You say “cosmetic;” I say “fake.”

A full tang blade is one where the metal of the blade extends all the way through the handle. Often, full-tang knives have “scales” instead of one-piece handles, where the two sides of the handle are riveted on and you can see the metal of the knife tang all the way around. Full tang knives are usually stronger than partial tang knives because the steel of the blade is stronger than the material used for the rest of the handle. A partial tang knife shouldn’t have a rivet at the back of the handle (because it wouldn’t actually be attaching anything); if it does, it’s because it’s trying to imitate a full tang to fool you.

Also, the difference between a stamped knife and a forged one is that a stamped blade is of uniform thickness except where the cutting edge is ground down to a point, whereas a forged knife is more of a wedge through its entire width and can have a thicker (stronger) spine, as well as a bolster to make it more comfortable to handle. (Some better-made stamped knives are stamped from a tapered sheet of steel so that they’ve got some of the “thicker spine” benefit, but they definitely never have a bolster integral with the blade.)