Tactical Folding Knife – Top Five Things to Look For Before Purchasing a Tactical Folding Knife
By Dan Wesson
The tactical folding knife is a good tool to have. Tactical knives are primarily tools used for common, everyday cutting and prying tasks.
Often the tactical folding knife is called into duty for emergencies as well, such as cutting rope or seat belts quickly to free someone or yourself when trapped as well as self defense in more uncommon scenarios.
It is for these reasons that you want to assure yourself of purchasing a quality tactical knife for your everyday carry tool.
- You should look for a tactical folding knife with a blade made of high quality steel. This increases the durability and edge holding ability of your knife. These are two of the key needs of any knife user.
Your tactical knife should have a good blade-locking mechanism. This is a safety feature to prevent the blade from closing on you, causing injury. It is important that this works even when lots of force on the blade may be present as in common prying tasks.- Your tactical folding knife needs to have a pocket clip, and bonus points are given if it can be switched to either side of the knife. This feature makes it easy to carry and also allows for easier one-handed deployment, thus enhancing the “tactical” quality of your folding knife.
- A good consideration for your tactical knife would be light weight. This makes everyday carry a breeze, but you should never sacrifice toughness for lightness since we are talking a few ounces at best.
- The final and very important consideration for purchasing a tactical folding knife is to factor in the toughness of the materials and the manufacturing quality. These knives typically receive a lot of abuse, and need to be able to hold up to vigorous everyday wear and tear without failure the components.
Notice that I did not mention factors such as blade shape and price here. The blade shape is a matter of personal preference, and price is not always a determination of quality. One thing is usually true, though: you are nearly certain to end up with a poor quality knife if you purchase the bargain basement model or use price as your only guide when deciding which to buy. Do not cheap out, as a quality knife is not likely to be had for under twenty dollars. You need to look for a manufacturer producing good quality knives, and then select one of their models that fits your budget.
