Talk:Tantō

Swords and Knives
I am not making all sword categories into knife categories. Not all swords are knives, but some are ;) Drhaggis 03:11, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Tanto / Wakizashi
I have found no evidence, nor does it make much sense, that wakizashi were sometimes replaced by tanto, or that they were prefered because of their shorter length. For one, Samurai, at least of certian time periods, were never without their wakizashi, much like an officer and his handgun. As for the length issue, matching a tanto against a katana, yari, or other weapon would be suicide, and if length were the issue, it would be the katana that would be swapped out, not the shorter wakizashi. As such, I've removed that section of the article.


 * It's a controversial point, but it does seem that Wakizashi were not in general use in the period where the Tachi was more common than the Katana (i.e. before circa 1400). As I understand it, The Wakizashi came to replace (or sometimes supplement) the Tanto, at around the same time that the Katana began to replace the Tachi (i.e. from circa 1400). However, high ranking Samurai still employed the Tachi as a symbol of status and as far as I know also employed the Tanto. See the Katana Wikipedia entry for more discussion. The Tanto, much like the Wakizashi, would have been a weapon of last resort, for very close fighting, much like the Roman Pugio.--M.J.Stanham 15:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


 * There are different sticks with different names such as the quarterstaff and the bo. the Japanese wanna call it whatever the heck they want so let them be. I'm erasing the 'disputed saying' sentence until resolved --70.68.43.50 04:44, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

WP:MilHist Assessment
Not a very long article, but it includes just about all I might expect one could say about the subject. In fact, I was surprised at the inclusion of mentions of the history of the development of the style. The article has pictures, a nice see also section, and a link to WikiCommons. It does need a bit of clean-up, though, just grammatically and stylistically (a few unpaired quote marks, things like that). If there were any major improvements to be made, I'd suggest splitting the history section from the technical descriptions, and just expanding in general (assuming there is anything further worth saying). LordAmeth 11:24, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Single Edged
The article claims that tantos are two-bladed; however at least those used in Aikido are single-bladed.

No it doesn't. It says they are almost always singled edged and occasionally double edged.--M.J.Stanham 01:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Dont understand
Could someone explain the certain parts of the blade that are mentioned. For instance what is the sori? I am writting for another language and would like to know. 89.142.10.127 15:20, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm, yes. Terminology might get a bit confusing... but to answer your question, sori is a measure of how much the blade curves at its deepest point, as measured using a perpendicular line drawn from the two ends of the visible blade. See here. CABAL 21:00, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you that image really helped.89.142.27.249 12:30, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Different names for tanto and daggers in Japan
Somewhere, I think a Japanese language book, said that there were several words for dagger, each with its own connotation. Does this list exist anywhere? I think it should probably be attached somewhere in the weapons of Japan tree, or the language page. FMPhoenixHawk (talk) 08:16, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Additional Tanto photo
I've added a photo of my own to wikimedia. It's a pretty standard photo, of which this article already has one, but I'll leave it up to whomever to decide if it should be included in the article or elsewhere: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tanto.jpg RealmRPGer (talk) 01:42, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
 * ...is that a Practical Plus tanto from CAS Hanwei? CABAL (talk) 13:05, 18 January 2009 (UTC)
 * It sure is. RealmRPGer (talk) 19:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Ripping Off Tourists
"Many fan tantō were forged during the 19th and 20th centuries to rip off tourists." The tone of this is judgmental rather than neutral. There is nothing intrinsicly dishonest about making things for export or for tourists.

The term 'ripped off' suggests that prices are being set too high, but surely that is for the buyer to decide.

If you mean that they are being passed of as antiques then you should say so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.150.177.249 (talk) 09:30, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Introduction's reference to western tanto knives is misleading
The introduction states that the Japanese tanto blade design has been brought to the west in the form of tactical knives, but this is misleading, bordering on incorrect. There are indeed "tanto point" knives, but the design is almost unrecognizable to that of a Japanese tanto. The knives in this image have what are called "tanto" points:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BM970.jpg

Note the high point and the second primary grind, which is flat; that element is the core of the western tanto, and is not in common with the Japanese tanto. The western tanto is designed specifically to strengthen the point, for piercing/stabbing, which makes it unsuitable for slicing/slashing. There may be a similarity in design philosophy for creating a stabbing weapon, but it is not visibly apparent.

I will attempt to modify the language, though I'm not sure how to do it most appropriately, without sounding condescending (there are few benefits of a western tanto point, and are generally used for their aesthetic appeal). The most correct thing to say would be that the name has been co-opted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Autrui (talk • contribs) 00:49, 22 January 2017 (UTC)