My G.I. Tanto, Modified

[BTGuy]

Finally had some time today to start modifying the Cold Steel G.I. Tanto I received last Monday. I took a chunk off the top guard, put some gimping, and gave it a light coat of truck bed liner to prevent rusting. And in true Canadian fashion, I wrapped the handle up with some hockey tape. Feels a heck of a lot better in the hand now.

At some point I'll want to re-profile the blade. Was originally thinking of just rounding out the tanto, but I'm going to use as is for a while and get a feel for the blade first.

 

[deltaboy]

Good job .

 

[bdmicarta]

I bought a used one that had already been rounded a bit, as well as stripped.

 

[FullMetalJackass]

Haha nice job!

 

[Quiet]

That's actually pretty awesome! Great job! :thumbup:

 

[155440]

^^ tastefully done. In my opinion the knife is more streamlined aesthetically and more functional. The thumb ramp reminds me of a bark river.

 

[BTGuy]

Thanks guys! I looked at a bunch of modifications others had done with their G.I. Tanto and got some inspiration. I was very tempted to strip off the coating like bdmicarta's knife, but decided I'd rather keep it all black. Another common modification was to cut the top guard clean off and make the top completely flush. I do love a nice straight profile on a knife, but I wanted the thumb ramp so I can get some good grip on the knife while using it. This knife, for me, is going to be the "beater" I'll use to chop off branches, split wood, and any other general hard-use stuff I wouldn't want to put a more expensive knife through. After watching a few videos of people trying to break this knife I knew it was the one for the job.

Hopefully more to come once I figure out what I want to do with the blade itself.


P.S. The gimping looks rough in the pics. That was partly from the truck bed liner coat. After the coating cured I gave it a bit of a buffing and it feels very good on the thumb. I can choke up more on the blade and the thumb ramp settles nicely in the palm. I wanted it grippy enough that I could use with gloves, but smooth enough it wasn't going to tear my thumb up with bare hands.