The nice thing is that now more and more makers and companies are offering colors other than standard black, which isn't a common color in the Middle East. You can get tan, green for the jungle, black or grey (or black&gray) for urban, ... it's a nice feature if the knife is worth buying to begin with. Ranger Knives has a Blaze orange G-10 option if you're into rescue stuff.
Whitehorn said:
Interesting...
Last night I was watching the History Channel and they had a show on the SAS and their training and tactics and stuff... They were going through the gear of a typical SAS member on a typcial operation and he said "make sure you have a good sharp knife". Well the knife they showed as part of his gear looked a lot like some Frost Swedish Army knife.. It was different but basically the same type of 'hunting' knife with a not so tactical shinny blade.
No Dagger or "Fighting Knife"
This brings up difference that some people, myself included, see between standard tactical and combat knives. Definitions are necessarily subjective to each person and mission, but bottom line is that they should be "good" knives. The argument has been made that if you're killing someone with a knife chances are you've been compromised already, or alternatively that your knife doesn't have to be coated because it will see limited use. These are good arguments for a person who knows the risk, poor arguments for someone who mistakenly thinks that light discipline is only a factor at night.
As to the tactical/combat difference I mentioned, I think that sometime in the 50s or 60s, (during or after the Korean war? this I'd like to know) killing knives became less popular and utility knives became more popular. Or perhaps it is better to say that killing knives evolved into more solid knives. Imagine a troop selling his Sykes-Fairbain and buying a Randall, and that pretty much sums up my point.
I think the combat/tactical difference is an important distinction for a soldier to make, as some tactical knives don't make great combat knives (using my subjective definitions of the terms). A Benchmade Nimravus is a decent tactical, but not as good of a combat knife as a Busse Natural Outlaw or Strider PAB. And a new Busse Heavy Heart or Trace Rinaldi Armageddon won't be a good choice if you just need a tactical knife. Good knives that merge tactical/combat definitions would include stuff like the Chris Reeve Neil Roberts, Gerger LMFII, the new Benchmade CSK, Busse Satin Jack Tac, Strider MT and Randall model 14: knives that are lethal, but strong enough to do medium chopping, prying, and demolition.
This works for me anyway, YMMV.
