Check out the manix, I think it is a good competitor to the para 2 or 3 and I like the lock better. (but i use knives left handed) It also just feels like a tougher knife overall. As others have said the buck 10 and 12 are classic hard use knives and would be a good choice but maybe a pain to clean. The manix can also be a pain to take apart for the first couple times, but once you get the hang of it its not bad at all. They are easy to adjust for good action, blade centering, and lock up, which I have heard the PM2 can be finicky going back together. Don't own one though so take that with a grain of salt. Im disabled and just go to school and make knives, and my manix is my go to work knife. Even when it gets filled with metal the action is still good, and when it gets really bad I can just wash it out with soap and water. I wouldn't discount the lightweight version in s110v either. I think that knife would still be plenty strong.
Another couple knives I have found to be close to indestructible are the ontario rat 1 and my case trapper. The rat 1 comes in d2 now which is a good steel (if not great), some of the best if not best ergos I have ever felt on a knife, solid construction that is easy enough to clean but can be finicky to put back together if you are not careful how you put the washers back in.
The case trapper is a slipjoint but hear me out!!! I have used this thing for going on 8 years and never even came close to it closing on my fingers, and I have used it pretty hard. It is the best cutting knife I own and cases cv steel holds a surprisingly good working edge for a pretty dang good time. Oh and you get two blades so if one goes dull you have another!!!
The final knife I will recommend is the benchmade griptilian. I have not used mine hard yet but for just general edc tasks it out performs almost every other knife cutting wise. It has a thick blade but it cuts so dang good. Construction I think is still VERY adequate, despite the plastic handles. Not to mention the amazing action.
A side note on steels, I have used s30v, d2, cases cv (basically some sort of 1095) vg10, and 8cr for relatively hard use in cutting abrasive materials including sandpaper, wood, rope, leather, thick cardboard, thick rubbery foam, and scraping epoxy. I honestly can not tell a huge difference in edge retention between them, but I would say s30v and cases cv holds the best working edge, meaning going the longest before it wont grab my thumbnail. For my normal tasks benchmades 154cm holds an edge the best but as I said before I have not cut super abrasive materials with it.
The only knife I have with a super steel is a zt in cts204[, but its kind of a safe queen so I dont have experience with how it performs. I can just say it strops up really good.
Since I tend to make long rambling posts that may or may not be insightful, I will now spam you with pictures of my work knives and maybe it will make up for it.
Just cut up some foam for my kydex press.. probably 5 feet of easy to cut stuff that just had some glue making it a little tough, then two feet of kydex foam, probably the hardest stuff I have ever tried to cut. Knife was pretty dull afterward but it sharpened up in a few minutes
Here is my manix again covered in epoxy after working on some customs
This is old faithful. Probably my most used knife, still has decent action and no blade play. Idk how it has survived this long.Only problem I have had with it is the shield fell out and I had to glue it back in. (note that the secondary blade has been cut off into a wharnie, this was a mod I did to use it to cut leather, case does not make a knife with these blades.
this is how dirty my knives tend to get
Not one of my heavy users but this is still a great knife.
