Tactical Folders (Part One)

Knife types have a cycle of popularity. 

In literature, we see cycles through the different knife genre.  I remember reading about the drunken pirate/seaman character with his “wicked clasp knife” and watching the Sharks and Jets with their switchblade (automatic) knives.  We still talk about the Swiss Army style camp knife and the Rambo-esque survival knife.  In the electronic media knife types change weekly.

Even the knives we carry on a daily basic reflect that cycle.  Many of us still carry friction folders while others carry only knives that lock open.

So what is a tactical knife?  Let’s visit a few sources and find out.  (Any mistakes in content are my editing.)

Sgt Don Paul (Everybody’s Knife Bible) served as Green Beret and later described a survival knife as one that helped you survive.  It doesn’t take a great jump of imagination to see him describing a tactical knife as one you that assists you in being tactical. 

Our electronic fount of modern knowledge, Wikipedia, traces tactical knives to utility knives which were pressed into combat.
“Fighting knives were traditionally designed as special-purpose weapons, intended for personal or hand-to-hand combat.  This singularity of purpose originally distinguished the fighting knife from the field knife, fighting utility knife, or in modern usage, the tactical knife. 

“Utility knives with stone or flint blades were undoubtedly used in personal combat since Paleolithic times.  The first early Bronze Age daggers featured Beaker copper blades, probably done with hand held stone tools.

“In 1984, a Beaker period (ca. 2500 - 2000 BC) copper dagger blade was recovered from the Sillees River near Ross Lough, Northern Ireland, that had a remarkably modern appearance.  The flat, triangular-shaped copper blade was 6.75 inches long, 1.65 inches wide, and 0.078 inches in maximum thickness, with beveled edges and a pointed tip, and featured an integral tang that accepted a riveted handle.”  

Armed men and women have always need utility knives.  The Egyptian Khopesh (shaped like a shepherd’s hook) or Turkish Kilij (a sword with an up-hill bend) wouldn’t serve to trim rope, stab your share of the evening’s meal or cut leather to repair clothing. 

 If you doubt this try spreading mustard with an American Civil War sword on a hot dog at your next family outing!  What is needed is a utility knife that could act as a last resort weapon!

This is reflected in the introduction of Dietmar Pohl’s photo essay “Modern Knives in Combat.”  

“Even in the days of modern warfare, knives and bayonets remain indispensible items of equipment for the soldier, whether as tools or edge weapons.  …most soldiers also carry a second, usually smaller, knife which meets their needs.  Quite often the knives officially issued … are simply unsuitable for everyday task as they were designed as combat knives.  … (carry knives are) primary work knives, with which one can open a can or package…”

The Buck 110 folder, perhaps one of the great camp/hunting utility folders of our time, but missing several of the key features of a tactical knife.

These knives are typically folding, or short blade fixed folders.  

Wikipedia continues to elaborate:  “Folding knives are rarely if ever designed primarily for use as fighting knives or combat knives. However, many armies and military organizations have issued folding "utility" knives that were not intended to be used as weapons, but which had tactical features that appealed to military personnel as well as civilians.   Many civilian folding knives also have been privately purchased by both civilians and military personnel for use as general-purpose utility knives.

“The earliest production company to make a tactical knife was Al Mar Knives with their SERE model designed for the military with input from Special Forces Colonel James N. Rowe in 1979.”

It appears the modern tactical knife was born as an field utility knife and had a good publicity agent!

Knife maker Bob Terzuola is credited with coining the phrase "Tactical Folder."  In his 2000 publication ”The Tactical Folding Knife,” Bob addresses the question  “What is a tactical knife.

Bob first rules out fixed blade knives with the title “The Tactical Folding Knife.”  He further states “…(should) be using the term tactical/utility knife because the vast majority of knife owners will never use a knife in combat…”  

Addressing combat, Bob goes on to say “the best knife to have in a knife fight is the one you have on you at the moment.”

With this in  mind, here’s what Bob considers the defining characteristics of a tactical knife.

• Blade should be approximately 3.5 inches long and both legal and comfortable to carry.
• The knife should be capable of dealing both a penetrating and cutting blow.  Both sharpness and blade geometry affect his.  The geometry should make the open knife easy to maneuver.
• The knife should be easy to open rapidly and easily, i.e.: Spyderco hole or Terzuola thumb disk (coin opener.)
• The handle should be comfortable and provide some protection to the fingers (from its blade!) while being secure in the hand. 
• The knife should be convenient to the user in the carry position and capable of a fast draw.
• The blade should lock open when it is opened and remain open until the user unlocks it.
• The knife should be robust.

One of several bucks showing tactical folder properties: Can be opened with either hand, locks open and the clip can be moved to four different positions so the knife will stay where you put it.  This is important as the two positions near the pivot make the knife low profile

Bob doesn’t at this point define steel type or handle material.  It seems reasonable that knife with a brass blade or glass handle would have such serious drawbacks nobody would consider it for a utility/tactical knife.

Box cutters

I spent a good part of my high school experience stocking shelves for an independent grocery store.  I was in charge of filling the beer cooler, sorting the returned glass soda and beer bottles (Yes, we were recycling then, but we didn’t call it recycling.  We called it getting our deposit back.) and making sure the shelves had product on them.  The store provided a white apron, if we wanted it, a price stamp and a box cutter.  The status item among the stock boys was the box cutter.  
 

A box cutter is a simple tool consisting of a frame to hold a single edge safety razor and a flattened metal tube which held the frame shut and could be slid forward to protect you from the razor blade.

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Even then, some product lines had sales reps whose job was to make sure their product was displayed properly and utilized all the shelf space available, especially if they could steal space from their competitor.

A good score for a stock boy!

Sometimes if you were especially helpful or they felt expansive (a big dose of flattery helped) they would give you a box cutter with a product logo on one side.  

In those simpler times or at least to our simpler concerns, that was a high status item.  The store preferred you leave your box cutter at work so it would be available and not forgotten at home.  You never left your high status cutter at work.  Never!

At the last WRCA Dover knife show, I found an old box cutter from W.T. Rogers Co. in Madison Wis.  An internet search produced a copy of a lawsuit which indicated Rodgers made plastic office trays.  Later W.T. seems to have been absorbed by Newell Rubbermaid. 

W. T. Rodgers boxcutter.  I thought I would cut a finger off trying to get the razor blade in it.

The cutter is pretty simple, just a folded piece of aluminum metal with cutouts.  The razor slips into the frame by way of the cut outs and is slid out to cut.  This cutter gave this old stock boy the jitters.  I see that blade cracking and blood everywhere.  The cutter comes with a nice plastic case colored red, blood red.  I don’t think the color was chosen on purpose, but you need the case.  If you drop this cutter without the case into a pocket the blade will inch open and you’ll soon need new pants and band-aids.

 I got it open without cutting myself.  I'm sure you could cut cardboard and fingers with the same effort.

I also got another box cutter at Lincoln Electric from my former boss, Jeff.  It’s a nice one, made from heavy gauge metal.  It’s hard to think of product improvement for a box cutter, but this one has a little groove in the flattened handle and a bump on the frame which prevents the frame from being pulled out forward. 

A sturdy, well made box cutter.  It will give you years of cardboard cuttin' fun.  But it doesn't have the flash and jazz the Tropicana cutter has.

You use a cutter by dragging the blade backward through cardboard or plastic.  If the frame is too loose and the blade catches, the cutter could pull apart.  Very unprofessional.  And at Lincoln it means lost productivity while you reassemble your tools.  Bad Ju-Ju.

What’s a utility knife but a box cutter on steroids?  The industrial strength razor blade usually sits in a moveable frame which locks into several pre-determined positions.  The handle is usually stout enough to hold a few extra blades and can take a lot of hand pressure.  I’m constantly putting mine in a safe place.  So safe that I can’t find them.  So the last time I bought one I got a bright orange.  I can find this one.

Its bright orange and I can always find it, at least by the time the job is finished.

At one time it was promoted by several knife writers as the perfect camping knife.  Razor sharp, essentially a fixed blade, one handed operation, no need to resharpen - you change blades when dull; it was almost the perfect camping knife.  Except the blade is too small, too fragile, too hard to clean (you trim a raw steak and see how easy it is to clean!).  Just the wrong application for the tool. 

But it does share some of the attributes of a tactical knife.  One handed operation, the blade locks open, it’s very sharp and easy to hold and you can cut people with it.   

Is it any wonder the “Stanley” as the British papers call it, is vilified in the British press and provides grounds for arrest if the police find one on you.  Oh sure, you can argue that as a glazier or rug installer you need one, but you and your employer need to come before a judge and explain it.  And if the judge doesn’t think you should have two with different blades, or that he just doesn’t think you need one at all, well, too bad.

Of course in this labor-saving day we can’t spend time sliding the blade out of the handle.  That might take 1.5 seconds.  We could save 1/10 of a second with an assisted opening one.

My co-worker carries this one.  Let's see: assisted opening, locks open, has a pocket clip so it stays where you put it.  Hey!  It's Tactical!  If it was black it would be a tactical box opener.

The razor blade clips in and the opening is spring assisted.  For my hands the opening stud is in the wrong place.  It’s not a very smooth opener either.  Not as smooth as my Benchmade, or my Spyderco, but smoother than my Hartville utility knife.  Get caught with this little guy in England and you better be on the job opening boxes.  Come out of a pub with one and you might find SWAT (or the English equivalent -  SAS?) waiting for you.

Of course all of this starts with a razor blade.

Single edge safety razor blade.

In my more impressionable years I read of a fighting technique that used a safety razor blade with a match stick through the center hole.  You carried the blade between the fingers with the blade facing outwards from your palm.  The match stick prevented the blade from sliding backward when you slapped and cut your opponent.  I remember (don’t ask me how) this was reported as the favorite technique in the black quarters of New Orleans.

What a hairball idea! 

Of course I tried it right away.  I couldn’t keep the stick in place, the razor kept falling out and I was convinced I would be the only one cut with it. That was my introduction to “all knife writers are pathological liars.”   

That knowledge has served me well.