H&K had BM do the original Tanto, actually an Emerson-designed BM970, as a collateral item for their USP pistol. "Collateral item" is sales/marketing speak for "tradeshow souvenir." Sort of like when you go to an auto show and the kind lady at the GM booth gives you a cheap little keychain with the GM logo on it, and the fellow at the Ford booth gives you a barely functional ballpoint pen with the Ford logo silkscreened on it.
Wow, a $150 BM 970BT as a tradeshow give-away! That's quite a sales trinket, eh?
Well, keep in mind that while H&K sells the odd piece to individual civilians, their REAL customers have titles like "General", "Mr. President," and even "Your Majesty." These customers arrive with shopping lists like: 1000 MSG90s with, of course, the telescopic sight, 1000 PSG1 fitted with night-vision scopes please, a couple hundred HK21Es with accessories, five thousand MP5s in 9mm with the Navy trigger group, oh, and send over a truck-load or two of those nifty USP pistols. So, a $150 knife isn't an unreasonable tradeshow trinket at all.
However, H&K was so please with the knife, and who wouldn't be?, that they began selling it as part of a packaged set with the USP. Sort of like those cheese and sausage gift sets one so often receives at Christmas, only for a slightly less politically-correct audience. The response was so positive that H&K began offering the knife alone too, for those of us who don't qualify for the sorts of tradeshows the knife was originally intended for.
Anyway, when BM discontinued the 970, H&K moved to the AFCK (an excellent choice). However, I was not aware that it had that odd looking sort of tanto blade. I wonder if that's just an artifact of it being a digital picture. Sometimes digital pictures make curves look straight. It also has a sort of a "computer rendered" look to it. I wonder if this is not an actual picture but rather an "artist's rendition" before the actual knife was made?
The little Spyderco with the skeletonized blade is something Spyderco will do for anyone who'll order a couple hundred. It's done with a laser, so set-up is minimal. The result is quite attractive, though, don't you think?
H&K is notoriously slow for responding to customer questions. They'll get back to you eventually. In the mean time, ask your local dealer. Just remember that H&K doesn't treat them much better than they treat you.
Remember, you're on line one calling about one knife. Your dealer is on line two wanting four knives and six guns. Sheik so-and-so is holding on line three. Guess who gets answered first?
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 18 September 1999).]
