Duty-Driven Blades

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Mil-Tac’s Serious Knives For Those Who Serve.

While it’s very common for custom tactical knife makers and manufacturers to design knives for military and law enforcement, no one has been more rabidly focused on these two user groups than MIL-TAC Knives and Tools president and founder Craig Sword. He could care less about catering to the average consumer-oriented offshoots of the tactical knife wave — like the “gent’s folders” genre. Rather, he’s hell-bent for leather when it comes to serious using knives and makes no bones about it. Sword is savvy enough to know if he makes damn good tactical knives, the consumer base will follow.

“MIL-TAC Knives and Tools believes in serving those who defend us on a daily basis: military, LE, first responders and EOD/IED teams,” Sword tells us. “This motto can be found in every single knife or tool model we manufacture. It begins and ends with our company’s four major goals: design, components, manufacturing and customer support.”

Sword founded MIL-TAC Knives and Tools in Wylie, Texas, in 2005 with one main mission: “We wanted to produce a near custom-quality knife or tool at a production knife price.” Prior to forming the company, he spent 14 years working with major suppliers to meet the requirements of military, LE and EOD units.

“Many of these are now MIL-TAC customers,” he says. “The foundation of our operation was easily accomplished in the North Texas area as it is home to a large manufacturing base — which has been supporting the US military and law enforcement communities with products from tools to major aircraft and combat systems for many years.”

MIL-TAC Knives and Tools officially made its debut in September 2005 at Blade Show West in Portland, Ore., by introducing just four products. Today the company has over 40 in their line with new fare on the way.

Top Knife: CE-2 Drop-Point
Bottom Knife: DET Detachment Knife

Top Knife: MTF-4 Folder
Bottom Knife: Nihiser Active Duty Combat Special Folder

Top Knife: MTF-3 Tanto
Bottom Knife: MTF-3 Drop-Point

Bottom Left Knife: MTF-3 Drop-Point
Middle Knife: CS-1 Drop-Point
Top Knife: DET Detachment Knife

The Tough Stuff

MIL-TAC’s growth has been steady and cautious with more emphasis on producing sound, duty-driven designs over short-term pageant ponies. Such an approach won’t get you in the limelight very often, but it’ll build you a force of dedicated customers who will come back for more. To make sure MIL-TAC’s designs are bulletproof and battle-ready, Craig has worked with an impressive list of custom knifemakers and renowned tactical users to help hone his wares. The list includes notables Jerry Hossom, Jason Breeden, Patrick Nihiser, Pat Cascio, Eddie Killian and Wiley Clapp.

To perform their best, MIL-TAC knives are built using top-shelf steels and handle materials. “All MIL-TAC products are designed with the finest components available to be ergonomic for long-term use and to be virtually indestructible to last a lifetime in very hard military and law enforcement environments,” Sword states. “We manufacture our fixed-blade knives with Crucible S30V and 154CM stainless steel and our MTF series folding knives use Bohler N690 stainless steel. All handle materials are super tough G-10 in various colors and our folders use a stainless steel liner lock with an additional safety lock to ensure the blade remains locked.”

MTF-4 Tanto Folder

CS-1 Drop-Point Fixed Blade

To Fix Or Fold

Regardless of whether you like your knives in a sheath at the ready or folded up in your pocket, MIL-TAC has you covered. “Our most popular fixed-bladed knife is the Combat and Survival 1, or CS-1,” Craig lends. “It was designed to be the ultimate fixed-blade field knife for combat and survival and was developed over a 6-year period.”

The design was honed from feedback from military and LE units and their desire for a fixed-blade knife to be extremely tough, yet comfortable to use for long periods of time. The result was a 6.5″ long (0.205″ thick) blade made of Crucible CPM S30V stainless steel. And at 12″ overall, the CS-1 is a beast with a bite.

“The S30V stainless steel was designed to offer the best combination of toughness, wear-resistance and corrosion resistance. The Vanadium content adds additional hardness and wear-resistance,” Sword adds. “The blade is thick with a very tough spine to give the user additional blade strength as well as tip strength. At the same time, the grind lines are high enough to produce a very lightweight blade with a razor-sharp edge.”

Other fixers in the MIL-TAC stable include the slimmer, trimmer CE-2 Combat and Survival knife and the cord-wrapped DET-2 Detachment Knife, available in two lengths.

MIL-TAC’s tactical folders also emphasize toughness in material and design. Their most popular folding knife is the MIL-TAC Folder, or MTF-3.

“The MTF-3 folding knife was designed to be a rock solid folding knife able to be used for military, law enforcement and outdoor activities — it’s light and thin enough for daily carry,” says Craig.

The MTF-3 has a stainless steel blade and liner lock combination with a safety lock for additional protection. It also has a hardened aluminum rear spacer, ambidextrous thumb stud and pocket-clip and G-10 handles available in various colors. The MTF-3’s blade is coated in Teflon for additional corrosion resistance. Most MIL-TAC folders have options of hard-use working blades or a more combat-oriented Tanto.
Pricewise, MIL-TAC checks in very reasonably. The well-appointed MTF-3 folder is priced at about $170; the CS-1 fixed-blade goes for $250. While Craig was tight-lipped about any particular new designs in MIL-TAC’s future, you can pretty much bet this energetic knife manufacturer won’t be sitting on his laurels. “MIL-TAC will continue to expand all areas of our product line to add new models and additional features required by our customers,” he said.
By Pat Covert
For more info: www.americanhandgunner.com/index, (877) MIL-TAC6, [email protected].