Tanto's knive and Survival?

D

demoteamone

BANNED
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Messages
260
I read many books in the subject Survival Bushcraft.
I have found, that all of these authors{Expert} thy agree that Tanto's blade are not recommended for Survival use. I wonder why? None of those authors explains why tanto knife is't good for survival!
They are wrong? or what?

Thanks
 
it's not much good for skinning game - the tip is designed to punch through armor and really just isn't optimal for woodcraft.

still i'd rather have a tanto than nothing at all. a person could do worse for their choice of knives to take into the woods.
 
IMO one additional issue with them is that they are not as simple to sharpen in the field with the added angle.
 
The Tanto comes from a combat heritage. Go ahead and try to sharpen one in the field. As mentioned above, the tip is designed to defeat body armor, and, for that purpose, it is deadly.

The older CS Tantos were (and are) amazingly well crafted blades. You could do better though for your bushcraft needs by getting a Mora 2000 and a small, highly sharpened GB axe.
 
Tantos are fine for wilderness. The tip is strong which can be used for drilling. Also the tip can make a good chisel.

Ron Hood had a huge 10" bladed tanto in some of his survival videos. He did just fine.

It comes down to preference. Survival is not about using something for what it was designed for. It is about making it happen with whatever you have around you. If that is a tanto than use the hell out of it.

That said, I would rather have a drop point. I am not much of a tanto fan.
 
psy-ops said:
Tantos are fine for wilderness. The tip is strong which can be used for drilling. Also the tip can make a good chisel.

Ron Hood had a huge 10" bladed tanto in some of his survival videos. He did just fine.

It comes down to preference. Survival is not about using something for what it was designed for. It is about making it happen with whatever you have around you. If that is a tanto than use the hell out of it.

That said, I would rather have a drop point. I am not much of a tanto fan.
Click to expand...

:thumbup: well said and I agree ;but the Tanto just is not for me...it is combat or fighter oreinted and I prefer not to own them .If you own one it is a knife and I say use it,The Tanto will handle most chores...
 
I'm on board with everyone here.

As Psy Ops said, a tanto is way better than nothing... but nearly every other kind of knife will lend itself in the outdoors to better uses than the American tanto.

Basically it comes down to this: a tanto is designed really for one thing and one thing only: lethal penetration. Any other task is, to one degree or another, stretching the intent of that design.

However, most other knives are already designed to do multiple tasks, without stretching the intent of the design.

You can use a formula 1 car to run many kinds of weekend errands, but you'd be better off with a multi-purpose car in the long run. A tanto is the same way: great at its intended application, but you'd be better off with a multi-purpose knife in a multi-purpose situation.
 
demoteamone said:
I wonder why? None of those authors explains why tanto knife is't good for survival!
Click to expand...
Answer is simple, just try one.

Although a tanto knife might be acceptable as a survival/bushcraft/whatever tool, the tanto part doesn't add anything and is awkward to use for certain applications.

When whittling, the secondary point might get caught (which is annoying), and eventually suddenly release (which is dangerous).

When chopping the "secondary point" is a weak point and/or may cause weird deflections.
 
Ravaillac said:
Answer is simple, just try one.

Although a tanto knife might be acceptable as a survival/bushcraft/whatever tool, the tanto part doesn't add anything and is awkward to use for certain applications.

When whittling, the secondary point might get caught (which is annoying), and eventually suddenly release (which is dangerous).

When chopping the "secondary point" is a weak point and/or may cause weird deflections.
Click to expand...

Except for the last inch on the cold steel tanto's theres not a heck of a lot of diffrence in the blade between it and a Buck 119 and it will do any thing the Buck will, as for the point only being good for stabbing and penetrating flesh that is not a bad feature if your opening game. which is somthing you might be doing in a survival situation.the full thickness of the blade all the way to the point makes the tanto point stronger than most other designs which makes it a better choice if you use a knife to pry things apart (bone joints) tanto's are not the best bush crafty knives but they are not bad utility design I like mine a still use it from time to time. If we all liked the same things it would be an awfully boring world :)
 
To set the record, there are actually 2 general types of "Tanto" knives, the Japanese and the American styles.

Japanese styles generally has the same shape point of a standard Mora knife. Tantos were historically used to take heads in the battlefield as well as for a hidden dagger and possible for a utility knife. They did not need to have armor-piercing tips.

The 'American' style was popularized by Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel, he added a Japanese sword chisel-grind tip to a knife for mainly sales purposes. The reinforced tip needed to penetrate armor in combat was all made-up hype and not historical. Did help to sell zillions of knves though.
 
Thanks for all the replies,what I have understanding is that tip is the problem.A tanto point will not penetrate better but it's not much good for skinning game play the bushcraft think.
I have to try one.


Thanks
 
Bob Lum "americanized" the tanto tip. Cold Steel never used a chisel grind tip. The tanto doesn't work for bushcraft because people generally don't use it for that and haven't developed the techniques or, cosnequently, a liking for it. Take one out and give it good try, and you might find it's not so bad.

A bellied blade is more natural as a skinner, but for chopping or slicing or scraping, a tanto works just as well.

The tip is a lot like a kiridashi tip, and that's a small utility knife. I liked using my small Cold Steel tanto as an art knife.
 
Actually I still fail to understand what makes the terminal point stronger in the tanto design.

I mean, to me, what makes a tanto a tanto is the angular shape and the "secondary" point. Don't know how it is stronger than say a drop point of similar width, with no false edge back.
 
I would think that part of the problem is that so many commercially made American Tantos are very thick and strong at the tip. Great for making holes in car doors, less great for skinning, whittling, drilling or any other less dramatic task.

I have used my Cold Steel Voyager with a tanto tip for wood carving, but found that while it worked well in the workshop, it didn't do so well in the field. I missed having a pointier tip for fine work/tight turns in carving.

Have you looked at the Kellam Wolfpack range? The blades of the longer knives look a lot like tantos, but they are designed for Americans to use in the wilderness and have pretty good handles and blade grinds.
 
Ravaillac said:
Actually I still fail to understand what makes the terminal point stronger in the tanto design.
Click to expand...
First of all, tantos are not all the same. Emerson tantos are chisel ground, Cold Steel are hollow ground, Chris Reeve have convex tips.

Many or most Americanized tantos seem to have backs that do not taper until within a very short distance from the tip. This is what makes the point very strong.
 
I wonder if anyone using the "car door" explanation for tantos has any idea how absurd that sounds. One company, famed for its over-the-top ads anyway, once showed that. No one else picked up on their wonderful new use for the style, but in knife knut mythology, stabbing car doors has characterized the tanto ever since.

Get over it.

More than anything else, the tanto was promoted as a tactical style: stabbing, slashing, prying. The tip would not deform as easily because it was blunt as much as because it was thick. You get a lot of the same strength in the tip of an Emerson Commander since there too you don't have a thin and narrow tip sticking out for first impact.
 
Most of the tanto designed knives that I have seen are too long for convenient light-duty work and too light for heavier chopping type functions. They would be real awkward for skinning game or making a figure-4 trap mechanism. You could baton them OK, but they are not great for chopping.

I would pick something more like a Mora knife for light weight use and something more like a medium bowie knife for heavier use.
 
Simply put---The "Tanto", is a fighting knife, or short sword, actually. It was not meant for utility work.
 
akennedy73 said:
it's not much good for skinning game - the tip is designed to punch through armor and really just isn't optimal for woodcraft.

still i'd rather have a tanto than nothing at all. a person could do worse for their choice of knives to take into the woods.
Click to expand...
Actually, IV found that the for-edge of the Americanized tanto is quite helpful for wood carving. Especially if it chisel ground as many tantos tend to be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top