Featured Vintage Folding Tanto Knife. Made in Japan.

I bought this rather neat Japanese-made folding tanto-style knife at the flea-market from a very nice Japanese cutler, who was selling his homemade kitchen-knives - as well as a whole heap of antique and vintage Japanese knives of various kinds.

This was the largest knife there - and it had a really neat tanto-style blade, which I don't have in my collection - so I bought it!

I asked him about the history of all the knives, and he said they were all made in Japan in the early 1900s, and he brought them back to Australia with him during his last trip back home. He wasn't sure about mine but reckoned it was probably 1950s manufacture.

It took a bit of cleaning, but I finally got the the slipjoint mechanism working, and it now opens really smooth. Firm, but smooth.

I liked the knife because it looks really rugged. The carved bone handle, the un-embellished carbon-steel blade, how fat and chunky it is, how big it is (8 inches fully-open)...but I also liked the fact that the knife comes with a half-stop safety, to stop you from accidentally chopping your fingers off while closing the blade

 

My but thats efficient looking ! Love the patina on the handle. The 12 year old me would have been over the moon to get that. It was quite the "thing" amongst my neighborhood pack to have pocket knives. The bigger the better. Can you imagine a pack of 12 year olds running around with knives nowadays ?!?

 

Now they're running around with guns.

 

I don't have to imagine..........

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/man-death-eight-teen-girls-charged-toronto-1.6692698

 

The lock don't work

 

Oooh fancy!

What's wrong with your lockback? Does it not click into place? Or...?

 

Sheepsfoot blade...........not tanto..



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That shape is called a Sheepsfoot, not only because it resembles, in a way, an ovine hoof, but also because it’s a shape that has historically been used for farm work.

and....

19th Century sailors embarking from England with a similar looking tool called The London. Characterized by a straight cutting edge and a spine that curves down to meet it at the point, sheepsfoot blades were ideal for seamen because the wide angle of the point helps prevent accidental puncture while, say, working on rigging while floating on an undulating ocean. The flat edge is ideal for slicing and straightforward cutting tasks. Sheepsfoot knives are practical by design, a fact that hasn’t changed in over two hundred years — today, the shape is often favored by emergency response teams.
( courtesy Gear Patrol...)

 

Crisp tang stamps and half stop with snap close.


https://blademag.com/knife-collecting/knife-knowledge-101-what-is-a-half-stop

 

OK, sorry.

 

don't be sorry..........I learn from your silver collecting..!

we may not be friends.....but don't have to be adversaries...... not here !!!

always glad to share !

 

Kid killers invading Canada now too-what tha he... ?!

 

The guy insisted it was a tanto. He was the knifemaker. I saw no reason to disagree.

 

Tanto style blade -


Id' say yours is more like a Folding Cleaver only because it is large.

 

I guess anybody can Bullshit to make a sale. I love running into BS salesmen when I actually know what I'm talking about - But then they usually just throw me out of the flea market

 

I've met loads of bullshit salesmen. Usually in the realms of silverware and fountain pens...and sewing machines. ESPECIALLY sewing machines (I have no idea why).

But yeah, folding cleaver. Meat axe. Body-dismemberment device. Whatever works. I think it's a cool knife.

 

You do now !

But yes, you'd expect a Japanese guy to know a Tanto. !!

I've done my best to explain the true nature of this blade.

There's a mark on the bolster...can you enlarge it..?
any other marks to be found...?
I'm having trouble with the Japan origin story........

 

There's really nothing to see.

It says "68" or "89" depending on which way you hold it up.

And then "FUJ..." on the left side of a triangle with a Japanese character in the middle of it. The rest of the stamp is impossible to read.

 

and the double z inside a halved circle, on the brass bolster.....

maybe we can see things that you don't..

 

Considering my numerous disabilities, I'm sure that's definitely true.

 

well then....it is a cool knife !