Evaluation of TAC-11 survival knife
I recently had opportunity to put Tom Johannings TAC-11 knife to use, and what a knife it was.
I am a Special forces soldier and was looking for a good knife to take to SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape) school with me. My prior knife was a casualty of a harsh environment so I was looking for something as close to indestructible as I could find. When I saw the add with a knife going through plate steel I figured that this was what I was searching for. I contacted Mr. Johanning and offered him an honest evaluation with improvement ideas for use of his knife. He agreed and soon thereafter I received the knife.
Right out of the box the I sensed power and strength in this knife. Both heft and balance of the TAC-11 are excellent. Totaling 11 inches, with a blade 6.5 inches long and 3/16 of an inch thick it looked tough. The black canvas micarta handle seemed (and later proved) indestructible. The finish was a dull one thanks to an excellent bead blasting job. I myself prefer this to any applied finish, which will later scratch and flake off from use.
TESTING
The TAC-11 came with a pretty good edge on it that was upgraded to an extremely keen razor edge with a Lanskey sharpener set to 25 degrees. I went out and chose a pine branch that was about 8 inches in diameter to hack through. This was green wood, not some rotten log. 127 chops and I was through, no blisters or hot spots. The hook on the end of the handle worked great to help me keep control of the knife, although, I would like to see another inch added onto the handle. The edge was still very sharp and shaved hair off of my arm effortlessly. I continued for another hour, hacking up 2x4's and triple strand nylon rope. The knife kept on shaving hair. I next focused on point strength. I stabbed into a thick oak plank as hard as I could (no hand slippage) and pried out the tip using firm lateral pressure. This produced a large divot of wood. I repeated this 15 times and was rewarded with 15 large oak chunks. On try 16 the tip broke, not much, about 1/8 of an inch. Not bad seeing how that type of use would kill most other knives. I used this opportunity to improve upon the basic tip design. I ised a DRemel tool to grind the tip down to a drop point. This turned out to be a much stronger tip and has yet to show signs of damage. (Even after 75 more pryouts and a bunch of hard field use).
The TAC-11's blade strength is nothing if not remarkable. I have split 2x4's, 4x4's and 60 or so 10' diameter cedar logs (pounding the knife through with a big rock) with no damage to the knife. I was able to place my entire body weight of 200lbs on the knife and use it as a step-up after pounding it about 4 inches into a tree. I tried this with an Air Force survival knife once and snapped it in half. By this time I was truly in love with the knife.
OUT AT SERE
At SERE school SF personal undergo extensive survival training. There the TAC-11 was put to the challenge on an hourly basis.Cutting down saplings, clearing brush, doing delicate carvings (fishing lures), and also digging, cleaning and dressing a goat, 3 rabbits and a chicken. The TAC did great! It did dull a bit but consistently remained the sharpest, strongest knife in camp. I watched as other soldiers broke 2 K-Bars and many pocket knives trying to copy what I was doing. The knife did suffer a 1/2 mm chip when quartering the goat, but had no problems other than that. This knife soon became known, only as "The Tool". Everyone wanted to use it. Another week of this abuse and it was time to sharpen, that took about 10 min to restore the razor edge on it.I did quite a bit of work in the rain and had absolutely zero incidences of rust, very impressive. The Kydex sheath was only doing so, so. By this time one of the retaining straps broke off and was lost to the woods. In the future I would recommend that a sheath from Blackhawk industries or Eagle industries be used. The A-8 steel's ability to sharpen quickly and maintain an edge are wonderful things. I opened an entire house's worth of cardboard boxes, cut them up and had no degradation of the edge.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
This is a wonderful, functional knife! Yes, $375 is quite a bit of money for a knife, but well worth if you're going to base your life upon it in the woods. Improvements I'd like to see are:
Make the tip a drop point, much stronger.
On the knife's spine, extend the grooving another inch towards the handle would be helpful.
Make those indestructible Micarta handle slabs removable, that would make it easier to lash to "things".
Add an inch onto the handle.
Different sheath.
Drop the price so everyone can own one of these.
If a military model is produced, do not include the USA on the pommel. As patriotic as it is, advertising you are American overseas is a good way to become a target for a bad-guy.
And that's it! The Tac-11 is the strongest knife that I have ever used. It holds its edge better any knife I have ever used. I certainly would entrust my life to this knife. Tom's web site is http://www.survivalknives.com/ I suggest you visit it.
[This message has been edited by Javahed (edited 02-21-2000).]
[This message has been edited by Javahed (edited 02-21-2000).]
I recently had opportunity to put Tom Johannings TAC-11 knife to use, and what a knife it was.
I am a Special forces soldier and was looking for a good knife to take to SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape) school with me. My prior knife was a casualty of a harsh environment so I was looking for something as close to indestructible as I could find. When I saw the add with a knife going through plate steel I figured that this was what I was searching for. I contacted Mr. Johanning and offered him an honest evaluation with improvement ideas for use of his knife. He agreed and soon thereafter I received the knife.
Right out of the box the I sensed power and strength in this knife. Both heft and balance of the TAC-11 are excellent. Totaling 11 inches, with a blade 6.5 inches long and 3/16 of an inch thick it looked tough. The black canvas micarta handle seemed (and later proved) indestructible. The finish was a dull one thanks to an excellent bead blasting job. I myself prefer this to any applied finish, which will later scratch and flake off from use.
TESTING
The TAC-11 came with a pretty good edge on it that was upgraded to an extremely keen razor edge with a Lanskey sharpener set to 25 degrees. I went out and chose a pine branch that was about 8 inches in diameter to hack through. This was green wood, not some rotten log. 127 chops and I was through, no blisters or hot spots. The hook on the end of the handle worked great to help me keep control of the knife, although, I would like to see another inch added onto the handle. The edge was still very sharp and shaved hair off of my arm effortlessly. I continued for another hour, hacking up 2x4's and triple strand nylon rope. The knife kept on shaving hair. I next focused on point strength. I stabbed into a thick oak plank as hard as I could (no hand slippage) and pried out the tip using firm lateral pressure. This produced a large divot of wood. I repeated this 15 times and was rewarded with 15 large oak chunks. On try 16 the tip broke, not much, about 1/8 of an inch. Not bad seeing how that type of use would kill most other knives. I used this opportunity to improve upon the basic tip design. I ised a DRemel tool to grind the tip down to a drop point. This turned out to be a much stronger tip and has yet to show signs of damage. (Even after 75 more pryouts and a bunch of hard field use).
The TAC-11's blade strength is nothing if not remarkable. I have split 2x4's, 4x4's and 60 or so 10' diameter cedar logs (pounding the knife through with a big rock) with no damage to the knife. I was able to place my entire body weight of 200lbs on the knife and use it as a step-up after pounding it about 4 inches into a tree. I tried this with an Air Force survival knife once and snapped it in half. By this time I was truly in love with the knife.
OUT AT SERE
At SERE school SF personal undergo extensive survival training. There the TAC-11 was put to the challenge on an hourly basis.Cutting down saplings, clearing brush, doing delicate carvings (fishing lures), and also digging, cleaning and dressing a goat, 3 rabbits and a chicken. The TAC did great! It did dull a bit but consistently remained the sharpest, strongest knife in camp. I watched as other soldiers broke 2 K-Bars and many pocket knives trying to copy what I was doing. The knife did suffer a 1/2 mm chip when quartering the goat, but had no problems other than that. This knife soon became known, only as "The Tool". Everyone wanted to use it. Another week of this abuse and it was time to sharpen, that took about 10 min to restore the razor edge on it.I did quite a bit of work in the rain and had absolutely zero incidences of rust, very impressive. The Kydex sheath was only doing so, so. By this time one of the retaining straps broke off and was lost to the woods. In the future I would recommend that a sheath from Blackhawk industries or Eagle industries be used. The A-8 steel's ability to sharpen quickly and maintain an edge are wonderful things. I opened an entire house's worth of cardboard boxes, cut them up and had no degradation of the edge.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
This is a wonderful, functional knife! Yes, $375 is quite a bit of money for a knife, but well worth if you're going to base your life upon it in the woods. Improvements I'd like to see are:
Make the tip a drop point, much stronger.
On the knife's spine, extend the grooving another inch towards the handle would be helpful.
Make those indestructible Micarta handle slabs removable, that would make it easier to lash to "things".
Add an inch onto the handle.
Different sheath.
Drop the price so everyone can own one of these.
If a military model is produced, do not include the USA on the pommel. As patriotic as it is, advertising you are American overseas is a good way to become a target for a bad-guy.
And that's it! The Tac-11 is the strongest knife that I have ever used. It holds its edge better any knife I have ever used. I certainly would entrust my life to this knife. Tom's web site is http://www.survivalknives.com/ I suggest you visit it.
[This message has been edited by Javahed (edited 02-21-2000).]
[This message has been edited by Javahed (edited 02-21-2000).]