Do you like tanto blades?

Do you like tanto blades?

  • I like them.

    Votes: 128 67.7%
  • I don’t like them.

    Votes: 61 32.3%

  • Total voters
    189
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I do
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I've been looking at some threads and "looking like mall ninja" thing appears here a lot, and it is a bit silly, people seem to forget that everything has it's use.
Any task that I needed to do - my knife did it as well as any other knife would do, but tanto tip has been very useful to me when it came to prying or scraping for example, and I'd most likley break off the tip of most other knives if I used them for some things my Recon Tanto was able to do.
So if it does everything else other knives can do, but has stronger tip, that's just an extra for me. I use it for some tasks at home, and I used to carry it at work on my old job while I was working at construction site.

It might not be perfect for bushcraft, but I'm not into bushcraft, so I personally couldn't care less. At the other hand, despite not being ideal knife for buschraft - you can still do bushcraft with it. It won't be groundbreaking bushcraft knife, but you'd most likley be just fine, since it's still a knife. On a plus side, you'll be less concerned about your tip breaking off.

Now, it only makes sense that they'll market it with videos of their knives punching through sheets of metal and body armor rather than prying, scraping or something else. And "mall ninjas" buying their knives is still a profit to them, so they would be silly to do otherwise, because at the end of the day, profit is what everyone wants.

People should just buy and try out things on their own, and be less concerned about other people's opinion.
 
Some more than others. Benchmade Sibert 757, Barker Hokkaido & Chris Reeves. My top 3
 
I like them for some applications. My work pocket knife was a tanto for 4 years. I liked the strong tip, and the upper part of the tanto worked as a chisel fairly well. I find a drop point works a little easier for me and a prefer the finer tips for most applications though.
 
I like them if they have a little belly to them.
They are good for stabbing but that's not generally what I do with a knife - except perhaps to snatch a piece of kielbasa from the grill for, you know, temperature testing.
 
I had one years ago. I used it as an EDC for about two or three months. Did a lot of fishing, hiking and camping then and thought the look was cool. It was quickly obvious that I was struggling to figure out which edge to use and be comfortable. Took a bit to get used to it. Very awkward. Nearly all the cutting came to where the 2 edges meet. The only good thing that I could really do with both edges was carving wood into something. The tip and front edge for precision and the long edge for quickly shaving or removing large chunks. The carving thing did not last long. I started switching it out with my trusty Buck 110 until it lost its luster. The easiest knife to sharpen because of its straight edges. Although the only part that really needed the attention, again, was where the edges meet. But really for a EDC, never again. That knife was in a box of unused camping gear until what I consider the start of actually collecting. I gave it to a friend. Didn't even look at what brand it was. I still like the look, and might consider getting another just to say I have one. This time looking at brand and steel as the nut in me always will.
 
It's one of the few blade geometries and grind that I don't have a particular use for.

I like and use trailing point, hawkbill, Wharncliffe, drop points and sheepsfoot blades.... But a Tanto, for my use, is just not good at anything specific for me.

I find a FFG drop point to be much more utilitarian and all of the other blade shapes are better for specific tasks.
 
I remember as a kid in the 80s during the Ninja craze reading a knife magazine that had a story about tantos and how they could stab through a car door. That was all I needed to know and had to get one, because, you know, you never know when you will be attacked by a car. I mowed extra lawns and other money making schemes until I had enough to get this essential and deadly weapon. I went to the local Army/Navy store, tried to act calm (I think I looked like a heroin addict who was a few hours late but at his dealers house and had just enough money for the next hit) and walked out a proud owner of the most perfect and deadly knife ever designed (and looking for a car to stab). I headed to the junkyard and minus the all black pajamas and cool beard (I was 16, no cool Chuck Norris style beard for me) proceeded to stab a car door. And failed miserably. I did manage to eventually get it through the trunk area and that was good enough for me, as I was not yet a fell fledged official Ninja like the guy in the magazine. Years later I learned a lot about knives, cars, advertising, and even Ninjas. Things like 440A was an OK steel for the time, but not for stabbing metal. Older cars had thicker steel as well as reinforcement in the doors (doors are still reinforced today). An article in a knife magazine that has “advertisement” in small letters at the bottom is not an article. Most ninjas weren’t bearded white guys and didn’t have a tradition of attacking cars; they also didn’t buy “Fury” knives from Taiwan.

I was never attacked by a car and eventually put the knife away and sported a much more useful Buck 112 Ranger with finger groves. I still have that old tanto knife and the paint from the car is still faintly visible.
 
I carried one so much when I was in the Army I grew to like it. I didn't like it before I joined, but have one in my pocket now.
 
What advantages? Thicker / more durable blade stock?

What applications is it good for?
It depends a bit on the exact blade shape, but if you have one with a straight main edge and a straight edge close to the tip (like this Strider for reference), it becomes pretty uncomplicated to sharpen the edge in two sections on a flat stone, since it doesn't have any curve in the edge. Also, you can have a sharper grind angle in the main edge for cutting and a more obtuse one in the tip for abusing and if you happen to break the tip, it becomes easier to regrind it into shape again.
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A bit off topic, but I see these pictures and honestly, I forget what I am supposed to be looking at. A $200 bottle of Tequila? A Sig Saur P220? A $75 Cigar? A $1000 watch? Medals and a SOCOM coin from some dude? Ammo for a M249 SAW? Cash? Two passports to lend street credibility to the high speediness of the picture? The $200 Surefire flashlight that the stupid photographer left out of the picture after wasting 30 minutes looking for it for? The $35 Tanto knife?

And then I ask is purchasing this knife going to propel me into this great lifestyle that I can now afford the other stuff? Will people think I am some SEAL Team 6 operator because I have this knife that was in the cool picture? Will I be able to prevent robberies because I am armed with the knife in the picture? Will the knife stab through a car door?


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Not a big fan of the aesthetic of the Americanized tanto where the edge near the tip is straight. But blades shapes like the ZT 0620 look great to me

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What advantages? Thicker / more durable blade stock?

What applications is it good for?
Prying, scraping, on rare occassions punching holes through plastic sheets/buckets to cut out openings...
Or to pick on something, I used the tip to chip off wood around a nail, so I can grab it with other tools and pull it out.
Those are some advantages I noticed...
 
A bit off topic, but I see these pictures and honestly, I forget what I am supposed to be looking at. A $200 bottle of Tequila? A Sig Saur P220? A $75 Cigar? A $1000 watch? Medals and a SOCOM coin from some dude? Ammo for a M249 SAW? Cash? Two passports to lend street credibility to the high speediness of the picture? The $200 Surefire flashlight that the stupid photographer left out of the picture after wasting 30 minutes looking for it for? The $35 Tanto knife?

And then I ask is purchasing this knife going to propel me into this great lifestyle that I can now afford the other stuff? Will people think I am some SEAL Team 6 operator because I have this knife that was in the cool picture? Will I be able to prevent robberies because I am armed with the knife in the picture? Will the knife stab through a car door?


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Haha that is a terrible picture, where did you find that?
 
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