Tantos, a serious discussion?

Charlie Mike said:
Forgot about this one... I call it the Drastic Tanto

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Wow. This looks incredible. I don’t wanna derail the thread but would be very interested in some more info on this guy. Knife budget is more than tapped right now but would love to get an order in with you someday! I love your work. As to the original point of this thread, I don’t have any tantos for EDC, but would like to get one. I can see their usefulness. One thing I do quite a bit is open bags of shavings to spread in horse stalls, and I can see the subpoint as being very useful. The belly of other blades tends to slide off the thin plastic at times.
 
GWashington1732 said:
It's a perfectly practical blade shape. I don't see an advantage or disadvantage to it though. If that's what you like, use it. If that's not your thing, it's not your thing.
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Right? For me, knives are tools and if they aren't useful at work I tend not to care about them. Before thousands of dollars of disposable income enable many folks to be collectors of just about anything, knives were tools. If you were a craftsman, a butcher, baker, farmer, rancher, or members of any of the other occupations/preoccupations we have had since stone knives, you picked the knife that suited your needs the best, not worrying about what it might be used for. (I am thinking here of the guy that uses his knife to open a FedEx box or split a hamburger worrying about the speed of deployment, lockup, steel, etc.)

Most of today's enduring knife designs owe a nod back to history of its intended use for their design, with the realization that one knife was never meant to serve all equally as well. That's why a lot of us that aren't simply collectors have different knives for different tasks. I am thankful that at this part of my life that I have collected enough knives to match size, steel, design, and utility to my EDC blades.

If one size were meant to fit all, we would only have one type of knife with one design. How boring would that be?

Robert
 
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I’ve repeatedly found that American tantos are maddening for camp chores and food and game processing.
They are strong and the idea of two separate cutting edges has real practical merit in some cases.
But a belly makes many tasks easier. Although some tantos are marketed as such, 99.9% of skinning knives have very pronounced bellies for a reason.

(Edited to correct grammar)
 
BK14 said:
One thing I do quite a bit is open bags of shavings to spread in horse stalls, and I can see the subpoint as being very useful. The belly of other blades tends to slide off the thin plastic at times.
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I would suggest trying a "toothier" edge profile. Try stropping straight from a DMT coarse, or medium.

Higher hardness helps keep the "teeth" from laying over, while higher toughness will aid in keeping them from shearing (think 4V, M4, or other tool steel, even a quality HT on D2 would work nicely).
 
NJBillK said:
I would suggest trying a "toothier" edge profile. Try stropping straight from a DMT coarse, or medium.

Higher hardness helps keep the "teeth" from laying over, while higher toughness will aid in keeping them from shearing (think 4V, M4, or other tool steel, even a quality HT on D2 would work nicely).
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This is a great idea. I’ll have to force myself to try it, I love the polished look so much but have been thinking of going toothy on my Emerson at least.
 
Charlie Mike said:
Yes, I grind my secondary bevel with a 120 grit and strop from that. Works great.
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I’ve been surprised at how slicey I can get my knives after total burr removal at 120 grit on the Edge Pro. The novelty of a mirror edge just hasn’t gone away for me yet, so I can’t help but go as high as I have stones for, even if it’s not particularly practical.
 
BK14 said:
This is a great idea. I’ll have to force myself to try it, I love the polished look so much but have been thinking of going toothy on my Emerson at least.
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If by chance your Emerson is 154cm, that alloy loves a 220-400 grit edge.

About two years ago I made the switch to sharpening to the alloys preference for the task at hand.

Work knife for plastics, bags, cardboard with 4V @ 64hrc I stay at 400 or below. Unless edge damage is to be repaired, then I will go to a DMT XXF, and work my way back down to 400 over successive touch ups.

EDC folder varies from DMT coarse to XXF, depending on alloy (normally s35vn or M4)

Kitchen knives depend on the media being cut, and style of cutting.
 
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NJBillK said:
If by chance your Emerson is 154cm, that alloy loves a 220-400 grit edge.

About two years ago I made the switch to sharpening to the alloys preference for the task at hand.

Work knife for plastics, bags, cardboard with 4V @ 64hrc I stay at 400 or below. Unless edge damage is to be repaired, then I will go to a DMT XXF, and work my way back down to 400 over successive touch ups.

EDC folder varies from DMT coarse to XXF, depending on alloy (normally s35vn or M4)

Kitchen knives depend on the media being cut, and style of cutting.
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Okay you’ve convinced me! My Emerson is hitting the 400 grit stone tonight. It’s at 1000 right now but I’m honestly not as in love with it on that knife as I am with my more conventional ones. What angle would you use? It’s at 21 DPS right now.
 
BK14 said:
Okay you’ve convinced me! My Emerson is hitting the 400 grit stone tonight. It’s at 1000 right now but I’m honestly not as in love with it on that knife as I am with my more conventional ones. What angle would you use? It’s at 21 DPS right now.
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Sounds good, though I generally go slightly less since I tend to convex my edges.

Since the bevels are usually (an estimated) 15-17, I will often put a microbevel on to break the burr, then blend under very light pressure. Afterwards my strop will pull off any remaining burr that forms since my pressure is light when blending the primary and microbevel.
 
NJBillK said:
If by chance your Emerson is 154cm, that alloy loves a 220-400 grit edge.

About two years ago I made the switch to sharpening to the alloys preference for the task at hand.

Work knife for plastics, bags, cardboard with 4V @ 64hrc I stay at 400 or below. Unless edge damage is to be repaired, then I will go to a DMT XXF, and work my way back down to 400 over successive touch ups.

EDC folder varies from DMT coarse to XXF, depending on alloy (normally s35vn or M4)

Kitchen knives depend on the media being cut, and style of cutting.
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How do grit numbers compare between DMT stones and water stones (i.e. are 400 grit DMT stones and 400 grit water stones similar)? I’m currently using Naniwa Chosera stones.
 
My first Generation of the Combative Edge 'SALUS', produced by FOX in Italy.

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NJBillK said:
Sounds good, though I generally go slightly less since I tend to convex my edges.

Since the bevels are usually (an estimated) 15-17, I will often put a microbevel on to break the burr, then blend under very light pressure. Afterwards my strop will pull off any remaining burr that forms since my pressure is light when blending the primary and microbevel.
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Awesome! I will go to 400 grit at 18 I think then a touch of a micro. I apologize for the thread derail but this was very good information. Thanks! I think I’m ready for an Emerson tanto now lol.
 
I don't care for tanto blades anymore. I had my years after bending the tip of a cheap spear point that wasn't even properly heat treated(I didn't know much about steels and heat treatment). After that, I became really paranoid about tip integrity and I fell for the CS Americanized tanto propaganda. Most of the knives that I got during that time frame were tanto style. During those years I read on internet forums a lot of crap about the tanto blade design including how it was just for tacticool mall ninjas and how it made sharpening difficult, etc. I had no issues myself. I also don't see anything special about them. In fact, I've seen some videos of them failing just like spear or drop point so, what's the point?
 
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