Ok, small fixed Tanto - Japan. What is it?

Probably a cheapo, the sheath looks like the same thick pleather material the sheath for my " THE DEFENDER " Bowie / hunter looked like. ( My dad bought it at the flea market in the late 80's and eventually gave it to me as a teenager )
I don't know where the sheath is right now because my dog chewed the belt loop off, but as for the knife itself I could never get to take it a very good edge so I'd wager this probably has similar quality steel.
 
Ok, yard sale in a week. Selling cheapo with some Pakistan "Bear Hunter" junk ;)
 
SoCalEDC said:
Ok, yard sale in a week. Selling cheapo with some Pakistan "Bear Hunter" junk ;)
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It’s Japanese, and 440. Odds are, the heat treat, and craftsmanship are on point. Outside of Japan, only the Germans and Swiss culturally take as high of pride in Craftmanship.
 
One of these sold on the Bay a couple months back. If you Google "21-159 Tanto" you should be able to find it.

Probably one of the "Explorer" brand knives, made by Edge Mark in Japan. The guys who used to sell the Gerber MK II copies in BudK catalog.

Keep it. It'd be right at home in the tool box or pickup truck.
 
It's an Explorer, as mentioned above. This was one of their little seen models. Explorer wasn't a horrible brand, it was about in the middle during the 80's and early 90's.
 
ursamajor said:
It’s Japanese, and 440. Odds are, the heat treat, and craftsmanship are on point. Outside of Japan, only the Germans and Swiss culturally take as high of pride in Craftmanship.
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If they have so much pride in it...why not identify the steel?
 
marcinek said:
If they have so much pride in it...why not identify the steel?
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Allow me to explain. This is an example of a knife from the 1970s/1980s. Back then, the average knife aficionado knew little to nothing about steel types, and manufacturers and importers put descriptions like "Rostfrei Steel" or "Surgical Steel" on them. There was no internet back then and anyone really interested would have to go to their local library and read up on steels. By the early to mid 80s there was a shift by knife companies to tout the "400 series steel" or "440 stainless". This back then meant the cutting edge of blade material for stainless. Now, American knife importers dictated what went on the blade, and the OEM factory simply complied with the order. In the case of Seki OEM makers, Seki city is very close to Aichi Steel Co, who makes the well known Aus series of stainless steels. But the Aus designation was Japanese and Americans were used to the numbered series. So usually the nearest approximation was used. For example, SOG imported many knives from Kinryu Co. in Seki, and advertised as 440A. Only later did they admit that is was actually Aus6. Similarly Browning sold knives made in Seki as 440 which turned out to be Aus8. So the answer to your question is twofold; one is that back then it was not regular practice to state what exact steel was used. And two- the OEM maker had no choice but to follow the American importers' instructions.
 
McFeeli said:
I love that blade profile. Such a neat little tanto.
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Aye, it's one of my personal favorites as well. It makes me wish Cold Steel did anything other than a blackout version for their current production model of the Master Tanto. I'd love to see that knife in a satin finish with a bolster like the old model. All the same, I still own the 3V black DLC version and it is just perfect.

(Picture of older model)
ColdSteel-Master-Tanto_01.jpg
 
oCmUKC5.jpg
The OP's tanto bears a resemblance to the J. Herbertz model 781 made by Tak Fukuta, who was also known to have made knives for the Explorer brand, along with many others.
a6LVm
 
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