What Makes A Knife "Tactical"?

[The Night Rider]

I think when you look at folding knives, there's a clear line. I don't know if the proper word for the category is "tactical knife" but it's obviously a very different category than "pocket knife".

I think I've said this before but my pprimary question would be "If I got recalled to Active Duty tonight would I take this knife with me?"

And to be perfectly honest I wouldn't take the 710 with me. I wouldn't take the AFCK either.

I'm not sure I'd want to fight somebody with a Buck 110 but the one I have never failed at any task I put it to in the field in the Army.

So I guess that's my clear line.

 

[The Night Rider]

A knife without a locking blade won't be a "tactical knife" and a knife with a lock may not be a tactical knife, but all tactical knives will have a lock.

I wouldn't carry a pocket knife without a lock. I only own one and that's an SAK Climber

 

[JohnKSa]

I wouldn't carry a pocket knife without a lock.

I carry one every day. But I also always carry a larger locking knife for heavier duty work. The pocket knife is an SAK mini. It gets used a lot, but obviously not for any heavy duty work and not for anything where a locking blade would be important.

I'm not sure I'd want to fight somebody with a Buck 110...

Yup. Not much to keep your fingers off the blade if things get slippery or really energetic.

 

[Jonah77]

I carry one every day. But I also always carry a larger locking knife for heavier duty work. The pocket knife is an SAK mini. It gets used a lot, but obviously not for any heavy duty work and not for anything where a locking blade would be important.Yup. Not much to keep your fingers off the blade if things get slippery or really energetic.

Agree-the Buck is a workhorse, but it's also a tank (heavy), and designed for utility and dressing game. Definitely not a handle\grip for wet-work or stressful situations. The 110 was my first "serious" knife. I picked mine up around 1979 and still have it.

I have read that Chris Caracci designed the AFCK as an updated Police Model. Back then, the Police model was only offered with those slick SS or aluminum scales. apart from the grip profile there was nothing to keep your hand from sliding into the business end. Moving to G10 we not only had a better surface for gripping, but also girth. The AFCK blade profile was narrower than the Police and less "humpy" making for easier pocket carry (at least for me). Many preferred the liner-lock over the back lock as well.

Caracci brought the design to Spyderco and they passed (possibly because it would hurt Police model sales?). Benchmade picked it up, licensed the "Spydie Hole" from Spyderco, and the rest, as they say is history. I remember thinking there was nothing better (at the time anyways) than a Benchmade with a "hole". Interesting when you consider the Military has many features reminiscent of the AFCK ...including tip-down carry.

 

[hso]

Laws against locking knives

Where is that in the US?

I would exclude knives attempting to comply with European/Britush rules because they didn't influence the tactical knife style.

The style, as you point out, is the departure from traditional knives with polished blades and polished bolsters and chipable/breakable handle materials. The intent was to have subdued features that don't reflect light and draw attention. Locks were a requirement since blade use was to be as secure as that of fixed blade. Pocket clips weren't originally part of the TK style, but are standard now, but not essential. Blade shapes were centered or dropped points and heavier. Handles were black or charcoal composite (micarta) or dark wood (typically stabilized) to continue the subdued nature and by necessity due to use tough. Steel was generally "exotic" stuff like 154CM and ATS34 stainless but 440C was acceptable.

Once BobT and other custom makers established the TK style in the 1970s-1980s dressy variations inevitably sprang up as custom knife collectors wanted fancy versions. I certainly have a few.

Now there are all sorts of variations of the tactical knife style, many just being deviations using the moniker.

 

[JohnKSa]

As far as I know there are no states where it is illegal, but my understanding is that there are some cities that have banned them in states that don't have pre-emption laws.

 

[Jonah77]

Realized I haven’t answered the original question-

“What makes a knife “tactical”?

“Tactical”, as far as I can recall (has it really been 35 years?) at least originally, meant: suitable for knife fighting with. While some consideration was given for utilitarian tasks, no one was batoning with them, clearing shooting lanes, or preparing meals and making bowls with them. Could it cut, slash, stab, poke, without slipping or closing up on you? THAT was the question.

These knives were marketed and tested from that perspective. This was way before it became an overused cliche and almost a joke like it is today.

There was a lot of emphasis on grip style, retention, and locking mechanisms, ease of carry and accessibility.

Probably due to the difficulty of obtaining carry permits in most states at that time many of us carried knives for personal defense and I remember reading about “knife fighting technique” in a lot of knife related publications.

So was the “tactical knife” culture in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

[The Night Rider]

Yup. Not much to keep your fingers off the blade if things get slippery or really energetic.

The same could be said for the 710

 

[ms6852]

I guess if I use a sharpie my buck knife 110 could be tactical.

 

[epags]

Yall are wrong.....must have a black blade so it is invisable in the dark....

 

[plainsdrifter]

Just got this OTF. I guess you could call it tactical. But no where on their website do they describe any of their knives as tactical. Not black, Olive or even their needle point ones. And I appreciate that.

 

[JohnKSa]

The same could be said for the 710

I suppose it's inevitable that this would turn into a "Whose knife is more tactical?" argument.

That said, since I own neither a 710 or a 110 and do own other knives from both Buck and Benchmade, I feel like I can, at least, pretend to be objective. The standard 710 has a grippy/textured handle with a significant flare top and bottom at the front of the grip. It's not like having a big guard on a fixed blade that nearly eliminates the possibility of the hand sliding forward off the grip onto the blade, but it's a huge improvement over the smooth/non-textured and non-flared handle of the typical 110.

It is worth mentioning that there have been some 110 "special editions" that provide a bit more flare and/or textured grips and some variants of the 710 with a smooth/non-textured grips that would help even things up, in terms of the uber-tactical measure of "grippiness".

 

[hso]

The bright blade, brass bolsters, and smooth wood scales and lack of one hand opening exclude the 110 and ilk from the subdued non-shiny, grippy "tactical knife" style. Not saying they're not quality hard use folders (lots of guys carried this type in everything from Vietnam on), just not the requirement for non-reflective, one hand opening, and enhanced grip that are needed for tacticalhood. I can't even "build" one using their custom build function.

 

[I like star wars]

I always thought it was a compass in the pummel and a cool paint job . meh . what do I know

 

[Old Dog]

Geez, I thought everybody knew that a tactical knife had a blade that came in "urban camo" and had the word "Ops" in the name. (no, I didn't pay my money for this knife, it was a gift from my non-knife person spouse who only knows that I like knives) I will say that it sharpens easily and takes a good edge.

 

[Larry in wyoming]

I had one of those smith knives. The tanto blade versio . I found it somewhere. I carried it for a couple of years then I lost it! I guess it hadn't found its true home yet. ..

 

[Speedo66]

Re: laws making locking blade folding knives illegal, it is illegal in NYC to even offer for sale a locking blade knife with a blade over 4”.

It’s also illegal to even possess on the street a knife with a blade 4” or longer in NYS, with few exceptions.

Assisted opening knives have been deemed to be “switchblades”, so they’re illegal, too.

Displaying any part of a knife is illegal there, this includes any portion of a pocket clip.

If you’re coming to NY with a knife, let it be a smaller one deep in your pocket, and don’t even whisper “tactical”.

 

[GEM]

An item is tactical if it's advertising appeals to your testicle. Sorry!

 

[Madcap_Magician]

Stuff is tactical when you take it, paint it black, call it tactical, and sell it to soldiers or cops.

 

[The Night Rider]

lack of one hand opening

Excuse me?

Seriously, I wouldn't trust the grip on either knife (110/710) for any stabbing task.

The most "Tactical" thing I could envision myself doing with a knife is cutting a seatbelt at work and I never had to do that.

I'm not sure cutting open pallets of artillery projectiles or Powder or stripping commo wire counts but I've done those with a 110.

I used to have a dipstick in my section who always carried a pristine K-Bar on his LBE. The only thing I ever saw him cut with it was an MRE package and it was barely sharp enough for that.

 

[The Night Rider]

An item is tactical if it's advertising appeals to your testicle. Sorry!

You're not wrong

 

[Speedo66]

If a SEAL were to wear every “tactical” knife advertised as made for them, inspired by them, bought by them, etc, they’d sink like a stone.

 

[The Night Rider]

As I said previously, I don't so much ask "Is it Tactical ?" as I ask "Would I carry it in The Field?"

I would carry a Griptilian. I have carried a Buck110. I wouldn't carry a 710.

 

[JohnKSa]

Excuse me?

Sure. You could texture the grip scales too. Adding some jimping on the back of the grip near the blade would be another way to increase "grippiness". It would be possible to reshape the front bolster and scales to provide a bit more positive retention and to make it harder to slide forward onto the blade. Also, there's brass blacking to cut down on the shininess of the bolsters. Adding a pocket clip should be doable as well.

As I said previously, I don't so much ask "Is it Tactical ?" as I ask "Would I carry it in The Field?"

Which is sort of a different question, isn't it? There are knives I would and wouldn't carry for reasons that have nothing at all to do with whether I consider them to be "tactical" or not.

 

[The Night Rider]

Adding a pocket clip should be doable as well.

I've seen traditional 110s with an aftermarket pocket clip, they were hideous.

Which is sort of a different question, isn't it? There are knives I would and wouldn't carry for reasons that have nothing at all to do with whether I consider them to be "tactical" or not.

I'm concentrating on the 710 because that's the knife that I saw described as tactical and wondered what makes that knife a tactical knife.

I guess Tactical is like Porn, it can't be defined but I know it when I see it.