What is a "tactical" knife?

[Pax Jordana]

I always thought of 'tactical' versus non as how much you had to 'baby' a piece. Picture a continuum, with tactical on the one end and collector's grade on the other.

Thus we get to plastic versus wood and stainless instead of carbon steel. That way, your equipment is less likely to fail if you were, say, pursued by the Hope, Washington unit of the National Guard and had to run through a cave and then go back to town and exact your revenge.

 

[hso]

Picture a continuum, with tactical on the one end and collector's grade on the other.

No, I can't agree. There are plenty of collectible "tactical" knives out there that are just safe queens. There are plenty of collectible knives in my collection of stag and satin steel that will out perform 90% of the coated crap out there with the tactical title tacked onto them.

 

[TimboKhan]

Tactical might have flat black spray paint, but not all things painted with flat black spray paint are tactical. Example:

:

 

[The Tourist]

There are plenty of collectible "tactical" knives out there that are just safe queens.

Yes, and I own one. I have a handmade Emerson CQC7, worth somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 dollars depending on how the current market shakes out.

It's never seen a pocket. It went from box, to drool, to the safe in one night.

 

[relentlessknives.com]

Hi to all....I'm new here, but had to join in this.....I agree it's a marketing term.
I make Military Combat knives, and, fighting with them, although maybe done by some......is sort of an old idea.
Knives are useful tools, that we really can't do without in so many situations.
Sure perhaps in the ghetto's they are still used as primary weapons, but even there it's the exception.
I know for sure, that on todays battle fields, they are tools which perform hundreds of cutting, digging, chopping scraping tasks, and almost no one attacks a fortified enemy position with their knife....LOL
Of course they are great for emergency back up weapons.....but , except in the most extreme conditions, I would consider knife fighting to be a tactical error.
Both partys would most likely end up wounded if both were armed with knives..

I suppose ....when you figure that for the first maybe 6000 years of recorded history, knives and swords were the M4 Carbine, the M16 rifle, M1 Garand, Winchester lever action ta da ta da.....of today.

It's hard to shake that image.

And....aren't we all just real creative with language today.
Cosmeticly Challenged is just so much nicer than Butt Ugly......
at least until she is in your face with a bad attitude.....LOL

 

[Rampant_Colt]

any knife carried by these gentlemen is tactical:

 

[Valkman]

Dan, how are you doing man? I got more fighters for the MAP program!

 

[relentlessknives.com]

Hey Don:
That sounds great. Email me and send them over.
I have 7 just about finished, and we got 6 factory knives and five axes so far.
Our MAP program this year is a bit more organized due to finding a good SSG in Iraq who is in charge of it there.

Any one who might like to help can visit the MAP page at http://www.relentlessknives.com/support.html.

Last years program allowed us 7 handmade knives for this year with out asking for donations, but they are about ready to go, so if anyone has any knives they want to send to the troops I'm sure they would be greatly appreciated.
Photos of your gift and those receiving them will be posted, and the soldiers love it and deserve it.
Don helped us last year with two outstanding Fighters made from ATS34, one of which almost cost me a finger.....real sharp.... both lookiing and otherwise.

 

[Pax Jordana]

There are plenty of collectible knives in my collection of stag and satin steel that will out perform 90% of the coated crap out there with the tactical title tacked onto them.

Hmmph. Like you can drive in regular traffic in a ferrari, or drag race your minivan. Blasted semantics.. as the great economist would have it, talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand

so that's it? that's our answer? tactical is fluff? well, santa ain't real either.. I guess life will go on as it always has.

I suppose ....when you figure that for the first maybe 6000 years of recorded history, knives and swords were the M4 Carbine, the M16 rifle, M1 Garand, Winchester lever action ta da ta da.....of today.

Meh, how about the 1911, 1917, the colt's dragoon and the m9? I mean, if I can chuck a rock I've got your sword beat solid

 

[Don Gwinn]

Everything labeled "tactical" is being marketed to you as a gimmick. That doesn't mean that everything called "tactical" is necessarily a useless gimmick; it just means that a lot of people think everyone else is a dummy who is more likely to buy a good gimmick than a good knife.
Bottom line: Pay no attention to the word "tactical." It is of no value either as a label for quality or a label for gimmickry.

 

[Okiecruffler]

That's kinda what I figured, but I'm kinda new to knives (well, at elast thinking about them, I don't think I've been without one since I walked out of my diapers). I thought there may be an actual "tactical" knife. I know what a fillet knife is, and a stockman, and a boot. I never really gave much thought to what I called a knife. I've filleted with a skinner, dressed a deer with a stockman, even cut my fingernails a time or two with a bowie. Not always the best tool (especially filleting with the skinner, now that gets frustrating quick), but the tool at hand regardless.

 

[ilbob]

IMO a tactical knife is akin to Corinthian leather, a term that (in context) means absolutely nothing but sounds like it does.

 

[Tirod]

To discuss what really is tactical: what gets ignored or little recognition in a potentially combative situation.

A slipjoint in a courthouse will be much more tactical than just about any Extrema Ratio in a sheath. A Strider SnG on a firing line will be more tactical than a big polished Cold Steel Tanto. A 6" hunting knife in a public hunting parking lot will be more tactical than a bayonet.

Context of the knife in actual application has a lot to do with it. Lots of teens quickly learn a hyper tackycool knife will quickly become a security officer's property at a football game if seen, regardless that it may have been their Navy Seal daddy's government issue.

Which is why black folding tantos with big letters on the blade are such a joke - only a true wannabe would have the thing. Professionals, the ones who really use "tactical" knives, choose them as a tool to match the situation correctly, not to stand out and make a visual statement.

So, I now hunt with a lever, bolt action, or black powder rifle, not a H&K 91 - it wasn't tactical, it was "tackycool."

 

[wolf_from_wv]

Coyote brown is the new black...at least for clothes... Not many blades made in that color, yet.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Quite simply, it's anything the sellers' marketing departments want it to be, under a nebulous, fluid definition. Usually (but not always) involves a "tactical" color (black), and some "tactical" sheath material (nylon).

 

[Okiecruffler]

So if I wear my black scrubs tonight will I be a tactical nurse?

I should mention they have a big rip in the seat.

 

[Todd A]

I should mention they have a big rip in the seat

Tactical battle scars proves you've "been there,done that".

 

[Rupestris]

So if I wear my black scrubs tonight will I be a tactical nurse?

Do they have "5.11" on the tag?
Did they cost 4X as much as the pink ones?
Do you "slice the pie" or "button hook" a patients room when wearing 'em?
Do you move through the halls like John Belushi surveying the grounds of Dean Wermers office?
Is the rip in the seat where the trauma plate goes?



No? Then you're probably not "tactical. Sorry .

 

[Okiecruffler]

Tactical battle scars proves you've "been there,done that".

Hey, I was curious, I may have been there, but I'll never admit to having done that.

Tried to get out of the house with the black scrubs tonight, but the wife stopped me. I told her I was being tactical but she said it was actually classified under chemical and biological weaponry and made me change into my not so tactical chili peppers scrubs. Brings me to the conclusion that to be truely tactical you have to be single.