Were folding traditionals ever viewed as "tactical" knives?

E

EDCanAdamas

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This thread is mostly speculation based on my observation of one of my grandfather's knives, a Utica "Kutmaster". Yes, I know this knife was mainly designed to cut twigs and pruning bushes, but compared to other knives I have seen (or whats left of them anyway) from the 1910-1945 period, it's pretty hefty. Could this be one of the ancestors of todays "pocket brick" tactical knife?

I also wonder if back during the world wars soldiers compared their folders and had conversations like "my Camillus has better carbon steel than your Case" or "My TL-29 is better than yours because its made by...."

While the idea of someone actually using a traditional folder in combat "tactically" seems absurd (although considering the amount of fighting going on it could have happened), I wonder if the soldiers then viewed certain folders to be more suited for hard use (and tactical use) than others? I think that if soldiers today can call a folding blade they don't generally use for fighting, but do use for daily military tasks "tactical", than there might have been some "tactical" traditionals back in the early 1900's and World War era.

Your thoughts?
 
Sure - one of the older folding knife patterns and somewhat the grand-daddy of all of today's folding knives, the Spanish navaja, was viewed as a fighting knife.

If you mean as a weapon of war used by actual soldiers, then I believe they more commonly used swords, bayonets, daggers, and fixed blade knives rather than folding knives per se.
 
Well, they used to hit a Douk Douk with a hammer to mash the handle so it would stay open and use it as a fighting knife.

I felt a bit uncomfortable with the word "tactical". I'm sure some folders were viewed as better for fighting although fixed blades were much prefered. I'm sure some folders were viewed as better for hard use. The "tactical" label encompassing a sharpened prybar (nothing wrong with that) you can fight with is probably more modern advertising.

How old is the switchblade pattern? Opens quickly, locks.
 
Well I know for a fact that a # of civilians used the HAWKBILL as a weapon.....so could that be considered as tactical??
Razors & Melon testers were also used here in Florida!
Jim
 
Pipe,
A # of yrs.ago,I was with my Instuctor & he asked to see my carry blade which was a Civilian(Hawkbill Spyderco)He said,Man that Hawk brings back bad MEMORIES!! In the 40's Pompano Fl was the produce center in So.Fl.The city Blacks carried swithblades for stabbing & razors for cutting! Migrants(sp?)carried melon testers(cheap & available)! The country Blacks carried hawkbills(some didn't the smart ones did)!My Instuctor was app.to a funeral home.....have to explain some things....at that time(40's)whites & blacks were seperate parts of town....my Instructor (also my best friend) is black....his mother raised a large family by herself...so he was apprenticed to a funeral home! On Sat.night migrants came to town....numerous bars & fights.....the funeral home was also the ambulance for blacks(the times)!!
So he got to see first hand what a hawk could do & the results.People don't understand...a hawk doesn't cut it rips & tears! You also have to understand...a a lot of people practice...some carried a hawk in each front pocket.....some carried with a toothpick to keep the blade prepped to fast open from a pocket!So...sitting & talking with the old guys filled me with an appreciation of the HAWK & what it can do!Some of the stories were brutal!It was ....fast NASTY & up close & personal...
To each his own!
Jim
 
Now, see... I've re-read the original post and the OP is actually separating fighting knife from hard use/utilitarian knife and using the tactical label with its hard use meaning. Still, this went right to fighting knives. That's why I don't like the tactical label so much.

Anyways...

Off the top of my head, a sodbuster would be a traditional hard use knife. A swiss *army* knife was designed for a soldiers other needs I suppose.

Here's a Roman Swiss army knife...

article-1247230-081570E4000005DC-940_964x310.jpg


I'm sure many Civil War soldiers used the snot out of their Barlows.

A Buck 110 might be a cross between a heavy modern folder and a lighter use traditional.
 
I guess if you want to/"have" to get up close and personal a pruner would work, so would a hammer or an ice pic or a flint knapped 1000 year old artifact.
 
What one Army veteran with 2 decades of service thinks about the whole "tactical knife" thing: it's all marketing... and mostly BS. I put the current use of "tactical" right up there with "ninja".

I carried a Buck 110, Buck 307 and a Camillus MIL-K 818 for most of those years... they don't quite fit the high-speed, low-drag marketing hype of "tactical" do they?

There were plenty of military-issued folding knives through the years and there were some that were not officially issued, but popular and could be bought at the PX or Clothing & Sales.

At any rate, I don't remember anyone saying: hey, look at my "tactical" knife. We probably would have laughed.


Word War II-era and later
Camillus01_zpse1acbd19.jpg


MIL-K 818
MILK_zpsd04f29a6.jpg


Buck 307
Buck307a.jpg


Buck 110
Buck110_zps7510f3ce.jpg
 
"What one Army veteran with 2 decades of service thinks about the whole "tactical knife" thing: it's all marketing... and mostly BS. I put the current use of "tactical" right up there with "ninja". " :D
:thumbup: MMM

Best regards

Robin
 
I have no direct knowledge of this, but when I was a kid I heard that around here it was mostly butcher knives or straight razors.

MerryMadMonk said:
What one Army veteran with 2 decades of service thinks about the whole "tactical knife" thing: it's all marketing... and mostly BS. I put the current use of "tactical" right up there with "ninja".
Click to expand...

Well put, sir. And thank you for your service.

James
 
In some places, the folding 'fishing knife', or Texas Toothpick was carried/used as a weapon.

I once looked through a large book of old crime scene photos (from the nineteen-teens through the '40s or '50, and saw some pics of what looked like a small or medium stockman with the main blade stuck in a guy's head after a fight. So it wasn't unheard of decades ago for some elements to use their slipjoint pocketknives as weapons on occasion.

Jim
 
A large toothpick was the one I remember people talking about when I was a kid. Most had quit carring them by the 70's, but a friend of my older brothers still carried one in the early 70's, and kept a piece of toothpick under the tip so he could open faster.
 
When my father was a younger man, (now in his mid 80's), he carried a hawkbill. His reason was not only for any daily tasks he may need it for (cutting open a box, cutting some fruit, rope, or whatever else), but also carried it as a possible weapon. Not saying it's tactical, per say, but it was a tool he considered useful for edc, and as a possible weapon.
 
Someone beat me to mentioning the Buck 110, so I'll mention the Buck 112 instead. ;)

(The Buck 110 has to be the classic all American "tactical" lockback, from way before the word "tactical" was ever thought of. Hmmm, maybe Buck should collect copyright money....)
 
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In "Bedknobs and broomsticks" a guy pulls a toothpick on Angela Landsbury, so they were used for threatening acts back then. Heck, a Puuko of all things is used in the movie Hangover 3 (don't watch it, just take my word....)
 
CUTS LIKE A KRIS said:
In "Bedknobs and broomsticks" a guy pulls a toothpick on Angela Landsbury, so they were used for threatening acts back then. Heck, a Puuko of all things is used in the movie Hangover 3 (don't watch it, just take my word....)
Click to expand...

While I wholeheartedly agree on the Hangover 3 assessment, I don't recall a puuko. Which scene?
 
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