What is Piper?

Piper is a constantly evolving killing system based on the founders life experience and martial arts research.

It is the South African way of using the knife and has a direct line to the gangs of the Cape.

The founder Nigel E February created this very explosive and offensive blade system to understand how criminals move for self defence reasons.

Influenced from the Indo Malayan Silat from skilled slaves brought into South Africa from Indonesia through the Dutch and the British, the Nguni Stick fighting which is a regional South African art, practiced mostly by Nguni teenage herdboys, western boxing/form boxing and the Zulu spear and shield concept.

These are the elements that assemble Piper together.

Before Piper was formed it was called Cape Town knife fighting. There were only different gangs from different locations with a few techniques from various styles. Piper Knife System didn’t exist yet. There wasn’t an art with a technique syllabus.

The founder and creator Nigel E February started meticulous collecting all this different techniques and styles, putting them in rubrics MA practitioners could relate to, and then creating a system what we know today as PIPER KNIFE SYSTEM.