the long and robust tang on a katana is comparable to the hidden tang on a HI khuk, also long and robust. if you accept them as OK, so you should HI's kangaroo tail tangs.
if you have never heard of glocks, it is an austrian company that makes most of the plastic based automatic pistols the police use in many countries, the USA amongst them. also robust and almost bullet proof. it also makes a popular survival knife that has a stub tang that is then inserted into a metal tube that has a plastic grip cast around it. one doesn't hear much of them failing in normal use.
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glock actually made the knives 1st, the pistols came later...
the current model 81 has a fairly useless saw on the spine. the two i own are the sawless model 78.
randall knives are custom made knives revered by collectors world wide and some sell for thousands of dollars. they have hidden tangs.
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randall model 1
kabars do not have a 'rat tail' tang, they do, like most knives, have an integral hidden tang, which is substantial enough that it should not fail in normal use.
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note the substantial tang with radiused corners where it attaches to the blade, unlike a threaded rod welded to the blade that a true 'rat tail' tang has. it's how the tang is made and how substantial it is, and how it attaches to the main part of the blade, not whether it's hidden or exposed that counts.
true 'rat tail' tang
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at least this one has a short stub tang that it is welded to.
many don't even have that. luckily this is not one i own (or owned)
as you gain experience it will bring knowledge that full exposed tangs are not necessarily better, they are just different. any tang can be broken if you apply enough force and abuse it. even the most expensive super-steel exposed tang knives can fail if they are improperly heat treated. substantial hidden through tangs like used in HI were the main types found in weapons throughout the ages when failure of the knife/sword meant your death, not just an inconvenience in opening your microwave dinner. in the end, it's a personal preference, if you prefer the exposed tang, that's fine. that doesn't mean the hidden full tangs are bad.
i own both chiruwa and traditional hidden tang khuks. both work for me. i also have a few other knives (and swords), antiques and modern, with a variety of tang types and attachment methods. i've even unsuspectingly bought a bowie made in one of the countries i mentioned earlier that had the proverbial threaded rod tang tack welded to the blade. it snapped 1st use & was disposed of. i also have a 12" bladed stub tang parang with it being attached to the wood grip only by cutlers cement that is my main garden pruning tool; it has so far survived about 10 years with no signs of failure.
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