The dagger's biggest advantage is its extremely low weight because fo the double grind, and the best way to exploit that advantage is carrying one on a shoulder harness, which also fits with the self-defense purpose... For these reason I would stay away from any bulky metal on the handle... Most are dull but the easiest to re-grind sharper (in terms of geometry, as it was horribly dull) was for me the Cold Steel Peacekeeper I. 7.6 ounces... An even lighter one would be the Junglee Waterloo, 6.8 ounces, but the poor loose leather sheath -which looks nice- is so loose it will have to be replaced... Sharpness is low but improveable on that one. Both discontinued. The Al Mar Shadow is huge at 7.75", and still incredibly light at under 10 ounces: Its point tends to be fragile however... I would say it is the most spectacular and well designed production dagger of all time, particularly the handle. All those are Seki-city made and discontinued: All daggers of Seki-City origin will tend to look crisper and nicer, without blowing up the bank, unless you get in a bidding war on Ebay.
Avoid at all cost the expensive Extrema Ratio daggers, as the handle is just held by a system that is simply crap: See youtube's "Black or darkforestghost(?)" review, he gives it a zero after breaking it completely in 2-3 throws on wood...
Out of the box sharpness per price you might be happiest with Cold Steel's Taipan, but it is expensive and much heavier in the handle than the similar Peacekeeper (maybe the Taipan has a better initial edge, but I can't absolutely vouch for that: Most daggers need heavy re-profiling). The handle ergonomics are well below the cheapo Peacekeeper, but I kind of like the leather sheath, if not the bulky, heavy guard.
The only available dagger that as sharp or much sharper than any single edge knife is the Randall Clinton dagger: 0.4 mm edge bevel, on hugely deep hollow grinds! I recommend the supremely ergonomic finger grooved version, but all are much heavier than 10 ounces: It is so well profiled that it has a true dagger point, yet outslices by a huge margin most single edge fixed blades, and for its length it can even out-chop most fixed blades in wood (I know this sounds unbelievable, but it's true). A true "survival dagger"... I have one, I have no idea why, but I love it.
I would avoid the Gerber range like the Command II and Mark II, because the aluminium handle adds a lot of weight. The narrow blades are a detriment to geometry, but note the "Special Edition" 25th anniversary Command II are ground to a sort of "zero edge" that is viciously sharp... Not a true double edger however. If you want a Mark II I can only recommend the gray handled "Cutlery Shoppe" specials of the 1990s, as they had raspy handles and were much sharper. Note the Mark II is not a Seki City level quality, and this means the center grind is not a perfect straight line by a long shot...: That is why I tend to focus on Seki-City made daggers, but note even the one Al Mar Shadow I got was way off center, so look hard at the photos... I would not get any US or Taiwan made Cold Steel daggers, as they are just bead-blasted or painted, and just way cheaper feeling, but that's just me...
Gaston
