Choosing quality hunting knives can be difficult if you don't know what you are looking for. There are so many different types of hunting knives that we need to know the pros and cons of each type and what to look for and test.
The first type of knife we are going to talk about is the folding blade style of knife. The main thing you are going to look at is the hinge mechanism and the locking mechanism. The hinge is were most of the stress is going to and you need to be able to put plenty of weight on it before you buy it to make sure it is going to withstand the riggers of the outdoors and the heavy use it will be under.
Open the knife and close the knife plenty of times to make sure it doesn't snag or bind. If it does then you don't want that knife. It should open very smoothly and close smoothly with no snagging or binding.
The locking mechanism needs to be easy to activate but still very secure. Be sure and inspect the locking mechanism and put some weight on it to but make sure to keep your fingers out of the way of the blade in case the locking mechanism will fail.