I'd suggest you find someone really qualified in teaching self defense and learn before getting a weapon and getting yourself in trouble.
You'll get as many different answers about the differences between the types as you will answerers. When it comes down to it, whatever knife you have with you when you need it is your Survival, Tactical, and Hunting knife. Usually, however, each of those titles has more to do with how a knife is MARKETED than how it is actually used. "Tactical" knives are quite possibly the least useful knives you will come across. Usually their blade shapes aren't very useful for anything other than looking cool. Survival and Hunting knives can double as each other, too, depending on the knife - ALTHOUGH most of the time a hunting knife will have a thinner edge for skinning and survival knives will usually have wider edges so that they can handle more abusive tasks like being batoned through wood.
What type you should get is a personal choice, and you also have to factor in price.
For a lower priced knife, look at the Kabar Becker knives. They have a little something for everybody there.
For something a little bit nicer, look into ESEE. These knives are marketed as survival tools by guys that actually teach wildlife survival skills in South America and are very highly renowned. If you break your knife, they'll fix it for free no matter what.
A bit higher than that are Fallkniven and Bark River knives. I really like the Bravo 1, personally, which is a field knife designed for the US Marines Force Recon Training Unit. It doesn't look like a tactical knife, but it serves equally well as a hunting, survival, and fighting knife (which really any knife can be used for). Bark River is also a brand that will fix or replace any of their knives no questions asked.
A bit more expensive than that would be Busse Combat and Fehrman knives. These will be a little bit more "Tactical" looking but are ALSO very functional. Not ALL tactical knives are just useless marketing hype. Busse will fix any knife you break even if you abuse it as long as damage was not intentional.
And lastly I'll mention Strider knives. I really love these blades. They have a very unique shape to them, very bada*s looking but never once has Strider used the word "tactical" to describe their knives. They make the knives the way they like them, and they're amazing and sport a warranty that states that you can do anything you want with this knife, even abuse the heck out of it, and they'll fix or replace it if you break it.
Of course, tastes will vary and these are just some of the brands that I love. Good luck finding something you'll enjoy!
P.S. You should really look into a good sharpening method as well. A really good knife can last you a lifetime if you can keep it sharp. There's no such thing as a knife that never dulls, but you can make sure your knife is never dull when you need it by taking care of it. I personally like water stones, but there are a ton of different ways to keep a blade sharp.
Essentially it’s labeling for the task they were designed for. It doesn’t mean that a good survival knife can’t also be a good hunting knife, because it can. But it’s usually a compromise to do such a thing. And from there it’s pretty much straight forward.
Survival knife is for all purpose knife for camping type of situations. So it needs to saw a little, cut hard materials(like wood), cut soft materials(like meat), and do a bit of other metal tool needs like digging and possibly even a light hammering. It usually made of thicker metal to deal with all the abuse and the blade is made to have wider angle(rather than razor sharp) to handle hard materials and still keep an edge. These can be both fixed or folding knives. Fixed is definitely more reliable, but folding knives are more easy to carry in bug out situation.
Hunting knife is sharp to cut into flesh, yet made of hard metal to handle bones and joints. The blade is usually fixed blade so that blade will stay with the handle even when heavy pressure is applied when trying to debone the meat. Blade is thickness is usually thin so that the blade can slice through the flesh with less resistance. There are many hunting knives that doubles as survival knives and these will have both of the features mentioned above combined. Hunting knives may also have few other knife designs from the standard ones to aid in the deboning process.
Tactical knives are designed more with a fight in mind. The sharpness is somewhere in between the survival and hunting knife. The knife size is smaller than the other two and is usually a folding knife due to the concealability and mobility reasons. Tactical knife usually doubles as a survival knife or hunting knife. This is the knife type to get for self defense since it is made for combative situations, but before you purchase look up your local knife laws as there may be laws against certain type and certain size. Also consider folding instead of fixed for self defense.
Survival knife is a knife with many things - often useless, like cork screws, bottle openers, and compasses. They are often sold on the number of utilitarian uses the marketing folks came up with, and are usually made with the cheapest possible materials. Survivalists don't rely on a single thing, if it gets lost, you've lost everything.
Tactical knife, I agree with Rex - it's another marketing gimmick. Never heard of anything like that.
Hunting knives are optimized for the kind of hunting you'll do: small game, big game, etc. Usually, they're straight knives and not a lot of fancy design or pockets or moving parts: they are hard to clean, and since you intend to eat what you hunt, you need to minimize the potential for bacteria, anthrax, blood-borne diseases, parasites, etc.
Having said that, there are many "hunting" knifes that have many elements of survival knives - this I think is more gimmick again.
A knife for self-defense? A kitchen knife will do - in a pinch. But any knife is useless unless you know how to use it, otherwise, it can be turned and used against you. Your instructor, therefore, will determine the best kind of knives you should train for. Your training will include disarms, proper grip, and different strike methods, in addition to choosing a good fighting knife.
Well the differences are huge here and that's based on their intended function and use. Most but not all of those you mention will have a blood groove. That helps prevent a vacuum from forming when the knife becomes embedded in flesh and you not being able to pull it back out easily. Hunting knifes usually have a blade that runs from tip to the ricasso. The ricasso is that short, thicker, narrow flat piece just before front quillion-the front quillion is the beginning or front of the hilt or handle.
Survival knifes usually have a notched or serrated area the last few inches of the upper blade instead for sawing, and cutting line. That way you are not dulling and damaging the blade portion itself that is used for cutting other types of material and slicing and such. Both survival and hunting knifes are always single bladed which means that they only have a cutting edge on one side of the blade.
Tactical knives are much different and sometimes are double edged so they can cut going either way. They tend to not be as thick and have more of a point and narrower across than hunting and survival knifes. That way they can penetrate things like flesh with less force or pressure much like a dart would as opposed to a screwdriver.
Most of these can not be legally carried around because they are too long so they make in some ways poor choices for self-defense. You would be better off carrying a small mace or pepper spray canister on your key chain. Even sometimes it is not just the length of the blade or knife but also its design which also make it illegal. Push knifes, gravity and angel knifes as well as switchblades are all illegal for that reason in all fifty states. Some of my police and law enforcement friends carry those-especially those who work in the tactical environment but they can get away with that while you or I generally can't.
If I was going to buy a knife and carry it for self-defense then I would buy and carry something like the thumb opening knife below or maybe something just a little shorter but similar in design. It can be opened quickly and easily and only requires one hand to open. It also offers some other useful features which makes it believable you are carrying it for other reasons as well to law enforcement maybe and will do the job pretty well. I own a couple of them from those days when I was deployed but these days if I am carrying a knife its my Gerber leather-man knife when doing certain things but never for self-defense. They take to long to retrieve and open and are not designed for self-defense.
In closing if I am someplace that I should or feel a need to carry a knife to defend myself then probably it is a place I should not be in to begin with.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007HUQ2QC/ref=...
Survival knife is for multiple uses, is many tools in one. Tactical knife could be a combat knife, but probably a marketing gimmick. Hunting knife is for hunting, is mostly good for hunting related tasks.
I plan to get a knife for this up coming Christmas and I was curious on what is the difference between a survival knife, a tactical knife, and a hunting knife. Also what is a good knife for self defense? I plan to get a fixed knife too. Thanks in advance.
