Tang did NOT have to be good to go into space. It had to be easy, convenient, and better than paste-food-in-a-tube. I couldn't get it down. Real oranges? Yes! Artificial orange-colored powder? Nope.
OH, I'm going to have to get pictures of my favorite knife tomorrow. Stainless steel, handmade in Oregon and holds one heck of an edge! The handle and blade are one piece. The handle is wrapped in paracord. (Sorry, not familiar with any of the terminology.)
We've been using RADA since the 70s and time and again we return to that knife after trying other brands...they just never measured up to the toughness of the RADA cutlery. I have two butcher knives, one tomato knife, and several smaller paring knives from RADA right now...would like to have a couple more of their mid-sized knives. I used to have them but they slowly disappeared after raising teenage boys...probably stuck in a tree somewhere.
Old Hickory used to be the knife to beat but they seemed to lose their quality over the years and wouldn't hold an edge as well. My granny had an Old Hickory paring knife that she used to file with a metal file to sharpen it and so it was wickedly sharp and thin in the middle from being sharpened so harshly all those years. That was her favorite knife and I can't imagine just how much food that thing helped prepare and preserve over all those years.
I put mine on the wall next to the stove on a magnetic stainless steel strip. It's been convenient and looks nice, too. I've always wondered about how sanitary those knife holes in the wood blocks can be, since I don't see any way of cleaning them out.