Giving credit where it is due.

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Spartan00

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Feb 4, 2016
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Last couple of months my edc has been an Emerson desert roadhouse. Honestly I wasn't a fan of a tanto before but I use it all the time everday.

Like the Super roadhouse so much I bought a backup...Fast forward and I saw the cold steel Recon 1 in cts-xhp for the price of the Aus8 version.

Well just got it and honestly it may bump the Roadhouse out of my pocket. Both are fine knives and I will continue to carry and use both. Just nice to have an option that isn't $290.00 for the Super desert roadhousr. Recon 1 shipped was about 73 bucks . Really liking these new cold steels.
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Agreed, excellent value for the steel & locking mechanism. Also, I like the fact that Cold Steel has a variety of blades shapes & sizes to suit many different likes & wants.
 
10after10 said:
Agreed, excellent value for the steel & locking mechanism. Also, I like the fact that Cold Steel has a variety of blades shapes & sizes to suit many different likes & wants.
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Agreed! Great value and something that really makes you think a little harder when spending good money on other knives! I really like what i see in economical blades when i look around today, you can get a lot for your money and CS SRH is good
 
Cold Steel makes amazing knives and hilariously mockable videos.

Also, people don't give Tantos enough credit for how much utility they provide. A tip for draw-cuts, a tip for puncturing, two edges that can be kept at different angles for different uses, and a straight edge is VERY useful. There's a reason utility razors are straight...
 
Also, people don't give Tantos enough credit for how much utility they provide. A tip for draw-cuts, a tip for puncturing, two edges that can be kept at different angles for different uses, and a straight edge is VERY useful. There's a reason utility razors are straight...
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Thank you for the insight. I only have one tanto, a super inexpensive Gerber Remix half serrated "Tactical". I bought it to try out a tanto for cheep. It isn't my kind of knife (too thick and lever like) but . . . I want to think I am open minded to what I don't know . . .
anyway . . . I haven't carried it much, partly because the liner lock can jam solid if I fling it open and partly because I didn't have an understanding of why tanto . . . other than it is something unique that was kind of marketed at American military wannabes.
Here on Blade Forums I learned that it is not really a true tanto for a number of reasons etc., etc., etc.,
BUT
up till now I haven't heard much on the positive EDC uses.

So THANKS AGAIN (I'm listening).

I hear yah on the utility blade / a reason for it being straight. A case in point I just got a Cold Steel Super Edge . . . a little tiny fixed blade . . . mostly serrated but shallow angle on the bevel in the serrations as well as the plane edge near the tip. Just an inexpensive, fun little different sort of knife. I didn't expect much. The CS video shows a guy with one in each hand carving up an entire pig carcass in no time (perhaps I exaggerate just a little).

My point is : I took one to a double wall corrugated cardboard box/crate and was surprised at how well it cut cardboard. I expected it to choke and then have to saw with it to geeeter done. It sliced right down.
but
it didn't go deep enough; kind of kicked out of the cut. I made another pass and again if felt like it really went all the way and I was done
but
again it kicked out some and did not cut all the way through both layers. (I have to be careful not to cut up the contents so I can't just jam'er home and go to town.
took three passes.
A straight edge, like a utility blade would, and has, cut the same exact thing easily in one pass for me.
So yah you're right.
 
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PS: The knives I was talking about (plus one)

Note the notch I cut into the top edge of the Super Edge sheath near the opening. That's so I can tell by feel which way round the sheath is and am able to feel around, orient it with notch upper most and then flick off the sheath in my pocket and draw the knife with the edge down and ready to cut. I like to stay oriented. Got to put the knife back in the right way every time obviously.

The third knife from top is my new temporary infatuation. Cold Steel kitchen paring knife.
MY KIND OF KNIFE ! ! !
If only they made a CTS S110V version and it came with a clip on belt sheath I would be done looking for MY GRAIL KNIFE.
anyway . . . my kind of knife :
Thin (1.5 mm), handle plenty long, knob on the rear most part of the handle (that sort of thing has kept me from dropping a knife a few times). Came pretty much hair whittling from the maker (not exaggerating; I got a few curls shaved off individual hairs) . . . surprised me . . . I have since used it and resharpened on the Edge Pro.
Price ? I am embarrassed to say . . .
$10
which leads us to the down side . . .
The steel in it totally sucks to sharpen; won't let go of the super thin wire edge for nothing. I sharpened a Cold Steel Aus8A at the same time and there was none of that / sharpened right up nice.

anyway . . . I'm babbling . . .

 
What's "half serrated, half tactical"?
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Ha, ha,
I wouldn't call this knife even half tactical. Especially when you can't close it and your buddies drive off in the Humvee without you because they are tired of getting jabbed with you bouncing down the road with an open knife in your hand trying to unlock it on the fly.
Ha, ha, ha
 
Spartan00 said:
Last couple of months my edc has been an Emerson desert roadhouse. Honestly I wasn't a fan of a tanto before but I use it all the time everday.

Like the Super roadhouse so much I bought a backup...Fast forward and I saw the cold steel Recon 1 in cts-xhp for the price of the Aus8 version.

Well just got it and honestly it may bump the Roadhouse out of my pocket. Both are fine knives and I will continue to carry and use both. Just nice to have an option that isn't $290.00 for the Super desert roadhousr. Recon 1 shipped was about 73 bucks . Really liking these new cold steels.
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It was an XHP Recon 1 Tanto that I got off the exchange here for a song ($40 shipped) that converted me to how amazing American Tantos are for EDC. Nothing has been able to kick it out of my pocket.
 
Wowbagger said:
Ha, ha,
I wouldn't call this knife even half tactical. Especially when you can't close it and your buddies drive off in the Humvee without you because they are tired of getting jabbed with you bouncing down the road with an open knife in your hand trying to unlock it on the fly.
Ha, ha, ha
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Well, that could be tactical. I'd need to think about it for a while. lol
Coincidentally, I am a fan of the traditional and Americanized tanto. I own a whole bunch of knives with a tanto blade and have never found them lacking or felt I was unable to cut, scrape, or anything else. I think some people just get it into their mind and they decide that it's not for them, because it's too gimmicky or whatever. It doesn't get any easier to sharpen either.
 
Scraping is a major plus for a tanto. As long as you keep a sharp knife I can do 95% of what I use a knife for daily with just the tip of a tanto.

I think of it as basically 2 edges and it is. I'll use the tip to open a box or anything small you know the normal things we use a knife for most days. Open the mail all that with the tip.

Other day the lone that runs from under the kitchen sink to the refrigerator. The line thay carries water to the ice maker and and the water to the refrigerator started leaking . Wasnt enough to flood the house but the sound drove me crazy.

The way they ran the line in the house it went from my kitchen sink, behind the dishwasher behind the cabinets then a hole was drilled in a finale cabinet and the line ran to the refrigerator. I had hardly any space to get in there as I was following that water line. The tanto proved it's worth to me again there because it was a very tight space to work in but I cut the line and trimmed it all thay good stuff with just the tip of the blade.

I used to be real skeptical of tantos and thought they were only good for a headache when it came time to sharpen them.
 
stabman said:
Just don't chop at branches with it! :eek:
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Had to do some light chopping with it yesterday that's whats on the blade. Got my daughter one of those bounce houses that look like a castle and basically run off a leafblower.

Well we have a pool in the back so the space is kind of limited back there. As I'm inflating the bounce house it looked like it make go into a bush . Like I said I think of the tanto as 2 blades. For stuff like that I use the longer edge .
 
Never thought I'd like a tanto blade, but one of my favorite knives, Mcusta, only came that way. Had to try one......VERY useful blade shape! Looks pretty cool too!!
My other is a Benchmade 760 and that thing is a BEAST!!! I didn't realize how useful the shape of the tip can be.
Joe

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palonej said:
Never thought I'd like a tanto blade, but one of my favorite knives, Mcusta, only came that way. Had to try one......VERY useful blade shape! Looks pretty cool too!!
My other is a Benchmade 760 and that thing is a BEAST!!! I didn't realize how useful the shape of the tip can be.
Joe

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Like that benchmade /lum looks like that has a little belly to it like the roadhouse does.
 
RevDevil said:
Well, that could be tactical. I'd need to think about it for a while. lol
Coincidentally, I am a fan of the traditional and Americanized tanto. I own a whole bunch of knives with a tanto blade and have never found them lacking or felt I was unable to cut, scrape, or anything else. I think some people just get it into their mind and they decide that it's not for them, because it's too gimmicky or whatever. It doesn't get any easier to sharpen either.
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Yup. I honestly think it's weird (and I blame Cold Steel's marketing more than a little) that the American tanto has such a reputation as a tactical blade shape. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that if I want to stick a knife into someone I want a needle sharp tip. The places I see tantos really finding their home are, for small ones, office type EDC where using the subtip to 'grab' materials or score them without cutting all the way through can be handy, and, for big ones, harder use construction/home improvement stuff where the secondary edge can be super handy to scrape, do light prying, push cut stuff like wire, etc.

Dagger-grind folders honestly generally strike me as more tacticool. I don't love screwing up my cutting geometry by cutting my primary grind in half just to make the knife a little pokier.
 
I've never thought a tanto could pierce any better than any other blade shape if we are being honest. My theory behind that marketing of the American tantos are that because they are left a little thicker at the tip they may be a little bit stronger ,and it gives the illusion they pierce better but in reality they actually pierce worse than say a trailing point they will just let you use more force and hold up a little better.
 
Spartan00 said:
I've never thought a tanto could pierce any better than any other blade shape if we are being honest. My theory behind that marketing of the American tantos are that because they are left a little thicker at the tip they may be a little bit stronger ,and it gives the illusion they pierce better but in reality they actually pierce worse than say a trailing point they will just let you use more force and hold up a little better.
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Agreed. I can't say for certain as I haven't tested, but simple physics would seem to dictate the angle of the point and thickness of steel immediately behind it would determine piercing ability far more than any given blade shape.
 
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