prototype military knife

[Toni Oostendorp]

For one of our soldiers of the airmobile brigade, who's going to
Afghanistan real soon, I have to make a fixed blade. He had some suggestions concerning the design which I intergrated into the drawings I made. Before making the knife I wanted to make a prototype, just to make sure everything was to my liking. I made two drawings and I made the one with the modern Tanto tip. I did this because I was wondering if this kind of tip would also work in more bushcraft like tasks.

This is the real knife. I quickly sharpened it till it shaved. I didn't pay attention at how it looked

Grip is black and tan G10, OD Gunkote, stainless pins and O1 as blade steel.

Nice little point to break a window, or something else......

Lanyard hole for extra safety.

Cutting through a branch went faster then expected. I must say that the tanto point was more effective than I first thought. The sharp corner from point to the blade is very effective! even in chopping.

 

[Toni Oostendorp]

Next I tried to destroy the point by slamming it into a hard piece of wood for about a hundred times. I pulled the knife out in a wrecking motion. No damage done, only a lot of wood splinters.

Next I took a bigger branch and chopped through it.

After all this work, the knife was still sharp enough to make nice shavings.

Finally I wasn't able to shave my arm anymore. That was not to bad because it had already cut some cardboard too. So the steel is pretty good, but I new that already. The point was a possitive thing also. Quite usefull in more praktical jobs. What I didn't like about the knife was the second finger coil. In normal grip it holds perfectly, but in revurce grip, when you slam the knife into a piece of wood, it does more harm than good. Personally I would go for 1 finger coil.

Well I learned a great deal making and using this knife, and that's always a good thing.

Greetings Toni

 

[freddy1]

great job !:thumbup:
Really nice Tanto (i usually do not really like them, but yours is just gorgeous)
I really like the fact also that the blade is not too big, making it lighter...
by the way, how much is the weight?

 

[Mr.BadExample]

Interesting grinds, and it looks great- the handle and skullcrusher are very nicely designed. Always nice to see it work as well as it looks!

 

[T.K.C.]

That is an awesome looking knife. I am usually not a huge fan of tantos, but I DO like that one!! Great knife!!

 

[barrabas74]

Yeah Like TKC I am not a big tanto buyer, but I like yours and I think yours will handle alot of applications that other tanto's might not handle as well. I like it.

 

[Joss]

Looks nice but heavy. How much does it weight? I'm surprised to hear a grunt would carry something like this.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I like the way it looks, but would personally prefer the other blade style. Since this knife was not designed for me, that shouldn't be taken into account.

You are right about the second finger groove. They do not work well for a reverse grip.

 

[RDT]

I LOVE IT! looks like a great and sturdy tool! Well made, well done:thumbup:

 

[RedEdge77]

How thick is the spine on that beast?


Great looking knife all the way:thumbup:

 

[Toni Oostendorp]

Thanks for the comments, I'm not really sure how much it weighs, but it is not a light knife. It has a length of 12.2 inches and the steel is 5mm thick (that's 1/5 of an inch) right now the balance point lies in the front of the first fingercoil. On the real knife I will taper the tang to push the balance point more forward.

greetings Toni