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Tactical Knives, Survival Knives, and Combat Knives

Posted by admin on Sep 25th 2010

Lately survival knives have become an extremely hot topic.  Often we get a call from a curious customer asking us what we think is the very best survival knife.  As you may expect, around here at BladeOps the opinions vary.  Some of us like a knife that is more along the lines of a tactical knife that will function as either a combat knife or as a survival knife.  Others of us like the straight up survival knives.  To set up the conversation, we want to make a few clarifications. 
For us:
Tactical Knife:  a knife that is all black, most probably designed for combat.  A great example of this would be the Blackhawk QDC Mark I folder.
Survival Knife:  a knife that is designed to help you out in the wild.  If you are stranded and lost, this should be a knife that will help you survive in whatever situation you may find yourself.  An example of this would be the ESEE Knives Rat 3 or Rat 4 knife.
Combat Knife:  a knife designed specifically for military and police applications.  Often these knives feature more narrow blades and may be “tactical” or they may have stainless steel blades.  In this genre–think the Mark II by Gerber.
As with any set of definitions, there is quite a bit of crossover within each definition.  For instance, the Mark II is a combat knife and is also a Tactical Knife.  Some people may even classify it as a survival knife.
The purpose of this blog entry is to find out what are your favorite Tactical and Survival knives?  Let us know which knife and why.