Why a tanto tip?

SShepherd said:
The blade style varies slightly in Kyoto, Nagoya and Osaka.

Next time you doubt it, use google;)
Click to expand...

OK now truth is revealed:

"The blade would be rectangular, except its nose is a straight 45 degree angle from top to bottom. This creates a sharp tip or piercing the head of an eel, and then dragging the knife along its body to slice it open along its entire length in one continuous motion."

This is what tanto tip for! Thanks, I have no doubt any more...

Well, really thanks this makes this "tanto tip" even funnier. All this eel killers with their "tantos"... But you right it is traditional Japanese kitchen knife for eel preparation and I did not know about it.

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. So right name for all this so called Tanto is Unagisaki Hocho or eel preparation knife for udon ("Unagi" means "eel"; "hocho" means "knife"). Or "eel head piercing" blade.
 
nozh2002 said:
OK now truth is revealed:

"The blade would be rectangular, except its nose is a straight 45 degree angle from top to bottom. This creates a sharp tip or piercing the head of an eel, and then dragging the knife along its body to slice it open along its entire length in one continuous motion."

This is what tanto tip for! Thanks, I have no doubt any more...

Well, really thanks this makes this "tanto tip" even funnier. All this eel killers with their "tantos"... But you right it is traditional Japanese kitchen knife for eel preparation and I did not know about it.

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. So right name for all this so called Tanto is Unagisaki Hocho or eel preparation knife for udon ("Unagi" means "eel"; "hocho" means "knife"). Or "eel head piercing" blade.
Click to expand...


You're gettin the 2 mixed togather, it's just an "unagisaki hocho", The other knife is for slicing large sheets of raw pasta dough for Udon noodles.
 
SShepherd said:
You're gettin the 2 mixed togather, it's just an "unagisaki hocho", The other knife is for slicing large sheets of raw pasta dough for Udon noodles.
Click to expand...

Sorry, no Udon pasta slicing only - eel-head-piercing.

I guess with all this battle unagisaki figters produced in US - folders and fixed blades no wonder that there are not to much eels around...

Microtech SOCOM Unagisaki
Microtech Currahee Unagisaki
Strider Unagisaki
Benchmade Striker Unagisaki

No eel will survive - all will have their head pierced many times...

Thanks, Vassili.
 
To have no doubts I did some googling.

Those eels really have to be taken care of!

See for youself:

begging_eel_motueka.jpg


eel_full.jpg


moray_eel_big.jpg


Now I understand why real manly man need good unagisaki to pierce those heads!

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. And Electric one!

electric-eel.jpg


Now I see - I need unagisaki myself with isolated handle to pierce it right in his ugly head!
 
all sarcasm aside....unagi nigri is quite tasty
ino_unagi.jpg
:D

The reason I posted the pics of the knife was to show that the japanese have had that design or "style" of knife long before the whole
americanized tanto fad. How it's used is another story.
 
Seems like this thread flipped out a little but anyway.

I'm not sure if it has been discussed here before, it was a little hard to interpret everybody's explanations, but I'll take the chance and write it anyway.

One thing that makes a so called "tanto" tip (no matter if it's an americanized, sharp angled one or a more traditional rounded one) more suitable for piercing armor than a blade that becomes gradually wider from the tip to the hilt (for example a Fairbairn/Sykes style dagger), other than that the dagger tip is more fragile, is that since the tanto blade has the same width all the way up to the tip and doesn't taper into a sharp point until just before the front end of the knife, you can use the initial velocity of a violent hard stab to first force the tip of the blade through the armor.

Once the tip part of the blade is through the armor, it doesn't take so much more force to push the rest of the knife into the body, since the initial impact of the tip already has ripped up a wide enough hole in the armor to give room for the rest of the knife, since the blade never becomes any wider than the tip part.


A Fairbairn/Sykes style dagger is more effective for making many quick deep stab wounds to an unprotected area, but if you were to use it against an armored body part, what would happen would probably be that when you stab the target, the thin tip might penetrate the armor nicely at first, but once the tip is through and the momentum is lost, it's a lot harder to force the rest of the knife through, since it becomes gradually wider towards the hilt.
You would have to push the knife through the armor.

If you instead have a tanto, all the armor piercing that you have to do takes place at the impact of the stab (when the attack is as strongest), and after that, you only have to push it through flesh.
 
Doc---Finally!!! Your explanation sums it up exactly! Now this Thread can rest.
 
SShepherd said:
all sarcasm aside....unagi nigri is quite tasty
ino_unagi.jpg
:D

The reason I posted the pics of the knife was to show that the japanese have had that design or "style" of knife long before the whole
americanized tanto fad. How it's used is another story.
Click to expand...

Really interesting thread! I'm surprised to know the "Americanized Tanto" actually existed as a Japanese knife.

Eel is pretty tasty. Kind of tastes barbecued.
 
Personally, I reach for my Benchmade 705 mini stryker more often when not when I'm going fishing or camping. Not sure exactly why, but it's handy having (i) a perfectly straight blade for rope cutting, like a wharnclif, (ii) a perfectly straight chisel tip for precision cuts and scraping, and (ii) a very strong, very sharp point . . all in one blade.
 
Doc, great way to explain it. All I know is that it works great on hard objects (Armor maybe, but also heavy clothes, etc.) & has saved my bacon more than once.

I now "usually" EDC a SOG Night Vision, but for years carried an Emerson CQC7.
 
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