Tanto point - pretty but useless?

Ok, I want a tanto, I don't have one yet. I personally think that they look cool. I always bought other blade shapes because they seemed more practical.

So now I am looking at getting a BIG tanto folder. I looked at the Buck/Strider and the tip was too thick. Now I am leaning twards the TOPS. However, on a little bit smaller scale I may look at the Stryder after what I've read here.
 
Hi, all!

Chalk up another one for the "can live better without them" category. I have one (Stiff Kiss), and think it looks cool. But utility? Nada. The little blade on my fingernail clipper works better for most things! But if I want to look a bit nastier (one of my favs) I'll wear it and use it for whatever. It raises more eyebrows than most other knives of its size.

The short of it? Great for looks; pretty crappy for use.

BBB
 
for general cutting tasks, i find that tantos don't offer any real advantages over a drop point or clip point. and for tip work, i'd much rather have a wharncliffe or a sheepsfoot. so altogether, i guess, i don't love them and wouldn't have a reason to buy one (aside from aesthetic appeal, as in a traditional japanese tanto).
peace.
aleX.
 
Pjenskin,

If I may (I'm sure Alex can speak for himself), I too like a sheepfoot for tip work--not for poking, but rather, for slicing things with the tip. The sheepfoot excells at making scoring cuts for a couple of reasons: 1) you can bring the edge to bear near the tip without elevating your wrist and elbow awkwardly--try cutting out a newspaper clipping with an AFCK vs. a traditional sheepfoot and you'll see what I mean; 2) the sheep foot has the point correspond with the thinnest part of the blade, at the edge rather than at the spine. In short, you get excellent control and good edge geometry for point work. I'd like to see more sheepfoot blades on the market. They work great for slitting open packages and for cutting thin material against a flat surface--two fairly common uses. They are lousy at scraping, though. So it's a tradeoff.

In light of the above, and getting back to the subject of tantos, the Benchmade 910 Stryker is a great bag slitter/scoring cutter and can also scrape.

David Rock
 
I've always liked the tanto /w chisel grind. I'd prefer it on the correct side of the blade, but even on the wrong side it doesn't present any terrible problems. Tanto styles do look cool, and that's one reason why I buy them, but then again, a recurved blade is just as cool(IMHO). I'd also have to disagree about sharpening a tanto. Sharpening a chisel ground tanto is about the easiest thing on earth to do. Rarely does it take me more than 2-10 strokes on both edges, and then a minute or two of stropping before I've got a good edge.
 
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