My first tanto blade

B

Bob W

Joined
Dec 31, 2000
Messages
17,079
This arrived in the mail today. The photo was taken from the DLT Trading Post website, but based on the burl pattern this is my knife.

tanto.jpg


Just wanted to share,
-Bob
 
That is gorgeous. I'd lock up it and refuse to cut paper with that thing. Definitely not your average tactical tanto.
 
That's a Bark River Knife & Tool tanto. I love BRKT, but the tanto just doesn't do it for me. It's a cool knife, thanks for the pics, but for me the lure of Japanese knives is in the wrap, hamon, and other elements like guards, etc, if they have them.
 
How about some info??
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Burl ambroynia handles, 440C treated to 57-58rc, full tang with a tapered thickness towards the butt, and the sheath is black leather. Fancy 'mosaic' pins. It doesn't show in the photo, but the handle is contoured slightly for a comfortable grip. The overall length of mine is 11-3/8", the blade is almost 6", and listed weight is 10 oz.

The price varies by handle material, Knifeworks has Tantos from $83 - $99. At DLT Trading prices range from $98 to $143. My particular model was from DLT Trading for $120, discounted from an msrp of $160.

The blade is marked with the Bark River logo, "Limited Edition," and "2004 Custom."

Chiro, I wouldn't want a wrapped handle on this, but a traditional wooden scabbard would have been a nice touch. The black leather sheath is nice, but just doesn't match as well as it should.

Hmmm... I'm going to have to check on the steel type. Knifeworks says the steel is 12C27 and DLT lists it as 440C. I'm guessing they were all made the same, but perhaps different dealers requested different steel. ??

-Bob
 
Its a nice knife, but there is no guard!? How are you supposed to keep your hand from slipping onto the blade when you stab it through a car door :D
 
There was actually a topic on the 'other' forum site about guards on the tanto. If you watch the Cold Steel DVD you can see plenty of carhood stabbing with guard-less blades. :)

Personally, I think a guard would distract from the overall 'flow' and aesthetic beauty of the knife. It wasn't a factor for me at all.

Still trying to find out about the steel. I don't know of any other B.R. knives with 440C, but they use a variety of steels on their different models.

-Bob
 
I've just heard from Mike Stewart of Bark River knives. The Tanto knives are in fact 440C; the Knifeworks.com website has a typo regarding the steel.

-Bob
 
Bob W said:
... If you watch the Cold Steel DVD you can see plenty of carhood stabbing with guard-less blades. :)
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Few years back I saw CS representative stabbing a car roof with one of their knives not wearing any protection and almost cutting his fingers off... Very impressive presentation indeed.

D.
 
What's interesting is if you put a traditional tanto blade form on a knife like this, almost nobody would refer to it as a tanto or Japanese-styled.
 
Robert Marotz said:
What's interesting is if you put a traditional tanto blade form on a knife like this, almost nobody would refer to it as a tanto or Japanese-styled.
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With all the Japanese styled stuff in the background you could put ANY blade profile on that thing and convince people it was a tanto (or at least Japanese)!
 
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