Tactical Knives, Utility Knives, Killing Knives Rant

"Uberduberfancychatchphraze"
As a memeber of the advertising community, I thank you.
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Ebbtide, feel free to use it, just not on a shaving brush box. Now to find just the right typeface for it. I've done a little time and training as a graphic designer, among other things. Thanks for the welcome, btw.

Beef, that's what he said the last time I talked to him (1990 or so). Lost touch later on. Last friend I had, 'cept the dog and my ol lady. Now I just have aquaintences.
:D
 
"A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity, and should be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The “bowies” and “hunting knives” usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, with a sort of ridge along the middle of the blade, murderous-looking, but of little use; rather fitted to adorn a dime novel or the belt of “Billy the Kid,” than the outfit of the hunter. The one shown in the cut is thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with."

A quote from Woodcraft and Camping, written in 1884 by Nessmuk.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
 
Ebbtide said:
So what would ol Nessmuk think of the current tacticals?
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"A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity, and should be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The “tacticals” and “fighting knives” usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, dark of finish and with a sort of serration along the base of the edge, clandestine-looking, but of little use; rather fitted to adorn an action flick or the belt of “Billy the SEAL,” than the outfit of the hunter. The one shown in the cut is thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting paper, or opening clam-packs."

;)
 
As I said before, there is no such think as a tactical knife. Its just a word to sell knives. Much like Ninja, Seal, SAS or even Hunting. It dosen't describe a blade shape like bowie, clip point, tanto or drop point. Or even what it does, its just a dumb military sounding name for mall ninjas.
 
I think the tactical knife genre didn't invent tasks other then cutting/slicing, nor do most of them do those tasks well. When you look at the peoples indigenous to many places where you have to carve a living out of nature to survive, almost all of them have a large knife of some kind. Parangs, machetes, khukuris, goloks etc, and optimized for their general environment. In Sweden they have thicker wood then bamboo and rattan, so they use axes, and have smaller knives for utility. But in the north you have the Saami who have Leukos they use to chop saplings into useful items. The Inuit have a large "snow knife" originally made of Caribou bone/antler that they use to carve hard snow blocks into igloo bricks.

So the tactical knife genre didn't invent large knives. They didn't invent chopping. The ones thought of as tactical are simply less efficient at just about everything then their predecessors, which have been optimized and tinkered with for a thousand years. Which isn't to say they couldn't be improved, but 99.9 percent of tactical knife makers/manufacturers decided to take the path of the orangutan and not study history, not learn from the failures and successes of their predecessors.

So be human and take a peek into the past, its why we record history and preserve artifacts! Build on what we have learned and add to it so we can progress as a species.
 
So be human and take a peek into the past, its why we record history and preserve artifacts! Build on what we have learned and add to it so we can progress as a species.
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And all this time I thought we were talking about Walker (liner) lock folders with black blades and sub 8" bladed fixed blades that are painted black and often wrapped in cord, when I mentioned tactical knives and their 'new' jobs.
Like doing the C,D & P with what used to be called a pocketknife, locking folder or hunting knife.
:shrug:

Gryffin, that was priceless!
 
Ebbtide I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me. I provided the Nessmuk quote to show that the basic theme of tacticool-killo knives has been around for a long time, and I wrote my previous post to show that tactical knives didn't invent chopping and such.

Gryffin provided a perfect example of what I was trying to say.

In any case I think we can all agree that almost all knives marketed as "tactical" are not very useful, and in fact overly expensive. The trend might never go away completely, but we can hope it dies down soon.
 
Just because it's tactical doesn't make it less efficient. Besides if you are acting "tactical", go run around in the woods chopping down trees and see how far it gets you. I mean come on camo coating never hurt anyone, I think? Maybe it did during application. Hell I'm gonna say someone has probably died applying camo finishes before.........
 
GS, sorry if I misunderstood.
Gryffin did say it well, didn't he?
:D

Beef, AFA camo blades...it's in the sheath right?
;)
And if the BG's are close enough to see your non-camo blade you should be reaching for your rifle!
;)
:D
:D
;)
 
Ebbtide, its all cool!

Angus Beef, while thats true, wouldn't you agree that in general knives marketed as tactical are less efficient at many tasks then similar knives not marketed as tactical? For example the Strider PAB versus a khukuri or Golok, something like that.
 
Strider knives make me want to barf, except their folders. Their folders are great. Yeah I agree, you're not going to be digging a trench or slicing tomatoes with a v-42 stilleto, but that doesn't mean it's any less tactical or useful in it's own way. If you want to label certain knives as tactical the "niche" knives fit the label better I think. I think everyone confuses survival knives with tactical knives. Survival knives are the ones airforce pilots carry in their vests, tactical knives are the dark ops ones that seals carry while playing volleyball all day :D
 
Ebbtide said:
And yes you can chop dig and pry with them because they are...
drumroll please...
Working knives.
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This is is direct contradition to your origional statement :

By creating "tactical", a whole new list of responsibilities for the knife have been created. Now a knife has to chop, dig and pry. And more ;)
By creating an artificial need to chop, dig and pry a new market share was also created.
A market share filled with product made by the folks that created the genre.
And vehemently defended on these and other forums around the world.
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Khukuris by the way are very much tacticals, and do all of the above, the modern marketing label, didn't invent any use, or promote any new use. It always existed in various knives of various types from garden, kitchen and yes even military knives. Some of the tactical makers like Strider promoted heavy use, some like R.J. Martin focused on cutting ability, some like McClung had a whole list of requirements, some just use it to sell knives.

As for Nessmuk viewing tacticals, show Alvin Johnston one of Nessmuk's blades and ask him what he thinks of it in regards to cutting ability, ease of sharpening and edge retention. His viewpoint on Nessmuk's would be the same as Nessmuks on a Strider WB only even more extreme because Alvin's are much more focused cutting tools in respect both to geometry and steel.

-Cliff
 
What makes a khukri any more tactical than a roman gladius? Or are they on the same level. There are more deaths attributed to that blade than any other weapon in human history I'm not totally sure on the statistics but I would venture to say it has been carried into combat more than any other blade also. So I guess a Roman Gladius is the über tactical knife right? I don't consider many of the strider knives all that "tactical". I am a firm believer a knife can't be tactical in a safe. That is unless it is conducting raids on fellow knives....
 
Tactical is just another word for practical; an ordinary knife intended for use with minimal ornamentation. The problem is that what you find practical may be vastly different from what I or others find practical. It depends on how we use our knives, the tasks that we use the tools for, and the environment under which that task is to be performed.

n2s
 
What makes a khukri any more tactical than a roman gladius? Or are they on the same level. There are more deaths attributed to that blade than any other weapon in human history I'm not totally sure on the statistics but I would venture to say it has been carried into combat more than any other blade also. So I guess a Roman Gladius is the über tactical knife right?
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Actually I think the most carried issue gun in human history is the AK, the edged weapon used to kill the most people has to be the machete. Although I would venture that the gladius is definately near both, and definately the issue blade used to kill the most.
 
beefangusbeef said:
What makes a khukri any more tactical than a roman gladius? Or are they on the same level.
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Most definations of tactical tend to make it more of a multi-purpose design than a pure fighting knife, hence you have makers with fighting and tactical blades. The definations are really loose though and not overly consistent. You can find one maker calling a knife tactical, another calling it a fighting knife and another who just calls it a utility/camp blade.

-Cliff
 
Yeah sometimes I just wonder if most people who label a knife tactical or not actually know the definition of the word or are just trying to expand the meaning to include the latest g whiz knife that they want to market to the general public. Not saying it's wrong or anything, just sometimes funny when I see a knife labeled "tactical" that looks like it is better suited in a kitchen or in a display case.
 
It is frequently just a way to increase sales, some makers and users have serious definations and requirements for a knife to be "tactical". Les Robertson for example strongly objected to Joe Talmadge's use of TTKK, because he didn't think the knife was tactical because you could readily break it with heavy prying.

-Cliff
 
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