Can you define 'tactical?'

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wutitiz

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Mar 5, 2008
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A recent post asked readers to name their favorite 'tactical' folder. A few posters got into the issue of whether it was even good terminology. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time, even before Jeff Cooper joked about painting paperclips black and calling them 'tactical.'

'Tactical' is of course, just the adjective form of 'tactic,' which my dictionary defines as 'a planned action for accomplishing an end.' Based on that definition, what would make one knife tactical and another not? The answer, it seems to me, is that 'tactics' are in the head of the user, not in the knife itself. So it could make sense to speak of a tactical idea, or a tactical lesson, but probably not a tactical knife. I have even seen ads for 'tactical' shirts.

I also don't like the nomenclature 'tactical knife,' because eventually it could be used against the knife industry by the media, just as 'assault weapon' was. The prospects for an anti-knife crusade might seem low right now, but it has happened elsewhere.

Can anyone really offer a definition of 'tactical knife.' And if not, should we really use words when we don't know what in the %$#@:confused: they mean?
 
My definition of the word tactical to describe a knife is = Marketing scheme.

Either the knife meets your needs or it does not.
 
Normal knife = normal looking and does the job.
Tactical knife =take the normal knife and paint it black, add some serrations, blood grooves, a combatty name, bells and whistles and other useless stuff and double the price.
Just a marketing thing, really.
 
I think you need to use "tactical" and" knife" as one word ie. as 1 concept if that makes any sence.
As fare as folders goes it means 1 hander and lock. (for me anyway). Yes that means sebenza and strider alike.
 
I agree with everything said before, but if I were building a definition based on what's for sale and how 'tactical' knives are marketed I would give them these characteristics:

1. A folding knife with a blade length somewhere between 2.5 to 4.5 inches
2. A single self-locking blade (so a Twistmaster or Opinel isn't tactical)
3. Some form of rapid blade opener (spydie hole, stud, torsion bar assist)
4. Pocket clip carry


Of course there are exceptions to this: the Boker fixed-blade with the multi-position carry system is probably a tactical knife even though it's not a folder.

How about this: a knife which may be unobtrusively carried for the purpose of self-defense and/or repeated hard use?
 
I don't believe it is a marketing ploy since there must be a demand prior to ploy.

It is this need in many places, by many people to "FEEL" secure. Enter black or grey or tiger striped, dangerous knives that if you buy you are magically safe. This is as much a self criticism as it is a social crit.

Tactical is something that looks military-ish and/or ninja-ish and way over built. A Hummer comes to mind.
 
BTW, all humans have that "need" to feel secure. Some have alot of money so they can separate themselves in fancy neighborhoods that promise to keep the trouble out, others can buy stuff to keep trouble out and others give up hope and surrender.
 
I like your definition, Elkins45. You're the first to take a real stab (sorry) at it. There is a need for a label to describe these knives. In fact, I've found myself using the word even though I don't like it. I just don't think it's very good English.

Also, psy-ops makes a good point. The first place I heard the term was not marketing-related, but from a police officer I knew way back in the '80s who used to talk about his 'tac' gun (his pistol used for SWAT raids). Which goes to show that SWAT cops may be good at conducting raids, but aren't the brightest bulbs in the marquee when it comes to language.
 
As I use the word I am talking about a large, heavy built, single bladed locking folder. Large single blade to me would be 3.5" and longer. I can't really but a tag on heavy built, but I know it when I feel it. To me color doesn't come into my definition, but a lot of the knives that would fit my definition are black. I can take or leave the word Tactical, but I guess it would be easier to use Tactical to sale the knife than to try and use "Large Heavy Built Single Bladed Locking folder" to sale the knife!

So, if you ever read a post by cutter17 and you see the word tactical folder, you now know what it means!:thumbup:
 
"Tactical knife" is analogous to "fiction writing."

In the first example, no matter how sliced, there is still a knife amid the surrounding noise. In the second, writing is still the written word.

It's all in the adjective. In fiction writing, one can create a world in their vision, embellish the truth, make-up characters, and outright lie.

The same "anything goes" ethic is very much at the core of "tactical" knife field.

Tantos, digi-camo scales, camo blades, secret squirrel ad copy and fake biographies all scream "sucker" to me.

There ought to be a more explicit label. Just as "fiction" tells the reader that what they are reading is not the truth, I guess "tactical" will have to stand in as the warning to the buyer that a measure of bullshit was involved in the making or marketing of the knife.
 
wutitiz said:
I like your definition, Elkins45. You're the first to take a real stab (sorry) at it. There is a need for a label to describe these knives. In fact, I've found myself using the word even though I don't like it. I just don't think it's very good English..
Click to expand...

I think we should adopt the same language for knives that I advocate for what the media pejoratively call 'assault rifles'. I've taken to calling them Sport Utility Rifles, so why don't we have a category called "Sport Utility knives"?
 
The former assault weapons ban defined a so-called assault weapon by its scary looking features - flash suppressor, collapsible stock, pistol grip, etc. None of these features had diddly squat to do with an "assault", nor they make the gun more lethal. They were just scary looking features, and thats how the gun was defined. Thats how liberal legislators do things.

Same thing with "tactical". It does not mean sharper, or better steel, or more lethal, etc. It just means scary looking, IMO.
 
Well, if a military Special Operations team member, on a mission, pulled out his knife (schwing!) for a rudimentary task, and the moonlight gleaming off of the blade (along with the schwing!) gave away their position, I would say that would NOT BE "tactical". Hence the reference to the black paperclips (since mall-ninja knife buyers don;t need to quiet their schwing or dim their gleaming blade..... ((( :D )))
 
Elkins45 @15 <<sport utility knives>> I love that. My idea has been 'safety knives' since some of the features are for safety (locking blade, flipper guards, etc.) but yours is more descriptive and fitting.

I am going to use that from now on. Hope it catches on. Any other ideas out there?
 
It is funny to read so many people who don't like the idea of a Tactical knife, but the still find military knives intereasting, to the point that many have them in their collections. The good old Ka-Bar USMC fighting knife, for example. It isn't just that they are relatively inexpensive. There are many knives about the same size that are relatively inexpenisve.

People want the "bad" knife but just don't tell (some) people it's tactical, or they will blush and run away. They start pulling out their collection of slip joint folders to show
that they don't really like any knife that might be useful in SD or harm to anything. They want the world to believe they only like butter knives. I think these folks have been
cowed by the sheeple. It is PC trickling down into the knife world.

The problem with the word "tactical" it has been attached to a number of cheap, badly made knives... along with many fine knives.

Rich
 
Here is my own definition after checking out some dictionaries

Tactical...that which helps accomplish an action swiftly and optimally by the use of well defined and well studied means working in unison.

So, as it pertains to knives... the means could be anything from the shape of the blade, to the colour of the handle and blade so that it doesn't glow in the night, and/or the minimal writing on the knife so that it does not reveal the nationality of the person carrying/using it, and/or the usually long blade so that it maximizes depth of penetration, etc.

Best wishes,

Edalb

Best wishes,

Edalb
 
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