The best tanto? KA BAR, CS, etc.

Vassili---MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!! It's Unbelievable! Mt Japanese style knives are made by Leu and Hartsfield. They are the real deal.
 
I’m not sure I understand why some posters mention “money” or “marketing” in this thread. That doesn’t seem relevant to the question. No matter.

I've found that different makers (U.S., Asian, African, Scandinavian, Custom, etc.) of "tanto" style cutlery vary the blade geometry to suit their perspectives (read prejudices). Some makers use asymmetrical designs which I find useful for a wide assortment of cutting chores.

One maker told me several years ago that he designed his “tanto” blades so that users can “stab” using any of the edges and “cut” using the tip. I’m not sure that made sense to me, but he was convinced his design provided that utility.

For what it’s worth, I find some makers’ chisel ground “tanto” blades more useful than their traditional “clip” or “spear” or “leaf”, etc. designs. As with similar products, a user is probably best served to try a variety of styles and stay with the one that works best. That’s part of the fun of using knives.
 
A knife buyer should first learn what a tanto really is, before they buy one. I'm talking about the "traditional" Japanese tanto. To some, it won't matter, but to me, it did.
 
The very first production knife from Ernie Emerson was an 'Americanized' tanto, the Benchmade 970, w/ ti liner-lock, G-10 scales, and ATS-34. chisel-ground, tanto-point blade. I think it was based on his custom that was made per Navy Seals specs. So it can't be all that bad or stupid.

So if you want to laugh at somebody, laugh at Ernie. Just not to his face, I should add.

I would say, if you don't want a tanto, don't buy one. To each his own.
 
If you are looking for a knife to stab car doors and steel drums with, perhaps the Busse Force One would work. It's an Americanized tanto, is ugly as hell, and could pierce metal quite easily. But stabbing a car to death sounds like a lot of work. Would you consider switching from a knife to a molotov cocktail? More bang for your buck...

"Best tanto" in terms of combat usage would go to either Bugei (www.bugei.com) or to Takeshi Saji (www.japaneseknifedirect.com). And by Bugei I refer specifically to their actual tantos and not the Hissatsu, but the latter is cheaper and would thus be less heartbreaking to destroy.
 
nozh2002 said:
Thanks, I am enjoying this thread more and more.
Click to expand...

Likewise. I find the ignorance of some people quite amusing. Since you believed in something that is different to the accepted common belief, you should have provided something to backup your claims from the get go
 
johnu2 said:
Likewise. I find the ignorance of some people quite amusing. Since you believed in something that is different to the accepted common belief, you should have provided something to backup your claims from the get go
Click to expand...

Well - if you check page link to which you provided, you may see that back up.

There are no traditional Japanese knife except yunagisaki with this design.
There are no Japanese short sword - Tan To with this design.
Single bevel knives only used in kitchen knives to help Japanese housewives keep designed edge angle sharpening flat (actually concave) side. Only Japanese machete - Nata has single bevel for same easy-to-sharpen reason.

All Japanese tanto I saw and all Japanese utility knives has convex ground an sharp tip - very similar to Finnish pukkos!

I am OK with new designs - but why it was called tanto? Why all this false references to Japanese knife traditions and culture? Call it American superpenetrator or something! Why call it Samurai Short Sword - which is TanTo? This is not true and once I see this I do not believe anything else I hear from same source.

Check Grapham knives with chisel tip - I am sure they penetrates as good as a chisel - but they did not call it Japanese, just because it looks unusual and exotic!

Thanks, Vassili.
 
May I recommend two books on the subject? 1> The Samurai Sword, by John Yumoto. 2> Tanto: Japanese Knives And Knife Fighting, by Russell Maynard.
 
Lycosa said:
May I recommend two books on the subject? 1> The Samurai Sword, by John Yumoto. 2> Tanto: Japanese Knives And Knife Fighting, by Russell Maynard.
Click to expand...

It hard to credit second book, because Japanese do not consider TanTo as a knife, this confuses me initially - like I ask concierge in Yokohama "Where to buy knives" - she did not speak English well, so I asked for tanto thinking it is knife. However knife is hocho in Japanese, so I was send to some antiques shop and see quite a bit of original tantos priced from $3000... And of course no one had that tanto tip.

Finally I found Kukihide shop.

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Kikuhide.html

It was full with knives - again convex grid, no single one with tanto tip (someone pointed out one on my photo, I miss - it was Unagisaki). Again just out of curiosity I asked for single bevel knife - I had to draw it on paper to explain. They find me one which was some shoemaker tool, and they sad they have only for right-handed shoemaker.

So it was pretty eye opening experience for me on Japanese knife culture and tradition.

I found however many sheep-foot tips. Like hinogami or takagi working knives etc.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Just wait for Becker to come out with his version, it will probably blow all the others out of the water.

Can't wait for September.
 
Vassili and others, who might be interested, should maybe contact Phill Hartsfield on this matter. He is an authority on this subject. Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top