Tantos, why so much hate?

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yepimonfire

Joined
Nov 7, 2013
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I often read people saying they're not much good for utility purposes and strictly a combat geared shape, but the more I use the for EDC purposes the more I prefer them. Even the tip edge gets used. I often flip the blade upside down to open things and that edge works beautifully, fits easily under zip ties without cutting into unintended things, the "second point" where the tip meets the belly of the blade bites right into stuff, even food prep it's excellent at, it excels at digging into things like chicken breast with the point, for things like cardboard the geometry of it behaves like a utility knife by poking into it.

It's started to grow on me and its my favorite and most useful blade shape. Bout the only thing it wouldn't be better at is chopping wood.
 
Tanto bladed knives got a bad rap about 40 years ago when they were nothing more than gas station junk. Jackie Chan, Sho Koshugi, Bruce Lee and many others started out their careers as martial arts masters of "B" and "C" grade lousy cinema. This knife shape showed up along with throwing stars, throwing knives, and all kinds of swords. Malls started carrying low quality knives to satisfy the wannabe ninjas and for a while they were everywhere. I think the tanto was associated with gas station junk and bad action movies for years before anyone tried to actually use the knife.

To be clear, I certainly made that association myself and dismissed the knife shape as one carried by some nitwit picturing themselves as well protected because they carried a gas station grade knife.

yepimonfire said:
I often read people saying they're not much good for utility purposes and strictly a combat geared shape, but the more I use the for EDC purposes the more I prefer them. Even the tip edge gets used.
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I have changed my mind. As a professional woodworker, I am often out on site and fine the tanto style quite useful. I have a Utilitac II, and it is a great job site knife. I can use the knife point as a pierce cutter as needed to slice open large corrugated boxes containing kitchen appliances, use the flat as a slicer to cut fiberglass strapping, sharpen my carpenter's pencils, trim moldings, etc. The best part of the blade shape is that the squarish blunt, wide, flat point makes a good chisel for me. I has turned out to be a real jewel for my woodworking contract jobs to trim, surface plane defects, etc. Not just good, but really a useful shape for me.

I would bet that most of the folks that continue to make fun of tantos have no practical experience with them, don't own one, and are simply parroting what they have heard. Probably, they haven't ever tried to use them for anything practical and they retain that old image of junk knives wielded by wannabe ninjas.

But, that's just my opinion...

Robert
 
I think tanto knives are ok, I like the point where the flat part meets the belly, it really digs into whatever your cutting. Other than that I don't know of any advantages tanto knives have though.
 
I have owned many tantos over the years and all are gone except one. I just do not prefer the blade shape and it has nothing to do with perceiving it as a "gas station" knife. Everything that has been stated above can be done with a standard clip point. I like a blade with belly. It's just preference.
 
Tantos got a bad rep from all the car-hood stabbing, is all.
I have some tanto knives that really like, the Kershaw Emerson 7 and 8 for example.
The front edge is great for scraping, opening packages and you can use the second tip for precision cutting.
I prefer to have them symetrically(sp?) ground though, chisel primary grind isn't that great for EDC tasks.
I actually like a chisel ground edge though, easy to sharpen
 
The style just doesn't appeal to me; so I don't buy them. Years ago, I was biased against them due to another person's influence...but I'm long past the point where that has any impact. If anything, I'm surprised I haven't purchased one out of spite, lol.
 
Some of it is probably just backlash. There are individuals (and companies) that push the American tanto as the greatest thing since sliced bread and, as a reaction to that, some others go too far the other way and declare them to be terrible and utterly useless. Then people glom onto one camp or the other and thus internet wars are born.

Tantos are good at some things and bad at others, just like most blade shapes. I'd hate to use one to skin a rabbit, but find they do a lot better than a drop point for cutting packing straps.
 
I love a good tanto blade. A couple of my fave EDC's are tantos. It's nice to have a variety of blade designs in one's collection.
 
RevDevil said:
Some minor discussion over the last few months on the topic. I like a tanto blade and have not found any limit to its usefulness to me. Some folks just don't know how to use a knife. It's true.
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And some folks know how to use a knife and find them less functional for the things they use as knife for. Folks like me.

And they are silly looking.
 
RevDevil said:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1187065-Tanto-Blades-love-em-or-hate-em?

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1196060-Tanto-blades?highlight=Tanto

Some minor discussion over the last few months on the topic. I like a tanto blade and have not found any limit to its usefulness to me. Some folks just don't know how to use a knife. It's true.
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I'd agree. Except I hold the contrary preference.

I can use a tanto and it works just fine, but I prefer other blade shapes.

Though, I would not claim to HATE any of the "traditional" blade shapes. By "traditional", I mean a blade shape that exists on many knife designs...some of the new shapes coming out that seem to exist on only one designer's blades are just silly to me.

It's really all about knowing how to use the knife and if it compliments your preferred style (ergos, etc). When I do tip work I like to have a shallower handle angle and I don't like to have sharp edge extending beyond my work/point of contact. Not a right/wrong/hate thing, just a preference.
 
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marcinek said:
And some folks know how to use a knife and find them less functional for the things they use as knife for. Folks like me.

And they are silly looking.
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Don't be so hard on yourself...just because you don't like tantos doesn't necessarily mean you're silly looking. ;)
 
I certainly don't hate tanto blades, but I prefer one long uninterrupted cutting edge.
 
I think the biggest gripe most people have in regards to tanto blades is that they don't work well for field dressing medium sized game animals like deer. The secondary tip has a tendency to cut into entrails with the blade edge down, and the tip does the same thing when used with the blade edge up. However if the blade is ground in a more traditional Japanese style, this really isn't much of an issue. Personally I like them for everything but a hunting tool, and even then with a bit of care they work just fine.
 
One of my first good knives was a tanto. I used it for everything and loved it! I would say they get a bad image though. I even have poor thoughts of them from the junk knives trying to reel in the ninjas and such.

This is my most recent tanto

KRG_2403-4 by Richstag, on Flickr

I have not used it yet. My EDC is a partially serrated M390 707. That was also a test in revisiting serrations...
 
As I remember it, the American Tanto craze started after Lynn Thompson introduced the Master Tanto in the 1980s which quickly spawned a gazillion imitations which lead to increasing market demand and acceptance by most major manufacturers bringing us to where we are today. Cold Steel used a Katana profile and that's what has become the "Tanto" blade. That design was created for existed for no reason other than to cut human flesh over many centuries. The chiseled tip is for penetration as well as assisting the slashing stroke so I can easily imagine someone use to dressing deer with a drop point finding the tanto cutting deeper and where not intended.
Even in smaller forms the Japanese never had an "all purpose" blade/knife design for the simple reason that they developed task specific tools for every occupation and application. While women of he Samurai class did own and sometimes carried well fitted Tantos, the vast majority of Tantos were carried by commoners who were not permitted to carry swords. The proifie was much closer to the Cold Steel "Outdoorsman" than their "tantos" and they were not fitted, usually carried and used in the unadorned nondescript wooden sheath and handle. Anyway, like everyone else I do have some Tanto blade knives and I agree that today it's just a matter of personal preference. I wasn't aware that there was any particular feeling about them , "hatred" or otherwise.
 
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