Exposed Tang in stock
An exposed tang is a tang whose steel is deliberately left visible, most often as a flat pommel at the butt of the handle or as a stripe along the handle’s edges. On folders, an extended tang is a small steel tab that sticks out past the handle when the blade is closed.
On a fixed blade, exposed tang means you can see and touch the tang steel, usually at the butt where it forms a small striking surface for tapping or hammering. Every full tang knife with visible edges is technically exposed.
On a folder, an extended or exposed tang is different: it is a deliberate little ramp of blade steel that protrudes from the handle when the knife is shut, so you can push it with your thumb to start the blade. Several Kershaw folders in our catalog list exactly this feature.
On a fixed blade the exposed pommel is a working surface. It lets you tap the butt to seat a blade, break glass in an emergency kit, or hammer a tent peg without putting force through the handle material.
On a folder it is an opening method that costs nothing and adds no moving parts, sitting alongside a thumb stud or flipper tab as a way to get the blade moving.
The term is not academic here. 466 of the products currently on our shelves describe this feature in their own manufacturer specifications, across 8 of the nine brands we stock. Examples in stock right now include Boker Trppr Micarta, Buck Alpha Guide Elite Black, Böker Plus Kwaiken Button Lock.
Everything below is pulled live from the catalog, so what you see is what is actually in the Woodlawn warehouse today.