Tanto

I'm sure you'll get better responses from people who actually like the design, but here's the basics followed by my editorial comments.

Bob Lum was a knife maker, and he started making tantos (which are just Japanese small swords/knives that come in dozens of blade shapes and geometries) with a tip that was designed for punching through armor. Cold Steel essentially ripped off his design and called it a Tanto blade.

What makes the American Tanto style blade more effective for piercing hardened surfaces is that the blade geometry brings more metal closer to the tip. For maximum strength and a non-shouldering function the tanto is most effective when the tip is chisel ground. So yes, there is a particular function and rationale behind the blade style.

That said I REALLY don't like most tanto style blades. I think they are ugly. Fundamentally that is my big gripe, I just think they are ugly. I also don't like them for slicing because I find the sharp angle where the tip grind meets the main grind bites more into the things I'm cutting. I mostly use the belly of my blades when slicing, so a knife with no belly like a tanto is not very useful for me.

On the other hand, Bob Lum made some beautiful tantos. Aesthetically I'd say he was the first and still the best for American made Tanto blades. Also worth mentioning is Hinderer's Spanto blades. I've never used one, cuz I ain't rich, but the way he grinds his blades seems to keep the function of the tanto tip while also providing a useful belly on the blade.

One last thought, on tanto style folders: Tantos are designed for punching through armor/hard material. Why in God's name would you ever do that with a folding knife unless you really don't like having a trigger finger?
 
Somewhere in times past,
ancient Japanese discovered that a snapped sword could be salvaged and turned into a knife or tanto.
Fast forward to 1981, Lynn Thompson brought forth to the world,
the first mass produced american tanto.
Now here was at last something aimed specifically for martial arts practitioners, as Lynn Thompson was.
Or at the very least a god sent invention for the millions of closet samurais growing up watching fictional martial arts action heros.
But does it work or have any real advantages?
Well, Not unless if one knows what they're doing
or planning to do with it...
It was built with for folks with a particular psyche
And as with so many other choices in life,
one either wants to believe it can or don't at all.
The tanto for me has been painted as a weapon of sorts.
And yet there are others who have found it useful for less a destructive but more productive use.
Be what as it may, the tanto is still very much a knife that remains an enigma to those who do not appreciate it's distinctive features.
http://www.tactical-life.com/tactical-knives/tale-of-two-tantos/
http://www.coldsteel.com/files/Riposte/Knife-Trends.pdf
 
Who doesn't love pictures
image_zpsa83f22de.jpg
 
abbydaddy said:
One last thought, on tanto style folders: Tantos are designed for punching through armor/hard material. Why in God's name would you ever do that with a folding knife unless you really don't like having a trigger finger?
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:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
Tanto.

The one everyone hates.

I love 'em. My problem is with the tanto derivatives. There are so many tanto bastardizations out there it's sickening. Rambos, space knives, zombie slayers... It's the number one thing I think turns people off the profile without ever trying it. It IS very tactical looking though, I'll admit.

The true, basic tanto profile (OK, with a LITTLE BIT of lattitude), to me, can be about the most appealing in knifedom. Further, if there's anything in the hobby that would be more more psyche-revealing than blade profile preferences I don't know what it would be. A Freudian stylist's dream. But that's another thread which I may start after this.

I take advantage of the two blade aspect of the profile too. I use the forward edge for the small "nip" jobs...cutting string, tape, puncturing, occasional scraping. The main edge is there for anything. I even sharpen them to the basic "surgical" and "working" edges respectively when I'm bored.

The other thing I don't understand is why tanto gets the bad rap of being non-satisfactory for EDC. I EDC a tanto often....have some in my rotations. Not once, while doing a stumble-upon task in daily life, have I thought, "Wish I had a different blade." Cut to the chase: you want a strong blade? This is an answer.

No, it's not a carrot slicer. No, it's not a bush blade. IMO it's a strictly urban everyday carry and a good one.

I do understand the appeal of bellied blades, slicer grinds, bowie, on and on...yeah I know the subtleties and that's fine. But to just flatly blank the tanto as "no good for EDC" seems premature to me.

It's great that there are so many styles of blade out there. Fundamentally it's the old syndrome of this hobby....different strokes on the stone. :)
 
On a slightly similar note, I find the reverse tanto style blade on the BM 940 for example really practical and helpful.

Never had an actual tanto blade, but I suppose I will some day.
 
Depends on which style you're referring to as the traditional Japanese form is basically a drop point.

I've never found the Americanized version to be particularly useful. The traditional form can be a great all around performer if the maker knows the geometry.
 
d0nut said:
On a slightly similar note, I find the reverse tanto style blade on the BM 940 for example really practical and helpful.

Never had an actual tanto blade, but I suppose I will some day.
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I like that blade too and I'm not a Benchmade fanatic. I consider it a pleasing, functional derivative of the blade....
 
You can't generalize a basic blade shape as being the best at anything, cutting or penetrating performance is dependent on too many variables like the exact grind used and the exact shape of the blade. For example, take a Strider SmF tanto and an Emerson CQC-7B (both American tanto folders) and I'll bet that the Emerson would out cut the Strider all day but it would be the first one to snap the tip off if used to pry something.

d0nut said:
On a slightly similar note, I find the reverse tanto style blade on the BM 940 for example really practical and helpful.
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BM's "reverse tanto" is a clip point, they've worked well on everything from pocket knives to cavalry sabers ;)
 
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Up until tantos were accidentally invented from broken swords, my bamboo armor always worked fine. Ordinary blade tips exploded or vaporized on contact. Since then, ive been stabbed 73 times! Tried chain mail, plates, carbon bi weave, kevlar, adamantium, etc. NOTHING WORKS!

These days, when someone is about to stab me, the first thing i do is step back to check if they got a tanto. I still EDC my armor anywhere i go, but i honestly just dont have much faith in it anymore. This has changed everything. What will i do?
 
abbydaddy is misinformed. The Lum style and the CS style are nothing new, the exaggerated angle at the tip has been documented and photographed on swords from a looong time ago. I agree they don't make the best food prep knives, skinners, and the like. But what they do have is two straight (sometimes gently curved which I prefer, like my BM 760LFTi) utility edges that gasp, still cut stuff! Combined with a sturdy point, they can be surprisingly useful.
 
EChoil said:
Every good knife out there can punch through armor and hard material. Are you going to ax the same question of them? :cool:
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I did ask that of all folding knives. I asked why one would use a folding knife for that purpose. A fixed blade is a different matter, but on a folder, punching through armor is not really a practical consideration. Not that I think that buying a knife for fighting purposes is a very practical consideration to begin with.

I also think you're right about most good knives being able to punch through armor and hard materials. I feel like people buy a tanto for piercing stuff, when a spear point or swedged clip point would probably be a more useful piercer for most people.
 
Jamesh Bond said:
Up until tantos were accidentally invented from broken swords, my bamboo armor always worked fine. Ordinary blade tips exploded or vaporized on contact. Since then, ive been stabbed 73 times! Tried chain mail, plates, carbon bi weave, kevlar, adamantium, etc. NOTHING WORKS!

These days, when someone is about to stab me, the first thing i do is step back to check if they got a tanto. I still EDC my armor anywhere i go, but i honestly just dont have much faith in it anymore. This has changed everything. What will i do?
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:thumbup::D
 
crom said:
abbydaddy is misinformed. The Lum style and the CS style are nothing new, the exaggerated angle at the tip has been documented and photographed on swords from a looong time ago. I agree they don't make the best food prep knives, skinners, and the like. But what they do have is two straight (sometimes gently curved which I prefer, like my BM 760LFTi) utility edges that gasp, still cut stuff! Combined with a sturdy point, they can be surprisingly useful.
Click to expand...

I probably wasn't very clear. I didn't mean to suggest that Lum invented it, only that he popularized it for recent decades.
 
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