down on hard, bony structure. The sawtooth grips and controls. And if you need to break a grab, slip your finger out of the capture hole and take the attacker’s digit to peel the hold off you. There’s a close-in control option too — the two front points set against the body and twist to move an attacker off you. Against a lesser threat it’s a control tool; against someone who won’t stop, it takes away his ability to keep coming. Same small tool, your judgment, matched to the moment.

I liked it enough to make an agreement to sell their design, even though it was built on my inventions. All they wanted in return was the name. The father wanted his son’s name on it — Robert Paulson — and that’s how it became the RP Defender. Not bad for a tool that looks like it couldn’t hurt a fly.