The Most General Purpose (fixed blade) Knife

cbach8tw said:
Have to go with a Buck 102, or 105, I have yet to use my 117. The 102 is just so light and maneuverable.
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RLB0414 said:
My go to kitchen knife is a Buck 105. The same knife would work well on wild game processing and most other outdoor needs.
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Reading through this thread I was thinking Buck 105 would be a good all a-rounder too.

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I’ve used/carried my David Mary/new river river hawk almost every day since it made it to me. It’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it so far and sharpens back easily with a few swipes on whatever sharpener I have lying around at the time. At one of my offices it’s the bottom of a coffee cup. Love a hawkbill or wharnie for every day stuff but for outdoorsy stuff most of the time I carry a tried and true kephart style most of the time.
 
Shorttime said:
Besides the Smatchet.

From food prep to field prep, is there a fixed blade you could rely on for all of your fixed blade needs? Sure, it would be boring, but let's say you're packing light?

Are there other answers besides Mora and Carothers?
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I've used this one for years, the Buck 105. I've used it in the kitchen, field dressing and butchering deer, sheep, fish, but I don't EDC it much unless camping or, sometimes, working in the yard.



But nowadays I also really like Cold Steel's XL Voyager. No, it's not a fixed blade, but I have absolute confidence in the Tri-Ad lock, and a jumbo folder provides some conveniences the fixed blade does not; namely, it's a single piece of kit and much handier to simply fold up and stick in a pocket.

 
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Here lately, I am finding some of the inexpensive smaller fixed blades are just plain handy, cut just as good, and I get a kick out of the fact that they are not fancy, not the most technologically newest super steel, maybe ugly or cosmetically blemished, but feel good in the hand and you think this is a cool knife.
 
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I am a place in life where I mostly say inside. Camping of any sort is no longer n activity, neither is hunting or ranch/farm work, but . . .

Looking back on my life experience, I would be looking for a 3.5" to 4.5" blade in a "utility" profile. Examples of what I have in my mind are a Loveless style "Drop-Point Hunter"and the Chris eve "backpacker". There are others of course, but that is the type. I have an esthetic aversion to clip point blades, but the is just Eye Of The Beholder stuff.

As a kid in the 1960s, I had a surplus Viet Nam era Pilots Survival Knife; rugged, macho and butch looking but too heavy. At that time, my Boy Scout camping knife was an Olsen 4", in "Solingen Steel" and faux stag. Other Scouts had a WW-II or Korean War surplus Ka-Bar or various bayonets . . .too big for what we needed, but great for throwing-in-the-dirt games (we were kids . . .right?)
 
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cbach8tw said:
Here lately, I am finding some of the inexpensive smaller fixed blades are just plain handy, cut just as good, and I get a kick out of the fact that they are not fancy, not the most technologically newest super steel, maybe ugly or cosmetically blemished, but feel good in the hand and you think this is a cool knife.
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Sometimes old school is better
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Really hard to beat an Old Hickory Butcher Knife with a 7" blade. Thin, easy to sharpen, tough, big enough to do some larger jobs, light enough to choke up on for finer work.

Less than $30 for a new one, and most likely less for a really nice older one from a junk shop with plenty of life left in it.
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Years ago, I was invited to trap alligators in South Louisiana. I did not want to look like the citified college boy that I actually was and sure didn't want to go out there looking like I'd maxed-out my gold card at some expedition outfitter.

So I went to our local Kroger supermarket and bought an Old Hickory kitchen knife. Four inches of carbon steel and a riveted wooden handle. Went to Goodwill and bought a heavy leather purse to make a sheath for it. A tall boot would have done too I guess.

Worked. I managed to fit in with the men my host associated with . . .but that is another story.
 
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The most "general purpose" fixed blade would be something between a compact machete and a chef's knife. For example, historical trade knives from the colonial era. It's not what I would choose, but I do think it's technically the right answer for the original question.
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