My only gripe (if I can even call it that?) about the Mil-Reg as a fighter is being such a thick blade, it's actually spine heavy (strange, I know). In my experience, a blade heavy knife tends to force you to commit to the swing when employed as a fighter, whereas a light thin blade doesn't pull your arm with it. The blade heaviness is easy enough to compensate for, though, it becomes a matter of follow through, circular motions like Kung Fu teaches you to do. I find that blades that balance nearer the butt of the knife, the balance centered on my palm, feel lightest and fastest in the hand, but they don't have the same security when using them to defend against a strike. Handle heavy pivots easily while blade heavy weilds more like a sharpened club.

I am interested, purely academically, how the shorter Regs handle as a fighter.

Being spine heavy, the Dereg is more difficult for me to twirl in my hand, the mass and where it balances slows the rotation significantly. It has proven very difficult, and sometimes painful, to twirl my Dereg a full 360`. I think because of the blade length being a bit longer than my YardHook, it is still easier to twirl than the YH is. The blade catch sometimes catches my palm and flips the cutting edge toward my arm, and the recurved edged is downright NASTY when it clips me.