How To Buy a Fixed Blade - Part One / Blade

In this segment of the video I cover:

-Tang
-Steel
-Handle Material
-Grind Lines
-Edge Geometry

Be sure to watch Part Two for the rest of the blade category, Part Three for the Sheath, and Part Four for the Overall Package.

Also look for these things that I neglected to mention:

-Size of lanyard hole and location (be sure the lanyard wont rub your hand and is in a useful position.
-Hardware attaching the handle to the blade
-Tolerances (gaps between guard and handle/blade minimized or non existent, etc)
-Spacers if applicable finished nicely and no gaps
-Embellishments (things not needed for functionality but more for looks, usually more in collectors pieces and customs)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Fixed
• blade
• help
• buying
• best
• quietbearr

[mkeulr]

There is no knife Tang style that is called a "Stick Tang". That type of Tang style is actually called a Rat tail Tang. It is used in knives that generally end with the Rat Tail Tang either welded, glued, or screwed to a pommel at the end of the handle. Altough it can be a reasonably strong and suitable for some light chopping as with a Bowie that utilizes this type of Tang, a full Tang is much stronger and is by far the more superior and sought afterTang style when it comes to knife strength.

[QuietBearr]

@mkeulr there actually is, and if you want to get precise, a "bowie" doesnt really exist anymore either, unless you want to use that term for any knife that looks like the original bowie knife, which was a large drop point pixed blade, not a clip point knife.  However, through the years it has came to mean a style of knife that is different from the original. Rat tails usually refer to a tang that is shorter and does not go all the way through the handle. A stick is connected to the pommel.

[themegajosh09]

everybody is talking about tang so... i had a full tang and it hand made basicaly unbreakable.

i have a nice stick tang. i loves it had it for years. but then the stick tang snapped batoning with it in the woods.

i just prefer full tang but there bothe fine to me

[QuietBearr]

Usually when a tang of any length breaks, it is less because of what you where doing or because of the tang, and more because of it not being annealed right.

But I dont know in your case, but as you said, both are great. I have seen full tang knives snap too.

[hugo2x]

I never really thought about the manufacturing aspect of full tang vs. stick tang. I still think that full tang is better. I haven't had problems with high quality stick tang knives but always with cheapo stick tangs.

[QuietBearr]

Yea, but that is with any aspect of any knife, on cheap knives you usually have problems around the board, and on nice ones you dont, with anything, not just tangs.

[mmazooji]

do u think the buck 119 is good

[poljoprivreda]

Why you have dirty nails every time?

nice vid

[fjfjrfjfjr]

What is the smallest knife you have in this video?

Thank you.

[hogielove]

I bent my Ka-Bar

[themegajosh09]

@QuietBearr yea we have full tang kitchen knives and there full tang. one broke cutting tamatoes lol