Can anyone actually document an instance where a regular shiny blade "gave away" a tactical persons position in real life?

Why does my knife need to be tactical?

AUS 8 won't take the phosphate solution. Scotchbrite sounds like the best option.

Don't see the problem with a shiny knife unless you are a snooper.



Wouldn't such a "give away" event preclude its reporting?

Only if it led to everyone there being killed before it could be reported.

I was curious to see if anyone had any documented instances of it, because from all the reading on military knives out there, you never see any mention of it.

Always sorta seemed like merchandising hype.

Oh boy.

I tease my friends all the time with this one. I have been involved in plenty of sketchy operations in my time, some were providing assistance to some very "special" troops and I nor any of them ever felt the need to have a tactical blade. I have friends that will pay top bucks for so called tactical blades that break at the first real world use.

I think the black coatings were originally used as anti-corrosion measures as older knives were prone to rust. The then became a marketing scam to get civilians to buy Army surplus.

When the 25mm Bushmaster runs dry of ammo in combat I will switch to the co-axial or the GPMG.
After my GPMG runs dry I will switch to my rifle. When those 10 mags are gone I will switch to the 870 in the sentry hatch, and then my grenades. Following that it will be my side arm, followed by Para flares, pen flares or anything else that shoots. If still in the fight I will attach my bayonet to my rifle and swing like a madman till it breaks. Then, assuming I cannot find any thing longer than my knife I may consider throwing my helmet, handfull's of rocks, my keys and shining my flashlight at the guy. Then I may use my knife as a weapon......By now I am sure the enemy knows where I am, and a shiny blade is the least of my worries.


But, For those who insist on black blades you may want to consider cold or hot rifle bluing. The latter may require removing the handle and then baking the knife in the oven to make it really stick to the blade. Depending on the type of blade steel, these bluings work really well.

Eventually with any hard use, all finishes wear off and need to be re-applied though.

One point which (I think) hasn't been brought up yet about using blacked out tactical knives is that if it's hard to see by your 'enemy', then it's hard to see by you too.

3 of my favorite knives are coated/plated/whatever and are black and/or very dark (not one of the reasons I bought them though they do look cool so that may have influenced my macho-ness subconciously). All of those knives have a bright yellow/reflective wrist cord or handle wrap because no matter how careful you are you're going to drop it or set it down sooner or later and if it's pitch black out, it might not matter how bright your light is. If I had to find my LMF II in the bush after dropping it in fall leaves, I could be looking a LONG time and likely wouldn't find it until I cut myself on it.

That being said I can see it being desirable to be low key even in the civilian world. I carry at least one knife everywhere I go...sometimes it's a sizable one. If I need to pull it out, the fewer people who notice, the better...I don't want people's eyes drawn to why I've whipped it out as I could be doing something as simple as cutting rope but perception is 9/10th of the law and a simple task to me could be psychopathic tendancies to those around me who don't know me. In this day and age of paranoia, that's the only enemy I'm worried about.

If I'm in a situation where I'm in a knife fight, the jig is up already, shiny blade or not.

I use my knife for Bushcraft, otherwise it's in the sheath.

Before I'd even worry about my knife being spotted I would suspect my large frame would give me away to anyone who was looking.

Yep. I was on a mission I can't discuss.... had to get past a sentry... and my Randall Model 15 flashed in the dark giving me away.



[O.K., actually I was trying to sneak it from the knife store and into the house past my wife. BUT I didn't lie about the flash giving me away!!]

So why was the knife outside the sheath as you tried to sneak past her? (lol)