Vintage Custom Tanto Knife Set

Vintage Custom Tanto Knife Set, handmade in Japan by ADACHI, circa 1986. The blades feature some of the cleanest grinds I’ve ever seen, with a peaked spine & exposed tang and an armor piercing tip…stunning craftsmanship! Finished with handsome matching ebony scales with steel pins. Includes the original display case. An incredible addition to any knife collection. SPECS: (small knife) 3.75” blade, 7.5” OAL / (large blade) 5.75” blade, 10” OAL. 

The Adachi clan (安達氏) is a family of samurai who are said to have been descended from Fujiwara no Yamakage. Their historical significance derives from their successes during the Genpei War and their subsequent affiliation with the Hōjō clan.

A tantō or “short sword” is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate. Tantō were used in traditional martial arts (tantojutsu). The term has seen a resurgence in the West since the 1980s as a point style of modern tactical knives, designed for piercing or stabbing.

The tantō was designed primarily as a stabbing weapon, but the edge can be used for slashing as well. Some tantō have particularly thick cross-sections for armor-piercing duty, and are called yoroi toshi. Tantō were mostly carried by samurai; commoners did not generally wear them. Women sometimes carried a small tantō called a kaiken in their obi primarily for self-defense. Tantō were sometimes worn as the shōtō in place of a wakizashi in a daishō, especially on the battlefield. Before the advent of the wakizashi/tantō combination, it was common for a samurai to carry a tachi and a tantō as opposed to a katana and a wakizashi.